Hope for the world, after all

A group of rich Germans is drawing up a petition for wealthy citizens to pay higher taxes, so that they can help the country’s dire economic situation. They estimate that taxing the very well off just 5% over two years would raise a staggering 100 billion euros.

The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel.

They group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality.

Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.

Wow. This is so admirable I can’t find the words to sum it up. Here in Portugal, the wealthy are so notoriously tax-evasive and have been for so long and with the connivance of the state that no-one even bats an eyelid any more when considering the gigantic social injustice of the tax-system, or when a super-rich or even moderately rich person is caught defrauding the country.

Nuclear batteries

Every now and then, there are bits of new techno-science that seem to be the very stuff of Science Fiction. Perhaps Iron-Man’s armour would be possible with this breakthrough: tiny, nuclear-powered batteries. This invention is good enough to make it onto the BBC’s top ten most read list, which is quite a feat considering how hard it is for a science story to be so divulged, and a testament to how interested the average person is in this technology.

Unfortunately, neither article linked here speaks of the autonomy of the battery or its size, perhaps the two most crucial characteristics for practical use. The only clue we have as to applicability is its safety, a reassurance of whoever uses one won’t die of radiation poisoning.

“People hear the word ‘nuclear’ and think of something very dangerous,” Dr [Jae Wan Kwon of the University of Missouri] said.

“However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pacemakers, space satellites and underwater systems.”

The future of public transport

An article regarding the future of public transportation. Points to zeppelins (yay!), helicopter backpacks, Segways, mag-lev trains and so on. (via PopSci)

Witchcraft

Matt Latimer, former speech writer for President George W. Bush, has published a book called Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, where he states Harry Potter author JK Rowling was denied the Presidential Medal of Freedom because it was thought by that administration that her books “promoted sorcery”. I could think of a better reason, being that Harry Potter is plagiarised bollocks, but I digress. Bush, Jr. also denied the late Ted Kennedy the same honour because he was of too liberal a temperament.

Witchcraft? I cannot believe the ignorance of this. If there were witchcraft, Bush’s hair would’ve grown inwards and his eyes popped out long ago. The real tragedy of this is that the whole world, not just the US, will suffer from the fear, hate and warmongering of the 8 years of GWB. The ignorance and stupidity in name of greed and religion rank very high in terms of its unspeakably disgraceful nature. We are talking of a Hitlerian magnitude, where thousands and thousands of Afghan, Iraqi and American innocents are butchered every day so people in more developed countries have liquid to put in their car’s tanks and the white-collared criminals who sell it get fatter and richer.

Well, I don’t have the gift of gab so I sound like a rebellious teenager raging aimlessly against the system.

Mountain building

This building to be built in Taiwan is hyped as a “solar eco-skin design”, whatever the hell that means. The Popsci article linked here is where I got the story, but obviously written by a layman who is absolutely clueless about any details. The building is also described as “breathable” in the photo caption.

Googling a bit, I found a proper article, with lots of photos and diagrams. The façades are pleated, allowing for natural ventilation while the curving, blade-like elements are coated on photo-voltaic panels, making it all eco-friendly and such. Cool.

Trainers

I knew Adidas and Puma were German, what I didn’t know was that their from the same town, and were founded by a pair of brothers, who fell out during WWII, and decided to create rival sportswear companies that divided their home town.

Adi and Rudolf Dassler started making sports shoes together in their mother’s wash-room in the 1920s.

They fell out during World War II, probably over political differences, and founded firms on either side of a river in southern Germany.
(…)
When the brothers set up their separate companies in 1948 the town was also split, with residents loyal to one or other of the only major employers.

But the 60 year feud is coming to an end.

On Monday 21 September, employees of both companies will shake hands and then play a football match.
(…)
In a joint release, the two companies said they were making up to support the Peace One Day organisation, which has its annual non-violence day on Monday.

They say that the events will be the first joint activities held by the two companies since the brothers left their shared firm in 1948.

The Bermuda Triangle

A BBC Radio 4 programme debunking the myths surrounding the Bermuda Triangle.

It’s hard for Izzard

Eddie Izzard, famed actor and and transvestite comedian, has just finished 43 marathons in 51 days across the British Isles and Ireland. Having done this for charity, now Izzard faces the physical aftermath.

Before each race, his feet are bandaged. He has lost toenails, and one ankle ligament is seriously sore.

“My feet blistered up terribly, then started healing when I shoved them in surgical spirit,” says Izzard. “Then they reblistered because you’ve got new skin coming through.

“Blisters upon blisters are not very nice. It’s the pain. Like the pain from mouth ulcers, it’s not a massive area but sharp and quite agonising.”

Daily ice baths are a necessary evil, he says, “to stop your legs inflating to twice the size of an elephant”.

Snotty little Einsteins

An article in Popular Science on eight American inventors, who are big on ideas and pending patents but little in age.

Hols no more

Yep, the summer holidays have come to an end for me. Two pleasant weeks of my month-long well-deserved absence from toil were spent soaking up the sunshiny goodness of the Algarve.

Holidays are a time to relax and reflect. Between trips to the pool and the beach, I had time to think of a brilliantly witty entry on the demerits of Brits while abroad, the Portuguese while on holiday in their own country, the inhabitants of the city of Olhão and their psychopathic behaviour, and other acid-tongued comments on the humans that infested the area around where I was staying.

But I’ve completely forgotten the content of the carefully worded verbiage I planned to spout, so any eventual readers apart from myself will have to do with this pathetic excuse for a post.

Being back to work is like paying taxes: it’s terrible to endure but you have to do it. And this is where I can’t complain. Apart from one particularly lazy-arsed colleague, all my other co-workers had shortened holidays, due to massive amounts of work that had to be delivered by the end of August.

So it’ll be hard, insanely boring work for another 11 dreary months, with a wet, miserable winter and a cartload of work to endure.