Rio de Janeiro
The Beauty and Inhumanity of Oscar Niemeyer’s Architecture
The Olympics: Did Tourists Help China's Economy?
Not one, not two, but three different Olympic Games are in the news today. In California, a Sacramento group has announced a bid to bring the 2022 Winter Games to Lake Tahoe. Meanwhile, south of the equator, the government of Rio de Janeiro has launched an international contest to choose who will build its Olympic Park for the 2016 Summer Games. READ MORE >>
Gingrich, D'Souza, And The Mainstream-Kook Convergence
Newt Gingrich's recent interview with National Review is the most recent maker in the slowly disappearing line between the conservative mainstream and the paranoid fringe. In the interview, Gingrich asserts: READ MORE >>
A Global Toolkit for Cities
Last week at the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, the Citistates Group unveiled what promises to be an engaging and provocative new online forum, Citiscope. Citiscope aims to be the “go to place to find the latest news and trends on fresh ideas, approaches, and ways to help the world’s cities work better for all their people.” READ MORE >>
Did Obama Really Sidestep The U.N. At Copenhagen?
Could the Olympics Mean More Misery for Rio's Poor?
There’s no doubt that the IOC’s decision last week marks a huge symbolic victory for Brazil, South America, and the rest of the developing world. But could the arrival of the 2016 Olympics do more harm than good for Rio de Janeiro’s poorest residents? It could depend, in part, on how the Brazilian government plans to beef up security in advance of the Games. READ MORE >>
The Green Bubble
SOMETIME AFTER THE release of An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, environmentalism crossed from political movement to cultural moment. Fortune 500 companies pledged to go carbon neutral. Seemingly every magazine in the country, including Sports Illustrated, released a special green issue. Paris dimmed the lights on the Eiffel Tower. Solar investments became hot, even for oil companies. Evangelical ministers preached the gospel of “creation care.” Even archconservative Newt Gingrich published a book demanding action on global warming. READ MORE >>
