"Three Square Market," a company in Wisconsin, is giving employees an option of being implanted with microchip. "This is the future," said the company's CEO, Todd Westby. A microchip the size of a grain of rice is easily injected under the skin. Suddenly, the touch of a hand, a wave of your hand can do a lot of things for you -- open doors, turn on lights, start the coffee machine, lock or unlock your cell phone, car, even your lock box. The microchips are radio frequency ID tags, the same technology widely used in things like key cards. Chips have been implanted in animals for years to help identify lost pets and now the technology is moving to humans. Tech start-ups have sold tens of thousands of implant kits for humans in Europe. In some cities there are even implant parties where people bond, and celebrate getting chipped together. “This is serious stuff," said an executive editor at CNET. "We’re talking about a connection to your body. You can’t turn it off, or put it away. It's in you. Each 'touch' leaves a digital footprint which can compromise one’s privacy. It’s easy to hack a chip implant." CBS NEWS reporter, John Blackstone said, "It could put your privacy at risk," and referred to implants as a dystopian vision, ala "Brave New World," Huxley's novel about people in the future living dehumanized lives. Coincidentally, the movie channel has been running the 2004 film, "The Manchurian Candidate," about a human who's chipped and controlled, and ordered to kill a candidate at an election -- some ads are even juxtaposing pictures of Trump. So would you get a chip implanted? This video about a Swedish company will help you decide.
Here's a not very pretty picture of her that I've seen here and there.
As an actress In Los Angeles, Frances McDormand was passed over -- told she was too old, too fat, too young, too thin, too blond, too dark, too tall, too short, until she appeared in the Coen brother's film Fargo in 1996, as Madge, the policewoman -- fearless, down to earth, tender, perceptive.
Also tough. Bluntly honest in saying what needed to be said, and doing what needed to be done.
She's 60 now; she was 39 then, married to filmmaker Joel Cohen since 1984 and starred in various films by the Coens. Private life stuff: Mr. & Mrs. Cohen adopted a son; Frances has let it be known that she hates being photographed; doesn't wear makeup when she is off the set; doesn't have a full-length mirror; never watches the monitor while filming; hates making selfies with fans. I haven't found any other personal things she's told reporters but it's her acting that I want to talk about.
Frances McD creates a real person in every project. While you're watching the story unfold you don't think of who she is. The fact is, she's a very successful famous actress who is not name-famous, not a celebrity. She just connects with what she's playing and every element of the person's environment -- the locale, the culture, the public and private way of the person thinks, speaks, what the person believes in.
Hey, isn't this what method actors do? Sure. Think of one of your favorite stars -- watching him/her you know a lot about that star as you are involved and touched by his/her work. I didn't know till today when I looked Frances up in the Wikipedia, that it was France McDormand with Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning in deeply touching scenes I will never forget.
Credits: Frances McDormand is one of the 23 performers who have achieved the 'triple crown' of acting -- Academy Award for Fargo (1996), Tony Award for the Broadway play Good People (2011), and an Emmy Award for the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge (2014). She has starred in Coen brother's Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Burn After Reading (2008), Hail Caesar! (2016); was nominated as Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress for Mississippi Burning (1988), Almost Famous (2000), and North Country (2005). She made her Broadway debut in the 1984 revival of Awake and Sing, and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1988 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2008 she starred on Broadway in the revival of The Country Girl, and received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play.
Frances McD is indeed succeeding, and it ain't her name or her looks. We'll be seeing her in a new film Three Billboards in November (official trailer is below) where she plays (according to her,) a not lovable, tough, profane, humane woman, who shocks us when we see her telling off a young policemen, with cuss words that writer Em won't quote here because it might stop people from reading this salute to a uniquely inspiring woman, actress, artist.
Emily Frankel is nervous about "retirement,"wondering if it's something they are going to do sooner or later.
John Cullum teases his wife, Emily, declaring he's already retired even though he's still working as an actor -- not starring in plays and musicals, just doing different kinds of roles.
Want a robot in your kitchen? (Yes, people in the know call 'em "bots.")
A cook for you and your family doesn't exist yet, but technologists are working on it. Many appliance companies as well as gadget-startups are hotly & heavily working on devices that can prepare meals and shop for groceries.
A bot will keep you well-stocked. Amazon's ready to sell you its "Dash" button, ( $4.99 per button) that could replenish things like Ziploc bags and pretzel goldfish. Samsung's Family Hub Refrigerator, ($3,499),makes shopping easier, and with LG, (electronic company working with Amazon Alexa) offers you recipes.
For $99 you can get a wireless SmarterFridgeCam that lets you see the contents of your fridge -- with its app tracks expiration dates on what you have, and makes recipe suggestions.
Bots can help you cook. The June Intelligent Oven ($1,495, called the Tesla of ovens) uses A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) to determine how long things should cook; with its ability to identify foods such as chicken, bacon, salmon, waffles, chocolate chip cookies; with its cameras, sensors, and temperature gauge it can even remind you when to flip what's cooking. A smart baking scale can tell you how much sugar, flour, seasoning, you need to add, such as Drop($79.95) or Perfect Bake($72), which also can, with its app, help you substitute ingredients for what you don't have.
Various companies, such as Amazon Echo($179.99) and Google Home ($129.00) sets a timer for you and reads recipes aloud from Allrecipes and Food Network.
Bots can keep you healthy. HAPIfork ($79) helps you lose weight by preventing you from eating too fast or too much -- it vibrates and lights up to indicate this. SmartPlate Top View ($79) works with a scale and app that helps diners portion their meals and maintain a well-balanced diet. Pryme Vessyl ($99), a smart cup, can prevent dehydration, track daily water consumption with its meter that lights up to indicate your hydration level throughout the day; it integrates with Apple's Health App for the iPhone, so you can plug in your water-metics along with other fitness-metrics.
...hmm....
....well, I love to cook. I don't use recipes. I know how to use all my appliances efficiently. I have a timer on the stove that I rarely use. I keep a shopping list (with pencil attached) stuck to the fridge and keep it up-to-date. I shop for food online, and have it delivered once or twice a week. As for hydration, well-balanced diet, eating too fast, expiration dates ... Golly, good heavens....
A bot in your kitchen would be like having your Mom, or a stickler Mother-in-law looking over your shoulder!!!!
NEW! ... Emily Frankel and John Cullum offer lively, provocative video commentary on YouTube once a week. Click image above to go.
HOW I GOT HERE
I'm a writer, writing things that haven't brought me fame, but continue to involve me, inspire me to find an audience.
I started out as a modern dancer, contemporary, but balletic. I didn't want to be a swan, or a barefoot dancer. I wanted to dance to the music that thrilled me as a child, and made me want to be a dancer.
I began writing in the truck my first husband, Mark Ryder and I bought, in order to carry our set, props, and costumes for a long one-night-stands tour -- eighty-eighty performances in eighty-eight cities.
We were performing "Romeo and Juliet" nightly, but our marriage was breaking up. Every day while our stage manager drove us two-hundred miles or so to the next booking, I'd type a detailed description of last night -- what we did well, what we argued about, and a travelogue about the town, and comments from the people at the nightly party.
Recovering from the trip and the divorce, I sent my "car book" to a friend who said -- "Em, it's great, but ..." And that became rewrites, and another book. Then, my marriage to actor John Cullum, and then a play that got produced, and another book, big hopes because a famous agent loved it. The title and concept changed five times -- now it's been published, finally, as "Somebody, Woman of the Century." You can buy it, or read about it and my other five novels on Emily Frankel.com
A microchip the size of a grain of rice is easily injected under the skin. Suddenly, the touch of a hand, a wave of your hand can do a lot of things for you -- open doors, turn on lights, start the coffee machine, lock or unlock your cell phone, car, even your lock box. 
“This is serious stuff," said an executive editor at CNET. "We’re talking about a connection to your body. You can’t turn it off, or put it away. It's in you. Each 'touch' leaves a digital footprint which can compromise one’s privacy. It’s easy to hack a chip implant."
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