Thursday, 26 February 2015

Bank of England

If asked a question: 'How is money created?' - would you know the answer? Not many people would. Some say, that only 1 in 100 can provide a correct response, regardless of their educational background. Creation of Bank of England by Scott William Patterson in 1694, set the foundations for today's modern banking system, including the Federal Reserve in US.  Film by Corbertt Report 'Century of Enslavement: The History of The Federal Reserve' explains it all, in a very painful detail. A 'must see' for all that want to understand why banks are so keen to lend us money, to keep the economy going.



OK, but if you haven't got 90 minutes to watch the video (yes, we are all very busy people lately), here is how it works in a nutshell: you go to the bank and deposit 100 bucks. You now have 100 dollars in your savings account. But then, next day you need some of your money back to buy food, but want to keep your savings deposit untouched, so you decide to borrow from your bank.  Bank is required to keep only 10% of your deposit and can lend out 90 USD (out of your 100 USD) to anyone including you. The bank manager tells you that you can borrow 90 USD from them. You sign a loan agreement and then you are handed 90 dollars. You now have 90 USD in cash and 100 USD in your savings account. No other money has been used by you or the bank. Out of your 100 bucks, 90 new dollars have been just created completely out of thin air! And this process may be repeated multiple times, with no new money injected into the system (provided you do not touch your deposit). Ingenious isn't it?

Of course, you now have to work (or generate value via some other means) in order to repay the loan back to the bank including interest. The bank just needs a small steady inflation going, to make handsome profit from the loan agreement signed with you. But for that, there is a government agency, like the Fed in US.

If you want to know the link between Bank of England and the Fed, you have to watch the video - there is no easy shortcut.

Monday, 15 September 2014

Sillustani

Sillustani is an amazing place, yet there is a sparse information about it available on the internet. klik2travel production of Sillustani video has been inspired by a short film by Brien Foerster available on his YouTube channel.

Brien is proposing new unorthodox view of the origin of Sillustani towers. According to him the primitive chullpas were just mere imitations of the advanced towers build by some unknown civilisation thousands years earlier.

He also disputes the view that the advanced towers were originally built as burial chambers. Inside chullpas are tuned to the key A on a musical scale, which hints that the towers could have had some different purpose than just for burials.

Reading thru many blogs of people who visited Sillustani site Dragonheart - Living the Dream 
stands out.

On a personal note, I cannot help to make a small observation that ornaments like lizard and snake on chullpas at Sillustani are engraved using same labour intensive technique as various animals depicted on recently excavated T-stones at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, which are proven to be 12,000 years old. So it begs a question if there is a connection. And I think to myself 'why not?'

Sillustani
TiggerT | flickr
Gobelki Tepe
yepyep | flickr
Sillustani
Michel | flickr

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

TIME Timelapse

Watch the world change over the course of nearly three decades of satellite photography.



Thursday, 20 December 2012

"Dust Bowl" Drought


The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands in the 1930s, particularly in 1934 and 1936. Filmmaker Ken Burns talks to BBC about the "dust bowl" drought


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20301451

Monday, 27 February 2012

New Routemaster London Bus


The Routemaster bus which was built between 1956 and 1968 has remained one of the identifiable symbols of London. So much so that klik2travel identified it as one of the key points of interest in London and produced a film about the iconic vehicle. Since we produced that short film there has been an exciting announcement about the new Routemaster bus which began their service on the 38 route between Hackney and Victoria Station today. The 62-seater buses incorporate the most innovative and cutting-edge hybrid technology and will be the most environmentally-friendly bus of its kind.
The Buses will have a driver and conductor and is twice as efficient as a standard diesel bus and the most eco-friendly of its kind. Read more about the 8 new buses.

For more on the history of the buses go to the wikipedia page on Routemasters.

The double-decker uses green technology to be 40% more efficient, it has two staircases and an open platform enabling people to "hop-on hop-off".

Warwickshire-based sports car maker Aston Martin, along with architects Foster and Partners, won the £25,000 prize jointly with Wiltshire bus maker Capoco Design.
The contract to build the new bus for London was awarded to Wrightbus in January 2010.

Photo Charlotte Gilhooly