Society's ChildS


Briefcase

New union agreement in France means that employees must ignore their bosses' work emails once they are out of the office - another reason why France will fail

Lucy Mangan
The Guardian
Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:39 UTC
cafe
© Sipa Press/Rex Features Relaxing in a French cafe, untroubled by work emails.
When the French clock off at 6pm, they really mean it A new labour agreement in France means that employees must ignore their bosses' work emails once they are out of the office and relaxing at home - even on their smartphones

Just in case you weren't jealous enough of the French already, what with their effortless style, lovely accents and collective will to calorie control, they have now just made it illegal to work after 6pm.

Well, sort of. Après noticing that the ability of bosses to invade their employees' home lives via smartphone at any heure of the day or night was enabling real work hours to extend further and further beyond the 35-hour week the country famously introduced in 1999, workers' unions have been fighting back. Now employers' federations and unions have signed a new, legally binding labour agreement that will require staff to switch off their phones after 6pm.
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Megaphone

Nationwide 24-hour strike held in Greece

Konstantinos Menzel
greece.greekreporter.com
Wed, 09 Apr 2014 09:59 UTC
greek strike
© unknown
Unions representing private sector workers and state employees in Greece launched a 24-hour nationwide general strike on Wednesday against the austerity measures put through by the government.

Called by Greece's umbrella unions ADEDY and GSEE, the industrial action disrupted trains and ferries, as well as public services. Hospitals were operating on skeleton staff and pharmacies were scheduled to close for the day. Teachers, prison staff and court employees were also participating in the strike.

Thousands of protesters marched through central Athens in the planned demonstrations. Police said at least 6,000 people participated, carrying banners and chanting anti-austerity slogans in the initial demonstration from central Klafthmonos Square to the Greek parliament. Hundreds more held another rally at Omonoia Square, called by Communist-affiliated labor union PAME.

The Greek labor unions said that they are seeking an end to the painful policies imposed by successive governments to secure international bailout loans after Greece came close to bankruptcy in 2010.
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Display

Tech worker's in France will never have to respond to a work email after 6pm again - it's now the law!

Carmen Fishwick
The Guardian
Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:19 UTC
A man checks his email
© Lally SnowA man checks his email on his smartphone in a frozen yoghurt cafe in Kabul. Could you resist replying to work emails after 6pm?
New labour laws in France now make it illegal for workers in the digital and consultancy sectors - including the French offices of Google, Facebook, Deloitte and PwC - to respond to work emails after 6pm. Staff will be ordered to switch off their professional phones, and companies must ensure that their employees come under no pressure to look at work-related emails or documents on their tablets or computers.

France's strict labour laws saw Apple fined for making staff in France work nightslast year, as the law forbids shifts between 9pm and 6am unless the work plays an important role in the economy or is socially useful. Its 35-hour week, introduced in 1999, has come under threat from the increasingly widespread use of smartphones.

Chairman of the General Confederation of Managers, Michel de la Force, said: "We must also measure digital working time. We can admit extra work in exceptional circumstances but we must always come back to what is normal, which is to unplug, to stop being permanently at work."

Comment: There's an exaggeration here. The agreement target only 200 000 to 250 000 employees who are not subject to the legal weekly working time. Source: Le Monde

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Stormtrooper

Washington, Iowa, population 7,000 gets a new tank - has anyone asked what for?

Matthew Byrd
The Daily Iowan
Tue, 08 Apr 2014 12:06 UTC
washington, iowa tank
Sometimes the news is just so drearily awful that you have to sit back and almost appreciate the pure comedy induced by it.

Take this item from Washington, Iowa, where the local police have recently acquired an MRAP vehicle (short for Mine Resistance Ambush Protected) through a Defense Department program that donates excess vehicles originally produced for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to local police departments across the United States, including other Iowa towns such as Mason City and Storm Lake.

The MRAP weighs an impressive 49,000 pounds, stands 10-feet tall, and possesses a whopping six-wheel drive. Originally designed to resist landmines and IEDs, it sure seems like the MRAP will come in handy for the notorious war zone otherwise known as Washington County, Iowa.

If you're having a bad day, I highly recommend watching a video produced by the Des Moines Register in which Washington police officials try to justify the possession of a vehicle it clearly has no use for. The excuses range from school shootings (which are an actual concern but an MRAP seems like overkill) to a terrorist attack happening in central Iowa (because if there's any place that seems ripe for a high-profile terrorist attack it's Washington, Iowa, population 7,000).

I mean if the police were realistic, they could come up with actual reasons to use their MRAP/machine of doom. Drunken high-school house parties could be broken up by ramming the MRAP into the side of the building. Clearly, people who have been trying to curtail underage drinking have not seriously considered the serious deterrents to slamming down a few Hamms in your parents' house caused by a soulless war machine demolishing your kitchen.
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Hourglass

The most likely armageddon threat ... preventable for a small amount of money


Washingtonsblog
Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:01 UTC
Solar flare
© NASA
Well-known physicist Michio Kaku and other members of the American Physical Society asked Congress to appropriate $100 million to harden the country's electrical grid against solar flares. As shown below, such an event is actually the most likely Armageddon-type event faced by humanity.

Congress refused.

Kaku explains that a solar flare like the one that hit the U.S. in 1859 would - in the current era of nuclear power and electric refrigeration - cause widespread destruction and chaos.

Not only could such a flare bring on hundreds of Fukushima-type accidents, but it could well cause food riots globally.

Kaku explains that relief came in for people hit by disasters like Katrina or Sandy from the "outside". But a large solar flare could knock out a lot of the power nationwide. So - as people's food spoils due to lack of refrigeration - emergency workers from other areas would be too preoccupied with their own local crisis to help. There would, in short, be no "cavalry" to the rescue in much of the country.

In fact, NASA scientists are predicting that a solar storm will knock out most of the electrical power grid in many countries worldwide, perhaps for months. See this, this, this, this, this, this and this.
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Cow

Nevada governor: Federal cattle roundup is 'intimidation'

AP
CBS Las Vegas
Wed, 09 Apr 2014 11:09 UTC
Image
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesNevada Gov. Brian Sandoval speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Aug. 28, 2012 in Tampa, Fla.
Nevada's governor is criticizing a federal cattle roundup and what he calls "intimidation" in a dispute with a rancher who claims longstanding grazing rights on open range outside Las Vegas.

Federal Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service officials didn't immediately respond Wednesday to Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's call for the BLM to "reconsider its approach."

Sandoval says he's most offended that federal officials have tried to corral people protesting the roundup into a "First Amendment area."

Federal officials say 277 cows have been rounded up since Saturday from a 1,200-square-mile area that it has closed to the public for the operation about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
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Cow

Feds move in on Nevada rancher's herd‏

Rober Gearty
Fox News
Mon, 07 Apr 2014 15:16 UTC
Image
© Bundy RanchOn Saturday, federal authorities began seizing Bundy's cattle.
For 20 years, a tough-as-leather Nevada rancher and the federal government have been locked in a bitter range war over cattle grazing rights.

This weekend the confrontation got worse, when the feds hired contract cowboys to start seizing Cliven Bundy's cattle, which have been grazing on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The government officials brought a show of force that included dozens of armed agents in SUVs and helicopters.

Bundy, 67, who has been a rancher all his life, accuses BLM of stampeding over on his rights.

Comment: The argument from the BLM is a bunch of nonsense. Competing with tortoises? Trampling rare plants!?
Why herds of grazing cattle may be the answer to all our problems

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Handcuffs

Indentured servitude: UK university students will be repaying loans into their 50s

Richard Adams
The Guardian
Wed, 09 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
Students graduating
© Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA middle-earning graduate will still owe about £32,000 by the time they reach 50, researchers found.
Government urged to rethink fees and loans system after study finds average student will graduate more than £44,000 in debt

The majority of undergraduates now at university will be paying off their student loans well into their 40s and 50s, with three-quarters of them unable to clear the debt before it is written off after 30 years, according to an analysis published on Thursday.

The report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Sutton Trust estimates that the average student will leave university more than £44,000 in debt.

A middle-earning graduate will still owe about £39,000 at today's prices by the age of 40, and will still owe about £32,000 by 50.

"For many professionals, such as teachers, this will mean having to find up to £2,500 extra a year to service loans at a time when their children are still at school and family and mortgage costs are at their most pressing," said Conor Ryan, the Sutton Trust's director of research.
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Gift

Pope Francis gives Queen unusual present to baby George, as she gives him whiskey

Rob Williams
The Independent
Thu, 03 Apr 2014 07:23 UTC
Image
© IndependentThe unusual, and not very child-friendly, gift was presented to the Queen by Pope Francis at their first meeting at the Vatican this afternoon
What to get the eight-month-old who has everything? A lapis lazuli orb decorated with a silver cross of Edward the Confessor, the 11th Century English King who was made a saint, of course.

The unusual, and not very child-friendly, gift was presented to the Queen by Pope Francis at their first meeting at the Vatican this afternoon.

Pope Francis gave the Queen a present for her great-grandson Prince George as she apologised for a delay in meeting him at the Vatican.

The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, shook hands with the leader of the Catholic Church and said: "Sorry to keep you waiting, we were having lunch with the president", before heading into a private meeting with the pontiff.

The private conversation between the royal couple and the Pope lasted around 17 minutes and was followed by a formal exchange of gifts.
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Cow

Police state America: Nevada rancher's land surrounded by heavily-armed federal agents, his cattle confiscated


RT
Thu, 10 Apr 2014 07:14 UTC
Cattle
© Reuters / Brian Snyder
After 20 years of battling the US government for use of his family's land, a Nevada rancher's "one-man range war" may soon end. The family says heavily-armed federal agents have surrounded the ranch as "trespass cattle" are removed from the disputed land.

Cliven Bundy - the "last rancher in Clark County, Nevada" - has since 1993 refused to pay fees to the federal government for the right to raise cattle on land his family has ranched since the 1870s, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

After years of legal wrangling, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) attained a federal court order to have Bundy's nearly 1,000 head of cattle removed, according to the family.

Bundy says the government is taking the task seriously, arming the agents with military-style weaponry.

"They're carrying the same things a soldier would," he told the Free Beacon. "Automatic weapons, sniper rifles, top communication, top surveillance equipment, lots of vehicles. It's heavy soldier type equipment."

Carol Bundy, Cliven's wife, said hundreds of armed BLM and FBI agents are set up around their property, as helicopters circle the area, and nearby roads remain off limits.

"We're surrounded," Carol Bundy said. "We're estimating that there are over 200 armed BLM, FBI. We've got surveillance cameras at our house, they're probably listening to me talk to you right now."

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