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“You in?” For good.

December 17, 2009

With the holidays coming up, there are many people looking for a little kindness in a time of need... and there are many willing to help. To spark the goodness, Yahoo created, You In?", which inspires people to do a good deed and then post it on the site. You can read what other people are doing across the country or even in your area using the map.

My favorite so far: One person used his quarterly work bonus to take two unemployed fathers Christmas shopping for their kids.

Want to get involved? It's simple – do a good deed and share it with others!

Look! There! In the sky…

December 9, 2009

DARPA, the Pentagon's research agency, released 10 balloons on December 5. The first person or group to determine the locations received $40,000.

This wasn't just a silly balloon contest, DARPA wanted to learn about social networks and behavior and how computer-connected teams used resources and connections to compete.

People were able to see the balloons from public roadways for one day. Peter Lee, a computer scientist and one of the DARPA directors, wasn't sure how people would compete, but he expected people to develop software applications, create large groups of spotters, even disseminate wrong information, or pay for clues, etc. The answer is in... the winning team, Team MIT, built a web site that engaged users and encouraged them to lookout for the balloons. Read the team's strategy here.

Why December 5? Well, that was the 40th anniversary of when the first four nodes of the military-sponsored computer network, Arpanet, were connected. That little experiment was the precursor to today's Internet.

For more info and previous Darpa challenges, check out this New York Times article.

Oh c’mon!

December 3, 2009

This Method viral video, which received positive reviews from the Association of National Advertisers and others, has been pulled because some viewers believe it's sexist and pokes fun at rape threats as this article from Advertising Age explains.

Huh? That's weird because, when I watched the commercial, I was thinking how some cleaners do, indeed, leave a nasty residue. I found it more sexist that the woman was portrayed as a "little housewife" cleaning the house and getting breakfast ready "in 20."

Aren't there more blatant rape and sexism issues occurring in the world today? Maybe it's me, but I'm not going to get riled up about animated, perverted bubbles yelling "loofah."