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From the Wall Street Journal, a list of 10 apps that could save your life. They include:

Tornado – American Red Cross
Get your family and home ready for a tornado with the official Tornado App from the American Red Cross. The tornado warning app puts everything you need to know to prepare for a tornado – and all that comes with it – in the palm of your hand. With interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to be ready.

From your mobile phone, call “**REDCROSS” (**73327677) and we will send you a link to download the app to your phone or you can download them directly from the iTunes or Google Play app stores.

And:

EPA AIRNow

From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The AIRNow iPhone app provides real-time air quality information, allows users to get location-specific reports on current air quality and air quality forecasts for both ozone and fine particle pollution. Air quality maps from the AIRNow website provide visual depictions of current and forecast air quality nationwide, and a page on air quality-related health effects explains what actions people can take to protect their health at different AQI levels, such as “code orange.”

Others on the list include a hurricane app that maps and monitors hurricane conditions in your area and includes tips on preparedness as well as a customizable “I’m safe” alert that can be sent out to FaceBook, Twitter and email and text. Worried about Flu? There’s an app for that, too.

For WSJ’s picks, see: here: Wall Street Journal / MarketWatch.

More stories about tech.

Photo credit: Yael Weiss – Fotolia.com

There are some jaw-dropping pools on CNN’s list of “best hotel pools in America’.

They include:

1. Amangani (Jackson, Wyoming)
2. Amangiri (Canyon Point, Utah)
3. Enchantment Resort (Sedona, Arizona)
4. Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (Big Island, Hawaii)

These are not your basic pools, and they’re not even your basic infinity pools. One of them (in Las Vegas, not on the list above) has a shark tank in the middle of it so that you can “swim with the sharks”. Seems appropriate! There are waterfalls and adjoining lagoons and hot tubs and views that can’t be beat.

I think this one would freak me out:

The Joule (Dallas)

Pushing design to its literal edge, this 1927 historic hotel has one ultra-modern feature: a window-walled rooftop infinity pool that sticks out eight feet from the building’s exterior. Non-acrophobics can swim to the deep end and take in the views of downtown Dallas, 10 stories below.

For mouth-watering photos and for some more details of the pools, see here: CNN Travel.

More stories about travel.

Photo credit: Photo from Hotel Joule website

Think that treetop spot is a good bet for avoiding close encounters with wildlife?

Think again after seeing this video of a man who found himself with some unlikely company and nowhere to run.

Via YouTube.

Bonding with nature.

Bolivia is getting its time in the international spotlight thanks to the UK hit “La La La” by Naughty Boy and director Ian Pons Jewell‘s unique choice of filming locations.

CNN Travel’s Dana Joseph sat down with the director to discuss how he found the adorable boy who stars in the video as well as why he loves filming in Bolivia over more run-of-the-mill locations such as the Naughty Boy’s home country of the UK or the US.

CNN: Why shoot a video in Bolivia?

Pons Jewell: It’s all about Latin America! There’s a lot of incredible work being produced in Argentina, but Bolivia is very rarely seen; it’s not somewhere filmmakers tend to settle, and I’m not sure why.

It’s got such a vast, varied landscape and a surreal edge to it.

Here’s the video creating all the buzz, and you can read more of the interview here.

Full story at CNN Travel.

Exploring the world through music.

Getting the perfect picture of a whale shark takes time, patience and a little bit of luck, as  Tom Campbell explains in this short video for National Geographic, but a good chunk of our respect goes out to his relatively inexperienced diving assistant, Deidre, who was willing to strike a pose with the beast.

The whale shark can reach lengths of over thirty feet with the largest on record being an amazing forty-one-feet long.

Check it out.

Full story at YouTube via PetaPixel.

Awesome animals.

No corner of the country is too remote for a little YouTube stardom, as the Peterson Brothers of “I’m Farming and I Grow It” fame are back to prove with their rural take on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

Full story at YouTube via Neatorama.

Down on the farm.

Have an amazing idea your local bank isn’t buying into?

Today, those dreams don’t have to stop at the banker’s desk thanks to the trend of crowdsourcing, where an adoring public can fund your project one dollar at a time.

Via BestAccountingDegrees.net.

Like infographics? So do we.

Attending a conference can provide opportunities to network, a chance to see what others in your field are up to, and, of course, the opportunity to see the sites of another city if you have the time, but if you play your cards right, the experience can be so much more.

Allison Boyer at NMX has been around the tables more than a few times and wanted to share a few things you might not know about attending a conference.

You can get special perks by name-dropping with our sponsors and exhibitors.

Often, our sponsors and exhibitors will offer special deals to our conference attendees. The same is true at other conferences as well. All you have to do is ask. Be polite about it, but recognize that YOU are their target market, and they want to make you happy so you tell others about whatever product or service they have to offer.

For example, let’s say that you’re speaking to an exhibitor who sells a premium WordPress plugin. You might say, “I’d love to test this out. Would you be willing to give me a free trial once I get home?” Or let’s say that you’re having dinner at a club sponsoring one of the parties. When you get there, you could ask, “Do you have any specials for conference attendees?” The worst you can get is a no, and often the answer will be yes!

Want the best info and opportunities? You gotta be on the mailing list.

We make announcements and offers via our social accounts and here on the blog, but it’s pretty easy to miss that kind of thing in the stream. Want to make sure you don’t miss a deadline, discount, or opportunity? Get on our mailing list. (See the sidebar.) This is true of most conferences.

Full story at NMX.

Be social!

Photo credit: Fotolia

Today Adobe announced Photoshop CC that is only available to cloud subscribers.

Adobe should not release such lame updates to Photoshop and Lightroom to convince people that the cloud-subscription software is exciting. They should make dramatic improvements – things that photograpehrs can’t live without. Can we live without “Smart Sharpen” and “Intelligent Upsampling” with Photoshop. Err, probably. The Lightroom improvements are equally underwhelming. You know that the updates are lame when one of the top bullet points is “Include video in your slideshows!” How did THAT become one of the top-most-requested features?

It also worries me that Adobe is running out of ideas for their photography-related products. Their “big features” are, at best, incremental improvements. They are certainly not exciting enough to drive millions to subscribe to their cloud subscriptions. Their biggest idea, sadly, seems to be cloud-based subscriptions.

Business model confusion with Adobe

Adobe’s PR and marketing team has a whole list of reasons about why Cloud-based subscription is so awesome for Photoshop. They have a few good points in there, such as it is easy to do incremental updates. But mostly, the reasons are lame and not exciting to amateurs and hobbyists who can’t afford to shell out a ton of money every month.

Here is the confusion: If Cloud-based subscriptions really are so awesome for Photoshop, why do they have a completely different business model for Lightroom? They tell me, well, Lightroom is more for hobbyists and casual people, and Photoshop is more for professionals. I think that sounds kind of ridiculous, don’t you?
What is especially confusing for me is, “How do I explain this to people?” I get a bunch of people that come to this website or to the HDR Tutorial ( http://www.StuckInCustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/ — New and improved, and free as always, btw!) to get advice on what kind of software to get. We get a lot of new photographers who don’t really own any software. Now I have to give confusing advice: “Well, you really need Photoshop and Lightroom. Photoshop you have to pay every month for, but Lightroom you can just buy once.” People are like, “Whhhhaaat?” Why have two business models for such complementary pieces of software? It’s completely confusing to new people, and moderately confusing to veterans.

Anyway, these are the kind of confusing decisions that come out of committees. I hope they clarify things soon, and I also hope they have a business model that is less punitive to beginners, students, and hobbyists that can’t afford the high price of cloud-based subscriptions. It’s not like Netflix or World of Warcraft with their monthly fees. You pretty much have one kind of customer there. With photography, you have the full span of professionals and studios to ameteurs and hobbyists. In my judgment, it’s too punitive to have One-Pricing-Model to rule them all.

Photo Below: Sunset in New Zealand before the blizzard!

We are expecting a major blizzard coming into Queenstown tonight! We just got back from the grocery store to stock up. I’ve got all my cameras fully charged and ready to go… I’ll try to hit as many places as I can with the fresh snow… chains are ready and all is good to go! Super-excited.

And, speaking of the article above, I can’t think of any of my images that could have been improved if I am using the new features in Adobe’s cloud. Sure, I subscribed to their cloud (Adobe did not gift me one, nor will they probably ever because I am so critical of them), and I am using the latest of everything… but none of these new features have really found their way into my photos yet. Comon Adobe… I know you can do better.

See full article on my blog.

Can’t wait to hit the streets in that hot micro-mini, but worried about attracting the wrong kind of attention?

Though you’d definitely be turning heads in this Chinese export, this accessory will probably keep those with less-than-honorable intentions at bay better than a king-size bottle of pepper spray.

According to the Telegraph:

They first appeared on a microblogging Chinese site Sina Weibo (China’s version of Twitter), and have become a viral sensation, with one user @HappyZhangJiang describing them as ‘anti-pervert stockings’. Trend-watcher ChinaSMACK has offered them to the world, and the world has said, ‘urgh, gross.’

Or, for those with a more honest streak, “Oh, look, October through March!”

Full story at the Telegraph.

Hairy humor.