Sunday, 31 May 2015
NOwnership, No Problem: Why Millennials Value Experiences Over Owning Things
I was in Los Angeles this weekend for my birthday. Chatting over sushi with my father-in-law, he mentioned he was listening to Rush Limbaugh on the radio. Limbaugh was talking about how millennials value experience over ownership of goods. I thought it was compelling to hear that these new realities had spread so far and wide they made it to AM radio. There are many ways this new reality has played out in modern life. The sharing economy is booming. People are renting or borrowing products. They are hiring their neighbors to drive them to work, paint their house or rearrange their closet.
Orphan Black: Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate Recap
Synopsis: Helena and Sarah await the rescue party, Cosima really needs pee (and acting lessons), we meet Alison’s mother, and Donnie’s real name was Donald Francis...
US anti-terror spying powers expire
US anti-terror provisions that allow security services to bulk collect phone data expire after the Senate fails to reach a deal.
UN Deploys New Tech to Make Relief Faster in Nepal
Humanitarian aid is criticized for being disorganized, late, and inefficient. A new UN project, in partnership with San Francisco-based Frog, the global design firm, is changing that perception.
The recent Nepal earthquakes on April 25th and May 12th are benefitting from this new technology -- HDX, or the Humanitarian Data Exchange.
Last June, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) piloted HDX, a data-heavy Wikipedia for the humanitarian community.
Its aim was straightforward: simplify and streamline access to important data in disaster relief situations. That is, rather than ploughing through Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and Word Docs, create one source and one format for all the data.
Frog’s Creative Director Michael DelGaudo realized that aid workers don’t have a “typical day” but they do need data at every point of their journey -- from understanding the history and context to the latest updates. That’s why HDX catalogues basic info on countries: its population, its poverty index, etc. But in cases of emergency, like the Nepal earthquake, it builds more time-sensitive data.
'Deep Web' Director Alex Winter on How His Silk Road Doc is a "Narrative About Unknowables"
Ross Ulbricht, the convicted creator and operator of online illegal drug market Silk Road, isn't a "known entity" in the film, Winter says, adding, "He's like a Rorschach test. Because so little is known about him, everybody has applied their beliefs onto him."
25 Of The Most Off-The-Wall Uses For Coca Cola
If you’re one of those strange people who prefer coke to pepsi then this list might not surprise you very much. But for the rest of us, you’ll be in awe as to how much you can actually do with a bottle of coke besides drink it! These are 25 of the most off the wall uses for Coca Cola.
25
Fertilising
Coke can actually improve the quality of compost.
24
Loosening bolts
If you’re struggling to loosen rusty bolts then just pour some coke on them and try a little later.
23
Curing hiccups
Next time you get hiccups try holding your breath and then drinking some coke quickly.
22
Defrosting windshields
If you live up north you’ll probably want to try this one out!
21
Relieving stomach pain
Next time you’re nauseated try drinking some flat coke slowly. It’s actually prescribed by some doctors for a disorder called gastric phytobezoar.
20
Removing grease stains
If your clothes get stained with grease just add some coke to the wash cycle and watch it work its magic!
19
Removing blood from clothes
The same thing we said for grease actually works for blood stains too!
18
Cleaning toilets
The acid in coke can actually break down all the lime scum in and around the toilet bowl.
17
Making pots look new
Just put some coke in the pot and cook it for an hour on low heat. After that just wipe it down and watch it look good as new!
16
Getting paint off of metal furniture
To get the paint off leave a coke drenched towel on the surface for a few days. Just make sure to keep the towel moist.
15
Getting skunk odor off of your pet
We’re not sure when this would happen, but apparently if your pet comes home smelling of skunk all you have to do is wash your pet down in coke. And then rinse it off of course.
14
Removing rust from coins
If you leave your pennies sitting in coke overnight, they’ll be super shiny in the morning!
13
Cleaning your windows
It’s actually super effective for getting bug stains and other hard-to-remove dirt off of your windshield.
12
Killing bugs
Farmers in India often use coke as an insecticide.
11
Removing gum from shoes
If you got gum on your shoe just leave some coke on it and then scrape it off with a knife.
10
Removing gum from hair
Yes, this actually works. Just be careful with the knife-scraping part.
9
Reducing pain
Pouring coke on bug bites and stings can actually reduce the pain.
8
Fading hair dye
If you accidentally dyed your hair too dark a little bit of coke will lighten it back up.
7
Removing odors from clothes
If you have any clothes that are just super duper stinky, then putting some coke in the wash along with the detergent can actually neutralize the odor.
6
Making a coke fountain
Ok, this one is a bit useless, but it’s fun. Just add some mentos and watch the coke explode!
5
Curling hair
Who needs a hairstylist? Just pour some flat coke on it for a few minutes and then rinse it off.
4
Moisturizing skin
You don’t need a beautician either. Mixing some flat coke into your moisturizer will make or skin brighter and smoother. Or so they say…
3
Cleaning car batteries
If your car batteries are super corroded a little bit of coke should do the trick.
2
Cleaning your swimming pool
By pouring two liters of coke (for an average sized suburban pool) into the pool and letting it filter out it should clear things right up!
1
Making photographs look vintage
Just dip your photo in bowl of coke and let it soak momentarily. Once it dries off it will look so vintage that even your most hipster friends will be impressed.
How To Sell Your Startup -- The Right Way
M&A has exploded in the tech sector this year. In fact, the dealmaking – which is already at over $110 billion – is on pace to hit levels not seen since the late 1990s.
What Every Entrepreneur Needs: Eight Traits Of A Champion Negotiatior
How to seal the deal and build long term relationships
Russia bars 89 ‘hostile’ EU citizens
Poland, Britain and Baltic nations targeted over hawkish attitude towards Moscow
Costume designer Julie Harris dies
Oscar and Bafta-winning costume designer Julie Harris, who designed clothes for the Beatles and Sir Roger Moore's James Bond dies in London, aged 94.
Convert document, text or Web page into an audio book with Pistonsoft Text to Speech Converter.
Key features:
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Saturday, 30 May 2015
Outlander: To Ransom A Man’s Soul Recap [Season Finale]
Synopsis: A daring plan to rescue Jamie proves successful; Claire attempts to save Jamie’s heart and soul as his mind lingers on the torture he endured....
The Marketing Of A Political Candidate: Insight From A Marco Rubio Campaign Insider
The essence of a political campaign all boils down to marketing ? the ability to convert insight about the voters and competitors into a superior strategic position and plan that provides real value for voters and gives your candidate a superior position in the marketplace. When conceived and executed flawlessly, the result is more votes. To better understand what it is like to market a politician, we talked to Tim O?Toole, Co-Founder of POOLHOUSE, a non-traditional ad-agency with extensive experience helping craft Republican political campaigns. They will work on a number of campaigns during the 2016 cycle, with a notable one being Marco Rubio?s bid for president.
Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Brands On Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
Big brands have big pay-per-click ad budgets and routinely manage campaigns targeting literally millions of keywords. Brad Shorr explains how small businesses can compete.
Oil Markets and The Kerfuffle About Additional Iraqi Barrels
As OPEC prepares to meet, with little expectation of any movement on the cartel’s customarily flouted oil production quota level of 30 million barrels per day (bpd), Iraq has provided the biggest pre-summit kerfuffle.
Solar Impulse plane begins marathon Pacific flight
Five days, five nights, one pilot -- and no fuel.
Prince William issues appeal to Fifa
The Duke of Cambridge has urged world football body Fifa to "show that it can represent the interests of fair play and put the sport first".
Solar plane begins Pacific crossing
Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg begins his bid to cross the Pacific, from China to Hawaii, in the zero-fuel Solar Impulse aeroplane.
Structuring - First Kent Hovind - Now Dennis Hastert
The indictment of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has brought new attention to the crime of structuring. The attention is energizing the supporters of Kent Hovind, who is nearing the end of a long sentence, primarily, when considering the number of counts in the indictment, for structuring.
An Angel Network That Invests Only In Ethiopian Ventures
The Impact Angel Network focuses on small to medium-sized companies in Ethopia and just made its latest investment.
How to Multiply Your Riches Ten Times in Five Seconds
This one goes out to a special lady who likes pickles, sandwiches, Coheed and Cambria, coffee, and puppies. I'll take that bribe now, T. Smith. :D
3 Ways Small Businesses Can Avoid Marking Down Their Inventory
The word markdown is one of the most dreaded words in a small business owner's language. After all, if you're marking down something it means it has not sold as you expected and even worse, at the original value in which you intended it to. As a result? Markdowns are a must, and while they may seem scary, frustrating or out-right annoying, they can actually be good for business.
Corrie stars hail 'loveable' Kirkbride
Stars pay tribute to "loveable and funny" Anne Kirkbride - during a memorial service for the Coronation Street actress at Manchester Cathedral.
Strong quake hits off Japan coast
A strong undersea earthquake strikes south of Japan, shaking buildings in Tokyo almost 900km (550 miles) away, but no tsunami warning is issued.
Blatter condemns European 'hate'
Newly re-elected Fifa president Sepp Blatter condemns a "hate" campaign by European officials and says he was "shocked" by the comments of US prosecutors.
Friday, 29 May 2015
25 Things You May Not Know About The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half and remainder of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Even though this vast empire survived for more than one thousand years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature, and learning; and serving as a military buffer between the states of Europe and the threat of invasion from Asia, people may not be aware of its great legacy. From the longest continuously reigning Byzantine monarch to their outrageous love for sweets, here are 25 things you may not know about the Byzantine Empire.
25
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 657 BC. The city was rebuilt and re-inaugurated as the new capital of the Byzantine Empire by Emperor Constantine I in 330 AD and subsequently renamed Constantinople in his honor.
24
In 476 AD the Western Roman Empire fell and the Eastern Empire survived as what we know today as the Byzantine Empire.
23
Byzantion is said to be named after Byzas, the leader of the Megarean colonists and founder of the city. The form “Byzantium” is a Latinization of the Greek Byzantion.
22
However, “Byzantine” is a nineteenth-century term that modern historians applied to this culture. Byzantines, on the other hand, called themselves “Romans” from the beginning of the Byzantine Empire in 330 AD until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453.
21
The Byzantines were the first to try rosemary to flavor roast lamb. They also were the first to use saffron in cooking. These aromatics, well known in the ancient world, had not previously been thought of as food ingredients.
20
The Byzantines loved sweets and desserts more than anything. There were dishes that we would recognize as desserts such as grouta, a sort of frumenty, sweetened with honey and studded with carob seeds or raisins, and the Byzantines loved to eat rice pudding served with honey and cinnamon. Since antiquity quince marmalade was known to the Greeks and Romans, but in the Byzantine Empire other jellies and conserves made their appearance as well, based on pear, citron, and lemon. The increasing availability of sugar assisted the confectioner’s inventiveness. Rose sugar, a popular medieval confection, may well have originated in Byzantium.
19
Flavored wines, a variant of the Roman conditum (spiced wine), became popular, as did flavored soft drinks, which were consumed on fast days. The versions that were aromatized with mastic, aniseed, rose, and absinthe were especially popular; they are distant ancestors of the mastikha, vermouth, absinthe, and ouzo in modern Greece.
18
The Byzantines enjoyed seafood, specifically a very popular dish they called “botargo,” which was salted mullet roe. By the twelfth century the Byzantines were familiar with caviar as well.
17
Certain fruits were pretty much unknown to the ancient European world but the Byzantines became the first to appreciate the aubergine (eggplant), lemons, and oranges.
16
The bakers of Constantinople were in a most favored trade, according to the ninth century Book of the Eparch, a handbook of city administration: “Bakers are never liable to be called for any public service, neither themselves nor their animals, to prevent any interruption of the baking of bread.” Apparently, bread was hot stuff to the Byzantines.
15
Justinian is widely considered the emperor who made the Byzantine Empire a powerful force. He re-conquered parts of the fallen Western Empire in Africa, Italy, and Spain and codified the previous Roman laws into one document. He made Constantinople the most glorious and rich city in the world, with over half a million inhabitants. He was also the emperor who built the Hagia Sofia.
14
Justinian was also the last emperor to use the title Caesar.
13
Under the reign of Heraclius from 610 to 641 the empire’s military and administration were restructured and the Empire adopted Greek as its official language instead of Latin. He was also one of the most successful Byzantine emperors and the one who significantly enlarged the empire.
12
The longest continuously reigning Byzantine monarch was Basil II Bulgaroktonos (976–1025). The most memorable story associated with him is that after decisively defeating the Bulgars and re-conquering Greece from them, he had all of the prisoners blinded, except for sparing one eye of every hundredth man. Each group of ninety-nine was tied together to a one-eyed man, who then led the group back home.
11
Emperor Irene of Athens (797–802), one of the most powerful women of all time, was certainly no paragon of maternal love. To secure the power of the throne, she had her son Constantine VI (780–797) blinded and then imprisoned him for life in the room in which he was born. Irene was the first Greek woman to rule the empire alone and specifically took the title Emperor, not Empress. She ruled at a time of magnificent contemporaries, especially Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne. Apparently the latter wanted to marry Irene, but she refused.
10
The first Byzantine emperor to lose the throne by violent revolution was Mavrikios Tiberius. He probably ranked in competence with the best, but his strict economizing cost him the crown and his life. He refused to allow troops stationed at the frontier to return home for the winter. Moreover, he insisted they live off the land rather than be sent winter rations. The army, led by Phokas, rebelled and entered the city in collusion with its militia.
9
Phokas was probably one of the cruelest of all Byzantine emperors, as well as one of the ugliest. However, it was he who began a fashion followed by almost every adult emperor who succeeded him: wearing a beard. Prior to this time, the emperors were clean-shaven in the classical Roman fashion, except for those who affected the Greek “philosopher’s beard,” like Julian. It is believed that Phokas probably grew his beard to cover a scar.
8
The longest Byzantine dynasty, almost two hundred years, was also its last. The Palaiologos dynasty began with Michael VIII, who in 1259 blinded and imprisoned his ten-year-old predecessor (John IV Laskaris), and ended with Constantine XI, who died bravely in battle when the Ottomans took Constantinople.
7
During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors (beginning with Leo III in 730) spearheaded a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images, and prohibited their worship. Known as iconoclasm—“the smashing of images”—the movement waxed and waned under various rulers, but did not end until 843, when a Church council under Emperor Michael III ruled in favor of displaying religious images.
6
What many people ignore or don’t realize is that most of the classical literature that survives today was preserved thanks to the Byzantine Empire. The majority of the works of philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, and the historical texts of Greece and Rome, were saved by Byzantine scholars who maintained the ancient traditions of literature and learning. Works that were lost for centuries in the West were reintroduced by the Byzantines.
5
According to many modern historians, Byzantine civilization is very important because without it the modern Western world would not exist. Byzantium preserved and protected the very foundations of Western civilization from the invasion of Islam in many cases. This is why many scholars often refer to it as the Shield of the West.
4
Georgius Gemistus, a Greek scholar of Neoplatonism, was one of the most important thinkers the empire ever produced and is considered one of the early pioneers of the Renaissance in Western Europe. In the last years of the Byzantine Empire, he advocated a return to the Olympian gods since he openly preached that Christianity had severely damaged the ancient Greek spirit. He was also the one who reintroduced Platonic thought to Western Europe during the 1438–39 Council of Florence.
3
The civilization of Constantinople is sometimes misunderstood as a poor imitation of classical Greece and Rome. From the perspective of medieval Western Europe, however, Constantinople was a city of magic and mystery. Early French epics and romances tell of the wondrous foods, spices, drugs, and precious stones that could be found in the palaces of Constantinople.
2
The Byzantine navy was the first to employ a terrifying liquid in naval battles that they called “Greek Fire.” The liquid was pumped onto enemy ships and troops through large siphons mounted on the Byzantine ships’ prows. It would ignite upon contact with seawater, and could only be extinguished with great difficulty.
1
In 1054 the most defining moment in the history of the empire occurred: the Great Schism. The Latin Roman Church and the Greek Orthodox Church broke from each other. The Latins began referring to the Byzantines as “Greeks” and used this term more and more, until the fall of the empire in 1453. This defined the Byzantine Empire’s legacy in that modern historians distinguish it as being clearly oriented toward Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterized by Orthodox Christianity rather than the Latin Roman Church.
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