The Sochi Olympics are all that anyone is seeing on TV these days. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great; countries in friendly competition with each other, world records being broken, and the running of the Olympic torch. This time around though, the Olympic torch isn’t the only torch being passed. This coming Monday marks the first episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Last week Jay Leno hosted his last show and metaphorically passed the torch to Jimmy Fallon. Now, I know we’ve almost seen this once before with Conan, but it is exciting nonetheless. These examples mark new beginnings, a new era, it symbolizes a time to start new, a time to better yourself. For me, it is a nice mid-February reminder that I need to not finish the leftover pizza in my fridge and get back to my New Year’s resolution of eating better.
I thought that I should write a blog about the Super Bowl. I mean, it is the Super Bowl after all; considering how much of a blowout it was though, I thought I'd write something maybe a little more interesting to read. Can you imagine living in a world with no trash? A world where everything is recycled in one way or another? Sounds almost utopian, and nearly impossible to achieve. That is, until I learned about how crazy Sweden has gotten with their recycling.
Let's back track a little bit. I'll first explain that Sweden has a trash-burning program where they burn non-recyclable trash and turn it into heat and electricity for the people. This is not the greenest way to get heat and electricity, but that's another story. Sweden also takes their recycling seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they have run out of trash to incinerate for electricity. Because the country recycles so much, they have to import trash from other counties to continue to provide electricity and heat. Now if they would only get some solar panels and skip the trash burning they would be the epitome of green living.
What do Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, and Carson Daly all have in common? Ok, yes, you’re right, they all have late night talk shows, but that’s not what… here; let me ask this instead, what do their shows all have in common? If you answered that during each of these shows you can see the brand new Rideshare commercials, you’re right! We are hitting the air and radio waves! You can see the new TV commercials during Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno, Carson Daly, CT news, and the Olympics. You can also hear our new radio ads on various stations during morning and afternoon commute times. If that’s not enough to give you your Rideshare fix; keep an eye out for our billboards going up in Hartford, New Haven and Danbury. We are very excited for these new ads to hit the air, and we hope you are too. Be on the look out and spread the word to your friends and family! Light the signal beacons! The horn of Helm…sorry, sorry, I was watching Lord of the Rings earlier. Speaking of great works of cinema, check out this link to get a look at our new TV ad. And because I like you all so much, I’ve included a picture of the billboard too!
Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it’s bobsled time! If you’re like me and appreciate the movie “Cool Runnings” you’ll be happy to hear that the sequel is taking place as we speak! Ok, not a theatrical sequel, but a real life sequel is playing out. The Jamaican bobsled team has once again fought the underdog odds and qualified for the upcoming Sochi Olympics. Even though the team had qualified for a place at the Olympics, it did not appear they would be able to afford the travel cost for the team getting to Sochi. The underdog team took to the Internet and put forth their best crowd-funding efforts. In a matter of just a few days, the team had met their goal of $100,000. Underdog stories are always fun to rally behind, it shows that you can accomplish the things you want with some dedication and hard work. This story is doubly feel-good as you see hundreds and thousands, of strangers and fans come together to help make a dream come true. This should be a fun story to follow come the winter games. If nothing else, it will inspire you to dust off your old copy of “Cool Runnings” and give that a watch again.
It's 2014, and the future is now! Ok, technically the future can't be now, because then it would be the present, but enough with semantics. Automaker Audi has developed and started testing new technology to use in their cars. This piece of tech taps into the local traffic light control information to give you real time updates on your dashboard of when traffic lights will change. Next time you're approaching a red light, you can look down at your dashboard, realize the red light only has fifteen seconds left before turning green. You ease off the gas as you approach the red light, by the time you get to the stop line, the fifteen seconds has passed and the light is green again. Back on the gas and continue on with your driving. Now of course this will not prevent you from hitting a red light again, but it will help. When you do get stuck at a red light though, this feature could help ease your mind while you wait. I know that when I'm at a light, sometimes it can feel as if it will never turn green again. Now with Audi's new tech, you can glance down and get a timer showing you how much longer you'll be sitting there. There is obviously a lot of red tape that needs to be gotten past before we'll see this feature showing up in cars, so no clue how long before we can use it, but it's on the table now. Not even a month into 2014 and we're seeing new technology like this showing up, I'm excited to see what the rest of this year brings.
