Occupy Wall Street - Aims/Demands

I’ve been watching the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations with interest over the last few weeks. Particularly our equivalent over here in Britain, Occupy the London Stock Exchange. Their aims seem fairly laudable, although the main criticism levelled at them seems to be their lack of obvious demands. Given this vacuum, and given that it’s also quite fittingly November 5th, I thought I’d try to come up with some myself. Here goes;

We The People Desire…

1) The end of fractional reserve banking.

2) An incremental reduction in the length of the average working week. Clearly given our current level of technological advancement we don’t need everyone working forty hours a week - global unemployment levels are a clear illustration of this.

3) Complete transparency of governments. Including intelligence agencies.

There we go. Clear and concise. Now lets see the politicians get to work achieving this.

Herbal Mythologies

Finished reading ‘A Concise Guide To Herbs’ by Jenny Linford. A few myths and etymologies from it I found interesting;

Daisy;

‘The common name derives from the Old English ‘day’s eye’, referring to both the flower’s appearance and the fact that it opens during daylight hours.’

 Lady’s Smock;

‘In Britain, lady’s smock is a plant with much folklore attached to it, including the belief that it attracted adders. It was also thought that picking the flowers resulted in lightning and thunder.’

Chicory;

‘There is much folklore attached to the herb, including the legend that its blue flowers are the eyes of a girl crying for her sweetheart lost at sea.’

Dittany;

‘White dittany’s common names, ‘burning bush’ and ‘gas plant’, are a reference to the plant’s lemon-scented, volatile oils, which in calm, warm weather form a vapour around it that can be ignited.’

Milk Thistle;

‘Its specific name marianum derives from the legend that the Virgin Mary’s milk ran down its leaves, causing their striking white stains.’

The Two Pence Piece Value

The current scrap value of the copper in a British 2p coin (minted pre-1992) is now 3.5p.

The scrap metal value of a 2p coin (pre-1992) is now 3.5p, 2.6% less than at this time last year.
And the value of the (cupro-nickel) 5p coin is now 2.2p, 7.9% less.