Links - 17th June 2018 (1)

S Spa Singapore - Posts - "S Spa celebrates its 4th annual D&D to thank the staffs for their hard work and dedication all these years. Our company remains committed to giving the best customer service to all our customers"

Daughter sues parents for ‘embezzling’ US$9,200 of red envelope money - "The Jinan court said in a separate post that “giving red envelopes is an act of giving, and the receiver of the act is the child. All of the rights related to red packets are transferred to the child”."

Lunar New Year: Chinese TV gala includes 'racist blackface' sketch - "The skit begins with a routine by a group of African dancers in "tribal" attire and people dressed up as zebras, giraffes, lions and antelopes"
Justice Bao must be wiped out from Chinese culture because of blackface
Of course few people are looking at the condescending tone and propaganda value, which are much more relevant than something resembling a practice last commonly seen when most people alive today hadn't been born yet

Google Fired and Disciplined Employees for Speaking Out About Diversity [Updated] - "Google’s practice of formally reprimanding—and in at least one case, firing—employees for comments the company deemed discriminatory toward white men suggests that Google made an effort to moderate speech by its liberal employees as well as its conservative ones. These efforts have left some Google employees concerned that they will face professional consequences if they voice support for Google’s diversity and inclusion efforts and wondering if the company’s HR system is being gamed by employees who want to stamp out diversity initiatives... Colin McMillen, a staff software engineer at Google who has worked at the company for eight years, said he was reprimanded by human resources for an internal post in which he stated he did not want to work with individuals who shared Damore’s beliefs... Chevalier penned a blog post comparing the logic of James Damore’s memo to that used by domestic abusers to justify and perpetuate their abuse. The post, which Chevalier linked to on internal Google Plus, compared Damore’s memo to the manifestos written by mass shooters Eliot Rodger and Marc Lépine. Damore’s writing reflected similar feelings of entitlement and gender superiority to those on display in Rodger’s and Lépine’s manifestos and in the behavior of domestic abusers, Chevalier argued... “White boys (not only white boys, but especially) are taught not just that they’re entitled to a perfect female partner/servant in the way Bancroft describes, but also that they’re entitled to high status because of their maleness and whiteness; that being white and male are precious gifts that no one can ever take away from them,” Chevalier wrote in the post. This line, he was told, violated Google’s harassment and discrimination policy... Chevalier’s caption was, “White men felt disenfranchised because their needs are no longer centered and people of color and women are getting a fair share.”... McMillen wrote on internal Google Plus that he would refuse to work with other employees who supported Damore’s views. In mid-September, McMillen was called into a meeting with HR and told that a complaint had been made about his post... McMillen was told that he should excuse himself from all hiring and promotion decisions. “The stated reason was there were concerns about my ability to be impartial in evaluating other people”... Google stepped up its recruiting efforts at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)... with some employees questioning why Google had selected these particular schools rather than other universities that had not historically served black students. The former Google employee responded, calling those questions unequivocally racist. The employee received a formal reprimand from Google HR in 2016 for the comment—a copy of which was reviewed by Gizmodo—which called the statement “disrespectful and divisive”... Spitznagel highlighted a racial justice workshop and noted it might be useful to white co-workers who were interested in becoming more involved in the cause. The title of the workshop, which Spitznagel herself didn’t reference in her post, was “Healing from Toxic Whiteness to Better Fight for Racial Justice.”The phrase “toxic whiteness” triggered the HR complaint"... “It’s people provoking you, trying to get a reaction out of you. As soon as they get reaction, they can leak it to an extremist site that will get you harassed outside of work, or they will report you to HR”... "The anti-discrimination laws are meant to protect marginalized and underrepresented groups—not those who attack them,” Chevalier said."
At least we have an admission that diversity is about hating white people and men, and that according to pro-diversity people it's okay to refuse to work with people with diverse views and it's good to discriminate against them
I'm sure there're people who think Damore's well written, nuanced memo was unforgiveable but hating on white people and men must be protected
If you stare at an Ah Beng and he beats you up, it's your fault for provoking him

'Insensitive' Black History Month Meal At NYC Sparks Outrage, Firing - "Two Aramark employees have been fired by the food service after preparing a meal at NYU during Black History Month that was deemed racially "insensitive." Reports suggest that the employees are African-American... The meal, the student claimed in a Facebook post, consisted of barbecue ribs, collard greens, watermelon-flavored water, Kool-Aid, and mac and cheese.
Anti-racism is bad for black people. Then again maybe it's better to not have a job than have someone else be offended

Why climate change is good for the world | The Spectator - "There are many likely effects of climate change: positive and negative, economic and ecological, humanitarian and financial. And if you aggregate them all, the overall effect is positive today — and likely to stay positive until around 2080. That was the conclusion of Professor Richard Tol of Sussex University after he reviewed 14 different studies of the effects of future climate trends. To be precise, Prof Tol calculated that climate change would be beneficial up to 2.2˚C of warming from 2009 (when he wrote his paper). This means approximately 3˚C from pre-industrial levels, since about 0.8˚C of warming has happened in the last 150 years. The latest estimates of climate sensitivity suggest that such temperatures may not be reached till the end of the century — if at all... You can choose not to believe the studies Prof Tol has collated. Or you can say the net benefit is small (which it is), you can argue that the benefits have accrued more to rich countries than poor countries (which is true) or you can emphasise that after 2080 climate change would probably do net harm to the world (which may also be true). You can even say you do not trust the models involved (though they have proved more reliable than the temperature models). But what you cannot do is deny that this is the current consensus. If you wish to accept the consensus on temperature models, then you should accept the consensus on economic benefit... Overall, Prof Tol finds that climate change in the past century improved human welfare. By how much? He calculates by 1.4 per cent of global economic output, rising to 1.5 per cent by 2025. For some people, this means the difference between survival and starvation. It will still be 1.2 per cent around 2050 and will not turn negative until around 2080. In short, my children will be very old before global warming stops benefiting the world. Note that if the world continues to grow at 3 per cent a year, then the average person will be about nine times as rich in 2080 as she is today. So low-lying Bangladesh will be able to afford the same kind of flood defences that the Dutch have today. The chief benefits of global warming include: fewer winter deaths; lower energy costs; better agricultural yields; probably fewer droughts; maybe richer biodiversity. It is a little-known fact that winter deaths exceed summer deaths — not just in countries like Britain but also those with very warm summers, including Greece. Both Britain and Greece see mortality rates rise by 18 per cent each winter. Especially cold winters cause a rise in heart failures far greater than the rise in deaths during heatwaves... Global warming has so far cut heating bills more than it has raised cooling bills... The increase in average carbon dioxide levels over the past century, from 0.03 per cent to 0.04 per cent of the air, has had a measurable impact on plant growth rates. It is responsible for a startling change in the amount of greenery on the planet... more greenery for goats to eat means more greenery left over for gazelles, so entire ecosystems have benefited."

HYSTERIA: 'Racism' Investigation Launched After 'To Kill A Mockingbird' Poster Found In English Classroom - "When a girls varsity basketball team from Virginia discovered a handmade poster based on the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" in an English classroom, racial hysteria unfolded. A local "activist" took to TV cameras to call for action and the school launched an investigation into the allegedly "racist" poster."

Giving birth ages women faster than smoking or obesity, study suggests - "Scientists at the George Mason University in Virginia measured the lengths of telomeres, the end section of a chromosome associated with longevity, in women with children. The results, published in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that the length of their telomeres were on par with women more than ten years older than them. “We were surprised to find such a striking result. It is equivalent to around 11 years of accelerated cellular ageing,”said study author Dr Anna Pollack. Women who had five or more children had even shorter telomeres compared to those who had none, and relatively shorter than those who had one, two, three or even four, according to the study... Sexual intimacy has also been linked to the length of a woman's telomere. A study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology in 2017 found that women who have sex at least once a week displayed longer telomeres. This increased telomere length was not associated with any other relationship factors... "Scientifically, this does fit with what we understand pretty well. We know that having kids is associated with a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes""

Indian state offers free breast implants to the poor - "The Tamil Nadu state health department on Wednesday launched the free service at a clinic in the capital Chennai. “If we don’t offer [the procedure for free], they may opt for dangerous methods or take huge loans for it”... “There is a psychological benefit. Many girls who have larger breasts don’t like to go out. There is no reason this surgery should be restricted from the poor.” The procedure would also be available to men, she said... Tamil Nadu’s government is known for its largesse, particularly under former chief minister Jayalalithaa, who pioneered free food canteens and doled out wedding jewellery and venues to the poor."

Exploring rare genetic resources - "in a 2001 study of Cambridge students the team found that scientists had more autistic traits than humanities students: "We found higher rates of autism amongst the maths students compared to other disciplines. The scientists have more autistic traits than those in the humanities, and mathematicians an even higher rate than other scientists.""
And men have more autistic traits than women. Therefore there are fewer women in STEM because of patriarchy

Newcastle grooming gangs were allowed to abuse 700 girls because police blamed the victims, review finds - "Grooming gangs that preyed on 700 vulnerable girls and women in and around Newcastle developed an "arrogant persistence" because the authorities locked up the victims rather than the offenders, a Serious Case Review has found... the abusers were mainly "not white but came from a diverse range of backgrounds including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish, Albanian and Eastern European". In some cases the victims of the gangs were placed in secure accommodation because of what was seen as their poor behaviour, while the offenders were seen to be innocent and went unpunished. Efforts to find out why the perpetrators thought they could abuse vulnerable women and girls have been rebuffed, with only one defendant agreeing to help the inquiry, and he denied guilt, blaming a government cover up. The Serious Case Review concluded there there was no reluctance to start an investigation into grooming due to political correctness - a factor in previous abuse scandals elsewhere."

Teacher accused of 'misgendering' child was told by police that she committed a hate crime - "The teacher, who claimed they were a “grammatical purist”, refused to acknowledge that the pupil self-identified as a boy and failed to use the pupil’s preferred pronouns of “he” or “him”... Susie Green, CEO of Mermaids, a charity which supports transgender children and their families, told how the teacher had laughed in the child’s face and said “if you don’t want to be called a girl then don’t look like one”. She said that the teacher and school’s management ignored three months of pleas from the transgender child and their parents and dismissed their requests, until she was informed by police that her actions constituted a hate crime."
Comments: "I don't see how the teacher's actions contravene this act, she didn't treat the child 'less favourably' as far as I can tell."
" in villages married women often are referred by their maiden names. Just because people know them for years from child age. Maybe another case of hate crime for disregarding married status and a new surname?"
"At least there are no current surges in knife crime, terrorism or sexual assaults for the police to be dealing with, otherwise the country would really be in trouble..."
"This is a faulty interpretation of the Equality Act. The Equality Act applies "protected status" to gender re-assignment, something that is currently only available to over-18s under UK law. So this teacher did not breach the Equality Act, because it does not apply to minors in this instance"

Schools accused of 'sowing confusion' in children's minds by over-promoting transgender issues - "Dr Joanna Williams, a university lecturer and author of the book Women vs Feminism, claims that "time, effort and money" is being allocated to "monitoring" transgender policies that are "out of all proportion" to the number of children who identify as transgender. Speaking at The Telegraph Festival of Education on Friday, Dr Williams said that feminists were attempting to reshape school policies on gender, adding that children were being forced to “unlearn” the difference between boys and girls. "We are increasingly reminded that schools are struggling financially. Yet the time, effort and money that goes into producing and monitoring Transgender Policies is out of all proportion to the tiny number of trans children currently in British schools,” she said. “Research suggests that just one per cent of the population experience gender issues... "Although the number of transgender children is small, it is growing rapidly. Children - encouraged by their experiences at school - are beginning to question their gender identity at ever younger ages. "In doing more than just supporting transgender children, and instead sowing confusion about gender identity, schools do neither boys nor girls any favours."... Criticising “feminist campaigners” for attempting to use schools as a platform to challenge “sexist stereotypes” Dr Williams added that teachers are now “urged to see trans children as an opportunity to enrich the school community.” “Despite the fact that girls do so well today, the influence of feminism in schools shows no sign of diminishing,” she added. “Teaching subject knowledge becomes blurred with the promotion of particular values. At the forefront of this are political goals concerned with encouraging children to think about gender and sexuality in new ways. “The role of the teacher becomes policing the values, thoughts and language of children to bring them in line with one particular ideological position.” Her comments come as recently published figures show that one three-year-old and 12 children aged four were referred to a gender identity clinic between 2014 and 2015."

'Would you burn the Mona Lisa if it was sent?': Our horror bureaucratic bungle - "It’s a bungle that has floored botanists around the globe and embarrassed the Australian government. How did 105 priceless and irreplaceable historical plant specimens, sent here by the French, end up being destroyed by biosecurity officers?"

Peter Rabbit 'food bullying': Film studio apologises over scene showing animals pelting allergic man with blackberries - "Allergy UK said the film, due to be released in the UK next month, "mocks" allergy sufferers and trivialises a life-threatening condition"
I'm sure some people die after slipping on banana peels. So we should ban such scenes

Muslims burn Pampers because cat looks like prophet's name in Arabic - "Muslims in India have been filmed building a pyre of Pampers products because they can see the word Mohammed in the face of a cartoon cat. They say that the lines illustrating the whiskers, nose, mouth and left eye look like the prophet’s name in Arabic or Urdu. Critics have called it an insult to Islam... the group said Pampers – owned by US multinational Procter & Gamble – had ‘hurt the feelings’ of the Muslim community and called for the products to be taken off the shelves immediately... The letter went on to say: ‘Arrest them and punish them.’"
"If it really looks like the prophet’s name, isn’t it blasphemous to burn it?"

Flinders University Professor Writes About the 'Horrors' of Heterosexuality - "Brook describes “heterosexuality” as an issue that needs to be fixed
I'm sure some people claim that heterophobia is a paranoid right wing delusion