Don't Hide It, Flaunt It

Credit Reports and FICO Scores

I'm in the process of tidying up my finances. Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke has been a fantastic resource because it gives clear, straightforward advice in language I can understand. Orman's first rule, and she is very insistent on this, is that you have to know your FICO score, also known as your credit rating. You probably know that this score is used to determine your eligibility for mortgages and car loans. According to the New York Times it is also often used by employers to decide if you are a good job candidate. So even if you're not shopping for a loan, it is a good idea to know your score. BUT, before you check your score, you should check the information your score is based on--your credit reports. You actually need to look at 3 credit reports, one from each of the major agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). But you only need to go to one website to get started. AnnualCreditReport.com allows you to obtain one fr...

Wipeout

Tom over at I Hate Paper turned me on to this ABC show Wipeout . I don't wanna like it, but it's really fun to watch. I'm watching it on Hulu, which ABC wasn't really partnering with very much, but they seem to have stepped it up. Since I'm interested in both the business and content sides of popular culture, I thought I'd use my new love of Wipeout to do some exploring. Wipeout is a collaboration of Endemol Entertainment and Pulse Creative . Endemol was founded in Amsterdam in 1994 but its website says it is now owned by a "consortium consisting of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Mediaset Group and Cyrte Group." Its credits include Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, Big Brother After Dark (?), and Gay, Straight or Taken. Pulse calls itself a boutique agency and it has only 4 other shows to its credit. It is really a branding agency and it merged with Insite Media Group in 2007. Wipeout is distributed primarily by ABC , which is o...

Tips for Teaching Social Theory

Social theory can often feel too abstract for many students, particularly when it is disconnected from empirical research. These tricks have worked in my classroom to make the theory feel more tangible and more usable. 1. Coding the article. The basic components of a theory reading are often harder to find than those for a research article. Student readers may need extra help in finding those components so I push them to identify the following: The Question: The Assumptions: The Answer to the Question (presumably the argument): The Argumentation/Evidence (empirical, ideological, logical, practical?) The Conversation in Which it Operates: The Hook (what makes this answer to the question better and different?): The Irritation (What's under the author's craw? What pissed them off so much they had to write this piece?): Key Words with Definitions/Conceptualizations: 2. Mapping the Theory: I ask students to draw a map of the theoretical frame that is presented, identifying things ...

Dustin Kidd

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