Interesting Links for 21-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• The world is squeezing us more than Mr Osborne
  (tags: globalization pay uk)
• Alien Hand Syndrome sees woman attacked by her own hand. The brain is awesome! And a little scary.
  (tags: brains psychology)
• The truth about TV ratings, online viewing and sci-fi shows
  (tags: tv ratings scifi)
• Comparisons of male and female character art in World of Warcraft
  (tags: WorldOfWarcraft art gender sex)
• Labour planned to axe the EMA in 2015 (when school leaving age is raised to 18).
  (tags: labour politics uk education)
• "Personal Jesus" as covered by Gravity Kills. I must have listened to this 30 times in the last week.
  (tags: music DepecheMode)
• Homeopathy is witchcraft, say doctors
  (tags: homeopathy health medicine nhs badscience uk)
• What two feet of snow look like.
  (tags: snow photo funny)
• A challenge for you. See if you can manage this (needs volume, and two of your earth minutes).
  (tags: meditation 2minutes nothing)
• Top Civil Servant Says Government Departments Lost Control Of Public Spending Under Labour
  (tags: spending government labour)
• Scientists Grow Human Liver Tissue to be Used for Transplantation
  (tags: medicine health biology TheFuture)
• George Lucas denies believing the world will end in 2012. Says Elvis will be in Indy 5.
  (tags: funny GeorgeLucas 2012)
• More than 100 alleged mobsters arrested in northeast US
  (tags: crime mafia usa)
• What do we really know about love? More than you'd think...
  (tags: love emotion psychology)
• 28-days detention without charge to be allowed to lapse. Hoo-fucking-ray!
  (tags: rights uk government EpicWin)
• Recorded crime continues to fall in England and Wales - down 7% overall, all categories down except sexual offences
  (tags: crime uk)

Comments

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

One thing about a higher sexual offence stat - it's usually a good thing as it means the report rate is up, rather than the incidence (necessarily).

[andrewducker]

I certainly hope that's the case.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Or they've just redefined the categories as to what constitutes a sexual offence (could sexting between teenagers now be two counts of sexual liaison involving a minor plus an offence under publishing/electronic communication legislation?) to massage the figures like they always do.

Yes, I'm being flippant but you know what I mean.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

The data on this are actually quite good, but the media rarely reports it well. The Home Office reports recorded crime together with the British Crime Survey, which is a half-decent measure of crime experienced. A quick flick at the original data (see e.g. http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb1210.pdf) suggests that 'the report rate is up' is exactly what's going on here.

'Most serious sexual crime' recorded by the police ws up 7%, but the BCS datashow 'There were no changes in the overall prevalence of sexual assault between 2008/09 and 2009/10. The overall prevalence of sexual assault has fallen since 2004/05'. The simplest and most likely (though not only) explanation of the data is that there are slightly fewer sexual assaults going on but significantly more of them are resulting in a crime being recorded by the police.

It's still a startlingly low rate of reporting, though.

Homeopathy

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Well, if homeopathy works, we can give them dilute their funding a million times and they'll manage fine.

Re: Homeopathy

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

+1

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I agree entirely with the doctor about homeopathy being just like witchcraft but since he doesn't elaborate, I'm unclear whether his reasoning is that both are headology (as Pratchett so wonderfully calls it) or whether he is just using witchcraft as a derogatory term without being aware he is also correct.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

In any case it sounds like a safer placebo than Horny Goat Weed -- or Vioxx.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

He's being derogatory, fulling knowing EXACTLY why he's correct. He's simply not getting the same rhetorical effect if he calls it "Christianity" or "Scientology" or "complete nonsense", despite those all being, contextually, synonymous with homeopathy and witchcraft.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I was going more for the similarity between the power of placebos and the ability of people to believe they have changed the world by brainwashing themselves, but I'm sure you are quite correct about his reasoning on the matter.

[snarlish.livejournal.com]

I really can't tire of listening to covers and remixes of Depeche Mode songs. I guess because the originals were usually so clean. I remember buying the cd single of PJ and Enjoy the silence which had a several different versions from them.

Still, I haven't really heard anyone take a DM song and totally transform it. (ie, Johnny cash's version breaks your heart in two and then wraps it up, but it's still basicly DM's Melody and stresses).

Found myself listening to Joan Baez's 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave you' over and over again. Led Zep's version completely owned it for hard rock, but Baez's recording gives me chills.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I managed the two-minute challenge okay, which isn't surprising, since I meditate quite often. I found the timer ticking down actually made it harder, though.