The unnamed artist, a friend of a reddit member, buys thrift shop art and adds silly details. I have just the place in my home for a painting like this! You'll find links to other paintings in the comments at reddit. Link
The body in charge of the £2.1bn legal aid budget is to be abolished after 10 years , as part of radical changes to the way lower-income people access justice, ministers announced today.
The Legal Services Commission, which distributes civil and criminal legal aid, will be replaced by an executive agency in a move to regain control of government spending on legal aid.
"The legal aid budget is a significant amount designed to help people when they are their most vulnerable," said the justice secretary, Jack Straw. "It is now the right time to make some meaningful changes that will help us protect and sustain the world-class legal aid service that we are so proud to deliver."
The legal aid minister, Lord Bach, said: "We think it is important to act before the election ? to improve legal aid by strengthening governance and establishing a more rigorous approach."
The announcement prompted concerns that giving the government control of the legal aid service would violate human rights and jeopardise the independence of legal services.
"My concern is that this is a complete politicisation of legal aid administration. There is going to be no semblance of independence," said Steve Hynes, director of the Legal Action Group. "An executive agency pretty much does what its ministers say it will. This is not just about justice but also the appearance of justice."
Abolition is in response to a report published today by a senior civil servant, Sir Ian Magee. It was commissioned by ministers last year amid concerns the LSC was failing to deliver value for money.
The commission has been hit by a series of damning reports, including a report by the Commons public accounts committee in February. The National Audit Office last year raised serious questions about the handling of legal aid by the commission. The government was forced to scrap flagship proposals for "best-value tendering" to buy criminal legal aid services from law firms at competitive prices after months of uncertainty about how firms would budget.
The government denied the changes reflected failings of the LSC, but confirmed that the chief executive, Carolyn Regan, had resigned with immediate effect.
"Carolyn Regan has announced her resignation to allow for new leadership during a time of change for the organisation," said Bach. "She has seen the LSC through some very difficult reforms and we thank her for that."
The government said it expected support from opposition parties for primary legislation and denied the changes would politicise legal aid.
"I want to make it very clear that we consider it essential that there is a clear separation between ministers and funding decisions in individual cases," Bach said.
Sure, you liked OK Go's first video for the song 'This Too Shall Pass', but you'll love this Rube Goldberg production as well! This official video for the recorded version was directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. -via Buzzfeed
The 3D printing folks at Unfold Fab have managed to get their 3D printer to extrude a complicated volumetric form using ceramic for goop:
After some calibrating I decided to print a test design that would be hard to make using conventional techniques: a double walled vessel with fins connecting in- and outside. I was expecting mostly failure but it finished without to much trouble! Due to the restrictions of Skeinforge expecting 3d models, the walls are double filament (1.5mm total). As you can see on the Pleasant3d view there is an outer and inner shell and instead of a line connecting both there are o-loops. Testing a different design now that enables us to test a single filament double wall vessel. But in the end We will need a way to generate tool paths from single walled surfaces instead of solids
Logorama is an Oscar-nominated short film by François Alaux and Herve de Crecy about a world populated entirely by corporate logos. The peace of daily life in this world is shattered when a deranged, murderous corporate mascot is spotted by the police. Warning: adult language
The struggle against clutter and gadget accumulation is an (almost never-ending) uphill battle when it comes to kids. At long last, however, those of you dwelling with baby in less than palacial spaces can breathe easier. The Puj infant sink tub is made from a soft plastic that can be manipulated to fit into any sink. When I saw its dimensions (26" x 27" x 1"), I didn't quite believe it. But watching the video made me a believer.
My husband and I dealt with a giant blue plastic tub with our first while living in a fairly tiny apartment. We discovered the Munchkin safety baby cradle several months ago (after we moved to a house), but I must say that I probably would have bought the Puj when my second was born, had I known about it. Easy to clean (anti-bacterial, anti-fungal), easy to store (just hang it on the door) and easy on the eyes. All good things. And the price ($40) is comparable to some of the big plastic tubs.
Available here for babies up to 17 pounds. Also at Amazon.
Google has rolled out a YouTube speed-tester that tells you how your ISP stacks up against other ISPs in your town and country, to "give you the ability to compare your speed numbers with other users in your region."
Translation: Google is giving you the ammo you need to fight back if your ISP sucks, or if it is twiddling the knobs to discriminate against Google. It's a brilliant piece of pro-Net Neutrality judo, and I can only hope that they follow it up by figuring out tools that let users speed test all kinds of services and protocols so that we can get a picture of how ISPs are messing with us.
Here's a fascinating profile on radical Santa Fe Institute economist Samuel Bowles, an empiricist who says his research doesn't support the Chicago School efficient marketplace hypothesis. Instead, Bowles argues that the wealth inequality created by strict market economics creates inefficiencies because society has to devote so much effort to stopping the poor from expropriating the rich. He calls this "guard labor" and says that one in four Americans is employed to in the sector -- labor that could otherwise be used to increase the nation's wealth and progress.
The greater the inequalities in a society, the more guard labor it requires, Bowles finds. This holds true among US states, with relatively unequal states like New Mexico employing a greater share of guard labor than relatively egalitarian states like Wisconsin.
The problem, Bowles argues, is that too much guard labor sustains "illegitimate inequalities," creating a drag on the economy. All of the people in guard labor jobs could be doing something more productive with their time--perhaps starting their own businesses or helping to reduce the US trade deficit with China.
Guard labor supports what one might call the beat-down economy. Community Action's Porter sees it all the time.
"We have based almost everything we have done on the idea that we always need a part of our workforce that is marginalized--that we can call this group into action at any time, pay them nothing and they will do anything that needs to be done," she says.
More discouraging, perhaps, is the statistical fact that a person born into this workforce has little chance of rising beyond it.
President Obama announced his 2011 budget proposal. How does it compare to last year's budget? Shan Carter and Amanda Cox of The New York Times compare the two plans. Red indicates a decrease in the percentage of the budget dedicated to the respective area, and green is for growth. Zoom in for a better view of the smaller areas.
Big decreases for Medicaid grants, veteran benefits, and unemployment insurance. Major increase for education, Medicare, and administration of justice.
This of course takes budget forecasting into account, which Ms. Cox shows isn't all that accurate sometimes.
Charlie Brooker is a journalist and comedian. In this video, he pokes fun at the former profession by illustrating how television news is structured according to a standardized style that tries to impress the viewer without necessarily being informative. Content warning: some NSFW language.
Hospital bosses at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust have launched an investigation into allegations that a senior hospital official ordered a consultant to play down failures in treatment after a young man died from an undiagnosed ruptured spleen.
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