Comments | andrewducker: Interesting Links for 13-12-2011

andrewducker

Interesting Links for 13-12-2011

Dec 13, 2011 11:00

Could David Cameron call an early election? (No, he really couldn't)
(tags: elections uk politics )
National pride brings happiness, but what you're proud of matters
(tags: pride happiness nationalism patriotism )
Stress in early pregnancy can lead to shorter pregnancies and fewer baby boys
(tags: stress pregnancy children )
What would a Higgs ( Read more... )

microsoft, patriotism, stress, music, riots, rape, metallica, pregnancy, piracy, blind, law, laser, youtube, middle_east, elections, humans, games, remix, broadband, isp, copyright, children, cards, links, higgs, rogue, uk, media, livejournal, funny, police, nationalism, mobilephones, apple, photographs, tools, physics, epicfail, callofduty, android, pride, money, internet, nokia, gender, bt, computergames, fibreoptics, theoatmeal, evolution, tax, elephants, motorola, politics, happiness, mathematics, scifi, webcomic

Comments 17

hirez December 13 2011, 11:20:20 UTC

I have to admit that the potential improvements in comment-management look rather nice.

notlosers December 13 2011, 12:51:05 UTC

Agree. Not thrilled with the barrage of change-is-bad comments on that post; those kinds of people are why Livejournal still looks straight out of 1999.

andrewducker December 13 2011, 12:56:35 UTC

I agree that people complaining about any change is bad. But they're stuck in one of those situations where only 1% of the users use a particular function, but those that do find it invaluable. Of course they're going to be upset when someone takes away something they use all the time.

notlosers December 13 2011, 12:59:23 UTC

True, but I'd expect new social conventions to come out of it - eg, sticking what would have been the subject line on the first line, in bold. (That's something that's turned up a lot on Google+.)

I guess what disappoints me is that what comes out is invective, rather than constructive discussion.

Thread 7

danieldwilliam December 13 2011, 12:15:25 UTC

I’m not sure how well the electorate would take the necessary shenanigans in order for Cameron to call an early election.

It would amount to Cameron (and possibly others) saying “See that stability that was required in the national interest that I promised you and see that fixed-term-Parliament-constitutional-reform-that-would-change-the-we-do-politics that I also promised you. I lied. Please vote for me.”

I’m don’t see that landing well with the people.

andrewducker December 13 2011, 12:47:32 UTC

Of course, that assumes that Cameron dissolving his government leads to an election, rather than a Lab+LibDem+Others coalition. Which would be shaky, but various parties might decide it was preferable to going back to the polls.

danieldwilliam December 13 2011, 13:26:06 UTC

I was thinking of the shenanigans that would be required for him to be able to dissolve his government and move straight to a general election without giving Miliband and whomever replaced Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats a chance to form government.

andrewducker December 13 2011, 13:29:30 UTC

That would require a repeal of existing legislation - which would require 50% of the government (and the Lords). He won't get that.

Thread 9

undeadbydawn December 13 2011, 15:21:53 UTC

Unbreakable

is making me both extremely proud and unbearably angry.

someone very close to me was recently sexually assaulted. She knew him. he came back to 'apologise', told her his family had completely disowned him, and said she would be a terrible person if she pressed charges while his life was falling apart like this.

I want to kill him. beat him til he stops breathing, then beat him some more.

She asked my opinion. I urged her to proceed with legal action, which is very likely to happen.

the assault is bad enough. It's the mind games that just fuck you up.