Charlie Todd: 200 People Are Funnier Than 1

Watch the TEDTalk that inspired this post.

One thing I've learned producing events for Improv Everywhere over the past decade is that if I give our participants creative license, they'll come up with choices that are far better than the ones I could brainstorm sitting in front of a blank Google Doc. Not only will the project be greatly improved by their creativity, participants empowered to make their own choices wind up having far more fun. I've also learned the importance of allowing the online audience to contribute their own ideas, creating a community rather than a traditional one-way conduit of creator to viewer.

Improv Everywhere is an obvious misnomer -- our events are not improvised but organized meticulously in advance by me and my collaborators. I came up with the name when I was 22-years-old and a few weeks away from taking my first improv class at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. In the early days, when the pranks involved just two or three friends at a time, the ideas were largely improvised. Now that the projects often involve hundreds, or even thousands of participants, I spend weeks coming up with a game plan. An improvisational spirit remains in what we do, in part because I never know how members of the public will react to us, and in part because I never know what choices our participants will make until the prank unfolds.

Allowing our real life and digital crowds to have a voice has only led to better work. It's thrilling to not know what hilarious idea might wind up in my inbox tomorrow. - Charlie Todd

In 2007 we staged our Frozen Grand Central project where just over 200 participants froze in place for five minutes on the Main Concourse of the Grand Central Terminal, making it appear to commuters and tourists that time had stopped. I briefly considered coming up with a long list of poses to recommend to the participants, but instead settled on giving them minimal guidance. They were told to freeze while doing something active like shaking hands or sipping a drink, anything that made the fact that they were frozen more obvious. By trusting the participants to make their own choices within these parameters, the end result was far more interesting and funny. One man froze in place just after spilling a pile of documents from his briefcase. A woman froze in place while eating yogurt, the contents eventually dripping off her spoon as she stood motionless. A couple chose to freeze mid-kiss, locking lips for five full minutes. I had thought of none of these options.

Frozen Grand Central Project

Photo: Agent Nicholson

On a few occasions entire projects have been dreamed up by a member of our crowded mailing list. One of my favorite emails ever was from a man who wrote to say that he looked exactly like a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He proved it by attaching a photo of himself and of the painting, a portrait of King Philip IV by Velazquez. We had him show up to the Met wearing the same costume as the king, and we staged an autograph signing in front of the painting. Dozens of folks posed for photos and asked for autographs; we lasted about 15 minutes before a humorless guard decided to show us to the door. Without an open submission policy, this gem of an idea would have never landed in my inbox.

King Philip IV Project

Photo: Katie Sokoler

I probably get four or five ideas emailed to me every day via the site. Most I've heard before or simply don't find that exciting, but every now and then something great arrives. A high school kid in Texas wrote in 2006 to suggest we get a large crowd to dress in blue polo shirts and khaki pants and invade a Best Buy. I staged that idea with glee as soon as I possibly could.

More often ideas that are sent in aren't quite right, but inspire me to think of a location or method I had not previously considered. Many of our projects have resulted as a mashup of a variety of sources of inspiration. One person emailed to suggest we turn an entire Staples into an office. Another wrote to suggest holding a boardroom meeting on a subway car. When I happened upon the office chair department of the 6th Avenue Staples, I realized a mix of both of these ideas would be perfect.

While the big creative decisions about our projects are ultimately made by me and other longtime members of the group, allowing our real life and digital crowds to have a voice has only led to better work. It's thrilling to not know what hilarious idea might wind up in my inbox tomorrow. If you have one, let me know.

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@huf?ngtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer.

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More in The Power of Crowds

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlie-todd/improv-everywhere_b_2176150.html

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Three UK to carry LG Nexus 4

British mobile operator Three has confirmed that it'll carry the LG Nexus 4, in a video on its official YouTube channel. One of the first UK networks to carry the Galaxy Nexus, Three lost out to O2 this time around, as an exclusivity deal has meant other UK networks have so far been unable to offer the phone for sale directly.

Three's also trumpeting the Nexus 4's 42Mbps DC-HSDPA capabilities, which its network supports. There's no information on availability or pricing just yet, but as O2's exclusivity deal reportedly lasts just a month, we should see the Nexus 4 in Three stores sooner rather than later.

Update: Three has now published a press release indicating its on and off-contract pricing --

The smartphone will also be available on Pay As You Go for £399.99 plus a top up. All in One 15 costs £15 and gives 30-day access to All-You-Can-Eat data along with 300 any-network minutes and 3,000 texts. Or All in One 25 costs £25 and offers All-You-Can-Eat data, 500 minutes and 3,000 texts and for a 30-day period.

Source: Three on YouTube

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/BmDfoxd7UPU/story01.htm

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Man charged in slayings of Brooklyn shopkeepers

AP

A 2001 photo of Salvatore Perrone provided by the Franconia Township Police Department.

By NBCNewYork.com and The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A man suspected of killing three Brooklyn shopkeepers has been charged after he made statements implicating himself and after forensic investigators linked him to the murder scenes, authorities announced Wednesday.?

Salvatore Perrone, 63, was charged with three counts of murder Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.?

Responding to a tip call, authorities picked up Perrone in Bay Ridge Tuesday while looking to question a person they called "John Doe Duffel Bag," the?balding man with a mustache who was seen on surveillance video?near the scene of the latest slaying and who was linked to a video in an earlier incident.?

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Police had been investigating the series of deadly shootings?of Brooklyn business owners of Middle Eastern descent since the first one occurred in July.?

Law enforcement sources say Perrone made statements placing himself near the scene of the shooting at the?Valentino Fashion Inc.?in Bay Ridge on July 6.??Mohamed Gebeli, 65, an Egyptian immigrant and a Muslim, was found shot in the back of his shop. Detectives found .22-caliber gun shell casings at that crime scene and also at the scene where?Isaac Kadare, 59, also Egyptian but Jewish, was shot in the head in his Amazing 99 Cent Deal store Aug. 6.

The latest victim, 78-year-old?Rahmatollah Vahidipour, a Jewish man from Iran, was killed in his women's clothing boutique on Flatbush Avenue Friday. The same casings were found at that scene.?

"It's reasonable to assume he was going to continue doing this," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said?in a news conference Wednesday. "He went to other locations and asked questions that indicated he may have been planning to come back.

A law enforcement official said a Ruger rifle with a sawed-off stock and an improvised combination laser/light attached to its barrel was found early Wednesday in a duffel bag at Perrone's girlfriend's Brooklyn home. ?Also contained in the bag were 30 copper-coated hollow-point bullets, latex gloves, women's clothing, a 12-inch steak knife with a substance that may be blood, a fabric color chart and black plastic bags with a substance that may be blood on it, the source said.

Authorities say it is the same duffel bag seen in the surveillance video at the scene of two slayings. The weapon uses .22 ammunition consistent with ballistics found at each of the three crime scenes connected to the case, law enforcement sources said.

Authorities also found .22-caliber ammunition, three knives, one of which appeared to have blood on it, black gloves and women's pantyhose with the legs cut off in the duffel bag, a law enforcement official said. The blood on the recovered knife is being tested for DNA evidence.

Law enforcement sources say Perrone's girlfriend and ex-wife are cooperating with detectives. Sources say he is a fabric and garment salesman, and has several prior arrests, including for stalking and burglary, in Pennsylvania.?

A woman who lived across the street from Perrone's former home on Staten Island said the divorced father of one was a peculiar neighbor and that he used to sing opera loudly from his front yard at odd hours of the night.

"He was just that crazy neighbor," said Julia Marra, 21, who nevertheless viewed Perrone as harmless.

It appeared Perrone was trying to sell his home on the corner of Clove Road and Beverly Avenue on Staten Island. The structure was visibly in disrepair and in need of rehabilitation Wednesday. A phone number listed on the for sale sign in the yard connected to a voice mailbox belonging to Perrone.?

Detectives who specialize in hate crimes and FBI analysts who specialize in behavioral analysis joined the case this week, authorities said.

"The possibility of a bias motive here is something that can't be excluded," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday.

The bodies were all partially obscured by clothing or, in one case, a box. The shops all lacked surveillance cameras, and the owners were alone in the store. The locations of the shops are each about 4 miles apart, with addresses that contain the number eight. Money was taken from everyone but Vahidipour, who had $171 in his pocket.

Kelly said it's reasonable to think the shooter had canvassed the area to find locations where no cameras existed.?"Here you have three stores where the proprietor is there by himself, no cameras in any of these," he said. "You'd have to speculate that some sort of reconnaissance was going on before the murders took place."

NBCNewYork.com's Shimon Prokupecz, Jonathan Dienst and Chris Glorioso and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/21/15342776-man-charged-in-slayings-of-brooklyn-shopkeepers?lite

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Handaxes of 1.7 million years ago: 'Trust rather than lust' behind fine details

ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2012) ? Trust rather than lust is at the heart of the attention to detail and finely made form of handaxes from around 1.7 million years ago, according to a University of York researcher.

Dr Penny Spikins, from the Department of Archaeology, suggests a desire to prove their trustworthiness, rather than a need to demonstrate their physical fitness as a mate, was the driving force behind the fine crafting of handaxes by Homo erectus/ergaster in the Lower Palaeolithic period.

Dr Spikins said: "We sometimes imagine that early humans were self-centred, and if emotional at all, that they would have been driven by their immediate desires. However, research suggests that we have reason to have more faith in human nature, and that trust played a key role in early human societies. Displaying trust not lust was behind the attention to detail and finely made form of handaxes."

The 'trustworthy handaxe theory' is explained in an article in World Archaeology and contrasts sharply with previous claims that finely crafted handaxes were about competition between males and sexual selection.

Dr Spikins said: "Since their first recovery, the appealing form of handaxes and the difficulty of their manufacture have inspired much interest into the possible 'meaning' of these artefacts. Much of the debate has centred on claims that the attention to symmetrical form and the demonstration of skill would have played a key role in sexual selection, as they would have helped attract a mate eager to take advantage of a clear signal of advantageous genes.

"However, I propose that attention to form is much more about decisions about who to trust; that it can be seen as a gesture of goodwill or trustworthiness to others. The attention to detail is about showing an ability to care about the final form, and by extension, people too.

"In addition, overcoming the significant frustrations of imposing form on stone displays considerable emotional self-control and patience, traits needed for strong and enduring relationships."

Handaxes, or bifaces, appeared around 1.7 million years ago in Africa and spread throughout the occupied world of Africa, Europe and western Asia, functioning primarily as butchery implements. Handaxe form remained remarkably similar for more than a million years.

Dr Spikins said: "Trust is essential to all our relationships today, and we see the very beginnings of the building blocks of trust in other apes. The implication that it was an instinct towards trust which shaped the face of stone tool manufacture is particularly significant to our understanding of Lower Palaeolithic societies. It sets a challenge for research into how our emotions, rather than our complex thinking skills, made us human.

"As small vulnerable primates in risky environments where they faced dangerous predators our ancestors needed to be able to depend on each other to survive -- displaying our emotional capacities was part of forming trusting relationships with the kind of 'give and take' that they needed."

Dr Spikins points to other higher primates, particularly chimpanzees, as well as modern human hunter-gatherers to back up her theory of trustworthiness.

"Long-term altruistic alliances in both chimpanzees and humans are forged by many small unconscious gestures of goodwill, or acts of altruism, such as soothing those in distress or sharing food," said Dr Spikins.

"As signals of trustworthiness, these contribute to one's reputation, and in hunter-gatherers reputation can be the key to survival, with the most trustworthy hunters being looked after most willingly by the others when they are ill or elderly.

"The form of a handaxe is worth considerable effort, as it may demonstrate trustworthiness not only in its production, but also each time it is seen or re-used, when it might remind others of the emotional reliability of its maker."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of York.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Penny Spikins. Goodwill hunting? Debates over the ?meaning? of Lower Palaeolithic handaxe form revisited. World Archaeology, 2012; 44 (3): 378 DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2012.725889

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/NIpqttXAU9A/121121075756.htm

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Suicide blasts hit near U.S. base in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Two men wearing suicide vests blew themselves up near a U.S. base in Kabul early Wednesday, killing two Afghan guards in the heart of a neighborhood filled with foreign forces and embassies ? despite increased security ahead of a Muslim holy day that last year saw one the capital's deadliest attacks.

The bombers apparently meant to target the U.S. base but were spotted by policemen as they approached and detonated their vests before reaching the gate, police said.

The blast reverberated around Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood shortly after 8 a.m. local time. An alarm started going off at the nearby U.S. Embassy, warning staff to take cover. The neighborhood also is home to many high-ranking Afghan officials, international organizations and the headquarters of the international military coalition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in an email to reporters.

The attack came as foreign and Afghan forces tightened their watch over the capital ahead of the holy day of Ashoura on Saturday, when Shiite Muslims commemorate the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Last year, the commemoration saw the first major sectarian attack since the fall of the Taliban regime. In that strike, a suicide bomber on foot detonated his vest amid scores of worshippers at a Shiite shrine, killing 56 people and wounding more than 160 others.

Attacks in Kabul are relatively rare and more recent strikes have not been particularly deadly, but have shown the continued ability of the insurgents to penetrate the security cordons that surround the city. The last previous attack before Wednesday's strike took place last week, when insurgents fired four rockets into the city, killing one person. The rockets hit near the airport, a private television station and close to a compound used by the Afghan intelligence service.

Wednesday's bombers were on foot and were spotted by Afghan security guards as they approached Camp Eggers, the Kabul police chief's office said in a statement. The police fired on the attackers and they detonated their vests. Two Afghan security guards were killed and five civilians were injured in the explosion, the statement said.

Associated Press video of the scene shows what looks like an undetonated suicide vest, suggesting not all the explosives went off.

An international coalition vehicle was also damaged in the attack but there were no initial reports of casualties among the foreign forces, said Jamie Graybeal, a NATO troops spokesman.

Police had already set up extra checkpoints around Kabul and specifically near shrines to search cars and people in the run up to the Ashoura.

"All our police units are in the first security alert position," Gen. Mohammad Daoud Amin, the city's deputy police chief, said Tuesday, the day before the Kabul attack. "We are at the service of the people and doing our best to provide good security and prevent any possible incident on Ashoura."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-blasts-hit-near-us-afghan-capital-055553045.html

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Intel acquires ZiiLabs from Creative Technology for $50 million

Intel has signed a $50 million deal with Creative Technology to acquire ZiiLabs, a UK-based subsidiary responsible for Android-optimized chip designs like the ZMS-40 and the ZMS-20. Of that $50 million, $30m will be for asset sales and engineering resources while the remainder will be for patent licensing in regards to ZiiLabs GPU technology, which might indicate a move away from PowerVR. We're not sure if this means Creative will soldier on with OEM-focused devices like the HanZPad, but at least now it'll have more money in the bank to explore alternative endeavors.

Filed under: Misc, Intel

Comments

Source: The Inquirer, CNET Asia

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/20/intel-acquires-ziilabs/

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Ricky Hatton believes with age he has become wiser ? Boxing News ...

Ricky Hatton believes with age he has become wiser ? Boxing News

Former welterweight titlist Ricky Hatton believes he has become wiser and smarter with age, which will help him grab the upper hand against Vyacheslav Senchenko in his comeback bout. Hatton is scheduled to face Senchenko in a 10-round fight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.

Hatton, who retired from professional boxing almost two years back, currently stands with 45 wins, 2 losses and 32 knockouts in his portfolio. On the other hand, his opponent Senchenko stands with 32 wins, 1 loss and 21 knockouts.

?I was known for ballooning up, putting 30 or 40 pounds between fights,? said Hatton, who is now 34 and hoping to be the same top fighter he was before his knockout losses to Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

?It was absolutely criminal for me to do that at 24 years of age. I can?t be doing that at 34 years of age. I?m becoming older, becoming wiser,? he added.

Hatton suffered the first loss of his career at the hands of American fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr. He was knocked out by the unbeaten American in the tenth round. Hatton then went on to fight former WBO welterweight titlist Manny Pacquiao to suffer yet another knockout defeat of his career. However, against Pacquiao, the defeat was more devastating than his previous one, as he was knocked out in the second round of the showdown.

?It was hard for a man who had so much pride in himself to get destroyed by Manny Pacquiao,? added Hatton.

?I was having to tell my girlfriend, ?I need a hug. Help me, please, I?m scared,?? he added.

Hatton went through severe depression and alcoholism during his retirement phase but now he is back. He wants to prove to himself that he still is the same fighter he once was. While his rivals Pacquiao and Mayweather are looking forward to retirement, Hatton is eager to make his comeback in the sport to ensure he cement his legacy better than ever before.

If Hatton defeats Senchenko, he will move on to face WBA welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi next year, as reports suggest.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Ricky-Hatton-believes-with-age-he-has-become-wiser-Boxing-News-a202654

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