Links - 28th August 2017 (2)

Photo : Dites « ouistiti » et vous aurez le plus beau sourire ! - "Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire... En compétition : 26 locutions utilisées en Europe testées par des mannequins sous contrôle d’un linguiste. Après analyse des photos issues de l’expérience, il ressort que le « ouistiti » français remporte la palme du plus beau sourire. Sur la seconde marche du podium, on retrouve le « famiglia » (« famille ») italien, suivi du « patatas » (« pommes de terre ») espagnol, puis du « marmolada » (« marmelade ») polonais et du « Zaag Eens Kaas » (« fromage ») des Pays-Bas. Le fameux « cheese » britannique (qui signifie également « fromage ») finit quant à lui dans les choux. Souriez, vous êtes photographié !"

The Official Olympic Salute Stopped Being Popularly Used After WWII Due to Strongly Resembling the "Heil Hitler" Salute - "Both the Nazi salute and the Olympic salute are thought to be based on a supposed Roman salute, though no actual Roman text or artworks that describe or show it have survived. Despite this, in the 19th and early 20th century it became very popular in plays, artwork, and movies to portray this “Roman” salute. This soon resulted in it being adopted by the Italian Fascist Party and then the Nazi Party. This was not without controversy within the Nazi Party as many didn’t like the fact that their salute was influenced by the Italian Fascist Party. In true Nazi form, an attempt was made to fabricate a new history which predated the Italian Fascist Party’s use of the salute, to make it appear the Italian Fascist Party was influenced by the Nazi Party in terms of the salute, rather than the other way around...
There is a story that Hitler snubbed 4 time gold medal winner Jesse Owens by leaving the Olympic Stadium when he was supposed to be congratulating medal winners, including Owens. Owens denied the claim that Hitler snubbed him during the games, “Hitler had a certain time to come to the stadium and a certain time to leave. It happened he had to leave before the victory ceremony after the 100 meters. But before he left, I was on my way to a broadcast and passed near his box. He waved at me and I waved back.” Hitler also later sent Owens an inscribed commemorative photograph of himself. Owens further went on to say, “Hitler didn’t snub me – it was FDR who snubbed me""

The peculiar history of the Pledge of Allegiance - "It wouldn't be terribly difficult to crop the American flag out of photos of U.S. citizens reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; without the flag in the shots, the photos could be mischaracterized as proof that Americans were expressing support for the ideologies of Hitler and Mussolini."

What Color Do Hindus Wear to Funerals? - "In traditional Hindu funerals, white is the standard color for grieving friends and family members of the deceased. Casual, white clothing is the preferred norm. In fact, many mourners wear sandals to the funeral, as it is compulsory to take off shoes to pray at the temple during services. Wearing black, which is customary in Western cultures to denote mourning, is considered impolite at a Hindu funeral... White is the color of purity and a mixture of the different symbolic colors in Hinduism. The Brahmin, the highest social caste, wear white both in life and in death. Red symbolizes both purity and innocence, so girls under 3 and married women are both dressed in red when they die. The color saffron also represents purity. Green represents life, while yellow is the color for education and knowledge. Blue represents determination and valor."

Why does traffic entering and leaving the Savoy Hotel in London drive on the right?

Bagels battle baguettes for French appetites - "Wegh also touted the nutritious upside of his bagel sandwiches, noting that women make up the bulk of his clientele -- 80 percent -- "because the bagel enjoys a 'lite' image.""

The Alaskan Town Living Under One Roof - "Begich Towers (or BTI as it's more commonly known) held on, though. More than that; it essentially became Whittier, housing 75 percent of the town's 200 residents and providing nearly all of its municipal essentials. The first floor alone provides most of your basic city functions. The police department behind one door, the post office behind another. Walk a bit further down the hall and you'll find the city offices as well as the Kozy Korner, your local, neighborhood grocery store"

Japan's escaped penguin recaptured after 82 days on the run

Cat 'arrested' for break-in at Brazilian prison - "A cat has been detained in the grounds of a jail in Brazil with contraband goods for prisoners strapped to its body with tape... The confiscated items included drill bits, files, a mobile phone and charger, plus earphones... A prison spokesperson was quoted by local paper Estado de S. Paulo as saying: "It's tough to find out who's responsible for the action as the cat doesn't speak.""

The temperature on the tube surpassed the legal limit for transporting cattle - "According to EU law, cows can be moved around in temperatures of up to 30C. Yesterday, the mercury hit a sweltering 35.5C on the Central Line... Not only do farm animals enjoy cooler conditions than this, they’re also allotted more space than humans are given on the tube... The heat has even led to workplace rows. This guy was sent home for wearing shorts, and came back in his mum’s dress."

Men can't wear shorts to work, so they're wearing skirts - "Men across Europe are complaining about what they see as unfair dress codes. With temperatures reaching record highs in the French city of Nantes, bus drivers of the CFDT Semitan union showed up to work wearing skirts, as they are not allowed to wear shorts despite the hot conditions. According to the International Business Times, the drivers called the shorts ban "absurd," and pointed out that female drivers are allowed to wear skirts, but men are not allowed to wear shorts... the boy, along with his friends, wore skirts—and only one of them got in trouble, because his was "too short." Upwards of 50 male classmates are now planning to act accordingly, borrowing skirts from girls"

More Than Just Free ContentJournal of Communication Inquiry - Mark Cenite, Michelle Wanzheng Wang, Chong Peiwen, Germaine Shimin Chan, 2009 - "40 in-depth interviews were conducted with file sharers in Singapore using a standard protocol, then transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Downloading is perceived as an alternative through which users satisfy desires that existing markets do not meet. Respondents reported downloading to avoid long waits for content to arrive in Singapore; to access difficult-to-find and censored content; to sample content, including content outside their usual tastes; and because downloading is convenient and free. Respondents reported a norm of reciprocity and sense of community that motivated them to upload and an obligation to purchase content they liked"

Eager To Burst His Own Bubble, A Techie Made Apps To Randomize His Life - "One year, Max decided to use the Facebook-event generator app to choose where he would celebrate Christmas. It came up with a party at someone's home in Fresno, Calif. With a pie and a friend, Max drove for three hours and showed up on the doorstep of a retired psychologist, Karena Beasley. Karena was celebrating with a handful of friends and family — and now, also two 20-something strangers. "She was completely not fazed," Max says, describing the moment they met Karena. "She didn't miss a beat. She said, 'Oh, wonderful! We love Facebook, I'm so glad you're at the party. Welcome.' And it was like instantly we were friends.""

Man arrested after hurling himself onto car at Pasir Ris Farmway 2 - "It is understood that he then complained about injury and asked the driver for compensation"
China's culture is here

Eight-year-old drag queen says if your parents won’t let you do drag, ‘you need new parents’ - "An eight-year-old drag queen has the best, most uplifting message for anyone who aspires to join his art form"
Anything is inspirational nowadays. This is not going to help quash claims about the gay agenda
Comments: "Quite the opposite in fact : if your parents LET you do drag, ‘you need new parents'. Not because this is gay or about being gay, but because 'dressing children as adult hookers and pumping them out for audience attention' (thank you Star Gayzer) leads the child to an early sexualization that is weird and disturbing. It's not healthy for the child, and it can even prove dangerous for him."
"for an 8-year old to so casually talk about getting new parents is just bizarre."

Most violence in the world is motivated by personal morality - "Most explanations tend to revolve around the core assumption that violence is wrong. If someone is violent, something must be broken in their moral psychology—they are intrinsically evil, they lack self-control, they are selfish, or they fail to understand the pain they cause. However, it turns out that this fundamental assumption is mistaken. It is not the breakdown of their morality at all, but rather the working of their moral psychology. Most violence in the world is motivated by moral sentiments... the perpetrators of violence felt like what they are doing was morally right. In fact, when they were committing the act, they perceived that not acting would be morally wrong. It wasn’t about a breakdown in moral sensibilities, but more that their sense of morality was different... violence was intended to regulate social relationships and sustain a moral order"

India: Rajasthan in 'cars for sterilisation' drive - "Sitaram Sharma, the head doctor of Jhunjunu in western India, is hopeful that the chance to win a car might be just enough to tempt at least 20,000 men and women to undergo sterilisation. He is also offering motorcycles, televisions and food blenders. The offer is open to all Indians and not just residents of his drought-prone region."

Man didn’t notice 8.25 cm nail go into his brain

Experiencing the Only Penguin Bar in Tokyo

Rising Temps Lower Polar Bear Mercury Intake - "Instead of the ringed seals they ate out on the ice, the bears are foraging on bowhead whale carcasses, cast up on the beach."

If You Want to Be Creative, Don’t Be Data Driven - "data by itself is at best meaningless, and at its worse, misleading. In most cases it will tell you very little or nothing about what to do. Unfortunately, that’s not how many professionals treat the data they are given. I often hear colleagues, in the midst of needing a design or business decision, ask “what does the data tell us to do?” The real answer: not much."

Chips are down for Belgian frites as EU acts on 'unsafe compound' - "The European commission has been accused of a crime against the people of Belgium for what local politicians say amounts to an attempt to ban the national dish, the frite – or frieten, as they say in the Flemish-speaking north of the country... In a move that appears to demonstrate a dazzling lack of common touch on the part of EU officials in Brussels – which is both the capital of Belgium and the home of the union – the commission is proposing that the potatoes should be blanched first to prevent the formation of acrylamide, an allegedly hazardous compound that can form in the frying process when certain foods are heated to a temperature above 120C. Belgium, which claims to have invented frites, says the move will spoil the taste and destroy the country’s “rich gastronomical tradition”... The double-frying process – once for the soft inside, then again at a higher temperature for the crunchy outside – is regarded as the key to making the perfect chip. Belgian chips are not thick and hearty like the English variety, nor thin and elegant like the French. Belgians regarded theirs as a cut above. To add insult to injury, the consultation paper refers to chips as French fries, a term to which some Belgians take great exception"

Belgium: Female students asked to wear low-cut tops to graduation - "The email was sent to medical students at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). "From an aesthetic point of view," it read, " it is better for young women to wear a dress or skirt, and a nice revealing neckline"... The ULB Confessions page also published a response it had received from a student: "No one has the right to tell you how you should feel in your skin. Nobody has the right to tell you how to dress. No one has the right to tell you how to play your role as a woman. No one has the right to take away this freedom that has been (and is still being) obtained with such difficulty." The email was most likely sent by a woman as the secretariat did not include any men, the dean of the medicine faculty, Marco Schetgen, told Belgian news outlet RTL."
How did a suggestion become interpreted as a requirement? Aren't dress codes someone telling you how to dress?

Catholic care home in Belgium fined for refusing euthanasia - "Buntjens’ family later sued the nursing home for causing their mother “unnecessary mental and physical suffering”... During the hearing, the three judges decided unanimously that “the nursing home had no right to refuse euthanasia on the basis of conscientious objection”. The test case clarifies Belgian law to mean that only individual medical professionals – and not hospitals or care homes – have the right to refuse euthanasia requests. The judgement could spell the closures of scores of Catholic-run nursing and care homes across Belgium because the Church has stated explicitly that it will not permit euthanasia “under any circumstance”... the ruling was condemned by campaigners in Britain who see it as further evidence of the relentless liberalisation of the practice of euthanasia in the Low Countries... “It is an absolute tragedy that euthanasia is now seen to be a right. If you look around the world, anywhere assisted suicide has been introduced there is a constant erosion of any safeguards that have been put in place. This a further leap down the slippery path warned about time and time again and it shows that those warnings were true”... Last year, a paper published in the Journal of Medical Ethics reported that the majority of euthanasia cases in Belgium involve patients who are illegally “put to death” by doctors without ever giving their consent"

If ISIS Is Not Islamic, then the Inquisition Was Not Catholic - "Actually, what people like Obama, Paul, Volsky, and Jenkins consider “true” faith is this: “faith that promotes the kind of behavior that I like.” So, as do all believers, the apologists pick and choose from scripture the dictates that they find congenial, ignoring the bad ones."

Gloria Gaynor praises Glasgow police officer who sang karaoke 'I Will Survive' after making arrest in city pub - "A police officer who entertained a pub crowd with a rendition of I Will Survive to defuse tension following a brawl has been praised by the woman who made the song famous, Gloria Gaynor."

Blind recruitment trial to boost gender equality making things worse, study reveals - "Leaders of the Australian public service will today be told to "hit pause" on blind recruitment trials, which many believed would increase the number of women in senior positions... The assumption behind the trial is that management will hire more women when they can only consider the professional merits of candidates... assigning a male name to a candidate made them 3.2 per cent less likely to get a job interview. Adding a woman's name to a CV made the candidate 2.9 per cent more likely to get a foot in the door.
Male privilege! Patriarchy!
To be fair, they were very explicit about wanting to increase the hiring of women - rather than putting the best qualified people into positions regardless of gender. Anyway we already know the Australian governments are very SJW friendly so this is just further evidence
This is also proof that affirmative action leads to worse functional outcomes
Addendum: This is "Going blind to see more clearly: unconscious bias in Australian Public Service shortlisting processes" by the Australian Behavioural Economics Team

Blind recruiting study suggests positive discrimination common in the APS - "The boost increased to 8.6% for “minority females” and 5.8% for men who were also from a minority group. Applications from Indigenous females were a massive 22.2% more likely to be shortlisted when these traits were visible to the person making the decision. BETA also reports: “Interestingly, male reviewers displayed markedly more positive discrimination in favour of minority candidates than did female counterparts, and reviewers aged 40+ displayed much stronger affirmative action in favour for both women and minorities than did younger ones”... Human resources staff demonstrated positive discrimination more than other public servants... The report could easily stoke the simmering debate about whether workforce diversity policies undermine the merit principle, and could be taken as evidence that a truly level playing field is actually unwelcome in the APS... Critics of positive discrimination — who often come from the beneficiary groups themselves and argue their achievements are devalued by affirmative action — could easily attack this piece of advice as evidence that diversity policies only create an artificial appearance of fairness and equity that does not really exist in society. One could interpret these new results — and the way they are presented — as evidence that a meritocratic process is less important in the APS than the need to rapidly boost workforce diversity figures. Blind recruiting is presented not as a way to make things fairer but as a tool that is only valuable where it can boost diversity... Public sector diversity policies are also often underpinned by an aim to more closely reflect the general population, broken down in terms of the distribution of people in various identified groups. The idea is that if all things were equal, a large government workforce should mirror Australian society, but this seems more of an unproven assertion than a logical conclusion, or the self-evident truth it is often presented to be. Like positive discrimination, this concept also seems to run against the merit principle."
Why are males and older people more liberal/feminist?