2008年10月26日日曜日

AppleもGoogleも 同性婚支持を表明

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"Marrying You" - Green and Root "I Do" - Maryann and Ron Sfarzo


Apple joins Google in fighting Prop. 8
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Apple Inc. is donating $100,000 to fight Proposition 8 ... Apple joins Google, which came out publicly against Prop. 8 last month. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page reportedly have donated a combined $140,000 to fight the measure.


Apple.com > Hot News
No on Prop 8

October 24, 2008
Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the No on 8 campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights -- including the right to marry -- should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8.


The Official Google Blog
Our position on California's No on 8 campaign

9/26/2008 03:23:00 PM
... we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.




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2008年10月24日金曜日

言論自由指数を発表、 国境なき記者団 (RSF)

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Reporters Without Borders / Reporters sans frontières (RSF)
Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2008

Only peace protects freedoms in post-9/11 world
читать на русском
It is not economic prosperity but peace that guarantees press freedom. That is the main lesson to be drawn from the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders compiles every year and from the 2008 edition, released today ... The economic disparities among the top 20 are immense. Iceland’s per capita GDP is 10 times Jamaica’s. What they have in common is a parliamentary democratic system, and not being involved in any war.


RankCountryNote
1Iceland1,50
1Luxembourg1,50
1Norway1,50
4Estonia2,00
4Finland2,00
4Ireland2,00
  :  :  :
13Canada3,33
  :  :  :
23United Kingdom5,50
  :  :  :
28Australia6,25
29Japan6,50
  :  :  :
35France7,67
36United States of America8,00




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2008年10月22日水曜日

格差は拡大しているか:OECD 諸国における所得分配と貧困

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// 格差は拡大しているか:OECD 諸国における所得分配と貧困
長期的に見て所得格差は拡大しているのか。所得格差の拡大で誰が得をし、誰が損をしているのか。... 本報告書はOECD 加盟先進国30 カ国を対象としたものであり、少なくとも1980 年代半ばから、おそらくは1970 年代半ばから、所得格差が拡大していることを示している。... 児童貧困率は上昇しており ... 。多くの国は政策上、児童貧困率の上昇に現在より注視する必要がある。... 格差縮小への唯一の持続可能な方法は賃金と資本所得の根本的な拡大に歯止めをかけることである。特に、人々が就職でき、自身と家族を貧困状態に陥らせないだけの賃金を稼得できるようにしなければならない。
//


// Income inequality and poverty rising in most OECD countries
21/10/2008 - The gap between rich and poor has grown in more than three-quarters of OECD countries over the past two decades, according to a new OECD report.

OECD’s Growing Unequal? finds that the economic growth of recent decades has benefitted the rich more than the poor. In some countries, such as Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway and the United States, the gap also increased between the rich and the middle-class.
//


Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
Social Policies > Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries


Income inequality and poverty rising (Video)


Growing Unequal? : Income Distribution and
Poverty in OECD Countries
Summary in English

Has income inequality increased over time? Who has gained and who has lost in this process? Has this process affected all OECD countries uniformly? ...This report looks at the 30 developed countries of the OECD. It shows that there has been an increase in income inequality that has gone on since at least the mid-1980s ... child poverty has increased, ... The increase in child poverty deserves more policy attention than it is currently receiving in many countries. ... The only sustainable way to reduce inequality is to stop the underlying widening of wages and income from capital. ... In particular, we have to make sure that people are capable of being in employment and earning wages that keep them and their families out of poverty.


Gap between rich, poor growing, OECD finds
BERLIN (AFP) — The gap between rich and poor has grown in most developed countries over the past 20 years, leading to an increase in child poverty, ...


'More inequality' in rich nations
The gap between rich and poor in most wealthy nations has widened, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said. Across the 24 OECD countries where data was available, the cumulative rise in inequality was 7% over the past 20 years ...


Unequal growth, unequal recession?
A B Atkinson, Nuffield College, Oxford
Whether the burden of any recession is felt by some social groups and countries more than others depends largely on public policy. ... Small savers, as well as bankers, are affected by the financial crisis. Is it a case of “heads, the rich gain; tails, the poor lose”? ... If governments can take on the role of lender of last resort, then we should be willing to see government as the employer of last resort.



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2008年10月21日火曜日

レガタム繁栄指数

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レガタム繁栄指数で豪が1位  アジア太平洋地域上昇
民間の研究機関、レガタム研究所が毎年発表している、世界104カ国の「豊かさ」を測るレガタム繁栄指数で、今年はオーストラリアが第一位となった。この指数は、経済競争力と生活の質の度合いの双方から44の指標を指数化し算出するもので、....


Accounting for Happiness: The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index
What does it mean to prosper? Is prosperity just the accumulation of material wealth, or are there other determinants to overall well-being? Why is there a great divide in life satisfaction between Denmark and Hong Kong despite their seemingly equal levels of prosperity?


// Australia tops global prosperity index
October 15, 2008
"Strong norms or civic participation, robust health, and plenty of leisure time contribute to the high liveability ranking."

While Asian powerhouses Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong scored well economically, their livability dragged down their performance.

"True prosperity consists of more than money - it also includes happiness, health and liberty," he said.

"The Prosperity Index shows that in addition to economic success, a society's prosperity is based on strong families and communities, political and religious liberty, education and opportunity, and a healthy environment.

//


The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index

The 2008 Legatum Prosperity Index (PDF)
"... Several Nordic countries score very well on liveability indicators, but poorly on some wealth drivers, most notably in the promotion of entrepreneurship. Many Asian countries on the other hand, score well on the economic competitiveness indicators, but have comparative weaknesses in liveability, including limited equality of opportunity for women, a degraded natural environment, and long working hours."



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2008年10月16日木曜日

ガンダーウェア(Gunderwear)・モデルオーディション 開催、豪空港で

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// New airport body scanners spark privacy debate
By Adrian Raschella

The Government has defended controversial new airport body scanners as safe, but prominent civil libertarian Terry O'Gorman says the technology is an invasion of privacy....

Using this technology, security officers can detect metal and plastic weapons and also they can see through your clothes....

Mr O'Gorman, who heads the Council for Civil Liberties, says the technology is a "total invasion of privacy", allowing virtual strip searches and has overstepped the mark.

... there will then be calls for it to be introduced at public malls to deal with teenagers...//


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2008年10月9日木曜日

自分を見つけるために

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Tourism Australia's campaign by Baz Luhrmann:
"Sometimes we have to get lost to find ourselves. Sometimes we gotta go walkabout"


walkabout A temporary return to traditional Aboriginal life, taken especially between periods of work or residence in white society and usually involving a period of travel through the bush.


Walkabout is an Australian English word originally referring to the belief of non-indigenous Australians that Aboriginies were prone to "go walkabout" - a pidgin expression meaning that they would stop doing their jobs and wander through the bush for weeks at a time. This was a time of reflection and a chance to connect with nature and to rediscover one’s self.


Walkabout may be used to refer to a person's desire to travel without a planned itinerary or set destination.



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2008年10月1日水曜日

シンプルライフ

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Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man

// Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man

Mama told me when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son ...

Take your time, dont live too fast,
Troubles will come and they will pass ...

And be a simple kind of man.
Be something you love and understand.
Be a simple kind of man.
Wont you do this for me son,
If you can?

Forget your lust for the rich mans gold
All that you need is in your soul,
And you can do this if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied....
//



// Walden by Henry David Thoreau
10. Baker Farm
An honest, hard-working, but shiftless man plainly was John Field; and his wife ... told me his story, how hard he worked "bogging" for a neighboring farmer ... I tried to help him with my experience, ... that I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food; but as he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he had to work hard to pay for them ... he was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he had rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not endeavor to compel you to sustain the slavery and war and other superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the use of such things... If he and his family would live simply, they might all go a-huckleberrying in the summer for their amusement. John heaved a sigh at this, and his wife stared with arms a-kimbo... But as I ran down the hill toward the reddening west, with the rainbow over my shoulder, and some faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear through the cleansed air, from I know not what quarter, my Good Genius seemed to say ... Let the thunder rumble; what if it threaten ruin to farmers' crops? That is not its errand to thee. Take shelter under the cloud, while they flee to carts and sheds. Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the land, but own it not. Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like serfs. //




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