Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

When visiting Answers, there are three main ways to engage with the members of the community: you can ask a question, answer a question, or vote.

By now, you’ve figured out that asking a question costs you points, and answering a question awards you points. But did you know that you can also earn a point by voting on an answer?

“How do I earn (or lose) points?”

• Give a best answer: earn 10 points
• Answer a question: earn 2 points
• Vote for an answer: earn 1 point
• Ask a question: lose 5 points
• Violate the community guidelines: lose 10 points

When participating on the site, a few tips will help you move from level to level in no time—they are:

• Provide Best Answers—be sure your answers are quality, don’t violate the Community Guidelines and answer the question!
• Search for your question before you ask it: while your question may seem unique, you may be shocked just how many people before you have come to Answers to ask “Why is the sky blue?” – Save your 5 points and use the Advanced Search feature to check the site for similar questions before asking your own.
• Use the “Sort” feature to find questions with the fewest answers—by filtering by the fewest answers you’re naturally “upping your odds” of earning a “Best Answer” as you’ll have fewer other answers to compete against, and, may be providing someone with the perfect answer!

With these tips under your belt, you’ll be at level 7 in no time! Happy answering!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

One of the things the Team is trying to improve this year is getting the Answers community involved earlier when we make improvements to the site. As part of that, we’d love for you to fill out a short survey on the notifications. Please find it here.

We need your opinion on what you love and where there is room for improvement, which notifications we send and how often we send them. Want to receive notifications via something else than email?

The survey is completely anonymous and the results will be used only by the Answers Team to help us with this project.

You can take the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YQZZBJB

Thanks so much for your help on this!

– Amanda and the Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Photo by Redvers

Answers is a goldmine of information, a maze of questions and curiosities, experiences and wonder. Navigating  it can be tricky though, especially beyond the usual categories. So in the first of a new type of blog post, we attempt to migrate meaningfully through the billion pieces of content we have on the site worldwide, finding connections as we go. We start our journey with one simple, high quality question…

Q: How do you read railway signals?

A:  “There are a bunch of them. But understanding some terminology will help you in your research. The first one is “aspect.” The aspect is the appearance of a signal that displays information to an approaching train. These are the different colours block signals display. Most commonly seen are red, green, yellow, yellow over yellow and flashing yellow. There are many other combinations. The next term is…” Read the full answer here>

Photo by Brostad

Railways are a fascinating subject, one that draws us back into history and how so many nations industrialised. Stephenson’s Rocket is well known as the first steam engine to go beyond the experimental phase and from there the mode of transport blossomed. It began to expand over the globe, leaving Answers users to ask…

Q: What is the longest railway route in the world?

A: “The longest railway in the world is considered to be the Trans-Siberian railroad (TSr). Its entire length is 9259 km (5753 miles) and goes from Moscow (western Russia, and capital) to Vladivostok, far in the East, a port on the Pacific. Total journey time is usually one week. The TSr branches off to make the Trans-Mongolian Railroad (Moscow to Beijing via Ulaan-Baatar [capital of Mongolia])”

Lake Bikal photo by World Resources Institute Staff

Over 9000km is a pretty serious journey and at least one Answers user, Our Man In Bananas, has taken it.

“Two years ago I took the Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to Irkutsk then Lake Baikal, where I jumped on the Trans-Mongolian Express to Beijing . I’d recommend you try and do at least 3 stopovers (or 4 if possible), and believe me, Lake Baikal is a must.”

“At all costs, make sure you take the Circum-Baikal train, which is known as the Tzars Golden Buckle, because building in bankrupted Russia . I hope that gets you started, it’s a magnificent journey that you will never forget and the cheapest long-distance train in the world too…”

See some more, pretty incredible images of Lake Bikal on Flickr here.

Naturally the Trans-Siberian railway passes through Siberia, a notoriously cold place, in fact the coldest inhabited place in earth. According to Irish Joe, the Verkhoyansk Mountains of northeast Siberia have winter temperatures fall to −71°C (−96°F). Now that’s cold. But what is the coldest part of the earth? Not the spot on the surface that’s coldest, but the coolest overall layer of the earth itself. Star B wanted to know, and thankfully Bella was on hand to help.

Q: What layer of the planet earth is the coldest?

“The crust or lithosphere is the coolest layer by far. It is what we live on. It is in the vicinity of 0 degrees C (varying with depth and location). The mantle is about 1,700 miles (2,750 km) thick. The mantle gets warmer with depth; the top of the mantle is about 1,600° F (870° C); towards the bottom of the mantle, the temperature is about 4,000-6,700° F (2,200-3,700° C).

The inner core may have a temperature up to about 13,000°F (7,200°C = 7,500 K), which is hotter than the surface of the Sun. The inner core (which has a radius of about 750 miles (1,228 km) is solid. The outer core is in a liquid state and is about 1,400 miles (2,260 km) thick.”

All this talk about 7,200 °C core brings imagery of lava and molten rock, like these shots from the Volcano group on Fickr. But Garrett wonders…

Q: Why don’t we harness their power to solve another tricky energy power problem: nuclear waste?

“Dumping into a volcano, and injecting into the mantle are two entirely different things. If we could manage to bore deep enough to get to the mantle, there may be something to your idea. We would want to do that far from potential sources of eruption. Of course, we don’t come anywhere close to drilling that deeply. If we dropped that stuff into a volcano and the volcano erupted, that would be really bad – shot up into the air etc. The usual idea is to put that stuff somewhere very geologically stable so that there is the smallest chance possible that an earthquake or eruption will spread that nasty, dangerous stuff around.”

Image by Floodkoff

Richard has a great answer too. Perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea after all, and reminds us of the challenges of nuclear power and all the waste and containment issues it generates.  JST Max is of similar mind, asking…

Q: What is clean energy?

“”Clean”, or renewable, energy sources are energy sources that are continuously replenished by natural processes. They are flows of energy (from the Sun or the planet’s hot core) while fossil and nuclear fuels are to great extent stocks of energy (stored, accumulated energy).

According to the World Energy Assessment report (2004) “Renewable energy sources generally depend on energy flows through the Earth’s ecosystem from the insolation of the sun and the geothermal energy of the Earth”.

More info here:

Broadly, the following are renewable (clean) energy sources:

• Biomass energy (plant growth driven by solar radiation)
• Wind energy (moving air masses driven by solar energy)
• Direct use of solar energy (as for heating and electricity production).
• Hydropower
• Marine energy (such as wave energy, marine current energy, and energy from tidal barrages)
• Geothermal energy (from heat stored in rock by the natural heat flow of the Earth)

If you ask me, if the current reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear can be substituted by use of renewable energy listed above, then my answer would be: “Yes, of course!” However, to be realistic here, this process will require decades to make such a transition and a lot of political and individual will and commitment.”

And if you’re talking about green energy sources and being better for our planet, then cutting down carbon emissions comes to mind, not least through greener transport. Which brings us full circle back to W23 and his question about railways again…

Photo by chrisjohnbeckett

At the start of the year, many people often think about getting things in shape: their homes, their bodies, but they don’t stop to think about getting their computers in shape. While online safety and virus protection should be thought about year round, this is a great time to take a quick refresher course on some of the common online threats that you may (or may not) encounter while surfing the net.

Online and within the news you’ve likely heard of some of the most common terms (malware, spam, viruses, and Trojans), but may not have known what they are, or, how to protect yourself or your computer from them. We’ve pulled together a quick resource guide outlining the who’s who, and where to go for more information. But when online, some of the most important things to remember are:

• Don’t trust pop-ups; things pretending to be virus checkers may actually be viruses (more on that later)
• You don’t have to understand a lot about online security to protect against the most common online threats. Keep your computer up to date and be suspicious about the sites you visit- employ the same skills you do in real life as you do online: don’t give out your personal information to strangers, and don’t trust something because it “sort of” looks official. And remember to trust your instincts: if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

What’s malware?

Malware is software that does something you don’t want done, usually installed without your permission. It includes viruses, worms and Trojans.

What is spam?

Spam is/can be: the repeated postings of the same content; off topic banter/answers/comments; links to commercial sites or merchandise; in general, unsolicited, unwanted or irrelevant messages, links or postings. You may run into it in your inbox, on message boards, in comments sections, etc. Basically, anywhere that someone can enter or submit text is susceptible to spam.

What is phishing?

This is any attempt to steal your account information. Phishers set up fake web sites that look like those of trusted companies to trick you into disclosing your account information. These pages can look nearly identical to the real thing, so it can be hard to tell that you are on a phony site.

Most commonly, you’ll see these as emails asking for the password to your bank account, your Yahoo! email account (urging you to send your account information or else your account will be terminated), or your credit card information. If you run into a phishing email on Yahoo!, please do report it to us!

Remember to never click on links in emails, no matter how official they look. Use bookmarks or physically type the site name in.

To protect yourself further, set a sign-in seal and don’t give out your Yahoo! password on your computer unless you see your sign-in seal (for more information on this, go here . This helps you know when you’re on a phishing page, or when you’re on a legitimate Yahoo! login page).

Yahoo! Security Center

At Security.yahoo.com you can assess your PC’s exposure to online threats, including malware, viruses, and an assortment of other online risks. Additionally, you can also learn about:

• Protecting your PC http://security.yahoo.com/article_pc.html
• Protecting your online privacy http://security.yahoo.com/article_privacy.html
• Protecting your children online at Yahoo! Safely http://safely.yahoo.com
• Getting rid of pop-ups, viruses, adware, or spyware http://security.yahoo.com/article.html?aid=2006102508
• And much more! http://security.yahoo.com/all_topics.html

How to help protect your machine

Be sure that your computer has antivirus software installed and that its virus definitions are up-to-date- many computers do not, and this leaves them open to many malware attacks. Programs like Norton Anti-Virus or Malwarebytes will help protect and prevent future attacks.

If you see a pop-up, close it promptly, without clicking on anything inside the window (buttons inside the window may download software, no matter what the label on them says, even if it’s “No”, or “Cancel”). Click the close button on the window frame (the “x” in the upper right on a Windows machine, the red button in the upper left on a Mac).

If that doesn’t work use “Ctrl + F4″ on Windows or “Shift + Cmd + W” on an Apple machine to close the window. Worst case, kill the browser with the Task Manager on Windows or Force Quit on a Mac, and if you can’t do that, reboot the machine. (Be sure to save your work in other programs!)

Then run a virus-scan using an anti-virus program to check for any malware remnants.

At the end of the day, it’s up to YOU to help keep your online experience safe—keep your software up-to-date and be cautious about giving out information, including passwords.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Photo by Globovisión

On Tuesday, January 12, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, centered 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The quake has caused widespread damage and casualties and structural damage. At this point, authorities are unsure as to just how much damage the quake has caused but know that its impact was vast and intense.

In times like these, it is important for communities to band together to provide support.

On Answers, we form a community of collective knowledge- but in the real world, together, we create a collective bound together by one thing: humanity, and the ability to endure. And in times like these, it’s important to remember that, and to help others persevere.

According to the Associated Press, “it was clear from a tour of the capital that tens of thousands of people had lost their homes and that many had perished. Many buildings in Haiti are flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.”

To learn more about how you can send your support to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti please follow the links below.

Unicef – Efforts in Haiti – Donate

Donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee -  Red Cross Blog
British Red Cross Flickr photos

View more of Globovision’s photos from the quake. WARNING: photos contain images that may not be suitable for children.