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Sun, 19 May 2013 21:41:47 +0100

"Praying for a romantic partner or close friend can lead to more cooperative and forgiving behavior..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:10:59 +0100

“Praying for a romantic partner or close friend can lead to more cooperative and forgiving behavior toward the partner”

- Power of prayer: Studies find prayer can lead to cooperation, forgiveness in relationships

"The thesis of the death of the middle class is simple and not peculiar to Sweden: every time you try..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:58:45 +0100

“The thesis of the death of the middle class is simple and not peculiar to Sweden: every time you try to define the allegedly most important contemporary social formation, this “middle class” breaks into two, writes Greider; one part that serves the economic power and another that has more in common with blue collar workers and unemployed, with the sans papiers and the precariat.”

- Eurozine - The middle class doesn’t exist - Eurozine Review

"Research demonstrates that banks focused on retail banking in a specific geographical area perform..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 13:31:05 +0100

“Research demonstrates that banks focused on retail banking in a specific geographical area perform much better at lending to SMEs – a vital activity in which everyone (apart from our big banks) agrees Britain does badly. Local co-operative banks in Austria, for example, provide 46% of SME loans even though they only account for 36% of the total loan market. In Germany three out of four SMEs have a relationship with their local Savings Bank. Canadian credit unions provide 17% of SME loans despite holding only 5% of total banking assets. Local banks in Switzerland have steadily increased credit to SMEs since the 2008 financial crisis just as large commercial banks severely cut their lending to the sector.”

- Transforming finance: a ‘how to’ guide forged in the public interest | new economics foundation

"The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:24:20 +0100

“The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table: Pay people enough so that they’re not thinking about money and they’re thinking about the work. Once you do that, it turns out there are three factors that the science shows lead to better performance, not to mention personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.”

- Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation. (via explore-blog)

unapologetic-book: Eddie Izzard’s Anglican Inquisition (Lego...

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:20:05 +0100

unapologetic-book:

Eddie Izzard’s Anglican Inquisition (Lego version)

"The problem is simply stated: the power of the fossil fuel companies is too great. Among those who..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:19:18 +0100

“The problem is simply stated: the power of the fossil fuel companies is too great. Among those who seek and obtain high office are people characterised by a complete absence of empathy or scruples, who will take money or instructions from any corporation or billionaire who offers them, and then defend those interests against the current and future prospects of humanity. This new mark reflects a profound failure of politics, worldwide, in which democracy has quietly been supplanted by plutocracy. Without a widespread reform of campaign finance, lobbying and influence-peddling and the systematic corruption they promote, our chances of preventing climate breakdown are close to zero.”

- George Monbiot – Via Dolorosa

"I happily climb on my soapbox about this construction because (a) they is singular in common usage,..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:37:05 +0100

“I happily climb on my soapbox about this construction because (a) they is singular in common usage, so it doesn’t make sense to call it “ungrammatical” in the descriptive sense (it is completely meaningful to both speakers and listeners in their everyday speech); (b) singular they is a very useful, efficient solution to the “generic pronoun problem”; and (c) writers have been using singular they effectively and often unnoticeably for centuries, so I would like to see the current prohibition on its use in formal writing lifted.”

- Singular ‘They’: a Footnote - Lingua Franca - The Chronicle of Higher Education

(via How to Write a Story)

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:23:31 +0100

(via How to Write a Story)

"A new study from the New York Department of Transportation shows that streets that safely..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:07:06 +0100

“A new study from the New York Department of Transportation shows that streets that safely accommodate bicycle and pedestrian travel are especially good at boosting small businesses, even in a recession.”

- Protected bike lanes = good for business

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: silience

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:02:23 +0100

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: silience:

dictionaryofobscuresorrows:

n. the kind of unnoticed excellence that carries on around you every day, unremarkably—the hidden talents of friends and coworkers, the fleeting solos of subway buskers, the slapdash eloquence of anonymous users, the unseen portfolios of aspiring artists—which would be renowned as masterpieces if…

"Private sector dynamism versus public sector inefficiency has been the dominant political narrative..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:05:53 +0100

“Private sector dynamism versus public sector inefficiency has been the dominant political narrative of the last few decades. It has supplied the excuse for repeated, one-directional upheaval in many of the services that we rely on, and which are essential to our quality of life. At best, evidence of private sector superiority is lacking. At worst, such lazy assumptions can cost lives as well as money.”

- Mythbusters: “The private sector is more efficient than the public sector” | new economics foundation

"The complexity of contracts, targets and blurred lines of responsibility introduced numerous..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:04:17 +0100

“The complexity of contracts, targets and blurred lines of responsibility introduced numerous inefficiencies. For example, the FT noted that, post-privatisation, the industry employed hundreds of people just to fight over who is to blame for every minute of delay to trains”

- Mythbusters: “The private sector is more efficient than the public sector” | new economics foundation

"Far from running out of funds, this looks like a government with money to burn. While the poor and..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:00:07 +0100

“Far from running out of funds, this looks like a government with money to burn. While the poor and middle struggle to survive the crisis that George Osborne bewails, he’s giving away our money to those who need it least. So let’s support him when he calls for cuts, but demand that he directs them at the welfare state he’s running for corporations and billionaires, which is turning this crisis into a calamity.”

- Bins, roads, unwinnable wars: this is a chancellor with money to burn | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

"The capture of so much wealth by the executive class performs no useful function. What the very rich..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:52:42 +0100

“The capture of so much wealth by the executive class performs no useful function. What the very rich appear to value is relative income. If executives were all paid 5% of current levels, competition between them (a questionable virtue anyway) would be no less fierce. As the immensely rich HL Hunt commented several decades ago, “money is just a way of keeping score.””

- George Monbiot – Enough Already

"just four decades ago, Finland’s academic record was a mess. In the 1970s, though, the government..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:30:08 +0100

“just four decades ago, Finland’s academic record was a mess. In the 1970s, though, the government did something extraordinary to combat lax education: It mandated that every teacher earn a master’s degree, even agreeing to foot the bills for the extra schooling. Teaching’s prestige skyrocketed; becoming a teacher in Finland is now as tough as becoming a lawyer. Only one in 10 primary school applicants makes the cut! Today, the rest of the world is scrambling to follow Finland’s example as its hyper-educated population continues to boost the country’s productivity.”

- 10 Contestants for Earth’s Next Superpower | Mental Floss

(via Siddhartha and Jesus by ~DonMak on deviantART). Interesting...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:12:16 +0100

(via Siddhartha and Jesus by ~DonMak on deviantART). Interesting …

(via Do You Believe in Jesus? by ~JW-Jeong on deviantART)...

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:10:21 +0100

(via Do You Believe in Jesus? by ~JW-Jeong on deviantART) Interesting reflection on the referred page too.

"What did God breathe? Words of wisdom. Words of wisdom that lead to salvation. Words of wisdom that..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:38:49 +0100

“What did God breathe? Words of wisdom. Words of wisdom that lead to salvation. Words of wisdom that lead to salvation through faith in Christ. If we read and find only words of science or dogma or ethics or history, the Bible has not yet become for us the living and active and inspired word of God.”

- What, Exactly, Did God Breathe? | Storied Theology

"I think that we should look more to Cain than to Adam if we want to understand the phenomenology of..."

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:11:26 +0100

“I think that we should look more to Cain than to Adam if we want to understand the phenomenology of original sin. Surely the fundamental primal feeling of human beings is not that I have done something wrong but that someone has done something wrong to me – and that I am owed. Hence our rebellion against grace and the challenge of a truly disinterested faith.”

- Faith and Theology: Doodlings from the dugout