Живе Беларусь!

PATTAYA, Thailand — A Belarusian woman jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a work permit says she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.

Anastasia Vashukevich, whose extraordinary claims and racy selfies have propelled her to internet fame in recent weeks, told The Associated Press from a police van Wednesday that she fears for her life, and wants to exchange information on alleged Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign for her own personal safety.

Sex lessons sounds rather educational. Libertarians should rise up for the woman's right to practice her art without government intervention. Any libertarians out there? Ivanka, maybe?

(no subject)

Imagine being confused about one of the most basic things in life: your own biological sex. I couldn't before I saw this picture. This experience must be mind-bending as hell.

Chinese money in Pakistan

The Chinese created economic incentives for Pakistan to fight jihadists.

The army’s pounding of the insurgents has had an effect. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, a website that monitors terrorism across the region, civilian deaths from extremist attacks in Pakistan have dropped from over 3,000 in 2013 to 540 last year. The figure is on track to fall again this year, with just 24 deaths so far.
...
China is investing over $60bn to upgrade Pakistan’s neglected infrastructure. New roads, railways, much-needed power stations and a deep-water commercial port at Gwadar in Balochistan are all part of the plan, which would link western China with the Arabian Sea. The projects could account for 20% of Pakistan’s GDP over the next five years and boost economic growth by three percentage points.

https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21737478-chinese-investment-depends-pakistan-getting-top-its-security-problem

TIL: Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre was the first person to decline the Nobel Prize.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1964/12/17/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize/

This attitude is based on my conception of the writer’s enterprise. A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own—that is, the written word. All the honors he may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable. If I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner.

Thanks to Sartre, I know my profession: I specialize in nothingness, i.e. seeing what's not there, yet.