Interesting Links for 13-10-2014

[andrewducker]

• Can your "Natural Language Calendar" cope with this?
  (tags: language calendars computers )
• Five Planets In Search Of A Sci-Fi Story
  (tags: scifi )
• 12 sex things men (that are worth sleeping with) really don't give a crap about
  (tags: sex men funny )
• Some great model shorts from the filming of the opening space battle for Star Wars
  (tags: starwars

Comments

[newandrewhickey]

The UKIP-but-not-Greens justification is fairly straightforward -- UKIP are polling at three times the level of the Greens even given the lowest polling numbers for UKIP and the highest for the Greens, recently came first in a national election, and have twenty MEPs to the Greens' three. And while both have one MP *now*, it's likely that UKIP may win at least one more by-election before the general.

I don't like it, but it's a reasonable argument.

[gonzo21]

Plus the whole reason UKIP are getting support is people feel they're not being listened to. Banning them from the leadership debates adds fuel to that fire.

Whereas dragging Farage into the debate might just reveal him for what he is.

And nobody wants the leadership debates to have representatives from every party, otherwise it would take 8 hours and nobody would watch it.

Not good reasons. But understandable ones.

[danieldwilliam]

Surely dragging *Carswell* in to the debate.

I'm not expecting to see Syed Kammall in any of the debates.

[newandrewhickey]

It's a leaders' debate. Farage is leader of UKIP -- though whether that will be the case in May is of course open to question...

[bart_calendar]

The most interesting part of that drug article to me is someone finally admitting in print that if you go out whether you realize it or not a huge amount of people around you are on on cocaine or MDMA.

What's really weird is if you've ever done cocaine or MDMA you can tell right away which people are on them, who the dealers are, etc... but people who have never done them seem to have no idea that at any given local pub on a friday night at least a third of the people hanging out there are on one of the two drugs.

[apostle_of_eris]

Analogous perhaps to gaydar".
I once had an interesting conversation with a friend who's a multiple personality who's out to me how he recognized others, and what sorts of tells there are.

[quirkytizzy]

The sex one is terrifically fun - and for the most part, I've found to be true. It's not really a difficult concept for good men and I honestly am not sure where women got the idea that they need to be fashion models while in the actual act of sex.

Plus it led to this article, which as fellow giant-knockered woman, made me smile. http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/body/health/a27719/home-truths-big-boobs/

[kerrypolka]

I honestly am not sure where women got the idea that they need to be fashion models while in the actual act of sex.

Possibly lots of media telling women how important it is to look sexy to attract men, without the caveat 'oh and once you're actually naked and doing it you can stop worrying about all that'?

[danieldwilliam]

Bespoke medicine is expensive.

I wonder how you could reduce the cost by an order of magnitude.

[andrewducker]

Make it mainstream :-)

Seriously though, I suspect it will follow the standard curve for such things, and get cheaper over a decade or two as competitors constantly make the technology cheaper and faster.

[danieldwilliam]

My reading of the article was that making the treatment mainstream was hard because it required to be made bespoke for each patient. It sounds like we are a way a ways from automating some of the processes required.

But it also sounds like there doesn't have to be much more than a halving of the cost before the treatment becomes close to cost parity with existing treatments.

(Which prompted the thought that I wonder if the frightening cost projections for NHS / health spending in years to come take account of the fact that many cancer treatments for example, come out of patent but presumably don't become any less effective.)

[andrewducker]

Yes, but "making it bespoke" could still be automated. You have a scanner that reads in the cancer details, some code to work out the necessary gene change, and something to then produce the correct personalised drug.

Which could still take twenty years to automate - or we could have some breakthroughs in the next couple of years that bring the price down very quickly.

And yes, running out of patent will be great - Julie's Imatinib goes out of patent in 2015/16, and I expect prices will drop significantly.

Why are UKIP to be in leadership debates?

[f4f3]

Because they are entertainment, and Farage will draw in more viewers.

None of the other arguments make any sense (SNP are the third largest UK party in terms of membership, the DUP the fourth largest in terms of MPs, the Greens are equally widespread in scope)