Freelancers Will Soon Be Able to Buy Short-Term Disability Insurance Through This Startup | Entrpreneur

September 10, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’re a freelancer, you don’t get days off when you’re sick. While you may be able to save up a rainy day fund for the occasional flu, if anything ever happened to you that put you out of commission for weeks at a time, chances are you’d be screwed.

For freelancers who have experienced this misfortune firsthand — or who live their lives trying not to think about the possibility — a new kind of insurance will soon become available. A company called Trupo, formed out of the Freelancers Union by the organization’s founder, Sara Horowitz, will begin selling short-term disability insurance to a waiting list of more than 200 Georgia residents later this month, with a broader launch and additional markets to follow.

5 Secrets to Feel the Fear and Knock it Out of the Court! | Getentrepreneurial.com

September 10, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I woke up at 4.30am with my heart pounding, completely disoriented and with no idea why I felt such panic.

Then I remembered, it was the big day. The day I had been planning for for over 9 months, it was the big event.

I tried to fall back asleep but realized it was useless. I started visualizing my day and felt the pain in my stomach intensify.

It was excruciating. I was sick with fear. And yet excited and happy and ready to take to the stage.

VR-Augmented Waterslide is Totally Unnecessary, But Also Amazing | Digital Trends

September 7, 2018September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Let’s face it: We live in a pretty jaded society. In such a “been there, seen that” environment, the promise of a regular ole’ waterpark wouldn’t be enough to prompt even an eye-roll emoji in response from many people. Thank goodness, then, for an amusement park in Germany whose new, world-first waterslide adds in a dose of scintillating virtual reality in an effort to make us feel something again.

“Ballast originally started by making an experimental headset that can be used underwater,” Stephen Greenwood, the CEO of Ballast VR, the company behind VRSlide, told Digital Trends. “Last summer, we were approached by German waterslide manufacturer Wiegand-Maelzer to see if we could build a system that worked on waterslides.

Reducing Our Beef Consumption Can Have An Amazing Impact On The Earth | Green Matters

September 7, 2018September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many of us eat meat, dairy, and eggs on a regular basis. Unfortunately, these dietary choices are not without harm to the environment. Luckily, you don’t need to cut burgers and eggs from your diet entirely. Even just reducing the amount you eat makes a big difference when it comes to the planet’s health. For example, a survey conducted by Impossible Foods recently found that if Americans swapped 50 percent of the beef they ate with vegan proteins, it would save about 72,000 square miles of land.

In their 2018 sustainability report, titled “Mission: Earth,” the vegan brand suggests that using vegan proteins would have a seriously positive impact on the environment. For example, they suggest that the beef swap would reduce our carbon footprint by up to 45 million metric tons. What does that look like? It’s roughly the same as removing emissions from 11 million U.S. drivers in one year.

Crypto Market is Crashing Hard Again, Here’s Why | Mashable

September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The cryptocurrency market is bleeding for the second consecutive day, with prices of most popular coins down double digits in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 12.4% in this period according to CoinMarketCap and is currently trading at $6,426. Other coins are having it even worse: Ethereum is down 20.5%, Ripple is down 13.3%, Bitcoin Cash is down 20.1% and EOS is down 22.3%.

For Ethereum, the second largest coin by market cap, this is the low point of the year. The cryptocurrency hasn’t been priced this low since August 2017.

Facebook, Twitter executives head back to Capitol Hill for another grilling | Money CNN

September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on foreign use of social media to influence US politics took place Wednesday morning with two of the big tech companies that senators wanted to hear from present — and one empty chair.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were in the room and testifying. Google had offered to send Kent Walker, its senior vice president of global affairs, but the committee declined, saying it wanted someone more senior. Google did not offer anyone. So next to Sandberg and Dorsey was an empty chair, with a placecard for Google.

Are Candidates Ghosting Your Business? | Business News Daily

September 5, 2018September 4, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The term “ghosting” doesn’t just apply to the dating world. If you’ve ever been “stood up” by an employee who stopped coming into work as if they vanished into thin air, you’re not alone. Employers everywhere have experienced both potential and current employees suddenly cut off communication for a variety of reasons.

This phenomenon happens in all industries for any number of positions. A promising candidate for your vacant position aced their interview, and they seemed genuinely excited to get started, but come their start date, they’re nowhere to be found. You call, email and leave multiple messages, but they all go unreturned. This is especially frustrating if this is after you closed the job listing, forcing you start the hiring process all over again.

Can You Really Get Sepsis from Trying on Shoes Without Socks?

September 5, 2018September 4, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

A young girl in the United Kingdom reportedly got an infection and developed sepsis — a potentially life-threatening condition — after going into a store and trying on shoes without wearing socks, according to news reports.

The 4-year-old girl, Sienna Rasul from South Wales, became very ill the day after trying on shoes in bare feet, according to The Sun. She was diagnosed with sepsis — an overwhelming immune response triggered by a bacterial infection — and spent five days in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics.

7 Memory Boosters That Actually Work | Life Hack

September 4, 2018September 3, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Forgot a name? Misplaced your keys? Taking longer to find the right words? Don’t panic. There’s plenty you can do to improve your memory. You’re probably expecting us to reveal 7 little known and newly discovered herbs from the forests of the Amazon, the peaks of the Himalayas and the Arctic tundra. No such luck. Despite Americans spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on Ginkgo Biloba, Ashwagandha, Periwinkle, Bacopa, Vitamin B’s, Omega 3’s and memory boosting supplement cocktails, there is very little scientific evidence they actually work.

A new study finds how much unions contribute to higher wages | Fast Company

September 4, 2018September 3, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the past 40 decades, regular working Americans have barely seen their salaries grow, while around them, the cost of housing and basic needs have skyrocketed, as has pay for business executives. What’s behind this decline? Economists and political scientists often point to the decline of labor unions in those same years as a major contributing factor to the current environment of soaring business profits and meager worker salaries.