Freedom House condemns the recent arrests and sentencing of Moroccan blogger Hazzam El Bachir and internet café owner Abdullah Boukfou and calls for their immediate release without harm. The events in Morocco reflect a troubling trend by governments in the Middle East and North Africa Region to use traditional means of repression to clamp down on bloggers and human rights activists.
Freedom House Calls Upon the Government of Uzbekistan to Release its Jailed Activists
As the opportunity for a year-end amnesty approaches, Freedom House calls upon the government of Uzbekistan to unconditionally release political prisoners and human rights defenders.
Citing Iran Crackdown, Freedom House Launches Net Freedom Initiative
The Iranian government's mounting efforts to stifle pro-democracy activists have begun to threaten internet freedom for many outside of its borders as well as within. In response to this growing problem, Freedom House has developed an anti-censorship video series that provides assistance to those living in Iran and under other oppressive regimes to overcome government censorship efforts.
Harry Reid & Democrat ideals: A history of Slavery, Segregation, and now Socialism
by LTC(R) Allen B West
The revelation of Senator Harry Reid's comments referencing "negro talk" is just indicative of the true sentiment elitist liberals, and indeed the Democratic party, have toward black Americans. The history of the Democrat party is one of slavery, segregation, and now socialism. It is this new aged socialism born from the Johnson Great Society programs that have castigated blacks as victims needing government dependency. One need only to look upon the city of Detroit to ascertain what liberal social welfare policies have produced for the inner city... the new plantation for black Americans.
The Ku Klux Klan was birthed by the Democrats as a terrorist wing to intimidate blacks, and whites, who sought to promote economic and education independence and social justice for blacks. What was once overt has just morphed and become covert, yet still exists.
One can only imagine the insanity and media outrage if Reid's quote had come from a member of the Republican party. I look forward to hearing from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on Reid's comments... or has liberal hush money paid for the silence of these proprietors of poverty and victimization theory. Actually, if President Obama had any courage he would demand Reid step down as Senate Majority Leader, and discontinue any support for his Senate reelection... notice I said "if". I am quite sure the Soros money which elevated Obama to the position of President has bought his servitude.
Why am I running for US Congress as a Republican? Simple. I would rather stand proudly and be called "an Uncle Tom and a sellout" than lose my self-esteem and be considered an inferior by liberals. I understand the legacy of the GOP and the black community... not the revisionist history espoused by liberal educators. I am not, shall never be, and will not raise my daughters to be a part of the liberal 21st century plantation. I am not just some articulate, clean, well spoken negro. I am an American warrior, Congressional candidate, and shall never submit to the collective progressive ideal of inferiority.
Senator Harry Reid's comments are disgusting, despicable, and unacceptable. They are representative of how intellectual elite liberals do indeed speak of black Americans in their closed private spaces. Next week I have been invited to NYC to address the Hudson Institute, a conservative organization, conference on "Reclaiming American Liberty". That invite came to me because I took advantage of the opportunities this great Republic offered. I followed the guidance of my parents and set my standards above all others around me. I speak well and have impeccable communicative skills because my Father and Mother prioritized that quality.
I shiver to think what my future could have been if I listened to the insidious rhetoric of charlatans such as Harry Reid, and the ambassadors of affirmative action who reside in the Congressional Black Caucus.
Sure, the "stuck on stupid" blacks are going to address me in derogatory names, but I possess something which they lack; Honor, Integrity, and Character. To them I say, continue to be slaves to the liberals for your vote... and in a year you will be calling me Congressman West.
Very Long Baseline Interferometry: A New Way of Looking at Some Old Friends
The term “Very Long Baseline Interferometry” (VLBI) isn’t one with which many people are familiar, but I bet that although you may not know the name you are familiar with the concept. VLBI is a means in radio astronomy by which simultaneous observations of an object by many telescopes are combined into one image. If your VLBI involves radio telescopes every ten miles for one thousand miles, the resultant image is as if it were made by one telescope… one thousand miles across.
Image produced by Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe
There are several VLBI arrays operating successfully, but the most sensitive is the European VLBI Network (EVN). It’s even possible to connect arrays in Europe with those in the US (or Canada, or Japan), to have what amounts to a global radio telescope.
The image on the left was taken by UK’s MERLIN Array, while the same area is imaged on the right with EVN e-VLBI.
You know what the next step is… don’t you.
NASA/JPL Artist rendering of HALCA (MUSES -B)
Space.
Ground-to-space VLBI link-ups already in operation (like HALCA) can provide as much as 10 times the resolution of ground-based VLBI.
Baseline interferometry is really only in its infancy. I wouldn’t be surprised to see future link-ups stretching between the Earth and the moon. Very likely Mars.
Goldstone DSN antenna (used for VLBI, among other things) NASA/JPL DSN **This is one of my favorite images**
5 Buzz-Worthy Storylines from the Consumer Electronics Show | 80beats
After a long weekend of Las Vegas fanboy salivating, another year of the Consumer Electronics Show has come to a close. Here are DISCOVER’s choices for the most important storylines among the flood of gadget-philia emanating from the desert.
1. OMG, It’s Coming Toward Us!
Between the unstoppable worldwide phenomenon that is “Avatar” and ESPN rolling out 3D broadcasts for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, 3D is back with a force not seen since the crazes of the 1950s and 80s. The bandwagon has close to universal industry ridership‚ almost every major manufacturer is launching 3D sets at CES this week, the Blu-ray format will support 3D and many gaming consoles should soon follow suit [Popular Mechanics]. But unless you’ve got a big wad of extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to wait a while before taking the 3D dive, tech experts warn. 3D TVs will come with plenty of sticker shock at first, there won’t be very much content to watch on them… and oh yeah, you’ll still have to wear those stupid glasses.
2. Tablets: Loading, Please Wait
Rumors swirled before CES that Microsoft would show off a new tablet-style electronic display. Not wanting to disappoint, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer pulled out a tablet midway into his address, demonstrating an H-P device running e-reader software. But it was only a prototype, and it couldn’t be found on the show floor [CNN Money]. Apple, too, is supposed to be developing a tablet, though the timetable for the secretive company remains unclear.
3. Wireless Power Wows the Crowd
If you’re among the “it’s 2010 and we shouldn’t need wires anymore” crowd, you may have found yourself giddy with excitement over another of 2010’s hot trends, wireless power. Fulton Innovations garnered particular esteem with its system, ECoupled. ECoupled uses a wireless powering technique called “close proximity coupling,” which uses circuit boards and coils to communicate and transmit energy using magnetic fields. The technology is efficient but only works at close ranges [Forbes]. Another promising system is “Venetial hotel tower” by WiTricity, which operates with “highly coupled magnetic resonance.” As proof that it works, an LCD TV is powered by a coil hidden behind an oil painting located a few feet away [Forbes].
4. Baby, You Can Interface with my Car
Ford took best-of-show honors for the automotive category with its redesigned cabin interface. Ford vehicles equipped with MyFord will get two 4.2-inch color LCDs, one mounted in the instrument cluster and one in the center of the dashboard. The instrument cluster display shows vehicle information such as engine speed, temperature, and trip data, and the one in the dashboard shows audio, phone, and navigation information [CNET]. The Fusion Hybrid will be the main testing ground for this new system.
5. The Swagger Is Back, and so Is the Little Guy
Last week’s Consumer Electronics Show returned to its usual over-the-top affair in 2010, with endless proclamations of how this year will see the return of the industry’s growth. Humbled no more by the global recession, electronics makers pulled out all the stops [CNN Money]. But it wasn’t all pomp and spectacle by behemoths like Microsoft: Popular Mechanics has the best of the small companies at CES.
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Image: Ford Motor Company
Please Enjoy Live Streaming Coverage of Our Imminent Doom | Discoblog
Set your watches, apocalypse watchers: On Thursday, the Doomsday Clock—that harbinger of untimely death run by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—will change again.
When the organization debuted its clock in 1947 in the wake of the new dangers of the nuclear age, they set it at “7 minutes to midnight.” From there, the scientists have adjusted the metaphorical apocalypse countdown either up or down in response to geopolitics. The furthest we’ve ever been from our collective end is 12 minutes, after the signings of SALT and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1979 17 minutes, after the end of the Cold War. The closest we’ve gotten is 2 minutes (the namesake of the Iron Maiden song), in response to hydrogen bomb tests.
What now? From Politico:
“The last time the doomsday clock was reset was in 2007, from 7 minutes to five minutes to midnight.
(Director Kennette) Benedict said she would offer no hints about whether the clock would be reset closer or further away from “doomsday” on Thursday. One suspects the group of scientists would be likely to show some appreciation for Barack Obama’s efforts on nonproliferation, climate change, etc. compared to his predecessor.”
This will be the first time you can watch live streaming of the Doomsday clock change, which happens at 10 a.m. EST on Thursday here in New York. I, for one, will not be watching, since we all know the world’s actually going to end in 2012 because of some Central American prophecy.
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Image: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Iron Curtain Kept Invasive Species Out of Eastern Europe | Discoblog
The Cold War didn’t just restrict the movement of people, ideas, and trends in rock n’ roll, according to a new study–it also kept invasive species from moving into Eastern Europe.
Researchers looked at the number of non-native birds present in both Western and Eastern Europe over the past century. Before the Cold War restricted trade on the continent, Western Europe had 36 alien bird species and Eastern Europe had 11. By the time the Berlin Wall fell and the Iron Curtain crumbled, the number of alien birds in Western Europe had increased to 54, but the number in Eastern Europe had declined to five.
A National Geographic blog explains:
“Global trade is a real concern for invasive species, and the lessons we can learn from the Cold War offer a warning flag to developing countries that are now expanding in an international economy,” said Susan Shirley, a research associate in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University.
Although birds can fly over walls and through no-fly zones, the researchers say they usually stick to their native territories; however, when imported pet birds are released into the wild they can carve out a niche in the new land. The new findings, reported in the journal Biological Conservation, suggest that Eastern Europe may now be filling up with avian aliens. Anybody remember if Pink Floyd released any doves during that concert on the wall?
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Discoblog: The Humane Way to Kill Invasive Cane Toads: Skull Smashing?
80beats: Ravenous, Leaping Asian Carp Poised to Invade Great Lakes
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Egypt Finds Tombs of Pyramid Builders, And More Evidence They Were Free Men | 80beats
Forget the myths about massive numbers of slaves or Jews building the great pyramids, Egypt’s chief archaeologist argues this week. He says Egyptian researchers have found the tombs of more pyramid builders, and in those tombs more evidence that free men erected these monumental tributes to the ancient pharaohs.
Zahi Hawass this week unveiled new research on 4,000-year-old tombs found near the pyramids—tombs he says belonged to pyramid builders. Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990 when a tourist on horseback stumbled over a wall that later proved to be a tomb [Canadian Press]. These new ones stretch beyond those previously-discovered tombs, and contain a dozen skeletons.
What matters for the historical interpretation, Hawass stressed, is location, location, location. “These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates that these people were not by any means slaves,” said Mr Hawass. “If they were slaves, they would not have been able to build their tombs beside their king’s” [The Times]. In addition, Hawass says that the walls of the tombs (which the builders probably built for themselves) bear graffiti like “friends of Khufu (a pharaoh).”
For Egyptologists like Dieter Wildung, a former director of Berlin’s Egyptian Museum, this is more confirmation than surprise. “The myth of the slaves building pyramids is only the stuff of tabloids and Hollywood…. The world simply could not believe the pyramids were build without oppression and forced labour, but out of loyalty to the pharaohs” [Canadian Press], says Wildung. In particular, Egyptian officials like Hawass, who have national pride at stake, have long pushed against the idea slave-built pyramids, saying it undermines the skill involved in their construction, and the sophistication of ancient Egypt’s civilisation [BBC News].
Actually, the slave myth dates back much further than “tabloids and Hollywood,” to ancient texts. The Greek historian, Herodotus, visited Egypt several thousand years after Khufu’s pyramid was built, he wrote that Khufu forced his people to “labour as slaves for his own advantage” thus prompting the first accounts that the pyramids were built by slaves [The Times]. Legends have also held that Jews worked on the pyramids, and the first century A.D. Jewish historian Josephus includes a mention. But Jews did not arrive in Egypt until long after construction was completed.
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DISCOVER: Pyramid Building Saps the Soul
Cosmic Variance: Pyramid Schemes
Image: Wikimedia Commons / Ricardo Liberato
Unscientific America Spring Speaking Schedule | The Intersection
The book isn’t out in paperback until the summer, but I’ve already put 5 spring events on the calendar, so I decided I’d also list them here. Travels will take me to St. Louis, Houston, Bethesda, New Haven, and Lansing. Further details:
Saturday, January 23
Keynote Speech, Stem Cell Hope Summit
6:30 PM–7:30 PM
Event sponsored by the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures
Sheraton St. Louis City Center Hotel & Suites
400 S. 14th St.
St. Louis, MOFriday, February 5
Lunch Discussion and Book Signing
12:30 PM–2:30 PM
Event sponsored by the Science and Technology Policy Program, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Dore Commons
James A. Baker Hall
Rice University
Houston, TXMonday, February 8
Speech at the National Institutes of Health
10:00 AM–11:00 AM
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
NIH Clinical Research Center
(Building 10)
Bethesda, MDMonday, February 15
Speech Before the Yale Political Union
Details TBA
New Haven, CTSaturday, March 6
Public Lecture: “Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future”
1:00 PM–2:45 PM
Michigan Science Teachers Association 57th Annual Conference
Raddison Hotel, Capital 2
Lansing, MI
I think it will be good to be “on the road again”….
Rolling Stone Articles on Climate Change
Cover of the Latest RS
Rolling Stone has two articles on climate change and politics in its latest issue. “As the World Burns” by Jeff Goodell is about “How Big Oil and Big Coal mounted one of the most aggressive lobbying campaigns in history to block progress on global warming.” While some news outlets were busy blaming President Obama for somehow ruining the Copenhagen climate conference, they were ignoring the real devils in the details — the lobbyists for Big Oil and Big Coal who have prevented any serious climate legislation from passing, or even being considered, so far. The other article is called “The Climate Killers” and is about 17 main climate change enemies (differing in names from the previous article here on that) including: Warren Buffett, Don Blankenship, Rupert Murdoch, Jack Gerard, Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu, the brain-dead Senator Inhofe, the inaccurate George Will, and others.
Sen. Mary Landrieu is a real puzzler because she represents Louisiana, which will lose out big-time when sea levels rise. (If you thought Katrina was bad for New Orleans, just wait until sea levels rise in the next decades).
The first article is the most interesting because it addresses the money in Washington and the bad influences that control our politics. It also gives a history of the last year in attempts that have been made by Republican obstructionists, Tea Partiers , the fake-science pushers on the right, the doubt-planters, and the money behind the lobbyists. We are not influencing our Washington representatives nearly as much as Exxon and Big Coal are.
It seems like climate change will never be seriously addressed in this country until we either go to “war” with it or until all the money influences are removed from Washington D.C. Lobbyist money is just far too influential in the U.S. Congress, to the detriment of what needs to be done. Even the weak “climate” legislation they managed to put together is market driven and run by big Wall Street money interests! Yet that’s not good enough for the lobbyists. Cap and trade is a capitalist’s dream come true, but our political system is so twisted right now that the Republicans, who love market solutions for everything, can’t even see that. Since that’s the case, we might as well push for what we really need instead, a big price put on carbon emissions along with a strong cap, with the revenue returned to the people.
The last paragraph of the article sums up a big part of the problem:
“Despite the near-certainty of a climate catastrophe, there are no crowds marching in the streets to demand action, no prime-time speech from President Obama. Even the most aggressive climate legislation the Senate might pass — something on par with the House bill — will still fall tragically short of what climate scientists tell us needs to be done to avoid the looming chaos and destruction. In that sense — the only one that ultimately matters — the battle over global warming may [...]
Scuba Diving with Bull Sharks in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
On my last trip to the Rivera Maya in Mexico I was very fortunate to fall into a group of local scuba divers and explorers who introduced me to some pretty phenomenal diving that you won’t find in any guide books. Luis Leal of Acquacaves Dive Center invited me on a dive with bull sharks off the coast of Playa Del Carmen. “Bull sharks”? I thought to myself in a confusing combination of excitement and concern. “How many are there?” I proceeded to ask. “About 12″, Luis responded. He continued to tell me more about them in that this particular group of female bull sharks has been visiting a particular location just 100 meters off the coast of the northern side of Playa Del Carmen for the past three years. They spend several months here breeding. Multiple groups of divers visit them daily without any history of incident (that I’m aware of!).
Bull Sharks, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
So out we went, a group of eight divers in a tiny fishing boat. Being surrounded by divemasters and instructors I felt I was in the most secure situation one could possibly be in at a time like this. When we reached the site, I was shocked at how close 100 meters was from the beach, which was full of swimmers and sunbathers, all completely unaware that a dozen bull sharks were in the area. Down we went and bottomed out at about 85 feet. We over-weighted so that we could securely plant ourselves on the ocean floor kneeling and simply observed. They acknowledged our presence and began circling us. We stayed down for over forty minutes before slowly ascending to the surface. We saw sharks for every minute of this dive and the remora even followed us to our safety stop at fifteen feet.
Bull Sharks, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
You can expect to see the bull sharks in the colder months from November until February. I also captured a short video of the dive.
Photo credit: Marisa Marchitelli
When Windmills Over Rotate | The Intersection
Very rare, but fascinating.
How Will We Type on the Apple Tablet? [Apple Tablet]
Speculation about the Apple Tablet mostly focuses on what the device is, not how it works. Text input, more than anything else, is the problem Apple needs to solve to make this work. So how will they do it?
CES was rotten with new tablets, some Android, some not, some with fascinating screens, and again, some not. But one thing they all had in common was that they hadn't quite figured out the text input problem: How do you create text without a keyboard?
The Problem
We've been comfortably typing without physical keyboards for years now, and this is largely Apple's doing. One of the great triumphs of the iPhone was to make onscreen keyboards bearable—something that, even if you hate the concept of virtual keys on principle, you have to admit they accomplished. This works:
Extending this to the tablet, though, would be a mistake. I had a chance to play with a few different sizes of tablets at CES, nearly all of which had traditional onscreen keyboards—in particular, the Android 2.0 keyboard, which is aesthetically different but functionally almost identical to iPhone OSes. None of them worked, at least in the way that I wanted them to, for one reason: they were too big. Seven-inch tablets were too large to comfortably thumb-type on, while 10-inch tablets made text input all but impossible. The onscreen keyboard as we know it doesn't scale gracefully, and unless Apple wants their tablet to be completely useless (our sources say they don't) they're going to have to figure this out. So what are Apple's options?
Solution 1: A Giant iPhone
Apple has made mistakes before, but to only have a simple onscreen keyboard would qualify as an outright screw-up. QWERTY-style, thumb-actuated onscreen keyboards work on screens up to about five inches, with the 4.3-inch-screened HTC Touch HD2's keyboard straining even the most unsettlingly long thumbs. But to assume that this won't work is to assume that the tablet is to be held a certain way, with hands at four and eight o-clock, more or less like a touchscreen phone in landscape mode. This may not be the case.
What if the tablet is meant to be held with one hand, and controlled with the other? What if it has some kind of kickstand or mount, so you can actually type with both hands, a la a regular keyboard. What if it's intended to only work in portrait mode, where it would be just about narrow enough to be usable?
Apple's filed extensive patents about how a large, multitouch onscreen keyboard might work, pictured above, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything: Apple's got more patents than the tablet's got rumors, and most of them never materialized into anything meaningful. The keyboard patent, for example, also includes drawings of an onscreen clickwheel, and a description of how small interface elements, like the minimize/close/zoom buttons in OS X proper, could be handled on a touchscreen—all of which are terrible awkward, and dissonant with Apple's touchscreen philosophy so far.
Either way, a single, iPhone-esque keyboard really shouldn't be the primary input method. It could be a supplementary input method, but to have two separate text input mechanisms seems messy, and distinctly un-Apple-y. Lame, half-baked input seems like the kind of thing Steve Jobs might fitfully shitcan a tablet for, actually, but that's getting awfully speculative, even for a piece about a product that doesn't officially exist at all.
Solution 2: Voice Control
Apple's been on covert voice input crusade since it introduced Spoken Interface for OS X which, if you care to look (System Preferences>Speech>Speakable Items "On) is still there. As it stands, it's rudimentary—the iPhone's Voice Control speech recognition is much more accurate—and though there are quite a few customization options, it's really just a command system, not a full text input system.
Even more developed technologies like Dragon Dictation are still niche products, and honestly, the concept of controlling a computer entirely by voice is kind of absurd. "Open Browser! Open Gizmodo! Post withering comment about Apple tablet story, with these words!" No. Not now, and really, not ever—the computer as a stenographer is an obnoxious concept, held back by practical concerns, not technological ones.
That said, Apple is very proud of Voice Control on the iPhone, and they haven't removed voice commands from OS X in over five years. It's likely that there will be some kind of voice input for the tablet, but that it'll be relegated to the same job it's held in the past, taking care of the odd command and initiating the occasional script, and not much else.
Solution 3: The Dreaded Stylus
Styli! The very thing the iPhone was so dedicated to murdering could be the savior of the Apple tablet! Just ask Microsoft.
See, the only other tablet booklet device that's garnering remotely comparable hype is the Courier, Microsoft's dual-screen concept device leaked to us back in September. The Courier concept is very different from the blurry image we've assembled of the Apple tablet—it doesn't have a keyboard. Unlike the Apple tablet, though, we know how the Courier is supposed to work:
Handwriting. Apple staked an entire device line on handwriting recognition—the Newton—over 15 years ago, so isn't it conceivable that they've, you know, figured it out by now? Before taking another detour back to the patent office, let's take a moment to recall Steve Jobs' original iPhone keynote:
Oh, a stylus, right? We're going to use a stylus. No. Who wants a stylus? You have to get ‘em and put ‘em away, and you lose ‘em. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. So let's not use a stylus. We're going to use the best pointing device in the world. We're going to use a pointing device that we're all born with - born with ten of them. We're going to use our fingers. We're going to touch this with our fingers.
This wasn't a dismissal of styli. This was a dickish, public obsoleting of styli. If I were a stylus, I would refuse to work with Steve Jobs, on the basis of him being a jerk.
And yet, in November of 2009, an Apple patent, this time describing stylus input and clearly showing a tablet-like device, went public. If you have the will and patience to parse a little techno-legalese, go for it:
Upon the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, the ink manager notifies the handwriting recognition engine and organizes the preceding ink strokes into an ink phrase data structure...The present invention, in large part, relates to the observation that client applications and handwriting recognition software in pen-based computer systems can make far more accurate ink-related decisions based on entire ink phrases, rather than individual ink strokes.
If not, you'll have to take my word for it: This is basically the Newton's Rosetta, updated for 2009.
Stylus input would be a stunning break from Apple's iPod/iPhone finger-only strategy, and to a lot of people it would seem regressive. Then again, if the tablet is a perfectly predictable extension of the iPhone concept, it won't revolutionize anything at all. I'm still filing this under "unlikely," but looking at the evidence, I honestly—and surprisingly—can't rule it out.
Solution 4: A New Style of Keyboard
The safest bet for how Apple will handle the text input problem is not coincidentally the broadest. Any onscreen keyboard would have to be different than the iPhone's somehow, but to say that Apple's tablet will have a new style of keyboard is to say that it will have pretty much any kind of onscreen keyboard that is unlike the iPhone's. This is not very useful! Luckily, we have guidance, from other companies, and even from Apple.
Split onscreen keyboards are neither new nor common, which makes them kind of perfect: the map has been charted, so Apple needs only to explore it.
The most public of the alternatives is an actual, available product called DialKeys. Coopted by Microsoft a few years ago, this tech, which splits the keyboard into two crescent-shaped virtual keyboards, shipped with a handful of touchscreen UMPCs, a category of devices that died off before it had the time to truly solve the onscreen keyboard problem. It wasn't very good. But the concept had potential, maybe. 
Apple is definitely aware of DialKeys, even if they can't use it—not that we'd want them to, or that they need to, having acquired a company with a similar concept about five years ago.
FingerWorks, a company specializing in touch interfaces and gesture concepts, was forcefully drawn into the Apple family about five years ago. A lot of their touch gestures actually made their way to the iPhone, albeit adapted from touchpad to screen use, according to FingerWorks employees:
The one difference that's actually quite significant is the iPhone is a display with the multi-touch, and the FingerWorks was just an opaque surface. That's all I'm going to say there. There's definite similarities, but Apple's definitely taken it another step by having it on a display
Interestingly, FingerWorks had a physical product with a split keyboard, which sat over Apple laptops' regular keyboards, and which promptly disappeared after their acquisition. From the press release, which, mind you, hit the wires in 2003:
The MacNTouch Gesture Keyboard is a complete user interface that serves as mouse, standard keyboard, and powerful multi-finger gesture interpreter. Mouse operations like point, click, drag, scroll, and zoom are combined seamlessly with touch-typing and multi-finger gesture everywhere on the MacNTouch's surface. Proprietary hardware and software allows pointing right over the keys, thus eliminating the frequent movement of the hand between the keyboard and the touchpad. The MacNTouch has been designed to minimize stress and it gives users unprecedented control of their computer using hand gestures.
Obviously such a product relates to a lot of aspects of tablet input, so let's zero in on text: it's exactly what the tablet needs, basically, except it's not software. They keyboard is split for possible thumb use, it's capable of gestures, and most importantly, it's already owned by Apple.
Best of all, the FingerWorks domain, which proudly displays all of these concepts, was pulled from the internet this week. If this feels like a strange coincidence, that's because, well, it is.
Making Bets
For all the evidence about the tablet's possible input methods, there's no standout answer. Apple's got a thing for voice input, a history with onscreen keyboards, a patent trail and strong lineage of stylus input, and a pattern of suspicious behavior with and towards new keyboard types. We've got a handful of cases here, all compelling, and all conflicting. And the takeaway, if you haven't picked it up yet, is that nobody really knows.
For my money, though, an adapted, possibly split onscreen keyboard is the best bet, and assuming the learning curve isn't too steep, the most appealing option. But of the options laid out here, it's by far the most vague—its FingerWorks ancestor is nearly a decade old, conceived in a time before multitouch screens—so the only truly safe bet is that whatever Apple comes up with, it's going to surprise us.
Giz is on #TeamConan, But Does a TV Show’s Timeslot Matter Anymore? [Television]
Conan O'Brien just released a statement saying he will not host The Tonight Show if it's pushed away from the local news. He also says the show's historic timeslot is essential to its integrity, despite DVRs and streaming video.
The story to date: The Tonight Show has aired for an incredible 55 years on NBC. It's one of a child's handful of truly legendary American shows, one that both kids and their parents grew up watching every night. Historically, it airs at 11:35, just following the late local news, and ever since Johnny Carson took over from Jack Paar in 1962, the show has been a ratings juggernaut, through Carson's 30 years and Jay Leno's 17. In 2004, NBC announced that Conan O'Brien, then hosting Late Night (following The Tonight Show), would be taking over the show five years hence. And then everything went to hell.
After 17 years of hosting The Tonight Show, Leno wasn't just about to retire with his airplane hangar of cars and his reputation as the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese of comedy: NBC gave him a daily hour-long show at 10PM. Shoehorning Leno in at 10PM, every day, was a ballsy move—and it bombed. At the same time, while critically acclaimed (check out comedian Patton Oswalt's description of Conan's Tonight Show here), the new Tonight Show was failing to achieve the ratings it had under Leno (2.8 million to Leno's 5 million). Despite past evidence that Conan just needs a little time to grow, NBC decided last week to shake up their new late-night schedule. The network proposed cutting The Jay Leno Show to a half-hour, moving it just after the local news to the 11:35 slot historically claimed by The Tonight Show, and shoving Conan's fledgling Tonight Show back a half-hour, to 12:05. Conan fans, both in the media and in the public, reacted angrily—how dare NBC push the venerable Tonight Show after midnight, just to make room for a show nobody likes? Conan himself responded on his show—check out the clips from his monologue (and from Letterman and Craig Ferguson) over here.
Today, Conan released a statement saying he will not host The Tonight Show if it's pushed back to 12:05. It's a painful read; Conan is obviously in pain that he may have to give up his fantasy-island, dream-of-all-dreams job, but he's been fucked over through no fault of his own and NBC's left him with little choice. Our interest (as techies) is the line in his statement (copied in full, below) that despite all the new video-on-demand advances, from Hulu to BitTorrent, The Tonight Show isn't The Tonight Show if it's moved away from its 11:35 slot. I'm not so sure about that—but how do you guys feel?
Does a TV Show's Timeslot Matter in the Age of DVRs and Internet?(trends)
Either way, we hope NBC honors its commitment to O'Brien and lets him take the reins of The Tonight Show and guide it to a new chapter, the way he was supposed to. If you feel the same way, you can use the contact info Consumerist posted to bug the hell out of NBC.
Scheduling is an important question, and one I know us tech geeks think about as we torrent, stream and rip. But, now that I think about it, there's an even more important question to be asked:
[NYTimes]
Here's that statement, in full:
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ — Conan O'Brien released the following statement.
People of Earth:
In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky. That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.
SOURCE Conan O'Brien
Play Dueling iPods On the JVC’s Dual-Dock Shelf Systems [Docks]
JVC's got not one but two new shelf systems out, and each features not one but two iPod docks. That's one to play The Wizard of Oz, and one to play The Dark Side of the Moon.
The JVC NX-D2 is a 230-watt system that has a three-way speaker design and the ability to charge and play your two iPods simultaneously. It's also got a USB Host, AM/FM tuner, and CD player, the last of which seems particularly redundant. Its wimpier 60-watt cousin, the UX-F3, has a pair of two-way speakers and is other wise similar to the NX-D2. The former will be available this month for about $400, while the latter hits stores in May for about $200. That is, unless you find a double coupon. [Far East Gizmos via Uber Gizmo]
Dreamland or Nightmareland? [Image Cache]
Stop motion? Slow motion? I would call this morph motion. Or weird motion. Whatever it is, the results are strangely beautiful and eerie. [Likecool]
Silverpac Thermostat’s 7-Inch Touchscreen Measures Electricity Usage [Thermostat]
Most thermostats let you make your house warmer or cooler. The fancier ones let you program it for various times during the day. But the Silverpac takes things to a whole new level.
The touchscreen thermostat not only lets you program a 7-day cycle of temperatures, but it also manages all of the electricity use in your home. If a certain appliance is being an energy hog, it'll tell you. It also does fancy stuff like show you the weather, but the real goodies are the energy conservation tools. [SilverPac via DesignBoom]
Blessed Are the Gadgets, For They Shall Inherit the Earth [Image Cache]
Reverend Canon David Parrott, of the St Lawrence Jewry Church in London, blesses his parishioners' gadgets for Plough Monday, an English holiday celebrating the new agricultural year. Smartphones are the new mules. Think about it. [via Metafilter—Thanks, Arianna!]
Jilted Wife Rewires Husbands Power Tools To Deliver 220 Volts Of Revenge [Crime]
What she did is wrong, but I have to admit—I like (and am a little turned on by) Carolyn Paulsen-Riat's style. When her husband decided to leave her, she got creative with her plot for revenge.
What she did was reverse the wires on his 220-volt table saw—delivering a shock that knocked him to the ground. He didn't suffer any lasting effects from the shock, but Carolyn was booked for investigation of third-degree assault, domestic violence, and second-degree malicious mischief. She was later released by judge let her go on her own recognizance. [Olympian via Access Atlanta via Fark]
