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Presents an ISO 9000 standard work instruction for “fun”. Describes activities to maximize the likelihood of creation of a fun work environment. Suggests that fun is a critical factor of employee productivity. Mixes humorous observations with practical advice for management, employees, human resources, and other groups. Reveals that content was aggregated by careful observation of the best and worst in business environments. Concludes that fun and quality improvement are mutually reinforcing.

With the feature in this issue of Industrial Management on the growth of television “grass roots” coverage of industry, information concerning media “coaching” and allied courses for managers who may, one day, find themselves before a TV camera is particularly appropriate.

Do these reference requests sound familiar? “I need to know what has happened on this day in history. Can you help me?” Or, “I'm doing a paper on Thornton Wilder. He was born on 17 April. Can you tell me who else was born on that day?” Or, “Are any national or regional anniversaries coming up next Friday?” These questions call for a special type of reference work—a book of days. A book of days (or day book) lists important events that have occurred on each day of the year throughout history, and is arranged by month and day. These works often include not only historical, cultural, and literary events, but also the dates of the births and deaths of notable people, commemorative days of saints, and special anniversaries. A book of days, for example, can reveal that historians Will and Ariel Durant were married in New York City Hall on Halloween in 1913, or that Hart Crane and Ernest Hemingway were born on the same day in 1899 (21 July). This article will review some of the more useful books of days that are often found in reference collections—works that are uniquely suited to answer questions about each day of the year.

Publishers are producing new reference sources on film at an astonishing rate. Each week reviews and advertisements appear to announce yet another book. Books vary in scope, subject emphasis, size, price, and of course, quality, and represent both new works and revised or added editions. Not only are American publishers active, but European firms are getting on the bandwagon, too.

Crown not above law, says safety chief The immunity of Crown bodies against prosecution and other law enforcement action is out of keeping with modern thinking, says Bill Simpson, chairman of the Health and Safety Commission.

The king's speech on the occasion of the opening of Parliament contained the announcement that further measures are to be proposed during the present Session for dealing with the adulteration of dairy produce. It may be hoped that among other things this statement foreshadows an intention on the part of the Government to deal in some way with the drugging of milk and milk products—for the purpose of establishing somewhat more effective legal checks upon the abominable practice referred to than any which are at present applicable. As anything in the nature of comprehensive legislation appears to bo out of the question, we must be thankful for what we can get; and while many improvements in the law are required to enable other forms of sophistication and adulteration of dairy produce to be more effectively controlled, the amendment which is of primary importance is one which will take the direction indicated above, since the public health is directly and far more seriously affected by the ingestion of food containing “preservative” chemicals than by the use of merely impoverished or “faked” products—injurious and dangerous as some of these may nevertheless be particularly to infants and invalids.

The 2003 global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was an abrupt reminder that infectious diseases pose a continuing threat to human health. In 1967, U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart declared “it was time to close the book on infectious diseases” (Garrett, 1994, citing W.H. Stewart, “A Mandate for State Action,” presented at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, Washington, DC, December 4, 1967). In the latter half of the twentieth century, many shared this bold view that medical science had vanquished infectious disease. As a result, public health struggled to remain relevant in the face of advances in pharmaceuticals, surgery, genetics and other areas that were becoming increasingly dominant in the quest to extend and enhance human life. SARS forced many to rethink the significance of public health and the crisis, though relatively short-lived, (for commentary on the disparities between the responses to HIV and SARS, see e.g. Altman (2003)) underscored the need to rebuild public health capacity that had been allowed to slip down the health system priority list.

The fierce debate on CSR is often linked to different understandings of CSR from different perspectives. Although there is no strong consensus on CSR, Carroll's pyramid of CSR encompassing economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities (Carroll, 1979) is a good starting point for discussion.