Category: Interesting

It’s a neat little feature, but so far it’s hit and miss, however. For example, as of right now, it says the Portland freeways are at a stand still (assuming I’m reading that map right), but if you check ODOT’s site, the traffic is running fine (a bit slow in spots, but not bad). Yahoo says they get their data from a number of sources, but ODOT is apparently not one of them.

So was he right or is this just a PR stunt (considering that many question the guy’s validity)?

An Oregon man said Thursday that his firm warned the Indian government of an impending earthquake that could cause more destruction across Asia. An Indian government minister called the warning “hogwash,” and blamed him for the scare that prompted tens of thousands of people to flee their homes for higher ground.

[…]

Geologists in Oregon said they had not heard of Park or of his research and joined the Indian official in questioning its validity.

“I’ve never had any contact with this group,” University of Oregon geology professor Ray Weldon said. “I assume if it was legitimate I would have heard of it.”

Geologist Lou Clark, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industry, said that she hears periodically from earthquake enthusiasts who claim to be able to predict impending disasters.

“One of the problems is that there are earthquakes all over the earth every day,” she said, making it easy for someone to ‘predict’ a quake in a large area, especially in regions of the world, such as Indonesia, that lie near the boundary between two tectonic plates.

“The problem is because quakes are concentrated in a few areas it is very difficult to say that something is not chance unless you are completely specific about the quake,” she said.

She’s exactly right. A bunch of small quakes in the same area doesn’t mean a big one’s coming. Using that logic, Bend would have been blown away after we had all those micro quakes a while back.

All sounds a bit fishy to me.

Producers of Jeopardy! have announced a “Super Tournament” where they’re going to pit 150 past five-time winners against each other. The two surviving contestants will face Ken Jennings in a $2,000,000 finale. Full Story.

So says Rumsfield.

Here’s what Rumsfeld said Friday: “I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples’ heads on television to intimidate, to frighten ? indeed the word ‘terrorized’ is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.”

Several eyewitnesses to the crash claim they saw a “military-type” plane flying around United Airlines Flight 93 when the hijacked passenger jet crashed ? prompting the once-unthinkable question of whether the U.S. military shot down the plane.

This is going to make the folks who thought their friends and family fought back on that plane really doubt anything the government tells them.

Want to see how much a drugstore is making off your purchase? Just read the price tag.

A sentence.

R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.

“i need help,” said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. “i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you”.

Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.

“E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited,” Hogan said. “It has companies tearing their hair out.”

And I don’t blame them for pulling their hair out. I’ve had to teach basic grammar and composition skills to some folks who have become far too casual when it comes to business communication, and it’s going to come back and bite them. Link via The Dren.

How are people reading news sites online? The Eyetrack study covers this in great detail, but the heatmap is great because it gives you a bit of an idea, graphically, how sites are read.

I know this is an old link, but I’m posting it here for the sake of having it for future use.

A very good article about how MovableType’s popularity may be its biggest downfall when it comes to comment spam. Link via MovableBlog.