MomCrunch
Thanks to the imaginative and scrupulous writing of Nate St. Pierre earlier this month, we can see how Facebook (at least, in concept) could have been invented by Abraham Lincoln, complete with profile picture, personal info, status updates, and shared material. Nate sums up Lincoln’s patent application in his post:
Lincoln was proposing that each town build a centrally located collection of documents where “every Man may have his own page, where he might discuss his Family, his Work, and his Various Endeavors.”
He went on to propose that “each Man may decide if he shall make his page Available to the entire Town, or only to those with whom he has established Family or Friendship.” Evidently there was to be someone overseeing this collection of documents, and he would somehow know which pages anyone could look at, and which ones only certain people could see (it wasn’t quite clear in the application). Lincoln stated that these documents could be updated “at any time deemed Fit or Necessary,” so that anyone in town could know what was going on in their friends’ lives “without being Present in Body.” Continue reading »
No, I’m not talking about the cancerous tumor that’s growing in your brain from sleeping with your cell phone under your pillow every night! That’s old news. I’m talking about your everyday, pedestrian strains of parasites and bacteria transmitted through poo.
No s___! Actually, there probably is s___. According to a study by the University of London, one in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with fecal matter. Of course, they say “faecal” but hey, tomato-tomahto, right?
16% of hands and 16% of cell phones were found to harbor E.coli, which causes stomach upset, food poisoning, and has been the cause of several serious outbreaks in the last few years, including the one in Germany last summer that killed 157 people! Didn’t we have to boycott lettuce or lemons at some point?
The article says, “Every year, 3.5m children under the age of five are killed by pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases – and the simple action of washing hands with soap is one of the most effective ways of preventing these illnesses. In developed countries, handwashing with soap helps to prevent the spread of viral infections, such as norovirus, rotavirus and influenza.” Continue reading »
I was at the doctor the other day and the technician asked me if I had the day off. I said, “I work for myself.”
“Oooh, so you’re always working.” Isn’t that the truth?
Entrepreneur + Mom = Mompreneur: person who can still take her kids to the dentist, albeit bleary-eyed and unshowered.
The holy grail for this ever growing segment of the population is life balance! Google it! You’ll find gobs of sites and books and articles.
So is it a wonder us that us digital moms are spreading the news like its the latest meme… Sheryl Sandburg clocks out every day at 5:30 and has dinner with her kids! How. Does. She. Do. It?
On the other end of the spectrum is Marissa Mayer. According to Betabeat, in the early days of Google, Marissa pulled an all-nighter every week for the first five years, as did everyone else at Google:
People wondered how she and other employees worked 130-hours when a week only contains a 168 hours, but you can do it “if you’re strategic about when you shower and sleep.”
But I AM strategic about when I shower and sleep!
Are you more like Sheryl or Marissa? Continue reading »
How would you feel if you saw that text message on your teen’s phone? Would you be cool with it? Disturbed? Concerned? Perhaps not as horrified as parents of teens in Pennsylvania who got blatant sexual messages and naked photos from a substitute teacher. This is only one of many incidents in the last twelve months involving inappropriate communication between teachers and students.
For the record, I am far from a luddite. I am not (obviously), anti-technology. However, technology is not exactly to blame for sexual abuse and/or misconduct, now is it? Some former students at Shamokin Area High School in Pennsylvania, where the substitute teacher was employed were suprised, “It’s nuts because it never happened when we were in school. I think it’s crazy.”
Um, (raising hand), did you have cell phones when you were in school? Was texting as prevalent then as it is now? The unfortunate truth is that this particular brand of abuse is not new but just manifesting itself in ways that reflect our modern experience. Predators go where the prey is and if they’re smart, they will communicate with them in the way that their potential victims are most comfortable. Yes, teens text.
“Texting is far more effective as a means to engage students than email, which young people have found outdated for at least five years,” Lisa Nielsen said in this HuffPost article. Nielsen is the author of Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning. I agree… texting is an innovative way to get a teen’s attention, gain their trust, and create a sense of comfort and even intimacy… which is exactly the problem at hand. Continue reading »
Put dog's annoyed expression on kid and/or spouse. I know you've seen it!
At some point in 2009, I caved and bought an iPhone. That was the event that pushed the toothpaste out of the tube, the point at which email took over my life!
I was reflecting on that as I read this article. Up until the double-edged accessory that gives me 24/7 access to the web and thus, to work, I had some pretty strong boundaries. Once I picked up the kids, I was on full-time mommy duty — laptop tucked away until they were tucked in bed. When we were at a park/playground/soccer game — I really was at the park/playground/soccer game, regardless of what pressing deadline loomed because, well, I just didn’t really have a choice. Continue reading »
my new laptop
Around the breakfast table this morning, the hot topic of conversation was Space Balls. Yup, the Mel Brooks movie from the 80’s in which the Mercedes “space car,” came equipped with a built-in phone. With cords.
My 10-year old says, “Why is that funny?” Um, because it’s supposed to be a phone. Her reply: “Oooooooh.”
Upon reflection, the speed of our technological advances is actually at ludicrous speed. For those who have not seen this celluloid classic recently, that’s one speed past ridiculous speed and two speeds past light speed.
So we had to explain to the next generation that in 1986, there was a car phone which cost $1,250 plus a monthly usage fee of $160 plus minutes. It was as big as the old princess phone — if you know what that is, you are old like me! On the heals of the car phone was the bag phone, which is like a carry-on, pretty much. After that, came the hand-held, which was about the size of a loaf of bread. Did you see the movie, Wall Street? Gekko had one, which was cool but that means you had to forego the cache of having the cellular antenna on your car! It was only in 1997-1998, with the Nokias that cell phones started to even resemble what we think of as phones today. And then, remember the RAZR?! That hit the market in late 2004! That was only eight years ago. My daughter was already two. Do they still make those? And then, in one game-changing move just a mere five years ago, Steve Jobs released the God phone… er, I mean the iPhone. Continue reading »
Last Friday was a historic moment in the world of crowd-funding. It’s the day that not one project — but TWO broke the million dollar mark on Kickstarter — in the same twenty-four hour period. What is the cosmic significance of that?!?
Kickstarter, the crowd-funding website launched in 2009, lets people solicit donations on its website for a 5% cut of the action. So you can imagine the jubilation of the Kickstarter team as not only was this a record-breaking achievement but also one that has significant financial gains for the company.
Elevation Dock was the first project to hit $1 million at 2:08 ET. It’s a third-party iPhone docking station made out of solid aluminum. Personally, I’m not sure what all the hubbub is about but 12,521 backers contributed $1,464,706 to the project. Over 3,700 of them pledged the minimum $59 to get an Elevation Dock in the “glass bead blasted finish” (valued at $90). Eight rabid fans (or entrepreneurial souls) pledged over $10,000 or more for the “Distributor Pack+” which includes 87 Elevation Docks reasonably priced for resale.
I’m also not the target for the second million dollar project. 22 hours later, the second project hit $1 million. The new game from Double Fine broke the record just 22 hours after it posted on Kickstarter at 6:42 pm. It was fully funded to it’s initial goal of $400,000 within eight hours of launch! As of today, with 29 days to go, this project has raised over $1.6 million from 48,348 backers. The crazy thing is… this game isn’t even named yet! But supporters are promised “a front-row seat” as to Tim Schafer’s brand-new, downloadable “Point-and-Click” graphic adventure game for the modern age. Tim is the creator of Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango… yeah, er, maybe you moms of teenage boys are in the know. Clue me in on why this is cool, will ya? Continue reading »
Paula Bernstein 
Cecily Kellogg 
Ria Sharon 
Janice Croze and Susan Carraretto 
Alli Worthington 
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