Fun_People Archive
14 May
Waiter, there's a fly . . . [mumble] . . . all want one, too!

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed, 14 May 97 18:50:28 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Waiter, there's a fly . . . [mumble] . . . all want one, too!

Forwarded-by: "pardo@cs.washington.edu" <pardo@cs.washington.edu>
Forwarded-by: Josh <josh@Happy-Man.com>

Tuesday's Wall Street Journal has an article about the Dutch takeover of
JFK airport's International Arrivals building.  The Dutch have some
interesting ideas on how to clean it up:

In Amsterdam, the tile under Schiphol's urinals would pass inspection in an
operating room.  But nobody notices.  What everybody does notice is that
each urinal has a fly in it.  Look harder, and the fly turns into the black
outline of a fly, etched into the porcelain.

"It improves the aim," says Aad Kieboom.  "If a man sees a fly, he aims at
it."  Mr. Kieboom, an economist, directs Schiphol's own building expansion.
His staff conducted fly-in-urinal trials and found that etchings reduce
spillage by 80%.

"We will put flies in the urinals -- yes," Jan Jansen says in a back office
at the Arrivals Building.  He is the new Dutch general manager, the boss as
of noon today.  "It gives a guy something to think about.  That's the
perfect example of process control."

His New York public relations attendant titters.  "Fine, laugh at me," Mr.
Jansen says.  "It works."

© 1997 Peter Langston