Hasta La Gadget!

What do Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and South Sudan all have in common? Plenty.

In Washington DC, a city consumed by headline stories, Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace this past week teamed up to give an in-depth look at the stories behind all the conflicts and civil wars. The 2014 Fragile States Index (FSI), previously called the Failed States Index, gives an insider’s look at the factors contributing to political and social breakdown.

Behind every country that erupts into civil war, falls victim to famine, or flubs in respond to a natural disaster is a government that has failed to protect its citizens. Such failures rarely arise overnight. They give plenty of warning signs, and the FSI identifies and analyzes them in hopes of strengthening these “fragile” states, preventing humanitarian disasters, and building a country’s resilience in the face of conflict, climate change and other threats.

Governments can “fail” in numerous respects. They can fuel ethnic division, perpetuate corruption and economic inequality, abuse human rights, neglect basic services, or squander human capital. And when they do, their countries become “fragile,” meaning they become far more susceptible to conflict, civil war, drought and other humanitarian disasters.

It’s important to note that the governments of these fragile states are often struggling against impossible odds to meet the needs of their citizens. While some governments are victims of their own ineptitude or corruption, others face major external threats like climate change or regional conflict.

In this year’s FSI rankings, South Sudan replaced Somalia in the top spot, after the fledgling government failed to calm the ethnic tensions that are undermining progress and national unity. The Central African Republic, which now teeters on the brink of genocidal conflict, was bumped up to third place in the FSI rankings. Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Chad, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, and Pakistan rounded out the top ten.

There are many factors that distinguish these “fragile” states from one another, but almost without exception they are all struggling to cope with rapid population growth. Rapid population growth can overwhelm a government’s ability to tackle chronic hunger, severe poverty, environmental degradation, political unrest, and the depletion of water, forests, and other resources.

Sixteen of the countries that top this year’s Fragile States Index have populations that are projected to double in size over the next 35 years. Chad, which ranked 6th, is on course to trip its population by 2050, while Niger, which tied for 19th on the FSI, could nearly quadruple its population. And these projections assume that fertility rates in these countries will continue to decline.

What makes population growth so challenging for fragile countries is that many of them are already on the front lines of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) publishes a Global Hunger Index. Of the top 20 countries on that list, 15 will double their population in the next 35 years. Four of the remaining five, are projected to increase their population by 60 percent or more. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) publishes a Multidimensional Poverty Index. Eighteen of the top 20 poorest countries will likely double their population in the next 35 years. The other two will increase their populations by 50 percent or more.

Some of the world’s most fragile states–including Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Jordan–consume 80 percent of more their renewable water resources every year, and yet their populations are projected to increase by 80 percent of more by 2050. No one knows how these countries will meet the anticipated demand for water resources.

The best way to make “fragile” countries stronger and more resilient is to strengthen the family unit. When girls are better educated, women economically empowered, and when girls and women are able to space or limit their pregnancies without male or religious coercion, the family is strengthened. Maternal and infant mortality decline. Nutrition and food security improve. Children are better educated and parents are able to devote more resources to improving the family’s income, whether it is buying a new sewing machine or more fertilizer for the crops. Smaller, better educated families are also better able to meet the challenges posed by conflict or natural disaster.

The FSI is a crucial start, but it’s time for a much larger debate about fragile countries and what can be done to strengthen them. Fragile states rarely receive the assistance they need until they become humanitarian disasters. If made in time, small investments–including investments in family planning and gender equality–can pay big dividends.

If you are like me, you probably remember with varying degrees of fondness some of the books you had to read back in school. One of the books I rather liked was Homer’s The Odyssey; I thought it was a rather cool book. Anything with a Cyclops that eats men and sheep whole can’t be that bad.

If you are a fan of the classic epic, you will appreciate this LEGO construction by the members of VirtuaLUG of some of the locales from the book. You may notice that there is a bit of “The Iliad” thrown in there as well.

Among the LEGO sets are Polyphemus’s island, the Gates of Hades, and the Island of the Sirens. Even if you aren’t a fan of classic literature, you can appreciate this amazing LEGO construction.

You can check out more photos of this incredible build over on VirtuaLUG’s Flickr page.

[via Nerd Approved]

Japan’s Isuzu Motors and the Euglena Company have teamed up to promote the use of DeuSEL, a biofuel made from processed algae. The joint venture project’s rolling ambassador is a brightly colored bio-diesel sipping Isuzu bus and efforts are underway to expand the service to public bus routes by 2018.

The world of wearable technology is surely changing, and it is up to the masses to embrace it of course. Smartwatches are seen to be the next generation of devices that will bring mobile electronics to a whole new level, and so far, we have seen examples released including the recently announced Samsung Gear Live, not to mention the soon-to-arrive and drool-worthy Moto 360 from Motorola. What does Samsung’s bitter rival, LG, have on the plate in order to provide some level of competition? Why, the LG G Watch, of course!

The LG G Watch will also run on Android Wear just like the Samsung Gear Live, whereby Android Wear is Google’s latest operating system that will extend the Android platform all the way to cater for wearables. As a wrist wearable device, it will boast of a button-less design, appealing to the masses thanks to its simple and minimalist design, accompanied by quick and “glance-able” access to useful information and seamless connectivity with other Android devices, so that users will be able to remain connected wherever, whenever.

Strip away everything on the outside of the LG G Watch, and you get a powerful and energy-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor running proceedings from within with a clock speed of 1.2GHz. When it is paired to a low power consuming Always-On 1.65-inch IPS display that boasts of true-to-life color reproduction, you can be sure that your LG G Watch ought to live up to its reputation that enhances the functionality of Android smartphones as it provides quick access to useful information. Apart from that, the Always-On screen also makes life easier when it comes to telling the current time with but a glance.

It will use Bluetooth to hook up to a compatible smartphone so that you can check out incoming messages, see who is calling, control music playback and more, all without having to remove your smartphone from the pocket or bag. Other hardware specifications include 4GB of internal memory, 512MB RAM, a 400mAh battery, and dust- and water-resistance.

Available for pre-order on the Google Play Store, it will arrive in key markets such as the United States, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea and Japan. Expect it to arrive in 27 markets after that, although pricing details have yet to be determined.

Press Release
[ LG G Watch unveiled copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

There’s a general feeling of distress and bewilderment to “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” Michael Bay’s latest inflated, interminable and incoherent 3-D saga of robot warfare. At least some of that distress is political: The “Transformers” franchise has gradually become alienated from its Bush-era roots in gung-ho, pro-military, “Mission Accomplished” jingoism. It now partakes of a free-floating, ill-defined, Ted Cruz-style paranoia that is both psychically dispirited and distressingly low in testosterone.