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As social networks proliferate, they are changing the way people think about the Internet, from a tool used in solitary anonymity to a medium that touches on questions about human nature and identity. If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populous in the world, just behind the U.S. Almost half of its users visit every day. Nielsen Online reports that social networking (and associated blogging) is now the fourth most popular online activity. Time spent on social-networking sites is growing at three times the rate of overall Internet usage, accounting for almost 10 percent of total time spent online. Social networks can lessen loneliness and boost self-esteem. But they can also have the opposite effect, depending on who you are and how you use these forums.

the Danes have a word for happiness at work: arbejdsglæde (and if you want to stay happy, don’t try to pronounce that).  Kjerulf says that this concept is deeply ingrained in the Scandinavian work culture. It’s about enjoying what you do; feeling proud of your work; knowing that what you do is important and being recognized for it; having fun; and being energized. When workers achieve arbejdsglæd, the business benefits from higher productivity, because happy people achieve better results; higher quality, because happy employees care about quality; lower absenteeism, because people actually want to go to work; and less stress and burnout, because happy people are less susceptible to stress. Not surprisingly, all of this leads to higher sales, better customer satisfaction, more creativity, and higher profits for the business.

It is easy to look at all the things that are wrong with your job. But instead of being despondent at work and focusing on the two or three things that you think are wrong with your job, try thinking about the twenty or so things that are good about it. Try making a list of all that’s good about your job, including the fact that you have one. Don’t think it; FEEL the gratitude. Let it well up and surround you and overflow. It takes some practice, but you can get there. Now from this space tackle the problems you are facing. They no longer seem so formidable, and the odds are great that you can tackle them more effectively.

Brazil is one of my favorite countries. Cool people, great music, heavenly beaches, and caipirinhas. But if you have to buy a Mac, you are screwed. And like this graphic shows, it's the same in other places in the world. Brazil wins, however: The price of one MacBook Pro 17" there buys you two identical models in the US. It's the same with other Apple products, so if you can't live without your Apple fix, you better move to another country. I'd take the caipirinhas and the beaches, thank you very much.

The Wisdom of the Hive: Is the Web a Threat to Creativity and Cultural Values? One Cyber Pioneer Thinks So Jaron Lanier rails against the social trends being fostered by the Internet--in particular its power to stifle creativity and grant anonymity as well as encourage groupthink and a lynch-mob mentality

Globalization and the rise of China owe much to undersea fiber optics and computers capable of managing complex supply chains.

The most exciting part of this phenomenon is that it is just starting. Broadband is beginning to become pervasive in the developed world. Moore's Law will keep crushing the price of computation, communication, transmission and storage. And cheap sensors are about to be thrown on to everything. If it seemed like this already changed much of the world as we know it, get ready for what is coming.

Privacy: By 2020, you will have to go to a museum to understand what it meant. Privacy eroded, due to cameras everywhere and increasing sophistication of data analysis. Most people, considering themselves good at heart, traded it away for the sake of better search results.

A large space rock may have exploded over Antarctica thousands of years ago, showering a large area with debris, according to new research.The evidence comes from accumulations of tiny meteoritic particles and a layer of extraterrestrial dust found in Antarctic ice cores.

Ask CEOs to pick their favorite color and what they select will often be very different than what most people would pick. For example, when 877 members of USA TODAY's CEO panel took an online personality color test, they were three times more likely to favor magenta than the public at large, three times less likely to select red, and 3½ times less likely to choose yellow.

Lessons from Pearl Harbor The United States currently faces enemy forces far different than those we faced on December 7, 1941. But a relatively untold story of the attack on Pearl Harbor holds a warning that is still relevant. Just as the Japanese employed stealthy small submarines to penetrate the harbor and attack the U.S. battle fleet from below, today enemies of the nation could use the modern equivalents of these so-called "midget" submarines to infiltrate our shores.

There’s a bit of news coverage right now about the cold weather that’s hitting certain parts of the world, but don’t jump into the idea that we’ve entered global cooling. Take a look at the rest of the world and a little historical perspective, as well as the reason why some of us are getting this cold weather in the first place.

Remnants of the Biosphere Photographer Noah Sheldon got in touch the other week with a beautiful series of photos documenting the decrepit state of Biosphere 2, a semi-derelict bio-architectural experiment in the Arizona desert. [Image: Biosphere 2, photographed by Noah Sheldon].The largest sealed environment ever created, constructed at a cost of $200 million, and now falling somewhere between David Gissen's idea of subnature—wherein the slow power of vegetative life is unleashed "as a transgressive animated force against buildings"—and a bioclimatically inspired Dubai, Biosphere 2 even included its own one million-gallon artificial sea.

Researchers in Germany and the UK have discovered symmetry hidden in solid state matter at very small scales. The findings, published in the journal Science, indicate that symmetry involves the golden ratio famous from art and architecture. The research was supported in part by the NMI3 ('Integrated infrastructure initiative for neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy') project, which was funded under the 'Coordination of research activities' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) to the tune of EUR 21 million

Scientists say that in mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is the same as the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one.

'Such discoveries are leading physicists to speculate that the quantum, atomic scale world may have its own underlying order,' Professor Tennant, who led the HZB team, said, adding that 'similar surprises may await researchers in other materials in the quantum critical state.

I have a friend who gets a tremendous kick out of science, even though he’s an artist. Whenever we get together all he wants to do is chat about the latest thing in evolution or quantum mechanics. But when it comes to math, he feels at sea, and it saddens him. The strange symbols keep him out. He says he doesn’t even know how to pronounce them. In fact, his alienation runs a lot deeper. He’s not sure what mathematicians do all day, or what they mean when they say a proof is elegant. Sometimes we joke that I just should sit him down and teach him everything, starting with 1 + 1 = 2 and going as far as we can.