Interesting Links for 01-06-2014

[andrewducker]

• Indian court asked to rule on whether Hindu guru dead or meditating
  (tags: meditation law india death )
• In praise of trigger warnings
  (tags: content triggerwarnings tagging )
• Breakthrough in British copyright law reform confirmed
  (tags: copyright uk viafanf )
• Can narcissists be moved to show empathy?
  (tags: narcissism empathy psychology )
• Quiz:

Comments

[philmophlegm]

20 out of 20 on 1980s children's TV. The image bottom right on the main page is Sentinel 1 from 'The Space Sentinels'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtijHwELlHU

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[f4f3]

I thought he looked a lot like ISAAC of Titan. I'll get my cape and cowl/

[andrewducker]

I have very vague memories of The Space Sentinels. I must have stumbled across it at some point!

[supergee]

Want to reduce unsightly facial blemishes? Reduce inequality.

[andrewducker]

So far as I understand, high levels of inequality are bad for health outcomes, economic growth, crime, and social cohesion. But not facial blemishes so far as I know.

[supergee]

Facial blemishes as much as mass murder. Some people are always ready to find an opportunity to promote their favorite panacea. (Though I agree with you about the actual results.)

[andrewducker]

Individual gun crime is a lot higher in places with high inequality than it is in places with low inequality, because places with low inequality don't cause the same levels of desperation and hopelessness, or the same culture of macho rebellion, which lead to them.

Which doesn't mean that _every_ episode of an idiot with a gun is down to it, or that you'd prevent any given episode by reducing it. But draining the swamp would certainly reduce the problem a lot.

[supergee]

You've pointed me to so much good stuff on Slate Star Codex, I've added it to my own blog list. Thank you.

[supergee]

Thanks for the warning. A quick look didn't reveal anything awful, but I can go back to letting Andrew filter it if necessary.

[bart_calendar]

The thing about trigger warnings is the huge potential for abuse

[andrewducker]

Sounds like they need a policy on trigger warnings. You could mention content in the syllabus, and tell people that any issues must be flagged well in advance or they will be ignored.

[bart_calendar]

I actually suggested this to my dad. His response was "where do you stop?"

I.e. once you start putting content warnings in the syllabus any warning you don't put in is something someone can bitch about - and have a stronger cases, i.e. "well you gave at trigger warning about incest, why the fuck didn't you give a trigger warning about (random thing.)" You'd get to the point eventually where there would be nothing in the syllabus but trigger warnings.

The truth is you'd be very, very hard pressed to find any work of literature in the 20th century that doesn't trigger something. Hell, just imagine the trigger warning list on The Lord Of The Rings, or Heinlein or Hunter Thompson.

Anyone who wants to study literature is going to run into some things that are incredibly unpleasant for them. And, you can't really study literature if you are going to exempt yourself from the unpleasantness. (Otherwise no fucking way would have let myself get assigned Madame Bovary twice - once in English, once in French.)

[andrewducker]

In which case a nice clear policy saying "Writing contains unpleasant shit, check the reading list before you sign up." should do it.

[bart_calendar]

Note: Rome Girl just showed me the Google results for Lewis Carroll if safe search is turned on and they are very vanilla, so I will concede the point that a trigger warning on a class on him might be valid. I can see how someone might only know the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland and have no clue about Carroll's weirdo hobbies.