No real unifying theme this week, but some interesting trivia!<\/p>\n
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To start with, have a look at these<\/a> charts<\/a> showing the bifurcation of starting salaries for lawyers in the US. Striking, isn’t it? The accompanying article is here<\/a>. The other articles at that site are also fascinating; I particularly like the explanation for why trousers are the standard garb for Western men<\/a>. Can any readers comment on the accuracy of that “trousers hypothesis”?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In other news, the World Bank has released a new report on the economics of Somali piracy<\/a>; here are two interesting<\/a> articles<\/a> on the highlights. Did you know that rank-and-file pirates “only” receive about US$30,000-US$75,000 per mission?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On a cheerier note, here is a nice BBC piece about the Thai Elephant Orchestra<\/a>, which is exactly what you’d think. The elephants’ compositions have even been played by human musicians!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From a few months back, The Economist<\/em> takes a look at the history of the Swiss embassy in Berlin<\/a>, and I do mean history — that building has seen all the highs and lows of the 20th century.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lastly, Twitter has been called “the land of the bots<\/a>“, and I’ve seen my fair share of irritating spambots; but there is also an altruistic Twitter bot out there! Here it is<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No real unifying theme this week, but some interesting trivia! To start with, have a look at these charts showing the bifurcation of starting salaries for lawyers in the US. Striking, isn’t it? The accompanying article is here. The … Continue reading
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