Interesting Links for 13-11-2015

[andrewducker]

• France's Red Zone: 500 forbidden square miles poisoned by war
  • France war poison
• Alan Moore answers questions on GoodReads
  • alanmoore writing magic comics
• Maslow's Iceberg of Needs
  • psychology
• Benefit sanctions against people with mental health problems up by 600 per cent
  • mentalhealth welfare
• Love Christmas? Love Maths? I may have the t-shirt/sweater

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I suspect that Moore is wrong and that there is a counter-culture growing on the Internet, but probably one that we (particularly us olds) are not aware of.

That's the thing about a counter-culture, it lives underground. Those poetry magazines that Moore is talking about - I guarantee you most people in their 40s when they were published had no clue they existed.

People outside any given counter culture don't become aware of it until the media does, and that's generally years after it's been up and running.

I strongly believe that in the Darknet you don't just have people selling weed, you have a huge coutner culture brewing - but you'd have to be really tech savvy and also in your teens or early 20s to be aware of it.

[gonzo21]

I saw a documentary last night about gender fluidity amongst teens and early 20s, and it was fascinating the extent to which normal sexual boundaries were eroded. And homophobia was a weird relic of the past.

Which is to say, I think the brewing counter culture you refer to will be largely a sexual one.

(Plus, sex is one of the few things the impoverished youth of today who have been saddled with economic catastrophies for the rest of their lives will actually be able to enjoy for free.)

[bart_calendar]

Counter cultures are almost universally sexually based.

I think that's mostly because the main motivation for 18 year old males to become involved in a counter culture is that it's a way for those that don't fit into mainstream culture to get laid.

[gonzo21]

The documentary spoke to a lot of women, who were saying 'I am absolutely straight, I'm not bisexual, but I like to fuck a lot of girls, they're just better at sex than boys.'

[gonzo21]

If my many many games of Civilisation are anything to go by, then the biggest key to the Great Divergence is railroads and the factories. But mostly the railroads.

[skington]

Depends on which version of Civilisation you're playing. Civ III (I think), yeah, get railroads and you Just Win. Later versions, not so much.

[gonzo21]

Civ IV made it almost impossible to get railroads before the AI. And reduced their effectiveness to... 10 squares I think, rather than infinite movement.

I haven't played any of the Civ games after that.

[randomdreams]

The giant swath of France that's full of UXO's got me to reading about them in general. One interesting stat I found was that people turn up an average of fifteen UXO's per _day_ in Germany. Then I got to reading about that sunken victory ship in the Thames estuary that still has a thousand tons of explosive onboard.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, some day that's going to go up. It won't be a good day for anyone.

Oh, and there's also the Anthrax testing island off Scotland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_Island

[danieldwilliam]

The USN and the RN laid some serveral hundred thousand sea-mines in one barrage during the First World War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_Mine_Barrage

One of them (or one of the type laid) turned up in Gourock on the West Coast of Scotland a month ago.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/unexploded-gourock-sea-mine-sees-residents-evacuated-1-3918334

[channelpenguin]

At low spring tide you can see parts of the ship. I've been out there a few times - the East Coast lacks for sights when sailing....