Motivation, Good Commercials, & Augmented Reality

AWESOME stuff I happened upon lately and had to share!

Augmented Reality, by Blaise Aguera y Arcas

If you are like me, you will not know what he’s talking about until you watch this video. But trust me, it’s AWESOME.

The Pick-me-up You Didn’t Know You Needed

Because we ALL need a little motivation every now and then! This video will make you laugh (it’s a little cheesy) AND make you re-think the way you live life.

The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

A Really Effing Good Commercial

The Superbowl this year just didn’t cut it for me. The only commercial I ended up liking was Google’s “Every Search is a Story” ads. This commercial caught me off guard – I wasn’t expecting it to be this good!

Life… From a Genius’ Perspective

This will also make you think about life and your relationships with other people. Some of my favorite quotes from Einstein’s essay, The World as I See It, are:

“But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people — first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.”

and

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving..”

And as your reward for reading this far… The FUNNIEST Craiglist ad you have EVER read.

Seriously – my roommate and I almost peed our pants after reading this ad from, ahem, a man named Cougarclaws.

This TED Conference is… Moot

What do getting Rickrolled and LOLcats have in common? They both began in an online forum known as 4chan. When Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account was hacked, the password was posted on 4chan. Anonymous, a group with connections to 4chan, started protests against Scientology in 100 cities around the world while holding signs and wearing Guy Fawkes masks. And there are countless other instances of 4chan’s influence on our culture and society.

Christopher Poole, also known as “moot”, started the website 4chan after being inspired by 2chan, a Japanese online forum. He was 15 at the time. He soon had to create some sort of rule system for the site (which he says no one really abides by). It’s frequented by thousands of visitors, and according to The Guardian, 4chan is “lunatic, juvenile… brilliant, ridiculous and alarming.”

Since then, Poole has spoken at Yale and MIT. He was also voted #1 on TIME’s Most Influential People of 2009 with help from 4chan users. They apparently hacked the system to put him at the top of the list (via online voting ballot) and then made the first letters of each name on the list spell out “marblecake”, a 4chan inside joke.

If you do end up visiting the site, make sure to check out /b/, the infamous random forum. It’s the most popular section of the site, and a breeding ground for creativity. Although admittedly, Gawker.com joked that “reading /b/ will melt your brain.” Disclaimer: Before you visit 4chan, be aware that it’s not a very “appropriate” website. Basically, their attempts (if any) at eliminating pornography have failed miserably.

Below is the only video I’ve found of Poole speaking at the TED conference (he presented Thursday) thus far. He describes 4chan and its impact, and then comments on the fact that people are moving away from anonymity toward a more “permanent identity”, which is not always a good thing.

The Number One TED Talk. Ever!

I have a major affinity for TED talks. That being said, I just had the privilege of watching Jill Bolte Taylor’s 18-minute talk, which was voted Number One in the Top 10 Best TED Talks. I’ve heard a little about her, mainly through advertisements for her book. She seems a little nutty – especially when she talks about her out-of-body experiences. But who wouldn’t after studying the brain’s functions for years and then, in a day, watching those same functions disappear one by one?