I had one of the best 4th of July weekends ever. I got to go on long scenic bike rides with friends, hang out at barbeques, and top off the weekend experience by watching a fireworks show which for reasons unknown to me was paid for by BP. Go figure. In spite of the fun, […]
Princeton Lyman and Stephen Wittels of the Council on Foreign Relations have written a thoughtful article in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs (No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The Unintended Consequences of Washington’s HIV/AIDS Programs). Far less sensationalist than the NYTimes reporting in May, this in-depth analysis explores the paradox that US commitments supporting HIV […]
An editor at CNN who sent out a Tweet expressing regret over the death of Hezbollah’s spiritual adviser paid for the Tweet with her job. Fadlallah died Sunday in a hospital in Beirut, Lebanon. When Mideast Editor Octavia Nasr tweeted about the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah’s spiritual advisor she said, “Sad to […]
MDG 3: “Finding New Ways to Empower Women” The United Nations Foundation, in collaboration with Devex, would like to hear from you about your experience promoting gender equality and empowering women. World leaders are gathering again this year to map out the homestretch of this momentous campaign. The Sept. 20-22 United Nations Millennium Development Goals […]
Jessica D’Itri Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith consists of 17 very short stories, each featuring a distasteful female protagonist. The writing is very spare, so the tales come across almost as fables. Each one tells a tragic, weird story where somebody ends up dead or worse. The female characters are completely unredeemable, so […]
Every Child Matters is holding a video contest in response to the 2010 midterm elections. The environment, jobs, and consumer protection are the hot button issues at the center of the elections this year and Every Child Matters believes that children and families ought to be made a priority during this year’s campaign season. Therefore […]
The WHO has launched the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities, an effort to link cities who “address the environmental and social factors that contribute to active and health ageing in societies.” This is in response to statistics cited on the WHO site, including: (1) In 2000, more than 600 million people in the world were […]
On Thursday, two new studies were released in the journal, Science, showcasing promising new discoveries in the search for an HIV vaccine. These studies follow a vaccine trial in Thailand last year, which was the first vaccine to show any efficacy, but with low results. These latest findings center around “broadly neutralizing antibodies”, which have been shown to neutralize more than 90% […]
Two scientists in South Africa are calling for a month-long period of abstinence, to break the cycle of HIV transmission. Alan Whiteside of the University of Whiteside, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is quoted as saying: “This kind of initiative could provide hyper-endemic countries with a one-off, short-term adaptation that is cost-effective, easy to monitor […]
Perhaps this increasingly ridiculous spy saga was just a brilliant marketing ploy to promote the upcoming spy thriller Salt, starring Angelina Jolie?
The U.S. has a time-inconsistency dilemma with North Korea. In a time-inconsistency dilemma, someone’s preferences change over time. The concept is usually applied to behavioral economics, but it also applies to security situations. Take terrorism. The U.S. may want to negotiate with a terrorist to prevent him from committing future attacks. But negotiating might encourage […]
After some reflection, I can think of nothing good to say about the Alberta tar sands. The best thing that most people say here is that Canada is not Saudi Arabia or Venezuela and therefore if the US is importing billions of barrels a year (4.28 in 2009), then we’re getting more (900 million) from […]
At the 2010 G20 Summit held recently in Toronto, world leaders committed to more funding to address climate change and food security across the globe. Predictably, the global financial crisis has impacted those living in poverty the most, raising food prices above the reach of millions, resulting in an estimated addition of 109 million people […]
We’ve been waiting since mid-June to find out what consequences will follow from North Korea’s presumed sinking of a South Korean warship, since the Obama administration has repeatedly said that such a wanton act cannot be allowed to stand without consequences. As yet the UN Security Council has not adopted tougher sanctions to punish the […]
A while ago I read the book, The Marketplace of Revolution, in which T. H. Breen writes of the British Empire: Eighteenth-century writers seemed uncertain how best to describe Britain’s relation to its many overseas possessions. Only tepidly did they employ the concept of “empire,” since for them it carried uncomfortable intellectual baggage from ancient […]