Interesting Links for 12-03-2021

[andrewducker]

Playing with ultra-thin dolls could make girls as young as five want skinnier bodies

(tags:girls weight health toys dolls psychology ViaDrCross )

Scotland-England link removed for overhaul

(tags:UK Scotland England bridge )

'Appalling' speech by equalities minister was final straw, says LGBT+ adviser who quit government

(tags:UK conservatives lgbt OhForFucksSake )

'Harry Potter' actor Katie Leung was told to deny she was target of racist attacks

(tags:racism harrypotter movies )

£1m Green gravity energy project gets off the ground at Edinburgh's Leith docks

(tags:electricity gravity Edinburgh Scotland )

The weird and wonderful world of Eiffel Tower replicas and derivatives

(tags:France weird design architecture viaDanielDWilliam )

Scotland makes it illegal to stir up hatred against minorities (and abolishes blasphemy laws)

(tags:Scotland abuse law blasphemy )

Peer-reviews for grants are not reliable

(tags:research fail funding )

UK exports to Europe drop 40% in January

(tags:UK Europe trade Doom )

How tiny things add up - in business, bureaucracy, and racism

(tags:viaDanielDWilliam racism business UK Europe trade journalism )

Britain cannot be reformed, it must be destroyed

(tags:UK racism price journalism viaDanielDWilliam )

Another successful Covid vaccine announced!

(tags:pandemic vaccine GoodNews )

BBC cancels comedy show for being successful while not being Pro Brexit or Conservative

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1370256264509464577.html
(tags:BBC OhForFucksSake comedy tv )

Amazon Yanks Books That Frame LGBTQ Identity as Mental Illness

(tags:mentalhealth lgbt Amazon GoodNews )

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I expect the Hate Crimes Act will be significantly amended within 10 years when we are stunned and surpised by the discovery that it has in fact been mis-used by an over zealous police force deployed by a Scottish government that appears to be getting in to the habit of using law enforcement as a political tool.

Probably after they target Rangers fans.

Union Bridge

[danieldwilliam]

I have walked across that bridge. It's not far from our house in the Borders.

It's quite a lovely looking bridge and there's a nice walk along the river.

We were there just before the restoration work started.

Re: Union Bridge

[andrewducker]

I'd like to do that some day.

Re: Union Bridge

[danieldwilliam]

Definately recommended. There is a honey farm with a small museum there as well.

Mash Report

[danieldwilliam]

That feels like the begining of the end for the BBC.

Why would you vote to pay a tax for a service that is deliverably not aimed at you when you could have Netflix instead?

Re: Mash Report

[andrewducker]

Pretty much!

Re: Mash Report

[dewline]

If this is the New Policy imposed upon the Beeb, how long before we lose Doctor Who again?

Re: Mash Report

[danieldwilliam]

Does Doctor Who challenge the government in any meaningful way?

Re: Mash Report

[dewline]

The title character - along with all other Time Lords - is trans. It might have made the news that people were expecting this to happen for a few years before Jodie Whitaker was cast in the lead. Certainly, before the days of Michelle Gomez as "Missy", that expectation was set up in "The Doctor's Wife" by writer Neil Gaiman.

So, I'd say "yes". Johnson himself might be fine with it, but I expect there's a "social conservative" faction within his caucus who want that over and done.

Re: Mash Report

[danieldwilliam]

I'm not sure that the modern Conservative Party much cares about LGBTQ representation. Either way.

It doesn't make them rich and voters in marginal seats seem broadly split either way on the issues so there doesn't seem to be a great electoral advantage to doing anything about them either way.

Re: Mash Report

[alithea]

Yep.

Gravity Energy Storage

[danieldwilliam]

Like you, I'm not convinced this sort of system will turn out to be cost competative with a) batteries b) turning the excess energy in to some thing c) fixing CO2 out of the atmosphere or d) just having so much cheap solar PV that we are happy to throw it away but it might be and it's nice to see some prototypes and experiments taking place.

It does have the virtue of being simple to build and operate and not suffering from capacity degradation over time. And also of being a quick response to fluctuations in the grid.

Re: Gravity Energy Storage

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'm not sure that it beats batteries for energy storage. The density is going to be rubbish by comparison. I'd like to be proven wrong, of course.

Generating Europe-wide and despatching to the necessary places seems like a much better approach.

Re: Gravity Energy Storage

[danieldwilliam]

I mean every little helps and some large ones might get built whilst the cost of batteries comes down.

Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

I genuinely don't think people in England want to reform Britain.

Re: Reforming Britain

[andrewducker]

Me either. That's why I gave up on Britain about a decade ago!

Re: Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

Everything became much clearer politically to me when I came to that conclusion.

Mind you I think the May election is going to be our only chance for indepedence for a decade or two.

Re: Reforming Britain

[andrewducker]

I think you're right.

Mind you, I thought that last time!

Re: Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

The SNP will be out of government in 2025 I think. Probably for a term or two. That's a couple of decades right there.

Re: Reforming Britain

[dewline]

I'd imagine there might be those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who'd be happy to reconstitute "Britain" minus England. By no means a majority of those populations, I'm sure, but I expect such people exist.

Re: Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

I'm sure they exist. Not many of them.

I'm not sure the idea survives contact with the practicalities.

There's no land border.

Wales and Northern Ireland are relatively quite poor compared to London and to the wealthy bits of Scotland. Scotland is nowhere near rich enough to provide the same level of fiscal subsidy to Wales and Northern Ireland as they are used to from London (the economic area, not the short hand for the British government).

Northern Ireland has serious sectarian issues. About 1/3rd of the population would like Northern Ireland to re-join the Republic and 1/3rd are adamant for remaining in the UK. None of those people get what they want in a Kingdom United But Not England and they have a history of violence in pursuit of their political aims. Scotland has enough of a sectarian problem that I'd worried that any sectarian violence in Northern Ireland might spill over to Glasgow if Scotland were not in the same political state as England.

I don't think there are any economic synergies that come from having those parts of the British Isles in the same state but excluding England.

Wales and Northern Ireland voted to leave the EU. Scotland voted to remain by 2:1.

Fundamentally I don't think there's that much in common between the three smaller parts of the UK that they share, but which they don't share with England and / or don't share with other parts of the EU.

Re: Reforming Britain

[alithea]

NI voted to remain in the EU. But yes, I certainly wouldn't want it to be part of an independent nation with Scotland - as you say, we have enough sectarianism of our own without importing theirs too!

Re: Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

Sorry, you are, of course, absolutely right about NI's EU referendum vote.

Narrower margin than Scotland and I think noticeably split along Nationalist / Unionist lines IIRC? (Which obviously I didn't the first time.)

Re: Reforming Britain

[danieldwilliam]

I would worry that Scotland would get the blame for neither of the Nationalists or Unionists in NI getting what they wanted.

We'd be half the population of the new state. We'd be the leading component of it.

And Scottish voters would have to deal with Sectarianism as a live political issue instead of quietly pretending it stopped happening a generation ago.

Re: Reforming Britain

[cmcmck]

The complexities of all this can boggle.

I'm English with Scottish ancestry and he's Scottish with English ancestry.

I also have Welsh connections.

Nothing Irish as far as I know and perhaps surprisingly.

Novavax

[danieldwilliam]

Those are good figures!

Hate Crime Stats in Scotland

[danieldwilliam]

I've not read the full report but the summary suggests that hate crimes in Scotland have been pretty constant at between 6,300 and 7,000 a year since c2014.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/study-characteristics-police-recorded-hate-crime-scotland/

2/3rds relating to race and 1/5th relating to sexuality and most of the rest seem to be sectarian. Nice to see some Scottish traditions being maintained.

1/3rd of victims of racially motivated hate crimes are white, 15% Polish or Other white, but it does include 10% who are white Scottish and 7% who are white British. Not sure what's going on there with the 10% of victims of race related hate crimes in Scotland being white Scots. Either the recorded racial characteristics of white Scottish is masking some other racial element or some of the the 4% of the Scottish population who are BAME are beating up a lot of people or perhaps Scots are beating themselves up for being Scottish. I think I'd put my money on option number 1 but option 3 has a grim irony about it and I don't discount it.

Not sure what the reasonably consistent numbers say about the impact of the current legislation on the prevalance of hate crimes or the need or utility for additional legislation.

BBC cancels comedy show for being successful while not being Pro Brexit or Conservative

[anef]

This is deeply depressing. I don't really watch comedy shows but it's sometimes on when M is watching it, so I know what it's about. I suppose they wouldn't have Spitting Image on either these days. I have signed a petition which I suppose is all one can do these days.