Has the latest Internet addiction actually been made relevant by a prof at UT Dallas? Quite possibly.

Professor Monica Rankin from UT Dallas observed the technologies (some) of her students were…

Check out my new Google profile.

this + my white linen suit.

Most marketers are busy trying to persuade people to buy their product. Confusion sets in, though, when you compare a pitch designed to get someone to buy any product in the category (you need an…

Sometimes things happen that are completely out of your control, and when these things happen, you need a network.  Of people, of support, of whatever it takes. One’s network is invaluable in these…

Last night Jessica showed me an essay she wrote after reading DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little. In the opening paragraph she wrote:

"

Social contract theory provides the rationale behind the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed. The starting point for most of these theories is a heuristic examination of the human condition absent from any structured social order, termed the “state of nature” or “natural state”. In this state of being, an individual’s words or action are bound only by his or her personal power, constrained by conscience. From this common starting point, the various proponents of social contract theory attempt to explain, in different ways, why it is in an individual’s rational self-interest to voluntarily subjugate the freedom of action one has under the natural state (their so called “natural rights”) in order to obtain the benefits provided by the formation of social structures.

John Locke (1689) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) are the most famous philosophers of contractarianism, which formed the theoretical groundwork of democracy.

The stated aim of the Social Contract is to determine whether there can be a legitimate political authority. Mahatma Gandhi quoted from The Social Contract on numerous occasions during his speeches. Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.[5] In order to accomplish more and remove himself from the state of nature, man must enter into a Social Contract with others.

—Social contract - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

hi

"In economics, an externality is an impact on any party not directly involved in an economic decision. An externality occurs when an economic activity causes external costs or external benefits to third party stakeholders who did not directly affect the economic transaction. Another term that often replaces externality is spillover."

—Externality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia