Links - 9th January 2014

"It seems like the only two times they pronounce you anything in life is when they pronounce you 'man and wife' or 'dead on arrival'." - Dennis Miller

***

Swedish parenting has created nation of brats - "Sweden's liberal approach to parenting has bred a nation of ill-mannered brats, a leading expert has warned in a new book which calls on parents to seize back control of their families... [He] warns in his new book, How Children Took Power, that Swedish parents are now unwilling to discipline their children in any way. Swedes in 1979 became the first to adopt a total smacking ban. "We live in a culture where so-called experts say that children are 'competent' and the conclusion is that children should decide what to eat, what to wear, and when to go to bed," he said. He points to Sweden's growing truancy rates, a rise in anxiety disorders, and the country's declining performance in international educational league tables, as the tangible results of its liberal parenting approach. To cure the problem, he advocates a return to "authoritarian" parenting. "There's no scientific evidence whatsoever that an authoritarian upbringing is harmful to kids," he said. "You can take command in the family. The family is not a democracy." Mr Eberhard is leading a backlash against the influential Danish child psychologist Jesper Juul, whose 1995 book, Your Competent Child, called for the overthrow of the traditional hierarchical family, with its 'destructive values' of obedience and conformity. As a result, Swedish parents now even decide where to go on holiday based on the preferences of their children, he argues.. young Swedes have become "really ill-mannered"... "They don't say thank you. They don't open doors. If you see them on the subway, they don't stand up for elderly people or pregnant women." Stricter parenting is a taboo in Sweden, let alone advocating a return to smacking, a ban on which he believes has "more to do with ideology than scientific evidence". "It's very difficult to contradict. If you say I'm putting forward a stricter way, then people think you're an idiot.""
I see links to their feminism

China’s Schools Teaches Kids to Take Tests, Obey the State, and Not Much More - "In China, memorization and (consequently) the ability to perform on tests are the keys to academic success, rather than the ability to think or question... the teachers in Chinese schools would divide the story into a few major parts, boiling down the story of each into a “thesis” that students could memorize for a test. One thesis might be that capitalistic society is superficial and divided by class—after all, Cinderella had to exchange her maid’s rags for a ball gown in order to receive love. The teacher would discourage any alternative explanations, since they wouldn’t be on the test. A timeless fairytale of true love and magical transformation would be reduced to a boring exercise in memorization and obedience... Education remains first and foremost a device for drilling party ideology into impressionable minds. Material used in textbooks exemplifies and glorifies the party, showcasing how it takes care of its people, the way a parent does for a child, and how society should therefore be appreciative and obedient, ready to put self-interest aside when the party asks... certain lessons regarding loyalty to the party are continually enforced, especially among liberal, imaginative college kids—the very kind of kids who led the Tiananmen protests... What Americans make, the innovative Chinese make cheaper and often times with richer functionality... innovations shouldn’t be confused with inventions. Inventions are original ideas, whereas innovations are ways of better commercializing those ideas to encourage people to buy products. Most of China’s innovations have little proprietary technology and merely ride free on American research and development... One group of students gave a well-balanced and coherent presentation. The members of the other team took turns upstaging one another for personal glory and ended up with contradictory conclusions... Chinese students—from China, that is—are taught only how to work for their own good, not how to cooperate to ensure the group’s success. Sports provide another example. China is rightly proud of having won 51 gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the most of any country. However, its only teams to win gold were in gymnastics and fencing, both intensely solo sports. American expat friends who play pick-up basketball and ultimate Frisbee in China have similarly commented that they have trouble with the go-for-glory playing habits of Chinese teammates... a suspicious, zero-sum ethos pervades most Chinese work environments, limiting collaboration."

Vagina 'Murder Plot': Brazilian Man Accuses Wife Of Poisoning Her Private Parts To Kill Him - "A Brazilian man has accused his wife of trying to kill him by putting poison in her vagina and inviting him to have oral sex with her. The man - identified only as a 43-year-old from Sao Jose do Rio Preto - realised something was afoot when he noticed a strange odour coming from his wife's private parts"

Woman dressed as vagina stops fight between penis and man - "THE residents of Glastonbury are a hardy bunch, used to sharing their High Street with fairies, zombies, Goddesses and religious pilgrimage, barely batting an eyelid at some of the more colourful characters appearing in the town. But on Friday afternoon a scuffle between a man and a man dressed in a penis costume, while a woman dressed as a vagina tried to calm the situation down was enough to raise a few eyebrows... police were called after one man took offence to their costumes and took his frustration out on one of the actors. Chris Murray, who was wearing the costume said: "He started shouting at me, saying it was disgusting and children could see us... Joanne Tremarco, who was dressed in costume as female genitalia, told a police officer they did not want to press charges against the man. "Then he explained that I needed to take the costume off, or I could be arrested," she said. "They also removed flyers for the plays we were performing - Women who *ank and The Penis Monologues"... The group agreed not to do any more street performances, after the officer explained they could be arrested for public order offences... Inspector Mark Nicholson said: "We wouldn't have stopped the play going ahead, but it's not appropriate to have costumes and swear words like that in the streets where young children and other people could see them and be offended.""

Is feminist intersectionality just an excuse for bullying? - "Lately, a growing credo within the community is "My feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit." But the growing demand for inclusion and awareness of all the other marginalized groups in any given conversation has caused a backlash among some white feminists, who feel that intersectionality can often devolve into a semantic argument about who is more oppressed that can ultimately detract from the conversation... Perhaps all of this would be little more than Internet drama; but several things make Lewis's position untenable to many of her detractors—primarily that while Ambreen is a WOC (a woman of color), while Lewis is white, straight, and cisgendered, the top of the feminist food chain in terms of intersectionality... 'last week I was accused of fiat privilege (I eventually worked out that this referred to having lots of cash on hand, rather than something to do with having a small Italian car)'"

Pornography Actresses: Testing the Damaged Goods Hypothesis – Greg Laden's Blog - "There is a pretty clear association between negative attitudes towards pornography and negative assessments of the quality of life for actresses in the pornography genre. Studies have shown that those who regarded pornography as harmful to society also believed that those acting in the films must not like their work. Studies have also shown that people tend to believe that porn stars have sexual and physical abuse in their backgrounds at a higher rate than the general population. Conversely, people who have more positive attitudes towards pornography also seem to have a more positive attitude about porn actresses. As a whole, the research that involved asking people what they thought about pornography and those who participated on the stage in making it painted a picture that has become known as the “Damaged Goods Hypothesis.”
The damaged goods hypothesis posits that female performers in the adult entertainment industry have higher rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), psychological problems, and drug use compared to the typical woman...
Porn actresses were more likely to identify as bisexual, first had sex at an earlier age, had more sexual partners, were more concerned about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and enjoyed sex more than the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of CSA. … porn actresses had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction, and spirituality compared to the matched group. … female performers were more likely to have ever used 10 different types of drugs compared to the comparison group."
Addendum: In other words, pornographic actresses/porn stars have better/higher self esteem than normal women

Chubby Checker lawsuit: Does shoe size correlate with penis size? - "A 1993 study observed a relationship between shoe size and penis length, albeit a weak one. A couple of other studies documented correlations between penis length and other body measurements. Turkish researchers in 2011 found that height, weight, and body mass index values all correlated with penis size. The same year that the English study claimed to bust the shoe-size myth, Greek urologists observed a relationship between penis length and the length of one’s index finger. If the size of other body parts correlates with penis length, it would be surprising if shoe size did not. (Tall people with big hands, after all, are likely to have big feet.)"

Sunderland's James McClean receives death threat over poppy protest - "Northumbria police are investigating a death threat directed at the Sunderland winger James McClean on Twitter from a man who claims to be a former British soldier. The message was posted last week by Cody Lachey, now a doorman in Manchester, after McClean chose not to wear a club shirt embroidered with a poppy in last week's defeat at Everton. Lachey, 29, posted images of 5.6mm bullets alongside the message: "Poppy bullies' death threats against James McClean! Too right he deserves to be shot dead + body dragged past the cenotaph!!" McClean, who had been given the choice whether or not to wear the shirt, was booed by pockets of the crowd at Craven Cottage"

Elephant Robot: Marvel® Meets Myers-Briggs®

What words have the same kanji in China and Japan but different meanings? - "有難う - arigatō - thank you
you3 nan4 - catastrophic, disastrous, calamitous"

The Modesty of Man - "“Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both”, reads Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code... The Supreme Court of India has, on various occasions, elaborated on what modesty of a woman means. According to the apex court,
Modesty is a virtue which is inherent to a female owing to her sex;
Modesty is an attribute associated with female human beings as a class;
A woman, young or old, intelligent or imbecile, awake or sleeping, possesses modesty, which is capable of being outraged;
Modesty of a woman is outraged when the act of the offender is such that it is shocking and can be perceived as an affront to feminine decency and dignity. Example: slapping a woman on her butt, disrobing her, asking her for sexual favour etc.;
Mere knowledge that the modesty of a woman is likely to be outraged is sufficient to constitute the offence without any deliberate intention of outraging her modesty.
Section 354 will apply to all sexual acts committed or intended against a woman that stop short of penetration. (Note: The latest Criminal Laws Amendment Bill 2010 proposes to include ALL sexual acts as rape);
Lack of protest by a woman cannot be an alibi for the “offender” who has “outraged her modesty”.
Women’s organizations are also constantly up in arms about beauty pageants, movies and commercials indulging in “objectification” and “commodification” of women and outraging the modesty of women as a class. These gender zealots are of the firm conviction that female models and actresses are rather forced to trade their bodies and prance around half-naked purely to satisfy the perverse desires of men... What I wish to point out here is the popular, egregious notion that men have no modesty to outrage, and the reinforcement of this view by our legislature, executive and the judiciary. A more recent, very alarming trend spreading in India is the full blown attack on maleness and male sexuality in the print and electronic media, a phenomenon I found quite common in the United States. Today, men and boys are routinely portrayed as idiotic, pathetic, uncouth and inferior creatures who are constantly in need of rescue by their “superior” wives, girlfriends or female relatives who are all set to overhaul them."

Sex differences in early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood on cognitive tasks that rely on orbital prefrontal cortex. - "Through the use of several tests of cognition we have documented sex differences in young children, adolescents, and adults on tasks that rely on the integrity of the orbital prefrontal cortex. In children under three years of age, males performed with significantly fewer errors than did females on tests of object reversals. No significant sex differences were found in older children, despite the use of a more challenging object reversal task. Sex differences were also found in adolescents and adults on the Iowa Gambling Task. On this decision-making task, in contrast to males, females appear to be responding to different elements of the task. Discussion of the implications for these findings is presented."