andrewducker | Interesting Links for 09-01-2018

Crossposts: https://andrewducker.livejournal.com/3650398.html

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Interesting Links for 09-01-2018

On The Turing Completeness of PowerPoint: (tags: video funny powerpoint computers )
Chris Grayling's 27 Seconds as Conservative Party Chairman: (tags: conservatives fail viaSwampers )
Donald Trump's tweets aren't random - he's live-tweeting his favourite tv: (tags: tv politics usa twitter )
The couple who got engaged and married on the same day: (tags: marriage )
The plummeting Conservative membership makes the party ripe for entryism: (tags: Conservatives funny politics )
How to argue, in eight easy steps: (tags: argument conversation advice )
Lemurs mob BBC News reporter: (tags: video cute bbc )
The Omnicopter, A Super Agile Omni-Directional Drone That Can Play Catch With a Ball: (tags: drone video )
Goodbye iPod, and Thanks for All the Tunes: (tags: music apple )
Is everything Johann Hari knows about depression wrong?: (tags: depression OhForFucksSake johannhari mentalhealth psychology )
Plans unveiled for new Northern Forest from Liverpool to Hull: (tags: forests trees nature uk )
Beginner's guide to longevity research: (tags: longevity lifespan research )
The reshuffle that wasn't: May blows it again: (tags: politics conservatives fail )
7 articles that are basically free therapy: (tags: advice life relationships )
Ibuprofen alters human testicular physiology: (tags: sex drugs )
Iran Bans English in Primary Schools: (tags: english iran )
Jeremy Corbyn insists UK cannot remain in single market after Brexit: (tags: UK Europe labour )
China wants an orderly exit from Bitcoin mining: (tags: bitcoin china )
Tory MSPs back call for Scottish Parliament to reject UK Brexit Bill: (tags: scotland uk europe politics )
A 430-Year-Old World Map, Taking Up 60 Square Feet: Link to a zoomable version: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303661~90074314:Composite--Tavola-1-60---Map-of-the
(tags: maps history )
Swallowable sensors reveal mysteries of human gut health: (tags: bodies )
New insights into lifetime personality change: (tags: personality age psychology )
Women more likely to suffer winter depression and mood changes: (tags: women depression winter sad )

(tags: sex drugs )

You know, sometimes I think you're having fun with the tags on purpose...

Not my first thought but an early thought.

Knowing that Trump is likely to tweet in response to Fox and Friends reporting - how do I monetise that?

Clearly the answer would be to plant articles about BitCoin hoping to drive the price in a way I'm positioned.

Thanks for this link, I've added it to my recent post on the subject - a very good rebuttal.

Edited 2018-01-09 12:37 (UTC)

May's reshuffle was pretty poor. I think the lose of Greening will be telling. I think the suggestion that other people, less competent and less loyal than her got what they wanted and she didn't is probably true. If I were here I'd be miffed and, perhaps, inclined to be difficult.

A useful fact to remember about Thatchers is that her Premiership ended when there more backbenchers she had sacked than there were backbenchers she had not promoted.

If I could have fitted rock and roll on there I totally would have done!

I can't tell if China is most worried about the use of BitCoin as a secret currency that it can't monitor, or about really very large amounts of electricity theft (and resulting polution) or about the risk that BitCoin poses to financial systems (where China's are probably more vulnerable to a shock and a crash than the Chinese would let you believe.)

If it was theft they were worried about then they'd just make sure they were being paid.

Uncontrolled currency seems more likely.

The longevity primer is really useful - thanks.

Good point.

I don't think the electricity usage is large enough that it would be causing serious imbalance in the Chinese energy market. Large enough that you wouldn't want it stolen, not so large that you'd want it to stop (so long as you were getting some economic benefit from the activity.)

My understanding is that they tend to be near dams and use cheap hydro.

This kind of thing:
http://www.chinafile.com/multimedia/photo-gallery/inside-world-of-chinese-bitcoin-mining

OK, now maybe we could have a joke where the punchline isn't replacing May with Leadsome or Rees-Mogg (I'm not sure they'd be EVEN WORSE, but I'm not hopeful. May was SUPPOSED to be a remainer when she was chosen too.)

I hadn't realised how pervasive the "refuse to be shuffled" thing had been. I didn't think it worked like that.

If I were the Chinese government I think I'd prefer that the cheap hydro was used for something more socially useful (or more aligned with the desires and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.)

I'm not sure it ever has before.

But I think May is having to balance sacking incompetent people against them rebelling and possibly unseating her.

When she was chosen? But the Brexit vote had already happened then, and the assumption was a context in which this was going to happen regardless of who became PM. A weak Remainer like May, who could implement Brexit without immense contortions over her political position, was the best compromise between a strong Remainer (obviously impossible) and a Leave campaigner (because they were all bonkers).

I realize from this that I'm unclear on the actual power relationships here. Everything I've read of recent UK political history suggests PMs have unfettered actual power to sack ministers, although requesting their resignation is usually enough. (As you're pointing out, it unusually was not enough here.)

On the other hand, the legal position is that the PM is merely the chair-person of cabinet, "first among equals," and not their superior officer. I'm not sure how these two facts correlate. Sometime around the Thatcher or Blair days, people started writing about the "presidential" model of PM leadership. The US President does have unquestioned legal power to sack various high officers including Cabinet (although others whom he appoints become independent on appointment), and the one attempt made by Congress to put a curb on that power failed rather spectacularly.

It doesn't usually but at the moment I think there are too many factional fights being barely kept at a simmer that any reasonably senior Tory could claim that sacking them would cause a leadership contest.

Unless you are Justine Greening.

In modern times, in practice, the Prime Minister would expect unfettered de jure power to appoint the Cabinet. They are probably in a technical legal sense advising the Queen on the apppointment of her ministers but the accepted constitutional position is that the Prime Minister appoints the Cabinet.

What is at stake here is that the Prime Minister is only PM if they can command a majority in the House of Commons and in practice that means being leader of the largest party.

May is in a weak position. Her party is very, very split over Europe. It's also split over other policy areas. Like any broad church party it has a left-wing and a right-wing. It's also split over issues of personality and electoral strategy. Many Tories love Boris Johnson. Many Tories think he's a vacuous, power-grabbing oik who's ambition far exceeds both his actual abilities and any concept he might have of loyalty to friends, to party or to country.

Externally the Tories lost the last election (sort of) and are in real danger of losing the next election. The next election is not due for about 4 1/2 years but *could* happen any time. The situations that cause an early election are likely to damage the Conservative Party very, very badly because they are disorderly and involve at least some internal rebellion.

May gets the blame for the election result in May where they went from a 20% polling lead and looking at 100-200 seat majority to losing seats and their majority and having to do a deal with the DUP. She's damaged. She's also a lukewarm Remainer and not entirely trusted by either side of the European split.

The rules for the Conservative Party leadership are that about 30-40 sitting MP's can trigger a leadership election by writing to the Chair of the Parliamentary Conservative Party expressing No Confidence. There is a vote on the No Confidence motion. If passed Conservative MP's vote on a short list for the leadership election using run off voting until there are two candidates. These are put in front of the current membership of the Party

So the conversation is probably going something like this

May to current Secretary of State for X: I'd like you to stop being Secretary of State for X

SoS4X: I don't want to stop and if you sack me I'll trigger a) a backbench rebellion on issue X, b) a backbench rebellion on Europe (for or against) c) a leadership challenge, d) I'll just make your life miserable or e) I'll defect to the Lib Dems or UKIP.

May: Okay then, you can stay as Secretary of State for X.

Usually the response would be May: Well, off you go then, let me know how it goes, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

That is usually the response because usually the party is more unified and the PM has just won an election or is just about to win one.

May isn't a Remainer any more. She takes inordinately seriously the mandate of the referendum.

Why is going from Education to DWP considered a demotion? The latter is by far the bigger Department.

More like a poison chalice, I would have thought!

I think she didn't *want* to go.

Edited 2018-01-09 18:12 (UTC)

You're right, sorry. Should have been clearer. I'm referring to a slightly different point, which is that the press have been referring to it as a demotion.

I agree that May takes the Brexit vote seriously.

However, I think in this context (both the internal Tory split and the national split) it is only your position before the vote that counts. If you were for staying in the EU before the vote you are a Remainer and shall always be a Remainer.

Which is where May's problems here begin - she isn't trusted by either camp.

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Interesting Links for 09-01-2018

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Fox and Friends

Re: Is everything Johann Hari knows about depression wrong?

May's Unshuffle

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Chinese BitCoin

Re: Chinese BitCoin

Longevity

Re: Chinese BitCoin

Re: Chinese BitCoin

The plummeting Conservative membership makes the party ripe for entryism

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Re: Chinese BitCoin

Re: Fox and Friends

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Re: The plummeting Conservative membership makes the party ripe for entryism

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