All Global News on One Page

Students compete to demonstrate their manufacturing technology skills at the SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City, Mo. Photo courtesy of Autodesk.
Over two decades ago when the U.S. shifted its investment from a manufacturing economy to one focused on the financial and technology industries, education followed suit. The unintended result: a curriculum and career counseling environment that discourages kids from pursuing careers in manufacturing that require sophisticated hands-on math and technology

Many of us in North America spend our summer weekends and long evenings lounging on [eco] patio furniture, playing with [green] beach balls, or waterskiing across the lake on skis [made with bio-based materials]. Perhaps you prefer standing on your [wooden] deck, barbequing with [greener] tongs and trays.
Integrating green into your lifestyle doesn’t mean you have to change it. Not in summer, nor any other time of the year.
Although many consumer products are not currently eco-friendly, we can begin to make them greener and

During a two-week journey through Thailand, I set out on a quest to prepare my soul for the preliminary stages of enlightenment. I wished to be freed from the vicious cycle of human desires and rid my thoughts of impurities to ultimately find a meditative state of peace. It would be an arduous task, but I was prepared to ward off any temptation that came my way.
Before embarking on my trip, I researched several cultural experiences, hoping to find one that would open my eyes to a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle; leading the way to Sotpanna (the first stage of

I recently came back from sitting on a beach in Spain for a few days listening to a lot of new music on my iPod. Being far away from our American airwaves for a while got me thinking about what pop music means today. You can get a lot of thinking done when your brain is not being filled with the latest efforts of Ke$ha and a parade of reality show contestants. And after all that seaside listening and not entirely shallow thought, here’s what I decided: I don’t give a damn what pop music means anymore to anyone

Israel’s mired peace talks, expanding settlements and renewed violence have become all too familiar. Despite the rise and fall of many Jewish and Arab leaders, dramatic changes in official policies, swings in the political will of the citizenry, and perpetual waves of pressure from the international community, these conditions have remained the status quo. This pattern has developed into a state that conflict scholars label intractable and that mathematicians call an attractor: the Israel-Palestinian conflict has thus become an intractable attractor.
Experts estimate that about five percent of international conflicts become intractable: highly destructive, enduring and resistant to multiple good-faith attempts at resolution. These conflicts seem to develop a power of their own that is inexplicable and total, driving groups to act in ways that go against their best interests and sow the seeds of their own

Also by Stephenie Stewart, Matt Resnick, Andre Woolery
AOL and KBSP recently teamed up to run a competition for the most innovative use of their new DareDevil ad unit. The four winners, young execs from the agency, won the first prize trip to Cannes. They were all new to the festival, and here is their guide.
1 of 24
The Dos:
1 of 25
First Slide
Previous Slide
@
Do: Win a contest with AOL for their new DareDevil unit and get an all-expenses paid trip to Cannes by #winning.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Pity the health-food nut on a cross-country road trip. Or worse yet, imagine a carful of vegans cruising along what’s left of Route 66. It’s not that a healthy diet is impossible in food-obsessed America. Rather, those with dietary restrictions are missing out on an important road trip tradition: eating weird food you find at gas stations, all-night convenience stores, and creepy small-town restaurants.
When preparing for a road trip, it’s tempting to stockpile your trunk with giant bags of chips and liters of

Many people ask me what the difference is between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Both ADHD and OCD seem to be highly heritable: if you have it, it’s likely that at least one of your parents also has it. When you have ADHD, one of the issues is that your brain has a low level of a chemical called dopamine. When you have OCD, one of the issues is that your brain has too much of a chemical called

Always begin with gratitude. This is the wisdom advice that comes to us from many of the world’s indigenous and contemplative teachings. In this spirit, we begin our first blog for The Huffington Post exploring this profoundly transformative spiritual practice, and invite you to join us in taking this powerful awareness and action into your heart and onto your path of deepening spirit in daily life, work, and relationships.
The practice of gratitude antidotes two root sufferings that pervade the human experience. The first can be characterized as a feeling of “insufficiency” — not having enough or not being

The Relentless Conservative watched Obama’s press conference yesterday with a little glee and a lot of worry.
Glee, because the news media are finally asking our president tough questions — yes, even Chuck Todd, NBC correspondent, unrepentant liberal and former Democratic campaign operative, asked a few vaguely challenging questions before being cued to sit down and shut up.
The late Tim Russert hand picked Todd, whose toadying followers are called “Chuckolytes,” to accept the torch of Chief-of-Smug for liberal TV. He now treats all Conservatives with Russert’s same snarky, condescending style. How can someone who worked for Democratic Presidential candidate Tom Harkin, then became a ‘journalist,’ wrap himself in journalistic integrity? Only in the Liberal Media.
Back to the “worry.” I’ve never seen a president so arrogant, so defiant, so full of himself. No way the American people should accept his claims that his “party has already accepted the need for substantial spending cuts” (they hadn’t, until the outraged American people demanded that they stop the wild spending); his repeated, shameful scolding of Republicans, when this mess we’re in is his and only his creation; and the desperate-sounding reference to his daughter’s homework assignments in regard to, once again, the

When I was a kid, you had to be at home or at work to make or receive a call and if you wanted to watch a movie on a TV screen, you had to wait until one of your few local stations put it on the air.
The “good old days” weren’t all that good
The closest thing we had to texting was telegrams. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the average person in 1960 had to work for 84 minutes to earn enough to send a 10 word international message.
Long distance calls were so expensive that my family, which lived in Los Angeles, only called our New York relatives on special occasions. In 1964, the Associated Press ran a story about AT&T “slashing” long distance rates to $1 per three-minute call after 8 p.m. and all day

“The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy but where are they.”
–King Agis of Sparta, as quoted in Plutarch’s Sayings of Spartans<
One of our dear friends and Santa Fe neighbors passed on this past week. Fellow Greek American, Nicholas Charles Nickeas, or "Nick Charles" as most people knew him, was widely-known and respected as an American sportscaster and journalist. A pioneer in the field, he was one of CNN's first on-air personalities. True to his Greek Spartan roots, Nick had been heroically battling bladder cancer since 2009 and never gave up on

Revive, rejuvenate or completely rescue your dry, dull or lifeless hair and skin with nature’s pure and potent properties. Eight all-natural recipes made with fresh, organic and raw ingredients offer a variety of beneficial results for your hair and skin. Try topical applications of these scrubs, serums and tinctures and watch the quick and transforming results — right from your kitchen cupboard or local health-food market!
Remember to prepare your rescue remedies by using fresh and organic ingredients. Have fun roaming your local farmers

As we look at the obesity epidemic that’s widening waistlines and thickening coronary arteries across the country, it can be helpful to start with obesity in adults and work our way backward. Thanks to a new report, we can trace the roots of adult obesity to a younger age than you might have suspected.
Let’s start with adults. More than one-third of adults ages 20 and older are now overweight. An equal number are overweight to a severe enough degree that they’re classified as

The dog days of summer are here, and there are a lot of well … hot dogs. Most people and pets know how to find fun in the sun, but staying safe, healthy and hydrated is an often-overlooked component of outdoor fun for our four-legged friends. So, don’t let your dog suffer as a hot dog! Follow these tips and you’ll be sure to have a tail wagging good time this summer regardless of

Authorities in the US state of Massachusetts are trying to find out how a body lay unnoticed in a swimming pool for more than two days as the public continued to use the facility.

Marie Joseph, 36, had used a slide at the Veterans Memorial Pool in Fall River on Sunday but failed to return to the surface.

A boy reportedly told staff but the body was only found when teenagers broke in for a clandestine night swim.

The pool was described as "cloudy".

Massachusetts has closed dozens of state-run swimming pools while investigations continue.

Two pool inspectors have been placed on administrative

When Andy Roddick was recently asked for the umpteenth time about the apparent decline of tennis in his country, the world number 10 gave a weary response.

"I think we're kind of a victim of our own success over the years in the sport," he said. "If you still stack us up against most countries, we're coming out ahead."

Tennis has always had a strongly international flavour, but for every Borg, Lendl, Becker or Edberg, there was always a McEnroe, Connors, Sampras or Agassi.

That balance is now shifting away from the US, raising questions for the sport.

At Wimbledon this year there were no US players in the women's quarter final, and only one man – Mardy Fish – in the last eight.

The US has been the leading market for tennis and still boasts more tournaments than any other country – 12 on the men's side and 10 on the women's, as well as the richest purse at the US Open – but the battle for TV viewers and on-site spectators is fierce.

And while both Roddick and compatriot Mardy Fish remain just inside the world's top 10, and the women's game boasts the biggest names out there in Venus and Serena Williams, as those players approach or pass 30 years old, the golden days appear to running out.
Television figures
With that in mind, "global" is the key word on tennis administrators' lips these days, and it seems the American audience is holding firm for now.

"Television numbers haven't wildly fluctuated between, say, Serena Williams winning the women's side of a major on a Saturday and Roger Federer winning the men's side on a Sunday," says Eric Abner of Tennis Channel, an American subscription service that covers almost every event in the tennis year.

• LTA sees long-term tennis future
• Tennis and fashion industries mix
• Tennis ball company bounces back
• Wimbledon eyes another profitable year
• From tennis court to boardroom
• Wimbledon finals set for 3D broadcasts
• Li Na – corporate sponsors' dream ticket?
• French Open serves up expansion plan
• Follow the BBC's tennis coverage
• Special Report: Business of Sport

"Alongside the general similarities in viewer tune-in at all four Grand Slams throughout the year, regardless of the champions' countries, it would suggest that strong, entertaining performances from well-known players is more of a factor than contender nationality."

The leading names, such as Rafael Nadal, clearly carry a level of interest no matter where they

By Leonard Maltin
Stupid Movie Season continues apace, but there are alternatives for any smart moviegoer who wants to make the effort. If you still haven’t seen Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip, or Don McGlynn’s Rejoice and Shout, you owe yourself that triple-treat. As usual, a couple of documentaries have commanded their fair share of attention alongside fictional fare.
What’s more, two of the year’s most interesting films are now available for viewing on demand, as well as on DVD: Barney’s Version, a free adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s novel starring Paul Giamatti as a lifelong wastrel who finally finds true love, in spite of himself, and the stunning French import Of Gods and Men, which takes place in Algeria, where an outpost of Trappist monks must decide whether it is safe for them to stay and continue their mission.
Films like this renew the spirit, I find, especially when it seems as if Hollywood, which used to make good movies for a diverse audience all the time, only wants to appeal to young people and over-aged adolescents who aren’t very

Finally we can speak about what is really at stake in the DSK case. More information is coming out, one day after the new IMF head if officially named, is this also a coincidence? And while we do not know the outcome, nor were any of us in that hotel room, (and yes maids are confronted with horrific sexual advances and worse all the time by clients of hotels all over the world and that needs to stop) we are not nave children and what is at stake here is not simply one woman’s reputation and well-being, nor the Presidency of France, it is much bigger than that.
The world is changing dramatically. The West is losing its dominance and many forces are at work as a new rebalancing process of power and wealth tilts us in varying directions. The metaphor of an African immigrant coming to America, looking for a better life, is now turning into a nightmare of lost dreams and

(photo credit: Steve Clemons, The Washington Note)(This article is appearing simultaneously at TheAtlantic.com)News is breaking that the prosecutor’s case in the rape allegations against former IMF Director and French political kingpin Dominique Strauss-Kahn is collapsing.According to reports, the accuser who worked at New York’s Hotel Sofitel has allegedly been engaged in money laundering activities and has had substantial contact with an incarcerated drug dealer. Strauss-Kahn’s bails and terms of detention are reportedly going to be lightened today — and others are suggesting that felony charges may be dropped against him.Maybe he did harass this woman — but it is also possible that he did not. That’s what the system of justice is for — to presume innocence until guilt is determined. That no longer sounds likely in this

A Conversation with Joe Jackson
Mike Ragogna: Joe, how are you?
Joe Jackson: Doing well Mike, thanks.
MR: Live Music is your sixth live album, isn’t it?
JJ: Is it? (laughs) Wow. I don’t know, I haven’t been counting. (laughs)
MR: You like performing, don’t you, Joe.
JJ: Yeah, I do. I think it’s the best part of this madness that I’m involved

An article I read on CNN.com prompted me to take stylus to iPad and begin writing this commentary. The article talked about Greek Americans to the rescue — organizing to help the homeland in her time of need. The headline was intriguing enough to warrant a click through from my Facebook newsfeed. Unfortunately, the story itself was

A roundabout revolution is slowly sweeping the US. The land of the car, where the stop sign and traffic light have ruled for decades, has started to embrace the free-flowing British circular.

A few moments after entering Carmel, it's clear why the city has been described as the Milton Keynes of the US.

As the sat-nav loudly and regularly points out, there's often a roundabout up ahead.

But unlike in the English town famous for them, driving into this pretty city on the outskirts of Indianapolis also involves passing several more under construction.
“Start QuoteWe are saving thousands of gallons of fuel per roundabout per year”
End QuoteMayor of Carmel, Jim BrainardThe city is at the forefront of a dizzying expansion, across several American states, of the circular traffic intersection redesigned in 1960s Britain and then exported globally. The first arrived in the US in 1990 and about 3,000 have sprung up since.

The Mayor of Carmel, Jim Brainard, has become America's evangelist-in-chief on the matter,demolishing 78 sets of traffic lights and replacing them with those round islands so familiar to drivers in the UK. Four more will be finished in the coming months.

"We have more than any other city in the US," he says, standing proudly in front of one. "It's a trend now in the United States. There are more and more roundabouts being built every day because of the expense saved and more importantly the safety."

He quotes a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which suggests there is on average a 40% decrease in all accidents and a 90% drop in fatal ones when a traffic intersection is replaced by a

In the days after California voters approved Proposition 8 in 2008, the measure that stripped away from gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry, people began talking about how progress had stalled, and how the organizations that were supposed to be advancing the cause of LGBT rights had become ineffectual.
As we celebrate the New York marriage vote and the 42nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, it’s time to take real pride in the LGBT organizations that do us proud every day of the year. Working together, this valiant group of underfunded, overwhelmed and scrappy organizations and their leaders, staff and volunteers has delivered (and continues to deliver) historic gains for LGBT people across the country.
Let’s start with some facts. By any objective measure, the LGBT movement has made extraordinary progress in a short period of time. In just the last 10 years:
–The number of states (including the District of Columbia) protecting lesbian, gay and bisexual people from discrimination almost doubled to 22, and these states cover 44 percent of the