Google Launched "Near me Now" on Android

Now that I'm a new Android user, I love this feature. Especially since I've gotten over how creepy it is that Google knows where I am every minute of the day (when I have my phone on). The creep factor is negated by the fact that I really like to use my phone as a GPS and to find where the closest Starbucks is to me in a new city.

More about the Google announcement about "Near me Now" on the Fast Company blog.

Filipino Prisoners Dancing to Queen

Supposedly as a part of their rehab. The beginning is slow, but stick with it, it's worth it.

Rocket Fuel Found in Infant Formual - Kids at Risk

CDC has found the rocket fuel chemical (perchlorate) in 15 brands of powdered infant formula. Combined with existing perchlorate drinking water contamination in 28 states, infants are at risk. Environmental Working Group asks for EPA action. http://www.ewg.org/Rocket-Fuel-In-Infant-Formula/TakeAction

Beautiful 404 pages

I just loved some of these 404 Error Pages and had to share. I copied my favorites below, but you should really see them all.

Mercury Found in High Fructose Corn Syrup

My family members are diabetic, so I've been irritated by the corn industry's new TV commercials that say "high fructose corn syrup is fine in moderating".

Yeah right.

Turns out they've been creating the stuff with mercury.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.

Full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831_pf.html

And here are products that have mercury in them:
Product Name Total Mercury Limit of Detection (ppt)
Quaker Oatmeal to Go 350 80
Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce (Heinz) 300 100
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup 257 50
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce 200 100
Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars 180 80
Manwich Bold Sloppy Joe 150 80
Market Pantry Grape Jelly 130 80
Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly 100 80
Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry 100 80
Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup 87 50
Wish-Bone Western Sweet & Smooth Dressing 72 50
Coca-Cola Classic 62 50
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt 60 20
Minute Maid Berry Punch 40 30
Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink 30 20
Nesquik Chocolate Milk 30 20
Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk 30 20

The whole list is here: http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=105026

Looking for a coffee in a strange city that isn't Starbucks?

I had to share a new tool that will let you look up non-chain coffee shops, bookstores and theaters. It's called Delocator.

Useless Info for the Day - Fear of Long Words

Really. The word that describes the fear of long words is: Hippopotomonstrosequippedalio.

Look it up.

Dr. Stephen Badylak - Regenerative Tissues

Dr. Stephen Badylak is an expert on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with over 40 U.S. patents and 200 patents worldwide.



This was by far one of the most exciting presentations at PopTech.

Here's the video:

Dr. Badylak has studied how or body can regenerate its own tissue by rallying the stem cells we have in our own body. He discovered an extracellular matrix that is loaded with information and acts like a scaffolding.

(picture of extracellular matrix)

When you apply this material to a wound, the stem cells in our bone marrow rush to the area and start rebuilding tissue. His tests have re-grown cut off fingers, wounds in bladders, closed a softball size hole in a horse's nose...This stuff regenerates skin, hair, tissue, even muscle. He's using it to help generate tissue by Iraq veterans who have lost limbs, muscles, etc.

You can find out more about his research via an Esquire article,

Jay Parkinson - Social Network to Connect you to your Doctor

Jay Parkinson has created HelloHealth which lets you make appointments online, email your doctor, and use 21st century tools to manage your health. I think it's a great model.


The phrase that stuck with me after his presentation at Pop!Tech?

16.9% of the US GDP runs on handwritten notes.

Gary Slutkin - Violence as an Infectious Disease

This presentation at Pop!Tech was fascinating. Gary Slutkin has a background in infectious diseases and discovered that the spread of violence behaves a lot like the spread of disease. He has applied the formula for containing the spread of infectious diseases to violence reduction in Chicago with great success.

The formula to control infectious diseases looks like this:

1. Interrupt transmission
2. Change the behavior that is driving the transmission (this is based on the social network)

You change behavior by sending out the same message through various channels with credible messengers. You can learn more about the CeaseFire program to end violence in Chicago here.

Visualizing your Friend Connections on Facebook

I discovered a neat way to view your friend connections on Facebook via a new (to me) application. You can see my graph here.

Finally! Google Maps Helps me Find a Restroom

Women everywhere will appreciate this. We are always aware in our travels of where the free and clean restrooms are, but now you can find them using Google Maps.
SitOrSquat.com

The wonderfully named SitOrSquat.com is a website and mobile application that has mapped over 25,000 public restrooms. In their own words SitOrSquat "is dedicated to telling you where the closest public restroom is and whether or not that restroom is worthy of your bare bottom."

Users can rate the restrooms, view photos, read reviews...you can even create a list of your favorite toilets. Even though this is a US based application, I would flag the restroom that I visited in Eutopia in the Northland and Kawa Kawa's art deco toilets.

It also has a iPhone application. Turns out New York has been documenting restrooms for a bit longer. Here's their map: NYRestroom.com.

Hookup Maps - A Mashup of Craigslist Personals and Google Maps

So it turns out there is a mashup application out there to let you know who is single in your neighborhood. Beyond the obvious (that as a single woman I don't want random men to know where I live before vetting them) it might actually be helpful. I'm thinking of my own neighborhood where there are TONS of townhouses and apartment complexes in a small area. I walk by them on the way to the metro, and think, "I bet the love of my life lives in one of these apartments...how would I ever meet him"?

HookupMaps is a mix of Craigslist personal ads and Google Maps - showing you where the people wanting to "hook up" in your city are. I wonder if it pulls from the sexually scarey "random encounters" section, "the LTR section" or some other section. It will not only tell you how many single people there are in your neighborhood, but it will also tell you the age and gender of each poster.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The site also lets you filter your searches based on a few criteria: m4m, m4w, w4w, w4m, and whether the post contains a picture. You can search by city, neighborhood, or, by keyword. Here in DC maybe that means you can search for "liberal" or "democrat" or "lawyer" if that's your preference.

There's a different twist on staving off movie watching loneliness that I discovered while at Pop!Tech. It's a blog called "White Hat Stories", where a poster announces that they will be wearing a white hat and watching a movie at X movie theater in case anyone wants to join them for company.

It's interesting to see how people are using technology to encourage face-to-face interactions - like joining groups on Facebook or Meetup.com

Technology use is Stimulating Evolutionary Change

And everyone laughed when Ray Kurzweil talked about the ultimate merging of human brains and machines.

Here's a fascinating article looking at how we strengthen certain neural passageways due to our technology use - making use better at decision-making, data filtering, and complex reasoning, but also limiting our ability to read body language.

The whole article is here.

Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter

Fascinating. US Army has posted a report claiming that certain mobile and web technologies (like Twitter) could be used to enable terrorism. The report references how activists used Twitter to organize protests at the Republican National Convention. More here.

Clay Shirky - Design for Generosity

I've followed Clay Shirky for awhile now (he's the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations), and it was great to hear him speak at PopTech.

He admitted that he hasn't found the magic formula for explaining the growth & activity in social media sites to "old school" organizations. I find myself in that role again and again, and while I'm getting better at changing mindsets, I haven't found the magic formula either.

His top level elements of a social community design that will encourage charity?
1. Designing for intrinsic motivation (letting members be recognized for things they are good at doing, make them feel like they are doing the right thing, ensure that their efforts are appreciated).
2. Make sure members have autonomy
3. Make sure to strike a balance between a community that is too open or too closed/regulated - neither extremes will be successful.

I think they are great qualities to keep in mind when trying to encourage use of a new social network. Now I just need to quantify the tactics required for educating an old school organization on why and how to get involved in social media. If I figure out how to educate them so that they "get" it on a gut level, I'll let you know.

Marian Bantjes - Beautiful Designs

Her designs are beautiful, and one line from her presentation really stuck with me: "When we spend time on something, we sacrifice ourselves to do it."

Yummy Chocolate -TCHO

I have a confession to make. I've become a chocoholic, and have really been enjoying Trader Joe's single source chocolate ice cream. I've discovered similar high quality chocolate in bar form at PopTech -- www.tcho.com. So yummy!

Translate your video into another language

Free tool to translate your videos into another language: dotsub.com.

Global Volunteer Service before College

PopTechers were introduced to Global Citizen Year - a nonprofit that is creating a movement to get young people to do a year of global service during the year between high school and college. It will be interesting to see how they create an attitude change amongst high schoolers to fill their ranks of volunteer slots... I also wonder how this will be more successful than the Peace Corps? Are we seeing duplication of efforts?