Links - 2nd August 2015

1904 The Gay Apocalypse: The July Crisis, and Remoter Causes of the First World War | The History Network - "There are some 30,000 books written in English alone on the First World War and its causes. It follows that there must be a variety of opinion regarding not just the causes but also the responsibilities. Each of the belligerents needed to promulgate their exculpatory version of the causes in an effort to win neutral opinion and possible allies. Thus History has its History."

Sim Lim cheating cases: Jover Chew, accomplice face additional charges - "Chew, 33, now faces a total of 28 charges. The two fresh charges involve one count of cheating and one count of insulting behaviour. He is accused of making a customer from China, Ms Zou Jing Tong, pick up coins amounting to S$547 from the floor of Chew's now-defunct shop, Mobile Air, at Sim Lim Square. The refund was given to satisfy an order made by the Small Claims Tribunal."
Insulting behavior?!

Who’s Really Responsible for the Killing of Zimbabwe’s Lions and Other Wildlife? - "Zimbabwe was once celebrated as the “breadbasket of Africa,” whose fertile earth supplied the world with abundant tobacco, corn and wheat. Today, 76% of its rural population lives in abject poverty, dependent on foreign food aid and desperate measures — like the poaching of the wildlife that inhabits its otherwise barren lands, or rendering assistance to those who want to hunt or poach... Many conservationists believe allowing the community to reap the benefits of wildlife management — by, ironically, running the sorts of safaris on which Palmer shot his lion — will help curb illegal poaching. But it is impossible to have that debate while the world brays for the ruin of a lone Minnesotan dentist, and fails to criticize a regime whose policies were responsible for the almost complete extinction of Zimbabwean wildlife in the first place."

What Are Artificial Flavors? | DNews | TestTube - "The very flavors and scents of packaged food we buy-whether it's natural or not-are often manipulated by scientists. "Flavorists" play a huge role in the food industry and they work hard to mix chemicals that produce just the right flavor effect. An almond biscotti, for instance, often gets that almond flavor from apricot pits"

Beaver Butts Emit Goo Used for Vanilla Flavoring - "Beaver butts secrete a goo called castoreum, which the animals use to mark their territory. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists castoreum as a “generally regarded as safe” additive, and manufacturers have been using it extensively in perfumes and foods for at least 80 years... Castoreum is a chemical compound that mostly comes from a beaver’s castor sacs, which are located between the pelvis and the base of the tail. Because of its close proximity to the anal glands, castoreum is often a combination of castor gland secretions, anal gland secretions, and urine"

Single Maria Ozawa looking for boyfriend, open to dating bachelor PNoy - "The Japanese actress also admitted that it's hard to be in a stable relationship in Japan. “It's really hard. In Japan, it's really hard to find a decent people, decent man that would really travel with me. It's really hard to get a boyfriend.”"

Answer to Are girls treated well in all IITs? - Quora - "Let me tell you the most honest answer .
NO . Girls are not treated well in IITs , they are treated WAY BETTER than well...
2. Partiality in placements and internships
Inorder to maintain gender ratio , certain big companies hire girls even though there are boys with better achievements ready to join them ."

Appear Younger… By Smelling Like Grapefruit - "According to a study by the Smell and Taste Institute in Chicago, men perceive women to be up to six years younger than they actually are when they catch the scent of the citrus fruit"

The Use of Randomized Evaluations in Microfinance - "Dean Karlan, Professor of Economics at Yale University, has used randomized trial methodology to examine the impact of microcredit. He concluded that “the canonical case for microcredit– that access increases profits, business scale, and household consumption– is not supported on average.” Notwithstanding, in his research in the Philippines he found what he considers to be a valuable “social component” of microfinance, noting “(t)hat microloans increase ability to cope with risk, strengthen community ties, and increase access to informal credit. Thus, microcredit here may work, but through channels different from those often hypothesized by its proponents.”"

India's micro-finance suicide epidemic

Microcredit 'death trap' for Bangladesh's poor - "Repayments are generally due on loans from the first week after they are taken out, which does not give the borrower enough time to establish any form of income-earning enterprise. To cover those first payments, people often resort to taking out a further loan from a different company."

Danger! Daft health and safety laws under inspection - Telegraph - "the idea that he cannot live in a cave because it has no fire exits simply defies belief. It is one of those stories that over the years has had us all shaking our heads in bewilderment and asking how, and why, we have become so preposterously risk-averse. As Lord Young of Graffham, the former Tory chairman who has been asked to carry out a review of health and safety laws, says, they have become a joke and a rich source of material for the "you couldn't make it up" school of journalism... how did legislation that over the decades was directed at protecting those seen as most vulnerable, and which helped introduce safe practices for all workers, become an all-encompassing regime that stops people who change clocks from climbing ladders, requires Christmas trees to be kept behind barriers and prevents pantomime performers from throwing sweets to children in the audience?... Employers have to look at every activity in which they are involved and judge the potential dangers. Get it wrong and they face being fined by the HSE or sued by an employee or a member of the public. Yet many of these rules, unlike those that protected miners or construction workers, often have no obvious benefit. But the boxes must be ticked... This "health and safety" culture has even led to the creation of a ladder-awareness course, which costs over £200, a sum paid by the taxpayer or the consumer depending on whether the ladder user works in the public or private sector. Meanwhile, there is an army of inspectors who carry out checks to ensure ladders are safe; notes of the inspection have to be documented, and the paperwork has to be kept for three months. Something that had been commonsensical has morphed into something bureaucratic, expensive and time-consuming that treats grown-ups like children... Young people who cannot use Blu-Tack without wearing goggles, as pupils at one school were told, indulge in terrifying new crazes such as free-running and building-jumping. Did we really intend to produce a world in which an actor playing Nelson during a Battle of Trafalgar commemoration should be required to wear a life-jacket over his costume?"

Philosophical discussions boost pupils' maths and literacy progress, study finds

How to Detect Sarcasm in Writing: 5 Steps (with Pictures)

Uncovering the 'game against England' - "One of the enduring secrets of World War II is how German intelligence tricked the British into parachuting more than 50 Dutch agents into the hands of the Nazis... In the past year or so, the British Government has released more of its secret files on what the Germans called the "Englandspiel" - the game against England. But historians remain deeply divided over whether this was merely a tragic series of blunders by the SOE, or part of an elaborate strategy of deception by London - a "double-bluff"."

Marriott Won't Block Guest Wi-Fi Devices After All - "Marriott and the American Hospitality and Lodging Association filed a petition with the FCC, asking that the commission to allow hotels to remotely disable the smartphones, tablets and other devices that some patrons use to tether their computers to the internet via 3G or 4G cellular service."

Argument between two brothers over fasting leads to death - "Suspicion whether his sibling was observing his Fast in Ramadan, led to fatal consequences."
Malaysia Boleh!

Does Sex Offender Registration Deter Crime? - "One study did find that requiring sex offenders to register with police can significantly reduce the chance that they will re-offend. But the same study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Columbia University, found that making that same information available to the public can backfire... the reason public notification encourages recidivism is because the offenders may feel they have nothing else to lose... A broader study, conducted by a researcher at the University of Chicago, found no evidence that sex offender registries increase public safety. The study found that registries do not reduce crime trends, recidivism or local sex crime rates... those who did not have to register had slightly less recidivism rates."

Why does the Earth have only one moon? - "Outside of the orbit of Mars, the temperature was low enough, that there were not only flakes of metal and chunks of rock, but also many small pieces of ice. There was therefore more 'seeds' to form planets of. This caused the planetesimals to grow quickly, and to become large enough that their gravity could capture hydrogen and helium which was very abundant in the protoplanetery disk. The protoplanets captured so much gas, that they became 'tiny solar systems'"