Interesting Links for 04-04-2018

[andrewducker]

Six reasons why Edinburgh trams project was so badly run

(tags: edinburgh trams OhForFucksSake )

Our Statement from Jewdas On Their Seder

(tags: Jews labour )

Ten Simple Ways To Make Renting Less Awful

(tags: rental UK OhForFucksSake )

US law enforcement officers beat their wives or girlfriends at nearly double the rate of the rest of the population

(tags: police assault USA OhForFucksSake )

Pasta may not be as bad as other carbohydrates

(tags: carbohydrates pasta food )

Long-term caffeine worsens Alzheimer’s disease

(tags: caffeine alzheimers )

Most people have no idea what the letter g looks like

(tags: letter writing )

Be careful what you copy: Invisibly inserting usernames into text

(tags: security text )

Three-month-old infants can learn abstract relations before language comprehension

(tags: language thinking babies )

Orange Order in Scotland is on the brink of collapse

(tags: bigotry religion Ireland NorthernIreland Scotland GoodNews )

The UK has no trade strategy, and the government is in chaos

(tags: UK government europe fail OhForFucksSake )

What’s The Deal With Transparent Aluminum?

(tags: materials glass )

The genealogy of the Saudi royal family is...tricky to validate

(tags: family saudiarabia names )

And a member of Jewdas on Corbyn and antisemitism

(tags: Jews labour )

On systemic racism in the romance publishing world

(tags: romance publishing racism )

Japanese couple apologise for ignoring work pregnancy timetable by conceiving ‘before their turn’

There are a lot of things I've heard about Japanese business practices that make me sure I wouldn't want to live there
(tags: Japan pregnancy OhForFucksSake work viaSwampers )

'Bill And Ted 3' Now Has A Title, A Director, And More

(tags: movies )

Brexit Committee MPs demand Norway-style deal with the EU

(tags: uk europe norway )

How not to fix the Irish border problem

(tags: ireland europe uk borders trade )

How to interpret breaking news

(tags: news )

Comments

[drplokta]

No tenant wants a ten-year fixed-term contract. Remember, contract periods are the same for both parties, so signing a ten-year rental contract is committing to stay living in that property for a decade.

[hilarita]

I would like a bit more balance - I've been living in my rented property for over a decade. I'd like to get more than one month's notice to find somewhere else to live.

[channelpenguin]

I bet German tenants would LOVE it (especially since rent rises are capped by law). But that's not really relevant to a UK discussion!

I am sure there are people who would appreciate it - if it were also dissolvable by mutual agreement.

[drplokta]

Any contract can be modified, or just ignored, by mutual agreement. There's no need to have any kind of special provision for that. Contracts are about what happens without agreement by all parties.

[cyprinella]

Are you thinking only for home tenants? Because in my experience, 10 years is pretty average for commercial property. We're actually in a tight spot because a former CEO signed a 10 year lease for some pretty expensive property without coming up with a way to pay for it before bailing. However, this is US property so your UK mileage may vary.

[drplokta]

Yes, this is just for residential letting. Ten year commercial tenancies are common in the UK as well.

[danieldwilliam]

It may be the case that I have been away when it has been on but I remember being surprised by the size of the Orange Order march in the Meadows the first summer I was in the flat but I've not seen them in recent years.


I think the Famine Song is only banned at football matches and, now that the Offensive Behaviour at Football Matches Act has been repealled, perhaps not even there.

I am certainly hostile to them.

[gingicat]

Out of curiosity, are you a lefty Jew like me?

[andrewducker]

My grandparents are all Jewish, but my parents were both non observant, so I grew up loving Fiddler on the Roof, but that's about as close as I feel mostly.

(I can get protective of the identity sometimes. I've been to Auschwitz, and I've done a bit of reading, but mostly I forget about that side of my background)

Oh, and I'm left of the UK political consensus. But not staggeringly left. More likely to vote Lib Dem than Labour.

[gingicat]

*nodnod* I asked because you are clearly following Jewish Voice for Peace.

[andrewducker]

Ah. I totally am. It's nice to have a group whose posts I can share on Jewish topics without being accused of antisemitism.

[alithea]

Pasta can be healthy as part of a healthy diet. No sh*t.

The Orange Order on the brink of collapse - yep, if our local marchers are anything to go by, especially given the life expectancy in the deprived areas of Dundee, we'll see the back of them soon. Good riddance.

[marahmarie]

Pasta can be healthy as part of a healthy diet. No sh*t.

News to me: I'd taken recent health nut articles on it to mean the stuff was as bad for you as sitting around eating handfuls of sugar (but all starches seem to get this rap - after years of "potatoes are good for you" they became handfuls of sugar, as well).

[alithea]

Ah sorry, I guess that was a little facetious of me. I take all these health nut articles with a pinch of salt and just try to eat a healthy balanced diet - I have to get my calories from somewhere! I do however, have the considerable privilege of never having been overweight.

[marahmarie]

Oh, don't get me wrong - I spent 3/4s of my life never having been overweight and scarfing down pasta like it was handfuls of sugar, then, after yo-yoing into overweight the last 10 years, started reading that pasta acts as a simple sugar once digested and between that and other issues just decided to back off of it for a while.

That, and it's like Chinese food to me: I eat and feel full for a few hours, but then I just get ravenous again.

[momentsmusicaux]

> It became clear that the specialists capable of leading and running a complex project of this magnitude on behalf of the public sector were unwilling to do so because of decision made at an early stage to link the service diversions to the track laying and for CEC to manage the interface risk.

Did that change later on?
I remember when I lived near Haymarket in late 2009, and they were digging up the road to divert services underneath it, then tarmacking over it again, then a couple of months later, digging the fresh tarmac up to lay the rails. Which seemed like a crazy way of doing things, but then I could be wrong. This comment seems to be saying that service diversions should be handled separately from track.

[andrewducker]

I think it was the way it was linked that was terrible. Which was badly, and very haphazard. I can't remember the details, but it was certainly two separate operatons digging things up and laying the new tracks.

[momentsmusicaux]

Exactly. That's not what I'd call 'linked' -- haphazard, rather, as you say.

So given that, and the implication in the report that they were actually linked, what would 'not linked' look like? How could it be worse?