Links - 14th January 2016

German police: It's an Arab rape game called Taharrush, and now it has come to Europe - "After the NYE mass assaults against women in several European cities, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, BKA, now say that the Arab "rape game" Taharrush has established itself in Europe, reports the German newspaper Die Welt. In addition to the events in Cologne, police in Berlin, Hamburg, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart have reported of similar incidents. In addition, police in Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and Zurich in Switzerland have raised the alarm about similar mass assaults against women by newly arrived Arab migrants. Also Sweden and Finland experienced the same on New Year's Eve... The "rape game" Taharrush is about a large group of Arab men surrounding their victim, usually a Western woman or a woman wearing Western-style clothing, and then the women are subjected to sexual abuse. They surround the victim in circles. The men in the inner circle are the ones who physically abuse the woman, the next circle are the spectators, while the mission of the third circle is to distract and divert attention to what's going on. If there is enough men, the woman is dragged along by the mob, while the men take turns ripping her clothes off, grope her, and inserting fingers in her various body orifices"
Islamophobia!

We All Thought The Sith Were Pure Evil, But What If We Were Wrong. - "your passions fuel you to overcome the chains that bind you from acting and succeeding in those actions. Confidence emerges from this. Changing the world emerges from this. Achieving one's dreams emerges from this. MLK Jr. was passionate about Civil Rights. His passion gave him the strength to protest the injustices he saw. His courage and conviction and oratory prowess attracted followers and gained him the power to effect change. And, despite his assassination, he helped bring about tremendous positive change -- he achieved victory and broke chains. Nothing in the Jedi code correlates to these actions, these successes... The peaceful Republic that preceded the Clone Wars had, under the stewardship of the Jedi, achieved unprecedented levels of bureaucracy and corruption to the point where an independent entity could illegally blockade a world and the Republic did nothing to stop it... There's nothing innate to the Sith that makes them evil. Indeed, the values they hold are all about self-empowerment to bring about change and throw off oppression in all its forms. The Jedi, by contrast, are about stagnancy and suppression of the self."

Public Purchase - SMRT Bus Model
You must be really sad to buy a model of a SMRT bus

Presidents sometimes regret justices they appoint - "Dwight D. Eisenhower called his Supreme Court appointments the "biggest damn fool mistake I ever made." Richard Nixon unwittingly named the future liberal author of Roe v. Wade. George H.W. Bush's choice now evokes a GOP grumble, "No more Souters!"... Legal historians said several reasons explain why some nominees disappoint. Many were named despite a clear record of judicial philosophy or views on issues, perhaps because they were prized for factors such as gender, religious affiliation or political background. The court's internal dynamics also play a factor. Justices craft their opinions with an eye toward attracting at least a five-vote majority. If they adopt a hard-line position on principle, justices risk alienating colleagues and writing lonely dissents for years... O'Connor said perhaps only time could tell how a prospective justice turns out. "I frankly do not know how anyone going on the court would be able to predict the thousands of issues that come before the court," she said. "I myself couldn't have told President Reagan what I would do on all these issues, because I hadn't faced them.""

Enduring Prejudices of Gender Woven Into Chinese Language - The New York Times - "What if “womanwomanwoman” were the English word for rape, defilement, adultery?That is roughly how the Chinese character “jian,” or 姦, translates, as it is made up of three characters for “woman,” 女... Troubled by the word’s gender associations, curators made it the symbol of an art exhibition that had been scheduled to open in Beijing on Nov. 25, the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women."
"What if.. when you ask a question, you must stand in a door and open your mouth? 问？
what if.. to truly be called a man, you must do manual labour in a farm? 男
worse still，must be pregnant then can be called a woman ？女"

Batman Suparman’s mother not amused son’s name made international news - "However, Batman’s mother is not amused her son has become an international sensation. She reportedly told Singapore’s mainstream press, sounding irritated to be asked if her son had been named after a comic hero: “A person’s name is not a laughing matter and it’s our business what we name our child.” She also claimed Batman was a normal Javanese name. It is pronounced as “But-Mun”. But experts that international media spoke to explained that Batman’s name is most likely not traditional or Javenese in origin... Abdul Rahim Omar, a veteran Malay language teacher that the mainstream press spoke to, said that Suparman is a common Javanese name, Batman is not and has no meaning in Malay or Javanese: “I think his parents were probably inspired by the comic.”"

Woman with Multiple Sclerosis asked 'Did you forget your wheelchair?' after parking in disabled bay - "“Because of my age, they look at me, and automatically presume I’m doing the wrong thing. But actually I can’t carry my own shopping, can’t walk long distance, I have the bladder of an 80-year-old.” The 41-year-old was diagnosed with MS when she was 35, she often uses a stick to walk and believes she will be using a wheelchair within the next few years... “We are living in a culture of suspicion towards people whose disability is not immediately obvious. Imagine having heart disease or MS, being able to walk only a short distance, and being treated as a potential fraudster when you dare to park in a disabled parking bay.” “Of the UK’s 11 million disabled people, only about 1.2 million use wheelchairs — but many others need to park close to shops, to receive disability benefits, to be free of discrimination. Let’s end the prejudice.”"
Shaming people is stupid, because sometimes you shame the wrong person

WHO 'failed to alert' global community about Ebola outbreak allowing virus to spread further – panel - "Ebola has exposed the World Health Organization (WHO) as “unable to meet its responsibility” to alert global communities about the outbreak of deadly diseases, an independent panel of experts has stated in a new report"

Why I no longer believe religion is a virus of the mind - "Michael Blume got up to speak on "The reproductive advantage of religion". With graph after convincing graph he showed that all over the world and in many different ages, religious people have had far more children than nonreligious people... All this suggests that religious memes are adaptive rather than viral from the point of view of human genes, but could they still be viral from our individual or societal point of view? Apparently not, given data suggesting that religious people are happier and possibly even healthier than secularists. And at the conference, Ryan McKay presented experimental data showing that religious people can be more generous, cheat less and co-operate more in games such as the prisoner's dilemma, and that priming with religious concepts and belief in a "supernatural watcher" increase the effects."

More Killed by Toddlers Than Terrorists in U.S.

There is a good chance that you are the “friend” that everyone finds insufferable on Facebook - "A Facebook status is annoying if it primarily serves the author and does nothing positive for anyone reading it...
To be not annoying, a Facebook status typically has to be one of two things:
1) Interesting/informative.
2) Funny/amusing/entertaining...
On the other hand, annoying statuses typically reek of one or more of these five motivations:
1) Image-crafting. The author wants to affect the way people think of her.
2) Narcissism. The author’s thoughts, opinions, and life philosophies matter. The author and the author’s life are interesting in and of themselves.
3) Attention-craving. The author wants attention.
4) Jealousy-inducing. The author wants to make people jealous of him or his life.
5) Loneliness"

5 Theme Parks Where Childhood Goes to Die - "Part of the thrill of paying to walk through a haunted house is knowing that while we may encounter chainsaw-wielding lunatics and demons, there's no actual danger of physical harm. Now, replace the supernatural creatures with Soviet guards and replace the "all in good fun" mentality with the very real potential that you will be attacked by a dog and you have the Soviet Bunker theme park in Lithuania. They nailed the terror aspect, but any spark of fun is smothered under the moldy, damp overcoat you're forced to wear during the three-hour tour. Set in an actual underground bunker in the forests of Lithuania, the theme park recreates the conditions of 1984 Soviet oppression so that people never forget the tragic history of Eastern Europe. Each stage is meant to represent an aspect of life in the former Soviet Union -- "guests" are yelled at, interrogated, forced to sign confessions for crimes that never happened and, from time to time, psychologically and physically abused. Everyone who enters has to sign a safety waiver for all emotional and physical injuries suffered during the experience. Most terrifying of all, the park guarantees authenticity because several of the guards are retired KGB agents, and even those who aren't sometimes take it too far"

Liberals Should Knock Off the Mockery Over Calls to Limit Syrian Refugees - "Mocking Republicans over this—as liberals spent much of yesterday doing on my Twitter stream—seems absurdly out of touch to a lot of people. Not just wingnut tea partiers, either, but plenty of ordinary centrists too. It makes them wonder if Democrats seriously see no problem here. Do they care at all about national security? Are they really that detached from reality?... Mocking it is the worst thing we could do. It validates all the worst stereotypes about liberals that we put political correctness ahead of national security. It doesn't matter if that's right or wrong. Ordinary people see the refugees as a common sense thing to be concerned about. We shouldn't respond by essentially calling them idiots. That way lies electoral disaster."

Anti-white racial insults allegedly fly at library protest by Dartmouth NAACP chapter - "'Several students interviewed by The Dartmouth reported witnessing chants including expletives, such as “F**k your white privilege” and “F**k your comfort.” … Two students reported that demonstrators entered their private study rooms and blocked the doorway, while others said that demonstrators singled out some students by name and circled around others’ desks while chanting'... The Dartmouth Review (Mene O. Ukueberuwa, Brandon G. Gill, Sandor Farkas, Charles C. W. Jang and Vibhor Khanna), a conservative publication, was the first (or among the first) to write about the protest, and also reported on allegations that some of the protesters said “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!,” “F*** you and your comfort!,” “F*** you, you racist s***!,” “Stand the f*** up!,” “You filthy racist white piece of s***!,” and “filthy white b****!”"

Senior Obama officials have warned of challenges in screening refugees from Syria - "Several high-level administration officials have warned in recent months just how challenging this can be. While they say U.S. security measures are much better than in the past, vetting Syrian refugees poses a quandary: How do you screen people from a war-torn country that has few criminal and terrorist databases to check?... FBI Director James Comey added in congressional testimony last month that “a number of people who were of serious concern” slipped through the screening of Iraq War refugees, including two arrested on terrorism-related charges. “There’s no doubt that was the product of a less than excellent vetting,” he said."