Interesting Links for 02-12-2016

[andrewducker]

Nestle says will cut sugar in chocolate by 40% (tags: chocolate sugar ) What Gamergate should have taught us about the 'alt-right' (tags: politics society games gaming viaSwampers ) Builders are selling houses with ever-escalating lease charges on them. (tags: OhForFucksSake housing ) How companies change when they hit 150 people (tags: growth

Comments

[supergee]

Incomprehensibility was always one of the charms of the Latin Mass, but the Catholic Church, seeking a way to modernize without abandoning its loathsome sex rules, gave that up. A few years ago, a Catholic friend told me he’d found a church he particularly enjoyed attending, because they said the Mass in Italian, so he wasn’t distracted by the meaning of the words.

[pashazade]

We didn't give it up. I go to Latin Mass all the time. What went was Tridentine Mass - it can still be said, but only by special permission.

(To be fair, it's a lot easier to find a church that does Mass in Latin in London than in, say, Milton Keynes.)

[helflaed]

My Great Grandad went travelling just after 1900. He travelled on cargo ships (oficially as a purser, even though they obviously didn't need one- it was how they could get round the rules and take a passanger) Although he was a Methodist, one of his crewmates became a Catholic specifically because he could go to church anywhere in the world and participate in the service.

[skington]

Looks like leasehold sales are another example of England having batshit insane property laws that Scotland got rid of ages ago.

[a_pawson]

Yup. Leasehold is a crazy, ancient part of English law that stems from feudal times. Essentially you own your house, but only lease the land on which it is built. When that lease expires, any house built there is then owned by the landowner.

Not all houses are like this, many are freehold, which means you own the house and the land it is built on. It may make some sense for blocks of flats, but I had no idea that new houses were still being sold as leasehold. That is insane, but I suppose selling the leases is another way for the builders to make money. It should have been abolished decades ago, but no government will touch it because leases are traded commodities.

[skington]

If you're selling flats, then have there be a factor, and have that an agreement separate to the actual sale of the property. People can change their factor if they don't like the current one, after all, or self-factor.

[andrewducker]

My block has no factor. Never has had one, so far as I can tell. In fact, no flats I've lived in have ever had a factor. I'd rather like one, to be honest - it would make the "Who is paying for this to be fixed?" discussions a lot easier...

[luzclarita]

How does female ejaculation endanger the health of women? The UK ihaa gone nutty.

[andrewducker]

It really has.

[ticktockman]

Once you ban pee, you have defenses that the woman wasn't peeing, she was ejaculating. So putting up the female ejaculation ban prevents that workaround.

[a_pawson]

British censorship rules make no sense whatsoever. There will never be a sensible debate about them though, so I doubt they will change anytime soon.

Northern grandmother gets sprouts on

[a_pawson]

December is far too late to get the sprouts on. I thought everyone knew the sprouts should be on the stove by Samhain.

RE: Northern grandmother gets sprouts on

[doubtingmichael]

Maybe she's doing the last-minute cooking for Christmas 2017?

[seraphicwing]

We should honestly have learned from Gamergate before "alt-right" became such a tangible thing. :(