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The Computer Plays Cupid
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
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Nowadays, millions of people all over the world use online
matchmaking service in search of a partner and romance. They typically answer a
questionnaire and spend a little cash. If all goes right, the computer will be
your Cupid and find your soul mate.
Computer dating began back in 1965 when two Harvard
undergraduates were talking on a dateless Saturday night. Jeff Tarr and Vaughan
Morrill came up with the original idea of using the computer to arrange dates
for compatible couples. And so Operation Match was born. Tarr recalls, “The
goal was not to make money, but to have some fun and to meet some interesting
ladies.”
The two friends created a questionnaire that asked about
one’s ideal partner. The questions asked about
typical things like height and
weight but also probed how a person would react in a hypothetical situation.
The questionnaire they wrote was both “scientific” and fun to fill out. People
who replied paid $3 to participate.
Tarr and Morrill knew nothing about computers. So Tarr paid
$100 to a computer science student to write a program code designed to match up
questionnaires. All the data from the questionnaires had to be transferred to
punch cards. The team rented a room-sized computer and took six weeks to
produce a match list. Questionnaire participants then received a letter saying
who they were matched to, along with phone numbers. Most were very pleased. One
student got 100 possible matches. One of then was her boyfriend!
The concept of using a computer for romance was viewed both
negatively and positively in the mid-60s. There was a belief that using
computers would take all of the romance out of dating. But the idea of seding
computers at that time seemed very modern. Thanks to publicity in Look magazine
and appearances on a few television shows, Operation Match continued to grow.
In its first year, the service ended up with 7,800 respondents. By 1968,
Operation Match had more than a million respondents, and the mail was coming
from colleges nationwide. Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill sold the company to
investors, who used the technology to match college roommates.
Tarr and Marrill’s computer dating was an idea before its
time. When the personal computer became popular, electronic matchmaking became
more common. Then the introduction of the Internet also increased the creation
of many new dating services with customers numbering in the tens of millions.
They all run on essentially the same principles as Operation Match, but the
technology is much more sophisticated-and certainly doesn’t rely on punch
cards!
Is Right, Right
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
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Why must you drive on the right
side of the road in some countries and on the left side of the road in other
countries? Investigate the question, and you find a lot of confusion on right
versus left. About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and most of those
countries used to be British colonies. In England people drive on the left, but
on escalators they stand on the right, so that people who are in a hurry can go
up on the left. In Japan, they drive on the left on escalators.
There are different explanations for the use of right versus left.
Some people believe that it is a natural tendency to walk or drive on the
right. This is because most people are right. This is because most people are
right-handed.
We can look back in history for
reasons people move on the right or left of the road. Some people say that in
Europe hundreds of years ago, people rode their horses on the left. This way,
their sword was between them and anyone who was coming toward ready to pull out
their sword and fight to defend themselves with their right arm. But there is
evidence that people used the right side, too. In 1300, some say that Pope
Boniface ordered pilgrims on the way to St. Peter’s Basilica to stay to the
right when they crossed a nearby bridge.
Another idea is that in the
1700s, people in France and in the United States started to use wagons with
several pairs of horses and to drive on the right side of the road. It was
easier for the drivers to sit on the left and control the horse with a whip in
the right hand, and it was safer if other vehicles passed on the left so the drivers
could see the distance between vehicles. Some people say that in England,
people always drove on the right.
In any case, Napoleon, a ruler of France, ordered people to drive
on the right side in the early 1800s. France conquered many countries at that
time, and so these countries drove on the right. But France didn’t conquer
England, so England kept its custom of driving on the left.
In the twentieth century, there was a trend to the right. Many cars
were made for driving on the right side of the road. As recently as 1967,
Sweden changed its laws. Now people in Sweden must drive on the right.
So right or left? Just follow the customs of the country where
you are-and be sure to drive carefully on that side!
Simple Ideas
Monday, May 25, 2015
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Muhammed Yunus,
Nobel Peace prize Winner
Muhammed Yunus, often called
“the world’s banker to the poor,” received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work
against poverty. Yunus said he would use the $ 1.35 million prize money to
“find more innovative ways” to help the poor. Yunus
founded the Grameen Bank in 1976 with just $27 from this own pucket. the idea came to him while he was teaching
economics at Chittagong University in
southern
Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest nations in the world. He and his students started an experimental project: They
lent poor women small amounts of money. The women used the money to their own
small businesses, for example, to
buy straw to
make stools. Until then, the local women relied on local money lenders who charged them
high interest rates.
Since then, the Grameen Bank model has been duplicated in more than 100
countries. Today, the bank has
6.61 million borrowers and over 2,400 branches in over 80,000 villages
in Bangladesh. Recently the bank started a program to give beggars lives of
credit of about $9 to purchase small times such as bread, candy, pickles, and
toys. Receivers of the loans then resell the goods to supplement their begging.
The bank reports that it has lent $6.55 billion over the past 30 years and
claims a high repayment rate-98 percent. Nowadays Grameen Banks are also in
developed counties. One hundred women in Queen, New York, were among the first
borrowers of Grameen America. The total number of borrowers worldwide is 7.84
million 97 percent of whom are women.
Sabine Werth, Social
Worker
Hunger is
usually associated with developing countries, and not with places like Germany.
However, even in a wealthy country like Germany, there are many who live in
desperation. At the same time, the country wastes approximately 20 percent of
all its foodstuffs. Bread that was baked the previous day, dairy products that
are about to expire, and fruit and vegetables with small blemishes are normally
taken off supermarket shelves and thrown away. This happens even though the
food is in perfectly good condition for consumption.
Social worker
Sabine Werth saw this waste and started the Berliner Tate (Table) organization
in 1993, in order to give the food to those who needed it. The problem was
collecting all the food, which also included “remains” from parties and
buffets, and distributing it to needy men, women, and children. Sabine
organized groups of voluteers with ars and vans to do this work. At first, the
Berliner Tafel provided food only for homeless people, but mowadays anybody in
need can pick up a bag of groceries for a low price-the symbolic price of one
euro. Today, Berliner Tafel feeds up to 15,000 needy people a day, and there
are approximately 800 food banks all over Germany.
Why should Cambodian youth protect their traditional and cultural heritages?
Monday, May 18, 2015
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Cambodian youth should
help to protect their tradition and culture heritages, because of traditional
is an identity of Cambodia and cultural heritages can help to develop county
but they are almost eliminated by foreign culture.
The world knew
Cambodia by its identity that showed by traditional and cultural. Cambodia has
had this since a long time and until now those tradition and culture are
becoming more and more deteriorate. Moreover many of people didn’t care about
them. They even get interesting with foreign culture that is a chance leading
foreign culture flow into a county and even some of TV’s program announces only
other foreign culture into Cambodia. These tradition and culture will lose if
no one helps to protect them and when they are disappeared Cambodia will lose
also. Therefore Cambodian youth should be a strong power to protect and
conserve them. Other hand if our culture has more development our country will
also. If youth can do this Cambodia will be stronger and have more interesting
in the world. So these are the reason youth
should help to protect their tradition and cultural heritages.
The Graceful One
Thursday, January 15, 2015
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Her name means “Woman full of grace”
in Arabic, and, gracefully, she has danced and sung all the way to
the Grammy
and MTV Awards. In 2008, her creative talents earned her a nomination for a
Golden Glob award for writing the best original song for a film. In short, she
has become one of the most popular Latin pop stars-and an international
sensation.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born
in Barranquilla, Colombia, on February 2, 1977. She is the daughter of a
Colombia mother and a Lebanese father. Shakira’s love for music was evident
early on, and she wrote her first song at the age of 8. She learned
belly-dancing from her Lebanese grandmother, and she used to love to
perform-dancing and singing. According to one story, Shakira was kiched out of
a choir because her strong voice drowned out the other singers.
When Shakira was 10, she won he first
national talent contest, and she went on winning other talent shows singing and
playing the guitar. In 1990, she signed a deal with Sony Music in Colombia and
recorded her first album Magia (magic) with songs she wrote between the ages of
8 and 13. As a result, she was chosen to represent her country at the
International OTI Song Festival in Spain, allowed to participate. So instead,
Shakira recorded a second album of original material, Peligro (Dange) back in
Colombia. Then she took a break from music and went back to school.
Two years later, in 1995, Shakira
recorded Pies Descalzo (Barefeet), a smash hit, which sold four million copies
worldwide. She went on a world tour and performed to sold-out audiences. In
1998, she abandoned the light-pop and rock. The result was another hit: D’onde
Est’an Los Ladrone? ( Where Are the Thieves?). The idea to do songs in English
first came up during Shakira’s partnership with producer Emilio Estefan and his
wife, singer Gloria Estefan. Together they produced Laundry Service. The most
extraordinary thing about the album is the way Shakira was able to translate
her Latin American sensibility into a new language.
Shakira is the most exciting
singer/songwriter to come out of Latin America in years. For the millions that
buy her albums, she is already the voice of a new generation. In 2003, she
became the youngest ever UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund) Goodwill Ambassador. Shakira also runs a foundation to help
poor children in Colombia called Pies Descalzos (Barefeet).
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