Interesting Links for 26-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• No incidents reported since DADT repealed
  (tags: video lgbt usa military viaSkreidle )
• The Wormworld Saga Chapter Two is now online!
  (tags: comics art webcomic fantasy )
• This is pretty much how I feel about Christmas
  (tags: christmas religion )
• Daily Mail discovers the dangers of embedding content
  (tags: DailyMail funny )
• A Very Portal Christmas Tree
  (tags: portal christmas )
• Cupcake Deemed 'Security Threat,' Confiscated By TSA
  (tags: security food )
• Decades later, a Cold War secret is revealed
  (tags: spying usa )
• The Myth of Japan's 'Lost Decades'
  (tags: japan economics )
• HTTP Status Dogs
  (tags: http dogs funny photo )
• If you are unhappy about LJ's update, here is some information about it, and suggested fixes
  (tags: livejournal )
• New LJ prototype - here is what LJ is headed for
  (tags: livejournal )

Comments

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

New LJ doesn't look that bad to me.

[andrewducker]

To be honest, not me either.

What I'm not happy about is the fact that my comments stopped working properly, and to fix them I had to switch to S2, and don't like this design nearly as much. I was hoping to spend time fixing the design over Christmas, but being ill (and socialising with family) mostly put a stop to that so far!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

New LJ looks horrible, I'm sure I'll get used to it. But I'll be cross posting to Dreamwidth I think.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The company which made the cupcakes the TSA took has a t-shirt advertising the fact.

[andrewducker]

That's a fantastic response!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly prepared to believe that Japan's "economic growth" and "gross domestic product" are flat, and also that the Japanese people are prospering. This is just more confirmation of what I've always suspected, that the prosperity of the people has little or nothing to do with the rate at which the assets owned by the wealthy minority are appreciating in value.

Note that Japan's population is shrinking, a disaster for the few who would benefit from charging rent to tenants and employing the labour of workers. To the actual people? It's a win, as one lifetime of labour still builds one lifetime's-labour worth of new capital, but there's more land, and more of the old capital to go around, to the consternation of landlords. It's all in Ricardo's theory of rent...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

From memory, the unemployment rate during Japan's lost decades is significantly higher - like about twice as much or more. And worse for younger people, and job security is lower too. Admittedly their starting unemployment rate (in the 70s and 80s) was really spectacularly low, so (again from memory) it's still low by international standards (especially if you pick e.g. Greece!) but a big social problem nonetheless.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I love HTTP Status Dogs a great deal. :D

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

"Yummy cupcake and $500 in cash confiscated as terrorist threat. 'Mmmfmf, mmmfhmfh, you can't be too careful, yum,' said one screener, rubbing his hands together."

[andrewducker]

Having seen a bottle of Scotch confiscated a few trips ago, I do wonder what happens to them...