About the Significant Objects project : Here’s an experiment where little trinkets (used crap, essentially) are embellished with stories, and the selling prices with or without the stories are compared. It hints that humans like narrative, and we’ll pay more for something that comes with a good story.
The project’s curators purchase objects — for no more than a few dollars — from thrift stores and garage sales.
A participating writer is paired with an object. He or she then writes a fictional story, in any style or voice, about the object. Voila! An unremarkable, castoff thingamajig has suddenly become a “significant” object!
Each significant object is listed for sale on eBay. The s.o. is pictured, but instead of a factual description the s.o.’s newly written fictional story is used. However, care is taken to avoid the impression that the story is a true one; the intent of the project is not to hoax eBay customers. (Doing so would void our test.) The author’s byline will appear with his or her story.
Once we’ve got our card in hand, our behavior becomes riddled with irrationalities. In one experiment, Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that people were willing to pay twice as much for basketball tickets when they were using a credit card as opposed to paying cash. Credit-card spending just doesn’t feel like real money.
[…] the typical consumer unnecessarily spends $200 a year in interest payments by keeping a sizable stash of cash in savings or checking while at the same time carrying a credit-card balance. In our heads, the two don’t line up.
Burdened with man’s inhumanity to man, Interstate Batteries Chairman Norm Miller created a commercial to promote God’s love. The commercial, which airs on Dish Network, shows the positive change in the lives of several people when touched by God’s love.
But, besides being a raging liberal, he’s also an incredible writer. He’s a professional writer, to be sure, but he also writes little essays like this one here that are astonishing well-done.
It’s a special thing, this capacity for depression, and it sets you apart from the others who may feel blue, but lack an all-encompassing dread so thick you can’t imagine it ending. I know it set her apart from her sisters, who all found solace in the capable hands of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and it’s something she imbued in her five kids to varying degrees.
So, nothing here but some amazing writing. Move along, now.
[…] as Congress debates how to rein in credit and debit card companies in the United States, Australia’s experience is being pointed to as an example of just how tricky that can be: for one thing, if regulators limit one fee or rate, banks are likely to find another way to keep revenue flowing.
Credit card companies are going to get their money, there’s just no way around it. End one fee, and two others will pop up to take its place. You can play whack-a-mole all you want, but the only way to avoid credit card fees is to not use one, or use a debit card instead.
Spending in Bush’s first year (FY2001) was $1.863 trillion, thus he presided over an 83-percent increase in overall federal spending, which includes defense, domestic, entitlements, and interest. Even without TARP and Fannie/Freddie, spending was up a huge 70 percent under Bush over eight years. By contrast, total spending under eight years of President Clinton increased just 32 percent. These are the overall increases in nominal dollars.
[…] Bush II was the biggest spender since LBJ. His spending increases were far larger than the three prior presidents.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watch list with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Left vs Right (World) : I really enjoyed this huge graphic describing the supposed differences between people on the left side of the political spectrum, and people on the right. Try as I might, I can’t make a case that it portrays either side better than the other.
