Facebook Says You'll Break Up Before Spring Break

Who knew that Facebook was more than just an epic drug for college procrastinators? Or a godsend to the socially isolated (*cough*Marc Zuckerberg *cough*).

It turns out that Facebook and other social media technologies are collectively becoming an important tool for understanding our culture at large - why people behave the way they do, in real time.

Which brings me to the question Facebook was designed to answer....when will Sally and Bobby (or insert tumultuous couple you know here) break up? Will they leave tons of evidence all over the Internet for their friends to see? Insert awkward breakup status update here....


Two researchers from Oxford have mined over 10,000 status updates - all publicly available without hacking - to search for key phrases like "heartbreak", "breakup", or "broken up". Do people really post these very private things on their status for the world to see? It appears they do, and often. The result is this graph, which confirms many of our suspicions about the timing of breakups:

*People like to start Spring Break and, to a lesser degree, their summer vacations, single

*Most breakups are announced on a Monday, perhaps after one of those last straw weekends

*There are fewest splits on Christmas Day, but there's a peak just before Christmas, maybe so people don't have to buy their ex-to-be a gift.

On the other hand, a study from the Scientific American suggests that the very people who would be likely to post about their hideous breakups, or their nosejobs, or how glamorous their weekend just was, are those people who trend toward narcissism and low self-esteem. Hmmm....who'd a thunk.

Source: Time Healthland (via GOOD)

Taking Public Transportation Can Save You Up to $15,000

This report by the American Public Transportation Assocation, Washington DC-based nonprofit advocacy group, ranks cities in the US by the potential savings a household could have annually in taking public transit versus driving.

Seattle is not exactly known for its stellar record on public transportation effectiveness, but surprise! We are in the top 5! Now if they could only bring the light rail to the UW someday during our lifetime, that would be nice.

If you are a public transportation rider in the city of Seattle, you save an average of $11,350 per year or $946 per month. That's like having a second apartment!

The economy being the way it is, it surprises me that so much of our urban development is still dependent on and dominated by the need to drive absolutely everywhere. Public transit is an expensive investment, to be sure, but it's one that pays back in the end by freeing up consumer incomes for more valuable investments than pumping gas (from third-world tyrants).

Check it out, and see where your city lands on the list!

Ten Centuries in Five Minutes

I about fell out of my chair when I saw this video. It provides a visual play by play of the geographic changes of European history since 1000 AD, covering the full scope of wars, invasions, and the rise and fall of empires.

All I can say is I wish I had seen something like this when I was stuyding for the AP European History exam!



Source: The Map Room (via GOOD)

New USDA Map Allows You to Find a Farmer's Market Anywhere

The USDA revamped its National Farmers Market Directory with a mappable, searchable database. It's hardly going to be a signature of the Obama Administration, but it's still useful to know where the closest farmer's market is no matter where you are.

Interesting how this was rolled out just in time for...winter?

Via: Obama Foodorama

Beer - Not Just a Wonderful Drink, but the Origin of Civilization

Beer might not be the answer for the ultimate question, of life, the universe, and everything (sorry, I'm a geek!). But many anthropologists believe it may be responsible for the origins of agriculture and civilization itself.

Their argument is that Stone Age farmers were domesticating cereals not so much to fill their stomachs but to lighten their heads, by turning the grains into beer. That has been their take for more than 50 years, and now one archaeologist says the evidence is getting stronger.

Signs that people went to great lengths to obtain grains despite the hard work needed to make them edible, plus the knowledge that feasts were important community-building gatherings, support the idea that cereal grains were being turned into beer, said archaeologist Brian Hayden at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

Archaeological evidence suggests that until the Neolithic, cereals such as barley and rice constituted only a minor element of diets, most likely because they require so much labor to get anything edible from them — one typically has to gather, winnow, husk and grind them, all very time-consuming tasks.

However, sites in Syria suggest that people nevertheless went to unusual lengths at times just to procure cereal grains — up to 40 to 60 miles (60 to 100 km). One might speculate, Hayden said, that the labor associated with grains could have made them attractive in feasts in which guests would be offered foods that were difficult or expensive to prepare, and beer could have been a key reason to procure the grains used to make them.

"It's not that drinking and brewing by itself helped start cultivation, it's this context of feasts that links beer and the emergence of complex societies," Hayden said.

"In traditional feasts throughout the world, there are three ingredients that are almost universally present," he said. "One is meat. The second is some kind of cereal grain, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, in the form of breads or porridge or the like. The third is alcohol, and because you need surplus grain to put into it, as well as time and effort, it's produced almost only in traditional societies for special occasions to impress guests, make them happy, and alter their attitudes favorably toward hosts."

Via: Live Science

Porn for the Eyes - Set to Classical Music!

A timelapse of New York City - from Swiss video company Stimul. Simply beautiful, there are no other words.


New York City - Timelapse from stimul on Vimeo.

That's Why It's 30

A funny PSA just released by the New York City DOT. In addition to making fun of New York sensibilities, it makes its point of sticking to the speed limit short and sweet.



Via: Seattle Transit Blog