Friday, April 23, 2021

On Tuesday, Finance Minister of Ireland Paschal Donohoe criticised talks co-ordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for a global minimum corporate tax rate, arguing smaller countries like Ireland “need to be able to use tax policy as a legitimate lever to compensate for the real, material and persistent advantage enjoyed by larger countries”.

Speaking to virtual attendees at a virtual seminar about international tax, Donohoe said any deal must “accommodate Ireland’s 12.5% rate”. This 12.5% rate benefits large corporations including Apple, Google and Facebook which account for one in eight jobs in the country. According to CNBC, corporate tax receipts in Ireland totalled €11.8 billion in 2020, and the Department of Finance has projected, according to The Irish Times that figure increase from €11.6 billion in 2021 to €12.5 billion by 2025.

Donohoe also said Ireland’s low taxes serve as an incentive to attract jobs and investment, saying while he supported an agreement with “appropriate and acceptable tax competition”, it must be lower than the 21% proposed by the United States.

Donohoe said nations should recognise the low tax rates present in Ireland and other small countries, citing “advantages of scale, location, resources, industrial heritage” present in larger ones. Defending his own long-established rate, Donohoe said a 12.5% rate is “within the ambit of healthy tax competition” as a rate which “stimulate[s] investment, growth and innovation, which are core to Ireland’s industrial policy”. According to The Guardian, current proposals would shrink Ireland’s corporate tax base by 20%; and tax receipts to be €2 billon lower than it would otherwise be in 2025, per Irish Department of Finance.

Brian Keegan, the director of public policy at Chartered Accountants Ireland said it was “not tax change, it’s political change”. Head of tax for the OECD Pascal Saint-Amans said “there is a new dynamic that is likely to bring us to a resolution”, and the US’ willingness to address expressed concerns simplifies an admittedly-complex blueprint.

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Finance told CNBC on Monday “political level discussions on these issues have not yet taken place”.

The Guardian reported many companies in Ireland pay less on revenues as compared to other countries; with Apple paying as little as 0.005% in 2014. A European Commission ruling in 2016 ordered Apple to pay €13 billion it owed back taxes to the Government of Ireland ; it was struck down in July on the grounds “[t]he commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage.”

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, or “black boxes”, from an Air France plane that crashed on June 1 last year in the Atlantic Ocean, have been localized to within about 2 square miles (5 square kilometers), a French official said on Thursday.

The French government and military officials have urged caution, saying there is no guarantee the flight recorders will be found. French navy spokesman Hugues du Plessis d’Argentre commented to AFP, “[I]t’s like trying to find a shoe box in an area the size of Paris, at a depth of 3,000m (9,800ft) and in a terrain as rugged as the Alps.”

The aircraft, an Airbus A330-200, carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, for a total of 228 people on board, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean after flying in bad weather. The pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, are considered likely to have been a contributing factor to the crash. However, the actual cause has yet to be determined.

The search is now in its third phase, which started on March 30 – April 1, 2010 and was originally announced to last 30 days. However, on May 4, the search was extended to May 25.

Monday, February 17, 2014

On Friday afternoon, amateur shooters were briefed about a three-year-long trial of hunting in national parks of New South Wales, Australia. The meeting was held in Griffith near Cocopara Nature Reserve, where the first shooting operation of the trial was to occur on Saturday, targeting the feral goats.

The National Parks Wildlife Service (NPWS) has used aerial culls and baiting to reduce Cocoparra’s goat population, but there are said to be thousands of goats at the reserve. The feral animals to be hunted in other reserves may include cats, deer, dogs, and pigs, beside goats — depending on the reserve.

Shooters in the supplementary pest control trial were to be closely supervised by rangers, as the trial was monitored and its effectiveness evaluated. In a partnership of NPWS and the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc, qualified volunteers were recruited, under the Sporting Shooters Association’s hunting program. According to Mick O’Flynn, the Acting Director Park Conservation and Heritage with the NPWS, the four shooters selected for the first shooting operation received comprehensive safety and training instruction.

Following announcement of the close partnership of shooters with NWPS staff, the Greens cancelled planned picketing of the first shooting operation. However, State Greens MP (Member of Parliament) David Shoebridge warned, “This needs to be a government-run program, not run by the biggest gun lobby group in Australia”. He called limiting the meeting to members of the Sporting Shooters Association “outrageous”. Another concern raised by the Greens was the danger of armed people, not only to animals, but also to people visiting the national parks, should the shooters be unsupervised after the trial.

The trial was announced in the second half of 2013, though the plan has been significantly modified over time and has come to be regulated under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, in contrast with the original proposal of recreational hunting in national parks, as it was announced in May 2012 by New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell. This amendment of the Game and Feral Animal Control Act was part of a deal with the Shooters and Fishers Party. The government needed at least one vote from a Shooters and Fishers Party MP to pass electricity privatisation legislation, as both Labor and Greens opposed it. O’Farrell’s plans to allow pest control by licensed individuals called for licencing by the Game Council of New South Wales.

Following a report sharply criticizing the Game Council, the government dissolved it in mid-2013, suspended hunting on public lands, and reconsidered the plan to allow amateur hunters into national parks — thus breaking the earlier promise to the Shooters and Fishers Party.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Friday, December 23, 2005File:LSD blotter paper.jpg

Erowid, a website with the stated mission of “Documenting the Complex Relationship Between Humans & Psychoactives” has over the past few months been gathering data through a series of surveys about the drug LSD to present at the LSD Symposium, scheduled for January 2006 in Basel, Switzerland.

The website, a popular resource of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals, recently posted its fifth survey, querying users about their age, the number of times they’ve taken LSD and how that would be affected if LSD was legal. Past surveys have been longer and more thorough, asking users about the availability of the drug, positive and negative experiences, and if they’ve ever experienced LSD related “flashbacks”.

The LSD Symposium website states that it will include a panel of over sixty experts from around the world discussing a wide range of topics regarding LSD. Topics scheduled include, “The Discovery of LSD-25”, “Appraisal of Albert Hofmann’s life work” and “The History of Drug Policy” and several others.

LSD is a psychedelic drug known for its mind altering effects, including both visual and auditory hallucinations. LSD was first synthesized by Albert Hofmann in 1938. Hofmann, a Swiss chemist discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD on April 16, 1943 when he accidentally absorbed it in its liquid form through his finger tips. Since then, it has been made illegal in most countries as a result of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances which requires all parties of the convention to criminalize it in their countries.

Erowid, based in California, was created in October 1995, and is hailed by many as a reliable resource for information on drug and drug culture. The website includes information on legality issues, chemical information, user submitted experiences, positive and negative effects of individual drugs and other information.

• “The Vaults of Erowid” — Erowid, December 23, 2005
• “LSD Symposium” — Gaia Media Foundation, December 23, 2005

• “LSD” — Wikipedia, December 23, 2005

• “Albert Hofmann” — Wikipedia, December 23, 2005