Lula from 2000 makes a lot of sense! hehehehehehehehehehe
D.C. sniper executed in Virginia
It took way too long in my opinion, but at least it is done. I just wish they really would let this guy have his wish.
In any case, maybe the families of all the victims will sleep a little better tonight. The world is a better place without this coward in it.
Apparently Gallup has something called a “Well-Being Index” for the US. You can see the report for September here. It is pretty high, being just .3 points lower than August when it had tied the highest score since measurement started 20 months ago.
Live Science has a break down of the report data by States. There you find that the following states are in the top 10:
•Utah: 69.2
•Hawaii: 68.2
•Wyoming: 68
•Colorado: 67.3
•Minnesota: 67.3
•Maryland: 67.1
•Washington: 67.1
•Massachusetts: 67
•California: 67
•Arizona: 66.8
The funny thing about this is that the explanation given for these results in the article above is that “U.S. states with wealthier, better educated and more tolerant residents are also happier on average”. It also says that “In addition, states with a greater proportion of artists and gays would also be places where residents can freely express themselves.”
Wait a second. Utah in first, Wyoming in third and Arizona in tenth? And the explanation is wealth, education and being nice to gay people? If only Mitt Romney had seen this data before!
If you go to this web site, you can actually see an interactive map and browse over all states to figure out some of the additional data. For instance, Utah is only the 39 out of 50 for average income. Wyoming is 36 and Arizona is 29.
How about education? For college graduation, Utah does rank well being 15th out of 50. But Wyoming is 33 and Arizona is 25.
How can these numbers support this theory that wealth and education are the biggest motivators of happiness?
When you look at the whole list, it becomes evident that there is some data point being missed here. Idaho is number 11 and Montana is number 12. Illinois is number 31, Pennsylvania 32 and New York ranks 35th. Ohio is number 47!
Political views or Religiosity are nowhere to be found in the data.
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Then and now: ‘The worst slum in America’
The total transformation of what was once called the worst area in the country to a nice suburb outside of New York City.
This is a very interesting article about a very under reported subject: racism in Asia.
Even though I loved Japan, I was completely astounded by some of the ‘weird’ (a.k.a. xenophobic) behavior I saw there. And I was only there as a tourist for 5 days.
I wonder why the concerned citizens of the world focus so much on race issues in the US and not whatsoever in the same issue in much more populous countries.
I think it is great news that this guy is alive and seems to be recuperating. Hopefully, we will be able to hear Nidal Malik Hasan’s side of this story.
The reason suicide killers are appealing (for the media at least) is that they are usually blank slates. Even though we now can find their online ramblings that is still not enough. There is always room for the bleeding hearths to speculate that, well, he was not really an evil guy, he was just being mistreated… he was pushed by other people! The poor guy really was so desperate…
Once we get this psychopath to talk about his victims maybe we will be able to see through this. Once people can see that this guy is not really about religion, or government policy, or anything really rational, maybe then we can stop this nonsense bullshit of trying to find explanations for why he decided to open fire and kill old men, women and young recruits.
Maybe, just maybe, we will simply understand that this idiot is just an evil motherfucker that decided to kill for the sake of it, and again simply put, deserves to be put to death as soon as possible. That is the message we as a society should be sending to these guys: we know you exist; we know you can and are willing to kill, but once we get our hands on you we will kill you without mercy. Just like we are about to do with John Allen Muhammad, this other piece of human garbage.
Evil will always be there, and we should do our best to destroy it. There is no magical solution. That’s about it.
Two years ago I mentioned that Global Warming was turning into a religion.
Well, now it is official. At least in the UK.
God help us…
Denver to Singapore (and back) in 5 minutes
The video is very cool… but the most surprising part is that this guy had the will to visit Singapore in a weekend! He had to fly from Denver to Chicago, Chicago to Tokyo, Tokyo to Singapore… That is *a lot* of time sitting in an airplane to spend 2 days there.
I thought I was crazy to spend only 5 days in Tokyo. But I got to tell you, just seeing Narita Airport made me want to go there again. Tokyo is the best. And Singapore looked really cool too, maybe next time I will make an extra stop and make it a 7 day trip 
I’ve found some interesting Gallup polls around the immigration issue which we have been discussing here.
First, one that shows that 700 Million Worldwide Desire to Migrate Permanently. Looking at the map in the article, you see that Africa and the Middle East are the areas most interested, which seems to confirm that money and war are the main motivators.
But I decided to dig a bit deeper, and found a series of 3 other Gallup polls around migration in Latin America:
First one called One in Four Latin Americans Wishes to Emigrate, which shows the percentage of population that want to migrate (Brazil is second to last, but still has a 20% number which sounds high to me) and it confirms that the US is the most common destination (33%) but Spain does show first for a few countries.
The next one is more interesting: Latin Americans’ Motives for Migration. Here, you see that even though poverty and unemployment are strong factors behind immigration, quality of life and opportunity seem to be much more important.
Quoting the article:
“Furthermore, across the 20 countries studied, Latin Americans who say they do not have a job are no more likely than those who do have a job to say they would emigrate — 23% of the former do so, versus 26% of employed respondents. In countries with the region’s largest economies — including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela — employed residents are at least as likely as those who are unemployed to say they’d emigrate given the opportunity.
It seems that job satisfaction in Latin America matters more than job availability in terms of driving migration intent. A follow-up question asking employed respondents whether they are satisfied with their current jobs produces an important distinction: 39% of those who are dissatisfied would like to emigrate, versus 24% of those who are satisfied.
Further, there is data to suggest the search for better jobs and opportunities to achieve more in life, rather than desperation and an inability to “make it” in their home countries, leads many Latin Americans to want to emigrate.”
The final piece, called Ambition and Emigration Among Latin Americans, confirms that ambition and optimism seem to be the main driving factors behind most Latin American immigrants. People who want to start their own businesses or have ideas for new products also tend to migrate more. Other important factors shown here are lack of confidence in the stability of commercial rules and laws in their home country.
Like I mentioned many times before, for me personally the main motivation to leave was the chaos. I could not stand the violence (and maybe even more important, the constant threat of violence) and the culture. But, I can definitely see why highly productive and ambitious people want to leave. I have evolved professionally here in ways I never thought I would, and I think this was possible not only because I applied myself but also because of the environment here, which tend to push people to give their best all the time.
So Latin America might not be as bad as Africa or the Middle East, but the people there still have plenty of reasons to try and get out.
The One Place on Earth Not Destroyed in ‘2012′
For “2012,” Emmerich set his sites on destroying the some biggest landmarks around the world, from Rome to Rio. But there’s one place that Emmerich wanted to demolish but didn’t: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca. It’s the focus of prayers and the site of the Hajj, the biggest, most important pilgrimage in Islam.
“Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit,” the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. “But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, ‘I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.’ And he was right.”
And there are still people who say all religions are the same.
“Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.”
Election result: Red-state Dems worried, rethink agenda
By the way, this dynamic nature of the political system here in the US has its flaws but at least allows the public to scare these guys pretty often.
Who would have thought that in less than a year after a solid victory in the last piece of government that they were not in control of, Democrats would be talking about being this concerned?
This is all great news for the country, no matter what party you belong to.
La. official quits after interracial marriage flap
That shows just how there is no institutional racism anymore. Even in this case, where the guy was elected to the position (and therefore could not easily be fired) the social pressure was strong enough to kick him out. That and the civil suit that the couple still filed, of course.
Will this guy remain a racist? Yes. Is there a way to ‘cure’ him? Should we send him to prison? No. He is just a stupid person and stupidity is a very common commodity in any place on earth.
What we do need to have is a society that legally punishes these people accordingly so the victims are not harmed. That system is already in place (albeit not perfectly) and that is a big deal.
Buffett’s firm to buy Burlington Northern
Berkshire Hathaway will acquire unowned stake of railroad in a cash-and-stock deal worth $44 billion.
Hmmm… so much for pessimism about the future of the US economy uh?
Former President Clinton unveils statue in Kosovo
Good for Bubba, he deserves it.
It does make me think of the simpler times of 1999… Drop a few bombs, a couple of thousand troops… baam! Another little country liberated.
Maybe Bubba’s main credit was to pick the right battle. Who knows?
By the way, I wonder how Democrats went from that to what they are today. Truly disappointing.
In his little post titled “If a deficit falls in the forest …” Golden Boy again shows why we cannot trust him a bit. His argument is that Obama should not worry about reducing deficits because “the public won’t even hear about (it)”. As proof, he shows a poll from 1996 that shows a percentage of Republicans (and Democrats and Independents too, but he only cares about Republicans) who thought the deficit was not decreasing, but increasing at that time.
That is a great reasoning isn’t it? You shouldn’t do a thing about issues that are not immediately and completely translated as political advantage. Does he talk about acceptable levels of deficit? No. Does he talk about long term implications of large deficits? No! (He only did so when Bush was in power, of course). AND THE GUY IS A ‘WORLD-RENOWNED’ ECONOMIST!
Listen, I don’t like Obama and all of that but this guy is the kind of Liberal that truly scares me. He is a total farce, a political monster posing as an economist – a Nobel Prize winner economist if that matters at all nowadays.
You can mark my words – the only possible destiny for this guy is to become an actual politician some day. Be afraid.
How is Iceland coping with a broken economy one year later after the crisis?
Apparently their world did not end and they are doing just fine… hey, maybe they even will have Christmas this time around!
Chaz Bono’s girlfriend supports sex change
Does this mean that Chaz’s girlfriend has converted from lesbian to straight? I thought this kind of conversion was crazy religious talk!
Raiding the Icebox
Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada
For the delight of our conspiracy addicted friends, we also had plans to invade England, Mexico, Germany and Japan.
Can you imagine the hoopla if such plans existed for Brazil??? Some people would be calling for arms right now!
If only people could understand what contingency means…
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