Yes, Lincoln was really that tall, and yes the Illinois statehouse really is that shiny.
Juggle has a lot in common with Abraham Lincoln. For example, both are from Illinois. Both are awesome. Both celebrate a birthday today. (Well, one member of the Juggle Team, Jon, does, which is close enough, really.) Both are also known for debates. Is this all just an odd coincidence, or something more? Think that over this President‘s Day weekend, and don’t forget to raise your glass to Abe tonight.
Charlie Wilson 1933-2010 "...the best officer at sea and undoubtedly the worst in port."
Charlie Wilson, the rogue Texas congressman who nearly single-handedly brought US aid to the Afghan Mujahideen in their war against the invading Soviets during the 80′s, died yesterday. You may have heard of him as a result of the 2008 movie he lent his name to, Charlie Wilson’s War. “Good Time Charlie,” as he was know in Washington, was known for his carousing and occasional involvement in minor scandals, and although he was ill when the movie was released, it can’t be a bad thing to be portrayed on the screen by Tom Hanks.
The story of Wilson’s life–in particular his involvement in covertly getting aid to the Mujahideen–is a truly singular tale in the annals of US history, and if you’re even remotely interested in it, you owe it to yourself to read George Crile‘s excellent book, also titled Charlie Wilson’s War. You’ll swear it’s fiction, but Charlie Wilson was far, far stranger, and a true American original.
"Well played, sir- you've clearly been using Juggle Debates!"
For as long as people have been communicating, they’ve been disagreeing. It’s only fitting then, that Juggle has finally gotten in on the action. We’ve just launched our our new Debates section at debates.juggle.com, where you’ll find a staggering collection of some of the world’s most controversial issues (“Should gay marriage be legalized?“) as well as some of the most topical (“Is it worth the cost to host the Olympic games?“). We’ve assembled and organized hundreds of debate topics in a wide array of categories, and the list is growing. You’ll see a variety of opinions on each issue as well as a numerical breakdown of the arguments. It’s an excellent resource for researching school debates, settling (or sparking!) arguments at home, or for those times when you’re just looking to start a good conversation.
Give it a try today, and stay tuned for more exiting additions.
Sadly, this Friendly Bee is not the Google Buzz logo.
At the risk of becoming another one of those blogs about Google, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that today Google unveiled Buzz, a new service that looks to be going after Twitter. The play here seems to be that Buzz is going to magically appear in things that tons of people already use, like Gmail, Google’s Maps app and their mobile sites. The thinking here is likely that since Buzz is integrated into services lots of people are actively using, they can avoid the “sign-up-and-quit” problem that plagues Twitter (it’s a lot harder to quit Gmail), while at the same time also encourage more frequent usage. Combine a mobile app with your phone’s GPS and you’re primed to sell ads for say, nearby stores.
Buzz appears to be quite centralized, allowing things like photos and videos to be embedded right in Buzz itself, cutting out bit.ly and other URL shorteners. Other neat-looking features include geotagging by place name instead of by coordinates, and integration with flickr, Google Reader, and of course, Twitter, so you can probably just tie Buzz into your Twitter account and be covered regardless of which you prefer.
You can check out Google’s Buzz intro video here, and if you’re wondering, yes Buzz was the name of Yahoo’s Digg knock-off back in 2008. Will Google have better luck than Yahoo?
"Are you the manager? We'll just need to drive this into your store for a few minutes..."
It hasn’t gotten a lot of play yet, but the folks over at Search Engine Land got a hot tip last week that Google is inviting themselves into New York City stores to take panoramic photos for something called “Google Store Views.” While Google Street View seemed to make sense from both a usefulness standpoint (“It’s that yellow store on the corner…”) as well as from a “let’s create our own maps so we don’t have to license any for our navigation products” standpoint, this might not work so well for stores.
For starters, the inside of a store changes a lot faster than a street. Are we supposed to use it to see if a store has the particular kind of tube socks we like? Unless there’s some elaborate inventory integration going on here, it’s hard to see where they’re going with this.
While it makes sense for Google to keep pushing the envelope and make sure they’re a player in the hot “local info” space, the augmented-reality app that might arise from having a 360-degree view the interior of say, every store in Manhattan seems just a little too difficult to pull off, logistically-speaking. It’s one thing to locate a store or a retaurant on the street, but it’s another to locate individual products based on their location within a store, especially considering that shelves allow for things to be stored on top of one another.
Let’s not forget about the fact that most stores absolutely hate people taking pictures inside them. Everyone owns the street-it’s a public space-but stores are private property and subject to many, many more restrictions. The challenges that Google Store Views faces seem insurmountable, even for Google.
All that said, good luck with this one, Google, we’re waiting to be impressed.
This Saturday! At the Edward Jones Dome in downtown Saint Louis! Monster Trucks!
Juggle’s trend of awesome motorsports sponsorships continues this Saturday night, where two of the vehicles that junked cars fear the most, Bounty Hunter and Scarlet Bandit, will be sporting Juggle.com logos and flags in front of the roaring crowd at the St. Louis Monster Jam.
The Juggle team got a visit from the trucks and their drivers, Jimmy Creten and Dawn Creten, and believe us when we say these things are ginormous. If you’re in the area, we highly recommend a you stop by Monster Jam St. Louis tomorrow. The Pit Party starts at 2pm, and the races start at 7pm. The Juggle Team will be there in force, so be sure to give us a holler when you see us.
We’ll see you there!
Juggle team member Jameson heartily recommends the following video, and advises that it “should serve no other purpose than to distract you from very important matters for seventeen seconds.”
If this doesn’t slake your thirst for kitten cuteness, you may want to consider some classic children’s literature or some kitten-related software. You could also just visit YouTube for more kitten videos.
LSU commit Ego Ferguson. Don't worry, Tiger fans–he's a team player.
As of 4:00pm eastern time, these were the top 20 trending searches at Google (it’s been like this all day):
1. dorsey
2. demar dorsey
3. trovon reed
4. brown demands to be seated
5. owamagbe odighizuwa
6. ricky heimuli
7. seantrel henderson
8. bjoern werner
9. jim mcmahon
10. leif garrett
11. corey lemonier
12. cliff floyd
13. chaz green
14. tunde fariyike
15. ego ferguson
16. world import group
17. ray lahood
18. calvin smith
19. john cullen
20. neighborworks
Notice anything strange? Like maybe perhaps you’ve never heard of most of these people?
Well, don’t worry, the world hasn’t gone all Topsy-Turvy. It’s just the first Wednesday in February, AKA National Signing Day, the first day that high school athletes can sign binding National Letters of Intent with colleges. Sixteen of the top twenty trending searches are soon-to-be-college football players who have made their announcements.
It’s a testament to how truly huge college football has become in the Internet age, and particularly how big recruiting has become for fans as well as players and coaches. It’s doubtful that Archie Manning would have been a trending Google search when he decided to play at the University of Mississippi, but today, folks everywhere are obsessing over players who are still in high school. This will probably all die down by tonight, but it’s still a fascinating look into the power that sports wield over us.
Wait, who's who's Doppelganger here?
Apparently, someone, somewhere has decided that it’s “Doppelganger Week” on Facebook. This apparently means that you’re supposed to change your profile picture to match a celebrity you resemble. Why? No one knows! The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent rundown of what is known, which sadly isn’t much.
What the Internet does seem to know is that it’s going viral. What’s truly interesting though is what a clear illustration this is of the incredible power and velocity viral marketing campaigns can have on Facebook. Imagine if this were revealed to be some kind of movie promotion. Marketing folks everywhere are surely thinking the same thing and salivating. It only remains to be seen who’ll be the first to pull it off and enjoy the titanic wave of publicity and likely-backlash that follows.
One of the reasons this is such a big deal is because Facebook is the second most popular site on the entire Internet (more Facebook website stats).
What’s a doppelganger, anyway? As usual, Wikipedia has you covered. Also not surprising: the answer’s a little creepier than you think.
Does this groundhog even realize it's Groundhog Day?
It’s that time of year again. Yes, in just a few hours a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, made famous in the 1993 Bill Murry vehicle Groundhog Day, will emerge from a cage in Pennsylvania and tell a rotund man in a fancy suit and top hat whether or not he see sees his shadow.
Although we’ll know for sure tomorrow morning, the smart money is on Phil seeing his shadow, and winter going on for another six chilly weeks. Sorry, everyone, but we’ve got an “in” with the groundhog. The real question is how many times we’ll be forced to relive February 2nd this year.
Let’s hope we get it right the first time.
Encyclopedia & Reference Resource