Search Results

In the 1980's an American fast food restaurant chain, A&W, offered a new product, a 1/3 lb (0.15 kg) hamburger at a price competitive to McDonald's 1/4 lb (0.11 kg) burger. It failed in the market, and, eventually pulled from distribution. Now, it was a tasty product, as such things go, and, as stated, competitively priced, offered by a lesser known, yet well established chain. Yet, in head-to-head sales, the A&W 1/3 lb. burger failed, and failed badly. Hence a focus group. Long story short, and skipping snide remarks, the focus group exposed the product's fatal flaw... it was a fraction. Oh, it was customary to sell fractions, 1/4 lb. burgers, 1/2 lb. burgers, but the 1/3 lb. burger failed. However, the buying public, the consumer making the optimum decision for return on investment, fractured the math and reached the conclusion that a 1/4 lb. burger (0.11 kg. of meat) was a better investment than a 1/3 lb. burger (0.15 kg. of meat) for the same price. The common reasoning seemed to be that "4" was greater than "3", therefore, ergo, and to wit, the McDonald's 1/4 lb. burger was more for the dollar than the A&W product. Keep that in mind the next time that weird guy who used to sit at the desk next to you at a job 20 years ago, the one with the foil hat, sends you a potentially questionable claim about the relative value of some politician or program. Just some early morning meanderings. • Donovan Baldwin

My pen draws awkward words. No true picture can it portray, Of the beauty of sky and sea, The awesome power of wind and wave Which stir the brain and breast, Poet's hand hovering above images Which only he can dream, But sadly, Not set down for other eyes. • Donovan Baldwin

You know what they say: One’s man trash is another man’s treasure. A man bought a painting for $125 at a thrift store that turned out to be a priceless work of art. UPI reports how William Pugh—an assistant professor of practice for the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Department of Information Systems and Cyber Security—was browsing through the thrift store in Covington, Ga., with his wife. Pugh eventually came upon a painting depicting the biblical story of Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and suspected it was an original work by African American artist Keith Bankston due to the signature at the bottom, placing its estimated worth far above the $125 price tag. Read the entire article