Interesting Links for 24-1-2011

[andrewducker]

• Astrologers angered by BBC bias against utter bollocks.
  (tags: astrology astronomy bbc)
• I have seen the future - and it's goth. (Amusing article in the lifestyle section of The Guardian)
  (tags: goth TheFuture)
• Season 5 of Mad Men not greenlit yet, because the studios are still arguing over money
  (tags: MadMen tv)
• 60% of AOL's Profits Come From Misinformed Customers
  (tags: aol scam wtf)
• Secret papers reveal slow death of Middle East peace process
  (tags: israel palestine)
• HIV uses RNA - Unexpected Find Opens Up New Front in Effort to Stop HIV
  (tags: HIV medicine scien e)
• Bill Clinton lost nuclear strike codes. For months...
  (tags: military security usa weapons nuclear)
• Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried As Black Adult
  (tags: funny satire race video)
• The 11 Best/Worst Vagina Tattoos Of All Time.
  (tags: tattoo wtf vagina)
• Foreign Nationals to have mandatory ID in the UK?
  (tags: identity uk)
• X-Men family tree.
  (tags: x-men comics infographics)
• Greenland Ice Sheets Melt At Record Rate In 2010
  (tags: greenland globalwarming)
• Rate My Instructor: Professor X
  (tags: funny x-men)

Comments

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Foreign Nationals to have mandatory ID in the UK?

Worrying development if this comes to pass, and who's to say it won't be the consolation prize for Raytheon after the collapse of Blunkett's original dogtag scheme?

One bit of brighter news though, which crept under the radar; New Labour's plans to scrap the existing Common Travel Area throughout the British Isles appear to have been dropped, according to the Isle of Man government.

[andrewducker]

Frankly, I wish we were in the Schengen Agreement, so I'm definitely in favour of this.

[wren montgomery (from livejournal.com)]

Foreign nationals already *have* mandatory ID in the UK. It's called a visa or a residence permit, unless one is visiting from the EU, in which case it's a passport.

The UK already collects biometric data from a variety of categories of foreign nationals. All this appears to be is a (long-needed*) attempt to uniformize and enforce it at the border, which is what most countries (I'm specifically thinking of the US although I've heard other places do it too) do. At present, the data is supposed to be collected at an embassy prior to immigration, which leads to confusion all over since embassies are operated by the Foreign Office and not UKBA. So it may turn out to be a good thing for foreign nationals.

* You can argue about whether the collection of biometrics is a good or bad thing all day, the point I'm making is that the UK is really, really disorganized and inconsistent about enforcing their existing policy.

[andrewducker]

Aha! That's really useful to know. Thank you!

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Gah... one of those tattoos depicts a vagina. None of those tattoos are on or around a vagina. The labia is not a vagina any more than your arse is your penis. At least, not officially. It's getting so horribly common a mistake that I suppose colloquially the word is coming to be interchangeable.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Would you prefer "pussy" as a word to encompass the general area?

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

In terms of accuracy, yes, although I think that in using "vagina" people are deliberately attempting to avoid the slang, so they should probably be writing "labia" instead. It's the difference between cock and penis. Or claiming that you're showing pierced testicles while actually presenting prince albert piercings - whether they say tackle, cock or penis is not the relevant bit, it's getting the actual bodypart labeled accurately that is.

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Most of them aren't tattoos at all, they are photoshopped, so doubly inaccurate.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Brian Cox eh? Always whinging about something. Typical pisces...

[andrewducker]

I was sure _someone_ would make that joke. But then, being a Leo, I tend to be sure of everything.