“On June 27, 2002, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued guidelines that recommended that any ranking results influenced by payment, rather than by impartial and objective relevance criteria, ought to be clearly labeled as such in the interests of consumer protection. It appears, then, that any algorithm such as PageRank, that can reasonably pretend to…
“Well, I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of, but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is…
“I PROPOSE to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds, noting the essential quality of each, to inquire into the structure of the plot as requisite to a good poem; into the number and nature of the parts of which a poem is composed; and similarly into whatever else falls within the…
“I have anguished over the embarrassment my speech-writing process has brought to our community. Ultimately, I concluded that it is in Hamilton’s best interest that I step down as president.” — Eugene M. Tobin —Hamilton College President Resigns — Plagiarized Welcoming Speech to Freshmen (Hamilton College) Similar:We Are the Product Facebook SellsFacebook does not care…
> N You cannot go that way. > S You cannot go that way. > E You cannot go that way. > W You cannot go that way. > NE You cannot go that way. > NW You cannot go that way. > SE You cannot go that way. > SW You cannot go that…
“Last Friday, several British newspapers reported that the World Health Organization had found in a study that blonds would become extinct within 200 years, because blondness was caused by a recessive gene that was dying out. The reports were repeated on Friday by anchors for the ABC News program ‘Good Morning America,’ and on Saturday…
“All you need to do is download the games, play them, and rate them. Although you are honor-bound to play and vote on as many games as possible, you may still vote as long as you have played five or more games. You may play each game for up to two hours before voting. If,…
“To be sure, writers and artists need and deserve continued copyright protection. But Eldred’s legions of backers maintain that the framers of our constitution never intended to extend that protection to the grandchildren of writers and artists. They add that it’s also pretty unlikely that struggling artists would decide not to create something today because…
“In a celebration of the Public Domain, starting September 30, 2002, the Internet Archive’s Bookmobile will be coming to a town near you, bringing with it the ability to access, download, and print one of the almost 20,000 public domain books currently available online.” —Internet Archive Bookmobile (Internet Archive) Similar:The Best Halloween Costume Is a Robot…
“In a four-paragraph release sent to area news organizations Tuesday, the sheriff department reported the investigation of several complaints of possible telemarketing fraud in the area, especially targeted at the elderly…. Detective Dan Nichols, who wrote the release, said Tuesday he did collect some of the information from The Onion, not knowing it was a…
“in the beginning, there was nothing. well, actually, there was pinball, some shooting gallery games, a few nickel peep-show machines and those mechanical genies that would guess your weight and give a glimpse of your future.” william hunter —the history of computer games: from ‘pong’ to ‘pac-man’ (designboom) Hey designboom webmaster… your “Shift” key is broken!…
“The purpose of NASA’s Visible Earth is to provide a consistently updated, central point of access to the superset of NASA’s Earth science-related images, animations, and data visualizations. These images are considered to be public domain and, as such, are freely available to the interested public-at-large, the media, scientists, and educators for re-use and/or re-publication.”…
“Ebonics may be an inferior dialect of English (contributors vilify that notion), but communicating that to students won’t encourage them to practice [Standard English]. The cultural roots run too deep, and for every student who masters SE there are are a dozen who tune out, react in anger, and disappear.” Review of The Skin That…
“We despised the Dockers-wearing advertising-executive manqués who somehow scammed enough money to start up Web sites that gave license to appalling ideas, chief among them convergence….It seems that online content has fossilized. Online ventures doing exactly the wrong thing or the right thing the wrong way are no longer the norm…” —Has Online Content Jumped…
“Playing IF is the first thing I remember doing on a computer actually, on my Commodore 64 (with cassette drive!). I suspect that I called it something other than ‘interactive fiction’ at the time, but I’m not sure what that was.” Steve Himmer —I was trying to familiarize myself with the current state of Interactive…
“The last natural blondes will die out within 200 years, scientists believe. A study by experts in Germany suggests people with blonde hair are an endangered species and will become extinct by 2202.” —Blondes ‘to die out in 200 years’ (BBC) Two comments. First, this reminds me of the game theory scene in A Beautiful Mind,…
“He appeared to be able to manipulate atoms with amazing grace. He seemed to be able to force electricity to do seemingly impossible tricks, and claimed he’d found ways to make working molecule-sized electronic components.” Jan Hendrik Schön was also, apparently, a plagiarist. —The Undoing of a Star Scientist (AP/Wired) From this site: more about plagiarism…
Google scans thousands of online news sites and automatically assembles what it thinks are the most newsworthy items. —Google News (Google) Similar:National Headline Contest 2011Great headlines from winner David Bowman…Aesthetics‘This is no longer a debate’: Florida sheriff bans deputies, visitors from wearing masks On Tuesday, as Florida set…Culture‘Snow White’ gets a new musical There’s a buzz…
“A neighbour – an eminent retired politician, philanthropist and keen ornithologist – has just acquired an owl whistle, beautifully crafted from wood. When blown, it makes a most realistic toowooo…. The next day, another neighbour – a retired military man and also an ornithologist – showed me his latest toy, coincidentally also an owl whistle….…
“For the first time ever, information and pictures of all ACME products, specialty divisions, and services (from 1935 to 1964) are gathered here, in one convenient catalog. For more information about any ACME product, simply click on the thumbnail picture.” G.P. Markham —The Illustrated Catalog of ACME ProductsLooney Lyrics) Similar:Operation War DiaryOne hundred years ago…