Links - 24th July 2018 (1)

Radicalised asylum seekers have murdered or injured more than 1,000 in terror attacks since 2014 - "In the past four years, 32 Islamist plots have involved those who had sought sanctuary – or 16 per cent. Three of the potential atrocities were in the UK, including Parson Green tube bomber Ahmed Hassan. An analysis by academics found 44 refugees had either carried out atrocities or been thwarted before they could bring bloodshed to the streets. The findings echo warnings by law enforcement chiefs that some so-called Islamic State fanatics who are bent on murder posed as refugees fleeing war and persecution. It was claimed they exploited the migrant crisis by pretending to be asylum seekers to sneak into Europe and cause carnage... In 2016, Rob Wainwright, then director of Europol, the EU crime-fighting agency, revealed that increasing numbers of jihadists were using fake documents to sneak into Europe and some were posing as refugees. "

Can I move back to India permanently after gaining PR and Citizenship in Canada and Australia after 3 years of stay there? - Quora - "An Overseas Citizen of India is a lifetime visa status. It is the closest thing to dual citizenship that India offers...
What are the benefits of being an OCI?
Lifelong multiple entry visa to India
You never have to report to the FRRO regardless of the length of your stay
You can eventually become a citizen of India if you remain an OCI for 5 years and live in India for at least 1 year(short breaks are now allowed)
You can use special counters during immigration
You don’t need a student visa to study in India
You don’t need an employment visa to get a job
You can open a special bank account in India, just like an NRI
You can make investments in India
You can buy non-farm property and exercise property ownership rights
Your can use your OCI card to apply for a driver’s license, open a bank account, or get a PAN card
You get the same economic, financial, and education benefits as NRIs (e.g. reserved admission quotas), and you can adopt children like an NRI
You pay the Indian resident fee when visiting a national parks, monuments, museums or wildlife sanctuary (of course it is ultimately up to the discretion of the man issuing tickets)"

Grammar schools: What are they and why are they controversial? - "Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the "11-plus". There are only about 163 grammar schools in England, out of some 3,000 state secondaries, and a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland. Under the grammar school system, pupils who pass the exam can go to the local grammar, while those who do not go to the local "secondary modern school". More common across the UK is the "comprehensive" system, in which pupils of all abilities and aptitudes are taught together... the modern grammar school concept dates back to the Education Act 1944. This made secondary education after the age of 14 free. At the same time secondary education was reorganised into two basic types:
grammar schools, which focused on academic studies, with the assumption that many of their pupils would go on to higher education
secondary modern schools, which were intended for children who would be going into trades...
During the 1950s and 1960s, it was said, mainly by Labour politicians and egalitarian educationalists, that the selective education system reinforced class division and middle-class privilege. In 1965, the government ordered local education authorities to start phasing out grammar schools and secondary moderns, and replace them with a comprehensive system."
For some reason, the equal misery principle or the housing as proxy for school choice principle are more popular than school selection

Grammar schools are a fantastic idea – they will finally kill off our archaic private school system - "The local comprehensive has the temerity to turn itself into a grammar school! With academic excellence, and small class sizes, and even a jolly difficult entrance exam, just like the one that St Wotsit has. Plus, because it benefited from the Building Schools for the Future programme, it has a new theatre. And fantastic labs. And a running track. At once, any wrinkles of doubt are erased from your mind. You can send your child to the local state school, because it has got rid of the dreaded word “comprehensive” and has introduced selection. Plus, your friends are doing the same thing"

Is it OK for politicians to send their children to private schools? - "The Camerons are reportedly considering sending their son to a fee-paying school, while the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, has said that although her son was “happy at a village primary”, she did not know what the family would do next “because it very much depends on him”. She defended the right of politicians to go private. “People’s families haven’t asked to be elected or to be in the public eye. And as a parent you must do what is right for your children.” But is it a private matter?
As a parent, you must do what is right for your children. As a politician, you must prevent other parents from doing what is right for theirs

MP and wife split over school - "Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn confirmed yesterday that he and his wife have separated after a disagreement over whether their son should be educated at one of the country's best grammar schools or at the local inner city comprehensive. His wife, Claudia Bracchita, admitted that conflicting views on their eldest son's schooling were a key element in the collapse of their 12-year marriage."
From 1999

Two more anti-grammar shadow cabinet members send their children to private school - "Ninety-nine per cent of grammar schools are rated good or outstanding. In spite of this, Labour’s approach to grammars is: close these schools down. It’s rank hypocrisy. It’s classic Labour: do as I say, not as I do"

Why I sent my child to a private school - "Five years ago, if someone had told me I'd have a child at private school, I'd have laughed. I'd have said I resented parents buying privilege through private education... I've been asked how I can reconcile writing about education for the Guardian with having a child at a private school... deep down I don't think I ever really had a problem with private education. It just didn't seem socially acceptable to say so... By sending your child to private school, you are using the means you have – money – to get the right education for your child. But the state sector is full of parents buying advantage. They kid themselves that what they are doing is somehow morally superior. The truth is that every person who moves house to get into a catchment area is playing the system. So are those who pay private tutors, or consultants to help with school appeals (both booming businesses). Parents who suddenly discover a faith in God to get their children into a certain school are lying and cheating. There will be people reading this – including some loyal Education Guardian readers – who have done some or all of these things. The fact is that for every parent who plays the system to get their child into a top school, a child from a less advantaged background is likely to lose out. At least I am not limiting anyone else's choice. Many friends have confessed that if they had enough money – or weren't happy with what their local state school had to offer – they would consider private education. Curiously, most still profess to oppose fee-paying schools. And I'm inclined to agree to with the historian Niall Ferguson, who argued in the recent BBC Reith lectures that the UK would benefit from more private education institutions as greater competition would incentivise the state sector to up its game. After all, he says, "Nobody is going to pay between £10,000 and £30,000 a year for an education that is just a wee bit better than the free option... latest figures from the property website primelocation.com show that the prices of homes near good schools can be inflated by up to £92,000"

This Viral Video Of Ducks Waiting For A Green Light To Cross The Street Is Totally Fake - "Have you seen this video of ducks in Germany waiting for a green light before they cross the street? It's gone viral, getting tens of thousands of views on Twitter and over 2.5 million views on Facebook. But the video is totally fake. The ducks are computer generated."

WA counsellor says he was forced to resign for domestic violence view - "A COUNSELLOR says he was forced to resign from Relationships Australia WA for endorsing a newspaper article which asserted domestic violence towards men is downplayed. Rob Tiller, who has lodged an unfair dismissal claim, insists he was told to resign or be sacked after bosses at Relationships Australia (RAWA) found out about emails he’d sent more than one year earlier to a professional network of male counsellors from several organisations. Mr Tiller, 43, said he didn’t criticise his employer in any of his emails, but the article written by social commentator Bettina Arndt in The Weekend Australian challenged the “feminist-framed” policy on domestic violence, which is supported by a range of organisations including RAWA. In the emails, sent from his work account, he’d agreed with the premise of Arndt’s argument that men were often victims of domestic violence, as well as women. He had also shared Arndt’s article on his private Facebook page... “I wasn’t allowed to have a final conversation with any of my clients. Some of these people I have been working with for five or six years ... there was no therapeutic closure. I was the only male counsellor in their Perth office. I have been the only one there for years.”... RAWA also pointed out that its domestic violence policy was consistent with policies of both the Federal and State governments. On its website RAWA says its family and domestic violence policy “is historically framed by a feminist analysis of gendered power relations”. Mr Tiller said when he and colleagues raised the issue of aggression by female partners at RAWA they were shut-down. “That’s a taboo conversation,” he said. “The orthodoxy is that women are victims and men are perpetrators.”... “They are sticking to this orthodoxy that is based on the Duluth Model that came out in the 1980s and that model isn't based on any current international research and that’s what Bettina was challenging in her article. “I was circulating it, saying, ‘Hey guys, finally somebody is telling the truth about what I'm seeing in my couples sessions on a weekly basis’. Then a couple of years later I get sacked because of it.”"
So much for feminism being for men too
Australia seems to be the most SJW country - definitely in the Anglo world

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Violence To Votes - "It turned out that many of the [Chinese] so called recycling companies were simply digging holes in the ground and burying the trash...
Clamber up four flights of stairs and you find yourself in the bustle of a busy international ferry, complete with a duty free shop with a rapidly building queue. Exactly 13 minutes after setting sale, the ship is declared clear of Danish waters and under the lower tax German regime. Bargain hunters storm the alcohol section, grabbing 3 litre boxes of German Riesling and armsful of Danish lager 2 dozen cans at a time. A separate line forms at the purser's desk, the only place where genuinely duty free cigarettes are on sale, only one pack of 20 per passenger mind because they are for onboard consumption only. On the open deck above some smokers are doing their best to finish the contents before the end of the voyage... [The ship] looks as though the front ends of two ships have been"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Changing Course - "Many seasoned China watchers were in shock. The term limits had been introduced after Chairman Mao's death to ensure there was never again a repeat of the disaster of his indefinite hold on power... There was genuine alarm over the possibility that a technocratic form of authoritarianism in which orderly, regular transitions of power had become the norm who's being replaced with something people thought was firmly in the past - rule by the whim of just one man for life...
There's an exceedingly funny bit in one of comedian Trevor Noah's recent stand up routines where he talks about how white South Africans often consciously modify their accents when they fill up with petrol, speaking to the invariably black petrol pump attendant in a very basic and arguably patronizing type of African pidgin English. And yet, Noah argues, in so doing, they're ironically understood, far better by the pump attendants that if they'd spoke in their normal clipped Afrikaans accent."
Is it racist to try to be understood?

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Incompetence and Conspiracy - "Bolivia today has become a country that by law has to be inclusive... but in November, Bolivia's highest courts struck down term limits blocking Evo from running for a fourth term. It decided that the restrictions violated his human rights. He could now carry on as president for as long as he likes. Some of his supporters, even his ministers, suggest he should stay in power until 2050. If the people demand it... Some Bolivians now express regret that Evo seems to want to stay in power at all costs, ignoring his previous promises to return to a humble farmer's life. He could have been a Mandela-like figure, one academic tells me"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, The USA's Invisible Army - "Apitherapy is just one of many treatments on offer here. We're shown MRI scanners and the room where laser eye surgery takes place at this clinic for the 18,000 workers of the MTZ tractor works. The state owned factory also both sports centers, a palace of culture, dormitories, apartment blocks, holiday resorts for employees and their families, even its own brand of bottled water. MTZ was set up by Stalin to help feed the USSR at the end of World War II, and it can feel as if little has changed since. Why in 2018 does a tractor factory need a head of ideology? The woman with that job title is too busy for an interview. What does she actually do, I ask her assistant. Well, you know, organizing independence day, the factory's anniversary in May - loads of stuff. Celebrations at MTZ involve some bizarre manoeuvres by the farming machinery. Tractors flashing neon lights, doing the tango. Or showing off disco routines as the audience clap along."

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Dramatic Developments - "I've met plenty of Brazilians who've talked fondly about Brazil's military dictatorship. There is never as much corruption as there is now, one man told me the other day. I suggested that the problem with dictatorships is it's hard to know the truth. Freedom of expression is limited, human rights are ignored. That didn't bother him much. Uppermost in Brazilians' minds are the issues of safety and a healthy economy, neither of which Brazil can say it has currently got under control"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, 40 Years Of War - "There is an Arab proverb that runs: if God wants to make a poor man happy, he makes him lose his donkey and then find it again. Assad, like a vengeful God, has destroyed the country and driven out half its population, pronouncing it much cleaner than before. Now, he's preparing to give the donkey back, lame and mutilated to those left behind, hoping they'll be so grateful they won't dare complain"

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Carl Friedrich Gauss - "At one point he sort of came home from the university saying I've got everything that I need from there, I need to just go and live in a flat on my own. So he didn't go back to his family, this is an example of him you know he wanted to dedicate everything to maths, so he went and lived in a flat on his own and just sat there and thought about maths... when he was a young child he used a turnip to make a candle so he could study maths at night... when his second wife was dying from tuberculosis when allegedly the maid came down and he was studying his mathematics and said you know your wife is dying, you need to come and his response was - can't she wait?...
Gaussian Curvature... I talked about the mapmaking thing and that you can't turn a round sphere onto a flat plane. Another example is even more practical, and it's why corrugated iron works the way it does... the wiggles that they put on the iron, it started out as a flat piece of iron. Gauss's theorem says that that, therefore, it always remains flat in the sense of Gaussian curvature. So once you've got wiggles going one way, if it were to start sagging or bending over, then little bits of it would look like little bits of spheres and Gauss's Theorem says it never can look like little bits of spheres because it started out flat"

Violence, Terror Unceasing During Ramadan - "“These extremists see their terror as an act of jihad,” said Seyyed Javad Taghavirod, a Tehran-based extremism analyst. “So the occurrence of some holy occasions, including the month of Ramadan, makes them feel more blessed to conduct their operations.” Attacks during Ramadan are particularly effective because they cause psychological damage on people who are marking the occasion by going out with family and friends, and who are likely more off guard than usual, analysts say... “After a day of fasting, security forces might be distracted or absent”... while the Taliban did not directly call for an increase in terror attacks during Ramadan, it also said it would not ease up, rejecting as “ignorance of religion” U.N.-led calls for halting hostilities for the month. “Our fight is jihad and an obligatory worship. And every obligatory act of worship has 70 times more reward in Ramadan”"

MIT professor Eric Lander apologizes for praising controversial Nobel winner James Watson
This wouldn't be a problem if he was left wing like Margaret Sanger or Marx
Looks like we've moved on from the Communist practice of erasing disgraced figures from photographs