Links - 14th February 2018 (1)

Why Israel has nothing to learn from Europe in fighting terror - "after four years as the EU envoy, Faaborg-Andersen said that Israel can learn from Europe how to effectively combat terrorism... Now that is an interesting idea considering how many of the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Europe are carried out by citizens, some born and bred in their respective countries. In Israel, a small percentage of the attacks - like the recent one at the Temple Mount - are carried out by Israeli Arabs. Most are perpetrated by Palestinians. Looking at the numbers this is an even stranger idea. According to EUROPOL, the EU agency for law enforcement cooperation, 142 people were killed in terrorist attacks in EU member states in 2016. In Israel, on the other hand, 17 people were killed. While 2017 is not yet over, the discrepancy is stark. In Israel 12 people have been killed, nine of them soldiers and policemen, while in EU member states there are already nearly 60 people who have been killed in Islamic terrorist attacks."
Even when you correct for population, more people died in Western Europe than Israel to terrorists in 2016

Wikileaks: Singapore firm with government ties bought cyber snooping software - "It turns out that a Singapore-based company named PCS Security was named in the list. According to Wikileaks, the company purchased 19 licenses for the malware products in 2012, of which 15 were subsequently “deleted”, although it’s unclear what Wikileaks meant by that. Altogether, this comes out to just over €3 million (about US$4 million) in spending."

Singapore Officials Show Some Spine… - "The Singapore government has declined to reappoint Attorney General Walter Woon after his two years on the job expired earlier this month. Woon was earlier criticized by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of Singaporean patriarch Lee Kuan Yew. Wei Ling is the head of the National Neuroscience Institute. In 2008 Woon brought a case against CK Tang department store chairman Tang Wee Sum for attempting to buy a kidney for transplanting. Both Lee Wei Ling and Lee Kuan Yew voiced public disapproval of Woon for bringing the charges against Tang.. In a defiant interview in the Straits Times newspaper, Woon, a professor of law with a distinguished record with the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Dean of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education and as a former ambassador to Germany and Belgium, was asked if he thought he had "annoyed the powers that be." "It's not unlikely that I have"... Woon's testiness over the kidney decision was the second in which a Singaporean legal figure has appeared to differ with the ruling Lee family. Last year, District Judge John Ng acquitted five members of the Singapore Democratic Party of holding a procession without a permit when they attempted to walk from Singapore's Speaker's Corner to Queenstown Remand Prison in September of 2007, saying he couldn't see how the activity of walking down Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping thoroughfare, fit the definition of a procession. The Attorney General's chambers almost immediately appealed Judge Ng's decision. On April 2, High Court Judge Choo Han Teck overruled Ng and ordered him to sentence the activists. Accordingly, Ng on April 20 fined them S$500 each in lieu of five days in jail. Gandhi Ambalam, the leader, was fined S$600 or 6 days jail."

Fat women are perfect and beautiful but fat men are ugly and nasty : TumblrInAction

Learning to love myself enough to f*ck raw while Black and HIV positive - "The fact that I am HIV positive is a result of anti-Black state sanctioned violence"
"by his definition whiteness=ethical behavior"

Cop-hating professor’s bondage fetish revealed on kink site - "The anarchist John Jay College professor who tweeted “it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops” says publicly that he despises authority and punishment, but privately he’s seeking a dominatrix to rule him with an iron fist... When he puts on his “dom” hat, he likes “calling my subs dirty fascist lapdog whores,” he writes."
The lady doth protest too much

Christopher Nolan Sank a $500,000 IMAX Camera Making Dunkirk - "Christopher Nolan does not like to add effects in post-production and instead favors practical effects and one of his methods on Dunkirk was to strap incredibly expensive IMAX cameras to planes and intentionally crash them into the sea"

Are young men really skipping work to play video games? - "In the researchers’ model, the rise in how much young people value games over time predicts a drop in hours of between 1.5% and 3%, which the authors say explains the bulk of the 4% disparity with older workers who don’t value video games as much. (Recall that the disparity in question arises from the 12% decline in hours worked for young people, versus an 8% decline for older workers, between 2000 and 2015.) In other words, the reason younger men are working less than their older peers is that they’d rather be playing video games."

The surprising ways video games have shaped the economy - "I saw Edward Castronova speak in front of a learned audience of scientists and policy wonks in Washington DC. "You guys are already winning in the game of real life," he told us. "But not everyone can." And if your choice is a Starbucks server or a star-ship captain - what, really, is so crazy about deciding to take command in an imaginary world?"

Russian men losing years to vodka - "Overall, a quarter of Russian men die before reaching 55, compared with 7% of men in the UK and about 10% in the United States. The life expectancy for men in Russia is 64 years, placing it among the lowest 50 countries in the world in that category. It is not clear how many Russian men drink three bottles or more a week. Lead researcher Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University said the average Russian adult drank 20 litres of vodka per year while the average Briton drank about three litres of spirits."

Similar hanging mannequin at *SCAPE was used 3 years ago & nobody complained - "A mannequin of a bloodied, long-haired woman hanging from a tree at *SCAPE has been taken down after criticism from conservative members of the public."

Top university accepts Islamic Society’s gender-segregated event was ‘unlawful’ - "The London School of Economics (LSE) came under fire in March last year after the Islamic Society held a gala dinner for which students had to buy separate tickets depending on whether they were a “brother” or a “sister”. When they arrived at the event, held at a banqueting hall in central London, there was a large screen separating the men’s tables from the women’s ones, stopping the attendees from even looking at each other."

Michelle Obama mocked for reading 'racist' Dr Seuss books - "In an open letter on Tuesday, Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro rejected a gift of several Dr Seuss books, saying their whimsical illustrations were 'steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes'. Now Twitter users - armed with photos of Michelle Obama reading Dr Seuss books to children during her time in the White House - are mocking those claims... On Saturday it emerged that Soeiro had dressed up as Seuss's The Cat in the Hat character just months before refusing the books. In her open letter to the First Lady, Soeiro had linked to an article titled 'Is the Cat in the Hat Racist?' that accused Seuss of 'blackface minstrelsy' in creating that character"

Norwegian minister: 'We now get what Israel goes through' - "Norway’s minister of immigration drew comparisons Wednesday between the plight of Europeans suffering from increasingly common terror attacks with the experiences endured by Israel for decades... The interview took place a day after Denmark’s Immigration Minister Inger Stojberg posted a screenshot of her iPad showing a drawing of the Prophet Mohammad on Facebook, one of the satirical cartoons that caused outrage among Muslims around the world more than a decade ago. While saying that she did not necessarily agree with the caricature, Listhaug insisted her Danish counterpart had every right to publish it in the interest of free speech"

Exposé: Female IDF combat soldiers at health risk - "The document sheds light on the way the IDF integrates women into the combat force, despite the serious medical consequences caused to female soldiers, and despite the damage to the operational level of the units in which women are integrated as combatants. "Women are no different from men in motivation, command ability, leadership, personal abilities, mental and cognitive functioning," the introduction to the document states. The main difference, according to the document, "is body structure and physiology, which is reflected in differences in women's physical ability from that of men in many aspects, the most prominent of which is cardio-strength, strength (especially strength of the upper body), and speed." Under the heading "Women's Characteristics relative to Men," the Advisor notes that body weight, muscle mass, and muscle strength are significantly lower in women, and therefore, during training as fighters, they suffer far more from "weight-bearing capability" and "muscle-skeletal injuries." The key word for dealing with these medical problems is "adjustment": Adjustment of the duffel bag to each female soldier's weight, the adjustment of an effort bar so that it is lower for female fighters than men's, and fitting roles to match the physical characteristics of the girl fighters. It amounts to a drastic lowering of combat achievement requirements to accommodate female fighters... The implications of this fact, as they appear in the IDF document, are: "higher stress fractures, lower aerobic performance (running and trekking) and increased risk of heat injuries"... the female fighters should be allowed seven hours of net sleep, to ensure the presence of logistical details suitable for female fighters such as clothing, menstrual needs, weapons, and more. The document also states that "lowering weight burdens" should be performed, and specifies, for example, the use of lighter radio equipment, and "four cartridges in the vest instead of six." It was also determined that the maximum weight allowed for females is 33% of body weight compared to 40% for fighting men"
On the feminist fetish for citing Israel as how women in all combat roles will work

Will Hamas place benches to help female IDF soldiers? - ""The IDF discovered that women in combat units suffered many physiological injuries, failed the entrance tests and fitness routines, and fell behind during any strenuous physical activities. "Therefore, the IDF have adapted the training and courses, and lowered the bar to enable more women to participate... "In one of the fitness tests in the IDF Officers' School, the women run with one canteen and two magazines, and they climb over a wall using a bench. Men run with two canteens, five magazines, and must climb the wall without help. The maximum time given to men is seven minutes; the women have nine minutes."

More young Singaporeans signing up for dialect classes - "The Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan (SHHK) said interest has been growing over the last three years, especially among those in the medical field, lawyers, undergraduates and property agents."
Singaporeans are pragmatic

Why European Islam’s current problems might reflect a 100-year-old mistake - "Jonathan Laurence argues (link to English translation) that the present-day pathologies of European Islam are a kind of aftershock from a century-old mistake. Or rather, of a short-sighted policy that went into higher gear almost exactly 100 years ago. In the summer of 1916, the British government and its war allies began fomenting an Arab revolt against the political and above all, spiritual authority of the Ottomans"
How come everything is white people's fault?
Comment: "So, everything will be solved when Ergodan declares himself Caliph? Somehow, I am not convinced."
"Yeah, bollocks – if the Caliph meant so much to the Muslims, why was it successfully abolished (by Muslims themselves no less)? And why have the Muslims, by and large, not missed it for the past 100 years, and still don’t appear to do so (ISIS notwithstanding)? The answer is that the Caliphate has not mattered in centuries, not since the fall of the Abbasid empire more than a thousand years ago. And when the Mongols sacked Baghdad and killed the Caliph, but no Muslims lifted a finger to help, any pretensions to their authority banished. Such a hollow office, even if it were still alive, would have done very little to tame fundamentalist Islam"

What Makes You So Sure? Dogmatism, Fundamentalism, Analytic Thinking, Perspective Taking and Moral Concern in the Religious and Nonreligious - "although dogmatism is negatively related to analytic reasoning in both groups of individuals, it shares a divergent relationship with measures of moral concern depending on whether one identifies as religious or not. Study 1 showed that increasing levels of dogmatism were positively related to prosocial intentions among the religious and negatively related to empathic concern among the nonreligious. Study 2 replicated and extended these results by showing that perspective taking is negatively related to dogmatism in both groups, an effect which is particularly robust among the nonreligious. Study 2 also showed that religious fundamentalism was positively related to measures of moral concern among the religious."
In other words, religious dogmatism/fundamentalism isn't all bad

Chinese tourists handed 30-page list of dos and don'ts in Singapore - "The Chinese authorities put out “civilised behaviour guidelines” for mainland travellers as far back as 2006, but at the time, they only took up one page."

Dear Colleague: It’s over! Education Department rescinds controversial 2011 letter - "the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that the April 4, 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter and an accompanying 2014 guidance document are rescinded. The 2011 letter mandated that colleges use the low, “preponderance of the evidence” standard in adjudicating accusations of sexual misconduct on campus. It also recommended the removal of other critical elements of a fair procedure, such as the right to cross-examination and prohibitions on double jeopardy (being tried for the same accusation twice)."
Maybe feminists will complain this perpetuates "rape culture" since fewer men will be persecuted

For Some Chinese Uighurs, Modeling Is A Path To Success - "wherever she goes, she says, she gets the same response. "In France, people spoke to me in French, thinking I was French," she says. "In Italy, they spoke Italian to me. The immigration officer in Europe wouldn't stamp my Chinese passport at first because he didn't believe I was from China." The only country where she isn't mistaken for a local is her own. "In many Chinese cities, people think I'm a foreigner," Dulkun says, giggling."

University: Prioritize Sexual Minorities - "The University of Alberta claims that studies say more than half of Generation Z is not heterosexual or cisgender, in a poster first seen on campus Tuesday. The university’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services presented this information and more pertaining to gender and sexuality in a poster located on campus... “What staggers me with regards to the continual pushing of these minority rights activists is the rate at which equality of opportunity turned, first, into ‘equity’ (an absolutely murderous doctrine) and now, even further — into the demand for privilege”... Peterson argued that, lacking internal borders, the egos of the activists engaged in a “narcissistic expansion,” creating an “ethical void.” “The radical leftists have become exceptionally good at using guilt and accusation to demolish all those who would otherwise enforce such limits”"

Liberalism's identity crisis - "Visit the Republican Party’s homepage and you’ll find a page entitled “Principles for American Renewal” with clear statements on 11 important areas. On immigration, for example, it declares: “We need an immigration system that secures our borders, upholds the law, and boosts our economy.” The offline GOP could hardly be said to live up to this online clarity. But at least the intent is there. Go to democrats.org and no equivalent document is immediately available. Instead, Lilla reports, “You find a list of links titled ‘People’. And each link takes you to a page tailored to appeal to a distinct group and identity: women, Hispanics, ‘ethnic Americans’, the LGBT community, Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders . . . there are 17 such groups, and 17 separate messages. You might think that, by some mistake, you have landed on the website of the Lebanese government — not that of a party with a vision of America’s future.” Identity politics isn’t just electorally hopeless, it is intellectually stultifying. Indeed, it is an assault on free thought and reason. Argument replaces taboo. Lilla understands this. Of the recent tendency to begin sentences with “speaking as an X”, he writes: “This is not an anodyne phrase. It tells the listener that I am speaking from a privileged position on this matter . . . It sets up a wall against questions, which by definition come from a non-X perspective. And it turns the encounter into a power relation: the winner of the argument will be whoever expressed the most outrage at being questioned.”... the path back to electoral success involves steering left-wing politics back towards ideas such as citizenship and solidarity, building an inclusive agenda that is less obsessed with dividing society up into distinct groups and more concerned with building common cause across those lines."