A fifth star has emerged among the four leading ladies of HBO’s Girls. We speak not of Adam, Ray or even the soon-to-be absent Charlie, but of Shoshanna Shapiro’s whimsical hair. Each episode, Shoshanna surprises us with intricate braids, oddly-placed buns and daring hair accessories. Though some border on ridiculous, her ‘dos never fail to get us talking. To gear up for season three of Girls, use these simple hair tutorials to channel your inner-Shosh. Do Your Hair Like Shoshanna Shapiro 1. The delicate side bun she wore during her sidewalk sale. YouTube user Claire Ashley shows how to pull off this pretty ‘do. Image: Tumblr, glorious-girl-crushes Video: YouTube, Claire Ashley 2. The ponytail side braid she wore to Radhika’s party. Shoshanna is known for her braided styles, including this casual take off the classic side ponytail. Image: Tumblr, girlscaps Video: YouTube, candypoo1100 3. The low chignon and a black fascinator she wore to Hannah and Elijah’s party. Sure, she may have been overdressed, but we haven’t seen a fascinator rocked this well since Princess Beatrice at the Royal Wedding. Image: Tumblr, overheardateverywhere Video: YouTube, CinthiaTruong Complete the look with this black Etsy hairpiece from sweetgrassmill. Price: $16.00 Image: Etsy, sweetgrassmill 4. Her French braided bun from Jessa’s wedding Shosh may have accidentally worn white to her cousin’s wedding, but at least her hair looked perfect in this classic updo. Image: Tumblr, whatshouldafricacallme Video: YouTube, Hair Style At Home 5. Her dutch-braid ponytail and beaded flower hairpin Follow this YouTube tutorial for a simpler version of Shoshanna’s braided ponytail. Image: HBO Video: YouTube, Pretty Girls Hairstyles Finish with this beaded hair pin from Etsy seller theBeadtanicalGarden. Price: $5.00 Image: Etsy, theBeadtanicalGarden 6. The giant sock bun she wore to Charlie’s company party To style yours just like Shoshanna, follow the quick tutorial below using about half of your hair and positioning on the side of your head. Image: Tumblr, dopplegangbros Video: YouTube, SMLx0 7. Her teased ponytail from the Bushwick party Shoshanna’s teased style held up for the entire night, even after her “crackcident” and subsequent jog on the streets of Brooklyn. Image: Tumblr, cappinggirls Video: YouTube, Imogen Foxy Locks 8. Her effortless top knot All top knots are not created equal. Copy Shoshanna’s perfect messy top knot with this easy tutorial. Image: Tumblr, jennauskowitz Video: YouTube, ohgeeitsbri Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/01/13/shoshanna-hairstyles/
Imagine, for a moment, that you are Golf Digest magazine. You have been publishing golfing instruction month after month for 62 years. Some of that advice has, of course, been regurgitated now and again, while a wealth of original instruction has been divided among individual issues moldering in the basements of some long-running subscribers, likely never to be rediscovered. How, with the many new opportunities that digital technology now affords, do you repurpose that great archive to make it more useful and accessible for your readers? One smart solution is to combine the technology that powers the most popular mobile app for golf, Golf Logix, with your own content. Golf Digest Live, which is available through the GolfLogix app, helps users navigate courses, and tracks and analyzes their game performance — think of it as Nike+ for golf. The app then serves up a personalized magazine made up of tips and video drills from Golf Digest designed to address weaknesses players exhibited during their last game. That advice, which can be read on your tablet or computer as well as your smartphone, comes directly from the many acclaimed instructors and players Golf Digest has worked with over the years. The idea, as Lou Riccio, a statistics professor at Columbia University, says in the video above, is to “produce a magazine not on a monthly basis for the masses, but for you specifically after every round.” Beyond personalized, post-game instruction, the app also serves up some welcome content in-game. Some, like the audio library of golf jokes, is pure fun. But there’s also warm-up drills, tips and videos players can pull up to help address an issue they’re having mid-game, like how to hit from an uphill or downhill lie. Access to Golf Digest Live costs $19.99 per year with a free, 30-day trial. It’s available for more than 60 smartphone models, including iPhone 3G and up, as well as many Android and BlackBerry devices. With newsstand sales suffering from heavy declines, coupled with the growing popularity of content discovery and aggregation apps like Twitter, Flipboard and Instapaper, it may be time for magazine publishers to rethink the way they’re bundling content. This is a start. Golf Digest Live The main menu. Analyze your latest round, and access warm-ups, drills and video lessons designed to guide you through range practice. Access quick video tutorials during practice. The app also offers up content designed to be consumed mid-course. Some of it, like jokes and inspiration, is meant to be fun; other parts are more useful. The app also offers up content designed to be consumed mid-course. Having a panic moment? The app displays advice designed to refocus your game. The app uses GPS to help players navigate courses. Access your stats after every round. An example of post-round advice. An example of post-round advice. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/16/golf-digest-live-app/
This isn’t a story about a new bionic eye technology that’s yet to undergo testing or a cool robotic eye that’s actually just a camera in disguise. This is a story about a bionic eye technology that might actually make it outside the laboratories and into the real world. In May, a prototype of Bionic Vision Australia’s technology was implanted behind one of the retinas of a woman named Dianne Ashworth. When it was switched on recently, 54-year-old Ashworth — who’s been blind for the past 30 years due to retinitis pigmentosa — was able to see lights and shapes again. “I didn’t know what to expect, but all of a sudden, I could see a little flash… It was amazing,” she said. “Every time there was stimulation there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye.” The researchers still have a lot do before the bionic eye can fully restore a person’s eyesight. But they hope to make it happen after studying Ashworth’s experiences with the implant. They’re developing and testing more advanced prototypes at the moment and have plans to implant those into other patients as well. This article originally published at Tecca here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/31/bionic-eye-blind/
The Jawbone Up debuted last year with big ambitions: A bracelet-like device that you’d wear all the time, tracking how much you move and how well you sleep. Paired with an app, the Up helps you recognize patterns in your habits, empowering you to improve your health. One problem: It wasn’t built to withstand the punishment of being a wearable device. Unlike a cellphone that resides in your pocket or a bag, the Up wraps around your wrist, exposed to the world just as much as your skin is. Many users found it quickly malfunctioned, and Jawbone recalled the Up and issued refunds. After nearly a year of revamping and beta testing, Jawbone is releasing Up 2.0. Although it looks exactly the same on the outside, the internals have been thoroughly changed, built to a new strength that goes way beyond industry standards, the company says. For instance, Jawbone exposed the Up to various chemicals and solvents, tested it, then exposed it again and again. There were also many drop tests. In total, 2.9 million hours of testing went into the second version of the product, the company says. Now the new Up is here, selling for $129.99, or $30 more than the original (those extra man-hours don’t pay for themselves). It comes in three sizes and eight different colors. You can get one, starting today, at Jawbone’s website, the Apple Store, Best Buy and AT&T stores. We’ll have a review after we’ve had a chance to check it out for a few days. What do you think of the Up? And what would convince you to use it? Share your impressions in the comments. Image courtesy of Jawbone Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/13/jawbone-up-new/
There’s probably no better time to run with Zombies, Run! than during Halloween, right? If you agree, then you’re in for a Halloween treat when you install the latest update to the popular zombie-fied fitness app. A product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Zombies, Run! adds an undead twist to running. Instead of just listening to regular music on your iPhone while running, with Zombies, Run! you can listen to music that’s interspersed with stories set in the zombie apocalypse. So, basically, instead of just running, you’re now running for your life, away from hordes of zombies. Now if that doesn’t make you run better, then you’re probably going to be screwed once the real zombie apocalypse happens. If you can’t see the video embedded above, please click here. But until then, or at least until the next Zombies, Run! update, you can take advantage of the following in the new version of the app: Three new race missions! 5k, 10k and 20k missions that unfold kilometer-by-kilometer. These missions take place toward the end of Season 1 Three MORE purchasable race missions — get more story, and support future Zombies, Run! development Race on a treadmill — estimate the distance you’ve covered from your pace count or running time Looks great on iPhone 5, and now optimized for iOS 6 New built-in music playback — better synchronisation, better mixing, better headset controls GPS issues fixed The new version of Zombies, Run! is out now in the App Store. Note that it is available for $3.99 (half its regular price) until Halloween. Image courtesy of Zombies, Run!. Homepage image courtesy Flickr, rodolpho.reis Kairosoft’s new iOS game challenges you to become a Magazine Mogul Evolve: Hunters Quest is your key to unlocking perks in 2K’s upcoming Evolve shooter The Apple Watch may just turn Apple retail stores into jewelry shops Today’s apps gone free: Kingdom Rush Frontiers, Smart PDF Scanner, Gridplay and more This article originally published at AppAdvice here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/30/new-missions-zombies-run/
Runner’s shoes are laid out in a display titled, ‘Dear Boston: Messages from the Marathon Memorial’ in the Boston Public Library to commemorate the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, on April 14, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. Image: Andrew Burton/Getty Images When I ran my first Boston Marathon in 2009, I was stunned by the aura. Most marathon crowds pack a part of the course and disappear for the out-of-the-way stretches, but the Boston crowd was at least three-deep nearly the entire time. Everyone picked out something about the runners’ outfits — your singlet, the color of your shorts — and shouted words of encouragement. Drunk college kids from every school in the city lined the course and hollered as only drunk college kids can. It’s hard to forget that kind of uproarious positivity. That’s why the Boston Marathon is so special. An optimism normally derided as hokey or fake is open and encouraged there. For many, that marathon is the culmination of an achievement that took years to build to, which contributed to why last year’s bombing at the finish line that injured at least 260 and killed three was so vile. Lives were ended and shattered, and it felt like the two suspected bombers had totally marred the positivity on which the Boston Marathon thrives. During that 2009 race, it was amazing that there could be such a raucous party for a running event, and it wasn’t until years later that I realized the crowd knew something I didn’t: Completing a marathon is worth celebrating. People start running for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes, each step provides a modicum of control in an otherwise hectic life. Other times, it’s the easiest way a person knows to lose weight. Maybe it’s just simply that for as long as someone is running, he’s removed from his phone and email. But every catalyst is for the good of that individual. Not everyone who runs likes doing so, but there’s always some sort of satisfaction there. That kind of inherent positivity has a way of building on itself. If a person feels good after one run, there’s a good chance he’ll lace up again and again until he’s running road races filled with people who are there for the same reason: because running provides some sort of solace, because it gives them goals and a means to accomplish them. Participants in a cross-country charity relay that began in March in California cross the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston, Sunday, April 13, 2014. Image: Michael Dwyer/AP Images/Associated Press That understanding is like an energy at the Boston Marathon that washes from shouting spectators onto runners and flows among competitors. It’s almost like a party rather than a race. Getting to Boston was the hard part and, for many, that marathon is like a long victory lap. The Boston Marathon is the culmination of thousands of runners’ personal goals. Watching tens of thousands of dreams come true within the span of a few hours is nothing […]
The firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, taken on June 18, 2010.Image: Trent Nelson/Associated Press A botched execution in the state of Oklahoma on Tuesday has drawn criticism from the White House, infuriated the ACLU and — practically overnight — reignited the death penalty debate in America. Clayton Lockett, convicted of raping and murdering a 19-year-old girl, was due to be executed at the state penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., Tuesday night when things went shockingly awry. It began when Lockett was given a powerful anesthetic at 6:23 p.m. CDT, the New York Times reported, and was pronounced unconscious moments later. After a few minutes, Lockett reportedly tried to sit up in his chair, trembled, shook his foot, said “man, something’s wrong” and gasped, before officials closed the curtains to the execution chamber. Prison officials later said Lockett died of a heart attack about 40 minutes after a doctor administered the initial drug, and stated the botched execution was a result of a “vein failure” that had “burst.” A second execution scheduled for later Tuesday was postponed pending an investigation. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely.” “I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.” Gov. Mary Fallin (R.-Okla.) has promised to investigate the state’s lethal injection protocol. The brutal mishap has again put a spotlight on the morality of the death penalty and has called into question the cocktail of secret drugs administered to Lockett. Below, Mashable answers some basic questions about the death penalty and how the process of lethal injection is carried out. Which countries have the death penalty? The United States is one of 58 nations that still practices capital punishment, along with Ethiopia, Afghanistan and North Korea. Japan and India are the only other major democratic nations that carry out this form of punishment. Of the 198 countries recognized by the Death Penalty Information Center, 98 forbid capital punishment. Seven of those countries allow it only in the case of “exceptional crimes,” such as one committed under military law. Thirty-five others allow it for “ordinary” crimes such as murder, but have not carried out an execution in at least 10 years and “are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions,” according to the center’s website. In the map below, click “legend” in the top left corner to see what the colors designate. How many states in the U.S. have the death penalty? Capital punishment is still legal in 32 states. Maryland was the latest to outlaw the death penalty in 2013, though the ruling was not retroactive; the five inmates on death row there are still due to be executed. The same is true for Connecticut and New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty in 2012 and 2009, respectively. Connecticut’s 11 death row prisoners and New Mexico’s […]
