Le pagine dell'edizione inglese di Wikipedia mostrano in fondo alle definizioni un box per valutare la qualità dei contenuti (un esempio: water). Chiedono ai lettori di valutare quattro aspetti: affidabilità, oggettività, completezza e “buona scrittura” (well writter, ndr). Inoltre chi partecipa al sondaggio può segnalare se è un esperto dell'argomento. Si tratta di un ulteriore passo dell'enciclopedia per incentivare un miglioramento dei suoi standard attraverso la collaborazione con il pubblico online che può esprimere la sua opinione. Negli Stati Uniti da tempo gli studenti di alcuni atenei partecipano a progetti per migliorare le definizioni nelle aree di loro competenza. In Gran Bretagna un gruppo di storici professionisti ha aggiunto documentazioni alle pagine dell'enciclopedia: in cambio ha ottenuto un aumento delle visite al proprio sito web dove i testi sono archiviati, racconta una lettera inviata al Guardian. Ma è un'iniziativa valida soltanto per l'edizione inglese. È celebre lo studio di Nature che ha confrontato con la valutazione di un panel accademico la qualità delle voci di Wikipedia con l'enciclopedia Britannica. È seguito un lungo dibattito su internet sulle metodologie della ricerca: i documenti sono scaricabili qui.
(image credits: wikipedia)
Mi chiamo Rosa. Per me crisi è essere circondata da un mare di indifferenza. Il silenzio è qualcosa che avvilisce ed io sono una che è vissuta dopo l’inferno del cancro. Ho affrontato la chemioterapia sperimentale e le 40 sedute di radioterapia per un cancro al seno, molto aggressivo e metastizzante. La crisi economica è nulla di fronte al mio senso precario e inesorabile di desiderio di vivere…
Sono trascorsi 4 anni e secondo i medici non devo abbassare la guardia: il signor cancro può assalirmi quando desidera!!! Io insegno lingua italiana agli stranieri e sono anche fatta oggetto ...
Remarks by Aaron Sorkin '83 at Syracuse University's 158th Commencement and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry's 115th CommencementMay 13, 2012
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Watch the Commencement address by Aaron Sorkin
May 13, 2012
Thank you very much. Madam Chancellor, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty and administration, parents and friends, honored guests and graduates, thank you for inviting me to speak today at this magnificent Commencement ceremony.
There's a story about a man and a woman who have been married for 40 years. One evening at dinner the ...
WILL fatherhood make me happy? That is a question many men have found themselves asking, and the scientific evidence is equivocal. A lot of studies have linked parenthood—particularly fatherhood—with lower levels of marital satisfaction and higher rates of depression than are found among non-parents.
Biologically speaking, that looks odd. Natural selection might be expected to favour the progeny of men who enjoy bringing them up. On the other hand, the countervailing pressure to have other children, by other women, may leave the man who is already encumbered by a set of offspring dissatisfied.
To investigate the matter further ...
May 19th 2012 | CAIRO | from the print edition
AS TELEVISED debates go the performance was lame. Two elderly men in dark suits and ties scrapped like shopkeepers, seeming keener to discredit each others’ goods than to plug their own. Yet the sheer ordinariness of the five-hour marathon was historic. For the first time an Arab audience revelled in the spectacle of a live contest for the highest office in the land.
Just as significantly, the sparring candidates in Egypt’s presidential race represented not simply opposing views, but broadly reflected perhaps the most crucial fault line in regional politics. The ...
Last night was a typical, boring Tuesday, with little earth-shattering news to drive TV viewers to cable news. It was also May sweeps, with the season finale of “NCIS: LA,” “America’s Got Talent” on NBC and “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC drawing an astonishing 39 million viewers between them at 9 PM.
Unfortunately for CNN, “Piers Morgan Tonight” was the apparent victim of the busy night, drawing only 39,000 viewers 25-54 at 9 PM. To say those ratings are anomalous would be something of an understatement. That is the lowest 9 PM weekday demo rating for CNN ...
NOT long ago, the BRICs were lionised as fast-growing superpowers-in-waiting. These days Russia is portrayed as a corrupt petrostate. India is ensnared in red tape, unable to muster the political will to break free. The mighty Chinese economy has slowed in recent weeks (see article). Even South Africa, which considers itself to be the “S” in BRICs, seems sluggish and hidebound next to the gazelles to its north.
Now it is Brazil’s turn. Much is being made of Brazilian threats of huge fines and prison sentences against executives of Chevron, an American oil company, after a small leak of ...
WHEN it comes to repelling gunk, Teflon and car wax are among the best materials available. They could, however, be better. A good measure of their lack of stickiness is the angle of contact between them and a drop of water. For car wax this is 90º and for Teflon, 95°. If those angles were higher, the result would be cleaner surfaces. On top of that Teflon, car wax and other materials like them are built up from multiple microscopic layers. These tend to get disconnected over the course of time and the protection they grant thus fails. If a ...
May 17, 2012 |
Since Mexico's President Felipe Calderón began an all-out assault on drug cartels in 2006, more than 50,000 people have lost their lives across the country in a nearly-continuous string of shootouts, bombings, and ever-bloodier murders. Just last weekend, 49 decapitated bodies were reportedly discovered on a highway in northern Mexico. The New York Times reports on an increasing numbness and apathy among Mexicans after years of worsening carnage, about which they've been able to do virtually nothing. Gathered here is a collection of recent photographs from Mexico's drug war and the people so ...