Interesting Links for 14-02-2012

[andrewducker]

• What I've Learned About Smart People.
  (tags: questions intelligence )
• A female apostle was erased from the bible during the middle ages.
  (tags: censorship christianity religion women )
• Metal substitutes are being tested to deter thieves
  (tags: materials uk crime metal )
• The Geek Social Fallacies of Sex.
  (tags: sex social geeks feminism )
• Undercover police officer follows himself for 20 minutes after a CCTV operator mistakes him for suspect
  (tags: EpicFail funny police )
• The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde talks about the trial, and the music industry's failure to accept change
  (tags: law ThePirateBay piracy copyright )
• Expert challenges myth of falling NHS productivity
  (tags: healthcare uk efficiency productivity NHS )
• The MoD constantly breaks its budgets, and is never held to account. Possibly these things are linked.
  (tags: EpicFail money military )
• Guardian “Holiday Offers” page strangely omits name of one tiny little country
  (tags: palestine guardian israel )
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s once designed a doghouse. The dog didn't like it.
  (tags: dogs FrankLloydWright architecture )
• BitTorrent Live: Cheap, Real-Time P2P Video Streaming That Will Kill TV
  (tags: BramCohen internet broadcasting tv bittorrent )
• Can we rescind America's membership of the first world?
  (tags: usa poverty )

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was reading about that metal alternative thing the other day. What a weird world we suddenly live in, where people are stealing the plaques off war memorials for their metal content.

Or mains power cable. Just. Madness.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

When I worked for an energy firm we had someone try and steal some cabling from our switching yard (which is the part of the power station that connects the power station to grid and converts 132 kilovolts into 440 kilovolts).

440 kv electricity will jump meters through the air and basically melt you.

We used to joke about putting up signs.

Warning. This site is patrolled by Daleks.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

I'm actually a little bit surprised the number killed during metal thefts was as low as 10 last year. Human nature being what it is and all.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

I miss the old don't fuck around with substations and electricty PIFs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-yGTrd4Z7I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ7eAAtz8jE

A few more reports of dead thieves would be good. Of course these days they'd probably sue because if the warning signs to stay away had been nicked... (Before anyone accuses me of being a Fascist, I have no sympathy since several thousands of pounds water damage has been done to one of my workplaces by thieves nicking lead worth a few hundred off the roof.)

[andrewducker]

Very common in developing countries - where one of the reasons that mobiles have taken off is that people steal phone wires for scrap metal.

But yeah, I hadn't been aware of it happening hear much before.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Theft of lead from church roofs is traditional in the UK - this just reflects the cost of copper increasing.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Very common in (parts of?) America too. If you read David Simon's The Corner, one of the most mentioned activities in it is various kinds of theft of metal for scrap. Ripping pipes out of empty houses, even stealing cars, as I recall.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I would love to spend a few days with the MOD’s forecasting team. If they have one.

The first paragraph of the report on the MOD has some of the most pointless adding up I’ve ever seen. 26 years of combined delay.

A combined overrun of £6bn, that means something. That means that there is £6bn less cash available to someone somewhere. From the point of view of a tax payer it’s not first order important if £5.5bn of that £6bn came from one project or was equally spread. The Big Take Away is that we’re £6bn down.

A total of 26 years delay doesn’t mean anything. If spread across all 15 projects it averages out at 1 ¾ years. Which might be a lot on a three year project to build a new jeep but not so long on a twenty year project to re-design a nuclear submarine. If the time splipage were concentrated on one project that might mean a very different situation. A 20 year delay on replacing our nuclear submarines might mean that we don’t have a nuclear deterent for a decade.* Or you end up with a Nimrod project which is so delayed that it is obsolete. Which would be a bit more of a worry than having to wait a couple of years extra for a new jeep.



*Obvously YMMV on whether you think this is a problem but I suggest that if you don’t want a nuclear deterent so very much better not to have paid one.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

> and we have to take steps and policies in order to make sure that those people have the skills they need to be independent

Hey, just carry on making the problem worse... ;)

[andrewducker]

Which one was that from?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I honestly can't tell whether the CiF article is trying to say they left out Israel or Palestine. They only say there's one country missing...

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

I think the article is from a site that is critical of the Guardian's policy, viewing it as anti-Israel. So the omission is Israel, not Palestine; thus you could equally have a pro-Palestine site saying that Palestine is being omitted, and implicitly not mentioning Israel.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

The idea that early christian history was rewritten to downplay the role of women will be not at all surprising to any of the 100 million people who've read The da Vinci Code...

[andrewducker]

Or "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail" :->

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

Oh boo, lots of commenters are doing that annoying fallacy fallacy of using "pro-Palestine" to mean "anti-Israel", which is annoying. The Guardian has been more than usually comically antisemitic over the past few months*, but I've noticed their eradicating Israel from their travel pages and ads for at least two years - I don't know whether it's ever been on there but I assume not.

*aside from a brilliant editorial about how "the chosen ones" are insular and don't value the lives of any non-Jews, there was a great headline about a "group of pro-Israeli business tycoons" in November or December - JUST SAY "CABAL OF JEWISH BANKERS" WHEN YOU MEAN CABAL OF JEWISH BANKERS, GUARDIAN, IT'S OK

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

There's also the distinction of 'anti-Israel's current policy' and 'anti-Israel's existence'.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Couldn't some of those pro-Israeli business tycoons be US Christian fundamentalist right-wingers though? Types that support Israel because either a) they genuinely believe the end is night or b) don't believe it but see it is good business.

Also I doubt that the Guardian's critics here would accept "Cabal of Jewish Bankers" as a neutral headline - kind of damned if they do and damned if they don't?

[evil]Can someone be anti-Palestine and anti-Israeli, favouring turning the whole area into a radioactive, biological warfare ridden wasteland no-one could live in? 'Force you to be nice to each other, kill you before you kill each other' Violent Pacification style thing[/evil]

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

In many cases, unfortunately, "pro-Palestinian" is a front for anti-Israel.
I apply a simple litmus test: if someone only gets excited about it when Palestinians are abused by Israelis, but not when Palestinians are abused by, say, the entire rest of the Arab world, especially including their own "leaders", they aren't really pro-Palestinian.

[laplor.livejournal.com]

Some especially awesome and terrifying stuff here again. I especially loved learning about smart people, female apostles, Frank Lloyd Wright's failed doghouse, and U.S. tent cities.

Thanks again Andrew. Your news selections almost amount to a daily paper for me.

[andrewducker]

Glad you liked them - it's occasional comments like this that make it worthwhile :->

Bush! Bush! Bush!

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

After only eight years of Republican rule, weza Banana Republic!

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I've got the impression that the Junia thing is an open debate within Christianity, rather than something which has been completely hushed up.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I certainly knew about it when I was studying Paul's letters for a Koine Greek exam in 1989/90.

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

What woodpijn said. Junia(s) is there, different translations treat the verse slightly differently. Feminists/egalitarians insist she's a female apostle, conservatives insist he isn't. It's only that one verse, no-one knows for sure.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

You don't have to get as obscure as Junia.
The Roman church conflated three episodes involving a woman, only one giving a name, into "Magdalen the prostitute". There is no textual evidence that the three are the same person.