WowWee’s Alive White Tiger Cub gets unboxed, showcased on video
July 22, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: Robots
Continue reading WowWee's Alive White Tiger Cub gets unboxed, showcased on video
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Bauhaus tops
July 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Bauhaus artist Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack designed these Optischer Farbmischer (optical color mixer) tops in the early 1920s. Reproductions by Naef are available from Fawn & Forest for $49. From the product description:
Bauhaus tops (Fawn & Forest, thanks Kelly Sparks!)The first production of this toy started in 1977. The "Bauhaus Optischer Farbmischer" shows us how the rotation of a top brings about a color blend. Varying aspects of color theory are deomonstrated on the reverse of the inter-changeable color discs Not for children under 3 years old.
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Web-Crawling Program Spots Disease Outbreaks
July 20, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
no1home writes "There is a story at Discovery Channel's site about a new utility for mapping disease. The premise is to have bots crawl the web looking for stories about disease outbreaks and log them onto a map. '"We were originally thinking about how we could expand disease surveillance and pick up outbreaks earlier than traditional methods," said John Brownstein of Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, who created HealthMap in September of 2006 with Clark Friefeld, a software developer at Harvard Medical School.' But then it was noticed by Google.org and has since grown into its own website, HealthMap Global disease alert map, and claims to be able to identify 95% of all disease outbreaks, some of them before WHO or CDC."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Make it stop: Roomba with chimp head
July 19, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
This little guy scares the daylights out of me: a Roomba topped with an animatronic chimp head. No purpose is claimed, but I think it's safe to say it's for scaring pets and children. Does it remind anyone else of that episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force where they put Carl's head on an RC truck? Via BoingBoing.
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Barenaked Ladies cancel Disney show after drug rap
July 18, 2008 Category: Disney news No Comments »
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Popular Canadian band the Barenaked Ladies has pulled out of a children's charity show organized by Walt Disney Co after lead singer Steven Page was charged with possessing cocaine, the band said in a statement posted on its website on Friday.
US ISPs Announce Anti-Child-Porn Agreement
July 17, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that ISPs have gathered together with 45 attorney generals and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to form an agreement to crush child pornography. What does that mean? Probably the same as it meant for RoadRunner, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon customers — the end of the newsgroups." Here's the back-patting press-release from the various parties who signed on (the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Association of Attorneys General), though the actual text of the agreement does not seem to have been made public.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Maker Faire Austin Auditions this Sunday, July 20th at the Austin Children’s Museum
July 17, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Come by the Austin Children's Museum (201 Colorado St.) on Sunday July 20th, from 1pm - 5pm for the Maker Faire Austin Auditions. To request a 15 minute time slot and more information, please send an email to sherry@oreilly.com. (Pictured above is our own Gareth Branwyn showing how to make Mousey the Junkbot.)
Austin Children's Museum
201 Colorado Street
Austin, TX
(512) 472-2499
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Fifty-Three Years of Memories at Disneyland
July 17, 2008 Category: The Disney Portal No Comments »
53 years ago today Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom of Disneyland opened to the world with a, rare for the time, live broadcast television special featuring some of the biggest stars of the day and a crowd of excited invite only guests (plus about an equal number of guests who used counterfeit tickets or snuck in over the low berms). Walt’s vision of a little park where parents and children and family members of all ages, races, creeds, and nationalities could have fun together was a huge hit and quickly outpaced all estimates for attendance. No one since has quite matched the magic of the Happiest Place On Earth and I doubt anyone ever will.
Disneyland, the Imagineers old and new, cast members who make the magic every day, and all the special attractions, hidden nooks, exquisite detail, featured performers, and rich history hold a near and dear place in my heart. Everyday I’m away from ‘the park’ I feel a little heavier in my heart. But the magic is available in smaller doses at other parks like Walt Disney World, via the passion of its fans, and in my memories, which I will always cherish.
So Happy Birthday to Disneyland! And for everyone who, like me, wishes they were walking right down the middle of Main Street USA this morning instead of heading into work. Here’s a couple videos to help wipe away a few of those blues:
Originally posted on The Disney Blog.
Fifty-Three Years of Memories at Disneyland
Loren Feldman, The New Yorker, and Social Media Evil
July 17, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid talking further about the race relations meme that ran around the tech blogosphere last week as a result of a year old Loren Feldman video cropping up in the news. The reason for this is pretty simple: I didn’t have the guts to talk about race. That’s right, you heard me. Me. The guy that’ll take on just about any controversial political topic (so long as I can loosely bring it back to social media somehow) didn’t have the guts to speak his mind.
The reason for this is simple: throughout the blogosphere and the various tentacled arms by which the dialogue extends from it, everyone was talking race last week. And it wasn’t very long into the discussion that the very thing I spoke about yesterday in context of Wikipedia and other forms of democratic social media started happening to folks who in any way defended Loren: they were pushed to the fringe and given the most awful label someone can have these days.
Racist.
I’m broaching it now because one of the least controversial persons in the blogosphere, Chris Brogan, has decided to speak up on the topic and raise an important point. Before I get to his point, I’d like to explain my reasons for dropping out of the conversation, as I think it’s somewhat germane to the important issue he raises.
In the past, I probably would have waded in hip deep to the ongoing debate regarding whether or not Loren Feldman was overtly racist in his video, whether the satire was appropriate, and whether Verizon’s response of removing him from the network was indeed a measured or nuclear response. The problem was (and is), I’ve found, is that this debate devolves very quickly into emotional territory, whether or not the participants in the discussion are racist, and who is next to receive the Imus treatment.
In other words, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Speaking in analogy and metaphor is central to the art of explaining and debate. Unfortunately in this day and age of political correctness, it’s almost impossible to know when you’re about to step on a landmine when you’re in this emotionally charged quagmire.
Simply put, I have a wife and two children. My words are what put bread and butter on the table. If I suddenly get the scarlet letter, my livelihood is gone from me.
This has to end. Everyone needs to man up in the social media world, put aside their emotions for a moment, and put on their thinking caps. Chris Brogan very rightly likens the current controversy over the New Yorker magazine cover to the Loren Feldman incident as an echo. The mainstream media is performing their punditry over the “Terrorist Fist Jab” in much the same black and white tones as we did last week over the Loren Feldman “TechNigga” video. He goes on to ponder the fact that there might be more important things to worry about:
But this is what’s out there. This is the surface. This isn’t the secret campaigns that will (are?) spread through social networks, across back channels, hidden in some other kind of FriendFeed that we haven’t seen. Or maybe it’ll be out in the open, as Louis Gray reported on a short while back.
For a moment, we need to consider the larger implications of how social media can power some really negative experiences. Flash mobs are fun. But what else could they be?
What’s really ironic here is that this is one of the larger points that Loren Feldman was driving at with his satire (and he even spelled it out verbatim in an expletive-laden post after the series, embedded below). In between all the “gotcha, you’re a racist” moments in the conversation surrounding this, it seems that point is what was lost.
Chris goes on to say:
This isn’t one of those “film at 11? shocker posts. Instead, it’s something I wanted to write to say that if you think that beating Loren Feldman down because his video broke away from satire and fell into racism, then you’ve lost. The fight is, I believe, a lot more sinister, running deeper under the radar than that, and with names that aren’t in the blogosocialmediacirclefishbowl sphere.
I don’t know if this post qualifies as a “Film at 11″ post, but I’m here to say that these days are here. The things that Loren warned about last year are happening, and the malicious usage of social media for evil intent is here.
Let’s go over a sampling of the stories of the last year or so where social media has been used to pursue a racist or hate-filled agenda:
Senator Joe Lieberman Notices Al Qaeda Calls YouTube Home. Over the last year or so, I’ve kept a pretty decent track of the escalating level of hypocrisy in the enforcement of YouTube’s terms of service, particularly when it comes to free speech issues. The government is starting to take note as well, and due to what is largely the Web 2.0 world’s inability to properly and consistently police themselves, is on a path to enforce draconian speech regulation similar to what the EU has in place.
Orkut a Haven for Pedophiles. Google held fast the position to protect the identities of child predators until public opinion turned on them. These pedophiles were using the wilds of the mostly anonymous dark corners of popular social networks to, in an organized manner, prey on children.
Al Qaeda Learns Social Media Marketing. An academic study shows that certain propaganda elements of Islamic terror groups are more well versed in social media marketing than most American businesses. We’re not talking YouTube only here, either. Just about every major social networking tool is infiltrated, and they’re recruiting as young and impressionable as possible.
How long do you think it will be before this malicious intent strikes home for you? For those of you with loved ones fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere - do you think they’ve met an enemy combatant who was recruited via social media tools? Do you imagine it’s possible for the real racists in America (the ones who aren’t averse to violence to prove a point) might figure out these tools as well? It’s been speculated publicly by Hillary Clinton herself that America isn’t ready for a black president, and that he may not survive his term in office. Do you think the tools that aid communication and organization might be used to facilitate that?
How long do you imagine it will be before the government figures out this is something they can use to frighten voters into supporting more freedom restricting legislation?
It’s time for us to stop tarring and feathering one another over what are ultimately silly emotional fights and look for ways to police ourselves responsibly, before the government decides to do it for us.
Let the brainstorming commence.
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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Good and Evil
Be a Digg Rockstar with Social Media Firefox Extension
NGTV - Joost’s Evil Twin
Ticket Giveaway to SMX Social Media in Long Beach, CA
John Furrier Says Google’s CIO is Leaving for EMI
The Geek’s Guide to Good and Evil
Web 2.0 Invites for November 19th, 2007
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TotSpot Adds New Features, Still Making Your Kids True Early Adopters
July 16, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
As one of the few parents on the Mashable team, Mark had a more unique perspective on photo-sharing network TotSpot than myself. It’s great to see a family-oriented site geared towards the early adopter crowd nonetheless, given the ease with which content can be aggregated from across the web and distributed through one’s channel on TotSpot. Now that the team has had time to benefit from the feedback of avid early adopters like Mark, and a reported 8,500 other users, TotSpot has launched its public beta in the past few weeks, and is rolling out several new features today.
Public pages top the new feature list, which makes showing off your kids’ photos and videos that much easier. Privacy settings are still in place, so you can make a page private or password protect it (to keep things in the family). Interestingly enough, founder Adam Katz told us that this feature came as a request from users, most of which have heard about TotSpot through the company’s Twitter stream, proving yet again TotSpot’s appeal in the early adopter crowd and its ongoing dedication to both aggregation and redistribution of content.
Other new features include custom TotSpot themes (it’s like branding for your babies!), and the ability to organize your photos across albums. I imagine this last new feature is the most important for TotSpot users, as it allows for a better experience overall, given that TotSpot is a media-sharing site in the end.
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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Totspot Teaches My Children About DataPortability [invites]
Windows Live Messenger Malware Forces Upgrade for Users
How To Lose Your Users and Kill Your Web 2.0 Company: Zoto
37Signals Releases Backpack Update
Upgrade Time: 16 Services So Cheap it’s a Shame Not to Pay
iTunes’ DRM-free Music Now Available
Me.dium Adds Support For Songbird Media Player, Firefox 3
