Links - 28th February 2019 (1)

Amanda Ellen - I've stopped watching SNL for the last long while,... - "I've stopped watching SNL for the last long while, since they got heavy in the Trump/Baldwin skits. I didn't know why it annoyed me so much, I can't stand Trump, and usually love roasts of him. But I've come to the conclusion I find the Baldwin skits so unfunny, because they come from a place of clear hate for him. Good comedic acting, especially impersonations, mandates empathy and an approach of understanding for the character played. That's true whether you hate the person you are playing the role of, or love them. Otherwise it just comes off as a one note, unfunny mockery with no depth. ..Hence why SNL usually has more people clapping in political agreement, than laughing in comedic reaction"

Teaching kids to code: I’m a developer and I think it doesn’t actually teach important skills. - " It’s hard to teach the difference between merely executing steps, such as following a recipe, and doing something well. It can only be passed on through feel and experience. And every time you involve your kids when you work on something you value, you are teaching them how to do things well. You are preparing them to write code.But you’re not only teaching them that. You’re teaching them the world is full of interesting things to discover. You’re showing them how to be passionate and look for that ephemeral sense of quality in everything they do. The best part is that even if they don’t become coders—most shouldn’t and won’t—the same skills can be used in nearly any career, in every hobby, in every life. When we force kids to learn syntax, we reinforce the idea that if something is not a blatantly employable skill, it’s not valuable. Adults can learn syntax. Only kids can learn to embrace curiosity"

What We Talk About When We Talk About Immigration - "Can the elite “anywhere people” begin to understand why the “somewhere people” stayed at home, let alone why they now don’t want the streets in which they grew up inhabited by people who don’t share their culture or language? Last year Douglas Murray wrote a well-researched and erudite book called The Strange Death of Europe, which seemed to sum up what a lot of people were thinking, but the anywhere-person newspaper The Guardian’s only response was to call it “gentrified xenophobia.”... virtually no one when they are talking about their concerns about immigration in the current climate are talking about people who are skilled and highly educated like my father. This has been one of the more disingenuous moves made by those seeking to make an economic case for immigration: highlighting a specific top tier as the norm that can be applied to all. Many of those who leave their countries of origin and do well already come from elite classes. For example, Brahmin from India’s highest caste represent only 3% of people in India, but 45% of Indians living in the United States... trade unions traditionally supported strong immigration controls fearing the downward pressure that increased competition for low-skilled jobs might have on wages. They recognised and openly articulated that the special interests of the working class were diametrically opposed to those of poor immigrants coming from abroad. For Friedman, uncontrolled immigration was only desirable in the free market and is fundamentally incompatible with the welfare state. The issue is that welfare is “sticky,” it takes away the incentives for people to move out. This is not only true of immigrants who fail to achieve their dreams (in the past many thousands of unsuccessful US immigrants moved back to their homelands), but also of native populations... In the past, before the welfare state, areas recovering from creative destruction were able to bounce back much more quickly. But since the welfare state has become so strong, the natural incentives to adapt to change are no longer there, which in turn can lock in endemic multigenerational poverty... The benefit of cheap labour does not come without its costs, as Reihan Salam notes:
'It is generally accepted that it is more expensive to provide the same quality of education to disadvantaged kids than to those from better off families. For one, high-poverty schools often have a hard time attracting and retaining the best teachers, and poor children are more likely to need social services'...
every penny spent on a child living in poverty born to immigrant parents is a penny not spent on a child in a similar position born to native parents. This produces strong incentives for political struggle since the levers of power categorically allocate resources to this group or that group. Polarization becomes inevitable... the Office of National Statistics reported that 50.5 percent of all households received more in benefits (including in kind benefits such as education) than they paid in taxes. Given these facts, there is a serious question: can we afford mass low-skilled immigration?"
Extrapolating from skilled migration to make a case for migration in general is problematic

Warning: Telling a Lame Joke in an Elevator can Endanger Your Career - "I wrote a conciliatory email to the colleague who filed the complaint: Prof. Simona Sharoni, who teaches Gender and Women’s Studies at a small New England college. As she did not grow up in the U.S., I explained the intended meaning of what I said, apologized if it caused her discomfort and suggested we engage in a dialogue. I further suggested that to raise a complaint that many might consider “frivolous” would only provide ammunition to those who opposed the women’s movement and efforts by women to flag and seek redress for real forms of harassment... The ethics and executive committees found me guilty of using a phrase they described as “inappropriate and offensive.” They censured me again for emailing Prof. Sharoni. They insisted that I offer an apology that would satisfy both them and her. I categorically refused. In acting this way, the ISA ignored its own code of conduct, which requires any aggrieved party to try to resolve a conflict privately before asking for adjudication from the ethics committee. Prof. Sharoni did no such thing and rebuffed my attempt to do so. She complained about my email and asked the ISA to tell me never to contact her again. It is nothing short of bizarre that an organization whose members study international conflict and know the value of dialogue over coercion opted for coercion from the outset."

Senator Hirono: Democrats Struggle To Relate To Voters Due To 'How Smart We Are'

MSM Blast Trump Nomination Of Fox News Reporter For U.N. Job, But Two Dozen 'Journalists' Joined Obama Team

It’s Now Racist To Ask Students To ‘Be Respectful In Class’ - "White professors can no longer tell their students to “be respectful in class” or ask them to take their feet off of desks or to turn off their phones, lest they be investigated for racial bias. Anita Moss, a senior lecturer of biology at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) was investigated after she called police on a repeatedly disruptive student, according to the College Fix. Moss, who is white, had been telling Paige Burgess, who is black, all semester to be less disruptive and to take her feet off of chairs... UTSA conducted an investigation and found Moss did not discriminate against the student. The university spoke to Burgess, interviewed current and previous students, and concluded “racial bias was not a factor.” Burgess herself said she never thought she was disciplined because of the color of her skin... Even though Moss was cleared of racial discrimination and had positive reviews from students, she was removed from class for the semester. The racial bias investigation was not the only investigation going on. Her demands for proper classroom etiquette were also reviewed, and led to her removal... UTSA President Taylor Eighmy sent an email to students on November 13 announcing the investigations against Moss, writing that “regardless of the final outcomes regarding yesterday’s incident, we have an obligation as an institution to take a hard look at our campus climate—especially for students of color—and enact systemic change to make UTSA a more inclusive campus.”"

Sen. Gillibrand: The Future Is Female. Don Jr: I Have A Question. - "Donald Trump Jr., a father of five, was unimpressed by the tweet, asking Gillibrand an important question: When should I tell my young sons "there's no future for them?"... Whoopi Goldberg actually suggested Trump's sons have predatory "tendencies.""You only worry about this for your child if you think your child has these tendencies," Goldberg said. "If you think your child is not someone who is assaulting people, it shouldn’t be a concern for you."... Trump hit back by re-upping a video clip of Goldberg excusing Roman Polanski for rape, because, per Goldberg, it wasn't really "rape-rape." Whatever that means."

Irish lecturer stabbed to death in Paris 'insulted the Mohammed' - "The 66-year-old academic, named locally as John Dowling, was attacked and stabbed 13 times outside the Paris university where he worked... Ali has told police that the teacher had made fun of his Muslim religion during English classes at the university.‘He produced a drawing, which he showed off in class, insulting the Prophet Mohammed,’ Ali said, according to Ms Denis.Despite this claim, Ms Denis said ‘nobody remembers such an incident. ‘We don’t have proof of radicalization, but rather a feeling that we’re dealing with someone who is very religious, very pious, very practicing.’"

Facebook's Community Standards Ban Discussing 'Sexual Preference' - "Tumblr isn’t the only social media platform cracking down on NSFW content. Earlier this week, Facebook users uncovered a new set of community standards that outright ban discussing “sexual preference,” “sexual roles,” “breasts,” and “buttocks” on the site... outing oneself as queer could be banned for being “suggestive” content. Furthermore, Facebook’s community standards don’t just apply to Facebook alone. They also govern all social media platforms owned by Facebook, as Wired reported in April. That means both Instagram and Facebook Messenger are impacted by the new rules... The move by Tumblr has since been strongly criticized for harming queer users, sex workers, and adult artists—criticisms that are similarly being levied against Facebook."

21 Breathtaking Photos Of Isolated Tribes From All Around The World

Being Classically Liberal - Posts - "Black girl, 9, kills herself after classmates bully her for having white friend"
The Other 98% - "Trump's America 2018"
"(M.P.) The Other 98% comes out swinging against interracial friendships. Trump's America, I tell you!"
This is what happens when liberals teach kids that black and white people can't be friends and that black people need to be cautious, suspicious and distrustful of white people

Boy, 9, found hanged 'was bullied for being white' - "A boy of nine who was found hanged is believed to have killed himself after he was ‘bullied for being white’ by an Asian gang at school... Aaron’s mother, Kelly-Marie Dugmore, 30, and stepfather Paul Jones, 43, said that despite complaints to the school, nothing was done to stop the bullying.Aaron had recently started in Year Five at Erdington Hall Primary School in Birmingham, a school where 75 per cent of pupils come from ethnic minority backgrounds... His mother claimed she went to see the head teacher of the school several times only to be told: ‘You didn’t have to come to this school, you chose to come here.’A neighbour of the boy’s grandmother earlier told how ‘he had been targeted by a gang of older bullies at the school’."

The Atlantic - Posts - "Trump Moves to Deport Vietnam War Refugees
Exclusive: The White House again wants to deport certain groups of protected migrants, a reversal after backing away from the policy months ago."
From all the comments bashing Trump, it's clear that either no one reads articles. Then again the article itself is also mischievous by actively obscuring important facts
If we can't judge a book by its cover, can we judge an article by its headline?

Pat Sajak Savages The Academy Awards In Less Than 280 Characters On Twitter - "“Here’s a quick fix for the Academy Awards show: expand it to two nights,” he tweeted Monday morning. “On the first night, give out awards, and celebrate the history and wonder of movies. On the second night, hold your political rally.”

The Verge - Posts - "The five emoji skin tone options don't accommodate a diverse world"
"How do you choose which emoji skin tone to use?"
Comments: "Remember when The Verge used to do tech news instead of this crap?"
"get rid of them all and force everyone to use Simpsons yellow. Problem solved."
"Riiiiight.... also remember to add the 131 genders please! "
"C'mon man. If your identity hangs on the color of an emoji please see a professional. Just use yellow. 🏻🏼🏽🏾🏿"
"The simple yellow spherical blobs were the most inclusive emojis one could ever have.No chance of dissecting who is on the other side... Just a personal expression conveyed using a digital form.Now it leaves room for needless articles like this."
"Just think: had we not invented this problem in the first place, we wouldn’t need this conversation."
Another example of the slippery slope