Posts by Moz
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Envirologue: Too Big to Fail – Why…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I used to love singing "turn off the sun, turn off the sun, darken the world, no radia-shun" at anti-nuclear rallies. I met some STEM geeks with great senses of humour doing that. And attracted some blank looks from... um... non-STEM people.
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Polity: Government votes not to improve MMP, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Parliaments with five times as many members work fine (and there is a good argument that the less "efficent" parliament is, the better the laws that come out).
I fear that in NZ that might just push the quality of representatives down. We would probably still have the same number of good and excellent MPs, we might even gain one or two from minor parties, but there's a population effect to consider. Given 5 million people, how many excellent representatives can we expect? And given the learning experiences available in a population that size, how much can we expect them to develop over time?
This is another one of those "how big should our Olympic team be" and "how many global pop stars should we expect" questions. Just because we once managed 50 medal winners in an Olympic team does not mean that we should always send at least 50...
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This is pretty interesting, nice popsci take on some potentiall mainstream research: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/magazine/can-the-bacteria-in-your-gut-explain-your-mood.html?_r=0
Mazmanian knew the results offered only a provisional explanation for why restrictive diets and antibacterial treatments seemed to help some children with autism: Altering the microbial composition might be changing the permeability of the intestine. ‘‘The larger concept is, and this is pure speculation: Is a disease like autism really a disease of the brain or maybe a disease of the gut or some other aspect of physiology?’’ Mazmanian said. For any disease in which such a link could be proved, he saw a future in drugs derived from these small molecules found inside microbes.
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Polity: Government votes not to improve MMP, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I still favour a single vote MMP system, where the party vote goes to the list of ones chosen electorate candidate
I think that would make things harder for new parties and very small parties. In the worst case a party polling a consistent 1% across the country would need to stand 60 candidates in order to collect those votes and get one person elected. For a party that's polarising that could be difficult - being "The Green" in Bluff wouldn't be a lot of fun, but it would beat being the "Foreshore Reform Party" candidate in Northland. I suspect many people would beat that candidate.
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Polity: Government votes not to improve MMP, in reply to TracyMac,
Aussie PV system ... the great unwashed seems to have no problem at all ranking their preferences.
Really? Have you ever seen an Australian election? The defining feature of those is the donkey vote (write 1 in the first box you see, exit the booth). If you look more deeply there is a huge morass of ugly just under the surface, starting with the "just vote one" campaigns by both major parties and some of the minors, and ending up somewhere in preference harvesting and dishonest party names ("save the forests" run by a logging industry front group, for example). We have a federal senator right now who was elected because he was first on the ballot and had "liberal" in his party name... which got him 5%-10% of the vote. The actual "Liberal Party" share dropped accordingly.
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Keen on YourTV, that looks promising.
Job ads are only worsted by actual HR "interviews". I am good at interviews, much to the disgust of people who don't know that interview performance is no guarantee of job performance. Normally there are clear warning signs and if I'm not desperate for the job I'll walk when they start wanking about the corporate cult.
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Speaker: We don’t make the rules, we're…, in reply to Alfie,
VPNs however remain untouched.
I dunno what you're talking about. I am on holiday in Britanada right now, using a VPN is beyond my ability... watching iPlayer while recording a Canadian music show for later consumption.
One geoblocking trick that really grumps me is when publishers buy the rights to distribute an ebook here then block us from buying it because we're not big enough to be worth while. FFS, we're big enough to be worth actively blocking us, the "effort" to unblock us is surely not too huge.
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Access: Zero, in reply to Russell Brown,
Jim has always referred to bathmats as "floor towels"
For some reason my brain went full Yorkshire on that, because we have half a towel as a floor towel...
"a whole floor towel? We only have 'alf a towel, and we're grateful to have that".
And privacy... I like that idea. Thankfully I don't have to deal with officials, just housemates. Who are not as bad, despite the way it sometimes feels.
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Hard News: What's in the pills? It matters., in reply to Russell Brown,
it’s a tiny bit frustrating that all the media that’s followed my MoS story has ignored the real angle, which is that it saves lives if and when people know what they’re taking
That was what I thought the story was about until I looked at the bought media. I share your frustration.
It's the same as with "herbal supplements" - if you have no idea what's in the pills you can have quite shocking results, and can seriously mislead anyone trying to work out what's gone wrong.
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Speaker: Abortion: morality and health, in reply to TracyMac,
I paid 300 quid
Wholly sheet! That's a lot of money. Not compared to giving birth, obviously.
On this one I'm kind simpleminded - abortion should be entirely state-funded, and if a woman wants one the only veto should come from the doctor saying "you might survive the birth, but you'll almost certainly die if we abort". But that's possibly driven by my more general preference for state-funded medical care and progressive taxation rather than my distaste for having to pay for abortions.
I do have some sympathy for the "pro-life"/MRA position that if the woman is willing to carry a baby to term and hand it over for adoption, anyone who wants to should be able to offer inducements to her. But strictly intermediated by the government, and anonymised unless/until the mother decides otherwise. I see that as a way to allow the "pro-life"/MRA people to demonstrate their sincerity. I don't know what would actually happen, but I suspect that if a woman wanting an abortion was offered money to bring the baby to term and hand it over for adoption, she might be willing to do that. It might take a lot of money, but I'd be willing to see someone else provide it and see what happens.