I spoke with Tim Glover on Manx Radio yesterday about Coronavirus. The Isle of Man Government needs to lift its game and take this threat seriously by providing timely and accurate information to the public. Simple things like prominent, digital signage, and proactively contacting returning travellers – by phone or email – should be uncontroversial, and should be implemented immediately.
For three days now (12 March, 2020) the Isle of Man Government’s website providing advice on the Coronavirus has been wrong. This lapse is creating an undue risk to public health, and needs to be corrected immediately. In the screenshot to the right, the Isle of Man Government’s website wrongly says that people returning from northern Italy only need to self-isolate if they are displaying … Continue reading IOM Government needs to correct the errors on their Coronavirus website (Update: Now fixed)
Here are some common sense proposals to reduce the risk of infection in the Isle of Man. They should not be controversial, but rather, represent serious and achievable proposals to reduce the risk of the coronavirus reaching the Isle of Man – and reducing the risk when it gets here.
Continue reading “Responsible proposals to reduce the harm of coronavirus on the Isle of Man”Thousands of years ago, Judaism introduced a new and enduring concept to human civilization: the idea that every human was made in the image of God. On the sixth day of creation, they said, God made man in His image. For the first time in human history, there was a people who believed that a man’s right to dignity was universal.
Continue reading “Universal human rights are more important in a globalised world”This is pretty cool – not only is it less brittle than normal concrete, but it offers a much lower impact on the environment in producing it. Progress is awesome! Continue reading Bendable, cement-free concrete
Building – and then decomissioning – wind turbines imposes significant environmental costs. The towers, the mechanics and the assorted parts to make it work need to be constructed using various materials.
Continue reading “Reducing the environmental impact of wind turbines”
James Barr, writing for Unherd.com, argued that the relics of the regions should be returned from London to where they came from. This principle should apply not just to British historical artifacts, but also to Manx historical relics – after all, in the British Library, the Chronicles of the Kings of Mann and Isles are just another book amongst millions. On the Isle of Man, … Continue reading Forget the Elgin Marbles — give the Chronicles of the Kings of Mann back
I wonder whether this applies to people seeking work in the UK – Do employers value study abroad in Europe, or North America, or Asia? It funny as it applies to the USA, though: Compared to resumes that list no study abroad experience, resumes that list study abroad experience in Asia regardless of length are about 20 percent more likely to receive a callback for … Continue reading Want to get a job in America? Don’t study abroad in Europe, study abroad in Asia
When you think about this, this is completely obvious – but it is nice to have data to prove that another hidden cost of excessive regulatory burdens is more corruption. From World Bank researchers: Exploiting within-country and industry-level variation in regulatory burden, the analysis finds a large, positive effect of regulatory burden on corruption. For the baseline results, the bribery rate is higher by about … Continue reading Regulatory Red Tape Increases Corruption
