Daily Twitter Links for Thursday 14 February 2013

Here are today's must-reads:

1. You Are Gay,' 'Fax Me,' 'Let's Read,' and 17 More Amazing Retired Sweetheart Candy Sayings: 

The Sweetheart is 147 years old. But not all of its cute little sayings have enjoyed quite the same sesquicentennial longevity. The folks from NECCO, the confectionery company that sells 4 million pounds of their traditional heart-shaped candies in the 6 weeks before Valentine's Day, sent me the full list of their most notable retired sayings.

1. DIG ME
2. HOT CHA
3. SAUCY BOY
4. GIRL POWER
5. OH YOU KID
6. WHY NOT
7. GROOVY
8. COOL DUDE
9. MY, SUCH EYES
10. FAX ME
11. HEP CAT
12. TELL ME HOW
13. YOU ARE LATE
14. 1-800 CUPID
15. [PEACE SYMBOL]
16. YEAH RIGHT
17. OH BOY
18. YOU ROCK
19. LET'S READ
20. YOU ARE GAY

This year's batch includes: UR HOT, TEXT ME, and LOML [that's: Love of My Life].

Amazingly, NECCO told me that they once toyed with a saying like PUCKER UP. But the industrial machine had a habit of printing Ps that looked a little to much like Fs. So, yeah. That was one Sweetheart that didn't make it to market.

2. Down for the Count: All the Deaths in Quentin Tarantino’s Movies, Charted: 

Quentin Tarantino and violence go together like elderberry wine and arsenic—they’re made for each other. He’s certainly not the first director to kill off a few characters, and his movies aren’t slasher flicks, where violence is the entire point. Nevertheless, the ratio of body count to body of work is certainly impressive. So, just for fun, let’s appreciate the sheer numerical accomplishment of Tarantino’s mass cinematic bloodbath: in eight films, 560 people die on-screen.

3. The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers:  

Something about cyclists seems to provoke fury in other road users. If you doubt this, try a search for the word "cyclist" on Twitter. As I write this one of the latest tweets is this: "Had enough of cyclists today! Just wanna ram them with my car." This kind of sentiment would get people locked up if directed against an ethic minority or religion, but it seems to be fair game, in many people's minds, when directed against cyclists. Why all the rage?

I've got a theory, of course. It's not because cyclists are annoying. It isn't even because we have a selective memory for that one stand-out annoying cyclist over the hundreds of boring, non-annoying ones (although that probably is a factor). No, my theory is that motorists hate cyclists because they think they offend the moral order.

And the most-read link I tweeted today was:

• "The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers" http://pjblack.me/VdopR4 /cc @robblack

These are some of the other things I've been tweeting about today:

• "Massive challenge beckons with MOOCS" http://pjblack.me/YsXT3R #highered
• "Retiring ‘Fox News Sunday’ EP Marty Ryan On The Evolution Of Fox News" http://pjblack.me/YsXzSK
• international education has fallen in value for the fourth consecutive year: "Value of education falls again" http://pjblack.me/X6Qf2d #highered
• "Want sex? Study economics, professor says" http://pjblack.me/X6QCtw #highered
• "Down for the Count: All the Deaths in Quentin Tarantino’s Movies, Charted" http://pjblack.me/X6tAmG
• "The 100 Biggest Stars In Silicon Valley" http://pjblack.me/X6rl2E
• a real world speed scenario: "This Guy's Car Got Stuck at 125mph—for an Hour" http://pjblack.me/X6raUU
• "7 Months After Acquiring it, Kwaga Sells Boxcar to ProcessOne" http://pjblack.me/X6emOu
• "NYU's campus failure rings alarm bells" http://pjblack.me/Yq1NKP #highered
• "Twittelator Neue Finally Ditches Annual Charge For Push Notifications" http://pjblack.me/YskCNv
• "Kevin Rudd social media campaign gearing up on twitter, Facebook and YouTube" http://pjblack.me/YsCl7i
• this is a bit of fun: "A Map of Dirty Place Names" http://pjblack.me/YpnWsA
• "Porn Isn't Just For Men! Why Women Love Watching" http://pjblack.me/X6rOyI
• "'You Are Gay,' 'Fax Me,' 'Let's Read,' and 17 More Amazing Retired Sweetheart Candy Sayings" http://pjblack.me/XAxb8F
• election reform in america: "Will the Bauer-Ginsberg Election Reform Commission Improve Our Dismal Election System?" http://pjblack.me/X4qrDU
• cute idea: "Pay-by-tweet service offered by Amex" http://pjblack.me/X3uVup
• "Papal Primer: History's 10 Most Intriguing Popes" http://pjblack.me/VdoV1J
• "The psychology of why cyclists enrage car drivers" http://pjblack.me/VdopR4 /cc @robblack
• that's a lot of coke: "Woman Drank Herself to Death with Coca-Cola" http://pjblack.me/X6rNuy
• "When does Facebook take rape threats seriously?" http://pjblack.me/YpnXg4 #lwn117
• this seems unnecessary: "Cutting-Edge Canines: The World of Dog Plastic Surgery" http://pjblack.me/VdoSmr
• not like chicken apparently: "What Does Horse Meat Taste Like?" http://pjblack.me/15aCZNl
• apparently the cosby sweater is back with a vengeance: "Bill Cosby Schools Us About Those Crazy Sweaters" http://pjblack.me/YpnTwY

Follow me on Twitter @peterjblack.

And you can get my latest links anytime on my Rebelmouse social media front page.