Roaming

The first time my daughter went overseas with her college classmates, I called our cellphone company to inquire about international connection plans. For just $6 a month, they told me, I could get "discounted" calls to wherever my daughter traveled. Some $200 in "discounted" calling charges later — which added up to less than two hours of phone time — I realized that what I bought was an expensive lesson on international dialing. I've since learned that keeping in touch with friends and relatives overseas can be cheap — sometimes even free — but you may need to learn how to talk into your computer screen.

The definitive iPhone app for learning about and touring Normandy, France, and D-day sites. Name: Normandy D-Day 1944 Available for: iOS What it does: Offers practical travel tips as well as historical information for visiting the five invasion beaches as well as 100 other locations throughout Normandy. The information is categorized and color-coded by topic: museums, battlegrounds, memorials, cemeteries and historical interest. Cost: $4.99 What's hot: The content was written by journalists who specialize in battlefield tourism, and every location has been visited and researched by the developer On the Spot Locations.

NEW YORK -- Univision intends to remain the king. The nation's largest Spanish-language media company, Univision Communications, on Tuesday said it has made a financial investment in the planned El Rey cable channel owned by Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures. El Rey, which means "the king" in Spanish, is expected to launch in December and target male Latinos under 35 with English-language programming. El Rey becomes the second planned English-language network to capture Univision investment.

The call came on the eve of his Los Angeles concert, just as he was leaving his home in Mexico. We have your son. Follow our instructions. Don't make trouble. It was a year ago, and Vicente Fernandez was about to headline four sold-out shows at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena, his annual Memorial Day pilgrimage to the Eastside suburbs of L.A. Now this voice, saying his 33-year-old son, his namesake, was being held for a ransom of millions.

"The Hesse wolf-child; the Irish sheep-child; Kaspar Hauser, the first Lithuanian bear-child; Peter of Hanover; the second Lithuanian bear-child; the third; the Karpfen bear-girl; Tomko of Zips; the Salzburg sow-girl; Clemens, the Overdyke pig-child; Dina Sanichar of Sekandra; the Indian panther-child; the Justedal snow-hen; the Mauritanian gazelle-child; the Tehran ape-child; Lucas the South African baboon-child and Edith of Ohio."

Actor Michael McKean is about to begin his fourth Broadway play in the last five years, "Superior Donuts." He's got a plum role in Woody Allen's latest film, "Whatever Works." And then there's Spinal Tap -- now and forever. The 1984 movie "This Is Spinal Tap" just came out this week in a special 25th anniversary Blu-ray edition, and the band has a new album, "Back From the Dead."

For eight years, the cougar dodged the man-made hazards that have turned the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains into a suburban minefield. In the canyons near Rancho Santa Margarita, she hunted for deer within earshot of bulldozers grading a new road and within driving range of a golf course. At night, she roamed between Mission Viejo and Camp Pendleton along an oak-lined ridge, staying clear of the nuclear power plant and Interstate 5.

Vivek Wadhwa recently used his iPhone while traveling in India. "I only checked emails a few times, made several calls," Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, recalled of the 12-day trip. When he returned home, he received a shock: an AT&T phone bill with international roaming charges for $800. "I was so outraged," the Menlo Park, Calif., resident said. "So for the next trip, I hacked my iPhone — unlocked it — and just plugged in my local [Indian] SIM card. " The charges for the Indian SIM, for voice and data, cost him as little as $2 per trip.

Our civilization is fast approaching a tipping point. Humans will need to make the transition from nonrenewable fossil fuels as the primary source of our energy to renewable energy sources that will allow us to flourish into the future. Failure to make that transformation will doom us to the endless political machinations and economic conflicts that have plagued civilization for the last half-millennium. We need new technologies to be sure, but without evolved political and economic systems, we cannot become what we must.