Experience Project Blog

Andre Agassi Revisited

2009-12-15T12:35:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a month since Andre Agassi's confession came out that he used crystal meth during the earlier portions of his tennis career.

For those on the less wild side, check out the I Play Tennis group!

Our Military Wives and Girlfriends

2009-12-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Military families have always been a big part of the Experience Project family, and so we'll highlight a few of our hundreds of military wife and girlfriend support groups here:

I am an Army Wife

I am a Navy Wife

I am a Marine Girlfriend or Marine Wife

Life can be hard and often lonely in these situations, but these fine folks make their country and us proud. Their resolve and strength, with a little bit of help from their EP friends, is so admirable, and we're thrilled to call them our friends on EP.

Tiger Woods: Thoughts on the Girls

2009-12-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Tiger Woods has been the buzz of the online world for the last couple weeks. Just uncovered a fun Q&A thread:

Tiger's Girls - What do you think their Thought Process was

Ping Sitemaps to Google, Yahoo and Bing

2009-07-28T13:02:00.001-07:00

Recently we discovered that our sitemaps-- the list of pages on the site-- for Yahoo and Bing were not updating on their own. Google handles this task automatically, so we had blissfully assumed it was the same case with everyone else. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be. You should manually ping the other major search engines each time your sitemap changes.

To help save you the time, here are all the addresses you need to hit:

Google Sitemap Ping Address:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ping?sitemap=[your sitemap url]

Yahoo! Sitemap Ping Address
http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/ping?sitemap=[your sitemap url]

Ask.com Sitemap Ping Address
http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=[your sitemap url]

Microsoft Bing Sitemap Ping Address
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=[your sitemap url]

You can also include your sitemap (or sitemap of sitemaps) in your robots.txt file.
Just add the following directive to robots.txt:

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Hope this helps! Happy sitemap indexing! For more information, check out the sitemap protocol site.

How Cute is Obama's Dog? Is Bo "the Cutest Dog Ever?"

2009-04-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

In a recent survey, respondents rated Obama's new dog, Bo, cuter than 95% of all dogs -- with most respondents considering Bo "extra cute."

America recently watched Bo's arrival at the White House closer than it has that of any world leader, men and women of all ages fawning over this Portuguese water dog's every move.

Upon hearing my colleague Deven proclaim "OMG I think I am going to faint...that is the cutest dog ever!" I took it upon myself to figure out how cute Obama's dog really is. Is Bo really "the cutest dog ever?"

As many of you know, here at Experience Project we have a large and vibrant community of pet lovers among the tens of thousands of passionate life experience groups members have formed. One of the things that pet lovers enjoy on the site is the EP Pet Project which, among other things, allows them to share pictures of their pets, adopt virtual pets, and play "Cute or Not" -- a fun game where they can rate how cute they think a pet is.

To help me answer whether Bo is "the cutest dog ever," I asked a friend to submit a photo of Bo as a "contestant" in EP's Cute or Not game.

Within a day, Bo's cuteness had been voted on by nearly 600 people, and we had come to an average cuteness rating of 4.4 out of 5. So, how does that stack up against all dogs in America?

Since the EP Pet Project has had over 2,000 different pets submitted, I was able to look up my answer. Based on his cuteness score, Bo was rated as being cuter than 95% of all dogs! That's pretty remarkable and certainly places Bo as one of the cutest dogs in America -- quite an honor, if being America's First Dog wasn't enough!

UPDATE: the "Cute Puppies" Page on Facebook and @PuppyOfTheDay on Twitter also ran an informal poll on how cute fans thought Bo was as part of their Puppy of the Day game. According to them, Bo is cuter than 85% of all puppies. Nevertheless, Bo is still being considered cuter than most!

Experience Project Finds Osama Bin Laden, Receives Strategic Investment from Central Intelligence Agency

2009-04-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO: Experience Project Inc, the world’s largest living archive of life experiences, announced today that the company has found international terrorist Osama Bin Laden as a member of its anonymous online community.

Mr. Bin Laden’s identity was spotted through the company’s new location-sharing feature, where members can share the location of where a confession or experience took place. Mr. Bin Laden shared his location as Sar-e-Raqowl, Afghanistan – a cave dwelling in southern Afghanistan inhabited by 6 people and 2 mountain goats.

Mr. Bin Laden, or “SamaBabby” as he is known on the site, shared a confession about his secret love for Mochi Ball kebabs, a dessert previously forbidden by the Taliban. Mr. Bin Laden and his supporters continue to protest Mochi Ball kebabs as a tactic by the “imperialist demonic powers” to brainwash his supporters through the Mochi Ball Kebab’s soft and delicious flavors.

Mr. Bin Laden was an active member of the community, and a member of communities including “I Loved Someone that Didn’t Love Me,” “I Want to Lose Weight,” and “I Live in a Sexless Marriage.”

Immediately following the announcement, the Central Intelligence Agency announced a $200 million investment in Experience Project at an undisclosed valuation. The funds will be used to develop state-of-the-art location technology and algorithms to match the writing style of Experience Project stories to that of international criminals.

50 Things You Didn't Know about Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Lots of talk today about Sarah Palin-- McCain's surprise VP pick. Learn 50 Things You Didn't Know about Sarah Palin here

Dream Meanings

2008-07-24T01:09:00.000-07:00

Every now and then we want to highlight a hidden treasure of the EP community. Today it is our dreams section, which helps with dream interpretation and dream meanings.

Dreams often reflect our innermost thoughts in their most raw form, so they are a staging ground for EP users to help better understand themselves and get help and input from the community on an often pressing question of What Does My Dream Mean?

Check it out and share your dreams today!

George Carlin RIP

2008-06-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

We just learned that George Carlin passed away on Sunday Night. Rest in peace-- like him or not, he was a true comedic giant that changed the landscape forever.

George Carlin Tributes and Video Clips at Experience Project

Hillary Clinton to Concede Defeat on Friday in Democratic National Primary

2008-06-04T16:06:00.001-07:00

According to ABC News, a senior person in Hillary Clinton's entourage said she would concede defeat in the United States Democratic National Primary on Friday.

After Tuesday's split decision in the Montana and South Dakota primaries, and the en masse endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on Tuesday morning by nearly 70 party superdelegates, it was only a matter of when and how, not if.

It has been a truly historic occasion, and we, alongside the EP community, have been enthralled by it. Now it becomes Obama versus John McCain, a
nd the EP communities are ready to throw their support behind their chosen candidate:

I Support John McCain for President

I Support Barack Obama for President

Support Ted Kennedy in his battle against a Malignant Brain Tumor

2008-05-20T19:52:00.001-07:00

Senator Edward (Teddy) Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Experience Project users have set up an online get-well card to show support for Senator Kennedy and his family as he battles glioma.

Teddy Kennedy Brain Tumor Diagnosis Support Card

Brain Tumor Survivor Stories at Experience Project

Starving Dog Artist Gets Protested

2008-04-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

Check out the Starving Dog Artist Protest Petition at EP...

Play Trivia for your Favorite Candidate

2008-04-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Following the success of our efforts to help save shelter pets and baby seals, we proudly announce the release of our US Presidential Election Candidate Game... play for your favorite candidate, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, and we'll donate proceeds to the respective campaign. It's an easy way to help your favorite candidate, pass some time, and increase your knowledge of trivia.

Have fun :)

Beijing 2008 Torch Protest

2008-04-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

In honor of the protests in our home town of San Francisco towards the Olympic 2008 Torch Relay, we've set up one of our famous Opinion walls-- a fun, powerful combination of petitions, open forums, and mad libs.

Check it out:

Olympic 2008 Opinion Wall

75 Year Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition

2008-04-07T00:33:00.000-07:00

April 7th marks the anniversary of the modification of the Volstead Act. That’s the date in 1933 when beer became the first alcoholic beverage to be made legal since Prohibition was implemented in 1920. The officially was ratified Dec 5, 1933.
In the words of the late President FDR “What America needs now is a drink”. So, raise a beer mug and let’s celebrate the freedom to enjoy a frosty tall one!

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Prohibition Supporters

1. So convinced were they that alcohol was the cause of virtually all crime that, on the eve of Prohibition, some towns actually sold their jails.

2. Early temperance writers often insisted that because of their high blood alcohol content, "habitual drunkards" could spontaneously combust and burn to death from inside.

3. One temperance "scientific authority" implied that inhaling alcohol vapors might lead to defective offspring for at least three generations.

4. Because the temperance movement taught that drinking alcohol was sinful, it was forced to confront the contrary fact that Jesus drank wine. Its solution was to insist that Jesus drank grape juice rather than wine.

5. Although Prohibition was repealed seven decades ago, there are still hundreds of dry counties across the United States today.

6. Temperance Leader Lucius Manlius Sargent tried to get secondary schools, colleges and universities to eliminate all references to alcoholic beverages in ancient Greek and Latin texts.

7. During Prohibition, temperance activists hired a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol beverage.

8. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) strongly supported Prohibition and its strict enforcement.

9. Prohibitionists advocated strong measures against those who did not comply with Prohibition—one suggestion included having the government distribute poisoned alcohol beverages through bootleggers and even acknowledged that several thousand Americans would die as a result.

10. Prohibitionists didn't give up easily. They even tried to enforce Prohibition for as long as ten years after its repeal by the Twenty-first Amendment.

Thanks Perez Hilton

2008-04-04T17:36:00.001-07:00

We appreciate the shout out from none other than Perez Hilton about our SaveDogs game-- play trivia, earn food for dog shelters. Over a metric ton donated already. Play the save dogs trivia game today (also, check out save cats and save seals).

What a Difference a Year Makes

2008-04-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

What a difference a year makes. While search for the latest presidential poll numbers, we came upon this and had to do a double-take:

From April 1st, 2007:

Zogby: Giuliani, Clinton Hold Big Leads in National Tests
Edwards holds in third place among Dems; Fred Thompson could be a GOPer worth watching

Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton, both of New York state, continue to enjoy significant leads over rivals in national tests of likely primary voters, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows. Meanwhile, Giuliani’s edge among Republicans is now more than double that of his nearest rival.

Clinton holds a double–digit 32% to 22% lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, with former senator John Edwards a distant third in a national test of Democratic likely voters. The survey was the first national poll to be fielded following Friday’s announcement by Edwards that he would continue his campaign despite a new cancer diagnosis facing his wife, Elizabeth. Twenty–four percent of Democrats said they were as yet undecided.

Among Republicans, Giuliani, a moderate, continues to show strength and Arizona Sen. John McCain continues to struggle to build a foundation of support. The former New York mayor now leads over McCain, 27% to 13%.

The survey, conducted March 22-26, 2007, included 432 Democratic respondents (margin of error of +/- 4.8 percentage point) and 376 Republicans (margin of error +/- 5.2 percentage points).

Democrats
Clinton 32%
Obama 22%
Edwards 13%
Biden 2%
Richardson2%
Kucinich 1%
Not Sure 24%

Republicans
Giuliani 27%
McCain 13%
Thompson 9%
Romney 9%
Paul 3%
T. Thompson1%
Huckabee 1%
Hunter 1%
Tancredo 1%
Not sure 28%

from http://zogby.com

Helping Save Baby Seals From The Seal Hunt

2008-03-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the start of the annual Canadian Seal Hunt-- widely viewed as the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. In conjunction, Experience Project announces a way to Help Save Baby Seals by playing a simple game.

There is a great deal of controversy over the seal hunt-- proponents say it provides needed income for indigent fisherman, and is no more cruel than the slaughter of any other wild animal, such as lobstering. Critics point to the fact that the seals are mammals who are clubbed to death with an ancient weapon, then often skinned before they are fully dead. A recent study verified that indeed nearly 40% of the seals were determined to have been conscious at the time of skinning.

This year, the permit to hunt seals includes a caveat that the seals be bled to death before skinning-- required, grotesquely, by cutting the major arteries underneath each flipper. Again, wildlife protection agencies cry foul, noting that there is no guarantee that this will be done, or when it will be done.

In any case, at Experience Project, we listen to our community, and we are a community of animal lovers. Our games to raise donations for shelter dogs and shelter cats have resonated with our community, and in that spirit, we are proud to release our newest trivia game to raise donations: Save Baby Seals.

The concept is simple: play a trivia game, get a question right, and we'll donate towards a cause protecting the seals. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to easily help in an important cause.

In honor of Mr. Rogers Day (Sweater Day), Here's 15 Fun Mr. Rogers Facts

2008-03-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

In honor of National Sweater Day (Mr. Rogers Day!), and the fifth anniversary of his death, here are fifteen fun facts about PBS' Mr. Rogers (thanks to member Videodemon for pulling this together):

Mister Rogers was colorblind (red-green)

There has been a rumor floating around for years that Mr. Rogers was (either) a Navy Seal, or a Marine sniper, with dozens of confirmed kills. These rumors are certainly amusing, but totally false

While a child, he spent most of his free time with his grandfather, who was a huge influence on him

Mr. Rogers first began to wear his sneakers because he found them quieter than his other work shoes when he was moving around the set during production.

Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister in 1962. He was charged with continuing his work with TV and children.

He first worked with NBC, but then decided that commercial television's reliance on advertisement and merchandising undermined its ability to benefit kids, so he quit.

The sweaters Mr. Roger wore on the show were hand knitted by his mother.

Mr. Rogers drove a used Chevy Impala. Towards the end of his career, his car was stolen from the studio parking lot. Word spread, and outrage swept the town. 48 hours later, the car was back in the spot where he had left it along with a note, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it!”

You can have a VCR thanks to Mr. Rogers. In contrast to most people in his industry, Mr. Rogers fought on BEHALF of VCR manufacturers in court-- arguing that he didn't object to families recording his show for later viewing at a more convenient time. The United States Supreme Court considered his testimony in its decision that the Betamax recorded did not infringe copyright (see below for a great quote from his testimony). The Home Recording Rights Coalition later stated that Rogers was "one of the most prominent witnesses on this issue."

When Mr. Rogers was at a speaking engagement, he would instruct the audience to remain silent for 60 seconds-- and to use that time of silence to remember those who helped them become who they are

Mr. Roger’s parents adopted an African American teenager named George. Rogers came to consider George his older brother, and George later became an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II-- and also taught Rogers how to fly.

Mr. Rogers was awarded 40 honorary degrees

Mr. Rogers show has the distinction of being the longest running program on PBS; it ran for 998 episodes

He was a vegetarian, swam every morning, and never smoke nor drank

There is a $3 million dollar statue to Mr. Rogers being unveiled on Mr. Rogers Day "Sweater Day" on March, 20th, 2008 in Pittsburgh (he was from Latrobe, Pennsylvania).

(Bonus) Mr. Rogers could Moonwalk & Breakdance(not kidding!):

Here's Mr. Rogers' rather profound quote when testifying about private recording of shows:

"Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the "Neighborhood" at hours when some children cannot use it ... I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the "Neighborhood" off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the "Neighborhood" because that's what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions." Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important"
RIP Mr. Rogers

Visit the "I loved Mr. Roger's" group at Experience Project to learn more and remember this kind soul.

Credits:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers

http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/464_US_417.htm#464us417n27

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0736872/

Eliot Spitzer - A Bit of Comic Relief

2008-03-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

With all the Elliot Spitzer news and gossip in high gear (around his participation in the high-class prostitution ring Emperor's Club and subsequent resignation as Governor of New York) we noticed one of our users used it as an opportunity for a comic break:

Jiggylicious posted an entertaining story on Experience Project titled "Top 10 Signs Your Husband Is Part of a High-Class Prostitution Ring." I've reproduced the top 10 list below. Enjoy!

10. He leaves wads of cash on your bedside table after sex.

9. He frequently has voice messages from women with names like Maya, Avalon, and Svetlana.

8. The receptionists at the Mayflower Hotel all know him by name and bill your room by the hour.

7. $31,000 charges show up on your American Express statement from "Emperor's Mattress Warehouse"

6. You find him up at night watching Pretty Woman and crying for Richard Gere's character.

5. He rates restaurants and movies in terms of how many "diamonds" they deserve.

4. Justifies a hike in state taxes to pay for rising costs of service workers.

3. He starts getting bulk discounts for expensive gifts from Tiffany's.

2. He changes his relationship status on Facebook to "it's expensive."

Check out the story for the top reason! And then add your own!

Barack Obama won the Texas Primary, Right?

2008-03-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

Like many of you, we've been closely following the trials and tribulations of the US Presidential Election, namely the Democratic contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Barack was on the verge of a knockout last week after 13 straight victories, but Hillary stayed in it by winning Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. But the conclusions were based without having the final Texas Democratic Primary results, including caucuses. Let us explain...

Ohio and Rhode Island were impressive victories, no doubt, both by healthy margins. But it is Texas that provides the most curious results, and by any reasonable math, Obama actually WON Texas yet received no popular credit for it. Here's how it looks:

From the Texas Secretary of State, and with 100% of ballots counted, here are the results:

Hillary Clinton 1,459,814 50.89%
Barack Obama 1,358,785 47.36%

This gives Hillary a popular vote win by ~101,000 voters, and 65 delegates, to Barack Obama's 61 delegates. All well and good.

BUT Texas has, by all accounts, a different type of primary than most any other state. Called the "Texas Two-Step", one is the popular vote in a statewide election, while the second part is a caucus system where voters actually gather and decide who to support en masse. Obama tends to do very well in caucus states, most likely because of his mobilization of the youth.

In Texas, this was no different. The state, to complicate matters, stopped providing results about halfway through the counting process, but here were the latest official results from the Texas Democratic Caucus:

23,918 OBAMA 56%
18,620 CLINTON 45%

with 41% (or 3377/8224) precints reporting.

If this trend holds up, and there's no reason to think it won't, then Obama gets 38 delegates to Hillary's 30, yielding a total result from Texas of:

Hillary Clinton: 65+30 = 95 Delegates
Barack Obama: 61+38 = 99 Delegates

With plenty of margin for error on the caucus side, this means Barack Obama wins Texas in the technical sense of the word (just as George W. Bush won the US Election in 2000 versus Al Gore despite losing the popular vote), which for better or for worse, is all that matters in the Democratic primary process.

To corroborate, Obama's own campaign website shows their side winning Texas, 99 to 94. Hillary is not showing a score on her website (at least that we found).

The caveat: "Although delegates generally do not switch presidential preferences, party rules do not formally bind delegates to support the same candidate at every step in the convention process, and the allocation of delegates to the national convention is not finally determined until the June 6-7 State Convention. Therefore, these results may not reflect the final allocation of 67 delegates determined by the TDP convention/caucus process."

If you support Barack Obama, click here
If you support Hillary Clinton, click here
If you support John McCain, click here

Eve Carson Memorial

2008-03-06T23:45:00.000-08:00

Here's an online memorial created for Eve Carson after the shocking news of her brutal murder.

Eve Carson Memorial

RIP.

Lindsay Lohan Poses Naked as Marilyn Monroe

2008-02-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

Lindsay Lohan lovers have something to cheer about as she recently did a spread with famed photographer Bert Stern, who did a similar layout with Marilyn Monroe just a few weeks before she died. The pictures show her cavorting in erotic poses in bed, and are meant to be a haunting indication of someone who is appreciated more for their sex appeal than their talents. Not sure if it succeeds-- the Monroe pictures are doubtless more powerful.

http://nymag.com/fashion/08/spring/44247/

Be warned: some pictures of Lindsay Lohan are topless in this photo shoot.

Last Minute Valentine's Gifts

2008-02-14T10:46:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of our most popular stories for this holiday is one detailing quick, affordable, and well-received, ahem, gifts for Valentine's Day... check it out...

---

Listen, I know you're desperate. Time is running out and you haven't a clue nor an infinite budget. Don't even think about making origami flowers or roadside produce. Whether you need a present for your lady friend on Valentine's Day or Christmas, I've got a plan that fits YOUR needs-- and takes into account the stores YOU can get to, be it drug stores, department stores, or (no whammy!) even convenience stores. Yes. I said it.

If you know me, my feelings about high maintenance girls are clear. So instead of getting gouged with roadside roses that are probably already sold out, standing in line for an hour at Sees to get the stuff people returned from Christmas, or doing what most guys do, which is trying to overcompensate by buying her something outrageously expensive like jewelry, here are some realistic (and dirt cheap) suggestions to save your buttockal region and retain a reasonable chance for a successful evening. Note that this isn't stuff I'd recommend in a regular situation, but something about desperate times and desperate measures prevails.

The main strategy- make it look to HER like you're different and thoughtful (not like those 'other guys') AND delay/defuse the situation until you have time to actually do something nice for the lady in your life. Without further ado, here we go...

---
Read the rest of the story...

Valentine's Day

2008-02-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is here, and with it the cadre of love experiences and stories about first kisses, first loves, crushes, missed connections, and everything else dealing with cupid, and his successes and failures... here's a small sampling of what we've got for you...

Free Love Notes

Post a Free Love Note

Experiences and Stories

I Had A Great Valentine's Day

I Had A Bad Valentine's Day

I Am Alone on Valentine's Day

I Am Born on Valentine's Day

I Don't Want to Spend Valentine's Day Alone

I Am Away From My Love on Valentine's Day

Surveys and Quizzes

These Valentine's Day Surveys about love and dating can be posted on MySpace, Piczo, LiveJournal, Blogger, and pretty much any other blog or social network.

Or create your own!