1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?
1502 pounds, in 2006: http://www.bigpumpkins.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=161&gid=49
2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?
From his online fan club http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/GrantHackettFans/ I haven't accessed it as membership is required to participate.
3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?
18-20 inches long: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giraffe.html
4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?
Even on this one website, there are multiple definitions for ontology (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ONTOLI.html) Based on this, and not being ax expert ontologist myself, I'd say that ontology can be defined as a science of being and existing.
5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?
1966's "Transfer." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061114/
6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?
8th january 1986. http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?
Based on http://www.omegarobot.com/article/555.html, it seems the dearth in legit "555" numbers means that authorities were keen to fill this gap, so encouraging Hollywood films to use "555" solved this problem
8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?
http://www.iexplore.com/world_travel/Greece/Destinations suggets travel by ferry as the cheapest travel, bar swmming, between these two destinations.
9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?
"I'll Never Find Another You"- The Seekers . Shame that unlike the UK, our number one this time 42 years ago wasn't by the Rolling Stones.
http://www.onmc.iinet.net.au/topspot/1965.htm
10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?
Only the best band ever....Black Assassins http://www.griffith.edu.au/school/art/staff/stockwell.htm
A search engine is a website that specialises in recommending to the user a list of websites that are relevant to that user's needs and wants. I watched a documentary on SBS last year that was based on Google, and one segment was about the way that website sorts the order of its search results. Google came under criticism from that program after it found that the first result from the search "holocaust" was actually a site denying that atrocity's existence. Paid placements (where a company/site pays Google to have its site displayed prominently) are one example of how a search engine may list its findings.
What makes one page more useful than another one is the reliability and accuracy in giving me useful links. This may be as a result of refining my initial search into having a specific phrase or quote. Google is my homepage, I vary rarely use other engines. When I do, it is then yahoo.com.au and ninemsn.com.au in that order. Google is something that I've grown accustomed to, plus it simply offers more accurate responses than yahoo or ninemsn.
A website, http://searchenginewatch.com/ is focused upon informing user about reliability, news and features about prominent search engines. For example, published on March 22, http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3625316 outlines Yahoo's attempts in strengthening attempts at detecting fraud.
Right now, I'm favouring my essay to be about MySpace. This technology's rapid growth is astounding, and with its rise in use has brought about questions about the impact of this technology on some of its users. Is the use of of this website in telling strangers about personal details fair, and is this tool the communication of the future, where the number of "friends" online becomes more important than the number of friends one has in real life?
Friday, March 23
Friday, March 16
La Jetee, Mao Zedong and Interpretations
It's blog time, this one is about last week's lecture. In it, the evolution of communication studies in the US was interesting, seeing and reading about how as the 20th century progressed, so did the types of theories and effects. Stephen's example of how in the 1920's a Clark Gabriel ad led to the soar in sales of cigarettes and singlets. I don't know why it stuck in my head, but it did. I liked two quotes that Stephen displayed at the end of the last week's lecture from theorists, in particular:
"Let a hundred flowers bloom;
Let a hundred schools of thought contend."
Mao Zedong
I read about Marshall McLuhan in the textbook, a man who possessed some at-the-time radical ideas, ie. classifying the the "intensity" of various media effects through "hot and cold." Speaking
I read about Marshall McLuhan in the textbook, a man who possessed some at-the-time radical ideas, ie. classifying the the "intensity" of various media effects through "hot and cold." Speaking
of radical ideas, there's La Jetee, the film at the culmination of the lecture. My tutor Chris brought up a good point, about how in 1962, when the text was made, the idea of time travel (which the movie is essentially based upon) was as foreign to the director Chris Marker's context as the idea of four decades later the world becoming connected together via the internet.
With the abrupt ending which saw the main character, seemingly a time traveller, shot dead at the airport where the journey began, I interpreted the meaning of La Jetee as time waits for no man, and despite the brilliance of the technology, the man's life was hardly improved by it- it was indirectly ended by it. That wrapped the story up nicely and accurate too.
Though watching a 28 minute short film that was based upon black and white still photos was something I wasn't expecting when I joined this course, I still managed an interpretation of the film. Next week it's Alphaville and I'll be blogging on about the first half of it. Thanks for stopping by :)
Though watching a 28 minute short film that was based upon black and white still photos was something I wasn't expecting when I joined this course, I still managed an interpretation of the film. Next week it's Alphaville and I'll be blogging on about the first half of it. Thanks for stopping by :)
Here's some links to other bloggers
Friday, March 9
Inaugural Blog
Hey all, in case you didn't know (and you probably don't), my name is Dean Kelly, and I'm here to hopefully become a sports print journo one distant day. I am a complete sports nut. But enough about that, I've still got La Jetee in my head. That "movie" was........different. I did French for four years at high school back in Sydney but even that didn't really prepare me for time travel and the rest :) I'm not really much of a blogger, I've got a myspace account though even that's really to use it to see other people's accounts. I struggle to maintain an interest in telling strangers about what's been happening to me in the last few days, but that comes from being very shy. I've read the first four chapters of the textbook, and I guess that the email telling me that it was one of the "easier" books to read was true. Plenty of new words to learn, among other things, but at least they do it in a thorough way. Looks like chapter seven is next on the list, I'm guessing that's got something to do with Alphaville. When I get home (if I remember) I must look that up on imdb (again, if I remember). Steve Stockwell is a character isn't he? In the rare chance that you're reading this Mr Stockwell, I mean that in a nice sense, it's good to see some enthusiasm from the lecturer, because if he/she isn't excited/passionate about what he's/she's teaching, what hope does a first year student have of being interested? It's strange hearing 20-odd people in this room typing all at the same time too btw haha. I'm looking forward to having some more material to blog on about in the upcoming weeks, so until then, thanks for stopping by.
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