Interesting Links for 06-11-2017

[andrewducker]

Why does Neil Kinnock get away with comments about abuse that Gove doesn't?

(tags: politics abuse media uk )

A fact-check of "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" finds it...problematic at best

(tags: facts history writing children movies )

After 42 years of sex discrimination laws, why force schoolgirls to wear skirts?

(tags: clothing girls school )

Bullshit excuses for sexual harassment: the autism edition

(tags: harrassment abuse autism )

David Mitchell on Earthsea – a rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin

(tags: fantasy fiction writing )

Craniopagus Twins Share a Brain and See Out of Each Others Eyes

(tags: twins brain )

There are rumours that the Tolkien Estate are shopping a Lord Of The Rings TV series

(tags: lotr tv )

"How I guesstimated the value of Bitcoin in 2014"

(tags: bitcoin currency economics )

How Men Elevate, and Women Ruin, the Foods They Love

(tags: food gender OhForFucksSake )

Trump commerce secretary's business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files

(tags: Russia usa politics )

Helicopter carrying officials (and a prince) crashes in Saudi Arabia

(tags: saudiarabia )

Paradise Papers leak reveals secrets of the world elite's hidden wealth

(tags: wealth tax )

Some advice on how to cope with grief

(tags: death emotion advice )

Why do Conservatives have a hard time understanding Liberal arguments on a lot of issues?

(tags: politics society )

The poppy has lost its original meaning – time to ditch it

(tags: memory war uk )

Round-up of Saudi princes, businessmen widens, travel curbs imposed

(tags: saudiarabia )

Psycho-Conservatism: What it Is, When to Doubt It

(tags: psychology Conservatives politics )

Star Wars, Hamilton, Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy actors played an all-star version of Werewolf together

(tags: games actors )

Theresa May's record on sexual abuse is appalling

(tags: abuse Conservatives )

Comments

Why does Neil Kinnock get away with comments about abuse that Gove doesn't?

[doug]

They were clearly both bad, but I can understand more focus on Gove than Kinnock: Kinnock is unlikely to hold further political office, but Gove is currently Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and still harbours ambitions to be PM. You can write off Kinnock as a has-been dinosaur (you shouldn't, that doesn't excuse bad behaviour), but Gove is very much a live politician. FSM help us.

[momentsmusicaux]

> Not to belittle TH White’s, Tolkien’s or Susan Cooper’s wizards (never belittle a wizard of any stripe), but they are variants on the archetype of Merlin

Well, TH White's and Susan Cooper's wizards both *are* Merlin. Susan Cooper's wizard is called Merriman Lyon.

[channelpenguin]

Katharine Kerr's Deverry series is also in the major league - or should be! Would make an awesome HBO series. The writing is superb and the characters seem 100% real people.

[calimac]

Goodbye Christopher Robin: Thanks for noting my piece. Sources: CRM's memoirs, Thwaite's bio of AAM.

Mitchell on Earthsea: Very perceptive on UKL's writerly strengths. I wonder if he knows that she embarked on the saga specifically to answer the question, "What were all these aged wizards like when they were young?" Too bad he has to bash Tolkien in the process. He acts as if Tolkien is responsible for his feeble imitators, and completely misunderstands the two authors' comparative treatment of morality.

LOTR tv series: It's not the Tolkien Estate, which is the entity run by the Tolkien family which owns the books. It's Tolkien Enterprises, which is the company founded by Saul Zaentz which owns the film rights (and licensed them to the studio that made the Jackson films). Though the Estate is involved to the extent that it's necessary to figure out where the boundaries of the film rights lie. It seems to be true. Here's a fuller article about it. My take is: If it happens, make it as different from Jackson as possible. Then maybe people will stop taking Jackson as an accurate representation of the books.

Foods: I like rose wine OK, but not being much of a drinker was completely unaware of these connotations.

Liberal arguments: This was very helpful until it dragged the neurobiology in. It's an argument easily caricatured by conservatives as claiming that "nobody's responsible for anything they do" because too often in actual usage it comes perilously close to that.

Poppy: As a non-Brit, I was only vaguely aware of the poppy tradition, mostly from its appearance in occasional novels. So these connotations were unknown to me, but I'm struck how this is exactly how the US flag pin has been treated in US culture. There are thugs going around claiming if you don't wear one - all the time - you're not patriotic, especially if your name is Barack Obama.

[danieldwilliam]

I am increasingly concerned about the appropriation of the red poppy. Not just by the far-right or patriots but also by older people who didn't actually fight in either of the main wars associated with the poppy. I tend to the view that if you weren't actually 16 in 1945 (and therefore 88 years old today) you've not got a huge amount of moral authority tutting at people who are not "adequately" respecting the war dead.

Two of my great-grandfathers were stretcher bearers during the First War and one of my grandfathers flew bombers. I don't need anyone to police my family's committment to defending British freedom.

So I have been mulling over wearing a white poppy.

http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_poppy

I'm also concerned about the funding from the poppy appeal to the Royal British Legion.

There are millions of the things produced and sold. The Royal British Legion has an income of about £150m. The Poppy Appeal brings £50m.

There are still veterans of the Second World War alive, and given that they are over 88 they probably need some care. And there are other veterans of other UK conflicts.

But if spending a pound is pretty much a compulsory act of patriotism for every man and woman in the country what is the Royal British Legion going to do with the £50m of income it has when the last of the Korean War veterans has died in the late 2020's.

[calimac]

(deep sarcasm mode)

That's what the Falklands War was for.

[doug]

I think more died and were injured in Afghanistan, and most of those are younger than me.

[danieldwilliam]

Well, yes, indeed.

I can't seem to find the number of British service personnel involved in the Falklands War but at two combat brigades, say 5,000 people each is say 10,000 soldiers, an equal number of navy and fleet air arm personnel. Something in the region of 20,000 veterans.

Perhaps 75,000 veterans of Iraq, 25,000 from Afghanistan.

I would estimate the current non- World War 2 veteran community at perhaps 125,000. £50m a year give the Royal British Legion £400 a year per veteran to spend. Which is on top of NHS and military hospital support, existing pension arrangements and so on.

That's a significant difference to the number of veterans from World War 2.

Something seems amiss.

[anef]

You can find their accounts here, if it helps: http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends79/0000219279_AC_20160930_E_C.pdf

[andrewducker]

Thank you for the info!

[randomdreams]

https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/preliminary-thoughts-about-saudi-arabia-dbcf290abbe6 is an acquaintance's thoughts about both the Saudi arrests and that helicopter crash.
Zunger is a very bright guy who used to be a mid-level executive at Google.