Interesting Links for 8-11-2011
Nov. 8th, 2011 11:00 am- Now _this_ is an email disclaimer
- The Kardashian - a new measure of time.
- Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
- Young foreign spouses ban revoked. Huzzah for the Supreme Court/Human Rights.
- Sometimes your relationship needs a little disrespect.
- Newspaper that hacked phones for illegal surveillance also had lawyers (and their families) followed.
- Mickey Rourke trashes Marvel execs for messing with Iron Man 2
- The High Speed 2 rail link - a good idea, doesn't go far enough.
- More details on opt-out organ donation in Wales.
- On the Movie Set of Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky's Dau. (Like something Stanley Milgram would come up with)
- I just set up a standing order for Wikipedia. Because I use it all the time, and frankly it's worth it.
- The Scottish Government is consulting on same-sex marriage. Make sure they hear your voice.
- Can head shape determine chances of business success? Phrenology's back, yeah!
- Potholers break through the final Three Counties link - Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria now joined underground.
- Gecko-inspired tape strong enough for a 20cm square to hold a person off the ground.
- EU Parliament Votes To Oppose Most Farm Antibiotic Use (non-binding though)
- How to deal with online trolls and abusers. We tell their mothers.
Can head shape determine chances of business success? Phrenology's back, yeah!
Date: 2011-11-08 11:30 am (UTC)However, now we know more about the brain, there might be something in it, but it's going to take a lot to overcome to ridicule and disbelief. I know there is quite a lot of research emerging currently that our face can actually relate a lot of information about our hormones and thus our personality. It is limited as psychology is so very young, but it is developing, as you can see with the Guardian's report.
Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 11:32 am (UTC)I hate real life shopping, although it is a lot easier now most places have websites which allow me to pick what I want to try on, or examine when I visit in RL. Amazon takes care of everything else.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 12:37 pm (UTC)ROFL.
"the offered explanation is, of course, pants."
Yeah, there's a lot of nonsese. Although (with a depressing low bar) it's still better than I might have expected: the journalist rejects the apprarently spurious speculation, and the subheading, while a bit sensationalist, actually refers to what facts there are rather than someone else's innaccurate gloss on them.
The actual facts seem to be:
* An unnamed and uncited "online discount [clothes?] shopping website" did a survey, discovering what certain percentages of women said about their shopping pattenrs
* The proportions are obviously meaningless since there's no suggestion the sample was representative (and it probably wasn't).
* However, the suggestion that some proportion of people feel like this is fairly plausible.
* There is an implied assumption that men don't clothes shop like that. That seems likely true, but is also completely unstated, let alone cited.
* There is a quote which sounds like completely spurious speculation. It's impossible to tell if the psychologist was talking nonsense, was browbeaten into giving a quoteable quote for the newspaper, or quoted completely out of context just to manufacture an article and she originally said something well-researched and/or sensible and/or unrelated.
* If the suggested effect (that women get a specific thrill from shopping) is true, there's no data about the source of the effect: it could be that women more often like shopping (either genetically or culturally), or that the thrill is unisexual, but more women are culturally impelled to express it in clothes shopping, or that everyone reacts about the same way, but women are more often culturally impelled to claim or admit it in the sort of language used, or that the whole thing is spurious, etc, etc,
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 12:42 pm (UTC)Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 12:43 pm (UTC)I do like shopping, but only for things I care about. Clothes shopping sites don't do much for me :->
Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 01:17 pm (UTC)Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 01:32 pm (UTC)Which would explain why I like t-shirt shopping :->
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 02:14 pm (UTC)Counterpoint: I wouldn't. I'll take the hugs, you take the Lamborghini.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 04:09 pm (UTC)Observing that Czech Republic has an opt-out system in place, my son wrote a bit about it here. (http://waitinginline.insanejournal.com/2010/04/18/)
I had to ask about tissue donation when my husband died, but the coroner was prepared to deal with the request and put me in contact with the Muscoloskeletal Tissue Foundation. That actually the best thing about that first year after he died. Despite the soft spirituality tacked onto some of the materials, the rest of their communications were really quite comforting even to an atheist like me (I wanted somebody somewhere to have something nice).
So I'm just saying, I like the idea of opt-out, and opt-out would have been easier for me because it would have just happened, but I hope that the little sentimental touches for the family of the dead would continue.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 04:14 pm (UTC)And I agree - I absolutely do not want to get into a situation where people are made to feel bad for donating, and I would like all concerned to show empathy and understanding.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 05:37 pm (UTC)Hugs alone will not get you a Lamborghini.
[*] Admittedly the hugs might be mercenary rather than sincere in intent ...
no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 06:23 pm (UTC)although this wouldn't work in edinburgh anyway, as one speed bump or pothole and you'd be stuck.
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Date: 2011-11-08 09:39 pm (UTC)Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 09:44 pm (UTC)There are undoubtedly more complex reasons than "Their genes made them that way", but I'm very sceptical of explanations that say "We train them to do X.".
Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 09:44 pm (UTC)Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 10:10 pm (UTC)Re: Do women enjoy shopping more than men? (the offered explanation is, of course, pants.)
Date: 2011-11-08 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-08 11:43 pm (UTC)Possibly because it's so hard to find something that
a) fits; AND
b) is in a fabric that doesn't make my skin itch like crazy; AND
c) is in a colour that I like; AND
d) is in a style that I like.
Plus, shop assistants are always so awkward about the fact that I'm a Australian size 18 or size 20 (equivalent to a UK size 16 to 18.)
"Oh, we only go to a size 14..."
I buy most of my clothes from Etsy (www.etsy.com) instead, and have them made-to-measure.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-09 12:22 am (UTC)