Zombie

But it's not just internet journalism. Here in the UK, The Daily Telegraph has carried several reports about mistreatment of Amazon workers and the BBC flagship current affairs Panorama used covert recording to gather video evidence of normal working conditions that were oppressive and unlawful. So I think the evidence is pretty clear that Amazon expects a chunk of its profits to be generated by treating its workers like shit and paying minimum wage, which is not a living wage so taxpayers effectively subsidize Amazon's profits through government welfare payments so those guys can actually live - correction, subsist. That's the business model of Amazon.

All companies are natural predators and anyone who's worked in a large business will have encountered individual corporate sociopaths, relentlessly worming their way up to the top by abusing and exploiting everyone they can to get there. But with Amazon the whole business culture is based around corporate sociopathy. Problem is the product is just what customers want so the only effective ways to change businesses like this are through robust employment protection laws - in the UK these are reasonably strong, but not all national governments want to do this - or by inflicting reputational damage. Social media can be very effective here, by exposing company bad behaviours to the world's gaze. As Corporal Jones says in the classic BBC sitcom Dad's Army "They don't like it up 'em!"

or try thick natural yoghurt. Yeo Valley is good, low fat too

A baker once told me "I love making bread. It cleans your hands a treat." .

oh God, we've got another 15 months of this...

"I notice that the times I'm freest from that way of thinking are the times that I'm engaged in things I'm passionate" This is so true. We each of us need to find something we are passionate about whether it's playing a sport, an instrument, making things with our bare hands, being with people we love - whatever revs your motor. It's time spent doing those things that gives us the nourishment we all need to see us through the dark times. Cemeteries are full of folk who were "indispensable" in their jobs.

Modern appliances are soooo sloooooow. My expensive new Miele vac takes FIVE SECONDS to start up Apparently the computer chip has to boot up and then check everything's tickety boo before it deigns to initiate start up. Switch on my old knackered Hoover vac and IMMEDIATE suction Okay, it's eardrum bursting noisy, belches clouds of toxic dust and the sucking... sucks, but who cares? The Miele's going back! .

Happy B-Day croc!

I was going to say it's outrageous that relief organisations have ignored this abhorrent crime but it's worse than that. Their policy makers are complicit in human horror such as this in Africa going on and on without end.

Hi Andy I was a lurker too before joining Have fun!

Technology transfer per se is inevitable. Unless a country wishes to isolate itself from other countries, like North Korea This isn't really about giving technological stuff to enemies or potential enemies which they can then use to harm us - which obviously isn't a good idea - but about trade, and citizens going about their daily lives in a free society with no malice. That's because citizens, institutions and corporations are the creators and disseminators of knowledge and technology, not governments. And even if a government tries to limit trade and all contacts to "friendly" countries it can't control who that country deals with. Or what its citizens, institutions and corporations get up to. Or whether a country later becomes "unfriendly". Truly, the genie that can't be put back in the bottle is disseminated knowledge. Books and scientific papers telling you how to make and do stuff can't be unpublished, business collaborations and takeovers can't be unwound, academic institutions can't be muzzled. A striking example is the Nuclear Boy Scout. More than 20 years ago a 17 yo in Michigan built, all by himself, a rudimentary homemade nuclear breeder reactor in his garden shed just by using library books, legally bought scrap and asking questions. His experiments produced uranium-233 and plutonium and, if he'd not been caught by police on a routine matter, who knows how it would have ended... And there have been others. And there'll be more. All with no malicious intent. Just for the hell of it. Because the knowledge is "out there". But you're right, we can only scratch our heads in amazement that the organized many, with very clear malicious intent against us and serious resources and money to back it, have so far failed to achieve the mass-destruction-of-human-life event that is their ultimate goal. Like you say, they only need get lucky once The gag line in Dad's Army (an old BBC sitcom) sums it up neatly... We're all doooooomed! Dooooomed a tell ye! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

or maybe it's the idea that we can no longer do what the hell we like and damn the consequences...

you forgot 4a. "Have a nice dayyy" said with completely convincing insincerity

"Oh, by the way..."

Good move. I think both you and your new employer will benefit from this.

Happy birthday Mike

I'm feeling unwell

thank you for sharing this with us KC. As MGK said, we don't know what we have lost till after someone has gone. And we tend to assume there'll always be time later to reconnect, or to make amends. But time runs out with no warning. Glad that some good came from the loss of your friend when you reconnected with your grandmother. I guess I'm not alone in wanting to know what happens next...

Hey I love those old shows!

Cilla Black has died. She was a major British pop star in the 60s starting out in The Cavern Club with The Beatles and sharing the same manager, Brian Epstein. She then became a much loved entertainer on TV - what we call a "national treasure" In 1968 she asked Paul McCartney to write a song for her to sing on her new TV show - "Step Inside Love" was a massive hit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdq6w2Btmm0 R.I.P. Cilla .

Love has nothing to do with debt. It doesn't arise from any social contract or obligation or promise. It is often asymmetric, sometimes one-sided, but always unconditional. Otherwise it's not love

In ending the life of Cecil, Mr Palmer ended his own, comfortable, selfish, irresponsible life. I have no sympathy for him or pity for his fate. Truly, he has reaped the whirlwind. But good often comes from evil, and that may be a broader awareness of the plight of wildlife at the hands of mankind, not just in Africa - where it has now been at crisis levels for decades - but across the planet. Mankind is at the top of the food chain, but we can only stay there if we do all we can to maintain and foster rich biodiversity in the ecosystem. This means economic and lifestyle costs for all of us. But the costs of not doing this will be our ultimate extinction. http://www.itv.com/news/story/2015-07-31/zimbabwe-calls-for-extradition-of-hunter-walter-palmer/

Well, the HRC doesn't have a monopoly. Just movements for change begin with folks like you feeling strongly about an issue. And then doing something about it. With social media, getting something off the ground now is much easier now than it was back in the 60s and 70s when gay rights pioneers were working their butts off to get the social changes we all benefit from today.

Yes, lawyers always win Even though 50% are always wrong... .

I really don't think you need worry in that score. You'll always have reactionaries against any particular social change, but the tide of opinion in Europe and the U.S. is overwhelming. Africa, Russia, the Middle East and many other countries - well, that's a completely different story So LGBTs planning foreign travel in those parts must understand the risks and decide if they're prepared to moderate their behaviour to ensure they get back home safe. I guess anti-discrimination protection is the next step. It's the only viable long term outcome