13 extremely useful websites

13 free websites that are so useful they feel illegal to know:

1. Removebg

Remove the background from your image and add in any background you like in 5 seconds.

2. 12ft Ladder

Want to read an article, but there’s a paywall?

Simply:

• Insert URL into 12ft ladder

• Click remove wall

• Access content

3. TinyWOW 

Get free versions of tools you usually pay for!

Including:

• Adobe Acrobat Pro (PDF editor)

• Photoshop (image editor)

And more!

4. PDF Drive

81 Million eBooks for you to download for Free.

It is the biggest search engine for PDF files.

5. Temp-mail

You get a temporary email and inbox to help you sign up for websites and avoid all the spam down the line.

6. Quillbot 

Paraphrasing tool that rewrites and enhances any sentence, paragraph, or article using AI.

7. Gamma App

The fast alternative to slides. 

Present like a deck. Share like a doc.

8. Namelix

Need a name for your business?

Namelix will generate a short, brandable business name for you using artificial intelligence.

9. Mixkit

You can download high-quality:

• Stock Video Clips

• Stock Music

• Sound Effects

• Video Templates.

All are available for free.

10. Excel Formula Bot

Stop wasting hours creating Excel formulas.

Transform your text instructions into Excel formulas in seconds with the help of AI.

11. Hemingway App

Improves your writing style and readability by catching 4 basic writing issues: 

• Adverbs

• Passive voice

• Complicated words

• Complex phrases

A must-have tool for all content creators.

12. Scribe How 

Record your screen going through any process.

And Scribe automatically creates a how-to guide, complete with:

• Screenshots

• Instructions

• Clicks

13. WeTransfer

The easiest way to send your files around the world. 

You can share large files and photos. Transfer up to 2GB free.

British made famines in India killed 15 million Indians

There were 31 artificial Indian Famines under British Rule that killed almost 15 million Indians, some estimates say upto 29 millions.

While at the same time 3 lakh tonnes of wheat were exported from deccan plateau in India to England?

Here’s a pic of starving Famine victims under British Raj.

In 1899-1900, the monsoon rains failed in central India causing drought to parch crops impacting almost 60 million people.

Photographer William Willoughby Hooper showing a starving man protecting family from other starving cannibals.

Yes, people actually turned into cannibals due to this famines created by British.

Despite the fact that Britain had been looting India for more than a century, The British Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon,was concerned about his budget and feared that aid to the starving Indians would cause them to become dependent on hand-outs.

Drawing of Indian famine victims by Barbant.

The British stood aside and allowed millions of Indian people in the British Raj to starve to death. 

Photograph of a mother helplessly watching her children dγιng in the street during Bengal famine under colonial rule.

What even more cruel was that the “white” tourists started pouring in like vultures seeking thrilles at photographing the misery of Indian people. The invention of highly portable box cameras allowed tourists to record the sights.

A French editorial cartoon lampoons western tourists Well-fed and complacent who came to India to gawk at the skeletal Indian victims of the famine.

Many Indians still hear about these famines through their parents and grandparents.

Most horrible was the famine in AD 1900. It was so horrible people of Gujarat hasn't forgotten about it. They call it "chhapanio dukaal" as it was in vikram savant 1956.

Do read this this whenever anyone tells you that Britain brought civilization and development to India.

Here is an extract from a book that documents how the British took away food grown in India for war and to fill European food coffers for NEXT year as Indians continued to die in the present. Food imports to India were denied by the Royal Crown citing lack of ships.

The British monarchy and specifically, the Queen has never apologized for this mass murder of Indians at the hands of the colonials. This death count of Indians at the hands of the British was more than the people killed in the holocaust.

In the 18th century, India accounted for a quarter of the global GDP. By the middle of the 20th, colonialism ensured that India was one of the poorest nations in the world. 

Over 200 years of exploitation, depredation and loot and destruction reduced India to a poster child for Third World poverty.

When the British left India in 1947

- 90 percent of the population was living below the poverty line

- Literacy rate was below 17 percent

- Life expectancy of the average Indian was 27 years. JUST 27 YEARS...!! Read this again. 

This is how the British treated Indians.

In the name of free trade, the British came in and destroyed the free trade that made India the leading exporter of textiles.

There is simply no comparison between the accomplishments of India rising from the ashes that the British left India in and what was done in the 200 years before.

Why India can't trust the US to be fair

When it comes to Pakistan, US government assessments aren't worth the paper they're printed on, toilet paper shortages notwithstanding. 

Thread on Twitter by Shaunak Agarkhedkar.

Between 1983 and 1989, the US government sold 40 F-16 aircraft to Pakistan. At first glance, that might not seem like a lot.

In order to get Congress to approve these sales, Reagan's Defence Department assured them that these aircraft could not be used to drop nuclear bombs.

After that initial sale, Congress passed what's known as the Pressler Amendment. This required the US President to certify to Congress that Pakistan didn't possess nuclear weapons. Reagan was delighted to lie to them, and issued annual certifications.

After George Bush became president, an intelligence analyst named Richard Barlow was commissioned by Dick Cheney to write an assessment on Pakistan.

Barlow, who had worked in arms control and was familiar with Pakistan's shenanigans, reached out to the DIA for a technical assessment of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. He asked them to focus on the F-16 aircraft.

The DIA's and Barlow's conclusions in 1989 were stark: the Pakistanis had modified their F-16s to carry & drop nuclear bombs.

Not only had Pakistan done this, but they had also used components supplied by the US government to do it.

At the time when Barlow's assessment was circulated in Washington, the Defence Department was getting ready to sell 60 more F-16s to Pakistan.

Soon, Barlow found that information he needed for further analysis had gone missing.

Right about this time, German Intelligence arrived at the same conclusion as the DIA about Pakistan's F-16s.

Der Spiegel carried a report on this on 24 July 1989, noting that Pakistan had even tested the modified F-16s in wind tunnels.

Barlow took this information to his boss, Gerald Brubaker. For his efforts, Barlow was attacked by officers within the Pentagon. 

They accused him of sabotaging the F-16 deal and ordered him to stop all investigations.

Eight days later, the public was informed about the new F-16 deal. When questioned in Congress about the possibility of these aircraft being used for delivery of nuclear weapons, US officials lied through their teeth.

Barlow was appalled and offered to brief these officials about how Pakistan had already done what they claimed couldn't happen. Less than a week later, Brubaker fired Barlow from his job.

The sale went through but ran into trouble a year later with the Pressler Amendment when Bush refused to issue a certification to Congress. 

Today, Pakistan has 75 F-16s in its inventory. A significant number of those are much more modern than those of 1980s vintage.

Not only did F-16s alter the balance of power in the region, but the Pakistanis also have modified those very aircraft to deliver nuclear weapons with support from elements within the US government. 

Richard Barlow paid dearly for speaking the truth about Pakistan. 

His career was wrecked by his own superiors. 

Barlow managed to get by with contractual work for years but was also unemployed for more than a decade.

how to read a balance sheet

If you pick stocks, you MUST learn how to read a balance sheet.Here’s everything you need to know:

The balance sheet is one of the 3 major financial statements. 

It shows: 

▪️Assets: What a company owns

▪️Liabilities: What a company owes

▪️Shareholders Equity: The net worth attributable to its owners (shareholders)

At a fixed point in time

That “at a fixed point in time” part is key!

A balance sheet is a SNAPSHOT of a company’s net worth at a POINT in time, usually measured at the end of a quarter/year.

That differs from an income statement or cash flow statement, both of which are measured over a PERIOD of time.

Most public companies show their balance sheet in their quarterly earnings press release, but not always

Find them by looking at:

▪️10-Q (quarterly report) 

▪️10-K (annual report)

▪️Aggregator websites like @theTIKR

All balance sheets follow the same formula:

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders Equity

This formula must be in balance at all times

(Hence the term “balance sheet”).

Companies get leeway in how they categorize each item on their balance sheet

This graphic shows some of the most commonly used categories & terms

Let’s start with assets, which is what a company OWNS

Assets are listed in order of LIQUIDITY, which means how quickly a security can be turned into cash

The most liquid assets are at the top, the least liquid on the bottom.

There are two categories of assets:

Current assets:

▪️Assets that are expected to be used in <1 year

Long-term assets:

▪️Assets that a company will benefit from for >1 year

Common current assets:

▪️Cash: Checking account, t-bills, CDs w/ <3 maturity

▪️Marketable Securities: Stocks, bonds...etc that can easily become cash

▪️Accounts Receivable: Money it is owed by its customers

▪️Inventory: Unsold goods

▪️Prepaid expenses: Insurance, rent, etc…

Long-term assets come in 2 forms:

1: Tangible Assets (You can touch them)

▪️Buildings

▪️Equipment

▪️Property

▪️Stores

2: Intangible Assets (You can't touch them)

▪️Trademarks

▪️Goodwill (premiums paid to make an acquisition)

▪️Patents

▪️Stocks/Bonds held >1 Year

Now for Liabilities, which are what a company OWES

There are 2 categories of liabilities:

1: Current liabilities:

▪️Bills that will be paid in <1 year

2: Long-term liabilities:

▪️Bills that are due in 1+ years

Common current liabilities (due <1 year):

▪️Short-term debt

▪️Accounts payable (money owed to suppliers)

▪️Interest

▪️Unpaid Wages

▪️Dividends

▪️Taxes

Common long-term liabilities (due 1+ years):

▪️Long-term debt (also called "Notes")

▪️Customer pre-payment

▪️Taxes

▪️Pension

Finally, there is "Shareholders Equity

This is money attributable to the business owners (shareholders)

It's kind of like a company's "net worth"

Common categories:

▪️Common Stock: Money invested in the company

▪️Additional Paid-In Capital: Amount shareholders have invested beyond common/preferred stock

▪️Retained Earnings: Net profits a company reinvests in the business

▪️Treasury Stock: Money used to buy back stock

Here's an example of a real balance sheet

This is taken from $HD's balance sheet as of July 31st, 2022

Notice that $HD's Shareholder Equity is really low?

Don't worry -- that's just because of the company's massive stock buyback program ($84.5 billion spent so far)

Treasure stock is listed as a negative number in shareholder's equity. 

Credit : Brian Feroldi on Twitter.