Interesting Links for 11-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• So, what is the problem that people have with Jews
  (tags: Jews bigotry history culture)
• Jewish Problems
  (tags: jews russia bigotry racism mathematics)
• A Celebrity Chef in Narnia. Made me laugh. And hungry.
  (tags: narnia fanfic anthonybourdain tv)
• The Giant, Prehistoric Squid That Ate Common Sense
  (tags: kraken squid archeology science reporting media)
• Warren Ellis on comics, webcomics and the iPad
  (tags: comics webcomics iPad apple)
• We Are All Agents of Kyriarchy
  (tags: kyriarchy privilege power culture society)
• A Fold in the Brain is Linked to Keeping Reality and Imagination Separate
  (tags: imagination reality brains mri)
• Scottish 16-year-olds to be able to vote on independence.
  (tags: scotland independence)
• Back from the Moon, Apollo Astronauts Had to Go Through Customs
  (tags: apollo astronaut customs space)
• The Search for a More Perfect Kilogram
  (tags: science kilogram mass measurement)
• Triassic 'Kraken' may have created self-portrait
  (tags: octopus dinosaurs archeology awesome)

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Thats... I'm shocked that Salmond is doing that. Really genuinely shocked.

[andrewducker]

I think he runs a very real risk of the referendum being dismissed by Westminster if it only passes because of 16 and 16 year olds.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

And that's a really hard sell to the half the voting population who votes no, if it passes because of the younger nationalist voters who are only voting yes because they hate the English.

Such a blatent attempt to gerrymander the result too. It offends my british sense of fair play.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

"Gerrymander" does not mean "extend the franchise". Whenever the franchise was extended (to non-property owners, women, and, as recently as 1969, under-21s), it's been because the party in power knew it hurt the party out of power at that time. That doesnn't make it the wrong thing to do.

Republicans in the US still complain the Democrats "only" win elections because of the non-white vote, and point out that if only white people could vote, the Republicans would win. Then they say they don't mean they think POC shouldn't have the vote, they're just saying.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

How do they know that any yes/no vote came from a 16 year old?

[andrewducker]

If it comes down to 51% yes, 49% no, and we know that 16-year-olds are 7% more likely to vote yes, then we know that the overall result would have been No without them.

[camies.livejournal.com]

Younger people will vote for more extreme parties (from which you could extrapolate that lowering the voting age is a good way to let extremists get more votes). Which may explain the rise of the far right in Austria where the voting age is also 16.

[camies.livejournal.com]

will => will often tend to

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

You do know that you linked to an article, and an article seemingly debunking the first one in the same post, right?

[andrewducker]

Yes. They post in reverse chronological order of me tagging them. Posting them in chronological order instead is on the to-do list.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I think that posting both articles supporting both sides of an argument is to be applauded. That way we can read both, be informed and make up our own minds.

I appreciate that this isn't generally how the internet works though...

[andrewducker]

Thank you.

Having posted the first one, I could have just removed it, but frankly I'm not entirely convinced either way, so more information is good.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why they can't just define a number of atoms of Si28 that's near enough to the kilo, since they can't get that level of precision anyway.

[andrewducker]

Because that would be less accurate than the current method? The point is to replace it with something that's at least as good.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

It would be more accurate, just possibly a wee bit of. But since they don't seem to be able to tell *how* far off they are, won't that do? Or have I misunderstood the problem? These scientists, faffing about with little detail... :p

[zz]

if the hand of the jew lies heavily on the people, is that one jew with a really big hand, or is there some sort of rota, or parallelism like with santa claus?

kyriarchy

[zz]

also, i for one welcome our new Mr Mister overlords.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I shared a flat at Uni with one of the authors of the Fold in the Brain study.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I find it really annoying to read 'God' written as 'G-d' as I suppose it should be no more of an irritation than someone throwing salt over their shoulder. But I find it really irritating! I think because it seems totally self-defeating in a recursive manner: if you change the glyph you use to represent something, you are still representing it!

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Most of the comments under the Votes at 16 article give me cause for concern.

If I had a significant amount of money I would set up a research group to try and inject some factual analysis into the independence debate from a neutral but sympathetic point of view.

[andrewducker]

I have to say that it does look dodgy. As the SNP haven't had it as a manifesto commitment and it does benefit their cause, it looks like it's happening as a sneaky move.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I think of the substance of the proposals. There are definitely some 16 year olds I would "trust" with the vote more than most adults and I think it fair that if you are enough to fight you are old enough to vote.

On the other hand I wonder if the average 16 year old is genuinely as willing and able to make an informed choice as the average adult.

Not sure about the SNP manifesto but I have been told they first mooted votes at 16 in the 60's.