Links - 29th July 2018 (3)

Study Shows That Sengkang, Tampines & Sembawang Are The Most Expensive Places To Makan At in S'pore - "Ang Mo Kio, Queenstown and Bukit Timah are the cheapest neighbourhoods to eat out at. The study focuses on 26 areas out of 55 planned areas set out by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA)... Take note that they’ve only studied the prices of food from coffee shops, food courts and hawker centres. In other words, not the high-SES makan places... Generally, food prices in matured estates cost 7.7% lower than the same food in the non-matured estates. If the area you stay in has more lower-income families, more rental flats and more elderly people, food offered will be cheaper."
Of course, hawkers in older areas having subsidised rents helps

No proof RM2.6b in Najib's account was a donation, says new MACC chief - "Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators were sent in 2015 to Saudi Arabia and met with the prince. But the prince could not provide supporting documents such as bank statements to prove the money was a donation from him. Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing since the 1MDB scandal erupted in 2015, but he replaced the attorney-general and several MACC officers to shut down an initial investigation."

Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behavior - "According to social constructionist theory, men behave in a sexist manner towards women in order to remove them from male-dominated spaces, regardless of social status. In contrast, evolutionary theory suggests that sexist behavior is in response to a threat to a male’s position in a social hierarchy, which could reduce access to potential mates... Lower-skilled male players were more hostile towards a female-voiced experimental teammate, especially when the female-voiced player was performing poorly. This same effect was not seen towards male-voiced experimental teammates... In games with the female-voiced experimental character, only 13% of teammates uttered hostile sexist statements... these results support an evolutionary explanation of female-directed aggression, where low-status males are more easily threatened by a female competitor whereas high-status males are not threatened, instead behaving in a supportive and potentially a mate attraction role."
In other words, if you suck you're more likely to diss women. But only a small minority of male gamers are sexist

This Guy Heated Bath Water With Bitcoin Mining and It Worked Too Well - "Motherboard’s Daniel Oberhaus used mining equipment (albeit graphics cards, not ASICs) to stay warm during a storm once, and a Redditor posting under the handle “gta3uzi” just took it to another level. In a Tuesday post by gta3uzi on the /r/Bitcoin subreddit, they revealed a system for heating hot water using ASICs so you can make money while you chill in a steamy bath... “It was a little too effective if I left it running all day as it produced baths of up to 122F/50C”... his mining operation made a 10 percent profit after electricity costs before he turned it into a water heater. But after the ASICs eliminated his $80 heating bill in addition to generating new cryptocurrency, Lee estimated that his mine’s profit went from 10 percent to 47 percent"

The Only Army Rank Allowed To Have A Beard On Parade - "Meet the Pioneer Sergeant, the holder of the only position within the British Army allowed to have a beard when on parade... The pioneer sergeant also acted as the blacksmith for the unit. As a result, he was allowed a beard to protect his face from the heat of the forge... Soldiers can grow a beard for medical reasons, such as in the case of a temporary skin irritation, or, more commonly for religious reasons... In the Royal Navy, full beards have always been allowed as long as permission is sought and granted, whereas moustaches, which are permitted within the RAF, Army and Royal Marines are forbidden. But anyone wishing to grow a beard in the Navy must have a 'full set,' that is, a full beard covering the whole jawline, joined to a moustache. And commanding officers can order an individual to shave off his facial hair if it becomes clear after around six weeks that he cannot grow a proper full set. Navy members should then keep their beard, once approved, for at least six months"

Smart Condoms That Reveal Very Personal Information From Sex - "The smart condom is called i.Con, and it has been called the “Fitbit” for a man’s penis, says The Toronto Sun. One of the main concerns with sexual intercourse is obtaining an STI. Thankfully, the i.Con can detect STIs and send data about the sexual intercourse session the man has just encountered... Some of the things it tracts are the number of calories burned, the speed of the man’s thrust and the duration of the session... the device also lights up which can provide illumination for both partners’ nether regions.

Drinking baking soda could be an inexpensive, safe way to combat autoimmune disease

Ethnic differences in Singapore's dementia prevalence: the stroke, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and dementia in Singapore study. - "Logistic regression (adjusted for age, sex, education) showed that Malays had twice the risk for AD as Chinese, and Indians had more than twice the risk for AD and VD than Chinese"

Ohlala, An Uber For Escorts, Launches Its ‘Paid Dating’ Service In NYC - "Before creating Ohlala, Poppenreiter had worked on building Peppr, an app that more explicitly sought to connect clients to sex workers providing “erotic entertainment.”

China’s controversial love guru Ayawawa suspended on Weibo over ‘comfort women’ comments - "A controversial love-advice blogger has been banned from China’s largest social network for saying Chinese “comfort women” possessed a “gender advantage” over men that boosted their chances of coming out of the second world war alive... “All sorts of benefits will come your way without stop, if you play your gender advantage well.”... Yang also had infuriated critics by stating that gender inequality did not exist. Instead of being disadvantaged by so-called gender inequality, women needed to leverage the “gender advantage” of their looks and personalities to win love and financial support from me"... Yang, a graduate of Southwest University’s education programme, has won fans online by making narcissistic self-promotional comments, such as: “All women who are prettier than me are not as smart and all those who are smarter than me are not as pretty.”

Emotional Smarts Tied to General IQ - "IQ test results and emotional intelligence, or the ability to perceive, understand and deal with emotion in oneself or in others, were linked. And in brain scans, the same regions of the brain seemed to perform both emotional and cognitive tasks"
So much for EQ

How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained - "Postmodernism presents a threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity itself. That may sound like a bold or even hyperbolic claim, but the reality is that the cluster of ideas and values at the root of postmodernism have broken the bounds of academia and gained great cultural power in western society. The irrational and identitarian “symptoms” of postmodernism are easily recognizable and much criticized, but the ethos underlying them is not well understood. This is partly because postmodernists rarely explain themselves clearly and partly because of the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies of a way of thought which denies a stable reality or reliable knowledge to exist. However, there are consistent ideas at the root of postmodernism and understanding them is essential if we intend to counter them. They underlie the problems we see today in Social Justice Activism, undermine the credibility of the Left and threaten to return us to an irrational and tribal “pre-modern” culture."

Dietary Carbohydrate and Serum Cholesterol Levels in Man | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic - "Serum total cholesterol responses in two groups of institutionalized men fed modifications of a low fat dietary pattern allowing for the simultaneous variation of the type of carbohydrate and fat are reported. The results obtained with low sugar, high sugar and high sugar-lactose diets providing 45 per cent of total calories from carbohydrate and one of each of three test oils (safflower, olive and coconut) added to provide 38 per cent of the calories as fat were compared. Experimental periods were of four weeks’ duration. Serum cholesterol levels were slightly but significantly lower in those on the low sugar than in those on the high sugar diets. Since the size of this difference was about the same for each oil tested, no interaction between carbohydrate and fat was suggested. The partial substitution of lactose for sucrose in the high sugar diet did not further influence serum cholesterol except when coconut oil was the test fat; in this period a substantial elevation was noted. The carbohydrate effects on serum cholesterol are of a much smaller order of magnitude than the fat effects and manipulation of the source of dietary carbohydrate would appear to add little to the dietary regulation of blood cholesterol."
i.e. when you replace sugar with other carbohydrates you don't change cholesterol much, but coconut oil seems worse than olive and safflower

No Marvel TV Characters In Avengers: Infinity War - Explained - "Marvel Studios And Marvel TV Aren't Part Of The Same Disney Subsidiary"

The Rise and Fall of Bioware | Mass Effect at 10 - "Speaking from personal experience, it’s been pretty hard to be a Bioware fan the last few years. From the dizzying heights of being among the pioneers of the RPG genre, creating fully-fleshed worlds with endearing characters and several avenues to roleplay your character, giving birth to games with stories as compelling as any film or book, to a watered down husk of their former selves, to the point where their latest game, Mass Effect Andromeda, was near universally scorned for facial animations that made characters look like Jim Carrey, ham-fisted writing and a variety of other awkwardness made Mass Effect Andromeda a joke across the gaming community... the Mass Effect series as a whole reflects Bioware’s rise and fall as a gaming company."

Millionaire women prefer conservative partners who 'wear the pants' in relationship - "Nearly 77per cent of democrat female millionaires, and 82per cent of female millionaires overall, said they 'would prefer to date a conservative man,' according MillionaireMatch.com. 'I don’t want a liberal man, I want someone who believes in a traditional family,' said one female millionaire. Other reasons for this political preference in a partner: ambition... 'Simply put, conservative men are real men. They are the breadwinners, they wear the pants and they treat you like a lady'"

Liberal Women Are Lustier - "among young adult women, it’s not really political liberalism that correlates with wanting more sex (no matter how much one is having), but rather one’s loss of religious belief...
'In a world increasingly bereft of transcendence, sexual expression is emerging as an intrinsic value. Sex is the new opium of the masses, [social psychologists Roy] Baumeister and [Kathleen] Vohs claim, a temporary heart in a heartless world. Unfortunately, something so immanent as sex will not — and cannot — function in the manner in which religion can, has, and does. (To be sure, some replace it with an appreciation and devotion to nature.) Sex does not explain the world. It is not a master narrative. It has little to offer by way of convincing theodicy But in a world increasingly missing transcendence, longing for sexual expression makes sense. It should not surprised us, however, that those who (unconsciously) demand sex function like religion will come up short. Maybe that is why very liberal women are also twice as likely to report being depressed or currently in psychotherapy than very conservative women.'"

Science says conservatives are hotter than liberals - "Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican"

BuzzFeed Guys Test Their Testosterone Levels. The Results Are Exactly What You'd Expect. - "In an experiment on male attractiveness where BuzzFeed fellas compete to see who's "hottest," four males had their testosterone levels tested. And the results were exactly what you'd expect. The normal T-score for an adult male ranges from 270-1,070 ng/dL, with men aged from 25-34 averaging out at 617 ng/dL. Not one BuzzFeed beta male met the 617 ng/dL average; rather, all the men testing below the level of a typical 85-year-old male (376 ng/dL). Moreover, three of the four men tested below the average range, and the male with the highest testosterone level, Eugene, still had a relatively low T-score with 363 ng/dL."

Study: Physically Weak Men More Likely To Be Socialists - "An academic study from researchers at Brunel University London assessed 171 men, looking at their height, weight, overall physical strength and bicep circumference, along with their views on redistribution of wealth and income inequality. The study, published in the Evolution and Human Behavior journal, found that weaker men were more likely to favor socialist policies than stronger men... Other studies in the past have also suggested stronger men are more right-wing than physically weaker men"

Dull Minds Are Gullible to Fake News

UK Proposes Six Year Prison Sentences for Online Posts Against Religion, Transgender - "The Sentencing Council believes that the use of social media, YouTube, and other “websites” to stir hatred is a growing problem – despite the number of prosecutions remain relatively low... Separate “hate crime” guidelines from the CPS released in January last year reaffirmed that no evidence is needed to report a “hate crime”, and they only need to be “perceived” by the alleged victim or someone else... many UK Police forces consider “unfriendliness” and “dislike” as signs of “hostility” and “hate,” with the CPS admitting there is “no legal definition” of “hostility.”"

EDITORIAL: What words will Justin Trudeau ban next? - "We’re shocked Canada’s progressive Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs more time to look into a Service Canada directive ordering federal employees to adopt gender-neutral language when interacting with the public... Workers have also been asked to stop referring to people as Mr., Mrs. or Ms. and avoid using the terms “father” and “mother” in favour of “parent”... What’s next? Federal legislation outlawing Mother’s Day? Stiff new penalties for retailers that put up Father’s Day displays in stores?"

Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race? Agriculture?! - "Writing with characteristic verve, Diamond’s “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” summarizes an impressive amount of material in just three pages. At the top of the second and third pages, he headlines the main point: “The adoption of agriculture, supposedly the decisive step to a better life, was in fact catastrophic. With agriculture came the curses of social and sexual inequality, disease, and despotism”"

Has queer culture lost its edge? - "Apparently, in the pursuit of rights and respectability, we have somehow shifted as a culture from the celebration of eros to the celebration of victimhood — to comfortably inhabiting a state of being prickly and appalled — and apparently we now have to be and feel like victims in order even to deserve rights. This worries me. Are we going to become so focused on our legal standing and our feelings, so invested in queer culture as a culture of rights, respectability and sensitivity, that we lose our playfulness and the toughness that used to define survival? Do we just not want to be tough anymore? Are we too emotionally exhausted, or just too bourgeois, to appreciate a classic bitchy drag emcee? Her sensibility was always at the cultural fringe — is there no room for it now? Or are we the truly bitchy ones, ever ready with the political upper hand raised to slap down those among us who still want to play around the edges, where things are a little less comfortable and correct?... What were all those drag queens at Stonewall fighting for, anyway? If victimhood is hot, then we have lost."