Links - 29th July 2014

Like in Humans, Genes Drive Half of Chimp Intelligence, Study Finds - "Studies of humans have produced similar estimates to the primate study, suggesting that intelligence is approximately 50 percent heritable. But human development is heavily influenced by cultural factors, such as formal education systems, and so nature and nurture are difficult to tease apart, Hopkins said. Being one of the closest relatives of humans, he said, "chimps offer a simpler way to think about that question.""

The older you get, the fewer f**ks you have to give. - 9GAG

Ruth Marcus: Missing the point on binge drinking - "Oh please. This isn’t a gender studies class; it’s the real world."

User's data can be extracted from smartphones post factory reset - "The experts were able to extract 40,000 photos, out of which 1,500 of those were family photos and others included selfies with theirmanhood.Other data included emails, text messages, Google search history and even browser history. Avast also added that the factory reset feature does not wipe out the data from the phone. Rather, it only erases the index information. According to what was found, the data can be easily extracted even after using the factory reset option using forensic tools that can be easily purchased online. The only way you can ensure that these private and even embarrassing data are properly erased is by over-writing the phone with new data."

Plunge in teen pregnancies to record low in Singapore last year - "The number of teenage girls who gave birth plunged to a record low last year, and it is not because fewer youngsters are having sex. In fact, the opposite is true, said social workers. What has changed, they said, is that more sexually active teens are using contraception. Recent court cases involving men and youths being dealt with for having sex with underage girls also hit home, and taught boys to use condoms to avoid making their girlfriends pregnant and getting found out by parents."

What the World Rejected - "Even many people who consider themselves well-informed about Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich are ignorant of the German leader’s numerous efforts for peace in Europe, including serious proposals for armaments reductions, and limits on weapons deployment, which were spurned by the leaders of France, Britain and other powers. Hitler’s first major speech on foreign policy after taking office as Chancellor, delivered to the Reichstag on May 17, 1933, was a plea for peace, equal rights and mutual understanding among nations"
Germany's peaceful rise!

Answer to Why are Eastern European women so beautiful? - Quora - "Because they generally don't see femininity as a bad thing. One of the goals of feminism has been a trend to eliminate any distinctions between men and women (even though virtually every species has these distinctions) such that "looking feminine" is considered a bad thing, whereas I've heard this too many times in EE that "looking feminine" is instead something useful and very powerful. Genetically speaking there isn't a large difference between say Germans and Poles, but living in Germany it's the first time in my life that it happens every day that I see women that are visually indistinguishable from men, something which would never happen across the border. Perhaps some would describe this as progress, but most straight men don't find people looking like men to be beautiful at all."

Game of Thrones fifth series: more than 10,000 Spaniards apply to be extras - "It is one of the world's most popular TV series and it is planning to film its next series in one of Europe's most unemployed countries. So it is no surprise that the firm in charge of producing the fifth series of Game of Thrones has been overwhelmed with requests from people eager to appear in the international hit show."

How the “Disco Clam” Lights It Up Underwater

How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza - "The crime set off a chain of events in which Israel gradually lost control of the situation, finally ending up on the brink of a war that nobody wanted — not the army, not the government, not even the enemy, Hamas."

Examining the Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic Performance of High School Students: A Multi-Site Study - "Teens getting less than eight hours of sleep reported significantly higher depression symptoms, greater use of caffeine, and are at greater risk for making poor choices for substance use. Academic performance outcomes, including grades earned in core subject areas of math, English, science and social studies, plus performance on state and national achievement tests, attendance rates and reduced tardiness show significantly positive improvement with the later start times of 8:35 AM or later. Finally, the number of car crashes for teen drivers from 16 to 18 years of age was significantly reduced by 70% when a school shifted start times from 7:35 AM to 8:55 AM"

It reads: Feminist Double standards This is barbie. Throughout the - Comment #106 added by thehumor at - Player Select -

Firebomb and Rocks Hurled at Jews Trapped in Paris Synagogues - "On Friday night a firebomb went off at the entrance to the synagogue Aulnay-sous-Bois which is a northeastern suburb of Paris. On Saturday a crowd outside a synagogue in an eastern suburb of Paris chanted “death to the Jews” and “slaughter the Jews” in both Arabic and French, and protesters spit on the Jews. So far no one has been hurt. And so far, the call is for the Israelis to show restraint. And so far, the Jews do not fight back, but instead wait for rescue from someone else, or for their leaders to write angry letters. In Lyon, France, protesters waved Hamas flags and called for the murder of Zionists."

A Tweetbot Caught the Russian Gov't Editing Flight MH17 Wikipedia Info

Biologists discover electric bacteria that eat pure electrons rather than sugar, redefining the tenacity of life

I Went Gluten-Free for a Year and It Was a Complete Waste of Time - "Many gluten-free foods are heavily processed and full of extra sugar to get them to resemble the gluten versions, so if you try to avoid processed foods, you even have to study the labels carefully on gluten-free foods. I truly don't know why people see going gluten-free as a weight-loss diet; I actually gained weight when I first went gluten-free, before I realized it was because of all the processed crap. And why would you want to inconvenience yourself if you don't have to? But by far, the hardest part was how unhappy not eating things I liked made me. I take a lot of pleasure in food. Being half Italian and half Jewish, I have spent my entire life only knowing how to celebrate anything with food"

So How Do We Talk About This? - NYTimes.com - "PARENTS have learned to expect, and often dread, two sex talks with their children: the early lesson about the “birds and the bees” and the more delicate discussion of how to navigate a healthy sexual life as a young adult. But now they are wrestling with a third: the pornography talk."

Hamas Is Using Civilians as Human Shields but Its Latest Directive Is the Most Shocking - "The Hamas leadership in Gaza is ordering Palestinians to stay in their homes even if they are warned by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate before their neighborhood is bombed... The order in effect turns Gaza civilians into human shields and is apparently designed to deter Israel from striking civilian areas where rocket launchers and terrorist weapons depots are hidden, because Hamas is aware of the reluctance of the IDF and the Israeli public to see civilian casualties. This stands in stark contrast with Palestinian terrorist groups, which are firing indiscriminately into Israeli communities, including hitting a home in Beer Sheba on Thursday. For years, Hamas militants have been hiding weapons and launching sites among civilians, increasing the likelihood of Palestinian casualties from Israeli bombing of terrorist targets in Gaza... Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri encouraged Palestinians to go onto their rooftops to meet Israeli bombs targeting terrorist sites, telling Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV that the human shield tactic has “proved very successful” in the past:"

Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less

What is the strangest change in meaning that any word has undergone? - "A pedant was in the sixteenth century a schoolmaster, while the OED gives ‘strong and vigorous’ as one of the earliest meanings of nervous (as in full of nerves, or sinews). There are many other such examples. Promiscuous used to mean confused or undistinguished, while the first punk, in the sixteenth century, was a prostitute... Teenage slang is a highly productive generator of new meanings for old words. The motivation for such subversion is similar to that for any code: it excludes those people outside the circle and confers membership on those within it. Words of approval are often bad turned good, including the now familiar bad, wicked, savage, bitchin’, and, more recently, sick and shabby."

This blogger found Upworthy-style headlines very annoying. You’ll find his response utterly plausible - "Being actively inconsistent, making presumptions about an individual, trying to manipulate them; these are all ways to lower someone’s status in an interaction and raise your own. Upworthy-style headlines do all of these constantly, so it should come as no surprise that some people find them infuriating. This may also explain why people reacted so negatively to CNN using Upworthy-style headlines. If CNN is perceived as a legitimate, authoritative "high status" news source, then it copying the youth-orientated content website Upworthy would suggest that said site is actually higher-status again, which would challenge the worldview of many. As stated, people don’t like that happening."

Upworthy's Headlines Are Insufferable. Here's Why You Click Anyway - "The media has criticized the approach for being repetitive and manipulative. (Reuters blogger Felix Salmon, calling curiosity-gap headlines "annoying," compared them to German sentences in that "you don't know what they mean until you get to the end.")... "Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation labeledcuriosity," wrote Loewenstein in Psychological Bulletin. "The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce or eliminate the feeling of deprivation.""

Homa Khaleeli: Is fasting for Ramadan healthy? - "While there is no danger to healthy people who fast during Ramadan, many people still feel sluggish without regular food. Research has, not surprisingly, also linked the lack of food and water to increased irritability, changes in mood, and a lack of concentration. "You may feel headachy, light-headed and lethargic," says Denny. Psychiatrist Anna Rahman, 29, from Wanstead, London, fasts every year, but has never lost weight in Ramadan because of the pleasures of iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast... As well as getting less sleep from the early rises and late nights, eating at unusual hours can affect the way your body behaves. Professor Tom Reilly, of Liverpool John Moores University, has studied the effects of fasting in Ramadan on athletes. He discovered that their performance deteriorated as the month went on, despite training taking place after the evening meal. He says this is because of disturbed sleeping cycles, dehydration, and the new pattern of eating."

Most Mammals Take 21 Seconds to Pee - "An elephant's bladder can hold nearly 5 gallons (18 liters) of fluid, and yet, it can pee just as quickly as a cat. A new study reveals that most mammals larger than rats urinate for about the same amount of time: 21 seconds. That's because their urethras are appropriately scaled to be a "flow-enhancing device," the researchers said."

Acrebury, the one man soap is revived for its fans - "A radio soap opera produced and performed by one man who played all the characters, is being revived for one final time to mark its 40th anniversary."

The Battle of Bagan: Burma’s struggle for UNESCO World Heritage Sites - "In addition to construction, the military have built on top of old structures, or reconstructed them completely. Scholars, in particular Don Stadtner, have disputed the military’s interferences, deeming them to have damaged Bagan’s archeological integrity. Stadtner opposes Bagan’s classification for UNESCO World Heritage Site status"

WTF? Russia bans swearing in the arts - "From today, 1 July 2014, the words khuy (cock), pizda (cunt), yebat (to fuck) and blyad (whore) — a smutty quartet known as mat — will be banned from use in the arts in Russia. Violators of the law face fines of between $70 and $1,400 depending on whether they’re an individual, an official or an organisation... Together, the law on profanity and the bill on foreign words serve as a two-pronged attempt to cleanse the Russian language in order to ensure its “purity”, a moral crusade that dovetails with President Vladimir Putin’s ideological hopes to create a “national and spiritual identity” for Russia... With the ban on swearing, which includes books, film, music, theatre and popular blogs, Putin has the spiritual side of things covered. Films containing expletives won’t receive general distribution, and copies of DVDs, books or CDs will come sealed and labelled as obscene. Yet the law is so hazily worded that it is not known which cursewords are out and which are in — what counts as profane will be determined by an expert panel, making effing and blinding a risky business... The idea of language shaping opinion can be traced back to American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf, who, in the early 20th century, proposed that language preceded thought. According to this model, the grammar and vocabulary of a certain language determines its speakers’ cognition and behaviour. Although Whorf’s claims have been largely debunked — his theorising about Native Americans’ conception of time has been shown to be well wide of the mark — his ideas have experienced something of a renaissance in recent years, albeit without such dramatic claims. Unlike Whorf, contemporary researchers no longer think that if a concept is non-existent in a certain language then speakers will be unable to grasp it... “If they ban mat totally, what else is there left for us to do?” said Sergei Shnurov, frontman of rock band and swearing powerhouse Leningrad. “We’ll just have to fuck on the stage.”"

Putin signs law forcing bloggers to register with Russian media office

What I’m Telling My Son About Drunk Sex and Consent - "At one point, my friend held up her iPhone and, half in jest, clicked the video button. In order to protect her two boys, she said, she might advise them never to have sex with a girl before getting her consent on the record."

The Jellyfish That Holds a Key to Immortality - "Shin Kubota of Kyoto University’s Seto Marine Biological Laboratory has managed to keep a colony alive in captivity. He’s done it with complete dedication to the animal, changing their water and feeding them tiny shrimp by hand. He even writes karaoke songs about the jellyfish, which he performs wearing a jellyfish hat after he’s done with his research for the day."

The majors with the largest gender imbalances

Racism & xenophobia – statement by civil society groups disappointing | The Online Citizen - "So for me the statement against racism and xenophobia was disappointing and misguided. It made all the right noises about the political economy as a contributing factor but decided the evil to be excised was instead xenophobia. It should have been the other way around. Civil society would do itself a lot of good if it stopped paying lip service to ‘universal labour rights’. It’d be clear to the average unhappy Singaporean worker that civil society has been far from most of their lives."

The Erasure of Maya Angelou’s Sex Work History - "we read post after post, obituary after tribute, calling her a “pimp” and saying she had “an unsuccessful stint as a prostitute.” The most detailed accounts currently online are making sure to emphasize that she spent a “brief stint,” a “short time” in the sex industry, so as to, without explicit words, solidify the shame they believe she should have felt, the shame we should feel as well. The media uses inflammatory terms to get clicks and to emphasize the terrible and shameful secret that was, in actuality, never a secret at all. Dr. Angelou herself says she was never ashamed... she had no problem stating plainly: “There are many ways to prostitute one’s self.”"

How to survive a plane crash - "there are crashes and crashes. Some, patently, cannot be survived. Others, however – the vast majority, in fact – can be. A US government study found there were 568 plane crashes in the US between 1993 and 2000, involving a total of 53,487 passengers and crew. Of these, 51,207 – or over 90 per cent survived. Even on the 26 crashes deemed the worst, the study found that more than half the passengers and crew survived."

The role of nurses in physician-assisted dying - "Nurses in Belgium who administer life-ending drugs in euthanasia and in cases without explicit patient request often act outside of the law, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)."
Study: "128 nurses reported having cared for a patient who received euthanasia and 120 for a patient who received life-ending drugs without his or her explicit request... By administering the life-ending drugs in some of the cases of euthanasia, and in almost half of the cases without an explicit request from the patient, the nurses in our study operated beyond the legal margins of their profession."
Involuntary euthanasia - the slippery slope is in reality quite slippery

Sources And Methods: Reduce Bias In Analysis By Using A Second Language - "people more systematically assessed the problem and came to a more rational conclusion. At the root of this finding is the conclusion that “people rely more on systematic processes…when making decisions in a foreign language.”

Anti-masturbation cross a hoax

I Ditched My iPhone For A Samsung Galaxy S5 And Was Blown Away By What I Was Missing With Apple - "my iPhone was becoming a problem when I needed to work remotely. The calendar and email support on iPhone are far from perfect, and worst of all the keyboard is so tiny that it produces fat-finger errors every time. It’s like a toy phone for children with iddy-biddy fingers... Like most Apple people, I just assumed that Apple automatically gives its iPhone customers all the best things it possibly can. And I assumed that because a phone’s body was made of metal it must be “nicer” than a plastic one. This turns out not to be the case. There are several crucial areas where the Galaxy S5 makes my old iPhone 5 look feeble. Big things, like offering a decent screen and playing video properly. And lots of tiny things, too — I almost wept with joy at having a “back” button to help me navigate around."

Researchers: Children exposed to religion have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction - "In “Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds,” Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen, and Paul Harris demonstrate that children typically have a “sensitivity to the implausible or magical elements in a narrative,” and can determine whether the characters in the narrative are real or fictional by references to fantastical elements within the narrative, such as “invisible sails” or “a sword that protects you from danger every time.” However, children raised in households in which religious narratives are frequently encountered do not treat those narratives with the same skepticism. The authors believed that these children would “think of them as akin to fairy tales,” judging “the events described in them as implausible or magical and conclude that the protagonists in such narratives are only pretend.” And yet, “this prediction is likely to be wrong,” because “with appropriate testimony from adults” in religious households, children “will conceive of the protagonist in such narratives as a real person — even if the narrative includes impossible events.”"

Christians Responsible for Most 'Hateful Internet Speech,' Says Washington Post Religion Reporter - ""I can't tell you how many people wrote in to say that I was a whore and a slut and so much worse that I can't even write it here. And these all came from Christians," wrote Quinn. "I was going to hell. I had made a pact with the devil. Jesus and God hated me. One man wrote that he hoped I would get in a car accident, that the gas tank would explode and I would be burned alive. He was a God-fearing Christian, and he ascertained that I obviously was not one"... "I began to see that there is a big difference between being Christian and following the teachings of Jesus. In fact, sometimes those two things can be polar opposites. Our Christian haters clearly paid little attention to Jesus." Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists never targeted Quinn, she asserted, noting that the only other group that had targeted her in such a manner had been atheists, whom she characterized as "contemptuous, insulting and condescending.""
This is partially because there are so many more Christians