If you hadn’t noticed, things are changing around here. No, we haven’t figured out how to clone reporters (we’re just really good at Photoshop), but we do have a new vision and we’re looking for a few good folks to help us see it through. If you’re…
This week in TV gets started off with a bang thanks to the Primetime Emmys. Netflix snagged 31 nominations for its original content, now we’ll see if it can take home more trophies than the three it won last year as House of Cards faces off with…
If sharing really is caring, then the NSA must care a lot. That’s the thrust of a new report from The Intercept that pulled back the curtain on a search system called ICREACH — launched in 2007, the system allows members of more 20 different US…
The Moto Skip is a slick accessory tat is well designed. The problem is, the technology backing it is a touch dated. The NFC tag would let Moto X users do things like unlock their phone with a tap, but even on launch it was a dated concept. A new FCC filing shows that Motorola may be getting with the … Continue reading
This week the folks at Revocharge are aiming to create another simple solution for charging your smartphone. Your iPhone, your Android device, or your Windows Phone – depending on model – will be able to take part in this simple solution. Your phone is held by the battery, the battery attaches to the charger wirelessly. The charger uses magnets to … Continue reading
Today we’re having a peek at everything we know – or think we know – about the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The device hasn’t been revealed in full by Samsung yet, but barring an actual press release with the name in bold, they’ve essentially given us enough basic information to figure out the rest ourselves. Here’s the Galaxy Note 4 … Continue reading
There have been countless reports over the past few months that Google is going to buy Twitch, the popular video game streaming company. Even though it was reported earlier this month that the deal had been finalized for $1 billion, it looks like Google missed the chance. It has now been confirmed that as previously reported, Amazon is going to acquire Twitch. All outstanding shares of the service will be purchased for roughly $970 million.
Twitch was launched over three years back and it has seen a meteoric rise. By the end of 2013 it had over 40 million users who were watching more than 100 minutes of video every day on average. Twitch has one of the most dedicated user communities out there which certainly helped attract attention from deep pocketed companies like Google and Amazon.
Emmett Shear, Twitch’s CEO, posted a letter on the company’s official website confirming that Twitch has been acquired by Amazon. He says that they went with Amazon because it believes in the community and share Twitch’s values and long-term vision. “They want to help us get there faster,” he says.
Twitch will be keeping its brand, employees and its office. Its community can rest assured as Twitch will also be keeping its independence. However having Amazon’s pocketbook on hand will provide them with enough resources to improve the video game streaming service even more.
This is Amazon’s largest acquisition in its 20 year history, one where it successfully managed to steal the company away from Google.
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
When your ex-wife is on reality show called “Atlanta Exes,” you know there’s a chance some of your dirty laundry is going to be aired.
So did comedian Kevin Hart object when his ex-wife Torrei told him she’d be starring on the aforementioned VH1 show?
“He did not,” Torrei says in a new interview with “The Lowdown.” “I wouldn’t say he was rolling out the red carpet but he can’t tell me how to live my life.”
She adds: “He knows the type of woman I am; even if he did say that, I’m going to tell him, ‘Later for that, I’m doing me. I don’t tell you not to tell certain type of jokes’ — he joked about me all the time.”
That he did. The pair called it quits in 2011, after nearly eight years of marriage, two kids together — and yes, plenty of jokes about how rough married life was on Kevin’s part.
But “life goes on,” Torrei says in the clip above. “I’m now with a new man who’s 100 percent my supporter.”
Torrei’s show debuted on VH1 last Monday, the same night Kevin proposed to his girlfriend Eniko Parrish during the model’s 30th birthday celebration. Back in May, Kevin denied Torrei’s claim that Parrish played a part in the couple’s split.
“My woman has nothing to do with my past marriage problems in any way shape or form. It’s almost 7yrs total of me not being with my Ex,” he tweeted, adding, “I guess giving a woman over 20k a month and still being there for her and being a incredible father isn’t enough!”
But hey, at least he ended things on a nicer note:
“With that being said I hope my Ex wife honestly finds happiness. THIS HAS BEEN A KEVIN HART PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENT. Have a good day everybody,” he tweeted.
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In the garden of gentle sanity may you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness.
— Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
It has been said that enlightenment is the ego’s ultimate disappointment. That is true, indeed. I was certain I had been edging closer toward enlightenment (but all I got was a lousy T-shirt). Things in life fluctuate, and there really is nothing permanent to grasp onto that will give us anything secure in life. Having that awakening is humbling. We can try fruitlessly to hold onto pleasant situations, people we care about, our social status, things we amass, and even jobs, but life has plans that requires us to let go. The only thing we can grasp onto is the glaring fact that life is uncertain; accepting that isn’t about giving up. We can heed the uncertain nature of things or deny it. In 12-step programs, this is Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power. The challenge of genuinely letting go and trusting that there is a bigger plan can be terrifying, but also very freeing.
The more things change…
There I was, merrily working on a book, The Noble Sk8Fold Path, on skateboarding as a metaphor for facing life and all of its challenges, thinking I could offer others lots of helpful wisdom and insight into life’s difficulties. I had no idea just what was going to unfold in my life, as is generally the way it plays out. There I was with all the answers. And everything fell apart. Reality hit me over the head with blunt force, perhaps because I was finally paying attention. My sister got a cancer diagnosis and then lost her job. My father died. Eight months after losing my dad, my father-in-law’s health deteriorated and he died. Then suddenly during routine surgery, my sister-in-law’s father suffered horrible complications, which resulted in his death.
My husband and I had shut down our business and I re-entered the workforce in an entry-level position at age 48. Stress and financial difficulties continued for us. Kids badgered our daughter in person and online, which included kids advising her to kill herself. Our son had his own problems with peer harassment. Additional things continued to unravel for myself and others close to me, some of which I need to maintain confidentiality. Day to day, sometimes minute to minute things change.
This all brought me to now, and to the understanding that there is much I need to learn before I can make any reasonable claim to give advice. I was bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness. I began re-reading Pema Chödrön’s masterpiece, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times through a new lens.
Where are you in this moment?
We can’t contract and try to hold things in one place, to keep things just as we like. Life moves along whether we like what is happening or not. So in regard to wakefulness, in any given moment, we need to think about what we are feeling, what is happening around us and inside us. We can become awakened when we become more aware, more tuned in to our consciousness. It is a process, and I am just a person on the path; you might have more or less spiritual wakefulness than I do, but we are all here to help each other on our path.
My book I’ve been writing is on hiatus. One thing is certain: When I resume, it will be with renewed mindfulness, strength, and humility, and also more experiences from which to draw upon that I will be able to share. I have collected contributions, thoughts and insights from skateboarders who describe ways that the sport / artform has helped them in life; reading about their experiences can be enlightening and helpful for anyone seeking ways to balance, to navigate life’s path.
This post originally appeared on Leigh’s blog, The Noble Sk8Fold Path.
Development and conservation are often viewed as separate or even opposing needs. The truth is, we simply won’t be successful in addressing either the world’s economic or environmental challenges unless we bring them together more often.
USAID is the United States’ leading organization focused on international economic development. Its principal tool is providing financial assistance to support economic growth around the world. As you can imagine, nature protection was not part of its original focus when it was founded back in 1961.
Yet, things have changed since then. Like The Nature Conservancy (TNC), USAID has evolved a great deal, keeping core values while also bringing new strategies aboard. USAID has put increasing emphasis on investments in nature to strengthen economic development for human well-being, which is very encouraging to organizations like TNC.
In fact, USAID has partnered with TNC since 1990 on forest, marine and freshwater conservation projects in Latin America, the Asia Pacific, and most recently in Africa. And now our visions are even more aligned. This is especially true with USAID’s release last month of its new Biodiversity Policy. It is the strongest statement to date of their recognition that conservation is a key component of successful and sustainable human development. The policy shows that USAID invests in conservation because it works. Sustainability is good business.
I still remember when I first met Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator of USAID. My book Nature’s Fortune had just been published, which argues that nature is the fundamental underpinning to human well-being. Dr. Shah kindly expressed enthusiasm for this argument, as the same was true from his experience leading USAID.
But he also chided me for failing in my book to give USAID proper credit as a key investor in TNC’s first water fund project in Quito. This was a fair point, and my mistake, since water funds are a great example of USAID taking risks on different approaches to development. Here, big consumers of water–utilities, industries, producers– invest in a fund that protects nature upstream to ensure clean, safe drinking water remains available for residents as well as the big consumers. Companies save money by preempting the need for costlier water treatment in the future. Water remains clean and available for local communities. And more habitat is conserved for wildlife.
USAID’s initial investment in water funds in Quito and Bogota helped TNC replicate the model across 32 cities in Latin America. Next up, TNC is exploring how to export water funds to China and Africa to help more cities develop sustainably.
TNC is delighted to partner with USAID on many on-the-ground projects of this kind happening all around the world.
Take the Amazon, for example, a place rich in rare species with a burgeoning economy. Here, USAID and partners including TNC support the Initiative for Conservation in the Andean Amazon (ICAA), designed to strengthen the capacity of Indigenous Peoples in conservation and resource management. ICAA has placed nearly 2 million hectares of land under improved management; implemented 167 policies and agreements in favor of Indigenous rights, conservation and sustainable development; and leveraged more than $17 million in funds to carry out project activities. And, communities are better able to monitor illegal poaching, mining and deforestation happening when outsiders enter Indigenous lands. These results can be replicated to many of the 385 indigenous groups in the Amazon region, including populations in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
And in Africa, one of TNC’s key partners is the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), a wonderful example of a community development model sprung in part from USAID’s support back in 2004. NRT includes 27 community owned and managed conservancies to improve people’s livelihoods, enhance security for wildlife, and increase trade and tourism. TNC’s Livestock to Markets project in partnership with NRT is an extension of these important goals.
Through Livestock to Markets, TNC and NRT have created a market for sustainably-managed cattle among traditional pastoralist communities. In a region where 70 percent of wildlife is found outside of parks, and where we are seeing 4-8 percent growth in GDP, working lands have been stretched to capacity By meeting better grazing standards, herders earn higher prices for healthier cows and more grass is available where it’s needed for both livestock and wildlife. Communities are also bringing in more money as wildlife tourism flourishes. In our initial pilot efforts, TNC is learning that there are many communities eager to put their lands under a long-term management plan for this strong return on investment.
Water funds, ICAA and Livestock to Markets are just three examples (among many) of organizations, communities and others coming together, taking risks and charting a new path toward sustainable development for nature and people.
While natural resources around the globe are under increasing pressure, these kinds of win-win projects make me feel optimistic for the future. I applaud USAID for recommitting to nature protection, and for articulating the important connections between conservation and human development. We’ll need a world where communities and businesses develop sustainably and with nature in mind.
Image: A Lewa herder watches over cattle at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Africa Photo © Ami Vitale
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
