6 posts tagged “video”

Nine days out of ten, I leave my iPod on random and just listen to whatever comes up.  Some days, songs that I have completely forgotten crop up, leaving me pleasantly surprised and not a little nostalgic for whatever time in my life it was where I loved that song.

This song came up today, making me think of...well, nevermind.  Suffice to say, I've been remembering things, some good, some bad, but all worth remembering just the same.

So, this is a test post.  I signed up for the video hosting site Vimeo recently and this is my first shot at embedding video from the site into a blog post.

The video itself is from the last WorldCon, 2007 in Yokohama, Japan and features Ultraman fighting off a monster.  It's not the world's greatest video, and I apologize for that.  One of my new years resolutions is to get better at using my camcorder and maybe to post a few more of my videos.  Anyway.

Miro

One of the absolute best things about the internet, for me, is that it lets users time shift content to match their schedules, rather than being dependent on a network timetable.

To that end, the one product I use more than any other is Miro. 

Miro is an open source project that allows users to download videos from anywhere on the net as channels.  Users can create channels from favorite searches on engines like YouTube, or they can subscribe to video podcasts who enable Miro.  The technology behind Miro is quite impressive, combining torrents, open source video, and RSS feeds to put together a free, open, alternative to the tv.

A friend pointed this video out to me:  James Howard Kuntsler at the TED talks.

Mr. Kunstler is a critic of modern cities and urban development.  In his view, we, as citizens, have lost focus on the value and necessity of public spaces.  Further, our future lies not in maintaining the status quo, nor in hoping for a super-car that lets us commute longer and easier.  Instead, the future lies in reclaiming urban spaces and in revitalizing the blocks and courtyards of cities in other cultures that we, as Americans, have forgotten.  The future will necessitate the redevelopment of our cities by making smaller spaces, more public spaces, more local spaces.

From the video:

"Please stop referring to yourselves as consumers.  Consumers do not have obligations resp and duties to their fellow human beings.  And as long as you're using that word "consumer" in the public discussion, you will be degrading the quality of that discussion."

(EDIT:  I'm having some trouble getting the video to embed properly.  Here is the link to the video on TED.com.)

The TED talks are a series of presentations and speeches given at conferences every year by the world's leading thinkers and activists.  They have a very nicely designed and easy to use website with full video presentations for most of their speakers.  Please give it a look.