Links - 1st December 2017 (2)

The English in America | Podcast | History Extra - "Religion clearly, it did play a role. But the idea that it was dominant, that it was the reason that most people went is simply not true. You know there are lots of reasons why people went. People went to, because they wanted to harvest the extraordinary natural wealth in the water, the extraordinary numbers of fish. Particularly in North America... the waters in Europe which were very over fished... People went because they wanted to get rich. They went looking for, because they thought that America would be a land full of gold mines and full of precious metals and so on and so forth... [after the Civil War] quite a lot of royalists did leave the country at that point often going to places like Virginia...
People went because they wanted to be free... although these people were, disagreed fundamentally with religion as it was practiced in England, they certainly weren't liberal. They, a lot of people who disagreed with them found themselves you know rudely kind of tortured or expelled or hanged...
This device of an indenture was invented which basically meant, the reason it was called an indenture was a servant would sign a legal contract and the legal contract was then torn in half and the two sides of the paper, as happens if you tear a piece of paper, the two sides of paper would have teeth and that's why it was called an indenture... half would be given to the owner and half would be given to the servant, the idea being that if you ever needed to prove that this had originally been one contract you could show that the two sides matched up...
The emigration from England was so astonishing. The numbers who went from England, it was only quite a small country, the numbers who went were extraordinary. I mean twice, as you know to give you an idea, twice as many went during the seventeenth century from England as from Spain. Spain was the next biggest exporter of people in Europe. A lot of Spaniards went to South America and so forth but twice as many went from England and if you compare England to a country like France which was another Atlantic power with a very long Atlantic coastline, forty times as many people went from England as went from France. Forty times. France was a country with a much larger population... It's no wonder that when conflict did appear between the English and the French... the English ultimately came out on top"

The man who cut out his own appendix - "During an expedition to the Antarctic, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov became seriously ill. He needed an operation - and as the only doctor on the team, he realised he would have to do it himself... Appendectomies are now compulsory for Antarctic explorers from several countries such as Australia. And some in the medical profession have suggested the procedure should be given to any future astronauts leaving the Earth to form a colony on Mars or the Moon."

University drops world's oldest erotic novel written in English from curriculum - "Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, was first published in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors prison in London, it’s the story of an ageing courtesan who looks back with “stark naked truth” on her scandalous life... heteronormative descriptions in Fanny Hill of “maypole[s] of so enormous a standard” appear to be proving too much for university students. Judith Hawley, professor of 18th-century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that after decades of teaching the provocative text on various courses, Fanny Hill is being dropped from the latest curriculum following a consultation with students... the rest of the reading list for the course now comes with a “trigger warning”, explaining that Restoration and 18th-century texts “sometimes reflect the unpleasant prejudices of their time, just as they sometimes work to complicate or challenge those attitudes. "Racism, sexual violence, and self-harm were part of society then, as in different ways they are now.” Students are encouraged to speak to staff if there is a “cause for concern”."

Muslim Blasts Gay Ex-Muslim as 'Far Right' on Live TV - "A surreal exchange saw a Muslim activist with extremist connections accuse gay rights activists of “Islamophobia” to their faces on live TV because they campaigned against Islamist extremists who want to see all LGBT people murdered... the East London Mosque filed a complaint against CEMB for “inciting hatred,” since CEMB pointed out their long documented history of homophobia."

I’m An Ex-Google Woman Tech Leader And I’m Sick Of Our Approach To Diversity! - "As a woman entrepreneur, I wanted to build a company that had a diverse team. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve failed miserably so far. We try hard, but again find ourselves with a 98% male candidate pool. You should know that we are an early stage startup that cannot afford market salaries. Despite that, we paid premium salaries to bring a few women who did well in our interviews. But, they lacked the energy to put us into overdrive. Worse, they were starting to drain the energy from the rest of the team. Eventually, we had to do the right thing for the company and let them go. I’m now back to being the only woman on the (tech) team... This summer, we got into beginner Python. The boy can’t stop taking on problems while the girl has declared that she hates it. She’s very ready to take on Photoshop and create filters and stickers for UrbanAMA though!... After diversity attempts at large companies and my own startup and the attempts to start tech early with my own children, I can tell you that our obsession with diversity and attempts to solve it are only fucking it up for the actual women in tech out there!... In the name of diversity, when we fill quotas to check boxes, we fuck it up for the genuinely amazing women in tech."
She's Indian and seems to be from India so that gives her additional protection from SJWs. But unfortunately she's not trans or Muslim
Elaboration in comments: ""The breadth overwhelms some people. Some others don’t have the attitude to take on the grunge work. It did not just happen to women, btw. An equal number of men had that problem and they are also no longer with us. It just so happened that all of the women we hired fell into this category. Sad coincidence really. We’ve had many others successfully broaden their scope and knowledge with willingness to go well beyond the comfort zone."

Tibor Fischer is right - my generation of university students are a bunch of snowflakes - "Tony Blair’s ambitious vote-winning pledge to have 50 percent of young people attend university nears fruition, but it has only been made possible by lowering entry standards, and by creating a plethora of degrees which have little real value... increasing numbers of students making use of special arrangements for conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD and dyslexia. This year, at the University of Edinburgh, 16 students were allowed to avoid having to give oral presentations, whilst in 2016, 218 students at Cambridge – three times more than five years ago – were granted extra time for stress and anxiety... If you think that university should be an egalitarian beacon of inclusivity, rather than a rigorous centre of academic excellence, then much of what I’ve argued will be irrelevant. If that’s the case, then you’ll probably see high academic standards, and the traditionally rigorous nature of a university degree, as barriers to your ultimate goal: everyone getting an equal prize."
Some socialists think anyone who works should get a "decent wage" regardless of the value they generate. Presumably they think anyone who wants to go to university should be able to graduate too

Indian men unable to find a girlfriend resort to ringing wrong numbers in hope of striking up a relationship - "Police in the city of Lucknow have set up a special call centre to handle complaints from victims. The New York Times reported that when 24-year-old Premsagar Tiwari was arrested by police he was found in possession of eight SIM cards and contacted more than 500 women a day... one gang in Uttar Pradesh state had even started selling women's phone numbers to single men, with differing prices depending on their looks... The chat-up lines used by the men vary from the prosaic 'Can I recharge your mobile?' to the poetic 'I am talking to you, madam, but my body is shaking' and the extremely creepy 'I want to do the illegal things with you'... Sometimes they call and say "I want to talk to Sonia" and I would say "I am not Sonia" and they would say "OK, can I talk to you?"'"

The worst romantic movies, according to dating experts - "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
‘If you want to look on the dark side, nothing demonstrates a dysfunctional relationship better than Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. It didn’t end happily, but it is realistic. She was older, he was younger and infatuated. Even if you forget the age difference, there were so many signs that the relationship was toxic. A good relationship is based on communication, shared values and respect. They failed to communicate effectively. Rather than dealing with it, problems were ignored.’"

HuffPo Contributor Outed as Leader of Charlottesville Doxing Campaign - "Breitbart News asked HuffPost, which has run several pieces condemning the practice of doxing when left-wing “social justice warriors” are the victims, whether it would continue publishing Smith’s work. At the time of publication, HuffPost had not responded to our inquiry about Smith’s future writing for the website."

What The Power Rangers’ Costume Designer Really Thinks About The Controversial Female Armor - "Though there is still an element that's ruffled some feathers beyond the typical gripe that the suits look too modern, and it has to do with the armor on the female team members. In particular, the fact that Power Rangers features female armor that shows pronounced breasts has been a point of contention, and it's a point that costume designer Kelli Jones has tried to debunk"
Why is this even an issue?

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, An Act of Striking Bravado - "[On a Libya luxury hotel] It's said to have been swum in by Idi Amin who managed a dip while still holding onto his gun in case an assassin should jump out"

Really, Would You Let Your Daughter Marry a Democrat? - "most Americans would rather have their child marry someone of a different color than a different political party"

The Polarizing Political Paradox Redux - "most Americans cannot reliably identify which specific policies each party supports, that people adopt party loyalties quite early in life, and that most stick to those loyalties whatever happens. (Look, I expected my kids to bleed Giants orange and detest Dodger blue from birth to eternity. So far, so good.) Americans’ party polarization cannot be that much about the issues. The authors point instead to the intensification of media attacks in the last few decades. They find that the warmth gap was highest among Americans in battleground states and Americans exposed to the largest number of negative political ads. Another study, by John Geer, describes how negative ads have increased — and increased, he finds, because the media increasingly turned them into news stories, multiplying their exposure and turning up the heat. Studies such as the one by Iyengar and colleagues are sharpening our understanding of what this political polarization is about. Increasingly, for most Americans it looks to be less about substantive issues and more about team (or gang) loyalty."

Google CFO retires with a candid memo about work/life balance - "Pichette recalls a vacation in Africa with his wife last fall, during which she suggested they keep traveling and really see the world. He initially demurred, noting the importance of his work at the Internet giant. "Then she asked the killer question," Pichette wrote in his memo, which he posted to Google+. "So when is it going to be time? Our time? My time? The questions just hung there in the cold morning African air." He started to lay out the argument in his head: Their kids had grown up and moved away. He had worked for nearly 30 consecutive years of his life. And his wife clearly deserved more quality time. He knew it was time to "hit the road.""

Ikea's using your most Googled relationship searches for product names - "The searches were pulled from the most common Swedish searches and used in the "Retail Therapy" campaign. And naturally, those secretly Googled questions are paired with an Ikea product that could "fix" the problem."

Woman uses vibrator while driving, ends up crashing her Mini Cooper

Parents upset over penis-shaped Play-Doh toy

Dubai to Create the World's First Climate-Controlled City - "Called the Mall the of the World, the 48 million square-foot mini-metropolis would be the first city-sized enclosure to allow residents to completely avoid outside conditions for extended periods of time"

Microsoft's Cortana Strives to Be More Culturally Aware Than Apple's Siri - "Microsoft is aiming to make Cortana's personality about as far from one-size-fits-all as possible. The British version, for example, is self-deprecatingly humble (and probably talks a lot about the weather). The forthcoming Japanese Cortana endeavors to be more formal. The Canadian one likes hockey."

Pride campaign says identity is beyond LGBTQA: ‘Six letters will never be enough’ - "The almost five-minute film by fitness club brand Equinox in partnership with The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City, expands on those six letters by adding 20 other ways people define themselves."
If everyone is special, nobody is

'Story Of An Egg' Film Explains What 'Cage-Free,' 'Free-Range' Actually Mean (VIDEO) - "The definition for “cage-free” is quite literal: All it means is that the hens aren’t kept in cages. It doesn’t mean they’re treated well. They can still be cooped up in large industrial chicken houses with no room to walk around. Think “free-range” is any better? In order for chicken to be labeled as “free-range,” they must have access to the outdoors. But that outside space doesn’t need to be very big."

Yobai (Night crawling) - "Until quite recently in rural Japan, yobai, or “night crawling” would have been an introduction to sex for many young people. While a young woman slept, a silent intruder would creep into her room, slide behind her and make his intentions known. If she consented, they would have discrete sex until the early morning, when he would have to slip out of the house as stealthily as he had slipped in... Take your clothes off before you even sneak into the house. In Fukuoka, it was once illegal to attack a naked intruder, as he was probably engaged in yobai rather than theft... The seduction of sleeping women is a popular theme of Japanese pornography, and some image clubs offer special yobai services – providing prostitutes who pretend to be asleep while the client slips into their futon."

WATCH: Anti-Trump Feminists in Germany Wear Hijabs, Shout 'Allah Akbar' - "Feminists in the crowd are clearly moved by the chant, one women zoomed in on is visibly crying. Other women, just as American women did in Washington, sported hijabs, or religious head coverings, allegedly in "solidarity" with Muslim women. Muslim women in many countries in the Middle East are mandated to wear hijabs and are harshly punished for not complying. In fact, Muslim women in America, such as Asra Q. Nomani and Hala Arafa, have begged Western women to stop wearing the head covering as sign of "resistance" or "solidarity.""