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Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/tamar-valley-southe-devoncottages

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Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley - http://distributedresearch.net/blog...

Tuesday

from Andy Roberts DARnet

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February 23 2011, 12:42am | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/tamar-valley-southe-devoncottages

Looking for South Devon cottages in the Tamar Valley area.

This article titled “Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley” was written by Virginia Spiers, for The Guardian on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 00.44 UTC The tidal Tamar flows in a tight meander near Hooe beneath the steep woods and coverts of Pentillie and around the expansive mud bank off Clifton. From the narrow peninsula within this river loop are short views across to more familiar territory on the Cornish side – to Halton Quay with its lime kilns covered in ivy and the chapel which was once an office and store for the Co-op’s coal depot. Mount Ararat and the mausoleum built for Jimmy Tillie, who died in 1713, loom above Hornifast Marsh opposite and dominate the overgrown pittosporums and abandoned market gardens of Brentswood. The bewigged statue of that landowner, sitting in his Jacobean-style chair, gazes uninterrupted across this remote part of the valley. Ewes which have been recently turned out of the sheds with their lambs, numbered in red and blue like their mothers, baa and bleat in well-drained pastures, while the call of curlew marks the riverside habitat. Mud banks gleam like silver beneath the brightening sky as the tide creeps towards saltings of purslane broken by a slipway and cut to the main channel. Seaweed and reed stems litter the slaty shore. Low ground, protected from high tides by an embankment, is rushy, waterlogged and puddled with rainwater and runoff. Spar or quartz stones incorporated into the stoned-up banks of the drier fields hint of the mineral lodes beneath this ridge that extend deep beneath the river. When these were worked in medieval times and later, in the 19th century, the winding river would have been thronged with boats carrying ores, smelted silver and lead, and all the necessary supplies for mines and miners. Now, just a few geese glide by on the flooding tide past orange mooring buoys, vacant until summer.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

All in all sounds like a perfect location to explore on foot or by car and of course using the river Tamar itself. The next step is to see if there are any cheap South Devon cottages for rent with broadband wifi.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogCountry diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

Related posts:Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk Ferry between Ilfracombe and Swansea, Minehead and Penarth by 2008 Brunel’s Bridge

February 23 2011, 12:42am | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/tamar-valley-southe-devoncottages

Looking for South Devon cottages in the Tamar Valley area.

This article titled “Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley” was written by Virginia Spiers, for The Guardian on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 00.44 UTC The tidal Tamar flows in a tight meander near Hooe beneath the steep woods and coverts of Pentillie and around the expansive mud bank off Clifton. From the narrow peninsula within this river loop are short views across to more familiar territory on the Cornish side – to Halton Quay with its lime kilns covered in ivy and the chapel which was once an office and store for the Co-op’s coal depot. Mount Ararat and the mausoleum built for Jimmy Tillie, who died in 1713, loom above Hornifast Marsh opposite and dominate the overgrown pittosporums and abandoned market gardens of Brentswood. The bewigged statue of that landowner, sitting in his Jacobean-style chair, gazes uninterrupted across this remote part of the valley. Ewes which have been recently turned out of the sheds with their lambs, numbered in red and blue like their mothers, baa and bleat in well-drained pastures, while the call of curlew marks the riverside habitat. Mud banks gleam like silver beneath the brightening sky as the tide creeps towards saltings of purslane broken by a slipway and cut to the main channel. Seaweed and reed stems litter the slaty shore. Low ground, protected from high tides by an embankment, is rushy, waterlogged and puddled with rainwater and runoff. Spar or quartz stones incorporated into the stoned-up banks of the drier fields hint of the mineral lodes beneath this ridge that extend deep beneath the river. When these were worked in medieval times and later, in the 19th century, the winding river would have been thronged with boats carrying ores, smelted silver and lead, and all the necessary supplies for mines and miners. Now, just a few geese glide by on the flooding tide past orange mooring buoys, vacant until summer.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

All in all sounds like a perfect location to explore on foot or by car and of course using the river Tamar itself. The next step is to see if there are any cheap South Devon cottages for rent with broadband wifi.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogCountry diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

Related posts:Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk Ferry between Ilfracombe and Swansea, Minehead and Penarth by 2008 Brunel’s Bridge

February 23 2011, 12:42am | Comments »

I posted to friendfeed.com

Blair and Gaddafi

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/blair-and-gaddafi

London talk

Blair and Gaddafi - http://distributedresearch.net/blog...

Tuesday

from Andy Roberts DARnet

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February 22 2011, 6:14pm | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Blair and Gaddafi

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/blair-and-gaddafi

Blair and Gaddafi

Originally uploaded by TabascoKid

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi meet in the desert outside the Colonel’s mobile headquarters near Sirte, Libya.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogBlair and Gaddafi

Related posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour Party Chavez in London How will Libya’s protests play out?

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February 22 2011, 6:14pm | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Blair and Gaddafi

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/23/blair-and-gaddafi

Blair and Gaddafi

Originally uploaded by TabascoKid

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi meet in the desert outside the Colonel’s mobile headquarters near Sirte, Libya.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogBlair and Gaddafi

Related posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour Party Chavez in London How will Libya’s protests play out?

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February 22 2011, 6:14pm | Comments »

I posted to friendfeed.com

Those Wisconsin unions

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/22/those-wisconsin-unions

London talk

Those Wisconsin unions - http://distributedresearch.net/blog...

Tuesday

from Andy Roberts DARnet

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February 22 2011, 10:25am | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Those Wisconsin unions

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/22/those-wisconsin-unions

Wisconsin Unions battle against the state by occupying the Capitol building in Wisconsin. Links via Mark Dilley: Will labor strife in Wisconsin cascade across the country?

act.credoaction.com/campaign/we_support_wisconsin koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/18/koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions/ 70,000 protest in Madison, Wisconsin Mass protests and strikes in Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Pakistan supports wisconsin Egypt supports wisconsin

This article titled “Those Wisconsin unions” was written by Michael Tomasky, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 21st February 2011 13.29 UTC Today is a holiday here in the states, Presidents’ Day, so I’m basically taking the day off and reading the diaries of the underappreciated Franklin Pierce. But I thought that I should check in quickly on the continuing Wisconsin situation. If you saw Krugman today, you saw the liberal case laid out: In this situation, it makes sense to call for shared sacrifice, including monetary concessions from state workers. And union leaders have signaled that they are, in fact, willing to make such concessions. But Mr. Walker isn’t interested in making a deal. Partly that’s because he doesn’t want to share the sacrifice: even as he proclaims that Wisconsin faces a terrible fiscal crisis, he has been pushing through tax cuts that make the deficit worse. Mainly, however, he has made it clear that rather than bargaining with workers, he wants to end workers’ ability to bargain. The bill that has inspired the demonstrations would strip away collective bargaining rights for many of the state’s workers, in effect busting public-employee unions. Tellingly, some workers — namely, those who tend to be Republican-leaning — are exempted from the ban; it’s as if Mr. Walker were flaunting the political nature of his actions. Why bust the unions? As I said, it has nothing to do with helping Wisconsin deal with its current fiscal crisis. Nor is it likely to help the state’s budget prospects even in the long run: contrary to what you may have heard, public-sector workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are paid somewhat less than private-sector workers with comparable qualifications, so there’s not much room for further pay squeezes. So it’s not about the budget; it’s about the power.

I always find it a little frustrating when someone writes a column like that and doesn’t include any numbers so the reader can varify, so I went looking for some. According to the economist Menzie David Chinn at the University of Wisconsin, yes, state and local employees in the state are somewhat undercompensated compared to their private-sector counterparts. First of all, here’s a chart, which reflects national averages not Wisconsin ones but is interesting anyway, comparing public- and private-sector workers’ wages (I assume whoever made this chart means wages specifically, which refers to money compensation only and not benefits). It shows that at every level of education except “less than high school,” private-sector employees out-earn public-sector ones. The difference gets more stark as you go up the education ladder, as you might expect. However, the “all” category on this chart shows that the sectors are almost exactly even on wages, which is explained I suppose by the large number of less-than-high-school educated people who are in public-sector unions. Another chart compares total compensation, including benefits, and the story is basically the same. Now to Wisconsin itself. Chinn does a regression analysis finding, he says, that public-sector workers are less-well compensated than private counterparts to the tune of 4.8%. Presumably, given the above, the workers with college degrees are in the 8 or even 10% range, higher in some cases. That’s not chopped liver. So they make less money. But the benefits issue is the public-sector unions’ Achilles heel. Politifact, which I trusted when it exposed Sarah Palin’s absurd lies (aha! So I worked in a mention) so I might as well also trust today, looked into Governor Scott Walker’s claim that “most state employees could pay twice as much toward their health care premiums and it would still be half the national average.” It found the claim to be true. You can read all the facts in the preceding link, but basically, private-sector employees pay 25-30% of the cost of their healthcare premiums in the US, and Wisconsin public employees generally pay just 6%. The understanding has long been that public-sector employees make less, so they should have better benefits. There’s some logic to that. But it seems that the wage differential against them isn’t as great as the benefits differential working for them. Krugman alludes to Wisconsin union leaders saying they were willing to make concessions. I know not what of he speaks, but it makes political and moral sense to me for the state’s union leaders to say okay, our people will contribute more to their healthcare packages and put a non-fake number on the table. That would give them the place of prominence on the moral high ground. And it would expose Walker’s one-sidedness for what it is. If he were trying to bargain an outcome in good faith, that would be one thing. But he’s not. He’s decreasing the state’s take from corporations by nearly 30% and not asking sacrifice of anyone at the top of the pyramid while bullying the people who mop the floors in the university’s buildings. Put me down on the side of the floor moppers. If public-sector unions are busted in the US, combined with the Citizens United decision, corporate influence on our politics would double, triple, who knows. But I have to say that I can see why a ,000-a-year private-sector worker with two kids who’s paying 30% toward their healthcare coverage would be a upset at the deal the public-sector workers have. Democrats and liberals should fix this imbalance before those on the right “fix it” for them.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogThose Wisconsin unions

Related posts:UK Uncut protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance Acas booklet on flexible working Can Countries go Bankrupt?

February 22 2011, 10:25am | Comments »

I posted to distributedresearch.net

Those Wisconsin unions

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/22/those-wisconsin-unions

Wisconsin Unions battle against the state by occupying the Capitol building in Wisconsin. Links via Mark Dilley: Will labor strife in Wisconsin cascade across the country?

act.credoaction.com/campaign/we_support_wisconsin koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/18/koch-brothers-behind-wisconsin-effort-to-kill-public-unions/ 70,000 protest in Madison, Wisconsin Mass protests and strikes in Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Pakistan supports wisconsin Egypt supports wisconsin

This article titled “Those Wisconsin unions” was written by Michael Tomasky, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 21st February 2011 13.29 UTC Today is a holiday here in the states, Presidents’ Day, so I’m basically taking the day off and reading the diaries of the underappreciated Franklin Pierce. But I thought that I should check in quickly on the continuing Wisconsin situation. If you saw Krugman today, you saw the liberal case laid out: In this situation, it makes sense to call for shared sacrifice, including monetary concessions from state workers. And union leaders have signaled that they are, in fact, willing to make such concessions. But Mr. Walker isn’t interested in making a deal. Partly that’s because he doesn’t want to share the sacrifice: even as he proclaims that Wisconsin faces a terrible fiscal crisis, he has been pushing through tax cuts that make the deficit worse. Mainly, however, he has made it clear that rather than bargaining with workers, he wants to end workers’ ability to bargain. The bill that has inspired the demonstrations would strip away collective bargaining rights for many of the state’s workers, in effect busting public-employee unions. Tellingly, some workers — namely, those who tend to be Republican-leaning — are exempted from the ban; it’s as if Mr. Walker were flaunting the political nature of his actions. Why bust the unions? As I said, it has nothing to do with helping Wisconsin deal with its current fiscal crisis. Nor is it likely to help the state’s budget prospects even in the long run: contrary to what you may have heard, public-sector workers in Wisconsin and elsewhere are paid somewhat less than private-sector workers with comparable qualifications, so there’s not much room for further pay squeezes. So it’s not about the budget; it’s about the power.

I always find it a little frustrating when someone writes a column like that and doesn’t include any numbers so the reader can varify, so I went looking for some. According to the economist Menzie David Chinn at the University of Wisconsin, yes, state and local employees in the state are somewhat undercompensated compared to their private-sector counterparts. First of all, here’s a chart, which reflects national averages not Wisconsin ones but is interesting anyway, comparing public- and private-sector workers’ wages (I assume whoever made this chart means wages specifically, which refers to money compensation only and not benefits). It shows that at every level of education except “less than high school,” private-sector employees out-earn public-sector ones. The difference gets more stark as you go up the education ladder, as you might expect. However, the “all” category on this chart shows that the sectors are almost exactly even on wages, which is explained I suppose by the large number of less-than-high-school educated people who are in public-sector unions. Another chart compares total compensation, including benefits, and the story is basically the same. Now to Wisconsin itself. Chinn does a regression analysis finding, he says, that public-sector workers are less-well compensated than private counterparts to the tune of 4.8%. Presumably, given the above, the workers with college degrees are in the 8 or even 10% range, higher in some cases. That’s not chopped liver. So they make less money. But the benefits issue is the public-sector unions’ Achilles heel. Politifact, which I trusted when it exposed Sarah Palin’s absurd lies (aha! So I worked in a mention) so I might as well also trust today, looked into Governor Scott Walker’s claim that “most state employees could pay twice as much toward their health care premiums and it would still be half the national average.” It found the claim to be true. You can read all the facts in the preceding link, but basically, private-sector employees pay 25-30% of the cost of their healthcare premiums in the US, and Wisconsin public employees generally pay just 6%. The understanding has long been that public-sector employees make less, so they should have better benefits. There’s some logic to that. But it seems that the wage differential against them isn’t as great as the benefits differential working for them. Krugman alludes to Wisconsin union leaders saying they were willing to make concessions. I know not what of he speaks, but it makes political and moral sense to me for the state’s union leaders to say okay, our people will contribute more to their healthcare packages and put a non-fake number on the table. That would give them the place of prominence on the moral high ground. And it would expose Walker’s one-sidedness for what it is. If he were trying to bargain an outcome in good faith, that would be one thing. But he’s not. He’s decreasing the state’s take from corporations by nearly 30% and not asking sacrifice of anyone at the top of the pyramid while bullying the people who mop the floors in the university’s buildings. Put me down on the side of the floor moppers. If public-sector unions are busted in the US, combined with the Citizens United decision, corporate influence on our politics would double, triple, who knows. But I have to say that I can see why a ,000-a-year private-sector worker with two kids who’s paying 30% toward their healthcare coverage would be a upset at the deal the public-sector workers have. Democrats and liberals should fix this imbalance before those on the right “fix it” for them.

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogThose Wisconsin unions

Related posts:UK Uncut protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance Acas booklet on flexible working Can Countries go Bankrupt?

February 22 2011, 10:25am | Comments »

London Breaks

Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

Country diary: Bere Alston, Tamar Valley

Blair and Gaddafi

Blair and Gaddafi

Blair and Gaddafi

Those Wisconsin unions

Those Wisconsin unions

Those Wisconsin unions

London Theatre Breaks Links

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