Amanda Rodriguez

The iPhone X is a sham. The epitome of fluff over function. The penultimate step in Apple's downward spiral toward replacing the Ramsian "Less is more" with the "more, more, more !" of a greedy kid in a cupcake shop. One more brick, at last, on its towering monument to bad design. Just look at Apple's own list of features. Rather than focusing on solving problems that everyone has–like battery life that lasts for more than a few hours of usage, materials that are truly durable, or reception quality–the iPhone X is just a shiny jar of candy, designed to be irresistible for fans that are hungry for the latest status symbol. You may think I'm being unfair. Perhaps you're right. Let's review the design, feature by feature. [Source Images: Apple] It's All Screen, Except When It's Not At the core of Apple's design is its "Super Retina Display." Apple says that "with iPhone X, the device is the display. An all‑new 5.8‑inch Sup...

Image Source: STX Entertainment I've yet to meet a woman who doesn't plan, shop, sort, save, and stress her butt off over the holidays, only to feel exhausted and unappreciated. In fact, I clearly remember my own mother staying up late wrapping gifts, shopping at all hours of the night, and making breakfast from scratch every year, while my sister and I just sat back and enjoyed it. Of course, we appreciated it. And yes, we definitely felt the magic of the "perfect Christmas" my mom created. My parents literally went as far as bringing in deer poop from the woods and telling us Rudolph has an accident on our kitchen floor. Then there was the time we found "muddy boot prints" from Santa himself. If that's not going above and beyond for the holidays, I don't know what is. The truth is, we want so much for our kids that we go to great lengths to manufacture this dreamy snow globe scene year after year. Then we are crabby, dirty, and tired. We do i...

KITTY HAWK, N.C. A helicopter maneuvered over a power pole jutting out of the Currituck Sound as two linemen dangled below. The workers straddled the pole some 100 feet above the water, fastened themselves safely and unhooked from the chopper cable. They hung a bucket of tools and hardware close by. In 15 minutes, the two men would attach a 3-foot-square aluminum platform to provide a long-lasting nest ledge for next spring's return of the ospreys. Then it was on to the next of the 12 poles stretching across the sound parallel to the Wright Memorial Bridge. "We're trying to give them a good home," said Carter Clevinger, a projects manager for Dominion Energy. Dominion contracted with a specialty helicopter service out of Tennessee for the crew to replace the platforms this week. The utility erected new concrete towers more than 30 years ago and left the old ones in place. Crews at the time attached wooden nest frames for the ospreys to keep them off the new poles ca...