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• July 5th, 2009

  Where's a good school to learn how to fly a helicopter?

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• June 16th, 2009

  What is the policy for selling a "fan page" on facebook.com?

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• June 9th, 2008

  What are some of your favorite sites for free-lance writers?

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• May 29th, 2008

  What's the most practical electric car in the market today?

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• May 6th, 2008

  How are music preferences correlated with characteristics of the listener?

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Answers

• June 19th, 2009

  What is the policy for selling a "fan page" on facebook.com?

  Since I posted this I decided that I’m going to have the proceeds donated to a local nonprofit.
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• June 16th, 2009

  What is the policy for selling a "fan page" on facebook.com?

  I appreciate the feedback. Richard I agree with you too that “selling out” the list would be inappropriate and offensive, regardless of the terms of service. However, what I’m thinking is that if one of the local TV stations bought it and posted news items and linked back to their site asking for additional feedback this would seem to be ok and not really that abrasive. Already I use the site to poll opinions out of personal interest and less than .01% have objected to that and choose to remove themselves from the page. I’ve also read over the Terms of Service and Terms of Use and can’t find anything verbatim that states I don’t have the right to transfer ownership whether it’s for a profit or not. Additionally, I’m willing to consider having the money go to a nonprofit. Any additional thoughts would be appreciated!
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• June 18th, 2008

  Revolution or evolution?

  I’d argue we need a renaissance. Change happens when we take old ideas and we promote them in a new context.
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• April 28th, 2008

  Why do people care more about the Academy Awards than the Nobel Prizes?

  Well, to me, personally, I’m more excited by who wins Nobel prizes than American Idol. But that’s just me. Whether it’s more important is entirely relative. I don’t know how to answer that one. If everyone was the same and thought the same things were important, that’d be kind of scary. Not to mention boring. Absurdity can be fun. There are times I enjoy amusement and not taking life too seriously. My point is that in Social Psychology there’s something called the proximity effect (at least I think this is the name of it) which states that the majority of people end up liking what they have prolonged exposure to. Advertisers definitely understand this otherwise they wouldn’t still be spending the billions of dollars that they do on their ads. Usually people who escape and transcend the mindlessness of pop culture and mainstream media either have parents, families, or teachers who at an early age expose them to the possibilities for their potential growth and expose them to other media sources and outlets. Their exposure time to science, technology, and so forth outweighs their time spent on conventional television consumption, etc., so their interests are different. If you’re really interested in this, you can dig deeper if you like and I’d be interested in hearing what you think. One of my favorite authors is John Taylor Gatto who wrote a book called The Underground History of American Education. Or if you want to get a quick, simplified overview of social stratification, check out this. In a nutshell, if everyone was smart, being smart would be less valuable on the open market (which I think is crazy but given our antiquated models of supply and demand, many thought circles still believe this) so there’s definitely a viewpoint widespread among elitist communities that suggests those in power should do what they can to limit mental development. The less scientists we have in the world, the more scientists are in demand and they get paid more, etc. I bring this up because I think media exposure is only a part of the issue here. If we ever wanted to see widespread changes, another part would need to look at developing new economic frameworks so that there doesn’t have to be a correlation between intentionally dumbing down the masses and material wealth creation. I’d like to think there’s also a spiritual component to all this too. Too many people base their very sense of self-worth and self-identity off of their intelligence, their net-worth, or whatever—if we could all just get over that, it’d be a lot easier to create a world that celebrate and encourage human potential and excellence. And even that doesn’t do it justice—it’s so inter-connected with everything else and I fear that already I’ve gone all over the place so I’ll end there. I hope you find this helpful! :)
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• April 25th, 2008

  Why do people care more about the Academy Awards than the Nobel Prizes?

  Depending on your data and how you look at the meaningfulness of the concept “average American,” the majority of the US population watches anywhere from 3–5 hours of television a day. A lot of that media consumption is entertainment focused. Compare this the amount of time those same people spend watching or consuming information about global affairs and scientific developments, what do you know, the pie chart looks like Pac Man about to finish a meal. So asking your question is like asking why people who never who receive any advertising for “Product X” don’t buy “Product X.” Mainstream culture has to be exposed to stuff repeatedly before they learn to like anything or accept it as conventional.
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