Author: JD Rucker

Understanding the physical natural of time has been something that physicists have struggled with and debated over since before Einstein brought into mainstream scientific reasoning. It’s difficult for those without a degree in physics to comprehend moving at different speeds based upon the relative position and speed of travel of the observer, but it’s been proven time and time again (pun intended). This video by Chuck Missler at Koinonia House breaks it down for us nicely. Rather than talking over the listener, he explains it in hypothetical and real world terms that won’t put (most) people…

“I sit down at the computer and think of things to post on social media.” This is the problem. It’s the challenge that faces many companies as they try to explore new ideas to post about on social media. They have “social media time” set aside, and while this is good to schedule and maintain, it also allows people to miss some of the best opportunities available in social media. It’s what happens in the day to day affairs of a business, the things that come to us when we least expect it, that really makes for strong social media posts. Businesses all too often try to come up with their social media posts while…

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) have been working on the Legged Squad Support System (LS3) for years. This creepy, “thinking” robot is designed to help troops carry equipment on terrain that is normally not suitable for vehicles. The latest advancements are demonstrated below, showing improved maneuverability, voice commands, stability controls, and recovery abilities. When it falls, it can get back up. Fortunately, it doesn’t fall very often even in difficult terrain. In this video, they demonstrate the ability…

Those who follow my writing know that I’m a skeptical, cynical conspiracy theorist who thinks that governments, companies, and entities we don’t even know about are all out to get us. I promote privacy, transparency, security, and an open internet free of nearly all forms of censorship. I believe that most online companies, particularly those associated with social media, will at some point show their true colors and try to use our data and content for profit in one way or another. I call out companies that do this and I try to warn people of the potential evils that can take over actions with even…

There are plenty of ways to use mobile devices to promote a business. The merging of social, local, and mobile into the SoLoMo buzzword of 2012 is starting to became a reality for 2013. With YouTube’s latest app for iPhone and iPod Touch, the video giant has given a powerful tool to businesses who rely on showing people their wares before they make the drive. For example, the internet has expanded the reach of car dealerships. People are able to look at more industries in minutes than they used to be able to look at in an entire day of shopping. They can identify the dealerships that have a vehicle that…

The announcement that the Washington Post Company was moving its Facebook app Social Reader off the social network and onto a standalone site is the latest example in a long string of failures by Facebook to keep a balance between what users want and what businesses and organizations want. This follows similar news from The Guardian a couple of days ago. As with most things that Facebook has tried since 2009 to do to grow its relevance outside its own closed garden, things started off really well and went south very quickly. Rewind to a year ago when Facebook first tied in its open graph technology…

I had thought the days were behind us. Call it a hope, but I believed that the majority of businesses who were active on social media had pushed beyond the plague that once filled our feeds – the worthless post. I was wrong. It was while auditing an account that followed numerous car dealers on both Twitter and Facebook that I came across the reality of the situation. There are still plenty – over half from the sampling of several hundred that I examined – that were posting the type of “content” on social media that drives people to unfollow, block, or simply ignore them. Recently I’ve been posting some…

When you’re talking about why the world didn’t end yesterday, the normal way to do so is to make sure that “yesterday” actually already happened. NASA sets aside conventional thought with their latest video that tells why the world didn’t end yesterday. It’s available on YouTube now, but don’t watch it until December 22nd or it won’t really make any sense. There’s another, more sinister theory. By declaring so boldly that the world isn’t going to end yesterday, are they simply trying to confuse us into believing that when yesterday actually comes, that tomorrow is really right around the corner?…

The short answer – yes, a little. There are rarely moves made by one social company that make me believe they can really hurt another social company, but this one is different. Instagram’s relationship with Twitter has been one of love and hate since before anyone realized there was a growing tension between the social networking giant and Facebook’s mobile secret weapon. The fact that Twitter added filters to their photo apps will not strain the relationship any further; in essence, there is nothing really left to strain. Facebook started the ill-will in April when they purchased Instagram….

Defamation. Freedom of speech. Honesty and transparency versus lies and coverups. These and other gray matters are all in play in a $750,000 lawsuit filed by a Virginia contractor against a former customer who left a scathing review on review sites Yelp and Angie’s List. If it gets settled in court, the ramifications will be felt by both the review industry as well as millions of small businesses around the country. If Christopher Dietz, owner of Dietz Development LLC, wins the lawsuit, many consumers will become fearful of posting reviews that call out businesses. If Jane Perez, the woman who…