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Scientific American, Vol. XXXVII.—No. 2. [New Series.], July 14, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Popular Fallacies. here Popular Fallacies. Night air and damp weather are held in great horror by multitudes of persons who are sickly or of weak constitutions; consequently, by avoiding the night air, and damp weather, and changeable weather, and weather that is considered too hot or too cold, they are kept within doors the much largest portion of their time, and as a matter of course continue invalids, more and more ripening for the grave every hour; the reason is, they are breathing an impure atmosphere nineteen-twentieths of their whole existence. As nothing can wash us clean but pure water, so nothing can cleanse the blood, nothing can make health-giving blood, but the agency of pure air. So great is the tendency of the blood to become impure in consequence of waste and useless matters mixing with it as it passes through the body, that it requires a hogshead of air every hour of our lives to unload it of these impurities; but in proportion as this air is vitiated, in such proportion does it infallably fail to relieve the blood of these impurities, and impure blood is the foundation of all disease. The great fact that those who are out of doors most, summer and winter, day and night, rain or shine, have the best health the world over, does of itself falsify the general impression that night air or any other out-door air is unhealthy as compared with in-door air at the same time. Air is the great necessity of life; so much so, that if deprived of it for a moment, we perish; and so constant is the necessity of the blood for contact with the atmosphere, that every drop in the body is exposed to the air through the medium of the lungs every two minutes and a half of our existence. Whatever may be the impurity of the out-door air of any locality, the in-door air of that locality is still more impure, because of the dust, and decaying and odoriferous matters which are found in all dwellings. Besides, how can in-door air be more healthy than the out-door air, other things being equal, when the dwelling is supplied with air from without? To this very general law there is one exception, which it is of the highest importance to note. When the days are hot, and the nights cool, there are periods of time within each twenty-four hours, when it is safest to be in-doors, with doors and windows closed; that is to say, for the hour or two including sunrise and sunset, because about sunset the air cools, and the vapors which the heats of the day have caused to ascend far above us, condense and settle near the surface of the earth, so as to be breathed by the inhabitants; as the night grows colder, these vapors sink lower, and are within a foot or two of the earth, so they are not breathed. As the sun rises, these same vapors are warmed, and begin to ascend, to be breathed again, but as the air becomes warmer, they are carried so far above our heads as to be innocuous. Thus it is that the old citizens of Charleston, S. C., remember, that while it was considered important to live in the country during the summer, the common observation of the people originated the custom of riding into town, not in the cool of the evening or of the morning, but in the middle of the day. They did not understand the philosophy, but they observed the fact that those who came to the city at mid-day remained well, while those who did so early or late suffered from it. All strangers at Rome are cautioned not to cross the Pontine marshes after the heat of the day is over. Sixteen of a ship's crew, touching at one of the West India islands, slept on shore several nights, and thirteen of them died of yellow fever in a few days, while of two hundred and eighty, who were freely ashore during the day, not a single case of illness occurred. The marshes above named are crossed in six or eight hours, and many travelers who do it in the night are attacked with mortal fevers. This does, at first sight, seem to indicate that night air unwholesome, at least in the locality of virulent malarias, but there is no direct proof that the air about sunrise and sunset is not that which is productive of the mischief. is For the sake of eliciting the observations of intelligent men, we present our theory on this subject. A person might cross these marshes with impunity, who would set out on his journey an hour or two after sundown, and finish it an hour or two before sun-up, especially if he began that journey on a hearty meal, because, in this way, he would be traveling in the cool of the night, which coolness keeps the malaria so near the surface of the earth as to prevent its being breathed to a hurtful extent. But if it is deadly to sleep out of doors all night in a malarial locality, would it be necessarily fatal to sleep in a house in such a locality? It would not. It would be safer to sleep in the house, especially if the windows and doors were closed. The reason is, that the house has been warmed during the day, and if kept closed, it remains much warmer during the night indoors than it is outdoors; consequently, the malaria is kept by this warmth so high above the head, and so rarefied, as to be comparatively harmless. This may seem to some too nice a distinction altogether, but it will be found throughout the world of Nature that the works of the Almighty are most strikingly beautiful in their , and these are the foundation of His mightiest manifestations. minutæ minutæ Thus it is, too, that what we call fever and ague might be banished from the country as a general disease, if two things were done. 1. Have a fire kindled every morning at daylight, from spring to fall, in the family room, to which all the family should repair from their chambers, and there remain until breakfast is taken. 2. Let a fire be kindled in the family room a short time before sundown; let every member of the family repair to it, and there remain until supper is taken. In both cases, the philosophy of the course marked out consists in two things. First. The fire rarefies the malaria and causes it to ascend above the breathing point. Second. The food taken into the stomach creates an activity of circulation which repels disease.— . Hall's Journal of Health About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2012). Scientific American, Vol. XXXVII. —No. 2. [New Series.], July 14, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38481/pg38481-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Popular Fallacies

Software is not the only tech thriving right now. Many hardware startups are making great strides in innovation and design to provide solutions for some of our most pressing issues. From food and air quality testing to an advanced action camera that fits in the palm of your hand, these ten hardware startups are ones to watch in 2020. OCLU The team at OCLU set out to design an action camera that is both state-of-the-art and functional. As outdoor sports enthusiasts themselves, they noticed most high-tech action cameras on the market were difficult to use and required you to step away from the action to operate. The taller, bulkier designs of many popular brands also created excessive wind drag which slows you down. They wanted an action camera that could capture high-resolution videos and images, but one that was also sleek, aerodynamic, and easy to use. That's when the OCLU Action Camera was born! The OCLU Action Cam features stunning 4K video resolution at 30fps, plus electronic image stabilization with 1080p at 30/60fps, so video content, including time-lapse and slow-motion, is always clear and detailed. OCLU's one-of-a-kind LiveCut feature allows users to delete unwanted content immediately. OCLU knows it takes several tries to capture the perfect shot, but they don't want you to be bogged down by unwanted footage. With LiveCut, you don't have to wait to connect to a computer to free up space. Instead of a touch screen, the OCLU features a customizable quick toggle, allowing you to preset your favorite filming modes and quickly change settings. Touch screens can often be frustrating since you have to remove your gloves or warm up your hands to adjust the camera. You never have to worry about this with OCLU's intuitive, quick toggles. To solve the issue of wind drag, OCLU designed a smoother, more modern body that sits flush to every surface, including your helmet, surfboard, or handlebars. With one of their many advanced accessories, the camera can be securely mounted to your equipment and also becomes waterproof up to 50 meters. The OCLU Action Camera is also incredibly affordable–coming in under $200 with their current promo. Now, everyone can bring along this lightweight, versatile action camera. The OCLU team spent five years developing this camera, and the attention to detail shows in each element. Their innovation has resulted in several awards in the industry even before they launched, including the Red Dot Design Award for 2016, the European Product Design Award for 2016 and 2017, plus the iF Design Award for 2017. Since OCLU made its public debut in 2019, it is catching the attention of thrill-seekers everywhere. Flow 2 Through their research, Plume Labs discovered that each year, air pollution causes more than 7 million premature deaths. They wanted to create a tool to identify poor air quality and provide practical solutions for change. With this mission in mind, they developed Flow, a personal air pollution sensor that measures what’s in the air around you and provides real-time feedback. Flow is a small, portable, smart device that attaches anywhere. It measures particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, and PM10), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and nitrous oxides (NO2) caused by exhaust fumes. Whether you are indoors or outdoors, a quick press of the button sends immediate air quality results to the device's smartphone application. You can then use the app to locate a full breakdown of the pollutants in your area. The app can also guide you towards areas with cleaner air. Flow has received recognition in the tech industry, including the 2019 Red Dot Award for product design, the 2019 FastCo Most Innovative Company Award, and the 2017 CES Innovation Award. Their CEO, Romain Lacombe, spoke at TED 2018 and helped to bring the issue of localized air pollution to millions. Since then, the company has developed Flow 2, which has a smaller, more lightweight design, and an improved accuracy that can test for more pollutants than Flow 1. Lynx AR Headset This France-based startup started with a mission to create an affordable, wireless, standalone headset that also offered users a wider field of view. They noticed most AR headsets on the market were see-through rather than passthrough. With see-through, users see the real world through the glass, with the visual images and objects superimposed. Unfortunately, see-through also has a narrow field of view. The Lynx headset solves this problem. Passthrough headsets feature the same type of display as VR headsets, but the real world displays through cameras rather than being entirely virtual. These types of headsets are referred to as "mixed reality headsets" because the display is similar to VR, but the AR on a passthrough headset will have a wider field of view. This adjustment also brings the cost of an AR headset down considerably. Most see-through, AR headsets cost around $3500, but the Lynx is currently available for $1500. Unlike other passthrough headsets, the Lynx headset is standalone and wireless since hardware, battery, and storage are built-in. Lynx has received recognition in Upload, Forbes, Road to VR, and VR Times. They are set to release to the public in the summer of 2020. Ekster Smart Wallet The founders of the Ekster Smart Wallet were frustrated by the lack of security on most everyday carry items, such as wallets. Since wallets hold sensitive information, they wanted to create something safer. Their new smart wallets are the perfect combination of state-of-the-art technology and fashion. Ekster wallets are stylish and made of high-quality genuine leather. Their design and manufacturing methods model those of most high-end, luxury leather brands. Each wallet is slim and features a small button to display cards in a staggered pattern–making it easy to access your cards. Ekster wallets also feature an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) secured credit card holder–allowing you to connect your wallet to your smartphone wirelessly. You can then use GPS to track the exact location of your wallet. Ekster Smart Wallets were featured on CNN, ABC, CBS, and in Forbes. They were also named one of the best Kickstarter wallets. Since their viral launch, they have quickly become one of the largest smart wallet brands. Openpath Keyless Door Access The founders at Openpath began to recognize the security risk standard keys and badges presented to many office buildings. Keys, badges, and PINs are unreliable and often lead to information breaches. To solve these common issues, they created a security ecosystem that works with your smartphone. Openpath's software is easy to use and creates one true source of control. Instead of relying on key fobs, this system uses employees' smartphones to grant or deny access. Through Bluetooth and WiFi connection, users can open doors with just a touch of the Openpath reader. Once an employee's phone syncs with the system, they don't even need to unlock their phone to gain access. The app allows directors to monitor, lock, and open doors from anywhere at any time. They can also authorize guest passes and initiate lockdowns in case of an emergency. Since its launch, the Wall Stress Journal, Forbes, Business Insider, and TechCrunch have recognized Openpath. Several businesses have started using Openpath in their offices, including Domino's Pizza, FabFitFun, and Moon Juice. They have also received numerous awards for innovation and security, including the iF Design Awards for 2020, the Timmy Awards 2019 Best Tech Startup, and the SSI Security Solutions 2019 Award. Nima Developed by two MIT students who both struggle with food allergies, Nima helps to alleviate the anxiety that comes with dining out when you have a severe allergy. Nima founders spent years developing their science-backed, proprietary technology which allows users to test their foods and ensure no allergens are present. This small handheld device contains a disposable test capsule to evaluate food. An electronic sensor and algorithm then sends immediate results to the front screen of the device. The device will let users know if any allergens have been detected. The Nima app will also provide more extensive results for each test. To help reduce the mislabeling of many dishes within dining establishments, Nima developed their Food Service Provider (FSP) Program. Now, restaurants can confidently help diners make safe choices. The Nima has gone through several rounds of testing, including thousands of third-party tests, to ensure users receive the most accurate results possible. When compared with leading ELISA food safety tests, Nima was 97 percent accurate. Nima is supported and backed by researchers in the medical field and continues to expand the allergens it can test. Nima's innovation has gained the attention of Time Magazine, Travel and Leisure, TechCrunch, Forbes, and Inc. Circadian Optics With so many Americans suffering from sleep loss, Circadian Optics designed the perfect solution. Through research, they found most sleep loss was due to a disruption in the circadian rhythm. This rhythm is your natural sleep-wake cycle, regulated by the setting of the sun. To help maintain this cycle, Circadian Optics created a line of light therapy lamps that are as chic as they are effective. Circadian Optics uses LED technology to mimic the sun. With exposure to this warm, natural glow, it improves mood, concentration, and boosts energy. If you start to feel sleepy during the day, 15 to 20 minutes next to a sun lamp can help you feel more alert and focused. Over time, light therapy can help maintain your natural sleep-wake cycle, so you fall asleep quickly every night and wake refreshed. The stylish design of the Circadian Optic lamps makes them suitable for any room of the house or an office. The touch sense makes it easy to turn on and adjust brightness. Recently featured on ABC's Shark Tank, founder Amber Leong, accepted an investment of $800,000 from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner. Circadian Optics has also received praise from the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and NBC's Today Show. Prynt At Prynt, they decided to change the way we interact with digital connect. They realized most digital footage remained trapped on our electronic devices. Gone were the days of instant gratification when images would immediately print and develop seconds after saying cheese. To change this, they created a smartphone case that turns your smartphone into a Polaroid. The Prynt case attaches quickly to your smartphone and allows you to print any photo in your camera roll, no ink required. It is compatible with iOS and Android, requires no batteries, and does not rely on a Bluetooth or WiFi connection for printing. Using the Prynt app, users can add frames, photo stickers, and text to images. You can even scan images with the Prynt app and print them instantly. Users on Amazon and Google love the convenience and ease of the Prynt case. Now, high-quality photos no longer have to remain on our devices–we can quickly print, display, and enjoy them. Prynt's first round of funding came through their Kickstarter campaign. They were able to raise $1.5 million from 9,023 backers in just 35 days. Since then, Prynt has been in Forbes, CNN, NBC, TechCrunch tech, Slash Gear, and Engadget. They have recently received additional funding and continue to expand their product offerings. Robin Auto-Pilot Lawn Mower The team at Robin Auto-Pilot wanted a lawnmower that was safer for the planet and more efficient than what was currently on the market. So, they created the first emission-free robotic mower. You've probably heard of the Roomba Vacuum; well, the Robin Auto-Pilot works in a very similar way but for your lawn. This fully electric lawn mower uses sensors that stop and turn the mower automatically, so your lawn is cut perfectly from edge to edge. You can set your preferred lawn height, from 1.25 to 3.5 inches, and then the Robin Auto-Pilot will cut your lawn at this exact height. You can schedule mowing sessions on the Robin Auto-Pilot app and monitor charging. Since this mower cuts your grass more frequently, there is no need to rake or clean up lawn clippings. You also save money on fuel and time because the Robin Auto-Pilot is completely self-sufficient. TechCrunch, NBC's Today Show, and ABC's Shark Tank have featured the Robin Auto-Pilot. They have also recently expanded throughout the US and can now provide this unique service to millions of customers. Qball Throwable Wireless Microphone The founder of Qball, Shane Cox, spent years installing audio systems in classrooms. However, he quickly noticed that while these systems gave teachers microphone access, there was no access to students. Cox set out to create a solution–a portable mic that would increase engagement and fun. The Qball is a soft, yet durable ball that can be thrown or tossed around the room. Within each ball is a powerful, wireless microphone that allows users to have a clear and distinct contribution. The mic is compatible with most audio setups, including PA systems and portable speakers. Whether used in a classroom or a company meeting, the Qball mic helps everyone share and feel included. The Qball also made its way to ABC's Shark Tank, where Lori Greiner, Mark Cuban, and Rohan Oza invested $300,000 in the brand. This new investment has allowed the Qball brand to branch out to boardroom and corporate executives. Several corporations, including Starbucks, Google, Boeing, Microsoft, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines, have already signed on to make the Qball part of their corporate training sessions. The innovation of these ten hardware startups is sure to change the way we address our most common problems. They are listening to the public and creating products that help us live healthier, safer, comfortable, and more exciting lives.

10 Promising Hardware Startups to Follow in 2020

116 Stories To Learn About Art

-> Source As the breadth of new subculture segments increases, to these communities is becoming harder to scale. marketing Who remembers these movies? North Shore, where a lonely Arizonan breaks into the radical pro surfing culture on Oahu. Rad, where a persistent BMX rider is determined to take on the Helltrack despite many obstacles. Donnie Brasco, where an undercover agent infiltrates the mafia. These movies all provide a realistic analogy of the inclusive exclusivity of micro-cultures. If we go back 60 years, our marketing segments were much more homogenized and binary, in the sense of cool|not-cool, athlete|nerd, pretty|average, good|evil, smoker|non-smoker, clean|dirty, homemaker|breadwinner, man|woman, sweater|jacket, ketchup|mustard, red|menthol. These more binary social/cultural constructions also led to easier segmentation of customers into larger ‘buckets.’ Marginal interest groups were marketed to on back pages and local newsprint at best. Sexist Alcoa Aluminum ad Internet culture has changed everything. We’re seeing thousands of micro-communities emerge as positive, creative and inclusive respites for a new tide of special interests. This is creating an incredible breadth of community content to market against. As their breadth continues to increase, micro-cultures also remain nuanced and exclusive, creating new challenges for marketers. In his 1996 book , Professor Robert Shields and some of his contemporaries explored the ideas of Internet sub-cultures very early on. 19 years ago Professor Shields wrote: Cultures of the Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories, Living Bodies New discursive norms are being invented and disseminated on the Internet and from there ‘infect’ the design, layout and textual strategies of advertising, literary works and research reports.[…]It is essential to treat computer-mediated communication as a process involving differentiated ‘bodies.’ The tendency has been to treat all users as alike according to a stereotype of young, socially inept and thus culturally marginalized male ‘computer addicts.’ Professor Shields’ notes underscore the importance of this rapidly growing space of Internet culture and the general misunderstanding of it’s cultural phenomena, which have taken on great importance in the consciousness of young people. These new communities are not unlike the punk music, skateboarding and surfing communities of the 80s and 90s. Marketers have always required an authentic connection to touch and influence these groups. Any communications that were outside of what the community considered authentic would be quickly deflected and/or ostracized. Consider the success of Reddit and it’s hyper-moderated list groups. These function in just the same way. With new micro-cultures emerging around interests like pizza, cats, memes, yoga, crossfit, footwear, crafts, wellness, normcore, fit goth, seapunk, furries, otherkin, survival, webcams, fan fiction, and many more, marginalized obscurity is the new ‘normal.’ Few people talk about why the majority of online companies, particularly e-commerce and non-platform SaaS, are so hard to scale. Many have raised $100M dollars, yet struggle to turn a profit as online customers are harder to find, isolate and impress. It is becoming more difficult for our online ad units to create an authentic connection with viewers because their online interests are becoming hyper-nuanced and continually informed by a new real-time culture, i.e. a finitely engaged and fundamentally distracted Internet culture. Cultural fragmentation away from the status quo continues at an accelerated pace. E-pollution is out of control. And so, we take this rapidly expanding Internet culture space, with all of its nuance, breadth and complexity, and we layer on top of it the most vile, often unmentioned cancer on the web: Bots. According to a study by Incapsula, . According to the Wall Street Journal, over . This is scary stuff and applicable to every class of online ad: video, search, affiliate, streaming, display. During my time building data warehouses and analytics products, I can say that these reports are completely consistent with what I’ve seen in the real world. over 50% of current web traffic could be different forms of fraudulent ‘bot’ traffic 30% of our paid advertising clicks could also be from fraudulent bots Authenticity as the only currency moving forward. With all of the cultural fragmentation and low-quality traffic, we have to take a much closer look at brand narrative and content. How do we speak to all of these micro-cultures instead of just describing them as attributes in a database of millions? Authenticity of brand communication and narrative has never been more important. Sincere connection will be the future currency of marketing products online. [ ] Tweet this The allure of web-scale often distracts our brands from a truly unique identity and narrative. Even more troubling for marketers, we find that micro-community influencers like , , , , , , , , , and have become the new narrators of ‘cool.’ It is becoming much more difficult for brands to compete with content that commodifies brands and champions unique community-driven narratives. Adam Gallagher Veronica Belmont Gregory Han Justine Ezarik Christian Kimber Annaka Linowska Abdulqadir Johnie Gall Karl-Edwin Guerre Tom Emrich Authenticity is not the same as personalization. Knowing if I’m male or female, or knowing that my zip code is 90254, is not the same as marketing to my . Cultural connection requires authenticity and knowledge of a nuanced complexity of language, semantics, tone and color. Often this is ‘tribal’ information, changing organically with the community. culture A great example of authentic micro-culture marketing with larger mass influence is . , Founder and Creative Director explains, “Poler is meant to inspire people to reconnect with the outdoors in simple everyday ways that are meaningful to them. Because of this, we’ve seen great support across different culture segments like outdoor exploration, hiking, car camping, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and dirtbiking. Also, because of our unique content and storytelling, Poler has really been embraced by a spectrum of influencers, artists and content creators.” Poler Outdoor Stuff Benji Wagner Poler Outdoor Stuff, Portland, OR flagship display The wider the scope of our online marketing programs, the more our content needs to be customized to meet the cultural expectations of each visitor. This goes far beyond just contextual and personalized customization. This will be the big challenge for brands in the next decade. The future may dictate that each new customer segment require an entirely new narrative and marketing strategy. Some of our tech-focused CRM companies are just scratching the surface of this new reality, companies like , , , , . SailThru Retention Science Afinity Custora RichRelevance The honesty of scale. In order to grow sustainably, we need to be honest about the potential scale of our products. For example, e-commerce brands sometimes confuse themselves with platforms, anticipating unrealistic organic growth. Some of our products seem to sell themselves, either from brilliant design execution or broad platform dynamics. The last decade has clearly shown us that content communities and platforms matter. If a company can combine revenue generation with platform dynamics, the possibilities are great. In this case, micro-communities can adopt, self-select and enforce their cultures on each platform while driving incremental revenue in specialized segments. We have seen this with companies like Slack, VBulletin, IFTTT, Salesforce, Heroku, Shopify, Magento, Pinterest and more. The reality of Internet marketing for a non-platform product is brutal. If we are paying $1 per click for qualified traffic and 2% of our new visitors make a purchase, that means it costs us $100 per hundred people and we get two purchasers. If we sell our product for $40, we might make $15 in ( ). So we’ve made $30 for our two purchases and spent $100, which leaves us with a . Let’s say our LTV is $120 (or three purchases), that would be six purchases across the lifetime of our two new customers, which would result in $90 in gross margin. We still end up with a over the lifetime of these new customers for our $100 spent on clicks. gross margin link to great slide deck $70 loss $10 loss Because our current content production model cannot keep up with the pace of micro-community growth, it might cost $100,000 of these ads to find $10k of sustainably reproducible traffic. Need more scale, $10M to find $1M of reproducible traffic, and so on. “Micro-testing campaigns with authentic content is so important,” says Dirk McGregor, VP of Customer Acquisition at Regent Equity Partners, whose portfolio companies generate over $300M in revenue. “I think what we’re seeing on the larger market are companies scaling too wide with their standard ad campaigns from day one. They sadly end up losing a substantial piece of that investment without first considering the rising tide of low-quality traffic on today’s networks. Without a disciplined approach, it’s tough to find the quick scale people often expect.” How do we scale in this new era? Given our new reality, we not only need to focus on authentic content and narrative, but we also need to limit our financial risk when testing new audiences. While more traditional growth initiatives like email marketing, affiliate marketing, physical events, and traditional lead-generation have a much lower risk profile, they do not scale as quickly as display advertising (which is growing to include internet radio, video and various new social ad units). Just like using , we can also apply these core ideas to scale our marketing initiatives. We want to reduce our risk profile, or batch size, as much as possible in order to test our hypotheses, i.e. spend less, learn more. We can achieve this with disciplined hypothesis testing for new audience segments. Lean methodologies for product development Something like this is a good start: Construct our new audience hypothesis, i.e. develop narrative, content, ads and communication strategy for our new audience. Micro-test our hypothesis, i.e. run ads, emails, social. Include A/B/C/D testing wherever possible. Set a tight limit to our initial spend. Review our data. Clean our traffic sources, i.e. block fraudulent and/or non-performing sources. Adjust our strategy. Repeat. Programmatic buying can provide efficient, larger scale. If we take the Lean approach, we increase our chances for success and remove a large amount of waste/risk from our advertising machine. If we can combine this methodology with real tech and significant resources for , content production and targeting across large ad networks, we have a much better chance for sustainable scale. When we talk about this, we are saying that we can automate our audience segment testing and analysis, including partial automation of content production. Obviously this is no small task. programmatic buying Many search companies have proven this model, companies like Culture Machine, TubeMogul, 26.2 Media Agency, Dex Media, CampusExplorer, YP.com, Rubicon, [ more research on this, these are probably no longer relevant… ] Content production must adapt to a large number of customer segments. As we successfully test our audience segments and develop new narratives, authentic content production will become a large cost center. We see companies like , , , , and creating efficiencies in the content lifecycle. Can we merge cultural understanding with authentic content production at scale? Tongal Kapost Marketo Infusionsoft Hubspot Enter the ‘Culture Manager.’ As a general rule, founding level employees build the first culture narrative for a product or service. What about the next audience segment? What if there are 1,000s of these audience segments? It’s a scary idea that as conversion rates drop and Internet pollution increases by orders of magnitude, we might need experts for each micro-culture to create a narrative effective enough to break through the noise. Who is this person? Is this a new position entirely? I think it might be. This person is almost an Internet anthropologist, in charge of understanding several important micro-cultures. Jason Provisor, Head of Marketing Strategy at , expands on this idea: “Many of the companies we work with are too close to their own brands. It’s the age of the consumer. You no longer tell, you ask. At Tongal we’ve built a platform that crowdsources insights from within important micro-cultures to drive marketing content production. It’s no longer about creating ads, but creating narratives that resonate with each community.” Tongal Our primary paradigm in the ‘lean startup’ era is to just follow the data; test everything, measure everything and respond to the data. Unfortunately this is not going to help much if our marketers or product developers are completely detached from the micro-cultures they are meant to serve. If we use the example of the skateboarding and surfing communities, imagine a fresh Ivy League MBA who grew up playing competitive chess and doubles badminton trying to ‘learn’ his way into marketing to these communities, it would be a massacre. Open our coats and compress our learnings. Much of what we’re seeing is the confluence of a new breadth of Internet micro-cultures and the new reality of Internet ad performance. In many ways, we have been collectively floating down a widening river into a vast ocean of marketing inefficiencies, a black hole of phantom clicks and ad narrative lost in translation. Surely there is no single formula to combat our new reality. Risk mitigation is generally my number one priority. While it’s easy and fun to spend VC money and corporate display budgets on underperforming ads, . An honest and introspective approach to building new products and authentic culture narratives, together with lean testing of new audience segments will be essential in the coming years. perhaps that’s more a sign of the times than a long-term strategy

Marketing To New Micro-Cultures Difficult As Web Grows

There are annual seasonal changes in the human organism

How I Modified The Bullet Journal System to run my Online Business

…and they’ll succeed where Google stumbled announced Spectacles, their first hardware product, last Friday evening. Despite being the first hardware effort from our current social darlings, Evan Spiegel and company seem to be playing down the product. In on Snap, only a handful of paragraphs touch on Spectacles. One section sandbags the entire effort: Snapchat a Wall Street Journal feature For the moment, Spectacles appears to be a bit of a lark. At a price of $129.99 and with limited distribution, it won’t be relied upon for significant immediate revenue. Spiegel refers to it as a toy, to be worn for kicks at a barbecue or an outdoor concert — Spectacles video syncs wirelessly to a smartphone, making it easily shareable. “We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out,” says Spiegel. “It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.” If you ignore the Karl Lagerfeld portraits of Spiegel, the whole affair is rather low key. And who can blame them? Launching digital glasses anywhere in California forces comparison’s to Google Glass, a device whose . Glass’ launch video was an followed by an , then . massive, life changing promises were never delivered augmented reality what-if initial live demo by skydivers a Diane Von Furstenburg catwalk appearance Compared to Glass as promised by Google, Spiegel’s “toy” for a “barbeque or an outdoor concert” is rather mundane. But that’s OK. I think Spectacles could not only succeed, but turn out to be a watershed product for Snap. Here’s why: Spectacles Side-Step Glass’ Cultural Challenges Despite their high technical goals, Glass’ biggest challenge was cultural. Google focused so closely on the users of Glass that they forgot everyone around them, leading to the of an anti-social product. I cover this in detail , but in a nutshell: design here Glass’ screen is visible only to it’s user and it’s camera looks out documenting everything except the user, storing content to be shared at the user’s discretion. I believe that these always on, core functions of Glass will prevent it from being welcomed in social settings. Those around the Glass users must implicitely trust the Glass wearer, for they have no idea where the Glass user’s current attention lies and cannot visually confirm whether or not they are currently being captured by Glass. . Google is working so hard to keep technology out of the way that they’re forgetting why it’s important to _see_technology when it’s present This challenge was clearly considered by the team at Snap, because they made several choices which address it directly. They added a bright light to show others you’re recording. They limited video to 10 second clips, not persistent documentation. And, most importantly, they made Spectacles sunglasses. Sunglasses are worn occasionally. Sunglasses aren’t worn inside. Everyone wears sunglasses. Sunglasses make sense during public, fun times. Wear sunglasses inside and you’re considered “that guy,” no onboard camera required. Choosing sunglasses specifically tightly confines Spectacles’ use cases to social acceptable contexts. Spectacles work within cultural norms rather than attempt to redefine them. Spectacles have Job-sian Focus Like Job’s Apple, Snap is prioritizing focus and simplicity above all. Above is . Everything we need to know about Spectacles (save the design and colors, which greets the user prior) is listed here. The promise, “Specs make memories from your perspective,” is simple and clear. Spectacles’ website Compare the above to the : website for the first iPod Same succinct five points, including one clear promise: “1,000 songs in your pocket.” (Watch excepted). This clear promise or vision was made for every Apple product that wasn’t a computer Sure, this seems like best practice, but nearly every tech product which attempts to invent a category ignores this advice. Glass shouldn’t have promised an augmented life, just better memories. Alexa shouldn’t have promised household AI, just music on-demand. (Sure, Alexa’s doing OK, but compare the iPod and Spectacles sites above to . Very different!) Alexa’s homepage Beyond shared restraint, Specs and the iPod both feel/felt like experiments. They’re odd, but inoffensive, and I bet Specs have similarly underwhelming sales. They’ll do fine, but won’t light the world on fire. As Spiegel said, “We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out. It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.” When Snap Finds the Formula, Spectacles will be Everywhere Specs are $129.99. . Specs are already cheap enough for a fashion item. The electronic components are even cheaper. Stock Ray-Bans are $150 We’ll have to wait for a proper teardown, but Specs probably contain Bluetooth, a dab of storage for a few shots, several chips to run the whole thing, and a cellphone camera from several years ago. (Another benefit to making them sunglasses? The camera only needs to work in brightlight.) This package is already cheap and will only get cheaper. If Snap cracks the code and figures out this can fit in the fun parts of people’s lives, expect this kit to propagate everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if the salesperson at LensCrafters asks you if you’d like your sunglasses with Specs, right after asking about anti-glare coating. Snap will pursue a good price point and small sizes before they add a second camera for VR recording. VR will come after Snap cracks the cultural code for sharing videos with Specs when there’s a way for people to consumer VR video at scale. and (What will also be fun to watch: all the Shenzhen knockoffs. Everything in Specs can be sourced from the warehouses of smartphone parts in Southeast China. Expect clones for <$100 in under three months. But Snap shouldn’t worry that: these won’t be as simple or connected to a giant network.) Everyone hyping VR got very excited when they saw two ports in the frame. Snap Wants to be the Heir to Kodak Specs, and the way Spiegel talks about them, is classic Kodak. They make “memories”, not videos. You can almost hear Don Draper. Capturing and sharing memories is great terrain, proven to be an insanely large market, with no dominant leader. Facebook has irons in the fire and isn’t in the brand ballpark: Facebook is about communication, not memories. Jobs aimed Apple in this direction with his Digital Hub strategy. But Apple veered away from the hub and diluted focus with the Watch. Google is being Google. is great, but it and the rest of Google’s offering is about intelligent discovery, not memories. Photos Spiegel has : taken aim He’s studied the histories of firms like and Polaroid and how they pitched themselves to the public. “First it was make a photo,” Spiegel says, characterizing the way people would visit a studio akin to the one we’re in now for a formal sitting. “Then it was take a photo,” as portable cameras let people capture casual snapshots. “And finally it became give a photo,” starting with instant Polaroids handed to friends at a party and evolving into smartphone cameras that let you zip your selfie to anyone on the planet. Kodak Snap Just Threw a Bomb in the Action Cam Market Snap just took a specialty product and showed how it might become mass. Not an epic camera for epic people during epic times, but a fun camera for fun people during fun times. Which market would you rather have? (By the way, head down to Times Square in December and look for tourists with GoPros strapped to their chest. Opportunity often looks like lots of people doing awkward things.) (Another awkward behavior? People with GoPros and drones spending entire plane flights trying to edit down their streams into something actually consumable. That 10-second limit is a smart choice by Snap.) Snap has the Best Brief in the World Right Now Snapchat has a massive audience of people who use the app to have fun and share that fun. It must be exciting to wake up every morning, tasked with figuring out how to deliver on that promise. I’ll admit, I’ve been a Snapchat skeptic for a bit now. I didn’t buy the VR/AR argument, as photo filters are rather simple and a very constrained challenge. And Facebook’s continued dominance in social looked immovable. But Specs crystalizes what Snap stands for in a way I hadn’t realized prior. A friend at Snap responded to this remark, sent via text, very quickly: “It’s funny, Evan’s been preaching this stuff for years. Just takes one story or product to bring it all together.”

Spectacles are the Anti-Glass

This story was originally published on by . ProPublica Lisa Song As a climate reporter, I was well aware of the growing concern about the gas stoves in people’s homes leaking dangerous pollutants, like ; nitrogen dioxide, which worsens asthma; and benzene, which causes cancer. methane, a potent greenhouse gas and explosive hazard But I was a renter who had no control over my appliances. So I mostly ignored it — until one day last fall when I smelled the rotten-egg odor of leaking natural gas while baking focaccia. I borrowed a $30 gas leak detector from a friend (a fellow climate reporter, of course). When I turned on the oven in my New York City apartment, the lights for a “significant” leak lit up. My kitchen was filling up with methane. According to the user manual, that meant I should “VENTILATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY and move to a safe location” in case of an explosion. I opened the windows and ignored the evacuation advice (don’t follow my example), too intent on taking a video of the leak as proof for my landlord before turning off the oven. Then I vented my frustration by panic-texting friends and eating too much focaccia — after cutting it into pieces and baking it in my toaster oven. Luckily, my landlord replaced my faulty stove within days. I made sure to check the new stove (still gas, alas) for leaks after it was installed. “People still don’t recognize that there are health downsides to cooking with gas in your home,” said Regina LaRocque, a Harvard Medical School professor who does research on medicine and public health. “This is the 21st century, and we have better ways of cooking than over a fire.” The issue has caught national attention in recent weeks, as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission . Public health experts and environmentalists have long warned of the risks of gas ranges. considers regulating gas stoves One study found that indoor in the U.S. The and have urged consumers to transition away from gas. gas stoves were responsible for roughly 13% of childhood asthma cases American Public Health Association American Medical Association LaRocque uses a traditional electric coil stove at home. But she and other experts advocated for induction stoves, which use electromagnets to heat up food. These stoves are growing in popularity as consumers choose them for climate, health and safety reasons, though they can as a gas range. cost more than twice as much The federal Inflation Reduction Act will provide rebates to upgrade to electric or induction home appliances (here’s that program). Some states, , offer their own rebates as well. a Wirecutter guide on including Massachusetts Induction stoves are much more common in Europe, LaRocque said. That cultural shift has yet to occur in the United States, where more than a third of households use gas stoves. As Mother Jones reported, the gas industry embraced the term “ ” in the 1930s; an executive even made sure to get it worked into Bob Hope’s comedy routines. cooking with gas More recently, the efforts with lobbying and who tout gas as a “super cool way” to cook. industry has opposed electrification social media influencers I consulted multiple experts on the hazards of gas stoves and what people can do about them. Their advice boiled down to this: homeowners who can afford it should switch to an induction or electric stove. For renters and others who can’t replace their appliances, the experts provided tips on lowering the health risks. What Are the Risks of Gas Appliances? The gas that’s piped into your house is virtually all methane. When you burn methane to cook food, it turns into carbon dioxide. But unburned methane trickles out from loose fittings and faulty stovetop igniters. Methane is a greenhouse gas. Every pound of methane released into the air is 30 to 86 times more effective at warming the planet than a pound of carbon dioxide. When researchers analyzed 53 homes in California last year, they found . More than three-quarters of that methane came from stoves that were turned off. The act of igniting a burner or oven released additional puffs of methane. methane leaking from almost every stove If these leaks are consistent across the nation, then annual methane emissions from U.S. gas stoves would equal the greenhouse gas emissions of half a million cars. These leaks are “pretty much universal,” said Robert Jackson, a Stanford University professor and a study co-author. Jackson, who’s spent more than a decade studying methane leaks from gas wells, pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, said it can be hard to predict where the leak is coming from. Based on the description of the leak in my kitchen, he told me it likely was caused by ignition problems with the oven. Jackson’s research has inspired him to ditch his gas stove, furnace and hot water heater in favor of induction and electric appliances. “I did not expect to see the high levels of indoor air pollution we saw consistently,” he said. “It strongly motivated me to replace my own stove.” If you smell gas in your home, leave the building and call your gas company. The distinctive rotten-egg odor comes from chemicals that gas companies add to the methane to make it easier to detect, since the gas is naturally odorless. Large methane leaks can cause explosions. Some people are much more sensitive to the smell than others, so it’s not a foolproof warning for explosive risk. Eric Lebel, lead author of the methane study Jackson worked on, recalled smelling gas in some of the homes where he did the testing, even though the homeowners couldn’t smell anything. Lebel is a senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy, a nonprofit science and policy research institute. Nitrogen dioxide exacerbates asthma and impairs lung function. The Environmental Protection Agency regulates these emissions from cars and power plants with national air quality standards, but those regulations don’t apply to indoor air. Burning natural gas releases nitrogen dioxide, a respiratory irritant. The Lebel and Jackson study measured nitrogen dioxide and a related compound. They found steadily rising emissions after turning on burners and ovens. “Simply having a combustion stove in your home is a health risk,” LaRocque said. In poorly ventilated kitchens, nitrogen dioxide . “It would be like standing behind an idling car, or standing in a smoke-filled room,” she added. “I think if my child had asthma, I would definitely want to intervene.” levels could exceed outdoor air standards In a separate study published last fall, Lebel and his colleagues analyzed gas samples from residential kitchens. Out of 160 samples, . Gas stoves leak benzene, a carcinogen that can cause leukemia. all but one contained benzene “If there’s a leak from that appliance, it likely contains benzene,” Lebel said. “It’s a rather unavoidable cost of owning a gas appliance.” Raw natural gas contains a mix of methane and toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene or formaldehyde. Gas companies strip out the impurities before piping the processed gas to homes, but they don’t eliminate all the toxins. Lebel’s team modeled the benzene concentrations from the leaking stoves and found a handful that failed to meet California’s benzene safety guidelines. They also found traces of other harmful compounds, including toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene, which can cause dizziness, nausea and liver damage. A separate found benzene in 95% of samples, though at lower levels than Lebel’s study. study of gas appliances in the Greater Boston area How Can I Protect Myself? Paul Francisco, associate director of building science at the University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, suggests cooking on the back burners and using the hood whenever you turn on the stove or the oven. The fans improve ventilation and will pull benzene, methane and nitrogen dioxide outdoors. Turn on the range hood above your stove. However, this only works if the hood connects to the outside of your house. Follow the piping on the hood: If the top of the device goes through the ceiling or the wall, then it should help with air quality. Another type of range hood, called a “ductless” hood, simply recirculates indoor air. If your hood has grilles or vents on the front, then it’s likely, but not guaranteed, to be ductless, Francisco said. These fans won’t cut down on harmful gases, but they might be able to reduce particulate matter — tiny particles created during cooking, which can cause or exacerbate respiratory illness. A 2014 than cooking on gas or electric stoves. study found that cooking on induction stoves produced far fewer particles At a minimum, an open window will dilute toxic gases. Open a window to improve ventilation. If your kitchen is in the upper half of a building, opening the window should draw the contaminants outside as long as there’s no wind and it’s warmer inside than outside, Francisco said. If you live in the lower half of a building, opening a window in the winter won’t be as effective, he said, though any ventilation is better than none. If you can’t replace your stove, experts said the next best thing is to buy an induction burner. Here are some with . Get an induction hot plate. consumer guides reviews of portable hot plates During last summer’s heat waves, when I couldn’t fathom lighting a fire inside my kitchen, I did almost all my cooking using an induction hot plate, an Instant Pot and an electric toaster oven. Excessive heat is another reason why burners. some chefs advocate for induction These devices have become more popular as a way to . Most air purifiers won’t have any effect on toxic gases, though they do remove particulate matter, Francisco said. What about air purifiers? improve air quality and reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections Some specialty models filter out volatile organic compounds, a class of chemicals that includes benzene. There are that are , priced from roughly $30 to $200. Some will tell you about the presence of a leak. Others are sensitive enough to detect specific concentrations of methane. Should I buy a gas detector? a number of methane monitors designed for consumers You can also find for $200 to $300. indoor monitors that detect particulate matter It’s much harder to monitor for benzene or nitrogen dioxide. The types of instruments used by Lebel and Jackson cost tens of thousands of dollars and require users to undergo extensive training. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, a regulatory agency in California, maintains a (less than $2,000) that can be used by citizen scientists and advocacy groups. list of “low-cost” air quality sensors These sensors can be used to detect particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds. Lebel said it shouldn’t be up to individuals to solve a systemic issue. It seems problematic, he said, “to be asking citizens to be scientists and try and discover if their stove is leaking.” Photo by on KWON JUNHO Unsplash

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