CERN announced that today is the 20th anniversary of the free and open Web. On April 30, 1993, CERN put the software behind the World Wide Web into the public domain. The Internet only grew as fast as it did thanks to the software behind it being made available to all.

“There is no sector of society that has not been transformed by the invention, in a physics laboratory, of the web”, says Rolf Heuer, CERN Director-General. “From research to business and education, the web has been reshaping the way we communicate, work, innovate and live. The web is a powerful example of the way that basic research benefits humankind.”

As part of the celebration, CERN has put the world’s very first publicly accessible Web site back online. It must have been mind blowing to see a computer fetch a wall of text from another computer hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.

Like most other relics of the Internet’s past, the first Web site really helps to put things into perspective. It’s easy to take the Internet of today for granted, but this Web site should really hit home just how revolutionary this stuff was only 20 years ago.

Of course, the Internet is still just as revolutionary today as it was two decades ago. In fact, there’s an argument to be had that the Internet of today is doing far more good than any other invention in human history as its bringing millions of people from every walk of life together to exchange ideas while promoting empathy among the human race. No other tool in human history has ever had that kind of power. So maybe, just maybe, it’s something that’s worth protecting.

King was born in Atlanta in 1929 and attended a seminary in Pennsylvania before becoming a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama at age 25. He went on to lead the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Throughout his career he organized nonviolent protests throughout the south and helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The day before his death, King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which contained references to the threats of violence that he routinely received.

While mourning the news that beloved film critic Roger Ebert has died, Twitter users are also remembering the assassination of King and conveying which message of King’s meant the most to them:

Follow @asswillfollow

thoth’s child
@asswillfollow

Peace to brother Martin Luther King, fallen on this day, 1968

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2 minutes ago via AT&T Social Net · powered by @socialditto

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ArteOlé
@arteole_es

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that” Martin Luther King.

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3 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @YoThatsSoRayven

☆IG:YooThatsSoRayven
@YoThatsSoRayven

RIP To The GREAT Dr. Martín Luther King, Jr. ! Paved The Way To Equality, But Who Will Successfully Complete Your Mission….?

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4 minutes ago via Twitter for Android · powered by @socialditto

[Author's Note: Cory Booker is the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey]

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Cory Booker
@CoryBooker

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

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3 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @FXMC1957

Prof.Frank McDonough
@FXMC1957

4 April 1968. Last photo of Martin Luther King, standing on balcony of Room 306 minutes before fatal shot was fired. http://t.co/oDrQePHRs3

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14 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @ICEKREEM32

Kareem Pickett
@ICEKREEM32

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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43 seconds ago via txt · powered by @socialditto

[Author's note: Nicolas Maduro is currently the interim president of Venezuela.]

Follow @NicolasMaduro

Nicolás Maduro
@NicolasMaduro

Honor and Glory to the great Martin Luther King apostle of the US people struggling for justice, 44 years after his vile assassination

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5 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® · powered by @socialditto

Follow @dkchal8

Annette Davis
@dkchal8

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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9 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @O_JStokes

Jarvis Stokes
@O_JStokes

45 years ago today a great man died to soon, RIP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

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45 minutes ago via UberSocial for Android · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Michikosotp

Shirlee Civiello
@Michikosotp

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -Martin Luther King

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2 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

[via: DSOGaming]

Like a lot of people I’m sure, Mortal Kombat can have the effect of making me angry like no other video game can. Here’s a funny video about a guy getting really pissed while playing online.

Mortal Kombat was first released by Midway Games, with Acclaim Entertainment picking up the franchise for home console release. Midway went Bankrupt in 2009 and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment bought the rights. They then released Mortal Kombat in 2011, which retells the events of the first three games in the franchise.

Where would we be without it? At the time people said that we would all become homicidal for being exposed to this level of violence. Instead, Mortal Kombat is a video game staple, lasting decades, and even generations.

[source: Dorkly]

One last thing: What does a church service in Helsinki and Mortal Kombat have in common?

answer: Finnish Hymn

If you don’t like the joke, blame reddit.

Glen Bell, one of the pioneers of the fast food industry, opened his first Taco Bell restaurant in Downey, California 50 years ago today. As a result, he effectively paved the way for all sorts of insane Mexican-inspired menu items, including the recently-released Doritos Locos Taco, a concoction that I’m honestly a little afraid to put into my gaping maw. I’m generally not one to shy away from excess — my obsession with the company’s chili cheese burrito has been well-documented amongst family and friends — but consuming that abomination seems to be taking the taco concept a little too far.

Millions of people seem to adore the company, as evidenced by the statistics you see below. Not surprisingly, hundreds of people have taken to social networking sites to express their undying love for the chain. And if you happen to find your way into a Taco Bell at any point during the way, don’t be too alarmed if the guy in front of you seems a little strange. He’s just enjoying the dual holiday the only way he knows how.

Taco Bell Statistics:

Employees: 150,000 team members

Restaurants: 5,600, nationwide

Tacos served per year: 2 billion

Burritos served per year: 1 billion

Average customer’s visiting frequency: every 11 days

Amount of raw materials consumed each year: 3.8 billion corn taco shells/flour tortillas, 105 million pounds of fresh lettuce, 47 million pounds of pinto beans, 288 million pounds of Seasoned Ground Beef and 111 million pounds of cheese.

Twitter followers: 175,000

Happy birthday, Taco Bell. Although my colon doesn’t appreciate your contributions to society, my stomach seems to completely understand your relevance.

Wirecast for YouTube Live

A new software that comes free to YouTube Partners. It allows people to produce and stream live events directly on YouTube from their desktop. Features include the ability to capture and switch live between multiple video sources, roll in media files and add effects and overlays live. If you have livestreaming enabled, you’ll be able to download Wirecast in your YouTube account.

Publishing Flows and Real Time Analytics

A guided flow is now available to set-up and preview events before you go live. You can now see real time data like playbacks and concurrent viewers by geography and format.

Monetize Live Streams

Make money from live events with advertising or paid options. Live events can now be claimed in the video manager like any other video. Paid options and pricing can be set by country. For now, pay-per-view is only available for purchse in Canada, Japan, France, The USA and the UK.

As GigaOm notes, YouTube has been experimenting with Live pay-per-view for some time now, including a potential contract with UFC. These new features to Live may be the welcome mat for other sporting events to broadcast live on YouTube.

YouTube Live is still in the process of being rolled out, a year later. Access has not been granted to all yet, only a few select publishers. YouTube asks for patience if you haven’t been given access to the feature yet. “If you’re one of the many people who’ve asked for YouTube Live but don’t have access yet, we want to thank you very much for your patience. We’ve developed these features with the expectation many more of you will eventually use YouTube Live, and like we said last year, this process takes time to roll out broadly.”

Adobe announced yesterday the 25th anniversary for Illustrator. The program launched on March 19, 1987 as the first program from a younger Adobe, who had previously only worked on PostScript. While it was originally meant to be a drawing tool for PostScript, Illustrator took off as a program wholly unique to itself.

Adobe Co-Founder John Wamock reflected on the impact Illustrator has had on the world in a post on Adobe Blog:

“Most people have no idea how many things in their lives were created in Illustrator. It’s not just packaging and logo design, it’s maps, car dashboards, shoes and watches,” said Brenda Sutherland, product manager, Adobe Illustrator. “From paper dolls to online avatars, from animated cartoons to collectable characters, Illustrator has touched us all.”

According to the blog post, Illustrator had two major impacts on the world of graphic design. It gave designers tools that let them “focus on what they wanted to create rather than how to do it.” They attribute this success to the use of vector graphics that made it easier to draw objects.

The company also sees Illustrator as having a major role in the digital publishing revolution. It helped graphic design go from a 20,000 employee industry to millions of people being able to create designs and graphics for products from food to toys and everything in between.

For a blast from the past, here’s the original demo video for Adobe Illustrator 1.1 from 1987. It’s pretty awesome to see how far the program has come from 1987 to 2012 when I was using it to build graphics for newspapers.

Here’s to 25 years, Adobe Illustrator. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating its 50th anniversary when it helps graphic designers make holographic images.

The tsunami hit the eastern coastline later but no reports of damage have been filed as of yet. Local residents were warned to evacuate well before the wave struck. Early reports say the waves hit two locations in Aomori, which was one of the most devastated areas in last year’s tragedy, in which an 8.9 magnitude quake caused a tsunami which claimed over 19,000 lives and was declared Japan’s worst post-war disaster.

The quake comes just three days after the one-year anniversary of that disaster, and on Sunday the cities of Japan were silent as families remembered the losses suffered in the disaster. Last year Google used their Street View cars to compile before and after pictures of the areas struck by the tsunami, and the results were staggering. As a good many people affected are still trying to pick up the pieces in the aftermath, many here in the states and beyond are offering prayers and thoughts to Japan.

In wishing Twitter a happy birthday, the Twitter staff came out in droves to tweet links to the new site.  I counted 10 to 15 tweets similar to this in the span of an hour or so:

The site offers snapshots of 16 celebrities who are on Twitter and asks you to follow them.  Speaker of the House John Boehner, Larry King replacement Piers Morgan and fashionista Rachel Zoe are among the featured few.  The bottom of the page also displays links to browse popular interests like entertainment, politics and technology.

Front and center on the new page is a 3 minute video that asks some of the aforementioned celebrities questions about their interests on Twitter and who they follow.  Hillary Clinton tells us it’s a great place for information while Snoop Dogg lets the world know he follows Martha Stewart.  Check out the video below.

The video is hosted by character actor, Ray Wise, which provides a stylized pseudo-documentary feel. Of course, Soulja Boy makes a cameo as well. Enjoy. Oh, apparently Twitter was created by Ashton Kutcher and hipsters.

(WARNING: NSFW Language)

The museum in Amsterdam is not furnished as the secret annex was cleared of its contents after those in hiding were arrested. After the war, it was Otto Frank’s wish that the rooms should  remain empty. The online hiding place allows visitors to see and learn more about various objects not on view. The virtual rooms were furnished using reference photographs that were taken in 1999 when the front part of the house and the secret annex were temporarily re-furnished.

The microsite is full of richly descriptive video clips, telling the story of Anne Frank through diary excerpts and archived witness reports. The English voice-overs are by Tamsin Greig and Ellie Kendrick, both of whom were involved in the 2009 BBC series “The Diary of Anne Frank”. Atmospheric music was kindly provided by Mark Isham, the American Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer perhaps best known for his work on ‘Crash’ and ‘A River Runs Through It’.

To spread the story of Anne Frank through social media channels, there is also a Facebook application. Selected quotes from Anne’s diary can be posted to your profile weekly or monthly, spreading her words of inspiration.

The Secret Annex Online is Web Pick of the Week on Commarts, and was Site of the Day on FWA (Favourite Website Awards). More info can be found via the press release on RealWire.

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