Interesting Links for 07-12-2017

[andrewducker]

Screaming dinosaurs and pop music. What's not to like?

(tags: music dinosaurs video )

Bitcoin’s energy consumption, explained

(tags: bitcoin electricity )

Sad poop emoji gets flushed after row

(tags: emoji faeces )

Person of the Year: Time honours abuse 'silence breakers'

(tags: abuse media )

Theresa May "I have a method for avoiding a hard Irish border, but it is too large to fit in this margin"

(tags: Ireland NorthernIreland UK europe politics OhForFucksSake )

Autistic social problems partially down to neurotypicals shunning them

(tags: autism communication social psychology viaJennieRigg )

Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

(tags: rats genetics uk )

The impossible heterosexuality of losing weight.

(tags: lgbt desire weight society viaLizzieCassMaran )

Extinct kangaroo-like lion discovered in Australia

(tags: Australia animals )

China's debt levels pose stability risk, says IMF

(tags: China debt )

What is the secret to being more assertive? Having self respect

(tags: psychology self-esteem respect )

Australian stock exchange to move to blockchain

(tags: database stocks Technology )

The Big Vitamin D Mistake

(tags: vitaminD )

Comments

Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

[channelpenguin]

best headline this year!

Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

[jack]

As opposed to what? Divinely created rats that have never evolved?

We need a verb for CRISPR. CRISPED? CRISPRED?

Re: Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

[movingfinger]

CRISPY?

Re: Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

[agoodwinsmith]

Pratchett Rats!

(sorry - some of his characters like rat-onna-stick, so crispy rats sounds like a party over doover)

Genetically mutated rats could be released in Britain to solve rodent problem

[jack]

"No, I've never read the old woman who swallowed a fly," said scientists. "Why do you ask? We just felt, there was no point fighting any longer, it was time to embrace apocalypse." :)

Australian stock exchange to move to blockchain

[doug]

This is either a pointless idea (it gains nothing over a secure solution with hashes and signatures) or a really, really bad one.

Re: Australian stock exchange to move to blockchain

[andrewducker]

I'm curious what difference there is between their "blockchain" and "signatures and hashes".

After all, a blockchain is just a series of signed entries, each of which has a link to the previous entry.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any detailed description of how it works.

Re: Australian stock exchange to move to blockchain

[doug]

Yes, all this, which goes for most instances of "blockchain" other than currency.

To my mind, the whole point and brilliance of Bitcoin is the mechanism for decentralised consensus for agreeing the ledger, which works precisely because the resource used to enforce agreement (proof of work) is more-or-less fungible for money, which is what the ledger is supposed to be tracking in the first place.

In pretty much any other context, you really *don't* want that property, because the incentives won't align properly. And that property necessarily comes at a relatively large cost in transaction time: you need to be confident that the time taken to distribute the results of the last block to the majority of the hashing power in the network and for them to verify its correctness is small compared to the time taken to mine the next block. Which for entities used to working in the world of HFT is ... is not going to be terribly attractive.

Many of the 'private blockchain' proposals I've seen - including some that work fine as proofs-of-concept - have a restricted set of entities who are allowed to mine who are, to a first approximation, all mutually trusting anyway.

Re: Australian stock exchange to move to blockchain

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I'm actually wondering if it's just a blockchain that's open to anyone with the right keys, who can add stuff on at any point, because the exchange gives access to everyone. So as long as you're trusted you can append to the chain - no need for a Proof Of Anything.

[benwerd]

I'm really glad the poo emoji story had autoplaying video with sound. It definitely enhanced my credibility at the office.

[andrewducker]

Sorry, I have autoplay disabled (Firefox), so can't tell autoplaying videos from non-autoplaying ones.

[benwerd]

Not your fault! But a hilariously bad choice at their end.

[anna_wing]

Re the "neurotypical" thing. What counts as normal varies a lot globally. There are societies where what an American would call a high-functioning autistic is a perfectly normal personality type abd "autistic" only means people who can't speak or otherwise function in society at all.

[channelpenguin]

In some professions, it is also the case that "high-functioning" autism/Asperger's is so widespread that it goes largely unnoticed and unremarked. Particularly where there are niches that do not require or rely upon "good" social skills, being farily far into the spectrum may even be to some degree *necessary* to excel. From my own experience - programming, accounting, statistics, finance (quants), actuaries [met some VERY odd ones], music... It actually took me nearly 15 years, and the late diagnosis of a colleague (plus the later reveal by another), to spot this.

[anna_wing]

Yes. It is not just a matter of steteotypical occupations either. What counts as good social skills varies in different societies too. In a hierarchical society with a formal system of manners that everyone is expected to learn and follow, and less emphasis on informal interactions among alleged equals, the expected norms of proper behaviour would be quite different from those of the US and a high functioning autistic in US terms would be witin the range of normal.