Articles

Paul Bloom has written a thought-provoking article over on Slate. In “Does Religion Make You Nice?”, he suggests that the American perception of atheism may be a contributing factor to the idea that atheists are immoral people. Of particular interest to me was a study that was cited. In one of their own studies, they primed half the participants with a spirituality-themed word jumble (including the words divine and God) and gave the other half the same task with nonspiritual words. Then, they gave all the participants $10 each and told them that they could either keep it or share their cash reward with another (anonymous) subject. Ultimately, the spiritual-jumble group parted with more than twice as much money as the control. ...

[Source: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency] Fifty Years of Popular Songs Condensed Into Single Sentences A handful of my favorites from the list: The White Stripes, “My Doorbell” Using metaphor, I want to do it with you. Duran Duran, “Rio” I’d love to do that chick dancing on the sand. Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind” The Man is currently doing it to you. Elvis Presley, “Jailhouse Rock” ...

At the risk of revealing my status as a geek, I will admit to having a double CD of John Williams’ compositions. However, that’s nothing compared to the phenomenal Star Wars video that moosebutter has released worldwide on YouTube today. The video is title “Star Wars” - an a capella tribute to John Williams. You can watch it below. The lyrics to the song can be found at the moosebutter site. ...

[via ze frank] Patrick Moberg, an illustrator, made a fun caricature of the 44 Presidents of the United States. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1440.0”] November 4, 2008[/caption] The high-resolution version is on his site.

For those lucky enough to be in a district that uses electronic voting machines, you may think that technology has not changed much since the last election. However, the technology showcased at this election was not something for voters to touch, but rather to watch. As part of their coverage last night, CNN debuted the first hologram interview on television. Those in the information technology field have known about this for a little while (Cisco did a live demonstration of it), but to see it used by mainstream media makes it a whole new ball game. Imagine what this will do for awards ceremonies, televised interviews, and other events where many people from disparate locations must congregate. ...

Jessica Hagy has been around the Internet for some time. Most people know her for her site, Indexed, which has become a staple of Word Wide Web surfers everywhere. If you’ve yet to experience the fun, I suggest you head on over and check her site out. I am subscribed to the Indexed e-mail feed so each morning, I get an index card in my Inbox. This was today’s. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“373.0”] How to Waste Your Life[/caption] ...

The origin of the alliterative phrase “proper preparation prevents poor performance” is unknown to me, but I know where I first heard it. My fifth grade teacher in Catholic grade school ground that mantra into our heads. Combine it with the Boy Scouts’ “Be Prepared” motto, and you should have a recipe for success. Except that there are times when even proper preparation misses a step. It’s all part of the learning process. So it is that I humble myself to the great MySQL prep gods and bow in deference to those who came before me writing documentation so that I would not repeat the same mistake. ...

November has coming screaming along to warn of the end of yet another year. Where did the time go? With the arrival of the chill winds and brisk weather, comes Ramit’s Save $1000 in 30 Days Challenge. It looks like fun and is easy enough, so I decided to give it a go. You should, too. You don’t have to save $1000 if you don’t have that much money left over, but it’s worth trying to reach that goal. ...

[via Harvard Business Online] There is some interesting research at Lehigh University about the level of deception used in communications mediums. The studies compare e-mail to pen(cil)-and-paper communication methods. A pair of recent studies suggest that e-mail is the most deceptive form of communications in the workplace–even more so than more traditional kinds of written communications, like pen-and-paper. More surprising is that people actually feel justified when lying using e-mail, the studies show. ...

A few years ago, Yale University did a study which revealed the twelve words in this post title as the most powerful words in the English language. Marketers were quick to add a powerful thirteenth word – free. Internet marketing has managed to severely dilute the efficacy of the word “free”, but it still manages to get people’s attention whether it is on a billboard, a web ad, or a newspaper circular. Ashley Morgan at Upstart Blogger makes a good point about driving traffic to your blog by giving something away for free. ...