My friend, who is living in Sweden, says by law all work desks in Sweden have to be height-adjustable so you can not only sit at them but also stand. No idea how to google evidence for this.
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Desks have to be height-adjustable for sitting or standing in Sweden?
Amelia_G
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“Liquid democracy” discussion of the German Pirate Party
Amelia_G
The German Pirate Party is working out its platform online, transparently. One key concept is “das Liquid Democracy,” intended to be a flowing interface between direct and indirect democracy. You can delegate your vote to someone who will represent you, but you can withdraw your vote from that person at any time without waiting for new elections.
View Link [wiki.piratenpartei.de]
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Dieting venuses: Anna Utopia Giardano photoshops classic paintings
WONDERFUL Amelia_G
Italian artist Anna Utopia Giardano has photoshopped depictions of Venus in classic paintings to adjust her figure to a more 21st-century ideal. I can’t tell if the bosooms have gotten larger or stayed the same, but the rest of her has been shrunk down quite a bit.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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Follow the Egyptian baltagiya on Twitter
Amelia_G
The baltagiya are paid thugs, often poor youth from the slums, who are recruited to attack targets of the Egyptian military regime while the police stand by and do nothing. Now they are tweeting. It’s pretty funny. (“30 more years! 30 more years!”)
View Link [twitter.com]
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Fb and google have killed the cyberflaneur?
Amelia_G
Article recalling a 1998 piece praising a future “filled with fascination and accidental discoveries” of the cyberflaneur, who appears to be no more now that google and facebook have increased our browsing efficiency.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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“Baltagiya”
Amelia_G
No link, though there’s a new en.wikipedia.org page for it. Baltagiya is an Egyptian word for a group of paid thugs, often poor youths recruited from the slums, who attack a target of Egypt’s military regime while the police stand by watching and do not intervene to stop the violence.
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Beautiful tiny house
Amelia_G
600-sq.ft. apartment of two young artists in Seattle. Wonderful use of old brass portholes, tiled mosaics, and storage space built into the stair risers. Many more beautiful, clever, thought-provoking innovations.
View Link [houzz.com]
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Corey Robin’s historical analysis of conservatism
Amelia_G
Yves Smith’s great econ blog has posted a link to Philip Pilkington’s interview with Corey Robin about the conservative mind. Pilkington asks psychological questions, but CR responds with (dry, credible, interesting) lists of examples from history. Conservatives are romantics, conservatives are disruptive; “[n]either the left nor the right has a monopoly on… preservation or conservation.”
View Link [nakedcapitalism.com]
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Sex, As We Know It, Works Thanks to Ever-evolving Host-Parasite Relationships, Biologists Find
Amelia_G
“The coevolutionary struggle between hosts and their parasites could explain the existence of males.” This quote brought to my attention by Harry Shearer, on 7/10′s “Le Show.”
View Link [sciencedaily.com]
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TSA “ignored warnings” on cancer cluster among TSA workers
Amelia_G
While I’m getting gate-raped, TSA workers are getting cancer. TSA workers warned to avoid standing next to the new rapiscan machines.
View Link [tgdaily.com]
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Bitcoin attacked at Mt. Gox trading platform in Hamburg yesterday
Amelia_G
Someone with a HongKong IP address copied user data from Mt. Gox’s database, accessed an account cont. 7.7% of all Bitcoins, sold them, bought them back, tried to change them to US$, crashed the Bitcoin exchange rate from $17.50 to $0.01 within minutes. Mt. Gox is undoing 3500+ transactions that occurred since then, resetting the rate to $17.50. BC is trading ~$14.50 now. The user data (4MB text file) are being circulated, sold. Bitcoin’s anon. transactions also easier to track than people thought.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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Republican FL legislator indicts Florida republicans
Amelia_G
Bitter, detailed witnessing by a R state legislator.
View Link [chronicleonline.com]
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Sarkozy wants new rules to limit commodities speculation
Amelia_G
AFAIK, this is the first time I’ve agreed with Nicolas “il s’agit de la vie” Sarkozy about anything. At the current commodities conference in Brussels, S said he wants international rules that restrict speculation in commodities. ZDF heutejournal cites a recent example of e.g. a trader who bought all the cacao beans on the market without putting up any actual money.
View Link [ft.com]
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Int’l attempts to reform the ratings agency situation
Amelia_G
“The ratings agencies rule the money markets,” & 95% of the ratings agency market belongs to 3 Wall Street firms. The G20 Financial Stability Board proposes: 1) remove references to ratings from laws, regs when possible to limit impact; 2) major banks and inv. funds can no longer rely on the ratings agencies but must investigate themselves; 3) end privileged information access for these agencies so investors no longer think they have special info.
The EU also inspects r.a.’s since Dec. 2010.View Link [spiegel.de]
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More clues about E. coli sprouts source
Amelia_G
At the sprouts farm in question, workers who got sick ate sprouts of, get this, broccoli, garlic and fenugreek, while workers who stayed healthy ate sprouts of primarily alfala and “Spicy Mix.” German salads are deliciously varied! There’s some evidence the seeds may have been contaminated because a family fell ill who raised their own sprouts from seed. Still no certainty, nothing confirmed.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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Paul Krugman: Rule by Rentiers
Amelia_G
Consistently creditor-friendly policy is crippling the economy, says Paul Krugman.
View Link [nytimes.com]
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Syrian soldier kicks, jumps on back of bound civilian
Amelia_G
Amazing what four Syrian soldiers can accomplish with boots, asphalt and one bound civilian. Congratulations, Mr. Assad!
View Link [youtube.com]
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Bitcoin drops from US$29 to $18 in two days
Amelia_G
Bitcoin trading price down from US$29 to ~$18 in two days, with $2 million traded Fri. 6/10 after volume of only ~$19 million in the last six months. Spiegel says it is possible to suspend trading for real currencies to stop a crash/”Bank Run” but this rule not implemented for Bitcoin. Also, it is difficult to convert Bitcoin to real currency. PayPal refuses to help, Linden dollar trade possible; European bank account ideal.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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BoA’s mortgage-backed securities not mortgage-backed? Another paperwork fail
Amelia_G
At Bank of America, more incomplete mortgage docs raise more questions
Fortune magazine sampled foreclosed-loan docs in NY state and found that 104 of 104 loans submitted by Countrywide (now owned by Bank of America) lacked the endorsement step required by law. “Magically” appearing endorsements now a phenomenon in e.g. Florida, CA.
View Link [finance.fortune.cnn.com]
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Some FIFA scandals under Blatter
Amelia_G
’08 6 former ISMM/ISL managers acc. of paying 138 mil. Swiss francs to high sports functionaries, incl. FIFA&IOC, for lucrative TV & marketing agreements. FIFA’s still-anon. accusees paid 5.5 million euros & that was it
Votes bought when Germany was selected as host for the ’06 WC. Esp. NZ Charles Dempsey susp.
Dec. ’06 a NYC court nullified FIFA contract w/ VISA b/c FIFA had mistreated prior partner MasterCard
’07 Jack Warner’s son Daryan paid ~US$1 mil. to charity, his co. Simpaul Travel’s~profit from7100View Link [spiegel.de]
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Robot overlords take over the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Xetra)
Amelia_G
I don’t 100% understand this, but yesterday human trading was ended on the floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. From now on, trading will be done by “Xetra” software. The Frankfurt stock exchange is run by the same group set to take over the New York stock exchange.
View Link [secure.wikimedia.org]
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“How Tepco corrupted all of Japan”
Amelia_G
Looong article in Spiegel-Online about how a “risky technology can eat away at democracy.” “In the Japanese consense society, the nuclear industry, electricity suppliers, political parties and researchers created an untouchable refuge that has become a threat to their democracy.” Robert Jungk’s book “Nuclear State” was prophetic for Japan, says Cordula Meyer.
View Link [spiegel.de]
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“Star Wars” reshot in 15-second segments by loving fans
Amelia_G
We watched a surprise screening of the “rough cut” of this last night at IgniteSeattle, and though I meant to leave I stayed to the end, lmao. The only idea not tested was “underwater star wars.” About died when after several Wilhelm screams the Millennium Falcon took off to the sound of the Nittany Lion’s snarl. Go Penn State! Thank you, Corey Pugh.
View Link [starwarsuncut.com]
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Who ordered the building of the Berlin Wall?
Amelia_G
According to files newly available from the archive of the communist party’s central committee in Moscow, Krushchev and not East Germany’s Walter Ulbricht ordered the building of the Berlin Wall. It was built by East Germans and supervised by the Russian military.
View Link [zdf.de]
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Worker collapses and dies at Fukushima
Amelia_G
A 60-year-old worker collapsed and died while “carrying equipment” inside Fukushima today. Tepco says his body was not found to have dangerous levels of radiation.
View Link [spiegel.de]
Amelia_G is discussing.
Amelia_G 11:20 am on 06/20/2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I can provide an English translation (Q&D, quick-and-dirty) of this Spiegel-Online article if you’d like.