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When Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa first came on the scene they were impressive novelties. Over time, though, they got smarter and more popular — and now we're entering a new phase of voice tech, says Voicebot.ai editor Bret Kinsella.
On the latest episode of Recode Decode, Kinsella told Recode's Rani Molla that one of the most interesting trends to watch in his industry is whether virtual assistants will gain more "agency" — that is, the freedom to make decisions without explicit commands from their owners. He cited the example of Google Duplex, an offshoot of Google Assistant that can call restaurants for you if you have a Pixel phone.
"Eventually the voice assistants are gonna get to understand our habits, preferences and likes, and they're just gonna do things on our behalf," Kinsella said. "Schedule a hair appointment, find out store hours, those types of things."
"If it sees something on sale that we bought in the past or they think that we need or we've indicated somehow that we need, it might just show up at our door," he added.
In the near term, however, you have to ask your Alexa or Google Assistant to buy something for you — something that very few Alexa owners are doing, according to an August report in The Information. Kinsella expressed skepticism about that report, noting that many more people had said in Voicebot's own surveys and others' that they had used voice shopping at some point.
"The thing that gives me a little bit of a pause around that report is that, consistently, other people or other surveys have shown much higher numbers than that, like 5 or 6X have at least tried it," he said. "Trial and habits are different things. I don't know what the number was referring to, but I don't doubt that there's some disappointment around how fast this is taking off. It's a matter of people learning that it's a thing."
You can listen to Recode Decode wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts and Overcast.
Below, we've shared a lightly edited full transcript of Rani's conversation with Bret.
Rani Molla: I'm here with Bret Kinsella, the editor of Voicebot.ai, a publication that has to do with all things voice technology. I've recently been working on a project about voice because it is the future. It's how we're going to interact with machines, before the machines take over. Bret, welcome to Recode Decode.
Bret Kinsella: Thank you for having me.
Let's start with your history. How did you become this authority on voice technology?
Well, I've done a number of different things in technology. I started working in tech in 1996-7, depending on how you count, and worked with big consulting companies, learned business strategy, learned technology deployment — you know, companies like Accenture and Sapient. Worked with a bunch of startups over time and eventually a series of events happened.
I wound up starting a small agency and I really focus on post-A round funded startups. Those companies that are trying to go from 200,000 in revenue to 10 million, so they've got some traction but they really need to grow. I was doing that and that led me to start working with a company called Zap Media. Two of the co-founders, I had worked with previously, so they asked me to come in. They were an engineering led company and they really needed to establish themselves and that was a voice-based solution. What they had is interactive audio ads.
About when was this?
This was 2013. This was pre-smart speaker era. The focus was on mobile ads and it was really about being able to deliver this interactivity by voice on mobile devices when you're listening to streaming music.
So if you're listening to streaming music, you talk to it, or it just responds to you? What do you mean?
Yeah, if you think about it, the advertisements weren't very effective in some instances because the call to action is incongruous with the way you're actually engaging with the media. They would say like, "click to convert," you know, or, "open a video," or something. It's in your pocket or your purse and it's behind the lock screen and all these other things.
As good as that ad format is, it was like five times better when you could just respond by voice in order to execute the call to action. I learned a lot in that in terms of how voice works. We implemented our own voice models and those types of things and they were a client of mine, and I enjoyed doing that work.
Around 2014, the Echo came out and it was a novelty. 2015, Amazon approached that company and said, "Hey, we'd really like you to support the Echo because you understand this space and we're looking for people who understand the space." We talked about it as a team — and I have a background in strategy consulting and have done a lot of startup positioning — I said, "Okay, well, let's research it, let's see what it's like." We did, and ultimately it led to the company really focusing on that.
In fact, it's basically all their business now. They've got over 1,000 Alexa skills and Google Assistant apps published on behalf of big brands. Some really large ones, as well. A lot of media companies as well.
Through that process, before we even got into that, because I'd done that research, I was talking to some people at Advertising Week and they said, "Oh, this is a good topic. I'd love for you to write a story for us." I said, "Okay, I'll write something up," and that was really popular. It got picked up by and republished by Huffington Post and I had all these people asking me and saying, "Where'd you get this information?"
I said, "Well, it was kind of a pain in the neck." There weren't really a lot of people covering it, and people who were just covering surface level. I knew it at a depth because we'd worked from a technical level, as well as I have this background in businesses and how they adopt technology. So I said, "Okay, just as a service to these people who are asking me, I'll just throw it up on a website."
"I'm going to start blogging."
Yeah, a blog like once a week or something like that. It wasn't going to be big.
You started Voicebot?
I did.
When was this?
September 15, 2016.
You were doing it once a week. What is it now?
We publish 50 to 70 times a month now. We go really deep. It's a resource. And if you think about it, we do news, but as much as anything we are a chronicle of what's going on in the industry. A lot of the things we'll write just so you can go to our search bar, which is much better than Google if you want to learn about this space because Google biases towards all sorts of things that make it hard for you to find what you really want sometimes. We try to cover the things that we think are really important. In 2016 we could cover everything because there wasn't that much. Today, it's different.
Let's get into the history of voice tech. Maybe briefly give us an overview of how we got to where we are today, where we're talking to our microwaves.
If you think about voice technology, it started long before technology as we know it. I just gave a talk in Chicago and what we talked about was what's called the Gutenberg parenthesis. If you think about it, for millennia, all we really had was the oral tradition. We spoke. And then in 1440 in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg introduced the printing press. All of a sudden you could deploy text at scale, and it really became the default for learning, for information sharing.
The economics changed tremendously. We had all this text out there floating around, and oral communication moved to the background. What happened was we saw as we moved into technology, text was a dominant paradigm and it was something that was a lot easier for the engineers to make a machine understand.
We had this whole idea. I talk about the "textual stranglehold" that they had. That's been fine, but now what we're seeing is because of some of these breakthroughs — and I'll walk through just a couple of them — is that for the first time computers understand us in the language we normally communicate as opposed to us modifying our behavior around so that the computers can understand us.
In the 1950s, Bell Labs, I think Audrey was the first one that is like the best known. I think IBM had a much more significant breakthrough in the '60s where it could understand 16 words. I think it was called the Shoe Box. We walked through all of the ...
Great conversation with that, huh?
It was great. In fact I had a shoe phone, I didn't think about this, a mobile phone later on, but a whole different story. We moved up and I think the next big era really was around the late '90s and early 2000s. People will recognize like the term Dragon. Dragon dictation system.
Yeah. That was the first one that was really good, and that actually had some natural language understanding in it. I've spent some time with some of the people who developed that. Really tremendous technology. That was what people thought it was. It was really mostly dictation as opposed to control and interaction.
Then to move forward to what I would call the modern era, that's sort of the pre-modern era and Dragon was probably the pinnacle of achievement in that, in that pre-modern era. Then we had the introduction of Siri in 2011, and that blew people's minds. Right?
Right. Talking to your phone.
Just amazing. Now, Siri had some issues because it actually couldn't do at the time everything that they said it could do in the TV commercials.
But, still really amazing. Once they re-architected the platform, worked pretty well in most of those use cases. That's interesting, but if you, if you look at a commercial around the Siri launch, it's about what Siri can do today. They didn't really expand it significantly and there's a lot of reasons for that.
Amazon again blew everybody's mind with the introduction of the Echo. I see those as the two points of this modern era. First, we had the phone and then we have the Echo, and then that was obviously followed a couple of years later by Google Assistant. Now we just have, this looks like vertical adoption of voice and we have tremendous advances.
Right. Even in the past few weeks you had the Google hardware event. They rolled out one with the screen, sort of like the Echo Show. Even Facebook has a Portal now, which, any opinions on that?
Yeah. I guess a couple of things. First of all, I would say the broader context is ... I just wrote something recently which talked about the idea of "phase one of the modern era voice is over." This goes back to what Jeff Bezos said at a Recode conference two years ago. He said, "We're the first batter in the first inning," when he was being interviewed by Walt Mossberg.
I think that at the time that was basically true, but we're not there anymore. This market has matured significantly. There's a lot of players, and what we're seeing is the second round of players are coming in. The second wave of devices are coming in, the second round of features. Facebook fits into that. I think it's an interesting solution that they got, that they put out to market.
Just so everyone knows, the thing that makes the Facebook Portal a little different than the rest of these speakers is that it's meant for video calls and it kind of follows you around the room.
Yeah. Right. The killer app for that is the camera follows you around the room, and it is a nice piece of engineering to do that.
I'd pay to not have that. I will.
That's also true. Do you want to ... sometimes you want to get away from it, but the video chat is a really good solution there. I think the folks in Cupertino sorta yawn at this. They're like, "We've had Facetime forever. Why is this better?" It is actually better if you've used these types of devices. The Echo Show is really an excellent video chat device. I can tell you from experience with people that I've given those to that it's really nice.
Facebook has this challenge in dealing with voice. Most of their content is visual. That's how they interact. How do they actually bring their assets to a space that's mostly voice? Video chat is probably a good point of entry for them.
All right, which makes me think about, you know, so all of these are adding screens now, which in my opinion, that makes it seem like there's a deficit in voice. There's something that isn't enough for voice alone to take care of. That's why they need to add screens to these or at least for certain platforms. Do you agree?
No. I don't agree. What I think about is what's best for the user. It's not like the visual interfaces that we had didn't have audio. A lot of the visual interfaces allowed us to do other things. They have text and they have audio as well because it was a richer experience. They didn't have the capabilities to use voice as an input mechanism in that case until recently.
What I tell people is don't think voice only. You might, sometimes it's okay to think of voice first, but it's not necessarily voice only. Some use cases will be voice only because you're driving, for example, and you don't want people looking at a screen, but many other use cases, particularly with complex outputs, you deal with data every day, right?
Right. I mean the visual ...
Data is terrible in an audio environment. That's a perfect example. In particular, it's a perfect example because actually getting data often requires a complex input, and voice is actually much better at complex inputs than text.
I want you to give us an overview of where we are right now with voice. You know, we're about to have a holiday season where all sorts of people are going to pick up smart speakers. What percentage of the United States owns a smart speaker right now?
I just did a national survey of U.S. adults and smart speaker ownership and it looks like about 40 or 57 million people own a device as of September.
It's like a third?
About. Well, it's actually, that's going to be closer to like 24 percent of U.S. adults, so about 250 million in the U.S. When we look at that device ownership, that's grown significantly. In fact, that's up more than 10 percent. It's about, since even the beginning of the year. That's been growing at a tremendous rate.
I think what we're going to see in this holiday season is we're going to see more smart speakers purchased, for sure. That's something that it's no longer a novelty where people are just buying them, adding to their home. I think a little over half of the people only have one now, so there's a lot of those people who are going to buy more.
We're also starting to see voice be a bigger driver for other types of devices, whether they be headphones or appliances, and we're going to see a lot more of that this holiday season. These include these multi-modal devices, the interactive displays, that are designed to work with voice but also complement it with visual.
On these devices right now as they are, what's working and what isn't working?
What's working? Well, a few things are working, for sure. Utilities are working. Any type of utilitarian interaction — information, I want the weather, conversion, or timers, those types of things, those are far and away the things that users say they're using most frequently. The other thing that's really working is media. Media is the killer app of smart speakers and it's not surprising. They're speakers, right?
Makes sense.
People always say, "Voice will take off when there is a killer app for it." Actually, smart speakers have been adopted en masse because they're great for listening to music or talk radio, other things, podcasts, maybe Recode Decode.
You could always listen, you could stream music before this. You could stream it without having to talk to it.
But it's so easy. I mean, think about it, right? To set it up, and maybe you had a Sonos System, and so you could go into your phone and you could start things, you could search and that's great. People who didn't have that had to make sure it connected to the device properly all the time and all these things. Now you just say, "Alexa, play Renegades by X Ambassadors," and she does.
How many people or what share of Americans are listening to music on their smart speakers?
I think the number right now is around 80 percent of the people who have a smart speaker say they're listening to some sort of music or talk radio on a monthly basis. That drops a little bit when you go down to weekly or daily, but it's a significant portion. Almost everybody who buys these tries to listen to music and then they do listen to music.
The interesting thing here I think is that not only are they listening to music or podcasts, but they're actually listening to more music and podcasts, right?
Yes, yes. There's some good data from Edison Research which talks about that. The people who own smart speakers report that they are listening to more music after they purchased the device and they're listening to more radio as well.
That has a whole lot of repercussions for people who are selling this media or advertising against this media for listening to more of it.
Absolutely. If you think about it, particularly for radio, I think it's important because there's a lot of data which shows that radios have left U.S. households over the last 15 years. In fact, the ownership is pretty low among millennials in particular, and we expect that trend to continue.
What happened with smart speakers is that they brought radio right back into the home. That was a great solution for radio because they weren't present, and all of a sudden it was this like you call up your favorite radio station just by saying it in the morning.
Right. I spoke with some people at NPR and they were saying that, thanks to smart speakers, [they] have seen such growth in listenership and all of it's accretive. It's not like they're losing it somewhere else. It's just they're gaining it.
Yeah, it looks like it's accretive. And it's not just NPR, some other radio organizations that I've worked with ...
Spotify was saying that as well, yeah.
Spotify, think about the Cumulus Network. They've got over 300 radio stations on today. Smart speaker listening as a percent of all of their streaming grew by 4X over four months in the holiday season into the first quarter of this year.
Okay. Let's talk about something that's kind of working, I think. Smart homes. I know that the introduction of smart speakers has made it easier to set up your smart lights or your smart thermostat. How well is that working? I know it's driving sales of all these gadgets.
Well, it was a bigger deal a year ago than it is now. A lot of the early adopters of things like smart speakers are also early adopters of things like smart home. They already either had smart home devices that they were controlling with their mobile phones, or they were thinking about it. And the smart speaker was probably the best way to say it was the catalyst for them to get into that.
We find that somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 percent of smart speaker owners have done something with smart home. That means most of the people who have smart speakers have not. That's a big opportunity, I think, for the smart phone, smart home device makers, but it's also a big opportunity for consumers because it's just another utility that you are able to access from the device once you have it in your home.
One thing I've heard from people is that what's made the growth of smart home devices is that it used to be such a pain in the ass, and now you could turn on Alexa and these things coordinate with each other a bit better than they used to. Is that so?
I think that's true, and I think it's going to be more true as we go forward. Just a month ago, Amazon introduced the Smart Plug. The Smart Plug is interesting because it basically self-discovers. You don't really need to configure it. That's one of the challenges a lot of people had with smart home. You download the app and you configure it and all these other types of things. Amazon's trying to make that dead simple, that if you stay within that ecosystem and you already have some of our devices, they just discover each other.
Google's close to that, anyway, because they have this auto-discovery. It's not quite as simple because of the way they've integrated it.
Yeah. One of the issues is it seems to be that a lot of these devices require a certain set of commands, like, "Alexa, turn on my heat." That's not quite natural language. Or depending on the device, you have to say a different incantation.
There's a couple different things with that. First of all, there's these rules-based systems that was really what we had with voice recognition in the past. It was looking for certain types of keywords or phrases and from that, it was gonna execute it.
With Alexa, you have to allow for a much more natural language interaction. That means it requires the smartphone makers to do some mapping between what we call intents — what the user wants to do — and what the device can do. Yes, there's a number of things they have to do. The ones who are constraining your language are the ones that aren't gonna be as successful. The ones that allow you to talk like you would normally want to talk are the ones that are ultimately gonna do much better.
Are you a smart home person?
Not really. I've got a couple things that I don't use that often, as far as smart home goes.
Do you see this as everyone's gonna have a smart home in the future, or is this more of a novelty?
I think most people will wind up having a smart home. If you think about just the things like the Ring doorbell or Nest Cam doorbell and those things, those are really popular with people. The idea that you can interact with them by voice is interesting. If you think about the August locks and those types of things where people can do remote entry, there's a lot of utility there for people.
Let your Airbnb guests in.
That's right. I've been the victim of that in the past. There is a lot of utility there. They're much better now. You can do these routines now where you can just say one command and it'll do several different things like "turn on lights as well as the television," or things like that. You can cluster them.
There's a lot of features now which are good, but I will tell you that sometimes it just does take longer to say, "Turn off the light in the living room," than to actually turn off the light in the living room.
I agree, as someone who constantly is telling my Google Home to turn on the TV, listen to this. It would be easier.
"I'm sorry, I can't control that device."
Yeah. It's like, "Man, I should have just used my thumbs."
Let's talk about something that I don't think is working, that's voice shopping. People have made a lot of noise about how voice is the future of shopping, but it seems like most people who have smart speakers or smart assistants on their phones or whatever devices aren't using it to buy stuff yet.
Well, yes. I think that's largely true, but again it's a new technology, so there's a learning curve here.
I will say that I've been pretty surprised with the numbers. We've done several consumer surveys on this over the past year. Consistently, we're seeing that over one in five, maybe close to one in four people, they say they've tried it. Now, it depends on what you're looking at. There's the smart speakers, there's also the smartphone. It also depends on how you define what the shopping experience is.
Right, whether you're actually buying something or you're searching or asking about ...
Correct. Correct. The question, ultimately, is there's this shopping aspect, and then there's the transaction itself. What we have found in the consumer survey data is that a lot of people actually have purchased things, maybe because of the novelty effect, so they just said, "Okay, Alexa, buy this," or Google Express has done really quite well. They did it through a little bit of a good promotional trick, is that they gave people $20.
Right. That's why everyone's purchased something worth $20.
It was amazing. You see some of these different studies. I'm like, all of the people who bought a Google Home in the fourth quarter of last year got a $20 gift certificate to Walmart, delivered for free to their house. So a lot of people bought batteries or something.
But on a daily basis thing, I saw one of the surveys you had done, this is how many people do this action monthly, ever, daily. Daily shopping's got to be really low, or weekly shopping even. I guess that would be a better metric.
Yeah, in fact, daily and weekly are probably a rounding error, largely because, except for things like food, most people don't shop daily. That's also part of it.
Maybe monthly's better ...
For this category, monthly probably is better. I do believe that that's going to significantly increase as people start to adopt either home delivery or pickup of food more. Most of the people are not using that for that today.
The Information put out a piece a few months ago. It had said something to the effect of, "Only 2 percent of Alexa users had used it to shop in 2018." That's a far cry from the 20 percent, 25 percent you're mentioning. What do you make of that?
I look at reports of that — which are unsourced — and I say, "Maybe." I ask the question and I didn't get a response because I wanted to understand who it was that they talked to, because they didn't indicate that it was someone actually from the company. They indicated it was someone who had seen a briefing.
A source who'd seen it.
I wanted to know if they had actually seen the document themselves or it was someone who had seen a presentation somewhere and was relating that. Because there's a lot of different ways that you can look at the data.
Also, the other thing I was interested in was the timing, because most people actually tried to do the purchase around the time they acquired the device. Depending on when you do it during the year, you say "in the last two quarters," it's gonna be a different number.
I guess if you had around the holidays, and you had that $20 off, you're gonna have done it back in December.
Right, but if you say, "In the last six months," and you're taking the survey in July, you're gonna get different readings.
What I would say is that the thing that gives me a little bit of a pause around that report is that, consistently, other people or other surveys have shown much higher numbers than that, like 5 or 6X have at least tried it. Trial and habits are different things. I don't know what the number was referring to, but I don't doubt that there's some disappointment around how fast this is taking off. It's a matter of people learning that it's a thing.
Right, that it exists. But brands, marketing, things like that, they're not waiting for this to take off.
They're not.
I talked to a bunch of different companies, CPG companies, food and beverage, things like that, they're all in for voice already. In my head that's like they don't want to miss the boat. They don't want to be left behind when everyone starts buying things on their mobile phone.
Yeah. There's a lot of debate about whether voice is a channel or it's a UI or what it is. What we know is that when one in five people in the country — or one in four, potentially — have access through a specific media, that's at scale, and that's what most consumer brands want. They want to be at the places where there's scale of users. That makes sense.
The other thing with brands is it's a real issue for them. They haven't seen this issue since the rise of the internet. When the internet came about, if you didn't have a website, you literally could not be found on the internet because you only had analog content. You had to create digital content.
When we went to mobile, we didn't really have that situation because at the very least, there was a browser on the mobile device, and so you could still be found, and you probably still would be found through search.
When you get to voice, people don't have audio content, at least they don't have it packaged in a way that you can access through a conversational UI. All these companies are literally silent if they don't have a voice app. Best-case scenario, they are trusting the voice assistant to deliver the consumer that asks about them to a Wikipedia page, or a position zero.
An FAQ.
Something. Best case. Most often that's not controlled by the brand. Brands want to control that experience. They want to know that their message is getting through. If they don't have a voice app, there's no chance for them to do that. And it's clear that this is something that is not only going to be popular with consumers, it's clear that it is something that's popular, and it's a way that people are using it.
It seems that companies are using voice apps, mostly as the marketing/educational apps or skills or actions, whatever you'd like to call them. Could you give us some examples? I know Tide, for example, it tells you how to get a stain out of your shirt or whatever material. You tell them what material it is, what you got on it, and they say how to get it out. Obviously the idea is eventually, someone's gonna go buy Tide to go get the stain out of their sneakers.
That's right. You think about that as really just keep Tide top of mind. If I have a stain, where do I go? When you ask Alexa and Alexa says, "Tide can answer that question for you," you're just thinking, "Oh, you just associate Tide with stains." They've captured that moment, they've captured that need, and they own that real estate now for their brand and the mind of consumers. They're just reinforcing that with their Alexa skill.
Some other examples, there's this interesting thing that Mattress Firm did recently. They include promotions in their voice app. They also have FAQs, if you think about it. But expert tips on how to buy a mattress, what's important, those types of things. People will wind up there. Then they'll ask for the promotions, and the promotions are designed to get people in the store.
You think about it, is that part of the buying process? Absolutely. If you show up in a mattress store, there's a high likelihood you're gonna leave with a mattress. Most people just don't browse.
"I'm just browsing, browsing mattresses."
Right, exactly. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not like the Apple store. People don't just go in to look around and dream.
You've mentioned position zero. For shopping, if and when people do end up buying things through voice, that's gonna be really important because if you type "black shirt" on your phone to search that, you'll see 50 different results. If you say, "Hey Alexa," or,"Hey Google, I want to buy a black shirt," you're gonna get one, maybe two options that she's gonna read to you. How do you get to the top of this list? What does this mean for brands that are just trying to be at position zero?
No one really knows how to get to the top of the list. Position zero is a method.
Amazon knows.
Well, yeah. Nobody outside of the people who own algorithms. Eventually those algorithms will be so complicated, they won't even know.
I had Brad Abrams on my podcast last year. It's instructive on this topic of voice SEO. What we were able to discern is, first of all, he confirmed that when Google does this — and Amazon wasn't really doing this in the past, so Google was the only place. Amazon's more recently come to this recommendation concept. Google had done some testing with two recommendations, never more than two. The vast majority were one, and they were generally leaning towards that being a better experience.
People buy what they first hear. I've seen some studies on that. You're more likely to accept your first offer than ...
Oh yeah. It's like if you're an insurance company and someone calls your call center, your conversion rate is like 40 percent. I mean, it's crazy. That's why people will pay $200 for a click-through and Google AdWords for insurance, because it's worth so much money.
If you look at this, position zero is a way ... One of the things, you have a sophisticated audience in this space. Everyone says position zero. Position zero is helpful, depending on how the question is asked. But it is not the first place that the search engines look. And I say search engine being the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
The algorithm that's putting it to the top.
The algorithms are different. This is really the first major overhaul of the algorithms we've seen in over a decade. There's reserve terms that Google, Amazon, others have said, "Hey, we want to answer this, because we have content." Then they look at the ability of voice apps to be able to answer the question.
Then they consider things like position zero. You're much more likely to be able to get a hit by having your own voice app, and optimizing it to be able to answer those questions. Most people just don't get that because they keep thinking about the tech space world, and that everything's gonna be like that. Voice actually changes this significantly.
One concern I have now, right now you can't advertise to be the first result, according to Amazon and Google. You can't pay to get there like you can in the search results online.
That will change.
That will certainly change for these ad-based platforms. Right now, I think the idea is they're trying to gain people's trust before they subvert their trust. What's gonna happen when there's one option, and that option is a sponsored option?
Is that option the best option for the consumer?
Good question. No!
Well, it might be. If it is, no one's gonna care. Everyone's gonna be happy with it. I think eventually what we're gonna see is ... Let's talk about where we're gonna go, and then we'll move back to this place.
Eventually what's going to happen is voice assistants are going to have agency. That's why all of these big tech players actually care about this. Facebook, they can't really do what they did with mobile and just say, "I'm not gonna do a phone because I don't need to own the platform. I can be the most popular app," because there's this intermediary. It's like the browser is controlling things first because there's someone who's basically saying, "Hey, this is what is most important." Eventually the voice assistants are gonna get to understand our habits, preferences and likes, and they're just gonna do things on our behalf.
If we think about something like Google Duplex, we're asking it to do something for us. It's going out into the world to actually to do a task.
That's where they did the demo and they said, "Schedule a hair appointment," or ...
Schedule a hair appointment, find out store hours, those types of things. Eventually, that leads to this idea that the voice assistants will just do things for us because they'll know what our preferences are. And in a world of free returns ...
Two-day delivery, free returns.
That's right. It's not big a deal. If it sees something on sale that we bought in the past or they think that we need or we've indicated somehow that we need, it might just show up at our door.
I don't know. I find returning stuff really a pain.
Well, I think so, too. But eventually, that's gonna happen. Most of the time, it's probably gonna be right.
Yeah. I guess you could. If it's extra toilet paper, you're gonna use it eventually.
That's right. If you think about it, that's one of the first areas that Amazon's leaning in on, and that is consumables. The idea is, as a product seller, can you get something into the shopping cart history? If it's in the shopping cart history for a product category, your brand, then when someone asks Alexa, that's going to be recommended. They won't have to buy it, but it'll be recommended.
But eventually what you're gonna see is that the voice assistants are gonna get us on this more regular replenishment, because they see what our habits are.
It's gonna know what we want before we do.
Let's talk a little bit about the hardware events that just happened. Amazon, Apple, Google all released new or updated voice gadgets. Could we talk about ... Let's first talk about Amazon's microwave, because I think this is … a ridiculous headline thing.
Of course. Why wouldn't we?
What's the deal with the microwave? Why did they make a voice microwave?
It's an incredible headline.
It's just marketing.
I always have to think back to this idea that Amazon does start most of their strategy sessions with headlines. When they were thinking about how to push this out into the consciousness of both consumers and of device makers, around appliances, they must have thought about the idea that this would sound ridiculous.
We'd already seen voice assistants in refrigerators. So you're not gonna get a headline out of that. We've already seen GE and some of the others create Alexa-enabled ovens, regular convection ovens and those types of things. What else could you do? Absolutely, I think that was part of it.
But, and I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, I really think that the important thing around the microwave is Amazon is showing people what can be done, and they're showing people how easy it is. You and I talked about this briefly about the idea of the new chip.
Right, they unveiled a new chip. You want to explain what that means?
Oh yeah. Basically, in the past, when you wanted to add voice interaction, even when they had systems on a chip, which Amazon rolled out with Qualcomm at the beginning of this year, you had to build all these things in. There was a lot more work for manufacturers, more expensive, and it was more complicated to do.
Amazon, in their interest in making this as simple as possible for people, said, "Okay, well, why don't we make a simpler chip that's even less expensive?" All it really does, it has Wi-Fi connectivity and it has a simple way for your microcontroller to communicate with Alexa devices. You don't even need to have a microphone on it.
Which is, in a way, I'm glad. I don't want a microphone in my microwave.
Yeah, I think that's right. Once you start to add microphones to things, it's really complicated.
And expensive.
It's expensive and just the engineering alone. There's a reason why there's six and eight microphone arrays on a lot of these smart speakers. It's not the same as a smartphone because of the near field. You're close to it, it's much more forgiving.
One of the big risks was gonna be these microphones would be in all these devices that might not be well-engineered to listen to you across the room, have all this type of interference because they're microwaves, or have a lot of metal in those types of things, which can interfere.
So what they did is they said, "Oh, let's make something even easier." All you have to do is you can put a button ... Anyone can put in an actuator with a button, pretty simple, inexpensive. It will connect to this chip. It will activate something or because it self ... because it's got that Wi-Fi in it and it can actually self-integrate with or automatically integrate with Alexa devices, you can automatically start talking to it once it's installed and has power.
Okay, so this isn't about selling microwaves for Amazon necessarily, unless it really takes off.
They're going to sell. They'll wind up selling a lot of microwaves because it's a commodity business. So you look at the microwaves, you're like how do you decide what the microwave is? There's very few people that know the features.
I want the one that talks to me.
Yeah. It's one thing when you look at a commodity, sometimes you just need one thing to make it stand out.
And it's $60. I guess that's a pretty reasonable price.
Pretty inexpensive. I think they're going to sell a lot of them. I don't think they chose microwaves for that reason. I think they chose it I think in part for the micro ... or in part for the ...
The headline. I think they do know their product categories and they knew that would be one where they'd probably have a little bit of success. But in the end, I wanted them to ... or I believe they wanted to send a message to appliance makers that "you need to get onboard with this. I'm going to show you how successful this is by a product I made. I will start moving into every product category that you don't deploy in because I think it's this important. But I won't if you build it first."
So it's more about showing other hardware makers what they can do and now can do more cheaply. It's pushing them there as opposed to necessarily trying to ... Amazon trying to get in the microwave business.
Absolutely. It's a reference design. I mean they'll sell anything, but they don't really necessarily want to be in all product lines.
Do you want to mention a few of the other hardware things that Amazon — we can talk about Apple and Google as well — but that Amazon also rolled out of this one.
Amazon's had some really interesting things. Echo Auto is a way to ostensibly put Alexa in your car by ... It's just a small little device with a number of microphones that you can put on your dashboard. It's not officially available yet. They're in a limited trial. So it's invite only. But I think that's going to be ... that's going to be popular with a certain segment. It's basically a stop-gap mechanism until they get into the dashboard. But that takes years for the product life cycle for cars.
The subwoofer, I question whether that will be popular, but this is Amazon's attempt to say, "We don't need to do Google Home Max. Just take your regular Echo. It's got a good high range anyway. The treble works fine. But we're just going to let you have this large cylinder that's got a lot of bass and pushes a lot of air." So that was interesting.
Echo Input is for devices that don't have a microphone but have audio output. So it's a simple way to bring other types of devices in.
So what would that be? What would you use that for?
Stereo system.
Okay. Got it. So I can talk to my stereo.
Yeah, exactly.
Got it.
Yeah. Then they have the new DVR system and that's really for cord cutters. I expect that one will probably be among the most popular.
So those are really interesting. Then they did some updates and those types of things as well.
So what about Google and Apple and even Facebook, for that example? Did they come out with anything new? It seemed like a lot of updates. Google Show or the ...
Google did not … Yeah, so the Home Hub is their smart display. It's not as robust as, let's say, the Lenovo Smart Display, which also has Google Assistant and as of this week has all the same features that the Home Hub has. But it's designed to be small. It won't do video chat. It's really much more of a smart home aficionado type of tool. I think that's really where it is.
Google really did not announce much in the voice space. It was really much more about Pixel. They have some new interface designs. Google's killing it when it comes to the user interface with voice on mobile and the multi-modal through Google Assistant, which is also available on iOS. I actually ... That's all I use for search now is Google Assistant when I'm on the phone.
I saw some prediction it was ... in the next five years, half of all searches will be through voice.
Yeah. Some people are saying it will be within two years.
It's tough to know.
Comscore I think has it at 2020 now. They had it at 2022. I think they moved it up. But yeah, it is much better just because typing, particularly on the phone, is not good. And it's really good. It's very powerful.
But I will say just like in closing, Google made a ton of announcements in the first half of the year. I mean, they're rolling out in 30 languages as opposed to five that some of their competitors are supporting. They've got Google Duplex, which is the bigger news it's going to roll out in November in four cities. So they've done a lot already this year. But they are not necessarily going to build as many devices as Amazon. As I think they're going to rely much more of their partner network.
Then Apple, I know Apple has made it a pain for a lot of other outside hardware makers to make devices for them.
Well, they don't allow them to.
Is that what you mean by "a pain?"
Well no. I mean you can ... Some ... They partner with some people but some ...
Like for a charging station?
So Apple wants to do all their own hardware.
What did they announce? Anything new?
Not at their hardware event. I mean, well, they've got the Series Shortcuts, which they announced originally in June and they demonstrated it more recently. It's not really a voice solution. It's not really an AI solution but it is clever. I think some people will enjoy that as a tool.
They do have another hardware event coming up in the next couple weeks. It's possible they might say something about AirPods. It's possible they may also talk about a smaller, less expensive Google or Apple HomePod. So those are possible.
But I think for Apple the key areas are the AirPods, the phone and the watch. That's really what they're focused on. The watch, I think, is an underappreciated voice input tool because it could be the type of thing that means we don't have to bring our phone with us anymore everywhere. The problem has been manual input on the small screen. Voice input really takes care of that.
Right. You don't have to tap on a little screen.
That's right.
So everything in our homes ... We're getting all these smart speakers. I want to talk about the privacy issue here of having just a bunch of different devices with microphones and Wi-Fi in your home. Is this just a nightmare waiting to happen?
Well, I have a theory that Americans don't care about privacy. That Americans talk about privacy but all of their actions over the last 20 years have suggested to me that they'll trade it for convenience all the time.
So people are going to buy Facebook's Portal even though Facebook recently ...
I don't know if they'll go that far. It's got to have utility beyond just what it does today. But I think there's a lot of Facebook aficionados who wouldn't have any reservation about doing that in particular if they integrated Facebook with Facebook Portal, which they have not done.
Yeah, strange. It's just a ...
It'll be an update.
It's complicated to do.
I'm sure.
Yeah. People underestimate how complex it is to ... because it's not just getting the technology right. You have to get all the use cases right and use cases are totally different than what you thought they were once you start doing the voice interaction.
That's where something like the Echo Show really ... I thought it was astounding at how well it engineered that for voice use cases with the screen. I think that's instructive for people who will come afterwards. So we'll see.
As far as privacy goes, I would just say that I'm happy that the companies are doing what they're doing and with the wake words, keeping it on device. I understand some people don't trust that.
When you say "wake words" you mean ...
The only thing that they're listening for is the wake word which would be "Alexa" or Google Assistant, the activation phrase.
"Hey, Google."
"Hey, Google." So they're only listening for that and that's stored locally so that doesn't go to the cloud unless you say that. Then the speech that comes after that is in the cloud.
So what we've seen is there's a lot of law enforcement that have tried to get records for like, "Oh there's an Alexa in the house." What they find is there's really not a lot of information there because it's only when people are interacting with it. But I understand why people would be concerned with that and if they are, they can just ... They can delete the app. They can get rid of their device. They can unplug it.
Throw it out the window.
They can unplug it. The one thing I will say with the early Echo, which I thought was a great move on their part, is they actually had a mechanical cut-off for the microphone. So when you click mute it actually mechanically disconnects the microphone from the device. That I think is a nice gesture towards privacy. But until we see that it's a problem, most people are going to ignore it.
All right. In closing, I want to ask you just one more thing. Tell me the future. What's the future of voice and where is it going? Where is it going to be five years from now? Easy question.
Okay. Well, I think that voice is not going to displace screens but it will displace the amount of time we interact with screens at least through touch and through typing. That's just inevitable. It's much easier than the other things that we've done in the past, so that's the first thing I would say.
The second thing I'll say is I do believe that in addition to using voice more we're going to start using a lot of different use cases that we haven't had in the past and that these assistants are going to start doing things for us. Google Duplex is a perfect example. We talked about this idea of agency. They're going to do things on our behalf. Sometimes we're going to ask them. Sometimes they're going to do it for us. We're going to be happy about that.
The final thing I'll say is that a real revolution's going to be voice interaction with screens. There's going to be screens around us in the places that we go and we're going to be able to use our voice and interact with them and get a personalized experience without having to carry the screen in our pocket all the time.
All right. So voice is going to take over, the voice robots are going to take over and we're going to be happy with it.
I'm not a believer in singularity. I know there's some very smart people who are. But yeah, I think voice is going to be very, very common but it's not going to displace visual because we are visual people.
All right. Bret, it was great talking with you. Thanks for coming on the show.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.


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A win for DLA at the Planning Awards 2020!
- September 10, 2020
- Heather Pugh
- 2664 Views
DLA has won the award for plan-making at the Planning Awards 2020 for our work on the Strategic Growth Study for Milton Keynes.
At a time when many aspects of plan-making are being reconsidered through planning reform, we are delighted to have received the award.
Working with Milton Keynes Council on the MK2050 Study to deliver a spatial framework for long term growth centred around positive outcomes for people reflects the ethos of our company and our desire to shape good places for the future.
The study was described by judges as "bold and innovative".
To read more about the Growth Study click here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sustainable Interest, Student Displacement, and Instant Oatmeal
October 24, 2009
Tess Yanisch '13
Green Student Politics
Oberlin's Student Senate recently sent out an e-mail to all the students. It was this semester's student referendum, themed The Green Referendum because it dealt with various environmental issues. The main issue was whether or not the new first-year dorm, currently under construction right next to Stevenson, the main dining hall (and, coincidentally, right across the street from Barnard; I've gotten used to hearing heavy machinery first thing in the morning), should be sustainability-themed. The building is going to be LEED certified. The proposal was that students should have to sign a pledge to live as low-impact lifestyles as they can.
As laid out, the pledge required students to turn off and unplug appliances when not in use, do laundry only when clothes had been worn multiple times, turn water off in the shower when not actually rinsing, etc. I think this is a good step towards raising awareness, if nothing else. What would really be nice is a way for out-of-state students to purchase carbon offsets to assuage their guilt over flying to get here--that's the real environmental killer, it seems. Maybe a few hours of unpaid work-study or volunteer work from each interested person would be enough for the college to invest in some carbon-neutralizing program on behalf of its imports.
Other issues on the referendum were busses in and around Oberlin, which perplexed me somewhat. Take a bus to the grocery store? It's only about five blocks away. I can walk it no problem--and people with bikes wouldn't even notice it. The only use I can see for a bus route to other Oberlin sites is that it would be handy when you're carrying a WHOLE lot of stuff or when it's REALLY cold outside.
The results of the referendum aren't in yet, but I will tell you if they are interesting.
On Coming Home
On Monday, I left the Social Justice Institute early, sprinted back to my dorm, and grabbed my backpack and laptop. I was going home for the rest of Fall Break, and, being a cheapskate, I had decided to travel light--without checking anything. My backpack was crammed and heavy with clothes, probably more than I needed to bring, in retrospect, but I didn't know whether the weather would be sunny-and-warm-ish or cold-and-rainy-ish for the most part. Washington weather is unpredictable and I wanted to be prepared.
I got a ride to the airport from an Oberlin native, breezed through security, took the flight, chatted with the woman next to me, made my connection with loads of time to spare, Dad pulled up to pick me up just as I was leaving the airport--I generally ended up home feeling like a savvy, independent spirit. It was great.
I talked with Mom and Dad, then took a bath--one of the things you start to really miss at college is the opportunity to draw a really hot bath and sit in it and soak and read for ages--and went to bed at what was probably five in the morning, Ohio time. I didn't feel like I'd been up for almost 24 hours, though, which was a cool feeling in itself.
In the morning I made sure my nine-year-old little brother was up and out in the dining room having breakfast, then casually sauntered out and poured myself a bowl of cereal. He hadn't known I was coming home and was absolutely astounded. He recovered quickly, though--he's always quick on his feet--and smiled at me and said, "You never did leave, did you!?"
It's a funny feeling, being home. Since I left, Mom reorganized my room--in preparation for the epic Shoveling Out of the Closet and Purging of the Packratted Memorabilia that I'll have to do eventually--and it was strange coming in and seeing my bed at a different angle, the second bookcase missing, closet storage devices now in the room, room storage devices now in the closet. My lamp is now in Oberlin, so my brother's old bedside lamp is by my bed. It's also felt colder in here than in the rest of the house. The net effect is that it feels a little bit like a guest room, un-lived-in, not lonely but not--used. My Lord of the Rings poster is right where it always was, my desk is just the way I left it (messy), as is my bulletin board (I recycled the old "to do before leaving for Oberlin" lists that were still on it). I felt just a little bit like a ghost, or like there were ghosts: old me-ghosts, running around, writing in the notebooks and reading the books and preparing to say goodbye--and here I am back again.
It's not a melancholy feeling, just different. I don't entirely live here anymore, but I don't entirely not live here either. This is still "home"; my room at Oberlin is "otherhome," a base of operations, temporary--I think I have that impression especially because I have a divided double and my roommate and I are going to switch rooms after Winter Term.
On the other hand, my cat, who Mom says was "depressed" after I left and went mooning around disconsolately (ie, more grumpily than usual), seems to have already taken my returned presence more or less for granted. She's yelled at me to be let out, squawked to be let in, complained at me to get me to play with her--some things don't change.
The Joy of Instant Cooking
Barnard doesn't have great wiring, so students are not allowed microwaves in our rooms. Apparently, they tend to explode.
Consequently, I have a hot pot thing (heats up two cups of water in about thirty seconds) and my roommate has a minifridge, but we have no microwave. All food, then, must be eaten cold or made hot by the infusion of hot water. (Or we could go downstairs to use the microwave in the lounge, but, you know, where's the fun in that?) I like tea, cocoa, and oatmeal, so this isn't a problem. However, keeping myself supplied is.
Oberlin is a small town with a captive audience. The markup for things at Gibson's, the drugstore/bakery/candy shop that exists to serve Obies, varies from not that bad to incredible. I try not to go in there lest I be tempted. Besides, I get 19 meals a week on my current board plan, so I try to use them--we're paying enough.
But sometimes, I just want to snack. Before leaving, I had finished up my supply of dried apple rings, walnuts, and dried fruit mix, leaving me with a few other varieties of dried fruit, lots of chocolate, a jar and a half of creamy peanut butter, and a few bags of instant cranberry oatmeal. I still had LOTS of tea left (I brought a whole bunch), and some Stephen's Sipping Hot Cocoa (a decadent treat, for special occasions only).
Well, coming home was just what my diminished larder needed! I'm returning with TONS of oatmeal of three different varieties, dried apples, more walnuts (taste great in the cranberry oatmeal), Trader Joe's trail mix, and instant coca, mocha, and dark chocolate cocoa. Hopefully, this will see me through the cold, dark months ahead. Liquid chocolate is always a great way to counteract Seasonal Affective Disorder, or cold, or homework, or just the blahs.
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The Huawei Mate 9 is an incredibly powerful smartphone. You'll be able to power through a day of business meetings and networking sessions without having to scramble for a USB-C charging cable, and its fast Kirin 960 processor lets you tackle those emails, Excel spreadsheets and other important documents with ease.
What's even more impressive than the hardware is the service. Huawei has created a door-to-door delivery service for Mate 9 owners. If you face a problem with your phone or need an urgent repair, it will send down a team to pick the device up from you, no matter where you are in Singapore. It truly is the smartphone for the busy business elite.
But when you want to wind down on the weekends with family and friends, the Huawei Mate 9 lets you do so as well. An underrated feature of the smartphone is its dual lens camera. Co-engineered with Leica, the system lets you capture and immortalise those beautiful moments and memories without any fuss.
But don't just take our word for it. We gave the Huawei Mate 9 to professional photographer Glenn Lim and gave him one objective – find beauty in everyday situations. Here are his thoughts about the camera below. Check out his pictures in the gallery above. The only editing software Glenn used was Snapseed and VSCO.
"I must say that the Mate 9 has impressively fast shutter speed. It also has creamy bokeh, which is great for portraits, and I like how I can easily access important camera settings with a swipe. While its low light capabilities are admirable, focusing can be a bit tricky but that's mainly because I'm used to how fast it is in good lighting conditions."
Find out more about the Huawei Mate 9 here.


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A group that reports on healthcare in the state is calling for the creation of a plan that would cover the estimated one million low-income, uninsured Texans. That's one of several recommendations the Code Red Task Force published in a report earlier this month.
Steve Murdock chairs the task force. He's also professor of sociology at Rice University and Director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas.
Houston Matters' Maggie Martin recently sat down with Steve Murdock to talk about the report.


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Our step-by-step guide provides all of the information you need on UAL's application process. You can find guidance on when to apply, how to prepare and present your portfolio, tips for writing your personal statement, and how to prepare for an interview.
Jess Gill, our Country Manager for Canada, is there to answer your questions and support you through your entire applicant journey. This includes helping you select the right course for you, your application and portfolio, visas and immigration, as well as arranging interviews with our academic admissions faculty.
Your application to UAL in 8 easy steps
Step 1: Get expert advice on your course options
Jess Gill, our Country Manager for Canada, can advise which course is right for you at email@example.com or you can schedule an advisory call.
When you've picked a course you want to apply to, check the entry requirements and note any deadlines or supplementary requirements for your application.
Step 2: Search funding options
UAL offers a range of scholarships to Postgraduate applicants. These are not based on need or merit-based support.
As a student from Canada, you can apply for loans through your provincial government. The 5 major Canadian banks also offer loans for international study.
Find further information on fees and funding for UAL students from Canada.
Step 3: Attend a UAL event
We offer information sessions, portfolio advice, creative workshops, MA seminars and virtual open days and tours.
Step 4: Begin your application
Download our checklists and resources (see below) to begin your application.
Step 5: Apply
When you're ready to apply, contact Jess Gill at email@example.com who will ensure everything is correct and ready to go.
Step 6: Application confirmation
Once your application has been submitted you will receive your application confirmation and UAL Applicant ID. If the course you have applied to requires a portfolio, please review our how to guide on how to upload your portfolio.
Step 7: Interview and admissions decision
You may be invited to a phone or online interview. This is your opportunity to present yourself and show why you are suited to the course you've applied to.
Step 8: Final stage
If you receive an offer and accept your place, you will be invited to pre-departure briefings and offered support with immigration and visa requirements and how to plan your move to London.
Application deadlines
Pre-degree (Foundation/International Preparation/International Introduction courses) Wednesday 22 February 2023
Undergraduate (BA/BSc courses): Wednesday 25 January 2023
- First round Wednesday 19 December 2022
- Second round Monday 3 April 2023
Some courses may accept applications after these deadlines if they still have spaces but we recommend that you apply by the deadline to guarantee that we are able to consider your application.
Application checklists
To help you put your application together we've created some checklists to ensure you're aware of what you'll need to include when submitting your application. You can download one of our helpful lists to help guide you on what you need to prepare for the study level you're applying to.
Application resources
After checking what you need to submit as part of your application, you may find that you need to prepare a personal statement or a portfolio, and you may be invited to an interview after submitting your work. To help support you through the application process we've created some guides for each element of a UAL application.
Portfolio advice
Watch our 'What is a portfolio' video to get advice from UAL students and staff. You can find other videos on portfolios, your personal statement and application interviews here, or our full series of application advice videos on UAL's YouTube channel. Learn what to include, how to present your work, and how to tailor your portfolio to the specific study level or course that you are applying to.
Our videos include animations by Rosa Beiroa, graduate of MA Animation at London College of Communication.
You can find examples of work by current UAL students and graduates on our online showcasing platform, Portfolio.
What is a portfolio
How to structure your portfolio
What to include in a personal statement


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Age Acts As Determinant Factor in Marriage Success
Amongst the various dependent variables of marriage analysed by social and economic experts, the age for having the first sexual relationship is considered as an important index for evaluating the quantity of physical and mental health.
To some extent, the age of marriage in each society indicates method of organizing family life and also points to the opportunities for men and women at the time of marriage. Late marriages can trigger serious consequences for youth, such as irresponsibility, tendency towards undesirable or worrying relationships, waste of youth and vivacity, edginess in life caused by dissatisfaction of personal needs, parental concern of late marriage of children, depression, sexual disorders, taking refuge in drugs, etc. (Pournaghi, 2015). Early child marriage in iran (referred to as ECM) can also cause several disorders. (Ahmady, 2017). According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a person between the age ranges of birth to 18 is deemed as a child. The United Nations Population Funds as ascertained that any type of marriage under the age of 18, before boys and girls are prepared mentally and physically to accept nuptial and child care duties, as a child marriage. However, in some countries the age varies based on the countries' legal regulations and social and cultural norms. The most influential factors that are attributed directly or indirectly to ECM, are poverty, low level of education and illiteracy, legal support, social pressures, masculine expectations and the stranglehold influence of tradition and religious beliefs. Early marriage is worrisome for both sexes, but the phenomenon harms girls more than boys. Rise of divorce, child widowhood, rising growth of parentless and badly equipped children who are now parents, sexual abuse of girls, chronic cycle of poverty and prostitution and the rise of mental, physical and sexual illnesses of women are amongst the sad litany of outcomes of early marriage (Ahmady, 2017).
Read more: The Nexus between the Temporary Marriage and Early Child Marriages


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People have been told to get out of the path of Hurricane Florence and given what's happening here that seems to be the case.
"This is the first time I've evacuated," Rene Moore said.
The exodus from down south is still underway. A plane full of Hurricane Florence evacuees arrived this morning at Logan from Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
"It's not a planned trip. I did come up to get out of the storm and we'll be here until Tuesday," Moore said.
They've made their way up north under various circumstances. This man lives in Boston and is working in Raleigh. He decided not to wait until the end of the week to come home.
"The flights were all pretty much booked and luckily there was a cancellation that I was able to get on this morning," Morgan Johnson said.
Logan was apparently quiet compared to airports down south. Talk of what could be the storm of a lifetime has people from the Carolinas and surrounding states on the move.
In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.
"It's been crazy down there. It's been like when there's a big nor'easter up here, you know. Everybody's been preparing. There's been no gas for several days. There's nothing on the shelves in the stores," Karen Thajugdeen said.
These women work in Raleigh and are relocating to their company's Boston offices until next week. Still, they had second thoughts about making the trip even as they were preparing to leave.
"Right up until four this morning, still teetering back and forth, should we cancel, should we move forward," Robin Sloan said.


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Organic vs Paid Facebook Posts
Lately (actually for quite awhile) we've been seeing a fairly large decrease in our organic reach with Facebook. Even with a 1,000 plus fans/ followers most posts are reaching only double digit numbers of each organic post. Facebook's algorithm is messing with the reach and reducing how may people are being 'served up' your posts.
The Numbers
In looking at organic vs paid reach on Facebook this past month (realizing it is a small sample size), what we noticed is that only about 10% of our Facebook fans/ followers are seeing organic posts. So if you have a 1,000 fans only about 100 are seeing each post. Terrible. You've worked hard to get those fans, so it sucks. What can you do?
Paid Facebook Posts
According to Buffer only 13% of your most Facebook post traffic is organic. We don't like those numbers at all, but Facebook, like everyone else, is running a business. It needs to make money.
But here is the good news… in our testing of paid Facebook advertising we have seen some great results, up to 250% reach compared to the number of TOTAL followers. That means one Facebook post could be served up to over 2,500 people for a small fee. The best part is you can increase your page and/ or posts reach for as little as $50 to $100 per month and you can target the Facebook users that you want to reach. If you haven't tried it yet, you should invest some future dollars in Facebook paid posts. It is a cheap and effective way to get your message out. Any questions, feel free to reach out anytime.
With the changes to internet privacy that have already started to effect social media platforms and other advertising providers we do not know how long this cheap access to targeted users will last.
We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf for 12 years and provide business services to the golf and other industries. As of July 31, 2016 our life and our business became 'location independent'. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.


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Sunday, September 22, 2013:
Fullness for Transformation Part 9
Sr. Leader Debra continues with the message regarding the necessity of "transformation" for the "Fullness of Christ" to be expressed in and through our lives. In this session Sr. Leader continues with the Israelites, who represent "right emotions". Give a listen and see how the characters of this story parallels the transformation required in our lives


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Welcome to Osprey Landing where convenience and charm exceed expectations in this highly sought-after community. DSLD never fails to impress with cozy floorplans ready for you to call home. Our four-sided brick homes with vinyl or stucco accents provide amenities galore with granite throughout offerings and multiplicities of other options. Enjoy an energy-efficient, Gold Fortified Home that will give you peace of mind for the long term. Not only will you fall in love with the features and amenities offered here, but also the location!
Less than 5 miles from home, OWA offers entertainment at local restaurants throughout the week and an array of local cuisine. Looking for a thrill before dinner? No worries, with OWA's on sight theme park you are sure to have some fun! Don't forget to stop by the Hershey's Ice Cream Parlor at OWA for an after-dinner treat. Five miles from home, The Wharf offers year-round attractions that make for the perfect vacation living destination.
Just past all the shopping, dining, and entertainment, you'll find the state-of-the-art Wharf Marina, home to recreational boating, and sports fishing events alike. Relax on the white sandy beaches only 20 minutes from home at the Gulf State Park Beach Pavilion. Don't like the beach? No problem, Gulf Shores State Park offers camping, trails, parks, and resorts all there for your entertainment. What more could you ask for?
Live where others vacation in the quaint cozy town of Gulf Shores. We would be honored to be a part of the journey toward making your dreams come true! Ask our Sales Representative today how you can become a member of the charming DSLD community of Osprey Landing!
From HWY 98:


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This heart warming story gives us a big lesson, no matter what others say don't give up on someone you love, and something you believe in.
When Andrea found a lost puppy and decided to rescue him, the poor animal was in terrible condition.
His body was hairless, his ears were infected with manges , and he didn't even resembled a dog anymore.
But all this just made him more unique on his now owners eyes, and she was determined to help him recover
It wasn't an easy journey, everyone was judging him from his appearance, even the vet told her that Benji's recovery was hard and it would be for the best if he is put down.
Remembering how scared he was when Andrea found him, how he was shying away on fear and trembling her mind was set to make the lovely dog get better, she gave her time away taking care of him.
The journey was challenging to say the least, Andrea was giving him antibiotics,and bathing him in virgin coconut oil so his health starts to improve and after 3 months, the dog bloomed he was looking healthier day by day .
Seeing him like this Andrea's heart bursts with joy, her love and care paid off, now everyone loves Benji dealry, and asks permission to pet and play with him.
Thank you Andrea , you made us believe that with love and care everything can be achieved, your story was really inspiring.


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About Grafcaps.com
Graffiti Supplies | GrafCaps : - Fat Caps, Thin Caps, Mixed Packs, Markers, GrafCans, Female Caps, Specialty Caps, Magazines, DVDs, Wholesale, Mops, graffiti, spray, paint, spray paint, spraypaint, nozzle, nozzles, tip, tips, cap, caps, discount, online shopping
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HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICEby Anonymous on
Not only does he send the WRONG ITEMS, but, when I called to get some help, I was met with no help at all, AND inappropriate FOUL LANGUAGE, SWEAR WORDS and a HANG UP. All that I wanted was a refund which he wouldn't give. BUT, I was able to get an IMMEDIATE FULL REFUND FROM MY VISA CARD COMPANY. Lesson learned: trust your reputable credit card company and not some wanna-be online seller.


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Our team focuses on accuracy, efficiency and easy communication.
Beyond our client work we believe that our team is comprised of many unique personalities and interests. As our team continues to grow we ask our employees to go beyond their job titles and dive into what makes them the person we see today. This employee spotlight is our newest Bookkeeper, Joella Saragnese!
3 Fun Facts
- Joella and her husband have one child named Robbie! Robbie is a frequent visitor to our Zoom calls! 🙂
- Her favorite website and place to shop is Amazon. Who can blame her?!
- Her dream vacation would be to Italy or a cruise around the Mediterranean.


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Math's Bypass Fat
The perfect energy source for your cows and beef cattle
Math's Bypass Fat is a 100% vegetable fat source produced from palm oil. By means of a natural process (fractionation) the fatty acids with a melting point of 55-60 ° C are selected from the palm oil. This results in a white powdery product at room temperature. The higher melting point and the proportion of saturated fatty acids ensure that the product passes through the rumen intact and is completely absorbed in the intestine. Math's Bypass Fat is neutral of smell and taste through a refined production process.


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Microsoft's Intune 2.0 – Beta Version Out
Microsoft has made its popular cloud-based computer management solution available for beta testing. This software reached its first official upgrade version 2.0. The Intune allows the management of multiple computers with the use of a cloud. It is a software for enterprise use. It suits most small-sized and mid-sized companies and also suites companies which are large. For all businesses that use Windows operating systems in their computers, Intune works very well.
The features of Intune are to update, monitor and manage the administration of a computer. The system connects a number of computers, that is its actual job and as a result, the businesses perform remote assistance through the Intune. The software replaces the usual WSUS that most companies with Windows operating systems still use for making updates to their computers. The Intune is not good for updating but also good for providing security.
The management through Intune is browser based. The browser reaches a private location that is much like an intranet. There is a server version installed on the server computer and there are the client versions that register with the server PC to build the cloud. The software has a very good security system. The security system only allows secure connections between two clients that let them communicate after the server approves them to do so. Also a license manager lets the server handle the licenses for the clients.
The Intune acts as a complete business solution. This solution only works on Windows-based computers. And according to the developers, it will take time before they have versions for other devices. In addition, the later releases may not contain support for other operating systems but Windows. The mobile Windows operating system will support the Intune in the future.
The beta 2.0 contains support for a 10 PC management solution for about 30 days. The beta ends after the 30 days-use period.


text: Follow the journey of a transition from NYC fashion designer to Mom-of-all-trades. Learn helpful tips from a career woman who has made all the mistakes but keeps trying to improve on "mom fashion," raising children, maintaining a healthy life (physically and spiritually). Through a lens of unpacakged reality, this Blog will tackle some of those running challenges every mom knows all too well: How to fashion police yourself? When to press the "no" button? Are your expectations realistic? And (the one you know you want to read) where to find really great "stuff"?


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Using biotechnology to create the world's most sustainable dyes
Connect huue.bio
Employees 6–20
Headquarters Berkeley, California, United States
Huue is creating the next generation of sustainable dyes for the industries that are integral to a sustainable future. About 200,000 tons of mainly petrochemical-based dyes (worth 1 billion USD) are lost annually to effluent due to inefficient dyeing and finishing processes. This means that current dyeing practices are costly, inefficient and release toxic chemicals into freshwater sources. Huue tackles these harmful practices by providing a cost-effective, resource-efficient, and sustainable dyeing alternative. Rather than utilizing agricultural methods to create plant-based dyes which require more land and resources, Huue uses biotechnology to create higher performing product. Mimicking nature's processes, Huue examines how color compounds occur in nature and programs microbes to grow and secrete those colors -- and Huue is tackling indigo first. Huue has created a drop-in 1:1 solution for the dyes and pigments supply chain, defining an end-to-end process that creates high purity dye material. Leveraging co-founder Dr. Tammy Hsu's UC Berkeley bioengineering research, they are supported by leading investors and institutions such as IndieBio, Fashion for Good, Jennifer Doudna, and Melinda Gates' Pivotal Ventures.
Notable Achievements
- Won $1M investment as Best US Deep Tech startup in Melinda Gates and M12's Female Founders Competition
- Co-Founder and CSO named MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35
- Grant recipient from National Science Foundation
Press Mentions
May 3, 2022
2022 World Changing Ideas Awards | Fast Company
See the 39 inspiring winners, and hundreds of honorees, of Fast Company's 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards.Read on Fast Company »
July 27, 2022
Synthetic Bio Startup Huue Secures $14.6M Series A to Launch The World
SAN FRANCISCO (PRWEB) July 27, 2022 - Huue is a synthetic biotech company on a mission to culture nature's rainbow, starting with the first indigo blue that doesn't rely on petroleum or toxic cheRead on PRWeb »
September 28, 2021
How Huue's Founders Are Detoxifying the Denim Industry--and Saving the Planet
Most jeans manufacturers rely on petroleum-based dyes and pollutants. Tammy Hsu and Michelle Zhu are on a mission to revolutionize the industry with planet-friendly microbe-based dyes.Read on Inc. »
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Software designed by Altami Ltd specialists is aimed not only at analysis and processing of images, but also for controlling video and images capture devices.
Main Altami applications (Altami Studio и Altami VideoKit) support interfaces of capture devices. Among them:
UVC interface is realized for image capture devices working according to USB protocol.
Microsoft DirectShow — interface for work with video capture devices, widely spread in the framework of operating systems of Windows line.
QT Capture interface for work with devices in Mac OS.
Altami Capture Device — interface used for Altami cameras, applied mostly in microscopy sphere.
Among cameras which are supported by Altami software, there exist:
Besides Altami cameras, delivered with microscopy laboratory equipment and software developed by Altami Ltd specialists, digital ocular cameras for DCM and MDC microscopes are also supported.
Point-Grey high-speed cameras, working according to the protocol USB 3.0, are adapted for work in the applications. Because of high speed of data transmission and high speed of processing data in the application, images of video stream, even having high resolution, are received without lagging.
With Canon PowerShot and Canon EOS camera models the applications work in such popular operating systems as Windows (Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (architectures х86 and х64)); Linux (Alt Linux, Open Suse 11.3, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and later); Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard.
Providing full support of capture devices, Altami applications, apart from carrying out the capturing of videos or images, also allow to control the settings of video capture devices, which is characteristic feature of these applications. Exposure, capture, white balance setting, correcting brightness and contrast, saturation and many other parameters of the image — it is possible to carry out all that by software means. It allows to save camera settings for the same work conditions.
Altami software products work under the most popular modern operating system such as Windows, Linux и Macintosh.
If our products do not solve your problems, we are ready to develop "from scratch" or modify existing applications.
Tired of the slow camera work? Keep up with progress! The camera on USB 3.0! operates at a speed of up to 180 fps.


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- Poster presentation
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Overcoming the "burdens" of overweight: coping strategies for weight stigmatising experiences and influences on psychological outcomes
Journal of Eating Disorders volume 3, Article number: P7 (2015)
1149 Accesses
Despite some discussion of the effect of weight stigma on psychological outcomes, little is known about specific coping factors that can reduce the impact of stigmatisation among overweight and obese persons. Furthermore, analysis of coping strategies for weight stigma within a stress-coping framework is underdeveloped. This research examined the relationship between weight stigmatising experiences, internalisation, coping strategies, and possible psychological consequences (e.g. depression, anxiety, stress, and self-esteem) through the administration of online questionnaires with qualitative and quantitative measures to overweight and obese persons in the general population.
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About this article
Cite this article
Violante-Cumpa, S. Overcoming the "burdens" of overweight: coping strategies for weight stigmatising experiences and influences on psychological outcomes. J Eat Disord 3 (Suppl 1), P7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-3-S1-P7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-3-S1-P7
- Public Health
- General Population
- Health Promotion
- Coping Strategy
- Disease Prevention


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Used as a flexible and delivery hose for placing wet concrete and plaster like mixes at high pumping pressures.
These hoses handle pumping pressure from 50PSI to 150PSI with dimensional stability remains flexible. A thick inner tube is specifically compounded to deliver concrete with a minimum amount of wear. These hoes are easy to handle yet resist kinking. Rugged abrasion resistant rubber cover will with stand dragging over concrete, rock, asphalt and other sharp and abrasive materials.


text: Reassure owners to prevent post-pandemic surrendersA Banfield survey shows 38 percent of owners are worried their pet will experience separation anxiety when left alone March 8, 2021 Some owners might be considering rehoming their pet post-pandemic if they are unable to bring the animal with them to work. This is according to a recent Banfield Pet Hospital survey conducted by OnePoll. The results showed owners are concerned about leaving their pets at home when returning to the workplace, with 38 percent worried their pet will experience separation anxiety when left alone. Indeed, 57 percent say they would be most happy going back into the office if they are able to bring their pet with them. One in five owners—including one in three gen-Zers and one in five millennials—say they are considering rehoming if they are unable to bring their pet with them to the office when they return to work, Banfield reports. To help thwart a potential uptick in surrenders, animal health professionals may want to touch base with clients who seem anxious about the change in routine, as well as those who are first-time owners, to see if they are in need of guidance. "If pet owners are feeling overwhelmed or have questions or concerns, in addition to taking care of your pet's health, veterinary teams can advise on all aspects of caring for your pet to help ensure pets and their families stay together," says Banfield's chief medical officer, Molly McAllister, DVM, MPH. Banfield reports 32 percent of owners—including 48 percent of gen-Zers and 35 percent of millennials—recently reached out to their veterinarian for advice on making the transition back to the workplace easier on their pets. For owners worried about leaving their pets at home when returning to the workplace, Banfield offers some tips for veterinarians to share with clients: Ease the pet into a new routine Avoid emotional departures or greetings Ensure daily exercise continues Offer a distraction several minutes prior to leaving the house (e.g. long-lasting food treats, a favorite toy) "We've seen the human-animal bond only get stronger during the pandemic, and it's no surprise owners are thinking about how they can best be here for their pets when they start to spend more time outside of home," says Banfield's president, Brian Garish. For more of the survey's findings, click here.


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6 Strange Things About Las Vegas That Deserve A Movie
Every year, millions of people descend on Las Vegas, hell bent on having a damn good time. For some, that involves trying (and usually failing) to take money from the casino. For others, that involves clubbing, getting hammered, seeing Penn and Teller, going to a strip club, and/or screaming VEGAS!!!! at unreasonable volumes. The key to Las Vegas is that it can be damn near anything to anyone. It offers a seventy-two hour or so timeout from real life. Everywhere an observer looks, there are overt signs of tourists having unreasonable amounts of fun.
The latest film to riff off this expectation of fun is Last Vegas. Starring Morgan Freeman, Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas and Kevin Kline, the PG-13 comedy seems to follow four old dudes who want to turn back the clock and have another misadventure before getting too fucking old for hijinks, I think. I haven't exactly seen it, but based on the mediocre trailer and the meh minus reviews, I'm pretty confident we're in for an older quartet working their way through all the Vegas-y things we've come to expect and trying desperately not to die. That sounds inoffensive and probably passable enough, but it doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel.
I want to see a Vegas movie that defies expectations and goes a little stranger (like The Cooler). I want to see one that tackles one of the more secretive, bummer subplots bubbling beneath the Sin City surface and crying out for its own film. I want to see a movie about the one-time gangster paradise that has the courage to tone it down and fixate on the more monotonous and seemingly boring aspects of Las Vegas vacations and local life. I want to see one of these six films.
The Tiredness That Comes With Getting Drunk Too Early
Starring: Dane DeHaan as "Tired" Ted Murphy and Miles Teller and Donald Glover as his very awake, right level of drunk friends Trevor and Salamander.
Going to Las Vegas is a lot like tailgating as a college student before a big football game. There is alcohol everywhere, and without any obligations owed to the real world for at least a day, there is always a temptation to dive in DuckTales style into one of those huge Fat Tuesday's drinks. On the one hand, hitting the bottle early can prove a great way to spice up 11 AM and make afternoon craps games a whole lot less awkward. On the other hand, it can also torpedo your entire night, as our hero Tired Ted discovers when he realizes, much to his horror, that all he really wants to do is go to bed at 9 PM on a Saturday.
Unfortunately, there's no easy solution to this predicament. His loud, obnoxious and right level of drunk (for Vegas) friends Trevor and Salamander (pronounced SAL-A-MANDDDDDDDER) are planning to go until at least 3 AM, and it's too late in the game to take a nap. So, rather than hear his sleepiness get referenced for the rest of their friendship, Tired Ted heroically decides to tough it out and plow forward, all while encountering second winds, red bulls and a hooker played by Gabourey Sidibe who claims her sexual energy could wake up coma patients.
Releasing Studio: Universal
The Horrible Drive Back To LA
Starring: Rob Corddry as Mike McDougal, Judy Greer as Melinda McDougal and Maggie Elizabeth Jones as Melissa McDougal
Mike McDougal lives in Los Angeles and has some disposable income. That means once a year or so, he's culturally obligated to throw a few button down shirts, his wife and a big pile of cash (fuck paying Vegas ATM fees) into his Prius and drive nine miles an hour over the speed limit through the desert on the 15 and into Las Vegas. This year, on his wife's insistence, he agrees to bring along their seven-year-old daughter, but thanks to her obsession with seeing the sharks at Mandalay Bay, the proposed leaving time of 10 AM winds up getting pushed back to 2:30 PM, which as any Los Angeles resident knows is a World War II level disaster.
Stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for two hundred and seventy miles, alongside a wife who really wants to make it home in time for The Good Wife, which she may have forgotten to DVR, and a daughter who can't stop talking about how much she hates one of her first grade classmates (that stupid Alyssa), poor Mike is nearing his breaking point, especially given the twenty-three-year-old asshole behind him in the Beamer who seems to think honking will implore his fellow drivers to move faster. He knows if he lets his wife and daughter have it, he'll eat death glares for the next six or seven hours, but he has to do something to break out of this funk. So, he does what any sensible middle-aged man who gives zero fucks would do: he takes to the shoulder and decides to gun it in hopes he can make it at least halfway back before getting the ticket he knows is coming.
Releasing Studio: Paramount
How Easy It Is To Get Lost Inside Caesar's Palace
Starring: Anna Kendrick as Rebecca, Ellie Kemper as Megyn, Lauren Ambrose as Jackie and Katrina Bowden as their idiot friend Beth.
Fresh off the plane and ready to put down their shit, no-nonsense Minneapolis girls Rebecca, Megyn and Jackie are excited to check into their suite at Caesar's Palace and reconnect with their absent-minded friend Beth who recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling. Unfortunately, they're told by the woman at the counter that Beth already checked into the room but left a note indicating a) she has all the room keys, b) her cell phone is charging in the room and c) she'll be waiting somewhere inside the mall at Caesar's Palace for them to arrive.
Shot in real time, Lost In Caesar's Palace follows our three heroes as they wander through the mall inside the gigantic Vegas hotel looking for their friend and more importantly, the room keys she possesses. At first in awe of the stunning architecture and painted ceilings, the ladies grow progressively more annoyed as they criss-cross in every which direction looking for their idiot friend in what could be the most confusing maze on Earth. Through shopping detours, horrible directions from drunk idiots and the occasional scream, they learn a little bit about life and absolutely nothing about the best way to navigate Caesar's Palace.
Releasing Studio: Focus Features
Those Creepy Hooker Tickets People Hand Out
Starring: Tonita Castro as Rosa, Jaime Pressly as Shanelle, Ving Rhames as Legs, Teck "Money" Holmes as Ray Ray and Nick Offerman as The High Roller
Every night, hundreds of thousands of advertisements for prostitutes are dropped on the streets of Las Vegas. By the time tourists wake up with hangovers the next morning, all of those creepy little cards that range in rating from PG-13 to NC-17 are gone thanks to workers like Rosa and Ray Ray. Ordinarily, the two simply throw out all of the discarded advertisements, but thanks to a chance encounter, there's a whole lot more at stake today.
Sometime around 3:30 AM, the High Roller, drunk as a skunk, met his dream woman, a prostitute who goes by a name that starts with an "s". She wrote down her number on one of those cards and passed it along, but in his hammered state, he dropped it somewhere on Las Vegas Boulevard between the Venetian and Paris. He wants it back and is willing to pay anyone who finds it a thousand dollars. Rosa and Ray Ray combine forces to take up the challenge, but they've got some competition in the form of Legs, a street performance artist who overhears the High Roller's offer and decides to get that money for himself.
Releasing Studio: Lionsgate
Mean Mugging Sales Clerks At The Expensive Malls
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood as Beatrice, Nina Dobrev as Ariel and Teresa Palmer as the girl in the Target dress.
As employees inside Marni at Crystals, Beatrice and Ariel spend their days talking about their shared desire to move to Europe and the various shoppers who walk around the mall, an overwhelming majority of which can afford Starbucks, Pinkberry and little else in the immediate vicinity. Now and again, the ladies grow bored and actively try to coax women inside as a means to break up the crushing boredom of their eight-hour workdays, but more often, they sit near the window, judging and mean mugging any less than affluent-looking window shopper who gazes inside.
On her way into the store, the girl in the Target dress felt the sting of the mean mug, but that didn't stop her from spending a healthy chunk of money and surprising the cashiers who thought they knew it all. Infatuated and obsessed with knowing how she has so much confidence, the two girls begin hanging out with the stranger and in the process, start learning a slew of details that are enough to completely upend their once judgmental worldviews. Look for this one to get some early Oscar buzz before slowly fizzling out by awards season.
Releasing Studio: Fox Searchlight
Loud Eurotrash Neighbors
Starring: Paul Giamatti as Michael Brown, Catherine Keener as Leslie Brown, Alexander Skarsgard as Bjorg and Benedict Cumberbatch as Reginald
An overwhelming majority of Las Vegas visitors choose to do their partying at clubs, inside casinos or just generally, out and about somewhere. A small minority, however, choose to treat their hotel rooms like European raves. Meet Bjorg and Reginald. They're a newly married gay couple from Sweden/ Luxembourg on their honeymoon in Vegas. They love nothing more than playing their music loud, much to the chagrin of neighbors Michael and Leslie Brown who prefer to turn in around eleven.
Scheduled to stay in adjoining hotel rooms for the next six nights, Michael and Catherine decide to do everything they can to smoke their fellow travelers out, at least until they learn Reginald will soon begin working as an admissions offer at Duke, the same college the Brown's daughter has her heart set on attending. So, with the help of some strong liquor and good intentions, they decide to take one for the team and befriend the Europeans in an effort to eventually get a leg up in the highly competitive admissions process. Be on the lookout for a great cameo from Anton Yelchin who plays Bjorg's much younger former lover Evgeny and for several DJ sets from former Jersey Shore star Pauly D.
Releasing Studio: Warner Bros
Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News
Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.
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text: More commonly known as NOS is a gas that was used for and is still being used as an anesthetic drug for medical purposes at room temperature it's not fun but if you heat it up just right it becomes a beast for your vehicle engine. check out for more What is NOS for cars? It is a gas that is used mostly for automotive racing the larger the nitrous oxide gas … [Read more...] about NOS: Nitrous oxide