elgooG and Alice falling down a Rabbit hole

I came across elgooG (Google spelled backwards) really quite by accident. One of those - let me see what happens if I type Google backwards in the search engine we know well. To my genuine surprise not only did Google return something; but what it returned was amazing. The first thing that came into my mind was Alice falling down a rabbit hole and into a curious hall (Alice in Wonderland Chapter 1).

ElgooG is the literal mirror image of the Google search engine; not only is all of its content a reversal of Google, the search terms must also be written in reverse in order to give you the desired results.

It turns out this was originally created by All Too Flat "for fun", and it found practical use in the People's Republic of China after the domestic banning of Google, as it circumvented the government's firewalls.

Another important aspect is that because search terms in elgooG were typed in reverse, and the search results were also in reverse, it was harder for intermediates to track what users were searching for.

A bonus for me and those using computers in the 80’s will appreciate is the simulated terminal mode (see image). Not only does it take you back to ASCII based computer graphics of the day but the analog carrier signals simulated by a MODEM connection has to be seen and heard.

Just as an aside remember those early modems established a 300 baud rate (symbols per second) connection. Now you’re probably reading this blog on a network connection of say 9.5Mbps. That’s 9500000 times faster than the old 300-baud modems of the era. Try the modem at:

http://elgoog.im/terminal/

If these aren't so serious they would be funny

With all the April fool pranks at this time of year it’s sometimes hard to pick the prank. Here are some photos that I’m sorry to report aren’t pranks. If these didn’t represent such serious and dangerous situations they would actually be funny.

Image 1.

Here is a picture of Kim Jong-il's funeral procession. The state-run North Korean news agency released a stately, but otherwise mundane, photo of Kim's procession amid throngs of mourners (the bottom image).

But The New York Times compared the photo to one taken just a few seconds later by a Kyodo News photographer, and found that a group of six men, apparently part of a camera crew standing behind the crowd, were mysteriously omitted from the Korean version.

Upon closer analysis, the Times found evidence of digital editing – apparently the group had been erased from the periphery of the procession.

Perhaps with the men straggling around the sidelines, a certain martial perfection is lost. Without the men, the tight black bands of the crowd on either side look railroad straight.

Image 2a and 2b.

In 2008, Agence France-Presse released a photo, issued by Iran of a salvo of four missiles being test-launched by the Revolutionary Guard (2a).

Upon further inspection and when another photo of the same event came to light – it became clear that Iran had added an extra rocket and exhaust to cover up an apparently failed launch (2b).

Image 3.

Here is something from some remote county in China. A trio of local officials had just visited a newly paved road, but as the Wall Street Journal reports, the government official who photographed them decided the background wasn’t impressive enough and so superimposed the image of the officials on a prettier stretch of asphalt.

Unfortunately, the official's ambition outmatched his skill, and the result is a picture where the three men appear to hover above the road.