Legendary Singer Compared to Amphibian!

Quote of the day:
“I never thought anything so powerful could come out of that little toad.”
--Joan Baez, talking about the first time she heard Bob Dylan. He sang “With God on Our Side.”

And from another musician:
“Working musicians are very rarely purists. The purists are out in the audience kibitzing, not onstage trying to make a living.”
--Dave Van Ronk

Musical trivia question of the day:
When the Beatles made their first appearance on Ed Sullivan, what was the number one album in America?
That’s right, The Singing Nun.

Interesting observation of the day:
“It was strange...kind of like burned almond cookie.”
Space Tourist Anousbeth Ansari, on what space smells like.

Followup of the day:
For more on Keith York’s house (entry of September 3, 2006, “Who is Our Designer?”), go to www.modernsandiego.com/

While we’re on the subject of followups, here’s more about the September 20, 2006 entry, “Who Is Your Editor?” How we select what gets our attention is an important concern, to which I will return from time to time.

One of the most-popular editors right now is Google. It has become synonymous with internet search. In fact, the product name has become a verb which means “internet search.”

Google’s search is based purely on a mathematical algorithm, essentially a mechanical formula that searches web pages. Yahoo and other search engines alter this a bit by introducing human “editors” who test randomly selected search terms and select what is most relevant.

Commenting on this difference, Jan Pedersen, Yahoo’s chief scientist for search and marketplace, said this: “We think that (the human touch) definitely adds to the product, as opposed to the kind of purist view that you have to have to have an algorithm that necessarily does these things.”

Does this human intervention help? Or does it just introduce unnecessary “corruption”?

(note: This daily blog is available with photos, links, and a song at http://web.mac.com/cdorval)