Interesting Links for 11-01-2018

[andrewducker]

Facebook has open-sourced encrypted group chat

(tags: chat Facebook encryption )

"Science" makes progress on reproducibility

(tags: research )

Jeremy Corbyn promises to force nationalised railways to sell the Daily Mail

I mean, I can't really think of another way of interpreting it, seeing as they weren't banned from selling it before - they just made a choice not to. So if he wants to reverse the current policy then presumably it's because he wants to force them to sell it. Either that or they have no idea what they're talking about...
(tags: DailyMail labour wtf )

Why do humans re-read stories?

(tags: stories )

A collection of management consulting frameworks & graphics that make no sense

(tags: management work organisation )

Exposure to light makes fat cells shrink

(tags: fat light )

Sleeping for longer leads to a healthier diet

(tags: diet food sleep )

If you're going to commit bigamy you probably shouldn't go on tv with, well, either wife

(tags: marriage crime EpicStupidity )

Ikea Wants You to Pee on This Ad. If You’re Pregnant, It Will Give You a Discount on a Crib

(tags: pregnancy urination advertising )

Autonomous transportation launching to 125k residents in Florida

(tags: Florida automation cars )

UCL to investigate eugenics conference secretly held on campus (last year's keynote speaker: Toby Young)

(tags: racism intelligence London University uk )

Marvel Moving Forward With ‘Black Widow’ Standalone Movie

Should have happened years ago, of course.
(tags: marvel movies women scarlettjohansson )

How Much Does the Entire Internet Weigh?

(tags: weight internet electrons )

Two genes in Chromosomes 13 and 14, linked to Homosexuality

(tags: lgbt genetics )

Looking for Female Participants for a Board Game Study

(tags: women games )

Incredible 'Hypatia' Stone Contains Compounds Not Found in the Solar System

(tags: space )

Over half of Heathrow's near 79,000 noise complaints last year came from 10 people

(tags: airplanes noise London complaints uk )

Don't Judge People at the Supermarket for Buying Pre-Chopped Vegetables

(tags: disabilities food )

Definition of marriage has now evolved to include same-sex couples, EU court says

(tags: europe marriage lgbt equality )

Comments

[drplokta]

Since the Hypatia stone is in fact in our solar system, it’s clearly untrue to say that it contains compounds not found in our solar system. The strongest claim you could make would be that it contains compounds not yet found elsewhere in our solar system.

[calimac]

Yes, that was misleading. Not knowing the name "Hypatia stone", I thought from the line here that it must be that extra-solar comet (or whatever it is) that was spotted passing through the solar system recently.

Not the only one today that caught me out. I didn't read "Jeremy Corbyn promises to force nationalised railways to sell the Daily Mail" as meaning they would sell copies at their newsstalls. I thought it meant the railways were the proprietors of the newspaper and Corbyn would make them divest. This ownership surprised me, to be sure, but I quickly realized my error.

Heathrow

[danieldwilliam]

I suspect the people making thousands of complaints are a) in a bad spot for noise, b) badly affected by it and c) trying to document that it affects them all day every day.

[xenophanean]

Not sure the Business Insider post is genuine. Nobody in their right mind in Labour would say "...and a hundred flowers will bloom". Think they made it up.

[danieldwilliam]

I have begun to wonder if Business Insider is, in fact, a spoof.

The Daily Rail Mail

[danieldwilliam]

I think Corbyn's position on the Daily Mail on trains is reasonable.

Virgin Trains is a private organisation. Free to sell or to not sell any products or services it wishes for what ever reason it wishes within the law.

If the same railway services are brought in to public ownership then they are state entities and the state probably shouldn't be restricting the sale of newspapers. Basically he's saying the state won't restrict the sales of newspapers.

Some interesting question for Corbyn would be - will nationalised railway services be selling the European or the National and how bad do sales of the Daily Mail on nationalised railway services have to be before the railway makes a commercial decision not to sell them?

Re: The Daily Rail Mail

[andrewducker]

You'd need a rule of some kind that applied evenly.

Of course by the time we have a Labour government newspapers will have ceased to exist.

Re: The Daily Rail Mail

[danieldwilliam]

And what happens when the rule says it's only worth selling the Daily Mail on trains between really rubbish places? The Swindon to Slough stopping service for example.

Certainly I hope that by the time we have a Labour Government the Daily Mail has ceased to exist.

The Genes Linked to Homosexuality

[danieldwilliam]

I'm honestly not sure I trust us with the knowledge of the gene for homosexuality.

Re: The Genes Linked to Homosexuality

[andrewducker]

I'm certainly glad it didn't arrive thirty years ago.

(Also, what else does it do?)

Re: The Genes Linked to Homosexuality

[danieldwilliam]

Yeah, now is probably the least worst time in history for us to know this.

What else does it do?

(Or what else did it do once upon a time?)

????

One would think that on a list of characteristics likely to be selected against by evolutionary processes a trait for spending time and effort actively seeking out infertile sexual partners would be pretty up there but after several decades of taking an interest in evolution and genetics about the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm fucked if I understand it but it's probably more complicated than I think it is.

Re: The Genes Linked to Homosexuality

[agoodwinsmith]

Based on my observations, people who have been able to become settled in their domestic life with their preferred partner, if childless, then become excellent aunts/uncles to their sibling's and partner's sibling's children. It would be enough to select for extended survival of offspring who carry some of the aunt/uncle genetic material which would then participate in the next round of The DNA Shuffle.

Re: The Genes Linked to Homosexuality

[zotz]

Candidate genes started being pointed out about 25 years ago. Actually, in the US this has probably been a good thing, as supreme court precedents give protection to traits which can be said to be inborn rather than lifestyle choices.

[mme_n_b]

One has to justify buying vegetables? Seriously?

[andrewducker]

Apparently!

Sleep and Sunshine

[agoodwinsmith]

So basically: snoozing in the sun on a beach somewhere will make you slim. :) I'm in!

Why do humans re-read stories?

[darkoshi]

I agree with the comment that a book isn't just a story; it's a place that you inhabit and you go back to visit.

But the characters are also your good friends (or you partially become the characters), and they are fun and interesting and take you along on their exciting adventures. So why not go back and visit those friends again and relive some of the camaraderie?

I think you never really remember 100% of a story with all its details until you read (or see) it again. (Maybe it is different for people with an eidetic memory; that would be interesting to know).
That said, I don't think I've re-read a book in quite a long time. Maybe I should do it more often, but my mind tells me that there's nothing new to gain, so why do that when I could instead explore a new story. And my mind tells me that if I re-read my old favorites, I may notice flaws now that didn't bother me in the past.