Your Completely Insane Baseless Headline of the Day

Courtesy, of the Independent no less...

The changing nature of the British jobs market has broken the link between unemployment and crime, according to new research.

The phenomenon – which saw rising joblessness matched by increased burglaries, thefts and robberies during the Thatcher years – ended in 2005, according to an analysis of crime and employment statistics.

The latest research suggests that growing trend of employers to adopt part-time working and zero-hours contracts has meant that communities are less blighted by mass unemployment and less likely to resort to crime.

The findings explain in part why Britain was not hit by a crime epidemic following the 2007-8 financial crisis which led to unemployment rising above eight per cent for the first time in more than a decade but saw a continuing long-term decline in crime.

Here's the link to the full story.  See if you can find anything there to support that supposition.

The story does mention the likely role in preventitive technology in reducing crime, though that only addresses the question of means.

Here's a hint from the other side of the Atlantic at a more likely causative factor:

But no-one seems to want to take that line of enquiry seriously, and we're going to be still debating this shit for decades to come, and still pushing Dirty Harry-style get-tough rhetoric on crime even as London sinks into the Thames and DC & NYC into the Atlantic.


Quick Update: Oh yeah, here's this from the Independent in 2007: Ban on leaded petrol 'has cut crime rates around the world'

Banning lead in petrol is responsible for declining crime rates in Britain, the United States and other countries, startling new research suggests.

The astonishing conclusion threatens to overturn current thinking on crime and punishment....

Published in the peer-reviewed journal, Environmental Research, the study reports a "very strong association" over more than 50 years between the exposure of young children to the toxic metal and crime rates 20 years later when they are young adults.

And it says the association holds true for a wide variety of countries with differing social conditions, law and order policies...

Britain – one of the last to get rid of the toxic metal – is one of the latest to enjoy a decline in crime.

But, someone seems to want to tell a very different story today, and link falling crime-rates to zero-hours contracts of all things.  Ladies & Gentleman, your Independent newspaper.

Toles on National Geographic under Murdoch

Eurovision

It is appropriate in a way I suppose that the Eurovision 2015 Finals should have featured performances, over eighty percent of which were sung entirely in English, with many of those performers, including the UK entry, affecting American accents in the process.  What a perfect symbol for the increasingly corporatised monoculture sweeping our planet in what may well be man's last days.

Now, this is more like it.  Montenegro wuz robbed.

Rising Salaries for non-Fat Cats...a BAD Thing !

So, that's...a bad thing ?...  You...have...got...to be...shitting...me...

Here's ya supposed 'liberal media' for you...  Fuckin' Grauniad.

TPP & TTIP

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Revelation 17:1-2

TPP & TTIP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership & the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) don't seem to get much coverage in the media, despite their likely impact on so many countries, likely because a) the deals are complicated, and b) the deals are being worked in secret behind closed doors.  These are just 'trade deals' remember, not exactly a nuclear deal with Iran; Totally innocent stuff, and the reason the US, UK, and other governments don't want you to know about what's being discussed, is simply that it's so boring.  They'll tell you all about it eventually, such as...four years after the deals are already done and dusted.

In the meantime, you're just gonna have to trust them that the deals are in your best interest and will result in more jobs, more prosperity, and rising wages, just like...say NAFTA...or say...the MFN deal Clinton pushed with China.  Those worked out really well, didn't they ?  And the PRC is going to turn into a flourishing democracy with respect for the human rights and civil liberties of all its citizens any day now, right Bill ?

Basically, like all 'free trade' deals, the idea is to maximise corporate profits at the expense of labour costs (i.e. your paycheck), civil liberties, national sovereignty, safety, and the environment; to drag every nation slowly down to the lowest-common denominator.  To drag the EU standards down to those of the US, down to those of South America, down to those of east Asia, down ultimately one would imagine to those of Somalia.  And if any national government gets in the way of corporate profits by passing pesky laws to, say protect the safety & wellbeing of its citizens, well fuck 'em. !  They can just be sued, in trans-national arbitration tribunals, run by said corporations, and outside of national law.  Bye-bye national sovereignty.  And you think the EU is the threat, Ukippers ?


Here's a nice summary of the deals for the uninitiated (yes with Russell Brand, sorry):

Sounds good, huh ?

Remember this bit from Last Week Tonight ?  (Might want to skip to 8'05).  Think Philip Morris is the only corporation that does this stuff ?  Think making this shit even easier is a good idea ?

What to do, other than try to find some non-corporatist non-fascist non-cocksucker politicians to vote for ?  Well the first video has some suggestions towards the end.  I don't hold out much hope myself, but you never know.

For the American Sparkle-pony crowd, here's a bonus video, with not-going-to-be-the-Democratic-nominee-for-president-any-time-soon Elizabeth Warren on TPP and the ISDS tribunals back in February.

And if you really want lots more details on TPP, check out Gaius Publius' writings on the subject.  Don't know if Gaius has a dedicated page, but Hullabaloo & Americablog are probably good starting points.

Prince: U Got the Look

Aw, sheeet, how did I get back into this 1980's crap ?  And apparently we're still playing bullshit games with content and ownership.  Fuck, is this 2015, or 1815 ?

http://www.totallyfuzzy.net/ourtube/prince/u-got-the-look-stereo-video_0c5c5bcb2.html

Wasted enough time on this that I almost hate this song now.


Update: Finally revisited this, and got the embed.  Yay.

Dear Supermarkets/Grocery Stores

Could you please stop going out of your way to make shopping at your locations even more actively painful than it already was ?  Is it not bad enough that you go out of the way in the physical geography of the shops/stores to maximise the time customers have to spend per visit, with the most frequently bought items physically separated by the greatest distance ?  Not bad enough that you intentionally place products like tooth- and brain-rotting sugary products at children's eye-level ?

Is it not bad enough that your customers have to deal with a) persistent understaffing at peak hours, b) annoying Christmas music for several months of the year during the 'holiday season', c) carts/trolleys for 'junior shoppers/customers', so that other people's spawn can take up that much more of the aisle space as they weave this way and that with their mini-carts like drunken octaganerians (on the positive side, at least they're not then rushing backwards and fowards down the aisles, like they're in some kind of carnival competition), d) the persistent under-provisioning of the more useful smaller carts, as if every shopper represents the cast of Just the Ten of Us, e) shitty parking structures, that force one to enter/exit and park at awkward angles, f) persistently malfunctioning self-service machines, g) those EVIL EVIL EVIL 'loyalty' campaigns, that impose artificially higher prices on those unwilling to sell their souls to Marketing Satan, and so many other nasty horrible evil practices ?

But no, every aisle has to also be blocked with a cart filled with discounted produce, with a special advertising display, with a stupid cardboard cutout smiling inanely at us.  We have to put up with already congested aisles being reduced many times to the width of a single cart so that you can prolong our shopping misery that little bit longer in the vain hope that we'll spend that little bit more at your evil establishment.  Well, FUCK YOU !

And while we're at it, no I didn't find everything I was looking for today, but, no, I'm not going to tell you about it, because a) You don't give a shit, b) You can't do anything about your establishment's stocking policy, c) the reason I couldn't find the product has nothing to do with any magical advantage you have in locating products on the shelves over me, and d) Fuck you, leave me alone !  I know it's not you.  I know it's your evil Fascist cocksucking corparatist overlords.  That's why I lie when you ask me if I found everything I wanted today.  Why I lie when you ask me how I'm doing.  Why I'd lie about just about anything that wouldn't get in the way of my getting my fucking purchase done, and my arse out of your wretched establishment a second earlier.

And to think, our right-wing establishment politicians would have us believe that the 'free market' is all about efficiency, and that it smoothly and effortlessly rewards and punishes players according to the best accordance with customer needs and demands.  Well, if you keep in mind that the only 'customers' that truly matter are those making purchases in the millions and billions, perhaps.  Otherwise, pull another one.