Interesting Links for 19-12-2013

[andrewducker]

• Bank of England switches to plastic notes with Churchill fiver
  (tags: money plastic uk )
• Earning a PhD by studying a theory that we know is wrong
  (tags: science physics )
• Where Are the American Evangelicals Going?
  (tags: christianity usa religion demographics )
• What do UKIP's poll figures actually mean?
  (tags: ukip politics uk )
• Internet

Comments

[andrewducker]

Good article here on the Reddit Climate Deniers Ban, where they make it clear that what they've actually done is make it clear that they only allow peer-reviewed research, and that as the vast majority of climate deniers are posting from blog posts (because there's pretty much no peer reviewed climate science that denies climate change) they get banned by default.

[gonzo21]

Or even better, they take youtube videos as their 'peer reviewed sources'.

I can't tell you how many whacked out conspiracy loonies now quote youtube vids as the basis for their belief systems.

[a_pawson]

It's on the internet so it must be true.

[momentsmusicaux]

I rather like the new pope!

[a_pawson]

I don't know much about the new pope, but the internet seems to have stopped being outraged by his announcements on a regular basis, so I assume he is better than the last one.

[alitheapipkin]

He appears to be more concerned with helping the poor than obsessing about people's sexual practices... He may be that very rare beast, a religious leader who isn't a hypocrite.

[theweaselking]

His announcements have been less offensive and not horrible.

His actions, meanwhile, are still horrible. He hasn't taken even baby steps towards *actually* correcting all the things wrong with the Catholic church's worldwide practices.

Still. He keeps *saying* all of the things the church does is wrong. Maybe he'll start doing, eventually.

[makyo]

This Shia LaBeouf thing is really odd. First he plagiarises a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes (who isn't exactly unknown - his novel Ghost World was made into a film several years ago starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson and Steve Buscemi). Then, when somebody inevitably notices, he apologises with phrasing directly lifted from a post on Yahoo! Answers! four years ago, and from previous high-profile apologies by Tiger Woods, Kanye West and former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Either it's an elaborate and obscure wind-up, or LaBeouf is in the middle of some sort of spectacular melt-down. If the former then I'd expect Clowes to be in on it, but given that he's announced he's currently consulting his lawyers, it looks like that isn't the case.

Deeply, deeply weird.

[andrewducker]

It is _very_ strange. No idea what's going on there.

[ajr]

I've no idea about the film and the initial apology. But the subsequent apologies where he's doing Tiger, McNamara and Kayne? He's definitely trolling by that point.

My best guess is, he genuinely thought no-one would notice the plagiarism of Clowes when he made his film - and indeed, when it did the rounds of Cannes and other festivals, no-one did - and now he's been caught he's trying to style it out. By continuing to lift from other sources he could complain he's making some kind of point, or doing some kind of weird art schtick, or something that he can claim has more meaning behind in than simple plagiarism (see also: some of the weird schtick that Joaquim Phoenix has done).

Problem is, whatever he thinks he may be trying to do, it's not working, and he's just looking more and more like a dick. Who'd want to work with him now?

[makyo]

He's definitely trolling by that point.
This sounds plausible. Certainly the plagiarised apologies (which are statistically unlikely to be coincidental) are not the actions of someone who's taking this seriously.

Who'd want to work with him now?
Well quite. Whereas if he'd made the film with Clowes' involvement or approval, then the general reaction would have been quite positive: young actor and director makes acclaimed short film based on novel by respected writer and artist.

Internet Ettiquette Guidelines from 1995.

[cartesiandaemon]

I fondly remember an internet etiquette guide which described lurking as reading without posting, and helpfully (correctly) added "this is not derogatory" :)

Re: Internet Ettiquette Guidelines from 1995.

[andrewducker]

When I first got access to usenet, due to a glitch I was able to read, but not post, for the first 6 weeks or so.

It turned out to be _incredibly_ useful in the long term.

Reddit’s science forum banned climate deniers. Why don’t all newspapers do the same?

[cartesiandaemon]

That's fascinating, and much much more interesting than I expected from the title. I imagined he was proposing banning people commenting on articles. Banning journalists from posting false stuff is indeed more ethical and more necessary.

I also liked that it wasn't a blanket ban, that you can't say it AT ALL. Just that you can't say it, if it's backed by complete bollocks.