Category: Uncategorized

If You’re Blind, This App Makes Strangers Your Eyes

A new app aims to help the blind “see” with their iPhone.

The idea behind Be My Eyes is that sometimes people who are visually impaired may need help with simple tasks but can’t easily get assistance. The app solves this by creating a platform that connects the two groups via video chat.

The app’s users are divided into two groups: sighted “helpers” and the visually impaired. When a blind user needs help, the app launches their iPhone’s rear-facing camera and connects them with a helper who can provide assistance.
The majority of the app’s users are helpers — as of this writing the app had 14,000 sighted users and 1,200 blind users. Being a helper is kind of like being on call; the app notifies random helpers that another user requires assistance, though helpers are not obligated to take the call. (If a helper declines, the app will notify more people until someone answers.)

The Denmark-based team behind Be My Eyes has already been testing the app in their home country for some time. Hans Wiberg, founder of Be My Eyes, said that most of the tasks users have helped with have been inside the house, like identifying a piece of mail or finding the right item on a shelf.

“When you ask your neighbor, you can do that once or twice a day, but if you ask your neighbor three times a day he might get a little reluctant to help you. But with this app you can ask 10 times a day because you are absolutely sure the person who answers is more than willing to help you.”
Meant to be a kind of “micro-volunteering,” the app doesn’t incentivize helpers to actively participate, though there is a points system. The app keeps track of how many people you’ve helped on your in-app profile and users accumulate points over time based on how many times you provide assistance.
The app is free — Be My Eyes is a nonprofit and funded the app’s development with a $300,000 donation — but Wiberg says the company will have to rely on more donations in the future in order to keep it that way.
An Android app is also “in the pipeline,” but the company is focusing on iOS for the moment, he said, as they believe Apple provides the most accessible platform for the visually impaired.

Plastics Kill

Being Unique Shouldn’t Cost Your Life

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go… No, Really Go!!

It’s one of my top pet peeves. Everyone is looking at their phone nowadays… in restaurants, walking down or across the street and, most disturbingly, in their cars.

Not a day goes by that either the person in front, behind or next to me doesn’t move when the light turns green because they’re so busy looking down.

Lots of people think that this is a “younger” person issue but, in my experience, that’s not the case. Time after time, I see people in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s not paying attention to the road, as they’re too busy looking at whatever they think they’re missing out on their “smart” phone. Not so smart.

You can always spot them; they’re either the one holding up traffic at the light or the one that starts veering into your lane on the streets and freeways.

Not only is this annoying, it’s truly scary. I don’t know what people are thinking. Don’t they realize if they keep looking down that their phone could be the last thing they see in this world? If that’s what they want to do with their life, so be it. But the reality is that their selfishness can also affect so many other people’s lives. Not something I’d want to have to live with. Would you?

It’s Only Common Cents…

Thanks to Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network for the following (excerpted) story from October 2014:

Container Store employees make on average nearly $50,000 a year, CEO Kip Tindell says in his newly released book, Uncontainable.

That’s more than double the $23,690 average national salary ($11.39 per hour) of a retail sales worker, according to 2013 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even by paying employees a higher salary, the Container Store is able to make money, Tindell told Business Insider. He says that he believes a great employee is three times more productive than just a good employee.

“You can pay them twice as much and still save, since you get three times the productivity at two times the cost,” Tindell, who is also the incoming chairman of the National Retail Federation, said in the interview.

Right on to Kip Tindell!! I don’t know what it is about this way of thinking that is so difficult to understand. Corporate Crusader.

Quotes with the Most…

“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
– Dalai Lama

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
– Anonymous

“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”
– William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898)

“Every act of kindness benefits the giver, as well as the receiver.”
– Katrina Mayer

“Worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”
– Vance Havner

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren and to do good is my religion.”
– Thomas Paine

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world.”
– Anne Frank

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”
– Brandi Snyder

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.”
– José Maria de Eça de Queiroz

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
– Robert Brault

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
– George Eliot

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
– Anne Frank

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
– William Shakespeare

“Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.”
– Mother Teresa

“You must be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
– Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?

You need not delete your social networks or destroy your cell phones, the message is simple, be balanced, be mindful, be present, be here.

Thank You, You’re Welcome: Gee, that wasn’t too difficult, was it?

Here’s a story I heard on the radio that’s unfortunately become part of modern life: A DJ was at a convenience store and held the door open for a man who had his hands full. When the man walked right through the door without saying a word or even nodding in thanks, the DJ said: “you’re welcome. ” Instead of acknowledging his oversight with a “Gee, I’m sorry, where was my head?,” the guy told him to “#%&@- off.”

Really?

Unfortunately, yes.

Why, dear reader, does this happen? Since when have we forgotten to acknowledge, with a simple gesture of gratitude, the small acts of kindness that come our way from strangers – and that make life that much more livable? Instead of owning their rudeness and correcting it, why do some people choose to lash out?

I’ve had many experiences like the DJ’s over the years, but this one stands out: Once I was with my mom and had this same exchange with someone for whom I was holding the door open (without the #%&@ off part). Instead of getting annoyed by the person’s lack of gratitude, my mom told me that if I was doing something nice and expected someone to say thank you, then I shouldn’t do it. In theory, she’s absolutely right. I should be happy just knowing that I did something good (a “solid” as my friend Dave says) and move on.

I totally agree with Dave that kindnesses should be done unconditionally and I don’t consciously do them to get a “thank you” in return; I just don’t understand when it doesn’t happen. This is something I continue to work on.

Thanks to “Unknown” for the following quote: “It’s not happy people who are thankful. It’s thankful people who are happy.”