Remember Ello? Not until you just read that, I bet. The ‘Facebook killer’ social network was ad-free, and a bit of fun for a week or so. Various brands latched onto it as a new medium to share themselves with the world, with its stripped-down interface and stark indifference to social as we know it. A big selling point for … Continue reading
When your balls have lost their luster, try Cialis inflate-a-ball.
Cialis inflate-a-ball helps invigorate tired, deflated balls, so quarterbacks can throw whenever the moment is right. Side effects may include undeserved wins, out-of-check ego and loss of shirt sleeves, this satirical commercial quips.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick
If you haven’t figured it out already, this timely piece of satire plays on the “Deflategate” scandal, in which the New England Patriots stand accused of having intentionally deflated game balls, thereby making them easier to handle.
The genius Cialis parody ad — the medication actually treats erectile dysfunction — is the brainchild of producers at Benstonium.com, which supports the Pittsburgh Steelers, a long-time Patriots rival.
Please, heed the warnings of this ad, and don’t use inflate-a-ball unless you’ve discussed it with your equipment manager first.
There’s a word for the scent that comes with the rain after a long, warm period of dry weather – it’s called Petrichor. This week, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have published a study – and a rather fascinating video – that shows how rain gives off this scent. Rain releases a smell much in the same way … Continue reading
In this age of self-publishing, a sea of blogs, and social media glut it can be difficult to find a writer with a fresh voice that draws the reader in and inspires a genuine feeling of pleasure from the act of reading. In Andra Watkins’ second book, Not Without My Father: One Woman’s Walk of the 444-Mile Natchez Trace the reader will not be disappointed. Watkins is a rare breed of storyteller who leaves her readers pining for more enchanting tales by the time the last sentence is fully consumed from the page.
Following the recent release of Watkins’ first novel, To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis, this memoir is set against the historic Natchez Trace Parkway that journeys from Mississippi through the northwest corner of Alabama, and into Tennessee. Watkins braved the entire route on foot in an attempt to bring some attention to her first book but ended up with something far more important; the chance to remove herself from the interrupting noise of everyday life, which allowed her to focus on her relationship with her father. In the precious time and space of her epic walk, Watkins unravels her complex relationship with her father as told through stories of the journey that each function as a mile marker throughout the book.
The beauty of this book is not in the impressive feat of physical endurance that Watkins underwent, although that is mighty impressive indeed. Rather, the astonishing quality of this book lies in her striking reminder that we have an innate responsibility to ourselves – and to our loved ones — to carve out precious spaces of time in order to create memories, however ephemeral, and to tend to our most valuable relationships that are ironically so easy to take for granted.
If you have been craving a book that will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning loyally flipping pages then Not Without My Father is it. Andra Watkin will soon explode on the literary scene with her captivating storytelling, and her sweet and occasionally oh-so-perfectly-salty Southern charm. This is one literary ride you do not want to miss.
In an effort to amplify her message that we all need to take pause and breathe some life into our own treasured relationships, Watkins has created a beautiful challenge called the Make A Memory campaign. In her own words, “Make a Memory is a movement, a challenge to turn I wish I had into I’m glad I did in 2015. Reach out and claim an adventure this year. Make a Memory before it’s too late.”
Hey fellas, ever feel like your outfit would look way better if you could ditch the whole pants-and-underwear part?
Well then, you’re in luck! Rick Owens debuted his new collection on Thursday, and while he has gone to great lengths to impress us on the runway before, this time, his approach was much more… free. As in, he sent the models down the runway sans bottoms.
Naturally, one has to wonder where someone might wear these colorful pieces in real life. So we’ve gone ahead and rounded up all the appropriate places to wear a penis cloak.
1. In the comfort of your own home.
2. At the Playboy Mansion.
3. On a desert island.
4. The hundred-acre-wood (with the perpetually pants-less Winnie the Pooh).
5. Nowhere.
No offense, but we’ll stick to pants for now.
Social media marketing is flexible. Most social platforms are designed for personal interactions and unique expressions, which means you don’t have to conform to any posting rules or even any norms when you post. But your end goal, appealing to your followers and attracting new faces to the brand, demands that you make a great impression with correspondingly great posts.
Unfortunately, many business owners have resorted to simplistic tactics, updating their social accounts on an irregular basis, and not paying much attention to what they post. There are certain types of updates that are unappealing to the masses, yet are increasingly used because they’re easy, or because they’re misinterpreted to be effective when really they drive audiences away.
As you make updates to your company’s social media profiles, avoid these types of posts like the plague:
1. The Hashtag Bomb. Hashtags are a great way to get a read on what’s popular, and categorize your posts so other people can find it. However, too many entrepreneurs and social media marketers mistake this assessment to be equivalent to “the more hashtags you include on a post, the more it’s going to be seen.” This simply isn’t the case. Having more hashtags on a post will open it up to more potential visibility when people browse for those topics, but an overabundance of hashtags is actually going to drive people away.
Limit your hashtags to the posts you really want to have some extra visibility. When you do, keep your hashtags to a minimum–two at the most for a post–and ensure they are on-topic with your post.
2. The Generic Greeting. Some social marketers like to get started at the beginning of the day, making a post simply for the sake of making a post. Throwaway greetings, like “Happy Monday everyone!” or “Only two more days to the weekend!” may seem like a good idea, since making posts is better than total silence, but too many of these generic greetings and people are going to tune you out.
Rather than having a generic greeting like this, seemingly extended to everyone in the world and not really encouraging any thought or response, write up something that’s specific and targeted. Explain why you’re excited about the day, or ask your users what they’re looking forward to or dreading. Stir up some real conversation and avoid the pitfalls of empty greetings.
3. The Vague Title. The vague title is usually an update made by the hardcore content marketers who only use social media as an outlet for their work. They generally don’t pay much attention to their social profiles, but they do try to update it regularly, so they simply take the title of a blog post and throw it out with a link, hoping for people to click it.
If you have really catchy titles that encourage clicks, then this can be a valuable strategy. However, when your news feed is full of such standalone titles, it can become tiresome. Instead, try to introduce your article in a unique and compelling way–this is especially important if you post links to your articles multiple times in a pattern of ongoing syndication.
4. The Standalone Image. Images are great tools for social media. Posts with images get more visibility and more clicks that posts without them, but as a result, many businesses have resorted to sharing any image they can find, without regard for context or even appropriateness. This is especially true for small business owners, who may post a comic unrelated to their industry in an attempt to generate interest from ordinary people.
The problem with this is the targeting. Your comic may be funny to a wide demographic, but that demographic may have no real interest in your brand or products. Instead, it’s better to do your research and post an image that really appeals to your ideal audience–and frame it in text to explain the context.
5. The Brief Response. Sometimes it’s a lack of time and sometimes it’s a lack of interest. Whatever the case, we’ve all been propagators of the “brief response.” When you read a post you like and want to get in on a conversation you say, “Great post.” Or you say “Thanks” when someone compliments your brand. These phrases do count as a response, but only on a technical level. They don’t do anything to drive a conversation forward; in order to do that, you need to be more specific, more personal, and more unique. One-to-two word responses just don’t get it done.
Of course, having a great social media strategy requires more than just avoiding the bad posts. American adults spend an average of 37 minutes a day on social media, which means that your social exposure could make or break thousands of impressions. Actively work toward improving your messaging, and put your best face forward to your growing audience.
Legitimate wealth is acquired in compliance with societal norms. In the United States, there is a broad expectation that hard work can lead to wealth. It serves as a central motivator of economic pursuits, rewarding hard work and creativity that benefits society as a whole. The legal system supports this by embodying specific norms, keeping the economy in a state that balances individual and societal benefits. Major laws (such as the anti-trust laws) regulate large-scale economic behavior as well as blatantly anti-social activities (such as drug trafficking). Thousands of lesser laws and regulations restrain individual commercial actions for the benefit of society as a whole, such as caps on interest rates, charges for public grazing lands or mineral extraction, and clean air regulations.
Social expectations embodied in these laws and regulations generally address ways in which an individual or organization can extract assets from others or from society as a whole. Naturally those directly affected often object to restrictions and can forcefully lobby against them. The public interest, on the other hand, is often diffuse and there are many fewer individuals or organizations to speak for it. And at any rate, the balance between individual and social benefits is often unclear and can change over time. And the legal system also changes over time, adjusting to maintain a sensible balance. Traditionally, this has worked reasonably well.
Now the Twenty-first Century raises a whole range of challenges for the system to adapt to, including:
Democratic sclerosis. It has always been difficult to assess the impact of special interests on legislation. Millions of people have vested interests in specific aspects of legislation and can respond with loud campaigns (often orchestrated by major interest groups) in regard to some specific legislative effort with few, if any, voices speaking for broad public interests.
The overall result is that more and more individuals are able to extract more and more wealth from society with less and less social benefit. Fewer assets are left for society as a whole. This concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is a main reason why the American Dream is fading for the many. Wealth accumulation itself has shifted from motivating economic development to impairing society as a whole.
Wealth accumulation becomes illegitimate when it begins to undermine society, to drag overall economic benefits down. We are seeing many such unfavorable trends, including:
The nation has the assets to address many of these challenges, but they are held tightly by those at the very top level of society and are not available for everyday individuals to build their own lives or for governments at all levels to provide necessary services.
The economy has to be structured to work for everyone. Society as a whole has to decide just what this means, what pattern of wealth distribution is legitimate. There are a number of standard indicators, particularly the Gini Coefficient which provides an overall measure of wealth distribution. For the United States, this coefficient has deteriorated steadily; the CIA now puts it at around 45, compared to the low 20’s for the most egalitarian countries, placing the United States well down in the bottom half of 136 countries surveyed. Clearly the nation is moving in the wrong direction, and the unfavorable trends listed above are the result.
There is obviously no simple solution. Two general approaches can help address the problem:
But the biggest challenge is not specific actions but the overall attitude that wealth itself is legitimate. Excessive wealth accumulation is the result of permissive conditions that allow and even promote it. These conditions are heavily influenced by the wealthy for their own benefit. Lobbying efforts and campaign contributions are major avenues of influence. But these ultimately depend on public acceptance of rationales which facilitate wealth accumulation. The concept that higher profit levels would trickle down to the general public has been largely discredited, but the idea that corporations are only responsible to their shareholders is widely accepted, as are notions that the shiftless poor are responsible for their own situation, that any government redistribution of wealth is only stealing from the rich, and that inheritance taxes are inherently wrongful. Large economic projects are typically promoted with an emphasis on jobs created; how long-term or desirable the jobs will be is downplayed, as are any health or environmental impacts. Little attention is given to the overall distribution of economic costs and benefits; the people promoting the project are not the people who will be getting jobs, but often people who will have strong financial benefits from the project.
The fundamental requirement is to recognize that the current wealth distribution undermines social well being; wealth accumulation can indeed be illegitimate. Any assessment of new legislation or regulations needs to incorporate the old adage, Follow the Money: who benefits and how much. Will results worsen wealth inequality or improve it? That is the key question.
The experience of being in Rome is that of descending into a wormhole that leads to antiquity. It’s not just the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Baths of Caracalla. It’s every courtyard, balustrade, archway and balcony that connects you to the past. Sometimes it feels the set of some movie which has been restored for tourists to 20th Century Fox’s back lot. You almost have to be awakened to the fact that you’re not witnessing a rehearsal and that you’re on the equivalent of a walking dig. Two thousand years later when Imperial America has long fallen, will the new inhabitants of New York still be living their normal lives in the shadow of the kinds of monumentality evidenced by the Altare della Patria (often described as the “wedding cake”) that runs from Rome’s Piazza Venezia to the Capitoline Hill? London, Athens, Paris all have their precincts of pastness. In Peking you visit the Forbidden City, in St. Petersberg, the Hermitage. You read about the library that Alexandria once had. But the prospect of Rome is daunting. Historians write about the ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire centuries later. We know the facts, but seeing how resplendent Rome is and how much of it remains, one still marvels that this empire could have been eradicated? Aristotle defined tragedy as the fall of a great man. But what about a civilization? What form of theater would the philosopher have given to describe the end of an entity like Rome which once emanated the illusion of imperturbability? What will be the swan song of Imperial America or of the earth when it’s vaporized by an expanding sun? Gibbon wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. But beyond raw history, is there a play or poem which could create a dramatic arc, which could create a metaphor for such destruction?
{Thie was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy’s blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}
Painting: Sir Edward Gibbon by Joshua Reynolds
This week, the Global Opportunity Report proves that we have readily available solutions to some of the biggest risks, and that a new breed of change-makers might take the lead. Risk managers are old school.
Water crisis is the biggest global risk today. If turned into reality, this risk will have the biggest impact on societies in the years to come. For the same reason, World Economic Forum has just rated water crisis the risk with the greatest potential impact in the new Global Risk Report. This and numerous others risks are on the agenda this week, when World Economic Forum assembles 2500 world leaders in the small skiing resort Davos in Switzerland. The purpose is the same as the previous years: How do we deal with a still growing and still more interconnected crisis? A water crisis being just one of them. The Risk Report is a catalogue of the biggest risks in terms of likelihood or impact. This year’s report includes spread of infectious diseases, failure of climate-change adaption, extreme weather events, interstate conflicts, cyber attacks, failure of national governance and several others.
In spite of the great efforts from World Economic Forum, alongside with international institutions from UN to G7, G8, G20, World Bank and many others, we are still looking for the big breakthrough. Could it be, because we are looking in the wrong direction — where we have the light, but not the lost key? Could it be that we have developed a knowing — doing-gap by focusing still more on the risks and too little on the solutions? Or not realized that the risks take new types of answers, new types of change-makers? Global Risk Report 2015 has ranked “failure of national governance” as one of the biggest risks. Maybe that illustrates part of the problem.
Alongside with the Davos summit and the gathering of 2500 international leaders another but much smaller initiative may have the key — or at least point in the direction where it might be found. In Zürich — not far away from Davos — The Global Opportunity Report 2015 is launched. It is based on the assumption that the difference between a risk and an opportunity is how soon you discover it.
To prove this point, the initiators have prioritized five global risks and identified three opportunities for each selected risk. They don’t claim these to be the biggest risks, but representative for the kind of threats we have to deal with. They are: Extreme weather, lack of fresh water, unsustainable urbanization, non-communicable diseases and lock-in to fossil fuels. The process behind has been comprehensive: Hundreds of experts and thought-leaders on five continents have evaluated the risks and provided insights and inspiration for opportunities for how to address these. More than 6,000 private and public sector leaders have tested and prioritized the opportunities according to impacts and capacity to seize them. The result — a 150 pages report — is published this week.
The Biggest Risk is the Biggest Opportunity
The findings prove my above statement about the difference between a risk and an opportunity: The report singles out the water crisis as the risk with the highest potential of being solved. So a water crisis is rated both as the biggest global risk and the biggest opportunity for being solved. This might hold a great and optimistic story: The world has developed more available and scalable opportunities and solutions than we are aware of. It is just a matter of connecting, committing and communicating them. Complex challenges call for systemic solutions. It is exactly that perspective that initiated, “Global Opportunity Report.”
The new report is developed by three partners, who all are engaged in problem solving: It is one of the world’s leading companies within risk management, the Nordic-based corporation, DNV GL , UN Global Compact-5 and Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning-6 , founder of global solutions platform Sustainia-7. Besides developing a global mapping of opportunities, a GPS for change-makers, the founders wanted to identify the new change-makers. Who shall close the knowing-doing-gap? Based on the report and survey, it is possible to draw a portrait of who is most likely to exercise influence and help solving the global challenges: The new breed of change-makers. The answers are rather surprising.
Ms. World of Opportunities 2015
First, your future change-maker is most probably a woman. Among the private and public sector leaders surveyed in the report, the women were clearly more optimistic than men and saw bigger potentials in the opportunities. Second, she is young. Respondents under 30 demonstrated more confidence about our meeting the challenges, followed by the age group 30-49 years. The respondents over 50 are more pessimistic. Third, she lives in China, India or South America.
One of the most surprising results in the report is the big difference between regions. China leads followed by India and South America. Europe and North America lacks behind. Europe currently shows the most cautious mindset, when it comes to meeting the sustainability challenges.
Fourth, our change-maker works in the private sector. Looking at responses from different sectors, businesses – especially in manufacturing and finance – have the most optimistic view on turning risks into sustainable growth. In other words: The transformation of the societies will most likely be led by the business sector. It looks to be the strongest driver of the necessary changes.
A closer study of the data discovers an interesting trend: Our young change-maker embraces regulation as a strong tool for development of a safer and more sustainable society. In the survey, this wish is especially expressed by the age group under 30 years. Generally, the young generation seems to have most confidence in the future and our ability to solve the major problems — based on the opportunities presented in the survey. That goes e.g. for our ability to transform the energy systems worldwide to a more sustainable structure less reliant on fossil fuels etc.
The overall message in The Global Opportunity report 2015 is clear: Never have the risk been that many, that goes for the opportunities too. So take the first step now: Hire an opportunity manager. And start the hiring search in Shanghai.
Reader Blindsided writes,
I recently found out my husband created a free profile on Ashley Madison. He said he never met anyone — never even looked. I don’t believe he met anyone, but I have a hard time believing that he didn’t look. He said he created the profile to spite me after an argument. He had apologized profusely and we are seeing a marriage counselor this evening. But I am terrified. I am so hurt. I feel like he has already cheated. I’ve told him how I feel and he is trying to repair the damage, but I don’t know how I can get past this. We’ve been married for 3 and 1/2 years, together for eight years, and have an 18-month-old son. I don’t want our son growing up in separate homes. He deserves to have his parents together and in love. I want to fix things with my husband, but I don’t know how to fix something that I didn’t realize was broken. This totally blindsided me.
innocent or not?
Dear Blindsided,
I totally understand. If I found out that my husband had an Ashley Madison account (it’s a site where married people try to meet each other for affairs, for you innocents), I would throw his laptop out the window. (Note: I am not condoning violence. Close out of the email you were going to send me, readers who hate hyperbole). Here are the main issues:
1. Is he lying and he really did look? Further: does it matter?
I’m with you, I bet he looked. I mean, if it were me, I would have looked. He made the account already. How could he not be curious? So, let’s say he looked. What difference does it make? I think all it shows is he’s human. I am super curious about Ashley Madison since reading Marriage Confidential: Love in the Post-Romantic Age
2. Your husband obviously has passive aggressive tendencies.
Instead of telling you how mad he was, he went and made a cheating online account to spite you. This in and of itself speaks to a communication problem in the marriage. He probably grew up in a household where conflict was indirect and passive aggressive, not out in the open. So now he does the same thing.
3. I bet there are some other issues going on here too, in regards to your sex life and romantic life.
He’s mad at you and wants to spite you, so why didn’t he just spend $1,000 on a flatscreen TV, or go out drinking with his friends till 2:00 a.m. and not answer your texts, or work late on purpose for a week, letting you do bathtime and bedtime alone? I mean, if he wants to be passive aggressive, there are so many options. But he picked to set up an account on an online service for cheating spouses. Something tells me he is dissatisfied with your sex life or love life and has a fantasy where some other woman appreciates him (reads: sleeps with him) more than you do. This should be explored, possibly with some objective introspection. You have a toddler, so it’s tough to spend any time together. But how is the marriage really going? Probably not awesome. Take some time to write down the top ten things you do that hurt your marriage. Be objective. Bring the list in to the counselor and use it as a starting point for a discussion. You will not regret taking stock of yourself in this way. It can be game changing for the relationship.
4. Look at this as an opportunity.
You are starting counseling now, and you probably needed it for a while. Whatever issues were being pushed under the rug are now out in the open, or at least they will be as marital counseling progresses. Consider this a blessing in disguise, as it’s forcing you to focus on the issues in the marriage and work through them, directly and without passive aggression. You’re right, your son deserves to grow up in a happy home, and counseling and working on your long standing issues will only help you get there.
Thanks for writing in, good luck in counseling, and keep me updated. Till we meet again, I remain, The Blogapist Who, If This Was a Lifetime Movie, Would Find an Ashley Madison Account on My Husband’s Computer This Very Evening, In An Ironic Twist Augured by My Foreshadowing In Paragraph One.
Visit Dr. Rodman at Dr. Psych Mom for more about marriage and relationships, or on Facebook or Twitter@DrPsychMom.
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.
