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Posts Tagged ‘Critic’

It must have been difficult challenge to come up with creating design plans to save the day when sea levels will rise and drown vulnerable nations because of global warming. International Urban Sea Level Rise Ideas competition for Sydney Harbour had many interesting entries and winners but the co-winner idea – The Embassy of Drowned Nations Concept Plan hits at the right painful nerve.

The basic concept plan is to build a sunken city off Sydney Harbour which will be blend of Atlantis and Eden something like Ellis Island. Such islands will be refuge for displaced population of drowned nations who will then later integrate into harbour nation as refugees and migrants with no roots. It is very sad but true that the reality is not very far when citizens from Maldives and Venice will need transitional homes because we cannot reverse climate change, sea levels will rise with global warming and angry sea will engulf land.

It is very futuristic and real concept indeed because there will be need of Embassy of Drowned Nations too in few decades. The silver lining is, these ideas give hope that for every drowning home there will be a savior.

It is very disturbing that dark competitions are being held to create awareness but darker question is, does collective humanity (which is enjoying state of amnesia and bliss) really care about the planet and future of vulnerable countries? Can we stop the deluge?

Via Gizmodo

In a galaxy far, far away, the battle for the safety and continuity of the Galactic Republic against the Trade Federation had occupied Luke Skywalker, the son of the legendary Anakin Skywalker, who at the end turned to be the dreaded Darth Vader himself. During this epic battle that spanned the immortal six movie length episodes of the Star Wars saga and numerous television as well as animated series, one constant that made its presence felt besides Luke, was the chubby little Android, R2-D2, who is often associated as Luke Skywalker’s sidekick.

Now after years of battling the Trade Federation, the Sith Lords and Darth Vader and finally claiming victory, our Android warrior it seems finally decided to settle down and have a family of his own, as during this year’s annual Star Wars super-convention, the Star Wars Celebration V, R2-D2 finally entered into the holy tie of matrimony with StarWars.com editor Bonnie Burton. The gala celebration was presided by none other than, Darth Maul himself and the attendees at the altar included, Lord Vader and the funky looking Elvis Trooper.

According to Bonnie Burton.

“I’ve always had a secret crush on Artoo ever since I first saw him in A New Hope. Granted, I was just a kid then. What did I know about astromech love? But I kept a special place in my heart for him, fully knowing I may never meet him face to dome. It wasn’t until many years later when I landed a job as Lucasfilm that I took my chance and made the first move. R2-D2 puts all you human boys to shame. He’s got a built-in GPS (so says Uncle George) so he never gets lost. Plus you should see Artoo’s dance moves! And yes, he’s got more gadgets and charm than James Bond himself.”

Via Dvice & Laughing Squid

Art is a talent that has no age limits and as long as one has creativity and a unique eye for conceptualization, regardless of how old you are, you would always be appreciated. As is in the case of Kieron Williamson, an eight year old boy, who has now been coined as the ‘Mini Monet’ for his incredible paintings and is said to be one of the most collectible artists of the modern age. This uniquely talented kid came into the spotlight last week, when 33 of his paintings were sold for an incredible $237,000 in under half an hour.

A resident of Holt, Norfolk, Kieron had put up his paintings up for sale at the Picturecraft gallery and the sale immediately started pulling in interest from avid art collectors, who paid between $2,883 and $12,634 for the paintings put up for sale by the Mini Monet. The assortment of attendees for this incredible sale consisted of collectors from Arizona, New York and South Africa. These art collectors have known to camp outside the gallery for 48 hours, so as not to miss any of the sale items. Kieron picked up painting as a hobby in May 2008, while vacationing with his family in Devon and Cornwall.

According to Kieron’s father, Keith Williamson,

“We went to the Eden Project and gave his little sister some felt-tips. Kieron asked for a pad to do some drawing and colouring, so we bought him one to give him something to do. That evening, we went to look at a harbour. Kieron got up in the morn­ing and did this amazing picture of it from memory.”

Via Daily Mail

Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest scientists of the world, warns the human race to survive, we must leave the planet Earth.

In an interview to the website Big Think, astrophysicist, author of bestsellers like “The Universe in a Nutshell“, explains that human behavior itself will lead to the need to populate other worlds.

He cites the use of weapons as one of the situations that endanger our survival – giving even the example of the missile crisis in Cuba during the Cold War.

Hawking, who says an “optimistic” with our chances, it also states that population growth and use of the planet’s resources contribute to the idea that our future is the same elsewhere. “Our only chance for survival is to stay here on planet Earth, but we spread out into space,” he says.

See parts of the transcript of the audio interview by Hawking.

“I see great danger to the human race.

There have been many times in the past where the survival was only a matter of probability. The missile crisis of 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is like to increase in the future. We will have to be careful discernment to negotiate all successfully.

But I am an optimist.

If we can avoid disasters in the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread for space. If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, we should make sure the survival and continuity. But we entered a period of increasingly dangerous in our history.

Our population and the use of the planet’s finite resources are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment – for good or evil. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that ensured our survival in the past. It will be difficult to avoid disaster in the next 100 years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance for survival is to stay here on planet Earth, but we spread out into space. We have made much progress over the past 100 years, but if we are to continue beyond the next 100 years, our future is in space. So I am in favor of manned flights to space. ”

Via: BigThink.

Many commendable initiatives start tiny, almost unnoticed, but can offer experiences that are capable of changing people’s lives. David Risher, former vice president of Amazon is a founder of Worldreader, philanthropic organization that is betting that digital books are able to influence in education and literacy in developing countries.

Risher left even before the Amazon Kindle have been released, but saw the product created by the former the possibility of offering a wide variety of books in areas of the planet where a printed copy may take up to six months to reach the hands of students.

The Worldreader still is one such initiative that almost go unnoticed – they are only eight full-time employees – but he wants to do something to change the status of current reading in less developed countries. Earlier this year, the organization could do a pilot project, with some donated by Amazon Kindles, and they realized that the devices are really useful in the classroom, especially for readings of fiction that are a little longer. “Getting the books are as accessible as we receive a cell phone call really changes how they see the reading,” says the founder of Worldreader.

In partnership with the government of Ghana, the organization intends to extend the project and is seeking investment to conduct further tests later this year this time with a group of 300 high school students, who are to receive appliances with domain books already stored in public memory, as well as some local bonds, which has helped Worldreader port to digital formats.

Via: WSJ.

People who visit the Museum of Warsaw Uprising can now, with the help of a 3D film, have a more concrete idea of the devastation unleashed in Warsaw by Nazi German forces in World War II.

Adolf Hitler brutally suppressed the uprising of 1944, leaving the city before sophisticated and bustling 1.3 million inhabitants to a smoldering shell whose ruins were home to fewer than a thousand people.

The six-minute film “City in Ruins” simulates flying a fighter-bomber B-25 Allied Forces, the kind that made flights carrying supplies to the insurgents during the 63-day uprising that became the symbol of Polish resistance against tyranny.

Using imagery and historical records, the film recreates a detailed model of how the city was after the revolt, with the bridges over the Vistula River and destroyed entire neighborhoods, including the Jewish ghetto, completely devastated.

The film’s release, which should be viewed with 3D glasses, was timed to coincide with the 66th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944.

Most of the destruction of the city resulted from the vengeance of the German army by brutal uprising against its rule.

Michal Gryn, Platige Image studio, which created the film, said that “City in Ruins” surpasses anything that has already been done in 3D animation.

Via: Reuters.

A survey in the United States revealed data about iPad users in the general population. The tests were meant to show the personality, the demographics and interests of this group of consumers.

According to the MyType, which via Facebook polls conducted between March and May with 20 000 people, owners of Apple’s tablet are “rich, well educated and sophisticated, value the power and achievements far more than others.”

The survey also found that iPad owners are selfish because they took very low marks on questions that measured the levels of kindness to altruism.

By using a social networking as a test platform, the staff of MyType can make some crosses of information about users of the tablet. For example, they found that people interested in business and finance are much more likely to have a iPad than those interested in movies, music, books, art, internet, video games, food shopping, nightlife and family.

Crossing the nationality of respondents, the survey also found that ethnic minorities in the United States know best what is iPad than the Caucasian population. Koreans and Chinese were mostly answered “yes” to the question “Do you know what a iPad?”, While Caucasians were the most said no.

Although the crossing of information, MyType found people with children are more likely to have a iPad than those without children.

Via: MyType.

Twitter goes beyond the tweets. Using millions of messages posted to the site, researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, created an application that claims to be able to measure the mood of the United States.

People are happier in the morning and early evening, and happiness reaches its peak on Sunday morning and its lowest point in the evening of Thursday, they found. Service users of social networks seem more discouraged by mid-afternoon and evening tends to improve mood.

Not surprisingly, people seem happier on weekends, and residents of California, Miami and the southern states of the USA are among the most satisfied.

The researchers are the first to admit that their conclusions are not very scientific, Twitter users tend to be experienced in the use of technology live in big cities and account for only a fraction of the total population, but according to the results of the method has potential as a tool to provide real-time analysis of critical issues.

Sume Lehman and his colleagues employed a system of psychological classification of words to examine key terms in about 300 million Twitter messages, defining them as happy or sad. Once created maps based on the location of the messages and the kind of reaction they evoke.

The map can be useful not only for studying public opinion but to mobilize users quickly, for example in a campaign for donations for emergencies, the researchers said.

Via: Reuters.

With about 20% global market share of smartphones, behind only Nokia‘s smartphones now RIM devices are being considered a risk for the security of the United Arab Emirates. According to the regulatory agency for telecommunications in the country, some BlackBerry applications that allow people to make improper use of the device, causing serious social repercussions and the unit would be operating “beyond the jurisdiction of national law”.

In April, the government had already made a warning against the use of BlackBerry Messenger for news distribution sites, which caused a stir in the Reporters Without Borders, which dismissed the warning as an act of censorship.

RIM is concerned that the attitude of the UAE, said that studying ways to resolve the issue and protect consumers, other Persian Gulf countries also adopt measures to reduce the use of certain applications on BlackBerry.

At the same time as the country tries to establish itself as an international business center, controlling the flow of information is still large; with censor sites and other media for banning any information deemed prejudicial to national security or moral values.

Once again, democracy is better for business.

Via: NPR.

Facebook is changing the world. Mark Zuckerberg is a genius of shorts (and slippers). He is a sweet guy, and do not use drugs. Images of the type run loose in the book “The Facebook Effect“, author David Kirkpatrick, clearly an admirer of the young enthusiastic cofounder of the social networking site.

His book begins with the story of a Colombian who created a Facebook community against the FARC and managed to take 10 million for demonstrations of various cities.

That’s because Kirkpatrick, a former senior editor of technology magazine “Fortune”, is a firm believer in the political power of Facebook, as well as the idea that Zuckerberg is more interested in the happiness of users than in cash. Issues such as users’ privacy or legal processes are secondary.

Hype aside, the book has two interesting points. The first is the emergence of a successful Internet company and the second is the participation of Eduardo Saverin, a friend from Harvard and Zuckerberg young investor. He was the first to put money in the design and care of the financial and advertising.

However, shortly after launching the site, Saverin entered a legal battle with Zuckerberg, coming to “hijack” the assets of the company, according to the book, because of disagreements in the business. “Saverin never done anything by Facebook, I never believed,” said the author.

Via: The Independent.