Ever since Google fired James Damore for "advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace," those of us working in tech have been trying to figure out what we can and cannot say on the subject of diversity. You might imagine that a university would be more open to discussing his ideas, but my experience suggests otherwise.

For the last ten months I have been discussing this issue at the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering where I work. I have tried to understand why Damore's opinions generated such anger and have struggled to decide what I want to do in response. As a result of my attempts to discuss this, our mailing list known as 'diversity-allies' is now a moderated list to prevent "nuanced, and potentially hurtful, discussion." Instead, I have been encouraged to participate in face-to-face meetings that have often been tense, but which have helped me to understand where others are coming from.

I embarked on this journey because I worry that tech companies and universities are increasingly embracing an imposed silence, in which one is not permitted to question the prevailing wisdom on how to achieve diversity goals. I intend to fight this imposed silence and I encourage others to do the same. We can't allow the Damore incident to establish a precedent. Damore's twitter handle briefly claimed that he had been "fired for truth," but really he was fired for honesty. Those of us who disagree with current diversity efforts need to speak up and share our honest opinions, even if doing so puts us at risk.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in London on Saturday calling for a second vote on Britain's departure from the European Union.

The anti-Brexit campaigners marched on parliament to mark the second anniversary of the Brexit referendum, demanding a "people's vote" on whether to approve the final deal Prime Minister Theresa May strikes with the EU, if an agreement is struck at all.

"I was in deep tears when the referendum happened, it looked like the future was pretty bad," said Chiara Liduori, a 40-year-old Italian living in London.

"Brexit is awful not only because we want to keep things like it is, but because it is important to be within, in order to make changes."

Ever since the United States began weaning itself off the sociological junk food of victimization and its culture of blame, the pop-psychology menu increasingly has been flavored by an antithetical concept - empowerment - that can be summarized as: Believe it, achieve it.

Nowadays, Fortune 500 conglomerates draft business plans with bullet points drawn from Laker coach-cum-inspirational guru Phil Jackson's Zen optimism. Couples write partnership covenants based on the utopian blather of John Gray. Millions of everyday Americans owe their feelings of "personal power" to erstwhile firewalker Tony Robbins, arguably the father of today's mass-market empowerment. And there is Oprah, who is seldom categorized as a guru in her own right but whose status as the movement's eminence grise is beyond dispute: The road to self-help's promised land, and a bite of its $10-billion fruit (as tracked by Marketdata Enterprises), runs straight through Harpo Productions. The nostrums delivered by these and other self-help celebrities form a cultural given, an uncontested - and, we are led to believe, incontestable - foundation for today's starry-eyed zeitgeist.

The satirical site's creator opens up on how Facebook tried to destroy his livelihood.
I was a very curious kid, always asking questions, always looking for answers. Throughout my childhood, as far back as my memory goes, I had a recurring fantasy: I wished I had a magical machine that I could carry around in my pocket that would instantly tell me the answer to any question. What a thrilling thought that was to me, to always know the truth, to never have to wonder. But as a kid the all-important question never occurred to me: who would get to program the machine with all the answers?

We're living in the realization of my childhood dream. And very few people are asking that all-important question.

Growing up, I never got into stories with knights and fair maidens. Walking around in princess dresses while imagining I was trapped in a castle by a vicious dragon? Not interested.

But give me a sunbonnet and braid my hair and I was lost in the world of Laura Ingalls. I still remember being in a titter of excitement at age four when my parents took me to the famous Little House on the Prairie pageant in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

US President Donald Trump hasn't typically found much support among the Hollywood elite, but there may be a first time for everything. Filmmaker David Lynch thinks Trump could be one of the best presidents in American history.

In a recent interview with The Guardian newspaper, the unconventional filmmaker made the somewhat surprising claim that Trump "could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history" - although it's not entirely clear if he meant the comment as a compliment.

Both President Trump and former President Obama are commonly said in America's 'news' media to be or to have been "ceding Syria to Russia" or "ceding Syria to Russia and Iran," or similar allegations. They imply that 'we' own (or have some right to control) Syria. That's not only a lie; it is a very evil and harmful one, dangerously goading the US President to go even more against Russia (and Iran) (and, of course, against Syria) than has yet been done - but the 'news' media don't care about that evil, and that falsehood, and that dangerousness - they do it anyway, and none of them attacks the others for perpetrating this vicious war-mongering lie, that lying provocation to yet more and worse war than already exists there. And the fact that none is exposing the fraudulence of the others on this important matter, is a yet-bigger additional scandal, beyond and amplifying the media's common lying itself. Because they all function here like a mob, goading to more and worse invasions, and doing it on the the basis of dangerous lies - that America, and not the Syrians themselves, own Syria.

UK police are trying to track down vandals who smashed up two honey hives, killing thousands of bees.

Northumbria Police are investigating an incident in Hebburn, north-east England, in which a beekeeper's manmade hives were destroyed. Investigators are now trying to track those responsible for the vandalism that occurred back on May 22.

Hive owner Steve Cattanach spoke out about the destruction, issuing a statement through police about his despair and incredible frustration over the attack.

Hadar, Syria - Situated in the northern part of Quneitra governorate, with the towering Jabal al-Sheikh (Mt. Hermon) overlooking it and the region, Hadar is in both a beautiful area of Syria and a dangerous one.

The roughly 10,000 defiant villagers of Hadar are isolated and under constant threat of attack. Until December 2017, Hadar was surrounded on three sides by terrorists and was attacked many times.

Positioned in a valley, with the al-Qaeda alliance until December 2017 occupying Beit Jinn and other villages to the east, Hadar also borders the ceasefire line of the occupied Syrian Golan, an area teeming with still more al-Qaeda terrorists. From their positions inside the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) zone of the occupied Syrian Golan, terrorists in Jubata al-Khashab (roughly 6 kilometers directly south of Hadar), Turunjah (roughly 5 kilometers south of Hadar), and Ufaniyah (further south than Jubata al-Khashab), have fired mortars, missiles, and other explosives on Hadar, something acknowledged even by the UN Secretary-General.

In his December 6, 2017 report, the Secretary-General noted that terrorist groups fighting in the UNDOF area of operation include "the listed terrorist group Jabhat Fath al-Sham (formerly the Nusra Front) and Jaysh Khalid Ibn al-Walid, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)."

The same report noted the attacks from the three villages towards Hadar were preceded by a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device," which killed nine people. In Hadar, I would learn that the car bomb didn't just target "a pro-Syrian forces checkpoint in Hadar," as per the UN report, but was headed towards the heart of the village when shot at by Hadar defenders. The vehicle exploded less than 100 meters from a school, at 9 a.m., according to Hadar resident Mahmoud Taweel. Had the village not been on alert, and families staying at home, the number killed would have surely been higher and included many children.

A police chief has called for cannabis to be legalized, arguing that the ban puts lives in danger and gives millions to criminals. He added that those in his jurisdiction growing plants for personal use would not be raided.

Durham Police Chief Constable Mike Barton said his decades of experience trying to enforce the cannabis ban led him to believe the drug ban was damaging public safety, instead of protecting it. "Yes, it should be legal," he said. "That's what I think based on my experience.