President Barack Obama chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, part of a concerted effort to repair relations with the Muslim world that were damaged under the previous administration.
Obama cited his Muslim background and relatives, practically a taboo issue during the U.S. presidential campaign, and said in the interview, which aired Tuesday, that one of his main tasks was to communicate to Muslims "that the Americans are not your enemy."
The interview on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel aired as Obama's new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that." [via Yahoo! News]
This is pretty amazing. I mean it is from a weird side angle and I'm not exactly sure the point of it, but it's cool. Make sure you do lots of zooming so you experience how crisp and detailed the photo really is. Here's what the site says:
I made this Gigapan image from the north press platform during President Obama's inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. It's made up of 220 images and the final image size is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels.
** UPDATE 1/25/09 -- Thank you for the overwhelming enthusiasm for this photo. I am happy to announce that high quality prints will be available shortly. To be notified, send a blank email to: pano@davidbergman.net
GigaPan consists of three technological developments: a robotic camera mount for capturing very high-resolution (gigapixel and up) panoramic images using a standard digital camera; custom software for constructing very high-resolution gigapixel panoramas; and, a new type of website for exploring, sharing and commenting on gigapixel panoramas and the detail our users will discover within them. The GigaPan website allows hosting and sharing all kinds of panoramas, and so the robotic GigaPan mount is recommended but is certainly not required to be part of this community.
In his first weekly address since being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, President Barack Obama discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will jump-start the economy.
PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.
Well to continue with all the presidential hype surrounding yesterday's inauguration I bring you a new trend Swiffering the nation....Obamicons.
Obamicons? Yes, I understand you are probably confused but it will all make sense once you see one. Remember the Obama "HOPE" poster you saw everywhere? Well, an Obamicon is basically taking this same design and applying it any and everything. Here is my top 10 favorite Obamicons:
Ummm yea so it's probably not a good idea to try and mess with our president. I mean America is the most powerful nation in the world so you can imagine the security we have surrounding Barack Obama is simply mind blowing. Here's a little look:
Obama's Presidential Limo
According to Presidential vehicle experts, the new limo is a beast-like General Motors truck-based Cadillac that is so tough it's like a 'rolling tank with windows.'
Among the vehicle's main features are windows that are 5 inches thick, 19.5-inch Goodyear RHS tires (same as super tough trucks), and possibly even a lock safety mechanism that seals off the car like a bank vault in case of an emergency.
Because the Secret Service keeps details of the limo understandably private, even the most knowledgeable security experts don't really know how much gadgety tech is being installed in the new ride. But it's not stopping them making a few informed guesses.
In an interview with CNN, security expert Ken Lucci says rubber gaskets likely protect the car against chemical weapons and that the body will be made out of a tougher material than before. The most recent limo used by President Bush used some combination of a dual hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and even ceramics to break up possible projectiles. And there are usually steel overlaps that cover any gaps a door might leave.
Despite the immense secrecy, reports have leaked that the limo also comes with a 10-CD changer, which will inevitably end up playing Obama favorites like Steve Wonder and Bob Dylan. We're surprised there's no Blu-ray or Wii in there, but we're pretty sure of one thing: The limo will be a Zune-free zone, especially considering the most recent reports. [Wired]
Other Security And if the new presidential limo wasn't impressive enough here is the kind of firepower the black SUVs that follow Obama's limo will be packing.
Here's some more info on that bad ass gun: Dillon Aero, Inc. is the manufacturer of the Air Force GAU-2B/A (Army M134) 7.62mm minigun. It is a multi-barrel machine gun with a high rate of fire (over 3,000 rounds per minute), employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source.
If you missed yesterday's inauguration then you FAIL!
Here's some interesting info from yesterday from Cynopsis Digital:
Combining live television with the interactivity of the web proved to be a powerful lure for two major media and web brands yesterday. CNN.com's live streaming application, which was accompanied by a Facebook widget that allowed members to view comments from their peanut gallery of friends, set web traffic records yesterday serving a total of 18.8 million total online viewers as of 1 pm ET. (This shattered CNN's previous record of 5.3 million streams set on Election Day.) CNN served more than 1.3 million concurrent live streams just as President Obama began his address. This nearly doubled the streaming output of YouTube Live back in November of approximately 700,000 concurrent viewers as measured by Akamai, believed to be the previous industry high water mark. Facebook averaged more than 4,000 status updates per hour Tuesday morning, peaking at 8,500 updates/minute during the President's speech. Meanwhile Twitter, which survived without any major outages, saw 5x its normal tweet rate.
President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address
Barack and Michelle Obama's "First Dance" at the Neighborhood Ball
Dr. Joseph Lowery delivers Inauguration Benediction for Barack Obama
An 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks has admitted to Monday's hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obama's, and the official feed for Fox News.
The hacker, who goes by the handle GMZ, told Threat Level on Tuesday he gained entry to Twitter's administrative control panel by pointing an automated password-guesser at a popular user's account. The user turned out to be a member of Twitter's support staff, who'd chosen the weak password "happiness."
Cracking the site was easy, because Twitter allowed an unlimited number of rapid-fire log-in attempts.
"I feel it's another case of administrators not putting forth effort toward one of the most obvious and overused security flaws," he wrote in an IM interview. "I'm sure they find it difficult to admit it."
The hacker identified himself only as an 18-year-old student on the East Coast. He agreed to an interview with Threat Level on Tuesday after other hackers implicated him in the attack.
The intrusion began unfolding Sunday night, when GMZ randomly targeted the Twitter account belonging to a woman identified as "Crystal." He found Crystal only because her name had popped up repeatedly as a follower on a number of Twitter feeds. "I thought she was just a really popular member," he said.
Using a tool he authored himself, he launched a dictionary attack against the account, automatically trying English words. He let the program run overnight, and when he checked the results Monday morning at around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, he found he was in Crystal's account.
That's when he realized that Crystal was a Twitter staffer, and he now had the ability to access any other Twitter account by simply resetting an account holder's password through the administrative panel. He also realized he hadn't used a proxy to hide his IP address, potentially making him traceable. He said he hadn't used a proxy because he didn't think the intrusion was important enough to draw law-enforcement attention, and "didn't think it would make headlines."
He said he decided not to use other hacked accounts personally. Instead he posted a message to Digital Gangster, a forum for hackers and former hackers, offering access to any Twitter account by request.
"I ... threw the hack away by providing DG free accounts," he said.
He also posted a video he made of his hack to prove he had administrative access to Twitter. [Wired.com]
He also posted a video he made of his hack to prove he had administrative access to Twitter.
Definitely wasn't as impressed with JibJab's video this year when compared to the videos of years past. You can see the 2007 video HERE.
It must be December - snow is falling, children are writing letters to Santa and we're dragging 2008 through the mud in our all-singing, all-dancing, all-out year-in-review. Baby New Year '08 takes you on a tour of all of the good, bad, and worse the past year had to offer, all at breakneck speed. We're giving society a primo wedgie - everyone watch, point and laugh!
I think it's pretty cool Barack Obama has embraced online video the way he has. Check out this week's address about the team of men and women who will head up the nation's major scientific departments.
With his 30 minute national TV ad last night and almost double the amount of ads running across the country, presidential candidate Barack Obama is everywhere it seems.
Barack Obama's 30-minute campaign commercial Wednesday night was not merely a tactical decision to carpet-bomb millions of Americans in pursuit of a few thousand undecided voters who can dictate the outcome of the presidential campaign.
Aired on seven network and cable stations, the ad served as a national get-out-the-vote organizing tool for Obama operatives. It offered even the swiftest channel-flipper the chance to see Obama looking presidential, helping to condition voters to that possibility. And once again it proved to John McCain, and everyone else, how Obama's deep pool of campaign cash has allowed him to rewrite the rules of presidential campaigning. [SFGate]
Obama's campaign truly has rewritten the rules on how to campaign for president. He has embraced YouTube and his channel has videos going up everyday. According to Nielsen Media Research an estimated 33.6 million viewers watched Obama's half hour commercial last night. He has done a particularly good job in targeting a younger audience, the video game ads probably helped with that. AdAge even named Barack Obama the Marketer of the Year.
Everyone is tired of the back and forth. Obama says this, McCain says that. It's time we take the campaigning back the streets and by that I of course mean dance battling. It's finally time for one of the candidates to take the reins and let the other one know, "You Got Served."
A couple of things about Joe the Plumber, the icon of the authentic working-class voter who was declared the "winner" of the final presidential debate.
His first name isn't really Joe. It's Samuel.
He's not really a plumber - at least, not a licensed one.
He's concerned about increased taxes - but hasn't paid his own income taxes.
This really serves no point but I thought it was funny. I guess if you are an emo kid you can print this out and make a cool button out of it, or you can buy it here.
There's a new viral video making its way around the web. It's a celebrity filled PSA urging people to register to vote. The video itself is a bit lengthy which may limit its appeal as a viral video but the uncensored version offers a few laughs.
The spot does not single out a candidate but features the stars urging people repeatedly to register and vote (and encourage five friends or more to do the same). In some states, the voter-registration deadline is October 4, while other states allow people to register at the polls. [mtvU]
Censored Version
Uncensored Version (Warning: Some Profanity)
There's a few pretty cool maps if you putz around on the URL the video gives.
I know, I know, two political related posts in a row but just happened to notice this on ESPN.com and thought it was very interesting. It's an article about who in the sports world has donated to either John McCain or Barack Obama. There is also an interesting article interviewing both candidates on sports-related questions.
Culture Catalyst is your home to all things pop culture. From tech news to sports to viral videos, nothing is off limits. An update every day of what's hot now and will be hot tomorrow. From Catalyst SF, the World's First Marketing Capital Firm.
