#global landmark

[meowtifullycute]

Eiffel Tower: Iconic Steel Wonder!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent game related things .. hrmm...

[trendynewsnow]

Herzog & de Meuron to Renovate Breuer Building for Sotheby’s Headquarters

Renovation of the Breuer Building by Herzog & de Meuron for Sotheby’s New Headquarters The acclaimed architects Herzog & de Meuron, known for their innovative designs, will undertake the renovation of the iconic Breuer building, transforming it into Sotheby’s new global headquarters. This announcement was made on Monday, coinciding with the completion of Sotheby’s acquisition of the Madison…

[kimludcom]

The Eiffel Tower: A Global Icon of Engineering Excellence https://youtu.be/ZvFrfD6KdcI?si=KlMhK-4SJEGgHN3G #kimludcom #EiffelTower #Paris #Tourism #EngineeringExcellence #ArchitecturalMarvel #GustaveEiffel #Landmarks #History #Travel #CivilEngineering #IconicStructures #WorldsFair #CulturalHeritage #EiffelTower #Paris #engineering #architecture #GustaveEiffel #history #tourism #landmarks #civilengineering #iconicstructures #WorldsFair #traveldestinations, #culturalpride #scienceandtechnology #historicalmonuments #kimlud

[worldwidebreakingnews]

The Showdown of Titans Trump vs Judge Judy - A gripping courtroom spectacle and its resounding impact on societal reflections and debates

[rabbitcruiser]

Global Wind Day

Global Wind Day is celebrated on June 15 every year. It’s an international event to raise awareness regarding the importance of wind energy and the power it holds to change the world, improve energy systems, and decarbonize economies. Investing in wind energy means spending less money on fossil fuel imports, resulting in a smaller carbon footprint and minimized CO2 for cleaner air on our planet. On this day, we learn not just about how wind power leads to a greener planet, but also about job creation and employment opportunities for many people.

History of Global Wind Day

The history of wind energy as a power source traces back thousands of years. As early as 5,000 B.C., Egyptians had already been using wind power to propel their boats on the Nile River. This was improved upon by the Chinese in 200 B.C. as they invented wind-powered water pumps. Furthermore, people from the Middle East and Persia discovered windmills with woven-reed blades to grind grain with more speed and less manpower, which eventually led to more efficient food production.

It wasn’t until the 1st century A.D. that Heron of Alexandria created the windwheel. According to historians, this was the first recorded wind-driven wheel to power a machine. It included a small windmill that powered a piston that forces air through the organ pipes. According to records, it made a sound like that of a flute.

In the Middle Ages, windmills became a popular device in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They were used to pump water and grind sugarcane, which eventually boosted their grist milling industry. This technology was ultimately brought to Northwestern Europe in 1180 and became a popular tool to grind flour — a system that still exists up to date.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, colonists brought windmills to the United States. Homesteaders and ranchers installed thousands of water pumps and small wind-electric generations in Western America.

The possibilities of wind power were further explored due to oil shortages in the 1970s. This forced everyone to find an alternative source of energy to generate electricity. Due to this scarcity, the U.S. federal government installed thousands of wind turbines in California to encourage the use of renewable energy sources. By 2020, the U.S. share of electricity generation via wind power grew to 8.4% — a huge spike compared to the 1990s 1%.

Global Wind Day timeline

1st Century A.D. The First Wind-Powered Machine

Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria discovers the first wind-driven wheel that powers a machine.

1180s Vertical Windmills

Northwestern Europe uses vertical windmills to grind flour.

1900s 2,500 Windmills Reaches 30 Megawatts

About 2,500 windmills in Denmark produce a combined power of 30 megawatts used to grind grains and pump water.

1970s Global Oil Shortage

The global oil shortage leads people to explore wind energy in a more advanced manner to be an alternative to electricity.

1980s Wind Turbines in California

The U.S. Federal Government installs thousands of wind turbines in California in support of renewable energy sources.

Global Wind Day FAQs

What are the types of wind energy?

The three main types of wind energy are utility-scale wind, offshore wind, and distributed wind.

What are four manufacturers in the world that uses wind turbines?

Vestas (Denmark), Siemens Gamesa (Spain), Goldwind (China), and General Electric (U.S.)

Which country uses the most wind power?

China uses the most wind power, generating approximately 236,402 megawatts in 2019 alone.

How to Observe Global Wind Day

Fly a kite outside

Attend seminars about wind energy

Take it to social media

This may sound like a simple activity, but flying a kite outside is an effective way to explain to your kids how wind energy works. Discuss how wind power propels the kite to stay afloat in the air. It’s also a great bonding activity that’s both fun and educational.

In an era where the climate crisis is peaking, wind energy is the future. Attend seminars on Global Wind Day to learn about the benefits and new technologies of wind energy as an alternative power source. Educating yourself is key.

Raise awareness about wind energy and its benefits on social media. Share scholarly articles or Global Wind Day event pages to your newsfeed. Use the hashtag #GlobalWindEnergy and keep your friends and family in the loop about one of the most pivotal solutions to decarbonizing the planet.

5 Interesting Facts About Wind Energy

The wind industry solves employment problems

The first modern turbine

Commercial turbines are powerful

The largest wind turbine

It doesn’t need water

The wind industry employs 650,000 people in different capacities around the world.

The first modern turbine was built in Vermont, U.S.

One commercial wind turbine can provide power to 600 homes.

The largest wind turbine was created in Hawaii, which stands 20 stories tall and each blade is as long as a football field.

Wind energy is the only power source that doesn’t need water.

Why Global Wind Day is Important

It’s for the good of the planet

It raises awareness

Wind energy is cost-effective

With the rise of global warming and other crises, wind energy is one solution to help lessen pollutants. Its long-term effects are advantageous to the new generation and to the generations that will come after.

People need to be proactive in highlighting the benefits of wind energy so that companies, governments, and other industries will adopt this technology as an alternative power source. The only way to make them proactive is to raise awareness. Education is key.

Global Wind Day helps us support the cost-effectiveness of wind energy. It’s one of the lowest-priced energy sources known today, which could potentially lower federal taxes.

Source

[landmarkglobal]

Jakie znaczenie mają usługi kurierskie dla firm?

Efektywna logistyka jest kluczowym elementem sukcesu każdego biznesu. Dlatego też na rynku pojawiło się wiele biznesów oferujących profesjonalne usługi kurierskie dla firm. Dlaczego warto znaleźć partnera w obszarze dostaw, transportu i logistyki? O tym w poniższym artykule!

Co wchodzi w skład usług kurierskich?

Usługi kurierskie odgrywają kluczową rolę w funkcjonowaniu wielu firm, niezależnie od ich branży i rozmiaru. Są nieodłącznym elementem dzisiejszej działalności biznesowej. Pomagają firmom zapewnić efektywną dostawę, obsłużyć klientów i partnerów biznesowych na całym świecie, a także skupić się na swoim głównym obszarze działalności. Dlatego też są one kluczowym elementem sukcesu wielu firm.

Zapewniają firmom szybką i niezawodną dostawę towarów, dokumentów czy innych przesyłek. Dzięki temu firmy mogą dostarczać produkty klientom na czas, co wpływa pozytywnie na ich reputację i lojalność klientów.

Wiele firm oferuje narzędzia do śledzenia przesyłek online. To daje klientom i firmom pełną kontrolę nad dostawami, umożliwiając monitorowanie statusu i lokalizacji przesyłek w czasie rzeczywistym.

Usługi kurierskie dla firm od Landmark Global

W dobie handlu internetowego zapewnienie sprawnego łańcucha dostaw to klucz do sukcesu. Landmark Global oferuje rozwiązania logistyczne dedykowane e-commerce, które pozwalają sklepom internetowym obsługiwać klientów na całym świecie. Nowoczesna technologia i doświadczenie pomagają zoptymalizować procesy magazynowe i dostawcze. Sprawdź ofertę usług kurierskich dla firm i działaj mądrze!

[sayruq]

An unprecedented number of countries and international organizations are expected to participate in the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) oral hearings on Israel’s occupation beginning February 19, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Fifty-two countries and three international organizations will participate in the oral proceedings, more than in any other case since the world’s highest court began functioning in 1946. The broad participation in the hearings and the many written submissions reflect growing global momentum to address the decades-long failure to ensure respect for international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “The International Court of Justice is set for the first time to broadly consider the legal consequences of Israel’s nearly six-decades-long occupation and mistreatment of the Palestinian people,” said Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Governments that are presenting their arguments to the court should seize these landmark hearings to highlight the grave abuses Israeli authorities are committing against Palestinians, including the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”

[thenerdsofcolor]

‘Citadel’ Star Priyanka Chopra Jonas on What the Role of Nadia Means to Her

NOC Interview: ‘Citadel’ Star Priyanka Chopra Jonas on What the Role of Nadia Means to Her @priyankachopra @CitadelonPrime #CitadelOnPrime @PrimeVideo @AmazonStudios

Priyanka Chopra Jonas portrays Nadia Sinh in the highly anticipated action-spy thriller, Citadel, which is the debut of a landmark global franchise. The first two episodes are now streaming on Prime Video and new episodes will premiere weekly.  Continue reading Untitled

[inkdesigncrafts]

Introducing the "Wonders of the World" digital sticker package - a magnificent collection of seven vibrant and captivating stickers that showcase some of the world's most iconic landmarks and attractions.

Take a journey through time with stickers featuring the ancient Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the stunning Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the tallest structures of the ancient world.

Experience the natural beauty of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the most fascinating and mysterious wonders of the ancient world, and the grandeur of the Great Wall of China, one of the most impressive engineering feats in human history.

Admire the modern architectural marvels of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Colosseum in Rome, both of which are iconic symbols of their respective cities.

Finally, add a touch of sophistication to your digital conversations with the Big Ben sticker, featuring the world-famous clock tower in London.

These stickers are perfect for travel enthusiasts, history buffs, or anyone who appreciates the beauty and wonder of our world's most incredible landmarks.

[reasonsforhope]

"In a landmark move towards ending statelessness, Thailand’s cabinet has approved an accelerated pathway to permanent residency and nationality for nearly half a million stateless people, marking one of the region’s most significant citizenship initiatives. 

The decision announced on Friday [November 1, 2024] will benefit 335,000 longtime residents and members of officially recognized minority ethnic groups, along with approximately 142,000 of their children born in Thailand.

“This is a historic development,” said Ms. Hai Kyung Jun, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Bureau Director for Asia and the Pacific. The measure is expected to dramatically reduce statelessness, addressing the situation of the majority of nearly 600,000 people currently registered as stateless in the country.

Thailand’s commitment to eradicating statelessness has positioned the Government as a leader in addressing this humanitarian challenge, the agency said.

The country recently pledged at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 to resolve statelessness and was among the founding members of the Global Alliance to End Stateless, an initiative launched by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in Geneva last month...

UNHCR has expressed its commitment to continue working closely with the Royal Thai Government on the implementation of this groundbreaking decision and to ending statelessness overall."

-via United Nations News, November 1, 2024

[no-passaran]

In the weeks since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and destroyed thousands of homes in the territory.

And there have also been tremendous losses to the region's ancient and globally significant cultural heritage. The region was a hub for commerce and culture under Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine rule. It remained influential for centuries thereafter.

A recent survey by the group Heritage for Peace details the damage done so far to more than 100 of these landmarks in Gaza since the start of the present conflict.

The casualties include the Great Omari Mosque, one of the most important and ancient mosques in historical Palestine; the Church of Saint Porphyrius, thought to be the third oldest church in the entire world; a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery in northern Gaza excavated only last year; and the Rafah Museum, a space in southern Gaza which was dedicated to teaching about the territory's long and multi-layered heritage — until it was hammered by airstrikes early on in the conflict. (...)

"If this heritage be no more in Gaza, it will be a big loss of the identity of the people in Gaza," said Isber Sabrine, president of Heritage for Peace, in an interview with NPR. (...)

"The people in Gaza, they have the right to keep and to save this heritage, to tell the history, the importance of this land," he said.

The 1954 Hague Convention, agreed to by Palestinians and Israelis, is supposed to safeguard landmarks from the ravages of war. But landmarks in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli strikes in earlier rounds of fighting. Dozens of sites, including the now-obliterated Great Omari Mosque, suffered damage in 2014. A report by UNESCO, the United Nations body that designates and protects World Heritage sites, cites further destruction to cultural and historic sites in Gaza in 2021. (...)

Destruction of historical sites and other cultural sites is part of genocide, it's the destruction of the proof of a people's relationship to the land and a horrible emotional blow at the community. UNESCO must act immediately against Israel's destruction of Palestinian heritage, and every country and international organism must expel Israel and impose sanctions to make the genocide and apartheid end.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Of course we can tax billionaires

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

Billionaires are pretty confident that they can't be taxed – not just that they shouldn't be taxed, but rather, that it is technically impossible to tax the ultra-rich. They're not shy about explaining why, either – and neither is their army of lickspittles.

If it's impossible to tax billionaires, then anyone who demands that we tax billionaires is being childish. If taxing billionaires is impossible, then being mad that we're not taxing billionaires is like being mad at gravity.

Boy is this old trick getting old. It was already pretty thin when Margaret Thatcher rolled it out, insisting that "there is no alternative" to her program of letting the rich get richer and the poor go hungry. Dressing up a demand ("stop trying to think of alternatives") as a scientific truth ("there is no alternative") sets up a world where your opponents are Doing Ideology, while you're doing science.

Billionaires basically don't pay tax – that's a big part of how they got to be billionaires:

https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files

By cheating on their taxes, they get to keep – and invest – more money than less-rich people (who get to keep more money than regular people and poor people, obvs). They get so much money that they can "invest" it in corrupting the political process, for example, by flushing vast sums of dark money into elections to unseat politicians who care about finance crime and replace them with crytpo-friendly lawmakers who'll turn a blind eye to billionaires' scams:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/14/silicon-valley-the-new-lobbying-monster

Once someone gets rich enough, they acquire impunity. They become too big to fail. They become too big to jail. They become too big to care. They buy presidents. They become president.

A decade ago, Thomas Piketty published his landmark Capital in the 21st Century, tracing three centuries of global capital flows and showing how extreme inequality creates political instability, leading to bloody revolutions and world wars that level the playing field by destroying most of the world's capital in an orgy of violence, with massive collateral damage:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/06/24/thomas-pikettys-capital-in-the-21st-century/

Piketty argued that unless we taxed the rich, we would attain the same political instability that provoked the World Wars, but in a nuclear-tipped world that was poised on the brink of ecological collapse. He even laid out a program for this taxation, one that took accord of all the things rich people would try to hide their assets.

Today, the destruction that Piketty prophesied is on our doorstep, and all over the world, political will is gathering to do something about our billionaire problem. The debate rages from France to dozen-plus US states that are planning wealth taxes on the ultra-rich.

Wherever that debate takes hold, billionaires and their proxies pop up to tell us that we're Doing Ideology, that there is no alternative, and that it is literally impossible to tax the ultra-rich.

In a new blog post, Piketty deftly demolishes this argument, showing how thin the arguments for the impossibility of a billionaire tax really is:

https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/piketty/2024/10/15/how-to-tax-billionaires/

First, there's the argument that the ultra-rich are actually quite poor. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg don't have a lot of money, they have a lot of stock, which they can't sell. Why can't they sell their stock? You'll hear a lot of complicated arguments about illiquidity and the effect on the share-price of a large sell-off, but they all boil down to this: if we make billionaires sell a bunch of their stock, they will be poorer.

No duh.

Piketty has an answer to the liquidity crisis of our poormouthing billionaires:

If finding a buyer is challenging, the government could accept these shares as payment for taxes. If necessary, it could then sell these shares through various methods, such as offering employees to purchase them, which would increase their stake in the company.

Though Piketty doesn't say so, billionaires are not actually poor. They have fucktons of cash, which they acquire through something called "buy, borrow, die," which allows them to create intergenerational dynastic wealth for their failsons:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-borrow-die-rich-avoid-140004536.html

Billionaires know they're not poor. They even admit it, when they say, "Okay, but the other reason it's impossible to tax us is that we're richer and therefore more powerful than the governments that want to try it."

Piketty points out the shell-game at the core of this argument: the free movement of money that allows for tax-dodging was created by governments. They made these laws, so they can change them. Governments that can't exercise their sovereign power to tax the wealthy end up taxing the poor, eroding their legitimacy and hence their power. Taxing the rich – a wildly popular move – will make governments more powerful, not less.

Big countries like the US (and federations like the EU) have a lot of power. The US ended Swiss banking secrecy and manages to tax Americans living abroad. There's no reason that France couldn't pass a wealth-tax that applies to people based on their historical residency: a 51 year old French billionaire who decamps to Switzerland to duck a wealth tax after 50 years in France could be held liable for 50/51 of the wealth tax.

The final argument Piketty takes up is the old saw that taxing the rich is illegal, or, if it were made legal, would be unconstitutional. As Piketty says, rich people have taken this position every single time they faced meaningful tax enforcement, and they have repeatedly lost this fight. France has repeatedly levied wealth taxes, as long ago as 1789 and as recently as 1945.

Taxing the ultra-rich isn't like the secret of embalming Pharaohs – it's not a lost art from a fallen civilization. The US top rate of tax in 1944 was 97%. The postwar top rate from 1945-63 was 94%, and it was 70% from 1965-80. These was the period of the largest expansion of the US economy in the nation's history. These are the "good old days" Republicans say they want to return to.

The super-rich keep getting richer. In France, the 500 richest families were worth a combined €200b in 2010. Today, it's €1.2 trillion. No wonder a global wealth tax is at the top of the agenda for next month's G20 Summit in Rio.

Here in the US – where money can easily move across state lines and where multiple states are racing each other to the bottom to be the best onshore-offshore tax- and financial secrecy-haven – state-level millionaire taxes are kicking ass.

Massachusetts's 2024 millionaire tax has raised more than $1.8b, exceeding all expectations (it was originally benchmarked at $1b), by taxing annual income in excess of $1m at an additional 4%:

https://www.boston.com/news/business/2024/05/21/heres-how-much-the-new-massachusetts-millionaires-tax-has-raised-this-year/

This is exactly the kind of tax that billionaires say is impossible. It's so easy to turn ordinary income in sheltered income – realizing it as a capital gain, say – so raising taxes on income will do nothing. Who are you gonna believe, billionaires or the 1.8 billion dead presidents lying around the Massachusetts Department of Revenue?

But say you are worried that taxing ordinary income is a nonstarter because of preferential capital gains treatment. No worry, Washington State has you covered. Its 7% surcharge on capital gains in excess of $250,000 also exceeded all expectations, bringing in $600m more than expected in its first year – a year when the stock market fell by 25%:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/when-the-tide-goes-out/#passive-income

Okay, but what if all those billionaires flee your state? Good riddance, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. All we need is an exit tax, like the one in California, which levies a one-time 0.4% tax on net worth over $30m for any individual who leaves the state.

Billionaires are why we can't have nice things – a sensible climate policy, workers' rights, a functional Supreme Court and legislatures that answer to the people, rather than deep-pocketed donors.

The source of billionaires' power isn't mysterious: it's their money. Take away the money, take away the power. With more than a dozen states considering wealth taxes, we're finally in a race to the top, to see which state can attack the corrosive power of extreme wealth most aggressively.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/15/piketty-pilled/#tax-justice