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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Political discussions on Facebook are, in fact, undermining both people’s relationships and use of the website. A new study from researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Catherine Grevet and Eric Gilbert in the comp.social lab) and the Univeristy of Minnesota found that users who try to talk about politics on Facebook are often surprised by the political opinions of their acquaintances. And researchers say that a diverse set of opinions among a user's friends makes everyone want to speak up less.
Source: ars technica
