Hasta La Gadget!

In 1989 the United Nations recommended that July 11 should be the day the international community observes World Population Day, a perfect time to highlight population issues and work to solve them together. This year’s World Population Day is even more significant, with a theme of “Investing in teenage girls,” a critical mission for all nations and people around the globe.

Here are 25 facts about world population in honor of the United Nation’s World Population Day:

1. There are over 7.4 billion people on earth now according to the site World O Meters, where you can even watch a running count, including births, deaths, and population growth by day (although they are approximations.) (Source)

2. It’s estimated that 108 billion people have lived throughout history (as of 2011). That means that approximately 6.5% of all the people that have ever lived are alive right now. (Source)

3. In the year 1000 AD, the world population was only 400 million. In 1750 AD, 750 years later, the population was 800 million and it first reached the 1 billion mark in 1804. By 1927 we had 2 billion people, and 3 billion by 1960. But it only took 40 years – until 2000 – for the population to double again to 6 billion. (Source)

4. Based on statistical models of “milestone babies,” the 5th billion baby was born July 11, 1987 (symbolically awarded to Matej Gašpar from Zagreb, Croatia,) and the 6th billion person was born October 12, 1999, based on statistical measures, symbolically awarded to Adnan Mević in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Source)

5. Do we really have too many people in the world? Standing side by side, the entire world’s population would fit into 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers) – which is less than the size of Los Angeles. (Source)

6. The difference in average life expectancy between people in developed countries and poor nations is about 20 years, or 77.1 years compared to 55.9 years, respectively. Sub-Saharan African nations have the lowest average life expectancies at 51.5 years, while Western Europeans (80.3 years) and North Americans (79.3 years) enjoy the highest. (Source)

7. About 1.8 billion people around the world are between the ages of 10 and 24, which is the largest population of young people ever. In fact, about 52% of the total world population is under 30 years old. (Source)

Large populations of young people are particularly prevalent in developing countries, with children or adolescents making up the majority in the 48 least developed nations in the world. (Source)

8. The average person on earth is a 28 year-old, right-handed Han Chinese male. There are 9 million people on earth who fit that description, more than any other. (Source)

9. The most common first name in the world is thought to be “Mohammed” or some variation, a name belonging to an estimated 150 million men or boys. It’s thought to be so popular because Muslim families have a tradition of naming their first-born son after the Islamic prophet of the same name. (Source)

Likewise, the name Mary (or some variation like Maria) is believed to be the most common first name among women and girls in the western world, named after the Virgin Mary. (Source)

10. It’s estimated that every second there are 4.3 births and 1.8 deaths (Source), which adds up to a net population gain of 2.5 people per second.

Interesting enough, the recent population explosion isn’t attributed to increased birth rates but decreases in death rates due to improvements in medicine, agriculture yields, urbanization, technology, education, disease prevention, and fewer war fatalities. (Source)

11. While our numbers are swelling, the rate of world population growth has slowed. Today, our population is growing by 1.18 per cent per year (approximately 83 million additional people annually) compared to a growth rate of 1.24 per cent per year only ten years ago. While experts predict we’ll have one billion more people by 2030 (about 8.5 billion total) and 9.7 billion by 2050, that represents a slowing of the population growth rate, with the number of people expected to level off between 9 and 12 billion. (Source)

12. However, 1/3 of population growth in the world is due to accidental or unwanted pregnancies (Source), often because of a lack of basic education, family planning, or healthcare. (Source)

13. Every 20 minutes, 3,000 more people are born into the world. However, in that same amount of time, another plant or animal becomes extinct, adding up to 27,000 extinct species per year. (Source)

14. The countries with the largest populations are China with 1.38 billion, India a close second with 1.32 billion, and the United States with 324 million. Indonesia (260 million) and Brazil (209 million) are next. With a more rapid population growth, India is expected to surpass China in population within a few years. (Source)

15. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd most populous in the world, with 1.39 billion “citizens” logging on to the social networking site every month. (Source)

16. Many experts point not to overpopulation but overconsumption and inequalities in the distribution of resources as the cause of many problems in the world. In fact, the wealthiest 20% of people in the world consume 86% of its goods, with the poorest 20% consuming only 1.3%.

The wealthiest 20% of our total population consume 45% of all meat and fish (the poorest 20% consume only 5%), 58% of total energy (only 4% consumed by the poorest 20%), and the richest 12% of the population use 85% of the world’s water. (Source)

17. 1.2 billion people – or about 20% of the world – live on less that $1 per day, while 1.8 billion (30%) live on less than $2 per day. If those numbers aren’t alarming enough, the gap between rich and poor is growing. In fact, the ratio of the richest to poorest population was 5 to 1 in 1820, 35 to 1 by the 1950s, and 72 to 1 as of 1992. (Source)

36 of the 40 poorest and hungriest countries in the world actually export food to wealthier nations. (Source)

18. In 1800 only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. (Source) However, about half of the world’s population now lives in urban centers. (Source)

It’s expected that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. (Source)

19. In 1900, there were only 12 cities around the world with more than 1 million people. (Source) However, today there are more than 400 cities worldwide with a population of 1 million or more and 19 cities with populations in excess of 10 million. (Source)

20. Across the globe today, 1 in 3 children under the age of 5 – about 230 million – have never been officially registered. As of 2012, only about 60% of all babies born were ever registered, with the lowest levels belonging to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. (Source)

21. A child dies every 20 seconds because of poor sanitation. In fact, 1 in 10 people – or 663 million – don’t have access to safe drinking water around the world. (Source)

22. 2.4 billion people – or 1 in 3 – don’t even have access to a toilet. (Source) Alarmingly, more people on earth today have access to a mobile phone than a toilet. (Source)

23. More than 700 million women in the world were married before the age of 18 (Source), including around 15 million girls forced into marriage in 2015 alone. (Source)

24. Of the 42 million refugees worldwide who have fled their homes because of war, 80 percent are women, girls, or young children, often the target of systematic rape, violence, and terror. (Source)

25. 62 million girls are denied an education every year around the globe (Source), and about 25 percent of young women in developing nations ages 15-24 (115 million total) never finished primary school. (Source)

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I have been deeply saddened by the aftermath of the EU referendum and the things I read on social media…

Yes, it is an emotive subject
Yes, people are scared
Yes, people have a right to their feelings
and yes people have the right to air those feelings

But insulting others with different views is not helping the situation.

Everyone who voted has one thing in common… they voted the way they did because they wanted things to be better!

Nobody voted because they wanted to make things worse!

Of course people have a difference of opinion about what “better” looks like and how it can be achieved and that is ok…

BUT maybe it’s time that we focused on the fact that we are one world!

World peace may seem like a lofty goal and I may sound like a total hippy with her head in the clouds BUT I truly believe that world peace starts within us as individuals!

I believe each and every one of us can and should make a difference in the world and that starts by being the best version of ourselves because when an individual is happy and confident and has an inner peace it ripples out to the people around them.

Politics is about power over others, I want people to believe they have power over themselves, over their own lives and that starts with educating children to think differently.

Yes, kids need to be taught conventional subjects but for the world to be a better place they need to be taught about how they can have inner peace…

• they need to be taught how to be happy
• they need to be taught how to be confident
• they need to be taught about gratitude and forgiveness and kindness
• they need to be taught about the power of breath to control stress
• they need to be taught to harness the power of their mind
• they need to be taught to follow their passions
• they need to be taught to dream
• they need to be taught that the outcome of their life lies in their hands and nobody else’s
• they need to be taught that they have the ability to change the world simply by being their best self… by being who they authentically are rather than trying to fit into who society thinks they should be

They need to be taught that we are one world and they can make it a better place for everyone to live in

The world is in our children’s hands, let’s teach them that the only borders, barriers or boundaries that matter are the self-created barriers that we place on ourselves.

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Last week’s celebration by 1.3 million delirious Cleveland Cavaliers fans over their once-in-a-lifetime basketball championship has suddenly morphed into the Black Hole of next month’s also unprecedented Republican National Convention, with far less local pride, and far less joy. Alarmed that the thousands of protesters might expose and embarrass a potentially dysfunctional and aberrant event, the City enacted regulations on free speech that, to be kind, are arbitrary, restrictive, absurd, and patently unconstitutional. A touch of sanity was just restored after a federal judge forced the City to amend its anti-speech plan.
The City’s regulations are a hodge-podge of the most bizarre limitations on free speech. Speech “zones” and speech “cages” have been used before to squelch free speech. But the City has established a huge area – a 3.5-square mile area dubbed the “Event Zone” – that restricts parades, demonstrations, and speech-making anywhere in that zone. The area is by far the largest zone ever enacted to limit public speech. And within that zone organizations and protest groups seeking to parade, demonstrate, and deliver speeches are subjected to numerous restrictions that make it virtually impossible to communicate directly to relevant parties – delegates, media, politicians – at places where these people likely would be gathering, such as Quicken Loans Arena, the site of the Convention, and at relevant times when the Convention would be in session.
For example, within this large area the regulations designate only one “Official Parade Route,” an isolated route far from the interior of the Event Zone where the Convention would be held. No alternative parade routes are allowed within the Event Zone, even the parade route that the Cavaliers used to celebrate their championship. The parade route follows along a remote boundary far from places where convention goers and bystanders would likely be situated. Indeed, most of the parade route crosses a bridge – labeled “the bridge to nowhere” – where marchers would not be able to view their intended audience and that audience would not be able to see and hear them.
Moreover, parades are limited to a few hours in the morning and afternoon on Convention days, hours that do not overlap with the hours of the Convention, and indeed at a time when delegates and media probably would be sleeping. And the time allotted for a parade is 50 minutes; it is hard to imagine that a parade involving thousands of marchers would be able to traverse and finish the route in that length of time. The City has justified these severe restrictions on speech as legitimate safety and traffic congestion measures.
The City’s regulations also limit speech in public parks, even though parks are quintessential places for speech. There is a large public park in Cleveland, but that park is off limits. Two much smaller parks are allowed for “Public Arts” and “Public Installations,” but speakers are not allowed to bring platforms or soap boxes for their speech. And except for small battery operated bullhorns, no sound amplification equipment is allowed.
The City’s Event Zone was drawn so expansively that it sweeps within its boundaries residential areas, a university, grocery stores and other places where people live, work, shop and conduct their daily lives. Hundreds of homeless people live in the area. The absurdity of the restrictions is illustrated by the items banned – designated “contraband” – that are not allowed to be possessed within the Event Zone. Thus, everyday items, many of which are used by the homeless, including rope, string, tape, tents, sleeping bags, and coolers are prohibited by the regulations. Two grocery stores and many smaller food stores are situated within the Event Zone. But if a shopper carries a can, canned goods, or a bottle of water out of a store, she may be in possession of contraband. University tennis courts are situated within the Event Zone but the regulations outlaw the possession of tennis balls.
Further, the regulations require anyone who wishes to exercise expressive rights within the zone to obtain a permit. Many permit applications have been pending for months. The City processed some applications but not all of them and has not responded to requests for explanations. The City excused its inordinate delay by claiming that the Secret Service had not completed its Convention security plan, which would not be finalized until two weeks before July 18, the beginning of the Convention. Any significant delay to organizations hoping to plan free speech activities at the Convention in terms of cost, logistics, advertising, arranging transportation, and insurance is obviously intolerable. Delaying speech is tantamount to denying speech. It effectively constitutes an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. And to the extent that the City’s obstruction of speech is seen by some people as a provocative act, it can only exacerbate the risk that some people will engage in criminal behavior as a consequence.
Supreme Court precedents have consistently sought to maintain a fair balance between protecting legitimate government interests and safeguarding free speech. Regulating the time, place, and manner of free speech has produced a huge body of Supreme Court jurisprudence. Assuming the government’s interests are legitimate and important, and that the government is not silencing speech because it disagrees with the content of the speaker’s message, the ability to control speech must be no greater than reasonably necessary to accomplish the government’s significant purposes. In effect, the government has to narrowly tailor its regulations to allow the exercise of a fairly broad amount of speech, especially when the speech concerns matters of wide public interest and is sought to be exercised in places that traditionally are used for public speech, such as parks, streets, sidewalks, and plazas. And if some places are off-limits, there must be alternative channels for speech that are at least as effective.
In a preliminary ruling last week, Federal District Judge James S. Gwin found in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU that the Event Zone restrictions plainly transgress the First Amendment. He issued a temporary injunction, and ordered the City to amend its regulations substantially. Judge Gwin did not dispute that Cleveland’s interests in safety and traffic congestion are incontestably legitimate concerns. But he noted that the City would be able to protect its interests without suppressing so much speech. The regulations are not narrow; they are so broad, even draconian, that they make effective speech to a listening audience often impossible. Judge Gwin found that the Event Zone area is far too broad; the time, place, and manner regulations are too restrictive; and the City’s failure to act in a timely manner on permit applications is arbitrary.
As of this writing, the City has agreed to modify its regulations. Exactly what those modifications will be remains to be seen.

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Being a gay man in 2016 begs the question: are people even dating each other anymore? I recently went on a date where I ended up at a small apartment watching a series of Youtube videos called “parachute fails”. It is exactly what it sounds like. After I watched the seventh human body plummet to the ground due to a parachute fail, I turned to my date and said, “these are kind of upsetting to watch, huh”. He just stared at the screen, “Yeah. They’re pretty fucked up.”

I’m not trying to say this guy wasn’t romantic, I’m just trying to say if I’m going to watch more than four people lose their lives before my very eyes I WOULD appreciate dinner first.

In this week’s episode of Go-Go Boy Interrupted, Danny is finally going on a date with his long time crush Keith, but will Danny be able to hold his own? Watch below

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Kids are not supposed to die – especially not at summer camp. But “supposed to” didn’t matter last week when 11-year-old Jadyn Larky died in a freak accident at an overnight camp in southeastern Indiana.

While Jadyn slept, or tried to sleep during a severe thunderstorm, lightning struck an otherwise healthy tree near her cabin. A large part of the tree broke off, crushed the cabin and Jadyn was killed. Her counselors and bunkmates were physically unharmed.

Kids are supposed to tye-dye at camp. Not actually die. They’re supposed to drink bug juice. They’re supposed swim in the lake, roast marshmallows and have color wars.

Camp is supposed to be a place where young people learn about independence, step outside their comfort zone and figure out that, even after doing so, they are actually okay.

I can’t stop thinking about Jadyn and her family because I also sent an 11-year-old to overnight camp. Perhaps my son and Jadyn even left on the same day.

I keep thinking that Jadyn’s last night at home was probably very similar to my son’s. Last-minute packing. Dinner at a favorite restaurant. Extra hugs and kisses and reassurance to help ease the pre-camp jitters.

Tragedy is all around us. We’re still grieving over the loss of 2-year-old Lane Graves, the toddler killed by an alligator at a hotel at Disney World – the happiest place on earth (although many kids will argue that overnight camp is the happiest place on earth). Toddlers aren’t supposed to die, either. Especially not at Disney.

“Supposed to” doesn’t matter. Life is full of worry and uncertainty. Still, we hope for the best and rely on the notion that horrible things are not supposed to happen to children. Not just our own children, but any child. Even before Jadyn died, I worried about trees falling on kids who spend their summer in tiny cabins in the woods. I worry about lightning strikes and tornados. I worry about drowning in the lake. I worry about Lyme disease, Zika virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses.

Kids aren’t supposed to die at camp. They are supposed to canoe. They’re supposed to learn archery, ride horses and hear scary stories. Jadyn was supposed to do all that. But then a tree fell on her cabin. Now, instead of listening to ghost stories, Jadyn’s family and friends along with camp staff will forever be haunted by the night lightning struck a tree, crushed a cabin and killed an 11-year-old girl who was supposed to be having the time of her life.

So is there a takeaway from all this? We’ve already heard people say “Hug your kids a little tighter tonight,” and we know that tragedy can happen anytime at any place, even the happiest places on earth.

Sadly, there is no takeaway except that “supposed to” doesn’t mean anything. An 11-year-old went away to camp and now she isn’t coming back. It could have been anyone’s child. It should have been no one’s child.

Kids are not supposed to die.

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