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Saturday, August 04, 2018

Links - 4th August 2018 (1)

Apple's Ridiculous Censorship of the Nudity in Papers, Please - "Papers, Please's pixelated, low-res nudity—which is seen when you use a body-scanning X-ray machine on the citizens who wish to enter your country—is hardly pornography, neither titillating nor sensual. Second, Apple is happy to sell you movies on iTunes that have actual naked humans, so it has a double standard for games. But the biggest issue is that removing Papers, Please's nudity defangs the game's artistic impact. Papers, Please is about the degradation to which those crossing the border into a totalitarian nation are subjected, and the bleakness of working in that situation."

What's Too Sexy for the App Store? Even Apple's Not Sure

The Buddhist Acceptance and Rejection of Mock Meats - "There is mention of seitan textured to emulate goose in the classic Chinese cookery book Recipes From the Sui Garden by the Qing Dynasty Chinese poet Yuan Mei. And the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West references wheat gluten several times, including a scene in which demons attempt to serve a monk a meal of human flesh and brains fried to resemble wheat gluten—that is, meat masquerading as mock meats... She says it’s all about creating a savory, umami flavor and a chewy, satisfying texture—that is the point of mock meats, not that they clearly resemble any animal. “Why do people want to eat meat? They want it because of the texture and the flavor, not because it’s a dead animal.”"

Hampstead ponds row continues on whether transgender demands are going too far - "they said they were ‘identifying’ as men for the day to highlight the problems inherent in the planned legislation, adopting Man Friday as the name of their campaign, set up on the website Mumsnet... some participants have faced a barrage of online abuse and even physical threats from hardline transgender activists... One woman sported a pantomime beard; another wore a lime green mankini (a male version of a bikini). It was all done with a lightness of touch but serious intent... Hannah also cites the case of sexual predator Christopher Hambrook, who four years ago was jailed indefinitely in Canada after falsely claiming to be transgender and sexually assaulting vulnerable females in women’s refuges... Twitter has been condemned for deleting accounts of female members of the group Fair Play For Women for stating what its members term the ‘biological fact that men cannot become women’. Gender self-identification has wide implications for women’s rights, yet the government minister Maria Miller, chair of the Women And Equalities Committee, led an inquiry that proposed it should become law without hearing from a single women’s organisation. Women like Hannah and her fellow pond protester Amy Desir, 30, a divorced mother-of-two from Luton, Bedfordshire, are incensed at this silencing of free speech. Amy, who works in middle management for a medical technology firm, was sufficiently concerned to become an activist. ‘I’ve never seen myself as a feminist until now’... ‘In December, when Swim England published its guidance about men who self-identify as women being allowed into female changing rooms, I thought it was Orwellian. It was talking about “re-educating” people.’... Teacher Debbie Hayton, 50, is among the handful of trans women who are prepared to talk publicly. She supports both the right of men and women to preserve single-sex spaces, and the ‘good-natured’ Man Friday campaign... To abandon this ‘gate-keeping’ process in favour of an amorphous ‘feeling’ of womanhood could engender suspicion of trans people and their motives... ‘Women and girls do not expect to see male genitalia in women-only changing areas, and I don’t either. Trans women with male genitalia who apply discretion are more likely to be accepted that than those who do not. Grudging toleration is a poor substitute for genuine acceptance.’... ‘Views are being suppressed because critical thinking is being conflated with criticism, which, in turn, is being conflated with hate — and that is dangerous because it leads to the shutting down of free speech."

Transgender Woman Is Charged With Voyeurism at Target in Idaho - The New York Times - "Based on a review of surveillance footage and interviews with witnesses, the suspect and her roommate, a detective on Tuesday arrested Shauna Smith, 43, on one felony count of voyeurism. She was booked into Bonneville County Jail as a man, using her legal name, Sean Patrick Smith"
We were told that this possibility was a paranoid right wing invention

Target Sex Offense Study Press Release - "voyeurism-related offenses increased significantly after the publication of Target’s policy—doubling or tripling according to all measures, while other sexual offense categories changed little. The findings are consistent with the “sex-predator” theory which has posited that sexual offenders may use gender-identity policies in private spaces to gain access to women and children in order to perpetrate sexual violence. This study is the first longitudinal analysis of risks related to gender-inclusion policies. The incident database is open-source and is available for further exploration and analysis."

Cassandra Raper - Edit. I dont ever want any threats being... - "this is a great example of how when if comes to men being abused by women it is laughed at and swept under the rug. But could you imagine the reaction if men were saying the exact same things about their girlfriends or wives. It would cause an outrage. I dont care how you put it. These are examples of abusive behaviour towards men. And it just goes to show why men usually keep that shit quiet and dont tell anyone. Ever notice how we barely see or hear anything about domestic violence on men?? Did you know men have a higher suicide rate in Australia? How humiliating it must be to know your girlfriend boasts about throttling you infront of your friends online. Violence against men should not be ignored and if you read these comments and think im being ridiculous then you are part of the problem... If you carry enough self pride to post these things online then clearly something in your brain tells you this behaviour is completely acceptable."

New York gay sex club defends reduced entry price for tops - "I’m a big big old bottom, and this has always been a fantasy of mine, but for it to work – and for the experience to be achieved for the cumdump bottoms – we need a huge ratio of tops to bottoms, which means discounting admission for anyone who wants to top."

China's ZTE built to spy and bribe, court documents allege - "ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications company bidding for major contracts in Australia, and at the centre of Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing, was established partly as a front for military intelligence and has been linked to corruption in 18 countries, according to explosive court documents filed in the US"

Software is Eating the World-Tesla Edition - "Last week Consumer Reports refused to recommend Tesla’s Model 3 because it discovered lengthy braking distances. This week Consumer Reports changed their review to recommend after Tesla improved braking distance by nearly 20 feet with an over the air software update!"

Chinese group hacks a Tesla for the second year in a row - " For the second time, Chinese security researchers were able to hack a Tesla Model X, turning on the brakes remotely and getting the doors and trunk to open and close while blinking the lights in time to music streamed from the car's radio — an effect they dubbed "the unauthorized Xmas show.""

Fire at London’s Hayward Gallery as Rotting Fish Artwork Explodes

About Us| 6IXTY8IGHT - "Launched in 2002, 6IXTY8IGHT is renowned for fun and inspiring fashion and lingerie targeted at females aged between 15-30 years old. Young, fresh and full of attitude, 6IXTY8IGHT girls love mix-and-matching their wardrobe, interpreting contemporary trends, and styling their self-expressive looks with a casual-cool attitude. Today, there are more than 100 6IXTY8IGHT stores across Hong Kong, China, Macau, Taiwan and Korea."
6ixty8ight = 69 minus 1?

Local man fired after one day of driving a school bus - "he explained to his new bosses that he had a legal, medical marijuana prescription... “They called me to say there was a complaint from a parent saying they smelled marijuana,” said Madore, adding he couldn't get any more details on the complaint, such as where the smell was coming from or when the parent smelled it. Madore said he didn’t meet any parents along the way. He said he didn’t use any of his medical marijuana that day – he only smokes it in the evening. He wasn’t carrying any and he didn’t have any devices used to smoke it."

If wages are to rise, workers need more bargaining power - Free exchange: Power is money - "Product markets have become more concentrated, meaning that fewer firms account for a larger share of output. That increases companies’ power in labour markets, since workers are less able to find alternative employment or to pit rival employers against each other in a bidding war. In a recent paper Suresh Naidu, Eric Posner and Glen Weyl estimate that this rise in firms’ power may reduce labour’s share of national income by as much as a fifth. They argue that one way to help struggling workers might be to use antitrust policies to make product markets less concentrated and more competitive. A complementary approach would be to increase workers’ power
The Economist promoting unions - parallel universe confirmed

Rutgers Professor Unleashes Anti-White Rant: 'Little Caucasian A**holes' - "James Livingston, who teaches history at the university, bashed white people, including children, after visiting a burger joint. Livingston notes that he is a white person but was quick to "resign" himself from the race."

Opinion | Elon Musk, the Donald of Silicon Valley - The New York Times - "The Apple of the 1980s was a brilliant idea with a terrible leader. Tesla, by contrast, today is a terrible idea with a brilliant leader. The terrible idea is that electric cars are the wave of the future, at least for the mass market. Gasoline has advantages in energy density, cost, infrastructure and transportability that electricity doesn’t and won’t for decades. The brilliance is Musk’s Trump-like ability to get people to believe in him and his preposterous promises. Tesla without Musk would be Oz without the Wizard. Much of the blame for the Tesla fiasco goes to government, which, in the name of green virtue, decided to subsidize the hobbies of millionaires to the tune of a $7,500 federal tax credit per car sold, along with additional state-based rebates. Would Tesla be a viable company without the subsidies? Doubtful. When Hong Kong got rid of subsidies last year, Tesla sales fell from 2,939 — to zero. It may be unfair to describe Tesla as Solyndra on wheels, but only slightly... Electric vehicles were supposed to be the car of the future because we were running out of oil — until we weren’t"

Sultan of Yogyakarta: A feminist revolution in an ancient kingdom - "The sultan, who is 72, recently changed his own title so that it is gender neutral and has given his eldest daughter the new name Gusti Kanjeng Ratu Mangkubumi - which means The One Who Holds the Earth. That was seen as further indication she is being lined up to take over the throne when the time comes... He says the move is a dangerous break with hundreds of years of tradition and accused his brother's family of being power-hungry and greedy. And he sends a strong warning about what will happen. "We have made a family commitment that we will not fight now, but when the sultan has left this world, we have an agreement with the people that we will drive his wife and his daughters out of the palace."... The Javanese royal rule stretches back to the 16th Century and while the family is now Muslim like most Indonesians, the rituals they carry out are steeped in mysticism, a product of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism of the past. And tradition has it that the Sultan of Yogyakarta has to take the goddess Kanjeng Ratu Loro Kidul as his mystical wife... Yogyakarta is the only place in Indonesia where residents don't get to directly elect their leader. When it was suggested by Jakarta that this should change in 2010 there were angry protests on the streets of Yogyakarta and the central government backed down... Despite an increasing number of young Javanese Muslim women now choosing to wear the headscarf, hijabs are not allowed in the palace... "This is not about religion, it's about protecting our culture and tradition and society understands that. The Sultan is above all religions." But this is increasingly a provocative stance to take in today's Indonesia. Recently the daughter of Indonesia's first President Sukarno, Sukmawati, was reported to the police for blasphemy and forced to apologise for saying in a poem that the Javanese hairbun was more beautiful than a Islamic chador."
Islamophobia!
Shockingly, this article doesn't mention if he has any sons (he doesn't)


Royal revolution as Indonesian sultan taps female heir - "the recent ceremony to mark the 70th birthday of Hamengku Buwono X, Indonesia's last sultan with real political power, had one key difference from previous celebrations - many of his relatives refused to attend... "A female sultan is an impossibility," the sultan's cousin, Kanjeng Raden Tumenggung Jatiningrat, told AFP. "One symbol in this palace is a rooster - so if we have a queen should we change it to a hen?" The rooster is a symbol of bravery. He added that a female ruler could not oversee rituals in the mosque or other ceremonies that have traditionally been led by men... "About 90 per cent of the family don't respect him anymore," raged Gusti Bendoro Pangeran Haryo Prabukusumo, a stepbrother of the ruler who snubbed the event."

Landlady Offers Free Rent for One Year if Tenant Spends One Night With Her - "his young man in Beijing, China who was renting a room received a message from his landlady as he had been delaying his rent payment for a month."

S’pore loan shark runner reports non-payment for loanshark work to police, gets arrested instead

Ambien Makes People Crazy and Everyone Knows It - "Sanofi, makers of the sleep aid Ambien, branded Roseanne Barr a racist in a tweet and claimed their drug has many side effects but "racism" is not one of them. That's a risky claim. For one, Ambien has been reported to make people do things they would never do if not on the drug. That's a fact. A simple Google search will show you countless stories of horrific hallucinations and behaviors that people have experienced while taking Ambien... The drug is classified as a hypnotic. The known side effects are extremely worrying, including confusion, depersonalization, dysphoria, paranoia, hallucinations and becoming violent. This drug appears to be very dangerous and Sanofi is making light of it by claiming that their drug had nothing to do with Roseanne's odd online behavior. Are they sure about that?... Scott Adams, Dilbert creator and internet personality, thinks Sanofi's flippant tweet is one of the worst things he's ever seen a company do. In a Periscope broadcast, he said, "Like a bad lawyer, [Sanofi has] introduced into evidence something you shouldn't have introduced into evidence," which has opened up a line of questioning about their drug that they probably don't want to have. As a result, stories of Ambien users having bad experiences are flooding the web...
Side effects of 'Ambien' (Sanofi-Aventis) include:
ABNORMAL THINKING BEHAVIORAL CHANGES AND COMPLEX BEHAVIORS"

Bill Clinton: Press Went Easy on Obama --- 'They Liked Having the First African-American President'

When your girlfriend is a radiologist and she decides to finally send you nudes

Scientists Just Discovered That Water Can Exist as Two Different Liquids

Star Citizen’s is selling a $27,000 bundle of spaceships - "Star Citizen, announced in 2012 with a $500,000 Kickstarter campaign, has been in development since 2011. It has been heavily criticized for the lengthy development period"

Protesters toss scooters into street to block tech buses in SF - "Protesters in the Mission District blocked tech buses for nearly an hour Thursday morning in San Francisco, tossing scooters into the street to waylay the commuters. The activists, blocking buses at the intersection of 24th and Valencia streets, set off smoke bombs, chanted “we are unstoppable, another world is possible,” and carried signs that read “Techsploitation Is Toxic,” and “Sweep Tech Not Tents,” in reference to the city’s recent efforts to clear homeless encampments."
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