Tweeting or checking emails may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people could resist their desires.

They even claim that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges, people are more likely to give in to longings or cravings to use social and other media.

A team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University’s Booth Business School say their experiment, using BlackBerrys, to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85 in and around the German city of Würtzburg is the first to monitor such responses "in the wild" outside a laboratory.

The results will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science.

The participants were signalled seven times a day over 14 hours for seven consecutive days so they could message back whether they were experiencing a desire at that moment or had experienced one within the last 30 minutes, what type it was, the strength (up to irresistible), whether it conflicted with other desires and whether they resisted or went along with it. There were 10,558 responses and 7,827 "desire episodes" reported.

"Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success," said Hofmann. Sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires, suggesting "pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations".

The researchers found that as the day wore on, willpower became lower. Their paper says highest "self-control failure rates" were recorded with media. "Resisting the desire to work was likewise prone to fail. In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money."

Lately, however, when I look around the train on a Friday morning, the commuters no longer appear to be dressing down; in the age of the economic downturn and increased job insecurity it seems that “casual Fridays” are becoming a thing of the past.

This is due not to businesses’ formally restricting the uniform of employees, but rather to employees’ making the decision themselves that dressing more casually on a Friday—or any given day—might affect their performance and job security.

A survey by U.K. work wear provider Alexandra found that 94 percent of respondents say that the way they dress can influence the outcome of the economy.

More than 90 percent of respondents said a person’s attire determines how professional and trustworthy they look. Nearly 40 percent said “scruffy clothing” at work hurts performance.

The results demonstrate that employees prefer to wear the same sort of clothing on a Friday as they would any other day of the workweek because they think it will help them win more business and increase sales. In “The Devil Wears Prada,” Anne Hathaway’s character isn’t taken seriously until she conforms to the image of a budding fashionista. Alexandra’s study suggests that image isn’t limited to the fashion industry and can be very important for other sectors, such as professional services.

Dress For Success shows exactly how important image is to securing a job. This global organization provides disadvantaged women with a suit prior to an interview to help boost their confidence and give them the tools to thrive in work and life.

Disadvantaged women are referred to Dress For Success by a diverse group of not-for-profit and government agencies, and in 2011 up to 3,000 organizations sent women for the professional apparel and career development services that it offered.

Once a woman has secured the job, she is invited back for additional clothing, which she can use to build a professional wardrobe. It shows the importance of our apparel on our employment status and on our performance once we’ve landed a job.

“Touch-screen devices just beg to be scribbled on,” said Squires, a senior computer science major from Jeffersonville, Indiana. “People want to touch them and interact with them. It’s a childlike, mesmerizing thing.”

The App Store released Squires’ first app, iPaint uPaint, on January 11. It is available for 99 cents at the App Store; developers such as Squires receive 70 percent of revenue from sales of their apps. Just two weeks after launching, iPaint uPaint has been downloaded by iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users in 13 countries.

Squires developed the app as his final project in an iOS programming class, a new course taught by associate professor of computer science Don Roberts during the Fall 2011 semester.

“Since the iPhone and Android have been released, there has been a huge surge of developers for mobile devices,” Squires said. “The iOS programming class at UE taught me the skills I needed to become a successful developer — while still in school.”

Creating iPaint uPaint took nearly two months. “There were some days and nights of pretty intense programming,” Squires recalled. “I remember one day when I started working at 10:00 a.m. and finished at 7:00 the next morning.”

The result of Squires’ efforts is an app that allows users to create virtual masterpieces on the screen of their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. What differentiates iPaint uPaint from other finger-painting apps, says Squires, is the ability to connect with friends’ devices via Bluetooth and paint together.

Users can change the color of the background and brush, as well as the transparency and thickness. iPaint uPaint also features a “shake and erase” function like an Etch-a-Sketch. Users can share their finished paintings via Twitter, e-mail them to a friend, or save them to a photo album.

Squires plans to continue developing apps and hopes to attend graduate school after graduating from UE in May. As for his final project in last semester’s programming course. “I got an A,” he said with a laugh. 

• Access to Capital — Gaining access to capital is an obstacle for all small businesses. However, the U.S. must work to connect local start-ups with regional investors to boost local investments and make the capital gains tax exemption permanent for investors in qualified small businesses.
• Access to Modern Technology — U.S. small business must have access to cloud computing, mobile technologies and virtual global supply chains to invest more into their products, to collaborate on a global scale and to expand their presence to foreign markets.
• Access to Global Markets — The U.S. government must make existing programs, that help domestic small business enter foreign markets, easier to find and navigate.

According to the State Science & Technology Institute, "the report also looked at the importance of failure for start-up founders. Failure is a natural and important part of future successful firm development, the report notes. Start-up founders learn valuable lessons when their firms fail, and they often develop an expanded professional network that will benefit them over the long-term. The authors contend that learning from mistakes is the true driver of private sector innovation."

The 12-page report is titled: Restoring U.S. Competitiveness: Creating Jobs and Unleashing the Potential of Small Businesses through Technology and Innovation.

These bills and their approaches are different but they are by no means incompatible. They could easily be combined to produce a ‘best of both’ bill – immediate relief, in the form of raised exemption thresholds and expanding the beneficiaries that are most favorably treated (as in the Senate bill) coupled with the permanence of a phase-out (as in the House bill). The easiest way to make this blend happen would be to replace the 50% rate reduction in SB 293 with a 50% credit, then proceed to phase the tax out over the following five years by increasing the credit an additional 10% each year thereafter. The hope is that would be a final product everyone can live with.

Bill # and Title: SB 293 – Inheritance Tax
Author: Sen. Jim Smith (R–Charlestown)
Summary: Reclassifies a spouse, widow or widower of a child of the transferor as a Class A transferee instead of a Class B transferee. Reclassifies a spouse, widow or widower of a stepchild of the transferor as a Class A transferee instead of a Class C transferee. Annually increases the inheritance tax exemption amounts through 2015. Reduces the inheritance tax rates by 50% beginning June 30, 2016.
Chamber Position: Support
Status: Passed the full Senate on Tuesday 50-0.

Update/Chamber Action: This bill addresses several negative aspects of Indiana’s inheritance tax. It updates who is included in the more favorably-treated category of inheritors (Class A beneficiaries) by redefining the group to encompass not just the children, but also the spouses of a child or stepchild. It also phases in significant increases in the ridiculously low threshold for the amounts that are excluded/exempted from the tax. And finally, starting in 2016, it cuts the rates in half. So the bill takes very meaningful steps to improve the tax, but it doesn’t go all the way and put Indiana on a course to completely rid our citizens of the onerous tax.

The Indiana Chamber, in its testimony at the hearing, acknowledged the very substantial steps that this bill provides in terms of lessening the detrimental impact of this tax and that it smartly addresses the standout problems. However, we took the opportunity to point out that while this bill provides more immediate relief than the House approach (see below), it falls short by not eliminating the tax altogether like the House version does via a scheduled (albeit slow) 10-year phase-out. We suggested that blending this bill’s more immediate improvements with the House bill’s ultimate elimination would represent the best amalgamation of policy choices. Our efforts during the second half of the session will be to promote the wisdom of combining the best provisions of the House and Senate bills as each is considered by the opposite chamber.

Bill # and Title:  HB 1199 – Inheritance Tax
Author: Rep. Eric Turner (R-Cicero)
Summary: Provides for a gradual, 10-year phase out of the inheritance tax, beginning July 1, 2013.
Chamber Position: Support
Status: Passed the full House 78-17.

Update/Chamber Action: The merits of doing away with this offensive tax are becoming more widely accepted as legislators consider its impact on small family businesses in their communities. This was evidenced by the bipartisan support it received as it easily passed out of the Ways and Means Committee. The Indiana Chamber is working hard to make sure everyone truly appreciates just how counter-productive the tax is, who is impacted, how they are impacted and why the state would be better off without it.

Here are a few of their recent postings regarding technology. I would categorize them as ones that make you stop and say, Wow!:

•  Electronics now make up 40% of the cost of automobile materials, up from 15% in 2005. The average car is run by 40 microprocessors and 40 million lines of digital code

• New cars and trucks cost less in real terms than in 1995. Prices for housing, food, energy, etc. have increased by more than 50% over a similar time period

• Look for much faster smart phones by 2014 when wireless technology will let phones receive and send data at least five times as fast as today’s models

• Computer speeds will leap too as electronic processors will be replaced by chips that  use light waves. The chips will be able to crunch data far faster than the current sending and receiving of slower electrons. 

On the last item, Kiplinger predicts commercialization around the year 2020. But don’t worry; there will be plenty more technology advancements between now and then.

A German graduate student once told me he was amazed at the poor roads, sidewalks and other features in Cambridge, Mass., where we were both living and studying at the time.

“It looks like a third-world country here,” he said. “Apparently, no one cares.”

I don’t think that is the case, but I do think we have become accustomed to a lower-quality public environment, one that would not be tolerated in France, Germany or Japan. It was already ironic that Cambridge, a rich, liberal city that lavishes praises on the public sector, put up with it. Regardless, the chronic maintenance cutbacks in this country result in shoddy-looking and poor-performing infrastructure systems, more accidents and a negative impact on economic capacity.

One explanation may be our budgeting process. States and cities generally pay for maintenance from annual operating budgets. You can’t borrow money to repair a pothole. That leaves the pots of money set aside as tempting targets.

“Maintenance budgets are one of the first places mayors and governors look for money to fill budget shortfalls,” says William Reinhardt, editor of Public Works Financing. “That’s because the effects of underfunding maintenance are not immediately obvious.”

In contrast, states and cities borrow money to build new roads, bridges and train lines. It can be tempting to use the money that would have gone for maintenance to pay the interest costs on bonds sold to build new stuff. Political pressures come to bear as well. Developers and real estate interests often clamor for new highways and other infrastructure, and fund politicians who support them. While citizens whine about potholes, they rarely vote on that basis.

Whatever the reason, peculiar budgeting practices occur. A transit manager at a major American city told me a revealing story during a tour:

“See those lights,” said the official, pointing to some bulbs within some rusting metal frames hanging over the platform. “It would only cost about $1,000 a year to maintain those well. We can’t get that. So instead, we will wait until they rust out and fail completely. Then we will replace them, at a cost of perhaps $100,000.” This is poor governance and poor economics, to say the least.

"He’s still day-to-day; he’s 76, and still here every day at 7 a.m. doing what he needs to do," Scott says of his father. "Just seeing what he can do at that age is great motivation, even for me. It doesn’t surprise me the company’s been going for 50 years because of the great work ethic he instills – and all the guys do, really."

Caterpillar remains the company’s largest customer – and all of its customers reside in the Midwest. While providing parts to Caterpillar has remained a constant part of the company’s business, Scott explains the industry has changed over the years.

"Back in the 1960’s, tool fixturing and dies were where the money was," he says. " Today, we really don’t do tool and die work or fixtures, it’s mostly short-run to high-production machining. You went from the highly skilled die makers and tool makers (to more tech-based production), but the technology is leaps and bounds ahead."

He adds that the economic decline in recent years caused the company to change how it operated.

"With the downturn, we saw volumes go down," Scott relays. "So we had to get more efficient. We moved machines into cells so one machinist runs two machines… and we invest in new equipment with faster machining times to help productivity. We were coping with lower volumes, but getting more economical to still turn a profit."

In the future, Walkerton Tool & Die will likely further diversify its capabilities to meet customer needs.

"Over the years, my father built the company to where we don’t specialize in one size of part," Scott offers.  "We can run little parts off of bar feed lathe and we can go up to seven feet long; we’ve machined some big axels for bulldozers. So we want to keep diversifying our machine capabilities as far as sizes, and that will help us in the long run."

He adds that many patrons who come into the shop are surprised by how much activity goes on in the 17,000 square foot building.

"One thing people always tell me, whether it’s a customer, a salesman, or a new guy coming in, is that our shop isn’t super huge but when you get in here, everything’s organized, it’s a clean shop and it’s a lot of technology," Scott notes. "Everything’s compact in here and it makes us more efficient as far as moving parts from machine to machine. A lot of people say they’ve driven by here for years and can’t believe what it’s like inside."

All told, Scott looks forward to 50 more years of productivity from the Walkerton business, which remains a point of stability in an industry and economic climate that are sometimes precarious.  

"In this trade, if you’re in business 50 years, you must be doing something right because it’s tough to stay in business nowadays," he concludes.

How long will the lingering last? The obvious answer is at least November and the next election. One of the Senate Democrats speaking against the bill this morning said that this will awaken his party’s supporters. And that’s OK — that’s the way the system is supposed to work.

No one has proclaimed right-to-work will be the silver bullet that will immediately bring thousands of jobs to our state. (But one Indiana company indicated it is now staying and a Michigan business has invited previously ruled out Indiana to compete for its relocation). It is another important tool, accompanying the other contributors to our state’s strong business climate, one that will put Indiana in the running for many more jobs and economic opportunities. And our state’s batting average is pretty good when it has a chance to be in the game.

The evidence is there for those willing to listen — unions will not go away, safety will not slip, health care and pensions won’t be threatened. Will wages dramatically increase or decline? Probably not.

Right-to-work is here. It’s time to move on at the Statehouse to other important issues; it’s time throughout the state to let individuals have the choice of whether or not they wish to pay union dues as a condition of getting or keeping their job; it’s time for more companies to consider — and choose — our state for their relocations and expansions and the jobs they will bring.

Chamber media statement

Legislative Report summary

"Without that article, Phil and I would have never connected," Maki says. "Phil and I share some common vision on business. He has tremendous background. We are leveraging his expertise and experience to grow our business."

Mercier is about to complete his first month at Models Plus, which provides models, prototypes, custom displays, packaging and engineering for dental and orthopaedic implant manufacturers, as well as patient education tools for health care providers.

"My skills and experience have been put to good use helping (Maki) expand his business in the orthopaedic industry," Mercier explains. "(Maki) started in the dental business over 20 years ago and began applying his capabilities to companies in Warsaw over the past three years. I will be helping him with the company’s rapid expansion into orthopaedics."

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