Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for August 10, 2019

The effect of birth order on personality; The main factor leading to extraordinarily long lives seems to be exaggeration; French inventor flies hoverboard across the English Channel; Enhancing movies by enabling closed captions; Enhancing tourism with augmented reality

Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

1. Does Birth Order Affect Personality? - The idea that individual personality is shaped by birth order was first promoted by Alfred Adler. Recognized as the founder of individual psychology, he was an Austrian psychotherapist who practiced in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Adler suggested that first children tended to be neurotic and conservative, youngest children were ambitious, and middle children were emotionally stable. Later, in the 1990s Frank Sulloway identified a similar trend in history books, suggesting that firstborn children were likely to be leaders, and younger ones rebellious. However, researchers who comb through large transnational data find that the effect disappears as the sample size grows. The article points out that as the number of children in a family grow, their likelihood of being "first born" decreases. This phenomenon reminds me of Benford's Law", and complicates the question because it runs counter to our intuitions. In short, birth order may have an effect on personality, but the type of effect is not the same everywhere. Instead, it depends upon the individual circumstances.


2. Study: many of the “oldest” people in the world may not be as old as we think - A recent study found that reliable state-level record keeping was introduced at different times in different places, and that when reliable birth certificates are introduced, the number of people who live to be over 100 falls by about 60-70%. Additionally, many of the places with high numbers of "supercentarians" (people over 100) are also places with high crime rates and otherwise low life expectancy, suggesting that claims of long life may be a form of pension fraud. (Which reminds me of this.) Interesting statistic. Of the people who live to be 100, less than 1 in 1,000 will live to be 110.


3. French Hoverboard Inventor Successfully Flies Over the English Channel - Flying at speeds up to 110 mph, Franky Zapata flew a kerosene powered hoverboard across the English Channel in 22 minutes. During the crossing, he stopped once to refuel. This was his second attempt, after a prior attempt ended with a collision between the hoverboard and a refueling boat. French maritime authorities said the refueling operation was dangerous, so don't try this at home.


4. I find myself watching more movies and shows with subtitles on, and you should too - The author argues that closed captions help the viewer to understand the movie better by providing more detail about things like song lyrics, correct spelling for disease and character names, and other factors that might be missed without the captions. Our family has been doing this for several years, because - for whatever reason - the max volume on premium channels like HBO, Starz, Cinemax, and Encore is far lower than the regular channels with our cable service. After watching TV this way, I agree with the article. Being able to read the captions adds a dimension to the movie, even when you're not having trouble hearing the dialog.


5. STEEM How TUI is Using Tech to Change The Travel Experience - According to @doitvoluntarily, TUI is a large German travel and tourism company that owns things like cruise ships, hotels, airlines, and travel agencies. Now, they are launching an app with a display in a pair of glasses that helps travelers learn about their surroundings or find public transportation. During the seasons of high tourism, this app may be used by thousands of people. During the research for this app, the company also identified about 30 factors that trigger "the holiday feeling", and noticed that the holiday euphoria tails off after about 48 hours. (A beneficiary setting of 10% for @doitvoluntarily has been applied to this post.)

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