Google Question of the Day (or Week)

Fishy Questions

2007-12-08T16:54:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of posts ago, we dealt with the noble and novel world of Sushi, now we're down to earth again, with JohnFromMelbourne, who used to be a Google Answers regular, investigating some Fish and Chips issues, such as:

1) Is F&C as a family meal still popular in England, ( as it died out somewhat in Australia after the introduction of Mcdonalds etc) although pockets of activity still exist here and appears there will always be some fish and chip shops. Has it largely died down in poularity as in Australia

2) Do such shops over there have sit down areas( as I read) where no such thing facility exists in Australia.

3) What is meant by "scraps" or is it "scats" served with F&C as I heard on radio recently by an Englishman aiming to introduce such into Australia.

4) Has any further evidence come to light since 1971 on pinpointing a date for the coupling of Fish with Chips as a meal. The author says previous claims of a date by Fish Friers Association were good gueses at best.
5) Author says that he traveled the world sampling other countries versions of the English traditional meal and found my country Australia had lousy fish and chips
with the Middle East and western USA having versions closer in quality to the
English. This baffled me as I thought our F&C was teriffic so just how good is English F & C and why??
6) What would a family meal of F & C cost nowdays in England , say 5 pieces of fish and enough chips for a four person family to share
7) Any other little snipets of info on subject that may not have been available in 1971

Indeed, a serious subject (and a serious offence to Australian national pride!). Go and read answerfinder's response.

Visiting a Museum Online

2007-12-04T14:45:00.000+01:00

Can you actually visit a museum online, as if you've been there yourself? One UClue user has asked about a specific website he remembered:

One of the Russian art galleries or museums, I think perhaps in St
Petersburg, has a virtual tour on their website where you can walk around all
the galleries in 3D as if you were there (like those semi-video tours that
estate agents do). I read about this in some art blog recently. URL?

Unfortunately, the answer by answerfinder demonstrates that we're still far from the day, in which we could save the flight tickets to Russia and just see the exhibits from our couch (or computer chair). The museum offers some sort of a virtual visit, but it will never be as being there!

Sushiquette

2007-11-15T17:17:00.000+01:00

Today's UClue question is a rather interesting one (and I must admit, one to which I did not know the right answer!): what is the etiquette when eating a piece of sushi? How do you eat a sushi? What do you dip in the soy sauce? From which side? What do you do if the sushi is too large? Do you cut it with a knife? Answers for this, and more, were found by Pinkfreud at Sushi etiquette .

Further Interesting Questions:

* About unique restaurants, among them one where you eat sushi from the body of a woman
* How to tip at a Sushi restaurant
* Where and when is the best sashimi-quality fish sold in LA?
* Hierarcy of Toro Sushi
* Who is the most famous japanese sushi chef? (answered by Hailstorm, who resides in Japan, and can also answer questions about Japan and Japanese issues at UClue)
* What is the difference between different types of Tuna?
* What is, and how to get, imitation crab for sushi? (answered by Crabcakes!)
* How long can refrigirate Sushi?
* Why there are so few Sushi-women?
* How much sashimi would one have to devour in an eating contest to be competitive
* What is the symbol of chefs allowed to prepare Fugo?

Looking for Games like...

2007-11-14T15:02:00.000+01:00

Ever happened to you, that you were looking for a game like one that you liked, a film like the one that fascinated you, or a book - with the same "atmosphere"?

There are some brave attempts to do something like that (IMDB has a recommendation section on the film details page; Amazon recommends book "bought by users who've also bought this book"; and perhaps most importantly, community sites like What Should I read Next are also filling this void). However, you can't really rely on computers to calculate this for you: sometimes you need a person who understands exactly what you need.

This has happened to a user looking for "for games like King's Quest (female-friendly, non-weapon, non-killing, non-scary) that can either be downloaded or played online".

After a brief exchange, researcher bobbie7 found out what the user was looking for. The answer is available here: Games like King's Quest

Similar Questions:

What are some full length Neverwinter Nights 2 modules? (not answered yet)

Google Answers Statistics

2007-11-13T15:40:00.000+01:00

After the untimely demise of Google Answers, there are probably people looking for hard data on the site. They cannot find it on the Google Answers or on any other public Google site, but they can find it on UClue, where researcher DavidSarokin has provided them with some information:
"When was the first question posted to Google Answers?
The very first question posted to Google Answers on April 9, 2002: "
[...]
"Approximately how many questions were posted to Google Answers?
Tbis one's tricky. I once estimated, for an article I was writing, 71,000
questions, but I can't recreate that estimate with the current stored
version of the Google Answers site."
"Approximately how many of those were answered?
By adding the "num" parameter to any of the above URLs, it is possible to
display all the questions in the category on a single page. "

The answer, also caused many interesting comments on deleted answers from GA's database and much more. See: Google Answers statistics

Mysterious Book

2007-11-10T14:47:00.000+01:00

This question is not likely to be answered, but it is very interesting to see the way Uclue researchers have tackled it:

I'm trying to find the name of an author I discovered because his books were next to George R. R. Martin's at Hayden Library in ASU. I am pretty sure
his name was (something) R. R. Martin (First name maybe Steve or Steven?), but if that's not exactly right it must be extremely close because his books were on the same shelf as George R. R. Martin's.

Unfortunately, I can't recall any specific details about the books, other than that they were utterly bizzare collections of poems/stories which were usually in the second person and present tense ("You are walking down the street. You see a man with a red hat who tells you about a secret castle")

This doesn't mean that other such book/author questions cannot be answered on UClue:

* Need author of books on supertanker terrorism and Chinese mini-sub invasion of New York

* Name of children's book about time travel/potato famine/smoking chimney/wolves?

Is It Good to be Sick?

2007-11-07T15:33:00.000+01:00

This is the question asked yesterday on Uclue, titled Can getting sick be good for you?

This interesting question, apparently, doesn't have a clear-cut answer, but a UClue researcher, davidsarokin does his best to answer it. The answer is very interesting, and apparently, our grandmothers were right.

For more such interesting questions:

Must we wash our hands in the bathroom? (was this question asked by a five year old?)

Is there such a thing as a Real life Dr. House?

Are Chakras Real ?

Do Dogs Sweat?

2007-11-06T13:47:00.000+01:00

What a fascinating question begging for an answer - do dogs sweat? And if they do, would there be a market for dog deodorant (well, this wasn't the question, but I think that breath fresheners might be a better idea).

Some curious visitor to UClue has asked this question. Before clicking on "do dogs sweat", try (without googling) guessing the answer - we all probably heard as children that dogs "cool themselves" through their mouths and not sweat. Is it true? Did you get that right after having read Pinkfreud's answer?

To which one of UClue's regulars, Probono, reacted by saying:

What a great Answer!
Even though I have owned several dogs over the
years, I had no previous knowledge on this topic.
However, I was once told
that 'only horses sweat ... gentlemen perspire and ladies glow'.

Have other weird dog questions? Try:

What is the name of Isaac Newton's dog?

I'd like to try eating dog - where is the best place?

dogs that dont shed and dont have doggy smell? (well, naturally they are not allowed to sweat as well)

Is it healthy to feed my dog a strictly vegetarian diet?

Where did Paris Hilton buy her dog tinkerbell?

What's Up with UClue

2007-11-04T09:42:00.000+01:00

I haven't written here since the demise of Google Answers (no reasons to do it. In fact, I thought of cancelling this blog when I noticed that it attracts its fair traffic).

However, I began pipping in UClue, which starts to look like Google Answers' best available alternative. UClue is not clean of many errors - but hey, it is not made by the largest Internet giant, but actually by the very people who made Google Answers to what it was - an excellent research service with lots of funny and interesting moments.

Yesterday, for example, on November 3rd, someone asked, what is the name of a movie with this plot:
"a guy lives in a small village, his life seems to revolve around a cemetary where I think he worked. I think he suffers from insomnia, and alcoholism. The bodys of the recently deceased haunt him. I remember a scene where he kills two women in a fire. the movie ends when he tries to leave town and the road reaches a cliff... it turns out his "world" exists in a snow globe. "

Sounds interesting? Bobbie7 has found the answer (to avoid spoilers for those who want to guess, I don't post it here).

There are other examples, also from the past site, of researchers finding obscure film names according to their equally obscure plots:

"was about a boy in the future. He had a hover board type thing. His mother is taken and killed by the villain who puts his own girlfriend into the body of the boy's mother (this trophy-body hunting is common in this view of the future). The boy goes after the villain, he meets an older well known hero in the galaxy who tells the boy that the boy is HIS hero. People have bionic-type implants and in the bar where the two heros meet, a patron with implants (he is bald and fat and shirtless with a circular implant in his stomach), makes fun of the boy being in the barand for ordering milk. The older hero then forces the bald man to drink the milk...killing him because of his robotic parts. The boy later meets with an old man who has information on the villain, but has been shot (or something) mulitple times by bullets that could explode at any moment. The boy gets the info and the old man explodes. "
(Answer: here)

"First scene a guy dead in the bathtub and his girl friend is crying in the bathroom, the guy’s father came see his son and come inside the bathroom and shocks about his son dead and start crying, suddenly his son open his eyes and cheated and tease his father. After that all three go to that guy’s home, it’s out side of city. In that place his father and grand father is there. The guy and his lover stay with them. Somthing happen to her, she had some anonymous dreams in drugged sate. At last she realizes that she was used by those guys and with the help of her lover planned to escape. But at last only she knows, her lovers mother was in basement of the house for some treatment and they bring her for that (including her lover). At last she was trapped and connected to some machine. And treatment for mother starts and film ends." (Answer: here)

"a little girl who has to live with this mean woman on a farm/estate. There are a few scenes that I really remember - the little girl's dog kept chasing the chickens and killed one so the woman tied a chicken in his collar to teach him a lesson. Also, the little girl had this rabbit stuffed animal she loved but the woman took it away and I think ruined it by washing it. In the end, I think it is the maid who comes back, after she was fired, and "rescues" the girl" (Answer: here)

"The movie was set in a corporate business(maybe advertising)enviroment with mostly all white employees. I believe there is 1 black man on the board and something happens that promotes him to chairman. Once he is promoted to chairman, he starts bringing in all these black radicals, and other black employees--completely transforming the companies culture. the movie sterotyped blacks in terms of their busines ethics and lack of business acumen. The chaimman was also pitching outlandish ideas to clients. And I believe there were orgies and other inappropriate behaviour going on at the company as a result of these new black employees" (Answer: here)

Do you have a film plot, but don't remember the name of the movie? Does it bug you that you remember those obscure details, but not the film? UClue can probably provide answers.

Google Answers is Dead - Long Live Interesearch!

2006-12-13T16:42:00.000+01:00

Google Answers might be dead, but your research needs could be still addressed professionally. I am pleased to announce that I am now accessible through a webpage, where you can hire me for Internet research and translation assignments:
http://interesearch.googlepages.com

Update - Google Answers

2006-11-30T08:47:00.000+01:00

Google Answers' Researchers are inivting anyone who would like to get updates on the development of a new site to join us at Web Owls.

http://web-owls.com/2006/11/29/a-new-paid-research-service/

Bye Bye Google Answers...

2006-11-29T19:52:00.000+01:00

Google have announced that they have decided to shut down GA.

This is a very sad day for me.

A petition has been posted online to let GA stay, you can see it and sign it here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ganswers/

I am not so sure how all of this would help. I signed it anyways...

In the meanwhile, if any of the readers of this blog needs professional research service, not the crap on other so-called research sites (who would be mentioned neither by name, nor by exclamation marks!), they can contact me directly (pg-ga AT yours.com). I will also try to forward your request to any other Researcher, if it is not me you're looking for.

We shall overcome.

Alexander Litvinenko, and other poisonings

2006-11-23T23:35:00.000+01:00

Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent and a critic of Putin regime died on November 23rd. Litvinenko suffered a sudden illness after eating at a Sushi restaurant in London. Wikipedia writes: "On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko fell suddenly ill while investigating the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. He had had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly, with an Italian acquaintance, Mario Scaramella, to whom he made the allegations regarding Prodi.[6] Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the murder of Politkovskaya, 48, the journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment in October 2006. He passed Litvinenko papers on the Russian journalist's fate. On 20 November, it was reported that Scaramella had gone into hiding and was in fear for his life. [...] Scotland Yard is investigating claims that Litvinenko was poisoned by thallium. ".

If Litvinenko was poisoned, it wouldn't be the first time, as Google Answers Researchers reveal. Take, for example, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho). According to a compilation of religious leaders with heart diseases (by Tutuzdad), "the Bhagwan claimed that his heart damaged was caused four years prior to his death by thallium poisoning in a failed assassination attempt by the CIA." Yes, the same thallium.

In 1978, Gregori Markov, an opponent of the Bulgarian regime, was poisoned in London by the Bulgarian Secret Service, which used an umbrella laced with ricin to insert the poison into his body. Tehuti writes about this (and other 1978 events) in her answer. The same London, playground for secret assassins.

Another person "starring" in British shadowy history is Hildegard Pongracz. No, I won't spoil your reading of answerfinder's detective work. I'll just say that this is another case of a mysterious person, although in her case, she probably caused her own death from poisoning.

Poisoning is very popular in politically motivated murder, all over the world - in the past (see the Han Feizi case) and in the present. Not only in the UK, but also in China (Feizi), the United States (according to the Bhagwan conspiracy believers), and of course, the (former) East Bloc. We cannot finish this review of answers, without discussing the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko - to which Crabcakes provides a medical explanation (Dioxin is also known as "Agent Orange" and therefore is one of those poisons appearing quite frequently on GA questions).

Many more scary poisonings out there, as an answer by Richard-ga reveals:
"I have read several fiction books where a character is killed using an
'untraceable' poison. I was wondering if an untraceable poison exists
and if so how does it work, as after a person dies the poison could
not be processed by the body any further and therefore should still
remain in the body. "

And Richard answers:
"Apparently there was a conspiracy to assassinate Fidel Castro using
one such poison, botulinum toxin. [...] biotoxin ricin, which is made from the castor bean plant (the same plant which we get castor oil from). This poison is purportedly being made by Iraq and other terrorist nations and is supposedly
untraceable."

Well, the problem is, that reality surpasses every fiction...

Mid Term Elections

2006-11-08T12:53:00.000+01:00

Today, Americans go to vote (hopefully, they will show up despite the lack of trust in electronic voting machines and in politics in general). Many forcast, that the Democrats will manage to get a majority in the House of Representatives.

However, how will that affect policies? Keystroke answers a question that estimates the effect of this victory at least on the relationships with Latin America:

What effects will the results of the mid-term elections in the United States have in Latin America if the Democrats gain control of the House of Representatives. Specifically I wish to know how it will effect the recently negotiated Free Trade Agreements between Perú, Colombia and the United States; and how it will effect Plan Colombia.

The answer on Google Answers.

About Executions (not only Saddam's)

2006-11-07T11:27:00.000+01:00

On November 5th, the court sentences Saddam Hussein to death by hanging. I've already written earlier about Saddam's trial on GA. Therefore, most of the post today would deal with the idea of death penalty in general.

This is not an easy idea to live with, even with a mass murderer like Saddam (see Kriwrite's answer regarding Saddam's death toll, without counting post-1991 events!), and it is controversial in democracies, many of which have prohibited the practice.

In the United States, naturally and as well know, this is actually a well established practice. The oldest tree in New York, for example, is called The Hanging Elm, because it was used as gallows. It is currently legal in 37-39 states. However, only about 1.4% of all first degree murder cases in the US result in a death sentence; and only 10% of juries impose the death sentence when in comes to trial (see more death penality statistics gathered by Angy-ga).

There several social issues regarding this, like race (tutuzdad answered the question whether a white prisoner has ever been executed for killing a non-White person); the possibility of innocent persons being executed (sixteen such innocent persons have been executed in the United States since the 1970s). Naturally, there is also the question of coping and living with a death penality not to mention, again, the moral issue of taking another person's life. Here, it is interesting to note that 72.5% of the Americans who oppose abortions ("pro life") support the death penalty. The cost of prosecution, whether or not to ask for the death penalty or not, however, is not an issue.

It could be worse. As Keystroke notes regarding Singapore, some countries impose death penality also on crimes that are not murder.

Google Answers on the Blogosphere

2006-11-05T00:05:00.000+01:00

Jakob Jelling writes a post titled "Expert Help from Google Answers". His bottom line:

Google Answers isn't magic. They can't answer unanswerable questions, and they won't provide medical, legal, or financial advice. But for other tough questions that you just can't find an answer for on your own, Google Answers may be, well, the answer!

More about it, at Expert Help From Google Answers

How Can Google Answers Help Your Business

2006-11-04T23:55:00.000+01:00

The most obvious way that Google Answers can help you business is by giving you helpful business advice or conducting business research for you. We are very good at that, and if you must not have the type of information published and sold by market research companies for thousands of dollars, you stand a good chance of getting exactly what you need, saving time and money for your business.

However, Gepby Stream blog has another interesting suggestion on how to use Google Answers to promote your business - in fact, to find an idea, a niche, for a new business. Quite honestly, it is a rather good one - I wish I had thought of that myself. Gepby's idea is to use Google Answers database in order to know what people are looking for in your field, and what kind of answers you (and your site) can address:

Next, look in Google Answers. Type one of your keywords into the search area. What questions are being asked and how much are people willing to pay for answers? If you find a group of keywords with a high number of questions then enter these words in your browser's search engine.

Read full article, "How do I Find a Niche?"

The Most Interesting Questions on GA

2006-11-04T23:37:00.000+01:00

Knowitall asked today:

What were the most interesting questions asked in Google Answers? By this I mean those of general interest, not those of highly technical or arcane areas.

Punkfreud answered with five answers of the thousands of interesting answers out there:
* History of Marriage on TV (answered by Pinko herself)
* what a 24 hour day might have looked like over the ages (answered by Missy)
* Causes of the Halifax explosion (answered by Chromedome)
* What is the Secret of Women (answered by Robert Skelton)
* Effect of music on the brain (answered by Voila)

There are many more interesting questions and answers out there. If you have any favourite, feel free to share!

Halloween and the Autumn

2006-11-01T17:35:00.000+01:00

It's here. Falling leaves and children begging for candies (given the neuighbourhood I live in, I always thought it is a good thing that parents here train their children from young age to beg for food. Half of them will later have to sign in for welfare anyhow).

Most Halloween questions on GA ask for specific costumes (and where to get / how to do them) , some refer to the film series. However, theer are curious questions as well. From an answer by Tutuzdad we learn that Halloween is claimed by some to be the most ancient holiday in the world.

Hal from "Ranch Ramblins" mentions in his autumn post (with beautiful pictures!) about leaves and removing them, that:

According to this response from Google Answers, there are approximately 200,000 leaves per oak tree (Google - the ultimate authority on everything). By multiplying 200,000 leaves times the previously derived 44,880 trees, we find that each and every year, approximately 8,976,000,000 leaves are produced on our land. Based upon the casual accuracy of these calculations, let’s just say around 9 billion leaves per year!

T.L. Spiegel, the Ultimate Authority on Everything!

Google Answers on the Blogosphere

2006-11-01T17:23:00.000+01:00

Time Saving Expert writes:

If you have a question, and can’t seem to find the answer, or would rather get someone else to do it, there are websites that can help. If Wikipedia etc can’t help you can try Google Answers. You offer them a fee, perhaps a few dollars, depending on the difficulty of the question, and they will search the internet for you. The Google Answers people often answer similar questions and therefore become specialists in that field.
Perhaps you have a wide area of research to do, you can set a fairly high fee, and rely on the Google Answers team to do a good job for you.

David Kirk reports on TechRecipes on Google's Craig Silverstein presention at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Silverstein was asked, among other things, to compare Google Answers with Yahoo! Answers:

To Craig’s credit, he said nothing bad about yahoo (or Microsoft or anybody else) through the entire talk. He praised yahoo’s service and said that it is was a free version built more around respect than google’s model of payments. He thinks the competition will make both products stronger.

Interesting to me, Craig said that many of the people on google answers are actually stay-at-home mothers who can make extra money doing research for others.

Which got the following comment from one of the 500 GARs:

About this comment “Interesting to me, Craig said that many of the people on google answers are actually stay-at-home mothers who can make extra money doing research for others.”… I am a Google Answers Researcher, and some Google researchers are stay-at-home-moms! Also web designers, career counselors, writers, published authors,software writers, geeks, scientists, health care workers, graphic artists, ministers, social and mental health workers, members of MENSA, actresses, bartenders, business owners,archeologists, teachers, pilots,chefs, law enforcement-and these are the ones I know of! We come from a wide variety of fields and interests! The quality of Google Answers FAR exceeds Yahoo Answers - just compare our well researched answers to YA!

Quite right indeed!

I will report on another GA reference in my autumn post.

Google Answers on the Blogosphere

2006-10-25T16:55:00.000+02:00

Oreilly Radar posted a story about a new Amazon service, which is also supposed to answer questions for money.

Formula One - Alonso is the new champion

2006-10-25T16:25:00.000+02:00

To be perfectly honest, despite being a car-lover, I am not really interested in motor-sport. But this might be part of today's biggest news: Fernando Alonso (Renault) won the Formula One driver's championship, after coming in second in the final race of the season.

This is important, even if you're not a big fan of motoric sport. In 1994, Formula One was the 7th most viewed sports event in the world (answered by Rainbow). In 2003, the Grand Prix in Brazil ranked 4th. Michael Schumacher was the second best paid athlete in the world. Millions of dollars are paid by courses for the Grand Prix.

Because Formula One is big money, it also means jobs for people totally unconnected to the world of car racing. For example, being an interpreter for Russian delegation visit to TAG McLaren Formula One Team (in: Possible jobs for Russian/English language expert, answered by Umiat); or being an engineer for Formula One (in: Find Automobile Engineers, answered by Tutuzdad) .

If you're interested in further information about the f1 economy, one of the places you'd better check out is the number of Formula One merchandise shops online - Easterangel listed only the largest ones here; there is also an F1 computer game; the industry is huge.

UN envoy to Sudan expelled after blogging

2006-10-24T12:05:00.000+02:00

UN envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, was expelled from the country, after he blogged information about military defeat in the Darfur conflict.

The Darfur conflict, as far as mass death of people get, gets very little attention in the world media. I've always wondered about this hypocrisy. One of Google Answers clients, apparently not a fan of the Sudanese government and its atrocious policies, has asked:

"Does a US citizen currently violate any US law or risk any possibility of arrest in the United States by actively participating in the violent overthrow of the government of the Republic of the Sudan, a country with no extradition treaty in place with the US?"

Pafalafa-ga answered this question, titled "Legality of a Coup Plot". Basically, the answer is that if you're not active in the United States itself, there are no laws that address it. If you are, though working in the US, there might be a problem.

But then again, you can alwasy be active in non-violent organisations, such as Amnesty International.

Google Answers on the Blogosphere

2006-10-23T12:01:00.000+02:00

Memo.ria Blog features one of Pinkfreud's answers:
Who said “Those Who Forget History Are Doomed to Repeat It”?

***

Read XML blog writes "10 Not-So-Obvious Ways to Promote Your Website" and mentions number 4:

"Become an online expert in your field . Use your expertise to become an expert in your field and promote your Web site for free. Sign up for Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/) or Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/) and answer questions asked by online visitors. You will have the opportunity to write your company’s URL in your profile. This is a great way to gain additional Internet exposure as well."

Frankly, I am not so sure this is such a great advice. Perhaps at Yahoo!, which acts more like a forum than an expert service, and anyone can post practically anything in the "answers". On Google Answers, professionalism rules. Comments perceieved as spamming would be removed , and if you have such great advices, a better idea might be to post an "answer" to the problem on a blog of yours (linking it to the Google Answer question). On a blog, you can write whatever you like and have as many different live rich content links to your business as you'd like. That way, everytime someone would search up for a solution, you'll come up.

Eid Mubarak !

2006-10-23T11:50:00.000+02:00

Today is Eid Ul-Fitr, the end of the Ramadhan, for Muslims. The traditional blessing is Eid Mubarak, as Leli demonstrates in one of her answers.

Digsalot also discusses Muslim life, bringing to life a village in the Nortnwestern Province of Pakistan, but if you need introductions, perhaps Aditya2k's answer about Muslim traditions would be better for you.

Iceland Allows Whaling of the Endangered Fin Whale

2006-10-22T18:16:00.000+02:00

In a controversial decision, Iceland's fisheries ministry has announced today that after a 21-year-ban, it will allow limited whaling of Fin Whales, an endangered species. Just a few days ago, whales on Google Answers were discussed (to commemorate the anniversary of Moby Dick) - including one particular question on obtaining real sperm whale oil.

Whales are intelligent, and a Fin Whale brain, of the type that Iceland now wants to hunt, weights something like 6.5 kg. It seems a shame that a living being would be lost - and what's worse - it seems that most Icelanders do not consume whales today. You can't even claim that fin whales skin is unique in a way that would benefit humanity, as it has been proven to be wrong (search for "fin whale" on this very long answer by Crabcakes-ga). Even without trying to, the shipping/freight industry causes enough damages to whales, as evident from an answer by Tisme about Whale-Ship accidents.

Whaling Industry gains several more referrences on Google Answers. In an interesting answer about the black "Oak Bluffs" community in Martha's Vineyard, Pinkfreud notes that the demise of the whaling industry in the area at the turn of the 20th century has led to deflation in real estate values, and later to the development of Oak Bluff. The demise of whaling, therefore, could cause interesting (and in my opinion, positive) social consequences.

The whole affair is causing a great uproar exactly among the people who are the potential visitors to Iceland as tourists. There are also calls to boycott touristic travel to Iceland. This is a shame, because this is a beautiful country; and a visit there certainly seems worthwhile.

OT: On Technocraty now

2006-10-21T17:39:00.000+02:00

Technorati Profile

The Oldest Holiday in the World, Today?

2006-10-21T11:14:00.000+02:00

Today, Hindus and members of several other religions celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights. This is a celebration of life, family and relationships. And according to a Tutuzdad answer, it might as well be one of the most ancient holidays. Tutuzdad quotes a source stating that:

"Scholars say Indian people probably began celebrating New Year, or Diwali (pronounced dih-WAH-lee), about 1500 B.C. They placed torches around their houses and courtyards to purify them and keep away evil spirits".

In general, however, he concludes that the most ancient holiday, or the excuse to celebrate, is New Year's celebrations around the world (naturally, not on Jan 1st, that's new); and the Passover is probably the oldest religious holiday. Read more in this answer.

Saddam Hussein on Trial

2006-10-19T09:26:00.000+02:00

Today is exactly one year since the beginning of the trial of Saddam Hussein before an Iraqi Special Tribunal. However, only Google Answers can answer the question

What is the purview of International Law, particularly as relates to bringing a despotic leader like Saddam Hussein to justice? Stated another way, what were George Bush's options for using International Law to go after Saddam Hussein, rather than resorting to war? What "higher authority" does International law rely on? Is it the U.N., Geneva accord, or other?

Long before Saddam was brought to trial, Easterangel explained the legal mechanisms and considerations regarding this issue.

There are also the details regarding the trial itself after he was captured. Rainbow says in one of her answers, President Bush has spoken of a fair trial to Saddam, done by the Iraqi people. Before the trial (and even now?) Saddam was held in Camp Cropper, reports Cynthia-ga.

However, you can learn a lot about the Iraq War and about Saddam from Google Answers, not only about the trial. Pafalafa-ga, for example, has written a comprehensive review of U.S.-Iraqi relationships; Google Answers also helps with small issues, Pinkfreud did an excellent detective work in finding a camp in Baghdad.

But it was a client who has written a science fiction story based loosely on Saddam's Iraq - see humangoodorevil's comment and story, "2006". Hedgie's answer, by the way, is no less sci-fi.

155 Years Ago Today

2006-10-18T13:24:00.000+02:00

On October 18th, 1851, Moby Dick was published in London, under the name "The Whale".

As usual, on Google Answers, you can find (among other things), the quirky side of life. Sometimes, it is not the GARs (Researchers) that bring us to the wild-side. It is rather those who ask the questions. Gnossie, for example, wants to know where he can buy "a small quantity of real sperm whale oil".

Why, you may ask?

The question was unfortunately not answered (although an interesting discussion on the comments section has developed). However, Gnossie explains himself in the comments:

I'm just nuts about Moby Dick (read it zillions of times), and thought it would be neat to closely inspect the substance on which everything in that book is based. It is more like shampoo, oil of Olay, mayonnaise, etc. Is it pure white? Translucent? Lumpy? Smelly? Etc.

Just curious.

Cynthia-ga, by the way, provided in the links a link to images of sperm whale oil, which might be helpful to someone, who wants to know more about the stuff.

Moby Dick's own birthday, according to an answer of mine, is on November 14th. And according to a Bobbie7 answer, Melville is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

And...

Martina Navratilova is 50 today! Happy Birthday Martina!

And if you want to give her a present, juggler-ga mentions her as a supporter of First Strike , so a donation might be a good idea, or perhaps, a Dave Matthews CD.

North Korea and Gambling

2006-10-15T12:42:00.000+02:00

North Korea scares the world. It is a rogue state, with nuclear power and a dictator, who seems to avoid any policy remotely diplomatic and prefer threats as his message to the world as means of proetcting his starving people from Western invasion.

There many interesting aspects in the North Korean story. For example, online gambling. Yes, the same issue that troubled now many American gamblers, after a new bill bans internet gambling goes into force.

It seems, the the North Korean are making part of their hard foreign capital from this very human weakness of gambling, or if you will, the capitalistic vice of greed. First of all, North Korea is one of the countries appearing in Keystroke's list of countries that allow online gambling. Naturally, its own citizens are constrained with access to Internet or free information; and have no money or credit cards to gamble online anyway. Their internal gambling games are probably based on whether they'll be something for lunch today or not; and if the latter joke would bring them closer to "re-education" camps. If online gambling is allowed, but 99% of the citizens cannot use it, who's it for? Foreign capital, of course.

Another aspect of this North Korean involvement in gambling is discussed by boquinha, in her review of Pachinko in Japan. It seems that the North Korea receives a large part of the funds lost by Japanese quasi-gamblers Pachinko players (Pachinko is not exactly gambling, as one loses money in the Pinball machine and cannot win money, only balls, but the balls could be exchanged for small-time prizes). In any case, Boquinha writes that:

"North Korean business interests are involved in as many as one-third of all pachinko facilities in Japan."

She quotes an article where it says that:

"[...] pachinko money accounts for a relatively small share of North Korea's revenue—less than $100 million annually—but the isolated nation trades so little ($2.6 billion annually) that every dollar counts".

It is interesting (and maybe also ironic) to see how North Korea uses gambling and capitalism for its own means. However, back to the nuclear issue, it also uses Western hesitation, diplomacy and democratic culture for its own good.

Orhan Pamuk is (not) on Google Answers

2006-10-14T10:20:00.000+02:00

... but other Nobel Prize laureates are.

Pamuk is now news not only because he won the prize, but also because he's a controversial author in Turkey, writing and talking about national taboos such as the Armenian Genocide - there's also a criminal case against him because of that. Is it a political Nobel Prize this year? Europe certainly tries to force the Turks face their past and admit these crimes - the French parliament also discusses a law regarding the Armenian Genocide.

Back to GA, there are other Nobel Prize winners on GA. Again, you can learn interesting facts from Pinkfreud: In the "comprehensive list of celebrities who committed suicide since 1960" (our clients do have some eccentric questions) you also have "Yasunari Kawabata (1972), Japanese writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laurate, gassed himself."

And Hummer just gave the names of English language Nobel laureates (the client thought earlier that the prize is "Nobel Prize for English literature", was he surprised to learn that there is good literature written in other languages? We shall never know...).

Friday the 13th

2006-10-13T13:41:00.000+02:00

Friday the 13th leaves much to hope for in the realm of the doom and dark. First of all, from a comment by epedia-ga on a question answered by the lovely Voila-GA, we learn that the fear of Friday the 13th is called Paraskavedekatriaphobia.

From Pinkfreud we learn another interesting(?!) Ft13th fact:
"Other characters came and went, but Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, returned over and over in flashbacks and dream scenes."
(answer to: Besides Jason, what character appears in the most Friday the 13th movies?)

And our Serenata (now I am sad :-( ) managed to find out, in which months in 1948, Ft13th occurred.

Have an horrific Friday the 13th!

...Or of the week

2006-10-13T09:17:00.000+02:00

I am not so optimistic. I know myself. I will not be able to post a daily contribution here. But I will try to put an interesting question from Google Answers everytime I remember.

Let me introduce myself: I am a Google Answers Researcher. I just love this site and the way it provides knowledge to people. However, I will not feature any answers of mine, unless it was really something interesting to talk about. Faking modesty, you know. I will try to cheer my fine colleagues instead.