Interesting Links for 30-01-2012

[andrewducker]

• The Shakespeare Code: A Short Story
  (tags: shortstory story shakespeare )
• The strong principle of charity (I find this to be true 98% of the time, and dangerous the other 2%)
  (tags: society people intentions )
• Wind Electricity To Be Fully Competitive With Natural Gas by 2016
  (tags: wind renewables )
• Some gorgeous post-apocalyptic art.
  (tags: future scifi art )
• Fleshlight Developing an iPad Case You Can Have Sex With. If you love your iPad _that_ much.
  (tags: apple sex fleshlight )
• You do not need a 4K TV unless you are sitting 5 feet away and it's 80" across.
  (tags: tv 4k resolution eyesight technology )
• There is no child smacking ban.
  (tags: uk children law )
• What is life like for a social worker?
  (tags: children development socialwork )

Comments

[jack]

"I find this to be true 98% of the time, and dangerous the other 2%"

I would speculate that 100% of the time people think they have a good reason (even if it's only "they had it coming" or "everyone does it" or "doesn't the universe owe me a bit of self-indulgence"), and it's always useful to realise that because it helps understand what they're likely to think and what they're likely to do. But that there's a continuum between "if you just talk to them, you'll immediately find common ground" and "you shouldn't spend too long listening to them because it may blunt your motivation to stop them".

[andrewducker]

I do think that 2% of people are just _bastards_ who want to hurt other people. Sure, they may have reasons for being bastards, but that doesn't mean that you should treat them charitably, just that you need to keep them carefully at arms length (or further).

[jack]

Oh, sorry, yes. I'm definitely prone to being compassionate to everyone when I shouldn't, but how I interpreted it was not "most/all people think they have a justification" but "all people think they have a justification and most of them should be treated compassionately."

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

As if Fleshlights weren't disgusting enough already.

[andrewducker]

Why do you find fleshlights disgusting?

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Ugg. I once had a job for a company that offered cleaning products for the Fleshlight and had to see pictures of what, exactly, happens to a Fleshlight if you don't clean it correctly.

Think about a porous material, semen and time. You don't see what's in there (because you just see the opening) abut after a couple weeks you are essentially fucking a petri dish of bacteria.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Love the post-apocalyptic art.

It's also nice to know that not even the complete downfall of civilisation will stop Porsche from making 911s...

[andrewducker]

I feel sure that our posthuman masters will want something shiny to drive around in :->

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"And I for one welcome our new rear-engined alien overlords..."

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Click back out to the main gallery as well!

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

I dearly wish I hadn't opened this comments page.

[andrewducker]

Have you reconsidered a pending purchase?

[andlosers.livejournal.com]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I thought it very educational.

*boke*

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

I am pleased. So pleased that I can buy a Blu Ray Extended LoTR and not worry about having to upgrade in 5 years because it is made of lame from being too low res.

Then again I currently have a 60 inch tv, which I sit about 6 feet from...so there's always I chance I'll a Back to The Future 3 wall-edition telly by then,

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that article validates a fair number of purchasing decisions of mine; I had the concept right, even if I hadn't done the math. I live in a small-ish apartment (~90m^2/800sq.ft) and going 1080p with BluRay would've been massive overkill. Indeed, BluRay itself was overkill on my setup; I only got into it at all because the player was a gift.

-- Steve still watches a 26" TV running 1080i at about 2m/7' and it looks fine even today... after more than 7 years.

[andrewducker]

The Blu-Ray LOTR looks amazing - the colour reproduction is a lot better than the DVD for a start.

I do agree that going beyond that point is not likely to be that useful.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

"No one's going to sit 6 feet from a big TV"

That's bollocks. I've met a fair few people who still have the same kind of setup around their TV or computer monitor as they did when it was an old boxy TV or CRT monitor, regardless of how much bigger it is now.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure we sit about 6 feet from the TV - there isn't really any other sensible option for arranging the sofa and the TV in the room. I assume a lot of people have their lounge set up for TV watching in the way that best fits into the room, rather than the way that is in some theoretical way "best" for the TV that they have.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

the principal of charity is actually kind of stupid.

why the hell would I want to believe that everything I see happen is done out of good intentions when that blatantly is not the case?

I'm not cynical enough to believe that people are generally shit [I essentially know this is not the case], but common sense and basic intuition will tell you that people are just cunts sometimes. Including me. And you.

a bit of realism goes a long way.

[andrewducker]

I disagree. I've not done anything malicious in at least fifteen years, and possibly twenty-five, but my memory isn't that long.

People may act defensively sometimes, and not think about their actions, but very few people are actively malicious.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

sci fi art:

the 5th one down is similar to parts of Muirhouse
the regeneration is ongoing, but taking a while.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I think that, pragmatically, most people are evil. I think this because there are about half a million permanent residents of Manchester (and about the same in students, commuters and so on), and about four hundred homeless people. Most people in Manchester pass one of these homeless people at least once a week. If everyone gave just one pound a week to a random homeless person, then, those homeless people would make an average of about sixty grand a year. If people were, in general, good, then homelessness simply wouldn't exist.

*However*, I think we have an absolute moral duty to act in any individual case as if Chesterton's Strong Principle were true. I often fail in that duty, especially when talking about politics, but I do consider it a moral duty. People in aggregate are bastards, but we have to assume that any individual is good until given overwhelming evidence otherwise.

[andrewducker]

That's not a good example at all. I've been told numerous times that the right way to help homeless people is definitely not to give to people begging, but to help through homeless charities. And, of course, many people don't believe that people begging on the street actually need to be homeless or begging for money.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I’ve thought for a long time that comparing current prices for renewables with current prices for non-renewable energy and then basing long term decisions on that price comparison was a little blinkered.
It seemed to miss the fact that we’ve built perhaps eight generations of gas plant and have about 100 years’ experience of getting gas out of the ground compared to twenty years’ of experience and two or three generations of on-shore wind.
I’m really pleased to see a second source suggesting that on-shore wind is about to reach parity with gas.
I look forward to the flow of renewable technologies that are cheaper than gas over the next twenty years.
I’ve always believed that the best way, probably the only way, for renewables to displace non-renewables is to beat them on price in a fair fight.