Interesting Links for 05-11-2018

[andrewducker]

From David Tennant to Jodie Whittaker with the help of seven months of HRT.

(tags: transgender lgbt cosplay viaSwampers drwho )

Rules for Dining Out – How a frugal economist finds the perfect lunch

(tags: food economics advice restaurant )

A 70-Year Study of 70,000 Children On the Secret to Raising Successful Kids

(tags: parenting research )

Real Progress in Parkinson’s

(tags: disease research brain )

Two Caribbean countries vote on a colonial court - London or local?

(tags: law Caribbean referendum )

The curious case of the unpopular Brexit Deal that *everyone* seems to think will happen. Why it will, why it might not, and, most importantly, why it shouldn’t.

(tags: UK europe doom )

Map of the incredible decline in child mortality from 1800 to 1950 to 2015.

(tags: children death GoodNews )

The CIA's communications suffered a catastrophic compromise costing the lives of dozens of agents.

(tags: spying epicfail cia usa Iran china )

How to explain the KGB’s amazing success identifying CIA agents in the field?

Thus one productive line of inquiry quickly yielded evidence: the differences in the way agency officers undercover as diplomats were treated from genuine foreign service officers (FSOs). The pay scale at entry was much higher for a CIA officer; after three to four years abroad a genuine FSO could return home, whereas an agency employee could not; real FSOs had to be recruited between the ages of 21 and 31, whereas this did not apply to an agency officer; only real FSOs had to attend the Institute of Foreign Service for three months before entering the service; naturalized Americans could not become FSOs for at least nine years but they could become agency employees; when agency officers returned home, they did not normally appear in State Department listings; should they appear they were classified as research and planning, research and intelligence, consular or chancery for security affairs; unlike FSOs, agency officers could change their place of work for no apparent reason; their published biographies contained obvious gaps; agency officers could be relocated within the country to which they were posted, FSOs were not; agency officers usually had more than one working foreign language; their cover was usually as a “political” or “consular” official (often vice-consul); internal embassy reorganizations usually left agency personnel untouched, whether their rank, their office space or their telephones; their offices were located in restricted zones within the embassy; they would appear on the streets during the working day using public telephone boxes; they would arrange meetings for the evening, out of town, usually around 7.30 p.m. or 8.00 p.m.; and whereas FSOs had to observe strict rules about attending dinner, agency officers could come and go as they pleased.
(tags: cia Russia spying epicfail )

Street advertising boards banned in Edinburgh

(tags: advertising edinburgh )

Finally a reason to be jealous of North Korea

(tags: NorthKorea advertising buses )

Online program helps prevent teen depression

(tags: depression teenagers web )

More landlords to be forced to improve energy efficiency (but not enough of them)

(tags: rental heating uk )

Comments

The Privy Council

[danieldwilliam]

I think if I were a citizen of a Carribean state voting on the location of the supreme court I'd vote to keep the Privy Council. The legal systems and jurisprudential foundations are very very similar, you get access to judges from a larger talent pool, the cases those judges are deciding are likely to be refered to in your own lower tier courts anyway because of the similarities in jurisprudence and the larger volume of interesting cases, and there is a significant risk of cronyism which I think is a particular risk in small countries.