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how to take down an airliner?:

Much easier way to take down an airliner: at night, fly a bunch of black kites with kevlar lines at the end of the runway.

Considering that in congested urban areas you can stand on a freeway overpass or in long - term parking and easily take down an airliner, it s actually somewhat surprising that someone hasn t tried this yet.

The WP fronts a piece pointing out that commercial cargo on passenger planes is rarely inspected and thus a big juicy target for terrorists looking to take down an airliner.

If a wacko wants to take down an airliner, he sure will, no matter how many points you close.

...then Brain Boost really scored. I was thinking of some question to try it out, and (based on what's playing on BBC 6music right now -- Friday's funk show) I came up with this question, not really realizing how tricky it is:

Who wrote Sex Machine?

This is what I got: a result pointing to an article saying that William "Bootsy" Collins (of Funkadelic fame) co-wrote the James Brown song.

Compare the results from Google and Ask Jeeves.

Now all I need is to configure a bb: shortcut in Konqueror's Enhanced Browsing dialog...

Google combines the mature function of definitions (basically what Onelook does and does better) and the prototype answering function (which doesn't work all that well yet).

I suggest you check out Brain Boost, a real answering system that uses AI to change your question into multiple search engine queries, contacts multiples search engines, processes the results, downloads the most relevant pages, uses AI to analyze their relevance, extracts the answers from the most relevant and presents them on a neat results page with links to get additional information, read the source or rate the quality of answers. It's really amazing and it works for all questions with the whole web, not just with a few encyclopedias or definition lists like Google apparently does.

1. who was president of the usa in 1996? - the correct answer is in result 4, not very nice
2. what is the slashdot effect? - several precise definitions
3. what is google? - a lot of answers that give in depth overview of all aspects of what Google really is. Actually, to my taste there was a little too much information.
4. who is jane fonda? - all the information you need, probably not structured very well

Google combines the mature function of definitions (basically what Onelook does and does better) and the prototype answering function (which doesn't work all that well yet).

I suggest you check out Brain Boost, a real answering system that uses AI to change your question into multiple search engine queries, contacts multiples search engines, processes the results, downloads the most relevant pages, uses AI to analyze their relevance, extracts the answers from the most relevant and presents them on a neat results page with links to get additional information, read the source or rate the quality of answers. It's really amazing and it works for all questions with the whole web, not just with a few encyclopedias or definition lists like Google apparently does.

1. who was president of the usa in 1996? - the correct answer is in result 4, not very nice
2. what is the slashdot effect? - several precise definitions
3. what is google? - a lot of answers that give in depth overview of all aspects of what Google really is. Actually, to my taste there was a little too much information.
4. who is jane fonda? - all the information you need, probably not structured very well

Google combines the mature function of definitions (basically what Onelook does and does better) and the prototype answering function (which doesn't work all that well yet).

I suggest you check out Brain Boost, a real answering system that uses AI to change your question into multiple search engine queries, contacts multiples search engines, processes the results, downloads the most relevant pages, uses AI to analyze their relevance, extracts the answers from the most relevant and presents them on a neat results page with links to get additional information, read the source or rate the quality of answers. It's really amazing and it works for all questions with the whole web, not just with a few encyclopedias or definition lists like Google apparently does.

1. who was president of the usa in 1996? - the correct answer is in result 4, not very nice
2. what is the slashdot effect? - several precise definitions
3. what is google? - a lot of answers that give in depth overview of all aspects of what Google really is. Actually, to my taste there was a little too much information.
4. who is jane fonda? - all the information you need, probably not structured very well

Google combines the mature function of definitions (basically what Onelook does and does better) and the prototype answering function (which doesn't work all that well yet).

I suggest you check out Brain Boost, a real answering system that uses AI to change your question into multiple search engine queries, contacts multiples search engines, processes the results, downloads the most relevant pages, uses AI to analyze their relevance, extracts the answers from the most relevant and presents them on a neat results page with links to get additional information, read the source or rate the quality of answers. It's really amazing and it works for all questions with the whole web, not just with a few encyclopedias or definition lists like Google apparently does.

1. who was president of the usa in 1996? - the correct answer is in result 4, not very nice
2. what is the slashdot effect? - several precise definitions
3. what is google? - a lot of answers that give in depth overview of all aspects of what Google really is. Actually, to my taste there was a little too much information.
4. who is jane fonda? - all the information you need, probably not structured very well

Google combines the mature function of definitions (basically what Onelook does and does better) and the prototype answering function (which doesn't work all that well yet).

I suggest you check out Brain Boost, a real answering system that uses AI to change your question into multiple search engine queries, contacts multiples search engines, processes the results, downloads the most relevant pages, uses AI to analyze their relevance, extracts the answers from the most relevant and presents them on a neat results page with links to get additional information, read the source or rate the quality of answers. It's really amazing and it works for all questions with the whole web, not just with a few encyclopedias or definition lists like Google apparently does.

1. who was president of the usa in 1996? - the correct answer is in result 4, not very nice
2. what is the slashdot effect? - several precise definitions
3. what is google? - a lot of answers that give in depth overview of all aspects of what Google really is. Actually, to my taste there was a little too much information.
4. who is jane fonda? - all the information you need, probably not structured very well

May be you will be more impressed with Brain Boost?

When asked What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?, it answers:

• The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles per hour, beating its wings 7 - 9 times per second rather than 43..

May be you will be more impressed with Brain Boost?

When asked What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?, it answers:

• The airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles per hour, beating its wings 7 - 9 times per second rather than 43..

As usual, Brain Boost is just as good. :) Here are some nice picks from the result page:

• If you don t know what Goatse is, my advice to you is, don't do too much googling for it.
• And yeah, if you dont know what goatse is, save your sanity and dont even bother looking it up.
• Goatse is a man, a man of men! A many of many men! A men of meny menny men!
• He is something for us mere mortal men to aspire to.
• Goatse is one disturbed individual. his anus consumes him
• The concept of goatse is a type of troll.

overall population density of about 113 persons per sq. km

The population of Portugal is ageing, with nearly 3.5 million people over the age of 50 in 2003

almost half of the population is economically active

Brazil has a [portuguese speaking] population of approximately 151 million

I think this is leaps and bounds better than lame half-assed attempt by Google, especially considering that Brain Boost works with ALL questions, doesn't require ANY HUMAN input and is completely and totally AUTONOMOUS.

Google sucks, Brain Boost rules! I want a direct interface to Brain Boost, like this guy. :)

overall population density of about 113 persons per sq. km

The population of Portugal is ageing, with nearly 3.5 million people over the age of 50 in 2003

almost half of the population is economically active

Brazil has a [portuguese speaking] population of approximately 151 million

I think this is leaps and bounds better than lame half-assed attempt by Google, especially considering that Brain Boost works with ALL questions, doesn't require ANY HUMAN input and is completely and totally AUTONOMOUS.

Google sucks, Brain Boost rules! I want a direct interface to Brain Boost, like this guy. :)

overall population density of about 113 persons per sq. km

The population of Portugal is ageing, with nearly 3.5 million people over the age of 50 in 2003

almost half of the population is economically active

Brazil has a [portuguese speaking] population of approximately 151 million

I think this is leaps and bounds better than lame half-assed attempt by Google, especially considering that Brain Boost works with ALL questions, doesn't require ANY HUMAN input and is completely and totally AUTONOMOUS.

Google sucks, Brain Boost rules! I want a direct interface to Brain Boost, like this guy. :)

overall population density of about 113 persons per sq. km

The population of Portugal is ageing, with nearly 3.5 million people over the age of 50 in 2003

almost half of the population is economically active

Brazil has a [portuguese speaking] population of approximately 151 million

I think this is leaps and bounds better than lame half-assed attempt by Google, especially considering that Brain Boost works with ALL questions, doesn't require ANY HUMAN input and is completely and totally AUTONOMOUS.

Google sucks, Brain Boost rules! I want a direct interface to Brain Boost, like this guy. :)

It should be interesting to see how it compares to BrainBoost.com

Out of the 27 question I gave Google from the BrainBoost.com front page, it answered 9 of them. Ask Jeeves also answered 9 of them, but a slightly different set. BrainBoost got them all 'right', but then they are the questions that BrainBoost selected :)

Here are the ones Google got right:
Where is Iraq?
How many people live in Israel?
Who is the CEO of Amazon.com?
Who is Thad Starner?
What is solar wind?
When was Cameron Diaz born?
What is a calorie?

Here are the ones Ask Jeeves got right:
How many people live in Israel?
What is the capital of Indonesia?
Who was the 3rd president of the US?
What is solar wind?
When was Cameron Diaz born?
What is a calorie?
What does HTML stand for?

May be Google has done some nifty things with their file-system, but can't we forget about it already? Their search hasn't changed much http://www.google.com/">in the past six years. Of course, the fanboys will salivate over Google calculator and Google unit converter, but on the scale of Internet these "innovations" barely register.

Some of the other search engines are comparable in quality to Google (Teoma, Vivisimo), and may be better, depending on how many points you take away from Google for spam-infested results, too many blogs, too many Wikipedia clones, too many commercial sites, etc. And some sites are so much further on the innovation scale (meet BrainBoost, an artifically intelligent Internet reference desk answering any questions asked in natural English, with amazing quality and accuracy in a very friendly and usable interface) that they put Google to shame.

some information on fictional characters in Mystara

"Even after ten quadrillion years, you can never know that you have achieved immortality - that would take ETERNITY It is not possible to ever - know that you can live forever"

"Bova speculates that various biomedical advances could coalesce into the achievement of human immortality within fifty years."

"Immortality achieved through ones descendents" (from the bible)

"Ron Klatz MD, president of The American Academy of Anti - Aging Medicine , suggests that the human life span will reach 150 years within 30 years and physical immortality will be achieved by mid - century."

This is goddamn impressive. I will definitely try using BB in the future, beats google in quality and presentation (if not in completeness) hands down.

The other day I needed to know, for obscure reasons, the number of heroin addicts in Dublin. This is the kind of info that you know is probably on the web, but is going to be hard to find with Google.

I used BrainBoost - "How many heroin addicts are there in Dublin?", and, bam, first line of the result - "There are 13,000 heroin addicts in Dublin."

That's damn impressive. Out of curiosity I tried to see if I could find the same info with Google - it was fairly tough. Took three or four searches, eventually resorting to

"there are * heroin" Dublin

So, thumbs up for BrainBoost for question answering.

Still, it's not the kind of thing you'll want every day. For day-to-day search, Google is the tool, but BB is worth a look.

The other day I needed to know, for obscure reasons, the number of heroin addicts in Dublin. This is the kind of info that you know is probably on the web, but is going to be hard to find with Google.

I used BrainBoost - "How many heroin addicts are there in Dublin?", and, bam, first line of the result - "There are 13,000 heroin addicts in Dublin."

That's damn impressive. Out of curiosity I tried to see if I could find the same info with Google - it was fairly tough. Took three or four searches, eventually resorting to

"there are * heroin" Dublin

So, thumbs up for BrainBoost for question answering.

Still, it's not the kind of thing you'll want every day. For day-to-day search, Google is the tool, but BB is worth a look.

I haven't used it that much, but Brainboost.com seems to be better for natural-language queries. It's being used in a NASA-sponsored project, so it's gotta be pretty good.

Some of these smaller natural language engines are beginning to look very promising, see: answerbus,brainboost,webqa

Interesting as to why the big boys are largely ignoring this domain. I suspect old man jeeves has turned people off to the possiblity of reliable QA.