To have and to hold, to Tivo and to Netflix: the WSJ discusses couples and their need to merge their digital services. “For Stephen and Denise De Chellis of Gaylordsville, Conn., living under one roof hasn’t been a problem, but sharing one Netflix account has. Ms. De Chellis likes to use the DVD-by-mail service to rent romantic comedies. To sneak in the science-fiction and anime he prefers, Mr. De Chellis has taken to covert early-morning updates of the Netflix queue.”

Several things I observed but didn’t blog from a couple weeks ago: higher IQ in firstborns (NYT), reflections on change and sameness (Rebecca Sower), the most beautiful, relevant admissions website I’ve ever seen (and I hate that it belongs to my alma mater’s rival) and Type Camp.

20% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. Umm, seriously?

Apparently Clinton is the only president in the last 60 years to leave the oval office on a high note — a high approval rating note that is. Reagan came close to matching his inaugural approval rating upon departure, but Clinton is the only one to exceed his.

It was a sexy news day today: “Cleavage: The Owners Manual”, courtesy of ABC News, and “Porn Effect”, an AP article through CNN.

Hitwise reports that social networking could trump pornography in US site visits in the very near future. Search engines have already taken the lead in Britain.

Twenty-nine predictions from the December 1900 Ladies Home Journal. All of the ones related to the size of fruits and plants rate among my favorites, as well as number 16: “There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.”

Kate Spicer’s woeful tale of extreme dieting (that nearly all women can relate to in at least some aspects): “In certain pockets of society everyone thinks natural body weight is fat. If you are a perfectionist, as I and many other marginally successful women are, you fit the psychopathology brief for eating disorders.… The pursuit of thinness is a way of channeling every emotional energy into one ambition; it is a way of losing yourself in one problem — weight loss — and ignoring all the other issues in your life.”

In Nietzsche-like fashion, Paul Graham declares the death of Microsoft. “I’m glad Microsoft is dead. They were like Nero or Commodus — evil in the way only inherited power can make you.”

Quote of the day, courtesy of the New York Times: “I’m not even sure females have a sexual orientation. But they have sexual preferences. Women are very picky, and most choose to have sex with men.” The article feels disjointed but is worth a read for a few interesting details and several laughs.

Extremely interesting article on why swimming world records are constantly broken while many records in other sports, such as track and field, have stood for two decades or longer. Their hypotheses regarding swimmer age are interesting but not well substantiated if you look outside of the elite ranks. (That is to say, even junior nationals-level swimmers are likely to peak before college or in their freshman year.) I think back to when I was a hard-core swimmer, and it seemed like records were longer standing then — but the sport was even younger than it is now, almost a decade later.

The San Jose Mercury talks about Netflix’ vacation policy — or, more specifically, the lack thereof. I can’t help but wonder if some company out there is abusing a policy like this — setting unattainable goals and thereby never allowing for vacation.

Stephen Bayley on creating a personality: “It is said that we are all three different people… You could say it would be a lifetime’s quest to reconcile this battling trinity into a seamless whole. Maybe, but for the time being I am convinced that … you are what you pretend to be.”

The Washington Post breaks precedent to publish an anonymous letter from a National Security Letter recipient. “Living under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case — including the mere fact that I received an NSL — from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie.”

Unsurprisingly, more men are taking their wives’ last names, or both partners are changing their last name to a hyphenated or concatenated version. This article doesn’t touch on the trend I consider most prevalent, which is neither partner changing anything. Not to come off too anti-Women’s Studies Department, but I find the whole issue a bit silly.