There are lots of ways to put ink on paper, so why not use a goddamn steamroller over pavement to make a massive letterpress print? At San Francisco’s Roadworks Festival, an old-timey industrial construction beast from 1924 that’s since been spiffed and shined made literal street art. And it was awesome.
Microsoft debuted Windows 10 today and it has a solid Start Menu . Good job, Windows! But before getting Windows 10 on point, the Start Menu went through more than one reinvention. Some went better than others.
When Apollo astronauts landed on the moon, they left flags and footprints, yes, but also dozens of scientific instruments. Among them was a network of seismometers originally meant to study moonquakes. Forty years later, data from these seismometers are still helping physicists understand how to detect elusive gravitational waves—a challenge even with our fancy modern technology.
Selfie is a new romantic comedy series premiering tonight on ABC. Once you get past the terrible name, you’re left with My Fair Lady for internet age, and you should definitely watch.
If you’re keeping score, we’ve announced a bunch of great speakers heading to this year’s Engadget Expand (such as RJD2 and the head of DARPA, Arati Prabhakar). Of course there’s plenty more where that came from and we’re excited to announce what…
I recently had a client who I was consulting and one of the things he was working on was setting up his Facebook page and generating traffic. He decided that in order to generate some likes for his new Facebook page, he would purchase a couple thousand likes for his page. I have never been a fan of buying likes or any kind of audience on social media for that matter, but I was interested to see what would happen.
After the order for likes was made, I decided to check out the page and look at the persons who liked, and when the likes were coming in steady. I started noticing something weird. The persons who were liking his page: 1- Were not the target market of his business, 2- These persons all had different profile pictures but the exact same post, 3- maximum number of post on the page was three. Basically the profiles were all fake and to me that was a complete waste of time. Why would anyone want likes from fake profiles? My client immediately stopped, but here are 5 reasons buying likes is a waste of time.
1. Poor or No engagement: If the majority of fans are fake, then when you publish your best content you will hardly be reaching anyone. When offers are published in your business, it will be a waste of time and there will be no true engagement and no one to reach.
2. It will mess up your EDGERANK: Your EDGERANK score is based on the amount of visits to your page, your comments, likes on contents and how much time it is shared. If you purchased fans and the people on your page are fake and not interacting with your brand then your EDGERANK score will be very low, and Facebook will see your page as unimportant.
3. You may lose future prospective real fans: If someone stumbles upon your page and realize that no one is talking about this or there is absolutely no interaction, they may perceive that what you’re doing is unimportant and just move away without becoming a fan.
4. It’s a waste of money: Normally in business whenever you purchase something, it should be something of value. In the case of buying fans, there is no value there, you are basically buying something or someone that doesn’t exist that will add absolutely no value to your brand.
5. Unable to generate leads and sales: True Facebook marketers use Facebook as a means of generating leads and then sales. So unless you are purchasing adds which can reach real people, then marketing to your “purchased” fan base and trying to get them off Facebook and unto your website, landing or sales pages will be futile since that may not be real.
There are alternatives to purchasing fake fans or fake likes; one can ask friends on their personal page to like their page and invite their friends to like it. They can put their Facebook page in their email signature, create valuable contents that will attract people and promote them, and place their fan page in the persona description on their personal page. One can also simply purchase adds which can generate likes, leads and sales. There is no shortcut to marketing in general, the same goes for Facebook marketing. Take your time and grow your fan base, there are amazing programs and people that can teach you how to do so such as Amy Porterfield and Brian Moran. Just stop wasting your company’s time and money.
Hello? Is anyone out there? It’s me, Colorado.
You might have heard about me lately. I’ve been in the news from time to time. Did you know you can buy legal weed out here? Folks seem to like that. And we have a pretty good football team with a pretty good quarterback — the Denver Broncos and that guy Peyton Manning. Except when we play Seattle. They just have our number.
There’s something big going on here that no one seems to be talking about. This has me a little worried. OK, to be honest, it has me more than a little worried. I’m Colorado. I have this cool, funky, fun, wild west reputation — I’m pretty and smart and fit and people like me. It’s fun to be me.
Here’s the thing. I’m afraid no one will like me much after the election this November.
Why? Because half of my population (that’s over 2.6 million people, for those of you who like numbers) might lose a whole lot of their basic rights this November. That’s when Coloradans will vote on something called Amendment 67, aka “Personhood.” If the election were held today, some polls show it would pass. That’s why I’m so scared.
Amendment 67 is what’s also known as “Personhood”.
Personhood, if you’ve never heard of it before, is the movement to give fertilized eggs all the same rights as people — two cells would have the same rights as you or your best friend. The group behind this movement, Personhood USA, is based right here in Denver. Every couple of years they try and write their fertilized egg = person ideas into my Constitution. The last couple of times most Coloradans have voted “NO” on these amendments and they’ve failed. But this year things are different.
This year, the Personhood USA folks are more deceptive.They’ve disguised “personhood” as something else. This year, they say they simply want to “protect pregnant women.” Which is why when people read the language on their ballots, they think it sounds like a good idea. But it’s not.
Here’s what Amendment 67 would really do:
If Amendment 67 were to pass, Colorado’s 2.6 million women would face the harshest restrictions on their rights anywhere in the country. I’m afraid this could happen. Because no one is really talking much about Amendment 67, either here in Colorado or anywhere else in the country. I don’t understand why not. If “personhood” could pass here, it could pass anywhere.
So America, I’m asking for a little help. Help to get the word out about “personhood” and the terrifying attacks on women’s rights happening right here in Colorado. Truth is, I really need your help.
Here’s what you can do:
Help Defeat Colorado’s Amendment 67, the Ban on All Abortion
Go here and learn more. Maybe give a couple bucks to help stop Colorado’s Amendment 67. Then share the link of that page with everyone you know.
That would mean a lot to me. I’ll be sure to repay the favor and invite you out in a couple months for some great skiing and beautiful scenery and amazing weed. Hey, it’s the least I can do.
Sincerely yours,
Colorado
When I was young, I played with all of the kids in the neighborhood, boys and girls. I tended to be most friendly with the boys; some of my closest friends growing up were boys that lived on my block. As I got into high school, I had friendships with girls mostly during the school day, in part because I went to an all girls school. But after school, I mostly gravitated towards a group of boys that I hung out with daily. Throughout all of this, my entire childhood, I never paid much attention to the fact that our gender might be different, or think twice about which gender I was spending time with. I believe for most children growing up, this is the case.
Looking back, I realize that during my childhood, the boys were easier to spend time with. I knew I could count on them when I was in trouble and they always made me laugh when I needed it. But I also had many girl friends. They were who I knew I could crush on the latest teen heartthrob or dig into my mom’s makeup drawer with. It is too bad, that as we grow up, our society draws such a distinct line between ‘men’ and ‘women.’ It begins in the dating eras of our teen years, and only grows as we get older. It becomes increasingly more about who wants who and who wants what, and what our gender differences are. We often stop existing as people together, regardless of gender, and a distinct line often gets drawn. Sexuality, and sex, become a far greater focal point. We’re told that men and women can’t be friends without becoming attracted to each other, that the opposite sexes are so drastically different. I don’t understand why it is or has to be this way.
As I’ve watched my daughter interact with groups of girls in her social settings, I also notice that as they’ve gotten older, jealousy, competitiveness and cattiness has increased. She tells me stories of who was upset because someone had the same shoes, or who did not sit with so and so at lunch. I can only wonder what kind of competition might take place among the boys. Who can hit the ball better, who isn’t picked first for a game on the playground. You can see as an adult why nuzzling into a group opposite of your gender during your childhood might bring a little relief. The boys I hung out with growing up did not care what I was wearing, and just the same didn’t place the same pressures on me that may take place between boys. I often felt more accepted and less judged when I was the only girl among my group. It’s an issue that often follows us into adulthood and the workforce or moms groups. Who has the better job and whose children have better grades?
I wonder why we waste so much energy on this, and if we can nip it as children and raise our kids not to fall into it. Raising a confident, well-adjusted and secure child is no easy feat, believe me. Kids are exposed to a lot of things that are not in our control once they get to the school age. They can be subjected to so much that has little to do with them yet has a lifelong impact, from the information that they’re told to the cues they are given, to how they are treated by others.
What I try to do is teach Gigi that she does not need to be part of every social clique she encounters, and to socialize with boys and girls equally. I try not to put a gender on her toys or activities — dolls are not considered ‘girly’ any more than her playing softball is a ‘boy’ thing, and let her gravitate towards things naturally.
She and I spend time together shopping and she often cooks or does the same with her grandmother or aunts. But she spends an equal amount of time with her father and grandfather, changing light bulbs around the house or interacting with technology. I’ve also tried to each her that you don’t have to be friends with everyone you meet, but you do need to be respectful, kind and treat them fairly. Now I’m not saying that she’s always stuck to that rule, or that she hasn’t fallen into an altercation stemming from the drama triggers. But by making it clear to her that it is not acceptable has gone a long way with teaching her tolerance and acceptance of others regardless. Equally, I explain to her that not every kid is going to like her, or want to play with her and this has very little to do with her or who she is. We pick our friends and social circles based on what we have in common as adults, and teaching her as a child to be comfortable with it has gone a long way already.
By putting less emphasis on her outer being and more on her inner one, I hope that she if she gauges herself in the world, she does so by her behavior and how she treats people versus her appearance, what she has or doesn’t have, or what gender she is — and I hope that she sees others in the same way. I believe teaching her to navigate and be comfortable with the natural, normal elements of socialization, that she doesn’t always have to fit in, is also going a long way. I think these things have helped her greatly in finding and realizing her sense of herself among other kids as well as curb any competitiveness or jealousy she might feel. Jealousy and competitiveness often stems from a lack of feeling comfortable within ourselves, and this seems to have helped nip it with Gigi.
I can only wonder that if we send these messages to our kids, regardless of gender, we might curb the issues we all face later in life with gender and acceptance, be it our own or that of other people. We want our little girls — and boys — to know no limits to who and what they can be, feel good about who they are and where they are at, and accept others. I believe this is in big part the way.
Oh, Amanda Bynes — not the girl you want to read was arrested for a DUI over the weekend. But alas this past Sunday at the witching hour (3 a.m., to a lot of us), the 28-year-old former child star was indeed taken in and determined to be on something, though what that is isn’t known.
This isn’t one of those oh-there-LiLo-goes-again situations or even a look-how-crazy-Shia-LaBeouf-is (though those news reports are pretty tragic as well). Many of those who reacted to Bynes’ bizarre behavior last year (throwing a bong out the window, tossing Twitter shade at people like Rihanna, wearing weird wigs, et al) seemed amused. But even those behind the so-called hilarious headlines and Funny or Die parody videos had to know there isn’t anything too funny about mental health issues, no matter how famous the person or bizarre the symptoms. Celebrities deserve what they get, the philosophy behind such gleeful schadenfreude seems to be. If they throw a bong out a window, we’re allowed to laugh.
I wonder how those same people would feel if it were their mother or daughter self-destructing and not a girl who’s been famous since the age of 11 (at which point, we can safely assume, she didn’t understand the potential perils of stardom). Considering the fact that the media documenting her downward spiral didn’t show glam photos of the actress partying with other famous folks or at least some hangers-on in cool nightclubs but pictures more likely to show a homeless person having a bad day, it shouldn’t have been that difficult to feel sad for her.
But the crash-and-burn Bynes story seemed to have a happy ending: after being 5150’d and then receiving six months of treatment, she emerged looking calm, mostly keeping away from Twitter and hanging out with her family. Best of all, she appeared to be taking a u-turn away from the spotlight by enrolling in fashion school. But people with first-hand experience with the sort of struggles Bynes seemed to be having perhaps recognized the warning signs amidst what may have sounded like a tale of redemption. Having your lawyer boast about you not being on meds not only reinforces the notion that all medication is created equal (i.e., a mood stabilizer or anti-depressant is as risky to take as an addictive substance like Oxycontin or Klonopin) but also perpetuates the stigma of mental illness. Whether Bynes is an addict or not isn’t something we non-medical professionals who do not know her are in any position to diagnose. But when your attorney is also doth protesting a lot about your lack of drug abuse history despite your emergence from rehab — well, maybe you’re not as much on the road to recovery as you could be.
But hey, we all know relapse is common and fruitful recovery can follow stories that sound like they couldn’t end well. It’s just… well, if we stop finding this all so funny, maybe it will give the girl some space to acknowledge there’s a problem and then, ideally, get help for it.
This story originally appeared on AfterPartyChat
A good hard-and-fast rule to live by: “Do not compare anything to the Holocaust. Ever.” Jessa Duggar does not live by this rule.
Last week, the 21-year-old “19 Kids and Counting” star and her fiancé, Ben Seewald, visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The “sobering” experience prompted Duggar to share a photo accompanied a lengthy note in which she compared the systematic murder of 11 million people (possibly 15 to 20 million people, according to a recent study) to abortion:
I walked through the Holocaust Museum again today… very sobering. Millions of innocents denied the most basic and fundamental of all rights–their right to life. One human destroying the life of another deemed “less than human.” Racism, stemming from the evolutionary idea that man came from something less than human; that some people groups are “more evolved” and others “less evolved.” A denying that our Creator–GOD–made us human from the beginning, all of ONE BLOOD and ONE RACE, descendants of Adam. The belief that some human beings are “not fit to live.” So they’re murdered. Slaughtered. Kids with Down syndrome or other disabilities. The sickly. The elderly. The sanctity of human life varies not in sickness or health, poverty or wealth, elderly or pre-born, little or lots of melanin [making you darker or lighter skinned], or any other factor. “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:10-12) May we never sit idly by and allow such an atrocity to happen again. Not this generation. We must be a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves. Because EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS. #ProLifeFollow
Trips to the Holocaust Memorial Museum seem to inspire similar views in Duggar women. Jessa’s mother, Michelle Duggar, wrote a blog post after her own visit to the nation’s capital.
“A couple of weeks after we went to the Holocaust Museum, it dawned on us that there is a holocaust taking place right here in America!” the matriarch of the Duggar family wrote, in March 2013. “More than 56 million lives have been destroyed in our country! That is over 4,000 babies being killed and 4,000 women being wounded each day!”
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