Rundown: Age, NYT, and Corporate-financed studies

  • How Old Do You Think I Am? A project where people post their picture online to have others guess at their age. The possible benefit (and potential detriment) being that you get a more or less objective answer to the question, “how old do I look?” via the composite (i.e., average of guesses) that shows up in connection to your glowing mug. Each person includes a small quote on what they’ve learned. What I’ve learned is, I’m horrible at guessing ages. It’s kinda fun, in a weird way. (via MeFi)
  • The New York Times is fine and lovely, but it would be nice if their articles were available for more than like a week (or whatever it is). Anyway, Italy’s had 59 governments since 1946 and the US is falling behind in the sciences. And despite the fact that purchasing articles from the NYT is “quick and secure,” I don’t particularly want to pay $5.90 to elaborate on those points, so there you have it.
  • An article in the Guardian reports that 1 in 8 Britons has been or is currently being stalked. 1 in 8 seems like a ridiculously high, though certainly not impossible, number. Less surprisingly, the figure is higher for women, at 1 in 6. The study was commissioned by an insurance company that has just introduced a policy to cover… um, well, “the harm caused by stalkers.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that the study itself is suspect, but it does mean that you have to absorb this information in the right context. My guess is that the study cast a pretty broad net, defining “stalking” fairly generously. (via Guardian: “One in eight Britons has been stalked” by Rosie Cowan [May 6, 2004])