Archive for July, 2008
New Search Engine - Cuil - Takes on Google
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a new player in town: Cuil.com. Touting three times more indexed pages than Google, the creator, Anna Patterson, aims to keep this technology to herself. The last time she created a search engine, Google bought it and upgraded their engine with it. Not this time, she says.
Pronounced “cool,” cuil is the old Irish word for “knowledge.” I can’t wait for people to say, “cool it,” and, “I cooled it/you/them.” How cuil is that? Back to the site, they have millions of dollars in venture capital and experience building search engines to help their goal: to add more relevance to your seach results without peeking at your searches and vow to keep your information private. Their ultimate indexing goal is to index the entire Internet and provide relevant results.
The first thing you notice is that the results are given in a magazine-style 2- or 3-column format with thumbnails when available. I’m a bit ticked that none of my sites are indexed, but my competitors are, so I’m off to fix those now.
Gallery 7-23-2008
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Modern Day Street Urchins
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On any given day on my way home, if I take city streets I pass three to eight intersections with various people collecting money from the raised concrete medians and spreading out like ants among the cars at a red light. What else would you call these people collecting money for ambiguous or unknown “charities?” This man looks quite official compared to most of the urchins in Tampa, despite his ambiguous identification.
We are not talking about firemen with boots, nuns in full regalia, or a big Ronald McDonald. We know about Salvation Army standing outside Wal-mart at Christmas and the Girl Scouts selling their cookies. Those are established charities who have earned the trust and recognition of the public and do not (most of the time) approach you or attempt to overtly solicit your funds.
Almost all of these urchins’ actions convey that they think that merely wearing a button-down shirt and tie in the hot summer heat with a box or bucket gives them the right to incite guilt for not rolling down your window. Looking the other way doesn’t work — they will enter your line of sight. I have seen them walk up to cars with open windows and convertibles with the tops down and try to persuade the drivers.
Here are a few of the examples of charities and “beggars” I have witnessed:
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Don’t Feed Alligators - Illegal in Florida
Posted by: | CommentsThat’s right - illegal.
These geniuses (and other various crews) have been feeding the 3′ gator in our pond for weeks. He no longer stays in the water when people venture outside because he thinks food is on its way.
The man in the orange shirt will no longer be feeding our gator thanks to his employer, our construction supervisor, or the authorities, one of the above. Not everyone gets away with their hands intact. He should consider himself lucky.
http://www.ecofloridamag.com/askeditor_alligator_feeding.htm
