Eric Stoller's Blog

This post is dedicated to all of my family members who watch Glenn Beck and take him seriously. In all fairness to South Park, I think that Glenn Beck really needs to be on Comedy Central (although, that might be insulting to Jon Stewart…) whereas South Park would probably do well on Fox News…

Here is the inspiration for the South Park parody of Glenn Beck. It’s not very difficult to parody ridiculousness.

Yesterday’s post on Vimeo, YouTube, accessibility and closed captioning was read, and commented on, by Blake Whitman, Director of Community at Vimeo. Please note that I do not have any ill will towards Vimeo. They make neat things. I just wish that they made them accessible…which really means that their “things” aren’t as neat as they could be.

According to Blake:

I thought I would respond here as I believe there may be a misunderstanding regarding our intentions. We care a great deal about closed captioning and we fully intend to provide such support as soon as we can assign developers to the project. While YouTube has large staff and ample resources, we are a small and dedicated team that works tirelessly to meet all of our users’ needs. We did not mean to offend you or anyone else who would like to see CC support on Vimeo, and we will develop a closed captioning system as soon as we are able to. We apologize for the wait.

Blake was responding to my comment on the lack of captioning technology for Vimeo videos. My comment was driven by a comment that Blake left on the Vimeo forums:

[Captioning] is a very big project and not something that can just happen overnight. We have a lot of higher priority features in the cue right now, and when we find the appropriate time, we will definitely look into offering CC support.

My question to Blake and the folks at Vimeo is how can you “care a great deal about closed captioning” while not actually actively supporting its development?

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“Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West reflects on what love has meant through his life and talks about his memoir, ‘Brother West‘.”

Ben Harper debuts his new band Relentless7 and his album White Lies For Dark Times on Austin City Limits.

Amazing!

“European Junior Championships Indoorcycling 2009 Carla Hochdorfer Henriette Hochdorfer Artistic Cycling Juniores Women Pair, European Champions 2009, 2008″:

I used to be a huge fan of Vimeo. Their user interface and HD video capability is top notch. Unfortunately, Vimeo has decided that accessibility is not a priority. 8 days ago on the Vimeo forums, the topic of accessibility via closed captions / subtitles was added to the Vimeo Community Forums – Feature Request section. Vimeo’s response to this request was extremely saddening:

We have a lot of higher priority features in the cue right now, and when we find the appropriate time, we will definitely look into offer CC support.

Vimeo is telling its community that users with hearing impairments do not matter.

Thankfully, YouTube has now made it very easy to add captions to videos. In fact, YouTube allows for HD uploads, accessible videos and better uptime than Vimeo.

It’s really easy to add captions / subtitles to a YouTube video using dotSUB:

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Hundreds of Oregon State University students took over the Valley Library on Thursday, October 1st. (via the Oregon State University Admissions Blog)

It was a successful flashmob, although I really think that OSU (Oklahoma State University) and UNC (University of North Carolina) have set the bar for successful university flashmobs:

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Wow. I think I’ve watched/listened to this amazing Michael Jackson Medley at least 10 times now. Sam Tsui is awesome!

Tim Wise and Don Lemon break down “white racial resentment / white racial paranoia” that is occurring at town hall meetings and the inflammatory rhetoric (e.g. comparing Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler) spewing out of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchannan et al.

Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore, from the Daily Show, satirize “white fear.”

[flv:http://ericstoller.com/blog/audio/orange.flv http://ericstoller.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/knock-out-orange.png 455 255]

“I am the last thing they see before the lights go out.

I am the enforcer.

I am a giant killer.

I am Orange.”

I am not orange if this is the way that OSU Athletics is going to promote our football team.

We should not be using the act of making our opponents unconscious as a way to elicit a response from our fan base.

The theme of the video is basically all about gratuitous violence: We are giant killing enforcers who are going to knock you out.

This isn’t the “Beaver Nation” that I want to be a part of and/or associated with.

Update: There is another “I am Orange” video for OSU Football.

In this video, the athleticism of OSU’s football players is celebrated. It’s not about glorified violence, it’s about speed and skill…completely different from the “we’re going to knock you out” video.