Nathan Yau, of Flowing Data, posted information and a link to CNN's interactive Casualties: Home and Away website. This website allows you to visually explore the casualty statistics of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with the first of the fallen in 2001. You can zoom into a region and see pictures and names of people. The website provides a way for friends and family to share memories about their loved ones.
Home and Away also provides a "list view" option, shown in one of the pictures below. Visitors to the site can sort by name or year of death. Sliders on the map view provide a way of looking at the pattern of deaths over time. It is sad, but this website makes us remember that war is real. Deaths are not simply statistics.
"The worldwide first EAP propelled airship was made at Empa in collaboration with aeroix GmbH and the Technical University of Berlin. This lighter-than-air vehicle with 8 m in length consists of a slightly pressurized Helium filled body of a biologically inspired form with Dielectric Elastomer (DE) actuators acting as muscles and deforming the body and tail fin in a fish-like manner."
I wonder if the Blimp's surface could be transformed for interactive ads....I'm sure someone is working on this now!
RELATED OpenMaterials.org (This is a rabbit hole I'll need to explore further.)
"OpenMaterials is a research group dedicated to open investigation and experimentation with DIY production methods and uses of materials.
In the spirit of the open source software and hardware movements, we hope to promote materials to be researched and developed in a public, collaborative manner. We see materials as an open resource, and wish to establish an open process for exploring and sharing knowledge, techniques and applications related to materials science."
"Google TV brings everything you love about the web to your television"
INTRODUCING GOOGLE TV
Transcript of the Google TV video:
"Back when there were only a few networks, watching TV was pretty simple. You turned on the TV, and if you didn't like what was playing, you changed the channel. But these days, TV can be pretty complicated. Figuring out what you want to watch is hard enough, and that's only the beginning. Once you've chosen a program, you have to figure out when it's playing, and which of hundreds of channels it's on. It's like you have to change your schedule to fit your TV's schedule. In fact, many of us end up watching videos on the web, because it is easier to find things that you want. I mean think about it, more and more of our favorite shows and videos are showing up online these days, and you can get to them really easily, whenever you want, just by typing in what you're looking for."
"The problem is, these smaller screens don't really compare to our home entertainment systems. Which leads us to a pretty big question: If the web is so smart, and our TVs are so fun to watch, why do we have to choose? Why can't they work together?
"Well, now they can. Introducing Google TV. Google TV brings everything you love about the web to your television. Some new TVs will come with it built-in, or you can get a separate box for the TV you already own. Either way, the way it works is very simple. Right on your TV screen, you simply type in what you're looking for...anything you're looking for, and Google TV will find it."
"It's basically an entertainment hub that searches all of your channels, recorded shows, YouTube, and other web sites. If you find something you like, you can add it to your home screen where you will always see your favorite channels, shows, websites, even music playlists and photo albums. That way, you can get to things really quick. And with a full web browser, you get unlimited access to the entire Internet, so you can do stuff like browse photos or update your status. And that's just scratching the surface."
"By opening up your TV to all of the improvements and innovation that the web has to offer, Google TV will make your TV smarter and easier to use. So you'll be able to spend a lot less time finding what you want, and a lot more time watching what you want."
Google TV is a new experience made for television that combines the TV you know and love with the freedom and power of the Internet. Watch an overview video below, sign up for updates, and learn more about how to develop for Google TV.
"Google TV is a new experience for television that combines the TV that you already know with the freedom and power of the Internet. With Google Chrome built in, you can access all of your favorite websites and easily move between television and the web. This opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web. Your television is also no longer confined to showing just video. With the entire Internet in your living room, your TV becomes more than a TV — it can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more."
SOMEWHAT RELATED I wonder what the user interface will be for navigating around Google TV. This just might be the opportunity for a next-gen universal remote control to emerge. I hope so, because I've had usability issues with the current state of my remote controls and my DVR + HDTV viewing experiences.
FYI: A few of my previous posts related to remote controls, web-browsing on HD TV's, and so on:
