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Ummm... Other?

Google News Timeline

What do you think of this?

The main page of Google News Timeline displays the top stories divided by columns, with each column representing a day. Users can drag the results left, right, up or down, much as they can with Google Maps, to see different days or to scroll deeper within a day. They can also change the time intervals to weekly, monthly or yearly. One of the interesting features of the main news page is that it includes Time magazine covers, so users can easily scan world events over the years through that prism.

But when it is used for searching, Google News Timeline becomes more interesting. The service includes current stories gathered by Google News, as well as archival news; scanned newspapers, magazines and books; blog posts; sports scores; and media like music and movies. Users can search specific categories, including all news, but also news quotes or news photos, blogs, TV shows and even prizes, like the Nobel.

Article link

I didn't like any of the examples they gave in the article about how you can use this app. They all seemed pretty frivolous - searching for Jack Nicholson movies?? I can do that with IMDB or Wikipedia at this point. And the click and drag feature? Really? The scroll bar seemed to work just fine and was less cumbersome.

But if you can use it as a true timeline, i suppose it could help with following the evolution of a story like the Attorney General firings or the NSA wiretapping or the Plame scandal. If you just searched Google for any of these things, you'd get them in order of popularity and relevance, not chronologically. Although, right now, you can do a search in plain old Google News and sort your hits chronologically........now i'm confused about the purpose of this new toy. So, i ask again, what do you think?


By min | April 21, 2009, 11:47 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1)| Link



Tip: Don't Vacation in Kenya

A Kenyan man bit a python who wrapped him in its coils and hauled him up a tree in a struggle that lasted hours, local media said today.

Farm manager Ben Nyaumbe was working at the weekend when the serpent, apparently hunting for livestock, struck in the Malindi area of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.

"I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," he told the Daily Nation newspaper.

When the snake coiled itself round his upper body, Nyaumbe resorted to desperate measures: "I had to bite it."

The python dragged him up a tree, but when it eased its grip, Nyaumbe said he was able to take a mobile phone out of his pocket and phone for help.

When his supervisor came with a policeman, Nyaumbe smothered the snake's head with his shirt, while the rescuers tied it with a rope and pulled.

"We both came down, landing with a thud," said Nyaumbe, who survived with damaged lips and bruising.

The snake escaped from the three sacks it was bundled into.

Link


By min | April 17, 2009, 3:44 PM | Ummm... Other? | Link



Der

A U.S. Border Patrol agent who tried to import rare tortoises in a box labeled "scorpions" pleaded guilty on Tuesday to animal-trafficking charges, the Justice Department said.

It turns out that scorpions also draw an extra look from federal agents.

Link

I don't know about you, but would make me feel a tiny bit better if they would raise the standard of just who they hire to guard the borders.


By min | April 17, 2009, 3:21 PM | Ummm... Other? | Link



Hello Kitty Platinum

There's some part of me that knows i ought to have this, but at the same time, there's another part of me that would be incredibly embarassed to ever take it out of my wallet where it could be seen by others.


By min | April 13, 2009, 1:39 PM | Cute Things & Ummm... Other? | Link



When Class Trips Go Awry

When i think of class trips, i think "Awesome! No sitting in a classroom all day doing work!". Well, not so for these kids! For them, it's just a quick lesson in death.

A deckhand on a charter boat full of school children from L.A. choked to death on a bait fish he had put in his mouth as a joke.

Captain Dan Salas of the boat Gale Force said his employee Jeff Twaddle died during a fishing trip for the students last week along breakwater in Long Beach.

...

The fish lodged in his throat, Twaddle quickly lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at St. Mary Medical Center.

Now these poor kids have to get counselling for trauma.


H/T wnkr

By min | April 1, 2009, 1:27 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (2)| Link



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