What You Need to Know Today: February 15
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
“Like some sort of Pixar film about polite office furniture.” Automaker Nissan thought, ‘Hey, you know what would be a good idea… If we took our self-parking car technology and put it into office furniture.’ Then they did it. Appropriately named the “Intelligent Parking Chair.” You want to watch this.
I helped publish 700,000 CIA files and all I got was this lousy shirt. Here’s a Kickstarter campaign we can get behind. Michael Best launched a campaign to raise $10,000 for a top-of-the-range scanner, a laptop, plus a few other bits so he can publish 700,000 declassified CIA documents. The documents are currently sitting on four computers on the third floor of a library in Maryland. “The CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) is free for anyone to read, trouble is, you actually have to go down there to access the system,” says TheNextWeb. Want to know the best part of Best’s plan? For $35, for example, you get to help decide which files get digitized first and you get a t-shirt that says: “I helped publish 700,000 CIA files and all I got was this lousy shirt.” Ha!
The future of the NBA. “Canadian-American Dr. James Naismith made an innovation with peach baskets to create basketball 125 years ago. In 2016, basketball will look to virtual reality, apps, 4K and HDR, and sensors as the innovation all stars of the modern NBA.” says The Globe and Mail. Here’s what the NBA will look like in 2016.
CAREER
The real secret to writing engaging content. “Engaging content is the Swiss Army knife of Content Marketing. Yet most content writers don’t even know they have it in their pocket. So, what exactly is ‘engaging content?’”asks Jessica Mehring. “It’s less of a thing, for starters. It’s more of an outcome. And this is the outcome: Engaging content changes your reader,” says Mehring. “That change could mean opting in to your list. Buying your product or service. Making an inquiry. Or it might just mean changing their attitude from feeling indifferent to feeling emotionally connected. And that, my friend, is the most powerful change of all.” Everything you need to know about writing stuff people want to read is here.
+ Email marketing hack: no one responding to your emails? Try writing like a third grader.
Marketing in the year 2016. “If you clicked on this article thinking that I’m going to tell you to make a Facebook page, boy are you wrong. Maybe I would have said it in 2007, but guess what? It’s 2016 and it’s about time everyone started marketing like it. Unfortunately, it seems like most everyone is still marketing like it’s 1999. Some people even market like it’s 1979. The mistake they are making is this…” Gary Vaynerchuk explains the difference between attention and impressions. Good marketers leverage attention; poor marketers get stuck on impressions.
LIFESTYLE
How to stream Kanye West’s new album for free. Kanye dropped his new album “The Life of Pablo” this weekend, but with one major caveat: it’s only available to stream on Tidal. Womp womp. Thankfully, someone found the “Beyonce loop-hole” where you can stream Kanye’s new album for free.
This millennial might be the next Einstein. “A first-generation Cuban-American born and bred in the suburbs of Chicago, she’s not on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram and doesn’t own a smartphone. She does, however, regularly update a no-frills website called PhysicsGirl, which features a long catalog of achievements and proficiencies. Among them: spotting elegance within the chaos.” Meet Sabrina Pasterski.
#NOWYOUKNOW
The greatest dunk in NBA Slam Dunk Contest history
“I’m just going to come out and say it: Aaron Gordon’s dunk this weekend was the greatest dunk in the history of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. That’s it. End of discussion. And he has every right to be furious with the judges,” says Nate Scott.
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