Thursday, January 8, 2015

Customer service kudos...

Customer service kudos ... to IQAir.  We recently purchased one of their filters to cut down on the odors in our indoor cattery.  The box was undamaged, but when I unpacked the unit I found two large plastic parts that had broken.  Both broken parts still functioned, so I set up the filter, turned it on, and it was obvious within minutes that it was working great.  Before we got the filter, I couldn't stay in the cattery (where seven cats live) for more than a few minutes – my eyes would start watering, I'd get the sniffles, and the smell would make me crazy.  Within an hour after turning the filter on, the air was just as fresh and odor-free in the cattery as it is outside.  It's just an amazing difference!

But ... two broken parts, on a brand-new unit.  I called their support line, and within 30 seconds was connected with John V., a customer service rep.  He asked me just a few questions, verified that I actually owned one of their machines (by having me read him the serial number), and then with no hesitation said he'd ship me the two parts.  Next thing I know, I got an email with a tracking number – they shipped the parts via FedEx.  I got the parts today, installed them, and now we have not only a beautifully performant filter, but we have one with no broken parts!

The whole support experience was just about as good as such a thing can be.  No hassles, no delays, no cost, and all very friendly and warm.  Great product, great service – always a winning combination!


From the dirt in Maine...

From the dirt in Maine ... comes the first new broad-spectrum antibiotic in 25 years.  This is fantastic news, for several reasons:
  • It is effective against all the currently scary drug-resistant bacteria.
  • It's mechanism is inherently difficult for bacteria to develop resistance against.
  • There's no known obstacle to large scale production.
Even better: the team who discovered this drug did so by inventing a new way to screen previously-unscreened naturally occurring organisms for antibiotic production.  This breakthrough may well lead to other antibiotics with novel mechanisms – exactly what the world needs right now.

It's difficult to overstate what an important development this is!

More here, here, and here...

Corona Australis...

Corona Australis...  Via APOD, of course.  Full resolution version here...

Charlie-Hebdo...

Charlie-Hebdo...  Mark Steyn, in a Fox News interview, expresses my own position far more eloquently than I could.  Watch the (non-embeddable) video here.

Here's an example of what I expect to see much more of: assertions that at least in part, Charlie-Hebdo brought this upon themselves by offending Muslims.  In this case, it's a piece published by the Catholic League, who really ought to know better – because virtually everything they publish, believe, and stand for is offensive to the same group of Muslim radicals who attacked Charlie-Hebdo.  It's written as though they don't even realize that their fellow Christians are being killed in large numbers by Islamic State right now.  Their instinct for appeasement overrides their ability to observe, much as the English left, led by Neville Chamberlain, completely failed to observe Hitler's evil.  This sort of essentially suicidal behavior leaves me gaping in disbelief...

Lindernia monroi...

Lindernia monroi...  Via BPOD, of course...