Transparency International Canada did a report on which countries in the world had the most corruption, and Forbes published an article on it. Apparently over 5% of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) was either used for bribes, smuggled or stolen by these countries. That is a lot of money. According to Forbes, it amounts to 2.6 Trillion dollars.
Corruption causes violations of human rights in most of these countries and makes things even worse, creating a downward spiral as rebels fight for their rights.
No. 1 – Chad
Chad has been run by a Military Dictatorship for the past 19 years, and is known for their corruption and Oil Wealth, accompanied by violent rebels.
No. 2 – Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan has the notorious reputation of having a president that is alleged to have had a former government administrator assassinated.
No.3 – Cambodia
Infamous for their acts of Genocide between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime has given this country a notorious reputation. An estimated 1.7 million people were murdered during this period.
No.4 – Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has the unfortunate position of being the poorest country in the world based on GDP. President Robert Mugabe has been accused of manipulating foreign aid.
No. 5 – Azerbaijan
A country rich in oil, it is not surprising that their corruption involves the large amount of money that their oil production brings in. It is estimated that 90% of the money from their Oil production ends up in the pockets of government officials instead of the people of Azerbaijan, where it belongs.
I was again listening to the Kid carson show this morning, and they were discussing a woman named Hailey, and her account of how Sexomnia has really made her relationships suffer. She suffers from Sexomnia, which is a condition where you try and have sex with people while you are sleeping. It is like sleep walking, but sleep sexing.
For Hailey, she would attempt to have sex with her live-in boyfriend 4-5 times in a night, every night. Might be fun at first but I think after a short period of time the lack of sleep would get to me if I were her boyfriend. He left her after a month, I believe. This was from a documentry that was on TV last night, according to Nira.
In Ontario in 2008, a man was acquitted of attempted rape when he used Sexomnia as his defense. Granted, it was only attemped rape, which may have been different if it was a full charge.
Anyway.. its a strange disorder, so strange that I question the validity of it in some ways.
One of my favourite things to do on youtube is to surf around for good covers. There is certainly no shortage of cover artists on Youtube, many of them using it as a grassroots startup catalyst to launching their own musical career. Its like everyone’s own personal American Idol.
One of my favourite tracks I’ve heard is the Cover of Beyonce’s Halo by Erin and Roxanne, dubbed “Rin on the Rox” by themselves. I have to say that I don’t like all their covers, but their version of Halo, is very good. They’re not one of the most prominent artists on Youtube anymore due to their recent account termination, but they are back. Their harmonies are done really well and they really have a good chemistry on this one. They’ve been on the Ellen show and featured in the newspaper as well.
Why did Ssense convert to US Dollars when they were a Canadian online shopping store? That bugs me. Especially now with the US Dollar much stronger than our loonie. I was browsing the trenchcoats and overcoats, hoping to snag a deal and use the 20% off coupon on a sale item, but then when I checked my cart, it was very promimently posted as “US Dollars”.
I don’t know if I will shop there as much now. It was one of the more appealing reasons for shopping there!
I’ve owned this cartridge for a while, and this is my first moving coil cartridge, so please keep that in mind while reading my review. Inflation and other factors have driven the cost of this cartridge up to the $1000 range now, while it used to be in the $600 range only 5 years ago. While that seems like a hefty investment, this cartridge really impressed me with it’s detail and balance. I am running it with a Project 2 Xperience Turntable and a Pro-Ject Phono Box SE.
The Kontrapunkt A is a low-output, moving coil cartridge with a nude fine line stylus with aluminum cantilever. The nude fine line cartridge makes a huge difference especially tracking on the inner grooves, producing none of the strange acoustics that sometimes are evident in lesser stylii.
I upgraded from a Grado Sonata Moving iron cartridge that has a elliptical stylus, which while still being very good, did not track quite as well.
The Kontrapunkt A has the most amazing bass of any cartridge I have owned, but also keep in mind that it is the highest end cartridge that I have owned, and the only Moving Coil I’ve owned. I have heard many moving coils in my time, however, with many of them sounding a bit brittle and hyper detailed. These were cheaper MC carts, however. The Bass with this cartridge is phenomenal to me, very articulated and low, with none of that muddiness that is common with the cheaper cartridges I have heard. Nor is the cartridge thin-sounding like the OM series of Ortofons that turned me off the brand early in my listening career.
The midrange on the Kontrapunkt A is also very impressive, with a good musicality to it, without any hard edge to it. This is not too surprising however given that it is vinyl. The midrange is true, and female and male vocals are both very impressive in reproduction.
Treble is airy, and liquid, just like it should be. No rounded off treble like I have noted with previous catridges that I have owned. The treble is one of the things I have noticed about MC cartridges in the past… it is more detailed. This Ortofon is no exception.
Bottom line, I really love this cart, and I still have my Grado Sonata as a backup, but the Kontrpunkt A remains on the tonearm.
