Encouraging people to contribute knowledge
Udi Manber

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

Google's "Knol"

According to the Population Reference Bureau, approximately 106,456,367,669 (as of mid-2002).

The question of how many people have ever lived on Earth is a perennial one among information calls to PRB. One reason the question keeps coming up is that somewhere, at some time back in the 1970s, a now-forgotten writer made the statement that 75 percent of the people who had ever been born were alive at that moment.

If this estimate were true, it would indeed make an impressive case for the rapid pace of population growth in this century. But if we judge the idea that three-fourths of people who ever lived are alive today to be a ridiculous statement, have demographers come up with a better estimate? What might be a reasonable estimate of the actual percentage?

Any such exercise can be only a highly speculative enterprise, to be undertaken with far less seriousness than most demographic inquiries. Nonetheless, it is a somewhat intriguing idea that can be approached on at least a semi-scientific basis.

Still, with some speculation concerning prehistoric populations, we can at least approach a guesstimate of this elusive number.

Another estimate by the Department of Mathematics at the University of Hawaii estimates 96,100,000,000 as of mid-1999.

How Many People Have Ever Lived On Earth?

I'm sure everyone is aware that PN0x0b is coming up on October 19, but I wanted to remind everyone who plans on volunteering to please sign up ASAP using this form. I'm the Volunteer Director this year, so please let me know if you have any questions. We need help with Registration and Hospitality.

To address one question I received... Speakers are also welcome to volunteer, but if all you'll be doing is speaking (which is a lot, and very much appreciated), then you don't need to use the volunteer form. Dolemite is handling the presentations. If you're going to speak and volunteer, please use the form.

Thanks,
Stef

PhreakNIC 11 Volunteers

Adding this to my list of Google searches gone bad...

# t-rex.pl

Rare blue lobster found in Conn. river avoids the cooker

Blues Lobster