December 17, 2007 at 5:56 pm · Filed under hno content and tagged: lists, social networking, sports, thereader
Friends The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy asks “is there a numerical cap on how many friends we can have?” in an age of social-networking. Most folks, a study has shown, can manage 100 to 300 friends. Will social networking sites “enable their users to burst past Dunbar’s number for friends, just as humans have developed and harnessed technology to surpass their physical limits on speed, strength and the ability to process information?” Monica Hesse of the Washington Post reports on how scholars are focusing evermore attention on the dynamics of social-networking sites.
Varsity video The New York Times’s Virginia Hefferman writes on the rise of “everyman highlight reels” created by marketing services that produce minifilms for prospective college athletes and artists. The videos, where “average athletes complete every touchdown pass” to the soundtrack of Dream On cost anywhere from $300 to $5,000 – an “investment” against a scholarship. We are, Ms. Hefferman writes, a generation that believes “if an experience is not uploadable to MySpace, it did not happen.”
The lists redux Google has released their 2007 zeitgeist of the year in search. Among the notables: The iPhone was the fastest rising search around the world. American Idol was the most popular Google News Search – and Ron Paul was the most searched for presidential candidate. Heroes and Lost were the first and second most searched for TV show – Transformers the most searched for movie. And in the who, what, how department, the most popular searches were: Who is God? What is love? and How to kiss.
November 30, 2007 at 4:58 pm · Filed under hno content and tagged: lists, music, thereader
1. List 2. List 3. List
Another year, another list. Amazon’s Best Music of 2007 has Feist’s The Reminder as the year’s best – Kanye West’s Graduation places third. The Customer’s favorites tell a different tale: Norah Jones’ Not Too Late and Amy Winehouse are first and second. And while we’ve caught you reading, here’s The New York Times‘ top ten books of the year.
The Style section never fails to amuse. Linton Weeks profiles the executive director of the National Youth Rights Association,who believes that the United States is “repressive” in its youth policies – and that all age-based restrictions should be challenged and replaced with a competency test. As for the group’s president, a high school student from North Carolina: he wanted to fly to Washington to preside at the annual meeting, but he had to cancel – his mum wouldn’t let him. We’re nodding and smiling as politely as we can.
Shaj Mathew
kahutzler
