BlurtIt.com's "Questions and Answers" Page Offers Free Answers to User Questions on Many Topics

www.BlurtIt.Com is a British web site that started as a way to draw attention to people's blogs, or web logs, in one central location. As an innovation, BlurtIt tried a new "Questions and Answers" page, and it caught on like wildfire. Now there are thousands of visitors from England and America and elsewhere asking and answering questions for free.

There is a large database of answered questions. Now these are divided into categories, such as "Computers," "Education," and "Religion" for ease of navigation. Basically you are able to run a search for keywords, just like you might do on Associated Content, and find a 100 to 200-word answer on many of the questions you may have.

BlurtIt.com is like the Assocated Content of short questions and answers. It is a perfect spot for writers who are interested in more of the non-fiction, short abbreviated form of writing that you find there. Associated Content is better for short stories, essays, and longer articles (600 words plus).

Questions range from practical to theoretical. They are usually very good questions. I know this because I am a freelance writer for BlurtIt. I am paid to answer a certain minimum number of questions per week. I have extra requirements, beyond the usual answers. My answers must be punctuated correctly, use correct grammar and spelling, and be 150-200 words long.

"How can u find true love?" was the first question I answered today. Funny I should answer *that* one, but I am interested in relationships and religion especially, so I did. I answered it from my perspective as a Christian. True love is a two-way street, a choice that you make to be willing to give love to your partner. It is not just receiving love.

Another question was "How far is it from Jacksonville, Florida to Daytona Beach?" Now obviously this is too short of an answer to use 150-200 words. But I did not just give the number of miles. I looked up the map, and I used my words to describe the best highways to take, what towns you would pass through, and things like this. By requiring 150-200 words, BlurtIt is getting this kind of information across to readers.

Free answers do not require 150-200 words. You can be a free member and answer with a few words if you want. The longer answers are only required if you are a freelance writer contributing to BlurtIt. These are the "hot questions" currently playing on the web site as I write this: 1. How many wives did Julius Caesar have? 2. Where in Cape Town can my fiancé and I have an aids test done? 3. What have been the impacts of water in Bangladesh being contaminated with arsenic?

In these three questions you have one that is a history question, the second one is a practical, health quesion, and the third one is a political or I guess a health question also. If you are not interested in the particular questions that are playing at one time, just check back in later and you will surely find some that interest you. I know I have.

What BlurtIt.com ought to do now, in my opinion, is take the Questions and Answers page and link it to people's blogs who participate in the blog section. Then, you could both get an answer to your question, and read other people's blogs that talk about that same topic. How nice would that be?

Now here are 5 questions and answers that I have actually written on the page:

Question 1: I own a video game made by E.A. Sports. What should I know about E.A. Sports? (video games)

Answer 1: E.A. Sports is a sub-label of Entertainment Arts, one of the best established video game companies in the world since the 1990s. E.A. Sports, with its motto, "It's in the game," has developed realistic sports games featuring real-life announcers such as John Madden, and recognizable athletes, since 1993. Games are not created for one specific platform, as E.A. Sports games have been made for the Nintendo and Sega Genesis, the X-Box and Playstation 2, and more recently the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3. The company has its headquarters in Orlando, Florida.

The "Big Four" professional sports - football, basketball, hockey, and baseball - are all represented by E.A.Sports in the Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL, and NCAA Baseball series. Some characteristics of these games are the use of the most realistic graphics available, the presence of announcers throughout the game, the use of new and popular music, and the recognizability of star athletes - their appearance, gestures, and attributes. For example, NBA Live 2005 features Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony on the cover.

Question 2: I heard a preacher talk about Pascal's Wager of Faith. Can you explain it? (religion)

Answer 2: Pascal's Wager, also known as the Wager of Faith, was developed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal. The wager is a game of chance, modeled on card games and dice games that were popular in the Catholic Pascal's day. The game is binary, since there are two and only two choices that can be made. The choice represents an individual's belief about the person of God in Jesus Christ.

The first choice is life without God, which some people consider to be happy. If you take this choice, you accept that eternity is unknown to you. It may be nothing, or it may be an eternity of unhappiness. The second choice is life with God, which some consider to be unhappy or burdensome. If you take this choice, you accept an eternity of happiness in Heaven. The eternity of happiness in Heaven outweighs the perceived burden of accepting God in this present life. A supporting Bible verse might be Mark 8:38: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?"

Question 3: What is St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico?

Answer 3: St. John's College is a unique liberal arts college distinguished by its small size, its two campuses in Annapolis and Santa Fe, and its academic program, which is a 4-year study of the 100 Great Books of western civilization. Classes are called Seminars and tutorials, and they are kept small - no more than 20 students in a class.

The academic program is rigorous and orderly. The Seminar is for the discussion of great books of literature and philosophy: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Plato's Republic, Shakespeare's tragedies, the philosophy of Descartes, Kant, and Hegel, etc. The tutorial is for great books of math and science, and for the study of the ancient Greek and modern French languages. Some math and science works read are Aristotle's Physics, Euclid's Elements, Newton's Principia, and Einstein's Relativity.

Students emerge from the program with not only a Bachelor's degree, but an ability to think logically and consistently and an ability to ask questions that go to the heart of the matter. This is a frequent observation of individuals who employ or have some other relationship with "Johnnies," as St. John's graduates are called.

Question 4: What is the software Limewire™ and what does it do? (computers/internet)

Answer 4: Limewire, located on the World Wide Web at http://www.limewire.com, is a downloadable file-sharing program. There is a free, limited version, and a faster, more powerful version that costs a monthly fee. An individual or party may download Limewire to their computer, and then search for songs in MP3 format, pictures/photos, video clips, or even software programs, on the network of "shared files" provided by other users.

Each user has a "Shared Files" folder as part of their installation, and they may select files to place in this folder. These files may then be searched out and downloaded by other users. This is the concept of Person-To-Person, or P2P software. Once users download a file to their computer, they may store it in the "Library" folder, or they may move it to another location or folder on their computer. They may choose whether or not to make it available to other Limewire users like themselves. Limewire includes a music player (basically a primitive Windows Media Player) with the software, so you can play your newly found songs without running another program.

Question 5: What is this medicine Effexor® (or Effexor XR®) that my doctor has prescribed me?

Answer 5: "Effexor" (or Effexor Extended-Release) is the commercial name for Venlafaxine, a psychiatric medicine. It is prescribed by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to treat the conditions of ADD/ADHD, depression, and eating disorders/bulimia. Effexor is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). It blocks the absorption of serotonin and norepinephrine, which are chemicals that affect mood and concentration, by the brain. An increased amount of serotonin can lead to a more positive or stable mood over time in depression patients. It can also improve the focus and mental clarity of ADD/ADHD individuals.

Effexor, like many psychiatric drugs, is often prescribed together with another medication for the best result. It is taken in dosages of 75-225 milligrams, and works best when it is taken with food and is in the body continually for every 5 hour interval throughout the day. Effexor XR® was developed to provide an extended release of the medicine throughout the day.