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Counting Words A New Way To See Social History
Sometimes you discover a new service and re-discover your faith in Google as an absolutely wonderful thing. As many of you may know, Google had a project to try to digitise the world’s books. Many were concerned that this was Google gobbling up data and compromisingthe copyright of authors. But I don’t want to talk about that in this post.
Rather I’d like to talk about Google’s Ngram Viewer. What they’ve done is created a tool that allows the user to enter words separated by commas and then see how frequently those words have been used in books over history. And it illustrates wonderfully real social trends. Take this graph for example. I simply typed in boy, girl and the frequency within which those words were used in books over the ages. To begin with, consistently, boys are more frequently mentioned and then, bang, after the rise of feminism, about 1975 girls crossover and they stayed there ever since.
Tax-free Shopping Online May Be Prohibited
Shoppers who depend on tax-free shopping when making purchases at online stores such as Amazon may be disappointed this holiday season. Senator Dick Durbin has introduced the
Marketplace Fairness Act that ensures that retailers collect sales taxes in states where they don’t have stores.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Amazon announced support last week for the bill, which would enable states to collect an estimated $23 billion a year. While eBay predicts the small vendors represented on its online-auction site might lose their advantage, states need the additional revenue. Online retailers worry about the costs and compliance issues associated with dealing with each state.
The bill gives this power to all states that collect sales taxes but exempts those online stores with less than $500,000 in annual sales.
Improve Your Website: The 10 Easiest Quick-Fixes
Is your website as effective as it could be?
Even though I’ve probably never seen your website, I’m willing to answer the question for you. And my answer is that your website is not as effective as it could be.
How can I be so sure? Because I’d venture to say that every website on the planet could be improved in one way or another. It’s a matter of identifying which attributes of the website should be modified, and testing whether a change in one or more of those attributes boosts performance.
So, what are the key attributes of a website that you should assess when trying to boost performance. Below are the 10 website aspects I consider most important.
1. Look and Feel
The look and feel of your website is much more important than most entrepreneurs realize. Specifi
KBC optimistic despite €110m loss
KBC Bank Ireland’s loss was driven by an impairment charge of €187m for under-performing loans in the third quarter and a charge of €282m for the first nine months (up year-on-year from €223m).
Before impairment, the company made a profit of €172m for the period.
Management said that it now expects “a continuing high level of loan provisions into the fourth quarter” and, indeed, to put aside around €200m per quarter, for bad loans, for the next couple of quarters.
However, John Reynolds, chief executive of KBC’s Irish division, said the company continues to see opportunities for growth here and is in the midst of increasing its workforce.
“While 2012 will continue to be tough, we’re ambitious for the future in both of our main lending areas — mortgages and business lending, as well as increasing our presence in retail deposits,” Mr Reynolds said.
KBC Irel
Eight killed in Chinese mine explosion
Miners being rescued from the Qianqiu shaft at Sanmenxia in central China’s Henan province Link to this video
Eight coalminers have died and three others remain missing after an explosion underground in China, state media has reported.
Rescuers have pulled 49 miners alive from the Qianqiu shaft in Sanmenxia, in central Henan province, according to state media. The explosion followed a small earthquake in the area. The miners had been digging a tunnel about 760m long, which seemed to have “basically folded” at 480m after the blast, Xinhua said.
The People’s Daily website said more than 200 workers dug another tunnel to try to reach the trapped miners. The Communist party’s head of propaganda in Yima said survival prospects depended on the intensity of the initial explosion and whether rescuers could provide ventilation.
The pit produces about 2.1m tonnes of coal a year and belongs to the Yima Coal Group, a state-owned firm.
Yelp Wins Extortion Case
First Amendment Wording and Internet Censorship
This is a guest post by Richard B. Newman – Internet Attorney which shares with us the status of the most recent lawsuit brought against Yelp alleging manipulation of reviews. Because the cases are being brought under the Communications Decency Act, the outcome affects bloggers even if they never use Yelp because the outcome sets precedents for the application of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
In June 2009 I wrote How to Get Your Free Listing at Yelp and I updated that post in February 2010 and wrote Why We No Longer Recommend Yelp to Businesses because of repeated accusations that Yelp deletes positive reviews and/or adds negative reviews to get businesses to buy advertising with them.
LOUISIANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP DAY AT LSU TO FEATURE STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS
LOUISIANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP DAY AT LSU TO FEATURE STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS November 4, 2011
– Student entrepreneurs will showcase their businesses and have the opportunity to network with other young professionals during Louisiana Entrepreneurship Day at LSU, Tuesday, November 15, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the LSU Student Union Theater.
Louisiana Entrepreneurship Day will feature a student business exposition from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and an entrepreneurship speaker series from 6:00 pm to 7:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public. Participation in the student business exposition is limited to current students and graduates from the classes of 2010 and 2011, who currently own a business or are working on a startup.
Featured student speakers will include Daniel Gomez, founder of Solben Energy, and Catherine Cook, founder of MyYearBook.com, both of whom are young entrepreneurs who launched their companies while in school. C Read more…
Feds tighten belt by cutting agriculture reports; farmers left guessing when to sell, cut production
PIERRE, S.D. — When farmers need to check honey prices so they can decide whether to sell, there’s been a report for that. And when catfish and sheep farmers want to check production in their industries, there have been reports for that too.
The U.S. Agriculture Department has kept tabs for decades on a wide range of agricultural industries that generate billions of dollars for the U.S. economy. But that is about to change, as the agency eliminates some reports and reduces the frequency of others to save millions of dollars in tight budget times.
The reports influence the price and supply of many products that end up on American dinner plates. Without them, some farmers say they’ll be left guessing how much to produce and when to sell. Food processors and traders also will have less information when making decisions about buying and selling.
South Dakota farmer Richard Adee said he used the annual honey and bee report to decide when to sell his honey.