In The News

Why the Rest of the World Should Get a Vote in the Greatest Reality TV Show on Earth – The US Election

Laurie Penny February 22, 2016
So far, three of 50 states have cast votes in party primaries to determine the top candidates for the US presidential election. Laurie Penny, writing for New Statesman, laments that she cannot have a say on leadership that has so much global influence. “The world is obsessed with the US elections because the outcome of those elections will have an impact on every person on Earth. So, let the...

EU's Real Brake Isn't Britain but Franco-German Impasse

Paul Taylor February 22, 2016
Britain’s prime minister has negotiated a deal, carving out exemptions to its membership with the European Union, and analysts wonder if other members might also try their own negotiations which could “ultimately lead to a disintegration of the union,” reports Paul Taylor for Reuters. Taylor adds that more challenging than Britain’s possible exit “is a long-running Franco-German impasse on how to...

Radioactive Material Stolen in Iraq Raises Security Concerns

Ahmed Rasheed, Aref Mohammed and Stephen Kalin February 19, 2016
A camera containing the radioactive isotope of iridium went missing in Iraq in November, and the concern is that the material could fall into the hands of Islamic State terrorists and be transformed into a weapon. The camera, owned by a Turkish firm and used for oil drilling, was last seen in US facility in Basra. “The material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive source by the IAEA, meaning...

Scientists Are Floored by What’s Happening in the Arctic Right Now

Chris Mooney February 19, 2016
The data from NASA is ominous: January is reported as the ninth straight month of record-breaking global warmth. The warmth is not evenly distributed around the globe though, but concentrated in the Arctic. “Global warming has long been known to be particularly intense in the Arctic – a phenomenon known as ‘Arctic amplification’ – but even so, lately the phenomenon has been extremely pronounced...

Your Job Is About to Get “Taskified”

Mary L. Gray February 18, 2016
Many in the digital industry are auditing jobs and identifying each task to increase productivity and give more assignments to temporary workers. “Corporations, from the smallest start-ups to the largest firms, can now ‘taskify’ everything from scheduling meetings and debugging websites, to finding sales leads and managing fulltime employees' HR files,” explains Mary L. Gray for the Los...

Opportunities, Not Oppression, to Stop Illegal Mining in the Peruvian Amazon

David J.X. Gonzalez February 18, 2016
Environmental degradation and human-rights abuses are often associated with small, illegal mining operations around the world. Peru, among the world's major gold producers, offers a case study on how local development could help solving a global problem. About 20 percent of Peru’s gold production comes from illegal and informal mines, and a crackdown on the small miners causes more problems...

Magistrate Orders Apple to Help FBI Hack San Bernardino Shooter’s Phone

Kim Zetter February 17, 2016
The founding fathers of the United States were fierce in protecting civil liberties, and the principles continue to be argued over technology developed more than two centuries later. A US magistrate in California has ordered Apple to provide the FBI software designed to defeat a self-destruct capability in iPhones that goes into effect once multiple incorrect passwords are tried. The county phone...