Links - 16th January 2020 (1)

Where to Find Mixed-Gender Onsen Near Tokyo - "Thanks to its more than 100 active volcanoes that help to provide a steady supply of mineral-rich heated water, the country now has over 30,000 onsen and counting, so it’s unlikely you’ll run into much trouble locating one.But if you’re traveling with the opposite sex and looking to soak in an onsen together, that’s when things can get a little tricky.While men and women traditionally shared baths before the Meiji era (1868-1912), the Western influence that the era brought about has made it a norm since for baths to be separated by gender.Today, konyoku (mixed-gender onsen) remain banned almost everywhere in Japan — most notably in the capital, Tokyo — but you can still find this dying breed of onsen if you know where to look."

Marie Kondo Admits KonMari Method Doesn't Work When You Have Kids - "“Motherhood taught me to be more forgiving of myself,” Kondo writes in an article on her KonMari blog. “The joy that comes from parenting exceeds any satisfaction that could have come from a perfectly neat home.”"

Some Nevada sex workers say anti-sex trafficking legislation has negative impact - "Alice Little loves being a “luxury companion” and escort at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a legal, licensed brothel in Lyon County. The vivacious 29-year-old is passionate about sex work and sees the benefit it has on human intimacy — a basic need she feels often goes unmet. She resents any misrepresentation that conflates consensual sex work with forced prostitution, or that sex work is degrading.“I have a college degree. I’ve literally been offered six figures to leave my job and go to work in the marketing department of another company, and I said no and turned it down,” she said. “I choose to do this every single day because I love it and I see the benefit it has for society.”But Little feels her career is under attack after a federal law meant to curb sex trafficking on online personal sites has instead unleashed negative residual effects on her livelihood... Little said she has seen more women applying to work at legal brothels who say they no longer feel safe working independently."

US students called suicide hotline but instead got sex line - "The suicide prevention number was in a directory of emergency lines and other resources on the back of badges for students at New Vista Middle School in Lancaster, a 90-minute drive north of downtown Los Angeles.However, because of a mistake with just one digit, a sex hotline number instead of the correct suicide prevention number was given to students."

Glowing wounds and angelic bacteria - "The battle had taken place in a swampy area, and many of the wounded lay in mud and foul water while waiting for help. At night they noticed something odd: some of their open wounds had developed a faint greenish-blue glow.When the men finally reached field hospitals for treatment, the medics discovered something else odd. Soldiers who reported glowing wounds appeared to have a much higher survival rate than those who did not. The wounds that had glowed seemed to have less infection, and so they healed faster and scarred less than non-glowing wounds. The phenomenon acquired the name “angels’ glow”, but no one could explain it.Now fast-forward to the start of the 21st century. In 2000 a 17-year-old schoolboy, Bill Martin, visited the battlefield and heard about the glowing wounds. His mother happened to be a research microbiologist for the US Department of Agriculture and he knew she had studied luminescent soil bacteria. He asked whether such organisms could have caused the glow, and Mom suggested he should find out for himself as a science fair project."

Ontario human rights tribunal orders Imperial Oil to pay $120,000 to worker it didn’t hire - "Muhammad Haseeb, a university graduate in engineering, has been awarded over $120,000 by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in a discrimination in employment application against Imperial Oil. What makes this case particularly interesting is that Haseeb never actually worked for Imperial Oil. The discrimination in question was the company’s reneging on a job offer.The case involved a hiring policy requiring applicants to prove they were eligible to work in Canada on a permanent basis. Haseeb would have been eligible for a work permit for a job at Imperial Oil but he was neither a Canadian citizen nor permanent resident. In his application, he stated — falsely — that he was in fact eligible to work on a permanent basis. This led to a job offer. But when Imperial Oil asked for proof of citizenship or permanent residency, he could not provide it. As a result, Imperial Oil rescinded the offer. Before the human rights tribunal the company argued that the offer was rescinded because of Haseeb’s dishonesty, not his lack of citizenship. The tribunal held that although Haseeb may have been dishonest, the discriminatory policy the company followed was enough to constitute a violation of Ontario’s Human Rights Code. What discriminatory policy is that, you may ask? The employer distinguished between candidates based on whether or not they were Canadian citizens. The tribunal ruled that this distinction was not a bona fide occupational requirement. Though it is legitimate not to hire someone because they lied, if the reason they lied was to avoid discriminatory treatment, the tribunal held, the lie is justified and the question illegal."
This will only increase discrimination against people who have a higher probability of not having authorisation to work in the country

Skilled immigrants struggle to find jobs as government plans to welcome more - ""I don't see a lot of growth," Sandy Chugh said when describing his current job. Despite having years of experience in marketing and a bachelor's degree from Ireland, the 32 year-old is working in a warehouse for the retailer Best Buy.Chugh says landing the job, which involves stocking warehouse shelves and loading trucks, took six weeks and four interviews. He thinks it will take too long to find a position he's truly qualified for at the company and is now looking to start his own recycling business.In 2015, Statistics Canada found immigrants admitted to Canada for economic reasons, including skilled workers, earned a median annual income of $42,000, according to 2012 tax filings.In comparison, immigrants admitted as refugees or for family reunification earned a median income of $28,000 per year.Median after-tax income for a Canadian family of two or more was $71,100... Working at a job they're overqualified for is something Chugh says many of his immigrant friends are going through."I know lots of people working in call centres," he said.Chugh arrived to Toronto from India last April. His wife has an MBA but is working a "survival job" at $14 an hour. "She deserves better," he said... While it's true that parts of the country are dealing with high unemployment, some immigrants blame their employment trouble on another factor: a perceived tendency employers have to prioritize Canadian experience over foreign experience.Wei, for example, believes she has the experience to get hired but it's overlooked because she didn't acquire it in Canada.Chugh said he's dealing with the same issue."I think it's more to do with the culture," he said."They're looking for people who have Canadian experience, Canadian degrees." Izumi Sakamoto, an associate professor of social work at the University of Toronto, says it's an issue many skilled immigrants are facing."When they show up to job interviews, they're told they don't have Canadian experience and can't be hired. Somehow your experience is inferior to that of a Canadian"... It may also violate Ontario's Human Rights Code. In 2013, the Ontario Human Rights Commission began drawing attention to Canadian experience requirements. The commission considers it a form of discrimination."

Immigrant wages rising, but gaps with Canadian-born earners persist - "immigrants still make significantly less than people born in Canada. While non-immigrants earned on average $36,300, immigrants made $29,770, according to the 2016 census.This immigrant wage gap varies by province, with the widest gap in Alberta and the narrowest in Nova Scotia.In the Northwest Territories and in Newfoundland and Labrador, immigrants earn on average more than people born in Canadians... Immigrants tend to make more money the longer they live in Canada. In 2008, an immigrant who had been in Canada for seven years made almost $11,000 more than one who had arrived a year before.This residence gap is most acute for immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. Recent immigrants from those regions earn much less than those from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. It's a different situation for immigrants from the United States. Wages for recent American immigrants tend to be higher than those who have been here longer. According to a report by the Conference Board of Canada, the main factors of the wage gap are language skills, foreign qualification and skill recognition, and discrimination... the majority of Economic Class immigrants are underemployed, meaning they have jobs that do not correspond to their level of experience or education compared to the Canadian-born population. He has worked at the umbrella organization since 1990, and has seen some improvement in the economic situation for immigrants.But, he said, there is a much higher rate of unemployment, use of social services and poverty for people from countries in North Africa than those from Europe or North America, for example."

Man Got Drunk Off 'Beer' Brewed by His Own Body After Yeast Took Over His Gut - "A rare condition caused a man in the U.S. to produce a beer-like substance in his gut after eating carbohydrates, which made him drunk.The ordeal saw the man pulled over by police for driving under the influence and convinced his family he was hiding a drinking habit... The condition was likely triggered by a prolonged course of antibiotics for a thumb injury, which changed the make-up of his gut bacteria"

South Korea’s Coffee Craze - "Sales at coffee shops in the county jumped more than TEN-fold from $300 million in 2007 to $4.3 billion last year. In terms of sales volume alone, the country ranked third in the world after the United States with $26.1 billion and China with $5.1 billion. Japan, whose population is more than twice that of South Korea, was fourth with $4 billion... 14,000 new coffee shops opened last year alone in South Korea – compared to under 3,000 opened in 2008. As of the end of July, about 71,000 coffee shops were up and running across the country... each adult in South Korea consumes 353 cups of coffee a year. In other words, most adults in the country drink one cup of coffee roughly every day. That rate is 2.7 times bigger than the global average of 132 cups a year."

The Vanity of Guilt by Andreas Lombard - "Recent immigrants are assumed to be justified in their expectations of German society—and Germans apparently do not have the right to challenge those expectations

Easter Rising Criticised For 'All White' Leadership' Amd Lack Of Diversity - "The 1916 Easter Rising has been criticised for its all white leadership and lack of diversity.Chairman of the Irish Refugee Committee Frederick Winterbottom said it was shameful that there were no black or Asian signatories on the Proclamation of Independence and claimed that if there had been, the Rebels probably would have beaten the Brits... Dublin City Councillor Anthony Caffrey of the United Left Alliance Against Profit Says No To Everything Party sympathised with the views of Mr. Winterbottom saying RTE’s historical TV drama Rebellion, which told the story of the Easter Rising, was also blatantly racist.“I found it offensive that all the parts were given to white actors. We live in a multi-cultural society and the series did not reflect this. Will Smith would’ve made a great Michael Collins.”"

First case of dengue spread by sex confirmed in Spain

Experience: my face became a meme - "Nine years ago, I did a reverse image search on a photograph of me and was shocked to discover it had become a meme. People online thought my smile, combined with the look in my eyes, seemed terribly sad. They were calling me “Hide the Pain Harold”... Some kind of brand had been made out of me and I would have been a fool not to make use of it. So, in 2017, I created my own Facebook fan page and updated it with videos and stories from my travels.That started everything going. People noticed that I had taken ownership of the meme and got in contact to offer me work. I was given a role in a television commercial for a Hungarian car dealer. In one of the adverts, I travelled to Germany to buy a used car and it broke down halfway home; if I had bought the same car through their company, the brand claimed, it wouldn’t have happened. The fee for that commercial changed my wife’s mind about the meme.Now my life has changed dramatically"

The No. 1 mistake car buyers make, according to millionaire money expert - "Americans have a complicated relationship with cars. Aside from buying a home, a car is probably the second-most expensive purchase you will ever make in your life... To save others from making this costly mistake, I came up with the 1/10th rule for buying a car. It’s simple: Spend no more than 10% of your gross annual income on the purchase price of a car.Why? Because the upfront cost of a vehicle isn’t going to be the only thing you pay for, and cutting down your base price budget is the most effective way to save money...
When you spend more than 10% of your income on a car, your stress levels will likely increase.  Each time you park your car at the local grocery store, for example, you’ll worry about getting a door ding. Or you may get stressed out for an entire week due to a wheel rash that incurred after you parallel parked too close to the curb. And when you’re driving in traffic, you may feel more on edge because you’re worried that someone will damage your car...
The nicer your car, the more you may be tempted to spend on other car-related luxuries...
new cars depreciate by 10% to 20% in value as soon as they’re driven off the lot."