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Apparently, if Facebook wanted to repair its reputation, all it had to do was seem like it was helping to topple an authoritarian regime. Now that the U.S. media is loudly pushing the idea that social media can change Egypt-and next, the world!-it makes Mark Zuckerberg's tendency to monetize every aspect of our online lives seem less important.

'Deficits can be addressed by raising revenue, plugging tax loopholes, putting people to work, and developing the economy long-term in all the ways the President has discussed. But deficits are not what really matters to conservatives. Conservatives really want to change the basis of American life, 

An Arab country with neither secret police nor censorship is unprecedented in recent decades. Tunisia is inspiring similar demands in Egypt and Jordan. When skeptics wonder if the Revolutions of 2011 would really change anything essential in the region, they would be wise to keep an eye on these two developments in Tunisia, which, if consolidated, would represent an epochal transformation of culture and politics. Arguably, Tunisians are now freer than Americans. The US government thinks our private emails are actually public. The FBI and NSA routinely read our email and they and other branches of the US government issue security letters in the place of warrants allowing them to tap phones and monitor whom we call, and even to call up our library records and conduct searches of our homes without telling us about it. Millions of telephone records were turned over to George W. Bush by our weaselly telecom companies. Courts allow government agents to sneak onto our property and put GPS tracking devices under our automobiles without so much as a warrant or even probable cause. Mr. Obama thinks this way of proceeding is a dandy idea.

In what may feel like a flashback to the porn wars of the '60s, a new study investigates the link between a country's relative gender equality and the degree of female "empowerment" in the X-rated entertainment it consumes. Researchers at the University of Hawaii focused on three countries in particular: Norway, the United States and Japan, which are respectively ranked 1st, 15th and (yikes) 54th on the United Nations' Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). To simplify their analysis, their library of smut was limited to explicit photographs of women "from mainstream pornographic magazines and Internet websites, as well as from the portfolios of the most popular porn stars from each nation." Then they set out to evaluate each image on both a disempowerment and an empowerment scale, using respective measures like whether the woman is "bound and dominated" by "leashes, collars, gags, or handcuffs" or "whether she has a natural looking body." Their hypothesis was that societies with greater gender equity will consume pornography that has more representations of "empowered women" and less of "disempowered women." It turned out the former was true, but, contradictory as it may sound, the latter was not. "While Norwegian pornography offers a wider variety of body types -- conforming less to a societal ideal that is disempowering to the average woman -- there are still many images that do not promote a healthy respect for women," the researchers explain. In other words, Norwegian porn showed more signs of female empowerment, but X-rated images in all three countries equally depicted women in demeaning positions and scenarios. This, the researchers surmise, "suggests that empowerment and disempowerment within pornography are potentially different constructs." So, gender equality is accompanied by sexual interest in a broader range of beauty types but not a decrease in porn's infantilization of females, use of dominating fetish gear on women or any of the other characteristics th

Since the financial crisis of 2008, one of the most revealing spectacles has been the parade of financial elites who petulantly insist that they are the victims of societal hostility:  political officials heap too much blame on them, public policy burdens them so unfairly, the public resents them, and -- most amazingly of all -- President Obama is a radical egalitarian who is unprecedentedly hostile to business interests.  One particularly illustrative example was the whiny little multi-millionaire hedge fund manager (and CNBC contributor), Anthony Scaramucci, who stood up at an October, 201o, town hall meeting and demanded to know:  "when are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata?" The Weekly Standard now has a very lengthy defense of -- including rare interviews with -- Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who fund everything from right-wing economic policy, union-busting, and anti-climate-change advocacy to civil liberties and liberalized social policies -- though far more the former goals than the latter.  In this article one finds the purest and most instructive expression of billionaire self-pity that I think I've ever seen -- one that is as self-absorbed and detached from reality as it destructive.  It's really worth examining their revealed mindset to see how those who wield the greatest financial power (and thus the greatest political power) think of themselves and those who are outside of their class.

It's hard to think of another time when there has been such a gulf between intellectuals and activists; between theorists of revolution and its practitioners. Writers who for years have been publishing essays that sound like position papers for vast social movements that do not in fact exist seem seized with confusion or worse, dismissive contempt, now that real ones are everywhere emerging. It's particularly scandalous in the case of what's still, for no particularly good reason, referred to as the 'anti-globalization' movement, one that has in a mere two or three years managed to transform completely the sense of historical possibilities for millions across the planet. This may be the result of sheer ignorance, or of relying on what might be gleaned from such overtly hostile sources as the New York Times; then again, most of what's written even in progressive outlets seems largely to miss the point-or at least, rarely focuses on what participants in the movement really think is most important about it. As an anthropologist and active participant-particularly in the more radical, direct-action end of the movement-I may be able to clear up some common points of misunderstanding; but the news may not be gratefully received. Much of the hesitation, I suspect, lies in the reluctance of those who have long fancied themselves radicals of some sort to come to terms with the fact that they are really liberals: interested in expanding individual freedoms and pursuing social justice, but not in ways that would seriously challenge the existence of reigning institutions like capital or state. And even many of those who would like to see revolutionary change might not feel entirely happy about having to accept that most of the creative energy for radical politics is now coming from anarchism-a tradition that they have hitherto mostly dismissed-and that taking this movement seriously will necessarily also mean a respectful engagement with it. I am writing

Are socially engaging art installations truly an introspective means for change or do they merely serve as attention-grabbing photo-ops? Check out this one by Sahil & Sarthak Design Co. and leave us your views…

Just how important is wood in our ever-changing attitudes and practices in designing interiors? IAnD finds out...

Rabih Geha Architects design a ground-breaking dance pantheon at the Beirut Waterfront, all set to continue in their design of changing the face of nightlife in the district. Check it out and leave us your views…

#Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux Architectes design New Hampshire's Webster library keeping changing ways of learning and new knowledge-sharing methodologies in mind. Check it out here...

Chartierdalix Architects in association with Brenac & Gonzalez & Associates designs a mixed-use building with a ribbon-like façade that is moulded to result in constantly changing hues, reminiscent of a painting by French artist, Pierre Soulages. Check it out here and leave us your views…

Changing paradigms in corporate culture have led to progressive workplace interiors with extra care for employee wellbeing. Checkout the recent interactive and sustainable office designed by @i29-interior-architects and leave us your views…

Home decorating trends change faster than seasons. So, we enlisted the help of five interior experts to round up the latest home décor trends that you will be seeing everywhere in 2018. It's time to make your most personal spaces up-to-the-minute before anyone else does! Read more here…

Ar. Mitul Shah of Studio Yamini designs an extension to a bungalow in Baroda - discerningly balancing the design vocabulary of new with existing; and upping its luxury quotient in sync with the changing lifestyle of its occupants. Check it out here…

As the Burning Man Festival 2019 interactive installations take centrestage across the Playa, the 'Steam of Life' sauna pavilion and the 'Andromeda Reimagined' celestial pyramid make their messages known in the pop-up city. Check out the story here…

Keeping pace with changing outlooks, Collage Architecture Studio designs #ToyStory - a playschool in #Bengaluru that aims not only to smoothen the toddler's transition from home to school, but also helps in sowing the preliminary seeds of a holistic personality. Check it out here…

Dhruva Kalra of studio RMDK designs a restaurant #MasalaRepublic by tailoring it to the changing lifestyle moods of the young and the dynamic. Check it out here

Excited to unveil the research collated via the #KyaBola campaign that has touched tangential aspects of the problem of indiscriminate honking. We look forward to your comments/ suggestions to mark this campaign as the beginning of a positive social change.

NYC's MoMA undergoes an expansion, effectuated through Diller Scofidio+Renfro and Gensler - an endeavour that seeks to reassure and surprise, presenting the history of art and the changing nature of the engaging realm. Check it out here