Thanks to GOOD

How many hours of television have you watched in your lifetime?  Now try adding you hours spent gazing at cellphones, computers, video games etc…

You’ve probably spent a month or two of your life in a frozen gaze, oggling a screen.

But is this “screen time” really harmful?

Little information on healthy digital dosages and smartphone etiquette is available.

Still parents are worried. To avoid the spectre of children with the brains of digital mush, parenting sites are on the case. They are encouraging parents to monitor every digital device within their childrens’ gaze.

Smart parenting? or an overreaction?

Fears of over exposure to screens is not unfounded. Physical and mental problems that are often linked to video games and lots of visual stimuli — obesity and ADHD.

Or maybe what’s really scaring parents is the lack of boredom.

Being bored is a crucial part of childhood, because bored children are forced to daydream, to stand and stare, to use their imaginations.

How important is it for children to “learn how to cope with boredom”?

Well, even the biggest gadget pioneers claim their products have positive qualities.

Do you agree? Or is “screen time” a “waste of time”?

Thanks to boston.com

Violence in Britain leads to nearly a thousand arrests. Citizens tell off the mayor with brooms and the image spreading like wildfire of this woman’s rescue.

Future film on broken immigration laws in U.S. stars a Polish family.

Katy Perry might become the first female singer to hit the King of Pop’s record.

And the latest debate has the GOP squared off again as TPaw attempts to claim victory with jabs at Hilary Clinton and Romney.

I am honestly over a regular salad. I don’t want to feel like I am eating grass or leaves.

But the veggies happen to be good for us, so I suppose I might as well eat them.

Try this fruity salad and let me know if you are still bored with your veggies!

• Bed of lettuce
• Strawberries
• Mandarin Oranges
• General tso’s tofu
• Chickpeas
• Blue corn chips

Now that is a summer salad!!

If your research involved language processing and/or machine learning you should consider submitting a poster abstract to the Mid-Atlantic Student Colloquium on Speech, Language and Learning.

This is a free, one-day event bringing together faculty, researchers and students from universities in the Mid-Atlantic area working in human language technology and/or machine learning. It is an opportunity for students to present preliminary or completed work and to network with other students, faculty and researchers working in related fields. The event will be held at JHU in Baltimore on Friday 23 September 2011.

Students are encouraged to submit one-page abstracts by Monday, August 15 describing ongoing, planned, or completed research projects, including previously published results and negative results. Submissions and presentations must be made by students or postdocs. See the call for papers for more information.

Accepted submissions will be presented as posters and each will also be given a one-minute presentation during a poster spotlight session. A small number of submissions will be selected to be presented as talks, on the basis of diversity and general interest. Student-led breakout sessions of one hour will also be held to discuss papers on topics of interest and stimulate interaction and discussion.

Passage: Exodus 4:13-20
13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

Reflect:
Here’s a good example of how we ought not to respond to the Lord. Yet we see that after Moses said this to the Lord, somehow he was still alive and living.  This is a testimony not to the power of Moses’ sinful ways, but a powerful testimony to the grace of God and His ability to accomplish His ways no matter how difficult His called people can be.  Like Moses, we too have moments when God actually accommodates us when we are unable to fully trust and yield because our stubbornness and fear seem greater than Him.As we read about how God accommodated Moses by giving him Aaron, it seems absurd but this is how gracious God is and how much He is resolved to see this calling and ‘now what’ life realized in us. The calling God gives to us is so much greater than us, thankfully even we cannot thwart God!

Respond:
God is resolved and He preserves us because we are His called. No matter how many excuses we have given in the past, God’s grace is more powerful and steadfast.  We can make it hard, but God has called, and He makes it happen.  Let’s be transformed and realigned by God’s grace once again - even now, we don’t have to continue making it difficult. By God’s preserving grace, we can live this “now what” life day by day. Will we live out our calling positively, obeying and trusting the Lord? May our hearts be ever so humble and available…“Yes Lord, send me, I will follow.” With this heart, let’s give ourselves in prayer for God’s purposes. Receive God’s heart for our communities and campuses and pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be accomplished through us.

From the Baltimore Sun:

“The Associated Black Charities annual gala, “African-Americans in Corporate Leadership,” recognized Catonsville resident Anita Jackson, economic development director for Baltimore Gas & Electric, during the June 11 event at Martin’s West.”

Read the full story.

In a new column on the popular U.S. politics blog Sabato’s Crystal Ball, UMBC professor Thomas Schaller considers the electoral chances of 2012 presidential hopefuls from the U.S. House of Representatives, given that the last incumbent House member to win the presidency was James Garfield in 1880. In “From the House to the White House? Not So Fast,” Schaller examines past election data and finds, “Despite some significant and even historic House presidential candidates, there is no modern precedent for the Bachmann-Gingrich-McCotter-Paul quartet running in the same cycle for the same party’s presidential nomination.” In the end, he argues, “none of the House Republican candidates is likely to be the 2012 nominee,” but their impact on the Republic presidential contest might still be quite significant. Schaller’s latest Baltimore Sun column also appeared this week, titled “In Majesty of National Parks, an Argument for Collective Action.”