Runaways and rough sleepers, communes and flatshares, crashpads and catastrophes... Stories about home feature heavily in Switchboard’s log books. Tash and Adam listen to LGBT+ people who searched for somewhere to live in the 1970s, and hear about the persistent problem of homelessness in 2019.
15 February 2020
The New York Times: This Is How Scandinavia Got Great
But Nordic nations were ethnically homogeneous in 1800, when they were dirt poor. Their economic growth took off just after 1870, way before their welfare states were established. What really launched the Nordic nations was generations of phenomenal educational policy.
The 19th-century Nordic elites did something we haven’t been able to do in this country recently. They realized that if their countries were to prosper they had to create truly successful “folk schools” for the least educated among them. They realized that they were going to have to make lifelong learning a part of the natural fabric of society. [...]
Today, Americans often think of schooling as the transmission of specialized skill sets — can the student read, do math, recite the facts of biology. Bildung is devised to change the way students see the world. It is devised to help them understand complex systems and see the relations between things — between self and society, between a community of relationships in a family and a town. [...]
When you look at the Nordic bildung model, you realize our problem is not only that we don’t train people with the right job skills. It’s that we don’t have the right lifelong development model to instill the mode of consciousness people need to thrive in a complex pluralistic society.
Vox: Why the coronavirus outbreak might be much bigger than we know
“In the last few days,” Lee Hsien Loong said on February 8 in a Facebook video, “we’ve seen some cases which cannot be traced to the source of infection. These worried us because it showed that the virus is probably already circulating in our own population.” If the virus is even more widespread, he added, “it’s futile to try to trace every contact.” Instead of trying to contain the disease, health officials in Singapore will have to accept that it’s gone everywhere and shift to mitigating its impact.[...]
The documented cases of community spread in other countries outside of China have been limited to date, but there’s good reason to believe they’re just the tip of the iceberg. And once more cases are confirmed, the threat of a pandemic (the disease spreading around the world) increases, and so does the number of people the virus will infect and the length of the battle against it. A look at the small outbreaks in five countries — with strong public health systems like the US — helps explain why.[...]
More and more, these include examples of “secondary transmission” of the virus: people who haven’t traveled to China getting sick from someone who has traveled there, or, in the case of Singapore, from an unknown source. Sometimes, these people pass on the virus to others, what’s known as tertiary spread. And, again, this is happening in places with some of the strongest disease surveillance and public health systems in the world.[...]
For now, it’s important to remember that a disease can spread widely, and even become a pandemic, and not be particularly severe. In his Facebook video, Prime Minister Lee repeatedly asked Singaporeans not to panic, reminding them that this virus already appears to behave more like seasonal flu than SARS: While it’s more contagious than SARS, it looks much less deadly — a point Fauci recently reaffirmed.
The Guardian: ‘Escaping the madness’: steep rise in Londoners moving to northern England
Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne are experiencing the fastest rises among northern cities in the number of escapees arriving from the capital, according to separate data from the Office for National Statistics, which indicates a possible shift east of the London escape route from the well-worn path to Manchester. Sheffield had a 12% rise in Londoners moving to buy or rent in 2018, followed by Newcastle and Leeds, which both recorded 5% increases.
Dramatically cheaper housing – the ratio between house prices and income is 5.8 in Sheffield and Newcastle but 12.9 in London – is a key factor. But the lure of a slower, less work-focused and healthier lifestyle is also driving decisions to “escape the London madness”, as one leaver put it. [...]
In 2018 London lost population through internal migration, with 340,498 residents leaving for other parts of the UK, while 237,270 people arrived from elsewhere in the UK, ONS figures showed. Most go to to just outside the capital, but the biggest savings on housing costs are in the north. The average house price last year was £475,000 in London, £132,000 in Liverpool, £155,000 in Newcastle and £164,000 in Sheffield. [...]
Municipal leaders are trying to capitalise on the trend. Sheffield city council has been using the term “north shoring” to try to attract more employers to move out of London, promising considerably cheaper office rents, and the prospect of 20,000 graduates each year from its two universities. Leeds has attracted Channel 4’s new base, where 250 people have started work, and a new hub for HM Revenue and Customs is due to open later this year with 6,000 employees.
BoredPanda: Teacher Stumbles Upon Baby Bears ‘Dancing’ In Finland Forest, Thinks He’s Imagining It
“The cubs behaved like little children,” Valtteri told Bored Panda. “They were playing, and even started a few friendly fights. I felt like I was on a playground in front of my house, where small children frolic around. That’s how much they reminded me of little children. At one point, the three of them got up on their hind legs and started pushing each other. It was like they were dancing in a circle.” [...]
Like the cubs have successfully proven us, bears are agile and strong. They use their forelegs very effectively for both hunting and getting around. Moreover, they’re very good swimmers and climbers. Basically, they’re the whole package. [...]
However, the fact that Valtteri managed to get such clear shots of the family is really fascinating. Bear will typically try to avoid humans as best as they can. Humans rarely see them in the wild since these animals almost always retreat immediately after detecting our presence. Keen senses and the ability to move silently make them perfect at this game of hide and seek.
Politico: Trump tweets about Barr interview after AG complains about Trump tweeting
Barr's rebuke of Trump's online conduct came after the president tweeted his displeasure Tuesday with federal prosecutors' seven-to-nine-year sentencing proposal for Stone. [...]
Barr confirmed Thursday that he had personally interceded to walk back Stone's stiff sentencing recommendation, but maintained that he did so hours before Trump tweeted his objection. [...]
Although Barr's statements could be viewed as a sign of heightened tensions between the president and his attorney general, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed Thursday that Trump was not irked by Barr‘s interview. [...]
Some Democratic lawmakers, however, have speculated that Barr's admonishment of Trump was a calculated maneuver aimed at quelling outrage within his department, rather than a genuine plea meant to curb the president's behavior.
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