All posts tagged: cap

David Bowie Performs an Ethereal Acoustic Version of “Heroes,” with a Bottle Cap Strapped to His Shoe, Keeping the Beat (1996)

David Bowie Performs an Ethereal Acoustic Version of “Heroes,” with a Bottle Cap Strapped to His Shoe, Keeping the Beat (1996)

Published by José

NOTE: You can watch the video here. Not long ago I stum­bled upon this pret­ty won­der­ful video of David Bowie play­ing an acoustic ver­sion of “Heroes,” one of my favorite songs, and I thought I’d quick­ly share it today. Why wait? Appear­ing at Neil Young’s annu­al Bridge School Ben­e­fit con­cert in Octo­ber 1996, Bowie gives us a stripped-down ver­sion of the mov­ing song he co-wrote with Bri­an Eno in 1977. Flanked by Reeves Gabrels on gui­tar and Gail Ann Dorsey on bass, Bowie strums his acoustic gui­tar. All the while, he taps his foot, let­ting a bot­tle cap, taped to his shoe, assist in cre­at­ing a per­cus­sive beat. It’s all kept ele­gant­ly sim­ple. Hope you enjoy. Dona­tions to The Bridge School, which helps chil­dren over­come severe speech and phys­i­cal impair­ments through the use of tech­nol­o­gy, can be made here. Note: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this post appeared on our site in 2016. If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, …

Cap on religious free school admissions to stay – but more religious discrimination ‘certain’ elsewhere

Cap on religious free school admissions to stay – but more religious discrimination ‘certain’ elsewhere

Published by skeptic

Humanists are celebrating a victory after the Department for Education announced it will keep restrictions on faith-based admissions criteria in new state-funded free schools in England – the so-called ‘50% cap’.  Humanists UK will now be turning its attention to other kinds of schools. The charity has said it is certain that new schools with 100% selective admissions policies will nevertheless come into existence unless proposals in the new Education Bill are changed. Recently, the Government voted down an amendment that would have prevented other kinds of new schools from opening with 100% religiously selective admissions policies. Consultation outcome The announcement about free schools is in response to the ‘faith designation reforms’ consultation launched by the Sunak Government just before the General Election, which proposed allowing 100% religious selection in all state-funded faith schools and opening faith-based special academies for the first time ever. Both of those proposals have been rejected: the result of the consultation was that 66% of respondents disagreed with both. Commenting on the announcement Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson said: …

Success! Plan to scrap cap on faith school selection halted

Success! Plan to scrap cap on faith school selection halted

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society has welcomed the Government’s announcement that it has abandoned plans to scrap the 50% cap on faith based admissions at free schools, after the plans faced heavy opposition. The proposals were introduced by the previous Government last year following intensive lobbying from religious groups. The National Secular Society strongly opposed the plans, and urged then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to retain the cap. The results of a consultation on the proposals were published last week, with 66% of respondents strongly disagreeing or disagreeing with the changes. Under the 50% cap, new academies and free schools with a religious character in England may only select up to 50% of pupils based on religion when they are oversubscribed. Removing the cap would enable these schools to select 100% of children based on their parents’ religion if oversubscribed. The Department for Education said it “will not be moving forward with these proposals at this time” and has “committed to remove barriers to opportunity and raise school standards”. But it added it will “will continue …

DfE abandons plan to scrap free school faith admissions cap

DfE abandons plan to scrap free school faith admissions cap

Published by skeptic

The previous Conservative government consulted on the proposals last year The previous Conservative government consulted on the proposals last year More from this theme Recent articles The government has abandoned a plan to abolish a rule capping the proportion of pupils oversubscribed free schools can select based on faith at 50 per cent. The previous Conservative government consulted on the proposals last year. They also included a plan to remove the block on new faith special schools. But an update posted by the Department for Education today states government “will not be moving forward with these proposals at this time and will continue to keep these policy areas under review”. They said they had received 3,668 consultation responses. Sixty-six per cent “disagreed or strongly disagreed with both proposals”.   DfE focusing on schools bill reforms A spokesperson said for the department said: “Our focus is on introducing reforms through the children’s wellbeing and schools bill which is now underway. The changes introduced in the bill will remove barriers to opportunity and raise school standards.” The cap …

Government rejects cap on religious discrimination at new schools

Government rejects cap on religious discrimination at new schools

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society has expressed disappointment over the Government’s failure to support fairer and more inclusive admissions policies at faith schools. Yesterday the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill committee voted down an amendment to prevent new state funded faith schools from selecting all pupils based on religion. The bill will end the presumption that new schools should be ‘free school’ academies. Free schools with a religious character can select up to 50% of pupils based on religion if they are oversubscribed. But no longer requiring new schools to be free schools would make it easier for voluntary aided (VA) faith schools to open. Unlike free schools, VA schools can select 100% of pupils based on religion when oversubscribed. The amendment, tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, would extend the 50% cap on faith based admission at free schools to all other schools, including VA faith schools. But the committee voted 12-3 against the amendment, following opposition from Shadow Secretary of State for Education and practising Catholic Damian Hinds. While he was Education Secretary …

Lib Dems propose Schools Bill amendment to keep 50% faith selection cap

Lib Dems propose Schools Bill amendment to keep 50% faith selection cap

Published by skeptic

Pictured: Munira Wilson MP, House of Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Official Flickr Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Munira Wilson MP has tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to keep the 50% cap on faith-based admissions in new religious schools. Since 2011 all new state schools have had to be free schools and they have been subject to such a cap. But the Schools Bill is set to do away with that free school presumption. That means the door has been opened to a new wave of 100% faith-selective schools. As the Bill is written, new voluntary aided faith schools could open that would have no legal requirement to admit pupils from outside their religion. This fact was potentially unintended. As a member of the Bill Committee, Munira Wilson MP has tabled an amendment that would require all new schools, when oversubscribed, ‘to provide no more than half of all places… on the basis of with reference to the religious faith, or presumed religious faith, of [the pupil or] the pupil’s parents.’ Humanists …

AI Increased the Market Cap of the Magnificent Seven by Trillion. Will it last?

AI Increased the Market Cap of the Magnificent Seven by $10 Trillion. Will it last?

Published by skeptic

The introduction of generative AI products in late 2022 caused a runup in the share prices for the biggest suppliers of AI, most notably the so-called magnificent seven: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, and Tesla. Their combined market capitalizations rose more than $10 trillion between January 2023 and their peaks in late 2023. They have since fallen leading some to claim that the bubble has begun to burst (see table). The Rise and Fall(?) of the Magnificent Seven’s Market Capitalization ($trillions) Company January 2023 Peak in 2023 Aug 17, 2024 Apple 2.02   3.59   3.44 Microsoft 1.79   3.49   3.11 Alphabet 1.08   2.43   2.02 Amazon 0.89   2.10   1.86 Nvidia 0.38   3.31   3.06 Meta 0.29   1.30   1.33 Tesla 0.26   0.87   0.67 Total 6.72 17.09 15.49 Ten trillion is nothing to scoff at. Only the U.S. and China have gross national products that are bigger than $10 trillion. Applied across American citizens, it implies a per capita wealth of roughly $30,000, and that was …

The two-child welfare limit: why won’t Labour scrap the cap? – podcast | News

The two-child welfare limit: why won’t Labour scrap the cap? – podcast | News

Published by skeptic

The two-child welfare limit was introduced by the Conservative government in 2017, limiting support for families on universal credit with three or more children. According to many experts, since then it has been the single biggest policy keeping UK children in poverty. Helen Pidd visits the home of Janet Arinaitwe, a mother of three, who describes what the limit has meant for her family. Still, as explained by Tom Clark, contributing editor at Prospect magazine, the Labour government may keep the policy for now anyway. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. Support The Guardian Source link

Starmer Suspends MPs Who Rebelled Over Two-Child Benefit Cap

Starmer Suspends MPs Who Rebelled Over Two-Child Benefit Cap

Published by Sam

Keir Starmer surprisingly suspended a handful of MPs from the Labour parliamentary party on Tuesday over a vote in the Commons, less than a month into his premiership. Last night, MPs were asked to vote on an amendment to the King’s Speech from the SNP – Scottish National Party – which called on the government to scrap the controversial two-child benefit cap. This policy, which prevents parents from claiming benefits for their third child, dates back to the 2017 Conservative government, but Labour are reluctant to drop it over the costs it will bring. So Starmer took remarkably hard line and suspended Zarah Sultana, Richard Burgon, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Imran Hussain, Apsana Begum, ex-business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and Ian Byrne for six months. The unexpectedly severe punishment towards some of the party’s left-wing representatives will be reviewed after that period. Labour’s Nadia Whittome, who abstained from the vote, slammed the suspension, saying: “The government’s approach to party discipline has been appalling. No MP should have lost the whip for their vote this evening, …

Biden announces new asylum cap in bid to deter illegal crossings

Biden announces new asylum cap in bid to deter illegal crossings

Published by Sam

President Biden announced new measures Tuesday that will block migrants’ access to the U.S. asylum system when illegal border crossings are at emergency levels, a move aimed at shoring up one of his biggest vulnerabilities to reelection in November. “We must face the simple truth: To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now,” Biden said in prepared remarks at the White House. “If the United States doesn’t secure our border, there’s no limit to the number of people who may try to come here.” Biden’s executive actions, effective at the end of the day Tuesday, impose broad restrictions on asylum as long as illegal border crossings remain above an average of 2,500 per day, administration officials said. Migrants ineligible for protection will be returned to their home countries or Mexico unless they express a convincing fear of persecution that would qualify them for an exemption under tougher screening procedures, administration officials said. The move followed years of record levels of illegal crossings and blistering …