Interesting Links for 06-02-2025

[andrewducker]

1. In-patient services at Edinburgh's Astley Ainslie hospital to be transferred to East Lothian

(tags:edinburgh nhs scotland )

2. The Curta Mechanical Calculator (I'd love to have one if they didn't cost so much)

(tags:calculator mechanics impressive video viaSwampers )

3. AI systems with 'unacceptable risk' are now banned in the EU

(tags:ai europe regulation )

4. Scotland! Will! Not! Ban! Cats!

(tags:scotland cats wtf )

5. Time limit for child sex abuse claims to be removed in England and Wales

(tags:rape children abuse law uk GoodNews england )

6. The greatest families behind the greatest showmen - what it's like living life on the road, and how that affects the children

(tags:children family uk )

7. Probably the most sensible thing I've read about Neil Gaiman

(tags:neilgaiman )

8. Nurse who objected to transgender woman in changing room admits harassment

(tags:LGBT transgender NHS harassment )

9. Assaulted woman's divorce case was turned down by 116 Scottish legal aid lawyers

(tags:Scotland law austerity divorce assault )

10. Scientists explore how to make quantum bits with spinel gemstones

(tags:quantum materials )

11. CIA sent unclassified email with names of recent hires - at Whitehouse insistence.

(tags:usa Intelligence OhForFucksSake doom )

12. "I looked for dating advice online - and got sucked into the toxic manosphere"

(tags:men relationships feminism patriarchy OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[original_aj]

I had one of these back in the 70s: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co59665/magic-brain-calculator-c-1955

Did much the same thing, though a lot less stylishly. Back when electronic calculators were way out of our price range, I didn't get to use one until A levels.

[andrewducker]

Ooh, that's cool!

[original_aj]

I certainly thought so at the time!

[juan_gandhi]

Oh, thank you! A really good list of links! (An impostor having an impostor syndrome - I liked the idea)

[andrewducker]

My pleasure!

[mountainkiss]

I think it would be really quite difficult to ban cats.

[andrewducker]

It would be a ludicrous thing to even seriously propose and any politician who did so would find themselves a laughing stock very quickly.

That journalists were even asking the question rather implies a slow news day.

[mountainkiss]

Yes and Swinney is very lucky to have had it at budget time.

I was more thinking of logistics than political viability though.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes. Unless you're going to announce that it's legal to shoot outdoor cats then they're going to wander about. And banning them from specific areas seems incredibly hard to manage.

Not impossible to do, but the lengths necessary wouldn't be tolerated.

[mountainkiss]

It might be impossible. Telling cats what to do tends not to work. I mean, I have trouble banning cats from areas in my own house.

[andrewducker]

The only reason I think it might be possible at all is that we don't have a thriving wildcat population in the UK. If it was possible for them to live wild in significant numbers I suspect there would be one, because enough of them would.

But it's possible that they would just adapt if necessary.

[movingfinger]

I wouldn't ban cats, it's not feasible, but a registration and spay-and-neuter program around areas where Scottish wildcats are living and where reintroduction programs are under way would be smart and doable. Coupled with feral cat removal/control.

[calimac]

When St Kilda was abandoned in 1930, they killed all the dogs. They left the cats.

[mountainkiss]

Are there any cats left now?

[calimac]

My source didn't say, although it did note there were lots of mice.

According to another source which I just came across, most of the cats soon died and the rest were killed not much later. My original source said nothing about that.

[mountainkiss]

Then maybe Andy is right and the cats could theoretically be banned.

[danieldwilliam]

You could ban the domestic ownership of domestic cats. The UK has similar regulations on certain breeds of the domestic dog. Whether you could persuade enforcement agencies to resource the ban, citizens to take it seriously enough to monitor it and cat owners to consider it a reasonable and proportionate regulation that they considered themselves morally bound by it is another question.

It feels like the sort of thing David Allen Green would have an opinion on.

[mountainkiss]

I was more thinking of whether you could persuade the cats.

[danieldwilliam]

I'm no cat expert but they've always struck me as being particularly mercenary. Unlikely to stay somewhere where they aren't getting fed. I suspect also mostly incapable of looking after themselves long term. See the St Kilda situation but I'm aware there are some Greek islands with problems with unowned domestic cats. A small Greek touristic fishing village is probably an easier place to make a living as indigent cat than the Highlands.

In any event, Swinney sounded pretty unequivocal about the government not attempting a ban so I expect we'll find out whether a ban is actually practicable later this year.

[andrewducker]

Yup! Hence "It would be a ludicrous thing to even seriously propose and any politician who did so would find themselves a laughing stock very quickly." and "Not impossible to do, but the lengths necessary wouldn't be tolerated."

[channelpenguin]

In the USA, there's an opinion (though I don't know how widespread) that cats should be kept 100% indoors and only taken out if trained to a harness and lead*. Some cat shelters won't let you adopt cats unless you agree that they won't go outside!

*Totally possible. I did this with Felix when he was young and it was the only way he went outside until he was neutered at 6 months. Even though he was a feral farm cat to start with. The experience of cat on a lead is not at all like with a dog though.

** Felix is a happy free-roaming country cat now, with a cat flap, but still hangs out in the house a lot

[jducoeur]

Some cat shelters won't let you adopt cats unless you agree that they won't go outside!

Yep -- this was the case for all four of my cats. Works quite well provided you adopt them young.

[simont]

I would be more concerned about cats banning you.

[mountainkiss]

No I feed them

[ninetydegrees]

5) Such good news. I wish it could be the same everywhere, and for adult victims too.

[andrewducker]

Agreed

[lilitufire]

There’s a really horrible opinion piece in the Grauniad today about the changing room case, continually misgendering the transgender person. It was rubbish and infuriating before I saw this coverage of the case.

[andrewducker]

You might notice a complete lack of Guardian articles linked to from here in quite some time.

Re cats

[anef]

Just to say that in Australia cats are not allowed to go outside for fear of their effect on the fragile natural wildlife. I am not sure if this is in the whole of Australia or only in some parts.

Re: Re cats

[andrewducker]

Thank you. I wasn't aware of this. Looking at opinion polls it seems that only about 12% of people are in favour of outdoor cats. So an opinion swing is possible!