There’s a theory in evolutionary biology called “Punctuated Equilibrium” (wikipedia article) which postulates that most species exist in stasis for most of their geological history and that evolution, when it occurs, happens in a relatively short space of time.

Here's a little logic challenge for you.

Each of these cards has a letter on one side and a number on the other. Your task is to prove or disprove the following statement.

"Cards with vowels on always have even numbers on the back".

Most people will pick "A" and "6". The correct answer is "A" and "3".

Turning over "A" is a no-brainer.
Turning over "D" doesn't matter as the statement is about vowels.

There's a tremendous kerfuffle being played out in social spaces about an Australian ad for KFC. No complaints at all when aired in Oz, but a right old ding-dong kicks off when the ad was loaded to YouTube and viewed by our chums from the US. Here's the ad...

One of the examples given at the IPA's recent Behavioral Economics workshops really stood out for me as an explanation of what "choice architecture" is all about. It's an experiment by Dan Ariely, who's a behavioural economics professor.

People were given the following options for subscription to The Economist:
1. Economist.com for $59
2. Print edition for $125
3. Both economist.com and the print edition for $125

16% chose 1.
0% unsurprisingly chose 2.
84% chose option 3.

Here's a little thing to get the juices flowing again...

Back in mid-December Seth Godin posted a link to a free eBook on his blog.