That Media Hut: Nov 3, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Uneducated Teens Need The Internet To Survive

According to a study conducted by Cisco Systems, it's officially impossible to have a conversation with an 18-year-old human without them pulling out their Internet machine and logging on mid-sentence.

The study looked at the ways in which humans interact with the Internet. And guess what? For college students, the Internet is just as fundamental to human life as air:

One of every three college students and employees surveyed globally (33%) believes the Internet is a fundamental resource for the human race – as important as air, water, food and shelter. About half (49% of college students and 47% of employees) believe it is "pretty close" to that level of importance. Combined, four of every five college students and young employees believe the Internet is vitally important as part of their daily life's sustenance.

Sustenance! Or, the things you need to sustain your life. Well, that does it. Shut your laptop, turn off your iPad, throw your PC into the garbage. Go outside and look at a tree or open a book. It's okay, I will keep an eye on the Internet for you while you're gone. Yikes, kids, start #LivingYourLife.

[Image via Shutterstock]

The Day We Became Entranced With Google Search

Speaking of which, have you seen what happens when you run search for “do a barrel roll” in Google? It’s wild.

Here are a few other cool Google Easter Eggs to check out:

[Reddit/CNet/Atlantic]

Video: Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale in California

Barbara Roettger got some unexpected facetime with a pod of humpback whales when she unwittingly happened upon a lunge feeding off the coast of Santa Cruz that nearly made her the main course.

She managed to come away from the experience unscathed, with some once-in-a-lifetime footage. Quite literally: Roettger says that when it comes to whale feedings, she “will now only spectate from the decidedly safer dry land.”

[dpaf]

Ryan Seacrest to Make Film Producing Debut with Reese Witherspoon

Ryan Seacrest, who hangs over Hollywood and infests everything in it like a cloud of smog carrying Anthrax, made his first deal to produce a movie. If this is anything like his TV producing enterprises, which brought us the Ugg-booted Yeti that is the Kardashians, we're all doomed.

Yes, Seacrest inked a deal to make a movie with Reese Witherspoon's Type A Films. Damn, and I thought Reese Witherspoon was a good person. Of course it's going to be a romantic comedy and it's going to be written by Krista Vernoff, who used to write for Grey's Anatomy, your mom's favourite ABC show before she stopped watching it so she could watch more Dancing with the Stars. Man, if I find out that he cast Heigl in the lead role, I'm going to burn down the nearest multiplex. Or Aniston! He's totally going to cast Aniston. Ugh.

[Image via Getty]

Everyone Is Watching More TV, But Many Aren’t Watching TV at All

A new study conducted by the completely impartial TVGuide.com concludes that Americans are watching more television than they ever have. But people aren't watching all of their television when the networks want them to.

In the site's Fall 2011 TV Survey, which queried almost 6,000 people, 32% of respondents reported watching more than 30 hours of television a week, which is up from 18% last year. But fewer people are watching TV when it actually airs. About 71% of people are watching shows more on DVR and on demand, 55% watch their favourite shows online, 62% are watching more shows online than they did last year, and 15% watch five hours or more of video online each week. That is up 11% from last year.

If this trend continues, we're all going to be hunched in from of the computer all night, downloading shows that never even had a time slot. It's just amorphous content out there for us to gobble it up as soon as it's available. Granted these are people who watch TV and know how to use the internet and properly fill out a survey, which is sadly a smaller sample than you would imagine. The good news is that America is picking up what you're throwing down, TV, now you just have to figure out how to deliver it when they want it.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Mark Zuckerberg Is Serious About Facebooking

Silicon Valley warps the mind. In the real world, your health, family, and friends are most important. In the Valley, they're what you trade for speed, buzz, and valuation, as illustrated in a heartbreaking scene from the Facebook-Google war.

Feeling pressure from rival social network Google Plus, Facebook went on its second annual "lockdown" this summer, basically requiring everyone to work nights and weekends for 60 days. Kids got to enjoy the sweatshop environment, too, according to Fortune's behind the scenes account of Google vs Facebook:

Facebook employees put in some serious overtime during the summer lockdown... The cafeteria opened up on evenings and weekends this summer, and children dropped in for dinners and good-night hugs before their parents logged back on for late nights.

There is a time and a place for overtime. When you're building bombers to fight the Germans, for example, or trying to keep your factory from closing. This is not one of those times! The Google-Facebook "war" might feel very real and very important in the bubble of Silicon Valley, and revamping "key social features like photos, groups, and events" might seem utterly crucial to Facebook's robotic boy king Mark Zuckerberg. But in the end Facebook is just a God damned internet website, one whose billion dollars in annual profits stand as evidence that an all hours, all hands emergency rescue is utterly unnecessary. Something is seriously messed up when families are being broken up in order to improve tools to foster and showcase family togetherness.

[Photo via Getty]

Wheelchair-Bound Athlete Scores Touchdown

Despite being the captain of his school’s football team, Trent Glaze had never played in a single game.

That’s because the Fairfield Union High School senior, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, became wheelchair-bound ten years ago.

Still, his physical disability didn’t prevent Trent from giving his all to the Falcons, attending every practice and function, and providing vital sideline support for his teammates and coach Tom McCurdy.

After years of being a fan, a team manager, and a captain — in that order — Trent’s was finally promoted to the role of his dreams: Player.

Last Friday, after his team’s loss to rival Teays Valley, Trent was invited onto the field to score his very first touchdown. “I thought about what it would be like,” he told ABC News, “but nothing could compare to what it really was.”

“He may not be on the field,” Coach McCurdy added, “but high school athletics is about him.”

[Lancaster Gazette/ABCNews]

Video: A Background Full of Jelly Beans

The music video for “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis, which utilizes over 288,000 jelly beans for its background, took 30 people only 1,357 hours across 22 months to complete.

I say “only” because I’m being sarcastic.

[kinagrannis]

See Also: Behind the scenes

Burger King Japan Now Selling A "Pizza-Size" Whopper

Burger King in Japan is now selling two new versions of The Whopper that's over 8.8 inches in diameter. Available in “Fresh Avocado” and “Cheese Nacho,” these fat-fetish meals will only be available from December 6th - 25th.

Wide is what you get with Burger King Japan's 8.8 inch (22cm) diameter Pizza-Size Burger. Note that only the buns are extra-wide, in between are four regular Whopper-sized beef patties arranged in a four-leaf-clover pattern. The fillings and toppings are also normally sized but at least they're provided in abundance.

[Inventorspot]

Coke Goes White To Protect Polar Bears

The iconic red Coke can, one of the most recognizable product designs of modern times, will turn white next month to help the polar bear.

Coca-Cola Company is teaming up with the World Wildlife Fund to help protect the bear's Arctic home. The soft drinks giant is committing $2 million in Canada and matching up to 1 million in consumer donations to the WWF's conservation efforts.

From Nov. 1, Coca-Cola will change the colour on its cans for the first time ever, switching the red background to white and changing the lettering to red. The new design will be carried on more than 94 million cans.

“The polar bear and the rugged Arctic are enduring symbols of the Canadian north. For Coca-Cola, the polar bear is especially near and dear to our hearts, appearing for decades in our holiday advertising,” said Nicola Kettlitz, President of Coca-Cola Ltd. “‘Arctic Home’ strengthens our commitment to the polar bear, our focus on building sustainable business practices, and our dedication to making a positive difference in the world."

The U.S. listed polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2008, while in Canada they are listed as a species of special concern. Their survival is being threatened by shrinking Arctic ice.

Biologists estimate there are some 20,000 to 25,000 bears left, according to Polar Bears International. About 60% of those live in Canada.

[Toronto Star/Video Courtesy of Shopping Blog]

83-Year-Old Man Charged With Prostitution

An 83-year-old Iowa man has been charged with prostitution after police received a complaint that he had offered to perform sex acts on a woman in exchange for repayment of a loan.

The investigation began late last month when police in Centerville, Iowa, received the complaint, local news outlet KTVO3 reports.

Police say after the man made the offer, he grabbed the woman and began kissing her neck without her consent.

Ben Clifford Dawson, who is listed as a candidate for Centerville's city council, is charged with prostitution and intent to commit sexual abuse.

86-Year-Old Drives Car Into Swimming Pool

Since the driver's side door was blocked by another automobile, Mary Lee Fine tried to slide across passenger seat. Then this happened.

"I either hit the key or the gear shift," she said. "I don't know what happened, but the car backed up - wooo whoom."

[news.sky.com]

Watch Out for Exploding Toothbrushes This Morning

Malfunctioning dental products adding to list of why you should never brush your teeth. Don't you just hate it when your toothbrush explodes? Via CBC:

Health Canada is warning people to stop using Colgate Motion Electric Toothbrushes after reports they "exploded," but the devices might still be available in stores.

The manufacturer, Colgate-Palmolive, is recalling the battery-operated devices after nine reports from Canadians that the toothbrushes "exploded."

CBC News was able to purchase the toothbrush Thursday morning in a P.E.I. store's "blowout sale."

That right there is Exhibit A for justifying why the country needs a robust public broadcaster. Blowout sale! Priceless, CBC, priceless.

Putin Claims 7 Billionth Person Is Russian

KALININGRAD, Russia - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hailed a two-day old Russian boy as the world’s seven billionth person on Wednesday, weighing into a bizarre scramble to claim a title that is almost impossible to verify.

Russia’s Pyotr Nikolayev was born on Oct 31, two minutes after midnight in a maternity hospital in Russia’s Western exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and the Baltic Sea.

“How did you manage to do it on the very 7 billion mark?” Putin, who is running for president in a March election, asked the child’s mother in front of a group of television reporters.

“It was all down to him. I am just a normal mum,” Yelena Nikolayeva, replied as she handed the boy to Putin, Russia’s paramount leader. The pictures were aired on state television at peak viewing times. The United Nations says the population reached the 7 billion mark on Oct 31 — 13 years after reaching 6 billion, and has tried to use the sharp increase to draw attention to the problems of population growth.

Though it is almost impossible to say which person was actually the midnight’s child of this billion, there have been claims to the title from people in countries such as the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Britain.Local officials in Russia’s Far East even awarded a certificate to the mother of another boy, Alexander, that purported to confirm his title as the world’s Seven billionth person. A spokesman for the United Nation’s Population Fund could not be reached for comment.

'Defriending' on Facebook Leads to Arson

Detectives in Des Moines arrested a 30-year-old woman suspected of setting fire to the house of a long-time friend because she recently de-friended her on Facebook.

Jennifer Christine Harris was charged with first-degree arson and is currently being held in the Polk County Jail. No one was injured in the blaze, but the family’s garage was destroyed.

According to home owner Jim Rasmussen, Harris and his wife Nikki recently had a falling out “because she ended their friendship on Facebook.” It seems the source of the conflict involves a party event that Nikki created on Jen’s behalf that received “a lot of ‘declines’.”

When asked to name a person who might seek to harm his family, Rasmussen offered Jen’s name. A subsequent police investigation strengthened suspicion of her involvement.

[Des Moines Register]

Video: World's Best Juggler

Okay, I'm impressed. They don't make 'em like they used to.

[likecool]

Video: Goldfish Frozen In Liquid Nitrogen Gets Reanimated

This is some Han Solo carbonite stuff right here. An unsuspecting goldfish is placed in liquid nitrogen and flash frozen. Then the littler feller is dropped back in his lovely beaker aquarium and comes back to life.

According to the YouTube description, the goldfish survived with no ill effects...until it was fed to a turtle.

[mpviral.com]

Video: Snake Slithers Out of ATM

An unnamed man went to get some cash from a Caja Madrid bank machine in Llodio, Alava, Spain and saw his cash coming from the slot -plus a snake! Even though the snake lunged toward his hand, he grabbed his money, then summoned the police. A bank manager activated the cash release that had trapped the snake, which was then boxed and taken to an animal shelter.