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 webslinky: interesting information access
This week, facts x importance = news. An ever-changing world requires that information be disseminated in new and exciting ways to keep people interested in what’s going on around them. The internet is constantly at the cutting edge because it’s nearly instantaneous in this process, and many of the people behind its many faces are at the forefront of technology.Like many of its projects, Google’s News (still in beta) is a great exercise in news gathering, mine-sweeping 4,500 of the national and international press (including the BBC) for their latest news updates. It’s a dizzying logistical juggling act, but one that is instantly rewarding. Ten By Ten similarly scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, weighing up the words used and deciding which come up most often. These words are then joined to their corresponding image and a ten x ten image of the hour is then created, which you can interact with. It’s a little bit “style over content” at the moment, but fun nevertheless. A real personal favourite this week, however, is justcurio.us, which is the sort of simple idea that makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done before. Simply answer a stranger’s question which is posted on the site, then you can ask your own. Questions can be of any nature, though they tend to get more esoteric/stoned as the night goes on. But the pleasure of giving and receiving anonymous answers is pretty cool. Hooked On Facts has very little focus, but it’s great for purely random information such as “a blue whale’s heart is the size of a Volkswagen beetle”. It’s not going to help coalition forces in the withdrawal from Iraq, but you can’t always ask the big questions can you? However, The Answer Bank is a little more focused and, indeed, there are some great newsworthy questions asked by intrigued subscribers. It’s amazing what you can unearth with a little online cooperation.
Richard Hector-Jones
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related info
 useful linkswww.tenbyten.org justcurio.us www.hookedonfacts.com www.theanswerbank.co.uk
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
see also
 webslinky #060real virtual reality  webslinky #059online games  webslinky #058 reclaiming history webslinky #057cultural locators  webslinky #056i-cinema  webslinkyarchive
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