This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet results and commentary will appear there in the future. Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is:
as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst
(this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google (or Technorati) for all blogs that participate in this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

* (1) I found this experiment at URL:
http://shamrockshire.yi.org/
* (2) I found it via Newsreader Software or Browsing the Web or Searching the Web or An E-Mail Message”: Browsing the Web
* (3) I posted this experiment at URL:
http://www.transblawg.co.uk/uploads/MT_archives/000951.html
* (4) I posted this on date (day, month, year): 7th August 2004
* (5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 1135 (UTC+2)
* (6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Fürth, Germany

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

* (7) My blog is hosted by: myself
* (8) My age is:
* (9) My gender is: female
* (10) My occupation is: translator
* (11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: FeedDemon
* (12) I use the following software to post to my blog: MT 2.64
* (13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 16 April 2003
* (14) My web browser is: Mozilla Firefox
* (15) My operating system is: Windows XP Professional

Interview in der Süddeutschen mit Sonja Pelikan, die die besten Ergebnisse in der Bayerischen Staatsprüfung für Juristen sei 1983 schaffte (über mindermeinung.de)

The Süddeutsche Zeitung has an interview in German with Sonja Pelikan, who passed the first state examination for law students, which tests the academic part of law studies (roughly equivalent to British LL.B. or U.S. J.D.) with extraordinarily high marks.

My impression of German law exams is founded on nothing but hearsay. I have the feeling they seem like a lottery to the candidates. Whatever they learn at university, it is not how to pass these exams. Sonja seems to have done it by doing dozens of practice tests. She says that in the last year before the exam she did over a hundred 5-hour tests.

Sonja thinks the exam is so difficult because the candidates have to know everything they ever learnt in law school at the date of the exam, whereas in other subjects you can complete parts of the course earlier.

She did use a crammer (Repetitor – see earlier entry here) – a different one for each subject.

Sonja wants to do a doctorate and then the practical part of her training and get at least 9 points in the second state exam. After that she will be a Volljuristin or fully-qualified lawyer. She can apply even now to be called a Diplom-Juristin. This is a fairly new thing – giving someone who has come at least as far as an LL.B. student a qualification.

‘If you can see this map comfortably, you’re definitely a fool,’ say its makers.

This is just part of a map of the world incorporating miscomprehensions about geography (map). It reminds me of Desbladet’s report of an American couple who wanted their money back after a tour to see the midnight sun in Norway because they hadn’t realized they would just ‘see our own sun’.

(Via Boing Boing)

This appeared outside my building a couple of days ago (click to enlarge):

This woman is crying because her local community meeting place (whatever that is) has closed down, and all because Vodaphone is trying to reduce its tax bill.

And this appeared round the corner:

It’s raining into this poor child’s classroom. No wonder the Germans are worried about school results.

Here’s the source of the campaign (in German), with other materials for the campaign. Of course, 20 billion is a lot of euros, but I thought companies had a duty to try to reduce their outgoings. I’m also not clear about the direct effect on schools and local community projects funded by the city. I suppose if Vodaphone collapsed and jobs were lost they would complain too. And I wish it was raining here so I could concentrate on my work!

LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association, is conducting a translation memory survey.

bq. The goals of this survey are to:
. understand the status of deployment of translation memory
. the business value of translation memories and translation memory tools (in-house and off-the-shelf)
. to understand the profile and extent of the usage of the OSCAR/TMX standard within the translation memory market
. and to determine the trends in these areas

(bullet points and syntax by LISA).

bq. This survey will run through till the end of September 2004 and the results will be available for free to the public just like the previous report (http://www.lisa.org/products/survey/2003/tmsurvey.html ).

The survey can be done here.

BBC News (via Cronaca) reports that the guerrilla artist Banksy has unveiled a 6-metre-high statue of the figure of Justice in London (this ties in with the recent miscarriage of justice story) (see pictures on BBC site):

bq. Banksy, best-known for sneaking his work into the Tate, has depicted the figure of justice as a prostitute with leather boots and a thong.
Several hundred fans gathered at Clerkenwell Green on Wednesday to see the bronze statue being unveiled.
It was put in place at 0200 BST (0100 GMT) on Wednesday without permission.
… It shows the figure of justice – whose statue overlooks the Old Bailey in London – with US dollar bills stuffed into her garter and a plaque on the plinth saying: “Trust no-one.”

Earlier projects of Banksy’s are also described:

bq. In April, Banksy exhibited a dead rat wearing sunglasses in the Natural History Museum for several hours before museum staff noticed.