confirming what i've known since i was 16 and meeting people off the internet: blogging, etc, makes you more social!

The cyberworld expands people's social networks and even encourages people to talk by phone or meet others in person, a new study finds.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project also finds that U.S. Internet users are more apt to get help on health care, financial and other decisions because they have a larger set of people to whom they can turn.

Further rebuking early studies suggesting that the Internet promotes isolation, Pew found that it ``was actually helping people maintain their communities,'' said Barry Wellman, a University of Toronto sociology professor and co-author of the Pew report.

The study found that e-mail is supplementing, not replacing, other means of contact. For example, people who e-mail most of their closest friends and relatives at least once a week are about 25 percent more likely to have weekly landline phone contact as well. The increase is even greater for cell phones.

``There's a certain seamlessness of how people maintain their social networks,'' said John Horrigan, Pew's associate director. ``They shift between face-to-face, phone and Internet quite easily.''

Meanwhile, Internet users tend to have a larger network of close and significant contacts -- a median of 37 compared with 30 for non-users -- and they are more likely to receive help from someone within that social network.

that's right. where you going to get your friends from now, ogged?

I can't say that I've got much use for it, but if your town has more than two real music venues, you might find track50 useful.

this study says that men find women who are witty to be a total turn-off.

guys: is this true? i would suspect that many of the guys who read this blog would say no, simply because i think most of the male readers here are the kind that appreciate humor and wit in a woman because they aren't insecure ninnies. but maybe not.

the article interviews a lot of female comedians about the study, but i don't think they should count as i find most stand up comedians to be kind of repulsive whether they're male or female. but seriously - if you met a woman out at a bar who could keep up a stream of hysterical repartee don't you think most people would consider that to be a turn on? or would it be seriously offputting? i mean, i just dunno. i don't see anyone throwing sarah silverman out of bed.

(via amber)

heh. i find this funny. via my dad, dario fo is running for the mayor of milan. results to be expected soon.

update: never mind! i see over at la stampa that his opposition, the former police chief of milan, looks like he's winning handily.

last weekend's.

this weekend was more low-key, but i can still recommend the following:

the freaks and geeks dvd. tommy got me this for christmas, and i've been too busy to watch it until now but have spent a large chunk of saturday and sunday racing through. it's certainly charming, although i'm not sure why it inspired such cultlike devotion - it hasn't totally grabbed me in that way. but still very enjoyable, and i am now also in love with linda cardellini.

el tapatio on ashland. you know the night's going right when a) your supposed 45-minute wait to eat at a restaurant turns into 15 minutes b) the restaurant lets you sneak in your beers from the bar across the street that you were waiting at c) along with your pitcher of margaritas the waiter scores you each an extra glass full and d) even though your "burrito grandioso" weighs approximately four pounds, it's so good that you eat the entire thing.

guthries. we were supposed to hit up this bar on saturday night, but it turned out to be too crowded to stay there. but it looked adorable - small, cozy, with a fireplace and stacks of boardgames that people were playing at every table. perfect for a rainy night. if our group had been smaller, i would have been content to snag a table and hit up some monopoly. as it was, we headed to the first bar we came across on southport - cullen's, which was basically your typical faux-irish pub but was still fun. they actually had a decent cover band that played everything from radiohead to gin blossoms.

fudgy chocolate-raspberry bars. though fresh raspberries obviously aren't in season, the bars were still delicious and elicited raves from a dinner i went to sunday night. i was glad, because only god in heaven knows what a trial it is to bake in my postage-sized kitchen. my kitchenaid mixer? has to go ON THE FLOOR IN MY BEDROOM BECAUSE THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE TO PUT IT/PLUG IT IN.

not recommended: lazing out on your weekend run of 8 miles such that you have to do it monday morning before your 2 p.m. class, and now it's flurrying. sigh.

you know what i really think iraq could use a little bit of now? no, not tender loving care. how about some bird flu? that's the ticket, i think.