Interesting Links for 25-08-2016

[andrewducker]

40% of people find happiness again after major depression (supportive relationships help a lot) (tags: relationships depression happiness ) Google to punish sites that use intrusive pop-over ads (tags: advertising google search ) "Please never pay a farmer to ask me to marry you" (tags: marriage funny advice ) Virgin trains to have more seats

Comments

Re: We the people...

[xenophanean]

An interesting trend, I'd kind of noticed it, but this is a valuable elucidation of the issue.

The attitude that you can dismiss people's opinions because they're "mad" or "stupid" does seem to be growing, to the extent that the Labour Party appear to be implicitly basing their policy upon this theory of democracy. I oppose the Smith camp, pretty much only for this reason, I consider it such a severe threat. With this attitude spreading it becomes a good environment for late Blairite-style power-grab politics which allow the party in control to pass laws which let them ignore the stupid voters (and indeed their stupidly elected representatives), by appointing committees who "understand the issue properly" make law on issues without any need for public, or indeed parliamentary consultation

RE: Re: We the people...

[andrewducker]

I agree. Deselection is a very valuable tool, and all MPs ought to be up for it every election, so that their local members can tell them if they've been doing a shit job.

[kalimac]

I disagree. Deselection can be a useful tool and should not be eliminated, but it also needs to be restrained: it has been abused in the past (see the Labour Party circa 1980) as a way of punishing members who don't toe the line of a few activists who dominate the local party committee by dint of their willingness to outtalk everyone else and drive them away in exasperation.

[andrewducker]

True. And I do think that the Labour party is vulnerable to this.

It's one of the drawbacks of big tents, of course. Split the parties into smaller ones and your difficult party members could go join the Actual Left party down the street.

[gonzo21]

And that article about we the people goes to the heart I think of why this battle in the Labour party is so important, and why even if you don't think Corbyn is the right man for the job, it's still unbelievably important that democracy wins and the PLP don't get away with this bullshit.

I'd vote for him again. But I was disenfranchised by the NEC.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. Of course there is a "But what does it mean to be a member" question. Where it used to be that membership meant involvement, going to meetings, delivering leaflets, etc. But I totally agree that if you've set up the rules then you need to play by them.

[gonzo21]

Well I think Milliband had it in mind to transform the party in such a way that all labour voters could also consider themselves members of the party, no matter what their level of involvement was. IN order to transform the Labour party once again into a mass movement of the people.

Which Corbyn succeeded at doing. Just. Y'know. The rest of the PLP clearly didn't spot what Milliband was doing when he did it.

[kalimac]

Marriage proposals are another thing that ought to be done in private, without associated hoopla. If a man wants a fancy display, save it for the public announcement after she says yes, and plan it with her cooperation and participation. There's a fascinating category of YouTube videos of marriage proposals made in public (sometimes actually on TV, sometimes videotaped by a friend hiding in the bushes) where the woman declines - and then (this is interesting) invariably immediately runs off

[andrewducker]

I wouldn't tend to do a proposal like that. But I was involved in a discussion about exactly this a few days ago, and multiple women chimed in to say they'd love one. At which point I think I'd err towards a private one, but if I knew the woman would like something big an expressive then I could be tempted. Definitely got a larger failure mode though.

(And the balloon one is unfortunate, but hilarious.)

[kalimac]

Result probably depends on the type of woman you were talking with. I'd be nervous of ones who wanted big proposals, as of those who wanted big rings with huge stones: sound high-maintenance to me. B. is not like that; she's even more socially reserved than I am, which takes some doing.

[fiddlingfrog]

Fortunately none of my friends or acquaintances have any horror stories, so the best awful proposal story I have comes from a comedian.

[witchwestphalia]

I think if I loved the guy & wanted to marry him I'd be delighted with any proposal style. Dunno for sure though as it's never happened

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I had an understanding with Julie for a good year before we actually got engaged. And in that situation, anything I judged mutually suitable would be just fine.

depression recovery

[channelpenguin]

wow. only 40%. That's ... depressing? :-)

More and more, I see it as being just like physical injuries. Some you recover almost totally from, others semi-cripple you for life - in all cases you need to devote yourself to the right recovery plan, and know that even so, nothing is certain - least of all how long recovery will take and how complete it will be. Further, you may need regular "exercise" you whole life to *stay* in functional state, and may be left with things you permanently have to "work around" or have adaptations to, or need physical / medicinal aids.

It makes sense. I guess depression actually "damages" your brain - and immune system.

RE: depression recovery

[ylla]

I wasn't sure from reading the article whether they'd looked at whether this was something that changed (in particular, improved) over time. I'm also not sure how you tell the difference between someone who has been able to make good relationships or get a well paying job because they've recovered, and someone who recovers because they have these things. (I take someone's earlier point about studies having thought of the obvious objections, but it's not clear to me!)