Networks

Fish Leg Counts: What the Web Knows and Doesn’t Know

Michael Giberson David Pennock hears another another tick of the clock in the countdown to web sentience. [In 2003] we trained a computer to answer questions from the then-hit game show by querying Google. We combined words from the questions with words from each answer in mildly clever ways, picking the question-answer pair with the …

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Why Hasn’t the Web Revolutionized Scholarly Publication?

Michael Giberson When Tim Berners-Lee created the Web in 1991, it was with the aim of better facilitating scientific communication and the dissemination of scientific research. Put another way, the Web was designed to disrupt scientific publishing. It was not designed to disrupt bookstores, telecommunications, matchmaking services, newspapers, pornography, stock trading, music distribution, or a …

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Walk Score: Comparing My New and Old Neighborhoods

Michael Giberson At the Freakonomics blog they mentioned Walk Score, a website that will calculate walk-ability for an address based on number of nearby stores, parks, and other useful places.  They admit that there scoring formula doesn’t get everything, but it did a reasonable job comparing my new address in Lubbock, Texas and my old …

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Natural Gas Vehicle Stories from Around the Web

Michael Giberson Around the web, stories about natural gas vehicles are bursting out all over (maybe prompted by this promotional effort which aims to increase the number of CNG vehicles). Newsweek offers a reporter’s trip test-driving a CNG car (a Honda GX) with her children, traveling from L.A. to San Diego and up to Oakland. …

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Lack of Coordination Between Rtos Provides Multi-million Dollar Gaming Opportunity to Some Market Participants – at the Expense of Others

Michael Giberson On July 21, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) filed what was in effect an emergency rule change – proposed to go into effect the morning of the next day unless FERC stopped it (and FERC didn’t stop it) – in order to bring to a halt certain gaming activities pursued by …

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EZ-Zone? Freeflow? Would Congestion Pricing by Another Name, Smell Sweeter?

Michael Giberson Tom Weber said that neither word in the phrase “congestion pricing” is too upbeat, and strung together “the combination evokes thoughts of opening one’s wallet while suffering a sinus headache.” He suggests that the unappealing phrase may have had something to do with the failure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan for …

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What Institutional Framework for Electric Power Transmission?

Michael Giberson From the EU Energy Policy Blog, Thomas-Olivier Léautier contemplates the factors that contribute to efficient investment and management of transmission systems: As power engineers and economists have known for a long-time, the transmission grid is essential to the operation of well-functioning electric power markets. Yet, grid expansion in several regions has been nil …

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Congestion Fees Coming to Airports?

Michael Giberson The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to change its policy toward landing fees to “provide greater flexibility to operators of congested airports to use landing fees to provide incentives to air carriers to use the airport at less congested times or to use alternate airports to meet regional air service needs.” As explained …

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