Overcast and way-dark this early Friday on California’s north coast as we look forward to the weekend, now within earshot.
Hairy week past with airplanes falling out of the sky at an alarming rate — blown up or just blew up, a horror by any other name.

And what’s really hairy is the misplaced fountain of wealth — all near-about at the top. A shitty, little handful of people earn more than a stadium-filled crowd — via the CBC:

The 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people, the United Nations said Thursday in a report that highlights the 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1.25 a day.

(Illustration: Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Frugal Meal’ found here).

Further, from Khalid Malik, a lead author of the report:

“Most problems are due to inadequate policies and poor institutions,” Malik said.
“It’s not innate that people have to suffer so much.”
He points to the insecurity of employment in most of the developed world, amid a global “race to the bottom” by big corporations seeking the lowest wages in the poorest countries.
Nearly half of all workers worldwide are in insecure or informal employment, while 842 million, or about 12 per cent, of all people go hungry, he said.
Government budgets are shrinking, affecting their ability to provide social structures, as the rich evade taxes and the poor have little to give, he said.
The issue of inequality applies even to countries in the very high development index group, when their score is adjusted for internal inequalities in health, education and income.
The U.S. falls from five to 28 on that list, South Korea drops from 15 to 35, and Japan falls from 17 to 23.

In a modern world with all the high-tech bullshit, what a reality check.

(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’  found here).