Interesting Links for 10-12-2012

[andrewducker]

• The world is _amazing_
  (tags: thefuture computers Technology )
• The Most Dangerous Equation [pdf]
  (tags: statistics )
• If you don't want people to die for their cause you need to give them a reason to live.
  (tags: rehabilitation family relationships love life terrorism viaFanf )
• How Harmonix put Gangnam Style into Dance Central 3.
  (tags: games music

Comments

[bart_calendar]

About eight of my female friends are either escorts now or have been escorts in the past. In six of those cases the reasons are they have have children and either their spouse got laid off and they didn't want their children's standard of living to go down and/or lose their house or else they got divorced and have custody of the children and the wages from their normal full time job does not offer them the standard of living they would like for their children. Making them criminals because they are victims of a bad economy doesn't strike me as a particularly brilliant idea

[gonzo21]

I always found it moderately farcical as well that in America having sex with a prostitute/call girl is illegal and can land you in quite serious trouble, but if you set up a video camera and film it and call it making a porno, it's perfectly okay.

[bart_calendar]

You don't even have to set up a video. If you take one photo of you having sex with the girl and "distribute" it in any way, shape or form that is commercially available to the public, it's porn and completely legal.

So, you know, put a single Google ad on your blog and use your iPhone to snap a pic of her sucking your dick and post it and it's magically not prostitution.

[gonzo21]

So do many people actually get busted for prostitution in the States?

If you don't want people to die for their cause you need to give them a reason to live.

[cartesiandaemon]

I thought that was really moving (if a bit sexist). But very true. If you spend years learning to do terrorist things, you'll be heavily invested in the idea that it's necessary, and not really making a rational decision "I am in favour of freedom for X, the most effective way of achieving that is Y, therefore Y."

On the other hand, the other big thing I took away from it, was when they say the terrorism wasn't necessary "any more", that it had, in fact, been necessary to get anyone to take them seriously in the first place. Which is uncomfortable if there's truth in it.

The obsessives behind underground restaurants. Damned impressive.

[cartesiandaemon]

We lament the loss of community that comes from not everyone living in the same place all their life. But we often have new, exciting communities springing up in ways we don't expect that we have to embrace.

[momentsmusicaux]

What would leaving the pound actually let us do? The article only seems to mention interest rates, and I don't know enough about economics to know what wider consequences that can have.

[bart_calendar]

You can then devalue the currency, which means more people will buy your exports, which means more jobs producing and selling said exports. Plus, you peg your international debt obligations to the value of your currency before the devaluation and suddenly it becomes much, much cheaper to service your debts.

This is why it's becoming pretty clear that in Europe they either need to devalue the Euro or else let a couple countries go back to their own currency and devalue it.

[spacelem]

Could this, in any way, possibly lead to hyperinflation if you're not careful?

[bart_calendar]

Yes, but better to risk hyper inflation than a generation of austerity and crushing debt.

[miramon]

I nearly didn't read the link on the De Moivre equation but I'm glad I did. It's quite eye-opening. It's one of those 're-evaluate all your prejudices' moments.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I almost didn't read it either, but I'm rather glad I did. I hadn't realised the "small schools" example, and now I'll be keeping an eye out!

[bohemiancoast]

This is just one of the amusing statistical fallacies that hugely affect policy making. Here's another that you can watch out for

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, "reversion to the mean" was another concept that suddenly opened my eyes!