Dr. Diane Hamilton's Blog

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Google and Facebook April Fool’s Day Jokes

On April Fool’s Day the Internet is full of contributors trying to play on our gullibility.  Facebook has its share of people listing today as their birthday or reporting unusual updates.  The following is Google’s attempt at playing the game:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu927_ul_X0&w=640&h=390]

Young Boy Has Higher IQ Than Einstein

The video below of young Jake Barnett shows his amazing brain and abilities at the young age of 12.  With the recent movie release of Limitless with Bradley Cooper, there is a lot of focus on the brain and its potential. 

At the age of 3, young Jake was diagnosed with autism.  Parentdish reported, “But today, 12-year-old Jake is studying electromagnetic physics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and has an IQ of 170, higher than that of Albert Einstein. And he’s astounding university professors by developing his own theory of relativity — they’re lining him up for a Ph.D research role, Barnett, of Noblesville, Ind., says.” To read Jake’s amazing story, click here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFmrlIEpJOE&w=480&h=390]

Amazon Takes on Netflix Offering Movie Subscriptions

Those interested in immediate gratification have made Netflix a popular choice for movie viewing.  Amazon has now taken on the challenge of competing with Netflix.  Amazon’s “Prime” subscription program costs $79/year which includes their 2-day shipping on purchases.  Prime also includes more than 5,000 video-streaming movies and television shows.  Most of what they offer includes older television seasons and movies.

Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” program costs $7.99 a month and video-streams over 20,000 titles.  This brings their price to over $95/year.  Many of their movies are newer, but their TV shows consistent of previous seasons.

Amazon is entering this market in hope of increasing their digital business.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “The streaming-video offering could lead customers to buy or rent the 90,000 movies and shows that Amazon already offers on an a la carte basis.”

In an effort to compete, Netflix has entered into a two-year deal with CBS to provide television shows.  WSJ reported, “Netflix will pay CBS hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the nonexclusive, two-year licensing pact, which gives CBS the option to extend it for up to two years and add more content in return for higher compensation.”

How will this affect the cable and satellite industry’s relationship with TV networks?  That is something that TV executives must consider as more than $30 billion a year comes to networks from subscriptions.

Netflix is no stranger to competition.  Netflix’s competition with Itunes, led to their removing limits for streaming of video. PCworld reported, “Previously the amount of streaming content subscribers could access was dependent on their subscription level. For example, the $16.99 membership allowed for 17 hours of streaming movie content. With the new unlimited plan, all subscription levels, with the exception of the lowest $4.99 plan, will be able to stream as many Netflix movies and TV shows as they’d like to their PCs.”

Itunes has been tough to beat in movie downloads.  As Forbes pointed out, “ITunes already dominates the world of movie downloads. In 2010 the service accounted for 64.5% of all movie downloads and rentals.”

Was Alexander Hamilton Ever President? Have a Laugh on President’s Day

History was never one of my strongest subjects in school.  However, in my youth, I  managed to learn one history lesson about why Alexander Hamilton was on the ten dollar bill. Having the last name of Hamilton may have caused my unusual interest.  Many assume those on our U.S. currency are all presidents.  This is not actually always true.  Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin are both on currency and neither one was ever president.  The following video is a great bit by Asylum’s Anthony Layser.  Have a little laugh today on President’s Day:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVjUvmEcj1o&w=640&h=390]

Global Warming: Answers For Both Sides From The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See

In a foresight class I teach, we compare Al Gore’s and Glenn Beck‘s views on global warming. It brings up some interesting discussions. A student recently posted this link in class and I think it is very well done and explains the two sides and how we may need to think about the subject.

The amount of interest in global warming may be dropping.  Denverdailynews reported,  “A poll by the Pew Research Center states that the public’s priorities for 2010 did not include global warming. In fact, global warming ranked last as a priority, with just 28 percent of the public considering it a top priority, according to the 2010 poll.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ&fs=1&hl=en_US]