Interesting Links for 26-03-2013

[andrewducker]

• Can We Please Stop Drawing Trees on Top of Skyscrapers?
  (tags: trees architecture )
• Speed of light may not be fixed, scientists suggest; Ephemeral vacuum particles induce speed-of-light fluctuations
  (tags: light science )
• This is why I'm glad I live in a country where waiting staff are still covered by minimum wage laws.
  (tags: comic restaurant usa wages )
• Should Britain let go of London?
  (tags: uk london )
• Sweden axes new word after Google intervenes
  (tags: sweden google )
• Markets don't cover many of the most important things in life.
  (tags: psychology economics viaDrDoug )
• Some interesting costs for NHS treatments here. Anyone got comparable costs for the US?
  (tags: money nhs healthcare )
• 2000, the Year Formerly Known as the Future.
  (tags: history thefuture technology )
• The internet is changing ettiquette. Not everyone is happy about that.
  (tags: ettiquette internet )

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I'd hate to be in the trajectory of a large branch falling off a 30-story skyscraper.

[cyprinella]

Maybe it's because I'm too young or some such bullshit, but I'm not sure how a digital message of "Thank you for the thing. It's lovely. I'll use it always. Thanks again, Yr Relative" is any better or worse than a message scrawled on a generic card with a giant thank you across the front. Is it because you can only do one at a time? Because sticking a stamp on it makes it more ...something? I love getting mail, but honestly things like this and the birthday card from the store with a signature are no more meaningful (and more likely to end up in the recycling bin) than an email. In fact, I'd much rather have a version that is likely to open up a dialogue, which a paper card generally doesn't these days, unless it's to my grandmother.

[dalglir]

The point is that the pen and paper method is more meaningful and valuable to other people - though, typically pre-Internet folks.

To me - I agree - I actually prefer electronic media for this sort of thing but other folks like to see gratitude expressed in the effort that it takes to put pen to paper and to post something physical. "Oh, they were so pleased with it, they actually went to the bother of writing and posting a thank you note!" It's a form of social stroking and carries value.

Whereas an electronic 'thank you' is basically effortless and carries less social value to to people for whom this kind of thing matters - it's barely more than an acknowledgment.