Saturday, September 19, 2015

Our World in Data: How Powerful is Your Passport?

Image for the news resultNeil Armstrong’s name spelled backwards is “Gnorts, Mr. Alien!” That’s all Folks...


INK BOTTLE“There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”


~ John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814


“Life around the world is changing rapidly – here you find the data visualizations that show you how. Poverty, violence, health, education, the environment and much more. Our World In Data covers a wide range of topics and visualizes the empirical evidence of how living standards changed over the last decades, centuries, and millennia. A web publication authored by Max Roser. (work in progress)”

The economics of organized crime in Italy
Flying into the branches at a speed of light (jb sep 2014)
Two topless women have been dragged off stage after protesting a controversial religious conference near Paris. The activists from a group called Femen were naked from the waist up with the words “nobody makes me submit” written on their torso. They stormed the stage and commandeered the microphone at a Muslim event in Pointoise which was arranged to discuss the role of women in the Muslim faith. According to Inna Shevchenko, a spokeswoman for the feminist protest group, two fundamentalist preachers were discussing the question of “whether wives should be beaten or not” when the activists ran on stage, reports The Telegraph“No one can enslave me, no one can possess me, I’m my own prophet!” they yelled to the crowd.


The Passport Index ranks passports of the world by how freely citizens can travel the globe without the need for a visa

I could show this guy how to pick out a really bad county.  Nonetheless I applaud the reporter for admitting his mistake.  Maybe he was a former chess player
Garden filled with strange creatures June 2015


Large ¬corporates have asked the ATO for a better understanding of the tax implications of unwinding relevant arrangements. Even as speculation swirled over his future, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan yesterday conducted a singular, and remarkably encouraging, press conference in Canberra. Why combating multinational tax avoidance should be a priority

FOREIGN students with seemingly minimal money are buying plush mansions worth up to $5 million under laws that allow temporary residents to buy a property in Australia Real Estate Stories

The federal government is investigating $1 billion worth of real estate allegedly bought in breach of Australia’s foreign property investment laws Foreign owned real estate

Iceberg Slim - From The Get-Go He Knew He Wanted To Be Top-Shelf Pimp

With all the hoops lawyers how to jump through to become successful, you might consider your professional journey unusually arduous.
PimpsWell, the career path for becoming a top-shelf pimp was just as filled with obstacles for Robert Beck aka Iceberg Slim. It took several stays in prison for him to learn what he needed to know from other incarcerated master pimps. That was his total focus in the joint: Getting down cold how to bring his pimping game to the next level.
One deficit was that he had to become more ruthless in how he treated the whores in his stable. The trouble was that he didn't hate his mother enough. The best pimps would have murdered their own mothers, given the opportunity. Their backgrounds included being dumped in the garbage when they were several days old. Somehow some relative, such as granny, rescued them. It was Beck's father who wanted to murder the infant. But mom wouldn't allow it and left husband number-one. However, she didn't get completely off the hook in the hatred department.
All that is captured in the new book "Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim" by Justin Gifford, a scholar of African-American literature. Here you can order it from Amazon.