Royal Wedding LEGOized & Russian Facebook Ads Released

By David Erickson | May 11, 2018

Beyond Social Media Show, Episode 228

BL and David discuss Legoland’s Royal Wedding recreation; the Russian ads that were released by the House Intelligence Committee; the announcements made at Facebook’s F8 and Google’s I/O developer conferences; Google’s artificial intelligence for all initiative; the indignities suffered by African Americans during the course of everyday life; putting poverty relief on the blockchain; the subscription nickle-and-diming effect; Uber’s sexual predator drivers; when groundhogs attack; demolishing Humvees for fun and demotions;…and much, much more.

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Best Digital Cases

Lego Royal Wedding

Legoland Windsor has built a miniature version of the Royal Wedding that took 60,000 Lego blocks and 720 hours to build

It Took More Than 39K Bricks To Build This Lego Version of the Royal Wedding

The Royal Wedding… built with Lego. pic.twitter.com/ZYl5h26g1N

— LBC (@LBC) May 9, 2018

Facebook F8 Developer Conference Announcement

A rundown of the many announcements Facebook made at its F8 developer conference.

Everything Facebook Announced at F8 2018

AI For Everyone!

AI is so important to Google that it renamed its research division to Google Ai. The website says it will help people solve problems in new ways.

Google I/O Developers Conference Announcements

A rundown of the many announcements Google made at its I/O developer conference.

Everything Google Announced at its 2018 I/O Developers Conference

Great Swedish Meatball Scam

Swedish Meatballs are the country’s national dish. But last week, for reasons unknown, the country’s official Twitter account confessed that Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.

Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century. Let's stick to the facts! pic.twitter.com/JuTDEjq9MM

— Sweden (@Sweden) April 28, 2018

Mind you we love coffee even more than meatballs! At one point we even had a coffee prohibition in Sweden!

— Sweden (@Sweden) April 30, 2018

House Intelligence Committee Releases Russian Facebook Ads

David was interviewed for this WCCO TV news broadcast about the release of the Russian Facebook ads.

An App That Feeds The Hungry

Goodr has created a system and an app that has diverted nearly a million pounds of food in Atlanta from landfills–and into kitchens. Goodr feeds not only the homeless, but also low-income families and the elderly.

Worst Digital Cases

Living While Black

Multiple times in the past week, police were called to scenes where African-American people were doing perfectly ordinary and totally legal activities. This is a problem that is endemic to our society and the whole country could use sensitivity training.

Three young men, all black, were falsely accused of shoplifting in St. Louis. Stalked by store clerks, had their purchases vetted by cops outside the store, all of that. It's good that @nordstromrack apologized for this. But I'm just so tired of this shit. https://t.co/9ubd7FoqOJ

— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) May 9, 2018

Nickled & Dimed

Mobile Internet, cable TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, newspapers, streaming music, it all adds up.

Subscription Hell

Groundhogs Gone Wild!

A deputy shot a groundhog that was on the road, holding up traffic in both directions. A video of the incident went viral. A couple of days later, another groundhog charged a woman in a parking lot. She was able to get into her car and avoid being bitten.

Uber Predators

A CNN investigation has found that Sanchez is just one of at least 103 Uber drivers in the U.S. who have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers in the past four years.

CNN investigation: 103 Uber Drivers Accused Of Sexual Assault Or Abuse

Exploding Humvees

A U.S. soldier was court martialed this week for deliberately cutting the parachute straps of three Humvees that he was supposed to be flying into Germany. As they hit the ground, they were obliterated. The video, with people laughing and cheering, went viral.

VIDEO: Soldier Who Deliberately Destroyed Airdropped Humvees Found Guilty, Discharged

Shiny New Stuff

LEGO Characters Hold Your Phone Charging Cord

Lego Chararcters hold your phone charger cord in their little hands. Keeps your charger from falling off your desk and taking your phone with it.

A genius Lego hack solves one of the biggest issues with your phone📱

Google Tour Creator

Create your own virtual reality stories with this new tool from Google.