Interesting Links for 09-07-2014

[andrewducker]

• SSRIs: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
  (tags: depression drugs )
• Apparently we now have sniffer dogs trained to detect electronic circuitry...
  (tags: dogs technology )
• I'm gonna open up a retail store called KickstartMart
  (tags: kickstarter funny comic )
• A list of things which are accidentally Turing Complete
  (tags: turing algorithms computers )

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I'm curious why a UK LGBT community is appropriating the name "Stonewall" - a particularly US landmark moment for the gay community.

I would also note that dissing transgender members while calling yourself "Stonewall" is ridiculous. All accounts of the Stonewall riot say that it was the drag queens and transgendered people in the bar who fought the cops first and fought the cops the hardest.

[matgb]

When they were set up, they were a) fairly inclusive and b) specifically referencing Stonewall as a rights campaign as it's a landmark for the gay community everywhere, especially the English speaking world.

But, it's a member driven organisation that's overly reliant on the chief exec to set direction, the previous CE was notorious for, basically, following the Labour party/govt line on rights-not just trans exclusionary stuff, but also actually went public saying he was opposed to campaigning for equal marriage as it was unnecessary and of no interest to members.

The new (acting) CE is trying to be more inclusive but if you're member driven and you've pushed out and alienated a lot of your bi- and trans- members/potential members then you increasingly become an LGbt org at best-they're never getting my money, being a member of LibDem LGBT+ has done a lot more for equality in this country in the last 5 years than Stonewall has managed.

[alitheapipkin]

Yeah, the fact that they opposed equal marriage but then still tried to claim part of the credit when it was achieved was a really classy touch.

[andrewducker]

FWIW I believe that Stonewall Scotland is an independent organisation that's much better with T and B issues.

A list of things which are accidentally Turing Complete

[cartesiandaemon]

:) I love lists like this.

FWIW, I think the rules of magic are significantly more complex than necessary to produce a turing machine, a much simpler game where the individual cards have specific special abilities on could be turing complete. The reason it was so difficult to demonstrate is mostly to construct a situation where executing the turing machine is *mandatory*, without entering an infinite loop, or accidentally making one player win :)

[nancylebov]

Conway's Life is also Turing complete.

[cartesiandaemon]

But I'm not sure if that's "accidental" :) (I don't know if it was specifically designed to be turing complete, but I think it was designed to have interesting and open-ended computational properties.)

[theweaselking]

You've seen Life implemented in Life, right?

[momentsmusicaux]

Lovely photos, but the articles doesn't tell us where the Badlands are in the world. Also, the way the pictures get brighter when you hover on them is annoying as hell!

I intend to take at least a couple of months of paternity leave :)

[minnesattva]

The Badlands are in North and South Dakota, and really are beautiful.

[andrewducker]

Hopefully, from next year, more men will be able to do likewise, when the shared parental leave changes come in.

[momentsmusicaux]

Yup, I'm certainly very lucky in that a number of factors have come together: a) I'm at a point where one project is ending round about now b) I'm sufficiently in demand that going off the radar for a few months won't be a problem (I hope!) c) I can afford to take an unpaid break. Oh and I'm a freelancer who can do this sort of thing in the first place!

Flowers in the Badlands - a gorgeous collections of photos

[cartesiandaemon]

Those are gorgeous!