The US Government in Shutdown

I was a bit confused when I first heard that the US Government was shutting down because Congress had an issue getting their job done.

It turns out that certain arms of the government are not going to receive their funding so they started their quickest way of saving money - sending the employees off on unpaid leave or furlough.

According to my calculations, based on an article in the New York Times, 784,710 of the just under 2 million employees affected will go on furlough.

784710/2000000 = 0.392355

So 39%.

Not much really.

So why all the furore? Maybe because Washington's trash won't be picked up.

Or is it because Al Gore might just turn off the internet as he walks out of his office?

kthanxbai! Jumblerant

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Who says older isn't better?

Back in 1919, when most of our parents were just a sparkle in the corner of their ancestors' eyes, some fantabulous photography was being created.

Englishman Arthur S Mole and his American colleague John D Thomas took these incredible pictures of thousands of soldiers forming icons of American history. Arthur's great nephew Joseph Mole, 70, says: "In the picture of the Statue of Liberty there are 18,000 men: 12,000 of them in the torch alone, but just 17 at the base. The men at the top of the picture are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom"

They took the photographs in camps across the US using soldiers returning to America after World War I

Mole and Thomas: The Living Uncle Sam: 19,000 officers and men at Camp Lee, Virginia, January 13, 1919

kthanxbai!

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• Mole and Thomas: living pictures formed by thousands of US soldiers (telegraph.co.uk)