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Watch the Soyuz MS-10 rocket launch failure

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This morning, the Soyuz MS-10 rocket–carrying an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut–had to perform an emergency landing after a booster failed at launch. The two, after being propelled to the heavens with the intention of heading to the International Space Station, had a terrifying fall back down to Earth. Both reportedly landed safely, about 200 miles away in Kazakhstan.

The initial launch and realization of the booster failure was captured live via NASA. In the video, you can see the rocket blast off, and then hear the astronauts report to ground control. A few minutes in, it becomes clear something is wrong. There’s no video yet of the astronauts’ reentry to Earth via a capsule, but you can see the crew on Earth mobilize to figure out how to save them.

Here’s a short video of the launch failure as it happens:

And if you want to spend a few hours watching the entire situation unfold, here’s a much longer video that shows ground control figure out the situation:

Russia has released a picture of the two space explorers sitting on a couch, apparently in good health. We’ll learn more about the situation as the day goes on.


Colin Kaepernick wants to get his face and afro trademarked

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Expect to see a lot more of Colin Kaepernick’s face soon enough.

[Image: courtesy of U.S. Patent & Trademark Office]
As originally reported by ESPN, Kaepernick’s company Inked Flash filed a black-and-white image of the athlete with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on October 5. The image falls under the “goods and services” category, leaving open the possibility of Kaepernick’s likeness appearing on an assortment of items including doormats, T-shirts, towels, notebooks, and lotion.

The move to secure Kaepernick’s face–and now signature afro–comes on the heels of his recent campaign with Nike, which recharged the conversation around his protest against police brutality. Kaepernick is already selling jerseys with proceeds going to his charity Know Your Rights Camp. It’s possible whatever merch his mug winds up on will also go toward benefitting his activism and philanthropy.

One of the sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein was just dropped

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Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein scored a court victory today when a judge dismissed one of the six criminal charges against him in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Justice James Burke dismissed the charge related to Lucia Evans, who alleges that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004, the New York Timesreports. Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, argued that there were inconsistencies in Evans’s story.

Weinstein has been accused by more than 80 women, but many of the alleged incidents happened years or decades ago and are beyond the statute of limitations. While five charges against Weinstein still remain–including two for predatory sexual assault–today’s dismissal is a blow to proponents of the #MeToo movement who are hoping the once-powerful movie producer will face real legal consequences for his decades of predatory behavior.

Weinstein’s lawyers are likely to use today’s decision as guidance when arguing the remaining cases, thereby attempting to cast doubt on his remaining accusers.

The Obama Foundation and GoFundMe have joined forces to empower girls

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Earlier today, Michelle Obama announced the launch of the Obama Foundation’s Global Girls Alliance, an effort to provide more educational access to adolescent girls around the world. An estimated 98 million adolescent girls aren’t currently enrolled in school despite plenty of evidence proving that better attendance correlated with reduced poverty, better life chances, and especially lower rates of childhood marriage and mother and infant mortality.

The Obama Foundation raised nearly $233 million in private donations last year but in this instance appears, for some reason, to be operating largely as a cause coordinator–not putting up its own money. In addition to creating a network with 1,400 different grassroots cause groups sharing lessons, resources, and ideas, it’s partnering with crowdfunding giant GoFundMe to create a Global Girls Alliance hub where groups can ask the public for more support.

“We chose this model of support to grassroots leaders so that donors can see and support real people and real projects, and so that the foundation is supplementing but not replicating the work that other major nonprofits in this field are doing,” says Tiffany Drake, the director of the Global Girls Alliance. “Our hope is to create an additional way for grassroots leaders around the world to get funding, closing that last 10 feet between financial support and an organization seeking help.”

Drake says that only about 3% of all humanitarian aid is directed at education. That’s down from close to 7% in 2015. While she declined to address how much the foundation had spent to jump-start this effort, some costs will be ongoing. GGA plans to provide its network with special speakers and webinars to spur growth. Much of that will happen virtually, but the group is also hoping to find more ways to get the public more involved, which Drake noted might include starting a girl’s education book club, or encouraging people to collaborate more directly with groups they support.

Some of the larger partners that could share lessons with emerging startups include groups like Rise Up in the U.S., Camfed in sub-Saharan Africa, the Study Hall Education Foundation in India, and World of Letters in Jordan. At the same time, Drake says that many of the smaller grassroots nonprofits may be tackling whatever issues seem the most pressing in their own backyard, from “mentoring girls in Kenya, to hosting leadership trainings in Nepal, to providing sanitary napkins to adolescent girls in Zambia.”

To that end, the GoFundMe hub is both a fundraising tool and awareness builder. It makes clear that these projects may tackle all manner of barriers (“physical, cultural, financial”) because improving education isn’t just about funding new schools or ways to get there; in many cases it means changing the misogynist or defeatist attitudes and beliefs that also limit girls’ chances of enrolling or staying. As with many hubs, donors can contribute to individual nonprofit group campaigns in various counties.

There are currently five campaigns there, with asks ranging from $5,000 to $48,000, and a central Global Girls Alliance Fund that will be spread among projects that that group has identified. These range from “mentoring girls in Uganda to hiring educators in India to covering school-related expenses for girls in Guatemala,” the site says. That fund is supported by Procter & Gamble’s Always brand, which has already given $50,000 and will match up to $200,000 in contributions between now and the end of the year. The alliance and GoFundMe plan to add more campaigns as they’re submitted and vetted.

For GoFundMe, this collaboration helps cement the idea that not just individuals but nonprofits can use the service, and from any country. “The Global Girls Alliance’s mission aligns perfectly with the core of what GoFundMe is and wants to become,” says a company spokesman in an email to Fast Company.

How the Beatles got their famous logo

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Vinyl Rewind tells the story of how Ringo Starr and the other three dudes got their iconic logo and, oh boy, it’s a doozy.

Basically, for the band’s first few years, there was no Beatles logo. It was never featured in any of the band’s original albums recorded in the U.K.

The logo started its life on the bass drum of Starr’s Ludwig drum kit in April 1963, three years after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr got together in Liverpool and formed the most influential music group of all time.

Starr got this Ludwig set from a shop, Drum City, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. Founded by a guy called Ivor Arbiter in 1929, the shop was a popular destination for jazz drummers. Arbiter later recalled the encounter with a certain “Ringo, Schmingo, whatever his name was, at that time I certainly hadn’t heard of The Beatles.”

But when Starr entered the shop alongside the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, The Beatles were already quite popular, having released their debut studio album–Please Please Me–the month before. They weren’t known around the world yet, but the single that gave the album its name became No. 1 on the U.K. charts, and the album itself was No. 1 for 30 weeks, which was unprecedented at the time.

Perhaps that’s why, despite Arbiter’s later claims, he agreed to give Starr his last £238 Ludwig Downbeat kit in oyster black pearl finish for free as requested by Epstein, with the condition that the band keep the Ludwig brand on the front. Apparently, Arbiter had an exclusive distribution deal with the brand, and he wanted to give it some publicity.

Epstein agreed–as long as the band’s name also appeared prominently. Arbiter then proceeded to sketch a logo on a paper, making the “B” bigger than the rest of the letters, and extending the “T” in the way we all recognize today.

Then, for £5, Epstein paid Drum City to paint the logo on the bass drum. Arbiter gave the logo to a local sign painter, Eddie Stokes, who finalized the logo.

The logo stayed in that form until a performance at Paris’s Olympia Theater on February 4, 1964. Some people say that Starr has the original drum head, while others claim that McCartney has it.

The next logo, used for the first time in the drum kit at famous U.S. appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964, was slightly different and more powerful:

[Photo: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix/Getty Images]
The logo, painted again by Stokes, occupied most of the drum’s face and used a bolder typeface. That logo was used for the band’s first U.S. tour.

After that, the logo evolved slightly seven times between 1963 and 1967. This was the final version of the logo in the last Ludwig black pearl drum kit that Starr used.

[Photo: AP/Shutterstock]
Later, during the filming of Let It Be, Starr got his last Beatles skin, set on a 22-inch Remo Weather Master with a Ludwig sticker on top.

The funny thing is that, having never appeared on any of the band’s original albums covers, a version of The Beatles’s logo that combined all the drum heads was only registered as a trademark by The Beatles company Apple Corps in the 1990s. This is about wringing profit out of every piece of Beatles-related property but, after learning that the logo was made virtually for free on top of a free drum kit, maybe they should have just, uh, let it be.

How to hire for a position you’ve never held before

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Many business owners find themselves in positions where they need to hire people for roles that they barely understand. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve probably experienced what it’s like to wear multiple hats. You’re the default salesperson, operations manager, and bookkeeper. But at some point, you’ll need to hire other people to do those tasks who, frankly, can do those jobs better than you.

But how do you do that when you don’t even know what the role involves? You need to hire your first IT professional, yet nobody on your team is an expert in technology. You’re trying to find a general counsel, but you don’t even know how to differentiate the good lawyers from the bad. As a young founder without a law or business degree–hell, I majored in Brazilian literature–I run into this problem a lot. But over time, I’ve learned a few strategies to vet candidates for roles I have never (and likely won’t ever) experience. Here are the steps I follow.

Assign a project

If you’re unsure of whether your recruit has the chops to execute, ask them to do a small project where they can show off their skills. If I’m hiring someone to build web crawlers, for example, I will ask them to build a simple one as a take-home project. If I’m hiring an ads specialist, I’ll give them a budget and a couple of months to test messaging and audience, and see how they do.

When it comes to assessing their capabilities, the more chances you have to see a candidate perform, the better. At the very least, you should ask to see a portfolio or an example of their past work. It might make sense to pay candidates for a small consulting project that emulates the role.

Run a lot of references

When in doubt, pick up the phone. I run at least three references for every person we hire, and I double that when we don’t have an expert in their role in-house. Ideally, you would go further than the list that they send you–after all, smart candidates will likely give you a list of people who will say good things about them. Try to talk to their direct supervisors at each of their last few roles, and even colleagues or direct reports. Those 360 perspectives are critical to the big picture of the candidate.

Backdoor references can also be tremendously valuable. The honesty of a mutual connection can help verify a great hire or discount a terrible one. If you go down this path, be sure to inform the candidate that you’re planning to reach out to those contacts. Candidates may have good reasons to ask you to refrain from calling those connections, particularly if they are keeping their job search under wraps. Either way, make sure to get a candidate’s affirmative consent before conducting those reference calls.

Ask them to break it down for you

Remember, just because you’re not an expert doesn’t mean you can’t still run a valuable interview. It’s important to learn enough to ask the big-picture questions about the positions you’re hiring for. If intellectual property law is a critical component of an incoming in-house lawyer’s role, ask them what their strategy will be on that front. If you’re concerned about tax treatment, ask your controller candidate about how she’ll reduce your liability.

You might not understand their answers 100%, but you’ll likely get a sense of whether the person knows their stuff–especially when you’re assessing them against other candidates. You’ll also learn a ton through these conversations, and you’ll end up being a much better manager when you finally do make the hire.

Bring in an external interviewer

You might still be left scratching your head, trying to decide whether a candidate is as great as they say they are. This is where bringing in an external interviewer can help. A startup might ask their investors to help interview their early finance or legal hires or bring in some trusted software developers to review an engineering recruit’s code.

Like with any other part of the interview process, it’s critical to get several different perspectives. And make sure the interviewer is verifiably an expert in the specific role, as you wouldn’t want a newbie developer to interview a CTO with 20-plus years of experience.

Determine whether a full-time hire is right for your business

Sometimes, you don’t even need to hire full-time staff. Is there a more affordable way to staff the role? Can a consultant meet the need? When we first started, we decided against hiring a CFO or an in-house accountant. We instead hired a firm that handles all our finances. It costs a bit less, and we know that there are multiple people at the firm checking one another’s work.

In certain circumstances, you don’t even need a single person. Our company Hatch Apps has built a platform that enables businesses to create apps without coding, thereby eschewing the need for a software developer. There are other companies, like 99designs for branding or Atrium for legal that can help you save money on an expensive hire, or wait until your business is at a point where hiring full-time staff makes financial sense. Don’t skimp on due diligence, though. Ask the tough questions, and make sure you understand their contract or terms.

No hire is ever 100% guaranteed to succeed, but if you employ these strategies, the odds will be in your favor. Lastly, don’t be afraid to take your time. Your business will be in much better shape if you take a few months to vet a stellar candidate than rapidly onboard someone that you’ll need to dismiss a few months later.


Amelia Friedman is a cofounder at Hatch Apps, a company that automates software development to make building an app fast and affordable. She writes frequently for the Hatch Apps blog. Follow her on Twitter @ameliafriedman.

The architect of California’s sweeping new privacy law warns of Big Tech’s revenge

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Alastair Mactaggart is out of breath. After rushing to meetings and testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the words are spilling out of him. The millionaire real estate developer from San Francisco, who spearheaded California’s new consumer privacy law, is in Washington, D.C., to join other privacy advocates who’ve been invited by lawmakers to describe what they want from a potential new federal privacy law. The issue has gained traction on both sides of the aisle in the wake of numerous high-profile privacy scandals, from Facebook user data being shared with Cambridge Analytica, to Google’s recent admission that it deliberately didn’t tell users about a privacy bug involving Google+.

But privacy advocates like Mactaggart are concerned that the bill he championed, which gives consumers sweeping control over their own data, and which took many months to become law in the face of opposition from Silicon Valley lobbyists, could be preempted by a weaker federal law. He was joined at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation by Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Data Protection Board; Laura Moy, executive director of the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology; and Nuala O’Connor, president of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“It was my first time testifying before Congress and I think it went okay,” he tells Fast Company, adding that he also met with Democratic staffers. “It’s pretty obvious that the opposition, the big tech firms, are hedging their bets.”

What Big Tech really wants, Mactaggart says, is to gut California’s law before it takes effect in 2020. “If they do that, then they come back to D.C. and say, ‘It turns out we don’t need preemption,'” he says. “If they end up in Sacramento with a result they don’t like, then they’ll say we definitely need preemption right away. They’ll slow-roll it here, because the worst outcome for them is a strong federal law.”

Meanwhile, the California law—the toughest digital privacy law in the country—is already becoming a model for other states, and Mactaggart says that he’s been contacted by folks in Montana and Nevada.

At the hearing, the outrage at big tech companies was clear. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Google’s “deliberate concealment is absolutely intolerable.” He added that he’s writing a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, asking it to investigate the search giant for potentially violating a consent decree it reached with the agency in 2011 over its rollout of Buzz, its predecessor to Google+.

At one point, when lawmakers discussed Google’s statement that it was still waiting for third-party app developers to tell it if data from children was harvested on the social network, Mactaggart quipped, “That’s like waiting for drivers to tell cops that they’re speeding.”

Privacy laws need teeth

Advocates emphasized that privacy rules need to be backed up with tough enforcement measures, including hefty fines, similar to those in Europe. Moy cited the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which has a maximum fine of €20 million, or 4% of a company’s annual global revenue. “Fines can really rise to a level that provides the right incentive for companies under the GDPR, and we desperately need that here in the U.S.,” she said.

Mactaggart warned lawmakers about the enormous sway exerted by companies like Facebook and Google, noting that while drafting the California law, lobbyists got aides to insert a “couple of tiny little words” that “would have totally gutted the law.”

To illustrate the significance of those tiny words, Mactaggart later explained to Fast Company that some of them involved changing the definition of “sell.” As written, consumers had the right to tell a company that they can’t sell their information. That means it can’t be transferred out of the four walls of Facebook, for example, except in certain limited circumstances labeled “business purposes”—such as when you buy a movie on iTunes and Apple sends your credit card info to a third party to make sure your payment is valid. (The California law called for a written contract with the credit card processor, in which that company agrees not to sell your data further.)
Another example of tiny words involved attempts to change the definition of “personal information,” which cannot be sold to third parties under the law. “The tech companies would be happy to narrowly define ‘personal info’ as just your name and email address,” because you can get so much information from other pieces of information, such as your device ID, says Mactaggart. “We want a very broad definition [of that term].”

For now, Mactaggart and his allies are playing the long game because they know that Big Tech has all the tools and resources at its disposal. And as we know, Silicon Valley can be extremely motivated when it wants to be. “They are freaking out,” Mactaggart says.

Facebook combines Messenger and Groups, invents the chat room

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There are tens of millions of Facebook Groups. And starting today, they’re all going to get a new feature: integration with Messenger, which lets members chat in real time. A new Chat tab will let members start a new conversation; up to 250 people can participate in any specific thread.

[Image: courtesy of Facebook]
The new feature sounds like a logical extension of group-chat features that Messenger launched back in March. (In fact, when I covered that news, I figured out this might be the next step.) I certainly belong to some Facebook Groups that I’d enjoy participating in via a more real-time means such as Messenger. And the whole idea reminds me of social networking in its old-school form–way back in the 1980s, members of CompuServe Forums would gab the night away in the service’s CB Simulator.


Sorry, but men use passive language as much as women

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Words and phrases that undermine your message can kill your career. To combat this, there’s even a Chrome extension that highlights the use of words like “sorry” and phrases like “does this make sense” in an effort to encourage more confident communication–particularly in women’s messages.

But a new study from Hive, a collaboration platform, indicates that men are just as likely to use those words and phrases. The State of Workplace Gender report, which surveyed 3,000 men and women across different workspaces, found that there are almost no differences in the use of “I think,” “please,” and happy face emojis. However, men are more likely (0.64%) than women (0.07%) to say they’re sorry in a message. And when women do say sorry, they are more likely to say it to each other.

Both women and men are more likely to send direct messages to their own gender. The survey also found that men assign 20% more tasks to men, and women assign 20% more tasks to women, and respondents indicated that they’re also slightly more likely to complete work assigned to them by someone of the same gender.

Netflix had 676 hours of new content in Q3 of 2018, but it’s not all for you

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A new report from Wall Street firm Cowen & Co. says that Netflix debuted nearly 676 hours of original programming in the third quarter of 2018, more than double the amount of originals launched in the same period of 2017 (289 hours), and up 50% from the 452 hours in Q2 2018. To put it in binge perspective, you’d have to watch Netflix for almost a month straight to get through it all. Of course you wouldn’t, and Netflix knows that.

At the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit this week, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said as much. “The notion that things get lost on Netflix is silly,” Sarandos said. “Things get found on Netflix. People say, ‘You have so much to watch.’ Yeah, but it’s not all for you.”

Netflix doesn’t want to be HBO, IFC, Comedy Central, or NBC–it wants to be all of them, all at once. The company line is and has always been that it uses your own viewing habits to better target new programming your way. But the almighty algorithm is hardly that altruistic. This becomes abundantly clear every time you turn it on and it’s still still still trying to get you to watch Roseanne. Everyone’s Netflix feed has at least one fetch. Mine is Killer Women with Piers Morgan. STOP TRYING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN, TED.

It’s a mistake to think the algorithm is for you. It’s there to serve the interests of Netflix, which are to get you to watch whatever it wants you to watch. This has always been the way. In the DVD days it would recommend what it had sitting in the warehouse, versus what you actually wanted. It never had enough copies of what everyone wanted to watch. On the bright side, this kind of selective targeting can work wonderfully well. It’s the optimistic side of the ole’ Steve Jobs adage, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

The company credits this approach with finding wide audiences and cultural relevance for shows and films that may not have otherwise gained such exposure. It answers questions–from media, fans, and Hollywood folk–about getting lost in a sea of options by saying that as opposed to waiting for people to find content, its algorithm goes out and finds the audience for them. Director Ava DuVernay told Vulture in June that the platform actually exposes so many more people to more filmmakers by simply giving them a forum at all. “When you talk about getting lost, [it] prioritizes a certain privilege that women filmmakers, filmmakers of color, and certainly women filmmakers of color–specifically black women–don’t have,” she said. “My concern isn’t being lost, my concern is being somewhere, period.”

Complaining about streaming service UX is like complaining about the weather. It’s there and there’s almost nothing any of us can do about it. Some await a white knight to figure out how to make an Apple News-style aggregator of all the available programming across all our streaming options. This sounds idyllic given that we’re now bouncing among at least three services–Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and whatever Disney will soon be unleashing–until we remember that each of those streaming services have exactly zero incentive to participate in such a thing.

So we’re stuck. Stuck with a never-ending, ever-updated stream of new entertainment feeding us programming that veers between a bit of what we like and a lot of what they want us to like. The challenge remains remembering which is which.

Report: Amazon wants robots that can do the work of warehouse pickers

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By now, it’s well known that Amazon is always on the lookout for ways to cut costs. Over the last few years, as the e-commerce giant has grown into a true behemoth, the company has proven to shareholders its ability to provide returns. One way it does this is by investing in automation.

Amazon has implemented robots and other automating technologies in a variety of ways–especially in its warehouses. The company has tried to assuage fears of robots taking over human roles by saying that certain roles won’t be automated. One of those jobs is the “picker,” or someone who grabs items and places them in the areas to be shipped. But according to a new report in the Information, those jobs may no longer be safe. According to unnamed people with knowledge of the situation, Amazon is looking into robots that can do this picking action.

The company, in a statement to the original report, admitted that Amazon is always looking into new technologies to streamline the workflow, but that human employees are usually better at performing a variety of tasks that robots may not be able to do. Still, the spokesperson told the Information, “We need advanced technology and automation to meet customer demand—it’s just that simple.”

This may cause some worry. A few weeks ago, Amazon announced plans to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour. For many warehouse workers, this meant they’d be given an instant wage. (Though, it should be mentioned, Amazon took away stock options and other benefits in exchange for this wage boost.) One thing workers don’t have is guaranteed hours, and if Amazon continues to invest in robots like these pickers, it’s likely that fewer hours will be allotted to workers.

The company maintains that a perfectly automated warehouse technology is far off. While other companies are also looking into similar warehouse robots, it remains to be seen how automated an entire large-scale company can become. But for workers looking to make ends meet by working a steady job, this sort of technology is frightening.

Celebrate National Coming Out Day by coming out on Facebook

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In case any family members, friends, business contacts, or Russian bots were unaware of your sexuality, Facebook has a solution. In honor of National Coming Out Day (which is today, welcome) Facebook unveiled a new update to its “Life Event” category. Now, in addition to announcing that you got braces, are learning a new instrument, and got a septum piercing, and amending your relationship status, Facebook users can select “Came Out.” (Yes, Facebook had “broken bone” and “did some DIY” as life event options before “came out.”)

If you want to give the feature a whirl and be loud and proud on social media as in every other aspect of your life, go to your Facebook profile and do a status update. Click on “Life Event”, select “Family & Relationships” (or just “Relationships” on mobile) in the drop-down menu, and then select “Came Out” in the list of life events. Then everyone in your network will know that you’re out and proud—and so will all of Facebook’s advertisers.

Pantone’s latest colors are the ultimate sign of the times

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With the rise of soft, cloth-coated gadgets, it’s become clear that fashion and interior design are impacting consumer electronics. But influence is a two-way street–and the design language of Silicon Valley is also influencing other design sectors. Take Pantone, which is introducing a new slew of colors, called Metallic Shimmers, for a world obsessed shine and shimmer–and where most of us drop $800 on a new phone every two years.

Consisting of 200 colors–ranging from more traditional silvers and golds, to more aggressive purple sequin or blue diode–it’s meant as a reference point for anyone developing products today.

[Photo: Pantone]

Since 1956, Pantone has been a color standardizer–the provider of a unified color language that underpins the things we buy, wear, and make. More recently, Pantone has matured into a business built upon identifying and forecasting trends, too.

“Years back, fashion was your key driver. But there are so many more things influencing color direction now,” says Laurie Pressman, VP at the Pantone Color Institute. “I do look at consumer electronics as an influencer, because you see people start to look at electronics almost as accessories.”

Whether it’s a rose gold iPhone in your hand, a pair of cherry-red Beats on your ears, or something like the matte-black Echo in your home, Pantone has watched the metallic finishes of our gadgets impact the design world at large. “It has become normalized,” says Pressman. Five years ago, the company began developing its own color line focused around metal.

Pantone’s new line serves two markets. First, it’s a tool for the consumer electronics industry itself. Pantone has actually consulted for both LG and Huawei over the past few years, as the technological giants have both released colorful hardware of their own. Coloring metal is an extremely finicky process compared to an ideal substance like cotton, and it can involve all sorts of industrial methods from etching to anodizing.

[Photo: Pantone]

Pantone recognizes that perfect metal-based color matching needs to happen with suppliers off the assembly line, but believes its metallic swatches (which are technically pigment applied to paper) can be an anchor in the design process all the same.

“It becomes a visual reference. When they go into production, they may have to make some changes,” says Pressman. “But if they have a place to start, rather than saying, ‘Picture this,’ because it’s really hard to picture this!” And as Pressman points out, getting a color wrong in electronics can be even more expensive than fashion–you don’t want to put $1,000 of microprocessors in the clearance bin just because of the hue, as you might a polyester T-shirt.

The other even larger market that Pantone believes will take advantage of these new metallics? Every other company that makes consumer goods across the board right now. From interior furnishings and fashion to cosmetics and nail polish, shimmer is omnipresent in basically everything. “Metallics are now just a given,” Pressman says. “They’re just a thing.”

Watch Princess Eugenie marry Jack Brooksbank

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Another one!

Princess Eugenie of York married Jack Brooksbank on Friday in the second Royal Wedding of the year at Windsor Castle.

Eugenie, 28, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, wore a dress by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos to the star-studded event, which included celebrities like Kate Moss, Liv Tyler, and Demi Moore. Fellow royals Harry and Meghan–who got married at the same location earlier this year–were also in attendance.

The Royal Family live-streamed the wedding on their YouTube page. You can watch the full ceremony at this link or by clicking the embedded video below. Automatic playback may be disabled, so you might have to click through to YouTube to see it.

Why the cooperative model needs to be at the heart of our new economy

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In 1903, an American entrepreneur, Charles Boettcher, founded the Great Western Sugar Company in Colorado, and opened two beet sugar refineries outside of Denver. Over the course of the 20th century, the company expanded, adding more facilities in Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska, and encompassing hundreds of growers across those states. The company passed from owner to owner for several decades, starting in the 1970s, and its last owner, unnerved by the volatilities in the beet sugar market at the time, began looking for someone to buy it in 1990. In 2002, they finalized a sale not to another private owner, but to the nearly 1,000 sugar beet growers who had kept the business alive for decades. They still do. Only now, the growers own and operate it themselves as the Western Sugar Cooperative.

For Nathan Schneider, a journalist and professor of media studies at University of Colorado, Boulder, the story of the Western Sugar Cooperative is a family one: His grandfather was born in Colorado in 1916, and grew up helping his family, who tenant-farmed sugar beets for the Great Western Sugar Company. Now, his grandfather’s nephew grows beets as a member-owner of the Western Sugar Cooperative, where he shares in company profits and votes in decision-making.

[Source Image: StudioM1/iStock]

This type of transition from top-down corporation to a democratically run cooperative is radical in that it bucks the trend of the powerful conglomerates that one might think of when they think of American business. But it’s also a surprisingly pervasive and traditionally American way of doing business. Bridging these two aspects forms the core of Schneider’s new book, Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy.

In it, Schneider documents the history of cooperativism: He delves into early Christian monasticism (itself a type of radical cooperativism, in a way) and how it informed a much later movement, starting in 2011 in Italy, to develop an “unMonastery” dedicated to creating a more shared and transparent internet and technological framework. In the United States, he describes how farmers organized into cooperatives to save money on purchasing supplies and processing transactions, and how African Americans, following the abolition of slavery, pioneered the formation of co-op lending circles, stores, and insurance pools to support one another when the government neglected them. He details how, since the Great Depression, rural electric cooperatives, in which utility rate payers own and govern their own power supplies, serve 75% of the U.S. landmass, and how cities from Jackson, Mississippi, to New York City are beginning to throw financial and administrative support behind the development of more cooperatives. The blockchain, too, Schneider writes, can be a type of cooperativism.

[Source Image: StudioM1/iStock]

Lately, Schneider says, co-ops have been gaining some small amount of momentum: The National Co-op Grocers, an umbrella organization that oversees food cooperatives, has seen its membership grow from 106 to 151 in the past decade, and, while still small, this type of steady growth is extending across different industries. The focus, largely, has remained on worker cooperatives–generally, smaller businesses owned and democratically governed by their employees. Earlier this year, for instance, the Democracy at Work Institute, an umbrella organization for U.S. worker cooperatives, released a series of videos highlighting a number of business owners who sold their companies to their employees, who now are worker-owners of small cooperatives.

This, though, is just one model of cooperativism. There are also producer co-ops, like the Western Sugar Cooperative, which unite producers of a specific commodity or craft so they can share resources, and consumer co-ops, where people who buy goods and services also share in the ownership of a business, but the range of involvement in consumer co-ops can vary. REI and rural electric co-ops require next to no participation from members, but grocery cooperatives like the Park Slope Food Co-op require member-customers to put in hours of work at the co-op to reap the benefits of membership. There are also purchasing co-ops, which are owned by local businesses who band together to share resources. With some notable exceptions, these other co-op varieties aren’t often discussed as particularly revolutionary. In some cases, like with the Western Sugar Cooperative and rural electric co-ops, they’ve been around for so long that people tend to just take them for granted. “But a lot of the most powerful co-ops are the ones working in the background,” Schneider says. “We need a new way of telling these stories to make their cooperation more visible.”

[Source Image: StudioM1/iStock]

That, in essence, is what Schneider does in Everything for Everyone. In documenting both the reach of co-ops already in existence, as well as how they operate and the benefits they deliver to people who participate in them, Schneider makes the case that the various cooperative models are not only feasible in the modern economy, but could also help rectify some of its more serious ailments, from social inequity to economic disenfranchisement. “There’s a value in re-introducing this tradition–its breadth and depth and long history,” Schneider says. That value lies in the fundamentally democratic structure of cooperative business models, and how that ethos could begin to re-inform the way businesses and the economy are run now.

“When we know the diversity and dexterity of past models, we’ll be better at finding the combinations we need for the present,” Schneider writes. An example of the present application of a purchasing cooperative model that particularly compelled him, he says, is the D.C.-based Community Purchasing Alliance, which is jointly owned by 160 local organizations, from churches and charter schools. By combining resources and purchasing power, CPA has saved its member organizations over $3 million on contracts for things like electricity, security, sanitation, and landscaping. The member organizations mainly serve people of color, and also can make choices to source from businesses owned by people of color, too: A contract with the CPA has enabled a black-owned local security company to double in size. Now, the CPA is working with communities in North Carolina and Connecticut to help them adopt the model.

To Schneider, CPA is one of those powerful co-ops that operates mainly in the background of society. It’s not “disrupting” anything around it, but rather solidifying bonds across a community that the mainstream economy often fails. That, to Schneider, is the true power of cooperative models.

[Image: Andrey_A/iStock]

And it’s something, he writes, for sectors like tech to take to heart as they try to engage in efforts to support equity. Throughout the course of writing Everything for Everyone, Schneider engaged in discussions and conferences around topics like blockchain, the sharing economy, and universal basic income. All, he writes, have the potential to engineer more equity into the economy, but to best do so they need a cooperative approach written into their DNA. The blockchain and bitcoin, he writes, need to remain separate from the big banks, which are already trying to co-opt the technology. Sharing economy platforms, like Uber and Airbnb, should explore a model by which people that use the platform, like Uber drivers or Airbnb hosts, have shared ownership over it. Airbnb is exploring offering stock to hosts, which the ride-sharing company Juno also did before folding. (While stock options for platform users are a positive step, they still fall short of cooperation because they don’t invite users to participate in company decision-making. A new movement called Platform Cooperativsm advocates for this approach.)

For a potential future basic income to be effective, those distributing it have to ensure that those receiving the funds have a say in how the program is managed. Currently, tech accelerators like Y Combinator are piloting basic income programs for low-income residents. “Giving people free money could surely help vanquish poverty, lessen inequality, and liberate time,” Schneider writes. “But under what terms would the lords of the platform deliver it? Those left out of economies past have learned that shared prosperity only really comes with shared power.”

Workers’ lack of power is a feature of our economy that Schneider believes cooperative models could help correct. And while he’s conscious of critiques that advocating for more cooperativism sounds like leftist idea, he believes that, fundamentally, the cooperative model is one that could draw bipartisan support. Going back to the story of Western Sugar Cooperative and other agricultural co-ops that Schneider sees scattered throughout his native Colorado, “these are people who are as conservative as you can get, generally,” he says. “And yet they’re using the same business model that these radical, anarcho-leaning activists of Occupy were interested in.” At the moment when the politics of this country feel extremely polarized, “it gives me hope to work with this tradition that seems to cross some of these lines,” Schneider says. “There’s something about how this tradition fits into a society that claims to be democratic . . . Whether you’re conservative or liberal, the idea that you would extend democracy into the economy just seems like a no-brainer.”


See a bizarre robot make a building out of loose rocks and string

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Rising in front of a museum in the historical heart of the Swiss city of Winterthur sits one of the strangest structures ever built: the Rock Print Pavilion. At first sight, its columns look to be made of rough reinforced concrete–or perhaps the gabions so popular among architects today. In fact, it’s made out of tiny loose stones tied with string.

[Photo: Keystone/Christian Beutler]
74 miles of string, to be exact, which held together 30 tons of loose rock, according to the Gramazio Kohler Research lab at the Swiss architectural and engineering school ETH Zurich.

How is such a huge amount of tiny stones–none bigger than a fingernail–held together with no other cohesive material, like glue or cement? And how do the eight columns of loose pebbles hold up an eight-ton steel roof? The answer is in the specially-designed robotic arm–and a phenomenon known as “jamming.” As the research lab explains:

[Jamming] refers to aggregate granular materials, like gravel that is quite literally crammed together in such a way that it holds its form and shape like a solid. However, in contrast to prevailing research and applications of “jamming” that usually range from nano- to meso-scale, this project targets at the macro-scale and thus is suitable to architectural construction, bringing together computational design and simulation with automated fabrication technology.

More specifically, the robot–working over a four week period, in this case–places the stones so they interlock perfectly, adding a layer of string between each gravel level and tamping down to create a more stable structure. According to ETH, the bot used computer vision algorithms to calculate the safest way to lay down each column one layer at a time, creating a “stable, highly durable structure” capable of supporting the heavy steel roof.

“Right in the historic heart of the city, newly developed robotic processes combine these ordinary items into a highly resilient material system without the use of tools,” the research lab writes in a statement. “They thus provide a first look at some of the astonishing designs that rapid developments in digitalization are making possible in architecture and the environment.”

[Photo: Michael Lio]
The pavilion will be in place till November 2018, when it will be destroyed and recycled.

How to deal when your boss plays favorites

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It’s human nature to have preferences.

At work, however, this natural tendency can quickly become toxic if preferential treatments are coming from the boss.

Especially if you’re the one suffering at the expense of favoritism.

In the best case scenario, your boss’s favoritism will pass without negatively impacting your career growth. In a more sinister case scenario, the favoritism continues on far too long and your professional growth suffers. You are kept out of secret meetings and brainstorming sessions. You don’t get assigned projects that can help you grow. You aren’t given credit after working hard on an assignment.

After awhile, the unfair treatment could end up damaging your ability to succeed.

“It’s really important to approach this kind of scenario with integrity and maintain a sense of confidence,” says Donna Sweiden, executive career coach at CareerFolk LLC. “Don’t let it become a chip on your shoulder, even if it might be difficult, but rather continue to engage in the work and this might be tricky because of the constant rejection.”

In order to persevere, below are four ways to handle not being your boss’s favorite:

1. Be straightforward about what you want

Maybe your boss resonates with your coworker. Maybe there’s something about her that reminds your boss of himself. It doesn’t matter because you can’t do anything about it. What you can control, however, is how you react to it.

One way to deal with this situation is to “deal with the little things instead of the big picture,” says Barbara Pachter, business etiquette expert and author of the book, The Communication Clinic: 99 Proven Cures for the Most Common Business Mistakes. So instead of focusing on the fact that your boss is playing favorites, turn your attention instead on what you want that you aren’t getting. If you want a special assignment, do your homework, go in, and ask for it.

If there’s a career goal you’re trying to reach, tell your boss about it, and then ask advice on how you can get there. The most important thing is to be straightforward. Otherwise, it might not be that your boss is playing favorites, but rather they just don’t know what you want.

“It is possible that the way you’re speaking up, or the way your appear when you’re speaking up can seem wishy-washy,” warns Pachter.

2. Go above and beyond

You can’t control your boss’s bad behavior, and focusing on it will only eat away at your psyche and defeat you. Instead, focus on improving yourself. Eventually others will notice the good work you’re doing.

Pachter advises putting everything into your work and going above and beyond during this painful period. Get in early and stay late. And if you can stomach it, consider what it is about your boss’s favorite that has earned them special treatment. Is there anything the favorite is doing that you can learn from?

3. Assert yourself

If you continue to do good work, you have to trust that eventually others will notice. And they might even notice your boss playing favorites, if the behavior is overt enough. One way to help people notice the good work you’re doing is to advocate for yourself. What are you doing to build your reputation outside of your department? Are you getting involved in projects with others who can vouch for your work? Can you get a mentor who can help support your career growth? Finding different avenues to success may take a bit more time and creative energy when you don’t have a boss who supports you, but eventually, articulating and advocating your values is something you’ll have to consider if you want to get the attention you deserve.

4. Manage up

At some point, if your boss’s preferences are no longer something you can ignore, then it’s time to manage up.

“Obviously you can’t go on this way,” says Sweiden. “You will have to figure out a way to develop some kind of relationship with the manager.”

She adds: “Ultimately, it’s less important that people like you, but building a workable relationship is very critical because when things get difficult, you need that relationship, that foundation, to talk things out.”

However, if you’ve tried building a trusting, cordial relationship with your boss, but they’re just, quite frankly, a jerk, then it might be time you communicate this to them.

Sweiden advises asking for advice in a nonthreatening way, like “How am I doing?” By involving your boss, you’re acknowledging their expertise and also communicating that you’re on the same team. You can also bring up the fact that you’ve noticed the favorite has received X,Y, Z opportunities and you’d like to know how you can also get similar opportunities (assuming you are equal in competence and diligent). Next, be very clear on the opportunities you want.

Whatever you do, always try to separate your emotions from the conversation, especially if the favoritism has gone on for some time and has festered into loathing.

Top 5 ads of the week: Monica Lewinsky embraces insults, and is Ted Cruz Texas tough?

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One of the reasons the Mission Impossible film franchise has survived more than two decades is its ability to skillfully market the fact that Tom Cruise is doing his own stunts. In an age of CGI, with films that not only have fake stunts, but also characters who aren’t even there, it’s refreshing for audiences to see something spectacular and get a little extra buzz to know that it was done for real. And now Mike Rowe just did a cancer PSA that uses the same approach, but for prostate exams. Onward!

Zero Cancer “Mike Rowe Prostate Exam”

What: A new cancer awareness PSA starring Mike Rowe and his real-life doctor.

Who: Zero Cancer, Erich & Kallman

Why we care: Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it. And here Rowe dutifully shows how easy it is to get your prostate checked, and significantly improve your chances for early detection. Amazingly, too many men avoid the whole thing altogether due to a sheer instinct to avoid anything awkward and uncomfortable, with potential deadly consequences. The no-nonsense approach is made even better by the fake “reverse angle” button.

Monica Lewinsky “#DefyTheName”

What: A new PSA to mark National Bullying Prevention Month in which Lewinsky aims to devalue the most common type of bullying behavior: name calling.

Who: Monica Lewinsky, BBDO New York

Why we care: It’s a fun sign of solidarity that Questlove, Alan Cumming, John Oliver, Lena Dunham, Olivia Munn, Sarah Silverman, Tony Hawk, and more all embrace some of the worst insults hurled at them as kids. It also clearly illustrates that we are not what someone tells us we are.

Amazon Prime Video “Great Show Stay With You”

What: A new campaign to show the potential IRL upside of watching Amazon shows like Jack RyanOutlander, and Vikings.

Who: Amazon, Droga5 London

Why we care: We all know TV shows do have the ability to have an impact far beyond the screen. Look no further than “The Rachel” haircut, or Don Draper’s unprecedented ability to bring back thin lapels, skinny ties, and Heinz ads. With Anna’s transition from timid coworker to Break Room Warrior, Amazon hilariously aims to illustrate the potential of its own original programming lineup.

Nike “Justin Gallegos”

What: Nike signs University of Oregon student Justin Gallegos, who has cerebral palsy, to a three-year athlete deal.

Who: Nike, Elevation 0m

Why we care: Not only is this a landmark signing and win for inclusion in sports, but also just a pretty damn inspiring story. On Instagram, Gallegos wrote, “Growing up with a disability, the thought of becoming a professional athlete is as I have said before like the thought of climbing Mt. Everest! …  I was once a kid in leg braces who could barely put one foot in front of the other! Now I have signed a contract with Nike Running!”

Fire Ted Cruz “Is Ted Cruz ‘Tough as Texas’?”

What: A new ad from the Fire Ted Cruz PAC, directed by Texas film legend Richard Linklater.

Who: Fire Ted Cruz PAC, Richard Linklater

Why we care: There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’m just going to list two reasons why I love this ad. First, it’s Linklater revisiting an obscure character from his 2011 film Bernie in the most perfect political ad, old-guy-in-a-coffee-shop way possible. And second, “C’mon…Ted.”

9 Productivity experts on how you can finally beat distractions and get everything done

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No matter how much you love your work, it can still be difficult to direct 100%  of your attention toward your to-do list.  And there’s no one-tip-fits-all solution to becoming more productive. That’s why we talked to experts from new-age medicine to leadership coaches and nutritionists, to get advice on how to be more productive. Experiment with which method works best for you.

Perform microbursts of physical activity

You already know the importance of frequent fitness for a slew of personal benefits—from maintaining your weight to boosting your creativity. It probably comes as no surprise exercise can do wonders for your attention span, too. But what might rattle your brain is how even mini, short-lived bursts of energy can make an impact, according to senior performance coach and behavior scientist at Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, Raphaela O’Day. Whether you schedule a brisk walking meeting or walk up and down a flight of stairs between conference calls, she explains you’ll see an improved mood, lower levels of fatigue, and even fewer cravings for bad-for-you-food.

Getting away from back-to-back hours of screen time gives you a fresh perspective when you return to your desk, especially as your heart rate settles down and your typing increases.

Manifest a more productive attitude

If you ask visionary, energy and crystal healer Hanson Tse, most of our existence happens in our unconscious mind. Or in other words, when we feel emotionally deflated or unmotivated, the root cause is usually beyond our level of awareness and stems from something much deeper. To unravel and unwind ourselves, developing a manifestation practice can be a powerful tool toward productivity. Before you doubt the magic of the universe, Tse says it is easier than you think to improve your focus. Start by setting an intention before bed that you will be productive the next day, and then actually visualize what that looks like. “Feel what that feels like and enjoy the feeling. Make a note to have your subconscious align itself to this while you’re sleeping. Call on your creativity to rise to the occasion,” he says.

Then, when you wake up, Tse says to turn your thoughts toward your intention from the moment you rise. “See and feel yourself accomplishing. Take note of your mental clarity and see how it compares to your normal state. Perhaps this can be your new normal,” he adds.

Don’t skip meals

When you’re hopping across the country (or the Atlantic), managing a household and making it to a spin class, it is easy to forget to eat three square meals and a snack. Though you shouldn’t guilt yourself too much, director of nutrition at Virtual Health Partners Alyssa Tucci says busy professional are notorious for skipping meals–you should try to cut it out ASAP. And before you start making excuses, Tucci says taking those few moments to cook (or buy), chew, and go will make a difference in your productivity. “When we skip meals our blood sugar drops, which saps our energy and can make it hard to concentrate. Keeping your body and your brain well fueled will help you maximize your productivity,” she explains.

If you don’t exactly have time to whip up a Julia Child-style gourmet meal, Tucci says to turn your focus on protein- and fiber-rich foods that will leave you satisfied throughout the day. She suggests hard-boiled eggs, individual yogurt cups, fresh fruit, nuts, and string cheese as excellent backups when hunger threatens your focus.

Get enough sleep

Staying up to date on everything streaming on Netflix and Hulu will give you something to talk about, but your efficiency is going to take a hit. As psychiatrist at Kaiser Permanente Don Mordecai explains, when we lack the Zzzs, you will not only feel moody and down, but it could cause you to make mistakes at work, too. He explains the average adult needs between seven and eight hours of shut-eye nightly, and the time you go to bed matters. Much like maintaining a routine with exercise and healthy eating, keeping to a lights-off schedule matters, too. To reap more productivity tomorrow, turn off those iPhones, laptops, and iPads a full hour before tucking yourself in to sleep more soundly.

Develop a way to prioritize

You probably already know one of the most effective ways to complete that ever-growing “I gotta finish this list” is to prioritize. But certified leadership, personal development and career coach Jane Scudder explains, not everyone can easily determine what is most urgent or important. She suggests developing a fluid rating system where you can label what is a “must” and what can put off until tomorrow and still keep you on track for success. This will inevitably shift as the day continues–and the emails pile on–so giving yourself some buffer room will work in your favor. “I write a lot of lists, but with just three to five ‘must’ tasks, I can remember each. Sometimes throughout the day I’ll check in on those items. If it’s noon and I haven’t tackled my top three to five then I know I need to recalibrate my day,” she says. “The trick here is to play around and find a system that works for you, then use it to ensure you’re focusing on what matters most to you.”

Transition better

After what felt like 10 hours but was just a strenuous nose-to-the-grind two, you finally completed your expenses for the month. Now, you need to turn to the deliverables your boss asked for by end of day. Those brief minutes between one ask and another, as you transition your attention, are a super important part of productivity. according to success coach Colene Elridge. To effectively move between projects, she recommends taking a pause to acknowledge your progress. “It tells your brain to move on, it closes out one thing and opens the other thing, and it gives you a moment to acknowledge what you’ve completed,” she continues. “It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate, but if you get in the habit of taking five deep breaths before you respond to the next email, or start a new project, or have a conversation, not only will it be more productive, it will probably be more intentional as well.”

Chew gum

Your grandma may raise an eyebrow and shake a finger at you when you smack away at gum, but this chewing habit could increase your productivity, according to registered dietitian Keith-Thomas Ayoob. Studies have proven gum has the ability to enhance attention, and promote well-being and work performance. It’s a ritual Ayoob personally swears by: “It can keep me from thinking about the snacking, which can be a distraction to getting things done, and it seems to get me into a zone,” he adds. His go-to? Sugarless bubble gum, but says cinnamon holds flavor for long-winded, complicated tasks.

Do what is important to you in the morning

Before the day gets away from you, certified personal trainer Jill McKay says to prioritize your morning to do something that brings you joy. Whether that is working out, meditating, reading, or sneaking in a snuggle with your partner or child, do what feels right when the alarm clock goes off. For McKay, that’s sometimes exercising, and other times it is more family-oriented moments: “Simply going over my kids’ homework, eating breakfast together, or having a conversation around the table before we all start the day heading in various directions. Make time for yourself so your day is not only filled with giving back to others. Fill your tank, and you can flow into others,” she says.

Shut your alerts off

Motivational fitness expert and speaker Michele Gordon has a confession to make that you likely relate to: She’s addicted to her phone. When she doesn’t have it, she feels equal parts fear and freedom. Even so, if she wants to complete a project, she takes some much-needed space away from her gadget. “When my phone is next to me, I check it 3,000 times a minute: text messages, news alerts, Facebook updates, phone calls–all of it,” she says. “If you need to get important work done, mute your phone alerts. You can also do this on your computer. The constant alerts and social media updates crush your productivity. This will help you to accomplish important projects at work because you’ll be more focused,” she says.

Can screen time replace the warmth of a hug? Prisons make a big push on devices

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Prisons aren’t usually thought of as high-tech environments, but increasingly, when U.S. inmates connect with the outside world, they’re doing so through a digital screen. Vendors are offering tablets, e-readers, and even video-conferencing technology to replace books, physical mail, and even in-person visits at prisons throughout the country. The companies cite convenience and a need to curb the smuggling of contraband, but critics raise concerns that such technologies further distance inmates from real human contact and could inhibit their rehabilitation.

Securus, a Dallas-based company that’s one of the largest providers of inmate telecom services, has distributed close to 170,000 digital tablets to U.S. inmates, who use them to listen to music, use educational materials, and communicate with loved ones in the outside world. Reston, Virginia-based GTL, Securus’s biggest rival, reports that it has provided some 350,000 inmates across the country with its own locked-down Android tablets with similar features.

The companies say the devices can help inmates pursue an education behind bars. More than 80,000 incarcerated people have enrolled in free courses through Securus unit JPay’s Lantern learning management software since the platform launched in 2015, earning a total of about 33,000 college credits—and simply stay busy while in prison or jail.

Lantern [Photo: courtesy of Securus]
“An occupied mind is a safe mind,” says Matthew Smith, director of product management at Securus. “For those that are incarcerated, most of these folks are looking for a way to pass their time, whether it’s through preparing themselves for re-entry to society, using educational resources, or even just consuming media.”

Inmates don’t have direct access to the internet. They can’t stream music on Spotify, enroll in a Coursera class, or download a book from the Kindle Store. Instead, depending on prison rules and technology, they connect wirelessly to central terminals or dock their tablets at specialized kiosks. Then they can do things like download music, movies, and e-books, upload messages to friends and family, and submit coursework for grading, all using apps provided by their institution’s chosen tech vendor.

In many institutions, inmates and their outside contacts can even schedule video chats, connecting through Securus or GTL tech to their loved ones, who use specialized apps on their own computers or phones. Whether they or their friends and family pay for tablets, and how much they pay for media and communications, varies widely from facility to facility.

“It varies dramatically from contract to contract—it really does,” Smith says. “Some agencies provide the tablets at no charge to their inmates, other agencies have inmates purchase a tablet, other agencies allow inmates to rent a tablet for a period of time.”

Video chats ranging from $5 to $13

A Securus website marketing inmate tablet rental programs to outside friends and family shows monthly rental prices ranging from $14.99 to $35. Video rates similarly vary: a 20-minute session costs $5 if you’re contacting inmates of the Franklin County Jail in Massachusetts, $10 to reach the Cochise County Jail in Arizona, and $12.99 for those with loved ones in custody at the Hinds County Detention Services in Mississippi, according to Securus price charts. Inmates and their contacts generally also pay for text and photo messages.

Critics have argued for years that inmate telecom services are overpriced—traditionally, incarcerated people were often limited to prepaid or collect phone calls that cost recipients significantly more than ordinary telephone rates. Today’s video calls and text messages are similarly expensive to anyone used to services like Skype or Google Hangouts.

Smith argues that the pricing compares favorably to what was previously available to inmates. That is, an electronic text or photo message can be cheaper than the cost of a postage stamp. And, he argues, when the full price of an in-person visit is taken into account, including transportation and potential costs like missed work and paid childcare, a video call can be comparatively a good deal.

“In-person visitation is not free,” he says, once those indirect costs are included, even if prisons don’t charge for it.

Installing technology in prisons also isn’t free and can be technically complex. That’s especially true as tech firms look to equip aging facilities built of metal and concrete with modern Wi-Fi technology, says Brian Peters, vice president of facility product management at GTL.

“We’ve even come across situations where locations almost act as a Faraday cage,” he says, referring to metal shields that block radio waves. GTL also works with prison authorities to find ways for inmates to charge their tablets, whether that’s using includes electrical outlets in cells, setting up lockers where they can securely plug in the devices, or collecting them overnight to recharge at a central place.

[Photo: courtesy of GTL]
“There’s no one design for a correctional facility,” he says.

The firms sometimes build out connectivity and offer tablets, video-calling terminals, and other equipment free of charge to the prison, planning to recoup their costs and make money from the costs of calls, digital media, and other offerings.

“Typically the hardware and the infrastructure is free for the correctional facility and inmates, and then GTL will offer the different services on the devices,” Peters says.

Replacing in-person visits with video sessions

In some cases, inmates and their loved ones don’t get to choose between traditional access to visits, media, and mail or their digital equivalents. That’s because some prisons and jails have eliminated in-person visitation, even non-contact visits through a glass partition, controversially moving exclusively to video sessions. Some institutions even use video conferencing with visitors who physically come to prison facilities.

“The video calls are just not a substitute in any way for a real face-to-face visit,” argues David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, citing court precedents from child custody cases saying video chats aren’t a substitute for in-person visits with parents. “There’s no reason it should be any different in the prison context.”

Some have also ceased to deliver postal mail to inmates, offering only scans or photocopies of letters and cards. And some have phased out longstanding policies that allowed prisoners to receive books from publishers, bookstores, and nonprofit groups, limiting inmates to e-books and whatever might be found in prison libraries.

Critics often argue that prison officials have a budgetary interest in limiting free programs in favor of ones that charge inmates or their loved ones money. That’s because the institutions often get a financial cut of phone rates, video calling fees, and other charges paid to telecom providers. Officials at both GTL and Securus emphasize that the firms don’t themselves set access policies or push prisons to cut traditional forms of contact or literature.

“Securus doesn’t say an agency can no longer accept books or have to shut down their internal library,” Smith says. “That’s really individual agency decisions. We look at providing additional services, not necessarily replacement services.”

Officials in some institutions argue that the more restrictive policies are needed to keep drugs and other banned items from being smuggled into prisons through visitors and mail. Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections (DOC) imposed a 12-day lockdown in August and September after reports that staff at multiple facilities were sickened by exposure to synthetic drugs allegedly smuggled in through paper mail. After the lockdown lifted, the department instituted new policies where attorney correspondence would be photocopied in front of inmates, with inmates given only the copies; other correspondence would be digitally copied at a Florida facility; and mailed-in paperback books would be eliminated in favor of digital books and what the department has said will be an expanded library system.

“The size of the collections varies, but we are talking about at least 10,000-15,000 books, and dozens of periodicals and newspapers,” writes Amy Worden, press secretary for the Department of Corrections, in an email. “If a library doesn’t have a particular book, librarians will work to get that book into the collection.”

[Photo: courtesy of Securus]

$147 for e-books with a limited selection of classics

The policy has drawn criticism from groups like Philadelphia’s Amistad Law Project, which specializes in prison advocacy, and Books Through Bars, a Philadelphia nonprofit that provides books to people in prison in Pennsylvania and nearby states. Inmates or their loved ones need to spend $147 for GTL tablets needed to access e-books in the state’s institutions—more than 16,000 out of 47,000 inmates have the devices, Worden says. Only about 8,500 titles are available, many of them books old enough to be in the public domain, says Keir Neuringer, a volunteer with Books Through Bars. The program’s catalog includes numerous works by Victorian writer Anthony Trollope but not commonly requested titles with more relevance to many inmates, like The Autobiography of Malcolm X or Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, he says.

“The books that are offered are not books that people are looking for in general,” Neuringer says. “What we will do now is we’ll fight to maintain the possibility that individuals can receive books for free from approved vendors such as Books Through Bars.”

Worden says the DOC has launched a program where inmates can request to buy a particular book, and prison authorities will search for it online and inform them of the price. But allowing even approved vendors to send books directly to inmates was too risky, she says.

“Books coming in from outside sources, whether by large vendors like Amazon/Barnes and Noble or donated books were a serious problem,” she writes.”There was no way the DOC could effectively police those packages and it’s easier to smuggle drugs in old books with thick bindings, strange odors, and discolored pages.”

Kris Henderson, legal director at the Amistad Law Project, says something is also lost in the transition to digital mail.

“Just like even really small things, like someone’s mom being able to write them a letter and being able to hold that letter in your hand is no longer possible,” she says.

Generally, for corrections officials, switching to digital communications not only cuts down on the opportunity for contraband smuggling but also enables greater surveillance of inmate activities for suspicious behavior. Video calls, scanned mail, and digital messages can easily be monitored and logged, and tech vendors offer tools to track who inmates are corresponding with and detect sudden shifts, like an inmate suddenly contacting a larger number of outside people or multiple inmates suddenly contacting the same person.

“We provide kind of a big data analytics [tool], which is called THREADS,” says Smith. “It identifies odd communication patterns and notifies corrections staff when it identifies those type of things.”

Different agencies have taken different approaches to balancing security and inmate interests: In Polk County, Florida, where the jail system receives service from Securus, Sheriff Grady Judd replaced mail delivery with digital scans after inmates allegedly became ill from consuming K2 from mailed-in papers that had been doused in the synthetic drug.

“If you mail traditional mail in, it goes to a third party that scans it in so that they have it on the kiosk in all of the dorms in the jail,” he says. “We save it for them, so when they get out of jail, if they want their paper mail, they can have it.”

The county’s two jails also offer video visits, and Judd says onsite visits are always free to visitors, though neither location offers physical contact in an effort to keep out drugs, with one allowing only video contact even on premises and the other allowing traditional through-the-class contact.

“I underscore this—we’re going to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to visit for free,” Judd says, adding that the county recently increased allowed visitation time.

Some prison systems have also backed away from restrictions: Officials in both Maryland and New York rescinded policies this year that limited access to mailed-in books after protests from literature charities and advocacy groups. And while courts have generally allowed limitations like no-contact visits and restrictions on pornographic or hardcover books, advocates say tighter limits could be found unconstitutional.

“Prisoners retain the right to read”

“The Supreme Court has been very clear—prisoners retain First Amendment rights,” says Fathi. “Prisoners retain the right to read.”

Many prisoner advocates say they’re not at all opposed to introducing technology in prison, as long as institutions don’t simultaneously remove other ways for inmates to access the outside world. And prison tech vendors point out that digital tools can have the same advantages in prison that they do elsewhere, like letting inmates access books, music, and movies on demand without having to wait for their day in the library or hear back from an outside book charity.

“You’ve got those that are incarcerated, sitting idle, without a book in their hands they want to be reading,” says Smith. “E-books really allow that individual to browse the catalog when they want a book, download the book immediately, and begin reading it.”

Educational materials, too, including electronic ways to correspond with instructors, can be just a few taps away, says Ronnie Hopkins, an Akron area man who has written and spoken about his experiences studying with a JPay tablet while incarcerated in Ohio institutions.

“It was super-simple to use it,” says Hopkins, who was released last year after serving time for manufacturing methamphetamine. “It was very convenient.”

One thing technology is unlikely to do is entirely remove drug smuggling from prisons and jails. Critics of recent restrictions regularly point out that there have been plenty of instances of drugs smuggled by corrupt guards, and even as Judd says contact and mail restrictions have eased the jail’s drug problem, he acknowledges it’s unlikely inmates and their associates won’t seek to find ways to continue to sneak in drugs.

“They’ll start trying to fly over with drones or some such business,” he says.

When that day comes, the county’s tech vendor will likely be prepared: Securus announced earlier this year it’s working with Holmdel, New Jersey, drone defense company AeroDefense to deploy its AirWarden drone and pilot location system around the correctional facilities it serves.

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