1. John Shore’s follow-up to his Huffington Post piece, “How My Wife Took The News Of My Sudden Conversion”. It should be noted that Mr. Shore published a book in 2007 with the killer title: “I’m OK-You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending To Non-Believers And Why We Should Stop”. Along those lines, it’s worth taking a look at his post “What Non-Christians Want Christians To Hear”.
2. Fascinating report from the San Fracisco Chronicle about behavior on Facebook and LinkedIn. Turns out both networks employ scientists whose sole job it is to track and analyze our behavior… With a particular focus on happiness:
“You can have a very statistical picture of how the happiness of an entire population of people is changing over time,” said Marlow, 33. “We might not be able to really detect your happiness very well, but when we add all those up, we get a very clear picture of what the entire country is feeling.”
The index shows the happiest days are holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day and Easter. Sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and World Cup soccer matches, generate peaks and valleys. Michael Jackson’s untimely death caused a “very negative” day, [Cameron Marlow, manager of the “data science team” for Palo Alto’s Facebook Inc.] said.
Becoming engaged makes women less happy. “Maybe this is the effect of having to plan a wedding,” Marlow said. “While the process of being engaged is stressful for women, once you’re married, then in general, you’re less negative than you were before. But if you’re a man, then something else changes, it increases the negativity. These fit the gender stereotypes so perfectly that it’s almost uncanny.”
3a. The full text of the poem “Disgraceland” by Mary Karr, DFW’s ex-girlfriend, mentioned in the comment section of last week’s round-up can be found here. It’s quite a doozie. In the positive sense (ht ME).
4. An interesting but completely inconclusive little article over at The NY Times about “The Science Of A Happy Marriage” which details some recent research about psychological physiological factors re: commitment and temptation.
5. The introduction to Michael Spencer’s (nee InternetMonk’s) forthcoming, posthumous book Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back To A Jesus-Shaped Spirituality is now available as a sneak peak. Do yourself a favor.
6. Some great rock videos this week: The Hold Steady on Colbert (interview, performance), Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel’s first live performance in forever and The National with Sufjan Stevens last night on Letterman. Pretty transcendent:
COMMENTS
5 responses to “Another Week Ends: More Shore, Facebook Happiness, DFW, Marriage, IMonk and The National”
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Can we all say that we love Michael Spencer and cannot wait to meet him? He will be at my dream dinner table along with Tolkien, my Father (David), George MacDonald and Martin Short…(Hey, it's my dream table, not yours!!!)
Thanks for the links and all. Very kind of you. It's been a real pleasure learning all about Mockingbird. You guys are clearly doing some wonderful work.
I wish to repeat John Shore's thanks. I'm loving his blog! Also enjoyed the "St. Dave" commentary and the gorgeous Mary Karr poem. Great gifts from Mockingbird on a Saturday morning…
That Mary Karr poem was outstanding.
The less time I spend in FaceBook and LinkedIn, the happier I am.