As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
Sony Hack Exposed Personal Data Of Hollywood Stars
The hack at Sony Pictures Entertainment revealed far more personal information than previously believed, including the Social Security numbers of more than 47,000 current and former employees along with Hollywood celebrities like Sylvester Stallone.
VIDEO: Hashtag invention 'accidental trip'
The man who kicked off the use of hashtags on Twitter has described the invention as “an accidental trip over a very simple idea”.
Cape Town embracing mobile payments
How mobile payment apps are taking off in South Africa
Soon You'll Be Able To Order And Pay For A Latte Before You Even Get To Starbucks
First wireless charging stations, now mobile ordering? Yep, Starbucks is all about technology these days, and you’ll soon be able to place your coffee order by phone before you even arrive at a store.
On Wednesday the coffee chain introduced Mobile Order & Pay for stores in Portland, Oregon — and has plans to take the feature nationwide in 2015.
“When a customer’s order is placed using mobile ordering, it is immediately sent to their selected store and our world-class Starbucks partners, or baristas, will begin preparing the customer’s ordered items,” Starbucks spokeswoman Linda Mills told The Huffington Post. “The mobile ordering feature will provide the customer with an approximate wait time at their selected store prior to purchase.”
Mobile Order & Pay is only compatible with the Starbucks app for iPhone, as of now. Mills said customers in Portland can tap the “Menu” tab and tap “yes,” which will turn on GPS location services and the option to place an order.
(Story continues below).
The feature will be available for Android sometime in 2015, according to the website, and Mills says she expects mobile ordering will improve both customer and employee experience.
“The ease of use, both for customers and [baristas], is expected to increase speed of service, drive incremental transactions and increase throughput across Starbucks stores. We’re continually focused on offering convenience to customers by providing increased accessibility, speed and a stellar finished product.”
Mexico in the Making: The Emerging Tech and Entrepreneurship Community
Candles lined the streets at night in Mexico City the week of November 12th as the city mourned the massacre of 43 teaching students from Guerrero State. The smoke of the candles was a smog for the country, shrouding the world from seeing Mexico’s efforts to create change and drive economic growth through its investments in entrepreneurship.
That same week, Mexico City (also known as Distrito Federal or “DF”) opened its doors to 54 investors, entrepreneurs and civic leaders from the United States, Mexico and Colombia to kick off the first annual DF Tech Tour. The three-day event hosted by Angel Ventures Mexico and Startup Mexico was designed to showcase the growing startup community in Mexico City and escalate the dialogue around entrepreneurship.
For a country that graduates more than 118,000 engineers each year and with more than 80 institutions specializing in engineering, entrepreneurship represents hope and the prospects of upward mobility for many Mexicans.
“Every society that’s looking for a better future has positive and negative moments,” said Enrique Jacob Rocha, President of INADEM, a government institution supporting entrepreneurship. “Mexico is going through a series of unfortunate events and Mexicans have to be very conscious to avoid this happening again. But the truth is that the Mexican economy is changing, thanks to the agents of change that are part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Like the rest of Latin America, Mexico has caught the entrepreneurial bug. Today, there are 45 venture capital funds registered – up from only 2 funds in 2008 and 14 funds in 2012. The government has also stepped up and expects to spend around $1B dollars funding entrepreneurial activities through 2018. Mexico has more than 100 incubators, more than 20 accelerators formalized and a crop of crowdfunding platforms that are sprouting up to meet the funding needs of aspiring entrepreneurs.
“It’s a perfect storm in Mexico today,” said Diego Serebrisky, Managing Director at Alta Ventures, a $70M dollar early-stage fund focused on Mexico. “A wave of entrepreneurship began about three years ago as young engineers and innovators began unleashing their vision to build new products and businesses.”
While traditionally Mexicans have been risk-averse to investing in early-stage businesses, attitudes are shifting as new venture funds and angel investment groups are raising funds to support emerging companies in the region. Angel Ventures Mexico, which was launched in 2008 and managed by Hernan Fernandez and Camilo Kejner, was created specifically to address this need – transforming high net worth individuals into Angel Investors and now inviting them into a Co-Investment Fund. The $20M fund is designed not only to invest in companies at the seed-stage, but also to educate and create more sophisticated angel investors who have both the business acumen and technical expertise to help companies get off the ground.
“Angel Ventures has been working to develop early stage capital in the country, closing the US $500K to $2MM financing gap from,” said Fernandez, co-Founder and Director of Angel Ventures Mexico. “It is a very different model from developed economies, since in Mexico very few entrepreneurs have had liquidity events and eventually become Angel Investors.”
The Mexican Government has played an integral role in supporting entrepreneurship, as an engine for economic growth in the country. The government has given a $2.5M grant to help fund StartUp Mexico (SUM), an incubator and shared working space for entrepreneurs, which also provides funding to some of the businesses in its program.
SUM’s founders, Marcus Dantus and Guillermo Garza, designed the space and launched SUM this past August. Their vision is to help facilitate the exchange of ideas and expertise among those companies and entrepreneurs working within its walls and also with mentors and funds in its wider international network.
“Startup Mexico is attempting to foster a collaboration culture in Mexico, putting together entrepreneurs of different industries with seed capital funds, services of all sorts and mentors in order to create an ambiance that allows startups to take advantage of others’ resources and contacts in order to grow faster, stronger and with more possibilities of success,” said Dantus.
And the SUM community is already starting to work for itself. Marc Segura, founder of PlayBusiness, has housed his crowdfunding equity platform inside of the SUM co-working space. PlayBusiness launched 90 days ago and the platform has already been used to fund two other businesses within the community – each with $100K – and has five others that are close to achieving their funding goals.
“The space in Startup Mexico is great, it’s the first startup cluster in Mexico City,” said Joan Segura, Project and Investment Director of PlayBusines. “It’s easy to do things with the experts around you, especially in a city with a lot of traffic where everything is an hour away.”
While SUM is centrally located in Mexico City, the drive can be up to two hours from anywhere in the city depending on traffic. The co-working space sits on the fringe of the posh Polanco neighborhood and a grittier, up and coming district where 40,000 square feet of warehouse space was affordable for Dantus and Garza to remodel and operate. Armed guards stand at its gates each day, a reminder to its entrants that DF is a tale of two cities.
On November 13th, Dantus opened the doors of SUM to more than 300 entrepreneurs and investors in the community for the DF Tech Summit. The Summit featured over 20 speakers from the United States and Mexico who discussed topics from fundraising to marketing to building an entrepreneurial community.
One of the speakers at the DF Tech Summit was Brett Leve, co-founder of Summit Series, a community and series of events that unites entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and nonprofit leaders in the United States. Leve is interested turning the largely US-centric Summit Series community into a more global one that can bring the concepts of deep collaboration and cooperation across borders while affording the existing community with high quality inroads into global markets.
“What Mexico can take from Summit Series is the importance of a trusted support system and community, people to collaborate with and a fluid exchange of ideas,” said Leve. “It’s easy to see everything as competition, but ideas are cheap, execution is where all of the value is created. The key is to develop a robust circle of supporters and share your ideas before execution with those who can help you refine them.”
It is precisely this exchange of ideas, engineering talent, experts and funds both within Mexico and with its neighbors that will help the country unleash its potential. For a vibrant entrepreneurial scene may be one of Mexico’s best tools to eliminating the perceived corruption and social immobility that has historically clouded its image.
Uber's Value Just Doubled To $40 Billion In 6 Months (Sorry, Haters)
While many of us have spent the past six months getting mad at Uber, Uber has spent the past six months making $22 billion magically appear.
The ride-sharing app maker, a lightning rod for controversy, announced on Thursday that it has raised $1.2 billion in new funding, bringing the company’s value to roughly $40 billion. That’s up from a paltry $18 billion six months ago.
Uber’s investors are apparently unfazed by bad press. In recent months, the company has had to apologize for a top executive threatening to smear journalists critical of the business. It’s also been rated F by the Better Business Bureau, protested by its own drivers, kicked out of Las Vegas and accused of dirty practices aimed at undercutting its rivals.
But Uber is willing to acknowledge it has issues.
“The events of the recent weeks have shown us that we also need to invest in internal growth and change,” CEO Travis Kalanick said in the blog post announcing the new funding. He promised Uber would make changes to become “a smarter and more humble company.”
One possible teensy consolation for Uber is this factoid suggested by Wall Street Journal editor Dennis Berman: Roughly four years ago, the company was worth $60 million. Today it’s worth $40 billion. At this rate of growth, it is appreciating by $19,839 per minute, according to Berman’s math.
If you had invested $10,000 in the company when it started, that $10,000 would be worth about $80 million now, estimates tech investor Semil Shah — though the effects of the company repeatedly issuing new stock would have cut that gain down significantly by making stock worth less. Maybe your $10,000 share would only be worth $20 million today. Still, $20 million > $10,000, according to my math.
At the moment, Uber is worth more than most members of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. It is worth more than Delta Air Lines and the railroad company CSX. It’s also worth more than all the personal real estate in Anaheim, California.
Whether the company is actually worth all that money, or whether it’s just the poster child for a growing startup bubble, is a different question altogether. Uber is making a lot of money, though the exact amount won’t be entirely clear until the company goes public — at which point maybe you can help boost Uber’s valuation, too.
An Uber spokeswoman declined to provide further comment.
JAMA launches free medical image quiz app
JAMA launches a medical image quiz app
The post JAMA launches free medical image quiz app appeared first on iMedicalApps.
How Mobile Payment Will Impact the Growth of Mobile Commerce This Holiday Season
The growing consumerism of our society is always a hot topic this time of year. Discussions about whether or not retailers should open on Thanksgiving to the monitoring of ‘Christmas Creep’ by various blogs and websites can be seen everywhere.
However what gets lost in the shuffle is the fundamental question involved – what do consumers want? And based upon their behavior and the already strong start to the holiday retail season- the answer appears to be they want to start shopping.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), more than 40% of holiday shoppers start to buy gifts before Halloween. A recent study shows that Millennials tend to shop earlier in the holiday season than their generational counterparts. Not only are they more accepting of this trend, a small but growing percentage of the people in that age group actually like early holiday merchandise. It helps them spread out their spending, avoid holiday crowds and the stress of last-minute shopping.
So now that we know that consumers want to buy, we are starting to see how they want to pay. The recent release of Apple Pay, the mobile payment service available on the iPhone 6, gives us a window into how consumers will make their purchases. In the first three weeks of launch, Whole Foods is reporting that 1% of all transactions at its stores utilized Apple Pay.
Apple Pay is just one mobile payment option. Shoppers also have access to Google Wallet, and next year CurrentC will come online.
It is vital to retailers and small businesses to recognize the fact that these shoppers are out there. They need to vie for attention and utilize all the tools at their disposal to increase market share. That means embracing the trend toward quicker, and in some cases more secure, mobile payment options.
In these heady days of the DIY app builder, which makes it possible for anyone, regardless of their technological expertise, to design, create, and publish mobile apps, there is little excuse for small business not being involved in the mobile space.
Mobile site traffic reached 38.2% in March 2014, more than double the percentage in March 2012. IBM estimates that 20% of site sales and more than 43% of site traffic will come from mobile devices in November 2014.
This is where consumers are finding and interacting with your brand.
In as little as 30 minutes, a small retailer, independent label or publisher, or local restaurant can be up-and-running in the mobile game, accepting orders and processing payments through mobile apps.
The shoppers are out there, in full force, and they are enthusiastically interacting with businesses that cater to the mobile generation. The impulse-buying mobile Millennials are out there and they are looking at their smartphones right now. Can they find you in time for the holiday season?
Scott Hirsch is CEO of Appsbar, a free mobile app building platform.
KeenON: <i>The New Yorker's</i> James Surowiecki on the Digital Future
Techonomy is proud to present KeenON, a series of interviews by techonologist and author Andrew Keen that explores the intersection of tech, business, and culture.
There are few journalists both more reasonable and more insightful than The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki. At Techonomy 2014 in Half Moon Bay last month, Surowiecki moderated the fascinating “Can Tech Bring Equality and Peace?” panel, which included Jack Dorsey and Intel’s Genevieve Bell. So it was a real honor to have the opportunity to sit down with Surowiecki and pick his brain about the future of innovation, the Internet, and even death itself.
While Surowiecki is nervous about biotech utopians who believe we can conquer death, he remains relatively optimistic about the state of the digital economy. Uber and Airbnb seem to him to be reasonably valued and he’s impressed with Google’s relentless charge into other markets. What does worry him, however, is the valuation of WhatsApp and the impact on jobs of this kind of multibillion dollar company with its tiny handful of employees. While he’s not concerned with the so-called singularity, Surowiecki believes that there will fewer jobs in the digital future and is particularly worried about the hollowing out of the middle class.
Surowiecki’s best-selling 2004 book, The Wisdom of the Crowd, was a classic discourse on the collective intelligence of groups of people in our networked age. But even here, he worries about the echo chamber of the Internet and the role of the mob in stifling dissent. Thus the value, Surowiecki explains, of “weak links,” which he sees as being essential to strong networks. And remaining independent is something in which Surowiecki excels–particularly in his ability to make sense of the complexity of economic life without relying on jargon or cant.
Timesaving Technology Tools
With so many gadgets, applications, software and devices available to us today, it’s hard to know which ones are truly timesavers, and which ones are a waste of time (technology toys versus tools). Since I’m frequently asked what the Productivity Pro recommends to save time, I wanted to share a few timesaving technology tools for you to explore:
1. Decrease keystrokes with shortkeys. ShortKeys is a Windows text replacement utility designed to help you type faster and more accurately. You basically create abbreviations for words, phrases and paragraphs you use frequently, and the software types them out automatically. I’d estimate it saves me 15 minutes a day! To use it, you define a “shortkey” in place of a longer text string, such as TVM for Thank you very much. Now instead of typing Thank you very much, just type ##tvm anywhere (email, Word, LinkedIn, etc.), and ShortKeys will do the rest, instantly replacing the shortkey abbreviation with the longer text string. So ##sig is my signature, and ##l is my email address. I have over 100 shortkeys saved and memorized (you can print out a cheat sheet until you get it down).
2. Do more with Xerox’s Digital Alternatives. Now save time completing the most common tasks with a single application uniting your multiple devices, applications and file formats. For example, take notes on any document during a meeting, highlight key points and then take advantage of the integrated share capability. Instead of printing a contract for signature to be signed, scanned, saved, and sent, use the sign and share capability. Imagine the difference when you’re on the road! With Digital Alternatives, you are always one step ahead — and with automatic synchronization, you always have your latest work, whether you’re in the office on your PC or in transit with your tablet.
3. Auto-fill websites and passwords with RoboForm. I’ve always had a difficult time remembering my login IDs and passwords, especially when some sites require you to change them continually! Copying and pasting them into a Word document or Outlook Note isn’t secure. Instead, using a master password with your browser, RoboForm remembers all your logins and passwords, even when you change them. When you login to a site, RoboForm knows where you are, and you simply click one button to fill in and submit to the site. Better yet, we can synchronize across all approved computers and devices with everyone in the office, so our team can keep track of each other’s logins as well. This saves me tremendous time and frustration!
4. Print smarter with Xerox’s Print Awareness Tool. Many people tell me they want to reduce their footprint on the environment, but they don’t know how to do it. One way is with Xerox’s Print Awareness Tool, an ingenious solution that provides easy, fun ways to print smarter. This desktop widget is like a Fitbit® for printing — it monitors your behaviors and provides tips on changing bad print habits. With less paper, you’ll have less waste, less cost, less to file, less to handle and less clutter — which is great for the environment — and a real win for you and your company. Plus you can add some team fun by competing against other departments!
5. Schedule Meetings Online with Doodle. When you want to schedule a meeting with multiple people outside of your organization, it’s tricky since you can’t see their calendars. People generally resort to listing available dates and times in an email and manually attempting to find a good time for everyone. Instead, set up a Doodle poll online! Recipients receive a single email with a link to an online poll, where they “vote” on good days and times for the meeting. After all attendees have voted, you can easily see the most popular slot and send the final result to the group.
6. Access travel itineraries on your phone with TripIt. I use the TripIt app to access my trip details right from my phone: no more printing and schlepping hardcopies! My team simply forwards confirmation emails I receive from airlines, hotels and ground transportation to plans@tripit.com from my account, and the app automatically populates my itineraries. You can add location and map data and other logistics to your trips and access all your information either online or from any mobile device.
And there you have it: six of my favorite technology tools. Give them a whirl and see how much time you can save! I’d love to hear about your favorite technology tool as well. Please let us know in the Comments below.
Laura Stack, aka The Productivity Pro®, is America’s Premier Expert in Productivity™. For over 20 years, her speeches have helped professionals, leaders and teams improve output, lower stress and save time at work. Her company, The Productivity Pro, Inc., provides time management workshops around the globe to help attendees achieve Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. Widely regarded as one of the leading experts in the field of human performance and workplace issues, Laura writes for the Huffington Post, The Business Journal and Success Magazine, and she has been featured by the CBS Early Show, CNN, USA Today and the New York Times. Laura Stack is the author of six books, most recently Execution IS the Strategy. Note: Laura Stack is a paid contributor to Xerox.
Why was Psy nearly too much for YouTube?
Why Gangnam Style was nearly too much for YouTube
Google To Introduce Child-Friendly Products: USA Today
(Reuters) – Google Inc plans to roll out child-friendly versions of its most popular products in a bid to be “fun and safe for children”, USA Today reported, quoting Pavni Diwanji, the company’s vice president of engineering.
The company will likely create specific versions of its search, YouTube and Chrome products for children aged 12 and under, USA Today reported, adding that Google did not provide a timeline for the rollout.
“We want to be thoughtful about what we do, giving parents the right tools to oversee their kids’ use of our products,” USA Today quoted Diwanji as saying.
A Google spokesperson declined to comment, but confirmed that the effort described in the report was accurate.
(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Jennings)
Uber taxi business valued at $40bn
Taxi booking firm Uber has raised another $1.2bn from investors, a deal that values the technology business at $40bn (£25.5bn).
Strange Spiral Galaxy Stumps Astronomers
Spiral galaxies like our Milky Way (a barred spiral galaxy) are nothing special–in fact, they’re the most common type of galaxy. But astronomers are buzzing about the recent discovery of a very unusual spiral galaxy that sports big jets of subatomic particles that stream outward at nearly the speed of light.
Known formally as J1649+2635, the galaxy is located about 800 million light-years from Earth and is only the fourth spiral galaxy with jets (or lobes) ever observed, according to a written statement issued by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
“The conventional wisdom is that such jets come only from elliptical galaxies that formed through the merger of spirals,” Dr. Minnie Mao, a postdoctoral fellow working for NRAO in Socorro, NM, said in the statement. “We don’t know how spirals can have these large jets.”
Jets like those seen in J1649+2635 form when some of the matter in a spinning “accretion disk” around the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy is ejected outward. The disruption of gas that occurs when spiral galaxies merge to form an elliptical galaxy is believed to fuel the ejection process. But the same disruption destroys any spiral structure–at least according to widely accepted theory.
The discovery of this galaxy that Mao calls a “strange beast” gives rise to lots of questions.
“Did it have a unique type of merger that preserved its spiral structure?” she asked in the statement. “Was it an elliptical that had another collision that made it re-grow spiral arms? Is its unique character the result of interaction with its environment?”
The discovery was made by more than a dozen researchers, including Mao and Ryan Duffin, a University of Virginia undergraduate working as a summer student at NRAO. The researchers were assisted by hundreds of citizen-scientists who pitched in via an online initiative known as Galaxy Zoo to analyze images of galaxies taken by both radio and optical telescopes.
A paper describing the discovery will be published in an upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Correction: A previous version of this article reported that the galaxy is located 800 light-years away. It has been corrected to report that, in fact, the galaxy is located nearly 800 million light-years from Earth.
Square, Starbucks launch new iOS options for food orders
Two companies, Square and Starbucks, have launched new iOS options for food orders. Square has introduced a free app for Caviar, the delivery service it bought out in August. Caviar users can have food delivered from partner restaurants in select areas. So far the list of regions includes San Francisco and the Bay Area, plus Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington DC.
Emergency call system for new cars
The European Parliament and EU member states have agreed that new cars must be fitted with an automated system to alert emergency services in event of a crash.
Does Social Media Foment Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
What happened to truth in advertising?
Imagine if a law were enacted that declared that people could only call themselves on the Internet by the same monikers inscribed in the “Occupation” boxes of their tax returns. How many of the 80,000 Huffington Post bloggers would write the following as their occupations?
Published Author
One of The World’s Leading Meditation Experts
Sex Guru
Acclaimed Wellness Consultant
Urban Shaman
Master Reiki Healer
Tantrika
Award-Winning Filmmaker
New York Times Best-Selling Author
Internationally Known Lecturer
Certified Yoga Teacher
Master Teacher
Relationship Counselor
Spiritual Advisor
Nationally Recognized Nutritionist
Let’s break this down:
1. Talking to the Danish guy on the minibus from Cancun to Tulum does not make you an “International Speaker,” nor does organizing a TEDx talk in your friend’s garage make you a “Highly Regarded International Lecturer.”
2. Self-publishing a compilation of unpaid blogs does not make you a “Published Author.”
3. Calling yourself “One of the World’s Leading Meditation Experts” is obviously self-contradictory because anyone who really was an expert at meditation would have learned enough humility NOT to call herself an expert.
4. Yoga Alliance does not offer any type of certification; they merely REGISTER teachers into their meaningless registry. Unless someone has completed a multi-year Kripalu or Iyengar or Viniyoga or Parayoga certification process, it is incomprehensible why he would call himself a “Certified Yoga Teacher” when no universally accepted certification process exists.
5. There is no such thing as a “Reiki Healer;” there are only Reiki PRACTITIONERS who are conduits for Reiki energy that enables clients to heal themselves. Whoever calls himself a “Reiki Healer” does not understand Reiki.
6. Doing ayahuasca in some Jewish guy’s basement in Williamsburg does not make you an “Urban Shaman.”
7. All of the “Tantrikas” who I have met would be arrested for prostitution in all fifty states for the services they provide so I seriously doubt that anyone is putting “Tantrika” on her tax return.
8. Ghostwriting a book ten years ago that does not have your name on the cover does not translate into you being a “New York Times Bestselling Author.”
9. Winning the Immanuel Kant Award for Most Obtuse Video on Vimeo does in fact make you an “Award-Winning Filmmaker,” but it just so happens that it is one of the infinite awards that nobody cares about.
10. If His Holiness The Dalai Lama refers to himself as “A simple Buddhist monk” then anyone who anoints herself a “Master Teacher” on the Internet wants to be famous more than she wants to help you. There are no “Master Teachers,” we are all just humble servants.
All of the above self-grandiosity is occurring because people write their own inflated bios in order to hawk their wares. Recently I have been sent a slew of “How to Become A Guru!” webinars all of which could be re-titled “How To Scam Your Friends and Acquaintances Using an Old-Fashioned Ponzi or Pyramid Scheme.”
The funny thing is that most of these hustlers were impoverished before they figured out how to lure people on the Internet into wiring them $2,500 to teach them the “foot in the door technique” that psychologists have known for decades. These Guru-makers sell you the “secret” of getting friends and acquaintances to sign up for your email list, then sending these friends and acquaintances 3-6 free bits of helpful advice to win their trust, then inviting them to your free webinar/tele-conference to help them overcome (insert affliction here), and then casually announcing that you have just given them 10% of your wisdom and the other 90% will cost them $2,497 (people are more prone to buy things ending in the number “7″ so sellers will arbitrarily price products at $2,497 rather than $2,500. They will also provide a fake “anchor” by saying “This course normally sells for $8,999 but if you sign up today it’s only $2,497… and act now and you’ll receive a free set of Ginzu knives as our gift to you!”).
Voila! Congratulations! Now you’re a bonafide Guru! Now you’re a self-ordained Master Teacher!
Listen, we all watched that propaganda reel called “The Secret” and are all trying to “step into our futures” and manifest the massive abundance that awaits us if we can only undo our self-sabotaging blocks. Got it. However, stepping into your future does not give you to the right to blatantly fabricate a curriculum vitae or set up a Ponzi scheme to scam your friends and acquaintances.
Christopher Lasch’s 1979 book, The Culture of Narcissism, documented how with the decline of the family unit Americans were increasingly getting their senses of self, their personal identities, from things outside of them — things such as what Thorsten Veblen referred to as “conspicuous consumption” or what hip-hop artists call “bling.”
But now people don’t even need actual, physical “bling” when they can pull counterfeit accolades and appellations out of thin air and post them on Internet: “Joseph Blow, Spiritual Brain Surgeon, Etherial Consultant, World Famous Landscape Engineer, and Founder and CEO of Joseph Blow’s Executive Training Webinar for Master Masturbators!”
Of course, as P.T. Barnum stated, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” With “long tail” marketing on the Internet I guess it is just as easy to say, “There’s a snake-oil salesperson born every minute too.”
It is unclear that the wheat is rising from the chaff and that the Information Age is engendering the finest attributes of humanity. Sometimes it seems as if the Internet is one huge High School popularity contest gone awry. People will post any sort of “clickbait” in order to claw their way to their 15 minutes of fame and “go viral.”
Having an over-inflated sense of self-importance and scamming friends and acquaintances is not bringing long-term happiness for anyone. As I teach in my workshops (that I am flagrantly hawking here on the Huffington Post), if you want to be happy then cultivate meaningful, trustworthy, authentic, IN-PERSON relationships — I’m sorry to break the bad news to you but mirror neurons don’t fire via Text, Tweet, Instagram or Facebook; and if you want to lead a meaningful life then be of service to others (preferably while releasing your expectations for anything in return). Period.
Anyone who measures his or her self-worth by the facade he or she fabricates on the Internet — or by his or her material possessions and status symbols — or by the Facebook and Instagram LIKEs he or she receives for posting selfies — is a disaster looking for a place to happen.
Thankfully, there is a wave of authenticity coming that may one day be strong enough to wash away all of the make-believe fairytales that are resulting in such rampant maladies as anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD, OCD, depression, and many of the other mood-disorder diagnoses in the DSM.
For the time being, maybe it would be helpful for the people on Planet Social Media to reframe Jon Kabat-Zinn’s quote, “Wherever You Go, There You Are” as “Wherever You Sell, There You Are” and the adage, “I want to be a human being, not a human doing” as “I want to be a human helping, not a human selling.”?
Yours authentically,
Humble servant, Licensed Psychotherapist, Unproud Owner of Ira Israel’s Ego Afflictions, Leading Expert of Nothing, Severely Gifted Conversationalist, Semi-Professional Dilettante and Recovering Writer, Ira Israel
Police Clear Largest Homeless Encampment In America
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Police and social services in Silicon Valley are starting to clear away what likely had been the nation’s largest homeless encampment.
Animal control and a construction contractor are also helping dismantle the square-mile site that once was home to more than 200 homeless people, San Jose homelessness response manager Ray Bramson said.
People living in the camp, known as The Jungle, were told Monday they must be out by Thursday or face arrest for trespassing. The encampment stands in stark contrast to its surrounding area in the heart of the Silicon Valley, a region leading the country for job growth, income, innovation and venture capital.
In a walkthrough earlier this week, officials found there were 60 people left in the camp. They didn’t know how many remained after Monday.
Officials will try to find people who have been involved in social services some kind of shelter for the night. Bramson says those not involved in social services “are going to have to leave today anyways.”
There have been no reports of violence or people refusing to leave.
The team will first go through the hand-built structures and tents looking for cash, IDs or anything else of value. Those items will be sorted and stored for people to claim later.
In the past year and a half, the city of San Jose has spent more than $4 million on solving the problems at the encampment.
The last time officials cleared out the camp was in May 2012 when about 150 people were moved out of The Jungle.
Bramson said earlier this week that increased violence, wet weather and unsanitary conditions make it imperative the camp is cleared. In the last month, one resident tried to strangle someone with a cord of wire down there, he said. Another was nearly beaten to death with a hammer. And the State Water Resources Control Board has been demanding that polluted Coyote Creek, which cuts through the middle, get cleaned out.
City officials plan to send in trash trucks and bulldozers to haul out tons of hazardous and human waste. They will use heavy machinery to fill excavated sections where people have been living underground. And they will try to restore the creek beds.
Orion Launch Scrubbed Following Problems With Winds, Rocket
Well, that was disappointing.
NASA scrubbed the launch of its new Orion space capsule this morning after a series of delays caused by high winds and problems with the rocket that was to have sent the craft into orbit.
As NASA said in a tweet, the next opportunity to launch Orion will come tomorrow morning:
Scrub. Today’s planned launch of #Orion is postponed due to valve issue. Our next possible launch window opens at 7:05am ET Friday
— NASA (@NASA) December 4, 2014
Plans had called for Orion to launch at 7:05 a.m. EST and to make two orbits around the Earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
No crew was aboard for today’s planned test flight. But Orion is designed ultimately to carry a crew of four to an asteroid or to Mars.
The craft is scheduled to complete its first crewed flight in 2021.
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