I was born a body of worlds
a carnal web of cosmic pearl
billions of stars that hold me to my bones,
and when one day their cores collapse
I will shed my skin in ash
and sleep among the mosses and the stone.
I’ll grow into the vine that licks the ruin
writhe beneath the savage moon
my scattered cinders eaten at the roots,
and when the ravaged willow moans again
she will take me in her veins
and shake me from her hair an astral fruit.
For we forgot a fact that we once knew,
the only ancient truth,
the knowledge of our primal origin:
That from the feral night we came as dust
born from stellar wanderlust
and unto the stars we will return again.
Aubrey J. Sanders
from the original source (Sci American ref. below) I deduced that it is fair and proper to reproduce Aubrey's poem awaiting her response to my request for further action.
("re-post the entire list of 51 posts that will be published next year. Congratulations to all!")
Whether you read poetry or science the list below is worth a visit
List from Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.
With hindsight I guess I can consider myself to be a relatively intellectually sheltered, strongly committed, perhaps over committed, and focused scientist and engineer. Little did I suspect that the theme "Big Money_Big Crime" could develop to such an extent bringing to light, so to speak, the darker side of "human endeavour." The very stuff thriller crime writers thrive on. Could it be that reality surpasses fiction by a long chalk!
"Allegations of bribery, corruption, even charges of murder ha s one of China's most powerful families sitting on the outside of power looking in.
Bo Xilai was once a superstar in the Chinese Communist Party, but no longer. He's been under the microscope for his own abuse of power and lost his job because of it. Additionally, his wife is accused of murdering a influential English business man, and his son can't stay out of the tabloids for his partying ways.
But this is about more than a corrupt family. This scandal has rocked China's Communist Party and has pulled back the curtain on the Chinese political system, giving us a chance to take a unique glimpse into an increasingly fractured government.
Joining us to discuss China's public relations nightmare is Richard McGregor, Washington Bureau Chief for the Financial Times." source Yahoo.
Let me apologise for the ,as yet, bias in my preliminary list and of suspects mostly political-dictatorships and the likes. The obvious poor coverage of say the business sphere, a somewhat greyer area in which fortunately there must be more ethical, if only because of strong legislation and financial and economical controls, internal and external to the business venture, natural (market) or man made (Gov, expert Auditing etc. ) without going into detail, each of us can remember cases in the business and commercial world or too whereby common sense and decency are thrown to the wind. Currently in France, certainly not alone,the continuing rising gap between minimum wage evolution has lost all comparison with rewards in the CAC40 Top Dogs. (bonuses, golden parachutes...)
I encourage readers to drop a line on their own personal experience and knowledge of cases of "Big Fortunes - Big Crime and the contrary, well earned well deserved rewards be it reward in terms of money, scientific, medical or social endeavour.
An astonishing re-interpretation of Piaf's "La Foule" The Crowd in english. by this young artist "Al.Hy"
It is well worth viewing and listening to this video live-no playback stuff this evening (21/04/2012) It is well worth suffering through TF1 and Co's publicity.
France and the french show business system (the establishment) have at last allowed young vocal talent to express itself and there is lots of it. TF1 by allowing practically instantaneous video downloading is a clearly helping to open the dam flood gates. I never thought that one day I would compliment TF1 Cheers TF1 and The Voice.
"Behind each big (massive) fortune lies a big crime"
Percieved World Corruption Map
quoted from Harlan Cobens Thriller, entitled Promise me _ Promets -moi in the french version I have just finished reading. The remark is attributed to Coben's character, The Big Jake, on page 305 edition pocket (Fr)
I must admit that, such a thought, stated so succinctly, had until now, occured to me, at least not consciously.
Assuming Coben's remark is not a reflection on his own revenue I shall take the remark litteraly and in doing so little did I suspect that the subject is a HOT TOPIC INDEED.
Fact or Fiction
The apparently outrageousness of such a statement shocked me into thought. How far is such a statement true?
I believe that I have a scientific mind and as such facts, evidence must be acquired.
From recent memory what evidence could I muster up?
Numerous cases of dictatorships: for example from recent revolutions in norther africa-The Magreb: Lybia of Gaddafit(1,2), Tunisia of Sidi Bouazid(3,4,5) Egypt's Mubarak, (6,7) and lately Syria's "Marie Antoinette" (8) came rapidly to mind and are references below [1 to 8]
and what about the rest of Africa, most of us from memory can remember a few scandelous and bloody examples: Idi Amin Dada, in Uganda and Jean-Bedel Bokassa (president of Central African Republic) [9,10 ] The length of my first lists are becoming uncumfortably long [ 11 to 17 and far from exaustive!]
In Europe of course Vladimir Putin is a prime suspect.
Reference 7 below brought my attention to Forbres - great defenser of great wealth. This provides an interesting list of people and companies to examine in depth, enought to draw up a reliable statistical population one would think.
20 Aug 2005 – Richard Drayton: The wealth of the west was built on Africa's exploitation ... As Malachy Postlethwayt, the political economist, candidly put it in 1745: ... For the colonial Americas were more Africa's creation than Europe's: ...
The Crusades contributed to increase the wealth of the Church and the power of ... The crusades could not fail to affect in many ways the life of western Europe. ... As to thepolitical effects of the Crusades, they helped to break down the power ...
Google Search Key: Wealth and Politicians Corruption in Western Europe
It rapidly becomes obvious that Political corruption is a central figure in this theme
books.google.fr/books?isbn=9287163553...Council of Europe. Octopus Programme - 2008 - Law - 218 pages Those who have greater wealth can purchase a greater voice in the outcome of the public ... but is also controversial in the established democracies of western Europe. ...Other types of political finances are clearly illegal and corrupt.79 These ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View by MA GOLDEN - 2001 - Cited by 93 - Related articles litical corruption in a democratic context occurs despite a wealth of ..... Carbó, eds.,Political Corruption in Europe and Latin America (Bassingstoke: Macmillan, ...Political Parties in Italy: A Case of Systemic Corruption,” West European Politics...
Everyone knows what political corruption is, but it is notoriously hard to define. .....Italy is probably considered the most corrupt country in western Europe. .... Marcos bullied wealthy families into giving up their holdings to his family and friends.
12 Jan 2012 – If the West is really serious about combating corruption in the rest of the world, it can ... cost Russian taxpayers in lost income, jobs, and national wealth? ...And neither the British legal system, nor the British political system, cares ...West Europeans, that is, with a large dose of Eastern Europeans on hand to ...
Other peoples, after having thrown off colonial domination, still lag in wealth and power... He believes this is due to the societies' military and political advantages, ...Europewas the ultimate beneficiary of Eurasia's East-West orientation: in the ...
20 Jun 2011 – Former Tunisian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, found guilty of theft... deceived into leaving Tunisia, has accumulated vast wealth from his ...
7 Feb 2011 – ABC News and The Guardian have run stories putting Mubarak's wealthas high as $70 billion. The Forbes wealth team finds this to be highly ...
IdiAmin, who became known as the 'Butcher of Uganda' for his brutal, despotic rule whilst president of Uganda in the 1970s, is possibly the most notorious of all... cf. also recent references BLACK-AFRICA below?
15 Nov 2010 – Three African leaders and their families are to be investigated in Paris for allegedly embezzling state funds to acquire vast assets in France.
14 nov. 2011 – LE CERCLE. La Commission Européenne souhaite renforcer la répression des délits d'initiés, et de nombreux autres abus de marché tels que ...
25 nov. 2010 – La justice américaine met la touche finale à une enquête de trois ans pour délit d'initié, qui pourrait être la plus vaste de l'histoire du pays.
"It would be very convenient to start this article by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for public officials in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current global crisis.
I also wish I could claim that corruption has declined worldwide as a result of the global anti-corruption and awareness-raising campaign, the many effective anti-corruption commissions, and the recognition that poverty and culture are the reasons why corruption prevails.
But none of it is true."
"In truth, anti corruption commissions, revised laws and
awareness-raising campaigns have had limited success. Focus on petty or
administrative bribery has been misplaced at the expense of high-level
political corruption."
Geologists' 100 Must See List (Updated)
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Geotripper has started a geology-oriented 100 things meme. Thing's I've
done are in bold. Follow along and keep score for yourself.
1. See an erupting vol...