Hiroshima: 70 years of Reconstruction in Photographs →

in , ,

The Washington Post:

At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, the first bomb exploded over Hiroshima killing, by some estimates, 140,000 people, and destroying 90 percent of the city. But near its hypocenter only one building was left standing.

Seventy years later, the Genbaku Dome — now known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial — is part of a very different city that’s home to 1.2 million residents and filled with skyscrapers, apartment buildings and streetcars.

Armed with archival photographs, Reuters photographer Issei Kato revisited some of the same locations destroyed 70 years ago in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The juxtapostion is truly heartening.

For further insight, the Washington Post has also provided various maps that will show you how it would look like it "Little Boy" hit your city inlcuding full detailed explanations of damaged areas. To sample what a possible nuclear bomb would be like in your city, check out Nuke Map.

"Fat Man" over San Diego / Nagasaki 20kt 

SprezzaBox Ambassadorship

in , ,

A few weeks ago, I was accepted into the SprezzaBox Ambassador program and I can't wait for you all to signup to the goodness that the SprezzaBox has introduced me to! Click away and check out the amazing collaborations and curations they've created. Subscribe and set yourself up with an awesome surprise every month! It's allowed me to expand my style and even venture out to other styles that I wouldn't have otherwised thought of.

PSA: You can also use the coupon code: ENICOLAS for 10% off your first subscription or store purchase!

The Honest Co. Men's Complete One A Day

in , ,

It's been just under three years since I went "cold" turkey and stopped taking any multiple vitamin or pre-workout mixes. It's also been just about two years where I pretty much stopped working out in any form except for the occasional here and there jog to and from terminals or airplanes.

My family has been using Jessica Alba's The Honest Company, products for our daughter since birth and started over again when our son was born. We love their products and can't talk about them enough. Our kids have never had "diaper rash" or any associated reactions to wipes and it's been great having them shipped to the house. I suggest you check them out and sign up for their free "pay for shipping only" introduction package.

When they released "Men's Complete One A Day" a while back, I was interested but never pulled the trigger till now. I figured my NYC diet and commuting back and forth hasn't allotted me the convenience of a well balanced meal so this will have to provide and can provide some compensation. Today is Day 1 and I'll be taking you through my day to day experience (30 tablets at one a day) during this August month.

Zoom in for all the ingridients listed on the back of the box. I'll also list them later on in another blog post. Cheers and happy Monday!

 
 
 

I'm for Ubiquitous Encryption. Are You? →

in , ,

We believe that the greater public good is a secure communications infrastructure protected by ubiquitous encryption at the device, server and enterprise level without building in means for government monitoring.

I'm a strong supporter in encryption especially in light of the OPM hacks and United Airlines hacks.

Finally, and most significantly, if the United States can demand that companies make available a duplicate key, other nations such as China will insist on the same. There will be no principled basis to resist that legal demand. The result will be to expose business, political and personal communications to a wide spectrum of governmental access regimes with varying degrees of due process.

The perfect point.

Vanity Fair on Clayton Cubitt's Hysterical Literature

in

Triggered by this month's Vanity Fair, writer Toni Bently detail's her Hysterical Literature experience.

Once seated I raised myself up bit by bit, hiking my long skirt all the way up until it pooled gently around my waist. The edges of the table were hung with heavy fabric fastened to the top of the desk creating a kind of small cave under the table: Katie’s workspace. “What’s it like under there?” I ask her. She pauses: “Dark. And hot.”

One final adjustment: I need to be seated with my derriere as close to the front edge of the chair as possible, not centered back in the seat where one normally would sit. I found a perfect balance by pressing my waist into the edge of the table, and, with my legs extended and elongated quite far forward and apart, I was firmly wedged, though it was certainly not how I had ever read Henry James before.

Below is the first in a series of videos by Clayton Cubitt Hysterical Literature. Session One features adult film star Stoya and her "Thoughts on her Session" here

Head ups. The video might be NSFW.

PSA: PhotoBulk is 30% off!

in ,

Right now PhotoBulk but Eltima Software is on sale for $6.99 down from $9.99 on the Mac App Store and it's probably some of the best money that I've spent on any app on my Mac. If you like editing and adding watermarks to your photos, check this awesomeness out! Other features include: Resizing, bulk renaming, optimzing and renaming, it also supports JPGs, GIFs, PNGs, BMPs and TIFF. Of course this wonderful app is available on Windows too. There's also a free version available at the Eltima website. Cheers!

iOS 9 and Apple Maps →

in ,

I mapped my way to several familiar destinations to gauge whether the trains and routes Maps suggested were the quickest and most efficient ways to end up at my destination, and they were. Bonus time-saving feature: Apple Maps shows you where subway entrances are in flyover mode, which is incredibly useful. Grand Central Terminal has several entrances, but if you don’t know where the closest one is, you could end up walking several blocks out of the way. Now entrances are helpfully marked “Entrances” (so simple, so necessary) in Maps.

photo courtesy of Macworld

photo courtesy of Macworld

If there's one thing I'm excited about iOS 9 this year, it's the HUGE improvment to Apple Maps. Now how about you start unbundling all these app updates from their respective OS updates so we can see a steady upgrade / bug fix over the months instead of waiting a year? Or better yet, installing a operating system update just for app bug fixes. Thanks!

Chinese Lurked Around United Airlines System for Over a Year →

in ,

Additionally, in April the Federal Aviation Administration called out United for what it labeled “systemic” problems in the system the airline uses to qualify and schedule its pilots.

As a result, these new revelations of Chinese hacking only reinforce and magnify the “screwed-up United” storyline. It’s not at all clear what the hackers have done, or can do with the more than a year’s worth of data they quite likely pirated from United. Nor is it known if – or which – other airlines also have been targeted by the Chinese.

But the fact that United only found out from U.S. government investigators in April that the Chinese had been playing around inside their supposedly sophisticated and well-guarded systems for more than a year adds to the perception that United’s management is failing to manage the basics.

It's not looking great at one of the U.S. major airlines. I hope all my friends at United are doing well and have some type of backup. Other than the massive retirees, the advice of attrition and expansion is looking better at Blue. :) In lieu of all these high end hacker attacks, our systems and firewalls should be gearing up for a cyberwar.

Pilot Shortage Caused by Extremely Low Wages & Legacy Airlines' Greed →

in ,

The nation's big airlines want you to know that there's a dreadful pilot shortage and they apologize profusely if their commuter-carrier partners cancel flights to your hometown airport due to the debilitating shortfall. The nation's big airlines don't want you to know that their commuter carriers, which operate half of all the nation's commercial flights, often pay pilots so little that it's often financially wiser to drive a truck or flip fast-food burgers than fly a plane.

This was the only article that I read that truly understood the bigger picture. Many other articles state that the voting no by and large by the pilot unions for not only better pay but work rules led to this in time but none of them detail the fact that some of those contracts were in fact largely concessionary. Just yesterday, The Dallas Morning News pointed out that the U.S. airlines scored their first $5 BILLION dollar quarter!

By the way, my previous employer, ExpressJet Airlines formerly known as Atlantic Southeast Airlines and owned by SkyWest Inc who also owns and operates SkyWest Airlines, is hiring. JetBlue will also be opening their pilot application in the VERY near future. So stay tuned!

Here's a formal picture in my Captain uniform at ASA / XJT when I volunteered in pilot recruitment that is still used today =) 

 

Thanks for the Birthday Wishes!

in

To celebrate my birthday this year, my wife got together an excellent soju paired karaoke birthday dinner, followed by an amazing cake and drinks on Sunday. Then on Monday, I prepared and cooked 6 bacon wrapped filet mignons for a family dinner and along with leftover cake.  Then last night, on my real birthday, I prepared some awesome hamburger patties and had them protein style. 

I couldn't be happier and more thankful! I've usually been gone on a trip the past few years celebrating on the road but this was the best! Thirty three was spectacular and thirty four is going to be that much more special! Thanks everyone for all the special birthday wishes and greetings throughout Facebook and twitter. 

Got some cool and thoughtful birthday gifts this year and I'll be posting pictures along with reviews. Here's one of my favorites from my two of daughter's godmothers: A medicine bottle of Dark Horse's Cold Brew and a bag o beans. I encourage and invite you to come over for a Hario V60 pourover, Espro Press, Aeropress, or even a Blue Bottle / Joey Roth collab Moka Pot. My daughter's wonderful third godmother also gave me an awesome present but that photo I'm saving for a review of Ballast Point *hint* =) Thanks again ladies and to everyone else. You will get thanked here sooner or later. 


I'm Actually Excited About Windows 10 →

in ,

Happy and engaged" is one of those talking points you hear a lot from Microsoft. Myerson used it nine times in our hour together. But behind the PR-approved phrasing is a simple truth: it’s been a long time since Windows users have been either, and Microsoft needs to fix that. It’s as good a North Star as any, especially when your product development cycle is founded on taking user feedback seriously. If Microsoft can make people love Windows again, then the rest — developers and apps — is easy.

Head on over to The Verge's awesome piece on the story behind Microsoft's Windows 10 and tell me it doesn't get you a little excited.

It's been over a decade since I've used a Windows PC in an everyday setting, but I'm admitting here and now, I'll be looking up some Lenovo notebook options loaded with Windows 10 this fall. Maybe even an Alienware or Razer laptop as long as SkyLake gets into the mix already. Or even Intel's latest storage technology. That would be awesome! Now, about those bug fixes.

The MPAA is Evil →

in ,

In other words, Jim Hood and the MPAA were out and out planning a coordinated media attack on Google using the editorial properties that supposedly claim to have editorial independence from the business side. Notice that with the WSJ piece, they flat out admit that the editorial will be based on the ideas that "we" have developed. If you work for the WSJ, your editorial independence just got shot down. Remember when CBS stepped in and interfered editorially with CNET for giving an award to Dish at the same time that CBS was in a legal fight over that same device? That resulted in reporters quitting.

The evil is within our theaters, entertainment and the media that we have helped create. They use their profits to further their agenda but I admit, that what most people do. Don't be swayed by the false news, advertising and those that have been bought out. Congrats to those that have taken a stand. Shame on everyone else working for these shameful media companies.