Interconnected

1.

The Guardian’s Watch Me Date.

Each week, we’ve chosen two different people, given them two pairs of Google Glass and packed them off on a date (there is usually a lot of alcohol involved too). Filming begins the minute they meet, and that off-button is only pressed once they’ve said goodbye.

2.

How to lose weight in 4 easy steps via @kottke who says Step 3 is difficult but really works.

3.

This quote: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Normalisation and caring. Obesity… people are 57 percent more likely to be overweight if they had a friend who became obese. And:

If John thought that Steve was his best friend and John gained weight, Steve would gain weight too. But if John didn’t think Steve was his best friend (just a friend), John was less likely to gain weight if Steve gained weight. It seems, the more you feel connected to someone else the more his or her behaviors affect you.

4.

Invisible Boyfriend gives you real-world and social proof that you’re in a relationship - even if you’re not - so you can get back to living life on your own terms.

In beta at $24.99/month.

The back-end is interesting. Your non-existent virtual partner is a swarm of fractional micro-boyfriends. Deets:

The service’s texting operation is powered by CrowdSource, a St. Louis-based tech company that manages 200,000 remote, microtask-focused workers. When I send a text to the Ryan number saved in my phone, the message routes through Invisible Boyfriend, where it’s anonymized and assigned to some Amazon Turk or Fivrr freelancer. He (or she) gets a couple of cents to respond. […] “That rapport you feel with Ryan may actually be six or seven Ryans,” Homann explains.