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Q: The World ( Answered,   15 Comments )
Question  
Subject: The World
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: answerdude-ga
List Price: $4.50
Posted: 20 Jun 2002 12:21 PDT
Expires: 27 Jun 2002 12:21 PDT
Question ID: 29890
PLEASE ANSWER ALL PARTS OF THIS QUESTION.

I need to get a list of all the countries in this world and their
capitol cities.

Then I need to get the a list of all the newspapers, magazines, tv
shoes, radio shows, and all other forms of publications and places to
get news in every country in this world.

Then I need the contact information of every single company located in
Burkino Faso (I think that is how you spell it), Armenia, US, Canada,
Russia, France, England, and Germany.

Then I need a list of every single book published from the year 1 -
2002 in every single language.

Thanks
Answer  
Subject: Re: The World
Answered By: fugitive-ga on 20 Jun 2002 20:28 PDT
 
answerdude-ga

I accept your challenge. 

Feel free to ask for a refund if you are unsatisfied with my answers.
Understand, however, that by the very nature of information seeking, 
sometimes there is no answer, and sometimes there is not a complete
answer. I will indicate such, honestly, in my response below.

> PLEASE ANSWER ALL PARTS OF THIS QUESTION. 

I'm not being "legal" here, but your request as stated is not 
"please give me all the information for which I'm asking" rather 
you are seeking guidance to the extent that information is available 
for each part of your question. To require otherwise would be
irrational.
 
> I need to get a list of all the countries in this world and their
> capitol cities.
 
This one is easy. The CIA World Factbook is issued annually by the 
Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. It lists
all the countries in the world as well as their capital cities. 
You can find the latest copy (2001 edition) of THE WORLD FACTBOOK 2001
at the CIA web site here:

	http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

If you click on each country, then click on the link labeled
"government"
for each country, you will be able to determine the "capitol [sic]
cities"
of every country in the world. The entire work is, among other things,
a
listing of all countries and their capital cities.

> Then I need to get the a list of all the newspapers, magazines, tv
> shoes, radio shows, and all other forms of publications and places
to
> get news in every country in this world.

This one is a little harder. Since the category of "newspapers,
magazines,
tv shoes [sic], radio shows, and all other forms of publications and
places
get news in every country in the world" is a dynamic category (i.e.,
such
entities are constantly arising and going out of business) by
definition such
a listing is not possible. To buttress my argument I would refer you
to
the arguments of Sir Anthony (Antonio) Panizzi to the British
Parliament in
the mid 19th century as to why he was unable to produce a full catalog
of the Royal Library in any timely manner (since that would be an
extensive response peripheral to this topic, I would request you
submit another question to Google Answers to which I, or any of my
expert colleagues, would be more than willing to respond). Basically,
Panizzi argued cogently to the Parliament about the specific issues
that made the production of such a catalogue an impossibility, yet,
the ongoing process of producing such a catalogue to be incredibly
useful.

Now that I have posited that such a list is impossible, I can
nonetheless
point you to a tool that I consider to be the most universal listing
of
print publications (newspapers and magazines as you are requesting)
throughout the world. It is called the OCLC UNION LIST OF PERIODICALS.
This is a proprietary database (i.e., you can't get to it "for free"
on
the internet) consisting of over 8 million records of serials holdings
by
OCLC member libraries. Basically, you have a constantly updated
database
of what is owned by over 41,000 libraries in "82 countries and
territories
around the world." For information about OCLC products, including the
OCLC UNION LIST OF PERIODICALS I refer you to:

	http://www.oclc.org/about/

OCLC databases are not particularly expensive and are thus accessible
via many public libraries in the United States. I leave it to you to
inquire appropriately to your local libraries. This specific database
is the tool of choice for academic (university and college) libraries
for finding publications they do not own.

Regarding your desire to search for "all ... tv shoes [sic], [and]
radio shows"
I will reiterate the dynamic nature of this set of information also.
However,
I would not hesitate to recommend that you start at:

	://www.google.com/dirhp

Interestingly enough, I do NOT recommend that you search for
information here,
rather, that you select the following options on the above page in the
order
indicated:

Arts
 Television (alternatively "Radio")
   Programs (there are currently 14,699 listings)

In order to find similar items (i.e., television and radio programs)
for
the rest of the world, do the following:

Starting (again) with:

	://www.google.com/dirhp

click on the link near the bottom of the page labeled "World" which is
currently:

	http://directory.google.com/Top/World/

For each langauge listed you will have to be familiar with the
translated
terminology per the example in English above (e.g., Arts -- Television
--
Programs). As an example, here is what one would do to find all
Italian
Television programs:

http://directory.google.com/Top/World/
   Italiano
      Arte
         Televisione (o Radio)
            Programmi

In order to determine the terms used in each language, I recommend the
following translation web site:

	http://babelfish.altavista.com

Assuming English is your native tongue (an assumption I make merely
based upon the fact that your query herein is in English) you will
have
to select in the pull-down menu proffered that is labeled "Translate
from"
the appropriate option such as "Translate from English to Italian." If
you
then enter a term such as "television" and click on the submit button,
you
will be given (e.g.) the Italian word for television which is
"televisione." Hopefully, this will help you to navigate the various
languages offered at the "Google World" site.

If this technique does not result in "all ... tv shoes [sic], radio
shows" it
should nonetheless be the largest list you can possibly access via the
Internet.

You can extend this same technique with regards to "other forms of
publications"
and, in fact, any other information resources you deem relevant.
 
> Then I need the contact information of every single company located
in
> Burkino [sic] Faso (I think that is how you spell it), Armenia, US,
Canada,
> Russia, France, England, and Germany.

There are several approaches to getting this information. The most
direct
one I know is to contact the appropriate representatives in the United
States for each of those countries and ask for assistance. In
parallel,
you can contact the US political representation in each of those
countries
for assistance countries. Basically, deal with American political
representation
there, and foreign representation here.

Contact information can be found thus:

US Embassies

	Burkina Faso
	http://usembassy.state.gov/ouagadougou/

	Armenia
	http://www.arminco.com/embusa/

	Canada
	http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/index.asp

	Russia (Moscow Embassy)
	http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/index.asp

	France (Paris Embassy)
	http://www.amb-usa.fr/

	England (see United Kingdom)
	http://www.usembassy.org.uk/

	Germany (Berlin Embassy)
	http://www.usembassy.de/

In order to find consulates and embassies in the United States
representing
various countries, I recommend the US DEPARTMENT OF STATE KEY OFFICERS
LIST:

	http://foia.state.gov/mms/KOH/keyofficers.asp
	
To find all US companies (as you request) I recommend starting out at
the
web site for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the
definitive
database of all publicly traded entities:

        http://www.sec.gov/

Use the EDGAR database to retrieve required filings by all publicly
traded companies in the United States.

For privately traded companies, you can use any of the major internet
directories such as:

        http://www.switchboard.com/

You can use the Yellow Pages listing. If you click on the option
"Category
(view list)" and select each category one at a time, you will get a
search
screen from which you can enter each state, one at a time, and
retrieve
all listed business in that category for that state.

> Then I need a list of every single book published from the year 1 -
> 2002 in every single language.

This is another part of your question for which there is an imperfect,
but
still optimal, answer. In order to determine "every single book
published
from the year 1 - 2002" you will have to consult a number of different
resources. In the end, you will still never be able to come up with
such
a list since many items are self published, are not listed in the
resources
indicated, etc. I would suggest a good starting place would be the
following
print resources (i.e., book):

	Balay, Robert (ed.) GUIDE TO REFERENCE BOOKS 11th edition. Chicago :
	American Library Association 1996.

This is a work that will list various countries union catalogs, books
in print
series, etc. In addition to all the resources cited therein, I would
particularly
recommend the following "top level" resources for specific use:

	OCLC WorldCat (proprietary database - ask at local libraries)
	http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/

	RLIN (proprietary database - look for access at university libraries)
	http://www.rlg.org/

	The National union catalog, pre-1956 imprints; a cumulative author 
	list representing Library of Congress printed cards and titles 
	reported by other American libraries. Compiled and edited with the 
	cooperation of the Library of Congress and the National Union Catalog
	Subcommittee of the Resources Committee of the Resources and
Technical
	Services Division, American Library Association.  
	Published London, Mansell, 1968-1981. (volumes 1 - 754).

> Thanks 

You are most welcome. I confess that this answer is not complete, but
I hope my
efforts assist you in answering your question. Should you feel this
answer is
insufficient, please feel free to ask for a full refund of your asking
price.

fugitive-ga
Comments  
Subject: Re: The World
From: technonotice-ga on 20 Jun 2002 12:51 PDT
 
Hi AnswerDude,

I'm not here to answer the question but I recommend to attract
researchers, you increase the price a little. You're asking for a lot
of information from the researcher to locate for $4.50... Remember -
it's up to the researcher to decide whether they want to answer it!

Technonotice
Subject: Re: The World
From: wengland-ga on 20 Jun 2002 12:54 PDT
 
I cannot believe someone locked this question.  

<grin>

Are you sure you couldn't have offered less money for this?

However, here is a partial answer (since I cannot answer all parts):

Here is  a list of every place (town) in the US:
http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/tiger/tms/gazetteer/places.txt

And a list of just about every place and feature in the world:
http://www.calle.com/world/

Downloadable files of the NIMA.mil info that calle.com is based on:
http://164.214.2.59/gns/html/index.html
Subject: Re: The World
From: wengland-ga on 20 Jun 2002 12:56 PDT
 
Whups.  Didn't mean to double-post that last one.  BTW,
technonotice-ga, I think AnswerDude is poking fun at those folks who
are trying to use GA to get hundreds of hours of market research done
for a couple of dollars.
Subject: Re: The World
From: answerdude-ga on 20 Jun 2002 13:03 PDT
 
You are right, I am pocking fun at those people.  I think it is not
fare what is happening!
Subject: Re: The World
From: tlspiegel-ga on 20 Jun 2002 13:14 PDT
 
Hi answerdude!

Very strange.  1 question made me giggle:

"Then I need a list of every single book published from the year 1 -
2002 in every single language."  :)  (ROFL)

tlspiegel-ga
Subject: Re: The World
From: grimace-ga on 20 Jun 2002 13:30 PDT
 
Hi answerdude,

I'd be interested to know why you think GA is unfair.

If you think a question's asking too much for a low price: don't
answer it. Simple as that. Wait for a question which you think suits
you better.

I can understand your frustration - I suppose - at not becoming a
millionaire overnight as a researcher, but your protest seems a rather
silly way to vent it. I don't know whether the Editors here will
appreciate your sense of humour, either.

grimace
Subject: Re: The World
From: missy-ga on 20 Jun 2002 13:50 PDT
 
answerdude,

There is an e-mail address for such complaints.  Use it.  

This is not the proper venue to air one's grievances.

missy-ga
Subject: Re: The World
From: zeno-ga on 20 Jun 2002 15:29 PDT
 
Perhaps Google should alter the ratings system for low dollar
questions to something like this: one can't receive less than 3 stars
for a $4 question. That way one can succeed at a $4 question, but not
possible fail! Because as answerdude is poking fun at, people expect
the world. The researchers see the question and think, "Well, I can
give them $4 worth, even $10 worth" but no, the customer is not
satisfied and the researchers ratings go down. I guess it's best just
to ignore these people. But I fear that if a large percentage of
questions go unanswered, Google will simply pull the plug on this
whole experiment instead of taking it public.
Subject: The answer
From: jkey-ga on 20 Jun 2002 15:36 PDT
 
Thank you for your question, answerdude.

Here is the answer - 

http://ati.ks.cz/~jk/list.php?list=everything

it provides everything you requested and much more - it also contains
list of every single book which will be or even will not be published
from 2002 to 3015! You'll just have to clarify it little bit.

(Warning: It's quite huge page and you have to reload it several times
to get the whole message)
Subject: Re: The World
From: halejrb-ga on 20 Jun 2002 16:00 PDT
 
I had the same thought as technonotice.  A researcher only gets about
$3 for answering a $4 question.  Unless they can write out an answer
in about 10 minutes it's hard to see how they profit from this.  Of
course there is the intellectual satisfaction of answering a question.
 I suspect most of the researchers do this as a hobby as opposed to a
job.  I've been very impressed with the quality of the answers on this
site.
Subject: Re: The World
From: till-ga on 20 Jun 2002 16:09 PDT
 
Obviously somebody is misusing the google answers system here. YouŽll
find very strange people on many places on the internet. I remember a
lot of them during the last ten years.
What  makes it really worse here is that our friend answerdude-ga is
not only a customer. I think he should really get a clear warning from
the google answers team.
By the way: do you  answerdude-ga expect to be accepted as a serious
researcher by doing such nonsense here ?


till-ga <---------- shaking his head
Subject: Re: The World
From: dannidin-ga on 21 Jun 2002 02:36 PDT
 
Answerdude,
Simple: write down all the positive integers, in increasing order, in
binary. Convert the result to ASCII code. Your answer is in there,
somewhere (and much more besides!)
-d
Subject: Re: The World
From: dannidin-ga on 21 Jun 2002 03:45 PDT
 
Another comment on simple economics, AnswerDude: I fear that your
protest is doomed for failure. In the world of google information
researching, there is much more offer (i.e. countless unemployed
teenagers glad to research the web for practically nothing) than
demand. This is bound to drive prices down. Unless google decides, for
business reasons, to set a higher minimum price for a
question.......................
-d
Subject: Re: The World
From: purplegoat-ga on 22 Jun 2002 16:10 PDT
 
i just cant believe this!!! can some tell me everything that there is
to know for the grand sum of $1?????
Subject: Re: The World
From: fugitive-ga on 23 Jun 2002 19:41 PDT
 
42

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