Why genocide happens

"I wanted to stop the whole time, but I just couldn't. I didn't have the will to do it. And that goes against my nature," he said. "I haven't really figured out why I did it."

I love that every time this experiment is recreated there's mass shock at people's behaviour.

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 3-19-2010

• Lesbian Prom Photos
  To show that it does happen, and the world doesn't end.
  (tags: culture lgbt homosexuality lesbians)
• Spoiler free verdict: Doctor Who Series 5 episode 1 - The Eleventh Hour
  (tags: doctorwho)
• Zip File Quines
  If you don't understand what that means then this probably won't interest you. If you're a massive geek then, ooooh, shiny.
  (tags: programming)
• What brain scans can’t teach us
  (tags: psychology neuroscience)
• On not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in the health care debate.
  (tags: healthcare usa)
• Raising a Psychopath - wow, this is fascinating!
  (tags: blog psychology psychopath children development)
• Lecturer grades students using WoW techniques, gets much more work out of them.
  (tags: education games rpg gaming motivation)
• Social Status - how to raise and lower yours, and other people's.
  (tags: psychology social culture power acting body-language behavior)
• Psychopaths Among Us
  (tags: psychology science psychopath society)
• On feeling present and projecting presence
  (tags: lifehacks communication acting)

It's all about the ducts

I've been wondering why, exactly, Edinburgh's Tram system is taking so ridiculously long to to get finished.  I mean, I'm sure there's incompetence in a variety of places, but I was assuming that something material had occurred to throw work off so badly.

And in a throwaway comment in an article today in The Scotsman it becomes a bit clearer:

Figures set to be presented to the city's tram sub-committee next week show that contractor Carillion moved 40,000 metres of pipes and ducts when it was originally due to be paid £40 million to divert just 27,000m.

According to the council, the amount of utilities work carried out has led to a "significant" improvement in the quality of the city's infrastructure and should help provide faster broadband internet.

While I'm sceptical about the second sentence there, I'm shocked that there was 50% more "stuff" down there than was expected. Was this because the utility companies had no idea what was actually down there? Was there just insufficient due diligence performed when calculating the amount of work to be done? I'd love to know who fucked up on this one - and whether it was actually avoidable.

Phones

I'm asking here about your own, personal, phone. If your phone could theoretically surf the web, but you don't have it set up to do so, then don't tick that box.

[Poll #1540141]