Posts by linger
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One feature that does make Goldacre more trustworthy is that he's generally quick to acknowledge where evidence countering his own position exists. Bad Science is in large part a series of case studies illustrating how pseudoscientists behave when their views are challenged; unsurprisingly, Goldacre actively tries not to be that person!
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more “first=right time” than any other permutation…
The process of initially entering a story on the site
can most aptly be termed “stuffing it up there”. -
Southerly: I Fell Down, in reply to ,
counting in sixtys on your hands during engineering day
Twos, surely (in binary, as advocated by Asimov -- allows you to count up to 1023).
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Polity: Labour and the Greens in a tree..., in reply to Sacha,
For the coalition -- though not for Labour alone, which means they probably won't do it -- it would make strategic sense for Labour to chase electorate votes while Greens chase party votes, thus creating overhang.
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Median wages are better than mean wages (as the median is less affected by extreme outliers at the high end), but still don’t allow a perfect comparison for changes over time, as the figures only include those who have a wage: increased unemployment tends to remove individuals from the bottom of the distribution, so increasing the apparent median for wages.
Median income from all sources (adjusted for cost of living) might be better.
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Access: The Universal Basic Income and…, in reply to Joe Wylie,
looking at a rental property involved the female party wearing a fake wedding ring
I now have this image of, back in the day, an entire assemblage of women wandering round an open home, wine glasses in hand –
“Yes, we’re all married to each other."
"How many bedrooms did you say this place has?"
"Open plan living, you say? What a coincidence..." -
Polity: Budget 2016: Fantasyplan, in reply to ,
One answer to the “why vote National Light?” question is, because otherwise we all get National Dark, and it can get extremely dark down at the bottom when they’re in. But that answer (like the question itself) assumes a FPP mindset. There are other alternatives, however much they may be diluted in government by the bland mess that Labour currently is. So if you don't like what National is doing, you don't have to vote Labour -- though you should vote for something.
(One thing that can be said about Labour – they won’t actively try to fuck people over as consistently as National does. But I’m not sure that’s a winning ad campaign for them.) -
Polity: Budget 2016: Fantasyplan, in reply to Alastair Thompson,
In the end these two things may roughly cancel each other out
A highly unlikely outcome if, guided by these forecasts, the government does precisely the wrong thing about both.
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Polity: Budget 2016: Growth for the…, in reply to andin,
GDP stands for "Gross Domestic Product", not "Global" anything. But yeah, it's not a good proxy for anything to do with individual wage earners.
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Speaker: I am a Really Useful Engine, in reply to Sacha,
Yes, “community service” awards should have more actual remuneration attached. Not least because, generally speaking, the individuals who deserve them also have a more accurate recognition of where the money should be spent, and more willingness to send it there.
(That being said, “community service” should be distinguished from “service to a political party or its supporters”.
Sometimes, I fear I am not cynical enough ...)