Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts

Free shipping worth more than a big discount

From TechDirt:

“For years, there have been controversies (especially among financial types) over whether or not e-commerce shops should offer free shipping, especially as some fear that it takes too big a bite out of the bottom line. However, there’s more to free shipping than just the saved money. Researchers are finally starting to look at the psychological draw of free shipping deals. It turns out that people are much happier with free shipping deals than if they just got a discount. There’s just something about getting free shipping that feels right — which could explain why some people get upset when they feel the free shipping is really a bait and switch offer. This points at an issue that isn’t really covered in the original article. One of the reasons why people like free shipping so much is that they don’t feel tricked at the end of a purchase. Too often, online retailers hide excessive shipping and handling fees and only make them show up at the end. This makes people feel tricked…”

Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Where did the whole "give an apple to the teacher" thing come from?

Ask Yahoo! has the answer to this applelicious question: “Kids who really want good grades should consider giving their teachers Apple computers or iPods. If that’s not possible, however, fruit remains a tasty option. Apples have a long history of greasing the wheels of education. Take notes — here’s how the classroom corruption began…” Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Catching the brain rain

From 43 Folders: “Warm, Partly Cloudy, 100% Chance of Brain Rain — I like James’ ideas for catching the “brain rain” — a way of setting aside a few minutes each day for firewalled creativity through idea generation and capture. This kind of habit could fit nicely into an end-of-day ritual, maybe before a quick review and daily cleanup.” Read the entire post for the how-to. Nifty! Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Chad's Design For Television (1960)

From A-HAA!: “Remember those matchbooks that said ‘Draw Me!’ on the front? They advertised a correspondence course called ‘Famous Artists’. Everyone made fun of ‘draw Binky the Skunk any size but the same size’ – but the truth of the matter was that the Famous Artists Course was no laughing matter – it was one of the best art instructional courses ever created…”

Read the entire post for some great background info on Chad Grothkopf, one of the great animators. Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Earthquake safety testing

From CNET News: “Video: Earthquake safety testing. Japan’s Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center tests real houses under earthquake conditions. This video shows the difference between two actual wooden houses, the one on the right retrofitted to limit damage.” Very cool! Here is the link.

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