No End in Sight, an Iraq war documentary by tech exec-turned-filmmaker Charles Ferguson, was nominated last week for an Academy Award.
The film, an analysis of how the U.S. occupation in Iraq evolved into a violent quagmire, was Ferguson's first film project, but apparently not his last.
Charles Ferguson
"The experience of making this film was so amazing, so extraordinary, that it completely converted me to filmmaking," Ferguson said in response to e-mailed questions. "I certainly hope that I can make more films, both documentaries and features, if the world lets me...I have no idea yet whether anyone in the industry will be willing to support my film ideas, but I am an optimistic person and I will certainly try very hard."
Ferguson's tech industry career ended a decade ago with the sale of his company, Vermeer Technologies--maker of a visual Web site development tool called FrontPage--to Microsoft for a whopping $133 million.
He went on to become a self-described "policy wonk" and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. But he told News.com last year, on the eve of his film's theatrical release that, that he still reflects on lessons learned during those formative years running a software company--and even applied such lessons to filmmaking project.
Ferguson said he was "quite overwhelmed" by news of his film's nomination. "Of course I had hoped we would be nominated, but I had not dared to believe that we would."
The film, distributed by Magnolia, collected $1.4 million theatrically, according to Reuters. It was available on parent company 2929 Entertainment's HDNet and was released on DVD in October, Reuters said. His film initially screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.
Ferguson also just released a related book, No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos, which draws on the 200 hours of interviews Ferguson conducted for the film, as well ones he has done since.
Other films nominated for an Oscar in the Academy's documentary feature category include: Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, Sicko, Taxi to the Dark Side, and War/Dance.
The Annals of Improbable Research, best known as the host of the Ig Nobel Awards, will now offer a free online version of its journal.
The Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony, an annual event held at Harvard University and parody of the Nobel Prizes, honors discoveries in science and technology that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."
Past winners include: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan who invented a way to extract vanilla fragrance and flavoring from cow dung; an Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, who invented a chemical weapon that when dropped causes heterosexual men to become attracted to each other; and Howard Stapleton for his so-called electromechanical teenager repellent device that produces a sound audible only to those 30 or younger.
The Annals of Improbable Research journal, while now available free online will still continue to be offered in a print version "for subscribers who like their electrons blended with protons and neutrons," the publisher said in a statement.
(Credit:
Popular Mechanics)
Popular Mechanics holds its 2007 Breakthrough Awards tonight to honor the people and products that helped push the limit of technology. The party might be tonight, but we have the information now. Check out our gallery to read about the 10 products Popular Mechanics is honoring tonight.
There's nothing like nerd humor to keep the world's problems in perspective.
Harvard University once again played host to the Ig Nobel awards given out by the "Annals of Improbable Research," a parody of the Nobel prizes awarding people for scientific inventions that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."
This year's Ig Nobel peace prize brought new meaning to the phrase "make love, not war."
It went to the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. The group invented a chemical weapon, nicknamed the "gay bomb," that when dropped causes heterosexual men to become attracted to one another instead of aggressive.
Meanwhile, the Ig Nobel prize for medicine went to Dan Meyer and Brian Witcombe for studying the side effects of sword swallowing.
There also seemed to be an animal metaphor theme running through the winning entries.
Prizes included an aviation Ig Nobel to Patricia Agostino, who discovered that hamsters who take Viagra recover faster from jet lag, and an Ig Nobel in biology to Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk for determining the population of dust mites and other insects in beds.
Part of the ceremonial events also included a speech in which the word "chicken" was repeated in different ways for two minutes.
One winner was treated to a double honor.
Toscanini's Ice Cream named a flavor after Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan called "Yum-A-Moto Vanilla Twist." Yamamoto won the Ig Nobel prize in chemistry for "developing a way to extract vanillin--vanilla fragrance and flavoring--from cow dung."
Last year the Ig Nobel Peace Prize went to Howard Stapleton for his "electromechanical teenager repellant," a high-pitch ringtone (MP3) that's usually only audible to people under 30.
Bling, let that lightbulb shine.
Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, and Tiffany Shlain, Webby Awards founder, along with the Geek Squad and IdeaFestival, on Monday plan to unveil the "What's Your Big Idea?" challenge.
Consumers nationwide can participate in the online contest by entering their ideas and designs on how to use technology to improve and sustain e-waste solutions, conserve power, and maximize untapped resources
Those who qualify will be allowed to develop their ideas further at the IdeaFestival in Louisville, Ky., which runs from September 13 to 15.
Let the brains begin.
We have just enabled voting on our new awards program, the Webware 100. This is where you can select your favorite Web products from 250 finalists -- 25 each in these ten categories:
- Browsing: Web browsers, extensions, widgets, and security
- Communications: e-mail, chat, VOIP
- Community: social networks, groups
- Data: search, storage, backup, sharing, and sync
- Entertainment: Games and contests
- Media: audio, video, photo
- Mobile: portable utilities and apps
- Productivity: apps, business tools, commerce
- Publishing: blogging, web content, design tools
- Reference: Mapping, reference works, and education
Where did these 250 finalists come from? On April 15, we asked for nominations for the Webware 100, and we received over 5,000. We whittled that list down to 2,000 de-duplicated and qualifying entries, and from there, selected 250 as finalists. And now we're handing the awards back to the community. Picking the winning 100 products -- 10 in each category -- is up to you.
You can only vote once per category, so choose wisely. Voting closes at 9:00 AM Pacific time on June 11, and we'll announce the winners on June 18.
Now, go vote!
(If you want to support the finalists beyond just voting, go to the resources page to grab "vote for me" graphics and links.)
The tycoons, Anshe Chung of Second Life fame and Neverdie of Project Entropia riches said Tuesday that they are planning to launch what amounts to the Oscars of virtual worlds.
The so-called Virtual World Awards will celebrate the best achievements in visual artistry, technology, commerce and culture, the two said in a press release.
The idea is to produce the awards ceremonies in the respective virtual worlds. Submissions are being taken from now until November 15. Nominees for the awards will be announced next February, and the awards will be announced sometime after that.
The winners of the 11th Annual Webby Awards, which are devoted to "honoring excellence on the Internet," have been announced. Encompassing nearly 70 categories in Web sites, interactive advertising, mobile media, and online video, this year's winners ran the gamut from a site devoted to cute photos of baby animals to the hit NBC sitcom The Office.
Each category had five official nominees, and within each category there was a judge-picked winner as well as a "Peoples' Voice" winner chosen by a popular vote. (In some categories, the same site won both awards.) A full list of winners is available here.
There was a distinct emphasis on the media-sharing sites that have popped up over the past few years: the Yahoo-owned photo-sharing site Flickr won in three categories: Community, Best Practices, and Design-Function; and video blogging platform Blip.tv won in the "Broadband" category." Viral video, too, was also heavily recognized. Costumed video podcaster Ask A Ninja was selected for a "Best Actor" award in the Film & Video division, while "Lonelygirl15" actress Jessica Rose earned the "Best Actress" title. There was a separate award for the best in viral phenomena, which was won by The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments video in which two guys in lab coats set off
The "Person of the Year" awards, appropriately enough, went to
But not all of the winners fit the profile of user-generated online content: NBC's The Office won in the "Best Comedy" category for its short "webisodes." And in the awards presented for design, major corporations dominated: Sony.com earned a "Best Home/Welcome Page" award; Ikea Dream Kitchen was recognized for its navigation features; and Altoids won in the category for the best food or beverage site.
The Webby Awards, first held in 1996, are presented by the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group that counts musician David Bowie (who was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award this year), The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and Virgin Atlantic chair Richard Branson among its members. This year, the Academy says that it received over 8,000 nominations from 60 different countries.
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