Ten Thousand People Singing Ode To Joy
I missed this when it made its rounds on the Internet a while back, but I couldn't resist in posting it. Thanks to Merlin for making me aware of it.
Tweetbot 2.3 Released
Tweetbot is out and contains a ton of new features and improvements. Federico Viticci over at Mac Stories has a fantastic comprehensive review of the new version, but this particular feature caught my attention as I've wanted it for a long time:
Last, some minor touches in version 2.3 will contribute to improving usability and to allowing users customize their timelines to their needs and tastes: retweets from specific users can now be disabled at any time, and it’s possible to quickly open the last saved draft by holding down the tweet compose button. The timeline sync bookmark icon is now an optional setting, and Tweetbot is capable of uploading high-res images when on WiFi. So now those brief acquaintances of mine who I work with or are a friend of a friend who retweet Spa deals or topics I don't care about, I can block without having to go to Twitter.com to toggle that setting.
Planet Earth Narrated By Kids
Love this. via Xeni Jardin, at BoingBoing).
At 92, A Bandit To Hollywood But a Hero To Soldiers
Alan Schwarz, at The New York Times:
“Big Hy” — his handle among many loyal customers — would almost certainly be cast as Hollywood Enemy No. 1 but for a few details. He is actually Hyman Strachman, a 92-year-old, 5-foot-5 World War II veteran trying to stay busy after the death of his wife. And he has sent every one of his copied DVDs, almost 4,000 boxes of them to date, free to American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Awesome.
Internet, Go To Work: Help My Friend Become The Official Blogger For the United Nations' World Environment Day
My friend and co-worker, Maggie Comstock is in a competition over at the United Nations Environment Programme, where she currently sits at third place. If she wins first place, she wins a trip to Rio to be the official blogger for World Environment Day, pretty cool The current first and second place contestants sit at around 1800 votes. Maggie is in third place with ~1360 votes. Internet, you know what to do. You can vote on it here and she has a second post as well, which you can also vote on. Live status of the current voting for the competition. Below is a snippet of one of her posts: Maggie Comstock, at the UN Environment Program, writes "The Top Three Reasons Rio+20 Will Change The World:
Though two months away, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development’s Earth Summit, better known as Rio+20, has already been labeled vital, momentous and historic. And while delegates, students and activists have yet to arrive in Brazil, we already know that Rio+20 has the potential to be a “big deal.” It all begs the question, can the people engaging in Rio+20, in-person or remotely, really change the world? My sage and inspiration for answering this question is Margaret Mead who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Simply, Rio+20 is about being part of that thoughtful group committed to "getting it right" for future generations. The outcome and commitments of the Conference will affect us all, from the farmer in Iowa to the IT specialist in India, and whether you attend the conference or not, your voice can and needs to be heard. The first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 wasn’t a quiet affair by any means. An estimated 172 governments (108 heads of state), 2,400 NGO representatives and 17,000 attendees of the parallel Global Forum participated in the original Earth Summit. Additionally, the 1992 conference yielded vital, momentous and historic gains, including Agenda 21 (the action plan supporting sustainable development goals through government engagement at all levels), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), from which all of our climate negotiations stem. Rio+20 is estimated to eclipse the original Earth Summit in both size and breadth. The actual conference, which will take place June 20-22, will be preceded by over a week of civil society days and pre-conference events. In addition to buy-in from governments, industry and non-governmental organizations, Earth Summit 2.0 is posed to make an even bigger splash than the original.