Links March 2014

Typing Animal wrote an interesting article about the dangers of stainless steel in a medical environment [1]. Apparently silver and copper are best due to the oligodynamic effect. Instead of stainless steel drinking bottles they should sell silver plated drinking bottles for kids, I’m sure that lots of parents would pay extra for that.

Mark Kendall gave an interesting TED talk about a replacement for the hypodermic syringe in vaccinations [2]. His invention can reduce the cost of immunisation while increasing the effectiveness and avoiding problems with people who have a needle phobia.

The TED blog has an interesting interview with Will Potter about the use of the “war on terror” to silence journalists and the invention of the term “eco terrorism” for non-violent people who are politically active [3].

The TED blog has an interesting article by Kate Torgovnick May about designing products for sustainability [4]. It links to an insightful TED talk by Leyla Acaroglu about some of the complex issues related to sustainability [5].

Manoush Zomorodi wrote an informative article about How one college went from 10% female computer-science majors to 40% [6].

Slate has an interesting article by Jamelle Bouie showing the way that support for capital punishment in the US is linked to racism [7].

The Southern California Public Radio blog has an interesting article by Josie Huang about Suey Park and her success in using twitter to oppose racism [8].

Andrew Solomon wrote an insightful interview with the father of Adam Lanza for the New Yorker [9].

Waleed Aly wrote an insightful article about George Brandis’ attempt to change the Racial Discrimination Act specifically to allow Andrew Bolt to be racist [10]. He describes it as “the whitest piece of proposed legislation I’ve encountered” which is significant in a country with as much racism as Australia. Really we need stronger laws against racism, there should be no right to be bigoted.

A German Court has ruled that “non commercial” licenses don’t permit non-commercial organisations to re-publish material [11]. This seems bogus to me, I’d be happy to have my non-commercial licensed work published by a non-commercial publishing organisation – just as long as they don’t run adverts on the page.

Professors Woolley and Malone wrote an interesting article about their research into group performance, apparently having more women in a group improves the collective intelligence of a group, but having smarter men in the group doesn’t [12].

Susie Hill wrote an article about the SPARX computer game that is designed to treat adolescent depression [13]. They are working on a “rainbow” edition for GLBT kids and a version for Maoris. Unfortunately their web site is down right now and the version at archive.org says that it’s currently only available to participants in a clinical trial.

Tim Chevalier wrote an insightful article explaining why people who campaign against equality shouldn’t be given senior positions in corporations [14].

Zeynep Tufekci wrote an insightful article about how French High Theory and Dr. Seuss can help explain gender problems in geek communities [15].

Hannah Levintova wrote an informative article for Mother Jones about how the US based hate group the World Congress of Families incites homophobic violence in Russia [16].

Josh Sanburn wrote an article for Time about people in the Deep South who claim to be Christian giving away guns to encourage people to attend church [17]. This is the same part of the world where people who claimed to be Christian used their “religion” as an excuse for supporting slavery. I’m quitting bourbon, too much evil comes from that part of the world and I’m not buying anything that comes from there.

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