Drones: The Next Big Thing?

As today is Christmas, being from a Jewish family, I am very bored. Reading an article I found online, a 'Social Media Holiday Wishlist' courtesy of the analytics firm Prime Visibility, I discovered something interesting. Through social media monitoring, the company determined that the #4 most wanted gift this holiday season was a drone. This is a huge upgrade from last years' #4 (Justin Bieber tickets). Drones have stirred up quite a bit of controversy as of late. As with all new technologies, there is an uncertainty as to how they should be regulated. An average American now has the ability to go out and purchase a small aircraft for a relatively low price. This is quite troubling for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). The FAA has already come out and said that they likely will not have regulations for unmanned aircraft until the year 2017. As of right now, the commercial use of these drones is banned until the FAA makes up their mind. Amazon has been researching the possible implementation of drones as a way of an unmanned delivery service. They have been forced to research and develop out-of-country and I personally think this is a huge missed opporotunity. Transportation costs on online goods would plumit. Gas would be saved. Time would be saved. Most importantly to Amazon and consumers, money would be saved. The video below is a quick demonstration on how said process would work. 

I think this has potential to turn into something awesome. What do you think?

The US and Cuba: Two Best Friends

"Today the US is changing its relationship with the people of Cuba. We'll begin to normalize relations between our two nations. Through these changes, we intend to create more opportunities for the American and Cuban people and begin a new chapter," Obama said in a press conference. The President declared the end of what he called America’s “outdated approach” to Cuba. He stated plans to open an embassy in Havana and end a 50 year old feud. Along with that, citizens of the US are now free to travel to Cuba. Encouraging these statements were Castro's actions. Cuba released American aid worker Alan Gross​. Mediating the negotiations was none other than Pope Francis and the Vatican. The Pope was very impressed at how our two countries were able to compromise. 

The new ties also secured the swap of a top US spy held in Cuba​ in exchange​ for three Cubans who were jailed based on intelligence he​’d ​provided, Obama said. I think both sides of these negotiations - both the US and Cuba - went about things very eloquently. Reading what Castro had to say about Obama afterwords you would think that they were best friends. I think this will open up a new chapter with our friends in the Gulf.

Black Friday Murder

Amongst chaos and shopping on Black Friday, a man entered Nordstrom in the heart of downtown Chicago with a firearm. In what is being called a domestic crime, he shot his ex-girlfriend
Nadia Ezaldein. She was a seasonal employee in the store. Following the attack, the man reportedly shot and killed himself as witnesses fled from the gunfire. Ezaldein passed away after being taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

In somewhat of a surprise, the Nordstrom location closed its doors for the day following the attack during one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year. According to a store affiliate, the management intends to keep the store closed until further notice.

I happen to have a mutual friend with the late Nadia Ezaldein. She was a very nice woman and had a very abusive past with her former boyfriend, Marcus Dee. Dee was ex-military. According to my mutual friend, after he came back state-side he was emotionally troubled. All news outlets have failed to mention his military past. This seems to be another case of a disturbed veteran with PTSD.

We (as Americans) fail to support the very people that risk their lives defending our rights. This is a huge issue. Do I have the solution? Absolutely not.

Marcus Dee (Left) and Nadia Ezaldein (Right)

Attacks Continue Inside Israel

In the second major attack in two weeks, Border Police Chief Inspector Jidaan Asad was killed and 13 others were wounded. Ibrahim al-Akri, 38, drove a car onto a crowded train platform in Jerusalem. He then backed out and drove a short distance away before attacking a group of civilians and police officers standing by the side of the road with an tire iron. This attack took place on Wednesday and is believed to be related to an attack that took place last week in which an Ecuadorian mother and baby were killed.

In an incredibly ironic moment following the attack, two separate terrorist organizations - Hamas and Islamic Jihad, attempted to claim the attack as a work of theirs. With two groups claiming to have committed the same crime, it is difficult to understand many details on who was actually responsible. It seems like every day there is more news of an attack on Israel, making it seemingly the most dangerous place to live in the world. While Hamas measures its success by how many Israelis it is able to kill, Israel measures its success in part by how few Palestinian civilians it kills. According to an article by jpost.com, Israel actually has a lower mortality rate than the United States. 

Jerusalem is split into a largely Palestinian East and a mostly Jewish Western side. Tensions have been rising over the last few weeks between the sides, with drive-by shootings and molotov bombings. It is sad that members of the so called "religion of peace" will violently fight against allowing other religions to pray in a location that many people consider to be the holiest place on earth. Why haven't Islamic world leaders spoken up against this violence, instead it has been condoned. I am not saying that this is purely a conflict due to Islam, it is certainly not, but nobody appears to be doing much in the ways of solving the real problems.

Tim Cook Comes Out

In an piece published Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly confirmed his long suspected sexual orientation. This is a huge step forward for big corporations such as Apple but the news has come at a convenient time. At a women's tech conference last Thursday, Nadella (CEO of Microsoft) said that women not asking for a raise is "good karma" and that "the system will give you the right raises as you go along." It is not hard to see why so many people (both men and women) reacted in a harsh way towards Microsoft. As a CEO of one of the largest corporations in the US, a statement like that is completely inexcusable. Tim Cook coming out at a week after that statement is no coincidence if you ask me. As Microsoft is swarmed in a frenzy of negative press, Apple is painted in a bright light. Now seen as a more forward-thinking and progressive company, Apple has a huge advantage over Microsoft. I don't think negatively about Tim Cook coming out, however it seems a bit too convenient regarding the timing of his announcement. It would be ironic if Apple now goes back to the retro rainbow logo.

Jon Stewart destroys Bill O'Reilly

Jon Stewart, the host of the popular satirical news talk-show "The Daily Show", invited Bill O'Reilly (author and host of the "The O'Reilly Factor") onto his show for something like the fifth time on October 15th. They have had several long held debates and Stewart has appeared on O'Reilly's show several times as well. This time, things went a little differently.

Jon Stewart completely dismissed O'Reilly's new book: “Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General.” Stewart lifted the book, showed it to his audience and said, “The book is called Bill O’Reilly, ‘Killing Patton,’ it’s like what? the eighth? We’re just going to call this series ‘Killing Trees,’ they sell like crazy.” He then dropped the book onto his desk and told O’Reilly that he hadn't read it.

Jon proceeded to demand that O'Reilly acknowledge the existence of what he calls 'White Privilege.' Besides the fact that I do like "The Daily Show" and Jon Stewart, I happen to agree with him on his points. So-called White Privilege is a problem in this country and there is currently a lot of turmoil over the subject.

When Stewart insisted that white privilege is still a problem in modern American society, O’Reilly countered: “Maybe you haven’t figured out that there is no more slavery and there is no more Jim Crow. The most powerful man in the world is a black American and the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, is black.”

Jon Stewart then says, "Slavery and Jim Crow are dead, but the residual effects of that systemic subjugation exist today." African American are forced into ghettos and 'hoods' where they do not grow up with traditional American values. They receive far poorer education and have a much higher chance of incarceration later in life. Many won't get into secondary education, limiting the job market for themselves. Working minimum wage means they won't have the money to move out of the ghetto and the vicious cycle is repeated. Out of the many born in the hoods, the majority will be forced to stay. 'White Privilege' on the other hand is the opposite. Born into middle-class houses with quality education readily available means much higher chances of being 'successful' in life.

I am aware the whole segment is long, but I believe it is more than worth while:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Soundcloud Sells Out Listeners

For the past 3 years I have used SoundCloud as my primary source for music. I have found it to be a great way to find new artists and with its free and convenient ios app, it is excellent for listening to tunes on the go. So, here I am listening to a brand new EP when all of the sudden the unthinkable happens. My ears are molested with a barrage of Squarespace advertisements. 

One of the last decent free services online was now monetized.

Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, Songza, and now Soundcloud

Premier-tiered content will include advertising - Red Bull, Jaguar, Sonos, Squarespace and Comedy Central are the first five ad partners at launch. Dan Gerber, SoundCloud’s head of sales (and a veteran of Pandora), notes that audio ads will be similar to YouTube, running at a minimum of 15 seconds, with 30-second ads offering the option to opt out after the first 15 seconds.

In an hour of streaming music, I encountered the same Squarespace ad, twice. Besides utterly disappointed, I am at a lack of words. The new rumor going around is that they [Soundcloud] are about to instill a new paid subscription program, so not only will I have to deal with ads, but I will get sucked into paying for them as well.

Alan Henry of Lifehacker put together a nice list of some great (free) alternatives to Soundcloud that can be found here. 

What do you think the impact of advertisements will be? Feel free to voice your opinions and let me know. Happy listening!

Illinois Bans EDM in Bloomington

In yet another case of governmental ignorance, the state of Illinois placed a ban on Electronic Dance Music events in the city of Bloomington earlier this week. This was apparently in an attempt to fight the growing popularity of this genre of music that is sweeping the entire globe. The ban was set into place just before well known DJ/Producer Bassnectar was scheduled to preform for the 4th consecutive year in the city. According to Bassnectar, who is up in arms about the ban, Bloomington was one of his favorite venues to preform at. In an effort to make it up to his local fans, he is organizing an event on Halloween in nearby Peoria.

As an avid listener of many sub-genres of EDM and someone who planned on attending the show, I am outraged. Mainstream media has made a huge effort to falsely stereotype the listeners of new-age-dance-music. The state of Illinois is afraid of being looked down upon as a state that condones drug use due to several recent deaths at EDM headlined events. What people fail to realize is that there have only been more arrests at these concerts because of the much heightened security. I would be hard-pressed if somebody had evidence that showed there is less drug use at non-edm festivals and events. There are no more deaths at these events then there were during the grunge/metal concerts in the 90's. 

Illinois is not the first state to take action on somewhat illegitimate grounds; Florida, California, and New York are just a few other states to crack down on the 'raves'. It is important to know that the ban does not affect privately owned venues and theaters.