Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Litany of Excuses

Made in China ... Cancer-causing asbestos fibres have been found in a range of children's crayons featuring popular fantasy characters including Mickey Mouse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers which are available online in Australia.
Cartoon on Greece and China

One of the enduring myths of Australian politics is that only the Labor Party has factions, and the unhealthy tribalism that often goes with them. Wrong: the Liberal Party is just as factional, albeit in a looser sense, and just as tribal, if not more so.
Labor’s best-known faction, the NSW Right, has passed into folklore as a ruthless (yet sometimes dazzlingly inept) political machine – a cross between Tammany Hall and the Mafia. But the same state’s Liberal right wing (itself made up of sub-factions) flies under the radar, except when its excesses occasionally hit the headlines. It is a formidable, if occasionally unpredictable, influence on the Abbott government, anchoring it firmly to the right… Litany of Liberal party's faction problems

By the way, ethicists are not more ethical.  Just in case you were wondering.  Are economists more economical?
A photo of a homeless boy using the light from a nearby McDonalds restaurant to study at night is melting hearts on the internet and inspiring people everywhere.
A Young Homeless Boy Uses Light From A McDonald's To Do His Homework In The Street.

Entire industries once ran on intuition. Artists were signed because someone had a hunch. Now, among talent spotters, the gut has given way to the algorithm...Litany of Excuses and Algorithms

Asbestos found in Crayons

World Government at glance circa 2015

New Book - Fighting Corporate Abuse: Beyond Predatory Capitalism

From Russia with cash: the London laundry exposed  

Fake residency: the yawning loophole the OECD must close  


I THOUGHT THAT I COULD NOT BE HURT
I thought that I could not be hurt;
I thought that I must surely be
impervious to suffering —
immune to mental pain
or agony.
My world was warm with April sun
my thoughts were spangled green and gold;
my soul filled up with joy, yet felt
the sharp, sweet pain that only joy
can hold.
My spirit soared above the gulls
that, swooping breathlessly so high
o’erhead, now seem to brush their whir-
ring wings against the blue roof
of the sky.
(How frail the human heart must be —
a throbbing pulse, a trembling thing —
a fragile, shining instrument
of crystal, which can either weep,
or sing.)
Then, suddenly my world turned gray,
and darkness wiped aside my joy.
A dull and aching void was left
where careless hands had reached out to destroy
my silver web of happiness.
The hands then stopped in wonderment,
for, loving me, they wept to see
the tattered ruins of my firma-
ment.

(How frail the human heart must be —
a throbbing pulse, a trembling thing —
a fragile, shining instrument
of crystal, which can either weep,
or sing.)
~ Sylvia Plath