Sunday, December 22

Tag: world

Lawmakers keen to break up ‘big tech’ like Amazon and Google need to realize the world has changed a lot since Microsoft and Standard Oil
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BUSINESS

Lawmakers keen to break up ‘big tech’ like Amazon and Google need to realize the world has changed a lot since Microsoft and Standard Oil

Big tech is back in the spotlight. The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are testifying before Congress on July 29 to defend their market dominance from accusations they’re stifling rivals. Lawmakers and regulators are increasingly talking about antitrust action and possibly breaking the companies up into smaller pieces. I study the effects of digital technologies on lives and livelihoods across 90 countries. I believe advocates of breaking up big technology companies, as well as opponents, are both falling prey to some serious myths and misconceptions. Myth 1: Comparing Google with Standard Oil Arguments for and against antitrust action often use earlier cases as reference points. The massive 19th-century monopoly Standard Oil, for example, has been referred to as ...
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Protestors for Black Lives A Glimpse Of Solidarity And Hope Around The World
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IN OTHER NEWS

Protestors for Black Lives A Glimpse Of Solidarity And Hope Around The World

In the past week, demonstrations have erupted in big and small cities across the United States and in countries around the world over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Amid the outpouring of outrage over Floyd’s death, the killing of Breonna Taylor by a police officer in Louisville, Kentucky, and of Ahmaud Arbery by vigilantes in Georgia, along with pent-up anger, exhaustion, and fear experienced by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people facing structural racism and systemic disparities, are glimpses of solidarity and hope. Here are some takeaways. • Throughout Europe, across Latin America and in parts of the Middle East, protesters took to the streets in a powerful display of solidarity with U.S. demonstrators. In Brazil, people joined an existing pr...
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Physicists hunt for room-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize the world’s energy system
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SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

Physicists hunt for room-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize the world’s energy system

Waste heat is all around you. On a small scale, if your phone or laptop feels warm, that’s because some of the energy powering the device is being transformed into unwanted heat. On a larger scale, electric grids, such as high power lines, lose over 5% of their energy in the process of transmission. In an electric power industry that generated more than US$400 billion in 2018, that’s a tremendous amount of wasted money. Globally, the computer systems of Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others require enormous amounts of energy to power massive cloud servers and data centers. Even more energy, to power water and air cooling systems, is required to offset the heat generated by these computers. Where does this wasted heat come from? Electrons. These elementary particles of an atom move arou...
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The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk
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TECHNOLOGY

The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk

Women are highly underrepresented in the field of cybersecurity. In 2017, women’s share in the U.S. cybersecurity field was 14%, compared to 48% in the general workforce. The problem is more acute outside the U.S. In 2018, women accounted for 10% of the cybersecurity workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, 9% in Africa, 8% in Latin America, 7% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East. Women are even less well represented in the upper echelons of security leadership. Only 1% of female internet security workers are in senior management positions. I study online crime and security issues facing consumers, organizations and nations. In my research, I have found that internet security requires strategies beyond technical solutions. Women’s representation is important because women tend to offer vie...
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VIDEO: What does lockdown mean for the world’s poor?
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COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

VIDEO: What does lockdown mean for the world’s poor?

Severe restrictions on travel and economic activity have been imposed in many parts of the world. For the poor, recessions have always meant starvation, lack of medical support for diseases including HIV treatment programmes, and in particular the deaths of infants and children vulnerable to malnutrition and childhood disease. What do the restrictions mean for these people? That’s the question a new 30 minute documentary seeks to answer – by asking the people who are most affected. The documentary is the result of a collaboration between the Institute for the Future of Knowledge at the University of Johannesburg, and the not for profit organisation Picturing Health. It features interviews with market traders, community workers, and ordinary people in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and India. Exp...
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A world without sports
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COVID-19, SPORTS, VIDEO REELS

A world without sports

Baseball’s opening day came and went. The Olympics have been postponed. Football in the fall? Don’t count on it. With COVID-19 infections and deaths rising each day, the cancellation of live sporting events might seem like an afterthought. But in the coming weeks and months, their absence will undoubtedly be felt. This isn’t the first time sports have been put on hold. During previous crises and conflicts, sports have been stopped. But in the past, the reprieve was brief; sports went on to act as a way to bring Americans together, persevere and, ultimately, heal. This time’s different. An American ‘religion’ Sports are so important to so many of us that some have likened them to a modern religion, replete with rituals, saints and shrines. “Sports are more than games, meets and matches,...
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Mary McLeod Bethune The Most Famous Black Woman In The World
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IMPACT

Mary McLeod Bethune The Most Famous Black Woman In The World

Mary McLeod Bethune founded a college, defied the Klan, advised presidents, and like my grandmother, was a fierce warrior for justice. Born in 1914, Dovey Johnson Roundtree was subject to the double barriers of institutionalized racism and sexism, but rose from poverty to become a distinguished champion of civil and women’s rights. As a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps during WWII, she helped desegregate the US military. She went on to become a crusading lawyer, winning a landmark bus desegregation case in 1955. As a minster in the 1960s, she was in the vanguard of women ordained as leaders in the AME church. In her memoir, Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights, Roundtree describes how the support of community, mentors, and family nurtured her career. In this excerpt, Roundtre...
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Only Bridging Can Heal a World of Breaking
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Journalism

Only Bridging Can Heal a World of Breaking

Meaningful bridging—like real integration—must acknowledge, respect, and appreciate difference as a starting point. At a time of heightened polarization and intense inequality in the United States and around the world, social differences run the risk of being turned into fault lines, and exploited for divide-and-conquer politics. As political scientists Rose McDermott and Peter K. Hatemi recently observed, inflammatory us-versus-them rhetoric “instigates neural mechanisms from the evolutionary desire to be part of the group.” Diversity can be a great strength, but it is susceptible to manipulation when not accompanied by community leaders from all backgrounds willing and able to bridge across difference. The idea of “bridging” provides a path to healing the practices of “b...
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Oprah’s Book Club Changed the Game and Created a New World for Black Readers
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IN OTHER NEWS

Oprah’s Book Club Changed the Game and Created a New World for Black Readers

When Colson Whitehead got the call, he’d just landed in North Carolina to do a reading at Duke. He was still on the plane when, he told the Guardian, “I called [my agent] back and she said, ‘Oprah.’ I said, ‘Shut the front door,’ because I didn’t want to curse. She said, ‘Oprah book club.’ I said, ‘Motherfucker.’” Whitehead’s sixth novel, The Underground Railroad, getting chosen by Oprah was a door opening, or really more one blasting open—and Whitehead clearly knew it. Oprah’s stamp of approval on your book can make your career, massively boost your book sales, and get your book into the mainstream like really nothing else can, even a Nobel Prize. I mean, look at Toni Morrison. While I want to be clear that she is a literary genius whose impact was immense long before she got popular att...
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IN OTHER NEWS

These are the world’s safest cities to live in right now

Asia Pacific cities continue to dominate the list, but the region also includes some of the lowest-scoring metropolises. There's a new surprise member of the world's safest cities club. Washington D.C. has entered the top 10 in the Safe Cities index for the first time, while Hong Kong is a noticeable no-show after plummeting down the rankings. Tokyo took the No. 1 spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking for the third time running, while Singapore and Osaka maintained their respective footholds in second and third place. Hong Kong dropped to 20th place from 9th in the 2017 edition of the biennial report. Asia-Pacific cities dominated the top 10, with Sydney, Seoul, and Melbourne bringing the region's total to six spots. Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Toront...
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