When protests and riots broke out in Tehran two weeks ago, Twitter rapidly eclipsed CNN, the New York Times, and every other major news outlet to become the primary source for real-time, on-the-ground updates on what was happening. The event will doubtless change journalism forever, in more ways than one. But let's put aside the discussion of access, immediacy, and who can rightly be called a "journalist" for now, and focus instead on the psychic effects of this new technology.

For years, I've been anticipating the death of literacy due to our high-tech world; I didn't expect the loss of human empathy too. But according to a new study from the University of Southern California, the rapid-fire stream of information from sites like Twitter and Facebook may be stunting our emotional growth. We're deluged with more information than we can process, the report states, and as researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang says, "If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality."

Jason Calacanis, an early Internet pioneer and champion, refers to this as Internet Asperger's Syndrome. On his blog, Calacanis.com, the author describes how he's seen Twitter and other new media transform the ways we interact. Today, he writes, it's all about the numbers: how many followers do you have, how many page-views do you get, what is your monthly subscriber count? But numbers aren't human beings. No longer do we see the eyes of the person sharing heartbreaking news; no longer do we think twice about flaming a fellow forumite on a discussion board. It's all removed, virtual, computerized.

Except it isn't. There are still real people at the ends of each Internet connection, and sometimes the anonymity of online communiques dehumanizes them for those on the other end -- and vice versa. To cite an extreme but very real example: the case of Choi Jin Sil, the South Korean film star who reportedly killed herself last fall because of rumors circulating the web about her.

The House and Senate have given preliminary support to bills intended to discourage child marriage around the world.

The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S.987, H.R.2103) would direct American aid and diplomatic agencies to implement or assist with existing programs that support girls' highest social, educational and economic development.

Child marriage undermines girls' lives in all of those areas, according to the International Center for Research on Women. By the ICRW's accounting, 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, with that number projected to reach 100 million girls within the next decade.

Apparently for some, it's for the honor of meeting First Lady Michelle Obama:

San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and other African American leaders in the Bayview are not at all happy about how this week's visit by first lady Michelle Obama was handled.

"One look at the picture on the front of The Chronicle says it all," Maxwell said. "The people in the neighborhood had to climb fences to even get a look at what was going on.

"The people I have talked with felt very disengaged and somewhat offended," Maxwell said.

But hold up!

Not so, said Jackie Williams a longtime Bayview gardening and youth program activist who worked at the event.

Williams, who learned only Sunday that Obama was coming, said the call went out weeks ago for volunteers to help with the playground construction. That's when she signed up.

"They knew about it, honey," Williams said. "They just didn't know the president's wife was going to be the there."

Thanks to Michelle Obama Watch for the low-down on how volunteering can lead to sharing tools with FLOTUS and being too busy to help out can lead to a big case of the grumbles. They even have some amazing photos from the event too!

Now everyone should be on high alert! You never know where FLOTUS will show up next. The food bank? The playground? Beach clean-up? And if she doesn't show up, try to have solace in the fact that you helped your community out.

After a 238-day feud over who would be the next state senator of Minnesota, the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, finally conceded to his rival, Al Franken, a Democrat, comedian, and political pundit and activist.

For months, it's seemed as if Coleman just didn't want to give in out of principle, despite the increasingly obvious fact that he'd been licked. He waged a nearly tireless legal battle against Franken, and the recount that ensued made that fiasco in Florida back in 2000 look like small potatoes.

But now that it's over, Franken has become the 58th Democrat now serving in the U.S. Senate. Just two more seats and the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority -- something that hasn't existed since 1981.

Here Coleman tries to save face by wishing his former rival well, but maintains that he fought a good fight for the past eight months. Maybe he did, but partisan politics aside, if you're done, you're done. Insisting otherwise only slows the machinery of politics and prevents the senator-elect from focusing on the work to be done. Thank god it's over.

In correspondence with Gay Pride Month PBS scheduled programs that reflect gays and lesbians across the world struggle for equal rights. There have been countless violent crimes committed against homosexuals solely because of their sexual orientation.

P.O.V "Beyond Hatred" tells a heartbreaking story of the brutal murder of a French gay man and his family's unique grieving process. Directed by Olivier Meyrou.

In September 2002, three skinheads were roaming a park in Rheims, France, looking to "do an Arab" when they settled for a gay man instead. Twenty-nine-year-old François Chenu fought back fiercely, but he was beaten unconscious and dumped in a river, where he drowned. This acclaimed French vérité film is the story of the crime's aftermath -- above all, of the Chenu family's brave and heartrending struggle to seek justice while trying to make sense of such pointless violence and unbearable loss. With remarkable dignity, they fight to transcend hatred and the inevitable desire for revenge.

Watch this remarkable documentary on PBS Tuesday, June 30 at 10pm Eastern.