Remarkably raw. Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, Tim McLaughlin’s diary reveals a personal history of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
[click the image to view slideshow]
via Foreign Policy
What Victorians got right about school, and Silicon Valley has wrong | Quartz
Glenn Kelman writes:
For all the information schools impart, most are not very successful at raising students’ IQs, but many schools are very good at making their students more disciplined. And self-discipline, it turns out, is the only way to get through life in one piece; it is the trait most consistently correlated with life success.
Read more at What Victorians got right about school, and Silicon Valley has wrong – Quartz.
Australia: SMSF – a matter of self-interest
Reece Agland, senior policy adviser at the Institute of Public Accountants, compares the performance of self-managed super funds to retail and industry funds:
Let’s look at the facts. For the three most recent years where performance has been measured SMSFs out performed both retail and industry funds. The average operating cost of an SMSF fell from 0.72% of assets in 2007 down to 0.57% in 2009 – less than average costs for either industry or retail funds1. With average assets of over $888,000 in 2009/10 (up from $475,000 in 2003/4) they exceed the average assets per member compared to other types of funds. Their rate of non-compliance at 2% is at around the same for other superannuation funds and the number of funds that fail in any one year is very small.
Read more at Publicaccountant: SMSF – a matter of self-interest
Schindler's List Theme – Itzhak Perlman
Written by John Williams, played by Itzhak Perlman
http://youtu.be/XLK5OWU2YGw
John Howard interview: Assault weapons are a public safety issue not a left/right issue [video]
http://youtu.be/_CbkKYdWiS0
John Howard, the conservative former prime minister of Australia, says that pro-gun advocates in the United States are wrong to oppose an assault weapons ban like the one he pushed for after a 1996 mass shooting because public safety is not a “liberal/conservative issue.”
Howard told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that he felt “horror and shock” after a gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania on April 28, 1996.
Many within his own party opposed the newly-elected PM when he proposed a ban on private ownership of assault weapons in Australia. But statistics since then have proved him right. According to CNN, in the 18 years leading up to 1996 there were 13 gun massacres in Australia; since 1996 when the law was passed there has not been a single incident.
Published on 17 Feb 2013
P.S. Gun ownership is an emotive issue in the US. We encourage open considered debate but believe that nothing is gained by people “shouting” at each other. Any emotive posts of that ilk will end up in the trash can.
Australia: Interview with Hawke & Howard
Ray Martin’s interview with former PM’s Bob Hawke and John Howard, November 2012
Russian video of meteorite explosion
Published on 15 Feb 2013
Video Courtesy: Roman Belchenko
A meteorite explosion was seen from different regions of Russia and even from abroad – as far away as Kazakstan, where a dashboard camera belonging to Roman Belchenko captured meteorite fall. The meteorite shattered over several major cities, including Chelyabinsk, where the blast waves blew out windows and disrupted mobile service.
Revolving door may have hurt SEC money fund reforms | Reuters
Sarah N. Lynch at Reuters reports:
Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staffers who now work in the private sector may have helped derail last year’s effort to reform the $2.6 trillion money market fund industry, a report [by the Project on Government Oversight] said.
Read more at Revolving door may have hurt SEC money fund reforms: report | Reuters.
Electric version of Holden Commodore
Barry Park at Drive.com.au takes a ride in a battery-powered version of Holden’s popular family car:
EV Engineering, the Port Melbourne based start-up that has taken nine Commodore family cars, gutted them of their V6 and V8 petrol drivetrains and replaced them with swappable batteries, a recharging cord and a powerful electric motor, is finally ready to trial its technology…..On paper, the EV Engineering Commodore produces 140kW of power and an impressive 400Nm of torque almost as soon as you squeeze the throttle. Engineers wanted to match the regular Commodore’s 8.7-second sprint from rest to 100km/h, but the way the battery-powered car builds speed means it can gather the same speed within 8.5……
Read more at Drive.com.au – Electric version of Holden Commodore.
3 Reasons You Should Quit Social Media In 2013 | Forbes
J. Maureen Henderson at Forbes writes:
As an experiment, I quit the internet in September. I started with Twitter, I moved on to Facebook and ended by shuttering my blog. I didn’t stop freelancing or responding to emails, but I dropped social media and my participation in it like a hot potato and I haven’t looked back…… I had more room in my schedule for the gym. The less time I’ve spent working on my online brand, the more offline opportunities have come my way. Here are three reasons you too should disentangle yourself from the social web……
Read more at 3 Reasons You Should Quit Social Media In 2013 – Forbes.
In a nutshell: drop social media and get a life.