Interesting Links for 16-12-2018

[andrewducker]

Soup-Salad-Sandwich Space

(tags: food visualisation )

How the CGI Tarkin was created for Rogue One

(tags: StarWars cgi faces )

KeyForge: The red-hot card game where every deck is unique—and unchangeable

(tags: games review )

Outdoor cats kill over 2 billion birds per year and have made over 60 species extinct

(tags: cats death wildlife )

This is mostly how I feel when people talk about the terrible effects of mobile phones and social media

(tags: Technology socialnetworking comic )

Mansplaining is proof you live in a hard scifi novel

(tags: scifi sexism funny )

Sunday Times reports that PM’s team is plotting a new referendum

(tags: UK europe referendum )

“Pass Brexit deal and fall behind Lib Dems.", voters tell Corbyn in poll

(tags: labour polls uk europe )

British voters despair of both Conservatives and Labour

(tags: voting UK politics )

Busy Beavers, and the Quest for Big Numbers

(tags: computing numbers mathematics )

The Gillian Duffy/Gordon Brown conversation was a watershed in British politics

(tags: politics immigration labour OhForFucksSake )

What it's like to have ingested a lot of British culture via TV, despite not being at all British

(tags: uk culture tv )

Comments

[calimac]

Regarding the dismal polling numbers, I count 2005 as the election when the UK switched from the traditional system of voters dissatisfied with one party rotating to another, to a system where they reject all the parties, and the government goes to whomever loses least badly.

Regarding whether Gordon Brown made a gaffe or was telling the honest truth: both, actually. The US pundit Michael Kinsley defines a gaffe as when a politician tells the truth, or, more precisely, says what they really think.

[dewline]

There are times when such a thing is not a gaffe, but is precisely what's needed at a particular moment. The current Trudeau's had a few of those, ditto several of his cabinet.

[calimac]

Have they? I don't get much Canadian news: do you have any links or examples handy?

[zotz]

Although the lowest turnout was 2001 and it's risen in each general election since.

[calimac]

Turnout alone doesn't measure this phenomenon. While it's risen, it hasn't risen that much, and is still low historically. 1997 was a drop on 1992, yet the turn to enthusiasm for Labour was high. 2001 was lowest probably because that was the year that the Tories reached their absolute nadir in hopelessness.

As to Brexit Referendum II?

[dewline]

I hope it happens, and I hope that "Remain" wins with a clear majority this time out.

[symbioid]

And yet, what else is left in British politics?

Liberals? Ha ha ha.

SNP? Well, for Scotland, sure?

UKIP? How's that whole Brexit working?

DUP - How's that Brexit
Irish Border working?

Sinn Fein? Tiocfaidh ár lá???


What are your thoughts on that (I don't mean to snark so much, because we are all in a shit sandwhich in this modern political environment).

Cats

[agoodwinsmith]

I am having security certificate errors with my firefox, so I can't refresh my memory about this article, but people who start whining about cats killing birds need to look at themselves: if they've moved into a previously wild area, and planted non-native species, they've pretty much starved the birds to death first. Easy pickings, then.
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/new-smithsonian-study-links-declines-suburban-backyard-birds-presence-nonnative-plants?fbclid=IwAR3sfw2aH4btnnNPIOTH9PyzJBQa-mrtePWJALwwUG1IqFBCUiV1Gdll4Ok

Re: Cats

[cyprinella]

How about they're both bad and should both be changed? I can plant all the native species in the small bit of land I own but I can't keep my neighbor's cat from hunting on my property if they keep letting it out.

[calimac]

I mentioned the "use mansplaining in a novel to disguise expository lumps" idea to B., and she said, "Then no women would want to read the novel."