Monthly Archives: July 2008

Knols and ‘Pedias

This entry was posted in Health Care Information on by

I think we are all familiar with the mass produced Wikipedia, right?
Today Google opened a bit of a competitor, Knol, to everyone:

Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we’re making Knol available to everyone.
…..
The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

It is interesting that also today the Medpedia Foundation made more information on their project available:

The Medpedia Project today announced the formation of the world’s largest collaborative online encyclopedia of medicine called Medpedia. Physicians, medical schools, hospitals, health organizations and public health professionals are now volunteering to collaboratively build the most comprehensive medical clearinghouse in the world for information about health, medicine and the body. This free public site will officially launch at the end of 2008, and a preview site becomes available today at www.medpedia.com.

Both look like very interesting and potentially valuable projects.
However, if you look at the many sample Knols on the Knol front page you will see that most of them are oriented toward medicine and written by professionals.
I can’t visualize medical professionals having bundles of time to write and maintain the types of expert articles that both Knol and Medpedia visualize. In fact, this is one reason at least one observer expects Knol to fail.
Is Google trying to preempt Medpedia?

Via Wired Campus.

Gmail Recycling Tip of the Day

This entry was posted in Ecology Humor on by

From the information bar right above the Archive button:

You can make a lovely hat out of previously-used aluminum foil.

Yours may say something different…

Being Google I also expected to see links to the best tin-foil hat design pages.

Friday Ark #200

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging on by

200th Edition!!! Whew, that’s a lot of boardings.
Thanks so much to all of you, past and present, who have made each boarding a unique and fascinating event.

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Dogs

Birds

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings

    • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Thieves At Work

This entry was posted in Privacy Taxation on by

senator carl levin (d-irs) is holding hearings:

This morning the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, is holding a hearing to look at two banks that have relied on secrecy and deception to hide, not just the tax avoidance schemes of their clients, but the actions they themselves took to facilitate U.S. tax evasion.

On the surface it sounds like these banks are providing a level of secrecy and privacy that should be automatic at all banking institutions.
levin goes on to note:

Each year, the United States Treasury loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues from offshore tax abuses. Tax havens are engaged in economic warfare against the United States and honest, hardworking American taxpayers.

A slightly different way of stating this:

Each year, Americans protect an estimated $100 billion in assets from the United States Treasury.

I can’t say rather they are hard working or honest Americans. If the assets they are protecting have been acquired via theft or fraud than these folks should find their way to court and be required to return the funds to the victims.

Otherwise, the mafia US Government should put their guns away and leave these folks alone.