Interesting Links for 15-01-2013

[andrewducker]

• UK government refuses to discuss how Independence might work.
  (tags: uk independence scotland )
• State pension: The overhaul and you
  (tags: pensions uk )
• Gender Roles and Homesexuality, some pretty big changes in their perception over the last twenty years.
  (tags: gender society lgbt women )
• Parkinson's Patients treated with dopamine-

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Looks to me like Gen X and Gen Y have pretty much the same feelings on same sex relationships.

While, Gen X had "not wrong at all" at a lower number in the 80s, that makes some logical sense to me. As a Gen X person, in the 80s is when we were in our teens and also the height of the AIDS epidemic - so we were being told on TV every single night that male on male gay sex was a death sentence - in which case we probably all said that it was "sometimes ok" rather than "always ok" because we were thinking about unprotected male sex.

As we became adults and realized that not every gay person we knew was dying young then our opinions changed to "always ok" - because we weren't thinking "shit, you just came out to me, I hope you don't die!"

Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills.

[cartesiandaemon]

Ouch. I said on facebook that I'd previous thought oversight by the Queen was a reasonable final check-and-balance, but this level of non-transparency is making me think it'd be better to do away with the monarchy after all.

Re: Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'd like my final check/balance to be a lot more transparent than that!

Re: Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills.

[cartesiandaemon]

Yeah. I'd feel a bit happier if she vetoed "going to war for no reason" instead of "not going to war for no reason"[1]. But even if I'd trusted her to do the right thing, I'm increasingly less sanguine that I'd automatically trust Charles, William, William Jr, etc.

[1] I'm haunted by the idea that maybe there really was a good reason to blow up Iraq that really did have to be secret[2]. But I can only really judge policy based on what I know -- you can accept a small amount of "just this once, trust us, we know something you don't", but only if someone has actually built up reasons to trust them.

[2] I guess "oil". And blowing up Saddam Hussein was arguably a good thing, even if it left a mess afterwards. But I can't say "maintaining my oil-rich lifestyle is worth randomly invading any country I don't like".

Re: Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills.

[makyo]

The article lists a load of laws that were presented to the Queen for her approval, but it does state (below all the rather excitable "won't somebody think of teh democracy!" rhetoric) that there's no evidence she substantively interfered, just that the bills were presented to her for her preliminary consent. Except, that is, in one case (the Military Action Against Iraq (Parliamentary Approval) Bill 1999) where she said no on the instructions of the government. And I'm not sure what else she was supposed to do - if she'd refused to follow that recommendation then wouldn't that have been an even more serious breach of democracy

[strawberryfrog]

Amazon may be close to the only game in town if you wish to buy circular physical media, but the real consumer want is for music. There are many other options for music, mostly online. The market for buying physical disks is shrinking, since online is more convenient.

[strawberryfrog]

Steaming is always an option if your basic want is music. You left out the world's largest music streaming service: You tube.

7digital, is majority-owned by HMV.

That is not correct, or at least not correct any more. HMV is a minority owner.

The press release text that we were given if asked for comment on the subject of HMV is:
We are sad to hear the news about HMV but 7digital will not be affected by this. 7digital has progressed to become a truly global digital music platform and our partners include RIM, Samsung and other leading brands, who use our technology to power global digital music services. HMV is a minority shareholder in 7digital, as a result of our continued growth and latest fundraising back in October (see http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/18/music-platform-7digital-nabs-10-million-in-funding-to-expand-its-profitable-activities/).

Which is all true. See also this

[strawberryfrog]

Oh, and google sells music too, as well as owning the Youtube streaming.

[despotliz]

Tone argument article links to a PDF which is missing, further googling suggests it is in press but not actually published yet. Yet another article based on as-yet unpublished data where it is impossible to properly judge the experiment, I would really like people to stop doing this.

[andrewducker]

But! But! It validates my assumptions! Surely that's good enough?