thinkPhD

The website FreeRice.com has two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

How do they do this? The website has a vocabulary game that offers a word and one-word definitions. You pick a definition and every time you get the answer correct, the organization or sponsor listed at the bottom of the page donates grains of rice. The words get progressively harder. If you miss a word, the word will be repeated later which enhances your learning. If you are an ESL (English as a Second Language) student, this is a great way to increase your vocabulary. Word associations are a fantastic way to learn language and enhance your own vocabulary.

The donated rice is distributed by the WFP (United Nations World Food Program).  The WFP has distributed the donated rice to Myanmar, Uganda, Bangladesh and others. It takes about 19,200 grains of rice to equal 400 grams, which is the amount distributed per person by WFP.

Playing a free and fun game may not seem like much, but thousands are playing every day. Your winning “gifts” are combined with others’ and together we can make a difference in the lives of the hungry. Visit FreeRice.com today and play your part in reducing world hunger.

I received my graded Assignment 3 back this week and was pleasantly surprised - I received an excellent grade. Comments indicated that I was on the right path all along. That assignment had wording that really needs to be improved. So, how did I celebrate? Why, I continued working on Assignment 4, of course!

Today I am about half way through the essay and bumping up against the word count. I will table this for a few days and come back to it with fresh eyes.

I received my graded assignment 3 Demand Analysis and scored a 99%. I had just a grammatical error or two and a point was deducted. Ouch! Dr. P. continued to complement me on my clear writing style and made some comments in the margin that let me know that I was on track. She liked the examples that I gave and commented on Ben Bernanke’s quoted observation:

“In coming decades, many forces will shape our economy and our society, but in all likelihood no single factor will have as pervasive an effect as the aging of our population.”

To illustrate elasticity of demand, I discussed the Forever Stamp and hunting license fees in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I observed that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) did not have good information when the decision was made to increase licenses by $5 in 2006. They sold just 316 licenses less than the previous year and revenue increased by $5.4MM. However, since quantity demanded was inelastic and raising the price by 4.2% only meant a .02% reduction in number sold, the VDGIF apparently needs to take an ECON101 class.  They left money on the table when increasing licenses by $5; they could have increased the price by twice that.

 The next assignment is on Production and Cost Analysis, chapters 8- 10 in the Thomas and Maurice text. The Discussion Question involves whether or not tolls would decrease congestion on highways. The paper is a comparison between production and cost in the short term and production and cost in the long term.

I am almost through the chapters and should start on the writing later today.

thinkPhD now has its own web domain: www.thinkphd.com ! I decided to host it independently rather than stay on Wordpress so that I can have more flexibility with content and file size. If you are subscribed to this blog, then you should continue to receive blog post updates. Celebrate! Woo hoo!

Much has happened since my last post. We have finally found a great house in Richmond. It is really nice inside and I will have plenty of room for my large office desk. I think we are going to really love this house. In the meantime, I started a new class on April 1st but have been traveling so much that I have not written the first paper. I hope to get started this week on the first assignment. Now that we have an accepted offer on the house we can move forward. We are so excited!