Interesting Links for 12-12-2023

[andrewducker]

1. US food producers caught price fixing

(tags:USA corruption food )

2. Eleven Scottish football arrests under new anti-pyrotechnic laws

(tags:Scotland fireworks football law )

3. London hospital cuts waiting lists with innovative system

(tags:healthcare surgery efficiency organisation )

4. How good are *you* at spotting fake news? (I got 16/16)

(tags:psychology fraud news viaPatrickHadfield )

Comments

2

[danieldwilliam]

The Bradford City fire killed and injured more than 300. I wonder why football fans are so keen on pyrotechnics. I think if I were one I'd not be at all keen on having them in my ground.

Re: 2

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I suspect it's people who think they won't be that unlucky. Lot of people out there who aren't good at risk assessment.

[nancylebov]

4. I got 80%-- I spotted all the fake news, but I also thought some real news was fake.

[rhythmaning]

I got 18/20 on the long quiz (all fake news spotted but two real stories marked as fake) but 100% (16/16) on the short quiz.

[calimac]

Not only are you passing along really interesting news about what's happening in the UK (#2-3) but I'm also learning here about things I hadn't known about in the US (#1).

I also got all 16 right on the fake news quiz. I applied two simple principles: if they were present, I said the news was fake. And maybe I'll come back here later and say what those principles were. For now I don't want to spoil it for others.

[mountainkiss]

I would be very interested in these if and when it feels right to share.

[calimac]

Sure. Here they are:

1. If it unearths an elaborate conspiracy theory, it's fake.

2. If it insults liberals or leftists, it's fake.

[channelpenguin]

Yup. Pretty much my rules of thumb

[mountainkiss]

Useful to know thank you!

[darkoshi]

That was my reasoning too. I would have had a harder time deciding true/false if any of the headlines had insulted conservatives.

[andrewducker]

Which seemed off to me. Presumably there are such things!

[channelpenguin]

Maybe it's just too hard to invent stuff that's worse than conservatives actually do / have done?

[armiphlage]

I only got 19/20.

[rhythmaning]

Regarding Guy's & Tommy's operation regime, whilst it is to be admired, I wonder if doctors and nurses *need* some down time between operations? I'd be interesting to read some more research or reviews, looking at a variety of markers.

[calimac]

Undoubtably they do, and surely they're not working continuously on the operations all day. But I suspect that the previous regime's on-and-off schedule was more enervating than it was refreshing.

[redbird]

I just sent a message to the Mass. attorney general about item 1. It doesn't quite seem to fit any of their categories--the consumer complaints form is structured for retail businesses--and I may try phoning her office later.

3 - efficient operation procedure

[anna_wing]

I think this is the procedure that Smile Asia teams use when doing mass operations for cleft lip/palate in developing countries. Production line methods, basically. They work continuously through the day, but it's usually only for a few days.

If the teams in the UK hospitals are only working at that intensity for the morning, that should be enough rest time, especially for relatively routine procedures.

3.

[channelpenguin]

The surgeon who did my LASIK does at least 2 days per week where he does 25-30 ops per day. The following day he does followups, mostly just a check and a chat, maybe needs to do 3-5 correction ops (like with one of my eyes, possibly by hand, not the laser). I suspect he has the day in between off. He seemed definitely more tired at the end of the day than the start (I have seen him at both ends of the day), but remains pretty perky overall.

Im my own work, it's less exhasting to just WORK a few days straight, than it is to task switch and do admin / meetings all mixed in. I prefer to pile all that up next to one another too (meetings are also work!)

[bens_dad]

2. Are these flares etc. being used as intended, or are they being misused, perhaps repurposed safety flares ?
It isn't clear that they should be sold for this sort of use.
IIRC I did see (via tv) smoke-flares in the stands at European matches thirty plus years ago.

3. If the surgeon is in theatre with the previous patient, who goes through the paperwork with you and draws the marks where the work will be done - so that you know they will operate on the correct part of you ?

Probably slightly increases the time you are under anaesthetic too.

But why have they got a spare theatre in the first place ?
If they had two lead surgeons working leisurely they would get through more operations in the same time than this gives them with two teams supporting one lead working "optimally".
(OK there *are* times when a spare theatre is useful. I've been wheeled into one then they decided something wasn't right, perhaps some bit of kit, and they have moved me to the other theatre.)

4.

[channelpenguin]

I was 14/16 for a -2 skeptical score. lol.

[movingfinger]

3. Thirty seconds to sterilize between patients?

[andrewducker]

Apparently so!

[bens_dad]

If they change gowns and gloves too, sterilisation is defence in depth ?

[magedragonfire]

20/20 on the longer-form test. I felt that the fake headlines were generally very obvious for a couple of reasons. The real headlines occasionally gave me pause.

Thinking about it afterwards, though, just because the headline passes muster doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the article's contents are all true, or have been presented poorly, or that some editor has misrepresented what the article writer is actually writing about, or - in the case of an article regarding a study - that a given study's results haven't been massaged or selective in its presentation of data. Headlines don't really mean much overall, and I feel that media literacy education really needs to focus on helping people wade through all of the other stuff, which can be much more subtle and insidious than headline nonsense.