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Source: Women in the United States Congress: 1917-2009 and African American Members of the United States Congress: 1870 - 2009

16.8% women... and we insisted that Iraq set up a quota of 25% of seats in their parliament for women (something that would be totally unacceptable to many at home...)! From the report: "The percentage of voting female representation in Congress (16.8%) is slightly lower than averages of female representation in other countries. Women represent 18.4% of national legislative seats across the entire world. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which maintains a database of worldwide female representation, ranks the United States 70th worldwide..."

Mental health break

The boyz... Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's...

The margin

Sometimes the margin between hero and/or goat is extremely narrow... Recover the onside kick, score, and win... hero. Fail to recover the onside kick and lose... goat. SB XLIV Can't-Miss Play: Saints' surprise.

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Un billet de zéro roupie pour lutter contre la corruption en Inde

A zero rupee note to fight corruption in India

Une ONG du Tamil Nadu a mis en place un stratagème ingénieux pour déstabiliser les fonctionnaires corrompus : un billet de zéro roupie, symbole d’une volonté d’éradiquer une pratique généralisée dont pâtissent les plus pauvres en Inde.An NGO in Tamil Nadu has put in place a clever ploy to destabilize corrupt officials: a zero-rupee note, a symbol of the determination to eradicate a widespread practice that hurts the poorest in India.

Glisser discrètement un billet entre le mains d'un fonctionnaire pour faire avancer un dossier reste une pratique courante, voire conseillée, dans de nombreux pays. C'est notamment le cas de l'Inde qui, selon Transparency International, devancerait même des pays comme la Georgie ou le Swaziland en matière de corruption.

Discreetly slipping a bill into the hands of an official to get an application advanced is a common, even recommended, practice in many countries. This is particularly the case in India which, according to Transparency International, is even worse than countries like Georgia or Swaziland as far as corruption is concerned.

Pour remédier à ce problème presistant, l'ONG 5th Pillar (cinquième pilier), basée à Chennai, a mis en place une opération originale qui s'inscrit dans la digne lignée de la philosophie gandhienne, afin de protester contre les pots-de-vins: un billet de zéro roupie à offrir à toute personne cherchant à se faire graisser la patte. Il y a même fort à parier que c'est l'unique billet sur lequel le Mahatma aurait été fier de voir imprimer son portrait.

To remedy this persistant problem the NGO '5th Pillar' (Fifth Pillar) based in Chennai has developed an original idea worthy of the tradition of Gandhian philosophy in order to protest against bribes: a zero-rupee note to deliver to any person seeking to have his palm geased. It is even likely that it is the only ticket on which the Mahatma would have been proud to see his portrait printed.

Read the rest of the article here.

Fantastic idea!

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Source: Reconstructing the CIA bombing

Random charts

Source: The President's Bigger Budget. Looks at the President's propsed FY 2011 budget (the fiscal year starting on October 1st, 2010)...

Great quotes

"An attempted attack the priority is certain, I would say." - Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence. The occasion was his appearance before the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence, and this was his response when Senator Diane Feinstein asked: "What is the likelihood of another terrorist attempted attack on the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months, high or low? Director Blair?"