From the Editor
About this Issue

by

Meg Tufano, M.A.
Editor-in-Chief
Winter 2013 

    This is an exciting time for SynaptIQ+!  

     Our first fiction book publication is getting good reviews, we have completed our first Volume of The Journal, and have a new editor joining us to start up our second Volume! Please welcome Giselle Minoli, Editor-at-Large!

     Giselle and I became engaged in sharing ideas on G+ almost at the beginning of G+’s existence, but we did not realize until many months after we had begun to look forward to each other’s postings, that we had not only both been to the same college during the same year, but had lived in the same dorm on the same floor!  I spent almost all my time studying that year and do not remember much about anything at all except maybe some of the books we were reading, but Giselle remembers me, “The girl with the whirlwind of energy!” 

     Now that we have reconnected all these years later, I can say without exaggeration that Giselle is indescribable because her life has been so rich with experience that it’s impossible to capture in words! If I have a lot of energy (which I agree I did (and still do)), Giselle has enjoyed a whirlwind creative career, some of which you can read about in her second submission for The Journal, "A Woman's De-Liberation: There Never Was a Sexual Revolution." From being the National Director for Customer Merchandising for CBS Records (when CBS Records was synonymous with the music industry) to Vice President of Christie’s Senior Business Development Liaison and Writer, The Chairman's Office, where she continues to write freelance for the Chairman Emeritus, Giselle has also managed to create a successful Blog, become a regular contributor to Step-Mom Magazine, design her own jewelry line, and keep up with her love of dance (now through ballroom dancing). She is also a private airplane pilot!  Tell me, how does one summarize even that partial list?

     All I can say is, “Wow!”

     Giselle's article in this issue is one that goes against the typical analysis of women’s relationship with clothes.  I do not want to give the plot away, so I will just say that Giselle is one woman who can think for herself and helps her readers to think twice while she’s at it.  

     Many already know Yifat Cohen from Google+ and other venues as someone who has conquered the technological and commercial details of social media and is very willing and well able to help others achieve mastery too.  What Yifat shares in this, her first, contribution to The Journal is a more personal insight into what she has gained from being “The Go-To Gal” for Google Plus.
    

     As Yifat manages to achieve with her Hang-Out lessons on G+, she has also achieved here in this piece. In clear prose, explaining how social media can be much more than a business tool, she lays out how it can even lead to the discovery of soul mates you would never have had the chance to meet otherwise:  wise counsel about life in general meets practical advice about the hows and whys of social media in particular. I cannot think of anyone who would not gain some insight from Yifat Cohen!

     David Amerland needs no introduction.  But just in case you have been in a galaxy far, far away, David’s thoughtfulness about social media has been hailed from just about all sectors of cyberspace, from business to academia to pure tech.  Most recently, David is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Google Semantic Search, but has also authored The Social Media Mind, SEO Help 20, Online Marketing Help, and Getting to No. 1 on Google.  As a co-founder of SynaptIQ+, David enjoys the opportunity, as he puts it, of “going deep” in his articles here, one of our purposes in starting up a think-tank for the social era two years ago.

     Well, David certainly goes deep in this issue’s contribution .  In the future, when you start hearing “the social self” referred to in literature and media, you can say you read it here first from David Amerland!


    I am not going to put my picture here (since it is below this piece), but in this issue I have written an editorial about the NSA that needs an introduction by someone other than myself.  Giselle has kindly offered to create just such an introduction for my article, The Deep Dark Web.  I will just say that it was more than a little scary to write!

     Jordan Peacock needs an introduction too.  Actually, he needs possibly ten or twenty! One of his academic reviewers, a Dean of the Philosophy department of a major research university said of Jordan’s contribution, “No one has read that many books!”  Well?  I beg to disagree.  I met Jordan also through Google+ and he definitely brings one of the most widely-read minds with which I have had the pleasure to engage to social era issues (find him on GoodReads for thousands of book suggestions).  Never boring, always thoughtful, (or, should I say, full of thoughts) Jordan will enlighten while tying your brain in knots (reminding me of what they said about Socrates).  Fight against the desire to stop and read all his references (as I am often tempted to do), and Jordan will lead you into some strange and interesting places you did not know existed.  He also hosts a Blog, He Who Cuts Down.
 

    Our next contributor is a bit mysterious.

    Tom Hemmings, the pseudonym of our “Millennial Point of View” writer, is young.  That’s the point of his presence here in The Journal, to make sure that we are not accidentally “leaning” to middle-aged writers whom I might be most likely to read.  Fittingly, his point in his contribution is the exact opposite of my point in my editorial about the NSA.  (Full disclosure:  I did not read his article before writing my own; nor he mine.)  One of his academic reviewers (a Ph.D. in English with an interesting political focus on issues of human rights) thought his prose was very clear, his point well taken.  She will not know that her arguments are in opposition to my own until we publish!

     Finally, our fiction.  It has already been revealed that my nom de plume is Meg McDermott.  For obvious reasons, editors of journals and professors of philosophy and psychology do not want their romantic fiction to categorize them as “lightweights.”  My humorous novel won the “Best Novel” award from The Tennessee Mountain Writer’s conference; and I am the humble recipient of their highest writing award for my overall writing chops, “The Excellence in Writing” award.  I will try not to let it go to my head.  The first chapter is offered in this issue for download for free in PDF format!

     Meanwhile, stay-tuned for more books from S+™ this coming year; and enjoy this issue’s cornucopia of ideas!

     Best,

     






  

    

P.S.  Well, what are we at S+™ publishing in 2014?  

    • We are publishing four non-fiction business books together at SynaptIQ+:


     








    • One non-fiction psychology book by yours truly:










    • One science-fiction collection of short stories by our favorite science-fiction writer, Laston Kirkland:


    • One fiction novel that is a family saga by Meg McDermott (;')):

     









        

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Editor Bio:

Meg Tufano, M.A.

     Meg is originally from Washington, D.C., and has lived all over North America and just recently returned from four years of living in The Hague, The Netherlands. She is married to Dr. Daniel R. Tufano, Sr., a scientist, and has two sons, Julian and Danny, Jr.  She completed her undergraduate degree at The University of Toronto and her Master's at Antioch University, Midwest.  (Meg describes her education in Part III of her Critical History of the University in the spring 2013 issue of The Journal.)  Her favorite city (so far) is Florence, Italy, the background to her picture at left.  She has just had her first novel published by SynaptIQ+ in their fiction imprint under her pen name, Meg McDermott.  She loves new writers and encourages submissions on social era topics for The Journal; and is happy to discuss publication by authors of both fiction and non-fiction articles and books.




About the Artist:

     José Toledo Ordoñez is a Guatemalan sculptor, painter, movie producer, and art and literature promoter. This multifaceted profile has allowed him to expose his sculptures in 22 individual exhibitions, in places as prestigious as the José Luis Cuevas’s Museum and Diego Rivera’s Museum, both in Mexico, the Art Gallery of the International Development Bank in Washington, D.C., and now at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. He has also unveiled 10 urban sculptures in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

     In his Geneva exhibition, the Ambassador of Guatemala, Carla Rodríguez Mancia, stated: “No better place could have been chosen for this première than the city of Geneva which is internationally known for its commitment to peace, security, and development, seat of the Office of the United Nations, a global message for a global city and a global word. Many have also approached me for an explanation on the title of the exhibition: Dangerous Sculptures. I can really assure you that the only danger that you might face while admiring these sculptures is the danger of changing your mind and your attitudes in a way that will surely contribute to a better world for all.”
 
    Finally, the artist quoted: “My message goes against the destruction of nature and the degradation of human relations in all senses: violence, war, injustice, and of course, the destruction of art itself associated with truth and human values. Hence the name of this expo: Dangerous Sculptures, because truth hurts and the search of freedom threatens human race oppressors”.

The sculpture that introduces this article is entitled, "Expanding," and is 33.5 x 74 x 18 centimeters.