Links - 13th July 2017 (1)

Musical 'Aida' cancelled at Bristol University amid race row over 'cultural appropriation'

Biologist who snatched eggs from nests of world's rarest bird wins the 'Nobel prize' of conservation - "A Welsh biologist once criticised for stealing eggs from the nests of the rarest bird in the world has been awarded the ‘Nobel prize’ of conservation after his controversial methods saved nine species from extinction... he stayed, implementing the controversial techniques of captive breeding and a strategy known as ‘double-clutching’, which involved snatching eggs from the birds’ nests and hatching them under incubators, prompting the mothers to lay another set of eggs in the wild."

ISIS to Jihadists: Use Fake Craigslist Ads to Lure Victims - "The objective of taking hostages, would-be jihadists are told, is "not to hold large numbers of the kuffar hostage in order to negotiate one’s demands," but to sow terror with "the language of force, the language of killing, stabbing and slitting throats, chopping off heads, flattening them under trucks, and burning them alive, until they give the jizyah [tax] while they are in a state of humiliation.""

Women May Find Management Positions Less Desirable - "women feel less happy than men when they occupy managerial positions, and expect to make more tradeoffs between life and work in high level positions... for women in positions of leadership, the level of happiness and life satisfaction is lower than that of their male counterparts... when men and women are presented with the possibility of a promotion to a higher level position in their organization (i.e., they are given the opportunity to professionally advance), they find the position to be as attainable as men do, but less desirable... we asked different groups of men and women, from college undergraduates to executives, to list their core goals in life – which we defined for them as the things that occupy their thoughts on a routine basis, that they deeply care about, or that motivate their behavior and decisions. The goals people listed varied, from getting married, having children or working out regularly, to finding a well-respected job and becoming rich. In study after study, we found that women listed more goals than men... Women appreciate spare and flexible time more than men do. Interestingly, the research by Brockmann and colleagues also shows that women find higher levels of pay to be less rewarding than men. By how much? According to the researchers’ estimate, it would take an extra 12,000 euros of pay to boost a woman’s life satisfaction by the same amount that a man would gain from an extra 5,000 euros of pay"
So by getting more women into leadership, feminism is making women more miserable. And interestingly women did not perceive it was harder for them to advance than men

Can You Spot What's Wrong With All Of Charles And Diana's Photos? - "in their photographs, Prince Charles appears to be inches taller than Princess Diana. However, the couple were actually the exact same height."

22% Believe Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks in Advance - "Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure"
This isn't that far off from Republicans who think Obama wasn't born in the US

On the stability of four legged tables - "We prove that a perfect four-feet square table, posed in a continuous irregular ground with a local slope of at most 15 degrees can be put in equilibrium on the ground by a "rotation" of less than 90 degrees"

American activist tweeted he believed all rape victims, gets accused of rape by Xiaxue - "Dan Arel is an author, and activist in America, who among his claims to fame, once encouraged punching Nazi groups... She also started the hashtag Dan Arel Raped Me, that trended on Twitter."

What is being done to address complaints about spam? - "I have been subjected to spam from different "credit companies" offering unsolicited fast loans and illegal online gambling... I made an iWitness report on the Singapore Police's website, but to date, have not received any response from anyone... My calls to the police hotline only led me to an answering machine. What is the point of the DNC registry if no action is taken against companies for sending unsolicited marketing messages?"
In contrast the PDPC is excellent and provides closure on cases

Canadian Imam defends Danish Imam who called for “uprooting the Jewish entity” - "At a Friday sermon delivered on March 31, 2017 at the Al-Faruq Mosque in Copenhagen, Denmark, preacher Mundhir Abdallah cited a hadith according to which the Muslims will kill the Jews on Judgment Day, and said that there would soon be a Caliphate, which would “wage Jihad against its enemies,” “liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Zionists,” and “uproot the Jewish entity, that colonialist and Crusader base.”... Mazin AbdulAdhim, a prominent Imam of Iraqi descent in London, Ontario who is affiliated with the global Islamic movement of Hizb ut-Tahrir, came to the defence of the Danish Imam after he faced criticism from the Jewish community and the authorities over his controversial sermon."

Former escort Gwyneth Montenegro reveals what men want - "It was a life story that enraptured the nation - a devout Christian turned sex worker who slept with 10,000 men before she left the escort industry for good... Gwyneth found that most of her clients actually didn't want 'hardcore kinky sex' or a chance to live out 'sick fantasies'. The sex was 'normal', but the escort found that many men felt 'more validated' in their own masculinity after they had sex with her. 'I don't want to be so brazen as to just blame feminism for this. However, I think there is a part to play where men do feel emasculated,' Gwyneth told News.com.au. Gwyneth believes that men no longer know how to navigate a world where they're scared to open a door for a woman. She found that many of her clients sought out escorts because they felt emasculated in their actual relationships."

Why Korean companies are forcing their workers to go by English names - The Washington Post - "The norm in South Korea is to call your colleagues or superiors not by their given names but by their positions. It’s the same for addressing your older friends or siblings, your teacher or any person on the street... This is a language where verb conjugations are based not on I, they, we and so on, but on formality levels... “Dropping your pants and [urinating] in the person’s briefcase would be only a little ruder than calling him/her by his/her first name.”... Using the actual name of your boss or co-workers feels impolite. But, hopefully, calling him or her an English nickname taps into a different cultural mind-set... Companies in English education, tourism, trade or other globally focused industries typically have English nickname policies. They want to accommodate foreign business partners who can’t decipher between Lee Ji-yeong and Lee Ji-yeon. “They’re thoughtful people,” Hong said. “It’s to be kind to foreign people.”... The larger reason is a desire for a horizontal workplace as more employees, particularly younger ones, are educated or work outside Korea... In the hierarchical structure, employees cannot follow or share their own ideas. Decision-making is usually stymied by going through many chains of hierarchy. And projects are not necessarily led by expertise but by who has the highest title."
Cultural imperialism is good business

The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol - The Washington Post - "Allison said the problem in nutrition stems from the arrogance that sometimes accompanies dietary advice. A little humility could go a long way. “Where nutrition has some trouble,” he said, “is all the confidence and vitriol and moralism that goes along with our recommendations.”"

A viral Washington Post story about State Department resignations is very misleading - "Critics inside and outside of the State Department also pushed back hard against the story’s most explosive suggestion — that Kennedy and his deputies were choosing to leave as part of a “mass exodus” of officials opposed to Trump. The State Department said that the four officials had submitted their resignations at the start of the new administration, as is standard practice with all political appointees throughout the executive branch of the government... The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), a sort of union for foreign service officers, also stepped into the fray, releasing an unusual public statement that said the entire thing was overblown."
If people don't trust the media, can they be blamed?

Scientists have discovered a simple way to cook rice that dramatically cuts the calories - The Washington Post - ""What we did is cook the rice as you normally do, but when the water is boiling, before adding the raw rice, we added coconut oil—about 3 percent of the weight of the rice you're going to cook," said Sudhair James, who presented his preliminary research at National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Monday. "After it was ready, we let it cool in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. That's it."... it might be possible to change the types of starches found in foods by modifying how they are prepared... rice, depending on the method of preparation, undergoes observable chemical changes. Most notably, fried rice and pilaf style rice have a greater proportion of resistant starch than the most commonly eaten type, steamed rice, as strange as that might seem."

A male professor said this women-only study lounge is sexist and illegal. The school shut it down. - The Washington Post - "Female students promptly revolted."
Some genders are more equal than others

Why many restaurants don’t actually want you to order dessert - The Washington Post - "The restaurant industry is a place of razor thin margins, and dessert tends to offer one of the thinnest. Food in general is tough to make money on. Restaurants have long relied on the mark-up they tack onto drinks, not grub, to boost profits. As food costs soar, that reality has only become more true, because there's a limit to how much people are willing to pay for different parts of their meal... Dessert is also problematic for restaurants because the course creates a bottleneck at the end of meals."

Why Americans are giving up citizenship in record numbers - The Washington Post - "The cost of actually finding a dollar of tax evasion may cost us $5 of actually sifting through the data and compliance costs. From an economics point of view, I’m not sure how valuable the system will be. But maybe it really is from a fairness point of view, and people really believe fairness is worth the cost"

Thailand rolls out ‘intrusive’ immigration form nationwide to help ‘catch foreigners faster’

How Indomie Became Insanely Popular in Nigeria - "Decades of a population boom means that Nigeria has been getting younger and younger. The average mother has between five and six children in her lifetime. That's a lot of busy mothers, and a lot of mouths to feed. Enter Indomie, with a series of popular ads that positioned the meal as a quick-and-easy option for overworked moms."

650,000 mooncakes found in S’pore manufactured annually in one factory in Aljunied

American mom-blogger spends more than 30 shopping hours creating map of Mustafa Centre - "After each trip I tried to put it all together, but it was so confusing as in (some) places they have two aisles, in other places three aisles, stairs that don’t go to B2, elevators that go to car parks, elevators that go to the restaurant"

NUS motion to condemn Isis fails amidst claims of islamophobia - "We recognise that condemnation of Isis appears to have become a justification for war and blatant islamophobia"

Lee Kuan Yew celebrated his 91st birthday at Kuriya Dining at Great World City - "That awkward Photoshopped image that made the rounds online showing the ex-prime minister curbing his enthusiasm with his birthday cake in front of him as he was surrounded by some people, including Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, against an unusually black background is taken in Kuriya Dining’s private room, which can sit about 10 people."

False Reports of Sexual Assault meets "Always believe the Victim" - "It was taught that as a prosecutor if you questioned the story of the alleged victim you were feeding rape myths and victim blaming... Questioning a victim when the explanation of the facts does not make sense is being a good lawyer. It is doing your job as a prosecutor seeking justice. It was catching this victim in a direct lie proven by forensic evidence that caused me grave reservations, that I now know went deeper than that individual case. It shattered my general belief in the “always believe the victim” approach to prosecuting sexual assault cases, which in retrospect, is one of the major issues I had with continuing with the prosecution of the case after the leadership indicated that it would not dismiss the charges relying solely on her credibility. Winning a particular case can never be more important that Justice... The ethical obligations of defense counsel and prosecutors are vastly different. As a defense counsel, the obligation is to the client. Legal ethics require the defense attorney to do everything within his or her power, not expressly prohibited by the rules, to defend and acquit his or her client at trial. The goal is to defend and win at any cost within the rules... On the other hand, the ethical obligation of the prosecutor is truth and justice. The prosecutor is held to a higher standard than other attorneys in our legal system and unlike their defense brothers and sister, their duty is NOT to win cases at any cost within the rule – their goal is JUSTICE... The sovereign and its people is the prosecutor’s client. The victim is not the client – the victim is a fact witness. It is the duty of the prosecutor to assess the credibility of all fact witnesses, and that cannot be done if the prosecutor must always believe the most important fact witness, the victim... The Deck is now Stacked Against the Accused in the Investigation, Preferral and Prosecution of Sexual Assault Cases... Even victim advocates and prosecution trainers acknowledge that false reports of sexual assault exist, including David Lisak. Although his study found civilian false reports to be 5.9%, he acknowledged false reports could be as high as 10.9% in his review of scientifically valid studies (Lisak 2010, referring to Harris & Grace, 1999)"

Arizona statutory rape victim forced to pay child support - "Olivas, a 24-year-old Phoenix resident, said he now owes about $15,000 in back child support and medical bills going back to the child's birth, plus 10 percent interest. The state seized money from his bank account and is now garnisheeing his wages at $380 a month."

Amherst Student Was Expelled for Rape. But He Was Raped, Evidence Shows. - "Amherst College expelled a male student who was accused of sexually assaulting a female student while he was blacked out. Again, while he was blacked out. The woman he allegedly assaulted was fully lucid...
'the accuser developed new friends. And as it happens, these new friends were all "victims' advocates."'
After making those new friends, long after the incident, she accused John Doe of assaulting her. The adjudication process, as described by Johnson, was a Kafkaesque farce... In a twisted sense, administrators were correct to find John Doe guilty. He was accused of sexual assault, and he couldn't prove the encounter was consensual. Imagine if he had accused her of sexual assault as well—the panel might very well have concluded that they raped each other. We should expect to see more of this insanity, not less, when the federal government obligates college administrators to insert themselves in students’ sex lives."

Amherst Student Expelled for Sexual Misconduct Can’t Defend Himself—It Would ‘Impose Psychological Trauma’ on Accuser - "A judge recently blocked Doe's attempt to subpoena his female accuser's text messages on grounds that re-litigating the matter "would impose emotional and psychological trauma" on her."

Happy Mother’s Day: You will hate your husband after having a baby. - "A UCLA study of married couples found that at the end of a workday, women’s stress levels went down if their husbands pitched in with more housework. No surprise there. The mind-boiling part is that men’s stress levels fell if they kicked back with any sort of leisure activity—but only if their wives kept busy doing household tasks at the same time. If they both did leisure activities, the men’s stress levels stayed put."
"what's so strange about that?
busy woman = less chance you will be disturbed"