New York - Around the world, people's understanding of why rape happens usually takes one of two forms. Either it is like lightning, striking some unlucky woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time (an isolated, mysterious event, caused by some individual man's sudden psychopathology), or it is "explained" by some seductive transgression by the victim (the wrong dress, a misplaced smile).

But the idea of a "rape culture" - a concept formulated by feminists in the 1970's as they developed the study of sexual violence - has hardly made a dent in mainstream consciousness. The notion that there are systems, institutions, and attitudes that are more likely to encourage rape and protect rapists is still marginal to most people, if they have encountered it at all.

That is a shame, because there have been numerous recent illustrations of the tragic implications of rape culture. Reports of widespread sexual violence in India, South Africa, and recently Brazil have finally triggered a long-overdue, more systemic examination of how those societies may be fostering rape, not as a distant possibility in women's lives, but as an ever-present, life-altering, daily source of terror.

The latest "rape culture" to be exposed - in recent documentaries, lawsuits, and legislative hearings - is embedded within the United States military. As The Guardian reported in 2011, women soldiers in Iraq faced a higher likelihood of being sexually assaulted by a colleague than they did of dying by enemy fire.

So pervasive is the sexual violence aimed at American women soldiers that a group of veterans sued the Pentagon, hoping to spur change. Twenty-five women and three men claimed that they had endured sexual assaults while serving, and lay the blame at the feet of former US Defense Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. The reason, the lawsuit claims, is that these men oversaw an institutional culture that punished those who reported the assaults, while refusing to punish the attackers.

An FBI investigation has uncovered a plot by a New York state engineer with ties to the Ku Klux Klan to construct a radiation particle weapon, with the intention to sell the device to either a southern branch of the KKK or Jewish groups.

Federal investigators first began to investigate Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, when he allegedly approached an Albany-area synagogue and "asked to speak with a person who might be willing to help him with a type of technology that could be used by Israel to defeat its enemies, specifically, by killing Israel's enemies while they slept."

Crawford, an industrial mechanic with General Electric Co., evidently sought to assemble a radiation-emitting device "that could be placed in the back of a van to covertly emit ionizing radiation strong enough to bring about radiation sickness or death against Crawford's enemies," according to a complaint put together by an FBI agent on the case.

The agent's affidavit indicates that Crawford then telephoned another Jewish organization in Albany and made a similar offer. Luckily, Crawford's visit to the synagogue raised eyebrows, and an unidentified individual later contacted police.

If headphones are too bulky and ear buds make your ear canals hurt, why not surgically transform your ear itself into a speaker?

That's what body hacker Rich Lee has done, by implanting rare-earth magnets in his ears, so he can listen to music or amplified sounds even when he's not wearing headphones.

"The fidelity is comparable to a cheap set of earbuds at the moment," Lee told me in an email. So these aren't the high-fidelity bone induction implants you might have read about in science fiction novels (I think Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash references them). They're not connected directly to bone anyway, so he's actually using his ear's cartilage as the speaker diaphragm.

"However, in experimenting I have discovered ways to improve fidelity and possibly introduce stereo (currently it is just mono)," Lee said.

In addition to music, he looks forward to connecting these embedded bio-speakers to a directional microphone or a voice analysis app, so he can do surreptitious spy-like activities, like listening to conversations across the room and detecting whether you're telling lies or not.

He'd also like to connect his setup to a Geiger counter, so he can get ambient readings on radioactivity, or perhaps use it as part of a digital echolocation system of some kind.

It's not the kind of project you'd undertake lightly.

How can it be any other way? The Palestinians have been tortured, brutalized and systematically murdered by the Israelis for decades. That they still exist is a testimony to the fact that they, more than any other people, know what it is to teach life to their children.

On Canada's 100th birthday, Chief Dan George silenced a crowd of 32,000 with his "Lament for Confederation" at Empire Stadium. George's mournful speech began with, "Today, when you celebrate your hundred years, oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land."

George - chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band in North Vancouver - was also an author, poet and an Academy Award nominated actor. But above all, he was an activist and an influential speaker on the rights of native peoples of North America. Some of this activism may have stemmed from the fact that, at the age of five, George was placed in a residential school where his First Nations language and culture were prohibited. His "Lament for Confederation" - a scathing indictment of the appropriation of native territory by white colonists - was his most famous speech.

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A teen with Tourette syndrome and a developmental disorder killed himself days ago after suffering from years of bullying. But death wasn't enough to escape the taunting, as just after his suicide, a mean-spirited bully took over his condolence page to leave one last haunting comment.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HE DIED!!!!!! I HOPE HE IS IN HELLLLLLLL," the student wrote.

Gregory Spring was 17 years old when he took his life. His mother Keri said he suffered six years of relentless bullying.

Seven million college students will see their student loan costs double on Monday, after a group of bipartisan lawmakers failed to agree on a plan to keep interest rates down.

The Senate adjourned for the July 4 recess on Thursday, but failed to keep interest rates on Stafford loans at the current 3.4 percent rate. The federally subsidized loans are set to expire on July 1, after which the interest rate cap will rise to 6.8 percent.

Congress' Joint Economic Committee estimates that the average student will be paying $2,600 more starting July 1. On a $23,000 student loan repaid over 10 years, a student would be paying about $3,000 total interest.

The global food system will remain "vulnerable" in the years to come as a growing population boosts demand for crops and climate change makes weather disruption more frequent, according to the World Bank.

The world will need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed a global population expected to grow to more than 9 billion from 7 billion now, the United Nations' Rome-based Food & Agriculture Organization estimates. The three biggest annual gains in food prices in the past 20 years occurred since 2007, with the FAO's food prices index of 55 items climbing to a record in February 2011.

Dairymen across the state are struggling to stay afloat, and it won't get any better without paying dairies market value for whey.

When the California Department of Food and Agriculture set a temporary price hike until the end of the year, it gave producers 12.5 cents more, but didn't solve the main issue, said Michael Marsh, the CEO of Western United Dairymen.

A big discrepancy exists in what the state dairies get paid for whey compared to other states where the farmers get paid according to federal whey standards, Marsh said.

For example, the price of whey under federal guidelines is $2.20, versus the state of California, which gives farmers nearly 69 cents per 100 pounds of milk.

Marsh said the temporary price hike may be a small relief to farmers, but it really hurts the consumers, who, he expects, will have to pay more for products such as milk, ice cream and sour cream -- as soon as Monday.

AB31 addresses the whey price structure, said Marsh, adding that he hopes legislators pass a resolution soon.

Last year alone, 105 dairies closed -- most of them located in the northern San Joaquin Valley.

Seven die, hundreds are injured, as rivals organise massive rallies on anniversary of president's rule
Egypt's leading Islamic institution has warned of a possible civil war as clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi spread across the country on Saturday - exactly a year after his inauguration as the first democratically elected president.

Egypt's fate feels as uncertain as at any point since the 2011 uprising, which toppled Hosni Mubarak, with repeated rumours of military intervention.

At least eight people have died and more than 600 have been injured in fighting between Morsi's Islamist allies - who argue that his democratic legitimacy should be respected - and his often secular opponents, who say that he has not shown respect for the wider values on which a successful democracy depends.