Interesting Links for 9-9-2011

[andrewducker]

• 
  The Cognitive Neuroscience of Liberals and Conservatives
  (tags: psychology politics neuroscience conservatives liberal usa)
• 
  Delivering fast boot times in Windows 8.
  (tags: windows8 windows operatingsystems technology computers)
• 
  Nuclear power is still popular in the UK
  

Comments

[la_marquise_de_]

Ah, lembas. The marquis solved this one years ago. Round the back at Rivendell and Lothlorien and all other elven habitations are the hydroponics gardens, run by Very Serious Elves called things like Nigeldor and Jonathandil. They back you into corners at parties to talk about organic hemp and hand-loomed buckwheat socks, and the Elrond types groan and run away (and lock them in cupboards).

[anef]

Makes sense to me.

[strawberryfrog]

retelling the Wars of the Roses in all but name

... Namecheck on all but name to A Game of Thrones?

[spacelem]

I like nuclear power. Nothing about how an outdated and flawed design was hit by an earthquake, and a tsunami, and melted down several times, and still no one died made me think that it was in any way worse than, say, any other form of power generation with their orders of magnitudes higher deaths per Tera Watt.

I was amazed at so many people failed to notice how completely safe NP is after all that. Sadly, it seems that the only party that supports NP these days is Conservative. Meh.

[ajr]

No-one's died yet. More than a few people were subjected to massive exposures, to which time will tell if they develop cancers from it.

There also seems to be a lot of FUD in Japan about NP and Fukushima at the moment. There a a good article in the Guardian Weekend yesterday.

[kurosau]

Man, that lembas article is doing my head in. I think I always react negatively to articles like that, given the sheer amount of assumption they make. It's pre-industrial, not pre-mechanical, he doesn't say that Elves don't grow grains or collect the natural grains that don't occur on farmland, and when you're talking about nations that persisted for a thousand years, I think it's safe to assume that they had the machining capabilities to craft their current level of technology.

Granted, other writers hand wave, I'm sure, but this just doesn't work as an analysis of Tolkien. You don't have to mention everything explicitly to make it work, but you do need to create the illusion of a breathing world that'll support the assumption that things like button making equipment exists. And if there's anyone who made for a convincing world builder, Tolkien is it.