Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Putting Charities to the Test

    For most well-meaning donors, it can be difficult to calculate which charities are most effective with their funding - that is those that aim to solve the most serious problems, use interventions that work, employ cost-effective strategies, are competent and honest, and can make good use of each additional dollar. Organizations like GiveWell are part of a new and welcome trend toward rigorous evaluation of social change programs, and helps people best decide where to donate based on what causes matter to them most.

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  • What a Little Land Can Do

    In many parts of the world, not owning one's own land is more directly correlated to poverty than other factors such as illiteracy, but land reform is controversial, difficult, and expensive. A new program called Landesa is having success in India through a non-confiscatory model that gives families tennis-court size plots.

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  • How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths

    While the United States struggled with thousands of gun-related homicides in 2008, Japan had a meager eleven. Despite Japan being a developed country, it has controlled and restricted gun-use from the police on the streets to ordinary residents by making policies based on their 1958 law. U.S. gun laws are rooted in the Constitution’s freedom to bear arms, thereby making policy changes more difficult to restrict gun use.

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  • The Bicycle Revolution in Paris, Five Years Later

    Paris is a city plagued by traffic jams and air pollution. In 2007, the local government created a public bicycle sharing program called Velib that has drastically reduced the number of cars on the roadways and parking lots. During five years, over a hundred million people have used the program and it has a quarter of a million subscribers.

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  • Why the Streets of Copenhagen and Amsterdam Look So Different From Ours

    When Amsterdam and the Netherlands were facing an urban dilemma between building bicycle or automobile friendly streets, citizens organized to promote the prioritization of cyclist safety above all else. This public outcry and strategy lead to these cities becoming a model for livable streets.

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  • How to Feed the Hungry, Faster

    America is the world’s main supplier of food aid to impoverished countries; however, food aid has the problems of long-distance transportation, the cost of the transportation and storage, and the navigation through dangerous zones. Different programs around the world are experimenting with alternative forms of aid, including vouchers and cash for work.

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  • Excess, deprivation mark state prisons

    The California prison system is overwhelmed after adopting tough-on-crime laws with no improvement. New York adopted more tolerant policies and has decreased the state's crime rate and its prison population.

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  • Class Struggle: India's Experiment in Schooling Tests Rich and Poor

    The country of India has long suffered from extreme income inequalities, with many poor children growing up with lackluster education. The Right to Education Act, passed in 2009, requires elite private schools to admit 25% low-income or disabled children. The law's success is measured at the Shri Ram School in New Delhi, and some wealthy families are unsatisfied with its inclusiveness.

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  • How Iran Derailed a Health Crisis

    Two columns on how Iran is treating its massive epidemic of injecting drug use by tackling it as a health problem, effectively lowering H.I.V. rates among drug users using an approach to drugs known as harm reduction.

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  • Can Democracy Work in Chicago?

    A Chicago Alderman experimented with participatory budgeting, where residents decide how some of their tax money will be spent, by allowing 49th Ward residents to determine how to spend $1.3 million in the district. Residents selected 14 projects, including commissioning murals, creating a dog park and community gardens, purchasing solar-powered garbage compactors, and repaving streets. All projects are moving forward. Over 200 mural proposals were received, which the Alderman’s office narrowed down to 24 choices for community members to vote on. 12 will be funded by the city with stipends for the artists.

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