admin

Ancestry acquires Genealogy.com

Posted by | online genealogy | No Comments

There has been no coverage of this deal yet in the press, however this represents a major consolidation in the space, with the largest company acquiring the second largest. The combined network will have over a million paid subscribers and will be the dominant site for US genealogy. Most of the premium genealogical data controlled by Ancestry and Genealogy.com consists of US records, but most genealogical research quickly leads outside of America, to Europe in particular. This is where the opportunity for other companies rests. MyFamily.com, Inc. Acquires Genealogy.com

Read More

Pax Americana Technocratica

Posted by | politics | No Comments

“I have in mind those men in Washington who have given a new life to the missionary impulse in American foreign relations: who believe that this nation, in this era, has received a threefold endowment that can transform the world. As they see it, that endowment is composed of, first, our unsurpassed military might; second, our clear technological supremacy; and third, our allegedly invincible benevolence (our “altruism,” our affluence, our lack of territorial aspirations). Together, it is argued, this threefold endowment provides us with the opportunity and the obligation to ease the nations of the earth toward modernization and stability: toward a fullfledged Pax Americana Technocratica. “ The Atlantic monthly whose former editor Michael Kelly was tragically killed yesterday. April 2003? – no, 35 years ago, April 1968. Then: “Who was the aggressor — and the “real enemy”? The Viet Cong? Hanoi? Peking? Moscow? International Communism? Or maybe “Asian Communism”?”…

Read More

HFC: Hallal Fried Chicken

Posted by | trivia | No Comments

“The huge success that Mecca-Cola has enjoyed prompted Tawfik Mathlouthi, the Muslim businessman that launched the idea, to opt for creating a chain of fried chicken restaurants called Hallal Fried Chicken, or HFC.” Islam Online- News Section via Justine

Read More

Google will not take aim at Microsoft

Posted by | predictions | No Comments

Microdocs suggests that Microsoft must compete with ‘the Google Operating System’. From a technical perspective it would be very easy for Google to become closer to the features offered by an OS. Previously I suggested that Google could start immediately with a much better ‘Find’ facility than the terrible Windows version, which is painfully slow and doesn’t do full text search over documents on your hard drive. From a business perspective, however, Google is unlikely to anything obviously hostile to Microsoft. Nobody wants to repeat the mistake that Netscape made when they tried to take on Microsoft and lost spectacularly.

Read More

Common misuse of the expression ‘the exception that proves the rule’

Posted by | trivia | No Comments

Regarding the previous posting about the Washington Post OpEd, one could counter with ‘the exception proves the rule’ – wrong. One of the historical meanings of the word ‘prove’, which is no longer in currency, was ‘test’. So the expression more properly reads ‘the exception which tests the rule’. An exception puts a rule to test, it does not and cannot prove it in any way.

Read More

Today’s Washington Post OpEd argument is circular.

Posted by | politics | No Comments

“As a member of one family that survived a bomb, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart: Bombing will never be the solution. “ The interesting thing about the Washington Post article is that although it raises an issue that I believe in, it is completely illogical. The argument is that bombing people makes people angry and increases the risk of terrorism. This argument is being put by someone who survived an Al-Qaeda bomb, but instead of reacting angrily and being in favor of the war she is against bombing. However noble her intentions, she disproves her own argument in the very act of proposing it. Its an interesting conundrum for newspaper editors – a victim of terrorism is a more credible proponent of anti-war, much like anti-war Vietnam vets, but the argument, that bombing only creates anger and revenge can only be made by someone who…

Read More

The CIA and Sims

Posted by | technology | No Comments

“‘The Iraqi system is more decentralized and emergent than we realized,’ says Steven Johnson, author of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. What if the U.S. had a very good Sims-like simulation of Iraqi society — one that started with the reactions of individuals and worked up? Not a sci-fi fantasy, the CIA has consulted with Sims creator Will Wright a number of times about Sims-style modeling of nations or governments. One existing advanced version of such a wargame is a sophisticated emergent model of a generic Middle Eastern country called MEPolity built by University of Pennsylvania professor Ian Lustick.” Sci-Fi Today.

Read More

Cala-nightmari

Posted by | trivia | No Comments

“It weighs 150kg (330lb) but when they are fully-grown, they are bigger than a double decker bus.” CBBC Newsround | ANIMALS | Colossal squid with ‘parrot’s beak’ caught

Read More

World War IV

Posted by | politics | No Comments

“Former CIA director James Woolsey said Wednesday that the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years. “ Oh super, excuse me while I slit my wrists. In case you were wondering, World War III is already over. Don’t worry, the US won, you can come out from behind the sofa now. CNN.com – Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces ‘World War IV’ – Apr. 3, 2003

Read More

Headline’s for audio blogs

Posted by | rss | No Comments

Dan Z responds to the challenge of creating meaningful headlines for audio blogs: This really isn’t so hard, if you plan ahead. I’ve already integrated titles into my personal audioblogging software by creating an easily modifiable VXML grammar of titles. Right now mine are set to places (i.e. “At a restaurant”, “On the road”, “At Bill’s house”, “Somewhere new”) but they could be set to categories (i.e. “Cooking”, “Politics”, “Antiquing”, “Found Audio”) or anything, really. As far as accents go, as long as the VXML server isn’t overloaded and you don’t choose titles that sound alike, this really shouldn’t be a problem. But I’ve numbered mine, too, just in case I’m in a loud environment. Dan Z.” Audioblog/Mobileblogging News

Read More