Schadenfreude: joy at the misfortune of others.

FB example: Catching up with the jock who bullied you in HS, him seeing how successful you are and what an abject failure he is.

CHECK and MATE. :P

The way FB makes me feel better can be summed up with one word: schadenfreude.

Reminds me of our Windoze guy in my previous job. I had run into some kind of problem with XP at home and spent a good amount of time banging my head against it. Finally I told him what was going on and asked what he recommended. "Reinstall XP" was the answer. I thought he was joking, nope he was serious. :P

After the war my mom took her degree in mathematics to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland where she did this kind of work. She said she'd calculate artillery ballistics. She also told me they processed some of the evidence of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis, though she wouldn't talk specifics. She turns 89 next week. Happy birthday mom!