Links - 27th June 2017 (1)

'Jungle drums' probe at Wiltshire Council 'unfair' - "A report into how a council dealt with a racism complaint after the phrase "jungle drums" was used at a meeting has found its investigation was unfair. The complaint was made after the phrase was used to describe gossip during a public meeting at Wiltshire Council. An equality campaigner present found the comment to be racist and offensive. The authority investigated and found it was a valid complaint."
If water buffalo and black hole are racist...

Why was Dr Raabe sacked? - "the appointment of Dr Hans-Christian Raabe to the Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) caused at least one member of the committee to threaten resignation. It wasn't the doctor's ideas about drugs which upset his council colleague ("just say no", if you are interested), but his views on homosexuality... [he] claimed that there are a "disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among paedophiles"... You cannot simply sack somebody appointed to a government advisory body because he/she has strong religious views that are irrelevant to the job in hand. That would seem to be discriminatory. Support for this view comes from a surprising quarter - the former Lib Dem MP, Dr Evan Harris. Now director of the Campaign for Evidence Based Policy, he says: "No advisor should be dismissed purely for holding and expressing entirely lawful views on another subject, no matter how objectionable.""

Monkey attack sets off deadly tribal clashes in Libya - "The monkey pulled off a girl's headscarf and reportedly bit and scratched her, leading men from the Awlad Suleiman tribe to retaliate by killing three Gaddadfa people - as well as the monkey."

Why rice growers in China are more sexually liberal than wheat growers - "I found that people from provinces such as Sichuan that have lower levels of trade and cultural exchanges with Western countries have more liberal views on extramarital sex and homosexuality than people from more “westernised” provinces such as Fujian and Jiangsu. But people from more westernised provinces did have more liberal views on premarital sex."

Dr. Seuss book Hop on Pop does not encourage ‘violence against fathers,’ library says in rejecting ban request - "A ban request on the book Complete Hindi required a bit more legwork by the committee. A complainant wrote that the book should be removed from the collection because it inaccurately states that “Hindi and Urdu are paired languages.” The “Hindi-Urdu controversy”— the ongoing dispute over the idea that the two Asian languages are the same — is so widespread it has its own Wikipedia page. After consulting with “a professor of Hindi language and literature at a major Canadian university,” the review committee failed to take a side, but kept the book because “as in all languages, there are different opinions on correct usage.”"

What Can We Do About Junk Science? - "In 2013 scientist-turned-journalist John Bohannon conducted a sting operation to determine just how easy it is to publish bogus research in open-access journals. Under a false name, he wrote a flawed paper about a fake drug and sent it to 304 open-access journals. Of the 255 journals that responded, 98 rejected the article and 157 accepted it. Once erroneous information is rubber-stamped as peer-reviewed, it can be futile for mainstream scientists to try to counter it... A website named Jenny McCarthy's Body Count uses data from the CDC to tally the number of Americans who have died from vaccine-preventable illnesses since June 2007. As of February 2014 the number had reached 1336... Offit, who invented a rotavirus vaccine that has saved the lives of thousands of children, receives hate mail accusing him of being an industry shill"

How to stop a zombie apocalypse – with science - "There are typically four response strategies to zombieism, each with a grounding in epidemiological study"

The Astonishing Age of a Neanderthal Cave Construction Site - "Neanderthals were more sophisticated than anyone had given them credit for. They wielded fire, ventured deep underground, and shaped the subterranean rock into complex constructions. Perhaps they even carried out rituals; after all, there was no evidence that anyone actually lived in the cave, so what else were the rings and mounds for?"

Release the Kraken: Squid, Octopus, and Cuttlefish On the Rise

Hey You Guys – You Can’t Say 'You Guys' Anymore - "their children off at college are being sternly warned not to say “you guys” (it might make women feel excluded), not to “show surprise” if a feminine-looking woman says she is a lesbian (acting ability now being as essential as learning ability) and to be very very careful about singing along with rap lyrics, even when alone in a car... The author Theodore Dalrymple noted in 2005 that political correctness is simply “communism writ small,” adding:
I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to...
It fell to the American novelist Lionel Shriver to fight back against the speech police by appearing at an Australian writers’ conference mocking P.C. hysteria while wearing a sombrero. Naturally, the conference disavowed her remarks and disappeared her speech from their website"

Freedom and Intellectual Life - "as all human goods are either put to use or discarded in the struggle for social and political ends, we lose our humanity and the dignity it implies. We lose what makes life worth living, whether that is intellectual life or any of the other unutterably precious human activities that dwell in peace and holy uselessness."

seriously, the guy has a point - "In effect, Fearless Girl has appropriated the strength and power of Charging Bull. Of course Di Modica is outraged by that. A global investment firm has used a global advertising firm to create a faux work of guerrilla art to subvert and change the meaning of his actual work of guerrilla art. That would piss off any artist... commercialization can take something important and meaningful — something about which everybody should agree — and shit all over it by turning it into a commodity. Fearless Girl is beautiful, but she is selling SHE; that’s why she’s there."

FLASHBACK VIDEO : Democrats Cheered President Clinton’s Plan to Deport Illegals

Why Saint Thomas Aquinas Opposed Open Borders - "dealing with those who wished to integrate fully into the life and worship of Israel required a certain order, Aquinas observed. “For they were not at once admitted to citizenship: just as it was law with some nations that no one was deemed a citizen except after two or three generations.” “The reason for this was that if foreigners were allowed to meddle with the affairs of a nation as soon as they settled down in its midst,” Aquinas logically reasoned, “many dangers might occur, since the foreigners not yet having the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people.” In other words, Aquinas taught that total integration of immigrants into the life, language, customs and culture (including worship, in this case) was necessary for full citizenship."

Witnesses to Michael Brown Shooting Feared Contradicting 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Narrative - "Several expressed concern for their safety should they choose to contradict that narrative publicly. As one witness noted, there were signs in the neighborhood reading “snitches get stitches.”...
'Two black women approached Witness 102, mobile phones set to record, asking him to recount what he had witnessed. Witness 102 responded that they would not like what he had to say. The women responded with racial slurs, calling him names like “white motherfucker.”'

The Single Most Important Ingredient - NYTimes.com - "Salt has a greater impact on flavor than any other ingredient. Learn to use it well, and food will taste good."

Meet Mumbai's Iconic Veggie Burger - "Traditionally cooked and sold by Mumbai's street vendors, vada pav is loved by people across society and is a symbol of local culinary creativity – combining local flavors with foods (potato and bread) introduced to the subcontinent by Europeans... Walk through the streets of Mumbai and you can see vendors dunking spicy mashed potato balls into chickpea batter before dropping them into a pan with hot oil. Then, they cut open the pav – the roll – and smear the inside with three different types of chutney: green chutney, made with cilantro and green chilies, sweet and tangy tamarind chutney and a dry lasoon chutney, made with garlic and spices. Then, they stuff the hot, golden vadas in the rolls and serve them with fried green chilies."

The Traveling Hungryboy: Bombay Burgers in Singapore
Comment: "What kinds of food do Indian people eat every day? Surely they can't be eating this stuff. Where are the fresh vegetables? The meals without loads of salt and fat?"

The Chinese-Mexican Cuisine Born Of U.S. Prejudice - "If you ask people in the city of Mexicali, Mexico, about their most notable regional cuisine, they won't say street tacos or mole. They'll say Chinese food. There are as many as 200 Chinese restaurants in the city."

All-Natural But Still 'Imitation'? The Strange Case Of The Skim Milk Label - "Because Wesselhoeft doesn't add vitamins back in once the fat is removed, officials say her skim milk is considered an "imitation milk product" and in 2012 insisted that she begin labeling it "Non-Grade 'A' Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed" — wording Wesselhoeft is dead set against adding... a federal judge ruled that state officials are perfectly within their rights to require added vitamins as part of nutritional standards for milk... Wesselhoeft's lawyer says his client can't donate her skim milk to food pantries or shelters — she'd have to get the label approved first."

How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking - "this notion of layering many contrasting flavors and spices isn't unique to Indian cooking. In fact, most of the world's cuisines tend to follow that principle, says Tulasi Srinivas, an anthropologist at Emerson University who studies food and globalization. And up until the mid-1600s, European cuisine was the same way... "Rather than infusing food with spice, they said things should taste like themselves. Meat should taste like meat, and anything you add only serves to intensify the existing flavors"... For Indian and Asian chefs, the sauce or curry was the star. In India, Jains — and many Hindus — don't eat meat. And in general, most Indians believed that meat was unclean and inelegant, so the goal was, in part, to cover up the fleshiness of meat by thoroughly infusing it with spice. "In Europe, meat was considered the manliest, strongest component of a meal," Laudan notes, and chefs wanted it to shine. So they began cooking meat in meat-based gravies, to intensify its flavor."

Why The U.S. Chills Its Eggs And Most Of The World Doesn't - "Soon after eggs pop out of the chicken, American producers put them straight to a machine that shampoos them with soap and hot water. The steamy shower leaves the shells squeaky clean. But it also compromises them, by washing away a barely visible sheen that naturally envelops each egg... A 38-country survey by the International Egg Commission found that people feel strongly about how their eggs should look. The Irish, French, Czechs, Hungarians, Portuguese, Nigerians and Brits hanker for brown eggs. Canadians, Finns, Americans and Indians prefer white shells. Dutchmen and Argentines don't seem to care."

Why Did Crowd Flee Shanghai Subway After Foreigner Fainted? - ""Everyone is hoping someone else will take care of him. Everyone is waiting for someone else to react," says Huang. "But no one takes the initiative to help." "It's probably because there is an inherent weakness, a mentality that permeates Chinese society," Huang continues. "No one wants to be dragged into things that aren't their business."... "People want to trust," says Huang, "but given what's happened in the past, they have no choice but to be skeptical." "What's happened in the past" is this well-known scam: An elderly person collapses in public. When someone tries to help, the senior citizen accuses him or her of knocking him down — and then demands money... the Chinese government even issued a document warning those who might want to help someone in distress to first find a witness to ensure that the "victim" can't later try to extort money from them. Yan is writing a book on morality in China. He says the scams and a reluctance to help strangers are rooted in a traditional way some Chinese still view relationships."
Or you could just blame capitalism

40 Years On, A Controversial Film On Islam's Origins Is Now A Classic - "Akkad embarked on an ambitious quest to create a truly Arab screen epic. He was determined to create a film spectacle about nothing less than the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam in the 7th century. He intended the film as a bridge for understanding between Islam and the West. But it would prove extremely difficult to make, and faced a backlash in many parts of the Muslim world — and was even linked to a violent event in Washington, D.C... Controversy mounted. The Cairo scholars who had initially approved the shooting script withdrew their support and called the completed film, which was released in 1976, "an insult to Islam." More backlash followed and several countries banned the film. "He was confounded by the controversy that exploded around the movie," says Abou El Fadl. "It was banned all over. Banned in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait. Banned in Egypt."
Islamophobia before it was fashionable

What Kind of Marriage Can Exist With a Nine-Year-Old Girl? - "once a woman has begun to menstruate, she is a legitimate candidate for marriage. PhiIips’ views do not differ from those of many contemporary imams steeped in traditional Islam... Philips makes a point to contrast the Islamic view of marriage with that of pedophilia, saying that because the “couple” is engaged in the institution of marriage, it is not considered child abuse."

Brussels mayor warns: All our mosques are being controlled by Salafists

Why Mental Pictures Can Sway Your Moral Judgment - "Some dilemmas produce vivid images in our heads. And we're wired to respond emotionally to pictures. Take away the pictures — the brain goes into rational, calculation mode.

Why Doesn't America Read Anymore? - "We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven't actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let's see what people have to say about this "story.""
This had a lot of comments

CAIR: Supporters of Gun Control Bill Are Anti-Muslim -
CAIR’s gotten away with the Islamophobia card for so long that they didn’t even bother pairing this propaganda with any semblance of logic."

Penang Hokkien will be ‘dead’ in 40 years if people stop using it, says language expert - "Penang Hokkien’s singsong words are a mix of borrowed words and grammar from Malay, English, Cantonese and Teochew, adding that they are a reflection of the multicultural melting pot that makes up Penang... She believes that in most homes now, they don't speak Hokkien anymore due to a misguided belief that Hokkien is somehow inferior to Mandarin as it is being used as a medium of teaching in Chinese schools... many people tend to think Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka or Teochew were deviations from Mandarin and that these were inferior and not worth learning which is untrue as these languages are actually the original mother tongue languages that were spoken by their ancestors."