The question, which was put to students applying for the King’s Scholarship, worth one tenth of Eton’s £32,000 a year fees, is entitled “Concerning Cruelty, Clemency and Whether It Is better To Be Loved than Feared”, and follows a passage from Machiavelli.“The year is 2040. There have been riots in the streets of London after Britain has run out of petrol because of an oil crisis in the Middle East. Protesters have attacked public buildings. Several policemen have died. Consequently, the government has deployed the army to curb the protests. After two days the protests have stopped but 25 protestors have been killed by the army,” the question reads.Candidates are then asked to imagine that they were the Prime Minister and to write a speech for broadcast to the nation on why the decision to deploy the army against violent protests was both necessary and morally right.The paper was set in April 2011, just after the student riots in which the headquarters of the Conservative Party and the treasury were hit and, by coincidence, just before the August 2011 riots, which injured many and caused millions of pounds of damage. At the time David Cameron warned that the army might be deployed.The question caused uproar, with many taking to twitter to express their disagreement.Damian Walter tweeted sarcastically, “having been born into a council estate single parent family, I would never question the superiority of Eton boys with millionaire parents.” Seriously, that Eton scholarship exam question is spectacular: etoncollege.com/userfiles/file… twitter.com/flashboy/statu… — Tom Phillips (@flashboy) May 23, 2013 This leaked scholarship exam paper from Eton is beyond parody & v revealing about Cameron’s Britain lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/05/2… — Johann Hari (@johannhari101) May 24, 2013 Huh, my tweet about burning Eton to the ground didn’t seem to lose me any followers. Seems you lot are the right sort. — Michael Richmond (@Sisyphusa) May 24, 2013 The headmaster of Eton College, Tony Little, emailed the US paper the Huffington Post saying the question has been taken out of context and that Eton School does not favor any particular political viewpoint.“We are looking for candidates who can see both sides of an idea and express them clearly. High ability candidates at this level are often asked to put themselves in someone else’s shoes,” he wrote.He then compared the question to a GCSE level English question, which is sat by all secondary school 16-year olds in England and Wales as well as those from fee paying public schools, in which he imagined a question, “Imagine you are Lady Macbeth, write a diary entry to express your feelings on receiving your husband’s letter.”He added that a similar question in this year’s paper was about a community without any government. Both the current British Prime Minister David Cameron and the London Mayor Boris Johnson went to Eton, Boris was also a King’s Scholar. … Read More
How Vintage Apple Computers Used to Sell
Original Apple-1 computers can now sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at professional auctions. But the vintage machines have been selling informally for years. The story of the 1997 sale of an Apple-1, now residing at the Computer History Museum, shows how things worked in simpler times. That Apple-1 was a treasured prize for the young entrepreneur who bought it, and the sale was a financial lifeline for a struggling single mother. … Read More
In Euro they trust. But at what cost?
“Many countries which gave up their own national currency in order to join the euro are finding that it left them powerless, they’ve got little or no influence over the monetary policy. They’ve got little or no influence over economic policy,” Nick Parsons, head of research for UK and Europe at National Australia Bank (NAB), said in an interview with Business RT.The comment comes after a survey by the Pew Research Centre of 8 nations in the European Union said that the euro – the common currency for 17 out of the 27 European Union members – is welcomed by the majority of Europeans. More than 60% of people asked across Greece. Spain, Germany, Italy and France want to keep the euro as their currency.“… many countries did not simply realize what they were getting into, when they gave up freedom to control their own currencies,” Parsons explained.Despite the single currency remaining in public favor, the whole idea of the Brussels-based European Union is now being increasingly questioned. Five European nations out of the eight surveyed have become disappointed with the 27 nation union, with the favorability of the EU having fallen to 45% in 2013 from about 60% in 2012.“The prolonged economic crisis has created centrifugal forces that are pulling European public opinion apart, separating the French from the Germans and the Germans from everyone else,” the report by Pew Research said.Germany was the only country, where at least 50% of the public thought Brussels should be given more power to deal with the ongoing economic crisis. For the country that’s the biggest creditor nation in the eurozone “that’s not particularly surprising,” Parsons said.“When we look at Germans saying that they’d prefer or at least agree with Brussels being given more powers, this is more about centralization of power with ultimately Germany in control of this. They are not talking about giving powers back to national Parliaments….They are talking about centralization of power with creditors in charge,” the NAB analyst concluded. … Read More
Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answers on Big Banks
http://www.youtube.com/v/GWIw-sC45Ko?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Read the article: Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answers on Big Banks
Daily Report: International A.T.M. Theft Takes $45 Million
The authorities said suspects used laptops and the Internet in more than two dozen countries to steal from A.T.M.’s, including 2,904 machines in New York, in a single day, Marc Santora reports in The New York Times.. … Read More
The Sims 4 coming to the PC next year, will feature an offline single-player mode
Electronic Arts just announced that The Sims 4 will be heading to the PC and Mac sometime next year. Details are still scarce at this hour but one thing we do know for sure: the title will offer an offline single-player experience. … Read More
3-D-printed gun available for download after firing first shots
The nonprofit group that created the world’s first 3-D-printed gun on Sunday proved that the weapon could be fired. In a YouTube video published by Defense Distributed, 3-D-printed gun creator Cody Wilson fires a single shot from “the Liberator,” which features interchangeable…
