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Green Revolution 2: Apps for Farmers

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2013Technology8 nations, african nations, america, apps for farmers, australia, australia based tradiepad, australian freelance writer, canada, g8, global north, green revolution 2, group, icow, Kenya, m pesa, paradigm, real time data, sharon freeman, sms, tradiepad, trial and error, vodafone, world bank

Doing paperwork has proven to be unsustainable but also entirely cumbersome in recent years given the multiplication of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. From Australia to America, Canada to Kenya, a paradigm shift towards cloud computing is being felt in the world and this could only expedite the clamor for less paper consumption.

Tradespersons have progressively depended on cloud-based applications to manage invoicing, bookkeeping and other jobs instead of filling their dashboards with unnecessary clutter. In particular, most farmers have looked and used the Cloud for a chance to turn a profit and save the earth all at the same time. (more…)

Madeleine Albright Chats with Henry Paulson about Career, Foreign Policy

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2013Politicsafghanistan, albright capital management, albright stonebridge group, american involvement, arab leaders, best decision making, Britain, central, China, chinese embassy, co ed, conflict in bosnia, decision-making, do ability doctrine, eastern europe, economic, environmental challenges, foreign policy issues, france, global strategy firm, investment advisory firm, jon huntsman, madeleine albright, medal of freedom, multilateralism, munich agreement, native czechoslovakia, nazi germany, no fly zone, paulson institute, president barack obama, president bill clinton, presidential, robert b zoellick, secretary of state, soviet union, state department, syria, united states, university of chicago, US, us government history, us treasury secretary, world affairs, world bank, world war, years of communism

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told an audience at the University of Chicago that her worldview was shaped early in life, when she witnessed the impact the United States had during and immediately following World War II.

Albright explained how terrible things happened to her native Czechoslovakia, when Britain and France signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, allowing Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia without its consent. Only when the United States entered World War II did Czechoslovakia’s plight improve. However, after the war, when the United States and its allies allowed the Soviet Union to liberate Central and Eastern Europe, it led to 50 years of communism. (more…)

Fingerprints for Financing: Removing Some Risk from Lending in Africa

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Economy, Generalafrican nation, american, biometric identification, birth certificate, computer, control trial, credit history, dean yang, defaulting, economic review, economist, fingerprinting, id, identification system, jessica Goldberg, malawi, michigan, microfinance institution, national, negative association, paprika, paprika farmer, positive association, record, rural area, scanned fingerprint, software, southeastern, university, witchcraft, world bank, xavier gine

ANN ARBOR — Some called it “witchcraft.” Others just watched in awe as their scanned fingerprints were used to pull up their records on a computer.

They were paprika farmers in Malawi participating in a new study that shows fingerprinting can help encourage borrowers to repay their loans.

Like many impoverished countries, Malawi lacks a national identification system. Most of the population lives in rural areas with few government services. Even ID as basic as a birth certificate is rare in the southeastern African nation. (more…)

Right to Science?

By Guest PostOctober 6, 2012Scienceaaas, abuja, africa, african university, apa, article 15, benefit, bill ullman, cultural rights, deborah ehrenthal, delaware, developing world, doug buttrey, doug doren, economic, human right, institution, intellectual property, international covenant, jessica wyndham, mark barteau, nelson mandela, nigeria, nmi, rights, Science, scientific advancement, scientific inquiry, sepp, social, steve dentel, sub-saharan, Technology, tom powers, ud campus, united nations, university, workshop, world bank

Workshop helps to define the human right to benefit from science

Conscience. Expression. Property. Fair trial. Peaceful assembly. And science?

Yes, says the University of Delaware’s Tom Powers, the international community has declared that there is an inalienable human right to science.

In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees in Article 27 “the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”

The same right was reaffirmed by the U.N. General Assembly in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1966. (more…)

Cultural “Tightness” Can Hold Back Female Leadership – But not Always, Says University of Toronto Study

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2012Culture, Politicscultural norms, cultural tightness, deutsche telekom, geoffrey leonardelli, german company, germanic europe, hungary, ken mcguffin, leader, new zealand, Pakistan, scandinavian country, sex, society, soo min toh, south korea, statistics, turkey, ukraine, university of toronto, women, women leaders, world bank

Normative support for equality can make the difference

Countries that more strictly uphold their cultural norms are less likely to promote women as leaders, unless those norms support equal opportunity for both sexes, shows a new paper from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

“Cultural tightness can prevent the emergence of women leaders because tighter cultures may make a society’s people more resistant to changing the traditionally-held practice that placed men in leadership roles,” said Professor Soo Min Toh, who is cross-appointed to the Rotman School and the University of Toronto Mississauga, and co-wrote the paper with Professor Geoffrey Leonardelli at the Rotman School and U of T’s Department of Psychology. (more…)

Mapping Tool Analyzes How Climate Change, Conflict and Aid Intersect in Africa

By Guest PostMarch 3, 2012Environmentafrica, aiddata, austin, brigham young university, ccaps data, climate change, dynamic mapping tool, dynamics, francis j gavin, ken lipenga, malawi, minerva initiative, patterns of conflict, policymakers, stability in africa, university of texas, world bank

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers have developed a new dynamic mapping tool that will help policymakers and other groups determine a country’s vulnerabilities to climate change and conflicts and show how these two issues intersect in Africa.

The pilot version of the tool was released this month by the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin and additional data tools are expected to come online starting this spring. (more…)

Harmonic Convergence: Music and Social Networking Join Forces

By Guest PostApril 27, 2011Technologybada, bizspark one startup, calabrese, ceo of soundtrckr, daniele calabrese, geo referencing, global geo referencing technology, icebreaker, internet explorer 9, internet radio, iPhone, madrid, medianet, Microsoft, music, nightclub, nokia, pandora, philadelphia, Social networking, soundtrckr, windows phone 7, world bank

*BizSpark One startup Soundtrckr lets listeners discover, play and share music on their terms — alongside their friends.*

REDMOND, Wash. — April 27, 2011 — Soundtrckr, a BizSpark One startup, mashes Internet radio with social networking and location-awareness to help users create a soundtrack for their lives.

Sometimes, opportunity presents itself when least expected. That’s what Daniele Calabrese, founder and CEO of Soundtrckr, discovered as he boarded a plane bound to Philadelphia from Madrid. Calabrese was launching a new concept in radio called Soundtrckr, a geo-social Internet music service. In its infancy, Soundtrckr just needed the right connections to take it to the heights Calabrese was convinced it could reach. He sat down and met his seat mate. (more…)

The Looming World Food Catastrophe

By PravdaAugust 10, 20104 commentsEconomyafrican products, Bangladesh, domestic food prices, Economy, Europe, globalization, imperialism, price of fertilizers, timothy bancroft-hinchey, wb department of agriculture, wheat prices, world bank, world food crisis

For several years, the World Bank has been announcing its plans to find solutions to solve the world food crisis, whereby vast swathes of the world’s population find it increasingly difficult to put food on the family table, while the banks bail each other out and fat cat bankers get fatter. The morality of the issue is staggeringly incomprehensible.

(more…)

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