One Photo is Worth a Thousand Insinuations

Agamedes learns the benefits of a well cropped photo.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Last week we had foot-in-the-door journalists from Holland. The police moved them on. The West reported the affair. Relatively low-key reports.

Today (28 Aug 10) The West has caught up with the news. Now The West has photos, interviews, more information... The story has moved to the front page.

It doesn't hurt that the "Last picture" of the dead woman has her in a bikini.

That "Last picture" is considered worthy of half the front page. Let's take a closer look at it:

According to the Dutch journalist -- now confirmed by journalists from The West -- Daniel Ross is listed by Interpol as being "wanted by Honduran authorities". Presumably in relation to the death of Dutch bikini girl Mariska Mast. Let's have a quick read of the first paragraph of the front page report in The West:

Dutch backpacker Mariska Mast, who died in Honduras two years ago, was infatuated with the Perth man now wanted for questioning over her unexplained death.

Actually, I have no problems with the report by Steve Pennells. He investigated, he found an angle, he reported it.

But look at that photo...

Mast "was infatuated with" Ross. And look! The photo clearly shows them getting up close and personal! Shirtless man, bikini-clad girl, very, very close. His arm is out of sight -- but behind her... probably hugging... perhaps even working on the bikini strap...

What an excellent photo! It clearly supports the "infatuation" of the report!

Or does it...

The story continues on page 23. Then on to page 27 -- where we finally get to see the actual photo. Take a look:

There are Ross and Mast, up close and personal. But wait -- there are two other people in the photo! Who are they?

Two more women. One is the "Shocked friend [who] breaks silence" on page 23. The other is unnamed. Let's call her X. All three women are leaning in towards Ross...

Is that body language?

Four people, clearly smiling, presumably happy. Three women, all leaning in towards the one man. Perhaps that's just what you do, to get a group into a single photo.

Ross is turned slightly towards X, away from Mast, just a tiny bit. Ross has his arm, loosely, around X's shoulders. The arm behind Mast is out of sight but -- judging by the shoulder -- it could be going straight down, to rest on the bench.

This holiday snapshot shows four people enjoying themselves. There is no obvious indication of Ross and Mast having any form of special relationship. Ross may, if anything, be a little more friendly with X.

Yet this same photo -- with careful cropping -- tells a different story on page 1.

No need even for Photoshop... I duplicated The West's cropping by using MS Paint. It's that simple.

Cut out the extraneous people. Show the part of the photo which supports the "infatuation" of the main story. And you have a great photo, with a thousand insinuations, suitable for a page 1 story.

One picture -- carefully cropped -- is worth a thousand insinuations.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

Effective Election Campaigns

Bring politics closer to the electors with staggered elections, says Agamedes.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

In this post:

• Agamedes decries the negativity and nonsense of the just-past election campaign.
  
• In "Elections can be relevant!" Agamedes offers a better option...
  
• ... with a whole section on the Benefits of the proposed election regime.
  
• And then, an attempt to end on a positive note.
  

What just went wrong?!

We -- in Australia -- have just had a boring, negative, pointless political advertising campaign. We were offered fear on one side and hatred on the other. A third party gained support simply by keeping quiet.

Now the results are in and there are no results.

What went wrong?

We are governed by a two-party political system. One party wins, the other loses. Unfortunately, neither party has any particular policy or direction, so it is difficult to distinguish the two.

Wikipedia describes policy as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. Our politicians offer promises to spend money. The spending will do... something, with the aim of... well... gaining votes. There is no policy behind the promises. Only attempts to buy votes.

Either party can buy votes; all it takes is taxpayers' money. One party offers to spend our money on X so the other party offers to spend our money on a substitute for X.

Political parties do not have policy. They have replaced policy with bribes (funded by our own money!). In the absence of policy -- in the absence of an overall guide to decisions -- each party is reduced to making offers and counter-offers. Bribes and counter-bribes.

What to do? How to win the election advertising campaign?

Our political parties now offer personalities.

"Our personality is a woman with dyed red hair and a very carefully scripted real first name," shouts one party. "Our personality is a big-eared iron man of action with his own carefully stage managed family," shout the other party. "Our personality supports the environment and won't answer questions on how this is contradicted by his open immigration ideas," whispers the third party, knowing that no-one is really listening.

So we have an election based on the personality of one person per party. Since we are being told to vote for just one person -- there is no room for local issues. Local issues are a distraction from the personalities of the proposed leaders. "Your local representative?" Forget it!

Which brings me to the solution, for more effective election campaigns.

Elections can be relevant!

Stagger the elections: have just five elections for just five members, every month of each year.

January 2011: Elect the members for five seats scattered across Australia. Sure, the candidates can start campaigning whenever they like. But January 2011 is "their" election month.

February 2011: Another five elections, for five different seats in various parts of Australia. No more than one election at a time in any one state.

And so on...

Why five elections per month? Because we can get through all 150 seats in just thirty months. We can have December and one other month "election-free" -- and still vote for every lower house member within three years.

January 2014: those first five seats are, again, up for grabs.

Benefits of staggered voting

There are plenty of benefits. Read the first section of this post and see what will be fixed. Here are some examples:

No single election will be a revolution. With only five seats up for grabs, changes will be gradual. If a party loses all five seats in one month -- it will be a warning rather than a catastrophe (for that party). They will have time to get their act together, to try to prevent another five-seat loss. If they cannot learn then they will deserve to gradually disappear from parliament.

In some months, a particular minister -- with a key role in parliament -- will be up for election. The Minister for Population, for example, may be up for election in July 2012. So July 2012 is the month in which the government's official Population activities are up for public scrutiny. Population will be an issue for that month's election.

But the "population" election is just one of five, you think...

Because there are only five seats up for election at any one time, other people have the time to focus on each of those five elections. People with strong views on population issues will be able to focus their efforts on the re-election of the current Minister for Population.

Staggered elections allow issues to be more fully presented and discussed.

At the same time, staggered elections will lead to more focus on local issues.

With the current system, politicians are forced to concentrate on issues with an Australia-wide appeal. A new school in one electorate is of no interest to people outside that electorate. So the politicians will offer a new school curriculum, to be forced onto every school across Australia. A new school is a practical benefit to a small group of electors. A new universal curriculum is (or may be) a universal vote-catcher.

Better yet -- for the politicians -- if a broad new idea sounds good, it will win votes from people who are not really affected. "Doesn't affect me," thinks the donkey voter, "But I'm sure that it will be good for them."

When elections are run for just five electorates at a time, local issues will demand more focus.

What about the "big" issues -- population and a national school curriculum, for example? No worries. As with my earlier example of population issues:

When the relevant minister is up for election, those who care will be there.

When a minister is up for re-election, will local issues get a back seat?

Yes. But not as far back as under the present system.

A politician wins a seat by supporting local issues and concerns. The politician then becomes, for example, Minister for Education. The minister works on education issues -- and forgets about local issues...

Does the electorate care about education? If yes, great: work on education but don't ignore the local issues of your electorate. If your electorate has no interest in education -- or dislikes your actions on education -- stop now! If that politician continues to act against their electorate's wishes -- they will lose the next election.

What?! How can that be fair?!

When a politician runs for parliament, they offer promises to their electorate. If that politician then becomes a minister -- does something other than what they promised -- then they deserve to be voted out. This has a major benefit: a politician will consider very carefully before they accept a position which is against their voters' wishes.

Ah well... I've run down. It's surprisingly hard to find positive benefits for any aspect of politicking.

I've done my best to present a better alternative to the current system. Since my suggestion does not promise a 4.1% increase in politicians' salaries, it is unlikely to be accepted. That's life.

On the brighter side

Our current electoral debacle has led to a stalemate: neither side can govern. Which means -- for a while at least -- that Australia is protected from the nonsensical laws which get passed when politicians are given actual power to govern.

A hung parliament is our best protection against self-serving and incompetent politicians.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

All Twit, No Action

Agamedes enjoys the ability to follow every friend's daily progress.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Here's a newspaper ad for mobile phones... Caroline shows how convenient it is to update her facebook status from the advertised mobile phone. (Yes, it reads like Twitter but the illustration shows facebook.)

• 55 minutes ago: Holidays are here! sweeeet! Need to hurry to the airport tho.
  
• 30 minutes ago: Oh no! running really late!!! hope I make the flight!!
  
• 2 minutes ago: Flight gone. Epic fail :(
  

If only Caroline had not wasted so much time updating her facebook status...

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

Insurance Company Prefers New Customers to Old

Agamedes is unimpressed with an insurance company advertisement.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

We're insured with Apia. Five months after some damage, we're still waiting to have insurance claims settled. So are many other West Australians. How do I know this?

Western Australia had a major hail storm in March 2010. Major damage all across the metropolitan area and further. Five months later and -- according to a recent newspaper report -- only half of the damage has been repaired by the various insurance companies.

Still, even in the week immediately after the storm, insurance assessors were estimating six months for repairs. WA is short of tradies, lots of them have followed the mining boom to the north of the state. Still...

We're insured with Apia. Five months later and we're still waiting to get Apia to finalise our claims. It took months of increasingly irate phone calls to get some action on one very simple item. We still have not managed to get an insurance assessor to check for damage to our roof and solar water heater.

We still don't know how much hail damage will be covered by our insurance company.

Every insurance company is -- according to the newspaper report -- in the same situation. After taking our insurance premiums for more than twenty years -- they are unable or unwilling to spend enough extra money to get priority work done for insurance claims.

So what?

In today's paper (The West, 9 Aug 10) there's an ad for Apia. "Get a quote from apia," it says, "and you could win..."

They can't handle the workload for their existing clients.

Now they are attempting to buy new clients.

Really, I'd rather they spent the $25,000 prize -- and associated cost of advertising -- on speeding up their response to claims.

Yes, the hail storm in Perth was unusual. But that's why we have insurance -- to cover ourselves against unusual circumstances.

Pity the insurance companies have different ideas.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

Going... Going...

"They paved paradise And put up a parking lot" ... nothing much has changed, thinks Agamedes

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

The government has great plans to sell off prime real estate in Subiaco. One small problem: the land is currently the site of a major children's hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital.

No worries. We'll build another hospital. But where?

Here's an idea: Let's build the new hospital on the same site as an existing hospital, Sir Charles Gardner Hospital. A site which is already short of parking -- so short of space that staff park elsewhere and catch a bus. Great, let's make the site even busier...

Oh, yes, one other small problem: While we're building -- there will be even less parking space. Builders will spread out over the existing parking areas. Builders have a strong union, no way a builder will park elsewhere and bus the remaining distance to work. What can we do?

No worries: we'll take over a nearby sports ground.

What's that? The government pays for a "Be Active" advertising campaign? Now they plan to destroy a popular sports ground? One that's used by lots of children, who are able to walk to this sports ground?

Too bad. The government has decided to spend a lot of money on a new hospital. (Probably less money than they will get from the sale of the old hospital. That one is on prime real estate.)

Spending a lot of money comes well before an active, local sports club or two. Consider it a done deal.

No real worries, though: The government say that they will return the land in two years time. Return it in its good sports ground condition, too, according to the local council.

By that time, say the sports clubs, we will have lost a lot of our membership. It will take years to rebuild. Two years is a long time for a sporting club to keep going with no sports ground.

I don't believe the two years. Do you? Three years... four years... maybe.

Mostly, I don't believe that the sports ground will ever return to being a sports ground. Because,

1. Building will be delayed.
   
2. The hospital is already short of parking. Will they really give up an area that has been a carpark for more than two years?
   
3. The cost of turning carpark into sports oval is far larger than for turning sports oval into carpark.
   
4. Then... it takes several years to get the grass growing again.
   
5. And... in two years the sports clubs will have faded away. So "no-one" will be there to fight for the return of the oval.
   

Let's just hope that Subiaco Council reject the government's offer.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

The Cult of the Personality in Politics

Agamedes just wishes that this drivel-driven election was over.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

There's an article in today's paper which shows the true depth of journalistic political analysis. And it's not very deep at all.

In "Will the real Julia please step up?" (The West Australian, 7 Aug 10), Andrew Probyn demonstrates his lack of actual analysis.

Apparently, a speech by Kevin Rudd "had more cut-through than the one dimensional approach adopted by Ms Gillard for most of the campaign." Probyn then quotes from Rudd's speech:

I support... because the work that we have begun in keeping the economy strong, the work we've begun in building our hospitals and building our schools, building our universities and building the National Broadband Network and acting on climate change, we've got to finish that work, rather than have it chopped up half way through."

The economy? Spent furiously, to keep Australia going. I guess that "half way through" is because we still have to tackle the more difficult problem of recovering from the debt incurred.

Building our schools? Lots of new PCs, lots of new buildings. No sign of funding for PC support, nor for filling the buildings with furniture, books, whatever. Indications are that we are stopped, rather than "half way through".

New Australia-wide school curriculum perhaps? That sounds like a good idea. Will that be stopped if Labor fails to win the election?

Universities? Sorry, I missed the "work" in support of universities.

National Broadband Network? An announcement that a heap of money will be spent. Is that counted as "work"?

Climate change? Wasn't that abandoned? "No-one else is doing the right thing so why should we?" Perhaps Rudd counts it as "work" that we have moved from, "Do nothing at all," to "Let's have a pointless discussion sometime in the future."

And that quote from Rudd's speech was selected by Probyn as an example of the tremendous "cut-through" being demonstrated by Rudd. Did Probyn actually read the quote before he cut-and-pasted it to fill a gap in his article?

The cult of the personality

Really, it's a bit sad if an article as light-weight as Probyn's could be counted as part of our political debate. Still, it matches the light-weight nature of the politicians.

Is there anything more embarrassing than Julia Gillard referring to "the Julia Gillard government"? Does she also say, "I'll just put on the Julia Gillard shoes and go for a walk with the Julia Gillard team of minders"? What a pathetic piece of self-centred political posturing!

All part of the cult of the personality, I guess. It just sounds a bit more ridiculous when the cult personality herself uses the phrase.

Then it's back to Probyn: "the ALP thought the Government so bad that a prime minister had to go." Come on, now! They sacked the party-appointed prime minister -- the rest of the government simply moved one chair closer to the top. If the government was thought to be really bad, surely the entire government would have been replaced.

But no, Probyn is right. We are governed by just one person.

Or, rather, we vote for dozens of politicians based on advertising (and news reports) which focus on one person. Are you voting for your local member? No. Are you voting for a political party? Not really. Are you voting for the person who is -- this week -- the public face to a political party? Yes!

Is this the "real" Julia/Tony/Bob? (Note the cosy use of first names.) Vote for the carefully dyed hair and elegant clothes... Vote for the six-pack and happy family... Vote for... well... Bob Brown gets barely a mention in the press, I'm not sure which personal characteristics we should vote for.

Do any of them have policies? No... They all have spending plans. What is their policy on environment, schools, health...? All we know is, here are millions of dollars directed to buy our votes.

We see money being promised now. Will it be continued? No idea...

A policy would say, for example: We support protection of the environment rather than development of new industry. Or perhaps, We will ensure that age pensioners live comfortably by providing a pension that is at least 10% of a politician's salary. Or, We will do everything we can to have non-elective surgery performed within four weeks of diagnosis.

Okay, those are just rubbish policies. What I'm trying to say is, a policy is a description of the long term aims of a political party. All we are seeing now, is a lot of short-term promises. Why? Because they are all afraid that we will vote them out if we find out what they really mean to do... And that's the polite interpretation.

As an alternative to actual policy, political parties put up personalities.

But why not?

It makes it so much easier for us to choose.

And we know that our vote doesn't really make a difference.

Certainly not to the hidden plans and policies of the political parties.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

Protected or Stigmatised?

Is it good or bad to label a person? wonders Agamedes.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

Today's West (6 Aug 10) has a letter headed, "Please explain". N Falkingham writes, "Why is it that when a person who has been diagnosed with a mental illness commits a crime, the press feels compelled to tell everyone?"

Why is a mental illness reportable news but cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure are not?

As I understand it, there are several sides to this issue:

• Reporting that a suspect has a mental illness does seem to stigmatise that person. Is it relevant?
  
• Some forms of mental illness do cause a predisposition to crime. Sudden uncontrollable anger, increased likelihood of a violent response, these are associated with some forms of mental illness.
  
• If a mental illness "caused" a crime, the criminal may be sentenced to a mental institution for treatment, rather than sent to jail as a criminal.
  
• In some cases a person may be found to be "innocent" on the grounds of temporary insanity. I apologise of my phrasing is not politically correct.
  
• So a mental illness may be very relevant to the final result of a court case. In which case, reporting the existence of a mental illness is an essential part of the news story.
  
• When a crime may have been influenced by a mental illness, that is a part of the story. It may be a legal point or it may be human interest. Knowledge of the mental illness may help the reader to understand what has happened.
  

A diabetic may overdose on insulin, resulting in abnormally low blood sugar. Low blood sugar can make anyone bad-tempered. If this is a factor in a crime then I would expect the newspaper to include, in its crime report, that the accused is a diabetic.

A few years ago a driver crashed their car. They used sleep apnoea -- inability to get a sound night's sleep -- for their falling asleep and crashing their car. The sleep apnoea -- a physical illness -- was relevant to the case so it was reported.

I expect the newspaper to report facts which are relevant.

Mental illness is not a crime. Some mental illness may be closely related to criminal actions. Whether it is a physical or mental illness -- if it is relevant -- it could or should be reported.

If the illness is not relevant then no, there is no excuse for reporting it.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

Better Results in Hospital Emergency Departments

Agamedes goes shopping for a better ED solution.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

How often do you just sit at your standard-sized desk in a shared space in a noisy open office area and think, "There is so much work to do... If only someone would order me to work harder... I would then pull my finger out, stop malingering, grow to love my work and get twice as much done every day. All I need is the order from a remote manager and I will work so much faster."

How often do you think that?

Never?

I wonder why the Health Department thinks that an order to work faster is such a good idea in hospital emergency departments...

Good lessons from the shop floor

Do some shopping in The Herdsman, watch the checkout section. The Herdsman is a food shop. I'll describe what I see. You will see the same in plenty of other shops.

Two or three cash registers are in operation. There is a small queue at each. A call goes out... Another checkout operator appears, opens another till. The checkout queues adjust, customers are served, the queues disappear. Checkout operators close tills and go away.

What has just happened?

There are employees at The Herdsman who can operate the checkout counters. When they are not needed at checkout -- they help in other areas of the shop. If one checkout operator has no customers, they will move to be a bag-packer at another till. If the checkout area is very quiet, idle operators will find work in other areas of the shop.

Here are the key ideas:

• The shop knows -- roughly -- which are the busy times for checkout. But customers come and go as they please... Customer numbers vary over time.
  
• The shop employs enough checkout operators to provide an efficient checkout service to customers. They will employ more operators at known busy times.
  
• Checkout operators help each other to provide good service to customers.
  
• In quiet times times at the checkout area, checkout operators work somewhere else.
  
• At all times, each checkout operator gives highest priority to working in the checkout area.
  

I don't know what checkout operators do when they are not in the checkout area. Perhaps they just sit out back with a cup of tea... though I doubt it. Whatever it is that they do, I suspect that it is useful for the shop. Sure, they may have to go back to checkout at a moment's notice... Meanwhile, they are providing some support in the shop. Rather than just sitting around, feeling useless.

Apply this answer to ED

Is ED -- the hospital Emergency Department -- like a shop? In some ways, it is:

• The hospital knows -- roughly -- which are the busy times for ED. But patients come and go as they please and as they must... Patient numbers vary over time.
  
• The hospital can employ enough ED staff to provide an efficient ED service to patients. The hospital employs more staff at known busy times.
  
• ED staff help each other to provide good service to patients.
  
• In quiet times times in ED, ED staff can work somewhere else.
  
• At all times, each member of the ED team gives highest priority to working in the ED area.
  

This is the obvious benefit: The hospital can employ more ED staff than the absolute minimum. In quiet times, "spare" staff will be helping patients in other areas of the hospital. In busy times, there will be enough available staff to cope.

Yes, there are potential problems:

• Specialist ED staff may not want to work anywhere else. So talk with them... Discuss the problems, look for solutions. There's probably a real need for a core of dedicated ED experts. This core of experts can be supported by other staff with more flexible training.
  
• Other hospital wards may not appreciate staff suddenly disappearing back to ED. Look on the bright side: While they were in the ward, they helped.
  
• Not every non-ED task can be dropped every time ED needs more of its staff. Be very clear about the type of work that an ED staff member can do in a non-ED ward. Make sure that it can be dropped at short notice. Avoid work which is either time-dependent or time-consuming and non-interruptible. Work with ward managers to make it work.
  
• With staff coming and going from wards, how do we know what's going on? Patient notes and other work records are really important. Keep them accurate and up-to-date.
  
• It takes time to get back to ED... Inventory managers will tell you to build "lead time" into your call for ED staff to return to ED: See the patient numbers building up and call back your ED staff before patient numbers reach crisis point.
  
• I'm sure there are lots of other problems. So what? Identify the problems -- and solve them.
  

In Western Australian hospitals, ED staff are being ordered to be more efficient. More efficiency may not be possible. Evidence suggests that giving the order is not helping. See, for example, "Hospitals fail to meet waiting time targets" in The West Australian, 6 August 2010.

We can improve the effectiveness of ED with a better staffing model. Shops around the world provide the example, I see it in action at my local food shop. It works.

We can make it work in our hospitals.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com

How to Win an Election

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

From The West Australian, Campaign Trail Mix, 3 Aug 10: "Who won the day? The real Julia Gillard by dent of policy pledges."

That's funny. I always thought that it was after the election that all those shiny new policies and promises were dented and broken...

If only journalists had an education rather than a simple spell-checker.

Independent thinking & independent analysis of your problems by Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com