Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo will speak Thursday afternoon at the TED conference about parallels between his infamous 1971 “prison experiment” at Stanford and prisoner abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq more than 30 years later. Wired.com has an exclusive video from Zimbardo’s talk, featuring Abu Ghraib photos he says are previously unseen.
Posted in Ethics, Leadership, Learning, Research, Science | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
With 1.6 million people in prison, the incarceration rate is now the highest in American history, a new report says.
Posted in Ethics, Human Interest, Research | Tagged: prison, rehabilitation, society | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
One of the most fascinating talks at the TED conference so far was given by Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, who gave a riveting account of a stroke she experienced in 1996.
Posted in Ethics, Health, Research, Science | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
In spotted hyenas, scientists are finding clues to why the human brain grew so large and complex.
Posted in Animals, Human Interest, Research, Science | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
E-mail, a tactical mainstay of many campaigns, saw open rates dip worldwide during the second half of 2007, according to data from e-mail list management company MailerMailer. Still, some e-mail tactics performed better than others.
Posted in Marketing, Research | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
A more detailed analysis of a fossil thigh bone yielded strong evidence that the species Orrorin tugensis stood and walked on its hind limbs.
Posted in Research, Science | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Maybe I need to re-consider running as an exercise option. Just wish it were not so hard on my knees.
That blissful mood after an intense workout is no coincidence, a study shows.
Posted in Health, Research, Science | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on April 6, 2008
I highly recommend this article, “Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind.” It really got me thinking, since I struggle with willpower issues daily and it offers new insight on the subject. (For more, see also, “How to Boost Your Willpower,” in the NYT Health blog.)
The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others.
Ah, that could explain quite a few things!
The brain’s store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task.
The starting point for the article is that as the economy tanks and people have to cut back on spending, they may gain weight at the same time, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Health, Human Interest, Research, Science | Tagged: budget, habits, neuroscience, Research, Science, weight, willpower | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 19, 2008
I’ve already written about how difficult it is to walk the talk when it comes to First Contact Resolution (FCR) — see, First Call Resolution: Great Principle, Hard to Apply.
So if you’re struggling with First Call Resolution in your center — whether to implement FCR, how to implement FCR, how to make sure what you track as FCR is meaningful — then you should be interested in ICMI’s latest Member Research Report on First Contact Resolution.
It’s free for ICMI Members. Whether you are an ICMI Member or not, you can download it right now. You’ll learn what your peers (298 call center professionals surveyed in January 200 
are doing with FCR for Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Membership, ICMI Publications, Metrics, Research, Statistics, Trends | Tagged: ICMI, Call Centers, Call Center Management, Metrics, first call resolution, first contact resolution, KPI, ICMI Membership, FCR, research report, call center metrics | No Comments »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 23, 2008
I’m thinking it’s a good thing I kicked my fixation on drinking Caffeine-Free Diet Coke. I used to drink at least one can of it a day, in part just for something to break up the afternoon while I worked. Then I bought a mini coffee maker and started making decaf coffee, instead, and my consumption of diet soda dropped way down. I hardly ever have it anymore.
So, the news widely reported about diet sodas significantly increasing one’s health risks was disturbing, but at least I’ve already taken steps to avoid it: “Symptoms: Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda.”
Researchers have found a correlation between drinking diet soda and metabolic syndrome — the collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes that include abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and blood glucose levels, and elevated blood pressure.
Not a good thing, for sure. And by “significant” increase in risk, we’re not talking scientific mumbo-jumbo, but big numbers that anyone can grasp: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Health, Research, Science | Tagged: diet soda, Health, metabolic syndrome, Research, Science | No Comments »
