From my inbox five minutes ago:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN(R)) recently agreed to reduce their Registrar Transaction Fee from $.25 to $.22. What does this mean for you?

Good news. You have been credited $.03/yr for each domain name you registered or renewed dating back to July 1, 2006* — $.06 has been placed into your Go Daddy(R) account

Wow, six whole cents! I’d better not spend that all in one place!

We are living in a golden age of design. Usability is a focus of product development. Devices do what they are supposed to do. Engineering has acknowledged art, and art, engineering.

Driving that amalgamation are programs like Stanford’s Institute of Design. When I toured the d.school space during my visit, I was struck by the similarity to IDEO, perhaps because they shared a founder. Open areas, whiteboards, post-its, stimulating furniture, and ideas — so many ideas.

One of the d.school courses gives multidisciplinary teams the task of effecting “infectious action”; in this case, Firefox advocacy. The results? Some good, others better.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

After reading an article about who doesn’t get into Harvard, I wondered: who does get into Harvard these days?

If we plot the undergraduate admission rates for Harvard, MIT, and Stanford for the past seven class years, we see a trend towards higher selectivity. One driving factor is that class sizes have stayed relatively constant while the population at large has grown. Will the decline in the US birth rate ease the competition?

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

Gonzales will resign in September. Hillary will take the White House. Jordin will be the American Idol winner.

Do those scenarios sound likely? Some people find them probable enough to put money on the line. Each prediction is based on a contract price at Intrade, which is a futures market similar to the Iowa Electronic Market.

People buy contracts that pay off if certain events occur. Higher-probability event contracts fetch higher bid prices, so high prices correlate with likely events. Categories range from weather to politics, many with significant volume.

Can the markets predict outcomes? The data suggest they can.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

Let’s say you’re having an argument with somebody. Do you (a) calmly negotiate a resolution or (b) agree to disagree?

No! The correct answer is obviously (c) drive around with the person before stopping your car in the center lane of a major freeway at rush hour, getting out of the car, and throwing shoes at each other while holding up traffic.

When I drove by the altercation on my way home from work, I thought that the two women had simply had an accident. It never occured to me that the real reason would be much more bizare.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)