Interesting Links for 18-06-2012

[andrewducker]

• The importance of having someone on the TV who moves the way you do.
  (tags: TV representation community autism )
• The Sad State of Diabetes Technology in 2012
  (tags: technology diabetes )
• If you think most people give a damn whether something is "with-it" then you are entirely mistaken.
  (tags: cool food )
• Amazing 1:1 Scale Replica of Moria Built in Minecraft
  (tags: minecraft lotr )
• The 5 myths about the UK economy which it suits everyone to perpetuate
  (tags: uk economy politics media )
• Film Crit Hulk Smash Prometheus
  (tags: Prometheus hulk movies criticism )
• Trying to purge London of sex workers before the Olympics is hurting the people we should be protecting.
  (tags: crime law london olympics sex prostitution )
• Three quarters of people in the UK with a mental illness are not getting the help they need.
  (tags: uk mental_health nhs )
• Google reveals what it's censoring, and when it refused to. (Some countries are entirely too censorship-happy)
  (tags: google censorship freespeech )
• New Scottish Pixar film not teeming with truculent piss-artists
  (tags: scotland pixar funny )

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know putting Bacon on desserts had started being trendy, let alone stopped. Honestly, that sounded like the stupidest thing ever, although now I've seen it I can sort of imagine how it would work...

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I would think that with the Olympics London would need more prostitutes and not less.

[andrewducker]

I think that's the issue - they're terrified that there will be a lot of prostitution, and people will discover that London is not a cartoon version of itself.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

For all the VIPs presumably. Popular mythology about this sort of thing suggests that the athletes themselves are at it like rabbits with each other...

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

But.. nearly every other country in europe has legal prostitution and lots of the tourists will be from europe and expect hookers.

[andrewducker]

But over here prostitution is evil and wrong. And therefore it won't be allowed, even if banning it makes life worse for a bunch of people who are already in pretty awful circumstances.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly shocked that it's illegal in the UK.

Every other country I've been in in Europe it's not only been legal but fairly open and obvious.

Must be good for the Spanish economy though if people have to use ryanair to get their hooker groove on.

[andrewducker]

Actually, it's not that prostitution is illegal, it's that brothels are, and there are all sorts of rules around prostitution that make life much less safe for prostitutes.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Wow.

A high class brothel is actually the safest place for a prostitute to work.

[andrewducker]

Well, yes.

But brothels are also illegal in the vast majority of Europe (like France, for instance).

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

True - something I've never understood and the main reason why the spanish border towns have become wealthy.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

It is illegal but is generally tolerated and ignored by the police so long as it is confined to a certain area of each city. You can find ads in any local paper for brothels, and in any major city will see hookers working the streets if you know where to go. But because of the olympics coming to London it looks like there is a concerted attempt to make it look like London is entirely free from such immoral goings on.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

And closing all the brothels and therefore making it difficult for punters to find a prostitute is going to help the female population of East London ... er .... how?

As if the loss of established business around Stratford wasn't bad enough already.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

They could always use:

http://www.punternet.com/

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Man, anyone who trusts that site is insane.

I've written tons of fake reviews for call girls and rent boys on that site.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

Ha! I'm very amused :) You made my day!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

That Lib Dem Voice article on the 5 Myths About the British Economy is very sound.

[andrewducker]

Thanks, that's good to know!

It read reasonable to me, but I'm by no means an expert.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I thought it was pretty sound too.

Especially the point about the ability of the Chancellor to do much. I think this is always pretty limited in the short run and probably more so now that our abilty to raise significant sums of money is more limited.

[andrewducker]

Thanks!

Did you get the email I sent you about in-game economics?

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I did - fascinating. Thanks very much for it.

I was wondering if it could be combined with some stuff I've seen on optimising computer programmes for Prisoners' Dilemma to run economies really quickly.

Or just tweak bits of stuff in game as your man in the blog suggested.

[andrewducker]

Well, changing the laws basically tweaks the economic system as we go along. People don't seem to like it much their favourite tactic gets nerfed though.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in seeing how players behaviour changed depending on the likelihood that the games developers would intervene and nerf stuff.

It's a standard response from energy types such as I used to be to energy policy wonks and government ministers that constantly changing the rules, in and of itself, puts people off investing as you can't rely on the environment being the same.

It would be interesting to test this.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

In City of Heroes, while I still played it (and in other games), player behaviour tends to have been (anecdotally, anyway) to abuse/take advantage of any perceived glitch or imbalance as much as possible for gains in the short term until it gets noticed and fixed (including purchasing certain in-game items to aid this process, although not for real-world money in CoH). People were sometimes angry when said imbalances were revealed by others on the official forums, since they were clearly hoping imbalances would not come to the attention of the developers just yet.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I think that is exactly how I would behave in that situation.

Work hard and fast to exploit the imbalance.

Try and persuade people to keep it under their hat.

Look for ways to game the discovery of the imbalance.

[andrewducker]

We'll make a tax lawyer out of you yet!

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

My career has mainly been about *not* becoming a tax lawyer.

(Not that there is anything wrong with being a tax lawyer - it's just not for me).

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

But why cold bacon? Couldn't it be a hot bacon sundae, like a hot caramel or hot fudge sundae?

Also, in links you should check out, the Daily Mail on Leyton High Road's facelift, even if (a) it is the Daily Mail and (b) Orford Road in Walthamstow got spruced up using the same funding source a couple of years ago to very great effect, so it's not *just* an Olympics thing.

[andrewducker]

I'm happy enough to read things in the Daily Mail. Got a link?

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

http://bit.ly/LAxeMX

[andrewducker]

I am mostly amused by how much difference it makes to take a decent photo on a bright sunny day.

(Also, I was half expecting that to be a rickroll.)

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

Peculiar Unisex Hair!

(Amused me)

[andrewducker]

It's a good name!

[innerbrat]

I think I just assumed it would be a hot bacon sundae.

WHY AM I VEGETARIAN? WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY?

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to make that film hulk guy's text readable by de-capitalising it? I'd like to read it, but it's hard going.

[andrewducker]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/change-the-capitalization-of-text-HA010210665.aspx
or
http://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Change_Case

[andrewducker]

Even easier:
http://centricle.com/tools/change-case/