Interesting Links for 10-06-2022

[andrewducker]

1. The odd and worrying situation of the legal advice on the Northern Ireland Protocol

(tags:UK NorthernIreland law Doom )

2. Privatisation in the UK looks massively higher than anywhere else!

(tags:UK privatisation )

3. Different Jewish conceptions of God

(tags:religion Jews judaism philosophy history )

4. Edinburgh council urged by Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba to reverse ban on strip clubs

(tags:Edinburgh sexwork )

5. How to understand Republicans

(tags:republicans )

6. The Million Earth Solar System

(tags:space physics scifi )

7. Conversion therapy increases self-harm and suicide amongst transgender people

(tags:lgbt abuse transgender psychology mentalhealth suicide self-harm )

8. The Immoral Design of Diablo Immortal - video takedown of the awful monetary systems built into the game

(tags:diablo games money OhForFucksSake abuse viaSwampers )

Comments

[channelpenguin]

3. Am I alone in thinking that Hermann Cohen rather resembles our own Andrew Ducker? :-). But seriously, I do see logic in many of these views ... IIF* you think any of it needs explaining in the first place (I personally don't)**.

*If and only If
** except insofar as the fact that some % of human brains seem close to hardwired to "believe" in "(a)God(s)" and the rest of them really don't and find it all baffling. That's fascinating.

[andrewducker]

I'm in general agreement!

Also: Happy birthday!

[channelpenguin]

Thanks! A tax rebate from the Finanzamt was my best pressie :-).

[cmcmck]

7. Why am I not in the least surprised?

[andrewducker]

I mean, it should be blitheringly obvious that telling people not to be who they are is really really harmful. But it's good to have the numbers.

[autopope]

OK, that million Earth solar system blog piece is definitely going in the research folder for the next-but-one space opera!

[andrewducker]

Fab! I am already looking forward to it!

[autopope]

Don't hold your breath! (It's a hypothetical and unwritten sequel to an unfinished-because-shelved-in-2017 space opera that can't be published before 2024, so ... maybe 2025 or 2026?)

[andrewducker]

Gotcha - shan't hold my breath for 4 years!

I'm glad you're making plans that far out though, and I hope things don't derail you like the last few years have.

[mtbc]

I've wondered what chance we have of renationalization, I find myself tending to be less happy with services once privatized. (Though I'd also love to see real performance penalties built in, it seems that the private sector largely gets away with delivering expensive incompetence.)

[bens_dad]

Although providing an ongoing service is not the same as providing a piece of infrastructure, I fear that the experience of the Cambridge Guided Busway may have put a dampener on projects with real performance penalties in the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridgeshire_Guided_Busway#BAM_Nuttall_dispute
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/bam-launches-43m-counterclaim-over-cambridge-busway
The penalties for overrunning (£14k/day) and the length of the overrun, plus a disagreement about defect notices meant that an £88m contract had £60m claim and £43m counter claims and the lawyers seemed to have had more work than the engineers.

[andrewducker]

Well *that* sounds like a mess.

I do think that if more outsourcing came with penalties then it would drive better contracts and behaviour overall, as companies realised that it was going to cost them a small fortune in lawyers to deal with things, at the least.

[calimac]

5) I'd long noted that the Republican notion of 'freedom of religion' meant their freedom to impose their religion on other people. Nice to see the concept clarified and extended.