Thursday, June 27, 2013

Supreme Court Bolsters Gay Marriage With Two Major Rulings - NYTimes.com

Supreme Court Bolsters Gay Marriage With Two Major Rulings - NYTimes.com: "The ruling striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act will immediately extend many benefits to couples in the states where same-sex marriage is legal, and it will give the Obama administration the ability to broaden other benefits through executive actions.

The case concerning California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, was decided on technical grounds, with the majority saying that it was not properly before the court. Because officials in California had declined to appeal a trial court’s decision against them and because the proponents of Proposition 8 were not entitled to step into the state’s shoes to appeal the decision, the court said, it was powerless to issue a decision. That left in place a trial court victory for two same-sex couples who had sought to marry.

The decision on the federal law was decided by 5 to 4, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing the majority opinion. He was joined by the four members of the court’s liberal wing."

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BBC News - Kevin Rudd ousts Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

BBC News - Kevin Rudd ousts Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard: "Kevin Rudd has ousted Prime Minister Julia Gillard as leader of Australia's Labor Party.

He won by 57 votes to 45, in a leadership ballot of Labor lawmakers.

The change comes ahead of a general election due in September, which polls suggest Labor is set to lose.

This is the latest twist in a long and bitter rivalry between the two politicians - but it could be the last as Ms Gillard has said she will now leave politics."

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Farmer’s Dilemma: Climate Change, Food Security, and Human Mobility | New Security Beat

The Farmer’s Dilemma: Climate Change, Food Security, and Human Mobility | New Security Beat: "“Most of the world’s poor are farmers; they share the same profession and the same challenges,” said One Acre Fund’s Stephanie Hanson at a recent Wilson Center event on small-scale farming, climate change, food security, and migration. They are tasked with growing enough food to support their families with only tenuous access to land and natural resources, the most basic of tools, and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns to deal with."

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Industrial policies for development: It’s more than you think | OECD Insights Blog

Industrial policies for development: It’s more than you think | OECD Insights Blog: "As Cambridge professor Ha Joon Chang puts it: this “landmark publication… shows a supreme degree of pragmatism”. It “looks for ways to make industrial policy work better, rather than having an ideological debate on whether it exists and whether it can ever succeed. It is an excellent example of how that exploration may be conducted in an intelligent, well-informed and balanced way”."

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

You Can Finally Buy the Magical Spray That Waterproofs Everything

You Can Finally Buy the Magical Spray That Waterproofs Everything: "Home Depot is carrying NeverWet for $20 a can. Spray the silicon-based coating on electronics, clothing, or almost any surface and it'll become almost completely impervious to moisture. Of course, we're skeptical until we try it out ourselves. But in the convincing demo you see liquid hit a surface and immediately scurry away without leaving any damage. Spill mustard on your white shoes? Don't worry about it. Drop your iPhone in the toilet? It will survive. We've all had accidents with our expensive gadgets, so a $20 waterproofing solution is hard to disagree with. Just, you know, try not to inhale it."

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Introducing SILCS: It’s Not Your Mother’s Diaphragm

Introducing SILCS: It’s Not Your Mother’s Diaphragm

Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Supreme Court Decided Your Silence Can Be Used Against You - Alexander Abad-Santos - The Atlantic Wire

The Supreme Court Decided Your Silence Can Be Used Against You - Alexander Abad-Santos - The Atlantic Wire: "A nation continues to wait for final word on the Supreme Court's Big Four cases this term — voting rights, affirmative action, DOMA, and Proposition 8 — but the justices' closest decision arrived first on Monday, in a 5-4 ruling on Salinas v. Texas in which the conservative members of the Court and Anthony Kennedy determined that if you remain silent before police read your Miranda rights, that silence can and will be held against you. Here's what that means.

Basically, if you're ever in any trouble with police (no, we don't condone breaking laws) and want to keep your mouth shut, you will need to announce that you're invoking your Fifth Amendment right instead of, you know, just keeping your mouth shut. "Petitioner's Fifth Amendment claim fails because he did not expressly invoke the privilege against self-incrimination in response to the officer's question," reads the opinion from Justice Samuel Alito, which Justice Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts backed. Justices Thomas and Scalia had a concurring opinion while the remaining four Supremes dissented. "

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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

What Happens to Women Who Are Denied Abortions? - NYTimes.com

What Happens to Women Who Are Denied Abortions? - NYTimes.com: "Most studies on the effects of abortion compare women who have abortions with those who choose to carry their pregnancies to term. It is like comparing people who are divorced with people who stay married, instead of people who get the divorce they want with the people who don’t. Foster saw this as a fundamental flaw. By choosing the right comparison groups — women who obtain abortions just before the gestational deadline versus women who miss that deadline and are turned away — Foster hoped to paint a more accurate picture. Do the physical, psychological and socioeconomic outcomes for these two groups of women differ? Which is safer for them, abortion or childbirth? Which causes more depression and anxiety? “I tried to measure all the ways in which I thought having a baby might make you worse off,” Foster says, “and the ways in which having a baby might make you better off, and the same with having an abortion.”"

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ | Diary of a Walking Butterfly

When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ | Diary of a Walking Butterfly:

Take a look at this picture. Do you know who it is?
Most people haven’t heard of him.
But you should have. When you see his face or hear his name you should get as sick in your stomach as when you read about Mussolini or Hitler or see one of their pictures. You see, he killed over 10 million people in the Congo.
His name is King Leopold II of Belgium.

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Don't forget smallholder farmers on climate talks - In the news: Climate Finance | Devex

Don't forget smallholder farmers on climate talks - In the news: Climate Finance | Devex: "What they need, according to Jones, is a predictable and adequate flow of funding for projects that may help them adapt to climate change, like IFAD’s Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program, currently a $340-million facility capable of funding 30-35 programs a year.

But financing adaptation is not a simple task — it requires an “institutional” change and a lot of money, notes the IFAD official: “Development, without consideration of climate change, cannot be truly called development, because we are ignoring one of the main contextual challenges.”"

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Farming could be key to solving youth unemployment in Africa | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

Farming could be key to solving youth unemployment in Africa | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional: "Agriculture employs most of Africa's young people and is likely to continue to do so in the future. But to meet the aspirations of millions who want rewarding work, the continents's agricultural sector will have to change markedly. Today's farming by machete and hand hoe does not appeal to young Africans or to policymakers. Farming is not even viewed as a "job" by many young Africans, who instead reserve the term for employment that requires clean clothes and a desk. Yet for a generation of young people entering adulthood, agriculture offers the best opportunity to move out of poverty and build satisfying lives.

Markets for food are booming globally and in Africa. Recent trends in income growth, urbanisation and diet have created a sharp rise in demand for food. Although most food consumed in Africa south of the Sahara is produced there, imports also have increased significantly in the past decade because growth in demand outpaces local and regional supply."

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The photo that encapsulates Turkey’s protests and the severe police crackdown

The photo that encapsulates Turkey’s protests and the severe police crackdown: "The photo was snapped by Reuters photographer Osman Orsal in Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park, where the movement began with a peaceful sit-in protesting the government’s plan to turn the green space into a shopping mall. Police moved in to clear the square, deploying barricades, tear gas and pepper spray. These photos show the crackdown in action, with the young urbanite Turks who had gathered at the square – the sorts of people who would hold a sit-in to protect city green space – clearly surprised by the police’s severity."
(REUTERS/Osman Orsal)

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The Protests in Turkey, Explained | Mother Jones

The Protests in Turkey, Explained | Mother Jones: "Thousands of protesters have been injured as authorities have sought to disperse demonstrators with tear gas, water canons, beatings, and a tightening grip on the media. On Monday, Erdogan accused the protesters of "walking arm-in-arm with terrorism." Yet his defiant response is only making the crowds larger. In an echo of the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, the movement has been galvanized by images disseminated on social media, such as a picture of a policeman spraying tear gas at a young woman in a red summer dress, her long hair swept upward by the blast. "The more they spray," reads a popular Twitter caption, "the bigger we get.""

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