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Sitdown Sunday: 7 deadly reads

The very best of the week’s writing from around the web.

IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.

We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.

1. 50 Shades of Grey 

50 shades YouTube YouTube

One of the most anticipated – for better or worse – films due out this year is 50 Shades of Grey. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson divulges what the whole experience making it was like… and whether she butted heads with author EL James.

(Vanity Fair, approx 31 mins reading time, 6303 words)

James, however, had her own ideas not only for the script, which she guarded fiercely, but also for the dialogue, the costumes—and the sex. Fifty Shades, you see, is more than three novels now—it’s a lifestyle. The merchandising that James has done off the books is extensive, to say the least.

2. Are you addicted to technology?

shutterstock_229943992 Shutterstock / Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley Shutterstock / Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley / Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley

We have countless websites and apps at our behest, but are they in fact making us less efficient? That’s what Daniel J Levitin – a neuroscientist, no less – believes.

(The Guardian, approx 19 mins reading time, 3885 words)

Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and one of the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are “not wired to multitask well… When people think they’re multitasking, they’re actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there’s a cognitive cost in doing so.

3. A movie too far?

Games E3 Oculus File pic: Oculus Rift Jae C. Hong Jae C. Hong

A controversial new film at Sundance sees the viewer watch the film through virtual reality Oculus rift headsets. Called Party, it’s about a frat party where a young woman is raped. Two Buzzfeed writers watched the film – which is shown from both the male and female perspective – and gave their thoughts. (Trigger warning for rape)

(Buzzfeed, approx 13 mins reading time, 2679 words)

 One thing I noted in particular, and this is not a technical element but ends up being part of the identification, is how young the main pair of actors looked. She is so disoriented and drunk when you see her through Brian’s eyes, and it made me quite upset, which circles back to how intimate the feelings can be with this technology.

4. A tragic email from a stranger

shutterstock_158080031 Shutterstock / NicoElNino Shutterstock / NicoElNino / NicoElNino

Dennis Williams, an American expat in Japan, emailed a handful of writers a suicide note. What could they do? This article examines what happened next. (This story may be distressing for some readers, so we would advise caution.)

(Washington Post, approx 22 mins reading time, 4596 words)

“Oh, my God,” I said, sitting up sharply. The sudden motion stirred my husband. When I explained what I was reading, he didn’t even roll over, instead making a noise somewhere between sleepy disinterest and annoyance. It was a joke, he said, ignore it. My husband is a crime reporter, and we were both registering two of the possible reactions to such an e-mail: horror and skepticism.

5. What’s in a name? 

shutterstock_115334476 Shutterstock / Natasha Kramskaya Shutterstock / Natasha Kramskaya / Natasha Kramskaya

You might think that the easiest part of developing a new product is coming up with its name. Ha! You’d be wrong.

(New York Times, approx 26 mins reading time, 5338 words)

Most executives aren’t as imaginative as Jobs or Branson. And that’s where namers come in. Some work within larger branding agencies, like Landor or Interbrand. Others work within boutiques, like Catchword, A Hundred Monkeys (put 100 monkeys at 100 typewriters, and eventually they’ll write a Shakespearean tragedy, or a name), Namebase and Zinzin (French for “whatchama­callit”).

6. Welcome to Motown

DIANA ROSS AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

We all love what Motown Records did. Now here’s the story of the Detroit label’s chief engineer, Russ Terrana, and the music he helped to capture.

(Tape Op, approx 23 mins reading time, 4736 words)

Michael [Jackson] was a good kid; I really liked Michael. He would sit next to me in the control room and would ask, “What does this do? What does that do? Why does that happen?” He was very into the behind the scenes thing too. He was always fascinated by the equipment, how things were accomplished, and how you do it. He was very soft-spoken and very polite, until he got behind a microphone, and all of a sudden, bang — “Who is that guy?”

…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

It was Martin Luther King Day earlier this week, so here’s an interview with the civil rights activist in 1965. Interestingly, it’s in Playboy, and the author said that to get King to do the interview, he told him that the magazine’s readership was the very constituency “vital to [his] interests”.

[Alex-Haley.com, approx mins reading time, words)

Well, the most pervasive mistake I have made was in believing that because our cause was just, we could be sure that the white ministers of the South, once their Christian consciences were challenged, would rise to our aid. I felt that white ministers would take our cause to the white power structures. I ended up, of course, chastened and disillusioned.

More: The best reads from every previous Sitdown Sunday >

The Sports Pages – the best sports writing collected every week by TheScore.ie>

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    Mute One Human Being
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:43 PM

    Now if only he could reduce the administration staff and increase frontline staff then we might go towards fixing some of the issues within the Irish healthcare system.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:04 PM

    Everyone likes the sound of that but it’s often madness.

    Medical treatment requires admin so appointments get scheduled and the right leg gets chopped off.

    You get rid of the admin staff and the paperwork doesn’t go away. So instead of €30,000 a year clerical worker doing the paperwork you have a an experienced highly qualified senior pediatric nurse earning €70,000 doing the paperwork.

    Blanket calls to get rid of admin staff don’t make sense. Bloods still need to go to the labs, results collected, patient files put together and then filed. Who does that work if you get rid of admin staff.

    Health systems are complicated and it’s universal setup. For every soldier on the front line in the US military are there are 3 in logistics, communication, support, intelligence, command etc.

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    Mute Peter M Buchanan
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:16 PM

    Everything here of IT ???

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    Mute One Human Being
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:29 PM

    I understand the need for some administrative staff but during the amalgamation of the Hse lots of areas where merged thus creating multiple areas with staff doing the same job. While getting two letters to remind you of an appointment is good. The vast wastage is what’s is dragging the health board into overspending each year.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:30 PM

    Any particular % of admin staff you would like to sack? It’s normally a 50% figure people pick out of their ar$e when they raise this overly simplistic solution to a complex problem.
    Does anyone honestly think that chopping a bunch of admin heads is going to cure health? If you do, you’re a bit of a plonker.

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    Mute Marguerite Hoiby
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 5:05 PM

    what you state here that admin staff do can be achieved with proper IT systems in place.

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    Mute Triona Murphy
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 9:46 PM

    Couldn’t agree more.a careful look at all the grade 8s however…..??

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:44 PM

    This is the same tinkering around the edges that M Martin took credit for…certain illnesses have gone down….er…ok great…but we were expecting a big set of reforms lads and so in contrast to that your improvements look pretty small.
    Remember the UHI plan? Were the only developed country besides US that does not have universal healthcare. I think even if it was a public insurance option (where people could keep separate private insurance for private hospitals if they wanted) of 400-500 year and then EVERYTHING is covered people would still like that, hell I’d take even the messy inefficient universal private insurance plan over what we have now.
    We don’t even need to do insurance at all. The UK has a centrally funded system so does Canada, why can’t we just do that, phase that in, and leave people to buy private insurance for private hospitals separate if they so choose…everyone happy then.

    But before we do UI we need a minister with the balls to tackle the staff duplication and triplication that came when the HSE was created. The HSE was meant to REPLACE all the health boards but instead they MERGED them. The unions seem to object to even internal transfers. The second cafe in one hospital closed and they wanted to transfer the staff to a cafe at another hospital, but they refused and wanted to stay in the same hospital…so they put them in admin…people with catering experience…in admin…where two of them promptly delayed my cancer diagnoses by 4 weeks. We need to tackle this inefficiency and get UH in place, I wonder how much we’d save towards the extra 4b UH would cost if we got rid of all that surplus staff or even assigned them more efficiently?
    This is one thing that puts me off about politics there are never any bold or innovative ideas it’s all small scale thinking and tinkering.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:58 PM

    Why not leprechauns ?

    400-500 Euro insurance which covers everything? That doesn’t exist. Wish it did, it doesn’t.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:33 PM

    Ryan – they’ve looked at the Dutch model of uhi, a system the Dutch are getting rid of; so that’s not a good start.
    The figures for providing uhi, when we were all still talking about it, wouldn’t be far off 3 times the amount you propose in your post.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:56 PM

    HIQA is a pain in the hole but great. Most places have HIQA reports online. You can look at nursing home or disability centres and see how they do.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:50 PM

    He would be more believable if he had taken up the nurses offer to do a hospital shift with them. At least some might think he knows what he is talking about.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:58 PM

    He was a doctor though….

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    Mute significantrisk
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:00 PM

    Nonsense. A doctor doing a nursing shift is a liability. Leo served his time on the front lines – showboating and pretending to be a nurse, getting in the way, would only hinder any effort at improving care.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:31 PM

    It would mean he would experience the conditions the nurses deal with now not when he qualified. No one asked him to be a nurse just observe a bit of a difference .

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    Mute significantrisk
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:55 PM

    He’s well aware of the conditions our nursing colleagues work under.

    Play acting at being a nurse wouldn’t change that.

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    Mute Rory Naughton
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:06 PM

    I think it should be noted that he worked in medicine for a brief period of time(2 or 3 years?) and, as he mentioned, it was in a different era (pre 2007) in a very different environment. The healthcare system is far more stretched with staff morale far lower now than it was then.
    He also seems to be somewhat economical with the truth.
    For example: there is some dedicated ambulance transfer services but not the way he paints it. So there’s a neonatal service run by the 3 Dublin NICUs. Then there’s a single critical care ambulance which, unless things have changed in the past year, is run 9-5 Mon-Fri again from Dublin. Otherwise little has changed with the hospital losing a doctor/nurse for the duration of the transfer.

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    Mute Zoë Georgina
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:46 PM

    Not entirely sure where he’s getting his figures on long-term disabilities…

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    Mute Richard Armstrong
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 3:25 PM

    errr “in patient transfer teams” dont exist – i’ve had to do that

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    Mute edel ryan
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 4:33 PM

    The dogs on the street know the health “service” is a DISGRACE

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    Mute Andrew Halpin
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 11:50 PM

    Yeah he’s got top people formerly of the department of justice helping to run things the new way.

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