Links - 14th June 2019 (1)

Azealia Banks brands Irish people 'inbred', 'leprechauns' and mocks the potato famine - "Azealia Banks begged Conor McGregor to 'help her' after she unleashed another vile social media rant aimed at Irish people, days after she branded them 'f***ing ugly' on Instagram... A day later she then branded Irish people 'inbred', 'leprechauns' and asked if they 'had a famine to go die in' in a series of social media comments... She then replied, pleading with the Irish MMA star to help her. She wrote: 'Conor they are bullying me. Help me :('...
"It is impossible for a Black Person to be racist. As a singular black woman from NYC, I lack the institutional leverage to economically or socially oppress people in Ireland"...
She claimed she had been 'banned' from the airline after leaving the flight, saying she had been 'treated like a wild animal' on what she called her 'travel day from hell'... Banks famously launched a foul-mouthed tirade at a flight attendant calling him a 'f***ing f***ot' when she was unable to get off a Delta plane in 2005."
Apparently there is zero power associated with being a rich celebrity

Saatchi Gallery covers up two artworks after complaints from Muslim visitors - "The Saatchi Gallery has covered two paintings after complaints from Muslim visitors that the works are “blasphemous”.The two pieces are part of a new exhibition by the artist SKU, featuring classical-style nudes overlaid with Arabic script, in a way that appears to imitate the American flag – intended to represent the conflict between the US and Islamic extremists"
So much for art

Queensland Police Service’s epic Facebook fail - "A FACEBOOK post by the Queensland Police Service criticising conservatives has been quickly removed.Police yesterday marked the beginning of Ramadan by wishing the Muslim community well on Facebook... a member of the police media unit posted: “If you ever wanted proof that Conservatives are the real ‘snowflakes’, all you have to do is read some of the comments on this post.”It has since been removed.The Queensland Police Service issued a statement on Monday night, confirming that a staff member had mistakenly shared a private comment on the Queensland Police Facebook page."
When the police become politicised...

Occupy Democrats Logic - Posts - "With regard to the idea of whether or not you have a right to healthcare, you have to realize what that implies... I’m a physician, and that means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you are going to enslave not only me but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses... There's an implied threat of force, do you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That's ultimately what the right to free healthcare would be."
Amazing how many people actually believe this nonsense - it's not just a few cranks
Comments: "I live in the UK and no medical staff here are forced by the police to treat anyone."
"is that what we do to support someone’s right to a fair trial? Break into peoples houses to grab jurors? No, at worst we ask that they come to court on specific days at specific times to carry out civic duty.Are teachers slaves to support our right to education? Are firefighters slaves???? Police?????"
"I think they should go all in and remove government funded roads, schools, and the postal service."

Comparing VA and Non-VA Quality of Care: A Systematic Review - "The Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system aims to provide high-quality medical care to veterans in the USA... The VA often (but not always) performs better than or similarly to other systems of care with regard to the safety and effectiveness of care"
So much for the public sector/government always being worse than the private sector/private business. But then cranks will just fall back upon the slavery due to taxpayer funding 'moral' argument

David Duke Endorses Tulsi Gabbard for President in 2020 - "“Tulsi Gabbard for President,” Duke tweeted Wednesday. “Finally a candidate who will actually put America First rather than Israel First!”... Gabbard reiterated her past pseudo-defense of Syrian President Bashar Assad, an unrepentant genocidal dictator"
Of course candidates are only white supremacists when David Duke endorses them if they're Republican

Gender fluidity exists – although with animals it’s not always obvious - "I noticed that news photo of three kangaroos: a male cradling a dying female, so that she could reach out to her child. See! Some gender fluidity. Males can be sensitive and caring. Olivia and I are right. But then the “animal behaviour experts” piled in with their oppressive stereotypes, insisting that the male had killed her while attempting copulation."
Is this peak Guardian?

Instagram Influencers Are the New, More Powerful Yelp Elite - "The late Anthony Bourdain said in a 2017 interview, “There’s really no worse, or lower human being than an Elite Yelper,” declaring them “universally loathed by chefs everywhere.” For years, restaurateurs and chefs have waged war against petty reviewers who hit them with one-star reviews for offenses ranging from refusing to serve them any more alcohol to not offering takeout, and numerous internet complaints suggest that pay-for-play ploys like Cartman’s were a semi-frequent IRL occurrence at restaurants across the country... During (arguably) Yelp’s cultural peak in 2011, one study showed that independent restaurants who see a one-star bump in their Yelp rating also see a significant jump in revenue, and in 2012, a study emerged indicating that even just a half-star increase means a restaurant is much more likely to be full at peak dining hours... “Yelp is such a negative platform — it’s like Twitter, a negative, vile place where everyone argues”... According to some professionals, focusing on Instagrammers is a much better investment for restaurants. In 2016, NYC restaurant Springbone Kitchen estimated that posts by Instagram influencers were responsible for five percent of its new customers each day, on average. A recent study shows that influencer marketing is the fastest-growing online method of acquiring new customers, beating out organic search (e.g. Googling something), paid search (the ads that show up in said Google results), and email marketing (the reason you’re constantly clicking “unsubscribe” links)"

What Is "Anal Cleft"? The Bikini Baristas Suing the City of Everett Are Wondering, Too. - "Seven bikini baristas and one coffee stand operater filed a lawsuit today challenging two new Everett city ordinances that criminalize the Pacific Northwest custom of wearing a bikini while working at a commercial coffee business. Baristas who violate the ordinances face draconian madness: up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. For wearing a bikini...
The arguments for free speech are also a doozy. They are both convincing and absurd in the lengths they go to avoid saying bikini baristas are meant to serve horny people.
By wearing a bikini while serving coffee, the Baristas communicate the messages of approachability and friendliness, and those messages give customers an escape—the feeling that they are at the beach or on vacation...
Everett City Council members who sponsored the ordinances say bikini coffee stands lead to increased crime and STDs, decreased property values, and corruption of minors. Lawmakers also claim, with evidence, that some of the coffee stands act as a front for lewd conduct and prostitution"

Finding Lena Forsen, the Patron Saint of JPEGs - "Every morning, Lena Forsen wakes up beneath a brass-trimmed wooden mantel clock dedicated to “The First Lady of the Internet.”... Lena’s path to iconhood began in the pages of Playboy. In 1972, at the age of 21, she appeared as Miss November, wearing nothing but a feathered sun hat, boots, stockings, and a pink boa. (At her suggestion, the editors spelled her first name with an extra “n,” to encourage proper pronunciation. “I didn’t want to be called Leena,” she explained.)About six months later, a copy of the issue turned up at the University of Southern California’s Signal and Image Processing Institute, where Alexander Sawchuk and his team happened to be looking for a new photograph against which to test their latest compression algorithm—the math that would make unwieldy image files manageable. Lena’s glossy centerfold, with its complex mixture of colors and textures, was the perfect candidate... Suzanne Vega had no idea that her voice had been used to create the first MP3 until a dad at her child’s nursery school congratulated her on being “The Mother of the MP3.” Two decades later, the voice actor Susan Bennett received a call from a friend who wanted to know why Apple’s new voice assistant sounded so familiar; Bennett, it turned out, was Siri"

This Is What A Cup Of Tea Looks Like In 22 Different Countries

John Roberts Commencement Speech: Read the Transcript - "I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes... You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you."

The Danish way of life: putting loved ones first - "Anyone arriving in rural Denmark after 2pm on a Saturday might be forgiven for thinking there had been some sort of nuclear apocalypse – with empty streets and shops boarded up. But far from indicating an alarming atomic incident, this is just the way locals like it. Because weekends are ‘family time’ in Denmark, with shops shut from Saturday lunchtime until Monday morning.Studies show that having a close support network we see regularly makes us far happier than retail therapy ever can (harsh, but true) and Danes spend more time with their families than most other EU nations... With a short working week and a world famous work-life balance, loved ones come first in all aspects of Danish life... There are numerous public holidays, or ‘stop what you’re doing and eat cake’ days, as they’re known in our house, where again, the emphasis in on downing tools and hanging out with family and friends. Danes without relatives nearby are often ‘adopted’ for key calendar dates (thank you, Danish neighbours…) and it’s traditional to invite someone into your home for Christmas who might otherwise be alone. Even exes are included. Denmark has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe (42.7% according to Statistics Denmark) but because splits are so common, they’re often amicable with families reuniting for bank holidays and special events. As my neighbour puts it: “I didn’t like my husband enough to stay married to him, but he’s okay for Easter.”... What helps is that Danes don’t aim for idyllic, The Waltons-style family gatherings. The nation responsible for Nordic Noir and Marius-gate doesn’t insist on happy endings – they’re realists."