Springtime In South Texas

I left my home in Central Texas early this afternoon. It was a beautiful spring day. The morning air was so crisp and pure that we opened all the windows and aired out the house. The sky was a deep, deep, wonderfully vibrant shade of blue that made me want to sing, or do cartwheels, or both (disregarding the fact that I can't do either). Birds were singing, butterflies were flitting about, squirrels were chattering ... I even heard a turkey gobbling.

Every plant was some shade of verdant green, and they were all budding, blossoming, or blooming. The wildflowers ... ah, God, the wildflowers ... they are beyond my poor powers of description. After the last couple years of drought, we've had a decent amount of rain this spring, and the wildflowers have responded, bursting forth with long-delayed passion.

When I climbed into my truck the temperature was in the high 70s and the humidity was in the mid 40s. You couldn't ask for a better day.

I rolled down the windows, cranked up the stereo, and headed south.

Sigh...

Three short hours later the temperature was 98 and the humidity was somewhere around 75. Semis were roaring hither and yon, leaving whirlwinds of dust and gravel in their wake (I've replaced one windshield and filled three chips in the new one, all in the last three months). Yes, the Eagle Ford shale play has been a great boon for the South Texas economy, but it does come at a cost. Part of that cost is a degradation of the quality of life down here. IMO it's a tradeoff worth making, but that doesn't make it any less palatable.

 

So my incredibly spirit-renewing absolutely drop-dead gorgeous spring day lasted about four hours. To top things off, tomorrow I have to face 100+ college students whose performance on last week's exam was flat-out dismal.

Usually crushing their hopes and dreams cheers me up, but after today's transition from paradise to Hades it's going to take more than that.

Like Shiners.

Many, many Shiners...

Better Living Through Technology

Every so often I get tired of all the gloom and doom that seems to pervade today's headlines. As a change of pace, I like to focus on the enjoyable aspects of my job (yes, there are a few). One of my favorites is researching the unique and creative ways emerging technology is being put to use. Here are three examples.

I.  Yesterday (April 3) marked the end of Wal-Mart’s “Get on the Shelf” campaign. It was a brilliant combination of reality TV and social media.

Zombie repellant might not be something you expect to find on the shelf at Walmart. Or, for that matter, puppy shoes.

Wal-Mart dubbed its contest the "Get on the Shelf" program — an American Idol-style competition for small businesses. Two rounds of online voting will determine three winners, all of which will be sold online, with the grand prize winner gaining a spot in select stores.

For Wal-Mart, it's all about garnering publicity and social-media hits. But for the winner of the contest, it's a chance to go from a virtual unknown to a distinguished product sold with roughly 150,000 others at more than 3,800 Wal-Mart stores nationally.

What a great idea. In addition to the favorable publicity and flood of new Facebook friends, Wal-Mart gets a ton of free market research. And some small business gets an incredible opportunity – that same free publicity, plus what just might be the most expensive per-square foot real estate in the world: Wal-Mart shelf space.

II.  On a smaller scale, there’s a website that connects buyers and sellers of anything – any good or service – as long as it’s priced at five dollars. There is a truly bizarre assortment of things people are willing to do or sell for five dollars. For example:

• I will dance to 2 minutes of any song of your choice in a hot dog costume for $5
• I will sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm in Hebrew and send you the voice file by email for $5
• I will make the sounds of animals in Ukrainian language and send you mp3 file for $5
• I will sing 'Happy Birthday to you' in Welsh, wearing only a Welsh flag thong and woolen hat…
• I will photoshop your face onto the movie poster of your choosing for $5
• I will draw you as an animal for $5
• I will shout anything you want in a banana costume for $5

But it’s not all fun and games. There are some serious business offers out there as well.

• I will improve your website with 10 tips for $5
• I will transcribe 15 minutes of audio for $5
• I will install the latest version of WordPress for you for $5
• I will write product reviews of 800+ words for $5
• I will make you an android app business card for $5
• I will help you write an attention grabbing elevator speech or 30 second introduction for $5

It’s an intriguing mix ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Check it out.

III.  Finally, we have an organization that encourages people to visit small local businesses en masse and spend money at those locations.

Modeled on the flashmob concept, these Cash Mobs use social media in an attempt to positively impact community businesses.

The idea started last fall when Buffalo blogger Chris Smith envisioned using the purchase power of flash mobs to help small businesses. He set a few ground rules: each person should try to spend $20 and pay full price for items. He says this sets cash mobs apart from other social media deals.

“What you get with a Groupon or a Living Social deal is a one-time injection. And it’s not necessarily a profitable injection. You’re having to cut your prices so significantly. With this, because we ask people to spend a little time in the store, we encourage the entrepreneur to spend a little time with the shoppers, talk about the products they have. It builds a relationship that you don’t get with a coupon.”

Will it work long-term? I have no idea, although it’s off to a good start.

Now, nearly 200 cash mobs have cropped up in 35 states and a handful of countries, mostly through word of mouth online.

Another incredible idea. It's a simple concept using simple technology, but it has the potential to help struggling small businesses across the country.

I've challenged my students to take advantage of one or more of these opportunities, and to let me know what happens. I'd love to know if anyone out there tries it, and what the results are.

The most you can lose is $5...

If You've Never Done This Raise Your Hand - Anyone?

A large part of my job is conducting research projects. I enjoy it, but it has its challenges. When doing research involving human subjects, one of those challenges is finding a sufficient number of qualified participants.

For example, if I'm researching the factors influencing smart phone adoption by older Americans, I need to find a large enough sample of mature subjects who use smart phones, along with a similarly-sized sample of older people who don't use smart phones (for compare-and-contrast purposes). Each sample has to be large enough so I can control for other factors such as gender, ethnicity, income levels, education, and so forth.

That need for compare-and-contrast samples is a requirement for just about any research study involving people. As the researchers running this particular study found out, in some cases that's easier said than done.

Pornography study doomed to fail after scientists couldn't find a single man who hadn't viewed X-rated material

Scientists studying the effects of pornography fell at the first hurdle - after failing to find a man who had not viewed X-rated material.

The researchers were comparing the views of men in their 20s who had never been exposed to pornography to regular users.

But Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse, of Montreal University in Canada, said: 'We started our research seeking men who had never consumed pornography. We couldn't find any.'

And they're surprised why, exactly?

I guess they could have gone to Utah and asked some of those good Mormon youth. Or perhaps the Amish in Pennsylvania. But it appears that they limited their search to Canada. Given the winters that our neighbors to the north experience, it's no surprise that the young men up there turn to porn. After all, there's just so much hockey a guy can watch.

But like all good researchers, Dr. Lajeunesse is nothing if not flexible.

Although hampered in its original aim, the study was then changed to examine the habits of men who regularly used porn.

It found single young men viewed such material on average for 40 minutes three times a week, compared with those in relationships, who watched it 1.7 times a week for 20 minutes.

Those of us in the research business just love findings like these, because they can lead to further studies and, with a little bit of luck, even government funding. For example, do those young men in a relationship view porn alone or with their significant others? Why do the porn-viewing episodes of single young men last twice as long as involved young men? Is there a difference in the type of porn viewed by the two groups? And so on and so forth.

The search for truth is often long and arduous, but it's something we academics are committed to...