It’s very nice to see ebiquity alumna Akshaya Iyengar (MS, 2011) helping Wikipedia during its fund raising campaign. If you visit Wikipedia you might see her gracing a page you get, as I did just a minutes ago. See this screenshot and read her statement on why she has been donating to Wikipedia here. Her generosity has inspired me to contribute also.

Rick Perry has a Christmas present for the country – a new campaign ad!

Remember this gem from a few weeks ago?  Unfortunately, this new one doesn’t feature nearly as much Rick, but it features a new star – Anita Perry!

The ad has Anita telling the couple’s good ol’ American story – how they married after being high school sweethearts, lived the small-town life, and always upheld those good Christian values.  And then POP goes the Rick Perry, who jumps up behind Anita to say “BOO!” to declare that he “really approve[s] this ad!”

Perry’s new ad isn’t the only Republican spot starring a candidate’s wife vouching for her husband values and character.  The Romney campaign also introduced a new ad Character starring Ann Romney.

Mrs. Romney explains that

I think that’s why it’s so important to understand the character of the person.  To me that makes a huge difference.  Maybe some voters it doesn’t, but for me it makes a huge difference.

The ad also features some pretty precious old Romney family photos in which Mitt’s sporting locks a bit longer than we’ve seen recently.

Both of these ads are not so subtly attacking the other GOP front-runner – Newt Gingrich.  Gingrich is considered to have some values/character/wife issues.  Newt has been married thrice, left his first wife while she was in the hospital, and cheated on his second wife with his future third one while he was leading the impeachment effort against President Clinton during the Lewinsky affair.

And if he didn’t have enough problems, an online dating service that caters to married men and women looking to have an affair has rolled out an advertising campaign featuring…you guessed it!  Newt!

So what do you think?  Will Newt’s sordid past affect his presidential bid?  Are Romney and Perry’s new ads part of an effective strategy to appeal to the conservative, family values Republican base?

Image from BBC!

And you thought your neighbor’s lights were over the top…check out these displays from around the world!

Jezebel determines once and for all the WORST Christmas song ever.

NPR and David Sedaris bring you a treat for those long family car trips – some Santaland Diaries!

Avoid the crazy holiday store rush with these DIY gifts.

What Christmas is complete without a gift wrapped cat?

Voters approve a new cabinet in Tunisia.

How will young voters be heard in 2012?

Voter ID Laws: Justice Department – 1, South Carolina – 0.

Michigan takes a step back in gay rights.

Congratulations to Eric Zeemering, assistant professor of public policy at UMBC, on receiving a research award from the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Through this grant Zeemering and colleague Daryl Delabbio will develop, “A County Manager’s Guide to Local Government Service Collaboration.”

The IBM Center’s goal for the highly competitive award is “to help public sector executives and managers address real-world problems by supporting leading researchers who produce empirical evidence to inform the debates about whether particular management approaches will improve government performance.”

Baltimore’s Pratt Library has announced that UMBC’s Tyson D. King-Meadows will read from his new book “When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama” on January 26, 6:30 p.m., at the Central Library (400 Cathedral Street) as part of the library’s Black History Month celebration.

King-Meadows is associate professor of political science at UMBC. Published in August 2011, his new book explores weaknesses in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and argues that the law often enables rather than prevents the disenfranchisement of minorities. King-Meadows is also co-author, with UMBC professor Thomas Schaller, of “Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-First Century.”

The scheduled upgrade for the Blackboard Learn 9.1 system was completed at approximately 2:30 pm on Friday, Dec. 23, and the system was made available to the campus community at that time.

We thank you for your patience during this scheduled downtime.

As a member of the Amazon development team, you’ll be given the opportunity to have direct impact on the evolution of the Amazon e-commerce platform and lead mission critical projects early in your career. Your design, code and raw smarts will contribute to solving some of the most complex technical challenges in the areas of distributed systems, data mining, optimization, scalability, security and tweaking algorithms, just to name a few.

Innovation: Are you seeking an environment where you can drive innovation? Are you interested in finding the best intersection of features vs. performance? Are you up to the task of delivering innovative technology that offers millions of unique products to thousands of suppliers, to tens of millions of customers around the world? Many of the technical challenges Amazon encounters have never been dealt with before on this scale, if at all. Come help lead the way in e-commerce innovation.

Basic Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering or related technical discipline
• Must be currently enrolled in school or graduated within the last 12 months
• At least 2 years experience with object-oriented design and coding, to include academic experience and/or internships

Preferred Qualifications:
• Strong, object-oriented design and coding skills (C/C++ and/or Java preferably on a UNIX or Linux platform)
• Knowledge of Perl or other scripting languages a plus
• Experience with distributed (multi-tiered) systems, algorithms, and relational databases
• Experience in optimization mathematics (linear programming, nonlinear optimization)
• Ability to effectively articulate technical challenges and solutions
• Deal well with ambiguous/undefined problems; ability to think abstractly
• Previous technical internship(s) preferred
• Graduate degree a plus

In order to be considered, please apply through our website:
https://up-amazon.icims.com/jobs/122383/job?in_iframe=1

Amazon is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Amazon will also be hosting a Technical Talk/Information Session on February 23rd at 7pm on the UMBC campus.  More details can be found in UMBCworks.