Interesting Links for 04-03-2016

[andrewducker]

Tories say they support ban on satire about Parliament footage (tags: freespeech satire politics Conservatives uk ) Oculus Founder: Rift will come to Mac if Apple "ever releases a good computer" (tags: games VirtualReality apple ) A rather nice short, wherein marriage equality reaches the Discworld (tags: lgbt marriage terrypratchett fanfic )

Comments

[gonzo21]

Chris Grayling would quite happily open special camps for all of us who ever say a mean thing about the Party In Power.

Only the Tories can challenge the SNP and prevent Scotland becoming a "one party state", David Cameron is to say.

... that's one of the funniest things I've heard a politician say in a while. :)

(ALthough I do still quite like Ruth Davidson.)

[andrewducker]

Me too.

And yes, it's hilarious. I mean, I'd rather that no party in Scotland had a majority. But with a projected vote of 55% (regional) and 60% (constituency) the people have very much decided that they should do. Thank fuck we have a proportional system, so that it's not going to be a chamber made up entirely of one party.

[gonzo21]

Ruth Davidson might actually be quite well advised to ask Cameron to just shut up and let her run her own campaign without any 'help' from Westminster Tories at all.

But yeah, I mean, maybe it would be a useful object lesson in just how broken FpTP elections are, if Scotland had the Westminster voting system, and we did return a chamber that was all SNP. And maybe then people might sit up and go oh hey, this looks very broken. But yes, very glad we've got the system we've got. Ain't perfect, but it's an improvement.

[a_pawson]

I also really like Ruth Davidson. If only she weren't a Tory!

[alitheapipkin]

That is indeed one of the reasons I still buy hardcopy books and generally use my Kindle for the equivalent of books I'd borrow from the library or buy at a charity shop and re-donate after reading (although I'm one of those odd people who turn their WIFI off when they go to bed at night so my Kindle is only usually connected when I'm downloading new purchases, which would presumably make it rather difficult for Amazon to delete my content!)

[andrewducker]

It takes milliseconds for it to tell your Kindle to delete stuff, and could happen any time you connect it to the internet.

But Amazon will hopefully be around for a while.

[alitheapipkin]

Well yes, I more meant difficult because if I had prior warning I could just never connect it again. Although of course I'm pretty sure they did not in fact warn people last time they decided to take something down.

[a_pawson]

In this case, apparently people will not lose the content they paid for. The customer list has been transferred to Sainsbury's Books (I had no idea that even existed), who are guaranteeing that everyone will still have access to paid for content. I suspect B&N are doing this because they have some legal liability if they just closd down and everyone lost everything.

[gonzo21]

Also, I just realised I lived in Edinburgh for 4 years, used to visit all the time. And I've never been inside the St. James Centre...

[andrewducker]

You're not missing much. John Lewis is kinda nice. But other than that it's a bit of a dump. (For the next two months. Then it's a building site for four years.)

[snarlish]

Wait, 4 years? Jesus pissing in a bucket, do they have to ship the Golden Jobbie in from Timbuktu by the Spice Route?

[camies]

Sounds like New Street in Birmingham. I get the impression Brummies don't like things being completed.

[nancylebov]

So, why do wading birds produce so many excess chicks?

[mummoth]

I wish I could donate ebooks to my library after I've bought and read them. The options available from them are heavily biased toward crime/mystery and romance and I like more variety than that so I end up buying about half of what I read. But it bothers me to have a library sitting there that no one else has access to (except my Andrew, and friends I guess?) It feels wrong. Books are supposed to be shared.