🎓 Dr. Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@qoto.org

this is pretty cool.

@purple@nya.social @sev @p

Something to contemplate

Antiguo, pero hipnotizante.

@freemo I don't knowwwwww...as a strongly pro life guy j hate the idea of people needlessly dying. Civil wars gets this whole thing over with but I just don't think it's worth the human bloodshed

@freemo
Yep. The universe observed itself through us.
@crackurbones

@freemo
some context for @stux :-
This black kitty I found starving and afraid in the back of my house. I kept and fed him for three days (this was the first ever cat I kept) while searching someone who can adopt him.
Now he lives happily with his adopter.

An antique I just purchased. It is a page from a handwritten bible from 1480 (yes, 541 years old). It is in latin, with ornate capitals, and amazingly the red is still very vibrant and the gold gilding on the Q very much in tact.

For those interested it is the Book of Hours psalms.

I decided to take some extremely high resolution scans before sealing it in some acrylic and prepare it to be framed. Will put it on my wall tomorrow.

#Religion #Christianity #History #bible #writing #Antique #Calligraphy #Psalm #Psalms

Great biodiversity project!

Restor https://restor.eco, a science-based open data platform, bringing transparency and ecological insights to restoration efforts around the world.

@TWCrowther@twitter.com's TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_crowther_the_global_movement_to_restore_nature_s_biodiversity
Interview by @TEDchris@twitter.com: https://podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/can-planting-trees-really-stop-climate-change-thomas/id1437306870?i=1000524907297

@freemo https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

@freemo @ejg I agree with what @freemo points out. People get outraged about how rich somebody is. And that is true. Except huge part of that wealth is only on paper in the fluctuating value of financial (and other assets). But nobody pays taxes over their net worth increases, we pay taxes from realised income.

Anyhow, these concepts have issues. For instance where I live, it can happen that you own say 50 shares of a startup (let it be 50%) which is worth 1000 bucks starting capital, then the next day investor comes along, buys another half for 1Mio bucks and the third day you have the tax office on your neck to pay taxes from a wealth increase (income) of 999k bucks, while all along your cash position did not change at all.

What I am trying to point out is this: Whenever people complain about rich people not paying tax on their wealth increases, the real question to them should be:
1. So how exactly will you legislate it so as not to harm everybody along the way?
2. And suppose if we all pay taxes even over wealth increases which are only on paper (because the stock you own or control went up due to market fluctuations, or geopolitics), what will we do when next year a person's net worth actually decreases? Will the tax office reimburse us, or what?

These are just headlines to cause outrage, nothing else. What actually helps is to tighten up the laws about income taxation and also classification what constitutes income and what does not. If e.g., Bezos has a salary of 1000 bucks and that's all he lives off, he shall pay taxes as a 1k income guy. But if he besides that lives in a house owned by Amazon Inc, drives a car owned by Amazon Inc. and flies Amazon-owned aircraft in his private capacity, then those effects should be counted as his income too. There are countries where this is sorted (at least on smaller scale) better.