Monday 30 April 2012

Debtors' got Talent, a new gameshow

This is the plan for a talent competition which can run in any country,
but especially in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy or Portugal.

There will be a weekly prize for the person who died with
the most (unsecured/poor quality) debt, in a country.
Bank loans, credit cards, mortgages with no second signer
or underwater mortgages.
Due to the times we live in, the maxim will change to
"whoever dies with the most debt, wins."
Prize name: All he left us was a LOAN

There will be another prize for the biggest personal bankruptcy.
Prize name: Pop goes the DEBT

In the case of Ireland, there will be an addition prize because
they cannot default on a house loan.
The country can default on its duties to the people, but anyway.
Prize name: Living Wake

These will celebrate bon vivants who
took life by the horns, and banks by the tail.
A decision to award the best political-style public suicide both for coverage
and for shock value has been cancelled.

As I said last year, healthy young people will become more
jealous of old f*ckers who had a good life, and then died.

Back in the old days, all that you needed for a life of ease was
to show up at work with short hair and not reeking of
alcohol or pot. You stayed in the same job for 35 years,
and had a party on your retirement, paid for by the boss.
The only risk was that you might die of boredom.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Youz got one o' my boyz, we got one of youz

Tit for tat is not just a mafia game.
It's also part of the Mass Media Deal with the Government

The Media, particularly the Sun (or any of Rupie Murdoch's rags)
gets to break the law and spy on people without being charged,
or embarrassed publically, or else the government will
get a zinger right back.

This is the reason why the Leveson Inquiry is a polite kangaroo court
and not a proper court case, with wigs and all.

Well, James Murdoch was put on the stand, yesterday, again,
and my guess is that he was not best pleased.
So, he decided to scalp both the Minister for Culture,
Jeremy Hunt, whose name is mispronounced on the BBC
regularly as C*nt, and his assistant.

Bang-bang. Capeesh?


IshitUnot:  Guardian (plus video)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2012/apr/25/jeremy-hunt-news-corp-bskyb-video
Jeremy Hunt vows to clear name over News Corp's BSkyB bid - videoJeremy Hunt tells reporters he stands by his handling of News Corp's BSkyB bid, and brushes aside questions about his resignation. The culture secretary was speaking on Wednesday before his statement to the Commons. A dossier of emails published on Tuesday at the Leveson inquiry into press standards showed secret contacts over the bid, raising doubts about Hunt's impartiality


nasty tweets

I suppose you were waiting for Alec Baldwin on an airplane, or something.



Before Twitter, tweeting used to be what birds did.
You know the nice, (literally) garden-variety  sparrow?
Well, some of its nicest tunes are trying to say things like:
"move your ass"
"this is my turf"
"that's my bird"
"you dumb peckerhead"
"I tought I taw a putty"
No wonder sparrows live comfortably in most cities.

IshiUnot: science daily
Bird Song-Sharing Like Verbal Sparring


ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2011) — While singing the same songs as your neighbours may sound harmonious, research conducted at Queen's University Biological Station (QUBS) suggests that song-sharing amongst song sparrow populations is actually an aggressive behavior, akin to flinging insults back and forth.

"It's been hypothesized that repertoire size and song complexity is about the singer's ability to advertise their quality as a mate," says lead author Janet Lapierre, a visiting biologist from the University of Western Ontario (UWO). "Song-sharing, where birds sing a smaller number of their species' greatest hits, is a more aggressive and attention-seeking behaviour. It's also a behaviour most often displayed by belligerent older males."


Ms Lapierre and fellow QUBS researchers Daniel Mennill (University of Windsor) and Beth MacDougall-Shackleton (UWO) used a 16-channel acoustic location system to investigate whether male song sparrows preferentially choose to sing highly shared song types or whether they use all song types interchangeably. They found no general tendency amongst the sparrows to either preference.


Instead, they found that the performance of highly shared songs is determined more by individual differences like age and the kind of neighbourhood the sparrows live in. 'Tougher' neighbourhoods had a higher percentage of sparrows who engaged in more aggressive song-sharing bouts, whereas 'mild-mannered' neighbourhoods tended to support more conflict-averse sparrows that avoid using shared song types.


Older male sparrows were the most likely to engage in more aggressive or attention-seeking song-sharing bouts, suggesting that older males may be more willing or able to risk conflict and may also have more experience in which songs are effective signals in their local area.


"The novelty of this study was that we looked at how birds use songs rather than just examining the content of their repertoires," says Dr. MacDougall-Shackleton, a biology professor from the University of Western Ontario and a regular QUBS researcher. "We really could not have done this research without the longstanding study population of song sparrows at the Queen's University Biological Station."


These findings were recently published in Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

Olympism or racism, in 2012

which is the biggest social zeitgeist of them all in London, this year?

Apparently, one of the reasons London won the Olympic
bid for 2012 was because they presented
30 kids from East London,
representing the true ethnic melting pot that is London.

Unfortunately, on a daily basis, minorities are faced with regular
racism that is ingrained in some places, like the police.
That was one of the major causes of the riots last summer.

Which of the two is more indicative of life in Britain?
you decide

IshitUnot:
1  BBC  with audio (expires in 6 days)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tmb0
Children of the Olympic Bid


Series of programmes following thirty youngsters who travelled to Singapore in support of London's Olympic bid


2 Guardian  (audio at the site below)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/30/police-racism-black-man-abuse
Police face racism scandal after black man records abuseCrown Prosecution Service reviews decision not to charge officers heard boasting of strangling 21-year-old black man


Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 March 2012 18.29 BST

Scotland Yard is facing a racism scandal after a black man used his mobile phone to record police officers subjecting him to a tirade of abuse in which he was told: "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger".

The recording, obtained by the Guardian, was made by the 21-year-old after he was stopped in his car, arrested and placed in a police van the day after last summer's riots.
The man, from Beckton, east London, said he was made to feel "like an animal" by police. He has also accused one officer of kneeling on his chest and strangling him.
In the recording, a police officer can be heard admitting he strangled the man because he was "a cunt". Moments later, another officer – identified by investigators as PC Alex MacFarlane – subjects the man to a succession of racist insults and adds: "You'll always have black skin. Don't hide behind your colour."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service on the basis that three officers, including MacFarlane, may have committed criminal offences.

The CPS initially decided no charges should be brought against any of the police officers. However on Thursday, the service said it would review the file after lawyers for the man threatened to challenge the decision in a high court judicial review. MacFarlane has been suspended.
The inquiry began after the victim handed his mobile phone to a custody desk in Forest Gate police station and told officers he had been abused.

Earlier, he had been driving through Beckton with a friend when he was stopped by a van containing eight police officers from Newham borough. London's streets were flooded with police who had been drafted in to contain the rioting.

The officers arrested the man on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and told him he was being taken to a police station to be searched. After being taken into the van, the man was also arrested for missing a previous magistrates court appearance. No further action is to be taken in relation to the suspected driving offence.

It was once inside the van and handcuffed that the man said he was assaulted by police. He described having his head pushed against the van window and said one officer placed his knees on his chest and began strangling him. "I couldn't breathe and I felt that I was going to die," he said.
The man said he decided to turn on the recording facility of his phone after MacFarlane allegedly made sexually explicit references about his mother and telling him he would be "dead in five years".
In the recording, the man sounds agitated; he raises his voice to complain about his treatment and in places insults the arresting officers. The verbal exchange lasts several minutes.
When the man tells an officer: "you tried to strangle me", the officer replies: "No, I did strangle you." The officer adds that he strangled him "'cos you're a cunt" and that the man had been "kicking out". In relation to the strangling, the officer says: "Stopped you though, didn't it?"
Minutes later MacFarlane, who is white, begins abusing the man. After a period of silence, he can be heard telling him: "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger, yeah? That's your problem, yeah."
The man reads out MacFarlane's badge number and complains that he had subjected him to racist comments: "I'll always be a nigger – that's what you said, yeah?"
MacFarlane replies: "You'll always have black skin colour. Don't hide behind your colour, yeah." He adds: "Be proud. Be proud of who you are, yeah. Don't hide behind your black skin."
Shortly before the recording ends, the man can be heard saying: "I get this all the time." He then tells the officer: "We'll definitely speak again about this … It's gonna go all the way, it's gonna go all the way – remember."
The man's lawyer, Michael Oswald, said: "By his own efforts our client has put before the CPS exceptionally strong evidence and we share his astonishment that the CPS have reached a decision that no police officer should be prosecuted on the basis of that evidence. We do welcome their agreement to review that decision and we now await the outcome of that review."
The CPS initially said charges should not be brought against MacFarlane because the remarks did not cause the man harassment, distress or alarm.
Grace Ononiwu, deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London, said: "Lawyers for [the complainant] have written to the CPS and asked us to review our decision. I have considered the matter personally and directed that all the evidence should be reconsidered and a fresh decision taken by a senior lawyer with no previous involvement in this matter."
Speaking to the Guardian, the 21-year-old was visibly shaken when recounting the ordeal. "It's hard to explain, but it makes you feel like a piece of shit – it makes you feel not even human," he said.

"I was glad that I had it on the recording. I knew that if I had it saved I could show that I had been abused.

"It's not right. We've just got different skin colour – underneath it we're all the same."

The Metropolitan police confirmed in a statement that it received a complaint on 11 August about alleged "racial" remarks and oppressive conduct.

"These are serious allegations; any use of racist language or excessive use of force is not acceptable."

The force said it had referred the case to the IPCC and that one officer had been suspended.

MacFarlane's solicitor, Colin Reynolds, said: "The officer has been the subject of an investigation, has co-operated in that and been advised he is not to be the subject of criminal proceedings."

Estelle du Boulay, director of the Newham Monitoring Project, said: "Sadly, the shocking treatment of this young man at the hands of police officers – both the physical brutality he describes and the racial abuse he claims he suffered – are by no means unusual; it compares to other reports we have received. What makes this case different is the victim had the foresight and courage to turn on a recording device on his mobile phone."

She compared the incident to the case of Liam Stacey, a student who was jailed for 56 days for posting offensive comments on Twitter after the on-pitch collapse of the Bolton Wanderers footballer Fabrice Muamba.

On Friday Swansea crown court rejected an appeal from Stacey, who used racist terms against other Twitter users.

When the student was sentenced in a magistrates court on Tuesday a senior lawyer at the CPS, Jim Brisbane, said: "Racist language is inappropriate in any setting and through any media. We hope this case will serve as a warning to anyone who may think that comments made online are somehow beyond the law."

 

Lick my hundred

In an indication of the strength of the drug cartels,
the majority of the paper money
in the US has traces of cocaine.


During the depths of the financial crisis, when the need for cash
was greatest, the banks turned to laundering drug money.

Used to be, if you wanted to lick your way to a high, you had to find a psycho-active toad.

Well, this is the old fashioned way to get more coke for your buck, with a strawbuck.


Keep some for later, deep in the money.

However, the main way that cash turns whiter than white is for it to be deposited in a bank.
Either bankers or their drug buddies will be shuffling the money back and forth.


IshitUnot: from Ask
Psychoactive toad is a name used for toads from which psychoactive substances from the family of bufotoxins can be derived. The skin and poison of Bufo alvarius (Colorado River toad or Sonoran Desert toad) contain 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin. Other species contain only bufotenin. 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin both belong to the family of hallucinogenic tryptamines. Due to these substances the skin or poison of the toads may produce psychoactive effects when ingested.


2  Observer
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangsAs the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored


Ed Vulliamy

The Observer, Sunday 3 April 2011
A soldier guards marijuana that is being incinerated in Tijuana, Mexico. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AP

On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel....

Tuesday 24 April 2012

German gold has recently been found, hanging

It is well known that Germany has half of its gold stored in
New York City, the Gotham of the West.
That's about 4000 tonnes of it.

Some lowly German politicians, who have nothing left to
live for, have been itching to investigate the state of
their gold horde.

I think there is a one Jack Black who might have an idea
where that gold is.

let's cut to the video:

In the air tonight, there hangs a whiff of corruption

MP Philip Collins, perhaps the former Gensis drummer
writing in the Times newspaper, said, essentially, lobbying is harmless,
but he forgot to mention
that he's a nobody and that he doesn't even get invited to
the right parties, and gets all the left-over hookers.
So, how can he comment on the obvious lobbying that goes on?
Unless the British government exists solely for the enrichment
of the oligarchy, like a reverse Robin Hood. Only that would
explain what's going on with the banks, alone.




IshitUnot: some choice quotes, Times, 9 December, 2011

(cigarette lobby) "on the way out we got a packet each to take home." [and the cancer-stick lobby got what in return?]
"it's a legal product that's highly regulated." [perhaps it shouldn't be legal because it adds billions to the NHS bill?]
"Tim Collins (lobbyist) ... has been caught bragging about all the people he knows in the Government"
"Most (choice of words)of what lobbying companies do is not a nefarious conspiracy to subvert democracy. Hiring a lobbyist is really no more scandalous than taking on a lawyer or an accountant."
"so companies are well advised to employ an organisation with good political antennae" (that often get stuck up a politician's backside)
lobbyists "watch vigilantly for anything in London or in Brussels that might be a threat to their clients" (gee, I wish I could get that.)
"in the five years I spent running a think-tank...and the three years I spent as chairman of one...I can remember only one occasion when a potential funder demanded a specific recommendation as the price of their support. We declined at once, of course." (you're clean friend, but obviously you're a nobody)

another Tit-anic metaphor for the economy

Where were the common people kept, in the Titanic?
that is, except for Leo Di Caprio.

When the rich people did everything they could to point the ship at
an iceberg and do preparatory work so that the lowest possible
number of people would be saved, it was the common people
who ended up paying the true cost, because they were
locked in, below-deck, unable to escape from that
rich man's folly.


[there's your Tit-anic, Tits up]

How is that similar to today's financial crisis? Let me count the ways.

The rich crashed into the iceberg.
The workers crashed into the rich man's trap.

Thomas Jefferson-
I believe that banks are more dangerous to our liberties than
standing armies.
The rights … should be taken from the banks
and returned to the people where it properly belongs

the cup runneth over

This was brought on by a Metro story about
how women have been getting fitted up wrong.
What with all the time that women spend preening
in front of a mirror, I find this hard to believe.

I am going to recommend an old-fashioned way
hand measurement.
Maxim: any more than a handful is wasteful


IshitUnot: Metro- Storm brewing in a c-cup
Millions of women could be wearing the wrong sized bra because traditional fitting methods don't work. Jenny White, a sport scientist at the University of Portsmouth, said the more straightforward 'best fit' approach is better than the old tape measure way of choosing a bra. She found that in three-quarters of cases, the tape measure led to a wrong size being chosen, contributing to 85% of women wearing the wrong bra size.



http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2012/03/07/7.html

Monday 23 April 2012

DOUCHE CLEANSING. Cleansing the world of a douche


When every small attempt at righting the US, as it catapults itself
towards destruction was being stopped
by a tirade of spittle and liquid-Ss of
a particular, fat, epheminate blood hound of the Right is Always Right crowd,
A one Breit bastard. Not. Well, he is no more.

one of his grandiose speaking events:
Americans for Prosperity
'Defending the American Dream Summit.'
I think that one was a reflexive look into the navel of America to discover
just what the f*ck is going wrong, innit?

IShitUnot: Rolling Stone- Matt Taibbi
Andrew Breitbart: Death of a Douche

POSTED: March 1, 3:10 PM ET

So Andrew Breitbart is dead. Here’s what I have to say to that, and I’m sure Breitbart himself would have respected this reaction: Good! Fuck him. I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead.

I say this in the nicest possible way. I actually kind of liked Andrew Breitbart. Not in the sense that I would ever have wanted to hang out with him, or even be caught within a hundred yards of him without a Haz-Mat suit on, but I respected the shamelessness. Breitbart didn’t do anything by halves, and even his most ardent detractors had to admit that he had a highly developed, if not always funny, sense of humor.

For instance, it would be dishonest not to tip a hat to him for that famous scene when he hijacked Anthony Weiner’s own self-immolating "apology" press conference, and held up the entire event by standing at the lectern and congratulating himself at length, before Weiner could let the humiliating healing begin.

Legalise it. The only cure for bank-ruptcy

Banking fraud.
If you're a bankster, it's the best sh*t you can light up.
It burns everybody
who isn't a bankster

in this alt universe,
Felonies become "Technicalities"
Lawbreaking begets a change in the law (Berlusconi Maneouvre)
Fines are negotiated with the felon


[nice and easy. this show has proof of banking fraud, right from the beginning]

IshitUnot: difficult to avoid such stories. had to pick just one. short attention span
From Jesse's Cafe' Americain 

Did the SEC Facilitate the Fraud at MF Global?

I did not treat this particular issue of the MF Global scandal sufficiently when I first became aware of it thinking, perhaps foolishly, that additional facts and information from the financial press and the investigation would be forthcoming.

That does not appear to be the case. So here is the story that suggests that the SEC had been providing MF Global special treatment to mask its financial difficulties while it floated a large bond offering. They betrayed their sworn duty to make the information public, and to act to protect the average account holder by promoting transparency and the symmetrical disclosure of information to maintain the confidence in the system, and quite likely out of a deference to power and influence.

We have seen many examples of the Fed hiding information and stonewalling legitimate disclosure of key financial information to 'protect the system.' The problem is that this merely serves to allow powerful insiders to game the system, and guarantee the system's decline, while reform withers.

Professional investors, through their own sources and resources, became aware of the MF Global problems and began to flee the firm, leaving the small independent investors 'holding the bag' as it were. It is not likely that JPM was unaware of this.

We have seen other instances of this sort of thing, such as the SEC whistleblower who lost his position when attempting to act on strong evidence of insider trading by one of the TBTF titans.

The Street has had it in for Jon Corzine ever since he betrayed them and profited from the Fed enforced LTCM rescue when he was the head of Goldman Sachs. And MF Global appears to have been the payback.

A dirty business, but as I have said, it is not likely that justice will ever be done. Mr. Corzine may not even be banned from dealing again in the financial markets.



Friday 20 April 2012

Cultural revolution- bankster style

Imagine, if you will, a world that is run by and for banksters:
Oh, it's real, BTW, and it only in the gestation period. It will get worse.


[when this happens, it's too late]


I think it's clear that one day, about 5 years ago,
we woke up to a new reality
that has only much later come to kick us in the butt.
This is because it has been happening behind closed doors,
between oligarchs, who come out of meetings
preaching the new religion of Austerity, or Austeria.



Each cultural revolution is, much later,
when it's safe for academics to come out of their offices,
described so that people the world over can go
"wow, he's smart" , regardless of the fact that intelligent and monied
people have been largely absent from this battle
because they're scared sh*tless of the Vampire Squid.
So, in a revolutionary act,
I've decided to describe this revolution as it is happening,
and using the future tense for many things which are bound to happen anyway.

In short, here are the new terms which you will be taught in History classes of the future:
Great Derivative Leap into the Void
CDS Battle
Easy Street Clause
GotoWar, or You're a Fag Policy
Bankster Orthodoxy
Austeria
Sword Mightier than Pen Revanche
Bankster Protection Force
Oligarch Personality Cult
Sub-prime Mortgage Putsch
We Hate Skateboarders Philosophy
Who Needs a Government Movement


[End up like him. Testify!]

Characteristics of the Bankster Revolution
-the cancellation of all market risk (Great Derivative Leap into the Void)
- when the GDLV goes tits up, go crying to the government
-threaten to destroy the world economy if you don't get loans, and fast
-get countries to lend us money until they go bankrupt
-once they show signs of economic weakness, start the CDS Battle
-get government money at -1% interest, and lend money to a government at 6% (Easy Street Clause)
-remove socialist, traditional and cultural elements from world society,
-send bourgeois elements into the government and society at large, aiming to restore Banksterism,
not seen since the 1913-1929 period
-impose Bankster Orthodoxy
-Banksters return to a position of absolute power

-pay off or scare the media into submission (GotoWar, or You're a Fag Policy)
-paralyze each country and significantly affect those countries economically and socially
-people will make do with less, or die (Austeria)
-revisionist journalists must be removed through violent class struggle, if they tell the truth (Sword Mightier than Pen Revanche)
-continue to undermine public services until the poor sell their organs to pay for private health/education
-spread unemployment into the urban workers, nurses and janitors.
-expand military bases, overseas and the prison gulag complex at home (Cradle to Grave Hell)
-Millions of people are to be persecuted violently by the Bankster Protection Force (formerly the Police & Army)
-a mass purge of senior officials who will all be accused of deviating from the Banksterist path
-Oligarch Personality Cult is to be grown through CNN, Al Jazeera and Fox News
-large segment of the population to be forcibly displaced
into their cars, or into tents in the outskirts
(Sub-prime Mortgage Putsch)
-transfer of urban youth to rural regions (We Hate Skateboarders Philosophy)
-historical relics and artifacts to be destroyed, like the Palace of Westminster, Congress, etc (Who Needs a Government Movement)

Linguistic revolutions, from zerohedge

new words:
SQUIDNAME
MUPPET - (def) a manipulated fool

Did you know AIG's Squidname was Open Sesame?

Did you know that Ben Bernanke's Squidname is Big Bird?

Did you know that Grover is a founder of the OWS Movement?
-of course, he lives in a garbage can

Did you know that Kermit is the Squidname for the Squid Exorcist Reggie Middleton?


IshitUnot:  Wikipedia entry- cultural revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution (Chinese: 文化大革命; pinyin: Wénhuà Dàgémìng), was a social-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to enforce socialism in the country by removing capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society, and to impose Maoist orthodoxy within the Party. The revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of absolute power after the failed Great Leap Forward. The movement politically paralyzed the country and significantly affected the country economically and socially.

The Revolution was launched in May 1966. Mao alleged that bourgeois elements were entering the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these "revisionists" be removed through violent class struggle. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of deviating from the socialist path, most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions.
Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including torture, rape, imprisonment, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked.
Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. The political instability between 1971 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976 is now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution. After Mao's death in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiaoping gained prominence. Most of the Maoist reforms associated with the Cultural Revolution were abandoned by 1978. The Cultural Revolution has been treated officially as a negative phenomenon ever since.

how not to copy Hitler

what was Hitler's favourite music? Don't listen to it.
what was Hitler's favourite way of anihilating a people,
slowly and painfully?
Don't do that, either.

A marginalised people, set up for annihilation
were walled into their land,
assaulted by bombs lobbed in, and picked at by vultures,
their possessions, including water taken away from them,
allowing nothing to get inside the walls, until they all starve.
Of course, I'm speaking of Gaza.

IshitUnot: Economist Intelligent life, winter 2007
story on Daniel Barenboim.
Further anger in Isr as Barenboim slips the prelude to ‘Tristan & Isolde’ into an Isr Festival concert as an unprogrammed encore, defying the longstanding taboo about playing Wagner (Hitler’s favourite composer) on Isr turf. When confronted with objections, he declares: ‘Wagner was not responsible for Auschwitz’

Scarpe diem- A new Shoe-throwing index for Europe

As is well known, shortly before the Arab Spring, there was a great discussion of the simmering anger of the oppressed people of the US-friendly governments in the Middle East. This was known as the shoe-throwing index after the brave journalist who felt driven to chuck his sneakers at Bush, the younger, when he was in Baghdad. Having someone under-foot is an insult of great symbolism in Arabic culture.
Observe this subtitled bilingual version of the famous video to see what the brave fella had to say before playing bounce-the-shoe-off-the-asshole
This led to a boost in sales for the shoe maker, a factory in Turkey.



What the Economist forgot was that Europe is now slowly boiling over.
So, what about a STI index in three parts
-likelihood of blood being spilt
-likelihood of government killing of protestors
-likelihood of societal breakdown 

STI: Eurozone 
graphics later, from the department for graphics
Greece- 100%/ 85%/ 25%
Portugal- 78%/ 50%/ 15%
Ireland- 65%/ 65%/ 20%
Italy- 100%/ 50%/ 35% [scarpe]
Spain- 100%/ 50%/ 35%

I'll link this with Orlov's system, soon.

Prediction:
Societal breakdown will occur first in Italy and Spain and then the whole Union
why? Italy and Spain are large countries, and former imperialists, so they won't stand
for this bullsh*t. Neither the people, nor the government.

watch for updates of the chart
More, soon

definitions:
societal breakdown- (def) when the normal running of a large part of a society is stopped by protest or by government reaction
100%=already happened

IshitUnot: original Economist story http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/02/daily_chart_arab_unrest_index The Shoe-Thrower's index
Feb 9th 2011, 14:50 by The Economist online
..An index of unrest in the Arab world IN THIS week's print edition we ran a table showing a number of indicators for members of the Arab League. By adding a few more and ascribing different weights to them we have come up with the Shoe-Thrower's index, which aims to predict where the scent of jasmine may spread next. Some factors are hard to put a number on and are therefore discounted. For instance, dissent is harder in countries with a very repressive secret police (like Libya). The data on unemployment were too spotty to be comparable and so this important factor is discounted too. We took out the Comoros and Djibouti, which do not have a great deal in common with the rest of the group, and removed the Palestinian territories, Sudan and Somalia for lack of data. The chart below is the result of ascribing a weighting of 35% for the share of the population that is under 25; 15% for the number of years the government has been in power; 15% for both corruption and lack of democracy as measured by existing indices; 10% for GDP per person; 5% for an index of censorship and 5% for the absolute number of people younger than 25. Jordan comes out surprisingly low on the chart, which suggests the weighting might need to be tweaked. Post suggestions in the comments below and we will refine it....