I recently had an experience at Rosenthal Jeep in Arlington, VA and was simply appalled at how they handled their sales and business approach.  Enough so, I felt it was worth sharing with others considering doing business with them anytime soon.

I had found a used vehicle on their lot that I liked, drove, and had agreed on a price on.  They, as most salesmen do, pushed us to “buy today” but in the end, they agreed to offer us the same price through the following day and would hold the car for us until the next day.  So, the next day, my wife and I returned to purchase the car.  When we pulled up, we noticed another set of customers getting into the vehicle to drive it.  We didn’t concern ourselves with it as we know that dealers need to keep interest going in order to sell cars in case a sale falls through.  We entered the sales office and that’s when they told us that the other customer had put down a deposit on the car.  Although I was upset that they had pushed us aside for another sale opportunity, that’s just how business goes sometimes.  You snooze, you lose.

What happened after the fact is what I find reprehensible.  I returned home with my wife, still upset.  So I called back to Rosenthal Jeep and asked to speak to the GM.  After telling him about what had happened, he agreed to hold off on the other sale and honor his agreement with us and told us to come back in the next day.

As my wife was stained by the experience, I went alone.  I arrived late afternoon at the dealership and the salesman led me across Glebe to the new car showroom, was being strangely nice and sat me down at one of the sales cubicles and told me he was going to go collect the paperwork.  I sat there for ten minutes when he returned and told me the sales manager there that night refused to sell me the car.  Shocked, I got up and left.  As I walked out of the sales cubicle, I had to walk by the sales manager’s desk in the center of the showroom and when I did, I noticed about 4-5 salesmen and one or two managers all leaning back in their chairs, giggling and laughing at me as I left the showroom.  Apparently, they felt it would be funny to bring me back down to the dealership, sit me there for a wile, then refuse the sale – all for a laugh.

Every time I think that car salesmen can’t sink lower, they do.  They had their fun at my expense, but you know… I had my fun with them ever since.  I just tell myself one thing… their car salesmen, and we all know what that means.

Tendo como referência o conceito “A la Carte”, a Rosenthal lança uma linha de artigos diversos em porcelana. A idéia é proporcionar aos usuários uma ampla variedade de produtos de altíssima excelência. Para atingir este objetivo, o designer Robin Platt usa inspirações da cultura japonesa, como origami, tatami, papyrus…

Achei no Yanko Design

Hey! Super Neuigkeiten!

“hörBücher – Das Hörbuch Magazin” hat in seiner aktuellen Ausgabe die MindCrusher Studios als Top-Tipp in der Kategorie “Aus dem Netz” gewürdigt. Als wär das nicht cool genug, findet “Das Büro des Todes” ebenfalls Erwähnung und es gibt sogar eine kleine, sehr witzige Rezension! Um die zu lesen, müsst ihr allerdings die Ausgabe kaufen!

Also, zückt die Brieftaschen, die Zeitschrift ist wirklich klasse! ^_^

Euer DBDT-Team.

The film ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’, which is currently on general release, tells the story of a fictional division of ‘psychic-warriors’ within the United States (US) military.

Whilst clearly a tongue-in-cheek portrayal, it is evident from the original book that much of the film is based on actual happenings, such as the MK-ULTRA project, or the controversial recent involvement of US military psychologists in interrogation and torture.

Such military involvement in psychology is apparent even within classic social psychological studies such as Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment, which was funded by the US Office of Naval Research.

Whilst the ‘feel-good’ moral of the film is that belief is perhaps more important than any true abilities, such a suggestion can be seen as somewhat more questionable when human lives are at stake.

This is highlighted by the widespread use at military checkpoints within Iraq of a dubious explosives detection device that is accused of working solely “on the same principle as a Ouija board — the power of suggestion”. Although this ‘hi-tech dowsing-rod’ apparently functions effectively for its usual operators, third-parties find themselves unable to replicate this.

Although explainable as a “lack of training”, this can also be viewed as a consequence of ‘expectation bias’, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. Within experimental psychology the dangers of such a phenomenon were clearly illustrated by Rosenthal, who found that researchers obtained different results for ‘maze-bright’ and ‘maze-dull’ rats, despite these labels having been randomly assigned.

Film review from the Guardian

Book review from the Guardian

Strohmetz, D. B. (2008). Research Artifacts and the Social Psychology of Psychological Experiments

Lord, C. G. & Taylor, C. A. (2009). Biased Assimilation: Effects of Assumptions and Expectations on the Interpretation of New Evidence

This is for those who like “nice stuff” and who like to have something nobody else has.

A Rosenthal dinnerware set for 12. Manufactured, hand numbered and dated 1936. A very rare pre WWII collectors item.

Please make an offer.

1936 Rosenthal Dinnerware

In vista del periodo natalizio, ecco una selezione di idee regalo dal catalogo Rosenthal

Vasi Landscape, design Patricia Urquiola,  a partire da € 87.00

Teiera Tac, design Walter Gropius, a partire da € 161,00 nella versione bianca

Posto tavola “A la carte” in confezione regalo composta da 3 pezzi, da €92.00

Bicchieri Peak, la coppia a partire da € 20.00

Mug Andy Warhol “Marilyn”, set di 4 pezzi in confezione regalo a partire da € 61.00

Stella in cristallo, in confezione regalo, disponibile in rosso, verde, blu, ambra, rosa, lilla e trasparente, da € 19.90

In vista del periodo natalizio, ecco una selezione di idee regalo dal catalogo Rosenthal

Vasi Landscape, design Patricia Urquiola,  a partire da € 87.00

Teiera Tac, design Walter Gropius, a partire da € 161,00 nella versione bianca

Posto tavola “A la carte” in confezione regalo composta da 3 pezzi, da €92.00

Bicchieri Peak, la coppia a partire da € 20.00

Mug Andy Warhol “Marilyn”, set di 4 pezzi in confezione regalo a partire da € 61.00

Stella in cristallo, in confezione regalo, disponibile in rosso, verde, blu, ambra, rosa, lilla e trasparente, da € 19.90

Här är ett antal galna pjäser från 1800-talet. De finns på Bamses Auktioner 25 oktober. Här ovanför är en jultomte som verkar tycka att det är kul att det snart är jul! Bamses har ganska mycket “julpynt” för den som är intresserad av det. Denna tomte har ett utrop på 1800 kr.

Som katalogtexten säger pampig majolikaskål på fot med dekor i relief. Längden är hela 46 cm. Den har ju faktiskt drag av jugend mitt i alltihopa. Mycket speciell skapelse. Utrop 800 kr.

Två motivfat med vackra damer från Rosenthal. Mycket tjusiga! Jag tycker ändå att de har ett dekorativt värde. De ropas ut för 1400 kr.

Här är en borduppsats i majolika från Rörstrand. Höjd 25 cm. Utrop 1000 kr. Om man inte vet vad en bordsuppsats är så inte blir man mer klok efter att ha studerat den här skapelsen. (En bordsuppsats är en prydnadspjäs avsedd att smycka ett matbord. Den saknar oftas praktisk funktion men kan vara utformad som en vas eller fruktskål). Nu ser man ju tydligt att detta är just en bordsuppsats!

Till sist en förgylld gallerskål i porslin från Rörstrand. Observera de omotiverade fiskarna som simmar runt mitt på skålen! Utropet är 1000 kr.

Man kan skratta åt sådana här antikviteter men jag tycker att man får mycket för pengarna. Det är något som verkligen sticker ut! Många gånger är det också fin kvalitet. Det är riktiga conversation pieces.

this is a photo taken from my book “modern retro table style” by madeleine marsh/photography by thomas stewart.  it’s of rosenthal’s service 2000, designed in 1954 by raymond loewy and richard latham. 

lucky me.  i found a nice little rosenthal platter for 99¢ and it’ll make a fine serving dish for my fries.

you can never have enough fancy ways to serve up fries.

'Bennett And The Garden' Edition of 300 2 Sizes: 12 x 16 Inches €29 or 20 x 28 Inches €59

Bennett is a cute frog which here only hopes it doesn’t mess up in this almost psychedelic garden. He is the hero of the series ‘Bennett and the Garden’ by New York illustrator and designer Robin Rosenthal. After several years as an art director of the prestigious Martha Stewart ‘Kids’ magazine, Robin now creates gorgeous art for kids. ‘Bennett and the Garden’ has an edition size of 300 and is available in 2 sizes: 12 x 16 inches for €29 or 20 x 28 inches for €59.This print is available through L’Affiche Moderne.

Check it out HERE

Gaston's honeymoon is over, apparently

The Jays clubhouse has turned on Cito Gaston, according to a report from FOX baseball analyst Ken Rosenthal today. That seems about right. My only question: What took so long?

“It’s nearly a mutiny right now,” a source told Rosenthal. “Gaston has lost the entire team.”

Another source told the Globe and Mail there’s “an extreme negative feel and anger among the players” and that “it’s team-wide”.

Just a guess, but could it have something to do with Gaston sitting on his hands and holding puzzling grudges against players that seemingly haven’t done anything wrong (Jeremy Accardo, for example)?

I’ve always said, Gaston must be some sort of motivator, because he’s the worst tactical manager I’ve ever seen. After hearing the players hate his guts, I figure last year’s turnaround and this season’s hot start was more luck than anything.

Paul Beeston said today he’s standing by Gaston, but I can only hope this is the last straw. Let’s get someone new in — someone that’ll let Adam Lind start against lefties.

The best instruction I received in college came in a creative writing course at Loyola Marymount University. Chuck Rosenthal stressed time and time again that writing is something you do with your hands, not your head.

Think about it in terms of a playing a musical instrument, he’d tell us. You can listen to Beethoven’s symphonies time and time again, and think about how you’d play them. But the first time you sit down at a piano to play them, they’re going to sound like crap.

It’s only through the repetition of moving your fingers across the keys that you start to improve.

Writing is a bit more deceptive than music. We’ve all spent most of our lives writing, be it in school or in e-mails or in texts. But the way we write professionally (in Rosenthal’s case creatively and in ours journalistically) is different than the writing we’ve practiced. It’s a new endeavor. And, as we’re all finding out, it’s one thing to have a thought to convey; it’s quite another to convey it successfully through the written word.

Ours is a QWERTY keyboard rather than the black and whites, but the method is the same. Keep moving your fingers. It gets easier the more you do it.

Die Zeitung ist sterbenskrank. Traurig oder egal? Vielleicht liegt die Zukunft des Journalismus anderswo

Von San Francisco nach Detroit,von New York bis London: Die Zeitung aus Tinte und Papier ist sterbenskrank. 8000 Journalisten verloren heuer allein in den USA ihren Job. Das Blog „Newspaper Death Watch“ trägt täglich neue Hiobsbotschaften in die Welt. Besser, aber ebenfalls schlecht geht es den Kollegen in Europa. Die fatale Kombination aus sinkenden Werbeeinnahmen und ruinöser Konkurrenz durch Gratis-News im Internet streut Sand in die Druckpressen. Die Herausgeber setzen Journalisten auf die Straße, unterminieren Kollektivverträge und opfern journalistische Qualität auf dem Altar ihrer schmelzenden Profite. Anders als andere Industrien, die sich erholen werden, wenn die Konjunkturmaschine wieder anspringt, ist es fraglich, ob die Printbranche je wieder aus dem Koma erwacht.

Vielleicht ist es falsch, den alten Strukturen nachzutrauern. Vielleicht ist es an der Zeit, dem anzeigenfinanzierten Blätterwald Lebewohl zu sagen. Zeit, vom Gedanken Abstand zu nehmen, dass Journalismus Geld bringen muss. Aber wie ließe sich staatliches Handeln denn sonst kontrollieren? Wer bitte deckt Korruption, Packelei und Misswirtschaft in Zukunft auf? Es lohnt sich, abermals über den Atlantik zu blicken. Dort, wo die Zeitungskrise am härtesten und am längsten wütet, dort gibt es auch eine lange Tradition alternativer Strukturen. Kleine gemeinnützige Initiativen führen weiter, was große Redaktionen aus Kostengründen einschränken oder aufgeben: investigative Projekte, die wochen- oder sogar monatelange Recherche benötigen. Die die Rolle übernehmen, die Medien idealtypischerweise zukommt: Kontrolleure der Mächtigen, Garanten der Rechtschaffenheit und Wachhunde der Demokratie zu sein.

Weiterlesen im Falter

The latest from the Rosenthals ” I want to be the stepfather to the God’s Son’s Son”

Sambonet Paderno Industrie ha acquisito gli asset di Rosenthal, Gruppo tedesco del settore delle porcellane e complementi d’arredo di design per la tavola, in amministrazione controllata dal 2008. In particolare, Sambonet Paderno ha rilevato le attività commerciali, i brevetti, i marchi, i relativi inventari e i macchinari produttivi. L’azienda italiana intende mantenere i circa 1100 posti di lavoro in Germania ed altri 100 nelle filiali commerciali.  L’advisor finanziario di Sambonet è stato UniCredit Corporate Banking. Sambonet, inoltre, si è avvalsa dell’assistenza legale dello studio tedesco Beiten Burkhardt ed è stata supportata finanziariamente dalla Banca Popolare di Novara.

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments, emailed and chatted with me on Skype. Some of you may think this isn’t a big deal, but it is to me. I’ve decided to open an account with Mirus for a few reasons. Okay, like, six of them…

1) They are among a small collection of brokers in Chicago (four?) that own the Zen-Fire infrastructure/network and they were the first to launch it. Zen-Fire data is live only and is unfiltered. (I can collect the historical data myself.)

2) Zen-Fire will soon be offered to other third party platforms, I believe, but for now I think NinjaTrader will work well for me. It’s really the only advanced trading platform that I “get” and the static DOM is great. Potential interface for NeoTicker ATS on the way through NinjaTrader/Mirus API. I could finally have an opportunity to use NeoTicker to actually trade. Yay. Pretty expensive piece of gear to not use.

3) They offer the instruments I want to trade.

4) Their record on execution and service are among the best of the discount brokers, and they clear through FCMs Dorman and RCG. They have a full service order desk if I need it, with a good track record.

5) Their rates, while not the cheapest, are pretty darn cheap. They are competitive in almost every way with the other brokers listed in previous posts.

6) I’m pretty confident they will hold my hand well enough as I get proficient — certainly more than Interactive Brokers or TradeStation, or a large FCM like Man or Dorman or RCG.

There are a few other reasons, but there it is. Now I’ll have to open up the trading blogroll to more futures traders. That list is going to get LONG.

Cheers

Bueno, ahora que sabemos lo que son los esquemas, creo que va siendo hora de hablar de algún experimento interesante. En la entrada de hoy os voy a contar un fenómeno muuuy interesante que se da en relación a los esquemas: el Efecto Pigmalión.

Para empezar a explicároslo… antes hay que ponerse en antecedentes. Este fenómeno parte de la leyenda de un escultor que quería casarse, pero resulta que había esculpido una estatua tan, tan guapa… que se enamoró de ella y las demás mujeres se le quedaban pequeñas. Bueno, el caso es que Pigmalión deseaba cada día que esa estatua se convirtiera en mujer, la besaba, la abrazaba… y ese tipo de cosas que se hacen cuando uno se enamora de una estatua. Tan pesadito se puso este hombre, que de pronto llegó Venus, y claro Pigmalión fue a llorarle y a pedirle que la convirtiera en una mujer, porque estaba que no podía más… y la buena de Venus, le concedió el deseo e hizo que la estatua se convirtiera en mujer, se casaroon, fueron felices y comieron perdices. Vamos, lo típico.

La moraleja de la historia de Ovidio es que tanto deseó el escultor que la  estatua se transformara en lo que él quería… ¡que al final lo consiguió! Pues bien, de toda esta bonita historia, sacamos la definición de nuestro efecto, y es que para nosotros el Pigmalión es el proceso por el que las creencias y expectativas de una persona respecto a otra, afectan tanto a la segunda, que tiende a confirmarlas.

Para que no haya más dudas con tanto tecnicismo, paso a contaros los experimentos. Resulta que allá por el 68, un autor muy importante llamado Robert Rosenthal quiso comprobar la magnitud de este efecto… y para ello se fue a un colegio de primaria. Allí cogió a un grupo de profesores, y les dijo que había pasado un test de capacidad a los alumnos y que había una serie de niños que eran listísimos y que a final de curso sus notas sería para enmarcar. Pues en efecto, se vio a lo largo del curso que esos chicos señalados como ‘especialmente capaces’ obtenían las mejores notas de toda la clase. Bueno, pues será que eran espabilados… ¡Pues no! Lo bueno de esto, es que nunca existió ningún test de capacidades y los alumnos ‘brillantes’ fueron cogidos absolutamente al azar. Lo que pasó es que los profesores confiaron tan ciegamente en las capacidades de estos niños, que se dedicaron a ayudarles mucho más  y a esperar más de ellos.Vale, puede que esto no os llegue a convencer… y que penseis que puede haberse dado por casualidad (aunque ya sería mala suerte que de toda una clase, cogiéramos al azar a los más listos…), pero os voy a contar otra cosa que no me vais a poder discutir!. Empezamos con una empresa muy importante que un buen día coge a una señora de la limpieza (en orden jerárquico era el más bajo de todos los puestos, y a esto hay que sumarle que la señora no había podido acabar los estudios), y le dicen: ”Oiga señora, hemos estado pensando y nos hemos dado cuenta de que es usted la más capacitada para ser la jefa del área X, tiene dos años por delante y será la máxima responsable’‘. Bueno, nos imaginamos el síncope de la pobre señora, y cuando por fin lo asumió ¿qué pasó? Pues bastante antes de los dos años, la señora consiguió desempeñar ese cargo con un exitazo increíble, y recordemos que teóricamente no estaba preparada en absoluto. Pues los resultados dejaron boqueabiertos a los experimentadores, y nos demuestran una vez más que las expectativas que tengamos sobre una persona puede influir muchísimo en la conducta de ésta.

Sin ser tan rebuscados, pensemos en una clase cualquiera: el niño ‘empollón’ y el niño ‘malo’. Probablemente las expectativas que se tienen sobre ambos, acentúen aún más sus comportamientos, el primero no quiere defraudar , e esforzará más y los profesores también le prestarán más atención; el segundo sabe que se espera un mal comportamiento, y simplemente se limitará a confirmarlo. Este efecto tiene muchas repercusiones, y seguro que si lo pensáis alguna vez lo habéis vivido, todos tenemos un pequeño Pigmalión dentro ; )!

Por si os ha parecido interesante, os dejo aquí un vídeo que nos muestra los efectos del etiquetado, las expectativas y el efecto Pigmalión, es buenísimo y no demasiado largo (apenas 8 minutos). Al principio parece un poco cruel, pero os quedareis alucinados, ¡os lo prometo!.