UK Election Exposes Shocking Social Chasm

It happens that as the UK goes to the polls today many marginal constituencies are based in rural areas and expose an unexpected economic vacuum throughout the economy. The numbers are striking.  Very wealthy people live next to swathes of people surviving on charity who would rather work but jobs are scarce and low paid. …
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Sapiens: Thinking, Stories and Ignorance, then choosing to die.

Yuval Harari’s brief history of humankind, weighing in at a meaty 400 pages, is enjoyable, provocative and very worrying.  The wide-ranging, scholarly story is easy to read and sensible.  I enjoyed the book from beginning to end, though I had to restrain myself from skipping to the last chapter: The End of Homo Sapiens. For …
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Maybe system change will just be funny …

It sometimes difficult to be aware of what’s going on in the world because they’re not happy thoughts. This time last week I was hearing about the dark web and bad pharma from a friend, Howard.  He runs a small cloud computing business with 30 million units invested in the technology and deals with a …
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Big money thinks Doomsday is coming. Think about it, and change your behaviour.

So the seeds are starting to arrive in the “Doomsday Vault”, an arctic store for seeds sponsored by big names with big money, like Gates, Rockefeller, Dupont, Syngenta, FAO of UN, Moore Foundation etc. The trouble is, it doesn’t really work.  Nature is not like that.  The vitality of seeds declines over time, however they …
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The foxes have taken over the hen house!

Big business is secretly lobbying government to pass laws that give the rights to determine what we eat, irrespective of health or environment, as long as it makes money for them! Maybe that sounds too fantastic to be true, but it’s happening.  Maybe you’re in big business and you think it can’t be that bad …
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1% own more than everyone else by next year: a decadent milestone in the implosion of civilisation.

 Oxfam research shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year.  Each adult on average has $2.7m.  On current trends the wealthiest 1% will own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016. Today the 80 richest people have the same …
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Yes Pope Frank, we can mock faiths

This is straight from David Webb.  No need for editing. I think Pope Frank is awesome and has ignited a sense of hope for the church, but, sadly, on this point he must reevaluate his position.  There might be an appropriate and an inappropriate channel or audience, but without other cause, mockery is no reason …
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COP out? Yes! Sadly as expected, but what else could happen …

The 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty ran over by a couple of days as delegates from over 190 countries “negotiated” the language of resolutions to control carbon emissions.  Rich countries don’t want to pay for past emissions; emerging economies don’t want their opportunity for …
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What we need to do if we’re to have a future.

Future Earth, a global initiative bringing together scientists across different disciplines, has launched its strategy to identify key priorities for sustainability.  The eight objectives are: Deliver water, energy and food for all Decarbonise socio-economic systems Safeguard the terrestrial, freshwater and marine natural assets Building healthy, resilient and productive cities Promote sustainable rural futures Improve human …
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