August 31, 2013 – 12:12 am
A Liberal Party candidate proposed a radical new policing system in which criminal suspects would be injected with satellite-trackable microchips shot from a ”high powered sniper rifle”. Ray King, who is contesting the western Sydney electorate of McMahon, was behind the idea, which he claimed would improve productivity of the NSW Police Force. Mr King, […]
August 29, 2013 – 9:25 pm
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will face-off in the third election debate in western Sydney tonight. The people’s forum hosted by Sky News will be held at the Rooty Hill RSL from 6.30pm. The night will follow a similar format to last week’s debate in Brisbane where the two took questions […]
August 29, 2013 – 12:00 pm
A US bank chairman has pleaded guilty to using bailout money given to rescue his firm to buy himself a luxury home. Darryl Woods used $381,000 (£245,000) of the $1m given to his Mainstreet Bank to buy the Florida waterfront property. Following the US housing collapse and financial crash, Mainstreet needed to be propped up […]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Economics, Funnies, Law, Politics
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Tagged darryl woods, finance, mainstreet bank missouri, real estate, TARP, troubled asset relief program, US politics, US treasury department
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August 28, 2013 – 9:30 am
Recently read the sort of work of history I particularly enjoy–one that gets into how past societies and states actually worked. Edited by historians Walter Scheidel and Ian Morris, The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium has essays on the Neo-Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian, Athenian, Roman and Eastern Roman (“Byzantine”) empires (the last […]
By Lorenzo
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Posted in Animals, Books, Economics, History, Middle east, Public Policy, Religion, Taxation, Technology
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Tagged Abbasid Caliphate, Achaemenid Persian Empire, adultery, Alexander the Great, antebellum South, Assyria, Athens, Battle of Gabai, Battle of Granicus, Battle of Jaxartes, Battle of Manzikert, Darwinian, Eastern Roman Empire, Frederick Law Olmsted, Graeco-Roman Empire, Han dynasty, Horace, household slaves, Ian Morris, Incas, Ionian Greeks, James Madison, John F. Haldon, Keith Hopkins, Khosrau II, Kippumjo, louisiana, Macedonian, Mary Boykin Chestnut, monogamy, mulatto, Napoleon Chagnon, north korea, Parthian Empire, patrilineal, patrilocal, Peloponnesian League, Peloponnesian War, Peter Turchin, polygyny, Principate, Punic Wars, Qing dynasty, Rebecca Latimer Felton, Roman Empire, Roman Republic, Romanisation, Sassanids, seraglio, serfdom, slavery, social capital, Sparta, Stefano Fenoaltea, Syracuse, Umayyad Caliphate, Walter Scheidel, Western Roman Empire
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August 28, 2013 – 3:45 am
Russian police seized a painting of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev in women’s underwear from a gallery in St Petersburg, saying the satirical display had broken unspecified laws. The officers also removed a picture of the head of the Russian Orthodox church, his torso covered in tattoos, and two others poking fun at MPs who […]
August 26, 2013 – 10:54 pm
Michael Clarke was involved in a physical confrontation with umpire Aleem Dar and England will press the International Cricket Council to change its rules over bad light as the Ashes series ended in boos and recriminations at the Oval. Clarke revealed he told Dar not to touch him after the official appeared to push him […]
August 24, 2013 – 12:48 am
A gargoyle on an historic 13th century abbey has caused a social media sensation with its resemblance to the monster from the Alien films. Reverend Alan Birss, minister at Paisley Abbey, said most of the gargoyles were replaced during a refurbishment in the early 1990s. He thinks that one of the stonemasons must have been […]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Fark!, History, Popular culture, Religion, science fiction, scotland
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Tagged alien, gargoyles, griff rhys jones, heritage, HR Giger, paisley abbey, restoration, saturday chit-chat, stonemasonry
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August 22, 2013 – 12:10 am
No 10 was “kept abreast” of the decision to detain David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, a spokesman has said. Mr Miranda was held at Heathrow for nine hours on Sunday, while in transit from Germany to Brazil. He has launched a legal challenge over the police’s use of anti-terror laws to […]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Funnies, Law, Politics, Privacy, Terrorism
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Tagged Brazil, david miranda, edward snowden, GCHQ, glenn greenwald, heathrow airport, Journalism, metropolitan police, national security agency, NSA, section 7, the guardian
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August 21, 2013 – 5:30 am
Economist David Friedman’s theory about the size and shape of nations leads him to postulate that the increased importance of labour income–a result of the Industrial Revolution: one of the ironies of history is that greatly increased propensity to produce capital increases both the scale (through increased demand) and then the average income (through increased relative scarcity) […]
By Lorenzo
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Posted in Academia, Australia, Britain, Economics, History, Immigration, Public Policy, Religion, scotland, Society, Taxation, Welfare
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Tagged Amerindians, Austrian school, Belgium, Branch Davidians, Cameron-Clegg Government, Clinton Administration, crime, culture wars, Danubian monarchy, David Friedman, fiscal policy, Flanders, france, George W Bush, Germany, Great Society, HDI, industrial revolution, ireland, Italy, Lander, Lebanese, Maronite, nativism, Obamacare, Orkney and the Shetlands, P J O'Rourke, Quebec, Richard Trudgen, Robert Fogel, Robert Putnam, Scandinavia, separatism, september 11th, SNP, trust, US republican party, Waco, Wallonia
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August 20, 2013 – 1:12 am
Spanish fishermen have sailed into disputed waters off Gibraltar to protest about a reef put there by the British territory’s government. The fishermen say the reef restricts their right to fish, but Gibraltar says they should not be fishing there. Gibraltar police said the protest, which lasted an hour and passed off without incident, ended […]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Posted in Britain, Environment, Funnies, Law, Politics
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Tagged artificial reef protest, cristina kirchner, falkland islands, fishing, gibraltar, international law, international relations, maritime law, Spain, UK politics
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