Links - 8th September 2017 (1)

Statement from President Donald J. Trump | whitehouse.gov - "In referencing the idea of creating new immigration rules unilaterally, President Obama admitted that “I can’t just do these things by myself” – and yet that is exactly what he did, making an end-run around Congress and violating the core tenets that sustain our Republic. Officials from 10 States are suing over the program, requiring my Administration to make a decision regarding its legality. The Attorney General of the United States, the Attorneys General of many states, and virtually all other top legal experts have advised that the program is unlawful and unconstitutional and cannot be successfully defended in court. There can be no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will... in the best interests of our country, and in keeping with the obligations of my office, the Department of Homeland Security will begin an orderly transition and wind-down of DACA, one that provides minimum disruption. While new applications for work permits will not be accepted, all existing work permits will be honored until their date of expiration up to two full years from today. Furthermore, applications already in the pipeline will be processed, as will renewal applications for those facing near-term expiration. This is a gradual process, not a sudden phase out. Permits will not begin to expire for another six months, and will remain active for up to 24 months. Thus, in effect, I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act."
This is masterfully written and incredibly nuanced
If I steal $1 million and give it to a 6 year old kid, that kid is innocent. Nonetheless he has no right to the money. Taking the illegally gotten money from him is not a punishment. Even if it hurts him

DREAM Act rewards illegal immigrants for law-breaking - "The DREAM Act will only encourage more illegal immigration. One only needs to look at history to see how amnesty has played out in the past. The 1986 amnesty legislation legalized about three million illegal immigrants. But rather than put an end to illegal immigration, the amnesty only encouraged more.There are at least 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. ... the rule of law is as American as apple pie

I’m a transgender in Singapore, and i don’t support Pink Dot : singapore - "Please. Firing one Alfian Sa'at from a relief teaching position, is not indicative of institutional discrimination against all gay teachers. I have been taught by many teachers, who just happened to be gay. They are all still teaching today, and some have even been made principals. The difference is that they were actually good teachers, who enjoyed teaching. Alfian, on the other hand, treated his students like some anthropological field survey, openly blogging about them with disdain and constantly bitching about his employers on his now-defunct blog. MOE was well within its rights to stop employing him as a relief teacher. Alfian is like that Key and Peele sketch. He's not being persecuted. He's just an asshole."
"Not everyone chooses to define themselves largely by their sexuality. And to force every LGBT person to be an advocate is to subsume their right to individual choice."
"Recently Oogachaga released a video where they interviewed Shanmugam about harrassment of LGBT activists, and his facebook comments page was just flooded by radical LGBT activists condemning him. If I were a purely pragmatic politician, I'd say screw them and double down on the religious groups. They'd be ridiculously able to mobilize vote banks."

FRep support - FRep, Finger Replayer for Android - "FRep can record and replay the operation on Android, for automatic or easier operation. Once you record your operation, you can play it by one push."

What happened when I eliminated political dissent from my Facebook feed - "Facebook conducted its own study last year to test this concept. Its researchers wanted to know if Facebook algorithms were preventing people who had self-identified as conservative or progressive from seeing information that didn't align with their beliefs. They looked at activity of these users over a course of six months. They concluded that users were still being exposed to differing opinions and that their algorithm didn't suppress content. But people created their own echo chambers based on the posts and pages they liked. The researchers also found that "liberals tend to be connected to fewer friends who share conservative content than conservatives who tend to be linked to more friends who share liberal content"... when I eliminated my cousins from my Facebook feed I didn't only eliminate dissenting viewpoint. I also eliminated pictures of their children"
The liberal echo chamber would explain why conservatives understand liberals better than vice versa

7 Tips for Having a Happy Pride with Your Kids - "Your kids will probably see boobs and penises. There will bodies of all shapes, sizes and in all states of undress. For parents like Ian Duncan, dad to 3-year-old Carson, this is all part of the appeal. “We’re not body shamers,” he says. “It all feeds into my son’s emotional intelligence and sexual development. And it’s never too early to think about that.” Consider the experience as a great opportunity for some interesting discussion. Explain what you’re seeing, and be ready for questions."
Why not bring kids to a strip show?

Senior bitcoin developer says currency 'failed experiment' - "A senior bitcoin developer has declared the cryptocurrency a failed experiment, blaming the end of the currency on the refusal of the community to adopt new standards which would allow it to grow consistently while maintaining stability. Mike Hearn, a longtime senior developer on bitcoin and the former chair of the bitcoin foundation’s law and policy committee, announced in a blogpost that he would be selling his coins and quitting development on the project. “Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly,” he wrote."

Silicone Sally: Japanese men find true love with sex dolls - ""When my daughter realised it wasn't a giant Barbie doll, she freaked out and said it was gross - but now she's old enough to share Mayu's clothes." Ozaki is one of an increasing number of Japanese men turning to rubber romance in a country that's lost its mojo. He also admits to being turned off by human relationships. "Japanese women are cold-hearted," he said while on a seaside stroll with his silicone squeeze. "They're very selfish. Men want someone to listen to them without grumbling when they get home from work," Ozaki added. "Whatever problems I have, Mayu is always there waiting for me. I love her to bits and want to be with her forever. "I can't imagine going back to a human being. I want to be buried with her and take her to heaven"... Ozaki's long-suffering wife Riho tries hard to ignore the rubber temptress silently taunting her from her husband's bedroom. "I just get on with the housework," she sniffed. "I make the dinner, I clean, I do the washing. I choose sleep over sex.""
Keywords: Masayuki Ozaki

News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier - "News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether"

South Korean students caught masturbating in front of female teacher during class - "A group of teenage boys were caught masturbating in front of a female teacher at a middle school in the southern city of Daejeon, according to Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education on Tuesday"

'Spirit Soul' Miley Cyrus: I Am A Genderless, Speciesless, Ageless Being. Okay, Then.

Salford student union president calls for Islamic takeover - "A Muslim student union leader has claimed she would like to 'oppress white people' and has suggested there would be an Islamic takeover if more people read the Koran. Zamzam Ibrahim, who was elected President of Salford University's Student Union in March, also suggested friendship between men and women is un-Islamic and is opposed to the government's anti-radicalisation strategy. The Swedish-Somali student officer also described the government's Prevent strategy as 'disastrous' and 'racist'."

Tribalism Is Still The Middle East's Biggest Problem - "Like the Ottomans before them, the French and the British tried to urbanize Arab tribal regions by connecting them to cities and transforming their economies from subsistence to capitalism. These efforts backfired and the tribes revolted, especially the Druze in southern Syria. Eventually, the tribes flocked to the cities, first forming belts of poverty and then replacing the cosmopolitan leadership and lifestyle with tribal code and tradition. The oil boom and the colossal revenues that resulted gave the new tribal rulers immense power. The Arabs are not in a wretched state – they are in a tribal state, and they are doing what they have been doing since time immemorial: conquering each other, demanding allegiance, and living in perpetual war. The only difference now is that the Arabs are feuding in cities, and on TV and social media instead of in the desert."

Now You Can Enjoy Gluten Free Versions Of Famous Art

World’s oldest companies: Why are so many of them in Japan? - "The oldest running hotel in operation is not in Paris or London or Rome. It is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, in Yamanashi, Japan: a hot-spring hotel called Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan, which has existed since the year 705. The second-oldest is another Japanese hot-springs hotel, Hoshi Ryokan, founded in 718... Most of Japan’s oldest companies are family-owned... owners privilege longevity over the present moment. In other words, Japan’s business culture is not one to obsess over quarterly reports"

New fragrance lets you smell like Pirates of the Caribbean - " Xyrena’s Dark Ride features the familiar note of chlorinated water, a thrilling accord of fog and pyrotechnics and a hint of atmospheric mildew and damp ozone to create ‘the first thrill ride in a bottle.’"

China has been poorer than Europe longer than the party thinks - "A new study by Stephen Broadberry of Oxford University, Hanhui Guan of Peking University and David Daokui Li of Tsinghua University in Beijing argues that China has indeed lagged behind Europe for centuries. It compares levels of GDP per person in China, England, Holland, Italy and Japan since around the year 1000. It finds the only period when China was richer than the others was during the 11th century... These findings challenge a hitherto common belief that China and Europe had similar living standards for centuries until the West’s industrial revolution began in the late 18th century: a point often referred to by historians as the “great divergence”... European wealth and Chinese poverty cannot be explained by industrialisation: they must reflect institutional differences."

More airlines are auctioning off seats - "The latest is Singapore Airlines, which has unveiled a new bidding system in which economy-class flyers can bid for a swankier seat in premium economy. Passengers receive an e-mail around a week before the flight asking whether they would like to bid for an upgrade and setting a minimum price. This can then be changed or cancelled any time until 50 hours before the flight, when the “winners” are informed"

Female Democratic senators ignore 2 women activists at hearing on Islamism, pose questions only to male witness – Women in the World in Association with The New York Times – WITW - "through a strategy of deflection and demonization, the Democratic senators — mostly women — ignored the scholarly and lived expertise of Hirsi Ali and Nomani"

They Brushed Off Kamala Harris. Then She Brushed Us Off. - NYTimes.com - "Just as we are invisible to the mullahs at the mosque, we were invisible to the Democratic women in the Senate. How to explain this experience? Perhaps Senators Heitkamp, Harris, Hassan and McCaskill are simply uninterested in sexism and misogyny. But obviously, given their outspoken support of critical women’s issues, such as the kidnapping of girls in Nigeria and campus sexual assault, that’s far from the case. No, what happened that day was emblematic of a deeply troubling trend among progressives when it comes to confronting the brutal reality of Islamist extremism and what it means for women in many Muslim communities here at home and around the world. When it comes to the pay gap, abortion access and workplace discrimination, progressives have much to say. But we’re still waiting for a march against honor killings, child marriages, polygamy, sex slavery or female genital mutilation... when we speak about Islamist oppression, we bring personal experience to the table in addition to our scholarly expertise. Yet the feminist mantra so popular when it comes to victims of sexual assault — believe women first — isn’t extended to us. Neither is the notion that the personal is political. Our political conclusions are dismissed as personal; our personal experiences dismissed as political. That’s because in the rubric of identity politics, our status as women of color is canceled out by our ideas, which are labeled “conservative” — as if opposition to violent jihad, sex slavery, genital mutilation or child marriage were a matter of left or right. This not only silences us, it also puts beyond the pale of liberalism a basic concern for human rights and the individual rights of women abused in the name of Islam... the thinking goes, if women in America still earn less than men for equivalent work, who are we to criticize other cultures?This is extreme moral relativism disguised as cultural sensitivity"

Sweden far-right plans gay parade in mainly Muslim area

The Trauma of Facing Deportation - "Georgi was given a diagnosis of uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome, an illness that is said to exist only in Sweden, and only among refugees. The patients have no underlying physical or neurological disease, but they seem to have lost the will to live. The Swedish refer to them as de apatiska, the apathetic... In an open letter to the Swedish minister of migration, forty-two psychiatrists asserted that the new restrictions on asylum seekers and the time it took the Migration Board to process their applications—children could be in limbo for years—were causing the disease. They accused the government of “systematic public child abuse”... Kihlbom cited the psychiatrist Bruno Bettelheim, a Holocaust survivor, who wrote that some prisoners in the concentration camps were “so totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally, that they had given the environment total power over them.” They “stopped eating, sat mute and motionless in corners, and expired.”... When the Swedish government sent doctors and sociologists to visit Kosovo, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, to find out if the illness was a culturally specific way of reacting to trauma, local doctors said that they had never heard of such symptoms... In a seventy-six-page guide for treating uppgivenhetssyndrom, published in 2013, the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare advises that a patient will not recover until his family has permission to live in Sweden. “A permanent residency permit is considered by far the most effective ‘treatment,’ ” the manual says"
Not The Onion
Apparently not getting asylum in Sweden is as bad as being in a concentration camp
If this illness is only found in Sweden, what does it suggest?

Why Did Hundreds Of Refugee Children In Sweden Give Up On Life? - "There was a government report that came out in 2006. The report posed a theory that the children, many of them Roma, came from holistic cultures, without a clear boundary between the individual self and the family. The children were sacrificing themselves for their families. They take on a martyr role. And, in fact, the illness does allow the family to stay. [Sweden's Migration Board has decided that families of uppgivenhetssyndrom children will be granted residency permits.]... why Sweden? Refugees there are among the best treated in the world."
So basically it's a form of blackmail

How Much of the Pressure to Breastfeed Is Coming From Companies With a Financial Stake in the Matter? - "“some of the research that corroborates the benefits of human milk for infants is funded by companies like Medela, which makes breast pumps, and Prolacta Bioscience, a company that makes infant nutrition supplements from human breast milk.” The breast-pump and nursing-accessory industries, she writes, have market share to gain from an increase in the number of breastfeeding parents... Breastfeeding, by contrast, has long been seen as the cheaper choice. (Though, as K.J. Dell’Antonia points out in a piece about the real costs of nursing, “It’s tough to make all that ‘free’ milk for your baby if you can’t afford to feed, clothe and shelter yourself.” And as Hanna Rosin wrote in The Atlantic, “It’s only free if a woman’s time is worth nothing.”)"

About That Breastfeeding Study - "even if breastfed babies really do grow up to have higher IQs and make more money, how do we know it's because they were breastfed? "Breastfeeding is positively associated with socioeconomic standards," acknowledged Horta, one of the authors of the Brazil study, in a podcast conversation with The Lancet about his work. "So there is always a question of whether [an outcome like higher IQ] is a consequence of breastfeeding by itself... The kids who are breastfed are wealthier.""