Can you spare $63 Trillion Dollars? I wasn’t aware of the impending financial burden so great that the bickering about multi-trillion dollar war spending, healthcare overhauls, and bailouts are dwarfed in comparison to an “entitlement deficit” that stretches beyond our GDP capacity and credit worthiness to unrealistic levels. I’m not sure if our elected officials are intentionally keeping this monumental problem out of the public eye or it’s really just overlooked because of sheer incompetence. I have a hard time believing that 500+ elected national leaders are all completely bone headed to the point that they won’t take this to task with the American people. Either way, I think the first step is to recognize the problem. This organization is trying to do just that. It’s not a republican or a democratic backed organization. It’s not really railing against those parties either. It is about finding the right solutions using common sense rather than the latest partisan talking points delivered by Fox News or MSNBC.
I think it’s unrealistic to convince extreme right wingers and extreme left wingers to ever compromise on this problem. However, I thinks moderates from both parties could easily see the common enemy here is a financial burden that really threatens the existence of our Union in a way that no Jihadist could compete with.
As a matter of disclosure, I need to tell you that I was paid to build the site linked herein. However, I don’t work on projects that violate my personal ethics or conflict with my world view. Therefore, this site was a paid endeavor but I fully believe in the mission this organization is trying to achieve: prevent our nation from financial ruin by using a bit of common sense.
James Paul Gee of Arizona State University is a brilliant person with a compelling case for using video games in the service of assessment and learning without trying to separate the two as with the standard model practiced in the United States. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. His specialty, “New Literacy Studies,” is an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts.
In this video he makes some interesting points
Creativity is a necessity of a global economy
Those who know how to memorize facts traditionally have been privileged above of those who are good at solving problems.
People naturally want to be productive in their own way
Games are a connected to larger storyline. They’re extensions of other media which can ignite a passion for books, card collecting, forming social connections, fan fiction writing, and creating alternative worlds that compliment the original work
Games introduce a language on demand instead of forced on you.
Games treat words as tools to solve problems.
Games inherently combine learning and assessment.
Textbooks and game manuals should be treated equally
Learning with a peer often produces better results than learning from an expert
“It’s only when the tide goes out that you discover who’s been swimming naked.” – Warren Buffet
When the Omaha Oracle speaks, I listen not just because he knows how to turn money into more money, but because he so often contrasts with what the chattering pundits on CNBC typically blow smoke about.
How did Bernie Madoff get away with it for so long? He did it with secrecy, confusion, and above all else he cultivated trust in the right people who would do most of the influencing for him. I’m not so interested in the financial instruments and securities details of the situation; that was mostly a fiction anyways. The man behind the curtain eventually was revealed as a simple con-man but the story of how people came to invest in him is not so simple. Watch this great video by the Wall Street Journal and notice the connection between trust and persuasion that is undeniable. It is essential to his game.
“If it was good enough for the Palm Beach Poobahs, then it says something about me too” is my favorite line from it. I think it summarizes completely the psychological reality that Madoff exploited. At first it sounds simple but it’s far more elaborate of a con game because that kind of trust wasn’t built overnight. It was trust built by status anxiety. If I was good enough for Bernie Madoff, then I am as esteemed as his famous clients whom might have reason to see me as an equal. He was a legitimate member of the inner workings of the stock market industry for nearly 40 years, but chose investor victims who were not familiar with the industry. He took advantage of the asymmetry of information that enables all abuses of power and it only came to light because the economy made folks want to pull their money faster than he was collecting it from new victims. I have no clue as to why the SEC didn’t see this coming. I suspect his pillar of the trading establishment status put a bias on the SEC who were called to investigate his investments as early as 2001.
I won’t get into the brain science behind the title’s claim because it’s already widely accepted as truth. But I think Pearl Jam’s newest tactic to re-release the album that made them a pop icon is really remarkable for their use of a game to bring attention to an album. As an act of persuasion, I think it’s effective mostly because it’s conjuring up all kinds of positive feelings I already have about the music I know I already like. It’s probably been done before, but this one is really slick. They made an interesting 3d game using my favorite web technology, Papervision3d, to unlock each of the songs from their album. It’s kind of addicting….unless you hate Pearl Jam’s music. If that’s the case, then rest assured that no one else is perfect either. I think they are my generation’s Rolling Stones and they don’t cease to entertain my ears.
Here’s a flickr group that I think is interesting. It’s dedicated to the storefronts of McDonald’s. It documents a challenging design problem for McDonalds that they seem to solve quite well. For most of the Midwestern US they simply setup along highways in underdeveloped neighborhoods which allowed them to construct their stores with a consistent design. What I think is fascinating is how it appears they had to or wanted to change their design to fit into the community design standards of places that were most certainly already developed. It’s as if they were trying to reduce community friction in places that might reject big corporate monoculture. Either way, no one can claim that McDonalds is afraid of variety and change.
I think it’s interesting to contrast the message of this song with the message of the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Are they really saying the same thing?
Google doesn’t provide this list on their book search portal, so I thought I might help them even if they don’t want it. I’ll try to keep this list up to date.
I do not know exactly where I am going with this little drop in the ocean of millions and probably soon to be billions of blogs. However, I do know that I find a great deal of things facinating and curious that I just cant keep to myself. This blog will allow me to share those things I find with you. If I am boring to you, then the solution is simple: do not read my blog. If I am facinating and provide useful information then, enjoy.
This essay was published originally in the online version of the APS Observer: This year is the 50th anniversary of the start of Stanley Milgram’s groundbreaking experiments on obedience to destructive orders — the most famous, controversial and, arguably, most important psychological research of our times. To commemorate this milestone, in this article I p […]
The self-absorbed are always in the market for a louder microphone and a shinier mirror. They also have trouble distinguishing between interested and interesting. It turns out that the best way to appear interesting to someone who cares a lot about himself is to be interested. And if you don't see that, if you're not so interested in what others […]
Growing up in a poor neighborhood significantly reduces the chances that a child will graduate from high school, according to a new study. And the longer a child lives in that kind of neighborhood, the more harmful the impact. […]
Published:October 4, 2011Paper Released:September 2011Author:Michael Luca Executive Summary: In just six years, Yelp.com has managed to crowdsource 20 million reviews of restaurants and other services by creating and leveraging an impressive social network of people who enjoy […]
Brand names in online search engine advertising campaigns can attract more attention and encourage more sales than campaigns that use generic terms, according to researchers. […]
Nah! We all love creativity. Or maybe not. New research says creative ideas make us uncomfortable. We say we want creativity in our organizations and among our employees—but we actually prefer practicality. And those folks espousing novel ideas make us antsy because we see novelty and practicality as mutually exclusive. Practical ideas are familiar and [...] […]
Television has its prime time or daypart hours, radio has its drive time. Now mobile apps have a similar set of hours where viewing is highest, thanks to new number crunching by Flurry. But if brands were looking for a concise window of time through which they could target certain demographics, they will be disappointed. 6 [...] […]
From Eureka Alert: Ever wonder why that government clerk was so rude and condescending? Or why the mid-level manager at your company always doles out the most demeaning tasks? Or, on a more profound level, why the guards at Abu Ghraib tortured and humiliated their prisoners? In a new study, researchers at USC, Stanford and the Kellogg School of Management h […]
The automobile brand has teamed up with airlines to print QR codes on the back of boarding passes to enable passengers to view Porsche's promotional materials on their mobile devices. […]
