Interesting Links for 11-06-2019

[andrewducker]

What came first: my refusal to perform femininity, or the knowledge that I'll never be able to?

(tags:gender society women )

Scottish Power to build vast battery to improve wind energy supply

(tags:batteries electricity UK windpower )

Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications

(tags:google opensource android )

Huge, unexplained metal mass spotted under the surface of the Moon

I assume it's the engines
(tags:moon )

Cause of polycystic ovary syndrome discovered (in mice, human trials just starting)

(tags:pcos mice )

The US Government's Database Of Traveler Photos Has Been Compromised, US Customs And Border Protection Says

(tags:USA hacking identity OhForFucksSake )

Cineworld's 'revolutionary' ScreenX technology is coming to Edinburgh (looks very silly)

(tags:cinema edinburgh )

Councils admit failure to send out EU postal ballots in time

(tags:Europe elections fail UK )

Possibly the finest food truck idea of all time

(tags:food business funny )

Why legal weed in Britain isn't likely soon

I suspect the best chance comes from other countries moving first and us being swept along with them.
(tags:marijuana uk )

Fertilizer plants emit 100 times more methane than reported

(tags:methane pollution globalwarming )

The Good Omens Miniseries is a Love Story

(tags:TV neilgaiman terrypratchett love relationships lgbt )

Comments

[jack]

"Android now forces apps to include proprietary code for push notifications"

As with some of the other recent updates, I'm not surprised android followed a "be free to capture the market, switch to grabbing a monopoly and exploiting it" model, but I needed to see it develop myself to really be convinced :(

"Cineworld's 'revolutionary' ScreenX technology is coming to Edinburgh (looks very silly)"

So they don't actually rotate?

"Councils admit failure to send out EU postal ballots in time"

Agh! I used to be proud of our electoral system :( Are there standards for "how many people can't vote" before the election is invalid, or is it on a case-by-case basis?

[andrewducker]

To be fair to local councils, the government was telling them there wouldn't be an election until unreasonably close to the actual date.

[dewline]

2. Sounds like another step towards a cleaner world.

3. We need to worry about this, don't we?

4. Since the relevant science communities don't seem to know what this mass is made of, the Space: 1999 fan in me starts speculating. If the authorities set up nuclear waste dumps on the Moon, don't put the dumps on top of that mass. Please.

6. Yep. This isn't going to make ID theft easier, is it?

[momentsmusicaux]

I imagine ScreenX will be nice for people who have eyes on the sides of their heads.

Also, I wish they'd call that 4DX by its original name: Smell-O-Vision.

Mysterious lunar mass

[anna_wing]

The Chinese landed on the dark side of the moon January 2019, so they might know more.

The woman talking about "performing femininity" is so sad. It seems very odd, that she appears to believe that beng a tall, strong woman is somehow the same as being a man (perhaps she should visit Scandinavia or the Netherlands...). Or that it did not occur to her that perhaps her friend thought that she was at less risk of rape precisely because she is tall and strong, rather than because she is sexually unattractive (which implies some strange things about her conception of rape, too...). All in all, obviously from an extremely dysfunctional and unhealthy environment, if she thinks that strength and femininity are incompatible, and very possibly in need of some sort of counselling.

[anef]

I can't work out if the grilled cheese sandwich truck is an actual plan or some sort of conceptual art. I mean, it seems like a reasonable business model, (though I suspect it will take too long to cook the sandwiches) and he has a truck.

[jducoeur]

Not sure whether it's a real plan or not, but I hope so, and I kinda hope it's nearby. I mean, grilled cheese is the ultimate "sometimes food", but I could totally see hitting it up every now and then. (They would sell a *bazillion* parked outside the Arisia convention.) It's kind of like White Castle, but tasty.

And the business seems at least semi-plausible if you kit out a big enough grill and crank them out in rotation -- the reduced price would be compensated for by how quick they are to churn out. Grueling work, but probably no worse than many other food trucks...