Links - 24th October 2012

"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly." - Samuel Johnson

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Pearl Harbour - the Preparation - YouTube

Feminism vs Multiculturalism - "Okin's feminist critique of multiculturalism exemplifies a malady of modern liberalism, whereby the virtue of toleration hardens into a crusade for conformity to the liberal vision of human flourishing, and a laudable appreciation of human diversity ossifies into contempt for ways of life that do not celebrate diversity as an ideal... veiling enables Muslim women who would otherwise stay at home because of their religious convictions about female modesty to go out into the world, acquire an education, and participate in public life. Okin... cannot see the freedom veiling creates as anything more than a crumb tossed to the wretched... Though Okin may think she is putting herself in the position of another and arguing here for justice for the underdog, her "surely" gives the game away. For "surely" is scholarly shorthand for "No argument need be given for the assertion that follows, which is too obvious to question." Yet it is perfectly reasonable to wonder whether some women, on the whole, are empowered by modest dress. And it makes good sense to ask whether "greater freedom" should be the sole measure of empowerment and ought always to be preferred to greater piety... Okin peremptorily forecloses such inquiries... Such reckless thinking and lack of sympathy for beliefs different from one's own, however, are not necessary features of the liberal mind. Rather, they reflect a failure of the liberal imagination... the editors define multiculturalism as "the radical idea that people in other cultures, foreign and domestic, are human beings, too -- moral equals, entitled to equal respect and concern, not to be discounted or treated as a subordinate caste"... What is needed is a sensibility that respects persons by respecting both the claims of autonomy and the claims of duty and community; for the inevitable clash between these goods is not a reason for rejecting either but an occasion for more refined thinking... In the rush to judgment, the prosecutor's passion and prejudice get the better of her reason. The liberal tradition teaches that human reason is constantly vulnerable to disruption by passion and prejudice. Indeed, this is one of the key reasons that classical liberalism keeps the state out of the delicate business of caring for souls. Locke's wise restraint, it bears emphasizing, bars not only religious authorities from using government to save souls but also secular types from using the state to save souls from religion"

Rembrandt lost in post by gallery in Norway - "A Norwegian art gallery has admitted losing a Rembrandt etching worth up to £5,400 in the post, after trying to save money on a courier and insurance"

If You Believe Pinterest Is Killing Feminism, Then You Must Also Believe That Women Are Killing Feminism - "writer Amy Odell wrote an article titled “How Pinterest is Killing Feminism.” She made the argument that the site is “the Mormon housewife’s image bookmarking service of choice,” and a place for the predominantly female-driven audience to scrapbook their “dream lives,” complete with DIY mason jar candle holders, inspirational quotes, Victoria’s Secret models, diet recipes and tiny food. She argues that the internet was invented, so to speak, to create less shallow and more intelligent content for women, as seen on sites like Jezebel, The Hairpin, and Feministing (and The Jane Dough!)... isn’t Pinterest all user-generated content? If women are selecting and supporting the content that gets pinned and re-pinned, and if you subscribe to to Odell’s argument, then Pinterest isn’t killing feminism — women are... In order to buy into her thesis, you have to assume that all female Pinterest users are one dimensional and easily led, which doesn’t exactly seem like a powerful feminist argument to me"
Feminists are killing feminism
Addendum: Alternative headline - "is feminism misogynist?"

Medical students in Malaysian university brainwashed into quitting - ""These students were led to believe that patients should not receive medical treatment for their condition as sickness is the result of their karma," Mr Chong said. "They are convinced that they should not become doctors as the act of treating patients will interfere with karma.""

Love Joule, Japan's First Bar Devoted To Female Masturbation, Opens In Tokyo

Who Killed Lard? - "Procter & Gamble turned all that to its advantage. It launched an ad campaign that made people think about the horrible stories of adulterated lard. The ads touted how pure and wholesome Crisco was. The company packaged the product in white and claimed "the stomach welcomes Crisco.""

The suitcase that follows you around the airport

Funny Mama - ARMOR CLASS

The material culture of suicidal fantasies - "45.6% of the participants reported at least one suicidal fantasy, their ages ranged from 18 –41 (median age = 19). Women were more likely than men to have reported suicidal fantasies... These fantasies are very specific and detail tools and materials that would be used"

More Singapore men marrying foreign Asian brides - "According to solemnisers and counsellors, Singapore men are well regarded by women from less developed economies hoping to escape poverty back home. Singapore men are also perceived to make loving and faithful husbands, compared to men in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, said women and counsellors interviewed... Marriage experts think it might be easier for some parents to accept a foreign son-in-law or daughter-in-law – as long as they meet criteria such as income and character – than a Singaporean of a different race. They struggle to get past their own biases of the other races here, even if they have no such problems with foreigners."

Authorities: Oregon Farmer Eaten by His Hogs

'Gangnam Style' dance-off turns into shootout in Bangkok

3 famous Korean chains to launch in Singapore - "According to a spokesman for government agency Korea Agro-Trade Centre which promotes Korean cuisine, 80 per cent of the Korean restaurants here serve Korean barbecue. Korean beef is banned in Singapore, so generally the beef served here would be from Australia or the United States... While most of the Korean barbecue restaurants include pork on their menus, Seoul Garden is halal-certified and 40 per cent of its diner base are Malay customers."

IKEA Photoshops Women Out of Its Saudi Arabia Catalog - "Even photos of women in which you can barely see any womanly attributes or, hell, faces — a few blurry strands of red hair behind a newspaper, the back of a woman reading a book by a lake — were apparently deemed too risque by the publisher's standards... IKEA isn't the only company that's kowtowed to Saudi Arabia's strict, sexist desires; according to the AP, "when Starbucks opened its coffee shops in the conservative, Muslim kingdom, it removed the alluring, long-haired woman from its logo, keeping only her crown." Women rarely appear in Saudi advertising, unless they're wearing long dresses, sleeves, and scarves. Body parts including the arms, legs, and chest are often censored out of imported magazines. And it's not just Saudi Arabia. Advertisers in Israel don't put women on billboards for fear they'll be defaced"
"With the exception of the very first picture ... Jezebel is just reaching here. Seems to me all people were taken out of these pictures, but leave it to Jezebel to make an outlandish headline to get people to click on the article. Gawker media gonna gawker media."
The comments on Israel being misrepresented, women appearing in some of the ads ads, non-women being photoshopped out, different pictures being used for 'comparison', this not being worse than sex being used to sell products in the West etc are more enlightening than the original

PLOS ONE: Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey - "participants express their moral opinions, then moments later many of them are blind to the mismatched outcome and endorse the opposite view... If previously there was the trouble of stated attitudes often not translating into actions, now we have compounded this by showing that moral attitudes sometimes can be reversed moments after they are announced... What is needed in order to navigate between the twin horrors of Scylla (‘most attitudes are not real’) and Charybdis (‘most attitude scales are meaningless’)

Facebook's "like" may land Filipinos in jail

Caffeine Can Cause Hallucinations - "The researchers found that people with a caffeine intake that high, whether it came from coffee, tea, chocolate or caffeinated energy drinks or pills, had a three-times-higher tendency to hear voices and see things that were not there than those who consumed the equivalent of a half-cup of brewed coffee (or one cup of instant coffee). "

Response of brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) to human blood - "Ten specimens ofBoiga irregularis were presented with clean or bloody tampons. The latter were used by women during menses. Trial duration was 60 sec, intertrial interval was 24 hr, and the dependent variable was rate of tongue flicking (a measure of chemosensory investigation). Bloody tampons elicited significantly more tongue flicking than did control tampons. An additional snake is shown attacking and ingesting a soiled tampon, confirming that chemosensory interest was associated with predatory behavior."

Meeting a real-life Focker proves difficult - "Before the movie's highly successful Christmas weekend opening, Universal's publicity people came up with the idea of holding a "Focker Family Reunion" -- inviting anyone in the country who shared the "unfortunate" last name of the movie's central character to enter a sweepstakes... There are few, if any, real Fockers in America. To sidestep a public-relations fiasco, the movie company was forced to alter its original sweepstakes rules and allow entries from Canada, where the only significant concentration of Fockers in North America lives. Universal ended up inviting about 20 Fockers from British Columbia and a Cleveland family whose name was close -- Foecking."

Faithful wife in a shameful tale - "She admits that she is "a busybody" there for the entertainment, and says unabashedly that she finds it "even more exciting and dramatic than the Korean or Hong Kong TV serials". Undergraduate Kelly Tan, 24, pleads that we do not name her university... She says: "Thankfully, I managed to get in. Otherwise, I would have been so upset"... "Wah, it's really exciting. I'm glad that I decided to come. I nearly changed my mind when my sister said she couldn't make it."... "Reading the reports, I'm so amazed... I don't recall another case with such sizzling details."... She asks in Mandarin: "How come you don't have pictures of the wife smiling? "Not that she has any reason to smile lah, but I feel she looks too fierce in all the photos.""
If it is mostly men queuing to get in why did they only interview women?