These amazing pictures of birds covered in oil are so totally depressing it's hard to imagine this spill is going to be our nation's wake up call. But that was an idea posited on KCRW's Which Way LA.

One of the more interesting speakers was Richard Cizik, an evangelical who says "polluters will have to answer to God, not just government". Ouch. What's God going to do warm the planet up or something?

Sadly I'm not buying the wake-up call notion -- much as I'd like to.

I read an article dated May 24 that said: "Former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister and former Saudi Aramco manager Nick Pozzi" told both BP and government officials that "85 percent of oil from a massive offshore Saudi spill in the early 1990s was cleaned up using supertankers to suck in seawater and oil - millions of barrels at a time."

Then the barrels were discharged "in port where the two substances could be separated and treated."

Great solution right? The downside: "You tie up oil tankers" - tankers that could be carrying crude above the Gulf's waters to customers." Gosh we wouldn't want to do that.

Mind you, this is former Shell Oil president and former Saudi Aramco manager suggesting this -- not some tree-hugging hippies.

After reading this suggestion a couple weeks ago I thought I'd be hearing it discussed everywhere -- but I haven't heard a peep. Does anybody have Obama's direct line?  Read More...

This weekend JPL has opened their house to the public. Their casa es tu casa. It's like a science Disneyland -- complete with all the long lines and crappy food. But the good news is it's all free and the seemingly random guys hanging around the exhibits are often JPL's top scientists willing to talk to anyone who wants to pick their brains.

But watch the video and decide for yourself if it's worth the trip.

You can see the newest Mars Rover unplugged (literally), and also check out a model of that Rover rolling around on rocks -- it looks like some kind of alien creature.

The new Rover will launch in a year and a half and it's take ten months to get to Mars. I hope there are no screaming babies on the rocket ship.

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We all know it's a brave new world out there. At tech conferences, experts are talking about "total connectivity."

That's right, we'll be connected digitally 24-7.

Is that where we're going?

Kids seem to think so and in fact, some of them might already be living near total connectivity. And they're using technology in ways that adults can't even imagine.

Crenshaw High School teacher James Altuner was on KPCC's CyberFrequencies Radio this week and told us about students who are using cell phones to write papers!

And kids like 10-year-old Nico Young are creating Internet content that make adults gasps. Check out this video by Nico and tell us what you think.



It makes you wonder, if Nico is making videos like this at 10, what will he be doing at 18? And what affect will young content producers like Nico have on the already struggling entertainment industry?

And young musicians like Ryan Roberts make you wonder, "where goes MTV, VH1 and all the other music channels we grew up with?"

Instead of waiting for MTV to make him a "star," Ryan simply props his camera onto a tripod and makes his own music videos. Check out this Leonard Cohen cover Ryan made when he was 11-years-old.





See other Nico videos here. Other Ryan Roberts songs here.

More immediately, contrast where the kids are with technology with where many of the public schools are.

Many public schools still don't have reliable Internet. Teachers are super lucky if they have a few working computers in their classroom. Kids in lower socio-economic neighborhoods can't get consistent Internet connection at home.

When those kids step out of high school will they be prepared for the 21st century work force?

On this week's CyberFreuqencies radio, we speak with Adam Porsh of the Gates Foundation and James Altuner of Crenshaw High about that digital divide... between where the kids (and the world) are with technology and where many of our public schools are.  Read More...

So my friends, they've flipped the script on us...

That was my first thought reading the LA Times' take on The Entryway  Read More...

The wait it over. Your crack has arrived. iPhone OS 4.0 can be downloaded here. You'll need to link your "device id" to a developer's account, which according to this post, you can do by emailing: wynndc AT yahoo . com.

So now you too can zoom in to capture that cat video you've been meaning to upload, multi-task while crossing the street, get your ads 24/7, spell check ur stoopid txts, and all kinds of other cool stuff we'll soon be unable live without!

For too long our not-so-smart phones have forced us to play games with people we actually know. Finally we can play games with exotic strangers in remote locations while driving our cars.

According to Megaleecher.net, "Apple has made the beta" OS 4.0 available to Apple registered developers. But "the adventurous users" can "download iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 1 as it is now leaked and posted on internet by iModZone.net."

Get all the info here.  Read More...

It looks like the U.S. IT market is going to see an 8.4 percent "rise in spending this year," according to CNET.

This is because tech sells. Watch iPad porn here. (Like most porn, the movie is way too long.)  Read More...

In response to what she sees as a general misperception of MacArthur Park, (and the recent The Entryway scuttlebutt), longtime resident gives a short video tour of another MacArthur Park.

We visit an historic building, her favorite Salvadoran Panaderia, and the park itself which has free concerts at Levitt Pavilion every summer. She talks about MacArthur Park having been an affluent area with Jewish roots starting in the 1920's -- with remnants like Langers still there.

According to Absoluteastronomy.com (go figure) the area was "one of the first" in Los Angeles "west of Figueroa Street to see residential development." And that "by the 1920s Westlake resembled the Upper East Side (complete with a large Jewish population)."

Watch tour here:

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According to CyberFreak Queena Kim, Rose Hills Cemetery was the place to be on Easter if you're Asian!

"It was wall-to-wall people burning incense; eating fruit; chopping up cooked pigs; and laying out offerings for the ancestors," Queena says. "We had bagels, lox and cream cheese... and rice cakes!"

Queena sent a few videos and here's what I stitched together.

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USC New Media Professor and author Andrew Lih shows us his new iPad in the movie below.

Andrew speculates that the magazine industry might be in for a nice surprise if the iPad changes us from being active content producers on the web -- think YouTube -- to becoming more passive consumers of information, their information.

But Content Matter says iPad won't save print and people won't stop producing content.

After yesterday's iFail post a fight broke out in the comments section between the Mac defenders and detractors.

One of the more interesting points, which I hadn't considered, is that by not including a standard USB port where you can plug in, for example, a mouse. Now, you'll be forced to buy an Apple mouse.

The comment comes from "deepfreezevideo" who says that he'll wait for the competitors to introduce something with standard ports so he can use "off-the-shelf keyboards, mice, external displays and many other accessories."

But the question becomes who are the competitors? There's the JooJoo Tablet, yawn. I'm psyched about Light Blue Optics' invention of a projector that "instantly turns any flat surface into a touch screen." I doubt the technology is quite there yet with this product, but one day it could be very cool.

But for now we have the iPad, take a tour below:

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Alright Apple fanboys, it's time to put up the iFail movie version of the iFail radio show we had on back in January.

In the words of the Wall Street Journal, "The last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it."

And in the words of Molly Peterson in the movie below "I don't understand how people have so much money to spend on ridiculously redundant devices".



But don't take our word for it -- hear what Hilter has to say:



Or learn here how you can get hi-tech with your feminine products:


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