This week we’re Getting to the Point with some helpful advice in from the business world along with some fascinating tidbits from the art, tech and medical arenas.
Once again, the civilized world contends with an unspeakable terrorist act, this time in Birmingham, England at the Ariana Grande concert on Monday. We share the grief and extend our condolences to the friends and families of the victims of this tragic event. There’s an unlimited supply of related stories, but in our Spotlight segment, I want to focus on The Horror of an Attack Targeting Young Women.
Our Upcoming Events segment bears witness to the sacrifice of our fallen heroes who we remember over this Memorial Day weekend. Take a moment from your busy day … shed a few tears as I always do … and remember the sacrifices they have made through the years … and continue to make every day … at great risk … but with an unwavering dedication to the service of their country.
In our Business Brief, learn the 9 Things That Make Good Employees Quit, how the airlines are making their money (it’s not what you think) and the various perspective that apply to the minimum wage. And, yes, they really are able to 3D-print a wall. Our Featured Article, 7 Simple Steps to Build Vital Flexibility into Your Company’s DNA offers important guidelines to help you avoid the kind of mishaps that can cripple your company.
In our Geeking Out segment, you’ll see why your phone and you are going to be BFFs and how tech is helping with the homeless problem. Make sure you look Under the Apple Tree for some great iOS tips you’ll love. As we look Around the Web, you’ll learn about the “Amazon Effect” on garbage bills*, how digital medicine is changing our lives** and why beauty is absolutely in the eye of the beholder.
We’ll add a little Humor to illuminate how wise we get as we get older. There’s also a good Movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon, and in What We’re Reading – Fiction, the latest Cotton Malone thriller that revels in some incredible history that is not altogether fictional.
Table of Contents
- Spotlight
- Upcoming Events
- Featured Article
- Geeking Out
- From the Apple Tree
- What’s So Funny?
- What They Said
- Around the Web
- Business Brief
- Movies
- What We’re Reading (Fiction)
Once again, the civilized world contends with an unspeakable terrorist act, this time in Birmingham, England at the Ariana Grande concert on Monday. We share the grief and extend our condolences to the friends and families of the victims of this tragic event.
There’s an unlimited supply of related stories, but in The Horror of an Attack Targeting Young Women, the Atlantic explores how the suicide bombing was aimed at preteen and teenage girls enjoying one of the best nights of their lives.
On this Memorial Day weekend, we also pay tribute to our fallen heroes.
Take a moment from your busy day … shed a few tears as I always do … and remember the sacrifices they have made through the years … and continue to make every day … at great risk … but with an unwavering dedication to the service of their country.
7 Simple Steps to Build Vital Flexibility into Your Company’s DNA
In 7 Steps to Build Flexibility into Your Company’s DNA, I talk about all the times we’ve all needed a do-over … a mulligan … a makeover … just one more chance to do something over again so we get it right.
In our professional life, those “do-overs” are usually pretty costly … and much more costly when we fail to implement the flexibility that could have saved our bacon.
If you want to make sure you build FLEXIBILITY into your company’s DNA, these 7 steps will ensure it’s deeply embedded into your decision-making process … and give you the greatest possible chance to overcome uncertainty and build a successful business.
Good Thing You’re Already in Love with Your Phone
In Your Camera Wants to Kill the Keyboard, you’ll learn that your phone is going to renew its vows to be your bestest friend forever.
“SNAPCHAT KNEW IT from the start, but in recent months Google and Facebook have all but confirmed it: The keyboard, slowly but surely, is fading into obscurity.”
Using Technology to Track the Homeless
“NEW YORK IS facing a crisis. The city that never sleeps has become the city with the most people who have no home to sleep in. As rising rents outpace income growth across the five boroughs, some 62,000 people, nearly 40 percent of them children, live in homeless shelters—rates the city hasn’t seen since the Great Depression.”
The article, NYC’s New Tech to Track Every Homeless Person in the City, describes a software application to help manage this crisis which besets cities across the globe.
iOS Tips to Keep You in Charge of your iPhone and iPad
Apple’s iOS software runs our iPhones and iPads, so any tips to help us navigate those devices, particularly the iPhones we always have with us, are welcome.
Here are a bunch I’ve collected for you recently:
- When typing, press and hold the keyboard for a moveable cursor.
- Throw away your flashlight app. Instead, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get the built in flashlight … and related to this … if you 3D Touch the light in Control Center, you get options for low, medium and bright light.
- Pull down on the home page to search for apps.
- Investigate the triple click accessibility shortcut. I use it as a magnifying glass.
- If you hand someone your iOS device to show them a photo, zoom in on the photo a little because it will prevent them from sliding to the next photo without asking you. (That happens a lot, doesn’t it?)
- If you 3d touch on an iMessage from the inbox screen and then swipe up, you are offered quick reply options.
The “Amazon Effect” on Garbage Bills
In a sign of the times, San Francisco residents are facing a 14% increase in recycling costs, much of which is attributable to the Amazon Effect.
You can expect to see this across the country, if not the entire globe, in the coming years.
“Beauty is in the Eye (Wallet?) of the Beholder”
- Another Sign of the Apocalypse?
First, there’s the $110 Million Basquiat Sold by Family Who Bought It for $19,000, where you’ll discover an art investor that pulled one out of the hat and a buyer whose tastes will forever elude me. (Will one of you artistes tell me what you see in this ugly painting?)
“The work led four days of bellwether auctions in New York where the world’s wealthiest investors and families dropped more than $1.5 billion on Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art.”
- Then There’s This Incredible Artistry
In contrast to the breathtaking price of the skull, you can find Dutch Master Max Zorn paintings in many places, but this one of Mohammed Ali is taped to a lampost. Witness the remarkable artistry that is accomplished only with packing tape.
Both of these stories are incredible on so many levels.
… And On the Medical Front
- What’s This About Digital Medicine?
Scientists in Medicine Is Going Digital. The FDA Is Racing to Catch Up, describe the extraordinary innovation that’s going on:
“Today, machine learning powers more and more medical device software. And because it is always learning and improving, it is constantly changing products on the fly. For most regulators, an ever-changing algorithm is their worst nightmare. But Patel (Bakul Patel, associate center director for digital health at FDA) is one of those rare Washington bureaucrats who’s also a fervently optimistic futurist.”
“To do that, the FDA is creating a new unit dedicated strictly to digital health. Patel will be hiring 13 engineers—software developers, AI experts, cloud computing whizzes—to prepare his agency to regulate a future in which health care is increasingly mediated by machines.”
+ You might want to watch The Robot Will See You Now – AI and Health Care.
- Please Pass the Sugar Pills
When you read, ‘I knew they were sugar pills but I felt fantastic’, you’ll see that the doctor is out on how placebos should be handled in drug trials.
- “A review of five studies, involving 260 patients, published last month found that ”open-label“ placebos – those that patients know contain no active medication – can improve symptoms in a range of conditions.”
How Long Have I Got?
We know that life expectancy varies according to genes, diet, exercise and a host of factors, but did we know that U.S. life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county?
9 Things That Make Good Employees Quit
In this article by Travis Bradberry, the coauthor of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, clams that:
“Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.”
If you want to make sure you’re not guilty of these practices, keep these tips on a handy index card. Review it periodically, for both yourself and your fellow leaders, to be sure you’re doing everything possible to hang on to your talent.
You Thought Airlines Made Their Money By Selling Tickets?
With airline ticket prices climbing, you’d think that’s how the airlines make their rmoney.
Nope. Airlines Make More Money Selling Miles Than Seats according to this article, which points out that the “golden goose isn’t your ticket or bag fee—it’s the credit card you use to collect frequent flier miles.”
At a Minimum, The Minimum Wage is Super Controversial
If you live in California, or are facing minimum wage hikes in your neighborhood, there are strong feelings on both sides of this issue which is getting increasing attention across the country. If you want to be sure you’ve got a clear handle on it, here are a few articles to consider:
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In [California’s $15 Minimum Wage Makes A Lot Less Sense Outside Of Silicon Valley], you’ll get a solid background on this movement.
“In July, Emeryville, California, passed the highest city-wide minimum wage in the country. Here’s how workers’ lives changed—and didn’t.”
- The Sky Not Falling In San Francisco, Either takes a look at the impact of the minimum wage on the restaurant business. The conclusion may not be what you expect.
Who Said You Can’t 3D-Print a Wall?
Over the last few months, we’ve uncovered 3D printing to build houses … and to reproduce ovaries in mice that can actually make babies. Yeah, I know.
Now, in ‘We could 3D-print Trump’s wall’: China construction visionaries set to revolutionise an industry rife with graft and old thinking, we learn that it takes only 3 days to build a villa, and a tower that rises by three storeys a day.
Patriot’s Day starring Mark Wahlberg & Kevin Bacon
Ironically and unintentionally, Connie and I watched this movie last Sunday, the same day 40,000 people qu
eued up for the famous Bay to Breakers race. Earlier that day, I read about some of the growing restrictions on that race, which historically, has been one of the most indulgent of an “anything goes” mentality” (put Bay to Breakers pictures in the search bar of your favorite browser to see what I mean) … and those restrictions mirrored much of what was learned from the tragic Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.
The movie is fast-paced and keeps the tension high even though the outcome is already known. It’s also a poignant reminder of the unpredictable nature of terrorism, the strength and resilience of the human spirit and the power of the “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” spirit of the people of Boston.
“Boston Strong”!
The Lost Order by Steve Berry (#16 Cotton Malone series)
Steve Berry is back and has written a fascinating book in the Cotton Malone series that fictionalizes (but nowhere near as much as you think) about the Knights of the Golden Circle, the largest and most dangerous clandestine organization in American history.
In The Lost Order, the battle lines are drawn:
“The Knights amassed billions in stolen gold and silver, all buried in hidden caches across the United States. Since 1865 treasure hunters have searched, but little of that immense wealth has ever been found. Now, one hundred and sixty years later, two factions of what remains of the Knights want that lost treasure—one to spend it for their own ends, the other to preserve it. Thrust into this battle is former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, whose connection to the knights is far deeper than he ever imagined.”
BTW … one faction also intends to upend the Constitution with a lawful twist that will have you wondering whether that might really be possible.
History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel. It’s his passion, one he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, which led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009 Steve and Elizabeth have crossed the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners and their popular writers’ workshops.
Here is the trailer and TV commercial for The Lost Order.
As always for a character-driven series, I recommend starting with Book #1, The Templar Legacy.
