Space in the city

Product developer and marketer can gain much needed insight into customer behavior by diving into the question as to how people make choices and how choices influence their happiness. Watch the following videos on the current thinking on choices.   Video #1 - Malcolm Gladwell makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness – Embracing the diversity of human being you will find a sure way to happiness. Move away from search for universals and search for variability. Video #2 - Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. Her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions. Video #3 - Paradox of Choice - freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied. Video #4 - Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psycho...

Link to play Dan Ariely talk at TED click here Read more at Dan Ariely's blog Are we going to forget what we just learned? 28th April 2009, 08:52 am Paul Krugman published an op-ed yesterday about exec salaries . The very sad conclusion he comes to is that because the financial markets seem to be on an improving trajectory (although it is hard to know if this reflects a real improvements in the economy yet) the push to reform the banks could die off. As Krugman puts it: “In 2008, overpaid bankers taking big risks with other people’s money brought the world economy to its knees. The last thing we need is to give them a chance to do it all over again.” We are now in a unique point in time where we just realized the mess we got ourselves into by assuming that the markets will be perfectly rational — and I sure hope we are not going to forget this painful lesson just because the market seem to be slightly higher these days. In...

Stress Test = The Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) Release Date: May 7, 2009  For release at 5:00 p.m. EDT The results of a comprehensive, forward-looking assessment of the financial conditions of the nation's 19 largest bank holding companies (BHCs) by the federal bank supervisory agencies were released on Thursday... Read more Overview of Results

In April 2007, I stumbled upon this neat web 2.0 site Greatschool.net . And in June 2007 it won the peoples choice webby award. Yahoo education website and Yahoo Real Estate website use greatschool to power their search A subscription based website - neighborhoodscout helps you find homes in good public school district. SchoolMatters gives policymakers, educators, and parents the tools they need to make better-informed decisions that improve student performance. SchoolMatters will educate, empower, and engage education stakeholders. Read more Find School, Libraries & College from - The National Center for Education Statistics ( NCES ), located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

Merisant lawyer Gregg LoCascio said in his closing argument Thursday that Splenda's makers chose not to use the phrase “does not contain sugar” on packaging, because “it was good for business.” He says Equal unfairly lost millions in sales and profits... read more More from AP -- Settlement talks began after jurors asked the judge for a calculator and expert reports from both sides on how to determine damages. Lawyers rushed to the judge's office to try to delay the jury's announcement and then huddled in a courthouse meeting room. McNeil's own consultants said its slogan confused potential customers, some of whom thought that Splenda was sugar without the calories, Merisant's attorneys said. McNeil rejected a plan to add the phrase "does not contain sugar" to the front of Splenda's yellow box, which might have cleared up the confusion, Merisant said.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as your guide, you’ll discover how to make investing a winner’s game: Why business reality—dividend yields and earnings growth—is more important than market expectations How to overcome the powerful impact of investment costs, taxes, and inflation How the magic of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs What expert investors and brilliant academics—from Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham to Paul Samuelson and Burton Malkiel—have to say about index investing More Links Search at ugenie for the lowest price (ISBN: 0470102101). Read more about it at Amazon . Read more about it at other blogs - ValueBlogReview & SeekingAlpha . Also listen to or read the transcript to John Bogle 's interview at marketplace money .

Heard on NPR ... California Institute of Technology sophomore Dvin Adalian and junior Ricky Jones, about their successful olive oil production, from olives collected from the campus's trees. hear more... From LA Times ...In October, the ripening crop snagged the attention of students Ricky Jones and Dvin Adalian. They began an exercise that might date to Socrates' pupils in ancient Greece: whacking olive trees with a stick (in this case, a plastic pipe) and collecting what falls.... Heard on Campus ...Caltech students and grounds maintenance crews got a lesson in olive cultivation recently, when Craig Makela, the president of the Santa Barbara Olive Company, came to campus. His visit was part of the Institute's new sustainability venture to turn dozens of its ornamental olive trees into a cash crop of fruit-bearing olive trees. The Institute plans to hold an olive harvest festival in the fall, which the Caltech community will be invited to participate in. After the olives...

Price optimization software now making it possible to price product based on customers behavior, sales history, competitors' price, product mix and the fact that people are hard-wired to love sales - when we see good deal (mark down), a different part of the brain lights up than with a loss (price rise) Read more about it in this AP article - Software helps some stores decide when the price is right Some results of price-optimization software: Like many national companies, one electronics retailer priced batteries the same all over — until SAP's Khimetrics software showed that consumers in Dallas were generally willing to pay more for batteries than people in Boston. The data revealed another twist: The battery that had the highest "price sensitivity" in Dallas had the lowest price sensitivity in Boston. In other words, while Texans would buy this particular battery only within a narrow price range, Bostonians were far less picky. The store altered its prices accordin...

MSN Money -Zogby customer-service survey. Read more about it click on the article below The Customer Service Hall of Shame How companies were ranked Here's a look at our full results: "Poor" "Fair" "Good" "Excellent" Bottom 10 Sprint Nextel 40% 28% 25% 7% Bank of America 30% 25% 32% 13% Comcast 30% 33% 28% 10% Time Warner Cable 29% 35% 28% 8% AT&T 26% 36% 31% 7% Citibank 24% 34% 35% 8% Wal-Mart 23% 32% 32% 13% Verizon 22% 31% 36% 11% Wells Fargo 21% 27% 38% 14% DirecTV 20% 29% 33% 17% Dishonorable mentions Dell 19% 26% 40% 15% Circuit City 19% 35% 39% 8% Best Buy 14% 31% 42% 13% Home Depot 13% 29% 43% 14% Sears 12% 33% 45% 10% Macy's 10% 30% 47% 13%

Read on PhysOrg.com The most controversial idea in the plan ( NYC Plan 2030 ), from the mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability , is a proposal to charge motorists for driving into Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Trucks would be charged $21 a day and cars would be charged $8, on top of the city's already expensive parking. It is similar to a system that London (Congestion Charge) has used since 2003, and officials there say it has significantly reduced congestion. The scheme applauded by environmentalists and alternative transportation groups , but is politically tricky for New York City because it would have to be enacted by the state Legislature , and many lawmakers from outer boroughs and the suburbs may not support it. Read Full speech hear -- Click here

Found this article about " Why Johnny can't save for retirement". Great article and from a very good show. Sadly, the show " Wall $treet Week with FORTUNE" is off the air since 2005 . You should read this if you want to understand the following 401K Behavioral economics Neuroconservatism Libertarian paternalism Richard Thaler Here is the article Why Johnny can't save for retirement Money decisions are hard. It's not that we're stupid—we're just not wired properly. How brain science is changing the way we think about 401(k)s, Social Security, and the whole notion of retirement planning. By Justin Fox, FORTUNE March 8, 2005 The first question, flashed on a screen a few inches from my eyes, is easy. Do I want an Amazon.com gift certificate worth $16.31 today, or one worth $16.31 a month from now? Even with my head and upper body wedged into a magnetic resonance imaging machine that clatters like an unmuffled motorcycle engine as it scans ...