Interesting Links for 11-04-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Plan to remove all hedgehogs from Hebridean isles

(tags:animals scotland )

2. Parliament and government have a once in a generation opportunity to reform the House of Lords: now is the time to seize it

(tags:LordsReform government uk )

3. 9 Rules for New Technology (I don't agree, but I think they're interesting to consider)

(tags:Technology viaPatrickHadfield )

4. How a $2,000 'Made in the USA' Phone Is Manufactured

(tags:manufacturing phones USA )

5. Being online doesn't make people more aggressive or hostile; it allows a small number of aggressive people to attack a much larger set of victims.

(tags:internet communication bullying psychology )

6. Levitating Bugs With Sound Could Transform Scientific Photography

(tags:photography sound insects )

Comments

[rhythmaning]

I'd see them not so much as rules, more as guidelines... *ducks*

[armiphlage]

4. How a $2,000 'Made in the USA' Phone Is Manufactured

This is exactly what my factory does (but for medical, aircraft, industrial, and satellite electronics), if you have any questions.

[andrewducker]

I suspect you wouldn't be able/allowed to answer the interesting ones like "How much will a 100% tarrif on chinese components affect you?"

[armiphlage]

We can import them into our country without tariffs. If the bulk of the value of our products are from China, then our product is Made in Canada, so when selling to the US we only have to deal with the tariffs that the orange baboon is imposing on our country.

[juan_gandhi]

#1. Good idea about the hedgehogs. Save the birds.
#2. Unbelievable! You guys can also start voting for the king, why not? Or at least let the peers choose one, like they do in Vatican.

[andrewducker]

I'd rather the French approach.

(No, not really, but I'd be happy to have them entirely removed from politics)

[juan_gandhi]

OMG. A couple of years ago you could see very short graffitis in Paris: 1791.

[mountainkiss]

(1) easier than cats

(5) I am pretty sure that levitating bugs with sound can transform whatever the fuck they want.

[andrewducker]

I wouldn't stand in their way!

[mountainkiss]

You couldn’t. They can levitate. (Unless there’s something you haven’t told me…)

[andrewducker]

Many things.

But none of them involve the ability to fly!

[mountainkiss]

Disappointing. Unless you’re a levitating bug with sound, in which case prob a relief.

[andrewducker]

I assure you that I am almost certainly not three wasp nests in a skin suit and I very rarely buzz when excited.

[mountainkiss]

You might be the last to know.

[mountainkiss]

Though I actually should have written "unless one is..."

[bens_dad]

2. In theory I agree with Churchill (it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time), but in practice the hereditaries bother me far less than the commons and the politically nominated peers. The Lords Spiritual haven't made the best showing recently either. Even the great and good, appointed without any political slant, are often chosen for their ability to lead rather than their competence in their actual profession.

I have seen the hereditaries save us from the Tories when Labour failed to do so (my memory is vague but it might have been about nurses under Thatcher or Major) so I was not happy to see their influence diluted by political yes-men and women.

[calimac]

2) Removing the hereditaries? Introducing retirement rules? At first I wasn't sure this wasn't just a copy of an article from the last round of Lords reform nearly 30 years ago.

3) Berry's rule #2 has always made me nervous. Yes, your smartphone has replaced all those devices. And if you lose your smartphone, you've lost all those devices.

[symbioid]

"Just consider this remarkable fact: Every device featured in this Radio Shack advertisement from 1991 has been replaced by your tiny phone. "

Yeah, no. I'm not typing a 1500 line BASIC program from Family Computing into my phone's keyboard.

EDIT: I wonder how much Trump played a role in the increase in iPhone. Is this a global pricing situation? I imagine to some degree, but those tarriffs in his first regime really did bump up costs (I remember how synths were cheaper, then they jumped like 20% in cost...) Then Covid. And now *waves hands*.

Then again, in 2011, we were really still recovering from the global recession (thanks US regulation (or lack thereof)), so maybe it was cheaper because of the crash; maybe also did Tim actually improve workers conditions, and did that slow production of the iCrap? But yea I'd like to see the trendlines across a variety of devices in general. Makes me wonder.