Interesting Links for 04-05-2015

[andrewducker]

• The Dickonomics of Tinder (dick is abundant & low value)
  (tags: relationships sex internet viasupergee )
• Why do bad things happen to good people?
  (tags: people karma morality causality comic philosophy )
• Why Marvel’s Gamora & Black Widow Were Missing From Merchandise, And What We Can Do About It
  (tags: women marvel comics merchandising marketing

Comments

[andrewducker]

The "SNP blocking a Labour budget" thing is why not having a coalition is ridiculous.

A coalition means agreeing a compromise, and both groups voting for things even if they aren't exactly what they want.

Without that, you're left any minority administration having to go wherever necessary to get bills passed.

(And in this case, Labour either having to move left-wards to get SNP support, or right-wards to get Conservative support. On a vote-by-vote basis...)

[gonzo21]

Agreed. Without some sort of formal agreement, Labour will have to fight tooth and nail just to change the lightbulbs in parliaments bathrooms.

[a_pawson]

Wasn't that what the SNP effectively did in Scotland when they ran a minority government? A formal coalition doesn't strike me as necessary so long as whoever is in government is willing to have dialogue with the other parties. In fact were they to reach agreements with different parties for different bills, it might even be a good thing.

[gonzo21]

April was an unusually sunny month. I'm still not convinced 'Scotland' and 'Solar Power' go together well quite yet. :)

But, definitely good progress being made.

[kalimac]

Scotland can run on thermal power. Generated by all the Labour and Tory politicians fuming at Nicola Sturgeon.

[gonzo21]

:) Very good.

[drplokta]

I'm getting a bit tired of people saying "We use 100 GWh of electricity per year, and we could generate 100 GWh from this renewable source, and therefore we could generate all of our electricity from renewables. Because you couldn't. Until we have much better/cheaper storage technology, we have to generate electricity at the time it is used, including those times when the sun isn't shining, the wind isn't blowing, and the tide is on the turn. The only renewable that's currently suitable for generating the base load is hydro-electricity in places with reliable rainfall (e.g. not the western US).

[andrewducker]

We absolutely need better power storage (and I'm glad a lot is being invested into doing so - I hope that others go into competition with Tesla on this).

I still think it's worth celebrating the fact that solar is efficient enough that, at least while the sun is shining, it can produce the energy that we need.

[skington]

Supposedly pumping water uphill and then releasing it when you need more juice is the most efficient way of storing electricity (so far). And Scotland is rainy enough...

[drplokta]

And we have a pumped storage facility, at Dinorweg in Wales. It can handle about 3% of the UK's peak electricity demand, so it's useful for smoothing out peaks and troughs, but not for any kind of a wholesale move to intermittent renewables. It's too expensive to get the capacity we'd need that way, not to mention requiring us to industrialise many of our most scenic landscapes.

[apostle_of_eris]

It's just slightly over a thousand years since the Ashkenazic ruling to forego polygamy for a thousand years, since it excited the Christians so much.

[apostle_of_eris]

OK, so the large British political parties couldn't find their own ass with a flashlight and a map.
How'd they get that way? I have narratives for how American politics has gotten so septic, right-wing noise machine, wingnut welfare, etc., but what're the Brits' excuses? We had Bill Clinton turn the Democrats to sucking off the same teats as the Republicans, tossing the party's purposes overboard, but what's "New Labour"'s excuse for being watered down Tories?

[erindubitably]

Tony Blair, I thought.

[andrewducker]

Labour turned centrist/right under Blair, because they believed that the British population would never elect an actually left-wing party again. It's hard to tell if they were right.

[skington]

Tony Blair was shit scared of Rupert Murdoch, and some people like Peter Mandelson were "intensely relaxed" about people getting filthy rich