Notations From the Grid: On the State of the #Unicorns....

One of the number of initiatives we assess on a daily basis is the so-called "Unicorns Club" that have been at the forefront of interesting ideas to help create the ultimate "Vision of the Possible".   However, one of the Unicorns has run into some challenges as noted in this newsflash we received courtesy of IndustryWeek:

Theranos Tests Miss the Mark in New Study

The study will likely add to scrutiny of the medical testing disruptor, founded by entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes. 

Theranos has struggled to regain credibility ever since the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles questioning its 'finger prick' lab tests. 

FULL ARTICLE

We will be assessing the state of the Unicorns here in #Visions over the ensuing weeks and months.

Notations From the Grid (Weekend Edition): On This Easter Sunday 2016....

Our team ran across this wonderful story which we wanted to report on about how anything is possible if one has the desire and the courage:

From a shepherd girl in Morocco to the Minister of Education of France.(The first woman and the youngest person - at...
Posted by Ahmed Rehab on Friday, March 25, 2016

This is ever so critical especially as the World was witness to the carnage in Pakistan and the riots in Brussels.    

Onward.....

On This Easter Week-End....

We were moved by the message of hope that the Holy Father underscored.   Tomorrow is Easter Sunday here in the United States.     As we all remember and remain hopeful despite the challenges, we thought that this from John Maxwell was so appropriate for us to underscore as we all strive to create the Vision of the Possible.

Happy Easter to All!!!

Today's word is REDEMPTION

Today is Good Friday. I encourage you to pause today and think of the sacrifices that were made for us. Jesus paid the price for us, we are eternally grateful and we are now redeemed. What a beautiful thing! I am excited to share these short, powerful, FREE video messages with YOU. I encourage you to pass these on to others, and together we can enrich the world. WATCH SHARE

The Friday Musical Interlude: Tor Miller's "Midnight"

Welcome to Friday here in #Outsiders as it is time once again for the Friday Musical Interlude.   For our #visions channel, we chose this from our artist of the week, Tor Miller.  Please enjoy as we wish all a joyful Easter Weekend:

View of the Week (Special Edition): On Johan Cruyff & turning heads

Johan Cruyff passed away today.    In our view, he was a visionary in many ways as he helped to transform Football (Soccer) and this beautiful moving tribute by the Guardian underscores it: 

He was the type of person that made a difference: 

“Be the type of person that not only turns heads,
but turns souls as well.”
~ Author Unknown

Notations From the Grid: On #Google Launching a "Google Future Founders" Scheme

It was gratifying to see this initiative from Google at its' Campus in the UK which we wanted to report on courtesy of the team @ +Business Insider.   We look forward to sharing further updates over the ensuing weeks and months:

Google asked over a 1,000 teenagers if they wanted to launch a startup and most of them said no. The company is launching a new "Google Future Founders" scheme.

Happy Birthday @Twitter :)))

We wanted to join in wishing Twitter a Happy Birthday as we picked up this very cute Tweet which we hope all enjoy:

Starting in 🇦🇺 on 3/21 and moving across the 🌍, we thank you for 10 incredible years.

Love, Twitter#LoveTwitterhttps://t.co/pH4WWdgK6q

— Twitter (@twitter) March 20, 2016

Onward!!!

Notations From the Grid: An #Outsider Newsflash On Guidance from US-CERT on #Apple Today

We reported on the Apple Announcement earlier today.    We just received this at our Virtual Studios which we wanted to report on:

National Cyber Awareness System:

Apple Releases Multiple Security Updates

03/21/2016 06:48 PM EDT

Original release date: March 21, 2016Apple has released security updates for iOS, watchOS, tvOS, Xcode, OS X El Capitan, OS X Server 5.1, and Safari to address multiple vulnerabilities. Exploitation of some of these vulnerabilities may allow a remote attacker to take control of an affected system.
Available updates include:

• iOS 9.3 for iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, and iPad 2 and later
• watchOS 2.2 for Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Edition, and Apple Watch Hermes
• tvOS 9.2 for Apple TV (4th generation)
• Xcode 7.3 for OS X El Capitan v10.11 and later
• OS X El Capitan v10.11.4 and Security Update 2016-002 for OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, OS X Yosemite v10.10.5, and OS X El Capitan v10.11 to v10.11.3
• OS X Server 5.1 for OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 and later
• Safari 9.1 for OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, OS X Yosemite v10.10.5, and OS X El Capitan v10.11 to v10.11.3

Users and administrators are encouraged to review Apple security updates for iOS, watchOS, tvOS, Xcode, OS X El Capitan, OS X Server, and Safari and apply the necessary updates.

Notations On Our World: An #Outsiders Newsflash on #Apple

As we went to press, we are awaiting the advent of the new Apple Event later on this afternoon whereby a smaller footprint iPhone is expected to be unveiled.    There are apparent other interesting announcements (focused on the Apple Watch as well).   We will assess these over the next day or so as we await the rollout at 1 Infinite Loop!!!

The live event has already started and it began with Tim Cook noting that Apple will not back down on its' fight with the Federal Government on the privacy fight--and now there is talk on the environment and how they are now briefing the world on one important milestone:  93% of of all facilities are on renewables--100% renewable in 23 countries around the World.   They talked about building a 40 Megawatt Solar Farm without disturbing the local environment while powering all Apple facilities.    This is quite a milestone and we here @#outsiders congratulate Apple.  

As there were announcements on Health, there was also an interesting announcement on Apple Watch: A price drop to $ 299 and now there is the big announcement on the iPhone SE at $ 399 available on March 31 and available in 100 Countries by the end of May.  

Notations On Our World (weekend edition): On Humanity at Work in the Olympic Movement

The Olympic Logo (Source: http://www.olympic.org/news/refugee-athletes-on-the-road-to-rio/247613)

We have been following with great interest the plans by the International Olympic Committee to create a team  of  Refugee Olympians for the upcoming Olympic Games. Our team was so moved by this wonderful gesture to acknowledge humanity in action. As reported in the Olympic Movements Website, "....Three promising athletes have already been identified, including a female swimmer from Syria presently in Germany; a male Congolese judoka in Brazil; and a female Iranian taekwondo fighter now in Belgium. In cooperation with the relevant International Federations (IFs), the IOC is now evaluating their athletic abilities to determine whether they could qualify for the Games..."  

We look forward to commenting on this over the ensuing weeks.    We congratulate the Olympic Movement for this fantastic initiative that the Olympic Movement has committed to spend over 3 Million Dollars to field a team.   It is such stories that gives us hope that creating the "Vision of the Possible" is there as long as there is the will and the courage.

The Friday Musical Interlude : Remembering Frank Sinatra Jr. w/ "My Way"

Welcome to Friday here in #Outsiders. 

For this week, our team decided to pay tribute to Frank Sinatra Jr. who passed away earlier this week due to cardiac arrest.    As someone once said, he was the "keeper of the flame" as he served as his Father's Musical Director and continued his legacy.   Please enjoy this selection from the grid as we wish all a great weekend on the eve of this first weekend of Spring 2016:

View of the Week (Special Edition): On this. St.Patricks' Day 2016.....

We here @  #outsiders wanted to extend our best wishes on this St. Patricks' Day as we feature this from one of our must reads, +Jonathan Huie:

May God grant you always...
A sunbeam to warm you,
a moonbeam to charm you,
a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.
Laughter to you.
Faithful friends near you.
And whenever you pray,
Heaven to hear you.
- Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours.
- Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
- Irish Blessing
 

View of the Week: On #Success

Please enjoy this selection on #Success & overcoming negative thoughts:

7 Responses for Common Negative Thoughts When you catch yourself thinking the following negative thoughts, replace them with these positive thoughts. READ MORE

March 15, 2016 FEATURED To Be Successful, Do What You Do Best Your job is to find out what makes you buzz and begin to perfect it. Discover your brilliance in life and practice, practice, practice. You must hone your natural abilities to perfect them—concentrate on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Read on to learn the 2 steps to success.

Notations On Our World: #Indego is available (Please Read On)

We recently ran across this "newsflash" on Parker Hannifin having gotten FDA clearance to give a product called Indego to be marketed.  As noted on the Indego Website, "Indego® is a powered lower limb exoskeleton enabling people with spinal cord injuries to walk and participate in over-ground gait training..   We Look forward to talking about it over the ensuing weeks and months.

For further information, please check them out at : http://indego.com/indego/en/home

Notations On Our World: On This National Pi Day 2016......

Today is National Pi Day.    We here @ #outsiders join all the "glorified geeks" around the World as we celebrate the on-going development of Technology before our very eyes and salute all the innovators who continue to be at the forefront of this transformation--some we have been proud to support and showcase. 

In honor of National Pi Day, We thought this from the leading distributor for the Raspberry Pi Boards was quite timely in terms of the origins of this day and of course the possibilities that is at the heart of what we deliberate here in the Visions Channel.

Happy Pi Day!!!

The Origin of Pi Day Founded by physicist Larry Shaw in 1988, Pi Day is celebrated around the world on March 14th - since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three digits of the mathematical constant. And to celebrate the infinitely-powerful pi, let's dig into the infinite possibilities of Raspberry Pi... The Birth of Pi An affordable, credit card-sized single-board computer, the Raspberry Pi was originally developed to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools and developing countries. In 2012, we partnered with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to bring the first Raspberry Pi model to market. Four years and 5 million boards later, Farnell element14 is proud to be the world's largest distributor of Raspberry Pi. Third Pi's a Charm The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the latest member of the Raspberry Pi family - delivering up to 10x the processing power of its predecessors. With slick new features that include built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, it becomes the ideal IoT ready solution.

Notations From the Grid (weekend edition): On Solar Impulse (an #outsider newsflash)

As we do a countdown to Earth day, we wanted to release this we got earlier this week on the latest on Solar Impulse:

Second Maintenance Flight Completed 28,000 feet climb and 16 hours later, Si2 has safely landed after its second maintenance flight! After two weeks of Mission mode, we have already completed two flights. The engineers have now performed a long duration, high altitude flight in order to perform operational checks on the oxygen system, the new batteries and ventilation system. Read about it! Share Tweet

Notations From the Grid (weekend edition): On Kickstarter

Welcome to the weekend here in #outsiders.

We received this at our Virtual Studios on one of our +Kickstarter backed projects.   We welcome the vigilance shown by the team at +Kickstarter that shows how what one sees is one what gets on  this platform that has done so much to support visionaries.   Ethics & integrity are things that should never be compromised on:  

Hello, This is a message from Kickstarter’s Integrity team. We’re writing to notify you that the Tiny Lens- Turn Your Phone into a Microscope! (Suspended), project has been suspended, and your $9.00 USD pledge has been canceled. A review of the project uncovered evidence that it broke Kickstarter's rules. We may suspend projects when they demonstrate one or more of the following: Offering purchased items and claiming to have made them yourself Presenting someone else’s work as your own Misrepresenting or failing to disclose relevant facts about the project or its creator Accordingly, all funding has been stopped and backers will not be charged for their pledges. No further action is required on your part. We take the integrity of the Kickstarter system very seriously. We only suspend projects when we find strong evidence that they are misrepresenting themselves or otherwise violating the letter or spirit of Kickstarter's rules. As a policy, we do not offer comment on project suspensions beyond what is stated in this message. Regards, Kickstarter Integrity Rules Community Guidelines Terms of Use

The Friday Musical Interlude: Kygo's Firestone :)))

Welcome to Friday here in #outsiders as we feature a selection from our artist of the week, Kygo:

Notations From the Grid (Special Weekly Edition): An Opportunity to Make a Difference

We here at #Outsiders first got to know this wonderful organization as this platform was used by a local leader to help raise funds for the families of the victims of the terror attack in San Bernardino last year.     We view this opportunity as an excellent opportunity for those who wish to be at the forefront to create the ultimate vision of the possible to do so:

Summer 2016 Fellowship

Be The Change This Summer Here's your chance to change the world. To work with a global team of amazing social entrepreneurs supporting incredible Muslims doing good work all across the world. To learn and refine the skills you need to become a leader, a visionary. To travel and visit one of the coolest incubators in Detroit and open your eyes up to new ways of work.

Supporting Amazing Muslims Around the World! We are looking for talented, hard-working, risk-taking Fellows who love to support Muslims doing amazing work across the world. These fellows will get to spend a week in the arguably coolest incubator in Detroit (the Green Garage) and spend their days learning about and supporting amazing Muslims from across the world! Fellows can apply from across the world and work remotely. Requires 15-20 hours/week and lasts 3 months (May 13, 2016 - August 14, 2016)

Developing Leaders of Tomorrow In addition to doing amazing work, fellows will receive weekly training on how to be a stellar entrepreneur! We have developed a unique, in-house curriculum to helpyoung leaders spread their wings and learn to fly to new heights. If you or anybody you know are interested in developing leadership and entrepreneurial skills apply today! Be the change this summer!

View of the Week (Special Edition): On This International Women's Day 2016....

The team @ Google put a very nice Doodle Together to celebrate this day.  We join all in extending a Happy Women's Day to all: