For 27 months, Ian Fisher, his parents and friends, and the U.S. Army allowed Denver Post reporters and a photographer to watch and chronicle his recruitment, induction, training, deployment, and, finally, his return from combat. A selection of photos from Ian’s journey after the link.

I don’t really care what your view on current wars and political situations are, because they’re irrelevant to this story. Look at these photos and imagine yourself in his place (after all, he’s most likely younger than you). Then think about what it means to support the men and women in uniform.

This photo is from [daily dose of imagery], a photo stream I subscribe to that is comprise of images mostly from Toronto only. This one is from a Toronto FC game on October 17, 2009 - a game I happened to be at with my three best friends. That guy circled in aqua blue? Yeah, that’s me.

lfar:

They’re making a feature film out of Shake Hands With the Devil?

It was released in 2007. My brother saw it, and said it was really good. I’ve downloaded it, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far, unfortunately.

ventisette:

Lately my friend here has really been getting on my nerves. So I’ve decided to let her know how I feel. Boy, I sure showed her today: at dinner, when she sneezed a few times, I didn’t even say “Bless you” I just glared a little at her before asking, totally un-sincerely, “are you okay?”

Watch out you guys, you do NOT want to mess with this fiery storm of rage.

Wow, passive aggressive much?

I’m so screwed during exams.

lfar:

abbyjean:

[This was observed by Foreign Policy’s Joshua Keating, who] points to an announcement by the UN that it will use cell phones to send $22 vouchers to Iraqi refugee families in Syria every two months. They are provided with special SIM cards for the transactions, and the vouchers can then be exchanged for staples such as rice, flour, lentils, chickpeas, and oil at selected stores.

Perhaps expecting that eye brows might be raised at the idea that those needing food aid would have cell phones, the UN’s Emilia Casella reports, “all the 130,000 Iraqi refugees currently receiving food aid from the agency in Syria have mobile phones.” (tpr)

In Kenya, everybody had a cell phone, and I lived in a really rural place. I guess people might raise eye brows here, because we have fancy cell phones with colour screens and $50/month plans with our carrier. I don’t even have a cell phone at all when I live in Canada, but I had one in Kenya!

Kenya boasts the world’s first system to send money by phone. (M-PESA, it’s really cool) What people don’t have are bank accounts or addresses or post-office boxes. Sending money by phone is incredibly smart and effective.

Cell phone use is uneven across African countries: “In Gabon, the Seychelles, and South Africa there are 100 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people. In Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, the mobile industry has only penetrated 10 percent of the population.” (source) Which is just more reason why you should donate your old ones!

While this might raise some eyebrows - “If you can’t afford food how can you justify a cell phone?!?!” - it’s actually a huge step forward for many developing countries. Rather than spend the money to develop telephone infrastructure, these countries can go wireless and spend that infrastructure on other things. (Like, maybe, food.) Essentially, they can skip that whole step!

Your ‘death by cute’ of the day.

tvquotes:

Tobias: Well, Michael, you really are quite the Cupid aren’t you? I tell you, you can zing your arrow into my buttocks any time.

Michael: Okay, you know what you do? You buy yourself a tape recorder, you just record yourself for a whole day. I think you’re going to be surprised at some of your phrasing.

WIN.