Interesting Links for 19-04-2013

[andrewducker]

• This does a pretty good job of summing up my ideology
  (tags: beliefs society rights economics democracy )
• Are you a woman expert? Get your name on this list, to stop journalists saying "We couldn't find a woman expert"!
  (tags: experts media women )
• Mark Ruffalo approves of Stark/Banner fic.
  (tags: avengers slash comics fanfiction )
• Nestlé chairman

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

Interesting chat about water from Nestle, the company my mum loves to hate.

Is having water a human right? I’m not sure the world right is particularly helpful.

I think everyone ought to be able to have sufficient clean water to drink and cook and meet basic hygiene requirements every day and that providing this is so fundamental to a properly functioning society and has such a low marginal cost for individuals in most cases it ought to be provided free at point of use. I’m not suggesting we should be trucking water to Cooper Pedy for free.

However, water is also an industrial ingredient in many processes. Not least agriculture from which people make a profit. So when someone uses water for an industrial process they are using water that someone down stream, physically, or in time can’t use (unless they clean the water and put it back.) Should people be charged a market rate for using water in this context. Probably yes.

[andrewducker]

I agree in general. People don't have the right to unlimited water, certainly not for industrial reasons.

But anyone who doesn't believe that people should have access to sufficient water for basic needs should be taken out and shot.

[danieldwilliam]

or drowned.

[bart_calendar]

I've never understood the Alien Resurrection hate. No, it's not as good as the others, but the others were directed by three of the greatest directors in the fucking world. Unless Tarantino had directed the fourth one it was bound not be quite as good.

Seriously like "Oh, you are not quite as good as Ridley Scott, James Cameron and David Fincher, but you are close," is pretty fucking good.

And, the idea of Ripley with xenomorph DNA in her is a good thing. And the xenomorph swimming is good.

[andrewducker]

I don't think his view is "Not as good as Ridley, James and David." I think it's "This idiot ruined my screenplay and made an actively bad movie"

Personally, I remember enjoying a fair bit of the movie, but I also remember some people loathing it when it came out.

[bart_calendar]

Yeah, I just never understood the loathing. It was a fine popcorn flic.

All I really wanted from the movie as Ripley and a Xenomorph and I got that.

[gonzo21]

And some bits of it are distinctly good, the whole first act is pretty entertaining stuff, the introduction of the Firefly crew, Ripley playing basketball. The aliens escaping.

The second act turns into a bit of an endless chase through dark corridors, but it's okay too. There's some nice action sequences.

The only real problem is the final act with the alien baby getting sucked out through its own sphincter nonsense. And from what I recall the final act is the one that had the most studio messing, the original ending was very very different, and dozens of reshoots resulted in the mess we got on screen.

But the first two thirds of the movie I really quite enjoyed.

[danieldwilliam]

The Captain is inordinately fond of beer.

[andrewducker]

I am unshocked :->

I'd love your opinion on the final link in today's post...

[danieldwilliam]

I’m amused that the name of the woman analysing the data the Canadian government tried to hide is Forget.

Serious thoughts shortly.

[atreic]

"That moment when you've spent $40,000 on learning something you could have learned for $100

[andrewducker]

Congratulations, you managed to sum up massive numbers of HN threads in one concise post!

I still think that he learned the right lesson, just from insufficient evidence to support it :->

[atreic]

Well, I'm glad it's not just me. Do you share this rubbish just to see if we're reading carefully enough? :-)

Where are these HN threads? Reading other people ranting in agreement with me is always enjoyable.

[andrewducker]

The discussion is here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5571024

(The one about the stats is halfway down).

And I sometimes share stuff without digging into the details, safe in the knowledge that someone else will point out if it's utter nonsense. In this case, HN did so yesterday, but I don't like retracting links once they're in the pile, feels somehow wrong to me.

Citizen Income in Dauphin.

[danieldwilliam]

That’s very interesting. I look forward to seeing the results of the data analysis when it’s all loaded into some stats package.

The 8.5% odd fall in health care usage is quite striking. I like the new mothers spending time with their kids and the increase in high school graduations.

It certainly indicates some more pilots. I must go and dig into the schemes in Brasil and Alaska.

I’m with Mulvale, I think the biggest problem is the political acceptability of a citizens’ income. Along side the transitional effects and the difficulty doing it in isolation.