One final guide to the Referendum

If you're _still_ not sure how to vote, here's a quick guide to help you decide:


If you want a _serious_ guide, then I heartily recommend this one, which contains information on how the vote works _and_ a list of pubs that are open all night so you can watch the results come in with a few friends.

There are bound to be people out there using "Computer, End Program" as a safeword.

This thought brought to you by Julie and I reaching "The Inner Light" on our marathon watch of Next Gen.

Neither of us had ever seen all of TNG, so it's been great working our way through all of it on Netflix. And only only a couple of decades late!

And now we have a blood test for depression

Ok, this is pretty amazing. I'm not that impressed by most individual science results, but this one really stands out.

a) They've found a combination of RNA markers that are different in people with depression.
b) When those people had CBT, the ones who got better the levels of those markers changed in the people who it helped.
c) The original RNA markers were different between the people who went on to respond and those that didn't.

As one of the major problems with mental health treatment is that different people respond differently to different treatments, just the third of these is a major breakthrough. Being able to administer a simple blood test and then say "People with Depression(1) get CBT, people with Depression(2) get treatment Y." means getting people useful treatment faster (and not wasting it on people it's not going to help).

More details here.

Caveats - small study (64 people), and I'm sure that we'll find that in a larger pool there are some people who are depressed but don't show up on this test.

Interesting Links for 18-09-2014

• Scottish independence: The parliament that never was (in 1914!)
  (tags: Scotland history independence )
• Scottish independence: Commerzbank says worst case economic scenarios are exaggerated
  (tags: Scotland independence economics )
• Scottish Police Federation "Referendum debate has been robust but overwhelmingly good natured."
  (tags: Scotland independence police )
• Why an independent Scotland could become the richest country on Earth
  (tags: independence Scotland )
• Doctor Who Recap: A Lesson In How To Upset The Fanbase
  (tags: drwho viaJennieRigg )
• A leaked letter from Barack Obama to David Cameron
  (tags: davidcameron independence Scotland obama funny )
• FactCheck: are investors really pulling out of Scotland?
  (tags: business Scotland independence )
• Metallica to Issue 27 Live Albums by End of 2014
  (tags: metallica music viaBartCalendar )
• Artificial sweeteners may leave their users glucose intolerant (by altering stomach bacteria!)
  (tags: sugar glucose bacteria )
• Here's How The Map Of Europe Would Be Redrawn If All The Separatist Movements Got Their Way
  (tags: Europe independence maps )
• DC makes board game. Forgets to put any female characters in. At all.
  (tags: women dc comics games )
• Do men on OKCupid follow the Standard Creepiness Rule?
  (tags: dating onlinedating relationships age OkCupid visualisation )
• Smoking Rates Increase in New York After E-Cigs are Banned
  (tags: epicfail cigarettes newyork usa )
• How Doctors Both Over- and Underdiagnose _At The Same Time_
  (tags: doctors healthcare statistics )
• New branch added to European family tree: Europeans descended from at least 3, not 2, groups of ancient humans
  (tags: evolution history Europe mankind )
• Fighting parents hurt children's ability to recognize and regulate emotions
  (tags: parenting emotion children )

Independence Predictions

I would be unsurprised by anything between 45% Yes and 52% Yes. I am hoping it comes in over 50%, but expecting it to be around 48%.

I'm guessing at 85% turnout, and very happy about that.

I'm hazarding a stab in the dark that the "extra powers for Scotland" will turn out to be entirely illusory.

I predict that 95% of people who have been politically motivated over the last three months will stop doing so as of tomorrow. Which is a massive shame - if we could raise this level of interest over politics across the UK then I'd be a very happy person.