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When Ruth Bader Ginsburg started law school in 1956 women represented 3% of the legal profession in the U.S. It is about one third today.

A piece of advice from her mother in law has served Ginsburg well all these years. She told Ginsburg "in every good marraige it helps sometimes to be a little deaf." Meaning that if an unkind word or thoughtless word is spoken to you best to tune it out and go on anyway. This helps in the workplace. Reacting to someone's unkind words will not advance one's ability to persuade. This is why people of all kinds of persuasion and opinions liked Ginsburg including at the court her complete opposite Justice Scalia. Something we can all learn from Ginsburg.

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Spanish footballer Rodri Fernandez is one of those rare players for his humility and simple living. He studied business and economics at university while playing at Villa Real and stayed in dorm accomodation so as not to miss a class. He does not use social media as he says he does not need friends on the internet. He drove a second hand Vauxhall Corsa that he bought from an elderly lady, a car was simply a way to get from A to B. He enjoyed being with his class friends on the sofa.  It all speaks so much about Rodri and about Spanish football. 

See the Premier League's Oct 29, 2024 30 minute You Tube interview by British soccer player Frank Lampard of Rodri Fernandez, to see him up close and how he plays the game.

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Apple Music is about to overtake Spotify in the U.S. with its subscriber account base growing at 5% a month compared to 2% for Spotify. Apple Music comes in preloaded on Apple devices giving it an advantage.  Globally Spotify has twice the account subscriber base of Apple Music. Other players in the field are Pandora, Amazon and Google's You Tube for streaming music. Streaming users play a small monthly fee or put up with ads. Yet the industry of streaming music is yet to be profitable this report points out. Apple Music and Spotify both exaggerate the size of their user base. Spotify charges $9.99 a month for streaming music service, yet even after having a large subscriber base in millions it is still not making a profit. Spotify and Apple Music both offer student plans for $4.99 a month, and a family plan for 6 persons at $14.99 a month. In the free tier or initial free subscriptions period Apple Music is way ahead of Spotify, the Home Pod device adds to Apple's advantage. ...

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US president Biden's historic speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was debated and written- "We believe that all men are created equal..." Since 1776 these lines have inspired people for 200 years and Biden says they will continue to do this for the next 200 years, as America stands as a beacon for the people of the world aspiring for a better life. Click on Original Article to see the You Tube video of this speech, and see below Lincoln's speech at Independence Hall in 1861.These are also the aspirations for millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America and in the US and Europe as the door opens this much wider for people all over the world because of America. Through the War of Independence and the events of the Civil war, and other events in America's life as a nation and a beacon for the world, Independence Hall has been a special place. President Lincoln also stopped by here in 1861 on his way to the White House as the Civil War began. Here is what president Lincoln said at Independence Hall on Feb . 22, 1861. "Mr Cuyler- I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here in the place where were collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted country. I can say in return sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, from the sentiments which originated and were given to the world from this hall in which we stand. I have never had a feeling politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. (Great cheering). I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and adopted the Declaration of Independence- I have pondered over the toils of the officers and soldiers of the army, who achieved independence. (Applause). I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea that kept this confederacy so long together. It was not the mere separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. (Great applause). It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. (Cheers.) This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence." "Now, my friends can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest persons in the world if I can help to save it. If it can't be saved on that principle, it will be truly awful. But, if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle- I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than to surrender it. (Applause). ...

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This You Tube video in The Indian Express shows Indian leaders Modi, Sitharaman, president Murmu, vice president Dhankar, Chandrabbu Naidu and party leaders paying homage to the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who led the formation of the first non Congress coalition government in 1996 followed by one in 1998 and 2000-2006. Music played on this occasion were favorites of Mahatma Gandhi- Vaishna Vajana thene re kayiye- he who we call a true Vaishnava- the qualities of a true Vaishnawa. This is the classic of the 30's and 40's that won independence for India by bringing forward a new generation of leaders that would bring India forward in the 20th century. These hopes rested on the shoulders of Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru yet fell by the wayside after the early 1960's with China's invasion in 1962, India faltered with socialist ideologies and the License Raj, stymying the energies of the people, corrupt political life leading to stagnation. By late Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered an alternative and hope following the models set by Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel in word and deeds with the first non Congress governments setting the stage for Modi in 2014. ...

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In a Diwali tradition a visit by prime minister Modi to the Border areas in the Himalayas and in Rajasthan over the years including this one at Kargil in 2022 as shown in a You Tube video.

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Jancee Dunn of NYT talks to Margareta Magnusson 86 years, author of The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly. Margareta says you can be young upstairs in your head even if your joints creak. Kart besavar means dear or cherished pain, taking on an annoying obligation, to see even something that is a nuisance as something that one must find a way to cherish. Laura Carstensen at Stanford Centre for Longevity calls it finding joy with a tear in the eye. Then there are the intuitive and simple things to do- be among younger people. It is to be in tune with the young person you yourself once have been. Just ask them questions, listen to them, give them food, says Margareta. Do not accept the internalized narrative that with ageism comes rigidity. Fight this narrative and build a younger person in you on your own. One way to do this is to say yes to new things and try them out, be willing to experiment with things, the way you did when you were young.

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Closer scrutiny shows that tech companies that have gradually bought into or expanded into new technologies have market power that works to the detriment of democracy in the US. It also fuels a race of other companies with opposing views such as News Corp to use its market power resulting in rival groups not the people of the US able to form their own judgements about the best policies for the American people and the world. NY Times says of Google's Class B voting shares that have 10 votes per share giving founders Larry page and Sergey Brin control of the company that it is OK given their motto "don't be evil." Yet this advertisement of benevolence may just be a way of preventing close scrutiny of the company. Google through You Tube and Podcasts controls huge parts of the media space in 2024 in streaming services that are replacing cable television in 2024. What effect it is it having on public discourse in the US and is a separate class of voting shares a detriment to democracy? This report says NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange oppose this and this type of Class B is because it was set up before Google went public. NYTimes takes a casual approach to all this by saying it is Google followers, people who come after Brin and Page, or someone who buys the company,  who might be sloppy or greedy.  Closer scrutiny shows that tech companies that have gradually bought into or expanded into new technologies have market power that works to the detriment of democracy in the US. It also fuels a race of other companies with opposing views such as News Corp to use its market power resulting in rival groups not the people of the US able to form their own judgements about the best policies for the American people and the world. ...

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South Korea never had the benefit of representation in parliament under the Japanese the way India had in the British parliament for Naoroji and others by the 1900's, political participation in the 1920's, assembly elections in 1930's under the British. Democracy came to South Korea in 1948 in the middle of a huge war in the Korean peninsula with invasion from the North, leaving it without democratic traditions, and again in protests in 1960 against Synghman Rhee's military government. Then followed military governments by Park and Chun till 1988. Democracy is only 36 years old in South Korea since 1988. BBC gives this Special Report on President Yoon of South Korea how he was elected as a prosecutor of a right wing government and made Chief Prosecutor by left wing parties. After this appointment he investigated ministers in the left wing government. This increased his popularity but also alineated both the left and the right. Running for election as president of South Korea he won by less than one percent of the vote.  BBC talks to a Yoon primary school friend Lee who describes his interaction with his friend over many years- during which he make more introverted, angry and vehement, and after becoming president more authoritarian. The process is described by the BBC talking to other colleagues and friends of Yoon who worked with him. They found that he relied more and more on a close group of like minded right wing groups. After losing the parliamentary election by a big majority he became a lame duck but still stubbornly refused to talk to the Opposition leaders to work together. Soon he began to see them as his enemy watching too many one sided You Tube videos. The result was one day he declared martial law, creating a huge wave of  opposition by the public, the military and others. In 6 hours he had to withdraw martial law- ending his career when his impeachment was upheld today April 3, 2025 by the Constitutional Court. ...

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The concerns raised about the manner in which internet service providers make decisions about what constitutes "hate speech." The need for oversight and public scrutiny over these decisions so that they do not remain opaque, as in the case of the anti-Islamic video of Sept 2012. Tim Wu of Columbia University raises questions about the need for more clarity on how these decisions are made. Other concerns raised relate to preserving public safety.

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The origins of the crude anti-Islamic video, a 14 minute trailer, produced in S. California by Steve Klein, a Vietnam war veteran whose son was severely wounded in Iraq. He is an insurance salesman from Hemet, near Los Angeles. It was translated into Arabic and reposted twice on YouTube to Muslim viewers. Klein is known for anti-Muslim actions. It shows Egptian security forces watching as homes of Coptic Christians were burned, and then goes to cartoonish scenes showing the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a womanizer, child molester and so on. It raises many questions about how stuff that is incendiary or induces hate and violence or other material is kept off sites such as YouTube which use new technology for which there is no proper oversight representing the public interest.

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Larry Schwartz, the American diplomat in Cairo who deplored the anti-Islamic video on the Prophet Muhammad in Sept. 2012

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Germany has 4 million Muslims and Russia 13 million Muslims. Germany is considering banning the anti-Islamic video in Sept 2012. Russia will ban the video and has warned internet companies not to show the video because of its extremist content.

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France with about 6 million Muslims and a history of colonial rule in North African Arab countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and other countries) faces a challenge of integrating Muslims into French society. Germany with a large population of Turkish origin also faces a similiar challenge. The attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for poking fun at Islam, in a manner similiar to its satirical work on Catholicism, leads to the death of 12 journalists, a policeman and a policewoman. Erlanger and Bennhold describe the reaction of people in France. Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College , London, says about anti-immigrant sentiment increasing in Europe to the point where it is uncoupling working class families from the elites in Europe and reaching into the mainstream of society.

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Brazil held the Olympics and the World Soccer Cup, building new stadiums and living off the boom in oil and metals prices under previous governments. Today not only is there a lack of funding for infrastructure, healthcare, education and transportation.   This is now leading to lack of investment in healthcare services in a shocking way. The first full blown epidemic of yellow fever is hitting Brazil's cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Officials fear that it will spread in an area that has 23 million people if it hits the slums where A.aegyoti mosquitoes are to be found in swarms. Rio and Sao Paulo are trying to tackle it by vaccinating 23 million people. Yellow fever kills about 3-8% of people affected. The economic crisis with lack of funds, and the political crisis that has affected Brazil with corruption scandals has led to a delayed response, according to experts at UCLA infectious disease center.  The disease is traced to loggers and monkeys in the Amazon region which usually remains contained in that region. SInce 2016 the lack of a strong official response has led to the crisis where monkeys carry it a mile a day all the way south to the Rio and Sao Paulo region. A effective government response would have included the use of media to educate people on the need for vaccination for all except newborns and pregnant mothers. Instead social media Facebook and You Tube spread the idea that the vaccination was dangerous, anti vaccine persons who normally got no audience trashed the vaccine. So that today public health authorites have to deal with this problem. The vaccination is highly effective and invented in the 1930's, was not started till November 2016, even though the spread southward from the Amazon region started in 2016. In fact says Dr Marquez, an expert at the University of Pittsburgh, only one in 100,000 gets a reaction and one in a million dies. He says compared to this 6% of 30 million people in the region affected could lose their lives, or  2 million deaths. ...

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Charlie Hebdo weekly is part of a long tradition of satirical magazines that poke fun at leaders and organized religion including Catholicism and Islam. This dates back to the days of the French Revolution. The magazine received many threats from Islamists. In January 2015 attacks by 3 young terrorists killed 12 journalists, a policeman and a police woman.