Links - 14th August 2017 (1)

No Need to Be Afraid. It’s Only a Performance Review. - NYTimes.com - "we conflate what should really be three separate things: appreciation (I can see you — what you do matters), coaching (helping you get better through advice and mentoring) and evaluation (how you are rated or ranked against a set of standards). When we say we want feedback, most of us desire appreciation, dread evaluation and forget about the most important part, which is the coaching."

What You Learn in Your 40s - NYTimes.com - "There are no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger, but can confirm it only once we are the ones writing books and attending parent-teacher conferences. Everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently... When you’re wondering whether she’s his daughter or his girlfriend, she’s his girlfriend.
• When you’re unsure if it’s a woman or a man, it’s a woman."

There Is No Theory of Everything - The New York Times - "Frank’s special loathing was reserved for Freud, whom he thought a writer of great perceptiveness and expressive power but completely deluded about the theoretical consequences of his views. “Imagine a world in which, like ours,” Frank wrote in “Wittgenstein on Freud and Frazer,” “people laughed at jokes, but unlike ours did not know what they were laughing at until they discovered the unconscious energic processes hypothesized by Freud.” For Frank, such was the world that Freud beguiled himself and us into believing he was living in. He compared the 20th-century fascination with psychoanalysis to the 19th-century fascination with phrenology, the “science” of bumps on the head. I think he would have come to very similar conclusions about the early 21st-century fad for neuroscience and our insatiable obsession with the brain. Despite the astonishing breadth of his interests, Frank’s core obsession in teaching turned on the relation between science and the humanities. More particularly, his concern was with the relation between the causal explanations offered by science and the kinds of humanistic description we find, say, in the novels of Dickens or Dostoevsky, or in the sociological writings of Erving Goffman and David Riesman. His quest was to try and clarify the occasions when a scientific explanation was appropriate and when it was not, and we need instead a humanistic remark. His conviction was that our confusions about science and the humanities had wide-ranging and malign societal consequences... This is the risk of what some call “scientism” — the belief that natural science can explain everything, right down to the detail of our subjective and social lives"

Hearing Loss Costs Far More Than Ability to Hear - NYTimes.com - "those in the survey who had hearing aids were, on average, more socially active and less likely to be depressed, worried, paranoid or insecure, and their family members and friends were even more likely than they were to have noticed these benefits... Many who are hard of hearing don’t realize how distressing it is to family members, who typically report feeling frustrated, annoyed and sad as a consequence of communication difficulties and misunderstandings... Links have also been found to an increased risk of dementia... Untreated hearing loss can have physical consequences as well, including excessive fatigue, stress and headaches, which may result from trying so hard to hear and understand spoken language"

Italian Neighbors Build a Social Network, First Online, Then Off - NYTimes.com - "The idea, Italy’s first “social street,” has been such a success that it has caught on beyond Bologna and the narrow confines of Via Fondazza. There are 393 social streets in Europe, Brazil and New Zealand... the residents of Via Fondazza help one another fix broken appliances, run chores or recharge car batteries. They exchange train tickets and organize parties."

Are Men's Rooms Really Cleaner Than Women's Rooms? - "because so many germs live on the toilet seats of public restrooms, women’s restrooms are far more likely to have many more germs than a men’s restroom. This is a fact that makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Women sit down to use the restroom, so they’re more likely to transfer germs to the toilet seat, then taking them with them when they leave... a study entitled: Enteric Bacterial Contamination of Public Restrooms sampled forty-seven public restrooms to test the presence of bacteria on various bathroom surfaces. The results show the areas most likely to contain bacteria. Here, we see the culprit is not only a woman’s toilet seat, but also the in-stall trash can or bin for disposing sanitary napkins. More concerning was the presence of coliform bacteria on more than 60% of sinks and ecoli on more than 20%. Women’s restrooms were 4.5 times more likely to contain ecoli, which can cause serious illness"

Women's bathrooms more germ-laden than men's - "researchers found that men are messier than women. They leave behind more paper towels, and men's rooms usually smells worse. There are apparently two reasons for the higher level of germs in the women's room. First, women tend to bring children into the bathroom with them, and children tend to bring in germs. Second, women's restrooms just get more traffic than men's rooms. Women use the bathroom more often and stay longer"
So contrary to what we popularly hear, men's toilets are indeed dirtier and smellier - they just don't have as much bacteria

Bathroom research reveals surprising data - "She also believes that women wash their hands more than men, which accounts for more bacteria in the sink area. "When you wash your hands, bacteria falls into the sink and it lasts longer than in other areas because the sink is moist"

What if the Labour party has not yet hit rock bottom? - "I have been discussing with several pro-Corbyn Labour members what they think Corbyn is going to achieve. Privately, they all admit that he cannot win a general election. For them it is a point of principle: They voted for Corbyn, MPs should accept that and work with him, they say, just the way Tony Blair expected it when he was in charge. For some reason, controlling a party in a powerless minority is more important than being in government."

Jeremy Corbyn: ‘People say I should be tougher. But it’s not my style’ - "A publisher friend told me about a boozy London dinner party with a group of leftwing stalwarts, including an academic, campaign organiser and film director. They went around the table giving Corbyn marks out of 10 for his performance so far. The lowest was two; the highest seven; the mean was around three. The only thing they were agreed on was that they would all vote for him again"

Murray Godfrey's answer to Democrats: Do people in your social/intellectual circles believe that President Obama is an honest person? - Quora - "Politicians cannot be "honest" for several reasons. For one, they don't know what exactly they may have to respond to, so it's impossible to be accurate in many cases. Then, they don't know what kind of negotiations they have to make. Third, they are not completely in control of the process. They may start a ball rolling, but things can happen at lower levels outside their control... We deal with lies all the time. People lie on their resumes on a regular basis. Companies lie about how good their business plan is and how beneficial their product is. We're sold lies about our country's history. Your significant other may have lied about how many sexual partners he/she's had. People lie. Commercials lie. Every day. Why is it so bad with politicians?... What I look for is if politicians compound their lies. Do they lie about lying and then lie about it? Bill Clinton was bad for that, and I never trusted that man."

PIERS MORGAN: Emma Watson wins most pompous person award - "‘Acting is about the ability to put yourself into someone else’s shoes and that doesn’t have to be separated into two different categories,’ she declared in her speech. OK, so let’s now imagine this idea is taken to the main acting awards season, featuring the Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes? First, there would be half as many awards, obviously. So half as many people would get recognised for their acting work as currently do. For many of the Hollywood luvvies I know, this would be a torture right up there with water-boarding. Second, what if by chance, men won the first five years of gender-neutral Best Actor awards simply because they genuinely happened to give better performances than the women in that period? Can you even begin to picture the global outrage that would ensure? Rabid feminists, led by the likes of Emma Watson, would stamp their feet and scream that the only reason men were winning was was…wait for it… ‘SEXISM!’ Madonna would immediately call for a march against this disgusting oppression of women. And Donald Trump would get the blame - because he’s Donald Trump. Last night, I noticed Ms Watson wore quite an eye-catching racy outfit to accept her gender-neutral award. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate if she had worn gender-neutral clothes? Or would that not, as she well knows, have garnered her the global media coverage that she so aggressively coverts with her body – as we saw when she recently went topless for Vanity Fair?... She played Belle in Beauty and the Beast... Why did she not demand Beauty be changed to Ugly? Wouldn’t that have been a far more empowering feminist message to those women less aesthetically gifted than Ms Watson?... Ms Watson told the MTV audience: ‘I’m so proud to be part of a film that celebrates diversity, literacy, inclusion, joy and love the way this one does.’ Sorry, WHAT? Beauty and the Beast is about a savage male beast who kidnaps a beautiful woman. She falls in love with him due to some weird Stockholm Syndrome type situation, forgives him for all his terrible behaviour, and then tries to make him a nicer person. So, she’s basically in an abusive relationship in which her only asset is her sexuality and the movie’s subliminal theme is therefore that if a woman is pretty and sweet natured she can change an abusive man into a kind and gentle man."

Public Library Reading Clubs and Singapore's Elderly - "Three themes emerge from the responses: an instrumental view of reading or, in other words, a notion that reading is done for utilitarian purposes rather than intrinsic enjoyment; gender issues, in so far as club membership appears to have created a public space for elderly women, but not men; and social exclusion in that word of mouth is the main way that people learn about the club, and that its members appeared to be from a specific socio-economic group."

Flight too full, so captain allows young woman to sit in cockpit on Cathay Pacific flight

Teachers learn to use math as Trojan horse for social justice - "This summer, middle school math teachers can learn how to incorporate social justice issues like racism and privilege into their classrooms. “Teaching Social Justice through Secondary Mathematics” is a six-week online course designed by Teach for America and offered through EdX, which provides free online classes from top universities such as Harvard University, MIT, and Columbia University... According to the website, the course can even help students to learn math, because while many aspects of middle- and high-school math “can seem abstract to students,” the developers claim that “setting the mathematics within a specially-developed social justice framework can help students realize the power and meaning of both the data and social justice concerns.”"
The SJW infection of STEM continues apace

Reversing ageing: Are we smothering seniors into helplessness? - "artist Harry Chin, 75, who had a mild stroke three years ago, has taken to only going out to paint if his assistant is with him. For his challenge, he’s made to walk for over an hour to the Botanic Gardens, carrying his own equipment. He says afterwards: “I felt like my old self has returned. I was filled with vitality.""

I Said 'Yes' to Everything for a Week and Ended Up in the Hospital - ""You're always so negative," she fumed. "Give it a chance." Honestly, I don't think very highly of folks who consider a round of board games entertaining. But on some level, she had a point. Maybe I do need to be more positive? Maybe I ought to try new things? So, in the spirit of adventure, I decided that I'd spend a week saying "Yes" to every question I was asked... I noticed that my urine was a very strange color. I immediately hobbled towards my doctor to find out if I was falling apart. "You have rhabdomyolysis," she explained. "That means your muscle tissue is breaking down. What did you do to yourself?" "I did a trial CrossFit session.""

Spreadsheets are people too: statistics and reality - "spreadsheets – or at least the ones used by labour market economists and, indeed, quantitative social scientists more broadly, are far more closely connected to the “real world” than any individuals’ experience can hope to be."
Anecdotes are only relied upon when they support one's point

Why I won’t date hot women anymore - "He spent the better part of his 30s going on up to three dates a week, courting 20-something blond models, but eventually realized that dating the prettiest young things had its drawbacks — he found them flighty, selfish and vapid. “Beautiful women who get a fair amount of attention get full of themselves,” he says. “Eventually, I was dreading getting dinner with them because they couldn’t carry a conversation.” According to new research, Rochkind’s ideas about sexy bikini babes are correct. A multipart study from Harvard University, University of La Verne and Santa Clara University researchers found that beautiful people are more likely to be involved in unstable relationships. In one part, the researchers looked at the top 20 actresses on IMDb and found that they tend to have rocky marriages. In another, women were asked to judge the attractiveness of 238 men based on their high school yearbook photos from 30 years ago. The men who were judged to be the best-looking had higher rates of divorce... “There’s something to be said about sowing your wild oats and getting them out of your system,” says Rochkind, who will marry Carly in June at a “Tuscan-romantic” ceremony at the Wölffer Estate Vineyard in the Hamptons. But he doesn’t regret his past. “You don’t want to be the first to leave the party, but you don’t want to leave the party too late either,” he says. “Carly came at exactly the right time.”"

Singapore aggressively markets its heritage, but it’s letting an authentic piece of cultural history vanish - "Most things don’t last very long in the ever-changing city-state of Singapore, but the Sungei Road Thieves’ Market has a history that can be traced back to the 1930s. It’s survived the Japanese Occupation, the decline of the British colonial era, and waves of development following Singapore’s independence. Yet Singapore’s love for urban renewal has finally caught up with one of the island’s last free-wheeling grassroots enterprises... “This market is very meaningful for Singapore. It doesn’t discriminate based on race or religion, and there’s a lot of cross-cultural interaction,” says Koh, who has hawked secondhand goods here for three decades. “We should be proud Singapore has such a space… If removed, it can’t be reproduced.” The market is one of the most prominent examples of an informal economy in Singapore, says Chua, because there are no rental costs and vendors aren’t required to have have permits. “In Singapore, where it’s so structured and everything has to be institutionalised, this is something special,” says Chua. Led by Koh, some of the market’s 160 vendors have formed the Association for the Recycling of Secondhand Goods to advocate for relocation together... Singapore’s National Heritage Board has said it will document vendors’ memories and recreate the Thieves’ Market online in the form of a virtual tour."

CARONA CHICKEN: PAST AND PRESENT - "Carona’s Fried Chicken Wing Rice was founded in 1982 with a stall at the then Victoria Street Food Centre. Due to the popularity of their wings, the business name and recipe were then sold to a company that changed its name to Carona Chicken. Not only did they open their flagship Carona Marina Restaurant in 1992, they also started to franchise the brand, Carona Chicken. As a result, many Carona outlets began to mushroom islandwide, and this inevitably led to a significant drop in their standards. The eventual demise of the brand was also caused by both the shrinkage in serving portion as well as the increase in pricing... The good news is that the original recipe for Carona Fired Chicken Wings can still be found at 2 different stalls. The original owner of Carona’s Fried Chicken Wing Rice has started Victor’s Fried Chicken Wing Rice & Hainanese Chicken Rice. Two Wings is the other fancier stall selling Carona style fried chicken wing started by Jeremy, whose granduncle created the recipe."

Are Kids Racist? - "White children often learn very quickly, that simple questions or comments about these observations are shut down, stopped, and hushed with incredible velocity. Children become aware that this topic must be important because unlike their other questions, these ones go unanswered and leave their parents with looks of worry. As evidence, Rebecca Bigler and her colleagues at UT-Austin found that nearly all White mothers in their research study adopted a “colormute”/ “colorblind” approach when discussing a book that was either directly or indirectly about race with their 4-5 year old children; most chose not to discuss race at all. (In case you wonder why I’m focusing on White parents here, previous work has demonstrated that as opposed to White parents, parents of minority children in the U.S., do talk about race and ethnicity quite regularly.)... even if parents are not talking about race, children are noticing it, so avoidance will not make it go away"

Counter-Suicide-Terrorism: Evidence from House Demolitions - "This paper examines whether house demolitions are an effective counterterrorism tactic against suicide terrorism. We link original longitudinal micro-level data on houses demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces with data on the universe of suicide attacks against Israeli targets. By exploiting spatial and time variation in house demolitions and suicide terror attacks during the second Palestinian uprising, we show that punitive house demolitions (those targeting Palestinian suicide terrorists and terror operatives) cause an immediate, significant decrease in the number of suicide attacks. The effect dissipates over time and by geographic distance. In contrast, we observe that precautionary house demolitions (demolitions justified by the location of the house but not related to the identity or any action of the house's owner) cause a significant increase in the number of suicide terror attacks. The results are consistent with the view that selective violence is an effective tool to combat terrorist groups, whereas indiscriminate violence backfires"

Strong support for death penalty but support declines under different circumstances: Singapore study - "Seven in 10 people were in favour of the death penalty, a level of support similar to what an October survey of 1,160 people by government feedback arm Reach found... 92 per cent said they are in favour of the death penalty for intentional murder, 86 per cent for drug trafficking, and 88 per cent for discharging a firearm... Older Singaporeans and those who are more highly-educated are more likely to support the death penalty in general. The support also varied across religions, with Chinese Taoists and Buddhists twice as likely to support the death penalty as Protestant Christians, and Protestant Christians twice as likely to support the death penalty as Catholics."
Liberals should bash Christians less because of this