The Blood is The Life 05-07-2012

[miss_s_b]

• On the difference between English and British
  (tags: )
  
• Louis C.K. Beats Back Scalpers
  (tags: )
  
• BBC - Newsbeat - Musicians missing royalties over copy-cat chart songs
  Or, in other words, idiot record companies let cover artists beat their artists to the money by doing the stupid, outdated radio-before-release strategy
  (tags: )
  
  
• Exposure to Dogs Could Protect Kids From Asthma | Wired Science | Wired.com
  (tags: )
  
• BBC News - Hidden Doggerland underworld uncovered in North Sea
  (tags: )
  
• Matthew Norman: How often does Vince Cable have to be right before they make him Chancellor? - Matthew Norman - Commentators - The Independent
  (tags: )
  
• Black Sky Thinking | It's A Sin? Frank Ocean & Prejudice Against Male Bisexuality
  (tags: )
  
• Why Europe's Laws On Vacations Are Better Than Your Wildest Dreams (and How Badly Americans Get Screwed) | Economy | AlterNet
  Holy shit USians don't even get parental leave?
  (tags: )
  
  
• Improbable Research » Blog Archive
  The bigger your tits are, the more they bounce. Apparently this is a big shock to science.
  (tags: )
  
  
• Oscar Pistorius to become first amputee to compete in the Olympics
  ... And I'll be cheering him on. GO OSCAR!
  (tags: )
  
  
• girlgamers | Want to be IN a computer game?
  (tags: )
  

Comments

[drunkwriter]

The "Englishness" thing never ceases to perplex me. Like many other people, I have little idea what constitutes the "English" identity, beyond self-importance and a special strain of patronising racism.

But...

I don't care.

And even if I did care, and even if I did know what it was to be "English", I think I'm probably the sort of person who'd react against conforming to the traits of a hegemonic national identity.

[havocthecat]

Holy shit USians don't even get parental leave?

Only some of us, and only unpaid. The cost to have a child is staggering when you consider lost income.

[telegramsam]

This. The FMLA does not ensure paid leave, only that someone cannot be fired for taking sick leave or maternity leave. Fathers generally do not have the same privileges, unfortunately.

Most salary pay workers get some amount of paid sick or vacation leave (well, maybe - private companies can pretty much do as they please when it comes to benefits), but hour-wage workers typically do not. If you in something like retail or food service, if you call in sick you just don't get paid that day.

I've always been spitting-jealous of the amount of time off people get in other countries...

[strangecharm]

Man, I could do a better job on "the difference between English and British"! :)

[pmoodie]

I consider myself to be Scottish first and foremost, but I'm also British. I try to avoid the uglier aspects of national identity, but I'll still bristle when someone says something like "Scotland? Oh, that's part of England, isn't it?" I can't help it!

US is to Europe what China is to the US

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, US workers get squat compared to Europe. That author, Les Leopold, is one of my favorite writers on economics. He only writes an article every few months, but they are worth looking for.

Junior executive jobs will generally start you out with a week's vacation, but you have to wait at least 6 months before it vests. You move up to two weeks pretty fast, then 3 weeks at 3 or 4 yrs. I had maxed out at 5 weeks when I left my last job after 9 yrs. There are also those who earn vacations but can't take them because the company culture frowns on it. Some companies say that earned vacations disappear if you don't take them in the year given. Other companies allow you to "roll over" all or part of the vacation into the next year--about the only way to swing an extended vacation. My company started with unlimited rollover, then set a limit that your total accrued vacation had to be within a certain multiple of your annual vacation allotment (because unused vacation becomes a liability on the business balance sheet.) When I was laid off, I had close to the maximum allowed, and the company was required to pay me the wage value of my vacation time--the nickname for this vacation payout is "executive severance pay" and why a lot of executives will let their accrued vacation float up to the maximum allowed.

Since 2008, the economy has transitioned to where 1/3 of the work force is part-time, and the main reason to make people part-time is that they do not qualify for benefits--not vacations, not healthcare, and not employer-sponsored 401k retirement plans (which allow you to save more than the independent IRA savings accounts). Self-employed people also do not qualify for many benefits, which drives workers to bigger companies.

Vert