DRACO: A new drug that could cure everything from colds to HIV

Breakthrough: A new drug that could cure everything from colds to HIV Our most powerful antibiotics can kill many different kinds of bacterial infections at once, but we're still searching for a single all-purpose drug that kills viruses. We may have just discovered it. Technically speaking, any drug that is used to treat a virus is known as an antiviral, and we use them to treat HIV, hepatitis, and certain flu strains. But those antivirals all have to be very specifically designed to take down one particular virus. The situation is even worse for vaccines, which don't exist for some diseases (and aren't practical for others, like the common cold) and need to be constantly redesigned to remain effective against evolving viral strains. Creating a single antiviral drug that could kill lots of different viruses is a longstanding dream of medical researchers. Beyond all the obvious benefits of such an honest-to-goodness wonder drug, an all-purpose antiviral would give us a much better chance of fighting back against outbreaks of exotic viruses like SARS and swine flu. As a minor but still rather nice bonus, it could also be that long awaited cure for the common cold. According to MIT research scientist Todd Rider, we're closer to such an antiviral than ever before. He's developed a drug named Draco, which he says has successfully vanquished 15 different viruses in lab trials on mice and human tissue. Those viruses include a quite literal murderer's row: dengue fever, polio, the swine flu, and the particularly nasty Ebola virus. And, yes, the common cold has also been tested, and Draco was able to get rid of it as well. So how does Draco work? According to Rider, it combines his backgrounds in engineering and biology, wiring together a pair of proteins. The first protein detects that a virus has entered a cell, which triggers the second protein. In turn, that protein acts as a kill switch, destroying the infected cell to cut off the spread of the virus. That sacrifice represents a grimly practical solution, and so far, it seems to be working. This is a seriously intriguing result, but there's some room for skepticism here. One cautious voice is that of Cambridge researcher Leo James, whose own antiviral research involves supercharging the immune system. He points out that Rider's results are highly unusual, and as such needs to be replicated by scientists elsewhere before we have a really good understanding of what's really going on here. Either way, even though Rider has already put Draco to work on human tissue, that doesn't mean we're ready for human testing. There's a long road ahead for this drug, which will require tests on multiple rounds of larger animals before it's ready for human trials. Because viruses and human cells become so closely intertwined during an infection, it can be hard to control for all the side effects of an antiviral. A good example of this is interferon, which was hailed a potential antiviral wonder drug back in the 1950s. Interferon works by detecting infections and sending signals to other cells to build up their defenses in preparation for an attack. The problem is that the drug also sends white blood cells racing to the infection. That's great news for more serious infections like hepatitis, for which interferon is still used today. But for more mild infections, like a cold, the inflammation, fever, and pain caused by the interferon cure is worse than the virus itself. Draco has some similarities to interferon - they're both protein-based, which means Draco could also provoke an immune response. According to Rider, there's been no immune response so far in the mice who have received the drug. That's good news, but it may not directly correlate to the experience humans would have with the drug. If Draco or one of the other antivirals works out, it would change the face of global health overnight. The ability to cure minor infections like the common cold could save people from a few days each year of ill health - which across an entire population would add up to a vastly more efficient workforce. And, looking even more broadly, the existence of an all-purpose antiviral would do a lot to reduce the health scares caused by new viral outbreaks, equipping us with a ready-made tool for the next big pandemic.

The toxic chewing-gum

Here is a list of the most common ingredients in the most popular chewing gum products on the market: Sorbitol, Xylitol, Mannitol, Maltitol Gum Base Glycerol Natural and Artificial Flavors Hydrogenated Coconut Oil and Starch Aspartame –Acesulfame Soy Lecithin Colors (titanium oxide, blue 2 lake, red 40) BHT Malic Acid, Citric Acid Every time you chew gum, your brain is tricked into thinking that you are eating food. Therefore, it sends signals to your stomach, pancreas and other organs involved in digestion to prepare for this “food”. Your salivary glands and pancreas will begin to emit enzymes, which are necessary to digest food and absorb nutrients from food. Constant emission of enzymes over time will deplete enzymes and over time this process can slow down. If you are not breaking down and absorbing food properly over time, you will get disease because the body needs nutrients to rebuild and thrive. A Great Alternative for Fresh Breath A great alternative to chewing gum is to carry around a small bottle of organic food grade peppermint oil and when you would like fresh breath, just put one drop in your mouth and you will have achieved the same effect. You can find many food grade oils that are wonderful for helping you have fresh breath.

CO-4 grass, melia dubia, can generate substantial power

Released by Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) during 2008, CO4 exhibits phenomenal biomass yield,” says Dr. G. Kumaravelu, senior Scientific Adviser for Biomass and Bioenergy programme of an international Chennai based business conglomerate called Archean group and former member, State Planning Commission. This grass can be grown in most soil types, except in heavy clay, highly alkaline and water logged areas. The slips for growing this grass are being produced by the Agricultural/Veterinary University and interested farmers. “To verify its utility for power production, 5 to 6 months old, mature grass crop was harvested and weighed. The yellow mature stem, with more fibre and lignin content yielded around 200 dry metric tonnes per hectare. An sppropriate practice package has been arrived at, within a year, by our trials using biofertilizers, nutrients, biochar and chemical fertilizers with drip irrigation to ensure sustained high yield. About 2,000 acres of grass cultivation can supply raw material to run one 10 MW biomass electric power mill, continuously, all through the year without break,” says Dr. Kumaravelu. Archean — a multinational company — is going to grow this grass along with another fast growing tree, Melia Dubia, as intercrop in several hundred acres in different parts of Tamil Nadu. “I had demonstrated last year, that about 100 metric tonnes per hectare of biomass could be harvested from one year drip irrigated melia dubia plantations. That again is a comparable world record for tree species.This woody biomass also releases energy of over 4000 Kcal / Kg. Together, both these highest biomass yielders could be used to generate substantial power for our State,” he explains. The State Government, accepting the innovation in principle, announced in the Assembly, that they would help in setting up a 10 MW power. Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/article3408600.ece

Nursing industry desperate to find new hires

Registered nurse Pat Boodoo reviews patient data during a shift last month at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare … MILWAUKEE – Please, please accept a high-paying job with us. In fact, just swing by for an interview and we'll give you a chance to win cash and prizes.

Sounds too good to be true, especially in an economy riddled with job cuts in nearly every industry. But applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.

One Michigan company literally rolled out a red carpet at a recent hiring event. Residential Home Health, which provides in-home nursing for seniors on Medicare, lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.

"We're committed to finding ways to creatively engage with passive job seekers," said David Curtis, president of the Madison Heights-based company.

Recruiters like Curtis may have little choice. The long-standing U.S. nurse shortage has led to chronic understaffing that can threaten patient care and nurses' job satisfaction, and the problem is expected to worsen.

The shortage has been operating since World War II on an eight- to 10-year cycle, industry experts say. Each time the number of nurses reaches a critical low, the government adds funding and hospitals upgrade working conditions. But as the deficit eases, those retention efforts fade and eventually the old conditions return, often driving nurses into other professions.

"We recently had a hiring event where, for experienced nurses to interview — just to interview — we gave them $50 gas cards," said Tom Zinda, the director of recruitment at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in the Milwaukee-area city of Glendale. "We really try to get as creative as we can. It's a tough position to fill."

Recruiters across the country have tried similar techniques, offering chair massages, lavish catering and contests for flat-screen TVs, GPS devices and shopping sprees worth as much as $1,000.

Even strong salaries aren't doing the trick. Registered nurses made an average of $62,480 in 2007, ranging from a mean of $78,550 in California to $49,140 in Iowa, according to government statistics. Including overtime, usually abundantly available, the most experienced nurses can earn more than $100,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts about 233,000 additional jobs will open for registered nurses each year through 2016, on top of about 2.5 million existing positions. But only about 200,000 candidates passed the Registered Nurse licensing exam last year, and thousands of nurses leave the profession each year.

Several factors are in play: a lack of qualified instructors to staff training programs, lack of funding for training programs, difficult working conditions and the need for expertise in many key nursing positions.

Cheryl Peterson, the director of nursing practice and policy for the American Nurses Association in Silver Spring, Md., said employers must raise salaries and improve working conditions.

"The wages haven't kept up with the level of responsibility and accountability nurses have," said Peterson, whose organization represents nurses' interests. Chronic understaffing means nurses are overworked, she said, and as burned-out nurses leave the situation spirals for the colleagues they leave behind.

Some hospital departments where experience is vital, such as the emergency room or intensive-care unit, simply cannot hire newly minted nurses. So managers in those areas have even fewer staffing choices.

Nurses qualified to teach aspiring nurses are scarce chiefly because they can make at least 20 percent more working at a hospital, experts said.

"It can be hard to turn down that extra money," said Robert Rosseter, the associate executive director of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in Washington, D.C.

Many recruiters have looked for employees overseas, and about one-fourth of the nurses who earned their licenses in 2007 were educated internationally, most in the Philippines and India.

Some health organizations go out of their way to recruit as many nurses as possible even when they're overstaffed.

Residential Home Health, the home-nursing company in Michigan, is always looking to hire, Curtis said. Even with 375 clinical professionals on staff, his recruiters are eager to sign up as many as 50 more nurses and therapists, hence the Chuck Woolery event.

Zinda, the Milwaukee-area recruiter, said creative recruiting helps to introduce nurses to his hospital. Besides offering interviewees $50 gas cards, he has provided $100 gift cards to the local mall, and created a Facebook page to target younger nurses.

Attracting good candidates is about offering good working conditions, he said, but creative recruiting goes a long way in generating a buzz.

"Bottom line, you need to get people excited about what you're offering," he said. "If you don't, they can easily go elsewhere."

Confessions of a car salesman

y first day on the job started with signing about 50 different forms. Most of these were for specific purposes — to show that I understood I wasn't supposed to take dealership car keys home, drive under the influence or sexually harass my co-workers. But one form was of particular interest. It showed the breakdown of the commission structure.

Commissions were based on the "payable gross" to the dealership and were applied in three tiers. If the payable gross was from $0 to $749, our commission was 20 percent of the profit, from $750 to $1249 the commission was 25 percent of the profit. Above $1250 the commission was 30 percent of the profit. In other words, the higher the profit for the dealership, the higher the commission I would earn. Obviously, this motivated salespeople to build profit into the deal so they could hit that magic mark and get into the 30 percent bracket.

When I was interviewed for the job, the dealership was vague about how I would be paid. On the one hand they promised I could make serious money through commissions — maybe four or five grand my first month. On the other hand, they alluded to an hourly wage to begin with. Now I found that I was, in fact, working on straight commission. If I sold cars I made money. If I didn't sell, I didn't make a penny. Maybe that's why there were so many salespeople working here (about 85 in new and used cars). It didn't cost the dealership extra to have a big staff.

When I was done signing forms I was turned over to Michael, my assistant sales manager (ASM). He told me I would be working with five other guys on the "A Team." They were just arriving for work — still straightening their ties, combing their hair — and he introduced me to them as they showed up. There was Oscar, a barrel-chested young guy with a gang tattoo on the back of his hand; Richard, a 6-foot-3-inch weightlifter from Hungary; Tino, who had a quiet dignity that made me think of him as a restaurant maitre d'; Jimmy, a mustachioed soccer fanatic and Juan, six months out of the U.S. Marine Corps.

These were my team members, Michael said. They would be like family, like my brothers. If I couldn't make a deal with a customer, I was to turn them over to someone on my team. Then, if that customer bought the car we'd split the commission. This practice of "turning" customers was stressed repeatedly. I was working in what is known in the business as a "turnover house."

We had a brief meeting in one of the sales cubicles and then the rest of the team went out front to look for "ups." Ups are customers who walk onto the lot. This name comes from the way customers are handled by whichever salesman or woman is "up." The salespeople are always asking, "Who's up next?" The "up system," the order in which customers are taken by the sales staff, is very serious business.

Michael began explaining how the dealership was run. We sold new cars on our side of the building, and used cars were on the other side. In each of the front corners of the building were the new and used car "towers." These glassed-in offices were restricted to employees. Inside was a raised platform where the sales managers sat. When you went into one of the towers, you found yourself behind a high counter, looking up at your bosses, like being in a courtroom or a police station. The sales managers are sometimes referred to as "the desk." Salespeople would say, "You have to clear that deal with the desk." Or, "Who's on the desk today?"

The next step in my training involved the use of the "4-square work sheet." Michael told me the 4-square was my friend, it was the salesman's tool for getting "maximum gross profit." As the name implies, the sheet is divided into four sections. When you have a prospect "in the box" (in the sales cubicle) you pull out a 4-square and go to work.

The information about the customer is written along the top together with the make, model and serial number of the car they want to buy. Then the salesman writes the sticker price of the car in large numbers in the upper right square on the worksheet. Michael stressed that the price of the car should be written in large clear numbers to give it a feeling of authority. He added that we should always write "+ fees" next to the price of the car (This includes license fees and sales tax.).

"Good penmanship is essential," he said. "This makes it harder for them to negotiate. "You're saying, 'Mr. Customer, if you want our beautiful new car, this is the price you're going to have to pay.'"

The other boxes on the 4-square are for the price of the trade-in, the amount of the customer's down payment, and the amount of the customer's monthly payment.

"When you negotiate, this sheet should be covered with numbers," Michael said. "It should be like a battleground. And I don't want to see the price dropping five hundred dollars at a pop. Come down slowly, slowly. Here I'll show you how."

The process begins by asking the customer how much they want for a monthly payment. Usually, they say, about $300. "Then, you just say, '$300... up to?' And they'll say, 'Well, $350.' Now they've just bumped themselves $50 a month. That's huge." You then fill in $350 under the monthly payment box.

Michael said you could use the "up to" trick with the down payment too. "If Mr. Customer says he wants to put down $2000, you say, "Up to?" And he'll probably bump himself up to $2500." Michael then wrote $2,500 in the down payment box of the 4-square worksheet.

I later found out this little phrase "Up to?" was a joke around the dealership. When salesmen or women passed each other in the hallways, they would say, "Up to?" and break out laughing.

The final box on the 4-square was for the trade-in. This was where the most profit could be made. Buyers are so eager to get out of their old car and into a new one, they overlook the true value of the trade-in. The dealership is well aware of this weakness and exploits it.

The opening numbers were now in place on the 4-square. At a glance, Michael said, you could see the significant numbers of this deal — purchase price of the car, trade-in, down payment and the monthly payments. As you negotiated you could move from box to box, making progress as you went. It allowed you to sell a car in different ways. For example, if the customer was determined to get full value for his trade-in, you could take extra profit elsewhere — in the purchase price or maybe even in financing.

The first numbers that go on the 4-square come from the customer. The down payment and the monthly payment are only what they would like to pay. Now, it's time to get the numbers that the dealership would like the customer to pay. These numbers are called the "first pencil" and they come from a sales manager in the tower. Michael said that the first pencil was the dealership's starting position. "You have to hit them high," Michael explained. "You have to break them inside — make them understand that if they want our beautiful new car, they're going to have to pay for it."

Here's how we were supposed to get the first pencil from the tower. After the customer test-drove the car we brought them into a sales office and offered them coffee or a Coke to relax them. Then we filled in the information about the car on the 4-square. We then picked up the phone and called the tower. Michael held his hand like a phone receiver with his thumb and little finger sticking out. "You say, 'Yes sir. I have the Jones family here with me and they have just driven a beautiful new whatever model, stock number blah blah blah.' Then you say, 'Is it still available?' Of course you know it is. But you want to create a sense of urgency. So you pause, then say to the customer, 'Great news! The car's still available!' Then the tower will give you the first pencil. Write it in each of the boxes."

I later found out that the first pencil is arrived at by the dealership in a very unscientific way. For every $10,000 that is financed, the down payment they try to get is $3,000 and the monthly payment they try for is $250. In this way, a $20,000 family sedan would require about $6,000 down and a $500 a month payment. (These payments are based on very high interest rates calculated on five-year loans. These numbers are so inflated that a manager I later worked with laughingly called them, "stupid high numbers.")

"But here's the beauty of this system," Michael said, "these numbers aren't coming from you — you're still the good guy. They're coming from someone on the other end of the phone. The enemy."

Michael returned to his scenario. "OK, so when you give these numbers to the customer you say, 'Here's a pretty good deal for you.' But Mr. Customer says, 'Oh man! Michael, I told you I can only put down $3,000.' So you cross out the $6,000 you wrote and put down $5,750. You say to the customer, 'Is that more what you had in mind?' And you nod as you say this. Try to get them agreeing with you."

This reminded Michael of something and he laughed. "Here's another thing. Never give the customer even numbers. Then it looks like you just made them up. So don't say their monthly payment is going to be $400. Say it will be $427. Or, if you want to have some fun, say it will be $427.33."

While Michael was training me, he didn't ever say, "Here's how to cheat the customer," or, "This is how we inflate the prices." In fact, he stressed that I was supposed to treat customers with respect to build a strong C.S.I. (Customer Satisfaction Index). But manipulation and overpricing was inherent in everything he said. The reason for this was simple — without overpricing we couldn't make a living. What we were selling was profit. Or, as Michael put it, "This is money for you — money for your family."

At times Michael became very excited as he thought of new things to teach me. At one point he said, "Oh! This is a good one! This is how you steal the trade-in." He looked around quickly to make sure no one overheard him. "When you're getting the numbers from the desk, they'll ask if the customer has a trade-in. Say it's a '95 Ford Taurus. And say you took it to the used car manager and he evaluated it and said he would pay four grand for it. If you can get the trade for only three, that's a grand extra in profit.

"So what you do is this," Michael pretended to pick up the phone again, "you ask the desk, 'What did we get for the last three Tauruses at auction?' Then they'll give you some figures — they'll say, $1,923, $2,197 and $1,309. You don't have to say anything to the customer. But he sees you writing this down! And he's going, 'Holy crap! I thought my trade was worth $6,000.' Now it's easy to get it for $3,000. That's a grand extra in profit. And it's front-end money too!" (I later learned that front-end money was what our commissions were based on. Back-end money was made on interest, holdbacks and other elements of the deal.)

We talked for almost two hours before Michael finally ran out of gas. He told me that for the next two days I should get to know the inventory and watch the other salespeople. Then I could learn how to "meet and greet." He invited me to check out some keys and test-drive the cars.

"Product knowledge," he said, tapping his forehead. "Very important. You need to get to know these cars inside and out."

I walked outside and surveyed the car lot. The new cars were on our side of the lot — the used cars to my right. Across the street was another dealership, also selling Japanese cars, and up and down the street were still more dealerships. Most of the manufacturers were represented here. Then, in the distance, was the freeway, a solid river of cars. Cars were everywhere.

"What were you selling before?"

I turned to find Oscar, one of my teammates. He had a broad friendly face to match his incredibly stocky build. Later, I found out he was a high school football star. I couldn't imagine trying to knock him off his feet.

"I used to sell videos," I told him.

"Like X-rated videos?" he asked eagerly.

"Naw. Training materials. Stuff for companies to train the people that work there."

"Oh yeah. We got some like that here." He popped his knuckles. I tried to read the tattoo on the back of his hand. "Michael show you around the lot?"

"No. He was explaining the 4-square."

"You never sold cars before?" he asked.

"No. This is the first time."

"It's easy, man. You'll do good. Hey, I'll show you around." He ducked into the sales office and came back with a set of car keys. "Let's take a ride."

We walked through the line of new cars, each gleaming with water droplets from being washed that morning. Oscar showed me how the lot was arranged with the high-end cars facing the street, the SUVs, minivans and trucks along one side and the mid-sized sedans near the dealership entrance. He told me there was also a back lot with more inventory and even more cars in a rear fenced parking area. As we talked, a car carrier pulled up and more cars began rolling down the ramp.

Oscar opened the door of a high-end sedan in a sport trim. It had a big V6, leather bucket seats, a sunroof and alloy wheels. The sticker showed a total price of $28,576. A second dealer's sticker showed an extra $236 for the custom wheels.

"You're walking through the lot with Mr. Customer and he's eyeballing all these cars," Oscar said. "He stops next to this one and bam! that's the one you're gonna sell him. You pull it out of the row, open the doors and ask him to see how good the seats feel. When he sits down you slam the door and take off."

"You mean, you ask him if he wants to demo the car?" I asked.

"Hell no. They never go for a demo if you ask them. 'Cause they know they're weak. If they drive it they'll buy it. The feel of the wheel will seal the deal, my friend. So you got to kidnap them, man. Just slam the door and take off. Come on, let's go."

We got into the car and he palmed the wheel, backing up, then pulling out onto the street. A block later we hit a light. When it turned green Oscar punched it and I felt the G's pressing me back into the leather.

"Whoa," I said. "Great torque."

"Strong," he agreed, checking the rearview mirror. We made a right, then another right into a shopping center parking lot. We got out.

"Now you got them away from the dealership, you can relax a little, show 'em how awesome this car is. What you want to do is open all the doors and windows, the hood and the trunk. Then you do your walk around. You start at the driver's door and you point stuff out as you go. 'Mr. Customer, this car's got the highest safety rating because it's got front crumple zones and breakaway engine mounts. It's got a 170-horsepower V6 with four valves per cylinder and blah, blah, blah.' See, it doesn't really matter what you say — most people don't even know what the hell you're talking about -— but the important thing is to keep talking: 'Here's the headlights, here's the gas cap. Here's the trunk. Here are the tires.' Anything! Understand?"

"Got it," I nodded.

"Good. Now you drive."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You be Mr. Customer. You get behind the wheel. See, you got to be in control on the demo. Because when you get back to the lot, you got to get them in the box and make a deal."

I slid into the driver's seat and closed the door. Oscar sat beside me, buckling up.

"Make a right here," he said. "See, the test drive route is just a bunch of right turns. If you want to go a little farther, go straight there."

"I want to go a little farther," I said, wondering if he was trying to control me. Besides, driving this car felt great. What was it Oscar said about the feel of the wheel? We came up on a railroad crossing. The tracks rumbled under my wheels, distant and muffled.

"Point out stuff on the route," Oscar said. "Like those tracks. Like this turn. Like the way it brakes. Everything. Just keep talking and building confidence in the product."

I looked over at Oscar wearing his white shirt and silk tie. He had slipped on a pair of wrap-arounds and with his black hair combed back he looked very smooth. Later I learned that he came out of a gang-infested area of the city. A job like this allowed him to drive brand-new cars, handle money deals, wear a tie and act like a big shot.

"Thanks for your help, man," I said when we got back to the lot and put the car away.

"No problem, bro." He shook my hand. "You're gonna do good here."

Over the next few days I noticed that car salesmen shook hands with each other a lot. I shook hands with each of my team members when I arrived in the morning; we shook hands before we left the dealership at night. We might shake hands with each other two or three more times during the day. If I happened to be standing on the curb and if another salesman walked up I shook hands with him. It was like we were all staying loose, practicing on each other, for that moment when we would greet Mr. Customer and needed to use a good handshake that's going to seal the deal.

At one point, during a sales seminar, I was actually taught how to shake hands. The instructor, a veteran car salesman said: "Thumb to thumb. Pump one, two, three, and out." Another vet told me to combine the handshake with a slight pulling motion. This is the beginning of your control over the customer. This would prepare the "up" to be moved into the dealership where the negotiation would begin. The car lot handshake is sometimes combined with the confident demand, "Follow me!" If you employ this method you turn and begin walking into the dealership. Do not look back to see if they are following you. Most people feel the obligation to do what they are told and they will follow you, if only to plead, "But I'm only looking!"

Besides hand shaking there's also a lot of high-fiving, fist-bumping, back-slapping and arm-squeezing going on among the salespeople. Furthermore, there's a certain amount of tie-pulling, wrestling and shadow-boxing during the slow periods.

Later that first day, I was standing on the curb outside the sales offices waiting for ups when a voice boomed over the intercom, "All new and used car salesmen report to the sales towers."

I went into the new car tower while the used car guys went into their tower. It was my first time actually going into this cramped room. There was only a small space around the perimeter of the desk where the salesmen stood, all of us looking up at the three sales managers who loomed above. On that shift, the sales staff was made up of all men. In fact, out of the 85 salespeople, there was only one woman working on the floor selling cars. There were, however, several women in the fleet department and working in the finance and insurance department.

Behind the sales manager's desk were three large white boards. The first listed the names of all the new car sales people. Beside the names was a blue box for each car they sold. Since I started near the end of the month, some of the salesmen had a long row of blue boxes showing they sold as many as 35 cars. Others had only two boxes. This board enabled everyone to see who was doing well, and who was falling behind. The next board showed the number of cars sold by the entire dealership. And the final board listed the names of the salespeople who hadn't sold any cars for three days.

How to reset Passat service light

Some Volkswagen dealers would have Passat owners thinking they need to bring their cars to them for oil change services or purchase a special tool to reset the "Service" light illuminating on the dashboard. This is a mileage interval light that trips every 3,000 to 5,000 miles that indicates an oil change is necessary. You do not need a special tool to change your oil, nor do you need to bring the car in to the dealer.



Instructions

1.
Step 1

Sit in the driver's seat of the Passat and close all the doors.
2.
Step 2

Position the trip/odometer button to display the odometer mileage reading, then hold it down with the forefinger on your left hand.
3.
Step 3

Turn the ignition key to the "key-on/engine-off" position to turn on all the power options for the Passat without actually starting the engine. At this point, a service indicator light will display (in the form of a wrench).
4.
Step 4

Press the minute adjustment button on the clock (or turn the knob clockwise on European manufactured Passats) and release the trip/odometer button.


On 2007 and newer Passats, there are some that have a "wrench button" to the right side of the trip reset. You would hold this button down instead of the trip/odometer, turn the ignition key to the "key-on/engine-off" position, release the wrench button and press the "min" (minute adjustment) button on the clock to reset.

What are you passionate about

If this “passion” thing goes on to your nerve, and if you get irritated just on the mention of “find a subject you are passionate about and work on it” then get used to this and similar phrases, because this is very, very important. You will require a strong inner pushing to carry on for months in times when there will be no hope of getting so much as a glimpse of success. This you cannot do, if you are not passionate about the subject you are blogging about. Your passion for the subject will keep you going even if success doesn’t come by, and perseverance pays here as well.

Ask the following questions and make a list of the answers you get, if you are to find your passion:

1. What made you forget your food today, yesterday, or day before?
2. What keeps coming to your mind when you have nothing to do?
3. One activity you can’t imagine to quit, apart from smoking or drinking?
4. One thing you have clung to since your childhood? Or for at least 3-4 years?
5. One subject that you cannot help but read?
6. If you have all the time and wealth of the world what would you like to do, and how long will you be doing that?
7. What is that one thing about which you know more than anyone else around you?
8. What kind of advice do your friends seek from you, and on what topic?
9. What is that one thing for which you are considered an expert?

Urban Legend A Korean company solicited American dog shelters for excess dogs to turn into soup.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/edibles/dogsoup.htm

Claim: A Korean company solicited American dog shelters for excess dogs to turn into soup.

Status: False.

Example: [Letter from Kea So Joo, Inc, 1994]

Dear Executive Director,

Excuse my English Please, Thank You. First congratulation on all you good work with animal. We support. We would like to help your company make money, so we like to offer help so you make money.

Dog shelter kill million of dog, cost money. Dog shelter cremate dog cost money. Dog shelter need money to operate. Where it get money? Hard to get money.

Many people like to eat dog. People need to eat dog. Where do they get dog? Some people they raise dog to eat. Some steal dog, make some people angry, hurt some people. That not right.

We like make proposal to your dog shelter to sell us dog. You save money, you make money. We buy all dog, regardless of size or color. We prefer big, young, strong dog but we take all dog from your dog shelter. We cook dog in America. We can dog in America and sell some dog in America in Asian market place. Lot people in America eat dog. Most dog we ship oversea. Lot people eat dog. Many country eat dog. Korea, China eat dog, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia eat dog. Dog is healthy for you. This way your cost of business is less. You make more money, more people happy. You get cleaner air. No burn up dog. No waste dog. People pet no disappear. Everybody happy.

Cause we understand some people no like idea to eat dog. But they make trouble for people who like eat dog. Those people called two face. Those people eat cow, rabbit and mice, squirrel and frog and every thing else, but still give us trouble. But dog is good food. Dog is good medicine, make sick people strong, make old people young, make penis hard, make sex good again. Our business getting very big. Need more dog. We are prepared to offer you ten cents per pound per dog. We pick up dog every day, so you also save on feeding dog. We like very much to speak with you and make deal. Please tell us how many dog available in your business. We have deal already to do same with dog shelter in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. We hope to be eventually in big city cross America. You can join us now, save money and continue doing your good job. We do big business together. We have big business already with many dog breeder and many dog hospital. Dog no suffer, We have quick death for dog.

Looking to hear from you soon,

Thank you

Kim Yung Soo
President
Kea So Joo, Inc.

See the rest of the story at the link...

Skaggs believed the American public, with its own prejudices regarding which animals it's okay to consume, would go bonkers when confronted with the dog-meat proposal -- and he was right. Animal rights groups and public officials took the story completely out of his hands -- in the process, he believes, exposing their own racism and cultural bigotry. One of the messages of the prank, Skaggs maintains, was "We are culturally intolerant. It was about prejudice, as illustrated in the letters, faxes and calls I received."

Dog meat is indeed consumed in many Asian countries, a fact that horrifies Americans. Americans have no qualms about eating beef, even though cows are sacred in some religions, and the eating of cows in those countries would be greeted with as much enthusiasm as dog-eating would be here. But dog meat is officially banned in Korea, in part because of foreign pressure. If India tried to pressure us to give up hamburgers, though, we'd be outraged.

This was far from the first hoax perpetrated by Skaggs. He is the master, and his 30-year career of pulling these off speaks for itself. He has staged dozens of hoaxes and has fooled hundreds of newspapers and television shows. On 13 May 1986 he was interviewed by David Hartman on ABC's Good Morning America as Joe Bones, the head of the Fat Squad, a group of commandos who would move in with you and, for $300 a day, physically restrain you from eating. He made The New York Times as Jo-Jo, a Gypsy leading a protest against the term "gypsy moth."

No one who fails to do his research is safe from Skaggs, as those of the media who skip this step yet look to feature him in segments about hoaxes find out. In 1988 Entertainment Tonight wanted to interview him for such a piece. Skaggs sent an imposter in his place, and only after the interview aired on 14 September 1988 was ET informed how it had been fooled. He pulled a similar prank in 1991 on the television game show To Tell the Truth. When Geraldo looked to Skaggs to do its homework for them in a piece about news people fooled by Skaggs, it quickly learned its mistake -- Skaggs manipulated that show into running an interview with a non-existent journalist about a hoax he'd never perpetrated.

His earliest stunt dates back to 1966 when he (and a few friends -- he's not that strong) took a 200-lb. sculpture depicting a naked rotting skeletal corpse with a human skull, barbed wire crown of thorns, long human hair, and a metal penis dangling between the legs, affixed it to a 10-foot cross made from telephone poles, dragged it to the top of a knoll in Tompkins Square Park in New York City, and erected it upon that spot. Later versions of the prank involved Skaggs' dressing as Jesus and carting a cross through the streets every Easter.

Growing increasingly annoyed by the tourist buses that would cruise through the East Village gawking at the long-haired hippies, Skaggs decided turnabout was fair play. In 1968, he filled a Greyhound bus with aging hippies and took them on a tour of Queens, ostensibly to take photos of life in Squaresville.

Since those early days, he has turned up as a psychic attorney ("Why deal with the legal system without knowing the outcome beforehand? Let me tell you whether to sue or settle, if you'll win or lose."), a doctor who treats baldness by transplanting scalps from cadavers (Hair Today Ltd.), and the proprietor of a canine brothel for sexually deprived pets (the Cathouse for Dogs). As "Giuseppe Scaggoli," Skaggs advertised the opening of a celebrity sperm bank. Hoax or not, the number given out received calls from across the country from women who were willing to bid on Bob Dylan's, Mick Jagger's and Paul McCartney's semen.

He hung a fifty-foot bra on Wall Street. He has promoted fish-tank condominiums, replete with living rooms, bathrooms,and kitchens for "upwardly mobile guppies." (That last one backfired slightly -- all the media attention gained by this prank prompted Neiman Marcus to offer $5,000 fish condos in its 1996 Christmas Book catalog. There were four different units, sold individually: a guppy-sized living room, a cozy little kitchen, a parlor and a bedroom -- all appointed with furniture, fixtures, and even decorations such as framed portraits of cats.)

His 1981 cockroach pill hoax was classic. Posing as "world-famous entomologist Dr. Josef Gergor," he announced the development of a miracle vitamin from the hormones extracted from a super strain of cockroaches. The vitamin was said to cure acne, arthritis, anemia, and menstrual cramps and immunize against the side effects of nuclear radiation. (Remember that immortal assertion that only the cockroaches would survive a nuclear holocaust? So, apparently, did Skaggs.)

1992 found "the Rev. Anthony Joseph." pedaling a mobile confessional booth attached to a bicycle outside the Democratic National Convention in New York for the benefit of the press and delegates who otherwise wouldn't have time to make confession: "Religion on the go for people on the move!" was his motto.

And then there was the Crusade for Sidewalk Etiquette, a proposal which would have banned short people from carrying umbrellas and required fat people to walk single file and wear neutral-coloured clothing.

In 1992, "Dr." Joseph Skaggs booked a booth at a huge Toronto computer show to showcase his exciting new product, SEXONIC. The world's first sexual virtual reality program was touted as capable of "translating individual fantasies into a stunning approximation of reality" to "enable our clients to experience sublime pinnacles of delight that most people only dream of." The demonstration, of course, did not come off -- Canadian customs officials supposedly seized the non-existent hardware and software at the border, claiming SEXONIC was morally offensive to Canadians.

No discussion of Skagg's tricksterism would be complete without a mention of the Solomon Project, an amazing but thoroughly fake computer program that could review a court case, apply the law, and spit out a ruling. The promise of an impartial electronic contraption that would remove human foibles from the judicial system proved irresistible to a world bone-tired of the O.J. case. CNN sent a camera crew to interview Mr. Bonuso (Skaggs) at his New York laboratory -- a SoHo loft he'd packed with actors posing as refugees from the Microsoft Corporation. At its peak, the hoax involved some 25 grim-faced actors pumping data into computer terminals as CNN cameras recorded the performance. CNN aired the segment on 29 December 1995.

Why does he do it, you ask? "My message exists on different levels," says Skaggs. "Besides trying to point out the iresponsibility of journalists, I'm also seeking to show the public's gullibility. Too many people are always looking for something outside themselves to take care of them rather than looking at themselves to address the problem. They tend to believe everything they read. It was sad to get calls from people with illnesses who were so desperate they were willing to take roach pills. Some were disappointed when I told them there were no such miracle pills. With others, you could see that a bell went off and they might be more cautious in the future. I'd like to think so, anyway."

"I let the media go with it; I judge success by how many people I'm able to reach with the message." And the message? "Question authority in all its shapes and forms. Don't suspend critical thinking for wishful thinking."

Skaggs sees his role as that of the archetypal trickster, a character found in the literature and mythology of most cultures, whose role is to jar his fellows out of the workaday rut of their routines that includes accepting "news" as gospel. He speaks seriously about his pranks, describing their function, at best, as serving to raise the consciousness of those who are "sleepwalking on automatic pilot."

Skaggs makes the point that if he can con the media as one lone activist with a fax machine, perhaps readers and viewers can learn to be a bit skeptical of news orchestrated by vast government, political, and business empires.

Alcohol made from sugar cane is becoming the fuel of choice in Brazil - csmonitor.com

Drivers are fighting rising gasoline prices by buying "flex" or "flexible fuel" cars that slurp more alcohol.
Alcohol made from sugar cane is becoming the fuel of choice in Brazil, and other countries - so much so that global sugar prices hit a seven-year high this week.
Regular car engines will run fine on a 10 percent blend of alcohol and gasoline. But by using computer sensors that adjust to whatever mix is in the tank, flex car engines run on either ethanol, gasoline, or any combination of the two. And they have been roaring out of dealerships here since Volkswagen sold the first TotalFlex Golf in March 2003.
Today, flex cars are outselling traditional gasoline models. In August, 62 percent of new cars sold were flex, according to industry numbers. "Demand has been unbelievable," says Barry Engle, the new president of Ford Brasil. "I am hard-pressed to think of any other technology that has been such a success so quickly."
As many countries reexamine their dependence on petroleum fields for fuel, Brazil offers a model for how to make the switch to cane, beet, wheat, or corn fields. The successful transition here comes down to many factors, but price is the primary one, experts say.
Unlike hybrids sold in the US, for example, flex cars sold in Brazil don't cost any more than traditional models. In fact, some models are only available with flex engines now. Ethanol engines use 25 percent more ethanol per mile than gasoline. But ethanol (the alcohol produced by fermenting sugar) usually sells at somewhere between a third to half of the price of gas. Even people who were reluctant to take the plunge and buy a flex say they have been won over by the savings.
"It's been a revelation because of the economy," says Madalena Lira, a university lecturer who says that she and her husband had reluctantly purchased a flex car because it was the only available version of the Fiat Palio Weekend they wanted. "I love this car in spite of it being a flex, not because it is a flex. The savings have been great. I'd certainly buy another one."
In addition to the savings, environmentally conscious drivers appreciate having a car that runs on a cleaner fuel, and some might even buy a flex car because they know it is good for the country's auto and sugar manufacturers. But today, two-and-a-half years into the flex experiment, another unforeseen advantage is emerging.
"There is something curious that we are just starting to see," says Alfred Szwarc, an ethanol consultant with Sao Paulo's sugar cane association. "Gasoline powered cars lose more of their [resale] value than flex cars. People know that oil is finite and that it is going to get more and more expensive. They think that a gasoline-powered car is going to be more difficult to sell. They see flex cars as the car of the future."
Ethanol-powered cars are not new in Brazil. In a bid to cut the country's reliance on foreign oil imports and help their own sugar producers, Brazil's military government pushed alcohol-powered cars in the early 1980s. Gas stations across the country added ethanol pumps to the existing gasoline and diesel ones. Between 1983 and 1988 more than 88 percent of cars sold annually were running on a blend of ethanol and gasoline.
This didn't last for long, though. The subsidies were withdrawn at the end of the decade, and cane farmers quickly realized they could get more from selling sugar than turning it into ethanol. When alcohol fuel shortages ensued it looked like the end of the road for ethanol engines as sales of the experimental cars plummeted.
That experience may have been a bitter one but it gave Brazilians a taste for alternative fuels that lingered. Although most people abandoned ethanol cars, many taxi drivers kept them because it was so much cheaper than a gas-only car. Then the country's Congress passed a law forcing oil companies to add small quantities of ethanol to their gasoline. That prompted car companies to experiment with an engine that would run on both fuels, and when they did, the flex car sales took off.
"Why did this take off here?" asks Mr. Engle. "Because this isn't brand-new. Car buyers concerned about high gas prices or potential ethanol shortages no longer have to make a choice between the two. It used to be an either-or but now there's both and that gives consumers peace of mind and explains why Brazilians have embraced it."
The next task is convincing other nations to adopt the technology, industry experts said. With oil prices at a record high, there is a clear advantage to diluting gasoline or even substituting it, with sugar-based ethanol or one of the biofuel alternatives such as beets or corn.
For most countries, the problem is the lack of ethanol production and a distribution system. Although many countries require oil companies to dilute their gasoline with ethanol (in Brazil, gas sold at the pumps is 25 percent ethanol; and some of the gas sold in the US, China, Australia and Canada is 10-15 percent ethanol), few actually make ethanol or manufacture flex vehicles, and even fewer have a network of gas stations with ethanol pumps.
In the US - with about 4 million flex cars - there are 14 states without even one ethanol pump, says Robert White, project director for the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.
With years of experience at every stage of the process, Brazil is in the pole position to help other nations' farmers grow crops, scientists refine it into fuel, or engineers produce the technology to make flex cars, says Rogelio Golfarb, president of Brazil's car makers association. "There is an enormous demand from abroad to know more," Mr. Golfarb says "This is an advantage and an opportunity for Brazil."

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Tricks from Dealerships in Canada when buying a new

Tricks from Dealerships in Canada when buying a new Carhttp://www.apa.ca/template.asp?SectionID=3&ArticleID=7NewsAUTO RETAILING 2002April 2002
Consumers in Western Canada better watch out when they shop for a new car, according to the results of the latest undercover probe released by the Automobile Protection Association. A report on the annual investigation, funded by Industry Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs, will be aired on CTV’s W-FIVE, on Sunday April 28 at 7:00 p.m. APA researchers posing as ordinary buyers visited 42 dealerships in four Canadian cities to shop for new cars and minivans. According to APA president George Iny, 45% of the dealerships visited earned a failing grade.
The APA says that deceptive practices often began even before the APA shoppers made it to the dealerships. In Vancouver and Edmonton, dealer ads left out important information, or the cars in the ads were not available, or they were selling at higher prices. Dealership charges for paperwork and vehicle preparation in three of the four cities visited were frequently excessive. Chrysler dealerships in Vancouver and Toronto charged the highest extra fees, with observed charges for administration and paperwork of $299 to $632. In some cases, the dealers appear to be double billing. In Toronto, West End Chrysler and Islington Chrysler’s pre-delivery charges of $343 and $89 respectively are levied on top of Chrysler’s $955 transport and preparation charge, which already includes a pre-delivery allowance. Dealerships in Montreal rightly included these charges in the price of the vehicle, or charged a small premium for it.
W-FIVE/APA AUTO RETAILING PROBE Cities Visited Dealers Visited Pass Fail Report Vancouver 12 7 5 View Report
Edmonton 12 5 7 View Report
Toronto 12 5 7 View Report
Montreal 6 6 0 View Report
Total : 42 55% (23) 45 % (19)
Results for Each City
Vancouver
At Vancouver Chrysler, the advertised promotion failed to indicate the vehicle was a leftover 2001 model, and Chrysler’s rebate of over $2,000 mysteriously disappeared when the APA shoppers requested a calculation of payments with bank financing. Deer Lake Chrysler had the highest charge for extra fees in Vancouver, including a fictitious $375 lease administration fee payable to Chrysler. Midway Mazda had an unexpected surprise waiting at the dealership, in the form of a $2,200 down payment not disclosed in their ad for a Mazda Protegé. A missing balloon payment boosted the price of a Windstar minivan at Key West Ford by an incredible $9,150. Overall, the Toyota and General Motors dealerships shopped by the APA in Vancouver performed better than their competition. The General Motors dealers were running a carmaker promotion for the Cavalier and Sunfire that was refreshingly free of extra charges payable upon delivery, and they had an adequate supply of vehicles at the advertised price in inventory.
Edmonton
Edmonton is the city with the worst results in the APA survey. Among the more outlandish results, Capital Jeep Chrysler failed to indicate that a new Neon was in fact a leftover 2001 demonstrator. “Furthermore,” said George Iny, “the dealership’s ad actually showed a 2002 car in the photo!” Northstar Hyundai tried to convince the APA shoppers that Royal Bank financing at 7.8% was cheaper than Hyundai’s factory financing or leasing at rates below 4%! Some sales managers and salespeople ruefully observed to the APA shoppers that the Edmonton market was out of control, and there was little they could do about it. The APA says that AMVIC, the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council, is a toothless tiger. “Right now,” says Iny, “ honest car dealers in Edmonton are penalized by the selling practices at over half the dealerships visited, and AMVIC seems to be looking the other way.” The two Toyota dealerships passed easily, but their polished performances came at a price: the selling price of a new Camry sedan was a scant $196 off full retail, compared to selling prices that were $400 to $700 lower in Vancouver.
Toronto
Advertising in Toronto was clearly superior to Edmonton and Vancouver, but dealers are using loopholes to jack up selling prices. Toronto is the capital of extra fees with charges for paperwork and cleaning up the car of $324, $432 and $632 at the three Chrysler dealerships visited. Some dealers made errors on the provincial fuel consumption tax, including Mazda of Brampton that levied a charge of $75 on a minivan (there is none for minivans). Mazda dealers had to scramble to provide explanations regarding Mazda’s confusing promotion that required the dealer to kick in some of the advertised savings and an undisclosed extra charge by Mazda of $105 for every colour except Blue Mica.
Montreal
With a small sample of only six dealerships, Montreal set the standard for the investigation. Salespeople provided a realistic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of leasing and financing. There was no pressure to close the deal right away. Even Cité Nissan, whose dodgy advertising was the poorest observed in Montreal, was saved by the salesperson who immediately disclosed the extra fees and charges. Sylvain Bossé of Coiteux Hyundai provided a detailed breakdown of all the extra charges for a base Accent – no small feat given all the extra charges for a base Accent, and detailed and knowledgeable disclosure of financing and leasing terms. All three Toyota dealerships provided complete and polished sales presentations, but their non-negotiable fixed prices were a mere $85 off full list on a Toyota Echo. Toyota prices became non-negotiable in January 2002 with the introduction of the Access Toyota selling system. The APA says Access Toyota has resulted in higher prices virtually across-the-board in Montreal, by several hundred dollars in many cases.
Overall Findings
Chrysler and Ford dealerships performed the worst overall. Toyota and General Motors performed best, and Mazda and Hyundai were mediocre. Mazda and Hyundai charge extra for items the other carmakers include, which means surprises are more likely at the dealership. The Nissan ad for a Sentra XE was a model of clarity, with no extra fees and the down payment and monthly payment indicated in the large print. The consistently best sales experience among the brands shopped was Toyota, says the APA. “With or without Access pricing” Iny says, “the APA found Toyota dealers demonstrated a superior level of product knowledge and covered all the bases more consistently and applied the least pressure to make a sale.” However, Toyota dealers in the regions with fixed selling prices appeared to charge substantially more.
When it comes to financing, the APA says the worst deals do not come from the carmakers. The lender most preferred by car dealerships that place deceptive financing ads is the Royal Bank, says the APA, particularly in Western Canada.
What you can do
The APA says that government cutbacks mean you can’t rely on the regulators to keep the industry honest, and industry self regulation in Alberta is not delivering the goods either. In spite of efforts by automakers like Toyota and General Motors to improve standards for retailing, there is still a long way to go. The APA says that an eventual clean-up of auto retailing will likely require much more active involvement by the car makers, as they did with auto leasing. Based on its hidden camera shopping with W-FIVE, the APA suggests taking a copy of a car ad to a competing dealer selling the same brand and asking them to match the offer. Chances are, they’ve already lost a few sales due to the ad, and will work a little harder to match the deal; if not, they’re almost certain to reveal the tricks in the competitor’s promotion to earn your business.

`Jobs that Americans won't do' filled by desperate migrants

`Jobs that Americans won't do' filled by desperate migrants
Mon Jan 17, 9:40 AM ET Top Stories - Chicago Tribune
By Stephen Franklin Tribune staff reporter
She is dizzy, almost wobbly. Her head aches, her coughing won't stop, and because she doesn't have enough money she has not filled her four prescriptions nor seen a doctor recently.
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But that doesn't stop her.
Soon it will be midnight, and Ipifania Dominguez will be back at work cleaning up blood, bone and fat in the world's largest pork slaughterhouse. She'll be back in the "head room," as she calls it, where meat is cut from pigs' heads.
She'll be back reaching and bending as she scrubs the machines, walls and floors with a sponge, breathing cleaning chemicals that burn her eyes, clog her throat and linger, giving her a nauseated feeling when she stumbles home exhausted.
She'll be back at a job few want except someone like Dominguez, 35, a Mexican immigrant illegally living in the U.S., who is thankful for the work that has allowed her to send money home to her six children in Mexico.
For six hours nightly with no breaks or time to eat, she is clutching a sponge while shivering in the cutting room's permanent chill for a job that starts out at six bucks and ninety cents an hour. And she has to hustle because the factory must be clean for the start of a new day and the slaughter of up to 32,000 pigs.
People like Dominguez are the ones President Bush (news - web sites) was talking about recently when he spoke of reforming the nation's immigration policy to allow "good-hearted people who are coming here to work" while stopping "crooks and thieves and drug-runners."
Bush is calling for a system in which foreign guest workers would have temporary legal status to work in this country. Under the plan, employers would have to prove that no U.S. citizens would take the available openings before they could hire guest workers to perform what Bush calls "jobs that Americans won't do."
Not everyone agrees with Bush, however.
"It's not jobs Americans don't want to do. These are wages and working conditions Americans don't want to accept," says Ira Melman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an opponent of lowering the barriers for undocumented workers.
"Why not let the free market determine what wages ought to be instead of flooding the market with low-wage, foreign labor?" he asks.
Hard work has long been a burden, but also a stepping stone for immigrants. Yet some jobs are so dirty, so tough, so miserable that only the hungriest or most vulnerable of the newest arrivals do them. Vulnerable because they do not speak English, cannot offer anything beyond their arms and backs, and dare not speak out because they live in the shadows, afraid of being caught and sent home.
Dominguez and 200 others work for a contractor, QSI Inc., which nightly cleans the Smithfield Foods Inc. plant in Tar Heel, a colossus that employs up to 6,000 workers and ships 6 million pounds of pork daily.
QSI officials say their workers' papers show they are legally in the United States. But according to the workers and those who help them, many of the cleaners are illegal immigrants from Mexico or Central America, coming from poverty and Indian roots. They use fake identification documents with fake names to get and keep their jobs. Dominguez's employer knows her by another name, not Dominguez.
These workers do the jobs turned down by other immigrants who have more skills and savvy--and more deftly falsified identification papers that allow them to compete for more desirable jobs.
Chicago's day laborers
In the same boat as these workers are the day laborers, who crowd Chicago's West Side street corners in bone-chilling cold or on blistering hot mornings, hoping a contractor will stop to hire them. A global stew of Hispanic, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Uzbek and Mongolian immigrants, they often risk their lives on dangerous jobs for little pay, or no pay at all from a handful of bosses who might cheat them or desert them if they get injured.


Carlos Meija, a short, muscular 36-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico, is a street-corner veteran. Last year, Meija broke his arm while on a construction job. He says his boss refused to pay his hospital bill or help him out financially during the three months he was recuperating--despite his getting hurt on the job.
On a chilly morning, he huddles at the corner of Argyle Street and Pulaski Road. It is 10 a.m., more than three hours since the first contractors came by looking for help, and he still hasn't snared a job. He is worried. He got lucky late yesterday by taking a job working on a high, steep rooftop. Not everyone wants such work, he explains.
But this is how he prefers to work. "The work here is better than at a factory for the minimum wage," he says, his eyes trained on the street.
A van pulls up, and several men pile in, pushing others aside. But then they hurriedly flee.
"It's no good," a middle-aged man grumbles. "Forget it. It's heavy work. No breaks. And the pay is no good. Eight dollars."
But Meija shoves his way in, and goes to lift heavy boxes for the next few hours.
Except for a few homeless and some people out of work and down-and-out, nearly all of the day laborers waiting on Chicago's street corners are immigrants, says Jose Oliva, director of the Chicago Interfaith Workers' Rights Center.
"Immigrants are much more willing to be exploited, not because they like it, but because they don't see any more options, and they are really just trying to survive," he says.
There are no statistics on workplace abuse of undocumented immigrants because many are terrified to report wrongdoing, don't know whom to call, or, in dire situations, are virtual captives of their employers, according to immigrant advocates.
"Since their immigration status is an issue, this creates a subclass of fearful workers on a grand scale. We are talking about millions," says Lance Compa, a lawyer and labor expert at Cornell University. "It is worse than 30 years ago. It is like 100 years ago."
In a highly critical upcoming report for Human Rights Watch on the conditions of workers in the nation's meat and poultry plants, Compa points to the industries' reliance on immigrants, and especially undocumented workers who are fearful of speaking up.
Latino workers are a majority in many of these plants, he says, adding that this is one reason why North Carolina, which has many such plants, ranked first in the nation in the last decade in the growth of immigrants. From about 100,000 immigrants in 1990, most of them Latino, about half a million live in the state today, he says.
Latinos once were a rarity in the swamp lands, pine forests and small farm towns surrounding Tar Heel in southeastern North Carolina. But that's no longer true. Now, Latinos work at the poultry-processing plants and at hundreds of hog farms that serve the Smithfield Foods plant, where the company says they make up half of the workforce, up from one out of four employees seven years ago.
Barbara Johnson, 61, a 12-year veteran and trainer on the cutting floor, remembers when there were "very few Latinos" at the plant.
Latinos fill crucial role
"We tried to bring in American people," says Johnson, who stands 5-foot-1 in heels, and grew up on a farm nearby, "but the American people, they are just lazy. . . . If they [the Latinos] would get out of here, we would have to close because we couldn't find enough people.
"The Latinos, they'll stand there in pain all day without saying anything," she says. "I told them they could say something. But I think they fear that if they speak out they would get sent back. One day some of the ladies were crying and saying they want to stay, life is bad back in their countries."
A woman known to her employer by the pseudonym of Sara Lopez clung in pain and weariness to her job on the cutting floor because she feared that she would be fired if she spoke up. Five years ago when she left her family in Guatemala, she vowed that she would send money back to her mother and four children.
She is a rarity, a woman--a small, shy 30-year-old single mother--who made her way on the mostly male trail of undocumented workers coming from Central America across Mexico and into the U.S., and finally to this swampy stretch of North Carolina.
The work was hard, cutting meat from the bone, but she learned to adjust.
Three months ago a pain began in her right shoulder and spread to her arm. It ached so much she feared that something terrible inside of her would kill or cripple her.
Finally she told her boss, who moved her to another job. But her arm still ached, and one day she said she could not do the job. She thought her boss told her to go home temporarily. But there was a mix-up. When she came back, they said she had walked off the job, and therefore no longer worked at the plant.
Smithfield officials said they would not comment on workers' individual cases. But they said the plant has a low injury rate, and the company works to keep it that way.
"This work," says the woman known as Lopez, who then turns away to cry. "This work is very important. I am responsible for my children and my family."
Smithfield spokesman Dennis Treacy says his firm does not purposely hire Latinos. "We hire who shows up," he says.
But for QSI Inc., the company based in Chattanooga, Tenn., that cleans the Smithfield facility and other meat-processing plants across the U.S., it is a fact of life, says company spokesman Gary Grauman, that Latinos overwhelmingly apply for its jobs. That is why, he says, about 90 percent of his firm's cleaning workforce are Latinos.
Quality of workers
"We've seen how these people want to come here and work and we embrace that," he says. "They are good workers. They work hard and they are reliable."
The QSI workers offer a different explanation.
Their ranks are nearly all Latinos, they say, because nobody else would do such work. And many Latinos are also new arrivals, desperate to pay off the smugglers, known as coyotes, who brought them to the United States, and so they must find a job, any job, soon.
So, too, not all QSI workers are quiet and satisfied.
Several QSI workers who feuded last year with company officials over pay and job conditions and who were fired, turned to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has been trying to organize the Smithfield plant for 10 years.
In a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the workers, the union said QSI officials threatened to fire the workers as well as call immigration officials if they tried to join the union.
The company denied the union's claims at hearings last fall, and a ruling is pending.
At QSI, Saul Ortiz has paid a price for his American job.
He says he is 16 years old, but he seems a very young 16, playing with a small plush toy while glued to a blaring television set in the trailer where he lives with his older brother.
He was hired just over a year ago at QSI in Lumberton, N.C., using fake papers saying he was 25. North Carolina law bars anyone under 16 from working in such a facility.
He was given a week's training, he recalls, and sent to work with a crew that appeared to have some workers his age or younger.
He had arrived a few months before from Veracruz, Mexico, after his family urged him to go live with an older brother and earn money to send home.
The sight of blood and the chemical odors made him want to vomit when he began the job, he says. Sometimes cleaning chemicals splashed on his hands and burned him. And his eyes began to burn.
He was cleaning a machine on the cutting floor, standing on top of it, when he lost his balance one day last January.
As he fell, his hand got caught in the machine, which rips apart pigs' skin. It tore the skin off his left thumb and ripped away the bone, even below the knuckle, leaving a stump.
He went back to work after two months but says he quit because he needed more surgery on his hand and the work would prevent it from healing.
At first he didn't think much about the accident. But lately he does. "I feel anger," he says in a flat voice, shyly looking away. "I'm not the same. I have trouble buttoning my shirt. Tying my shoes. I am not the same. My hand is not the same."
QSI officials say they know nothing about Saul Ortiz, but they do know the person with the fake name that Ortiz used to get hired. That person, they say, was injured on the job. They also say their injury rates are lower than the industry average.
The fear factor
Ortiz's attorney in a worker's compensation suit against the company, Terry Kilbridge, has helped other QSI workers injured on the job. He questions QSI's claim of lower-than-average injuries.
"So many of these people are illegal, uneducated or simply scared of finding themselves back home in Mexico," he says. "I would guess that only a few ever see their way to a lawyer."
Dominguez, who works in the "head room," says she would never complain about her job because she doubts she could find anything nearby that pays better. And her children in Mexico are depending on her to send money home.
She says her husband, who works the second shift at the Smithfield plant, barely shares his pay with her, saying he must send his money to his relatives in Mexico.
When she comes home at dawn, more than an hour after finishing up, the last person in the van that costs her $5 a day, she stumbles up the hill toward her tiny, two-room bungalow, plops down onto the couch and rocks back and forth, holding her head.
"I'm so cold, and so tired," she says. "Cold, cold, cold."

How to keep your RRSP's Creditor Proof TheStar

How to keep your RRSP's Creditor Proof
You know, every so often, something pops up in my day to day practice that stops me in my tracks. Such an event occurred with a prospective client.
Here's the deal. This individual is a successful consultant who makes a healthy six-figure income. She's been socking it away into her home and RRSP's to name a few. Infact, her RRSP's are in excess of $300,000. Not bad for someone in their late 40's!
So, what's the problem? Well, here it is. She got involved in a bad business venture and is holding the bag for the losses of the company. And she is only a minority shareholder!
Here's the downside. She's being sued and if the suit is successful, she will lose her house and her RRSP's! Ouch!
The truth is, if she had met me before the trouble had begun, she could have creditor protected herself and kept it all! But now, because the lawsuit is in action, she can't do anything. Infact, she asked me if she could creditor protects her RRSP's and I advised her that it was too late. Since there is a lawsuit pending, a move to Creditor Protected RRSP's will not work for her. And I'll tell you why as we go through this article. But if she had acted prior to the sniff of a lawsuit, she would have been fine and her RRSP's would be out of the reach of credtiors.
So, you might be asking yourself, just what are creditor protected RRSP's? And do I need them.
Creditor Protected RRSP's are referred to as segregated funds. Like a mutual fund, a seg fund pools money from many investors so it can be managed by a professional and provide a good return. Infact, many seg funds look like brand name mutual funds like AGF, Trimark, and Fidelity. But seg funds are actually insurance contracts with two components: an investment that produces the return and an insurance contract that covers the risk. Unlike mutual funds, seg funds guarantee either 75% or 100% of your principal. A small part of the fund's assets goes to insure there will be enough cash to pay that guarantee. Since there is an insurance element with the seg funds, they are considered annuities. Therefore, they are creditor protected since they are effectively insurance contracts.
To ensure creditor protection of a segregated fund, the beneficiary must be a family member. The wording of the Insurance Act s. 196 (2) for the protected family beneficiary : is as follows:
196(2) While a designation in favor of a spouse, same-sex partner, child, grandchild or parent of a person whose life is insured, or any of them, is in effect, the rights and interests of the insured in the insurance money and in the contract are exempt from execution or seizure. [Definition includes common-law and same-sex parties who live together in a conjugal relationship]
Note to reader: Don't get cute and name your mistress – leave your creditor protected RRSP's to your family members.
That being said, you can't wake up one morning and find yourself facing a lawsuit (like my client) and decide to plop your funds into a creditor protected RRSP. According to the legislation, "Settlement" of your RRSP's into a segregated fund must be done within 1 year of bankrupt, or within 5 years of bankruptcy if the property was at the time required to pay the person's debts. If there is a sniff of trouble at the time of the transfer to the creditor protected RRSP, this will be construed as Fraudulent Conveyance , which basically means the individual knew they were in trouble and looked for a safe hideaway. The courts rule in favor of the creditors in times like this and seize the funds.
For the client mentioned in this article, it's just too late, as a quick transfer to a segregated fund will be construed as fraudulent conveyance. That being said, she's considering taking out her RRSP's altogether, flying to Vegas, and betting on RED! More power to her at this point!
What does this mean to you? Well, if you are a consultant or a business owner, you really must consider creditor protecting your RRSP's. And you have to do so when your affairs are in good standing order. If you contribute regularly to a segregated fund and you find yourself with a litigious creditor, then the creditor will not be able to access your RRSP's for loan payment.
It's best to speak with your advisor about segregated funds to see if they suit your financial planning requirements.
This article was written by John Klotz. John is Vice President – Financial Services of LMS Prolink. You can reach John at johnk@lms.ca or phone (416)-595-7484 ext. 305

Nurses rewarded for innovative wound therapy CBC.ca

Nurses rewarded for innovative wound therapy CBC.caLast Updated Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:46:09 EST CBC NewsMONTREAL - Nurses at a hospital in Montreal say they've discovered a better way to treat infected wounds.
Diabetics can develop infected foot ulcers that fail to heal properly with conventional treatments.
Sterile equipment prevents wounds from becoming infected. To help them, the nursing team at Charles LeMoyne Hospital decided to apply two wound-care methods at the same time.
First, a silver-coated dressing called Acticote is added to stop bacterial growth. Then, a vacuum-assisted closure or VAC sucks out fluid from the open wound and stimulates circulation.
Both treatments are standard for burn victims and trauma cases, but haven't been used in combination for infected wounds.
"Instead of having wound care for months, it's taking only a few weeks and they can have the closure of the wound," said Isabelle Reeves, a nurse specializing in wound care at the hospital on Montreal's South Shore.
The new therapy is expensive compared to traditional treatment. One small sheet of the silver dressing costs $20, but there are other savings.
"Rather than being in hospital for three, four months and being skin grafted ... we're able to shorten the length of the illness and [let] the patients go home earlier," said Dr. Jacques-Philippe Faucher, an internal medicine specialist.
Diabetic Claude St. Martin is going home on his own two feet thanks to the nurses' ingenuity, which won them a 3M Innovation Prize.
"That's the thing that helped heal my leg," said St. Martin. "Otherwise, they would have amputated."
The nurses plan to publish their new way of healing wounds in a journal, since they're already receiving calls from other medical centres interested in trying it.

The Bigger The Serving, The More Young Children Will Eat study from Cornell University

The Bigger The Serving, The More Young Children Will Eat
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June05/kids.servings.ssl.html
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Contrary to what many people believe, preschool children do not adjust how much they eat in response to how much they ate at their last meal or in the past 24 hours or how calorie-rich their meal is. By far, the most powerful predictor for how much children eat is how much food is put on their plate, concludes a new study by Cornell University researchers.
"We examined all the predictors we could of how much a child eats at a meal," said David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology at Cornell. "We found that portion size is, by far, the most important factor in predicting how much a child will eat. These findings suggest that both the onus of controlling children's weight -- both in causing overweight in children as well as in its prevention -- must rest squarely in the hands of parents and other caregivers."
Levitsky and Gordana Mrdjenovic, Cornell Ph.D. '00, monitored the food intake of 16 preschool children, ages 4-6, for five to seven consecutive days in day-care centers, and parents kept a food diary of what their children ate in the evenings and weekends.
"We found that the more food children are served, the more they eat, regardless of what they've eaten previously in the day, including how big their breakfast was," said Levitsky. "We also found that the more snacks children are offered, the greater their total daily food and calorie intake."
The study is published in the June issue of Appetite (44:3, pp. 273-282).
Although previous studies had suggested that children regulate their food intake much more precisely than adults, most of those studies were conducted in laboratories, not in natural settings where environmental factors can play a very powerful role in determining a child's food intake, Levitsky said.
A previous study by the two Cornell nutritionists similarly reported that children do not adjust for the amount of food they eat to compensate for how many sweetened drinks they have either at meals or between meals. And in a previous study, Levitsky, with a different co-author, reported that the more food young adults are served, the more they eat.
Childhood obesity is now considered an epidemic in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health, the number of children who are overweight has doubled in the last two to three decades; currently one child in five is overweight. The increase is in both children and adolescents, and in all age, race and gender groups. Obese children are now developing diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, that used to occur only in adults. Researchers now know that overweight children tend to become overweight adults, continuing to put them at greater risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Overweight children not only suffer more health problems but also social discrimination, which puts them at higher risk for low self-esteem and depression.
The study, which was part of the Ph.D. degree awarded to Mrdjenovic, was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Dave: One virtue of Fast Food Nation is that it brings together so many facets of contemporary American life without getting unwieldy. Everything fits. Did you have any idea how those competing interests would come together when you began to write it?
Eric Schlosser: It was hard. In trying to tie together all these different threads there was a huge risk that it would be a total mess. So much of it is balance, going far enough off on a tangent that it's worth exploring, then pulling back. But it was hard during the process to know if I was going way too far off.
For example, I was totally fascinated with the connections between Walt Disney and Nazi war criminals. I paid a woman in Washington D.C. to go through the National Archives to find information about this, and I think I was dangerously getting sucked in. But I knew that I was going to end up in Germany, and I knew that so much of the thematic thrust of the book was going to be about the drive for uniformity, conformity, and the worship of technology. And here were Disney and von Braun and Ray Kroc all intersecting within a few miles of each other in Southern California. So it was hard.
The basic structure was set for the original Rolling Stone piece. I submitted a first draft, and I had help from a really good editor; Eamon Dolan helped me shift around a couple chapters, and that really helped. I'm sure some people may feel that it strays or it goes too far or that the connections aren't proven, and but I hoped that I could use this one subject to look at all these other themes of American life. That was my ambition.
Dave: But in some respects those digressions give the book its resonance. One example of many, one that made me shake my head, was the story of how in the 1920s General Motors systematically purchased trolley systems across the country and immediately proceeded to rip up the track to help create more demand for buses and highways. Without the automobile, the fast food industry would never have evolved in the same manner.
Schlosser: Absolutely. And one of the big themes of the book is the contradiction between the rhetoric of the free market presented by supporters of free enterprise in public discussion and the reality of how their businesses operate. In that respect, the American west was a really good place for me to set this, especially the inner-mountain west now and Arizona, such a heart of free market rhetoric. Meanwhile nowhere else in the country is more dependent on federal funds and investments.
Again, I try to tie together a lot of different themes by way of your hamburger, your fries, and a little bit less your Coke. That was the aim, but when you're in the middle of it, you don't always know if you're hitting it right or if you're totally lost at sea.
Dave: You were prepared emotionally and intellectually for many of the subjects you wound up exploring, but it seems like your experience with the meatpacking industry was of another caliber.
Schlosser: It was. I had written a long piece for the Atlantic Monthly on the strawberry industry ["In the Strawberry Fields"]. In that piece, I used the strawberry, a fruit we eat all the time, as a means to look at illegal immigration, migrant labor in California — the whole change in our labor market through this one strawberry. I spent a lot of time with migrant workers in California, and to me that seemed like the hardest job I could imagine in the United States.
When I went into these meatpacking communities, I met people in Lexington, Nebraska, who had been strawberry workers and raspberry pickers at farms around Watsonville and Salinas, where I'd visited. That's what started to blow my mind: this century-old practice, exploitation of migrant labor in California, was now being extended to other industries and regions.
In some ways, on a visceral level, it's the part of the book I care most about. It's also the part of the book that's most difficult to get other people to care about. Words are inadequate. I did a photo essay ["The Chain Never Stops"] about the meatpacking industry for Mother Jones with Eugene Richards, who is extraordinary, one of America's greatest living photographers. I did it because I really felt that my words are not up to this reality.
The reality of these lives, these people and their injuries...on a personal level, that whole part of the book was very important. And it was put three-quarters of the way in because I felt like you couldn't start off with this. It had to be earned. People would only read it if it came well into the book because it's very hard to get people to think about these things.
Dave: I'd been living in Colorado for a year or two before I first visited Greeley. I couldn't believe that a populated town - a town with a college - could smell so bad. I didn't know whether it was alright to bring up the subject with the people I met there. Then a year or two later, I had a surreal experience that I'll never forget. I was driving back east through Greeley at about 2:30 in the morning, leaving after a bar shift on my way back to Massachusetts to visit family. I drove in the darkness past the cattle pens, past cattle and cattle and cattle and more cattle - it went on forever, this mass of cattle crammed together for what seemed like miles.
Schlosser: Isn't it unbelievable? It's unbelievable. Like a sea of fur.
Dave: It seemed to go on for miles. It was late at night, dark and desolate, and some of the cattle were lowing. It was just so spooky.
Schlosser: What you saw and felt, it's hard to write that.
Dave: One thing the meatpacking industry has in common with the fast food industry is its reliance on very high turnover and essentially disposable employees.
Schlosser: Absolutely.
Dave: I saw a commercial the other day for IBM that said ninety-something percent of American businesses are small businesses. Well, one thing you write about is that many of the people getting small business loans from the government are not really what we think of as small businesses at all. They're taking the loans and opening Subways.
Schlosser: It's a brilliant way for huge corporations to use government funds to expand. The whole idea of franchising is getting other people's money to build your restaurant, and in this case using a Small Business Association loan, basically a taxpayer-backed loan, to do it. It's brilliant.
Dave: These same restaurants are getting federal funding to train employees. Then they don't train them. In fact "zero training" is a stated industry goal.
Schlosser: Right.
Dave: You discuss the fast food industry's influence in Congress, but how does such a fundamental misapplication of the system persist?
Schlosser: I may be naïve or optimistic, but I think most Americans just don't know. I consider myself a fairly well informed, well educated person. I'd spent almost a year looking at industrial agriculture and strawberries, that whole industry in California, so I was very familiar with all sorts of agricultural issues, and I had no idea that much of this was happening.
I had no idea about the changes in meatpacking, for instance. I had no idea about the influence of the fast food industry over minimum wage policy. What you mentioned about these tax credits...this was all news to me. In a way, that's why this book was such a pleasure to research: I was learning. There may be people who know this stuff, but I didn't, and the hope is that by writing this, once people know, things will be different. Exposing it to the light, hopefully things will be different.
Dave: Many public schools are now funding themselves by allowing beverage companies and fast food chains to sell product in their halls and cafeterias. You also cite textbooks published by major corporations that present misinformation serving their own self-interest under the guise of education.
Schlosser: And ultimately it's our unwillingness to fund education that's behind that. Schools need textbooks. They don't have the money to buy them, they'll take the ones that whatever big corporation is offering.
Dave: And the company gets a tax credit for that too.
Schlosser: They use it as a tax write-off.
Dave: In the Epilogue, you write:
The twenty-first century will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market.
How do you see that happening?
Schlosser: Without being too simplistic, and without quoting Arthur Schlessinger, I think we go through cycles of history. The pendulum swings back and forth. I think we are coming out of a period of conformity, a push for homogeneity in culture, and also unchecked corporate power. I think those checks will be re-imposed. Not just because of the fast food industry and the meatpacking industry; look at Enron.
We'll see how that plays out, but that's just such a perfect example of this government being used by a corporation to serve its own ends. The remarkable thing about Enron is that they're not even paying taxes. They have the government essentially operating on their own behalf, and they don't even have the good grace to pay for it.
I'm thinking about writing something called "In Praise of Corporations." Quite honestly, they can drive an extremely efficient, effective method of economic activity. It's a way of raising money and sharing risk. But to blindly worship the corporation in the absence of any check on its power is absurd.
We all live in a community, and if we were all angels we wouldn't need law enforcement. But the reality is that there are certain people who'll break into your house and rip off your stuff or threaten you. You do need civil society. Why would it be any different with corporations? It's completely illogical that we've gotten to this point. The meatpacking industry, as we speak, can sell beef with salmonella in it without any check by the government. That happened about a month ago: the salmonella standard for ground beef was thrown out.
Further reading Articles by Eric Schlosser discussed in this interview
The Chain Never Stops with photographs by Eugene Richards (from Mother Jones)
In the Strawberry Fields (from the Atlantic)
Reefer Madness (from the Atlantic)
The Prison Industrial Complex (from the Atlantic)
Dave: Was that Bush, himself?
Schlosser: It was a federal court. For the first time, a plant with high-level salmonella contamination was shut down - they'd been selling ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, maybe not such a great thing - but the plant was reopened later in the afternoon by a federal court. The case eventually made its way to an appeals court that ruled salmonella is a naturally-occurring organism and the government can't shut down a ground beef plant that has high levels of it in its meat.
That's insane. Huge, state-run, socialist entities aren't the answer, but at the same time, giving over economic and civil power to a handful of unelected corporate executives - bad idea.
Dave: You're writing a book about the prison system now?
Schlosser: I am. This article that you read from the Atlantic [he points to a printed copy of "The Prison Industrial Complex" on the table] is in many ways the blueprint for it in the same way that the Rolling Stone articles were the blueprint for Fast Food Nation. Again, it's going to try to be big and broad and draw a lot of different things together.
One thing about Fast Food Nation, from a writing point of view, is that it doesn't have a narrative. It's not an A-to-Z story of my reporting in the fast food industry; I'm not following one person. It's structured, for good or for ill, as the unfolding of an idea, the unfolding of an argument. And the prison book will be the same, but that's complicated and hard to do. Some people need a more clearly narrative-driven focus. We'll see if the next one works.
Dave: You wrote another long article for the Atlantic a while back about the criminalization of marijuana in America ["Reefer Madness"]. Was it by researching that topic that you became immersed in America's penal system? There's a lot of overlap with many of the subjects we're talking about. The privatization of America's prisons represents a vast shift in how we deal with crime.
Schlosser: It's similar to the connection between the strawberry piece and the fast food piece; it's a bigger, more complex version of the original.
The first really long Atlantic piece I wrote was about the war on marijuana, trying to understand it. Behind it all was this prison boom and the growth of mandatory minimum sentences. That really made me start thinking about our prison system. Twenty-five or thirty years from now when historians look back at our era - I'm forty-two, so really I'm talking about the last couple of decades - I believe that the growth of this prison system will be regarded as one of the most extraordinary social phenomena of the period.
Who knows what will happen with our war on terrorism? Who knows what other extraordinary events will happen? But to go from two hundred thousand inmates to about two million in a relatively brief period of time...to take a huge proportion of the mentally ill and impoverished drug offenders and lock them up behind bars is an extraordinary thing. The book asks, "How does a society come to do that?" It very much plays into those themes of conformity.
Dave: What books have opened your eyes as you hope your books will impact readers?
Schlosser: On prisons, Ted Conover's book, Newjack, is unbelievable. Beautifully written, incredibly brave. That's one that immediately comes to mind. I'm going into prisons, and I care enormously about this issue, but he took a job as a correctional officer for a year without telling anybody and wrote just a brilliant account of the reality of prisons.
I'm reading a lot of Department of Justice studies at the moment! I really should be reading more that's not directly related to my work.
My generation of writers, roughly age 35 to 44, I think a lot of writers are really coming into their own, and reading their work gets me very fired up about writing nonfiction. I really admire Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm. I love that book. Also William Finnegan and John Seabrook, who's a friend of mine.
Dave: How long did you work on Fast Food Nation? How long will the prison book take?
Schlosser: Including the research for Rolling Stone, Fast Food Nation took about three years - though I did a few other things during that period, as well. I'm hoping to finish the new book in the fall. I've done an enormous amount of reading and research, but we'll see. It's not going to be as long a book, and it's going to have a lot of pictures. It's not going to be a big coffee table prison book, but words, the inadequacy of words, and trying to drive home the reality of these lives....
Another reason they take a while, especially with this book: there's a huge amount of time spent fact-checking, and a huge amount of time putting together the footnotes and the source material. It's done in the interest of transparency, saying, "Here's where I got it. Are you interested in reading more? Go ahead. Do you want to challenge it? Here it is." But in terms of Fast Food Nation, also because of the litigiousness of the companies I was writing about.
Dave: As yet, there's been no legal action over the content of Fast Food Nation, right?
Schlosser: No subpoenas. Certainly I do not believe that I libeled anyone, but that isn't necessarily a guarantee against them suing you. These are very big, powerful companies, and they can sue you simply to impose pain on you and to drag out your legal fees. So far [he knocks on wood], so good. Maybe they're just trying not to increase my paperback sales, but I don't want sales for that reason at all.