Battery life.
I could do with one of these now - to replace the dying battery in my Nexus 4.
World's first hydrogen-powered battery will charge your iPhone for 7 DAYS.
World's first hydrogen-powered battery will charge your iPhone for 7 DAYS.
The Smallest SLR Of All Time
Asahi Pentax Auto 110 Film Camera Review.
I really wanted one of these back in the day.
Vivian Maier
"The photographs reveal teeming streets, children at play in an alley, couples captured in a sleepy embrace, the intricate latticework of an elevated train platform, a drunk smeared in filth.
The arresting, artfully framed scenes from the streets and byways of New York, Chicago and beyond seem alive with movement. And for years, they were probably seen by no-one but the solitary Chicago nanny and amateur photographer who shot them.
But now, two years after her death in a nursing home, Vivian Maier is finally being recognised for her talent after a lifetime of obscurity."
pink shirt press releases
Papers mindlessly reprint Press releases - shocker
Daily mail:
The power of pink: Men who wear shirts of that colour earn £1,000 a year more than those who don’t
Daily Express:
WHY FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR MEN IN PINK
No doubt there will be other papers covering the same reports findings.
Now why do I have a sneaking suspicion someone in some company somewhere* has an overstock of pink shirts they need to offload? Oh yes... that'll be because I've read 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays where's there's a whole chapter on who he made velvet a popular fashion choice.
[*Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA - who commissioned the report.]
Daily mail:
The power of pink: Men who wear shirts of that colour earn £1,000 a year more than those who don’t
Daily Express:
WHY FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR MEN IN PINK
No doubt there will be other papers covering the same reports findings.
Now why do I have a sneaking suspicion someone in some company somewhere* has an overstock of pink shirts they need to offload? Oh yes... that'll be because I've read 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays where's there's a whole chapter on who he made velvet a popular fashion choice.
[*Stephanie Thiers-Ratcliffe, International Marketing Manager for Cotton USA - who commissioned the report.]
Housing benefit changes
BBC Wales on 'the Bedroom tax' [video]
A mother who has two children one boy aged 9 one girl 3 years old - but new rules state that because both children are under 10 - that they're supposed to move to a smaller property and the children to then share a bedroom. If they don't or simply can't because there's nowhere smaller to move to, or because they simply can't afford to move, then they get a cut in their housing benefit, and will have to make up the shortfall out of the rest of their already inadequate budget - just as fuel, food prices and everything else is skyrocketing.Add that to the information that
The UK builds the smallest homes in Europe, according to the government's adviser on architecture. [BBC magazine from 2007]
and
'Shoebox homes' become the UK norm.
and
No room to cook dinner or seat guests? Welcome to 'rabbit hutch Britain
showing that these smaller properties are just not there to downsize into - we've a perfect storm looming on the horizon.
So the same way the Govt. is trying to force people into jobs that simply aren't there and punish them harshly when they're not getting those non-existent jobs - they're now about to make people move to non-existent smaller properties and then punish them when they can't. Already councils are housing people in Bed & Breakfast - at great expense to the taxpayer and inflicting misery on people forced to live there because there isn't enough suitable housing... and it's now only set to get a lot, lot worse.
Apple fibs
What did a certain Mr Steve Jobs say about 7 inch tablets back on 18th October, 2010?
... I'd like to comment on the avalanche of tablets poised to enter the market in the coming months. First, it appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche. Second, almost all of them use seven-inch screens as compared to iPad's near 10-inch screen. Let's start there. One naturally thinks that a seven-inch screen would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a seven-inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad's 10-inch screen. You heard me right; just 45% as largeNow can you guess what the rumours are that Apple will be releasing soon? Hope they'll be giving away some Apple branded iSandpaper for the fanboys.
If you take an iPad and hold it upright in portrait view and draw an imaginary horizontal line halfway down the screen, the screens on the seven-inch tablets are a bit smaller than the bottom half of the iPad display. This size isn't sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion.
Well, one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference. It is meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size. Apple's done extensive user-testing on touch interfaces over many years, and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen before users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps.
Third, every tablet user is also a smartphone user. No tablet can compete with the mobility of a smartphone, its ease of fitting into your pocket or purse, its unobtrusiveness when used in a crowd. Given that all tablet users will already have a smartphone in their pockets, giving up precious display area to fit a tablet in our pockets is clearly the wrong tradeoff. The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.
Fourth, almost all of these new tablets use Android software, but even Google is telling the tablet manufacturers not to use their current release, Froyo, for tablets, and to wait for a special tablet release next year. What does it mean when your software suppliers does not (inaudible) to use their software in your tablet? And what does it mean when you ignore them and use it anyway?
Fifth, iPad now has over 35,000 apps on the App Store. This new crop of tablets will have near zero.
And sixth and last, our potential competitors are having a tough time coming close to iPad's pricing, even with their far smaller, far less expensive screens. The iPad incorporates everything we have learnt about building high value products from iPhones, iPods and Macs. We create our own A4 chip, our own software, our own battery chemistry, our own enclosure, our own everything. And this results in an incredible product at a great price. The proof of this will be in the pricing of our competitor's products which will likely offer less for more.
These are among the reasons we think the current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be DOA, Dead on Arrival. Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the seven-inch bandwagon with an orphan product. Sounds like lots of fun ahead.
gadgets gadgets gadgets
Well, the new iPhone is out - at least this time it looks different enough from the last one so the early adopters can brandish it around and those easily impressed will notice and make appreciative 'cooing' noises, A taller screen - or is it wider? The camera now has a panorama function. But it's all a bit underwhelming really.
Dan Lyons (Creator of the 'Fake Steve' blog)writes: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite
Then I found this by Woz "I wish my iPhone did all the things what my Android does." which is faintly damning.
Soooo as far as the hype (or should I say tedium) goes I still really want a Galaxy Note II and a Nexus 7.
Dan Lyons (Creator of the 'Fake Steve' blog)writes: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite
Then I found this by Woz "I wish my iPhone did all the things what my Android does." which is faintly damning.
Soooo as far as the hype (or should I say tedium) goes I still really want a Galaxy Note II and a Nexus 7.
Samsung gadgets
New Samsung gadgets - mmmmmm. And there's new Galaxy note out? And a camera that lets you edit them and upload them to the 'nets...
Now if only I was a multimillionaire.
Now if only I was a multimillionaire.
Daily Mail is at it again
Quarter of those claiming sickness benefits have a criminal record in 'truly alarming discovery'
I left this comment (they tend to disappear from to time to time I've noticed)
This is what is known in propaganda school as a 'smear campaign' - it's very revealing how the DWP manages to release these little snippets of information at very crucial times. Maybe it's because the Government was getting a little scared that the strikes over the closure of the Remploy factories was garnering a little bit too much sympathy from the general public. (since it undoes all that previous propaganda tainting the disabled as workshy when they're oh er... fighting to stay in work) - or it's because they're about to announce yet another round of cuts on disability benefits... but obviously something now suits the government for the public to think of the disabled as criminals. Shame on the Daily Mail for spreading this disinformation. For a change how's about trying doing some proper research and actual journalism rather than rewriting press-releases from the DWP?
I left this comment (they tend to disappear from to time to time I've noticed)
This is what is known in propaganda school as a 'smear campaign' - it's very revealing how the DWP manages to release these little snippets of information at very crucial times. Maybe it's because the Government was getting a little scared that the strikes over the closure of the Remploy factories was garnering a little bit too much sympathy from the general public. (since it undoes all that previous propaganda tainting the disabled as workshy when they're oh er... fighting to stay in work) - or it's because they're about to announce yet another round of cuts on disability benefits... but obviously something now suits the government for the public to think of the disabled as criminals. Shame on the Daily Mail for spreading this disinformation. For a change how's about trying doing some proper research and actual journalism rather than rewriting press-releases from the DWP?
A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT
THE NORTHAMPTON INDEPENDENT: A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT:
So just what have we got as a nation to feel proud about at present? OK the Jubilee and the Olympics for those so minded offer a maybe welcome diversion from the stark realities of our everyday lives, but they are little more than hollow escape from our real troubles, and these are stacking up by the bucket load.
...
So just what have we got as a nation to feel proud about at present? OK the Jubilee and the Olympics for those so minded offer a maybe welcome diversion from the stark realities of our everyday lives, but they are little more than hollow escape from our real troubles, and these are stacking up by the bucket load.
...
Bankers plot response to bonus threat
Oh noes! Boo-hoo. The bankers if they get their bonuses limited - they'll move somewhere else. Really?
Where to? Let them. They can go and wreck someone else's economies.
Oh noes! Boo-hoo. The bankers if they get their bonuses limited - they'll move somewhere else. Really?
Where to? Let them. They can go and wreck someone else's economies.
A new poverty pimp firm is on the block
Things haven't been going too well for E4e lately but what of fellow poverty pimping company Maximus. Oh look - their parent American company been fined for various acts of fraud and fiddling the books even before they've started here.
http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/welfare-to-work/3613-private-eye-turns-its-attention-to-maximus
and their dodgy dealings go back decades: Low-rated firm fights to keep rich county work (30th October 2008) just shows how much lobbying and money they paid out trying to keep lucrative contracts - donations to political parties. (Sound familiar?)
You'd think the UK unemployed folk deserved better than this. Nah. I have no idea why our Government insists on copying American ideas 5 or so years late and after they've seen to fail. There must be a parliamentary time warp where they live 5 years behind the rest of us... or something.
http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/welfare-to-work/3613-private-eye-turns-its-attention-to-maximus
and their dodgy dealings go back decades: Low-rated firm fights to keep rich county work (30th October 2008) just shows how much lobbying and money they paid out trying to keep lucrative contracts - donations to political parties. (Sound familiar?)
You'd think the UK unemployed folk deserved better than this. Nah. I have no idea why our Government insists on copying American ideas 5 or so years late and after they've seen to fail. There must be a parliamentary time warp where they live 5 years behind the rest of us... or something.
welfare p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a
Why Tiffany, 24, knows how to get UK off benefits... Thanks to the Wisconsin workfare scheme David Cameron would love to emulate in Britain.
This is the comment I left:
Baffling.
The Mail has to go all the way to America to find one success story on how welfare-to-work is supposed to work. How much did it cost to send the journalist on that little trip? (Or was it just copied out of a press release?) So can we hope for a similar article set closer to home interviewing a few of the people of the 97% that the likes of A4e totally failed to help? I doubt it somehow.
As for the article itself - urgh. Propaganda covered in syrupy nonsense.
This is the comment I left:
Baffling.
The Mail has to go all the way to America to find one success story on how welfare-to-work is supposed to work. How much did it cost to send the journalist on that little trip? (Or was it just copied out of a press release?) So can we hope for a similar article set closer to home interviewing a few of the people of the 97% that the likes of A4e totally failed to help? I doubt it somehow.
As for the article itself - urgh. Propaganda covered in syrupy nonsense.
In just the first
paragraph - "she now works as a bank teller"... mmmmm that'll work fine
here then, oh no hang on... banks have been shedding staff here like crazy. And there's even more lay offs in the pipelines. Strike one.
'A
miraculous change of fortune' - well, yes of course miracles happen
every day... oh wait, no they don't. That's why they're called
miracles. Definition of miraculous: Occurring through divine or supernatural intervention) So strike two. The Wisconsin programme isn't working then - is it. It's up to God and fairies.
Then it's blah-blah-blah, Cameron is a god amongst men, and single American mom's on welfare are a drain the US economy... sort of waffle.
then we get: "Britain currently has a voluntary Government-backed work experience scheme, which Mr Cameron’s proposals hope to build on."
That's voluntary as in 'you do this -or we stop all your 'benefits' including your rent - so you'll be homeless, begging in the street' -that sort of voluntary.
As the Wiscon Programme - well, funding has been cut on it already... (March 20, 2011) and oh, lookee here - it's being threatened with closure altogether in one place.
and I found this academic study:
'Wisconsin works'?: race, gender and accountability in the workfare era. which shows that there's a lot more to the programme than this fluffy-wuffy Daily Mail article.
As the Wiscon Programme - well, funding has been cut on it already... (March 20, 2011) and oh, lookee here - it's being threatened with closure altogether in one place.
and I found this academic study:
'Wisconsin works'?: race, gender and accountability in the workfare era. which shows that there's a lot more to the programme than this fluffy-wuffy Daily Mail article.
If the cap doesn't fit
but that's alright - because it will free up more housing for the people who can't afford to buy any more ... er... hang on.
US dream a myth! The price Americans pay for growing inequality
US dream a myth! The price Americans pay for growing inequality - The Economic Times:
The UK tediously follows whatever the US does - and we don't even have the masses as well brainwashed as the majority of American people are.
God it's depressing.
The UK tediously follows whatever the US does - and we don't even have the masses as well brainwashed as the majority of American people are.
God it's depressing.
Two strikes and you're out
Two strikes and you're out: Jobseekers who fail to turn up to interviews or drop out of work programmes will be forced to carry out unpaid work | Mail Online:
Golly. We must be living in the middle of a boom - with factories opening everywhere clamouring for workers - shops on the high streets opening up every day desperately needing staff - houses, schools, etc. being built on every corner of spare land needing builders and plumbers and electricians - roads being built - infrastructure being repaired - yup. Everything must be going so well we even have to get terminally ill cancer patients being put to work for the last weeks of their lives in case we fall behind.
Or else we're in the middle of a double-dip recession - and the economy is being handled so badly and so many taxes going uncollected [Vodaphone has just been let off paying a few billion - AGAIN] - and we're so busy handing over billions to help keep the Euro afloat for a few more months - that we've decided somehow the unemployed are to be blamed for being unemployed and must be punished for it.
The trouble is there are only a few times you can kick a dog before it will turn on you. And this Govt. is kicking the poor and disadvantaged so often they're storing up so much resentment - they're going to get a real shock when the pack turns on them and rips their throats out. What will they have to lose? Their unpaid jobs? Their benefits? The choice is becoming whether to starve to death on the streets or get put in prison...
[Oh and as usual there are some bizarre comments by the Daily Mail readers on this...
"why should I go to work every day for the feckless to swan around in a nice new car, have a holiday, buy the latest gadget when I can't afford to, and I am the one going to work 40+ hours a week."
-writes someone who obviously has no idea.]
"why should I go to work every day for the feckless to swan around in a nice new car, have a holiday, buy the latest gadget when I can't afford to, and I am the one going to work 40+ hours a week."
-writes someone who obviously has no idea.]
Aaah e-magazines
Remember when the first iPad came out? I remember the excitement by Rupert Murdoch who thought it was going to be the future of publishing make him rich... well, richer. Now he's disappeared his Sun and Times papers behind a paywall.. and his relevance to political life has diminished and I wonder how his 'Daily' the iPad news magazine is doing... I don't think they ever even bothered to launch an UK version, I've not heard anything since the launch - so I'm guessing it can't be doing very well..
Then I happened across this piece:
Why Publishers Don't Like Apps
Written by someone who likewise started out being excited by the idea of an iPad magazine - only to find it really frustrating and abandoned it in favour of an online HTML 5 version.
I know I wrote a comment on the Guardian website about just this sort of thing - comparing the new electronic iPad/tablet e-magazines to CD-ROMs which were all the range for about 5 minutes before the internet took off...
oh, here it is:
Then I happened across this piece:
Why Publishers Don't Like Apps
Written by someone who likewise started out being excited by the idea of an iPad magazine - only to find it really frustrating and abandoned it in favour of an online HTML 5 version.
I know I wrote a comment on the Guardian website about just this sort of thing - comparing the new electronic iPad/tablet e-magazines to CD-ROMs which were all the range for about 5 minutes before the internet took off...
oh, here it is:
SXSW 2011: Novelty of iPad news apps fades fast among digital delegates
16 March 2011 6:50AMMore of the UK's money to go to the IMF? (I thought we didn't have any)
Channel 4: Britain commits extra 10bn to international monetary fund
Let me get this right... Every Western country that followed this fashionable Chigaco School Neo-liberalist 'free market decides' 'let the financial sector free' dogma has now got themselves into a massive hole. So we now have the IMF who usually only lend money to bail out countries to stop them defaulting on their debts to the bankers and in exchange for which they usually insist on those countries on cutting their public spending and imposing harsh austerity measures and them selling of all state assets. Of course we're seeing that doesn't really work very well (and if you look into the IMF's history – you'll see it has never worked well – except for the bankers, they got their loans and interest back and the populations were left starving). So here we are in the UK where Osbourne has pre-empted having to go cap-in-hand to the IMF – by doing everything the IMF would have made us do anyway for a loan... without getting any sort of a loan in return. Our reward for this 'prudence' – is to have to give the IMF £10 billion more? Which he'll have to pay for by even less public pending – even more cuts and even more austerity on top of that he's already committed us to. (This money never comes out his rich mate's pockets have you noticed?) Er. Looks a bit like a 'lose – lose – and lose some more' scenario to me.
Isn't it obvious that a collective mass hysteria has infected those people in power – these financiers and bankers – they're behaving like out of control compulsive gamblers – stealing the food out of their own children's mouths to get the money to feed the slot machines or bet on the next turn of the roulette wheel. We need an intervention to stop them stealing our wealth from us. It's got to stop. It will stop but will it be a controlled braking or a massive crash with no survivors?
Let me get this right... Every Western country that followed this fashionable Chigaco School Neo-liberalist 'free market decides' 'let the financial sector free' dogma has now got themselves into a massive hole. So we now have the IMF who usually only lend money to bail out countries to stop them defaulting on their debts to the bankers and in exchange for which they usually insist on those countries on cutting their public spending and imposing harsh austerity measures and them selling of all state assets. Of course we're seeing that doesn't really work very well (and if you look into the IMF's history – you'll see it has never worked well – except for the bankers, they got their loans and interest back and the populations were left starving). So here we are in the UK where Osbourne has pre-empted having to go cap-in-hand to the IMF – by doing everything the IMF would have made us do anyway for a loan... without getting any sort of a loan in return. Our reward for this 'prudence' – is to have to give the IMF £10 billion more? Which he'll have to pay for by even less public pending – even more cuts and even more austerity on top of that he's already committed us to. (This money never comes out his rich mate's pockets have you noticed?) Er. Looks a bit like a 'lose – lose – and lose some more' scenario to me.
Isn't it obvious that a collective mass hysteria has infected those people in power – these financiers and bankers – they're behaving like out of control compulsive gamblers – stealing the food out of their own children's mouths to get the money to feed the slot machines or bet on the next turn of the roulette wheel. We need an intervention to stop them stealing our wealth from us. It's got to stop. It will stop but will it be a controlled braking or a massive crash with no survivors?
High Court
Guardian:
High court should seize chance to curb government's workfare programme
It may not be slave labour, but forcing people to work for free could breach human rights laws
I don't hold much hope to be honest, the Judges in charge of the case are going to have the same mindset as the Right-wing leaning over-privileged public schoolboy idiots who came up with the whole idea for stupid scheme in the first place.
Australian Workfare scheme
They've had their own version of Workfare for the past 10 years now... guess what? It's has questionable methods - and is steeped in fraud and corruption. Must be why the Tories are drawn to it.
WIFI or 3G
WIFI being used on smart phones more than 3G.
This should surprise no one - but most of Mobile companies have now moved over to limited data plans (500mb or 1 GB a month - woooo, how generous they are. That's about 45 minutes worth of an iplayer program) and are probably wondering why so few people are taking them up on it. They hard sell all these whizz-bang internet connected smart phones but want to gouge you for using them.
DWP don't know nuffin
How many people are on workfare? The DWP don't know. Sounds like they don't much care either.
Meanwhile Emma Harrison's fraudster company is under fresh investigations... still no sign of the DWP cancelling their contracts with them though... probably because they wouldn't know what to do with all the claimants currently on their books.
Meanwhile Emma Harrison's fraudster company is under fresh investigations... still no sign of the DWP cancelling their contracts with them though... probably because they wouldn't know what to do with all the claimants currently on their books.
pocket the difference
ASDA has been taking advantage of free Govt. sponsored workers too. Notably so during the Christmas period and despite assurances these work placements wouldn't have any impact on existing employees - it lead to them losing their overtime.
it's better to be a shelf stacker than a 'job snob' sez IDS
In a breath-taking display of snobbishness himself - IDS has a little rant about his workfare scheme...
According to him:
Apparently ALL young British people are sitting around dreaming of being reality tv show stars...
A shelf-stacker is of greater value to society than someone of the 'commentating elite'... (whoever they are? Do professional journalists count? The next time he's on TV or Radio will he be saying to the interviewer 'a shelf stacker is of greater value than you?) - and it's apparently insulting to professional shelf-stackers who do a worthwhile job -except that -er, an unemployed yoof with no qualifications can do it for far less than minimum wage. Sooo is it a worth-while job or not? If so then why isn't the yoof being paid the going rate for it in the first place. And does it really take EIGHT WEEKS to train someone to stack shelves?
I think we need a whole lot less schemes and a lot more jobs being created actually.
According to him:
Apparently ALL young British people are sitting around dreaming of being reality tv show stars...
A shelf-stacker is of greater value to society than someone of the 'commentating elite'... (whoever they are? Do professional journalists count? The next time he's on TV or Radio will he be saying to the interviewer 'a shelf stacker is of greater value than you?) - and it's apparently insulting to professional shelf-stackers who do a worthwhile job -except that -er, an unemployed yoof with no qualifications can do it for far less than minimum wage. Sooo is it a worth-while job or not? If so then why isn't the yoof being paid the going rate for it in the first place. And does it really take EIGHT WEEKS to train someone to stack shelves?
I think we need a whole lot less schemes and a lot more jobs being created actually.
worklessness programmes
Rising unemployment puts Cameron's work programme in the spotlight
The Guardian gets exclusive access to the scheme to get people off benefits – and finds in Hull, some barriers are hard to break.
Why is that then?
Indisputable facts:
1. There are more work seekers than there are jobs. And jobs are diminishing - not increasing.
2. This means potential employers can be as picky about who they employ as they like - there is no obligation for them to take on any long term unemployed person if they don't want to. Yet there are plenty of scope for exploitation. Hence work for free, Interns or forced Work-for-welfare schemes are on the rise. Which in turn means there is even less incentive for employers to take on paid staff as they have access to a ever increasing turn over of free workers.
3. There's been a long term culture of demonizing the underclass, the unemployed, the disabled, etc. - why? simply because it's a lot easier to blame the victim. Every time there's been an economic downturn there's a very brief spell of sympathy for those people who find themselves unemployed for the first time - but which quickly turns to hostility. The mainstream media enthusiastically colludes with this.
If they want to halve unemployment - it's simple - stage 1.: divide the area's unemployed people into two groups. Stage 2: train one half as employment advisors - who then can be employed on fixed short term contracts to teach the other unemployed half job searching skills and train them to be employment advisors. Stage 3: When their contracts end and they become unemployed - employ the now newly trained-up other half to teach the other half job searching skills and re-train how to be employment advisors. Repeat as often as necessary.
If they want to halve unemployment - it's simple - stage 1.: divide the area's unemployed people into two groups. Stage 2: train one half as employment advisors - who then can be employed on fixed short term contracts to teach the other unemployed half job searching skills and train them to be employment advisors. Stage 3: When their contracts end and they become unemployed - employ the now newly trained-up other half to teach the other half job searching skills and re-train how to be employment advisors. Repeat as often as necessary.
workfare or state sanctioned slavery?
So exactly how many graduates do Poundland/Tescos/Primark need to stack their shelves for free? And what's the point of even encouraging kids to go to University if this is the treatment they can expect at the end of it?
Say hello to the 21st century version of neo-feudalism.
Graduate 'made to stack shelves' seeks judicial review
Public Interest Lawyers.
I saw them discuss this news item on 'Loose Women' - and they really laid into this young woman - in the new mentality of 'blame the victim' and demonizing the unemployed as 'dole scroungers' that's currently all the rage at the moment (I notice there's not so much open rage at the bankers who've taken so much money out of the economy in their bail outs that whole economies are faltering.. but I start to digress).
This woman wasn't being lazy - she already was working voluntarily at a museum - which was a lot more in line in her chosen career path and was giving her experience and references than working in a discount supermaket. But they were forcing her to work at Poundland and give up the museum position. But that's the point now - after a year of unemployment the 'welfare' state now takes it upon it's self to destroy a person's spirit (not that it isn't already damaged by being unemployed for so long) - you're expected then to take up ANY job... the big lie here of course is that there are millions upon millions of 'ANY' McJobs out there... but there simply aren't. (Otherwise wouldn't Poundland, Tescos etc. be employing people properly instead of offering 'work placements') And this is a young woman who has played the game - she's gone to school, got good grades - gone on to University, taken on the student loans and the debts and found herself voluntary work and after all that - her reward... a slap in the face. Didn't anyone think if she ever wanted to stack shelves as a career she need not have put herself into debt and done all that work... Why wasn't the museum work seen as part of the scheme?
No wonder the youth of today are getting angrier and angrier and occupying here, there and everywhere. They have justified outrage on their side. I'm sure it doesn't help matters when a bunch of 'resting' actresses and has-been TV personalities get paid to sit in a TV studio and pour venomous scorn over someone who's a victim of a society that's disintegrating around everyone's ears merely for wanting to better herself and standing up for her rights.
Say hello to the 21st century version of neo-feudalism.
Public Interest Lawyers.
I saw them discuss this news item on 'Loose Women' - and they really laid into this young woman - in the new mentality of 'blame the victim' and demonizing the unemployed as 'dole scroungers' that's currently all the rage at the moment (I notice there's not so much open rage at the bankers who've taken so much money out of the economy in their bail outs that whole economies are faltering.. but I start to digress).
This woman wasn't being lazy - she already was working voluntarily at a museum - which was a lot more in line in her chosen career path and was giving her experience and references than working in a discount supermaket. But they were forcing her to work at Poundland and give up the museum position. But that's the point now - after a year of unemployment the 'welfare' state now takes it upon it's self to destroy a person's spirit (not that it isn't already damaged by being unemployed for so long) - you're expected then to take up ANY job... the big lie here of course is that there are millions upon millions of 'ANY' McJobs out there... but there simply aren't. (Otherwise wouldn't Poundland, Tescos etc. be employing people properly instead of offering 'work placements') And this is a young woman who has played the game - she's gone to school, got good grades - gone on to University, taken on the student loans and the debts and found herself voluntary work and after all that - her reward... a slap in the face. Didn't anyone think if she ever wanted to stack shelves as a career she need not have put herself into debt and done all that work... Why wasn't the museum work seen as part of the scheme?
No wonder the youth of today are getting angrier and angrier and occupying here, there and everywhere. They have justified outrage on their side. I'm sure it doesn't help matters when a bunch of 'resting' actresses and has-been TV personalities get paid to sit in a TV studio and pour venomous scorn over someone who's a victim of a society that's disintegrating around everyone's ears merely for wanting to better herself and standing up for her rights.
age of greed
New York Book review:
Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present
by Jeff Madrick
Which tells you all you need to know about the current economic crisis - and why it keeps happening again and again...
by Jeff Madrick
Which tells you all you need to know about the current economic crisis - and why it keeps happening again and again...
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:
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.
"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...
Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Why? maybe because they now fund the politicians?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Occupy Times Square
"I am going to start my life as an adult in debt and that's not fair," student Nathaniel Brown told Reuters Television. "Millions of teenagers across the country are going to start their futures in debt, while all of these corporations are getting money fed all the time and none of us can get any."
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh Oliver - you litter bug
The Daily Mirror spotted the Minister dumping his read paper work all over the place and the story has just taken off. The BBC - the Guardian - It's like bloody amateur hour, these clowns shouldn't be allowed to hold public office - look at the utter contempt he shows his constituents by doing this . As if it wasn't bad enough with his previous reported remark on not wanting poor families from Sheffield going on flights to foreign holidays.
Vile man.
Vile man.
Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment: Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
It's amazing. I mean I guess people must fall for this blatant propaganda otherwise they wouldn't keep doing it. For the past 18 months the coalition has been blaming the country's economic woes variously on Gordon Brown, the snow, the Royal Wedding and now it's US and the EU.
An oft repeated cliché has been 'the mess Labour left us in' blithely ignoring the fact that Gordon Brown faced with the near global financial melt down and credit cruch had to put in emergency measures to stop the country going bankrupt. And his measures were working - there was growth, even the deficit wasn't as much as they feared- etc. Osbourne gets in, with only the one single idea - cut spending, and the economy flat-lines and the excuses start flowing thick and fast.
Why's that then? Oh, you can tell the Tories just thought we were in for just a normal recession - a bit of a blip and soon things would be back to normal - the housing bubble would continue, and the private sector would have their choice of newly unemployed and desperate people they could employ at new bargain low rates etc.
Turns out they've misread the situation completely... and they're starting to make little squeaks about how bad things are... but you can tell it hasn't really hit home yet. The last thirty years of the Milton Friedman school of economics is over, it achieved it's aim of making the rich a lot richer (which is why there's been many vested interests in keeping it going for as long as it has - since money buys power and influence and even more money buys even more power and more influence) but now it's got nowhere else to go. It won - and everyone except the super rich lost. Except - they're now about to lose too - because ordinary people are finally waking up and they're not going to take it any more. There is not going to be 'business as usual' for much longer - and our complacent, out-of-touch politicians are still asleep at the wheel.
BBC News - UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
An oft repeated cliché has been 'the mess Labour left us in' blithely ignoring the fact that Gordon Brown faced with the near global financial melt down and credit cruch had to put in emergency measures to stop the country going bankrupt. And his measures were working - there was growth, even the deficit wasn't as much as they feared- etc. Osbourne gets in, with only the one single idea - cut spending, and the economy flat-lines and the excuses start flowing thick and fast.
Why's that then? Oh, you can tell the Tories just thought we were in for just a normal recession - a bit of a blip and soon things would be back to normal - the housing bubble would continue, and the private sector would have their choice of newly unemployed and desperate people they could employ at new bargain low rates etc.
Turns out they've misread the situation completely... and they're starting to make little squeaks about how bad things are... but you can tell it hasn't really hit home yet. The last thirty years of the Milton Friedman school of economics is over, it achieved it's aim of making the rich a lot richer (which is why there's been many vested interests in keeping it going for as long as it has - since money buys power and influence and even more money buys even more power and more influence) but now it's got nowhere else to go. It won - and everyone except the super rich lost. Except - they're now about to lose too - because ordinary people are finally waking up and they're not going to take it any more. There is not going to be 'business as usual' for much longer - and our complacent, out-of-touch politicians are still asleep at the wheel.
BBC News - UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high
Road-building plan takes us back to the last Tory government | George Monbiot
It seems that the door to new roads has swung open again. The Conservatives have long had an interest in getting people off public transport and into cars. Public transport is often unionised. It pools resources and encourages social mixing and collective action. Car driving, by contrast, isolates us from other people and encourages us to see society – pedestrians, bicycles, other cars, speed limits, traffic calming – as an obstacle. The car drives us to the right. It is a powerful but overlooked agent of political change.Road-building plan takes us back to the last Tory government | George Monbiot
I'll take this as proof that the Tories haven't a single new idea in their heads - they just want to carry on what Thatcher started in the Eighties. They'll be re-inventing the Poll Tax soon mark my words.
UK could introduce 'fat tax',
Er...
UK could introduce 'fat tax', says David Cameron | Politics | guardian.co.uk
"Cameron said drastic action was needed to prevent health costs soaring and life expectancy falling."But both the Conservatives and Labour keep claiming people are living longer and because of that they need to raise the retirement age and get people to pay more into their pensions to get a lot less out in payments - but now here's Cameron is contradicting that by saying life expectancy is going down... (or is that only amongst poor people - and it's the rich people who are living longer?) and we need to tax people more to stop that... Er... they just want more money off us for nothing - that's the real motivation isn't it? This is BS. On and btw - more and more food scientists keep coming up with new research saying saturated fats aren't anywhere as near bad for us as we thought.
UK could introduce 'fat tax', says David Cameron | Politics | guardian.co.uk
Wall Street protest movement spreads
Wall Street protest movement spreads to cities across US, Canada and Europe | World news | The Guardian:
[And what has our wonderful coalition Govt. done with regard to Tuition fees? Allowed them to triple and thinks it's OK that graduates will be saddled with a massive sudent loan debt for what will prove to be for the rest of their lives.]
Other websites publicising the protests have also become hugely popular. One, named wearethe99percent, in reference to the statistic that 1% of the US population owns a third of the wealth, posts pictures of people holding handwritten messages daily.
One said: "Last year, my 60-year-old mother was evicted. This year I graduated with my master's. I am unemployed with over $120,000 in student loans. I no longer believe the American Dream is for me because … We are the 99 per cent."
Another person holds up a sign which reads: "When you're young, you're told you can be anything, I'm sick of being fed lies. I graduated with a BA in 2009 and I've been searching for a job ever since. My generation is lost, depressed, in debt, struggling. We are taking unpaid internships and temporary contracts with no health insurance in desperation. We will forever be living at our parent's house."
Scrap NHS reforms, doctors tell Lords
Experts including 40 directors of public health say government's health and social care bill will cause 'irreparable harm'
Oh, wait a minute - I thought the Govt. had had a pause to listen to the consultants and the Doctors and everybody. Turns out - they paused but didn't do any listening whatsoever. Well, golly, that's a turn up for the books. Who woulda thunk it. I mean someone might look at this whole situation and think it's purely ideologically driven and that the Tories want to carve up the NHS and sell off the profitable bits to their mates - the pharmaceutical companies and what not... the ones that out of the goodness of their selfless big hearts donate so much money to Tory party funds...
Oh, wait a minute - I thought the Govt. had had a pause to listen to the consultants and the Doctors and everybody. Turns out - they paused but didn't do any listening whatsoever. Well, golly, that's a turn up for the books. Who woulda thunk it. I mean someone might look at this whole situation and think it's purely ideologically driven and that the Tories want to carve up the NHS and sell off the profitable bits to their mates - the pharmaceutical companies and what not... the ones that out of the goodness of their selfless big hearts donate so much money to Tory party funds...
A voice of reason amid the madness
"I hear all this, 'well, this is class warfare, this is whatever'. No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear:
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."
- Elizabeth Warren
A voice of reason amid the madness
You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did."
- Elizabeth Warren
A voice of reason amid the madness
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
"In December, I disclosed the fear at a senior level of government that the reform of the Employment and Support Allowance (which replaced Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on incapacity grounds in 2008) might have terrible consequences. “It is quite possible,” one source said to me, “that there will be cases of suicide.” A report published by the Work and Pensions Select Committee last week was critical of the Work Capability Assessment introduced in 2008 and embraced by the Coalition. Overseen by Atos, a French private company, the new system has – as predicted – produced some very grim cases, including at least one death of a former claimant who was cleared for work. "
By the by there have been more suicides since and few people that have ended up homeless and on the streets now.
Yet there's not been a word of concern from any Tory MP that I know of.
Odd that.
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
By the by there have been more suicides since and few people that have ended up homeless and on the streets now.
Yet there's not been a word of concern from any Tory MP that I know of.
Odd that.
There’s another deficit that David Cameron has to deal with - Telegraph
Apparently - there's a law against slavery - dintcha know
I was under the impression slavery was illegal anyway - but there's a new law in compliance with the European Human Rights act...
Here it is:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/circular-07-2010-coroners-justice-act-section-71.pdf
Except right up front it lays out some get-out clauses:
"Those exceptions are work done in the course of lawful detention, military service, emergencies or life threatening situations and work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations."
I'm guessing by "service which forms part of normal civic obligations" - they mean Workfare.
So there you have it - they practically admit Workfare is slavery but as it's 'part of normal civic obligations' - it's A-OK.
21st Century Feudal Britain here we come.
Here it is:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/circular-07-2010-coroners-justice-act-section-71.pdf
Except right up front it lays out some get-out clauses:
"Those exceptions are work done in the course of lawful detention, military service, emergencies or life threatening situations and work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations."
I'm guessing by "service which forms part of normal civic obligations" - they mean Workfare.
So there you have it - they practically admit Workfare is slavery but as it's 'part of normal civic obligations' - it's A-OK.
21st Century Feudal Britain here we come.
Shapps urges councils to increase houseboat moorings
Odd - one of my boyf's many mad ideas was for me to live on a houseboat... (not at my age thank you). Just think -when the water levels rise because of global warming it won't bother you in the least. Kevin Cosner's 'Water World' might start here.
Rise in young people claiming JSA
Funny how youth unemployment started creeping up just around the time when they started to scrap the student grant - and students in (what should be full time education) had to get jobs to keep themselves alive. A massive pool of jobs for young people went right there. Then year after year, starved of Government funding the whole further educational and training system itself became a money-grubbing free-for-all. Want to learn a trade? Fine. Go to a FE college – that'll be £XXX in tuition fees then. No money to pay that? Go away then. Oh yes – then maybe the Employers will help fund the cost of training with apprenticeships? Oh no, they couldn't be asked – not when they can get a load of eager young already trained and fully qualified workers direct from Poland. (Where the state pays for their education – d'oh. See the flaw in the logic there?)
The whole system is a complete mess with no joined up thinking at any stage of the way. But there's one thing you can rely on the poor are going to get punished for being poor – and words like 'work shy', 'lazy' and 'moral collapse' are going to thrown around like confetti by the politicians and right wing media because that's a lot easier and cheaper than tackling the problem properly.
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Rise in young people claiming JSA - Telegraph
The whole system is a complete mess with no joined up thinking at any stage of the way. But there's one thing you can rely on the poor are going to get punished for being poor – and words like 'work shy', 'lazy' and 'moral collapse' are going to thrown around like confetti by the politicians and right wing media because that's a lot easier and cheaper than tackling the problem properly.
[fb]
Rise in young people claiming JSA - Telegraph
This is sick
Up until now whenever a criminal has been caught and punished - the punishment has been limited to the criminal themselves, now suddenly we've a situation where that's not deemed enough. The punishment has been extended to the family... and they're to be made homeless wtf. Surely even murderers don't get treated like this!
So what the hell is happening here? We've had rioting and looting in the UK - well, since time immemorial and already have tons of laws on how to deal with the problem - but now that's just not quite enough? The Government has got to be seen to be that bit more macho?
UK riots: I'm not responsible for my son, says mother facing eviction from council house
So what the hell is happening here? We've had rioting and looting in the UK - well, since time immemorial and already have tons of laws on how to deal with the problem - but now that's just not quite enough? The Government has got to be seen to be that bit more macho?
UK riots: I'm not responsible for my son, says mother facing eviction from council house
Here comes the class war...
Cameron announces police can use rubber bullets and water cannons.
Here we go... the beginnings of an all out class war in all it's naked glory. Yes, it is a broken society Mr Cameron - your predecessors Thatcher - Major - Blair and Brown all had their hand in that. All acting like irresponsible parents - "Oh, let Johnny Banker have his way. He's said he can make 'loadsa money' if only we let him off the leash. Oh and mr Johnny Corporation can make 'loadsa money' if we let him move all their jobs abroad. And Jimmy big business said they can make a bit more money if they bring in cheaper labour from abroad. They've all said they'd make even more if we let them off paying any taxes, and making money is always good right?"
Later: "On noes! Johnny Banker what have you done? You gambled away all your money? Oh, we can't have you fail... here's some taxpayers money to get you back on your feet."
That's without mentioning all the money wasted in fighting wars in the Middle East and on terrorists etc.
Yup. Society is now well and truly broken and how is Cameron going to repair it? Stick it back together with rubber bullets and water cannon - and fast track a generation of youth into prison. That'll work.
Here we go... the beginnings of an all out class war in all it's naked glory. Yes, it is a broken society Mr Cameron - your predecessors Thatcher - Major - Blair and Brown all had their hand in that. All acting like irresponsible parents - "Oh, let Johnny Banker have his way. He's said he can make 'loadsa money' if only we let him off the leash. Oh and mr Johnny Corporation can make 'loadsa money' if we let him move all their jobs abroad. And Jimmy big business said they can make a bit more money if they bring in cheaper labour from abroad. They've all said they'd make even more if we let them off paying any taxes, and making money is always good right?"
Later: "On noes! Johnny Banker what have you done? You gambled away all your money? Oh, we can't have you fail... here's some taxpayers money to get you back on your feet."
That's without mentioning all the money wasted in fighting wars in the Middle East and on terrorists etc.
Yup. Society is now well and truly broken and how is Cameron going to repair it? Stick it back together with rubber bullets and water cannon - and fast track a generation of youth into prison. That'll work.
Christopher Shale
First there was...
'There's no reason to join the Tories. We've come over as voracious, crass, always on the take'
then there was
Top Tory's Glasto Death 'Not Suspicious'
Weird.
'There's no reason to join the Tories. We've come over as voracious, crass, always on the take'
then there was
Top Tory's Glasto Death 'Not Suspicious'
Weird.
Migrants taking 9 in 10 new jobs since the election, Coalition poverty czar reveals | Mail Online
I hate Frank Fields - and I've always seen him as a closet Tory.
Anyway I'm getting a bit pissed off at MPs and the PM throwing around the 'workshy' word. In case they didn't know there's an on-going recession. There's something like (numbers vary) 5 to 10 or more applicants for every job. Yet the Govt.. wants everyone to compete like demented harpies for everyone or get their 'benefits' taken away. (Hello increase in homeless and crime figures as people have to turn to crime to feed themselves. We really have the most out-of-touch with-reality bunch of people in charge than... well, I think you'll have to reach back the France and King Louis XVI to get a suitable comparison. And we know how that turned out for him.
Migrants taking 9 in 10 new jobs since the election, Coalition poverty czar reveals
Anyway I'm getting a bit pissed off at MPs and the PM throwing around the 'workshy' word. In case they didn't know there's an on-going recession. There's something like (numbers vary) 5 to 10 or more applicants for every job. Yet the Govt.. wants everyone to compete like demented harpies for everyone or get their 'benefits' taken away. (Hello increase in homeless and crime figures as people have to turn to crime to feed themselves. We really have the most out-of-touch with-reality bunch of people in charge than... well, I think you'll have to reach back the France and King Louis XVI to get a suitable comparison. And we know how that turned out for him.
Migrants taking 9 in 10 new jobs since the election, Coalition poverty czar reveals
Bilderberg Security Assaults EU Members of Parliament Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
» Bilderberg Security Assaults EU Members of Parliament.
And as far as I can tell other than a little piece in the Guardian - only Russia Today have carried a piece on it. Odd when Osbourne went on a skiing holiday it was all over the press here - but now he's meeting world leaders and other elitists - there's not a tiny peep of interest.
And as far as I can tell other than a little piece in the Guardian - only Russia Today have carried a piece on it. Odd when Osbourne went on a skiing holiday it was all over the press here - but now he's meeting world leaders and other elitists - there's not a tiny peep of interest.
you're not giving enough of your money to pension fund managers
Apparently -
Oh no... really? A report from a pension fund says that? Wow. I'm not an economist - nor do I play one on TV - but maybe, just maybe this other news link might help explain why this might be so...
Half of UK not saving enough for retirement, says study
Only 51% of British workers are saving adequately for old age, according to the latest annual Scottish Widows pension report.
Oh no... really? A report from a pension fund says that? Wow. I'm not an economist - nor do I play one on TV - but maybe, just maybe this other news link might help explain why this might be so...
Wages at standstill over last 30 years
Many low and median earners have seen no real improvements in their incomes over the last 30 years despite economic growth, a TUC report shows.Now maybe if wages hadn't been at a standstill - and maybe if interest rates weren't at all time historic low (which only benefits bankers) and if we weren't still in the middle of a recession...
Asus Eee Note EA800 Review | bit-tech.net
I think I've found the e-reader I want... better than a kindle because you can draw and write on it.
Asus Eee Note EA800 Review | bit-tech.net
Asus Eee Note EA800 Review | bit-tech.net
HTC Flyer review -- Engadget
HTC Flyer review -- Engadget
Why does the notebook app thing have a spiral binder graphic? Doesn't that just waste space? Especially since it's such a small screen to start with? I also hate the yellow lined notepad look on the ipod touch. What's wrong with a clean blank page - or optional lined -so you can choose between them? I don't get why it has to look like a notebook.
Anyway - tablet 'puters going back to having a stylus... mmmm. I know I like a stylus because I draw and scribble and that.
[update: oh the stylus is extra - and expensive. Stupidly expensive. That's put me off now.]
Why does the notebook app thing have a spiral binder graphic? Doesn't that just waste space? Especially since it's such a small screen to start with? I also hate the yellow lined notepad look on the ipod touch. What's wrong with a clean blank page - or optional lined -so you can choose between them? I don't get why it has to look like a notebook.
Anyway - tablet 'puters going back to having a stylus... mmmm. I know I like a stylus because I draw and scribble and that.
[update: oh the stylus is extra - and expensive. Stupidly expensive. That's put me off now.]
Beaker squeaks out
After the trouncing the Lib Dems got in last week's local elections - each Lib Dem has been taking it in turns to pop out and tell us all they're going to show us how different from the Tories they are - except they're also saying the coalition is still on - that it's going to last the course... *cough*
This is Danny Alexander's turn: "I'm not George Osborne's bodyguard"
It's the worst of them so far. But I think it's probably because he's the most Tory like of them all. I can see him being awarded with a Tory peerage a few years down the line.
"...But he refused to accept that the party's disastrous electoral showing last Thursday was a verdict on its commitment to cut the deficit so quickly, saying that "the case for backing the deficit programme is now ever stronger".
-No? Then he's a complete idiot. The negative growth figures and the flat-lining economy are screaming out loud that cutting the deficit so quickly and deeply isn't working. And oh look, what did Ireland do? Exactly what Osbourne is doing now -and ooops! didn't do them any good at all did it?
If the economy isn't growing then the markets are going to say the UK can't pay off it's debts as easily and will put down it's credit rating - they've rattled the sabres at the US already.
This is Danny Alexander's turn: "I'm not George Osborne's bodyguard"
It's the worst of them so far. But I think it's probably because he's the most Tory like of them all. I can see him being awarded with a Tory peerage a few years down the line.
"...But he refused to accept that the party's disastrous electoral showing last Thursday was a verdict on its commitment to cut the deficit so quickly, saying that "the case for backing the deficit programme is now ever stronger".
-No? Then he's a complete idiot. The negative growth figures and the flat-lining economy are screaming out loud that cutting the deficit so quickly and deeply isn't working. And oh look, what did Ireland do? Exactly what Osbourne is doing now -and ooops! didn't do them any good at all did it?
If the economy isn't growing then the markets are going to say the UK can't pay off it's debts as easily and will put down it's credit rating - they've rattled the sabres at the US already.
Oh god, no - help!
Is this the start of a long Conservative hegemony? - Poly Toynbee.
Apart from the Greens winning council seats in Brighton/Hove, and the SNP winning Scotland. (Yay! Glimmers of hope). I am now very depressed for the future. My only other hope is that the Lib Dems find where they've hidden their gonads and walk out of the coalition. But they won't - despite last night's thrashing they're still in love with the attention they getting. Cameron can piss on Clegg's head and tell him it's raining and Clegg will believe him.
Apart from the Greens winning council seats in Brighton/Hove, and the SNP winning Scotland. (Yay! Glimmers of hope). I am now very depressed for the future. My only other hope is that the Lib Dems find where they've hidden their gonads and walk out of the coalition. But they won't - despite last night's thrashing they're still in love with the attention they getting. Cameron can piss on Clegg's head and tell him it's raining and Clegg will believe him.
3d stuffs
I haven't got a 3ds -yet, (I'm desperately poor at the moment so the price will have to come way down first) but when I do these links will be handy...
How To Put Non-3DS 3D Pictures On Your 3DS.
Adding thumbnails to Windows for MPO files
Fujifilm launches FinePix Real 3D W3 compact with 3D movies
How To Put Non-3DS 3D Pictures On Your 3DS.
Adding thumbnails to Windows for MPO files
Fujifilm launches FinePix Real 3D W3 compact with 3D movies
Right-wing hate campaign clouds debate on benefits | Left Foot Forward
A must-read.
See how the right-wing press distort the truth.
Right-wing hate campaign clouds debate on benefits | Left Foot Forward
See how the right-wing press distort the truth.
Right-wing hate campaign clouds debate on benefits | Left Foot Forward
Mmmm - Unemployment figures show a fall?
How?
Maybe because the whole scale Atos reassessment of those on disability and incapacity benefits has only just started - that's going to add a few extra thousand to the jobless queues.
and maybe tricking people out of benefits has been more successful than the DWP would ever admit to?
Otherwise I haven't seen any signs of new businesses and factories opening and taking on extra staff...
I smell something fishy going on.
Maybe because the whole scale Atos reassessment of those on disability and incapacity benefits has only just started - that's going to add a few extra thousand to the jobless queues.
and maybe tricking people out of benefits has been more successful than the DWP would ever admit to?
Otherwise I haven't seen any signs of new businesses and factories opening and taking on extra staff...
I smell something fishy going on.
Doctor Who Series 6 linky-dinks
The Metro has a lot of Doctor Who stuffs
Doctor Who Series 6, Episodes 1 and 2 spoiler-free first review | Metro.co.uk
Six non spoilers.
Doctor Who Series 6, Episodes 1 and 2 spoiler-free first review | Metro.co.uk
Six non spoilers.
Big fall in industrial production
Really? But only three months or so ago they were saying Industry and exports were doing surprisingly well. Oh wait. That's because they were still operating on the schemes Gordon Brown had put in place to keep the economy ticking over after the crash... Now we're seeing what's happening after Osbourne put his plans into operation. Not looking so good is it? Surprise surprise.
But with the benefits reform and many more Incapacity Benefit claimants now being forced into looking for work - things will soon turn around... Oh wait, something wrong with this picture - there's not the jobs there... er, er. er... Oh well Emma Harrison will sort it all out. She's got a positive attitude, big smiles and a big red coat. That's what we've been missing all this time.
Big fall in industrial production.
But with the benefits reform and many more Incapacity Benefit claimants now being forced into looking for work - things will soon turn around... Oh wait, something wrong with this picture - there's not the jobs there... er, er. er... Oh well Emma Harrison will sort it all out. She's got a positive attitude, big smiles and a big red coat. That's what we've been missing all this time.
Big fall in industrial production.
CiF trolls: a taxonomy | Nonsuch
CiF trolls: a taxonomy | Nonsuch
(I'm sort of vaguely working on something - a collection of the worst of the Tory comments on cif. There's a good number of tedious clichés such as:
"It's all Gordon Browns fault."
"The last 13 years have been the worst for the country -ever."
"How dare Polly Toynbee and the Guardian support the Lib Dems in the last election." (Like any one could predict how quickly they would sell out a and do 180 degree turn on nearly everything.)
This mini-project is taking me a while because it's kind of profoundly depressing to wade through so much vicious bile and flat out stupidity.
(I'm sort of vaguely working on something - a collection of the worst of the Tory comments on cif. There's a good number of tedious clichés such as:
"It's all Gordon Browns fault."
"The last 13 years have been the worst for the country -ever."
"How dare Polly Toynbee and the Guardian support the Lib Dems in the last election." (Like any one could predict how quickly they would sell out a and do 180 degree turn on nearly everything.)
This mini-project is taking me a while because it's kind of profoundly depressing to wade through so much vicious bile and flat out stupidity.
Emma Harrison creeps me out...
£1.4m-a-year welfare entrepreneur picked by Cameron to get Britons off benefits and into work
As Emma Harrison's company adds five new taxpayer-funded welfare contracts to its empire, unions attack 'obscene' public payouts
Today was the first time I'd ever heard of this woman - the smiley smiley smiley - ever optimistic, ever so slightly creepy, ever manically grinning Emma Harrison CBE... making her millions out of taxpayers money to run 'back to work'/work-for-welfare profit-making programmes for the unemployed.
Interview: Emma Harrison of A4e.
When A4E are not losing client's personal data - or being implicated in hiring ex-ministers for whatever reason... (absolutely nothing to do with him knowing how parliamentary procedures work so they can then make more successful bids for those very lucrative government contracts I'm sure. David Blunkett is a highly honourable man and would never abuse his position for personal gain.) It's just not in his nature.
Other links:
Watching A4E
a4e photogallery
Housing benefit changes - a disaster about to happen
The 1980s - the Tories take away the last of rent control laws - saying it will mean rents will fall. Instead they start shooting upwards. (Tories always get it wrong - because they can only think in simple terms - IE they aren't very bright. They also have a nasty mean streak to them.)
They then sold off council houses at knock down prices to renters and refuse to let councils build any new replacement houses with the income.
(A lot of the new home-owners start seeing themselves as middle-class now and start voting Tory. Wooo! Popular capitalism. The working class can own property and buy stocks and shares in the newly privatised utilities - electricity, gas, water, Telecom...)
The result of this is later down the line we have a dire 'affordable' housing shortage. D'uh. Shortages mean house prices start climbing. The start of the housing price bubble. Investors see the new 'buy to let' market - fed by the boom in cheap mortgages, and with no rent controls can get the renters to effectively pay off the mortgage and a bit of extra profit too. Rents sky rocket.
In case you haven't noticed, wages have been stagnating since the 1970s so more and more people have had to have top-ups in the form of Housing Benefit to pay these ever increasing rents.
(Stupid Labour Govt. should have seen this was unsustainabl and brought back rent controls - but at the time everything was booming and feeling good - so they rolled with it. BTW I consider Blair/Brown to be Tories too.)
This results in a massive Housing Benefit bill. Which the Tories are now tackling by cutting benefits and making poorer people move around the country in search of ever decreasing cheaper housing. This plainly is not going to work. Is going to needlessly disrupt many people's lives - fracture communities - put more pressure on already cash-strapped poorer councils as more people have to move to them, increase homelessness - and generally be a disaster all way round.
If only the Tories hadn't taken away rent controls and had let councils keep buying new houses...
They then sold off council houses at knock down prices to renters and refuse to let councils build any new replacement houses with the income.
(A lot of the new home-owners start seeing themselves as middle-class now and start voting Tory. Wooo! Popular capitalism. The working class can own property and buy stocks and shares in the newly privatised utilities - electricity, gas, water, Telecom...)
The result of this is later down the line we have a dire 'affordable' housing shortage. D'uh. Shortages mean house prices start climbing. The start of the housing price bubble. Investors see the new 'buy to let' market - fed by the boom in cheap mortgages, and with no rent controls can get the renters to effectively pay off the mortgage and a bit of extra profit too. Rents sky rocket.
In case you haven't noticed, wages have been stagnating since the 1970s so more and more people have had to have top-ups in the form of Housing Benefit to pay these ever increasing rents.
(Stupid Labour Govt. should have seen this was unsustainabl and brought back rent controls - but at the time everything was booming and feeling good - so they rolled with it. BTW I consider Blair/Brown to be Tories too.)
This results in a massive Housing Benefit bill. Which the Tories are now tackling by cutting benefits and making poorer people move around the country in search of ever decreasing cheaper housing. This plainly is not going to work. Is going to needlessly disrupt many people's lives - fracture communities - put more pressure on already cash-strapped poorer councils as more people have to move to them, increase homelessness - and generally be a disaster all way round.
If only the Tories hadn't taken away rent controls and had let councils keep buying new houses...
Jobs are not enough: it's the quality of work that counts
Nice comment, and it's true, despite Cameron having a whole new 'happiness index' or something, no one asks about the nature of some jobs. If the choice is being unemployed or a low paid job - where you have low status, or you might be bullied, or it's unsocial hours etc. -things that could well impact on your general well being and mental health - you could very well be better off staying unemployed (although the on-coming welfare 'reforms' look set to make the unemployed and disabled and old people's life as miserable as possible as a matter of course).
Jobs are not enough: it's the quality of work that counts | Stephen Overell
Jobs are not enough: it's the quality of work that counts | Stephen Overell
German universities face funding fears as states scrap fees
Well - that's interesting. Wonder if our coalition Government is taking notice of this. Probably not.
German universities face funding fears as states scrap fees | World news | The Guardian
German universities face funding fears as states scrap fees | World news | The Guardian
Maurice Glasman, Labour peer
I caught the last few minutes of an interview with Maurice Glasman on BBC's Hard Talk tonight. He came across as very interesting - laying out what NuLabour had been doing wrong before it lost power (although I'd put forward that the one big reason Labour lost (among many other reasons) was down to Gordon Brown's hubris. The only person who wanted Gordon Brown as PM - was unfortunately, Gordon Brown himself)
anyway...
three links:
Maurice Glasman – the peer plotting Labour's new strategy from his flat.
The struggle against debt servitude
Bankers and politicians have failed to grasp how much distress debt can cause, which is why the anti-usury campaign matters.
and last but maybe far more interesting: Confronting the city.
anyway...
three links:
Maurice Glasman – the peer plotting Labour's new strategy from his flat.
The struggle against debt servitude
Bankers and politicians have failed to grasp how much distress debt can cause, which is why the anti-usury campaign matters.
and last but maybe far more interesting: Confronting the city.
Patients attack healthcare firm's doctors for claim clawback
THE HQ of a firm employed to weed out welfare claimants and slash benefits has been branded "Lourdes" because so many ill people are being told they're fit to work.Patients attack healthcare firm's doctors for claim clawback - The Daily Record
I think it's beyond disgusting what the Tory party are inflicting on people too ill to work. The Nasty party are back and making up for lost time in their mean-spirited viciousness.
More from the Guardian:
'The medical was an absolute joke'
"At the protest outside Atos's headquarters last month, one young man, nervous and clearly not accustomed to addressing rallies, took the microphone to explain how his uncle, who had severe mental health problems, committed suicide after the test gave him zero points and found him fit to work.
Dismayed to find his benefit claim rejected, he had appealed against the decision, and won at tribunal. But shortly after that decision, he was called in for another assessment, and for a second time scored zero points and was told he did not qualify for the benefit. He began appealing against the decision again, but a few days before another tribunal date was set, he hanged himself.
When it comes to depressed and mentally ill people - what they put them through - well, they might as well have death camps, the results being the same.
this is a bit worrying
Isn't this one of the 10 steps to a fascist shift Noami Wolf was warning about?
Suspend the rule of law.
Michigan Governor Seeks Emergency Powers | CafeSentido.com
Suspend the rule of law.
Michigan Governor Seeks Emergency Powers | CafeSentido.com
Housing benefit cut to hit 450,000 disabled people
Campaigners fear thousands will be forced from their homes.
From April 2013, housing benefit for working age people in social rented homes will be linked to the size of property councils believe they need.
Ministers say they want housing benefit claimants to choose to rent properties they can afford when in work.
Soooooo - the private sector is suddenly, in just 2-3 years going to provide thousands of cheap affordable accommodation suitable for lots of disabled people? Is it? Really? That's going to happen? Personally speaking all I've seen the private sector do is build luxury executive apartments and tiny noddy town houses for rich families.
BBC News - Housing benefit cut to hit 450,000 disabled people
Lord Hutton has made scapegoats of public sector workers | Mark Serwotka
See what's happening here -and how it's so very similar to what's happening in Wisconsin? It's all about cutting and saving money from ordinary workers to fund the holes left in public finances by the bankers bail outs.
Trouble's a brewing...
Lord Hutton has made scapegoats of public sector workers | Mark Serwotka
Trouble's a brewing...
Lord Hutton has made scapegoats of public sector workers | Mark Serwotka
Who reaps the rewards of productivity?
30 to 40s years worth of neoliberalism has been great for giant corporations and bankers - but not so great for the rest of us. Funny that. It doesn't help that the richer these people get the more influence they can buy from politicians - who are now trying to cut spending on the things people need so they don't have to take it off the corporations and bankers. And so it goes on...
Who reaps the rewards of productivity? | Dean Baker
Who reaps the rewards of productivity? | Dean Baker
Child Poverty Action Group mounts legal challenge to welfare reform
Government's proposed caps to housing benefit would purge parts of UK of welfare claimants, say lawyers.
From April, claimants will no longer be able to claim for homes with more than four bedrooms, irrespective of family size, and there will be maximum limits on housing benefits. The government has said weekly payments cannot exceed £250 for a one bedroom flat, with a maximum £400 for a four bedroom house.
Such changes, say campaigners, will trigger a forced migration of thousands of families – most immediately from central London but thereafter in the rest of the south, as rental prices outstrip the housing subsidy available.
Ethnic cleansing 21st century style.
Shirley Williams warns Clegg against coalition with Conservatives
This is an old piece but it echoes what I believe should have happened. Clegg should never have joined with the Tories in a coalition - that way he would never had have to embarrass himself and his party by doing a 180 degree about face on so many LibDem election promises and would have kept some credibility. The Tories should have been left to form a minority Government and have to have fought for every one of their ideologically driven 'reforms' one by one, case by case, and even if it wouldn't have stopped the worst of them - it would have slowed them down drastically and prevented a lot of the damage they're now wrecking to - everything they're touching. It might have even done them some good too - because at the moment they're generating so much resentment once we've finally got them out - they're going to be out in the wilderness for a long time to come - all because they've proven themselves to be completely untrustworthy - which is what is going to happen to the Lib Dems now. No one is ever going to trust them ever again - not unless they do a rebellion and quit the coalition now - even if it forces a general election. At least we'd have one where all parties will have to be honest about their intentions - rather than telling us one set of promises only to tear them all up as soon as they get their feet behind their desks. The evil conniving bastards.
Shirley Williams warns Clegg against coalition with Conservatives
Shirley Williams warns Clegg against coalition with Conservatives
Nick 'Don't write off the Liberal Democrats' - Channel 4 News
Uh?
Seriously how deluded is this man? 10 months ago the LibDems were presenting themselves a more left wing but sane and sensible alternative to the disaffected New Labour voter. Yet as soon as they got a sniff of power they sold out nearly every principle and manifesto promise they had and are now quietly supporting one of the nastiest - most regressive - vicious neoliberalist incarnations of the Tory Party yet. That sort of thing doesn't look good on a CV - and especially not in those places outside of affluent London where the cuts in services are promising to be the deepest and standards of living which aren't that high already are going to be worsening...
Clegg has damaged himself, decimated his party and shown that coalition Governments are meaningless if the LibDems only act as figleaves for the worse excesses of whomsoever they get into bed with next.
Nick Clegg: 'Don't write off the Liberal Democrats' - Channel 4 News
Seriously how deluded is this man? 10 months ago the LibDems were presenting themselves a more left wing but sane and sensible alternative to the disaffected New Labour voter. Yet as soon as they got a sniff of power they sold out nearly every principle and manifesto promise they had and are now quietly supporting one of the nastiest - most regressive - vicious neoliberalist incarnations of the Tory Party yet. That sort of thing doesn't look good on a CV - and especially not in those places outside of affluent London where the cuts in services are promising to be the deepest and standards of living which aren't that high already are going to be worsening...
Clegg has damaged himself, decimated his party and shown that coalition Governments are meaningless if the LibDems only act as figleaves for the worse excesses of whomsoever they get into bed with next.
Nick Clegg: 'Don't write off the Liberal Democrats' - Channel 4 News
Britain at risk of another financial crisis.
At risk? It's more like a 100% certainty - we've already seen the Tory's let their banker friends completely off the hook, (didn't see that one coming) we've seen how they've inflicted vicious deep cuts - rather than get the banks to pay back any of the bail outs - or tax their ridiculously high and totally undeserved profits and bonuses...
We would have had a double dip recession now if we had -you know had come out of recession in the first place... oooh, all that snow heh. Blame that snow.
And not a single scrap of legislation put in place to stop it happening all over again, except this time - there's simply not the money to bail them out all over again...
Britain at risk of another financial crisis, Bank of England chief warns - Telegraph
We would have had a double dip recession now if we had -you know had come out of recession in the first place... oooh, all that snow heh. Blame that snow.
And not a single scrap of legislation put in place to stop it happening all over again, except this time - there's simply not the money to bail them out all over again...
Britain at risk of another financial crisis, Bank of England chief warns - Telegraph
Look at what the Conservatives are achieving
Oh dear.
well, there's proof if there ever was that Tories are deluded fantasists. I guess that is what happens when you keep children in a bubble - sending them to one weird institution to another (prep school - public boarding school - overpriced university - Parliament) they just have no experience of real life whatsoever. Trouble is - it should also mean they should never ever be allowed positions of power because they haven't really a clue as to what they're doing...
Look at what the Conservatives are achieving - Telegraph
See how he manages to miss out a few other truths..
Mentally ill people committing suicide because ATOS has deemed them well enough to work. People with terminal heart conditions deemed well enough to work and sent home - only to die of heart attacks later.
Universities charging the full top amounts of fees - while at the same time EMAs are cut so young people from poorer backgrounds (and there are going to be a lot more of those around as more and more people get made unemployed) won't afford to take up further education any more.
Council run dinner clubs for OAPs (where they get their only hot meal of the week) forced to close...
the list just goes on and on and on - but everything in Michael Fallon's privileged little narrow band world is hunky dory - so that's all right then.
So many tories are just idiot monsters.
well, there's proof if there ever was that Tories are deluded fantasists. I guess that is what happens when you keep children in a bubble - sending them to one weird institution to another (prep school - public boarding school - overpriced university - Parliament) they just have no experience of real life whatsoever. Trouble is - it should also mean they should never ever be allowed positions of power because they haven't really a clue as to what they're doing...
Look at what the Conservatives are achieving - Telegraph
See how he manages to miss out a few other truths..
Mentally ill people committing suicide because ATOS has deemed them well enough to work. People with terminal heart conditions deemed well enough to work and sent home - only to die of heart attacks later.
Universities charging the full top amounts of fees - while at the same time EMAs are cut so young people from poorer backgrounds (and there are going to be a lot more of those around as more and more people get made unemployed) won't afford to take up further education any more.
Council run dinner clubs for OAPs (where they get their only hot meal of the week) forced to close...
the list just goes on and on and on - but everything in Michael Fallon's privileged little narrow band world is hunky dory - so that's all right then.
So many tories are just idiot monsters.
The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer
Argh. Stop scaring me.
No, education as it stands won't save the West. Not when degrees have become a vocational thing teaching corporate office skills.
The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer | Peter Wilby
No, education as it stands won't save the West. Not when degrees have become a vocational thing teaching corporate office skills.
The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer | Peter Wilby
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You'd get a shiny disk (usually inside a massive cardboard box) and put in into the slot on the 'puter and you had writing and pictures and sometimes sound and little tiny movies. They were going to be this whole new publishing medium that was going to revolutionise everything...
Then the internet happened. It revolutionised everything.
People barely remember CD-ROMS any more.
And when I saw 'the Daily' app thing - I thought 'oh. It's like a news magazine on a cd-rom - only without the shiny disc part' and oh - you can turn it and swipe and... er, ok bored now. It's all a bit (whispers) naff. Good content doesn't need all that whizz-bangery, not really - a normal web page will do just fine. Thank you.
Plus one of the things I've long hated about buying a physical paper -especially the Sundays - is the sheer bulk - having endless section after section of stuff that ends up unread in the recycling bin. Reading the paper on the web is much better - getting to read only the bits I'm interested in... but an app? a subscription? having to download hefty chunks of data I'm probably not going to ever read? with advertising too? This is going to save the newspaper/magazine publishing industry?
I think they could be running up a blind alley there.