Interesting Links for 18-11-2017

[andrewducker]

We are witnessing a renaissance in psychology

(tags: psychology research GoodNews )

Vince Cable: I was asked to lead a new pro-Remain party. Here's why I said no

(tags: politics uk libdem )

Want to live longer? Get a dog!

(tags: dogs health )

Everything you need to know about the left-wing case for Brexit (in five minutes)

(tags: politics europe uk )

What If God Were A Giant Game Of Pachinko?

(tags: games probability religion )

Male voles who drink alcohol more likely to cheat on teetotal partners

(tags: relationships alcohol )

If you light your cigarette with a nuke do you get extra cancer?

(tags: nuclearweapons history cigarettes )

An autistic person talks about what it's like when bigots use autism as a defence

(tags: autism bigotry )

EA caves again on ‘Star Wars’ game outrage, freaking out Wall Street

(tags: viaSwampers games business )

Netflix’s Punisher - a blood-drenched Sisyphus cursed to push a murder-boulder up a hill forever.

(tags: movies comics guns review )

wealthy couples in NYC need $190 million to *really* feel rich

(tags: money OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[calimac]

My reaction to Vince Cable being asked to lead a new pro-Remain party was, "He should lead his old pro-Remain party." And to his credit he came up with the right answer to that simple dilemma, though the vigor of his party's commitment to that goal seems to be in doubt.

Still, I was tickled by his immediate query of the tempters on party infrastructure and the associated gruntwork. Old Vince was an early member of the SDP, don't forget, so he really knows what it's like to go through that stuff.

[calimac]

Take-away soundbite from the autism rant:

"And now, James Damore is eager to cast autism as something that magically turns you into a racist, sexist bigot, all so he can skirt responsibility."

Lighting a cigarette

[nojay]

The comment after the Ted Taylor story asking if exposure to nuclear fallout could cause coronary heart disease while failing to notice that he was lighting a CIGARETTE with IR heat from the Teapot/GEORGE test shot was classic.

Smoking and CHD are well-correlated, of course. Fallout and CHD not so much.

[movingfinger]

The "how much money to feel rich" unavoidably evokes Daffy Duck in Ali Baba Bunny. (A not very good Daily Motion copy here.)

[zotz]

So good practices in psychology "have increased immeasurably"?

I have occasionally heard more impressive endorsements.

[drplokta]

Alas, the Independent article acknowledges serious problems with the study on dog-ownership, notably that dog owners are a self-selected group that's not the same as the total population. What we really need is a double-blind trial where some people are randomly assigned dogs for ten years, but neither the experimenters nor the subjects know which people have dogs and which have placebo pets. But that's a little tricky to arrange.

[andrewducker]

Placebo dogs would be tricky, yeah.

And I agree that people who are healthy enough to own a dog, and well-off enough to have the spare cash for one, and have the kind of lifestyle which affords dog-care are probably qualitatively different.

[andrewducker]

"Mine! All mine!"