An innocuous photograph of Gary Locke, the new US ambassador to China, carrying his own backpack and ordering his own coffee at an airport has charmed Chinese citizens not used to such frugality from their officials. ZhaoHui Tang, a businessman from Bellevue, Washington, took the photo on his iPhone...uploaded the photo to the Chinese social media network Sina Weibo.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton launched a new business loan program in Haiti on Tuesday aimed at helping bolster an economy that was devastated by the January 2010 earthquake. Clinton said the first loan in the $20 million program is being made to Caribbean Craft, which produces colorful goods such as carnival masks, sculptures and paintings for export and lost its workshop in the earthquake.

The servers that house Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger don't have a political, social or legal agenda. Their job is simply to transmit what people post and deliver it to people who want to see it. But the same technologies can also be used to espouse unpopular causes or even rally people to anti-social, illegal or destructive acts.

On Thursday, August 18th, Food Republic, a food website that features extensive food news and culture, will be hosting a live Twitter chat with Chefs John Besh, Andrew Zimmern, Aaron Sanchez, Beau MacMillan, Michael Voltaggio, and sites Foodspotting and Food + Tech Connect about our roles using social media to raise awareness about food and other causes, such as the crisis in East Africa.

5 Days of War is a new action movie set during the 2008 Georgia-Russia war. The backers of this project seemed to have something in mind along the lines of Hotel Rwanda or The Killing Fields, films that effectively raised awareness and framed a certain narrative of international tragedies that got little attention in the U.S. while they were going on.

The Space Needle turns 50 next year and is hoping to capitalize on, if not refurbish, its image as a symbol of the future. The tower was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, at the dawn of the space age. The “Space Race” sweepstakes, coming just as NASA’s space shuttle program has ended, hopes to highlight the work of private companies that are picking up where NASA left off.

Better World Books, a bookseller that calls itself "the online bookstore with a soul," announced an initiative this week to donate a book to the company's non-profit literacy partners--Feed the Children and Books for Africa--every time a book is purchased on their website. Books for Africa will receive used textbooks, while Feed the Children will (obviously) get children's books.

Late last month the USDA announced that the first shipment of mangoes imported from Pakistan had arrived in the United States. Previously, Pakistani mangoes had been banned because of concerns they might bring pests into the country. In celebration of this first shipment, the Pakistani consulate in Chicago hosted a "mango party" at which mango-based delicacies and desserts were served.