Hasta La Gadget!

Let’s put this into perspective with one sentence:

If LeBron James stays in Miami, he will break Cleveland’s heart once again and look like a complete tool in the process, BUT THEN AGAIN if he does go home his legacy will be that he chased championships and basically used us here in Miami WHILE throwing his homeboy DWade under the bus who opted out of a maximum salary NOT TO MENTION he’d be walking away from a modern dynasty FURTHERMORE Bron Bron will look absolutely silly returning to a team owned by Dan Gilbert who called him disloyal, cowardly and narcissistic, MEANWHILE everyone (the league, free agents, fans) are waiting with bated breath while ESPN is collecting millions of clicks AND the champion Spurs are quietly laughing down in Texas AND Bron Bron, whether he cares, does look like an ego maniac and THE IRONY of all of this is that LeBron tried so hard to calculate his plans, lay low, not make the same mistakes from four years ago; he wanted to leave it up to his agent, his “team,” all friends he grew up with in Ohio, friends he turned into millionaires, FRIENDS who leaked this Cleveland story to feed the frenzy of sports media AND IN THE END it’s just silly how this turned into a clown show and his “people” don’t appear to be the brightest gems in the jewelry shop, but, this is basketball after all.

Some Americans in North Dakota have a window of only seven hours to vote on Election Day, according to a report from Smart Politics, a nonpartisan political news site at the University of Minnesota. That’s less than half the time some polling places, such as those in New York state, are open on Election Day.

Polls in North Dakota precincts that had fewer than 75 voters in the last general election don’t have to open until noon, and they can close as early as 7 p.m.

On the other end of the spectrum, New York polls are open for 15 hours, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. And four states mandate 14 hours: Connecticut (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.), Iowa (7 a.m. to 9 p.m.), Louisiana (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and New Jersey (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.).

Only two states — New York and Iowa — are required to keep polls open until 9 p.m., although clerks in North Dakota are allowed to keep voting locations open until that time.

Hawaii, Indiana and Kentucky polls close the soonest — at 6 p.m.

The earliest statewide opening time for polling places is 6 a.m., which is required in 10 states: Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Maine and New Hampshire allow polls to open at 6 a.m., but not all are required to open at that time.

Vermont allows polls to open as early as 5 a.m., but as late as 10 a.m.; Massachusetts allows for a 5:45 a.m. opening, but polls don’t have to be open until 7 a.m.

The majority of states’ polling places open at 7 a.m., but some states start later. Idaho and Nebraska (the portion in the central time zone) open polls at 8 a.m.; Vermont’s open at 10 a.m. Some polling centers don’t open until 10 a.m. in Maine and Minnesota, 11 a.m. in New Hampshire, and noon in Montana and North Dakota.

For some states, Election Day polling hours are less of a concern. Washington state votes entirely by mail, while most of Oregon does, too.

The full report by Dr. Eric Ostermeier, a research associate at the University of Minnesota, can be found here.

I am the official storyteller for TEDxAuckland. This means I have the great privilege of getting to know people with the most amazing stories. This year I’m revelling in the true tales told to me by Rory Steyn, Nelson Mandela’s chief bodyguard during his presidential years, and a much anticipated speaker stepping up to the New Zealand stage next month.

Getting to know Rory, tracing his own journey of transformation from racist white cop to Nelson Mandela’s number 1 protector, is a profound reminder that our lives are measured not only in years, but in the lives we touch around us.

Every year on the 18th of July – the day Nelson Mandela was born – the United Nations joins a call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and asks people around the world to devote 67 minutes of their time to helping others, as a way to mark Nelson Mandela International Day. It could be as simple as volunteering for a local charity in your community, or tending to those that are sick and homeless.

For 67 years the late Mr. Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity – as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker, and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa, my homeland.

There were so many simple acts of kindness that portrayed the measure of this great man, simple acts that very often did not make it into the public eye. There were the countless times he asked his bodyguards to stop the car so that he could get out and greet tourists, and the unscheduled visits to people in hospitals. And then there was the time he flew across country to visit an 11 year old girl dying of a terminal disease – it was literally her last wish to meet the President.

Rory Steyn tells me that being on the road with Madiba, as Nelson Mandela was affectionately known, was a lot like moving around with a global pop star. Everywhere this humble man went he was mobbed by huge crowds eager to shake hands. This proved challenging for the bodyguards, because Madiba genuinely liked meeting people, and would often willingly walk straight into potentially dangerous situations.

Unfailingly polite, even when angry, Madiba was a peculiar mix of a Victorian gentleman and African royalty. He regarded everyone as equal, and certainly never saw himself as above anybody just because of his station in life. And he was always worrying about others.

There were numerous instances when Madiba stopped talking in the middle of addressing a huge crowd to rescue a child in danger of being trampled. Madiba’s own protection unit quickly learnt to respect the President’s wishes, and were committed to preserving who and what he stood for. His bodyguards became protectors of the people, and they weren’t just acting on instructions; they had internalised the philosophy.

During his presidential years Madiba was very lucky to find true love in the amazing Graca Machel. And his other great love has always been children. The money Madiba received from the Nobel Foundation when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize he gladly redirected to various children’s charities. Madiba was not at all materialistic, and money was really just there for a purpose. And then one sleepless night, after talking with a dozen homeless street children in Cape Town, he decided to give one third of his presidential salary towards a fund to deal specifically with children: The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

And every year in honor of his birthday, Madiba would host a massive national children’s party for those that were especially poor or sick. Once a year, instead of attending to the rigours of office, he would spend the day brightening up the lives of a few thousand children.

And then at Christmas time he would host a fine feast for thousands of kids in his hometown of Qunu. This event brought particular happiness to the little ones in the nearby rural areas of Umtata. Being an unexposed, unadvertised event, some children walked barefoot for two days to attend the only event of the year when they would receive sweets and presents.

I grew up a child of the rainbow nation, a white African oblivious during my early childhood to the struggles of my black African brothers and sisters that were suffering through Apartheid. It would be many years later that I really got it – when my eyes were suddenly wide open and I actually did something about it. And then the struggle for justice – for people, animals and our environment – became the beautiful struggle of my life.

I discovered the true meaning of humanity in the battlefield of my own scars, and that is when I became a global citizen.

Because I know what it’s like to lead a rockstar lifestyle, only to wake up the next day destitute. Because we all live and die in the roll of a dice, and no life is worth more than another. Too many times people living in poverty have shared their only piece of bread with me, and to discover that sort of compassion brings with it immeasurable joy. And then you can never go back to the person you once were.

There is this African saying, Ubuntu – I am because we are. It roughly translates to ‘human kindness’ and the belief in a ‘universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity’. And I believe this extends also to animals, illustrated so beautifully in Boyd Varty’s TED Talk.

For Mandela Day on the 18th of July, if you’re up to something, please drop a comment and share it with us. Go well! Hamba kashle!

Jamie Joseph is a writer and an activist. She will be returning to her African homeland in October to join the war on poaching. Follow her journey @ savingthewild.com – every voice counts.

The State Department awarded more than a billion dollars in funding to the security firm Blackwater and its later incarnations even after one of the company’s top officials allegedly threatened a government investigator’s life, a review by The Huffington Post has shown.

The New York Times revealed last week that the State Department’s chief investigator reported being threatened by a Blackwater official in Iraq in August 2007. The investigator said project manager Daniel Carroll told him “that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq.”

Officials at the American embassy in Baghdad later asked the investigators conducting the Blackwater probe to leave. A few weeks later, in September, Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians. A criminal trial for four of the guards is currently underway.

And yet, the threat did little to stop the spigot of contract money that headed Blackwater’s way. Between the date it was reportedly made, Aug. 21, and the end of September, the State Department designated over $269 million in funding for the firm, records show. In return, Blackwater provided training and protective services for the department in Iraq, Afghanistan, China and the United States. Some of the largest of those expenditures were approved after the shooting but were tied to contracts that had been signed previously.

In total, the State Department has awarded the firm and its subsidiaries over $1.3 billion since early fall 2007 for operations around the globe. These funds were awarded both when the firm was mired in scandal and in later years, when it was under less controversial stewardship.

“In the years following the events of 2007, we reviewed our practices of managing contractors and made improvements to increase oversight and ensure that operational control remains with direct-hire State Department employees,” a State Department spokesman said, when asked why Blackwater continued to receive contracts. “Though we must always ensure that competitive contracts remain fair and open, the safety of our personnel is the highest priority, and we always take into account the past performance and abilities of each contractor.”

The Huffington Post used the federal government’s spending database to search for funding, either through new transactions or modifications of existing contracts, directed toward Blackwater and subsidiaries linked to it. The companies included Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, Inc., Blackwater Security Consulting LLC, U.S. Training Center, Inc., Academi Training Center and International Development Solutions. The company and its subsidiaries have changed their names several times and ownership once since 2007, owing, in part, to their efforts to shake bad publicity.

Because of the way the federal government distributes funds to contractors, the records only signify that the State Department set aside the funds to pay the firm. They do not reveal exactly how much money the firm actually received, or what it spent it on.

In several cases, the State Department revoked funding it had previously set aside to pay the firm. In all, the State Department has “de-obligated” $54,831,123 since the reported threat on the investigator’s life.

The funding continued after President Barack Obama took office. More than half a billion dollars was set aside for the firm and its subsidiaries by the State Department under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Over $300 million of that total was awarded before Blackwater was sold by its embattled founder in 2010.

During Clinton’s tenure, the services rendered by the firm reflected America’s shifting priorities in the fight against terrorism. It received funding to train police officers in several African nations — including Nigeria, Djibouti, Kenya, Senegal and Tunisia — at a time when Africa has increasingly become a focus for American counterterrorism operations.

Clinton raised concerns about the company when she was still in the Senate. In the midst of her brutal presidential primary campaign against Obama in 2008, she co-sponsored a bill to ban Blackwater’s work in Iraq.

In addition to the funding it’s been awarded by the State Department, Blackwater has continued to receive contracts from the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, ThinkProgress reported last week.

Experts say that one of the main reasons Blackwater has been able to sustain its relationship with the State Department is that it has been largely successful in protecting America’s diplomats.

“Blackwater likes to point to their supposedly perfect track record in terms of guarding personnel,” said Neil Gordon, an Investigator with the Project on Government Oversight. “But of course there are much larger issues that have to be taken into account — their effect on the mission and on international reputation.”

Gordon added that there are other reasons that a company like Blackwater might continue to receive lucrative orders, despite bad press.

“Partly the government doesn’t like to change contractors — especially in a dangerous area like a contingency operation — in midstream,” he said “There’s a lot of bureaucratic inertia.”

For years, Blackwater, along with Triple Canopy and DynCorp, received an “umbrella contract” to protect State Department diplomats. Though it did not guarantee a significant payday for any of the three firms, it meant the State Department was likely to use one of them to fill major diplomatic protection needs.

When asked why Blackwater continued to receive contracts after the 2007 incidents, the State Department spokesman said that the firm’s “qualifications” were vetted as part of the standard bid process.

“When dealing with an umbrella contract like a World Wide Protective Services (WPPS) task order that had several contractors, federal law requires that all such contractors be given a fair opportunity to compete for task orders issued under that contract,” the State Department spokesman said. “The qualifications and ability of any contractor to perform on that task order will, of course, be assessed as part of the bidding process.”

Individual contracting officers could use the firms to fill a specific order — for example, security at an embassy. These officers independently make what are called “responsibility determinations” about a contractor’s fitness to fill an order. But one contracting officer can find that a firm is not responsible without hindering their ability to fill other orders.

“You could have a contracting officer on one side of Baghdad that says ‘Yes, I’ll make an award to Blackwater’ … and then a contracting officer on the other side of Baghdad at the very same time could say, ‘I don’t think they’re responsible,'” said Daniel Gordon, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University.

Even under the umbrella contract, the State Department may have had limited options when it came to finding an alternative to Blackwater.

“Other private security contractors aren’t exactly clean either,” Neil Gordon said.

Blackwater’s story is inextricably linked with America’s foreign policy after 9/11. More than any other contractor, the firm became associated with the war in Iraq. The outsize public profile of Erik Prince, a former Navy Seal and the heir to an auto parts fortune who founded the company in 1997, also contributed to its notoriety.

But the company was dogged by scandal — most significantly the 2007 shooting, in Baghdad’s Nisour Square — and the Iraqi government eventually revoked its license to operate in the country. Absent the Iraqi government’s approval, the State Department ended Blackwater’s contract within that country (though not others). The company tried to rebrand in 2009, adopting the name Xe Services, while its United States subsidiary became U.S. Training Center, Inc.

With the State Department reportedly threatening to withhold further contracts until the divisive Prince left, the company was sold to a set of private equity investors in 2010 and renamed Academi. At the time, its new CEO said he wanted to make it “boring.” The firm has since merged with rival Triple Canopy.

Callie Wang, an Academi spokeswoman, declined to comment on any of the company’s existing contracts.

In the three and a half years since Prince announced he was selling the company, the State Department has become a less reliable customer, awarding Academi just over $500 million in contract money. During the three years before Prince’s departure, the amount was greater than $784 million.

Under its new ownership, the company has done much to improve its reputation and track record, Neil Gordon said.

“They’ve largely stayed out of trouble in the last couple of years, as far as I can tell,” he said. “It’s just these instances from the past — like the trial right now with the four guards for the shooting — that keep coming back into public consciousness.”

Have you ever successfully knocked back a shooter with a live scorpion on your hand? Or downed an entire spittoon of wine?

Well, we’d honestly be surprised if you answered yes to either of those questions–even a little concerned. Safety first, everyone!

Thankfully, these crazy antics are what Hollywood is here for (and quite good at). We looked back at a few of the most awesome shots ever taken in movies–from James Bond to Austin Powers. We bet you’ll love these scenes as much as we do.

Did we miss one? Tell us in the comments!

1. James Bond takes a shot with a scorpion on his hand.

2. Marion wins a shot competition in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

3. The ¡Three Amigos! down a tequila shot in unison.

4. The Wedding Crashers’ wedding crashers take a group shot.

5. Austin Powers relaxes with a shot in a hot tub.

6. The bros in Swingers bond over a couple of shooters.

7. Miles goes for the entire spittoon in Sideways.

It might not be liquor, but he shot the contents of that spittoon with conviction!

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