Created by Sam Potts from the The New York Times. Click the image for a large version.

Paul Dateh recounts his personal experience with friends who were victims of gang violence. I wanted to pass this on because in this online web 2.0 world of ours, these are stories we often times don't get to hear (or speak about), but are all too familiar. These are the stories we need to share with each other.

A lot of us are on Twitter these days -- making new online friends and connections, but what exactly is the distraction/production ratio? How much time do you spend on Twitter each day? Does Twitter keep you from doing other things, or does it help? How many Twitter friends have translated to other areas of your life/work? How many people do you follow and how do you personally choose who to follow? How do you use Twitter?

[image via dieselsweeties.com]

As if we needed further evidence that we are recklessly befouling our planet, The Independent has a disturbing article about an area of floating plastic waste twice the size of the United States in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore discovered it by accident in 1997 taking a shortcut back across the Pacific after a yacht competition.

He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"

This stuff won't degrade for hundreds of years at the minimum. Ugh.

Jay Shafer takes you inside his tiny 100 square foot home. Since 1997 he's been living in a house smaller than most people's closets. I don't think I'll ever complain about a small apartment again.

Jay talks about his reasons behind designing these tiny homes, which are mostly environmental... though he does mention that he doesn't like vacuuming. :)