Here’s Trouble Brief Blogs for Week Ending 2013-04-11
- Slashdot: "The Kissinger Cables" – WikiLeaks Releases 1.7M Historical Records – http://t.co/3ksXUVDjO4 2013-04-11
- Slashdot: Fake Academic Journals are a Very Real Problem – http://t.co/ZIT0KSncZs 2013-04-11
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher dies at 87
Margaret Thatcher, “The Iron Lady”, has died at the age of 87 following a stroke. I will remember her best for her interview with former Australian 60 Minutes reporter George Negus where she ‘owned’ him good. The above video is an excerpt and the complete interview can be found here:
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First Muslim British Lord Nazir Ahmed is Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorist
It is a sad fact that antisemitism is rife in the Islamic world, but it is also sad that it is rife amongst Muslims who live in Western countries, and often instilled in their locally born children.
The first Muslim member of the British House of Lords, Nazir Ahmed, was briefly imprisoned in 2009 for dangerous driving. On Christmas Day 2007, he was sending SMS text messages on his phone whilst driving and struck another car, which resulted in the death of a 28 year old man who was the passenger. He pled guilty and ended up serving a trivially short prison sentence of 16 days.
When he was interviewed in Pakistan in April 2012, he blamed his imprisonment on a crazy Jewish conspiracy:
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The Berlin Wall Reconstructed by Computer
“Walled In!” is a 10-minute computer-animated documentary, in which the Berlin Wall and the East German-West German border (Inner-German border) have been reconstructed in incredible detail.
It was produced by Deutsche Welle – Germany’s international broadcaster.
You can really get a sense of how scared the Communist government was of letting its citizens flee its repression. Amongst the most gruesome booby traps installed inside the no-mans land include:
- “Stalin’s Lawn” – sheets of vertical metal spikes, usually placed underneath the balconies of buildings that reached over the East German side of the Berlin Wall./li>
- SM-70 Antipersonnel Mines – a spring gun that fires lethal shots at defectors trying to climb the wall on the West German side of the Inner-German border.
Also fascinating were the measures taken to reduce the likelihood of the East German border guards defecting themselves.
Here is another link for more information:
Here’s Trouble Brief Blogs for Week Ending 2013-03-28
- Slashdot: Cubans evade censorship by exchanging flash drives: http://t.co/chhseRIlMY 2013-03-23
- Lifehacker: How to avoid sounding like an idiot when discussing politics – http://t.co/dcnMPaEQmJ 2013-03-26
Barack Obama’s Delivers Reassuring Speech to the Israeli People
This is President Obama’s recent speech to the Israeli people – one of the most reassuring he has made to Israelis during his presidency, explicitly acknowledging their right to a Jewish state living in security next to its Arab neighbours, backed by the strongest country in the world [the USA].
I don’t know what his true vision or policy is, but this will definitely improve his reputation amongst Israelis and American Jews who have been very anxious about him.
My only reservations are his comments insisting that the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, is a partner for peace. I am not so sure. To date, I feel that the only difference between the PA and Hamas is their strategy for eliminating Israel.
Hat tip: Israellycool – “President Obama’s Full Speech to the Israeli People”
Here’s Trouble Brief Blogs for Week Ending 2013-03-14
- GoCurrency's excellent page on the history and outlook of the Australian dollar #aud #forex #fx http://t.co/wkyouYP5jq 2013-03-11
- Obama administration to allow spy agencies to scour Americans' finances. Was this the Hope & Change you were seeking? http://t.co/jrP4sxC1TQ 2013-03-14
Here’s Trouble Brief Blogs for Week Ending 2013-03-07
- Scientific American: Why it's smart to be reckless on Wall St – http://t.co/UCvHDtQ7ny 2013-03-03
- Orit Arfa: Why Israel is losing the PR war – http://t.co/6bk7omqjM1 2013-03-05
- SmartCompany: 10 nuggets of wisdom from Warren Buffett’s latest letter to shareholders – http://t.co/G02pQ9Gdvh 2013-03-05
- New blog post: Is the Australian Dollar Overvalued? http://t.co/NeFo4EQ90c 2013-03-06
- Is the Australian Dollar Overvalued? No, it's at fair value – this article explains why: http://t.co/NeFo4EQ90c #AUD #fx #forex 2013-03-06
Is the Australian Dollar Really Overvalued?
No, the Australian dollar is definitely not overvalued – it only looks that way to some people because it has hovered around US$0.75 for 30 years, but as the world economy has changed over the last few years, so have the values of world currencies relative to each other. This has resulted in the Australian dollar being where it is currently at. In this article, we will explain why.
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Here’s Trouble Brief Blogs for Week Ending 2013-02-28
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren presses US Bank Regulators to name financial institutions taken to trial for wrongdoings: http://t.co/Jk17pmQLGF 2013-02-22
- HuffingtonPost: DRM Lawsuit Filed By Independent Bookstores Against Amazon, 'Big Six' Publishers – http://t.co/sPxL4wc8kX 2013-02-23