Freedom of speech

This morning the offices of Charlie Hebdo were attacked by heavily armed gunman who murdered 12 people both staff at the paper and police officers. These 12 people were murdered over an ideology that was satirical in nature. That satire pushed the envelope on all religious sides as all good satire does and regardless of your thoughts on the subject matter - satire is important. What the staff at Charlie Hebdo did was important, I dare say vital to modern journalism and western society as a whole. 

In America we found speech so important that it ended up # 1 on the Bill of Rights, the Taylor Swift of inalienable rights and what Charlie Hebdo did was not protect the freedom of speech but work to minimize extremist views with satire. The ability to do that job is impossible in an ecosystem without the ability to speak freely, one in which we enjoy and likely take for granted.

In the video above the editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier is quoted as saying "I would rather die than live like a rat" a sentiment that is so visceral and stark today it is hard for me to write, but important for us to hear. Another victim Georges Wolinski famously quipped "all acts are suspect, especially those not guided by the profit." These men were visionary and heroic in their calling.

Do not, however, think that this event was about cartoons, this attack was perpetuated by people who are enemies not of the west, nor of freedom, but of humanity. Reports have them shooting a wounded officer in the head as he lay wounded, weak cowards act in such a way and regardless of where you are politically this event galvanizes the need for fearless journalism in dangerous times.  

The former editor of the Onion put it best:

"Satire must always accompany any free society. It is an absolute necessity. Even in the most repressive medieval kingdoms, they understood the need for the court jester, the one soul allowed to tell the truth through laughter."

You cannot kill the idea of satire, it is in fact - immortal. It is hard to wrap your head around things like this, but the idea of free speech is one that we take for granted, until it looks like it can be taken away. It cannot and it must not ever feel like it can because without the ability to speak freely ideas that are extreme in nature, from any side, are allowed to germinate and grow which is why the concerns of my friend Jason are very real:

The news and video footage from Paris is sickening. Grew up believing that Good always triumphs over Evil. Waiting for that to happen

— Jason Prinzo (@JasonPrinzo) January 7, 2015

But the good guys are the ones who continue to speak, disrupt, and report regardless of the fear. 

The G.O.A.T

Over the weekend Jon Jones fought Daniel Cormier at UFC 182 going all five rounds and seemingly showing the best Jon Jones we have ever seen. Jon Jones came out of that fight as the best fighter in modern MMA and perhaps all time. 

This afternoon the news broke quietly to start and quickly crescendoed into a tidal wave of bad news for both Jon Jones and the UFC. On Dec 4th Jon tested positive for cocaine metabolites in what is called an out-of-competition test, meaning that if that test had show anything that enhances his performance he would have been fined, suspended, and the result of the fight could have been changed in light of the information. In this case, a drug that is illegal everywhere isn't against the rules for this sort of test. So Jon checks himself into a rehab facility and apologizes to all the necessary parties and we wait. Why? Well, because Jon is the champ he and DC were was also tested after the fight and if that one comes back with cocaine metabolites in it, there is a much different conversation to have.

Instead focusing on that, I would like to end the conversation about the best of all time - for me this is an all encompassing title, one that reflects excellence both in the ring and outside the ring. This doesn't have to be your definition, but as a martial artists I feel that the greatest of all time should reflect a holistic view of the world and their place in it, not just a momentary performance with a monetary gain. Jon is on a 12 fight winning streak, has defended his belt 8 times, and put on the best performance of his career Saturday and as of this writing sits a top the UFC's pound-for-pound best list.

He sits there, in my opinion, for one reason, Georges is gone.

With Anderson's streak broken by Chris Weidman the argument about the "Greatest of All Time" is a simple one. Georges St. Pierre is the greatest fighter to fight inside the Octagon. Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Fedor, and GSP will be talked about forever as the greatest four fighters in the sport, but two of those men stand out as special - Jon and Georges. Both men are incredible athletes with the edge going to Jones in that category, both have been in wars (Jon hasn't had a finish since April of 2013), but only one for me has put it together in the Octagon and outside of it and that is GSP. 

Jon has a tough road ahead of him as addiction is nothing to laugh at and certainly nothing to celebrate and at the end of the day I hope he returns better than ever because redemption is a powerful healer and while we are talking redemption, there is no better time for GSP to make that rumored return. Right now the sport and the fans need GSP, maybe more than ever.

Georges stepped away for a lot of reasons, some of which have not been solved yet but there is no doubt in my mind that even if he doesn't return - there might not ever be another MMA fighter to do what he did with the level of class he was able to do it with. So while most of the world is either attacking or defending Jones (both of which seem very premature at this point) I wanted to talk GSP tonight because the events of today show how hard it is to keep it together in this sport and how special it is when you can.

Best of luck Jon Jones.

Come back soon GSP.

CES starts tomorrow

A big week this week in the world of tech as the Consumer Electronics Show or CES 2015 (technically starting tomorrow) is in full swing. BMW caught the attention of those at the show with their i3 electric concept car. The car switches between a regular driver interface where a human makes decisions on the what and where in the car’s life or BMW’s Active Assist technology where the car observes the world around it with the help of four lasers and can do things like park itself using a smart watch app.

In the demonstration the i3 was able to use the “automated valet system” and park the car without the driver present. Then, using the same watch app a user says “pick me up” into the watch and using GPS the car returns and fetches the driver when the dinner, coffee, or errand is over at what is called the designated valet spot (like your own personal bus stop for your car.)

This technology and the idea of the completely autonomous car is still a couple years off as we all wait for the price of the lasers currently needed or a replacement technology comes down enough to make the Active Assist or other software ubiquitous in cars and trucks.

If you are into TVs at all you have undoubtedly heard of, or if you were really good, Santa scored you a 4K TV – which means you are a bit ahead of the curve. So far at CES we have seen our share of killer 4K TVs but it isn’t the televisions I am interested in as much as the content to put on the TVs and before the show official starts both Netflix and Sony have gone all in.

Netflix has promised to deliver 4K HDR (high dynamic range) content to LG + Sony televisions this year, Netflix has yet to deliver their presentation so as more info becomes available we will dig into all of it.

Sony gave everyone a lot to digest this evening during their press conference and before I touch on the return of the Walkman, lets stay with 4K. Sony dropped a bomb that they will offer a 4K Handicam for $1k that shoots in 20.6 megapixels and holds a shot steady without a tripod, which is amazing. They also launched, with the help of Tony Hawk (who looked rough), a splash proof 4K camera that is a bit bigger than a GoPro to much excitement in the crowd.

In the audio department Sony brings back the Walkman, or more accurately launches the Walkman NW-ZX2 – a terrible name but incredible sound quality using a technology called LDAC that transmits more than 3 times the data of Bluetooth thus increasing the sound quality. Not many more details on what the Walkman actually is but if are the type of person who puts a Wi-Fi transmitter in your 1976 Corvette, this is very exciting news for you.

More tomorrow as the CES 2015 data dump continues. Have a great night!

This is why you have to own it United

Over the weekend twitter user @theregoesbabs captured this photo that shows a dog in a kennel on the tarmac and as the story goes, the dog was in the rain for 30 minutes. In the time of social media this photo went viral yesterday and was retweeted over 2000 thousand times which sent the Internet mob to the doorstep of the United Airlines twitter account. Prior to writing this post I spent some time there and cannot imagine a more thankless job of responding to terrible tweets all day - then again when you respond like United did, that creates its own feedback loop.

What did you United do? First, they blamed another company.

Passing the buck is a corporate culture lighting rod, when people take to social to talk to brands they want to be treated like and by a human. No human would walk by a dog in a cage in the rain and say, "no worries, Pet Safe's got it." Neither should United Airlines. The next step?

You blame the user.

As a United spokesperson goes on to elaborate that the photo is from the wrong angle to show how under the wing the dog was during that time. I have looked at the blown up version of the photo above and the original from the tweet here:

It sure looks like the cage is out in the rain and not under the wing. But let's look at this from a different angle, flying as a mode of transportation is usually terrible under good conditions. The airlines have made it so there is very little to enjoy about the process. So, after you went through the ticket counter, got charged extra for your bag, went through security, went through additional security, bought a $13 coffee before boarding the plane, and got seated in a chair not much larger than a child's car seat and you look out the window to see your bag sitting there like this, what would be your reaction after thirty minutes? 

Every single one of us would be outraged that we paid to have our stuff on the plane and you left our bag or in this case our best friend on the tarmac 3 feet away from the covered baggage carrier. Certainly we are all human and mistakes do happen but with this particular brand, this is not virgin territory. 

Which is why it becomes so important to own the mistake. Say you are sorry and that you would never want your dog to be treated that way. Say that you spoke with Pet Safe to come up with a better protocol in order to make sure that this doesn't happen, then send the dog's owner a basket of fun dog treats to show you are actually sorry. Social media makes things faster, makes anger louder, makes people empowered to say things they would never say in public. But social also makes real connections, powerful connections, when you care to act human as a brand. 

And it has been a banner week for United.

Example 1

Example 2 

As we inch closer to 2015, as a brand "do the next right thing," every day. 

Disney's release schedule for 2015

Enjoy the magic!

January 23, 2015 - Strange Magic
February 20, 2015 - McFarland, USA 
March 13, 2015 - Cinderella
April 17, 2015 – Monkey Kingdom
May 1, 2015 – Avengers: Age of Ultron
May 22, 2015 – Tomorrowland
June 19, 2015 – Inside Out
July 17, 2015 - Ant–Man
October 9, 2015 - The Jungle Book
October 16, 2015 – The Untitled Steven Spielberg Cold War Spy Thriller
November 25, 2015 – The Good Dinosaur
December 18, 2015 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens