Angus Bradley

If someone says a rhinoceros is coming in two seconds, we worry. But if you say a rhinoceros is coming in 20 years, nobody moves.

“

—	A Buddhist monk said this to Christopher Dickey on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, last week. (via newsweek)

wnyc:

pleatedjeans:

the queen. via

… an extra, extra, extra long time. —A.P.

The UK Budget in simple terms

inspired by the lovely idea here http://weknowmemes.com/2011/12/the-us-budget-explained-in-simple-english/ I wanted to show the UK budget in household terms. Somehow getting rid of those zeros make it much easier to see the ratios.

I got most of these figures from the sources below. I took the cuts from the Department expenditure limits from the Treasury, which say DEL is set to fall from £375.170 billion in 10/11 to £331.900 in 15/16, a cut of £43.27 billion or 11.53%. So thats 43bn over 5 years, or £8.6bn/year.

Let me know if you spot any mistakes!

sources

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/25/tax-receipts-1963

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100119735/new-statesmans-political-editor-is-wrong-about-the-debt-crisis/

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/total_spending_2010UKbn

uk government, defecit, spending, debt.

stoweboyd:

humanscalecities:

Reinventing Urbanism in a Time of Economic Crisis
Manuel Castells, University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communications & Society, University of Southern California

via

Some points:

The current crisis is the end of some world — not the world.

The equivalent of 75% of global GDP has been wiped out by the housing bust.

We are moving into a post-consumption society. Living to consume is over.

The savings rate of US population is up sharply in the past decade, now up to 6%. Reducing demand farther, worsening the cycle.

more here

There’s no such thing as a poor urbanized country; there’s no such thing as a rich rural country.

“

—	Edward Glaeser, cited by Robert Kunzig in The City Solution via National Geographic Magazine (via stoweboyd) Funny, I thought most urbanised countries were bankrupt, or going that way pretty quick.

emergentfutures:

‘Downloading’ new skills into our brains like characters on The Matrix set to become a reality, say scientists

They have been studying how a functional magnetic resonance machine (FMRI) can ‘induce’ knowledge in someone through their visual cortex by sending signals that change their brain activity pattern.

Full Story: MailOnline

EU to close Patriot Act data access loophole

In case you missed it, Microsoft opened a can of worms in June when they were the first US company to finally admit that they would release data from any of their global datacentres if requested by the US goverment under the patriot act. This contravenes European data privacy regulations, and when you consider the kinds of data US companies hold (Lockheed Martin and the UK Census data for example!) it’s worrying.

The EC’s justice commissioner Viviane Reding met with German Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner last month, and it sounded promising.

We both believe that companies who direct their services to European consumers should be subject to EU data protection laws. Otherwise, they should not be able to do business on our internal market. This also applies to social networks with users in the EU. We have to make sure that they comply with EU law and that EU law is enforced, even if it is based in a third country and even if its data are stored in a ‘cloud’.

Now ZD Net have published the draft documents, due to be released in January 2012. They look good, and comprehensive.

If the new act is broken, member states’ data protection authorities will be able to impose sanctions, which can range up to a maximum of 5 percent of a company’s annual worldwide turnover.

For first time in 20 years, TV ownership declines. And households watch a record 59 hours 28 minutes of TV per week! Yes, PER WEEK!

“

—	Emergent Futures Tumblelog

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns - Telegraph »

As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.

Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.

The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.

60 Minutes on America’s poverty epidemic - families living in cars

 FAMILIES LIVING IN CARS
 This is the home of the Metzger family. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter. And, he's been looking for work ever since Florida's construction industry collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on Craigslist with his last thousand dollars. 
Pelley: How long have you been living in this truck?
Arielle: About five months.
Pelley: What's that like?
Arielle: It's an adventure.
Austin: That's how we see it.
Pelley: When kids at school ask you where you live, what do you tell 'em?
Austin: When they see the truck they ask me if I live in it, and when I hesitate they kinda realize. And they say they won't tell anybody.
 Jade Wiley is eight years old. She spent three weeks living in her car with her mom, her dad, two dogs and a cat.
Pelley: Did you think you were ever gonna get out of the car?
Jade Wiley: I thought I was going to be stuck in the car.
Pelley: How did you keep your spirits up?
Jade Wiley: By still praying to God that somebody'd let us stay in a hotel.
Pelley: And how did you get out of the car?
Jade Wiley: Well there's this nice lady named Beth. And then she gave us a lot of money so we could stay at the hotel. And now I'm staying at the hotel.