Wolfram Alpha has released a new feature that allows you to generate a mini-biography on your life based on data from your Facebook account. Some of the remarkable things in the 60 page report on your life include:

• The weather when you were born.
• The countries your friends reside in.
• The day and time that you post the most often.
• The post and photo of yours that is the most liked.
• The friend that posts the most on your page.
• The gender and relationship status distribution of your friends.
• The most common first and last name among your friends.
• The stand out feature though is a visualization of your network (pictured above). You’ll see clustered cliques as well as the people who cross the divide, and the person that you share the most friends with.

It’s a fascinating tool and you can find instructions on how to use it for your own Facebook over here. The best part? It doesn’t make a post on your profile advertising to the world that you used it, or what the results were.

Source: Wolfram Alpha Blog

The always excellent Brian Palmer took a look at whether or not you should marry early:

• The younger that people get married, the more likely they are to divorce.
  • Those who marry in their teens have a 54% chance of remaining married for the next 10 years.
  • Those who wait until they’re 25 see that rate climb to 78%.
• Experts argue that the reason why the divorce rate has declined in the past 30 years is because the average age of matrimony has risen from 21 to 26 since the 70s.
• However one study suggests that couples who met in school are happier than those who didn’t.
• Nonreligious households are more likely to divorce.
• Left-leaning states have lower divorce rates than their right-leaning counterparts.

You can find out how this ties into the 2012 American Presidential election and other statistics here.

Source: Slate

Gizmodo has a history of getting its hands on things that Apple doesn’t want the public to see. They’ve managed to do it again by finding the most updated copy of “The Genius Training Student Workbook” – the guide for those employed as Apple’s “geniuses” at its stores. Highlights from Sam Biddle’s article include:

• The core theme of the book is that an Apple genius must get into the customer’s head through empathy, and then sell them new products.
• While empathy is important, Geniuses are told that it is different from sympathy. Geniuses should never sympathize or feel sorry for the customer because that would suggest that there is something wrong with the Apple product, and a Genius must never “apologize for the business [or] the technology.”
• To that end the manual bans the use of certain words. Geniuses cannot say that an Apple device has “crashed” instead they must say that it “unexpectedly quit.” Apple products do not have “problems” they have “conditions.”
• The five step method to selling products is: Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, End.
• The Geniuses are told that a blank stare is a sign of boredom, and are given other tips about human behaviour.
• Apple advocates for a system of “Fearless Feedback” among its employees. The sample guide includes ways to tell “Genius J [that he] needs a shower.”

You can find other excerpts from the guide, and Biddle’s entertaining reactions to them over here.

Source: Gizmodo

In 2008 Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia, stated that the effort required to rule Russia was equivalent to being a “Galley Slave.” The Russian Opposition (admittedly not the most reliable source on the matter) has released a report that outlines exactly what this lifestyle entails. Adam Martin collected some of the highlights, including:

• Putin has access to four yachts. One of them has a waterfall.
• He also has access to 43 aircraft including helicopters, executive jets, and a jumbo jet with an $18 million cabin outfitted by jewelers. It has a $75,000 bathroom.
• He also owns at least 11 luxury watches that are collectively worth $687,000.

Find the full report here.

Source: The Atlantic

Evgeny Morozov reviewed some of the food preparation technologies that are being developed:

• A computer scientist has developed a set of video cameras that can distinguish between different items. If the chef has made a mistake or has otherwise deviated from the original recipe an alarm can sound.
• Another system uses projectors to provide an augmented reality cooking experience. If it’s time to chop the onions then a virtual mark will appear on the onion telling you where to chop.
• However these technologies would subtract from, rather than enhance, the cooking experience. In reality cooking is all about experimenting and making mistakes.

Read other developments and how this relates to the Greeks in the full article over here.

Source: Slate

Held soon after the Olympics, the Paralympics are an international sporting event where athletes with a physical disability compete. Damon Rose, Emma Tracey and Lucy Townsend collected 10 things you might not know about them:

• Instead of the Olympic Rings, the Paralympics have their own logo (pictured above.) The logo called “Agitos” represents spirit in motion.
• Interesting things about blind football include:
  • The ball is filled with ball bearings, making it audible
  • The field is smaller and is lined with boards, preventing the ball from going out.
  • Even those classified as blind may have limited vision. They must wear eye covers to ensure fairness.
  • The goal keepers are generally fully sighted, but can’t leave their area.
  • Another sighted player called a “guide” directs players from behind the goal.
  • Spectators must stay silent.
• In the running events blind athletes can choose to have a guide who has their own lane and who runs with them to warn them of bends and obstacles. The runner is disqualified if the guide crosses the finishing line before them.
• Blind swimmers generally have a tapper who taps them on the head when they’re close to the end of the pool. This lets the swimmer fearlessly go at full speed in the beginning, since they’ll know exactly when to slow down.

The full list has many more interesting things as well as pictures of some of the things described above.

Source: BBC

Paul Marks had the opportunity to interview Sheryl Connelly, a corporate futurist with Ford. Highlights include:

• Shelley does not consider herself to be a car person. Her job is to look at the world outside of cars, and to see how that will affect the car industry.
• Some trends Ford has identified include the rise in human population, creating increased traffic. This led to the development of Ford’s Traffic Jam Assist technology.
• Another trend is global ageing. As the average driver gets older, Ford needs to make cars easier to drive for the elderly.
• Ford is also working on further developing its Sync system – a way to keep your car connected in the mobile age.

To read more including the bets that she has to help engineers make, some of the techniques they use to develop cars, and other interesting details, click here.

Source: Slate

Ricardo Lopez reports on a farmer that found an innovative strategy to keep his farm profitable:

• America’s recent drought has destroyed a lot of corn crop, causing prices to rise.
• Corn is an important part of the diet of a cow. Farmers have struggled to fatten up their cows with corn prices so high.
• One farmer dealt with this problem by feeding his cows candy – knowing that they would quickly gain weight because of it.

Find out where the candy comes from in the full report here.

Source: LA Times

Via: Marginal Revolution