Links - 16th July 2015

Why we’re so scared of GMOs, according to someone who has studied them since the start - The Washington Post - "When Chipotle announced earlier this year that it would no longer serve food made with genetically modified organisms due to safety concerns, customers rejoiced. But there was one big problem: Just as more Americans grow wary of GMOs, the scientific community is moving in the opposite direction. There is now near unanimity among scientists that GMOs are safe to eat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association have all said that GMOs are fine for consumption."

Apple is removing App Store games that show the Confederate flag - ""Now, it appears that Apple has decided to join them by pulling many Civil War wargames from the App Store. As of the writing of this story, games like Ultimate General: Gettysburg and all the Hunted Cow Civil War games are nowhere to be found. Apple is famous for reaching for the axe rather than the scalpel when it comes to political issues (like rejecting Hunted Cow's Tank Battle 1942 for depicting Germans and Russians as enemies), so this move doesn't come as a great surprise.""

Singapore ranks high in financial well-being, lags in other measures: Gallup study - "For financial well-being, which Gallup defined as “managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security”, Singapore was ranked ninth worldwide. Singapore was ranked 72nd worldwide for community well-being, defined as “liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community”. It scored 111th in purpose well-being – “Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals”; 127 in social well-being – “having supportive relationships and love in your life”; and 137th in physical well-being – “having good health and enough energy to get things done daily”. The index aggregates the scores in the five categories to arrive at Singapore’s overall 97th ranking. Among South-east Asian nations, the Republic ranked behind Myanmar (20), Malaysia (41), Philippines (43), Thailand (50), Indonesia (73), Vietnam (93). Cambodia came in slightly below Singapore at 99."
Maybe Maslow wasn't quite right

I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American. I've failed. - "American immigration law leaves the skilled immigrant feeling like an indentured serf... surveys show that of students from abroad studying at certain US universities, only 6 percent from India, 10 percent from China, and 15 percent from Europe expect to stay in America permanently, in large part because of the difficulties of the American immigration system... Never mind the tired, the poor, or the huddled masses. When the rest of the world sends America its best and brightest, America says, "Go away.""

The Tricks People Use to Avoid Debate - "Want to avoid a debate? Just tell your opponent to check his privilege. Or tell him he’s slut-shaming or victim-blaming, or racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or Islamophobic, or cisphobic, or some other creative term conveying that you are simply too outraged by the argument to actually engage it. Or, on the other side of the coin, accuse him of being the PC thought police and then snap your laptop smugly. In the art of debate avoidance, each political camp has honed a particular style. Conservatives generally aim for the prenup approach, to preempt any messy showdowns. If you want to join the club, then you have to sign a contract or make a pledge—no new taxes, no abortions, no gay marriage—and thereafter recite from a common script. Progressives indulge a shouting match of competing identities that resembles an argument but is in fact the opposite, because its real aim is to rule certain debates out of bounds."

Stan Lee Stands Up For White Spider-Man; Says Create New Characters - ""I wouldn’t mind, if Peter Parker had originally been black, a Latino, an Indian or anything else, that he stay that way,” Lee told Newsarama. “But we originally made him white. I don’t see any reason to change that”... “It has nothing to do with being anti-gay, or anti-black, or anti-Latino, or anything like that,” Lee said. “Latino characters should stay Latino. The Black Panther should certainly not be Swiss. I just see no reason to change that which has already been established when it’s so easy to add new characters. I say create new characters the way you want to. Hell, I’ll do it myself.”"

Jurassic World Called "Racist" Over Dinosaur Name - "Some viewers of Jurassic World are taking offense to the film, calling one of the lines in the movie "racist." Specifically, the abbreviation of the dinosaur Pachycephalosaurus. During the course of the film, the Pachycephalosaurus escape from their enclosures, leading one character to shout, "The Pachys are out of containment!" This has led news outlets and Twitter users to call the film "racist.""

A Tesco In London Is Promoting Ramadan With Bacon-Flavoured Pringles - "The smokey-bacon-flavoured Pringles are suitable for both vegans and vegetarians – they have bacon-flavoured seasoning to achieve the taste."
Why aren't Jews offended by Kosher Bacon Salt and Kosher Baconnaise?

Ramadan fasting: Modern opposition to age-old rules - "One primary-school trust grew so concerned about children fainting, becoming ill or missing out on parts of the curriculum, that it banned fasting this month... In many Muslim communities, there is a knee-jerk negative reaction to anything progressive or sensible, with certain people assuming that these measures automatically "water down" the faith. This is borne of an insecurity which deems the most severe version of a religion to be the most "authentic", and means that dissenting voices end up feeling isolated and unheard"

Algerians protest against mandatory fasting - "About 300 people in a restive northern region of Algeria have joined a public lunch during Ramadan to protest against what they say is persecution of people who refuse to observe the religious fast. The lunch on Saturday was highly unusual for North Africa, where people can be arrested for not fasting during the Muslim holy month."

Kind Taxi Driver Rewarded with LTA Summon - "To make it easier for the elderly lady, the driver said the stopped near a zebra crossing in the vicinity. The taxi driver is hoping that the LTA will take into account his kind intentions, and repeal the penalty."

Chef Wan: Malaysia should be 1st, not 6th on CNN’s food ranking - "The ranking was determined by CNN’s readers’ votes in a public poll on its Facebook page, with Taiwan topping the chart with 8,242 votes. At second place is the Philippines with 1,528 votes, a result that received scorn from Chef Wan who claimed the republic should have been right at the bottom. “Philippines is known to have the worst food in Asia, ask any chefs and they will tell you I am right," said the chef."

Guns in America: For every criminal killed in self-defense, 34 innocent people die - ""The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." says Wayne LaPierre, the vice president of the National Rifle Association. That's become the kernel of the NRA's response to recent mass shooting tragedies -- if only more people carried guns for protection, the thinking goes, then they would be less likely to be victimized by gun-wielding criminals... guns are rarely used in self-defense -- especially relative to the rate at which they're used in criminal homicides or suicides... Or, look at it this way. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that in 2012 there were 20,666 suicides by gun. That works out to one self-defense killing for every 78 gun suicides. CDC data show that there were more than twice as many accidental gun fatalities as as justifiable killings."

Millennials' Political Views Don't Make Any Sense - "Millennial politics is simple, really. Young people support big government, unless it costs any more money. They're for smaller government, unless budget cuts scratch a program they've heard of. They'd like Washington to fix everything, just so long as it doesn't run anything." That's all from a new Reason Foundation poll surveying 2,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 29. Millennials' political views are, at best, in a stage of constant metamorphosis and, at worst, "totally incoherent," as Dylan Matthews puts it... You get the sense, reading the Reason Foundation and Pew studies, that a savvy pollster could trick a young person into supporting basically any economic policy in the world with the right combination of triggers... Forty-two percent of Millennials think socialism is preferable to capitalism, but only 16 percent of Millennials could accurately define socialism in the survey"

British tobacco policy experts say Singapore ban on e-cigarettes and low-risk tobacco products, unscientific, unethical and harmful to health - "In a detailed letter to the Minister, Mr. Gan Kim Yong, the two veterans of the European and international struggle against tobacco-related disease, argue that banning low risk alternatives to smoking would be unscientific, unethical and harmful to health – and effectively a protection of the cigarette trade at the expense of the health of smokers."

Scientists show future events decide what happens in the past

Will your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?

Disable Clipboard Manipulations in Firefox - "The solution is simple:
locate dom.event.clipboardevents.enable preference item in Firefox about:config, and set it to false (default is true)"
The costs of allowing websites to manipulate your clipboard are higher than the benefits. DIE, READ MORE SCRIPTS!!!
Addendum: This screws up sites like Facebook and Quora though so NoScript might be better
Keywords: tynt, adblock plus

A Wall Street ‘wolf,’ a Swedish model and a lurid $18 million sexual harassment battle - "“I saw a 6-foot-tall homeless black man named James lying on her bed,” Wey wrote to Bouveng’s father, according to evidence at the trial. “The man was totally naked, dirty, totally drunk and perhaps on illegal drugs.” Later that day, Wey fired Bouveng and kicked her out of the apartment. “He screamed, ‘You f—– bitch, I’m going to revoke your visa today,” Bouveng claimed in court... Wey did admit to visiting her cafe in Stockholm and persistently sending her messages, including a pornographic picture of a black sex toy being used on a white woman."

'Dancing aunties' in Hong Kong accused of offering prostitution services - "Residents near the Sai Yeung Choi public pedestrian area, located in the heart of Hong Kong's busy Mong Kok district, have voiced complaints over the proliferation of dancing aunties in the space, even accusing the middle-aged women of offering prostitution services in the guise of innocent square dancers. Most of the troupes are made up of middle-aged mainland women, the standard dancing aunties who've become notorious across China for their courtyard hobby, usually accompanied by loud music blaring out of speakers. Mong Kok residents, however, are claiming that some of the dancers' activities are more than just a nuisance—they're illegal"

Whisky made from diabetics' urine