Interesting Links for 17-08-2020

[andrewducker]

Workers at the centre of an outbreak faced pay dock if they self-isolated

(tags:pandemic food money )

Facebook refused to check hate speech by India BJP fearing business fallout

(tags:India hate facebook )

Who wants a large house, complete with attached jail. Yes, a real one. (See photos 1-30, and then the switchover...)

(tags:housing prison weird )

Making decisions is work

(tags:work decisions viaCipherGoth )

How Denmark reopened its schools without massively increasing infection risk

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1294707856462295041.html
(tags:school pandemic Denmark )

The Tentacled Monster Here is Racism: Lovecraft Country Episode 1 Review (looks like it's going to be excellent)

(tags:hplovecraft racism TV horror )

What if Corbyn's Labour had had a chance at government in 2017?

(tags:politics UK labour history )

Global Wave Discovery Ends 220-Year Search

(tags:air earth science )

Public urged to sign up for Covid-19 vaccine trials after 100,000 people register in first month

(tags:vaccine pandemic UK )

Why does Google think the slowest animal is the sloth?

(tags:animals Google Wikipedia facts )

Morrisons to remove plastic 'bags for life' and trial paper alternative

(tags:plastic shopping paper environment )

UK facing worst wheat harvest since 1980s

(tags:food farming wheat UK Doom )

Comments

[jack]

Why does Google think the slowest animal is the sloth?

I guess cos of the name :)

Ironically, they've got to tremendous effort to replicate the effect of shouting across the pub, "hey, what's the slowest animal?" and often, getting a human-y answer that's vaguely related may be very useful compared to a more analytic answer. But there's a problem of google shoving its guesses at the top of search results where people BELIEVE them.

[mtbc]

Even with double-bagging I've yet to have a supermarket give me paper bags that will actually make it through a walk home in the rain. I think they think nobody's going any further than their car just outside the store, bah, but once sodden they just disintegrate. (I do extensively reuse bags.)

[anna_wing]

I use plastic supermarket bags for garbage (garbage is collected every day; in a tropical climate, you don't keep it around if you can help it). If we didn't have those, we would just have to buy dedicated plastic garbage bags. There is a place for plastic.

[ironyoxide]

>Rural county town halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis.
>2 bedroom house with attached 9 cell jail.
>Plus a full basement they're not showing us.
>What looks suspiciously like a holy water font right next to the front door.

Hmm.

India Deserves Better

[dewline]

Why am I sadly unsurprised by Facebook's mishandling of the BJP?

[calimac]

The article on the prospects for a Corbyn government in 2017 puzzles me in some respects.

First, it isn't clear as to whether May would have remained (presumptively) in office in the interim of a hung parliament because she was the incumbent or because (even under the alternate history) the Conservatives had the most seats. The former is the traditional British policy, but the latter seems to be taking over from the continental tradition. Gordon Brown resigned in 2010 because Labour had fewer seats than the Conservatives, even though he was in office and had the right to attempt to put together a government. Cameron took formal office as PM before he'd signed the LDs up for a coalition, though by tradition he'd only have had the right to give it a try.

Second, it says of 1924, "MacDonald had to come to some sort of arrangement with the Liberals of his time." No he didn't. MacDonald refused to make any sort of deal with the Liberals, counting on the fact that, the Liberals having just voted to oust the Conservatives, they couldn't logically immediately oust the replacement their vote had caused to be put in. Once the government was formed, the Lab and Lib whips were in regular touch over day-to-day affairs, but there were no negotiations between the leaderships as on some other occasions.

[nickbarlow]

(Only just seen this post and the comment of Andrew's that linked to it, sorry for a long delay in responding)

I take your point on 1924, I think my reading on it has tended to centre on its place in Liberal history, which often paints them in a more active role than the neutral view might!

On May remaining in position post the hypothetical June 2017 result, I would argue that everything we saw of her reaction to the actual result then and the withering away of her majority and authority over the following two years makes it more likely that even if she didn't have a case to go to the Palace, she wouldn't have vacated Number Ten until someone had the power to oust her. Unlike Brown in 2010, she wouldn't be facing the "squatter in Downing Street" headlines from most of the press. I should probably have made it clearer in the post that my view is that if there had been a result like that the most likely outcome would have been a second election that year (likely with a different Tory leader) but I was more interested in looking at what might have resulted if the unlikelier ending of a Corbyn-led government had come about.

[ninetydegrees]

Morrisons to remove plastic 'bags for life' and trial paper alternative

This is so weird to me. In my country almost everyone has these and bring them to the supermarket when going grocery shopping. I also have one which is so small once folded I can always keep it in my purse. The ones I hate are the paper bags and stupid plastic bags I get when I have food delivered since I have no use for them.