July
22, 2019

6 min read

Summer is seersucker season, and this particular summer is especially meaningful to Haspel — the brand that first put the striped-and-puckered cotton fabric on the map. Joseph Haspel Sr. founded the New Orleans-based clothing company in 1910, and, 110 years later, it’s safely in the hands of his great-granddaughter Laurie Haspel, current president and CEO.

A visionary of his time — both in terms of product and marketing — Haspel Sr.’s goal was to create stylish clothes that could stand up to Louisiana heat. He knew that the British wore seersucker in India, and realized the light fabric could translate from a laborer’s outfit to a hot-weather-ready suit. Customers agreed, and the look soon became synonymous with Southern style. (His for penchant for PR stunts didn’t hurt either.) The look quickly spread, and, through the ages, presidents (Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, JFK, George W. Bush) and actors (Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd) alike have been spotted in the brand.

Related: 5 Keys to Successfully Leading a Family Business

The business’ journey has not always been smooth, however. Haspel’s son sold the company in 1977, as there wan’t a single member of the family’s third generation available to run it. When the brand went up for sale again, however, the Haspels bought it back. They licensed the name out for several years, and it wasn’t until 2014 that Laurie re-launched the brand. Which brings us to today.

Image credit: Haspel

As Haspel celebrates its anniversary, we spoke with Laurie about what it means to be the steward of a more-than-a-century-old family business — and how she’s taking it into the future while maintaining its most important traditions.

Your great-grandfather, Joseph Haspel, Sr., actually invented the seersucker suit?

He didn’t invent seersucker, but he originated and popularized the seersucker suit. I always say he was the originator, not the imitator. He was the fabric innovator who put seersucker — and Haspel — on the map. He was also the first to put technical fabrics into clothing: think stretch and resistance.

Word is he was quite a showman.

He once pulled a stunt that was surely the greatest of its time, without any social media. In the 1940s, he innovated the “wash ’n’ wear” suit. To demonstrate its introduction into the marketplace, he wore his new suit and jumped into the Atlantic Ocean during a trade show in Florida. As he exited the waters, he stripped down to his suspenders and boxers, hung his suit up to dry, and then wore it out that evening to the market’s nighttime event.

Related: The Secret to Being a Successful Fashion Entrepreneur

At some point your family licensed out the name, but then you took it back. What’s the story there?

My grandfather, Haspel, Jr., sold the company in 1977, and then our immediate family purchased the name back in the early 1990s. While we licensed the name out for several years, it wasn’t until 2014 that I re-launched the brand. During that process, I learned that our brand needed the TLC and sex appeal it had in its heyday. We needed to resume control over the branding and messaging. Today, the company lives online at www.haspel.com. I’ve always wanted our consumers to be able to find exactly what they wanted all in one place.

Were there naysayers who thought re-launching was a mistake?

Of course there were! But we’ve kept it to what we do best, our classics. It’s what our consumers expect to see from Haspel. If they want seersucker, we’ve got it. Poplin, linen and pincord? We’ve got that too. 

How important is it for you and your family to live up to your great-grandfather’s legacy?

I want everyone to know what made our family’s brand popular, and more importantly what made it relevant. Haspel is cool, no matter the season, no matter the occasion. Our clothes are meant for a good time. That’s what we do. My grandparents and great-grandparents loved to entertain, and we built our collection around that idea. What would they wear to the cocktail party or a night out in NYC? How would they dress at a neighbor’s BBQ or pool party?

Image credit: Haspel

Related: How Compelling Storytelling Can Help You Build a Heritage Brand

What’s the most challenging aspect of running a family business?

We must remain relevant in the marketplace, so that the brand continues for generations to come. I’m always asking myself: What’s the next big thing? What can we do to make a difference? It’s a legacy that I want to continue. 

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about leading a heritage brand?

Not to lose the core essentials of the brand; you need to incorporate your heritage into everything that you do. You want every man to be comfortable wearing Haspel, in terms of style, attitude and comfort. We haven’t lost sight of who our customers were, and who they are. Our biggest opportunity lies with those who did not know the brand all of those years ago. We want everyone to recognize that we’ve brought it back, better than ever, and it’s now a lifestyle brand that covers many generations and occasions.

Will Haspel continue to evolve over the next 110 years? 

Damn right! We’ll definitely continue to add new categories to our product mix — fragrance, women’s, home, boys. Our popularity will continue to increase as consumers understand that our brand is built on the idea of “clothing meant for a good time.” You shouldn’t always wear your work suit to a dinner party or social occasion — and that’s where we come in. We have expert stylists on-hand to help you with your next occasion, whether it be a pool party, dinner at the club, cocktails with friends, or attending a destination wedding. We’re sophisticated without being pretentious.

Related: If You Want Customers to Be Passionate About Your Brand, Follow These 10 Commandments

If he were around today, do you think your great grandfather would Instagram himself walking into the ocean in a seersucker suit?

My great-grandfather would own social media and Instagram! @haspelclothing would be full of his creative stunts and brand messaging. I wish I could show him what we’ve done to further the brand from the days of tailored clothing to today’s additional categories of sportswear and accessories. This big anniversary would certainly make him proud; I would love to be sipping a cocktail with him at my side as we talk about history and our next 110 years.

July
20, 2019

3 min read

This story originally appeared on MJObserver

Global superstar Post Malone, founder of hemp and cannabis brand Shaboink, announced today the launch of American-grown hemp pre-rolls by Shaboink through a strategic partnership with Icon Farms and world-renowned cultivator Mario Guzman, founder of designer cannabis brand Sherbinskis. 

“I’m proud to bring natural hemp pre-rolls by Shaboink to market — it’s a product I personally love and know my fans will too,” said Malone. “Our partners are best in class, and so is this product. The terpene flavors are great, and you can’t beat an all-natural pre-roll.”

Shaboink’s new line of hemp pre-rolls are enhanced with a proprietary terpene flavor profile — “Posty OG,” custom-made for Malone by Guzman — and are manufactured using only American-grown hemp, plant-derived terpenes and water.

This first-of-its-kind launch and new category is the result of a strategic partnership and manufacturing agreement with Icon Farms, a company focused on combining best manufacturing practices from high-volume tobacco production and clean, American-grown hemp cultivation. Icon Farms brings decades of specialized industry knowledge from its founders’ family-owned, multi-generational tobacco production operations.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Shaboink

“The combination of our inventive product development, operations management, and solid market presence, paired with the loyal fanbase both Shaboink and Sherbinskis command, has created an unprecedented national platform for a new era in American Grown Hemp,” explained Jordan Gielchinsky, president of Icon Farms. “We are proud to play a hand in pioneering this ground-breaking opportunity.” 

In addition to partnering with Shaboink, Icon Farms also worked with Guzman to launch American-grown hemp pre-rolls by Sherbinskis, infused with the cannabis icon’s world-famous “Gelato” terpene blend. Shaboink and Sherbinskis hemp pre-rolls will be sold in individual and dual-branded packs and cartons.

“This is another historic moment for Sherbinskis,” said Guzman. “It’s my honor to pioneer the hemp category with Post Malone, Shaboink and Icon Farms. I’ll never forget the moment we all watched Icon’s tobacco machines replaced with hemp and saw the first batch of pre-rolls come off the production line. It was unforgettable and a sign of what’s to come.” 

Each brand’s respective hemp pre-rolls are available for immediate distribution and retail sales in the United States, sold individually and in co-branded collaboration packs, available through Greenlane, a leading distributor of premium vaporization products and consumption accessories. Greenlane’s customers include over 7,000 independent smoke shops and regional retail chain stores, which collectively operate approximately 11,000 retail locations.

The products are tobacco- and nicotine-free, made with less than 0.3 percent THC and laboratory-tested. They’re also free of pesticides, mold, microbiological agents, residual solvents and heavy metals. In an industry category that often uses chemicals and other synthetic additives, Icon Farms’s goal to provide natural, plant-based products is echoed in its tagline: “American-Grown Hemp. Plant-Derived Terpenes. Water. Nothing Else.”

July
19, 2019

2 min read

This story originally appeared on MJBizDaily

Many wholesale cannabis growers choose to compete on quality, even while market forces favor growers who can reliably supply low-cost cannabis.

Nearly half of U.S. cultivators are attempting to make high-quality flower their key differentiator, according to the recently released 2019 Marijuana Business Factbook. But with flower sales on the decline, the market likely will prove unable to sustain that proportion of growers competing on those grounds alone.

In the extract market, consumers have shown a preference for high-potency, low-cost concentrates, creating high demand for inexpensive flower. Demand for high-quality concentrates may increase as cannabis use continues to become more mainstream, though it’s unlikely to supplant low-cost, value-oriented concentrates in the near future.

While there may be an immediate opportunity for growers to specialize in and provide low-cost product if and when marijuana is legalized at the federal level, all but the largest and most efficient cultivators ultimately may be squeezed out of the market for value cannabis.

If large-scale retailers, such as big-box and grocery stores, eventually are able to sell cannabis, these outlets likely will offer prices that small-scale producers cannot match. However, experienced marijuana business owners caution that as cannabis becomes a commodity, the value of a company is more dependent upon brand reputation and products lineup than price.

Value-added cultivation — such as sustainable and organic production — could emerge as a key segment similar to the food industry. That creates a proverbial tightrope for cultivators to walk: They need to understand that meeting the current needs of the market for low-cost cannabis could come at a huge price if a major shake-up — such as federal legalization — occurs.

July
17, 2019

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every day, millions of Americans rely on voice-activated devices to tell them the weather, wake them up in the morning and answer a plethora of random questions they’re curious about. While the average voice assistant user may not worry about where those answers come from, digital marketers are working hard to ensure that voice devices rely on information from their sites to inform the answers people receive.

Related: 3 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Position Their Brand to Dominate Voice Search

And for good reason. Over half of consumers, according to a data roundup by Bradley Shaw, have used voice search to find local business information within the last year, and a quarter (27 percent) actually went on to visit the company’s website after conducting a voice search.

Voice is an increasingly common avenue for engagement between brands and consumers, and marketers must fight hard to rank high as a source of information within the voice realm. Here is what they need to know:

Five key ranking factors

Because voice-activated technologies are relatively new, marketing strategies designed to make use of voice devices are often undefined.

However, certain ranking factors (i.e., the factors that determine how high a web page ranks on Google’s search engine results page) do guide voice searches the most.

According to research by my own company, SEMRush, nearly 80 percent of the answers voice assistants provided for our searches ranked among the top three organic results, and 97 percent of the answers provided by Google Assistant ranked among the top 10 organic results.

Therefore, marketers seem to be prioritizing a first-page ranking before even considering a ranking for voice search queries.

Here are additional factors marketers should consider, which affect the ranking factors behind voice searches:

Featured snippets: The pictures and blurbs that help illustrate answers to search queries are essential when companies rank for voice searches. In fact, nearly 70 percent of all voice answers come from featured snippets, according to our study. To rank high for voice search queries, marketers should optimize pages to take advantage of this increasing phenomenon.

Related: Why Do Businesses Need to Optimize For Voice Search

Average word count: The average length of a voice search answer is 41.4 words. For example, Google Home has an average word count of 41.4, and, with the Mini version, 42 words. So, keep the answers on your search-page results at around 40 words or you’ll risk being outranked by competitors that do.

Readability: Search engines look for well-structured, well-written content that ultimately matches the intent of the query. This means that the readability of a page’s content is a key factor for ranking high on the results page. In general, the results from voice searches are understandable to the average 15-year-old, according to the Flesch Kincaid reading level test.

Page speed: The faster that results load, the better. For the majority of questions asked via voice, Google chooses an answer that loads faster than the average page on the search engine results page. In some cases, answers for Google Home voice searches have a page speed 10 times faster than the rest of the options found on the first page, making page speed one of the biggest factors in ranking for voice search.

Backlinks: Backlink anchors matching users’ search queries are found in 50 percent of answers for Google Home and Mini. Likewise, keywords in the title of the result are found in over a third of voice answers, a fact that offers increased opportunities for marketers to put their page results in front of target audiences. However, backlinks play a less significant role in voice searches conducted via smartphone devices, so marketers interested in mobile should be sure to blend backlinks with the other strategies listed above.

Search engine optimization (SEO) tactics are always evolving, and marketers must proactively learn new skills to stay ahead of their competitors and earn valuable web traffic from voice searches.  

While the world has not completely transitioned to voice search, there’s no denying that consumers are quickly moving in that direction. In fact, by 2020, eConsultantcy has predicted, 50 percent of all searches will be conducted using voice.

Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Take Advantage of Voice Search Marketing

To stay ahead of search trends, start by using SEO tools to determine how a website ranks. Then, layer on upgrades in key areas like page speed, ranking in the top three results and occupying a featured snippet position. SEO strategies can take several months to yield results, so it’s important to get started now and prepare for a future where voice searches will be the norm.

July
16, 2019

8 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

At just 20 years old, Dan Lok was already $150,000 in debt. Over three years, he launched 13 businesses — and every single one of them failed. Today Lok is a multimillionaire and business mentor, thanks to the help of one man and his life-altering lessons. Now he’s paying it forward.

Lok with his parents in Hong Kong, China.

Image credit: Dan Lok

Lok’s parents separated when he was 14 years old. He and his mother emigrated from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada, later that year. His father continued providing for them, but when Lok was 16, his father filed for bankruptcy and could no longer support them.

“I will never forget the look of hopelessness on my mom’s face and the tears in her eyes,” says Lok. “At that moment, I decided that I would be successful. I didn’t need my dad; I would provide for my mom. I never wanted to see that look again.”

His mother had limited work experience, so Lok supported them by working part-time at a grocery store for minimum wage. After a year, he learned an enlightening lesson: “I was told that I was unemployable because I don’t like being told what to do. I cannot disagree with that statement,” he smirks.

Stocking shelves was Lok’s first and last “traditional” job.

Losses with lessons.

Lok began mowing lawns, delivering papers, and doing anything that had a remote possibility of making money. After high school, he enrolled at Douglas College in Vancouver. He attended full-time business classes while cycling through one failed entrepreneurial idea after another — from vending machines to delivery services and day trading.

Lok maxed out several credit cards and borrowed from everyone he knew. “No one understood why I didn’t just get a job,” he says. “But I knew that I could never repay my debts and provide for my family by working for the minimum wage. I knew I would be better off as an entrepreneur, even if it took a decade. I never gave up because I couldn’t afford to quit — and if you don’t quit, then you can’t fail.”

Lok calls those ventures “losses with lessons.” He acknowledges that most people would have quit somewhere between their first and thirteenth attempt. His response? “Success is on the razor’s edge of failure. When you think it can’t get any worse, hang on just a little longer.”

Picking up trash for mentorship.

After Lok read Claude Hopkins’ book, “Scientific Advertising,” he became obsessed with marketing and soon discovered marketing expert Alan Jacques. Lok studied his sales letters and attended his seminars, where he met Jacques in person.

Lok offered to buy Jacques lunch, and they talked for hours. When Lok asked to be his mentee, Jacques declined, but Lok wasn’t discouraged. “I visited his office every day for about a month. I did everything possible to demonstrate my willingness to help — including picking up trash around the office — until he finally hired me.”

Lok dropped out of college to work for Jacques. The 21-year-old spent weeks crafting his first sales letter, only for Jacques to tell him it was terrible. Lok rewrote it seven times before Jacques was satisfied. Jacques later confessed that the first draft was “OK” — but “OK” isn’t how you master anything.

Though Lok didn’t earn much money, he says the 12-month mentorship with Jacques was his first “million-dollar year.” Under Jacques’ guidance, Lok started a one-person advertising agency, and within 12 months his clients were generating millions of dollars from his sales letters. By 22 years old, Lok commanded $10,000 per project and was comfortably earning six figures.

Worthwhile struggles.

“I could finally provide for my mom. I didn’t have to go to the ‘nearly expired’ section of the grocery store anymore,” says Lok. “The mentorship from Alan truly changed my life. That’s why I choose to mentor young entrepreneurs each and every day.”

Several years later, Lok returned to Hong Kong for the first time to visit his father, who was getting by but worried about having a place to live. Walking down the street, Lok stopped and pointed to a window. He pulled out a set of keys and said, “I bought that apartment for you.” The look on his father’s face made all the struggles worthwhile.

Lok invested the profits from his online business into real estate and became a millionaire at age 27. Since his businesses could run without him, he retired as well and set off to “live the dream.” He sat on the beach nearly every day for a month, then spent the next month watching six movies a day. After two months of retirement, he’d had enough.

Lok began sharing his knowledge with a self-published marketing manual, “Forbidden Psychological Tactics.” In a quest to sell the manual, Lok mastered online marketing. He went on to become an accomplished affiliate marketer, sell informational products, and create copywriting software.

Over the next decade, Lok founded or partnered in more than 15 companies in industries ranging from beauty salons to e-commerce. Today their combined sales exceed eight figures annually. Lok attributes this success to three things he lacked early in his career: mentorship, focus, and “high-income skills” like copywriting, marketing, and public speaking.

His biggest regret and motivation.

When his father had a stroke, Lok was in the U.S. chasing his biggest deal yet. “I wanted to make my dad proud, so I told him I’d be with him as soon as I finished. That was the last time I spoke to him. I never got to say goodbye, and it’s my biggest regret.

“I realized that chasing money and achievement wasn’t making me happy. Suddenly it all meant a lot less.” Lok’s motivation shifted from providing for his family to providing opportunities for others around the world. Now his mission is to impact 1 billion people by teaching them how to develop high-income skills, unlock financial confidence, and master their economic destinies.

Lok invests significant time teaching others on his social media channels, where he has 4.5 million followers at the time of writing, and on his podcast, “The Dan Lok Show.” Through his video series and programs like “Dan on Demand” and “Tube Your Own Horn,” Lok teaches others to grow their businesses with social media. He has penned over a dozen books, including his latest, “Unlock It!” which hits bookshelves with ForbesBooks in September 2019.

Lok also offers coaching, masterminds, and masterclasses. He teaches sales and other business skills through his High-Ticket Closer Certification Program and Inner Circle mastermind. His project, Closers.com, then matches companies with the high-ticket closers he has trained.

“It’s an entirely holistic method,” says Lok. “I’m proud of all of my students and their success, and it brings me joy to offer them a platform to continually enrich themselves, financially and otherwise. I’ve even hired graduates of my High-Ticket Closer program to work for me in my personal business.”

Lok with 1,000 graduates from his High-Ticket Closer Certification Program.

Image credit: Dan Lok

Lok’s wife, Jennie Li, has been there through it all as his chief strategy officer. After meeting at a karaoke place when Lok was 26, they started dating and working together before getting married in 2015.

“Her intuition and instincts are unmatched,” says Lok, who adds that she keeps him humble. “I remember coming home after giving my first TEDx speech. I’m in a red suit, on top of the world, and Jennie tells me to take out the trash. I love that.”

Though Lok is an international speaker who enjoys wearing flamboyant suits, he still remembers his roots. “Who would’ve thought a poor immigrant boy could accomplish so much?” he asks. “No matter where you’re from or what obstacles you’re facing, you can accomplish anything too — if you never give up.”

Connect with Dan on YouTube or read his latest book, “Unlock It!” (ForbesBooks) when it hits bookshelves in September 2019.

July
15, 2019

8 min read

On July 20, 1969, 650 million people watched as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. NASA’s lunar landing was years in the making, a feat of engineering and ingenuity taken on by a team of more than 400,000 people to test and build the spacecraft, rockets, suits and instruments on board and to calculate how to get Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins safely there and back — although at the time there was no guarantee that would be the case.

The space race kicked into high gear in April 1961 when Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. While the Soviet Union’s accomplishment spurred the United States to put a man on the moon before the 1960s came to a close, space exploration has long since become a more internationally collaborative affair.

In the private sector, Virgin Galactic announced that it was going public, making it the first space tourism company to be publicly listed, beating out main competitors Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Related: Buzz Aldrin Wants You to Know — the Sky Is Not the Limit

The company says that it received customer reservations from more than 600 people in 60 countries, who put down $80 million in collected deposits for the chance to head up to space on one of Virgin Galactic’s spacecrafts.

Virgin Galactic’s founder Richard Branson said back in February that he was aiming to take his first suborbital flight on the lunar landing anniversary. While there hasn’t been any official announcements from Branson that he will be making the trip yet, there definitely will be people traveling to space on that special date. 

On July 20, 2019, exactly 50 years to the date of the Apollo 11 launch, cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, who hails from Italy, will travel to the International Space Station. They’ll join fellow Expedition 60 crew members, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, the current ISS commander.

Read on to glance back on some historic moments and look ahead to what’s on the horizon for space exploration.

Don’t stop me now.

On March 22, 1946, a rocket called the JPL-Ordnance Wac was the first American rocket to leave earth’s atmosphere.

Here’s looking at you.

1946 was a big year for out-of-this-world achievements. On Oct. 24, a V2 rocket launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico equipped with a 35-millimeter camera and captured the first ever images of earth from space.

The space race begins.

On April 12, 1961, the space race was kicked off in earnest when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human ever in Earth’s orbit.

America gets in the game.

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard completed the Freedom 7 mission — the United States’ first suborbital flight. In July, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, completed the second suborbital mission for NASA.

To put a man on the moon.

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress about the necessity to invest in space exploration, famously saying, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

 

Beaten to the punch.

From Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, 1966, an unmanned Soviet spacecraft called Luna 9 made the first successful soft landing on the moon and then sent the first radio television transmission back to earth.

Making an impact.

On March 1, 1966, another Soviet ship, the Venera 3, became the first spacecraft to impact the surface of another planet on its mission to Venus.

First contact.

A few months later, on June 2, 1966, Surveyor 1 becomes the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon.

Competition is mounting.

On May 19, 1971, Russian spacecraft Mars 2 became the first to make an impact on Mars, with the first soft landing on the planet following on May 28.

Take a lap.

But on Nov. 13, 1971, Mariner 9, an unmanned NASA probe, completed an orbit around Mars and is the first spacecraft to orbit around another planet.

The Red Planet.

A month later, on Dec. 2, 1971, Russia’s Mars 3 completes the first unmanned landing on Mars.

A new frontier.

On July 20, 1976, NASA’s Viking 1 was the first successful U.S. mission to land on the surface of Mars. Viking 1 ultimately spent four years and conducted 1,489 orbits of the planet, while Viking 2, which arrived on Sept. 3, 1976, worked until July of 1978. Both transmitted images and studied the terrain of the planet, searching for possible life and sending back valuable information to NASA, laying the groundwork for the Curiosity Mars Rover’s memorable arrival in 2012.

A tragic day.

On Jan, 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion saw the terrible loss of the seven crew members on board.

Step right up.

The first-ever commercial space tourist, an American millionaire and businessman from New York named Dennis Tito, hitched a ride up to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz-TM 32 on April 28, 2001.

A new member of the team.

On Feb. 24, 2011, the International Space Station got a cool new helper in the form of Robonaut 2, the first ever humanoid robot in space.

A sweet ride.

In February 2016, Richard Branson unveiled Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft — the first company spacecraft to be manufactured wholly in-house. It is called the VSS Unity.

Sticking the landing.

On April 8, 2016, Elon Musk’s 14-year-old SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket made its first ever landing at sea after successfully delivering cargo to the ISS.

Third time’s a charm.

In April 2017, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight startup Blue Origin launched and landed its reusable rocket for the third time. 

Are we alone in the universe?

On April 13, 2017, scientists at NASA shared findings from the agency’s Cassini spacecraft mission to Saturn. It seems that a chemical reaction that is occurring underneath the icy surface of one of the planet’s moons, Enceladus, could be a sign that it could also support alien life, in another potentially groundbreaking discovery in the search for life beyond Earth. On September 15, 2017, Cassini ended its 20 year mission. 

 

New worlds to explore.

On Feb. 22, 2017, NASA announced the discovery of a planetary system of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting around a red dwarf star. It was named TRAPPIST-1 and it is the first system that NASA has found like it. Three of the planets in the system are in what’s called the habitable zone, which means that there is a possibility that the worlds are home to liquid water and a life-supporting atmosphere.

 

Breaking records and glass ceilings.

In June 2018, Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station and first woman to be chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, retired after 32 years with NASA. Whitson completed three missions on board the ISS — two of which she led — and spent 665 total days in space, which is more than any other NASA astronaut. 

Whitson also conducted more spacewalks than any other female astronaut, spending 60 hours and 21 minutes outside of the space station. On her last space station mission, Whitson became the oldest female astronaut, at 57, to reach orbit.

In February 2020, Astronaut Christina Koch will return to Earth after an 11-month stay onboard the ISS, nearing Kelly’s 340 days in orbit. In December 2019, she will pass Whitson’s 288 days in space, setting a new record for female astronauts.

The secrets of Mars.

On Nov. 26, 2018, NASA successfully landed the InSight Mars lander on the red planet in order to better understand the inner workings of Mars. NASA will use the probe to take the planet’s “vital signs,” closely monitoring weather, temperature, tectonic activity — meaning Marsquakes — and what happens when meteorites hit the planet. It took the probe six months to travel more than 300 million miles, and was the first landing on Mars since the Curiosity Rover in 2012. 

Farewell Kepler, Hello TESS.

On Oct. 30, 2018, NASA’s Kepler space telescope was retired, and the nine-year-long planet hunting mission came to an end. The Kepler team discovered 2,899 exoplanet candidates and confirmed the existence of 2,681 exoplanets in the galaxy outside of our solar system.

But while Kepler said goodbye, in April of 2018, NASA launched TESS — short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — into orbit for a two-year mission to see which exoplanets could harbor and support life.

Going farther than ever before.

On Jan. 1, 2019, NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft completed the furthest flyby ever, capturing images of a 20-mile wide minor planet classified as 2014 MU69. Its nickname is Ultima Thule, which translates to “distant places beyond the known world.” New Horizons was also the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto in 2015.

Humans living in space?

On April 12, 2019, the results of NASA’s Twin Study was published in the academic journal Science. The paper detailed the findings of the research, which monitored the effect of spaceflight on the human body. The study’s test subjects were twin brothers and retired NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly.

Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space on the International Space Station and became the first American astronaut to spend almost a year in space. He returned to earth on March 2, 2016. The research revealed the ways spending that much time in space can affect things such as the expression of genes and immune system responses.

“Our space agencies won’t be able to push out farther into space, to a destination like Mars, until we can learn more about how to strengthen the weakest links in the chain that make space flight possible: the human body and mind,” wrote Kelly in his memoir, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery.

July
12, 2019

2 min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

In the past few months, everything Netflix has spent billions preparing for has begun to come to pass.

Preceding a new wave of video streaming competition from heavy hitters including Apple, AT&T, Comcast, and Disney, all launching in the next year, Netflix announced it’s losing its two most popular shows. Friends will depart for HBO Max in 2020, and The Office is heading to NBCUniversal’s service in 2021.

According to a recent comScore report, 64 million US households used over-the-top (OTT) streaming services in March 2019, through a smart TV, media streaming device, game console, and other means. The report found that Netflix reaches 75 percent of those households, followed by YouTube at 55 percent.

Amazon Prime Video and the now fully Disney-controlled Hulu reach 44 and 32 percent of those OTT households, respectively. The big four comprise 79 percent of total viewing hours, according to comScore. But for Netflix in particular, the big question is whether its continued investment in originals can replace the engagement it gets from licensed sitcoms.

Nielsen provided PCMag with data from its 2018 SVOD Content Ratings report showing that The Office was the number one Netflix show by hours viewed by a healthy margin last year — more than 52 million hours for its 200-plus episode run. Friends and its 254 episodes were second at over 32 million hours, and the rest of the top five were also licensed shows (Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and Criminal Minds), not originals.

Part of the reason for that is syndicated shows simply have more episodes, but the data shows why Netflix has gone into more debt to bankroll billions of dollars in original content spending that often prioritizes quantity over quality. Netflix needs to own more content to keep users subscribed and streaming as more licensing deals expire and well-funded competitors enter the market.

For a deeper dive into the escalating original content war between all of these streaming giants, and where this increasingly cordoned-off landscape leaves consumers, check out our story on the streaming-industrial complex.

July
11, 2019

3 min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

Ever been on a plane as it’s about to take off, with your phone in airplane mode or even turned off, then looked over to see someone FaceTiming at full volume? It happens plenty, despite requests from flight attendants who ask you to turn off connectivity on your phone for your safety (and because the Federal Aviation Administration makes them).

A new survey by AT&T reseller All Home Connections put 1,000 travelers to the test, asking them point-blank what they do with their phones on a plane. The answers might be startling to anyone with aviophobia. They might also seem worth a big ol’ shrug to weary travelers who’ve seen it all and believe the rules are arbitrary, capricious, and a trifle unfair, especially because air travel has become such a chore, with all the pleasure of taking a covered wagon across the prairie in the 1800s.

What it boils down to is this: One in 15 people surveyed never even bother to put their smartphones in airplane mode when a flight attendant asks. Only 67 percent turn off their phones. And men are twice as likely to flaunt instructions from the crew. You can see all the details in this infographic.

All Home Connections went the extra mile and talked to a pilot and author who said pretty clearly that phones “can and do interfere with radio transmissions,” and the only thing saving the plane’s communications with the tower is that the majority of passengers do use airplane mode when requested. It turns out that at least 61.4 percent of respondents believe that to be true. (14.5 percent believe using a phone will outright cause a plan to crash. But considering how many people apparently don’t turn off their phones, the ground would be littered with fuselages and wings if that were the case.)

The survey also covered the worst habits of people on planes. Playing audio without headphones topped the list of things respondents hate, with 83 percent of people annoyed (at best). Fewer people (63 percent) dislike when passengers talk on the phone when the plane is still on the ground. And a lot of people hate when you use a bright screen (whether on a phone or tablet or laptop) when the lights are out for a night flight. Plenty of people would like to see transgressors’ devices confiscated or see them get fined for their hubris. One to 2 percent would like to see them banned, depending on the etiquette “infraction.”

For more, read the full report. Think about it next time you’re flying the not-so-friendly skies.