Tuesday evening roundup

India finds itself outsourcing, but not to save on labor costs.

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, chimps; today, robots.

How I'd love to go to work next week.

I very much appreciate Stanley Fish's overall point about pointless conversation. You might recall my distaste for my former roommate's asking me questions for the purpose of hearing his own voice ("are you biking to work this morning?"/"obviously. that's why I'm wearing this suit, even though in the past, you've seen me dress very differently before a bike commute.") Nonetheless, I disagree with some of his (Prof. Fish's) later examples. Wishing someone a good day or reminding him or her to "drive safely!" has meaning.

While we're considering the cluelessness of roommate, consider this WSJ piece on personality types, particularly this excerpt:

Consider what happens when an introvert comes home hoping to chill after a rough day at work—only to find his extrovert partner waiting to recap every moment of her day. The introvert gets angry; the extrovert feels hurt. Ms. Mackler tells the extrovert that her spouse needs time alone; she tells the introvert that he needs to make an effort to come out and talk after he has decompressed.

"When people see something on paper, they realize it's not subjective—they have done the test and described the behavior themselves," she says. "It makes it more palatable for them to see and talk about" the issues.

It was ever so ironic that from our first weekend as roommates, he proudly announced that he'd figured out I was an introvert... and then proceeded to demonstrate that he didn't understand what that actually meant.

Are some languages smilier than others?

Gulliver appreciates public-transit accessible airports. I couldn't agree more that most collections of travel tips are too obvious to have value.