Dubbed an experiment in "building empathy," a Silicon Valley “entrepreneur and sociologist" has created Homeless GoPro, wherein a $300 camera usually used for extreme sports is strapped onto poor people on the street to record their own extreme sport of having no home, on the gizmo-happy premise that other people can better understand a reality if it's livestreamed. Following earlier tech efforts - homeless hot spots, homeless bitcoin - the project is working with Adam Reichart, a homeless man who says the young GoPro team are "decent people," even if they do talk about technology offering the "opportunity to elevate our digital communities into our reality (and) our actions into greatness." Alas, for now the poor still need shelter, shower, food, clothes, mailing address, job prospects, dignity and hope. Maybe start with those?

The potty-humor-loving Captain Underpants graphic novels, about a couple of wise-acre fourth-graders who turn their mean principal into a superhero dressed in undies, again topped this year's list of kids' books most challenged by parents evidently not crazy about the references to boogers, tinkle, butts and barf that their kids, with the discerning taste of eight-year-olds, adore. The series, much praised for coaxing otherwise book-wary kids to read, was cited for "offensive language" and as "unsuited for age group" on the list released for National Library Week. Runners-up were Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, cited for depictions of rape, racism or violence - subjects they in fact address. Next is Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games, cited not for killing children but "religious viewpoint."

It seemed like a big deal when the USA's new Forever stamp was announced: It bears the image of Harvey Milk, this country's first openly gay elected official. But nothing says changing times like Finland's new stamps, which boast the homoerotic, buttock-loving, leather-wearing drawings of iconic gay artist Touko Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland. His images of "confident and strong male figures," to be unveiled along with a more sedate series of garden scenes and bridges, were chosen for celebrating "a sensual life force." Officials admitted there was some debate over the choice, but "we wanted to live in the year 2014." Cue right-wing heads exploding. Would that Harvey Milk had lived to see them.