Links, Saturday 25th October

The commitment to economic austerity in Europe and (to a lesser extent) North America is truly dumbfounding. Governments racked up truly massive debts to end the Great Depression, and much of that was essentially wasted on armaments rather than productive infrastructure, education and so on. With bond yields as low as they are, rich countries could and should spend much more. Guardian

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The author of this piece strikes me as ever do slightly self-satisfied (like, why do to the effort of defending hipsters?), but it nevertheless strikes the nail on the head with this sentence.

"The douchebag is someone — overwhelmingly white, rich, heterosexual males — who insist upon, nay, demand their white male privilege in every possible set and setting." Medium

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"The reason typos get through isn’t because we’re stupid or careless, it’s because what we’re doing is actually very smart" Wired

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Good article about an experimental treatment for teenagers and young adults thought to be at risk for schizophrenia. The evidence for it is unclear, but I think it's good that it attacks the artificial distinction between "psychological" and "organic" causes of mental illness. All mental illness is exacerbated, to on degree or another, by stressful situations, and giving people the tools to deal with these situations is always valuable. NPR

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The struggle continues. Guardian

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We shouldn't celebrate anyone being sent to prison, but I'm *almost* prepared to make an exception in this case. Guardian

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Here's a suggestion: how about we allow the *enforcement* of laws but criminalise the *making* of laws. That will target the real villains. Guardian

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Yep.

"Academics dress badly because we are so fulfilled in our work." Guardian

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So many LOLs. Existential Comics

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Some good guidance about how not to use oppressive language relating to sex work (though it still talks about 'sex trafficking' as if that concept isn't problematic in its own right). See Laura Augustin on this)

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“Lena Dunham can take off her clothes on HBO and it’s considered empowering, but Beyoncé wears a provocative outfit, and it is not OK for her to do that. It is a total double standard.” PSMAG

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Part of the explanation for why women are so under-represented in computer science and technology...

"In the 1990s, researcher Jane Margolis interviewed hundreds of computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University, which had one of the top programs in the country. She found that families were much more likely to buy computers for boys than for girls — even when their girls were really interested in computers.

This was a big deal when those kids got to college. As personal computers became more common, computer science professors increasingly assumed that their students had grown up playing with computers at home." NPR

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[TW: violence, whorephobia]

It's good this guy is seeing some consequences. Times Live

However... Remember that this other guy *murdered* an *actual* sex worker and so far hasn't suffered any professional consequences whatsoever. So let's all think about how our society distinguishes "worthy" from "unworthy" victims. Daily Maverick

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"While the cat possesses the characteristics of a good hunter it is useful, “but as long as it does it remains incompletely domesticated.” Heretics, too, in a transferred sense, are not completely domesticated, since by challenging orthodox thought and roaming freely hither and thither in their interpretation of religious beliefs they resemble the bestiary definition of wildness. As symbolic animals,them, cats may be the heretical animal par excellence." Medievalists

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[TW: discussion of (fictional) child sexual abuse]

This exposes just how incoherent our thinking about paedophilia has become. This guy hasn't hurt anyone or encouraged harm to anyone. There's not even any evidence that looking at simulated images makes a person more likely to offend later. And so what if it did? Drinking alcohol makes people more likely to be violent, and that's legal. He is being convicted purely because we find his sexual desires distasteful. Can we please have a serious, scientifically informed discussion about how paedophilic impulses should be treated and managed? Gazette

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This is disheartening. The success of the Google car has been seriously overstated, and it looks like we are quite some way from a useful autonomous car. Slate

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"During his research for his doctorate he observed the [criminalisation of clients] being used to target migrant sex workers, and said that the law had been used as a way to deport migrants.

He also said: "Clients are reluctant to leave their contact details, so sex workers are inviting men into their apartments that are completely untraceable."" BBC

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"Academic systems more or less everywhere rely at least to some extent on the existence of a supply of “outsiders” ready to forgo wages and employment security in exchange for the prospect of uncertain security, prestige, freedom and reasonably high salaries that tenured positions entail."

This is pronounced in academia, but also in lots of other industries. Media and NGOs come to mind... LSE

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"Lebanon has welcomed 1,600,000 refugees [from Syria], swelling its population by 36%. While at last count the UK had only resettled 54." Syria Campaign

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"It’s a strange and incredibly demoralizing time to be a black person in American media. The words “racist and “racism” have cynically become clickbait, all while various newsrooms are claiming that they want to hire more writers and reporters and editors of color, but don’t." New Republic

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"Working recently with the London Borough of Southwark, it was interesting to hear how they saw road-warrior cyclists roaring through the area as a hindrance to their plans for developing a bicycle-friendly corner of the city." Guardian

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"Pornhub’s Lesbian category is the leading favorite among the ladies, with Gay (male) following close at second place. The Gay category only falls into 7th place for men" Pornhub

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"Moyna, 39, had lost most of her belongings when she fled her home after the July attack that local residents and human rights experts allege were perpetrated by the ruling party activists. "They had threatened to burn the entire brothel with our families inside," she said." Yahoo

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Probably quixotic, but more power to them.

"We call on UCT to put its principles of justice where its mouth is, and to pledge to take animal suffering off the menu at university functions. Nor should the perpetuation of animal misery and death be outsourced to other campus vendors." UCT Monday Paper