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I have noticed it, but most of the time it is tied to economics. IE taxes, jobs, fees, etc they feel they are being burdened with. The racial component is there, but it is just a part of overall disdain for the poor. They don't like paying taxes, perceive that 'others' are not paying their fair share and tie it to a racial comment. Yet, most of the people I hear complaining live an outstanding lifestyle with an abundance of free time and money.

That said - the speaker in this video confuses me. While his explanation of 'White Fragility' makes sense he doesn't tie it to Treyvon, Ferguson, Charleston, in a very convincing way.

What I keep seeing in the media and online is a constant battle about details and phrases. 'Thug', 'Terrorist', 'Racist', and confederate flags. They want to talk ad nauseam about these things instead of the overarching long term effects of economic disenfranchisement, gun control, and a broken criminal justice system that is difficult for both the police and the general public (e.g. drug prohibition and criminalization).

Online I see people figuratively shouting at each other and "picking sides". Some people have nothing but disdain for the police and some have nothing but disdain for minorities and poor people.

Instead we need to have disdain for bad ideas, policies, and actions.

President Obama's speech was very insightful. He recognizes the multiple obstacles to reducing violence and the limited political will to really effect change.

I found this article interesting:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071634/

Which is why no one should be bringing evidence from their high school textbook to this debate. However, there are thousands of serious academics who have studied the war in detail, and are quite intelligent enough to tell government propaganda from reliable sources.

The irony of course is that many "I don't trust the government" takes on the civil war, instead put their trust in the public statements of the Confederate government. In reality, the confederates had as much incentive as any other government to lie about their motives. Moreso in fact, since they saw European recognition as central to their survival, and the English disgust with slavery was the primary obstacle to that.

It always confuses me how, as a society, we seem to think that prison is for punishment, and rehabilitation is now 100% the job of the convict, then we act like they have not yet 'paid their debt to society' and should continue to be shunned and punished when they get out of prison. We need to look at other cultures that treat people differently, and actually look at WHY they offended in the first place, and try to remedy those issues during incarceration and make them proper, productive citizens. Our system of punish, punish more, then add some permanent punishments, all while expecting the offenders to 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps' (bootstraps that were taken from them in prison) and, while enduring punishment, better themselves is just insane. They'll never be the people we want them to be if we keep putting obstacles in their way.

Watching his determination makes me feel somewhat less broken...I only have a broken back, but you still won't find me running any obstacle courses.
Kudos to his support team, especially underarmor guy, he had a hell of a day.
*quality

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So awesome.

Their next challenge will be to get it to deal with obstacles that are not static. When the humans rise against the machines the meatbags won't be standing still like those blocks of foam.

Wow, this dude has serious mental problems.
He thinks he heard Michelle say that? Odd, I didn't hear any of that when I listened....in fact I heard her say clearly 'that's not an excuse' repeatedly. I also heard her say repeatedly 'we' can overcome those obstacles, not 'we need government to overcome those obstacles'.
Hilarious, "what makes the tension die down is getting out there and using your 'god given talent' to be of good service to each other" sure sounds a lot like 'when we channel our frustrations into study and organizing...we can build ourselves and our communities up', but this guy shouts one from the roof top, and shouts down the other. WTF?!?
Open your F'ing ears, jackass.
What outrageously insane, inflammatory, inappropriately infuriated BS.
*fail

If you watched the entire Morgan Freeman-Through the wormhole episode, you would have seen that simply spending 1 on 1 time with those of other races/tribes can erase much of the subconscious racism and make them seem like one of 'your' tribe. He did not say we MUST be racist/bigoted (he did say that we ARE whether we know it or not) or that it's still a survival mechanism, it has not been since we lived in isolated tribal groups.
Removing that obstacle to civilized behavior does NOTHING to stop, or hinder evolution, it might even accelerate it (by fostering better gene mixing)...the medical system takes care of hindering evolution for humans quite well by removing 'survival of the fittest' from the equation.

So, This is really hard to vote for.

This video is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

It's a social experiment, but it's more than that. We know people are basically decent people. It was hard to watch, emotionally, because you feel for the guy, no one should have to receive this type of message, and no one should have to translate it to him.

But in fact, no one did send it, and he already knows what it says which makes me feel manipulated. Of course this made me emotionally upset for the situation. These types of videos are becoming more popular, where a guided scenario is set up, to induce the outcome that is wanted. Essentially this was an empathy test.

This setting was essentially sterile and set face to face with no outside obstacles - the outcomes were practically predetermined.

What if the readers were a group of strangers? What if it was outside in an open environment? What would the creators have done if the reaction was, in fact, not a positive outcome?

So many questions on how this was created and presented....
Thoughts?

The rack you see that the car drives over, the bridge itself that is - IS in fact a Cattle gate.

I will privledge you with learning about them here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_grid

A cattle grid – also known as a stock grid in British English; cattle guard in American English; vehicle pass, Texas gate, stock gap in the U.S. Southeast;[1] or a cattle stop in New Zealand English – is a type of obstacle used to prevent livestock, such as sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, or mules from passing along a road or railway which penetrates the fencing surrounding an enclosed piece of land. It consists of a depression in the road covered by a transverse grid of bars or tubes, normally made of metal and firmly fixed to the ground on either side of the depression, such that the gaps between them are wide enough for animals' legs to fall through, but sufficiently narrow not to impede a wheeled vehicle or human foot. This provides an effective barrier to animals without impeding wheeled vehicles, as the animals are reluctant to walk on the grates.

The tool used only uses 400mb of RAM according to the YT comments, and I'd imagine memory is the major obstacle to loading an entire games worth of maps all at once. Well, unless you also want an entire games worth of AI running, and you want to render everything without LoD or any consideration for occlusion (but then does it matter what engine you are using?).

It was the car's fault.
I was watching their speed, and it it wasn't their speed.
This could have been avoided if the car was actually driving on it's own side of the road!! Sure the child should have looked before turning into the lane, but the obstacle here was the car that shouldn't have been there.

I don't understand, why would they have to bend in multiple directions? it seems they need to be straight or curve in one direction. Did I miss something?
I'm estimating the size, about 6" around one's wrist makes it 6" 'wide', and near 3" 'long'...yes the blades seem about 1.25" diameter. You would know more than I about that being enough, but I do know there are different prop configurations for different applications, perhaps they have an ultra efficient prop and motor pair? There are certainly more powerful motors available, if you're willing to pay for them.
Adding blue tooth is minimal in weight and power drain, and the lag shouldn't be an issue in most applications (I wouldn't try making it run a gauntlet of obstacles though).
Camera batteries are pretty powerful today, allow fast drain, and come in small sizes. Maybe not enough yet, commercially available, but certainly possible to make...if you're willing to pay.

For your issues....
1)super thin spring steel could work, but wouldn't look like the plastic they showed. What's the issue with 'slap bands'? They seem perfect.
2) power is an issue, as is flight time. I feel like early adopters would sacrifice flight/record time for the advantage of size...but only time will tell.
3) object avoidance IS an issue. Likely the solution is to limit it to use where there's no obstruction above it and not too much in front. Slight lag isn't an issue, if it's not moving fast. Return to the object it's centered on should be no problem, it tracks an object to film it, it shouldn't be too hard to return to it. Now, catching it while hanging on a cliff....yeah...that's tough.
4)Does not Go-pro already wirelessly send it's video in real time "HD"? They cost under $400.

I'll agree with you, you would be MUCH better off buying a larger one that works NOW instead of sending money in hopes they come out with this super miniature one. That said, I still think this is possible...just expensive and difficult to make work.

Well, perhaps with currently available public domain parts, it's not possible. That doesn't mean it's completely impossible.
The flexible frame might be hard, but there ARE already wristbands that un-bend to make a flat device, they've been around for decades, I recall seeing one in the 90's. Making it support flight might be hard, but not impossible, especially with the small forces this thing provides.
You say there are already 2" square quads out there, this was closer to 18"square(6"X3"), so the 'it's just too small' argument falls flat.
Battery time might be a factor, but a 5 min video is pretty good for now, plenty to prove the concept. Also, battery life is increasing fast.
The camera and GPS in a phone hardly uses any battery power too. These tiny devices are really not hungry enough to make them a power drain problem, at worst they might limit flight time slightly. Also, there's no GPS needed really, it could operate by keeping the subject in frame at approximately the same distance...then it could just follow you through the trees, using the image to avoid obstacles. It would take some computing power, but not an outrageous amount. Perhaps it's paired with a cell phone to do the computing? That part wouldn't be hard.
Again, because the tech isn't available on the market today (and I'm not at all sure that's correct) doesn't mean the tech isn't available to some, or creatable by intelligent people. I just don't see this as that far away.
EDIT: The airdog seems like it's everything this wants to be, but large enough for a go-pro. I see no reason at all they couldn't miniaturize it all.
Flexable/foldable frame...check. Size issue...check. Battery life...irrelevant (so long as you get over 1 minute)...so check. What were the other 2 technologies you say don't exist?