andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2012-07-30 12:00 pm

Interesting Links for 30-07-2012

gominokouhai: (Default)

[personal profile] gominokouhai 2012-07-30 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
> Surprisingly Good Evidence That Real Name Policies Fail To Improve Comments

"Facebook"

[identity profile] major-clanger.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I remember that well because I blogged about it at the time.

The point is that the House of Lords ruled that Critical Mass was not a 'demonstration' and so the Met could not require that they be given notice of it. They did not rule that Critical Mass was somehow exempt from police control, which is the implication I am getting from some references to this ruling.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of CM going onto the much-maligned Olympic routes, and the Met's response to this, I don't think CM can rely on the Lords ruling as an excuse or defence. Indeed, it effectively held that they are users of the road, no more so nor less so than anyone else, and so I would think are bound by whatever restrictions (fair or unfair) are imposed on other road users.

[identity profile] bart-calendar.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Given that we live in a society where we are saturated with images of women as body parts this should not be particularly surprising.

However... I wonder what the results would be if breasts were not part of the study as a sexualized body part. (I mean, breasts are obviously sexualized, don't get me wrong.)

I mean, it would occur to me that both male and female babies instinctively learn to recognize the breast of their mother - as a food source and that that subconscious instinct may carry over into adult life.

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
The London Olympics are the most Right-wing major event in Britain’s modern history.

Yes, I know that for me all my principled and practical objections to the Olympics as a whole were completely wiped out by how impressed I was by the opening ceremony - I forgot all about Dow, G4S and the ravaging of London. Write 'NHS' with some beds and I just roll over and play dead-from-socialist-pride. *Rolls eyes*

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, yes, [insert specific bugbear here].

[identity profile] khbrown.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
So don't be bothered about something which has the local elite fucking over the local populace, or which has than the global and local elites fucking over the local populace, so long as it isn't a global elite fucking over a local populace?

Maybe it's just cheaper to buy a brand with a name that has negative associations?


[identity profile] alitheapipkin.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Us lefties are supposed to be humourless and unable to see any good in anything associated with it at all, remember?

*joins you in the eye rolling*

[identity profile] octopoid-horror.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 05:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Q: Do good name policies improve comments?
A: Of course not. Before it shut down, the Openbook website demonstrated that people were posting quite appalling things under their real names. Why would their comments be different?
firecat: anime head of person with cat ears looking sarcastic (sarcastic avatar)

[personal profile] firecat 2012-07-30 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Google itself admitted that real names didn't make a difference in behavior but continued to insist on them. What could possibly be their motive?

[identity profile] khbrown.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay. I'll try again.

Today's Germans are not liable for the Holocaust, as something that happened before they were born.

Today's white USA-ians are not liable for slavery etc., again as something done before they were born.

But whereas you cannot help your birthplace/situation you can decide which corporations you buy out and evaluate their past acts.

[identity profile] khbrown.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Dow has no responsibility for Bhopal? The people of Bhopal don't agree. They say Union Carbide was responsible, and if Union Carbide is now owned by Dow, then Dow's responsible. They refuse to accept Dow's corporate shell game."

And the Indian govt., of course.

From http://www.corporatenarc.com/dowchemicalscandal2.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Chemical_Company#Vietnam_War:_napalm_and_Agent_Orange

[identity profile] khbrown.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 08:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Also there is the difference between a corporation, as a potentially immortal being, and an individual, as a mortal one. Admittedly there is then the issue of nations and their imagined communities extending forwards and backwards...

[identity profile] 19-crows.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd been under the impression the Telegraph is a conservative paper, and the link struck me as pretty liberal. What's the Telegraph's actual stance?

[identity profile] 19-crows.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks. "-ish" is such a useful British term, isn't it?

[identity profile] philmophlegm.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Political 'conservatives' as Americans would know them (which I'll quickly identify with such policies as anti-abortion, pro-gun ownership, christian, anti-gay marriage) are pretty rare in the UK. Abortion and guns aren't major issues here, christians are as often left-wing as right, and pretty much all the parties compete against each other to be the most pro-gay.

The Telegraph talks to a constituency that is economically liberal (which in a British sense means free market, low taxes, floating exchange rates and responsible fiscal policy) but not socially conservative in the way that American conservatives would be. It has a strong libertarian streak, a good example of which would be Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Member of the European Parliament, who is probably on the far right of the party on a simple left-right axis, but who in American terms would have far more in common with the Libertarian Party than any Republican, even Tea Party Republicans.

Generally I agree with Andrew. I could see Obama reading it. I could also have seen Reagan reading it, but not Bush jr.

You may find my cut-out-and-keep guide to British newspapers useful: http://philmophlegm.livejournal.com/235261.html?view=1326589#t1326589
It's not entirely serious and mostly plays to popular stereotypes rather than the actual truth. Although I find that stereotypes often have a grain of truth in them. The stereotypical Daily Telegraph reader is a retired army colonel smoking a pipe living somewhere in rural southern England.

[identity profile] philmophlegm.livejournal.com 2012-08-01 09:21 am (UTC)(link)
And of course The Times is the newspaper of choice of Great Uncle Bulgaria!

[identity profile] 19-crows.livejournal.com 2012-07-30 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for this, and for your guide. I'd heard the Telegraph referred to as the "Torygraph" but realize I don't have a very good idea of what Tory-ness actually entails. But the retired army colonel type seems familiar. (I've added you to my friends, too.)

[identity profile] a-pawson.livejournal.com 2012-07-31 08:07 am (UTC)(link)
25 years old but still pretty much true.

[identity profile] philmophlegm.livejournal.com 2012-08-01 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
That was largely the inspiration for my article. Great stuff.

[identity profile] philmophlegm.livejournal.com 2012-08-01 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
Right back at you...

Personally, I think that use of the term 'Tory' to describe members and supporters of the Conservative and Unionist Party is misleading. That party emerged out of a faction within the Tories' traditional opponents, the Whigs. And what is more, the modern Conservatives, especially the modern libertarian right-wing of the party, probably have more in common with the Liberal Party of the 19th century than the Conservative Party of that time.

[identity profile] elmyra.livejournal.com 2012-07-31 10:59 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, we kinda saw the Gretna Green thing coming. http://www.scottishtimes.com/same_sex_marriage It'll be epic, just like in Pride & Prejudice, except more fabulous! ;-)