Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-26-2008

[andrewducker]

• The Ten Best Ways for a Woman to Impress a Man
  (tags: funny relationships tips sex men women)
• The Reckoning: Dollar Shift
  Chinese Pockets Filled as Americansâ™ Emptied
  (tags: economics usa china)
• Brain Reorganizes To Make Room For Math
  In addition, Ansari and his colleagues find that nearby parts of the brain, in the parietal cortex, contribute far more to both number understanding and the ability to estimate quantities in adults than they do in children. At the same time, both types of numerical knowledge recruit the prefrontal cortex far more in youngsters than in adults, according to the scientists.
  (tags: science psychology research numbers brains neuroscience)
• The Sin in Doing Good Deeds
  Hereâ™s a question for the holiday season: If a businessman rakes in a hefty profit while doing good works, is that charity or greed? Do we applaud or hiss?
  (tags: economics business charity)

Comments

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Link 1 -

I actually think this should be taken with less salt :) Although, its a bit of a revolving cycle; when a man adores a woman, he will think shes got great personality, sense of human, is more beautiful (than the rest of the world perceives).

[andrewducker]

But you _Are_ beautiful, with an amazing personality!

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

But of course, I know that :P

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

*wonders what a "sense of human" is* :)

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Whoops. Sense of humour.

I think we should release perfume "Sense of Human" :D

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Surely that's Scents of Human - although admittedly not all scents of human are that pleasant :)

As for the charity article:

[sterlingspider.livejournal.com]

I was involved in a volunteer run, not-for-profit group running a sci-fi convention for about a decade, finally leaving after a five or so year stint on the BOD and a two year run as the Event Coordinator. After a very short time in that sort of position a few things make themselves painfully obvious.

Pretty much the only motivation/reward a volunteer has is the knowledge of a job well done, and the only "hiring" criteria is a willingness to (say they are going to) do a particular job.

There is absolutely no accountability whatsoever, and so in this one instance shit actually rolls uphill.

If a volunteer is MIA their job falls to the organizers or doesn't get done. If they don't think a particular aspect of a job is important it falls to the organizers or doesn't get done. If they are inept the job falls to the organizers or doesn't get done (as well as mitigating any resulting aftermath). "Firing" volunteers often royally pisses off the other volunteers and generally means starting over from scratch on whatever they were doing (potentially without critical materials they may have taken with them).

In every instance except the top tier of organizers (who are generally where they are because they are both some manner of obsessive masochist and were probably the only people to actually do their jobs well when they started out) you get exactly what you pay for.

So while Dan Pallotta's income may have been nearly double the full budget of my convention, as long as the practices of the charity were well advertised, the people in the organization treated well, and the spirit of the event in the right place I say he's welcome to it.

(sorry about the edits)