Are Social Media the Future of Local Government?
LONDON -- Social media have already transformed how the private sector conducts commerce. And they are rapidly altering the way local governments do business as well. Last week, an enterprising government in the English city of Walsall undertook an interesting experiment. For 24 hours, a local council (county) posted all of its activities on Twitter. The tweets ranged from information on pothole repairs to efforts to combat racism in public housing to calls for cleaning up dog excrement. The idea was to give the community a sense of the problems its government confronts -- and tackles -- in ...
McDonald's Grows Up: Coffee, Wi-Fi Supplanting Junk Food Image
Well, it would appear that the New York Times magazine isn't the only iconic American institution undergoing a makeover. McDonald's is changing its menu and ambiance to project a more grown-up image. Over the past few years, the fast-food chain has embraced a whole new look and feel. On the menu end of things, it has begun offering healthier fare like salads, Asian chicken sandwiches and fruit smoothies. And on the appearance end of things, McDonald's has also upgraded its look, offering free Wi-Fi, comfortable seats, funky lighting fixtures and cool wall hangings. Front and center in this ...
Gadhafi Ties, Money Topple British University Head
LONDON -- The Libyan crisis just claimed another victim. On Thursday, the director of the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) resigned from his post over concerns about his university's close ties to the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. Sir Howard Davies is a prominent London intellectual and former deputy governor of the Bank of England who's been running the school since 2003. He stepped down at an emergency meeting of the LSE's governing body last night, as it sought to manage fallout from recent disclosures about the university's controversial financial links with Libya. "The ...
Abortion Safer Than Childbirth, British Doctors' Group Wants Women to Know
LONDON -- It looks like the U.S. isn't the only place where the abortion wars are heating up. According to new medical guidelines being proposed in the U.K., all pregnant women should be told that having a baby is more dangerous than having an abortion. The guidance was written by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and is intended for all doctors, nurses and women's health professionals advising women who contemplate terminating a pregnancy. The recommendations come in two parts, each of which represents a fairly radical departure from previous guidelines -- and each ...
Libyan Tumult Puts Gadhafi's Son's Dissertation -- on Democracy -- in Ironic Light
LONDON -- Col. Moammar Gadhafi isn't the only one facing international condemnation for events in Libya. On Wednesday, the London School of Economics announced that it was cutting ties with the Libyan leader's second son, Saif al-Islam, and suspending a program financed by his charity. Saif attended LSE from 2003 to 2008, where he earned both a master of science degree and a doctorate. His dissertation -- which can be found here -- examined the role of civil society in securing more democratic institutions of global governance. In what now reads like a cruel twist of irony, the ...
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Can Be Extradited to Sweden, Judge Rules
LONDON -- In a swift and stunning rebuke, a British court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must return to Sweden to face questioning on sexual assault charges. He has seven days to appeal the ruling; otherwise he must leave the U.K. within 10 days. Assange has been fighting extradition since he was taken into custody and later placed on house arrest in December. He has consistently denied the allegations made by two women in August 2010. Assange also fears eventual extradition to the U.S., where he could face espionage charges related to WikiLeaks' release of thousands of ...
Does Free Speech Radicalize Youth? In the U.K., Two Answers to a Divisive Question
LONDON -- How much free speech is good for young people? Does exposure to extremist views enlighten young people or radicalize them? Here in the U.K., where I live, there are two competing answers to this question. On one hand, you have Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who recently employed quite aggressive rhetoric on the topic of Islamic extremism. In a much talked-about speech in Berlin, he denounced Britain's long-held tradition of multi-culturalism as a "failure," calling for a more "active, muscular" approach to the issue. Cameron's view is that the U.K. has for too long ...
Can Texting Save Women's Health -- and That of Their Infants?
Digital technology is transforming the world, helping to overthrow dictators in the Middle East and embrace gay rights at home. But if last week's proposed budget cuts are a sign of what's to come, we may also need social media to save women's health. I got to thinking about this idea a couple of weeks ago, when I read an article in the New York Times by David Bornstein about text4baby, a service that sends free text messages to women who are pregnant or whose babies are less than a year old, providing them with information and week-by-week reminders to improve their health and the health of ...
Facebook, Gay Rights and the New Politics of Social Media
In case you needed further proof that Facebook truly is revolutionary, look no further. On Thursday, the social networking giant added two new options to its list of relationship status possibilities: "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership." Wowza. It's a small change, technically speaking, but one with enormous political significance. For those not in the know, Facebook allows you to indicate the status of your romantic attachments on your personal profile. Until now, those options included "single, in a relationship, married, engaged, it's complicated, in an open relationship, ...
Assange, Berlusconi and the Sex Lives of Others
LONDON -- In his impassioned defense of Bill Clinton during the Senate's 1999 impeachment trial, Arkansas Sen. Dale Bumpers paraphrased a famous quote by the journalist H.L. Mencken: "When you hear somebody say, 'This is not about money' -- it's about money. And when you hear somebody say, 'This is not about sex' -- it's about sex." How true. Back then, we all said that what we really cared about was whether President Clinton had lied under oath. But what we really focused on was the prurient testimony of one Monica Lewinsky, with her sordid tales of stained blue dresses and the creative use ...
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