Giant Pong Game Played on the Side of a Building

Watch a giant ‘Pong’ game played on the side of a 29-story building

On Friday evening, Philadelphians were treated to a larger-than-life version of a gaming classic. The side of the Cira Cenre — a 29-story building lined with programmable lights — was turned into a massive Pong game, letting players control three-story-high paddles via a laptop. Dr. Frank Lee, the Drexel University professor who programmed the show, was inspired by seeing the Cira Centre’s lights five years ago. "For whatever reason, I saw in my mind’s eye… Tetrisshapes outlined by those lights, falling and twisting and rotating," he told Polygon. To make the game work, he had to connect a port of Pong to the building’s roughly 1,500 LEDs, using both the building’s own light-show software and another program created to communicate with it.

Despite getting off to a rough start due to connectivity problems, the game apparently made a strong showing on April 19th, helping kick off Philly Tech Week. It’s also set to come back on the 24th. Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica, who made the video above, has written an excellent breakdown of Lee’s five-year struggle to get the Cira Centre on board and build the game — and an account of what it feels like to actually play an over 400-foot-high game of Pong.

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.

Watch the whole experience at: http://dove.com/realbeautysketches

Join the conversation at: #wearebeautiful

And don’t forget: YOU are more beautiful than you think!

Petite teen becomes big voice in fashion world

Reprinted from the Seattle Times for class.

At home with 13-year-old Tavi Gevinson, one of the young bloggers turning the fashion scene inside out. Tavi’s Style Rookie blog (tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com) has caught the attention of fashion magazines, stores and designers.

By Megan Twohey

Chicago Tribune

Tavi Gevinson, pictured December 22, 2009, is a 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, who has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.

Enlarge this photoHEATHER CHARLES / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Tavi Gevinson, pictured December 22, 2009, is a 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, who has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.

Tavi Gevinson sits in her home amongst fashion magazine clippings she is using to make a collage, December 22, 2009. The 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.

Enlarge this photoHEATHER CHARLES / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Tavi Gevinson sits in her home amongst fashion magazine clippings she is using to make a collage, December 22, 2009. The 13-year-old fashion blogger from Oak Park, Illinois, has taken the fashion world by storm with her blog, Style Rookie.

CHICAGO — Tavi Gevinson sat in a west suburban cafe consuming cheese pizza, hot chocolate and a fruit roll-up — the type of meal you’d expect from a 13-year-old.

As she nibbled, a receptionist from her doctor’s office came over to say hello, while a waitress wondered aloud if she was related to another teenager in town.

“As you can see, my fame is extraordinary here,” Tavi said, her 4-foot-6 frame barely visible behind the table. “Seriously, no one around here has any idea who I am.”

No idea that since she began blogging about fashion from her suburban bedroom at age 11, Tavi has become an international sensation, viewed as one of the most popular — and controversial — figures in the world of high fashion.

No idea that when she’s not studying for a science test, having sleepovers with friends or attending summer camp, the 8th grader can be found in the front row at New York’s Fashion Week, adorning the cover of ultra-hip Pop magazine and helping to launch a new fashion line for Target.

The daughter of a high school English teacher, Tavi combined her razor-sharp writing skills, precocious attitude and Internet savvy into a high profile in the fashion community, using her youth and small size as bold exclamation points.

“She’s only 13, but Tavi Gevinson has the fashion world enraptured,” gushed Harper’s Bazaar in the introduction to a column Tavi penned for the January issue, making her the youngest writer ever published in the magazine.

Like a pint-sized suburban superhero, Tavi passes her days as a typical middle school student before transforming by night into a celebrated author and star of her blog, Style Rookie. She posts artistic photos of herself dressed in cutting-edge outfits and serves up sophisticated musings on the latest fashion trends, drawing nearly 30,000 viewers each day.

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Published in the NYTimes

By CAROL WALLACE

Published: December 28, 2009

EDINBURGH — Like his fellow Scot Susan Boyle’s entry into show business, the stunt bicyclist Danny MacAskill can divide his life in two: before his YouTube video and after.

Read the entire article on the NYTimes @ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/sports/global/29cyclist.html?_r=1

Portland Area YouTube Sensation

Hillsboro YouTube sensation looks for mainstream fame

by Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

Thursday August 06, 2009, 6:35 PM

Abby Metty/The OregonianHillsboro teen Savannah Outen has fans as far away as Kuwait and Australia but doesn’t yet have a record label. She plays a song she wrote during a visit to Coyote’s Bar & Grill in Hillsboro.

HILLSBORO — Savannah Outen is looking for her big break. The thing is, the 16-year-old singer is already famous.

Outen has more than 38 million hits on her collection of 40 YouTube music videos. If that were a CD, she would have the Recording Industry Association of America’s diamond album hanging on her wall, just like Celine Dion or ZZ Top.