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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Nubia Z5 unveiled in China with quad-core chip, 5-inch 1080p display and 7.6mm thickness
Much like many Chinese smartphone brands these days, ZTE sub-brand Nubia had prematurely given away the main selling points of its Z5 ahead of its Beijing launch today, but there were still some surprises. As you probably already know, here's yet another five-inch 1080p Android phone featuring Qualcomm's 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064, 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, along with a 13-megapixel F2.2 main camera (with five-element optics by Konica Minolta, plus separate touch focus and touch exposure in the app) and a two-megapixel front-facing camera. For multimedia consumption, the Z5 supports WiFi Display and MHL output should you wish to beam content to a larger screen; whereas on the audio side you are spoiled with either Yamaha or Dolby Digital Plus. But wait, there's more!
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Nubia
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/26/nubia-z5-launch/
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layanau: writ trig: Bodybuilding Basics | Sports n Recreation Info ...
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Fees undermine fliers' ability to compare fares
FILE - This Dec. 21, 2012 file photo shows travelers walking to a ticketing desk at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. For many passengers, air travel is only about finding the cheapest fare. But as airlines offer a proliferating list of add-on services, from early boarding to premium seating and baggage fees, the ability to comparison-shop for the lowest total fare is eroding. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - This Dec. 21, 2012 file photo shows travelers walking to a ticketing desk at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. For many passengers, air travel is only about finding the cheapest fare. But as airlines offer a proliferating list of add-on services, from early boarding to premium seating and baggage fees, the ability to comparison-shop for the lowest total fare is eroding. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? For many passengers, air travel is only about finding the cheapest fare.
But as airlines offer a proliferating list of add-on services, from early boarding to premium seating and baggage fees, the ability to comparison-shop for the lowest total fare is eroding.
Global distribution systems that supply flight and fare data to travel agents and online ticketing services like Orbitz and Expedia, accounting for half of all U.S. airline tickets, complain that airlines won't provide fee information in a way that lets them make it handy for consumers trying to find the best deal.
"What other industry can you think of where a person buying a product doesn't know how much it's going to cost even after he's done at the checkout counter?" said Simon Gros, chairman of the Travel Technology Association, which represents the global distribution services and online travel industries.
The harder airlines make it for consumers to compare, "the greater opportunity you have to get to higher prices," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, whose members include corporate travel managers.
Now the Obama administration is wading into the issue. The Department of Transportation is considering whether to require airlines to provide fee information to everyone with whom they have agreements to sell their tickets. A decision originally scheduled for next month has been postponed to May, as regulators struggle with a deluge of information from airlines opposed to regulating fee information, and from the travel industry and consumer groups that support such a requirement.
Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Air and Southwest Airlines ? with backing from industry trade associations ? are asking the Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court ruling forcing them to include taxes in their advertised fares. The appeals court upheld a Transportation Department rule that went in effect nearly a year ago that ended airlines' leeway to advertise a base airfare and show the taxes separately, often in smaller print. Airlines say the regulations violate their free-speech rights.
At the heart of the debate is a desire by airlines to move to a new marketing model in which customers don't buy tickets based on price alone. Instead, following the well-worn path of other consumer companies, airlines want to mine personal data about customers in order to sell them tailored services. You like to sit on the aisle and to ski, so how would you like to fly to Aspen with an aisle seat and a movie, no extra baggage charge for your skis, and have a hotel room and a pair of lift tickets waiting for you, all for one price? You're a frequent business traveler. How about priority boarding, extra legroom, Internet access and a rental car when you arrive?
"Technology is changing rapidly. We are going to be part of the change," said Sharon Pinkerton, vice president of Airlines for America, which represents most U.S. carriers. "We want to be able to offer our customers a product that's useful to them, that's customized to meet their needs, and we don't think (the Transportation Department) needs to step in."
If airlines have their way, passengers looking for ticket prices may have to reveal a lot more information about themselves, such as their age, marital status, gender, nationality, travel history and whether they're flying for business or leisure. The International Air Transport Association, whose 240 member airlines cover 84 percent of global airline traffic, adopted standards at a meeting earlier this month in Geneva for such information gathering by airlines as well as by travel agents and ticketing services that would relay the data to airlines and receive customized fares in return.
"Airlines want, and expect, their (ticket) distribution partners to offer passengers helpful contextual information to make well-informed purchase decisions, reducing the number of reservations made based primarily or exclusively on price," said a study commissioned by the association.
Consumer advocates question how airlines would safeguard the personal information they gather, and they worry that comparison shopping for the cheapest air fares will no longer be feasible.
"It's like going to a supermarket where before you get the price, they ask you to swipe your driver's license that shows them you live in a rich zip code, you drive a BMW, et cetera," Mitchell said. "All this personal information on you is going out to all these carriers with no controls over what they do with it, who sees it and so on."
The airline association said consumers who choose not to supply personal information would still be able to see fares and purchase tickets, though consumer advocates said those fares would probably be at the "rack rate" ? the travel industry's term for full price, before any discounts.
It's up to individual airlines whether they price fares differently for travelers who don't provide personal information, said Perry Flint, a spokesman for the international airline association.
The stakes, of course, are enormous. Since 2000, U.S. airlines have lost money for more years than they've made profits. Fee revenue has made a big difference in their bottom lines. Globally, airlines raked in an estimated $36 billion this year in ancillary revenue, which includes baggage fees and other a la carte services as well as sales of frequent flyer points and commissions on hotel bookings, according to a study by Amadeus, a global distribution service, and the IdeaWorksCompany, a U.S. firm that helps airlines raise ancillary revenue. U.S. airlines reported collecting nearly $3.4 billion in baggage fees alone in 2011.
One expense airlines would like to eliminate is the $7 billion a year they pay global distribution systems to supply flight and fare information to travel agents and online booking agents like Expedia. Airlines want to deal more directly with online ticket sellers and travel agents, who dominate the lucrative business travel market. Justice Department officials have acknowledged an investigation is underway into possible anti-trust violations by distribution companies.
Airlines also have been cracking down on websites that help travelers manage their frequent flier accounts. The sites use travelers' frequent flier passwords to obtain balances and mileage expiration dates, and then display the information in a way that makes it easier for travelers to figure out when it makes more sense to buy a ticket or to use miles.
"What the airlines are trying to do right now is reinvent the wheel so they can hold all their information close to their chest," said Charles Leocha, founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance. "As we move forward in a world of IT, the ownership of passenger data is like gold to these people."
By withholding information like fee prices, he said, "we are forced to go see them, and then we are spoon-fed what they want to feed us."
___
Airlines for America http://www.airlines.org
Travel Technology Association http://www.traveltechnologyassociation.org
Business Travel Coalition http://businesstravelcoalition.com/
___
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Asus G75VW-DH72
Gaming prowess rarely comes cheap, but that doesn't mean it can't at least be affordable. The Asus G75VW-DH72 gaming laptop may offer pricing and performance well below what tricked out systems like the Eurocom Scorpius can offer, but when stacked against mid-range gaming systems like the Alienware M17x R4, it still holds its own, getting you on the gaming grid for under two grand.
Design and Features
While previous incarnations of Asus' Republic of Gamers line have emulated stealth fighter jets and naval vessels, the G75VW's design is a little more conservative, especially for a gaming machine. It's not as slim as the Razer Blade (2012), by any means. The laptop is still large, measuring 2.0 by 16.3 by 12.6 inches (HWD), but has changed up the look a bit, adding metal accents around the keyboard and across the speaker grille, which break up the imposing all-matte-black look seen in designs past. The result is a gaming rig that looks almost professional. Now, don't misunderstand, at 8.7 pounds (10.9 with the power brick) you won't be lugging this laptop to and from work, but it wouldn't look completely out of place in an office environment.
Despite the conservative look, the gaming DNA is still there. The back end of the G75VW is dominated by large cooling vents, and Asus' designs are tweaked to keep the system cool but quiet, grouping the heat generating components toward the back of the system. The chiclet keyboard sits at a slight slope, but is otherwise competent, providing a shallow but firm key movement. The touchpad is the same high-quality touchpad found on the Asus G75VW-DS71, but with the shift to Windows 8, Asus has also added some gesture support for Windows 8-specific controls. A swipe from the right edge of the touchpad pulls up the Charms Bar, while a three-fingered swipe down cycles through open apps. Pinch and zoom and two-finger scrolling aren't new additions, but they take on new importance in the absence of a touchscreen.
You may not be touching the screen, but the 17.3-inch display is still bright and sharp, with 1920-by-1080 resolution providing 1080p whether you're playing Skyrim or watching The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. The sound is also pretty good (as tested with the new trailer for The Man of Steel), staying clear at high volumes and providing a fair amount of bass thanks to an integrated subwoofer.
In addition to a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive, the Asus G75VW is outfitted with four USB 3.0 ports (one with power for charging devices), Gigabit Ethernet, a 3-in-1 card reader (SDHC, MMC, MS), and jacks for headphone and microphone. You also get several options for video connectivity, with HDMI, VGA, and mini DisplayPort outputs. Wireless connections provide 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The G75VW-DH72 pairs a 750GB spinning hard drive with a separate 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), letting you shift bulk data storage to the hard drive while keeping programs on the SSD for optimum performance. Included on the drive are Microsoft Office Starter 2010, a 60-day trial of Trend Micro Antivirus, Adobe Reader X, and Asus' Application Suite, which includes 3GB of free cloud backup with Asus WebStorage. Asus covers the G75VW-DH72 with a two-year warranty, but also includes a full-year of additional accidental damage coverage, 24/7 tech support, and 30-day "Zero Bright Dot" warranty on the display panel.
Performance
The Asus G75VW-DH72 is outfitted with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-3630QM processor with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M with 3GB of dedicated VRAM. The combination is potent?in Cinebench R11.5, the processor scored 6.44 points, outperforming both the Alienware M17x R4 (6.19 points) and the MSI GT70 0NE-276US (6.23 points), but falling behind both the Razer Blade (6.86) and the Eurocom Scorpius (7.29). The Asus G75VW-DH72 also made short work of our multimedia tests, completing our Handbrake video encoding test in 36 seconds, and Photoshop CS6 in 3 minutes 32 seconds.
Perhaps more important than general performance is how the G75VW-DH72 does with games. In Aliens vs. Predator, it racked up a respectable 55 frames per second (fps) at medium detail settings and 1,366-by-768 resolution, but dropped to a less than playable 18 fps when resolution was dialed up to 1,920-by-1,080. When tested with Heaven, however, it scored 70 fps at medium settings and a nearly playable 28 fps at 1080p. While you won't be able to go all out with the detail settings on high-end games, you will still see excellent performance on even the most demanding games, provided you back off on the eye-candy a bit.
The Asus G75VW-DH72 also did well in battery tests, lasting 3 hours and two minutes in our battery rundown test. While not even long enough to make it through a screening of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, it's still pretty decent performance for a gaming laptop. Few laptops pass the three hour mark, with one of the few exceptions being the portability minded Razer Blade, which still only lasted 3 hours 53 minutes when tested with MobileMark 2006, our previous battery test.
As a decently priced mid-range gaming laptop, the Asus G75VW-DH72 offers great performance at an affordable price, letting you enjoy top of the line games (albeit with middle of the road graphics performance) for far less than a tricked out high-end system. It's an affordable option to the Alienware M17X R4, and as such, replaces it for our Editors' Choice mid-range gaming laptop.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus G75VW-DH72 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:
??? Asus G75VW-DH72
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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Israel rejects US gun lobby claims on its security
FILE - In this March 7, 2008 file photo an ultra-orthodox Jewish youth peers through a bullet-riddled glass door before the funeral of eight yeshiva students killed in a shooting attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. America's top gun lobbyist has his facts wrong when he holds up Israel's stationing of armed guards at all schools as a model of how to avoid another massacre like the Dec. 14, 2012 slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school. What's more, the gun laws in Israel, a country where most people serve in the military, are far more onerous than those in the U.S., containing restrictions that would be anathema to the National Rifle Association and its members. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
FILE - In this March 7, 2008 file photo an ultra-orthodox Jewish youth peers through a bullet-riddled glass door before the funeral of eight yeshiva students killed in a shooting attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. America's top gun lobbyist has his facts wrong when he holds up Israel's stationing of armed guards at all schools as a model of how to avoid another massacre like the Dec. 14, 2012 slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school. What's more, the gun laws in Israel, a country where most people serve in the military, are far more onerous than those in the U.S., containing restrictions that would be anathema to the National Rifle Association and its members. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel's policy on issuing guns is restrictive, and armed guards at its schools are meant to stop terrorists, not crazed or disgruntled gunmen, experts said Monday, rejecting claims by America's top gun lobby that Israel serves as proof for its philosophy that the U.S. needs more weapons, not fewer.
Far from the image of a heavily armed population where ordinary people have their own arsenals to repel attackers, Israel allows its people to acquire firearms only if they can prove their professions or places of residence put them in danger. The country relies on its security services, not armed citizens, to prevent terror attacks.
Though military service in Israel is compulsory, routine familiarity with weapons does not carry over into civilian life. Israel has far fewer private weapons per capita than the U.S., and while there have been gangster shootouts on the streets from time to time, gun rampages outside the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are unheard of.
The National Rifle Association responded to the Dec. 14 killing of 20 first-graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school by resisting calls for tighter gun control and calling for armed guards and police at schools. On Sunday, the lobby's chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, invoked his perception of the Israeli school security system to back his proposal.
"Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: They said, 'We're going to stop it,' and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then," LaPierre said on the NBC News show "Meet the Press."
Israel never had "a whole lot of school shootings." Authorities could only recall two in the past four decades.
In 1974, 22 children and three adults were killed in a Palestinian attack on an elementary school in Maalot, near the border with Lebanon. The attackers' goal was to take the children hostage and trade them for imprisoned militants.
In 2008, another Palestinian assailant killed eight young people, most of them teens, at a nighttime study session at a Jewish religious seminary in Jerusalem. An off-duty soldier who happened to be in the area killed the attacker with his personal firearm.
Israel didn't mandate armed guards at the entrances to all schools until 1995, the Education Ministry said ? more than two decades after the Maalot attack and two years after a Palestinian militant wounded five pupils and their principal in a knifing at a Jerusalem school.
Israel's lightly armed school guards are not the first or the last line of defense. They are backed up by special police forces on motorcycles that can be on the scene within minutes ? again bringing out the main, but not the only, difference between the two systems.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor spelled it out.
"We're fighting terrorism, which comes under very specific geopolitical and military circumstances. This is not something that compares with the situation in the U.S," Palmor said.
Because it is aimed at preventing terror attacks, Israel's school security system is part of a multi-layered defense strategy that focuses on prevention and doesn't depend on a guy at a gate with a gun.
Intelligence gathering inside Palestinian territories, a large military force inside the West Bank and a barrier of towering concrete slabs and electronic fencing along and inside the West Bank provide the first line of defense.
Guards are stationed not just at schools, but at many other public facilities, including bus and train stations, parking lots, malls and restaurants.
"There are other measures of prevention of an attack taking place, which are carried out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all over the country," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Many are not for public knowledge.
Gun lobbyists who might think Israel hands out guns freely to keep its citizens safe might be less enamored of Israel's actual gun laws, which are much stricter than those in the U.S. For one thing, notes Yakov Amit, head of the firearms licensing department at the Ministry of Public Security, Israeli law does not guarantee the right to bear arms as the U.S. Constitution does.
"The policy in Israel is restrictive," he said.
Gun licensing to private citizens is limited largely to people who are deemed to need a firearm because they work or live in dangerous areas, Amit said. West Bank settlers, for instance, can apply for weapons licenses, as can residents of communities on the borders with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Licensing requires multiple levels of screening, and permits must be renewed every three years. Renewal is not automatic.
The policy is designed "to strike a balance between needs and risks," Amit said. "We know that weapons are a dangerous thing, and in the hands of someone who isn't trained or isn't reliable, it causes problems."
The gap between Israeli gun ownership and U.S. gun ownership is consequently staggering. A total of 170,000 guns are licensed for private use in Israel, or about one gun for every 30 adults.
In addition to the privately held weapons, 130,000 guns are licensed to Israeli security companies, firing ranges, government ministries and companies that operate in areas deemed dangerous. Soldiers who carry assault rifles off base during their regular or reserves service turn them in when they complete their tours of duty.
By contrast, U.S. authorities estimate that at least one-third of all American households have firearms ? and in many cases, not only one.
Americans are also much freer to choose what type of guns they buy. Automatic weapons of the type Lanza used to gun down his victims are banned for private ownership in Israel. It is also rare for a person to be authorized to own more than one firearm, Amit said.
Eighty percent of the 10,000 people who apply yearly for licenses are turned down, he said. In the U.S., people can purchase firearms from private dealers without a background check or a license of any kind.
In Israel, applicants must undergo police screening and medical exams, in part to determine their mental state, Amit said.
Many Israelis receive weapons training in the military. But to be licensed to receive a weapon outside the military, they must undergo at least two hours of additional training, then repeat the training and medical exams every three years before they can renew their licenses.
Anybody who possesses a legally acquired gun waives the right to confidentiality, and authorities cross-reference for new information about the gunholder every three months.
"The point is not to complicate, but to make sure the system makes things safer," Amit said.
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An algal scene
A golden pennate diatom and a green euglenid, Phacus sp., industriously photosynthesising before the slide dries out. Perhaps unexpectedly for its appearance, the diatom can actually move, by secreting mucus to glide on through the raphe (a slit), and often quickly enough to screw up your photography. Luckily, this one was paused at that moment. The colour comes from its plastid, of the ?brown? algal category.
The euglenid?s surface is covered by proteinaceous strips making up its pellicle ? in many species, they slide against each other and enable metaboly, a pattern of movement that makes the euglenid feel ?squishy?. This genus, on the other hand, lacks the sliding ability of its pellicle strips, and sits rigidly in one shape. Inside are a big clear doughnut-shaped starch globule, a red eyespot used for seeking light, and numerous green plastids that were once inherited through secondary endosymbiosis of a green alga. Only a single clade of euglenids is photosynthetic ? the rest have never seen a plastid as anything other than a food item.
(a wallpaper version can be found here, hopefully big enough to crop or shrink as necessary)
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Things You Want Know Before Building Wooden Garden Sheds ...
A wooden garden shed can provide you with many benefits. Many homeowners consider building their own garden shed to store garden tools, landscaping equipment and other supplies. Some will also use this building for a safe environment to establish seedlings before moving them outdoors. A garden shed may be larger or smaller in size, and it can add function and convenience alike to your gardening experience. Before you start building your own garden shed, however, there are a few things you should consider fully.
The Need for a Construction Permit
Many municipalities require homeowners to obtain a construction or building permit before adding a structure to their property. Depending on the size of your shed and where you live, this may not be required. However, if you build a shed in an area where a construction or building permit is required and without getting that required permit, the city or municipality could require you to remove it from your property. You may invest a lot of time, sweat and money into building your shed, so you do want to ensure your building plans comply with local laws.
The Type of Shed
If you only have plans to use your shed for storing lawn and gardening equipment and tools, a basic shed without insulation, electricity, water and more may be acceptable. You may not even need to install a window if the shed will be used for a basic storage purpose. However, if you are storing items that need to be kept at a steady temperature, insulation and possibly climate control capabilities may be required. If you will be using your shed to store extra large equipment, such as a riding lawn mower, you may need a double-wide door along with an entrance ramp. It may be necessary to have a pass-through experience with doors on opposite ends of the shed. If the shed will be used to raise seedlings, ample natural lighting with the installation of windows coupled with a sink for easier watering may be useful. You want your shed to conveniently meet all of your needs, so picking out the best shed plans possible is key.
The Location
Any time you build a new structure on your property, you want to consider the location carefully. This is even more true when building a wooden garden shed. Keep in mind that a structure will need to be placed in a relatively flat area without an incline. If you choose an area with an incline, this area will need to be leveled so that you can build on a flat surface. It should also be an area that is not prone to flooding or developing pools of standing water during wet times as a wooden shed could rot when exposed to significant water over time. Further, the contents inside the shed could be damaged.
The Cost
Many homeowners debate between building their own shed from scratch, often using do-it-yourself plans found online, and installing a pre-fabricated shed on their property. It can be difficult to fully estimate the cost of building a shed on your own from scratch. To start, you will need to find the right plans to utilize. The best plans include a list of all of the materials and tools you will need for the job. You can take this list to the local home improvement store, locate the items and calculate the cost. Keep in mind that any tools required will either need to be leased or purchased. In most cases, it is more affordable to build your own shed from plans found online.
Building your own wooden garden shed is not something that you want to undertake without diligent planning. It is wise to spend ample time finding the perfect location for the shed in your yard and researching the need to apply for a building permit. While you wait for your building permit to be approved, you can gather the needed supplies and materials for the project. Most sheds can be completed with a few days of diligent effort, but some may require you to work on them over the course of several weekends.
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jason ? who has written 493 posts on Home Tips Plus.
I'm a father of three, married and a home owner since 2006. I've worked in fixing up homes and rental properties.
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A huge collection of odd TV stuff needs a home
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar holds an original TV Guide issue featuring William Shatner, and Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek." The item is part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar holds an original TV Guide issue featuring William Shatner, and Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek." The item is part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar holds the costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show "Adventures of Superman." The item is part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar shows a dress worn by Lucille Ball. The item is part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar shows costumes from the "Star Trek" original series. The items are part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
In this Friday, Nov. 30, 2012 photo, James Comisar holds a communicator prop used on the original Star Trek series. The item is part of his television memorabilia collection in a temperature- and humidity-controlled warehouse in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? James Comisar is the first to acknowledge that more than a few have questioned his sanity for spending the better part of 25 years collecting everything from the costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show "Superman" to the entire set of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."
Then there's the pointy Spock ears Leonard Nimoy wore on "Star Trek" and the guns Tony Soprano used to rub out a mob rival in an episode of "The Sopranos."
"Along the way people thought I was nuts in general for wanting to conserve Keith Partridge's flared pants from 'The Partridge Family,'" the good-natured former TV writer says of the 1970s sitcom as he ambles through rows of costumes, props and what have you from the beginnings of television to the present day.
"But they really thought I needed a psychological workup," Comisar, 48, adds with a smile, "when they learned I was having museum curators take care of these pieces."
A museum is exactly where he wants to put all 10,000 of his TV memorabilia items, everything from the hairpiece Carl Reiner wore on the 1950s TV variety program "Your Show of Shows" to the gun and badge Kiefer Sutherland flashed on "24" a couple TV seasons ago.
Finding one that could accommodate his collection, which fills two sprawling, temperature-controlled warehouses, however, has sometimes been as hard as acquiring the boots Larry Hagman used to stomp around in when he was J.R. on "Dallas." (The show's production company finally coughed up a pair after plenty of pleading and cajoling.)
Comisar is one of many people who, after a lifetime of collecting, begin to realize that if they can't find a permanent home for their artifacts those objects could easily end up on the trash heap of history. Or, just as bad as far as he's concerned, in the hands of private collectors.
"Some of the biggest bidders for Hollywood memorabilia right now reside in mainland China and Dubai, and our history could leave this country forever," says Comisar, who these days works as a broker and purchasing expert for memorabilia collectors.
What began as a TV-obsessed kid's lark morphed into a full-fledged hobby when as a young man writing jokes for Howie Mandel and Joan Rivers, and punching up scripts for such producers as Norman Lear and Fred Silverman, Comisar began scouring studio back lots, looking for discarded stuff from the favorite shows of his childhood. From there it developed into a full-on obsession, dedicated to preserving the entire physical spectrum of television history.
"After a couple years of collecting, it became clear to me," he says, "that it didn't much matter what TV shows James watched in the early 1970s but which shows were the most iconic. In that way, I had sort of a curator's perspective almost from the beginning."
In the early days, collecting such stuff was easy for anyone with access to a studio back lot. Many items were simply thrown out or given away when shows ceased production. When studios did keep things they often rented them out for small fees, and if you lost or broke them you paid a small replacement fee. So Comisar began renting stuff right and left and promptly losing it, acquiring one of Herman Munster's jackets that way.
These days almost everything has a price, although Comisar's reputation as a serious collector has led some people to give him their stuff.
If he simply sold it all, he could probably retire as a millionaire several times over. Just last month someone paid $480,000 for a faded dress Judy Garland wore in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz." What might Annette Funicello's original Mickey Mouse Club jacket fetch?
He won't even think about that.
"I've spent 25 years now reuniting these pieces, and I would be so sick if some day they were just broken up and sold to the highest bidder," he says.
He, and every other serious collector of cool but somewhat oddball stuff, face two major obstacles, say museum curators: Finding a museum or university with the space to take their treasures and persuading deep-pocketed individuals who might bankroll the endeavor that there's really any compelling reason to preserve something like Maxwell Smart's shoephone.
"People hold television and popular culture so close to their hearts and embrace it so passionately," says Dwight Bowers, curator of entertainment collections for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, who calls Comisar's collection very impressive. "But they don't put it on the same platform as military history or political history."
When the Smithsonian acquired Archie Bunker's chair from the seminal TV comedy "All in the Family," Bowers said, museum officials took plenty of flak from those offended that some sitcom prop was being placed down the hallway from the nation's presidential artifacts.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, took similar heat when it accepted the Grateful Dead archives, 30 years of recordings, videos, papers, posters and other memorabilia gifted by the band, said university archivist Nicholas Meriwether.
"What I always graciously say is that if you leave the art and the music aside for one moment, whatever you think of it, what you can say is they are still a huge part of understanding the story of the 1960s and of understanding the nation's counterculture," says Meriwether.
Comisar sees his television collection serving the same purpose, tracing societal changes TV shows documented from the post-World War II years to the present.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation looked into establishing such a museum some years back, and Comisar's collection came up at the time, said Karen Herman, curator of the foundation's Archive of American Television.
Instead, the foundation settled on an online archive containing more than 3,000 hours of filmed oral history interviews with more than 700 people.
While the archive doesn't have any of Mr. Spock's ears, anyone with a computer can view and listen to an oral history from Spock himself, the actor Leonard Nimoy.
Comisar, meanwhile, believes he's finally found the right site for a museum, in Phoenix, where he's been lining up supporters. He estimates it will cost $35 million and several years to open the doors, but hopes to have a preview center in place by next year.
Mo Stein, a prominent architect who heads the Phoenix Community Alliance and is working with him, says one of the next steps will be finding a proper space for the collection.
But, really, why all the fuss over a place to save one of the suits Regis Philbin wore on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"?
"In Shakespeare's time, his work was considered pretty low art," Comisar responds.
Oh, he'll admit that "Mike and Molly," the modern TV love story of a couple who fall for each other at Overeaters Anonymous, may never rank in the same category as "Romeo and Juliet."
"But what about a show like 'Star Trek'?" he asks.
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Research sheds new light on mechanisms of T-ALL, a form of leukemia that primarily affects children
Dec. 23, 2012 ? Acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children under the age of 14 years. With optimum treatment, approximately 75 percent of children are currently cured, but the treatment consists of severe chemotherapy with many side effects. In collaboration with international research teams, scientists at VIB, KU Leuven and UZ Leuven have identified new genetic mutations that lead to T-ALL, a variant of ALL. They have unmasked the ribosome -- the molecular machine in the cell that is involved in the production of proteins -- as a weak spot in leukemia cells.
Their research has also shown that there is a difference in T-ALL between adults and children. Both findings can be important in the search for improved treatments for T-ALL.
Jan Cools (VIB/KU Leuven): "We have discovered that there is a clear genetic difference between T-ALL in children and in adults. This could be an explanation why adults do not respond as well to the current therapy."
Stein Aerts (KU Leuven): "This is a beautiful example of the power of genome sequencing in cancer research. New technologies and large-scale bio-informatics allow us to study a lot of data simultaneously. This allows us to discover links that would have been impossible to find in the past."
T-cell acute lymphatic leukemia (T-ALL)
The formation of white blood cells is disrupted by leukemia. The cells in the bone marrow that should mature into white blood cells multiply unchecked without maturing completely. These immature blood cells compromise the production of normal blood cells. This makes patients more susceptible to infections. Leukemia occurs in different forms; in the case of T-ALL, there is an accumulation of immature white blood cells over a very short period of time. With optimum treatment -- involving chemotherapy -- approximately 75 % of children are currently cured. For adults, the chance of a cure is below 50 %. Chemotherapy is associated with many side effects. The search for a more specific treatment can only start once we know what causes T-ALL.
7 new genes with a key role in T-ALL identified
T-ALL only occurs if errors in various genes occur simultaneously. It is important to determine which genes play a key role. Kim De Keersmaecker, Zeynep Kalender Atak, Jan Cools and Stein Aerts have identified a series of defects in 15 important genes, of which 7 have not previously been associated with T-ALL. They used next-generation sequencing to analyze the 20,000+ genes of 67 T-ALL patients. This technique allows for very fast analysis and comparison of the complete DNA sequence of healthy and sick individuals.
A difference between adults and children
The investigators from Leuven also discovered a difference between T-ALL in children and in adults. T-ALL in adults contains significantly more mutations than in children. The leukemia cells in adults also contain mutations in other genes than in children. This genetic difference could be a possible explanation why adults do not respond as well to the current therapy.
A weak point in leukemia cells exposed
RPL5 and RPL10 -- two newly identified genes -- form part of the ribosome: this is the complex in the cell that produces proteins. The scientists hereby demonstrated for the first time that defects in the ribosome can also play a role in cancer activation. Experiments in yeast cells confirm that mutations in RPL10 cause a change in the ribosome.
Kim De Keersmaecker (VIB/KU Leuven): "This could be a weak point of the leukemia cells: all cells need properly functioning ribosomes to survive and to grow. These 'defective' ribosomes in the leukemia cells could be a new suitable target for the development of targeted therapies."
Patient information
As this study may raise many questions in patients, we would like to refer you to the e-mail address that the VIB has set up for this purpose. Anyone with questions about this research and other medical research can submit their questions on patients@vib.be. Please submit your question in Dutch or English only.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by VIB, via AlphaGalileo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Kim De Keersmaecker, Zeynep Kalender Atak, Ning Li, Carmen Vicente, Stephanie Patchett, Tiziana Girardi, Valentina Gianfelici, Ellen Geerdens, Emmanuelle Clappier, Micha?l Porcu, Idoya Lahortiga, Rossella Luc?, Jiekun Yan, Gert Hulselmans, Hilde Vranckx, Roel Vandepoel, Bram Sweron, Kris Jacobs, Nicole Mentens, Iwona Wlodarska, Barbara Cauwelier, Jacqueline Cloos, Jean Soulier, Anne Uyttebroeck, Claudia Bagni, Bassem A Hassan, Peter Vandenberghe, Arlen W Johnson, Stein Aerts, Jan Cools. Exome sequencing identifies mutation in CNOT3 and ribosomal genes RPL5 and RPL10 in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nature Genetics, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2508
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/t1aTr52MtSw/121223152437.htm
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Cultivating sustainable and ethical prosperity with basic income ...
by Anne B. Ryan
Paper originally presented to TASC (Think-tank for Action on Social Change) conference, Crisis to Opportunity, on Oct 19th, 2012 in Dublin. The paper was presented as part of a session entitled Equality fuelling recovery.
PDF version
Introduction
This paper examines the role of basic income in constructing a dynamic, diverse and democratic social economy. ?Basic income? or BI is shorthand for a regular, sufficient and unconditional income, administered by the state and issued to every member of society. BI replaces social welfare payments, child benefit and the state pension as we currently know them. It also extends to all those who currently receive no income from the state. Ideally, a BI would be sufficient for each person to have a frugal but decent lifestyle without supplementary income from paid work.i
Basic income is a measure that could be implemented during the current crisis in Ireland. It is a step that is possible within the tax and money regime that prevails at the moment, even in the EU-ECB-IMF troika programme. By itself, it will not achieve all that we need, but it has a crucial role to play in the transition to an economy and society based on the well being of all and the sharing of resources for the prosperity of all.
The paper begins by calling for ecological and economic literacy, so that the concept of basic income can be understood in a wider framework of knowledge about:
- managing the resources of the world (the commons) for the benefit of all members of society
- basic securities as a pre-requisite for sustainability and resilience
- work in its broadest sense, as any engagement with the world ? paid or unpaid ? designed to change something or to add value to society or economy
- the wealth inherent in sufficiency.
The paper then examines the immediate benefits of basic income and the longer-term possibilities for all kinds of work and workers. It also examines how basic income can support pioneers and seed projects that are already working towards a transformed economic and social regime characterised by greater equality, economic resilience and social solidarity.
The paper treats basic income as an essential and do-able step in such a transformation. As a stand-alone measure it would have beneficial effects. But it would have maximum effects if accompanied by democratic reform in tax and money systems.
Ecological and economic literacy
Real and achievable possibilities exist to create a future that is secure and fair for everyone. However, we cannot ask for what we do not know about. No genuine development or progress can take place without the understanding, participation and creativity of as many people as possible. The general public is motivated by issues such as quality of life and well being.ii But we largely lack a language in which to discuss and visualise a social economy that can support the diverse interests of all the people of Ireland and that can release talents and energies largely constrained in the present system.
Elements of economic and ecological literacy
There are things every adult should know if as many people as possible are to participate in public conversations about our goals and aspirations for Ireland, and understand the global situation. In a nutshell, we need a wider understanding of the ways modern hypercapitalism operates on a system of privilege, which allows the local and global accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few. At the same time, it reduces the ability of the majority to participate in and benefit from economic development. And it is completely dependent on ecosystems that it does not respect.
Developing economic and ecological literacy is not just about analysis of problems. It extends to facilitating equal opportunities for people to present new visions, while also articulating their fears and insecurities. In our deliberations about what we want from life we must construct useful knowledge on which we can act. If we don?t we will perish in outdated thinking and actions. The sections below outline some of the elements of useful knowledge for the future.
Understanding the double binds created by undifferentiated growth
We now face two classic double binds.iii First, we want to preserve our ecosystems and natural environment, but everything we do to grow our economies and preserve our material rates of consumption disrupts our relationships with the natural systems on which we depend.
Second, we also face a social double bind. We are in a situation of severe social inequality. The most widely proposed solution is to grow the economy in the same mode as we have done previously. However, the result of growing the economy in hypercapitalist mode is more inequality (the rich get richer). Growth is no guarantee of jobs, since many new enterprises are automated, with as few human workers as possible. Proceeds flow upwards to a small minority of shareholders and top executives.
A double-bind does not mean that there is no hope of resolution; but we have to seek answers from a different angle. We have to break out of the level of consciousness that keeps us stuck in a model that does not work.
Restore a sense of the richness of enough
The philosophy and practice of enough can be taken forward in ways appropriate to the 21st century. Wealth is inherent in sufficiency, and this knowledge can challenge the understandings of wealth implicit in the desire for constant expansion and undifferentiated growth. More never feels like it is adequate or sufficient for our needs ? indeed, more is always less ? if we don?t have a feel for the richness of enough.iv
Developing our capacity to reflect on and converse with others about the nature of wealth is part of the required cultural development towards economic and ecological literacy. For most people, genuine wealth resides in meaningful choices about how to arrange their lives, and this would be enhanced by the knowledge that they could live in a resilient social economy that is capable of coping with shocks.
We need a deep rethinking of morals and ethics about what constitutes the good life. If our goals and aspirations are well worked out, so too is it possible that associated investment costs will be accepted. Nobody wants to pay unfair taxes, devised in a piecemeal fashion, which stifle economic development and are also used to stop up a black hole of debt repayment. But if people see that public monies are raised and invested in ways that enhance the well being of the community at large (the commoners), they are likely to participate willingly in the taxation system.
In hypercapitalist boom times, equality came to mean equality of ability to consume on an equal footing with other high-consumption individuals and economies. That kind of consumption has been a cause of serious ecological degradation, resource depletion and global warming through the emission of greenhouse gases. Ecologically speaking, we need a certain amount of contraction in the production and consumption of material goods. We have recently seen reduction in carbon emissions largely because of recession, but this is not the kind of contraction that is required.
We need to create better quality of life, while at the same time consuming less in material terms. Importantly, however, this is not generalising about the common good, or saying that everyone has to live the same kind of lifestyle. It is, however, saying that at the broad parameters there have to be ecological and social limits. All growth must pay its full ecological and social costs.
Basic financial security is a right and a necessity for progress
The concept of security underpins the welfare state, but the system for welfare was designed to financially support those temporarily out of work from standard employment. It is not capable of providing basic financial security for all at this time.
People want growth because they see it as the only way to get jobs and other paid work. They want paid work because it is currently the only chance of financial security. But paid work is no guarantee of continued financial security. Increasing numbers of workers experience short contracts, very low wages, short hours of labour, unpredictable hours of labour, lack of representation by trades unions, and a limited range of rights and resources.
A great deal of work that comes on stream at this time is also personally or socially unsatisfactory and sometimes destructive, wasteful, or useless. Some paid work is morally unacceptable, ecologically harmful or personally alienating. Nobody should have to do such work in order to survive.
Currently, however, a large and growing group that includes many highly educated people ? self-employed, migrants, women, young people and knowledge workers ? have no or little choice about the kinds of paid work situations they enter. Paid work is the only way most people can access money.
Financial security should be a right of one?s membership of a society, not a right that comes only with employment. The thinking behind basic income wants to democratise security, in other words, to offer modest levels of protection to everybody, regardless of paid work.v Like other basic securities, such as food, energy, public transport, climate and water, sufficient income should remain stable in a democracy and should not be a matter of chance or subject to the arbitrary power of others. In addition, sustainability and resilience require that the basic securities be in place, so that members of society are not channelled into work that harms or destroys the environment or ecosystems, directly or indirectly. If the basics are in place, then people have genuine choices about taking on such work. And it is also possible to legislate to prevent work or enterprises that are ecologically or socially harmful.
Failure by the state to prevent chronic insecurity also breeds cynicism about the state and democratic processes. If large numbers of people are cast adrift, many will be open to exploitation by far-right politicians and neo-fascist groups. The presence of basic securities supports social tolerance; there is less fertile ground for divisions and hatred to grow. Security and tolerance also support creativity, innovation, cooperation and resourcefulness, which are greatly needed at this time. Such resources can help us move out of the constrained thinking and actions that that have caused the double binds.
Reverse the work-money link
Income needs to come before work, if we are to support social, ecological and personal innovation and creativity, and to release talents and energies that are constrained within the present system. This allows those who want to seek paid work, self-employed or employed, to have freedom in the types of work they do. It also allows those who do valuable unpaid or low-paid work, which may be of direct social benefit, to pursue their goals. Work is far more than paid work; it includes many ways of engaging with the world and adding value to society and economy, which are not attached to pay.
The commons and commoners: sharing for prosperity
The natural commons consists of the resources provided by nature such as air, water, oil, gas and the atmosphere with its capacity to absorb a certain amount of carbon and other greenhouse gasses. The human-created commons arises from public investment and community activities.
Everyone has rights to the commons, nobody is an owner.vi Everybody is entitled to benefit from the use of the commons, natural or constructed. Those who use the commons should pay rent, which should then be shared as a dividend to everybody in society. We need shared management of the commons that benefits all right-holders.
Talk about the commons is increasing in private finance and investment. But this talk assumes that it should be brought into the market sphere. In other words, private financial institutions are trying to corner the ownership of resources that everyone needs and charge the rest of us for using them.vii This has similarities to the concept of rent-seekingviii but for purposes of literacy, the concept of commons, commons-management and commoners (the 99%) is more useful and politically resonant. Whatever we call it, the capture of the commons in the interests of a few is not going to deliver equality and progress. On the other hand, managing the commons for the benefit of all citizens of the earth helps to resolve a myriad of other interrelated issues that threaten our well being and security.ix
Dividends (a share of the rent) from the commons would be best used as an income delivered to individuals, nationally and globally. This is clearly not going to happen any time soon, but it is worth holding onto the notion of dividend, because it is a rights-based way to view basic income.x The current language used to describe transfers administered by the state and passed on to individuals ? the language of welfare, allowances and assistance ? is not too far from the notion of ?handouts? and even from a view of welfare as charity for the ?deserving poor?.
Land values
The commons includes land and the value that accrues to land arising from investments made from the public purse. Everyone should get a share of this added value. One way to begin this process in Ireland is to introduce a site-value tax, followed by a complete land-value tax. This has numerous advantages, not least that it does not rely on growth, jobs and income, to provide tax revenue. Land is always there, not like income, which fluctuates. Land-value taxes also discourage the use of money for speculation and encourage investment in projects that create everyday services and goods, which exist in a virtuous circle with employment and wages. Bad tax laws were at the root of our crisis, and land-value taxes would stop the speculation-based boom happening again.xi
Good land-value taxes push land prices down, and with them, house prices. Lower house prices mean less personal stress for people trying to buy. Less stress means better personal health, less crime and better personal relationships. The consequences of these are usually paid for from the public purse and the saving involved should be taken into account.
Cap and Share
Carbon emissions (and in the future, other greenhouse gas emissions) can also be dealt with in a commons-management framework. Cap and Share or Cap and Dividend frameworks are based on sharing the rights to dump carbon in the atmosphere. Everyone gets a quota, and if you don?t use your quota, you can keep it out of use, or you can trade it on legitimate global markets, for money.xii
Taxing the right things
Commons management also has implications for other parts of the tax system. Our human labour contributes to the creation of financial wealth and it also contributes to creating thriving communities. It makes sense to reform the tax system so that we pay low tax on income earned from our labour, provided it is ecologically and socially sound. We should, however, all pay tax on the resources ? natural and community ? that we remove from the system as a whole.xiii The global financialised economic system currently is predicated on taxing the wrong things.
The money supply is part of the commons
Money is also a public resource and a social good; it is part of the commons and should be treated as such, but it has been privatised in favour of financial lending institutions. The system needs to be democratically managed in favour of everybody ? the commoners ? and put into balance with other aspects of economic and social life.xiv
A basic income is possible now
Various movements and activists are working nationally and internationally towards these cultural, political and economic changes. The more we can support these changes and raise public awareness of the concepts outlined, the more likely it is that governments will eventually engage in these new ways of thinking and acting. However, we are now, in Ireland, in a position to almost immediately introduce a universal, sufficient and unconditional basic income. If introduced now, a basic income would make huge practical differences to people?s lives. At the same time, it would help to increase understanding of the foundational concepts outlined in the first part of this paper.
Within the tax system that prevails now in Ireland, basic income would require the payment of a higher rate of income tax ? about 45% ? on any income over and above the basic income, which is always tax-free. That extra tax would be offset by the basic income received. In other words, only very high earners would experience a decrease in net income.xv The chief point is that any tax paid to finance basic income would be returned as basic income. But the change in the system would bring priceless freedom and dynamic benefits for everybody.
Basic financial security requires just a modest amount of adjustment to the current system, but gets money circulating in economy and society, without reliance on banks and without tying a basic standard of income to paid employment. Basic income also eliminates the benefits trap that many people welfare recipients can often experience if they are offered employment. With the benefits trap gone and basic security and money circulation in place, individual members of society can judge for themselves how best to organise their lives; they have scope for creativity and diversity in how they manage their different concerns, including paid and unpaid work, family, personal relationships, self-development, community and education.
Basic income is based on trust in the human capacity to judge what is good for oneself, one?s local community and for society at large. The thinking behind BI does not generalise about where the social interest or the common good lie, beyond agreed social goals and ecological limits. It is based on a logic of pluralism, multiplicity and diversity, and equality of esteem for all these differences.
At the same time, progressives would need to keep working for the important cultural changes outlined, as well as practical measures for commons management, the introduction of fair and efficient money and tax systems. These sources of revenue would need to be developed, in order to have ongoing funding for basic income.
Advantages of basic income to business and entrepreneurship
Running a business, especially a small one, would be a different kind of experience. Everybody involved would have basic financial security, so any income from the business would be a top-up to a basic income. People would be free to try out business ideas, and a business would be viable as long as it made some small profit. It might even be able to carry losses for a short time while the business got established. As long as the business was ecologically and socially sound, there would be every chance to try out entrepreneurial ideas. There would be no harm done if a business failed, because the people involved would have their basic income to fall back on. This would be a support to entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs and a boost to existing businesses. It would also support social entrepreneurs, who want to work for direct social benefit and are not motivated by profit. It would support collective ventures, cooperatives or partnership approaches to business.
Basic income is a necessary part of any coherent state strategy for cultivating private-sector business and entrepreneurship. It creates an ecosystem for pioneering projects and small businesses. In the future, the economy will be better served by a larger number of small enterprises, rather than reliance on large employers. In such a ?polyculture?, if one part of the system fails, the system at large can continue and is able to support the individuals involved in the failed part.
Alone, a basic income will not make entrepreneurs of all of us, and not everybody will want to be self-employed or start a businesses. Those who do not will be supported by their basic income to engage with the labour market in ways that involve genuine choices (see below). But for those wishing to start a venture, basic income creates a supporting scaffold on which creativity and inventiveness can flourish. It allows people the time required to develop new business skills and become entrepreneurial.xvi It uses the state to build conditions where innovation can happen and people can act on good business ideas.
Basic income would also allow for the enforced closing of businesses (of any size) that are socially or ecologically harmful, such as weapons producers or big polluters. If a business was threatened with such closure, owners and employees could work (together or separately) to devise an alternative plan for the company. At the same time, all involved have financial security.
Employees
Basic income facilitates a genuinely flexible relationship with the labour market for employees. It re-balances power between employers and employees, giving employees a genuine exit strategy from a job that is unsatisfactory. There will always be a financial incentive for people to take up paid work, but if the conditions of employment are poor, there is a choice about staying. Having an exit strategy in place in turn affects the conditions under which employees are willing to stay, and increases one?s power in negotiating with employers.
If employees choose to negotiate collectively with employers, then trades unions will have a role to play. Basic income has been described as a ?kind of unconditional and inexhaustible strike fund?, which frees trades unions from the responsibility of fighting for a living income.xvii It allows them to concentrate on improved pay and conditions of work.
For any worker in precarious employment, basic income provides a shock absorber during times of illness or when no paid work is available. There is no need to apply for social welfare, with its frequent payment delays. The basic income is always in place.
Basic income also makes low-paid work financially viable. Low-paid work of direct social benefit has a better chance to thrive. And people doing low-paid work that is dead-end, useless, harmful or morally unacceptable have a genuine exit option.
Basic income facilitates shorter-hours of paid work. It makes what is currently called ?part-time? employment financially viable and it eliminates the pension problems associated with it. This in turn would free up time for employees? other commitments, such as family, community, self-development, education, leisure and civic-political activities. Shorter hours of paid work also benefit the environment; people who work long hours are more likely to engage in high-resource consumption such as fast travel and fast food.
Many small businesses have already turned towards shorter-hours working, out of necessity. Employers and employees, talking about their situation and acting in solidarity with each other, have created knowledge about how to share available work and save jobs. The people who are now working a three-day week on the job are in many cases enjoying the opportunity to be more involved in their families and active in their communities. They are growing the core economy, on which so much of the rest of the economy depends.xviii Basic income could help people like this to look positively on a long-term future of shorter-hours paid work, even if it becomes possible to work longer hours again.
Ideally, in the future, shorter-hours working for pay would become the norm for everyone, so that everyone can has the opportunity to balance of paid and unpaid work. As it stands now, some people have too much paid work and some cannot get any. If more people in thriving businesses chose to work shorter hours on the job, this would create employment opportunities for others.xix It would not be wise to legislate to enforce shorter hours in paid work, but basic income would make this option more attractive, and is an opportunity to expand it as the cultural norm. There may come a time when society actively disapproves of those who choose to take on extra paid hours, thereby denying others a share of the paid work available.
In addition, a good balance between paid and unpaid work is a foundation for personal, household and local resilience. It allows people to do much more production for themselves, in their households and communities.
Support for pioneers
Some people are ready to make maximum use of the support of a basic income. Thousands of projects all over the country are already engaged in pioneering ways to live and work, based on principles of solidarity, sharing, cooperation, sufficiency and ethical prosperity. The range covers small businesses including farming and growing; community supported agriculture; social entrepreneurship; repair, reuse and recycling enterprises; transition towns; community gardens; an eco-village; local mutual-help and resilience groups; local currencies and exchange networks; and many kinds of activism. Many of those involved are financially very precarious and basic income would support their work.
BI would also help others to become involved in projects for a sustainable and resilient future. Many people who are not currently involved in pioneering projects would like to become more active, but are tangled in the constraints of long hours of paid work, on the one hand, or the conditionality of receiving welfare, on the other. Whether employed, self-employed or unemployed, their talents and energies would be freed up by basic income.
Pioneering seeds-of-change projects are instances of social and ecological citizen-leadership. The people involved are shaping the wider cultural landscape. Many of them are also trying to educate high-level decision-makers in the political and economic realm about the need to manage the commons for the benefit of all. Their efforts would be hugely scaled up by the introduction of basic income.
A jobs guarantee in the transition period
While many individuals are ready and waiting to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by basic income, others will take longer to see the possibilities it opens up. It would be useful to have in place measures that help to make a transition to the different mindset about work and money that underpins basic income.
For the transition period, or even for longer, the state could offer socially and environmentally valuable paid work to anyone who wants it.xx The income from it would be supplementary to basic income.
A Jobs Guarantee (JG) programme offers a socially or environmentally useful job, and the training and skill-development that go with it, to anyone who wants to do valuable or useful paid work but who cannot find such work in the private sector. A social-green jobs programme is separate from the existing ?public sector? jobs. It uses the energies and skills of the public, at a time when the private sector is unable to use those skills and energies, or to offer work that is of direct social benefit. The state offers to purchase any surplus labour that the private sector is not purchasing. In the process, workers are learning skills that may be useful to them with future employers or if they wish to become self-employed. So a JG functions as a training scheme, but it is not training for the sake of training. It is on-the-job training doing necessary and valuable work.
A social-green JG creates a reserve army of employed people, who are available to the private sector when it is able to use the labour again.xxi Importantly, however, with a basic income also in place, everyone has the freedom to be discerning about jobs that come on stream in both the public-jobs scheme and in the private sector. There is no requirement to take a job. There is no question of workfare because the basic income is sufficient, universal and unconditional.
In keeping with the desirability of normalising shorter job-hours, it would be preferable if no social-green job were more than 20 hours per week, or the monthly or annual equivalent. If employees got accustomed to a 20-hr week in a JG scheme, they might enjoy having more time to be producers in their own lives and the opportunity to be active citizens. They might, as a result, seek shorter-hours jobs in the private sector, when private-sector jobs become available, so that they could continue their other activities.
The political and economic regime
The thinking behind basic income sees a role for the state. But it shifts the function of the state away from that of provider, to that of manager of the commons on behalf of the commoners. Basic-income thinking is also characterised by an emphasis on upstream investments, away from the notion that the role of the state is to rescue people who get into trouble, or who cannot look after themselves from the outset.xxii Basic income is an investment in building our capacity to self-organise and meet many more of our own needs than we do at present. The state, representing the community at large, pre-distributes public goods and provides security at the broad parameters of economy and society. In turn, this facilitates a diversity of expressions of social and economic health and there is no generalisation about what the outcomes should be, or what the common good should look like.
Some groups and communities are doing a great deal for themselves and showing what is possible. They already possess human and other resources that allow them to localise and become self-reliant and resilient, and basic income can help to scale up the efforts they are making. Crucially, however, the responsibility of government is to make similar possibilities available to all communities, and basic income is one element of this. Localisation and local resilience are very important, and it is equally important that some communities do not get left behind.
Present policies do not encourage the mainstreaming of pioneering projects. They do not encourage a culture of sharing, sufficiency and solidarity a chance to emerge at the general level. Where such cultural expressions do emerge, policies do not support them; pioneers ? communities and individuals ? sooner or later come up against the structures of the state. We need an eventual reorganisation of the political and economic regime so that it supports rather than blocks, as it is currently doing.
Longer-term possibilities for a greater transformation of society and economy
The introduction of basic income does not require huge changes in the political and economic regime. Introduced in a stand-alone fashion, which is currently possible, it would have beneficial multiplier effects socially, culturally and economically. But for its full benefits to emerge, we need to change in parallel other aspects of the way we run our affairs. Most notably, we need to create democratic money and tax systems and manage the commons (starting with land-value taxes) for the benefit of commoners. The crucial point, however, is that even before those reforms begin, we have the means to put basic income in place now.
The political and economic regime where high-level decisions are made may eventually be transformed towards social and ecological leadership, by means of higher levels of participation from people at large who are creating a new cultural landscape. Pioneering projects will continue to emerge, with or without basic income, but basic income would support them greatly and increase their multiplier effects. Politicians may become better educated about economy and ecology, but ongoing grassroots work is crucial so that any legislation that emerges is legitimised by its grounding in civil society (national and global).xxiii
Basic income is not going to make all these things happen, but it can allow and support them. It is one essential piece ? a keystone ? in the transition to a positive future. We should not underestimate the challenges involved in having the idea of basic income accepted, however, despite the fact that we can afford to pay for it. At the very moment when social, ecological and economic conditions mean that we need to move to upstream investment and foundational basic-security actions such as commons-management and basic income, ?the ideas that shape our economy and politics are still pulling in the opposite direction?.xxiv The situation is not helped by a mainstream media machine that cannot or will not understand the creation of something new, but is fixated on the imitation of concepts and methods that have failed to deliver well being and equality.
It suits the minority who accumulate wealth and power within the present system if the majority remains ignorant. It is not difficult to understand the principles and concepts involved in progressive change, but the minority want to create and maintain an aura of mystery around the entire system. The times demand that we (the commoners) develop our economic and ecological literacy, to understand that fairness and well being for all are entirely possible, and to develop confidence in our demands for them. We also need to build influence for the kinds of democratic, egalitarian thinking associated with basic income and commons management for the benefit of commoners. Key actions include dialogue, learning, creating ideas together and refining them in partnership.
We do not act because we know. We know because we are called upon to act.xxv
Acknowledgements
This article and the presentation based on it were made possible by the work, ideas- sharing and actions of my fellow-members in Feasta , Basic Income Ireland, Cultivate Celbridge and colleagues at the Department of Adult and Community Education, NUI Maynooth. The views presented are my own, as are any errors.
Endnotes
i. Guy Standing (2011) Work after Globalization. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar.
Clive Lord, Miriam Kennet and Judith Fenton (eds) (2012) Citizens? Income and Green Economics. Didcot: The Green Economics Institute.
Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) www.basicincome.org
ii. Philip B Smith and Manfred Max-Neef (2011) Economics Unmasked Totnes: Green Books, page 176
iii. Gregory Bateson (2000, first published 1972) Steps Towards an Ecology of Mind. San Francisco: University of Chicago Press
iv. Anne B Ryan (2009) Enough is Plenty. Ropley: O Books
v. Guy Standing (2011) Work after Globalization. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
vi. Justin Kenrick (2012) ?The Climate and the Commons?, in Brian Davey (ed) Sharing For Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Dublin: Feasta, page 42
vii. Brian Davey (2012) ?What do we do about climate change??, in Brian Davey (ed) Sharing For Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Dublin: Feasta
viii. Ross Ashcroft and Mark Braund (2012) Four Horsemen: The Survival Manual: London: Motherlode. Chapter Four, ?Rent Seeking and Unearned Wealth?
ix. Justin Kenrick (2012) ?The Climate and the Commons?, in Brian Davey (ed) Sharing For Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Dublin: Feasta, page 27
x. The Social Credit Movement proposes a Citizens? Dividend, which is similar to basic income. See, for example, Frances Hutchinson (2010) Understanding the Financial System: Social Credit Re-discovered. Charlbury: Jon Carpenter.
xi. Emer ? Siochr? (2012) (ed) The Fair Tax. London: Shepheard-Walwyn
Prosper Australia (2012) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnznB2g_La0
xii. Brian Davey (2012) (ed) Sharing For Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Dublin: Feasta.
www.capandshare.org
xiii. James Robertson (2012) Future Money: Breakdown or Breakthrough? Totnes: Green Books
xiv. Mary Mellor (2010) The Future of Money: From Financial Crisis to Public Resource. London: Pluto
Ann Pettifor www.debtonation.org/
James Robertson (2012) Future Money: Breakdown or Breakthrough? Totnes: Green Books.
xv. Se?n Healy, Michelle Murphy, Se?nWard, and Brigid Reynolds (2012) ?Basic Income Why and How in Difficult Times: Financing a BI in Ireland?, paper presented to BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) Congress, Munich, Sept 14th. http://www.bien2012.de/sites/default/files/paper_253_en.pdf
xvi. Juliet Schor (2010) Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth. New York: Penguin: 146
xvii. Erik Olin Wright (2005): ?Basic Income as a Socialist Project?, in Rutgers Journal of Law and Urban Policy 2(1), pages201-2
xviii. Anna Coote, Jane Franklin and Andrew Simms (2010) 21 hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century. London: New Economics Foundation
xix. Juliet Schor (2010) Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth. New York: Penguin: 146
Anna Coote, Jane Franklin and Andrew Simms (2010) 21 hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century. London: New Economics Foundation
xx. The Smart Taxes Network (www.smarttaxes.org) has suggested that the following types of ?green? jobs would be valuable:
- Maintaining and enhancing eco-system services
- Invasive species eradication
- Green Road creation ? making rural roads pedestrian- and biodiversity- friendly
- Green infrastructure planning, development and maintenance
- Flood management works
- Peatland restoration for carbon sequestration and storage
- Habitat banking site development
- Transformation of depleted peatland for habitat and recreation
- Native wild and domesticated seed collection and saving
- Woodland planting and restoration
- Research such as baseline studies for AEOS monitoring
- Water monitoring and remediation measures
- Valuations of urban sites and rural land
- Sanctuaries for marine and land species under threat
- Resilience plans for rural villages and urban neighbourhoods
xxi. Matthew Forstater (2006) ?New Roles for Government: Green Jobs, Public Service Employment and Environmental Sustainability?, in Challenge: July/August.
xxii. Anna Coote (2012) ?After Beveridge: Towards a New Settlement ? radical change for the Common Good?, in Brigid Reynolds and Se?n Healy (eds) Does the European Social Model Have a Future?. Dublin: Social Justice Ireland.
xxiii. Justin Kenrick makes a similar point about commons management in ?The Climate and the Commons?, in Brian Davey (2012) (ed) Sharing For Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society. Dublin: Feasta, page 27
xxiv. Anna Coote (2012) ?After Beveridge: Towards a New Settlement ? radical change for the Common Good?, in Brigid Reynolds and Se?n Healy (eds) Does the European Social Model Have a Future?. Dublin: Social Justice Ireland, page 75
xxv. Johann Gottlieb Fichte, cited by James Robertson (2012) Future Money: Breakdown or Breakthrough? Totnes: Green Books
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