Can you remember the last time you used a payphone? Neither can we. Public telephones are an outmoded piece of our communication infrastructure, and NYC is ready to replace them. The city has been toying with the idea for years, and today it finally…
There comes a point after you’ve taken so many thousands of pictures that you realize you don’t have any hard copies of the moments you’ve captured. One wrong click or a social media site shutting down permanently could mean every photo you’ve posted could go up in smoke. There used to be a bigger emphasis on having printed photos, but as we move everything online we don’t feel as as much of a need for it. Well, until it’s all deleted anyway.
If you know you’re going to have some moments you’ll want prints of, but are afraid you’ll never get around to printing them off, then why not get a Polaroid camera? Let’s be real, not too many people would want to carry around another camera when they’ve got their phone, so the Prynt Case is an excellent way to bridge the gap. This is a smartphone case that will allow you to use your phone like a Polaroid camera. Simply plug it into your phone, put in paper, take a picture and it will immediately print a color photo on the spot.
This is soon to be a crowdfunding campaign that will have the case available for $99. There’s not too much information on the website, but you’ll have to be mindful of keeping the case charged (presumably), and purchasing paper to keep your ability to print hard copies. This should work with iPhone and Android phones, though there will likely be a limit of screen size.
More information on PryntCases, found via TechCrunch
[ The Prynt Case turns your phone into a Polaroid camera copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Music streaming service Spotify is in the news today as it has announced a new partnership with ride-sharing startup Uber, which will allow the latter’s users to stream their own music when they’ve rented an Uber in any of the supported cities. That’s not the only thing that we’ve got to know about Spotify today. It has been discovered that podcasts might soon be coming to Spotify, and there are rumors about an undetermined feature which is currently being referred to as “Magic.”
The podcasts feature was discovered in the code of the Spotify developer build by Ethan Lee. It places podcasts under the Browse tab just below New Releases. Unfortunately the code doesn’t reveal when this feature is going to go live.
The developer, Lee, states that a few files point that the podcasts feature “is a feature ready to go.” However Spotify hasn’t mentioned anything about this feature recently, and not a peep even today, as the company announced its partnership with Uber. So it looks like we’ll have to wait for another day.
There are references within the code that point towards a feature named “Magic” but it isn’t clear whether its an existing feature that’s referred to as “Magic” or a completely new one that hasn’t really taken shape up till now. I guess we’ll have to wait to get answers on this one as well.
Podcasts Might Be Coming To Spotify Soon , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Smartphones are mostly similar, barring differences in performance, attention to detail and and features that these days can seem pretty minor, especially on paper. YotaPhone is a different kettle of fish, a device from a Russian company that boasts a fairly standard smartphone display on one side, but also comes complete with a power-saving e-ink screen on the back. Generation 1 of the device… Read More
About a year ago, Aileen Lee from Cowboy Ventures wrote her seminal piece on billion-dollar startups, now widely called “unicorns.” At the time, she found 39 U.S.-based software companies fewer than 10 years old in that category. As early-stage investors and hopeful hardware unicorn breeders, we looked into the situation of hardware unicorns and up-and-coming “ponies.” Read More
A decade ago, the occupying force in Iraq dissolved that country’s army, sending hundreds of thousands of fighting men home. Earlier this year, thousands of them tore through northern Iraq under the flag of the Islamic State (IS). It’s time to join the dots. President Obama’s air strikes on IS targets are welcome, but in his well-received speech in September, he failed to acknowledge past mistakes that partly account for the group’s rise — not only mistakes made with regard to Syria in recent years, but going back to the conduct of the war in Iraq and its aftermath.
After the Iraq War, the occupying forces embarked on a policy of ‘de-Baathification,’ removing members of the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baathist party from positions of power. But the unintended consequence was effectively to disenfranchise millions of soldiers, administrators and public servants, who also mostly happened to be members of the Sunni minority, leaving them alienated from the new government, with no job and no stake in the new Iraq. People in most of the Arab world do not understand democracy in terms of equality for all under the rule of law regardless of religion, ethnic group, sect, and gender, but simply as the majority ruling over everyone else — a zero-sum game — so in the absence of any concerted effort to build a genuine democracy, the end of the dictatorship only led to greater sectarian division.
The short-sightedness of de-Baathification became apparent as soon as US troops were withdrawn. Huge numbers of those former soldiers in the north of Iraq joined an insurgency against the government. This is the bigger picture we must grasp in order to understand the recent success of the so-called “Islamic State.” Former Iraqi interior minister Falah al-Naqib has estimated that IS makes up no more than 15 percent of the anti-government forces in Iraq. It is the tip of a much bigger spear, with a very different agenda.
Many observers were stunned when IS took the northern city of Mosul, because they failed to recognize the existence of an already-existing insurgency led by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top military commander and vice president in the Saddam government, who is the real puppet master controlling IS. Although black IS flags now fly over Mosul, it is actually the Baathists who run the city — former military officers who already enjoyed the support of many civilians and even police. Meanwhile, sympathetic Iraqi troops simply surrendered and joined the insurgents. This also explains how IS got hold of chemical weapons as was recently reported — they will have been stockpiled by former Baathists — as well as experienced pilots to train them to fly fighter jets they captured in Syria after overrunning the Tabqa military airbase and savagely executing hundreds of soldiers.
Al-Douri now leads a militant group called the Naqshbandi, ostensibly a Sufi order, but in essence a Baathist outfit in a more PR-friendly guise, which they hope will make it less embarrassing for the international community to engage with them, having vilified the Baathist regime.
Baathists like those have not only simply ‘joined’ with Islamist groups like IS to reinforce their insurgency. They actively set them up. The group’s original name ISIS or ISIL, meaning ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,’ refers to the Sunni majority area across Iraq and Syria, which they now control. The Baathists took advantage of the civil war in Syria, and the funding, propaganda and political support available from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and their militant clerics, to establish a terrorist group with the sole aim of scaring the international community. The subtle change of that group’s name to simply ‘Islamic State’ was a not-so-subtle threat to force the West to seek the help of the former Baathists, coinciding with messages of support from the Pakistani Taliban, and raising the threat of global jihad rather than just regional conflict.
The Baathists knew a time would come when the international community would come and seek their help to get rid of these frightening bogeymen, and that would be when they would present their terms and conditions, either a state of their own or to be fully represented in any future government. Former General Muzhir al Qaisi told the BBC in the summer that the Baathists are much stronger than the ‘barbarians’ of IS, who could never have taken Mosul alone, and they could easily defeat them if they needed to. Clearly, they are waiting for an incentive.
Videos of IS fighters beheading civilians are part of the Baathists’ strategy, but their ultimate goal as described by another senior officer is not a caliphate — the avowed goal of IS — but ‘getting rid of this sectarian government, ending this corrupt army and negotiating to form a Sunni Region.’ In fact, the Iraqi government is not sectarian, but its exclusion of former Baathists who happen to be mostly Sunni certainly makes it less than representative.
In July, Al-Douri’s group even issued a statement condemning sectarianism and the persecution of Christians and Yazidis. Having shown the world the most terrifying face of militant Islamism in the form of the Islamic State, the Baathists in a new guise seek to present themselves as the moderate alternative. If they are now ready to turn on their erstwhile allies, so much the better, but we must have no illusions about their role in setting them up in the first place.
Meanwhile, the answer to their disenfranchisement is not partition, which would mean redrawing the map of the whole region. We must hope that it is not too late to avoid this terrible scenario, which is sadly where the region is heading. The alternative is the integration of all into the Iraqi state on a peaceful, non-sectarian and fully inclusive and democratic basis. There is also a lesson here for Syria, where any eventual peace settlement must also be fully inclusive and democratic.
It is vital that the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria are defeated, but that in itself is not enough. While the de-Baathification policy was misguided, it is not the only factor in the rise of groups like IS. Militant Islamism is fueled by supposed Western allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have channeled billions of dollars and arms to the militants now tearing the Middle East apart, and billions more to groups who share their ideology throughout the world. Extremist clerics throughout the Muslim world use their mosques to preach hatred whilst spreading their poisonous ideology worldwide through TV stations and the internet. They must be stopped and brought to justice, and the governments who tolerate and even condone their activities must be brought into line with an international effort to put an end to Islamic extremism.
The most important thing the international community can do to stop the likes of the Islamic State is to hit them hard and then hold fast to its own values of freedom and democracy — and hold to account supposed allies who do not.
Recently I was invited to speak to a student group at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. One of the questions posed to me, as a former CEO of a local bank and author of a newly-revised book, Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius, was “What advice would you offer?”
Since I am in my fifties and sport more than the occasional gray hair, as a former bank CEO and author of a recently- revised book I seem to be asked this question more often than in previous years. Rather than fire off some random thoughts, I decided to conduct a personal ideation session, using both the left and right hemispheres of the brain in a methodology based on Dr. Roger Sperry’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery about hemispheric division in the brain and Dr. Lucia Capacchiones’s applied psychological principles–a method described in my book.
By brainstorming in the left-brained, more conventional fashion, I got some ideas. Then, accessing the more creative right brain, I came up with another set of answers. Both sets seemed worth sharing, and demonstrate the differing results achieved in using this methodology.
Conventional process thoughts:
1. Don’t be afraid to say “No,” and don’t be afraid to say “Yes” either. Be intentional and authentic with your decisions.
2. Resist cynicism.
3. If in doubt, pay it forward.
4. Hard work usually pays off.
Thoughts inspired by Right Brain Methodology*
1. Life isn’t fair, don’t spend much time lamenting it.
2. If you allow yourself to be who you are, you’ll be more satisfied in life and probably happier as well.
3. Don’t keep score, but keep your eye on the path and the prize.
4. Love is more important than money.
5. It’s not being shallow to strive to be happy.
6. Aim high–you can make the world a better place.
*Methodology is described in Thought Revolution: How to Unlock Your Inner Genius by William A. Donius. (Revised edition released by Atria Books, Simon and Schuster, August, 2014)
When Airbnb collaborated with IKEA to offer accommodations in a Sydney furniture store last summer, we were pretty excited. How fun would it be to spend the night in a warehouse maze of colorful model kitchens, bedrooms, and living rooms? Sadly, the IKEA lodging was a limited-time offer. But there are other public spaces, from museums to amusement parks to stores, that allow pajama-clad guests to park their sleeping bags beneath dinosaur bones or waterslides and stay until morning. Here are 10 amazing and unusual public spaces that invite you to sleep over.
Spend a Night at the National Archives
Last year, the National Archives hosted its first-ever sleepover, allowing guests to snooze in the famed Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, where the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution are housed. Participants get to set up sleeping bags next to some of America’s most venerated public documents and listen to guides dressed in period costume tell tales of American history. Dates for future overnights in the space have yet to be announced, but the National Archives’ website promises more to come. The events, which are for kids ages eight to 12 who are accompanied by an adult, start at $125 for nonmembers.
Spend a Night in an Indoor Water Park
A German water park in an old Soviet airplane hangar invites you to stay the night. Tropical Islands is an indoor water park housed in an enormous white dome in Krausnick (south of Berlin). A night in one of the park’s 133 teepees costs €69 (about $86), but you could also spring for a room in the more luxurious in-park lodges. The overnight visit allows you to play on the park’s pools, beaches, and bumper cars—plus the largest waterslide in the country—long after the sun has set. Plus, you’ll wake up to a full breakfast buffet. Father and son Casey and Owen Neistat stayed overnight inside the park and caught the experience on camera; watch their video here.
Spend a Night on a WWII Aircraft Carrier
Pack your bags and prepare for battle. The USS Lexington, docked at Corpus Christi, Texas, has virtual battle stations, a flight simulator, and even a giant 3-D theater. The best part? The vintage Essex-class aircraft offers a unique overnight-stay program: Organized youth groups can apply to sleep in the warship’s original crew quarters. You’ll get to watch movies, take tours, and learn about the Second World War in a totally hands-on way. This program isn’t available to individual travelers, but anyone who works with organizations like the Girl Scouts, church groups, or other youth groups is welcome to apply.
Spend a Night Under the Sea
The Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium at the Mall of America offers an overnight slumber party in the absolute best place you could ever have an overnight slumber party: a giant glass tunnel beneath a shark tank. The 300-foot tunnel also runs below tanks where giant turtles, stingrays, and tropical fish float to and fro. (There are a total of four tanks above the aquarium’s aptly named Ocean Tunnel.) Set up your sleeping bag and drift off as ocean creatures big and small glide past above you. The sleepover package is available for families and groups only and starts at $65 per person (for nonmembers), not including food.
Spend a Night at a Zoo
Camp surrounded by East African wildlife … without leaving the United States. Just head to San Diego, where you can sleep in a luxurious tent (premium tents feature actual beds and electricity) as part of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Roar & Snore Safari program. You’ll enjoy special tours and animal encounters, and you can nod off to the soft sounds of nearby elephant footsteps. Rhinoceroses, giraffes, wildebeests, and gazelles are some of the large creatures that roam near the campsite. Both adults-only and family-friendly dates are on offer, but the program isn’t cheap. Adult tickets start at $140 per person for the most basic tent option.
Spend a Night in the Stone Age
Are you and your loved ones fascinated with longships, horned hats, and everything Viking? We have just the ticket: Spend the night at Denmark’s Land of Legends, living, in every feasible way, just as prehistoric people did. Land of Legends in Lejre is a historical recreation of Iron Age, Stone Age, and Viking Age life. It’s an open-air museum populated with Iron Age villages, Viking markets, farm animals, artisan workshops, and even a sacrificial bog. Dressed in Iron Age apparel, you’ll forage for food, tend to livestock, and talk to visitors about your primeval lifestyle. Essentially, you’ll become a part of the exhibition. Families or groups of six to eight people (including at least two adults) may apply for a weeklong or weekend stay in the village.
Spend a Night in a Toy Store
London’s luxurious and historical Hamleys toy shop lends itself out for lavish overnight parties. Be warned: They cost a pretty pound. With rates starting at £4,500 (about $7,132) for groups of 10 children, Hamleys’ “Dream Sleepover Party” isn’t exactly for the budget-minded. But an overnight in the flagship seven-story toy mecca would be a dream for sure. The package includes a photographer, invitations, a cake, dinner, snacks, entertainment, and, most importantly, total access to the entire store for one very special night. Hamleys doesn’t say whether it offers adults-only overnights, but we imagine it might if the price were right.
Spend a Night at the Museum
New York’s American Museum of Natural History—the institution featured in Night at the Museum—sometimes hosts overnight events for adults. This is one of the few museum sleepovers we’ve spotted that really caters to the grown-up set. The $350 price ($300 for museum members) covers live music, Champagne, and the chance to explore a world-famous museum without the crowds. A midnight viewing of the Neil deGrasse Tyson-narrated Dark Universe at the Hayden Planetarium is also part of the deal. See a list of future sleepover dates on the museum’s website.
Spend a Night in a Research Library
Could you unlock the secrets of your family history in just one night? With the aid of a good library and large quantities of pizza, perhaps. Every year, Auckland’s Central City Library invites folks to spend one special night investigating their family history. Known as the Annual Karen Kalopulu Family History Lock-In, the program was founded by family-history librarian Karen Kalopulu, who first came up with the idea in 2004. Created in partnership with the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, the lock-in features a tour, a how-to seminar on researching family history, and 12 hours of overnight access to the tomes lining the shelves at the research library. Snacks and drinks abound, and piping-hot pizza is served at midnight.
Spend a Night in Space
The Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland offers a very cool and affordable Slumber with the Stars program for kids and adults alike. The overnights happen on designated dates, and each one has a unique theme. You’ll most likely sleep in an exhibit, but the actual sleeping spot varies. (We’re partial to the planetarium!) There are lots of activities on the docket, from a private telescope viewing of the night sky to a planetarium show. A late-night snack and breakfast are provided. Prices start at $90 for nonmembers.
Read the original story: A Night at the Museum: Sleepovers in Unusual Spaces by Caroline Costello, who is a regular contributor to SmarterTravel.
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I have always been into fitness my whole life. I love the high of pushing my body and mind to limits that I never thought were achievable… and well also a flat out good sweat. I have often found parallels that I can draw upon when it comes to fitness, business and in life. During times when I feel stressed, need inspiration or I’m just beaten down, I will always turn to a hard workout. This helps me find myself again, regain focus and strength. But I don’t just go to any workout, I seek out the best of the best in Toronto when it comes to instructors and studios.
Here are my top 5 quotes from the best studios and instructors in Toronto:
1. “If you want it, go get it.” One of the most powerful yet simple things that I have ever heard by instructor Jeffrey @studiolagree on King Street. We all have dreams, we all have desires; our dreams will not just happen, we have to actively pursue them. We are the masters and creators of our destiny which we have to manifest.
2. “Don’t think about it, just do it.” In times of struggle this is one of my favorites by Jen instructor and personal trainer @CYKL_Toronto . Not only does Jen do a killer class with the best music ever, she inspires through her gruelling class. We are all working towards goals and at times become overwhelmed when looking at the journey toward the end state. This is when this quote comes in handy, we can’t think about it, we just have to put one foot in front of the other because we can get discouraged with the challenges that the journey may have ahead. By just doing it, will take us there.
3. “If it does not hurt, you are not working hard enough.” – Jeffrey @studiolagree. Ah yes Jeffrey, so true in so many ways. We all know that hard work requires effort, stamina, compromise…all very obvious ideas but for some reason we tend to forget it when we are in the grind. We must remember this is the notion of the promise of the greater value of rewards for the price of hard work…a great litmus test for us. Thank you Jeffrey.
4. “It’s ok to get aggressive” – Andrea @CYKL_Toronto When I first heard this in the grind of a spin class, something inside me changed. Not only did I start to crank it out on the bike, my outlook on the word aggressive changed. The “A” word has been one that with women keeps coming up. Mr.Webster defines aggressive as the following; ag•gres•sive: adjective ə-ˈgre-siv: ready and willing to fight, argue, etc. : using forceful methods to succeed or to do something: marked by driving forceful energy or initiative.
It made me think — is this a bad thing in life and in business? If I did not approach some of my toughest challenges with aggression, I would have failed.
5. “Namaste; the divine in me recognizes the divine in you.” I am of Indian roots. I have been brought up with this word my entire life but I never really understood the force behind it until I started practicing yoga. As a regular student @MOKSHAyogaDtown , we end all of our all classes with this word. It is a word of respect that can be used universally. We all have kindness, compassion and love within us. This is our divine spirit hence the importance to remind ourselves of that through this salutation.
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.
