Our property tax system is in dire need of reform: we need radical solutions such as automatic Council Tax revaluation or a national property tax based on property values

With the recent news that first time buyers have little prospect of owning their own home in the next five years, it is clear that our housing system is in need of reform. Mark Stephens of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Market Taskforce argues that our current system of Council Tax is outdated and unequal, and proposes some radical reforms that may go some way to diminish the cyclical effect of the housing market

Wikileaks and Freedom of Speech: Can self regulation work?

Mark Stephens is right when he says that the current controversy around Wikileaks marks a key moment in the evolution of media responsibility and freedom. Legal matters – starting with the extradition hearing of Julian Assange this week – will move rather quickly even though it is going to take some time to work through the broader implications. Stephens says that the case engages article 10 of the European Convention – the right to free speech – but it remains to be seen how and if such a freedom could be invoked in Assange’s defence. Ultimately, there will be a question of balancing Assange’s speech rights (along with our right to know) and the rights of others such as citizens and soldiers that may have been endangered

Is screening urinalysis in children worthwhile?

Screening urinalysis in asymptomatic children has not been shown to be beneficial (strength of recommendation: B; based on extrapolation from 1 meta-analysis). It is unlikely to be cost-effective and should be discontinued. While random urinalyses can be used for case finding of glucosuria, hematuria, pyuria, bacteriuria, and proteinuria, the routine use of screening urinalysis in asymptomatic patients is not likely to be an effective strategy

SOT: A rapid prototype using TAE windows

The development of the window interface extension feature of the Transportable Applications Executive (TAE) is discussed. This feature is being used to prototype a space station payload interface in order to demonstrate and assess the benefits of using windows on a bit mapped display and also to convey the concept of telescience, the control and operation of space station payloads from remote sites. The prototype version of the TAE with windows operates on a DEC VAXstation 100. This workstation has a high resolution 19 inch bit mapped display, a keyboard and a three-button mouse. The VAXstation 100 is not a stand-alone workstation, but is controlled by software executing on a VAX/8600. A short scenario was developed utilizing the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) as an example payload. In the scenario the end-user station includes the VAXstation 100 plus an image analysis terminal used to display the CCD images. The layout and use of the prototype elements, i.e., the root menu, payload status window, and target acquisition menu is described

Study on Housing Exclusion: Welfare Policies, Housing Provision and Labour Markets

This is a six country comparative study of the relationship between housing, welfare states and labour markets. The study employs both quantitative (using EU-SILC) and qualitative data

Met Office Weather Game Survey 2011

This dataset contains game play results and demographic data collected from participants in the 2011 Met Office weather game. The game was designed to determine the best methods of communicating uncertainty in rainfall and temperature forecasts, and to widen public engagement in uncertainty in weather forecasting. Within the ‘ice-cream seller’ scenario of the game participants were asked to make decisions based on rainfall and temperature forecasts presented in different ways. The game was designed with a randomised structure to enable participants to experience being ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky’ when the most likely forecast scenario did not occur. The database contains the game play selections from over 8000 unique participants and the scores that they achieved in the game. Data were also collected on participant age, gender, location and educational attainment

The super greenhouse effect in a changing climate

In all outputs of the 1%/yr increase inCO2 climate model experiments archived under the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP) phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), regions exist in the low latitudes where both the clear-sky and all-sky OLR decrease with surface warming. These are identified as regions of positive longwave feedback and are regions of a super greenhouse effect (SGE). These SGE regions are identified from feedback analysis of the 4X CO2 abrupt experiments of CMIP5, and despite their existence, there is little agreement across models as to the magnitude of the effect. The general effects of clouds on the SGE are to amplify the clear-sky SGE, but there is also poor agreement on the magnitude of the amplification that varies by an order of magnitude across models. Sensitivity analyses indicate that localized SGE regions are spatially aligned with a large moistening of the upper troposphere. The reduction in clear-sky OLR arises from a reduction in emission in the far IR with nonnegligible contributions from mid-IR emission from the midtroposphere. When viewed in the broader context of meridional heat transport, it is found that of the 1.03-PW rate of heat gained globally, 0.8 PW is absorbed in the tropics and is contributed almost equally by reductions in clear-sky longwave emission (i.e., the clear-sky SGE) and increased absorbed clear-sky solar radiation associated with increased water vapor. The processes that define the clear-sky SGE are shown to be fundamental to the way models accumulate heat and then transport it poleward