With floods of data, it is not surprising that the number-one skill for living and thriving is how to curate information. Turning trash into treasure. Building our own filters, constructing our own “firewalls”. With the abundance of affordable chipset, people are hoarding images, video, audio and data way above their personal consumption level. Digital glut.…

I am almost done with ” In the Sanctuary of Outcasts” but I am in no hurry. It gives me pleasure to feel the pulse of America’s last “forbidden outpost”. As a society, we are just as good as our weakest link: veterans, homeless, shut-ins and bottom-feeders.  Neil White, inmate-turned-undercover-journalist, tried to give leprosy a…

A school in PA got a creative idea: it stocks up on rocks to defend itself from school shooting. Traditionally, schools have ample supplies of papers and scissors. With rocks, it completes the Rock, Paper and Scissors set. Quite a sad state of affairs in public schools, whose walk-outs will stage a “March For Our…

” The poor shall always be with you”. Those words were uttered since Rome was an empire. Now, it’s still ringing true. The force of automation (low-skilled), offshoring (high-skilled but digitized) and policy changes (doing away with the safety net) drag down the unskilled like a perfect storm. In the US of A, people cannot go back…

Way back , Bread had a song “I will give everything I own”, which is actually happening today. The Prince wants to give away his entire fortune to good cause. The Guardian has brainstormed on how this money is best put to use. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/03/saudi-prince-alwaleed-32bn-fortune-charity-world-problems It misses an important point: no matter where it is spent,…

French cab drivers protest in the only way they can: strike. In doing so, they give the opponent, Uber, a leg up: one more reason for riders to seek drivers via app. What happens to equality and fraternity, the Rousseauan milieu? It’s not a protest against ubiquitous social media. It’s about the forgotten social contract.…

Apple relented. The company was once at the brink of destruction before bringing Jobs back as its 1-dollar CEO (just 1 cent more than a song). So Swift has spoken. At 25, she is definitely a digital artist i.e. savvy, sustainable and strong (knowing what she wants at age 11). Wants to code, go Silicon.…

“And then he looks right through me as if I wasn’t there….a stranger to my eyes” Before soft powers and soft skills, there was soft kill (Killing me softly). And yes, the singer was black. What were we thinking when we took on “hard killing”! Our ancestors, Italian or Irish, Scandinavian or African, all had…

At 21, I did not rush to the nearest pub. Instead, so unspoiled, I was rolling up those cables at Penn State Agricultural Extension Radio and TV Studio – under a Work Study program. Cables were all over the floor and someone had to put in some hours, even after “It’s a wrap.” Little did…

In the beginning, we have the commons: public square and transportation, parks and beaches, museums and metropolitan theatres. Then online, we mesh machines together to have the internet. Now what’s “out there” begins to intrude what’s “in here”. Welcome to the sharing economy. Started in SF and NYC, but now at the city near you…