May 2013
1 post
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April 2013
2 posts
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“If it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. By definition, news is something that...”
– Well put: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/16/if-you-are-scared-they-win-if-you-refuse-to-be-scared-they-lose/
Some rough stats:
Aircraft crash deaths per day: 3
Aircraft pollution deaths per day: 27
Mining deaths per day: 33 (around half in coal mines)
Deaths caused by...
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Large scale whole-genome sequencing coming to the...
I completely missed this in December, but it’s a really remarkable sign of things to come. 100,000 full genomes are to be sequenced within the NHS over the next 5 years (if all goes to plan). I think that’s more full human genomes than the total sequenced worldwide since 2000. “A revolution is approaching”.
Prime Minister David Cameron [announced] plans to transform...
December 2012
1 post
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David Cameron urged to take 'now or never' step on... →
Cross-party committee says prime minister should set up royal commission on Britain’s failing drug laws
Full PDF report available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhaff/184/184.pdf
November 2012
1 post
3 tags
Leveson encourages linking to sources: Excellent...
For me, the details of a press standards code are as important as the overarching structure of press regulation. Encouraging online outlets simply to link to the scientific and social policy studies they talk about would, I think, be a big improvement. It gives more power to the reader, at the expense of the media’s ability to spin facts how it likes - I don’t see how that can be a bad...
August 2012
6 posts
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What the Cabinet said about drugs policy (in 1970)
Over at The Poison Garden is a preliminary fisking of Peter Hitchens’s upcoming drugs policy book and its promotion. That led me to track down a fascinating document of Cabinet Conclusions. The date is 26th February 1970 and the topic is “the forthcoming Misuse of Drugs Bill”. The Home Secretary is James Callaghan, and this is a few months before Wilson loses the election to...
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15 Old Photographs That Prove the World Used to Be... →
Be sure to click through to p2.
Astonishing.
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New paper shows drugs classifications are wrong
Following on from the work of David Nutt and others - originally for the government’s own advisory panel - is another paper trying to compare the harms of different drugs. As with previous papers, and available at the British Medical Journal, this one’s not good news for our current classification system or the distinction between legal and illegal drugs.
One of the strengths of...
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April 2012
3 posts
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WatchIf the transforming robot wasn’t innovative enough for you, how about a “three story self propelled Victorian house”?
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March 2012
12 posts
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Petition on abortion reform →
I see no reason to disagree with this or this. Sign via the link above.
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Mayoral candidate misleads by prioritising...
Siobhan Benita is one of the 7 candidates standing for Mayor of London, and I thought I’d check her out given how difficult it is to decide which of Boris and Ken is less awful (vote Brian Paddick!).
Her website starts by saying:
I am not a party politician and won’t waste my time - or yours - fighting tired political battles. I am in touch with Londoners and understand their day to...
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EU acts to end 'rip off' roaming charges →
By July this year mobile firms will be forced to lower the prices of making a call or downloading data abroad. […]
Currently, the limit on what can be charged for making a call is about 30p and sending a text 9p, but there is no cap on what companies can charge per megabyte of data. Under the new rules the cost of sending a text will fall to 7.5p.
Well that’s interesting because...
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The ACMD and decriminalisation
The Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into drug policy is still in progress but the written submissions to it have now been released. There are many excellent submissions (and flawed but interesting ones such as the Home Office’s), but that of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs deserves special attention.
Its final point relates to “Whether detailed consideration ought to...
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James Cameron begins Mariana Trench deep-sea dive →
Film director James Cameron has begun an attempt to become the first person in 50 years to visit the deepest part of the ocean.
Cameron is travelling 11km (7 miles) down to the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, where he hopes to spend six hours exploring and filming.
A manned descent to the trench was last attempted in 1960, by US Navy Lt Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques...
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James Cameron gets ready to dive to the Mariana... →
Hollywood director James Cameron may be close to making a dive to the deepest place on Earth.
In a one-man submarine, he plans to dive 11km (seven miles) down beneath the waves to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific.
There has only ever been one manned dive there, and that was half a century ago.
Mr Cameron and his team have set sail to reach the trench and are now...
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Red tape is OK for Christians, it seems →
Brilliant article, but here’s the concluding summary if you don’t want to read it all:
The government is not seeking to deprive Christians, or anyone else, of a right they once had. Nadia Eweida, Shirley Chaplin and their supporters are attempting to create new workplace rights for Christians and, by extension, for the followers of other religions and beliefs too. Oddly, they are...
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Biden Next to Visit Latin America as US Struggles... →
legalizeheroin:
When Otto Perez Molina was elected president of Guatemala in January, he shocked the hemisphere by immediately abandoning the hard-line rhetoric of his campaign and instead calling for a discussion among Latin American heads of state over the prospect of legalization. After President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Mauricio Gunes of El Salvador publicly agreed with Perez...
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Paul Conroy: Homs comparable to Srebrenica →
The bombardment of Homs will be judged by history as a massacre comparable to Rwanda or Srebrenica, says a British photographer injured in the attacks.
Paul Conroy, 47, told BBC’s Newsnight he had witnessed “a systematic slaughter of the civilian population”.
In all his experience of war zones, he had never seen anything on this level, he said, and in 10 years, the world...
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Female bonobos 'advertise' homosexual bonds →
We humans need to step up our game. We must win back the title of “erotic ape”! Surely we can at least get “kinkiest ape”…
The species Pan paniscus are referred to as the “erotic” or “promiscuous apes” because they regularly engage in sexual contact with both their own and the opposite sex.
“[Sex] is used to reduce stress and...
February 2012
11 posts
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Some More Implications of Religious Liberty →
I’m a business owner and a Jehovah’s Witness, and I believe blood transfusions are against the will of God. Can I insist on my employees having a health insurance plan that doesn’t cover transfusions or bone marrow transplants, even in the case of leukemia or serious trauma?
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Germany urged to end sex offender castration →
In Germany no more than five sex offenders a year have been opting for castration, hoping it will lower their sex drives and reduce their jail term. […]
Research for the report revealed that of the 104 people operated on between 1970 and 1980, only 3% reoffended, compared with nearly half of those who refused castration or were denied it by the authorities.
I don’t have much...
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Airlines and tar sands proxy for bigger climate... →
It’s shaping up to be a crucial week in climate politics.
At the centre stands the EU, cast, in this guise, as climate champion - determined to take a small step towards charging airlines for the full environmental costs of flying, and to tax highly-polluting forms of fossil fuels.
Attacking the EU from every side is a large number of countries with serious clout.
[…]
If the EU...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa →
Arimaa is a two-player abstract strategy board game that can be played using the same equipment as chess. Arimaa was designed to be more difficult for artificial intelligences to play than chess. It has won several awards including GAMES magazine 2011 Best Abstract Strategy Game, Creative Child magazine 2010 Strategy Game of the Year, and the 2010 Parents’ Choice Approved Award.
Just...
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Paul Dacre: the most dangerous man in Britain? →
Paul Dacre is the Daily Mail’s low-profile editor. To some - including many in government - he is a malign force, using his paper to hound minorities and other vulnerable targets, and savage liberalism in any form. To others he is the most gifted journalist of his generation, a moral man with his finger on the pulse of Middle England. Andy Beckett went in search of the truth
A long but...
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The Inadequate Treatment of Pain: Collateral... →
Summary Points
The 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, implemented by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), is still the legal foundation for international control of both licit and illicit narcotic drugs, and involves a binding system of “annual estimates” (i.e., quotas) on the amount of controlled narcotics that countries can acquire.
In practice the Single...
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'Much to the amusement of those watching' →
A brilliant story about the Daily Fail. I hope it inspires further mischief.
January 2012
8 posts
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bibliophylax: An Express year →
Every 2011 Express headline sorted by topic. There’s also a round-up for The Daily Star. Please, please kill it with fire.
bibliophylax:
The Daily Express (on Sundays, the Sunday Express) is like the Daily Mail but cheaper. In the UK newspaper market it ranks either fifth or sixth by total sales…
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“Society’s wariness toward sex is highlighted by contrasting it with the greater...”
– Nadine Strossen (from ‘Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex and the Fight for Women’s Rights’)
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BBC: 100 years of the war on drugs →
The first international drug treaty was signed a century ago this week. So what was the war on drugs like in 1912?
A tale of self-perpetuation, media hysteria and xenophobia.
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Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age' →
At the moment we’re in a nice, warm, stable ‘interglacial’ - and have been for 10,000 years or so (the emergence and continued existence of civilisation in this period not being a coincidence). But when will we return to a colder ‘glacial’ period - referred to as an ‘Ice Age’ in this article (somewhat incorrectly, in my view)?
In the journal Nature...
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“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the eye of Mordor is being drawn...”
– Rick Santorum, 2006 (via ilyagerner)
Were it not for the idea that Iraqi civilians should be sacrificed to distract terrorists from US civilians, this analogy would have actually pushed him up in my estimation (not a difficult feat)!
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Wanna get fit in 2012? Here are some Fitocracy...
I have around 40 invites for Fitocracy. I do recommend it, and it’s getting better all the time.
Play Fitocracy to track your fitness activities, earn achievements, beat quests, and compete against your friends. It’s the most fun way to get fit! Join Fitocracy for free: http://ftcy.co/qWLmO9
Happy new year!
December 2011
19 posts
6 tags
Gin and Tonic recipe
H2O (l) + CO2 + C20H24N2O2 + H2O (s) + C2H6O + C10H16 + C6H8O7 = Delicious
Experiment with the stoichiometry to suit your own tastes. 1:1:1:1:1:1:1 is not recommended.
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“Why do people say, ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive....”
– Betty White (supposedly)
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Gary Johnson expected to run for president with... →
If, as expected, he runs as a Libertarian, he would have to win over the six current registered candidates for the party’s nomination.
But Mr Johnson continued to pay dues to the Libertarian party while serving as the Republican governor, and would be the highest profile of the current Libertarian candidates.
I wonder how Johnson’s presence - coupled with plenty of state...
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Is minimum pricing of alcohol legal?
Prime minister reportedly considering over-ruling cabinet colleagues who favour voluntary approach to tackling threat caused by excessive drinking
Whenever this topic is raised, people suggest “minimum pricing could breach European competition rules”.
The courts will eventually decide but are the following precedents from two other kinds of drug not relevant?
In 1995 the...
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Domestic labour: The servant problem →
Britain in the early 20th century and Brazil in the early 21st have in common an issue that infuriates the rich, empowers the poor and delights dramatists
Very interesting piece about the transition away from cheap domestic labour. With a guest appearance by Virginia Woolf.
