Interesting Links for 25-10-2011

[andrewducker]

• On Parenthood. A touching and funny piece on the changes children bring.
  (tags: children life emotion )
• Tony Blair is now doing Public Relations work for repressive regimes
  (tags: tonyblair diplomacy kazakhstan )
• Man demoted for having non-job-related opinions on Facebook.
  (tags: freespeech lgbt uk social_networking facebook )
• Zimbabwe's PM Morgan Tsvangirai in gay rights U-turn
  (tags: lgbt rights zimbabwe )
• Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing. Nice cast.
  (tags: shakespeare joss_whedon )
• Emotional experiences are lessened by talking about them, utilitarian ones are increased.
  (tags: emotion experience psychology )
• Exposure to chemical BPA before birth linked to behavioral, emotional difficulties in girls
  (tags: children gender development emotion )
• More time outdoors may reduce kids' risk for nearsightedness
  (tags: sight eyesight )
• Physicist Cracks BBQ Mystery
  (tags: cooking food barbequeue science )
• How Valve experiments with the economics of video games - GeekWire
  "The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates."
  (tags: valve economics games business steam )
• FBI Changes Rape Definition
  (tags: rape usa fbi )
• The Hobbit as JRR Tolkien imagined it – in pictures
  (tags: Tolkein thehobbit )
• Which? magazine to test value of degrees
  (tags: education university reviews )
• “We’re a culture, not a costume." - an eye-catching anti-racism campaign
  (tags: race cultural_appropriation )
• There are 10cm wide single-celled organisms living 6 miles down under the sea.
  (tags: sea life )
• Financial incentives for wave and tidal energy schemes to double, wind,biomass to drop by 10%
  (tags: renewables electricity uk )
• American-style sugar daddy parties are coming to UK. I had never heard of this.
  (tags: uk usa relationships age )

Comments

Parenting

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Kids are like one of those computer games when you start out with a peasant in a field, and work up to the complexity if an Empire over the next 100 or so playing hours.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

A claim that children whose mothers didn't bond with them (mothers aren't blamed-- it's caused by early separation as a matter of hospital policy-- is connected with asthma.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I think the most interesting thing about that sugar daddy article is how it illustrates once again the amazing capacity of human beings for self-delusion.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. It's a situation that's always existed, and it only feels creepy to me because it's quite so formal. But they're clearly not being honest about it.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

They are being as honest as they can be. If they said to a reporter what was really going on they'd get arrested.

I seriously doubt anyone at those parties is deluding themselves about what they are doing.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Joss shooting a Shakespere play in black and white over a 12 day period with Caleb in the staring role is either going to be awesome or awful.

[andrewducker]

From the layout, it's Alexis Denisof as Benedick. If Nathan Fillion was younger then I think he'd be perfect in it, but he know feels a bit old to me.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I'm more worried that the fact that they did it in 12 days with no rehearsal and he's already talking it up for the film festival circuit means it's going to be both sloppy and pretentious at the same time.

[andrewducker]

I hadn't heard it was without rehearsal. I know that Joss has reading parties all the time, so I assumed it had come out of that, in which case they might be reasonably well rehearsed from doing the play a few times.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

That could be. I'm getting my news on this from Google and it's pointing me to the sketchiest movie news reporting blogs I've ever seen.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Weirder then the Sugar Daddy Parties are the "Houseboy Parties" where older wealthy gay men meet to hook up with young gay men who don't have much money.

The idea being they'll come to an arrangement where the "boy" (usually between 18 and 21) will live in the dude's home, keep it clean, do the shopping, act as a personal assistant and cater to all of the older man's sexual needs for a set salary (Usually about $150k) plus room and board.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

For some reason I find that article about parenthood absolutely terrifying. And I'm not sure why yet.

[andrewducker]

You don't fancy having your brain chemistry upended by a small, defenseless, totally reliant blob?

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yes. The way the article describes it, it does very much sound as if ones brain chemistry and indeed very sense of self-identity, is radically altered.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Having children.....it's not natural I tells ya.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

For sure.

I think it's also the part where one goes from being the most important person in ones wifes life, to being, distinctly second place, that concerns me.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Also you'll start thinking that , since your child is important to you, it follows that your child is important to everyone you know, even people you've only just met.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

And fail to pick up on the fact that your friends have started trying to stab you in the face when you start talking yet again about your childs poop.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Tip for parents: That friend you have who doesn't have kids of their own - maybe they don't LIKE children.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Tip #2: One snapshot of your child doing something cute is vaguely interesting. Any more than one, and the person you are showing them to is secretly planning to murder you.

[cairmen.livejournal.com]

That BBQ article was fascinating - thanks!

[andrewducker]

I was thinking of you when I saved it!