Barometer | 13 June 2013

Souls on ice

Three Oxford academics have revealed that they have paid to become cryonically preserved at death in the hope of one day being revived. A selection of the 117 clients lying in ‘patient care drawers’ at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Arizona:
— Roy Schiavello, 30, programmer
— Michael Louis Friedman, 32, lawyer shot by disgruntled client
— Jim Glennie, hydrogeologist
— Stanley Penska, 99, coal-miner turned building contractor
— James Gallagher, 55, software developer
— Edward Kuhrt, 65, private investigator
— Paul Garfield, 93, second world war veteran, purchasing agent. Dancer and long-distance runner in his spare time
— Darius Nelson, medical doctor
— James Stevenson, psychologist
— Fred Chamberlain, 76, founder of Alcor

Pension prices

Ed Balls was attacked for suggesting that he might cap the state pension. Here is how the bill for the state pension and associated benefits is predicted to rise at present:

Source: ONS

Weddings without frontiers

A parliamentary committee has asked the government to reconsider rules making it harder for foreign spouses of citizens to settle in the UK. From which non-EU countries do Britons most often bring spouses? These are the figures for 2009:

Source: Home Office

Further reading

A whistleblower at the CIA disclosed that his former employer secretly records our emails. How many emails do snoops have to choose from?

Source: Radicati Group