Smart wearables seem to be forever just around the bend – they’re still not quite taking hold the way smartphones have, and each new generation seems to be drastically different from the last. With the miCoach FIT SMART, Adidas feels like they’ve got things under control, however, as they release a second-generation arm-based device that takes their original for a … Continue reading
Google’s Chromecast now has the ability to mirror your smartphone or tablet’s display instantly. First announced earlier this year at Google I/O 2014, Screen Mirroring will allow you to show whatever you’ve got on your small device on the screen of your television. Though we’ve not gotten the opportunity to test it out ourselves quite yet, it would appear that … Continue reading
Keeping track of your life by journaling sounds pretty fun, but also seems like a lot of work. Between snapping photos and committing thoughts to a document, you could end up spending as much time life-logging as you do — well, doing. To ease the burden, we’ve found three apps that might help you along the way. Day One First … Continue reading
Lest the doe-eyes and vintage flair fool anyone, Zooey Deschanel has reminded us of one thing she is decidedly non-retro about.
In the July issue of InStyle, Deschanel tells writer Mike Albo that she’s sick of the sexist double standard implicit in the “do you want kids” question:
Like every woman is dying to give birth! I don’t think so. Nobody asks guys that,” she says, gaining steam. “And you go into a supermarket and every tabloid is like, ‘Pregnant and Alone!’ Stuck in the 1950s ideal of how a woman should live her life. This brings out the fiery feminist in me,” she pronounces.
Deschanel’s words ring true in a culture that tends to view childfree women of a certain age as sad victims of circumstance rather than individuals making a valid choice. But the 34-year-old “New Girl” star is in pretty good company: Cameron Diaz explained her childfree status to Esquire earlier this month, saying “I’m just what I am. I work on what I am. Right now, I think, things are good for me. I’ve done a lot.”
Given all the perks of being childfree, it’s confusing why anyone expects women to become pregnant before they are certain they’d like to birth a new human and raise it for 18 years. Comments like Deschanel’s chip away at the antiquated notion that women are in a race to procreate.
With a hit television series, capsule collection for Tommy Hilfiger, an upcoming album, a successful website and three upcoming films, we’d say there’s no room on Deschanel’s plate for baby food. Perhaps, one fine day, people will stop asking when there might be.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A high-end prostitute has been arrested on suspicion of murder after injecting heroin into a Google executive on his yacht in Santa Cruz and leaving him to die when he overdosed, according to police.
Surveillance footage from the yacht shows the suspect, Alix Tichelman, 26, gather her belongings, including the heroin and needles, step over the 51-year-old victim’s body to finish a glass of wine and then lower a blind before leaving the boat, Santa Cruz police said Tuesday.
Story continues after photos
Authorities said Tichelman, of Folsom, did not provide first aid or call 911 as the man suffered medical complications and went unconscious during the November overdose. His body was discovered the next morning by the boat’s captain, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.
“She showed no regard for him. She was just trying to cover her tracks,” Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark told the Sentinel.
Tichelman was arrested on July 4 after police said a detective lured her back to the Santa Cruz area by posing as a potential client and reaching agreement on a price of more than $1,000.
She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder, destruction of evidence and transporting and providing narcotics. It was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney.
The Sentinel identified the victim as Forrest Timothy Hayes, a Google executive and father of five, and said the overdose occurred on his 50-foot yacht, Escape, at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor.
Tichelman, who boasted she had more than 200 clients, met her clients through a website, police said.
Ten years, hundreds of failures, and a handful of successes. That’s the story of my life.
I started building businesses my freshman year of college. I started out re-selling wholesale products on eBay. Then I graduated to eCommerce sites. Then I built a consultancy and most recently I’ve started a publishing company. When I look at some of my biggest successes I’ve been able to narrow down the root cause to one simple secret. This secret is something you already know but probably never fully understood or applied.
Constant contact. That’s the secret.
When you’re building a business and you’ve developed a product or service that’s truly remarkable and provides value to others, the secret to success is constant contact. I realized this after thinking about my success in business, the success of others and a motivational mind-game a manager used to play on my co-workers and I. This was a telemarketing job. It was awful, but it taught me how to sell to complete strangers by instantly establishing value. Everyday at 4:00 my manager would say, “Let’s drive it home ladies and gentleman. Business is a contact sport.” He was referring to the process of constant contact. Once one prospect said no, I would quickly move on to the next. Based on the law of averages I eventually figured out approximately how many calls I had to make to yield “X” amount of sales and it never failed.
As I’ve recently reflected on some of my biggest successes with my last two business ventures, I found that constant contact was the key to my success. I had created something of value and I reached out to every single person, business and organization that could benefit from the value I was providing.
Understanding this tactic is universal for anybody and it doesn’t end with entrepreneurs and business leaders. As an example, say you’re an unemployed recent college graduate. Part of the reason you’re likely unemployed is because you haven’t contacted enough businesses if any at all. You may have filled out and submitted résumés on job posting sites, but this does nothing to separate you from the pack and illustrate the value you can provide. Go to Glassdoor.com or check out the local business directory on Bizjournals.com and contact every single business and pitch your employment services. I don’t care if you have to email, call or walk in the door of a hundred businesses. If you do this, I guarantee you won’t be unemployed for very much longer.
What’s key in understanding the point I’m trying to convey is that for many people who are at a loss for something, rather it be job prospects, business partners or customers, I believe the problem has little to do with people being uninterested in working with you, and more to do with you not reaching out to enough people. I’m living proof of this. By taking this approach to life and business, it’s allowed me to publish my first book with endorsements from some of the world’s top business leaders like Barbara Corcoran of ABC’s Shark Tank and Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com. It’s also allowed me to build a profitable consultancy from the ground up with no investors and no connections. Lastly, this tactic has allowed me to achieve the opportunity to write for the site you’re viewing this article on right now: The Huffington Post.
Life is a numbers game. It’s all about the law of averages, and the only way to win in a numbers game society is to stay in the game. Keep trying and keep pushing through. The next person may just be the break you’ve been looking for. So instead of spending more money on marketing and advertising that doesn’t convert into sales anyway, spend your time building a list of business contacts that could receive value from the product or service you have to offer. It’s worked for me and I know it can work for you.
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Michael Price is an entrepreneur and author of What Next? The Millennial’s Guide To Surviving and Thriving in the Real World endorsed by Barbara Corcoran of ABC’s Shark Tank. An advocate of ideas for radical change, he has received critical acclaim for his lessons in education, career, entrepreneurship, and personal finance.
A dozen U.S. presidents have been threatened with impeachment over this country’s history, including Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and now Barack Obama. The House or Representatives has voted to impeach only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, but the Senate later acquitted each of them.
Calls for presidential impeachment have increased in recent times, as the country has grown more polarized. It is an attention-getting device for opponents to attack a president and his policies. It can also be an effective way for politicians to pander to their base, raise money and get television airtime.
So is the case for former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who is a master of strident and senseless hyperbole. Palin’s latest screed, which was posted on Breitbart.com Tuesday, begins, “Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, ‘no mas.'”
Palin accuses President Obama of a “purposeful dereliction of duty” that has led to “an untold number of illegal immigrants…competing against Americans for our jobs and limited public services.” She adds, “Without borders, there is no nation…Obama knows this. Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. This is his fundamental transformation of America. It’s the only promise he has kept.” Of course, illegal immigration and border security have been a daunting problem for decades.
Her conclusion is, “It’s time to impeach,” adding, “The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored. If after all this he’s not impeachable, then no one is.”
The man who brought Palin to the national stage as his Republican running mate, Senator John McCain, did not join her call for Obama’s impeachment. When asked, McCain told the Huffington Post, “I always respect other people’s opinions.” Really? McCain then said, “Am I proposing that the president be impeached? No.”
There are a number of conservative Republican Congressmen who have at least suggested that Obama’s impeachment be considered. Republicans hope to gain control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections by capitalizing on the president’s unpopularity in several key Senate races. But an attempt to impeach the president would only strengthen the party’s “obstructionist” image, and not sit well with a majority of the American public. That would jeopardize the party’s 2014 midterm results.
Of course, the chances of impeaching Obama are nil, but that doesn’t matter to Palin. Her goal is to stay in the limelight. And she knows that her loyal following will always admire her puerile prose, whether on Facebook or cable television. After all, in Palin’s own words, “What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” How about, “No mas” Sarah Palin?
On Sunday, several hundred million people around the globe will tune in to watch the World Cup final. For ninety minutes, the players will engage in a contest of stamina and skill, sprinting up and down the field. If the game is tied, there will be an extra half hour to try to resolve the contest. But what if the game is still tied? This is where things get really silly.
Americans who have tuned into the World Cup for the first time may have been bemused by the concept of the “penalty shootout.” Each team alternates a series of five shots from 36 feet away. Whichever team scores the most chances will win. To many, this seems like ending a tied football game with a series of short field goals, or a basketball game with a free throw shooting contest. Indeed, since the penalty shootout was adopted by FIFA in 1982, the success rate for players is around 75 percent, just about the average NBA free throw percentage.
What are the problems with the penalty shootout? To begin with, it bears little relation with the rest of the soccer game. When ties in sports are decided by extending the time of regular play, the basic structure of play is preserved. Another problem is that, as players themselves acknowledge, there is a certain amount of luck in the penalty shootout. The penalty shot sometimes comes down to a guessing game between the shooter and the goalie, who must choose a side towards which to lunge as the shot is launched. While surely there is less luck involved than the earlier system of deciding ties by a coin flip, there is a certain amount of randomness, turning a game of skill and stamina into a game of chance. The emotional state of entire countries comes down to what is in essence a free throw into a randomly moving basket.
How else might we end a tied soccer game? Consider the following modest proposal. Play a first overtime of 30 minutes. Then, if the score is still tied, have a second overtime which begins not with 11 players per side, but with 10. Then, every three minutes, one player on each side must leave the field. So after 123 minutes, it will be nine-on-nine; after 126, it will be eight-on-eight, and so on. Eventually, 143 minutes into the match, there will be two players on a side. By that point, the game will likely end, and it will be a contest of endurance and strategy. Which team has the most players with the legs to run for nearly two and a half hours? Which coach can devise the best formation for five-on-five or three-on-three play?
To be sure, there might have to be some technical rule changes to the offside rule, and perhaps three minutes is too long or too short a period to consider. These are details that can be worked out. But the bottom line is that this method of ending the game would be even more dramatic than the penalty shootout, and would keep the integrity of the “beautiful game.”
After 20 years coaching both women and men through career advancement and transitions, I have learned a lot about how women are holding themselves back at work — especially in male-dominated fields, because that’s where I started my career.
I was one of the first female traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. When it comes to career, it would have been hard to choose a more aggressive, male-dominated field — especially in the ’80s when I was starting out.
I faced many double standards in the workplace. At the time, there were no real laws or standards governing sexual harassment and politically incorrect behavior. I simply accepted this for what it was, as I believe most women did in that era. Whether it was projected or real, it always felt like I needed to be twice as good as the men. I loved the competition and believed if I produced the same results I would get the same monetary rewards and opportunities for advancement. Repeatedly, I found that was not the case.
After 15 years in that testosterone-driven environment, I made a change. It was fueled by a desire to wake up every morning and love what I was doing–to help people become more effective leaders, create transformational change personally and professionally, and embrace and foster accountability.
Based on my own experience and listening to the stories of more than a thousand leaders, from aspiring to world-class, here is my advice for women who want to thrive in the corporate world.
Know the Difference Between Truth and Perception
First, it’s important to remember that words and actions are filtered, received and assessed differently by men and women. If you are a powerful, decisive, assertive female leader, you are often perceived as a ball-buster, or worse. This is a cultural nuance and not always conscious–even a very enlightened man might not realize that he’s experiencing and processing men and women differently and not necessarily equally. It’s the soup of our culture but remember, an assessment is merely an assessment–it’s not the truth.
Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
Research shows that raising your emotional intelligence will take you further personally and professionally than anything else you can do. We’re often blind to ourselves and we don’t accurately perceive how we’re being experienced by others. We’re not aware that the impact of what we say and do is often wildly different than our intent. Read up on emotional intelligence, learn how to read a room or engage in individual coaching to accelerate your growth in this area.
It’s Not About “Acting Like a Man”
We lose our authentic selves when we try to model what the male version of power looks like. Yes, women need to get comfortable with confrontation, stand strong in convictions and make decisions quickly, but those are not exclusively male traits. It’s a stereotype that women make emotional decisions and men make analytical decisions. In reality, we all work with three brains. We actually have brain cells in our hearts, stomachs, too. Don’t diminish the power of your instincts–a recent study shows that when it comes to decision-making, instinct may even trump analytics.
Manage Your Emotions
There is no more important leadership skill than the ability to manage yourself. Dave Ulrich, a thought leader in management, once believed that the most important skill for a leader was the ability to inspire teams. But, he found that the self-management of one’s thoughts and mood states was actually more important. Controlling your inner world makes the biggest difference in executive leadership. Women may be more emotionally based; couple that with low self-esteem, a problem many women face, and it’s a career-threatening combination.
Build Your Confidence
If self-confidence is an issue, tackle it. For me, sports made the biggest impact on my ability to succeed in a male-dominated field. I felt like I had an edge because I was fearless and competitive in a way most women were not. All great leaders possess authentic confidence. One of the best ways for women to build confidence is by setting a goal they think is out of their reach and then achieving it. Improv classes are a great way to practice discomfort and learn to think on your feet while building self-esteem.
Toot Your Own Horn
In contrast to men, women are less comfortable showcasing their accomplishments and do less to promote and strategize their personal brand. This has a domino effect because women are not only more humble, they discount their talent and success, while men tend to accentuate their talents. The divide between what an employer thinks an equally qualified man and woman are worth starts with how they present and value themselves in the interview process. Look for opportunities to strategically highlight your achievements.
Stop Being Too Nice
As women, we tend toward being nice and accommodating. You will never be seen as a leader if your primary mode of engagement in the workplace is caretaking. One of my favorite books on this subject is “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office“–every woman will identify with at least one of its eye-opening lessons.
Control the Conversation
Leadership occurs every time there is a conversation, and each conversation offers the opportunity for impact and influence. Your words hold the possibility for building your self-esteem or destroying it. In fact, your leadership, your future, your success–and even what’s possible for you and not possible for you–they are all created by these conversational moments. How aware are you of these moments? Words are the building blocks to creating the life you want. Choose them carefully.
The most powerful and transformational shift you can make is in how you perceive your environment, respond to your environment and move through hard times.
At the end of the day, find your voice and nurture your strengths–be fearless and be bold.
Jody Michael is a Chicago-based career coach. Get more leadership advice on her blog.
EcoSalon is the web’s leading conscious culture and fashion publication for women. Featuring style, design, life and culture, the arts, food, sex and relationships, EcoSalon is the first and finest general interest website for the modern green woman.
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Journalists Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain spoke to HuffPost Live Wednesday about their new story, which revealed that the NSA and the FBI spied on Muslim-American public figures.
Greenwald worked with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to publish revelations about the NSA’s domestic surveillance program last year, and has promised that there are more revelations to come. He and Hussain reported that the U.S. government has monitored the emails of five prominent Muslim-Americans, who were named in the piece.
Speaking on HuffPost Live, Greenwald said that it was necessary to identify the five men in order to “put a human face on what this surveillance is about and the way in which people are targeted and affected.”
The government insisted that the reporters not publish the names, he said, but they chose to do so because “it’s so clearly in the public interest.”
Greenwald added that the five individuals — two of whom also spoke to HuffPost Live — had no “conceivable relationship” to terrorism. “The US government owes its citizens some answers about why people like this have been targeted, who have never been arrested who have never been charged who have certainly never been convicted of any crimes,” he said.
He also explained why the story, which had been scheduled to go live earlier, was delayed. “The reason we held the story back…was a last-minute factual claim that arose about one of the statements in our story,” Greenwald said. “We took a week to investigate whether the story was 100 percent accurate.”
Since his bombshell piece for the Guardian last year, Greenwald also reported that the NSA spied on the leaders of Brazil and Mexico. He and other journalists at the Guardian and the Washington Post recently won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for their NSA reporting.
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