What On Earth?

"What On Earth?" takes you deeper into the mystery of the crop circle phenomenon than any film has done before. Against the breathtaking backdrop of the circles themselves, filmmaker Suzanne Taylor engages with a fascinating community of visionary artists, scientists, philosophers, mathematicians and educators from all over the world. Gorgeous, haunting, and full of wonder, "What On Earth?" is the kind of horizon-expanding documentary that will literally change the way you see the world around you, and has been hailed as the best documentary on crop circles ever made. (www.cropcirclemovie.com)





"Crop Circles: Quest for Truth" is a compelling and provocative feature-length documentary full of never-before-seen footage and interviews with leading Crop Circles researchers and scientists, some of whom agreed to be on camera for the first time. The film is an in-depth examination of prevailing theories about the origin and nature of Crop Circles and the possible implications for us and for the future of Planet Earth. (www.cropcirclesthemovie.com)

Future by Design

"Future by Design" is a documentary film by Academy Award nominated filmmaker William Gazecki, sharing the life and far-reaching vision of Jacque Fresco, a modern day Da Vinci. Peer to Einstein and Buckminster Fuller, Jacque is a self-taught futurist who describes himself most often as a multi-disciplinarian or "generalist"--a student of many inter-related fields. He is a prolific inventor, having spent his entire life (he is now 90 years old) conceiving of and devising inventions on various scales which entail the use of innovative technology. The film explores Fresco's world of the future, where scientific method, not politics, rules world operations, and all human activities and efforts are directed towards. (www.fbdthemovie.com)

Bullied

Every day, thousands of gay and lesbian students are verbally and physically harassed in schools. Bullied centers on the powerful story of Jamie Nabozny, a gay teenage boy, tormented for years by classmates. Jamie fought back, not with his fists but in a courtroom. Presented by the Southern Poverty Law Center. A Teaching Tolerance Film. A Bill Brummel Productions Documentary. Available Free to Schools Nationwide: www.tolerance.org/bullied

Logitech CEO: (Sorry Cisco) $600 For Video Calls Is Too Expensive – TCTV

I know we’re not technically in a recession and Americans love their electronics— especially those that start with the letter “i”— but as a whole, electronic retailers need a reality check, or a swift kick to the gut.
On Wednesday, CrunchGear’s Devin Coldewey and I dropped by two product announcements, one for Cisco’s purportedly consumer-friendly ūmi and Logitech’s Google TV accessory round-up. It was a long parade of flashy products with decent specs and thought-provoking price tags. As I mentioned in an earlier post, ūmi truly does bring high-quality telepresence into the home (assuming you have a solid connection) but it will cost you $599.99 for the hardware and $25 a month— or $300 more per year— just to use the service. What exactly Cisco is providing to justify that $25 a month (besides extra padding for its bottom line) is beyond me.

Even other executives in the industry think $600 for consumer video calling is pushing it, especially when you consider that your target demo has been trained to equate video calling with “free” thanks to services like Skype and Google video chat.

When I asked Logitech’s CEO, Jerry Quindlen, what he thought about Cisco’s ūmi price point for TC TV, the polite executive merely said, “I don’t think anything that’s too expensive or isn’t easy to use is going to be successful, doesn’t matter who it’s from…if that’s where it [ūmi] is, and there’s a monthly fee, you know, that might be a tough sell in this economy.”

That’s suit speak for “Good luck, Cisco, see you at Overstock.com”

Of course, I whole heartedly agree with Quindlen but I can’t resist laying down that tired, if not apropo, idiom: pot, kettle black. To wrap up his presentation on Wednesday, Quindlen displayed a slide with Logitech’s entire mini-eco-system for Google TV: $299.99 for the Revue, the unit’s centerpiece, $129.99 for a mini-controller and $149.99 for a mountable camera for video chatting (requires the Revue for use). All told that’s $579.97 before taxes— notably less than Cisco’s one-trick-pony video chat solution but more expensive than many LCD and plasma screens on the market and roughly 6x the cost of Roku or Apple TV.

Logitech’s bundle may be the first set top solution for Google TV but it certainly won’t be the last or the least expensive. To put it bluntly, $600 for a set top bundle seems to be a tough sell in this economy.

Good luck Jerry.

See full video with Quindlen above, interestingly, he mentions that the next wave of products will include gaming solutions for Google TV.

Vanessa Hudgens