Moral Capital

Sure, getting organic bok choy and phosphate-free toilet-bowl cleaner can make you feel good about yourself, but how good? And does buying green translate into more redeeming behavior overall? Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto conducted three experiments on 305 subjects to find out. It turns out that just being exposed to green products - seeing a TV commercial or walking by an organic store -- created a "halo effect" that makes people more charitable and trusting. But actualy buying green products was like getting a license for hypocrisy: After a purchase, the green consumers were more likely to lie and steal.

Mazar points out that more and more consumers are buying green and socially responsible products, which gives them "moral capital" (ak.a. a superiority complex).

Popular Science August 2010

11-Year-Old Genius Says Video Games A Waste Of Time

11-Year-Old Genius Says Video Games A Waste Of Time

inspiring.

don't make your bed

let's say that you spend a minimum of 5 minutes making our beds each morning. in a year, you spent 30 hours making your bed. you could have spent each 5 minutes to read a page out of a book instead.

I don't structure the blankets on my bed. I don't see the point in ordering the blankets when I'm just going to disorganize them later. I wonder how much time the average person wastes in a life time structuring their blankets. If your bed is against a wall, you have to move your entire bed to 'make your bed' adding the wasted time. I don't think anyone should take pride in fixing their bed. "I'm a responsible and disciplined person because I fix my bed" says the wrong person, but the truth is that you could take pride in having read maybe more than just one entire book by the end of the year. If someone uses their bed as a work place, I can see the point in making the bed, but you could always just move the top blanket aside.

how many clicks?

blogspot:
to blog a new post on blogspot is 3 clicks (if i'm logged in)
1. clicking www.blogspot.com
2. clicking "new post"
3. clicking "publish post"

facebook:
depends on what you do there but that takes about 5 clicks as well

gmail
takes about 5 clicks to open chats with some friends and check some mails

google reader
takes about 5 clicks too... i wish google reader and google talk would come together so I didn't ahve to be on gmail for google talk and google reader at the same time. i'm not sure how much memory and bandwidth that takes up.

bottom line is that I can't wait for google wave. where else is that awesome spell checker being implemented?

Grease Monkey

I just started using Grease Monkey with Mozilla Firefox. Grease Monkey ends the debate for me. Until Google Chrome supports Grease Monkey (I don't know that Chrome does yet), I'm going to be using Firefox. Java Scripts and Grease Monkey are ultra useful. For example, I just installed a script that allows me to highlight any text, press a key for instance 'w' that automatically wikis the highlighted text or if I press 'g' the highlighted text is googled in a new tab. I had to modify the script a bit since the searches were in French. I even added my own search key to the script to translate any word I highlight in English to Spanish at wordreference.com.

Programming for Phones

I would like to learn how to program for cell phones. I was just reading John Carmack's blog where he talks about his whole journey into programming games for cell phones. I like the idea of programming for cell phones for pretty much the same reason John Carmack likes programming for cell phones: cell phone programs are easier to show off. I'd like if I could port the scrabble cheater program I'm working on to cell phones.

Scrabble Cheater is not an amazing deal of a program but fun to have around just in case anyone wants to play scrabble and you are in the mood to win unfairly.

Youtube for Learning or Brain Deterioration

I've seen so many videos on youtube but most of them were a complete waste of time. I suppose laughing and having fun is healthy but sometimes youtube videos are plain retarded(e.g. fred, blue berry pie). On the other hand, youtube can also be used for educational purposes (e.g. calculus, how to moon walk). I used antiRTFM's channel on youtube to clarify some C++ concepts. The reason I wanted to write about youtube and educational purposes is because of an article written by a specialist in the future that explains how in the future education won't be classroom-centered. Sometimes we're just bored of reading a textbook; having a voice explain difficult concepts while you lay down in bed is relaxing. Recently professors at MIT have had their lectures uploaded onto youtube. If you want an alternative to learning from the textbook, something a little more personal, youtube is a great place to go.


see response to internet education by biology professor at U of Toronto, Larry Moran
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-universities-survive.html