This is an interesting one to watch for the all the apocalyptic doomsday fans out there, Yellowstone has been rumbling quite a bit lately, you can track it here, but it seems a bunch of rumbling earthquakes have been keeping a few people on edge.
From AP: December 30
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hklq5saMBlMynv31EbfNSka-SpOwD95COBD00
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come. Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.
"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."
Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.
"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.
"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."
The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.
A park ranger based at the north end of the lake reported feeling nine quakes over a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to park spokeswoman Stacy Vallie. No damage was reported.
"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," Vallie said.
Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.
He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active — and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.
"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.
Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west o
December 30 as reported on Mahalo, I shaving this one in close to midnight. Tomorrows will be up much earlier as I am planning to get shit faced.
Here is the AP Today in History Video
Here is the TPM Day in 100 Seconds
Here are the top Social Stories
- Mahalo Answers: Anyone know how the car in this video flies? (125 Views)
- Reddit: Israel takes down an entire apt building of civilians... we call that terrorism (1747 Score)
- Digg: Digg this if your sick of power users stealing stories (17942 Diggs)
- Fark: Israeli navy rams Cynthia McKinney's boat (338 Comments)
- VideoSift: Most Innovative Videogame of 2008 (43 Sifts)
- YouTube Video: Republican Leader - "Barack The Magic Negro" (23,616 Views)
The one video I found related to a historical event was from last years Election in Kenya. Which were held on this day, it was the rioting that ensued that made for good video...oh rioting.. how you always provide good video.
2008 was my first full year working online with nothing related to TayTV. In the beginning of '08 I found myself working on three different paid projects simultaneously Propeller, AOL News and Mahalo. I was afraid to admit that I was a little overwhelmed with work.
I made a decision to leave AOL News, first of all the project wasn't going as well as I had hoped and Mahalo gave me a golden opportunity to work within the archiving industry. The original TayTV was about archiving quality, here is a screengrab courtesy of WayBackMachine of TayTV back in 2005.
Working at Mahalo has allowed me to get my hands deep into archiving again, the infrastructure there is perfect for building entertaining and educational archives for users, and going in there I know it's a long term project, the boss has said many times that it's a 5 year plan he's working on, so when I see an imperfect archive, I realize we have time to perfect this stuff, and that's what I'm there for, to improve our pages.
My greatest asset so far (other than working more hours then they'll pay me for) is adding videos to archives, each time I touch a Mahalo page that has either no video embed, or a dead one, I venture out and look for the most responsible replacement, after years of video research (over 1000 clipped uploades, and 3000+ research video posts), I am certainly making sure pages get the best video options for users. I look at this way, if a user finds a video they are interested in on a Mahalo page, then they will sit there and watch it... on Mahalo...where it is surrounded with useful information and links about that topic. It's a thing of beauty, and being able to help build Mahalo has been a pleasure in 2008. 
At the time that I was hired at Mahalo I already held two jobs with AOL, one with Propeller and one with News, I attempted to juggle all three along with my other online communities, but it turned into a big bucket of fail. Blogging on AOL News brought a lot of stress, probably most of it from me putting it on myself but it almost seemed like I was looking for an exit. I loved the idea of blogging about politics and sharing mind blowing stories in the same space as guys like the Young Turks and Daily Show Alumni Mo Rocca, but blogging was a sideshow to my research for video. I would love to pro-blog again in the future, but only if I'm approached by the right person at the right time, and I can continue Archiving.
When I started at Mahalo, my main duty at the beginning was checking the incoming links, deleting the spam, and archiving the quality gems, which was no problem, I could do this all day, however so many new Pages were being started through the Link Submission engine, we couldn't keep up with building them. Some organization was needed for the relatively young archive. Our Department created a "To-Do" section. The terms that we thought could potentially be built out into full blown pages were categorized and saved. There are thousands. That list honestly makes my mouth salivate because it just shows how many archives will be built someday. If Mahalo is developed properly there will be chance to build, maintain and curate all these interesting and potential information hubs, it sounds very fun.
Things were going smooth for the most part, we had a production line operating where some of us would check the links, others would build out the pages and others would complete the Guide notes for the pages....Unfortunately Mahalo ended up cutting a large chunk of their staff due to the whole "economic crisis" and the whole "To-Do" production line was put on hold as I moved to another project on the site. The last part of 2008 was tense, we felt as if we were fighting to keep Mahalo alive, watching co-workers leave left-right and center wasn't much fun to watch.
Mahalo made a brisk move and introduced Answers, which is where I've been stationed as a moderator and researcher, it's put a lot the curating and archiving on hold except for my continued progress on the Today in History archives which I've been working on since August and are looking to make it full circle in '09 and really get down to business by adding extra padding to each page, everyday.
Beyond Mahalo, I started a couple blogs, after leaving Newsbloggers there was a blogging void I needed to fill, first I started Twitter account (which is a "microblog") it has been interesting to watch Twitter really take off, I also false-started the InternetResearchLeague.com blog right after I got hired at Mahalo, thinking I could figure out a way to encourage people to submit links to Mahalo by creating such a "league" - it never really worked out, it just added to my early year chaos, and of course I settled on this blog jhoard.com, simple, easy, not having to care about traffic, just really murmuring to myself is pleasure enough. Blogging was a lot easier when I was a angry muckracker working at a call center living with my parents trying pay off debts. But now that I'm a full time online worker, with my own house...It's hard to venture out and find reasons to get angry? Perhaps that's why my blogging has declined, anyway, we'll have to see what 2009 brings.
The absolute highlight to my online experience 2008 was receiving and email from James Burke where he complimented my work on my DUC (The Day the Universe Changed) Documentary guide that I built on Mahalo. I am slowly making progress on Connections.
Anyway, that is Hoard's year in review
Today in History for December 29, as seen on Mahalo
I've always used the AP video above, but maybe I should start using these TPM Media ones too.
Here are the Top Social Stories of the day, just as I was contemplating yesterday what do about Answers (archive by views or by answers) this guy's question must have got hit somewhere on the web because a vary rare 7332 hits, for the question below.
- Mahalo Answers: ...company is responsible for the death of a pet what...? (7332 Views)
- Reddit: Text Messages Cost Carriers Nothing (2125)
- Digg: Man Runs For Life As Polar Bear Chases Him Round Car (3197 Diggs)
- Fark: Atheist soldier sues US military over Christian bias (513 Comments)
- YouTube: The More you know Caroline Kennedy (64,623 Views)
- VideoSift: The greatest movie cell phone PSA ever (60 Sifts)
Some of the videos I've archived related to today include this firebombing of London footage from WWII
And I found this documentary snippet about the Wounded Knee Massacre..
So Check out Today in History for Today and if there are any events missing submit a link to the page and I'll see it.
BBC in Gaza
There is lots to be said about the ongoing/latest conflict between these two civilized *ahem* nations, honestly there is nothing the rest of the world enjoys covering then your classic religious war, it's very easy to pick sides no matter who the aggressor is, just look to the sky and listen to your god.
Anyway, in this case a 6 months cease recently ended and Hamas started attacking Israeli neighborhoods, so Israel retaliated by carpet bombing the Gaza strip.
Anyhooo... It all sounds like it's going to be a long conflict, Peace talks between Syria and Israel crumbled today and now the Iranian Ayatollah calling for Muslims to defend against Israel. These conflicts always make me a little nervous because you never know when the powder keg will explode.
Enough about the current, Archived today was this Channel 4 Documentary about the Hamas, which I added to the Archive today.
And here is another from Journeyman Pictures.
Today in History for December 28.
The Top Social Stories and the Mahalo Answers question that got the most views... I noticed the most popular isn't necessarily the one that has the most responses, I am starting to wonder if I should archive the other way around, but there are no filtering options for most responses, so for now I'll stick with whatever is at the top of the Most Popular tab.
- Mahalo Answers: What's so special about using an onion to clean your grill? (113 Views)
- Reddit: Dan Rather's $70m lawsuit... Bush legacy a new blow (December 28, 2008)
- Digg: Now This Is How You Sell Bambi
- Fark: Knock, knock. Who's there? Owen. Owen who? Owen Sixteen (134 Comments)
- VideoSift: Weatherman w/ green tie in front of green screen (55 Sifts)
- YouTube Video: Israel launches missile attacks on Gaza (Time: 3:23)
The Archived video that I found for today was an interesting one, in 1895 on this day, was when the first commercial movie was screened for an audience, in Paris, of course, the movie was nothing special, just Frenchmen, being frenchmen...here it is for your entertain..ment?
Please check it out and submit links at the bottom for anything that i've missed.
This is a great example of why Mahalo Answers is a great place for the budding Internet Researcher to hone their skills.
A fellow asked via the Mahalo Olympics Ceremonies opening page, where they could actually watch the opening.
I was surprised it wasn't already on the page, so I went to my local Video Search engine and cycled through the millions of results until I found the Olympic Opening ceremonies in its entirety. I actually never seen it before... I'm watching it now :)
So there you have it, a pretty interesting tale in the wonderful world of Internet Research and how it can help people get what they are looking for.
/now just countdown for when the video will be pulled from youtube.
Just completed Today in History for December 27. Here are the top Social Stories from various networks...
- Mahalo Answers: What brand makes the best men's jeans for under $100?
- Reddit: Who in their right mind lives here (zoom out) (1581 Score)
- Digg: Please Don't Divorce Us (3762 Diggs)
- Fark: Israel faithfully celebrates one of their lesser-known holidays, "Bomb the crap out of Palestine"... (708 Comments)
- YouTube: Santa Baby Eartha Kitt dies at 81 (6871 Clicks)
- VideoSift: Kid pushes Mascot out of the way, starts breakdancing (45 Sifts)
Some videos that I was able to dig up from Historical events include last years Assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
One great find was the entire Charles Darwin Voyage BBC Series Documentary. Darwin started his voyage on this day in 1831.
I've really been slaggin on the blogging the last couple weeks, things have been pretty busy with the who Mahalo Answers launch, and the holidays. But I have gotten back into the Today in History groove and will be adding the most popular Question to the "Top Social Stories" section on the TiH pages. Here is December 26.
Today's most popular question is a 5$, this fella wants to know how he can get his mitts on some schwag from bankrupt companies, if you can help, by all means answer, you might get 5$ for your trouble.
Here are Todays Top Social Stories...
- Mahalo Answers: I'm want to buy the interior signs of this years bankrupt company's... (164 Views)
- Reddit: Landing in NY from HK is like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones (1936 Score)
- Digg: Boobs on Things That Don't Normally Have Boobs (2087 Diggs)
- Fark: Pakistan moving 20,000 troops to Indian border... (5551 Clicks)
- YouTube: Compare Liberal and Conservative Talk Show Hosts (7,800 Views)
- VideoSift: Bill Maher's final comment from Religulous (Spoiler) (41 Sifts)
The other videos I found for Historical events from this day, were the 2004 Tsunami... Cept for the predictable music, this clip seems to be the best mashup of events from that day that I could find. Sucks because way back in the day there was a full length documentary about it, seems to be done now.
The other video event was Winston Churchill speaking to congress about WWII Unity.
more
more..
Early yesterday morning Mahalo.com expanded their research services by adding "Answers."
The service is quite simple, you log in and ask any question you like and the community will research your answer, much like Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers.
The Main difference with Mahalo is that users have the option of paying researchers for their answers, meaning if you are willing to pay a little extra for quality sources and research the community might put more effort into answering your question.
This also means that you can earn money from Mahalo if you have experience in Internet research. The money is real, users can deposit money into their accounts and users can withdraw money after they earn $40+, Mahalo earns a percentage of each transaction.
The new service has received mountains of press, you have the usual Tech blogs, Techcrunch, Inquisitr, VentureBeat, Ars Technica all giving it pretty good reviews. Not to mention some larger News outlets reviewed the site. Like The New York Times, ABC News and CNET.
I wonder if Mahalo has the wisdom to expand it to being compatible with mobile devices?...meaning... you could SMS Mahalo your Question and get an answer to your ASAP...Imagine being in a bar and arguing over some mundane Football stat and being able to get it resolved after a quick SMS, so many bar fights could be ended before they start, or the guy on a flight who is missing some data or source and has a meeting not time to check the internet before a meeting, it could be a humanitarian service really.
Anyway, I'm biased, because I've been a Full Time Mahalo employee for 10 months now, but this service is something else, its addicting too.
Well TDS is on vacation so I'll go back updating this blog with the top stories on around the social web. These are archived under the Today in History page on Mahalo.
- Reddit: MPAA to Obama: censor the Internet, kick people off the Internet... (1094 Score)
- Digg: Attention: To all the Lunatic Atheists in America (4191 Diggs)
- Fark: Hero dog takes three bullets, one in the head defending family from intruder... (13575 Clicks)
- VideoSift: Watchmen - International Trailer (42 Sifts)
- YouTube: Awesome 1930s (29,507 Views)
The big story today in history is that in 2000 the Supreme Court handed George W. Bush the presidency...how did that work out for America? Here is Al Gore conceding.
Here it is, The Daily Show for December 10
December 10, 2008: (D-IL) Weed
Yup, all you need to know about Rod Blogouhwerujhasjdn, here are the details of the 74 page affidavit. You are more likely to end up in jail if you are Gov. or Illinois than if you are a murderer.
December 10, 2008: A Telling Blagojevich Interview
Jason Jones talks about his interview Blagojevich.
The particular segment that Jones is referring to is when he interviewed Rod for a story that aired on Feb 9, 2006. In this case though, agreed with Rod, because it was about a doctor who chose not to prescribe the morning after pill because it was against his religous beliefs, here it is...
December 10, 2008: RIP - Riggle in Perspective
Rob Riggle left the show, I for one am sad to hear that. lolz I love Riggle!
December 10, 2008: Don Rickles
And finally an interview with Don Rickles.
December 10, 2008: Moment of Zen - Moment of Riggle
December 9, 2008: Rod Blagojevich Is a Jagoff
Yup, Rob Blagojevich was arrested for trying to sell Baracks senate seat.
December 9, 2008: Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Final Edition Edition
People still read newspapers?
December 9, 2008: Mike Huckabee Pt. 1
14 Minutes, over half the show, dedicated to a Mike Huckabee Interview, lets see how this goes...
December 9, 2008: Mike Huckabee Pt. 2
December 9, 2008: Moment of Zen - Corrupt Illinois
The Daily Show for December 8
The show features Canada heavily, unfortunately the clips below are only available in America (and those with sneaky computers) so Canucks, you are forced to watch these on the comedy network, where you will have to sit through ads.
December 8, 2008: Provinces in Peril - Indecision Oh-Eh?
Aye tis true eh, its nice to see Jon Stewart report on our Coalition Government
Stephen Harper dissolved the parliament instead of facing a vote of no-confidence, basically he's a pussy and is clinging to power, what champ...and when I say champ, I mean Douche.
The Dion joke is well placed, I never thought Dion would make a good leader, in fact he resigned Monday (the 8th.)A new leader will be announced within the next 17 days, I hope its Ken Dryden...Only because he's a hall-o-famer with six Stanley Cups.
December 8, 2008: Provinces in Peril
More from fellow Canadian, Samantha Bee tries to explain to Stewart the whole "Queen" business. Aasif Mandvi pushes for us to gain more independence while John Oliver urges us to stick with the empire.
December 8, 2008: Clusterfuck to the Poor House - President Goofus and President Gallant
Stewart is frustrated that the States are stuck with Bush until January 20. As Bush is clearly doing nothing to solve problems.
December 8, 2008: Matthew Alexander
It's an incredible story, whats even more incredible is that his name only shows up in Google News 31 times. To put that into perspective, Britney Spears appears 23,675 times.
December 8, 2008: Daily/Colbert - Late Night Talk Show Bailout
