Interesting Links for 25-12-2017

[andrewducker]

This is my other favourite Last Jedi review

(tags: StarWars review )

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove attack HMRC over Brexit donor tax grab

(tags: tax uk europe )

Wagamama apology for 'don't be sick' staff notice

(tags: illness work UK )

The refugees who brought hope to a Scottish island

(tags: Scotland Syria refugee immigration )

Travelodge UK writes to its EU employees (here - Polish) in their own languages (!) to say how much they value their contribution, guarantee a refund of permanent residence application & wish happy Christmas.

(tags: UK Europe hotel immigration )

Atomic Tests During the 1950s Probably Killed Nearly Half a Million Americans

(tags: usa nuclearweapons death )

Ride-Hailing Apps Are Clogging New York's Streets

(tags: taxis transport fail newyork )

The solar system could have formed in a bubble around a giant star

(tags: solarsystem space )

2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’

(tags: ufo flying )

'The difficulty is the point': teaching students how to really read

(tags: reading education english )

Britain is sliding away from Europe

(tags: uk europe )

Margaret Atwood’s Resistance Reading

(tags: margaretatwood books advice )

The Nazi Sympathisers who nearly ruled Britain

(tags: uk nazis )

Can you identify this (sub)genre?

(tags: fiction )

On making the most of the Mastodon social network

(tags: socialnetworking )

Comments

[calimac]

Why do the employees need their permanent residence applications refunded? Are they returning to Poland (or wherever) because of Brexit?

I'm impressed by any claim that traffic in NYC is getting more clogged, because the last time I tried taking a vehicle down the avenues of Manhattan, the net speed was about 2 mph. That was, oh, 18 years ago.

Although I did not go to a spoon-feeding university, and I read difficult literature for pleasure, I have a feeling that my interpretive skills would not pass muster for the Australian instructor, who expects them to squeeze amazing feats of interpretation out of a single plain sentence about a family eating bacon for breakfast - including that the voice is that of the mother and not the recollection of a former child, which is what I'd have expected.

Margaret Atwood used to denigrate science fiction and fantasy. I guess she's learned better. Good for her.

I found the article on the Windsors' supposed Nazi sympathies to be stupendously tendentious. I'd also like to point out that it's 30 years old and, while its point of view still rumbles around in casual rumors, it's never gained serious traction.

[andrewducker]

Aaah - no, the Poles currently don't need any kind of residence applications, because being European they can be resident anywhere in the EU. But with Brexit happening it _looks like_ the will need some kind of documentation to allow them to continue to be here - and their employer is offering to pay for it.

I also expected it to be a former child.

I believe I got the Atwood link from you. In which case, thank you :-)

I was under the impression that everyone knew that the two of them were Nazi sympathisers. I didn't realise it was at all questioned.

[calimac]

OK, I misinterpreted "refunded." I thought it meant the refund you want upon cancelling something you've paid for. They mean covering an additional expense.

There's a smidgin of truth to this. The Windsors were weak and susceptible to Nazi flattery. But the notion that they were active sympathizers doesn't hold water, and much of the article, including the secret history of the abdication, is entirely ludicrous.

[danieldwilliam]

Netflix has gone full Windsor was a Fascist spy.

[gingicat]

I’ve often said that passenger cars should not be allowed in Manhattan below 125th Street, with enormous affordably-priced garages at 125th and in Brooklyn and Queens for Manhattanite car owners. Totally unfeasible, but I can dream...

[redbird]

I'm trying to visualize where in Harlem (or Washington Heights?) you might put those garages. (That is probably the smallest part of what makes it unfeasible, anyhow.)

[xenophanean]

Ufos: partial waterspout? If it was just powerful enough to pick up a single glob of water, it might appear as an amorphous blob, which moved rapidly and accelerated strangely, the other sign would be churning water below.

[redbird]

I was surprised, and probably shouldn't have been, by the geographic distribution of the deaths from bomb testing.

[altamira16]

Are you on Mastodon social? I have an account on the mastodon.social instance and the counter.social instance. Neither feel like quite the right fit for me. Mastodon.social is nice because there are a lot of artists there, but there are a lot of people who want to talk about their sexuality too. I find this boring. Counter.social has just too many stupid opinions on American politics. I expected to find interesting computer security people here, but I have not found them if they are there.

[naath]

Reading - and of course some people know enough to get a first without coming to your crappy lectures and would rather do something more useful. Attendance requirements are a load of garbage, allegedly you are at uni because you want to learn, the lectures are there if you like to loarn that way but there are other ways.