D-Day in New Orleans

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 30, 2000

NEW ORLEANS (NYT) -- The historian Stephen E. Ambrose is not the first writer to devote much of his career to a war. But Ambrose, the author of D-Day, June 6, 1944: the Climactic Battle of World War II, may be the first to found a museum devoted to an amphibious invasion. The National D-Day Museum will open next month in a 19th-century former brewery and an adjoining four-story glass-fronted pavilion in the Warehouse District of downtown New Orleans.

New Orleans was the home of Higgins Industries, which built landing craft that carried infantry platoons through rough seas from ships to shore, allowing men and equipment to land on open beaches, as they did in Normandy. Among the displays in the 70,500-square- foot museum will be a reproduction of the boat designed by Andrew Higgins, the company owner, whom General Eisenhower, in a conversation with Ambrose, credited with winning the war. Other exhibits will include film footage of the invasion at Normandy and battle artifacts from the beaches, a vintage glider that is part of a scene recreating a crash in a Normandy field, and a simulated hedgerow to show why combat beyond the shore was so difficult. Nine oral history stations will recount a variety of personal experiences.

The National D-Day Museum, 945 Magazine St., at the corner of Howard Avenue, was developed at a cost of $25 million, a mix of federal, state and private funds. Ambrose conceived of the project and played a major role in the fund-raising. In 2001 the museum plans to open a section focusing on the Pacific invasions.

I'm OK, you're not

NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans are overwhelmingly upbeat about their families, finances and futures, according to a Harris Poll telephone survey of 1,007 adults, but their optimism about the nation as a whole is appreciably lower. Eighty-two percent of adults in the United States have positive feelings about where they live, yet only 58 percent said the rest of the country was doing as well, according to the poll. Similarly, 69 percent felt good about the morals and values of their neighbors, while just 39 percent felt that way about Americans in general.

"This Harris Poll is further evidence that the media gives people a less rosy view of what is happening nationwide than the collective experience of the public," said Harris Poll Chairman Humphrey Taylor.

Overall, Americans have good vibes about the economy (68 percent), their children's future (63 percent) and their financial security (65 percent).

Webcam sentry robot

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Lego's popular Mindstorm line of programmable toy robots proved that it was fun to watch robots do your bidding. The latest addition to the Mindstorm line may prove that it's just as much fun to have a robot watch you. Vision Command is a $99 Web camera that, when mounted on the core unit of Lego's Robotics Invention System, can turn the toy into something resembling Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet. Using the camera as a pair of eyes, the Mindstorm robot can detect color or movement and, depending on its programming, can react with any number of responses.

The camera is tethered to the PC through a 15-foot USB cable. Programmers can break the camera's field of vision down into eight separate regions and program a different response for each one. The robot might chase a ball if it detected color in one region, snap a still photograph if it detected motion in another or utter a threat if it saw a little brother enter the room. (Threats can be easily recorded with the built-in microphone.)

Simply mounted on a computer, the Vision Command can also act as a Webcam, with all the usual still and video Webcam capabilities. And yes, it will still threaten that little brother.

A breakthrough, 100 years later

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- The Brownie was the first "fantasy machine" for many Americans -- a camera that, more than any other before the 1960s, captured the everyday world of the 20th century in pictures.

Eastman Kodak came out with the Brownie a century ago. Priced at $1 -- the equivalent of about $20 today -- it transformed photography from an arcane pursuit into a hobby for the masses. Bought by tens of millions of people, the point-and-shoot contraption was designed simply enough for anyone to use, even children. Through 1910, its cardboard exterior was adorned with Canadian author Palmer Cox's "brownie" elves -- the most famous cartoon characters of the day.

"I consider the Brownie the most important camera of the 20th century, just like the Model-T is the most important automobile of the 20th century," said Todd Gustavson, curator of the technology collection at George Eastman House. "Once the Brownie came along, just about anybody who wanted to own a camera could. It starts to really allow families to document their history."

While a few famous photos were taken with Brownies -- notably the 1954 Pulitzer Prize-winning shot of a truck hanging perilously off a bridge near Redding, Calif. -- the bulk were snapshots destined for photo albums or shoeboxes. This was an entry-level camera designed to take average pictures in average light. But all the way through the Depression and World War II, it was often the only camera in a household -- and therefore precious. Months might go by before all six or eight exposures on a roll were used up.