Clipmarks | janeg's clips

Google and Wikipedia, in cahoots?

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:46:19 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Google's position is that its search results are as pure as possible, free from human intervention. The implication is that they're a reflection of reality, as found on the Internet. But by determining the order in which our queries are answered, Google actually interprets, recreates and reinforces reality millions of times a day.

In fact, Google's only real competition for master manipulator of reality is Wikipedia. On paper, they're opposites -- Google locks everybody out of its reality-defining process, whereas Wikipedia's definition of reality is whatever its crowd of editors agrees on. In practice, though, the two are in cahoots. Wikipedia pages are steadily climbing the Google rankings for just about every imaginable search term. So reality as defined by mob rule is being promoted by reality as defined by the mysterious computer program. Fantastic.

Tags: google, wikipedia

But of course, they are French

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:37:16 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: blogs.reuters.com

Screech, pardon moi, screech, pardon moi, screech….

February 7th, 2007, filed by Robert Basler

Sometimes a story comes along that just completely restores your faith in human nature, and this is one of those.

It seems there is a tradition in France that a newly-elected president will pardon past traffic violations. Sort of an “all is forgiven” kind of act of generosity. That’s the way it has been, and people know it, and there will be a new president in May.

So here is the good part. What are French drivers doing with this bit of information? It appears they are driving like psychopaths in a carnival dodge-em car ride, because heck, it’s all gonna be pardoned, anyway.

Regardless of what happens in May, traffic deaths were up nearly 14 percent last month, and the new leader probably won’t be able to do much for those people. Here is the story:

Copyright Reuters. This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Oddly Enough, Text. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Tags: french, driving

Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:46:08 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Aggravated Allergies

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Heading for the Hills

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Arctic in Bloom

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Pulling the Plug

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

The Big Thaw

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Survival of the Fittest

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Speedier Satellites

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Rebounding Mountains

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Ruined Ruins

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Forest Fire Frenzy

Tags: global warming, science

Stupid Product Labels

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:46:34 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: luckypuppy.bravehost.com

On a bicycle -- "Removing the wheel can influence the performance of the bicycle"

"Removing the wheel can influence the performance of the bicycle"

On a hammer-- "Misuse may lead to property damage and bodily injury."

On a toilet brush-- "Do not use for personal hygiene."

On car sun shield-- "Do not drive with shield in place."

On a fireplace log -- "Caution: Risk of Fire."

On a bag of Fritos -- "You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside."

On some Swanson frozen dinners -- "Serving suggestion: Defrost."

On electric cattle prod -- "For use on animals only."

On packaging for a Rowenta iron -- "Do not iron clothes on body."

On Nytol Sleep Aid -- "Warning: May cause drowsiness."

On a child's Superman costume -- "Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly."

On a Swedish Chainsaw -- "Do not attempt to stop chainsaw with your hands or genitals."

Tags: humour

Your Boss Really is Clueless

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:47:50 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Your boss and other people in power often really have no idea what you and others feel and think, new experiments suggest.

"The powerful have a profound effect on others, and you would naturally hope they would be sensitive to other points of view," said Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist at Northwestern University.

"This corroborates other studies that show when people have power, they are more likely to egocentrically focus on themselves," Galinsky told LiveScience.

Past studies also have found that people with power became less inhibited and were more likely to act on impulses, while those with less power were more concerned about risks and felt more vulnerable.

"Basically, these findings together paint powerful people as impulsive and oblivious, while the powerless are more cautious and worried," Princeton University social psychologist Susan Fiske said in a telephone interview. Fiske did not participate in the study, which is reported in the latest issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Tags: science

Personal DNA

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:43:04 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.personaldna.com

Welcome to Personal DNA

We've developed a new kind of personality test which is free, fun, fast and accurate. Our test has been designed by a team of professional psychologists. It employs innovative answering techniques, allowing for increased accuracy and an enjoyable process.

Try the test now and see how you score!

(You do not need to sign up or sign in to take the test.)

Tags: psychology

Free online file conversion at Zamzar

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:20:22 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.zamzar.com

Step 1

Select the files to convert
(up to 100MB in size):

Step 2

Choose the format to convert to:

Step 3

Enter your email address to receive converted files:

Step 4

Convert (by clicking you agree to our Terms of Service)

Tags: web, file conversion

So you thought you knew everything

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:33:51 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.johnsimonds.com

“Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and “lollipop” with your right. (Bet you tried this out mentally, didn’t you?)

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”. (Are you doubting this?)

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. (You’re not doubting this, are you?)

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: “abstemious” and “facetious.”(Yes, admit it, you are going to say . a e i o u)

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.(All you typists are going to test this out)

A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A snail can sleep for three years.(I know some people that could do this too.)

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon

If the population of Chinawalked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.(Good thing he did that)

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Fallsfroze completely solid.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Now you know everthing you need to know.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

Tags: humour

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 20:52:08 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.venganza.org

Some find that hard to believe, so it may be helpful to tell you a little more about our beliefs. We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don’t understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease.

Tags: religion

Google's top searches in 2006

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:36:07 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

Google's top searches in 2006:

Bebo
Myspace
World Cup
Metacafe
Radioblog
Wikipedia
video
Rebelde
Mininova
wiki

Google News top searches in 2006:

Paris Hilton
Orlando Bloom
cancer
podcasting
hurricane Katrina
bankruptcy
Martina Hingis
autism
2006 NFL draft
celebrity Big Brother 2006

Top wedding searches:

Nicole Kidman
Tom Cruise
Avril Lavigne

Top divorce searches:

Paul McCartney
Travis Barker
Britney Spears

Top obituary searches:

Aaron Spelling
Kirby Puckett
Jack Wild

Top retirement searches:

Bob Barker
Bobby Bowden
Sammy Sosa

Top "who is" searches:

Borat
Hezbollah
EU

Top "what is" searches:

Hezbollah
carisoprodol
acyclovir

Top "how to" searches:

refinance
wiki
drift

Top "define" searches:

promiscuous
Web 2.0
ftw

Tags: google

Internet Archive

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:33:02 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.archive.org

The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other "born-digital" materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.

Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.

The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization.

At present, the size of our Web collection is such that using it requires programming skills. However, we are hopeful about the development of tools and methods that will give the general public easy and meaningful access to our collective history. In addition to developing our own collections, we are working to promote the formation of other Internet libraries in the United States and elsewhere.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

Tags: internet, library

Virgin birth

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:27:41 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

CHESTER, England — As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her offspring. She's Flora, the Komodo dragon.

In an evolutionary twist, Flora has managed to become pregnant all on her own without any male help. It would seem the timing is auspicious: The seven hatchlings are due this festive season.

Other reptile species reproduce asexually in a process known as parthenogenesis. But Flora's virginal conception, and that of another Komodo dragon earlier this year at the London Zoo, are the first documentations in a Komodo dragon.

Parthenogenesis is a process in which eggs become embryos without male fertilization. It has been seen in about 70 species, including snakes and lizards. Scientists are unsure whether female Komodo dragons have always had this latent ability to reproduce or if this is a new evolutionary development.

“Komodo dragons seem to be able to switch ways of reproducing to deal with a shortage of suitable boyfriends,” said Dr. Rick Shine, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney, Australia. Shine was not involved with the Nature paper. In contrast, other lizard species that reproduce asexually cannot mate normally.

“It's baffling why a species starts doing this,” said Kevin de Queiroz, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, who was not involved with the paper. “It would be helpful to know how often this happens and what the mechanism is that allows them do that.”

Tags: birth, animals

Technology increases stress

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:47:47 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

More related to the poll's finding of job-related stress, Dr. Saunders pointed to technology as a culprit.

“The notion that technology was going to relieve us and allow us to live more relaxed lives and more leisurely lives . . . I think the impact of technology has been exactly the opposite,” Dr. Saunders said.

That is particularly true, he said, for white-collar workers who are expected to do more, faster, and 24-hours a day with their mobile phones, wireless computers and BlackBerries.

Tags: technology, stress

Sklansky's $50,000 Catch-22 Challenge to any US Christian

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:07:39 GMT

clipped by: janeg
clipper's remarks: Sklansky's covering his bets here. Any Christian who passes the polygraph and loses to him proves Christians are stupid; any Christian who fails the polygraph, is not a Christian. Either way, Christians end up with the dirty end of the stick. Wonder if anyone will take him up on it.

Clip Source: forumserver.twoplustwo.com

We will both take the math SAT or GRE (aptidude test). Your choice. We will both have only half the normally allotted time to lessen the chances of a perfect score. Lower score pays higher score $50,000.

To qualify you must take a reputable polygraph that proclaims you are truthful when you state that:

1. You are at least 95% sure that Jesus Christ came back from the dead.

2. You are at least 95% sure that adults who die with the specific belief that Jesus probably wasn't ressurected will not go to heaven.

Also, for those who think I am being disengenuous because I would make the offer to anyone at all, you are wrong. I am now so rusty that at least one in 5000 Americans are favored over me and I would pass on a bet with them. That's 60,000 people. If the number of people who would pass that polygraph is between 10 and 30 million, which I think it is, that means that at least 2000 of these types of Christians are smart enough to be favored over me. Given such Christian's intelligence is distributed like other American's are.

But I'm betting fifty grand they are not. Their beliefs make them relatively stupid (or uninterested in learning). Or only relatively stupid people can come to such beliefs. One or the other. That is my contention. And this challenge might help demonstrate that.

PS Since this challenge is open to any American, anyone who reads this should feel free to bring it to the attention to any smart Christian they know. Any math whiz, any professor, etc. But I need to warn you that they will almost certainly turn you down. And the reason will NOT usually be because they think they will fail the math test. University professors will probably not fear this college dropout. But given they are expert mathmeticians, their real fear, though they won't tell you, is that you will find out how badly they fail the polygraph

Tags: religion, poker, challenges

Chinese are paying a high cost for capitalism

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:32:25 GMT

clipped by: janeg

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Few cities anywhere have created wealth faster than Shenzhen, but the costs of its phenomenal success stare out from every corner: environmental destruction, soaring crime rates and the disillusionment and degradation of its vast force of migrant workers, Ms. Zhang among them.

Shenzhen was a sleepy fishing village in the Pearl River delta, next to Hong Kong, when it was decreed a special economic zone in 1980 by the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. Since then, the city has grown at an annual rate of 28 percent, though it slowed to 15 percent in 2005.

Shenzhen owed its success to a simple formula of cheap land, eager, compliant labor and lax environmental rules that attracted legions of foreign investors who built export-based manufacturing industries. With 7 million migrant workers in an overall population of about 12 million — compared with Shanghai’s 2 to 3 million migrants out of a population of 18 million — Shenzhen became the literal and symbolic heart of the Chinese economic miracle.

Among Chinese economic planners, Shenzhen’s recipe is increasingly seen as all but irrelevant: too harsh, too wasteful, too polluted, too dependent on the churning, ceaseless turnover of migrant labor.

“The government has evaded its responsibilities toward migrant workers,” Jin Cheng, a member of an influential local civic forum, Interhoo, said bluntly.

The resulting rootlessness has fed a wave of crime of a sort hardly ever seen elsewhere in China. Gunfights, kidnappings and gang warfare are rife, and crime rates are skyrocketing.

Tags: china, capitalism