What you’re looking at is me, being blasted by a fog machine. It’s not a prop for a rave or a haunted house; it’s vapor laced with custom DNA particles that could prove I was at the scene of a crime. And it’s just one way a cutting-edge security firm is using life’s building blocks to detect counterfeits and bust criminals.
The process of throwing out garbage in New York City is much more complicated than any of the millions of people living there could ever realize. A mini-documentary by the New York Times does a full observation of the $300 million dollar service top to bottom.
Wait just a second before clicking that ‘Forgot password?’ link—chances are that your browser has your password stored somewhere in the depths of its memory. Head to your browser’s cache of login details if you can’t recall your credentials, or you’re signing in on a new device altogether.
The most advanced LED screens look amazing compared to what was on the market even a couple of years ago. But a Princeton engineer found a cheap new way of making LEDs not only brighter and more efficient, but also five times as clear. It even makes them last longer.
Wouldn’t life would be easier if all bikes came with lights built into the frame? The typical removable ones are as easy to forget as they are to steal, either of which will ruin your evening. Well: Trek’s new Lync models come with built-in lights! This matte black beaut is fully equipped with powerful LEDs in front (white) and back (red). You’ll never be without night-time illumination—as long as you keep them charged, at least.
To listen to the Googles and the Elon Musks of the world is to believe that one day soon, we’ll be tooting down in the highway in cars that control themselves. Those cars will need eyes, though, and that’s where a company called Velodyne Acoustics…
According to a report by The Information, you may be seeing a few more Google apps preloaded on future Android devices. Confidential paperwork on new contract requirements details raising the amount of pre-installed software. Under the new…
“Well, that’s just not fair!” cries the indignant 8-year-old. “Fairness has nothing to with it!” says one of his dads. It’s a dialogue that occurs at least once a day in our house, especially around bedtime. As soon as our youngest son can talk, I’m sure we’ll hear it in stereo. Ah, the concept of fairness! To most Americans, it’s sacrosanct. Corruption, bribery and gross institutional inequality, commonplace in the developing world, are mostly newsworthy aberrations to us, albeit with some significant pockets of resistance. (Remember, I live near Chicago.) To most of us, fairness is something we seek in every aspect of our dealings with others, sometimes even with our children.
A few words of advice: If you choose to build your same-gender-parented family through adoption or foster-to-adoption, fairness is a concept with which you will have a tortured relationship. It’s not just the arbitrary and personal occurrences of unfairness that creep up. All the “isms” of the world, which are usually kept to corners of our ordered world, come out swinging. Gross examples of sexism, heterosexism, racism, classism, elitism and their numerous cousins abound.
Between both our sons’ adoptions, I can’t count the number of times we uttered, “Well, that’s just not fair.” Such as when a birth mom chooses the heterosexual couple that just finished their application after your two-year wait. Or when an estranged maternal grandmother suddenly asserts her point of view as you pace anxiously in the hospital waiting to meet a newborn. Or when the birth mom with whom you’ve corresponded for weeks abruptly stops communicating. (All of this happened to us during our placements.)
We became familiar with the all the unfairness on the other side as well. How social agencies seem to favor some birth mothers over others, how our healthcare industry miserably fails to serve the poor, how so-called faith families abandon their own when an unplanned pregnancy happens, and how men (who are biologically 50% responsible for each pregnancy) often seem unconcerned with the actual responsibility of that pregnancy. (All of which happened to our birth mothers during our placements.) The silent and persistent answer to all these questions was “fairness has nothing to do with it.”
During our last placement, we became aware of the unfairness of “urban food deserts” when we searched for a few comfort foods requested by our birth mom. After striking out at tiny bodega after tiny bodega, we found an overpriced and understocked grocery store in a blighted part of town, which featured aisle after aisle of processed, low quality foods and a produce section that could easily fit in our bedroom. Remembering that she had no car, we wondered how she managed to buy groceries. Prior to that, our grocery store grievances had centered around the lack of parking and finding local organic produce in winter. No, it seemed that fairness has nothing to do with it.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it all changed when our sons were placed in our arms for the first time. All of the unfairness we encountered seemed to disappear. As the English poet Robert Browning wrote, “God’s in His heaven / All’s right with the world.” Like the pain of childbirth, you begin to forget and settle into the new “unfairness” of sleepless nights, the outrageous cost of diapers and the inequalities of preschool entrance procedures. It’s a joyous forgetfulness.
But we strive to remind ourselves that pain and loss are only pointless if we don’t learn from them. We remind ourselves of those unfair moments, those we felt ourselves and those we felt for others, so that the memories become parts our family’s adoption stories. Like contrasting notes that balance a complex dish, our sons’ adoption stories will be richer if we keep those unfair moments in them. No story worth telling is completely devoid of sad moments.
As our sons grow up and learn to tell the stories on their own, we hope they will sense the injustices we experienced to become their dads. By truthfully talking about those challenges we will help our sons understand the beautifully complex and imperfect world in which we live. Maybe they will carry those experiences and seek to make the world they inherit more fair for everyone. Maybe they will look back and appreciate their adoption stories more genuinely and take nothing for granted. Maybe…
But for now, bedtime is bedtime and fairness has nothing to do with it.
This post originally appeared GaysWithKids.
Is truth about domestic violence and those who enable it more important than a company’s corporate partnerships? I think so.
That’s why I’m concerned about ESPN’s suspension of columnist and Grantland editor-in-chief Bill Simmons for three weeks for a rant on his B.S. Report podcast in which Mr. Simmons called out NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for lying about the Ray Rice scandal.
Mr. Simmons was, of course, alluding to Mr. Goodell’s insistence that he and the rest of the NFL’s corporate office was unaware that Ray Rice had brutally punched and knocked out his then-fiancé, Janay Palmer.
Telling the truth about domestic violence — and those who shield it — should not be punished.
The length of ESPN’s suspension of Mr. Simmons is concerning and the message it sends is wrong.
Several months ago Stephen A. Smith, also an employee of ESPN, suggested in response to the Ray Rice incident that women need to take more responsibility for their role in bringing domestic violence upon themselves. For this truly repulsive and harmful statement, ESPN suspended Mr. Smith for just one week.
The three-week suspension of Mr. Simmons is also strangely symbolic under the circumstances because it is longer than the NFL’s initial punishment of Ray Rice.
One likely reason is because ESPN is trying to preserve its own relationship with Mr. Goodell and the NFL. ESPN and the NFL have a multi-billion dollar agreement for the right to broadcast the NFL’s Monday Night Football. But protecting Mr. Goodell in this circumstance puts ESPN squarely on the wrong side of combating domestic violence.
Mr. Goodell has, by his own admission, completely botched his handling of the Ray Rice incident, initially only suspending the player for two weeks. More significantly, Mr. Goodell faces an ongoing crisis concerning when he and the NFL brass saw or learned of the incident.
Regardless of the truth, there is more to this issue than what Mr. Goodell knew and when he knew it.
For generations America and its institutions have refused to acknowledge the true severity of the harm that domestic violence imposes on our society. By initially punishing Mr. Rice for a mere two weeks, Mr. Goodell was either helping to perpetuate, or willfully blind of, the harm caused by domestic violence. And despite acknowledging that he “got it wrong,” Mr. Goodell’s response demonstrates that he doesn’t view domestic violence as a problem to him or the NFL unless it directly impacts his bottom line.
ESPN’s suspension of Mr. Simmons illustrates their concern about protecting Roger Goodell and preserving their relationship with the NFL; their commitment to preserving corporate alliances over protecting victims.
Someone as powerful as Roger Goodell hardly requires ESPN’s protection. He is the commissioner of the world’s wealthiest sports league and last year earned upwards of $40 million.
He has lawyers, advisers and employees to protect him and, perhaps, take the fall for his failure to properly respond.
Why does the New York City Public Advocate care about the actions of a sports entertainment company?
Simply put, by suspending Mr. Simmons, ESPN has demonstrated that, like the NFL, it too places a higher priority on profits than on sending a proper message about domestic violence and in essence condones the shielding of domestic violence perpetrators. That’s a message that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.
Switching your smartphone to airplane mode may well end up a thing of the past in Europe, with regulators giving airlines permission to let passengers keep using wireless devices throughout their flight. The new guidance by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) would mean that phones, tablets, laptops, ereaders, or any other portable electronic devices could be left as normal … Continue reading
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