Official Google Blog: Introduction to Google Ranking

Today, I would like to briefly share the philosophies behind Google ranking:

1) Best locally relevant results served globally.
2) Keep it simple.
3) No manual intervention.

And they really mean #3!

No discussion of Google’s ranking would be complete without asking the common - but misguided! - question: “Does Google manually edit its results?” Let me just answer that with our third philosophy: no manual intervention. In our view, the web is built by people. You are the ones creating pages and linking to pages. We are using all this human contribution through our algorithms. The final ordering of the results is decided by our algorithms using the contributions of the greater Internet community, not manually by us. We believe that the subjective judgment of any individual is, well … subjective, and information distilled by our algorithms from the vast amount of human knowledge encoded in the web pages and their links is better than individual subjectivity.

It would be nice if a breath of candor were introduced here.

• Humans aren’t scalable.
• Humans aren’t subject to Moore’s law.
• Humans aren’t deniable.
• Humans Not Allowed is as much about $ as about search quality.
  

As Amit Singhal undoubtedly knows, many IR studies have found that a combination of humans with algorithms works better than either alone. Not that that’s a universal truth, but it has been a common pattern.

The good news is that as long as humans are out of the loop in Google, there will be an opportunity for human experts to add value using such old-fashioned technologies as the book.

District of Columbia et al. v. Heller: Supreme Court Establishes an Individual Right to Bear Arms

The full text is available now in paperback at the link above.

Dear readers,

This book

  Basic Documents About the Treatment of Detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib


has a special place in my heart because it was the first one I published. It's held up pretty well over time. 

 The cover, of course, is awfully clunky, and I've learned that white is not usually a good color for the cover background.  If I were doing it today, I'd probably find a U.S. government public domain image of Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib to serve as the dominant image and put it over a dark grey background.  I would probably choose a different font than the Copperplate Gothic I used here, too--but I have to say that the Copperplate Gothic does have a certain appeal!

The content is still solid.  The Taguba report is essential reading for an understanding of Abu Ghraib, and the Supreme Court cases are still controlling law.   I would probably add more about the Guantanamo interrogation protocols and include some of the more egregrious Justice Department memoranda.

The interior design is fine. I have no heartburn with anything I did.  About two-thirds of the book simply incorporates Supreme Court PDFs of their case reports, which look a bit old-fashioned but are the real deal. That fits with my idea for the book, which is to encourage (force?) people to look at the raw documents whenever possible.

The message of the book is still right on target and I am still proud I published it. The rule of law is the winning strategy in the Global War on Terror, and it was, and is, both foolish and wrong for the Bush administration to pursue a strategy of "taking the gloves off" in the treatment of  prisoners.

Financially speaking, the book has been profitable, and sales have been pretty steady.  There are more copies of this book in the WorldCat library catalog than any other book I've published.  Net lifetime revenue ranks 7th out of all my titles.  I expect the book will continue to sell well for many more years.

I hope you will add my book to your collection, and even better, buy a copy for your local library.  I would hazard that for at least the next hundred years, it will be important that every generation to relearn the lessons of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.  There's no better way to do that than to look directly at the original primary documents.

Cordially,

Fred Zimmerman
Publisher, Nimble Books LLC

P.S. I strongly recommend that people interested in this topic also buy Darius Rejali's authoritative history of torture. Darius was a classmate of mine at Swarthmore and I learned more from him there than from any other single person, professors included.

  Torture and Democracy






The bottom line is that regardless of whether torture is wrong (of course it is), it does not work.

Review of: Tanner on ice by Block, Lawrence

Brilliant premise, but title character & I failed to click. Wound up skimming last 2/3 of book and tossing aside.

wfzimmerman's review: "An update on [[THE BRETHREN]]. Discouraging view of politicized, result-driven law."
Doubleday (2007), Hardcover, 384 pages

wfzimmerman's review: "I wish I had the time to watch every Bogart movie referenced in this book. This cries out for a "new media" treatment! Good stuff, but not the best "Burglar" or Block."
HarperTorch (2006), Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
tags: mystery, Block

wfzimmerman's review: "I helped build the Environmental Resources and Treaty Indicators Database (ENTRI), one of the first web-based resources to make international treaties available. I even gave a presentation at the American Society for International Law annual meeting in 1994! However, probably the most unusual experience in *this* book's lifetime was the five years it just spent holding up the center of our queen-sized bedframe ..."
West Publishing Company (1993), Paperback, 869 pages
tags: international law

Key

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Forty-eight hours before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Madam Trelawney sat down with me for a Divination session based on the leaked chapter titles.

The Dark Lord Ascending

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Clearly Voldemort, climbing a flight of stairs, perhaps.

Unfortunately, I know better, thanks to my big-mouthed daughter Kelsey, who shared with me a spoiler publicized by The Guardian. Apparently (or apparatently?) the book begins with two wizards Apparting in a moonlit lane and one asking, “Any news?” The other replies, “The best.” Clearly, they are referring to The Guardian.

In Memoriam

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: This chapter must refer to Dumbledore. But wait a minute: didn’t they already have the funeral at The White Tomb?

The Dursleys Departing

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: And not a moment too soon, if you are as sick of the Dursleys as I am. Unfortunately (sound familiar?) Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times spoiled this chapter for me, too, with an aside that even Dudley Dursley has hidden depths. Very hidden.

The Seven Potters

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: What, one’s not enough? We only know about four, as far as I can tell: James, Lily, Petunia, and Harry. It is odd, isn’t it, that we’ve never met Harry’s paternal grandparents (that would be two more Potters) or any of his other relatives.

The book seems to be taking a sudden swerve into movie territory with The Seven Potters being a logical follow-up to The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.

Fallen Warrior

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: We haven’t really met any warriors in this series, have we? Many authors would have been inspired by the “war against the Dark Lord” storyline to create vast paramilitary edifices of officers, sergeants, and regiments, but J. K. Rowling’s mind doesn’t seem to work that way. She created schools (Hogwarts, Durmstrang …), bureaucracies (the Ministry of Magic), and vast efflorescences of individual creativity, but no armies. Even the Aurors and the Death Eaters are really just groups of individual wizards, not armies. So a true warrior in the archetypal sense will come as something new in the series.

The Ghoul in Pajamas

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ghoul school! Pajama party! This sounds pretty silly.

The Will of Albus Dumbledore

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ok, I definitely want the phoenix, the corner office, and all the super-cool magical objects that Dumbledore has acquired in the course of a full lifetime as the greatest Good magician in the world, or at least in the UK.

Seriously, though, exactly what is it in Dumbledore’s power to bestow? Presumably his will only extends to his own personal possessions, not Hogwarts, which has a Board of Governors.

The Wedding

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Bill and Fleur, what a lovely couple! They’ll be lucky to get through the wedding without a car bomb going off. Oh, wait, this isn’t Iraq.

A Place to Hide

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Sorry, buddy, there’s no place to hide from THE DARK LORD.

Kreacher’s Tale

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Oh, man, what’s this nasty little critter doing in the book? I thought we had seen the last of him in OOTP. Seriously, though, how does Harry get Kreacher to spill?

The Bribe

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Some moola, baksheesh, grub—and, as we all remember, Harry is loaded. Why not use some of his money to get the crucial 411?

Magic Is Might

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Sounds like Voldemort’s campaign slogan.

The Muggle-born Registration Commission

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Another faux bureaucracy from the fertile mind of J.K. Rowling. Scotland must be full of these absurdist leftist vestiges which the United States thankfully extirpated in the 1990s, when my home state of Michigan replaced “Social Services” with the aptly named “Family Independence Agency.” That’s as in “independence from government assistance…”

This doesn’t sound good for Hermione.

The Thief

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ok, now it’s time for {Argus whatsisname} to justify all the investment Rowling has made in his character.

Although the term “thief” could just as easily be applied to Harry, who, after all these years at Hogwarts, is quite the practiced second-story man.

The Goblin’s Revenge

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: We haven’t met many goblins in the series, but what we have seen, makes it seem quite plausible that a Goblin’s revenge will be not just nasty but quite effectively vindictive. If it is Harry who was the thief, the revenge will be a great loss to him. Hermione or Ron, perhaps?

Godric’s Hollow

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: The home base of Pottermania. The place where it all began. Named after Godric Gryffindor, the founder of a House devoted to courage. Does the Hollow itself have any special powers or properties related to courage? It would be a heck of a place to make a last stand. Did the Potters know that?

Bathilda’s Secret

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ok, who’s Bathilda? Giantess? House-elf?

The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: What? Lies? Nooooo!!!! Actually, it has been quite obvious throughout the series that J. K. Rowling’s preoccupation is with growing up, maturing, and seeing the world through a more complex (more clouded?) vision. That being the case, it seems inevitable that we will have to adjust our rosy-coloured view of Albus Dumbledore to allow for the possibility that he made mistakes, even selfish ones, and told untruths, not just white lies, but the occasional great big black ugly self-interested stinker.

What could Dumbledore have lied about? Well, the thing that jumps to my mind is that his story about why he accepted Snape simply has never made sense. Maybe Dumbledore had a very good reason to take Snape’s word about his reform because Snape had something on him.

The Silver Doe

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Mom!

We learned in Prisoner of Azkaban that James Potter and Sirius Black taught themselves to become Animaguses. Surely James Potter chose the stag knowing that Lily’s Patronus was a silver doe. Good one! That’s a smooth courtship maneuver, bound to impress even the most hardened young witch.

Xenophilius Lovegood

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: This may sound bizarre to some readers but to science fiction fans the word “xenophile” is familiar territory: someone who loves that which is alien or strange. Let’s hope this is actually a good character and not a perv.

The Tale of the Three Brothers

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: James, Jacob, and Jeremiah Potter?

The Deathly Hallows

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Arrrgh! Thanks to big-mouthed book reviewer Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times, I unfortunately know that the Deathly Hallows are not a place, as many of us thought, but rather are three precious relics that give the power possessor over death. I even know that a crucial plot twist involves Harry’s decision whether to follow Dumbledore’s original instructions (go after the Horcruxes) or take off on a frolic and detour (as lawyers in the first week of {Contracts} learn to call unauthorized expeditions) in search of the Deathly Hallows.

Thanks a lot, New York Times! The only thing that prevents me from excoriating Kakutani is that I’m not sure whether she realized what a big spoiler this was.

Anyway, now that the Fates have revealed to me that there are three deathly hallows, what are they?

Malfoy Manor

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Place I never want to be (n.) I’m guessing that this will be the site of some pretty intense and, alas, ill-fated adolescent rebellion as Draco questions his father’s orders and gets the Cruciatus curse for his pains.

I hope Harry’s not going to try to break into this joint … but if he does, at least he knows from a conversation overheard in Prisoner of Azkaban that the Dark Objects are hidden under the drawing room floor.

The Wandmaker

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Creepy old Ollivander explains how it is possible that Harry and Voldemort have the same wand.

Shell Cottage

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Do I remember this joint from anywhere else in the series? I don’t think so … which leaves it pretty much wide open. It does sound as if it’s by the seashore.

Gringotts

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: What, again? I thought we were at Gringott’s in “The Thief” and “Goblin’s Revenge.”

The Final Hiding Place

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: For Harry, or for the deathly hallows?.

The Missing Mirror

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ok, if the previous chapter was “The Final Hiding Place”, how is it that there’s a missing mirror? Shouldn’t the previous chapter have been called “Almost The Final Hiding Place”?

The Lost Diadem

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Darn it, I’m always losing my diadems. (Diadems, for those who are rusty on their magical objects, are jewels set in a crown.)

The Sacking of Severus Snape

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Yay! But the brilliance of J. K. Rowling is that Snape might just as easily be fired because he is a secretly Good wizard under a Dark administration at Hogwarts as because he is a slimy, oily, greasy murderer.

The Battle of Hogwarts

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Boom! Now we’re talking. Let’s see some rubble flying. Start by giving me a window view.

The Elder Wand

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Is it possible that Harry’s wand is somehow elder than Tom Riddle’s (even though Riddle’s was made almost fifty years previously?)

The Prince’s Tale

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: I hope this isn’t a whole chapter with that horrible man Snape explaining how he was actually a good guy all along.

The Forest Again

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Again thanks to big-mouthed book reviewer Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times, I unfortunately know that Harry spends quite a bit of time in the dark Forest near Hogwarts. Oddly, the Forest always seemed rather pint-sized to me.

King’s Cross

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: The train station? Another round of first-years entering Hogwarts? Can it be?

The Flaw in the Plan

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Ain’t there always.

Epilogue

My Trelawney-Inspired Predictions: Let’s have a pool on how many years later … if J. K. Rowling wants to forestall any immediate sequels, she’ll give herself a nice long gap of ten or twenty years so that everyone’s unrecognizably grown up.

Some excitement in our neighborhood yesterday — it’s been so dry that our neighbor’s lawn caught on fire. We suspect a sparkler dropped by neighborhood kids.

Kelsey saw the fire and told Cheryl and me. We came running across the street — our neighbor is 89 years old and frail. I pounded on the door, and Kelsey alertly found Esther in her back yard. I put out the fire with a hose.

Wow — like living out west with wildfires!

The Speaker Law Firm | Atlanta Car, Motorcycle and Trucking Accident Attorney

t is true that at times the government must act to protect the public’s welfare and balance personal liberties with public safety. Two popular quotes are that, “With great power comes great responsibility” and Edmund Burke, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” The ability to put a leash on someone’s personal liberty, when granted, must be used with great discretion.

Well said, Mr. Speaker. Now feast your eyes on these words:

Georgia State Bar Rule 4-108, Conduct Constituting Threat of Harm to Clients or Public; Emergency Suspension.

(a) Upon receipt of sufficient evidence demonstrating that an attorney’s conduct poses a substantial threat of harm to his clients or the public and with the approval of the Immediate Past President of the State Bar of Georgia and the Chairperson of the Review Panel, or at the direction of the Chairperson of the Investigative Panel, the Office of General Counsel shall petition the Georgia Supreme Court for the suspension of the attorney pending disciplinary proceedings predicated upon the conduct causing such petition.

Surely flying on a crowded aircraft with drug-resistant tuberculosis meets the standard of substantial threat of harm to the public.

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