Would People Still Be Singing In The Rain Without An Umbrella?
Umbrella (Photo credit: lakewentworth)
The beloved umbrella is a priceless accessory. If it had not been for the Chinese, we would all be walking round like drowned rats – not a good look when you are about to step into a fancy restaurant.
The umbrella was initially a paper parasol used for sun shade, but the Chinese decided to take it to the next level by adding a wax coating onto the paper so it could be used as a shield from the rain as well. The 16th century was the time when the umbrella was first seen in Western society, but it was only considered appropriate for females to have one. However, this was soon to change as the Persian writer Jonas Hanway would be seen for thirty years carrying an umbrella leading to them often being referred to as ‘Hanways’.
One of the first shops to sell an umbrella to this day still stands on Oxford Street in London. It was opened in 1830 and called James Smith and Sons. Umbrellas were made from wood or even whale bone and the umbrella were covered with a waxy material.
Later, in 1852, Samuel Fox was to invent the steel ribbon design for the umbrella. He was the founder of the English Steel Company and he said that he had invented this to use up extra farthingale stays which were steel stays used in women’s corsets that were also manufactured by his company.
Thinking a little more about the structure of the umbrella, there are many other uses even after its day has been and gone;
- Firstly, we would all feel a little better walking home late at night with an umbrella. If we were attacked, it could be a very good self-defence weapon.
- Having troubles with a leak? If you turn a brolly upside down and hang it below the leak, it is sure to collect every last drop of water.
- Some use an umbrella as a kind of makeshift walking stick, while a vintage umbrella can also be part of the décor for the hallway at home. It can really bring character to the space.
- Fancy having a go at golf? Why not use your old umbrella as a practice putter in the garden or office?
Everyone would agree, these maybe aren’t the greatest of ideas. Maybe it’s best to leave the umbrella to do what it does best – keeping us dry when the rain comes.
Paige Green is writing on behalf of www.marquee-vision.co.uk
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Successful Fairtrade Partnerships- The Leakey Collection & The Masaai Tribe
WFTO Fair Trade Organization Mark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With any fair trade product there is a story behind the goods: a partnership between western traders or manufacturers and those who have retrieved, supplied or produced the product. Overwhelmingly, the latter come from developing countries where producers and growers have long been exploited by foreign buyers. This means that with any fair trade product, there is bound to be an inspiring story of partnership, collaboration and development lying behind the goods.
This is the case with Leakey Collection, a jewellery company that uses the resources and skills of local people to produce jewellery that sells all over the western world. The company works closely with many members of the Masaai tribe who live and work in Kenya and Tanzania amongst the Great Rift Valley, the cradle of humankind.
The Birth of The Partnership.
The Leakeys live in the area and are neighbours with the Masaai people. When the tribe suffered a drought at the beginning of the 21st century, the Leakeys were keen to find a way to help them earn money whilst retaining their traditions and culture. The Masaai live off the land and their way of life has remained unchanged for a long time. Culture and tradition stand at the centre of Masaai society and it would be a tragedy for them to have to change their ways. The Leakeys saw a way to use the skills of the tribe along with the local resources to produce sustainable and ethical jewellery. The Masaai had the skill and the Leakeys had the means to trade and supply customers- and this is where the partnership began.
As any mother knows, working and having children is not a match made in heaven, but the work involved in producing some of the jewellery could be done with infants in tow, so the women could work without needing to find anyone to look after their children. The partnership has been so successful that 1400 Masaai women work to help produce the jewellery range. These skilled beadswomen have produced jewellery using sustainable Zulu grass for over ten years now.
The Leakey Collection and the Masaai Tribe are just one example of a successful fair trade partnership. These partnerships work for everybody involved and ensures that no one is exploited. It also means that the end user can enjoy an item that has been ethically sourced, produced and traded.
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Under the hood: Facebook success, acquisition and development
It’s the era of Facebook – for now. In order to be considered social, you have to be where the people are. And Facebook is where the people are at. Considering how many eras there have been before, the Facebook era may change over time. A visionary, Gordon Moore, is best known for his bold prediction known as the Moore’s Law which states that approximately every two years, the number of transistors on a chip will double.
But Forbes writer, Shel Israel, sees things the other way. According to him, the period of a company’s dominance is shrinking – IBM had it for 40 years, Microsoft for 20 years, Google for 10 years, and now you have the era of Facebook. Facebook will most likely exit the scene not with a bang, but will gradually ease into the "has-beens," slowly getting smaller with ad revenues slowly diminishing.
There’s era and then there’s generation. The Internet world had three generations – web 1.0 (web companies founded from 1994-2011), web 2.0 or Social (from 2002-2009) and mobile (from 2010 to present). Lest Facebook come up with some ways to monetize from mobile, it will fade to the background – not bankrupt gone, just Myspace gone.
Secret to Facebook Success
The people behind Facebook mean serious business when it comes to shaking the society’s status quo. There’s no dipping the toes wet, but getting a full splash, a characteristic of the mantra they have, "Hack". Search online for photos of the new Facebook headquarters and you’ll see that the word is basically plastered all over the place. It is a reminder to every personnel to do things fast, trying every stuff they could come up with to make countless small changes.
Moving fast and breaking things, as what Mark Zuckerberg himself puts it.
Although the word hack can have a negative predisposition, it is actually a reminder not only for those brains behind Facebook, but to everyone else to hurry up and make things happen.
In the Facebook scenario, hackathons are regularly held where coders stay up all night just to come up with fresh ideas to bring to the table. These all-nighters, fueled by beers and Chinese food, have been the venue for some of Facebook’s greatest developments, such as the Like button.
The Hacker Way consists of five attributes as summarized by Zuckerberg in a pre-IPO (Initial Public Offering) letter to shareholders.
1. Focus on impact
2. Move fast
3. Be bold
4. Be open
5. Build social value
In a nutshell, the Hacker Way is about unending development and iteration, a never-ending ending task of fixing something that’s not broken by people who don’t believe in mediocrity, and is up to the challenge of shaking the very status quo they exist in.
This philosophy is the foundation of Facebook’s success. If there’s room to push, they shove. Modern development and the advancement of technology do not take a break, and whoever has the bigger and better stick often wins. If Facebook had stop coming up with better and interesting innovations, it wouldn’t be recognized as the most viewed website in the world in 2011. Among its latest and biggest changes include the Timeline, which has received both positive and negative reception from users.
Facebook’s Q1 2012 saw revenue of more than a billion dollars, with monthly active user based of 901 million and a growing mobile user base reaching 500 million in April.
Instagram Acquisition and Zynga Relationship
One of the most recent Facebook deals that roused a few comments and stirred a few controversies in the online world is the acquisition of Instagram.
Instagram is a free photo sharing program that allows a fast and beautiful way of sharing photos through various social media sites. It was launched in Apple’s App Store on October 6, 2010, yet was bought by Facebook for $1.1 billion in cash on April 2012.
There have been mixed reactions from users of the extremely popular mobile photo sharing platform including issues of privacy. To date, this is Facebook’s biggest acquisition deal.
No matter its reception, Facebook has made its move on dominating not only the photo sharing space, but the mobile photo sharing aspect as well which it has yet to make its mark on. The fact that Instagram is seeing nearly 300 million photo uploads daily, Facebook is definitely making its headway in the mobile marketing scene.
Zynga, on the other hand, is a social network game development company responsible for 12% of Facebook’s revenue in 2011. The various Zynga games on Facebook have more than 240 million users, the top five widely used games being CityVille, CastleVille, Zynga Poker, FarmVille, and Empires & Allies.
The various online games are one of Facebook’s great features that help keep users from getting bored of the social site. Most games are interactive, allowing users to play against each other, and even has a publish to wall option for your scores and rankings.
The details between Facebook and Zynga relationship include a 2010 five-year agreement for Zynga to exclusively use Facebook credits, all Facebook-integrated Zynga games must remain exclusive to Facebook for the duration of the agreement, and that Zynga must inform Facebook of any new games at least one week prior their release.
The Timeline
Announced in September 2011, the Timeline is Facebook’s latest big development. Timeline allows users to present their story — status updates, photos, important life events — in a media-rich profile page chronologically arranged from present day to the user’s date of birth, for easy profile browsing. So those photos buried from way back, will get unearthed; and status updates about wacky stuffs and dirty shenanigans will be accessible for any profile viewer.
Change is inevitable, not only in the online world. Although Timeline brings a lot of curiosity and interesting features, it does also give rise to a few concerns for some users.
YES it’s visually effective since it affords a great way of presenting your page. Logical and intuitive, attracting interest in a very simple and organized manner. Aside from the Lifeline, users can make use of the Cover photo feature that can serve as a banner for your page – an image shoutout, you could say.
NO, it doesn’t promote privacy. The Timeline in general promotes larger amount of personal data to protect. Updating to Timeline needs for the user to share more personal information and experiences, particularly updates related to key events which the user may want to restrict to close group of friends. Sometimes, a user can inadvertently share content that they shouldn’t have.
The fact remains that the Timeline is an exciting and innovative feature despite its privacy flaws and potential problems. Others may be too keen about updating to Timeline, while the rest may remain wary and will try to hold on to the older – and safer for them – version where they’re more comfortable.
In order for Facebook to stay as the top dog, it has to keep in tune with its mortality thus continuously coming up with something new and something big to keep the society and user on their toes. After all, any hot young tech company can be easily blindsided by an even hotter and younger tech company.
This guest post was contributed by Phil, an firm believer in the power of social media marketing for businesses.
Top 5 Bass Guitar Players
Though, it’s the lead singer who gets the girls and the main guitarist that people are usually in awe of. However, the bass guitar and the bass guitarist is equally if not more important than the other two. That big lumbering four string guitar is a major part of the sound and the rhythm of the group. So, who are the top five bass guitar players of all time?
John Entwistle
The Who bass guitar player John Entwistle was known as both Ox and Thunderfingers and is renowned as one if the greatest bassist of all time. He was trained to play the French horn and piano before deciding on the Bass guitar. His ability to create a heavy sound came to the fore in his solo in The Who hit ‘My Generation’. In fact, it may be the most famous bass solo in rock music. He passed on in 2002 and it must be said dealt a blow to the sound of The Who.
Flea
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers may be the biggest band of the last 25 years or so. Flea could certainly be considered a major part of this and has taken much of his inspiration from early 1980s bass slap guitarists. In recent years there is more melody in his playing, but he still likes to funk it up with his bass guitar.
Paul McCartney
Though we often forget about McCartney’s position as the bass guitar player in The Beatles and focus on his song writing, he was a great player. His role as a player was flawless, even though he only began when forced to do so after Stuart Sutcliffe left the group. He could also step into other positions and managed to show his musical brilliance, playing both guitar and drums on Beatles tracks. This happened most notably upon Ringo Starr quitting in 1968 before the White Album, when McCartney dropped the bass to play drums.
John Paul Jones
Before he joined Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones was considered one of the finest bass guitar players in the UK and regularly gigged with Donovan, Cat Stevens and Jeff Beck. In Led Zep with Plant, Paige and Bonham he was an unstoppable force and created one of the greatest bands in history. Jones was the back of the Led Zeppelin and can be heard on most of Led Zep’s thumping sounds. He even recently formed a super group with Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme.
Lemmy
Motorhead front man known for his gruff voice and mutton chops is certainly one to consider. Lemmy began his career after seeing the Beatles in the Cavern Club. From there he played bass for Hawkwind before forming his own band Motorhead. Lemmy’s bass guitar abilities are best witnessed on the bands classic The Ace of Spades. All you need to know is that the band’s mantra is ‘Everything louder than everything else’ and you get the idea of their sound.
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