Interesting Links for 05-08-2015

[andrewducker]

• Footage shows Tory whip saying government could cover up scandals involving MPs and 'small boys'
  • (tags: Child_abuse politics conservatives )
• Reinventing Performance Management
  • (tags: performance management work productivity )
• The Ada Initiative is shutting down
  • (tags: women technology support )
• Corbyn's left: naive, or just 'not arseholes'?
  • (tags:

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I suspect that most hotels would go bankrupt if it were not for prostitutes.

[gonzo21]

Fuck, oh well, okay, it's Austerity politics for the forseeable future then. Damn. Bye bye welfare state.

[andrewducker]

For once, the comments are worth reading - as they point out it was a _terrible_ poll.

And also, asking the population what they want to vote for, and then having that as your policy makes you the world's most vapid politician. Labour need to make a case for better approaches, and then starting moving the Overton window in that direction!

[gonzo21]

Ah okay, I didn't see those because I use a javascript blocker. WIll load them up now and have a read.

Yes, okay, I see the point of the commentators, the poll was very much designed to return the answer they wanted wasn't it.

If you ask people 'Do you want profligate spending that nobody can afford, or do you want austerity?' They'll say 'austerity please', because we have an attitude that people can't live outside their means.

Christ, it is absurd the way they desperately chase after polling opinions isn't it. The ultimate result of this will be political parties promising free blowjobs and the chance to beat up an immigrant every sunday night.

[erindubitably]

I cannot and will not believe that poll was not deliberately done to get exactly the results they wanted so they could keep preaching exactly this message. WHICH IS NOT WHAT POLLS ARE FOR.

[momentsmusicaux]

I don't see how it's pedantic. Rather, it's a matter of semantics. The article sums it up perfectly at the end: 'Essentially, I'd been asking for the equivalent of a black coffee with milk.'

[andrewducker]

Kind-of. It doesn't literally mean that.

Imagine that, for whatever reason, a "black coffee" was known as a "Bob" in England. Because Sir Robert Havistock was famous for always demanding his coffee with no impurities in it.

Someone from Germany wanders wanders into your coffee and says "I'd like a Bob please, with milk."

You can't expect them to know the rich cultural heritage and history which lead to a "Bob" meaning "With nothing in it". All they know is that a "Bob" means a basic coffee, and they want something like that, with milk in it.

You can either say "Sure, here you go, £1.50 please", or you can say "Ahahahaha, there's no such thing as a Bob with milk, you silly foreigner who does not know our ways."

Hint: The first answer doesn't make you a complete arse.

[momentsmusicaux]

You're assuming they're being like that out of pedantry. I think it's more that it just doesn't make sense to them.

[andrewducker]

"You can't have a marinara with mozzarella," she says. "It doesn't exist."

Is a statement which literally makes no sense to me. It assumes a master list of food which "does exist", and all other food is incomprehensible, because it's not on the list.

"I suppose," she mutters grudgingly, "I could make you a margherita with garlic."

Oh, it turns out she does understand, and knows exactly what he's asking for. She's just being a dick about it.

[agoodwinsmith]

The nom de hom thing is as you expect - annoyingly as you expect - and then a comment gets you in your blindside: a small business owner got tired and created a male persona to do her ordering for her - and she gets her stuff 2 days earlier and for 6% less. And you know that no one person is deliberately going "mwhahaha - showed you you bitch". Everybody is just doing the deeply ingrained thing. So disheartening.

[resonant]

Happens all the time.

My co-worker, who is female with grandparents from China, visited a supplier for a site tour. She was told that due to reasons, she couldn't tour the manufacturing areas. We buy tens of millions of dollars from that supplier.
I visited the same supplier. I am cis-male with pasty-pale Northern European appearance. I got a full tour of the site.

My co-worker, who has a traditional Guarjati name, asked a supplier for information. No response.
I have a Western European name. My question (word-for-word the same as Aresh's) got a response.

[apostle_of_eris]

Boy! I thought we took pizza seriously in Chicago!
And all the coffee talk -- the caffeine heads are totally beyond the potheads in ritual and fetish.