Interesting Links for 29-11-2011

[andrewducker]

• Firefox – tons of tools for web developers!
  (tags: tools web javascript firebug development firefox )
• Women, apparently, are not ethereal bundles of strangeness beyond the ken of mankind.
  I've been meaning to write a rant about this for ages. And now I don't have to!
  (tags: people women )
• The importance of the open internet: BBC Trust Vice Chairman on net neutrality
  (tags: bbc internet )
• Those who support democracy must welcome the rise of political Islam (it's better than _non_ political Islam)
  (tags: democracy islam arab )
• Doctor Who moving to autumn, confirms Steven Moffat
  (tags: drwho tv )
• Functional brain pathways disrupted in children with ADHD
  (tags: adhd brain psychology )
• Cutting their own throats - how the big publishers insistence on DRM is destroying them.
  (tags: books ebooks amazon drm business publishing )
• How the brain strings words into sentences
  (tags: brain psychology language )
• Why "agree to disagree" is a bad move.
  (tags: argument belief )
• The US Military has plans to deal with a "post-antibiotic era"
  (tags: antibiotics medicine Technology )

Comments

[thejeopardymaze]

I'm afraid I have to agree with the people in this thread here-
http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/2588970.html?thread=19980586#t19980586

And another thing, if you care that much if your friends are atheists anyway (ie, agree with you a hundred percent over paranormal matters), why even bother to have friends with those who are not? If you think your religious friends are that self-deluded and insane, why continue? He should have just wrote a piece about why atheists need to be more careful about who to be friends with than the supposed problems of agreeing to disagree instead, that would be more honest.

This is something that's bothered me lately about some types of neo-atheists out there. Far be it from me to argue with them since it's not my business about what they believe or not, but if they really have such a disrespect for religious peoples' beliefs then they need to stop being friends or lovers with them and do their best to only associate themselves with those they agree with.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Why "agree to disagree" is a bad move.

My own reading of this piece is that being the sort of blowhard who values winning an argument over maintaining a friendship (or at minimum not causing a huge fight) is not a useful tactic for maintaining social harmony or indeed friends.

[andrewducker]

I disagree entirely. He makes it clear that he's grateful that they are still friends, that he finds it stressful debating, and that he dropped it several times to find her bringing it back up again. That doesn't match the picture you've just painted at all.

[drjon.livejournal.com]

I don't know person writing or the person being writ about, but I rather suspect that "Sharon" might paint an entirely different picture of their afternoon, right down to disagreeing with many of his assertions about their conversation.

But to be honest, he sounds to me like a douche anyway. Apologies.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

This. If he was debating the way he's written about the discussion, well I'm surprised they're still friends honestly.

Women

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

The problem is actually "people" are mysterious and hard to read, and hard to know. It's just that for straight men, the women are the people who most matters.

Re: Women

[andrewducker]

I think that a lot of people dismiss "Likes different things to me" as "Has a completely different approach to the world as me" - which is a bad start. Building "And I could never understand why those differences exist, they are unexplainable." is frequently lumped on top as a way of avoiding having to think about other people's emotions/thoughts. If you _can't_ understand them then you don't even have to try!

Re: Women

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

True. But at the same time the Myers-Briggs test and similar provide the stunning incite that other people really are different. For instance, the Introvert doesn't actually WANT to be the life and soul of the party.

I'm starting to think that "We are what we do" is fine, as long as you unpick the direct causation a bit.

Re: Women

[andrewducker]

Oh, people are different - but the differences are frequently smaller than people make out, and they all have explanations if you actually look into it. There's no veil of mystery beyond which we are forbidden to look.

Re: Women

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I am as INTP as it gets (via a proper M-B test rather than any internet quiz-site) and I can be the life & soul, etc. It just wears me right out.

Re: Women

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Yes, but if people said, "OMG. Andrew keeps withdrawing into himself after parties. What's the matter with him?" they would be on a hiding to nothing. Introverts need to recharge in private. It's not a deficiency or theatrics.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

That rant about women being human is a thing of beauty - very true and very well put.

I disagree with the 'agree to disagree' rant though - when I use the phrase I mean 'let's stop arguing because we aren't learning anything, are never going to agree, and I don't want to never speak to you again' not 'we are both equally right and equally wrong', and it has never occurred to me that people would use to it to mean the later. The problem the poster has is that his friend may have said 'let's agree to disagree' but if she then kept harping on about it, she obviously didn't mean it.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - I've heard it used as a "Let's not have a fight here.", but also as a "I can tell that my argument isn't working, so I want to get what I can out of this, if only you will say that we're coming out of it even."

The first is absolutely fine by me, the latter tends to frustrate me a lot.

[simont]

I disagree with the 'agree to disagree' rant though

I agree! ;-)

(Yes, I think it does very much depend on what was meant by the person saying it, and I think I'd more normally expect it to mean "let's not allow our abiding disagreement over this to destroy the rest of our friendship" than any kind of "let's declare it an equal-scores draw".)

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

it's a phrase I will use mostly when the argument is purely a matter of personal taste. Like Metallica vs Iron Maiden or iOS vs Android.

the latter still happens rather a lot too much.

[andrewducker]

_Clearly_ iOS is better than Iron Maiden.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

I kinda have to agree with you there.... though it feels wrong to do so

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

'Hey, let's make it impossible for people to use the stuff we sell them on anything except *this* specific media player, which we don't own, and sell it through a channel that we cannot control'


whichever fucking clown thought that sounded good ought to have been fired and sued to death a very long time ago.
technological Darwinism at its most egregious.

ps. have they figured out that suing customers is an extremely bad idea, yet?

[zz]

Women, apparently, are not ethereal bundles of strangeness beyond the ken of mankind.

well, of course not - they don't exist.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I AM A BUTTERFLY

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

Women, apparently, are not ethereal bundles of strangeness beyond the ken of mankind.
I've been meaning to write a rant about this for ages. And now I don't have to!(tags: people women )
Oh just amen and thanks for posting. :)

[fub.livejournal.com]

I don't get the fears for Islamic political parties. I mean, post-war Netherlands has been ruled by coalitions containing christian democrats (with one or two notable 'experiments') and I would say we're mostly secular. (Or at least, secular enough that an atheist like me doesn't get any hassle for being one.)
Yes, we do have fundamentalist christians in the country, and they do have their own party. And they're pretty powerful right now, because the minority government needs their support (of 2 seats) to get their stuff done. But mostly their hot-button issues are really minor ones.

I don't see how that couldn't work in Arab countries, except with islam instead of christianity.

[andrewducker]

So long as the Christians realise they can't push things too far, or they won't get into a coalition, that's fine :->

And I'd rather have Muslims represented in a parliament than fighting to control places. If everyone gets used to being voted in and out then they're less likely to get so upset that you have a revolution...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Caractacus can now make sentences like 'eat them me!' which means she's going to eat the previously mentioned thing. Or 'Mummy Caractacus cut hair', which means her mother cut her hair. It's fascinating to watch the development!