http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/...ily_dish/2007/10/how-reliable-is.html

I’ve seen a change lately with other sites I visit so they might have just changed their whole search program.

Definitely. Cryptogon has been mentioning this as well. I’m sensing a major algorithmic reorganization at Google. I wonder if it indicates a shift in leadership policy as well.

The main change I’ve seen is going to Wiki first and going to a bio page and not the most recent page second then listing a site that comments on the site you want.

Right, changes in the Google algorithm most likely reflect changes in user behavior patterns - which you have to assume they are capturing IN THEIR ENTIRETY whenever you’re browsing the internet: linking your email address to your search history to cookies from ads on sites to Google analytics installed all over the web, and their ability to correlate all that information to Google spidering the entire web.

I would like to bump this topic up to a main conversation in the next few days. It indicates something important which needs to be explored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Pointe_du_Sable

BTW I think you’re right about Google bumping you a little. I’m a computer dope and what I don’t have to touch I leave alone so at work I go through the search page every time. I never paid much attention but it seems like when you were in the picture phase very often what was listed was what I saw, now not so much. I’ll pay better attention and let you know what I notice.

I’ve seen a change lately with other sites I visit so they might have just changed their whole search program. The main change I’ve seen is going to Wiki first and going to a bio page and not the most recent page second then listing a site that comments on the site you want. It’s better than ads but you have to know what you’re looking for before you go looking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_monetary_system

The core idea of Ripple is that it should be possible to route payments through an open, arbitrary trust network, similar to how the internet routes packets of data through an open, arbitrary computer network. The advantages of such a system would be that it wouldn’t be reliant on a small decision-making body at the center to set monetary policy for the entire nation; instead, it would be set in a more democratic fashion by all participants, and in theory be more responsive to regional and community needs. There would be no need to for a tightly-regulated institutional trust hierarchy to control the behaviour of those participants near the center: like the internet, but unlike the existing global monetary system, the Ripple network would be designed to weather the collapse of a large number of its nodes.

Note that the Ripple protocol itself wouldn’t preclude a hierarchical payment structure evolving, it just allows for the possibility of other structures.