Day: October 6, 2016

Geography lesson: The majority of the world’s population lives inside this circle

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❝ The circle holds 22 of the world’s 37 megacities – massive cities that hold at least 10 million inhabitants. It also includes the five most populous cities on the planet: Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Karachi, and Shanghai, which alone combine to hold 144.5 million people…

❝ The circle contains a lot of people, but it also has:

The highest mountain (Everest)
The deepest ocean trench (Mariana)
More Muslims than outside of it.
More Hindus than outside of it.
More Buddhists than outside of it.
More communists than outside of it.
The most sparsely populated country on earth (Mongolia)

Thanks, Barry Ritholtz

Cripes! Even America’s favorite cons are being outsourced

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❝ Police in India say they have arrested 70 call centre workers on suspicion of tricking American citizens into sending them money by posing as US tax officials.

A total of 772 workers were arrested on Wednesday in raids on nine fake call centres in a Mumbai suburb…

An estimated $36.5 million was extorted from Americans, police said.

❝ Seventy were placed under formal arrest, 630 were released pending questioning over the coming days, and 72 were freed without further investigation.

“The motive was earning money,” said Parag Marere, a deputy commissioner of police. “They were running an illegal process, posing themselves as officers of the [US] Internal Revenue Service.”

Marere said the year-long scam involved running fake call centres that sent voicemail messages telling US nationals to call back because they owed back taxes.

Those who called back and believed the threats would fork out thousands of dollars to “settle” their case, he said. The scam brought in more than $150,000 a day…

Americans are so fracking gullible. You get a voicemail telling you to callback the IRS – without ever checking on the phone number. You’re only calling back – much of the time – because you know you’ve been Trumping your tax bill, anyway. If they can pump you for how much you think you owe – it’s only a matter of playing the fish until you’re landed. You can go higher or lower. It’s all in the game.

Somewhere along the line you might notice your IRS agent has an accent. Perfectly reasonable in a nation of immigrants. If the boiler room is like most I’ve heard, you should also detect conversational background noise. And if everyone has the same accent – you’re in trouble, Bubba. The IRS doesn’t restrict hiring to any one ethnicity. 🙂

Republicans want to turn millions of acres of public land and Ute tribal lands over to fossil fuel companies

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❝ An unprecedented coalition of Native American tribes has come together to protect these lands. They include members of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe…The proposed Public Lands Initiative (PLI) would appropriate 26 percent of Ute reservation lands and would favor mining interests over land conservation.

❝ A poll conducted in May 2016 found that 71 percent of Utah voters support the Bears Ears national monument – and oppose the land grab PLI. Support was widespread across geographic regions, age, gender and political party affiliation. The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Washington Post have all come out in support of the national monument.

❝ Standing Rock has brought together 200 tribes, many sending representatives to the protest site from faraway states. The Chicago Tribune wrote, “Many of the Native Americans who have come here speak of a spiritual reawakening taking place.” Their next battleground may be in southeastern Utah.

Maybe it’s time for Anglos to get off their collective rusty dusties and join with Native American folk to fight back against more destruction of natural beauty in the name of profit.