Folium: “Are There More Languages Above or Below The Equator?” via Lifehacker.com
Folium: Are There More Languages Above or Below The Equator via Lifehacker.com
Folium: “Are There More Languages Above or Below The Equator?” via Lifehacker.com
This is part of a Lifehacker.com challenge series that got me thinking. Above I have posted the initial question, as posed by Lifehacker. At the end of my comments here, I’ll post the results for you to take a look at. Make an educated guess before finding out the answers below!
The first part of the article probably could be an entire class itself. Here’s a snippet:
“Googler Daniel Russell knows how to find the answers to questions you can’t get to with a simple Google query.”
After quite some time in academia, I’ll be the first to admit that the internet is truly a beautiful thing. However… we’re not done yet! People always know that Google can help us find the answers, but who tells Google where to find things? Who organizes, types, scans, and uploads the information to the internet so that Google can find it! I’m oftentimes irked by people who think that there’s no need for libraries, librarians, academics, and others who deal with the product of information because they think that Google is the end of the road – when really it’s only the beginning. Someone has to put it on the internet before it can be searched.
Therefore … don’t be fooled into thinking that the sum of human knowledge is already on the internet. There are thousands of people just like me who are still working their asses off trying to make it happen first!
Now, for our “un-googlable” question!
“After a few glasses of wine, various complex and learned theories were bandied about, and in the end we boiled it down to one really interesting search problem that we couldn’t resolve with a quick Google search:”
“Are there more languages ABOVE the Equator or BELOW the Equator?”
So take a guess! And in the meantime, consider the scope of the world! I’m going to include a link to Google Earth, the foremost program (and biggest time-sink) in the world, about the world! Download and install Google Earth, and then wrap your brain around the idea of just how big-yet-small this blue marble really is! Then check your answers!
What do you think? Feel free to post your answers in the comments below! Let’s see what we find out!
