Interesting Links for 05-10-2016

[nwhyte]

Studies show messy people and those who swear may actually be smarter and more creative
Comforting?
(tags: psychology )

Mr Grayling is wrong about the Brexit dividend to station platforms
A glorious takedown.
(tags: ukpolitics eu rail brexit )

New crackdown on overseas students and work visas
...and you must publish how many foreigners you employ.

Comments

[alfrecht]

Intriguing…

I am VERY messy, and creative; and I swear a fair bit, and am pretty intelligent by most metrics.

I loved a sign one of my high school teachers had over his desk: "A clean desk is a sign of a sick mind." My apartment, however, might suggest otherwise to some people…!?!

I also got into a slight argument with an idiot a few years ago who said that because I used the phrase "Those who know me know I'm pretty fuckin' intellectual," and he said that it was impossible to be an intellectual if one uses words like "fuck" at all. Almost every Ph.D. I know swears like a sailor…

(When I was young, I did get in trouble for swearing many times, because I refused to see "bad words" as anything other than words that are useful in some situations. Now, I say "fuck" around my mom all the time and she doesn't comment at all on it because she understands my viewpoint on the matter, without sharing it. About fuckin' time!)

[fub]

For once I read the comments -- and the one at the end of the article about how Mr Grayling is wrong has a perfect take-down of the usual "Why is the EU concerned with this -- can't they focus on what's important!?" complaint.
I'm a big fan of the British sense for understatement and irony.

[nwhyte]

That's so good it's worth reproducing here in full. If you ever leave the shores of this sceptred isle, you may notice that other European countries are gravely deficient in shoreline, and rather one country simply abuts another, the poor things. In light of this, some clever foreign sorts conceived of the idea of running railway lines from one country to another; so one can, for instance, travel from Paris to Brussels merely by taking a direct train, without needing to change at the border

[hano]

I fully expect the Tory front bench to end their conference leading the faithful in a rendition of 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me.' Things are getting uglier here by the day. Time, I think, to go learn some French or German, what would you suggest?