Interesting Links for 29-01-2021

[andrewducker]

Boosted by tech stocks, Norway wealth fund earns £90 billion in 2020

(tags:Norway money )

Are Psychiatric Conditions Spectra or Discrete?

(tags:psychiatry psychology ontology statistics )

The casting for the Sandman TV series is not what I expected, and that delights me

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1354806599714369544.html
(tags:sandman TV )

The SNP taking steps in the right direction over transphobia. (Looking forward to their definition)

(tags:snp LGBT transgender bigotry )

The contents of Magna Carta - how much is still valid today?

(tags:history law UK )

Drone Swarms Are Getting Too Fast for Humans to Fight, U.S. General Warns

(tags:USA drone military )

How we we could have - and should have - avoided more than100,000 people dying from Covid in the UK

(tags:pandemic death UK incompetence )

UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands

(tags:UK nationality )

Nobody uses the word "technocrat" except when they're criticizing something.

(tags:government organisation civilization rationality )

GOP Congresswoman blamed deadly forest fire on Jewish space laser

(tags:OhForFucksSake conspiracy Jews lasers wtf republicans )

There were more Covid outbreaks in offices last year than in supermarkets, construction sites, warehouses, restaurants and cafes combined.

(tags:pandemic office doom )

Comments

[simont]

Nobody uses the word "technocrat" except when they're criticizing something

That's surely true of a lot of "-crat" words. Certainly "plutocrat" falls into the same category, for example. And "bureaucrat" isn't normally meant nicely. Still less "Eurocrat", which I read as mostly "bureaucrat in a bad way", with a side order of "PS the speaker is a pro-Brexit EU-hater".

Not all of them, of course. "democrat" (with small d, not identifying one side of the US political divide) is usually positively spun. But a lot.

"meritocrat" or "meritocracy" I've seen go both ways – some people use it to mean "we put the people in charge who can actually do those jobs best, what could be wrong with that?" and other people think it means "we gave the top jobs to our Oxford buddies on the assumption – or perhaps even the consciously fictitious pretext – that they must surely be the best".

[calimac]

US Republicans have done their best to denigrate the word "democrat". Democrats refer to their party as "the Democratic Party." Republicans almost invariably call it "the Democrat Party" to the extent that they seem unaware of any alternative, despite frequent corrections. But a sneer at the word "democrat" with an emphasis on the "-crat" as one hears with "bureaucrat" and "plutocrat" is not heard here.

[rhythmaning]

"I’m not prepared to discuss whether or not Jewish Space Laser has ever been used as a pet name for my penis."

https://twitter.com/Baddiel/status/1355066256181911553?s=20

[calimac]

I've never heard of any of the actors named for Sandman. That's not a criticism, it just means I can't evaluate their casting.

[andrewducker]

The Lucifer actress was very very good in Game of Thrones. And Charles Dance has been excellent in many things for a few decades. The others I don't know.

[simont]

Yes, all I really had to go on was the pictures in that Twitter thread.

On that basis, a lot of them look amazing, with a very close match to the original illustrations. The ones who don't look exactly like they do in the books (Lucien(ne) and Cain) look so unlike them that it must have been deliberate!

I particularly remember Gaiman's very strong hint that Cain ought to be played by Vincent Price (at one point Matthew offends Cain by saying they sound alike). Vincent Price is not available, so the alternatives are to either find the best Vincent Price imitation you can (a Vincent Cut-Price?) or else to head in a totally different direction. They've done the latter, and that seems sensible to me.

[andrewducker]

Gwendoline Christie I can understand. But have you really never seen Charles Dance in anything?

(Agreed on Cain)

[simont]

Not in nothing, but in surprisingly few of the things I see on his Wikipedia page. And several that I have seen were such that the whole work mostly failed to stick in my memory (Alien 3, Underworld: Awakening), which is obviously not his fault, but true nonetheless!

I did watch Fingersmith fairly recently, which, hmm, fair enough.

[andrewducker]

He's just been around for so long that he's hard to miss.

And he's basically gravitas for hire, in a Jeremy Irons, Ian McKellen kind of way.

Big Fat Quiz of the Year use this for comedic effect. https://youtu.be/mlwW7f7T02g

[jack]

I only knew Gwendolyn Christie, but I was cautiously optimistic because they looked like the sort of actors I see who get chosen for being good for the part (but o won't actually know until I see some of the show)