Friday, February 28, 2003

So this salesman comes into a bar with a portable MRI... Looking Inside the Brains of the Stingy "...The Player 1's who do not follow the presumably rational strategy often wind up better off. Even without communicating with fellow players, they are able to cooperate for mutual benefit. "Why do people react differently to the same situation? And why do so many people give up money to punish anonymous cheapskates? "Experimental economists have mapped out these anomalies and tested how much they affect economic interactions. Now a new field, called neuroeconomics, is using the tools of neuroscience to find the underlying biological mechanisms that lead people to act, or not act, according to economic theory. "In neuroeconomics, volunteers go through exercises developed by experimental economists studying trust or risk. Instead of simply observing subjects' behavior, however, researchers use imaging technologies, like M.R.I.'s, to see which brain areas are active during the experiment...." [New York Times] 5:36:31 AM

New Mobile Payment Services Association announced. Orange, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile and Vodafone have announced that they are forming a new Mobile Payment Services Association. For customers, the aim is to provide the opportunity to purchase a wide range of digital and physical goods and services with their mobile phones using an easy, secure solution. The solution aims to become the industry standard for m-commerce payments. Merchants and merchant acquirers will benefit from a standard set of interfaces through which they will gain access to a potentially huge international customer base. Software and solution vendors will benefit from published technical interfaces enabling the development of compliant m-payment products and services. Operators will benefit from a standard way of integrating and efficiently managing their relationships with merchants, merchant acquirers and content providers. Former NatWest executive Tim Jones will be CEO of this new organization. [Scott Loftesness] Credit Card Cos. Watch Own Backs. MasterCard, Visa, American Express and the banks that issue credit cards don't do enough to protect merchants and consumers from the perils of fraud, reports analyst firm Gartner. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] Plastic is on a payroll The next time payday rolls around, imagine going without a paycheck or direct-deposit slip. Instead, your money essentially is downloaded onto a piece of plastic that resembles a credit card. From that, you make ATM withdrawals and debitlike purchases [The Arizona Republic] 5:10:41 AM

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