The Eternal Optimist

How did I miss this?

In last weekend’s Washington Post magazine, Gene Weingarten’s column referenced Google’s NGram viewer. I had never heard of it, but this viewer could provide hours of fun.

In Weingarten’s words, the tool “lets you see, on a timeline graph, the comparative popularity of any two or more words, phrases or names, judged by the frequency of their mentions in the millions of English language books Google has digitized.”

Genius!

Check it out — but only when you have a couple hours to spare because it’s addictive.

One in five divorce petitions cites Facebook.

I heard this today on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and then looked it up. According to an article in U.K.’s Telegraph (and other news sources), lawyers say social networking sites make it easier for spouses to cheat, renew old flames or meet new flames.

I suppose it’s nothing surprising, but the statistic is pretty scary considering almost all of my generation is currently on such sites. What does this mean for our chances of success?

If you have a little extra online time, you should check out the winners and finalists for the Webby Awards. Websites win the awards based on design, usability, functionality, etc.

As I was looking through the list, I found this Economist link. Since my paper is owned by the Economist Group, I checked it out. And then I realized it was a very unusual and very cool site. I think the concept of showing and explaining individuals’ thinking spaces is a good one. And the rotating, angled, connected photos are really cool.

Onlinestylebooks.com searches up to 40 different style guides for answers to any style questions (or thorough confusion as to which style you should follow).