Ed Dowding

Supermarkets are still totally lame

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 ...

Shiply

Shiply – matches you with rated delivery firms “going there anyway”

Israeli organ donors to get transplant priority

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.

John Macnab

An awful joy fell upon Sir Archie’s soul. He realised anew the unplumbed preposterousness of life. John Macnab, by John Buchan

Despair – Herman Hesse

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

Link roundup

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 ...

How valuable are you?

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 ...

They said I was mad, I said they were mad, but they out-numbered me, dammit

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

Royal Mail strikes – a postie's perspective

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

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.

Link round-up

New music service, Mog: http://mog.com Danish Island Declares Energy Independence, Becomes Self Sufficient This is not a green party voting, hippy commune, but an island of normal farmers convinced by a green-energy guru to give energy independence a try. He saw the closure of one of the island’s main businesses — a slaughterhouse employing 100 ...

Swiss minarets – a defence, not an attack

So the Swiss have voted to ban building of minarets. This is not an architectural decision. They have planning laws and have already used them, which is why there only 4 minarets in Switzerland at the time of writing. Neither is this intrinsically about racism or anti Islam. The religion is perfectly well protected and ...

How not to sell permaculture

…we will be co-creating a warm, nurturing heartspace to explore the personal and social aspects of permaculture…

Peak Everything

Things are looking good for GoodBreaks

Adventure Travel Trade Association tour operators, which together serve roughly two million customers annually,  reported that travelers are showing increased interest in the following: Custom itineraries: 84% (i.e., 84% of operators reported an increased interest) Shorter duration trips: 73% Closer-to-home, shorter haul trips: 55% Activity based adventures: 79% Cultural-interaction adventures: 70% Volunteering within travel: 40% ...

Luxury hotels get into voluntourism

Since the [Ritz-Carlton] launched its “Give Back Getaways” in April 2008, more than 2,000 vacationers have signed up in dozens of locations around the globe. Sue Stephenson, vice president of the company’s “Community Footprints” initiative, says the half-day programs range from assisting local food banks to participating in music therapy for disabled kids. Source: Time ...

Economist “Did you know?” 2009

YouTube – Economist “Did you know?”.

Heidi's Bar

An Easily Understandable Explanation of Derivative Markets Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to ...

'Unforgeable' ID cards

New ID cards are supposed to be ‘unforgeable’ – but it took our expert 12 minutes to clone one, and programme it with false data

Dissolution of the Long Parliament

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like ...