interesting #3
by Tanya
1. Largest digital survey of the sky mapped billions of stars, EngadgetSee picture. Two petabytes of data. That's one thousand million million, or 10^15 bytes.2. Can you tell if you'll like someone based on their profile picture?, QuartzGuessing people would want to know more than ever with the holidays coming up. Superficiality of the digital era? Framing? Priming?Despite the wealth of new information available in the live interaction, perceivers’ judgments based on the photograph they had seen months earlier strongly predicted their judgments following the live interaction. If perceivers had formed a favorable impression of the woman based simply on her portrait, they continued to hold a favorable impression of her following the interaction. If perceivers had initially formed an unfavorable impression, then they continued to hold these unfavorable impressions, even after meeting her.3. In defence of hate speech, the trial of Geert Wilders, the EconomistRelevant in an age where echo chambers have gone mainstream.Proponents of hate-speech laws argue that they foster social harmony by forcing people to be more polite to each other. The opposite is more likely to be true. Criminalising something as subjective as the giving of offence encourages more people to say they are offended, so they can use the law to suppress views they dislike. This enrages those who are silenced; hardly a recipe for social tranquillity.4. Learn a new lingo while doing something else, Scientific AmericanAs someone who's trying to get their French and Chinese up to par, this is interesting. Basically passive language learning. For me, it's about integrating small things into my life and creating the right habit. French music through Stromae, improve listening skills through movies .... Time to start watching a series I like and pretend that I'm doing it to learn. You'll never have to work a day in your life if you love your job, right?
