Today we added similarity scores. In case you’re wondering what that is, it’s a comparison of how similar you are to others on UpGuppy and how close someone else’s ranking of a specific topic is to yours.
You can see the similarity scores at work in two spots. The first is when you first log-in. To see this feature in action, you obviously have to rank a few lists (and the more the better!). You can see here that Alex Acree is my closest friend. We’ve ranked a ton of the same lists and tend to rank those things similarly.
The second is by clicking at the link just below any ranking. Again, you’ve got to rank the list. Here is how close my friends are to me in their ranking of Obama’s best Vice-Presidential candidates (which, by the way, my buddy Alex nailed).
Let us know what you think. We're working on developing better ways of displaying the data, which we should have out soon.
1. The New Yorker Cover 2008 No cartoon in recent months has attracted as much attention as this cover of the New Yorker. Whether you choose to see it as simply satire or extremely inappropriate, the cartoon gives a brilliant insight into American politics.
2. Pulitzer Prize Winning - Mike Ramirez A picture is worth a thousand words.
"It was just the perfect metaphor for him because here you have this mystical statue that's revered by all, but nobody really knows much about it, and where it came from, and where it was before." -Ramirez
3. The Freelance-Star - Clay Jones
This is a great cartoon, capturing some of the more humorous aspects of Obama's recent visit abroad.
I've been a big fan of TED ever since I was introduced to it about 2 years ago. For those of you who don't know, TED is an annual conference that brings together leaders and thinkers from all facets of life to promote "ideas worth sharing." They post several of the talks on their website. When I'm looking for a break "worth taking" I'll often browse the videos and am inevitably challenged, captivated and inspired.
So, in the spirit of UpGuppy, I put together a ranking of my favorite TED talks, which you can find here. As it stands the top 3 talks (as ranked by our users) follow. Enjoy!
1) Jill Bolte Taylor:
One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."
2) Sir Ken Robinson:
Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."
A visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements.
3) Daniel Goleman:
Daniel Goleman brought the notion of "EI" to prominence as an alternative to more traditional measures of IQ with his 1995 mega-best-seller Emotional Intelligence.
Since the publication of that book, conferences and academic institutes have sprung up dedicated to the idea. EI is taught in public schools, and corporate leaders have adopted it as a new way of thinking about success and leadership. EI, and one's "EIQ," can be an explanation of why some "average" people are incredibly successful, while "geniuses" sometimes fail to live up to their promise. In this talk, he asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time.
