What Zucman points out is that we have international data on investment positions, with each country reporting its assets abroad and foreign-owned assets at home. But the numbers don't add up: globally, liabilities are substantially larger than assets. That's mathematically impossible, but Zucman shows that it's what will appear in the statistics if a lot of money is run through offshore havens, so that the ownership doesn't show up in anyone's national statistics. And he uses other data and information to show that this is by far the most compelling explanation.By means of a method he carefully describes, Zucman estimates that the world's wealthy are using tax havens, including Swiss banks, to hide at least $4.5 trillion but more likely $6 trillion from the tax collectors. Just to make it clear, that's $6,000,000,000,000 - in the neighborhood of six percent of the entire world's gross economic output for one year. In other words, not chickenfeed.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
World's plutocrats have stashed at least $4.5 trillion in offshore tax havens
Paul
Krugman has been writing some devastating columns of late, most notably
his piece on the ripoff of high-frequency trading - Three Expensive
Milliseconds. Perhaps missed by many readers, however, was his blog
mention of a paper on underground wealth written by Gabriel Zucman, a
colleague of Thomas Piketty, the famed French economist with whom he
produced another recent paper mentioned by Krugman, "Wealth and
Inheritance in the Long Run."The Zucman paper has a title that
might be passed over as too wonky by many readers: "The Missing Wealth
of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. Net Debtors or Net Creditors,"
published by The Quarterly Journal of Economics, the oldest professional
journal on economics in English. It's a stiff read for non-specialists.
Krugman goes to the heart of it:
CEO pay keeps increasing at an incredible rate while workers' pay languishes
The latest analysis by the AFL-CIO shows
that the average U.S. CEO was paid 331 times more than their average
worker last year, and 774 times more than a minimum wage worker. That's a
significant increase in the past three years. Keep pouring gas on that
fire, fuckers.
Corporations Divest Nearly $60 Million From Private Prison Industry
by Katie Rose Quandt
Three corporations announced their divestment from Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, the two largest private prison companies in the United States, late last week.
Scopia Capital Management, DSM North America, and Amica Mutual Insurance pulled nearly $60 million in investments from CCA and GEO Group in the final quarter of 2013, marking full divestment for DSM and Amica and a 27 percent decrease in shares for Scopia. (Scopia has decreased its private prison stock by 59 percent since December 2012.) Their announcements mark the first round of success for civil rights nonprofit Color of Change, which has been pushing over 150 companies to divest from for-profit incarceration companies since last year. Color of Change is one of 16 organizations working towards these divestment goals as part of the National Prison Divestment Campaign.
"Companies that continue to stay with their investments in CCA and GEO Group are making a real decision about where they want their money and the ethical obligations they have to the greater society," Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson told Mother Jones. Human rights advocates strongly oppose private prisons, alleging that they prioritize profit over rehabilitation and help fuel mass incarceration. Privately owned prisons have also been shown to have higher levels of violence and recidivism.
Ohio repugicans trying to prevent college athletes from unionizing
The repugicans
are always all about markets and free choice right up until they're
not, and the moment they're not somehow always turns out to be about
workers choosing to join together to get more from their employers, or
women exercising control over their own bodies. So it's not a big
surprise that Ohio repugicans are trying to prevent athletes at state
colleges and universities from unionizing.Northwestern
University is currently appealing a National Labor Relations Board
decision that its football players are employees who are eligible to
unionize. That decision would only apply to private universities,
though, so the Ohio legislature is trying to be proactive about keeping
the state's college athletes fully exploitable:
An Ohio House committee added an amendment to a state budget bill that says students attending state universities in Ohio "are not public employees based upon participating in athletics for the state university."
Koch Loving repugicans Are Trying To Shut Harry Reid Up With Bogus Ethics Complaint
The repugican cabal of Louisiana sent a formal complaint
to the Senate Ethics Committee against Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) claiming that Reid is abusing publicly funded resources for
partisan and electoral activities. Basically, repugicans are mad that
Reid keeps attacking the Koch brothers. They are claiming the abuse
comes in the form of him using his official Senate Twitter account and
senate.gov website to criticize the billionaire repugican donors.
Apparently, the feeling is that Reid is ripping off the American public
by utilizing social media and the internet by letting his feelings
known.Obviously, repugicans are looking at this as a way to shut up Reid. The Nevada Senator has been on a crusade as of late, launching a full-on assault lambasting the Kochs for their meddlesome activities in the world of politics. Seeing many red and purple state Democratic Senators, currently up for reelection, attacked by Koch-funded political ads these past few months, Reid decided it was time to shine the spotlight on these shadowy figures.
Beginning Wednesday morning, wingnut media did its best to make this into a huge story. The rnc chair-wimp Reince Priebus appeared on Faux & Friends to get the ball rolling. He tried to go for the jugular when he said, “Harry Reid is so dirty and so unethical.” Steve Doocy, with Roger Ailes almost certainly in his earpiece, helped setup Priebus’ criticism of Reid by stating that Reid’s attacks on the Kochs are only a way to distract the American people from the failure of Obamacare (Yes, Doocy really did say that.)
Evidently, the Priebus interview, along with the formal complaint being filed, was supposed to create a huge torrent of media activity, with news sites, papers and cable news shows flocking to the story. However, the overall reaction was mostly a ‘Meh.’ Obediently, the wingnut media tried to give the story traction. The wingnut sites like The Daily Caller and BizPac Review made sure to toe the line and put forth the perfect amount of repugican spin. Yet, that was about it. Most of the rest of the coverage, how little there was of it, focused more on Priebus calling Reid dirty and unethical in the Faux interview.
Perhaps one of the reasons this story isn’t being seen as huge news to the majority of media outlets is because there is almost no way anything is going to come of this. It is an extremely transparent attempt by repugicans to go to bat for their biggest benefactors and try to shut down any negative statements made about them. Also, it rings especially hollow considering the amount of negative, partisan behavior displayed by repugicans on their ‘official’ Twitter accounts.
How about Sen. Ted Cruz (r-TX) attacking other government agencies using his Senate Twitter account?
Or, how about Cruz directly criticizing the President using the same Twitter account?
Another repugican, Rand Paul, has had no issues using his Senate Twitter account to attack others:
Finally, we see it come full circle, as Sen. Ron Johnson (r-WI) used his Senate Twitter account to go after Harry Reid. The tweet linked to a post on Johnson’s senate.gov website praising the Koch brothers.
Apparently, partisanship is a one-way street. It is quite alright if you are a repugican. In fact, it is expected that you rip the President and Obamacare using your official Twitter account, or publicly provided website. However, if a Democrat has the gall to say something bad about the men writing the checks for the repugican cabal, well, that has to be an ethics violation, right?
Missouri repugicans Seek to Impeach Democratic Governor For No Real Reason
Missouri repugicans seek to impeach Democratic Governor Jay Nixon
for no clear reason other than because they do not agree with him. …
Nixon’s office has dismissed the efforts to impeach the Governor as a cheap ”publicity stunt”, and for good reason. The repugicans have not been able to settle on a reason for wanting to impeach the Governor, but instead have cast about haphazardly by pointing to three different reasons hoping one will stick. The reasons they have settled upon are far from compelling and merely illustrate how desperate the Missouri repugican cabal’s efforts are. Show-me-State repugicans have showed their hands and there is simply nothing to see.
The grounds for impeachment that repugicans are pursuing rest on three different issues. Representative Nick Marshall wants to impeach Nixon for asking state officials to accept joint tax returns from same-sex couples who were legally married in other states. Obviously, Marshall opposes Nixon’s executive order, but does he really think that policy difference warrants impeachment proceedings?
The repugicans Mike Moon and Rick Brattin want to impeach the Governor for not moving fast enough to schedule special elections to fill vacancies in the General Assembly. Yet, the Governor has already set the dates to fill those vacancies, although I suppose one could argue that “fast enough” is a relative term and that the difference between setting the elections one day and the next is the difference between being “fast enough” and needing to be impeached.
Brattin also wants to impeach Governor Jay Nixon for not punishing officials harshly enough for allegedly sharing concealed carry endorsement information with the federal government. The repugicans allege that the Missouri Department of Revenue and the Missouri Highway Patrol are collecting data on conceal and carry permit holders and sharing that data with federal law enforcement, to help create a national gun registry although that allegation has never been proven.
Although the odds of Governor Nixon being impeached on such flimsy grounds are probably slim, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Stanley Cox (r) says he will grant a hearing to consider impeachment proceedings if the men who filed articles of impeachment seek one.
The repugicans seeking to impeach Governor Nixon are making a mockery of the legislative process and trivializing impeachment by making it simply a political cudgel by which they can bludgeon people they disagree with, even in the absence of any criminal or unethical behavior. Voters should demand that lawmakers in Missouri not turn the general assembly into an ongoing farce, and they should vote for change in November. The Missouri repugican cabal has demonstrated not only an inability to govern, but they have also shown a complete disregard for the normal legislative process. The repugican House has turned the capitol in Jefferson City into a permanent partisan circus, where compromise and reason are dismissed by one political stunt after another. The people of Missouri deserve better.
Oklahoma Court Could Face Impeachment
by Sean Murphy
A member of the Oklahoma House drafted a resolution seeking the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices who granted a delay of execution to two death row inmates.
The repugican state Rep. Mike Christian told The Associated Press that the five justices engaged in a "willful neglect of duty" when they granted stays of execution Monday to Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, both of whom were scheduled to be executed this month.
SCOTUS To Consider Ban On Campaign Lies
Hey, Can the pot call the kettle black?
Negative campaigning and mudslinging may be a fact of life in
American politics, but can false accusations made in the heat of an
election be punished as a crime?That debate makes its way to
the Supreme Court next week as the justices consider a challenge to an
Ohio law that bars false statements about political candidates during a
campaign. The case has attracted national attention, with groups across
the political spectrum criticizing the law as a restriction on the First
Amendment right to free speech.
Even Ohio's attorney general, repugican Mike DeWine, says he has serious concerns about the law. His office filed two briefs in the case, one from staff lawyers obligated to defend the state and another expressing DeWine's personal view that the law "may chill constitutionally protected political speech."
"The thing we see time and time again in political campaigns is that candidates use the law to game the system by filing a complaint," DeWine said in an interview with The Associated Press.
In an attempt at humor, satirist P.J. O'Rourke and the libertarian Cato Institute filed a widely circulated brief ridiculing the law and defending political smear tactics as a cornerstone of American democracy.
Even Ohio's attorney general, repugican Mike DeWine, says he has serious concerns about the law. His office filed two briefs in the case, one from staff lawyers obligated to defend the state and another expressing DeWine's personal view that the law "may chill constitutionally protected political speech."
"The thing we see time and time again in political campaigns is that candidates use the law to game the system by filing a complaint," DeWine said in an interview with The Associated Press.
In an attempt at humor, satirist P.J. O'Rourke and the libertarian Cato Institute filed a widely circulated brief ridiculing the law and defending political smear tactics as a cornerstone of American democracy.
You Can't Trust The Supreme Court, Science Proves It!
by Ian Millhiser
.The job of a judge and, most importantly, a Supreme Court justice, requires them to set aside partisanship and their personal preferences in order to decide cases according to what the law does or does not allow. Yet, a series of studies examining a phenomenon known as "motivated reasoning" suggest that many judges cannot be trusted with this task. Their brains simply are not capable of such disinterested reasoning.
A recent study adds to the growing evidence that our brains reject information that rebuts our strongly held beliefs. Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan and three co-authors presented parents with various messages intended to encourage them to vaccinate their children. What they found, however, was that "[n]one of the interventions increased parental intent to vaccinate a future child," and, among the parents who were most likely to be skeptical of vaccination, the messages actually backfired. Staunch deniers of the health benefits of vaccination actually said they were less likely to vaccinate their children after being presented with information supporting vaccination.
As science journalist Chris Mooney explains, this is not an isolated study. Similar effects have been demonstrated when conservatives are presented with information debunking a common conservative misconception regarding tax policy. Or when fans of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin are presented with information debunking her claim that the Affordable Care Act authorizes "death panels." Or when staunch opponents of President Obama are presented with information debunking the claim that he is a muslim.
Apparently the Supreme Court thinks you're stupid ...
How's Your Faith in "Our Democracy" Doing?
Justice Kennedy said in Citizens United, “Ingratiation and access, in any event, are not corruption. . . . The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy.”Chief Justice Roberts quoted Kennedy in the McCutcheon decision, “Ingratiation and access . . . are not corruption. They embody a central feature of democracy—that constituents support candidates who share their beliefs and interests, and candidates who are elected can be expected to be responsive to those concerns.”
How much proof does the Court need that money is corrupting elected officials, the two major parties, and their candidates for office?
Sick of this? We are too! Hold a House Party to support Move to Amend and get involved!
In March, we learned that the FBI arrested three Democrats in three different states on political corruption charges. In the same month, repugican presidential front-runners flocked to Chuck Adelson’s Las Vegas soiree in the hopes of capturing Adelson’s endorsement and the millions in campaign contributions that go with it.
An Internet search will bring up hundreds of hits revealing that corruption in government has been alive and well for many years. These days the very nature of the power that comes with election to office is a corrupting influence. When coupled with unlimited sums of money spent by corporations and special interests in elections, further corruption of the political process is a forgone conclusion.
But five justices, unelected and disconnected from the people, were unable to reach the same conclusion that the rest of us know to be as obvious as the noses on our faces.
Every time the Court decides in favor of corporations and the wealthiest 5% of Americans, it is another body blow to our battered democracy. The Supreme Court has a history of dismantling campaign finance law, undermining our democracy, and perpetuating corporate rule.
Bring your friends, family members, and neighbors together to learn more about Move to Amend, what you can do to end corporate rule, and the corruption that goes with it.
The Supreme Court Empowered White Supremacists With Affirmative Action Decision
Human nature can refer to fundamental ways of thinking, feeling, and
acting that some psychologists and sociologists contend humans have
naturally, but it is very unlikely they are independent of cultural
influences. Human nature can have important implications in ethics,
politics, and theology because it can be regarded as both a source of
norms of societal conduct, or present obstacles that deny other humans
their right to equal opportunities to live a rewarding life. Human
nature is so very complex it is often difficult to discern if a person
or group makes decisions out of naïveté borne of a lack of experience or
knowledge, or if they are inherently evil and revel in causing misery
for others due to their intrinsic bad character. Obviously, racism
qualifies as an inherently evil part of human nature that plagues many
Americans who are adamant that people of color should be treated
differently and not given the same opportunity to succeed as white
people.The Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday upholding Michigan’s ban on Affirmative Action based on race in college admissions, informs that both the majority of voters in Michigan and the Justices on the High Court are either naïve about the racism infecting this country or evil in removing people of color’s opportunity to earn the same higher education as white people. It is highly probable that Michigan voters were bombarded with propaganda from repugicans, white supremacists, and all manner of wingnuts decrying inequity to the white race as a result of race-based affirmative action aiding minorities have an opportunity of a college education decades of racism has denied them. However, Justices on the Supreme Court displayed yet another instance of adhering closely to repugicans’ agenda to disenfranchise people of color and deny them equal opportunities white people are afforded simply because they are regarded as superior.
One could not help but notice the High Court and Michigan voters did not ban affirmative action for what is known as “legacy scholarships” for wealthy white applicants whose parents are university alumni; they will continue receiving favored treatment during admission to Michigan colleges. It is apparent that racism and white superiority played an important role in 58% of Michigan voters’ decision to ban affirmative action for people of color only and keep in place special advantages for white wealth. If Justices on the High Court were not inherently racist, they would have banned affirmative action for all college applicants, but they have shown a predilection for targeting people of color for unfair treatment. The most disturbing aspect of the Court’s ruling is the message that it is up to voters to decide whether or not affirmative action is legal or not and it is a portent of legislation in former Confederate states for racists to ban affirmative action that will go far beyond race in the college admission process; particularly since conservatives on the court struck down crucial parts of the Voting Rights Act last year.
As SCOTUSblog pointed out shortly after the ruling was announced, the “Court cleared the way for voters elsewhere in the nation to put an end to so-called ‘affirmative action’ policies and while the ruling focused on the use of race in selecting new students for public colleges, it also would permit voters to end race-conscious policies in hiring of state and local employees and in awarding public contracts.” What the justices voting to uphold Michigan’s ban on solely race-based affirmative action policies created was a perfect storm for states in the former Confederacy to embark on a white supremacist legislative frenzy to remove any equal opportunity for people of color, primarily the Black color.
Unlike Michigan’s ballot initiative banning affirmative action, the justices in the majority, some with a high degree of vehemence against affirmative action and people of color, said policies affecting minorities that do not involve intentional discrimination should be decided at the ballot box rather than in the courtroom. It is likely that wingnuts on the Court harkened back to their ruling last year striking down major provisions of the Voting Rights Act to create a perfect scenario for former Confederate states that immediately passed voter suppression laws disenfranchising minority voters. They clearly understand that a predominately white racist voting bloc will support repugican legislatures eliminating all aspects of race-based affirmative action policies.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg comprehends the effect the majority ruling will have on racial minorities who will once again face obstacles put up by white supremacists determined to maintain their advantage over minorities. She wrote that although “The Constitution does not protect racial minorities from political defeat, neither does it give the majority free rein to erect selective barriers against racial minorities.” Antonin Scalia was joined by Clarence Thomas in a display of feigned ignorance to the racism plaguing this nation and said it is not up to the courts to get involved “in the dirty business of dividing the nation into racial blocs,” and agreed the “dirty business” is best left in the hands of racially-driven white voters electing equally racist repugican legislators; particularly in the former Confederate states.
The Supreme Court majority effectively gave a nod and a wink to racists that their white supremacist mindset is back in vogue to re-start America’s two-century history of discrimination based on race. The repugican-misled states in the former Confederacy likely cheered the ruling that will make their minority voter suppression efforts pay dividends to re-enact legal racial discrimination without barriers such as affirmative action policies. Justice Sonia Sotomayor clearly comprehends the damage to anti-discrimination policies the ruling is certain to cause and said “the Constitution required special vigilance in light of the history of slavery, Jim Crow and recent examples of discriminatory changes to state voting laws.”
As if to highlight his ignorance of racial animus in America, Justice Anthony Kennedy had the gall to state that “History demands that we continue to learn, to listen and to remain open to new approaches if we are to aspire always to a constitutional order in which all persons are treated with fairness and equal dignity.” His words are meaningless after agreeing that it is now in the hands of voters in repugican-misled Southern states that spent the past year enacting minority voter suppression laws to decide that all persons are not treated with fairness and equal dignity. It is a long-desired outcome for white supremacists the High Court just empowered and certainly emboldened.
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- Archaeologists call for protection of Javanese Megalithic site
- The Still of the Night in New Orleans
- Nobody Lives Here
- Frozen In Time
Monday, May 5, 2014
The Daily Drift
Carolina Naturally is read in 198 countries around the world daily.
Fiesta ... !
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Today in History
| 1494 | Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria. | |
| 1814 | British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, New York. | |
| 1821 | Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of St. Helena. | |
| 1834 | The first mainland railway line opens in Belgium. | |
| 1862 | Union and Confederate forces clash at the Battle of Williamsburg, part of the Peninsula Campaign.Eyewitness to War | |
| 1862 | Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeat troops sent by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla. | |
| 1865 | The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery. | |
| 1886 | A bomb explodes on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago. | |
| 1912 | Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing. | |
| 1916 | U.S. Marines invade the Dominican Republic. | |
| 1917 | Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earns a flying certificate with the French Air Service. | |
| 1920 | Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Visetti are arrested for murder. | |
| 1935 | American Jesse Owens sets the long jump record. | |
| 1942 | General Joseph Stilwell learns that the Japanese have cut his railway out of China and is forced to lead his troops into India. | |
| 1945 | Holland and Denmark are liberated from Nazi control. | |
| 1961 | Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space. | |
| 1968 | U.S. Air Force planes hit Nhi Ha, South Vietnam in support of attacking infantrymen. |
The Honey Hunters of Nepal
Here's a stunning series of images by photographer Andrew Newey of Nepalese honey hunters. Newey spent two weeks among the Gurung ethnic group in central Nepal, documenting their traditional beekeeping practices.
High in the Himalayan foothills of central Nepal Gurung honey hunters gather twice a year, risking their lives to harvest the honey from the world’s largest honeybee. For hundreds of years, the skills required to practise this ancient and sacred tradition have been passed down through the generations, but now both the number of bees and traditional honey hunters are in rapid decline as a result of increased commercial interests and climate change.Photoset: andrewnewey.com. You can buy matted prints.
The Guardian ran some of the images back in February, with some descriptive captions that help you understand what the hunters are doing.
In the image shared here, you can see a hunter using two simple tools: a handmade rope ladder, and a pair of long sticks called tangos. Most of the honeybees' nests are situated on steep cliffs.
30 Percent of Americans Admit to Cheating ...
Find Out How
by Kate Sullivan
Hard
truth time, y'all: In a poll conducted by the National Endowment for
Financial Education, the nonprofit found that one in three partnered
Americans has lied to his or her significant other about their finances.
For most, this consisted of hiding receipts or keeping another bank
account, but 13 percent of those polled admitted to lying about the
amount of their income or debt level.
That's like Lifetime movie-level deception! The NEFE has dubbed this
phenomenon "financial infidelity." Since so many couples argue about
money, this is certainly a serious issue that should be discussed in
serious terms. But all indiscretions are not equal here. Tossing out a
receipt for a candy bar doesn't make me a cheater on par with that guy
who pretended to be a Rockefeller.
This was on my mind just this past weekend, when I visited a friend who just moved in with her boyfriend. They've been tacking their receipts onto a cork board by their kitchen door to keep track of their first month of shared expenses. Since they just moved in together, they've mostly been spending money on home decor items, groceries, and Home Depot runs-all purchases they both should be aware of. But I wonder what next month will look like. See, I know my girl. She's a big fan of the Dollar Tree and Christmas Tree Shops, and I have to wonder if every $3.99 purchase is going to make that wall. And really, should it?
Perhaps what they--and any couple--need to do is put an exact dollar restriction on the number of simple-pleasure purchases they make a month-iced coffee, magazines, a cell phone app, the odd scented candle-and make it a point to not exceed that set amount, all while still not sharing their every tedious financial move.
Canada in Decline
Austin police chief is angry that people are angry about police misbehavior
Cops across America really don’t want you to jaywalk. In San Diego they doled out 328 tickets (on a single day!), in New York they bloodied an 84-year-old who crossed against a red light, and in Austin they jailed a jaywalking jogger.
Austinites responded to the incident with outrage, and Chief Art Acevedo reacted to their outrage with outrage of his own. “In other cities there’s cops who are actually committing sexual assaults on duty,” said Acevedo. "So I thank God that this is what passes for a controversy in Austin, Texas!”
And sure, jaywalkers in LA get stuck with $200 tickets, and entrepreneur Peter Shankman’s offense of jogging in New York’s Central Park before 6:00 a.m. could cost him as much as a thousand bucks, but it’s important to remember that jaywalking crackdowns are all about keeping pedestrians safe. They definitely have nothing to do with raising revenue.
NSA spying means Brazil's $4.5B fighter jets won't be built by Boeing
Lawsuit: FBI Used No-Fly List to Bully Muslims Into Becoming Informers
by Hamilton Nolan
Four Americans, all of them
Muslims, are suing the FBI, charging that the agency unfairly placed
them on its "No-Fly List," and tried to use that as leverage to turn
them into informers.Why do people get placed on our government's no-fly list? It's a secret. Ostensibly it has something to do with terrorism and public safety, but the government will not answer any questions about it. The process is completely opaque. The four plaintiffs in the suit all have different stories, but the gist is that 1) They did not deserve to be on the no-fly list, and 2) The FBI tried to use their inclusion on the no-fly list as a blunt tool to recruit them to be spies on the Muslim community. Here, for example, the story of Naveed Shinwari, born in Afghanistan but living in Nebraska, who was repeatedly hassled and visited by FBI agents after trying to fly home after being married in Afghanistan. From The Guardian:
The following month, after Shinwari bought another plane ticket for a temporary job in Connecticut, he couldn't get a boarding pass. Police told him he had been placed on the US no-fly list, although he had never in his life been accused of breaking any law. Another FBI visit soon followed, with agents wanting to know about the "local Omaha community, did I know anyone who's a threat", he says.
"I'm just very frustrated, [and I said] what can I do to clear my name?" recalls Shinwari, 30. "And that's where it was mentioned to me: you help us, we help you. We know you don't have a job; we'll give you money."Sometimes it seems as if the FBI's clumsy attempts to use unjust laws and regulations to bludgeon Muslim people into becoming informers is a sign that the FBI does not have a strong relationship with the American Muslim community. But that seems impossible, since the FBI is only trying to protect us all.
WIPO sends criminal prosecution threats over publication of internal docs about its Director General's corruption
You may recall that the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) has been haunted by scandal: first there was the matter of illegally funding computer purchases for North Korea and Iran, then a whistleblower came forward to claim that WIPO Director General Francis Gurry illegally harvested DNA samples from staffers to find out who had sent anonymous letters alleging his sexual misconduct.
But it gets worse.
Patent lawyer and blogger Gene Quinn recently posted the "Report of Misconduct" written by James Pooley, a deputy of Gurry's, which went into eye-watering detail about Gurry's alleged misconduct. But the document has since been removed, because WIPO's legal counsel, Edward Kwakwa (who was the nexus of the North Korea/Iran scandal, sent a totally bogus legal threat to Quinn, threatening him with criminal charges for publishing a document that a WIPO staffer produced as part of an inquiry into gross misconduct at the highest levels of the organization.
Quinn has chosen not to fight this, taking down his post and the associated documents, noting that while he believes in the First Amendment, he's currently recovering from hip replacement surgery and is in no condition to take on this sort of fight at the moment. I've seen at least two other reporters and bloggers who claim to have a copy of the report similarly refuse to post it, noting that it's not worth the legal fight.
And thus WIPO has effectively censored a report on misconduct by its Director General, filed by a senior deputy. To me that's just as, if not more, incriminating than the original charges of the DNA collection. The fact that WIPO believes this is appropriate screams of a coverup from an organization that has something to hide. Perhaps it's no surprise -- given how often we've seen copyright used for censorship -- to find out that the organization that pushes for greater copyright and patent maximalism around the world is also a fan of direct intimidation and censorship of journalists.
However, it should certainly call into serious question how WIPO functions, and whether Director Gurry is the sort of person who should be leading the organization when it appears to be doing all this under his watch.
People are still addicted to Rubik's Cubes
In the 1980s Rubik's Cubes seemed to be everywhere, but there are still
legions of people obsessed with the coloured puzzles. The record for a
human is 5.55 seconds. A robot can do it in 3.253. Most people - despite
toiling over it for hours - have probably never managed it.But 40 years after its birth, the Rubik's Cube continues to beguile, frustrate and - like a Filofax or Walkman - evoke its 1980s heyday when schools were full of children puzzling over its brightly coloured squares.
Flaws Only A Protagonist Could Have
Many
authors treat their main characters as the ideal, the person we all
dream of being. It’s as if the tiniest flaw would turn the reader off,
but at the same time, any character must have the appearance of
flaws to be at all believable. The pulpier the book, the more likely
the characters are to have these “pseudo-flaws,” but you’ve seen it in
classics, too. Personally, I prefer characters who more resemble folks
we really know, like Billy Pilgrim, who isn’t too smart and is shaped
like a bowling pin, or Shakespeare’s characters, who are so full of
themselves that they can’t see what’s coming. Mallory Ortberg brings us a
series of vignettes that condense the dialogue you’ve read to get to
the heart of this trope.She wasn’t perfect. She had two different colored eyes, which is definitely a flaw and not a magnetic, compelling, unusual form of beauty.There are plenty more of these, and they get more ridiculous as they go on, at The Toast.
“It makes you so special,” he told her. She shook her head.
“Bad special,” she said.
“Good special,” he said. She didn’t know what to believe.
“I don’t know what to believe,” she told him. “You think the thing I think is bad thing is good thing.”
“That’s good thing,” he said.
***
“I just want to be normal,” she said, even though she had amazing powers and a super-family and was mega-gorgeous and better than normal in every way and the entire book would be terrible if she were normal and she had no conception of what normal was to begin with.
6 Superpowers That Really Exist
We’re fascinated by the idea of superpowers; they’re the stuff of
myth and legend, not to mention fantasy, science fiction, and comic
books. But they also exist in our world, too. Here, Gemsigns author
Stephanie Saulter gives six examples.
We know many animals have abilities we don’t. We
don’t tend to think of them as "super;" they’re just different. But what
if they could become human abilities? What if some humans already have them?In my (R)evolution novels (Gemsigns, Binary and Gillung) it’s important for the abilities engineered into gems (genetically modified humans) to feel plausible; I didn’t want any gem to be able to do something that hasn’t already been documented in a living creature somewhere on this planet. But their abilities still needed to be, well, super. Turns out this wasn’t as difficult as I feared. I found out some amazing stuff during my research – including the existence of real-life human mutants. Here are six of my of favorite superpower factoids. Bioelectrogenesis: Electric eels (which are more closely related to catfish than true eels) can generate both low and high voltage electrical charges, using special organs that take up more than three quarters of their body. An adult eel can deliver a shock of up to 500 volts and 1 amp of current – probably not enough to kill an adult human, but you wouldn’t want to test it.
Biosonar: Okay, you already know about the sophisticated echolocation systems of bats and dolphins. But did you know some humans have also developed a form of sonar? There’ve been documented cases of people who have lost their sight learning to navigate by emitting clicking sounds and building up a picture of their environment from the echoes that come back. We’re not talking Daredevil yet, but it may only be a matter of time…
Electroreception: Sharks have specialised organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini that enable them to sense the electromagnetic fields produced by other living things. They use it to find prey, and possibly to navigate by detecting the movement of ocean currents through the Earth’s magnetic field. Talk about being able to sense the planet.
Sight: We come out pretty well on this one. Human vision is astonishing – few other animals can see as many colours as we can, to say nothing of our ability to focus on tiny details up close, and see clearly far into the distance. But we don’t see everything. Consider the mantis shrimp, which has trinocular vision (we’re binocular), at least twelve photoreceptors (we have three), and the ability to perceive polarised light. It’s almost impossible to imagine what it ‘sees’, but it’s more than we do. Closer to home, cats and dogs have the kind of night vision that means they aren’t likely to bang into the coffee table while mounting a midnight raid on the kitchen. No animal can see in complete darkness – sight is a function of light – but they can decipher detail in light levels that are imperceptible to humans. They’re also great at focusing on fast-moving objects, such as fleeing prey, and – along with some other mammals, and many birds and insects – can see ultraviolet (UV) light.
Smell. You probably think I’m going to talk about dogs again, and it’s true that their olfactory sense is several hundred thousand times greater than ours. But bears are even better – a polar bear can smell a seal buried under three feet of snow from half a mile away. Some sharks can detect blood at one part per million. And if we get away from noses entirely, the antennae of some male luna moths can detect a single molecule of a female’s sex pheromone at a distance of more than six miles.
Strength: This is the closest thing to an X-Men moment you’re going to get from me – and it’s pretty darn close. There have been at least two documented cases of a mutation in humans that triggers accelerated muscle growth and extraordinary strength right from birth; it happens when both copies of a myostatin-producing gene are defective, is extremely rare, and no one knows what the long term health consequences are. Having said that…the child in whom the mutation was first identified could, at age four, hold two 6.6 lb weights with his arms extended. That’s the equivalent of 3 litres of water. In each hand.
Science teacher suspended over "dangerous" classroom experiments is reinstated
Both projects overseen by teacher Greg Schiller were capable of launching small objects. A staff member at the downtown Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts had raised concerns about one of them. Both are common in science fairs. "I am very excited to be back with my students and help them prepare for the Advanced Placement tests, which are a week away," Schiller said Thursday. "We have a lot of work ahead of ourselves.”
In a meeting with a senior district administrator, Schiller was told he could return to work Friday, L.A. Unified confirmed. His classes include Advanced Placement Biology and Advanced Placement Psychology. Parents and students had quickly rallied behind Schiller. Facebook pages were launched; petitions were circulated. Some students complained that they were being taught by unqualified substitutes. Supporters vowed to rally every Thursday and Friday until his return.
Here's the Facebook page, and here's the Change.org petition.
Kids' Exposure to Violence Is Declining
A study shows crime and violence decreased for kids between 2003 and 2011.
Is screaming in the middle of the night an anti-sibling baby plot?
Scientists speculate that babies may have evolved to wake up in the middle of the night because overnight breastfeeding delays ovulation
and, thus, the creation of a new sibling to compete for resources.
(Word of caution: This idea might be hampered by a focus on Western
babies. I recently read a book that suggests Western idea of "normal" nighttime waking aren't the norm everywhere.).
Why You Should Swear More
Swearing is considered taboo in most cultures, and the words
that are frowned upon vary by time and location. Why are certain words
considered bad?
Why Do We Finish Other Peoples’ Sentences?
We can predict what others will say far more often than previously thought, research shows.
Can Looks Predict Someone's Intelligence?
You might look at someone's face and determine whether you
think this person is smart or not. Is that wrong? Trace reports on a new
study examining the relationship between one's IQ and appearance.
Genetic Test Reveals Your Ancestral Origin
For centuries, scientists have sought a biological method for
tracing a person's geographic origin. Now, a group of researchers has
developed a test.
Why Do We Get Allergies?
Spring is finally here! And so are allergies. Tara
investigates why we have allergies and discusses some ways that might be
able to provide you with some relief.
Dirty Money
A Microbial Jungle Thrives In Your Wallet
So far, Carlton and her colleagues have sequenced all the DNA found on about 80 dollar bills from a Manhattan bank. Their findings aren't published yet. But she gave Shots a sneak peak of what they've found so far.Your best bet is to wash your hands often -especially after handling money. Read more about the critters in your cash at NPR.
The most common microbes on the bills, by far, are ones that cause acne. The runners-up were a bunch of skin bacteria that aren't pathogenic: They simply like to hang out on people's bodies. Some of these critters may even protect the skin from harmful microbes, Carlton says.
Other money dwellers included mouth microbes — because people lick their fingers when they count bills, Carlton says — and bacteria that thrive in the vagina. "People probably aren't washing their hands after the bathroom," she says.
When farts are a good thing
Farting can be a sign of happy, healthy gut microbes. Thanks, gut microbes.
Should We Stop Calling Obesity a Disease?
Last year, obesity was labeled a disease. But by calling it a
disease, is this causing people to consume more high-calorie foods?
There’s Soap in Your Mayonnaise!
The
word “chemical” is often treated as a bad thing, as many commercial
interests want you to reject “chemicals” and “go natural.” As if the
natural world wasn’t made of chemicals. The two terms are not opposites.As a scientist with a degree in chemistry, the surge in chemophobia over the last five years has been both baffling and frustrating.Michelle Wong gives us a basic lesson in surfactants, the chemicals that cause hydrophiles, or water-soluble chemicals, to bind easier with lipophiles, or oily chemicals. Surfactants are pretty much soap, which allows us to rinse oils off our skin, hair, dishes, and clothing with water. But they have many other uses that are necessary to everyday life -like breathing. Read about them at The Toast.
While there are plenty of toxic substances that we should be well frightened of, there are also many safeguards against their use – by and large, the chemicals you encounter in your day-to-day life are benign, even the ones with the scary unpronounceable names and the ones made from substances that can literally chew your face off (sodium chloride, I’m looking at you). But it’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of common-sense-based marketing. Scientific literature is not exactly reader-friendly, and scientists have a long history of alienating themselves from Normal People.
Tomato and Carrot Ice Cream
" Cherry tomato "Read more about SpoonVege at Rocket News 24.
That the leading role the sweetness and flavor of tomatoes , add acidity and fruity aroma of cherry , and I prepared to enjoy the full-bodied taste and a rich tomato , ice cream deep taste . I can enjoy the soft hue of the original material .
" Carrot Orange "
By starring plump smell sweet and soft carrot , add refreshing fragrance and refreshing acidity of orange , can enjoy the refreshing sweetness of carrot and finished it in taste sophisticated . I can enjoy the shade of bright carrot unique .
Coming Tomorrow
Coming Tomorrow
- Dear Wingnuts: If you want to live in a theocracy, get the hell out of the United States!
- The Supreme Court empowered white supremacists with affirmative decision
- You can not rust the Supreme Court, science proves it
- The repugicans freak out after polls show democrats leading in 3 out of 4 Senate races
Sunday, May 4, 2014
The Daily Drift
Carolina Naturally is read in 198 countries around the world daily.
Go ahead, laugh ... !
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