Links - 27th June 2019 (3)

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, The lions that are bred to be killed - "He wants the UK Government to close a loophole which allows lions’ skins and bones to be imported here as long as they've been obtained from a sustainable hunting operation. That's illegal in many countries. Lord Ashcroft has been telling me about his findings."
This is telling - sustainability/conservation/preventing extinction is not the aim when it comes to 'protecting' charismatic megafauna, just an excuse

BBC World Service - The World This Week, Sri Lanka mourns its dead - "China eats more pork than the rest of the world put together. 700 million pigs were slaughtered here last year and eaten...
‘The idea that’s being pushed around by IS supporters online, that this is some kind of revenge for the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, I think is very dubious, because they would have had to been put together at a very short notice. You couldn't do that. This would have taken months of planning. There are reports that the Indian authorities gave their first warning to the Sri Lankans as long ago as the end of last year. Certainly, something of this sort of sophistication takes a lot of planning. You've got to acquire the explosives, you've got to hide them somewhere safe, you've got to train people to use them. You've got to also keep your suicide bombers motivated so that they don't veer off and bottle out at the last minute... it takes a lot of skill and coordination to do all of that. And it's unlikely that a small radical group in Sri Lanka could do that on their own’...
‘China eats more pork than the rest of the world put together. And this is the year of the pig in a nation that's home to half of the world's pigs'...
'Pork is the main source of protein for most Chinese people. That's how they get their protein on a daily basis. It is a huge, huge business. It's hugely important to this country's economy. It's hugely important to every dinner table across this country'"

Tech Bias Story Sharing Tool - "SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS should advance FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear “violations” of user policies.
No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump"

Porn viewers more likely to see women as equals than non-viewers - "Both male and female pornography viewers had better attitudes towards women working outside the home, and were more supportive of abortion rights, in comparison with those who had not watched pornography.In addition, male pornography viewers had more positive attitudes about women holding positions of political power in comparison with male non-viewers. There were no differences between pornography viewers and non-viewers in terms of either feminist identification or attitudes towards traditional family gender roles."
Another feminist myth bites the dust

Porn Viewing Impacts Attitudes on Women in Workplace - "Should women receive preferential treatment in the workplace? Newly published research suggests your attitude toward that complicated issue may be shaped, in part, by whether you indulge in a specific leisure-time activity: Watching porn."
Given from other research we know porn viewers are more likely to see women as equal to men, we can see that here porn viewers oppose affirmative action for women because that treats women as inferior

Lisa on Twitter - "KEEP REPEATING PHRASES
KEEP REPEATING PHRASES
KEEP REPEATING PHRASES
KEEP REPEATING PHRASES
KEEP REPEATING PHRASES
WHEN YOUR ARGUMENTS ARE FLIMSY AF
AND IF THAT FAILS TO GET RETWEETS THERE'S ALWAYS THE CLAPPING EMOJI"

Sweden far-right plans gay parade in mainly Muslim area - "Sjunnesson says the leftist media has been very critical of the parade which they say is "provocative"."I don't think there is anything wrong with that! I think it's good to be provocative and have an element of surprise," he said... A counter parade is planned on the same day, according to a post on the Facebook page of the Anti-racist Pride Park March."
Apparently gay rights are Islamophobic

Sam Harris on Twitter - "A paradox for our time: The far Left is disproportionately white, wealthy, and well-educated. So extreme “wokeness” is now one of the most glaring symptoms of “white privilege.”"

Why is 38C air hot but 38C water not? - "Water in your sweat sucks the heat out of you and cools your skin temperature by several degrees so the air temperature 'feels hot' in comparison, says Kuncic.But when we immerse our bodies in water at 38°C, the difference in temperature between our skin and the environment is smaller... On a hot summer's day your body will try to cool itself by sweating, which it can do very effectively if there's not very much water in the surrounding atmosphere, say Kuncic."But as soon as the humidity starts to rise and there are more water molecules in the surrounding air, the rate at which your body can sweat suddenly becomes very limited."You feel sticky because the sweat on your skin cannot evaporate as readily into the surroundings when the air is humid as compared to when it is dry.Although you might not feel the same sense of 'hotness' as you would on a dry day at the same temperature — when there's a larger difference between the air temperature and your skin temperature — your body can find it even harder to get rid of excess heat in order to regulate its core temperature.As a result, you can feel more lethargic on a humid day, says Kuncic, as your body tries to reduce the amount of internal heat it generates as it continually converts food into energy."

Africans accuse black Americans of cultural appropriation - The Stockton Times - "A group of Kenyan men have told black Americans to stop appropriating African culture after a series of high profile black film and video being released by the movie and music industries... “Childish Gambino is about as African as Prince Harry but for some reason he thinks he can go around making Zulu noises in his music videos” he said.“You reckon he could find Nigeria on map?”“Just cause they have the same colour skin doesn’t mean they’re allowed to steal our culture. Especially seeing as most of these American’s don’t know a damn thing about being African”Mr Kusan also said that black American’s singing and portraying people from Africa was just as bad as white folk dressing up in black face. “I watched Black Panther and all I saw was a bunch of black Americans in African face.”“African face is very offensive to our people. They couldn’t even get real Africans for the parts. They had to dress up black hollywood actors and pass them off as Africans.”“It was very offensive and now I listen to Childish Gambino and he’s got black Americans singing like us Africans.”Childish Gambino hit back at the claims saying that although it was true he’d never been to Africa, or even met an African, that doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to steal elements of their culture.“Haha only white people can be accused of appropriation like that” he said."

Former minister quits Labour saying party has been ‘destroyed’ under Corbyn’s leadership - "A former minister has quit Labour with a furious attack on Jeremy Corbyn, warning the party has been “destroyed” under his leadership.Bridget Prentice accused Mr Corbyn of failing to stand up to antisemitic “bigots and bullies” and of “complete ignorance” about the damage to come from Brexit.“In all the major issues of the day, you have called it wrong,” the former justice minister wrote"

Adobe Tells Users They Can Get Sued for Using Old Versions of Photoshop - "Adobe is warning some owners of its Creative Cloud software applications that they’re no longer allowed to use older versions of the software. It’s yet another example of how in the modern era, you increasingly don’t actually own the things you’ve spent your hard-earned money on... In a controversial move, Adobe pivoted away from the standard software model to the cloud-based subscription model in 2013, resulting in notably higher revenues (and higher prices for customers)... It’s yet another example of how the products we buy in the modern era can lose functionality or stop working entirely on a lark. Be it a game console that loses features with a firmware update or entertainment products that just suddenly disappear, it’s a problem that’s increasing popping up in the always online era... consumers now live in a world in which consumers almost never actually own anything that contains software. In this new reality, end users are forced to agree to “take it or leave it” end user license agreements (EULAs), in which the licensor can change its terms of service without notice... Both Doctorow and Gilbert noted that this kind of shifting landscape can often be particularly problematic for artists and creators, who often don’t want to risk ongoing projects by suddenly jumping to new versions of software that may contain unforeseen bugs. “When your tools are designed to treat you as a mere tenant, rather than an owner, you're subject to the whims, machinations, and unforeseeable risks of the landlord from whom you rent,” Doctorow noted. “And your legal rights are likely defined by a ‘contract’ that you clicked through a million years ago, which says that you agree that you don't have any legal rights.”"

Amazon takes away access to purchased Christmas movie during Christmas - "This is what was set in motion in the 1970s, when we started using the term "intellectual property" instead of "copyright" or "author's monopoly." If the movie is Disney's "property" for ever and ever, it follows that it is never your property, no matter that you "buy" it. And since "IP" is embedded in everything from blenders to cars to yoga studios, there is nothing that you can ever own -- you can only be a tenant in someone else's fields"

In 2008 I bought a Sony PS3 for entertainment and, specifically, to run Linux using the "OtherOS" feature. Within a couple years Sony sneakily pushed an update to remove this functionality. 10 years later I finally received this litigation check in the mail. : linux

Woman Seeking Prenatal Care At Planned Parenthood Given Directions To Real Health Clinic | The Babylon Bee

That $6.60 plate of “economic rice” – why Sengkang leads in price - "It is not surprising that the story struck a chord with many Singaporeans. After all, one in four of us (24%) eat out daily, and more than half (55%) of us have our meals out-of-home weekly, according to a 2018 Nielsen survey... A Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) report in 2018 found that “a majority of households have a larger proportion (from 12% to 14%) of household expenditure on eating out as compared to households with higher income (11.8% of household expenditure on eating out).”... The study also found that Sengkang led the list for the most expensive basket of food used in the Makan Index, an indicator of the cost of eating out in Singapore. The index focuses on only 3 types of eating places: coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts.The Index was then compared across different planning areas and its correlation with socioeconomic characteristics of the planning areas was analysed.The study found:“[The] cost of eating out differs across planning areas.“Specifically, Sengkang, Tampines, and Sembawang are among the top three planning areas with high Makan Index score and Ang Mo Kio, Queenstown and Bukit Timah are among the planning areas with low Makan Index score. The price difference between the planning areas with highest (Sengkang) and the lowest (Ang Mo Kio) Makan Index score is about 22.9%.“Mature planning areas tend to have a relatively cheaper basket of food items as compared to a younger planning area. In general, the price difference between mature and younger planning area is about 7.7%.”... "lower food prices are correlated with planning areas with higher income diversity, a higher percentage of residents aged 65 and above, and a higher percentage of households staying in rental flats.”"

The city with 20-year waiting lists for rental homes - "There’s a hidden reason so many Stockholm renters go for Nordic minimalist interiors. In a capital gripped by an acute housing shortage, it’s no fun constantly lugging all your worldly goods from apartment to apartment.The Swedish capital may be one of the most desirable locations on the planet to be an expat, but once you’ve bagged the dream job, finding somewhere to live brings a whole new set of problems. The city’s queue for rent-controlled housing is so long that it’s being considered by the Guinness Book of World Records. On average, it takes nine years to be granted a rent-controlled property – and that jumps to two decades in some of the most popular neighbourhoods"
Regulation cannot escape the laws of economics

The 33 Whitest Jobs in America - "Whites account for about 81 percent of the workforce. But there are 33 occupations counted by the BLS (particularly those on farms, around heavy machines, in doctor's offices, and in C-suites) where whites officially account for nine in ten of all workers, or more"
Affirmative action incoming in...

Pink Dot ambassador Tosh Zhang apologises for discriminatory comments - "the 29-year-old was named an ambassador for this year's annual Pink Dot event, which aims to raise awareness of issues that impact the daily lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people.The theme of this year's event is 'Against Discrimination'.Yesterday, Facebook user Sarah Yip expressed her surprise at Zhang's appointment when she posted screenshots of some of his tweets from 2010 to 2013.The tweets by Zhang, who also goes by the name Tosh Rock, made several discriminatory comments about LGBTQ people, including their physical appearance. Pink Dot issued a statement yesterday calling his comments "homophobic and misogynistic""
When you jump on the SJW tiger...