Hasta La Gadget!

People are often so engrossed in their mobile devices when they’re out and about that they tend to run into embarrassing situations. YouTube hosts ample videos of people bumping into others, falling down stairs, slipping badly etc when they’re walking with eyes glued to their mobile device. This might not sound like much once you hear what one man’s undivided attention to his iPad did at Sydney airport. It caused a security breach and forced flights to be delayed, all because he couldn’t look up to see exactly where in the airport he was headed to.

According to local reports the incident happened on Saturday morning when a man disembarked from a flight that landed at Sydney airport. He was so engrossed in his iPad that he bypassed security screening through exit passage without possibly even knowing what he had just done.

Security officials saw this on CCTV and since they were not aware of what had just happened, they felt it was best to have the entire Terminal 3 cleared. This meant that all of the passengers in the terminal had to be re-screened by security causing flights to be delayed by about an hour.

The man walked out of the airport without causing any further inconvenience to other passengers. He has not been identified in local reports and his version of the story is nowhere to be found, so I guess we’ll never know just what was keeping him glued to his iPad.

Man Engrossed In iPad Causes Security Breach At Sydney Airport

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

If recent rumors are to be believed then Verizon will soon be unveiling a new Droid device manufactured by Motorola. The company exclusively makes these Droid handsets for Big Red and its been a while since a new model was added to the lineup. Rumor has it that the Droid Turbo is going to be unveiled soon and one of its biggest features would be rapid charging. There’s no official word on the specifications as yet but some have appeared online via benchmark.

As per the benchmark the Verizon Droid Turbo may have a 5.2-inch Quad HD display with 2,560×1,440 pixel resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor with 3GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage, and Android 4.4.4 KitKat.

The smartphone is also believed to have a 20 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front shooter. Support for 4G LTE may also be present, apart from connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC. Gyroscope, GPS and compass are rumored as well.

By looking at these specifications one can get an idea that this is meant to be a high end device, so expect the Droid Turbo to cost a couple of hundred dollars even on contract.

Both Verizon and Motorola are tightlipped right now as far as the Droid Turbo is concerned so it really can’t be said for sure exactly when it will be hitting the market.

Motorola Droid Turbo Specifications Pop Up In Benchmark

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Up and down steep hills on almost impossibly bumpy dirt roads, we peddled, slowly but surely, on rickety mountain bikes that felt like they might break at any moment. One of them did actually break, but not until after we had reached our destination: The Pub With Cold Beer.

Nestled on a dusty — or muddy, depending on the season — hillside on the edge of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the Quang Binh province of Central Vietnam, the Pub With Cold Beer is a family-run establishment that serves what it advertises, cold beer. It also serves chicken. The beer is refreshing, especially after the strenuous journey out to the pub, which requires crossing a river (luckily only ankle deep at the time of year that we visited), and carrying your bike at times when the road is either too steep, too sandy or too muddy to traverse on two wheels. But the real reason to make the trek out to the pub is the chicken, the only thing on the menu, which you order by the kilo — or by picking out your own bird.

When we arrived at the pub, we sat down and almost immediately ordered our beer and bird. For one, there’s nothing else to choose from, but we had also been warned that it would take up to two hours from the time you ordered to the time your meal was ready, and after a morning of strenuous biking, we were ready to get the process started. After ordering a kilo’s worth of chicken, we surveyed our surroundings. Some fellow travelers and a few locals sat at tables and lounged on outdoor hammocks. A couple played pool at the outdoor pool table, while a few dogs and two cats waited patiently under the table of a larger party that was eating its lunch. The pub itself, which consists of an open-air kitchen flanked on one side by an outdoor oven, and on the other by two more open air rooms, is as barebones as they come. With vistas of green rice paddies and mountains, it’s also a beautiful oasis.

Having been told we could watch lunch being prepared, we ventured out back to find a woman holding up two chickens, and a man holding a third — lunch for us and the other two hungry parties waiting in front. Chickens in hand, the cooks stood on a cement platform that held nothing but a few stainless steel bowls and a tap with running water. Smiling, they beckoned for us to watch and take photos, and shortly got to work.

I realized at that moment that I had never before seen an animal killed. I’ve looked at graphic photos of animals at the slaughterhouse and detailed ones of the entire slaughtering process, because I think it’s important to know where your food comes from. If you’re going to eat it, you should be able to face how it’s killed, and understand exactly how it gets to your table. To see an animal killed in person, however, was a first for me.

I stood at a distance, and if one of the cooks had asked me to give it a shot, I would have asked someone to hold my hand. The process was humane: a quick slit to the chicken’s throat, while the cook held the chicken down firmly and drained its blood into a small bowl. He killed the bird almost instantly — no chicken running around with its head cut off or something dramatic like that. Watching the thick blood run out of the chicken’s neck, however, I felt upset and wondered why I would ever eat chicken, or any animal, in the first place. If it isn’t entirely necessary, which in all cases in my own life it isn’t, why am I eating animals? How could I eat this chicken that was alive just a few seconds ago? As the cooks began defeathering the bird, washing and readying it in bowls of boiling water, I got out of my head and realized that raising chickens and serving them to customers is this family’s way of life. Of course I was going to eat this chicken.

The family at The Pub With Cold Beer not only raises chickens, but also grows its own peanuts, which they serve roasted to customers and also use to make a peanut sauce that comes with the chicken. The menu says they grow almost everything else that they serve, which includes the garlicky sautéed morning glory (a common green in Vietnamese cooking), spicy sauce of scallions & chilis, rice and legendary peanut sauce that all comes with the chicken. The family farm and restaurant are self-contained and sustainable. They treat their chickens well, letting them roam free and killing them humanely. Here was “farm-to-table” — the overused, sadly almost cliche term — not employed as a selling point, but in its truest sense.

As we sat eating our lunch, I felt grateful to experience the principles that make the Pub With Cold Beer such an ideal and to see that the buzzwords that overuse has rendered meaningless — local, humane, family-run, organic, slow — aren’t meaningless at all. It felt really good to be this close to the food we were eating, and predictably, it tasted really good too. The highlight of Vietnam’s Quang Binh province may be Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park’s caves — massive underground worlds so otherworldly you have to see to believe — but if you find yourself in the area, lunch at the Pub With Cold Beer is equally unforgettable.

“Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it.” — Max Frisch

In my previous installment of this three-part piece on STD (Sudden Technology Deprivation), I promised some perspective on my unplanned seven days without my usual tools… those tools that have so disengaged us from everything but bits, bytes and bleeps.

My adventure in the “Great Unplugged Universe” continues (please — no acronyms).

Initially, I had to get into the rhythm of doing things differently. I now had extra time on my hands; what was that going to yield? I reverted to the methods of communication I grew up with: I called old pals from a landline… just to talk. I hand-wrote notes to old friends (a tradition worth keeping). I spent quality time with the written word, rediscovering “real” books and magazines, enjoying the tactile sensation of the cool pages in my hands. I did errands I’d been putting off for months. I volunteered. I listened to an actual radio and smiled as I fine-tuned the dials. I closed my eyes and listened to songs. I tidied up. I purged old paper files. I amped up the exercise. I opened my window and just looked outside. I daydreamed. I cleared my mind and actually made some memories that for once I didn’t instantaneously share with everyone.

I remembered what I did before all this online activity began. I became more engaged in nurturing human connections and conversations and physically, really connected. I spent quiet time alone — I actually had room for thought; allowing my mind to wander down a path I don’t usually take, one without virtual demands and a steady stream of digitally shared experience. I meditated for longer periods and took walks, feeling the sun, energized by this undistracted opportunity to notice things that I’d passed by for so long but didn’t actually see.

I took in the solitude while waiting for a pal for lunch. I enjoyed debating trivia with friends, without robotically searching for facts from the palm of my hand. Inconvenient, yes, but also authentic and freeing. I made the most of this unplanned time by filling it with social activities.

While on line (not online) at the grocery store, undistracted without my 2-by-5 inch “friend,” I struck up a conversation with a woman whose cart had almost identical items as mine. She’d recently moved to the neighborhood — into my building! We commented on our identical groceries and discovered other things in common. We’re planning to get together. Whaddya know?! My face wasn’t buried in my device and I made a new real live friend! When you’re not glued to that “rectangular crutch,” the unexpected can happen.

I had been living in an electronic fog. Cyber-“buzzed.” Without realizing it, I always brought the whole wide world with me wherever I went, but didn’t always see my smaller human world. Of course, the problem isn’t the technology but how we use it. I was connected to everything and everyone but life and those around me. I was squandering free moments by monitoring email and other online activities. Status updates, web surfing, mindless searches and word games had added up to a whole lot of hours of my life! Did this really enrich my existence? It’s mind-boggling how much mental space this cyberspace takes up.

It’s so obvious that many of us spend too much time looking at life through some type of screen. Recently, in my professional existence, while working on the production of Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, I noticed almost everyone was capturing this dazzling display through the limited, narrow lens of a camera phone and not fully immersed in this spectacle unfolding over their heads. Nobody watched the fireworks, they recorded the fireworks. They were removed from the experience but not fully living it. The experience really is in the memory, not the photo. By choosing to digitally document a “missed” experience, we sacrifice living it in real time. I never realized that my smartphone dying during that time would be a blessing. Otherwise, I might’ve missed out, too.

Since my forced detox, even after plugging back in, I’ve settled into a quieter rhythm and more natural zone of focus. I’ve unsubscribed from frivolous promotional emails, pointless newsletters, apps that are time wasters and reduced the frequency of refreshing email notifications. I’ve pruned my online connections. I’ve birthed new habits. I’m setting boundaries between work and personal time. I’m less scattered and distracted. I’m wasting less time. I have the reins in my hands again. I haven’t been this productive or at ease in quite a while.

Did I miss being connected at first? Of course. Am I ultimately grateful I lost the “power” of technology for seven days? Absolutely. The electronic silence proved to be enlightening and forced me towards a healthier technology life.

My observations and resulting realizations are too numerous to cover here. My final reflections on the great “unplugged” will follow in an upcoming piece.

NEW YORK — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that the U.S. should not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as quickly as it did from Iraq, where extremist group Islamic State, or ISIS, has since gained territory.

“We requested to America, regarding the defense withdrawal subject — please do not repeat the mistake that you did in Iraq,” Modi said during a discussion at the think tank the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Because after withdrawal from Iraq, you know what happened there. So the withdrawal process from Afghanistan should be very slow, and only then can we stop the Taliban from emerging its head.”

A senior adviser to President Barack Obama said Monday that Afghanistan will sign a deal Tuesday to allow about 10,000 American troops to stay in the country after the international combat mission ends on Dec. 31. The announcement comes after Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was sworn in Monday as Afghanistan’s new president. The same day, extremist violence killed at least 12 civilians and police officers in the country.

India is home to the world’s second-largest Muslim population, behind Indonesia. When Modi was asked if he is concerned that ISIS or other Muslim extremism could spread to India, he dismissed the possibility.

“As far as India is concerned, no matter which community or village a person belongs to, there is a basic philosophy which drives everyone. It is symbolized by Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi. We believe in nonviolence,” Modi said. “That’s in our very nature.”

He said Indians are very concerned by terrorism that is has been exported to India. “It’s not homegrown,” he said. “The Muslim in India … will fail al Qaeda.”

In a 55-minute video released earlier this month, the current leader of al Qaeda promised to “raise the flag of jihad” in India. India issued a security alert in several states after the announcement. Al Qaeda reportedly has no presence on the ground in India, but may be trying to reach disaffected Muslim youth, especially in Kashmir and Gujarat.

Modi, visiting the U.S. for the first time since he took office, will meet with Obama for a private White House dinner Monday night. On Tuesday, they will hold a summit aimed at strengthening U.S.-Indian relations.

Prior to this trip, Modi was a denied a U.S. visa for about a decade following the religious riots in 2002 that killed more than 1,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat, where he was the top official. Modi has denied involvement in the violence, and India’s Supreme Court has said there was no case against him. However, the day before Modi’s arrival in New York, a U.S. federal court issued a summons for him to respond to a lawsuit that accuses him of human rights abuses in connection with the riots. Modi has not responded, and it’s unlikely the lawsuit will affect his visit.

On Sunday, a whopping 19,000 cheering fans came to see Modi deliver a speech in Madison Square Garden in New York City.