Ubuntu

Conceito africano que significa:

Human generosity, interconnectedness, community, bringing people together to work together on issues of common interest, toward a higher good. People, objects and events are all connected.
Everything is in an ongoing state of relatedness. Dynamics of cooperation support system. The interconnected web holds and honors all equally. Everything affects everything else. If I shortchange you, I shortchange myself.

(citação de um post de email mas desenvolvido aqui)

Enfim, teoria dos sistemas...

Cheat Neutral

What is Cheat Offsetting?

When you cheat on your partner you add to the heartbreak, pain and jealousy in the atmosphere.

Cheatneutral offsets your cheating by funding someone else to be faithful and NOT cheat. This neutralises the pain and unhappy emotion and leaves you with a clear conscience.
Can I offset all my cheating?

First you should look at ways of reducing your cheating. Once you've done this you can use Cheatneutral to offset the remaining, unavoidable cheating

Boa, Obama!

Família Obama vai plantar uma horta biológica nos jardins da Casa Branca
20.03.2009 - 16h21 Helena Geraldes
in Público Online

A família Obama vai plantar no jardim da Casa Branca brócolos, alfaces, ervilhas, cebolas e espinafres, uma horta biológica ao cuidado do próprio pessoal da Casa Branca, noticiou hoje a imprensa americana. A primeira-dama, Michelle Obama, quer promover hábitos saudáveis junto das crianças.

A “primeira semente” será lançada hoje, numa cerimónia que terá como anfitriã Michelle Obama e onde participarão alunos da Escola Primária de Bancroft, noticia o “Washington Post”. Estes continuarão a ajudar a plantar as sementes e a colher os vegetais.

“Estamos a trabalhar num novo e maravilhoso projecto para o jardim”, contou Michelle Obama à revista “O”, de Oprah Winfrey, edição de Abril.

“Queremos usá-lo como instrumento de educação, para falar sobre a saúde e que delicioso é comer alimentos frescos, como os podemos colher e torná-los parte de uma dieta saudável”, acrescentou.

Os talhões para os 55 tipos de vegetais serão plantados na parte Sul dos terrenos da Casa Branca. Katie McCormick Lelyveld, porta-voz da Casa Branca, garantiu que toda a família Obama vai estar envolvida nos trabalhos da horta. Apesar de a manutenção dos jardins ser da responsabilidade do Serviço Nacional de Parques, a horta será plantada e cuidada pela própria Casa Branca. Desta horta deverão sair vegetais e ervas aromáticas para a família e convidados.

Além dos legumes, haverá morangos, ervas aromáticas e duas colmeias, entregues aos cuidados de um carpinteiro da Casa Branca que também é apicultor.

As sementes serão orgânicas, assim como os fertilizantes e repelentes de insectos.

Segundo o “Washington Post”, há dez anos que vários movimentos pedem uma horta biológica no jardim da Casa Branca. “Nada poderia ser mais entusiasmante”, comentou Alice Waters ao jornal. Waters é “chef” do restaurante Chez Panisse, em Berkeley, Califórnia, e que desde a primeira administração Clinton pede uma horta na Casa Branca.

Mas a horta dos Obama não será a primeira na Casa Branca. O Presidente John Adams (1797 – 1801) plantou uma em 1800. Em 1918, Woodrow Wilson (1913 – 1921) levou ovelhas para fertilizar os relvados da Casa Branca e conservar recursos num palco de guerra. Em 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt plantou um jardim da vitória, inspirando milhões de norte-americanos a plantar os seus próprios alimentos durante e Segunda Grande Guerra.

Os esforços recentes têm sido mais modestos, conta o jornal. Jimmy Carter, em 1978, recusou os pedidos para a plantação de uma horta. Nos anos Clinton foi plantada uma pequena horta no telhado da Casa Branca, tendo sido rejeitada a ideia de uma horta nos jardins por alterar a concepção formal dos terrenos.

Festivais de Verão em Edinburgh

Ao mesmo tempo que decorre o Fringe pela cidade...

Decorre o Festival of Politics no Parlamento Escocês.

Neste pais tambem

A windfall for social & environmental justice
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Compass

Rising energy and fuel prices are affecting everyone but it's the poorest and those on fixed incomes who are paying the heaviest price. The warm summer weather will not mask the anxiety and anger at dramatically rising bills for the essentials of life - light and heat. We believe that the moment is right for the government to levy a sensible one off windfall tax to guarantee social and environmental justice both now and in the future. This is why.

The average annual spend on domestic energy per household has now breached £1200. Since 2000 we have faced gas price rises of 100% and electricity price rises of 61% - with further increases including British Gas raising its gas bills by a record 35%. Simultaneously the main energy providers have seen their profits rise from £557 million in 2003 to now over £3 billion. This alongside the recent news of profits made by oil companies - BP is now making £37 million a day with a 23% increase in profits to £6.7 billion for the first 6 months of 2008.

The current spike in the price of oil means these companies are receiving unearned and undeserved windfall profits that are damaging to the rest of society, not least because the unprecedented price rises are fuelling inflation and therefore the cost of borrowing and repaying mortgages.

The government estimates that 2.5 million families are living in fuel poverty, whilst Energywatch puts the figure at over 4 million. Yet despite the billions made in profits, the energy industry spends just £50 million a year combating fuel poverty and has only agreed to raise this to £150 million a year by 2010. But every 10% increase in energy prices mean an extra 400,000 people go into fuel poverty.

At the same time there is a lack of investment in securing renewable energy to help Britain become energy independent and more carbon neutral. By 2020 the UK wants 15% of all energy to be from renewable sources, this is currently only 2%. Increased investment is urgently needed if the government is to meet its target.

Just as government responded to the oil shocks of the 1970s and invested in North Sea oil - to the ongoing benefit of the now privatised energy and oil companies - so government must intervene again to secure sustainable energy supplies for the 21st century and reduce the fear of fuel poverty. It's absolutely right that the corporations who are benefiting from that original investment and the later privatisation pay their fair share to society.

As precedent a similar windfall tax was levied when Labour came to power in 1997 on the unearned profits of the newly privatised utilities and raised £4.5 billion. Similarly in 1981 the Conservative government levied a windfall tax on the main clearing banks - justified on the grounds that increased interest rates led to substantial unearned profits. In 2008 the spike in the price of oil has today lead to substantial unearned profits for the main oil and energy companies - we therefore call on the government to levy a windfall tax.

Revenues from the tax should be ring-fenced to deliver social and environmental justice for all. Part of the money raised should be used to immediately help those struggling with rising fuel bills and should be particularly targeted at families in or facing fuel poverty. However the best strategy to eliminate fuel poverty forever is to ensure every home is insulated and energy efficient to the highest standards. Therefore much of the money raised should be used to kick-start a national programme of home energy efficiency and installing renewable energy, starting with the homes of the fuel poor.

Used in the right way this could benefit the UK economy as a whole - just as the New Deal in 1997 created new jobs for the long term unemployed, such an investment could see the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs in renewable energy production, insulation, building renovation and other sectors.

The homeless world cup

E certo que nao resolve o problema mas ajuda. Comeca no dia 29 a taca mundial das pessoas sem abrigo, em Copenhaga.

http://www.homelessworldcup.org/

What Would it Mean to Win?

http://www.turbulence.org.uk/

Basic Income Studies

Escrever qualquer coisa significativa sobre a importancia de uma nova revista inteiramente dedicada aos estudos e discussoes sobre o rendimento universal, incondicional. Uma das mais pertinentes solucoes.

Retrospective: A Capitalist Road to Communism - Twenty Years After
BIS launches its inaugural issue with a retrospective on "A Capitalist Road to Communism", the article that put basic income firmly on the map in academic and policy circles when it was first published in 1986. BIS reprints the original article with a new set of six comments and a specially written reply by the authors, Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van Parijs.Retrospective: A Capitalist Road to Communism - Twenty Years After
BIS launches its inaugural issue with a retrospective on "A Capitalist Road to Communism", the article that put basic income firmly on the map in academic and policy circles when it was first published in 1986. BIS reprints the original article with a new set of six comments and a specially written reply by the authors, Robert van der Veen and Philippe Van Parijs.

http://www.bepress.com/bis/