Links - 11th September 2017 (2)

亲戚计算器
A tool to find out what to call relatives in Mandarin

Star-crossed lovers? Meet the couples sleeping with the (political) enemy - "The books that most shaped our understanding of America (for better or worse) were, for him, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and for me, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. As part of our marital deal we each agreed to read the other’s respective book. He was OK with American Tragedy in terms of writing, but found the political leaning meek. I, meanwhile, still find Atlas Shrugged complete and utter garbage, both in style and substance. So yes, books were flying across the room...
Adam and I met in a pub, through a mutual friend – one of the first conversations we had, somehow, was about the government’s austerity programme (which he was fully in favour of). I disliked him immediately. It took about five pints and several hours before I changed my mind and we swapped numbers"

Denmark Tells Bernie Sanders It's Had Enough Of His 'Socialist' Slurs | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - "While speaking at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the center-right Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he was aware "that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism." "Therefore," he said, "I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy... To that we'll add that Sweden, another of Sanders' inspirations, has for decades quietly moved away from its cradle-to-grave form of government welfare."

Why do the French protest so much? You asked Google – here’s the answer - "The ghosts of monarchists who died under the guillotine haunted generations of politicians to come; the wrath of the French populace was to be feared and respected. To this day, many argue it was the way it should be: a government should listen to its subjects, and fear reprisals if it ever scorns them."

Singapore Island Country Club offers ‘poverty simulation’ class for members - "Participants will be called upon to role-play and manage challenging scenarios, like supporting a family and making ends meet on a meagre income while juggling health issues. An MWS spokesperson, responding to queries, said the programme aims to stir compassion and nudge participants towards doing more for the community... MWS has been conducting the programme since 2011 for Methodist church members, other VWOs, and schools"

Steinem apologizes for implying women back Sanders to meet men

As the Singapore Sling turns 100, Leslie Danker takes a look at the colourful history of the iconic cocktail - "As British etiquette of that time frowned upon women for drinking alcoholic beverages in public, the ladies had to sip on tea and fruit juices instead. Mr. Ngiam observed this and saw an opportunity to create something special for his female guests. He mixed gin with cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, Cointreau, pineapple and lime juices along with a dash of Angostura bitters and grenadine to give the cocktail a rosy hue. This resulted in a concoction that could easily pass off for fruit punch, thus masking it as a socially acceptable drink for the ladies"

Dave Filoni Explains Why the Star Wars Prequels Are So Important to Today's Stories - "When ComicBook.com discussed the growing idea of "balance" in the Force in today's Star Wars stories, from Kanan's training with the Bendu to Ezra experimenting with dark side techniques to Ahsoka's clear-bladed lightsabers and even Kylo Ren/Ben Solo's affinity with and straddling of both sides of the Force, Filoni went back to the prequels."

John Rosemond: Your kids should not be the most important - "many if not most of the problems they’re having with their kids — typical stuff, these days — are the result of treating their children as if they, their marriage, and their family exist because of the kids when it is, in fact, the other way around. Their kids exist because of them and their marriage and thrive because they have created a stable family... “Our child is the most important person in our family” is the first step toward raising a child who feels entitled."

Political Correctness is All about Slave Morality - "over the past decade, I have found myself increasingly concerned with political correctness evolving into an oppressive righteousness that are in many ways deeply misguided and incomplete and there is definitely a need to push back against it when it spills over into absurdity... Nietzsche articulated the view that there are two broad moral views or moral frames of mind, that of master morality and of slave morality. Slave morality is concerned with issues of justice, fairness and protection of the weak. It is called slave morality because its emphasis and focus is on those who are powerless, controlled or in positions of minority... what Nietzsche realized is that this is not enough to encapsulate all of morality. There must also be a vertical dimension to morality, one that emphasizes strength, courage, accomplishment, virtue and merit. This relates deeply to what honor cultures emphasize and certainly is a strong element in Aristotle's virtue ethics. This Nietzsche called master morality, because it referred to individuals who were in a position to rise above the herd of society and be judged on their own terms... political correctness in the academy. It is overly concerned with horizontal dimensions emphasizing protection and equality and simultaneously attacking the vertical dimensions (and thus at least somewhat deemphasizing virtue and merit), sometimes to the point of rewarding and justifying a victimized stance."

Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD - "French child psychiatrists, on the other hand, view ADHD as a medical condition that has psycho-social and situational causes. Instead of treating children's focusing and behavioral problems with drugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child's brain but in the child's social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling. This is a very different way of seeing things from the American tendency to attribute all symptoms to a biological dysfunction such as a chemical imbalance in the child's brain... And then, of course, there are the vastly different philosophies of child-rearing in the U.S. and France. These divergent philosophies could account for why French children are generally better-behaved than their American counterparts"

Why Men Find It So Hard to Understand What Women Want - "it’s natural that men who respect and appreciate women are confused about when it’s acceptable to express those desires in a more primal, animalistic way. It's difficult for a guy to know when it’s OK to express desire and passion, and if he waits until a woman explicitly allows it, that defeats the purpose of spontaneous expressions of desire; as Dr. Shpancer puts it, quoting Dr. Marta Meana, a woman wants to feel “overwhelmingly desired, not rationally considered.” The problem for the considerate man, however, is how to express “overwhelming” desire within the constraints he holds himself to and he feels a woman is entitled to; in other words, he doesn't know how to be both the beast and the gentleman she wants and deserves."
Another way feminism makes women lose their erection

Carl Hamilton's answer to How likely was it for a soldier to survive two battles in a row in the Napoleonic era? - Quora - "Casualty rates were actually very low back then, battles were not won or lost by killing the enemy to the last man, but by routing them. During the battle of Austerlitz Napoleon lost 1305 men, out of 65,000 to 75,000 which is between 1.74% and 2%. That is a pretty good chance of surviving the battle on Napoleon’s side."

Lucas Lynch - The rehabilitation of George W. Bush on the left is... - "The rehabilitation of George W. Bush on the left is one of the most fascinating and curious results of the Trump presidency. I don't think necessarily people like Jay Leno or Ellen should never talk to him at all. It's just curious that a man who failed to capture Bin Laden while invading the wrong country - the consequences of which were deathcounts in the hundreds of thousands, debt in trillions, and the creation of the forming and training ground for the Islamic State - is now less taboo than someone making (undeniably) mean tweets to reporters"

Media Horrified By Trump Body-Slam Video - "Journalists reacted in horror Sunday morning after President Trump tweeted a fake video that showed him body-slamming “fraud news” CNN in a fake wrestling match. While many of the president’s supporters online reacted to the video with humor, the consensus among journalists seemed to be that Trump was inciting violence against the media."
If what's obviously taking the piss is inciting violence, Kathy Griffin should have been executed and Julius Caesar plays showing Trump as Caesar are death threats

How The World Butchered Benjamin Franklin’s Quote On Liberty Vs. Security - "The letter wasn’t about liberty but about taxes and the ability to “raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him.” Indeed, if you look at the text surrounding the famous quote, it’s pretty clearly about money: “Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bill, and of such different kinds, rejected, on various pretences,” wrote Franklin. There’s not much on liberty, as we understand the concept, in the entire letter."

Danish city makes pork mandatory but allows other food - "A Danish city has ordered pork to be mandatory on municipal menus, including for schools and daycare centers, with politicians insisting the move is necessary for preserving the country's food traditions and is not an attack on Muslims.
Frank Noergaard, a member of the council in Randers that narrowly approved the decision earlier this week, says it was made to ensure that pork remains “a central part of Denmark's food culture.''"

Booted up in 1993, this server still runs -- but not for much longer - "Even though the system has a character-driven interface, similar to an old green screen system, the users "like the reliability of it, and the screens are actually pretty simple," said Hogan."

If You Don’t Want Your Kids to Be ‘Assaulted’ by the Cops, Teach Them to Respect Authority - "physical removal was the last resort, and it was a last resort made necessary by the student. How, then, do you physically remove a non-compliant human being without it looking “aggressive” and “violent”?... That cop didn’t just barge into the room and randomly pull the nearest black student out of her chair. He was asked to respond after the student couldn’t be bothered to obey a rule or listen to her teacher or listen to an administrator."

Apparently Game Of Thrones Is So Popular It Has An Effect On Porn Consumption - "its premiere date actually reduced online porn consumption by four percent"

Game of Thrones: Sophie Turner describes fantasy HBO series as her 'sex education' - "The first time I found out about oral sex was reading the Game of Thrones script"

Sophie Turner Has Opinions About Sansa's Rape On Game of Thrones, Too - "'one of the things it stirred in me was surprise that so much of people’s time and energy was being spent discussing a fictional scene on television when you hear about people in third world countries —and not just third world countries, all over the world! — getting raped every day, and sexually assaulted every day. This was the trending topic on Twitter, and it makes you wonder, when it happens in real life, why isn’t it a trending topic every time? This was a fictional character, and I got to walk away from it unscathed. Also, why should it be taboo to portray onscreen?'... 'Benioff and Weiss claim to have seen no other possible outcome for a character stranded in a marriage to a psychopath, in a skewed version of feudal society. “It might not be our world,” says Benioff, “but it’s still the same basic power dynamic between men and women in this medieval world. This is what we believed was going to happen.” Adds Weiss: “We talked about, is there any other way she could possibly avoid this fate that doesn’t seem fake, where she uses her pluck to save herself at the last? There was no version of that that didn’t seem completely horrible.”'"

Elton John bomb plotter Haroon Syed jailed for life - "Last year, his brother was jailed for life for plotting to behead someone on Remembrance Sunday"

Cuba love hotels to make comeback, state announces - "State-run "posadas", or love motels, disappeared during Cuba's economic crisis in the 1990s when they became hurricane shelters. Private householders filled the gap in the market, but at exorbitant prices. Officials say the posadas will be cheaper and will help end the practice of love-making in Havana's open spaces... The officials said they hoped the new chain would provide cheaper options for love-making in the city. Couples making love are a common sight in Havana's parks, on the beach and on the famed Malaccan seafront"

Man horrifically mauled after jumping into giant panda den - "A foolish tourist in Nanchang Zoo, China, climbs into a panda den and approaches one of the enormous bears"

No Gender? Canadian Parent Wants First Birth Certificate Without Male Or Female Designation - "A parent in Canada is fighting a law that says a child’s gender must be stated on their birth certificate, in order to keep their baby "genderless." Kori Doty, who does not identify as male or female, wants their eight-month-old baby Searyl Atli to be able to choose their gender, but Canadian law states the baby will not be given a birth certificate without specifying its sex. "I'm raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box," Doty, who prefers to use the pronoun ‘they,’ told CBC News"
I thought even those who propagate this sort of stuff claim that sex and gender are different?

Magnum and Cornetto ice creams to shrink - "Unilever said the move was to help consumers "make healthier choices."

Vienna’s recipe for living well - "“The business of Vienna is not business and never has been,” she told me, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The business of Vienna is life. You can know people in Vienna for years and you don’t really know what they do for a living”... Vienna slays the myth that you have to choose, efficiency or repose. You can have both... Vienna consistently ranks as the world’s most liveable city, surpassing such stalwarts as Copenhagen, Zurich and New York... Another strange thing about a Viennese coffee house is that the coffee is almost irrelevant... those exposed to moderate noise levels (70 decibels) performed better on a creative-thinking exam than those exposed to either high levels of noise or complete silence. Moderate noise allows us to enter a state of mind conducive to creative breakthroughs"

Why do humans kiss each other when most animals don't? - "People in western societies may assume that romantic kissing is a universal human behaviour, but a new analysis suggests that less than half of all cultures actually do it. Kissing is also extremely rare in the animal kingdom... Kissing as we do it today seems to be a fairly recent invention, says Rafael Wlodarski of the University of Oxford in the UK... Our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, do kiss... men also make a version of the pheromone that female boars find attractive. It is present in male sweat, and when women are exposed to it their arousal levels increase slightly."