Crowd funding arrives in Cuba

But for years, he has had an even more ambitious project in mind, one that seems like a fantasy from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel.

“The idea would be to follow in the footsteps of the first explorers to Cuba and photograph the northern and southern coasts to create one panoramic image,” he said. “It would be one horizon, so you can’t tell if it’s an island or a continent. It’s a search to capture Cuba’s geography in 2012.”

Villares never attempted his journey though, and not just because of the immense logistical challenges and government restrictions.

His biggest obstacle was there was zero funding available for the trip. While artists abound in Cuba, they, like everyone else, face constant shortages in materials and a United States economic embargo that complicates the sale of their work.

But now, two years after scrapping his plans to travel and photograph the island, Villares has the $1,300 he needs for his journey.

Rafael Villares received $1,300 from Yagruma to shoot a panoramic image of Cuba.

The funds came from an unexpected source, a website called Yagruma. Named for a tree native to Cuba, Yagruma is the first crowd-funding website aimed at helping artists finance projects in Cuba.

“Everyone’s talking about Yagruma,” Villares said. “That’s the fun part, how it’s getting buzz among young artists who have ideas for projects but don’t have the funds to do them.”

On Yagruma, artists approved by the website’s creators upload a sample of their work — a challenge itself given the island’s scarce and mostly dial-up Internet. Yagruma then publishes their work along with their biography, a description of their next project and a request for contributions. The artists typically wait about 30 days as donations trickle in.

As with many crowd-funding sites, only projects that are fully financed receive Yagruma’s backing. The website keeps 5% of the funds to cover operating costs.

So far, Yagruma has financed five projects and has another 10 in various stages of fundraising. The projects range from a documentary on an iconic Cuban song to a stop-motion short film of a man being chased by scissors and a straight razor.

Site creators say the artists they feature express themselves freely and represent the incredible variety of Cuba’s independent art scene.

“The way people use Yagruma so far has exceeded my expectations,” said Ubaldo Huerta, one of the site’s co-creators along with fellow Cuban Hiram Centelles Rodriguez. “I see people who understand how to use it perfectly and how to compete for funding, present a project to attract backers and very quickly learn.”

Huerta and Rodriguez live in Spain but are drawn to the notion that the Internet can improve the lives of Cubans back home.

An earlier site they collaborated on, El Revolico, is the closest thing Cuba has to Craigslist. Even though the site is blocked by the government, Cubans still find ways to access El Revolico so they can sell cars, houses and just about everything else.

Huerta said he is concerned that Yagruma might also run afoul with authorities.

“In Cuba, everything in a way is mediated by the government, the cultural establishment,” he said. “We are more than happy to talk with the government if they show an interest in who we are, how the site works.”

Yagruma, he said, is a rare example of what many Cubans on both sides of the Florida straits say they seek to accomplish: reconciliation.

“What I am hoping is to foster creativity in Cuba to create a bridge between Cubans like me in the diaspora and Cubans on the island,” Huerta said. “It costs us nothing to shell out $20-$30, and it goes a long way in Cuba.”

From his small art studio in the apartment he shares with his relatives, Villares is already at work trying to stretch the funds he received from Yagruma.

He is excited “to see the whole country, travel all of Cuba — not just know it from outside, but meet the fishermen, the farmers who live there, the out-of-the-way places … all the places in Cuba that you don’t even imagine.”

Villares is hoping to begin traveling the island this summer, when the ocean is calmer. Until then, he researches the software and cameras he could use to create a sprawling panorama of the island.

And when he finally completes the odyssey, Villares will upload his finished work to Yagruma, in the hopes of attracting more financing for Cuba’s independent artists.

“A $104 billion market capitalization puts Facebook at more than 100 times its trailing earnings,” wrote John Constine and Kim-Mai Cutler for technology blog TechCrunch. “That’s a big multiple to live up to, and it will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation.”

And it wasn’t just the pros weighing in. In fact, it seemed like everyone on the Internet had an opinion.

Business Insider posted a poll (obviously not scientific) asking readers where they thought the $38 stock would be by the end of the day Friday.

In early results, a pessimistic 17 percent said under $35. But the biggest cluster of respondents guessed somewhere between $40-55. (Thirteen percent said $40-45, another 13 percent said $45-50 and, yes, yet another 13 percent said $50-55).

A hopeful 8 percent predicted the stock would skyrocket at otherworldly levels, winding up over $90 a share.

On Twitter, many observers seemed to be rooting against Facebook and its early investors.

“Just me or anyone else really hoping for Facebook stock to take a nose dive and never come back up? I want to watch it drop like a rock,” tweeted a user who identified himself as Thomas Bryant from Austin, Texas.

“Facebook just raised $16 billion in its stock offering! Let’s all delete our accounts and leave investors high and dry!” tweeted Evil Wylie, the Twitter alter ego of New York author Andrew Shaffer.

On Thursday afternoon, shares were released to big-time brokers who have already agreed to buy them. Ordinary investors have to wait until Friday morning, when shares begin selling publicly

While the market opens at 9:30 am, Facebook’s shares won’t start trading until at least an hour or so afterward because it’s newly listed.

While opinions in the business and tech communities have differed on whether the massive social network is a good investment, analysts have largely been bullish on the stock. There’s been heavy demand, leading Facebook on Wednesday to announce it will sell about 25% more shares than it had originally planned, bringing its total to 421 million shares.

At CNN content partner Mashable, a blog that got its start focusing exclusively on social media and saw its popularity rise as Facebook’s did, the staff geared up by creating an IPO-inspired playlist on music site Spotify (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is accessible only through a Facebook account).

Making the list? “Mo Money, Mo Problems,” by The Notorious B.I.G., “Rich” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,” “Money (That’s What I Want) by Barrett Strong and “If I Had $1,000,000″ by Barenaked Ladies, among others.

Even as tech and financial gurus (self-appointed and otherwise) waited with bated breath for the opening, opining either for or against the financial future of the site some had to face the hard truth: We have no idea what’s going to happen.

“Of course, much of this is speculative and depends on the market’s response to Facebook,” VentureBeat’s Jennifer Van Grove wrote in a post quoting analysts about the IPO. “For now, all we can do is wait and watch the clock in anticipation of tomorrow’s opening. Tick tock.”

CNNMoney and CNN’s Brandon Griggs contributed to this report.

(CNN) — The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday denied the state attorney general’s attempt to have it reconsider its assent to controversial pardons — several of them for convicted killers — issued earlier this year by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour.

The decision was made “without comment,” court spokeswoman Beverly Pettigrew Kraft said by e-mail.

Attorney General Jim Hood has been a harsh and persistent critic of the 214 pardons and clemencies issued by Barbour in January, shortly before the governor left office.

Besides questioning whether some convicted of violent crimes should so easily walk free, he has argued some of the pardons were invalid because they did not meet a state constitutional requirement that notices be filed each day for 30 days in newspapers based where the crimes were committed.

But Mississippi courts have consistently upheld the pardons.

The state Supreme Court was among them, ruling in March that Barbour had complete power to pardon and his authority could not be challenged.

In a statement afterward, Barbour said the decision “reaffirmed more than a century of settled law in our state,” but acknowledged that his pardons have been difficult for those who themselves or had family members victimized by those who went free.

Hood, a Democrat, didn’t give up his legal fight after that decision. In a brief filed with the state’s high court later in March, he argued the case should be reheard because the “private personal rights” of the victims, as provided by the state constitution and Mississippi Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights, were violated by the pardons.

Barbour, who also is former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has said that he believes in redemption and that people deserve second chances. Most of the pardons involved convicts who had already served their time and have since been released from prison for their crimes, but four were convicted murderers who had worked as “trusties” at the governor’s mansion.

Victims’ families have denounced the former governor for not meeting with them to discuss his reasons why he would show such leniency to these men.

CNN’s Rich Phillips contributed to this report.

How victory cost Force India $1.3 million

Australian Grand Prix: March 18, Melbourne

2012 champion: Jenson Button, McLaren

Malaysian Grand Prix: March 25, Kuala Lumpur

2012 champion: Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

Chinese Grand Prix: April 15, Shanghai

Defending champion: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren

Bahrain Grand Prix: April 22, Sakhir

Defending champion: NA (2010 winner: Fernando Alonso, Ferrari)

Spanish Grand Prix: May 13, Catalunya

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Monaco Grand Prix: May 27, Monte Carlo

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Canadian Grand Prix: June 10, Montreal

Defending champion: Jenson Button, McLaren

European Grand Prix: June 24, Valencia

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

British Grand Prix: July 8, Silverstone

Defending champion: Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

German Grand Prix: July 22, Hockenheim

Defending champion: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren

Hungarian Grand Prix: July 29, Budapest

Defending champion: Jenson Button, McLaren

Belgian Grand Prix: September 2, Spa

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Italian Grand Prix: September 9, Monza

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Singapore Grand Prix: September 23, Singapore

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Japanese Grand Prix: October 7, Suzuka

Defending champion: Jenson Button, McLaren

Korean Grand Prix: October 14, Yeongam

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Indian Grand Prix: October 28, New Delhi

Defending champion: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: November 4, Yas Marina

Defending champion: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren

United States Grand Prix: November 18, Austin

Defending champion: NA

Brazilian Grand Prix: Sao Paulo, November 25

Defending champion: Mark Webber, Red Bull

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Formula One 2012: The circuits

The 2012 Formula One season sees the introduction of a four-hour limit for races, following last year’s rain-delayed marathon in Canada. Charlie Whiting, the FIA’s race director, explained the decision, telling the sport’s official website: “Should four hours elapse during a future race, drivers will receive a signal telling them they have one more lap before the checkered flag.”

Teams can no longer use engine exhaust to produce large amounts of downforce — a practice which has been prevalent for the last two years in the form of blown diffusers. Now exhaust pipes must exit in a defined area at the back of the car, not run along its underbelly.

Many of this year’s cars feature a dramatic stepped-nose design. Whiting said this is to make sure the height of the nose was lower than the sides of the cockpit, therefore reducing the risk to the driver in the event of a collision.

In previous seasons, cars had to pass crash tests in order to compete in races. Now, cars must pass the FIA’s 18 mandatory tests before the official preseason test events. “It is indefensible to have drivers testing cars in the winter that haven’t met the safety standards we demand for a race,” said Whiting.

As bizarre as it may sound, drivers have been told not to drive off the race track without good reason. “We’ve seen drivers taking shortcuts on in and out laps, either to save time or fuel,” explained Whiting.

Pit stops are a crucial part of F1, and a race can be won or lost depending on how quickly the crew are able to replace a car’s tires. In an attempt to save valuable time, teams have been known to power their wheel guns with compressed helium instead of air. But not anymore. “It saved fractions of a second,” Whiting said. “It would have been a very expensive method of gaining no advantage.”

The gulf in class between some cars means that the leading drivers often lap back-markers during a race. The safety car is deployed if there has been an accident on track or if conditions become dangerous. Drivers are not allowed to overtake each other under such conditions, but in 2012 strugglers will be able to un-lap themselves by going past the safety car and reforming at the back of the field.

Each driver is allowed 11 sets of tires to use over the course of a race weekend, but they must last through practice, Saturday qualifying and Sunday’s race. Previously teams could only use three of their sets during Friday practice, but they will now be able to use as many as they like.

The highlight of any grand prix is seeing drivers attempt daring, fast-paced overtaking maneuvers. But now, when a driver has someone behind them, they are allowed to make only one defensive move to protect their position. This rule is to prevent potentially dangerous blocking strategies.

Formula One rule changes for 2012

Rubens Barrichello makes IndyCar debut

Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button was victorious in Australia and he was quick again, registering the third-fastest time at the Sepang International Circuit.

Schumacher’s fellow German and Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg was fourth, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Double title winner Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who has taken the checkered flag at the last two races in Malaysia, was down in 10th after placing second in the opening session.

His teammate Mark Webber was seventh, one place behind Ferrari’s two-time Sepang champion Fernando Alonso.

Steve Jobs in 2005: No one wants to die

The legacy of Steve Jobs

Sony reportedly wanted Sorkin for the film and began courting him immediately after securing the rights to Isaacson’s book late last year.

Sorkin actually knew Jobs and wrote a piece for The Daily Beast about his memories of Jobs after his death. He wrote that he and Jobs had developed a “phone friendship” that led Jobs to invite him to write a movie for Pixar (the animation studio Jobs ran) and to tour Apple.

“I told him I’d take him up on it and I never did,” Sorkin wrote. “But I still keep thinking about that Pixar movie. And for me, that’s Steve’s legacy. That, and the fact that I wrote this on a Mac that I loved taking out of the box.”

Another Jobs movie is also in the works. An independent film starring “That ’70s Show” alum Ashton Kutcher is scheduled to begin filming in May.

Sarah Chang is cited among the best violinists performing in the world today. Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, she has appeared across the music capitals of Asia, Europe and America.

Now 31 years old, Chang picked up the violin when she was just four, having already grown tired of the household piano. Quickly recognized as a child prodigy, Chang had signed to EMI Classics before she’d even reached double digits.

Still in her early 20s, Chang is seen here clutching her priceless 17th-century “Guarneri del Gesu” violin, given to her as a present by the late Ukrainian violinist and conductor Isaac Stern, who had a reputation for discovering new talent.

A life dedicated to the formality of classical music is very different from a life led in the frenetic city of Buenos Aires — where racy murals decorate the streets and the sound of tango music echoes in the air. But this is where Chang had chosen to fly for her Fusion Journey.

There she met with local ensemble “Orquesta Tipica Andariega” (pictured), a band steeped in the traditions of tango. Together they would create a new piece of music inspired by this meeting of cultures.

But first Chang, who confesses to be the owner of “two left feet,” would take a lesson in the other side of tango — dance. Over the course of her practice, she discovered that the dance moves have an “intimate relationship with the music,” which she would later draw on to enhance her musical performance.

Out of her customary ball gown, Chang donned an outfit more befitting of a small local tango club, hidden along a narrow backstreet in Buenos Aires.

Here, accompanied by “Orquesta Tipica Andariega,” she performed a tango standard, incorporating a solo violinist twist adapted especially for the fusion. Looking back, she says she was touched by the intimacy between the performers and the audience — an experience she is unfamiliar with in the world’s giant concert halls.

Now, she says she tries to retain that Buenos Aires-style intimacy wherever she plays. “I try to connect with every single last person in the balcony on an emotional and personal level.”

Editor’s note: Part culture show, part travel show, over six weeks Fusion Journeys takes six stars of the creative world on a journey of discovery to a location of their choice. There, they will learn from a different culture and create something new inspired by their experience. Watch the show every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from April 9 to May 18, during Connect The World, from 20:00 GMT.

(CNN) — Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, Sarah Chang has grown through the weight of expectation to become one of the world’s great violinists.

Now aged 31, Chang was born in Philadelphia to a composer and music teacher of Korean descent. She first dabbled with the piano at the age of three, before opting for the violin a year later. By five she had been accepted into New York’s prestigious Juilliard School for Performing Arts.

By her own acknowledgment, the world of grand orchestras and opera houses that she has so long inhabited can be “very formal” and “exclusive.” This perhaps goes some way to explain her choice of destination for her “Fusion Journey” challenge: Buenos Aires.

Here, in the hot-blooded Argentinean capital, she would meet with local band “Orquesta Tipica Andariega,” to learn first-hand the sensual and mysterious art of tango.

See more Fusion Journeys

During her visit, Chang was challenged to produce a fusion of sound that blended the traditions of Western classical music with tango’s emotionally raw and folksy heritage. She says that the process has given her performance a new-found sense of intimacy that she’s carried ever since.

In her own words, Chang tells the story of her Fusion Journey.

Sarah Chang: I’ve been trained as a classical violinist my entire life. It’s all about structure, all about technique. It’s very much a polished profession. But tango music, although it has some classical elements, is very sexy and rough and, in a way, from the earth.

When you walk along the streets of Buenos Aires, fun is in the air. You see children with barely anything on their feet playing soccer, and there is music on every corner. They are playing all sorts of Latin sounds; they’re all dancing and drinking; they’re enjoying life; they are loving life.

One of the cornerstones of tango is definitely the dancing, so I first met up with dance instructor Nora Schvartz.

Now, I’m not really a dancer. I’m a very physical performer when I’m on stage, but of course tango is a completely different thing to thrusting around when you’re performing as a violinist.

I learned that the best tango dancers move not just with their legs and arms, but from their guts. That’s the sign of a true art form, and it’s the source of so much beauty, so much soul and passion.

Even though I absolutely cannot dance — just watch the footage! — I always thought that to experience the whole picture, you really have to open up your vulnerabilities, and sort of take that risk.

Read related: Photographer’s Lapland journey highlights global warming

Tango is — in a sense — imperfect … albeit beautifully imperfect. It’s not about being always metronomically on time, it’s about spontaneity and freedom.

I’ve worked, of course, with a piano and an orchestra before — but never with a band. All of a sudden I find myself rehearsing with the “Orquesta Tipica Andariega,” an extremely talented local tango group. So there I was, playing songs I’d never played before, alongside instruments I’d never heard before, with a group I’d never met before — it was thrilling!

The piece we chose for our fusion was by Carlos Gardel — the biggest name in the history of tango. The tune itself is very famous — it’s used in all these movies, you name it, any famous tango scene. But as far as I know, there is no version for a band with a solo violinist, so I asked a composer friend of mine to make an arrangement for us.

I was really thrilled with the result. We performed it in this intimate little club and it felt so immediate. Everyone was there, drinking wine, dancing, looking so happy. There were no rigid rules, none of this “clap here, oh you have to be quiet here.” Instead, the audience were whistling and yelling and clapping along — it felt like they were right up there with us.

Literally, if I just stretched my arm, I could touch them, they were so close. That sort of intimacy, that sort of physical closeness, the fact that they were dancing when we were playing, I just thought was so beautiful.

“Fusions” can often turn out badly — I can think of some fusion cuisine that I wish I could forget! But when each side brings just the right balance of their experience, their culture and personality, then I think it can be magical — and the only way you know it has worked is when everyone has a smile on their face.

Classical music is one of the world’s longest-standing traditional forms of music-making out there — and I don’t think it will, or should, change over night. There is a sort of purity in what classical musicians do that I cherish very much and want to preserve.

But the big thing that I really took from this experience is that sense of connecting with the audience. Quite often, in grand concert halls where everyone is wearing elegant ball gowns and black tails — that kind of old-Hollywood glamor — it can feel like there is a big distance between the audience and the performers, a sense of “look, but don’t touch.”

But with Argentinean tango, it’s the opposite. They are saying “please touch, please come into and share my world.” Now, every concert that I do, I try to utilize that, I try to connect with every single last person in the balcony on an emotional and personal level.

The warning comes from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or the IC3. But it lacks so many key details that security experts wonder if it’s of any use. It doesn’t say where these attacks have occurred, how prevalent they are, or how exactly they work.

Graham Cluely, a blogger with antivirus vendor Sophos, found the lack of details peculiar. “What’s fascinating about the advisory is what it doesn’t say,” he wrote on his blog Thursday. “And without more information it’s hard to know how computer users are supposed to take meaningful action to protect themselves.”

Bloomberg reported late last year of a widespread hacking effort that hit ISPs, including at least one hotel network service provider. Networks were hit in “more than a dozen countries, including Canada, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Venezuela and Russia,” Bloomberg said.

The IC3 report comes months after the Bloomberg story, but then the FBI isn’t exactly known for being ahead of the curve when it comes to security warnings.

Here’s the key passage:

Recently, there have been instances of travelers’ laptops being infected with malicious software while using hotel internet connections. In these instances, the traveler was attempting to setup the hotel room internet connection and was presented with a pop-up window notifying the user to update a widely-used software product. If the user clicked to accept and install the update, malicious software was installed on the laptop. The pop-up window appeared to be offering a routine update to a legitimate software product for which updates are frequently available.

But pop-up windows that instruct users to do bad things — installing adware or fake antivirus products or malicious Trojan horse programs, for example — have been around for years. They happen everywhere in the internet, not just in untrustworthy hotel and public Wi-Fi networks.

“Nobody has cited evidence specifically tying this to hotel rooms,” says Robert Graham, CEO of security consultancy Errata Security. “My advice for travelers is that there is nothing you need to do for traveling that you shouldn’t already be doing anyway.”

Reached Thursday, FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer couldn’t cite any public reports detailing these attacks. “We don’t’ have much more guidance to offer the public beyond what was shared in the alert,” she said.

Security experts generally acknowledge that hotel networks ? especially open Wi-Fi networks ? are untrustworthy minefields.

Jonathan Kine, a technology consultant based in Jakarta, says he’s seen this type of attack described in the IC3 report in hotel and public Wi-Fi networks in China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. “The user gets a pop up or a browser window that states in order to login please allow us to update your browser, then they download the payload and are infected,” he says. In some cases, the update looks like it’s from Adobe Systems, Kine says. It isn’t.

For corporate users, or those who are technically savvy, a virtual private network is often the best way to boost security.

Another option: use your mobile carrier’s network. That’s what Searl Tate did recently on a trip to Las Vegas. Instead of paying for a hotel network, he simply grabbed his iPad and connected to his carrier’s 4G network. “There are other performance reasons too,” he says, “but security drives a portion of my concern.”

For Graham, that means full disk encryption, to make your laptop unreadable in case it gets stolen. He also says that travelers should be up-to-date with their software patches and use secure SSL connections whenever they’re on the Web. “And stop clicking on Trojans,” he adds “If you don’t do this already, then there’s really no hope for you anyway.

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Copyright 2011 Wired.com.

King George VI proudly sits for a photograph with his young daughter and future monarch, Elizabeth.

A little princess, Elizabeth II sits with her mother Queen Elizabeth.

HRH Princess Elizabeth (center) undergoing instruction at the Auxiliary Territorial Service training centre in April 1945. Courtesy Imperial War Museum

Auxiliary Territorial Service: Princess Elizabeth, a 2nd Subaltern in the ATS, wearing overalls and standing in front of an L-plated truck. In the background is a medical lorry. Courtesy Imperial War Museum

Princess Elizabeth and new husband, Prince Philip of Greece pose for a royal photographer on their wedding day, 20 November 1947. By all accounts Prince Philip had won the future queen’s heart by the age of 13.

Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth enjoys an old-fashioned square dance held in the honor of the Royal Couple who were in Canada on a state visit in 1951.

A relaxed evening at the theater: The Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II arrive at Windsor’s Theatre Royal for a performance of G. B. Shaw’s ‘You Never Can Tell’ on 23 February 1962.

An official photograph taken of Queen Elizabeth in 1977 — the year of her Silver Jubilee.

From the Royal Collection — The Queen sits for a photograph with a young Prince Charles and a very blonde Princess Anne.

The Queen’s eldest child, Charles, Prince of Wales, bows while his new bride, Lady Diana, curtsies to the British sovereign as they leave St Paul’s Cathedral, on July 29, 1981.

1992 was a bad year for the royal family. In addition to the three royal marriage breakdowns, a fire wreaks havoc in Windsor Castle causing major structural damage. The Queen would later describe this year as “annus horribilis.”

Criticism of the monarchy peaked in 1997 following the death of Princess Diana in Paris. The royal family was accused of being remote and out of touch with the grief-stricken public. However, after several days of silence, the Queen returned to London, speaking to mourners and admitted there were lessons to be learnt from Diana’s life.

Since the death of Diana, the queen’s popularity has enjoyed a revival as she continues to preside over what appears to be a softer, more accessible modern royal family. Here, she attends her grandson, Harry’s graduation from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, southern England in 2006.

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Editor’s note: In 2012, the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II became the second-longest serving British sovereign with a reign spanning 60 years. On June 4 – 6, the Queen marks her Diamond Jubilee year with a series of parties and pageants, and CNN will be there to follow the festivities. Leading up to the celebrations, we will put her reign in context with a series of articles, op-eds and interactives.

London, England (CNN) — The 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the British throne marks a major milestone in the remarkable life of a monarch who, though reluctantly thrust into the spotlight at a young age, has won almost universal praise for her steadfast dedication to duty.

Her long reign (second only to Queen Victoria’s) has seen Britain transformed from a war-weary declining imperial power into its modern incarnation as a member state of the European Union that rarely looks to its monarch for leadership, but still holds her in high esteem.

And while it has witnessed its fair share of joy — not least the recent marriage of the queen’s grandson Prince William to Catherine Middleton — Elizabeth’s rule has also weathered many storms, both public and personal, as the monarchy has tried to keep pace with changing times.

Elizabeth Alexander Mary was born in 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She did not become heiress presumptive to the throne until 1937 when her father was crowned King George VI after the scandalous abdication of his older brother — events recently dramatized in the Oscar-winning film “The King’s Speech.”

As World War II erupted, Elizabeth was quietly groomed for statehood. While living out the blitz on London in nearby Windsor Castle, she was privately tutored in matters of constitution by Henry Marten, an eccentric yet respected teacher who reputedly kept a pet raven in his study.

She began making tentative steps to public life in 1940 when, aged 14, she made her first radio broadcast: a speech to children displaced by conflict. At 16 she was made an honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards, a British army infantry regiment.

The Queen’s unseen photos

Queen Elizabeth speaks to Parliament

Queen, Camilla and Catherine go shopping

Queen Elizabeth marks 60 years on throne

Queen Elizabeth celebrates 60 years on throne

Peacetime brought the return of Lieutenant Prince Philip of Greece, a handsome young naval officer who had, by all accounts, had won her heart when she was just 13. The pair married in Westminster Abbey in 1947. Their first son, Charles, was born just over a year later.

With her father’s health in rapid decline, Elizabeth began accepting more official duties, taking his place at the annual Trooping the Color military parade in 1949. In 1952, when Elizabeth and Philip were on an official trip to Kenya, news came of her father’s death. She was now queen.

The next decade saw the queen settle into her role. After her 1953 coronation, she embarked on numerous official trips, oversaw state openings of parliament, welcomed visiting leaders such as President Eisenhower, Charles de Gaulle and Nikita Khrushchev, and toured a coal mine.

In 1964, the queen became a mother for the fourth time as new son Edward joined Charles and fellow siblings Anne and Andrew. There was, however, barely any let up in her busy schedule.

By the arrival of her third decade on the throne, she was in her element. Prince Charles was embarking on a military career, Princess Anne, an acclaimed horsewoman, was married — drawing huge crowds of well wishers.

Girls given equal rights to British throne under law changes

While indulging in her own equestrian pursuits, she continued to throw herself into public life, clocking up dozens of overseas trips and official visits around the UK — one of which in 1976 saw her become one of the first people to send an email (she continues to champion new technology today).

There were family problems in 1976 when her sister’s marriage collapsed and constitutional problems with growing debate among Commonwealth countries about the role of the monarch, but these failed to dampen celebrations to mark the silver jubilee of her reign in 1977.

Another royal wedding followed in 1981 when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at London’s St Paul’s cathedral. Millions of people around the world watched the ceremony on television, happily unaware it would usher in the most turbulent period yet of the queen’s life.

The queen’s 40th year on the throne, 1992, marked her lowest moment as three royal marriages fell apart. Princess Anne and Mark Philips divorced, Charles and Diana separated after claims of infidelities while Sarah Ferguson was photographed topless with an American financial manager.

To cap it all, a huge fire ripped through Windsor Castle causing major structural damage. In the wake of the blaze, a furore broke out when it was suggested that public money be used to fund the restoration.

“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure,” the queen said in a speech later that year. “In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an annus horribilis.”

Kate has graduated as ‘fully fledged’ royal

These problems overshadowed the queen as she made an historic visit to meet Nelson Mandela in 1995, but criticism reached new heights in the wake of Diana’s tragic death in 1997 when the royals were accused of being aloof and out of touch amid widespread outpourings of grief.

This marked a turning point. After days of silence, the queen returned to London, talked to mourners and admitted there were lessons to be learned from Diana’s life. The gestures struck a chord with the public and criticism ebbed away.

After Diana, the queen’s popularity rebounded as she presided over what appeared to be a softer, more accessible and thoroughly modern royal family. This was evident In 2005 when, to public approval, she assented to the previously unthinkable marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

The queen’s most recent decade as monarch has largely been one of celebration. In 2006, she marked her 80th birthday with a series of festivities and goodwill messages from around the world.

She has witnessed both her grandsons graduate as military officers and, of course, she oversaw the marriage of Prince William and Catherine, the woman who — when her husband eventually inherits the throne to become king — will succeed her as Britain’s next queen.

Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this story. Images of then-Princess Elizabeth during World War II courtesy of the Imperial War Museums.

These are just some of the most common reports of bribery that can be found in ipaidabribe.or.ke, a recently-launched website dedicated to battling rampant public corruption in Kenya and uncovering its economic impact.

The initiative, which was launched last December by Antony Ragui, a 37-year-old financial services consultant, allows victims of graft to share their bribe stories anonymously and track incidents of corruption online.

“I came back to the country from the States about four years ago and I would listen to a lot of Kenyans complain about corruption on social media, on Twitter, on private blogs and I basically got tired of it,” says Ragui. “I said now it’s time for me to do something different.”

Antony Ragui is the founder of ipaidabribe.or.ke.

Read more: Crooked top officials should take a fall, says Kenyan corruption chief

Based on a similar site launched a few years ago in India to curb corruption, Ragui’s online platform is divided in three categories, containing detailed information about the amount of money paid and the location of the bribe.

The first section contains stories about bribes that were paid, breaking down the numbers by region and government department. The second collects stories from people who refused to pay a bribe, while the third contains stories of honesty, where citizens were not asked to pay a public official.

Until now, Ragui’s site has hosted nearly 600 cases of, mainly petty, bribery worth around 17 million Kenyan shillings (£204,000).

“Corruption is a huge issue: it’s so endemic and the worst part about it is it becomes a way of life,” says Ragui, who’s also about to roll out an SMS service that will allow citizens to report their stories instantaneously via their mobile phones.

“So what I’m trying to do with the site essentially is to get people to create a network of anti-corruption people — people who feel that this has to come to an end and we need to make a difference.”

Opinion: Can Kenya avoid Africa’s resource curse?

According to anti-corruption group Transparency International, Kenya is one of the world’s most corrupt countries. The group’s 2011 East African Bribery Index said that there is a 67% chance that Kenyans would be expected to pay a bribe every time they interacted with the police. Overall, the cost of corruption in Africa is estimated at more than $148 billion a year, according to African Union estimates.

Yet ipaidabribe.or.ke is not the only attempt to use information technology as a tool in the fight against corruption in Africa as an increasing number of similar websites have popped up across the continent.

Also based on India’s I Paid A Bribe, Bribe Nigeria was set up last summer by Leonard Raphael to raise awareness about corruption and address its impact on the West African country.

“Corruption is an endemic disease that has eaten up every facet of the Nigerian society,” says Raphael, pointing to the case of a father who was asked by police officers to give them money for fuel after they came to his house to search for his son who was just kidnapped.

“As soon as corruption can be controlled in Nigeria, every other sustainable development can henceforth progress,” adds Raphael.

In South Africa, Corruption Watch was launched in late January in a bid to encourage people to join their voices against the problem.

So far, the group says it has collected some 1,200 reports from all corners of the country through its online reporting form, an SMS line, social media and by email or post.

“It’s designed principally to show to people that by reporting and by speaking up something can happen,” says the group’s executive director David Lewis. “The way of changing things in a democracy is to speak up and to speak as much as possible with a connected voice,” he adds.

Read more: The Africans looking to make it in China

Ben Elers, director of programs at Transparency International, says that all these initiatives can be a powerful tool in the fight against corruption.

“I think they are essential in giving citizens a voice, they’re enabling them to voice their frustrations,” he says.

He adds, however, that since the complaints are generally anonymous, it can be difficult to follow up on them.

“Ultimately they are tools and what happens afterwards in changing the physical world is what counts at the end of the day,” he says. “So, they are critical but in of themselves they’re not sufficient, they need concrete follow-up afterwards.”

Back in Kenya, Ragui is optimistic that the use of technology can help things change.

“Kenyans are tired,” he says. “We need a new generation of Kenyans who are actually positive, hard-working, people who don’t want to get a short-term gain, people who are actually thinking the only way to make a difference in our country is for people to say no to corruption.”

Editor’s note: Paul Waldman is a contributing editor at The American Prospect and the author of “Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success.” Follow him on his blog and on Twitter.

(CNN) — We sometimes liken the presidential campaign to an extended job interview, but it’s certainly unlike any job any of us has ever applied for.

You’ve probably never gone into an interview where your prospective employer said, “Your résumé looks good, but of course we’ll have to decide if we like your spouse, go through your tax returns, talk to your elementary school classmates, see how you react when crazy people ask you bizarre questions, and make sure the car you drive communicates the proper patriotism and ordinary-guy credibility.” It isn’t enough to know whether a candidate can do the job well or whether his agenda accords with ours; we need to gaze into the very depths of his soul.

This question becomes particularly acute for candidates who seem awkward or unskilled at the glad-handing part of politics, the requirement to forge deep emotional connections with voters in the span of a few seconds. Mitt Romney is only the latest to struggle with “authenticity” (as John Kerry and Al Gore did), and six months from election day voters and reporters are still trying to determine just what kind of person he is.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter and Facebook/CNNOpinion

So it no doubt caused panic in the Romney camp when the Washington Post published an account of Romney’s high school years at the elite Cranbrook school in suburban Detroit, detailing the young man’s penchant for practical jokes and what he now calls “hijinks.” The worst was an incident involving a socially awkward boy, suspected of being gay, who had dyed his hair blond.

Romney apologizes for teen pranks

Campaign rep.: Romney ‘unfailingly kind’

Romney apologizes for high school pranks

News: Romney’s ex-classmate: ‘It was assault.’

A candidate who has struggled with seeming human, as Mitt Romney has, could have done himself a favor by using this as an opportunity to show a little more of himself. He could have said: Yes, it happened. It was stupid and cruel. I wish I could go back and undo it. But part of growing up is realizing where you failed when you were young, and learning from your mistakes so you can become a better person.

Most importantly, Romney could have said something that indicated he had a conception of how horrible the assault must have been for John Lauber, the victim. His only mention of Lauber, who died in 2004, was to say “I had no idea what that individual’s sexual orientation might be.”

By referring to Lauber as “that individual” he makes Lauber a nameless figure, further distancing himself from the incident. Which is exactly the opposite of what he should have done. After all, it’s the quality of empathy — being able to see things from someone else’s perspective and feel what they feel — that Romney has had trouble convincing voters he possesses.

This problem comes up for Romney again and again, often in the form of “gaffes” that are usually taken out of context, but still reveal a tin ear for the lives people lead. To take just one example, when Romney said “I like being able to fire people that provide services to me,” anyone who has ever been laid off recoiled in shock, whatever the context. Business owners and supervisors who have had to do the firing — the humane ones, anyway — know it can be a painful experience from the other side of the desk as well. It may be necessary at times, but you certainly wouldn’t say you “like” it.

Perhaps Romney really doesn’t remember the assault on John Lauber nearly a half-century ago, despite the fact that so many of the other people who were there have never forgotten it. Or perhaps he decided that claiming ignorance would be the safest course of crisis management. But what he said told people nothing about the man he is today and how he has changed and grown over that time. We’re all different people than we were in our youth, and we all have regrets. The 17-year-old Mitt Romney may have been a privileged, entitled boy with a mean streak. The 65-year-old Mitt Romney missed an opportunity to convince us he’s something different.

Follow us on Twitter: @CNNOpinion

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Waldman.

Chicago-based company Narrative Science has set out to prove that computers can tell stories good enough for a fickle human audience. It has created a program that takes raw data and turns it into a story, a system that’s worked well enough for the company to earn its own byline on Forbes.com.

Kristian Hammond, Narrative Science’s chief technology officer, said his team started the program by taking baseball box scores and turning them into game summaries.

“We did college baseball,” Hammond recalled. “And we built out a system that would take box scores and historical information, and we would write a game recap after a game. And we really liked it.”

Narrative Science then began branching out into finance and other topics that are driven heavily by data. Soon, Hammond says, large companies came looking for help sorting huge amounts of data themselves.

“I think the place where this technology is absolutely essential is the area that’s loosely referred to as big data,” Hammond said. “So almost every company in the world has decided at one point that in order to do a really good job, they need to meter and monitor everything.”

Narrative Science hasn’t disclosed how much money is being made or whether a profit is being turned with the app. The firm employs about 30 people. At least one other company, based in North Carolina, is working on similar technology.

Meanwhile, Hammond says Narrative Science is looking to eventually expand into long form news stories.

That’s an idea that’s unsettling to some journalism experts.

Kevin Smith, head of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee, says he laughed when he heard about the program.

“I can remember sitting there doing high school football games on a Friday night and using three-paragraph formulas,” Smith said. “So it made me laugh, thinking they have made a computer that can do that work.”

Smith says that, ultimately, it’s going to be hard for people to share the uniquely human custom of story telling with a machine.

“I can’t imagine that a machine is going to tell a story and present it in a way that other human beings are going to accept it,” he said. “At least not at this time. I don’t see that happening. And the fact that we’re even attempting to do it — we shouldn’t be doing it.”

Other experts are not as concerned. Greg Bowers, who teaches at the Missouri School of Journalism, says computers don’t have the same capacity for pitch, emotion and story structure.

“I’m not alarmed about it as some people are,” Bowers said. “If you’re writing briefs that can be easily replicated by a computer, then you’re not trying hard enough.”

(CNN) — Newer threats, such as pirate skiffs chasing freighters and desperate regimes mining harbors, have intensified the U.S. Navy’s need to handle an array of “real-world” scenarios.

Meeting the challenges requires robust training on the use of sonar and explosives and the testing of gear that will protect shipping and counter traditional naval forces.

The environmental impact of those technologies resurfaced Friday with the publication of new estimates on the number of whales and dolphins off Hawaii and California that could die or be injured as a result of their use.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet, in a draft study, said the use of sonar and explosives in those regions from 2014 to 2019 could cause up to 200 deaths and 1,600 injuries, including hearing loss, among marine mammals. The death estimates are based on the use of explosives or animals being struck by ships.

But, Navy officials told CNN, those numbers — a result of mathematical modeling — are worst-case scenarios.

“We believe … with our mitigation efforts and the Navy commitment that those injuries and mortalities will be none,” said John Van Name, U.S. Pacific Fleet senior environmental planner in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The National Marine Fisheries Service requires such data before it issues permits the Navy needs to conduct training and exercises.

The Navy contends improved mitigation efforts, including the posting of lookouts and the practice of turning sonar power down or off when marine mammals are spotted, are making a difference. And, they said, today’s sailors are boarding vessels with environmental sensibilities.

“They have the awareness the entire nation has,” Van Name said. “And they bring it with them. “

At a time when officials expect training and testing to likely increase in the deep, blue waters off Hawaii and California, environmentalists are keeping a wary eye on the Navy.

“I am not saying they are not well-intentioned,” said Zak Smith, staff attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But I am not sure their choices make them the best environmental stewards they could be.”

The debate over sonars and whales has gone on for years. It centers on balancing the need to defend the United States, while safeguarding its natural resources.

It has also played out in court. In 2008, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted sanctions placed on the Navy over its underwater sonar testing.

Environmental interests, said Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority, “are plainly outweighed by the Navy’s need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines.”

Smith argued that the use of lookouts aboard Navy ships is not fully effective.

“Most marine mammals don’t spend much time at the surface,” he said. “When they do, you better have good weather conditions to see them.”

Smith points to other consequences from the use of sonar and other acoustic sources off California and Hawaii.

Government estimates for 2014 to 2019 indicate there may be about 2 million cases of temporary hearing loss among marine animals, Smith told CNN. “Marine mammals use hearing the same way we use sight” to find food, he said.

“This kind of constant barrage and harassment is not a recipe for healthy populations,” Smith added.

Van Name challenged Smith’s assessment, saying the 2 million number includes all behavioral and “temporary” responses, such as an animal turning its head, stopping feeding or moving out of the area.

“The animal fully recovers,” Van Name said.

The report also indicated monitoring in 2009-2010 off Hawaii and Southern California showed 162,000 marine mammals with no evidence of distress or unusual behavior during Navy activities.

The older Navy analysis, for 2009-2013, estimated about 110 marine mammals would be injured or killed in Hawaii and California.

Van Name and Alex Stone, environmental impact statement project manager with the U.S. Pacific Fleet, urged caution when making comparisons between the studies. They cited additional research, a wider geographic area, updated computer models and different study areas in the new analysis.

“It is clearly not our intention to harm any animals,” Van Name said.

Three, perhaps four, dolphins, died in 2011 during a Navy training exercise involving underwater explosives near San Diego.

The area had been cleared but dolphins moved in too late for divers to be able to turn off a charged timer, Stone said. “The dolphins were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

After the incident, the size of the mitigation area was increased.

“We learned from this lesson and moved forward,” Stone said.

“The limited impacts we are expecting are to individual animals, not to the species population,” he said.

Smith, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is trying a different approach.

The agency is identifying marine mammal “hot spots” with a high population density, Smith said. The Navy, he said, should do a better job of not using disruptive sonar and explosives in such zones.

Van Name said the Navy already identifies areas for special protection, including a humpback whale sanctuary off Maui. Crews also are aware of calving season and areas.

The Navy is seeking public input over the next 60 days as it moves forward in the permit process.

“We encourage the public to engage with us so we can do a better job,” Van Name said. “This document is very robust, very defensible and people will see that.”

While the Navy’s chief mission is defending the country, it has “a long history of environmental stewardship,” Van Name said.

CNN’s Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

(Mashbale) — If you’re one of the millions who purchased an iPod between September 12, 2006, and March 31, 2009, you might be in for a surprising email from RealNetworks.

The company, which developed Real Player and the service Harmony, has officially enlisted iPod owners in a class-action lawsuit against Apple — though you do have the right to recuse yourself.

Why RealNetworks? Back in 2004, the company created the music service Harmony, a digital rights management (DRM) translation service. It allowed users to play songs downloaded from the RealPlayer music store on Apple’s iPod.

But as any iPod user knows, songs must be loaded onto iTunes to be played on Apple’s devices. That’s because Apple created an iPod firmware update not too long after the announcement of Harmony, which blocked it and other music services from uploading songs to the iPod.

Several iPod users filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of unfairly blocking competition. Now — eight years later — it’s gaining steam.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California gave the lawsuit class-action status in November 2011. The website ipodlawsuit.com, which details the entire case, explains:

“The lawsuit claims that Apple violated federal and state laws by issuing software updates in 2006 for its iPod that prevented iPods from playing songs not purchases on iTunes. The lawsuit claims that the software updates caused iPod prices to be higher than they otherwise would have been.”

If you own any of these devices ? first through fourth generation Nanos, second and third generation Touches, first through third generation Shuffles, a fifth generation classic iPod or the special edition U2 iPod ? you’re automatically included in the lawsuit. (Official notices began going out this week.) But you give up any right to sue Apple individually over the same concerns.

Alternatively, you could also request exclusion from the case. However, if Apple does end up losing, you don’t get to share in any kind of “recovery” that may be rewarded.

So far, there’s no money involved ? no actual settlement or reward has been determined.

If you’re one of these iPod owners, will you opt to be excluded from the case, or will you take part in a class-action lawsuit against Apple? Sound off in the comments.

© 2011 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.

CNN Hero: David Wing-Kovarik

Seattle (CNN) — David Wing-Kovarik and his partner, Conrad, were ready to adopt a child.

They moved through all their requirements smoothly, even completing an orientation and training course for prospective parents.

Then they were confronted with their first real stumbling block.

“Our adoption agent said, ‘Well, you both look the same on paper, so who’s going to be the parent?’” Wing-Kovarik recalls.

In Arizona, where the couple lived at the time, only individuals and legally married couples may adopt from the U.S. foster care system. But because a same-sex couple cannot legally marry in the state, only one parent can be granted legal rights to the child.

“We saw (it) as a disadvantage to the child,” said Wing-Kovarik, 47. “We, frankly, got very angry about it when we thought about everybody else that was in the (training) class. None of them were asked this question. And it came down to the fact that we were a male couple. This was when we first experienced how being that gay couple just adds to the complexity of the whole process. It makes it much harder.”

In 18 states and the District of Columbia, same-sex couples can jointly petition to adopt a child. But in the other states, such as Arizona, the law either restricts joint adoption or is unclear.

That only adds confusion and frustration to what is already a “mind-numbing” adoption process, Wing-Kovarik said.

“It makes your head spin with the questions that are asked of you, with the forms that you have to fill out,” he said. “And then you have on top of that the fact that your family might not be that mom-and-dad home. You’re that gay or lesbian family … and the questions begin to change.”

Wing-Kovarik and his partner did their homework and were eventually able to adopt two sibling boys after relocating to Seattle for Conrad’s new job. But it was a long, arduous and invasive process, one that scares off many other potential parents, Wing-Kovarik said.

“It becomes a daunting experience,” he said. “It’s why the families don’t always come forward, because they think they’re going to be rejected.”

And to him, that is unacceptable with 107,000 boys and girls waiting for adoption in the United States.

“When you lose that family, you lose an opportunity for a child,” he said. “They need help. … That child sitting in foster care year after year after year is not going to their social worker and saying, ‘I only want a mom-and-dad home.’ “

Determined to help other families deal with the same obstacles that he had faced, Wing-Kovarik started a nonprofit, Families Like Ours. It began as a simple online resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people wanting to foster or adopt. But as word spread about its growing expertise and its success in helping foster placements and adoptions, more diverse people started coming to the group for help.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, pink, purple, orange, polka-dotted, from Mars, from the moon or any other place,” Wing-Kovarik said. “If you think you can make a difference with these kids, you should be stepping forward to do to this. …

“It’s unacceptable that families are faced with barriers that are put in their way because of a myth, a misunderstanding, miscommunication … preventing a child from having a family just because (other people) just don’t like what that family looks like.”

Wing-Kovarik estimates that his group has helped thousands of families — both gay and straight — by offering a range of services such as lawyer referrals, case consultations, special-needs classes and tips on therapists and pediatricians. With the help of a nationwide network of volunteers — many of whom have benefited from the group in the past — everything is free.

“Families contact us and say, ‘I want to do this, how do I do this?’ We do two things: find out the answer and figure out how it really works for their specific situation, because they are never the same,” Wing-Kovarik said.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

According to the state of Washington, more than 75% of families who have attended a training class through Wing-Kovarik’s group have gone on to be placed with a foster child.

“That is much higher than other agencies,” said Paulette Caswell, adoption and permanency supervisor for the state’s Department of Social and Health Services.

Wing-Kovarik has also become a preferred trainer of the state, training nearly 250 families a year since 2002.

“He has a unique perspective, and families connect to this,” Caswell said. “And (David’s work) is done for truly altruistic reasons. There is no cost to the state for it. We have others that support us and do a lot of work, but we tend to pay for that service. Families Like Ours does it through donations and grants, and he hasn’t been paid in years. That’s pretty extraordinary.”

Kevin Broderick, a single, gay man, called Families Like Ours when he encountered difficulty finalizing the adoption of his now 13-year-old son, Michael.

“I am 100% sure that if it weren’t for David, I would not have my son,” Broderick said. “He understands how things should go, but also when they don’t go right, how can we get them back on track? He figured out how to get us over that finish line.”

In 2007, the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law estimates that there were 65,500 adopted children living with a gay parent in the United States. Wing-Kovarik says these homes are really not all that different from traditional mom-and-dad households.

“We’re a two-dad home,” he said. “On the surface, does it look different? Sure. But when we’re at home, does it look any different than anybody else? No. We argue and fight with the kids to get their homework done and brush their teeth and take a shower and brush their hair. ‘Put your shoes on the right feet!’ ‘Is your backpack packed?’ ‘Why is your lunch sitting on the floor when the dog is eating it?’ Well, that’s the same thing everybody else complains about.”

Wing-Kovarik has had his two boys, Chris and Shawn, since 2002, and he can’t imagine sitting idle while there are so many other foster children who are still stuck in the system.

“Thinking of all of the other Chris and Shawns that are in foster care, and not knowing what’s going to happen to them … I can’t just walk away from that. …

“It’s not my job to go in and guarantee what the life of that child’s going to be. It’s simply my job to make sure that child has some sort of hope. … We’re going to make this match, and we’re going to move forward. And that kid’s going to have as productive a life as we can help that kid have.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Families Like Ours website at www.familieslikeours.org and see how to help.

Editor’s note: Christy Turlington Burns is a global maternal health advocate, founder of Every Mother Counts, and the director/producer of the 2010 documentary “No Woman, No Cry.”

(CNN) — For those of you who do not have your calendars marked and gifts or cards purchased, a reminder: Sunday is Mother’s Day, a “holiday” that many Americans have the luxury and good fortune to be able to observe.

This year, the National Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend around $18.6 billion on gifts for this one day — even though most of us go through the motions of celebrating without having any idea about the day’s original intent.

Mother’s Day can be traced back to Julia Ward Howe, and its aims were quite different from anything you’ll find today on a greeting card. In her Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870, Howe called on her “sisters” to work to establish peace so that her son could return home from war: “In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held … to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

This year, I would like to ask that we — mothers and everyone else — reignite the spirit of common purpose that Julia Ward Howe sought to inflame in Americans, and direct it toward a silent wartime that is taking hundreds of thousands of women’s lives each year — childbirth.

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iReporter’s tribute to her mom

High tech gift ideas for Mother’s Day

82-year-old hiking Everest on Mom’s Day

Our organization measures success by the actions taken to reduce maternal mortality and improve maternal health. The goal is 5 million actions by 2015 — perhaps signing a pledge, running a 5K or even a marathon or donating an old cell phone so it can be used to facilitate communication and medical care in rural areas. Our website, everymothercounts.org, suggests specific actions to take, many of them straightforward steps that help spread the word or raise resources for simple solutions. Individually they may seem small but together, they can save lives.

With that said, here is what we propose for Mother’s Day: A “No Mothers Day.” Our “proclamation” encourages mothers to join in solidarity to “disappear” for the day, out of solidarity with those who needlessly die in pregnancy and childbirth. We believe that in acting together, we can show just how much a mother is missed when she is gone

We’re spreading the word with a film to get families across the country talking about this issue, so that next year, there will be more mothers and families who can celebrate Mother’s Day together.

Please join me at http://www.facebook.com/everymothercounts, for No Mothers Day. Because together, our silence will speak the loudest for all mothers.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Christy Turlington Burns.

CNN Hero: David Wing-Kovarik

Seattle (CNN) — David Wing-Kovarik and his partner, Conrad, were ready to adopt a child.

They moved through all their requirements smoothly, even completing an orientation and training course for prospective parents.

Then they were confronted with their first real stumbling block.

“Our adoption agent said, ‘Well, you both look the same on paper, so who’s going to be the parent?’” Wing-Kovarik recalls.

In Arizona, where the couple lived at the time, only individuals and legally married couples may adopt from the U.S. foster care system. But because a same-sex couple cannot legally marry in the state, only one parent can be granted legal rights to the child.

“We saw (it) as a disadvantage to the child,” said Wing-Kovarik, 47. “We, frankly, got very angry about it when we thought about everybody else that was in the (training) class. None of them were asked this question. And it came down to the fact that we were a male couple. This was when we first experienced how being that gay couple just adds to the complexity of the whole process. It makes it much harder.”

In 18 states and the District of Columbia, same-sex couples can jointly petition to adopt a child. But in the other states, such as Arizona, the law either restricts joint adoption or is unclear.

That only adds confusion and frustration to what is already a “mind-numbing” adoption process, Wing-Kovarik said.

“It makes your head spin with the questions that are asked of you, with the forms that you have to fill out,” he said. “And then you have on top of that the fact that your family might not be that mom-and-dad home. You’re that gay or lesbian family … and the questions begin to change.”

Wing-Kovarik and his partner did their homework and were eventually able to adopt two sibling boys after relocating to Seattle for Conrad’s new job. But it was a long, arduous and invasive process, one that scares off many other potential parents, Wing-Kovarik said.

“It becomes a daunting experience,” he said. “It’s why the families don’t always come forward, because they think they’re going to be rejected.”

And to him, that is unacceptable with 107,000 boys and girls waiting for adoption in the United States.

“When you lose that family, you lose an opportunity for a child,” he said. “They need help. … That child sitting in foster care year after year after year is not going to their social worker and saying, ‘I only want a mom-and-dad home.’ “

Determined to help other families deal with the same obstacles that he had faced, Wing-Kovarik started a nonprofit, Families Like Ours. It began as a simple online resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people wanting to foster or adopt. But as word spread about its growing expertise and its success in helping foster placements and adoptions, more diverse people started coming to the group for help.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, pink, purple, orange, polka-dotted, from Mars, from the moon or any other place,” Wing-Kovarik said. “If you think you can make a difference with these kids, you should be stepping forward to do to this. …

“It’s unacceptable that families are faced with barriers that are put in their way because of a myth, a misunderstanding, miscommunication … preventing a child from having a family just because (other people) just don’t like what that family looks like.”

Wing-Kovarik estimates that his group has helped thousands of families — both gay and straight — by offering a range of services such as lawyer referrals, case consultations, special-needs classes and tips on therapists and pediatricians. With the help of a nationwide network of volunteers — many of whom have benefited from the group in the past — everything is free.

“Families contact us and say, ‘I want to do this, how do I do this?’ We do two things: find out the answer and figure out how it really works for their specific situation, because they are never the same,” Wing-Kovarik said.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

According to the state of Washington, more than 75% of families who have attended a training class through Wing-Kovarik’s group have gone on to be placed with a foster child.

“That is much higher than other agencies,” said Paulette Caswell, adoption and permanency supervisor for the state’s Department of Social and Health Services.

Wing-Kovarik has also become a preferred trainer of the state, training nearly 250 families a year since 2002.

“He has a unique perspective, and families connect to this,” Caswell said. “And (David’s work) is done for truly altruistic reasons. There is no cost to the state for it. We have others that support us and do a lot of work, but we tend to pay for that service. Families Like Ours does it through donations and grants, and he hasn’t been paid in years. That’s pretty extraordinary.”

Kevin Broderick, a single, gay man, called Families Like Ours when he encountered difficulty finalizing the adoption of his now 13-year-old son, Michael.

“I am 100% sure that if it weren’t for David, I would not have my son,” Broderick said. “He understands how things should go, but also when they don’t go right, how can we get them back on track? He figured out how to get us over that finish line.”

In 2007, the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law estimates that there were 65,500 adopted children living with a gay parent in the United States. Wing-Kovarik says these homes are really not all that different from traditional mom-and-dad households.

“We’re a two-dad home,” he said. “On the surface, does it look different? Sure. But when we’re at home, does it look any different than anybody else? No. We argue and fight with the kids to get their homework done and brush their teeth and take a shower and brush their hair. ‘Put your shoes on the right feet!’ ‘Is your backpack packed?’ ‘Why is your lunch sitting on the floor when the dog is eating it?’ Well, that’s the same thing everybody else complains about.”

Wing-Kovarik has had his two boys, Chris and Shawn, since 2002, and he can’t imagine sitting idle while there are so many other foster children who are still stuck in the system.

“Thinking of all of the other Chris and Shawns that are in foster care, and not knowing what’s going to happen to them … I can’t just walk away from that. …

“It’s not my job to go in and guarantee what the life of that child’s going to be. It’s simply my job to make sure that child has some sort of hope. … We’re going to make this match, and we’re going to move forward. And that kid’s going to have as productive a life as we can help that kid have.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Families Like Ours website at www.familieslikeours.org and see how to help.

Editor’s note: Don McPherson is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, a feminist and social justice educator. Follow him on Twitter, @donmcpherson.

(CNN) — I heard on the news that Junior Seau passed away. Seau, 43, ended his life last Wednesday. He did so as purposefully and violently as he played the game of football. Today, a public memorial is planned for him at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Junior, like my former teammate Andre Waters and friend Dave Duerson, both of whom also committed suicide, played the game as they were taught, with reckless abandon. These guys didn’t just tackle opponents; they ran through them, never applying the brakes before collision. And they did what all great athletes do: They learned to play with pain.

ESPN analyst Marcellus Wiley, a former teammate of Seau with the San Diego Chargers, said of Junior that “he never let you see his pain.” He also said that Junior would not get treatment with his teammates but would do so privately, so he was seen only at full strength.

The recent spate of suicides committed by former players has the NFL and the entire sports world examining the cumulative impact of concussions over the span of a career and a lifetime. The emerging research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has helped identify at least one culprit in the uncharacteristically fatal behavior of men who lived by the creed, “never give up.”

But inherent in that creed is a zero sum mentality that teaches us all to “play with pain.” This also means that we learned to live with pain. Together with CTE, this is a lethal combination that can be very difficult to see, unless we change our lens.

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When I received the news about Junior, I had just walked out of my daughter’s second-grade classroom.

A few dads were helping with a craft for Mother’s Day. While in class, I complained to another dad about the painful decision of saving my back or my knees while assisting children with their cutting and gluing. I knew the source of my physical pain, and it is a constant reminder of a proud football career.

I accept that I gave my body to the game I love and every day I experience the consequences. That has long been the lament of former athletes: bad knees, bad back and nagging body aches are the battle scars of weekend warriors.

During the drive home from school, I thought of the scars that riddle my body and mind. And, for the first time in the discussion of the life expectancy of NFL players, I saw myself. Junior is the 19th player that I played with or knew personally from college and professional football who is dead, all before 50. He is the fifth to commit suicide.

Then I thought of Cover 8.

In 1986, when I was a quarterback at Syracuse University, we installed a defensive formation called Cover 8. It moved the free safety, a position usually 18 yards away from the line of scrimmage, to just half that distance. The purpose was to stop the quarterback (me).

Our free safety was Marcus Paul, now assistant strength coach for Super Bowl champs the New York Giants. For 20 days, we purposely and violently ran through each other several times a day. Each collision brought admiration, respect and a hardening of our resolve. We knew we were making each other better. If we survived each other, no opponent could pose a greater challenge.

We played for another 10 years, but we still laugh about the ringing in the ears and the workman-like way we went at each other that spring, conditioning ourselves to raise our threshold for pain.

We were young men demonstrating the rules of masculinity and sports. Ignore pain, leave it on the field and never back down. As a businessman, I know the merits of those qualities that transferred from my athletic career. But I wonder (and fear) as a man and as a person about what other physical and emotional qualities transferred? At what costs? And when will I find out?

Women are twice as likely to attempt suicide but men are four times more successful. We both suffer from mental illness and seemingly insurmountable stress. But men are also less likely to show signs or ask for help. This leads to the “if you can’t fix it, force it” approach that is evident in most violent acts committed by men.

Sadly, there were signs with Junior, Andre, Dave and all the other players who have committed suicide. And, they knew it. What they didn’t know was how to tell us. And, we didn’t know how to see it in them.

We assumed that they were like most players who find it hard to adjust to life outside the locker room, without the game. It’s easy to see them as warriors without a war.

It’s harder to see them as men without capacity to say, “I hurt and I need help.”

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Don McPherson.

Ivan Ljubicic bows out of the Monte Carlo Masters and leaves the stage of men’s professional tennis for the last time at the age of 33.

ATP chief Brad Drewett (L) and director Zeljiko Franulovic present the Croatian with a special trophy and gift to mark his retirement from tennis. Drewett described Ljubicic as “a true gentleman and ever popular amongst his peers.”

Ljubicic and wife Aida (holding their son Leonardo) with Slavica Radic, a fellow Croatian who is the former spouse of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Ljubicic — seen here giving tips to Rocco, the son of his coach Riccardo Piatti, at the 2008 French Open — also has a daughter Zara, who was born in November 2011.

Two seasons ago, a 31-year-old Ljubicic defied critics and age to triumph at the prestigious Indian Wells Masters tournment in California. The win made him the oldest first-time winner of an ATP Masters 1000 event.

Ljubicic reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in 2006 — a year in which he won three ATP titles, including this one in Vienna. “I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said.

Croatia’s team of (L-R) Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic hold the Davis Cup trophy aloft for the first and only time so far after defeating Slovakia 3-2 in Bratislava in 2005.

The victorious team parade a replica Davis Cup trophy in the main square in Zagreb.

One of Ljubicic’s finest moments on a tennis court came when he and Ancic secured a bronze medal for Croatia at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s doubles.

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Ljubicic bagged 10 ATP Tour titles during a 14-year career, his last coming in 2010 at the Indian Wells Masters in California when he beat American former world No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

It was a deeply satisfying result for Ljubicic who, at the age of 31, became the oldest first-time winner of an ATP Tour Masters 1000 title in history.

But his success wasn’t limited to individual events.

Together with Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic and Ivo Karlovic, Ljubicic was part of Croatia’s victorious 2005 Davis Cup team, becoming the only unseeded country to win the event.

The dramatic 3-2 victory over Slovakia sparked wild celebrations in Zagreb’s main square and followed on from a bronze medal he and Ancic won in the doubles at the Athens Olympics the previous summer.

Both occasions were proud moments for Ljubicic who was forced to flee his home as a 13-year-old in May 1992 as Croatia battled to maintain the independence it declared the previous year.

“I was living in the Serbian part of Bosnia, so it wasn’t a pleasant place to be at that moment,” he recalls.

“I left with my mother and my brother. My father stayed, but he managed to get out in November the same year.”

It was during this time that Ljubicic was invited to attend a tennis club in Moncalieri, a town near Turin in northern Italy.

“It was the beginning of my tennis career,” he says. “My parents thought it was a good idea, so I left Bosnia in 1993 and stayed for three years and in 1996 I started to have some good results.”

An appearance in the Wimbledon juniors’ final the same year was followed by his first sponsorship deal, marking his arrival in the professional ranks.

A decade later, Ljubicic would reach the pinnacle of his career, rising to third in the world rankings behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — an achievement which remains a tremendous source of pride.

“I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to these guys. It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said.

With their opposing personalities and playing styles, he says Federer and Nadal have created a unique era in tennis which will be difficult for a new generation to repeat.

“In the past we had a little bit of that with Agassi and Sampras but they were both American. Now we have a Swiss guy and a Spanish guy,” Ljubicic said.

And with current No. 1 Djokovic “coming from another world at the moment” — these are great times for tennis, he thinks.

Ljubicic recalls practicing with an 18-year-old Djokovic back in 2005 and wasn’t immediately struck by the Serbian’s game technically.

But what he did observe, even at that young age, was a steely determination.

“Mentally he was ready. You could see it when you met him. He was so ready to be the best player that you could see it was going to happen, one way or the other,” Ljubicic said.

He predicts the top three will continue to dominate for another couple of seasons but with youngsters like Canada’s Milos Raonic, Australia’s Bernard Tomic and American Ryan Harrison coming through, a more varied set of grand slam champions looks set to emerge.

For Ljubicic, the labors of the tennis court may now be over, but family responsibilities at his home in Monte Carlo will more than fill that void.

“I have two kids now — a three-and-a-half-year-old boy and a girl who is four months,” he said.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time together. This period before they go to school is special and I want to spend as much time as possible with them.”

“For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” Facebook’s Aaron Brady wrote on the site’s page for developers.

The center will be available on the Web and on both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. It will roll out to users over the next few weeks, according to Brady’s post.

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“So far, I see nothing not to thumbs-up here,” wrote Matt Peckham for Time. “A user-related ranking and inclusion system? A chance to investigate an app before installing it? A way for developers to compete on more level terms with Apple and Google with regard to app pricing? Everything in one central location? App agnosticism when it comes to platform and installation?

“Sure, it means a little extra work for developers and new challenge metrics for getting an app included as well as made visible, but the end benefits for users, at least on e-paper, seem broadly win-win at this point.”

“For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” Facebook’s Aaron Brady wrote on the site’s page for developers.

The center will be available on the Web and on both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. It will roll out to users over the next few weeks, according to Brady’s post.

MYB: Facebook IPO fever

New firms emerge to challenge Facebook

Are Facebook posts hurting your career?

“So far, I see nothing not to thumbs-up here,” wrote Matt Peckham for Time. “A user-related ranking and inclusion system? A chance to investigate an app before installing it? A way for developers to compete on more level terms with Apple and Google with regard to app pricing? Everything in one central location? App agnosticism when it comes to platform and installation?

“Sure, it means a little extra work for developers and new challenge metrics for getting an app included as well as made visible, but the end benefits for users, at least on e-paper, seem broadly win-win at this point.”

Actress and model Pamela Anderson is fronting the Downforce1 racing team, which plans to compete in the 2012 European Le Mans and International GT Open series.

The Canadian star is pictured here with Markus Fux, the team’s sole driver who also doubles up as Downforce1′s marketing coordinator.

The former Playboy model gets a closer look at the car with German socialite Marcus Prinz von Anhalt. The car was due to enter its first race at an International GT race in France this weekend, but Downforce1 announced it had decided not to enter.

Anderson shot to fame in the hit U.S. TV show Baywatch, in which she played lifeguard C.J. Parker between 1992 and 1998.

Anderson is not the first female celebrity to enter motorsport. Socialite Paris Hilton co-founded the SuperMartxe VIP MotoGP team in December 2010.

“Fast cars and fast women go together,” the former Playmate of the Month said on the team’s website. “Here we are surrounded by men, I love it.”

The Canadian is described as a fan of motorsport divisions “from NASCAR to Formula One” and hailed the venture as “a dream come true.”

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Anderson is not the first female celebrity to be drawn to the track. Socialite Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton hotel fortune, co-founded the SuperMartxe VIP MotoGP team in December 2010.