GlobalShift

There are a lot of videos on You Tube of individual people tagging or groups of people bombing all kinds of public surfaces; buses, trains, buildings, billboards. Mostly young men, their faces masked to protect their identities from this obviously illegal act. Their graffiti is expression as well as competition as evidenced by the numerous comments on each video. Their cruel words to each other would make the meanest art critic cringe. As an artist I will say that very rarely do I see anything that resembles unique expression, mostly it’s messy boy splatter that’s more about leaving a mark than creating anything meaningful. But, at least on the You Tube comments section, I keep my opinions to myself

Prom is a big part of the high school experience. Imagine if you were told you weren’t allowed to go. Not because you broke any rules or did anything wrong, but simply because you were gay, and wanted to bring your same-sex partner with you. Sound fair? It’s not, nor is it legal, so instead [...]

The Oscars got a taste of social awareness when the winners of the best documentary, “The Cove,” held up a sign encouraging people to text money that would go to saving the dolphins, the main point of their movie that chronicles dolphin hunts in Japan.
The man with the sign was dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry, who [...]

Recently, Detroit’s leaders announced a unique plan to save the dying city. The plan calls for almost a quarter of the city to be demolished and returned to fields and grassland. Detroit is a big city, roughly 139 square miles (think of it as an equivalent to six Manhattans) and it can no longer support itself. One of the biggest problems is the amount of police, firemen, and ambulance drivers it takes to cover the large city.

American Idol judge Simon Cowell may be hard on human beings but he’s soft on animals. To prove it, he’s pledged his support to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and its campaign to get international recognition for animal welfare. They call it the  “Why Animals Matter to Me” program and here [...]

Say you’re eating dinner in a restaurant and the person at the next table has a heart attack and collapses. There is about a ten minute window before the person is brain dead. Besides calling 911, would you know what to do?

Modern journalism is changing, and this has wide effects on democracy, human rights, and the constitution — and yes this is being reported in a blog.

A warning sign for many criminals is a history of cruelty to animals, and legislators in California want to keep track of animal abusers through a registry, much like they keep track of sex offenders.
The goal of this registry would be to more effectively prevent repeat offenses. The names and photos of people convicted of [...]

I live towards the top of a hill that divides two neighborhoods. There are steep streets on either side of the peak. The hill is a short cut people use to walk from one neighborhood to other. During the summer it gets quite hot. A few weeks ago, I noticed my neighbor, who lives at the top of the peak, installed a drinking fountain on the outside wall of his property. It’s a small spigot that is clearly meant to be drunk from and on the ground underneath it, is a bowl to catch the water that also doubles as a water bowl for pets.

On Friday morning, Sarah Killen was a normal small town girl. She had a Twitter account, Lovely Button, and she had three followers. She was taking classes online for a local high school, getting ready to marry her fiancé, and trying to raise money for her upcoming walk in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk [...]