Study sees relationship signals in Facebook data

Think your relationship is strong? Think there is nothing in this world that could possibly tear you and your beloved apart? Have a seat, grab a tissue. Facebook would like a word with you.

Cornell University computer scientist Jon Kleinberg and Lars Backstrom, a senior engineer at Facebook, have written a research paper that explains how the giant social networking site can use its data to anticipate which personal relationships might fail.

The process is rather complicated, but The New York Times broke it down in an easy-to-understand blog post.

One might think that a relationship's strength is best illustrated by the number of friends two people have in common on Facebook. The new study say that isn't the case.

Using a data set of roughly 1.3 million Facebook users, all over the age of 20, all with a significant other and all with 50 to 2,000 friends, the researchers found that a network measure called "dispersion" is a better indicator of romantic relationships.

From the New York Times:

(Dispersion) measures mutual friends, but also friends from the further-flung reaches of a person’s network neighborhood. High dispersion occurs when a couple’s mutual friends are not well connected to one another.

So when a couple has a high dispersion rate, their relationship is likely to be easier for an algorithm to identify and is probably stronger, the research suggested.

Via the New York Times:

Particularly intriguing is that when the algorithm fails, it looks as if the relationship is in trouble. A couple in a declared relationship and without a high dispersion on the site are 50 percent more likely to break up over the next two months than a couple with a high dispersion, the researchers found. (Their research tracked the users every two months for two years.)

Of course, Facebook doesn't have a monopoly on prophesy. Twitter has long been lauded for its ability to predict things like elections and flu outbreaks. Some computer scientists have even used the social network to predict where you are most likely to get food poisoning.

Arts & EntertainmentMediaFacebook

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Study: 38 percent of kids under 2 use smartphones or tablets

More than a third of children under the age of 2 use mobile media, according to a recently released report from Common Sense Media. Specifically, the study found that 38 percent of kids under age 2 have used tablets or smartphones.

The nonprofit agency conducted a similar study in 2011. And two years is apparently a long time. Back then, in the halcyon days of the iPhone 4, the number of kids under 2 messing with mobile devices was roughly 10 percent.

When it comes to daily use of technology, the numbers are also rising. "The percent of children who use mobile devices on a daily basis ? at least once a day or more ? has more than doubled, from 8% to 17%," according to the report.

Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, spoke to Mashable about the report's findings.

Via Mashable:

"We're seeing a fundamental change in the way kids consume media," Steyer said. "Kids that can't even talk will walk up to a TV screen and try to swipe it like an iPad or an iPhone."

The group's 40-page report is full of statistics, many of which are likely to make you mourn for the changing nature of childhood. In 2011, for example, kids under the age of 8 spent, on average, about five minutes per day on phones or tablets. In 2013, the number tripled to 15 minutes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the ago of 2 not spend any time in front of media screens, including phones, tablets and television. "A child's brain develops rapidly during these first years, and young children learn best by interacting with people, not screens," the AAP writes.

Technology & ElectronicsCommon Sense Media

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Mouse body clock study offers clues to possible jet lag cure

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a genetic mechanism in mice that hampers their body clock's ability to adjust to changes in patterns of light and dark, and say their results could someday lead to the development of drugs to combat jet lag.

Researchers from Britain's Oxford University and from the Swiss drug firm Roche used mice to analyze patterns of genes in an area of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) - which in mammals pulls every cell in the body into the same biological rhythm.

They found that one molecule, called SIK1, is key to how the mice responded to changes in light cycles.

When the scientists blocked the activity of SIK1, the mice recovered faster from disturbances in their daily light and dark cycle that had been designed to induce a form of mouse jet lag.

If the corresponding mechanism can be found and similarly blocked in humans, jet lag may become a thing of the past, the researchers said in their study, published online in the journal Cell on Thursday.

"We're still several years away from a cure for jet lag, but understanding the mechanisms that generate and regulate our circadian clock gives us targets to develop drugs to help bring our bodies in tune with the solar cycle," said Russell Foster, director of Oxford's sleep and circadian neuroscience institute.

He said such drugs could also have broader potential value, including for people with mental illnesses where sleep disturbances are common.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Single men wash their bedsheets just 4 times a year, study says

Should single men clean their bed sheets more often? (Reuters)If you’re a single man, you may go to bed with a clear conscience but you rarely sleep on clean sheets. At least that’s according to a new study, which found that single men on average clean their bedsheets only four times a year.

In comparison, single women change their sheets every two weeks.

And while cleanliness numbers surge for married couples, it appears the credit for the median boost for guys primarily belongs to women. In fact, it may be that the men are dragging the women down, as the average washing frequency among couples is once every 2.3 weeks, with women doing 81 percent of the washing.

As “How Stuff Works” points out, the average person spends about a third of his or her entire life in bed. In other words, the old saying, “As you make your bed, so you must lie on it,” may have more meaning than originally intended.

But are these single men literally sleeping in beds of filth? Or are the women perhaps overdoing it a bit? Turns out, it mostly depends on your own standards of cleanliness.

For example, Martha Stewart recommends washing the sheets weekly, but notes that it ultimately is an issue of personal preference. The Wall Street Journal also says that weekly washes are the norm but that many go several weeks between cleanings.

For people with asthma or other allergies, clean sheets are more of a priority. That’s because sheets, and mattresses and pillowcases in particular, are excellent at accumulating dust and microorganisms that can disrupt otherwise healthy breathing patterns.

In that case, many experts recommend laying plastic covers on top of mattresses and even pillows in to keep those microorganisms from making a home inside the mattress or pillow padding.

"The conventional idea is that you might exacerbate eczema, hay fever or asthma at night, but all of these ideas are more based on conventional wisdom, not necessarily founded in experience," Euan Tovey, head of the Allergen Research Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research told MSN.

"We've done research that showed that you don't get as much exposure to dust mites in bed as we once thought. Anywhere where there is dust and movement you are going to get exposure –– it's not confined to bed," he added.

According to the survey, people between the ages of 35 and 50 are the most likely to wash their bedsheets each week.

So, as Tovey said, health concerns might not be a major issues for younger sleepers. But it certainly could be an aesthetic one for younger men hoping to forge meaningful romantic relationships.

"Would you want to be invited into a bed of somebody who hadn't washed it for months?" Tovey asked.

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Study says e-cigarettes may contain carcinogens similar to regular cigarettes

A new study suggests that e-cigarettes may not be as 'healthy' as previously believed (CBS Los Angeles)Hopes for a healthy cigarette may be nothing more than a pipe dream. A new study suggests that e-cigarettes may contain a level of carcinogens comparable to regular cigarettes.

In recent years, e-cigarettes have become a popular alternative for smokers. The devices use heat to vaporize nicotine but do not actually contain tobacco.

For smokers trying to kick their habit, or at least reduce health risks, e-cigarettes appeared to provide a desirable third way, allowing smokers to get their nicotine fixes while avoiding most of the health risks commonly associated with smoking, including cancer.

However, a report released in France’s National Consumer Institute magazine on Monday says that many e-cigarettes actually contain "a significant quantity of carcinogenic molecules."

According to the study, researchers found that 3 in 10 e-cigarettes contain levels of formaldehyde and acrolein that are nearly equal to levels found in standard cigarettes.

"This is not a reason to ban them, but to place them under better control," National Consumer Institute’s editor in chief Thomas Laurenceau said.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is already considering new potential regulations for e-cigarettes, including a ban on online sales. Because e-cigarettes do not actually emit tobacco smoke, users have largely been able to avoid restrictions applied to traditional smokers.

On Tuesday, the Seal Beach, Calif., City Council announced it was placing a 45-day ban on e-cigarette vendors so the city could spend more time examining the potential health risks of the devices.

However, proponents of e-cigarettes say there is just as much, if not more, evidence suggesting that vaporized nicotine is not only less harmful, but has helped countless cigarette smokers give up their habit.

"I am a ex-smoker (35 years). I tried many times to quit with no success," Michael Eveliegh, owner of Oklahoma based Royal Vapor told Yahoo! News in an email interview. "E-cigs are the only thing that worked! Please know that the tobacco company's and their lobbyists are trying to discredit and confuse the issue," he said. "3 in 10 E-cigs contain levels of formaldehyde, which ones? What flavors? What nicotine level? These are vital to understanding if there is really a cause for concern or not."

The e-cigarette market has been booming. In 2012, the e-cigarette industry recorded more than $1 billion in sales, with profits expected to reach $10 billion within five years. Some estimate that e-cigarette sales could surpass traditional cigarette sales in the next few decades.

The Verge notes that a recent report from Wells Fargo pointed to the public’s belief that e-cigarettes are healthier than traditional smoking as the reason behind their surge in popularity, describing their growth potential as a “promising opportunity” for investors.

"E-cigarettes are more than just a fad," reads an excerpt from the report. "E-Cigarettes' appeal stems from a variety of perceived advantages over traditional cigarettes, most commonly the perceptions that e-cigarettes are healthier, cheaper, and can be used almost anywhere."

However, the future of the e-cigarette industry could change with those potential FDA regulations coming as soon as this fall.

"It is true that more research is needed on the health effects of e-cigarettes,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, told the WSJ. “However, we do not need more research on whether e-cigarettes should or should not be included in proposed FDA regulations.”

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Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ makes cake taste better, study says

It's not just the cake but how you eat it, a new study claims. In this file photo, Oliver Hardy prepares to blow …Science has once again stepped up to the plate, in a manner of speaking. A new study says that singing “Happy Birthday” actually makes cake taste better.

The study, published in the upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, finds that the ritual of singing before eating a slice of cake, or any other dessert, increases one's appreciation of the treat. The result is that the food ends up tasting better, at least in our minds.

The “Happy Birthday to You” song hasn’t even been around for 100 years, though the Guinness World Records does call it the most recognizable song in the English language. So, is it the song itself or the ritual?

University of Minnesota psychologist Kathleen Vohs found that this ritual even extends beyond singing to include such practices as how one opens a candy bar wrapper.

Do you have any personal routines when it comes to eating your food? For example, do you treat yourself to a doughnut on Friday mornings at work? Vohs found that personalized eating habits like this, carried out in “repeated, episodic and fixed behaviors” result in us enjoying that doughnut all the more because of the anticipation built up in our minds.

“Whenever I order an espresso, I take a sugar packet and shake it, open the packet and pour a teeny bit of sugar in, and then taste,” Vohs told the Daily Mail. “It's never enough sugar, so I then pour about half of the packet in. The thing is, this isn't a functional ritual, I should just skip right to pouring in half the packet.”

In other words, her own personalized consumption habit is an integral part of her enjoyment of that espresso.

But there’s good news as well for those watching their waistlines: The ritualistic satisfaction can be applied to any food, including healthier options like fruits and vegetables.

In the experiments, Vohs asked control groups to eat chocolate bars in two different manners. The first group was told to methodically eat half of the bar, wait for a set period of time, then unwrap and eat the other half. Those in the second group of testers were allowed to randomly eat the chocolate bar however they preferred. Vohs found that the first control group reported a higher satisfaction level and were even willing to pay more money for the chocolate bars.

Her second significant finding was that this ritualistic enjoyment applied only to our own personal behaviors. Meaning that Vohs wouldn’t likely get any enjoyment out of watching someone else incrementally add sugar to her espresso. In fact, she might find the process frustrating, since the logical part of her brain knows that she simply wants more sugar added.

This isn't Vohs' first interesting study. In 2010, she was involved in a study that found that handling money actually helps reduce pain.

Going forward, Vohs said she would next like to try applying the rituals to other habits outside of food. “We are thinking of getting patients to perform rituals before a surgery and then measuring their pain post-operatively and how fast they heal,” she said.

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Washington D.C. is least honest city in America, study says

Customers walk outside a Honest Tea booth (Yahoo! News)

For the second year in a row, residents of our nation’s capital have proven themselves the most likely to steal a dollar from your pocket. At least, that’s according to one unusual new study, which found Washington, D.C. to be the least honest city or state in the nation.

The makers of Honest Tea conducted the survey, which involved setting up an unmanned booth with bottles of their product on display. Customers were asked to use the honor system and leave $1 for each bottle of tea they took.

In the end, 80 percent of Washingtonians paid for their beverage. But that was still far less than the national average of 92 percent.

“As a company, Honest Tea values transparency,” National Honesty Index spokesman Dan Forman told Yahoo! News. “To touch on this, the company thought creating a light-hearted social experiment that takes a look at honest in America would be a good way to start a conversation about honesty and how society values it. “

And to add to the irony of the experiment, Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman said he had his bike stolen while traveling to the D.C. booth. He said he had even chained the bike up before leaving it for a few hours.

Now, a tea test is far from the final word on a city or state’s total measurement of honesty. But this is not the only study to find D.C. atop some less than ideal rankings. For example, a 2012 study found that workers in D.C. curse on the job more than of their colleagues around the nation .

This is the fourth year that Honest Tea has conducted their little experiment, during which they visited all 50 states and 61 locations in total.

Alabama and Hawaii tied for the most honest states, where 100 percent of customers paid for their tea.

West Virginia was considered the second least honest state, with 85 percent of people paying for their tea.

Still, as Forman notes, a large majority of Americans paid for their drinks even in those so-called least honest states.

“We were delighted to see that people in the U.S. were so honest,” he said. “There is so much negative rhetoric put out there. It’s encouraging to know that in reality, when faced with a choice to do the right thing or steal, 92 percent of people in the U.S. chose to do the right thing.”

Forman says the company will continue to tweak its honesty tests in future years to better measure how people respond to various scenarios testing their responses.

The full state rankings:

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Avatars might encourage women to lose weight: Study

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You’re doing it wrong: Only 5 percent wash hands the right way, study says

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold extended losses into a second session on Friday as strong U.S. data stoked uncertainty over the outlook for the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying stimulus. A pull back in bond purchases would hurt gold, seen as a hedge against inflation. Bullion, down 17 percent for the year, has been hit by investor outflows in gold exchange traded funds and signs of softening demand in key buyers India and China. "There is uncertainty about the Fed tapering," said Brian Lan, managing director of Singapore-based dealer GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd. ...

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Starving Virginia settlers turned to cannibalism in 1609: study

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Settlers at Virginia's Jamestown Colony resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter of 1609, dismembering and consuming a 14-year-old English girl, the U.S. Smithsonian Institution reported on Wednesday.

This is the first direct evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, the oldest permanent English colony in the Americas, according to the Washington-based museum and research complex.

A recent excavation at the historic site revealed not just the remains of dogs, cats and horses eaten by settlers during the cold "Starving Time" of that year, but also the bones of a girl known to researchers simply as "Jane."

Jane probably was part of a relatively prosperous household, possibly a gentleman's daughter or maidservant, said Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, who analyzed her bones after they were found by Preservation Virginia, a private nonprofit group.

Her back molars had not yet erupted, putting her age around 14 years, and there was a lot of nitrogen in her bones, indicating she ate a meat-rich English diet, Owsley said in a telephone interview.

It is not known whether Jane was killed or died of natural causes. The Smithsonian said there is no evidence of murder.

After her death, in a year when many Jamestown colonists starved, Jane's body was hacked apart by a butcher or butchers who barely knew what they were doing. She may have been chosen because others in her household were already dead and there was no one to bury her, Owsley said.

UNSKILLED CHOPPING

"There was very clear post-mortem dismemberment that involved chops to the forehead, chops to the back of the head that cracked the skull open," the scientist said.

"A puncture to the left side of the head was used to essentially lever and open the ... head to remove the brain. There are cuts all over the face and on the mandible, inside as well as out."

By 1609, Owsley said, the settlement was effectively operating under siege, with many of the male colonists killed by hostile Native Americans after venturing out.

Those who remained inside Jamestown's confines were often women, children and the sick. Those who dismembered Jane might well have been women, he said.

The cuts were "very tentative, hesitant," Owsley said. "This is not someone who's skilled in terms of kitchen work or butchery, and yet they know, out of sheer need, that this is what they have to do."

The brain, tongue, cheeks and leg muscles appear to have been eaten, with the brain probably consumed first because it decomposes soon after death, the Smithsonian said in an online announcement.

Scholars have speculated that extreme drought, hostile relations with the local Powhatan Confederacy and a lost supply ship made the Jamestown colonists desperate enough to eat humans. Writings had suggested it, but no hard physical evidence existed until now.

William Kelso, lead archeologist on the project, and his team discovered the girl's remains last summer.

"We found a deposit of refuse that contained butchered horse and dog bones," Kelso said. "That was only done in times of extreme hunger. As we excavated, we found human teeth and then a partial human skull."

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Xavier Briand)

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More than 300,000 homes are foreclosed "zombies," study says

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A national survey found 301,874 "zombie" properties dotting the U.S. landscape in which homeowners in foreclosure have moved out, leaving vacant property susceptible to vandalism and degradation.

Florida tops the list of zombie properties with 90,556 vacant homes in foreclosure, according to a foreclosure inventory released on Thursday by RealtyTrac, a real estate information company in Irvine, California.

Illinois and California ranked a distant second and third with 31,668 and 28,821 zombie properties respectively on the list.

The number of homes overall in foreclosure or bank-owned rose by 9 percent to 1.5 million properties nationally in the first quarter of 2013 compared to a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.

Another 10.9 million homeowners nationwide remain at risk because they owe more than their property is worth, according to company vice president Daren Blomquist.

RealtyTrac for the first time analyzed data on zombie properties after a Reuters' special report in January examined the special problem of zombie titles, Blomquist said.

Reuters revealed the plight of people who walked away from their homes not realizing that their names remained on the deed and that they were financially liable for taxes and other bills related to the abandoned property.

In some cases, homeowners vacated after receiving a notice from the bank of a planned foreclosure sale, only to find out later the bank never followed through.

Zombie properties can be easy to spot as they deteriorate into neighborhood eyesores and havens for criminal activity.

While Florida leads in volume of zombie properties, Kentucky, with less than 1,000 zombie properties, leads in percentage, with zombies representing 54 percent of its total foreclosure inventory, Blomquist said.

Zombies in Washington, Indiana, Nevada and Oregon also constitute 50 percent or more of the properties in foreclosure, according to the report.

Blomquist said the number of zombie properties could be higher than represented in the RealtyTrac report, which used a conservative methodology.

In Florida, for example, the company does not count any property that has been in foreclosure longer than the state average of 853 days and for which there has been no significant recent activity. The report also does not take into account cases in which a bank chose not to follow through on a foreclosure judgment, leaving the property in limbo.

Blomquist said the long average time to complete a foreclosure case in Florida likely contributes to the high number of zombie properties, as people give up hope over time and walk away.

Blomquist said the findings overall show a housing recovery is under way but not yet deeply rooted.

"I think the empty foreclosures is less of a long-term threat but it certainly is affecting individual communities and neighborhoods," Blomquist said.

According to the Reuters special report, municipalities are left to deal with the mess when people move out after receiving a notice of a planned foreclosure sale that the bank then cancels.

Some spend public funds on securing, cleaning and stabilizing houses that generate no tax revenue. Others let the houses rot.

Unsuspecting homeowners have had their wages garnished, their credit destroyed and their tax refunds seized. They've opened their mail to find bills for back taxes, graffiti-scrubbing services, demolition crews, trash removal, gutter repair, exterior cleaning and lawn clipping.

In some cities, people with zombie titles can be sentenced to probation, with the threat of jail if they don't bring their houses into compliance.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Chris Reese)

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Monkeys reject food from humans who behave selfishly, study finds

A white-headed Capuchin monkey (Wikicommons) a group of monkeys was found to show a selective form of behavior once thought limited to homo sapiens, in which primates reject humans who keep engage in selfish behavior.

The study, published in Nature Communications, explains:

"We find that the monkeys take less food from those who refuse stubbornly another is frequently calls for help. This negative effect of social assessment is robust through the conditions and tightly connected to explicit refusal to help. Evaluation of the potential availability based on third-party interactions so cannot be unique to humans. "

In the studio, two human beings acted out scenarios where one of them refused to help the other to open a glass jar containing a toy. A group of seven capuchin monkeys watched the interactions after having been instructed to receive food from only one person at a time.

When the two actors then offered food to monkeys, apes gravitated toward the man who showed cooperative behavior.

But why did the monkeys rejects food free human offer "selfish"? The study suggests that selfish behavior can be seen from monkeys as "dangerous" behavior.

"Explicit refusal to help is a signal that you are dangerous, you're negative," Kiley Hamlin, developmental psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said Scientific American.

Capuchin monkeys are highly social and cooperative, so the study's findings do not necessarily translate to all animals. But the possibility of measured behavior in other primates.

Another study published in January found that some chimpanzees have the ability to recognize the correctness, another trait previously thought limited to humans.

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Birds grow larger beaks to attract potential mates: study

DEAR ABBY: my daughters are young attractive women, both doing well in their professional careers. "Melanie, who is 27, is married to" Sam, "a very attractive and successful.My daughter 30 years, "Alicia", has been divorced for a year. Her marriage failed two years ago, because she and her husband had an appetite for sex outside their marriage. While I was disturbed about that, I was horrified to learn that Melanie allows her sister occasionally having sex with Sam topic. Melanie is that Sam is less likely to cheat given this situation. ...

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Up to 80% of the time spent online at work is ' wasted, ' according to study

Almost 80 percent work hours spent online are wasted on quote "cyberloafing" (AFP) are you're reading this article when it is supposed to work.

A new study from Kansas State University suggests that we spend even more time than previously thought browsing aimlessly on the Internet during office hours.
"Cyberloafing" — wasting time at work online — takes as much as 80% of the time people spend online at work, according to data collected by Joseph Urgin-minefield, an Assistant Professor at Kansas State and John Pearson, associate professor at Southern Illinois University.
The results were published in the latest issue of the journal computers in human behavior.
Their findings also suggest that the traditional guidelines surrounding the use of the Internet is not sufficient to police worker behavior, and that if companies really want to downsize the amount their employees time browsing on the Web, they must "constantly apply" sanctions to support their policies cyberloafing.
"We found that for young people, it was hard to get them to think that social networking was unacceptable behavior," said Ugrin. "Just have a policy in place will not change their attitudes or behavior at all. Even when they knew that were monitored, they still didn't care. "
Then again, not necessarily all "cyberloafing" can be measured as a net loss for businesses. 2011 study found that in certain fields, when people spend time casually browsing the Web at work, actually end up being more productive and creative.
The risks for employers go beyond lost productivity. Ugrin and Pearson point out that also poses risks cyberloafing lawyers for companies if their employees are engaged in activities such as viewing pornography or participate in illegal transactions.
Ugrin and Pearson found that waste of time was spent in almost equal measure among the different age groups but that generational differences have been expressed in various ways in which people specifically wasting their time.
"Older people are doing things like managing their finances, while young people are much more acceptable to spend time on social networking sites like Facebook," said Ugrin.
And while the study authors approve tougher sanctions to enforce the conduct of employee and productivity, say employers must maintain a healthy balance so as not to negatively affect Office morale.
"People feel like big brother is watching them, so companies need to be careful when you take these kinds of actions," said Ugrin.

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