It’s All Going Mobile. We Get It. Now What?

When I finally stopped counting, I found 43 articles posted this week on various publications proclaiming that everything was going mobile and that marketers and businesses need to make the appropriate adjustments. All of the articles had two things in common: they gave reasons why we needed to market to mobile users and they didn’t give very good ways other than the basic or generic methods for doing so.

Well, I’m here to give you some good ways to do it. That’s all. No need to convince you that you need to do it. If you’re reading this article, you already know. If you’re not reading this article, you probably already know. Now, let’s get away from why and start really digging into how.

Build Everything for Mobile

Everything. I didn’t say most things. I didn’t say “everything digital” or “all of your advertising”. I said “everything” and I mean it.

Signs. Billboards. Television commercials. Radio spots. Newspaper ads. PPC campaigns. Social media posts. Your website. You employees’ apparel.

Pretend like people will be either carrying around smartphones and tablets with them everywhere they go. Pretend like their primary method for interacting with businesses is not the phone, not their email, not their laptops, and not coming to see you in person. Pretend like they’re on the verge of using their mobile device even when they’re in your store. Now, stop pretending because all of that is already a reality.

Watch your customers if you have a physical location. How many of them check their phones during the visit? If you don’t have a physical location, check your analytics. Look at the devices through which they’re viewing your website.

Now, give them the opportunity to have a mobile experience with everything you have. Once you have the opportunities in line, give them the reason to act. For example:

• Forget about paper coupons. Put virtual coupons at your store if they download your app or go to the “In-Store Customer Discount Page” on your website.


• Restaurant owners, post videos and articles about particular recipes showing how you cook your signature dishes. You don’t have to give away the whole recipe if it’s secret, but you can get your visitors interacting with your food, even sharing this content on social media before, during, and after they have eaten it.


• Let customers post to your site, community, or social profiles. In fact, encourage them. Give them incentive to do so. Tell them if they post a selfie with your sign in the background, they’ll get 10% off. Images posted to Facebook or Twitter are much better than checkins on Yelp.

I could spit out ideas for hours, but we’re writing an article, not a book. Think of ideas for yourself. What can you do with everything you have to make it part of the mobile experience.

A Mobile-Only Website Would Work

All too often, we build a website for the company and make it really pretty on a desktop, but we neglect to put the same effort in for mobile. Whether you’re using responsive, adaptive, mobile-ready, or full-site only platforms, make sure that your website is designed specifically for mobile.

In fact, if your primary website mimicked a mobile experience, you’re better off than if your mobile website mimics a desktop experience. At some point in the near future, we will begin to see more websites that appear like mobile websites even when viewed on desktops. This is a good thing. Those who start doing it early will be ahead of the curve.

Social is Mobile

For a while there, it was looking as if Facebook would be able to become the only web presence. They faltered, then interest dropped off, but they got close. Now, we’re still stuck with our standard online presence and our social presence.

But wait! It doesn’t have to be so partitioned. Social media sites, Facebook in particular, have very powerful mobile connections. By drawing as many people in as possible to engage with you through their mobile devices on social media, you can start to bridge the gap and work towards a unified web presence. This is much trickier than what I can explain in a short article, but the strategy is one that we’re implementing for clients now.

If you think social, think mobile. If you think mobile, make it work with social. Both can be made local, thus the SoLoMo concept that has been so popular at marketing conferences for a few years now.

Erase All Desktop and Analog Thinking from Your Mindset

This is the most important thing to do. We’ve hammered it so far in this article with everything we’ve said. Now we’re going to push it all the way through to the other side.

You don’t have a mobile website and a desktop website. You have a website. You don’t have social media fans on mobile and social media fans on desktop. They’re all on mobile (or will be eventually). You don’t have customers walking through your doors who aren’t seconds away from having their phone in their hand. Embrace it.

Buzzwords like “showrooming” and “competitive shopping” are real but pretty much meaningless until you have a purely mobile strategy for everyhing you do. Keep that in mind next time you’re looking at your advertising and marketing budgets. If an expenditure doesn’t assist in taking advantage of a mobile society, consider letting it go.

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Philippians 4:13 – all things through Christ

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

It is such a simple verse, yet one that is so profound. Regardless of the task, great or small, important or trivial, Yeshua is there for us as our guiding light, not only to have the strength to do these things but also to know which things we are supposed to be doing in the first place.

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Sony Does Not Represent America. At Least it Shouldn’t.

Sony pictures did a bad thing. Then, they did a worse thing. Unfortunately, America will likely suffer as a result of both actions.

There has been tons of commentary, plenty of celebrities, and even a President who has expressed deep annoyance at Sony pictures for being bullied by North Korea. We don’t need to rehash that or why it’s wrong. Let’s take a look at their original misdeed and then discuss what this means in the larger scheme of the current American direction in the world.

First, the movie itself…

The Interview is American Entertainment Gone Amok

The first thing that Sony did wrong was to make The Interview in the first place. America has taken the lead for several decades in using our media might to expose wrongdoing internally and around the world. Our journalists risk their lives to bring the world the stories of persecution and abuse. Documentary makes take similar risks diving deeper into evils that the world needs to see.

Hollywood has been trending for a long time in the opposite direction. I’m not talking about the individuals that make up the industry but Hollywood as an entity itself. It embraces the sins that other countries use to condemn us. It paints a picture of a morally and ethically suffocated society that likes loud explosions, gratuitous sex scenes, and cultural superiority disguised as patriotism.

The Interview as a movie represents the most immature and uncaring aspects of our entertainment-driven culture. This isn’t exposing the terrible environment that the people of North Korea exist in throughout their lives. One only has to watch the trailer and have experience with the previous works of thespians like Seth Rogen and James Franco to know that this is a raunchy comedy that attempts to push the limits of decency in order to fill seats and get chuckles.

It’s not even true parody. They created a fictional world with real elements in an egotistical attempt to remove boundaries of decency. “We’re Hollywood and we can say what we want. The world needs to lighten up.”

America needs to be the ideological leaders of the world. Unfortunately, Hollywood is one of the biggest representations of America with reach that far exceeds our journalists, activists, and leaders. More people around the world see the debauchery and self-announced grandeur that comes from Hollywood than any of the good things the people of this country do abroad.

This movie epitomizes the worst parts of Hollywood and should never have been made in the first place.

Facing the Unfortunate Reality of Today

A nation is represented by its people. There was a time not too long ago when the majority of what America represented based upon the actions of the people was admirable. Today, it seems like we’re on the verge of becoming what our detractors worldwide have been calling us for decades: glutinous, spoiled, and dangerous.

There are millions of Americans who represent the concept of America properly. In fact, I would go so far as to say the vast majority of Americans are living the right way. However, those with the greatest reach and loudest voices are the ones that are seen by the outside world and their message is not the right representation of what the American people want.

We aren’t a country that promotes spying on our allies or the innocent people in the country and across the world, but the NSA has unwittingly made others believe that we are.

We aren’t a country that makes light of persecution or suffering, but Hollywood has told the world otherwise.

We aren’t a country that turns its back on the religious principles that helped to mold us from the start, but many of our leaders and members of the media paint that very picture.

This list of sins and crimes against humanity could go on and on, and none of them are true representations of what the majority of Americans embrace, but the powers that be do very little to represent us to the world properly. We must stop our politicians from misrepresenting us. We must not support Hollywood’s attempt to paint us with the brush of debauchery and callous indulgences. We must make the media report our perspectives properly rather than based on an erroneous, agenda-driven ideology that is held by the few rather than the majority.

Sony should not have made the movie. However, they did even worse by painting us as a weak nation that can be bullied by terrorists.

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The Unaddressed Evolutionary Challenge of the Eye’s Origins

The debate about the evolution of the eye has been a flashpoint of passion since evolution was first proposed. Debaters on both sides have focused on the concept of irreducible complexity, single- versus multi-source origins, and biochemical gaps that seem to jump in either explicable or inexplicable ways (depending on which side of the argument one is on).

There’s something that you don’t hear about very often. It lies in simple logic, even common sense. There’s no reason for the evolutionists to consider it because it’s a flaw in their thinking. It’s harder to understand why creationists have not discussed it more deeply and after much research I haven’t found a very good exploration. The idea surrounds a question, one that doesn’t ask how the eye was created but rather why it was initially brought into being.

How can something evolve to detect the presence of light if there was nothing prior to know that light existed in the first place?

This is not going to be an in-depth exploration into the question. That, I’ll leave for those who have more time and focus. We are not here for apologetics. We don’t try to “prove” creation or the existence of God. However, it’s interesting how this topic has not been addressed more fully.

At first, I figured there must be a simple answer that I missed, one that is well-known in evolutionary circles to combat this issue, but after exploring the topic and discussing it with many, I found nothing. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I “stumped” evolutionists I discussed, but responses were very mixed and clearly concerning from their perspective.

Science can trace back the origins of they eye to basic photo-receptors on simple organisms designed to give them understanding about the directional source of light. However, it has not given a reasonable explanation for how this amazing trait spawned in the first place. It cannot be dismissed to the evolutionist’s favorite trick, mutation. There is a tremendous gap between not having and photosensitive cells and having them because it requires multiple simultaneous complex mutations to form the most basic light-detecting organs.

A common argument is that the detection of light evolved from an inherent ability to detect heat, but this concept has many flaws as well. Light and heat are only loosely associated in a pre-historic world where gravity is the easier concept for simple creatures to sense. There would not have been a need to detect heat through the presence of light when going against gravity in the prehistoric goo of an evolutionist’s worldview would bring creatures closer to the warmth of the surface.

To generate the evolutionary need for creatures to detect light and therefore develop photo-sensitive cells, they would have needed to understand that light existed in the first place. With nothing to let them know that light existed, there would have been no need for photo-receptors to evolve in the first place. Eyespots are the earliest stage of the evolution of the eye. You can trace it all back to eyespots. However, there is no explanation for why eyespots came into being.

It’s not as elegant as the argument against the evolution of flight or the metamorphosis dilemma, but it is an argument that evolutionists have never been able to reconcile and is therefore a valid point of discussion.

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Researchers developed a farm for plastic-eating mushrooms

Traditional plastics take anywhere from 20 to 1,000 years to break down naturally, often times blocking waterways and killing animals in the process. It’s for this reason that two industrial designers from Vienna have teamed up with a group of microbiologists from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to create something called the Fungi Mutarium.

This Mutarium is a glass dome that houses several pods that contain bits and pieces of plastic within their cavities. These pods are made up of a combination of agar, sugar, and starch that serve as food to nourish the fungi that the Mutarium is designed to contain. Mycelia, which is the thread-like parts of a mushroom, is mixed into a liquid and then dropped into the pods.

As these mushrooms grow, they eat through both the pods and the pieces of plastic contained within them. Not only does this serve to drastically speed up the process of degrading plastic, it also creates an edible mushroom with a neutral taste.

Obviously, these small pods aren’t even close to being enough to solve the world’s plastic problem, especially considering that it still takes the mushrooms months to eat through the plastic, but they’re definitely a step in the right direction.

The team is currently looking for ways to speed up the degradation process by manipulating the temperature, humidity, and various other elements of the environment within the dome. They’ve also considered using genetic modifications to make the fungi grow faster, but they currently lack the necessary funding to do so.

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Canadian researchers develop new spray-on solar cells

Solar cells are arguably one of the most promising forms of alternative energy out there at the moment. The power of the sun is available to everyone, in every part of the globe, every single day. However, while the power of the sun may be readily accessible, the technology required to actually harness that power isn’t.

Rooftops are one of the most popular places to put solar panels, but they’re big, clunky, and often times prohibitively expensive. Many people also don’t like how they look on a house, including numerous homeowners associations that have been known to reject the installation of rooftop solar panels completely. Fortunately, a group of Canadian researchers may have found a solution.

Researchers at University of Toronto claim to have developed a technique for spraying solar cells onto surfaces that’s both more simple and more affordable than previous technologies, which means that it has a much greater chance of becoming popular.

Spray-on solar cells have the ability to turn surfaces that’re too sloped, rounded, flexible, or otherwise unsuitable for rigid solar panels into suitable surfaces. This new method uses light-sensitive materials known as colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) that can be sprayed or printed onto an ultra-thin film which could then be applied to any surface like cellophane wrap.

“My dream is that one day you’ll have two technicians with Ghostbusters backpacks come to your house and spray your roof,” said Illan Kramer, a post-doctoral fellow with The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto and IBM Canada’s Research and Development Center, as quoted by TreeHugger.

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What Christians Need to Know About Christmas

There has been an awakening over the past few years, particularly in western society. More people are learning that Christmas and Easter have roots in pagan religions. Many are aware that much of the symbolism and the very origin of these holidays are tied completely against the Word of God. Unfortunately, most do have the perspective that the “spirit of Christmas” or the way that we feel in our hearts supersedes the truth. “It may have pagan roots, but that’s not what it means to me.”

This is a very false understanding. As Jim Staley from Passion for Truth Ministries says, it’s not what it means to us. It’s what it means to Him.

Christmas and Easter are misleading symbols promoted by the enemy to keep believers doing things against our Lord unwittingly.

The video below by Staley makes some really good points. It addresses much of the history of Christmas, Easter, and other holidays in ways that Christians need to hear. We do not agree with every piece of evidence nor all of the conclusions that Staley reaches, but the overall video is sound.

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The right way to do London Broil. #mesquite #crispy #rare #Pittsburgh

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Poisonous mushrooms could help create side effect-free drugs

While there are plenty of species of mushroom that are perfectly edible, there are even more that can make ill or even kill you if you eat one. In the process of studying how these fungi manage to be so poisonous, a team of researchers at Michigan State University may have discovered a way to create a new generation of pharmaceuticals with highly targeted side effects, according to Geek.

The study, which is available in the journal Chemistry and Biology, talks about a previously undiscovered enzyme that’s behind the deadliness of poisonous mushrooms. The study also reveals how the enzyme contributes to the manufacture of chemical compounds known as cyclic peptides, which is a type of molecule that many pharmaceutical companies favor.

“Mushrooms are prolific chemical factories, yet only a few of their peptides are poisonous,” said plant biologist Jonathan Walton in a statement, as quoted by Nature World News. “These toxins survive the high temperatures of cooking and the acids of digestion, and yet they’re readily absorbed by the bloodstream and go directly to their intended target. These are the exact qualities needed for an effective medicine.”

Youth Health notes that, while the study certainly doesn’t encourage the consumption of these mushrooms, it does suggest that these enzymes could be used to produce medicine that serves only a specific purpose, which could significantly reduce or even completely eliminate possible side effects a the drugs don’t need to affect the patient’s other organs.

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Side effects could be eliminated from drugs using mushrooms

While there are plenty of species of mushroom that are perfectly edible, there are even more that can make ill or even kill you if you eat one. In the process of studying how these fungi manage to be so poisonous, a team of researchers at Michigan State University may have discovered a way to create a new generation of pharmaceuticals with highly targeted side effects, according to Geek.

The study, which is available in the journal Chemistry and Biology, talks about a previously undiscovered enzyme that’s behind the deadliness of poisonous mushrooms. The study also reveals how the enzyme contributes to the manufacture of chemical compounds known as cyclic peptides, which is a type of molecule that many pharmaceutical companies favor.

“Mushrooms are prolific chemical factories, yet only a few of their peptides are poisonous,” said plant biologist Jonathan Walton in a statement, as quoted by Nature World News. “These toxins survive the high temperatures of cooking and the acids of digestion, and yet they’re readily absorbed by the bloodstream and go directly to their intended target. These are the exact qualities needed for an effective medicine.”

Youth Health notes that, while the study certainly doesn’t encourage the consumption of these mushrooms, it does suggest that these enzymes could be used to produce medicine that serves only a specific purpose, which could significantly reduce or even completely eliminate possible side effects a the drugs don’t need to affect the patient’s other organs.

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Researchers use ultrasound to create holograms that you can feel

It wasn’t too long ago that virtual reality seemed like a sci-fi fantasy at worst and a far off dream at best, but at this point it seems like just a matter of time. New Scientist is reporting that a new company by the name of UltraHaptics has designed an advanced system of projected sound waves that create 3D virtual objects that you’re actually able to feel with your hand.

“We’ve been working on this for over four years,” Tom Carter, the CTO of Ultrahaptics, told Mashable. “The goal of the company isn’t to launch its own product, we want this tech to become embedded in lots of different products, from clocks, to home appliances to cars. To do that, we needed to engage OEMs as a company.”

The British company originally developed the system at the University of Bristol’s research labs. The developers are able to deliver different haptic feedback and virtually tactile shapes by using the system to pulse the feedback of ultrasonic waves or changing their modulation frequency, according to Discovery News, as demonstrated in this video.

“Touchable holograms, immersive virtual reality that you can feel and complex touchable controls in free space, are all possible ways of using this system,” said Dr. Ben Long the lead developer behind the system, as quoted by CNET. “In the future, people could feel holograms of objects that would not otherwise be touchable, such as feeling the differences between materials in a CT scan or understanding the shapes of artefacts in a museum.”

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UK’s “biased” energy scheme gets taken to European court

Tempus Energy, a British company whose goal is to cut consumer energy bills by helping them use cheaper power, has launched a legal challenge against the United Kingdom government in response to the capacity market, a scheme that’s designed to make sure there’s always enough back-up to meet peaks in electricity demand, according to Carbon Brief.

The challenge was submitted to the European General Court on Thursday on the grounds that the scheme violates State Aid rules by prioritizing energy that’s generated by burning fossil fuels over cheaper and cleaner efforts to reduce demand, according to Express and Star. European Union rules require subsidies to be in line with European goals, such as combatting climate change, according to Engineering and Technology.

“The Capacity Market was originally set up to keep the lights on at the lowest possible cost; a format that has been used very successfully in the US,” said Sara Bell, the CEO of Tempus Energy, as quoted by Click Green. “But an engrained, institutional bias in favor of building new assets to boost supply means that cost effective ‘no build’ technologies for managing demand have been ignored.”

“This will push up electricity bills needlessly and commit consumers to paying for capacity that we would not need if we invested in building demand-flexibility, for those who want to use it.,” Bell continued, adding that “the lack of commitment to innovation from the Government will stymie investment and therefore the advancement of a smart industry that could fundamentally transform our energy economy.”

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Europe greenlights its Extremely Large Telescope

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has announced that its main governing body, the Council, has approved the organization’s planned construction project in Chile, meaning that humans will have access to the appropriately named “European Extremely Large Telescope” by 2024, according to Mashable.

“The decision taken by Council means that the telescope can now be built, and that major industrial construction work for the E-ELT is now funded and can proceed according to plan,” said Tim de Zeeuw, the ESO’s Director General, on its official website. “There is already a lot of progress in Chile on the summit of Armazones and the next few years will be very exciting.”

The ESO, a 15-nation intergovernmental research organization that includes most of western Europe, will build the telescope on top of a mountain called Cerro Armazones, in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, according to The Verge. Once construction is finished, the Cerro Armazones mountain will sport a 39-meter aperture optical and infrared telescope.

“The funds that are now committed will allow the construction of a fully working E-ELT that will be the most powerful of all the extremely large telescope projects currently planned, with superior light-collecting area and instrumentation,” said de Zeeuw, as quoted by Space. “It will allow the initial characterization of Earth-mass exoplanets, the study of the resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies as well as ultra-sensitive observations of the deep universe.”

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France wants to eliminate carbon-spewing diesel-powered vehicles

France is going to kill off diesel-powered passenger vehicles, according to Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who announced his intention to begin eliminating them from the nation’s roads, according to a report from Reuters, as part of a broader environmental effort that will include implementing a pollution rating system for vehicles next year.

“In France, we have long favored the diesel engine. This was a mistake, and we will progressively undo that, intelligently and pragmatically,” Prime Minister Valls said in a speech, as quoted by Autoblog.

Under his new plan, France’s 2015 budget measures will attempt to reduce the tax advantage of diesel-powered vehicles versus gasoline-powered one in order to try and encourage consumers to choose other vehicles. Additionally, people swapping older diesels for electric vehicles could be entitled to a tax credit of up to €10,000 ($13,500).

On top of this, France will implement a pollution rating system for vehicles next year and will grant municipal governments the ability to limit access to the heaviest polluters. Prime Minister Valls believes that government and local authorities need to set an example by encouraging more environmentally friendly vehicle use, according to Fox News.

Unlike the gasoline-centric United States, where diesel is more commonly associated with big semi-trucks, about 80% of the passenger vehicles in France are diesel-powered, due in large part to the fact that the nation’s tax system makes diesel about 15% cheaper than gasoline, a policy that most countries in Europe have a similar version of, according to Automotive News.

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UN climate discussions begin in Peru as temperature continue to rise

The 20^th session of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began in Lima, Peru on Monday. Representatives from nearly 200 nations across the globe met in order to discuss how to slow, and potentially reverse, man-made global warming with the goal of producing a blueprint that can be formed into a new global climate agreement by 2015, according to Mashable.

“Never before have the risks of climate change been so obvious and the impacts so visible,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC as quoted by International Business Times. “Never before have we seen such a desire at all levels of society to take climate action. Never before has society had all the smart policy and technology resources to curb greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience.”

“2014 is threatening to be the hottest year in history and emissions continue to rise, we need to act urgently,” said Figueres, as quoted by BBC . “We should be able to lay the foundations for a strong agreement in Paris and raise the level of our ambitions so that gradually over the long term we are able to achieve climate neutrality, this is the only way to truly achieve sustainable development for all.”

Scientists from across the globe have expressed growing concerns that the world’s wealthiest nations seem to be a long way reducing emissions at a level that would effectively combat global warming. Although the process was significantly boosted by the recent carbon-cutting agreement that the United States and China reached, it’s still not enough.

“There is growing evidence, that even with very ambitious mitigation action, warming close to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century is already locked-in to the Earth’s atmospheric system and climate change impacts such as extreme heat events may now be unavoidable,” stated a report from World Bank in November.

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The Biggest Flaw in Obama’s Immigration Argument

Since nothing is being done, something needs to be done. That’s pretty much the argument that President Obama is making in regards to his executive order to use prosecutorial discretion. As he said in an interview with George Stephanopolous, “The reason that we, have to do.. uhm prosecutorial discretion in immigration, is that we know, that we – are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time…”

Here’s the thing. This is going to cost America as much if not more money than it would cost to secure the borders. The problem that we face is two-fold. On one hand, we have a leaky border. On the other hand, we have the people who are already here illegally. Unlike many conservative commentators, I do not believe that amnesty is necessarily bad if it’s handled properly. Many of the illegal immigrants are here for good reasons and are contributing to the country. However, any amnesty or prosecutorial discretion must occur after the borders themselves are secure.

This is not a “chicken and egg” situation. This is a very clear cause and effect situation. We have to handle the cause before we go after the effect, which in this case is the mess that Obama is trying to fix. It’s so clear and simple that there’s no need to turn this into a long post with tons of evidence or convincing talking points. This one’s pretty obvious. The President wanted something for his legacy that would stick as well as helping to secure better odds for the Democrats in the 2016 elections.

The worst part is that the move is a political one but will be viewed by the ignorant as socially correct. If it didn’t benefit him, he would not have done it.

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7 Things #Ferguson has Taught Us About Modern America

As this story is being written, Ferguson is burning. Bloggers and journalists are busy giving their opinions about the grand jury’s decision to not indict Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Discussions and debates are happening in homes across America and being prepared for office discussions the day after.

Prior to watching the coverage of the rioting in Ferguson and other demonstrations across the country, I had no intention of adding to the discussion. There would be plenty and this little blogger wouldn’t have a chance with all the noise, but something happened. It turned out worse than expected and one thing prevailed that I didn’t expect. Cooler heads usually prevail when there is this much build-up. We learned years ago after the Rodney King riots that police, national guard, the various levels of government, and the leaders of the community would have to be prepared for the worst. With all of these warnings, it still got bad.

It could have been worse, but it was bad enough. Stupidity prevailed and will continue to prevail. On the night of the grand jury decision, we learned seven very clear things about the state of affairs in modern America.

Facts Cannot Stop Stupidity

The almost completely undisputed facts that Michael Brown robbed a store and assaulted a police officer do not seem to be part of the discussion for the protesters or rioters. The fact that his blood was found inside of the police car that held the officer that he attacked has been pushed to the wayside. We are somehow supposed to believe that after trying to take a gun from a police officer (presumably to do harm to the officer) and then running away after being shot that Michael Brown suddenly had a complete change of heart. A minute and a half after assaulting the officer, Brown allegedly became docile, put his hands up, and decided to no longer act aggressively.

I don’t need to use common sense to know that the story that protesters are clinging onto didn’t happen that way. We have the grand jury of his peers telling us that after reviewing the evidence, they did not feel the officer should be indicted. That fact alone should hold the most weight, but it didn’t. We were given a compelling series of points during the press conference that made it seem very clear that Michael Brown attacked the officer, tried to take his gun, ran away, and then turned and aggressively approached the officer.

Nobody knows all of the available facts other than the grand jury and the prosecutors. All of the rest of us are only able to draw our own conclusions based upon what is told to us and the decision of the grand jury. Those two things clearly point to severe wrongdoing on Brown’s part. All of those facts are irrelevant to the blind who wanted an indictment regardless of the facts.

Stupidity Spreads Rapidly

Oakland, New York, Los Angeles – reports are coming in from across the country that people are demonstrating against the decision. The sheer size of the protests that started immediately after the decision was announced means that most who are out there are doing so without knowing the facts that are currently available. It would be silly to demonstrate given the facts, but that didn’t stop them.

These people aren’t interested in the truth. Most aren’t even interested in justice. They’re interested in a cause that pits race on race, that pits order against anarchy. Most of these same people would not last very long without the police that they’re protesting.

The President Doesn’t Know How to Act without an Agenda

This was an opportunity for the President to put aside his ego and his place in history in order to restate the facts that we now have available and declare that the decision seems to be a righteous one. Instead, his tone was sharp. He did very little to convey the facts, nor did he seem to support the decision.

As hard as it is for most people to believe, the President benefits from the protests. The riots are a distraction from much of the negative press that has surrounded him for months. I won’t go so far as to say that he wanted things to go this way, but he certainly isn’t acting like a President that wants justice to prevail over controversy.

He should have been there. Even if he didn’t go in person, the administration should have had a presence of some sort in Ferguson to help those who are being harmed by the riots. Instead, he is letting Ferguson burn.

Every Police Action is Considered an Overreaction

Those who know me are aware that I’m not a supporter of the police state trajectory that we seem to be on. The militarization of law enforcement is a terrible thing, especially considering the people who are calling the shots. However, there are certain times when it’s acceptable to be in riot gear. Those certain times are during riots themselves.

Somehow, the media has turned the need for riot control actions into a bad thing. It’s amazing to watch reporters tear into the police in Ferguson for the way that they’re reacting, then condemn them further a few seconds later for not being there to protect private property as rioters burn buildings and loot businesses. Which is it?

Looting Supersedes Ideology

The atmosphere was described as “festive” when the first few stores were broken into and looted. A large portion of the protesters were clearly not there because they wanted to support the family of Michael Brown or condemn the decision of the grand jury. They were there to get something for themselves. They were there to take advantage of the mayhem.

Just before we watched a Fox video camera destroyed on live television, we saw smiling, giddy “protestors” running out of the liquor store (the one Michael Brown had robbed the day that he was killed) with bottles of Bacardi in their arms. They weren’t there for the protests. They were only there for the looting.

The Media Wants to be Part of the Story

As we shifted back and forth between Fox News and CNN, one thing was clear about the reporters on the streets. They weren’t just there to report the story. They wanted to be part of the story. There’s no such thing as a journalist at a scene who can keep completely detached from the events surrounding them, but it was disgustingly clear that the majority of them were doing what they could to be a subject rather than a reporter.

This isn’t isolated to Ferguson. We have seen too many reporters get rewarded for this type of bad journalism in recent years. Ferguson was just a clear example of this happening in modern American journalism.

Many Want War in America

The community of Ferguson has clearly expressed that most of them do not want to be the center of the nation’s attention. That hasn’t stopped others from using Ferguson as a hotspot and rallying point for their own agendas.

It would be easy to call them out by name. They haven’t been shy about their participation and there is plenty of news about their shenanigans already, but what hasn’t been discussed is the motivation. While most Americans do not want to believe it, there are parties within our borders who want Ferguson to explode. There are those who were “supporting” Michael Brown’s family while secretly hoping that the decision would go down as it did so they could agitate the situation and force their agenda onto the pedestal. They go their wish.

Just as many have stood up to protest the decision, there needs to be others who fight equally hard on the side of law and order. It can’t be the police. It won’t be the government. It must be the sane and intelligent people of America who make a fervent call for peace in the face of stupidity.

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For Obama, 4th DefSec Epitomizes Foreign Affairs Failures

Things don’t always work out. Every President will pick the wrong people for jobs, but when it happens two or three times, one has to wonder if there’s a trend. As the Obama administration prepares to pick it’s 4th Defense Secretary in 6 years, the problems are clear. This administration doesn’t quite understand the concept of maintaining a strong defense.

Chuck Hagel was supposed to be the right conservative choice. He was a Republican Senator, a veteran, and one who had experience with and understanding of the volatile Middle East. However, anonymous reports from inside the White House paint a picture of a man who wasn’t empowered to do his job due to the centralized methodology in the administration. They like their own opinions and do not seem to want to listen to those who have opposing views.

It isn’t just defense. The administration has had difficulties with other areas of foreign relations. In fact, the Nobel Peace Prize winning President has failed to achieve any notable foreign relations victories during his tenure other than being the person in office when Osama bin Laden was killed. Iran, North Korea, Russia, China – the list of enemies gaining power continues to increase while our allies are not embracing our lead like they once did.

Even the previous Bush administration, often criticized for hurting America’s place in world opinion, held a much better track record for getting the world follow our lead.

The Obama administration has been hurting America’s standing in the world. Losing yet another Defense Secretary is par for the course.

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At Taco Bell, this will be my exact order every time until prices or taxes change.

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Automotive milestone.

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Big, Bold, and Beautiful 2015 GMC Sierra All-Terrain

With almost 100 years of truck building and perfecting experience GM has been evolving their trucks for a long time and has worked to continuously offer as perfect a truck as possible. The GMC version of the truck is the Sierra and for 2015 this truck is makes a huge statement and sets a whole new bar of truck standards for others to follow. Packaged with nearly luxurious interior and newly designed high-tech engines, the GMC Sierra is a strong and gorgeous truck for any truck lover to enjoy and just might gain some new loyalty from followers of the competition.

New for 2015 is an All-Terrain trim package that will match up with the Silverado’s Z71 off-road package. This makes the two offerings from GM a pair to be reckoned with and certainly a difficult choice to make between the two. The All-Terrain package will include Rancho twin-tube shocks, thick coil springs and wide leaf springs to help owners who want to play in the mud or head out on the trails be able to do so with ease and confidence. The All-Terrain model has the choice of the same two engines as the rest of the lineup, a 6.0-liter V8 or the Duramax 6.6-liter turbodiesel V8. The 6.0 is mated to a Hydra-Matic 6L90 six-speed automatic transmission and the Duramax is paired with the Allison 1000 six-speed automatic transmission.

The All-Terrain model of the Sierra is also fitted with a ton of premium upgrades to help it really stand out in a crowd. Adding a ton of chrome to the outside (how could you ever have too much chrome) including the running boards, 20-inch alloy wheels, door handles, window trims, side mirrors and of course the mean looking grill, this big beast of burden is also a thing of beauty and sure to turn many heads at any ball it attends. Inside there is tech to be enjoyed to include 4G LTE connectivity to create a Wi-Fi hotspot, the GMC IntelliLink infotainment system, and the Siri Eyes Free system for iPhone users.

Add to the outside interest the LED and HID jeweled headlights, a chrome-accented front bumper (yes, more chrome), a body colored rear bumper, integrated bumper steps, under the rail bed lighting, integrated back up lights, and twin LED bed lights to help with backing up, all help to create a truck that is as close to the Denali luxury as it can get without quite stepping completely into luxury and out of the fun and work phase.

Inside the All-Terrain, to go along with all the high-tech gadgetry is a plethora of comfort, control and style to enjoy. Offering a seriously quiet cabin allows owners to fully enjoy the ride by listening to their choice of sounds on the premium Bose sound system rather than a bundle of road noises from outside. The materials throughout this awesome truck are premium, supple, and very comfortable for anyone to ride in. There is plenty of room for all passengers that want to tag along to the lake, out in the wilderness, or just for a ride down the road. Add to the tech with Bluetooth connectivity, five USB ports, a 110-volt standard receptacle, and at least three 12-volt ports for charging and running electronics. The center console is so large it can become a moving office by allowing enough space to hang hanging folders and keep things filed and organized on the road.

Starting with the standard 6.0-liter V8 gasoline powered engine that cranks out 360 horsepower and 397 lb.-ft. of torque this is not a truck for the light hearted. Matched up with the Hydra-Matic six-speed automatic transmission and this truck is able to pull loads, head off road, help another truck out of a sticky situation, or just show off on the highway with ease and confidence.

The brawnier of the two engines, the 6.6-liter Duramax turbodiesel V8 engine pushes a massive 397 horsepower and a crazy 765 lb.-ft. of torque. Add to the matching of the Allison 1000 six-speed automatic transmission and this beast of burden is really ready to get the job done. No doubt any owner with this massive power plant under the hood can build the biggest treehouse, take a larger boat to the lake, or simply handle any rocky incline on the trails to allow maximum fun in this Sierra.

The All-Terrain Sierra comes standard as four-wheel drive which should have been obvious from the name and with the upgraded suspension can tackle just about any obstacle. Aluminum skid plates can be added to help protect the machinery underneath and the 3500 model will get its own set of the dual rear wheels to set it apart from the rest. Ensuring the driver can opt for the right setting, an electronic two-speed transfer case is installed. This allows the driver to choose between 2WD, 4WD high, and 4WD low as well as an Auto mode. This gives the driver the ability to choose based on the road or ground ahead, which setting they need.

The starting price for the All-Terrain is expected to begin around $52,000 and add an extra $7,000 for the Duramax engine setup. Even though that is a fairly large price tag, this is a massive and beautiful beast of a truck for the price that will never let any owner down or leave them stranded. Not to mention, a truck like this will be the envy of the entire neighborhood.

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House passes bill aimed at limiting “secret science” in the EPA

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that prevents academic scientists on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Scientific Advisory committee from participating in “activities that directly or indirectly involve review of evaluation of their own work,” as quoted by The Huffington Post.

Bill HR-1422, also known as the Science Advisory Board Reform Act, passed the Republican-led House of Representatives with a vote of 229-191. The bill, sponsored by Representative Chris Stewart (R-UT), makes it so that a scientist cannot advise the EPA on the findings that’re contained within that scientist’s own published, peer-reviewed paper.

“HR-1422 would negatively affect the appointment of experts and would weaken the scientific independence and integrity of the SAB.” Said Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), on Tuesday, as quoted by Inhabitat. “I get it, you don’t like science. And you don’t like science that interferes with the interests of your corporate clients. But we need science to protect public health and the environment.”

“Instead of an overly broad bill that would tie EPA’s hands, the Administration urges Congress to support the Administration’s efforts to make scientific and technical information more accessible and regulations more transparent,” said White House in a statement, as quoted by The Hill, in which it threatens to veto the legislation.

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This British company wants to crowdfund a mission to the moon

Described by its creators as “the most inspirational lunar project since the Apollo landings,” a new project on Kickstarter known as Lunar Mission One is looking for £600,000 ($940,000) in crowdfunding to send an unmanned robotic landing module to a completely unexplored area of the moon, according to CNET.

Even more interesting is the fact that the ambitious project also involves drilling down to a depth of at least 20 meters, potentially as far down as 100 meters, where the spacecraft will bury a digital time capsule which should be preserved for roughly a billion years due to the conditions at the South Pole of the moon.

The time capsule isn’t the primary goal of the mission, however, it’s merely one of the ways the company plans to fund the endeavor. The mission’s primary goal is to learn more about the origins of Earth’s closest celestial body. A minimum pledge of £60 ($94) is all that’s needed to get space in the digital time capsule.

“Lunar Mission One will make a huge contribution to our understanding of the origins of our planet and the moon, and will inspire a generation to learn more about space, science and engineering, in the same way that my generation was inspired by the Apollo moon landings,” said David Iron, founder of Lunar Missions, as quoted by Space.

“It is increasingly difficult to fund space science and exploration of the kind aimed at developing understanding and knowledge,” continued Iron, as quoted by The Guardian. “We are introducing a new form of funding, and if it works we’ll have a legacy that shows it’s possible to fund these missions very differently.”

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NYC is turning thousands of payphones into Wi-Fi hotspots

A new “communications network” known as LinkNYC has announced plans to turn all of the payphones in New York City, of which there are many, into public Wi-Fi stations, according to The New York Times. The kiosks will be taller and narrower than average phone booths, but will retain the advertising space.

NYC has been trying to figure out what to do with its dilapidated payphones for quite some time. The city did a miniscule rollout of Wi-Fi hotspots at 10 phone booths back in 2012, and in 2013, the Department of Information Technology and Communications made numerous proposals for redesigning and repurposing the booths into something more useful and aesthetically pleasing.

According to Tech Crunch, the LinkNYC network is a public-private partnership between the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation and CityBridge, which is a coalition of companies that includes Qualcomm, Antenna, Comark, and Transit Wireless (the company that has installed Wi-Fi in 47 stations of the city’s subway system).

The LinkNYC kiosks will offer “up to gigabit speeds,” feature charging stations for devices, have touch screens for accessing information about the city, and allow free domestic phone calls. While the consortium hasn’t elaborated about its gigabit capabilities, and it hasn’t mentioned any attempts to secure a contract with any of the ISPs in the area.

However, according to CNET, LinkNYC plans to deploy “the fastest and largest free municipal Wi-Fi deployment in the world” and claims that it will be “more than 20 times fast than the average home Internet service in NYC” with a “seamless roaming experience from Link to Link” and adds that this will all come “at no cost to taxpayers.”

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IBM’s Watson AI will give health advice based on your DNA

Personal health has become the latest battleground for technology giants, from apps that track your eating habits to wearable gadgets that help you exercise, companies such as Apple and Google are touting the benefits of their health-centric technology. All of that seems gimmicky to IBM, however, as the company wants to use its artificially intelligent supercomputer to analyze your DNA and interpret the results, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The New York-based technology giant is joining forced with a startup called Pathway Genomics in order to create an advanced app that tracks your fitness and diet using DNA sequencing and Watson, IBM’s artificially intelligent machine, to give users custom health recommendations. While it certainly won’t be a replacement for a human doctor, the app will act as a tool for being healthy on a day-to-day basis, according to Market Watch.

“Say you’ve just flown from your house on the coast to a city that’s 10,000 feet above sea level,” said Pathway Genomics’s chief medical officer Michael Nova in a recent blog post, as quoted by Gizmodo. “You might want to ask how far you could safely run on your first day after getting off the plane, and at what pulse rate should you slow your jogging pace. Or say you’re diabetic and you’re in a city you have never visited before. You had a pastry for breakfast and you want to know when you should take your next shot of insulin. In an emergency, you’ll be able to find specialized healthcare providers near where you are who can take care of you.”

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Amazon is looking for drone testing pilots in the UK

Amazon announced its ambitious plans for special package delivery drones, a project known as Amazon Prime Air, late last year but hasn’t had much to say about the project since then, until now that is. The project has numerous obstacles to overcome, but the American e-commerce giant is making progress.

According to Tech Crunch, Amazon is expanding its delivery drone testing to Cambridge, with a plan to fully staff a large research lab in the British city, expanding on the foothold that the company acquired when it bought Cambridge-based speech tech startup Evi Technologies two years ago.

“If you want to apply state-of-the-art technologies to solve extreme-scale real world problems… If you want the satisfaction of providing visible benefit to end-users in an iterative fast paced environment… This is your opportunity,” the company wrote on the career page of it’s website, as quoted by The Telegraph.

“You can expect to collaborate on test plans, plan the test evolution, and execute the flights while working closely with our flight engineering and flight test teams in Seattle. We’re looking for aerospace, systems, or other engineers with extensive UAS flight experience. Success will require attention to detail, a safety-oriented attitude, flexibility, and creative problem solving.”

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Advanced carbon-mapping could help slow deforestation in the Amazon

The immense jungle canopy of the Amazon simply looks like a muddled sea of green to the human eye when viewed from space, but satellites and other high-tech instruments can provide an infinitely more nuanced view of the biological Mecca, right down to the household level.

While that kind of technology seems more suited for the CIA, there’s another audience that could benefit even more from it: forest managers and scientists that’re looking to sequester as much carbon dioxide as possible, as the Amazon Rainforest absorbs a staggering amount of the carbon dioxide that’s emitted by humans and natural sources.

Unchecked logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and fossil fuel exploration threaten to damage this crucial carbon dioxide sponge, which could have harsh consequences if not stopped. In order to combat this, scientists have published details on a new high-resolution mapping technique using satellite imagery and an airborne remote-sensing technology called Lidar.

“We found that nearly a billion metric tons of above-ground carbon stocks in Peru are at imminent risk of emission into the atmosphere due to land uses such as fossil fuel oil exploration, cattle ranching, oil palm plantations and gold mining,” said researcher, Greg Asner, as quoted by Telesur. “This new map provides the evidence needed to start negotiating in the carbon market on a bigger scale.”

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New “Ozzy Osbourne” frog discovered in the Brazilian Amazon

The first animal that pops into your mind when you think of Ozzy Osbourne most likely isn’t a frog. Instead, you’d probably think of a bat, right? A team of scientists had a similar though too, which is why when they discovered a new species of frog that mimics the sounds that bats make, they decided to name it after the legendary rock star.

According to Loudwire, the new species was discovered by Pedro Peloso and a group of colleagues during a month-long expedition into the Brazilian Amazon back in 2009. Referred to as the Bat Frog, the creature’s official scientific name is Dendropsophus ozzyi, as detailed in the journal Zootaxa.

The tiny tree frog emits a unique and highly unusual bat-like call, which was an immediate giveaway to the group of scientists that the species was unknown to science. Peloso said that he has “never heard anything like it” and, being avid fans of Black Sabbath, decided to name the two-centimeter-long species after the band’s lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne.

The new species was discovered in the Floresta Nacional de Pau-Rosa area of the Brazilian Amazon. Almost two dozen specimens were collected from three different areas, which suggests that the animal is probably common and widespread. Considering how well-explored the region is, it serves as a reminder of just how rich in biodiversity the Amazon Rainforest is.

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NASA agrees to lease the Moffett Federal Airfield to Google

NASA has agreed to lease the Moffett Federal Airfield in the San Francisco Bay Area to Google, according to Tech Crunch. The technology giant will pay NASA $1.16 billion over the course of six decades in order to rent the 1,000-acre site, which includes a working airfield, a golf course, and numerous other buildings.

Google made the deal through Planetary Ventures, one of the company’s subsidiaries, which won the ability to negotiate for the airfield earlier this year. Ever since then, Google and NASA have been working out the terms of the agreement, which most people expected to go through, considering Google’s significant interest in acquiring the land and NASA’s equally significant interest in getting rid of it.

“As NASA expands its presence in space, we are making strides to reduce our footprint here on Earth,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement, as quoted by The Verge. “We want to invest taxpayer resources in scientific discovery, technology development and space exploration – not in maintaining infrastructure we no longer need.”

According to USA Today, Google plans to invest more than $200 million into the facility in order to refurbish the hangers and add numerous other improvements, such as an educational facility or a museum that will showcase the airfield’s history, as well as that of Silicon Valley. Planetary Ventures also will use the facility for “research, development, assembly, and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies.”

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DARPA wants to kill the next Ebola crisis in the womb

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the research organization of the United States military which, since its founding, been tasked with developing advanced military technology. However, according to Engadget, now DARPA has turned its attention towards the Ebola crisis, or more specifically, how to prevent it from even getting off of the ground.

“We keep seeing these unexpected bio-threats pop up along the globe, and we don’t want to be in the position where we are reactive,” said Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, as quoted by FedScoop. “We want to be in a position where we’re building a platform technology that can be applied not just to Ebola, but the next thing.”

“DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, which launched earlier this year, looks at biology as a technology, with a focus on harnessing living systems or integrating those systems with nonliving systems,” said Jackson, as quoted by RT. “We are trying to rethink that paradigm. We’re not just interested in solving the Ebola crisis. We want to be prepared for the next thing. We’re looking for a way to completely transform the way we’re attacking these problems, either with a vaccine or therapeutics or diagnostics.”

“We don’t just throw money over the fence and hope a good idea comes to fruition,” Jackson said. “We really work with the person who we’re funding to structure their technical project in a way that allows us to gauge and measure progress every step of the way. Biology is the most ancient and most powerful technology that we know of,” Jackson said. “It can do things that no other man-made machine or synthetic chemistry can even begin to approach in terms of the materials it can create and the functions that it can do.”

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BMW wants to recharge electric vehicles using street lights

One of the biggest issues that electric vehicles face is the lack of places to charge them up when you’re away from home. While the obvious solution would be to develop a standalone recharging network, that takes time to implement and is very costly. Fortunately, BMW has a solution that’s both easy to implement and affordable.

According to a new report from Reuters, the German automaker has developed two prototype street lights that equip a standard LED street light design with a charging socket for an electric vehicle. The idea is ingeniously simple, as it utilizes an already-existing piece of infrastructure, and could make driving an electric vehicle much more practical in urban areas.

BMW will begin a pilot project for the technology next year in its home city of Munich. The lights can be grafted directly onto the city’s existing local authority street lighting infrastructure and can be used by as many drivers as possible, regardless of the kind of electric vehicle model that a person has or the company that provides the electricity.

The German automaker has already installed two of these charging street lights in front of its headquarters. Drivers will be able to pay to charge their vehicles by using a dedicated mobile app. BMW has created some of the most advanced electric vehicles available, but the market for such vehicles has struggled to take off due to insufficient infrastructure.

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An agency is using Tinder to spread awareness of sex trafficking

No Tinder user is ever certain of what they’ll see when they swipe to the right, but they certainly don’t expect to see the face of a victim of sex trafficking. However, a new campaign created by the advertising agency known as Eighty Twenty is bringing some disturbing images to the dating app in Ireland in order to raise awareness on the issue.

According to The Verge, the first few photos on the campaign’s fake profiles are exactly what you’d expect to find on a real Tinder profile, but as you swipe to the right in order to see more photos, the woman gradually begin to show realistic simulated injuries and other signs of abuse.

The last two images include a message that denounces sex trafficking and links to another organization, Turn Off The Red Light, that’s working towards having a complete ban on all forms of sex work throughout Ireland which, up until just recently, was technically legal in the country, although the public solicitation of sex was not.

“Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative crimes with the sums involved on a par with those for drug smuggling and gun running, yet many people are not aware that it is a reality in communities right across Ireland. The Immigrant Council of Ireland is committed to using every possible opportunity to increase awareness about the activities of the thugs behind these crimes and the impact on their victims,” reads the message on the fake Tinder profiles.

“It is important that men of all ages who buy sex are made aware of the consequences of their actions. We are delighted to partner with the team at eightytwenty to bring this important message to an audience which is difficult to reach through traditional media,” the message concludes, as quoted by Jezebel.

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Random pirate selfie with appropriate knife background. #Because

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OnBeep makes Star Trek communicators a reality with Onyx

With Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp and Snapchat’s own multi-billion dollar valuation, messaging apps have been some of 2014’s biggest technology stories. Aside from smartphones, however, there hasn’t been much in the way of new messaging hardware, and that’s something that OnBeep wants to change, according to The Verge.

The San Francisco-based startup is mixing things up with a new wearable device called Onyx. This nifty-looking, $99.99 device is supposed to be clipped on to your clothing and allows for real-time voice communication with another person, or even a group of people, that’re also wearing an Onyx, simply press the button and begin talking.

The Onyx connects to your smartphone, iOS or Android, via Bluetooth and will work so long as your smartphone is connected to a network. The device’s battery lasts for twelve hours during heavy usage. The Onyx’s companion app allows users to manage who’s in a particular group, look up on a map where each group member is, and figure out who’s speaking.

“We’ve come up with a design that works for all kinds of people and all kinds of fabrics and that is friendly,” said Jesse Robbins, the founder and chief executive of OnBeep, as quoted by Venture Beat. “It’s easy to use. It just works. There’s not a whole lot to the app. There’s a lot of complexity underneath in order to make that happen.”

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Of course there are 16 cars in the Starbucks drive thru when I'm in a big hurry.

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Yippee

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Formula One is testing out a “virtual safety car”

In the event of a dangerous situation on the race track, such as a crash or pileup, several forms of motorsport deploy a safety car which leads the race cars around the track at a safer speeds. In the wake of Formula One driver Jules Bianchi’s terrifying crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, however, Formula One officials have decided to begin testing out a system which could render safety cars obsolete, according to BBC.

After the practice rounds at the United States Grand Prix on Friday, teams tested a new “virtual safety car” program which forced the racers to reduce their speeds to about 35% less than what they would be in a normal dry lap. The idea is that this will force drivers to slow down for safety reasons without needing to deploy a safety car on the race track.

“There are positives and negatives. When you’re wheel-to-wheel and the system comes on you can’t just hit the brakes like we are now to get the speed down,” Jenson Button told Sky Sports after the test. “In that respect it’s very tricky. I like the idea but you do spend a long time looking at your steering wheel. With the way the Safety Car boards are now and with the lap that we do when there’s no Safety Car you can dip below the time and you get away with it because as long as you cross the finish line positive, you are okay.”

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The food that helped to sustain dreams of children in my generation

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If there's one verse that makes me look at the world differently every day, it's this one.

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One must question the validity of their claim.

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Sniper cloud.

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ISS-bound resupply rocket explodes mid-launch

The skies above the Eastern Shore of Virginia were filled with a massive fireball on Tuesday after an unmanned commercial rocket, which was supposed to bring fresh supplies to the people aboard the International Space Station, exploded just a few short seconds after it began it’s ascension.

According to The New York Times, the Antares rocket, developed by Orbital Sciences on a contract from NASA, was carrying over 5,000 pounds of fresh supplies, science experiments, and equipment when it lifted off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia, bound for the International Space Station.

Shortly after leaving the ground, however, the rocket burst into flames before exploding into countless pieces and falling back to the ground. Frank L. Culbertson Jr., the executive vice president of Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, said that “The ascent stopped. There was some disassembly of the first stage, it looked like, and then it fell to earth.”

“It is far too early to know the details of what happened,” Culbertson said in a statement, as quoted by NBC News, adding that the rocket and cargo alone were valued at around $200 million. “As we begin to gather information, our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations.”

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