Google getting evil

 Google's Changing The Algorithm Again

Under a certain amount of pressure Google has announced that starting next week it will be changing the ranking algorithm. The aim is that those who are presenting other people’s copyrighted material will turn up lower down in the search results.

I think I might want to switch search engines. I heard DuckDuckGo is a good alternative. Annom can you write a script that takes a search term uses two search engines and displays them side by side in one browser window? :)

Also this happened when I searched for news. Coincidence? Better get my tinfoil hat.

Annom seems to be right and it's a good thing

Very interesting report. Atheism on the rise.

The WIN-Gallup International ‘Religion and Atheism Index’ which measures global self-perceptions on beliefs is based on interviews with more than 50,000 men and women selected from 57 countries across the globe in five continents. The survey also provides trend data for shifts in attitudes since 2005.

Interesting fact, China is the most atheist country in the world:
14% religious, 30% non-religious, 47% convinced atheist, 9% don't know / no response

Shifting religious identities, US, 1990-2008

We talked about the religious trends in the United States recently, so I tried to find some info. I found these stats for the the trend over the last ~20 years, from a 54000 people survey. I think these are change in percentage points.

Corporate Slogans on Condom Wrappers

Print the corporate slogan on a condome and they may look a lot dirtyer.

The predecessor of modern forms of football

I've mentioned this game before, but thought I'd give a source and some context.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_football
Medieval football is a modern term sometimes used for a wide variety of localised football games which were invented and played in Europe of the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk football, mob football and Shrovetide football.  

These archaic forms of football, typically classified as mob football, would be played between neighboring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town.

By some accounts, any means could be used to move the ball to a goal, as long as it did not lead to manslaughter or murder.

 Shrovetide is still played in one British town.

Cool and innovative packaging

I love it when a product packaging after use don't become useless (except for thermal recycling) but can be transformed into something useful. Such as these 2 examples:

View source 

View source

Lets not go to Dubai...

Briton jailed for four years in Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe
A search by customs officials uncovered a speck of cannabis weighing just 0.003g - so small it would be invisible to the naked eye and weighing less than a grain of sugar - on the tread of one of his shoes. 

A 25-year-old Briton who was found with a similar speck in one pocket as he arrived on holiday has been awaiting sentence since November. 

One man has even been jailed for possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport. Painkiller codeine is also banned.

Quite likely that there will be a speck on one of us. So unless we buy a complete new wardrobe and bags I wouldn't want to go into the country.