Google is a company whose unofficial corporate motto is "don't be evil."  It's surprising and awesome that, thus far, they've managed to stand by it.  Stay good, Google, stay good!

A lot of their success thus far comes from their mastery of Rule of Acquisition #45: Expand or die.  Google is so diversified now that everyone could stop using their search engine tomorrow and they'd likely still be profitable.  It looks like they're also getting into Rule of Acquisition #144: There's nothing wrong with charity, so long as it winds up in your pocket.  Google.org is a terrific idea.  But the non-Google.org projects really do strike me as humanitarian; for now I'll choose to believe

I worry that one day Google will turn evil.  Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and Google was evil.  What strings would be attached to your use of Gmail?  Who would have access to your search history?  Will the travel routes you put together on Google Maps be logged to track your movements?  Pretty scary.  But not as scary as this: imagine if Google continued to expand, becoming an indispensable (and omnibenevolent) part of everyday life, and then you woke up <i>in twenty years</i> and Google was evil.  They could rule the world.  They could... well...

http://www.evilbrainjono.net/cgi-bin/yu … cgi?page=9

Have you ever tried googling your own name? or better yet....if you google gay midget or something like that...TOM CRUISE appears. I Google for encouraging my own randomness.

When you Google 'Utena' on the google.hr (Croatian), EM's on the fourth page. d:

Giovanna wrote:

I was going to attempt to save face by reading up on her first, but to be perfectly honest, I know almost nothing about her philosophy and her ideas. I have heard a lot of complaining about her books being lousy reads, and I know the avenue of capitalism she supports well enough to know why you'd ask me that, but I'm unfamiliar with the details of her take on things so I can't say whether or not I agree.

I do think laissez-faire capitalism is probably the most fun to watch.

I'd have to disagree in regards to the books being "lousy reads" -- The Fountainhead is one of my favorite books.  She gets a bit repetitive with her adjectives, and sometimes the underlying philosophy is not as "under" as it should be, but I find her work enjoyable.  That, and her sex scenes are fantastic, in my opinion.

Fuck you, Google!

That's alright though, because you do cool things with NASA. You can beat me around a little.

If I recall, Ayn Rand was the original libertarian.

I am not a libertarian.

Arki wrote:

Methinks you missed it. Click.

Woops, my bad! But still at page 10? Thats pretty damn low, I  tend to only do about 5 pages at the most so I would have missed it otherwise.

Hmm, I searched "Utena" on Google and EM came up as the 13th hit (page 2).

Google ranks by linked pages. The more web pages that link to EM, the higher it will go in the rankings because Google figures the site is getting more popular because it's good, which it is of course!

Sorta.

I, for one, would marry google if given the chance.

YAY SOMEONE AGREES WITH ME.

NASA has gotten the short end of the funding stick for decades. People talk about what a joke it is, HURR YOU'RE LAUNCHING SHUTTLES OLDER THAN MY CAR. Yeah, they are. That would be because they haven't had enough money to properly fund R&D since the shuttles were built. They get just enough to spend it all on bureaucracy. They really need to clean up in there, but the problem with that is cleaning up would...HURR. REQUIRE MONEY. It's like a crackhead only getting ten or twenty dollars at a time. That's enough for more crack, not enough to try and move out of the ghetto.

Instead, NASA is the punching bag for talking about government excess, though it gets less of the Federal Budget than the toilet paper bill in Iraq. Then Bush gets all pissy and DEMANDS we start up manned exploration again. Naturally the answer is to force NASA to cut R&D and astrobiology research to divert the funds, instead of making demands of an administration but at least providing more money to accomplish them.

Bush: HURR MOON BASE
NASA: uh
Bush: MAKE IT YOU ASSHOLES
NASA: ...we have to make calls like 'keep the Hubble' or 'launch the new one' because we don't have any money, and you want a fucking moon base
Bush: YEAH, CUT ALL THAT OTHER SILLY CRAP YOU KIDS DO WITH THE ROBOTS AND STUDYING HOW THE HUMAN BODY REACTS TO SPACE TRAVEL
NASA: ...but we need the astrobiology for manned mis-
Bush: RAWR ARAWRAWROHV

As you can see, I'm rather bitter about this subject. Stupid Bush and his retarded PR move. (Hay let's talk about NASA, that's totally unrelated to Iraq and I TOTALLY give a shit about it given I've done nothing but cut their budget and ignore them my entire presidency!) I wanted my Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter.

This is why my heart gets all a flutter at what they're doing with Google. I get beat down over and over, like a diehard fan of a crappy baseball team, but maybe, maybe, this will get people actually seeing what NASA does. I know it's nerdy nerdy stuff, but I can't help but wonder if our total disinterest in anything to do with space isn't fueled a lot by ignorance. I don't expect everyone to be as passionate about it as I am, but I really want to hope, against hope, that what they're doing with Google will bring some attention to space. That at least a few 10 year olds will find this stuff and think it's really really awesome and worth learning about. Sometimes that's all it takes.

I just want people to care. A little tiny bit. I mean, aren't we going to be living there someday?

...don't people realize we have to? Plz Google much s and help us.

Edit: I know what you mean Frosty. But a lot of people feel like it's wasting money we need here, when really, it's an investment like any other. It's just a large timescale and we're impatient. You could triple NASA's budget and you know what? It's still a drop in the bucket. And I promise, it's not being spent better anywhere else. I mean...this is the US government we're talking about here.

In my perfect shiny world, the entire pile of cash spent on Iraq would have gone into the sciences. And done a lot more.

Exactly. Why does my AOL front page news read: Bush Wants To Expand the Military! There isn't a revolt??? They are slipping this shit past us, the same way they slipped in that offensive "no smoking in public" law.

I honestly had not heard that Bush was whining for a Moon Base, or demanding space exploration. Sounds like the wrong method, but I'm glad he mentioned NASA & Moon Base on TV. Although, if I understand correctly, he was just mentioning these things too look good, while letting NASA take the blame, so he looks like he's trying to be a good spaceman, and they look like their undermining our countries defense?! It's so awful! I was sure by the time I was an adult, we private citizens would have a way to at least visit the moon. like the woman I read about, who was wealthy, and developed the first privately owned craft to reach out of the atmosphere... or something, but basically, she paid to get into space. Now, if she can pay to get the rest of us into space...

I'm hoping though, that the mere mention Bush has made recently, will keep a lot of people actually really excited about space... Especially those smart science people, who might actually be able to contribute something worthwhile.

If the country could be convinced that dumping money into the space program was a good thing, not because we’re racing against another country to score the first point, but it is its own reward. Why? The farther we go, the more we’ll understand. And knowledge is the most valuable asset of all! Besides if everyone were working toward a common goal of reaching out into the unknown, there would be less squabbles amongst ourselves over “territory“ on Earth. Why, we could move our fights out into space, the way Star Wars intended. Maybe that aspect will appeal to Bush?

The alternate forms of engines/power didn't really get high attention until everyone began whipping up the public into a frenzy that oil would disappear. So, space travel...I'm thinking we'll be forced into a hole with Dr. Strangelove, before colonization becomes a reality. Oh well, I hope cryogenics is advanced before I pass on. I will unfreeze and have my Mars mansion!

Motto: "Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter"  That's HILARIOUS!

Hinotori wrote:

I double majored in Astronomy in college and one of my Professors basically got up in front of the class and said, "If you intend to have a fulfilling career in any science at all you better think of learning another language and getting the hell out of the US because they're determined to make life hell for everyone."

The truth of that statement makes me sad.
In a generation or so, the advances Europe and Asia are making in life sciences and computer technology are going to make us the laughing stock of planet Earth. Actually, they're already doing that.

You do realize I have to pick your brain at some point now, right? I love astronomy, but I don't have the math talents for physics-based sciences. I'm better with the biological stuff. I'd love to get schooled a little by someone who has gone through the coursework, though.

AH BUT I CAN TOTALLY DRAG GOOGLE BACK INTO THIS.

http://scholar.google.com/

What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

It's pretty damn handy for finding stuff for higher-end research, though most of the sites are charging the usual arm and leg for access to the articles. I really wish the literature was, if not free, than more reasonably priced. I love reading peer-reviewed journals, but I can't afford 30+ bucks a month to subscribe, and even the student discounts aren't sufficient.

Edit: AND SPEAKING OF WAY TOO EXPENSIVE, Google is trading on the NASDAQ at god damn $456bux per share. I'd love to have a few shares, just because I believe in it as a company, but christ people.