Dazed and Dizzy, the Republican Majority Stumbles

Republicans seem dazed. How can President Obama be climbing in the polls while the approval rating for the Republican-controlled Congress remains stuck at 16 percent? And more stupefying, why is the president grabbing the reins of the national agenda when the GOP now controls both houses of Congress? These are confusing days for the majority on Capitol Hill.

The narrative goes something like this: We won the election, Republicans say, so Obama should now follow our lead. Of course, the problem with this line of thinking is that the president won two decisive victories in 2008 and 2012, and Republicans unleashed a wave of nothing — a blockade to stop any and all of Obama’s election priorities.

Not coincidentally, the 113th Congress that mercifully ended in December is rated as one of the least productive in the history of the republic. And Americans know it. The continued dismal approval ratings for Congress and congressional Republicans have not been favorably impacted by the supposed mandate that voters gave the GOP in the midterms. If anything, the polls bear witness to the citizenry’s deepening disgust with the legislative branch.

And let’s give the people credit. With the first official act of the House Republicans being the messy, near fatal reelection of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), it is very hard to take them seriously. Historically, a Speaker who navigates his party through an election and emerges with a huge majority is rewarded by his rank and file. The reelection of a Speaker is usually less an exercise in vote-counting and more a kind of Roman triumph full of praise for the conquering hero and his or her leadership prowess.

But not this time. Listening to some of the Republican rebels who wanted to dethrone Boehner, you’d think that the speaker was some unfortunate combination of a liar and traitor. For example, this is how Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas) described the Speaker after announcing his own candidacy to replace Boehner: “You deceived us when you went to Obama and [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] to get your votes for the [C]romnibus. You said you’d fight amnesty tooth and nail. You didn’t; you funded it.”

As a follow-up, the House united around a punitive, purely symbolic vote to mass deport undocumented immigrants, divide families and cause massive economic collateral damage to the American economy. This vote was particularly interesting for what it showed about the House Republicans’ stated intent to transition from an opposition party throwing rocks at the parade to a serious governing party.

At no time will this anti-immigrant bill make it into law. There are not enough Republican votes in the Senate to overcome the Democrats’ certain filibuster, nor are there enough Republicans in the House to overcome the guaranteed Obama veto if this bill had somehow emerged from the Senate and landed on the president’s desk.

While I can’t imagine that this was the purpose of this bill, it was very successful in further alienating fast-growing minority voter groups, such as Hispanics and Asian-Americans, as well as their supporters across America.

So far, any demonstration of Republicans’ ability to govern — vital if there is to be any chance of their winning the 2016 race for the White House — seems like a lofty ambition unlikely to be realized.

Tellingly, the immediate Republican reaction to Obama’s tax cut for the middle class proposal, to be paid for with higher taxes for the very wealthy and fees on $50 billion plus banks, was met with GOP revulsion.

Likely 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) reframed the middle-class tax cut proposal by saying that “Raising taxes on people that are successful is not going to make people that are struggling more successful.” Of course, when tax cuts for the wealthy were on President George W. Bush’s agenda, the supposed benefits of trickle-down economics would rain prosperity on the land. Unfortunately for America, Bush’s economics were empirically a disaster. So using Rubio’s “logic,” admittedly devoid of cogency, apparently fortifying the middle-class’s spending power with tax cuts can’t possibly offer any benefits.

It’s difficult to imagine how Republicans can be competitive in 2016 with a “defend the wealthy and push down the middle class” message. As one prominent conservative thinker recently wrote, “Republicans are likely to lose the 2016 presidential election” if the GOP is once again positioned as the water carrier for its wealthy donors and doesn’t embrace a pro-middle class set of policies that addresses the serious drop in middle-class spending power that has occurred since President Reagan first experimented with trickle-down policies in the 1980s.

Perhaps at the next Republican confab, some pragmatists will emerge to guide their colleagues. Maybe these people will share the polling data that confirms that President Obama’s slew of new policy prescriptions are actually popular in the country — while the Republicans’ continued advocacy for the 1 percent of the 1 percent preferential tax rates enjoys very narrow support.

Maybe, then, instead of reacting to every new Obama announcement with outrage, Republicans will be finally ready with their own agenda. And to be clear, the 50-whatever vote to overturn ObamaCare does not count as a middle-class agenda. This reality should not be too confusing for the presently dazed and dizzy Republicans on Capitol Hill.

How April DeBoer And Jayne Rowse Became The Focus Of A Landmark Gay Marriage Case

HAZEL PARK, Mich. — On a snowy night in 2011, April DeBoer, Jayne Rowse and their three children were driving in their minivan down a rural road when a truck, attempting to pass another vehicle, came barreling toward them.

“At the last second, he swerved off the road and veered into a field,” Ms. DeBoer recalled. “I don’t think Jayne and I would have survived the impact. It was that moment, that realization, that we needed to get things in order.”

A Wellness Checkup for the Digital Soul

I’m staring at a stack of unwritten thank you notes from last May. I know they’re there. They nag me every time I sit down at my desk. I’ve dusted around them for a year. Meanwhile, the dog is barking, the kids are waiting for me at carpool and my work deadlines are looming. I’ve got excuses as high as my laundry pile.

Yet, in 2014, I somehow managed to read every article published by The Atlantic and The Economist, attend high profile events, send a few thousand Tweets and fill my Facebook feed with a curated stream of trends in the arts and philanthropy. Where does the time go?

An unsent thank you note doesn’t make me a bad person, right? I’m the first to bring supper to a neighbor in need, send condolences after a loss and volunteer to help out at school, church or for the lengthy list of nonprofit organizations I support. My world is made up of physical and virtual communities of amazing human beings. I’m blessed with abundant connections, many of them lifelong friendships.

Even so, I’m suffering silently in my desire for deeper, more thoughtful relationships. And I know I’m not alone.

While our capacity to reach out to hundreds or even thousands of “friends” with one touch of a fingertip has increased the breadth of our ability to communicate personally with others, it often reduces the depth of our true caring. First, it was the demise of paper mail (and the aforementioned obligatory thank you notes), and now it seems like we don’t even take the time to send a text, an email or a direct message via a social network. Oh, how our digital life has redefined the art of thoughtfulness!

We can engage with large groups of friends and followers in a meaningful way through online posts, but deeper relationships require more time and energy. As we cast our nets wider and wider and expand our scope of influence (don’t you love it when a stranger Re-Tweets you from halfway around the world?), we must also clasp hands with our inner circle and provide the much-needed TLC for which each of us is so hungry. We need a Wellness Checkup for our Digital Souls.

The relationships our souls crave take a bit of prioritizing. So what’s the answer? I’m not proposing that you reach out systematically to all the contacts in your phone or on your social media profiles. That might take forever (and wouldn’t be a very genuine approach). However, if one of your friends is on your mind — whether he/she is going through a rough time or not — then just take a few seconds to make a call or send a text — even a direct message will do. Set up a lunch or coffee or sit on the porch or stoop with a neighbor for a few minutes the next time you pass each other at your mailboxes. This principle should apply to groups, charitable organizations and churches, too. Each of these entities is guilty of contacting its donors and members for money or time while forgetting to acknowledge their service and gifts. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a “How are you?” from a friend, fellow parishioner or clergy just for the sake of it?

If the norm for thoughtfulness now comes in a package of 140 characters or less, then so be it. Yet, let us never underestimate the power of our words in this new age of brevity. There are no shorter or easier ways to say “Hello,” How are you?,” “I’m sorry,” “I miss you,” “I love you” … and, of course, “Thank you.” Remember that.

Guy Performs Voice Impressions Of 100 Cartoon And Film Characters In One Rapid-Fire Take

To celebrate the milestone of reaching 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, voice artist Brian Hull recently treated his fans to a jaw-dropping feat. He performed impressions of 100 cartoon and film characters, as well as celebrities — in just one take.

It took Hull 3 minutes and 42 seconds to imitate the voices of Minnie Mouse, Kermit the Frog, Winnie the Pooh, Napoleon Dynamite, Sean Connery and dozens of others.

We didn’t think Hull could top his viral performance last year of Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go” as 21 different Disney and Pixar characters.

It seems we were wrong about that.

Watch Hull’s 100 impressions marathon in the video above.

'American Sniper' Dominates The Weekend Box Office Again

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “American Sniper” hit the mark with moviegoers again.

The military drama starring Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle topped the box office for a second weekend in a row with $64.4 million in first place, according to studio estimates Sunday. “American Sniper” is up for six Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor for Cooper. The total haul for the Warner Bros. film now stands at $200.1 million.

“We’ve never quite seen anything like this at this time of year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at box-office tracker Rentrak. “‘American Sniper’ is helping to propel the box office, which is already 9.3 percent ahead of the same time last year.”

The film, directed by Clint Eastwood, already broke box-office records when it expanded to wide release last weekend, easily surpassing “Avatar” to become the biggest January opening for a movie and immediately becoming the top grosser among best-picture Oscar nominees.

In a distant second place, the saucy Universal thriller “The Boy Next Door” featuring Jennifer Lopez as a teacher who engages in an affair with a younger man played by Ryan Guzman, debuted with $15 million.

The weekend’s other major new releases weren’t even in the neighborhood of “The Boy Next Door.”

The animated fantasy “Strange Magic” from Luscasfilm and Disney flopped in seventh place with $5.5 million.

Lionsgate’s Johnny Depp dud “Mortdecai” tanked in ninth place with $4.1 million. The eccentric heist comedy, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, marks another box-office bomb for Depp, following the leading man’s disappointing “Transcendence,” ”The Lone Ranger,” ”Dark Shadows” and “The Rum Diary.”

“I think he chooses projects that appeal to him,” Dergarabedian said. “I’ve always appreciated Johnny Depp for marching to the beat of his own drum, but he still needs to get audiences in the door. Sometimes, if you go too far afield, that’s reflected in the numbers.”

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “American Sniper,” $64.4 million.

2. “The Boy Next Door,” $15 million.

3. “Paddington,” $12.4 million.

4. “The Wedding Ringer,” $11.6 million.

5. “Taken 3,” $7.6 million.

6. “The Imitation Game,” $7.1 million.

7. “Strange Magic” $5.5 million.

8. “Selma,” $5.5 million.

9. “Mortdecai,” $4.1 million.

10. “Into the Woods,” $3.9 million.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Want to Be Inspired and Authentic? Start Writing More

When I was a kid, I wanted to become an entrepreneur, engineer, and an inventor. And I have been passionately pursuing that dream since my teenage days. What I did not realize then is how much personal gratification I would get from writing.

I regularly write articles, blogs, and papers on Sunday mornings. I also write work status updates every couple of days and try to outline a new book idea every summer.

For me, writing is one of those happy discoveries that has helped me to connect better with my purpose, my world, and myself.

A decade ago, when I started writing, I was motivated by my businesses to build thought leadership brands. But over the years, as I got deeper and deeper into writing, the greatest satisfaction came from writing for myself, from my heart. Anne Frank once said, “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”

I am no Anne Frank, but I can certainly relate to her sentiments. Writing is a way to find inspiration for yourself and others. Just like you don’t have to be a chef to cook for yourself, you don’t have to be a professional writer to get the benefits of writing.

Allow me to share some of the things writing has done for me:

1. It cultivates your authentic self.

To be authentic you have to understand who you are, what you want to be, and how you want to fit in the world.

When you write for yourself, it can propel you to explore your inner self — your journey, your struggles, your inspirations, and your purpose.

As you let your words flow out of your head and heart (unedited), it can take you to those places where you can boldly ask:

  • Why you are on the path that you are on?
  • Is this what you want?
  • Do you like where you are going?

Unhappiness often comes from not being mindful of your true calling. Through writing it’s easier to explore who you are and where you want to take your journey next. It’s a way to revisit the past, connect with the present, and draw a map for the future.

2. It reaffirms your intentions.

Destiny results from “intention” — our spiritual will; something that drives us to do what seems impossible. Intention nurtures us with hope in our darkest moments, enables us to dream of better days, and resides in a place where we are destined to find our fulfillment. We need to intend to “go somewhere” and make a difference.

Thinking positively and using affirmations are certainly helpful in our quest to manifest our desires. Writing allows us to consciously put these positive reaffirmations on paper to visualize our destiny. The ability to visualize our dreams creates a mindset that makes our ambitions possible. Understanding exactly what we want is the foundation for our success.

3. It inspires and influences others.

Successful people are able to inspire and influence others. Inspiration cannot happen without clear communication. Others have to see you as an authentic person.

The best and brightest will be toppled if they can’t inspire others. It takes a dynamic person with a positive, honest, forward-looking attitude to inspire and influence the people involved in building and growing enterprises and communities.

When you regularly write from your heart, it not only enhances your communication skills, it allows you to connect with your audience on an emotional level. This is useful in daily communications such as email and social media and can ultimately improve your verbal communications with honesty, humility, and clarity. After all, our message is our personal brand.

4. It reduces your stress.

Life by definition, sooner or later invokes pain, suffering, and disappointments. Accepting and growing through our pain is part of our personal growth. This is anything but easy. Like any other skill, learning to suffer well requires conscious practice and learning.

I have found writing is therapeutic for coping with my adversities. It allows me to turn my anger, fear, and disappointments into inspiration for myself and my readers. It serves as stress relief when you try to turn negative into positive by finally expressing what you feel down deep inside. It helps me to:

  • Live in the moment
  • Learn from the bad times
  • Keep an eye on the bigger picture

It has made me calm, collective, and resilient.

5. It creates discipline.

Mastering an authentic craft comes from uncompromising daily practice. Developing the discipline to practice the same thing over and over again requires ritualistic hard work. Observe a musician, athlete, or better yet a Japanese Zen monk who recreates his sand garden every morning. Rituals teach us to be disciplined, deliberate, and meditative. Create rituals for daily life that provide a path to practice mastery with positive energy.

In order to write each week, I am forced to read a great deal. Learn, unlearn, and relearn. This forces me to:

  • Turn off the noise
  • Exercise both my analytical and creative side
  • Constantly have a beginner’s mind

Writing has allowed me to find myself when I found myself looking for answers. But most importantly, like Anne Frank, it allows me to build courage consistently to pursue my dream. I hope you will take the time to find your voice using your writing as your guide post.

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Serial entrepreneur and author Faisal Hoque is the founder of SHADOKA and other companies. Shadoka Enables Entrepreneurship, Growth, and Social Impact. His newest book is “Everything Connects: How to Transform and Lead in the Age of Creativity, Innovation and Sustainability” (McGraw Hill, Spring 2014). Copyright (c) 2014 by Faisal Hoque. All rights reserved. Follow him on Twitter @faisal_hoque.

12 Small Business Tools for Smooth Sailing in 2015

The past year was big for any small business that works online, and while many businesses focused on getting their finances in check to prepare for the following year, the big influence for majority of small business owners was customer care and understanding — one of the trends we will see throughout the year 2015 and onwards.

We were also learning more about social media, and how we can use it to drive more leads, create new relationships, and generally establish a trustworthy presence in the eyes of the customer. Social media marketing is more than sharing links and pictures.

The big news were, of course, LinkedIn Pulse going public, allowing the millions of networks users to express their voices freely, connect with each other, and learn from each other.

This year we should continue to see a steady increase in the amount of tools that are going to become available to us, especially when startups like Product Hunt encourage people to build new products and share them in front of thousands of potential new customers.

While many of the classic tools that we’re so accustomed to still work, there are new players on the horizon that might end-up having a bigger impact than we ever imagined. Look out for new products in 2015 that will help you to analyze, curate and manipulate big-data; here are some of the trends to expect.

Trello

The bigger it gets, the better it gets. Trello is no longer a simple task management app, it has grown into a tool that can be used to prepare, schedule and edit a wide variety of content, for teams that span unlimited in their size. They’re passionate about what they do, and people are starting to find all kinds of uses for this platform.

Involve your team members in using Trello, and you will quickly see how effective it can be for storing ideas, working on issues, even doing customer care tasks.

SheerSEO

Every small business needs a platform that can help with tracking competition, analyzing the amount of links coming your way, or simply monitoring social activity for your brand. SheerSEO has been around for long enough to have become an expert, in what it takes to help businesses stay on top of things when it comes to internal SEO tasks.

Don’t pay SEO agencies thousands of dollars for work that you can easily do yourself, needless to say that the experience itself will better season you for the future!

Drinkle

There is no shortage of tasks that a business of any size needs to deal with, and oftentimes you’re forced to opt for three different tools just to achieve the workflow result you would like. Drinkle is thinking a step ahead, and provides a great list of features in one place: project management, customer relationship management, spreadsheets, global notes, and even stock management.

It’s a great tool for any small business who’s either starting out, or is mature enough to be looking for an all in one management solution.

Site Checkup

The average SEO consultant is going to charge you well over a thousand dollars for advice that a simple product like SEO Site Checkup can do for free. It works fully out of the box, you enter the URL you would like to check, and the output is a list of things to improve on your site: common SEO issues, speed optimization, mobile usability, security, and more.

It’s a list of 40 tools integrated within a single checkup, it only takes a minute to do a simple checkup. What are the factors that you’ve been missing out on?

AccuRanker

Keywords are what helps potential customers to find your business through organic search, the better you can understand your keywords, the better you can optimize your content for them. AccuRanker is a beginner friendly keyword tracking tool that will work just as fine on your competition, as it will on your own sites that you manage.

Buffer

If you work as a business online, social media is going to be one of your top priorities/tasks, and not just because your customers are there, but because potential customers are there as well! Buffer is one of the leaders in managing a transparent company where everyone can get involved. Their social sharing application is an awesome piece of technology, but so are the high-quality blog posts that these guys publish on frequent basis.

Any small business can, and should learn from Buffer and its wonderful team.

Evernote

Evernote is well established as the go-to app for organizing just about everything in your life and business. Whether it’s notes for a meeting or bookmarks from the Web, Evernote can take pretty much anything you want to throw at it. But are you using the platform to its full potential? Here are 10 quick tips for turning yourself into an Evernote power user.

Wufoo

The great thing about Wufoo is that it doesn’t stop at helping you to create forms, it actually goes the extra mile to help you integrate 3rd party services like payments within your forms, helping you to save a ton of time along the way. Whether it is a simple contact form, or a full-scale application form for a new order to be placed, Wufoo can deal and tackle with those requirements quite easily.

MailChimp

If you’re missing out on email marketing, don’t worry: I wrote a column some while ago, discussing the optimal ways of boosting your email marketing efforts, but as far as MailChimp goes; it’s one of the best email marketing platforms out there, and not just because it has an incredible free plan to get you started with. Email marketing is your second best channel of making sales besides physical interaction.

MindMeister

Mind mapping can help to unravel loopholes that need fixing, they can also reveal big ideas that are hiding behind small steps. MindMeister is all about collaborative mind mapping interaction, where you can bring in your team and work on aspects of your business together. Get everyone involved for quicker evolution of your ideas.

Prezi

Achieved a new goal? Learned a new way of doing business? Create a presentation, and share it with the world! Presentations are such a great way to learn, especially because it involves visual learning. Prezi helps you to create state of the art presentations within a couple of clicks. Help yourself learn by teaching others!

AngelList

This is not a tool, but it certainly could become a great asset for your business in 2015. AngelList allows you to enlist your products, enlist job openings, as well enables you to look for potential investors. If you’re working hard in the online field, chances are that you could use AngelList to either find new recruits, or find an investor company who could take your small business to the next level.

Many of these tools I have worked with very closely, and have seen incredible results in terms of increasing my sales, and the amount of people I am able to do business with. What are going to be the tools that you will use throughout the year 2015? How many of these are you already an active user of?

Guy's Chin Debuts As 'Ed Sheerchin,' Perfectly Performs 'Thinking Out Loud'

World, meet the latest ginger-haired singing sensation: Ed Sheeran Sheerchin.

Redditor DevilDevine uploaded a hilarious video Saturday featuring his friend Shaun Solomon and his chin-with-a-face cheerfully lip-syncing to Ed Sheeran’s hit song “Thinking Out Loud.”

The performance is disconcertingly uncanny and entirely wonderful.

Watch it above.

Growing Up in a Hippie Commune: Making Peace

My childhood, though unique in some ways, is not that unusual. There were challenges and even painful experiences, but I have come to understand that in order to see beyond pain, first there must be pain.

There were many children born to the some 350 members of the Love Israel Family. Some of the adult members adopted a primarily Old Testament biblical attitude toward children. These beliefs included: children are meant to be seen but not heard, spare the rod and spoil the child, and children belonged to the community. These age-old principles, when taken as fundamental truth, are often in direct opposition to childhood nature. What parent doesn’t want their child to behave? But children are naturally curious, playful and loud. Their primary purpose is to engage, explore, test limits and grow. Rigid ideas about parenting, when followed blindly, often lead to frustration and anger — even violence. I now see that strictly-adhered-to ideas about childrearing are an innocent mistake many parents have made, myself included — a mistake calling for gentle and compassionate understanding.

My four siblings and I were tenaciously persistent and challenging children. My parents received much ridicule regarding their strong-willed brood. I have memories of my father being a strong, even heavy handed disciplinarian and I was afraid of him. Such painful memories.

The practice of the children belonging to the community sometimes allowed sexual predators access to youngsters and I did experienced abuse of this nature. I hold no animosity and see those who abuse as deeply pained by personal suffering and torment — their actions a misguided plea for help.

These early experiences of strong discipline, inappropriate attention and uncertainty left me feeling confused and troubled well into my adulthood. I unconsciously questioned my relevance and worth — feeling that there was something fundamentally and irreparably wrong with me. Perhaps I did not even have the right to be here — to exist. These painful memories and confusion would not disappear until thoroughly examined, no matter how determined my repression.

Several years ago I became motivated to embrace these painful memories. I developed a willingness to simply be with the pain. As I allowed the pain to be felt I began to see it in a new light. Using the practice of meditational inquiry I stumbled upon a beautiful truth: I have never been hurt. I came to understand that the truth of my being has never been harmed in any way. Now I understand the necessity for much of the hurt and confusion of my early years — to see beyond pain, first there must be pain.

We left the Love Israel Family when I was 7 years old. I have spoken with my parents about these painful memories on several occasions and they always humbly apologize and together we cry. I have no anger or bitterness toward my parents. We have these shared experiences necessary for our growth and understanding. Later, I came to understand what it means to fall down in my own parental responsibilities. The example of courageous humility and honesty shown to me by my mother and father has been of immeasurable value.

These early years spent in the Love Israel Family have become a blessing for me — a precious gift. As I embrace and release painful childhood memories what’s left is a deep love and gratitude. As I let go of all blame my heart opens and I am free. I experience sincere gratitude and love of all who were there and experienced with me. Perhaps this is the felt understanding of true forgiveness.

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From left to right: me, my older sister, my older brother holding my little sister.

South Korea’s Wearable Foldable Battery: Watt Was That?

Jenax Foldable BatteryBatteries that can assume any shape or form sound like sc-fi creations and yet a Busan-based company has unveiled one at the Wearable Expo in Tokyo. Read on for more about this incredible innovation in wearable tech.