Interesting Links for 8-8-2011

[andrewducker]

• Jonathan's Card - a social experiment involving coffee
  (tags: coffee social experiment)
• Rebekah Brooks has NOT resigned from News International
  (tags: newspapers RupertMurdoch business)
• The abused young are more likely to become abusers themselves (now seen in seabirds)
  (tags: birds abuse psychology)
• Bubble Universe (A Short Story)
  (tags: scifi short_story AndrewHickey)
• Scientists have fundamentally transformed the understanding of the genetics of schizophrenia.
  (tags: schizophrenia genetics)
• Top Gear caught faking problems with electric cars. Again.
  (tags: bbc tv cars TopGear)
• People that are long-lived just as likely to drink and smoke as everyone else.
  (tags: jews diet smoking drinking health)
• Reasons for ordinary people not to take drugs
  (tags: drugs advice)
• Imaginary Feminism 101
  (tags: feminism)
• A comedian's thoughts on rape jokes.
  (tags: comedy rape)
• Georgia got rid of their illegal immigrants. Now there aren't enough workers to harvest their crops.
  (tags: usa immigration work farming)
• A Few Good Things The Lib Dems Are Doing
  (tags: libdem politics uk)
• What satnavs need if they're going to be useful in Africa.
  (tags: technology navigation funny)

Comments

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

I clicked on the drinking and smoking story hoping for something about how Manischewitz is the best booze of all, but I didn't see anything Jewy about the story at all! I don't understand the tag I'm afraid...

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

The study was done on a group of Ashkenazi Jews, to ensure a relatively homogenous genetic background.

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you! I did miss that at the beginning.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I think the rule should be "Don't make rape jokes unless you are Bob Saget or Sarah Silverman - because they are the only people who are able to do them without making people feel dirty."

Rule #2 should be "Don't make jokes about crack whore magazine unless you are Eric Cartman."

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

The comments on that Georgia story are terrifying.

[nwhyte]

I found the African satnav one a bit offensive - as if conflicts happen all over Africa, or only in Africa.

I have actually had the experience of trying to get around a small part of Sudan in a car which had a satnav fitted (though it did not have Sudanese maps installed), and what is actually needed is for the GPS coordinates for Sudanese towns to be plugged into the system; that would make life easier for everyone, especially honest travellers of peaceable intent.

Perhaps it would be funnier if I knew anything about Portal 2.

[andrewducker]

I agree that it's not just Africa that has problems - the same would be true in any area where there's a lot of conflict. Africa tends to be characterised that way, and it's undoubtedly true of many other areas. I wouldn't want to drive through large chunks of Central America, for instance, without checking what kind of territory I was about to go through.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

While "Africa tends to be characterised that way", I have spent a lot of time in Africa, usually in the area of Cape Town. It's a bit like if the first thing that came to mind for people's association for "Europe" was Irish jokes.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

We have the same problem in agriculture here in the UK, we absolutely depend on the migrant workforce for harvests.

Long gone are the days when students would do picking all summer.

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

The long-lived post is also a bit misleading; they looked only at people over 95. The conclusion they should come to (given how likely people are to die from drinking and smoking overall) is that if drink or cigarettes are going to kill you then they'll probably do so before you're 95. Sounds about right to me.

[andrewducker]

Cheers. I was hoping for some commentary on that one, because it feels rather dubious to me.

However, if 60% of the smokers have been killed off by the age of 95, and only 30% of the non-smokers, then wouldn't you expect more non-smokers in that age-bracket?

(Pulling those numbers out of the air)

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

You could also say it just supports that Ashkenazi Jews have particularly hardy genes.

The did a study a while back on smoking and lung cancer rates and found that people who lived in coal mining towns in both the US and Scotland had lower lung cancer rates related to smoking - but what that pretty much proved was that generations of mining coal results eventually in offspring with lungs that can handle anything.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Somewhat reminiscent of an Alexi Sayle joke: It isn't what killed your parents but what kills your grandparents that matters. So if he could avoid Cossack pogroms he would be okay.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Depends on the proportions of smokers and non-smokers that you start with.

If you have a population of 97 smokers and 3 non-smokers and 1 non-smoker (33%) is hit by a bus at the age of 20 and then 64 smokers (about 66%) die of lung cancer you are left with 33 smokers and 2 non-smokers surviving, which is still more smokers than non-smokers even though the death-rate amongst smokers was higher.

I suspect that if 100% of people who would be 95 now if only they had lived had done so then a rather higher proportion of them would be smokers than the proportion of young people today who are smokers.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the death rate is higher at around 60 than at around 75, so there could well be a selection effect.

[soon_lee]

New Zealand recently implemented a seasonal migrant work scheme for horticulture & viticulture, recognising that we didn't have enough people willing to work there especially during the harvest period.

The scheme seems to be working well: workers (mainly from the Pacific Islands) earn more in the few months of work than the rest of the year combined.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

The solution to the problem in Georgia will probably end up being prison labour.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I'm trying to find an actual graph for the Jonathan's Card thing, and failing...

[camies.livejournal.com]

How about this: that a lot of people who drink regularly do so as part of having a complex and rewarding social and personal life, as a result of which they feel more valued and emotionally involved, which helps them to stay active and possibly live longer.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Via Penny Arcade, Jonathan's Card is apparently a viral marketing thing: http://www.coffeestrategies.com/2011/08/08/starbucks-and-the-starkbucks-jonathan-card-viral-marketing-campaign