Most online video platforms such as Youtube, MySpace and Metacafe use Flash video streaming (.flv) rather than simple links to files we can download. There are various reasons for that with the main one being the common business model most of those services relay on: advertising. In other words - we get to watch the content for free but we need to do that online and on the site. While this may be serving well the interests of the service provider it might not always be how we want things to go: some of us want to archive our own copies of the videos we love. Others may want to transfer a certain movie from one website to another. Well, this is the time to let you know that you don't have to be "on Youtube" to watch a Youtube movie. Instead, you can download the video stream to your computer, keep it there as a "normal" video file and watch it whenever you like. Nothing is illegal or fishy about it, it is simply another way of consuming the data. Just like you do when you save an html page to your computer and read it later.
So, for your convenience, CultCase has selected some of the best online video conversion services available today. They are all free of charge and do not even require registration. We tested all of them by converting and downloading the same 1:42 min Youtube video seen above of an (awesome) cover version for the Beatles' Hey Jude. There were no significant differences between the services in terms of both time-to-deliver and video quality. All of the files looked reasonable considering the quality of the source and took approximately 1-2 minutes to delivery. If you try any of them with your favorite videos please do let us know how it went.
1. Zamzar
URL: http://zamzar.com/url/
Zamzar is a free online file conversion dedicated to transforming songs, videos, images and documents into different formats. With this service the focus is on high-quality file conversion for as many file formats as possible. The basic free service lets you converting files up to 100MB each. In case you are an online video conversion freak and "want more Zamzar" you can signup for basic, pro or business account and get to convert larger files (up to 1Giga!), a personal inbox for online file storage and faster file conversions (pricing and signup here). Nice and clean interface design. Fun to use.
2. Mux
URL: http://beta.mux.am
With a somewhat over-texted design but still simple and easy to use interface Mux is a new beta service allowing you to convert media files from major player websites such as youtube, dailymotion and google and download to your computer. Here you can also share it privately with friends & family or send it to your mobile phone.
3. Vixy
URL: http://vixy.net
This online flv converter lets you convert Flash video files and download them in avi, mov mp4, pm3 or 3gp container formats encoded with mpeg4 codecs. The site claims to be doing that faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder. The service is based on an OpenSource engine named FLV to MPEG4 Conveter. In case you are a serious geek and knows your way around you can even download the project source code via their svn subversion.
4. VideoCodeZone
URL: http://www.videocodezone.com/conversion.php
Convert Flash video files from Youtube, MySpace, Google Videos, IFilm, Break, Dailymotion and Metacafe to popular formats and download them to your computer. Copy and paste the URL of the video, select the output format and click Convert/Download. To convert local Flash video files select the file and click Convert/Download.
5. MediaConverter
URL: http://www.mediaconverter.org
Multi-file type converter and splitter supporting video, sound, ringtones, images and documents: not just of popular audio / video files such as mp3, wmv, 3gp, flv, swf, mov, avi, mpg, mp4, divx, ipod, psp and ogg but also picture formats like jpg, psd, doc, pdf, rtf, txt, odg and even abandoned formats as WordPerfect (...?). Check File mode, click Browse, choose the file and hope for auto-detection to work. If auto-detection fails, select input format and output format, submit the form. To convert a file from the Internet check URL mode, enter the file URL, select input and output format and go.
6. ConvertDirect
URL: http://www.convertdirect.com
Online flv converter for Flash video files such as those used by Youtube. Supported output formats include avi, 3gp, mp3, mp4, wmv, mpeg, mov and psp. You can watch your vids on PC, iPod, Zune, PSP and various mobile phones.
7. MovAVI
URL: http://online.movavi.com
Other than requiring no software to install (that's true about everyone on this list) the guys from MovAVI are also proud of the fact there are no ads on their site to interrupt you while you are enjoying their free service. Add up to 5 files limited to 10 min each and 100 Mb total size. Enter your email address and MovAVI will notify you when your files are ready. There is also a cool feature allowing you to merge your files videos into one large movie.
8. Flvix
URL: http://www.flvix.com
Youtube Google Video dedicated online flv converter. Flvix comes from the folks who do Pingoblog, a cool ping service for bloggers. Very simple yet efficient interface. Converts Youtube and Google videos and serves them for download in avi, mov, mp4, 3gp and mp3 formats for PC, Mobile phones, iPod and PSP.
9. All2Convert
URL: http://www.all2convert.com
Online video converter. Copy video link, paste it in the URL video box, choose video format and press Convert. Wait for your converted video link to show up and download. Supports 3gp mobile phone format as well as iPhone and Zune videos, iPod, PSP and popular PC formats as dvd, mov, mp4, vob, rm and wmv.
10. ConvertTube
URL: http://converttube.com
Youtube dedicated online flv converter. Allows you to convert Flash video files as used by YouTube to popular PC, iPod, PSP, iPhone and mobile phone formats such as wmv, mov, mp4, mp3 and 3gp. Same as Vixy, this service also claims to be doing its job faster and less lossy than a typical video transcoder.
Get Your Own Copy: Top 10 Online Video Conversion Services
Frames of Frozen Time: 7 Contemporary High-Speed Photographers
If you ever tried taking a photograph of a running dog or a fast moving car you must have noticed it is quite a difficult task. Even with the most generous lighting conditions and very good lenses normal photography equipment is unable to capture sharp images of extremely fast motion due to the familiar effect of motion-blur. That's where special High Speed Photography equipment and a lot of experience and knowhow get into the picture... High Speed Photography is the art and science of taking of motion picture film, video or still photos of extremely fast phenomena such as explosions and detonations; water splashes; gunshots and other extreme high-speed actions.
The first practical application of high-speed photography is attributed to Eadweard Muybridge for his famous horse feet research. Later innovators such as of Eastman Kodak's, Bell Labs', Wollensak Optical's, Redlake Laboratories' and others further developed the equipment allowing up to 10,000 frames in a single second, even though most modern equipment is usually a bit slower that that. The Photron APX camera, for example, is capable of high resolution capturing of 1024 x 1024 images at 2000FPS or 1024 x 512 ones in 4000FPS.
Apparently, a few physical and chemical phenomena are way too fast to be captured even via a 10,000 FPS camera. Some stages in nuclear explosions occur in the speed of light or in other words exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. That was just too fast for any device to be able to capture until the 1940s when Harold E. Edgerton, AKA the "Doc" introduced us with a new ultra high-speed technique titled Stroboscopic Photography.
The amazing images shown above taken by Edgerton in the early 50s show the growing hit and shock fireballs about one millisecond after nuclear detonation. Using his Rapatronic cameras Edgerton managed to take such nuclear detonation photographs with the amazing exposure time of up to 10 billionths of a second. For making Stroboscopy and High Speed photography what they are today Edgerton (below) won many awards including the SMPTE Progress Medal in 1959 and the Eastman Kodak Gold Medal Award in 1983.
Lucky for us and right from the start, Edgerton's work was in no way limited to the physics of nuclear detonations. In 1937 Edgerton's "Coronet" milk drop photo was featured in the first photography exhibit of New York Museum of Modern Art's. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Edgerton was also of the first photographers to take high-speed shots of subjects commonly experimented by contemporary photographers. He took the pictures of athletes (1938), hummingbirds hovering (1953), bullets bursting balloons (1959) and blood coursing through capillaries (1964), and set up the path for countless of enthusiastic followers. "Self-Portrait with Balloon and Bullet" for example (below), was taken in 1959 but still looks fresh and stylish.
Today, following the path-breaking achievements of Edgerton and other High Speed Photography innovators and as technology become cheaper and more affordable, high-speed photographers became more common. What was once a technical scientific occupation is today a popular form of art attracting countless of enthusiasts across the world. Thus, fueled by the power of Internet, countless of High Speed Photo fans are able to freeze time and share fractions of their reality with you and me. Following is a selection of seven outstanding contemporary High Speed photographers and some of their work. While some of them are already famous and others don't even have a name, each one of them has his own unique visual language. Enjoy.
1. fotofrog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotofrog/
Based in Hagen, Germany fotofrog has been photographing for over 20 years with his main interests being High speed photography, infrared and macro. Gunshot and impact photos are pretty common nowadays but fotofrog spices them up with a with some thrill and danger, combining his model hands in the shot, very close to the action. A word of advice from fotofrog: don't try this at home.
2. Kai Kuusisto
http://www.flickr.com/people/kaintero/
The photos Kai Kuusisto, AKA kaintero, takes with bicycle rider Antti Koljonen particularly interesting as they always combine some drama or a good sense of humor with their high speed subject. Other than a great High Speed photographer this 27 years old great looking dude from Helsinki, Finland is also a bmx rider and a civil engineer. Stylish. You can also meet him on MySpace or read this recent article from delarge.co.uk.
3. Andrew Davidhazy
http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/
Professor Andrew Davidhazy of the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the most outstanding experts for High Speed Photography worldwide. His photos include everything from Gunshots, Splashes and Dripping water to Schlieren and Photoinstrumentation Photographs. His bullet
4. Greg Scott
http://www.gregscott.com
Hummingbirds are living helicopters made by nature. They can fly forward, backward, up, down, and even upside-down. Their wings' motion changes its angle with each flap. Unlike other birds, hummingbirds flap their wings horizontally in the shape of a figure 8 and do that on an average rate of 50 times per second. During courtship Hummingbirds' wings can speed up to 200 times a second. The above photos were all taken at 1/33000 sec, using an Olsen custom flash. Click them and have a look at the high-res versions. In my humble opinion, considering the way these birds were moving while being photographed, the level of details and focus here is simply amazing.
5. breic
http://www.flickr.com/people/breic/
Water and milk splash photos are amongst the most popular High Speed Photography subjects and it's not easy to make a difference. There is not much publicly known about breic except for being a north American and having a unique visual language for a spectacular set of milk color splash photos. The above milk splashing onto black plastic photos include food coloring. Lighting: Vivitar 283 (without diffusion) at camera right, aluminum foil reflector at left. ISO100, f/38.
6. Pulse Photonics
http://www.pulsephotonics.com
There are many great companies out there doing fabulous High Speed work. Yet Pulse Photonics has been in business for more than 25 years during which time it has supplied lighting and cameras for many scientific research disciplines. The wealth of experience gained during this period is clearly shown in their work and has gained them the only slot on this article devoted to a company rather than an artist. Some of the bullet photos taken by Pulse Photonics, such as the above "Bullet through metal" for example, are within the level of art. At least I would gladly have one in my living room for what it counts.
7. bowie22
http://www.flickr.com/people/13281157@N05/
Other than being a "taken" young man bowie22 from Kingsport, Tennessee has a special talent for drop and reflection photos. For me drop and reflection photos are of the most interesting High Speeds due to the clean look of the water surface, the shape of the drop serving as a mirror and the additional requirement of macro techniques.
Two-edged Media Sword: 10 Examples of Counteradvertising, Commerce Jamming and Propaganda Remixes
A plan to allow "domestic view" of data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can "see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers" has been recently approved by the USA government. For the good and bad of it, Information age enhances the ability of states to control citizens and of business corporations to enlarge leverage our privacy into profit: better security means more information in corporate hands and less privacy. Furthermore, Information age allows business corporations and states to deliver their message more efficiently than ever before. This means more products, more advertisements and less free public space. Yet, Information age also allows activist groups and their counter messages to be heard by millions. Following is a fresh collection of popular and particularly interesting strategies, case studies and resources demonstrating the two-edged sword face of new media - where counteradvertising, commerce jamming and propaganda remixes make a stand.
1. The Blackspot Sneaker: Cutting Through the Hype of Mediated Reality
According to AdBusters Media Foundation, publishers of the most popular subvertising magazine in the world and a leading activist group based in Vancouver Canada, well made subvertisments need to efficiently "mimic the look and feel of the targeted ad, promoting the classic 'double-take' as viewers suddenly realize they have been duped". With a list successful media projects such as the TV Turnoff Week which was aired on CNN, the Buy Nothing Day videos of 2006 and 2007 and a series of viral TV subvertisments titled The Product Is You, AdBusters continue to demonstrate how TV commercial language can be altered and manipulated to "cut through the hype and glitz of our mediated reality" and reveal "a deeper truth within."
The Blackspot sneaker, designed by John Fluevog, is Adbusters' recent Commerce Jamming project, a first Anti-Brand and your chance to "unswoosh Nike's tired old swoosh and own one of the most Earth-friendly shoes in the world": 100% organic hemp upper, recycled tire sole, made by Vegetarian Shoes in a European union shop including a hand drawn (!) logo plus.
2. Busting Phillip Morris: Why are you buying your food from a tobacco company?
In fact, some culture jamming ads carry indisputable facts about their targets making some disturbing unfamiliar truths to be a little more familiar to the public. "Why are you buying your food from a tobacco company?" showcased a list of popular food products owned by Phillip Morris, the world's largest cigarette company: "...Chances are that you've been helping to promote Marlboro cigarettes without even knowing it. You can withdraw that support by personally boycotting these products" the ad said. "It's like giving money to a health organization that is working to find a cure for cancer - but in this case you are taking money from a corporation that causes it. So next time you go buy food- try it. You'll like it."
3. The Reality of War: Vertigo vs. Australia's Department of Defence
In March 2003 Australia's Department of Defence has withdrawn advertising from all student media across the continent in response to a controversial full-page parody of Defence recruitment advertising published on Vertigo, a student newspaper at the University of Technology, Sydney. The spoof ad satirically portrayed the Department of Defence as "a political tool of an Australian government intent on participating in an unsanctioned invasion of Iraq" and was followed up and reprinted by other student publications.
This act of solidarity was like a golden medal to the Vertigo activists who saw the fact "students are no longer being inundated with inaccurate representations of the Defence Force" as a great victory. Vertigo spokesperson, Jano Gibson argued that "the 'exciting', 'inspiring' and 'feel good' Army ads that appear in uni diaries, on billboards and television differs extremely from the reality of participating in a war" and that Vertigo's parody "simply corrects the omissions of the Department of Defence." Click any of the above pictures for a larger version or download the pdf here.
4. Volkswagen vs. a Sick Joke: The Suicide Bomber Polo Driver
Sometimes facts are not the issue neither is the spoofer's opinion and the busted ad is made either "for" a non-existent product, or with a real one simply as parody of advertisements. Rarely, a familiar brand language is mimicked so well that the entire world is successfully fooled. In January 2005, managers at German car manufacturer Volkswagen found themselves in the center of a global row after a meme hack sick video joke featuring a Palestinian suicide bomber in a Polo car was virally distributed across the world via the internet.
The spoof TV advert showed an "oriental" looking man stepping into a Polo car wearing a keffiyeh scarf, known as a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. After driving around the city for a while the driver stops near a resonant populated with lots of innocent civilians and detonates, yet leaving the car intact.
The video was punched-lined with the familiar style slogan announcing "Polo: small but tough". Check it out and see for yourself: Even though it is not very clear which "deeper truth" is actually being revealed here, this culture jammer was mimicking the familiar Volkswagen language so well it simply got people to believe it’s a real one.
5. Excuse me - Is that blood in your gas tank? Dave Ward vs. Hammer
"Please download the large version and pass it along to forums, websites and other people who might appreciate it. Spread the meme!" – Those were the words of Dave Ward, a professional photographer who in 2005 created two anti-Hummer spoof ad campaigns. Suggesting the real reason behind the ongoing blood shed in Iraq is to support America's oil demand fueled by manly Tofu hater ego-driven cars of the Hammer type, Ward's anti-war eco-friendly spoof ad became almost as popular as the originals and were massively and virally distributed on Internet.
In July 2006 the second Hummer ad titled "Excuse me - Is that blood in your gas tank?" showed up on Ads of the World, a commercial advertising archive for the best and most interesting creative work worldwide. I bet they didn't like this so much at Hammer's headquarters but in light of recent developments in America's approach to international global climate responsibility you might say this culture jamming attempt might have had some part in making a change.
6. The Madeleine Spoof: Extremely Hurtful and Not Funny
Not all ad spoofs are made with humanitarian causes in mind and some are made for profit or publicity and leave a very bad taste behind. An 'advertising' spoof published in a German satirical magazine named The Titanic included an allegedly double-spread ad for a supermarket, depicting a number of products promoted with the image and name of Madeleine McCann's. This poor-taste parody was later described by Madeleine's parent's spokesman as "extremely hurtful". Not much to say about this one. Perhaps just that it's a good example for a 'not very funny' spoof.
7. Doctors Ought to Care: I smoke for smell
Other spoofs can be very funny and can hardly defined as unjustified by anyone, that is unless you are a lung cancer tycoon. The idea to sabotage the interest of cigarette corporations using their own media weapons is far from being new and came up almost 30 years ago when the Doctors Ought to Care (DOC) organization was pioneered countered development and jamming tobacco ads. In a 1980 paper published in JAMA, DOC founder Alan Blum, MD, wrote that "humor can be an effective tool" in this war. Thus, in one of its poster series, the DOC parodies the classic I smoke for taste advertisement with a picture of a similarly defiant, macho character with a cigarette dangling from one nostril and the caption I smoke for smell.
8. Constitutions Matter: Billboard Liberation Campaign
A very popular form of adbusting, sometimes referred to as Billboard Modification or Billboard Liberation, takes the form of alternation of public space commercials and billboards to make a spoof or parody of the original corporate or political message. Usually it is the company that pays for the advertisement that is being under the attack. In some cases, however, the target can be the medium itself.
It was August 1, 2007, when the deadline for all billboards in the city of Tacoma, Washington to comply with a (ten years old) law requiring the removal of all (well defined) disruptive billboards. Three days later Pranks, a popular blog by Joey Skaggs dedicated to culture jamming and reality hacking published this follow up about hundreds of billboards in Tacoma which "have sprouted a scary blue and red message reading "Constitutions Matter". All adbusted billboards were left carrying the name "Clear Channel Outdoor", a company of Clear Channel Communications and one of the world's largest outdoor advertising corporations. Photos are taken by Pranks from a local city blog named exit133.com.
9. The Li Peng Story: Step Down to Appease the People’s Anger!
Politics, anti-war and freedom fighting were always of the most inviting countermessage battlefields for artists and writers. The story of the Li Peng poem is an extraordinary example of how mass media can be hacked to deliver political counter-messages even under extreme media control standards as practiced by Chinese government. In March of 1991 the overseas edition of the People’s Daily - China’s Communist Party newspaper - featured the following patriotic homesick poem, written by a graduate student from Los Angeles aliased Zhu Haihong. Apparently the poem was a brilliant "qianzi shi" also known as "inlaid-character" poem. Thus, when read diagonally from upper right to lower left the words "Li Peng must step down to appease the people’s anger!" could be interpreted. Li Peng, for those who don't know, was the Premier of China between 1987 and 1998 and the "chief architect" of the 1989 Tiananmen square massacre.
10. The Propaganda Remix Project: YOU Back The Attack! WE'LL Bomb Who We Want!
Lastly, and with no intentions of getting into any blue-red American politics, here is another great example for political counter messages targeting war propaganda: Micah Ian Wright is an American author who works in film and television and also the person behind YOU Back The Attack! WE'LL Bomb Who We Want!, a compilation of his Remixed War Propaganda with introductions by Howard Zinn and Kurt Vonnegut.
Other books from Wright include If You’re Not a Terrorist... Then Stop Asking Questions! and Surveillance Means Security! and hundreds of posters are available on his site The Propaganda Remix Project. When you are there, make sure you don't miss Wright's amazing collection of Hate Mail. All typos, errors, odd word choices, logic leaps, ad hominem attacks, homophobia, and delusions are claimed to be "quoted verbatim". I've found myself spending some time reading there. It's nice to see some folks know how to take some criticism :-)
Shot or Not? New Bhutto's Assassination Video released on Channel 4
Slate magazine says "Bloggers are turning into ballistics experts" after the British Channel 4 released a new footage of Benazir Bhutto's last moments. The new video, according to Slate, is now compared to the Zapruder JFK assassination film and "further calls into question the Pakistani government's assertion that Bhutto died from hitting her head on the sunroof handle" as it clearly shows Ms. Bhutto was shot. Watch Channel 4's new Bhutto's assassination footage.
Top Ten Signs Your Country May Be Going Fascist
Protests are restricted? Leaders profit from war? Citizens closely monitored? Country might be tuning into a fascist entity? Check the above vid by Dayjob Orchestra for the Top Ten Signs Your Country May Be Going Fascist, submitted by cgt2099 picked up in the Anti War group at Mixx.
My Top 5 Criticker Users & Critics 2007 Movie Mix
My friends Mike Powell and Juergen Horn from Criticker published a few very interesting top movie ranking lists for the year of 2007. Criticker is an innovative community platform dedicated to movie reviews. By using the Taste Compatibility Index (TCI), Criticker identify with whom you most agree, out of thousands. Claimed to be "much more than just movie recommendations" Criticker's algorithm pairs you with "the people whose tastes are most compatible with your own, and thus get the most accurate advice possible." (More about Criticker in this review). Following are the top 5 movies for 2007 which made it to the "top 10" lists of both Criticker Users and Critics. The final order is based on my personal preference. All trailers are from YouTube.
5. Hot Fuzz
4. Ratatouille
3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2. Zodiac
1. The Bourne Ultimatum
For more 2007 movie ranking lists including Top 10 Movies 2007 by Criticker Users (Wide Release), Top 10 Movies 2007 by Critics on wide Release, Top 5 Movies 2007 by Criticker Users on limited Release, Top 5 Movies 2007 by Critics on limited Release, Worst 5 Movies 2007 by Criticker Users and Worst 5 Movies 2007 by Critics check on Best & Worst Movies of 2007 at Criticker.
[Top5 image courtesy strivepr.com]
What song is this? A OneManSho
This short (2:28) clip "took a heck of a lot of work" and is dedicated to those who - after watching this other vid titled "200 impressions" - blame the maker of having "too much time" on his hands. As you can probably guess already, 200 impressions (below) is not a very short one so you can either (1) trust me its very funny and continue to visit his channel, or just (2) click the little triangle, spend another 16:35 here and visit his channel later:
Either way, OneManSho is hot. He has been "Dealing you the business end of the funny stick since 2006" and already has over 2,800 subscribers on his YouTube channel. Check him out!
OneManSho on YouTube
OneManSho on MySpace
Climaxed in 54 Seconds: NOT a Johnson Commercial
Titled "Near Miss", this short piece posted by shurie does a great job mixing foreground and background composition with telephoto lens technique, builds up the tension and have it climaxed - all in just 55 seconds. I am not sure what it is exactly but I am 99% positive it's NOT a Johnson commercial. To watch the vid click the above photo or the link below. Enjoy :-)
Near Miss (55 sec)
Roadside Bomb Attacks: 6 Naked Reflections of Reality Taken by Soldiers
Roadside bombs, also known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are a powerful notorious weapon used by guerrilla fighters and terrorists against both organized armies and civilians. The war in Iraq, however, made roadside bombs more "popular" than they have ever been. Even though a huge effort is constantly being made to improve protection, according to Wikipedia, since 2003 and until today IEDs have been responsible for at least 40% of coalition deaths in Iraq. While many of the attacks are filmed by the attackers themselves some of them are captured live on camera by the soldiers, sometimes broadcasted on mainstream media channels and sometimes remaining rare citizen journalism documents reflecting the naked horror of reality. Following are 6 of the more unbelievable roadside attack videos taken by soldiers. This is how war looks like when its naked.
Underground Impact
This 10 seconds video taken in the vicinity of Baiji in Iraq has been recently distributed anonymously via email in Israel. It shows an unsuccessful roadside attack so there are no hard sights here but the impact is shown in a way I personally never saw before: Watch
Downtown Ramadi
One of the horrible sides of war in the New Media age is that, at least in some psychological aspects, it makes all of us a part of it. Yet, this also has some good sides. Hiding the truth became almost impossible. We can actually see how things look from the point of view of those who do it which may help us forming out opinion on the given subject. With this one for example, taken in the Iraqi downtown of Ramadi, you can almost feel the punch: Watch
Camera keeps on rolling
Uploaded last year this 40 seconds clip documents a roadside bomb detonates nearby a convoy of British soldiers. The camera is inside the car when it gets hit and continue rolling: Watch
Camera keeps on rolling. Tough driver continues driving.
Some roadside blasts are followed by a secondary attack. Thus, when you get hit and are able to continue driving it is probably the wise thing to do. Taken from a somewhat unusual angle with the camera installed on the engine hood, the fellow who was behind the wheel here must have been of the toughest as he somehow managed to keep on driving even after the blast, which probably saved a lot of grief for quit a few mothers: Watch
Not just armed vehicles
While most roadside attacks target armed vehicles some are used directly against soldiers when they are on the move or even if just standing, as shown on this shot broadcasted on CNN: Watch
Minimal vehicular protection
Lastly, in spite of their very minimal vehicular protection this group of US marines was lucky enough to survived an IED attack described as "small". Watch this and your definition for small might be altered: Watch
A World of Conflict: Innovative online documentary project on Yahoo News
Online television broadcast took another important step recently with the launching of A World of Conflict - an innovative documentary series in which veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites reports from major global conflict zones. Even though it is also included with Sites' new book "In the Hot Zone: One Man. One Year. Twenty Wars." with A World of Conflict there is no old fashioned TV version. The show is broadcasted exclusively on the Internet via Yahoo News. Other than the Intro chapter, previous episodes deal with Somalia, Congo, Uganda, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and Iran. Chapter nine of the Hot Zone doco is focused on Chechnya.
http://hotzone.yahoo.com
Bubble 2.0? Laugh until you cry.
"Need a good domain name, must be cheap, can't be lame
Something cool like Flickr, Meebo
Wikiyou, Mahalo, Bebo
Telephone without the T
Diggg but with a triple G
Make your elevator switch
Code it up and hit the switch."
Anyone who was part of the IT industry back in 1999 knows the word "bubble" can be quickly and easily translated into massive dismissal waves, lower salaries and dramatic changes of family budgets. Even though the 2000 dot com crisis had mainly positive impact on my life course I can still remember it very clearly as a no joke situation. Lets all hope web 2.0 is NOT bubble 2.0. Lets hope this hilariously funny takeoff on Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire will remain just a great music video joke by Richter Scales that managed to take the lead on the Guardian Viral Video Chart earlier today.
Solo, video, arrangement and lyrics by Matt Hempey, Mixed by Bill Hare, Recorded by Jason Hunter & Charlie Forkish. As they say, Web 2.0 just had it coming. Laugh until you cry.
Download Here Comes Another Bubble in MP3
Richter Scales
Dot com bubble (Wikipedia)
Second dot-com bubble (Wikipedia)
From Columbine to Kaarst: the new nihilistic terror wave
We, the real people who send our children to school don't have any ECHELONs, CTUs, SD-6s or 8200s units to inform us when a new type of threat emerges, but we still have to realize the sad news: As if we didn't have enough of them already, a new form of anomic or nihilistic terror came into our world. It is very different from the common political / religious / military ones we know, it uses common Internet communication platforms as YouTube channels and Chat rooms. And its targeting our children when they are in school.
According The Guardian, following a tip-off from the Finnish police still investigating the murder of eight people at a school in Tuusula, Finland by an 18-year-old on November 7, 2007, German authorities closed a secondary school in Kaarst, Düsseldorf yesterday after being warned about:
"evidence on a closed internet chatroom conversation between several parties which pointed to plans for an attack in Germany [...] a plan to carry out a massacre, in the latest of a string of violent plots believed to have been hatched by students in internet chat rooms."
No evidenced link between the Finland case and the plot in Germany was reported but it does clear that both attacks appear to be "inspired by the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado". Now I don't know if you happen to watch Michael Moore's excellent documentary Bowling for Columbine (if you haven't I suggest you should), but to me, it becomes pretty much clear that we are dealing with a phenomena which will only become stronger over time.
The Internet as we know it was at its early stages when the Columbine terrorists, seen in the above security camera picture (source: movies.lovetoknow.com), had done their did but the message was still strong enough to get through. Pekka-Eric Auvinen could already post his plans on the web before going on a rampage at his school. Under the YouTube pseudonym Sturmgeist89, he posted a video entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007" in which he pretty much informed us all about his plans. In addition to a YouTube channel, Sturmgeist89 was also posting to a MySpace page prior to his fatal attack. It should not be so hard to believe that if such an Internet platform was already active, it would obviously might have changed a lot for many Finnish families that don't feel safe anymore.
They say there is some good and bad in just about everything and at least in Germany, where - for the good and the bad - they always have been a model for efficiency, a new Internet platform is now reported to be in planning process, aiming to allow the public sharing information about possible attacks of the new nihilistic terror wave type. I am not sure how much would this system really be a transparent user data sharing / collaboration platform, or just a new way for people to deliver information to police authorities. I hope it's the first, rather than the later, but anyway I am glad its happening and hope this would turn into a global effort, not just a German one. If you are not convinced yet, perhaps you should spend 5 minutes watching the above video posted by YouTube user phoenixgenesis.
The worst school attack in Germany's history took the lives of eighteen people - fourteen teachers, two students and a policeman - in Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, eastern Germany Friday April 26, 2002, but it seems that what this attack didn't do, the recent events do.
The "Not for Public Use" photos above courtesy of nancarrow-webdesk.com
vConvert: online video streams to local video files
Ever wanted to save a YouTube video on your computer or upload a file you saw on one online video platform to another? vConvert is an online service allows you to convert online video streams as those broadcasted on YouTube and similar to local video files on your computer using popular formats such as mov, mp4, mp3 and 3gp used mostly by mobile phones.
The vConvert server converts FLV to the selected format faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder. Just submit a url wait and download your clip.
http://vconvert.net
Image courtesy No Turn Left