Al Gore’s Current TV not looking so dumb following the recent smash success of YouTube: “Even after critics saw that the ex-vice president and Democratic Party fundraiser weren’t crafting a left-wing network, few in the change-averse world of television could understand why anyone would tune into Current’s programming motif: three- to seven-minute videos created by emerging filmmakers, citizen journalists and the most rank of amateurs — the viewers themselves.” The SF Chronicle reports that Madeleine Smithberg, co-creator of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, will launch a new show on the channel this fall. We’ll be watching.
Original footage of first moonwalk has been lost: “While the television broadcast seen by 600 million people in July 1969 is preserved for posterity, the original tapes from which the footage was taken have been mislaid in the vast archive of the United States space agency NASA. The footage could transform our view of the Moon landings, offering images far sharper than the blurred, grainy video shown around the world. It could also lay to rest the conspiracy theory that the landings were faked on a Hollywood soundstage. Despite its iconic status, the television footage was the equivalent of a photocopy of a photocopy. It came from a camera that had been pointed at a black-and-white monitor. The image on the monitor, in turn, had already been stripped of much of its detail.”
Attack of the giant Pete Wentz.
Cut the fat: new camera has “slimdown” setting. Company spokesman: “Who hasn’t looked at a photo of themselves and wished they could airbrush off a few pounds? Our Gadget Angels team set out to find user-friendly technology which could make this a practical, affordable reality for everyone.”
Swing dancer Benji Schwimmer steps up to win FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance.
Project Runway‘s Michael Knight: I’m not gay.
A short preview for the upcoming Killers video “When You Were Young”.
Scientists on the hunt for mammoth sperm to restore the 27,000-year-old creatures to the earth: “With access to the mammoth’s genetic code, and with frozen sperm recovered from testes, it may be possible to resurrect an animal that is very similar to a mammoth. The mammoth is a close genetic cousin of the modern Asian elephant, and scientists think that the two may be capable of interbreeding.”
