Nick's Blog

Nor-Cal Life and Adventures in Entrepreneurship

Entries for the ‘Education’ Category

Totino’s Pizza: Cheap Calories

I’ve been spoiled by Bryn’s excellent cooking for almost three years now.  Before that, I was more interested in the most efficient ways to get the necessary calories into my body.
One of the best (read: worst) products I found was Totino’s Party Pizza.  These little frozen pizzas would go on sale for $1 , and [...]

Strategic Default: The Next Big Thing In Real Estate

You heard it here first:
By the end of this year, “strategic default” will be a familiar media buzzword describing the next phase of the foreclosure crisis.
In a strategic default, mortgage borrowers who owe more than their house is worth, but who can afford their loan payment, decide it is simply smarter to stop paying.  In [...]

PZEV – “Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle”

Have you seen these PZEV stickers and badges on cars?  It stands for “partial zero emissions vehicle.”

The acronym was devised by the State of California, which makes sense, because it makes no sense.  What part of zero are we talking about?
PZEV Defined
A partial zero emissions vehicle has zero evaporative emissions from its fuel system, [...]

The Stand Up Economist

This guy was totally my professor for Econ 200!

He was a great teacher.  It was one of my favorite classes at UW.  Definitely a quirky sense of humor though.

Marriage Tax Penalty

While we were home over the holidays, some friends — who have a “real” wedding planned for next summer — rushed to the courthouse to get their “legal” wedding on the books before the new year.  The reasoning was that they could save money on taxes.  If you get married on December 31st, you can [...]

The Difference Between Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits continue to ripen after they’re picked. Vegetables don’t.
Fruits have seeds.  (Making a seedless grape a non-fruit?)
Tomato Trivia:
Despite technically being a fruit, tomatoes were legally declared to be vegetables by an 1893 Supreme Court decision.  The Supreme Court was ruling on the matter because vegetables like tomatoes being imported into the US were subject to [...]

Is Gift-Giving Futile?

According to some economists, the annual tradition of holiday gift-giving creates a massive “deadweight loss” in our overall utility.  The reason?  Gift recipients don’t value the gifts as much as they cost.
In Scroogenomics, author and University of Pennsylvania economics professor Joel Waldfogel explains that, on average, people value items they receive as gifts 20% less [...]

The Science of Motivation

Traditional means of motivation in the workplace (rewards, incentives, commissions), sometimes do more harm than good.  In this video, Dan Pink makes the case that for the complex tasks faced by today’s workforce, “intrinsic” motivators — autonomy, mastery, and purpose — are far more effective than the traditional “carrot-and-stick” methods.  It’s kind of long, but [...]

Capitalism: A Love Story

We went to see the latest Michael Moore movie over the weekend.  In Capitalism, he calls into question the economic principles of our country.  I’m not the biggest Michael Moore fan in the world, but he’s a good storyteller, and there were some scary stories to tell.  Among them:

A city that privatizes its juvenile detention [...]

You Snooze, You Lose

Monday morning special.
The snooze alarm.  Those extra 9 minutes of sleep feel so good, but it turns out snoozing can actually make you more tired.
Sleep researchers say the deepest, most restful sleep occurs in the early morning hours just before the alarm goes off.  By setting the alarm earlier than you need to get up, [...]