Posts:
I’ll admit something that may sound odd in this wired world: until a few days ago, I had never heard of Charlie Kirk. His name only reached me because of his untimely death, and curiosity pushed me to learn who this fast-talking American really was. I began, as one...
By Allen Panchana Nineteen years after construction first began, and following investments of more than $3.2 billion, Ecuador’s giant Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant remains an unfulfilled promise. Operational since 2016, it has never met its 1,500-megawatt...
By Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu Building a machine more intelligent than ourselves. It’s a centuries-old theme, inspiring equal amounts of awe and dread, from the agents in “The Matrix” to the operating system in “Her.” To many in Silicon Valley, this compelling...
By Jonathan Mason When the Jeffrey Epstein case exploded into the headlines, it shocked the world: a billionaire with an alleged network of powerful friends, accused of systematically exploiting underage girls for years. The public was rightly outraged. But as someone...
By B. Duncan Moench The era of liberal democracy has passed without much fanfare. With feudalism’s fall, historians could point to Luther beginning the process and the Fall of the Bastille, more or less, ending it. More recently, with the end of Soviet communism, we...
In the summer of ‘69 my younger brother Francis and I arrived in Tucson after a cross-country trip from Philadelphia. In the annals of American history, that summer characterized youthful experimentation with alternative lifestyles. “Peace!” greeted friends and...
By Mike Isaac In a scene in HBO’s “Silicon Valley” in 2014, a character who had just sold his idea to a fictional tech company that was a thinly veiled analogue to Google encountered some of his new colleagues day drinking on the roof in folding lawn chairs. They...
By Louise Perry In June, lawmakers in my native country, Britain, approved plans to legalize assisted suicide. If the bill becomes law, England and Wales will join more than a dozen countries and 11 U.S. states in permitting medically assisted dying. Within the past...
By Mario Navas I’m Mario Navas, a data scientist currently working at Kriptos, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to classify and protect sensitive documents. I’ve been with the company for two years, focusing on research and development — designing and...
By Samantha Rose Hill A few months ago, I broke up with my boyfriend. I told close friends but otherwise kept the news to myself. Or so I thought. Scrolling through Instagram in bed, between stand-up comedy and cooking videos I saw an advertisement for an A.I....
By Jonathan Mason It is a curious thing, and not without irony, that in the great republic which so proudly proclaims the rights of man, the right to belong has become something contingent, paper-thin, and bureaucratically brittle. Citizenship in the United States is,...
By Ishika Tanwar Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday warned that a newly enacted law in Ecuador threatens the rights and protections of children, particularly those recruited or used by organized crime groups. The Public Integrity Law, passed by the National Assembly...
By Jonathan Mason If there is one principle that governs modern capitalism more faithfully than any other, it is that large corporations must never be taxed in proportion to the societies they exploit. Their slogans are familiar: "We comply with all laws," and, "We...
By Louis Bourgeois As we discussed in the introduction our path of mastery aligns with the 4 stages of genius and, in general, the evolution of consciousness. The 4 stages of genius are: preparation, incubation, illumination, and expression. So, as you look at your...
By Jonathan Mason The modern politician does not lead. He follows. He has his ear to the ground so persistently that his spine must be permanently bent. In theory, democracy is government by the people. In practice, it has degenerated into government by the pollster,...
By Monserrat Peters and Gavin Voss Recent cases have once again highlighted the criminal infiltration of Ecuador’s police and military personnel, adding to what is a long history of close ties between criminal groups, the drug business, and the country’s security...
By Jonathan Mason A diplomatic argument is growing in the Americas after a letter from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The letter was sent on May 24 to all members of the Organization of American States (OAS). It asked if they have deals with...
By Jonathan Mason Tariffs are advertised as the iron shield protecting the local worker. In truth, they are an iron collar around his neck. Every government that imposes tariffs claims the same high-sounding motives: safeguarding national industries, preserving jobs,...
By Gavin Voss Massive operations by Ecuador’s military against illegal mining following a historic massacre will do little to slow one of the country’s most lucrative criminal economies. Ecuador has deployed 1,800 soldiers to the country’s Amazon region, the army...
In Cuenca, pharmacies are like bus stops. There’s always another one just down the street — and sometimes three or four clustered together like gossiping hens. It’s not uncommon to see five within sight of each other, each offering the same range of off-brand...
Week of September 06
U.S. sinkings of Ecuadorian fishing vessels trigger court scrutiny after 28 crew members are released.
Cuenca targets a November launch for its first new international link to Chiclayo.
Exports hit a quarterly record, but Ecuador’s import bill is rising even faster.
