Interesting Links for 03-06-2021

[andrewducker]

I recommend you do not do this to your penis

(tags:penis injury wtf )

Guess how many objects are in Low Earth Orbit - then click on this link.

(tags:space visualisation viaSwampers )

Trans *and* not skinny? The NHS wants you to fuck off and pay for surgery yourself.

(tags:nhs transgender OhForFucksSake )

NFL pledges to stop assuming that black people are less intelligent

(tags:racism football USA WTF )

"I painstakingly built my own analog drum machine"

(tags:drums music technology )

Covid precautions may have killed off one strain of Flu

(tags:pandemic flu viaDanielDWilliam )

"Xbox Co-pilot mode changed my disabled sister's life"

(tags:xbox disability amazing games consoles )

The Loaf Guardians: Parsing the Early History of the Anglo-Saxons

(tags:UK history )

Scotland's largest council pension fund backs climate change move

(tags:globalwarming pensions scotland glasgow )

Amazon Won't Test Job Seekers For Marijuana Use, Backs Legalisation

(tags:marijuana amazon legalisation )

Mass scale manipulation of Twitter Trends discovered

(tags:twitter fraud )

Comments

[alithea]

That thread about trans medical gatekeeping is awful. BMI is such rubbish, I can't believe any medical professionals are still using it. You can clearly see that they aren't really that fat, certainly not a weight that is actually going to be an increased risk for surgery. Just an excuse for denying people treatment.

[cmcmck]

The gatekeeping has been going on for decades.

Funny isn't it how I inherited some money from a great uncle when I was 21 and suddenly everything opened up for me because I could pay?..........

[alithea]

I'm glad you could pay, but yeah, it shouldn't be necessary. I was aware there was a lot of gatekeeping, but not of this specific flavour of it.

[calimac]

Putting that book about the Anglo-Saxons, the one excerpted in that article, on my list.

[symbioid]

Hmm, I guessed 30k+ for the low earth. I'm off by a factor of 10...

That said it looks like I expected, I'm not sure if that's because maybe the objects aren't to scale and appear larger, but ... it looks quite cluttered (and it is, I know), but surely there's more space between these things than appear? As big as the earth is and as small as we are in comparison, and the distances involved at that diameter, it has to be an illusion...

But like I said - I know this is an actual problem and gets worse all the time.

[anna_wing]

"Analogue drum machine" did make me think of something that might have been built by Professor Branestawn....

"Skinny" is not the same as "not obese", by the way. The healthy/lowest-risk weight range on the BMI scale i.e. the weight-range for each height at which the risk of various serious diseases (such as heart disease, Type II diabetes and some cancers) is least, is quite wide, and allows for differences in frame size.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/risk.htm