A Qualitative Study of Regrets on Facebook [Article]

Ever post something to facebook (what, you have a facebook account??) & immediately (or a bit later) regretted it? A Qualitative Study of Regrets on Facebook – This must be the most entertaining research paper ever written! (pdf download).

..little is known about the problematic aspects of Facebook usage. Our research fills that gap by showing that regrettable postings are not unusual. We devised a detailed taxonomy of regrets and discovered that they are mainly centered around sensitive topics, emotional content, and unintended audience. Furthermore, our results agree with many news stories that report that regrettable postings on Facebook can yield serious ramifications for users.

How fast can you type? [Article]

Well, you may need to learn a new keyboard, if you want to type faster, especially on the now nearly ubiquitous touch-screens! (and come to think of it, you probably need to, whatever your current speeds are!) GigaOm highlights a new keyboard layout called KALQ that promises to take over from the legacy of the typewriting keyboard, which was designed to ensure that the typewriter was as efficient as possible.

 KALQ was designed so the most commonly used letters are clustered, which means the travel distances are short and both hands work roughly equally and alternately. Most of the vowels are positioned near the space bar and are handled by the right thumb, while the left thumb takes care of most of the consonants and most of the first letters of words.

The irony in violence – [article]

Writing in the Scientific American, John Horgan wonders how Americans can condemn Boston murders but excuse US bombing of civilians.

..consider this irony: We treat child killers here in the U.S. with more care than we treat children in Afghanistan and other war zones. We excuse the killing of civilians by U.S. troops by saying that in war bad things happen–as if war is like a plague or natural disaster, for which we are not responsible. Killing innocent people is inexcusable, whether they live in Boston or in Afghanistan. Terrorists and criminals and deranged maniacs kill civilians. A civilized nation doesn’t. Or shouldn’t. Ever.

In Praise of Emotion [Article]

Uri Avnery attended a meeting of Israeli’s & Palestinians to mourn their dead together. He writes:

What was so special about the event was that the Israeli-Arab fraternization took place on a purely human level, without political speeches, without the slogans which have become, frankly, a bit stale.

For two hours, we were all engulfed by human emotions, by a profound feeling for each other. And it felt good.

Texting while flying is dangerous, if you didn’t already know that -[Article]

An investigation into the crash of a Eurocopter AS350 B2 helicopter run by LifeNet says texting was one of the factors responsible.

 “An examination of cell phone records showed that the pilot had made and received multiple personal calls and text messages throughout the afternoon while the helicopter was being inspected and prepared for flight, during the flight to the first hospital, while he was on the helipad at the hospital making mission-critical decisions about continuing or delaying the flight due to the [low] fuel situation, and during the accident flight.” The pilot violated company policy by texting while airborne,

Ignore the news [Article]

Charlie Stross, in the wake of the Boston bombing, reminds us to ignore the news, & with very good reason.

..publicly available news media in the 21st century exist solely to get eyeballs on advertisements. That is its only real purpose. The real news consists of dull but informative reports circulated by consultancies giving in-depth insight into what’s going on. 

Here’s a previous link I shared with the same sentiments

The curious experience of middle age [Article]

Linda Nagata, age 52, had her curiosity about ageing piqued when she heard an interview.

When I was growing up, “middle aged” was a synonym for “boring.” Looking ahead across the gulf of years it appeared to me to be a time of life inhabited by people content with a dull routine, with little interest in the new.

She shares the discovery Profesor Simonton mentions in a separate interview..

“Usually the people who keep going are the ones who are open to new experiences… Do something different. Take a risk. Try to believe in the future tense.”

Not just a human problem [Article]

On the following morning they were very cross and dismal; they held their aching heads with both hands, and wore a most pitiable expression: when beer or wine was offered them, they turned away with disgust, but relished the juice of lemons.

You could be forgiven for thinking this was a description of yourself with a group of friends, but those words were written by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, his observations about a group of monkeys who he saw waking up after a hard night of drinking. NPR’s Robert Krulwich shines light on a few more examples of  the problem that seems to affect not just humans: “We just can’t control our appetites”.