Been a while... and there's not going to be much here this time either, but here's a little video that a friend sent me:
For the non-Swedish speakers – just listen to the mood music and get into it.
(Not the most flattering picture, but hey, if you're the star you can get away with it!)
And then...
it can be amusing to know...
that...
... it's an ad for the tv-licence in Sweden. They have this system where you have to pay an annual fee if you have a tv which is used towards public service tv. And this film is saying "tack" (thank you) to everyone who has paid. The amusing thing, for me at least, is that I don't have a tv, so don't pay, but still get a little film saying thanks. And just last night a guy from the TV licensing commission came round and asked me if I have a tv, simple answer: "No". Although with a laptop and broadband these days, who needs one!
Thursday 19 November 2009
Monday 9 November 2009
Saturday 19 September 2009
Taxes in Sweden... lol!
And here we go again... another journalist/newspaper wants to discuss taxes in Sweden in a ridiculously narrow and incomplete picture: here's the link.
Why discuss the top marginal tax rate in isolation? You should have added in the 25% VAT on many consumer items... makes it look even worse - great ammunition for all the free market capitalists, and their children ;)
But certainly do not mention that this affects 3% of the population who earn more than 44 900 kr/month (538 800 kr/year), which is:
Why discuss the top marginal tax rate in isolation? You should have added in the 25% VAT on many consumer items... makes it look even worse - great ammunition for all the free market capitalists, and their children ;)
But certainly do not mention that this affects 3% of the population who earn more than 44 900 kr/month (538 800 kr/year), which is:
- almost double GDP per capita (271 574 kr/year);
- more than double the average income in Sweden, even when excluding those under 20, over 64, and only including those that actually have an income (266 494 kr/year);
- more than double the median income in Sweden, 20-64 years old (241 911 kr/year);
- and almost more than double the median income for men, 20-64 years old - because we all know it's men's incomes that are important?! (306 520 kr/year).
The other thing obviously omitted is any reference to what you receive for your taxes in Sweden, which often cost in many other countries - either through up-front payments, private insurance, or levies (cute political name for "another tax when we promise no new taxes"). I could start the list by mentioning:
- free primary, secondary and tertiary education;
- subsidies whilst studying;
- free healthcare;
- pension;
- unemployment benefits;
- parental leave;
... the list goes on I'm sure - these are tax funded privileges that people in many other countries can only dream about. Or, if you're American, you might even fight to prevent - can't even begin to imagine why people are fighting for the rights of insurance companies to make millions (or is it billions?) of profit on sick people... but that's another story.
So, thanks DN for Saturday morning reading with an amazingly biased editorial in your finance section - it got me up on my soap box again, which hasn't happened for a while in this forum - nice to know I still care!
Must be time for a coffee and "Vetenskapsfilosofi" av Bengt Molander... Happy Saturday to you all!
Wednesday 16 September 2009
Reflections 090902
Has teaching changed with IT?
Internet is decentralised... traditional teaching is centralised (around the teacher)... Education/teaching has been transfered into IT... why no change? Should there be?
Meta data - how to make easier to classify? software to scan and suggest?
Wednesday 17 June 2009
from Bansky
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. | |||
- Emo Philips | |||
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Tuesday 19 May 2009
Sunday 19 April 2009
Cyberculture and Education
Finally getting back to doing some work for the course I am taking from unimelb - enjoying actually discussion what all this IT in our world and schools is actually doing, rather than just blindly using it. There's been some interesting reading and viewing, so I thought I'd share:
and:
Monday 13 April 2009
Saturday 14 March 2009
Got me thinking...
So I decided to watch something from TED instead of STC whilst gobbling down some pasta pesto - lazy dinner I know, but hey...
And after listening to how all the plastic in the ocean is ruining the world I found this little gem. Makes me start thinking about how we might be able to change IT tools we use in the school to be designed from the perspective of the learner, not from the perspective of the computer and keyboard... tablets are a start, but surely there's more - Siftables for example:
Friday 20 February 2009
Kenya
Been ages, been busy... and now I'm in Kenya.
Check out the blog if you're interested:
http://vrgeamun2009.wordpress.com/
warm,
rich.
Check out the blog if you're interested:
http://vrgeamun2009.wordpress.com/
warm,
rich.
Sunday 4 January 2009
Happy Reading
Here's a piece that does express some of my hopes for 2009. Hope everyone is well.
rich.
Thanks for the article Tori!
Happy New Year: Why money is not enough
Alain de Botton
(taken from Monacle, issue 19, volume 02. pg... 049)
I believe 2009 will be the year when the question of how society should be arranged will cease to be an idle, abstract topic, dwelt upon by ivory-tower intellectuals after a few glasses of wine, and will instead enter the workaday mainstream with a vengeance. Everyone will become a political philosopher; and all of a sudden, some of the great issues facing our world will be up for grabs. It will be a frightening, exhilarating time. Expect to see record numbers of people reading political blogs, attending classes in political theory and turning once again to Karl Marx, Adam Smith and John Ruskin.
All this because of a consensus about the virtues of individualism, liberalism and consumer capitalism is splintering beneath us. At the heart of the debate lie questions about fulfillment. We'll be asking whether the modern economy has been attending to our needs.We'll be asking, to paraphrase that thundering 19th-century prophet Thomas Carlyle, "This successful industry of ours, with its plethoric wealth, which of us has it enriched? We have sumptuous garnitures for our life, but we have forgotten to live in the middle of them. Are people better, stronger, braver? Are they even what they call 'happier'? Do they look with satisfaction on more things and human faces in this God's Earth? No, for we have profoundly forgotten everywhere that cash-payment is not the sole relation of human beings."
Environmental arguments against consumer capitalism will fuse with a horror at the vulnerability of capital markets. There will be a new climate of scepticism about the market system - one which will defy old labels of left and right. Expect to see ex-bankers finding unexpected points of agreement with environmental activists, poets and fashion designers. Ultimately, the question will be: are our economies delivering on their promises? It'll again be pointed out that our outer success is masking deep-seated inner disturbances. Western society has always been an uneasy amalgamation of the values of the old Roman Empire - success, wealth and individual glory - and the values of the Judeo-Christian world, with its emphasis on charity, serenity and love. After 20 years of success, the values of the Roman lion will go into abeyance and the more compassionate lamb will take centre stage again.
Theis will have consequences. Greed and superficiality will be out. Television executives will have to raise their game and stop giving us bread and circuses when we need facts and consolation. During a deep recession in the construction sector, we'll ask whether buildings should ever have been in the business of making money. Wise minds will stress that the quality of our houses, streets and cities is ultimately part of the mental health industry - and should not be seen as commodities without public responsibility.
The sensitive and educated readers of Monocle will know not to give up al interest in the aesthetic side of life, but nevertheless be smart enough to raise questions about enterprises that use beauty as a superficial lure, rather than as a way to herald inner transformation.
Over all, we'll become a lot richer, but not in a way we had planned. Here's where John Ruskin comes in. He was interested in wealth - obsessed by it even. However, it was wealth of an unusual kind that this great art critic had in mind, for he emphasised repeatedly that he wished to grow wealthy in kindness, curiosity, sensitivity, humility and intelligence - set of virtues he referred to as "life".
In his great text, Unto This Last, he entreated us to set aside our monetary conceptions of wealth in order to take up "life"-based view, in which the wealthiest people would not be the bankers and the ladnowners, but those who most keenly felt wonder beneath the stars at night or were best able to interpret and alleviate the sufferings of others. After the greatest stock market crash in living memory, there will be no end to questions about what being wealthy really means.
rich.
Thanks for the article Tori!
Happy New Year: Why money is not enough
Alain de Botton
(taken from Monacle, issue 19, volume 02. pg... 049)
I believe 2009 will be the year when the question of how society should be arranged will cease to be an idle, abstract topic, dwelt upon by ivory-tower intellectuals after a few glasses of wine, and will instead enter the workaday mainstream with a vengeance. Everyone will become a political philosopher; and all of a sudden, some of the great issues facing our world will be up for grabs. It will be a frightening, exhilarating time. Expect to see record numbers of people reading political blogs, attending classes in political theory and turning once again to Karl Marx, Adam Smith and John Ruskin.
All this because of a consensus about the virtues of individualism, liberalism and consumer capitalism is splintering beneath us. At the heart of the debate lie questions about fulfillment. We'll be asking whether the modern economy has been attending to our needs.We'll be asking, to paraphrase that thundering 19th-century prophet Thomas Carlyle, "This successful industry of ours, with its plethoric wealth, which of us has it enriched? We have sumptuous garnitures for our life, but we have forgotten to live in the middle of them. Are people better, stronger, braver? Are they even what they call 'happier'? Do they look with satisfaction on more things and human faces in this God's Earth? No, for we have profoundly forgotten everywhere that cash-payment is not the sole relation of human beings."
Environmental arguments against consumer capitalism will fuse with a horror at the vulnerability of capital markets. There will be a new climate of scepticism about the market system - one which will defy old labels of left and right. Expect to see ex-bankers finding unexpected points of agreement with environmental activists, poets and fashion designers. Ultimately, the question will be: are our economies delivering on their promises? It'll again be pointed out that our outer success is masking deep-seated inner disturbances. Western society has always been an uneasy amalgamation of the values of the old Roman Empire - success, wealth and individual glory - and the values of the Judeo-Christian world, with its emphasis on charity, serenity and love. After 20 years of success, the values of the Roman lion will go into abeyance and the more compassionate lamb will take centre stage again.
Theis will have consequences. Greed and superficiality will be out. Television executives will have to raise their game and stop giving us bread and circuses when we need facts and consolation. During a deep recession in the construction sector, we'll ask whether buildings should ever have been in the business of making money. Wise minds will stress that the quality of our houses, streets and cities is ultimately part of the mental health industry - and should not be seen as commodities without public responsibility.
The sensitive and educated readers of Monocle will know not to give up al interest in the aesthetic side of life, but nevertheless be smart enough to raise questions about enterprises that use beauty as a superficial lure, rather than as a way to herald inner transformation.
Over all, we'll become a lot richer, but not in a way we had planned. Here's where John Ruskin comes in. He was interested in wealth - obsessed by it even. However, it was wealth of an unusual kind that this great art critic had in mind, for he emphasised repeatedly that he wished to grow wealthy in kindness, curiosity, sensitivity, humility and intelligence - set of virtues he referred to as "life".
In his great text, Unto This Last, he entreated us to set aside our monetary conceptions of wealth in order to take up "life"-based view, in which the wealthiest people would not be the bankers and the ladnowners, but those who most keenly felt wonder beneath the stars at night or were best able to interpret and alleviate the sufferings of others. After the greatest stock market crash in living memory, there will be no end to questions about what being wealthy really means.
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