work work work

So what the hell is this obsession with work all of a sudden? The economy stagnant. Unemployment levels are getting progressively worse, with the jobs pool shrinking  - and yet we've got the Government - instead of doing things that might help create jobs are just being complete dicks... telling GPs to tell long-term jobless to find work and that's not enough they want to stop GPs being able to write sick notes... because a panel of assessors are going to be much more able to tell with just a cursory glance and a few questions if someone is able to work or not... even though it turns out they're entirely wrong 40% of the time (the error rate is very possibly a lot higher as many people just can't face or are incapable of enduring the appeal process - and quite a few people out of hopelessness and despair kill themselves. [I imagine the more sociopathic elements of our Govt. see that as a welcome saving on state provision - except they'd never be caught saying it out loud  knowing it would electoral poison.]

Then I stumbled upon this:

Welfare reform and the US insurance giant Unum

now I get it. It becomes clear - there's a little propaganda war going now - painting the disabled and sick as scroungers and setting the workers against them - all as a distraction while behind the scenes they're establishing channels for National Insurance payments / taxpayers money to be pumped directly into foreign owned companies Atos and Unum.

sorry

UC Davis chancellor sorry for pepper spray incident

UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain denied Katehi had instructed police to use force in removing tents last week. "There was a concern that letting them remain and letting the number grow could be a health hazard. The whole idea was to end it peaceably," she said.

---yeah, it's funny how protesters now keep being classed as a 'health hazard' - if memory serves Nazi propaganda used to say the same thing about the jews... they even made 'cute' little newsreel films about that featuring rats and vermin and likening them to jews in the ghetto.

"Ohhhh you dirty protesters - you're unsanitary - have a face-full of pepper spray - it's just like disinfectant." 

Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris

Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

"The sickness absence review will only lead to incapacitated people limply tramping the streets looking for non-existent jobs."


There is something altogether a bit authoritarian about all of this... first the faceless assessment panels, then next we'll have gulags , work camps and yes, even death camps before long. Not that people aren't already killing themselves out of poverty and desperation.

Telegraph: Taxpayer to take on mortgage risks of first-time buyers

Taxpayers will underwrite mortgages totalling hundreds of millions of pounds under plans to “unblock” the housing market and revive the flagging economy.

Mmmmm - what a good idea. Let's see, it just needs a catchy phrase to promote it - how about a 'sub-prime mortgage'? Yes, that's good. And a private (of course) company to run the scheme - there's a lot of experts in this sort of field looking for work at the moment - pass me that US company phone book - yes, Fannie Mae. Excellent. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

popcorn maker

at last i got myself a popcorn maker - I've wanted a popcorn maker for years. I wanted one even more so after recently trying to make proper popcorn in a pan - which now  has burnt bits on the bottom I can't get rid of. [And whatever happened to Brillo pads? I haven't been able t find any.] Anyway - my first attempt resulted in lots of burning and smoke - I had no idea how much popcorn would come out of the thing - so my plastic container filled up really quickly and there was a log jam (corn jam?) - and burning - le sigh. However... practice makes perfect... and I guess smoke - lots and lots of smoke...

flip with a slide out screen

Coo.
But why oh why did Cisco decide to kill off the flip?