Look at this. Do not avert your gaze. This. This is what greeted me when I came out of the grocery store today.

It’s not about the car. It’s not about scratches and minor dents. I don’t care about these things. And that’s not because I abhor materialism (although I do abhor materialism), it’s primarily because I’m incredibly awkward and clumsy. Due to my clumsiness, all of my physical possessions will, probably within 45 minutes of their initial purchase, be broken, battered, bent, scratched, dented and/or otherwise ruined by me.

I’ve had to adapt and grow accustomed to damaged goods, because I am so inclined to damage them. But, notice, I only damage MY OWN goods.

This isn’t about the car. It’s about the principle. For many years I have used every platform and every tool at my disposal to fight against the terrorists who leave their shopping carts chaotically…

Whether pro-life, pro-choice, pro-family, or pro-homosexual, activists never speak on behalf of only themselves when speaking to issues. They speak for larger constituencies. For years there has been within the homosexual activist community a vocal group with a contempt for heterosexuals in general, and women in particular. “Breeders, ” is their word for us, sneered with a venomous contempt. I’ve heard it uttered since the 1980’s. Thus, the following story from LifeSite News comes as no surprise:

SYDNEY, November 6, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Women should be forced to abort their children for the next 30 years as a part of global population control, homosexual activist Dan Savage told Australian television on Monday.

Savage, whose anti-bullying program “It Gets Better” was heavily promoted by President Barack Obama, made the statement during a four-member panel during the “Festival of Dangerous Ideas.”

Audience member Lisa Malouf closed the program by asking, “Which so-called…

My name is Kjerstin, and I used to run an international nonprofit organization. A pretty great one, at that: my organization, FORGE, helped more than 70,000 refugees in war-torn Africa recover from conflict and prepare for a peaceful and self-sufficient future. In refugee camps across Zambia and Botswana, we built libraries, created computer training centers, provided micro-finance and agricultural finance, started preschools, ran health education programs, and more. In short, we helped refugees determine not only what they needed but how they could build it for themselves. No one else was doing what we did, and we could squeeze more out more out of our money than a souvenir penny press.

So…why the past tense?

While there are no shortage of reasons I could give you, the simplest one is this: I starved FORGE to death. 

When I started the organization, I was young, idealistic, and naive. Not experienced…

There is something truly fortuitous about working for a company that seeks to see the good and beautiful in humanity…..we start to find what we are looking for.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by ugliness and sentiments of doom. We live in a world where most front page stories or breaking headlines are negative….most major celebrations seem to be at least partly overshadowed by tragedy. We are so connected that it is hard to be oblivious to sadness and suffering everywhere!

However, we are learning a wonderful lesson….when we seek goodness and beauty we find it! There is so much awesomeness, so many gorgeous hearts, that really their courage and generosity OUTSHADOWS the sadness and tragedy.

Take, for instance Zach Sobiech. Given a terminal cancer diagnosis he made a very conscious choice to make other’s happy as long as he could. He also turned to music to express himself…

Some people say big data is wallowing in the trough of disillusionment, but that’s a limited worldview. If you only look at it like an IT issue it might be easy to see big data as little more than business intelligence on steroids. If you only see data science as a means to serving better ads, it might be easy to ask yourself what all the fuss is about.

If you’re like me, though, all you see are the bright lights ahead. They might be some sort of data nirvana, or they might be a privacy-destroying 18-wheeler bearing down on us. They might be both. But we’re going to find out, and we’re we’re going to find out sooner rather than later.

This is because there are small pockets of technologists who are letting their imaginations lead the way. In a suddenly cliché way of saying it, they’re aiming for 10x…