Post subject: Facebook "enhances intelligence" but Twitter "diminishes it" claims psychologist
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:38 pm
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:45 am Posts: 1959
Spending time on the Facebook networking site could enhance a key element of intelligence that is vital to success in life a psychologist has claimed but using Twitter may have the opposite effect.
We"ve posted several blogs about the various ways Google geo tools have contributed to disaster relief efforts.nbsp;Last year, Direct Relief created a KML of health centers in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.nbsp;More recently, UNOSAT used Map Maker data during the western Africa floods.
Mapping technologies may be central to understanding and responding to disasters, but many other technologies--such data-feed mechanisms, people finders, and reporting amp; communication tools--are necessary as well. With this in mind, we"re partnering with The World Bank to host the first-ever Random Hacks of Kindness codejam.
The ultimate goal of Random Hacks of Kindness is to save lives. Random Hacks of Kindness will bring technologists and relief workers together to develop technologies that enable disaster victims to help themselves and give first responders and aid workers the tools they need to better help victims--to reduce loss of life and to speed recovery.
Over the course of two and a half days, speakers like FEMA Chiefnbsp;Craig Fugatenbsp;will expound on the mission, subject matter experts will brief self-organized teams on specific problems, a great deal of coffee will be consumed, and code will be written. Teams will have the opportunity to port their solutions down tonbsp;Camp Robertsnbsp;near Paso Robles, CA, where it will be tested in field simulations to provide real-time feedback for multiple iteration cycles.
We hope RHoK generates software solutions that help users predict, prevent, and respond to disastersbut, realistically, we know that coding over a single weekend is only a start. Thats why the codejam in November is the first RHoK, but not the last. In and effort to encourage the developer community to adopt disaster response as a mission, well hold a RHoK event every six to twelve monthssharing learnings from actual events, building on ongoing efforts, and collaborating on promising new technologies.
Join us! The codejam will take place from November 12-14 at thenbsp;Hacker Dojo, located in Mountain View, CA. Invitations to developers will go out shortly, so if you"re interested in coding, serving as a subject matter expert, or sponsoring the event, please visit www.randomhacksofkindness.org.
Posted by Jeff Martin, Google Crisis Response Team
Post subject: Peter Jackson"s "District 9": The SciFi Hit"s High-Tech Anti
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 4:14 am
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:48 pm Posts: 1543
Peter Jackson"s "District 9": The SciFi Hit"s High-Tech Anti-Apartheid Message
At Diego"s Comic-Con, "District 9" wowed its fanboy premiere and set Twitter afire with reports that the movie is one of the most original sci-fi films to come along in
years. Filmed in a quasi-documentary
style by South African newcomer Neill
Blomkamp and produced by Oscar-winning genre-master Peter Jackson, the movie follows the social
and geo-political repercussions of aliens crash-landing in Johannesburg
where they are sequestered in an apartheid-style homeland, treated like
refugees and forced to work for humans. They soon find a kindred spirit
in a
government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology.
Thirty-year-old Blomkamp saw "...South African society -- both the good and bad of the society
there -- and he wanted to put a science fiction spin on what he
witnessed growing up because he"s a science fiction geek,"
Jackson during a Com-Con interview. "I really like the idea that here was a guy
who was making a movie based on life experience, not just on some movie
that he was a fan of. "District 9" is not reflective of any movie that
I can imagine. It"s really very original, which I love about it, and
that"s totally Neill."
"It all had a huge impact on me: the white government and the
paramilitary police -- the oppressive, iron-fisted military
environment," Blomkamp said in an interview with The LA Times" Chris Lee. "Blacks, for the most part, were kept separate from whites.
And where there was overlap, there were very clearly delineated
hierarchies of where people were allowed to go."
After 48 seconds of documentary-style interviews with people expressing
concerns about recent immigrants, District 9 zooms into high gear with
a spaceship crash landing impact. An alien interrogation ensues, but by
then an intriguing framework sells the idea that this wont be your
ordinary special-effects-crazed thriller. The concept for this movie is
unique. In a world where aliens existed the first thing a government
would need to do to manage their existence, with regulations and
restrictions, curfews, news of where you can and can"t go.
"District 9" producer Peter Jackson took pains to explain to the LA Times
that "It"s a unique take on the science-fiction genre," he said. "It
has dramatized sequences and uses home movie clips. But it"s not like
"Cloverfield." It doesn"t remind you of anyone else"s movie."
The
movie"s off-line promotions employ signage that deliberately echoes
"Whites only" placards once seen in the South as well as cultural
touchstones from Blomkamp"s upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa.
"Warning: Restricted area for humans only," reads an ad painted on a
New York City wall.
D-9.com serves as a primer to the
self-contained world of "District 9," detailing security guidelines for
Twitter the popular microblogging service which has facilitated some of the most gripping photos over the last year such as the Hudson River airplane crash will now be able to support videos through the launch of startups like TwitVid.
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