Author Archives: Chompsky

Animation: Obsolete

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robot robot2

Smoking Robot (graphic design students Lewis Gray & Esra Guldal) say:

Obsolete tells the story of a robot starting work in a decrepit toy factory. Trapped in the factory all its life it is curious about the outside world, watching a bird through the factory wall each day. When it mistakes a toy on the production line for the bird one day it sets the robot’s escape in motion.

curiousbrain

They’re On To Us

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51DD7090-2791-444E-9239-AB49514F7691_w640_r1_s_cx0_cy10_cw0Members of the US Senate’s Permanent Committee on Investigation including chairman Senator Carl Levin (left) and Sen John McCain.

UPDATE:

 

 

cookThe investigation by the committee into Apple’s tax affairs has thrown up some glaring contradictions.

Tim Cook Apple CEO (above) has confirmed it has negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2%.

But the Department of Finance says:“We do not have a special extra low corporation tax rate for multinational companies. Ireland’s tax system is statute based so there is no possibility of individual special tax rate deals for companies.”

The report suggests the Irish government is taxing profits made by Apple and other companies at rates below the 12.5% standard.

But the Department of Finance says: “All companies in Ireland pay the standard 12.5% rate on their trading profits arising in Ireland and reports of lower effective tax rates appear to arrive at their figures by running together the profits earned by group companies in Ireland and in other jurisdictions and incorrectly suggesting that Irish tax does or should apply to both,”

Hmm.

Ireland Defends Corporate Tax System (4Traders)

Apple grilled about tax haven (CNN)

Earlier: Meanwhile, In Cork (Via Elsewhere)

Gear Chandeliers

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light-1 light-3 light-4 light-5 light-6 light-7Ballroom Luminoso – a series of six LED-lit chandeliers made from structural steel and ‘medallions’ recycled from bike sprockets. Designed by artists Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock, the chandeliers are currently installed, and lit by night, beneath an overpass in San Antonio, Texas. The artists say:

 The medallions are a play on the iconography of La Loteria, which has become a touchstone of Hispanic culture. Utilizing traditional tropes like La Escalera (the Ladder), La Rosa (the Rose), and La Sandía (the Watermelon), the piece alludes to the neighborhood’s farming roots and horticultural achievements. Each character playfully rides a bike acting as a metaphor for the neighborhood’s environmental progress, its concurrent eco-restoration projects, and its developing cycling culture.

colossal

The Star Bungled Spanner

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starsapngledfail

French Canadian folk singer Alexis Normand makes a cringeworthy bags of the American National Anthem before the 2013 Memorial Cup game between the Portland Winterhawks and the Halifax Mooseheads.

Thinking she’d memorised the Star Spangled Banner correctly, she went wrong after the third line, filling in with gibberish to bridge to the finale.

Afterwards, mortified, she took to Twitter to apologise, the pet.


22words

Any excuse.