Links - 20th July 2018 (1)

Durians so cheap they are given away free

Polygamy and African Sex Kidnappings - "1) Why is it that kidnapping young women is unknown among Islamic terrorist groups within the Islamic world?
2) Why do non-Islamic terrorist groups operating in other parts of the globe almost never kidnap women? Latin American guerrillas, for example, probably have little more respect for women than African Islamists, but you never hear of them kidnapping girls in large numbers.
3) Why is it that rebel armies and other dissident groups in Africa almost routinely kidnap women as sex slaves even though they are not practicing Islam?
The answer goes deeper than Islam and religious conviction. It goes right to the heart of what differentiates Africa from most of the rest of the world and creates a continent-wide culture that precludes both political and social stability. The core of the problem is the widespread practice of polygamy... Nigerian feminist Chikelu Chinelo observed, “Not minding their level of education, the consciousness of the average African man . . . has not changed. . . . The moment they are able to achieve some measure of success materially, there is always the tendency to let go of the inhibition that the white man’s religion or education imposes on them and find them marrying many women.” Only last month, Kenya legalized polygamy, arguing that it represents a “traditional” form of marriage that has been suppressed by the encroachments of Christianity. Nor is this a plot for the suppression of women hatched by a hierarchy of dominant males. “We are happy with the law because finally all marriages are being treated equally” was the comment of Christine Ochieng, executive director of the nation’s Federation of Women Lawyers, to CNN. Women are often comfortable with polygamy because it allows them to marry higher-status men than they could otherwise."
Intersectionality means feminists can say things that would be racist from the mouths of others

Cheap AI is better at removing Henry Cavill’s Superman mustache than Hollywood special effects

Female fans of ‘The X-Files’ more likely to work in STEM careers - "The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a nonprofit research organization and advocacy group, and 21st Century Fox conducted an online survey that asked 2,021 women to rate how the character Dana Scully influenced their career choices and attitudes. The survey respondents were all female, all ages 25 or older (so they would have had a chance to enter the workforce, and have seen the show), and comprised an overrepresentation of women in STEM fields and fans of the show."
Scully presumably knows about sampling bias

Malay-Muslim groups urged to tackle challenges - "The proportion of Malay inmates in prison has jumped from about 40 per cent in 2011 to 55 per cent currently, Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said yesterday. About 53 per cent of drug abusers arrested last year were Malay, up from 32 per cent in 2006. The proportion of new Malay drug abusers also went up to 54 per cent last year, from 22 per cent in 2006... 10 per cent of Malaysian Malays had a favourable opinion of terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and nearly a quarter were not prepared to denounce it"
Somehow, while the data on drug abusers by race is easily available, until this article I couldn't find any on inmates by race

Singapore committed to keeping Tamil as an official language, says cabinet minister - "By nature, the South Indians, especially Tamils, were obedient in carrying out the orders of their superiors. They had little educational background and were ready to accept low pay and poor living conditions, according the book, which has references to a number of researches.
Even The Hindu needs to qualify that this was "according the book (sic), which has references to a number of researches (sic)"

The Most Efficient Way to Keep Your Resume Up to Date - "When you get a new job save the description and requirements from the application and use it to later add the job to your resume"

History of the MINIT Group - MISTER MINIT - "1957 - MISTER MINIT was founded in Belgium to offer a rapid and efficient heel repair service. Stiletto heels were the fashion in those days and the Brussels cobble stones were damaging them by the thousands. Traditional cobblers couldn't cope with the demand and hence it took an average of ten days to get them repaired."

Channel NewsAsia - Posts - "I was good at mathematics. But we had a Chinese math teacher who was very nasty, who basically degraded the Malay community and every time we went to class, we were told that we are only good at playing guitar or sitting at the void deck. I continued to do my best to prove otherwise"
Comments: "Are you trying to incite distrust by bringing up something that was 40 years back even if it may be true???? Aren’t there other better speeches to motivate ?"
"please be responsible with your words... this may have happened... is HISTORY... let it go... please do not try to incite racial tensions... as a minister, your words are important... please be wise...! just my 2 cents worth..."
"Hey Hey now you're inciting racial hatred by this speech! Why must you name the race?are you trying to start something?any body can be nasty."
People are scolding Yaacob Ibrahim for inciting racial tensions by relating an anecdote. When you indoctrinate people that all non-kumbaya talk of race and religion are dangerous, it can come back to bite you

JML Copper Stone Pan Review - "These frying pans profess to be non-stick and scratch resistant, well don’t all frying pans nowadays but after a few uses they never are! Well I have been using these now most days for about a fortnight and really put them through their paces and so far nothing at all has stuck! I have washed them well each time and there are no marks on them at all!"

Doug Ford's campaign defends 'take care of our own' comment on immigration - "Facing criticism for suggesting Ontario has to "take care of our own" before pushing for immigrants to move to northern Ontario, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford repeatedly refused to explain his comments, instead saying he is supportive of new Canadians and immigration."

‘Sex-pest nurse mimicked colleague’s breasts’ at Nottingham hospital - "A male nurse set off a hospital alarm so he could watch a colleague's breasts bounce around as she ran down the corridor... Aaron Kibaja, manager at Highbury Hospital's dementia ward in Nottingham, behaved inappropriately towards four women between 2012 and 2016, it is claimed... One woman said he told her she 'a fine rump' and that she was going to 'get it wheelbarrow', as well as nicknaming her breasts 'twins' and calling her 'farty arse'... Asked about the alleged ‘fine rump’ comment he explained that he was talking about eating steak on a night out."

Jonathan Trueman's answer to Do British people not feel ashamed for all the loot and destruction done by their ancestors in the Colonial Era, or at least feel sorry about what happened? - Quora - "You’re Indian, Anonymous, aren’t you? OK, here goes... Britain left India. Seventy years ago... And in that time, under its own steam and with no hand at the wheel but its own, India has achieved tremendous economic growth… together with an appalling degree of corruption... grotesquely unequal distribution of wealth... a pitiful record on freedom of the press... and rising unemployment... And yet your politicians and their activists encourage you to focus on the wrongdoing of a power that departed your shores when my adult son’s grandfather was a boy. Are you sure your anger is aimed at the right target?"

Mechael Kanovsky's answer to Can you show me a map from 1947 and earlier that says 'Israel' in modern-day 'Israel'? - Quora - "Here is a map from 1759. The map says Palestina and right under it, it says Juda and Israel, showing that the two are synonymous. The map shows where the twelve tribes were situated. Sorry, no mention of any Arabs or so called Palestinians... And here is one from 1584 with Israel called the holy land. Same story. All the 12 tribes listed."

Men prefer bromances to their romantic relationships suggests new study - "Every man surveyed reported having at least one 'bromantic' friend with whom they engaged in 'no boundaries' behaviours like sharing secrets or sleeping in the same bed. 29 out of 30 men admitted to cuddling their close male friend. The findings are interesting but the authors acknowledge that they may not apply to men outside this very specific population (i.e. young, white, sporty, straight men)... One participant commented: "Tim knows I love listening to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, but I keep that quiet [around my girlfriend] because she would judge me. I feel like I have to be more manly around her." Sounds like fragile masculinity to us. And having an intimate relationship with a male friend may not have positive effects all round. The authors reported that men in the study sometimes referred to their girlfriends using sexist language and demonstrated an "us and them" mentality suggesting allegiance to their "bros" over their romantic partner. Gross"
Looks like "fragile masculinity" is anything that disadvantages women
Comments: "You have to remember that women don't understand the concepts of friendship and camaraderie between men. They literally hate 100% of one another."
"Men forming close, non-sexual bonds with other men? Not on my oversized watch. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"
" If it isn’t fragile then it’s toxic. That’s the rule."
" - Fucking men are not in touch with their feelings
- Men having feelings? Fragile masculinity!! Ultra gay!"
""Masculinity is toxic"
"Men who have close male friends are fragile"
Sounds like a woman who's not mature enough to let her man have friends"
"And people wonder why bachelors and MGTOW is growing....Tisk tisk, shaming tactics only confirm why those lifestyles are growing in the first place."

Old bra helps cow with calf to avoid mastitis

The tyranny of minorities – Tore Rasmussen - "Nassim Taleb, the author of the bestselling Black Swan, has an intriguing chapter in his book “Skin in the Game” called “The most intolerant wins: Dictatorship of the small minority.” It explains a disturbing phenomenon that we are seeing played out all over the West today. The concept is simple: if you place a tolerant person together with an intolerant and strongly motivated person, then, as a rule, the tolerant will go along with the demands of the intolerant to keep the peace. This behaviour scales up, so even if you have only one intolerant person in the room and ninety-nine tolerant people, as long as the demand of the intolerant is below the others’ intolerance threshold, they will go along with it. Taleb uses halal as an example. Depending on which Western country you live in, most of the meat you consume could be halal... A similar phenomenon has been observed in politics, where there is almost no correlation between what the majority of voters want and what policies will be enacted. The reason is that it is not majorities that win elections, but small minorities that can tip the balance from one to the other. Therefore, politicians will peddle to these minorities and pressure groups on the assumption that the majority will tolerate it and vote for them anyway... According to a recent Chatham House survey, The majority of people in EU countries want to stop all immigration from Muslim countries – an average of 55% across the EU, nearer 65% in Belgium and Austria. Only a small minority support open borders, and yet they determine EU policy, not the majority. Yet they, not the majority, determine EU policy. No wonder democracy is in crisis... In one rare example, we had an opportunity to witness this live during the funeral of Lady Margaret Thatcher. While uniformly denounced by a dismissive press, she was strongly supported by the majority. Hundreds of thousands of people came out to say farewell to their hero, who had saved them from socialism."

The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority - "Close to ten percent of the chain Subway carry halal-only stores (meaning no pork), in spite of the high costs from the loss of business of nonpork stores. The same holds in South Africa where, with the same proportion of Muslims, a disproportionately higher number of chicken is Halal certified. But in the U.K. and other Christian countries, halal is not neutral enough to reach a high level, as people may rebel against forceful abidance to other’s religious norms. For instance, the 7th Century Christian Arab poet Al-Akhtal made a point to never eat halal meat, in his famous defiant poem boasting his Christianity: “I do not eat sacrificial flesh”. (Al-Akhtal was reflecting the standard Christian reaction from three or four centuries earlier — Christians were tortured in pagan times by being forced to eat sacrificial meat, which they found sacrilegious. Many Christian martyrs starved to death.)... My heuristic is that the more pagan, the more brilliant one’s mind, and the higher one’s ability to handle nuances and ambiguity. Purely monotheistic religious such as Protestant Christianity, Salafi Islam, or fundamentalist atheism accommodate literalist and mediocre minds that cannot handle ambiguity... Islam itself is ending up being taken over (in the Sunni branch) by the purists simply because these were more intolerant than the rest... For Jews and Muslim minorities such as Shiites, Sufis, and associated religions such as Druze and Alawis, the aim is for people to leave them alone so they can satisfy their own dietary preferences –largely, with historical exceptions here and there. But had my neighbor been a Sunni Salafi, he would have required the entire room to be eating Halal. Perhaps the entire building. Perhaps the entire town. Hopefully the entire country. Hopefully the entire planet. Indeed, given the total lack of separation between church and state, and between the holy and the profane (Chapter x), to him Haram (the opposite of Halal) means literally illegal. The entire room was committing a legal violation... we need to be more than intolerant with some intolerant minorities. It is not permissible to use “American values” or “Western principles” in treating intolerant Salafism (which denies other peoples’ right to have their own religion). The West is currently in the process of committing suicide."
Can Taleb write a piece without insulting anyone?
"Westerners culturally consider generosity and tolerance to be virtues. [REDACTED] culturally see generosity and tolerance as weakness."

Being a 'nice guy' becomes a threat to men's earning power as soon as they turn 30 - "Genswoski analyzed the results of the Terman study, which followed a group of about 1,500 high-IQ individuals from childhood to old age (1920s to 1990s). She looked specifically at the links between childhood personality, lifetime earnings, and education to figure out which traits affect men and women’s professional success, and when. Results showed that more agreeable – i.e. nicer and friendlier – men earned significantly less than other men. This isn’t typically true for young workers – the effect is only visible once men turn 30, and it’s strongest between ages 40 and 60. As Gensowski writes in HBR, a man who is in the top 20% of agreeableness will earn about $270,000 less over their lifetime than the average working man. Two other traits that stood out in Gensowski’s research are extroversion and conscientiousness, or being organized and hardworking. Men who score high on both traits tend to reap higher salaries... the effects of personality are strongest in highly educated men... Gensowski’s findings are supported by earlier research. For example, a 2012 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology also found that agreeable men tend to earn less than their peers, and that this effect is virtually nonexistent for women. (From that study: “For men, it literally pays to be a contrarian.”) Other data suggests that agreeable people – especially agreeable men – are less likely to hold leadership positions. Meanwhile, those who display both conscientiousness and extroversion are more likely to become leaders. In his 2013 book “Habits of Leadership,” psychologist Art Markman suggests that employees appreciate a boss who can give frank feedback – and agreeable people may have a hard time providing criticism."
Nice guys finish last

The Clintons Had Slaves - "The prison labor system in the United States has long been an unacknowledged scandal. It’s quite plainly a form of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment even admits as much: it doesn’t say that when you’re forced to work for being convicted of a crime, that isn’t slavery. It says that slavery is legal if it is imposed as part of a conviction for a crime. All manner of people benefit from the system; as Mother Jones has reported, Congress actually incentivized private companies to use inmate labor, and the incarcerated now produce everything from bedding to eyeglasses. They even staff call centers, with a company called UNICOR encouraging companies to “smart-source” their call-center work to prisoners rather than sending it overseas... Predictably, when people started to mention how disturbing it was that the Clintons had kept slaves, a few especially committed online Hillary fans began to issue impossibly contorted defenses, including blaming “DudeBros” for bringing the matter up and explaining that Hillary had tried to empathize with the convicts... Of course, one could draw a distinction between “slavery” (in which a person asserts all rights over a human being, including the right to sell them and their children and to take their life) and “involuntary servitude” (in which a person is simply forced to work), a distinction such as the Thirteenth Amendment contemplates. But “involuntary servitude” immediately begins to sound like little more than a euphemism for slavery, and many of the situations that modern anti-slavery advocates would consider to be slavery—such as that perpetrated by Alex Tizon‘s family—do not necessarily include people being murdered and having their children sold"
Those who say "modern slavery" is a problem need to go and argue with those who claim people talking about "Irish slavery" are just racists