One interesting thing is listening to Lebanese moms arguing and talking about their wonderful little angels, their children. Let us revise some of the most common quotes heard amongst all the blabbering:

- “ريتو يقبرني شو زكي، بيقعد كل يوم أربع خمس ساعات عالكمبيوتر، ما بيقب راسو”

- “يسلملي نشالله، صار يعرف يحكي مع خالو عالانترنت”

Yes, we are facing an increasingly intelligent generation acquainted with different types of technology that wasn’t available to everyone earlier. But allow me to ask, what is this teenager doing all day on the computer? Most probably he is chatting with some of his lazy friends, or playing a lousy game in some network. Unfortunately, we are confronting a generation that lacks technological curiosity, funnily bad sadly enough, we’ll get some cv one day: “experience: “7 years chatting, king of Poker texas holdem
in casino online, most popular on facebook, etc…”.

If one day I would ask one of these children, what is a programming language? How could you reprogram the game you’re playing…? In think the answer is obvious enough…

PS: what drove me to write this essay is a Lebanese mom who really believed her son was a computer genius; she actually pushed him into computer engineering; and the joke was: “when the teacher asked him about the CPU, he pointed to the power supply!!!” ________(yo2borni … mhandis computer)

Sarah R. Hajj

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Thomas Beatie, a transgender man of Oregon, gets pregnant by artificial insemination. He has decided to carry his child as he has said, “Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.”

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Your cell phone might soon be able to tell you if you’ve caught the flu. Researchers with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo have developed a workable method of “molecular communications”—a system for the transport of microscopic samples from a user’s sweat into their phone for analysis, Computerworld reports.

Molecular communication works by using motor proteins, which transport molecules within muscles and nerve cells. The motor proteins, placed in a glass substrate with a path to a DNA analysis chip, ferry the sample between your face and the chip with no electricity required. Of course, “DNA analysis chips” still have yet to be developed. But NTT DoCoMo is confident they can have phones fully capable of biometric analysis in the next 10 years

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Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy tackled Afghanistan, immigration, climate change, and global markets as the French president’s visit to Britain continued—but Carla Bruni still hogged the headlines. Sarkozy ripped a French reporter who suggested his wife had overshadowed his trip, the Times of London reports—saying, “this is a woman who has beliefs, sensitivity, and a humanity which has contributed to her elegance.” On the substantive side, the leaders discussed France’s offers to send more troops to Afghanistan, beef up port security, and help build British nuclear power plants, AFP adds. Sarkozy is aiming to burnish statesman credentials after the airing of his private laundry—though the UK press found much to admire in Bruni, even comparing her to Jackie Onassis.

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Have parents-of-many Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally tied the knot? Star magazine insists Brangelina got hitched in a French Quarter wedding chapel yesterday, while People magazine is claiming no such ceremony took place. Angelina was pushing for an intimate wedding in France, but Brad got his way instead in Louisiana, says the Star. Pshaw, says People, the Brangelina wasn’t even in New Orleans—they were in Texas, where Pitt has been filming Tree of Life. Jolie and Pitt are parents to four kids, and Angelina’s pregnant again—this time with twins, according to the Star. The last name of all of the power couple’s children—three adopted and one biological—is already Jolie-Pitt. Pitt was previously, and infamously, married to Jennifer Aniston, while Jolie has been married to actors Billy Bob Thornton and Jonny Lee.

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Was Diana, Princess of Wales, pregnant? About to marry Dodi? Murdered by the royal family? The inquest into her death, alternately official investigation and media spectacle, is nearing its conclusion this week after six months and more than 250 witnesses, reports Reuters. The presiding judge will make his summary tomorrow, and the jury will begin deliberations Wednesday to determine whether the deaths were accidental or if there was evidence of a plot. A 10-year delay and $20 million expense aside, the inquest’s high-drama testimony has riveted Britain. Two previous police probes deemed the deaths accidental, but Dodi’s father called Prince Philip a “Nazi” and “racist,” and insisted the couple was murdered by the royals. But one friend testified that Diana told her she needed marriage “like a rash to the face.”

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