The phrase “seeing around corners” gets tossed around boardrooms and strategy meetings as though it were a compliment, a kind of secular beatification for the executive or thinker who got there first. But the phrase deserves closer scrutiny, because what it actually describes is a discipline, and one that most people refuse to practice because the conclusions it produces are uncomfortable.
With the novel Coronavirus in full flush, I have never been more self-educated in needing to know more about protective masks. Since the beginning of April, I have wondered at all the face covering options, while knowing, and accepting that the medical grade masks — the now non-ubiquitous N95 masks — are not available to the public. I’ve been searching everywhere for a lead on a KN95 mask or a surgical mask — the lesser protective cousin to the full N95 mask — or some sort of other, non-optimal mask that can protect Janna and me from the vulgarities of Covid-19. We are not having any luck.
Any tragic world event is an opportunity to convey meaning for profit — personally, politically, fiscally or morally — and the instant rise of the “Peace for Paris” logo designed by Jean Jullien “one minute” after the tragedy, and then immediately posting the image to Facebook and Twitter, begs a larger human question of “selfieness” and cynicism: Is an Artist trying to give hope against trafficking in evil, or is it all a rather cunning ploy to “make the meme” for a tragedy by propagating self-interest-as-a-logo over the perils of human interest?
Continue reading → Paris and the Superficial Memes of Selfieness Tragedy
I do a lot of walking in New York City and Jersey City. There’s one particular corner in Jersey City that always strikes fear deep in my heart and stabs me down betwixt my toes with absolute pity and terror: The “crosswalk” — angularly located at the bisection of Nardone Place and John F. Kennedy Boulevard West — spans five lanes of traffic, at least six turning car angles aiming straight at you, and a long walk that means you actually must run as fast as you can to make it safely across the street.
Continue reading → The Eight-Year Jersey City Crossing Guard Who Lost His Heart
We live in a threatening and dangerous world where we cannot even trust our own government not to deceive and disappoint us. Security of our proprietary information is paramount in the vulnerable warp and woof of our social fabric, and that’s why — even when I first reviewed 1Password way back on December 8, 2009 — I knew securing all my passwords in a single, super-hardened, space was not only important, but necessary:
It took me several days to change and update all my passwords — but once that dirty deed was done, I was able to relax a bit in my core knowing I now had randomized and much more secure passwords covering my life — and the great thing is I don’t have to remember any of them!
1Password remembers all those passwords and usernames and automatically logs me in with the touch of a button on my web browser.
1Password also has an iPhone app that will sync — unfortunately via WiFi only, and both your computer and iPhone must be on the same WiFi network — your desktop accounts and passwords back and forth so you can be safe and secure when you’re online with your iPhone as well.
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