Links - 2nd September 2019 (2)

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Political turmoil in Austria - "Silver Borge did not expect his assassin to come armed with a serious complaint. The man arrived at nightfall navigating by flat bottomed boat along the jungle fringed creeks of Eastern Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast. A local farmer they call Dio or big man had hired him to kill Silver. But the hitman wasn't happy. He'd been paid just 5000 cordobas, around $150 or 120 pounds and that, said the assassin, was too low. I just thought you should know, he said before disappearing into the tropical night"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Slum landlords in Marseille - "More hard evidence is emerging of China's intent to control its Muslim minorities, their belief and culture. It's estimated that more than a million people, mainly Uighers and Kazakhs are being held in vast secure buildings and camps without conviction or trial. The Chinese authorities first denied they existed. Now they say they’re schools intended to combat an alleged rise in Islamic extremism by language lessons and job training. John Sudworth watchd the expansion of these camps in the western region of Xinjiang last year, and recently he's been allowed in one. Why, he wondered."

Tensions between trans women and gay men boil over at Stonewall anniversary - "A black transgender woman wanted to be heard, but the white men wanted to celebrate... long-simmering tensions between transgender women of color and white gay men have boiled over during the celebration of World Pride and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising."
The poison of intersectionality!

How Knights Of The Old Republic Pulled Off A Voice-Acting Triumph

Beyond Meat needs to communicate how it makes its plant-based burger - "Twice in June, ingredients used by both of America’s most popular plant-based meat companies were called into question.On June 21, a consumer interest group issued concerns around one of the ingredients in Beyond Meat’s production process. And earlier in June, the World Health Organization said that eating heme—a main ingredient in the Impossible Foods burger—is linked with the formation of carcinogens in the gut... How do they truthfully and thoughtfully communicate what they are making—highly processed food—to consumers who are invested in their social missions, yet dubious of food that humans have tinkered with? While plant-based meat companies are ultimately making processed foods, their marketing is more in line with natural, organic offerings"

Logic, Empathy, Honesty - Posts - "Once again, the games media with it's virtue signalling nonsense.
"Oh no, a game set in ancient europe is full of white people!"
"Oh no, the developers are giving us a mute button instead of punishing players for saying things I dint like!""
Kotaku virtue signalling: Mordhau's Developers Are On Some Bullshit [Update] | Kotaku Australia

Diary Of A Man Forced By His Boss To Visit The New Funan Mall - "Funan is a Capitaland mall, and for this reason, it is unreviewable. Reviewing it is as pointless as reviewing the SMRT gantry or the Food Court Drink Stall. They are not attractions/things per se, but features of our landscape, as necessary and as unchanging as the tides.I said as much to my Editor, Julian, who basically told me to go fuck myself in reply. The opening of a new mall is a sacred event in our national calendar, he pronounced—I’m paraphrasing here—and people WILL be talking about it. Hence, we MUST show up, if only to show that RICE is as relevant and as facile as the next digital media outlet.I contemplate stabbing him with a pair of blunt scissors—Et tu, PJ? —but what’s the point? Another company. Another OT. I set my alarm for 7.30 AM Saturday and fall asleep dreaming of ‘Work-life Balance’"

I Don't Care if It Was Too Harsh He My Dad Needed to Be Told the Truth - "Happy Birthday to My Little Girl I Think About You Often I Hope All Is Well"
"Look I Have Been Holding Off Replying Because Truly I Wish No You No Harm or Ill Will and the Truth Is Going to Hurt You Please Stop Trying to Contact Me We Don't Have a Relationship Because You Choose to Remain the Way That You Are and That Energy Is Toxic to Me if You Can Get to the Point Where You Renounce Your Support for Trump Quit Being on the Opposite Side of Reproductive Freedom and Treat Me Like an Adult With My Own Agency Instead of Your Little Girl Maybe I Will Consider It but You Won't Do Those Things So Please Stay Out of My Life"
When you're such a fanatical liberal that you let your politics poison your relationships and your life

Segments of Random Thoughts - Posts - "BBC Slut Certificate. This certifies that I, Fox, am owned by black cock. I must obey black men and my body is for their pleasure exclusively!"
"I can be proudly owned by a Black Man while simultaneously not wanting to be treated like a patriarchal possession by my father. I don't expect anyone on her to really see the difference though. That's asking way too much from you all."
"This is the woman who lashed out at her dad when he wished her happy birthday, because he supports Trump."

1 in 3 sex workers have degrees – survey - "Nearly 40 percent of sex workers in the UK have a degree from either college or university, a recent study has found.The study, which took data from British sex workers who were not trafficked into selling sex but had chosen to do so, revealed that 38 percent held an undergraduate degree, with a further 17 percent completing a level of postgraduate study... More than 70 percent of respondents had previously held jobs in the healthcare, educational or charity sector"
This suggests they like caring for people

Japan whaling: Commercial hunts to resume despite outcry - "Japan has now withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which banned hunting, and will send out its first whaling fleet this July... in 1986, all IWC members agreed to a hunting moratorium to allow whale numbers to recover.Conservationists were happy but whaling countries - like Japan, Norway and Iceland - assumed the moratorium would be temporary until everyone could agree on sustainable quotas. Instead it became a quasi-permanent ban... Like other whaling nations, Japan argues hunting and eating whales are part of its culture. A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed hunted whales for centuries but consumption only became widespread after World War Two when other food was scarce.From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s whale was the single biggest source of meat in Japan but since become a niche product again... The ministry will allow for the hunting of three species: minke, Bryde's and sei whales.According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, minke and Bryde's whale are not endangered. Sei whale are classified as endangered but their numbers are increasing.So in terms of numbers, Japan's commercial whaling will have only a minimal impact.In fact, some defenders of whaling argue that whale meat has a smaller carbon footprint than pork or beef... Besides the question of stock sustainability, a key argument against the hunt is that harpooning whales leads to a slow and painful death.Modern hunting methods, though, aim to kill whales instantly and it backers say the near-global anti-whaling sentiment is deeply hypocritical., compared to, say, industrial meat production."

In an astonishing turn, George Soros and Charles Koch team up to end US ‘forever war’ policy - The Boston Globe - "BESIDES BEING BILLIONAIRES and spending much of their fortunes to promote pet causes, the leftist financier George Soros and the right-wing Koch brothers have little in common. They could be seen as polar opposites. Soros is an old-fashioned New Deal liberal. The Koch brothers are fire-breathing right-wingers who dream of cutting taxes and dismantling government. Now they have found something to agree on: the United States must end its “forever war” and adopt an entirely new foreign policy. In one of the most remarkable partnerships in modern American political history, Soros and Charles Koch, the more active of the two brothers, are joining to finance a new foreign-policy think tank in Washington. It will promote an approach to the world based on diplomacy and restraint rather than threats, sanctions, and bombing. This is a radical notion in Washington, where every major think tank promotes some variant of neocon militarism or liberal interventionism"
This is great. Since one side says anything funded by Soros is wrong and the other side says anything funded by the Koch Brothers is wrong, everyone can agree that this initiative is evil and the US should be at war forever

Fathers and Feminism: The Case Against Genetic Entitlement by Jennifer S. Hendricks - "This Article makes the case against a nascent consensus among feminist and other progressive scholars about men's parental rights. Most progressive proposals to reform parentage law focus on making it easier for men to assert parental rights, especially when they are not married to the mother of the child. These proposals may seek, for example, to require the state to make more extensive efforts to locate biological fathers, to require pregnant women to notify men of their impending paternity, or to require new mothers to give biological fathers access to infants.These proposals disregard the mother's existing parental rights and transfer too much power from women to men. Although they directly affect only a particular class of legal disputes about genetic fathers and adoption, their implications stretch not only to other kinds of custody disputes but also to the law's treatment of sex and gender differences in reproduction more broadly. The principle of genetic entitlement that underlies these proposals is male-centered and therefore an undesirable basis for the law of reproduction and parentage."
Gender equality is patriarchy!

Nearly 50% of Japan’s singles have no dating prospects: Survey - "Nearly 50 per cent of singles in Japan who wish to get married are unable to find a suitable partner, with 61.4 per cent of the group stating they are not doing anything to change the situation... A lack of opportunity to meet an appropriate partner, or not having enough financial resources or ability to get along with the opposite sex are cited as major reasons in the outcome of the survey included in its annual report on Japan’s declining birth-rate... the number of newborns in Japan hitting a record-low of 918,397 in 2018, staying below the 1 million mark for the third year in a row."

This is a real slide from an Air Force brief on the real threat of incels - "Personnel at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland were recently treated to a threat brief regarding an "increase in nationwide activity" by self-described "incels," members of an online subculture of "involuntary celibacy" who adopt an ideology of misogyny, mistrust of women, and violence in response to their failed attempts at romantic relationships."
The materials included a meme. Clown world hypothesis confirmed

Mark Field suspended as minister after grabbing climate protester by neck - "Guests at the event raised concerns about security because the protesters appeared to have evaded airport-style checks.“It seemed to be very difficult to get the security at the venue to do their job once it became clear that something was happening,” one person who was present complained.Attendees said they feared a terrorist attack was taking place in the seconds after the activists burst in... Questions were being asked in political circles about whether the chancellor would return to Mansion House given the lack of security. “You’ve had protests when George Osborne has appeared and now this. Liz Truss was there, but if she becomes chancellor it’s not a certainty she’ll be back to give a speech this time next year,” a guest said.The City of London Corporation, which organises the dinner, said it was investigating the security breach.Greenpeace did not provide details of how the activists gained entry to Mansion House."
Amusingly, some liberals are positioning evading security and invading a private event uninvited as a violation of freedom of speech

Mark Field and the Greenpeace protest: free speech versus the need for security - "We can never assume, as your editorial claims (22 June), that “there was no physical threat”. This cannot have been clear at the time; there have been too many occasions when unanticipated assaults have led to death or serious injuries, as in the case of Jo Cox MP. Recent attackers, both individually or in groups, have used concealed knives or explosives to carry out their murderous intentions. Dissent can only be seen to be “non-violent” after the event.I now speculate what might have been my reaction to all this if the protester had been a young man, and the individual who sought to forestall a possible tragedy had been a courageous female. Surely some credit should be given to anyone who decides to intervene when the intentions of an interloper are unclear"