Interesting Links for 22-08-2017

[andrewducker]

People who 'hear voices' can also detect hidden speech in unusual sounds

(tags: hearing brain psychology hallucinations )

Trans men show unusual connectivity patterns in brain networks involved in self perception

(tags: perception psychology transgender lgbt )

How JavaScript works

(tags: javascript browser technology programming )

Hunt vs. Hawking: who’s right about the NHS?

(tags: nhs facts uk healthcare )

Recognizing when two arithmetic expressions are essentially the same

(tags: mathematics programming )

The government position on betting machines is evil *and* stupid

(tags: OhForFucksSake gambling UK tax Conservatives )

Minnesota has a Confederate symbol — and it is going to keep it

(tags: USA history war flags )

Tory councillors suspension lifted over offensive tweets about Catholics and black people.

(tags: Conservatives racism catholicism )

Why I Don't Like Being Called A 'Gender Neutral Parent'

(tags: gender children marketing parenting toys )

Wings Over Scotland blogger arrested over alleged harassment

(tags: scotland harrassment twitter )

Lib Dems under Vince Cable still want to legalise cannabis

(tags: marijuana legalisation uk libdem )

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

That Minnesota headline made me bristle at first! But then I remembered what I thought it'd be about. :) (And I checked and it was.)

[danieldwilliam]

I wonder what happened to all the other Confederate flags that were captured. There must have been dozens if not hundreds captured in battle.

The government position on betting machines is evil *and* stupid

[jack]

It seems like, they're not looking for an advantage to them personally, or to the treasury, but default to thinking "benefit to business = good, impoverishing of the vulnerable = well, probably good" :(

Why I Don't Like Being Called A 'Gender Neutral Parent'

[jack]

I think everything she says is essentially true, except that I don't like giving in to the anti-gender-neutral pressure: I know parents who are more towards gender neutral parenting than that[1], and I think it would be healthier if we were closer to that overall.

[1] Not forcing children to make non-gendered choices, but not perpetuating any gendered expectations, or defaulting to gender neutral language until the child expresses preferences.

[momentsmusicaux]

I don't mind being called a gender-neutral parent, and if asked, it's probably what I'd call myself.

> I don’t call myself a gender neutral parent. Rejecting traditional notions of what gender means doesn’t make me, or the things I buy, neutral.

The writer seems to misunderstand how grammar works. 'gender-neutral' doesn't mean *neutral*. It doesn't mean things are neutral colours! If people are interpreting it like that, they're idiots too.

[cmcmck]

The brain connectivity stuff in trans guys doesn't surprise me- trans women have the same larger hypothalamus as cis women.

[momentsmusicaux]

One of the most horrible things about being a parent is that you keep hearing your child's screams in background noise. It can even be when they're both out of the house - I'll hear phantom cries in the distance that I have to stop and check aren't real.

T gets it too, so it's not just me that's crazy :/

[momentsmusicaux]

When the writer says '(a+b)−c=(a−c)+b' is just 'commutativity and associativity of addition in disguise', I'm not sure if they actually realize that it is *just* associativity of addition: replace the positive numbers you subtract with negative numbers, and then only addition is involved.

And 'a−(b+c)=(a−b)−c' is just expanding a bracket, and then doing the operations in the order written. Doesn't seem that magical an identity really.

[simont]

Mark Dominus is not a complete fool, so I'm sure he does know all of this, and indeed surely that is exactly the stuff he had in mind when he wrote 'commutativity and associativity of addition in disguise'.

Remember that he's playing this game with one of his children, so he's intentionally trying to see things from the point of view of someone less mathematically sophisticated than you (or me, or himself).

The 'disguise' he mentions is that subtraction looks like a separate mathematical operation, precisely because we use the shorthand a−b rather than writing a+(−b) every time. So, to somebody who's still learning (or has only recently learned) the notation and the permitted transformations of expressions, there appears to be an extra operation and a whole extra set of laws to learn, until you reach the level of both practice and understanding that lets you effortlessly see through that notational convention of 'addition and subtraction operators' to the underlying reality of 'actually it's all just addition and negation'.