Links - 11th September 2017 (3)

How the Democrats Lost Their Way on Immigration - "If the right has grown more nationalistic, the left has grown less so. A decade ago, liberals publicly questioned immigration in ways that would shock many progressives today... Prominent liberals didn’t oppose immigration a decade ago. Most acknowledged its benefits to America’s economy and culture. They supported a path to citizenship for the undocumented. Still, they routinely asserted that low-skilled immigrants depressed the wages of low-skilled American workers and strained America’s welfare state. And they were far more likely than liberals today are to acknowledge that, as Krugman put it, “immigration is an intensely painful topic … because it places basic principles in conflict.” Today, little of that ambivalence remains... As the Democrats grew more reliant on Latino votes, they were more influenced by pro-immigrant activism... Alongside pressure from pro-immigrant activists came pressure from corporate America, especially the Democrat-aligned tech industry, which uses the H-1B visa program to import workers... progressive commentators now routinely claim that there’s a near-consensus among economists on immigration’s benefits. There isn’t... In his book Exodus, Paul Collier, an economist at the University of Oxford, claims that in their “desperate [desire] not to give succor” to nativist bigots, “social scientists have strained every muscle to show that migration is good for everyone.” George Borjas of Harvard argues that since he began studying immigration in the 1980s, his fellow economists have grown far less tolerant of research that emphasizes its costs. There is, he told me, “a lot of self-censorship among young social scientists”... By some estimates, immigrants, who are poorer on average than native-born Americans and have larger families, receive more in government services than they pay in taxes... What’s more, studies by the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and others suggest that greater diversity makes Americans less charitable and less willing to redistribute wealth. People tend to be less generous when large segments of society don’t look or talk like them. Surprisingly, Putnam’s research suggests that greater diversity doesn’t reduce trust and cooperation just among people of different races or ethnicities—it also reduces trust and cooperation among people of the same race and ethnicity... strengthening the bonds of identity between natives and immigrants is harder when natives and immigrants are not equal under the law... newer immigrants are learning English more slowly than their predecessors did.. 'Exposure to difference, talking about difference, and applauding difference—the hallmarks of liberal democracy—are the surest ways to aggravate those who are innately intolerant, and to guarantee the increased expression of their predispositions in manifestly intolerant attitudes and behaviors. Paradoxically, then, it would seem that we can best limit intolerance of difference by parading, talking about, and applauding our sameness.'... In 2014, the University of California listed melting pot as a term it considered a “microaggression.”"
Racial/ethnic homogeneity explains many of the things people like about Japanese and Nordic culture

The people ‘possessed’ by computers - "people are really bad at judging if someone is acting of their own free will, or if they are a “zombie” acting another’s commands. “No matter how big the incongruity between body and mind, people won’t notice,” says Corti. Or, put another way – we go by appearances more than judging the substance of someone’s thoughts."

Heimlich, 96, uses his move to save fellow rest home resident

Spanish civil servant off work unnoticed for six years - "A Spanish civil servant who failed to turn up for work for "at least" six years has been caught after becoming eligible for a long service award... the boss of the water company had not seen Mr Garcia for years despite occupying an office opposite his. The water company thought he was supervised by the local authorities and vice versa."

China's high-speed sexual revolution - ""In the survey I made in 1989, 15.5% of people had sex before marriage," says Li Yinhe. "But in the survey I did two years ago, the figure went up to 71%... Until 1997, sex before marriage was actually illegal and could be prosecuted as "hooliganism"... In 1996 the owner of a bathhouse was sentenced to death for organising prostitution, Li said in a lecture to the Brookings Institution last year, but now it is widely practised. The most severe punishment these days, according to Li, would be the closure of the business.Publishers of pornography could also be sentenced to death as recently as the 1980s, as could those who organised sex parties... One of the main impulses driving the change in attitudes to sex, according to Li, was the Communist Party's one-child policy, which was enforced from 1979 to 2015. "The one-child policy allows people to have one or two kids only. So unless you give up sex afterwards you are changing your purpose of having sex. Having sex for pleasure gets justified too," she says... "Foucault [the French philosopher] once said, there was no society in the world where sex was absolutely free. There are always restrictions. But I believe the more freedom is offered for sex in a society, the happier people get.""

Which animals can swim up your toilet? - "In New York, stories of alligators in the sewers have proliferated since the 1930s, but they are probably just urban legends. In Paris, however, a crocodile was found in the city's sewers in the 1980s under Pont Neuf"

AA Milne and the curse of Pooh bear - "The success of the Pooh stories also undermined the reception of the non-juvenile work Milne wrote later. “It seems to me now that if I write anything less realistic, less straightforward than ‘The cat sat on the mat’, I am ‘indulging in a whimsy’,” Milne wrote in the introduction to his play The Ivory Door in 1928. “Indeed if I did say that the cat sat on the mat (as well it might), I should be accused of being whimsical about cats; not a real cat, but just a little make-believe pussy, such as the author of Winnie-the-Pooh invents so charmingly for our delectation.” His collaborator, the Punch political cartoonist turned Pooh illustrator EH Shepard, felt the same. Before his death, he called Pooh “that silly old bear” and expressed regret that he’d ever taken part.

Craving root beer floats and Coney dogs? A&W confirms Singapore return

Why Roman concrete still stands strong while modern version decays - "The Roman recipe – a mix of volcanic ash, lime (calcium oxide), seawater and lumps of volcanic rock – held together piers, breakwaters and harbours. Moreover, in contrast to modern materials, the ancient water-based structures became stronger over time. Scientists say this is the result of seawater reacting with the volcanic material in the cement and creating new minerals that reinforced the concrete."

Dark Web Users Reveal Most F*cked Up Thing They've Seen

Alexey Tereshchenko's answer to What are some mind-blowing facts about North Korea? - Quora - "In North Korea, it is very chic to have a fridge at home. Do you know why? Because it cannot be used to store food."

Here's How Long it Would Take for Vampires to Annihilate Humanity - "Working with the conservative estimate that vampires only need to feed once a month, Efthimiou and Gandhi looked at population stats and concluded that vampires would eliminate humans within three years"

Revealed: NSA Leaker Is Pro-Iran Liberal Activist Who Says ‘Being White Is Terrorism’ - "The federal contractor, who was charged by the Department of Justice for stealing classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) and leaking it to a media outlet, is a pro-Iran liberal activist who believes being white is terrorism. According to the resurfaced social media accounts of Reality Leigh Winner, who was arrested on Saturday over leaking classified information to The Intercept and reportedly confessed the wrongdoing, the 25-year-old didn’t hide her contempt for President Trump or her country, and repeated far-left talking points."

Huffington Post's Contributor Platform Is a Magnet for Fake News and Crazy People - "These guys are the exact reason most publications do a base level of vetting to prove their writers aren’t sociopathic kooks."

PISA: Singapore's competitive private tuition system helps students ace the world's biggest education test - "60% of high school and 80% of primary school age students receive private tuition
40% of preschoolers receive private tuition
Preschoolers, on average, attend two hours of private tuition per week, while primary school aged children are attending, on average, at least three hours per week...
Thirty-four percent of those with children currently in tuition spend between $500 and $1,000 per month per child, while 16% spend up to $2,000. Considering the bottom-fifth quintile of households earn about $2,000 per month—the next quintile is around $5,000—this is a very large chunk of the family budget"

Peter Thiel is trying to save the world: The apocalyptic theory behind his actions - "His attack on multiculturalism – such as in his 1995 book, “The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and Political Intolerance on Campus” – was a warning against a new form of scapegoating. “Rather than breaking the cycle of human history, multiculturalism merely represents another link in the long chain of victimization and revenge,” Thiel wrote... Perhaps, as suggested by Shullenberger and others, Trump is destined to become a scapegoat for the ages, a kinglike figure who is in one way or another sacrificed to create a new world order."

The not-so-secret life of Singapore’s crossplayers - "Three years ago, when she was doing housework, he walked up to her and made the unusual request of borrowing her bra. He had only just begun to crossplay then. His mother, completely unfazed, complied by getting him the bra, and even gave him a tip: Don’t stuff until too big, or it will look very weird... Date, Hongzhu and See Jay all say that one of the most common misconceptions people have of male crossplayers is that they must be gay or that they are confused about their gender identity. But more likely than not, underneath the thick makeup and elaborate costumes are heterosexual men - just like the three of them"

Why Being an In-N-Out Manager Is Better Than Being a Lawyer - "They might not get to expense dinner on a corporate card, but In-N-Out managers are privy to a wealth of benefits too. Perks to working at one of America’s most popular burger chains include strong job satisfaction and even this rare unicorn known as "work-life balance"... even while people are climbing their way up the Animal Style-covered corporate ladder at In-N-Out, they're still enjoying themselves. That explains why it recently won an Employee's Choice Award for one of the best places to work by Glassdoor this year"

Lawyers With Lowest Pay Report More Happiness - The New York Times - "Researchers who surveyed 6,200 lawyers about their jobs and health found that the factors most frequently associated with success in the legal field, such as high income or a partner-track job at a prestigious firm, had almost zero correlation with happiness and well-being. However, lawyers in public-service jobs who made the least money, like public defenders or Legal Aid attorneys, were most likely to report being happy. Lawyers in public-service jobs also drank less alcohol than their higher-income peers. And, despite the large gap in affluence, the two groups reported about equal overall satisfaction with their lives. Making partner, the ultimate gold ring at many firms, does not appear to pay off in greater happiness, either. Junior partners reported well-being that was identical to that of senior associates, who were paid 62 percent less... The problem with the more prestigious jobs, said Mr. Krieger, is that they do not provide feelings of competence, autonomy or connection to others — three pillars of self-determination theory, the psychological model of human happiness on which the study was based. Public-service jobs do... lawyers were 3.6 times as likely as non-lawyers to suffer from depression, putting them at greater risk than people in any other occupation... Other research has linked the legal profession to higher rates of substance abuse... lawyers were 54 percent more likely to commit suicide than people in other professions... Others say the job requires an unhealthy degree of cynicism. “Research shows that an optimistic outlook is good for your mental health,” said Patricia Spataro, director of the New York State Lawyer Assistance Program, a resource for attorneys with mental health concerns. “But lawyers are trained to always look for the worst-case scenario. They benefit more from being pessimistic, and that takes a toll.” And then there is the public hostility. “People just seem to hate lawyers”... Many of the more than 3,000 comments on the CNN article about lawyer suicides applauded the trend... “A lot of people go to law school because they don’t know what to do with their lives”"

"What Makes Lawyers Happy? A Data-Driven Prescription to Redefine Prof" by Lawrence S. Krieger and Kennon M. Sheldon - "The first law school study demonstrated the following changes occurring in students after they began law school: marked increases in depression, negative mood, and physical symptoms, with corresponding decreases in positive affect and life satisfaction; shifts from helping and community-oriented values to extrinsic, rewards-based values in the first year; similar shifts in motivation for becoming lawyers, from salutary internal purposes (for interest, enjoyment, and meaning) to more superficial and external reasons (such as for financial rewards, recognition, or to impress or please others); and decreases in values of all kinds after the first year, suggesting generalized demoralization or loss of personal purpose. As discussed above, each of these shifts would predict decreased well-being, and that result was apparent in the data... Mertz observed, for example, that basic law school training changes student values; “unmoor[s] . . . the self”; marginalizes fairness, justice, morality, emotional life, and caring for others; and exclusively emphasizes competitive processes to the extent that they become the only goal. The net result is erosion of the very ability
to make an ethical decision."

Singapore's new train displays have serious design issues - "If anything, the new trains are a symptomatic of a tendency to embrace technology-focused rather than user-centered design"

CNN tracks down person who made Trump-WWE meme, strongarms him into apologizing under threat of doxing - "3 days ago, Donald Trump became the first United States shitposting president after he posted a WWE meme of himself slam-dunking a CNN logo; which the media chose to treat like the second holocaust. After spending two whole days complaining about how Trump was promoting violence against the press (Because edited WWE gifs are threats of violence, obviously), CNN decided to track down the person who had originally made the meme (I shit you not), and threaten to release his full identity. The creator of the meme, who goes by the name “HanAssholeSolo” on Reddit and is believed to be 15 years of age, went into full panic mode – I think you would to, if a giant multi-billion company was coming after you for making a fucking gif. He deleted his entire post history on Reddit, issued an apology on the R/The_Donald subreddit which the mods quickly deleted, and then shut down his account. CNN decided to consider this as a victory. They decided not to publish his full identity because he apologized (under duress); however, they cannot promise that they will not release his personal information in the future. I wish I was making this up"

CNN slammed for threat to reveal identity of Trump 'wrestling' CNN creator - "The blowback on social media against CNN has resulted in #CNNBlackmail trending on Twitter and includes condemnation from several public figures including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Donald Trump Jr. and Vox's German Lopez."

CNN accused of 'blackmailing' Trump gif maker - "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange accused CNN of "blackmailing a private citizen" and tweeted: "When Trump goes low CNN goes lower: threatens to dox artist behind 'CNN head' video if he makes fun of them again""