Mobile applications are the new kid on the block. The inception of the iPhone has given birth to a whole new market for applications that are relatively cheap and easy to create. With the number of mobile applications on Apple’s app store projected to exceed 100,000 by the end of the year [https://mashable.com/2009/08/05/flurry-iphone-apps/], mobile apps are the exciting new frontier that invites both large companies and independent developers to innovate like the early days of the internet. Many app developers have treated the mobile space much like the web, providing information on demand, but they are just scratching the surface of what is possible with a personal device. Having applications that run on a single mobile device that sits in our pocket, allows engagement possibilities that can help us tackle lifestyle shifts like never before.

No one ever plans for their marriage to fail. However, with time – 30 years – and many research subjects, the noted psychologist, John Gottman, Ph.D, developed a coding system that enabled him to do just that – he was able to predict with 90 percent accuracy the outcome of marriages – successful or not. By analyzing patterns of communication between married couples, he and his team developed a framework so nuanced that they could accurately make this prediction with only 15 minutes of dialogue. Though it sounds like science fiction, Gottman has replicated his results repeatedly and even made predictions with an astonishing 80% accuracy with just a three to four minute sample.

The art of hostage negotiation does not focus on one particular moment: the most successful negotiations are built from solid understanding of the hostage taker, and the development of mutual trust between negotiator and taker. Many negotiators have found that the most effective way to accomplish this is to listen actively to the hostage taker as he tells his story, absorbing and processing not only content, but also emotion and subtext. This deeper understanding can give negotiators better leverage to convince the hostage taker into giving up and walking out.