Links - 15th May 2015

Atheist Ireland publicly dissociates itself from the harmful and hateful rhetoric of PZ Myers - "He said Richard Dawkins ‘seems to have developed a callous indifference to the sexual abuse of children’ and ‘has been eaten by brain parasites’, Michael Nugent is ‘the Irish wanker’ and a ‘demented fuckwit’, Ann Marie Waters is a ‘nutter’, Russell Blackford is a ‘lying fuckhead’, Bill Maher’s date at an event was ‘candy to decorate [her sugar daddy’s] arm in public’, Ben Radford is a ‘revolting narcissistic scumbag’ and his lawyer is ‘J Noble Dogshit’, Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor and Bill Maher are ‘assholes’, and Abbie Smith and her ‘coterie of slimy acolytes’ are ‘virtual non-entities’. He called Irish blogger ZenBuffy a ‘narcissistic wanker,’ after she said she has experienced mental illness. He described Robin Williams’ suicide as ‘the death of a wealthy white man dragging us away from news about brown people’, said that a white lady who made racist comments ‘looks like the kind of person who would have laughed at nanu-nanu’, then added: ‘I’m mainly feeling that I should have been more rude, because asking me to have been nicer about the dead famous guy is completely missing the point’. He said of other dead people that Charles Darwin was a ‘sexist asshat’, Richard Feynman was a ‘reprehensible asshole’, and Christopher Hitchens was a ‘bloodthirsty barbarian’ and a ‘club-carrying primitive’."
Comment: "The reality is a lot of American atheists simply went mad after spending years in the trenches with creationists and culture warriors etc. They became dogmatic culture warriors themselves. I remember it getting bad around 2008-2010 in the science blogosphere. It’s showing a lot more now as the US conservatives have all but ceded the public sphere... without a clear enemy in sight, they’ve begun to attack their own (left-wing) non-combatants. “Heresy” is everywhere, because if it isn’t, there’s no-one left to fight. (Personally, I see this as an almost exclusively US-driven issue)"
"Your work here, Atheist Ireland, is critically important. We need to stand up against all forms of libel, slander, bigotry–even if it’s against our opponents. That’s what struck me most powerfully in this article, when you expressed contempt for PZ vilifying D’souza and the rest is proof positive that you’re not biased against the man you’re condemning, rather, it’s legit."
"Any deviation from the hivemind dogma is simply shouted down by Stalinist bullies in the forums who react with shrieking indignation to anybody who so much as suggests there might be an plausible alternative viewpoint. Many of PZ’s fanboys & fangirls on these forums appear to be of limited intelligence and unable to even spot when people are obviously joking. There seems to be instead a positive feedback loop where people incite each other to increasingly ludicrous levels of fury and irrationality in their responses."

All-women's college cancels 'Vagina Monologues' because it's not feminist enough - "Mount Holyoke College, an all-women’s college in Massachusetts, is retiring its annual production of the Vagina Monologues this year because the play is not inclusive of transgender students... “I love how people who have never been able to discuss or embrace their vaj-wahs aren't going to find an avenue here, either, since female-validating talk about vaginas is now forbidden. That's so misogynistic under the guise of ‘progress’”... The college recently expanded its definition of a woman when it announced it will be accepting men who identify as women in the upcoming 2015 admissions cycle"

S’pore Zoo polar bear a victim of unfair, stereotypical body shaming | New Nation - "Inuka, speaking through a bear translator, said he is sad that Singaporeans are so superficial: “Why must people take photos of me and put it on Facebook and say things like ‘Ewww’ and ‘He’s so ugly’?”"

How Women Change Men - "Having a sister, however, has the opposite effect, making men more supportive of traditional gender roles, more conservative politically, and less likely to perform housework"

Sexist Games=Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes. - PubMed - NCBI - "From the oversexualized characters in fighting games, such as Dead or Alive or Ninja Gaiden, to the overuse of the damsel in distress trope in popular titles, such as the Super Mario series, the under- and misrepresentation of females in video games has been well documented in several content analyses. Cultivation theory suggests that long-term exposure to media content can affect perceptions of social realities in a way that they become more similar to the representations in the media and, in turn, impact one's beliefs and attitudes. Previous studies on video games and cultivation have often been cross-sectional or experimental, and the limited longitudinal work in this area has only considered time intervals of up to 1 month. Additionally, previous work in this area has focused on the effects of violent content and relied on self-selected or convenience samples composed mostly of adolescents or college students. Enlisting a 3 year longitudinal design, the present study assessed the relationship between video game use and sexist attitudes, using data from a representative sample of German players aged 14 and older (N=824). Controlling for age and education, it was found that sexist attitudes-measured with a brief scale assessing beliefs about gender roles in society-were not related to the amount of daily video game use or preference for specific genres for both female and male players. Implications for research on sexism in video games and cultivation effects of video games in general are discussed."
Another blow to the monkey see monkey do theory of human behavior

S’poreans applaud Navy military girl for being a real social media influencer while having a day job | New Nation

Private condominium in S’pore looks like it might collapse, balcony warps, hangs precariously | New Nation

How Much Tea Is 'Too Much'? This Man Found Out - "In May 2014, a 56-year-old man arrived in the emergency department at the veterans' hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas. He reported intense but vague symptoms: weakness, fatigue, and body aches. The emergency-room team drew some of his blood and found it bursting with a waste chemical called creatinine—more than four times the normal level. That meant he was experiencing severe kidney failure. Doctors started urgent dialysis, cycling the blood out of the man's body, through a machine that cleaned it in lieu of functional kidneys... "on further questioning, the patient admitted to drinking 16 eight-ounce glasses of iced tea daily.""

Japanese netizens rewrite fairy tales in modern corporate situations so real they make us weep

'Ramen Will Make Your Boyfriend Go Bald', Claims Article

Woman Gets Naked In Restaurant, Man Films Her, Pair Arrested

Elementary Students Taken Ill After Googling 'ISIS' In Class

Anti-Groping Police Officer Arrested For Touching Girl's Ass

Candiru – A “Don't Pee in the Water” Horror Story Debunked - "Two hundred years after the first terrifying report of the candiru appeared, we still have no solid proof that it deserves its reputation. There is one case reported by urologist Anoar Samad of Manaus Adventist Hospital in Brazil; however, the case is not documented well enough to constitute proof."

The US And China Are Locked In A Popularity Contest - "The US and China are no stranger to competition. The two countries are the first and second largest economies in the world and the first and third largest militaries. Globally, however, people — excluding the Middle East — report a more positive view of the US, the Pew Research Center reported in late 2014... Despite neck-in-neck numbers in some areas, in 2013, a median of 63% expressed a favorable opinion of the US, compared with 50% for China."

China's Island Factory - "At the beginning of this year, the Chinese presence in the Spratly Islands consisted of a handful of outposts, a collection of concrete blockhouses perched atop coral atolls. Now it is building substantial new islands on five different reefs... On one of these new islands, perhaps Johnson South Reef, China seems to be preparing to build an air base with a concrete runway long enough for fighter jets to take off and land"

How does sex affect teens' grades? New research shows mixed results - "Teenagers involved in committed, sexually-active relationships had grade-point averages that were comparable to those of teens who abstained and had similar expectations for school and college. When comparing these two groups, researchers also found that they were similar in problems at school and suspensions as well as absences."

The Straight Dope: What did the Catholic church use for altar wine during Prohibition? - "alcoholic beverages for medicinal and sacramental use were exempt under the Volstead Act, which allowed many people to avoid the spirit of the law. There were, of course, legitimate, medicinal purposes for whiskey. But doctors reportedly earned an estimated $40 million in 1928 by writing prescriptions for whiskey during Prohibition"

TRS kena - "It also very handily listed the “seditous’’ comments that it has been accused of broadcasting. For example, on the anti-PRC women rant:
“I would like to voice out my unhappiness with the over-populated China Chinese people in Singapore now!”
– “these Chinese women just apply permit/visitor pass using all kind of job excuse”
– “Do you know by simply granting another work permit to these Chinese women means you are destroying many Singapore homes out there!”
– “These Chinese women sleep around with our men … and doesn’t care whether the men are married or with kids.”
– “they only hopefully the men can divorce & married them and after that apply for S’porean citizenship and dump the guy! ”
– “We are flooded with enough Chinese all around us now! and enough is enough!”
I find it troubling. Because I think there are plenty of people who share some of these sentiments and would rant in similar fashion. Unless the case is that TRS has a deliberate agenda given the long list of other charges? Would it not be more suitable to use the Broadcasting Act or some other law to prevent such diatribes – or even to issue a take-down order under the Harassment Act? Until the case of the Filipino nurse with his anti-Singapore rant, the Act has been used against those who spout statements against a particular race or religion. And now…? Hopefully, some light will be shed on the use of the Sedition Act."