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Pope meets YouTube creators from around the world
Popes are no stranger to YouTube (Benedict XVI got a YouTube channel years ago), but Pope Francis is stepping things up a notch. He just met with 11 YouTube creators from around the world in a "first-of-its-kind" chat to share perspectives on issues of peace and tolerance, such as gender equality and immigrant rights. In the weeks ahead, each of those online video makers will produce clips sharing what they learned from the meeting. This probably won't usher in a brave new era of generosity and kindness, but we also haven't seen YouTubers get this kind of access before. At the least, it should lead to fresh perspectives on important topics.
Pope to teens: you cannot download happiness
During a special teens-only Jubilee at the Vatican this weekend, Pope Francis delivered a strong homily about the power of religion versus technology. "Your happiness has no price," the pontiff told an estimated crowd of 70,000 teenagers gathered in St. Peter's Square. "It cannot be bought and sold: It is not an application you download on a mobile phone. Even the latest version cannot help you to grow and become free in love."
Pope Francis is starting his own Instagram account (update: live)
The Catholic church under Pope Francis is already quick to use the internet to spread its message, but it's about to kick things up a notch: the Vatican has announced that the Pope will launch his own Instagram account, "Franciscus," on March 19th. It's not certain what he'll be snapping, but it's likely that it'll take a different approach than the Vatican's existing Instagram account. The big question is whether or not the Pope will take photos himself -- it'd be great to see a few papal selfies as Lent winds to a close, but we won't be shocked if it mostly amounts to others posting on his behalf. Update (3/19): Sure enough, the Pope's account is live.
Vatican uses Telegram to guide Catholics during Lent
When Pope Francis says he sees the internet as a blessing, he's not just talking a big game. As part of a broader "Keep Lent" campaign beginning Wednesday, the Vatican is sending its daily readings of Gospel verses through a Telegram channel, @pgpompei -- last year's choice of messaging service (WhatsApp) just isn't as good, it seems. You don't have to fire up Telegram to listen, but the move shows that the Catholic leadership wants to follow its younger laypeople to the social services they're using at the moment, rather than sticking to "safe" choices like Facebook or Twitter. Just don't expect the Pope to get a Peach account any time soon.
Pope Francis: Don't use your phones at the dinner table
Know who's not cool with you poking at your phone at the dinner table? Your friend who's scowling while you Instagram your food, your mom/dad/significant other shouting at you to put your phone away... and Pope Francis. Maybe it's because the current head of the Catholic Church is tech-friendly -- he even has a Twitter account -- that he knows how addictive gadgets can be. "A family that almost never eats together, or that never speaks at the table but looks at the television or the smartphone, is hardly a family," he said during a sermon at St. Peter's Square, according to the Catholic News Agency. "When children at the table are attached to the computer or the phone and don't listen to each other, this is not a family, this is a pensioner." So, there: if you're the kind of person who hates Facebooking-while-eating, you've found a powerful new ally.
ICYMI: Weather in a box, cyborg drummer and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The world's biggest 3D printer was just unveiled in Italy and it's a hefty 40 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter, earning its name, "Big Delta." Its intended purpose is to build mud huts for emergency housing. A device called the Tempescope can be synced with an app in your home and actual rain or show condensation for fog, depending on the day's weather forecast. And a drummer who lost his right arm is back in the game, fiercer than before, with help from a robotics professor.
You can't fly drones near the Pope during his US visit
Thinking of using a camera drone to get some above-the-crowd footage of Pope Francis during his trip to the US near the end of September? The Federal Aviation Administration would really, really prefer that you didn't. It's instituting drone flying bans in key parts of New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC (where there are already strict limitations) throughout the Papal visit. Give in to temptation and you're breaking the law, even if you had no intentions of getting near the religious leader.
Roman schoolkids give the pope a drone of his own
From pizza to Fiats, people love giving gifts to Pope Francis. Most recently, students from a Jesuit school in Rome presented the Holy See with a customized quadcopter painted in the colors of the Vatican flag and replete with the Papal emblem. According to a statement from the school, the UAV symbolizes "the values of technology in the service of man." The school continued, "drones have proved useful to check the condition of structures [in quake-ravaged Nepal] and study paths from bringing relief to people who need this in remote villages." There's no word yet on whether Pope Francis will have the time for flying lessons. There's a chance that he may auction off the UAV to raise money for the poor, as he did back in January with the Fiat and a number of other expensive gifts. Or, like the pizza, he could just be saving it for later. [Image credit: The Associated Press]
Pope Francis to address the world's children on Google Hangouts
Pope Francis likes mixing it up with the public, and has no problem using the internet to do so. To wit, he'll be hosting his second video chat on Google Hangout, a forum that's been popular with other public figures like President Obama for face time with the masses. The chat will be sponsored by his educational entity Scholas, like it was last year when he spoke to students from around the globe (see the video below for a wrap-up). This time, he'll be taking questions from children with special needs and disabilities from Spain, Brazil, India and the US. If you're interested, you can catch the whole event tomorrow at 10:00 AM ET.
Pope Francis sees the internet as a blessing for communication
Some may see the internet primarily as a source of anger or a dangerously addictive distraction, but not Pope Francis. In a message for the Catholic Church's World Communications Day, the pontiff called the internet a "gift from God" for social outreach. It helps people meet, experience differing opinions and feel a sense of unity, he says. However, he's also aware of the potential for abuse. Digital citizens can choose to see only things that reinforce their existing views, and they risk isolating themselves from real people. The internet is potentially "rich in humanity" and kindness, but only if we put in that effort -- something we'd do well to remember regardless of our belief systems.
Storyboard: Red light
When it comes to roleplaying, we've got more than our fair share of elephants in the room. Things we all know are taking place, that fall under the same aegis as the rest of the hobby, but things we don't really want to acknowledge publicly. Partly because you can have good roleplayers, people you know and play with, who have some less-savory elements lurking in the background. It's hard not to notice that a fellow roleplayer is cliquish, isolationist, and condescending... but it's very possible for a friend to be heavily into erotic roleplay (ERP) without you realizing it. And it needs to be talked about. It needs to be addressed, because there's something strange about the entire roleplaying community pretending that it doesn't exist. From a combination of factors -- squick, inappropriateness, and just plain disinterest -- we've allowed a shadow community to grow up in the space around roleplaying, with the tacit hope that if no one mentions ERP as if it were a part of roleplaying, it'll just go away and we can go back to what we were doing before. Before I go any further in this column, I'd like to note that some stuff in here might be squickworthy. It's the nature of the beast. Please tread carefully, and I apologize in advance to anyone skeeved out.
The Pope desires a solar-powered Popemobile, might just get one
Remember how W said Americans were addicted to fossil fuels? Well, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (better known by his crew as '265-Cal') is addicted to renewable energy. First he had photovoltaic arrays installed on the roof of an auditorium in the Vatican. Then he had a solar cooling system built into the Vatican cafeteria. Now, the Pope wants his mobile bulletproof shell to be solar-powered. While we'd love to see some PV cells rocking out on the roof of the custom Benz, they probably wouldn't power a whole lot more than his DC Papal reading lights -- to that end, we're hoping he goes the practical route and installs a PV array on top of the Popegarage and simply juices the batteries between sessions of humbly waving to the teeming masses. Whatever he and his crack team of energy specialists figure out, we're sure you'll be able to read all about it in the next volume of The Energy of the Sun in the Vatican, a book that actually exists. [Photo remixed from Catholic Westminster's flickr]
Papal productions going HD for better views of the Holy See
The Vatican has recently unveiled a new six million dollar HD mobile unit, hinting that if seeing is believing, they'd prefer representation in 1080p. To help blunt the cost on the nation's coffers, the Knights of Columbus pledged one million Euros to the initiative ($1.36 million dollars) while Sony also cut the walled-enclave a matching discount -- possibly as a further mea culpa for the Manchester gunfight scene. The new equipment is slated to be fully operational just in time for Pope's Christmas broadcasts and from then on would be rolled out during special Vatican events. Thinking ahead to the future, the system is also designed to be easily 3D upgradable, which head of Sony Italia Gildas Pelliet was sure to mention "can be done in a very discreet, subtle way" while still engaging future audiences with the Pope's message. Combined with his texting habits, a recent YouTube channel, and the Pope2You online portal, Pope Benedict XIV has done quite a lot in his five-year tenure to help one of the oldest institutions get up to speed with today's technology -- let alone for an 83-year-old man.
Vatican approves iPhone app
The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications has approved an iPhone app called iBreviary, which is apparently a virtual version of the liturgical book. The app itself was created by an iTalian (and yes, pun intended) priest, and during a trial release in Italy, was downloaded 10,000 times. Now, the app has made it to the worldwide app store (in English, Spanish, French, and Latin, with Portugese and German coming in a later version), and is available for 74p (or 99 cents on the US store). A while back, we heard about an iPhone saving a wedding, and who knows -- maybe this app will save a mass. If you've been looking to keep from having to carry a breviary and Apple's handset in your pocket, your day has come.
Pope Benedict XVI texting out messages of encouragement
Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where folks will actually be able to send their own messages for all to presumably see. The first message sent out? "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI." Hllujh, amn brtha.[Thanks, zedster]
Pope condemns violence and sex in games, worries kids too exposed
In a message to mark the Roman Catholic Church's World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI focused on "Children and the Media," criticizing, among other things, certain forms of exploitative video games. Pope Benedict XVI called violent and sexually explicit games a "perversion," adding that they were "all the more repulsive when ... directed at children and adolescents." The Pope called upon entertainment industry leaders to rethink strategies and products that could be endangering wholesome family life, and encouraged parents to turn their kids onto "children's classics in literature."Pope Benedict XVI did not specify which literary works had been Church-approved, but surely the collection of fairly tales published by the Brothers Grimm (who hailed from Benedict's homeland of Germany) ought to be considered "children's classics." Even in their edited forms, many of these tales retain some horrific themes; like Hansel and Gretel, where a witch attempts to bake two children alive, but is instead cooked herself.Children's stories and adolescent novels seem to be less scrutinized than games (at least, in contemporary times), but no one's been able to prove which, if either, has a greater affect on the human condition. While we agree that children should be protected from adult-themed games (enforcement of the ratings system and active parenting does a good job of this), we would have liked to have heard His Holiness add that there are many industry efforts to produce games that are suitable and stimulating for children and young people.[Thanks, Andrew]
The Pope gets an iPod
First it was the Queen, now The Pope has received an iPod. The Catholic News Service is reporting that Pope Benedict XVI recently visited the Vatican Radio headquarters to celebrate the station's 75th anniversary, where the employees presented him with a white iPod nano with "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI" engraved on the back. So, what's on the Pope's iPod? Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, plus Vatican Radio programming in English, Italian and German.When asked what the thought of the little device, The Holy Father replied, "I'm just waiting for podcasts from Howard Stern." That last part was a joke.[Via MacDailyNews]
