Interesting Links for 29-01-2024

[andrewducker]

1. "Lena" isn't about uploading (it's a great short story though)

(tags:scifi society technology )

2. "My son says he is not a book person. Where did my parenting go wrong?"

(tags:books children funny computers parenting )

3. What does the ICJ ruling mean for Gaza and Israel? Cambridge professor explains

(tags:rights law Palestine Israel )

4. Why You've Never Been In A Plane Crash (the no-blame culture of crash investigations)

(tags:airplanes disaster organisation )

5. Pavement parking crackdown begins in Edinburgh

(tags:cars Edinburgh )

6. Edinburgh roads: Through traffic to be banned from key routes across city centre

(tags:transport edinburgh roads cars )

7. Talking points for calling your Senators about KOSA

(tags:politics usa OhForFucksSake internet regulation )

8. How a Worldcon happens, and what might happen to them next

(tags:conventions hugo china scifi )

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I think Edinburgh Council's approach to the fall out from the pavement parking ban is let's wait and see what roads end up being blocked all the time time and then put parking restrictions or one way restrictions on those. They'll know soon enough once the complaints start. Easier and cheaper than doing a study or consultation.

[original_aj]

And that way the restrictions end up where they are needed, rather than where the least effective anti-restriction advocates are, with evidence they are needed. Should save a lot of hot air and arguments.

[danieldwilliam]

Exactly.

[andrewducker]

I can definitely see that working well. A small lag while they work out which ones are blocked, but hopefully not too bad.

[snippy]

And in the meantime people in wheelchairs or others who need sidewalk access can just suffer, I assume.

[andrewducker]

No, the cars are off the pavements as of yesterday (or being fined for it).

The bit that's being slow is the follow-up of which roads are now too narrow, and so cars can't reasonably be parked on both sides.

[simont]

#4: pedantic grump about pronoun referents. The great effectiveness of the USA's airline safety system is not why I've never been in a plane crash!

... or is it? Perhaps the effects of those safety investigations stretch far enough that they did have a knock-on effect on the (very few) plane journeys I've ever made?

[haggis]

Some of the NTSB recommendations will definitely have global impact,especially for international flights.

4. Why You've Never Been In A Plane Crash

[jack]

I was going to say "anthropic principle" :)

[zz]

missing "ohforfuckssake" tags on 5 & 6. 6 especially, if you need to get from one side of the city to the other.

and 7's sort of crap is happening here too, but no one seems to give a shit.

How a Worldcon happens, and what might happen to them next

[jack]

I delved through the comments again. There was a few different comments which described a sequence something like: The original bid committee were plausibly well-meaning. It was typical for any chinese con to have sponsorships from some companies offering some expertise and resources. In this case it seemed like some corporation or local government initiative decided to make a big "Chengdu world capital of science fiction" thing, with a purpose built new venue, newly invented awards, etc. And they elbowed aside fans on the organising committee to organise the con as part of their plans. Including changing the date, and massaging the hugo award nominations to match a publisher's preferences. And Chinese sf fans who had supported the worldcon felt betrayed because they had subscribed to the con, and then got neglected, and the runners made up some statistics to justify the nominations for westerners who were complaining, but didn't do even that much for the chinese fans.

I've no certainty that that is accurate, but it sounded like a plausible sequence of events, the kind of thing that could happen without being obviously malign in advance.

Re: How a Worldcon happens, and what might happen to them next

[jack]

Realised "the con" was ambiguous in this context.

There was also a lot of interesting comments about the different kinds of non-profit in different countries, and the ways individual worldcons could be structured. It seems like most worldcons have been some sort of charitable or non-profit-making organisation. And there was some concern that the WSFS umbrella was on increasingly dodgy lawyer-horrifying ground by not really existing apart from a set of guidelines for worldcons to follow, but the concern didn't seem to be coming from the people who knew most about the actual arrangements.

Apparently there is some current saga about the WSFS trademarks for Worldcon etc, but I don't know what's actually happening.

Re: How a Worldcon happens, and what might happen to them next

[andrewducker]

I've not even found a good explanation of the trademarks bit!

Re: How a Worldcon happens, and what might happen to them next

[andrewducker]

Yeah, that seems plausible.