h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

when terrorists are suspected that seems to trump natural disasters
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/16/magnitude-78-earthquake-strikes-near-iran-pakistan-border/

"But it seems very clear that the BBC did think extremely carefully about it."

I would suggest the BBC didn't think that carefully if they were willing to risk the safety of students and diminish the reputation of academic institutions in the UK for a documentary that offered very little in the way of new insight into North Korea.

Given how tightly controlled the tour group were, is there any academic value to these trips at all? LSE students don't learn anything about the reality of N Korea, just the propaganda the state wants to give them.

they learn how the state controls the dissemination of information. Skills they will need when they are in power. Or something.

What Sho said: seeing just how the state indoctrinates their citizens. Seeing how some things just can't be covered up, like no patients in the hospitals or powercuts affecting the capital city. Having watched the documentary, I don't feel I learned anything I didn't already know, but seeing some of it directly was pretty powerful.

What I'd really be interested in would be watching extended interviews with North Korean escapees, or a documentary about how South Korea integrates the escapees into their society. I think that'd be fascinating. I can't recommend Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick highly enough for those who want an insight into North Korea.

our Korean colleagues are very reluctant to even mention the north. One of my previous MDs had a brother who was a fair bit older who was stuck in the north and occasionally if we'd been at the beer he would get a bit emotional about it.

it's fascinating to see how such states manage things. I studied the Soviet Union and East Germany for a fair while, and it was much easier to understand what we in the West heard about what was going on once I'd actually been there.

And the Dr Sheldon Cooper Award for the "ain't that the truth" Quote Of The Day goes to -





"And when someone can couch their pet theory in the language of mathematics, sometimes it can just about pass for physics proper."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22171039

That was literally the article I was reading before I came directly here to post it...grrr

In fact

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22171039

Footage of that explosion in Texas - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=465039266906352

Bloomin hell!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=465039266906352

in hell, there's a lesson in not recording large fires - and tbf, unless I knew it was a fertilizer plant (in which case I'd be running for the hills) I'd have assumed it was a reasonable distance

There's a google satellite image thing showing the factory...


across the street from a school.

Maybe not the right place for it?

Would've seemed like a reasonable distance to me too. As it is, it's far enough away that there was a noticable delay before the sound from the explosion reached them. That's pretty far.

800ft from the main silo to West Middle School.

My primary school was right next door to a fertiliser plant - closer than 800 ft. All I remember was the bloody stink.

My secondary school was about that far from a fireworks factory. Nobody thought anything of it until the factory fire that caused half the industrial estate to explode.

Foreign language lecturers working in Italian universities, including 33 from Britain, saw their pay packages cut in half last month after the application of discriminatory legislation that was denounced yesterday as a “race law”.

The salary cuts, which can go as high as 60 per cent, have so far been applied by the universities of Bergamo, Catania and Salerno and affect the remuneration of a total of 91 non-Italian language teachers.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3728438.ece
http://davidpetrie.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/the-times-italian-discriminatory-race-law-eu-citizens-wages-slashed-denied-access-to-judicial-decision/

Government to underwrite mortgages - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22214546

Now what could *possibly* go wrong with that idea?

>> Government to underwrite mortgages <<

... that should read taxpayers to underwrite housing bubble ... leading to less affordable housing. This George Osborne fellow (the Chancellor) looks like a twit from the rich.

From Wiki
Osborne is one of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. He is the heir apparent to the Osborne baronetcy ...

He was given a demyship (scholarship) to Magdalen College, University of Oxford where he received a 2:1 bachelor's degree in Modern History... [Modern history - yep very relevant to finance ... and at least 40% of students gain 2-1's or higher nowadays]

At Oxford he edited the university's Isis magazine and was a member of the Bullingdon Club.

After graduating 1992 ... part-time jobs including data entry clerk .... also briefly worked for ... Selfridges, mainly re-folding towels.

In 1993, Osborne originally intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for but failed to gain a place on The Times trainee scheme ... did freelance work on the Peterborough diary column of The Daily Telegraph ...

Some time later, an Oxford friend of his, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office ... boom boom. Performing various jobs including speechwriting for William Hague.

He eventually got a safe seat and entered Parliament aged 29/30. ... boom boom