Earlier I was called out for using the words "retarded" and "handicapped" in a couple of tweets which referenced Yunel Escobar, the Blue Jays shortstop in hot water for writing the words "Tu ere maricon" ("You are a faggot") in his black eye. I offended someone. I apologized, and after an honest, open, and level- headed conversation concluded that I should be more conscientious. I wasn't foolish enough to write the words across my face, but still, for what I did in the first place, I suppose I'm pretty stupid as well.

Ever wonder what other people think about where you live? Take a cue from Renee DiResta and use Google's autocomplete tool. DiResta, an associate a...

Why in this day and age do we still form quickly arrived at, negative first impressions about people? And why do we so undeniably feed into stereotypical patterns of labelling people based on appearance, confidence levels, fashion sense and charisma, among other equally irrelevant character traits?