Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316101164?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Instagram gets hit by spam, and it's fruity, too
instagram 
5 hours ago
Reuters file
Instagram icon on iPhone.
If you noticed photos of fruit showing up in your Instagram feed Saturday, you might think it was to help you feel cooler, especially if you're in one of the Western states suffering from the heat wave. But it's not. In fact, it may be one of the first major spam attacks to hit the popular photo-sharing service.
Facebook, which owns Instagram, told NBC News that "earlier today, a small portion of our users experienced a spam incident where unwanted photos were posted from their accounts."
The fruit spam is a ploy to get you to click on the photo, and then a link for some kind of "miracle" fruit diet. The concern is how the spammers got into Instagram user accounts to do so.
Om Malik, of GigaOm, wrote that "Spammers are posting the photos to a user?s profile, as well as changing the URL in that person?s bio."
Facebook said that its security and spam team "quickly took actions to secure the accounts involved and the posted photos are being deleted."
Those users whose accounts were spammed have had their passwords re-set by Facebook, which is notifying them about the re-set. Users should take precautions, though, and check their Instagram profiles and security settings.
"General best practices are to use unique password for all of your online accounts, and if you've used the same password in the past, to go ahead and proactively change it to something unique," a Facebook spokeswoman said.
Since Instagram launched in 2010, approximately 16 billion photos have been shared on it. Facebook, which bought Instagram last year, recently added the capability to add video to Instagram.
Check out Technology and TODAY Tech on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Gay marriage: In states, a hodgepodge lies ahead
Across the country, this week's landmark Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage have energized activists and politicians on both sides of the debate.
Efforts to impose bans ? and to repeal them ? have taken on new intensity. Likewise a spate of lawsuits by gays demanding the right to marry.
The high court, in two 5-4 decisions Wednesday, opened the way for California to become the 13th state to legalize gay marriage. It directed the federal government to recognize legally married same-sex couples.
But the rulings did not impose a nationwide right for gays to marry. They set the stage for state-by-state battles over one of America's most contentious social issues. Already, some of those battles are heating up.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-states-hodgepodge-lies-ahead-201327666.html
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Teenage physical fitness reduces the risk of suicidal behavior later in life
June 26, 2013 ? Being in good physical shape at 18 years of age can be linked with a reduced risk of attempted suicide later in life. So says a study of over one million Swedish men conducted by researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
A new, extensive report from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on child and adolescent health shows that teenagers and young adults in Sweden have worse mental health than their age cohorts in other western countries.
Another report that is part of a new social welfare study shows that the number of serious suicide attempts among 19-23 year olds with activity compensation has increased from 115 per year to 460 per year in Sweden between 1995-2010.
At the same time, the number of suicides in the 10 to 45 age group increased. Even the percentage of young people with no activity compensation who attempted to take their life increased.
In order to break this trend, research has now focused on the factors that can prevent mental illness and the risk of suicidal behavior.
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have been able to use a study of 1,136,527 Swedish men to show that there is a link between exercising as a young person and a reduced risk of suicidal behavior later in life.
"Being in poor physical shape at 18 years of age, measured as the test results on an exercise bike during their medical exam for compulsory military service, can be linked to a risk of suicidal behavior as an adult that is 1.8 times greater," says Margda Waern, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
The study shows that the increased risk was evident even 42 years after the exam for military service.
It has previously been shown that physical exercise has a highly positive effect on brain function, e.g. more nerve cells are developed with physical exercise.
"The teenage years are a critical period in terms of brain development since this is when social and emotional faculties are established. Therefore, it was important to do a larger study on the importance of physical fitness in terms of suicidal behavior in this age group," says Maria ?berg, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy who led the study together with Professor Margda Waern.
In the study, which covers all Swedish men born between 1950 and 1987 who completed the previously mandatory exam, researchers compared the results from physical tests during the exam with the national registers of disease and death.
By carefully examining the roughly 340,000 brothers who took part in the study, researchers were able to study how hereditary factors and the home environment affect this relationship.
In a much discussed study published in 2012, the researcher group showed that good physical fitness as a teenager can also be linked to decreased risk of severe depression later in life.
"But even when we exclude individuals who suffer from severe depression in connection with suicide or attempted suicide, the link between poor physical shape and an increased risk of suicidal behavior remains," says Margda Waern.
While depression is a particularly strong predictor of suicidal behavior in later life, the picture among younger people is complex and many factors are involved.
"One theory is that the brain becomes more resistant to different types of stress if you are physically active," says Maria ?berg.
Researchers think that physical exercise should be considered in suicide prevention projects aimed at young people.
The new findings are supported by earlier cross-sectional studies where teenagers are interviewed about their physical fitness connected with the risk for suicidal thoughts.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/depression/~3/J9fOGTb1YFY/130626113318.htm
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Avoya Travel Introduces Hotel, Air, and Car Partnerships and ...
June 26, 2013 By: Newswire
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Avoya Travel has launched new partnership and technology initiatives to sell air, car, and hotel products. The new programs will complement Avoya?s sales of cruises, tours, and guided vacations and will enhance customer experience while increasing the profitability for its Network of Independent Agencies.
?Avoya Travel?s air, car, and hotel initiatives continue our relentless focus on delivering more value to our customers and Independent Agencies and will help us continue to grow our leadership position in the travel industry,? said Van Anderson, co-president of Avoya Travel. ?These new opportunities enable our Independent Agencies to become even more successful by offering exclusive discounted prices and bonus amenities for travelers.?
Avoya?s new research and booking technologies are now available to its network through the company?s Travel Agent Operating System, Agent Power. Agents will now be able to search for hotel properties with the best pricing and amenities, select flight itineraries and seats, book discounted car rentals, and more.
Avoya is partnering with different suppliers and technology providers, including major airlines, hotel chains, and car rental companies. The partnerships allow Avoya?s Network of Independent Agencies access to benefits including lower car rental pricing than what is available through other online and traditional travel agencies and optional prepaid hotel rates that can save travelers hundreds of dollars off their stay. In addition, American Express Card members will have access to American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts bonus amenities and special prices, along with the ability to pay for their vacation with Membership Reward Points.
?Our new partnership with Avoya will create significant sales growth and unique opportunities focused on providing exceptional service and remarkable travel experiences worldwide,? said Chris Austin, vice president, Global Retail Leisure & Luxury Sales.
Visit www.JoinAvoya.com.
What do you think of this News?
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These Ads Were Named The Best Creative Work ... - Business Insider
YouTube
This ad for the Paralympics, called "Meet the Superheroes," got a lot of attention at Cannes.
Every year, the top advertisers in the world gather in Cannes, France to vie for the most prestigious ad awards in the world.Prizes are given in subjects ranging from mobile ads to outdoor ads that are more than your average billboard.
The best work receives a Grand Prix Cannes Lion.
We've collected the ads that won the top honors.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-ads-were-named-the-best-creative-work-in-the-world-2013-6
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Interns Race Supreme Court Decision On Gay Marriage To Networks (VIDEO)
It's one of the biggest responsibilities any intern could be given: running the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage from the courthouse to the networks waiting outside.
The Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling on same-sex marriage on Wednesday morning, striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and dismissing Prop 8. Several interns got to play a critical role as history unfolded.
Daniel Wein, a student at George Washington University, was there for the press conference and took a video of the "intern foot race." He captured footage of an NBC News intern bolting through the crowd and handing the decision off to a producer, who gave it straight to Pete Williams.
NowThisNews' Julie Eckert ? who shot video of another intern racing out of the courthouse with the Supreme Court's decision on the Voting Rights Act on Tuesday ? tweeted on Wednesday, "I was too jammed in the crowd today to vine sprinting interns but I think @Nike should come out with an #intern line of sneaks."
News networks, which are not allowed to have cameras on the steps of the court, position runners in the press room ready to deliver the decision outside to correspondents. The pressure, of course, is enormous, as networks race each other to break the news.
(h/t Daniel Wein)
Related on HuffPost:
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/supreme-court-interns-gay-marriage_n_3503771.html
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
DOMA ruling makes U.S. businesses more globally competitive ...
By Preston Cooper
FORTUNE ?The nation's highest court on Wednesday struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred the government from recognizing same-sex unions in federal law. While gay rights advocates rejoiced at the decision, it's also a win for some of America's biggest corporations struggling to keep talented employees with foreign-born same-sex spouses.
For Americans and legal immigrants in traditional marriages, obtaining a green card for a foreign spouse is relatively easy.
Traditionally, American citizens have been able to sponsor their foreign-born spouses for residency visas, known as green cards. But under DOMA, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans did not have the same right. And as a result, U.S. businesses have watched as some of their most talented employees leave to live with their foreign-born partners abroad.
In March, 28 U.S. companies signed off on a letter urging Congress to recognizesame-sex unions for immigration purposes. Texas Instruments (TXN), US Airways (LCC), Marriott International (MAR) and others said making it possible for foreign-born spouses to live and work in the U.S. makes business sense. Companies go through the expense of relocating gay and lesbian employees, only to lose them because of their spouse's visa problems. "We cannot afford to lose our most precious resource: talent," the letter stated.
MORE:?Big Law has a shrinkage problem
The barriers have also hindered companies from taking on new workers. According to a recent survey by the American Council on International Personnel, an association of employers that advocates immigration reform, 42% of member organizations said they have missed out on hiring opportunities because U.S. immigration law precluded the prospective employee from bringing his or her same-sex partner into the country.
Many binational same-sex couples chose to live abroad rather than in America. Martha McDevitt-Pugh, for instance, spent many years working at Silicon Valley-based Informix Software, where she ran the database software firm's education and publications arm. Managing a department of eighty people, she was a key player in overseeing the company's reorganization ahead of its later split and acquisition by IBM. But when it was time to choose between her career and her same-sex partner, an Australian-born woman living in the Netherlands, she reluctantly decided to leave her job and take her talents overseas.
Some same-sex couples have found ways to live together in the United States. When former U.S. Representative Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) could not sponsor his Panamanian partner, Hector Alfonso, for an American visa, Alfonso successfully applied under the EB-5 investor visa program. This program grants visas to individuals who make a substantial capital investment (over $500,000) in America that creates or preserves at least ten jobs. Kolbe acknowledged in an interview that he and Alfonso had to dig into their retirement savings to pursue this option, and that it would not be economically feasible for most couples.
Before Wednesday's ruling, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont pushed an amendment to the immigration bill that would have removed such hurdles for binational same-sex couples seeking to live in America. The Leahy Amendment would have effectively recognized same-sex unions in the context of immigration law, but it faced massive bipartisan opposition, including some from Democrats who supported it in principle but feared that it would kill the immigration deal.
MORE:?Did Congress miss the moment on serious plans for U.S. workers?
Leahy had offered his amendment again. But with the court's decision, the issue is moot. The ruling will allow LGBT Americans to sponsor their legally married partners for visas under the expedited track federal immigration law provides for spouses of U.S. citizens.
Nonetheless, Corporate America's support of the principles of the Leahy Amendment highlights a massive shift in public opinion as more and more Americans support legal equality for gays and lesbians. "What's notable?is that global companies are leaders" on this issue, said Rachel Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality, an LGBT rights advocacy group. "They are way out front in saying that what they care about is, are you good at your job?"
McDevitt-Pugh, at least, is eager to return to the United States. She misses the "entrepreneurial opportunities" available in America, she said in an email. "Opening up immigration to LGBT families [will] stop the brain drain of talented Americans."
Source: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/27/gay-marriage-immigration/
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The 5 Spiritual Keys to Wealth and Prosperity - The Healers Journal
HJ:?Wealth and prosperity are like flowers in a garden ? they only grow under the right conditions. Those conditions are created through looking inward and seeing where we may still be blocking ourselves from experiencing them in our lives. ?Most people make the mistake of focusing outwardly on external factors in their lives ? but they do not realize that these external manifestations are only a reflection of their internal state. ?Therefore, anyone looking to increase the wealth, prosperity and ?success? in their life, would be wise to ignore the impulse to try to change superficial factors in their life and focus on doing the inner work which truly produces lasting, profound change.
- Truth
By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar | Ravi Shankar
?
Everyone wants to be successful in life, but without knowing what success is. Success is an attitude, not a phenomenon. Tough situations come in every business and every organisation, and you need skills to handle them. These skills come from our inner space, what I call the Spiritual Space. There are five things that are needed for success.
A congenial atmosphere
Peace and prosperity are interlinked. Prosperity cannot flourish in a disturbed atmosphere. While working with others, you need to function as a team. Have a sense of respect for all team-members, and do not indulge in blame games. Team leaders need to create an atmosphere of celebration, trust, cooperation and a sense of belonging. Nothing can last if the focus is only on productivity and net result. Creating inspiration from within in people is the only effective tool.
Skill in action
The whole essence of the Bhagwad Gita is to act without being attached to the fruit of the action. If you can manage your mind in a war-like scenario, then you can manage any situation. This skill in action is called yoga. It is this wisdom of yoga that transforms one?s attitude from arrogance to self-confidence, from meekness to humility, from the burden of dependence to the realisation of interdependence, from a limited ownership to oneness with the whole. When performing action, if the attention is only on the end result, then you can?t perform. Just give yourself fully to the task with 100 per cent sincerity and commitment.
Being a lion
There is a saying in Sanskrit that, ?Great wealth comes to one who has the courage of a lion and who puts in all his efforts.? Passion and dispassion are complementary like the in-breath and out-breath. You breathe in but you cannot hold the breath too long; you have to breathe out. Similarly, you need to have passion to make things work but also the dispassion to let go. When you don?t crave for abundance, it comes to you.
An atom of luck
If all that is needed for prosperity is one?s own effort, then why are there so many people who put effort but don?t become prosperous? This unknown factor or luck is enhanced by spirituality. The whole material world is run by a world of vibrations which is subtler than all that we see. Spirituality enhances intelligence and intuition. Intuition comes to you when you balance your passion with dispassion, profit with service, and tone down your aggressiveness to get things with compassion to give back to society. Intuition is the right thought at the right time, and is an important component for success in business.
Meditation
The greater responsibilities and ambitions you have, the greater is the need for you to meditate. In ancient times, meditation was used as a way to find the Self, for enlightenment and to overcome misery and problems. Today?s stress and tension in society also calls for meditation. Stress is too much to do, in too little a time, and with no energy. You obviously can?t reduce your work load, or increase the time, but you can increase your energy level. Meditation not only relieves you of stress and strain, it also enhances your abilities, strengthens your nervous system and mind, releases toxins from the body and enhances you in every way. We are made up of both matter and spirit. The body has some material needs and our spirit is nourished by spirituality.
Source: http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2013/06/26/the-5-spiritual-keys-to-wealth-and-prosperity/
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Bike Doctor: Repair Your Bike As Well As the Pros Without the Price
For the beginning (or even experienced) cyclist, making your own bike repairs can seem like a daunting task. Most bike repair guides you'll find around the ol' internet can be complicated labyrinths of instruction that end up doing more harm than good. But taking your wheels to a pro can come with a major price tag. Bike Doctor wants to give you the knowledge you need to save a trip to the shop?but in an easy, digestible form that's useful to all walks of the bicycle world.
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Paula Deen Is America?s Racist Grandma
If we want to have a Nation Conversation About Race, we shouldn't sweep Paula Deen?or her racism?under the rug the way we always do.
Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images
There was this Thanksgiving dinner once, at my aunt?s house in Houston. That morning we?d read an op-ed in the local paper about a school that still used corporal punishment. A white teacher had paddled a black student. People were up in arms about the obvious racial overtones, and my grandmother, my sweet little 70-year-old Nanny, offered that she, too, didn?t think the white teacher should have paddled that black student, because she ?wouldn?t want no niggers beatin? on her kids, neither.? This occasioned lots of eye-rolling from the grandchildren and some gentle rebukes from our parents. Then someone passed the gravy.
As a typical Southern white family, we didn?t talk much about race. But whenever the older generation hauled it indelicately to the surface, it was an opportunity for us grandkids to see the ugliness our country would rather forget. For our parents it was a teachable moment, a chance to show us just how ugly prejudice is. In this way it was useful, instructive even, to have an old racist grandma at the dinner table.
Which brings us to Paula Deen. By now Deen?s crimes are well known. Among other offenses, she?s confessed to saying she wanted ?a bunch of little niggers? to dress up in antebellum finery for an Old South-style wedding feast she was throwing. As punishment, she has been stripped of her Food Network show and her endorsement deal with Smithfield Ham. In other words, polite society has tried to sweep her ugliness under the carpet where we can safely ignore it.
That?s exactly the wrong thing to do. Whether it?s Ross Perot?s ?you people? or Don Imus? ?nappy-headed hos,? our reaction is always to ostracize the offender. But as perverse as it may seem, you cannot have a National Conversation About Race and not invite racists to be a part of that conversation. Paula Deen represents a sizable constituency in this discussion. Witness the support for her among Southern whites, which has been unapologetic and loud. The morning after the Food Network dumped her, the line outside her Georgia restaurant snaked around the block. The ?We Support Paula Deen? Facebook page has 376,558 likes counting. Deen has the kind of mind that can look back on America?s Holocaust and see nothing but cotillions and hoop skirts. There?s little use in pretending that mentality doesn?t exist. All we do is push it back into the shadows where it waits to spill out again.
Paula Deen is America?s racist grandma, and we should treat her as such. Racist Grandma may be racist, but she?s also your grandma. You can?t just disown her.
And, contrary to what some might think, having a racist grandma isn?t entirely bad. No doubt there are many white families where racism is passed down generation to generation like some cancerous gene. But for others, seeing that gene and knowing you?re predisposed to it is a warning sign, a nagging reminder to take preventive measures for yourself. I say let?s push racist Grandma back to center stage and let her keep talking.
The counterargument to keeping Deen on the air is that someone with her repugnant views shouldn?t be rewarded with a lucrative television contract, and that?s fair as far as it goes. But Paula Deen is already a millionaire. She will remain a millionaire whether her TV show exists or not. And had the Food Network kept her on, Deen would hardly be the only racist in America with a decent job. Deen has a platform. That has value. It can be used for good or ill, but eliminating that platform helps no one. Should she be punished for her actions? Of course. Our racist grandmas may get a pass, but as a public figure, Deen has responsibilities. Which is precisely why she should be forced to remain on television.
Because here?s the thing about white people: They hate dealing with race?are incapable of dealing with it, in large part. Have you ever seen a white CEO stand in front of a black audience and tell them how much he ?cares about diversity?? I have. It?s excruciating. What better penance could there be than to have Deen wake up on Monday morning and stand in front of a camera and open her mouth and do her job? Because she?s become far more than just a TV chef. She has set herself up as a voice for all that is good about the South. And despite its sins, one thing the South can rightly be proud of is its food. Southern food is a big bucket of deep-fried awesome. Who doesn?t crave a heaping helping of biscuits and gravy or shrimp and grits? Southern food also perfectly captures the complexities and contradictions of how race is lived in that part of the country. When you find moments of genuine interracial community in the South, it?s usually over a plate of red beans and rice or a huge slab of ribs, people sharing favorite recipes or swapping stories about whose grandfather liked to cook this or that; food may be the thing poor Southern whites and poor Southern blacks have most in common. But Southern cuisine also gives fuel to some of our worst racial stereotypes. Fried chicken and watermelon and all the rest of it. And the politics of food, of who serves what to whom, the very thing that got Deen in trouble with her antebellum dinner party, is ever present. Whether it?s whites refusing to serve blacks at the lunch counter or blacks in dinner jackets serving the soup course to whites, you could write a whole book on the power dynamics of putting a plate on a table below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Food and race and the South?it?s a minefield. And I would love to see Paula Deen walk through it on national television. She knows exactly where she screwed up and why, and to have to face that with the whole country watching? Just imagine it: with no pause for ?reflection,? with the eyes of a multiracial nation upon her and ?the N-word? like a yoke around her neck, Paula Deen standing in front of a big Sunday spread of buttermilk fried chicken, barbecue brisket, collard greens, corn bread, fried okra, pigs? feet, and sweet potato pie. Let her stand there and explain where all that good food came from and how her mama?s housekeeper used to make the best green bean casserole and see if she can learn how to do it without putting her racist foot in her mouth. Then, when she screws up, make her go back and do it again. That would be a punishment that fits the crime. It would make her a better person. It would make our National Conversation About Race a conversation worth having. And it would also make fantastic television.
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/06/paula_deen_she_s_america_s_racist_grandma.html
By taking in Snowden, Ecuador would defy US again
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? President Rafael Correa of Ecuador embraces his role as a thorn in Washington's side, railing against U.S. imperialism in speeches and giving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuge in his nation's embassy in London.
But nothing Correa has done to rankle the United States is likely to infuriate as much as granting the asylum being sought by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who faces espionage charges back home after revealing details of two highly secret surveillance programs.
Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday, and had been widely expected to fly on to Cuba ? an ally of Ecuador ? on Monday. But when the plane from Moscow took off Monday, Snowden was not in the seat he had booked and there was no sign of him elsewhere on board.
Even so, Ecuadoran Foreign Minister confirmed on Monday that his government is analyzing the request for asylum. He told reporters during a visit to Vietnam that it "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world," a strong hint Correa would accept the petition.
"Correa may find it hard to resist the temptation to get increased attention and seize this opportunity to provoke and defy the U.S.," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. "Correa is confrontational and relishes fights. Should he ultimately grant Snowden asylum, one hopes that Correa has thought through the likely consequences of such a decision."
Taking in Snowden certainly would increase Correa's popularity among those who see him as a champion of open information, help him counter criticism of a new media law that some call an assault on freedom of speech in Ecuador and cement his name as a leading voice of opposition to U.S. foreign policy.
But it could threaten preferential access to U.S. markets for Ecuadorean goods under the U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act, and strain already shaky ties between two nations that only last year re-established full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level.
Some 45 percent of Ecuadorean exports went to the United States last year, accounting for about 400,000 jobs in the small nation.
Giving Snowden asylum for leaking secret information would be "irresponsible," former Ecuadorean diplomat Mauricio Gandara said.
"It would be an illegal act, because what he has done is a crime in both the United States and Ecuador," said Gandara, who was Ecuador's ambassador in London. "It is a confrontation with the people and government of the United States and both (political) parties. It is an unnecessary conflict."
Ecuadorean analyst Grace Jaramillo said Washington takes the Snowden case more seriously than Assange's because it involves an internal leak of intelligence activities that otherwise operate in total secrecy.
"The United States will keep pushing until the end for Snowden to be handed over, and could even resort to commercial sanctions or direct intervention if the case becomes difficult," Jaramillo said.
Yet, granting him safe passage and refuge has appeal for Ecuador as well as Cuba and Venezuela, which have all been criticized for rules limiting independent media.
"This is a case in which I think the U.S. does not look all that good," said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia.
"I think it's quite useful for either Venezuela or Ecuador to grant a person like this asylum, because it allows them to sort of deflect attention towards the United States and the United States' own shortcomings," Smilde said.
The Cuban state controls all TV, radio and newspapers. Venezuela has done things like forcing TV stations off the air by not renewing licenses and detaining people for tweets deemed destabilizing. Ecuador's media law, approved last week, establishes official media overseers, imposes sanctions for besmirching personal reputations and limits private ownership to a third of radio and TV licenses.
But Cuba and Venezuela are both in the midst of quiet thaws in long-chilly ties with the United States, and taking in Snowden would likely damage those efforts.
Last week, Cuba and the United States held talks on restarting direct mail service, and announced that a separate sit-down to discuss immigration issues will be held in Washington on July 17.
Diplomats and officials from both countries also report far greater cooperation in behind-the-scenes dealings, including during a brief incident involving a Florida couple who sought asylum in Cuba after kidnapping their own children. Cuba worked with U.S. officials to quickly send the couple back to face justice.
Philip Peters, a longtime Cuba analyst, said allowing Snowden to pass through Cuban territory would not necessarily doom rapprochement, though he acknowledged the fallout would be unpredictable.
"My guess is that it would be a blip, because Cuba, by allowing him to pass through Cuban territory, is hardly embracing his actions, or sheltering him or giving him asylum," Peters said.
It's the same story for Venezuela, which earlier this month agreed to high-level negotiations on restoring ambassadorial relations and easing more than a decade of sour ties. That announcement came after a meeting in Guatemala between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.
Caracas has huge commercial dealings with the United States, which remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuela's oil.
"It's much better for President Nicolas Maduro that (Snowden) is not going to Venezuela," said Gregory Weeks, a political scientist specializing in Latin America at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "It's something that Maduro really doesn't want to have to deal with, whereas Correa, he's already in it (by giving Assange asylum). So of all the places to go, Ecuador is logical."
Being placed on the international stage by Snowden's asylum bid drew mixed reactions from Ecuadoreans.
"People who steal information or any other thing should face the consequences, and Ecuador shouldn't get involved," said Maria Jimenez, a 42-year-old homemaker.
Jorge Rojas Cruzatti, a 34-year-old web designer, disagreed.
"I'm proud of my country ... and more than pride, I'm glad that human rights are being protected," he said. "Other countries wouldn't dare grant this type of support to citizens who are helping protect freedom of expression."
___
Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; Paul Haven in Havana; Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Colombia; and Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.
___
Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taking-snowden-ecuador-defy-us-again-090726069.html
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Obama briefs Hill leaders on foreign policy issues
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama briefed congressional leaders for an hour Tuesday on foreign policy issues that have recently dominated his agenda, from his meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month to his recent session in Northern Ireland with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The meeting, in the White House Oval Office, was the first since March 1 among the president, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The meeting came as the president is making his case for an immigration overhaul and for avoiding a big increase in student loan interest rates on July 1. But the discussion centered exclusively on foreign policy, according to congressional officials.
Neither the White House nor the leaders immediately commented after the meeting broke up.
Boehner's office, however, said that Obama informed the four leaders about issues around the globe and that Boehner appreciated the courtesy.
Obama's diplomatic push with China and his efforts to find international consensus on Syria have been at the forefront of his foreign policy in recent weeks. He met with Xi at a desert retreat in California earlier this month. He also attended the summit of the Group of Eight industrial economies in Northern Ireland, where he met with Putin on the sidelines.
The Xi and Putin meetings addressed areas of dispute ? cybersecurity with China and Syria with Russia.
Tensions with both countries have ticked up in recent days as the United States seeks the return of former national Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for leaking U.S. surveillance methods. Snowden had been in Hong Kong but was allowed to leave for Moscow even after the United States submitted an extradition request. Putin said Tuesday that Snowden is in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, meaning he technically is not in Russia and thus is free to travel wherever he wants.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-briefs-hill-leaders-foreign-policy-issues-224418312.html
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Congress not 'mature enough' to deal with Voting Rights Act decision
Following the Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act, NBC's Chuck Todd says he's a pessimist on Congress' ability to update the map that determines which states must get federal permission before they change their voting laws.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
Activists and organizers said that they would urge Congress and the president to act quickly after the Supreme Court struck down the formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which jurisdictions were covered, presenting lawmakers with a challenge some watchers said they may not be ready for.
The 5 to 4 vote struck down a section of the?historic civil rights legislation?that determined which states, many of them with histories of racial discrimination, needed approval from the Department of Justice before changing voting laws.
President Obama said he was ?deeply disappointed? by the court?s decision in a statement released on Tuesday.
?I am calling on Congress to pass legislation to ensure every American has equal access to the polls,? Obama said. ?My administration will continue to do everything in its power to ensure a fair and equal voting process.?
NBC News Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd said on MSNBC that Congress is not ?mature enough? to reach a speedy political solution.
Civil rights supporters react to the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a key portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Tuesday.
?This is not a welcome decision, by any means,? a senior White House official said in reaction to the decision. ?But there is a theoretical path for Congress to update the statute in ways that would make it constitutional.?
?As a practical matter, that may be difficult to do given political dynamics,? the official told NBC News.
Removing the map determining which jurisdictions need pre-clearance of new voting laws rendered the Voting Rights Act effectively toothless, law professor Kenji Yoshino said on MSNBC. While lawmakers could draw up a new map, ?it?s not clear that this Congress is going to have the will to do that,? he said.
?I think what the court did today is stab the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its very heart,? Representative John Lewis said. ?It took us almost 100 years to get us where we are today, so will it take us another 100 years to fix it? I call upon my colleagues in the Congress to get it right, to fix it.?
Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said that he looked forward to working with members of Congress after the court?s ruling.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called the Supreme Court?s ruling a ?significant setback that will put Congress to the test of whether we can move quickly and without partisanship.?
Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan called the court?s ruling a ?win for fairness,? saying that he hoped it would ?end the practice of treating states differently and recognizes that we live in 2013, not the 1960s.?
?This is not an issue just for civil rights advocates, this is not an issue just for African Americans or Latinos, this is not just an issue for those in the South,? said Sherrilyn Ifill, director-counsel of the NAACP?s legal defense and educational fund. ?This is the American we have all come to expect and that we have all come to enjoy and be proud of, and the question for us is are we willing to fight for it.?
?We will not sit down, we will not be silent, we will not accept the evisceration of our rights, we will fight every step of the way to make sure that voting rights are available to every single American,? said Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyers? Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
?This is devastating,? civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC. ?I think what we must do is really put pressure on Congress now to deal with this.?
?This is a devastating blow to those of us that need that protection, especially given the voter suppression schemes that we saw in 2012,? Sharpton said.
Politico Playbook: "Not yet six months into his second term, Barack Obama's presidency is in a dead zone," Politico's John Harris, Jake Sherman and Elizabeth Titus write. Harris joins Morning Joe to explain exactly why Obama currently has "less influence over his circumstances."
Sharpton said that voting rights were among the most important issues when Dr. Martin Luther King pushed for civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s.
?They just canceled the dream,? Sharpton said, ?and the children of the dream are not going to sit by and allow that to happen.?
Civil rights litigator Judith Browne Dianis said that while the face of racial discrimination in voting has changed over the years, there are still many states that have ?tried to roll back voting rights by making it harder to vote for people of color.?
?We know that discrimination still exists in those states. We know that discrimination also exists in other states,? Dianis said. ?We?re going to have to set the record straight.?
?We witnessed in the last election cycle numerous states, an orchestrated effort, forty states in fact, where legislation was introduced to suppress the vote,? said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.
?I think this is another opportunity from both sides of the Congress to demonstrate that this is not going to get caught up in partisan wrangling, obfuscation, and obstruction,? Morial said.
Rick Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, said that politicians concerned about voting rights might see leadership from the White House in the aftermath of the landmark ruling.
?I think there?s probably no body in political office today who understands these issues better than President Barack Obama,? Pildes said.
NBC News? Peter Alexander contributed to this report.
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A wakeup call heeded as 'Mad Men' season ends
NEW YORK (AP) ? We have now left Don Draper in a state ripe for rehab ? both literally and figuratively.
Airing Sunday night, the season finale of "Mad Men" found its troubled hero reeling from one bender too many.
"I realized it's gotten out of control," he told his wife, Megan, after a night in a drunk tank after punching out a priest who ticked him off in a bar. "I've gotten out of control," he added.
No kidding.
In its penultimate sixth season spanning the turbulent year of 1968, this AMC drama charted Draper's downward spiral, cheating on his wife with a downstairs neighbor and wreaking havoc at the Manhattan ad agency where he used to be golden.
Until now a charismatic master of pretense, Draper by season's end acknowledged what every "Mad Men" viewer already knew: Don's fabled mojo had failed him. But he seemed prepared to take corrective action.
Did he have a lot of choice? In a startling scene, Draper (series star Jon Hamm) was summoned to a meeting for some bad news: He was being sidelined at Sterling Cooper & Partners.
That is, Draper was ordered to "take some time off and regroup," in the pointed words of fellow partner Roger Sterling (John Slattery).
This expulsion came after a powwow days earlier with the bosses of a possible new client, Hershey's Chocolate, where the silver-tongued Draper did what he does best: infusing the product with his own seductive myths.
Don had the Hershey execs spellbound with a heart-tugging recollection of his father rewarding him with a Hershey bar for mowing the lawn.
"Hershey's is the currency of affection," he rhapsodized. "It's the childhood symbol of love."
But then, as if suffering a crisis of conscience, he pulled a one-eighty. Always a master of revisionist history, Draper revised his pitch from fantasy to truth: He was actually an orphan raised in a whorehouse, he revealed, where, trying to capture the experience of a normal kid, he would eat a Hershey bar he got from one of the girls "who made me go through her john's pockets while they screwed."
Don's eyes moistened, his voice sank to a whisper in a scene that should clinch Hamm his long-withheld Emmy.
"Do you want to advertise THAT?" asked a puzzled Hershey exec.
"If I had my way, you would NEVER advertise," Draper answered. "And you shouldn't have someone like me telling that boy" ? every happy, normal boy with a father who loves him ? "what a Hershey bar is. He already knows."
It was a startlingly awkward moment for the agency partners, but a galvanizing moment of truth for Don.
This step toward redemption, if that's what it turns out to be, was likely triggered two episodes ago, when his teenage daughter Sally found him cheating on his wife. Sally was traumatized.
So was Draper at being discovered by her.
"It's the worst thing that ever happened to him," said "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner in a recent interview. "His pain and guilt and shame are indescribable."
It was the wakeup call Don was long overdue for.
"We discovered a lot about Don this year as he realized who he really is," Weiner said. "And we discovered that he doesn't want to be that way."
No wonder.
On the finale, he torpedoed the romance of longtime colleague Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) with her new love, agency partner Ted Chaough (Kevin Rahm). Don facilitated Ted's wish to move to California with his family to separate himself from Peggy, breaking off their affair and thereby saving his marriage.
At the same time, Don put his own marriage in hock by breaking his earlier promise to Megan for them, not Ted, to make the move to California for the agency and make a fresh start of their own.
"The agency decided it," Don lied when telling her the change of plans.
Even with no inkling he had routinely betrayed her with a mutual friend who lived just one floor away, Megan had long felt he was growing more remote. His reneging on the move west with her was the last straw.
"You want to be alone with your liquor and your ex-wife and your screwed-up kids!" she seethed as she walked out the door.
Megan's words were an eerie echo of last season's conclusion, with Draper planted at a posh Manhattan bar and approached by a beautiful woman who asked, "Are you alone?" Viewers never learned what happened then.
What will happen next?
Painful recognition appears to be propelling "Mad Men" toward its final season, while leaving viewers to ponder how ? or if ? Don will patch up his marriage, his career and his relationship with Sally.
Weiner, who resumes the writing process soon, insisted many questions are yet to be settled.
On the other hand, he has had the final moments of the show in mind for years, he said, though he took pains to tamp down viewer expectations.
"There's no big reveal coming," Weiner declared. "What to leave the audience with is what I've been thinking about, and I have an image. But I don't want to oversell it. Honestly, I'm in denial about the show ending. But we'll get to it when we get to it ? and then it will be on the air."
In the meanwhile, viewers are left with this image: Don Draper's newly discombobulated life. But signaling hope for both him and the audience, he seems to understand he can't just charm his way out of it.
___
Online:
http://www.amctv.com
___
EDITOR'S NOTE ? Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wakeup-call-heeded-mad-men-season-ends-080457293.html
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Astronaut Wives: New Book Reveals True Story of Space Spouses
NEW YORK ? The American heroes of the space race are well-known: Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and more. But less well-known are a second set of heroes that are only now getting their due: the wives.
A new book based on interviews with dozens of the wives of NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts finally tells the story of the home front that made the moon missions possible. Lily Koppel, author of "The Astronaut Wives Club" (Grand Central Publishing, June 2013), spoke June 17 here at the Forbes Galleries.
"I felt that they really deserved a place in history that they really hadn't been given," Koppel said of the subjects of her book. "It just somehow didn't make it into the history books, partly because so many of the marriages fell apart." [Secrets of the Astronaut Wives: Q&A With Lily Koppel]
The space race was taxing not just on the men who flew in America's spaceships in the 1960s and '70s, but also on their whole families. And astronauts' wives were under pressure from NASA, their husbands and themselves to project an outward image of family perfection while dealing with fear for their spouses' safety and the challenges of maintaining a home and children with almost no help.
"There were fears that they couldn't express to their husbands or their friends," Koppel said, which weighed heavily on some of the women. ?Husbands and wives were often separated for long periods, and there was a culture among the astronauts that encouraged dalliances on the side while training hundreds of miles from home.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of these marriages didn't last much beyond the glory of the space race era.
Yet at the time, the life of an astronaut wife sometimes rivaled the exhilaration of flying to space.
"Everything was moving so fast and everyone was trying to get to the moon, and the wives were sort of in it as much as their husbands," Koppel told SPACE.com.
And there were certainly perks to make up for the sacrifices, such as receiving the celebrity treatment on worldwide tours and meeting heads of state when their husbands returned from a mission. "The real goodie for the wives was going to the White House and meeting Jackie [Kennedy]," Koppel said.
The astronaut families were also watched by the press and the public in a way none had been prepared for. "They were like America's first reality stars," Koppel said. "They all felt young and inexperienced, thrown into this role."
Ultimately, it's a fascinating story that took surprisingly long to be told. And despite the hardships, the sacrifices and the sometimes sad outcomes, there are few regrets. "I haven't heard one person say they would do it another way," Koppel said.
Follow Clara Moskowitz on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/astronaut-wives-book-reveals-true-story-space-spouses-194931934.html
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Uber Continues Asia Expansion With Seoul Test Runs
Uber has begun testing its taxi calling app in Seoul, the startup's second stop in Asia.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V3taKqWU3pA/
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Snowden whereabouts unknown as Russia defies U.S. pressure
By Lidia Kelly and Katya Golubkova
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's whereabouts were a mystery on Monday as Russia defied White House pressure to send him back to the United States and stop him fleeing Moscow on his globe-crossing escape from U.S. prosecution.
Snowden, whose exposure of secret U.S. government surveillance raised questions about intrusions into private lives, was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday after Washington had asked the Chinese territory to arrest him on espionage charges.
The 30-year-old flew to Moscow as a transit stop before heading elsewhere, several sources said. But reports that he would fly to Cuba were put in doubt when witnesses could not see him on the plane, despite heightened security before take-off.
Ecuador, which has sheltered the founder of the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, Julian Assange, said it was considering Snowden's request for asylum and that human rights were it main concern. There are no direct commercial flights to Quito from Moscow.
"He didn't take the flight (to Havana)," a source at Russia's national airline Aeroflot told Reuters.
As speculation grew about where he would go next - Ecuador, Venezuela or Cuba at a later date to escape the crowd of journalists aboard Monday's flight to Havana - Washington was stung by Russian defiance.
Snowden's flight to Russia, which like China challenges U.S. dominance of global diplomacy, is an embarrassment to President Barack Obama who has tried to "reset" ties with Moscow and build a partnership with Beijing.
The White House said it expected the Russian government to send Snowden back to the United States and lodged "strong objections" to Hong Kong and China for letting him go.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said during a visit to India that it would be "deeply troubling" if Moscow defied the United States over Snowden, and said the fugitive "places himself above the law, having betrayed his country".
But the Russian government ignored the appeal and President Vladimir Putin's press secretary denied any knowledge of Snowden's movements.
Asked if Snowden had spoken to the Russian authorities, Peskov said: "Overall, we have no information about him."
He declined comment on the expulsion request but other Russian officials said Moscow had no obligation to cooperate with Washington, after it passed legislation to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russians accused of violating human rights.
U.S. HYPOCRISY
"Why should the United States expect restraint and understanding from Russia?" said Alexei Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament.
Putin has missed few chances to champion public figures who challenge Western governments and to portray Washington as an overzealous global policeman. But Russian leaders have not paraded Snowden before cameras or trumpeted his arrival.
Since leaving Hong Kong, where he feared arrest and extradition, Snowden has been searching for a country that can guarantee his security.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said during a trip to Vietnam that Quito would take into account a U.S. request about Snowden and is in "respectful" contact with Russia about him. He gave no details of the U.S. request.
"We will consider the position of the U.S. government and we will take a decision in due course in line with the (Ecuadorean) constitution, the laws, international politics and sovereignty," Patino told a news conference in Hanoi.
A source at Aeroflot said on Sunday Snowden was booked on the flight due to depart for Havana on Monday at 2:05 p.m. (1005 GMT). But a correspondent aboard could not see him and the seat he was supposed to occupy, 17A, was taken by another passenger.
It was not immediately clear whether the plane had a crew section where Snowden might have been concealed.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said Putin had probably known about and approved Snowden's flight to Russia, and saw "the hand of Beijing" in Hong Kong's decision to let Snowden leave.
But taking the higher ground after being accused of hacking computers abroad, the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed "grave concern" over Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked computers in China. It said it had taken up the issue with Washington.
CHILL
Some Russians have praised Snowden's revelations. Others fear a new chill in relations with the United States.
"We are a pretty stubborn country and so is the United States. Both are mighty countries, so I would say this has a good potential to turn into a big fuss in bilateral relations," said Ina Sosna, manager of a Moscow cleaning company.
"I guess it would be best if they just let him move on from Russia to avoid any more controversy over him being here."
Snowden was assisted in his escape from Hong Kong by WikiLeaks, whose founder Assange said he had helped to arrange documents from Ecuador. WikiLeaks said diplomats and Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for the anti-secrecy group, accompanied him.
Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering Assange at its London embassy for the past year.
Snowden, who had worked at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, had been hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance programs to news media.
He has been charged with theft of federal government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow, Martin Petty in Hanoi, Sui-Lee Weein in Beijing,; Andrew Cawthorne, Mario Naranjo and Daniel Wallis in Caracas, Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Mark Heinrich and David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-warns-countries-against-snowden-travel-014740817.html
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Migrating out of poverty: The role of finance | vox
For better or worse, the 2008 financial crisis has put the financial sector again at the centre of public debate. Several commentators have suggested that financial liberalisation contributed both to the financial crisis and to growing income inequality (e.g. Krugman 2009 and Moss 2009).? On a more general level and as in the case of other policy areas associated with the Washington consensus, financial liberalisation has been controversial among academics and policymakers, as it is not clear whom the benefits of expanded credit allocation accrue to.
Cross-country evidence has linked financial development both to lower levels and faster reductions in income inequality and poverty rates (Beck et al. 2007; Clarke et al. 2006). As is often the case with cross-country work, endogeneity concerns are manifold, exacerbated by measurement problems inherent to survey-based inequality and poverty measures. In addition, cross-country comparisons face limitations in identifying the channel through which financial deepening helps reduce poverty rates.
In recent work, we use annual household survey data across 15 Indian states over the period 1983 to 2005 to assess the effect of financial sector development on changes in rural and urban poverty (Ayyagari et al. 2013). Specifically, we exploit variation across states and over time in both financial depth and financial inclusion to explore:
- The relationship between financial development and poverty levels.
- The relative importance of financial depth and financial inclusion in this relationship.
- The channels and mechanisms through which financial development alleviates poverty.
India is close to an ideal testing ground to ask these questions given not only its large sub-national variation in socio-economic and institutional development, but also significant policy changes it has experienced over the sample period (Besley et al. 2007). By focusing on a specific country, using data from a consistent data source and exploiting pre-determined cross-state variation in socio-economic conditions, we alleviate problems associated with cross-country studies, including measurement error, omitted variable and endogeneity biases.
To gauge the relationship between financial sector development and poverty levels and disentangle the mechanisms and channels through which this relationship works, we use household surveys from the National Sample Survey Office and exploit within-state and over-time variation across 15 Indian states over the period 1983 to 2005. We measure poverty using headcount (share of population living below the national poverty line) and poverty gap (average distance separating the population from the poverty line as a proportion of poverty line). We measure financial depth by commercial bank credit to state domestic product and financial breadth by bank branch penetration per capita.
We use a difference-in-differences regression set-up, controlling for state-fixed and year-fixed effects and controlling for time-variant state-level factors, such as the share of literate population, state domestic product per capita and state government expenditures to state domestic product. To alleviate biases of reverse causation and omitted variables, we employ instrumental variable approaches. Specifically, as an instrument for financial depth, we use the cross-state variation of per-capita circulation of English-language newspapers in 1991 multiplied by a time trend to capture the differential impact of the media across time after liberalisation in 1991. With the relatively free and independent press in India (Besley and Burgess 2002), a more informed public is better able to compare different financial services, resulting in more transparency and a higher degree of competition leading to greater financial sector development. Figure 1 shows the differential development of Credit to state domestic product in states with English language newspaper penetration above and below the median.
?
Figure 1. Bank credit and English newspaper circulation
In addition, we follow Burgess and Pande (2005) and exploit the policy-driven nature of rural bank branch expansion across Indian states as an instrument for branch penetration and thus financial breadth. According to the Indian Central Bank?s 1:4 licensing policy instituted between 1977 and 1990, commercial banks in India had to open four branches in rural unbanked locations for every branch opening in an already banked location. Thus between 1977 and 1990, rural bank branch expansion was higher in financially less developed states while after 1990, the reverse was true (financially developed states offered more profitable locations and so attracted more branches outside of the program). Figure 2 documents these trend reversals.
Figure 2. Bank-branch penetration as function of initial financial development
Relating annual state-level variation in poverty to variation in financial development, we find:
- Financial depth, as measured by credit to state domestic product, has a negative and significant impact on rural poverty in India over the period 1983-2005. This finding is robust to using different measures of rural poverty, controlling for time-varying state characteristics, and conditioning on state and year fixed effects. On the other hand, we find no effect of financial depth on urban poverty rates.
- The effect of financial depth on rural poverty reduction is also economically meaningful. One within-state, within-year standard deviation in credit to state domestic product, explains 18% of demeaned variation in the headcount and 30% of demeaned variation in the poverty gap over our sample period.
- We also find that over the time period 1983-2005, financial depth has a more significant impact on poverty reduction than financial outreach. Our measure of financial breadth, rural branches per capita, has a negative but insignificant effect on rural poverty over this period, though a strong and negative effect over the longer period of 1965 to 2005, which includes the complete period of the social banking policy.
The household data also allow us to dig deeper into the channels through which financial deepening affected poverty rates across rural India.
- We find evidence for the entrepreneurship channel, as the poverty-reducing impact of financial deepening falls primarily on self-employed in rural areas. On the other hand, we find no evidence that financial deepening has contributed to human capital accumulation.
- We also identify migration from rural to urban areas as an important channel through which financial depth reduces rural poverty. In particular, we find that financial sector development is associated with inter-state migration of workers towards financially more developed states. The migration induced by financial deepening is motivated by search for employment, suggesting that poorer population segments in rural areas migrated to urban areas.
- The rural primary and tertiary urban sectors benefitted most from this migration, consistent with evidence showing that the Indian growth experience has been led by the services sector rather than labour intensive manufacturing (Bosworth et al. 2007).
- This last finding is also consistent with the finding that it is specifically the increase in bank credit to the tertiary sector that accounts for financial deepening post-1991 and its poverty-reducing effect.
Our findings suggest that financial deepening can have important structural effects, including through structural reallocation and migration, with consequences for poverty reduction. Our findings have important policy repercussions. The pro-poor effects of financial deepening do not necessarily come just through more inclusive financial systems, but can also come through more efficient and deeper financial systems. Critical, the poorest of the poor not only benefit from financial deepening by directly accessing financial services, but also through indirect structural effects of financial deepening. This is consistent with evidence from Thailand (Gine and Townsend 2004) and for the US (Beck et al. 2010) who document important labour-market and migration effects of financial liberalisation and deepening.?
Ayyagari M, T Beck and M Hoseini (2013) ?Finance and Poverty: Evidence from India?, CEPR Discussion Paper 9497.
Beck T, A Demirg??-Kunt and R Levine, (2007) ?Finance, Inequality and the Poor?, Journal of Economic Growth?12(1), 27-49.
Beck T, R Levine and A Levkov (2010), ?Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the US?, Journal of Finance?65(5), pages 1637-1667.
Besley, T and R Burgess, (2002) ?The Political Economy Of Government Responsiveness: Theory And Evidence From India?, Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4), pages 1415-1451.
Besley T, R Burgess, and B Esteve-Volart (2007) ?The Policy Origins of Poverty and Growth in India,? Chapter 3 in Delivering on the Promise of Pro-Poor Growth: Insights and Lessons from Country Experiences, edited with Timothy Besley and Louise J. Cord, Palgrave MacMillan for the World Bank.
Bosworth, B, S Collins and A Virmani (2007), ?Sources of Growth in the Indian Economy?, in Bery S, B Bosworth and A Panagariya (eds.), India Policy Forum, 2006-07, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Burgess, R and R Pande (2005), ?Do Rural Banks Matter? Evidence from the Indian Social Banking Experiment?, The American Economic Review, vol. 95(3), pages 780-795.
Clarke G, L C Xu and H Zhou, (2006) ?Finance and Income Inequality: What Do the Data Tell Us??, Southern Economic Journal 72(3), pages 578-596.
Gine, X and R Townsend (2004) ?Evaluation of financial liberalization: a general equilibrium model with constrained occupation choice?, Journal of Development Economics 74, 269-307.
Krugman, P (2009), "The financial factor", The New York Times blog, 7 April.
Moss, D A (2009), "An ounce of prevention: Financial regulation, moral hazard, and the end of 'too big to fail'",?Harvard Magazine September-October, 25-29.
Source: http://www.voxeu.org/article/migrating-out-poverty-role-finance
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Are loli's playable here?
I know some sites don't allow you to play as them, for whatever reason. It's just well..they ARE popular in Japan in used a lot in anime...even games and as a canon player it annoys me a bit when sites restrict the kind of characters you can play. I'm not even talking for mature rps either. Granted lolis aren't my favorite but there are some I just find really funny (Like Squid Girl x3) and would like to play them but I just find it odd.
Now that I think on it, I know why...but it's still odd. I guess Japan just thinks of it differently, not that I am Japanese I just watch too much anime :P
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/Mb6NrGDiCnQ/viewtopic.php
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Bug exposes contacts of some on Facebook
Facebook says a bug in its system caused 6 million users' contact information to be inadvertently exposed.
The social media company said Friday that a bug led to users' contact information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, to be accessed by other users who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them.
Facebook said in a blog post that the cause of the bug is "pretty technical" but that the problem is tied to its "Download Your Information" tool.
The company uses the information that users upload to better tailor the friend suggestions it issues. The bug caused some of this information to be inadvertently stored in association with a person's contact information as part of their Facebook account.
As a result, if someone downloaded an archive of their Facebook account through the "Download Your Information" tool, they may have been provided with additional addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection. Because the contact information was provided by other people on Facebook, it was not necessarily accurate.
Facebook said it has fixed the problem and is in the process of notifying affected users via email.
The affected accounts represent only a fraction of the over 1 billion users on the social media site.
Facebook, which is headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., said that it has no evidence that the bug has been used maliciously and it has not received complaints.
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