Thats it. It's all done. I'm selling out and finally retiring. Today I registered for Google Adsense, which means any day now adds will pop up on this site and the money will come rolling in. Mark since you'll be rich will you buy me a sports car? Relax, I'm sure I'll buy several. Last year Google pulled in $6.78 billion in revenue so I assume I'll make around that much.
Google Adsense is essentially what makes Google Google. Once this site is approved some small adds will be put on the page and for every time they are clicked I will get paid and Google will get paid. Because I directly stand to benefit I'm not legally allowed to ask people to click the links. Click fraud has actually become a huge problem in the e-commerce marketplace. Massive amounts of people have been hired before for the soul purpose of clicking up competitor costs. What makes click fraud so hopelessly unsolvable is that those who are supposed to police it (Google) are the ones who stand to benefit. Thats like the police making 50% on every bank robbery. Believe it or not Google has also noticed this and has coincidentally been involved in multiple multi-million dollar click fraud lawsuits.
This is one of my favorite commercials ever. A lot of companies try to play the same products off as being new or different. Here Burger King admits upfront that they blatantly stole the idea.
This is completely off topic but mandates a post. If you use Stumble you may have already seen these but they are unbelievable. Below are 3D drawings done with sidewalk chalk by Julian Beever.
I can't help but wonder if he got paid for any product placement on these last two.
Welcome to college. You now must independently maximize utility through rational decision making...aka Whoohoo no parents! As an economics enthusiast, I love trying to comprehend the marginal costs and marginal benefits of everyday life. One major quandary of MCs and MBs students analyze on a daily basis (whether or not they realize it or not) is a timeless center piece of every college experience.
Should I skip class or not?
If attendance is taken daily, you don't really understand the subject matter and there's and exam next week, odds are you should probably go to class.
Sometimes the decision to skip is a no brainer. For instance, last semester I took a class at Geneseo with a professor who will remain nameless, although anyone who goes to Geneseo probably already knows who I'm talking about. The midterm and final exams were each 20 True or False questions based on about 30 pages of reading (anyone with half a brain could easily narrow it down to the ten pages questions would be based on). The only other graded material was written work based on text examples. Not only was attendance not taken, but students were actively encouraged by the professor not to go to class. The first day of class he opened with
"Everyone in this class gets a B. A handful of you will get A's, another handful will get C's, but almost everyone gets a B. In the history of this class nobody has ever failed. I see that all of you have come today, although its a beautiful day so I have no idea why. If I were you I certainly wouldn't be here".
He went on to explain that students didn't need to go to class and that there was no reason to brown nose because he didn't plan on learning anyones names anyway. "If you see me on campus and say hi, I will be happy to wave and say hi back, just be aware I have no idea, nor do I care, who you are."
The reason he didn't care about student attendance or involvement was because in order to complete the writing assignments you had to write them in the text book and hand in the whole book at the end of the year. The catch? He wrote the textbooks which cost about $175 each! The class was essentially a scam where students could buy an easy B for $175. I however still attended a fair amount of classes because this guy has clearly figured out something the rest of us haven't. Not to mention 2/3 of the classes consisted of him telling hilarious stories about his fraternity days at Geneseo.
There are times however where the "to skip or not to skip" dilemma is more of a gray area. So many factors contribute to this momentous, yet sometimes trivial decision. Luckily, fellow college student Jim Filbert has made a true contribution to the academic community, the "Should I Skip Class Calculator". The way the calculator works is you answer about ten questions about the class and it then generates an answer telling you whether or not you should go. The calculator essentially determines the marginal costs of skipping class that day. It takes into account the potential factors that contribute to the overall costs such as:
-How often the class meets -How many weeks of class are in a semester -How many times you have already skipped -Your current standing in the class -When your next major quiz or test is -If you would miss some kind of small daily quiz -Whether or not there is an attendance policy and if so what kind. -How much exam material you would miss by not going -Whether or not important announcements are frequently made in class. -Whether or not you can get important lecture notes/information before next class
Although the calculator does a great job of quantifying marginal costs it doesn't offer any insight regarding marginal benefits. For instance when I used to attend the University of Vermont there would be a lot less kids in class on days when the mountains got a foot of snow or more. On an average day the marginal costs outweighed the marginal benefits, however when it dumped the marginal benefit of an epic powder day outweighed the marginal costs of skipping.
(talk about an awesome marketing campaign)
While surfing the internet I also came across this really cool thing called scanR. ScanR allows students to take pictures of class notes,overheads or whiteboards with a camera phone. It then uploads clean PDF versions of the notes to Facebook so you can share notes with friends. All you need to use it is a camera phone and an account. Here's a video of how it works.
While behavioral and nonmonetary economics (decision making not involving money) can be insightful it doesn't always account for emotional or personal factors. In the book "Freakonomics" the author examines a company that provided bagels to corporate offices. The bagels would be dropped off each morning and a box would be placed next to the bagels with a sign asking employees to pay for however many they took. From a purely monetary/logical standpoint the company shouldn't have made any money. Yet, the amount left in the box at the end of the day was always right on target for what the bagels should have cost. Would stealing a bagel really result in a free bagel? Obviously not since people still paid for them. Apparently stolen bagels are more expensive than free bagels because they have a greater cost, guilt.
Guilt is a major factor of skipping class that neither of the tools mentioned in this post address. Growing up in America, we are instilled with what many refer to as "The Protestant Work Ethic". If you are not being productive, then you are somehow doing something wrong. Often times this leads to unnecessary productivity (if you can really call unnecessary productivity productivity) that is triggered by guilt instead of logic. When most students skip class on some level they feel like they have let somebody down, even if they haven't. I remember once me and a friend were walking to a class we both knew was unnecessary but felt obliged to go to (the same one previously mentioned). When we got there there was a sign on the door saying class was cancelled that day. Walking back, we realized this was the best scenario possible. Even though we weren't going to get anything out of going to class that day we were still relieved of the guilt we would have felt had we skipped without knowing it had been cancelled. Maybe an additional question the "Should I Skip Class Calculator" should ask is "How guilty would you feel about skipping this class?"
Here's a Stephen Colbert interview with conservative strategist Mary Matalin. There is something about this woman that sends chills down my spine. Her "Give a man a fish, teach a man to fish" reference bothers me in so many ways I'm not sure where to start.
First off, Jesus never said that nor is it in the bible. The quote she was trying to incorrectly apply was actually said 400 years before Jesus by Lao Tzu (thanks comment section of video). Second, if that quote was to be used by anyone as manipulative rhetoric it should be liberals. When you say teach a man to fish that implies sacrificing your own resources to help someone else better themselves. I would consider that quote more supportive of better public schools than free market economics. Maybe she should have said "Catch as many fish as you can, sell them, invest in some boats and nets then catch all the fish and under sell your competitors. Now that your fellow fishermen have no lively-hood, pay them the lowest wage possible to catch more fish for you than that wage is worth. Now give somebody a fish so you look charitable."
I was initially excited to hear he was interviewing a well respected conservative strategist. Unfortunately, as Colbert points out, she does a great job of saying absolutely nothing throughout the entire interview. His lead in to the interview says it all "I'll be interviewing conservative strategist...I'll ask her if she came up with "NO"." No seems to be the official stance of the conservative party these days. I've always been more of a free market guy myself but at this point I find myself so alienated by their hysteric rhetoric that supporting them seems laughable.
Last semester the essay question on my final exam for marketing was "How will Tiger Woods' recent scandal affect the Tiger Woods brand?" The answer was that it wouldn't have any significant effect in the long run because the demographic his brand is marketed towards is young men. What that really means is that Bros don't give a shit! Other than doling out a few spontaneous high fives and sexist comments, his core demographic, aka Bros, has remained unaffected, if not encouraged. Despite this, Tiger Woods has still lost a few sponsors that reach beyond the bromographic such as Gatorade and Accenture because "slam pieces" also get thirsty and desire financial stability. CEO of Tag Heuer Jean-Christophe Babin says Tiger's brodultary has actually encouraged them to increase bromotions featuring Tiger Woods. According to Babin
"In China conversely you have Tag Heuer with Tiger Woods everywhere because [with] the Chinese it rather increases their esteem," he said. "In China, by tradition, your success is measured by your number of mistresses."
I hate contributing to meaningless brosteria and wasn't planning on making a post about the scandal but after reading a post on BrosLikeThisSite.com I couldn't resist. The entire post is basically a hilarious explanation of why my essay answer is correct. I highly recommend reading the whole thing These two excerpts pretty much say it all.
"November 27, 2009 bros hit the fucking jackpot. It was on this day that one of our favorite athletes, video games, and Gatorade flavors became so much more. It was on this day that Tiger Woods became the fucking man. As news emerged about the porn stars, reality TV sluts, and waitresses from shitty restaurants that Tiger had banged, bro-haters across the world decided to judge him by spewing brocial slurs such as “sinner,” “sexual deviant,” “liar,” “creep,” or “pervert.” While all these hateful words emerged across the country, there were only two words that came to any true bro’s mind: “Bro. King.” Bros fucking love Tiger Woods."
"Bros have always supported Tiger Woods, but it took a late night Ambien and Vicodin fueled car crash to truly open every bros’ eyes. This weekend as he makes a comeback against all odds with society constantly judging his every move, bro everywhere will be there to support their fallen Bro King. For years, only the Token Black Bro wearing the Nike hat and red shirt on Halloween for the sixth straight year were able to make the claim. But now, thanks to his sacrifice for the rights of his fellow bros everywhere, we are all now able to honestly declare: “I am Tiger Woods.” Your throne awaits, Tiger. Fire away."
