Going to Belgium? MFA advises Singaporeans to take precautions - "Those travelling to or residing in Belgium are "strongly advised" to take all necessary precautions for their personal safety, said Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Monday (Jul 18). In a travel notice posted on its website, MFA said the precautions include monitoring the local news and heeding the instructions of the local authorities. “Singaporeans should remain vigilant and where possible, avoid crowded places, public gatherings, and areas where there are ongoing police operations,” the notice said. Travellers should also purchase comprehensive travel insurance and be familiar with the terms and coverage, the ministry added."
Don't tell people to protect themselves from terrorists. Tell terrorists to stop attacking people
Double Standards: Leslie Jones' Racist Twitter History - "In an email sent from Twitter to Milo, the site said it had “permanently suspended” his account due to “repeated violation of Twitter rules, specifically our rules prohibiting participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals.” Jones, meanwhile, has repeatedly made derogatory comments about white people... Jones also violated Twitter’s policy against targeted harassment, directly ordering her followers to mob another user. This is the same policy that Twitter says Milo violated, despite the fact that the Breitbart editor never told his followers to attack Jones."
Addendum: "@Lesdoggg: @whitebecky1776 bitch I want to tell you about your self but I'm gonna let everybody else do it I'm gonna retweet your hate!! Get her!!"
PayPal won't refund Twitch troll's $50,000 in donations - "iNexus_Ninja wasn’t a generous viewer, but instead a nasty troll that intended to make these large donations and then cancel them through PayPal after 30 days — leaving the streamers on the hook for any portions spent. In short, he was the worst kind of troll, the type that sought to create real harm through internet mischief. Proving sometimes there is justice in the world, PayPal essentially told iNexus_Ninja — an 18-year-old Australian named Anthony Archer — to go fuck himself and that it wouldn’t be allowing the chargeback."
Why Still So Few Use Condoms - "It is politically incorrect to acknowledge the truth and simplicity of the condom's inadequacy. Criticism of the condom opens one to righteous demonization and condemnation. Condom defenders often stifle honest and helpful discussion about sexuality, unplanned pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections... Sex researcher Dr. Rachel Jones at the Guttmacher Institute recently published a study in the journal Contraception that found that the "withdrawal method of birth control is nearly as effective as condoms in preventing pregnancy." By the study's measures, "pulling out" had a failure rate of four percent, while condoms had a failure rate of two percent"
PrideSource - Study: Only 16 Percent Of Men Who Have Sex With Men Report Using Condoms 'Always' - ""The point estimate in our analysis of condom effectiveness when 'always' used by MSM during anal sex with any HIV-positive male partners is 70 percent, modestly less than the 80 percent estimate for condoms when 'always' used by heterosexual HIV-discordant couples," the study concludes. "Although these point estimates do not differ by tests of statistical significance, it is more appropriate to use the MSM specific point estimate of 70 percent effectiveness for discussions and models involving anal sex among MSM than to continue use of the heterosexual 80 percent effectiveness point estimate for MSM"
CDC: Half of Gay Black Men Will Get HIV - "Half of gay and bisexual black men and a quarter of gay and bisexual Hispanic men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes, the Centers for Disease Control announced in a first-of-its-kind study... For Hispanic people living in the United States, the CDC has already outlined an array of factors behind the alarming rate of new infections: a high prevalence of HIV, poverty and lack of health insurance coverage, “machismo” that can encourage men to engage in risky sexual behavior as a show of strength, and reluctance to access prevention services for fear of revealing one’s immigration status... For black people, CDC resources show, prevention challenges are similar: poverty, stigma, barriers to health care access, and too few people knowing their status. Risk in black communities is especially high, the CDC notes, because “African Americans tend to have sex with partners of the same race/ethnicity mean[ing] that [they] face a greater risk of HIV infection with each new sexual encounter.”"
What's Really Behind the High HIV Rates for Black Gay Men? - "black men who have sex with men (MSM) were no more likely than other gay or bisexual men to have unprotected sex. And despite societal problems, such as the fact that black men face higher rates of unemployment than other races or are less likely to graduate from high school, the analysis points out that black gay men are actually 40 percent more likely to do simple protective things like wear a condom during sex... a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of four studies noted that black MSM had fewer unprotected sexual encounters than white MSM—an average of three for receptive sex and six for insertive over six months for black men, compared with 11 and 12, respectively, for whites."
Rio Olympics 2016: why transgender and intersex issues could dominate the Games - "Ross Tucker interviewed Joanna Harper who describes herself as a "scientist first, an athlete second, and a transgender person third" and as such is the only transgender person in history to be part of the team to advise the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on gender-based issues. Harper fears that "much of the anticipation for the upcoming Rio Olympics will be overshadowed by the spectre of intersex athletes dominating some events in women's athletics, the premier sport of the games. It is also unfortunate that many people will blame the medal-winning intersex athletes whose only crime is to compete with the gifts that nature gave them. The real problem is that sports need some policy governing intersex athletes and currently there is none". She also points out that Semenya will not be the only intersex athlete likely to medal at the Games. Harper suggests that in the 800 metre event alone, we could see an all intersex podium with five of the eight finalists being intersex athletes... "I believe that billions of potential female athletes deserve the right to compete with some semblance of a level playing field, and that requiring all women to compete within a given testosterone range is the best way we currently have to create such a playing field"."
Hyperandrogenism and women vs women vs men in sport: A Q&A with Joanna Harper - "Both of the “extreme” arguments are simple to explain and defend, often passionately. It is much harder to inspire passion over a compromise position that is painstakingly put together by a committee of divergent views. But this compromise position has been embraced by many people who value well-reasoned logic... while it might not be a right, success in sports is one of the greatest advancements in women’s lives. If we value women’s equality, it is imperative that we protect the ability of all women to succeed in sports."
This is a good line on avoiding extremism and valuing compromise
Why Trans Women Care About Caitlyn Jenner's Pronouns - "Jenner’s decision to continue using male pronouns and her assigned name even after she disclosed as trans is, to me, the clearest indication that she hasn’t made an effort to reach out to the wider trans community for feedback, which I consider a prerequisite to claiming to represent and advocate for us"
Comments: ""Jenner has every right to set her priorities as an individual”
... But then you spend the rest of the article complaining that actually she didn’t have a choice, and should have done what the ‘trans community’ wanted. This stuff is getting pretty tiring now. You’re an individual until you’re not an individual. You’re an advocate until you’re not an advocate. Let her do what she wants. She can do certain things that you can’t because she’s a celebrity and you’re not. That’s the same with any celebrity and any normal person."
"Funny how gender is fluid until someone decides to go their own way."
"Basically what I hear is "She can handle her transition how she wants as long as it's inline with my opinion". Find something more productive to do."
"you lost all credibility when you told the story about how you tried to trick a man into dating you"
Japanese 'naked restaurant' to ban overweight diners - "Following the lead of establishments in London and Melbourne, "The Amrita" -- Sanskrit for 'immortality' -- also has strict age restrictions, with only patrons between 18 and 60 allowed in, after they check in their clothes and put on paper underwear provided by the restaurant... Tattooed customers are barred from entry"
BBC World Service - The World This Week, Obama points to how Saudis must change - "You can almost say that if we get dementia, that is a spectacularly good thing... Our great great great great grandparents - if they survived into their 40s without dying of tuberculosis or any other range of infectious diseases, would have been over the moon. And then as we developed things like antibiotics and vaccinations all developed, and suddenly we started to get a grip on infectious diseases and they were no longer the big killers that they used to be... you'll probably survive your first heart attacks... treatments for cancer have really developed... dementia is now that kind of like final barrier that we're crushing against. And at some point in the future, we're starting to see hints of it already, we'll move beyond dementia as well and there'll be something else waiting for us on the horizon"
BBC World Service - The World This Week, France Tries Middle East Peace Plan - "What you had in Yugoslavia would be child's play compared to what we would have in Nigeria... It would be really messy to break up Nigeria because first of all, many of the huge minority groups would not want to be part of a larger group either predominated by the Hausas or the Yorubas or the Ibos. They wouldn't want that. The reason that these grievances keep coming up is because many of these regions feel marginalised. I can't think of any ethnic group in Nigeria that does not feel hard done by the Nigerian state"
3 Outlets: Bust Treatments
6 types of ptosis? I didn't know so many things could be wrong with breasts
Singapore's "arrogance" haunts ties with neighbours - Google Groups - "RECURRING SPATS with other countries are giving Singapore a bad reputation as a nation whose riches have made it arrogant and prone to treat its neighbours as inferior, regional analysts say. Disputes over the years with the Philippines and Thailand were followed recently by Malaysian fury over a remark by Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew that Malaysia's Johor state was "notorious for shootings, muggings and car-jackings". In language unheard in the 30-year-history of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), Malayian demonstrators called Lee "senile" and a "stupid pig"... "There has to be some serious soul-searching in Singapore on the way it handles relations with close friends and neighbours," said Mohamed Jabbar Hassan of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur. Analysts in Singapore refused to comment on the issue. "I do not want to comment on that. You can ask me about any other issue, but not that issue. I'm sorry," one analyst said. The Singapore governmentn also declined comment... "I believe that if Singapore does not try to lessen its trouble-making with neighbours, it will be in trouble"... Wibisono said race plays a part in Singapore's arrogance. "Singapore is considered Chinese by the other neighbours and I think this is the source of the problem," he said. "They feel a little bit superior, and the others are seen as inferior because they (Singaporeans) are more industrious, productive and creative.""
S’pore most forward-looking country in the world: Report - "A large number of millennials rated Singapore highly (No 1) in heritage, namely cultural accessibility, rich history, good food and cultural attractions."
Err.
The disturbing growth of partisan bias - "partisan bias doesn’t just lead people to preemptively reject ideas emanating from the opposing party. It also causes partisans to justify or overlook bad behavior by their own side. Both Republican and Democratic partisans have turned a blind eye to or even supported much from their own leaders that they would have opposed tooth and nail if the other side had done the same thing. Under Obama, the left-wing antiwar movement has largely evaporated, even as he continues and in some cases even expands Bush’s abuses of executive war powers."
Conservatives/Republicans are not the only hypocrites
SSD reliability in the real world: Google's experience - "SSD UBER rates are higher than disk rates, which means that backing up SSDs is even more important than it is with disks. The SSD is less likely to fail during its normal life, but more likely to lose data"
Prostitution Vigilante Hooked For Pimping - "An Oklahoma man who has gained national exposure for his "video vigilante" campaign to expose street prostitution in his hometown was arrested yesterday for allegedly paying hookers to ensure that they serviced customers in an area where he could easily film the illicit trysts."
Police: A quarter of crime victims don’t want to prosecute offenders - "He has urged people to think before phoning police. He said: “Looking into the crimes reported this year and investigated by team, I have been astounded by the high proportion of crimes where the victim doesn’t support the investigation. “In some of those cases it might be that they have had bad experiences with either the police or the court and I would urge them to try again and work with us to improve out service and to achieve a better outcome next time. “In other cases, people simply have no intention of going to court for the matters and I would ask that when they phone, they leave us some understanding of what they want from us and are really clear from the outset so we can record the crime, as we are required to do, but we don’t invest our resources in fruitless investigations that were never wanted in the first place.”"
Maybe some people just want to give others hell and don't want to be prosecuted for making false complaints
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Conversations - 21st July 2016
A: I ask my Punjab friend why he married a Chinese girl
He said in simple terms, Indian girls aren't worth the trouble to tier 1 Indian dudes
B: too much drama?
A: Yep and persecution mentality
Also a lot of them are super banged and are looking for a dude to settle down with before they completely check out in looks
There are a lot of tier 3 and 4 Indian dudes, but those Indian girls don't want them.
Sangy herself dated a Chinese dude
Must be some crazy shit- dating a Indian race baiter- if you piss her off she will just drop the racism hammer on your head and sic local SJWs on you
Anyway tier 1 Indian dudes can easily outgame the average Chinese dude here
C: Tier 1 vs tier 3-4 scrubs mah
A: Gives lie to sangy's assertion being chinky is absolute powah
But we all already knew that
Someone: Marriage is about giving in for some things so you can earn brownie points to get away with other things
For guys at least
Me: Hurr. Then for women?
Someone: Well. It's about not driving your man so nuts that he decides to leave?
A: The more datapoints I collect the more I am forced to conclude that a homophobic possibly repressed homosexual fundamentalist megachurch pastor is more tolerant than many of the Pink Dot acolytes.
Me: Well we know sjws aren't tolerant
B: I think it's important to separate the actual lgbt folk from many of the SJWs pushing for their cause
Me: Most lgbts don't care about this shit. They just want a quiet life
And Singapore gives them that
A: Yep
Singapore has the most vibrant and lucrative LGBT scene in the region
Gay publications constantly point out Singapore as a good place to get action
The activism isn't really about allowing LGBT folk to practice
Anyway in Lawrence Khong's case there is lots of speculation he is closeted- in any case comparisons of him and westboro fail- he regularly employs LGBT folk for his events and prominent members of his church (Sam Willows) support pink dot openly.
I wonder how that works.
Me: Practice? Practise sodomy ah
A: Yah lor
Me: Ahem
Someone: The minds of Trans and cis people are different! Stop being a bigot and demand they be like you!
The brains of gay and straight people are different. It's not a choice stop asking people not to be gay!
The brains of men and women are different? You sexist mysoggykneest!
It's only different when it suits social justice
Me: Everything is 100% determined by socialisation. Except sexual preference which is innate and cannot be changed. If you think it can be changed you're a bigot.
He said in simple terms, Indian girls aren't worth the trouble to tier 1 Indian dudes
B: too much drama?
A: Yep and persecution mentality
Also a lot of them are super banged and are looking for a dude to settle down with before they completely check out in looks
There are a lot of tier 3 and 4 Indian dudes, but those Indian girls don't want them.
Sangy herself dated a Chinese dude
Must be some crazy shit- dating a Indian race baiter- if you piss her off she will just drop the racism hammer on your head and sic local SJWs on you
Anyway tier 1 Indian dudes can easily outgame the average Chinese dude here
C: Tier 1 vs tier 3-4 scrubs mah
A: Gives lie to sangy's assertion being chinky is absolute powah
But we all already knew that
Someone: Marriage is about giving in for some things so you can earn brownie points to get away with other things
For guys at least
Me: Hurr. Then for women?
Someone: Well. It's about not driving your man so nuts that he decides to leave?
A: The more datapoints I collect the more I am forced to conclude that a homophobic possibly repressed homosexual fundamentalist megachurch pastor is more tolerant than many of the Pink Dot acolytes.
Me: Well we know sjws aren't tolerant
B: I think it's important to separate the actual lgbt folk from many of the SJWs pushing for their cause
Me: Most lgbts don't care about this shit. They just want a quiet life
And Singapore gives them that
A: Yep
Singapore has the most vibrant and lucrative LGBT scene in the region
Gay publications constantly point out Singapore as a good place to get action
The activism isn't really about allowing LGBT folk to practice
Anyway in Lawrence Khong's case there is lots of speculation he is closeted- in any case comparisons of him and westboro fail- he regularly employs LGBT folk for his events and prominent members of his church (Sam Willows) support pink dot openly.
I wonder how that works.
Me: Practice? Practise sodomy ah
A: Yah lor
Me: Ahem
Someone: The minds of Trans and cis people are different! Stop being a bigot and demand they be like you!
The brains of gay and straight people are different. It's not a choice stop asking people not to be gay!
The brains of men and women are different? You sexist mysoggykneest!
It's only different when it suits social justice
Me: Everything is 100% determined by socialisation. Except sexual preference which is innate and cannot be changed. If you think it can be changed you're a bigot.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Links - 20th July 2016
2006 The Schlieffen Plan – A Pistol Cocked at England’s Heart? | The History Network - "Plucky little Belgium also helped Britain in another unexpected way. At a time when there was no conscription, propaganda had to be used to encourage enlistment. In an ironic embezzlement of very recent history, some of the propaganda portrayed as German atrocities in Belgium was in fact what had been portrayed in the Belgian Congo under the notorious Leopold II...
A decided advantage rested with the defence. Up to 40 years earlier, almost 85% of all deaths on the battlefield were due to disease, with the remainder directly attributed to being shot. By the First World War, the relative positions had been reversed, with 85% now dying directly because of being shot. This turnaround had little to do with medical improvements but significantly greater with new, much more lethal technology... artillery accounted for almost 2/3 of all deaths...
Democracy [prolonged] the war. In former times, national leaders, being answerable only to their monarchs would have agreed to peace overtures much sooner after a stalemate had been reached. But now they had to pander to their electorates. Directly following on from that, instead of being employed to explore peace opportunities for the most part, diplomacy was subverted to enlisting new allies with extravagant promises or even contradictory promises. Democracy too was in part responsible for the Second World War. It was considered that the unusually harsh terms of the Treaty Versailles would appease and mollify the electorate for their sacrifices, particularly in France"
BBC World Service - The World This Week, The West helps Libya to aim high - "There's a weird sort of Stockholm Syndrome going on, a form of psychological imprisonment that needs no bars or chains. Many slaves apparently love their masters and prefer enslavement to poverty. If they escaped, they would have nothing: only the life of an outcast. Paradise is under your master's foot, is an old Mauritanian saying. One journalist reported seeing a slave and his master walking along the street holding hands. They told him they were best friends"
Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS143 - Scott Aaronson on "The theorem that proves rationalists can't disagree" - "Aumann's theorem is a theorem in interactive epistemology... if you've got two rational agents who are Bayesian, which is that they obey, they both believe, the rules of the probability calculus; and they've got common priors, which means that they assign the same probabilities before seeing anything to each possible state of the world; and we all know that they're honest and rational; and we all know that we know that, and know that we know that we know that, and so forth. These are admittedly big assumptions. Then these agents go off and live separate lives. They have different experiences. One of them reads one book, one of them reads another; one visits one country, and so forth. They have different experiences, which then causes them to update their beliefs differently... of course having had different experiences, having different knowledge, they may have different beliefs about this question. But it says, if they can ever reach a position where their opinions are common knowledge to each other, meaning that they both know each other's opinions and they both know that they know them, and they know that they know that they know them and so on, forever -- then that very fact implies that their opinion has to be equal. It's often summarized by saying that they cannot agree to disagree. Having common knowledge of each other's opinions precludes the opinions being different... if you've got rational Bayesians with common priors and so forth, then they're never going to exchange in speculative trade. They're never going to buy or sell stocks... If we could reach the point where I am arguing for a more liberal position and then five minutes later I switch or I'm now arguing for the more conservative position, and then I switch back and so forth, that is actually a good sign. That's a sign of people updating as rapidly as the math says that they should."
STUDY: 94 Percent of Gay Men More Likely to Bareback With Someone Attractive - "seven in every 10 gay men in London preferred to have sex without condoms. Additionally, four of every five gay men have previously engaged in condomless sex with someone they didn't know. The study, which was first reported by PinkNews, surveyed 160 gay men in London about their sex habits. Researchers found that 94 percent of the men said they were more likely to go bareback with someone attractive."
Latino Students Upset Over McDowell High School Prank Involving Wall - "Students at the Marion, N.C., school built a wall using cardboard boxes, reportedly alluding to the border wall proposed by Donald Trump, which upset the school’s Latino students"
I poured drain cleaner in my eyes to blind myself - "The afflicted woman knew from a young age she wanted to be blind, and would attempt to harm her eyesight by staring at the sun while “blind-simming,” or pretending to be blind."
"When I thought I was fat, they said no, I was anorexic. When I thought I was a girl, they said yup, have some hormones."
Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies - "Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed. Another wants to be blind. Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal. One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary. But doctors saved the leg. He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted... Some of his study participants do draw parallels to the experience many transgender people express of not feeling like they’re in the right body. Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body’s mapping, rather than a mental illness. “It’s a problem for individuals because it’s distressing. But lots of things are.” He suggests this is just another form of body diversity — like transgenderism — and amputation may help someone achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believe their ideal selves to be... As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans people within the disability movement are also seeking their due... this has been met with great resistance in both the disability activist community and in transgender circles... “They tend to see transabled people as dishonest people, people who try to steal resources from the community, people who would be disrespectful by denying or fetishizing or romanticizing disability reality,” Baril says, adding people in both transgender and disabled circles tend to make judgmental or prejudicial statements about transabled people. “Each try to distance themselves.” Baril — who is himself disabled and transgender — believes the transgender community distances itself because it has worked very hard to de-pathologize what’s known as ‘gender dysphoria,’ and sought its removal from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"
Feminist circles used to have great resistance to the transgendered
Original Cosplay Is The Best Cosplay
Designer behind Kikkoman soy sauce bottle dies at 85 - "His desire to design was ignited after he saw Hiroshima's devastation following the U.S. atomic bombing of the city. When he saw the mangled cars, homes and household objects, he “heard their voices”: They said they wished they had been utilized more, he explained in a pamphlet for his Hiroshima exhibit last year."
Here's What Podiatrists Think About Your Crocs - "“Unfortunately Crocs are not suitable for all-day use,” Dr. Megan Leahy, a Chicago-based podiatrist with the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, told HuffPost. While she granted that they “offer nice arch support,” she added that the real reason you shouldn’t wear them over long periods of time is that “these shoes do not adequately secure the heel. When the heel is unstable, toes tend to grip which can lead to tendinitis, worsening of toe deformities, nail problems, corns and calluses. The same thing can happen with flip flops or any backless shoes as the heel is not secured.”"
Russia's 'valiant hero' in Ukraine turns his fire on Vladimir Putin - "After nearly two years of sitting quietly, the erstwhile poster boy of the pro-Russia cause last week released a declaration strongly critical of President Vladimir Putin, and predicting upheaval and bloodshed in Russia in the near future... A radical nationalist who believes Russia should seize all the lands where ethnic Russians live, and who describes Ukrainians as “Russians who speak a different dialect”, Strelkov said it was fatal that Putin stopped after annexing Crimea... “The Kremlin is very scared of nationalists, because they use the same imperial rhetoric as Putin does but they can do it much better than him,” said Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and opposition politician. “That’s why there are nationalists in prison, even those who supported Putin. They went to kiss his feet, and he kicked them away.”"
Russian soldier: 'You're better clueless because the truth is horrible' - "The leader of the Donetsk rebels has admitted there are Russian soldiers in the region but says they are not there on orders of the Russian army but "on holiday"."
Armed robbers thwarted trying to hold up McDonald's where 11 special forces officers happened to be eating dinner - "Along with the French counter-terror police unit, le RAID, the GIGN are highly admired by peers in Britain and beyond. One former SAS officer, Col Tim Collins, recently described them as "among the most effective anti-terror forces in Europe, if not the world""
Jennifer Mulford claims she breastfeeds her bodybuilder boyfriend - "A woman from Atlanta has sparked outrage on social media after publicly announcing that she quit her job to breastfeed her 36-year-old bodybuilder boyfriend. Speaking to The Sun, Jennifer Mulford claimed she wanted to start an 'Adult Breastfeeding Relationship' with her partner Brad Leeson after reading about the bond breastfeeding could create between two people... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer and Brad's decision to publicly share their story has been slammed on social media, with many claiming the story is false, and others accusing Jennifer of 'sexualising' breastfeeding"
Narwhal tusk - Scientists finally solve its real purpose - "theories of how the animals used the body part differed greatly. Some biologists believed the horns are used for ice picks, while others said the horns picked up noises deep under water. Researchers discovered the horn is, in fact, used as a sensory organ"
Babies’ cuteness is key to their survival. What happens when they’re not that cute? - "Unattractive babies may face discrimination"
Waitress assaulted on French Riviera for 'serving alcohol' on first day of holy month of Ramadan - "In October 2014, three men, including the owner of a Halal store - since forcibly closed by police - threatened a baker who sold ham sandwiches, saying he wasn’t a “good Muslim”... Last month, a message purporting to come from the spokesman of Isil called on followers to launch attacks on the United States and Europe during Ramadan, calling it “the month of conquest and jihad”"
Some British people are getting laid a lot—just not in Britain - "Two groups of researchers analyzed surveys of what British people do when they travel abroad and found that sex is high on the list... The group was composed of people from 16-74 years old, who reported having at least one sexual partner in the past five years. Out of this group, 9.2 percent of men and 5.3 percent of women said they found one or more new sexual partners while outside the UK. And out of those groups, according to Tanton and her colleagues, there was a lot of "disassortative sexual mixing," meaning cross-nationality intermingling... People who had sex while overseas were also more sexually adventurous in general; they reported having more partners both at home and abroad, as well as multiple partners and partners of both sexes... This is especially true in the case of backpackers, who were the subject of a second study of sexual activity among people backpacking in Thailand. "Over one-third of backpackers traveling without a longterm partner or spouse had vaginal and/or anal intercourse with a new partner; one-third of these did not use condoms consistently," write medical researchers C.T. Lewis and G. de Wildt in their paper. When it came to safer sex, Brits and Swedes were the most likely to report not using a condom during their escapades. Germans had less unsafe sex than Brits and Swedes but only because they hooked up less often. Canadians were most likely to say they'd used a condom and were also more likely to hook up with a new partner than other groups. (So the best travel sex is with Canadians, everybody.)"
Refugees allowed into Italy after threat to drown babies
People respond to incentives
University of Oregon -- Martin Luther King Quote Almost Removed for Not Being Inclusive Enough - "Student leaders at the University of Oregon considered removing a famous Martin Luther King Jr. quote from a wall on its student center on the grounds that it was just not inclusive enough — because it talked only about racial discrimination and not discrimination based on stuff like gender identity...
Oh, and it gets worse: The entire reason that quote was put there in the first place was to replace another quote that students had found offensive — one that called the university “leader in the quest for the good life for all men” — which is obviously, you know, sexist as hell."
A decided advantage rested with the defence. Up to 40 years earlier, almost 85% of all deaths on the battlefield were due to disease, with the remainder directly attributed to being shot. By the First World War, the relative positions had been reversed, with 85% now dying directly because of being shot. This turnaround had little to do with medical improvements but significantly greater with new, much more lethal technology... artillery accounted for almost 2/3 of all deaths...
Democracy [prolonged] the war. In former times, national leaders, being answerable only to their monarchs would have agreed to peace overtures much sooner after a stalemate had been reached. But now they had to pander to their electorates. Directly following on from that, instead of being employed to explore peace opportunities for the most part, diplomacy was subverted to enlisting new allies with extravagant promises or even contradictory promises. Democracy too was in part responsible for the Second World War. It was considered that the unusually harsh terms of the Treaty Versailles would appease and mollify the electorate for their sacrifices, particularly in France"
BBC World Service - The World This Week, The West helps Libya to aim high - "There's a weird sort of Stockholm Syndrome going on, a form of psychological imprisonment that needs no bars or chains. Many slaves apparently love their masters and prefer enslavement to poverty. If they escaped, they would have nothing: only the life of an outcast. Paradise is under your master's foot, is an old Mauritanian saying. One journalist reported seeing a slave and his master walking along the street holding hands. They told him they were best friends"
Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS143 - Scott Aaronson on "The theorem that proves rationalists can't disagree" - "Aumann's theorem is a theorem in interactive epistemology... if you've got two rational agents who are Bayesian, which is that they obey, they both believe, the rules of the probability calculus; and they've got common priors, which means that they assign the same probabilities before seeing anything to each possible state of the world; and we all know that they're honest and rational; and we all know that we know that, and know that we know that we know that, and so forth. These are admittedly big assumptions. Then these agents go off and live separate lives. They have different experiences. One of them reads one book, one of them reads another; one visits one country, and so forth. They have different experiences, which then causes them to update their beliefs differently... of course having had different experiences, having different knowledge, they may have different beliefs about this question. But it says, if they can ever reach a position where their opinions are common knowledge to each other, meaning that they both know each other's opinions and they both know that they know them, and they know that they know that they know them and so on, forever -- then that very fact implies that their opinion has to be equal. It's often summarized by saying that they cannot agree to disagree. Having common knowledge of each other's opinions precludes the opinions being different... if you've got rational Bayesians with common priors and so forth, then they're never going to exchange in speculative trade. They're never going to buy or sell stocks... If we could reach the point where I am arguing for a more liberal position and then five minutes later I switch or I'm now arguing for the more conservative position, and then I switch back and so forth, that is actually a good sign. That's a sign of people updating as rapidly as the math says that they should."
STUDY: 94 Percent of Gay Men More Likely to Bareback With Someone Attractive - "seven in every 10 gay men in London preferred to have sex without condoms. Additionally, four of every five gay men have previously engaged in condomless sex with someone they didn't know. The study, which was first reported by PinkNews, surveyed 160 gay men in London about their sex habits. Researchers found that 94 percent of the men said they were more likely to go bareback with someone attractive."
Latino Students Upset Over McDowell High School Prank Involving Wall - "Students at the Marion, N.C., school built a wall using cardboard boxes, reportedly alluding to the border wall proposed by Donald Trump, which upset the school’s Latino students"
I poured drain cleaner in my eyes to blind myself - "The afflicted woman knew from a young age she wanted to be blind, and would attempt to harm her eyesight by staring at the sun while “blind-simming,” or pretending to be blind."
"When I thought I was fat, they said no, I was anorexic. When I thought I was a girl, they said yup, have some hormones."
Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies - "Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed. Another wants to be blind. Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal. One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary. But doctors saved the leg. He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted... Some of his study participants do draw parallels to the experience many transgender people express of not feeling like they’re in the right body. Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body’s mapping, rather than a mental illness. “It’s a problem for individuals because it’s distressing. But lots of things are.” He suggests this is just another form of body diversity — like transgenderism — and amputation may help someone achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believe their ideal selves to be... As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans people within the disability movement are also seeking their due... this has been met with great resistance in both the disability activist community and in transgender circles... “They tend to see transabled people as dishonest people, people who try to steal resources from the community, people who would be disrespectful by denying or fetishizing or romanticizing disability reality,” Baril says, adding people in both transgender and disabled circles tend to make judgmental or prejudicial statements about transabled people. “Each try to distance themselves.” Baril — who is himself disabled and transgender — believes the transgender community distances itself because it has worked very hard to de-pathologize what’s known as ‘gender dysphoria,’ and sought its removal from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"
Feminist circles used to have great resistance to the transgendered
Original Cosplay Is The Best Cosplay
Designer behind Kikkoman soy sauce bottle dies at 85 - "His desire to design was ignited after he saw Hiroshima's devastation following the U.S. atomic bombing of the city. When he saw the mangled cars, homes and household objects, he “heard their voices”: They said they wished they had been utilized more, he explained in a pamphlet for his Hiroshima exhibit last year."
Here's What Podiatrists Think About Your Crocs - "“Unfortunately Crocs are not suitable for all-day use,” Dr. Megan Leahy, a Chicago-based podiatrist with the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, told HuffPost. While she granted that they “offer nice arch support,” she added that the real reason you shouldn’t wear them over long periods of time is that “these shoes do not adequately secure the heel. When the heel is unstable, toes tend to grip which can lead to tendinitis, worsening of toe deformities, nail problems, corns and calluses. The same thing can happen with flip flops or any backless shoes as the heel is not secured.”"
Russia's 'valiant hero' in Ukraine turns his fire on Vladimir Putin - "After nearly two years of sitting quietly, the erstwhile poster boy of the pro-Russia cause last week released a declaration strongly critical of President Vladimir Putin, and predicting upheaval and bloodshed in Russia in the near future... A radical nationalist who believes Russia should seize all the lands where ethnic Russians live, and who describes Ukrainians as “Russians who speak a different dialect”, Strelkov said it was fatal that Putin stopped after annexing Crimea... “The Kremlin is very scared of nationalists, because they use the same imperial rhetoric as Putin does but they can do it much better than him,” said Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and opposition politician. “That’s why there are nationalists in prison, even those who supported Putin. They went to kiss his feet, and he kicked them away.”"
Russian soldier: 'You're better clueless because the truth is horrible' - "The leader of the Donetsk rebels has admitted there are Russian soldiers in the region but says they are not there on orders of the Russian army but "on holiday"."
Armed robbers thwarted trying to hold up McDonald's where 11 special forces officers happened to be eating dinner - "Along with the French counter-terror police unit, le RAID, the GIGN are highly admired by peers in Britain and beyond. One former SAS officer, Col Tim Collins, recently described them as "among the most effective anti-terror forces in Europe, if not the world""
Jennifer Mulford claims she breastfeeds her bodybuilder boyfriend - "A woman from Atlanta has sparked outrage on social media after publicly announcing that she quit her job to breastfeed her 36-year-old bodybuilder boyfriend. Speaking to The Sun, Jennifer Mulford claimed she wanted to start an 'Adult Breastfeeding Relationship' with her partner Brad Leeson after reading about the bond breastfeeding could create between two people... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer and Brad's decision to publicly share their story has been slammed on social media, with many claiming the story is false, and others accusing Jennifer of 'sexualising' breastfeeding"
Narwhal tusk - Scientists finally solve its real purpose - "theories of how the animals used the body part differed greatly. Some biologists believed the horns are used for ice picks, while others said the horns picked up noises deep under water. Researchers discovered the horn is, in fact, used as a sensory organ"
Babies’ cuteness is key to their survival. What happens when they’re not that cute? - "Unattractive babies may face discrimination"
Waitress assaulted on French Riviera for 'serving alcohol' on first day of holy month of Ramadan - "In October 2014, three men, including the owner of a Halal store - since forcibly closed by police - threatened a baker who sold ham sandwiches, saying he wasn’t a “good Muslim”... Last month, a message purporting to come from the spokesman of Isil called on followers to launch attacks on the United States and Europe during Ramadan, calling it “the month of conquest and jihad”"
Some British people are getting laid a lot—just not in Britain - "Two groups of researchers analyzed surveys of what British people do when they travel abroad and found that sex is high on the list... The group was composed of people from 16-74 years old, who reported having at least one sexual partner in the past five years. Out of this group, 9.2 percent of men and 5.3 percent of women said they found one or more new sexual partners while outside the UK. And out of those groups, according to Tanton and her colleagues, there was a lot of "disassortative sexual mixing," meaning cross-nationality intermingling... People who had sex while overseas were also more sexually adventurous in general; they reported having more partners both at home and abroad, as well as multiple partners and partners of both sexes... This is especially true in the case of backpackers, who were the subject of a second study of sexual activity among people backpacking in Thailand. "Over one-third of backpackers traveling without a longterm partner or spouse had vaginal and/or anal intercourse with a new partner; one-third of these did not use condoms consistently," write medical researchers C.T. Lewis and G. de Wildt in their paper. When it came to safer sex, Brits and Swedes were the most likely to report not using a condom during their escapades. Germans had less unsafe sex than Brits and Swedes but only because they hooked up less often. Canadians were most likely to say they'd used a condom and were also more likely to hook up with a new partner than other groups. (So the best travel sex is with Canadians, everybody.)"
Refugees allowed into Italy after threat to drown babies
People respond to incentives
University of Oregon -- Martin Luther King Quote Almost Removed for Not Being Inclusive Enough - "Student leaders at the University of Oregon considered removing a famous Martin Luther King Jr. quote from a wall on its student center on the grounds that it was just not inclusive enough — because it talked only about racial discrimination and not discrimination based on stuff like gender identity...
Oh, and it gets worse: The entire reason that quote was put there in the first place was to replace another quote that students had found offensive — one that called the university “leader in the quest for the good life for all men” — which is obviously, you know, sexist as hell."
Something that's getting a lot of people's Facebook accounts suspended
Alishba Zarmeen: Stupid Pakistani men telling women to shut up about their anger against Qandeel's murder.
Stupid Pakistani men trying to use their anti-west rhetoric to silence international media in the name of political correctness.
Women of Pakistan and true liberals of the world: Do. Not. Let. Them. Win.
This is a protest against one of the latest Honour Killings in Pakistan that is being mass reported on Facebook, getting people's accounts suspended.
Stupid Pakistani men trying to use their anti-west rhetoric to silence international media in the name of political correctness.
Women of Pakistan and true liberals of the world: Do. Not. Let. Them. Win.
This is a protest against one of the latest Honour Killings in Pakistan that is being mass reported on Facebook, getting people's accounts suspended.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
On Why PRCs and Indians have trouble renting places in Singapore
Re: Your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you (from 99.co)
A: If I give a coin to a Malay boy begging on the street instead of the elderly Indian female beggar hobbling on one leg next to him, I am guilty of discriminating against 1) elderly 2) females 3) handicapped 4) Indians.
Please stop casting preference as discrimination. Are madrasas racist? Are all boys-schools misogynist and all-girl schools misandrist?
C: it is a racial preference in one's personal space - a home rental, and it should, and will stay as a personal preference. So what, must chinese marry a non-chinese to show that he is not racist?
Me: This topic has come up before in this forum
Sadly because of some Indian tenants who misbehave, other Indians are affected
A: Now, if a Chinese gold merchant in Singapore refuses to sell gold to Chinese and only sells gold to Indians, is he racist? Based on the comments here, there will be strong support for this Chinese gold merchant who doesn't engage in 'racism' against minority Indians.
Now, if I tell you that the real reason is because Indians are so crazy over gold that they will pay a premium compared to Chinese buyers...
D: My cousin rented her condo to an indian expat family and they wreaked the bathrooms and kitchen so badly that the deposit can't cover the cleaning and repairs. Can I blame her for telling her friends never to rent their apartments to indian expats ? The interesting thing about this is that I heard the same from a local indian guy with similar bad experience. It might appear to be racism from the indian expat's POV, but it could just be him dealing with folks that were once bitten.
They wash the kitchen by spraying water everywhere soaking the cabinets until the wood was soaked and warped. The bathroom tiles had a sticky stain of oil (coconut oil) according to my indian friend. And the cabinets were also all water damaged. She was absolutely horrified.
A: When I urgently need to shit when out in public, why does society discriminate against my gender? I can't use the female toilet even when the shit is about to come out any time. Doesn't society not have the right to discriminate against the gender of the public? Either you decide to let the whole public use public toilets or not let the whole public use public toilets. It's very simple, really.
E: If you had a bad experience with someone from a certain company, would you still trust another person from the same company to provide service for you? You would be extra careful before taking up any agreement with the person from that company.
Me: For those who didn't see the previous thread about it, there're reasons why landlords might not want to rent to Indians
Landlords, how do you deal with curry smells left by tenants? : bayarea
"My parents are attempting to rent out their house and they're adamantly against renting to Indian families because they're afraid Indian cooking will cause the house to smell.
When they purchased their current house it literally took months before the curry smell dissipated despite professional cleaning"
F: Before anyone talks about discrimination, or racism, or xenophobia, go rent out your property first. Experience for yourself how it is like.
Go rent to Indians, or Chinese, or whoever you wish. Then let's talk when you have actual experience.
G: been there done that. I have no issue with it. Cleanliness is covered by the rental deposit.
D: Didn't cover the damage the indian expat family did to my cousin's condo.
Me: What obligation do we have to uphold social justice at very real personal costs?
Kelly La Rue's answer to Is it true only whites are considered racist? - Quora
F: Take a look at car insurance.
If you belong to a group with higher risk factor. eg. you are 21. Drive a subaru impreza. You are male. You pay a much higher insurance premium. If you say this is discrimination, and everyone should pay the same premium, then you are penalizing older, safer drivers.
Individual landlords does the same, but based on their own experiences. If risk is high, landlords prefer to lose money by not renting out their property. OR they ask for higher rental or higher deposits. If your references are good, your risk profile is low, you get more choices at rental properties, you pay less.
Me: Is it ageism to charge younger people more for auto insurance?
My friend had a Ferrari in his family. Auto insurance doesn't even cover under 30s. Is it ageism to refuse to cover younger people for auto insurance?
F: Take a look at http://sg.theasianparent.com/meet-the-asian-parent-team/ and tell me whether the HR department of Roshni's company is racist. Roshni is the Indian wife mentioned in the 99.co article.
they better not be racist themselves, particularly in employment, if they are pointing fingers at others.
23% Chinese employees, most of them junior staff, in a Country where over 70% of the population is Chinese is a lousy record.
E: This coming from the same guy who just sacked a staff for posting something on Facebook which caused an online witch hunt.
I suspect this is all just a marketing stint. No doubt discrimination is real, but to be honest, previously having worked as an agent, it isn't so bad that more than 30 landlords in the area refuses to rent just because of race. Most landlords actually would rather just take the rent. I suspect there is either something to do with the agent he hired, or something to do with the customer personal profile.
Me: In your experience what proportion of landlords won't rent to Indians?
E: My sample size would be too small to give an accurate representation, but from my experience, I've only had 1 in 10 actually refuse to rent to a particular race. Most others would state their personal preference, but would eventually agree to rent to the highest bidder / first offer that matches their desire rates.
There is one exception though. HDB flats.
G (who has substantial real estate experience): It usually applies to hdb and mass market. High end not really.
Me: So it's a class issue as well. Which makes sense.
G: Ok i am going to base my answer on my experience as a real estate agent.
For the high end market. $8-10k up. The race of the tenant usually does not matter. because in a sense they would usually have a helper to clean the house.
Mass market around $5k range. Issues like cleanliness of the house and maintenance are real concerns. i think at least 30% have some preference who they prefer to rent to.
HDB whole unit rental shares around the same rate as the mass market of landlords who will refuse to rent to indians and prc.
A group of students will have a harder time renting, because landlords will still prefer a family. ( because with a family nucleus they feel the house will be better taken care of. how many students actively do household chores. especially away from home )
I believe a landlord still has a right to choose, it's their property. If they dance around naked inside their property before renting it out, it's their prerogative to do so.
For those people talking smack.
Have u ever owned a property and rented it out to someone?
Because only someone who has not had the experience of renting out a property will think its strange to ask for a detail profile of the tenant.
preference for corporate tenants is not uncommon because the landlord can sue the bejesus out of the company if the property is damaged badly.
It is hard to go after someone who leaves the country permanently and won't be coming back.
PRC are known for subletting illegally. I have seen a 90sqm 3 bedroom hdb with more than 20 ppl living inside. I cannot imagine living in such conditions but they rented bed space out for $250 per month
I have prc tenants who call me to say they want to rent a place and then sublet ( hdb )
Certain districts there is plenty of cases of prc working ladies operating from condos n hdb.
( So yes if you are a female prc students looking to rent a place with other female friends. Tough )
Personally I find it hard to believe anyone can live in such an environment 20plus ppl in such a small space.
Can u imagine how much damage your property will sustain?
It's mostly a class issue. Landlords prefer to rent out with peace of mind. Whether if the incident happened to them or someone told them some story. The higher end market doesn't face such an issue.
Rental market is slowing so landlords seem to be less picky nowadays.
But heck talk is cheap.
For those crying foul. they can be a equal opportunity landlord. Come back after afew years then tell us what's your experience.
I believe they have never been landlords themselves and will never be able to relate to the worries of being a landlord.
A: I have some skin in the game, and you are spot on. The subletting issue of PRCs is well known and a nightmare. HDB owners especially are at risk because it is a potential contravention of the HDB lease agreement. Sure, you can have an indemnity clause in the contract, but if you lose your flat because HDB says so (and they have final say because you are merely leasing from them), good luck in pursuing your indemnification from the tenant.
Me: I believe there is also strict liability. Even if you don't know you are housing illegal immigrants you will kenna
G: If they illegally house illegal immigrants in the premises.
Hdb can repossess the property at 90% of market value or purchase price. Which ever is lower.
Depending on which year u bought. That's a potential hundred thousand loss. Not including stamp duties n legal fees u paid and will incur when u buy another flat.
Indian tenants have a reputation for suddenly have more family members move in later, sometimes without informing the landlord.
U rent the place to 5 pax family. Their cousin aunt uncle will move in later on. Sometimes landlord suspect it's not a relative but they are renting out to other ppl under the guise.
Cleanliness and upkeep is also a concern like with PRC tenants. For the lower end market. Often the deposit is not sufficient to cover the damages.
The cooking smell apparently stays within the house for some time. U actually need to repaint and get it cleaned professionally to remove the smell at the end of the lease and u want to rent it out to other ppl.
I think it's fair that landlords have a right to choose who they want to rent it to.
Indian and PRC landlords sometimes also refuse to rent to their fellow countrymen.
Local Chinese refuse to rent to local chinese family because why Singaporean don't have their own flat. Later loanshark problem etc
Me: I heard of locals who won't rent to locals because they think they should either stay with their parents or get married and get their own place
B: Quarterly inspections on an agreed schedule with reasonable notice periods solve upkeep issues.
H: how does one know the behaviour of a stranger?
B: References.
G: Some landlord rather not deal with the issue and spend time and money to solve the problem.
They rather not rent to them.
Room rentals
Indian landlords also offer only Indian tenants
Same applies for malay landlords.
No Chinese cos they eat pork.
Some prefer only male some prefer only female
Some don't want students. Some prefer students. Some prefer professionals.
Sexist ageist religious dietary nationalistic discrimination?
U can come up with magic dust to fix the problems.
Landlord prefer to not waste time effort and money. They prefer to collect rent in peace and take over the apartment in a acceptable condition.
Quarterly inspections is a stupid suggestion.
Landlord don't want to waste time. Tenant don't want to be disturbed.
There is a quiet enjoyment clause which states that u must not intrude on the tenant.
It is not common market practice.
Like I said they know nothing about the realities/practices of the rental market.
It made me LOL that ppl think landlords should think of Social Justice more than their own convenience, profit or peace of mind.
B: Quarterly inspections is about due diligence. If you as a landlord think it's a waste of time to do a regular checkup and avert costly issues then you'rea terrible landlord.
G: I have a cobroke agent relate to me how an Indian expat abandoned the apartment. Stole all the appliances. Even took down the AC unit and left the country.
Tenant also left the water on and flooded the apartment.
Landlord was rightfully hoping mad and swore he will never rent out to Indians again. Damages were apparently more than 100k.
Condo was eventually enbloc.
A: Quarterly inspection! Good luck removing people after they moved in.
G: I may not agree with the landlords, but they as the owner have a right to choose what they perceive is in their own interests.
When the market is bad enough. Landlords will be more willing to open up their options.
This is a contract between 2 willing parties. In a upmarket. Landlords have more power to pick and choose. Now market is slowing. Tenants have more options and more bargaining power.
It is not against the law here in Singapore to have your preference as a landlord.
The policy of non discriminatory ads is silly to me. Since landlord do not want certain type of tenants. Why even let them view and waste their time.
If I tell my landlords they can rent to x and then conduct quarterly inspections.
Other tenants will not rent.
My landlord's tenant: British Indian and his Indian Malaysian wife for my bukit Timah apartment. Even refuse to allow viewing during their occupation of the premises.
So is the landlord supposed to target certain tenants for such a clause.
Isn't that discrimination?
The fix to discrimination is to fix more discriminatory clauses?
B: If you don't do quarterly inspections and don't make that part of the contract then don't be surprised when someone takes advantage of you. It's the failure to minimal sensible precautions that is only your fault.
Why a landlord needs to perform quarterly inspections on their rental properties.
G: It's easy to tell other ppl what to do when u do not have to do it yourself.
Amusing asides:
B: For example, identical candidates for a job technically speaking, but using only race as the deciding factor, is resist.
Me: What should be the deciding factor? The roll of a die?
B: yes, that should be the deciding factor.
A: HR companies need to make it a practice to hire a third party to publicly flip a coin in front of two equally qualified candidates and have a document signed by a notary public witnessing the coin toss to ensure that race wasn't a factor. Man.. Why hasn't this been an established HR practice yet?
B: If there are two candidates for one job where it's not possible to decide based on performance metrics, then yes a coin toss is done.
There're also multiple people on Yahoo Singapore talking about Indians who refuse to rent to Indian Indians, or Chinese who refuse to rent to China Chinese.
A: If I give a coin to a Malay boy begging on the street instead of the elderly Indian female beggar hobbling on one leg next to him, I am guilty of discriminating against 1) elderly 2) females 3) handicapped 4) Indians.
Please stop casting preference as discrimination. Are madrasas racist? Are all boys-schools misogynist and all-girl schools misandrist?
C: it is a racial preference in one's personal space - a home rental, and it should, and will stay as a personal preference. So what, must chinese marry a non-chinese to show that he is not racist?
Me: This topic has come up before in this forum
Sadly because of some Indian tenants who misbehave, other Indians are affected
A: Now, if a Chinese gold merchant in Singapore refuses to sell gold to Chinese and only sells gold to Indians, is he racist? Based on the comments here, there will be strong support for this Chinese gold merchant who doesn't engage in 'racism' against minority Indians.
Now, if I tell you that the real reason is because Indians are so crazy over gold that they will pay a premium compared to Chinese buyers...
D: My cousin rented her condo to an indian expat family and they wreaked the bathrooms and kitchen so badly that the deposit can't cover the cleaning and repairs. Can I blame her for telling her friends never to rent their apartments to indian expats ? The interesting thing about this is that I heard the same from a local indian guy with similar bad experience. It might appear to be racism from the indian expat's POV, but it could just be him dealing with folks that were once bitten.
They wash the kitchen by spraying water everywhere soaking the cabinets until the wood was soaked and warped. The bathroom tiles had a sticky stain of oil (coconut oil) according to my indian friend. And the cabinets were also all water damaged. She was absolutely horrified.
A: When I urgently need to shit when out in public, why does society discriminate against my gender? I can't use the female toilet even when the shit is about to come out any time. Doesn't society not have the right to discriminate against the gender of the public? Either you decide to let the whole public use public toilets or not let the whole public use public toilets. It's very simple, really.
E: If you had a bad experience with someone from a certain company, would you still trust another person from the same company to provide service for you? You would be extra careful before taking up any agreement with the person from that company.
Me: For those who didn't see the previous thread about it, there're reasons why landlords might not want to rent to Indians
Landlords, how do you deal with curry smells left by tenants? : bayarea
"My parents are attempting to rent out their house and they're adamantly against renting to Indian families because they're afraid Indian cooking will cause the house to smell.
When they purchased their current house it literally took months before the curry smell dissipated despite professional cleaning"
F: Before anyone talks about discrimination, or racism, or xenophobia, go rent out your property first. Experience for yourself how it is like.
Go rent to Indians, or Chinese, or whoever you wish. Then let's talk when you have actual experience.
G: been there done that. I have no issue with it. Cleanliness is covered by the rental deposit.
D: Didn't cover the damage the indian expat family did to my cousin's condo.
Me: What obligation do we have to uphold social justice at very real personal costs?
Kelly La Rue's answer to Is it true only whites are considered racist? - Quora
F: Take a look at car insurance.
If you belong to a group with higher risk factor. eg. you are 21. Drive a subaru impreza. You are male. You pay a much higher insurance premium. If you say this is discrimination, and everyone should pay the same premium, then you are penalizing older, safer drivers.
Individual landlords does the same, but based on their own experiences. If risk is high, landlords prefer to lose money by not renting out their property. OR they ask for higher rental or higher deposits. If your references are good, your risk profile is low, you get more choices at rental properties, you pay less.
Me: Is it ageism to charge younger people more for auto insurance?
My friend had a Ferrari in his family. Auto insurance doesn't even cover under 30s. Is it ageism to refuse to cover younger people for auto insurance?
F: Take a look at http://sg.theasianparent.com/meet-the-asian-parent-team/ and tell me whether the HR department of Roshni's company is racist. Roshni is the Indian wife mentioned in the 99.co article.
they better not be racist themselves, particularly in employment, if they are pointing fingers at others.
23% Chinese employees, most of them junior staff, in a Country where over 70% of the population is Chinese is a lousy record.
E: This coming from the same guy who just sacked a staff for posting something on Facebook which caused an online witch hunt.
I suspect this is all just a marketing stint. No doubt discrimination is real, but to be honest, previously having worked as an agent, it isn't so bad that more than 30 landlords in the area refuses to rent just because of race. Most landlords actually would rather just take the rent. I suspect there is either something to do with the agent he hired, or something to do with the customer personal profile.
Me: In your experience what proportion of landlords won't rent to Indians?
E: My sample size would be too small to give an accurate representation, but from my experience, I've only had 1 in 10 actually refuse to rent to a particular race. Most others would state their personal preference, but would eventually agree to rent to the highest bidder / first offer that matches their desire rates.
There is one exception though. HDB flats.
G (who has substantial real estate experience): It usually applies to hdb and mass market. High end not really.
Me: So it's a class issue as well. Which makes sense.
G: Ok i am going to base my answer on my experience as a real estate agent.
For the high end market. $8-10k up. The race of the tenant usually does not matter. because in a sense they would usually have a helper to clean the house.
Mass market around $5k range. Issues like cleanliness of the house and maintenance are real concerns. i think at least 30% have some preference who they prefer to rent to.
HDB whole unit rental shares around the same rate as the mass market of landlords who will refuse to rent to indians and prc.
A group of students will have a harder time renting, because landlords will still prefer a family. ( because with a family nucleus they feel the house will be better taken care of. how many students actively do household chores. especially away from home )
I believe a landlord still has a right to choose, it's their property. If they dance around naked inside their property before renting it out, it's their prerogative to do so.
For those people talking smack.
Have u ever owned a property and rented it out to someone?
Because only someone who has not had the experience of renting out a property will think its strange to ask for a detail profile of the tenant.
preference for corporate tenants is not uncommon because the landlord can sue the bejesus out of the company if the property is damaged badly.
It is hard to go after someone who leaves the country permanently and won't be coming back.
PRC are known for subletting illegally. I have seen a 90sqm 3 bedroom hdb with more than 20 ppl living inside. I cannot imagine living in such conditions but they rented bed space out for $250 per month
I have prc tenants who call me to say they want to rent a place and then sublet ( hdb )
Certain districts there is plenty of cases of prc working ladies operating from condos n hdb.
( So yes if you are a female prc students looking to rent a place with other female friends. Tough )
Personally I find it hard to believe anyone can live in such an environment 20plus ppl in such a small space.
Can u imagine how much damage your property will sustain?
It's mostly a class issue. Landlords prefer to rent out with peace of mind. Whether if the incident happened to them or someone told them some story. The higher end market doesn't face such an issue.
Rental market is slowing so landlords seem to be less picky nowadays.
But heck talk is cheap.
For those crying foul. they can be a equal opportunity landlord. Come back after afew years then tell us what's your experience.
I believe they have never been landlords themselves and will never be able to relate to the worries of being a landlord.
A: I have some skin in the game, and you are spot on. The subletting issue of PRCs is well known and a nightmare. HDB owners especially are at risk because it is a potential contravention of the HDB lease agreement. Sure, you can have an indemnity clause in the contract, but if you lose your flat because HDB says so (and they have final say because you are merely leasing from them), good luck in pursuing your indemnification from the tenant.
Me: I believe there is also strict liability. Even if you don't know you are housing illegal immigrants you will kenna
G: If they illegally house illegal immigrants in the premises.
Hdb can repossess the property at 90% of market value or purchase price. Which ever is lower.
Depending on which year u bought. That's a potential hundred thousand loss. Not including stamp duties n legal fees u paid and will incur when u buy another flat.
Indian tenants have a reputation for suddenly have more family members move in later, sometimes without informing the landlord.
U rent the place to 5 pax family. Their cousin aunt uncle will move in later on. Sometimes landlord suspect it's not a relative but they are renting out to other ppl under the guise.
Cleanliness and upkeep is also a concern like with PRC tenants. For the lower end market. Often the deposit is not sufficient to cover the damages.
The cooking smell apparently stays within the house for some time. U actually need to repaint and get it cleaned professionally to remove the smell at the end of the lease and u want to rent it out to other ppl.
I think it's fair that landlords have a right to choose who they want to rent it to.
Indian and PRC landlords sometimes also refuse to rent to their fellow countrymen.
Local Chinese refuse to rent to local chinese family because why Singaporean don't have their own flat. Later loanshark problem etc
Me: I heard of locals who won't rent to locals because they think they should either stay with their parents or get married and get their own place
B: Quarterly inspections on an agreed schedule with reasonable notice periods solve upkeep issues.
H: how does one know the behaviour of a stranger?
B: References.
G: Some landlord rather not deal with the issue and spend time and money to solve the problem.
They rather not rent to them.
Room rentals
Indian landlords also offer only Indian tenants
Same applies for malay landlords.
No Chinese cos they eat pork.
Some prefer only male some prefer only female
Some don't want students. Some prefer students. Some prefer professionals.
Sexist ageist religious dietary nationalistic discrimination?
U can come up with magic dust to fix the problems.
Landlord prefer to not waste time effort and money. They prefer to collect rent in peace and take over the apartment in a acceptable condition.
Quarterly inspections is a stupid suggestion.
Landlord don't want to waste time. Tenant don't want to be disturbed.
There is a quiet enjoyment clause which states that u must not intrude on the tenant.
It is not common market practice.
Like I said they know nothing about the realities/practices of the rental market.
It made me LOL that ppl think landlords should think of Social Justice more than their own convenience, profit or peace of mind.
B: Quarterly inspections is about due diligence. If you as a landlord think it's a waste of time to do a regular checkup and avert costly issues then you'rea terrible landlord.
G: I have a cobroke agent relate to me how an Indian expat abandoned the apartment. Stole all the appliances. Even took down the AC unit and left the country.
Tenant also left the water on and flooded the apartment.
Landlord was rightfully hoping mad and swore he will never rent out to Indians again. Damages were apparently more than 100k.
Condo was eventually enbloc.
A: Quarterly inspection! Good luck removing people after they moved in.
G: I may not agree with the landlords, but they as the owner have a right to choose what they perceive is in their own interests.
When the market is bad enough. Landlords will be more willing to open up their options.
This is a contract between 2 willing parties. In a upmarket. Landlords have more power to pick and choose. Now market is slowing. Tenants have more options and more bargaining power.
It is not against the law here in Singapore to have your preference as a landlord.
The policy of non discriminatory ads is silly to me. Since landlord do not want certain type of tenants. Why even let them view and waste their time.
If I tell my landlords they can rent to x and then conduct quarterly inspections.
Other tenants will not rent.
My landlord's tenant: British Indian and his Indian Malaysian wife for my bukit Timah apartment. Even refuse to allow viewing during their occupation of the premises.
So is the landlord supposed to target certain tenants for such a clause.
Isn't that discrimination?
The fix to discrimination is to fix more discriminatory clauses?
B: If you don't do quarterly inspections and don't make that part of the contract then don't be surprised when someone takes advantage of you. It's the failure to minimal sensible precautions that is only your fault.
Why a landlord needs to perform quarterly inspections on their rental properties.
G: It's easy to tell other ppl what to do when u do not have to do it yourself.
Amusing asides:
B: For example, identical candidates for a job technically speaking, but using only race as the deciding factor, is resist.
Me: What should be the deciding factor? The roll of a die?
B: yes, that should be the deciding factor.
A: HR companies need to make it a practice to hire a third party to publicly flip a coin in front of two equally qualified candidates and have a document signed by a notary public witnessing the coin toss to ensure that race wasn't a factor. Man.. Why hasn't this been an established HR practice yet?
B: If there are two candidates for one job where it's not possible to decide based on performance metrics, then yes a coin toss is done.
There're also multiple people on Yahoo Singapore talking about Indians who refuse to rent to Indian Indians, or Chinese who refuse to rent to China Chinese.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Links - 18th July 2016
Indian company finally delivers $5 smartphone
AfD Politician ridicules Green Party LGBTTQQ Proposal by greeting Parliament in 60 different Genders - YouTube
Woman jailed for registering marriage without consent - "When her boyfriend left her after becoming suspicious the son they shared was not biologically his, a woman devised a plan to get her lover back. The 32-year-old finance assistant stole her ex-boyfriend’s national registration identity card (NRIC) and enlisted the help of her friend Matthew Yeo Chia Loong to impersonate him, then she registered their marriage."
Women From Venus, Men Still From Mars on Facebook, Study Finds - The New York Times - "Women used warmer, gentler words in their status updates on Facebook compared to men, who were more likely to swear, express anger and use argumentative language, a study of 10 million postings released on Wednesday found. In a bit of a surprise, the study showed that women used slightly more assertive language, said H. Andrew Schwartz, an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University and one of its authors... The most commonly cited topics by women included words such as “wonderful,” “happy,” “birthday,” “daughter,” “baby,” “excited” and “thankful.” Women were more likely to discuss family and social life, relying on words that described positive emotions, such as “love,” and intensive adverbs, such as “sooo,” “sooooo,” and “ridiculously,” the study said. Men more frequently discussed topics related to money or work, and favored words tied to politics, sports, competition and activities, such as shooting guns or playing video games. Men commonly used words such as “freedom,” “liberty,” “win,” “lose,” “battle” and “enemy.” “The differences were interpreted as reflecting a male tendency toward objects and impersonal topics and a female tendency toward psychological and social processes,” the report said... It also was a data-based way to study social media that could be replicated outside the United States, to see if such gender differences surface in other cultures and societies"
Infants' preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: sex differences and similarities. - "Girls and boys differ in their preferences for toys such as dolls and trucks. These sex differences are present in infants, are seen in non-human primates, and relate, in part, to prenatal androgen exposure. This evidence of inborn influences on sex-typed toy preferences has led to suggestions that object features, such as the color or the shape of toys, may be of intrinsically different interest to males and females. We used a preferential looking task to examine preferences for different toys, colors, and shapes in 120 infants, ages 12, 18, or 24 months. Girls looked at dolls significantly more than boys did and boys looked at cars significantly more than girls did, irrespective of color, particularly when brightness was controlled. These outcomes did not vary with age. There were no significant sex differences in infants' preferences for different colors or shapes. Instead, both girls and boys preferred reddish colors over blue and rounded over angular shapes. These findings augment prior evidence of sex-typed toy preferences in infants, but suggest that color and shape do not determine these sex differences. In fact, the direction of influence could be the opposite. Girls may learn to prefer pink, for instance, because the toys that they enjoy playing with are often colored pink. Regarding within sex differences, as opposed to differences between boys and girls, both boys and girls preferred dolls to cars at age 12-months. The preference of young boys for dolls over cars suggests that older boys' avoidance of dolls may be acquired. Similarly, the sex similarities in infants' preferences for colors and shapes suggest that any subsequent sex differences in these preferences may arise from socialization or cognitive gender development rather than inborn factors."
Boys play with dolls too - they're called action figures
Who said “The Definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”? - "The quote, through great debate, has been attributed to Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Rita Mae Brown. It has been repeated through variation by coaches, athletes, overweight women, neurotic psych patients, housewives and, most recently, conservative political commentators... Who knows? It could very well be just an ancient Chinese proverb. I would sincerely love any information you come across regarding this. After all, the great Einstein once said, “Knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle.”"
There's A Reason Nigerian Scammers Are So Obvious In Their Emails - "the genius behind such an obvious scam in terms of “false positives,” referring to email recipients who engage with the scammers but don’t ultimately pay. Reaching out to scores of potential victims isn’t much work, thanks to the ease of email, but with each reply from a gullible target, the scammers are required to put forth a little more effort. Therefore, it’s in the scammers’ best interest to minimize the number of false positives who cost them effort but never send them cash. By sending an initial email that’s obvious in its shortcomings, the scammers are isolating the most gullible targets. If you trash their email, that’s fine. They don’t want you, someone from whom there’s virtually no chance of receiving any money. They want people who, faced with a ridiculous email, still don’t recognize its illegitimacy... the best defense against these crooks is to game their system and waste their time. Ideally, he says, this would take the form of a chatbot that engages with scammers, to make them put in the effort toward the false positives they’re trying to avoid."
Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children - "Sex differences in toy preferences in children are marked, with boys expressing stronger and more rigid toy preferences than girls, whose preferences are more flexible. Socialization processes, parents, or peers encouraging play with gender-specific toys are thought to be the primary force shaping sex differences in toy preference. A contrast in view is that toy preferences reflect biologically-determined preferences for specific activities facilitated by specific toys. Sex differences in juvenile activities, such as rough-and-tumble play, peer preferences, and infant interest, share similarities in humans and monkeys. Thus if activity preferences shape toy preferences, male and female monkeys may show toy preferences similar to those seen in boys and girls. We compared the interactions of 34 rhesus monkeys, living within a 135 monkey troop, with human wheeled toys and plush toys. Male monkeys, like boys, showed consistent and strong preferences for wheeled toys, while female monkeys, like girls, showed greater variability in preferences. Thus, the magnitude of preference for wheeled over plush toys differed significantly between males and females. The similarities to human findings demonstrate that such preferences can develop without explicit gendered socialization. We offer the hypothesis that toy preferences reflect hormonally influenced behavioral and cognitive biases which are sculpted by social processes into the sex differences seen in monkeys and humans."
Sex-Typed Toy Play Behavior Correlates with the Degree of Prenatal Androgen Exposure Assessed by CYP21 Genotype in Girls with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia - "Previous studies have shown that girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a syndrome resulting in overproduction of adrenal androgens from early fetal life, are behaviorally masculinized. We studied play with toys in a structured play situation and correlated the results with disease severity, assessed by CYP21 genotyping, and age at diagnosis. Girls with CAH played more with masculine toys than controls when playing alone. In addition, we could demonstrate a dose-response relationship between disease severity (i.e. degree of fetal androgen exposure) and degree of masculinization of behavior. The presence of a parent did not influence the CAH girls to play in a more masculine fashion. Four CAH girls with late diagnosis are also described. Three of the four girls played exclusively with one of the masculine toys, a constructional toy. Our results support the view that prenatal androgen exposure has a direct organizational effect on the human brain to determine certain aspects of sex-typed behavior."
Dolls, toys and formative attitudes towards children and childbearing - "As in most of the working papers in the series, the over-riding conclusion of this piece is that both biological and social processes play a crucial role in shaping children‘s interactions with toys which, in turn, has been found to significantly impact upon an individual‘s gendered scheme and progression"
Can genes make us liberal or conservative? - "Working with 1771 university students of Han Chinese origin in Singapore, researchers compared answers to surveys—including one tailored to hot-button issues in the city-state—with the presence of a permutation of the DRD4 gene. DRD4 is one of several genes that determines the way dopamine—a crucial neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger—is released in the brain. What they found was a robust link between the presence (or not) of the variant and a split between liberals inclined to decry inequality, on the one hand, and die-hard conservative wary of change, on the other. "The association between political attitude and DRD4 was highly significant for females," and less so for men, said the study, led by Richard Ebstein of the National University of Singapore. Women, it was also shown, tended to be more conservative in general. The results are bolstered by earlier research based on people of European descent that found similar patterns around the same gene, according to the study."
Study Predicts Political Beliefs With 83 Percent Accuracy - "If you want to know people’s politics, tradition said to study their parents. In fact, the party affiliation of someone’s parents can predict the child’s political leanings about around 70 percent of the time. But new research, published yesterday in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests what mom and dad think isn’t the endgame when it comes to shaping a person’s political identity. Ideological differences between partisans may reflect distinct neural processes, and they can predict who’s right and who’s left of center with 82.9 percent accuracy, outperforming the “your parents pick your party” model"
Patriarchy, Male Competition, and Excess Male Mortality - "Studies of patriarchy typically focus on women’s subordination to men and thedetrimental consequences for females. In this study, however, the authors predict thatgreater social empowerment of women will be associated with smaller mortalitydifferences between women and men, which may seem counterintuitive from a non-evolutionary perspective. In other words, they predict that higher levels of societalpatriarchy will be associated with greater levels of excess male mortality. They proposethat the degree of patriarchy reflects both the extent of male control of females asreproductive assets, as well as the degree of male competition for positions of highstatus and power that have historically conferred disproportionate reproductive benefits.The intensity of this male competition directly predicts the extent to which malemortality rates exceed female mortality rates. The authors examined national levelsociodemographic and mortality data from the WHO Mortality Database, UnitedNations, CIA World Factbook, and the Encyclopedia of World Cultures. They foundthat across nations, women’s social and economic empowerment had a strong inverserelationship with the disparity between male and female mortality from both external(direct behavioral) and (behaviorally mediated) internal causes, even when accountingfor general economic inequality and the prevalence of polygyny. This study demon-strates the usefulness of an evolutionary framework for explaining contemporary socialphenomena and important public health issues"
How to Be Tim Ferriss - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "FERRISS: I do not give money, and I’ll tell you why. I at one point paid a homeless gentleman in San Francisco to give me a tour of the entire sort of homeless underground in San Francisco... he walked me through the Tenderloin, through all these different areas, and he pointed out where to get clothing, where to get housing, where to get blankets, where to get food, where to get all these resources, and he said, anyone who is asking for money is doing so to buy drugs or alcohol."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Monday's business with Rob Young - "Look, we can try and construct every negative thing that's happening as being down to Donald Trump or Brexit. That seems to be what lots of people are doing. But let's be realistic about this"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'America is gone' if Trump loses US election - "'Your prediction therefore is that Donald Trump will win'
'I think so. I'm not as confident about the presidency. And why is that? It's not because of women voters. It's a question of whether the Democratic Party has already changed the county enough. Oh and by the way, do not imagine Democrats are for mass immigration of the Third World because of great humanitarian concerns. Post-1970 immigrants vote 8-2 for the Democrats. They've changed the electorate. California where we're sitting now used to give us Republican Presidents. Reagan, Nixon. No Republicans get elected to statewide anymore. Well, they've been - Teddy Kennedy's immigration act. They're trying to do it to the whole country"
How to Win Games and Beat People - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "WHIPPLE: I spoke to a structural engineer who spent a lot of the time talking about how he likes to beat architects at Jenga because his fundamental hypothesis was they can do all their fancy drawings but he can play Jenga... the most interesting person was a woman who invented it I spoke to. And she said that when she plays Jenga with people, she is often accused of cheating, because she likes to put her elbow against the tower when she is pulling out the blocks to stabilize it, and people say you can’t do this. And she says, “Well, look, I invented the game. There are only three rules!” You can only use one hand; you can only take out one block at a time; and if that block touches the floor then it’s over."
AfD Politician ridicules Green Party LGBTTQQ Proposal by greeting Parliament in 60 different Genders - YouTube
Woman jailed for registering marriage without consent - "When her boyfriend left her after becoming suspicious the son they shared was not biologically his, a woman devised a plan to get her lover back. The 32-year-old finance assistant stole her ex-boyfriend’s national registration identity card (NRIC) and enlisted the help of her friend Matthew Yeo Chia Loong to impersonate him, then she registered their marriage."
Women From Venus, Men Still From Mars on Facebook, Study Finds - The New York Times - "Women used warmer, gentler words in their status updates on Facebook compared to men, who were more likely to swear, express anger and use argumentative language, a study of 10 million postings released on Wednesday found. In a bit of a surprise, the study showed that women used slightly more assertive language, said H. Andrew Schwartz, an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University and one of its authors... The most commonly cited topics by women included words such as “wonderful,” “happy,” “birthday,” “daughter,” “baby,” “excited” and “thankful.” Women were more likely to discuss family and social life, relying on words that described positive emotions, such as “love,” and intensive adverbs, such as “sooo,” “sooooo,” and “ridiculously,” the study said. Men more frequently discussed topics related to money or work, and favored words tied to politics, sports, competition and activities, such as shooting guns or playing video games. Men commonly used words such as “freedom,” “liberty,” “win,” “lose,” “battle” and “enemy.” “The differences were interpreted as reflecting a male tendency toward objects and impersonal topics and a female tendency toward psychological and social processes,” the report said... It also was a data-based way to study social media that could be replicated outside the United States, to see if such gender differences surface in other cultures and societies"
Infants' preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: sex differences and similarities. - "Girls and boys differ in their preferences for toys such as dolls and trucks. These sex differences are present in infants, are seen in non-human primates, and relate, in part, to prenatal androgen exposure. This evidence of inborn influences on sex-typed toy preferences has led to suggestions that object features, such as the color or the shape of toys, may be of intrinsically different interest to males and females. We used a preferential looking task to examine preferences for different toys, colors, and shapes in 120 infants, ages 12, 18, or 24 months. Girls looked at dolls significantly more than boys did and boys looked at cars significantly more than girls did, irrespective of color, particularly when brightness was controlled. These outcomes did not vary with age. There were no significant sex differences in infants' preferences for different colors or shapes. Instead, both girls and boys preferred reddish colors over blue and rounded over angular shapes. These findings augment prior evidence of sex-typed toy preferences in infants, but suggest that color and shape do not determine these sex differences. In fact, the direction of influence could be the opposite. Girls may learn to prefer pink, for instance, because the toys that they enjoy playing with are often colored pink. Regarding within sex differences, as opposed to differences between boys and girls, both boys and girls preferred dolls to cars at age 12-months. The preference of young boys for dolls over cars suggests that older boys' avoidance of dolls may be acquired. Similarly, the sex similarities in infants' preferences for colors and shapes suggest that any subsequent sex differences in these preferences may arise from socialization or cognitive gender development rather than inborn factors."
Boys play with dolls too - they're called action figures
Who said “The Definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”? - "The quote, through great debate, has been attributed to Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Rita Mae Brown. It has been repeated through variation by coaches, athletes, overweight women, neurotic psych patients, housewives and, most recently, conservative political commentators... Who knows? It could very well be just an ancient Chinese proverb. I would sincerely love any information you come across regarding this. After all, the great Einstein once said, “Knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle.”"
There's A Reason Nigerian Scammers Are So Obvious In Their Emails - "the genius behind such an obvious scam in terms of “false positives,” referring to email recipients who engage with the scammers but don’t ultimately pay. Reaching out to scores of potential victims isn’t much work, thanks to the ease of email, but with each reply from a gullible target, the scammers are required to put forth a little more effort. Therefore, it’s in the scammers’ best interest to minimize the number of false positives who cost them effort but never send them cash. By sending an initial email that’s obvious in its shortcomings, the scammers are isolating the most gullible targets. If you trash their email, that’s fine. They don’t want you, someone from whom there’s virtually no chance of receiving any money. They want people who, faced with a ridiculous email, still don’t recognize its illegitimacy... the best defense against these crooks is to game their system and waste their time. Ideally, he says, this would take the form of a chatbot that engages with scammers, to make them put in the effort toward the false positives they’re trying to avoid."
Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children - "Sex differences in toy preferences in children are marked, with boys expressing stronger and more rigid toy preferences than girls, whose preferences are more flexible. Socialization processes, parents, or peers encouraging play with gender-specific toys are thought to be the primary force shaping sex differences in toy preference. A contrast in view is that toy preferences reflect biologically-determined preferences for specific activities facilitated by specific toys. Sex differences in juvenile activities, such as rough-and-tumble play, peer preferences, and infant interest, share similarities in humans and monkeys. Thus if activity preferences shape toy preferences, male and female monkeys may show toy preferences similar to those seen in boys and girls. We compared the interactions of 34 rhesus monkeys, living within a 135 monkey troop, with human wheeled toys and plush toys. Male monkeys, like boys, showed consistent and strong preferences for wheeled toys, while female monkeys, like girls, showed greater variability in preferences. Thus, the magnitude of preference for wheeled over plush toys differed significantly between males and females. The similarities to human findings demonstrate that such preferences can develop without explicit gendered socialization. We offer the hypothesis that toy preferences reflect hormonally influenced behavioral and cognitive biases which are sculpted by social processes into the sex differences seen in monkeys and humans."
Sex-Typed Toy Play Behavior Correlates with the Degree of Prenatal Androgen Exposure Assessed by CYP21 Genotype in Girls with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia - "Previous studies have shown that girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a syndrome resulting in overproduction of adrenal androgens from early fetal life, are behaviorally masculinized. We studied play with toys in a structured play situation and correlated the results with disease severity, assessed by CYP21 genotyping, and age at diagnosis. Girls with CAH played more with masculine toys than controls when playing alone. In addition, we could demonstrate a dose-response relationship between disease severity (i.e. degree of fetal androgen exposure) and degree of masculinization of behavior. The presence of a parent did not influence the CAH girls to play in a more masculine fashion. Four CAH girls with late diagnosis are also described. Three of the four girls played exclusively with one of the masculine toys, a constructional toy. Our results support the view that prenatal androgen exposure has a direct organizational effect on the human brain to determine certain aspects of sex-typed behavior."
Dolls, toys and formative attitudes towards children and childbearing - "As in most of the working papers in the series, the over-riding conclusion of this piece is that both biological and social processes play a crucial role in shaping children‘s interactions with toys which, in turn, has been found to significantly impact upon an individual‘s gendered scheme and progression"
Can genes make us liberal or conservative? - "Working with 1771 university students of Han Chinese origin in Singapore, researchers compared answers to surveys—including one tailored to hot-button issues in the city-state—with the presence of a permutation of the DRD4 gene. DRD4 is one of several genes that determines the way dopamine—a crucial neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger—is released in the brain. What they found was a robust link between the presence (or not) of the variant and a split between liberals inclined to decry inequality, on the one hand, and die-hard conservative wary of change, on the other. "The association between political attitude and DRD4 was highly significant for females," and less so for men, said the study, led by Richard Ebstein of the National University of Singapore. Women, it was also shown, tended to be more conservative in general. The results are bolstered by earlier research based on people of European descent that found similar patterns around the same gene, according to the study."
Study Predicts Political Beliefs With 83 Percent Accuracy - "If you want to know people’s politics, tradition said to study their parents. In fact, the party affiliation of someone’s parents can predict the child’s political leanings about around 70 percent of the time. But new research, published yesterday in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests what mom and dad think isn’t the endgame when it comes to shaping a person’s political identity. Ideological differences between partisans may reflect distinct neural processes, and they can predict who’s right and who’s left of center with 82.9 percent accuracy, outperforming the “your parents pick your party” model"
Patriarchy, Male Competition, and Excess Male Mortality - "Studies of patriarchy typically focus on women’s subordination to men and thedetrimental consequences for females. In this study, however, the authors predict thatgreater social empowerment of women will be associated with smaller mortalitydifferences between women and men, which may seem counterintuitive from a non-evolutionary perspective. In other words, they predict that higher levels of societalpatriarchy will be associated with greater levels of excess male mortality. They proposethat the degree of patriarchy reflects both the extent of male control of females asreproductive assets, as well as the degree of male competition for positions of highstatus and power that have historically conferred disproportionate reproductive benefits.The intensity of this male competition directly predicts the extent to which malemortality rates exceed female mortality rates. The authors examined national levelsociodemographic and mortality data from the WHO Mortality Database, UnitedNations, CIA World Factbook, and the Encyclopedia of World Cultures. They foundthat across nations, women’s social and economic empowerment had a strong inverserelationship with the disparity between male and female mortality from both external(direct behavioral) and (behaviorally mediated) internal causes, even when accountingfor general economic inequality and the prevalence of polygyny. This study demon-strates the usefulness of an evolutionary framework for explaining contemporary socialphenomena and important public health issues"
How to Be Tim Ferriss - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "FERRISS: I do not give money, and I’ll tell you why. I at one point paid a homeless gentleman in San Francisco to give me a tour of the entire sort of homeless underground in San Francisco... he walked me through the Tenderloin, through all these different areas, and he pointed out where to get clothing, where to get housing, where to get blankets, where to get food, where to get all these resources, and he said, anyone who is asking for money is doing so to buy drugs or alcohol."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Monday's business with Rob Young - "Look, we can try and construct every negative thing that's happening as being down to Donald Trump or Brexit. That seems to be what lots of people are doing. But let's be realistic about this"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'America is gone' if Trump loses US election - "'Your prediction therefore is that Donald Trump will win'
'I think so. I'm not as confident about the presidency. And why is that? It's not because of women voters. It's a question of whether the Democratic Party has already changed the county enough. Oh and by the way, do not imagine Democrats are for mass immigration of the Third World because of great humanitarian concerns. Post-1970 immigrants vote 8-2 for the Democrats. They've changed the electorate. California where we're sitting now used to give us Republican Presidents. Reagan, Nixon. No Republicans get elected to statewide anymore. Well, they've been - Teddy Kennedy's immigration act. They're trying to do it to the whole country"
How to Win Games and Beat People - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "WHIPPLE: I spoke to a structural engineer who spent a lot of the time talking about how he likes to beat architects at Jenga because his fundamental hypothesis was they can do all their fancy drawings but he can play Jenga... the most interesting person was a woman who invented it I spoke to. And she said that when she plays Jenga with people, she is often accused of cheating, because she likes to put her elbow against the tower when she is pulling out the blocks to stabilize it, and people say you can’t do this. And she says, “Well, look, I invented the game. There are only three rules!” You can only use one hand; you can only take out one block at a time; and if that block touches the floor then it’s over."
Observations - 18th July 2016
I prefer being served by Malay or Indian service staff than Chinese, because they'll speak English. Does that make me racist?
I don't think Hong Kongers are upset about how expensive it is to drive there because their public transport is so good. Carphobes shouldn't put the cart before the horse. Public transport must be improved before we continue to squeeze car owners.
I believe in equality. I make fun of everyone.
“An Activist tries to get a ramp added to a building for easier wheelchair access. A Social Justice Warrior tries to get the stairs removed because they might offend people who can’t use them.”
The most equal societies are hunter gatherer societies. Perhaps we should destroy civilisation.
"In 100 years time will people still be blaming colonialism for Africa's problems?"
"Some people still bang on and on about the crusades as justification for social problems and a reason for hating and killing people 'in retaliation' for those crimes.
That happened literally a millennium ago..."
"ISIS identifies as Islamic.
"No they're not Islamic," say the left.
Boy identifies as girl.
"Absolutely," say the left."
SJWs' hypersensitivity to "rape" (i.e. sex) but not violence curiously mirrors the American sensibility of being allergic to sex but not violence
If Islamist terrorists attacked Singapore, some would blame this on Chinese racism
"When your chances of being sued rises sigificantly when you hire a female or person of color. Assuming both candidates are equally qualified, as a business decision, is it not smart to hire the white guy?"
(in other words, this might be one reason accounting for lower "minority" representation)
"If not for the male gaze there would be very little art"
"Micro aggressions never get micro reactions"
Ironically, people who are easily offended have the least qualms offending others.
"It's hard to believe that advocating prevention equates to victim blaming. Then again, advocating condoms to some people equates to promoting promiscuous"
Not sure why it's so bad to deny others' experiences. If you said you saw Muslims celebrating in the streets after 911 and I questioned that would I be denying your experience?
"You've got to grow calluses on your heart, or you will bleed to death"
"when the world is bad people turn to art for escapism...
when the world is easy people turn to art to make it seem like a struggle."
Why don't those who want polystyrene banned ask for disposable diapers to be banned too?
"my office is opposite cat welfare society hq
wonder if it's indicative of anything but a lot of their main staff/volunteers are bbw"
The BBC keeps going on about so-called Islamic State. They should also talk about so-called Great Britain and the so-called United Kingdom.
If someone promotes stuff he has a financial interest in is he trying to increase business... or putting his money where his mouth is?
Amused that 20th Century Fox needed to tell us that they didn't accept money to endorse tobacco products in X-Men Apocalypse.
"once you go brown, you can't sit down"
Why do many slimming centres only accept female customers? Do male physiologies really differ so much? Or are women more gullible? (Someone: There are "slimming centres" that target men, they're called gyms.)
I don't think Hong Kongers are upset about how expensive it is to drive there because their public transport is so good. Carphobes shouldn't put the cart before the horse. Public transport must be improved before we continue to squeeze car owners.
I believe in equality. I make fun of everyone.
“An Activist tries to get a ramp added to a building for easier wheelchair access. A Social Justice Warrior tries to get the stairs removed because they might offend people who can’t use them.”
The most equal societies are hunter gatherer societies. Perhaps we should destroy civilisation.
"In 100 years time will people still be blaming colonialism for Africa's problems?"
"Some people still bang on and on about the crusades as justification for social problems and a reason for hating and killing people 'in retaliation' for those crimes.
That happened literally a millennium ago..."
"ISIS identifies as Islamic.
"No they're not Islamic," say the left.
Boy identifies as girl.
"Absolutely," say the left."
SJWs' hypersensitivity to "rape" (i.e. sex) but not violence curiously mirrors the American sensibility of being allergic to sex but not violence
If Islamist terrorists attacked Singapore, some would blame this on Chinese racism
"When your chances of being sued rises sigificantly when you hire a female or person of color. Assuming both candidates are equally qualified, as a business decision, is it not smart to hire the white guy?"
(in other words, this might be one reason accounting for lower "minority" representation)
"If not for the male gaze there would be very little art"
"Micro aggressions never get micro reactions"
Ironically, people who are easily offended have the least qualms offending others.
"It's hard to believe that advocating prevention equates to victim blaming. Then again, advocating condoms to some people equates to promoting promiscuous"
Not sure why it's so bad to deny others' experiences. If you said you saw Muslims celebrating in the streets after 911 and I questioned that would I be denying your experience?
"You've got to grow calluses on your heart, or you will bleed to death"
"when the world is bad people turn to art for escapism...
when the world is easy people turn to art to make it seem like a struggle."
Why don't those who want polystyrene banned ask for disposable diapers to be banned too?
"my office is opposite cat welfare society hq
wonder if it's indicative of anything but a lot of their main staff/volunteers are bbw"
The BBC keeps going on about so-called Islamic State. They should also talk about so-called Great Britain and the so-called United Kingdom.
If someone promotes stuff he has a financial interest in is he trying to increase business... or putting his money where his mouth is?
Amused that 20th Century Fox needed to tell us that they didn't accept money to endorse tobacco products in X-Men Apocalypse.
"once you go brown, you can't sit down"
Why do many slimming centres only accept female customers? Do male physiologies really differ so much? Or are women more gullible? (Someone: There are "slimming centres" that target men, they're called gyms.)