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The latest global mobile workforce survey from economic trends analysis firm iPass reveals a trend that we probably noticed but tucked away in our Outlook agendas or Google calendars for some time later: Mobile workers worldwide are working longer hours. But they feel empowered by the mobile devices that enable them to do so, and they're apparently happy with the results.

So if you have a spouse and/or kids whom you may have neglected in the past month, well, shut off your iPad and pay attention.

Last year, we ruffled a few feathers when we posted some OKCupid data on dating and race. We're sure this latest news is going to be equally unpopular, but the data support the conclusions, so here we go.

Women users of the online dating site state a range of preferred ages for partners that is relatively normal, and when it comes to reaching out to other users, they stay pretty strictly within their own self-imposed guidelines. However, men on the site continue to state a preference for 20-something girls well into their later years. And even when male users state a cut-off age, they continue to contact women who are below that age.

Sociologist and ethnographer, Liz Pullen, spent a month tracking the top 500 Twitter users (as ranked by number of followers) as well as the much-contested suggested users list. In tracking these accounts, she also closely analyzed the behaviors of new adopters and their expectations of the service. Perhaps her conclusions will help us all understand - and hopefully improve - the dismal attrition rates for the service.

Are new users able to understand and take advantage of Twitter as a powerful tool? Or are they encouraged to think of it as yet another broadcast medium? Is the suggested users list a good strategy for improving new users' experience with Twitter? Most importantly, do we or should we use Twitter a social network, an information network, or a microblogging platform?

Microsoft Research has hired social network researcher danah boyd, probably the most high profile academic in the world focused on the emerging web and its social consequences.

Who is danah boyd? (She spells her own name with lower case letters.) You may have seen her when she hit the international spotlight for writing about the shift from MySpace to Facebook. She wrote that her research leads her to conclude that "The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. ...MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, 'burnouts,' 'alternative kids,' 'art fags,' punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm."