Wow, I love this retro digital Computron watch from Bulova.
I remember when the first digital LED watches with the red numbers like this first came out in the 1970s.
They were quite expensive then!
Part of the computer revolution. LOL
I remember my uncle had something like this and I thought how cool it was–no moving hands to read.
Also, has a little of that sci-fi Battlestar Galactica red (moving) light effect from the cybernetic enemy, Cylon visors.
What’s old is what’s new. 😉
So this was absolutely amazing today.
We had a meeting and someone brought in a bag of “prizes” as an icebreaker.
Low and behold, one of the items being given away was a Kim Jong-il (father of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s current leader).
“Coincidentally,” this just one day after the historic peace summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Why anyone would give a watch like this away is mind-boggling to me.
I am curious if anyone knows what the inscription on the back is?
Anyway, I think this watch is an amazing piece of history, especially from the isolated nation of North Korea.
I can only imagine what the history of this timepiece is and how it got here to NIST.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sometimes in life, people are left tongue-tied.
Too shocked, shamed, confused, or abused to speak or perhaps to even know what to say anymore.
Maybe in the face of some horrible things that happen in life, there really are no words.
Instead, the vacant or crazed look in the eyes says it all.
People go through a lot–some of it is inhumane.
Sometimes, only tears can even begin to express what they are feeling.
I think one thing that is important to do, even when we’re not sure what to say, is to acknowledge that it is okay.
Silence is often golden.
Listen more, watch more, feel more, learn more, reflect more.
Ask more questions.
Usually, I’m told to ask at least 5 times (i’d say at least 3) to decompose to what is really going on underneath the superficial covers.
“Tell me more.”
“What else?”
“Can you elaborate?”
Sometimes, people have difficulty getting in touch with their true feelings or accurately diagnosing what’s bothering them.
It’s more than okay to be thoughtful, be deliberative.
Words are often cheap, but they shouldn’t be.
Our words should be truthful, meaningful, insightful, even righteous.
Take all the time you need, your words are worth it. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
As we usher in 2014, I thought this amazing Fendi Jewel Watch for women was a great timekeeping way to capture the moment.
I took this photo in the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.
There was a huge advertisement hanging by the lobby, and it immediately caught my eye.
I like the different colored stones for each hour around the dial, as well as the overall white diamond ring around the face.
I found it at their website for $3,000 and it is an absolutely gorgeous timepiece when you first see it.
But it’s interesting to me that while it catches my eye, the more I look it, I find that I start to tire of it, and it is not one of those truly timeless jewelry pieces.
Maybe an important lesson for the New Year is that we need to look closely and carefully to avoid expensive buyers remorse, because not everything that glitters is gold–in fact, this watch is stainless. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I used to have this manager who was within a couple of years of retirement.
She kept a jar of beans on her desk.
Each bean represented one day of work.
And every day, she would take one bean out of the jar.
This was her way of counting down to the end of her career (and the beginning of her retirement).
Anyway, trust me when I say, that we were counting down too–even without the beans. 🙂
At work, some people may even say of someone just hanging on or just hanging-out waiting to retire that they are Retired In Place (RIP)–a pun, on rest in peace.
Uh, not funny, but when people know the end is coming (either for career or their life), they often change their behavior–they focus on what what’s coming next.
With the end of career, perhaps they are imaging sunny skies, palm trees, and margaritas in retirement.
And with end of life, people are often thinking about judgement day–and how they spent their lives: in love or hate, purposeful or without direction, doing good or taking advantage.
So it’s very interesting to me how this company, Tikker (funny name, as a watch often makes the sound tick-tock, but also a person’s heart is referred to as a ticker), developed a watch (the Death Watch) that not only provides the time, but actually counts down–years, months, days, and even hours, minutes, and seconds–not that they can be so precise–to your expected death.
The watch is supposed to give people new perspective and encourage them to live a better life.
Someone who is going to purchase the watch fills out a questionnaire with information on family health history, age gender, and race, and then they get their estimated date of death, for the countdown!
With the DOD (date of death), we now know what we are dealing with–for better or worse–and of course, subject to change, by the One Above.
But like the boss looking to retirement who took out a bean a day from the jar, we too can look towards our own mortality–not in a sad way, but in a fundamental human way–one that guides us, with the end in mind, to make better decisions for the time we have in life.
Despite, what almost every young person seems to believe, we are not immortal–and the stupid things we do when we are young or throughout of lives comes back to haunt us (whether smoking, drinking, overeating, or other bad stuff).
And so we must choose to live every moment, not as if we have forever, but rather with purpose, passion, and poetry–until the clock runs out on all of us, as it inevitably will.
Popular Science had some scary germy statistics about how few people wash their hands well when coming out of the bathroom.
Take a guess?
Only 5%!
And that’s based on almost 4,000 people they observed–but how many would’ve washed correctly if they thought no one was watching?
The dirty stats (while under observation):
– 23% didn’t use soap.
– 15% of men and 7% of women didn’t even use water.
– Average washed for just 6 seconds! (CDC says you need at least 20 seconds with soap and water to kill germs)
From what I’ve seen, unless their is a touchless water faucet and automatic towel dispenser, not too many people wash their hands–they don’t want to get them dirty by touching the same bathroom devices that the other people just touched.
Another no-no for people is touching the bathroom door handle–more germs!
What do some people do–they use (wads of) toilet seat protectors to pull the door open–then guess what’s missing for the next guy or gal?
Most public bathrooms are disgusting–if everyone could just have their own, they would keep it clean out of self-interest and maybe wash their hands a little more too.
Next time we have a recession and need to invest in “shovel ready” infrastructure projects to keep America working–how about we build some (read lots!) clean bathrooms and throw in the automatic wash features, pretty please. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Not to be mean or anything, but this was an eye-catching advertisement for this vendor’s services.
But whether or not you can spell what you are doing, if you are good at your job–what’s the difference.
D.C. is a funny town: some people can spell and some can Repari watches. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Scientific researchers in Britain, Norway and the U.S. are bringing us a major breakthrough in material science—by developing a “super strength” substance called graphene.
According to the Guardian (26 December 2012), graphene has “unmatched electrical and physical properties.” It’s made of an “atom-thick sheet of carbon molecules, arranged in a honeycomb lattice,” and promises to revolutionize telecommunications, electronics, energy industries, not to mention the untold applications for the military.
– Conductivity: Transmits electricity a million times better than copper
– Strength: The strongest material known to humankind, 200 times that of steel (Sciencebuzz)
– Transparency & Flexibility: So thin that light comes through it; more stretchable than any known conductor of electricity
Just a few of the amazing uses graphene will make possible (some of these from MarketOracle):
– Home windows that are also solar panels—clear off that roof and yard
– TV in your windows and mirrors—think you have information overload now?
– Thinner, lighter, and wrappable LED touch screens around your wrists—everyone can have Dick Tracy style
– Medical implants and organ replacements that can “last disease-free for a hundred years”—giving you that much more time to be a helicopter parent
– Vastly more powerful voice, video and data and palm-size computers—giving the average person the “power of 10,000 mainframes”
– Both larger and lighter satellites and space vehicles—imagine a skyscraper-size vehicle weighing less than your “patio barbecue grill”!
– Tougher and faster tanks and armored personnel carriers with the plus of an invisibility cloak—even “Harry Potter” would be jealous
The potential is truly amazing, so whomever thinks that the best technology is behind us, better think again. Better yet, soon they’ll be able to get a graphene brain implant to help them realize what they’ve been missing. 😉
(Source Photo: here with attribution to University of Maryland)
andyblumenthal 