How To Tell If A Planet Harbors Life

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

In light of the historical Pluto flyby, the internet is more fired up than ever regarding planets and space stuff. New Horizons was a hot topic on Twitter and Facebook on July 14 when the probe gave us the first clear pictures of Pluto (and its tiny moons) since we discovered the dwarf-planet in the ’30s.

Few people hoped to find anything astounding there, but even as the first shots arrived, Pluto was showing several interesting characteristics, including its notoriously big heart. NASA is still sifting through the mountains of data, which promises to yield new information about the formation of the Pluto system, the Kuiper belt, and the early Solar System.

Read More

Entrepreneurship Comes From Money, Not Genes [Study]

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

It’s upsetting to know that your jet-set friends will always have it better than you thanks to their wealthy families, but it’s a reality we have to accept. Many have made their fortunes through hard work, getting up at 5 and investing all their energy in changing paradigms. Who can argue, then, that their offspring received the best?

According to recent studies, it is this simple recipe that usually makes an entrepreneur: wealthy family (i.e. safety net) → great education → Mom & Dad supply capital after graduation → Mom & Dad’s connections pave the way to business-oriented future → business works thanks to positive attitude and risk taking.

Read More

IT Needs to Get Off Its Butt And Start Teaching UC

Communication between a company’s IT department and the rest of the organization is often fragmented. We all accept that this is the norm because techies do one thing and everyone else does another. Sales, marketing, operations – they all basically require you to be human. IT requires you to be smart too. Which is why we applaud them for what they do. But every once in a while, the communication barrier between IT and the rest of the organization begs to be lifted.

In every company, big or small, there comes a point when the geeks need to come down from up above (or climb out of their basement) and hold a good old-fashioned training session. In the Unified Communications game, that time is now!

Read More

Learn Every Single Cloud Computing Term With This Comprehensive Glossary

Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash

Not too long ago we discussed how a third of Americans were clueless about the notion of cloud computing – what it does, how it works, where it’s located, etc. – and today we’re doing a public service by offering readers an easy way to finally understand the cloud, and its purpose.

Solutions Review, a collection of best practices for IT software technology solutions offers this awesome A-to-Z cloud computing IT glossary which packs definitions for 50 of the most-used cloud computing terms and acronyms.

Read More

Quote of the Day By Jonathan Swift

Photo by Gage Walker on Unsplash

Personalities are a dime a dozen, but when it comes to beliefs, much clearer distinctions can be made between people. You can’t convince an atheist that there is a God in the same way that you can’t convince your cat to take a bath. The same goes for spiritualists who ignore scientific proof in favor of superstition. Even agnostics are tough nuts to crack sometimes.

Read More

8 Things That Movies Get Wrong About Aliens

It’s been a while since Hollywood last coughed up a good science-fiction dramatization. Throughout the history of Sci-Fi, screenwriters have come up with some crazy ideas about extraterrestrials, some more plausible than others. We’re here to talk about the latter.

Since this is a weekend narrative, let’s all relax our beat-up neurons and let imagination hop in the driver’s seat for a minute. To help with that, I’ve prepared a list of 8 mindless alien concepts that the Sci-Fi film industry has been littered with over the years. Hopefully now that we’ve seen there are no green men on Pluto, maybe we can finally lay to rest some of these crippled ideas:

Read More

Remembering How President Obama Helped Save The Internet

President Barack Obama is photographed during a presidential portrait sitting for an official photo in the Oval Office, Dec. 6, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Today, Medium Daily Digest served me one of the best 5-minute reads available on the web: US President Barack Obama’s open letter to the FCC, twisting their arm to do the right thing and save the Internet from ISP monopoly. For those who haven’t read it, let’s recap and remember how The White House supported (and still supports) the notion of an open Internet, amid wireless carriers’ appeal to the FCC’s June ruling.

Read More

William James Said It First

Photo by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash

Isn’t it awesome to find that you’re capable of more than you thought? Unexpected realizations have a special place in our hearts, and for good reason too: doing what we thought to be impossible marks our existence in the most profound ways possible. Think the light bulb, the telephone, or rockets to the moon.

Read More

Why We Like, Share and Comment on Facebook

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Admit it, you’re in it for the likes! Otherwise, why would you flood your timeline with photos of sunny beaches and GoPro action? According to researchers, we have our brain’s design to blame for this. Facebook taps the brain’s pleasure center in ways that are easy to understand by psychologists. In effect, it’s not very different from drug addiction.

Read More

Communication & Collaboration: Arts That Leaders Need to Master

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

I recently stumbled upon some lectures that talk about communication & collaboration in business, explaining its crucial role in leveling the field for executives and floor employees alike, driving successful operations across an entire organization. They were great reads and I want to lay out some bullet points for our readers. If you own a business, listen up!

Read More