Interesting Links for 14-05-2021

[andrewducker]

Janelle Monae Joins Daniel Craig in 'Knives Out' Sequel

(tags:movies )

Movies Every Physics Student Should Watch

(tags:physics movies )

NHS tracing app prevented thousands of deaths (and hundreds of thousands of cases)

(tags:pandemic nhs apps )

It's True. Everyone IS Multitasking on Their Video Calls

(tags:multitasking work )

Wales elects the world's first elected non-binary mayor

(tags:wales gender politics )

When Germans Find Out About Tipping in the U.S.

(tags:video tips usa funny true )

Black homeowner had a white friend stand in for third appraisal. Her home value doubled.

(tags:USA racism housing )

Native oysters reintroduced into Firth of Clyde

(tags:Scotland sea seafood )

In a system with lots of small parties, forcing one of them to give up a vote to make someone a presiding officer seems like bad design

(tags:politics scotland )

That was the County Court Judgment that was - and why everyone is entitled to a civil justice system that works at the speed it worked for Boris Johnson

(tags:law UK )

Back in the 80s I played computer games - by post. (Fascinating slice of now dead history)

(tags:games history mail )

Palestinian Family Who Lost Home In Airstrike Takes Comfort In Knowing This All Very Complicated

(tags:viaJohnSmith Israel palestine satire )

Israel vows not to stop Gaza attacks until there is 'complete quiet'

(tags:Israel Palestine war OhForFucksSake )

How to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic

(tags:Jews Israel bigotry advice )

Comments

[calimac]

2) Some of these movies I hadn't heard of, even ones starring famous actors. Either I'm really unplugged from the movie-release publicity circuit, or it's really broken.

6) You don't have to be German to find the U.S. tipping system to be bizarre and annoying. I'm American and have to live with it all the time. I don't object to giving the money, but I really resent an obligation which requires me to pretend to be generous and altruistic.

8) Here's something the U.S. does better. Our Speaker of the House, though expected to preside in a non-partisan manner (ignore current Republican complaints on that count: they're trolling), remains a member of her party and can vote.

13) I endorse the "how to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic" post about 99%. This writer has hit dead-on what makes criticisms of Israel sound anti-Semitic. I should add under item E that there are people who think they're well-meaning who do not believe Israel has any right to exist. This is mostly because they've fallen for the fallacy in item J. I've seen some fantastically mendacious historical claims, and they reappear frequently.
My one disagreement is under item H, which says the words "genocide" and "extermination" are OK to use. No they're not. Those are not the Israeli govt's aim,* but they were the Nazis' aim, so they fall under using Nazis as a rhetorical prop, which is the item H fallacy. Also in the same category: "ethnic cleansing." This has come to mean "genocide while pretending it isn't," and is thus wholly toxic. Don't use it.

*footnote: reports of new plans to invade Gaza do make me wonder wtf the Israel government does think it's doing.

[errolwi]

The Presiding Officer losing their vote in a notionally proportional system is illogical, and anti-democratic. NZ dropped their Speaker losing their vote when it changed to MMP.

[simont]

It's True. Everyone IS Multitasking on Their Video Calls

I totally believe it. But what struck me about this article was that it had two unspoken premises, neither of which I believe:

1. People multitask real work with their meetings because they're behind on their real work, and not because the meetings are UNUTTERABLY TEDIOUS.

2. People multitasking real work with their unutterably tedious meetings is a bad thing, and not a way to recover some of that wasted time in the cause of actually doing something useful.

I think what's really happening here is that the pro-tedious-meeting people are struggling to come to terms with the fact that their captive audience isn't captive any more, and now they have to make their meetings shorter, more interesting, and deliver perceptible benefits, because suddenly they're exposed to competition from everything else people could be doing instead.

[trailer_spot]

I feel a slight impulse to say something about the very funny "When Germans Find Out About Tipping in the U.S." video. :) But the video is obviously more about the US system than Germans. So I will just add that here, depending on the situation/location, people tend to tip about 10%.

[doubtingmichael]

Nish Kumar talked about "How to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic" in one of his live shows. I don't remember the exact words, but his suggestion was something like "I strongly disagree with the policies of the current Israeli government". That seemed a pretty good line to me.