Android, iOS and even Windows 8 users have had access to Adobe’s mobile version of Photoshop for quite some time, while Windows Phone owners were excluded from the party. That changed today after Adobe pushed the slick photo-editing app to the…
Android TV wants to be your living room portal for all things media. From watching movies and TV to Android gaming, Google wants you glued to their version of what media consumption should be. At I/O, gaming was a very strong angle for Google during the Android TV portion of the show. Now we might have our first look at … Continue reading
This week one “Election of Ten Directors” proposal was passed by the Nintendo board of directors, this including Satoru Iwata as Representative Director, Director, and President. This re-election comes in the face of several months of losses and a general less-than-fantastic outlook for the company throughout the last year. It may very well be Nintendo’s high-powered showing at E3 2014 … Continue reading
Whenever one travels these days, there is one particularly important tool or accessory that needs to come with us – and that is none other than your smartphone charger. After all, a vacation is no fun when you realize that your handphone’s flat, and you need to pull out your reservation number in order to check into the hotel, but everything is stored on your email account. Having said that, with so many different types and makes of smartphones in the market, a family might have to bring its fair share of chargers. Scosche intends to simplify things by introducing the Scosche smartBOX 2-in-1 retractable charge & sync cable for Lightning and Micro USB powered devices.
This is a compact and portable accessory, where the smartBOX comes across as the ideal way to ensure that your smartphones, tablets, cameras, among others, will remain juiced up and raring to go all the time. The cable itself can be extended up to three feet, where there is a sliding adapter that will enable users to switch between Lighting and Micro USB devices. Not only that, the smartBOX can be retracted by pulling on both ends and the charging adapter will remain magnetically in place when closed. Thanks to its slim barrel design, users can plug either connector into their phone without having to remove a case. The Scosche smartBOX 2-in-1 retractable charge & sync cable will come with an asking price of $24.99 a pop.
Press Release
[ Scosche smartBOX 2-in-1 retractable charge & sync cable copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
OK, I am being slightly dramatic here for effect, but Facebook, wine and television almost destroyed my life. Let me explain.
When working with my healer, Stephanie Syd Yang, on abundance after my mother passed away, she blurted out, “Write a vision board!” They were words I was familiar with. I had put together a million vision boards over the last few years — one where I posted my head on Brook Burke’s body, and another where I posted a picture of the Burj Al Arab hotel before I really even knew what it was (and subsequently went to Dubai a year later). Why hadn’t I made one for quite a while?
Sagely following her advice, I went to a craft store and bought a bunch of cool stuff to put together my vision board, with a background of the world map covered with passport stamps, in honor of my desire for world travel. I went home and got to work. To my surprise, I spent hours — yes, hours — perusing through magazines, looking online at what caught my attention, clipping out pictures and pasting them on my beautiful and bejeweled Vision Board. Jimmy Choo shoes, a trip to France, becoming a published book author, creating my female-centric Crush the Box gaming app, Chanel bags, more shoes, toned abs, health.
It was an explosion of beautiful desires all over the page, and it was fun to just imagine what I wanted out of my life. Oh, and if you’re wondering why a relationship wasn’t on the board, it’s because there were so many shoes and hand bags that there was no room left for Mr. Right! Lol… just kidding, I have an adorable boyfriend of almost two years. But seriously, there literally was no room for his face after all the Chanel and Jimmy Choo (forgive me, honey!).
So now that I had completed the majority of my vision board, I had clarity about what I wanted at a gut level. That got me thinking: If I was going to achieve these goals, I would have to understand what was holding me back from let’s say… writing my book. In my mind I wanted to complete it and see it published, hopefully people would enjoy reading it, but why wasn’t I writing in it now? I wrote that question in my journal and what I observed over the next few days astounded me.
I used to say that I had A.D.D., but now I realized that was an excuse. After observing my behavior for a few days I wrote in my journal: “I’m realizing that I distract myself in numerous ways during the day. It’s a version of procrastination and a self-imposed roadblock. By being aware of this, I can change my behavior.” Wow!
Having said this, I am embarrassed to tell you I took a break from writing the last few minutes to watch “cutest parenting moments” on boredpanda.com via Facebook. I’m ashamed. OK, not really, but at least now I am aware of all the ways I distract myself from doing what is most important to me — spending minutes here and there checking my horoscope, looking at Facebook, searching the Internet for good vacation deals. Never mind the ways I spent my time doing things to please others!
Now mind you, I don’t want to spend every waking moment of my life writing. I would like to be able to spend time with my friends, watch movies, drink wine and yes, look at cute stuff on Facebook. But I also don’t want to spend all my time doing the former and wake up one day to find that I didn’t have the discipline and focus to make my contributions to the world and to live my dreams.
In addition to noticing ways I distracted myself from the task at hand, I also wrote that “I was afraid my work wouldn’t be good enough, wasn’t sure how to improve it and had a fear of the process.” Writing a book is a massive project. It is certainly a task that requires time, effort and concentration. I had some real fears, and at least now I knew what they were.
In his article “The Psychology of Getting More Done (In Less Time)”, Gregory Ciott states “It’s hard to be productive while trying to maintain high energy levels through your entire day. It’s much easier for your brain to approach a 90-minute session of productivity when it knows that a 15-minute break is coming up afterward.” Basically, big projects freak us out. A great way to achieve the larger goal of writing my book was to tackle it in smaller pieces, focusing on the discipline of writing and the task, versus the big picture. Maybe I could even take 15 minute wine breaks in between?
As the Bible says in Matthew, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” I asked and I received. Now if you will excuse me, I took a break from writing my book to write this blog. Back to the task at hand!
A group of women on their way to Sunday mass from the series ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA: THE CITY OF TRUE LOVE
A number of billionaires are flooding our democracy with their money, drowning out the voices of the rest of us. But Charles and David Koch are in a class by themselves. They’re using their fortune — they’re the fifth and sixth richest people in the world — to create their own political machine designed to protect and advance their financial interests. The Koch machine includes:
1. Political front groups pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into elections at every level of our democracy, while disguising the sources of the money.
2. Giant advertising campaigns to convince Americans climate change is a myth, the Affordable Care Act will harm them, unions are bad, and wealthy people deserve tax cuts.
3. A network of think tanks designed to come up with findings the Kochs want. For example, over $23 million for studies arguing we should abolish the minimum wage or keep it where it is forever.
4. A campaign to suppress the votes of minorities. In the last presidential election, funding white “poll-watchers” where minorities vote, leading to complaints of voter intimidation. And peddling a Voter ID bill to state legislators across the country, designed to make it harder for many to vote.
5. A nationwide effort to bust unions. Funding anti-union campaigns in states like Wisconsin, and pushing an anti-union law that’s been used in dozens of states to undermine workers’ collective bargaining rights.
And 6. A long-term strategy to unravel America’s campaign finance laws, even organizing secret meetings with sympathetic Supreme Court justices.
The Koch political machine would be troubling in any circumstance. But it’s especially dangerous in present-day America, where wealth is more concentrated than it’s been in over a century and the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates to big money.
The problem isn’t that the Kochs are so rich, or their political views are so regressive. The problem is they’re using their exorbitant wealth to impose those views on the rest of us, undermining our democracy.
More than 200,000 of you have already signed my MoveOn petition denouncing the Koch brothers for undermining our democracy.
The Kochs won’t care what we say, but when a half a million of us stand up to them, politicians will have to think twice before taking their money. When a million of us stand up to them, their money will be a political liability.
Standing up to bullies is the hallmark of a civilized society. Please join our petition — and stand up for our democracy. The link to the petition is at the end of the video.
Or go here.
Our democracy is not for sale.
ROBERT B. REICH’s film “Inequality for All” is now available on DVD and blu-ray, and on Netflix. Watch the trailer below:
The arrest of a former police officer this week after the discovery of two women’s bodies stuffed into suitcases and dumped in Wisconsin has raised questions about the investigation. Chief among them: Did police do everything they could to locate one of the victims, a mother who vanished in November, before she turned up dead?
Laura Simonson, a 37-year-old mother of seven who was reported missing Nov. 22, was discovered dead on June 5 inside a suitcase near Lake Geneva, in southern Wisconsin. The body of a second woman, who police haven’t publicly identified, was inside another suitcase.
Steven Zelich, 52, of West Allis, Wisconsin, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of hiding a corpse. According to police, Zelich has confessed to involvement in Simonson’s death. Investigators haven’t elaborated.
Police knew soon after Simonson disappeared that she had been in Zelich’s company, a source close to the investigation told The Huffington Post on Thursday. Simonson was last seen leaving her mother’s Farmington, Minnesota, home on Nov. 1, police said.
“They knew from the beginning who she left with,” the source said, adding, “There was a trail that was left behind. There was, without a doubt, hard physical evidence [of] where she was. [Authorities] were aware of it from the beginning. I don’t know why they didn’t follow up on it sooner.”
Zelich, according to the Nexis public records database, once worked as a police officer in West Allis, near Milwaukee. WISN 12 News reported he resigned in 2001, after allegations of misconduct involving a prostitute. No criminal charges were filed.
Jennifer Reitz, spokeswoman for Geneva police, who are leading the investigation into the discovery of the bodies, on Thursday declined to discuss whether authorities had made attempts to contact Zelich prior to his arrest. She also declined to confirm whether authorities were aware of an April 18 classified ad that appeared in Wisconsin Super Ads. The ad, placed anonymously, accused Zelich of holding Simonson captive. The ad read, in part:
“Steven Mark Zelich is a sadist who has enslaved a petite female named Laura Jean Simonson. He keeps her naked, handcuffed, shackled, and caged. He has no intention of ever releasing this poor woman who suffers from various mental disabilities. She has been whipped and tortured by Steven Mark Zelich since November 2, 2013. Laura is the mother of 7 young children and has not been allowed by Steven to contact them in any way. The police have not been able to locate where Steven has Laura imprisoned. Please join our effort to find and free Laura Simonson.”
The ad alleged that Zelich had profiles on a website involving dominance and submission. It included a cellphone number for Zelich, which The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tied to a contact number for him at Legalshield.com, where he reportedly works as a contractor. An email address attributed to him also appears on a Yahoo online discussion board titled “MasterB Slave Club.”
A January 2012 post attributed to the same email address read:
“I have just joined the group, with the hope of finding an owner (male/female/couple). I seek no limit no release enslavement, imprisonment, captivity, animalization…ideally in a farm/caged situation. If this level of control interests you, please feel free to make contact.”
Authorities at a media briefing on Thursday didn’t confirm Zelich’s online activities. They said they were investigating his possible involvement with bondage websites.
Jerrie Dean, an advocate for missing persons, wrote about a possible connection between Zelich and Simonson in a Jan. 24 story for Missingpersonsofamerica.com. Dean repeated information from the Wisconsin Super Ads item and compared Simonson’s disappearance with the three women who were held captive in Ariel Castro’s Ohio home for 10 years.
Dean told HuffPost on Thursday that authorities were aware of the information in her article.
“The police did go talk to [Zelich], and he said he left her on her own and she wasn’t there,” Dean said of Simonson.
CASE PHOTOS: (Story Continues Below)
Farmington, Minnesota, police Detective Sgt. Lee Hollatz told The Associated Press that Zelich had long been his “No. 1 person, by far, of interest” in Simonson’s disappearance.
Police on Thursday said they believe Simonson was killed in Rochester, Minnesota — more than four hours by car from Lake Geneva. Detectives reported recovering potential evidence of Simonson’s death at a hotel there on June 24, after hotel employees recognized Simonson’s photo and contacted police. Hotel records indicate Simonson and Zelich stayed in the room on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, authorities said.
Hollatz told AP he discovered soon after he began investigating Simonson’s disappearance in November that she had gone to the hotel with Zelich. But all he had was a missing person’s case until the bodies were discovered, he said.
“I saw Laura as a vulnerable adult because of things in her life that she was dealing with,” Hollatz told AP.
Authorities have tentatively identified the second victim in the case, but haven’t released her name. Investigators said Thursday they believe she was killed in Wisconsin, but did not elaborate.
Zelich was held in the Walworth County Jail without bond. He was scheduled to appear in court Friday.
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Between 2012 and 2013, population growth for 20-34 year-olds was highest in Colorado Springs and San Antonio, while Austin and Raleigh were tops for 50-69 year-olds. But New York, Washington D.C., and Boston all had among the highest growth for 0-4 year-olds.
This week the Census released its 2013 population estimates by age group for counties, which reveals which local areas are gaining or losing millennials, boomers, and other age groups. Earlier this year, the Census released 2013 population estimates for the overall population – not broken out by age group: at that time we pointed out that the most urban counties had slower population growth than the more suburban counties, even though the most urban counties were growing faster than they did during the housing bubble.
Today’s new data tell us whether key demographic groups – like millennials (20-34 year olds), boomers (50-69 year olds), and young kids (0-4 year-olds) – might be bucking the broader trend of more suburban counties growing faster than the most urban counties. To measure this, we use the same approach of dividing all U.S. counties into four quartiles based on their household density so that each quartile includes around one-fourth of the total population (see note on county definitions and age groups). Going from the highest to lowest density, the four categories correspond roughly to (1) big, dense cities; (2) big-city suburbs and lower-density cities; (3) lower-density suburbs and small cities; and (4) smaller towns and rural areas.
The punchline: millennial population growth in 2012-2013 in big, dense cities was outpaced by big-city suburbs and lower-density cities and even by lower-density suburbs and smaller cities. Boomer growth in big, dense cities also fell just short of growth in the big-city suburbs and lower-density cities. But the population of kids under the age of 5 grew fastest in big, dense cities. Let’s take a look at each of the age groups.
Millennials Not Flocking to Big Cities
From 2012 to 2013, population growth for millennials (20-34 year-olds) was highest outside big cities. The fastest growth was in the second quartile of counties ranked by density (big-city suburbs and lower-density cities). Furthermore, the third quartile (lower-density suburbs and smaller cities) edged out the top quartile (big, dense cities) for millennial population growth:
It is the holy grail, the mecca, the all-mighty of Country Music. It is the motherland. I inevitably, on some small level, had to be let down since there’s no way that the Nashville I was about to see would be the same of that in The Thing Called Love; the country music movie of my childhood laced with that kind of chasing fame hunger that leads so many to The Bluebird Cafe.
And at some points, I was a bit let down because my hopes were so high. Nothing could match my fantasy. Nashville isn’t the kind of place you go for a gorgeous landscape, but it is the place you’ll return to, to fill your soul with music, hope, and history. It’s a place I was just getting the hang of, when I had to leave three days later. It was during that last night, the night at the Opry, that the mirage of love and yearning to be a part of country poured out, and I felt connected to a time and place of honor that matched my childhood dreams. Yes, that love is still kickin’ and alive as ever.
Nashville is spread out and divided into areas, and the locals version of Nashville can throw you off. I run into some very nice local hipster gals (you know what I’m talking about — slightly sulky shoulders, open plaid button downs, half-smiles, sweet, polite, confused) working at Grimey’s, an old school record store, and ask them for the lowdown. Now when people ask, Well what are you into? I kind of sound… lame. I don’t really like shopping, nor do thrift shops excite me that much. I love food, but on most occasions when traveling would rather have local inexpensive fare than fine dining. I love music, any kind, but nowhere too touristy. They tell me to go to Jack White’s Third Man Records, where the heart of the current music scene is pulsing.
I hop in an uber, which is the main way I get around town, as everything is almost a little too spread out to walk in the humid 90 degree heat. The store is two rooms, and after a quick browse, I end up at a local brewery. A husband and wife duo sing sweet bluegrass while playing multiple instruments to a crowd of patrons chatting away; my first glimpse into Music City’s never ending soundtrack.
That night I head about fifteen minutes out of town to The Bluebird Cafe. If I was going to one place besides the Opry, it was here. This is where Faith was discovered. This is where Taylor was discovered. Not to mention Garth, and the many renowned songwriters to take the tiny stage. This was my thing. To my dismay, my little gem’s been made famous by the tv show Nashville. In a small stripmall, a line of sweaty tourists wrap around the block. They let about half of us in, and as I sip a Corona (no Light offered here), I picture Faith on the stage, and then transport to watching her at the Staples Center arena some 20 years later.
The next day I have a somewhat good gameplan. After surveying more uber drivers, I think that it’s best to hit East Nashville (trendy/artsy), then make my way to downtown (NashVegas), then midtown (Vanderbilt/locals). Done and done.
East Nashville is peppered with restaurants and homes. After browsing one of the many lists on my phone for must-see places, I decide to eat at local favorite Marche. There’s just one problem — it’s closed on Mondays. So the driver and I head down further to the next place on my list, Mitchell’s Deli. It’s 10a.m, and I force feed myself the homemade reuben, a little too thin on the meat, but still delicious and fresh nonetheless.
I get dropped off downtown, and at 11a.m, musicians and singers begin to fill the bars, their voices streaming out into the streets. I wander into Tootsie’s and hear a charismatic guy by the name of Scott Collier sing and banter with the crowd of tourists sipping Bud Lights on this random afternoon.
Later on that evening I ask a doorman on the strip if people actually get discovered playing here. I mean, there’s just tons of them, doing mostly covers, sounding really good, but really similar. He tells me that in this day and age of social media, no one is really getting discovered at Tootsie’s or any of the other places. He says they come and try, but really, labels want a following. That reminds me of the process of selling my book, and how the world has changed, but dreamers like me hold onto that romantic version of being discovered and appointed to fame.
After a local at the cowboy boot store says the Country Music Hall of Fame is worth seeing at least once, I sucker up the $25 and go in. I was hoping for a rich history, but instead was greeted with an exhibit about Bakersfield. I guess that was interesting in retrospect, but the overall museum was mediocre as an experience in and of itself. The most fascinating thing to me was seeing the handwritten lyrics by some of the greats, especially Dolly Parton’s Jolene chicken scratch. Oh, how I love that woman.
I hop into a golf cart ride and head to Hattie B’s. This place is known for their hot chicken, as in spicy, and boy, does it deliver. Every single thing was good. Every single side had interesting flavor. I’m not a huge mac-and-cheese person, but thinking back on that pimiento specked cheesy delight makes my mouth water. The cole slaw, the greens, the hot chicken– seriously it is so flavorful. I know I’m doomed to crave it until I get back there.
It’s Whisky Jam night at Winners bar in Midtown (you know the part “We’ve Got Winners, We’ve Got Losers” in Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar — that’s the Winners he’s talking about!). The gal I’m staying with warns me about this bar, showing me a picture of a tip jar that says “Just the tip, Just for a second, Just to see how it feels”. Well it’s open-mic night and if someone’s getting discovered in this town the old-fashioned way, then it’s here. The lineup is pretty good, with an array of artists, and the bar does fill quickly with local Vanderbilt co-eds done up in Monday night clubbing attire. Man I feel old. But in the way that feeling old feels good, as in, I’m so glad to not feel the need to wear spandex and liquid liner. It’s been a long day, and after the last act I head back.
On my last night, I head to Opryland, getting there a couple hours early to check out the sprawling hotel. It’s nice, but I can’t imagine going there if it weren’t for the show. The Opry is housed in a big building, about a ten minute walk from the hotel. I pass a Dave and Buster’s and IMAX, secretly cursing those commercial buildings that interfere with my sacred walk.
An L.A. friend gives me the heads up that each night at the Opry, Hatch Show Print creates a handmade poster for that given night. For $9 I get my very special souvenir and head in. It’s all that and more, really. The “On AIr” sign lit up, the m.c. pumping up the crowd, the seven acts that go on, playing three songs each. This is the perfect line-up for someone with a short attention span like myself.
It turns out Tuesday is the good night to go, and I’m lucky enough to see Montgomery Gentry, Charlie Daniels Band, and Riders in the Sky, who leave with this sound advice: “Don’t take a laxative and sleeping pill at the same time”.
What moves me the most, what gave me chills, was the opener Terri Clark, who with such raw emotion and gratitude recalled her early days singing at Tootsie’s, saying that playing at the Opry never gets old. She did it. She made it. And I think back to all those singers on the neon row, singing their hearts out, giving it their all, and knowing that one of them may just end up on that circular disk taken from the Ryman, recalling their days singing for tips in front of awestruck tourists like myself.
The next day, I squeeze in a walk to Hillsboro Village, a quaint intersection of cafes and stores, picking up breakfast at Fido’s before getting picked up by the same uber driver that took me to the Opry! The odds, we laugh together! We get my bags and then head off to the airport, chatting about Nashville, and I’m already yearning to come back even though I haven’t even left yet. There’s something magical about Music City that did live up to the love in my heart and hype in my mind. I’ll be back sometime soon, and expect to hear the next wave of singers breaking their way into this tight knit city.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
