Reed Students Say Humanities 110 Should Not Include White or European Authors - "Reedies Against Racism, a student group at Reed College, is demanding that the school's Humanities 110 course remove all European texts and replace them with non-European reading materials as "reparations for Humanities 110's history of erasing the histories of people of color, especially black people.""
Anti-racism = racism
Ex-ISD Director: Some detained were “less implicated” and Coldstore did help LKY to consolidate his position
Teenager’s Prom Dress Stirs Furor in U.S. — but Not in China - The New York Times - "When Keziah Daum wore a Chinese-style dress to her high school prom in Utah, it set off an uproar — but not because of its tight fit or thigh-high slit... Far from being critical of Ms. Daum, who is not Chinese, many people in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan proclaimed her choice of the traditional high-necked dress as a victory for Chinese culture... If anything, the uproar surrounding Ms. Daum’s dress prompted many Chinese to reflect on examples of cultural appropriation in their own country. “So does that mean when we celebrate Christmas and Halloween it’s also cultural appropriation?” asked one WeChat user, Larissa. Others were quick to point out that the qipao, as it is known in China, was introduced by the Manchus, an ethnic minority group from China’s northeast — implying that the garment was itself appropriated by the majority Han Chinese. In its original form, the dress was worn in a baggy style, mostly by upper-class women during the Qing dynasty, which ruled China for more than 250 years, until 1912. It was only in the 1920s and ’30s, when Western influence began seeping into China, that the qipao was reinvented to become the seductive, body-hugging dress that many think of today... “Nowadays, if you see a woman wearing a qipao, she’s probably a waitress in a restaurant or a bride.”"
Maybe Asian Asians must be silenced to appease (some) Asian Americans
Melania Trump, White Hat - The New York Times - "It’s possible Mrs. Trump is not aware of this and just, well, liked the idea of the decorum of a hat. Except she has something of a history of using white suits to send what seem like fairly pointed messages; see her decision to wear white — associated with women’s rights in the form of the suffragist movement, as well as Hillary Clinton — to her husband’s first State of the Union address, which happened to be her first high-profile appearance with him after the Stormy Daniels scandal broke."
In other contexts, it's said that it's sexism to question women's sartorial choices
The 10,000 Kidnapped Boys of Boko Haram - WSJ - "While the world focused on Boko Haram’s mass kidnappings of women and girls, the Islamist group was stealing an even greater number of boys. Over the past three years, Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 10,000 boys and trained them in boot camps in abandoned villages and forest hide-outs, according to government officials in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon, and to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group... The children, none older than 4, watched jihadist propaganda videos and rehearsed a game called “suicide bomber” where they ripped open sacks of sand strapped to their torsos.
Kidnap 276 girls and everyone loses their minds. Kidnap 10,000 boys and no one cares
This is what male privilege looks like
'Catastrophe': French museum discovers half of its collection are fakes - "The tiny 8,000-strong community of Elne just outside Perpignan re-opened its Etienne Terrus Museum, dedicated to the works of the local artist who was born in 1857 and died in 1922, on Friday after extensive renovation work."
Bokhari: 5 Examples of What Facebook Considers 'Hate Speech' - "Facebook seems unable to distinguish between hate speech and mockery of hate speech. Articles from Cosmpolitan, that would normally be allowed on Facebook, suddenly trigger content moderation if an image of their headline is posted instead. And in the case of videos, Perry’s page was targeted by Facebook for featuring content that embarrasses the left in one case, and featured an unfolding news story in another."
ST ignores real world case studies and and publishes propaganda about the capabilities of former generals - "The mindset of former military men may also have been too dogmatic to function in the real world. Former colonel Lim Chin – CEO of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) – was filmed shouting at footballers, demanding that they "do not ever question the chairman on his role and responsibility". Under the FAS, Singapore’s ranking in the FIFA league dropped to an all-time low, in the same league as Cuba and Kosovo. It was later revealed that the FAS spent only $70,000 to help develop the sport compared despite its revenue of $35.8 million and $1.6 million paid to key management personnel."
Aaron Traywick's Death Puts Biohacking at a Crossroads - "At just 28, Traywick was among the most infamous figures in the world of biohacking—the grandiose CEO of a tiny company called Ascendance Biomedical whose goal was to develop and test new gene therapies without the expense and rigor of clinical trials or the oversight of the FDA. Traywick wanted to cure cancer, herpes, HIV, and even aging, and he wanted to do it without having to deal with the rules and safety precautions of regulators and industry standards... To “walk around” regulators, Ascendance and other biohackers typically rely on testing products on themselves... At another conference in February 2018, Traywick dropped trou on stage and injected into his bare left thigh an experimental herpes treatment developed by his company"
DISGRUNTLED NUT - "Strong women don’t mew about manspreading, air-conditioning, or demand that men #giveyourmoneytowomen. Most of all, strong women, like any strong, compassionate human being, have the milk of human kindness in their hearts, they value the lives of men, their challenges, their future. They love men, and don’t find it a burden or taking anything away from protecting THEIR OWN rights to fight for them. Most of all, Strong women are not those who sit terrified of clapping, a man greeting them, or even catcalling, and they do NOT have to put anyone else down to make themselves feel stronger, or appear better.
No, anon, I don’t fear strong women. I value them. The ones I despise are these pusillanimous hypocrites who demand respect but show nothing worth respecting, and give no respect to others. Most of today’s feminist mouthpieces are NOT strong women. In fact I don’t think they’ve progressed beyond childhood."
Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines - "Two hundred years ago, the treadmill was invented in England as a prison rehabilitation device. It was meant to cause the incarcerated to suffer and learn from their sweat. It would mill a bit of corn or pump some water as a bonus."
German minister says too many people are speaking English in Berlin - BBC Newsbeat - "Jens Spahn, who some people think could replace current Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the junior finance minister. "It drives me up the wall the way waiters in Berlin restaurants only speak English," he told a German newspaper. He says Germans are too relaxed on the issue and that it would never happen in Paris. Mr Spahn thinks "co-existence can only work in Germany if we all speak German" and wants all immigrants to learn the language. Areas in Berlin like Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg are home to lots of American expats and they have restaurants and bars with staff recruited from across Europe... Speaking English is also seen as an important skill in Germany, with most children learning it as soon as they start primary school."
Amazon warehouse workers tell us their horror stories - "A former Amazon warehouse worker described being stopped in his tracks by an "awful smell" emanating from the trash cans. The stench, he said, was "unmistakable" and led him to one conclusion: His coworkers were so worried about taking too long on a bathroom break that they had resorted to urinating in the bin... The warehouse employees' stories paint a picture of constant surveillance and a crippling fear of missing targets... things like spending time talking to coworkers, going to get a drink, or even taking too long to find a package are billed as "time off task," too much of which leads to penalty points for an employee. Get enough of those, and you're fired. That — combined with security cameras dotting Amazon's warehouses, its airport-style security checks, and short breaks — makes employees feel like "robots," they said. And it's all in the service of getting those parcels out faster."
‘Never happened’: 26 years later, two men to be cleared of rape as accuser recants story - "The woman, dirty, disheveled and in tears, ran over to a patrol car parked along a Harlem street in the early morning of Jan. 18, 1991. She told police officers she had been kidnapped at knifepoint near her home in Queens and raped by three black men, whom she identified. Before the end of the month, police arrested two of the men she had named — Gregory Counts, then 19, and VanDyke Perry, then 21. The third man was never caught. Investigators had no physical evidence connecting the men to the crime or the crime scenes. Semen recovered from the woman, identified in court records as “the complainant,” did not belong to the accused. The prosecution’s case relied solely on her testimony, which was inconsistent, court records show. Defence attorneys argued that the case was poorly investigated and that the complainant, a recovering crack addict, fabricated the story to protect her boyfriend, who shot Perry two months earlier and was wanted by the police, court records show. Still, in 1992, a jury convicted Counts and Perry on all counts except for the weapons charges."
Feminist Demands Tech Companies Find And Fire "Incel" Employees - "Instead of suggesting that these men receive medical help... angry feminists are taking to Twitter and other forms of social media to demand that incels be stripped of their privileges and removed from the face of the earth, regardless if a crime has been committed or not. One feminist, in particular, Ellen K. Pao (famous for stuff that interests no one) took to Twitter to demand action"
I'm sure this will debunk incels' notions that women in general and feminists in particular are the enemy
Seen elsewhere: "Aren’t we still more likely to get killed by toddlers than by Incels?"
Siraitia grosvenorii - Wikipedia - "Siraitia grosvenorii (luo han guo or monk fruit) is a herbaceous perennial vine of the Cucurbitaceae (gourd) family, native to southern China and northern Thailand. The plant is cultivated for its fruit, whose extract is nearly 300 times sweeter than sugar and has been used in China as a low-calorie sweetener for cooling drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine."
So many Chinese drinks and medicines don't contain much sugar?
How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes - "Daryl Davis is a blues musician, but he also has what some might call an interesting hobby. For the past 30 years, Davis, a black man, has spent time befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. He says once the friendship blossoms, the Klansmen realize that their hate may be misguided. Since Davis started talking with these members, he says 200 Klansmen have given up their robes. When that happens, Davis collects the robes and keeps them in his home as a reminder of the dent he has made in racism by simply sitting down and having dinner with people... when two enemies are talking, they're not fighting. It's when the talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence. If you spend five minutes with your worst enemy — it doesn't have to be about race, it could be about anything...you will find that you both have something in common. As you build upon those commonalities, you're forming a relationship and as you build about that relationship, you're forming a friendship. That's what would happen. I didn't convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves."
Funny, I thought shouting at them, calling them bigots and trying to get them fired was the way to go
Of course this is more effective against certain types of hate than others - almost certainly, all of those who keep shouting "fuck white people" know and/or are white people
Your Independent Grocer - Wikipedia - "Your Independent Grocer is a supermarket chain based in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is a unit of National Grocers, itself a unit of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food distributor"
Independence doesn't mean what it used to
President's Choice - Wikipedia - ""I approached technicians at one of Canada’s leading dairies and asked them to make a passion fruit sorbet for Loblaws that would be so good that I could put my name on it and proudly call it ‘President’s Choice’. They set to work; the first problem, of course, was to find enough passion fruit concentrate. A long and determined search produced five tons of concentrate in Brazil and we had it flown here to ensure that we’d meet our deadlines. After many batches were sampled, we finally came up with a product that I’m proud to put my name on"...
"During our visit to their plant in Belgium, we discovered that Delacre is the world’s largest producer of tinned assortments of premium biscuits. So then and there we put in the challenge to them: “Let’s create the best assortment of tinned biscuits in the world.” To accomplish this, Delacre laid all of its most costly biscuits on a table along with empty 1 kg tin. We then proceeded to fill it with a selection of your favourites – both dark and milk chocolate. Bichocs, cigarettes russes, etc., etc. When we were done the President of Delacre look at it and said, “This assortment has more chocolate than any of our other assortments – it’s definitely our best.”""
Travellers - Primary Inspection Kiosks - "If you arrive at one of Canada's busiest international airports, you can now verify your identity and make an on screen declaration using primary inspection kiosks."
No face to face interactions with border control needed
STDs in L.A. County are skyrocketing. Officials think racism and stigma may be to blame - "
May 7, 2018. Oct 6 2017, also in the LA Times: Knowingly exposing others to HIV will no longer be a felony in California
London refugees: Lily Allen claims she has NO free space in luxury London flat - "In the BBC-aired clip, when asked if she'd house an unaccompanied child, she tearfully replied: "100 per cent. Who wouldn't?... At the time critics accused her of crying "crocodile tears" and trying to boost her flagging career, with a former British commander who served in Afghanistan adding: "She clearly does not have any understanding of the situation." The following year the mum-of-two - who has also been branded a champagne socialist - was mocked for going back on her refugee pledge after moaning that she'd be homeless at Christmas because her tenants were refusing to leave her multi-million pound flat at the end of their contract."
When you can't live without bananas
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Should there be any limits to free speech?
BBC Radio 4 - The Public Philosopher, Global Philosopher: Should there be any limits to free speech?
"[On flag burning] It's important to understand that it's because of that sacrifice that you really understand the meaning of freedom. For Pakistan, I know, I have the generation, the people that fought for the country. What if like that is the only way you can really show that that's not what the sacrifice was for. What you're actually showing solidarity with the people that did sacrifice by burning that flag, by showing we don't believe in this flag now. It was raised for the right reasons, but now it's being used for the wrong reasons. This flag is now not the right and doesn't hold the right meaning anymore. So now we're burning it, now it's representing the wrong thing...
[Korean girl] 'Limits or censorship based on other people's perceived sensitivity reflects a disturbingly fashionable therapeutic culture, because I believe people can face reality and this. And people are strong and resilient. But these days it seems like safety has been watered down to essentially mean the right to always feel comfortable when I believe that offending somebody and being offended is the core of free speech. Because truth emerges from the clash of ideas and vigorous debates'...
[Western girl] 'There's been research that shows that enduring microaggressions on a daily basis and having to hear that you're... like I was saying before, humanity is being undermined, that is a kind of violence that takes a toll and does damage to people and groups of people. It isn't so much that everyone is just sensitive and coddling, and this sort of sticks and stones may break my bones is not valid here. It genuinely does, words can cause a great deal of psychological harm'...
[Korean girl] 'Copernicus gave offence to religion and science by challenging the position of the sun and the earth. Martin Luther King gave offence to US society and norms by challenging racism. And woman are giving offence to a male dominating society by challenging inequality. And when you say protection, you assume that the people are weak and cannot defend themselves, but shielding woman from misogyny or shielding ethnic minorities from racism, isn't that patronalistic rather than being progressive?'...
[Vancouver guy] I'm absolutely shocked because I feel that academic discussion gets in the way of reality and truth. And if Marian [sp?] is on a subway in Somalia and someone shouts at her for the head garment that she is wearing, that is not helpful, Kyung from South Korea, that is not leading to her to feel empowered, that is not discourse, that is hate speech. And that is disgusting. Do not say what Martin Luther King said when he was protesting for his rights was hate speech. Because what we are discussing is if a person should be able to degrade someone on their ethnicity, on their sexuality, on the way that they look. And I believe that what Mary on chooses to wear because of the color of her skin should never be a reason to put hate speech against her...
[Korean girl] What I'm worried about is that the government might use the ambiguity of the term, false or offensive or hate for their political reasons. And that's really scary because I believe that's the beginning of censorship and the beginning of censorship might lead it to the beginning of tyranny...
One person said that universities are safe zones, and I am quite disappointed that people do not know the meaning of universities. Universities are the opposite of safe sense. You go there to express yourself, to be able to hear other people express themselves, to be able to open your mind to new ideas. They are not safe zones...
Thomas Jefferson, one of the great theorists and proponents of freedom of speech and of conscience put it this way. He said, it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. And yet many regimes that suppress dissent and censor opinion take speech very seriously. The censor, you might say, pays a certain homage to the power of speech that liberals sometimes miss"
"[On flag burning] It's important to understand that it's because of that sacrifice that you really understand the meaning of freedom. For Pakistan, I know, I have the generation, the people that fought for the country. What if like that is the only way you can really show that that's not what the sacrifice was for. What you're actually showing solidarity with the people that did sacrifice by burning that flag, by showing we don't believe in this flag now. It was raised for the right reasons, but now it's being used for the wrong reasons. This flag is now not the right and doesn't hold the right meaning anymore. So now we're burning it, now it's representing the wrong thing...
[Korean girl] 'Limits or censorship based on other people's perceived sensitivity reflects a disturbingly fashionable therapeutic culture, because I believe people can face reality and this. And people are strong and resilient. But these days it seems like safety has been watered down to essentially mean the right to always feel comfortable when I believe that offending somebody and being offended is the core of free speech. Because truth emerges from the clash of ideas and vigorous debates'...
[Western girl] 'There's been research that shows that enduring microaggressions on a daily basis and having to hear that you're... like I was saying before, humanity is being undermined, that is a kind of violence that takes a toll and does damage to people and groups of people. It isn't so much that everyone is just sensitive and coddling, and this sort of sticks and stones may break my bones is not valid here. It genuinely does, words can cause a great deal of psychological harm'...
[Korean girl] 'Copernicus gave offence to religion and science by challenging the position of the sun and the earth. Martin Luther King gave offence to US society and norms by challenging racism. And woman are giving offence to a male dominating society by challenging inequality. And when you say protection, you assume that the people are weak and cannot defend themselves, but shielding woman from misogyny or shielding ethnic minorities from racism, isn't that patronalistic rather than being progressive?'...
[Vancouver guy] I'm absolutely shocked because I feel that academic discussion gets in the way of reality and truth. And if Marian [sp?] is on a subway in Somalia and someone shouts at her for the head garment that she is wearing, that is not helpful, Kyung from South Korea, that is not leading to her to feel empowered, that is not discourse, that is hate speech. And that is disgusting. Do not say what Martin Luther King said when he was protesting for his rights was hate speech. Because what we are discussing is if a person should be able to degrade someone on their ethnicity, on their sexuality, on the way that they look. And I believe that what Mary on chooses to wear because of the color of her skin should never be a reason to put hate speech against her...
[Korean girl] What I'm worried about is that the government might use the ambiguity of the term, false or offensive or hate for their political reasons. And that's really scary because I believe that's the beginning of censorship and the beginning of censorship might lead it to the beginning of tyranny...
One person said that universities are safe zones, and I am quite disappointed that people do not know the meaning of universities. Universities are the opposite of safe sense. You go there to express yourself, to be able to hear other people express themselves, to be able to open your mind to new ideas. They are not safe zones...
Thomas Jefferson, one of the great theorists and proponents of freedom of speech and of conscience put it this way. He said, it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. And yet many regimes that suppress dissent and censor opinion take speech very seriously. The censor, you might say, pays a certain homage to the power of speech that liberals sometimes miss"
Post ID: 137492800421650742
Links - 14th July 2018 (1)
The numbers don't lie: Working-class families are winning big under Trump - "The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its newest jobs report on Friday, and the data clearly show, under the pro-business policies implemented by the Trump administration, low-income and working-class families are enjoying significant economic gains not experienced in nearly 20 years."
Act against landed property owners who reserve parking spaces on road - "The recent incident of nails found embedded in the tyres of a car has turned parking in private estates from a social issue into a criminal one... Once, when I removed a rubbish bin placed outside a house, the owner came out and started hurling abusive language at me. How did owners of private houses come to the conclusion that they have exclusive rights to the space on the public road outside their houses?"
Nurses forced to announce 'white privilege' when treating Indigenous - "Australian nurses and midwives are being forced to announce their 'white privilege' before treating Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander patients - a move which has been slammed as 'racist to its core'... The Nursing and Midwifery Board believes the cultural safety of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander patients is just as important as their clinical safety... The Board describes the move as 'a decolonising model of practice based on dialogue, communication, power sharing and negotiation, and the acknowledgment of white privilege'."
Rice Media - Posts - "To anyone who has ever "chao keng-ed" at the expense of your fellow NSFs, you are the reason commanders refuse to believe soldiers in genuine need of medical attention."
Comments: "Good luck with that. With forced conscription that’s pretty much impossible"
"To prevent more rapes, slut culture must end. To anyone who has ever been a slut, you are the reason rapists refuse to believe genuine virgins whose "no" means "no"."
Man in court for having potato peeler in public place - "Scott Walker, 39, of the James Bank Hostel, James Street, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court. He admitted that on Saturday in Appin Crescent, a public place, he was in possession of an object that which had a blade or was sharply pointed, namely a potato peeler"
Ahh Scotland!
'Fem-splaining' 'Star Wars': New docu-series dives into female sci-fi fandom - "“Looking for Leia” is a six-episode exploration of geek fandom from a female perspective, from costuming and droid building, to the importance of gender and racial representation both on and off-screen. “I’m looking forward to ‘fem-splaining’ 'Star Wars'”... Ophelian, 44, and her team are working to shatter stereotypes that suggest women have only recently embraced "Star Wars" fandom because of female lead characters like Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. Women, Ophelian said, have been here from the very beginning"
Mansplaining is bad but femsplaining is good
If women embracing Star Wars fandom because of female leads is a stereotype, then feminist bitching about 'representation' is nonsense
It's telling that the female Star Wars cosplayers featured here look very different from normal cosplay women
UN Women - Posts - "Press freedom means being able to report the truth. It’s holding those in power accountable. We depend on it in our work towards a gender-equal world.
On World Press Freedom Day, and every day, we stand with all journalists who expose the systems that perpetuate inequality and we call for their protection.
19% of journalists killed in 2017 were women"
To achieve gender equality, we need to kill more female journalists
I completely don't understand people here : SWGalaxyOfHeroes - "I don't know if it is cultural or what. With events like today when people complain other people come in to say 'Don't complain, don't be ungrateful, be thankful CG is so nice to give you nice gifts, stop being entitled etc, etc'. This makes me feel I am in some bizarre world. You all know you are customers of EA/CG right? You aren't dating, you aren't related, you aren't child. EA/CG isn't person, its a company. You shouldn't be grateful to a business for running a sale, you shouldn't be thankful to a corporation for running a promotion, you shouldn't think its feeling 'entitled' if you expect great service from a business. You shouldn't lecture other people to feel beholden to company! What sort of mega-corporation raised people who says these things? May 4 events are promotions, retention devices, relation-building; it is a celebration yes but its not like a Christmas, its more like a work party for a coworker you don't really know."
Customers can’t get enough of Aldi’s latest advert - "The online ad shows half a lemon on top of a pear. As well as displaying budget prices for its fruit – unwaxed lemons are 69p, while seasonable pears are 79p for a pack of five, in case you wondered – there’s something actually pretty genius about the image."
3 Hours Of "Harassment' In NYC! - YouTube
Comment: "A Guy flirting with a girl: harassment
A girl flirting with a guy: totally not herassment or annyoing."
This Mad TV skit from 2001 accurately predicted the future. : videos
Aka Life Through the Eyes of SJW's
Comment: "i grew up in central america during a war. i saw and experienced some fucked up shit, and my parents got us out of there and we made it to north america. and i am utterly baffled by the people my age here who act like children and turn every disagreement into a war and act like victims of the worst injustice. all i can think is that these people had a pretty comfortable life so they need to really dig deep to find a way to feel like they fought for something or survived something. They don't know real hardships so they invent them."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Nassim Taleb: Having 'skin in the game' - "The author of the best seller Black Swan argues that our political leaders don't have skin in the game when making decisions and so their judgment can't be wholly trusted... perhaps the most compelling argument you put forward to make your case is that of a leader deciding to go to war...
This is a first, I think the very first generation of warmongers not dying, not being subjected to dying in battle... typically in history we had war mongers being first in battle: Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander"
Strangely, the number of wars has fallen even though warmongers don't risk dying in battle anymore
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, What happened to Russian spy Sergei Skripal? - "'You think there are Russian voters who would believe that it was right, it was good, it was admirable to be rewarded to murder an enemy of Russia in another country'
'The majority of the Russians would perceive it as the right thing to do and it will booster Mr Putin's images as a tough nationalistic leader who can get his enemies wherever they live on the globe'"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, The Saudi Prince's visit - "'The stereotypes that are told about Saudi Arabian women is that we are very oppressed and very unhappy and miserable but that is not the case... [On the dress code] I never really found it very restricting, restrictive or anything because I like the fact that I can just throw it on over anything I was wearing at the moment... I covered my face a lot of the time that I was there... but by choice... I really enjoyed it actually. It's again, it's part of like not having to worry about what I look like to anyone who sees me'
'But I assume you don't go out in the United States with your face covered or do you?'
'Yes, I do not, no. I feel like that would make my life harder in the United States'
'But the fact you said you enjoyed it, people might imagine that if you, if that was the emotion you felt from covering your face it would be one that you would also want in another country out of choice'
'Right but I enjoyed it mostly because it was common there. I wouldn't want to do it if no one else was doing it because the liberation I guess came from being anonymous and being blended in with everyone else but here in the United States that would just stand out like a sore thumb'...
Whenever we get a new ruler coming into Saudi Arabia we are told that they are a reformer. I welcome the fact that at some stage in the future women will be able to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. But I don't think that that is really the extensive reform that is probably required in Saudi Arabia... the rate of executions has doubled in the last 6 months in Saudi Arabia. That is a very worrying sign"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "The perception is created that investing is just for men and this is a problem because if we look at the figures while women are very good with money - while they are prudent with saving they still shy away from investing now. If you look at HMRC stats on ISAs in the UK - individual savings accounts - women hold far more ISAs than men but we hold cash ISAs whereas men hold more stocks and shares ISAs. Now you know how the rest of the story goes - interest rates are at record lows, inflation is high - so if you are sitting in cash you are getting progressively poorer each month"
Review: Arctic Zero Chocolate Peanut Butter Fit Frozen Dessert - "I’ve had chocolate peanut butter vapor that had more taste than this. If you’re in need of a substitute that lacks gluten, lactose and flavor, then this may be something worth looking into."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Labour to decide on inclusion of trans women in all-female shortlist - "What these gender recognition proposals will allow is exactly what you said: that men will wake up one day and say I declare that I'm a woman and not only will society... have to accept them as women but if I like challenge that person so if I mean if I’m in a female only changing area and someone comes in who has self-identified as a woman yet is clearly a man, if I challenge that person I would be in breach of the law and that cannot be right. Now Emily is shutting down the conversation by using words like transphobia and being offensive. What I find offensive is the intimidation that women have suffered when they tried to discuss this… myself personally I've had threats. All the women have been attacked... a female member was attacked simply for attending a Woman's Place UK meeting… attacked on her own picket line. We have seen activists within the Labour party... put together a hitlist - can you believe it, a hitlist encouraging people to write the Labour party in order to get women thrown out of the Labour party who disagree with the proposal...
‘This issue is raising, is rising up the political agenda and the controversy will only increase the more people discover what the agenda is of the radical trans ideology and what it means. This does not only affect women, it affects every citizen of this country. It's about whether we base our laws on facts and reality or whether we base our laws on subjective feelings. The feelings of men who happen to feel like a woman on any given day’
‘That’s ridiculous and transphobic’
‘Of course it is’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Momentum founder: Corbyn is 'anti-racist' - "Jeremy Corbyn went on TV to say... worries about anti-Semtism are genuine. He then sat down and had dinner with a group who says they’re not genuine. They are in fact a conspiracy...
People who dismiss anti-semitism as an issue in a way that you would not dismiss islamophobia as an issue... that reveals an unconscious bias that we’re all familiar with... people in the Labour party seem less willing or less aware of it when it comes to Jews"
Labour MPs Should Not Be Deselected For Anti-Racism Rally, Says Jon Lansman - "Jewdas, a left-wing Jewish group. The organisation had dismissed worries about anti-Semitism within Labour as “the work of cynical manipulations” by people loyal to the Conservative party and the “right wing” of Labour. It also described Israel in a tweet as a “steaming pile of sewage which needs to be properly disposed of”... Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire has been summoned by members of her local party in Bristol West to ‘explain her actions’ for attending the rally against anti-Semitism in Westminster. But Lansman said: “You shouldn’t have to defend why you go to an anti-racist rally."
Maybe the alt-right hasn't heard of Jewdas
Apparently anti-racism means that you must be against anti-Semitism
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, University strikes: The view from Scotland - "Over the past decade the rate of application to University among young people including young people from the most deprived areas is pretty similar, pretty much the same in Scotland as in England. So what that suggests is that we over concentrate on tuition fees as an issue and there's an awful lot more going on with determining why young people apply to University"
Zac Meat German Bratwurst - Online Grocery Shopping and Delivery Singapore | RedMart
What sort of "German Bratwurst" is Halal?!
Ay CARAMBA! SPLC’S extra hot take on Cinco de Mayo is NO BUENO but the thread is MUY hilarious - "We won’t be the least bit surprised if the Southern Poverty Law Center takes issue with our headline and accuses us of ‘cultural appropriation’, after all, we did DARE to use Spanish words and apparently that’s somehow a bad thing. Then again, it wouldn’t have been Cinco de Mayo without Lefties shaming Americans for celebrating Mexican culture"
Apologists can't dismiss SJW excesses as no name idiots on Twitter anymore
Comments: "You went from fighting the Klan to fighting any deviation from a narrow and insipid orthodoxy suitable to an Oberlin sophomore."
"If celebrating Mexican culture is culture appropriation then isnt sneaking into a country illegally the ultimate cultural appropriation?"
Sheryl Sandberg's wrongheaded campaign to ban the word 'bossy' - ""Banning a word or a term is never persuasive," said social psychologist Carol Tavris, who wrote "The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex." "It either makes the term go underground by the people who want to use it and love it and think it's the right word, or it makes the people who have been using it resentful, or they dismiss you as foolish."... I don't think it hurts to be called "bossy," and Sandburg's career is living proof. "Girls' self-esteem and girls' ambition are doing just fine," Tavris said. "That's the bottom line here. The old stereotype that only girls' self-esteem plummets when they are teenagers is wrong. Everybody's self esteem plummets when they are a teenager. This is an issue that feels so dated to me."
If being called bossy stops you from being a leader, maybe you're not cut out to be a leader after all
"Ban Bossy": A Bad Remedy for a Fictional Problem - "A closer look at the research invoked by “Ban Bossy” defenders shows it to be shaky and selective. What’s more, the “facts” cited on the campaign’s own website are such a collection of abused data that it brings to mind another common B-word—the crude synonym for bovine excrement... In this small subsample, 29 percent of the girls and 13 percent of the boys agreed with the statement, “I do not want to seem bossy.” That’s about 2.5 percent of all girls, compared to just over one percent of boys. Truly, a dreadful scourge of future womanhood that calls for a massive social media campaign. The Girls Scouts study has other fascinating data about girls and leadership. For instance, girls are somewhat more likely than boys to have actual leadership experience (in every area except sports, where 18 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls had been a captain or co-captain of a team). Thus, 31 percent of girls versus 26 percent of boys reported having been the leader of a team for a school project; 13 percent of girls, compared to 10 percent of boys, had run for a school or class office; 11 percent of girls but only six percent of boys had been officers in a school club. This fits with what a number of social critics such as Christina Hoff Sommers have been arguing for a while: that right now, boys are the ones falling behind in schools, academically and socially. Another alarming “fact” from the “Ban Bossy” site: “The confidence gap starts early. Between elementary and high school, girls’ self–esteem drops 3.5 times more than boys.’” The source for this is a 1991 study from the American Association of University Women, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America,” that amounts to 23-year-old junk science... What about the sexist use of the word “bossy”?... In my own simple Google search, I got an estimated 245,000 hits for “he is bossy” and 152,000 for “she is bossy.” “He is too bossy” yields about 139,000 results; “She is too bossy,” 145,000. On the other hand, “My sister is bossy” gets about twice as many hits as “My brother is bossy” (20,400 to 10,000). “My daughter is bossy” gets nearly 35,000 hits compared to just 700 for “my son is bossy”; but a lot of the results for the former are references to the “Ban Bossy” campaign. Oddly enough, “bossy little boy” gets over 200,000 hits compared to just 92,000 for “bossy little girl.” A few other qualifiers are needed. “Bossy” is not always pejorative; in fact, in two of the four textual examples offered by one of the linguists whose work Robb cites for support are either positive or neutral... Conversely, the word can and does get used as a pejorative for men... One may also ask if “bossy” boys—and men—are sometimes called more pejorative terms than “bossy.” “Jerk,” for instance, is used almost exclusively toward men. “My son is a bully” yields 264,000 Google hits compared to 127,000 for “my daughter is a bully.” Sandberg’s campaign is ostensibly meant to empower little girls and young women. But promoting myths of silenced, discouraged girls promotes grievance, division, and insecurity instead of empowerment—while downplaying boys’ problems... Using children as props for adult activism is always a dubious proposition. Using girls as props for activism that schools them in invented victimhood is not feminist advocacy, it’s feminist malpractice."
Unsurprisingly, the feminist angst over "bossy" is the usual feminist pseudoscience
Act against landed property owners who reserve parking spaces on road - "The recent incident of nails found embedded in the tyres of a car has turned parking in private estates from a social issue into a criminal one... Once, when I removed a rubbish bin placed outside a house, the owner came out and started hurling abusive language at me. How did owners of private houses come to the conclusion that they have exclusive rights to the space on the public road outside their houses?"
Nurses forced to announce 'white privilege' when treating Indigenous - "Australian nurses and midwives are being forced to announce their 'white privilege' before treating Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander patients - a move which has been slammed as 'racist to its core'... The Nursing and Midwifery Board believes the cultural safety of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander patients is just as important as their clinical safety... The Board describes the move as 'a decolonising model of practice based on dialogue, communication, power sharing and negotiation, and the acknowledgment of white privilege'."
Rice Media - Posts - "To anyone who has ever "chao keng-ed" at the expense of your fellow NSFs, you are the reason commanders refuse to believe soldiers in genuine need of medical attention."
Comments: "Good luck with that. With forced conscription that’s pretty much impossible"
"To prevent more rapes, slut culture must end. To anyone who has ever been a slut, you are the reason rapists refuse to believe genuine virgins whose "no" means "no"."
Man in court for having potato peeler in public place - "Scott Walker, 39, of the James Bank Hostel, James Street, appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court. He admitted that on Saturday in Appin Crescent, a public place, he was in possession of an object that which had a blade or was sharply pointed, namely a potato peeler"
Ahh Scotland!
'Fem-splaining' 'Star Wars': New docu-series dives into female sci-fi fandom - "“Looking for Leia” is a six-episode exploration of geek fandom from a female perspective, from costuming and droid building, to the importance of gender and racial representation both on and off-screen. “I’m looking forward to ‘fem-splaining’ 'Star Wars'”... Ophelian, 44, and her team are working to shatter stereotypes that suggest women have only recently embraced "Star Wars" fandom because of female lead characters like Rey, played by Daisy Ridley. Women, Ophelian said, have been here from the very beginning"
Mansplaining is bad but femsplaining is good
If women embracing Star Wars fandom because of female leads is a stereotype, then feminist bitching about 'representation' is nonsense
It's telling that the female Star Wars cosplayers featured here look very different from normal cosplay women
UN Women - Posts - "Press freedom means being able to report the truth. It’s holding those in power accountable. We depend on it in our work towards a gender-equal world.
On World Press Freedom Day, and every day, we stand with all journalists who expose the systems that perpetuate inequality and we call for their protection.
19% of journalists killed in 2017 were women"
To achieve gender equality, we need to kill more female journalists
I completely don't understand people here : SWGalaxyOfHeroes - "I don't know if it is cultural or what. With events like today when people complain other people come in to say 'Don't complain, don't be ungrateful, be thankful CG is so nice to give you nice gifts, stop being entitled etc, etc'. This makes me feel I am in some bizarre world. You all know you are customers of EA/CG right? You aren't dating, you aren't related, you aren't child. EA/CG isn't person, its a company. You shouldn't be grateful to a business for running a sale, you shouldn't be thankful to a corporation for running a promotion, you shouldn't think its feeling 'entitled' if you expect great service from a business. You shouldn't lecture other people to feel beholden to company! What sort of mega-corporation raised people who says these things? May 4 events are promotions, retention devices, relation-building; it is a celebration yes but its not like a Christmas, its more like a work party for a coworker you don't really know."
Customers can’t get enough of Aldi’s latest advert - "The online ad shows half a lemon on top of a pear. As well as displaying budget prices for its fruit – unwaxed lemons are 69p, while seasonable pears are 79p for a pack of five, in case you wondered – there’s something actually pretty genius about the image."
3 Hours Of "Harassment' In NYC! - YouTube
Comment: "A Guy flirting with a girl: harassment
A girl flirting with a guy: totally not herassment or annyoing."
This Mad TV skit from 2001 accurately predicted the future. : videos
Aka Life Through the Eyes of SJW's
Comment: "i grew up in central america during a war. i saw and experienced some fucked up shit, and my parents got us out of there and we made it to north america. and i am utterly baffled by the people my age here who act like children and turn every disagreement into a war and act like victims of the worst injustice. all i can think is that these people had a pretty comfortable life so they need to really dig deep to find a way to feel like they fought for something or survived something. They don't know real hardships so they invent them."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Nassim Taleb: Having 'skin in the game' - "The author of the best seller Black Swan argues that our political leaders don't have skin in the game when making decisions and so their judgment can't be wholly trusted... perhaps the most compelling argument you put forward to make your case is that of a leader deciding to go to war...
This is a first, I think the very first generation of warmongers not dying, not being subjected to dying in battle... typically in history we had war mongers being first in battle: Hannibal, Caesar, Alexander"
Strangely, the number of wars has fallen even though warmongers don't risk dying in battle anymore
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, What happened to Russian spy Sergei Skripal? - "'You think there are Russian voters who would believe that it was right, it was good, it was admirable to be rewarded to murder an enemy of Russia in another country'
'The majority of the Russians would perceive it as the right thing to do and it will booster Mr Putin's images as a tough nationalistic leader who can get his enemies wherever they live on the globe'"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, The Saudi Prince's visit - "'The stereotypes that are told about Saudi Arabian women is that we are very oppressed and very unhappy and miserable but that is not the case... [On the dress code] I never really found it very restricting, restrictive or anything because I like the fact that I can just throw it on over anything I was wearing at the moment... I covered my face a lot of the time that I was there... but by choice... I really enjoyed it actually. It's again, it's part of like not having to worry about what I look like to anyone who sees me'
'But I assume you don't go out in the United States with your face covered or do you?'
'Yes, I do not, no. I feel like that would make my life harder in the United States'
'But the fact you said you enjoyed it, people might imagine that if you, if that was the emotion you felt from covering your face it would be one that you would also want in another country out of choice'
'Right but I enjoyed it mostly because it was common there. I wouldn't want to do it if no one else was doing it because the liberation I guess came from being anonymous and being blended in with everyone else but here in the United States that would just stand out like a sore thumb'...
Whenever we get a new ruler coming into Saudi Arabia we are told that they are a reformer. I welcome the fact that at some stage in the future women will be able to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. But I don't think that that is really the extensive reform that is probably required in Saudi Arabia... the rate of executions has doubled in the last 6 months in Saudi Arabia. That is a very worrying sign"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Thursday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "The perception is created that investing is just for men and this is a problem because if we look at the figures while women are very good with money - while they are prudent with saving they still shy away from investing now. If you look at HMRC stats on ISAs in the UK - individual savings accounts - women hold far more ISAs than men but we hold cash ISAs whereas men hold more stocks and shares ISAs. Now you know how the rest of the story goes - interest rates are at record lows, inflation is high - so if you are sitting in cash you are getting progressively poorer each month"
Review: Arctic Zero Chocolate Peanut Butter Fit Frozen Dessert - "I’ve had chocolate peanut butter vapor that had more taste than this. If you’re in need of a substitute that lacks gluten, lactose and flavor, then this may be something worth looking into."
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Labour to decide on inclusion of trans women in all-female shortlist - "What these gender recognition proposals will allow is exactly what you said: that men will wake up one day and say I declare that I'm a woman and not only will society... have to accept them as women but if I like challenge that person so if I mean if I’m in a female only changing area and someone comes in who has self-identified as a woman yet is clearly a man, if I challenge that person I would be in breach of the law and that cannot be right. Now Emily is shutting down the conversation by using words like transphobia and being offensive. What I find offensive is the intimidation that women have suffered when they tried to discuss this… myself personally I've had threats. All the women have been attacked... a female member was attacked simply for attending a Woman's Place UK meeting… attacked on her own picket line. We have seen activists within the Labour party... put together a hitlist - can you believe it, a hitlist encouraging people to write the Labour party in order to get women thrown out of the Labour party who disagree with the proposal...
‘This issue is raising, is rising up the political agenda and the controversy will only increase the more people discover what the agenda is of the radical trans ideology and what it means. This does not only affect women, it affects every citizen of this country. It's about whether we base our laws on facts and reality or whether we base our laws on subjective feelings. The feelings of men who happen to feel like a woman on any given day’
‘That’s ridiculous and transphobic’
‘Of course it is’"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Momentum founder: Corbyn is 'anti-racist' - "Jeremy Corbyn went on TV to say... worries about anti-Semtism are genuine. He then sat down and had dinner with a group who says they’re not genuine. They are in fact a conspiracy...
People who dismiss anti-semitism as an issue in a way that you would not dismiss islamophobia as an issue... that reveals an unconscious bias that we’re all familiar with... people in the Labour party seem less willing or less aware of it when it comes to Jews"
Labour MPs Should Not Be Deselected For Anti-Racism Rally, Says Jon Lansman - "Jewdas, a left-wing Jewish group. The organisation had dismissed worries about anti-Semitism within Labour as “the work of cynical manipulations” by people loyal to the Conservative party and the “right wing” of Labour. It also described Israel in a tweet as a “steaming pile of sewage which needs to be properly disposed of”... Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire has been summoned by members of her local party in Bristol West to ‘explain her actions’ for attending the rally against anti-Semitism in Westminster. But Lansman said: “You shouldn’t have to defend why you go to an anti-racist rally."
Maybe the alt-right hasn't heard of Jewdas
Apparently anti-racism means that you must be against anti-Semitism
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, University strikes: The view from Scotland - "Over the past decade the rate of application to University among young people including young people from the most deprived areas is pretty similar, pretty much the same in Scotland as in England. So what that suggests is that we over concentrate on tuition fees as an issue and there's an awful lot more going on with determining why young people apply to University"
Zac Meat German Bratwurst - Online Grocery Shopping and Delivery Singapore | RedMart
What sort of "German Bratwurst" is Halal?!
Ay CARAMBA! SPLC’S extra hot take on Cinco de Mayo is NO BUENO but the thread is MUY hilarious - "We won’t be the least bit surprised if the Southern Poverty Law Center takes issue with our headline and accuses us of ‘cultural appropriation’, after all, we did DARE to use Spanish words and apparently that’s somehow a bad thing. Then again, it wouldn’t have been Cinco de Mayo without Lefties shaming Americans for celebrating Mexican culture"
Apologists can't dismiss SJW excesses as no name idiots on Twitter anymore
Comments: "You went from fighting the Klan to fighting any deviation from a narrow and insipid orthodoxy suitable to an Oberlin sophomore."
"If celebrating Mexican culture is culture appropriation then isnt sneaking into a country illegally the ultimate cultural appropriation?"
Sheryl Sandberg's wrongheaded campaign to ban the word 'bossy' - ""Banning a word or a term is never persuasive," said social psychologist Carol Tavris, who wrote "The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex." "It either makes the term go underground by the people who want to use it and love it and think it's the right word, or it makes the people who have been using it resentful, or they dismiss you as foolish."... I don't think it hurts to be called "bossy," and Sandburg's career is living proof. "Girls' self-esteem and girls' ambition are doing just fine," Tavris said. "That's the bottom line here. The old stereotype that only girls' self-esteem plummets when they are teenagers is wrong. Everybody's self esteem plummets when they are a teenager. This is an issue that feels so dated to me."
If being called bossy stops you from being a leader, maybe you're not cut out to be a leader after all
"Ban Bossy": A Bad Remedy for a Fictional Problem - "A closer look at the research invoked by “Ban Bossy” defenders shows it to be shaky and selective. What’s more, the “facts” cited on the campaign’s own website are such a collection of abused data that it brings to mind another common B-word—the crude synonym for bovine excrement... In this small subsample, 29 percent of the girls and 13 percent of the boys agreed with the statement, “I do not want to seem bossy.” That’s about 2.5 percent of all girls, compared to just over one percent of boys. Truly, a dreadful scourge of future womanhood that calls for a massive social media campaign. The Girls Scouts study has other fascinating data about girls and leadership. For instance, girls are somewhat more likely than boys to have actual leadership experience (in every area except sports, where 18 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls had been a captain or co-captain of a team). Thus, 31 percent of girls versus 26 percent of boys reported having been the leader of a team for a school project; 13 percent of girls, compared to 10 percent of boys, had run for a school or class office; 11 percent of girls but only six percent of boys had been officers in a school club. This fits with what a number of social critics such as Christina Hoff Sommers have been arguing for a while: that right now, boys are the ones falling behind in schools, academically and socially. Another alarming “fact” from the “Ban Bossy” site: “The confidence gap starts early. Between elementary and high school, girls’ self–esteem drops 3.5 times more than boys.’” The source for this is a 1991 study from the American Association of University Women, “Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America,” that amounts to 23-year-old junk science... What about the sexist use of the word “bossy”?... In my own simple Google search, I got an estimated 245,000 hits for “he is bossy” and 152,000 for “she is bossy.” “He is too bossy” yields about 139,000 results; “She is too bossy,” 145,000. On the other hand, “My sister is bossy” gets about twice as many hits as “My brother is bossy” (20,400 to 10,000). “My daughter is bossy” gets nearly 35,000 hits compared to just 700 for “my son is bossy”; but a lot of the results for the former are references to the “Ban Bossy” campaign. Oddly enough, “bossy little boy” gets over 200,000 hits compared to just 92,000 for “bossy little girl.” A few other qualifiers are needed. “Bossy” is not always pejorative; in fact, in two of the four textual examples offered by one of the linguists whose work Robb cites for support are either positive or neutral... Conversely, the word can and does get used as a pejorative for men... One may also ask if “bossy” boys—and men—are sometimes called more pejorative terms than “bossy.” “Jerk,” for instance, is used almost exclusively toward men. “My son is a bully” yields 264,000 Google hits compared to 127,000 for “my daughter is a bully.” Sandberg’s campaign is ostensibly meant to empower little girls and young women. But promoting myths of silenced, discouraged girls promotes grievance, division, and insecurity instead of empowerment—while downplaying boys’ problems... Using children as props for adult activism is always a dubious proposition. Using girls as props for activism that schools them in invented victimhood is not feminist advocacy, it’s feminist malpractice."
Unsurprisingly, the feminist angst over "bossy" is the usual feminist pseudoscience
Post ID: 5010969990867060156
Friday, July 13, 2018
Links - 13th July 2018 (2)
Unconventional Director Sets Shakespeare Play In Time, Place Shakespeare Intended - ""I know when most people hear The Merchant Of Venice, they think 1960s Las Vegas, a high-powered Manhattan stock brokerage, or an 18th-century Georgia slave plantation, but I think it's high time to shake things up a bit," Hiles said. "The great thing about Shakespeare is that the themes in his plays are so universal that they can be adapted to just about any time and place.""
Mexico adds fifth name to presidential ballot despite fake signatures - "Mexico’s electoral tribunal has included a colourful independent candidate on the ballot for this July’s presidential election, despite the fact 58% of the signatures supporting his nomination were invalidated... Left off the ballot was María de Jesús Patricio, an indigenous Nahua and spokesperson for the National Indigenous Congress, who failed to reach the threshold, even though 95% of the signatures she collected were deemed valid – an irony not lost on supporters."
To many Indian Americans, Apu is offensive. To me, he’s my dad. - The Washington Post - "A slow-brewing controversy over the longest-running TV show in history came to a head a few weeks ago. In his documentary “The Problem With Apu,” Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu called “The Simpsons” character Apu, voiced by Hank Azaria, a racist stereotype — “a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.” The show responded. At the end of the April 8 episode, Marge is reading to Lisa when she realizes that the book, “The Princess in the Garden,” is full of stereotypes. She censors herself and asks, “What am I supposed to do?” Lisa looks into the camera and replies: “It’s hard to say. Something that started decades ago, and was applauded and inoffensive, is now politically incorrect.” The camera pulls away to an inscribed photo of Apu on her nightstand that’s signed “Don’t have a cow.”... Apu and my father are both Indian immigrants and convenience-store owners with questionable mustaches. Both have an affinity for one-letter abbreviations in their store names and a devotion to Hindu gods. Both are fickle Mets fans with arranged marriages and accents. Both are kind, hard-working and entrepreneurial... I just couldn’t believe someone like my dad was on TV. The only other character of South Asian origin I had seen was Jawaharlal Choudhury, the foreign-exchange student from India on “Head of the Class.” In video games, we had the Great Tiger, the boxer in “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out” who teleported around the ring wearing his trademark white turban with a red ruby, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter 2, a yogic contortionist with the power of fire. Apu was comparatively real, someone I could understand firsthand."
When you erase "stereotypes", you erase the real people they are based on
The Simpsons: Not all Indians think Apu is a racist stereotype - "Many wonder why a 30-year-old animation caricature is under fire at a time when the community is more visible and wealthier than ever before. They say all characters in The Simpsons are brutal stereotypical caricatures anyway - Homer Simpson, the paterfamilias of the dysfunctional family which headlines the show, is a slob, a glutton and a lousy parent. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan, a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, said Apu's inauthentic accent doesn't matter because he's a caricature, like everybody else in the show... Mr Varadarajan told me Kondabulu's documentary "suffused with self-righteous indignation about the racism-by-caricature in Apu" is to blame for the recent kerfuffle. Also, he says, "this has happened at a moment of particular cultural sensitivity in liberal America, with the white intelligentsia being even more capitulative than before to accusations of racism"... Sanjoy Chakravorty, co-author of The Other One Percent: Indians in America, isn't even sure whether there is any wider outrage over Apu beyond the "media echo chamber" following the Kondabolu documentary. "As I see it, there are two primary products that second generation Indian American comedians sell - the ridiculousness of their parents' 'culture' (arranged marriage and 'my son, the doctor' are the commonest tropes); and the racism of white Americans," Professor Chakravorty, who teaches at Temple University in Pennsylvania, told me in an email interview. "It is not hard to see why these two lowest hanging fruits are plucked all the time. This is very standard fare. Apu is also very standard fare. What Kondabulu has done is nothing new. He picked almost the most identifiable Indian project possible in the US. And he plugged into the market for identity-based outrage." Prof Chakravorty adds that he loves The Simpsons. "As far as I am concerned: Apu is one of three likable characters in The Simpsons - Lisa and Marge are the others. Homer, a caricature of the ignorant, blue collar white male, is actually the most offensive." Back in Apu's native land, fans of The Simpsons appear to have no problems with the character... "The controversy about the stereotyping is classist snobbery - Indians in America don't want to be reminded of a certain kind of immigrant from their country - the shop keepers, the taxi drivers, the burger flippers," says Mr Bhatia. "They would rather project only Silicon Valley successes, the Wall Street players and the Ivy League products, with the proper accents, people they meet for dinner - by itself a stereotype. The millions of Apus in America, the salt-of-the-earth types, with their less 'posh' accents, are an inconvenience to that self-image of this small group of Indian-Americans.""
Don't comedians play off stereotypes all the time?
Interestingly, railing against "stereotyping" can be seen as elitism and erasure
The Simpsons addresses Apu racial stereotype controversy - "In the scene, Marge changes a bedtime story to make it more politically correct, but her daughter objects. A distressed Marge then asks her daughter what she is supposed to do. Lisa turns to the camera and says: "It's hard to say. Something that started a long time ago decades ago, that was applauded and was inoffensive, is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" She then signals to a photograph of Apu by her bedside, which is signed: "Don't have a cow - Apu"... "The Simpsons' over the years has been pretty humorously offensive to all manner of people Republicans, Brazilians, presidents, high school principals, school principals, Italians, you name it," he said. "And they take a lot of pride over there in not apologizing for any of that. I think, over the years, they've done a really good job of being, shall we say, uniformly offensive without being outright hurtful.""
Scientists Genetically Engineered Flies to Ejaculate Under Red Light - "Through this experiment, and several others, the team has shown that sex is a pleasurable experience for flies—or specifically, that ejaculation is for the males. It releases the same chemicals that are linked to rewarding experiences in mammals. It creates associations that make other stimuli occurring at the same time—like a smell—desirable in their own right. It even substitutes for other rewards: Male flies that have recently ejaculated are less enticed by alcohol. This might seem obvious, but the study of animal sex tends to be curiously sanitized and anhedonic. The focus falls on the mechanics of the act and its evolutionary benefits, while subjective experiences are ignored for fear of anthropomorphism. It is often said that humans are among the only animals that have sex “for pleasure”—an elite club that might grudgingly include bonobos and dolphins, but little else. And even if the idea that animals are enjoying themselves is not explicitly denied, it’s often just plain ignored. Animal sex becomes all business, and no ... well, you know. That seems unlikely. Many animals have sex at times when they’re infertile or in ways that can’t possibly lead to reproduction. Several species practice oral sex, including bonobos (of course), brown bears (in captivity), and several kinds of bat (the music choice in this video is something). A lot of them masturbate... for male rats, any sexual interaction that ends in actual mating is rewarding. For females, “it’s pleasurable only when the female chooses to mate”"
B.C. teen printed her bully’s hateful message on a t-shirt because ‘those words don’t define you’ - "someone had scrawled the words ‘Kailey Kukkola is a disgusting flat, ugly slut’ on the wall of a girl’s bathroom at College Heights High."
Academy Board Member Resigns Over Toxic Political Correctness: 'We Decided To Play Moral Police' - "Mechanic, who just recently earned an Oscar nomination for producing Mel Gibson's WWII epic "Hacksaw Ridge," said in a letter directed to Academy president John Bailey that the Oscars has become a "long and boring show" that has only been made worse by them choosing to play the role of "moral police." At one point in his letter, Mechanic even talks about a Marxist-style "purge" in the Academy to the point where a colleague even suggested that they not "admit a single white male to the Academy, regardless of merit.""
SB-827 failed in California, but there’s still no good alternative to building more housing - "The sweeping land use reform bill introduced recently by California state Sen. Scott Weiner, a San Francisco Democrat, died in committee this week, bringing to an end an ambitious plan to change zoning in broad swaths of the state by allowing four- to five-story buildings near all rail transit stations and major bus corridors. Without it or some comparably sweeping reform, California will continue to suffer from exorbitant housing costs that contribute to the highest poverty rate in the nation when judged by the Supplemental Poverty Measure"
Soros and Tech Moguls Paid $50 Million to Fund Private Russia Probe - "Billionaire George Soros and a group of wealthy donors from New York and California have paid $50 million to sustain an ongoing private Russia investigation conducted by former British spy Christopher Steele, research firm Fusion GPS, and a former staffer for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The revelation is part of the final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election released on April 27 by the House intelligence committee. The report concluded that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia."
The same people who claim $1 of industry money means you can't trust a study or that $1 of government money going to a school means that if Gideon Bibles are placed in that school's hotel, it's a violation of the separation of Church and State will see no problems with this
The madness of our gender debate, where feminists defend slapping a 60-year-old woman - "You would have thought that a feminist getting punched in the face would be reasonably large news – particularly if her attacker had boasted online earlier of wanting to “fuck up” some feminists, comparing them to fascists. But the conviction of the person who attacked 60-year-old Maria MacLachlan at Speakers’ Corner last year didn’t trouble the pages of the Guardian, where I would normally expect to hear about something that veers close to being a hate crime, or the LGBT website Pink News. Why? A clue comes in the fact that MacLachlan was slapped by a 26-year-old transgender woman called Tara Wolf, who explained to the court that MacLachlan was a “TERF”... The implication was that MacLachlan, now 61, wants all transgender people dead – something that seems absolutely barking until you realise this is quite a common accusation in activist spaces... it seems swivel-eyed to condemn rhetorical “attacks” and blithely ignore physical ones... it demonstrates how intensely polarised our media climate has become. Reporting on a single case is now taken as evidence of being “for” or “against” an entire class of people. It’s the same attitude that hampers coverage of grooming gangs or terror attacks – the initial new report is followed by a moment’s imperceptible pause on both left and right to see if it’s the “right” sort of perpetrator, and whether the story therefore fits their particular narrative... Many so-called progressives were dismissive of MacLachlan’s account of the incident (which was also witnessed by Janice Turner of the Times) because it was inconvenient to their narrative. She was lucky that video footage existed showing the assault. The Wolf affair also demonstrates another alarming phenomenon: the left getting high on its own supply of self-righteousness. “Some feminists have a different conception of gender to me” gets smudged into “some feminists talk about me in ways that I find offensive” and on to “some feminists are basically Hitler, trying to eradicate people like me”. Once you reach the last statement, then of course you can slap a woman and still think of yourself as a good person. She wants to kill you; a mere punch is self-defence. (I’m not exaggerating about the language. The Edinburgh branch of Action for Trans Health tweeted the day after the attack: “Punching TERFs is the same as punching Nazis. Fascism must be smashed with the greatest violence to ensure our collective liberation from it.”)... The LGBT press sees its role as a cheerleader rather than an interrogator... The liberal media, too, wants every narrative to have clearly defined “sides”... Many of the feminists opposing the reform regard me as a rank collaborator, because I agree that it is possible for men to become women and vice versa. Mysteriously, that doesn’t stop the other side calling me a TERF. All this proves is that the word is meaningless"
Lillehammer affair - Wikipedia - "The Lillehammer affair (Hebrew: פרשת לילהאמר, Parshat Lillehammer, Norwegian: Lillehammer-saken) was the killing by Mossad agents of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and brother of the renowned musician Chico Bouchikhi, in Lillehammer, Norway, on July 21, 1973. The Israeli agents had mistaken their target for Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for Black September. Six of the Mossad team of fifteen were captured and convicted of complicity in the killing by the Norwegian justice system, in a major blow to the intelligence agency's reputation."
Okayama buses strike by continuing to run and refusing to take anyone’s money - "In cases such as this, management may use the labor stoppage against the drivers, appealing to the public that they are putting their own needs before the community’s. So to show that isn’t the case, Ryobi drivers are continuing to clock in, but without performing the part of their job that requires them to accept payment during certain times. In other words, free bus rides for all! This isn’t the first time such a strike has occurred in Japan or around the world. Both Brisbane and Sydney held fare-free days as part of labor disputes last year. The earliest documented case of a “fare strike” goes back a protest by Cleveland streetcar workers in 1944, and similar cases involving other services have happened in Europe and Latin America prior to that."
Why do dieters succeed or fail? The answers have little to do with food. - "1) Your job can make it harder — or easier — to lose weight
2) The built environment around you matters
3) Family health concerns can be a nudge to change behavior
4) The quality of your diet may be more important than whether you’re eating low-fat or low-carb"
Vox is drawing interesting conclusions from a sample size of 4
Ikea Announces Test-Kitchen Dishes Like Mealworm Meatballs
iPhone, Cola and Kinky: what’s in a Hongkongers name? - "The tradition seems to vary according to a person’s class. Upper-class and Western-educated parents typically give their children English names at birth or soon after... working-class children may be given a name later out of necessity at school. They might choose their own name or be given one by their teacher. This might be one reason why some children have ended up with rather arbitrary names, such as Rainbow... unlike in the US and UK, where weird and wonderful names are given to children by their often pretentious parents, Hong Kong names are being concocted by the children themselves."
Hong Kong Loves Weird English Names - "In 2005, the author of HKSAR Blog concluded that the names of 2.5 percent of 5,707 lawyers were unusual, uncommon, or unique. When I recently surveyed the current register of 7,367 lawyers myself, I found the proportion of names matching these descriptions had risen to 6 percent... English first names served as a "lubricant" to speed up the process of getting acquainted. Chinese forms of address, which are either very formal or overly familiar, do not favor quick rapport-building between strangers... Matthews estimates that 90 percent of the institution's female and 65 percent of its male students have English first names"
Why laundromats are the hot new place to hang out in Hong Kong - "As prices keep soaring in what is already the world’s most expensive property market, residents have been forced to squeeze into ever smaller apartments, leaving little room for washers and dryers. The average size of a newly constructed apartment in 2017 was 354 square feet, according to the city’s building department, down from 420 square feet in 2013. And the units are only getting tinier: Thousands of so-called micro-apartments, smaller than 200 square feet, are expected to be built by 2020"
The impact of Avengers: Infinity War is undone by Marvel's inability to keep its mouth shut - "Killing Gamora is one thing. Her death is important and if she's brought back this whole franchise can go fuck itself. Wiping out the rest of the Guardians when many in the audience are fully aware a sequel is on the way dilutes the impact of what should be a highly emotional scene. T’Challa fades from existence like he’s nothing, but it doesn’t matter because Feige has already pledged to give him a sequel. Peter Parker’s heart-wrenching exit from this world is undercut by the knowledge his stand-alone sequel starts shooting in London this year.
China gives 'subversive' Peppa Pig the chop - "The Global Times on Monday referred to this "addiction" among children, which parents complained was encouraging some pre-schoolers "to oink and jump in puddles" after watching the cartoon."
Mexico adds fifth name to presidential ballot despite fake signatures - "Mexico’s electoral tribunal has included a colourful independent candidate on the ballot for this July’s presidential election, despite the fact 58% of the signatures supporting his nomination were invalidated... Left off the ballot was María de Jesús Patricio, an indigenous Nahua and spokesperson for the National Indigenous Congress, who failed to reach the threshold, even though 95% of the signatures she collected were deemed valid – an irony not lost on supporters."
To many Indian Americans, Apu is offensive. To me, he’s my dad. - The Washington Post - "A slow-brewing controversy over the longest-running TV show in history came to a head a few weeks ago. In his documentary “The Problem With Apu,” Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu called “The Simpsons” character Apu, voiced by Hank Azaria, a racist stereotype — “a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.” The show responded. At the end of the April 8 episode, Marge is reading to Lisa when she realizes that the book, “The Princess in the Garden,” is full of stereotypes. She censors herself and asks, “What am I supposed to do?” Lisa looks into the camera and replies: “It’s hard to say. Something that started decades ago, and was applauded and inoffensive, is now politically incorrect.” The camera pulls away to an inscribed photo of Apu on her nightstand that’s signed “Don’t have a cow.”... Apu and my father are both Indian immigrants and convenience-store owners with questionable mustaches. Both have an affinity for one-letter abbreviations in their store names and a devotion to Hindu gods. Both are fickle Mets fans with arranged marriages and accents. Both are kind, hard-working and entrepreneurial... I just couldn’t believe someone like my dad was on TV. The only other character of South Asian origin I had seen was Jawaharlal Choudhury, the foreign-exchange student from India on “Head of the Class.” In video games, we had the Great Tiger, the boxer in “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out” who teleported around the ring wearing his trademark white turban with a red ruby, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter 2, a yogic contortionist with the power of fire. Apu was comparatively real, someone I could understand firsthand."
When you erase "stereotypes", you erase the real people they are based on
The Simpsons: Not all Indians think Apu is a racist stereotype - "Many wonder why a 30-year-old animation caricature is under fire at a time when the community is more visible and wealthier than ever before. They say all characters in The Simpsons are brutal stereotypical caricatures anyway - Homer Simpson, the paterfamilias of the dysfunctional family which headlines the show, is a slob, a glutton and a lousy parent. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan, a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, said Apu's inauthentic accent doesn't matter because he's a caricature, like everybody else in the show... Mr Varadarajan told me Kondabulu's documentary "suffused with self-righteous indignation about the racism-by-caricature in Apu" is to blame for the recent kerfuffle. Also, he says, "this has happened at a moment of particular cultural sensitivity in liberal America, with the white intelligentsia being even more capitulative than before to accusations of racism"... Sanjoy Chakravorty, co-author of The Other One Percent: Indians in America, isn't even sure whether there is any wider outrage over Apu beyond the "media echo chamber" following the Kondabolu documentary. "As I see it, there are two primary products that second generation Indian American comedians sell - the ridiculousness of their parents' 'culture' (arranged marriage and 'my son, the doctor' are the commonest tropes); and the racism of white Americans," Professor Chakravorty, who teaches at Temple University in Pennsylvania, told me in an email interview. "It is not hard to see why these two lowest hanging fruits are plucked all the time. This is very standard fare. Apu is also very standard fare. What Kondabulu has done is nothing new. He picked almost the most identifiable Indian project possible in the US. And he plugged into the market for identity-based outrage." Prof Chakravorty adds that he loves The Simpsons. "As far as I am concerned: Apu is one of three likable characters in The Simpsons - Lisa and Marge are the others. Homer, a caricature of the ignorant, blue collar white male, is actually the most offensive." Back in Apu's native land, fans of The Simpsons appear to have no problems with the character... "The controversy about the stereotyping is classist snobbery - Indians in America don't want to be reminded of a certain kind of immigrant from their country - the shop keepers, the taxi drivers, the burger flippers," says Mr Bhatia. "They would rather project only Silicon Valley successes, the Wall Street players and the Ivy League products, with the proper accents, people they meet for dinner - by itself a stereotype. The millions of Apus in America, the salt-of-the-earth types, with their less 'posh' accents, are an inconvenience to that self-image of this small group of Indian-Americans.""
Don't comedians play off stereotypes all the time?
Interestingly, railing against "stereotyping" can be seen as elitism and erasure
The Simpsons addresses Apu racial stereotype controversy - "In the scene, Marge changes a bedtime story to make it more politically correct, but her daughter objects. A distressed Marge then asks her daughter what she is supposed to do. Lisa turns to the camera and says: "It's hard to say. Something that started a long time ago decades ago, that was applauded and was inoffensive, is now politically incorrect. What can you do?" She then signals to a photograph of Apu by her bedside, which is signed: "Don't have a cow - Apu"... "The Simpsons' over the years has been pretty humorously offensive to all manner of people Republicans, Brazilians, presidents, high school principals, school principals, Italians, you name it," he said. "And they take a lot of pride over there in not apologizing for any of that. I think, over the years, they've done a really good job of being, shall we say, uniformly offensive without being outright hurtful.""
Scientists Genetically Engineered Flies to Ejaculate Under Red Light - "Through this experiment, and several others, the team has shown that sex is a pleasurable experience for flies—or specifically, that ejaculation is for the males. It releases the same chemicals that are linked to rewarding experiences in mammals. It creates associations that make other stimuli occurring at the same time—like a smell—desirable in their own right. It even substitutes for other rewards: Male flies that have recently ejaculated are less enticed by alcohol. This might seem obvious, but the study of animal sex tends to be curiously sanitized and anhedonic. The focus falls on the mechanics of the act and its evolutionary benefits, while subjective experiences are ignored for fear of anthropomorphism. It is often said that humans are among the only animals that have sex “for pleasure”—an elite club that might grudgingly include bonobos and dolphins, but little else. And even if the idea that animals are enjoying themselves is not explicitly denied, it’s often just plain ignored. Animal sex becomes all business, and no ... well, you know. That seems unlikely. Many animals have sex at times when they’re infertile or in ways that can’t possibly lead to reproduction. Several species practice oral sex, including bonobos (of course), brown bears (in captivity), and several kinds of bat (the music choice in this video is something). A lot of them masturbate... for male rats, any sexual interaction that ends in actual mating is rewarding. For females, “it’s pleasurable only when the female chooses to mate”"
B.C. teen printed her bully’s hateful message on a t-shirt because ‘those words don’t define you’ - "someone had scrawled the words ‘Kailey Kukkola is a disgusting flat, ugly slut’ on the wall of a girl’s bathroom at College Heights High."
Academy Board Member Resigns Over Toxic Political Correctness: 'We Decided To Play Moral Police' - "Mechanic, who just recently earned an Oscar nomination for producing Mel Gibson's WWII epic "Hacksaw Ridge," said in a letter directed to Academy president John Bailey that the Oscars has become a "long and boring show" that has only been made worse by them choosing to play the role of "moral police." At one point in his letter, Mechanic even talks about a Marxist-style "purge" in the Academy to the point where a colleague even suggested that they not "admit a single white male to the Academy, regardless of merit.""
SB-827 failed in California, but there’s still no good alternative to building more housing - "The sweeping land use reform bill introduced recently by California state Sen. Scott Weiner, a San Francisco Democrat, died in committee this week, bringing to an end an ambitious plan to change zoning in broad swaths of the state by allowing four- to five-story buildings near all rail transit stations and major bus corridors. Without it or some comparably sweeping reform, California will continue to suffer from exorbitant housing costs that contribute to the highest poverty rate in the nation when judged by the Supplemental Poverty Measure"
Soros and Tech Moguls Paid $50 Million to Fund Private Russia Probe - "Billionaire George Soros and a group of wealthy donors from New York and California have paid $50 million to sustain an ongoing private Russia investigation conducted by former British spy Christopher Steele, research firm Fusion GPS, and a former staffer for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The revelation is part of the final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election released on April 27 by the House intelligence committee. The report concluded that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia."
The same people who claim $1 of industry money means you can't trust a study or that $1 of government money going to a school means that if Gideon Bibles are placed in that school's hotel, it's a violation of the separation of Church and State will see no problems with this
The madness of our gender debate, where feminists defend slapping a 60-year-old woman - "You would have thought that a feminist getting punched in the face would be reasonably large news – particularly if her attacker had boasted online earlier of wanting to “fuck up” some feminists, comparing them to fascists. But the conviction of the person who attacked 60-year-old Maria MacLachlan at Speakers’ Corner last year didn’t trouble the pages of the Guardian, where I would normally expect to hear about something that veers close to being a hate crime, or the LGBT website Pink News. Why? A clue comes in the fact that MacLachlan was slapped by a 26-year-old transgender woman called Tara Wolf, who explained to the court that MacLachlan was a “TERF”... The implication was that MacLachlan, now 61, wants all transgender people dead – something that seems absolutely barking until you realise this is quite a common accusation in activist spaces... it seems swivel-eyed to condemn rhetorical “attacks” and blithely ignore physical ones... it demonstrates how intensely polarised our media climate has become. Reporting on a single case is now taken as evidence of being “for” or “against” an entire class of people. It’s the same attitude that hampers coverage of grooming gangs or terror attacks – the initial new report is followed by a moment’s imperceptible pause on both left and right to see if it’s the “right” sort of perpetrator, and whether the story therefore fits their particular narrative... Many so-called progressives were dismissive of MacLachlan’s account of the incident (which was also witnessed by Janice Turner of the Times) because it was inconvenient to their narrative. She was lucky that video footage existed showing the assault. The Wolf affair also demonstrates another alarming phenomenon: the left getting high on its own supply of self-righteousness. “Some feminists have a different conception of gender to me” gets smudged into “some feminists talk about me in ways that I find offensive” and on to “some feminists are basically Hitler, trying to eradicate people like me”. Once you reach the last statement, then of course you can slap a woman and still think of yourself as a good person. She wants to kill you; a mere punch is self-defence. (I’m not exaggerating about the language. The Edinburgh branch of Action for Trans Health tweeted the day after the attack: “Punching TERFs is the same as punching Nazis. Fascism must be smashed with the greatest violence to ensure our collective liberation from it.”)... The LGBT press sees its role as a cheerleader rather than an interrogator... The liberal media, too, wants every narrative to have clearly defined “sides”... Many of the feminists opposing the reform regard me as a rank collaborator, because I agree that it is possible for men to become women and vice versa. Mysteriously, that doesn’t stop the other side calling me a TERF. All this proves is that the word is meaningless"
Lillehammer affair - Wikipedia - "The Lillehammer affair (Hebrew: פרשת לילהאמר, Parshat Lillehammer, Norwegian: Lillehammer-saken) was the killing by Mossad agents of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and brother of the renowned musician Chico Bouchikhi, in Lillehammer, Norway, on July 21, 1973. The Israeli agents had mistaken their target for Ali Hassan Salameh, the chief of operations for Black September. Six of the Mossad team of fifteen were captured and convicted of complicity in the killing by the Norwegian justice system, in a major blow to the intelligence agency's reputation."
Okayama buses strike by continuing to run and refusing to take anyone’s money - "In cases such as this, management may use the labor stoppage against the drivers, appealing to the public that they are putting their own needs before the community’s. So to show that isn’t the case, Ryobi drivers are continuing to clock in, but without performing the part of their job that requires them to accept payment during certain times. In other words, free bus rides for all! This isn’t the first time such a strike has occurred in Japan or around the world. Both Brisbane and Sydney held fare-free days as part of labor disputes last year. The earliest documented case of a “fare strike” goes back a protest by Cleveland streetcar workers in 1944, and similar cases involving other services have happened in Europe and Latin America prior to that."
Why do dieters succeed or fail? The answers have little to do with food. - "1) Your job can make it harder — or easier — to lose weight
2) The built environment around you matters
3) Family health concerns can be a nudge to change behavior
4) The quality of your diet may be more important than whether you’re eating low-fat or low-carb"
Vox is drawing interesting conclusions from a sample size of 4
Ikea Announces Test-Kitchen Dishes Like Mealworm Meatballs
iPhone, Cola and Kinky: what’s in a Hongkongers name? - "The tradition seems to vary according to a person’s class. Upper-class and Western-educated parents typically give their children English names at birth or soon after... working-class children may be given a name later out of necessity at school. They might choose their own name or be given one by their teacher. This might be one reason why some children have ended up with rather arbitrary names, such as Rainbow... unlike in the US and UK, where weird and wonderful names are given to children by their often pretentious parents, Hong Kong names are being concocted by the children themselves."
Hong Kong Loves Weird English Names - "In 2005, the author of HKSAR Blog concluded that the names of 2.5 percent of 5,707 lawyers were unusual, uncommon, or unique. When I recently surveyed the current register of 7,367 lawyers myself, I found the proportion of names matching these descriptions had risen to 6 percent... English first names served as a "lubricant" to speed up the process of getting acquainted. Chinese forms of address, which are either very formal or overly familiar, do not favor quick rapport-building between strangers... Matthews estimates that 90 percent of the institution's female and 65 percent of its male students have English first names"
Why laundromats are the hot new place to hang out in Hong Kong - "As prices keep soaring in what is already the world’s most expensive property market, residents have been forced to squeeze into ever smaller apartments, leaving little room for washers and dryers. The average size of a newly constructed apartment in 2017 was 354 square feet, according to the city’s building department, down from 420 square feet in 2013. And the units are only getting tinier: Thousands of so-called micro-apartments, smaller than 200 square feet, are expected to be built by 2020"
The impact of Avengers: Infinity War is undone by Marvel's inability to keep its mouth shut - "Killing Gamora is one thing. Her death is important and if she's brought back this whole franchise can go fuck itself. Wiping out the rest of the Guardians when many in the audience are fully aware a sequel is on the way dilutes the impact of what should be a highly emotional scene. T’Challa fades from existence like he’s nothing, but it doesn’t matter because Feige has already pledged to give him a sequel. Peter Parker’s heart-wrenching exit from this world is undercut by the knowledge his stand-alone sequel starts shooting in London this year.
China gives 'subversive' Peppa Pig the chop - "The Global Times on Monday referred to this "addiction" among children, which parents complained was encouraging some pre-schoolers "to oink and jump in puddles" after watching the cartoon."
Post ID: 6793183955709311248
The remarkable history of the Netherlands
The remarkable history of the Netherlands
"They form in the early 17th century a company, the Dutch East Indies Company, which is a new type of structure that has never been seen before in Europe. And that is a capitalist imperialist venture. One that is based on shared risk and the pooling of capital, as opposed to the hierarchical monarchical structures that we know from Spain and Portugal, and this supercharges the Dutch economy, literally in the space of about 15 years or so, and it is with the money earned from the East Indies Company and other various trading organization, that the Dutch start to supersede all the previous empires and become the number one power by about 1630 1640, not just in Europe, but at the time in the world...
[On Protestantism and the UK] And from that ideological and cultural perspective, you would have thought there was a lot these two nations had in common. But very quickly, of course, they found themselves in a competitive relationship when it came to world markets.
So after the end of the 30 Years war, so from the 1650s to the 1670s, you see a series of Anglo Dutch wars - the three Angle Dutch wars - which are essentially about Britain for the first time, really challenging the Dutch for their global markets.
But nonetheless, even though the Dutch were, were clearly on the wane at this point, you got to remember that Holland in the late 17th century only had a population of two million people as opposed to 20 million people in France and about six million people in Britain. So it was really punching up above it's weight and still challenging the might of both France and Britain navally...
[On William of Orange being threatened by Charles II] We refer to the Glorious Revolution as the bloodless revolution and like to see it as the natural evolution of English and British parliamentary liberalism. But in fact, this was an invasion, and many of the things that we cherish about the British constitution, in actual fact came to us from Europe on the Dutch ships that brought William of Orange over to London. And so it was less of a Glorious Revolution and more of a successful invasion by a European Monarch...
Certainly in Holland, in the Netherlands, the hostility towards Germany is still palpable. Particularly if you go to the east of Holland, they have never really fully psychologically recovered from Nazism. And of course, Belgium was particularly stained by the first World War because so many of the interminable battlefields were of course on Belgium territory.
But that of course, gave them both an incentive to encourage, support and actively assist wherever possible Franco-German reconciliation. Because they understood that rather than being squeezed between two hostile great powers, Germany and France, it would be in their interest to make sure that Germany and France were friends. And so that's why you see the Benelux countries as really the sort of cultural and political heart of the European Union, particularly after the Germans and French had come up with the iron and steel agreement in the 1950s...
Liberalism is what you see when you go to Amsterdam in particular... But actually Holland outside of Amsterdam in particular is quite a quiet industrious disciplined and socially very conservative country."
"They form in the early 17th century a company, the Dutch East Indies Company, which is a new type of structure that has never been seen before in Europe. And that is a capitalist imperialist venture. One that is based on shared risk and the pooling of capital, as opposed to the hierarchical monarchical structures that we know from Spain and Portugal, and this supercharges the Dutch economy, literally in the space of about 15 years or so, and it is with the money earned from the East Indies Company and other various trading organization, that the Dutch start to supersede all the previous empires and become the number one power by about 1630 1640, not just in Europe, but at the time in the world...
[On Protestantism and the UK] And from that ideological and cultural perspective, you would have thought there was a lot these two nations had in common. But very quickly, of course, they found themselves in a competitive relationship when it came to world markets.
So after the end of the 30 Years war, so from the 1650s to the 1670s, you see a series of Anglo Dutch wars - the three Angle Dutch wars - which are essentially about Britain for the first time, really challenging the Dutch for their global markets.
But nonetheless, even though the Dutch were, were clearly on the wane at this point, you got to remember that Holland in the late 17th century only had a population of two million people as opposed to 20 million people in France and about six million people in Britain. So it was really punching up above it's weight and still challenging the might of both France and Britain navally...
[On William of Orange being threatened by Charles II] We refer to the Glorious Revolution as the bloodless revolution and like to see it as the natural evolution of English and British parliamentary liberalism. But in fact, this was an invasion, and many of the things that we cherish about the British constitution, in actual fact came to us from Europe on the Dutch ships that brought William of Orange over to London. And so it was less of a Glorious Revolution and more of a successful invasion by a European Monarch...
Certainly in Holland, in the Netherlands, the hostility towards Germany is still palpable. Particularly if you go to the east of Holland, they have never really fully psychologically recovered from Nazism. And of course, Belgium was particularly stained by the first World War because so many of the interminable battlefields were of course on Belgium territory.
But that of course, gave them both an incentive to encourage, support and actively assist wherever possible Franco-German reconciliation. Because they understood that rather than being squeezed between two hostile great powers, Germany and France, it would be in their interest to make sure that Germany and France were friends. And so that's why you see the Benelux countries as really the sort of cultural and political heart of the European Union, particularly after the Germans and French had come up with the iron and steel agreement in the 1950s...
Liberalism is what you see when you go to Amsterdam in particular... But actually Holland outside of Amsterdam in particular is quite a quiet industrious disciplined and socially very conservative country."
Post ID: 5723870267724280951
Links - 13th July 2018 (1)
Japan Is Doomed Unless It Learns to Love Inflation - "the gold standard of unconventional policy is, well, when FDR took us off the gold standard in 1933. As you can see in the chart below from Brookings, industrial production exploded when he did"
So much for the gold standard being the gold standard
Natalie Portman: Holocaust is no more tragic than other genocides
The Alt Right will doubtless find some way to spin this into still being a pro-Israel conspiracy
Mexico: dismembered corpse dumped after presidential candidate says 'cut off hands' - "When a Mexican presidential candidate proposed in a televised debate that public servants who steal should have their hands cut off, his comments were initially greeted with disbelief, and then mockery. Hours later, however, there was a much grimmer reaction: drug cartel members dumped a dismembered corpse in the Pacific city of Acapulco with a sign saying that they were already enforcing the punishment"
Politicians love to censor citizens, but their words have more impact
Claims of conspiracy to subvert parliamentary processes ‘clearly preposterous’: Oxford academic - "Any notion of a conspiracy on the part of Oxford Project Southeast Asia to “subvert (Singapore’s) parliamentary processes is clearly preposterous”, said Dr Philip Kreager, chair of Oxford Project Southeast Asia, in an online statement... Mr Chong said in his statement that the email correspondence between two trustees of the Oxford Project Southeast Asia - Professor Jeff Burley and Dr Kreager - suggests that “there has been a coordinated attempt, with foreign actors involved, to try to influence and subvert our parliamentary processes”... “Members of an organisation keep each other informed of events and exchange views. Historians, like other professionals, do likewise. “The conspiracy that Mr Chong claims to have discovered in our private correspondence exists only in his own imagination”... "‘the Minister (K Shanmugam) repeatedly expressed disdain for Dr Thum’s research, rephrasing its findings in general terms that misrepresented it, and attempting to get Dr Thum to agree to those rephrasings by attempting to force him to provide only yes/no answers.” Dr Kreager also responded to Mr Chong’s statement that it was not accurate to call Dr Thum an academic historian. “To the contrary: He is a member of the University of Oxford whose historical research here and in Southeast Asia is a matter of public record. “This sort of vilification of him must stop, and we reiterate our call for an apology from the Select Committee to Dr Thum for his treatment"... an Oxford University examiner and the joint doctoral supervisors of Dr Thum’s doctoral thesis also released a statement defending his academic status. Dr Thum’s thesis on Chinese Language Political Mobilisation in Singapore was “written to the very highest standards of historical research that Oxford expects of its doctoral students”, said Professor Judith Brown, Emeritus Beit Professor of Commonwealth History, Dr Peter Carey, Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor John Darwin, Emeritus Professor of Global and Imperial History. “Dr Thum pursued his research where the historical evidence took him, without fear or favour. This conclusion is confirmed in the examiner's report which stated that it was 'a well produced thesis [...] based on an excellent understanding of the historiography relevant to the subject, and on a significant range of primary sources',” they wrote. “As the holder of an Oxford DPhil in History and an active researcher who has produced a number of refereed academic books and journal articles on his chosen subject, Dr PJ Thum is and remains an academically trained historian.”"
Shut down TRS - Home - "The conduct of Dr Thum Ping Tjin aka ‘PJ’ (hereinafter referred to as “PJ”) in his writings and his oral evidence at the Select Committee on the ‘Deliberate Online Falsehoods’, in which he sacrilegiously accused Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as being the biggest creator of fake news in Singapore, a liar, and that Operation Coldstore was based on falsehoods."
Apparently Lee Kuan Yew has already been deified
OPINION: Singapore, Indonesia and the Lessons of History - "If the government of Singapore is genuinely interested in discovering the truth about Operation Coldstore and cognate events related to its decolonization process, then there is a simple solution: open the state archives and allow historians free access to interrogate the documentary evidence... Singapore is many times richer than Indonesia in per capita GDP, but when it comes to a sophisticated awareness of its recent history there is no question which state has the greater sensitivity and understanding of the deep wounds inflicted by the Cold War."
One FAP suggested that declassifying the archives would endanger surviving informants, then somehow didn't understand what the common practice of document redaction was about
PJ Thum's Follow Up Cites British Reports Suggesting PAP's Involvement In Hock Lee Bus Riots - "The report released in the weeks following the riots suggests that the PAP did – and that party leaders directed the United Front (of students and workers) during the Hock Lee riots."
More than 130 academics sign open letter in support of historian Thum Ping Tjin, academic freedom - "“We hope you will offer Dr Thum a full apology for his unacceptable treatment by your committee, and exercise your responsibilities as chairman to ensure in future that the committee sticks to its remit and is not used to intimidate your fellow citizens.”... Also backing the letter was Prof Mohan J Dutta from the National University of Singapore (NUS), who was in the news last month after his invitation to Hong Kong-based Singaporean media academic Cherian George to give a talk at NUS was delayed due to an administrative oversight... Some of the academics said they signed the letter as they felt the committee’s conduct amounted to a form of harassment, and constitutes a threat to academic freedom... Prof Dutta, who is serving notice at NUS after tendering his resignation last month, told TODAY: “What we had in the exchange is a politician, a representative of the state, interrogating an academic mostly with ‘Yes/No’ questions, with artefacts being presented without the opportunity for serious engagement.”... Prof George, a professor of media studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, concurred that the way Dr Thum and his work were treated is “bound to have a wider chilling effect”. “As it is, there are too few historians researching our post-war history. Dr Thum’s unhappy experience will therefore have a disproportionately large impact on the future of the field,” he said."... Dr Nicholas Harrigan, a former assistant professor of sociology with Singapore Management University, said the saga will “further silence the Singaporean academy”. Singaporean economist Linda Lim, who is a business professor at the University of Michigan, felt that the episode “not only discourages academics from addressing controversial subjects in their research and from participating in civic activities like the public hearing on ‘fake news’, it also discourages citizens who are not academic experts from developing and voicing their own independent opinions, and from participating in civil society”. She added: “As an economist, I am particularly concerned about this because our economic future hinges on successful indigenous innovation, which by definition requires a collective habit of questioning established ways of thinking and doing, such as academics are trained and required to practise.”... the committee’s treatment of Dr Thum “demonstrates very clearly to the whole world that academic freedom is under very serious threat in Singapore”. “That is why principled scholars find Singapore so unattractive,” he said."
SINGAPORE: Open Letter on PJ Thum and Academic Freedom in Singapore - "I am aware that you have already replied to our letter before we actually sent it to you. Curiously, your response reached most of our signatories through a coordinated online campaign involving what we understand to be Russian bots, which somehow identified the signatories’ email addresses and sent them messages using fake accounts based in Switzerland. Perhaps your committee should consider investigating this strange event. We are working with computer experts to trace the origins of this bot campaign and will be happy to share the results with you, and the wider public."
Follow up Submission to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Parliament of… - "On Chin Peng, Secretary-General of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP): As I noted in the hearing, and as reflected in the pages from Chin Peng’s book “My Side of History” (Media Masters, 2013) that were displayed, Chin Peng wrote
a. “Throughout the emergency I had been unable to exert any reasonable degree of control over the CPM’s operations on the island. One committee grouping after another had been smashed by British-directed police action in early stages. Thereafter our island-wide political network was continually being compromised by betrayals and defections.”"
Did MP Charles Chong spread ‘fake news’ on the eve of 2015 GE? - "People's Action Party candidate for Punggol East Charles Chong distributed flyers alleging Workers' Party has somehow "lost" $22.5 million of town council funds."
They made it their mission to talk back to Trump on Twitter. But is anyone listening? - The Washington Post - "Most Twitter users, though, don’t bother to click on Trump’s individual tweets to see the thousands of replies each receives. If they did, they’d discover a little-known community: LeGate, Williams, Uhl and scores of other recurring names — the folks who’ve made a devout habit of talking back to the commander in chief on Twitter. “I have a notification set up so that when Trump tweets, the lights on my phone flicker,” LeGate says. “I try to respond right away.” It might sound like an absurd, self-indulgent or exhausting hobby. To Trump’s most dedicated Twitter rebutters, it feels more like a responsibility. “I was waking up at 4 a.m. to catch his early morning rants,” says Kristina Wong, a comedian and performance artist in Los Angeles. “The mania of trying to keep up with this s--- is insane, but it was the only thing that gave me a sense of agency.”... Most assumed it would be a cathartic howl into the digital abyss. Instead, thousands howled back."
This is quite sad
Accused Flinders St driver Saeed Noori allegedly wanted to harm as many people as possible - "A police summary released today by Magistrate John Hardy said Noori’s motives remained unclear, but that he wanted to cause carnage. “It is alleged the accused drove a motor vehicle into pedestrians ... with the intention of killing or causing really serious injury to as many people as possible,” a police summary states. Noori appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today charged with 18 counts of attempted murder following last week’s Flinders Street incident... After his arrest, Noori made comments about the poor treatment of Muslims"
Of course this was proclaimed to be non-terror related
A Highway Pickle Mystery Is Preserved in Missouri - "On the ramp that leads from I-270 North to Manchester Road, near a grocery store and a busy shopping mall, there often sits a quiet and mysterious jar of pickles. When it falls, breaks, or disappears, it is always replaced. It is the highway’s warty lodestar.""
UNPOPULAR OPINION: Men's Domestic Violence Shelters Are a Misuse of Nonprofit Funding
This is what a feminist looks like
[Premium]From tapas to pub grub, more eateries go halal : singapore - "At first glance, The Great Mischief, which opened in February, looks like a traditional Spanish tapas bar, serving up small plates inspired by the region of Catalonia. On closer look though, diners will notice that dry-cured ham and alcoholic sangria are missing from the menu. The restaurant in Little India is among a growing number of new and innovative eateries catering to Muslim diners here... According to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), there has been an upward trend in the number of halal certificates issued over the past three years, with an average annual increase in requests of 10 per cent. Muis certified 4,456 premises and 54,378 food products manufactured in Singapore last year alone... The duo also hope their eateries can change the perception among non-Muslims that halal Western food is sub-par"
So even some Muslims know that non-Muslims know that halal Western food sucks; I'm told the Great Mischief is awful
Bill Cosby's sex assault trial now in hands of jury - "Defense attorneys portrayed Constand as lying about the sexual encounter, which Cosby has claimed was consensual, and jurors returned to the courtroom early Wednesday afternoon to ask, "What is the legal definition of consent?" Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill said that he couldn't give them a legal definition and that they would have to answer that question on their own, using their "common sense.""
Maybe we don't need judges if we can just use common sense definitions
Swedish Meatballs Are Actually Turkish, According to Sweden - "Sweden has admitted that Swedish meatballs — the signature food served in traditional holiday meals and in Ikea cafeterias around the world — are, in fact, Turkish. “Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century”"
Ikea Is A Nonprofit, And Yes, That’s Every Bit As Fishy As It Sounds - "Ikea is a nonprofit dedicated to furthering the advancement of architecture and interior design–a cause they give a pittance of $2 million or so to a year... Kamprad is a publicly frugal man who despises taxes. He and his Swedish design label actually fled to Switzerland in 1976 to avoid taxes. (Kamprad didn’t deploy his nonprofit scheme until the ’80s.)"
Sajid Javid reveals 770,000 people living in UK cannot speak English as Government unveils plan to boost community integration - "We believe there is about 60 per cent of ethnic minority pupils, all ethnic minority pupils in this country, they go to schools where ethnic minority pupils are in the majority."
South Korea credits Trump for talks with North - "South Korea's foreign minister has said she believes President Donald Trump is largely responsible for bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table... the combination of tough rhetoric and economic and travel sanctions were instrumental."
Some people would rather see the world destroyed than credit Trump with anything. Just like others can bring Trump into a discussion on chocolate chip cookies
Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for North Korea talks, Moon says - The Washington Post
A Nobel Peace Prize for Trump? He deserves it more than many of the recipients - "If a US congressional group can nominate Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang for the prize, who’s to say it’s preposterous that war-talking Trump deserves a peacemaker prize? ... Bill Clinton signed a framework deal which eventually collapsed. His successors George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who both served two terms each, couldn’t do much on North Korea, either. Trump made progress in just over one year"
Mother, 19, stabbed boyfriend during sex after telling him men should only be used for 'human sacrifice' - "Zoe Adams, 19, has dressed up as a clown and put a pillow over Kieran Bewick's head to make their encounter more exhilarating... Mr Bewick, who is afraid of clowns, had declined Adams' earlier suggestion to be tied up with the tape, and the pillow was a compromise... Adams claimed... she had no idea why police found a record on her phone of a search about the sentence for attempted murder - the charge she originally faced."
Toxic femininity?
Two Chinese science institute employees sacked over Taoist ritual at building site
Chinese perk for male computer coders: women to relieve their stress - "The bulk of her work is tending the front desk, organising social events, ordering snacks for tea breaks and chatting with the programmers. She may call a programmer to a conference room and ask him, "Did you have to work overtime?" before listening to his various frustrations... Zhang, the human resources executive who was part of the panel that hired Shen, stressed that it was important for a programmer motivator to look good. She said the applicants needed to have "five facial features that must definitely be in their proper order" and speak in a gentle way.They should also have a contagious laugh, be able to apply simple make-up and be taller than 157 centimetres... Shen said that does not consider her job to be sexist. "Many feminist ideas are too extreme now," she said. "I think women should be independent, self-reliant and have self-respect. And that's enough." Xu Jiaolong, one of Chainfin's few female programmers, who gets massages from Shen, did not see anything wrong with the job. The way she saw it, it was a mere "division of labour". But, with a smile, she said the company could consider hiring a man to motivate female programmers, too."
It’s time to give Firefox a fresh chance - "Chrome has outgrown its competition in a way that’s unhealthy. My colleague Tom Warren already detailed the deleterious effects of Chrome’s outsize influence, with web developers optimizing and coding specifically for Chrome (and Google encouraging the practice), with unhappy connotations of the crummy old days when Internet Explorer was the dominant browser for the web. Chrome came to liberate us from the shackles of IE, but like many revolutionary leaders, too many years in power have corrupted Chrome’s original mission."
So much for the gold standard being the gold standard
Natalie Portman: Holocaust is no more tragic than other genocides
The Alt Right will doubtless find some way to spin this into still being a pro-Israel conspiracy
Mexico: dismembered corpse dumped after presidential candidate says 'cut off hands' - "When a Mexican presidential candidate proposed in a televised debate that public servants who steal should have their hands cut off, his comments were initially greeted with disbelief, and then mockery. Hours later, however, there was a much grimmer reaction: drug cartel members dumped a dismembered corpse in the Pacific city of Acapulco with a sign saying that they were already enforcing the punishment"
Politicians love to censor citizens, but their words have more impact
Claims of conspiracy to subvert parliamentary processes ‘clearly preposterous’: Oxford academic - "Any notion of a conspiracy on the part of Oxford Project Southeast Asia to “subvert (Singapore’s) parliamentary processes is clearly preposterous”, said Dr Philip Kreager, chair of Oxford Project Southeast Asia, in an online statement... Mr Chong said in his statement that the email correspondence between two trustees of the Oxford Project Southeast Asia - Professor Jeff Burley and Dr Kreager - suggests that “there has been a coordinated attempt, with foreign actors involved, to try to influence and subvert our parliamentary processes”... “Members of an organisation keep each other informed of events and exchange views. Historians, like other professionals, do likewise. “The conspiracy that Mr Chong claims to have discovered in our private correspondence exists only in his own imagination”... "‘the Minister (K Shanmugam) repeatedly expressed disdain for Dr Thum’s research, rephrasing its findings in general terms that misrepresented it, and attempting to get Dr Thum to agree to those rephrasings by attempting to force him to provide only yes/no answers.” Dr Kreager also responded to Mr Chong’s statement that it was not accurate to call Dr Thum an academic historian. “To the contrary: He is a member of the University of Oxford whose historical research here and in Southeast Asia is a matter of public record. “This sort of vilification of him must stop, and we reiterate our call for an apology from the Select Committee to Dr Thum for his treatment"... an Oxford University examiner and the joint doctoral supervisors of Dr Thum’s doctoral thesis also released a statement defending his academic status. Dr Thum’s thesis on Chinese Language Political Mobilisation in Singapore was “written to the very highest standards of historical research that Oxford expects of its doctoral students”, said Professor Judith Brown, Emeritus Beit Professor of Commonwealth History, Dr Peter Carey, Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor John Darwin, Emeritus Professor of Global and Imperial History. “Dr Thum pursued his research where the historical evidence took him, without fear or favour. This conclusion is confirmed in the examiner's report which stated that it was 'a well produced thesis [...] based on an excellent understanding of the historiography relevant to the subject, and on a significant range of primary sources',” they wrote. “As the holder of an Oxford DPhil in History and an active researcher who has produced a number of refereed academic books and journal articles on his chosen subject, Dr PJ Thum is and remains an academically trained historian.”"
Shut down TRS - Home - "The conduct of Dr Thum Ping Tjin aka ‘PJ’ (hereinafter referred to as “PJ”) in his writings and his oral evidence at the Select Committee on the ‘Deliberate Online Falsehoods’, in which he sacrilegiously accused Singapore's founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew as being the biggest creator of fake news in Singapore, a liar, and that Operation Coldstore was based on falsehoods."
Apparently Lee Kuan Yew has already been deified
OPINION: Singapore, Indonesia and the Lessons of History - "If the government of Singapore is genuinely interested in discovering the truth about Operation Coldstore and cognate events related to its decolonization process, then there is a simple solution: open the state archives and allow historians free access to interrogate the documentary evidence... Singapore is many times richer than Indonesia in per capita GDP, but when it comes to a sophisticated awareness of its recent history there is no question which state has the greater sensitivity and understanding of the deep wounds inflicted by the Cold War."
One FAP suggested that declassifying the archives would endanger surviving informants, then somehow didn't understand what the common practice of document redaction was about
PJ Thum's Follow Up Cites British Reports Suggesting PAP's Involvement In Hock Lee Bus Riots - "The report released in the weeks following the riots suggests that the PAP did – and that party leaders directed the United Front (of students and workers) during the Hock Lee riots."
More than 130 academics sign open letter in support of historian Thum Ping Tjin, academic freedom - "“We hope you will offer Dr Thum a full apology for his unacceptable treatment by your committee, and exercise your responsibilities as chairman to ensure in future that the committee sticks to its remit and is not used to intimidate your fellow citizens.”... Also backing the letter was Prof Mohan J Dutta from the National University of Singapore (NUS), who was in the news last month after his invitation to Hong Kong-based Singaporean media academic Cherian George to give a talk at NUS was delayed due to an administrative oversight... Some of the academics said they signed the letter as they felt the committee’s conduct amounted to a form of harassment, and constitutes a threat to academic freedom... Prof Dutta, who is serving notice at NUS after tendering his resignation last month, told TODAY: “What we had in the exchange is a politician, a representative of the state, interrogating an academic mostly with ‘Yes/No’ questions, with artefacts being presented without the opportunity for serious engagement.”... Prof George, a professor of media studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, concurred that the way Dr Thum and his work were treated is “bound to have a wider chilling effect”. “As it is, there are too few historians researching our post-war history. Dr Thum’s unhappy experience will therefore have a disproportionately large impact on the future of the field,” he said."... Dr Nicholas Harrigan, a former assistant professor of sociology with Singapore Management University, said the saga will “further silence the Singaporean academy”. Singaporean economist Linda Lim, who is a business professor at the University of Michigan, felt that the episode “not only discourages academics from addressing controversial subjects in their research and from participating in civic activities like the public hearing on ‘fake news’, it also discourages citizens who are not academic experts from developing and voicing their own independent opinions, and from participating in civil society”. She added: “As an economist, I am particularly concerned about this because our economic future hinges on successful indigenous innovation, which by definition requires a collective habit of questioning established ways of thinking and doing, such as academics are trained and required to practise.”... the committee’s treatment of Dr Thum “demonstrates very clearly to the whole world that academic freedom is under very serious threat in Singapore”. “That is why principled scholars find Singapore so unattractive,” he said."
SINGAPORE: Open Letter on PJ Thum and Academic Freedom in Singapore - "I am aware that you have already replied to our letter before we actually sent it to you. Curiously, your response reached most of our signatories through a coordinated online campaign involving what we understand to be Russian bots, which somehow identified the signatories’ email addresses and sent them messages using fake accounts based in Switzerland. Perhaps your committee should consider investigating this strange event. We are working with computer experts to trace the origins of this bot campaign and will be happy to share the results with you, and the wider public."
Follow up Submission to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Parliament of… - "On Chin Peng, Secretary-General of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP): As I noted in the hearing, and as reflected in the pages from Chin Peng’s book “My Side of History” (Media Masters, 2013) that were displayed, Chin Peng wrote
a. “Throughout the emergency I had been unable to exert any reasonable degree of control over the CPM’s operations on the island. One committee grouping after another had been smashed by British-directed police action in early stages. Thereafter our island-wide political network was continually being compromised by betrayals and defections.”"
Did MP Charles Chong spread ‘fake news’ on the eve of 2015 GE? - "People's Action Party candidate for Punggol East Charles Chong distributed flyers alleging Workers' Party has somehow "lost" $22.5 million of town council funds."
They made it their mission to talk back to Trump on Twitter. But is anyone listening? - The Washington Post - "Most Twitter users, though, don’t bother to click on Trump’s individual tweets to see the thousands of replies each receives. If they did, they’d discover a little-known community: LeGate, Williams, Uhl and scores of other recurring names — the folks who’ve made a devout habit of talking back to the commander in chief on Twitter. “I have a notification set up so that when Trump tweets, the lights on my phone flicker,” LeGate says. “I try to respond right away.” It might sound like an absurd, self-indulgent or exhausting hobby. To Trump’s most dedicated Twitter rebutters, it feels more like a responsibility. “I was waking up at 4 a.m. to catch his early morning rants,” says Kristina Wong, a comedian and performance artist in Los Angeles. “The mania of trying to keep up with this s--- is insane, but it was the only thing that gave me a sense of agency.”... Most assumed it would be a cathartic howl into the digital abyss. Instead, thousands howled back."
This is quite sad
Accused Flinders St driver Saeed Noori allegedly wanted to harm as many people as possible - "A police summary released today by Magistrate John Hardy said Noori’s motives remained unclear, but that he wanted to cause carnage. “It is alleged the accused drove a motor vehicle into pedestrians ... with the intention of killing or causing really serious injury to as many people as possible,” a police summary states. Noori appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today charged with 18 counts of attempted murder following last week’s Flinders Street incident... After his arrest, Noori made comments about the poor treatment of Muslims"
Of course this was proclaimed to be non-terror related
A Highway Pickle Mystery Is Preserved in Missouri - "On the ramp that leads from I-270 North to Manchester Road, near a grocery store and a busy shopping mall, there often sits a quiet and mysterious jar of pickles. When it falls, breaks, or disappears, it is always replaced. It is the highway’s warty lodestar.""
UNPOPULAR OPINION: Men's Domestic Violence Shelters Are a Misuse of Nonprofit Funding
This is what a feminist looks like
[Premium]From tapas to pub grub, more eateries go halal : singapore - "At first glance, The Great Mischief, which opened in February, looks like a traditional Spanish tapas bar, serving up small plates inspired by the region of Catalonia. On closer look though, diners will notice that dry-cured ham and alcoholic sangria are missing from the menu. The restaurant in Little India is among a growing number of new and innovative eateries catering to Muslim diners here... According to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), there has been an upward trend in the number of halal certificates issued over the past three years, with an average annual increase in requests of 10 per cent. Muis certified 4,456 premises and 54,378 food products manufactured in Singapore last year alone... The duo also hope their eateries can change the perception among non-Muslims that halal Western food is sub-par"
So even some Muslims know that non-Muslims know that halal Western food sucks; I'm told the Great Mischief is awful
Bill Cosby's sex assault trial now in hands of jury - "Defense attorneys portrayed Constand as lying about the sexual encounter, which Cosby has claimed was consensual, and jurors returned to the courtroom early Wednesday afternoon to ask, "What is the legal definition of consent?" Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven O'Neill said that he couldn't give them a legal definition and that they would have to answer that question on their own, using their "common sense.""
Maybe we don't need judges if we can just use common sense definitions
Swedish Meatballs Are Actually Turkish, According to Sweden - "Sweden has admitted that Swedish meatballs — the signature food served in traditional holiday meals and in Ikea cafeterias around the world — are, in fact, Turkish. “Swedish meatballs are actually based on a recipe King Charles XII brought home from Turkey in the early 18th century”"
Ikea Is A Nonprofit, And Yes, That’s Every Bit As Fishy As It Sounds - "Ikea is a nonprofit dedicated to furthering the advancement of architecture and interior design–a cause they give a pittance of $2 million or so to a year... Kamprad is a publicly frugal man who despises taxes. He and his Swedish design label actually fled to Switzerland in 1976 to avoid taxes. (Kamprad didn’t deploy his nonprofit scheme until the ’80s.)"
Sajid Javid reveals 770,000 people living in UK cannot speak English as Government unveils plan to boost community integration - "We believe there is about 60 per cent of ethnic minority pupils, all ethnic minority pupils in this country, they go to schools where ethnic minority pupils are in the majority."
South Korea credits Trump for talks with North - "South Korea's foreign minister has said she believes President Donald Trump is largely responsible for bringing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table... the combination of tough rhetoric and economic and travel sanctions were instrumental."
Some people would rather see the world destroyed than credit Trump with anything. Just like others can bring Trump into a discussion on chocolate chip cookies
Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for North Korea talks, Moon says - The Washington Post
A Nobel Peace Prize for Trump? He deserves it more than many of the recipients - "If a US congressional group can nominate Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang for the prize, who’s to say it’s preposterous that war-talking Trump deserves a peacemaker prize? ... Bill Clinton signed a framework deal which eventually collapsed. His successors George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who both served two terms each, couldn’t do much on North Korea, either. Trump made progress in just over one year"
Mother, 19, stabbed boyfriend during sex after telling him men should only be used for 'human sacrifice' - "Zoe Adams, 19, has dressed up as a clown and put a pillow over Kieran Bewick's head to make their encounter more exhilarating... Mr Bewick, who is afraid of clowns, had declined Adams' earlier suggestion to be tied up with the tape, and the pillow was a compromise... Adams claimed... she had no idea why police found a record on her phone of a search about the sentence for attempted murder - the charge she originally faced."
Toxic femininity?
Two Chinese science institute employees sacked over Taoist ritual at building site
Chinese perk for male computer coders: women to relieve their stress - "The bulk of her work is tending the front desk, organising social events, ordering snacks for tea breaks and chatting with the programmers. She may call a programmer to a conference room and ask him, "Did you have to work overtime?" before listening to his various frustrations... Zhang, the human resources executive who was part of the panel that hired Shen, stressed that it was important for a programmer motivator to look good. She said the applicants needed to have "five facial features that must definitely be in their proper order" and speak in a gentle way.They should also have a contagious laugh, be able to apply simple make-up and be taller than 157 centimetres... Shen said that does not consider her job to be sexist. "Many feminist ideas are too extreme now," she said. "I think women should be independent, self-reliant and have self-respect. And that's enough." Xu Jiaolong, one of Chainfin's few female programmers, who gets massages from Shen, did not see anything wrong with the job. The way she saw it, it was a mere "division of labour". But, with a smile, she said the company could consider hiring a man to motivate female programmers, too."
It’s time to give Firefox a fresh chance - "Chrome has outgrown its competition in a way that’s unhealthy. My colleague Tom Warren already detailed the deleterious effects of Chrome’s outsize influence, with web developers optimizing and coding specifically for Chrome (and Google encouraging the practice), with unhappy connotations of the crummy old days when Internet Explorer was the dominant browser for the web. Chrome came to liberate us from the shackles of IE, but like many revolutionary leaders, too many years in power have corrupted Chrome’s original mission."
Post ID: 4820703879218471530
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Links - 12th July 2018 (2)
Wait, why are there so many black people in Far Cry 5? - "After spending a few weeks with Far Cry 5, I’ve come to the regretful conclusion that there are way too many black people in this game... According to the 2016 census, black people make up just over half a percent of the population of Montana. There are only about 6,000 black people in the entire state. Does Far Cry expect me to believe that all of them moved to Hope County?"
Apparently you can have too much diversity
What if someone used crime statistics to justify black people appearing as criminals in a game?
Sainsbury's to introduce touch-free packaging 'for millennials' - "The fear of contamination by bacteria such as campylobacter, which can cause serious, even lethal, food poisoning, when discovered in some raw poultry, was so great that one woman in the focus group said she coated her chicken with antibacterial spray before cooking it... Thirty-seven per cent of millennials - born after 1980 - preferred not to touch raw meat, compared with a little more than a quarter of the wider population"
'Into the Badlands' Star Daniel Wu: I Had to Go to China Before Hollywood Would Cast Me as a Lead - "Living and working in Asia insulated me from the race issue that is all-pervasive in entertainment in the U.S., especially now. When I won a part in Hong Kong, it was because I was right for it and not just because I fit the bill racially. Conversely, if I was rejected, it was because of my ability, which was something I could work on and not because of my race, which I couldn’t. So instead of being an angry Asian American actor lamenting about limited roles, being in Asia allowed me to focus on the craft of acting and to choose roles that helped broaden me as an actor."
How would a non-East Asian actor have fared in Greater China?
The problem with reinforced concrete - "Given the survival of ancient structures, this may seem curious. The critical difference is the modern use of steel reinforcement, known as rebar, concealed within the concrete. Steel is made mainly of iron, and one of iron’s unalterable properties is that it rusts. This ruins the durability of concrete structures in ways that are difficult to detect and costly to repair."
Why So Many Asian-American Women Are Bleaching Their Hair Blond - The New York Times - "The first time I was aware of my Asianness was when I asked my mother why I wasn’t blond. I was 5, and one of only a handful of Asian-Americans living in a predominantly white suburb in Michigan. Of course, my story is not unique — it’s an experience that’s probably shared by most American-born Asians as we shake off our perceived otherness and strive to prove our Americanness. There’s a term for it: “perpetual foreigner.”... the most obvious and quickest way to subscribe to Western ideals of beauty is to lighten your hair"
Maybe Asian women in Asia are bleaching their hair blond because they feel like foreigners
How Profiteers Lure Women Into Often-Unneeded Surgery - The New York Times - "she had stumbled into a growing industry that makes money by coaxing women into having surgery — sometimes unnecessarily — so that they are more lucrative plaintiffs in lawsuits against medical device manufacturers."
Gay activist Jaden Duong did bomb ‘research’ before ACL hit - "The man accused of driving a burning van laden with gas bottles into the Australian Christian Lobby headquarters was a gay activist who disliked the group because of its “position on sexuality” and had searched online how to make plastic explosives and a pressure-cooker bomb. Court documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday reveal Jaden Duong had also run searches about gay marriage in other countries and, a month before the alleged attack at 10.45pm on December 21 last year, had searched for the “Australian Christian Lobby”. After the blast at the group’s Canberra headquarters in Deakin, which gutted the ground floor and caused $100,000 of damage, police said the attack was not “politically, religiously or ideologically motivated” and referred to it as a “car fire”."
Maybe it's only terrorism when it's against a "minority"
The myth of the online echo chamber - "social media and search users tended to land upon more polarised news sources – Breitbart compared to Fox News, for instance – which might translate to a more extreme world view. Crucially, however – and contrary to the concept of the online echo chamber and filter bubble – they were also more likely to visit sites expressing opposing viewpoints. Their media diet was more varied, overall. “It seems counterintuitive, but direct browsing often just consists of one or two sites that you regularly read – such as the BBC and CNN – while by its nature, social media will expose you to a number of other sources, increasing the diversity”"
Job loss is bad for your health – Swedish evidence on cause-specific hospitalization following involuntary job loss - "This paper examines the impact of job loss on a number of non-fatal health events, which are nonetheless severe enough to require hospital in-patient care. We focus on job loss due only to establishment closures, as this reduces the problem of distinguishing between causation and selection. Using linked employee–employer register data, we identify the job losses due to all establishment closures in Sweden in 1987 or 1988. During a subsequent 12-year period, we find that job loss significantly increases the risk of hospitalization due to alcohol-related conditions, among both men and women, and due to traffic accidents and self-harm, among men only. We find no evidence, however, that job loss increased the risk of severe cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction or stroke."
It’s time to say goodbye to the NFL cheerleaders - "IN THE MIDST of this #MeToo moment — and two weeks from the Super Bowl — it’s time to rethink NFL cheerleaders and their barely covered breasts being ogled on the sidelines by drunken men with binoculars. It’s embarrassing for us all. Or should be."
"Remember when we ridiculed John Ashcroft for covering the bust of a statue of lady justice, and the religious conservatism it represented?"
Morrissey’s Brexit love affair makes him the last true rock’n’roll rebel | Coffee House - "Where they weep over Brexit, and the thick throng that voted for it, Moz says Brexit was a ‘victory for democracy’. Where they view Israel as source of much of the world’s grief, he has penned a six-minute lovesong to Israel on his new album. Where they worship at the altar of multiculturalism — having disappeared so far up the fundament of identity politics that they think it’s tantamount to a hate crime to say that any one way of life is better than another — Morrissey says ‘if you try to make everything multicultural, you end up with no culture at all’. This is a man in revolt. And it’s wonderful."
Man attacked in Berlin for wearing kippa is Israeli Arab - "An Israeli man who was beaten in an anti-Semitic attack while wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap in Berlin told German television on Wednesday night that he was not Jewish but wanted to find out whether it was safe to walk in the street dressed as a Jew. “I am not Jewish, I am an Israeli and I grew up in Israel in an Arab family,” Adam Armush, 21, told broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “It was an experience for me to wear the skullcap and go out into the street yesterday.” He said he filmed the attack on him and a second man as evidence “for the police and for the German people and even the world to see how terrible it is these days as a Jew to go through Berlin streets.”... Armush filmed one of them men whipping him with a belt while calling out, “Yahudi,” or “Jew” in Arabic, before he is stopped by a passerby. The video subsequently shows Adam with a bruise on his torso. In a video interview with the Bild newspaper, Armush said the main attacker seemed to have a “Syrian dialect.”... The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Joseph Schuster, told AFP he was “shocked” by the incident, noting that it had occurred in a “bourgeois” area and not in a “majority Muslim quarter.”"
'Jewish man' attacked in Berlin admits he's an Israeli-Arab who didn't believe Germany was anti-Semitic - "He was conducting what he termed an "experiment" in response to a warning from a friend that wearing a kippa in Germany was unsafe, saying he refused to believe this... a rap band that included cynical references about the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in its lyrics won the country's most important music prize — drawing strong criticism from other artists and government officials. Several past winners said they would return their awards"
So much for stereotypes
French Muslims blast anti-Semitism letter as attack on Islam - "The open letter published Sunday in the Parisien newspaper blamed “Islamist radicalization” for what it said was “quiet ethnic purging” in the Paris region, with abuse forcing Jewish families to move out... Jews are the target of about a third of France’s recorded hate crimes despite making up only about 0.7 percent of the population."
Being against anti-Semitism is Islamophobic
Angela Merkel denounces ‘different type of antisemitism’ from Arab refugees after assault on men wearing skullcaps - "It led Germany’s main Jewish leader to advise people visiting big cities against wearing Jewish skullcaps."
Toulouse riots: Police attacked as woman arrested for refusing to remove Islamic face veil - "Hundreds of police units were deployed after young residents threw stones, torched cars and set fire to garbage cans... She allegedly showed a poor-quality photocopy of her identity card and refused to lift her veil to let police officers see her face. After several futile attempts to have her lift the veil, the woman began to scream for help, France Info reports. She was placed under arrest and moved into a police vehicle. Soon after, a group of about 30 people circled the police and attacked them. Officers attempted to quell the crowd by discharging their weapons and used tear gas launcher."
Berlin’s criminal gangs prey on refugees for new recruits - "Around a quarter of the 40-60 organised crime investigations conducted every year in Berlin are dominated by ethnic Arabs, Mr Jacob says. In other categories of crime, the picture is different — Mr Heilmann says house break-ins, for example, are the preserve of gangs from eastern Europe and Georgia... Authorities have identified 151 youths who commit on average more than 10 crimes a year — 54 per cent of them are of Arab descent, even though Arabs only make up 9 per cent of Neukölln’s population"
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is obsessed with soup. - "The sheer variety of soups in A Song of Ice and Fire is dizzying. Martin describes broths made from ginger, seaweed, sweetgrass, peppercrab, frog, fish, mutton, venison, dog, and elephant. Every area of the Seven Kingdoms gets its own soup. So do the free cities of Essos. In the North, they eat a lot of beef and barley stew. In the slums of Flea Bottom, the beggars gulp greasy bowls o’ brown and feel lucky if they find a smidgen of meat. Up at the Wall, the members of the Night’s Watch nourish themselves with cups of thick bean-and-bacon soup. On the Iron Islands, they break their fast on “a broth of clams and seaweed cooked above a driftwood fire,” which sounds a lot like something they would serve at Noma."
CRIMEWAVE: Shoplifting Doubles as Police Drop Theft Investigations, Focus on ‘Hate Crime’ - "Shoplifting and reports of theft in shops have almost doubled in just 12 months, new figures show, with police blamed for ignoring physical crimes as they focus on “hate crime” and online comments... The sudden rise in crimes comes after many UK police forces introduced a policy of only investigating theft if a value of £200 or more is stolen, with those stealing less than the threshold being dealt with by post in some cases... The total cost of crimes committed against the sector over the past year was £193 million, the ACS said, which equates to a 7p “crime tax” on every transaction in the shops, they calculated."
London’s Met Police Won't Investigate Minor Crime, Only ‘Hate Crime’ - "London’s Metropolitan Police force will not bother to investigate crimes if officers are required to watch CCTV for more than 20 minutes or there is no footage available... The new “crime assessment policy” was uncovered after a Freedom of Information request by The Times, and comes a time of increasing budgetary pressures and falling police numbers... other crimes, including so-called “hate crime” and serious crimes such a homicides and sexual assaults, must always be investigated."
British Police Force Uses 'Positive Action' to Ban White Men from Recruitment Workshops
Sweden plans change in law to require explicit consent before sexual contact - "In Sweden, the prosecution must present evidence to the court proving beyond reasonable doubt that the accused has committed the crime. Following the changes to the law, the prosecution will have to present evidence demonstrating that the sexual act was not consensual."
Maybe this will make Swedish men even more passive, and Swedish women will complain even more about that
Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause an Insulin Spike? - "according to the literature there isn’t an appreciable insulin effect from most sweeteners"
Top mineral water brands Contaminated with plastic particles: Study
Since tap water is contaminated with fluoride, the natural crowd can drink raw water and die of dysentry
The Strange Short Flight of Flat Earth Rocket Man - ""Whoever started that rumor that I was going to prove the Earth was flat is an idiot," he said in a phone call the week after his flight. He suggested that it may have been a reporter from the Washington Post who planted the seed, but that Jeff Bezos was likely behind the rumor-spreading. We'll never know for sure. What we do know is that dreams—no matter how far-fetched or ill-advised—can come true. A 61-year-old limousine driver who makes $15 an hour ferrying people around California's high desert communities can hurl himself into the sky from an RV-based launcher in a steam-powered rocket. It's a feat that's nothing if not unique."
Montreal's Red-Light District Created the Sin City of the North - "A hundred years ago, the same quadrangle served as the city’s red-light district and single-handedly gave Montreal its “Sin City of the North” name at a time when North America’s beer taps—with the exception of Québec’s—ran dry. Hundreds of brothels and strip clubs welcomed tourists and locals alike. Gamblers and bookmakers struck gold—or lost big. Legendary burlesque performer Lili St. Cyr was the reigning “Queen of Montreal.” Even Al Capone couldn’t resist the siren song of Montreal’s red-light district. In its heyday, some 500 sex workers worked the St. Catherine Street/St. Laurent Boulevard intersection daily."
In Social Research Fields, Conservatives Are the Most Underrepresented Group - "Progressives are vastly overrepresented in the academy. According to the most comprehensive study on faculty political leanings to date (Gross & Simmons 2014), progressives outnumber conservatives by 10:1 in the humanities and social sciences, despite the fact that conservatives outnumber liberals in the general U.S. population (and pretty much always have)... the lack of ideological diversity seems to be vastly more pronounced in social research fields than underrepresentation in terms of gender, sexuality, and race."
"Which Side Are You On?" - "I am the freelance journalist who recorded and released the viral video of what happened that day. For doing so, I now find myself accused of being on the ‘wrong side’ — not just by the protesters, but also by some in the media. The Guardian has accused me of belonging to “a movement” that works “hand in hand with right-wing media and right-wing organizations to promote attacks on progressives.” This was followed by an article in GQ which includes me on a would-be shaming list of “free speech grifters.”... What is dismaying about the Guardian and GQ articles is the recourse to personal insults and an unwillingness to distinguish between different critics of campus illiberalism. Instead, thoughtful progressives like Bret Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying are lumped into the same category as a right-wing provocateur like Milo Yiannopoulos, and all are accused of operating from mercenary motives... Mr. Wilson’s uncharitable mischaracterization of my reporting and motives reminds me of the justification offered by my former editors at Portland State’s student paper, The Vanguard when they fired me from my editorial position last April. Recording and sharing a video that exposed Islamic apostasy doctrines to scrutiny, one of my supervisors explained, violated the principles of media ‘intersectionality.’... almost all of the disruptions of events held at universities have been found to come from the Left"
If evidence attacks progressives, that suggests that progressives are not doing kosher things
Campus Speaker Disinvitations: Recent Trends (Part 2 of 2) - "When a disinvitation attempt is unsuccessful, those opposed to the speaker and/or the speaker’s views may attempt to disrupt the event so the speaker cannot finish their remarks. The tactics employed have included shouting down the speaker during the event, pulling the fire alarm, and (yes, really) pie-throwing... moderate event disruptions in this time period almost exclusively came from the left of the speaker... substantial event disruptions in this time period almost exclusively came from the left of the speaker...
Speaker disinvitation attempts from 2000 to 2016 were most likely to come from the left of the speaker.
These disinvitation attempts from the left occurred most often for controversies over racial issues, views on sexual orientation, and views on Islam.
Speaker disinvitations due to issues related to abortion almost exclusively came from the right of the speaker, at religious institutions...
With the exception of 2006, the first decade of the new millennia saw a roughly equal number of disinvitation attempts from the left and right of the speaker. Beginning in 2010 an uptick in disinvitation attempts from the left of the speaker has occurred."
Perhaps we can look to 2010 for the start of the recent wave of liberal hysteria
Apparently you can have too much diversity
What if someone used crime statistics to justify black people appearing as criminals in a game?
Sainsbury's to introduce touch-free packaging 'for millennials' - "The fear of contamination by bacteria such as campylobacter, which can cause serious, even lethal, food poisoning, when discovered in some raw poultry, was so great that one woman in the focus group said she coated her chicken with antibacterial spray before cooking it... Thirty-seven per cent of millennials - born after 1980 - preferred not to touch raw meat, compared with a little more than a quarter of the wider population"
'Into the Badlands' Star Daniel Wu: I Had to Go to China Before Hollywood Would Cast Me as a Lead - "Living and working in Asia insulated me from the race issue that is all-pervasive in entertainment in the U.S., especially now. When I won a part in Hong Kong, it was because I was right for it and not just because I fit the bill racially. Conversely, if I was rejected, it was because of my ability, which was something I could work on and not because of my race, which I couldn’t. So instead of being an angry Asian American actor lamenting about limited roles, being in Asia allowed me to focus on the craft of acting and to choose roles that helped broaden me as an actor."
How would a non-East Asian actor have fared in Greater China?
The problem with reinforced concrete - "Given the survival of ancient structures, this may seem curious. The critical difference is the modern use of steel reinforcement, known as rebar, concealed within the concrete. Steel is made mainly of iron, and one of iron’s unalterable properties is that it rusts. This ruins the durability of concrete structures in ways that are difficult to detect and costly to repair."
Why So Many Asian-American Women Are Bleaching Their Hair Blond - The New York Times - "The first time I was aware of my Asianness was when I asked my mother why I wasn’t blond. I was 5, and one of only a handful of Asian-Americans living in a predominantly white suburb in Michigan. Of course, my story is not unique — it’s an experience that’s probably shared by most American-born Asians as we shake off our perceived otherness and strive to prove our Americanness. There’s a term for it: “perpetual foreigner.”... the most obvious and quickest way to subscribe to Western ideals of beauty is to lighten your hair"
Maybe Asian women in Asia are bleaching their hair blond because they feel like foreigners
How Profiteers Lure Women Into Often-Unneeded Surgery - The New York Times - "she had stumbled into a growing industry that makes money by coaxing women into having surgery — sometimes unnecessarily — so that they are more lucrative plaintiffs in lawsuits against medical device manufacturers."
Gay activist Jaden Duong did bomb ‘research’ before ACL hit - "The man accused of driving a burning van laden with gas bottles into the Australian Christian Lobby headquarters was a gay activist who disliked the group because of its “position on sexuality” and had searched online how to make plastic explosives and a pressure-cooker bomb. Court documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday reveal Jaden Duong had also run searches about gay marriage in other countries and, a month before the alleged attack at 10.45pm on December 21 last year, had searched for the “Australian Christian Lobby”. After the blast at the group’s Canberra headquarters in Deakin, which gutted the ground floor and caused $100,000 of damage, police said the attack was not “politically, religiously or ideologically motivated” and referred to it as a “car fire”."
Maybe it's only terrorism when it's against a "minority"
The myth of the online echo chamber - "social media and search users tended to land upon more polarised news sources – Breitbart compared to Fox News, for instance – which might translate to a more extreme world view. Crucially, however – and contrary to the concept of the online echo chamber and filter bubble – they were also more likely to visit sites expressing opposing viewpoints. Their media diet was more varied, overall. “It seems counterintuitive, but direct browsing often just consists of one or two sites that you regularly read – such as the BBC and CNN – while by its nature, social media will expose you to a number of other sources, increasing the diversity”"
Job loss is bad for your health – Swedish evidence on cause-specific hospitalization following involuntary job loss - "This paper examines the impact of job loss on a number of non-fatal health events, which are nonetheless severe enough to require hospital in-patient care. We focus on job loss due only to establishment closures, as this reduces the problem of distinguishing between causation and selection. Using linked employee–employer register data, we identify the job losses due to all establishment closures in Sweden in 1987 or 1988. During a subsequent 12-year period, we find that job loss significantly increases the risk of hospitalization due to alcohol-related conditions, among both men and women, and due to traffic accidents and self-harm, among men only. We find no evidence, however, that job loss increased the risk of severe cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction or stroke."
It’s time to say goodbye to the NFL cheerleaders - "IN THE MIDST of this #MeToo moment — and two weeks from the Super Bowl — it’s time to rethink NFL cheerleaders and their barely covered breasts being ogled on the sidelines by drunken men with binoculars. It’s embarrassing for us all. Or should be."
"Remember when we ridiculed John Ashcroft for covering the bust of a statue of lady justice, and the religious conservatism it represented?"
Morrissey’s Brexit love affair makes him the last true rock’n’roll rebel | Coffee House - "Where they weep over Brexit, and the thick throng that voted for it, Moz says Brexit was a ‘victory for democracy’. Where they view Israel as source of much of the world’s grief, he has penned a six-minute lovesong to Israel on his new album. Where they worship at the altar of multiculturalism — having disappeared so far up the fundament of identity politics that they think it’s tantamount to a hate crime to say that any one way of life is better than another — Morrissey says ‘if you try to make everything multicultural, you end up with no culture at all’. This is a man in revolt. And it’s wonderful."
Man attacked in Berlin for wearing kippa is Israeli Arab - "An Israeli man who was beaten in an anti-Semitic attack while wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap in Berlin told German television on Wednesday night that he was not Jewish but wanted to find out whether it was safe to walk in the street dressed as a Jew. “I am not Jewish, I am an Israeli and I grew up in Israel in an Arab family,” Adam Armush, 21, told broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “It was an experience for me to wear the skullcap and go out into the street yesterday.” He said he filmed the attack on him and a second man as evidence “for the police and for the German people and even the world to see how terrible it is these days as a Jew to go through Berlin streets.”... Armush filmed one of them men whipping him with a belt while calling out, “Yahudi,” or “Jew” in Arabic, before he is stopped by a passerby. The video subsequently shows Adam with a bruise on his torso. In a video interview with the Bild newspaper, Armush said the main attacker seemed to have a “Syrian dialect.”... The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Joseph Schuster, told AFP he was “shocked” by the incident, noting that it had occurred in a “bourgeois” area and not in a “majority Muslim quarter.”"
'Jewish man' attacked in Berlin admits he's an Israeli-Arab who didn't believe Germany was anti-Semitic - "He was conducting what he termed an "experiment" in response to a warning from a friend that wearing a kippa in Germany was unsafe, saying he refused to believe this... a rap band that included cynical references about the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in its lyrics won the country's most important music prize — drawing strong criticism from other artists and government officials. Several past winners said they would return their awards"
So much for stereotypes
French Muslims blast anti-Semitism letter as attack on Islam - "The open letter published Sunday in the Parisien newspaper blamed “Islamist radicalization” for what it said was “quiet ethnic purging” in the Paris region, with abuse forcing Jewish families to move out... Jews are the target of about a third of France’s recorded hate crimes despite making up only about 0.7 percent of the population."
Being against anti-Semitism is Islamophobic
Angela Merkel denounces ‘different type of antisemitism’ from Arab refugees after assault on men wearing skullcaps - "It led Germany’s main Jewish leader to advise people visiting big cities against wearing Jewish skullcaps."
Toulouse riots: Police attacked as woman arrested for refusing to remove Islamic face veil - "Hundreds of police units were deployed after young residents threw stones, torched cars and set fire to garbage cans... She allegedly showed a poor-quality photocopy of her identity card and refused to lift her veil to let police officers see her face. After several futile attempts to have her lift the veil, the woman began to scream for help, France Info reports. She was placed under arrest and moved into a police vehicle. Soon after, a group of about 30 people circled the police and attacked them. Officers attempted to quell the crowd by discharging their weapons and used tear gas launcher."
Berlin’s criminal gangs prey on refugees for new recruits - "Around a quarter of the 40-60 organised crime investigations conducted every year in Berlin are dominated by ethnic Arabs, Mr Jacob says. In other categories of crime, the picture is different — Mr Heilmann says house break-ins, for example, are the preserve of gangs from eastern Europe and Georgia... Authorities have identified 151 youths who commit on average more than 10 crimes a year — 54 per cent of them are of Arab descent, even though Arabs only make up 9 per cent of Neukölln’s population"
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is obsessed with soup. - "The sheer variety of soups in A Song of Ice and Fire is dizzying. Martin describes broths made from ginger, seaweed, sweetgrass, peppercrab, frog, fish, mutton, venison, dog, and elephant. Every area of the Seven Kingdoms gets its own soup. So do the free cities of Essos. In the North, they eat a lot of beef and barley stew. In the slums of Flea Bottom, the beggars gulp greasy bowls o’ brown and feel lucky if they find a smidgen of meat. Up at the Wall, the members of the Night’s Watch nourish themselves with cups of thick bean-and-bacon soup. On the Iron Islands, they break their fast on “a broth of clams and seaweed cooked above a driftwood fire,” which sounds a lot like something they would serve at Noma."
CRIMEWAVE: Shoplifting Doubles as Police Drop Theft Investigations, Focus on ‘Hate Crime’ - "Shoplifting and reports of theft in shops have almost doubled in just 12 months, new figures show, with police blamed for ignoring physical crimes as they focus on “hate crime” and online comments... The sudden rise in crimes comes after many UK police forces introduced a policy of only investigating theft if a value of £200 or more is stolen, with those stealing less than the threshold being dealt with by post in some cases... The total cost of crimes committed against the sector over the past year was £193 million, the ACS said, which equates to a 7p “crime tax” on every transaction in the shops, they calculated."
London’s Met Police Won't Investigate Minor Crime, Only ‘Hate Crime’ - "London’s Metropolitan Police force will not bother to investigate crimes if officers are required to watch CCTV for more than 20 minutes or there is no footage available... The new “crime assessment policy” was uncovered after a Freedom of Information request by The Times, and comes a time of increasing budgetary pressures and falling police numbers... other crimes, including so-called “hate crime” and serious crimes such a homicides and sexual assaults, must always be investigated."
British Police Force Uses 'Positive Action' to Ban White Men from Recruitment Workshops
Sweden plans change in law to require explicit consent before sexual contact - "In Sweden, the prosecution must present evidence to the court proving beyond reasonable doubt that the accused has committed the crime. Following the changes to the law, the prosecution will have to present evidence demonstrating that the sexual act was not consensual."
Maybe this will make Swedish men even more passive, and Swedish women will complain even more about that
Do Artificial Sweeteners Cause an Insulin Spike? - "according to the literature there isn’t an appreciable insulin effect from most sweeteners"
Top mineral water brands Contaminated with plastic particles: Study
Since tap water is contaminated with fluoride, the natural crowd can drink raw water and die of dysentry
The Strange Short Flight of Flat Earth Rocket Man - ""Whoever started that rumor that I was going to prove the Earth was flat is an idiot," he said in a phone call the week after his flight. He suggested that it may have been a reporter from the Washington Post who planted the seed, but that Jeff Bezos was likely behind the rumor-spreading. We'll never know for sure. What we do know is that dreams—no matter how far-fetched or ill-advised—can come true. A 61-year-old limousine driver who makes $15 an hour ferrying people around California's high desert communities can hurl himself into the sky from an RV-based launcher in a steam-powered rocket. It's a feat that's nothing if not unique."
Montreal's Red-Light District Created the Sin City of the North - "A hundred years ago, the same quadrangle served as the city’s red-light district and single-handedly gave Montreal its “Sin City of the North” name at a time when North America’s beer taps—with the exception of Québec’s—ran dry. Hundreds of brothels and strip clubs welcomed tourists and locals alike. Gamblers and bookmakers struck gold—or lost big. Legendary burlesque performer Lili St. Cyr was the reigning “Queen of Montreal.” Even Al Capone couldn’t resist the siren song of Montreal’s red-light district. In its heyday, some 500 sex workers worked the St. Catherine Street/St. Laurent Boulevard intersection daily."
In Social Research Fields, Conservatives Are the Most Underrepresented Group - "Progressives are vastly overrepresented in the academy. According to the most comprehensive study on faculty political leanings to date (Gross & Simmons 2014), progressives outnumber conservatives by 10:1 in the humanities and social sciences, despite the fact that conservatives outnumber liberals in the general U.S. population (and pretty much always have)... the lack of ideological diversity seems to be vastly more pronounced in social research fields than underrepresentation in terms of gender, sexuality, and race."
"Which Side Are You On?" - "I am the freelance journalist who recorded and released the viral video of what happened that day. For doing so, I now find myself accused of being on the ‘wrong side’ — not just by the protesters, but also by some in the media. The Guardian has accused me of belonging to “a movement” that works “hand in hand with right-wing media and right-wing organizations to promote attacks on progressives.” This was followed by an article in GQ which includes me on a would-be shaming list of “free speech grifters.”... What is dismaying about the Guardian and GQ articles is the recourse to personal insults and an unwillingness to distinguish between different critics of campus illiberalism. Instead, thoughtful progressives like Bret Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying are lumped into the same category as a right-wing provocateur like Milo Yiannopoulos, and all are accused of operating from mercenary motives... Mr. Wilson’s uncharitable mischaracterization of my reporting and motives reminds me of the justification offered by my former editors at Portland State’s student paper, The Vanguard when they fired me from my editorial position last April. Recording and sharing a video that exposed Islamic apostasy doctrines to scrutiny, one of my supervisors explained, violated the principles of media ‘intersectionality.’... almost all of the disruptions of events held at universities have been found to come from the Left"
If evidence attacks progressives, that suggests that progressives are not doing kosher things
Campus Speaker Disinvitations: Recent Trends (Part 2 of 2) - "When a disinvitation attempt is unsuccessful, those opposed to the speaker and/or the speaker’s views may attempt to disrupt the event so the speaker cannot finish their remarks. The tactics employed have included shouting down the speaker during the event, pulling the fire alarm, and (yes, really) pie-throwing... moderate event disruptions in this time period almost exclusively came from the left of the speaker... substantial event disruptions in this time period almost exclusively came from the left of the speaker...
Speaker disinvitation attempts from 2000 to 2016 were most likely to come from the left of the speaker.
These disinvitation attempts from the left occurred most often for controversies over racial issues, views on sexual orientation, and views on Islam.
Speaker disinvitations due to issues related to abortion almost exclusively came from the right of the speaker, at religious institutions...
With the exception of 2006, the first decade of the new millennia saw a roughly equal number of disinvitation attempts from the left and right of the speaker. Beginning in 2010 an uptick in disinvitation attempts from the left of the speaker has occurred."
Perhaps we can look to 2010 for the start of the recent wave of liberal hysteria
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