Interesting Links for 18-10-2016

[andrewducker]

UK spy agencies 'broke privacy rules' says tribunal (tags: uk surveillance spying ) 20 Artists, from Photo Reference to Final Artwork (tags: art viaElfy ) Terrifying headmistress quite prepared to make Scotland re-sit referendum (tags: scotland referendum satire independence ) A sense of scale: the best microscopy of 2016 (tags: photographs

Comments

[bart_calendar]

I agree with most of that secretary article with a few caveats

[andrewducker]

I can totally see that it would be in the interests of the business to discriminate.

Heck, there are various places where it would be totally in the interests of a business to act in a discriminatory fashion.

Which is why you need laws to make them stop, so that it's a level playing field. If we left it up to individual businesses to stop out of their own good will then obviously they wouldn't, because who can afford to give away money?

[bart_calendar]

I don't think "hiring the person who is going to help your business the most" is "discrimination" in any real sense. It would be like saying "well why should we only hire people who know how to program become programmers?"

If having a neutral female voice at the other end of the phone is going to get you more clients then that's a reasonable skill set to expect from who you hire.

[andrewducker]

It's not just a skill though a skill, it's also an in-built facet of the person. I can't learn how to have a female neutral voice.

If hiring only white people for your front desk gave you a 50% boost in sales I would still _totally_ be in favour of that being illegal.

When it comes to accents I agree that people's voices should be clear. But "neutral" basically means "Home counties". Everyone has an accent, it's just that some people have defined theirs as "The normal one".

[a_pawson]

I find it quite bizarre that the intelligence agencies are subject to privacy laws. I've always assumed that the likes of the CIA or MI6 just monitored everything.

[andrewducker]

Oh good lord no. I'm totally in favour of them being able to carry out surveillance operations in limited ways that are signed off by people who make sure that they don't cross certain bounds without it being completely vital - and then being answerable or that. I am not ok with them doing whatever they want whenever they want.

[a_pawson]

Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good thing that they are subject to oversight, I am just surprised that especially MI6 don't just do whatever they want regardless. Maybe I have watched too many movies.

[andrewducker]

Possibly :-)

And they do do whatever they want. And they just got caught out for it, and are now in trouble for doing so!

[kalimac]

Artists using photo references: Winston Churchill, who was a serious hobbyist painter, once made a painting based on a photo. It was of a group of people including himself, so he'd been there and knew what it looked like. Nevertheless, the photo was in black-and-white and so was his painting of it

[andrewducker]

I agree that it's not a fair joke. And I'll be voting for Independence. It just amused me, more for the perception than anything else. And yes, the drive from the unionists the first time around was "Stay in the UK to keep the currency and yourp place in the EU!" and right now that deal doesn't seem very appetising.

The guy who invited the nationalist to his Shabbat did, indeed, do a remarkable thing. I try and remember that reaching out can have very positive results sometimes, but it's not always easy.

I think the Devil one _could_ work, with the right spoken emphasis. But I'd try it out on someone first and see how deeply they groan.