All Global News on One Page

At eight, when all my peers wanted Easy-Bake ovens, I wanted the electric hotplate that turned plastigoop into tarantulas, worms and beetles. It was called Creepy Crawlers and I look back at that Christmas wish as the starting gate of my life’s misspent culinary arc.
It’s not that I don’t adore food… I might even call myself a

The Hill reported this morning on a groundbreaking report from Cornell University researchers confirming that shale gas recovered through high volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” will produce even more greenhouse gases than the burning of coal in the next two decades — a critical window in which society must reduce emissions to combat climate change.
While natural gas is often viewed as a “cleaner alternative” to conventional fossil fuels — and is often promoted as a “bridge fuel” by environmentalists and politicians alike — the new Cornell report explodes this myth. Gas is not just a “bridge to nowhere,” it turns out to be a highway to hell. The Cornell study makes clear that the widely-held perception that gas is the “cleaner” darling of the fossil fuel trio is a

Here’s a head-scratcher: how can something so tiny create such massive misery? Minuscule though they are, head lice still can wreak months of havoc on a household. My own grandchildren have played host to these persistent parasites — which have a way of withstanding repeated comb-outs and drenchings with powerful insect-killing shampoos.
While lice have a high ick factor — bet your own scalp itches as you read this post — the bugs themselves are fairly harmless. They don’t carry diseases. They just really gross most of us

I took a leap back into the homeless-journalism vortex recently in my Pavement transmedia series for the LA Weekly. I went out with a camera in the pounding rain and froze my ass off for a few days with some people sleeping on the street in Sun Valley, California.
The same thing happens that always happens. I got a lot of emails and FB messages from bleeding hearts, Christian do-gooders, enraged activists, youngsters who felt a call to action and people who were deeply saddened by what they saw: suffering. The recent Huffington Post article about me and my Pavement series unleashed a downpour of the same.
Last week with, I connected with a group of homeless, 20-something wanderers in Venice Beach, California on another

Eric Whitacre started out college wanting to be the fifth member of Depeche Mode. But he discovered choir and it changed his life.
Now he composes classical choral works of music. In a TED conference talk, he told an audience how a young women sang a portion of one of his works on

According to the last study by the National Center for Educational Statistics:
Female high school graduates are more likely than male graduates to have taken geometry, algebra II, pre-calculus, biology, and chemistry.
Females are more likely than their male classmates to participate in music or performing arts, belong to academic clubs, work on the school yearbook or newspaper, or participate in student government.
Last month, The White House’s Women in America Report noted that those trends continue in college:
Greater percentages of females attend college.
Females are more likely to attend and graduate from college without dropping out.
Females are more likely to earn a graduate school degree.
And the 2010 “Women in the Labor Force: A Databook,” compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reflects similar developments in the workforce:
Women account for 51 percent of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations, somewhat more than their share of total employment (47 percent).
The increase in female managers coming to the table with undergraduate and graduate degrees is greater than the increases in male managers.
So, are you ready for reality?
Women earn 77 percent of what men earn.
Equal Pay Day, which signifies the point into the year that a woman must work to earn what a man made, falls on Tuesday, April 12 this year.
Wait, what? That’s right; and it’s not what you were expecting, is it?
Truth be told, we should expect more for our working women, and they get

Kevin Satterwhite of Valdosta, Ga., could hardly contain his excitement as he and his mother approached the small Cirrus sr22 four-seater plane. It was to be the 8-year-old’s first flight ever, and like every young boy, he was in awe that a vehicle larger than his grandmother’s truck could actually soar with the birds.
But despite the delighted look on the boy’s face, this was no joy ride. Atlanta Angel Flight volunteer pilot Skip Moore and his wife, Victoria, had flown to Valdosta to pick up Kevin and his mom for another round of chemotherapy at AFLAC Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where he was being treated for rare inoperable malignant tumors. It was only one of many missions the Moore’s have taken to transport fragile children (and adults) to and from medical treatment — all free of

When a recording artist releases a great song or album, it will not be widely heard until the tune is played by our nation’s DJs. DJs are responsible for getting music to the public, getting the crowd hyped at a party and promoting the work of recording artists. Without DJs, good music would be like a tree falling in the forest — it really wouldn’t matter if it made a sound. But I’m not writing to talk about what the music industry needs to

What if children of all ages rose up and marched in unison to their government capitals, demanding their rights — human rights to a home, a family, education, and a childhood? Their ranks would be filled with small, thin waifs who live in the street; child laborers and child prostitutes; boys and girls regularly beaten by their caregivers; and perpetually hungry children who have never been to school. This group would swell to millions of children who have lost their parents to AIDS, and millions more who have lost all their kin to civil war and forced migration.
This army of children would have no guns or even sticks, only high-pitched voices that collectively create a huge din, imploring grown-ups to really see them and help them because they are too small to vote or bear arms. What government could turn away from all these little souls, especially with cameras rolling? What adults could deny these sweet eyes and weary faces searching for a way to reach their human potential?
Maybe their march starts in an African capital with an AIDS rate that has stolen a generation of parents from millions of children. From there the protests spread across other African countries to Asia and Latin

This past weekend in Manhattan, three mounted NYPD officers led a procession of Iranians, Zoroastrians, Kurds, Armenians, and Los Angeles recording artists. The officer in the middle carried a flag that has not been officially recognized by the Iranian government of the past three decades.
It was a surreal moment which kicked off a truly festive afternoon. Sunday marked the 8th Annual Persian Day Parade, a jubilant jaunt down Madison Avenue in which tri-state Iranian-Americans mark the end of weeks of celebration surrounding the Persian New Year and the arrival of spring.
In the wake of countless protests and brutal crackdowns in Iran and an ever-increasing domestic skepticism of people of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim dissent, the parade was a joyous reminder that a great deal of American hospitality for other cultures

Besides the political brinkmanship played out with the federal budget negotiations this past week, the talk of the town in D.C. has been about who would run against President Obama next year.
The Republican party has been shaking their political trees across the country in search of a perfect candidate. Look who falls from the political tea leaves of expectations: Donald Trump, the New Yorker who exudes money and

Sike! You can call it a comeback. And you should. R&B is absolutely making a return and I’m thrilled about it. In the last handful of years it seems the music industry has been about all things not R&B: pop (GaGa Mania and Bieber Fever), hip hop (Kid Cudi, Drake and Nicki Manaj — the audibly omnipresent trifecta), and rock n roll (every band on every car commercial, hello?).
Yes, R&B is still around of

Forbes Celebrity top 10 Earners, 2010 (In millions)
Oprah Winfrey — $315. James Cameron — $210. U2 — $130. Tyler Perry —

MILWAUKEE — Nice guy. Nasty plan.
Watch Paul Ryan flying back and forth to Washington, greeting constituents as he boards the plane — he’s warm and friendly, perfectly approachable. He’s everybody’s favorite son.
Or chat with him about tax policy and tax politics — as I’ve had the occasion to do, if only briefly, after a couple of those flights — and he’s engaging, informed, refreshingly candid.
But this latest budget proposal of his? “The Path to Prosperity,” he calls it?
More like “Ryan’s Road to Ruin.”
That’s not true for everybody, of course. For some people, it’s “Let the good times roll!” But for others? Not so

I am, dear reader, a man of my word. When I say I’ll do something, I will — barring hell or high-water — do it.
This month the thing that I have said I will do is to stay a single night in every hotel on the Las Vegas strip, starting with the cheapest and working my way to the most expensive. And true to my word, I’m writing these words from room 2627 of the Riviera Hotel

Silence is sometimes called a virtue. Silence can also be deadly.
I remain convinced that teachers and administrators are in the most vulnerable of positions during this destructive reform movement based on high-stakes testing and so called accountability. I remain convinced that any form of resistance to the market-based reform narrative being thrust on schools will be met with swift

Catch Me If You Can: The Musical is a con man’s story, and the biggest con is the show itself. Like seeing a superbly performed magic trick, we’re going to buy it, and happily revel in being duped, or that is what is promised: a conceit that separates this traditional Broadway vehicle from the 2002 caper movie of its inspiration.
From the beginning, we see Frank Abagnale, Jr. arrested at a Miami airport for an array of misdeeds and

I was not quick to jump on the anti-Cathie Black bandwagon when she was first appointed as chancellor of schools in New York City. I believed a shakeup was needed and that a DOE (Department of Education) insider was the worst possible candidate. The new chancellor of NYC (New York City) schools, Dennis Walcott, is both an insider and an outsider, but he has two mighty credentials; he is a black man who was educated in New York City schools and he worked for two years as a kindergarten teacher.
I never worked as a kindergarten teacher, but I taught first grade for a year, so I know how a year of teaching very young children can serve as a boot-camp, or crash course in classroom management. A good teacher of early readers and pre-readers rapidly learns to make frequent use of art, music, movement and humor in the

Things are looking up in the effort to preserve clean air protections and to keep the Clean Air Act intact. For months, polluters and their allies in Congress have been trying to strip away the protections that keep our air safe to breathe. But in the past few days, 4 anti-clean air amendments have failed miserably in the Senate, 34 senators have declared their support for the Clean Air Act, and now some members of the GOP are indicating they might give some ground on the dirty policy riders they’ve attached to the spending bill — policy riders that don’t save a single red cent.
Two forces are helping break up the logjam: the renewed leadership from clean air champions and the apparent waning influence of Tea Party supporters. But the fight is definitely not

Representative Paul Ryan, the architect of the GOP’s long-term budget proposal, would hotly dispute the claim that he hates kids. He’d tell you that he’s a good family man, a good father to his three children and a good churchgoer, and there’s no reason to question those bona fides. Like any politician, when the Wisconsin congressman is on the campaign trail he probably hugs every baby in sight, since children make great photo ops.
But it’s an entirely different story when it comes to helping American youngsters: Ryan’s budget plan is flat-out hostile to their

Much of the buzz around the educational benefits of Internet technology has focused on the potential for the classroom — or perhaps, if we add to that, the boom in mobile technology, the potential to bridge the classroom and the home.
But the Internet is doing far more than opening doors for K-12 and higher education students. It’s also a huge boon for “lifelong learners,” those students — students of any age — that are pursuing educational opportunities in informal settings and outside degree programs.
The idea of “lifelong learning” isn’t a new one. The idea of self-motivated, self-directed learning became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, although “continuing education” and “adult education” have roots that go much farther back in history.
It may be clich to say that it’s possible to learn anything you want online. Indeed, information on almost any topic is accessible, if not

The women were screaming at the officials. People pushed and shoved their way to the stairs. Pre-election violence? People trying to leave the capital out of fear of the elections? No, instead the scene was at the Abuja airport and passengers were pushing to get a seat on the last plane to Yola, Nigeria, so they could vote in Nigeria’s nationwide elections.
Most of the international media has portrayed the current elections as chaotic, disorderly, and violence-prone. Listening to the BBC and CNN you would think Nigeria is on the brink of anarchy and widespread

Maureen Dowd’s op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times — Blowin’ in the Idiot Wind — lambasts singer-songwriter/protest-singer/civil-rights-activist/voice-of-a-generation/whatever-he-is-to-you Bob Dylan for his recent concert in Beijing, China. For Dowd, Dylan’s acceptance of the Chinese government’s approval of his set list is anathema to everything he represents. Dropping his famous protest songs of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” from the set list during China’s most severe crackdown on its own citizens since 1989 and ignoring the recent detention of Chinese rights activists shows, for Dowd, that Dylan is nothing more than a sellout, willing to auction his morals to the highest bidder.
But Dowd’s virulent critique of Dylan makes one wonder, where has she been in all of this? Dowd is an obvious Dylan fan, likely even a disciple, with her skilled use of Dylan quotes and understanding of the man’s extremely tangled and uncomfortable history with

Would you consider any of the following fun to learn?
The formula for the circumference of a circle
Finding the slope of a line
Determining the coefficient of static friction between two materials
Finding the instantaneous velocity of a moving object
Physical meaning behind Newton’s laws
Most people consider these as boring things that would only interest a nerd. What if I told you students of all ages from third grade to college are excited about learning hard core science and math? Unbelievable, but true, thanks to robotics. Robotics is an exciting field. It fascinates and engages people of all