Central Perk

marți, 15 februarie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Mission Impossible Squirrel
Britney Spears Modeling Pictures From 1998
Epic Fails - Part 14
The Magic Roundabout
The Best Of Hipster Little Mermaid
The Cost of Valentines (Infographic)
Woman Casually Snacks On Her Own Poop
75 Incredible "Looking Into The Past" Pictures

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 04:17 PM PST

This takes place in England – the owners of the yard added each piece of the Rube Goldberg contraption slowly so that when the squirrel learned one section and got the nuts, they then added the next section.

Finally it ended with what you see on the clip! It took over 2 weeks to get to this point.

Britney Spears Modeling Pictures From 1998

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 04:03 PM PST

Remember when Britney Spears was a sweet, carefree, fresh faced brunette who wore really bad lip liner and oversized shirts? If you don't, allow us to take you down memory lane with these modeling pictures of the pop princess taken in 1998.

Epic Fails - Part 14

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 02:25 PM PST

People often act weird, do stupid things and make the most hilarious mistakes that transform into such funny fails as you'll see after the jump. We simply can't avoid failing, right?

Previous parts:
Epic Fails - Part 1
Epic Fails - Part 2
Epic Fails - Part 3
Epic Fails - Part 4
Epic Fails - Part 5
Epic Fails - Part 6
Epic Fails - Part 7
Epic Fails - Part 8
Epic Fails - Part 9
Epic Fails - Part 10
Epic Fails - Part 11
Epic Fails - Part 12
Epic Fails - Part 13

The Magic Roundabout

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:28 PM PST

The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England was constructed in 1972 and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. It is located near the County Ground, home of Swindon Town F.C. Its name comes from the popular children's television series The Magic Roundabout. In 2009 it was voted the fourth scariest junction in Britain.

It may be saying something negative about the town if its most notable feature is a traffic junction, but the Magic Roundabout is truly a wonder of the world. And by "wonder" I don't mean "wow" I mean "I wonder why they built such a stupidly complex junction".

You see, the Magic Roundabout is in fact 5 small roundabouts surrounding one large centre roundabout. For the benefit of our non-British visitors I shall do my very best to explain.

In the U.K. we drive on the left hand side of the road, so on approach to a roundabout you give way to traffic coming from the right hand side. You then go clockwise around the roundabout, exiting where you see fit.

The Magic Roundabout complicates matters in that the moment you leave one roundabout you are at the junction of another. So, by aiming right on each roundabout you would actually traverse the central roundabout in an anti-clockwise manner. At least that's the idea.

The Best Of Hipster Little Mermaid

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:14 PM PST

Remember hipster kitty? Me neither.

The Cost of Valentines (Infographic)

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 01:02 PM PST

How do we love Valentine's day? Let us count the ways.
In total, Americans spend approx. $13 billion per year on Valentine's day. 63% of consumers celebrate Valentine's day. On average, each one will spend $120 on Valentine's day gifts. Men spend twice as much as woman.

More Infographics.

Click to Enlarge.

Source: onlineaccountingdegree

Woman Casually Snacks On Her Own Poop

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 08:37 PM PST

I always see amazing things and knew it was only a matter of time before i was able to get someting spectular on video!!enjoy The Amazing POO MUNCHER WOMAN!!!This is 100% genuine!!!

75 Incredible "Looking Into The Past" Pictures

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 06:22 PM PST

Imagine how drastic your landscape would be if you altered just one aspect of it. These fascinating pictures merge the past with the present with very impressive results. The contrast in the photos will make you appreciate just how much progress we've made since back then.

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

The Next Generation of Ranking Signals

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 05:21 PM PST

Posted by randfish

Every 3-4 years, there's a big shift or addition to the key metrics Google (and, to a lesser extent MSN/Bing and Yahoo!) uses to order competitive search results.

1996-1999: On-page keyword usage + meta data

1999 - 2002: PageRank + On-page

2002 - 2005: Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page

2005 - 2009: Domain authority + Diversity of linking domains + Topic modeling + Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page

In 2010 and 2011, we've already seen the entry of social signals from Facebook and Twitter. The recent clickstream stories revealed that both Google and Bing employ clickstream data (Bing has done so publicly for the last 3 years, Google more quietly and probably longer), though this likely is a relatively small data point for both.

It's my belief that the next generation of ranking signals will rely on three (relatively) new groups of metrics.

#1: Brand Signals

One of the reasons Google took so long to penalize JCPenney (it was first spam reported to me in late 2009) is that their human raters and user data likely suggested it was actually quite a good result for searches like "dresses" and "bedding." The brand name meant that people felt good about the listing and Google, up until the bad press, felt no need to take punitive action, if the methodology was manipulative (I'm pretty sure they knew about the manipulation for a long time, but wanted to solve it algorithmically).

For millions of retail, transactional-focused searches, Google's results are, to be honest, easily and often-gamed. We could find hundreds of examples in just a few hours, but the one below serves the purpose pretty well.

I just bought some new yellow pumas (these ones), but the best possible page Google could return (probably this one) is nowhere to be found, and most of the first two pages of results aren't specific enough - a good number don't even offer any yellow Pumas that I could find!

Google wants to solve this, and one very good way is to separate the "brands" that produce happy searchers and customers from the "generics" - sites they've often classified as "thin affiliates" or "poor user experiences." As webmasters and supporters of small-business on the web, we might complain, but as searchers, even we can agree that Puma, Amazon and Zappos would be pretty good results for a query like the above.

So what types of signals might Google employ to determine if a site is a "brand" or not?

These are just a few examples of data types and sources - Google/Bing can look at dozens, possibly hundreds of inputs (including applying machine learning to selected subsets of brand vs. non-brand sites to identify pattern matches that might not be instantly apparent to human algorithm creators).

As you might imagine, many manipulative sites could copy a number of these signals, but the engines can likely have a significant quality impact. The Vince update from 2009 is often pointed-to as a first effort along these lines from Google.

#2: Entity Associations

Search engines have, classically, relied on a relatively universal algorithm - one that rates pages based on the metrics available, without massive swings between verticals. In the past few years, however, savvy searchers and many SEOs have noted a distinct shift to a model where certain types of sites have a greater opportunity to perform for certain queries. The odds aren't necessarily stacked against outsiders, but the engines appear to bias to the types of content providers that are likely to fulfill the users' intent.

For example, when a user performs a search for "lamb shanks," it could make a lot of sense to give an extra boost to sites whose content is focused on recipes and food.

Lamb Shanks Query with Entity Associations

This same logic could apply to "The King's Speech" where the engine might bias to film-focuses sites like RottenTomatoes, IMDB, Flixster or Metacritic.

Bill Slawski has written brilliantly about entities in the past:

Rather than just looking for brands, it’s more likely that Google is trying to understand when a query includes an entity – a specific person, place, or thing, and if it can identify an entity, that identification can influence the search results that you see...

...I’ve written about the topic before, when Google was granted a patent named Query rewriting with entity detection back in May of 2009, which I covered in Boosting Brands, Businesses, and Other Entities: How a Search Engine Might Assume a Query Implies a Site Search.

Google’s recent acquistion of Metaweb is noteworthy for a number of reasons. One of them is that Metaweb has developed an approach to cataloging different names for the same entity, so that for example, when Google sees names on the Web such as Terminator or Governator or Conan the Barbarian or Kindergarten Cop, it can easily associate those mentions with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Entity associations can be used to help bolster brand signals, classify query types (and types of results), and probably help with triggering vertical/universal results like Places/Maps, Images, Videos, etc.

#3: Human Quality Raters & (Trusted) User Behavior

Last November, I wrote a post on my personal blog called "The Algorithm + the Crowd are Not Enough"

In the last decade, the online world has been ruled by two, twin forces: The Crowd and The Algorithm. The collective “users” of the Internet (The Crowd) create, click, and rate, while mathematical equations add scalability and findability to these overwhelming quantities of data (The Algorithm). Like the moon over the ocean, the pull of these two forces help create the tides of popularity (and obscurity) on the Internet. Information is more accessible, useful, and egalitarian than ever before.

But lately, at least to me, the weaknesses of this crowdsourced + algorithmic system are showing, and the next revolution feels inevitable.

Given that Google's just launched a Chrome web extension to allow users to block sites of their choosing in the SERPs and the many attempts to leverage user data in the search results (remember SideWiki, SearchWiki, Starred Results), it's a good bet that the pure-algorithm bias is slowly seeping away. Bing uses a panel of search quality reviewers, as does Google (though the latter continues to be very secretive about it).

Both are looking at clickstream data (a form of user-based information). Here's a former Google search qualty engineer noting that Google's used the same form of clickstream analysis via their toolbar that they railed against Bing for applying.

All of this strongly suggests that more user and usage information will be gathered and used to help rank results. It's far tougher to access than link data and, particularly hard to game without appearing "unnatural" compared to the normal web traffic patterns. I've talked before about how I don't like the direct signals of clicks on search results, but many ancillary data points could be collected and used, including information about where users have "good" user experiences on the web.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the next generation of ranking signals and what Google/Bing might do next to overcome problems like JCPenneyGate, spam perception among technophiles and content farms. It seems hard to imagine that either will simply rest on a system they know can be gamed.

p.s. I'd also add that vertical/universal results and more "instant answers" will continue to rise in importance/visibility in the SERPs for both engines (though these aren't really classic "ranking signals")

p.p.s. If you're PRO and interested in the brand signals in particular (and some suggested brand-building tactics), feel free to join our webinar this Friday.

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Investing in Our Future

Good afternoon,

Just a few weeks ago, in my State of the Union Address, I spoke about how America can win the future by out-educating, out-innovating and out-building the rest of the world. I also talked about taking responsibility for our Nation's deficits, because we can’t win the future if we pass on a mountain of debt to our children and grandchildren.

Yesterday, I sent my budget proposal for 2012 to Congress, and I wanted to take a moment to explain some of the tough choices we had to make so we can afford to invest in our future.

Like American families, the Federal Government must live within its means. That means eliminating wasteful spending and cutting programs that aren't working. It also means that programs, like Community Development Block Grants, which I care about deeply, need to be scaled back to confront the crushing debt we face.

You can learn more about the budget proposal and watch Jack Lew, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, explain our approach here:

Getting our fiscal house in order requires shared sacrifice. But even in these tough times, we have a responsibility to make smart investments in our Nation's future.

That's why we must invest in innovation to ensure that the jobs and industries of the future are built right here in America. It's why we need to invest in roads, bridges, high-speed rail and high-speed Internet to help our businesses ship their goods and ideas around the world.

And it's why America must invest in education so that all of our children have an opportunity to fulfill their potential. Even though parents are the key to a child's education, we have a responsibility to ensure that America's students are prepared to compete and thrive in the 21^st century global economy.

Yesterday, I visited Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology near Baltimore, Maryland. At Parkville, students gain a strong background in math, science and critical thinking skills that they will need to compete for the jobs of the 21^st century. In fact, the most popular subject in their magnet program is engineering.

Investing in schools like Parkville, investing in quality teachers, investing in higher education – these are down payments on our children's and our country's future.

Here are just a few investments in education that I've proposed in the budget I sent to Congress:

Preparing 100,000 new math, science and engineering teachers.
Expanding Race to the Top, a reform program that has led more than 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning for less than 1 percent of what we spend on education each year.
Helping more kids afford college by making the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent and strengthening Pell Grants for 9 million students.

Here in Washington, we have to take a cue from millions of American families who have been tightening their belts while continuing to invest in their future. And that's exactly what my budget proposal does – it puts us on a path to live within our means so we can invest in our future.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

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President Obama's News Conference - Watch Live at 11

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011

President Obama's News Conference - Watch Live at 11

Today at 11:00 a.m. EST President Obama will hold a news conference. Watch live at WhiteHouse.gov/live.

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama walks along the Colonnade of the White House to the Oval Office, Feb. 14, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Seth's Blog : No one plays the lottery if there are no winners

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

No one plays the lottery if there are no winners

In terms of practical mathematics, whatever lottery you're playing (the marry a millionaire lottery, the get picked to be on Oprah lottery, the get found at Hollywood and Vine and win an Oscar lottery) has no winner.

In other words, your chance of winning is so vanishingly small it's as if, from an investment point of view, there are no winners.

Which means that you should play the game for the thrill of playing it, for the benefits of playing it to a normal conclusion, not because you think you have any shot at all of winning the grand prize.

Does that change things for you?

Does it change the way you run an event which most people are going to 'lose'? How about changing the way you think about the lotteries you enter every day?

[Worth noting: most people who play state lotteries aren't playing to win. They're playing for the endorphin rush they get when they buy a ticket. Many people who win the big prize keep playing.]