Random links
- Study Shows Power of Cute Improves Concentration
- "Through three separate experiments a team of scientists from Hiroshima University showed that people showed higher levels of concentration after looking at pictures of puppies or kittens." I wonder if said cats were wanting cheezburger.
- Feds cut minority religion prison clergy as part-time contracts end
- To quote the government spokesperson: "the Government of Canada is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. ... chaplains employed by (the Correctional Service of Canada) must provide services to inmates of all faiths." In some sense by taking such a position the government has given priority to a set of religious beliefs - i.e. that all religions are the same. To quote Kate Hansen, a Wiccan priestess cited in the article "I’m disturbed that the government believes that all these minority faith people can be dealt with by Christian chaplains." To that I'd add that depending on what these "services" are the chaplains also wouldn't be Christian. Things can often both coexist but also contradict. Ergo classic tolerance not the modern everything-is-true variety.
- Euro Zone Country With Lowest Debt Says Austerity Works
- "Having a national debt of just 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a budget surplus and economic growth of nearly eight percent in 2011 may sound like an unrealistic economic situation for a euro zone member state these days, but it is Estonia’s economic reality. ... When Estonia’s economy contracted by 18 percent in 2008-2009 following the global economic crisis, the Estonian population showed willingness to take on the hard measures needed, Ligi said in an exclusive interview. Civil servants in Estonia took a 10 percent pay cut and ministers saw 20 percent shaved from their salaries. The government raised the pension age, cut job protection and made it harder to claim health benefits, according to the European federation of Public Service Unions. And, unlike in other parts of Europe, these measures went through without nationwide strikes, social unrest, or the toppling of the government. Instead, Estonians “understood they had to give up something,” the finance minister said."
