Pegeraro on tasing

As any self-respecting techie knows, the Consumer Electronics Show, probably the biggest technology event of year (save any of those Apple events), has been happening in the Las Vegas Convention Center this past week. I’ve played along a time or two. Among my favoritist posts is this one from Rob Pegoraro, columnist for the Washington Post:

LAS VEGAS–My “best product demo” award for this year’s CES has to go to Taser International, the manufacturer of those hand-held stun guns. At its booths, volunteers could sign up to get Tased at a low voltage. I had the fortunate timing to show up as one such individual was signing the fine-print-packed waiver form required for this demonstration.

Link to Mr. Pegoraro’s post. Remind me not to get tased (nor to say, “don’t tase me, bro”). Here’s a link to the CES site: Please tell me how to turn off the sound without having to use one’s local speakers or bailing out from the site.

Think Big Think Thinks Big?

Big Think is an effort to assemble different views on common topics so that people can compare and discuss them. So, one can watch diverse folks (John McCain, Mitt Romney, Dennis Kucinich, and Josh Lieb) explain their views on a specific question (in the case of these four, “Is the political system broken?”). Here’s how Heather Havenstein of ComputerWorld described it

Big Think, backed by heavy-hitter investors like Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, and Larry Summers, former U.S. secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University, is initially offering 100 hours of video interviews of leaders like Sen. Edward Kennedy, former Gov. Mitt Romney, businessman Richard Branson, author Naomi Klein, musician Moby, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and chef Jacques Pepin.

Organizers envision that the videos will serve as a launching pad for user-generated content on those topics and others. For example, users can upload video in which they respond to an interview, or add photos to support their position on a specific topic, according to Big Think. The interviews will be ranked based on their popularity with users.

I consider this an admirable idea (I’ve championed it in education, but not found a funder yet.) I hope it helps people think a bit more clearly. Of course, I’m sounding like a hopelessly optimistic idealist, no?

Link to Big Think and to Ms. Havenstein’s ComputerWorld story, “A YouTube for intellectuals?”