Probably too late for Emily, and not likely to be relevant, but I have a survey taking story.

There were people taking surveys all the time at my college, a lot classses required it for one reason or another. One particular one had the respondents sample two cola drinks and choose which they preferred. I tasted both and said I couldn't tell the difference. "Just pick one" the data gatherer said. So I did,a dn she marked down my choice.

And then revealed that the two colas were, in fact, identical and the survey was supposed to show something about people perceiving differences that weren't really there.

Ah, but if it were science, it wouldn't be so frelling hard!

It doesn't help that the guy teaching this class is a science teacher. So he keeps saying things like, "I think this is probably much harder for you math and foreign language teachers," and then giving another science example.

Anyway, the learning plan's done. Now I have to "justify" it and "reflect" on it.

And then revealed that the two colas were, in fact, identical and the survey was supposed to show something about people perceiving differences that weren't really there.

I see a lot of surveys like that -- forcing a choice between things that maybe you don't find all that different, and then making some conclusion about people's preferences. Whichever.

In High school I took a 5 day long survey that listed about 50 personality traits of characteristics (happy-go-lucky, intelligent, good a sports, stingy). Each day we were given a new ethnic group, and told to mark down the traits we thought that ethnic group had.

It really bugged me, so I wrote about it in the school paper (and I just marked down a "yes" for all the traits for all the ethnicities, because I was told that I couldn't not answer). It was very bizarre.

Sophia, that is totally bizarre! Did they ever give any kind of explanation for it?

I'm freaking a little - just looked up my old house in Virginia on Google Earth, and found it. And I can see our Miata and Subaru parked out in front. Which means we were home when the satellite took the photo.

Google Earth is Teh Freaky, for sure. My mom and grandmother were both out when they took the picture of my parents' house. Ooh-- I should check my mom's office and see if I can find her car there.

I'm telling you, we must remain vigilant, and not become too dependent on google. They seem benevolent now, but....

New favorite spam sender: Responsibly L. Gimme.

I think I'm done filing. At least, I'm done filing for today.

I'm telling you, we must remain vigilant, and not become too dependent on google. They seem benevolent now, but....

C'mon! You're saying you're not excited to have a google Memory Scan™ chip implanted in your brain?

Just wait until Google Earth is real time.