If you go to my Blog, you'll find that I'm taking a brief hiatus from Found Bytes, as my workload just does not permit the time. So with that in mind, I thought I'd leave you for the present with this image of hope and seeming hellfire - a perfect metaphor, I think, for what this world is right now. (Thanks to the BBC for the photo.) While the actual event portrayed is pretty innocuous ("Men ride horses through flames during a purification ritual at an annual religious celebration on the night before a holiday devoted to Saint Anthony" in Spain, according to Time magazine), the confluence of man and nature is fearful and inspiring and a testament to the crucible we'll all have to go through - and survive, tested and ready to lead. Good luck, everyone. Keep active and empathetic.

"MR. EVEREST" REMEMBERS EDUMUND HILLARY

RESEARCHER STUDIES GANGS BY LEADING ONE

CHINA'S PLASTIC BAG BAN

AUSTRALIA TO ACT ON PLASTIC BAGS

HIDDEN AFGHANISTAN

INDONESIA: WHERE "SOFT" ISLAM IS ON THE MARCH

ANNAN TO HELP IN KENYA

IRAQ TO REINSTATE EX-BAATHISTS

ELUSIVE PEACE: ISRAEL AND THE ARABS

I had never heard of Project Triumph - but then again, I've not heard of a lot of things. The name itself - Project Triumph - might easily denote some kind of Evangelist missionary club. So I searched Google (to the rescue, again), and found that instead Project Triumph is a legitimate, intercultural initiative - in its own words, "a grassroots effort to bring Arab and Jewish teenagers together in the spirit of collaboration to build a shared vision for a peaceful future." Project Triumph is not the biggest peace effort that ever was, and whether it will continue in its present form or morph into something else remains unanswered. But what it has already achieved is considerable. It proposes a real plan of action and steps for its implementation. It teaches youth to connect to themselves, to others, and to the greater world around them. Again, it is this kind of deep education that is the best and perhaps only lasting solution to real peace. On a personal note, I was more than pleased that several Project Triumph events took place in Haifa, Israel, my old stomping ground. The second clip is actually an in-depth BBC/PBS special documentary about the Mideast peace process (1995-2005) and why it ultimately fell apart. Less hopeful of course, but a good roadmap for how not to go forward.

I promise to find hopeful news, and at first glance, this picture from Reuters seems anything but. The rotted-out car, the barefoot urchins, the barely-there scooter holding up man and child. It could be a scene of urban despair - but it's not. In fact, it's just an ordinary scene of children playing in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. Thank God for imagination.

MERAKI.COM

Go to Meraki Wireless Network's About page, and you'll find this: "Meraki’s mission is to bring affordable Internet access to the next billion people...Meraki got its start at a low-income housing community in the US. News about Meraki’s products spread by word of mouth into over 25 countries around the world....Meraki got its start at a low-income housing community in the US. News about Meraki’s products spread by word of mouth into over 25 countries around the world. Every day, new Meraki networks bring access to locations ranging from urban apartment complexes in London to villages in India." Having myself just read two books on economics (and gearing up for my second semester of econ classes) I realize the tremendous power of economics for shaping and changing society. But economics, like politics, demands a moral outlook, which Meraki attempts to provide. Its name means "doing something with soul, creativity, or love. It’s when you put something of yourself into what you’re doing." In other words, active empathy.

In the US, we have many different kinds of taxes. Perhaps the most common is the income tax - money taken directly from your paycheck to fund various government programs. But there are other ways that governments can earn cash for necessary (and, unfortunately, not so necessary) social welfare initiatives. One is the green tax - taxes that individuals and businesses pay to reduce their impact on the environment. An example of a green tax is the congestion tax, a fee motorists must pay to drive in certain high-traffic areas. London introduced a congestion tax in 2003, and now Milan is set to do the same. As the BBC reports, "The Italian city of Milan has imposed a charge of up to 10 euros (£7.50) on vehicles entering the city. The 'eco-pass' is being policed by cameras at 43 electric gates around an 8-sq-km (three-square-mile) inner area." Apparently, Milan is one of Europe's most polluted cities. While inhabitants themselves are divided over the new law, Milan's mayor, Letizia Moratti predicts that emissions will fall 30%, while traffic will be cut 10%. Other places that also charge a congestion tax are Stockholm and Singapore. If time shows that such measures actually do lower pollution, I recommend LA and New York as the next cities to jump on the green tax train.

BILL MOYERS ON FAITH & REASON

CLOSER TO TRUTH: CAN WE BELIEVE IN BOTH SCIENCE AND RELIGION?

SPEAKING OF FAITH: QUARKS AND CREATION

ALBERT EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION

THANKING GOD FOR EVOLUTION
 

We speak of "love" and "peace" as cliches, but in fact, nothing is more real, more excruciating, more human. Suffering will always exist, but not in today's form, in which war, poverty, ignorance and fear divorce us from ourselves and from reality. Instead, I pray for a future that is painful but liberating, in which opposites approach and love is an action, not just a word.

Looking back, what do you remember most about 2007? Was it something personal like a family vacation, a special anniversary, or surprise announcement? (For example, my apparently confirmed bachelor cousin recently announced that he's engaged!) Maybe it was an arresting news story - Burma's Saffron Rebellion or the California wildfires. If you're a burgeoning intellect, perhaps you plot the birth and death of years by cultural highlights - Radiohead's "pay-what-you-want" scheme, the new translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace. And if you're like me, 2007 will be remembered for all these things and a host of others, some quotidian, some remarkable. I just read in article in Smithsonian Magazine about the year 1908 - the year the Wright brothers flew, the Model-T was introduced, Teddy Roosevelt greened the presidency, and the Great White Fleet set sail. The world was speeding up, innovation rocketing us toward an era of instant communication and borderless wars. What does this augur for 2008? That it will be a year of the world and not of a single country, religion, or thought. Good or bad, 2008 looks to be more complicated than ever. Stay tuned....

I hardly ever go to YouTube, but as I was searching for interesting news bytes from around the world, I figured I might as well give it a glance. Actually, if you're not looking for dyspeptic cats or human projectiles, YouTube can actually be the source of some pretty good stuff. Case in point: I clicked the "news & politics" subject link and a video popped up with the about-line "American Muslim youth speak out". Hmm, I thought. What's this? It turned out to be a 20-min. segment with Riz Khan (CNN Senior News Anchor for CNN International) in which five Muslim-American young people discuss a range of socially and politically relevant issues. There is no hype, no lasers, no intense music (hello, Fox News). Instead, against a plain black backdrop, these Americans are questioned about their faith in relation to their Americanness. Topics include post-9/11 changes, "Islamo-Fascist" week, the hijab, social integration, prejudice, multiculturalism, individuals as agents of change, public service, etc. Seeing these youth talk, listening as their thoughts and ideas, is so much more powerful than reading a second-hand account of moderate Muslim activism. Even better is knowing that these five people represent the majority of young Muslims in the US, and even around the world. Broadcasting their voices is the best weapon against extremism available to us.