Public Radio International (PRI)

latimes:

Brazil prisoners ride bikes toward prison reform: The alternative energy program lights a boardwalk and benefits inmates, while becoming the focal point of a movement to improve Brazil’s troubled prison system.

Must-read:

The bikes are hooked up to portable batteries, which light up the humble boardwalk along this small country town’s river each night. For every three days of doing stints on the bike, the men shave one day off their sentences. In its first months, the program has proved so popular that guards have reported a jump in good behavior, which moves candidates to the top of the waiting list.

Photo: Inmates gather in the area where bicycles are hooked up to generate electricity at the prison in Santa Rita do Sapucai, Brazil. Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

(via poptech)

fotojournalismus:

A Syrian child who fled her home in Aleppo with her family due to fighting between the rebels and the Syrian army, sleeps on the ground of a school where she and her family took refuge, in Suran, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012.

[Credit : Muhammed Muheisen/AP]

theatlantic:

FLOTUS Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

Combining the star wattage of a wildly popular first lady, the skills of a now-seasoned political pro, and the carefully curated stories of real people, Michelle Obama on Tuesday knocked it out of the park during her Democratic National Convention speech.

Those who are fans of the first lady will doubtless spend the next few days dissecting her patterned silk Tracy Reese frock, or her very high pink heels, or how she made them feel.

But the first lady is no Barbie doll.

What she is is a Harvard Law School-educated attorney playing dress up in America’s most old-fashioned White House position. She took the stage on the exceedingly well-programmed opening night of a political convention designed to reelect her husband — and used the opportunity to deliver a series of devastating contrasts with the Romney family and policy agenda, cloaked in the bromides of wifely love.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

fotojournalismus:

An Indian man drives through a waterlogged street with his dog after heavy rainfall in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. The monsoon rains which usually hit India from June to September are crucial for farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people.

[Credit : Ajit Solanki/AP]

pbsthisdayinhistory:

Tuesday, Sept 4: “Little Rock Nine” Denied Entrance to School

On this day in 1957, the “Little Rock Nine,”  a group of African American high school students, unsuccessfully attempted to pass through angry crowds to integrate Central High School in Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus had called out the National Guard to prevent them from entering the school.

Later that month, the students finally were able to enter the school under the protection of paratroopers dispatched by President Dwight Eisenhower.

Explore American Experience’s photo gallery from the southern school desegregation years of 1957-1962.

Photo: U.S. Troops escort African American students from Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas on October 3, 1957 (Library of Congress).

wnycradiolab:

From Live Science: “Astrophotographer Niccolò Bonfadini took this stunning picture in the Finnish Lapland in the winter of 2011. With the sun rising behind the photographer, the Belt of Venus is the pinkish streak caused by the atmosphere reflecting light from the setting or rising sun — giving the reddish hue.”

Two things:

1. Astrophotographer is pretty much the the best job title I’ve ever heard.
2. I know I’m supposed to be looking at the Belt of Venus and everything, but holy crap, those show-pillar things are trees!

pritheworld:

Photo of the Day: People arrive at the “Diner en blanc” (Dinner in White) event outside the ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

A total of 888 people, dressed head to toe in white and bringing with them white tablecloths, glassware and other finery, gathered at the promenade near the museum on Thursday night for an impromptu open-air dinner, organizers said.

Participants at the event, the first in Asia, were told of the venue via social media sites and the Internet, then rushed to assemble at the venue. ( REUTERS/Tim Chong)

pol102:

Via newsweek:

Apple keeps rejecting Drones+ from its App Store. Why? 

This poses a number of interesting questions: What does it mean (morally or ethically) that military technology has become so automated? What does it mean that individual citizens can track it? Should we (citizens) be able to? How does such information change our perception of national security strategy? Plus numerous others.