Tea, anyone? Israeli sculptor Ronit Baranga's unique work melds body parts with tableware: fingers poke through a plate, a disembodied mouth awaits at the bottom of a cup. The effect is both delicate and gruesome.
Billionaires are getting richer, according to a new study from Oxfam. Gather together the wealth of the world’s richest people, and you now only need 80 of them before there’s enough in the pot to equal everything owned by the poorest 50% of the rest of the world combined. Back in 2010, you’d have needed 388 of the world’s richest to balance those scales.
The richest of the top 1%, the top billionaires on Forbes’ rich list, have seen their wealth accumulate faster over the last five years than even the rest of the super-rich, Oxfam said. In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $1.3 trillion. By last year, that was up to 1.9 trillion, an increase of $600 billion.
Together with the rest of the 1%, that group owned 48% of global wealth in 2014. That’s more uneven than in 2010, when they owned a little over 44%.
However, according to Oxfam’s data, we’ve been here before. Back in 2000, the 1% owned a higher percentage of global wealth than they do today. For a few years, the trend seemed to show that number falling, as the world’s poorest clawed some of it back. But in the past five years, that’s reversed.
Part of the problem, as identified by Oxfam, is that the rate of increase for the rich has speeded up, and it’s now so much higher than that for everyone else that it’s increasing the gap.
Critics have attacked Oxfam’s methodology. The charity uses data on net wealth—assets minus debts. Whether a deeply indebted American homeowner is poorer than a destitute African farmer is indeed a leap. Another charge is that adding up the wealth of the poorest people doesn’t make sense in the first place, because poor people are poor in different ways (few assets or debts) than rich people are rich (lots of assets and debts). Oxfam has defended the assumptions behind its “killer fact,” including how it’s much easier it is to count the wealth of the super-rich—there are only a handful of billionaires, after all, which is also Oxfam’s point.
The 1% has entered parlance, but who’s included? And do they constitute a problem or an asset?
Who are these people?
With a world population of 7.2 billion, there are around 72 million people in the top 1%—not all of whom are billionaires. In 2014, there were 1,645 people listed by Forbes as being billionaires, with Bill Gates back at the top after a year off. Of these, 90% are male, and 30% are American. And there’s evidence they’ve been running the show for a long, long time.
Oxfam says not. In a campaign, the charity focuses on changes that could be made to the way global society is organized, including the eradication of extreme poverty and economic empowerment of women.
Why does it matter?
Economists like Dan Altman and Thomas Piketty argue that wealth inequality hampers growth and will only get worse in the future. Some have argued that it could be a good thing. And many have blamed it for misery, hopelessness and, ultimately, violence.
This post was updated to mention the debate and disagreement over Oxfam’s methodology.
In 2009, climate scientists devised a framework to monitor Earth’s vital signs based on nine “planetary boundaries” within which human civilization can continue to thrive. Three of the nine boundaries had already been crossed: There was too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, too much nitrogen had been removed from the atmosphere, and biodiversity was declining too quickly. Let’s keep an eye on all of these measures, they said (paywall), to predict when our time here might expire.
This chart describes the nine planetary boundaries as they were understood in 2009.(Macmillan/Nature)
This month the same team of researchers—30 individuals from 19 academic institutions, in collaboration with the Stockholm Resilience Centre—published an update saying that a fourth boundary has been crossed, the one about “change in land use,” also known as deforestation. Too much vegetation has been cleared for agricultural use.
An illustration from the 2015 paper on planetary boundaries. “Climate change,” “biosphere integrity,” and “biogeochemical flows” were identified as troubled zones (under slightly different names) in 2009. Now “land-system change” is a problem, too.(Steffen et. al, 16 January 2015, Science)
In a 2010 TED Talk, Johan Rockström, the director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, prefaced his explanation of the planetary boundary framework by saying, “We need to abandon our old paradigm, that ecosystems behave linearly, predictably, controllably,” because in fact, “systems tip over very rapidly, abruptly, and often irreversibly.” He said the goal of the planetary boundary study was to identify earth systems in which “we may expect non-linear change,” and at what points those non-linear changes may be triggered. The findings were alarming, yes, but he saw reasons for optimism: “We’re the first generation—thanks to science—to be informed that we may be undermining the stability and the ability of planet Earth to support human development as we know it.”
Rockström will present the updated research at Davos this week.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (aka Metro) has broken ground on a multi-phase project to bring cellular service and Wi-Fi to the Los Angeles subway system, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
The project is slated for completion in 2017
The system's Red Line, which runs from Union Station in Downtown LA to North Hollywood, will be the first line to receive the long-awaited upgrade after years of foot-dragging. Robert Fischer, Metro’s systems project manager, told the Daily News the project's contract was awarded nearly two years ago, but security fears and concerns about interfering with radio communication among first-responders delayed the project.
Metro’s contractor, InSite Wireless, LLC, will bring Wi-Fi and cell service to four Red Line stations — Westlake, Wilshire / Western, Wilshire / Vermont and Vermont / Sunset — before extending service to North Hollywood, and then to Pasadena and East LA on the Gold Line. The project will take an estimated $800,000 and two years to complete.
Fischer says Wi-Fi will only be available on station platforms and not on trains, while passengers should have continuous cell service in stations and on moving trains.
This development doesn't really change the fact that the Los Angeles Metro is small, agonizingly slow and stops running at 2AM on weekends. But it does give us hope that New York's wireless underground orchestra will be able to take its show on the road.
The challenge, how does one present 50’s synchronized swimming, or water works like the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas, without water. Pushing string with a motor is not a new idea. Adding servo motors and a microcontroller to create automated and interactive installation is what I was looking to do during my residency at Autodesk’s new facility on Pier 9.
This Instructable goes through the assembly of one of my 1/4 scale string fountains. The second image above is 6 string fountains arraigned in a circle moving string though the air.
Moog Music is known for making some of the most popular synthesizers ever. Its portable, more modern units can still be seen in clubs and arena shows every night around the world. But its early modular units from the 1970s were massive — over two feet tall and as wide as an upright piano.
The company is releasing a limited run of newly-manufactured versions of its most popular modular synthesizers: the System 55, System 35, and the Model 15. Each synthesizer will be hand-made according to the original 1970s schematics. These big, modular synthesizers allow for more natural variations in the sound they're producing thanks to the number and type of components it takes to make them work. The giant cabinets actually help resonate the sound themselves, akin to how an acoustic guitar resonates the sound of its strings. As electronic instruments have become more portable, most of this phenomenon has been lost.
These throwbacks won't come cheap
Accompanying the release is an 18-minute documentary (seen above) about the history of Moog's modular synths, which features a performances on the instruments alongside commentary from musicians, composers, and Herb Deutsch, one of the inventors of the original Moog.
Musicians and collectors alike will have to offer up some serious cash to own one of the three revived synthesizers. Just 55 units of the System 55 will be made and sold at $35,000 apiece, while 35 units of the System 35 will be made available at $22,000 per instrument. The smallest and most plentiful will be the "affordable" Model 15, 150 of which will be sold $10,000 per synthesizer.
wiredmikey writes "Using Apple's voice-activated Siri function, security researchers have managed to steal sensitive information from iOS smartphones in a stealthy manner. Luca Caviglione of the National Research Council of Italy and Wojciech Mazurczy of the Warsaw University of Technology warn that malicious actors could use Siri for stealthy data exfiltration by using a method that's based on steganography, the practice of hiding information. Dubbed "iStegSiri" by the researchers, the attack can be effective because it doesn't require the installation of additional software components and it doesn't need the device's alteration. On the other hand, it only works on jailbroken devices and attackers somehow need to be able to intercept the modified Siri traffic. The attack method involves controlling the "shape" of this traffic to embed sensitive data from the device. This covert channel could be used to send credit card numbers, Apple IDs, passwords, and other sensitive information from the phone to the criminal mastermind, researchers said in their paper.
Untitled Woody Allen Project, a half-hour series, has received a full season order and episodes will be written and directed by Allen. Customers will be able to see the series exclusively on Prime Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany. Additional details, including casting information, will be made available in the future. “Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it’s an honor to be working with him on his first television series,” said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. “From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn’t be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year.”
This move comes as a bit of a surprise because, even though Allen started his career writing for television, his opinion about the medium hasn’t been altogether too flattering. In fact, he once wrote that “life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television.” With this in mind, then let’s hope that his new series doesn’t imitate life.
Wrapping up his visit to the Philippines this week, Pope Francis stirred up controversy by taking an unequivocal stance on climate change and calling on the international community to step up during United Nations climate talks in November.
“I don’t know if it is all (man’s fault) but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps nature in the face,” he told reporters. “We have in a sense taken over nature.” Scripted remarks that the Pope did not read out go on to say, “As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling.”
The pope’s comments are particularly fitting in the Philippines, an island country that has been hard-hit by typhoons and other extreme weather, and is expected to be severely impacted by rising sea levels. Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 left over 7,000 people missing or dead. Things could get worse. US scientists announced last week that 2014 was the hottest year on record, with temperatures about 0.68 Celsius or 1.24 Fahrenheit above average and unusually warm ocean surfaces that fuel storms.
Predictably, climate change deniers are denouncing the pope’s message. “The Vatican apparently now has been infiltrated by followers of a radical green movement,” read an editorial in Investors Business Daily. And conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said, “The Vicar of Christ believes man is not part of nature?…My religious beliefs are one of many things that inform me that we couldn’t have any impact on the climate, the planet, the globe, creation, no matter what, no matter how much we wanted to. It’s beyond our reach.”
The mistake: The image of a badge on the rug included the phrase “In Dog We Trust” on its crest instead of “God.” A sheriff’s deputy noticed the typo on Wednesday, department spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda told the Associated Press, and the rug was rolled up and removed.
In late December, Montgomery County Police picked up the kids, Rafi and Dvora, walking just half a block from home after being alerted by an observer. Six cop cars soon showed up at the family’s house, and the incident spurred Montgomery County Child Protective Services to investigate Danielle and her husband Alexander for child neglect. This week, CPS officials visited the parents at home and also interviewed the children at school — without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
CPS spokesperson Mary Anderson told Yahoo Parenting she could not comment on the specifics of the case, but explained that CPS is bound by law to “follow up on every complaint” it receives, using the Maryland Unattended Children Law for guidance to determine whether a parent “has provided proper care and supervision.” But the law doesn’t address the outdoors, stating that a child under 8 must not be without someone 13 or older while “confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle.”
"As difficult as it is for us to believe, all of these events occurred as the result of allowing our children to walk along public streets in the middle of the afternoon without our supervision," said mom Danielle, a climate-science consultant and fiction writer. "My husband grew up in the former Soviet Union. Now he wonders if we have to just go along with whatever the authorities want us to do."
In a speech to the Republican National Committee's winter meeting outside San Diego, the former neurosurgeon and conservative favorite praised American patriots for their willingness to give their lives for their beliefs. Then he mentioned the Islamic State group.
"They got the wrong philosophy, but they're willing to die for what they believe, while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness," he said as Republican officials from across the country interrupted him with applause. "We have to change that."
According to Kravitz a violation for deflated footballs would not impact the outcome of the AFC Championship, but the Patriots could lose draft picks. Kravitz reported officials took a ball out of play during the game and weighed it. According to NFL rules, home teams are required to provide 36 balls for outdoor games and make the balls available for testing with a pressure gauge prior to the game.
Breaking: A league source tells me the NFL is investigating the possibility the Patriots deflated footballs Sunday night. More to come.
This isn't the first time a notable football team has been accused of deflating footballs. The USC Trojans were fined and a manager was fired for deflating balls against Oregon in 2012. Deflating footballs wouldn't have made much different in the game on Sunday as the Patriots obliterated the Colts and the result had nothing to do with a couple of missing PSI in the balls.
Meta batch code: The “virus” in Vice (2015), when executed, apparantly displays but not executes this DOS batch file code which mainly consists of display commands. The staff member at the terminal reacts appropriately: “Jesus Christ, this can’t be right.”
Ruh-roh: NFL investigates Patriots over #DeflateGate; fans scorn 'Cheatriots ... Twitchy This #deflategate story is bizarre. Too bad we can't get through one game without some type of controversy. — Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) January 19, 2015 · #Deflategate pic.twitter.com/zG6KlnrUSj. — Tim The Big Guy (@TheBigGuyDJS) January 19, ...
Following the recent release of the series' first new DLC in nearly two years, it appears that Harmonix might be gearing up for a new entry in its Rock Band series, if an online survey is anything to go by.
"Hello friends! You should fill out this i...
'A clever trick, ploy, or stratagem to achieve a desired end, esp. by unorthodox, irregular, or time-saving means; a dodge; a tip.'
'1925 N. Lucas Autobiogr. Crook v. 72 I'll give you one quiff, right now, because I like your face and your nerve. Never touch the dope, it's hell—and worse than that.'
'As James Fallows argued in his recent tour de force on the “tragedy of the American military,” the rhetoric of “supporting our troops,” and the resultant imperative not to criticize the failings of the military on a systemic level, is, in truth, a cop-out: a way of not actually taking the military seriously. I’d argue that American Sniper, for all of its patriotism, is the filmic extension of that rhetoric: By buying the ticket, by fostering a feeling of intimacy with Kyle, you’ve expressed your devotion to a certain ideal of the American military and the values of honor, brotherhood, and self-sacrifice, but one which, after leaving the theater, you can once again ignore.
In Eastwood’s hands, that ideal is evacuated of politics: There’s no messy discussion of what got us into the war, or what’s preventing us from winning it, just a story of a man and his individual triumph. Which, of course, is part of the reason American Sniper is dominating the box office: Absent commentary on the war, it can attract viewers of all political persuasions. The narrative makes it virtually impossible to question Kyle or the war he’s fighting; in the one scene in which one of his kills is questioned, Kyle simply yells his defense, effectively ending the scene and any interrogation thereof.
Watching American Sniper in the theater is an immersive, ultimately cathartic experience — but it shouldn’t be. Every war movie should make you feel like shit. Indeed, every war movie I’ve seen over the last decade, with the exception of Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper, has made me feel like shit, in part because the man for whom I began watching those films was killed in Fallujah in 2004.'
What America’s most popular war movie says about our nation’s continued alienation from the front lines.
According to the AP, Morrison shot and killed another man during a traffic stop after the man "reached for something that was later determined to be a BB gun." He was cleared of any wrongdoing in that case.
Following the recent release of the series' first new DLC in nearly two years, it appears that Harmonix might be gearing up for a new entry in its Rock Band series, if an online survey is anything to go by.
"Hello friends! You should fill out this i...
