Scavenger Hunt

1. What is the weight of the world's biggest pumpkin?

The weight of the largest pumpkin in the world is 1,502 pounds (681.3kg) achieved by Ron Wallace at the 13th annual Giant Pumpkin Growers Championship in Rhode Island.
http://www.49abcnews.com/news/2006/oct/09/worlds_heaviest_pumpkin_weighed/

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Grant Hackett?

If you want to contact Grant, please write to the Miami Swimming Club, their address is:Miami Swimming ClubPO BOX 2461BURLEIGH QLD 4220
http://granthackettonline.free.fr/?page_id=107

3. What is the length of a giraffe's tongue?

An adult giraffe's tongue is 27" long
http://www.qeok.com/other/2843-qeok.html

4. How would you define the word 'ontology'? In your own words, what does it really mean ?

Ontology is the study or concern about what kinds of things exist - what entities there are in the universe.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212702,00.html

5. What was David Cronenberg's first feature film?

Cronenberg's first feature film was a 1966 short film called "Transfer," about a psychiatrist being stalked by a patient.
http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/11/30/cronenberg/

6. When was the original 'Hacker's Manifesto' written?

January 8, 1986.
http://www.sosdg.org/~seneschal/manifesto/index.html

7. Why do all phone numbers in Hollywood films start with '555'?

For many years, 555 was unassigned as a dialling code in the US and could therefore be used to prefix fictional numbers in movies. Due to expansion, the code has recently been assigned, but scriptwriters and others maintain the use.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2357,00.html

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from Crete to Rhodes?

The cheapest form of travel is a Ferry, costing around 120 Euros each.
http://www.athensguide.com/ferries.html

9. What song was top of the Australian Pop Charts this week in 1965?

There were a few different sites that I found with No1 songs for this week in 1965 but they were for the US (Can't You Feel My Heartbeat, Herman's Hermits) and UK (The Last Time, The Rolling Stones), but this site didn't have a country so I'm going to assume its Australia for the sake of my sanity and my computer (these search engines are reeeeally getting me frustrated!) so the No1 song for the first week in April 1965 was 'Stop! In the name of love' by The Supremes. (Excuse me while I now break into song! haha)
http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Number-One-Songs-60s.html

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

The Black Assassins. They were a vital part of the Brisbane Punk scene which developed in the late 1970's and early 1980's. They played at every major venue at one time or another. Sometimes they got banned for outrageous behaviour.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~toxicoh/blackas.htm

Some Questions on Search Engines...

What is a Search Engine?
A seach engine is a way of navigating through the huge amount of information found on the internet. It allows you to access information on other sites by entering specific information and finding the sites that are most relevant to you.
How do search engines rank the information found on the internet? Who or what makes one page more useful so that it is at the top of the search results?
The search engine's "spiders" crawl the internet looking for suitable sites. Through these "spiders" the search engine looks at the numbers of words from the seach that are found on a certain page as well as where they are found (for example in titles and subheadings). This information is coded and the sites with the most compatibility based on this coding system are listed first.
What are your favourite search engines? Why those more than others?
The engine I use the most is Google because of its clear set up and accessibility. It is also a habit to use Google because it often opens up as the home page of the internet, the first thing that a user sees. The name is also catchy and easy to remember. In the Search Engine Scavenger Hunt task i found that some of the other search engines simply transferred you to a list of other search engine pages which is frustrating when you're trying to find results!

Some current news articles on search engines can be found at:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?portal_id=28&article_id=16967
http://www.seologic.com/search-engines/2003-07-14.php