Archives for September 2006

War?

September 15, 2006 by John Guilfoil

This may just be some of my innate libertarianism speaking, but President Bush said that extending the Geneva Convention rights to suspected terrorists would hinder the war on terror.

If the people we’re holding are terrorists, we should expose them and try them in our courts and put them in our jails. President Bush says we should bring them to justice. We let murderers and rapists go free because their own individual rights are violated in the ensuing investigation. It gives no sense of revenge to the victims, but it is one of the base points of our justice system. I don’t feel sorry for terrorists, of course not, but if we want them to face justice, shouldn’t we make them face justice?

If we are indeed holding war criminals, should we not formally declare war? We have a war on drugs, but should we imprison all suspected drug users until we win the war on drugs?

Again, if they’re terrorists, put them in jail forever, but I want to know. Even Republicans are starting to cross the aisle on this issue.

Do we want vindication and revenge, or do we want justice? I’m not entirely sure which is right, but do we even know where that line is anymore?

War criminal rights…would hinder the…war…

I feel like someone already thought of that…

Spinach that kills: Poor Popeye…

September 15, 2006 by John Guilfoil

E. coli, the deadly bacteria usually found in raw, processed meats, has appeared in, of all things, bagged spinach. At press time, 10 states had reported E. coli cases already, with more outbreaks possible.

Stores have begun to systematically purge their shelves of the leafy green vegetable after federal health officials said simply: “don’t eat bagged spinach.”

Officials also warn that washing the produce will not remove the bacteria. One death has already been reported in Wisconsin, which has reported 19 other cases of E. coli among its residents, 11 of which were reported in Milwaukee. Elsewhere, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, California and Ohio have reported possible outbreaks.

There are nearly 75,000 cases of E. coli infection per year in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most adults are able to recover from exposure, which results in bowel problems, within one week. Children and senior citizens fare worse. The bacteria cause over 50 deaths per year nationally.

According to a CNN article, the tainted spinach may have been grown in California. A probable cause for the outbreak is exposure to animal manure, where E. coli is commonly found. Farmers are not supposed to use manure to fertilize products like spinach, which are commonly eaten raw.

Children now have an excuse not to eat their veggies.

Parents: push the apples; they’re still safe…for now.

WD-40

September 14, 2006 by John Guilfoil

It’s in every garage, tool shed and project room. Every grandfather keeps it handy when the old chainsaw or snow blower needs to be cleaned. It’s been around for over 50 years, has over 2000 uses and over 100,000 members in its own fan club.

WD-40. Chemically, it is a mixture of aliphatic petroleum distillates and petroleum base oil in aerosol. It is a highly flammable material, but that may be the worst determined feature of this veritable wonder product. It should not be breathed in or consumed, but it generally causes no serious exposure side effects. It might dry your skin or cause redness or discomfort in the eyes if exposed.

It will help remove a stuck bolt or lug nut, take tomato stains out of clothing, remove tar from a truck chassis, stop a whole host of squeaks and noises, remove stickers and tape from many places and lubricate almost everything.

Best of all, and this is what really floored the PR guy, it is 100% non carcinogenic. None of WD-40’s ingredients have been determined to cause cancer. According to its Material Safety Data Sheet:

The components in this mixture have been found to be noncarcinogenic (sic) by NTP, IARC and OSHA

Diet Coke has ingredients that could be cancer causing. WD-40, an industrial solvent, doesn’t.

I had a chance to talk with Bill Trumpfheller, the president of Nuffer Smith Tucker Public Relations which handles PR for the WD-40 company. He pointed me to the history of WD (which stands for Water Displacement, by the way) 40.

In 1953, a group of chemists, under the name “Rocket Chemical Company” wanted to create a rust-preventing solvent for industrial use. After 39 failed attempts, they came up with a winner. And what a winner it was, because the original formula used in the 1953 remains unchanged 53 years later.

Currently, WD-40 is promoting their new No-Mess Pen, portable WD-40 that goes anywhere and is marketed with over 300 uses including removal of crayon marks on household surfaces, lubrication of ski bindings and padlocks and prevention of caught zippers.

So, why bring all this up now? Besides being a complete feel-good story, your PR guy was working on a small home improvement project this week.

Looking at the picture to the right, you can surely imagine what this table originally looked like: brown, grainy wood with an elaborate but tarnished bronze drawer handle; very rustic; very old. The table was in really bad condition, and one of the wings had broken off. Instead of throwing it out, I decided I could use an end table and I refinished it with two coats of paint and three coats of lacquer. I also took off the old drawer handle and replaced it with something a little more modern.

But when all was said, done and lacquered, the drawer wouldn’t slide back into the slot. The metal was already rusty and some paint and lacquer had slipped on there making the problem worse.

Not being one for simple fixes usually, I had toyed with building a new frame or slide for the drawer and even removing the drawer feature and putting the cover back on for decoration; both stupid and needless ideas.

Then common sense flashed before my eyes: spray some WD-40 and see if that does the job.

It did.

Mid-week market rag: Focus

September 13, 2006 by John Guilfoil

The mid-week market rag will focus on one topic this week, the Hewlett Packard scandal.

In a way, Enron and WorldCom closed a chapter in the corporate world book by taking everyday corruption and turning it into something far, far worse.

Thus, they ruined it for everyone else that only wants to be a little corrupt. Federal authorities are clamping down at the first sign of of scandal, swindle or abuse of power. What we have here with HP is certainly not an “Enron,” but it too goes well beyond your run of the mill corporate greed.

News coming out of HP this week paints a very scary picture, but the federal intervention, or at least the potential level of federal intervention, may be part and parcel to the times we live in.

Either way, this is a public relations nightmare for Hewlett Packard and it is making a lot of people in the corporate world shift in their seats at their next board meeting. The news is a public relations nightmare, because by all accounts, HP-PR had no idea what was going on and now they are left mopping up for what’s left of the board of directors.

In case you have not been following, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced today that his office would indict officers in the Hewlett Packard Corporation as well as investigators hired by the company for their roles in an “internal probe” aimed at plugging up leaks within HP’s corporate structure. Allegedly, sensitive information was being fed to the media from within the HP board. The heads of HP hired private investigators who employed a technique called “pretexting” to obtain phone records and other information from HP directors, employees and journalists.

Pretexting is the act of pretending to be someone you are not in order to trick a business into giving you information you would not legitimately be able to access. This is most often seen as the practice of obtaining corporate customer information by pretending to be the customer in question.

HP director George Keyworth admitted he did speak with reporters and provide on-the-record and on-background information. This was made public as Keyworth resigned from the board yesterday, according to a press release. Chairman Patricia Dunn also said Tuesday that she would step down, according to a Financial Times report.

Hewlett Packard committed a cardinal sin in the PR world; they cheated. What’s more, they bullied their way to information that they had no business legitimately obtaining. If information leaks, it leaks. You can not force a journalist to give up their source and it is wrong (and illegal in many states) to use deceit and trickery to obtain the information. HP had a small internal crisis that they could and should have handled fully internally, sternly warn the board about sensitive information and move on. Instead, HP broke the law, invaded their employees privacy and now those responsible face criminal sanctions.

As for the investigative company, their whole spheil looks like a shell game with Boston connections. MarketWatch’s Rex Crum laid it out nicely:

H-P has so far refused to confirm the names of the private investigators, but the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that people familiar with the matter said H-P hired Security Outsourcing Solutions Inc. and its lead investigator Ronald DeLia, of Boston, to do some of the investigation work.
Calls to the number listed on the security firm’s Website were answered by a receptionist at a law firm who said the company wasn’t related to Security. Emails sent to the company were bounced back as undeliverable

Bad HP. Bad bad bad.

Too bad, their marketing was finally getting good.

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