Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-16-2010

[andrewducker]

• Detention of immigrant children to end. And about time too.
  (tags: immigration children rights uk)
• On how hard it is for men to open up to each other.
  (tags: emotion men relationships)
• "Killing Elvis" - an "Aliens" short story. Utterly awesome.
  (tags: aliens alien fanfic)
• All drugs should be legalised to beat dealers, says former drugs minister. Wish they'd said this when they were in power...
  (tags: drugs law uk government)
• "Passive Aggressive Christmas", a short song.
  (tags: funny christmas)
• Lockerbie bomber freed after Gaddafi's 'thuggish' threats (and offered bribes)
  (tags: libya scotland uk terrorism)
• A diplomat talks about Wikileaks
  (tags: wikileaks diplomacy)
• People who believe in justice also see a victim's life as more meaningful after tragedy
  (tags: psychology meaning)
• Segregation hits 100-year lows in most American metro areas (still a ways to go)
  (tags: culture tolerance race usa)
• Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook named Time's person of 2010. Not bad, but I was hoping for Assange.
  (tags: Time MarkZuckerberg facebook)
• Scientists can change people's moral judgements by disrupting a specific area of the brain with magnetic pulses.
  (tags: brain magnets morality morals neuroscience psychology)
• Violent games not to blame for youth aggression, depression is
  (tags: videogames computer_games aggression depression psychology society)
• Swedes happier than before. All down to family, friends. Clothes and appearance not factors.
  (tags: sweden happiness)

Comments

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

All drugs should be legalised to beat dealers, says former drugs minister. Wish they'd said this when they were in power...


prediction: This will happen again - the current or next drugs minister will say the same thing when they're safely retired.

[broin.livejournal.com]

Killing Elvis was fun, cheers. Man, have they never seen the movies?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Wait, scientists use an MRI in reverse to turn on and off subject's moral centres? Didn't I read a horror story about that? Possibly Deepness in the Sky?

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Deepness in the Sky had people being "focussed" which to me looked more like Aspergers-style obsession to the exclusion of being a general-purpose human being. I don't recall the mechanism whereby it was done, that wasn't a major plot point.

[andrewducker]

Yup. Well, Deepness... turned off people's independence, if I remember correctly.

And you'll see more of this type of thing as time goes on. We're in the early stages of learning everything about the brain/mind. Wait until life starts looking like Greg Egan short stories...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There's much weirder science-fiction to bring to life yet. But I find it weird every time I see part of the emergent dystopia coming to life :)

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

werejud, who used to work with asylum seekers, says that the "detention of children" thing is not as good news as it sounds unless it's paired with other legislation, sadly - seems like it's a bit of a soundbite-seek.

[andrewducker]

I'd like to know more about this. I know the number of children in detention centres has dropped from about 1000 to about 50 - but I have no idea how it's been done, or whether the current situation is an improvement or not...

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

I shall prod her to comment.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

"new form of alien life announced, shot"

ROFL. That story was lovely. Never trust important life-safety procedures to someone called "burk" :)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I honestly think that people who directly blame violent tv/films/video games for general violent activity are either just thick, liars or else have some kind of odd mental problems.

Either they're stupid, or lying, or else they have somehow managed to block out hundreds of years before said forms of entertainment where people managed to be violent all by themselves.

"Ezekiel, you fool! You can't read the old testmament to young David - you KNOW that promotes violence. If you read Genesis to him then he'll end up out on the street, biting the watchman again!"

I've no problem accepting that people who are already unstable might be tipped over the edge by a computer game, but they could be by a book, or a church sermon too.

On the other hand, I would say that some computer games are unpleasantly violent.

[andrewducker]

I'm not convinced that violence should be pleasant :->

(Actually, I don't mind it being either way. Mario's pretty damn violent, but that's presented in a fluffy way. But games presenting violence in a realistic manner are fine by me too.)

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Often they stand to gain personally from drumming up hysteria. That's "liar" is suppose, but it's a specific kind of liar.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

"liar" includes Fox News/Daily Mail/government spokesman :-p

[draconid.livejournal.com]

I presume you've seen this? http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/is-yahoo-shutting-down-del-icio-us/

[andrewducker]

Aieeeee!

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

"Killing Elvis" was amazing.