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Category Archives: privatisation
'Caring Conservatism' in (In)action: Four Holidays Dave Grows Fat And Brown While His People Go Hungry
So… six days after chemical weapons were unleashed in Syria prompting world leaders to think about launching attacks on Assad the Prime Minister finally dragged himself away from the beach in Cornwall where he's been enjoying his FOURTH holiday this year to do the job we pay him for. What was he waiting for? Did he hope the crisis would go away if he buried his head deep enough in the Cornish sand?
Sadly, 'bucket and spade' Dave doesn't give the impression of a man dedicated to hard work despite being the leader of a party that claims to 'be on the side of hard working people'. He has the most responsible job in the country, one that requires him to be 'on call' 24/7, and whilst this can obviously be pretty gruelling and hard on his family, the remuneration he gets more than reflects that. This isn't the first time he's been slow to return from holiday in a crisis.
He did the same back in August of 2011 when the London riots kicked off, claiming he could handle things just as well from his deckchair over the phone. He doesn't seem to get it. He doesn't seem to understand that when you're Prime Minister of a country that's suffering the pain of a dire economic recession you need to be there for your citizens; you need to show some solidarity with them and at least give the impression that you're prepared to suffer alongside them. When you introduce the most stringent austerity package in recent history , claiming (falsely) there is no alternative because the country's practically bankrupt and even the rich have to make sacrifices because ' we're all in it together' and when some of those who are worst affected by your actions go off the rails as a result, you don't stay put on a foreign beach and order another cold lager – you get your pampered arse back to Downing Street right away and you bloody well deal with it.
Lots of other professions require being 'on call' round the clock yet pay nowhere near as much as the PM's salary. My father was a detective sergeant and we hardly saw him. Many's the time we'd be sitting down to Christmas dinner on what should have been his day off, and the phone would ring and off he'd have to go. It goes with the job, you get used to it. Junior doctors work a ridiculously punitive schedule for a fraction of the wages Cameron takes home. And don't get me started on the injustice of zero hours contracts…
Truth is Cameron hasn't got what it takes to be a serious statesman. Back in 2008 Obama called him an intellectual 'lightweight', a criticism also echoed by Rupert Murdoch more recently. He got away with this in opposition because the job really only required him to be a PR man, a man who projected the image of modern conservatism that the party wanted to sell a gullible public; a public long conditioned to look no deeper than the surface, the packaging. So someone wrote his speeches, he delivered them and did the photo opportunities, selling the party ideology. He hugged hoodies and huskies, rode his bike (followed by his chauffeur driven car for when the cameras had buggered off) went for the odd fun run and learnt the manifesto off by heart so he could blindly repeat bits of it when asked questions. He hosted a few country suppers and wined and dined and arse-licked Murdoch and potential rich party donors; then every three months or so he jetted off to a posh beach somewhere to 'chillaxe'. He was, and still is, a mannequin with a mouth through which the Tories broadcast their empty sound-bites, a vacuous, expensively suited cipher of so-called 'caring conservatism'.
Three years on, the stark truth of what that oxymoronic slogan actually means is literally embodied by the public who've lived with its pernicious consequences – as it is by a Prime Minister who's cold-bloodedly imposed it with aloof indifference to any responsibility for the damage he's caused.
Whilst the PM's body has grown fat and brown on his many holidays from inconvenient duty so the bodies of his citizens are being reshaped by the malnourishment he's decreed for the likes of them. Diseases once eradicated by social policies that improved diets and damp and squalid housing conditions are returning to Britain with a vengeance at a time when the NHS that could alleviate them is being ruthlessly dismantled to puff up the profits of the Prime Minister's cronies. Diseases such as scurvy and rickets which deform bodies are back with us. Asthma and other respiratory illnesses exacerbated by damp and mouldy houses are on the rise. And Cameron's 'caring conservatives' who will never suffer this fate, and know it, don't give a monkeys.
His holiday photographs, which he no doubt thinks of as photo opportunities, that sell him as a 'family man' devoted to his wife and kids, when put into perspective and contrasted with the lives of the families he's destroying, instead bear witness to the truth of Cameron's upper class essence: a weak,egotistical wealthy man who likes the lifestyle of the idle rich.
Cameron is a man who is either totally oblivious to the irony of his throw away words when he said his wife had an 'unconventional' childhood because she went to a day school – or is totally dismissive of the millions to whom he owes a duty of care and for whom this is the norm, because we are of no consequence in his world except as 'human resources' judged merely by our use value and thus can be discarded like used tissues when we're all used up.
Cameron is a millionaire who claimed DLA for his disabled son because , like Tesco and all good capitalists he knows that 'every little helps' in the 'global race' for bigger profits in which the real effort is never theirs and the real risks are borne by those with least to lose.
Cameron is a vain, elitist man who secretly believes that hard work is something that the servants should do. whilst, purely in the interests of political expediency, publicly pretending to 'care' about a class of people he really thinks of as nothing better than livestock.
And sadly, he is the man we call 'Prime Minister'.
The Trauma of Tory Britain 1982 or The More A Tory 'Changes' The More They Stay The Same.
Back in 1982 after 3 years of Thatcher government policies unemployment soared. Apart from the names, this news item from the BBC sounds remarkably like its describing today's situation after 3 years of Cameron's rule:-
1982: UK unemployment tops three million
The number of people out of work in Britain has risen above three million for the first time since the 1930s. The official jobless total, announced today, is 3,070,621. It means one in eight people is out of work.
Rates of unemployment vary across the country – in Northern Ireland it is nearly 20% and 15 or 16% in most parts of Scotland the North East and North West – only in the South East does it drop below 10%.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was given a rough ride when she tried to defend the government's record on employment in the Commons this afternoon.
Mrs Thatcher was frequently heckled as she insisted there were "encouraging signs" the economy was improving. The Speaker was forced to intervene and call for order.
"There are 32 people chasing every vacancy" said Labour leader Michael Foot
Afterwards, Labour leader, Michael Foot, said: "When Mrs Thatcher came into office there were five people chasing each job and that was bad enough. Today there are 32 people chasing every vacancy and in some parts of the country, it's double that."
More than 750,000 people are now classed as longterm unemployed.
Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit did not appear to be offering any quick fixes when he said: "We are gradually fighting back in competitive terms against our rivals. As we can expand the economy so there will be more jobs available in the future."
The level of unemployment in Britain is almost the highest in Europe – second only to Belgium.
The two main factors behind the rise in the jobless total are the economic recession and the restructuring of industry.
In cities like Coventry, workers are being made redundant by the closure of traditional manufacturing industries. The British Leyland factory making MGs closed 15 months ago, putting 700 people out of work.
After 21 years working for MG, Eddie McAvinue is now looking after his grandchildren. He says he felt bitter to start with – but not any more: "When I look round and there's young people with A and O levels and they can't get jobs, I just accept it now. I can't do anything else"
The controversial drama series "Boys from the Blackstuff" was aired on television during 1982 and became hugely popular.
The British Film Institute described it as a "seminal drama series… a warm, humorous but ultimately tragic look at the way economics affect ordinary people… TV's most complete dramatic response to the Thatcher era and as a lament to the end of a male, working class British culture."
Set in Bleasdale's home city of Liverpool, and reflecting many of his own experiences of life in the city, each episode focuses on a different member of the group. The series was highly acclaimed for its powerful and emotional depiction of the desperation wrought by high unemployment and a subsequent lack of social support. Although the series is and was noted by many reviewers as a critique of the Margaret Thatcher era, which was seen as being responsible for the fate of many of the unemployed lower and working classes, particularly in the North of England (and in fact fuelling the North-South divide), most of the series had actually been written in 1978 during Labour's James Callaghan's prime ministership, therefore preceding Thatcher's Britain by a year. Unemployment stood at a 40-year high of more 1.5million by the summer of 1978, compared to some 600,000 just four years earlier, but by early 1982 had reached 3 million (some one in eight of the workforce) as a result of economic recession and Thatcher's restructuring of industry.
This episode "Shop Thy Neighbour" starring a very young Julie Walters brings home the trauma suffered by the unemployed brilliantly. The fact that it applies just as much today as it did then hammers home the message Labour should now be shouting from the rooftops: Never trust the Tories with the welfare state.
"The Hidden Agenda": The Planned Destruction Of The Welfare State?
The report reproduced (with kind permission) below is a short summary of the vitally important research into the origin of the current government's campaign against disability and incapacity benefits and the involvement of Unum (formerly UnumProvident) and ATOS. This remarkably detailed work was carried out over the last three years by former healthcare professional and disabled veteran, Mo Stewart*. Mo has worked relentlessly and determinedly, despite her own pain and fatigue, to bring together a vast amount of damning evidence against this cruel system which has and continues to bring misery and even death to people whose only 'crime' is to be chronically sick or disabled. What you are about to read below is but a tiny example of far, far more material some of which can be found on her website here or by following the links she provides in her reference list at the end of the articles.
*(Mo Stewart is a former healthcare professional, a disabled female veteran and, for the last 3 years, has researched the links between the DWP, Atos Healthcare & Unum Insurance. To date, the research evidence has been quoted during welfare debates in the House of Lords, the House of Commons and in Westminster Hall. Mo routinely shares all research evidence with academics, medical and healthcare professionals, frontline national charities, selected
politicians and service users.)
THE HIDDEN AGENDA: a research summary by Mo Stewart
(The Hidden Agenda © Mo Stewart – March 2013)
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is exclusively conducted on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by the corporate giant Atos Origin IT Ltd Medical Services, better known as Atos Healthcare. This 'non-medical assessment' was introduced in 2008 by the Labour government, and was identified as a 'medical examination' to be used to identify genuine claimants for long term sickness and disability benefit. However, what was unknown at the time was the fact that the WCA was a continuation of the planned agenda of the previous Thatcher government, whose ultimate goal was the destruction of the Welfare State.(1) The WCA was promoted as a 'fitness for work' assessment for claimants of what was once known as Incapacity Benefit, now re-named as the Employment and Support Allowance.(ESA) In reality, in order to reduce the welfare budget, the WCA was designed to resist as many sickness benefit claims as possible regardless of confirmed and identified permanent illness or disability. By 2010 the planned DWP welfare budget reduction was deemed to be
too slow. The new Coalition Government enhanced the WCA and, following the previous Labour Government's lead, it became much more difficult to qualify for the ESA(2) as the WCA totally disregarded diagnosis, prognosis or limited life expectancy.
Aided and abetted by the national press, using insidious press headlines to manipulate public opinion(3)(3b), the Coalition Government successfully introduced tyranny, fear and despair to the nation's most vulnerable people, using a disability assessment model as designed in consultation with Unum [Provident] Insurance; one of the most discredited corporate insurance giants in the world.(4)(4b) At the same time, reported disability hate crimes in the United Kingdom(UK) were rising to record levels.(5) The first two years of independent research into the WCA concluded at the end of November 2011 with the
exposure of two government memorandums provided by Unum Provident Insurance.(6) Initially, the link between the UK welfare reforms and the likely move to an insurance based benefits system was identified by Baroness Tanni Gray-Thompson during the welfare reform debates in the House of Lords.(7) Nine months later, the link between Atos Healthcare and Unum Insurance was exposed by Kevin Brennan MP during debate in Westminster Hall(8) and, more recently, during an emergency Backbench Business debate in the House of Commons(HOC), Michael Meacher MP identified the possible influence of Unum Insurance with the UK Government.(9)
Of course, this destruction of the welfare state could never have been so readily achieved without the unelected former Labour adviser, David Freud. He was ennobled to permit appointment initially to the Shadow Cabinet but, following the 2010 General Election, he was appointed as the Minister for Welfare Reform for the Coalition where he has excelled. Indeed, one of Lord Freud's most recent claims was that: "Poor people should be prepared to take more risks because they have the least to lose…"(11) Clearly, this man is yet another millionaire Minister who demonstrates no concern, and no comprehension, of human need.
The ongoing DWP medical tyranny, masquerading as welfare reform, has permitted Atos Healthcare to conduct the WCA by employing the totally discredited Bio-Psychosocial(BPS) model of disability assessment that remains free from all public accountability according to the General Medical Council and the Care Quality Commission. The BPS is the assessment model as used by Unum Insurance when assessing healthcare insurance claims, and it is also the assessment model enthusiastically promoted by Professor Sir Mansel Aylward. The Professor is the Director of the Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University, initially sponsored by Unum Insurance from its inception in 2003 to 2009.
However, prior to his move to the Centre, the Professor was the DWP's Chief Medical Officer who, in 1994, was in post when Unum Insurance was invited to become corporate 'advisers' to the UK government.(12) Whilst the BPS model is an interesting theory, the selective use of the BPS model of disability assessment, as used by both Unum Insurance and Atos Healthcare, was exposed long ago as an invention of the insurance industry.(13)(14) By concentrating on the psychological model of disability, to the detriment of the social model, the WCA was always destined to promote unacceptable results for many thousands of ESA claimants. In one six month period alone 37,100 people had waited up to a year to have their ESA benefit reinstated following appeal, yet no-one is asking what would have happened to these genuinely sick and disabled people if they had not had the strength to pursue their claim to appeal?(10)
Indeed, a recent Panorama documentary: 'Disabled or Faking It',(15) demonstrated quite categorically the dangers of the WCA with seriously ill patients, diagnosed with life threatening conditions such as heart failure and end stage emphysema, being found fit for work.(15) However, with the national press still refusing to expose the identified influence of Unum Insurance with the DWP welfare reforms, the British public remain in ignorance as the government covertly convert the UK welfare state into the American healthcare system, ultimately to be funded by private insurance.(12)(13)(14) Meanwhile, Unum Insurance is happy to continue to offer new careers to former government 'advisers'. (16) The WCA is an American imported 'disability assessment model' and has no medical credibility whatsoever, as confirmed by the British Medical Association(17), yet it is enthusiastically employed by the DWP and causes devastation to those least able to protest. This 'medical assessment' is working very well as the thousands of genuine claimants that have either died, committed suicide, been forced into poverty due to mounting debt, or who have developed a mental health problem due to anxiety are now the disregarded victims.(10)
Many had been in receipt of Incapacity Benefit before being re-assessed by Atos Healthcare, using the fatally flawed WCA, only to fail to qualify for benefit following 'assessment'. The Internet provides evidence to this government imposed suffering at a cost to the tax-payer of £110million per annum for the confidential Atos contract and an estimated £60 million pounds per annum, and rising, for the costs of the appeal tribunals. Yet, still, Members of Parliament (MP) continue with their very courteous and diplomatic debates(8)(9) as the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and, especially, their corporate partners all celebrate the ongoing planned destruction of the welfare state that appears to be unstoppable.
What is still disregarded is the fact that Professor Sir Mansel Aylward's research activities were funded for six years by Unum Insurance.(12) Indeed, due to his significant contribution to the future reduction of the DWP welfare budget by promoting the use of a 'non-medical' assessment, the Professor was rewarded with a Knighthood for "services to disability assessment." Therefore, his support for the BPS disability assessment model was presumed to be guaranteed. Yet, when confronted six months ago, the Professor actually confirmed that he now considered the BPS model to be "unsatisfactory" and that he believed it "no longer addresses the real needs of disabled people and the exclusion of disabled people from society".(18) Of course, the question remains as to why there was no official DWP announcement following this amazing change of 'expert' professional opinion, as the entire national press totally disregarded the press release that was distributed last September following Sir Mansel's unexpected statement. Perhaps the Professor was safe in the
knowledge that the press release would be ignored, and perhaps this is why he continues to travel widely, still lecturing about the virtues of the totally discredited BPS model of disability assessment? The most recent lecture was at the Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference in Birmingham, from 5th-6th March 2013,(19) where Professor Sir Mansel Aylward was listed as a keynote speaker on the subject of: The New Public Health Agenda: Its Impact on Health and Wellbeing at Work. Given the title of his speech, one can only presume that the Professor has yet to advise other professionals of his reported change of expert opinion.(18)
This is how the UK welfare state will be destroyed. There is a BPS 'expert' in place, and an American corporate insurance giant has influenced the UK Government to totally disregard human suffering, in favour of a reduced welfare budget, using an identified bogus 'medical assessment'. Unum Insurance have begun their mass marketing to encourage able bodied members of the British public to invest in their 'Income Protection Insurance' or their 'Back-up Plan,' that's only available via the workplace, and these are the healthcare insurance policies that the company has historically tried very hard to resist funding when a claim is made.(20)(21) Given that the unacceptable practice of Unum Insurance was previously exposed by MPs during a House of Commons debate in 1999(22), the question remains as to why was this highly discredited American corporate insurance giant ever permitted to influence UK welfare reforms and why the national press, en masse, refuse to expose this insurance company's confirmed influence despite it being identified by a BBC News report in 2007?(23)
The recent exposure of a 2005 internal Unum report, that actively boasted that the company was 'driving government thinking' regarding the reform of Incapacity Benefit (24) leads to the much more sinister possibility that the DWP are simply administrators of these brutal welfare reforms, and that the perpetrators of the devastation caused to the victims of this UK government funded medical tyranny are, in fact, Unum Insurance. Michael O'Donnell was the author of the 2005 internal Unum report that was written when he was the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Unum Insurance. Michael O'Donnell is now the CMO for Atos Healthcare…..
The difficulty remains that no-one is asking the relevant questions. Perhaps MPs should be asking the Prime Minister why he's been funded by 'healthcare companies' to the value of £750,000(27) since he became Prime Minister (25) or why every report produced by the President of the Appeal Tribunals, all of which identified the Atos Healthcare WCA assessments as "failing to coincide with reality", was totally disregarded by the DWP? (12)
Until and unless more significant questions are asked in the House of Commons, victims of this government funded medical nightmare will be forced to turn to the law for help, just as in America.(26)
Until and unless the national press demonstrate that the UK really does benefit from a free press, and not a government controlled press, the most vulnerable of all British people will continue to suffer and the British public will continue to be deceived.(12)
1) Margaret Thatcher's role in plan to dismantle welfare state revealed:
(2) Cuts to UK benefits: http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/type/text/cuts-to-uk-benefits.html
(3) 'Ello, John, got a new Motability motor? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2047593/Motability-schemes-starting-resemble- worst-excesses-Arthur-Daley-.html
(3b) Half a million incapacity benefit claimants are fit for work, Government's own figures show: Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115476/A-incapacity-benefit-claimants-fit-work-Government-s-OWN-figures show. html#axzz2JqkmNFAR
(4) New York Attorney General Spitzer's ruling: http://www.insure.com/articles/healthinsurance/unum-settlement.html
(4b) The Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America – The American Association of Justice
(5) Hate crimes against disabled people soar to a record high:
(6) The truth behind welfare reforms: http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosveteransreport20111120.html
(7) BnsTanni Gray-Thompson: House of Lords, welfare reforms
(8) Private Members' Debate: Atos Healthcare: 4th Sept 2012
(9) Backbench Business: Atos Work Capability Assessment debate: 17th Jan 2013
(10) British people are committing suicide to escape poverty. Is this what the State wants?
http://poultonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/03/people-are-choosing-suicide-to-escape-poverty-is-this-the-states- final-solution.html
(11) Lord Freud's welfare 'lifestyle' comments show 'nasty party is back', say Labour:
(12) Government use might of American insurance giant to destroy UK welfare safety net – update 27th Oct : http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosveteransreport20121027.html
(13) An academic responds to statement by Prof Aylward:
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/09/18/dwpatosunum-scandal-an-academic-responds-with-disbelief-to-professor-aylwardsstatement- to-black-triangle-and-dpac-outside-the-ifdm2012-conference-on-11th-september-2012/
(14) A Tale of Two Models: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/jolly/A%20Tale%20of%20two%20Models%20Leeds1.pdf
(15) Panorama: Disabled or Faking It?
(16) Peter Dewis: Steppin' Sideways from Government to Unum:
(17) GPs call for work capability assessment to be scrapped:
(18) Former DWP medical boss makes WCA pledge to protesters:
(19) Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference, NEC Birmingham: http://www.healthatwork2013.co.uk/
(20) "The denial on the part of Unum in the Mondolo case appears to mirror denials of other Unum disability claims historically, going back several years. To that end, the Court noted Unum's history of biased claims administration." (MARCH 2013)
(21) CBS News 60 minutes: DID INSURER CHEAT DISABLED CLIENTS:
(see below)
(22) Permanent Health Insurance debate, Westminster Hall, 21st December 2009
(23) BBC Ten 'o Clock News report: 6th Nov 2007 http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/UNUM_on_BBC_News_061107.wmv (BBC NEWS report – video)
(24) Unum bragged about 'driving government thinking' on incapacity benefit reform:
(25) MPs' links are so unhealthy: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/378233/MPs-links-are-so- unhealthy
(26) High Court rules Work Capability Assessment arguably unlawful:
(27) NHS reform leaves Tory backers with links to private healthcare firms set for bonanza:
Now watch the US video below (referenced above) and compare what is being described with what people are experiencing here in Britain at the hands of the DWP and its sidekick ATOS…chilling?
A Tale of Two Nations
UK On Fast Track to Third World Status Says US Commentator.
the living conditions of people living here…
He caused them but he doesn't have to put up with them.
Read what an American observer thinks of Breadline Britain…
Force-Fed UK Austerity
By Stephen Lendman
Since 2008, America, Britain and other European nations force-fed austerity harshness. Neoliberal and imperial priorities take precedence.
Bankers, war profiteers, other corporate favorites, and privileged elites alone benefit. Ordinary people lose out entirely. Public needs go begging. Human misery grows. Things go from bad to worse. Nothing ahead looks promising.
Britain made things harder. Parliament imposed the largest welfare cuts in modern times. More on them below.
They come when Prime Minister David Cameron wants UK nuclear defenses upgraded. He wants billions of pounds spent doing so. He claims Britain faces threats that don't exist. An "ultimate weapon" is needed, he says.
His Daily Telegraph op-ed headlined "We need a nuclear deterrent more than ever," saying:
(A)s prime minister, with ultimate responsibility for the nation's security, I profoundly disagree with" naysayers. The "nuclear threat has not gone away."
"My judgment is that it would be foolish to leave Britain defenceless against a continuing, and growing, nuclear threat."
Saying so defies reason. Wanting billions of pounds spent on what's not needed reflects deception writ large. Britain's FY 2014 budget allocates 44.7 billion pounds for defense.
Billions go for nuclear deterrence. Cameron wants billions more. It's worth the cost, he says. No cheaper options exist, he claims.
He wants Brits to think wasteful spending will protect Britain from nuclear attacks. Estimates run up to 20 billion pounds. It reflects multi-year spending.
At the same time, he supports massive welfare cuts. They come when Queen Elizabeth got a five million pound pay increase. In FY 2013-14, she'll receive 36.1 million pounds (around $54 million). It's up from 31 million last year.
She gets regular pay increases. They come from the Crown Estate. Its properties are worth eight billion pounds.
She'll now receive 15% of their profits. In 2011-12, they earned 240.2 million pounds.
The Queen claims she needs the money. Royal priorities aren't cheap. Annual expenses keep rising. She's having a hard time making ends meet.
She's dismissive about ordinary people's suffering. It's their problem, not hers. Let 'em eat cake doesn't wash. A former monarch learned the hard way.
Tough times keep getting tougher. Ordinary Brits struggle to get by. Britain's coalition government made things harder. On April 3, Russia Today headlined "UK govt imposes avalanche of cuts," saying:
Low-income and financially vulnerable families will be hit hardest. Opposition Labour MPs called new cuts announced "the beginning of 'Black April.' " It's hard imagining why. They're as neoliberal as Tories.
From June 2007 – May 2010, Gordon Brown was prime minister. Austerity began on his watch. Budget cuts hit ordinary Brits hardest. Brown said "Labour will cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes, and cut lower priority budgets."
He targeted public sector worker wages, pensions and other benefits. At the same time, Britain spent 94% of its GDP on bank bailouts. It amounted to taxing every Brit about 30,000 pounds.
Labour and Tories conspire against ordinary people. Austerity is policy. So are harsh welfare cuts. Imposed them inflicts enormous hardships. Earlier amounts totaled tens of billions of pounds. In January, another 14.2 billion were announced.
New ones are toughest of all. Britain's Baptist Union called them "unjust (forcing) the most vulnerable (to) pay a disproportionate price."
Methodist Church Public Issues Policy Adviser Paul Morrison said they "make April fools of us all."
"We are witnessing what happens when we create a culture that blames poor people for their poverty."
"It is a lie to say that most people on benefits are lazy, that they have an easy life or that they are responsible for the nation's financial deficit."
"When people are willing to believe those lies, poor families pay the highest price."
At the same time, wealthy elites got a tax cut. In late March, Britain slashed its 50% top rate to 40%. Corporations got a 1% cut.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's "granny tax" left around five million middle-class pensioners up to 323 pounds worse off. It's when they most need help. They face other harsh budget cutting measures.
Welfare benefits will be cut another 10 billion pounds by 2016. On average, around 18 million Brits will lose 500 pounds annually. Billions more welfare cuts were announced earlier. Where this ends who knows.
Cameron wants public spending cut 5.3%. Expect more cuts to follow. Since financial crisis conditions erupted in 2008, one in 10 Brits lost their jobs.
The latest measures are worst of all. They include a new "bedroom" tax. It's on local council and housing association tenants. They get housing benefits.
Recipients claimed to have a "spare" bedroom face cuts totaling 14%. Those with two "spare" ones lose 25%. Britain calls the measure an "under-occupancy penalty."
Imposing it seeks to encourage more efficient social housing use. It inflicts enormous harm on vulnerable households. Expect more ahead hitting them harder. It's coming in waves. One measure leads to others. Like America, Britain's heading for third world status.
Hundreds of thousands of people are affected. Many will become homeless. Britain's Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne said the new bedroom tax will "end up costing more than it saves as tenants are forced to go homeless or move into the expensive private renter sector."
Around 90,000 households are affected. Less than 4,000 smaller homes can accommodate them. In April, "personal independence payments (PIPs)" replace disability living allowances.
Private consulting and information technology services firm ATOS will assess whether benefit claimants can work. It'll be paid up to one billion pounds to do so. In the past, it claimed stroke victims were fit to work.
ATOS aims to remove another 500,000 claimants from benefit rolls. Doing so will throw many of them in the street. They'll risk losing out entirely.
New Health and Social Care Act legislation affects them. Enactment reverses 1946 free, universal National Health Service care. Government no longer has a legal duty to provide it.
Newly created Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) now have a "duty to arrange" what used to be mandated. Doing so shifts costs on the backs of vulnerable Brits least able to afford them. Commercializing healthcare lets predatory private profiteers take full advantage.
Combining austerity with welfare cuts heads Britain for third world status. Poverty and unemployment will rise further. So will public anger. On March 30, protesters targeted London's Trafalgar Square.
Unionists joined anti-poverty campaigners, the disabled, homemakers and others.
Simultaneous gatherings were held in cities and towns nationwide. Thousands turned out in Glasgow. "Axe the bedroom tax," signs read. One protestor spoke for others, saying:
"We won't forget what they are doing to working class people."
Another said:
"They have just shut the soup kitchen in Waltham Forest despite having a real problem with homelessness. I'm a working single parent. Now I've a tiny boxroom, and I'm faced with the choice between food, heat or paying the 'bedroom tax.' "
At issue are numerous other cuts. Expect new ones to follow those announced. More recent ones began last October. Dozens of imposed changes were made. They include:
cutting support for mortgage interest from 6.08% – 3.63%;
scrapping the Child Trust Fund;
reducing the Council Tax benefit;
ending the Health in Pregnancy grant;
abolishing the Disability Living Allowance;
cutting legal aid;
freezing the Child Benefit and Working Tax Credit for low-income workers; and
much more implemented from October 10 through mid-April.
Making ordinary Brits bear burdens they can't afford is policy. Expect new imposed hardships ahead. Tories and Labour are in lockstep. It bears repeating. Britain's heading toward third world status. It's on a fast track toward getting there.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at email@example.com.


text:
Duke Gardens is recognized as one of the premier public gardens in the United States, renowned both for landscape design and the quality of horticulture, each year attracting more than 300,000 visitors from all over the world. Translated: these gardens are stunning. From Japanese-inspired sections to lush floral terraces, towering trees and wide, green fields, Duke Gardens a must-see. Trust us, you'll come back for more! The gardens are best experienced on a sunny with a picnic blanket and good book (or a nature-enthusiast date).
"Gardens hours: The grounds are open 365 days a year, 8 a.m. to dusk [except the holidays mentioned below].
Doris Duke Center hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Winter hours: The Doris Duke Center closes at 5 p.m. daily from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year through March 1 of the following year.
Admission: It is free to explore Duke Gardens. But there is a fee for parking.
Parking: Duke University Parking & Transportation charges $2 per hour for parking at Duke Gardens, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. To pay for parking, you can use the mobile phone app Pay by Phone (we are location 3109), or look for machines in each of the two parking lots. The machines require you to enter your license plate number. You will have an option to print a receipt, but you do not need to place the receipt on your dashboard. The machines will accept cash as well as credit cards, but they do not provide change. If a machine is malfunctioning, please go to the information desk inside the Doris Duke Center. If the center is closed, please contact Duke University Parking & Transportation.
Weekend overflow parking: Due to overwhelming attendance, Duke University now offers a free parking option for Gardens visitors in a nearby overflow lot, the Duke University H Lot at the corner of Yearby Avenue & Anderson Street. The lot is a 5-minute walk from Duke Gardens. It will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays & holidays. Please see this map for location. Please note that the weekend overflow parking in the Campus Drive lot adjacent to Duke Gardens is not free.
The Doris Duke Center is closed on the following holidays:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day (+Friday, Nov. 23, 2018)
Christmas weekend (Dec. 22-25, 2018)
New Year's weekend (Dec. 29, 2018-Jan. 2, 2019)" - Duke Gardens

subset: commoncrawl


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The leadership crisis, which has rocked Igbo community in Akwa Ibom State for more than 15 years, has been resolved.
Details of the resolutions were contained in a document presented to the wife of the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, during a visit to her by the group at the Government House, Uyo.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Chief Godian Uzoma told the governor's wife that the Igbo had come a long way in Akwa Ibom State, having settled in the area before the civil war.
He said the war led to the destruction of property belonging to the Igbo, adding that because of the peaceful and prosperous condition of the area, the Igbo returned after the war in 1972 and organised themselves into an umbrella body to foster peace and progress.
Uzoma regretted that sometime in 1999, the leadership of the group succumbed to the forces of disharmony, which led to a protracted crisis in the Igbo community in the state.
He hailed the governor's wife for allowing God to use her as a pillar of support for him in transforming the state, especially the free and compulsory education policy that does not discriminate against non-indigenes.
Chief C.Y.C. Ezeumeakuka and Ichie Barnabas Nwannewuihe, the ex-factional leaders of the Igbo community and Igbo Union Federated praised Mrs. Akpabio for promoting peace.
They promised to abide by the resolutions reached at the meeting and hoped that the peace would last.
Speaking on behalf of the women, Mrs. Bridget Okpala, President Ohanaeze Women, acknowledged the role of the governor's wife in resolving the crisis, describing it as a feat. She described Mrs. Akpabio as a peacemaker, adding that the resolutions would impact positively on Ndigbo across the country.
A leader of the group, Chief Richard Onuchukwu, apologised to the governor's wife over the crisis.
Presenting the resolutions, the leader of the Reconciliation Committee, Mrs. Maureen Aniekan Umanah, lauded Mrs. Akpabio for allowing God to use her to resolve the crisis, noting that one of the resolutions reached was that any member found guilty of contravening the peace accord would be banished from the state.
Mrs. Akpabio hailed members of the group for sheathing their swords.
The woman, who holds the title of Adadioramma 1, urged the group not to succumb to the forces of retrogression, but should cooperate with Governor Godswill Akpabio to build a greater Akwa Ibom State all Nigerians would be proud of.


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I had to replace a rear wheel before leaving for a longer group ride:
Drive-side spokes were tightened to 100Kg, which was just barely enough for non-drive side not to go slack.
That was the most prominant crack, but not the only one – in fact, all drive-side sockets have developed smaller or bigger slits:
This was an ultralight-class wheel with 24 spokes and under 400g rim. Weight-limited to 80kg, which I fit in, but without any reserve, has served me for some 10K kilometers. So I have decided not to send any claims to a vendor, but also not save on spoke number the next time – or use more meaningful 16/8 spokes.
Update: In just two weeks the pair front wheel collapsed in a small crash, so this ultralight wheelset does not serve me any more.


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Dolphin Encounter in Ocho Rios
Dolphin Encounter in Ocho Rios
This Ocho Rios excursion has a bunch of awesome tropical experiences combined into one memorable day. Play with dolphins, go snorkeling, enjoy a nature hike, and sample tropical fruits and spices. Nature lovers rejoice!
At Dolphin Cove Ocho Rios, enjoy a brief dolphin presentation and interact with the lovely animals in a beautiful cove. Enjoy a kiss, go for a heart-warming hug, and be delighted by up close experiences with the charming dolphins. Introduce yourself with a friendly handshake, and let these incredibly intelligent animals impress you with moves like hand target. You'll spend a total of 30 minutes in the water with the dolphins. This adventure is ideal for those uncomfortable with swimming in the sea. It's a family favorite as it gives little ones the chance to interact with beautiful creatures. There may not be a better way to celebrate your Jamaican vacation than at Dolphin Cove Ocho Rios.
Some other awesome activities on this Ocho Rios tour include snorkeling, interacting with stingrays, kayaking, and captaining our own Mini Boat in the Caribbean Sea. You will also take a stroll through nature to interact with exotic birds, snakes, and other animals on the "Jungle Trail." A shark show right after should start to seal the deal on an amazing day. What really does is sampling tropical fruits, spices, and some world famous Blue Mountain Coffee.
Book this incredible Ocho Rios shore excursion for a memorable day in paradise. This is an opportunity too good to miss!
Pregnant women may not participate in this tour for safety reasons. Life jackets are required for all who participate. The facility walkways are designed for wheelchairs, walkers, and motorized scooters, but cannot enter the water. All guests must know how to swim. Sunblock, jewelry, watches, rings, bracelets, or any object which might scratch the dolphin is not permitted in the water with the dolphins. The instructors have the final say on what can and cannot be worn in the water with the dolphins. For security reasons, personal cameras are not allowed in the water, nor in the program area. A professional photographer will be on hand to take pictures, which will be available for purchase.
Reviewer: Katja
It's dolphins...do i need to say anything more? :P absolutely worth it, had a blast!
Reviewer: Robert Adelaar
This was the best day for me and my family. The Dolphin encounter was great. Definitely worth the money and great fun.
Reviewer: foxannek
A very nice experience. The guide waas very personable and knowlegable. I recommeend this excursion.


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"Who Tells Your Story?" – It's one of my favorite songs from Hamilton, as Alexander Hamilton's widow Eliza sings of keeping her husband's story alive following his death. This theme, of keeping another's story alive in our own lives, could just as well be about how Jesus's disciples learned to keep his story alive, to the point that they embodied in their own lives what he was about on earth.
This week, as we get ready for Western's congregational meeting, we also have an annual report, which tells our story, as a church, as the Body of Christ, the gathered disciples of Western. This weekend we find ourselves looking back, at the story of the past year, and looking forward, wondering what story we'll tell this year. How will we tell Jesus's story in all of our ministries?
To give you a heads-up about Sunday, as we gather in the multi-purpose room, we'll get lunch and then gather at tables, depending on the ministry area where you feel most called – more on that in Sunday's sermon. You'll get an introduction to CCB, our church's online community. As usual, we'll cover some usual items – a brief meeting of the corporation, a "state of the church" from me, some words from the Finance chair and treasurer, and voting to approve the pastor's terms of call.
The format will be slightly different, in that instead of hearing from each ministry team chair about this past year's work, you'll spend more time considering what is to come this year, and how you might be involved.
We want to make sure that you still know what's going on with the ministries of Western – that you still "know the story" – and so we're making our annual report available on-line ahead of time. You may link to it here or visit the church website and look under "News and Updates."
So who tells our story, if our story is the work of Jesus Christ in the life of this congregation? We all do! I look forward to seeing you this Sunday, to sharing our story, and to sharing the plot-lines yet to come.
Grace and peace,


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When is it Safe to Start Salt and Sugar in baby Food?
Salt and sugar are the two elementary taste creators. We consume both the elements regularly according to the cravings of our taste buds overlooking the actual need of those elements in our body. But, things don't happen so casually for babies. The pediatricians suggest that salt and sugar should be avoided in the dietary regimen of the babies below 1-year-old.
As a mom, you be worried about offering a bland food to your baby but the fact is, if you haven't offered them food with salt or sugar, they are still unaware of those elements and happy with the bland food. To decode this No Salt, No Sugar puzzle, here is a brief fact for you.
When to start giving Salt and Sugar to Babies?
It's recommended to add as small amount as 0.8g of sodium or salt to your baby's diet when he turns 1. This can be followed till his 3rd birthday. Babies below 1 year don't need any external sodium in their food. It's better to increase the proportion of salt in your little one's food by 0.4-0.6g after every 2-3 years. This will help him achieve a control over his taste buds and suppress the cravings for extra salt in food.
Talking about sugar, there is no need to make your baby's food sweeter if you got naturally sweet dietary elements. If you are worried about the carbohydrate level, your baby gets it enough through the bland foods only. After all, it's your small baby with small needs. The 0-1 year old baby needs and deserves extreme care as his immune system and overall health is fragile during that period. You can also add sugar to your baby's foods in small quantities after he turns 1.
Why is Sugar Harmful for Babies below 1 year old?
For the babies under 1 year, the pediatricians often prohibit the new mommies from inclining towards the sugar while offering diet to their babies but the naturally sweet foods are perfectly okay. Additional sugar in your baby's diet is a big NO. You baby already has sweet tooth and the breast milk, formula milk, fruits and a range of dietary elements fulfill your baby's basic sugar needs. Adding external sugar to their diet may cause following problems –
• Cavity
• Unpredictable temperament
• Obesity
• Poor immune system
• Type 2 Diabetes (in rare cases)
The aforementioned troubles occur when you don't have a control over deciding how much sugar to add to your baby's food.
The other problems related to adding sugar to your baby's diet is the exposure to harmful chemicals. Sugar is refined in the factory using various chemicals which can obviously cause severe damage to your little one's health.
When is it Safe to add Salt to Baby Food?
A baby less than 1 year needs 0.4g of sodium every day in his diet. As the baby grows, his salt cravings increases and the bland diet gradually turns into delectable ones meeting the sodium requirement of his body. The breast milk meets the everyday sodium requirement of your baby's body. The same goes with the formula milk available in the market. After your baby turns 1-year-old, you can stop offering him salt-less foods and introduce the salty flavors to him. You can also wait for few more months if you want and wait for his immune system to become stronger.
What are the Alternatives to Sugar?
Moms are emotional and they often try to introduce something salty or sweet to their babies being curious. Well, moms will be moms but to sustain your baby's good health, you can try the substitutes of sugar. This can offer you the best of both the worlds. The top sugar substitutes are –
• Fresh sweet fruits
• Brown Rice Syrup
• Agave
• Dates
All these sugar substitutes have enough nutrients and glucose and fructose to keep your baby hale and hearty.
Is it ok to add Jaggery/Gudh to Baby Food?
Well, Jaggery or Gudh is a common substitute for sugar and used in almost all the households to cook various recipes. But, when it's about your below 1 year baby's diet, you may have to give a second thought. In Indian tradition, jaggery is considered as an energy booster for babies. Even the Indian pediatricians and diet experts believe so but the fact is jaggery's benefits depend on the way of living and the dietary regime.
If your kid is getting enough nutrition and that too from time to time then he or she doesn't need jaggery. The babies in the countryside locations often suffer from malnutrition and hence they badly need a cheap energy source and jaggery perfectly does the job. The babies living in urban areas and getting constant care don't need jaggery in their diet.
When To start using Jaggery/Sugar to Baby Food?
Be it the salt or sugar or jaggery, anything that adds an extra flavor or taste to your baby's bland food should be preferred after the baby turns 1. It helps the baby seamlessly digest the solid foods and the diet with sugar, salt or jaggery.
Teach your Child to Admire the Real Taste of Nature
The salt and sugar are for pampering the taste buds, why not admire the real taste of any food? It's only the mother or father who thinks the baby will not like the food without these harmful tastemakers but you will see amazing reactions from baby when he or she tastes different foods without these two ingredients. The food should be admired to get full nutrition from it. Teaching respect for food and nature starts from this thing. Offering food with a normal amount of sugar or salt to the babies exactly like what adults prefer can not only make your baby addicted to high sugar or salt intake and invite a slew of diseases as he grows but it can affect his health as well as an infant.


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by Lucinda Murphy
from Signs of the Times No. 55 - Oct 2014
Modern Church was once again proud to take up its small part in the extravaganza that is the Greenbelt Festival.
Held this year in a beautiful new location on the outskirts of Kettering, the Festival certainly did not disappoint. With a wide range of arts and crafts, stalls, talks, book reviews, and performances to attend, many of us found ourselves unable to ascertain which way to divide ourselves!
These numerous activities included Mindfulness Meditation sessions with our own Tim Stead as well as significant contributions from our new President, Linda Woodhead who chaired a packed keynote discussion, 'Is the Church of England worth saving?' To cut a long conversation short, despite the negative picture of the Church's current state conjured up here, the final hope-filled answer remained a resounding yes. The Church of England is worth saving.
What was more up for debate was the kind of Church that this would be. Perhaps this is where the philosophy of Modern Church fits in. Whether you think the Church of England should be bolstering its cultural position of standing as part of the State or whether you think it should be more reminiscent of those smaller successful competing sects, it is clear that what is needed here is discussion. What is needed is a Church willing to be responsive and reactive to current issues, to recognise the need to generate new initiatives and to regenerate old ones. This is not necessarily about scrapping tradition, as many visitors to our stand feared, but about making traditions live.
This epitomises many of the engaging conversations Modern Church members enjoyed on our stand. We were impressed with the wide ranging discussions provoked by our literature and encouraged by the number of people who expressed a real interest.


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Awesome Wealthy Woman International
1 review
Listed in *Barrie Chapter of Marketing Masters, *Best of the Best, *Speakers Hub, Coaches, Mentors & Workshops Training
- 101 - 135 Bayfield Street, Barrie L4M 3B3
- 705-881-1846 or 1-844-881-1846
- www.awesomewealthywoman.com
- email@example.com
If you're tired of pouring your heart and soul into your business and not getting anywhere, I'd love to show you how you can take your foot off the brake, leverage what you do and create multiple streams of income.
The biggest challenge you face in your business is your mindset – especially when it comes to money.
Do you cringe when you think about having the 'money conversation' with a prospective client?
Do you undercharge because you don't think people will pay more for your services or products?
Do you hesitate or stumble when someone asks you what you charge?
I can help you transform that scenario so that you know exactly how to:
~ structure and leverage your business for maximum results
~ share what you do clearly and powerfully, and
~ confidently speak about your fees and the value you deliver so that
clients are eager to work with you.
Let's have a conversation about your dreams and plans for your business and start turning them into your reality!
You can reach me at:
705-881-1846 (Office) or 705-718-1384 (Text)
For years I have observed, Patti Smith grow her business and her reputation around the word. Her clear insite on who she is remarkable.
Her focus on assisting women to become free and self reliant has made her so successful. She knows her market. She knows what women want and delivers it.
If you are a woman and your money & lack of it is taking into the depths of despair, then you should meet with Patti. Her advice empowers women and their financial life


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Published at Sunday, June 30th, 2019 - 22:50:49 PM. Wedding Venue. By Amot Graf.
When you visit a wedding venue, don't just turn up unannounced, not only may there be a wedding or another function already on, but the staff won't be prepared to show you around properly. Telephone them first, make a proper appointment for one of their staff to meet you, they can then show you around the venue, answer all the questions you have and discuss your wedding plans. They will also be able to tell you whether or not the wedding venue is available for your chosen wedding date.
Online Wedding Venue Directories. You should also enquire about menu, special diets, chocolates, audio and visual effects and other associated services at the same time. However, it is good to find the exact venues from the online wedding venue directories. These directories offer you the exact and the most desired venues as per the location preferences. If you are residing in Australia, then you can easily find the most convenient and beautiful wedding venues in Queensland, Sydney, Gold Coast, etc. In fact, you can see multiple venue options, compare prices, and look for other wedding planning accessories as per your needs.
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Any content, trademark's, or other material that might be found on the Brikcase website that is not Brikcase's property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Brikcase claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.


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Leeds University Union's No Platform policy was renewed two weeks ago at one of their Better Union forums but a motion to extend it to the student newspaper was sent to referendum. The reason for the second motion was an interview that was published with Griffin in Leeds Student a month ago, which caused a massive controversy on campus because it didn't technically break the No Platform policy. The whole controversy, though, I think exposes exactly why the policy is broken as it currently stands.
Continue reading "Why No Platform is broken… and how we can fix it."


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When Faith Meets Love:
An International, Interfaith Perspective
On Sunday, January 8th at 1:30pm in the Mary Chapel, Sociologist Namita Manohar will share some of her ongoing research on Catholic-interfaith marriage in the archdiocese of Bombay.
How do issues of culture, faith and relationship affect you personally? How are these issues playing out in couples and families across the world? Join us for discussion on a topic as personal as it is global.
Dr. Namita Manohar is a professor at Brooklyn College.
She is from Mumbai, India and is a member of the Xavier Bible Study.
Sponsored by: It Was the Women Who Stayed, The India Group, and Family Faith


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Legal Assistance Center Blog
Help Us Bridge the Justice Gap
We make a promise to one another – justice for all. But without access, there can be no justice. For many of our friends, neighbors, and colleagues hiring an attorney to help them with a legal need is out of reach and getting an attorney for free is not possible. That is the Justice Gap. READ MORE
Opportunity for Healthy Divorce
Unfortunately for many families, using the court to resolve disputes in divorce can make conflict worse rather than better. The court divorce process is "adversarial." The spouses are set up as opponents and expected to "battle" to the end. Families and children can pay the price when living with conflict and bad feelings during and after the divorce. READ MORE
Why Legal "Notice"
When ordinary people use the courts, they find many things about the ways courts work puzzling. One of those things that just seems like a pain is in reality very important. That is the requirement that you give the other side "legal notice." READ MORE
LAC Impact: A Father's Simple Joy
On a beautiful West Michigan summer evening, a dad walks through the festival grounds with each hand holding tight to his two young daughters. Each girl is bouncing the way kids do at the sight of lights and balloons and hot dogs. They look up at their dad as they pull him along toward the next adventure. You can hear them "Daddy, Daddy … look Daddy … let's go see!"
Across the crowd, the dad sees a familiar, friendly face. It's the person from the LAC who helped him. Now pulling his daughters along, he goes over to say thank you. "You made this possible. I am so happy to have this time with my girls." It turns out that the LAC helped him to get this parenting time with his daughters. As he walks away he shares, "I never could have done this without your help."
And thanks to all of you who support the Legal Assistance Center. You made possible the simple joy of a dad walking hand in hand with his daughters on a sparkling summer night.
The Justice Gap
More and more people facing legal issues and problems can't afford to hire a lawyer. Some people are able to get a free lawyer through legal aid, but not very many. That means there are many people with no choice but to try to solve legal problems and use the courts on their own. That is the Justice Gap. READ MORE


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Posts filed under '.logic'
The Nine Coins Puzzle
Suppose you have nine identical coins that all look alike. You also know that all coins are identical in weight except for one, which is lighter than the others, the counterfeit. The difference is only perceptible by using a special balance, but only the coins themselves can be weighed, and it can only be used twice in total.
Can you find the counterfeit coin with only two weighings?
Balance puzzle
Weighing 9 Balls
City of Truths
Imagine you are on planet Trulie with only two inhabitants, one that always tells the truth, and the other that always lies. You reach a fork in the road with a sign to the City of Truths. Unfortunately, the road sign is down. Fortunately, a Trulian appears from nowhere. What question do you ask him to find the way to the City of Truth?
Adaptation of Doctor Spacemath from:
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas
Fox, Goose and Bag of Beans
Once upon a time a farmer went to market and purchased a fox, a goose, and a bag of beans. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and hired a boat. But in crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases – the fox, the goose, or the bag of the beans.
If left alone, the fox would eat the goose, and the goose would eat the beans.
The farmer's challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact.
How did he do it?
Wikipedia: Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle
Wolf, Goat, and Cabbage
The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations (Math & Logic Puzzles)
by Boris Kordemsky
This problem can be found in eighth-century writings:
A man has to take a wolf, a goat, and some cabbage across a river. His rowboat can only hold the man plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If he takes the cabbage with him, the wolf will eat the goat. If he takes the wolf, the goat will eat the cabbage. Only when the man is present are the goat and the cabbage safe from their enemies. All the same the man carries wolf, goat, and cabbage across the river. How?
mathcats variant:
Crossing the River (with a Wolf, a Goat, and a Cabbage) :
Sailor Cat needs to bring a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage across the river.
The boat is tiny and can only carry one passenger at a time.
If he leaves the wolf and the goat alone together, the wolf will eat the goat.
If he leaves the goat and the cabbage alone together, the goat will eat the cabbage.
How can he bring all three safely across the river?
Erich Prisner: Wolf, goat, cabbage, … applet+setup
Lulu's games: The wolf, the goat, and the cabbage
Cut the Knot: Goat, Cabbage and Wolf applet
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas
Seven Socks
There are 7 red socks and 7 white socks in a drawer. If you must reach in the drawer blindfolded, what is the least number of socks you must pull out of the drawer so that you get either two reds or two whites?
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas
Sneak Preview
Would it be less expensive for you to take a friend to the movies three times, or three friends one time?
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas


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Please note: as discussion of the UK leaving the EU continues, we will be following the University's policies regarding fees for EU students from countries other than the UK. It has been confirmed that such students who start a course at Cambridge in 2020 will have access to the same forms of funding as were previously available. Please click this link for further updates.
The College has a number of funds available to undergraduates and they are divided into the following categories:
- Funds to alleviate hardship
- Funds for travel, sport, music, societies, language classes etc.
- Scholarships and Academic Prizes (The College awards prizes and scholarships of £100-200 to all students attaining First-class results in undergraduate examinations or Distinction in a Master's course. In addition, there are named College prizes and awards in several different fields.)
The St Catharine's College Society offers grants to support travel, music tuition, performing arts and sports. Further information, including application forms, may be found on the Society website.
The University has a number of funds available to undergraduates, which can be searched for through Student Web Services.
General advice about budgeting
Your time at Catz may be the first time you've had to manage your own budget - and this can seem daunting at times.
Students rarely feel rich, but at least their finances are simpler than they will be after graduation. As a student, you have relatively few sources of income, and much of your expenditure is bundled up into easily-definable 'chunks' such as your college bill.
However, getting on top of your finances is a useful skill which will make your time here easier, and it will also be invaluable in the future. Simply sitting down and totting up your annual income and expenditure (actual and estimated) is extremely useful. It will also make any application for bursary support much more convincing.
There are some excellent guides to budgeting available on the internet, and moneysavingexpert.com is a reliable source of sensible, up-to-date advice. You should, for example, look at the page about student finance. Also, their general guide to budgeting is extremely useful - it provides a step-by-step guide to staying out of the red, for example by identifying the easily-ignored-but-expensive purchases you don't really need. Some of that section is not relevant to students, but much of it is.


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We're introducing a new blog series that will be popping up often, Rapid Fire Interviews. We are going to rotate between fresh meat, rottens, vets, and coaches/refs. The questions are short and answers are meant to be stream of consciousness. So let's jump right in with one of our current fresh meat ref- Phil.
How did you find out about DDG?
My wife told me about it and said she wanted to join.
Then what made you join?
I needed to get off my ass.
What were your expectations coming in?
I was going to fall a lot.
What has surprised you the most now that you are 1 month in?
I have gained about 20 mothers. Some of whom are younger than I am.
What skill has surprised you with its difficulty and what skill with its ease?
Walking on toe stops is WAY harder than I thought it would be. Jumping was way easier than I thought it would be.
What is your current goal?
To not get a concussion… get in better shape.
Have you thought about a derby name?
YES! At a bout after party at the beginning of contemplating reffing, I told Sparrow NoMercy my derby name and she said I had to become a ref because the name was too good not to happen.
Interview by Coral Reaper #555


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The clutch of yellow balloons drifted slowly into the air, carried ever higher by the breeze.
They had not been released in a moment of celebration, as they should have been. They had not been released when a child lifted his hands to greet an exhausted but jubilant parent, as they should have been. They were released from their mooring on a temporary fence by the blast of an improvised explosive device.
The quick burst of air, the boom of sound, the cut of flying shrapnel – whatever the agent of dislocation, the balloons floated away. They glided quietly up as the scene underneath was pierced with shrieking cries, was littered with fallen bodies, was painted with spilled blood. The instincts of helium matched the instincts of consciousness: run.
Running was expected on the streets of Boston. The running was supposed to be cardiovascular, in pursuit of professional success or personal bucket-listing. The running was not supposed to be the scramble of self-preservation, the desperate lunging of fear.
We are learning that our expectations only count for so much. We are confronting the reality that even the mundane activities of daily life – going to school, going to church, going to the movies – are subject to fatal destruction. We are hearing that mass killings and unprovoked attacks are the price we pay for "freedom."
We are asking why.
Why would someone resort to killing innocent civilians to prove some sick and twisted point? Why are children being sacrificed in this social self-destruction that can only be described as terrorizing? Why is this way of life the one we are resigned to accept?
We operate every day out of a basic foundation of trust. It is rarely acknowledged and hardly appreciated, but nearly every action we take assumes some level of faith that those around us will act as they should. We drive cars trusting that on-coming drivers will not purposefully barrel into us, we enter public spaces trusting that no one will attack us, we eat food trusting that it has not been poisoned.
The events of Boston, and Newtown, and Aurora shake that foundation. They threaten to dismantle any willingness to trust. Without a willingness to trust, we are in many ways without the capacity to function in a society that depends on interaction, on shared spaces, on surrendering control.
It would be easy to succumb to the fear and the second-guessing were it not for the fact that it would require a general unplugging from everyone and everything around us. Unless we are prepared to live in the way of the standard-bearing manifesto writer – a self-sustaining, back-to-the-earth type subsistence in some isolated setting – then we have to find a way to nurture our faith in each other.
Tragedy is a cruel protagonist. Even as it taunts us with unsettling questions about whether there is a way forward, it operates as the scenery through which the way forward is blazed. While shrapnel and nails and ball bearings were lodging in legs and foreheads, strangers were rushing into a blast site to tie off wounds with lanyards. While casualties were undergoing amputations, runners were leaving the finish line to donate blood. While visitors were displaced because of a lock-down, citizens were opening their doors. While evil spoke from the shadows, good spoke in the public communities of social media, in the embraces of families, in the bravery of first responders.
We bring tragedy upon each other, but we achieve triumph with each other. It is not just triumph over a named enemy, although it is that too. It is triumph over doubt and despair. We are our own worst enemies, but we are also our own and only earthly salvation.
For every picture of horror, for every child killed or injured, for every life irreparably altered, we can only take comfort in numbers. Where there was one or a small number of bombers, there were throngs of policemen and fire fighters and medics rushing to help. Where there were two bombs, there were countless prayers, professions of solidarity, and expressions of love. Where there was darkness in one city, there was light in another. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness," the projection read. "Only light can do that." Signed "NY Loves Boston," written in the script of the cities' famous rivals.
What happened in Boston reminds us that the only rivalry worth attending to is the one between good and bad. We can move forward knowing that explosions of evil are attention-grabbing precisely because we are mostly, quietly, reliably good. We can live not because we know someone will help us if we are about to die, but because we know nearly everyone wants us to live.
Our trust in each other is merely the way forward. It is not the antidote to pain, it cannot erase what has already happened, and it does not even promise that terror will not strike again. But it is what we must cling to, even as it threatens to slip from our hands.
Just like those yellow balloons, whose strings could not hold.
Republished with permission from whatsleftover.com
Image via Wikimedia Commons/via CC License


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Reflective Writing
by Catherine DeAngelislllll
A poem by Carol Ellis "I am from a complicated mixture of… " is a remarkable contribution captured from a moment of personal reflection and emotional insight.
Self-expression through use of poem-making to understand emotions is liberating and proven a healing art form when difficult emotions surface inside of us, like anger, sadness, annoyance, or desire, joy and contentment. To every emotion, there is a positive and negative, like I feel sad to I feel joy. A number of emotions that exist today are statistically staggering, and prove, we all need to readily understand and better self-manage what makes us "tick" or be "ticked-off."
By stopping to reflect and taking time to jot down words that give specific meaning to emotions, we can unravel delicate to strong feelings that arise and can cause us to gain much more positive outcomes within us and in our relationships.
If you are recovering from a trauma in your life and you find some hindrances to your healing, or triggers and memories continue to disrupt emotional wellness, writing is a way to connect with your feelings as you continue to recover. Writing is an explicit tool that can keep you grounded as you gain emotional insight when specific emotions arise.
Emotional Writing Grounding Technique
A simple grounding technique follows. Of course you do not have to be a poet laureate nor a best-selling novelist. And yet some of the best known writers have risen to nobility because of this form of writing. Make it simple, self-attentive, a goal to flush out emotions for the betterment of health:
- Have handy a journal, or piece of paper and pen – for this practice, please refrain from the use of a computer.
- Allow a moment to sit upright in a chair, in front of desk or use of a flat surface
- Take a deep, deep breath – let it out slowly
- Breathe in and breathe out slowly
- Take another deep breath – hold it
- Count down slowly exhaling 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
- Breathe naturally, inhale and exhale
- Begin to write your words in a direct and a natural way without judgement.
- Soft background music is encouraged but sitting in quietude is better (avoid use of alcohol or recreational drugs)
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Darwin's theory of evolution.
The simplest explanation is always the strongest.
William Ockham (or Occam) was a thirteenth-century scholastic philosopher. His principle gives preference to simplicity in cases where there are competing explanatory theories.
Materialists often cite Ockham's Razor in support of their position. Ockham's Razor is the argument that in any given argument, the position with the most metaphysical simplicity is the more likely position. At its core, it means that the simpler the position, the more likely it is to be true.[1] Materialists deploy this argument as evidence for materialism's superiority over dualism. Because materialism rests on the existence of just one world, the physical one, rather than hinging on the existence of two components, it is the simpler argument. Both dualism and materialism are unproven theories. But according to Ockham's Razor materialism is the more likely explanation due to its simplicity.
Ockham's Razor does not mean materialism is true. It simply states that in cases where there are competing claims, the simpler claim is more likely to be true. In science and history, the more complex explanation has frequently been proven true. Alfred North Whitehead summed up the dangers of relying heavily on Ockham's Razor as evidence for one argument over another. He said, "the aim of science is to seek the simplest explanation of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be "Seek simplicity and distrust it."
The simplest explanation for something is usually the correct one. Asserting humans are made of one substance instead of two is the simpler explanation. Therefore, it is more likely that we are made of one substance not two.
That doesn't mean materialism is true.
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