Posts tagged with "Safety"

Above, Zoomer Green is in; Millennial Pink is out. (Photo source: @yatay/zoomergreen/Instagram)

Why Zoomer green is the new Millennial pink

January 12, 2022

It doesn’t take a genius to see why green feels aspirational at the precise moment in history when we humans finally seem to be twigging that a green future is the only future that is going to exist. Green is good. Green is the zeitgeist. So, what to wear? Green—but make it fashion, reports The Guardian.

The expression “but make it fashion” means to add a splash of showbiz, but also a hit of sharpness. A dash of syrup, plus a squeeze of lime. If the taste is too vanilla, that’s not fashion. Which is how we have ended up with a color-of-the-moment that symbolizes nature, but actually looks a bit synthetic. The green that is everywhere right now is a flat, saturated, straightforward green. It is not the color of moss, or of olives, or of sea foam.

It is not a color that sparkles from a cocktail ring or from a slice in a highball glass. It speaks of crayons and grass lawns and lunchbox apples. It is green at its most blunt.

And in fashion, this green already has a name:. This is Bottega green—some call it Zoomer green to reference the generation who wear it. It’s the green that is everywhere, that lurid shade somewhere between a shamrock and a matcha latte, has for the past year been effectively owned by the Italian fashion label Bottega Veneta. When Bottega staged a show at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, the stage was bathed in this green. Bottega has made the color a signature, just as Hermès has with orange, and Tiffany with duck-egg blue.

How did this green replace blush pink, which was the chic color a year or two ago? Green snuck in as an accessory first. Because you know what works great with blush pink? Green.

According to The Guardian, at a moment when sustainability is front and center of every fashion conversation, it is only logical that the hottest dresses would be green.

And there is another way of reading this color—one that decodes it not via a Pantone chart, but from the highway code. This is traffic light green, you see. A universal symbol, understood across ages and languages. It means that it is safe to proceed. After living life on pause for so long, the allure of a color that gives us permission to pick up where we left off is strong.

We want to wear green not because it makes us feel pretty or chic or elegant, but because it makes us feel safe.

A green light for a safe future? A handbag doesn’t get much more aspirational than that.

Research contact: @guardian

A Never Again Action protest. (Photo source: Common Dreams)

Jews take ‘Never Again Action’ at ICE migrant detention facilities nationwide

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July 22, 2019

Serena Adlerstein didn’t expect her Facebook status to turn into a nationwide movement—but somehow her words managed to mobilize thousands of young Jews to the streets, protesting the treatment of migrants in U.S. detention, she told NBC News.

“I made an offhand Facebook post like, ‘What if young Jews occupied ICE detention centers and shut them down?’” Adlerstein, 25, she said in an interview with the network news outlet.

People responded, and by that evening, on June 24, she was on the phone with other young Jews from around the country planning a protest, and hundreds of people had signed up on a Google doc expressing interest in joining.

Their motivation was empathy for those seeking asylum and safety—but they also harbored memories and fears that stretched back more than a century: Indeed, as she watched pundits and politicians debate whether to call migrant detention centers “concentration camps”, Adlerstein was reminded of the Holocaust refrain she was raised on: “Never Again.”

“Never Again,” she thought, is now.

A week later, on Sunday, June 30, about 200 protesters under the banner of the newly formed Never Again Action protested outside a detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. As of that day, 36 activists were arrested and the demonstration had sparked a burgeoning movement.

“My intent wasn’t to start an organization or a long-term movement,” Adlerstein explained to NBC News. But now that Never Again Action has spread across the country, she’s leaning into it.

Since that initial protest, just two weeks ago, Never Again Action has organized more than 10 different protests around the country, in states from California to Rhode Island, and more are scheduled in the coming weeks.

In Boston on July 2, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at the New England Holocaust Memorial, where they marched to a nearby jail where ICE houses detainees. In Philadelphia, 33 people were arrested when they blocked the city’s Fourth of July parade, holding sings like ‘Never Again Means Close the Camps.”

Julia Davidovitz, 25, a preschool teacher in Boston organizing with Never Again, told the network news outlet that people like her need to act and bring the community together because institutional leaders aren’t.

“This is an occasion where we have been moral leaders,” she said. “We have not seen as much moral leadership from the stronghold of the mainstream Jewish leadership.”

Her message: “Join us.”

Davidovitz wants to see entire congregations join upcoming actions, and invited her rabbi and mom to join her in action.

“This is a crisis no matter what language you use to describe it” Davidovitz said. “We are a community that’s been targeted. We can’t stand by while it happens to others.”

Research contact: @NeverAgainActn

Image source: Amazon Ring

Amazon’s Ring to distribute local true-crime news

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May 1, 2019

if you work outside the home, until recently you had very few ways to keep track of the workmen, friends, and family who beat a path to your front door—no less, those with criminal intent.

However, Amazon’s March 2018 acquisition of the Ring security system—which comprises outdoor motion-based cameras and a video doorbell that connects to your smartphone—has changed all that. Now, users can view whoever and whatever turns up at their doorway (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in real time.

And now, Fast Company reports, the company is hiring—and not for a tech job or a member of the logistics team, as would be expected. The position (Job ID: 836421) posted on the Amazon website is described as Managing Editor, News.

According to the posting, the Managing Editor, News, “will work on an exciting new opportunity within Ring to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking [true] crime news alerts to our neighbors.

Obviously, your closest neighbors would want to know if there are folks with criminal intent in the neighborhood—and Amazon is snatching that lucrative beat away from local news provider Patch.

Based on the job description, Fast Company notes, the right candidate will have “deep and nuanced knowledge of American crime trends,” “strong news judgment that allows for quick decisions in a breaking news environment,” and at least three years in management. Hopefully, they aren’t looking for a candidate with three years of management in Internet doorbell news management, because we’re going to guess that person does not exist.

Ring’s Neighbors App would be the perfect distribution network for such news. According to the Ring website, it already provides “real-time crime and safety alerts from your neighbors, law enforcement, and the Ring team.”

As Nieman Lab notes, Americans perceive that crime is rising even when it’s not. A 2016 Pew survey found that only 15% of Americans believed (correctly) that crime was lower in 2016 than it had been in 2008; versus 57% who thought it had gotten worse. True crime stories and apps that turn every person on the street into a potential threat undoubtedly add to the problem.

That said, the more petrified the world is, the more likely you are to buy a crime-fighting doorbell, right?

Research contact: @ring

Photo source: Underwriters Laboratories

Behind closed doors: Closing bedroom doors saves lives

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October 18, 2018

You probably brush your teeth, wash up, and put on something comfortable before getting into bed—but there is another essential task that you should tack on to that nightly routine. Closing the bedroom door could save your life, in the event of a house fire, Good Houskeeping magazine warned on October 10.

Nearly 60% of people sleep with the bedroom door open, according to a recent survey conducted by the safety certification organization Underwriters Laboratories (UL). However, it turns out that leaving the door ajar is not so smart: A closed door can slow the spread of flames, reduce toxic smoke, improve oxygen levels, and decrease temperatures when a blaze breaks out…

UL says that 30 years ago, you had up to 17 minutes to escape from a house fire, but today’s homes burn more quickly. Why? Open floor plans provide oxygen and don’t provide barriers. And synthetic building materials and furnishings burn at a much faster rate than the natural products used decades ago.

In fact, today, UL says, the average time to escape a home fire has dwindled to just three minutes or less . And during a fire, a closed door can mean the difference between 1,000 degrees and 100 degrees.

“You want to have an escape plan and practice it regularly because there is a limited time window to act,” said Stephen Kerber, director of UL’s Firefighter Safety Research Institute, told The Washington Post last year. “We can’t emphasize enough: If you can get out, get out.”

The Institute is promoting an effort, called CloseYourDoor.org, to spread the word about fire safety. Kerber hopes that ‘the campaign finds the same cultural ubiquity for fire safety awareness as “Stop, Drop & Roll” has for years.

 “What we need is a modern message,” says Kerber. “If ‘Stop, Drop & Roll’ is for when your clothes are on fire, ‘Close Your Door’ is for when your house is on fire and you cannot get out. It’s the modern version of what needs to be done.”

Research contact: @carolinepicard_

Apple Watch Series 4 offers an ECG app, along with other new features. (Photo source Apple)

Apple’s new watch will appeal to Baby Boomers

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September 14, 2018

On September 12, Apple introduced a line of three new smartphones—the 5.8-inch   iPhone Xs and  the 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max—both with Super Retina displays;  as well as a colorful, lower-cost model, the iPhone Xr. The company also launched a new version of the Apple Watch—geared for Baby Boomers who want not only a wicked-rad smartphone, but the advantages that, until now, only came with a range of devices on the market, including the Kardia handheld ECG, the Philips Lifeline fall detector, and the FitBit workout tracker.

If a Baby Boomer not only wants to be au courant—but also wants to feel safe and connected to assistance—this new Apple Watch Series 4 is the technology to try out.  It comes featuring a larger screen, fall detection, the ability to take an electrocardiogram, and a workout tracker—all in one , with the phone service, watch face and alarms that the buyer expects.

The watch still requires FDA approval. But when that’s accomplished, Apple says in its press release, the watch will enable “customers to take an ECG reading right from the wrist using the new ECG app, which takes advantage of the electrodes built into the Digital Crown and new electrical heart rate sensor in the back crystal.

“With the app, users touch the Digital Crown and after 30 seconds, receive a heart rhythm classification. It can classify if the heart is beating in a normal pattern or whether there are signs of Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), a heart condition that could lead to major health complications. All recordings, their associated classifications, and any noted symptoms are stored in the Health app in a PDF that can be shared with physicians.”

What’s more, the Apple Watch intermittently analyzes heart rhythms in the background and sends a notification to the user, if an irregular heart rhythm such as AFib is detected.3  It can also alert the user if the heart rate exceeds or falls below a specified threshold.

Fall detection on the phone uses a next-generation accelerometer and gyroscope, which measures up to 32 g-forces, along with custom algorithms to identify when hard falls occur. By analyzing wrist trajectory and impact acceleration, Apple Watch sends the user an alert after a fall, which can be dismissed or used to initiate a call to emergency services. If Apple Watch senses immobility for 60 seconds after the notification, it will automatically call emergency services and send a message along with location to emergency contacts.

In addition to its other features, the new watch makes it easier to stay connected. Customers can reach their friends with just a tap of the wrist with WalkieTalkie, a watch-to-watch connection that is an entirely new way to communicate around the world over Wi-Fi or cellular.4

Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS) starts at $399 and Apple Watch Series 4 (GPS + Cellular) starts at $499—both featuring the updated design and new health features. Series 3 will be available at the new starting price of $279, making it even more accessible to customers. A new collection of bands debuts this fall and all bands continue to work with any generation of Apple Watch.

Research contact: Lance_Line@apple.com