According to results from a new Pew survey, Americans are “apprehensive and uncertain about America’s place in the world.” They see the United States as playing a less important role globally while “acknowledging the increasing stature of China.”

The other day I received one of those emails that you get from friends that you are supposed to pass along but never do. At least I never do, unless it’s pornographic which means it came from my friend Chris and I’m passing it along to my friend David. This one had a simple quiz published by the Pew Research Center. It was titled a News IQ Quiz. I thought I take the quiz and see how up I was on my current events. It turned out to be a very simple quiz: 12 questions all multiple choice about topics pulled right from today’s headlines. The first question asked who was the most recent appointment to the Supreme Court. Pretty simple stuff. The second asked if I knew who Glenn Beck was. Again, a no brainer. And there was not one question much harder than those two. I got to the end of the quiz and learned that I had scored a perfect 12 out of 12. Given the simplicity of the questions I would have been shocked if I had not aced it but I left open the possibility that I might have missed one.

What freaked me out was that when my score was calculated they informed me that I was in a group that included only 2% of the public. 2%!!!!!!! What the hell is that all about. The largest group, at 24% got only 3 or 4 answers correct. Only 10% of the population got it half right.

Have we really become a nation of stupid people? Are we so damn ignorant that we cannot answer a few simple questions about the most pressing issues of the day? Or is it that way too many of us are getting our news and information from people like the aforementioned Mr. Beck, who I suspect is either an evil genius or just a loud mouthed horses ass with the IQ of a toad? No that’s really demeaning to toads. I apologize to toads everywhere.

This is really pathetic. It makes me sad and embarrassed. We live in a country where so much is possible and yet it seems that we as a people get dimmer all the time. Can our schools be this awful? Can so many of us just not care?

Take the quiz yourself at http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/. If you don’t get at least 10 out of 12 then you should be ashamed and immediately get a subscription to the New York Times. And stop watching Fox News!

The old church at Petajavesi (Pine Water) was built in 1763-1764 is situated Jamsa (Finland).This wooden church has been accepted to the Unesco world inheritance catalogue due to its strong handicraft tradition. / La iglesia vieja en Petajavesi (Agua de Pino) fue construida en 1763-1764 y se halla en Jamsa (Finlandia). La iglesia de Petajavesi ha sido aceptada al catálogo de la herencia del mundo de Unesco para su tradición fuerte de la artesanía. / La vieille église de Petajavesi (Eau de Pin) a été incorporé 1763-1764 et on peut le trouver dans Jamsa (Finlande). L’église de Petajavesi a été
acceptée à l’Unesco catalogue d’héritage mondial pour sa tradition d’artisanate forte.

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petajavesi

Old wooden church of Petäjävesi

Old wooden church of Petäjävesi

First, here’s a possible reason why we have trouble facing our credit cards the right way.
Robert O. Duncan, a behavioral scientist at York College, the City University of New York, explains:

‘Why do most customers at my bookstore have trouble under­standing my instructions to swipe their debit cards with the magnetic stripe “toward me?” Almost everyone positions their card the wrong way, then asks in confusion, “Stripe toward me?”—meaning themselves. What is causing everyone to make the same mistake?’… see full article at Sci Am

“I think this new Pew report — just out this week — says it all.” –Lowell Bergman, correspondent for the FRONTLINE/New York Times joint report The Card Game, airing November 24th.

‘One hundred percent of credit cards offered online by the leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be outlawed once legislation passed in May takes effect next year, according to a new report by the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project.
‘The report also found that advertised credit card interest rates rose an average of 20 percent in the first two quarters of 2009, even as banks’ cost of lending declined. With the Federal Reserve currently developing rules to ensure penalty charges are “reasonable and proportional” as required under the Credit CARD Act, the report also includes policy recommendations for regulators.’

Key findings of the report show that:

– 99.7 percent of bank cards allowed issuers to increase interest rates on outstanding balances — a jump from 93 percent in December;

– 95 percent of bank cards permitted issuers to apply payments in a way the Federal Reserve found likely to cause substantial financial injury to consumers; and

– 90 percent of bank cards had penalty rate hikes with the vast majority imposed by “hair triggers” of one or two late payments in a year. -see full report at FrontLine

Una recente ricerca dell’americano Pew Internet & American Life Project ribalta l’accusa contro la tecnologia, colpevole di acuire la solitudine degli individui. Il sondaggio è stato condotto su 2.500 statunitensi per analizzare il legame tra tecnologia e isolamento: i ricercatori hanno concluso che l’impiego dei moderni mezzi di comunicazione migliora le possibilità di entrare in contatto con gli altri.
A incidere positivamente sono soprattutto i social network, ormai diventati delle piazze virtuali, luoghi di incontro in cui esprimere le proprie idee e confrontarsi con persone appartenenti a contesti sociali, economici e culturali diversi. Ma non solo. Anche chi usa il cellulare, l’instant messaging e i servizi per condividere foto risulta avere una «rete di discussione» più ampia e variegata.
Le ore passate davanti agli schermi di computer e telefoni non vanno a scapito delle relazioni nella vita reale. Tutt’altro. «Gli utenti di cellulare, chi usa spesso internet al lavoro e i blogger è più probabile che appartenga ad associazioni locali di volontariato», dicono gli esperti, anche se «l’uso dei social network a volte sostituisce qualche rapporto di vicinato».
A questo punto sarebbe interessante verificare l’effetto di telefonini, social network, e altro nel contesto italiano (al di là di quello che succede in Europa).

รายงานจาก PEW เรื่อง social isolation (การแยกตัวออกจากสังคม) เนื่องจากปัจจัยด้านเทคโนโลยี

Social Isolation and New Technology

ของเดิมมองว่า คนอเมริกัน social isolated

A widely-reported 2006 study argued that since 1985 Americans have become more socially isolated, the size of their discussion networks has declined, and the diversity of those people with whom they discuss important matters has decreased.

ของใหม่ บอกว่าไม่เป็นเยี่ยงนั้น

Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks.

Comparing altars / Comparando altares / Comparant auteutels

Can those altars in poor parishes be beautiful or do we need “golden altars”? What about modern churches (two last photos) / Pueden aquellos altares en
parroquias pobres ser hermosos o necesitamos “altares de oro”? ¿Qué piensa Vos acerca iglesias modernas (los dos últimas fotos) / Peuvent ces autels dans
de pauvres paroisses être beaux ou avons-nous besoin des “autels d’or”? Comment Vous trouvez le même chose avec églises modernes (les deux dernièrs
photos)?

Tiistenjoki

Church of Johannes in Helsinki

Sääksmäki

Alaveteli

Kälviä

Kannus

Karstula

Konginkangas

Nivala

Pyhäjärvi

Soini

Toholampi

Espoo Cathedral

Hollola

Janakkala

Lappee

Savitaipale

Sodankyla

Kaavi

Lieksa

กลุ่มเด็กๆ อายุน้อย หันมาเล่น Twitter กันมากขึ้น จาก ReadWriteWeb

ส่วนหนึ่งคงเป็นเพราะกระแสการบูมของ Twitter แต่อีกส่วนหนึ่งคือ คนที่เล่น Facebook ในช่วงบูมๆ เริ่มมีอายุมากขึ้น ทำให้ age structure รวมของ Facebook สูงขึ้นตามไปด้วย

We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the tech cave dweller, perusing a list of arcane Linux commands on a lonely Saturday night, no friends in sight. In the age of ubiquitous — and social — technology, though, can we conclude that the Internet, smartphones and new technologies isolate us and encourage cocooning, or the opposite?

The Pew Internet & American Life Project sought answers to such questions through phone interviews with 2,512 adults in the U.S., and there are surprises in the survey results. I  do wonder, though, how the results might skew differently if people under 18 had been included. Here are just some of the findings, with more results below the fold:

“We find that the extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns that the prevalence of severe isolation has tripled since then,” Pew researchers report. The survey, released yesterday, also found that the overall diversity of the average person’s social network — including close family and friends as well as acquaintances — is greater through usage of social networks such as Facebook: “For instance, frequent Internet users and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race.”

Internet use does not pull people away from places such as parks, cafes and restaurants, Pew researchers conclude: “Internet access has become a common component of people’s experiences within many public spaces.” Also, in opposition to the conclusion that Internet usage primarily bridges gaps between people who are geographically far from each other, the survey found that there is little difference between local social usage of technology and distant communication. The following graphic based on the survey results shows that people who belong to a neighborhood online forum are much likely than the average person to have diverse interactions with neighbors:

Does mobile phone usage outpace face-to-face contact as a primary way for people to stay in touch with their closest family and friends? No, according to the survey results: “On average in a typical year, people have in-person contact with their core network ties on about 210 days; they have mobile phone contact on 195 days of the year.” The following graphic breaks out days of contact per year via various communication mediums, according to how far away others are:

Younger people are overwhelmingly more likely to belong to social networks than older people are, the Pew survey also finds, and it’s worth noting that all the people surveyed were over 18. Results could be different for teenagers and children. There are many more findings and graphics from the survey, found here.  For the most part, although your smartphone still doesn’t make you the life of the party, the results argue against the long-standing presumption that technology usage is social poison.

So, here’s some laser sounds. They’re pretty crappy, but that’s okay. Some oscillator sync, I think.

Laser Sounds

Yesterday, I spent the day in a mansion hearing three speakers talk about the ‘new media’ at the LILRC conference. It was a day well spent and not just because it was a beautiful location and the culinary school served terrific food. I enjoyed having time to meet other librarians from the Long Island area. Most were public librarians but there were also some academic and special librarians in the group of over 100 people.

The first talk was given by Lee Raine, who is the Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. One of the phases he used that resonated with me was that “libraries can be nodes in people’s social network.” He said that “Increasingly libraries are where people learn new things.” This seems to be the same conclusion that we have come to as a class as we explore Web 2.0. The more we are exposed to new technology the more we realize the need to educate the people using this technology. Librarians are increasingly taking on the role of teacher especially in the case of people who no longer attend traditional classes.

Lee also pointed out that most users like to have multiple applications and devices at their disposal. He paraphrased Stephen Stills and explained this approach as “If I can’t be with the device I love, then I love the one I’m with.” It isn’t a case of Twitter being better than Facebook the real issue is about which one works best in the current environment. In the same way, there is no reason to limit access to the computer when updates are available on the phone. There is room for many applications and many devices so that all the people can be served in the best way for them. One size does not fit all on the net.

He closed by describing a “4 step flow of information on the internet.” The four steps are attention, acquisition, assessment and action. He then spoke of how librarians are in the best position to help people assess the content that is so easily available on the net. Unless, the content is evaluated properly it is not truly information.

The next speaker was Terence K. Huwe, who is the Director of Library and Information Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, he is also a columnist for Computers in Libraries and his talk was about Publishers “in” Libraries, which is an article he wrote for the April 2009 issue.

Most of the points he made were about publishing more content in libraries especially academic libraries. It was interesting but not as applicable to me until he touched on some of the new tools being used. When he mentioned LibGuides, I realized that St. John’s is already using this and has just expanded to use CampusGuides. Getting professors to view open source articles on a par with peer reviewed journals will take a mind shift but some universities are already leading the charge to post their own digital content.

The final speaker was Siva Vaidhyanathan, who is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia. His topic was “The Googlization of Everything” and he expects to have his book of the same name published next year. He said that if we were to compare behavior of people today to that in a book, the best one would be Brave New World. Most people appear to be looking for something cheap and quick. There is a need to be entertained that leads us to distraction and as a result we do not reflect deeply. Google meets our needs by providing a free and quick way to search but the answers returned are not always the best. Google’s page scoring is based on in-coming links but certain key links score higher especially those from technology sites and news services. Google searching in the US is generally unedited but in Europe, Google has provided filters to prevent unwanted content. The problem is not Google but our acceptance since it is free. There is a need to establish public search standards. Google can basically view us as cattle and sell us to advertisers. Since Google retains 90 days of search activity, this information is very valuable to marketers.

The Google Book Search project has been problematic. Harvard pulled out and at the University of Virginia; the librarians are very concerned about the deal that was made. One of the concerns is that when patrons search for books at University of Virginia, they can be redirected to Google without any warning that they are leaving a secure site and now all their activity is being logged by Google.

Siva’s talk was very interesting and I am sure that his book will be a good read.

Inside this church by Eva Ryynänen 1915-2001 (Paateri, Finland) one cannot find gold. Everything is made from wood. / Dentro de esta iglesia por Eva Ryynänen 1915-2001 (Paateri, Finlandia) no se puede encontrar oro. Todo está hecho de madera./ Dedans cette église par Eva Ryynänen 1915-2001 (Paateri, Finlande) ne peut pas trouver de l’or. Tout est fait en bois.

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Private wooden church

Earlier this month, I had a blogosphere argument with a liberal, who said:

I think I said it best in my post about the inferiority complex of right wingers…

As I wrote about before, much of the problem with right-wingers is an inferiority complex. They believe in the superiority of their party, but every time Republicans gain power, they make a mess of everything.

It goes beyond that, though. Most (though not all) right-wingers have achieved little in life. Few of them have a four year college degree and many have no higher education at all. When you talk about education to a right-winger, they think of grade school and high school. Talk about education to a liberal and they think about college.

It is a comment typical of elitist liberals: a worship of their own opinions, based entirely on lies.

The facts are otherwise.  But when the facts get in the way of liberals’ theories, so much the worse for the facts.

Pew Political IQ Poll: Republicans Consistently More Knowledgeable

You likely won’t see this poll result elsewhere, so I thought I’d highlight it here. This is a Pew Political IQ test conducted over the phone with 1,002 adults from Oct. 1-4. They were asked 12 questions, and answered an average of 5.3 questions correctly, according to Pew.

But here’s the part you likely haven’t heard about:

Under a section called “Partisan Knowledge Gap,” we find Republicans were more knowledgeable by a double-digit factor on four issues. Although the Glenn Beck question is naturally easier for Republicans, the other three issues are basic political knowledge— what “cap-and-trade” means, who’s in control of the House, and who the new Supreme Court Justice is (a question that should perhaps be easier for Democrats). Republicans also led Democrats on identifying the unemployment rate, Fed chairman, Dow level, Max Baucus’ position. Republicans correctly answered an Iran/Israel question and an Afghanistan question more often than Dems. Republicans and Democrats were even on identifying the “public option” as a health-care plan.

But take heart, Democrats: You lead Republicans by five points on a whopping one question.

The result is a repeat of a Pew Political IQ test conducted in March, which asked 12 slightly different questions and found Republicans more knowledgeable on 10 questions, even with Democrats on one, and lagging Democrats on just one (number of troops killed in Iraq). Those results are available under the helpful subhead, “Republicans more knowledegable,” but I don’t remember too many articles using that as a lede.

By contrast, you’ll remember copious coverage of the Democracy Corps’ focus groups under the title, “The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans”— another in a long line of “conservatives are crazy” pseudo-scientific studies that are giddily regurgitated by mainstream media every year with very serious eyebrow furrows of faux objectivity.

An April 2007 Pew Quiz showed this about partisan difference: “Republicans and Democrats are equally likely to be represented in the high-knowledge group. But significantly fewer Republicans (26%) than Democrats (31%) fall into the third of the public that knows the least.”

A September 2007 quiz showed more Republicans than Democrats could identify even the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

It looks like conservatives do indeed live in a separate world from liberals— one occupied by 40 percent of the American electorate, where most people know what Tim Geithner’s job is.

That’s my Stuart Smalley affirmation for our readers. After all, if the polling had gone the other way, the NYT would shout it from the rooftops. I figure since you get told by the media you’re crazy all the time, it’s worth telling you polling confirms you are crazy— crazy like a fox.

Posted by Mary Katharine Ham on October 28, 2009

So it’s not enough just to say that Republicans are more knowledgeable than Democrats; rather, Republicans are consistently more knowledgeable than Democrats.

Another smarmy liberal theory of innate superiority blown to smithereens.

My liberal pest confidently asserted the following as his own version of gospel truth:

It goes beyond that, though.  Most (though not all) right-wingers have achieved little in life

I responded with the following facts:

What does Ben mean when he says, “Most (though not all) right-wingers have achieved little in life”? He clearly doesn’t mean success in an actual career. A Pew Research Center study from 2005 points out the following:

“It remains true now, as it was in 1992, that the more income a person has, the more likely he or she is to be a Republican, and the less income a person has, the more likely he or she is to be a Democrat.”

Well, maybe Ben was referring to characteristics of personal virtue when he talked about “accomplishment”; qualities like honesty, generosity, and morality.

Well, conservatives are more honest than liberals. And it turns out that they are more generous and more moral, too. The research is in:

Some recent surveys suggest a striking gap between liberals and conservatives on the issue of honesty.  Polling by an organization called The World Values Survey posed the question, “Is it OK to cheat on your taxes?”

Fifty-seven percent of those who described themselves as “very liberal” said “yes”, compared with only 20 percent of those calling themselves “very conservative.” That same survey in the Washington Examiner found those on the left were more likely to say it is OK to buy goods that one knows are stolen.

Another questionnaire done by the Culture and Media Institute’s National Cultural Values Survey posed a scenario in which an employer would be willing to pay someone in cash in order to avoid taxes and allow a worker to collect unemployment benefits. Forty-nine percent of self-described progressives said they would go along with the plan, while only 21 percent of conservatives said they would.

Conservatives are also more generous, and give of their time and their money more cheerfully than liberals. The fact is that Republicans give away a bigger share of their wealth than liberals. The studies are quite clear on that one.

So if I’m going to argue that one group of people by political affiliation “have accomplished little in life” on the basis of fact rather than Marxist ideology – whether “accomplishment” be measured as success in one’s career or success in one’s attaining personal honor – it would be the leftwing, not the rightwing.

My liberal commenter – who couldn’t be bothered by the facts or the evidence – continued his screed against conservatives:

Few of them have a four year college degree and many have no higher education at all. When you talk about education to a right-winger, they think of grade school and high school. Talk about education to a liberal and they think about college.

Again, it would be nice if these people actually lived in the real world, rather than their world of bogus theories and opinion-as-evidence.  I responded by saying:

Here’s a chart connecting education with political party that CLEARLY shows that those with the very least education OVERWHELMINGLY voted Democrat rather than Republican. The uneducated, ignorant masses Ben Hoffman tried to attribute to Republicans are in fact about four times more likely to be DEMOCRATS. In other words, it shows the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Ben falsely claims:

Here’re some 1990 Gallup poll numbers relating education to political affiliation:

Rep = Republican
Dem = Democrat
Ind = Independent/Unaffiliated

Grade school education:
23.4% Rep, 54.6% Dem, 22.5% Ind

Some High School:
22.8% Rep, 51.3% Dem, 26.0% Ind

High School Grad:
29.4% Rep, 40.5% Dem, 30.2% Ind

Some College and/or Tech:
36.0% Rep, 35.0% Dem, 29.3% Ind

College Grad:
42.0% Rep, 30.7% Dem, 27.7% Ind
(Source: The World Almanac of U.S. Politics, 1991-93 edition, p.25)

As you can see, in 1990 the better educated you were the more likely you were to be a Republican, and the less likely you were to be a Democrat.

A Gallup poll taken in 2008 shows an exact similarity between McCain and Obama supporters as to college graduates, with 46% of college grads supporting McCain, and 46% Obama. There was a 10 point gap at the postgraduate level, but that is relatively easy to understand today, given the fact that postgrads overwhelmingly go into education, and liberals have ideologically targeted and purged conservatives. These days, conservatives aren’t allowed into education because liberals are biased and vindictive.

But even given the moderate advantage in postgrad degrees and the left, Ben’s statement is destroyed.

Now, one area that conservatives – who have “accomplished nothing” on Ben’s view – excel in is personal happiness. Conservatives are happier people than liberals. That’s a confirmed fact as well.

The liberal has more to say:

As I wrote about before, much of the problem with right-wingers is an inferiority complex.

A Newsmax article has some interesting things to say about this incredibly untrue statement:

“You find that all the way back to the early 1970s, as long as we’ve been keeping data on the subject, conservatives have consistently shown greater life satisfaction than liberals,” Brooks tells Newsmax.

In one study, people who identified themselves as conservative were nearly twice as likely to say they were very happy as people who said they are liberal.

In contrast, Brooks says, “Liberals are less likely to be optimistic about the future, and they’re more likely to say they feel like a failure.”

Arthur Brooks also points out:

“Generally speaking, conservatives come in two kinds: those that have conservative political beliefs throughout their lives, and those that adopt them by about the time they are in their early 30s,” Brooks says. “And you find the people who adopt conservative beliefs rather than grow up with them are people with more education. They grow up in a liberal household and are more likely to go to college. When people go to college, when people have more opportunities in life, when they become more hopeful, they get happier, and at the same time they’re getting more conservative.”

I have no doubt that liberals will continue to go on believing that they are smarter, better educated, better informed, and just plain better.  But that is only because they are actually dumber, more factually ignorant, more convinced in the superiority of their own groundless opinions, more miserable, and frankly more morally inferior to their right-thinking counterparts.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 19 percent of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys conducted in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11 percent of internet users said they used Twitter or another micro-blogging service.

Three groups of Internet users are responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social networking site users, mobile Internet users, and adults under age 44.

In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39 percent of Internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28 percent of Internet users with three devices, 19 percent of Internet users with two devices, and 10 percent of Internet users with one device.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. By comparison, the median age for a LinkedIn user is now 39, down from 40, while the median age for a Facebook user is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

According to Pew, it will become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa. For now, it is clear that a “social segment” of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.

Cindy Krum, CEO of Rank-Mobile, interviewed Mark Jackson, CEO of Vizion Interactive, about the Twitter panel discussion at SES Toronto 2009.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project just released data this Fall regarding usage of Twitter and Social Networks.  Maybe it’s not a fad. Check out the Median age of users to specific social media outlets.

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service. Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices, and younger internet users – those under age 44. In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices, and 10% of internet users with one device.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008. It will probably become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa.

For now, it is clear that a “social segment” of internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.

Thanks Pew

Little amazings of the day:

I cant wait to make amazing gingerbread houses again. Last year I completely forgot about them, and the year before that I made them out of custard cream biscuits all stuck together with icing it was so adorable. I have just been trying to find a photo of it for about an hour… but nothing

I know I dont smoke, but if I did, it would be for these sexy pink cancer sticks! Oh yes…

I just love bright colours all mixed together. I cant seem to get enough!

And this is possibly the cutest little man I have seen in ages! Gotta get me one of these!

These are just pretty cute. Now I know what to do with all the left over champagne corks at work!

I made yet another fishfinger sandwich for lunch today, along with some extra fish fingers. I took a photo because the sandwich just looked really yummy with the sun on it, and so I could also show off my new mugs from Next. That was some good eating!

I have just purchased Snow Leopard for my Macbook Pro. Currently I am waiting for it to arrive (between 9am-5pm it says on the website) and it is in transit as I write this. It therefore has half an hour left to arrive or this has been a day sitting in waiting for something that will never show up. I know there is a postal strike, but this is coming with UPS, and only from Dartford which isnt that far away. Lets hope that it shows up by the end of this post, like Apple say it will…

If you have read my previous posts you will have noticed that I am becoming increasingly excited about certain plastic rocking chairs I keep finding in photos of peoples homes. And today… I FOUND THEM! For sale in England… Hooray! I am so excited and now I ache because I dont really have the money to afford one right now, but they are just teasing me on the website. Im not sure what the difference in quality these two chairs would be; the cheaper is made of ABS resin, and the more expensive is made of fibreglass. I would go for the cheaper option, obviously, seeing as they look the same! BUT, the cheaper version doesnt come in pink, which would be my ideal colour for this chair. So… do I lump it and get the cheaper one in a different colour, or splash out and get the pink one. Why am I even choosing when I dont have the money laying around for either! Rather annoying really… (left-cheaper/right-expense much)

Look the same to me….

I have also found out how to do finger-knitting. Its so easy! I made a metre and a half in about half an hour today, and I have it hanging over my mirror in the living room. I think I might crochet some blue/green/purple droplet shapes to hang off of it so it makes it look a bit more interesting. Pictures to come.

Yesterday I promised a photo of Pew Pew Pew, our teeny runt hamster, and here she is eating in my hand, and sleeping next to mum (so cute!) :

Well… Its nearly 5pm and no sign of my Snow Leopard delivery; I am not impressed. Just hope it comes tomorrow really! The website says it is in transit for delivery today, so I dont understand it never mind.

This evening I am going to drop off two of the baby boy hamsters with Ryan, to our mates Vawn and Lauren. I hope they have fun in their new home!

Ok time is up on this delivery! Damn them…

Jenn x

*EDIT* 5.26pm…. Snow Leopard arrives!

Poll: Global warming losing steam

Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming.