Moneybox: Weak-Willed? There?s an App for That.

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Moneybox Weak-Willed? There's an App for That.  Meet GymPact, a new company that wants to charge you for not exercising. By Matthew Yglesias Posted Tuesday, Jan 03, 2012, at 09:10 PM ET Welcome to January, the month of broken promises. Each December we take stock of our lives and decide where we'd like to see improvement, confirming our aspirations with New Year's resolutions. Sadly, resolutions are shattered as swiftly as they're made: You're probably already wavering on that one to skip dessert. Change, after all, is hard. If you really wanted to act differently you probably wouldn't need a resolution to persuade you to change. But perhaps there is a way to use a different set of incentives to persuade us to behave ourselves. The new startup GymPact is betting on the idea that Americans want to get better at resolving. To put it another way, they believe there's a market for a service that will do little more than charge you money for not going to the gym. The fundamental problem of weakness of the will has plagued mankind from time immemorial. The ancient Greeks had a special word for it, akrasia, which comes down to us in part because Plato found it so vexing that he decided it was impossible, writing that "no one goes willingly toward the bad, or what he believes to be bad" and that apparent instances must in fact represent some form of ignorance. Modern behavioral economists, less interested in the metaphysical issues, call it "time-inconsistent preferences" and have simply documented that it occurs systematically in ways that undermine the neoclassical modeling assumptions of humans as rational utility maximizers. We ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Weigel: How Ron Paul Diehards Plan To Keep His Campaign Alive After Iowa What the Iowa Caucuses Would Look Like if They Really Were a Horse Race Was Matt Flynn's Amazing Performance Sunday a Fluke?	Advertisement
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Fracking and Earthquakes; LA's Bizarre Arson Case; Wendi Deng Twitter Hoax; and more from The Slatest.

The Slatest: January 3, 2012 Oil Prices Rise as Iran Warns US Over Aircraft Carrier Obama administration rejects Iran's demand not to return carrier to Persian Gulf. READ FULL STORY Fracking Blamed for Ohio Earthquakes State shuts down injection well after 11 small quakes in past year. READ FULL STORY LA Arson Spree Followed Arrest of Suspect's Mother Burkhart's mom is wanted in Germany for defrauding breast augmentation surgeon. READ FULL STORY Mosque Firebombing Suspect in Custody NYPD staked out car of man accused of hitting five buildings with Molotov cocktails. READ FULL STORY Wendi Deng Twitter Account is Fake Rupert Murdoch's wife did not actually chastise the mogul on Twitter. READ FULL STORY Iraq Vet Suspected in Mt. Rainier Shooting Confirmed Dead Barnes brought survival gear to snowy park, but abandoned it during getaway. READ FULL STORY Advertisement From Slate: Weigel: How Ron Paul Diehards Plan To Keep His Campaign Alive After Iowa What the Iowa Caucuses Would Look Like if They Really Were a Horse Race Was Matt Flynn's Amazing Performance Sunday a Fluke? Look What I'm Eating! And Six More Twitter Clichés From the Iowa Campaign Trail Rick Surges, Mitt Shrugs: Why a Santorum Win in Iowa Won't Change the GOP Race Eric Holder's Risky Gamble To Block a Voter ID Law in South Carolina Dennis Rodman's Hilarious, Terrible Plan To Start a Topless Women's Basketball League Gucci: The Roller Coaster History of One of Fashion's Most Iconic Brands More from The Slatest: LA Arson Spree Followed Arrest of Suspect's Mother Fracking Blamed for Ohio Earthquakes Oil Prices Rise as Iran Warns US Over Aircraft Carrier Mosque Firebombing Suspect in Custody Wendi Deng Twitter Account is Fake Iraq Vet Suspected in Mt. Rainier Shooting Confirmed Dead No Clear Leader as Iowa Caucuses Kick Off Primary Season High Demand Leads to Nationwide ADHD Drug Shortages Japan Avoids Damage in 6.8 Earthquake Santorum Says He Would Bomb Iran's Nuclear Facilities

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CEO Newsbrief

Tuesday, January 3, 2012 FEATURED NEWS Wall Street Rings in 2012 With a Rally as Traders Cheer Economic Data Market participants piled into risky asset classes on Tuesday after a round of strong economic data boosted sentiment on Wall Street. Fed to Make Monetary Policy Projections Public Looming Rules Pressure Big Banks Morgan Stanley: S&P 500 to Fall 7% in 2012 Starbucks Raises Prices in U.S. Northeast, Sunbelt latest video How to Perk Up and Protect Your Credit Score Tips for improving your credit score 12 Stocks for 2012 Where to invest in the new year Investing in Growth Stocks Shaffer Asset Management CEO gives stock picks latest blogs Stossel: Job Creators Fight Back Fox Business Newsletters Just one click to sign up! Fox Business Breaking News Alerts Get alerted the moment major business or econmic news breaks! View All Newsletters>> Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe | Unsubscribe to All | Privacy Policy ©2011 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. All market data delayed 20 minutes.

Apple Kills The Text Message

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		Tech Entertainment Wall Street Markets Strategy Sports Lifestyle Politics Europe Video Latest Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Apple Kills The Text Message Apple's iMessage is killing off the overpriced text message, at least for a narrow group of iPhone owners. Graphic designer Neven Mrgan posted this chart showing how his text messaging use changed after Apple released iOS 5 with iMessage. As you can see, it dropped dramatically. Most of Mrgan's friends are iPhone owners, so iMessaging is free between them. If you own an iPhone but most of your friends are on Android, RIM, or feature phones, you're still going to have to pay for text messages. Regardless, the writing is on the wall for text messaging. Carriers are going to be losing one of their easiest sources of profits.  Read » Also On SAI Today: OpenSky Hits 1 Million Users And More Than $1.5 Million In Monthly Sales Uber Is Refunding Some Customers After Charging Them An Arm And A Leg On New Year's Eve One Of The Hottest Startups In The Valley, Instagram, Just Hired Its 8th Employee CrowdTwist Office Tour: Life After TechStars NYC Advertisement CHART OF THE DAY: Hopefully You're Not A Short Term Investor In Tech IPOs CHART OF THE DAY: Apple's Bumpy Year CHART OF THE DAY: After Losing Its Star Writers, Engadget's Traffic Has Gone Up Share this: Facebook Twitter Digg Reddit StumbleUpon LinkedIn The email address for your subscription is: dwyld.kwu.jobhuntportal11@blogger.com Change Your Email Address | Unsubscribe | Subscribe | Subscribe to the SAI RSS Feed Business Insider. 257 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

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