Artificial Intelligence Politicians: More Gimmick than Reality
Non-human candidates frequently grace local and national electoral ballots. Limberbutt McCubbins was the first feline presidential candidate in the US; Darth Vader ran for mayor of Odessa, Ukraine; and a rhinoceros named Cacareco...
Not Safe for Facebook: Censorship and the Modern Public Square
Semi-nude paintings by Austrian artist Egon Schiele surprised recent riders of the New York subway, London Tube, and Cologne bus. The works were part of an ad campaign launched by the Vienna Tourism Board. Originally, they were...
Influencer Marketing for International Development—or International Chaos?
Singapore’s Instagram users got a bit of a surprise in January: dozens of influencers (users with anywhere from 1,000 to 35,000 followers) posting mundane statuses about finance and budgeting. Singapore’s Ministry of Finance...
Saudi Cinemas Herald Regional Transformation
In 1982, ultra-conservative clerics pressured the King of Saudi Arabia to close down all movie theaters, citing the threat they posed to religious and cultural identity. Thirty-five years later, Crown Prince Mohammed bin...
About Face: Facial Recognition & Border Security
The recently launched iPhone X uses facial recognition technology to unlock the phone rather than fingerprint scanners or the comparatively old-fashioned passcode, ostensibly to make the phone more secure. As evidenced by the...
African Nations Over the Moon
Space, the final frontier, has so far been out of reach for the majority of African countries, even as the space race raged on across North America, Europe, and Asia. Only over the last decade or so have a handful of African...
Currency Wars: Repressive Regimes Turned Crypto-Criminals
Bitcoin was first mentioned in a research paper from late 2008 as a form of money that would be untraceable and free from interference by governments and central banks. Anyone with a computer can buy and sell bitcoin and...
Game of Tourism: Cities Seek to Limit Tourism while Others Woo Foreign Visitors
If you have been inspired by Game of Thrones to visit beautiful Dubrovnik, Croatia, the site of the fictional capital of King’s Landing, you may find yourself out of luck: the Mediterranean city, long a popular tourist...
Crowdsourcing Opportunities and Pitfalls: Foreign Policy and Boaty McBoatFace
A vast population of nearly four billion people, more than the entire population of China, India, and the United States combined, inhabits the internet, which spells potential for many industries. We are all potential consumers...
Reporters without Borders: Cambodian Monks Live Stream Civil Liberties
Buddhist monks have become new the emissaries of human rights in Cambodia, using Twitter and Facebook Live to broadcast news of enduring endemic corruption, poverty, and political repression that plagues the country. While many...