7 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2019
    1. In the United States, the average cost of installing those countertops runs from $2,000 to $8,000, but the price charged by Indian exporters for polished red granite is just $5 to $15 per square meter—that comes to about $100 for all the granite your kitchen needs

      It reminds me of how within my lifetime the cost of Quinoa has risen from dirt cheap in Peru to nearly costing a leg when comparing prices from then and now. Cha-ching!

    2. Environmentalists are right to call for laws and treaties that will apply to the community of nations, but that is not enough.

      Not at all with the 1000 lb gorilla (aka the USA) down playing such concerns at international conferences.

    3. Laws and treaties may control law-abiding individuals, corporations, and governments, but not the criminal slaveholders who flout the gravest of laws.

      Of which they will wake up when they are in front of an international tribunal/ their home country decides to add more power to the judiciary.

    4. That cutting and digging moves like a scythe through the most protected parts of our natural world—nature reserves, protected forests, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

      Oh yeah the same UNESCO that told us that this would be protected?

      https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/d3jbk7/drone-footage-shows-extent-of-damage-from-greenpeace-stunt-at-nazca-lines

      A stunt like this, using slaves or not does not protect a UNESCO World Heritage Site from getting defaced/destroyed

    5. We pull food from the earth, of course, but we also pull our cellphones from the earth, our clothing, our computers, our flat-screen televisions, our cars—it all comes from the earth, ultimately.

      A grand difference is that food is renewable, raw materials that make up electronics are less so...

    6. Rules abound about funerals and tombstones—even the size, quality, and form of coffins and crypts are officially regulated. All this leads to a darkly humorous yet common saying: “If you feel unwell, take a vacation—you can’t afford to die in Germany.”

      I don't think I have expected anything less out of the Germans.

    7. We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones.

      Oh I certainly never have at all.