The White House released a picture last Saturday depicting President Obama “skeet shooting” at Camp David, an activity he claims he does “all the time.” Almost immediately, former White House senior adviser David Plouffe preemptively tweeted a mocking message to anyone who might think the photo was fake. “Attn skeet birthers. Make our day – let the Photoshop conspiracies begin!”
Within moments of the White House release, Photoshopped versions were popping up on the Internet at blogs and Facebook, despite the White House’s accompanying warning that the “photograph may not be manipulated in any way.” One enterprising blogger posted a contest inviting Photoshopped submissions.
Another blogger accused the official White House photo of being a Photoshopped job, illustrating visual discrepancies between it and another photo taken the same day. Another found seven discrepancies. Twitchy pointed out an Obama/Palin hypocrisy.
A gun blogger picked up on a technical error made by the AP noting, “These are the people feeding gun information to the masses. No wonder when those masses are polled, the results reflect the ignorance and manipulation they’ve been subjected to by our Fourth Estate/Fifth Columnist ‘Authorized Journalist’ Corps.”
An education in five
Radio host Dennis Prager’s website Prager University” – “undoing the damage of the university … five minutes at a time” – features comedian Adam Carolla with an amusing and entertaining life lesson.
Prager University is a novel educational concept with visually stimulating five-minute courses “taught by some of the finest, most original thinkers in the world.”
Another example of creative teaching is this video made by a group of teachers. It explains the three branches of our government, whoopah Gangnam Style!
The line in the sand
Without a revival, Israel has no survival. Are you a Christian, or an anti-Christian? Avi Lipkin (a.k.a. Victor Mordecai) explains in this video clip why a Christian revival is necessary.
“If the Christians don’t wake up, this country will continue to be ruled by anti-Christians,” Lipkin explains. “Islam cannot be ignored anymore.”
Happy birthday, Mister President!
Thursday, Feb 6, marks the 102nd anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Here’s a look at happy times in the Reagan White House with great photos from 30 years ago. Princess Di … Sinatra … a young Tom Cruise. Even Michael Jackson!
Super Bowl!
Super Commercials! The ten greatest Super Bowl commercials of all times. Which one was deemed the spiciest? And how about this football fanatic Super Bowl stadium made entirely of sandwiches and cold cuts?
God shed His grace on thee …
This video got 3,700 Likes on Facebook within 4 hours.
Another video becoming increasingly popular on tea-party websites is produced by The Oathkeepers, in which they spell out their pledge to uphold the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Emmy Award winner “Downton Abbey” gets Internet attention
“Downton Abbey” fans will love this social networking spoof: “If the Emmy Award winning dramatic series was played out on Facebook.”
And this Sesame Street send-up of the popular PBS series is getting a lot of attention, as is a motherly scolding of series star Brendan Coyle for using colorful language in a Twitter row about politics.
“Just rang my mum from the @NOBLEmovie set … she told me off for swearing … #yourenevertooold”
The future
Futurist Ray Kurzweil says Google is working on automated intelligence. Kurzweil leads artificial intelligence engineering at Google. Among his predictions (via Business Insider):
Our brains will extend to the cloud, which will allow us to learn new things at any age; We will be able to selectively erase pieces of our memory; We’ll be in augmented reality at all times; By 2029, machines will be able to match the intelligence of humans, and they’ll be able to make us laugh and cry.
Kurzweil says around the 2030s, tiny “nanobots” able to repair and preserve our organs will keep us healthier and smarter.
3D printing will be even more common than it is today, with public 3D printing stations for people to print out clothes, toys, and anything else. And within 25 years, computers will be the size of a blood cell, and we’ll be able to connect it to the brain without the need for surgery.
Finally, the futurist predicts that society will reach a state of “technological singularity” by 2045 where technology enables superhuman machine intelligences to emerge and people and machines become deeply integrated.
Bits & Bytes
Google creating wireless network, but for what?
Free phone calls over WiFi? Ooma v. VOIP.
Twitter resets 250,000 user passwords following large-scale security attack.
See how the top Twitter hashtags are connected each week.
Betsy? No, Etsy!
What is Etsy? If you don’t know, you’re probably behind the curve! Launched in 2005, Etsy is an online marketplace where millions buy and sell handmade and vintage items, art and craft supplies, art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, quilts and toys. Put another way, Etsy is a virtual crafts fair with some 20 million members in 200 countries that gives sellers a personal storefront to list their goods for a small listing fee of 20 cents per item and 3.5 percent commission on all items sold.
Last year Etsy was “powering ahead” with $700 million in sales last year (compared to $525 million for all of 2011). By the end of 2012, more than 100 million items had been sold. Etsy has already raised $40 million for international expansion.
Oddities!
Megalithic dolmens. “What?” you say?
Vinepeek – The most addictive new site on the ‘Net.
Things I learned from “Toddlers and Tiaras”
It’s winter. Rejoice! More than two million already have.
Tag what? Tagwhat: a mobile startup designed to give users info that’s location relevant.
