Interesting Links for 10-10-2012

[andrewducker]

• The Greek message for Angela Merkel
  (tags: austerity greece germany europe finance )
• 50 Years of LED Technology
  (tags: led technology )
• Does the computer mouse face extinction? (Not this week)
  (tags: technology computers mice )
• Could Fast Food Robots Steal McJobs?
  (tags: viaFanf robots restaurant food thefuture )
• More people being

Comments

[drplokta]

Citizen's Income can't be done, because both of the following alternatives are politically impossible, for differing reasons:

• Citizens of other EU countries residing in the UK receive the Citizen's Income
  
• Citizens of other EU countries residing in the UK do not receive the Citizen's Income

[andrewducker]

Yup, another reason it doesn't add up. While I love the _idea_, I think it's not feasible in reality. Setting a floor on income using the universal benefits seems more workable to be honest.

[drplokta]

What I would like to see, and could unite rich and poor in mutual self-interest, is a minimum percentage of your income (including the bit that's called employer's NI) that you're entitled to keep under all circumstances, whether you're a higher-rate taxpayer or having means-tested benefits withdrawn. It would completely kill stupid cliffs in the system like stopping Child Benefit for higher-rate taxpayers. You'd probably have to start it fairly low, at maybe 40%.

[channelpenguin]

ooh that's really quite good...

[channelpenguin]

My take on CI is that if any workable scheme could be put in place (and having it for children too would be one vital point) it would be very good for one reason which nobody has overtly mentioned here - eliminating bureaucracy (and its associated costs).

Any *universal* benefit tends to go down better with people - less calls of "scroungers!"

I dunno, maybe not too... people are funny. Generally seems to me they'd rather pay out (it's their taxes that pay for the bureaucracy) for some scheme that makes judgements, than a much cheaper one that does not judge. Psychology experiments do seem to prove that people will pass up reward to punish 'wrongdoers' ....

[nancylebov]

"Dead Merchandise" was a lot like having my emotional reactions hijacked for someone else's purposes.

Ferrett certainly didn't waste his time at Clarion....

[danieldwilliam]

I'm not sure if you think this was a good thing or not.

[nancylebov]

I'm not sure, either. It was upsetting, and not in a fun way.

[octopoid_horror]

The article about sexual harassment/demeaning activity at university has slightly misleading statistics, I think.

"A 2010 study conducted by the National Union of Students revealed that of a nationwide sample of 2000 female students, 14% had been seriously physically or sexually assaulted, 68% were subject to sexual harassment and nearly a quarter had experienced unwanted sexual contact whilst at university."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but some quick googling suggests that those statistics are fairly close to the ones that would also apply to women not at university. So unless people are expecting people at university to act better than those in the outside world, they're not necessarily acting worse. This isn't a demonstration of the culture at universities in particular, it just shows that universities aren't a magical insulated safe place, which I don't know why people would have expected them to be.

[ashfae]

My primary odd behavior in lifts is, when the lift is going down, jumping so that for a brief moment it feels like I'm weightless/hovering. It's awesome and I refuse to apologize for it.

[andrewducker]

I get told off for that kind of thing :->

[ashfae]

So do I. Still worth it.

...all right, usually I choose my company for such endeavors carefully rather than doing so any old time I'm in a lift, but still!