Interesting Links for 05-11-2018

From David Tennant to Jodie Whittaker with the help of seven months of HRT.

(tags: transgender lgbt cosplay viaSwampers drwho )

Rules for Dining Out – How a frugal economist finds the perfect lunch

(tags: food economics advice restaurant )

A 70-Year Study of 70,000 Children On the Secret to Raising Successful Kids

(tags: parenting research )

Real Progress in Parkinson’s

(tags: disease research brain )

Two Caribbean countries vote on a colonial court - London or local?

(tags: law Caribbean referendum )

The curious case of the unpopular Brexit Deal that *everyone* seems to think will happen. Why it will, why it might not, and, most importantly, why it shouldn’t.

(tags: UK europe doom )

Map of the incredible decline in child mortality from 1800 to 1950 to 2015.

(tags: children death GoodNews )

The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise costing the lives of dozens of agents.

(tags: spying epicfail cia usa Iran china )

How to explain the KGB’s amazing success identifying CIA agents in the field?

Thus one productive line of inquiry quickly yielded evidence: the differences in the way agency officers undercover as diplomats were treated from genuine foreign service officers (FSOs). The pay scale at entry was much higher for a CIA officer; after three to four years abroad a genuine FSO could return home, whereas an agency employee could not; real FSOs had to be recruited between the ages of 21 and 31, whereas this did not apply to an agency officer; only real FSOs had to attend the Institute of Foreign Service for three months before entering the service; naturalized Americans could not become FSOs for at least nine years but they could become agency employees; when agency officers returned home, they did not normally appear in State Department listings; should they appear they were classified as research and planning, research and intelligence, consular or chancery for security affairs; unlike FSOs, agency officers could change their place of work for no apparent reason; their published biographies contained obvious gaps; agency officers could be relocated within the country to which they were posted, FSOs were not; agency officers usually had more than one working foreign language; their cover was usually as a “political” or “consular” official (often vice-consul); internal embassy reorganizations usually left agency personnel untouched, whether their rank, their office space or their telephones; their offices were located in restricted zones within the embassy; they would appear on the streets during the working day using public telephone boxes; they would arrange meetings for the evening, out of town, usually around 7.30 p.m. or 8.00 p.m.; and whereas FSOs had to observe strict rules about attending dinner, agency officers could come and go as they pleased.
(tags: cia Russia spying epicfail )

Street advertising boards banned in Edinburgh

(tags: advertising edinburgh )

Finally a reason to be jealous of North Korea

(tags: NorthKorea advertising buses )

Online program helps prevent teen depression

(tags: depression teenagers web )

More landlords to be forced to improve energy efficiency (but not enough of them)

(tags: rental heating uk )