Interesting Links for 19-07-2022

[andrewducker]

1. Forests Now Cover 2% of Iceland (up 6x since 1990)

(tags:iceland forests )

2. A new milestone in augmented reality: Functional contact lenses

(tags:augmentedreality contact_lenses Technology impressive )

3. Want to be an artist? Having millionaire parents *really* helps!

(tags:wealth inequality art )

4. Keir Starmer rules out 'any agreement' with the Lib Dems after next election

(tags:labour libdem OhForFucksSake )

5. Mint is not a necessary part of toothpaste. If you don't like it then feel free to use other flavours

(tags:teeth health )

6. The future of sports: Revealed!

(tags:sports technology funny video )

7. Ballet imposes gender roles on dancers

(tags:gender dance ballet )

8. Audiobooks or Reading? To Our Brains, It Doesn't Matter

(tags:reading audio brains psychology books )

9. Stray, a game where you play as a cat in a world populated by robots is clearly not going to make any money at all

(tags:games cats review video )

10. Scientists design contraceptives to limit grey squirrels

(tags:squirrel UK contraceptive fertility )

11. Cheese reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, and ischemic stroke

(tags:cheese health heart diabetes )

12. Heat wave kills more than 1,100 people in Spain and Portugal

(tags:heat globalwarming death spain portugal )

13. UK set to have world's biggest automated drone superhighway

(tags:drone uk )

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

Keir Starmer, ahead of an election where the prospect of a coalition between the Labour Party and the Lib Dems will be weaponised by the Murdoch press, lies to Tory-Lib Dem swing voters?

I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you. That such a thing should happen whilst he is planning an informal electoral pact. Shocked.

[andrewducker]

It's a good thing that politicians can't be held legally responsible for the lies they tell!

[bens_dad]

!

The Advertising Standards Authority has no jurisdiction over political adverts either :-(

[danieldwilliam]

Serious question, how would you legislate for and regulate politicians not lying?

[andrewducker]

Regulating lying is going to be tricky in any case. But we manage it at least tolerably well in fraud cases. I think the tricky bits are (a) did the person knowingly lie and (b) was the effect material to their election. If so, then having a method to trigger a re-election would seem reasonable. The main issue there being the cost, and not allowing people to trigger constant elections on a weekly basis.So I think you'd need a jury to decide the facts of (a) and (b), and then put it out to the electorate to decide if they still want to be represented by the person based on that. Of course, this all needs to be balanced against the issue of, generally, this is just a single representative out of hundreds, and their impact in the grand scheme of things is minimal.

More important is the regulation of lying to parliament. Where there are processes to deal with it, and it seems that Johnson would eventually have faced the Privileges Committee. I'd like to see this toughened up somewhat, and set up so that it can work speedily. It looks like the report won't be finished until the end of the year, and while I'd like things to be thorough, they can be so while also being efficient.

[bens_dad]

How many tactical votes depend upon Labour ruling out working with the Tories ?

As Edinburgh Council showed, that is not a hypothetical scenario.

[danieldwilliam]

Things are a bit different in Scotland I think. The division over independence is arguably more important for Scottish Labour than other considerations.

Particularly when running a council could be described as administrative work on behalf of the central government rather than an opportunity to take a different ideological position.

[bens_dad]

8. Storytelling is much older than writing, so why would an audiobook not be as good as the written version ?

[snippy]

There are poor vocal performers. Have you considered the problem of "___," he said; "___ ___," she said from a reader who doesn't differentiate the voices of the characters?

[firecat]

On the other side of things, a good narrator improves a story immensely, at least over my reading skills. (I'm not good at giving characters different personalities in my head.) There are several authors whose work I can't stand in text but love in narration.

[andrewducker]

Oh, I agree. But it's nice to have some research to counter the idiots who claim that they aren't *real* books.

[jack]

Coalitions are so much less standardized here, I wonder if there has ever been a case of a British political party "ruling out" a coalition, then finding themselves in a situation where it would be beneficial, then sticking to their commitment

[mountainkiss]

I think the game will make a tiny bit of money because Phil will buy it, then never be seen again.

[andrewducker]

But will he surface long enough to recommend it to all of his friends?

[mountainkiss]

Unlikely.

[marymac]

My other half bought it, and has now spent two lunchbreaks and an evening devoted to 'doing cat things' with a short interlude of fighting for control of the Playstation with the eldest, who arrived for dinner and then instead of going home when the boys went to bed like she usually does, played it for three hours after instead.

I would like to play it. I may be allowed to some time next year.

[channelpenguin]

11. Cheese is good, cheese is good. :-). Seems to say that cheese-eaters are slimmer in the waist (less internal fat?). Maybe because they prefer cheese to sugary things?

9. My cat liked this video (really!)

8 "If you don’t have time to sit and read a physical book, is listening to the audio version considered cheating?" ROFL. Silly idea. I'm not sure anyone thinks that! (I've personally no patience with audio as for me it's too slow - but I realise that my 1000+ wpm reading speed isn't usual)

[andrewducker]

I've heard the book one said. I've even heard people say it about electronic books, ridiculous as that is.

[channelpenguin]

Really? That's crazy.

[andrewducker]

Yup!

[firecat]

I take in audio much more slowly than I read, but for well written fiction that's a benefit. And I can listen to audio while doing other things, but I can't read while doing other things.

But the reading speed thing is why I don't like most podcasts.

[anna_wing]

I tend to find audiobooks too slow; same with watching news. I'd much rather read than watch. Watching makes me feel like a paper-shredder with not enough paper.

And it depends on the book too, of course. I find that writing for silent reading, and writing for reading aloud is actually different.