You’ve already seen Android activations mapped around the globe over time, now how about some Google search volumes? Using WebGL and different color crayons for each language, the coders at Mountain View have put together the above Search Globe, which presents a single day’s worth of Google queries in a beautiful, skyscraper-infused visualization. Jacking yourself into the source link below (your browser can handle WebGL, right?) will let you twist and turn the model world for a closer exploration of global Google use. And if you get tired of that, there’s an alternative map showing world populations over 1990s — that’s available at the second link. Visualized: Google searches around the globe originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 May 2011 19:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles is taking center stage as details emerge on a federal probe involving two of Madonna’s charities . The IRS is investigating whether the family in charge of the organization used its nonprofit dollars for personal gain, sources tell the Los Angeles Times . The Berg family,…
Continue reading …The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports is even more exciting if there’s a big payout at the finish line. May the odds be with you.
Continue reading …YouTube strikes again. A Phoenix police officer has been suspended as the department launches a criminal investigation into whether he used excessive force when arresting a 15-year-old girl, reports the Arizona Republic . The arrest happened in January, but a video only recently came to the department’s attention. It shows Patrick…
Continue reading …Our experts debunk sunscreen myths, reveal their sunscreen picks, and explain what to look for on a sunscreen label.
Continue reading …Raw footage of Friday’s weigh-in for Saturday’s Manny Pacquiao-Sugar Shane Mosley welterweight title fight in Las Vegas. (May 6)
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Rep. Peter King is one of the blowhards of the GOP who uses every opportunity to paint President Obama and the Democratic Party as weak on national security, but now listen to what he said to Bill O’Reilly after pumping the torture meme: KING: And that’s why I think it’s really wrong, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans, when they go out of their way to take cheap, personal shots at a President. It’s OK to criticize, but they are going through incredible stress and strains at all times and one small mistake; now just think if the President made the wrong decision when he OK’s the mission, you could have had civilians killed and you could have had Navy SEALs wiped out…. O’REILLY: It was a daring mission… Do you think he was talking about himself? I’ll never forget when he told people at the Merrick Jewish Center that conditions on the ground in Iraq were just like Manhattan back in 2006. As soon as the underwear bomber was arrested he immediately took to the airwaves to ridicule Obama and the administration because the suspect was arrested and given his Miranda warning. Peter King thinks the key to protecting America is for Obama to use the word “Terror” more. New York Rep. Peter King, a leading Republican critic of the White House on terror policy, offered a piece of advice on Good Morning America today: Obama should speak the word “terrorism” more. “You are saying someone should be held accountable. Name one other specific recommendation the president could implement right now to fix this,” host George Stephanopoulos said to King. “I think one main thing would be to — just himself to use the word terrorism more often ,” said King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee What about this fearmongering of the Times Square plot? KING: Well, I was very critical of the administration for the Major Hasan shooting. I was also very critical of the Abdulmutallab incident on Christmas Day. As far as this one, Chris, the evidence isn’t in yet as to what was available. Based on what we’ve seen, I don’t know if we could have stopped him before he got — Shahzad before he got to Times Square. We’ll have to wait until, you know, all the dots are put out there. It’s very difficult because we don’t get very much information from this administration. But one real criticism I do have, Chris, is what happened in the last hours of the investigation. Beginning some time on Monday afternoon, high administration sources were leaking out the most confidential, classified information which compromised this investigation, put lives at risk and very probably caused Shahzad to escape and make it undetected to the airport. Or this golden oldie: Peter King Compares Obama Not Doing Press Conference on Bomb Plot to Bush Not Going to New Orleans After Katrina And who can forget his ridiculous attacks of Comedy Central? Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that a car bomb found Saturday night in Times Square might have been the work of Islamic extremists who were upset over an episode of the Comedy Central series that attempted to depict the prophet Muhammad. It’s one possibility out of 100, but this vehicle was close to a Viacom building, which owns MTV and Comedy Central,” King said Sunday during an appearance on CNN. ” Maybe he’ll tell Kit Bond the same thing. Administration’s handling of Christmas bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Bush’s similar handling of shoe-bomber Richard Reid in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” On Tuesday, Bond had called for Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan’s resignation after an increasingly politicized debate on how the administration has handled the Abdulmutallab case. During the MSNBC interview, anchor Savannah Guthrie asked Senator Bond to make a distinction between the mirandizing of previous terror suspects and Abdulmutallab. “When Richard Reid was mirandized, treated in the civilian court system, same as Zacarius Moussaoui, the 9/11 co-conspirator, did you call for anyone’s resignation because of that?” Guthrie asked. “It’s a lot different time,” Bond responded. “We now have military commissions…It turns out that mirandizing Richard Reid and trying him in the civilian courts was a bad idea.” “He is serving a life sentence right now, he will never get out. How is that a failure?” Guthrie shot back. Read on… Maybe he had a pang of remorse after acting like a jerk all those other times, but I doubt. Maybe all the heat he took for his race baiting Muslim hearings had something to do it with? Maybe it was because he got busted for being an IRA supporter? Long before he became an outspoken voice in Congress about the threat from terrorism, he was a fervent supporter of a terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army . “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry,” Mr. King told a pro-I.R.A. rally on Long Island, where he was serving as Nassau County comptroller, in 1982. Three years later he declared, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.” I do know that I’ll remind him of his new words every time he tries to demonize Obama’s national security policies.
Continue reading …Mount Everest got 3G coverage last year , so it was only a matter of time before we started getting high-altitude tweets from the summit. The first one has arrived, reports Mashable . It comes courtesy of British climber Kenton Cool, who skips the scenic stuff and gets right to business: “Everest…
Continue reading …Rima Fakih made history when she became the first Muslim American to be crowned Miss USA on May 16, 2010. As she nears the end of her year-long reign, NewsFeed spoke to the pageant queen about her whirlwind year, her stint as reality star on the USA network’s wrestling competition Tough Enough and whether she’ll
Continue reading …Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons line up to reject proposal for primary schools floated by national curriculum panel Children’s authors are gearing up for a fight over whether schools should be given government-approved lists of books that children should have read by the time they reach a certain age. Authors Michael Rosen and Alan Gibbons appear first in line in the latest round of what has almost become a national sport in England over the last 25 years – criticising ministers for seeking to prescribe what they see as the best texts. The idea of replicating in primary schools what already happens in the first three years of secondary schools is being floated by a small panel of experts set up by the education secretary, Michael Gove, to review the national curriculum for five to 16-year-olds, according to the Times Educational Supplement (TES) . Rosen , a former children’s laureate, told the TES : “I’m all in favour of people recommending books to each other. What I’m utterly against is some centralised list which is supposed to be the government’s view or the state’s view. “If Michael Gove wants to suggest his list, that’s fine. But if it is the government’s list or the DfE’s list, I would profoundly distrust it.” He later said: “If Michael Gove says who’s recommending them [the books and authors], then that’s democratic, that’s the way we share ideas. “If it’s just a dictation that this is the way we read books, then we don’t live in a totalitarian country, we’re not in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, where they dictated what books you have to read.” Gibbons said: “What we need to see in schools is trust in teachers and librarians. We need a network of people who know about books and keep up to date with children’s literature, who have the freedom to select books according to their pupils’ backgrounds and interests.” Under the current primary curriculum children are expected to be introduced to a range of writing, including fiction, poetry, myths and plays, but there is no central list specifying books or authors. In secondary schools, the current curriculum for 11 to 14-year-olds includes a recommended list of authors and demands that pupils study Shakespeare. In March, Gove suggested that children from the age of 11 should be reading far more than at present – up to 50 books a year . He claimed pupils were only reading one or two books, often Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, and invited children’s authors to recommend their own favourites. The current children’s laureate, Anthony Browne, said then: “It’s always good to hear that the importance of children’s reading is recognised – but rather than setting an arbitrary number of books that children ought to read, I feel it’s the quality of children’s reading experiences that really matter. Pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books is what counts – not simply meeting targets.” The prospect of state-directed reading has been a bone of contention for decades but arguments have been more heated since another bibliophile education secretary Kenneth Baker began laying the groundwork for the national curriculum in the mid-1980s. Guardian writers have never been backward in recommending their own favourites. Last May a list for five to seven-year-olds included Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy, and The Legend of Captain Crow’s Teeth, by Eoin Colfer. Inevitably JK Rowling’s Harry Potter was recommended for 8 to 11-year-olds, as were CS Lewis’s Narnia books and Jacqueline Wilson’s The Story of Tracy Beaker. The Department for Education said: “We want to create a world-class curriculum that will help teachers, parents and children know what children should learn at what age. We are currently reviewing all aspects of the national curriculum and will consult fully on the programmes of study when the review concludes.” The review is still in its early stages. Recommended programmes of study for English and other core subjects are expected to be put out for consultation early next year with decisions made by ministers in the spring. They will be sent to schools in September 2012. Literacy National curriculum Schools Education policy Michael Gove Michael Rosen Anthony Browne James Meikle guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …