Interesting Links for 10-10-2018

[andrewducker]

People can spot a corrupt politician from a photo 70% of the time

(tags: politics corruption faces testosterone )

New Doctor Who slammed as ‘unrealistic’ after showing working train between Sheffield and Manchester

(tags: satire drwho funny manchester trains )

Women told 'don't use headphones' despite attacker actively starting conversations

(tags: assault police WTF advice )

Some progress seems to be being made on the UK's withdrawal deal

But is there a majority in parliament for it?
(tags: UK Europe )

We Are Not the Resistance

(tags: usa history society )

'Gay cake' row: Supreme Court rules in favour of Ashers

(tags: freespeech lgbt NorthernIreland uk )

Nearly 30% of young people in England do not drink

(tags: alcohol uk )

UK public finances are among weakest in the world

(tags: uk economy fail )

Comments

[aldabra]

So why do people vote for corrupt politicians, then? I mean, they quite clearly do, all over the world. At some level, they must think the corruption is benefitting them. And in the US system it probably is, through pork-barrelling, but I think that's much less systemic here.

[redbird]

In some cases people vote for corrupt politicians because they're heard, and repeated, "jokes" about all politicians being corrupt so often that they think the choice is only whether the crooks will do things we like, or dislike, while lining their pockets. (The problem with the current U.S. government isn't primarily that it includes the president's son-in-law; we did okay with a president's brother as attorney general back in the 1960s.)

Or you get the reasoning of "let's elect a billionaire, he won't need to steal from the public purse, which may be part of how Bloomberg became mayor of New York (and for better or worse, I don't think he did) as well as the Trump thing (one of whose many lies was that he had more money than he needed).

[zotz]

It isn't individuals who have a 70% success rate (however defined), it's a panel. Individuals, I'm fairly sure, won't average as well and also will have to take this into account along with other information. Also there's the usual problem with tests often creating more false-positives than correct ones and therefore not being worth a high level of confidence without corroboration.

[jack]

Because they think their opponent is more dangerous than the corrupt one :(

[mountainkiss]

Why isn't UK public finances link tagged Doom?

[andrewducker]

This week's quota of doom was running dangerously low and it was necessary to reserve some for later in the week.

[danieldwilliam]

I suspect the judgement on the cake is going to come down to one's sexuality being a protected characteristic but your view on current political campaigns is not.

[cmcmck]

That cake judgement is really dangerous- for everyone, not just gay folks.

Judges completely out of touch as so often!