Interesting Links for 06-03-2014

[andrewducker]

• Dalai Lama at a Santa Fe ski resort: Tells waitress the meaning of life.
  (tags: happiness life meaning philosophy viaNancyLebov )
• Rolls-Royce imagines a future of robot ships
  (tags: robots boats ocean technology )
• Mesmerizing GIFs Show Cities Passing From Day to Night
  (tags: cities art time light )
• Moving out of poverty makes girls less depressed

Comments

[andrewducker]

And this just in:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26465962

Crimean MPs voted to seced - will have a referendum on the 16th...

Indian police ignore corruption for over eight years because they didn't know the complaint syste

[cartesiandaemon]

If ever a headline needed scare quotes... :)

[danieldwilliam]

I was surprised that the % of operating costs attributable to the crew was as high as 44%.

I managed to track down a sample page of the report I think the figure is based on.

Sure, enough, crew costs per year for a Handy Sized Tanker $1,547k out of total operating costs of $2,828 for a % of 43.3%.

But looking at what’s in operating costs, or rather what’s not in operating costs I’m not sure the 44% figure means much. The % quoted seems to exclude from operating costs fuel and financing costs.

[philmophlegm]

I used to audit a shipping company. Outside of financial sector, shipping is possibly the most complicated industry to audit. One year I ended up doing this quite large shipping group audit pretty much on my own (me - then an almost-qualified ACA - plus a first year trainee were the only full-time, on-site members of the audit team) because everybody else went to great lengths to avoid it.

[danieldwilliam]

Why is it so complicated?

[philmophlegm]

Firstly the terminlogy is unique to the industry - there are so many terms that are routine maritime terms to sailors but which you'll see on a trial balance. I remember we always used to send first years on that audit to a legendary old guy called Jim to learn about "demurrage". Jim was about 65, had been working for this company all his adult life, and had the broadest, most impenetrable scouse accent you can imagine - and it was one of those scouse accents where the speaker doesn't pronounce 'r' sounds correctly. This made it quite funny when the young trainee returned knowing full well what "demurrage" was, but having no idea how it should really be pronounced, or even spelled

[danieldwilliam]

MLW once went to see the Dalai Lama speak at some event.

Someone asked a question from the floor. Something along the lines of “How do you find inner calm in a world that is increasingly fast paced?”

The Dalai Lama, paused, thought for a moment and replied, “That’s a difficult thing to do. If you work it out perhaps you could tell me.”

[andrewducker]

I was expected him to say that the world isn't fast or slow, our expectations of it are.

But I like his response too!

[apostle_of_eris]

It's worth going out of your way to see the Dalai Lama. He's a unique presence.

And that Indian thing is so exaggeratedly typical.

[andrewducker]

I'll look out for him visiting Scotland!

And yes - it's the kind of thing you couldn't actually make up.