Google’s augmented reality exploration game, Ingress, has had a pretty eventful 2014, including an iOS release back in July and the addition of user-created missions a few months later. Now, developer Niantic Labs is closing out the year by getting i…
CoolChip Technologies is a startup working to redesign fans to be less of a nuisance. While there are alternatives (like liquid cooling) for those who simply cannot stand the presence of fans, CoolChip’s work doesn’t require significantly changing a machine’s internal layout. Read More
They asked me to write about my daughter, Razan Zaitouneh. I am not a journalist or a writer but I will write what is on my mind. I will not talk about Razan’s work or her achievements as so many others have done so already.
I will never forget those times at the start of the uprising in Syria when she faded out of the public eye in order to avoid arrest. She would only leave the house at night and while in disguise. Whenever I missed her I would try to meet her in secret. I advised her repeatedly to leave the country and travel abroad, as her some of her friends had done. She would shake her head with a sad smile, and reply: “I will not leave my country.” So I would return home saddened and desperately call upon God to save and protect her, waiting eagerly until I would get to see her again. I was shocked when she told me that she was planning to move to Eastern Ghouta to settle there, and when I asked her why she replied:
“Mother, it is a safe area… There I will live in safety and I will be able to move freely, and I will not be threatened by anyone.”
Despite my pain and sorrow at her decision, which meant I would no longer be able to see her from that day onwards, I wanted her life to be stable and secure so I gave in to the decision for her own safety.
After she arrived there we would communicate through Skype — she always tried to make me feel that she was comfortable, but my heart always told me the opposite. I would often tell her father about my fears, but as usual, she kept quiet to stop us from feeling worried.
When the siege on Eastern Ghouta intensified, and the people lacked bread or other food, I was constantly worried for her — I would ask her if she had bread, if she had any food? She would reply: “Do not worry, dear.” Once when I kept insisting she laughed and finally conceded:
“What I would like are some sweets or chocolate. Neither me nor the entire children in the neighborhood have eaten any for a very long time.”
The next day I went to the market quickly and bought her all kinds of chocolate — I bought a lot because I knew she would not eat it by herself, and would distribute most of it to the others with her. I also bought her some medication because she was complaining about rashes on her hands. I also bought some medicine for her husband Wa’el because he had stomach pains, as well as a few other items requested by her friend Samira.
Of course, I bought all these items wishing and hoping to God that I would find someone who would be able to get these items to her. The area was under siege — the roads are closed and there was no way in or out, but I was always promised that we would find a trusted person who could make it through.
The next morning, a year ago today, I woke up to hear the news of the kidnapping of my daughter along with her husband and two friends, Samira and Nazem. I could not believe what I heard, I thought there had been some kind of mix-up, but unfortunately the news was true. I felt as if the world was closing in on me. I could not cry; my heart was weeping, but my eyes did not shed tears. I felt a terrible pain spreading through every part of my body.
Days and months have passed while I waited in vain. Every night I go to sleep hoping to wake up to some good news, but so far to no avail. My hopes are evaporating and the bitter reality remains. I have lost my daughter in that liberated area where the Free Syrian Army, the defenders of the revolution, were supposed to be dispersed everywhere, where I had hoped she would be safe, because their mission is to protect civilians everywhere and at all times. And now I have no solution to my situation and no hope except my faith that God will return her to safety, along with her husband Wa’el and her friends Samira and Nazem.
May freedom come to them, along with freedom for all those who are missing, kidnapped or detained everywhere.
Duma is one of several towns in Eastern Ghouta, east of Syria’s capital Damascus, in which armed opposition groups are present. Government forces tightened their siege of the area in July 2013. According to the United Nations 150,000 people live in the area that has been cut off. They last received food supplies in May 2014.
To find out more about the campaign by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations calling for the release of Razan Zaitouneh and other Syrian activists, visit here.
A recent podcast by The Economist asserted that young people do not turn out in non-Presidential years because they do not have “skin in the game.” They’re wrong. We most certainly do. While there is recorded disinvestment in midterm elections by young people, many factors contribute to lower youth turnout in midterm elections: unstable voting addresses, ill-targeting by campaign teams, and voter access restrictions, to name a few.
However, a hard reality is often overlooked: This generation wants to find meaningful ways of democratic participation. We have disengaged from our crumbling civic institutions; yet, we have the energy and ideas to rebuild them. The midterm election was the opposite of the kind of politics we value; there were no new ideas, endless fear-mongering, and blaming the other for the political challenges our country faces, not to mention increased restrictions on voting in many key states. As a result, voters between the ages of 18 to 29 voted at a very low rate on Nov. 4. With this kind of atmosphere roiling in our electoral process, it is no wonder we do not see voting as a meaningful avenue of participation, even though we should.
There was a bright spot in this past election. When big issues and big ideas were on the ballot, voters turned out in higher numbers. The Center for Civic Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement estimates a five-percentage point increase over the national youth turnout average in states with competitive ballot initiatives. When on the ballot at the state and local level, ideas including paid sick leave, minimum wage, and background checks, were a powerful motivator for participation.
Americans have opinions on the direction of this country and are passionate about ideas and solutions to move us forward. However, our political leaders do not focus enough on building opportunities for everyday people to do this in a meaningful way before the elections. Their ask is always “to vote” instead of “to engage.” Thus, we end up with elections that are often just bickering and pandering to a politically active base rather than a real debate about policy. Policy debates should happen in communities across the country every year, not just once every four years. Voting should be the culminating act of voicing an opinion in our political participation, not a fight over partisan power.
As the National Director of the Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network, a 120-chapter nationwide student policy organization, I work everyday with young people who engage in a participatory form of politics and see how it drives their engagement. Students in our network run participatory discussions on their campuses, they research and propose local policy ideas, and they connect to stakeholders around their schools. Participation is a meaningful part of their lives and voting is one of the ways they inject their voice into decision-making in government.
Ultimately, the post-election question for youth participation is not “How do we turnout more young people by 2016?” But, “How do we involve more young people in civic life?” Millennials are not just looking to be brought to the polls; we want to be involved in the process.
I was born in Detroit the third of eleven children in an Irish Catholic family to a father who worked in the auto industry and to a mom who was a public school teacher, and both of whom graduated from the University of Detroit.
Not long before the riots in 1967, we moved to Southfield, a community across 8 Mile Road, which symbolized the divide between white and black, rich and poor. Many whites abandoned our beloved Detroit seeking better schools and a safer way of life. I remember riding down into Detroit with my father in the immediate aftermath of the riots and seeing tanks on Woodward Avenue.
Race relations in our family and in America have always been a journey that was confused, sometimes troubled and ongoing. Do I have biases and prejudices that I have to come to terms with and overcome? Yes, and we all do if we look in the mirror and are honest with ourselves. Whether it be biases based in race, sex, faith, income or whatever.
The path to a better way and a more compassionate American community is to start by being accountable to ourselves for our own thoughts and actions. And then being accountable and responsible for our own circles and communities, most importantly.
That is where lasting change really starts and happens.
In all this discussion lately on race and law enforcement, many folks seem to be talking past each other and pointing fingers to communities across the street. One side says it is the problem over there with white officers using excess force in a racial way and victimizing people of color.
The other side believes the problem is over there, saying crime is overly concentrated in urban areas, especially where minorities live and that rioting protesters have exacerbated the problem. Both sides have a point, but pointing at each other isn’t helping resolve the issues.
I would suggest the best way to turn the heat down on this conversation, bring consensus and solve these issues is to look first at ourselves and our communities and find our own culpability. Law enforcement officials and white leaders need to acknowledge that there is a problem with how minorities are approached and with selective crime fighting. And that we whites arrive with biases that we need to address.
And minority leaders and communities need to better address destructive activities in their own neighborhoods where crime is way too rampant and minorities suffer at the hands of many minorities themselves. And that they have their own set of biases that must be looked at, as well.
And it is only then, when each side holds itself accountable and admits the problems among their own communities and begins to address them in our own circles, that we can come together to then build a better country. It never solves a problem to point fingers at one another and say, “If only you would change then everything would be better.”
Just like in our relationships and marriages we each have learned that blaming someone else or saying if only you would be better doesn’t ever solve the problem. It actually causes the other side to shut down or worse to fight back even harder.
When we communicate to another our own faults and take accountability, then we can have a more open and compassionate conversation. And it is in that moment when difficulties in our relationships can be resolved peacefully and build something stronger going forward.
I wish I didn’t have my own prejudices and biases, but I do. And I know the only way I can overcome them is to take the time to look at myself and grow into the person I want to be. And I wish there wasn’t racism in America or excessive law enforcement, but there is. And each side needs to look in the mirror, address it and walk across the road.
My hope is if this tough Irish kid from Motown can make the journey back across 8 Mile and be more compassionate, then America can make that journey as we head into a better future.
There you have it.
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) conceded on Tuesday that Democrats probably won’t be able to stop Republicans from blocking marijuana legalization in the District of Columbia.
“I’m opposed to what the House is trying to do. If they put it in there, it’s going to be hard to take it out over here,” Reid said, referring to parallel House and Senate versions of a spending bill. “But I oppose it.”
Sources told The Huffington Post earlier on Tuesday that congressional lawmakers have struck a deal that would allow the nation’s capital to keep its marijuana decriminalization policy in place, while barring D.C. from using funds to enact the legalization. The agreement would effectively defy the will of the almost 70 percent of D.C. voters who passed Initiative 71 in November. The initiative legalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use while maintaining that sales are illegal.
The D.C. pot law would be targeted under an omnibus spending bill to fund the government, which House Republicans expect to release Tuesday evening. Marijuana legalization advocates said they were outraged that Democrats did not appear to be doing as much as they could to prevent Congress from interfering with the initiative, especially after voters had already spoken.
One senior aide on Capitol Hill pushed back against the notion that the provision would actually prevent legalization from going into effect. The aide said it would instead bar the D.C. Council from passing any new laws to legalize and tax sales of the drug, which is precisely the kind of bill D.C. mayor-elect Muriel Bowser (D) has said she would like legislators to pass soon.
Reid said there were several items tucked into the House GOP’s spending plan that he was not prepared to accept, citing “extremist factions” in the party that want to chip away at health care, women’s rights and environmental policy.
“The federal government’s going to run out of money in two days,” Reid said. “We’ve been trying to work with Republican leaders to avoid a shutdown. There’s going to come a time when they have to take yes for an answer. I guess they’re not there yet.”
Some people will go to great lengths to show their love for their favorite show and to get into the record books. Michael Baxter, 60, is a grandfather and a prison warden in Barwon, Australia. He hopes to win a Guinness World Record now that he has 203 characters that have appeared on The Simpsons tattooed on his back. That has to be a first.
Baxter is obviously a super fan of the show. He got his first tattoo about a decade ago. And that wasn’t even a Simpsons’ character. But once he started with the Simpsons tattoos, he just couldn’t stop. At least he should be able to hold some kind of new record.
“It’s an addiction,” Mr Baxter said. “Once you get one you want more and more.”
“And why go small when you can go big.’’
I bet the creators find some way to work this guy into the show. I think he deserves it.
[via Herald Sun via Neatorama]
Watch Bill Gates—in Lego form no less!—tell you about his favorite books of 2014, an impeccable list that has a little bit of everything for everyone. I’ve included all his recommendations and short reviews below so you can easily buy any of them (I recommend getting all of them for yourself too. Good stuff.)
Ever since sitting became the new evil, offices have sprouted all sorts of arrangements we would have once considered bizarre: bouncy balls, standing desks, treadmill desks. But none are perhaps as weird—and uncomfortable!—as the Dutch design studio RAAAF’s “The End of Sitting” office, a labyrinth of hard slopes where sitting is expressly forbidden.
The weather team down at ABCNews4 just made the most of a horrific, live computer crash. Apparently, the computer that generates the graphics for the TV weather forecasts failed recently, but instead of just standing up there and talking in front of a blank screen, the team created some super half-assed chicken scratch pen drawings on printer paper.
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.
