Letter to Applebee’s boss [Letters]

You may (or may not) have missed an small but bizarre news report out of the US: When pastor Ms Alois Bell who was at an Applebee’s restaurant got the bill, instead of either leaving a tip or just ignoring it, she wrote “I give God 10%, why should you get 18%’ referring to the 18% tip printed on the bill. The poor waitress posted a picture of the bill on a social networking site (with no other reference than the customer’s signature). Applebee’s decided that the act was worthy of the watiress’ dismissal. The dismissal prompted a backlash against Applebee’s action, including this letter from a Michael T Zybura, a furious regular customer who is also a part-time pizza delivery guy.

Google Street View Takes You on a Panoramic Tour of the Grand Canyon [Maps, Article]

Google Maps takes you on a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon. Click on the ‘behind the scenes‘ button at the top of that page, and discover how a team of 15 managed to compile this for the benefit of the rest of the world who may never get to see the Grand Canyon.

How much should we really work? [Article]

I thought it was another joke about the ever shortening work-week, but no it isn’t. James W Vaupel, head of the new Danish Max Planck research center says the 40 hour week (for some of those lucky folk) is outdated. He proposes instead that we work only 25 hours a week, but work until we turn 80.  Spreading out working hours over the full course of a person’s life, Vaupel argues, is both psychologically and physically beneficial at all stages of life.

Three conversations for parents: navigating networked publics [Article]

This short article is probably more suited for parents of young children:  Microsoft researcher Dana Boyd has some advice for parents who are struggling with their children’s use of social media: she reminds us that the advice that children need to negotiate networked publics parallels advice that parents have always given when their children encounter public spaces. The networked society that we live in today may feel radically different, but many youth are struggling with the things they’ve always struggled with.They’re trying to figure out who they are and how they fit into the bigger world. They want to hang out with friends, but they’re also trying to figure out the status games of their peers.