David Lidsky's Blog, page 3103
December 5, 2014
We Can All Learn From This Chill Owl Swimming In A Lake
Consider it a master class in crisis management.
A great horned owl was spotted taking a dip in the waters of Lake Michigan off the coast of Chicago, hiding, according to the birdwatcher who captured the footage, from two peregrine falcons that were after it.
This Little Girl Dancing On A Subway Platform Will Melt Your Cold, Cold Heart
Next stop, adorable.
New York bluegrass band Coyote & Crow surely didn't expect an impromptu hoedown while playing a cover of Grateful Dead's "Me and My Uncle" at the Bedford Avenue stop in Brooklyn—let alone one led by a little girl in a pink coat.
"It's 2:40 PM And I'm Drunk": The Strange, Voyeuristic Novel Mined From Twitter
A developer has created a book and Twitter clock using random people's tweets about their day.
"It's 6:00AM and I'm wide awake. Good friday morning peeps."
December 4, 2014
Here's How The NYPD's New Body-Camera Program Will Work
The department's Vievu LE3 program is about to launch in three precincts—including the precinct in which Eric Garner died.
The NYPD's pilot body-camera program is set to launch tomorrow in three precincts across the city. Advocates of outfitting police officers with body cameras hope, among other things, that the devices will discourage officers from mistreating the public—and cause citizens to behave a little more politely toward cops, as well.
Watch This Target Manager Give A Vein-Popping Pep Talk For The Ages
"THIS IS A TEAM. THIS IS A FAMILY. THIS. IS. TAAAAARGGGGGET!!!
We're used to seeing footage of the pure mayhem Black Friday sales elicit from shoppers—but what of the store employees who have to prepare for the trampling masses?
This Is What America Is Saying About Eric Garner
Eric Garner's death set off local protests—and another national conversation about racism and injustice. This is what it looks like.
On Wednesday, a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man whom Pantaleo choked to death. The medical examiner had determined Garner's death was a homicide caused by a chokehold (a move banned by the NYPD) and chest compression, and a widely distributed bystander's video showed Garner telling officers repeatedly the he couldn't breathe. Protests erupted throughout New York City after the ruling.
This Handlebar-Mounted Phone-Holder Turns Your Dumb Bike Into A Smart Machine
The system gives turn-by-turn directions, finds nearby friends, and shows maps of upcoming roads.
If you're someone who likes cycling, but hates being away from their phone, you'll appreciate the COBI. A module that's placed on the handlebars, it lets you control your phone while moving along—for example, to answer calls or navigate Spotify.
Will AI Destroy Humanity? Siri, A Chatbot, And A Roboticist Weigh In
Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have sounded the alarm about A.I. While it may surpass us, our fears may be...less than intelligent.
This story includes interviews with the personal assistant Siri, the chatbot Mitsuku, a student named John Connor, and robotics professor Hod Lipson.
2,000 People Paid Real Cash For An iPhone-Shaped Piece Of Plastic
A Kickstarter project raised nearly $20,000 for a product that does nothing but make fun of our own addictions to technology.
The NoPhone started as a jokey social commentary. The site advertised a black rectangular of piece of plastic that fits snuggly in your hand and acts as a "technology-free alternative to constant hand-to-phone contact"—a way to stay in touch with the real world by lulling your brain beyond its device separation anxiety.
RogerVoice Wants to Give Deaf People The Gift of Gab
Olivier Jeannel's new app aims to help the profoundly deaf and hard of hearing reach out and touch everyone.
For most of us, cell phones are indispensable. But for the 70 million people with profound or severe hearing loss, it represents a crucial missed point of contact. The RogerVoice app aims to change that. The soon to be released app—which blew past its $20,000 goal on Kickstarter in just one week to ultimately collect $35,000—uses VoIP and automatic speech recognition to provide subtitles for conversations in real time, making it easy for users to communicate with anyone who calls, all with no app download required on the other end of the phone and no intermediary required.
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