Portside

The small San Francisco Bay Area city of Richmond is no longer a company town, but the giant Chevron Corporation is attempting to use its tremendous wealth and influence to return the city to the days when its City Council majority was commonly known as the "Chevron Five."

India ranks an abysmal 101st in progress towards bridging the gender gap among the 136 nations surveyed by the World Economic Forum in 2013. This is due, in part, to the fact that 160 million Indian women are confined to their homes performing so-called household duties. While women comprise only 14-15 percent of the formal labor economy, women are increasingly forced to manufacture garments and handmade items in the home, as part of an unregulated "informal economy."

Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a right-wing Republican, has found allies among former President Bill Clinton's team in his efforts to reap super profits by squeezing the economic life out of Argentina. Argentina is but the latest victim of "Wall Street vultures," who prey upon economically distressed countries by buying up the bonds of debt-strapped countries for "pennies on the dollar" and then demand payment in full.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) has banned a radio advertisement from B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, which listed the names of children killed in Gaza. The IBF ruled the human rights organization's advertisement was 'politically controversial' and banned it. B'Tselem's appeal to the IBF was rejected July 23rd. It will petition Israel's supreme court on Sunday, July 27th, to get the ban overturned.

Non-human social species -- like dogs -- might also be capable of demonstrating primordial jealousy. The basic structure of jealousy is straightforward: it emerges from a social triangle. When an interloper threatens an existing, important relationship, the outcome can be jealousy.

In 2011, 42 private college and university presidents received more than a million dollars each for their work. In 2012-13, the number of public university presidents receiving at least $1 million for their services more than doubled over the previous year.

As a key public sector union cuts ties with United Negro College Fund over Koch funding, the right strikes back

What excites me most about the Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies campaign is that I’ve been retweeted by people I know don’t share my politics; whom I’d ordinarily be getting into online bitch-fights with. But despite our differences, they saw something in that message they could connect with, and it gives me hope.

Quantum Entanglement: A Poem. Why Do We Sleep? Buffy Sainte-Marie - The Universal Soldier. Meet Jibo, a Social Robot for the Home. Immigrant America: The Worst Job In New York.

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