Chatroulette is the latest Internet buzz where you can randomly videochat with others.  It’s simple.  You log in http://chatroulette.com/ and you are randomly connected to someone via webcam.  (Yes, you must have a webcam on your PC/Mac to play.)  You can stay and chat or click “next” and see who (or what) comes up next.  Sounds fun, right.  But before spin the Chatroulette wheel you should be warned.  It can be a freak show!   But let’s be honest, we love freak shows!

Because of the explosive growth of Chatroulette (300 users in December 2009 to 10,000 in February 2010) it has got a lot of attention.   Here are some of the fun and freaky things reported to be seen while swimming in the Chatroulette pool.

• People dressed as ninjas
• Guy staring in the camera flipping you off
• Girls making out
• A guy appearing to fornicate with a head of lettuce
• Under age girl in clown make-up
• Guy wearing a protective cone like you put on a dog after surgery
• A penis puppet show
• In a Malkovichian moment, people have connected to themselves
• People having sex wearing superhero costumes

Are you starting to get the picture?

Here’s my theory – Chatroulette is the “dark side” response to the properly behaved social networking craze. Chatroulette is the yin to Facebook’s yang (or the other way around, I always get yin and yang confused).  It’s a Newtonian law applied to Facebook’s civility and social correctness.  It was just matter of time before an “opposite but equal reaction” sprung-up on the Internet where people could totally let their hair down, be inappropriate, an exobitionist, and totally insane.

It has always amazed me how people are so normal on Facebook.  Sure there’s an occasional political rant and off-the-wall religions sermon.  But you never see a Facebook status like this:

I’ve covered my naked body with peanut butter and I’m chasing a goat wearing a Mardi gras mask around my bedroom.

However, there is a very good chance you will actually see this on Chatroulette.  So if you decide to try it, be ready to embrace your inner freak and get ready for inappropriate behavior.

If you really want to understand Chatroulette check out the following post at mikelavear.com:

http://www.mikealvear.com/2010/03/05/if-you-missed-john-stewarts-hilarious-take-on-chat-roulette-here-it-is/

The tech community shows the power of positive technology by building free open-source tools that help aid relief and recovery in Haiti.

Hours about the disaster in Haiti Crisis Commons organized several nationwide events to work on numerous technology projects.  The Haiti OpenStreetMap project was a direct result of this tech collaboration.  It provides one of the most complete digital maps of Haiti’s roads, hospitals, triage centers and refugee camps.  They also helped construct the We Have, We Need Exchange website; this is a pace where nonprofits working in Haiti can post requests and needs to find donors.

Haiti’s National Palace in Port-au-Prince is shown in this 2004 photo, top, and in a photo taken Jan. 13, 2010, bottom, after the earthquake struck.

Crisis Commons is a volunteer network of technology professionals drawn together by a call to service to create technological tools and resources for responders to use in mitigating disasters and crises around the world.  AWESOME!

This spirit demonstrates the Biology of Technology at its best and shows how tech can help make a difference for good.  Go Team Geek!

Everyone has at least one geek in their life.  You know – the one you call when your PC does something weird.  But what do you do to stop the guilt when you pick-up the phone to call your nerd buddy for tech support the next time you have a PC crash.  Especially since you haven’t spoke to him or her since the last time your PC needed some tech TLC.
Here’s a solution to your dilemma – put your geek on your Holiday gift list.

But what do you get a geek for Christmas without making him feel like you got him something from the island of misfit toys?

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Why is everyone in a rush to end the World?  On 11/13/2009 (Friday the 13th) Hollywood gives us anther apocalyptic movie in spectacular special effects.  This time the day of reckoning is on December 21, 2012 based mostly on the predictions from the Mayan calendar.  And so soon after Y2K?

Remember the good ole days when only Nostradamus and religious types like Pat Robertson and Jack Van Impe preached the end of time.  But now scientist, technology, and even the History Channel have jumped on the “we’re screwed” bandwagon.   Are we going to start hearing songs like “We gonna party like its December 20, 2012”?  Where is Dr. Strangelove when you need him?

And in today’s connected Internet world, it seems everyone with a YouTube account, some cheap video special effects software, and cheesy soundtracks are creating their vision of how the 2012 disaster will enfold.  And these videos are getting an unnerving number of hits.

It’s funny how after-the-fact we giggle dismissively at each failed apocalypse prediction.  But what’s more perplexing is how many of us become entranced with the next big Judgment Day forecast.  We soak it up like a ShamWow.   So before you sell all your earthly possessions to prepare for the end, keep in mind there have been a lot of Doomsday predictions of all different flavors.  But all end-of-time prophecy has one thing in common:  they did not happen.

So just to help you put things in perspective, here are just a few failed Doomsday predictions.  (They are A LOT more.)

The Hen of Leeds in 1806
It was rumored a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806 began laying eggs on which the phrase “Christ is coming” was written.  People went crazy until it was uncovered as a hoax and the only thing this chicken was laying were some bad eggs.

Mormon Judgment Day before 1891
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, in February 1835 said that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.

The Millerites Preached the end would be April 23, 1843
A New England farmer named William Miller concluded that God’s chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. He prophesied the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn’t) the group eventually disbanded.  Interesting to note that this group formed what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.

Pat Robertson and Jack Van Impe
Poor Pat.  He’s like a Twinkie; you just cannot destroy him.  (Twinkies are indestructible thanks to a toxic mix of modern chemicals.)  Even when he predicted Judgment day before the year 1982 expired and it did not occur, people still watch him and send him money.  This is truly a great mystery.
And his brother evangelist Jack Van Impe has made several failed predictions of when Jesus will return.  People still listed to him, too.  Go figure.

Death by Melting Ice on May 5, 2000
Cashing in on the failed Y2K bug, Richard Noone wrote the book “5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster.” According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000, a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death (or at least a lot of book sales).

And of course, my favorite global death comes from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the Earth is demolished to make way for an Intergalactic freeway.   But don’t panic, fortunately the Earth was restored from a back-up.  (You should always back-up your data!)

Here are more of the end-of-time’s greatest hits:
http://alma-geddon.com/succeed_fail1.html

So enjoy R.E.M. serenading you about the end of the world set to some interesting clips.

Funny video of a Middle Age tech support call to help a user with his new “book technology” that replaces the old scroll.

The health care debate gets a satirical kick with a video proclaiming how we need to “protect” insurance company profits from the evils of health care reform.  No matter where you stand politically, it is okay to watch the video.  It’s kinda funny:

At the nucleus of the biology of technology philosophy is that technology provides many solutions to the suffering associated with the human condition.  But technology innovations and medical advances are not measured in how much it can help mankind, but rather how much it cost.  And there in lies the problem about health care in the US.  The bottom line is “The Bottom Line” of corporate profits and not healthy American citizens.

Here are a few facts to emphasis we spend money that reflects the profit orientation of our value system:

• About 5000 people die every day from Tuberculosis (TB).  This calculates to about 1.8 million TB deaths a year.
• Death from TB is an awful way to go.  That’s why it used to be called consumption, because the TB would consume the infected with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting.
• The total amount of money spent in the world on development of new TB drugs is about 120 million dollars.
• The pharmaceutical and health products industry has spent just over 120 million in 2004 in federal lobbying and campaign donations at the federal and state levels.  (They spent more to lobby than to advance TB treatment.)
• Billions have been spent by the Erectile Dysfunction (ED) industry, and hardly anyone has die from ED.
• In 2004 Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, made a profit of $11.3 billion with sales topping $51 billion.
• More than a third of pharmaceutical companies’ resources go into promotion and marketing, not improving their drugs.

The US health care sector is a $2.3 trillion economy and needs people in bad health to generate the astronomically profits it has become accustom.  In the USA we spend about twice as much per person on health care as most European countries.  However, European countries beat the USA on most health statistics, including higher longevity, lower cancer rates, fewer heart diseases, etc

The obvious observation is that our health care market dynamic does not produce more healthy Americans, but rather more profitable corporation in the health sector (insurance, pharmaceuticals, and other heath companies).  So while we are arguing politics, people all over the USA are suffering and dying.  And insurance companies are getting richer.

I do not have the silver bullet solution, but the following article on the German Health Care system provides some interesting insights.
Health Reform Without a Public Plan: The German Model
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/health-reform-without-a-public-plan-the-german-model/

Europe and Canada base health care policy on the principle of social solidarity. It means that health care should be financed by individuals on the basis of their ability to pay, but should be available to all who need it on roughly equal terms. The regulations imposed on health care in these countries are rooted in this overarching principle.

If we could agree on the idea of social solidarity it would be a step in the right direction, unless you’re an insurance executive.

Fat from liposuction as a source of stem cells – could this solve our health care and economic problems?

If we could harvest fat as a source of stem cells, then we may have just found the next big American cash crop.  Because one thing we do have in abundance in America is fat!  And we solve global health issues since stem cells show great promise in treating cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, muscle damage, and other impairments and conditions.

Think this is too good to be true.  Read on…

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These auto-tune mash-ups use technology to satire the news.  You can even enjoy these if you have a predisposed political persuasion because “both sides” get “hit” by the mash-up machine.  Don’t be afraid to laugh!

Here are the links to a few more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Psfn6iOfS8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bduQaCRkgg4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGhsbRb_pqE

Concerned about looking like a fool in a digital age?  Enter Brad Pitt with pointers on tech etiquette.  The Hollywood superstar is on the cover of Wired as a Mr. Manners for technology.  Who is more qualified that one of the coolest guys around to offer tech advice on hot topics including “Facebook Faux Pas, Twitter Tribulations and Blogging Blunders?”

Actually, in typical Brad Pitt fashion, he offers statically suggestions on how to behave in a tech world.  And in typical Hollywood marketing tradition he is promoting his upcoming Quentin Tarantino film, “Inglourious Basterds”.   But some of his tongue-and-cheek recommendations are really funny.

Here are just a few examples:

Brad Pitt’s advice for talking on your cell in a pubic restroom:
“No, you can’t talk on the phone!  Do you want the guy next to you to hear your entire conversation?
That’s why you should only text in the bathroom. Just be sure you don’t hit the wrong button and end up putting a photo of your junk on Twitter. Trust me, you don’t want those followers.”

Here’s what Brad has to say when ask if you should confess if you “exaggerate” about your salary on an online dating profile.
“Hell no, everyone lies online. In fact, readers expect you to lie. If you don’t, they’ll think you make less than you actually do. So the only way to tell the truth is to lie.”

To those who live in the alternate reality of online gaming:
“Who cares if your ‘Warcraft’ wife is really a dude – if it’s good, don’t check under the hood,” Brad says.

And my personal favorite, Brad’s advice on why you should not make emergency calls on your cell during a movie:
“It may be a brief interruption — just a few seconds — but what if someone sitting near you is trying to make a decent bootleg? Did you ever think of that? Now all those street-corner copies are permanently defiled by your so-called ‘emergency,’ don’t be so damn selfish.”

The August 2009 Wired magazine with the rest of Brad’s sage tech guidance hits the stands July 21, 2009.

Technology and the Web have given the First Amendment freedom-of-speech an upgrade.  Call it Freedom of Speech 2.0 or Freedom of e-Speech.  But there are cyber-nuts out there who try to ruin it.  Let’s exercise our right of free speech and label them e-idiots, and then quit listening to them so they can’t spoil it for the rest of us.

And good example is the MySpace suicide case.  Lori Drew is a 49 year old O’Fallon, Missouri woman who used a fake MySpace page to extract revenge on Megan Meier, a 13 year old girl who supposedly said bad things about her daughter.  She did this by setting up a fake MySpace profile of a 16-year-old male named “Josh Evans” and showed interest in Megan.  Once she got Megan’s attention, she used her Josh avatar to cyber-bully Megan.  The once amorous messages turned harsh and cold saying things like, “You are a bad person and everybody hates you…The world would be a better place without you.”

Megan responded by committing suicide by hanging.   She was taking medicine for depression before this online assault.  My condolences to Megan’s family for their loss.

A jury of her peers found Lori Drew guilty of three misdemeanor charges.  However, this past week a California judge overturned the conviction because it is constitutionally vague, especially in respect to freedom of speech.

I do not profess to understand the technical legal issues of this case.  And on the surface, one can see how this Lori Drew woman can stand behind the free speech clause.

So I am going to practice my freedom of speech and can call Lori Drew an idiot!  A stupid, stupid, e-IDIOT!  I am not cowering behind a fake online profile, but saying this adult to adult.  You should be ashamed of your self and it is people like you who spoil this great and wonderful liberty for the rest of us.

When our founding fathers forged this great doctrine they knew that with great power comes great responsibility.  I’m sure they did not intend for us to use this freedom to act like a bratty teenager.  But when those of us in adult-land see this type of misuse it behooves us to point it out and then more on.

So enjoy your Freedom of e-Speech, but enjoy it responsibly.