Browsed by
Category: Copy

Means testing and taxes

Means testing and taxes

Comments 0 Comment

Sometimes the thing that seems obvious, is just not worth the effort. Means testing is often the case for this. Consider: Medicaid and Medicare in the USA cost the same as the whole of the UK’s healthcare system, even though they only cover select groups*. Similarly, free college is not worth means-testing. This is only a short article because I wanted to draw your attention to this interesting piece by Christopher Keelty: On free college for billionaires. Source of claims…

Read More Read More

Equal rights, and the future we lost

Equal rights, and the future we lost

Comments 1 Comment

In 1843, Ada Lovelace wrote a book. Ostensibly it was a translation of some notes of a lecture by Charles Babbage. The Italian author, whose notes needed to be translated, were focused on the mathematical capabilities of Babbage’s machine. Lovelace – and only Lovelace – grasped the power of Babbage’s machine to change society [1]; to introduce an Information Age. The world in which we now live – in the first half of the twenty first century – was imagined…

Read More Read More

Schooling in the UK versus the USA

Schooling in the UK versus the USA

Comments 1 Comment

Despite both being English-speaking, western countries, there are several differences between the UK and the USA. One of them is how schools are organized. It is surprising that two countries that should be so similar, could diverge so thoroughly. To celebrate the United States’ 244th independence day, let’s review some of the differences. One of the most obvious differences is how years [US English: grades] are numbered. Year/grade numbering: Child age* UK post-1990 Year number UK pre-1990 Year number UK…

Read More Read More

Trying Impossible Burger

Trying Impossible Burger

Comments 0 Comment

This post is not sponsored by Impossible but I’m always open to being contacted. Impossible burger has not been available to my wife and I in local supermarkets and as fans of our one-and-only planet Earth, my wife and I are always keen to reduce our meat intake, especially of beef. Well, Impossible recently started to sell directly (note: not a referral link). We ordered four 12oz ground [UK English: minced] ‘beef’ packages. They were delivered in environmentally conscious packaging,…

Read More Read More

Covid-19 – some perspective

Covid-19 – some perspective

Comments 0 Comment

It’s been a weird old time recently. I expect we will look back on this time with vague memories of how it felt. Some, like me, will remember being given back my commute time and being more efficient despite a tiny bit of network-slowness. Some have experienced the ‘Covid-19 experience’ popularized by the media: hundreds of exhausting Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings Zoom-bombing having their children climb over their shoulder during a meeting, and feeling stir-crazy. Others,…

Read More Read More

Two weeks ago, on a plane

Two weeks ago, on a plane

Comments 0 Comment

I thought about COVID-19 while I was flying to California a little while ago. This is what I wrote. Please forgive the stream-of-consciousness, but when I re-read it, I thought it was suitable to share. The world is under-going an event which will long be remembered. I don’t think, ultimately, it will be remembered as a health crisis – the number of lives lost might not turn out to be significant in the long-term – but it could have long-term…

Read More Read More

Buying back shares

Buying back shares

Comments 0 Comment

As US airlines are accused of buying back shares, I thought it might be helpful to explain what buying back shares really means, and why you might want to sell and buy shares at all, if you’re a company. The airlines are being criticized because they might become short of cash now, as people stop flying and as the economy overall is likely to slow significantly. [That’s right, this is the third COVID-19 post in a row because, let’s be…

Read More Read More

Risk Management and Pandemics

Risk Management and Pandemics

Comments 0 Comment

In my previous role as a Risk Manager at Just Group plc we developed plans to deal with pandemics and similar crises in workshops that brought together all the key decision makers involved in providing on-going service to customers and shareholders etc. Some of the things we considered were the closure of schools, the staff fearing going to work, and other things that are manifesting now. While no sane person can derive any positive emotions from the impacts we are experiencing now, from premature…

Read More Read More

Washing hands – why and how

Washing hands – why and how

Comments 0 Comment

This article discusses subjects that are scientific in nature. Therefore, a list of references is included at the end. When I say something that needs supporting through a reference, the name of the source and the year of the information is in braces ( and ). Most of us were told to wash our hands, as children, before we started to eat dinner, after we came in from playing outside, and after going to the bathroom. Similarly, many of us…

Read More Read More

Who shot first

Who shot first

Comments 0 Comment

I’ve not written about Star Wars publicly before, but I had a thought this morning, and felt it needed to be shared even though, I am sure, other people have noticed and thought the same thing. Note: Spoilers below this point.