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Shark Week 2011: Status of the Shark

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Did you know that…

  • …sharks have tooth-shaped scales called denticles, and that these allow the sharks to move faster and more smoothly in the water? The denticles also prevent the algae and barnacles from accumulating on the shark’s skin.
  • …a female shark can get pregnant without ever touching a male shark? This is called parthenogenesis. Only very few cases of parthenogenesis have been documented, though.
  • …the eating habits of sharks are affected strongly by the ocean tides. Depending on the phase of the moon, sharks move closer to the shore to catch their prey.
  • …there is a tiny shark species that is a mere 8 inches (20 centimeters) long? Pygmy sharks are among the tiniest in their family and they can produce their own light to help them hunt in deep waters.

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Want More ReTweets? Here Are 5 Scientifically Proven Ways!

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Need a retweet?Believe it or not, there are still people who are not convinced of how Twitter can bring them benefits. Heck, there are still people who are not on Twitter for that matter! For those who regularly use Twitter to gain exposure and interact with people around the world, getting retweets is one of the important things. But how do you get your followers (and their followers) to retweet your tweet?

So you know that your tweets are awesome. You know that others will find them cool and that they will definitely benefit from them. But maybe you just can’t seem to get any traction. Only a handful actually share your tweets. Is there a proven way to encourage people to actually click that retweet button? [Read more…] about Want More ReTweets? Here Are 5 Scientifically Proven Ways!

How to Configure Privacy Settings on Google+

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Google+So Google Plus (Google+) is quickly amassing its own number of followers, although it’s probably still a far cry from the number of Facebook users. In less than a month since the launch of Google+, we’ve been seeing a lot of speculations about the number of users. From 10 million to 25 million Google+ users – the numbers are all over the place. Google will probably never tell us the real deal on how many users they have, but there is something more important than knowing just how many people are on the social network. Privacy. [Read more…] about How to Configure Privacy Settings on Google+

Foursquare Is 10,000,000 Strong and Counting!

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I still remember the days when I totally ignored Foursquare. After all, I didn’t (and don’t) want people to know where I am all the time. But there’s something about this platform that one just can’t ignore. With me, it was basically wanting to be the mayor of certain locations, lording it over my grand total of 3 friends. There is still that feeling of not wanting people to always know where I am, but I have to admit that I have fallen for Foursquare hook, line, and sinker. [Read more…] about Foursquare Is 10,000,000 Strong and Counting!

Where on Earth Is Your Data?

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If you’re anything like Lisbeth Salander in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, you are rather particular about how and where you store your data. Now you do not have to have her social and personality issues to justify your paranoia healthy concern about your data. In fact, it is important that even the average person take care of information that is uploaded on the Internet.

With the continuing rise of social networking and other similar activities online, information security is really something that everyone should pay attention to. You don’t have to an expert in this matter – a good dose of common sense and accurate information should be enough for everyday purposes. And if you have those two elements, you ought to be safe. You also will probably be interested in this infographic about the whereabouts of the world’s data that Mozy has come up with. ((Source)) Yes, it’s the same Mozy that offers online backup services. And no, this is not a sponsored post by them. Suffice it to say that I found myself poring over the infographic and thought that some of you might be interested in the data as well.

Here are the salient points in the infographic.

There are almost 600 Exabytes of data stored all over the world today. Exa-what? My thoughts exactly. My knowledge of math doesn’t go that far, so Wikipedia had to rescue me. Exa = 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. Ack. Now this really calls for something more visual. Imagine putting all that data in books. Now imagine 13 layers of books covering the entire United States. Or China. That’s how much information there is. Mind-blowing to say the least.

Hard drives contain most of the world’s data. Fifty-two percent of the world’s data is stored in hard disks. Optical storage devices come second at 28%. Not surprising at all, is it?

The rise of the data centers – 8 of the 10 biggest data centers in the world are in the United States. The other 2 are in Europe.

Where is the world's data stored
Where is the world's data stored?

As for me, I belong to the majority – hard disks FTW! And I guess being a regular Facebook et. al. user (like everyone and their mom), I have a fair amount of data in one data center or another as well.

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

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Do you have memories of parents or grandparents sitting on the porch or the kitchen table (or wherever their favorite spot was) on a lazy Sunday afternoon, meticulously weeding through the coupon section and cutting out the useful ones? Those days are long gone, although the concept of couponing is definitely still here, thanks to the Internet.

Groupon. Living Social. Coupon Mom. Coupons.com. Those are only a handful of the sites that have attracted millions of consumers with the offer of coupons and daily deals. The United States is not alone in experiencing this phenomenon. In fact, in other parts of the world, countless daily deals sites crop up almost everyday. Confession coming up…

Yup, I am a sucker for those daily deals sites. There was a time when I had purchased so many deals that I was unable to use some of the coupons I had. I even had to give away some of them! The argument of every sucker like me: “But I can save a lot of money!”

A debatable point, of course, but that does not change the fact that people are still on the lookout for ways to make some savings on their purchases, and patronizing coupons sites and daily deals sites is one such way. Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ll believe this infographic by Credit Score ((Source)) – it’s full of official statistics so it must be true!

Truth be told, I was more interested in the figures from the past – I am already convinced that daily deals sites and coupon sites are way too popular for our (consumers) own good. For example, did you know that it was Coca-Cola who introduced the first ever coupon? They did so to promote the soda in 1888 when it was first launched. The coupon gave the bearer a free glass of Coke!

A quick summary of stats for the year 2010:

  • Digital coupons outsell printed coupons 10 to 1
  • More then 332 billion coupons were distributed in 2010
  • There were 63,000 daily deals in the US in 2010
  • There are about 200 daily deals sites
  • 68% make impulse purchases on daily deals sites, compared to only 38% on coupons sites

Interested in more? Here’s the infographic. Click on the image to see the full size.

The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing
The Rise of Online Deal Seeking and Couponing

So tell me, are you merely part of the statistics, like I am?