How Facebook can tell a break-up is coming before you do

How Facebook can tell a break-up is coming before you do

Published October 29, 2013

news.com.au
  • facebook-dating.jpg
    NEWS.COM.AU / REUTERS

Facebook can predict when you’re going to break up.

Yes, apparently the fate of your relationship is not written in the stars but in your social circle.

Cornell University researcher Jon Kleinberg and Facebook senior engineer Lars Backstrom proved as much when they presented their co-written research paper at a social computing conference in February.

The researchers took the datasets of 1.3 million Facebook users listed as being in a relationship, and found that the more well connected their mutual friends were, the more likely they were to break up.

This theory is described as dispersion.

Couples with high dispersion have mutual friends who are not well connected.

Couples with low dispersion have mutual friends who are well connected.

Therefore the Facebook theory suggests if you and your partner share the same social circle on Facebook (low dispersion), you’re less likely to have your own lives and therefore the relationship is more likely to implode.

A healthy relationship, according to Facebook, is one where both partners have connections to a lot of different groups of people, even if those friendships aren’t particularly strong.

“Instead of embededness, we propose that the link between and an individual u and v his or her partner should display a ‘dispersed’ structure: the mutual neighbours of u and v are not well connected to one another and hence u and v act jointly as the only intermediaries between these different parts of the network,” the researchers wrote in the study.

In a nutshell, get your own damn lives and friends.

Of course, this algorithm might not take into account the fact that some couples don’t take their social circles on Facebook particularly seriously and therefore might look like they don’t have as wide group of friends when they actually do.

Probably because they are out living their lives.

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Flirtation Rules – 1800s

1800s:  Flirtation rules

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4,000-Year-Old Tomb Of Doctor To The Pharaohs Discovered

4,000-Year-Old Tomb Of Doctor To The Pharaohs Discovered (PHOTO)

The Huffington Post  |  By 

tomb doctor to pharaohs

The tomb of a prestigious ancient Egyptian physician who counted pharaohs among his clients is believed to have been found in a vast necropolis southwest of Cairo.

Part of a large plot measuring roughly 70 feet by 46 feet, the tomb of Shepseskaf-Ankh was unearthed this week in Abusir near modern-day Giza, the Agence France-Presse reports. The site is a burial place for many important figures from the Fifth Dynasty, which existed about 4,000 years ago.

“This discovery is important because this is the tomb of one of the greatest doctors from the time of the pyramid builders, one of the doctors closely tied to the king,” Antiquities Minister Ibrahim Ali said in a statement, per AFP.

The Czech team, led by Egyptologist Miroslav Bárta, confirmed the tomb’s discovery on Facebook Tuesday.

After analyzing carvings on the tomb’s false door, a team of archaeologists from the Czech Institute of Egyptology were able to identify the doctor, listed as Head of Physicians of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ahram Online reports.

An impressive final resting place, Shepseskaf-Ankh’s tomb appears to be a family plot and includes a courtyard area and eight burial chambers for members of the doctor’s relatives, the outlet notes.

(Story continues below.)
tomb

Carvings on the tomb of researchers believe was one of the most prominent physicians of ancient Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty. Located in northern Egypt, Abusir is the site of three pyramids built by Fifth Dynasty kings Sahure, Neferirkare and Neuserre between 2465 B.C. and 2325 B.C., according to Britannica. In the shadow of these monuments, other kings also built their own sanctuaries, with particular reverence being paid to Re, the sun god.

Team leader Bárta has been working in the Abusir area for many years, according to Radio Prague. His research in the region has informed his theory that the collapse of Egypt’s Old Kingdom began in the Fifth Dynasty.

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Cute Dogs For Your Monday Blues

Your dose of cute dog pictures to help you through your Monday…

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Interesting Movie Trivia

Some random movie trivia for your amusement.  Source:  reposted from the Chive who reposted from wtffunfact.com.

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Want to Be Angry?

I try to keep upbeat on my blog, so if you don’t want to hear about something infuriating…stop now and skip this post.

Prior to retiring to be a writer, I was a healthcare executive.  I read the entire healthcare reform act bill, now referred to as Obamacare, and did an analysis.  I was accused of being crazy, anti-Obama, anti-healthcare, alarmist, etc.  I need to find that original analysis and reprint it.  I was all too correct on how it would be implemented.  For the record, I am for universal healthcare in the United States – but not run in any way by the government.  I believe the patient and their doctor should control treatment.  The only way to do that is to have the patient paying and selecting the care and the doctor charging and recommending the care.  Having the government and an insurance company pay and decide sucks.  Government paid vouchers for the poor to buy insurance is the way to do it.

But that is not the part that infuriated me.  It was when I found out what was spent on Health.gov, the federal site.  Mind you, this site, which does not function, is the ONLY thing the federal HHS had to do.  It simply takes applications, then refers them to the state exchanges.  The state exchanges then determine eligibility and screen for Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility, then give you a list of options and calculate your subsidy if any.  The insurers then provide the medical treatment.  HHS had four years – and ONLY one job to do…

1) They originally budgeted $100 million for this website – the cost has now soared to over $600 million;

2) They hired a company with a history of ripping off governments and not performing – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/23/red-flags-company-behind-obamacare-site-has-checkered-past/

3)  They knew about the problems and did not fix them;

4) They said now, they will bring in the best and brightest to fix it (why not do that to start with);

5) They won’t tell us how many people were actually able to sign up, but the number leaked out that nationwide, the first day – SIX, yes, one more than five, just six people were able to enroll;

6)  Secretary Sebelius illegally went around the country raising funds for pro-Obamacare advertising and shaking down insurance companies, but didn’t get the website fixed.  If you are willing to bend or break laws to get people to support it, why not actually get it to work too?

7) So now, the administration is bringing in the folks who did their campaign to help – http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/obamacare-healthcaregov-harper-reed

8)  That’s right, Obama’s donor firm gets the money now – http://nypost.com/2013/11/01/obama-donors-firm-hired-to-fix-web-mess-it-helped-make/

9) The Democrats refused to let Republicans delay the individual mandate, even when they shut down the government to try.

10)  As a result, people without insurance will be fined by the IRS or have their refunds withheld, even though those same people can’t actually get on the site to get their insurance.

11)  Over 15 million people are losing their individual insurance policies and if and when they can sign up for the ‘free health care’, their premiums are going to double on average.

12) Up to 60 million other people are on the bubble as businesses decide whether or not to continue coverage.

Whether you are for or against healthcare reform, $600 million, crony politics, and people still can’t sign up?

Yep, I’m pretty fed up with crap.  The worst part is I am paying for it, and you are, and our grandchildren each owe about $50,000 as well for the debt we have racked up for what?

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Saturday Cosplay Pictures

More cool cosplay pictures for your Saturday perusal!

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1883 Illustrated Guide to Insane People

This is a pretty chilling look into the ‘state of the art’ definition of insanity in 1883.  This is an illustrated guide published to help other ‘mental health’ professionals at the time with diagnosis and treatment, a precursor to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, known as the DSM-IV-TR, or the fourth version, text revision.  Chances are in the Age of Steam you would be locked up in a cell for the rest of our life if you were considered a risk to self or others.

1883:  Illustrated Guide to Insane People

 

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A Dose of Irony

Some irony for chuckles on your Friday.  (and yes, for you sticklers, some might not be technically ‘ironic’, but hey, it’s Friday, so chill.)

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Travis Marsala – Young Playwright, Actor, Director and Renaissance Man

I have a few other websites.  This is mine, the one that reflects my very strange mind and my writing.

I am also lucky enough to be the editor at Arizonahealthspot.org which is a blog devoted to ONLY positive health, wellness and medical news.  No warnings about things that will kill you, only talk about things that are fun and can heal you and keep you healthy.

In addition, I just started up a new website called Arizonaprofiles.com.  At this site, once again, I only have profiles and interviews that are positive.  I am planning to focus on ‘normal people’ around us that are not celebrities or famous, but have pursued a rewarding, creative and productive life.  This can be in the arts, in foster care, charity, public service, education, etc.  The silent heroes who work hard to make our world special.  In my first post I profiled Song River, who is the Photographer behind Cowgirlzen Photography.  In this profile, Song River reciprocated by interviewing and doing a profile on Travis Marsala.  You can read the post here:

http://arizonaprofiles.com/2013/11/01/travis-marsala-young-playwright-actor-director-and-renaissance-man/

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If you are interested in health issues, please feel free to follow at Arizonahealthspot.org.

If you are interested in profiles of people, please feel free to follow at Arizonaprofiles.com.

Thanks!

Michael Bradley, Author

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