Chinese Investors Crunching Numbers Are Glad to See 8s - WSJ.com

Chinese Investors Crunching Numbers Are Glad to See 8s - WSJ.com

Chinese Investors
Crunching Numbers
Are Glad to See 8s

Linked to Good Luck, They
Influence Stock Picking;
A Real Buy at 8.08 Yuan

By JAMES T. AREDDY
May 24, 2007; Page A1

SHANGHAI -- When a friend whispered several stock tips to Yan Caigen last year, the investor snapped up 30,000 shares in one of them, a cement company. The reason: the stock's auspicious ticker code, 600881, which contains a double-eight.

"I believe good codes will bring good luck," says Mr. Yan, who parks himself most days in front of a trading screen at a Shanghai brokerage, Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. Indeed, shares in Jilin Yatai (Group) Co., the cement company he bought, promptly tripled, earning him about $50,000. Mr. Yan gives credit for the performance to the two "8s" in the stock's numeric ticker symbol, which he considers a lucky combination.

Part superstition and part self-fulfilling prophecy, numerology is a basic trading strategy in China. The philosophy reflects the widespread belief in Chinese society that numbers contain clues to good fortune.

It is a little noticed force adding fuel to a roaring market in the world's fourth-biggest economy. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index is up 56% this year and quadruple its level at mid-2005, a spike that is raising concerns about an investment bubble.

Investors' zeal to base decisions in numerology also helps explain why Beijing has been unable to temper enthusiasm in the stock market through conventional measures, like credit tightening last week.

To professional observers, the Chinese investing public's trust in the predictive power of numbers -- rather than fundamentals like business prospects or profit -- is one of many reminders of how buying on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges looks like gambling.

Brokerages are set up like casinos. Investors drink tea, smoke and chat as they make trades on computers lined up like slot machines. Instead of dropping in coins, they swipe bank cards to pay for shares.

"You know, we're individual investors. We often choose stocks very blindly," says Shanghai investor Chen Guoan. Some pass cigarettes to congratulate friends at seeing the price of their stock rise.

In China, individuals, often with little understanding of financial concepts, make up 60% to 80% of trading, unlike U.S. markets dominated by financial giants such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Fidelity Investments Inc. "You see strange things happening with stocks, with lucky numbers, codes," says Jing Ulrich, chairman of China equities for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. "This is a reflection of a very immature market."

Much of China's urban middle class has money in the country's nearly 100 million personal trading accounts. Record numbers of new investors, often with little understanding of market mechanics, are also jumping into stocks, opening more than 100,000 accounts on the average day this year. The government has warned of dangerous levels of speculation as investors fund their purchases with second mortgages and credit cards. In recent weeks, daily trading value has soared to nearly $50 billion.

Each successive record high for stocks -- including three this week -- is giving rise to fears of an investment bubble. Economists worry a burst could sap the spending power of China's nascent consumer class and reverberate through global commodity and stock markets.

Asia's famed "Superman" investor, billionaire Li Ka-shing last week warned, "As a Chinese, I am worried about the stock market." Twice in recent months, a sudden correction in Chinese stocks has rattled markets world-wide.

STOCK ANTHEM

Lyrics to a song meant to be sung to the tune of China's national anthem, "The March of the Volunteers," are circulating on the Internet.

"The Song of the Stock Market"
Author unknown

Arise
Ye who haven't got stock accounts!
Invest all your money in the bull market;
The Chinese people have reached the most crazy moment,
Everyone with enthusiasm shouts the shout of buying.
"Arise, Arise, Arise!"

Our millions of people are of one mind, cherishing the dream of overnight wealth.
March on! March on! March on!

Arise,
Ye who do not want to be poor,
To build our Great Wall of stock with our blood money
The Chinese people are experiencing the most crazy market,
Everyone with jealousy shouts the crazy shout.

March on! March on! March on!
United we buy, without considering the risk of being trapped.
March on! March on! March on!

The absence of a free press in China and regulatory constraints on what financial analysts can say publicly leave investors vulnerable to unusual trading theories. They often make do with folksy trading tips such as those now circulating among investors advising people to wear red clothes, which are representative of a "hot" market, and to eat beef to sustain the "bull" run, while avoiding references to "dad," since the word in Chinese is a homonym for "drop."

For 56-year-old Xu Xiaorong, numeric stock codes are critical. He says he sometimes thinks about his Feb. 1 birthday when weighing investment decisions. "I like the shares that end with the number 1. It's my lucky number," he says.

In Chinese society, the homonyms of numbers hold deep meaning. In particular, the pronunciation of number eight -- ba in both Mandarin and Cantonese -- sounds similar to words for "wealth" or "fortune." Consider the kickoff time for next year's Beijing Olympic Games: 8 p.m. on 8-8-2008.

The appearance of an "8" is considered auspicious, whether it is a digit in the share price or a part of the six-number identity code exchanges assign to each stock. "I don't care about a few dimes up or down, compared with a lucky number," one investor bragged in an Internet chat room after paying 8.08 yuan for a share.

In contrast, investors get nervous when they see the numeral "4" since its pronunciation "si" can mean "death." As proof of its destabilizing force, many point out that Chinese stocks began to wobble in early May when the Shanghai Composite Index traded around the 4,000-level for the first time.

Some numerical customs are steeped in history. For instance, China scales its banking calendar and interest rates to numbers in unique ways. Interest is calculated according to a year with only 360 days, and interest-rate changes are made by margins of 0.18 and 0.27 percentage points, numbers that all can be divided by 9.

Last month, People's Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan told a conference the unusual policy reflects how Chinese banks once calculated interest charges with an abacus. The 2,500-year-old mathematical tool can't easily handle decimals that repeat infinitely, as tends to happen in calculations with the 0.25 percentage-point increment used in interest-rate changes almost everywhere else in the world. Even in recent years, Mr. Zhou said, bankers "in the countryside didn't have calculators." Since 1980, every adjustment in benchmark interest rates has been set according to this method.

Today in China, letting numbers guide the way through geomancy, basing architectural decisions on feng shui principles and otherwise employing ancient traditions is standard practice. Bank of China Ltd. puts its trading rooms on the eighth floor of its buildings. China's tallest skyscraper, the Jin Mao Tower, is 88 floors high.

The 6, 8 and 9 keys on ATMs made by Diebold Inc. wear out first because those "are considered lucky numbers in China," according to spokesman Joseph Richardson.

When Shenzhen-listed manufacturer Tianjin Teda Co.'s shares closed at 19.48 yuan in April, Xintai Securities Co. said in a research note that "the stock likes closing at a lucky number."

Shanghai investor Mr. Yan explains that stocks with "8" in their code actually deserve a second look for fundamental reasons. For instance, he figures that a company's managers must have savvy in order to secure a ticker code with the number "8." After Mr. Yan bought shares of the cement maker Jilin Yatai last year, the price surged to more than 18 yuan, from 5.27 yuan.

Numbers don't explain everything, he admits, but "in the stock market, half your results come from luck."

--Tang Hanting and Ellen Zhu contributed to this article.

Write to James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com¹

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117994449875112338.html
	Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:james.areddy@wsj.com

[+/-] show/hide this post

Chow Mein Masala, Anyone? - WSJ.com

Chow Mein Masala, Anyone? - WSJ.com

Chow Mein Masala, Anyone?

The Latest Trend in Chinese Cuisine: Indian

By CRIS PRYSTAY
May 4, 2007

Singapore

Dhritiman Chakrabarti has fond memories of dining on Chinese food twice a week in Kolkata's Chinatown during summer holidays when he was a boy. So when Mr. Chakrabarti, an executive at human-resources consultancy Hewitt Associates, moved to Shanghai in 2001 he figured he was in for a real culinary treat. But when it comes to Chinese food, he discovered, there's no place like home.

Chinese colleagues took Mr. Chakrabarti to all the top Shanghainese restaurants, which he thought were just fine. What he missed, though, was the Indianized Chinese food he grew up with -- dishes like chili chicken and gobi manchurian, a crunchy fried cauliflower dish cooked with cumin and coriander. Plus, he preferred fried rice made with basmati. So twice a month, he and his wife made their way to Punjabi, an Indian restaurant in Shanghai that serves a separate Indian-Chinese menu, alongside traditional Punjabi fare, to a growing cadre of Indian expatriate professionals eager for their kind of Chinese cuisine.

Indian Wok's crab claws in sweet chili sauce and spring onions.

"I finally got to have chili chicken and prawn balls the way I was used to," laughs Mr. Chakrabati, who now lives in Singapore.

Chinese cuisine went global when a big wave of immigrants left China in the mid-19th century, fleeing political instability. Along the way, it was adapted to local produce and tastes.

Today, for instance, there's lime-juice flavored Cuban-Chinese food in Miami, and American-Chinese dishes like chop suey (a stir-fried mixture of meat or fish, bean sprouts, onions and mushrooms) and chow mein (a meat and vegetable stew served with fried noodles), dishes unheard of in most of Asia, are available in Chinese eateries from North America to the Philippines to Britain. Now, as middle class Indian bankers, engineers and consultants gain critical mass in the world's key business centers, Indian-Chinese cuisine is going global, too.

Indian Wok opened its doors in Singapore in July 2006, becoming the second venue to offer Indian-Chinese cuisine in the city-state after Fifth Season, which also opened last year. Over the past few years, Indian-Chinese restaurants have set up in other places including New York, Sydney, San Francisco and London to cater to transplanted Indian professionals. There's even a chain of them, Masala Wok, in Texas.

At Indian Wok, located on a palm-lined strip on Singapore's East Coast, business is booming. Bookings are essential on weekends. Mr. Chakrabarti is one satisfied customer. Given a choice, he says, "I'll choose Indian-Chinese over authentic Chinese." He says that people he met in Shanghai who were from Europe and the U.S. wanted to try the local food cooked in the most authentic manner. But, he says, "South Asians don't experiment a lot. They like their own food, and they like to stay in their comfort zone."

Singapore, which is predominately Chinese but is home to sizable ethnic Indian and Malay populations, has several genres of fusion Chinese that borrow flavors from a multicultural base.

Indian Wok's sticky date pancake

The most famous is Peranakan cuisine, which arose centuries ago when Chinese immigrants to the Malay peninsula married Malay women, giving rise to a distinct Southeast Asian style of Chinese food famous for dishes like laksa, a spicy noodle soup, and chicken kapitan, a dry chicken curry. Even typically bland Cantonese-style dim sum is served with several types of chili condiments. And while Singapore's spicy chili crab might taste good, to an Indian expat, it still doesn't taste like the Chinese food in India.

Following the instability in China, many Chinese people from the southern provinces made their way to America; smaller groups went even further afield, to places like Cuba, where Spanish colonialists brought in Chinese laborers to work in sugar plantations after slavery was abolished, and to the Indian city of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta.

Like working class Chinese immigrants everywhere, many newcomers opened restaurants, seasoning traditional dishes with local spices and creating new ones to draw customers.

American-Chinese restaurants serve made-in-America dishes like egg foo yong (an omelet), chop suey and General Tso's chicken (deep-fried chicken seasoned with ginger, garlic, sesame oil, scallions and hot chili peppers). Cuban-Chinese chefs use plenty of lime juice instead of vinegar, and substitute jalapenos for Sichuan peppers. Caribbean-Chinese use jerk pork, a local staple, in numerous noodle dishes. In India, Chinese restaurants make liberal use of Indian spices such as cardamom, cloves and cumin, alongside traditional Chinese spices, including star anise and ginger.

Vinod Rai, the restaurant's executive chef

There are Chinese restaurants in practically every major city in India, and big centers such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are home to myriad tiny Chinese hawker stalls, too. Chinese fare is common at Indian society weddings. Billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal flew chefs from India to France to add the Indian-Chinese touch to the Chinese food section of a lavish buffet for his daughter's wedding in 2004.

Annamalai Prabhakar, Indian Wok's chef and co-founder, who is being financed by a small Indian technology company that makes liquid crystal display screens and casings, brought in four chefs from Kolkata who specialize in Indian-Chinese cooking. The head chef, Vinod Rai, used to run the Chinese restaurant at the tony Oberoi Hotel in Kolkata.

Among Mr. Rai's most popular dishes are gobi manchurian, and crab claws that are battered, fried and tossed with sweet chili sauce and spring onions. Chili chicken is another quintessentially Indian-Chinese dish. Unlike the true Chinese versions of chili chicken, this one is cooked with red onions, a staple in Indian cooking, and served in a sweetish gravy.

Indian Wok's menu also features dishes such as pepper chili paneer (a type of fresh Indian cheese), crispy lady fingers, or okra (a popular Indian vegetable that isn't common in China) in hot garlic sauce, and shredded lamb with chili mustard sauce. And there are more traditional Chinese dishes such as kung pao chicken (a spicy fried chicken dish that is seasoned with Sichuan peppers), broccoli with black mushroom, and stir-fried baby kailan, a green leafy Chinese vegetable.

Indians don't eat much pork, a staple in Chinese cooking, and generally steer clear of beef -- cows are considered holy in the Hindu religion -- so neither meat is on the menu at Indian Wok. Instead, there are dishes such as black pepper lamb.

Mr. Rai also removes the skin and bones from his chicken. Indians find chicken skin distasteful -- the opposite of Chinese, who think the most tender chicken pieces are the cuts that include skin and bone.

Purists may argue that Chinese food peppered with cumin and coriander simply isn't Chinese. But some foodies contend that Chinese cuisine lends itself more easily to adaptation than say, French, or other national cuisines.

"Chinese food is more complex than other cuisines, which allows for greater flexibility; there are so many ingredients, and if I replace one or two it's OK. But if I only had six ingredients and I replaced two, it would have a big impact on the dish," says Hinnerk von Bargen, an associate professor at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and an expert on Chinese food.

Chinese fare also demands freshness: Seafood is kept alive, for example, and killed when a customer orders. So Chinese immigrants to India didn't hesitate to substitute local fresh produce and spices.

"Adaptations had to be made -- certain things just weren't there. Or there were easier alternatives," says Mr. von Bargen. "In a tropical place like Cuba, for example, you find lime juice -- these guys didn't have to mix vinegar to get a good acidifier, limes just grow there."

--Cris Prystay is a Singapore-based writer.

Write to Cris Prystay at cris.prystay@wsj.com¹

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117823019947391383.html
	Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:cris.prystay@wsj.com

[+/-] show/hide this post

Making Perfect Fish - WSJ.com

Making Perfect Fish - WSJ.com

Chefs at Home
Making Perfect Fish

Eric Ripert of New York's Le Bernardin offers
simple recipes for getting the most out of seafood

By KATY MCLAUGHLIN
May 5, 2007; Page P6

THE CHEF: Eric Ripert, chef of Le Bernardin, the 21-year-old fish restaurant rated as the "top food" in New York by Zagat Survey for seven of the past nine years, and one of four New York restaurants to have received three Michelin stars.

KNOWN FOR: His skillful fish and seafood cookery. He manned the fish stations as he worked his way up the ladder in some of the world's great kitchens, including La Tour D'Argent and Jamin in Paris and Bouley in New York. When Le Bernardin's founding chef died in 1994, Mr. Ripert took over and maintained the restaurant's reputation as one of the nation's top seafood restaurants.

TRY IT

• Baked Striped Bass

• Fish Burgers With Aioli

• Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

HOW TO COOK FISH: To help home cooks overcome their fear of preparing fish, Mr. Ripert offers what he calls an "easy, simple and very effective" master recipe: Brush a baking dish with butter, then sprinkle it with water, then add the pieces of fish. The result is fish that bakes, which intensifies flavors, and steams, which keeps it moist. The fish burgers are adapted from a dish the restaurant serves to its staff before service. "It's very tasty," Mr. Ripert says.

KITCHEN TIP: One of the trickiest parts of cooking fish is figuring out when the fish is done. "To find out if the fish is cooked, we insert a metal skewer through the flesh of the fish and leave it there for five seconds," he says. Then lay the skewer flat on the top of your hand. If it's warm, the fish is perfectly cooked; cold means it's still raw and hot means it's too late.

* * *

Baked Striped Bass

Yields: 4 servings
Active preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 7 minutes

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 8-ounce fillets of striped bass (or arctic char, black bass, halibut or cod), skin removed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 fresh rosemary sprigs
4 fresh thyme sprigs
2 garlic cloves, sliced thin

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.

• In the bottom of a flame-proof baking dish or large skillet (that is big enough to hold all four striped bass fillets), brush half the butter. Sprinkle with just enough water to moisten the bottom of the dish, about 2 tablespoons. Season the fillets on both sides with salt and pepper and place in the dish. Brush the top of the fillets with the remaining softened butter. Garnish the top of each fillet with a sprig of rosemary, thyme and some garlic.

• Place the dish or skillet on the stovetop and bring the water to a boil; immediately transfer to the oven and bake until opaque and flaky throughout, about 7 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets. (The fish is done when a metal skewer can be easily inserted into the fish and, when left in for 5 seconds, feels warm when touched to the hand.) Serve immediately.

* * *

Fish Burgers With Aioli

Yields: 6 servings
Active preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 7 minutes

1 small shallot, diced
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
18 ounces fish fillets (see recipe above), skin removed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg, beaten with a fork
1 teaspoon coarse salt
A few grindings of black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus more to taste
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil, plus more as needed
6 challah or brioche hamburger rolls
1/3 cup aioli (1/3 cup mayonnaise mixed with 1 medium minced garlic clove)
12 oven-roasted tomato pieces (see recipe below)
1/2 small head fennel, shaved very thin and crisped in ice water, drained

• Make the fish burgers: In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook until tender, but do not let them color, about 2 minutes. Allow to cool and reserve.

• In the bowl of a food processor, pulse on/off 12 ounces of the striped bass (cut into medium pieces first) until it is the consistency of ground meat. Using a knife, cut the remaining 6 ounces of fish into ½-inch pieces. Transfer fish to a large stainless steel mixing bowl.

• Add the cooled shallot and garlic mixture, the parsley, mayonnaise, both mustards, baking powder, beaten egg, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Form a quarter-sized patty and saute in a little oil until cooked; taste and adjust the seasoning (salt, pepper, lemon juice) as needed. Transfer the bowl to the refrigerator or freezer and allow to chill until cold to the touch.

• Carefully form the mixture into six burger patties (it will be quite soft); dredge each burger in panko bread crumbs, evenly coating the entire burger. Store on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator until ready to cook.

• To cook the burgers: Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil. When hot, add the burgers (in batches if needed), and cook on the first side until it is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Carefully flip the burgers and finish cooking them in the oven until cooked through, about 4 minutes more. (A metal skewer should be easily inserted into the burger and, when left in for 5 seconds, feel warm when touched to the hand.)

• In the meantime, toast the rolls. Spread 1 tablespoon aioli over the insides of each roll. Place each fish burger on the bottom half of a roll. Top with the shaved fennel and 2 oven-roasted tomatoes. Close the burger and slice in half on the bias, if desired.

* * *

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

1 large tomato, cored and peeled, cut into 12 wedges
Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

• Preheat the oven to 200°F. Arrange the tomatoes on the parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle the thyme leaves over the tomatoes. Bake until the tomatoes look like they've collapsed and flattened a bit, as well as taken on a hint of color, about 1½ hours. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let them cool to room temperature before using.

Write to Katy McLaughlin at katy.mclaughlin@wsj.com¹

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117831268682592620.html
	Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:katy.mclaughlin@wsj.com

Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

[+/-] show/hide this post

Real Time - WSJ.com

Real Time - WSJ.com

The Perils of Online Song Lyrics

Yahoo's New Lyrics Service Is Promising,
But Why Can't I Copy and Paste the Words?
May 21, 2007

Ah, rock lyrics. They're for scribbling on notebooks and pondering in math class, pairing with your yearbook photo to cringe about years later, and of course deciphering over headphones with a careful ear and a furrowed brow.

But they're not for copying and pasting. At least not when you get them from Yahoo Music.

Last month Yahoo and Gracenote announced a deal that let Yahoo offer lyrics for hundreds of thousands of songs from the five major music publishers. (Gracenote, in turn, acquired the rights to provide such lyrics from the publishers last year.) If you go to Yahoo Music¹, you can search for a lyric or click the "Lyrics" tab on many artists' pages.

The results are a bit hit and miss. Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. results, for example, are limited to cover versions. (Gracenote says licensing is still being worked out with the Jersey rocker.) Wanting to check on a lyric I'd consistently misheard, I looked for Soul Asylum's "Easy Street." It wasn't there, though other sites let me reluctantly reconfirm that the line I'd always heard as "There are no easy answers to the questions we make tough" is, in fact, "There are no easy answers, the questions remain tough." (I like mine better.)

LYRICS ONLINE

²

Have you ever searched for song lyrics online? What did you find? Would you pay extra for accurate lyrics? Has the Internet ever helped you solve a lyrical mystery, or clear up any shameful mishearings? (If so, share!) Join me and other Online Journal readers in the new Real Time forum³.

To be fair, hit-and-miss results aren't unexpected for a new service -- Gracenote CEO Craig Palmer says his company and Yahoo worked together to prioritize what to offer first, working around the most-popular songs, and will build from there. And I did find some impressive results -- lots of lyrics from the famously hard-to-decipher Replacements, and Van Halen's "Unchained," which I could never get straight as a kid. Turns out it's "fat city address" and "blue-eyed murder in a Size 5 dress," not … well, I never even had a hypothesis. There's a minor mystery solved after a quarter-century.

Song lyrics are one of those things the Internet might have been made for -- any niche artist can have a home, fans' obsessiveness is rewarded, and users can correct each other's mistakes. And the power of search makes song identification feel like magic. Once, you were sunk if a radio station played a song you liked but didn't tell you what it was. Now, all you have to do is scribble down a snatch of the lyric, run it through a search engine, and then buy it. And of course there's the curiosity factor: What are the words to "Louie, Louie," anyway? And are they dirty? (You won't find out on Yahoo Music, because the publisher wants to preserve the mystery. Should you absolutely have to know … no, they're not.⁴)

But lyric sites are also an example of how disappointing the Internet can be. The unlicensed lyric sites that dominate search-engine results often perpetuate mistakes; worse, too many of them are put up by people who couldn't care less about music and only want to grab search-engine traffic. Veteran surfers hunt for lyrics warily -- the worst malware infection I've ever had came not from some shameful foray into the Net's red-light district, but from an innocent search for the words to some pop song. So a better way would be welcome.

Gracenote's Mr. Palmer says it took his company about two years to go from discussions with publishers to "getting critical mass" on its lyrics service. The difference between printing lyrics in CD booklets and making them available digitally, he says, is that "the rights shifted from the labels to the publishers -- not a few major labels, but literally dozens to hundreds of publishers that represent literally tens of thousands of entities that own rights" to lyrics.

[download]

Real Time columninst Jason Fry discusses a new service from Yahoo Music that offers song lyrics without the threat of spyware. But users can't copy the words.

Licensing was just the beginning, Gracenote says. Few lyrics were available in digital form at all -- most music publishers are just taking their first steps into the online world and had only focused on a few niche usages for digital lyrics, such as karaoke feeds. Gracenote says it recruited its own employees to transcribe foreign versions of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend," and consulted everything from liner notes and fan sites to figure out the words to the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique," crammed with references to movies, cartoons, hip-hop and New York City. Eventually, Mr. Palmer says, Gracenote wrote a 30-page stylebook covering everything from capitalization to the difference between choruses and verses and whether or not to transcribe background vocals. And then, of course, Gracenote had to figure out how to get rights holders paid.

The Yahoo model is revenue sharing from advertising; Mr. Palmer says other business models are under discussion as Gracenote negotiates to bring lyrics to music-subscription services, digital-download stores and consumer-electronics makers. The most-obvious customer would be Apple's iTunes, which already has a lyrics tab for each song. Asked about potential deals, Mr. Palmer says that "we have a full pipeline," though he did say he suspects a business deal with a download store would be based around the store paying "cents" out of its profit margins for the right to embed lyrics with a download.

Perhaps before too long you'll buy a song from iTunes or another service and automatically get the lyrics the same way you get the album art. That's great -- that's the way it should work. But until that happens, there's something fundamentally annoying about Yahoo Music's lyrics. And that's the inability to copy them. [Monday addendum: Yes, you can take a screen grab of lyrics from Yahoo Music. But that's beyond less-tech-savvy folks' abilities. And why should anybody have to jump through all those hoops?]

It's not like copyable lyrics aren't already out there -- even when you don't count the spyware traps. Plenty of artists offer lyrics on their own official sites -- I had no trouble finding them for the likes of Mr. Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Metallica or Gwen Stefani. And I could copy lyrics from their sites with no problem. So if I want to add the lyrics to "If You Can't Rock Me" to that song's metadata in iTunes, I can copy and paste from the Stones' own site⁵, but not from Yahoo Music⁶.

"If we had our druthers, we wouldn't necessarily add this feature," Ian Rogers, Yahoo Music's general manager, says of the restrictions on copying. "But it's being asked for by the copyright holders."

The music publishers see what Yahoo Music is doing as providing lyrics for reference, and think that should be different from lyrics that are "permanent," in much the same way streaming audio is temporary and digital downloads are permanent. In their view, you shouldn't expect to copy a reference lyric any more than you'd expect to save a stream. Publishers aren't opposed to lyrics that can be copied -- Nicholas Firth, chairman and CEO of BMG Music Publishing, says his company "would like to see as many options available for lyric sites as you can conceive of," provided such sites compensate publishers and artists. But they see copyable lyrics as a different product.

Such distinctions make perfect sense to people contemplating business models in boardrooms, but they're baffling to consumers -- and feel like another music offering fettered with seemingly arbitrary controls. Not everybody visiting Yahoo Music will be looking to subscribe to streams -- consumers may be attracted to the site because it's an excellent reference guide to music. Or they might have found the lyric they're hunting for through a search engine -- though Yahoo is thwarting copying by displaying lyrics as images, which ironically makes it harder for search engines to find those lyrics. (Mr. Rogers says the lyrics have been fed into Yahoo's own search engine, and Yahoo Music has plans to address the problem with other search engines.)

Mr. Palmer views any annoyance users like me may experience as a temporary thing -- lyrics should soon be available in other ways, eliminating the need to copy and paste. "Consumers shouldn't have to go copy and paste these things to get the same experience," he says.

Agreed -- but until then, why expect music fans to parse out sites' business models? Music fans may come to Yahoo Music to find accurate, spyware-free lyrics that they want to paste into the metadata of songs they've acquired legally, only to find they can't do that. When that happens, they'll rail about the music industry and find one of the many alternatives that do allow copying. (Mr. Firth warns that now that a legal lyrics alternative is in place, "we will certainly contemplate taking action against sites that are not paying us or the creators." But I doubt music publishers will ever be able to stamp out every site looking to make a buck off their property.)

Those who hold the rights to song lyrics may, of course, do whatever they wish with their intellectual property. But as with so many Internet-content dust-ups, you wind up asking "Where's the harm?"

To Mr. Firth, it's an easy question -- a lyric copied is a lost sale. He mentioned sheet music as an example of a product whose sales could be impacted, though he warned "don't ask me to measure it," which is fair enough.

But the words to a song aren't a replacement for sheet music -- it takes a skilled ear to transcribe chords, while anybody can write down what words they hear. They certainly aren't a replacement for the song itself, as anyone who's seen a beloved song lyric fall flat when read aloud can attest. And it's risible to suggest that a fan of an artist would be happy with a sheaf of printed-out lyrics instead of a songbook. I used to be a pretty hardcore Springsteen fan, and in researching this story I came across this book⁷. I suppose I could have copied the lyrics in the book from the Boss's own site and printed them out, but I didn't -- I bought the book via Amazon.

Anyone moved to copy a lyric is probably a fan of that song or that artist, a relationship that can be nurtured profitably. (Gracenote's Mr. Palmer raised the issue of bots grabbing up good-quality lyrics, but there are plenty of sources for such harvesting.) Copying lyrics to paste them into my MP3 metadata demands a certain engagement with that music. Printing out lyrics to study while listening to music is a sign of interest, if not devotion. After all, lyrics weren't added to record sleeves and CD booklets out of altruism, but to further the engagement between artist and listener. And so it is here.

This is a small thing, and it may indeed be a temporary problem -- Mr. Rogers counsels patience, saying of the music publishers that "I think right now they're just dipping their toe in the water and getting started." But to too many people, stealing a 99-cent pop song feels like a small thing, too. When an interesting new service arrives hamstrung, positions get hardened in the undeclared war between the music industry and its customers. Publishers are worrying about lost sales. They'd be better off worrying about lost opportunities.

Have you ever searched for song lyrics online? What did you find? Would you pay extra for accurate lyrics? Has the Internet ever helped you solve a lyrical mystery, or clear up any shameful mishearings? (If so, share!) Join me and other Online Journal readers in Real Time's new forum⁸, or write to me at realtime@wsj.com⁹. If you've got something to say but don't want your comments considered for publication, please make that clear.

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117968858772308830.html

Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://music.yahoo.com/ (2) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=497 (3) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=497 (4) http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_316.html (5) http://www.rollingstones.com/discog/?v=so&a=1&id=173 (6) http://music.yahoo.com/The-Rolling-Stones/If-You-Cant-Rock-Me/lyrics/785505 (7) http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Springsteen-Songs/dp/0380796112/ref=sr_1_5/102-7204720-2698514?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179511197&sr=1-5 (8) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=497 (9) mailto:realtime@wsj.com (10) mailto:realtime@wsj.com (11) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,the_daily_fix,00.html (12) mailto:realtime@wsj.com

[+/-] show/hide this post

Health Journal - WSJ.com

Health Journal - WSJ.com

The Man Problem

Science Confronts Vexing Issue
Of Men's Shorter Life Spans;
The Waist-Size Danger Zone
April 24, 2007; Page D1

When it comes to health, one of the biggest risks a man faces in his lifetime is being a man.

At every stage of life -- from infancy to the teen years to middle age -- a man is at far higher risk for getting sick and dying than a woman. The average life expectancy of a man -- 75 years -- is more than five years shorter than that of a woman.

The reasons for the troubled state of men's health are complex. Biology -- such as the different ways men and women react to stress -- likely plays a role. And men, taught since boyhood to be stoic in the face of pain, often are their own worst enemy, avoiding doctors and engaging in risky behaviors such as reckless driving that threaten health. Men's health issues also get less public attention and funding at a time when women's health concerns -- such as breast cancer -- are in the national spotlight.

MEN'S HEALTH

• Health Journal Forum:¹ Tara Parker-Pope and three top doctors are available respond to your questions and comments.

• Quiz:² Test your knowledge of men's health.

• The Doctor's Office:³ Men Don't Make Good Patients

• Health Mailbox:⁴ Tara Parker Pope answers reader questions on mortality and oatmeal.

There's now a growing effort by doctors and health researchers to bring more resources to improving men's health. Medical schools such as Johns Hopkins and Columbia University have created departments devoted to gender-specific medicine. Health groups are calling on Congress to create an Office of Men's Health similar to the current Office of Women's Health, established in 1990.

Men on their own can take a few simple steps to boost their health. Doctors say that by focusing on a few key areas -- blood pressure, cholesterol, waist size and sexual function -- a man can make dramatic improvements in his overall health. One recent study in the medical journal JAMA found that preventing weight gain and alcohol abuse in midlife were two major factors in determining whether a man lived and stayed healthy until the age of 85.

"Men need to know that they are vulnerable, but that they can change things," says Harvey B. Simon, an internal-medicine specialist and editor of the Harvard Men's Health Watch newsletter.

Part of the problem is that for most of the past 30 years, issues of women's health have been the focus of government research and private advocacy in an effort to atone for years of neglect of women by the health-care system. In 1985, a seminal report from the U.S. Public Health Service Task Force concluded that because women historically haven't been included in medical research, women often didn't receive quality information or health care. To make amends, the government in 1990 created the Office of Women's Health and launched the $750 million Women's Health Initiative, which was devoted to studying major women's health issues including menopause hormones, calcium and dietary influences on breast cancer.

Unintended Consequences

Now some experts question whether the intense focus on women has had the unintended result of allowing men's health issues to slide. For instance, Congress directed $778 million to breast- and ovarian-cancer research from 2002 to 2006, 85% more than the $420 million it set aside for prostate-cancer research during the same period, according to data from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs office. Nobody thinks breast cancer should get less attention, but there is growing concern that the big killers of men -- heart disease, prostate cancer, injuries and suicide -- aren't getting equal billing.

Even though men historically were over-represented in research, science still has not answered many questions about men's health, says New York physician Marianne J. Legato, who was recently appointed adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins for gender-specific medicine. For instance, why do men typically have more abdominal fat -- considered to be the most unhealthy type of body fat? Why do men have naturally lower HDL or "good" cholesterol than women? Why are men more vulnerable to heart disease at a younger age? Why are boy babies more likely to have health problems than girls?

On average, men at any age are 40% more likely to die than women. A 20-year-old man, for instance, is three times as likely to die in an accident as a woman. A 60-year-old man is 39% more likely to die of diabetes. And when diseases such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension are diagnosed in men, they tend to be at a far later stage in the disease process, after extensive damage has already been done.

One of the biggest obstacles to improving care for men may be men themselves. Boys and girls receive similar levels of pediatric care -- likely because their mothers are in charge of it. But after males reach adulthood, their participation in health care plummets. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that even when visits for pregnancy are excluded, women are twice as likely as men to schedule regular annual exams and use preventive services. Another survey found that three times as many men as women hadn't seen a doctor in the past year. And one out of four men says he "waits as long as possible" before seeking help for a health problem, according to Harvard Men's Health Watch.

One problem is that while obstetrics and gynecology are dedicated to women's health, there's no specialty dedicated to men. In surveys, about 90% of women report having a personal physician, while only two-thirds of men do.

"When women go to the gynecologist, they don't just get gynecological problems diagnosed -- the doctor checks her for diabetes, blood pressure, depression," says Jean Bonhomme, a preventive-medicine doctor in Atlanta and board member of the Men's Health Network, a nonprofit advocacy group. "But we don't have anything analogous to that for men. We need to use the opportunities we have to bring men back into the health-care system."

One such opportunity may be the success of erectile dysfunction drugs like Pfizer's Viagra. Studies show that erection problems are one of the earliest warning signs of heart disease because the same unhealthy buildup that damages the arteries to the heart also damages the arteries to the penis.

Last year, the Archives of Internal Medicine reported on a study of nearly 4,000 Canadian men that showed men with erectile dysfunction were nearly 50% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes or metabolic syndrome -- a collection of health risks that are associated with heart disease.

The link between erectile health and heart health has triggered a new push in the medical community to use the "Viagra visit" -- the time when a man asks his doctor for an erectile-dysfunction drug -- as a way to screen men for heart disease. Teaching a man that erectile function is linked to cardiovascular health, diabetes and weight gain can help motivate him to make healthy lifestyle changes.

"Sexual health is the portal to men's health," says Ridwan Shabsigh, associate professor of urology at Columbia University in New York.

Two major health issues for men -- stress and depression -- exact a serious physical toll on men but are currently ignored by many doctors who treat men.

New research shows there may be major differences in the male stress reaction compared with the female stress response. The typical stress response is called "fight or flight" -- a physical reaction to danger that helps the body rapidly mobilize energy, delivering glucose to muscles and boosting the heart rate and blood pressure. While the stress response protects us in the face of danger -- such as fighting a war or fleeing a burning house -- it causes damage if stress is chronic -- as is often the case with job deadlines and financial worries.

Stress and Evolution

In recent years, evidence has been mounting that women may be evolutionarily better equipped to cope with modern stress. She can still fight or flee if necessary, but in times of stress, a woman's body also releases oxytocin -- which is known as a bonding hormone. This has been dubbed the "tend and befriend" stress response and may help explain why women are more likely to seek counseling and confide in friends and family during stressful times.

A unique female stress response makes evolutionary sense. Imagine an ancient village being invaded by marauders. The men have to gear up to fight, but the best strategy for a woman may have been to gather children close, comfort them and surround herself with other women to help during the crisis. Though still only a theory, this coping mechanism may help explain at least part of the reason why women overall are more healthy than men.

And in the case of depression, twice as many women as men are diagnosed, fueling the belief that depression is a woman's health issue. But many mental-health researchers believe that the medical community is culturally biased to find depression in women and ignore it in men. For instance, one key question to diagnosing depression is to ask whether a patient has crying spells.

"We miss a lot of depression in men because we look for emotional expressions that men have been taught not to show," notes Dr. Bonhomme. "The first thing you learn as a young man is that men aren't supposed to cry. When women are depressed they may show sadness, but a guy may go to a bar and line up a whole bunch of drinks."

But missing depression in men has proved to be deadly. Suicide rates are four times higher for men than women, according to the CDC, and between the ages of 15 and 34 it's the second leading cause of death among men. (It remains among the top five until the age of 54.)

Doctors say men have the most power to improve the state of their health with just a few simple steps.

First, be aware of your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, and take active steps to lower both if they reach an unhealthy range. "Just focusing on those two single things can make a huge difference in longevity," says Peter A. Gross, chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. "Men may think they're more indestructible than women, when in fact, we may be genetically inferior to women."

Next, men need to be aware of their waist circumference. Abdominal fat has long been a risk factor for heart disease. A waist size above 40 inches for men (35 inches for women) puts you in a danger zone. Don't rely on your pant size, and instead take out a tape measure.

"Men say their pant size hasn't changed in years, but they have this strategy of just lowering their belt," notes Harvard's Dr. Simon. "I think it's another area of real ignorance among men."

A recent JAMA study showed that preventing weight gain in men during midlife was also a major factor in predicting his longevity. The same study showed that men with excessive alcohol consumption -- defined as three or more drinks a day -- were more likely to die before age 85 or be unhealthy during their elderly years. Men don't have to give up alcohol altogether -- other studies show that one to two alcoholic beverages a day boosts a man's heart health.

A Legacy of Health

Fathers of young boys have the most to gain by taking charge of their health. Studies show boys tend to mimic the behavior of their dads, while girls tend to copy their mothers, so a dad who takes care of himself and makes regular doctor visits can have a big impact on his son's health as well. And parents of both sexes can work to dissuade the risk-taking behavior in boys and teens that puts young men at such high risk for accidental death. Teaching boys that it's OK to cry and that they don't have to be stoic when hurt can go a long way toward protecting them as they age, notes Dr. Bonhomme.

"You don't have to retrain a whole society, but for the ones that are coming up now we can take a different tact and raise them to be more health conscious," says Dr. Bonhomme. "When a boy is 8 years old and skins his knee, he's taught that if something hurts, don't pay it any mind because it will go away. That works when you're young, but it doesn't work in middle age."

• Email healthjournal@wsj.com⁸.

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117735809444879393.html

Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=440 (2) OpenWin('http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-quiz06.html?project=ManQuiz070423','ManQuiz070423','400','500','off','true',20,20);return false; (3) http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117736473393179535-Fo8_yaQ3p5iXOkwD9kGk6GKdKZ4_20080422.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top (4) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117736549192179562.html (5) http://podcast.mktw.net/wsj/audio/20070423/pod-wsjparkerpope/pod-wsjparkerpope.mp3 (6) http://podcast.mktw.net/wsj/audio/20070423/pod-wsjparkerpope/pod-wsjparkerpope.mp3 (7) http://podcast.mktw.net/wsj/audio/20070423/pod-wsjparkerpope/pod-wsjparkerpope.mp3 (8) mailto:healthjournal@wsj.com

[+/-] show/hide this post

The Most-Praised Generation Goes to Work - WSJ.com

The Most-Praised Generation Goes to Work - WSJ.com

Uber-stroked kids are reaching adulthood -- and now their bosses (and spouses) have to deal with them. Jeffrey Zaslow on 'applause notes,' celebrations assistants and ego-lifting dinnerware.

By JEFFREY ZASLOW
April 20, 2007; Page W1

You, You, You -- you really are special, you are! You've got everything going for you. You're attractive, witty, brilliant. "Gifted" is the word that comes to mind.

Childhood in recent decades has been defined by such stroking -- by parents who see their job as building self-esteem, by soccer coaches who give every player a trophy, by schools that used to name one "student of the month" and these days name 40.

VOTE

¹

How much praise is given out at your office? Vote in Question of the Day² and discuss your answer with other readers.

Now, as this greatest generation grows up, the culture of praise is reaching deeply into the adult world. Bosses, professors and mates are feeling the need to lavish praise on young adults, particularly twentysomethings, or else see them wither under an unfamiliar compliment deficit.

Employers are dishing out kudos to workers for little more than showing up. Corporations including Lands' End and Bank of America are hiring consultants to teach managers how to compliment employees using email, prize packages and public displays of appreciation. The 1,000-employee Scooter Store Inc., a power-wheelchair and scooter firm in New Braunfels, Texas, has a staff "celebrations assistant" whose job it is to throw confetti -- 25 pounds a week -- at employees. She also passes out 100 to 500 celebratory helium balloons a week. The Container Store Inc. estimates that one of its 4,000 employees receives praise every 20 seconds, through such efforts as its "Celebration Voice Mailboxes."

Certainly, there are benefits to building confidence and showing attention. But some researchers suggest that inappropriate kudos are turning too many adults into narcissistic praise-junkies. The upshot: A lot of today's young adults feel insecure if they're not regularly complimented.

America's praise fixation has economic, labor and social ramifications. Adults who were overpraised as children are apt to be narcissistic at work and in personal relationships, says Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University. Narcissists aren't good at basking in other people's glory, which makes for problematic marriages and work relationships, she says.

Her research suggests that young adults today are more self-centered than previous generations. For a multiuniversity study released this year, 16,475 college students took the standardized narcissistic personality inventory, responding to such statements as "I think I am a special person." Students' scores have risen steadily since the test was first offered in 1982. The average college student in 2006 was 30% more narcissistic than the average student in 1982.

Praise Inflation

Employers say the praise culture can help them with job retention, and marriage counselors say couples often benefit by keeping praise a constant part of their interactions. But in the process, people's positive traits can be exaggerated until the words feel meaningless. "There's a runaway inflation of everyday speech," warns Linda Sapadin, a psychologist in Valley Stream, N.Y. These days, she says, it's an insult unless you describe a pretty girl as "drop-dead gorgeous" or a smart person as "a genius." "And no one wants to be told they live in a nice house," says Dr. Sapadin. "'Nice' was once sufficient. That was a good word. Now it's a put-down."

THE ART OF CONSTRUCTIVE COMPLIMENTS

Below are some guidelines from researchers, educators and corporate consultants on how to praise properly without overdoing it.

Limit the adjectives: Telling a student, employee or mate that they're "wonderful" might help them feel good temporarily, but such evaluative praise can give them an inflated sense of themselves while offering no direction, says Chick Moorman, a former teacher who travels the country teaching verbal skills to educators. Instead, use descriptive praise. Rather than telling an underling he's a genius, a boss might say: "Everyone was listening so attentively when you gave your report. And the statistics you found really drove home your point."

Don't overdo email: Email makes it easy to send quick praise -- and one grateful sentence, artfully composed, can leave an employee flying for a week. But sending "mass praise" to a hundred underlings is the corporate equivalent of Soccer Trophy Syndrome: If everyone gets a pat on the back, no one feels special. Eye-to-eye praise is often the most effective and appreciated.

Monitor your motivations: When you praise your offspring -- whether a young child or an adult child -- a part of you is really horning in on his accomplishments, said the late education-reform proponent John Holt. "Is not most adult praise of children a kind of self-praise?" he asked.

Also, be careful about praising an adult child to satisfy your own ulterior motives. Po Bronson interviewed 1,000 people about their occupations for his book "What Should I Do With My Life?" Many told him that their parents had used praise to steer them into occupations: "You're so smart, you'd be a great doctor." "You have such charisma, you should be a politician." Advises Mr. Bronson: "Don't use praise as a tool of manipulation."

Don't believe the hype: The Internet allows you to post, and receive comments on, your writings, photos, artwork and opinions. You can't always trust the criticism, of course, but you also shouldn't fall for the praise. On professional and amateur photography sites, people laud each other's work all day long, says Dennis Dunleavy, a professor of communications at Southern Oregon University. Years ago, "photographers rarely got any feedback. Now there's all this praise that pumps us up. And if there are negative comments, people ignore them." Prof. Dunleavy runs "The Big Picture," an influential photo blog, and says photographers have complained to him that the culture of praise makes it harder for them to get a nonhyped sense of their work.

Sometimes, you have no choice: If underlings seem to require a lot of praise, "we can ignore that and have them be disgruntled, or we can praise them," says corporate consultant Bob Nelson, the author of "1001 Ways to Reward Employees." "What's the big deal? By encouraging and praising them, you'll get more out of them." He advises: Give praise as soon, as sincerely, as specifically, as personally, as positively, and as proactively as possible.

The Gottman Institute, a relationship-research and training firm in Seattle, tells clients that a key to marital happiness is if couples make at least five times as many positive statements to and about each other as negative ones. Meanwhile, products are being marketed to help families make praise a part of their daily routines. For $32.95, families can buy the "You Are Special Today Red Plate," and then select one worthy person each meal to eat off the dish.

But many young married people today, who grew up being told regularly that they were special, can end up distrusting compliments from their spouses. Judy Neary, a relationship therapist in Alexandria, Va., says it's common for her clients to say things like: "I tell her she's beautiful all the time, and she doesn't believe it." Ms. Neary suspects: "There's a lot of insecurity, with people wondering, 'Is it really true?'"

"Young married people who've been very praised in their childhoods, particularly, need praise to both their child side and their adult side," adds Dolores Walker, a psychotherapist and attorney specializing in divorce mediation in New York.

Employers are finding ways to adjust. Sure, there are still plenty of surly managers who offer little or no positive feedback, but many withholders are now joining America's praise parade to hold on to young workers. They're being taught by employee-retention consultants such as Mark Holmes, who encourages employers to give away baseball bats with engravings ("Thanks for a home-run job") or to write notes to employees' kids ("Thanks for letting dad work here. He's terrific!")

Bob Nelson, billed as "the Guru of Thank You," counsels 80 to 100 companies a year on praise issues. He has done presentations for managers of companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Hallmark Cards Inc., explaining how different generations have different expectations. As he sees it, those over age 60 tend to like formal awards, presented publicly. But they're more laid back about needing praise, and more apt to say: "Yes, I get recognition every week. It's called a paycheck." Baby boomers, Mr. Nelson finds, often prefer being praised with more self-indulgent treats such as free massages for women and high-tech gadgets for men.

Workers under 40, he says, require far more stroking. They often like "trendy, name-brand merchandise" as rewards, but they also want near-constant feedback. "It's not enough to give praise only when they're exceptional, because for years they've been getting praise just for showing up," he says.

Mr. Nelson advises bosses: If a young worker has been chronically late for work and then starts arriving on time, commend him. "You need to recognize improvement. That might seem silly to older generations, but today, you have to do these things to get the performances you want," he says. Casey Priest, marketing vice president for Container Store, agrees. "When you set an expectation and an employee starts to meet it, absolutely praise them for it," she says.

Sixty-year-old David Foster, a partner at Washington, D.C., law firm Miller & Chevalier, is making greater efforts to compliment young associates -- to tell them they're talented, hard-working and valued. It's not a natural impulse for him. When he was a young lawyer, he says, "If you weren't getting yelled at, you felt like that was praise."

But at a retreat a couple of years ago, the firm's 120 lawyers reached an understanding. Younger associates complained that they were frustrated; after working hard on a brief and handing it in, they'd receive no praise. The partners promised to improve "intergenerational communication." Mr. Foster says he feels for younger associates, given their upbringings. "When they're not getting feedback, it makes them very nervous."

Modern Pressures

Some younger lawyers are able to articulate the dynamics behind this. "When we were young, we were motivated by being told we could do anything if we believed in ourselves. So we respond well to positive feedback," explains 34-year-old Karin Crump, president of the 25,000-member Texas Young Lawyers Association.

Scott Atwood, president-elect of the Young Lawyers Division of the Florida Bar, argues that the yearning for positive input from superiors is more likely due to heightened pressure to perform in today's demanding firms. "It has created a culture where you have to have instant feedback or you'll fail," he says.

In fact, throughout history, younger generations have wanted praise from their elders. As Napoleon said: "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." But when it comes to praise today, "Gen Xers and Gen Yers don't just say they want it. They are also saying they require it," says Chip Toth, an executive coach based in Denver. How do young workers say they're not getting enough? "They leave," says Mr. Toth.

Many companies are proud of their creative praise programs. Since 2004, the 4,100-employee Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo, Mich., has required all of its managers to write at least 48 thank-you or praise notes to underlings every year.

Universal Studios Orlando, with 13,000 employees, has a program in which managers give out "Applause Notes," praising employees for work well done. Universal workers can also give each other peer-to-peer "S.A.Y. It!" cards, which stand for "Someone Appreciates You!" The notes are redeemed for free movie tickets or other gifts.

Bank of America has several formal rewards programs for its 200,000 employees, allowing those who receive praise to select from 2,000 gifts. "We also encourage managers to start every meeting with informal recognition," says Kevin Cronin, senior vice president of recognition and rewards. The company strives to be sensitive. When new employees are hired, managers are instructed to get a sense of how they like to be praised. "Some prefer it in public, some like it one-on-one in an office," says Mr. Cronin.

No More Red Pens

Some young adults are consciously calibrating their dependence on praise. In New York, Web-developer Mia Eaton, 32, admits that she loves being complimented. But she feels like she's living on the border between a twentysomething generation that requires overpraise and a thirtysomething generation that is less addicted to it. She recalls the pre-Paris Hilton, pre-reality-TV era, when people were famous -- and applauded -- for their achievements, she says. When she tries to explain this to younger colleagues, "they don't get it. I feel like I'm hurting their feelings because they don't understand the difference."

Young adults aren't always eager for clear-eyed feedback after getting mostly "atta-boys" and "atta-girls" all their lives, says John Sloop, a professor of rhetorical and cultural studies at Vanderbilt University. Another issue: To win tenure, professors often need to receive positive evaluations from students. So if professors want students to like them, "to a large extent, critical comments [of students] have to be couched in praise," Prof. Sloop says. He has attended seminars designed to help professors learn techniques of supportive criticism. "We were told to throw away our red pens so we don't intimidate students."

At the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, marketing consultant Steve Smolinsky teaches students in their late 20s who've left the corporate world to get M.B.A. degrees. He and his colleagues feel handcuffed by the language of self-esteem, he says. "You have to tell students, 'It's not as good as you can do. You're really smart, and can do better.'"

Mr. Smolinsky enjoys giving praise when it's warranted, he says, "but there needs to be a flip side. When people are lousy, they need to be told that." He notices that his students often disregard his harsher comments. "They'll say, 'Yeah, well...' I don't believe they really hear it."

In the end, ego-stroking may feel good, but it doesn't lead to happiness, says Prof. Twenge, the narcissism researcher, who has written a book titled "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable than Ever Before." She would like to declare a moratorium on "meaningless, baseless praise," which often starts in nursery school. She is unimpressed with self-esteem preschool ditties, such as the one set to the tune of "Frère Jacques": "I am special/ I am special/ Look at me..."

For now, companies like the Scooter Store continue handing out the helium balloons. Katie Lynch, 22, is the firm's "celebrations assistant," charged with throwing confetti, filling balloons and showing up at employees' desks to offer high-fives. "They all love it," she says, especially younger workers who "seem to need that pat on the back. They don't want to go unnoticed."

Ms. Lynch also has an urge to be praised. At the end of a long, hard day of celebrating others, she says she appreciates when her manager, Burton De La Garza, gives her a high-five or compliments her with a cellphone text message.

"I'll just text her a quick note -- 'you were phenomenal today,'" says Mr. De La Garza, "She thrives on that. We wanted to find what works for her, because she's completely averse to confetti."

Write to Jeffrey Zaslow at jeffrey.zaslow@wsj.com³

	URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117702894815776259.html
	Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=433 (2) http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=433 (3) mailto:jeffrey.zaslow@wsj.com

[+/-] show/hide this post

In Bid for Better Care, Surgery With a Warranty - New York Times

In Bid for Better Care, Surgery With a Warranty - New York Times

May 17, 2007

By REED ABELSON

What if medical care came with a 90-day warranty?

That is what a hospital group in central Pennsylvania is trying to learn in an experiment that some experts say is a radically new way to encourage hospitals and doctors to provide high-quality care that can avoid costly mistakes.

The group, Geisinger Health System, has overhauled its approach to surgery. And taking a cue from the makers of television sets, washing machines and consumer products, Geisinger essentially guarantees its workmanship, charging a flat fee that includes 90 days of follow-up treatment.

Even if a patient suffers complications or has to come back to the hospital, Geisinger promises not to send the insurer another bill.

Geisinger is by no means the only hospital system currently rethinking ways to better deliver care that might also reduce costs. But Geisinger’s effort is noteworthy as a distinct departure from the typical medical reimbursement system in this country, under which doctors and hospitals are paid mainly for delivering more care — not necessarily better care.

Since Geisinger began its experiment in February 2006, focusing on elective heart bypass surgery, it says patients have been less likely to return to intensive care, have spent fewer days in the hospital and are more likely to return directly to their own homes instead of a nursing home.

Geisinger presented the first-year results of its experimental program at a meeting last month of the American Surgical Association.

Geisinger stands out as a group that has transformed the way it delivers care, said Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the chief executive of Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a national nonprofit organization whose goal is better patient care.

In almost no other field would consumers tolerate the frequency of error that is common in medicine, Dr. Berwick said, and Geisinger has managed to reduce the rate significantly. “Getting everything right is really, really hard,” he said.

It is still too early to know whether the approach, which Geisinger calls ProvenCare, will catch on with employers and health insurers.

So far, the only insurer that Geisinger has contracted with under the new arrangement is its own insurance unit, which covers about 210,000 people in Pennsylvania. Eventually, though, Geisinger hopes to attract other insurers and employers that provide health benefits by expanding the approach into other lines of care provided by the nearly 660 doctors it employs at its three hospitals and 55 offices in the region.

Geisinger is trying to address what it views as a fundamental flaw in the typical medical reimbursement system.

Under the typical system, missing an antibiotic or giving poor instructions when a patient is released from the hospital results in a perverse reward: the chance to bill the patient again if more treatment is necessary. As a result, doctors and hospitals have little incentive to ensure they consistently provide the treatments that medical research has shown to produce the best results.

Researchers estimate that roughly half of American patients never get the most basic recommended treatments — like an aspirin after a heart attack, for example, or antibiotics before hip surgery.

The wide variation in treatments can translate to big differences in death rates and surgical complications. In Pennsylvania alone, the mortality rate during a hospital stay for heart surgery varies from zero in the best-performing hospitals to nearly 10 percent at the worst performer, according to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, a state agency.

Around the world, other modern industries — whether car manufacturing or computer chip making — have long understood the importance of improving each piece of the production process to tamp down costs and improve overall quality.

But hospitals have been slow to focus their attention on standardizing the way they deliver care, said Dr. Arnold Milstein, the medical director for the Pacific Business Group on Health, a California organization of large companies that provide medical benefits to their workers. Geisinger “is one of the few systems in the country that is just beginning to understand the lessons of global manufacturing,” Dr. Milstein said.

In reassessing how they perform bypass surgery, Geisinger doctors identified 40 essential steps. Then they devised procedures to ensure the steps would always be followed, regardless of which surgeon or which one of its three hospitals was involved.

From screening a patient for the risk of a stroke before surgery, to making sure the patient has started on a daily aspirin regimen upon discharge, Geisinger’s 40-step system makes sure every patient gets the recommended treatment.

At least one heart surgery patient, David Dunsmuir, 65, was impressed by the care he received — and the doctors’ and staff’s efforts to explain things during the four days he spent last December at Geisinger’s hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

The care, which included a few weeks of rehabilitation, was delivered “like clockwork,” Mr. Dunsmuir said recently. “I’m feeling fine.”

For Geisinger, as with any hospital, the challenge is often in persuading the doctors to get on board. Before ProvenCare began, Geisinger’s seven cardiac surgeons each delivered the care they believed was best for patients. And that care varied.

“We realized there were seven ways to do something,” said Dr. Alfred S. Casale, the director of cardiothoracic surgery at Geisinger.

Reviewing the existing professional guidelines and medical literature, Geisinger’s cardiac surgeons came up with their list of 40 action items viewed as best practices — including giving a patient antibiotics within a specified time before surgery, and then giving beta blocker drugs afterward to reduce the chances of an irregular heartbeat.

The doctors nevertheless needed some persuading that ProvenCare would not be some form of inferior cookbook medicine, said Dr. Charles H. Benoit, a cardiac surgeon. “It’s not that we were a uniquely compliant group of personalities,” he said.

Doctors can choose not to follow a particular measure, based on the needs of an individual patient. But they rarely do so. And they also know that any of the steps can be altered if new medical evidence emerges.

When the system began, Geisinger was performing all 40 steps for bypass surgery only 59 percent of the time. Now, an operation is canceled if any of the pre-operative measures have been forgotten. For the last seven months, Geisinger says, its teams have managed to have a perfect record in following all recommended steps for surgery and follow-up care.

“It really has made a change in the way we think about things,” Dr. Benoit said.

The challenge now is to develop the same exacting standards for other kinds of care, like hip replacements, where there is much less medical agreement about what constitutes best practice, Dr. Glenn D. Steele Jr., Geisinger’s chief executive, said in an interview at the system’s headquarters in Danville, Pa.

“I think it’s doable,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy.”

Even more important, Geisinger must now see if its ProvenCare program has what Dr. Steele refers to as “market legs” — whether it is appealing enough that insurers and employers will be willing to buy it. Heart surgery and follow-up care, which runs about $30,000, are among the biggest-ticket medical offerings that Geisinger provides. But Geisinger executives say outside insurers and employers have indicated that Geisinger would need to include from 5 to 10 other procedures under its plan before they would have enough of their employees affected to make it worth their while to sign up.

Under the experiment, the hospital charges a flat fee for the surgery, plus half the amount it has calculated as the historical cost of related care for the next 90 days. So instead of billing for any additional hospital stays — which typically run $12,000 to $15,000 — Geisinger absorbs that extra cost.

Some employers seem intrigued by the idea of some sort of financial guarantee that encourages hospitals and doctors to do the job right the first time, according to Joseph Makarewicz, the chief operating officer at Offset Paperback Manufacturers, a printer in Dallas, Pa. Offset offers its 800 employees a choice of health plans, including Geisinger’s.

Mr. Makarewicz predicts that similar initiatives by other health care providers will take off. “Employers like us will encourage it,” he said.

Because the flat-fee plan means Geisinger will forgo some additional revenue from fixing mistakes, better care could potentially mean less money, especially if it means emptier hospital beds. But Dr. Steele says there is more than enough demand for Geisinger’s services.

Promising as the experiment may be, the model may not be easy to adopt in other places.

Geisinger does not have the name recognition of a Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic, but it is among the country’s most sophisticated health systems. It has employed electronic health records for more than a decade, for example, which means Geisinger can closely track the care it provides and the results achieved — in detailed ways that are nearly impossible for the many hospital systems that do not have its degree of digital coordination.

Another Geisinger edge is that it directly employs the bulk of the doctors who practice at its hospitals. That is in contrast to most hospital systems, even the country’s biggest and best, where doctors typically act as independent contractors — making it harder for a hospital to coax them toward a uniform set of procedures, and often leaving it unclear who is responsible for follow-up care.

“The degree of fragmentation of care also limits how generalizable this model is,” said Dr. Hoangmai H. Pham, a senior researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonprofit group in Washington.

Even Geisinger’s chief executive, Dr. Steele, acknowledges that the effort could prove overly ambitious. “I’m not betting the whole business on it,” he said. He has also pushed Geisinger further into other areas like clinical research and disease-management programs.

But he also says there is an enormous value in simply showing that a hospital system as large as his can successfully standardize care, demonstrating “the benefit to patients and the benefit to buyers” — all backed by a 90-day warranty.

[+/-] show/hide this post