Tuesday, July 29, 2008

LA HIT BY 5.8 RICHTER SCALE QUAKE - NO SERIOUS DAMAGE

On CNN there are extensive reports of a 5.8 Richter Scale Earthquake, centered in Chino Hills, about 29 miles south of LA. The quake wasn't large enough, fortunately, to cause major damage at least as reported thus far. A water main broke, but traffic's still moving through LA.

And now the earthquake was reduced to a 5.4 Richter Scale quake in size by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Do you have hope? New Barack Obama Video Moveon.org

The "funniest ad" award winner in MoveOn.org's "Obama in 30 Seconds" contest is the quintessential counterpoint to the cynicism-mongering ads that McCain and the folks who want to maintain the status quo in Washington have been running. Plus, it was made by actor (and MoveOn member) Rider Strong.

MoveOn is ready to run this ad on MTV and Comedy Central (as their first political ad ever.) Go, watch, it's audacious. Rove may know how to divide the electorate, Republicans may know how to use fear for their political gains, but this is the antidote.

"I laughed, I cried; it became a part of me.
Much better than the videos for McCain.
I want to see it again and again."



*for the sake of comparison, see another post here at Zennie's with a McCain video.



China Discovers Poll Dancing - Video

I'd never considered that poll dancing started to pick up in China! Wow. China! Well, check this out:



It's not an easy thing to do there as it goes against the "code" for women there. "To show off in this way," someone said in the movie," is to make people jealous."

Yep.

M.C Hammer and Speiser at TechCrunch Party


Speiser and Hammer, originally uploaded by drs650.

Ok. This is the first time I was in the same "house" as M.C. Hammer and missed seeing him. Yes, the TechCrunch party was that crowded. I also have not met this "Speiser" gentleman on the right. But the party was awesome and if you didn't see the video I created, you can do so with a click here.

Maria Ayerdi Is The Face Behind The New SF Transbay Terminal


Remember the San Francisco Transbay Terminal Design Competition video I created? Well, the executive director of the effort is none other than Maria Averdi. You can read more about her here.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Cuil Is A Cool Search Site That Launched This Week

So have you tried the website Cuil, well, it's actually a new search engine like Google. Check it out. More later.

Robert Scoble Talks About PodTech Demise At TechCrunch Party



I present my long form video documentary of the TechCrunch | August Capital Party held Friday, July 25th 2008 at
August Capital and hosed by TechCrunch Co-Founder / Editor Michael Arrington. First, let me thank Michael for the opportunity to do this at his event, as well as the time he gave me. Second, let me thank all of you who gave me your time at the party, which was the vast majority of you.

I set out to form a pattern of opinions on what the Democratic Party and Senator Obama should address on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. I also tried to give a view of what people were working on in the tech / web community. There's a lot here. But I also tried to make something fun to watch, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The video is 41 minutes long and some of the highlights: TechCrunch's Michael Arrington explaining that he hope Barack Obama sicks to his concern for "net neutrality" as well as his hope that issues regarding H1 Visas, the FCC, and the avoidance of Internet Taxes are addressed. Technorat Founder and Chairman David Sifty introducing his new venture OffBeatGuides.com. The great EtchStar.com service for devices like iPhones. An iPhone App from VSmax.com. Sara Lacy telling the Democratic Party to "get some balls." Andrew Mager talking about the party and introducing Cathy Brooks of Seesmic, who in turn introduced the Legendary Robert Scoble, and Brooks echoing (unknowingly) Lacy when she says the party should "grow a pair." And Robert talking -- at considerable length -- about what happened to PodTech and what it says, if anything, about the economics of Podcasting.

In all the message to the Democratic Party and Senator Obama was to work to achieve unity, don't fashion policies that tax the Internet or harm Net Neutrality, be courageous, and for Senator Obama to stay the course.

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