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IBM Targets UFOs, Ghosts, and Goblins With Search Tool

Posted by samzenpus on from the isn't-halloween-over dept.

coondoggie writes "IBM wants to help you find out if UFOs are real. Well, sort of. With UFO sightings seemingly on the rise, Big Blue is teaming with The Anomalies Network to offer UFO Crawler, a new search engine specifically tuned to search for information about the paranormal, unexplained or just plain bizarre. The search tool employs IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition enterprise search software and the UFO Crawler should help users precisely target and gather information from relevant sources, including thousands of documents and files collected in the vast Anomalies Network archive, as well as multiple global resources across the Web on topics such as such as ghosts, conspiracy theories and extraterrestrials."

4 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is this really a good use of resources? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It is called capitalism. IBM has a service for "tuned" search engines. Some organization was willing to pay IBM to tune it for paranormal searches. IBM took their cash.

    I;'d argue it is a wonderful allocation of resources. Idiots gave their money away. Intelligent people will then get to use it for something more purposeful. What is wrong with that?

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. Correction by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Insightful

    UFOs exist, that is a fact. A UFO is by definition an unidentified flying object. Hundreds of cases of aerial objects that can't be immediately identified have been reliably documented (and by qualified observers).

    What you choose to "believe" or not believe is what UFOs represent. If your position is that it would be irrational to assume these represent alien spacecraft, then the correct statement would be "you always had to be a real "YAHOO!" to believe UFOs were alien spacecraft."

  3. Re:Military projects by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Conspiracy theories don't work like that. Conspiracy theories employ a sort of reverse Occam's Razor: do not accept the simplest logical explanation if a needlessly complicated conspiracy can be made to fit the same facts.

  4. Re:Nothing New - A Real Yahoo! by Mr2cents · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Want a a business plan?

    1. Attract gullible people around paranormal search engine.
    2. Use advertisement space to sell magnetic healing jewlery, talismans, tin-foil hats and other crap.
    3. Profit!

    --
    "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey