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Ever search for a phrase or a definition only to find Google offer up the answer in a handy snippet of information right below your query but in front of the first search result? Its an algorithmic process thats designed to use Googles massive database to causally dip into a wide variety of tasks. The featured snippets tool is designed to quietly replace one of the internets biggest sites, Wikipedia. But its failing.

One reason Google works so well is that it offers entire pages of results, letting people pick out the right one. But the featured snippet is just one result, and backed up by Googles ubiquity as the all-seeing eye of the internet, it appears foolproof. It also offers up some truly terrible and incredibly inaccurate results.

The Outline reported on the problem earlier this year, and Google has since removed some of the worst snippets named in the article. They used to offer up five U.S. presidents in response to a google search for any presidents in the KKK, despite the fact that none were. A snippet also once affirmed that Obama was planning martial law, another falsehood pulled from a disreputable site. Still up? One snippet claims that MSG is dangerous in response to a search for MSG dangers, despite the fact that the stigma can be traced back to a singlescientist who ate Chinese food once, got sick and hypothesized that the additive was responsible.

The reality is that, while Google can manually remove the featured snippets that gain notoriety, the process is automated featured snippets pop up for an estimated 20 percent of the millions of searches users can make on the search engine. Wikipedia may not be an entirely trustworthy source, as any middle school English teacher is fond of pointing out, but Google is nowhere close to replacing its network of human volunteers.

Writing in a forward-looking end-of-the-year article from a collection of Microsoft researchers, SusanDumais, a scientist and deputy managing director at a Redmond, Washington, research lab, made a compelling prediction for the future of search engines in the next decade.

The search box will disappear, Dumais said. It will be replaced by search functionality that is more ubiquitous, embedded and contextually sensitive. We are seeing the beginnings of this transformation with spoken queries, especially in mobile and smart home settings. This trend will accelerate with the ability to issue queries consisting of sound, images or video, and with the use of context to proactively retrieve information related to the current location, content, entities or activities without explicit queries.

As we head towards this prediction perhaps even sooner than 2027, Googles featured snippets problem has yet to be addressed. It could get even tougher to root out if a similar approach takes over voice search as well.

The search engines data collection has allowed it to casuallyswallow up entire business models. The most recent example: Google for Jobs, which aggregates job positions from a vast selection of different job boards. Granted, the job boards still serve as intermediaries, since Google just redirects users to each individual job posting, but the job boards lose out on large amounts of data on how many users are searching, and for which positions. If Google wants to create its own job board, it already has more data than its competitors, and it can block them from gaining more.

Read our reviews on Google Home at TechCo

In other cases, Google can destroy entire businesses. CelebrityNetWorth.com is one example: the business calculates how much money celebrities are worth. Or it did, as a follow-up Outline article covered, before Googles featured snippets started delivering the information to searchers, denying page views from the sites that actually did the math.

But the limits of Googles steamrolling algorithm can be seen in every wrong answer they turn up, and this fact is never highlighted better than in its featured snippets tool.

Read more about whats happening at Google at TechCo

See the article here:
Google Is Trying to Be Wikipedia, and They're Failing - Tech.Co

Mariam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of Pakistans Prime Minister speaks to media after appearing before an investigation in Islamabad. Photograph: Reuters

The date of the public release of Microsofts Calibri font has become an unlikely factor in an alleged corruption scandal in Pakistan.

A company linked to the daughter of Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was named in the 2016 Panama Papers leak, leading to a supreme court investigation.

High-end London property bought with what was referred to in 1998 by the head of Pakistans federal investigation agency, Rehman Malik, as ill-gotten wealth earned through corrupt practices, is owned by two British Virgin Island companies. One of them, Nescoll, had Mariam Nawaz Sharif listed as the sole shareholder.

The resulting report said Sharif had disclosed her ties to the firm. But the 2006 disclosure was typed in Calibri, the year before Microsoft made that font publicly available, leading to allegations the documents were forged, and an online campaign calling it fontgate.

Pakistani media and opposition parties took to Wikipedia to investigate the claim, while someone allegedly tried to change the articles content to say Calibri was available from 2004.

While the online encyclopaedia says the font was developed by a Dutchman, Lucas de Groot in 2004, it adds that Calibri only reached the general public on 30 January 2007 with the launch of Microsoft Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, when it became the default font.

Wikipedia, by its open nature, is loath to bar its pages to anonymous edits except on controversial topics such as Donald Trump. But it has suspended editing on its Calibri page until July 18 2017, or until editing disputes have been resolved.

One supporter hailed the block, saying people seeking to edit the page are trying to save a corrupt political party on corruption charges. Others praised Wikipedia for its quick response and said it was proof of the companys integrity.

Opposition parties have urged Sharif to step down after the investigation found a significant disparity between his familys declared wealth and known sources of income.

Cricketer-turned-opposition leader Imran Khan said Sharif had lost all moral authority and must resign immediately. Sirajul Haq, the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, also demanded Sharifs resignation.

But Sharifs allies dismissed all the allegations against him and the report.

Its trash, said defence minister Asif Khawaja, saying the report was full of flaws.

Sharif has denied wrongdoing and said his familys wealth was acquired legally.

Link:
'Fontgate': Microsoft, Wikipedia and the scandal threatening the Pakistani PM - The Guardian

These days, when people dont know anything about a subject, the first thing they might do is consult Wikipedia, the user-updated online encyclopedia. For people curious about Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai (R-Marshall Township), however, they might want to rethink that decision.

For the past few years, editors have been shaping Turzais page, consistently removing critical information about the speaker and replacing it with paragraphs about his legislative accomplishments, and peppering the entry with phrases like a relentless champion. Turzai is even credited for leading an agenda that improved the states business climate, but without citing any sources.

While many minor changes to Turzais page have been made by active, volunteer editors with usernames like Psyden or Cwobeel, its the praise-laden changes that raise questions, especially because one editor is linked to the offices of the Republican Caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, of which Turzai is the highest-ranking member.

William Beutler runs Beutler Ink, a Washington, D.C.-based business that helps large clients craft fair and accurate Wikipedia pages. Beutler says people with biases for or against Turzai shouldnt be editing his page. There are a lot of good editors out there, but they care a whole lot less [about personal bias] than these anonymous editors trying to influence the page, says Beutler. Its clear that there are still not enough editors to keep everything at a high level of quality.

Modifying politicians Wikipedia pages is nothing new. Members of the U.S. Congress and their staffs have been editing their own Wikipedia pages since 2006, sometimes fluffing them with overt praise. The Twitter account @congressedits was created in 2014 to track those edits, giving the public more transparency about whether edits comply with Wikipedias Neutral Point of View (NPOV) guidelines. But Beutler says there are no similar measures for state houses.

With Wikipedia attracting millions of viewers a day, and more Americans using the site as a reference tool, should Pennsylvanians be more skeptical of Wikipedia pages, particularly those of politicians looking to gain influence? Someday soon, Turzais influence could extend beyond Speaker of the House.

In May, the Associated Press obtained a letter sent by Turzai to Pennsylvanias Republican Party committee informing them hes considering a run for governor in 2018, and asking for their support. News reports since the fall of 2016 have also indicated Turzais interest in running for governor.

On Nov. 30, 2016, a nameless editor with an IP address of 192.216.120.25 removed from Turzais Wikipedia an unsourced section page that read: In 2012 he came under fire for admitting that Pennsylvanias Voter ID Law was actually designed to cause voter suppression and win the state for Mitt Romney in a [speech] to the Republican State Committee. He also came under fire for insulting and screaming at parents who wanted medical marijuana legalized to treat their children which 88% of the [states] voters supported. This editor, whose IP address is listed on multiple IP address locator websites as the House Republican caucus in Harrisburg, justified this removal by writing in the edit section of the site, The statement is inaccurate. Turzai NEVER said Voter ID legislation was about suppressing votes.

The editor is correct: Turzai never actually said those words. But many observers inferred that thats what he meant when he saidin a 2012 video, Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done. Also, the editor never explained why Turzais medical-marijuana opposition was removed, even though its been well documented and was properly sourced on the Wikipedia page.

This isnt unusual behavior for the editor linked to the Pennsylvania House GOP. This editor has injected paragraphs into Turzais page since 2013, detailing legislative accomplishments with descriptions like historic and conservative. In fact, on July 7, just hours after Pittsburgh City Paper contacted Turzais office to request comment for this story, edits were made to Turzais page from the same IP address, including the removal of the pages only critical sentence, which said, In 2012 he came under fire [for] remarks he made about Pennsylvanias Voter ID Law and Mitt Romney winning the state in a speech to the Republican State Committee. This sentence was sourced from a 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

CPs requests for comment from Turzais office and the states House GOP caucus went unanswered.

Since 2005, the IP address linked to the House GOP caucus has made some edits to pages on topics including college football and Pennsylvania high schools, but the majority of edits have focused on Republican state politics.

In 2015, large sections were removed from state Rep. Daryl Metcalfes (R-Cranberry) page. The page originally listed legislation proposed by Metcalfe that many consider anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant, and replaced it with paragraphs about Metcalfes pro-life stances. The computer linked to the IP address also completed similar edits to the pages of state Rep. Seth Grove (R-York County) and state Rep. Nicholas Miccarelli III (R-Delaware County).

Beutler says altering Wikipedia information like this can have a powerful influence.

See the rest here:
Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai's Wikipedia edited by account tied to House Republicans - PGH City Paper

NUALA CAREY IS a national treasure.

I mean, is there anything she cant do?

Source: RT

Source: RT

An honourable mention here for her performance of Baby One More Time by Britney Spears.

Source: Crystal Swing

Her spiritedShannonbridge side lost their quarter final match to Crystal Swings Derek Burke and Castleisland Desmonds, unfort.

But still. A for effort.

She is an absolute vision of youth.

We demand to know Nuala is purchasing the illusive elixir shes inevitably drinking to maintain that complexion and slow down the cruel hands of time.

Maybe shes succeeded in stopping time altogether. As far as Irish conspiracy theories go, this is one Im fully on board with.

One Wikipedia user, having noticed Nuala was excluded from the list of contestants on RTs reality TV extravaganza Cabin Fever, amended the list accordingly.

Source: Wikipedia

So, how old was Nuala Carey when she took part in the show?

Source: Wikipedia

Also, seemingly, Nualas place of origin is simply the atmosphere.

Remarkable.

How naive of me to thinkthiscould be achieved through a good SPF and two litres of water a day.

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How old is Nuala Carey? Wikipedia put her at 'babe' years of age - DailyEdge.ie

Anne Marie Morris' page on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, was temporarily changed to describe her as a 'British Conservative party politician and a racist'.

The Wikipedia entry was later amended to describe the political storm which hit the Newton Abbot MP after she was recorded using the racially offesive term 'n****r in the woodpile' during a debate on Brexit with eurosceptics. But for a short time when anybody searched for her details online, this is how she was listed on Wikipedia and the image was copied and circulated on Twitter.

It was later amended to read: "Anne Marie Morris (born 5 July 1957, London) is a British politician who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Newton Abbot.

"In July 2017, Morris had the Conservative whip suspended following the emergence of a recording of her using the racist idiom "nigger in the woodpile". " Listen below to the original recording.

Read the rest here:
Anne Marie Morris Wikipedia entry changed to call her a 'politician and a racist' - Devon Live