Top Posts of the Year

There are plenty of top lists going around this time of year. Too many are subjective. I give you the most objective one yet because it is based on data. Plus I top it off with interesting facts like there with only one exception, there were no commenters in 2008 who stuck around in 2009. That sole exception was Michael who does the Unemployed Dad webcomic who pays a vist every so often. 

The top 10 based on views of 2009

1. Bearman Cartoon: Swine Flu
2. Marge Simpson Playboy Centerfold Pictorial
3. Bearman Cartoon: Obama bows to Emperor
4. Bearman Cartoon: Swine Flu 2
5. Help make Marie Flanders the Newest Character on the Simpsons
6. Bearman Cartoon: 2012 and the End of Day
7. Create Cartoon Characters of Yourself
8. Oktoberfest T-shirt
9. Bearman Cartoon: Obama wins Peace Prize?
10. Bearman Cartoon: Bengals Beat Steelers

Now most of you didn’t find me until later in the year so not surprising the most commented posts came from the second half.

1. Celebrity Death Panel Part 6
2. Editorial Cartoon Caption Contest
3. Vanity License Plate
4. Marge Simpson Playboy Centerfold
5. Bearman Cartoon: Kanye West

And Finally the Top Five Commenters of 2009. 

1. The Friggin Loon
2. George Ford
3. Jammer
4. Robert Mateicek
5. Lynn

Thanks to all of you for your support in 2009.  Hope I don’t scare you off in 2010.  And feel free to fight for the top five commenters spot for next year.

Time Magazine: Facebook Users are More Stupider

A few days ago I lamented about breaking down with the masses and joining Twitter.  About a month ago, I got sick of all my friends sending me invites from their email list to join Facebook and finally did.  I don’t like feeling left out.

But even after joining, I didn’t become addicted.  I’ll check who has added me every so many days but much like Twitter, I don’t have much to say.  If I have something important to say, I tell people (or I write it here).

So now comes an article from Time Magazine that claims the one thing Facebook users share is lower grades.

The study, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association on April 16, surveyed 219 undergraduate and graduate students and found that GPAs of Facebook users typically ranged a full grade point lower than those of nonusers — 3.0 to 3.5 for users versus 3.5 to 4.0 for their non-networking peers. It also found that 79% of Facebook members did not believe there was any link between their GPA and their networking habits. (See the 50 best websites of 2008.)

Karpinski says she isn’t surprised by her findings but clarifies that the study does not suggest that Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there’s some relationship between the two factors. “Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction.

Now of course what catches my eye is how stupid are the researchers.  20 million facebook users and their sample size is only 219.    Now let’s say the researchers where just referring to the population of Ohio State University Students (60,000), the would need almost 400 students in their sample to make it more accurate.  But I go off on my statistics rant.