I don’t think anyone really needs much convincing over the unintended consequences of supermarkets (inner city decline, fewer jobs in retailing, etc), but they aren’t delivering the savings we think they do, either. The EC is currently investigating the failure of supermarkets to pass price cuts on to shoppers. The cost of butter has fallen [...]
Israel is to become the first country to give donor card carriers a legal right to priority treatment if they should require an organ transplant. Israeli organ donors to get transplant priority, BBC News Now if they’d make it opt-out, too, they’d have the best system in the world.
An awful joy fell upon Sir Archie’s soul. He realised anew the unplumbed preposterousness of life. John Macnab, by John Buchan
Despair is the result of each earnest attempt to go through life with virtue, justice, and understanding, and to fulfil their requirements. Herman Hesse, Journey to the East
Dougald Hine, cofounder of School of Everything, tries to reconcile modern life and parenthood How to persuade people with a few magic words: because, now, imagine, please and thank you, the person’s name, ‘control’ words which suggest you know what’s going on A frustrated Alex Steffen of World Changing points out that the revolution needs [...]
I really love the work of the New Economics Foundation. It’s clear that the amount we pay people does not correspond with the amount we value them (contrast teachers with stock traders, farmers with ad. execs). The NEF has gone on to calculate the real value of different professions. The report goes on to challenge [...]
I’m not sure who said it, but I like it. They said I was mad, I said they were mad, but they out-numbered me, dammit
Edited highlights from an LRB article: ‘Figures are down,’ we chortle mirthlessly, as we load the third batch of door-to-door catalogues onto our frames, adding yet more weight to our bags, and more minutes of unpaid overtime to our clock. We get paid 1.67 pence per item of unaddressed mail, an amount that hasn’t changed [...]
X factor is wrestling for people who don’t like wrestling. The bright lights, the fake rivalry, and most disturbingly, complete audience ‘boo ahh hiss’ control.
