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Is Your Personal Data on Spokeo?

My blogging friend Fabulously Broke alerted me of Spokeo this morning. According to their website, Spokeo is a "people" search engine that aggregates all publicly available data (including but not limited to: phone directories, social networks, marketing surveys, mailing lists, government census, real estate listings, and business websites). While a quick name search will bring up cursory information, paid members can access even more detailed data. I knew that after being active on social networks for years, my information would most likely be listed. What surprised me is that they had the wrong information. More specifically, their information was vastly outdated — they had me listed as still living with my parents, circa 1999! And NO, my parents' house is not worth $1...

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The 1000 Most Popular Sites in the World

Today, Google released a list of the 1000 most popular sites in the world. The list isn't entirely accurate, as they left themselves off the list (they would've been #1). However, it comes to no surprise that Facebook and Yahoo easily take the top two spots by a large margin. Browsing through the list, I couldn't help but notice three things: The most popular category seems to be "Social Networks." We are all connected, people! I was surprised to see that the most popular porn site — http://www.game2.com.cn/ — is at a disappointingly low #135. Then I read that adult sites are excluded from the list...

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Aiming for Pentalingual

I read a fascinating article titled Science Question from a Toddler: Life Before Birth last week. I highly recommend the full article for any new/expectant mothers; heck, it's a good read in general even if you're not into this stuff! The reason I bring up this article is due to a particular passage: Newborns prefer their mother's voice over anyone else's (even dad's). They prefer hearing phrases from books they were read while in the womb, compared to new stories. They're even already favoring one language over another. "Babies prefer the sound of their mother's native language to others," Moon said. "Interestingly, they can distinguish between languages in the same rhythmic class, like Spanish versus English. But they can't tell the difference between...

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Map of Sin: How Does Your Country Compare?

BBC Focus magazine recently ran a featured article behind the science of sin: its definition; the biological triggers that cause us to sin; and how modern technology may be making us more sinful than ever before. The article also included a colorful chart titled "The Most Sinful Nation on Earth." Taking into account the Seven Deadly Sins in terms of their modern equivalents, it compiled statistical databases to find the most sinful countries: According to this chart, Australia is overall the most sinful nation on earth, followed by the United States. This was pretty surprising to me — I would think the U.S. would take the top spot without a fight! The #1 countries for each category are: Lust: South Korea Gluttony: USA Greed: Mexico Sloth: South...

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