Interesting Links for 20-10-2017

[andrewducker]

Smacking to be banned in Scotland

(tags: children violence Scotland GoodNews )

Theresa May says 'being trans is not an illness' and pledges to reform Gender Recognition Act

(tags: uk transgender lgbt Conservatives )

Dogs are trying to communicate with us, even if we don't know it

(tags: dogs communication )

Why I keep being concerned about the rise of streaming services

(tags: streaming movies )

Scientists pinpoint jealousy in the monogamous mind

(tags: monkey psychology monogamy relationships brain )

Chronic gastrointestinal problems? Your dirty mouth may be partly to blame

(tags: microbiome )

The Treasury report on leaving the EU with no deal makes terrifying reading

(tags: Europe UK trade doom )

Lupita Nyong’o: Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein

(tags: abuse movies )

"Who Are The Harvey Weinsteins Of Your Industry? Tell Us."

(tags: abuse women work )

Robert Scoble and Me (Abuse within the tech community)

(tags: abuse women Technology )

Balearic cave home – in pictures (looks gorgeous!)

(tags: housing )

Comments

[cmcmck]

Legally, it hasn't been an illness since the GRA in 2004/5 but no one appears to have told the medics (or, it seems, Ms May)!

That said, the GRA is badly in need of a refit!

[mountainkiss]

I love the Quinn Norton piece. Really support her thinking.

[andrewducker]

Yes - we need to recognise that people can be rehabilitated, and work out how we can help with that. I get very fed up with people who think that people can't change.

[calimac]

Ah, what if it were "Smoking to be banned in Scotland"? Seriously, I wonder what counts as "smacking"? I once tapped a misbehaving toddler on the back of the hand with my finger while saying "No." She got the message that I was unhappy with her behavior. Was that "smacking"?

Is there anybody who didn't know that dogs are trying to communicate with us? Criminy.

One problem with finding movies on streaming services is that you have to go to each service and look up movies individually until you find it, if you do. If there's any master index, I don't know about it, and it'd have to be kept up to date. It's not like that with physical media. If you want a DVD, you can check Amazon. In the days of VCRs, at least in the US you could check Blockbuster. (At one time, Blockbuster had a user-searchable database of every movie in their system. I once drove 40 miles to get an obscure movie from another outlet. You can still do that kind of search with library books.)

[anef]

I initially did read that headline as "smoking" and thought "Gosh, that's very advanced!" Then I thought "But how could they possibly...? No, wait!"

[andrewducker]

I went and looked at the proposal for the bill and found this:

...the Bill will prohibit the physical punishment of children by
ending the existing common-law position that physical punishment by parents can be defended as reasonable chastisement and therefore be lawful. The Bill would also need to
include, as consequential provision, the amendment or repeal of relevant parts of s.51 of the 2003 Act.
The Bill will not create a new criminal offence, as the common law offence of assault will apply (with a modification removing the reasonable chastisement defence).

So it's not that "smacking" will get a new definition, it's that "assault" will now be a crime when committed against children.

I then did a quick check for a definition of "assault and found:
"Assault is defined in Scots law as a physical attack on another which is intended to cause bodily injury or which puts the victim in a state of fear that he or she may be about to suffer bodily injury."

So tapping someone on the back of the hand would not count as assault.

[danieldwilliam]

Tapping someone on the back of the hand might not count as assault but it might if , for example, it is used as a way to emphasis a threat that one might be about to slap the victim hard on the hand.