TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2024 - CURIOSITY

 TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2024 - CURIOSITY

OR TMI - TOO MUCH INFORMATION

I’ve been a curious person.  I like to know about things (or maybe about things I’m interested in) 

Years ago (pre-internet)  there were specialized materials for this.  We had a set of Encyclopedia volumes.  If I wanted to know what the original thirteen states were, I looked it up.  Of course it took some intelligence to know what to look up.  Would that be in the “C” volume - for Colonies, the “U” volume for United States history 

Was Maine an original colony?  How about Vermont? And actually no on both states.  Maine was a part of Massachusetts - so while it was part of the thirteen colonies, it wasn’t separate. During the American Revolution, Vermont declared independence separately from the original 13 colonies, although the Continental Congress refused to recognize it. Vermont was finally admitted to the union as the 14th state in 1790, after 14 years as an independent republic.  How about Florida?  St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in 1565 (Jamestown wass 1607 and Plymouth Rock was 1620).  

You might look in a dictionary to help spell a word.  (I have a dictionary that has not been used in twenty years - maybe I should throw it out).  There might be specialized books at the library for baseball facts and statistics.  (Who won the World Series in 1959 - Dodgers over the Chicago White Sox).

There were almanacs, atlases, and other information publications.

*****

“Inquiring minds want to know” was the old slogan for the National Inquirer.  We want to know - and wee want to know NOW!!!

*****

Then came the Internet (which I used many time  in this blog post).  “Instant” information.  Maybe not always so instant - we had dial-up connection at home when the internet came out - and it was SLOW. 

But, if you had a logical mind you could find information (like Maine and Vermont).  Generally searches use SQL - structured query language - (a query is a question) to get results.  

Then computing got smarter - and companies wanted to show up on the first page of a query (very rarely do people look past the first page of results.  If a college wanted to make their information easily available if a potential student looked for “MBA” (masters of business information) my former college in Connecticut wanted to be first.

So, the next step (and a  lucrative one for Google) was to charge for top interest search results.  

If I searched for “online MBA” - there would be millions of “hits” Google Search.  So, universities paid to get in to the top positions in a search.  Studies have shown that people only look at the first page of results. So, if Quinnipiac University didn’t want to be on page two, they paid to showup earlier.  (There are other factors).

****

Two weeks ago I wanted to see the results for the MCWS - Men’s College World Series  So, I search for College World Series scores.  Artificial Intelligence took over and gave me results from past world series or the schedule for the series, and even results for how nice Omaha Nebraska is - but no score for the current game.  Eventually with changed input - “What is the score of the Texas A&M versus Tennessee college baseball game in June 2024.”

That was a good search - except it took four searches to find it.  

There supposedly artificial intelligence kicked in and with my previous results in consideration didn’t find the results.

TMI is the acronym for “Too Much Information”.  There is too many media outlets - too much information.  Many of the sites had basically the same information about the world series schedule - but not the score that I wanted.  (Yes, I kept trying until I found the score).

*****

The old adage is that “Curiosity killed the cat”.  I don’t know if that is true, but cats do seem curious.  (Of course,another old adage is that cats have nine lives.).  Can a person be too curious?  I think so.  I’m thinking of the nosy neighbor in the TV  comedy “Bewitched”.  She say strange things and would investigate and tell her husband - and by the time the two of them checked, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

My grandpa was supposedly curious.  There was a wasp nest in their back yard and he decided to see what it was like inside the nest.  (The wasps didn’t like that and attacked my Grandpa!!)

*****

And, on a personal note, I wanted to see what women were like - and I’m glad I did!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, July 9, 2024

TUESDAY, JULY 8, 2024 - CURIOSITY

OR TMI - TOO MUCH INFORMATION

I’ve been a curious person.  I like to know about things (or maybe about things I’m interested in) 

Years ago (pre-internet)  there were specialized materials for this.  We had a set of Encyclopedia volumes.  If I wanted to know what the original thirteen states were, I looked it up.  Of course it took some intelligence to know what to look up.  Would that be in the “C” volume - for Colonies, the “U” volume for United States history 

Was Maine an original colony?  How about Vermont? And actually no on both states.  Maine was a part of Massachusetts - so while it was part of the thirteen colonies, it wasn’t separate. During the American Revolution, Vermont declared independence separately from the original 13 colonies, although the Continental Congress refused to recognize it. Vermont was finally admitted to the union as the 14th state in 1790, after 14 years as an independent republic.  How about Florida?  St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in 1565 (Jamestown wass 1607 and Plymouth Rock was 1620).  

You might look in a dictionary to help spell a word.  (I have a dictionary that has not been used in twenty years - maybe I should throw it out).  There might be specialized books at the library for baseball facts and statistics.  (Who won the World Series in 1959 - Dodgers over the Chicago White Sox).

There were almanacs, atlases, and other information publications.

*****

“Inquiring minds want to know” was the old slogan for the National Inquirer.  We want to know - and wee want to know NOW!!!

*****

Then came the Internet (which I used many time  in this blog post).  “Instant” information.  Maybe not always so instant - we had dial-up connection at home when the internet came out - and it was SLOW. 

But, if you had a logical mind you could find information (like Maine and Vermont).  Generally searches use SQL - structured query language - (a query is a question) to get results.  

Then computing got smarter - and companies wanted to show up on the first page of a query (very rarely do people look past the first page of results.  If a college wanted to make their information easily available if a potential student looked for “MBA” (masters of business information) my former college in Connecticut wanted to be first.

So, the next step (and a  lucrative one for Google) was to charge for top interest search results.  

If I searched for “online MBA” - there would be millions of “hits” Google Search.  So, universities paid to get in to the top positions in a search.  Studies have shown that people only look at the first page of results. So, if Quinnipiac University didn’t want to be on page two, they paid to showup earlier.  (There are other factors).

****

Two weeks ago I wanted to see the results for the MCWS - Men’s College World Series  So, I search for College World Series scores.  Artificial Intelligence took over and gave me results from past world series or the schedule for the series, and even results for how nice Omaha Nebraska is - but no score for the current game.  Eventually with changed input - “What is the score of the Texas A&M versus Tennessee college baseball game in June 2024.”

That was a good search - except it took four searches to find it.  

There supposedly artificial intelligence kicked in and with my previous results in consideration didn’t find the results.

TMI is the acronym for “Too Much Information”.  There is too many media outlets - too much information.  Many of the sites had basically the same information about the world series schedule - but not the score that I wanted.  (Yes, I kept trying until I found the score).

*****

The old adage is that “Curiosity killed the cat”.  I don’t know if that is true, but cats do seem curious.  (Of course,another old adage is that cats have nine lives.).  Can a person be too curious?  I think so.  I’m thinking of the nosy neighbor in the TV  comedy “Bewitched”.  She say strange things and would investigate and tell her husband - and by the time the two of them checked, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

My grandpa was supposedly curious.  There was a wasp nest in their back yard and he decided to see what it was like inside the nest.  (The wasps didn’t like that and attacked my Grandpa!!)

*****

And, on a personal note, I wanted to see what women were like - and I’m glad I did!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, July 9, 2024