Health and Wellness
A calm mind and a healthy brain will help you focus when it’s go-time!
While in graduate school, I took an emotional intelligence class, and our professor asked our class if we were breathing. I thought, “That’s dumb! I am sitting here, aren’t I? Of course, I am breathing.”
That’s not what he was talking about, though. He spoke about the deep, thoughtful breathing that one should do every day to keep a clear mind, an open heart, and steady focus.
It’s the type of breathing that everyone should learn.
The Science
Neurons cluster in the brainstem and keep you breathing while telling the brain, for example, there’s an emergency, wake up, chill out…
U.S. Military and Foreign Policy
The Al-Shabab terror threat and China’s dominance in Djibouti could likely squeeze the U.S. out, motivating a move, but where? The Republic of Somaliland, Berbera?
Could last week’s first air strike under the Biden Administration be an indication of change in the Horn of Africa or is this just another strike to put a band aid on a gushing wound?
July 23, 2021, Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote a letter to President Joe Biden to challenge a July 20 airstrike near Galkayo, Somalia, against suspected members of Al-Shabab.
Pentagon spokesperson Cindi King said AFRICOM had the power to authorize the response under the military’s “collective self-defense” justification. Despite the explanation, Omar wasn’t satisfied given that Jake Sullivan, national security adviser, instructed the military and CIA to…
Design
If you’re afraid of PS because it looks too extensive, think again. Most designers only use the same go-to tools, and you can copy them to get started.
Photoshop (PS) beginners typically learn the menus and commands before starting, gradually incorporating shortcut commands. It sounds like a big task, but if you know what you should learn first, you can begin using PS right away without understanding the whole program and create images that look as good as a professional designer.
Starting an Image File
When Photoshop opens, you’ll see a series of preset values based on the project type and expected output, including Photo, Print, Art & Illustration, Web, and Mobile. Once you select a preset (artboard), you can customize it or use it as-is.
You should be able to manage…
Learning
It’s not unique. Secret. Magic. It just works!
Some years ago, I was tasked with a writing assignment intended for an internal blog (of sorts) where employees could search for valuable things to read while at work since they couldn’t surf the internet at large.
My supervisor, at the time, suggested weekly topics she felt were internally trending. One week she asked me to write about learning languages at “hyperspeed.” I dove into the web and found everything about learning languages quickly, and it opened my eyes to a few big ideas.
One, we all learn the same way! You can label, define, test, and theorize all you…
Politics
Some are thinking twice about recent trends when it comes to the laws and norms of international diplomatic policies.
Diplomatic immunity goes back hundreds of years as a privilege for official messengers, political agents, or political lobbyist traveling to faraway lands to conduct, basically, unobstructed business.
But what if you’re a diplomat accused of a crime in a country that does not acknowledge your government is even legitimate? What if you’re not even in that country when the alleged crimes occur and you haven’t stepped foot in the country for three decades? …
Adobe Creative Cloud
Spend more time using your imagination and let AI, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning deliver better experiences, faster.
“Machine learning is going to change every single aspect of technology, but no machine will be able to mimic the creative ability of the human mind.”
Shantanu Narayen
CEO, Adobe
Today, many people in creative roles are also asked to wear operational, analytics, and project management hats as part of their creative roles, and the combination can lead to epic failure, costing time, money, and lots of aggravation.
Hiring Manager: “We’re looking for someone with 10 years of proven design experience, with expertise in the full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. …
Technology
“Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, and goodwill toward men.”
It took 17 hours to transmit that message in 1858 through a section of the first transatlantic submarine cable linking Ireland to Newfoundland.
Our forefathers invested years of trial and error into telecommunications ingenuity for the idea that our world could be more easily connected, a boon for business, research, and development, and a step toward global dominance and ultimate surveillance.
More than 100 years later, we have a web of undersea internet cables, providing 90 percent of the data traffic across the world. Countries have invested…
Africa
A small group of islands surrounded by hundreds of miles of Atlantic ocean, part of the African Continent, a member of the United Nations, and the African Union, is swiftly learning there are no giveaways in politics.
Agenda setting powers have recently invested hundreds of millions of dollars and high-level resources with big plans attached. Island leadership isn’t new to making deals, but not at this level and not with competing powers that have extensive capabilities to forecast failure and detect distrust.
To understand how complicated things will become, you’d need to understand the makeup of the islands, its leadership…
AI, Disruptive Tech, Leadership
Non-robot traits like humility, character, and empathy cannot be replaced by robots, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, and leaders will need to find ways to merge and balance both.
Technology alone cannot build projects and fix problems. Former Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius might agree if she’s accepted the failure and lessons learned from her Healthcare.gov Project.
“I’m going to try and download every movie ever made, and you’re going to try to sign up for Obamacare, and we’ll see which happens first” — Jon Stewart
Healthcare.gov launched on October 1, 2013, for residents of 36 states. Five times more users than expected visited the website, causing it to crash.
The website and the technology wasn’t the only issue in this case. Inaccurate data and incomplete fields were…
Photoshop Express, Adobe
From your mobile device: upload pictures + layer + (remove background(s)) + add text + select a format = save, share, post
As one Yelp comment put it, “Very Instagram-friendly, but the ice cream was only okay.” The ice cream at Surreal Creamery in New York City is totally over the top, a ridiculous masterpiece of shapes and treats, and despite the “OK” product, the packaging gives this small shop a golden opportunity to market across social media and let customers market for them.
Small business owners and entrepreneurs, like those running Surreal Creamery, don’t always have the luxury of a full-time graphic designer or social media manager. …
Kristi Pelzel
Journalist, Communications Consultant, and Adjunct Faculty— Washington, D.C. www.linkedin.com/in/kristipelzel/
