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'Globals' Generation Focuses On Experience

Credit Courtesy of Jennifer Larr

Jennifer Larr (center) is seen here in Rwanda at the Gashora Girls Academy, where she was a teacher in 2011. Larr is part of a new generation of young adults focusing on travel, studying abroad and global experiences.

By editor

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 12:58 pm

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Jennifer Larr has the itch to go abroad. She's 26 years old and has already spent a year studying in France and two years in Rwanda with the Peace Corps, and she is headed to Uganda this summer for an internship. She's also a graduate student, studying international relations at UCLA.

Larr is part of a growing number of 20- and early 30-somethings whose American dream has moved beyond suburban homes and traditional nuclear families, and it's one that now goes even beyond U.S. borders.

1:28 am

Tue July 10, 2012

My American Dream Sounds Like Rubén Blades

Credit Echoes / Getty Images

Blades, shown in 1970.

By editor

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:54 am

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1:25 am

Tue July 10, 2012

Mubarak's Dream Remains Just That In Egypt's Desert

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Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

A sign on undeveloped land welcomes visitors to "New Toshka City." Toshka was to be a new settlement along the Upper Nile Valley, complete with enough jobs and infrastructure to support the relocation of 20 million Egyptians from polluted and over-crowded cities.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

An empty water canal at Sheikh Zayed, near Toshka. Fifteen years after the project's inception, there are just 21,000 hectares of farmland, no schools or hospitals have been built, and the food produced is mainly for export to benefit private landholders.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Fishing boat captain Adel Mohamed Hussein (right), at Sheikh Zayed Canal, is one of the few Egyptians who has benefited from the Toshka project.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Engineer Mamduh Diab, chief of agricultural affairs for the South Valley Company, stands among grapevines on the company's land.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Wheat grows on South Valley Company's land.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Laborers pull weeds from watermelon fields on South Valley Company land in Toshka.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Water pumped from Lake Nasser cascades down an irrigation canal to crops on South Valley Company land.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Yasmine, 16, prunes green grapes at Saudi-owned KADCO.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

An industrial-sized sprinkler waters alfalfa plants at Saudi-owned Kingdom Agricultural Development Company (KADCO).

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Khaled Mohamed tills the soil after a wheat harvest at KADCO.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Critics say Egypt lacks the means to transport large quantities of wheat and other produce from Toshka to the rest of the country.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Mohamed Abdul Fattah is secretary-general for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party in Aswan, Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is adamantly opposed to Toshka and other projects that it links to the excesses of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Credit Holly Pickett / Redux

Ibrahim Dahrouk, a crop manager at Saudi-owned Kingdom Agricultural Development Company in Toshka, says the farm provides hundreds of jobs to local residents, including women. The wages of $6 to $9 a day are considered good for the region.

By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:57 am

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In the middle of southern Egypt's windy desert, wheat fields stretch as far as the eye can see on a 24,000-acre farm. It's part of a grandiose project called Toshka that was dreamed up 15 years ago by the government of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's authoritarian leader who ruled the country for three decades before being ousted last year.

1:17 am

Tue July 10, 2012

China's Post-Olympic Woe: How To Fill An Empty Nest

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Credit Franck Fife / AFP/Getty Images

Fireworks light the night sky above the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The stadium is largely empty these days.

Credit Louisa Lim / NPR

The Bird's Nest, with its cavernous arches, has fewer and fewer visitors these days. Few events can fill a stadium built to seat 91,000.

Credit Louisa Lim / NPR

One money-making scheme has been to lease out Segways to tourists: $20 for a 15-minute ride around the Olympic track at the Bird's Nest.

Credit Liu Jin / AFP/Getty Images

A woman goes snow-tubing in January 2010 inside the Bird's Nest, which was transformed temporarily into a winter theme park.

Credit David Gray / Reuters /Landov

The National Aquatics Center, also known as the "Water Cube," was the Olympics venue for swimming events.

Credit Louisa Lim / NPR

The Water Cube has found an Olympic afterlife, with some of the building converted to a water park.

By Louisa Lim

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 9:31 pm

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As the opening date for the London Olympics nears, Beijing's acclaimed Olympic venues are saddled with high maintenance costs and are struggling to get by. And the most famous, the Bird's Nest stadium, has been repudiated by its own creator, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Even the state-run government mouthpiece, the China Daily, worries that Beijing's iconic structures risk becoming "white elephants."

1:16 am

Tue July 10, 2012

For Manufacturing Jobs, Workers Brush Up On Math

Credit Duane Burleson / AP

Brian Gasiewski removes the external housing for an industrial shock absorber from a CNC, or computer numerical control, machine at Fitzpatrick Manufacturing Co. in Sterling Heights, Mich.

By Niala Boodhoo

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 5:52 am

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Politicians have touted modern manufacturing as the solution for lifting the economy and providing good jobs.

But today's manufacturing work requires strong math skills — not just adding and subtracting, but a good grasp of fractions, decimals and basic trigonometry. And job applicants who want to go into manufacturing often don't have what it takes.

So colleges and nonprofits, especially throughout Illinois, are stepping in to bridge this skills gap by combining manufacturing training with basic reading and math.

Doing Math On The Job

1:14 am

Tue July 10, 2012

Democrats Say Anonymous Donors Unfairly Influencing Senate Races

Credit Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

By Peter Overby

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 10:25 am

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In Senate races, Democrats are fighting to preserve their thin majority. Their party campaign committee wants the Federal Election Commission to crack down on some of the Republicans' wealthiest allies — outside money groups that are using anonymous contributions to finance a multimillion-dollar onslaught of attack ads.

12:03 am

Tue July 10, 2012

Judge: Samsung's Galaxy Tab Not As 'Cool' As iPad

Credit Gero Breloer / AP

Samsung won a victory Monday in its global patent war with Apple. The British judge said Samsung's Galaxy Tab (right) is "not as cool" as the iPad (left).

By editor

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 12:09 pm

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Samsung won a victory in Britain on Monday in its global patent war with Apple over the designs for its tablet computers.

A British judge ruled Samsung's Galaxy Tablets do not infringe on any of Apple's designs for the iPad.

Samsung, however, may have mixed feelings about this decision.

According to Judge Colin Birss, Samsung's Galaxy tablets are not cool enough to be confused with the iPad or violate any of Apple's design patents.

The ruling was a legal victory for Samsung, but if this were a consumer review, it would have been a bloodbath.

4:22 pm

Mon July 9, 2012

From Our Readers: A Car Worthy of 'The Saint'

By Marissa Alioto

Comments under today's piece on a very well-travelled Volvo, reveal an abundance of affection for the make. "I'll be here all week" recalls with fondness all the "quirky features" of his white 1968 P1800S, including "rear view mirror ... mounted on the center of the dashboard, vertical temp gauges between the speedo and tach, the funky aircraft style levers for the vents and fan."

3:38 pm

Mon July 9, 2012

The Next Silicon Valley? Berlin Startups Catching Up With The Hype

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Credit Courtesy of Monoqi

Simon Fabich (center) is CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based online shopping startup Monoqi. Artsy and relatively inexpensive, Berlin is an up-and-coming city for European tech startups.

Credit Courtesy of Sankt Oberholz

Sankt Oberholtz cafe is a magnet for Berlin's startup community. Day and night, people hold meetings and work on laptops.

By Eric Westervelt

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 2:29 pm

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California's Silicon Valley remains by far the dominant arena for high-tech startups and venture capitalists looking to back innovative projects.

But Europe is starting to make its mark on the startup scene. London, Paris and Berlin are starting to hold their own as more and more European startups look to compete on the global stage and attract investors.

A 'Crazy Green Field' For Creative Types

3:21 pm

Mon July 9, 2012

Justice Department, Texas Face Off In Court Over Voter ID Law

By editor

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 4:54 pm

The Justice Department and the state of Texas faced off at trial Monday over the state's new voter identification law, which the Obama administration claims violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

In opening arguments before a three-judge panel in federal district court in Washington, D.C., a lawyer for Texas argued that the photo ID requirement was intended to limit voter fraud, not to curb turnout of legally registered voters.

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