WebProNews

Tag: Disco

  • Alien Planet Found That Raises Many Questions

    A new planet has been discovered, one that is approximately eleven times the size of our own gas giant, Jupiter. The massive planet has been named HD 106906 b. What’s so special about the newly discovered exo-planet? According to calculations, HD 106906 b has the most distant known orbit of any planet around a sun.

    The massive size of the planet combined with its highly irregular distance from its parent star has raised a number of questions about how it and other massive gas giants are actually formed. The youngster is only thirteen million years old. The Earth is by comparison an old fart at four and a half billion years old. Vanessa Bailey, the lead researcher on the planet, stated that, “This system is especially fascinating because no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see.”

    The fifth-year graduate student in the University of Arizona’s department of astronomy heads an excited team of researchers who have been trying to find out more about the planet. It was happened upon by attaching an infrared camera to the Magellan telescope in Chile. Images from the Hubble Telescope were used to confirm the planet’s existence.

    Such planets typically form much, much closer to the star they orbit. It’s assumed that gas giants begin their lives with a similar composition to rocky, terrestrial planets such as Earth. As their own star is developing, they take in the gas and dust that it gives off. Gas giants typically have a “molten” center which seems to support this theory. A little.

    It’s unknown how gas planets like HD 106906 b manage to form so far away from their sun, as the suggested process seems to be far too slow. Theories are abound, but given the young age of the planet, there is hope of finding answers. Astronomers say they can still detect the leftovers from the formation of the star and planet.

    Image: Sci-News (Originally Credited to Nasa/JPL-Caltech)

  • Sugarfoot Bonner Dies: Ohio Players Frontman was 69

    Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner, the frontman for the Ohio Players, has died at the age of 69. The Ohio Players were a funk and R&B band popular in the 70s. The band is most famous for its number-one hits “Love Rollercoaster” and “Fire.”

    Bonner is reported to have passed away “quietly” in his hometown of Trotwood, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. Bonner was a current member of Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players, a spinoff band billed on its Facebook page as “a 9 piece band with 3 horns, lead and background vocals, keys, bass, drums, guitar, and a whole mess of funk.” The Facebook page is also where Bonner’s family announced the news of the death. From the announcement:

    Yesterday, Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner passed away quietly in his hometown of Trotwood-Dayton, OH. While his family, friends, colleagues, and fans mourn his passing they celebrate fondly his memory, music, and legacy.

    Sugarfoot, or Foot, or Sugar, was the founding and cornerstone artistic talent of OHIO PLAYERS and the face and sound of the OHIO PLAYERS brand, which he knit together and launched in 1964 with former members of The Ohio Untouchables. With a career spanning 56 years, he passed barely short of his 70th birthday.

    Humble yet charismatic, soft spoken and of few words, the weight of his thoughts, lyrics, and music has influenced countless other artists, songs, and trends. He will be missed but not forgotten as his legacy and music lives on. More details and an official historical perspective of his career will soon be forthcoming.

    For those who don’t recognize the songs “Love Rollercoaster” and “Fire” by their titles, the performances below will instantly jog the memory of anyone over 15. The two songs have pervaded pop culture for decades, and a cover of “Love Rollercoaster” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was featured prominently in the soundtrack to the movie Beavis and Butt-head Do America.

  • Jimmy Ellis, Trammps Singer Dies at 74

    On Thursday, March 8th of 2012, James T. “Jimmy” Ellis, lead singer of the well-known disco band The Trammps died at age 74. Ellis, who was a Rock Hill, North Carolina native, passed away due to complications during his fight with Alzheimer’s disease.

    While growing up in Rock Hill, N.C., Ellis was involved in various gospel groups, and after he graduated high school, moved to Philadelphia, PA, While in Philadelphia, Ellis became involved with the group The Trammps in the 1970s, where he became lead singer. During the band’s slow-rising success, The Trammps recorded the song “Disco Inferno” in 1977. “Disco Inferno” became one of the songs included on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack — the second-largest soundtrack ever sold, and known for its Grammy success in 1979.

    While Ellis’ battled with Alzheimer’s disease, he survived by his wife Beverly, his three brothers (Johnny, George Robert and Charles), sister Alice Ruth, his children (James III and Erika Stinson), his eight grandchildren, and his two great grandchildren.

    The Twitter community have been active in saying their goodbyes to this talented singer, and I have provided a few sentimental tweets below:

    RIP Jimmy Ellis- you and the Trammps had the greatest Disco song of all time with Disco Inferno.(image) 38 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    U may not have known the name but u KNEW the song! Rest in peace Jimmy “Disco Inferno” Ellis! http://t.co/RjwwXCYW(image) 21 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Trammps Frontman Jimmy Ellis of “Disco Inferno” Fame Dies: His life burned as brightly as the “inferno” he and his bandmates left on …(image) 1 hour ago via twitterfeed ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Jimmy Ellis has gone to the “Disco Inferno” in the sky. R.I.P Jimmy.(image) 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    #RIP Jimmy Ellis – i know that your disco inferno will continue to burn forever. http://t.co/hRK3cIVU(image) 2 hours ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    One of the best singers ever. Jimmy Ellis dies aged 74 http://t.co/J3xVZWHA(image) 2 hours ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Are Small Private Social Networks the Next Layer?

    As business people get in the habit of participating in online social networks and engaging in social behavior as part of their everyday routine, the next waves of online innovation won’t necessarily come in the form of a Facebook killer or Google launch, as they will in little adaptations of tools and apps that let us do more of what we’ve grown used to doing.

    Small private social networksTo me, a great case in point is the growing buzz around group texting apps. Group text apps such as GroupMe, Beluga and Disco allow users to form groups that can send and receive text messages in a sort of reply and read all manner. You can think of it like group chat or reply all emails, but on the go and on a mobile device. You can also launch group conference calls from the service. (Right now most are limited to US carriers as sorting out International texting is going to prove trickier.)

    For our increasingly mobile world this application fills a couple interesting gaps. Texting with your friends lacks the obvious reply all function, so if you want to tell twelve people what you are doing you have to enter the list each time. Email can get this done, but it’s a little clunkier on the phone and requires folks on the list to sync up with their email. Anyone with text capability on a phone can now participate in the group. (I’m guessing that’s getting to near 100% these days.)

    To some degree, Twitter was created with this kind of functionality in mind and I recall people using it like this when it caught fire at SXSW 2007, but then we got all these followers and actually reading a stream fully became impossible, not to mention public.

    I think group text apps can add a layer to our increasing habit of social communication, but allow us to create small, private social networks that communicate through our mobile devices. The fact that Facebook recently purchased Beluga and Disco is a Google creation, should be signal enough that this is a growing communication option.

    The obvious use, and one that first introduced me to group text apps, is a small tight knit group like a family. My four daughters are grown and spread around the country and through the use of a group text app we routinely strike up impromptu chats and send updates and everyday life kinds of photos that happen on the go and wouldn’t happen if we relied on Facebook.

    The business uses of a small, private social network seem increasingly obvious as well.

    A group that contained staff members would make it very easy to send alerts, quick updates and even throw out topics for debate while including all in an instant loop that could be captured for later reading. There are other tools that can make this happen as well, but there’s something very instantly participatory about SMS. Departments and far flung teams could create on the go alerts and discussions.

    Now, some might bemoan the fact that their phone is now going to start buzzing away with insidious group chatter from the office clown that now has yet another way to show off pictures of his cat, but like all things, you’ll need to manage the tools and create process that works for this to be a viable new communication channel.

    What about creating select groups of clients that agree to offer occasional opinions about new marketing initiatives. Or, allowing clients to opt in to your referral group and use the tool to educate them about your referral contest. Or, creating a small, private social network of strategic partners that could share information about potential opportunities and leads exclusively.

    Because groups can be created and deleted almost on the fly, group text apps are becoming a huge hit at conferences and events as a way for people to get up to the minute updates on what’s happening now. I’m already seeing people splintering off social networks by location and creating on the fly groups when they travel to a city with friends.

    Group text apps are easy to set up and allow the group creator or administrator and participants a great deal of flexibility in managing the group. There are opportunities to create public groups, but it’s the private function that offers the most promise. You can be certain that things like advertising and recommended brand led groups based on your interests are likely monetization options for these free tools, but for now, I think it’s a category worthy of consideration.

    Shares some ways that you see using this technology in your business?

    Originally published at Duct Tape Marketing.

  • Disco – Google Does Group Texting on the iPhone

    A new app has hit Apple’s App store, and it comes from Google-owned Slide. The app is called Disco, and it is described as “Group text messaging on ANY phone made FREE & EASY!”

    “Start as many groups as you like & start chatting right away,” the the app page says.

    Google announced its acquisition of Slide last summer. The price was a reported $182 million. At the time, Google’s David Glazer said, “For Google, the web is about people, and we’re working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them.”

    “Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we’ve already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. As the Slide team joins Google, we’ll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web.”

    A couple weeks later, Google appointed Slide Founder Max Levchin VP of Engineering, a title he would share with Vic Gundotra, Udi Manber, and Andy Rubin.

    So why is Disco available for the iPhone and not Android? It could be a strategic move to help combat Facebook’s group messaging strategy.

    Facebook recently acquired Beluga, which bears a similar description to Disco’s: “Group messaging made easy.” Beluga is on both iPhone and Android, but obviously Google has a bit more control over the Android experience, and they might be planning something bigger with the Android version.

    It’s interesting that the Google brand is essentially invisible on Slide’s Disco product pages, and the app page in the app store. It appears to almost be a way for Google to drum up some interest in a social app without the average person even realizing they’re using a Google app. Of course Google’s biggest social media-related hit to date also continues to operate without any obvious Google branding – other than the accounts users are now required to have.

    One major hurdle Disco will face in competition with Beluga, is that Beluga utilizes the user’s Facebook network. Users new to Disco will have find some friends.