Free-Market Alternatives to the State: "The articles describe how the free market has provided, or could theoretically provide, services that are often associated with the state. The articles support the idea that a voluntary society, a free nation, would be viable."

Steve Pilgrim has posted Craig Cantoni's newest rant on fall of the United States. Cantoni's primary reason for the downfall of the US: nutritional labeling in restaurants. No, I'm not kidding. And, yes, he's right.

Forbes explores how to create products that customers want to buy:

Consider the recent efforts of a fast-food chain that wanted to improve milk shake sales and profits. The chain first took the usual "focus group" route, assembling panels of customers to ask if making the shakes thicker, more chocolaty, cheaper or chunkier would satisfy them more. The chain got clear inputs on what the customers wanted. But after the changes were made, nothing much happened to sales or profits.

So a new set of researchers came in. Their task was to understand what customers were trying to get done for themselves when they hired a milk shake. This approach helped the chain's managers see things that traditional market research had missed.

The researchers spent an 18-hour day in a restaurant. What they found was surprising: Nearly half of all milk shakes were bought in the early morning. Most often, the shake was the only item purchased, and it was rarely consumed in the restaurant. What was going on here?

Turns out most of the customers had hired a shake for very similar reasons: They faced a long, boring commute and needed something to make the trip more interesting. They weren't really hungry but knew that if they didn't eat something soon, they certainly would be hungry by 10 a.m. They also faced constraints: They were in a hurry, often wearing their work clothes, and had only one free hand.

To get this job done, some customers hired bagels. But bagels got crumbs all over their clothes and the car. If the bagels were topped with cream cheese or jam, their fingers and the steering wheel got sticky. Sometimes they hired a banana. But it got eaten too fast and didn't really solve the boring-commute problem. The breakfast sandwiches the restaurant served (sausage or ham with egg) made their hands and the steering wheel greasy. If customers tried to drag out the time they took to eat the sandwich, it got cold. Doughnuts didn't last through the 10 a.m. hunger attack.

The milk shake did the job better than almost any available alternative. It could take as long as 20 minutes to slurp one through the thin straw. That staved off boredom on the commute. It could be consumed cleanly with one hand, with little risk of spillage. The customers felt less hungry after consuming the shake than after using most of the alternatives. And never mind that it wasn't the healthiest thing to consume. Making you healthy wasn't the job the milk shake was hired for.

If you're wondering where I've been posting recently, don't forget to check my bookmarks (rss) or Diet Blog (rss).

Couple of months ago, when I was sitting in an aiport without wireless access I realize that the type of weblogs I enjoy most when on a fast connection, links and short descriptions, do absolutely nothing for me now. Its not just that I can't actually pull up the link, but the often pithy comments the blogger's made have no bearing with on my unconnected reality. I wish I had more essay type blogs in my aggregator.

Google Frequent Searchers: "There is no winning. There is only self-awareness. The search is endless."

Which Diet for Me? Over on Diet Blog, I said: "I haven't actually decided to go on a diet, yet. I know that I need too, but I haven't figured out which one is right for me. Which would you recommend? Post your suggestions in the comments."

The previous entry is an example of the type of content being posted on my new weblog Diet Blog. There, I will endeavor to cover the latest advances in dietary science and weight loss, help to shed some light on the fiction behind today's fad diets, and everything in between.

In Hong Kong, proposed legislation would ban all misleading "health food" advertising. Traditionally, as in most parts of the world, health food supplements like breast enhancing drinks, natural weight loss pills or herbal high blood pressure remedies have been ignored by the medical and legal establishments in Hong Kong. Does this represent a new direction? Will we see more regulation in the industry in the US? We'll have to wait and see how the Undesirable Medical Advertisements law in Hong Kong actually works. via Diet Blog.

Recently, I've started blogging smaller items into my bookmarks. If you have a newsreader, you can follow along with the RSS feed.