Many people consider Memorial Day the beginning of summer, but it’s really about honoring U.S. citizens who have died while serving in the armed forces. As of September 2010, there were 1,430,895 people on active duty in the military with an additional 848,000 people in the seven reserve components.

And let’s not forget about veterans. There were 21.9 million living veterans in 2009, including 1.7 million under 35.

A mere 9% of total Hunch users have served in the military of any country — 7% as enlisted soldiers and 2% as officers. But 39% of Hunch users have considered joining the military and 33% live with someone who served.

What can we tell you about Hunch users who serve or have served in the armed forces?

For starters, they’re nearly 62% more likely than non-military to prefer action and adventure movies. Non-officers are 21% more likely than civilians to say they’re more motivated to help the team succeed, instead of performing well individually. Higher-ranking officers are more focused on individual success, but still more team-oriented than non-military.

The majority of military officers and non-officers – 59% and 54%, respectively — own a flag of their country of citizenship. On average, Hunch users in the armed forces are 11% more likely than non-military to have voted in their country’s last major election for president or prime minister. We may not all belong on the front lines, but this is one example we should all follow.

Finally, we know that the majority of military officers and non-officers on Hunch — 62% and 69%, respectively — are from North America. Military service in these parts isn’t compulsory. These people have chosen to risk their lives in defense of their country.

Past and present members of the armed forces, we salute you.

Our brand new summer intern Allen Paltrow just finished a big content update of new correlations in the Hunch ‘Correlation Game’.  Give it a try.

Our latest data project was to analyze how food preferences vary by political ideology. The infographic below, designed by the talented folks at Column Five Media, breaks it down. Keep reading after the infographic for more background and analysis, including some comparisons to findings from 18 months ago when we first looked at this issue.

Here’s another oldie, but goodie — or in this case, foodie. Way back in November 2009, Hunch explored the differences in food attitudes and preferences between liberals and conservatives. Since then, the Hunch user base and question pool have grown many times over. The 2009 report started with more than 64,000 responses to the base “Liberal or conservative?” question. The same question now has nearly 400,000 responses. This is all in the context of the more than 80 million “Teach Hunch About You” questions which have been answered on Hunch to date.

If Hunch users overall had their own TV network, it wouldn’t be “fair and balanced.” Only 17% of Hunchers identify as conservative. Yet they identify as liberal and middle of the road at nearly equal rates — 42% and 41%, respectively. We at Hunch respect all viewpoints, but this report focuses only on the left and the right. As their name implies, people who identified as middle of the road responded to questions somewhere in between the way liberals and conservatives answered. Makes sense, huh?

Back in July 2007, presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned the price of arugula while speaking at a farm in Iowa. He was referring specifically to the price of arugula at Whole Foods, which doesn’t even have a store in Iowa. Conservatives went crazy. How could a man with a penchant for fancy lettuce run the US of A? Meanwhile, McCain went on the record and admitted, “I don’t do too well with vegetables.”

Michelle Obama came under the same heat (preheated at 300 degrees) when she and Cindy McCain shared their favorite cookie recipes with Family Circle. Apparently, the magazine readership’s recipe preferences correlated with the outcome of the four previous elections. In 2008, though, the cookie crumbled. Readers preferred McCain’s oatmeal butterscotch batch to Obama’s amaretto shortbread treats. No doubt some pundits wondered if amaretto is even legal in this country. Still, Barack rocked the polls.

The edible is political, but food preferences are polarizing even if we’re not trying to run the country. Let’s face it, vegans make most of us a little nervous. Those holiday meals with family can be hard to stomach, even before someone starts ranting about politics. People get tongue-tied about foie gras, and it’s not just a pronunciation issue. We all judge people by what they eat.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, I guess.

Do you vote what you eat?

Which one of these computer desktops do you think belongs to Chris Dixon, Hunch CEO?

Is it 1) this bare bones gray desktop that’s just aching for some color or design?

2) The minimalist look that’s blue (da ba dee)?

Maybe 3) a blue desktop with a little more going on?

Or 4) this colorful desktop with more clutter?

Before you wage a guess, consider Hunch data.

So which desktop belongs to Chris Dixon?

Hmm…

Well…

Let’s see…

Umm…

I wonder…

Suspense…

More suspense…

Enough suspense?

This one:

Can you guess which desktops belong to Kelly Ford, VP of Marketing; Matt Gattis, co-founder and CTO; and Christina Mercando, User Experience Lead?

A whopping 72% of  Hunch users neatly organize their computer desktops. It’s no surprise, considering that Hunch users tend to be computer-savvy and know a good algorithm when they see one.

But don’t think that the 18% with a jungle of icons on their desktop are Luddites. Whether their desktop is spic and span or a disaster area, most Hunch users are comfortable discussing technology. Those with neat desktops are only 8% more likely to say they talk about computers like a gear head talks about a V8 engine.

Who don’t you want offering tech support? The 10% of Hunch users who don’t know off the top of their head if their desktop is messy or organized. Nearly half of them claim not to talk about computers, while 28% say that when they do, it’s like speaking in a foreign language. Perhaps messy desktop owners just don’t know how to get organized.

Consider these other desktop organization findings:

1. Men are from neat desktop, women are from Venus.

So what can we tell you about our self-identified computer neatniks and slobs? For starters, male Hunch users are 13% more likely than female Hunch users to have neat computer desktops. Yet 58% of male Hunch users say their desktop is a jungle of icons. Female Hunch users are most likely, at 57%, to answer the desktop question with “Hmmm…didn’t think about it yet.” This suggests that they might get organized, now that we brought it up. We also know that between neat and messy, female Hunch users are 15% more likely to identify as neat.

2. Computer desktop organization doesn’t get better with age.

Hunchers ages 18-34 have neat and messy desktops at nearly equal rates — 53% and 50%, respectively. Older Hunch users ages 35-49 are 12% more likely to have a messy desktop. Those ages 50-64 are 8% more likely to err on the side of disastrous.

3. More educated –> more liberal –> more cluttered!

The state of a Hunch user’s computer desktop also correlates with education level. Hunch users with a messy desktop are 7% more likely to have completed a four-year college degree and 19% more likely to have completed a graduate degree.

And since we already know that education level correlates with political persuasion, let’s go there. The majority of Hunch users consider themselves politically liberal, but those with messy desktops are 12% more likely than those with neat desktops to be liberal. Hunchers with neat desktops are 9% more likely to say they’re politically middle of the road and 14% more likely to be conservative.

4. City sidewalks, messy desktops.

Who else is more likely to have a messy desktop? The same people who live in crowded, messy cities. Hunch users with messy desktops are 42% more likely than those with neat desktops to live in an urban environment. Hunch users with neat desktops are 9% more likely to live in the suburbs and 13% more likely to live in a rural area.

5. Neat people have neat desktops. Who knew? (You did.)

Shocker: Computer organization  is an extension of one’s general level of neatness. A person with a messy desktop is more likely than someone with a neat desktop to have a messy closet. Of course, Hunch users aren’t exactly the neatest people on the Internet. Both those with organized and disorganized desktops — 54% and 73%, respectively — say that friends complain that they’re too disorganized. Interestingly, neat and messy desktop keepers are equally likely to describe themselves as unique (69%) or in tune/fitting in with others (32%).

6. But staying organized doesn’t stop at the desktop…

It stands to reason that Hunch users with carefully organized desktops are more likely to customize the rest of their computers. Nearly 30% of Hunch users with neat desktops — compared to only 12% with messy desktops — customize every icon, background, color, and behavior. The majority of Hunch users customize some features on their computer. Those with messy desktops are 8% more likely than neatniks to customize some features, while 20% of them don’t customize their computers at all.

7. Neat people have external hard drives, and they know how to use them.

Hunch users with messy desktops are 36% more likely than those with neat desktops not to back up their computers. Again, maybe these people don’t realize how to back up (or simply don’t mind potentially losing everything on their computers).  Among Hunch users with neat desktops, 22% back up at least once a week. But the same percentage doesn’t back up at all.  Hunch users with neat desktops are 22% more likely than messies to back up their computer weekly or more often.

8. Entrepreneurs get their desktops dirty.

Wondering what work has to do with the state of one’s desktop? Hunch users are more likely to consider themselves team players than entrepreneurs, whether they have a neat or messy desktop. However, self-described entrepreneurs are 5% more likely to have a messy desktop.

9. Good at math? You might add a bunch of clutter to your desktop.

Those with messy desktops are also 12% more likely to say they have a stronger aptitude for mathematical concepts and numbers.

10. People with messy desktops might be better employees.

Hunch users with neat desktops are 5% more likely than those with messy desktops to say their personal life takes priority over their work and 10% more likely to say they work just to pay the bills. Those with messy desktops are 9% more likely to say work is an important part of their lives and sometimes calls for personal trade-offs.

Now that you know all this, can you guess which computer desktop belongs to Hunch CEO Chris Dixon?

What does your desktop look like? Are Hunch findings true for you?

It’s been great to see all the personally-endorsed recommendations streaming into the enhanced Hunch activity feed that we introduced less than a month ago.  To summarize what it does: your feed contains recommendations made by people you follow. Hunch draws upon the Taste Graph to assign a predicted rating for how well you’ll like each recommendation. It’s sort of a blended smoothie of social recommendations and algorithmic-based predictions.

You may have also noticed some influential and interesting brands with their own Hunch recommendation feeds, including Spin Magazine, Threadless, Bergdorf Goodman, America’s Test Kitchen, IGN, Food Network, Showtime, SoundCloud, StyleCaster, Smule, 8Tracks and Artsicle. We’ll be announcing additional participating brands in the coming weeks and months.

We’ve worked with these brands to create official pages on Hunch that designate their authenticity.  You’ll find that their recommendations are generally a fun mix of products, promotions, special events, causes, and compelling content. As you can with any recommendation in your feed, you can rate, save, re-recommend, or comment on the recommendations these brands make.

All this gives Hunch users the ability to follow the relevant recommendations of brands they know and trust.  On the flip side, brands that create a feed on Hunch receive access to an engaged audience of active social media users. They’ll also have access to insightful analytics driven by the Taste Graph, such as a profile of the types of people who follow them, or even what the key difference is between people who rate a particular recommendation high or low.

Welcome to some of our initial brand partners!

To follow these brands (or anyone else) on Hunch, you can go to any brand’s feed page. Or, try the ‘Find people to follow’ page, where Hunch will make some suggestions for you or let you search for someone in particular. And don’t forget that your own Hunch feed is as easy to access as Hunch.com/Username. So share the link to your own feed in email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to grow your followers and influence.

If you’re an influential brand and are interested in tapping into Hunch’s audience and Taste Graph to extend your social media outreach, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us at bd@hunch.com.

The Taste Graph is the foundation that powers Hunch’s predictions. It is the growing, constantly-improving, massive data structure that fuels not only Hunch.com, but also partner site customization and our open API.

Our latest Infographic takes a deeper look at Hunch’s Taste Graph: what it takes to produce it, what goes into it, and how it works.  And once again, our thanks to the awesome team at Column Five Media who designed this Infographic.

Now that you’ve seen what goes into the Taste Graph, head over to Hunch.com to see what it recommends for you based on your personal tastes.