Interesting Links for 9-2-2011

[andrewducker]

• House of Lords to use AV voting to elect new member, despite many members not wanting it to be used by the public.
  (tags: av voting uk)
• Finance industry provides over 50% of Conservative funding
  (tags: conservatives finance uk)
• The Best Questions For A First Date (based on science! Or, at least, statistics)
  (tags: dating statistics research okcupid relationships)
• Detroit mayor says no plans for RoboCop statue. Booooo!
  (tags: robocop detroit)
• Interview Tanya Jessen, Lead Producer on Bulletstorm - worth reading for the boob discussion...
  (tags: games women breasts computer_games)
• On the filing of books by race
  (tags: books privilege publishing race)
• Man saves own life with doner kebab
  (tags: food)
• A Staggering Look at Airline Baggage Fees. The changes over the last three years are _massive_.
  (tags: travel airlines usa flight)
• Mubarak's not a dictator. And Darth Vader is just misunderstood. And Colonel Kurtz supports our interests.
  (tags: funny politics egypt)
• When philosophers crack wise. Some very funny stories/quotes from Sidney Morgenbesser.
  (tags: funny philosophy)
• Francis Ford Coppola On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration. Absolutely fascinating.
  (tags: film art creativity inspiration interview cinema coppola)
• Android goes virtual - bundling the VM allows Android apps to be run on a Maemo/Nokia
  (tags: mobile_phones java vm android)
• Eating vegetables changes skin colour, increases attractiveness.
  (tags: attraction vegetables)
• Booksellers feeling stabbed in the back by their own association.
  (tags: books business)
• Paul Haggis Vs. the Church of Scientology
  (tags: scientology hollywood)

Comments

[cyprinella]

The checked luggage fee is so infuriating, especially when it comes at a time when it's almost impossible to go on any sort of trip longer than a day or two with just a carry on because of the stupid fluids nonsense. And I can't believe that the IRS decided that the fees weren't taxable. 2.5 billion dollars that's not taxable? JFC.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I heard about World Book Night about a month ago. It looked a shambles -- I was interested in getting involved, but I couldn't find out what the whole 'giving' lark actually involved -- would I be expected to be at a bookshop, walk the streets at random, visit friends with books, or what?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

You've posted that filing books by race thing before, or something basically the same.

If I go into a Waterstones, books are filed by gender, sexuality, by class (effectively, anyway) and by nationality. If all that is the case, why would they not be filed by race?

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

They're not filed by gender, they're filed by genre - it's sometimes strongly correlated but it's not the same thing. Even the children's books aren't filed by gender (unlike the children's toys). Fiction is filed by language, which is inescapable, but not by nationality. I don't know whether most Waterstones have a "gay interest" section though.

Lambeth libraries do normally have a prominent Black Fiction section, from my cursory glances they appear to be dominated by erotica/romance, which is a little offputting. They seem to think it's valuable to their clientele though - I guess if you want to read certain sorts of genre regardless of author name then it's handy to have them filed together, but it's not doing Toni Morrison any favours.