Good Morning Cynthia - several choices come to mind, but I will ponder this between calls - hopefully I have a couple of minutes between calls this week.

Nancy.

Be back later, I've misplaced my crystal ball.

Annette

I have to say that is is hard to come up with interesting trivia every week. I am not as clever as Nancy! The internet really helps.

I am almost finished writing my interims. I am going to take a break before starting my IEP. I may wander outside to search for signs of spring. :) searching is almost as much fun as finding. Definitely more fun for the pups.

Cynthia

Found my crystal ball, but the battery is dead, off to find a battery, I'll be back :).

Annette

It is so hard to rank the needs of my kiddoes. Which has the most relevance and importance?? Can't cover everything. Sigh. There are amazing amounts of information to organize.

Too bad schools don't have the technological geniuses guiding them that some companies do.

Cynthia

Hey, I'm back to the snowy frozen north from Florida and it's a little depressing, if you want to know the truth. At least the sub-zero temps have passed - for good I hope. I'd love to search for signs of spring too, Cynthia. Maybe in April.

I have two guesses for the trivia today. My first guess is a lot like the number ten raised to the one hundredth power, and my second guess relates to the word lout.

Will await further developments.

TM

If I'm reading your clues right I think I can see a glimmer in the ol' crystal ball but the battery's weak, off to look for a better battery or another clue? I'll be back.

Annette

I was just over on the NameThat Plant Forum trying to help with an identity... with the help of my best friend I just might have solved the mystery :).

Annette

Ah, TM, welcome back. You have hit on my next clue. I was going to say that when I set math goals for my kiddoes, we are usually dealing with basic facts not 1 with one hundred zeroes behind it-even though they love trying to write and say big numbers. :)

Annette, betting you have. I have been enjoying your updates today, btw!

Teaching grammar is hard now, too, what with nouns being turned into verbs and all the new words that are now such a part of our everyday language.

Cynthia

Thought of the week: Don't be evil.

Also happens to be the informal motto of the company!

Cynthia

I forgot to come back to give my answer. I think it is the one I use to find info on the net--Google.

I also think it is Google.

TM

Google is what I was thinking too.
Annette

Yes, Google makes sense. A made-up word, I think and a name and a verb. Crazy busy at work. Folks sure do get upset when their cable doesn't work!!

Nancy.

Four stars for all of you! Yes indeed, Google is the company working with the goal of organizing all the world's information and making it accessible to us all. Sergey Brin and Larry Page were critical of most existing search engines on the web in 1996. They were unhappy with the ability of the engines to provide useful, relevant searches.they created a new technology called PageRank which uses a page's hyperlink to determine its overall relevance and from there, its importance. They originally named the search engine PageRank Backrub, but then changed the name to Google. As TM intimated, a googol is a one followed by 100 zeroes. Already, the founders wanted to find a way to index unthinkable amounts of information.

Their informal motto is "Don't be evil." This is from Wikipedia:
DonâÂÂt be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served " as shareholders and in all other ways" by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains." The motto is sometimes incorrectly stated as Do no evil.
While many companies have ethical codes that govern their conduct in contract, Google claims to have made "Don't Be Evil" a central pillar of their identity as part of their self-proclaimed core values. The words: "Don't be evil" form part of the sixth point in these Core Values, and in full states: "Do the right thing: don't be evil. Honesty and Integrity in all we do. Our business practices are beyond reproach. We make money by doing good things."

Now, to me, that is a company worth supporting. I hope they continue to follow that creed.

Thanks for playing. Have a marvelous week. We have two more days of temps close to or at 70 degrees before we drop back into the 30s. At this point, I can deal with that-spring is on its way! :)

Cynthia

Thanks for the stars, Cynthia. That motto sounds like one I want to support as well.

That is interesting - I love Google - it really is the best search engine. Thanks for the fun.

Nancy.