Links - 21st April 2014

Jeff Kay's answer to Should women be accepted into the U.S. Navy Seal teams? Would the training need to be modified to allow them on the teams? - Quora - "I am going to get hated for this, but, no, they shouldn't. Whether or not you disagree, unless you are a veteran or currently serving, you probably wouldn't quite understand my reasoning. Military manning is usually a very precise thing. Speaking from a Navy standpoint, each division is assigned so many positions, or billets, which need to be filled for efficient operation. But billets are assigned by time, also. If a 3 year billet is filled, then the billet won't normally be filled again for nearly 3 years. If a sailor is assigned to a billet for a 3 year tour, then leaves for some reason a year later, the billet may remain unfilled for up to 2 years. For males, there are very few reasons to leave a billet prior to the end date. For females, however, one glaring reason makes them more likely to leave before a billet is completed. Pregnancy."

Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh orders end of English as official language - ""We're going to speak our own language," he said, without specifying which of the poor West African country's indigenous tongues would replace English... Gambia stunned the Commonwealth, which mainly groups former British colonies, by withdrawing from the 54-nation bloc in October, branding it "an extension of colonialism""

One Man's "Terrible" Cosplay Makes the Internet a Better Place - "If we go by the typical standard metrics by which cosplay is judged, you might say this cosplay isn't very good. That it's bad. Or even terrible. But those standards don't matter. This is totally wonderful, incredibly creative, and utterly brilliant.P Meet Anucha "Cha" Saengchart. By day, he works as a caretaker for the elderly. In his free time, he runs Facebook page Lowcost Cosplay. Instead of tracking down special fabrics or other materials, the idea is that you cosplay by using whatever you have in the house—like eating utensils, plungers, towels, baking flour, etc."
Addendum: The best Low Cost Cosplay I've seen so far is Batman

Missing MH370: Police deny modifying pictures of impostors - "Assistant chief inspector-general of police secretariat Asst Comm Datin Asmawati Ahmad said the pictures were video grabs from CCTV footage in KL International Airport. “We did not modify the pictures. What actually happened was the two pictures were stapled together but the bottom portion of the second suspect’s photo was torn off. “When we photocopied the photo of the second suspect, it overlapped with the photo of the first one,” she said when contacted Wednesday. ACP Asmawati was responding to allegations on social media that police had doctored the photos of the two imposters as both suspects appeared to have the same pants and legs."

Malaysia failing credibility test - "Frustration over the fruitless search has increasingly been directed at Malaysian officials after a series of fumbling news conferences, incorrect details given by the national airline, and a long delay in divulging details of the military's tracking of what could have been the plane hundreds of miles off course. The missteps have ranged from conflicting information about the last time of contact with the jet to the sharing of photos of two passengers in which they had the same pair of legs. "The Malaysians deserve to be criticized - their handling of this has been atrocious," said Ernest Bower, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington... U.S. officials said Malaysia's failure to disclose the military's radar tracking data until days after the plane's disappearance meant important evidence may have disappeared. "The lack of communication about what is going on is catastrophic," said one Western regulatory source, asking not to be identified. "We are in the fourth dimension here"... Ministries often meet requests for information or interviews with silence. "There was a lot of confusion on the first and second days of this incident," a senior Malaysian defence official with knowledge of the operations told Reuters... As details emerged that some passengers had boarded the flight using stolen passports, Malaysia's home minister was quoted by state news agency Bernama as saying that two men travelling on Italian and Austrian documents had "Asian faces". That was denied by Hishammuddin, and the muddle deepened when Malaysia's aviation chief attempted a confusing analogy with the black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli... Perhaps the greatest confusion was generated by the Malaysian military's revelation on Sunday that the plane may have turned back from its scheduled path off Malaysia's east coast before disappearing. Officials did not give more details on the suspected "turnback" until Wednesday, leaving a gap that was filled by speculation the government was hiding something and doubts over whether the search was being conducted in the right place... Malaysia's apparent mishandling of the situation could have long-term strategic consequences in a region where China's economic and military might is growing rapidly. "They have no maritime domain awareness and it doesn't look like they have a strong command and control structure and they're not well coordinated with friends. Sadly, that's what the MH370 situation demonstrates," he said of Malaysia. "It's not good and it fits in with the narrative I believe is forming in Beijing that China should and needs to take control.""

Steven Dillard's answer to Sex: Is it okay to have sex while your cat is in the room? - Quora - "Her bed had a very broad headboard, and when we retired to the bed, the cats arranged themselves above her on the head board, and they stared at me the whole time we were doing it. Except that when she she had an orgasm, the cats opened their mouths and screamed along with her. Both of them. That was too creepy for me, and I had the impression the cats were quite used to doing this, thought obviously not when I was there."

Is it a date? Or hanging out? Survey reflects confusion - "Svendsen, a marketing manager who lives in New Lenox, Ill., is among today's singles trying to navigate dating with fewer rules. Courtship has become casual, with texts, hookups and hangouts. For Millennials in particular, who view a "date" as too much of a commitment — both in time and emotional connection — the vagaries of dating can be especially confounding. New data, provided exclusively to USA TODAY, bear out just how muddy the landscape can be. An online survey of 2,647 singles, ages 18-59, illustrates that level of ambiguity: 69% are at least somewhat confused about whether an outing with someone they're interested in is a date or not. Although 80% agree that a date is "a planned one-on-one hangout," almost one-quarter (24%) also think it is "a planned evening with a group of friends," and 22% agree that "if they ask me out, it's a date." The survey, conducted in September, was commissioned by dating websitesChristianMingle.com and JDate.com."

Topless Photos of Lebanese Olympic Skier Cause a Scandal Back Home - "Faisal Karami, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of youth and sports, was less enthusiastic. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, he ordered the country’s Olympic committee to launch an inquiry and take all steps necessary to avoid “harming Lebanon’s reputation.” That statement elicited an even greater scandal, as Lebanese across the spectrum ridiculed the minister for his shortsighted take on what really ails Lebanon. In an editorial titled “What Reputation?” the English language Daily Star newspaper lashed out at Karami and Chamoun’s critics. “Since the beginning of 2014, there have been no fewer than six car bombs,” the editorial said. “There is a general lack of law and order, not to mention the lack of a working government. Is there a better definition of a failed state than ours? This woman, who should be a source of pride to the country, … is being blamed for something she chose to do with her free will, while the everyday concerns of citizens are being wholly and fundamentally neglected.” Lebanon’s online news portal, NOW, was more blunt, placing Chamoun’s pinup alongside an image of a heavily armed man in camouflage under the headline “Boobs over Bullets.”"

Why Men Find It So Hard to Understand What Women Want - "What captured my and my friend's attention most in Dr. Shpancer’s post was the importance to a woman of being desired in a very primal way, a point with which my friend—a woman—strongly identified. She told me that one of the best things about her current relationship was how strongly desired her boyfriend made her feel—both physically and intellectually—at the same time that she felt respected and cared for. She said it was important for her to be desired physically, but not justphysically: desired for everything she is, inside and out. My response was that it is difficult for men, especially those of us who appreciate and embrace the importance of being respectful and considerate toward women, to balance those attitudes with the animalistic, nonrational expressions of passion and desire that women want from us. Most men want to express those feelings as well—and some men, unfortunately, do so in ways that are hurtful and wrong. But I think it’s natural that men who respect and appreciate women are confused about when it’s acceptable to express those desires in a more primal, animalistic way. It's difficult for a guy to know when it’s OK to express desire and passion, and if he waits until a woman explicitly allows it, that defeats the purpose of spontaneous expressions of desire; as Dr. Shpancer puts it, quoting Dr. Marta Meana, a woman wants to feel “overwhelmingly desired, not rationally considered.” The problem for the considerate man, however, is how to express “overwhelming” desire within the constraints he holds himself to and he feels a woman is entitled to; in other words, he doesn't know how to be both the beast and the gentleman she wants and deserves."
The problems with 'enthusiastic consent' continue...

A new report says political conservatives have a much better sex life than Democrats - "Republicans have the highest rate of orgasm of any group in the report. Especially conservative Republicans. No wonder those tea partiers always look so happy. In fact, a majority of self-identified conservatives reported that during sex they reach orgasm just about every single time. That's way higher than the Democrat's national job approval. Such a high conservative orgasm rate compares with only 40% reported success for liberal Democrats who, being liberal, talk openly forever about subjects like sex to affirm their liberality."
This supports the suggestion that feminism is bad for your sex life

Liberal Women Wish for More Sex. Why? - "16% of “very conservative” women say they’d prefer more, compared with 29% of conservative women, 31% of moderates, 47% of liberals, and 50% of “very liberal” women... remarkably, it isn’t much affected by how much sex they’ve actually had recently. That is, while greater recent frequency of sex predicts less desire for more sex, it does nothing to diminish the link between political liberalism and wanting more sex. And women of all political stripes report statistically-comparable frequency of sex. In regression models, the measure of political liberalism remains significantly associated with the odds of wanting more sex even after controlling for the frequency of actual intercourse over the past two weeks, their age, marital status, education level, whether they’ve masturbated recently, their anxiety level, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, depressive symptoms, and porn use. Many of these are significant predictors of wanting more sex. And still the political thing matters... I floated this to a female friend, an economist... More liberal women therefore want to have more sex because they feel the lack of sufficient transcendence in life. If sex is one of the few pathways to it, then it’s sensible to desire more of it. Basically, liberal women substitute sex for religion... So I added religious service attendance to the regression model described earlier, predicting wanting more sex, and—wouldn’t you know it—political liberalism finally went silent as a predictor. Barely."
This is consistent with the suggestion that feminism is bad for your sex life

Has equality destroyed your sex life? A controversial book claims feminism and the rise of ¿new men¿ have killed off women's libidos... - "Using the internet, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam analysed half a billion sexual fantasies, preferences and practices, then correlated their findings with animal behaviour studies and the latest findings in neuroscience, to come to the very non-PC conclusion that when it comes to sex, women are wired to find sexual submission arousing. And that gender equality, far from liberating women sexually, actually inhibits desire."