Analyses
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Antony Evans / crowd-funding / Deeba Fahami / Fundraising / Glowing Plants Project / Kickstarter / Stanford / synthetic biology / United States / Vibrio Fischeri / Focus Article / Science & Technology / Environment & SustainabilityBy Deeba FahamiIn a world of austerity and shrinking research budgets, the crowd-funding method at the core of the Glowing Plant Project offers a radically different approach to scientific research funding. The first synthetic biology project that has launched on Kickstarter, the Glowing Plant Project, brings a whole new approach to scientific research. This project, which has raised over $365k in under four weeks, aims to create a real glowing plant using synthetic biology. The project is testing the new frontier of science in which science is conducted outside the walls of a big institution. About the Project Antony Evans, the project manager says: "The goal of the project is to educate the public...
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African / African Progress Panel / African Progress Report 2013 / Extractive Industries / Kofi Annan / Solomon Appiah / United Nations / Universal Declaration of Human Rights / Focus Article / Global Change / AfricaThe recently launched African Progress Report 2013 addresses the important topic of equality in extractives, and recieved a lot of media attention. A Little History There are critical junctures in human history where a clarion call is issued against an injustice so great but tolerated in one or more parts of the world. The succeeding decades following this call are greatly shaped by how the global family responded to such cries. One such call was the demand to end slavery in the USA. Some headed the call, while others chose not to thus triggering a war between those on either side of the call. What would the world look like today if the south had won the...
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Forced Labour / immigration / Migration / Mirko van Pampus / Moldova / Prostitution / Sex Industry / Trafficking / Turkey / Europe / Focus Article / Global ChangeThe dominant terminology on forced labour relations is too rigid in assuming the existence of two homogeneous but separated groups of workers. "For three hundred years, the most powerful nations on earth grew richer and stronger on the profits of slave trade. Over twelve million men, women and children were forcefully transported from Africa...to the colonies and plantations of North and South America. Today, slavery is illegal in every country on the planet, but the truth is slavery did not die in the 19th Century. It is alive, it is thriving and it is bigger than ever." With this sweeping statement, researcher and journalist Rageh Omaar introduces every episode of the eight-part...
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Anthony Orlando / Ethanol / Manhattan Project / Renewable Energy / United States / Focus Article / Global Change / Environment & SustainabilityAmericans still want investment in renewable energy in a bid to distance themselves from Middle Eastern oil producers. James Gaddy knows manure. Chicken manure, to be exact. He’s spent years working with it. That may not sound like much fun to you and me, but Gaddy is on a mission to power the earth — and, in the process, save it. Specifically, Gaddy has figured out a way to produce ethanol from the bacteria in chicken manure. And it’s cellulosic ethanol, not the corn-based kind that siphons land in Iowa, jacks up the price of food, and results in almost as much greenhouse gas emissions as gasoline. No, this stuff is the real deal. It dramatically reduces greenhouse...
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Ahmed R.Teleb / Edouard Lambert / Eugen Ehrlich / google / google.ps / Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr / Larry Page / Palestine / Politics / Roscoe Pound / sociological jurisprudence / United States / Focus Article / Global Change / Middle EastBy Ahmed TelebMaking the decision for Google to change google.ps' website to mention "Palestine," CEO Larry Page didn't look at international law. Instead, he looked at what social institutions had done regarding Palestine. In turn, Google too followed suit. Google's decision on May 3 to change google.ps' tagline to “Palestine,” implicitly recognized it as a state. It also encapsulated a jurisprudence (philosophy of law) that harkens back to a world-wide quasi-revolution in law from 100 years ago, called by many at the time, the solution to “a crisis of democracy.” Today, that approach may herald a new period of legal transition as recent technology and new economic realities collide with old laws...
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Al Nasser FC / Arab Spring / Dissent / Nasrawi Revolution / Politics / Prince Faisal / Prince Nawaf / Revolution / Saudi Arabia / Saudi Football Federation / Shia Minority / Soccer / Wahhabism / Women's Soccer / Focus Article / Arts & Culture / Middle EastSaudi Arabia is seeing an emergence of political dissent from soccer fans. The country may be on the verge of licensing women’s soccer clubs that currently operate in a legal nether land. Soccer, alongside minority Shiite Muslims and relatives of imprisoned government critics, is emerging as a focal point of dissent in Saudi Arabia; an oil-rich kingdom that, despite banning demonstrations by law, is struggling to fend off the waves of change sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. Nasrawi Revolution Fan pressure is evolving as a potent tool in the absence of the right to protest. It follows intermittent demonstrations, and at times deadly clashes with security forces, in the...
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Economic Development / Ethiopia / India / Indonesia / Lee-Roy Chetty / Mobile Technology / Nigeria / Social Development / Wireless Technology / Focus Article / Global Change / Africa / Asia / Science & TechnologyMobile technology offers extensive help on various forms of social and economic development. Lee-Roy Chetty explores why such initiatives can have a positive impact in Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, and beyond. Technological innovation and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) represent a way for developing world nations to foster economic development, improve levels of education and training, as well as address gender issues within society. Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic development around the world. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, micro-entrepreneurs generate 38% of the gross domestic product. Analysis from the World Bank in 2011 indicates that small...
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Argentina / Calderon War / Colombia / crime / drug cartel / Drug War / drugs / General Victims' Law / Human Rights / Matthew Furlong / Mexico / Politics / War on Drugs / Focus Article / AmericasMexico's new General Victims' Law has been widely acclaimed, but some critics quietly wonder: might criminality itself profit from a society that tends to equate "citizen" and "victim"? The Emerging Society of Victims "Draw the scaffolding so that the last step of the ladder comes in clearly. The criminal must be just stepping onto it, his face as white as note-paper. The priest is holding a cross to his blue lips, and the criminal kisses it, and knows and sees and understands everything. The cross and the head — there's your picture; the priest and the executioner, with his two assistants, and a few heads and eyes below. Those might come in as...
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Afghanistan / India / Islamabad / Manmohan Singh / Mumbai / New Delhi / Pakistan / Politics / Prakhar Shama / South Asia / The Economist / Focus Article / BRIC / AsiaIndia needs to make structural, ideological and strategic transformations to assume a greater role in the world. Any astute observer of India’s strategy in South Asia would infer that the country is not only passive in its approach, but it also continues to punch below its weight. The sight of a regional power resigning to the unfortunate turn of events rather than taking charge in its own backyard is somewhat baffling. This dichotomy – between increased economic profile and global stature, and a disconcerting reluctance to understand and exert its power – is apparent most notably in Afghanistan. Despite having invested 2 billion dollars and being the sixth largest...