Category Archives: Culture

Microsoft Vice President Margo Day Helps Build Girls’ School, Safe Haven in Kenya

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2010Culture, Technologyafrica, amsft, claire mungai, elephants, gail, go to africa, Kenya, kihanya, life changing experience, lions, margo day, microsoft employees, nairobi, philanthropic work, pokot region, redmond, safari, st elizabeth school, Tanzania, the africans at microsoft, united states, us small and midmarket solutions, wildebeests, world vision

*An encounter with 35 young girls in Kenya prompted Margo Day to start a secondary school there. The school will also be a refuge for girls who fled their homes to avoid the traditional practice of female genital mutilation.*

REDMOND, Wash. — When Margo Day went on a safari last year in Africa, she more or less knew what to expect. She had traveled in Kenya and Tanzania 16 years earlier, where she had what she calls a life-changing experience watching lions, elephants and wildebeests roam the plains. She returned to Kenya last fall to share that experience with her 19-year-old niece, Gail.

What Day didn’t expect was meeting 35 young girls who would change her life. But Day, who serves as West regional vice president of U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners at Microsoft, had also wanted to do some philanthropic work on her trip. So she and her niece spent the last four days of their tripin remote northern Kenya with a team from World Vision, an international nonprofit that helps children, families and communities overcome poverty and injustice. The day before Day and her niece flew back to the U.S., they visited a primary school that also housed a rescue center run by World Vision. (more…)

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Named ‘Person of the Year’ by Time

By PravdaDecember 15, 2010Culture, Technologydefinitions of privacy, earth, editor, founder of facebook, harvard university, Mark Zuckerberg, MySpace, News Corp., person of the year, richard stengel, social networking site, sophomore, t-shirt-wearing head-of-state, third largest country, time magazine, Wall Street, zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook Inc., was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” today for “creating a new system of exchanging information” and “changing how we all live our lives.”

Zuckerberg, 26, began the world’s largest social-networking site in 2004. The service, with more than 500 million users, has helped people connect with each other and changed definitions of privacy, Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel said in a letter on the magazine’s website. (more…)

Marijuana Use is Rising; Ecstasy Use is Beginning to Rise; and Alcohol Use is Declining Among U.S. Teens

By Guest PostDecember 15, 20104 commentsCulture, Healthalcohol, american, amphetamines, barbiturates, club drugs, cocaine, daily use of marijuana, drug abuse, ecstasy, heroin, lloyd johnston, marijuana, marijuana use, monitoring the future, narcotics, needle, oxycontin, pervasiveness, sedatives, teens, vicodin

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Several important findings come out of this year’s Monitoring the Future study, the 36th annual, national survey of American teens in a series that launched in 1975.

• Marijuana use, which had been rising among teens for the past two years, continues to rise again this year—a sharp contrast to the considerable decline of the preceding decade.

• Ecstasy use—which fell out of favor in the early 2000s as concerns about its dangers grew—appears to be making a comeback this year, following a considerable recent decline in the belief that its use is dangerous.

• Alcohol use—and, specifically, occasions of heavy drinking—continues its long-term decline among teens into 2010, reaching historically low levels. (more…)

‘Music and Caroling an Important Part of Holiday Celebrations’

By Guest PostDecember 14, 20101 commentCultureamerican music research center, americans, beliefs, carol, caroling, celebrate, celebration, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, community activity, country life, dance song, english, frosty the snowman, germans, holiday songs, holidays, jingle bells, joy to the world, midnight clear, music, musicologist, natural, rudolph the red nosed reindeer, secular, silent night, singing, the christmas song, thomas riis

During the holidays, no matter how you celebrate or what your beliefs, music is almost always an important part of the celebration, according to Thomas Riis, a musicologist and director of the American Music Research Center in the University of Colorado at Boulder’s College of Music.

“Singing brings people together and is a natural and comfortable community activity,” Riis said. (more…)

‘Art and the Unbreakable Spirit of Haiti’ opens Jan. 9 at Fowler Museum at UCLA

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2010Cultureart, artistic, christmas lanterns, deborah sontag, divine revolution, filmmaker, fowler in focus, fowler museum, haiti, haitian arts, haitian experience, historic moments, jonathan demme, madison smartt bell, new york times, paintings, patrick a polk, port au prince, ritual practice, saluting vodou spirits, unbreakable spirit, united states, vodou temples

*Related event Jan. 29 features filmmaker Jonathan Demme, journalists, scholars*

Showcasing a selection of works collected by the Fowler Museum at UCLA over the past five decades, “Fowler in Focus: Art and the Unbreakable Spirit of Haiti” juxtaposes pieces produced for the international art market with those used in Port-au-Prince Vodou temples and nationwide seasonal festivities.

The pieces illustrate how crucial aspects of the Haitian experience — including significant dates and galvanizing events — are made tangible through artistic and ritual practice. (more…)

Amazon.com Announces Best Music of 2010

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2010Culture, TechnologyAmazon, arcade fire, best music of 2010, best of 2010 music, broken bells, contra, craig pape, editors picks, eminem, jeff reguilon, kanye west, music store, my beautiful dark twisted fantasy, recovery, rock to pop, sigh no more, top 100 albums

*Amazon music editors reveal the best music of the year; Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire are top editors’ picks; Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum lead Customer Favorites*

SEATTLE, Dec 09, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com, Inc. today announced its picks for best music of 2010. The list includes the editors’ picks for the Top 100 Albums of the Year, Top 100 Customer Favorites and a breakdown of Best of the Year lists in a variety of musical genres. To see all of the Best of 2010 music lists go to www.amazon.com/bestmusic2010.

“From the stunning debut of editors’ pick Broken Bells, to the triumphant return of customer favorite Eminem, we heard a lot of great music this year,” said Craig Pape, director of Music at Amazon.com. “Our Best Music of 2010 lists are designed to help customers navigate through the rich selection of releases and discover new artists they might not normally pick on their own.” (more…)

Why Married Men Tend to Behave Better

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Cultureaggressive behavior, alexandra burt, antisocial, antisocial behavior, brian hicks, genetically informative, marriage, married twin, matrimony, men, researchers, s alexandra burt, social bonding, unmarried twin

S. Alexandra Burt, associate professor of psychology and behavioral geneticist. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers have long argued that marriage generally reduces illegal and aggressive behaviors in men. It remained unclear, however, if that association was a function of matrimony itself or whether less “antisocial” men were simply more likely to get married.

The answer, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University behavior geneticist, appears to be both.

In the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, S. Alexandra Burt and colleagues found that less antisocial men were more likely to get married. Once they were wed, however, the marriage itself appeared to further inhibit antisocial behavior.

“Our results indicate that the reduced rate of antisocial behavior in married men is more complicated than we previously thought,” said Burt, associate professor of psychology. “Marriage is generally good for men, at least in terms of reducing antisocial behavior, but the data also indicate that it’s not random who enters into the state of marriage.” (more…)

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teens Singled Out for Punishment

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2010Culture, Generaladd health, adult convictions, arrests, bisexual, courts, gay, hannah brueckner, juvenile convictions, kathryn himmelstein, lesbian, lgb adolescents, lgb youth, misbehaviors, new york city, police, same sex, school authorities, school expulsions, sexual orientation, types of punishment, yale university

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are about 40 percent more likely than other teens to be punished by school authorities, police and the courts, according to a study by Yale University researchers. Published in the January 2011 issue of the journal Pediatrics, the study is the first to document excessive punishment of LGB youth nationwide.

“We found that virtually all types of punishment—including school expulsions, arrests, juvenile convictions, adult convictions and especially police stops—were more frequently meted out to LGB youth,” said lead author Kathryn Himmelstein, who initiated the study while she was a Yale undergraduate. The research was supervised by Hannah Brueckner, professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Research on Inequalities and the Life Course at Yale. (more…)