谈判，白脸配黑脸

白脸－黑脸策略是最有名的谈判策略之一。查尔斯·狄更斯在他的小说《远大前程》里面曾经对这种策略进行过精彩的描述。在故事一开始，我们年轻的主人公皮普正在一处坟地干活，突然，一个样子可怕的大块头冲了出来。这家伙是一个在逃犯，腿上还带着脚镣。他让皮普去村子里带些食物和工具回来，这样他就可以把脚镣取下来。这时嫌疑犯陷入了一个两难的局面。一方面他想让皮普害怕他，因为只有这样，我们的主人公才会听他的吩咐；而另一方面，他又不能让皮普过于害怕他，因为如果这样的话，孩子很可能会跑到村子里报警。     

简洁有效的钳子策略

钳子策略是一种非常有效的谈判策略，它的神奇效果一定会让你大吃一惊。这种策略应用起来非常简单，你只要告诉对方：“你必须做得更好”就可以了。     

Assessment of Inhalation Exposures and Potential Health Risks to the General Population that Resulted from the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers

In the days following the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on September 11, 2001 (9/11), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated numerous air monitoring activities to better understand the ongoing impact of emissions from that disaster. Using these data, EPA conducted an inhalation exposure and human health risk assessment to the general population. This assessment does not address exposures and potential impacts that could have occurred to rescue workers, firefighters, and other site workers, nor does it address exposures that could have occurred in the indoor environment. Contaminants evaluated include particulate matter (PM), metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, asbestos, volatile organic compounds, particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, silica, and synthetic vitreous fibers (SVFs). This evaluation yielded three principal findings. (1) Persons exposed to extremely high levels of ambient PM and its components, SVFs, and other contaminants during the collapse of the WTC towers, and for several hours afterward, were likely to be at risk for acute and potentially chronic respiratory effects. (2) Available data suggest that contaminant concentrations within and near ground zero (GZ) remained significantly elevated above background levels for a few days after 9/11. Because only limited data on these critical few days were available, exposures and potential health impacts could not be evaluated with certainty for this time period. (3) Except for inhalation exposures that may have occurred on 9/11 and a few days afterward, the ambient air concentration data suggest that persons in the general population were unlikely to suffer short-term or long-term adverse health effects caused by inhalation exposures. While this analysis by EPA evaluated the potential for health impacts based on measured air concentrations, epidemiological studies conducted by organizations other than EPA have attempted to identify actual impacts. Such studies have identified respiratory effects in worker and general populations, and developmental effects in newborns whose mothers were near GZ on 9/11 or shortly thereafter. While researchers are not able to identify specific times and even exactly which contaminants are the cause of these effects, they have nonetheless concluded that exposure to WTC contaminants (and/or maternal stress, in the case of developmental effects) resulted in these effects, and have identified the time period including 9/11 itself and the days and few weeks afterward as a period of most concern based on high concentrations of key pollutants in the air and dust.     

Analysing business opportunities in North Sea oil

Offshore activity in the North Sea is the first of a number of worldwide offshore developments that will take off in the next 10 years. Exploration is occurring at a dramatic rate off the coasts of a number of countries in South East Asia and is also taking place off the coast of Australia, Africa, South America, the United States and Canada. The North Sea will thus, in many cases, be the test bed for suppliers to the offshore industry. With all countries which have oil deposits off their coast being anxious to promote indigenous supply of products and services to the oil industry, competition in the world market will intensify. Only those companies who can establish their product and marketing strategies in the politically calm environment of the North Sea can hope to reap the rewards of what may turn out to be the world's fastest growing industrial market over the next 20 years.