Interesting Links for 22-06-2018

[andrewducker]

Listen and weep: Audiobooks outdo films in emotional engagement

(tags: books emotion tv movies )

How bad could Brexit be, really?

(tags: Europe UK doom )

Famous gorilla Koko who could do sign language has died at the age of 46

(tags: gorillas sign language )

Why Rank-And-File Evangelicals Aren’t Likely To Turn On Trump Over Family Separation - For Now.

(tags: religion usa immigration racism society )

First physiological test for autism has 88% accuracy in second trial

(tags: autism )

The day after: Tory MPs look at the cliff-edge

(tags: politics UK Europe )

Burger Robot Startup Opens First Restaurant

(tags: food automaton )

Immigrant children have been forcibly injected with powerful psychiatric drugs at one of the U.S. government "shelters"

(tags: drugs usa children immigration OhForFucksSake )

Roseanne officially going on without the titular character

(tags: tv funny )

Airbus warns no-deal Brexit could see it leave UK - taking 14,000 jobs with it

(tags: airplanes uk europe jobs business doom )

Guys, guys, I found the very definition of entitlement

(tags: StarWars OhForFucksSake )

Edinburgh trams profits more than £1m above forecast

Considering that it's only half of the line, I'm amazed it's making a profit at all.
(tags: trams edinburgh )

Investigating The Mysterious ‘Jumping Gene’ That Appears 500k Times in Human DNA

(tags: genetics )

Air Force certifies Falcon Heavy, orders satellite launch for 2020

(tags: Spacex )

Eurozone agrees deal to bring Greece out of financial crisis

(tags: Greece debt Europe economy )

Psychiatric disorders share an underlying genetic basis

(tags: genetics mentalhealth )

A mechanism behind choosing alcohol over healthy rewards is found (in rats, but probably also humans)

(tags: alcohol brain genetics addiction rats )

Turns out Stephen King is responsible for Donald Trump

(tags: usa politics horror funny stephen_king )

The great irony of Brexit is that it is teaching the UK that it already had the best model: EU membership

(tags: europe uk )

The three legal ways by which Brexit may not take place on 29 March 2019

(tags: uk europe law )

Comments

The day after: Tory MPs look at the cliff-edge

[xenophanean]

"Yet, time and again, Conservative MPs given the chance to vote for their country or their party have opted to keep Theresa May’s government in place and risk hard Brexit."

I just doubt this. I think remainer Tories aren't failing to rebel against May because they're just useless, they're doing it because they're afraid they'll end up with a Davis government, who'll rip up deals and force a no-deal Brexit, whereas Theresa May is very likely to make some sort of a deal, because she's neither crazy, treasonously self-interested nor incredibly stupid*.


*She _is_ racist, bigoted, pretty hard-right and hateful, but alarmingly she's currently looking like one of the more palatable members of the Tory party.

Re: The day after: Tory MPs look at the cliff-edge

[andrewducker]

If they can bring down May they can bring down Davis.

Re: The day after: Tory MPs look at the cliff-edge

[danieldwilliam]

They can probably bring down May in a way that doesn't permanently damage the Conservative Party or their membership of it.

About 50 Tory MP's need to ask for a confidence vote on the Leader. They then need 50%+1 of the current Tory MP's to vote for them. If they get that they survive. If they don't there is a leadership contest.

It's possible that May would not win a confidence vote. Davis (or whomever) will have won an election of Tory MP's and possibly an election of Tory members. It's unlikely that they would lose a vote of confidence shortly after winning the leadership.

So any Tory rebels would have to vote with the opposition parties to no confidence the government - and risk being expelled from the party and a general election. That's not impossible but it's less likely than May being removed.

[cmcmck]

And that's what Hitler's minions told the disabled people they were engaged in murdering....................

[calimac]

Thanks for the Brexit prospect factual updates: they extend my knowledge without contradicting anything I thought I knew previously, so I don't feel at a loss here. It's your government that's at a loss.

Re the fans dissatisfied with The Last Jedi: I'd just like to point out that the first time some Star Wars fans rebelled and declared that the new movie was unacceptable and not in keeping with the spirit and traditions of the franchise was with The Empire Strikes Back. Yes, really. A Star Wars fan friend of mine (with an attitude of, "Can you believe these nuts?") showed me at the time a printed fanzine with a rant to that effect.

[andrewducker]

They really are.

Theresa May is determined to carry out her task, but seems completely at a loss as to how to manage it. Possibly because it's impossible to do it well.