Spock Research

Buying a house or piece of real estate is often times one of the most important decisions a person will ever make. Given a variety of factors involved in picking the right place, choosing the right Realtor is the first step in starting out the process right. A good Realtor can help you gain access to new locations, negotiate a better price, and offer sound financial advice on owning property.

Despite a struggling economy where Realtor’s are willing to concede more and compete for your commission, finding the right agent can still be difficult. Pat Rioux of ListForLess.com told the Wall Street Journal, “To find good agents, you can’t pick up Consumer Reports and find their names.”

Spock, the world’s premier people search, has helped take away some of the mystery in finding a good Realtor. By indexing over 1.4 million Realtors, Spock has created the most extensive Real Estate directory on the Web. Along with the ability to search on Spock for any Real Estate Agent via name, e-mail, or tag, Spock’s new Real Estate Directory enables you to easily search via city and town.

With the ability to negotiate a lower commission and get more out of a Realtor, use Spock’s Real Estate Directory to find your perfect agent.

Redwood City has the worst stoplights in the United States.  Driving down Veterans Blvd., one will notice that the untimed lights create unnecessary stop-and-go traffic, leading to avoidable wear and tear on vehicles and driver frustration. 

When drivers are thirty feet from an intersection, the light turns yellow, and the drivers are given the option of speeding to beat the light or putting on their brakes.  After crossing the intersection, drivers await the same situation at the next light. 

I am far from exaggerating.  It is today, June 24, that I hit one red light after another after exiting freeway 101.   I feel Redwood City designed the lights as so to punish drivers who want a smooth drive to work.

With gas prices so expensive nowadays, why does Redwood City force drivers to put on the brakes and idle?  Not only does this waste gas, it causes wear on brakes.

Timed lights are most logical, efficient, and cost-effective.   Pine and Fell streets in San Francisco are timed at night, allowing drivers to reach their destinations at a constant speed without speeding.  I am forever grateful to the City for this as I am usually tired at night and want to get home hassle-free. 

There is no valid argument in terms of safety against implementing timed lights.  Veterans Blvd. has very few pedestrians throughout the day and little intersecting traffic.

Redwood City is part of the Silicon Valley, host of some of the brightest minds in the United States.  You’d think it would have intelligent city planners.  Unfortunately, all the resources go to making computers faster and improving online search.

Perhaps Redwood City could check out Spock, a people search engine, and look for qualified people to manage its street lights.  On Spock, users can search for people of professions in their areas.  Whether they be city planners, dentists, or hair stylists, all the searches contain great information about the professionals and their online references.

If Redwood City wants the Silicon Valley to continuing being the technology capital of the world, it should at least get its employees to work on time.

Even though the answer is yes, the inevitable white lie always surfaces. Women in particular are very self-conscious about their physical appeal and they often ask the “fat” question to which nobody likes or wants to answer given a lose-lose situation – the answerer can be accused of being cruel or lying. And because “maybe you should lose some weight” is not a good suggestion, the answerer is trapped in a predicament.

Here comes Spock, a people search engine, to save rear ends. On Spock, users can upload pictures of themselves or their friends and everyone has a chance to vote on the best ones. Self-conscious people can upload multiple pictures of themselves and find out which outfits they look best in by having their friends vote on the pictures. No more awkward responses and hurt feelings.

Is it just me or has watching television recently become unbearable? It’s not that the programming has gone down the drain (even with the cancellation of Caroline in the City), that the acting has declined, or even the fact that networks are now altering their schedules to mess with your TIVO (what kind of show begins at 9:06?). Rather the issue I have with television involves the 5 to 10 minute breaks between events on American Gladiators, which have suddenly made the physical act of watching television so much more than flipping through channels. With advertisers raising the volume on their commercial slots to obscene levels, consumers (including yours truly) are left to scramble for the volume button while I hear about the last days of the Toyota-Thon, or about how awesome Yaz is.

In an effort to prevent millions of people from going deaf, California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (who probably watches American Gladiators as well) has decided to take up the cause against loud commercials by proposing a bill that would require broadcasters to keep TV commercials no louder than the programs wrapped around them. Eshoo admits that, “in a time of war, soaring gas prices and a slumping economy , curbing the volume of a 30-second spot might not seem like a top priority for Congress”. Despite that Eshoo argues that fixing the problem would merely require the FEC to implement new rules setting limits on the volume of ads. While it may appear somewhat obscure and frivolous, this is not the first noise regulation that Congress has passed, as car and house alarms are subject to noise regulations.

Since I can’t imagine anyone other than Matthew Lesko objecting to such a regulation, I applaud Ms. Eshoo for attempting to delay my eventual purchase of a Miracle Ear.

On Spock you can show your support for commercial volume regulations and become apart of a whole new people search by tagging yourself with “dislikes loud commercials”.

The race is over, both sides fighting courageously.  After months and months of tireless preparation, the victor was crowned on national spotlight to a large audience.  Each party contended ferociously from state to state, winning in some and losing in others.  Hundreds of thousands of supporters for both sides will have to wait for another year for the glorious opportunity.  Some controversy surrounded the outcome, but the best party earned and deserved the victory. 

Yes, the Detroit Red Wings have won the 2008 Stanley Cup championship over the Pittsburgh Penguins.  The matchup was a classic one, displaying unequaled skill from some of the best players in both leagues.  Henrik Zetterberg, the Conn Smythe winner and one of the top two-way players in NHL, led Detroit to its fourth Stanley Cup in eleven years.  Sidney Crosby, one of the most skilled and praised players, headed the young but formidable Pittsburgh team. 

While hockey’s popularity falls short to that of baseball, basketball, and football, it could be argued that it is the most pure and exciting sport, comprised of the best fans, and has the best playoffs.  I like hockey’s fast pace, unlike baseball’s.  I’ll take any hockey matchup over basketball’s - see the 2008 NBA East teams that disgraced the sport.  And I’ll watch the Stanley Cup championship instead of the Super Bowl any year (excluding 49ers appearances) because the Super Bowl is way too commercialized.  Also, the Stanley Cup championship was more competitive than American Idol and fairer than the American primary election. 

I hate Barry Zito and Brian Sabean.  I’m not sure if I hate Zito because he’s one of the worst pitchers or signed the biggest contract for a pitcher in baseball history without earning a cent of it.  Sabean is just a clown in suit and tie - I could make better baseball decisions with my fantasy baseball experience.

My dislike for Zito grew after I lost an office bet to my co-worker.  It was a one-sided gamble for me in that I had all to lose and nothing to gain.  I offered a prize to my co-worker on the basis that Zito would win the game.   If he did not win, I would have received nothing.  This fully-lopsided bet was placed during the time at the time I was completely confident that the overpaid pitcher could not win a game unless the opposing team’s players all got arrested the day before, rendering them unable to appear and, thus, unavoidably forfeiting the game. 

Zito, the worst pitcher in baseball with a 0-8 record, was to face the Florida Marlins, a promising young core with outstanding offense.  But, good opposition or not, I still would have bet against him. 

That Saturday came and Zito won his first game of 2008.  I was more angry that I lost the bet than I was happy that my Giants won the game.  It turns out the baseball gods get irked when people bet against their own team.  On that day, the gods punished me for my disloyalty toward my beloved team.

I still hate Zito because he upsets me both when he loses and wins.

I hope I still have enough hatred in me to direct toward Brian Sabean.  Here is a list of bonehead moves this general manager has made during his tenure:

• Signed Barry Zito to a $126 million contract.  Scott Boras was the evil mastermind behind the signing but Sabean was a deciding factor in its conclusion. 
• Never put a good hitter behind Barry Bonds, an absence of a move that baffled me during the beginning of the 21^st century.  Imagine what Bonds would have done had he had Vlad. 
• Signed Ray Durham for $8 million a year.  As I could name a hundred pitchers better than Zito, I could name a hundred better second basemen than Ray Durham.  
• Paid the following players’ kids tuitions without having them do anything: Steve Finley, Ryan Klesko, and Dave Roberts.
• Traded Joe Nathan (top closer), Boof Bonser (great name), and Francisco Liriano (Cy Young potential) for A.J. Pierzynski.  Enough said.
• Signed relievers that decimated the Giants’ records.  LaTroy Hawkins ruined the G-Men’s chances at the playoffs in 2005.  Armando Benitez has always been a bum.  I left a Giants game when he was brought in to close.

Sabean, you are an arrogant fool who admits to no wrongdoing.  You are no Billy Beane and will never amount to anything in baseball in the eyes of true baseball fans.  In 20 years I will never be able to say that I was a part of that classic Giants team during your stint.  You neither have the brains nor the motivation to build a team like the Giants of the late eighties or that of 1993, my favorite.  Will we ever again have a team with players like Will Clark, Matt Williams, Robby Thompson, John Burkett, and Billy Swift?  Not under Sabean’s watch.

On Spock, a people search engine, you can look for athletes and see their bios, photos, news, and online references.  You can search for baseball players, tennis players, PGA golfers, Boston Celtics, or even people accused of using steroids in the Mitchell Report and NBA slam dunk champions.  You can update players’ pages with the latest news simply by going to their search results and adding news items. 

Even if you are a disgruntled fan like me, you can always go to Spock and look for players of whom you had fond memories. 

Dwight Yoakam, the country singer and actor, added another accolade to his career, when he broke the record for most musical performances on the Tonight Show. Making his 24th appearance on the show, the actor from Sling Blade and Wedding Crashers, first performed on the show in 1986 when it was still hosted by Johnny Carson. Having released the album “Dwight Sings Buck”, a tribute to Buck Owens, Yoakam had been tied with Lyle Lovett for most musical appearances.

Inspired to find out about other record holders, a Spock people search for Guinness Book of World Records returns everything from Randy Gardner (most consecutive days without sleeping) to Rosalie Bradford (biggest weight loss). With over 44,000 World Records, the Guinness Book of World Records coincidentally holds the record for best-selling copyrighted book.

With International Guinness World Records day on November 9th, check out Spock today to see if their are any records you might be able to break.

With the Kentucky Derby over, and the Democratic Nomination to be resolved in August, one of the more intriguing races will occur in movie theaters later this month. Set to premier a week apart, two of the summers most anticipated movies, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex and the City, will battle for the top box office draw. Appealing to slightly different audiences, both movies carry unusually large fan bases and involve A-List actors such as Harrison Ford, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Mario Cantone. Spock looked into the popularity and people search figures for both films to determine which will have a better opening weekend.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will follow Harrison Ford through a new adventure and includes new comer Shia Labeouf and the familiar Karen Allen from Raiders of the Lost Ark. As the fourth installment of the series, this will be Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s first Indiana Jones movie in 24 years.

Sex and the City, is the first movie release following the tremendously popular HBO series. In bringing the entire cast together, this will be Michael Patrick King’s first time directing a major motion picture. Despite catering to a female audience, Sex and the City has become popular among both sexes like devoted fans and Spock employees Jon Frank and Phil Zigoris.

Among the blogisphere both movies have been widely discussed, with literally millions of posts written over the over the past year. Yet within the past month Sex and the City has generated nearly twice as many blog posts with around 148,000 posts, compared to the 73,000 for Indiana Jones. Sex and the City also had nearly double the news traffic as Indiana Jones with around 6,500 news stories in May. While Sex and the City may have a larger web fan base, on Spock both movies saw comparable search query increases for April and May, with Sex and the City at 22% and Indiana Jones at 19%. Indiana Jones also performed better in terms of its web page traffic, where Alexa Rankings indicated that www.indianajones.com had twice as much traffic over the past three months as http://www.sexandthecitymovie.com/. Considering the significant time gap between the other movies, this is fairly significant indicator of success for Indiana Jones.

Opening in theaters worldwide, both movies stand make historic profits. However at the end of the day, it’s likely that Indiana Jones will have a better opening weekend draw. In benefiting from no other films opening on the same day, its appeal to both male and female audiences, the popularity of its previous movies, and a more family friendly PG-13 rating, it should make Indiana Jones the more profitable movie. Though Sex and the City will likely achieve the most successful opening weekend for a female oriented film, it’s likely to be hurt by an R-Rating, and weak appeal to male audiences.

It’s been several years since the independent film Napoleon Dynamite came out, and it will be many more before people cease to imitate the its main character and recite its lines.  The movie has become a cult-classic, embodying frequent random one- liners and casting a distinctive body of socially-awkward characters.  While the movie is highly underrated in some rights, it is highly overrated in others.  But it is highly unforgettable.

The unique movie has bred unoriginal followers.  Whether or not chickens have large talons or girls only want boyfriends who have great skills are things people constantly hear from tireless Napoleon imitators.   Going to a Halloween party, one has to expect to see a few guys in red curls, black moon boots, and white “Vote for Pedro” ringers.

Most of the Napoleon actors will probably only be remembered for their roles in the movie but there is much more to know about each of them.  A query under the search “Napoleon Dynamite” on Spock brings up all the people involved in the making of the movie.  Spock allows its users to share their knowledge of Napoleon Dynamite without irritating their friends.  They can add photos, relationships, and links, on actors’ search results.  Additionally, they can add quotes to the actors’ search results and save themselves the inevitable, horrible impression.  Also, Spock is the only people search application on which people can actually vote for Pedro.

So check out Jon Heder or Efren Ramirez’s page and see if they as dynamite as their characters.

Gosh! 

California’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage, finding the state’s constitution “properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.” The judgment, which overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage, will allow same-sex couples to legally marry in California.

Decided by a 4-3 vote, those who voted to overturn the ban were Chief Justice Ronald George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar, and Carlos Moreno. In the court opinion, Ronald George wrote “The differential treatment at issue impinges upon a same-sex couple’s fundamental interest in having their family relationship accorded the same respect and dignity enjoyed by an opposite-sex couple,…”.

Those who offered dissenting opinions were Associate Justices Marvin Baxter, Ming Chin, and Carol Corrigan. In his dissenting opinion Baxter wrote, “If such a profound change in this ancient social institution is to occur, the People and their representatives, who represent the public conscience, should have the right, and the responsibility, to control the pace of that change through the democratic process,”.

While a number of other states including New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, and Hawaii allow for legal unions, only Massachusetts and California recognize same-sex marriages.

On Spock you can do a variety of people searches about controversial topics such as same-sex marriage, and illegal immigration.