The unimportant news thread

Started by Lethevich, March 05, 2008, 07:14:50 AM

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T. D.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/oligarch-s-son-says-he-didn-t-hide-50-million-was-trading-loss

The son of a Russian oligarch said $50 million in funds from his father didn't disappear because he was hiding the assets from his mother. The truth, he said, was that he'd lost the money on "risky" trades while he was at university.

Farkhad Akhmedov's son, Temur, is at the center of the latest legal fight stemming from Britain's largest divorce case. The 27-year-old said that his mother, Tatiana Akhmedova, was well aware of his trading activities at the London School of Economics. She had even consoled him about the loss.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9026233/Russian-oligarchs-ex-wife-arrives-High-Court-legal-showdown-SON.html

steve ridgway

Quote from: T. D. on December 07, 2020, 10:33:04 AM
US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has sold the rights to his entire back catalogue to Universal Music Group (UMG).

Good idea, at 79 he should get enough money to do what he wants with the rest of his life. 8)

MusicTurner

He's not exactly poor. Hope he'll be giving most of it away for good purposes.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: MusicTurner on December 08, 2020, 06:40:25 AM
He's not exactly poor. Hope he'll be giving most of it away for good purposes.
MT,

I suspect that he has some ideas of how to help some people, places, and/or things too.   :)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

SimonNZ

There's a quote from David Crosby somewhere saying that if Bob Dylan had to go a year without the Never Ending Tour he'd have to start selling homes.

I don't know what overheads he has or how overextended he is, but I've heard that he's very good at looking after his many children and their mothers, both the wed and unwed varieties, the known and unknown.

I wonder what this means for future Bootleg Series releases.

Todd

The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

T. D.

Couple of interesting / funny stories from the financial realm (paywall possible):

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-12-10/stock-market-when-oil-when-negative-these-essex-traders-pounced

The Essex Boys: How Nine Traders Hit a Gusher With Negative Oil
Over the course of a few hours on April 20, a guy called Cuddles and eight of his pals from the freewheeling world of London's commodities markets rode oil's crash to a $660 million profit.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-10/citi-revlon-lawsuit-tests-two-competing-legal-principles

This is really comical: Citigroup mistakenly paid off interest + principal instead of just interest on certain big loans. Some institutions are keeping the money. A story I saw yesterday revealed that Citi outsourced the error-checking to India:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/citi-official-shocked-over-900-145432408.html

greg

#3807
Omaha mom upset with 'inappropriate' book her daughter brought home from school library

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p_LVfhqY3o&feature=emb_logo


This is from last year, but it's funny for a few reasons.
1) Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid is a series I collect- hearing the news report on it is funny
2) Actually went to anime convention in Omaha (end of 2018)
3) This is unbelievably prudish (probably most agree- 5.8k dislikes to 1.5k likes).

Seriously, it's offensive for someone who is actually at the age of growing breasts themselves to be subjected to seeing black and white images of anime girl tiddies? WTF, where is the logic in that?  :D

edit: flipped through my copy of the one they showed, vol.6, and that volume doesn't even show the nipples. And they are complaining about it still. WTF lol.
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie

T. D.

From USA pro sports:

https://sports.yahoo.com/most-jets-thing-ever-pierre-desir-jets-man-of-the-year-nominee-isnt-on-the-team-anymore-181129703.html

Yeah, mocking the feckless Jets is like shooting fish in a barrel, but this item is just too funny.

71 dB

Mystic monoliths have been appearing in many countries and now one appeared in Savonlinna, Finland:
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

MusicTurner

#3810
Another story that severely hits Huawei's image and any attempts at romanticizing the Chinese system.
Huawei has tested an AI surveillance system that simply recognizes Uighurs or Muslims and can report about it to authorities

https://www.businessinsider.com/huawei-ai-uighurs-alert-china-police-facial-recognition-2020-12?r=US&IR=T

T. D.

https://apnews.com/article/yves-tanguy-left-airport-found-dumpster-9f1a5f8c39e6c76c4f99e222210e9c65

BERLIN (AP) — A surrealist painting worth more than a quarter million euros (dollars) that was forgotten by a businessman at Duesseldorf's airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling dumpster, police said Thursday.

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: T. D. on December 11, 2020, 08:32:06 AM
https://apnews.com/article/yves-tanguy-left-airport-found-dumpster-9f1a5f8c39e6c76c4f99e222210e9c65

BERLIN (AP) — A surrealist painting worth more than a quarter million euros (dollars) that was forgotten by a businessman at Duesseldorf's airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling dumpster, police said Thursday.
Geez Louise!  ???  How forgetful could one be?!  Or, one thought:  could it have been stolen and he was afraid of getting caught?

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

T. D.

#3814

JBS

The EU Court of Justice officially ruled that EU member states need not respect freedom of religion, and approved a Belgian law (a reincarnation of a law used by the Third Reich to persecute Jews) which targets Jews and Muslims.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/145952/european-court-bans-ritual-slaughter-for-jews-and-muslims/

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

MusicTurner

#3816
Quote from: JBS on December 17, 2020, 07:59:25 PM
The EU Court of Justice officially ruled that EU member states need not respect freedom of religion, and approved a Belgian law (a reincarnation of a law used by the Third Reich to persecute Jews) which targets Jews and Muslims.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/145952/european-court-bans-ritual-slaughter-for-jews-and-muslims/

The ruling is about allowing member states to demand an anesthesizing of animals, before they are killed in a ritual slaughter, this due to animal welfare considerations.

For example, in DK, more than 100 mio chickens annually are turned upside down and lowered into electrified water for 5 seconds, in soft light, before their throats are cut by a machine in the halal way. It's not appetizing, but a contrary ruling could make them bleed consciously to a painful death, as pointed out by animal welfare organizations. In fact, this ruling essentially protects the ritual slaughter way for the future, facing a growing demand for animal welfare, unless you insist on anesthesizing being religiously unacceptable.

JBS

Quote from: MusicTurner on December 17, 2020, 09:46:15 PM
The ruling is about allowing member states to demand an anesthesizing of animals, before they are killed in a ritual slaughter, this due to animal welfare considerations.

For example, in DK, more than 100 mio chickens annually are turned upside down and lowered into electrified water for 5 seconds, in soft light, before their throats are cut by a machine in the halal way. It's not appetizing, but a contrary ruling could make them bleed consciously to a painful death, as pointed out by animal welfare organizations. In fact, this ruling essentially protects the ritual slaughter way for the future, facing a growing demand for animal welfare, unless you insist on anesthesizing being religiously unacceptable.

The anesthesizing procedure itself injures the animal in a way that makes it unfit to eat under the rules of kosher slaughtering. I don't know enough about the rules of halal to know if the situation is the same for halal meat.

Plus the anesthesizing procedure sounds rather painful to me. Drowning the animal for 5 seconds while being subject to eletric shock?

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

MusicTurner

#3818
Quote from: JBS on December 18, 2020, 07:33:25 AM
The anesthesizing procedure itself injures the animal in a way that makes it unfit to eat under the rules of kosher slaughtering. I don't know enough about the rules of halal to know if the situation is the same for halal meat.

Plus the anesthesizing procedure sounds rather painful to me. Drowning the animal for 5 seconds while being subject to eletric shock?

They are immediately anesthetized by the electricity, as recommended by animal welfare organizations and ethical councils.

Schächt/Shechita (the Jewish, Orthodox slaughter method not allowing anesthetizing) has been forbidden in my country since 2014. We have a rather significant Jewish community, and there seems however to be a low-key import of such meat, the local legal situation is no longer a matter of much debate (contrary to that of another religious tradition, that of male circumcision).

It is good that there is some progress in animal welfare, though there's also a long way to go. The small-scale, traditional whale killings on the Faroe islands represent such a problem too (The Faroes have a large degree of self-government, are not under Danish laws of animal welfare, and they are not in the EU). They might die out with the younger generations, or international pressure, but a severe pressure from Denmark has not taken place so far.

It does seem a possibility however, that if our societies are generally comparable in say 100-200 years into the future, and we haven't for instance sunk into some new Dark Ages, or some less biologically dependent existence, meat will mostly be artificially produced. Current experiments suggest environmental and cost benefits. It might be combined with a high-quality organic farm sector. Under such circumstances, our current attitude towards animals will likely be seen as barbaric.

JBS

Quote from: MusicTurner on December 18, 2020, 08:39:45 AM

They are immediately anesthetized by the electricity, as recommended by animal welfare organizations and ethical councils.

Schächt/Shechita (the Jewish, Orthodox slaughter method not allowing anesthetizing) has been forbidden in my country since 2014. We have a rather significant Jewish community, and there seems however to be a low-key import of such meat, the local legal situation is no longer a matter of much debate (contrary to that of another religious tradition, that of male circumcision).

It is good that there is some progress in animal welfare, though there's also a long way to go. The small-scale, traditional whale killings on the Faroe islands represent such a problem too (The Faroes have a large degree of self-government, are not under Danish laws of animal welfare, and they are not in the EU). They might die out with the younger generations, or international pressure, but a severe pressure from Denmark has not taken place so far.

It does seem a possibility however, that if our societies are generally comparable in say 100-200 years into the future, and we haven't for instance sunk into some new Dark Ages, or some less biologically dependent existence, meat will mostly be artificially produced. Current experiments suggest environmental and cost benefits. It might be combined with a high-quality organic farm sector. Under such circumstances, our current attitude towards animals will likely be seen as barbaric.

Animals seem to lose conciousness about as quickly with properly performed shechitah.

There are (per Wikipedia) 6000 Jews in Denmark vs 30000 in Belgium. Also I believe the Jews of Belgium trend more Orthodox than the Jews of Denmark.
So the impact of the legislation will be more in Belguim than it was in Denmark.   The general trend of comments I've seen tend to view it as an anti-Muslim law, with Jews being merely accidental victims.  But the crucial point is that the Court disagreed with its own Advocate General, something it rarely does.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk