Links - 24th January 2020 (1)

Man pays hitman 2 million yuan to kill competitor, gets busted after job is passed along four times - "Six people have been sentenced to prison time in China’s southern region of Guangxi in a parable of the perils of using middlemen.Back in 2013, a local real estate company owner named Tan Youhui in the provincial capital of Nanning decided that he wanted to bump off a competitor, surnamed Wei, who had filed a civil court case against his enterprises.Tan sought out the services of a man named Xi Guangan, paying him 2 million yuan ($282,000) in cash to do the deed and providing him with a copy of Wei’s identity card as well as his cell phone and license plate numbers.Xi took that money and handed half of it over to another man named Mo Tianxiang, telling him to kill Wei and passing along the relevant materials. Xi then went back to Tan and asked for an additional 1 million yuan. Tan agreed but said he would only give him the money after Wei was dead.Meanwhile, Mo went out and hired a man named Yang Kangsheng to carry out the killing, giving him 270,000 yuan and promising another 500,000 yuan after the job was done.Yang, however, turned around and handed off the assignment to yet another man named Yang Guangsheng, giving him 200,000 yuan upfront and promising an additional 500,000 yuan once he murdered Wei.Continuing the change, Yang Guangsheng hired a man named Ling Xiansi to kill Wei, telling him that he would be paid 100,000 yuan ($14,000) after the deed was done... Ling, however, thought that earning 100,000 yuan wasn’t really worth murdering someone. Instead, he hatched a plan, contacting Wei and meeting his “victim” at a coffee shop in April 2014 where he tried to convince him to help fake his own death.  Rather than go through all that trouble, Wei appears to have gone to the cops."

The Sociological Cinema - Posts - "Listen to me. Gender is a construct, society is a construct, money is a construct. But bedtime is very, very real"

Star Wars Episode III: Becoming Obi-Wan Webisode - YouTube

Waterproof Ratings and Breathability Guide - "Manufacturers typically describe the waterproof breathability of fabrics using two numbers. The first is in millimeters (mm) and is a measure of how waterproof a fabric is. In the case of a 10k or 10,000 mm fabric, if you put a square tube with inner dimensions of 1” x 1” over a piece of said fabric, you could fill it with water to a height of 10,000 mm (32.8 feet) before water would begin to leak through. The higher the number, the more waterproof the fabric.
The second number is a measure of how breathable the fabric is, and is normally expressed in terms of how many grams (g) of water vapor can pass through a square meter (m2) of the fabric from the inside to the outside in a 24 hour period. In the case of a 20k (20,000 g) fabric, this would be 20,000 grams. The larger the number, the more breathable the fabric.
The truth is that all outerwear designed for active winter sports has various degrees of water resistance, but will eventually leak given enough water, time and pressure. Manufacturers define “waterproof” according to different standards, and testing is not standardized. A rubber raincoat is completely waterproof, and may be the ideal garment for standing in a downpour waiting for the bus, but if you tried to ski or snowboard in it, you’d be wet in no time from your own perspiration. The trick is to balance protection from rain and snow on the outside with the ability to let water vapor (warm perspiration) escape from the inside."

Fleece jacket - Wikipedia - "A fleece jacket or simply a fleece is a lightweight casual jacket made of a polyester synthetic wool such as polar fleece.  A fleece jacket will typically have a zipper up the middle, rather than buttons or other fasteners. It will provide thermal insulation but is not normally weatherproof and so it will not effectively keep out wind and rain. Polar fleece originated in Massachusetts in 1979 when Malden Mills, (now Polartec LLC), and Patagonia developed Synchilla (synthetic chinchilla). It was a new, light, strong pile fabric meant to mimic—and in some ways surpass—wool. Company CEO Aaron Feuerstein intentionally declined to patent Polar fleece, allowing the material to be produced cheaply and widely by many vendors, leading to the material's quick and wide acceptance."

أبو عمّار on Twitter - "Hey Tez (Corbyn’s social media assistant) instead of being sinister by seeking info on me from our security services (as per below), how about you actually answer my questions? Again:
1) Is Hamas antisemitic?
2) Do you condemn Hamas as a terror organisation?
Still waiting...
Imagine these fools in No.10? If they try this shit on me, do you really wonder why 87% of British Jews are scared of them?
Hi
@tezilyas
(who is Corbyn’s social media assistant) since you won’t answer whether Hamas is a terrorist org, perhaps -considering you sought to find out if I work for our security services- you would clarify if you agree with what Hamas does to “spies”?"
"Jesus,  Maajid, let's be clear about this - he's trying to get you killed.These are the people who could be responsible for our national security within 3 weeks.Remember this on polling day,  folks.  Please."

Why do billions of people still not have glasses? - "Historically, the World Health Organization has collected data on people who have really serious problems with their vision only.Many more can see well enough to muddle through daily life but would still benefit from spectacles. But how many? The world's leading lens-maker, Essilor, decided to find out, one assumes not for entirely selfless reasons.In 2012 came the answer: around the world, some two and a half billion people need glasses and don't have them. That's an eye-popping figure but serious people think it's credible.And many of those people may have no idea glasses could help them.In 2017, researchers tested the vision of hundreds of tea-pickers aged 40 or over on a plantation in Assam. They gave a simple $10 (£8.20) pair of reading glasses to half of those who needed them. Then, they compared how much tea was picked by those who wore the glasses and those who didn't. Those with the glasses averaged about 20% more tea. The older they were, the more their tea-picking improved. The tea-pickers are paid by how much tea they pick. Before the study, not one owned glasses. By the end, hardly any wanted to give them back.  How widely we can extrapolate from this study is hard to say: picking tea may reward visual acuity more than some other jobs.  Still, even conservative estimates put the economic losses from poor eyesight into the hundreds of billions of dollars - and that's before you think about people's quality of life or children struggling at school. One randomised trial concluded giving children glasses could be equivalent to an extra half year of schooling"

Scientists Have Implanted Memories Into Bird Brains - "[They] used "optogenetic manipulation"—where light is used to monitor and control brain activity—to guide the learning of songs. They controlled the interactions between two regions of the brain in order to create memories of syllables of a song—the length of a note corresponded to the length of light exposure. As a result, they guided the learning of the zebra finch with these implanted memories"

‘We failed to reach Europe – now our families disown us’ - "Most of the West African migrants who fail to reach Europe eventually return to their own countries, but it can be a bitter homecoming. In Sierra Leone, returnees are often rejected by relatives and friends. They're seen as failures, and many stole from their families to pay for their journey."
Strange how no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark, but these migrants returned

USAID set up microfinance in Guatemala. Migrants borrow to fund their illegal journeys. - The Washington Post - "Over the past nine months, the number of Guatemalans who have reached the U.S. border has swelled to more than 250,000. They include many of the country’s poorest people — subsistence farmers who have somehow managed to scrape together up to $12,000 to fund the journey north. What enables those payments is a vast system of credit that includes financial institutions set up and supported by the United States and the World Bank, part of the global boom in microfinance over the past two decades. The U.S. government and the World Bank have each extended tens of millions of dollars in funding and loan guarantees, money that helped create what is now Guatemala’s biggest microfinance organization, Fundación Génesis Empresarial, and backed one of its largest banks, Banrural.  But in Nebaj and communities like it around the country, those financial institutions now serve Guatemalans eager to migrate. Access to credit has helped make this Central American nation the largest single source of migrants to the United States over the past year. About 2 percent of the population has been apprehended at the U.S. border since 2018. It has also had devastating consequences for those who fail in their journeys — those who are deported before they earn enough to pay back their loans. They become ensnared by debt, losing savings, businesses and homes, which makes them more likely to try to migrate again."
Presumably this isn't what liberals have in mind when they claim that the US border crisis is caused by American intervention in Latin American countries. But then, they can continue to blame the US for everything wrong in the world, since the failed migrants face "devastating consequences"

News Fabricates Story That LAPD Planted Evidence, Offers Video 'Proof' Which Shows No Wrongdoing - "LAPD officers are under investigation by their department after a CBS2 report shows what the news agency claims is officers planting drugs on a suspect.Except the video actually shows the officers not planting drugs on a suspect.Unfortunately, nobody appears to have any idea what they are actually seeing in the video, and nobody seems to be questioning to absurd claims in the video... planting cocaine actually serves no purpose.  Possession of small amounts of cocaine in the state of California is a misdemeanor and usually not even charged by the prosecutor’s office. In this instance, Shields was charged with possession of cocaine, but only because he was already being charged with a felony hit and run.  The sentence for possession of cocaine often results in treatment and no jail time.  This begs the question – why would an officer illegally plant evidence on somebody who committed a felony in order to get them charged with an additional misdemeanor? It makes no sense.  In addition to that, it would require numerous officers conspiring together to illegally plant drugs on Shields in order to frame him for the misdemeanor... Officer Lee wrote in his report, and testified in court, that the cocaine was found in Shields’ front left pocket.  The news reports seem to suggest that the cocaine was located elsewhere, because Officer Gaxiola could be seen picking up the drugs from the ground and placing it in Shields’ wallet.  What every news agency is ignoring is that the drugs were on the ground next to the suspect’s wallet and cell phone. Why? Because Officer Lee emptied out Shields’ pocket and put the contents on the ground"

Have Democrats Tried to Impeach Every GOP President Since Ike? - "Claim: The Democratic party has tried to impeach every Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Rating: Mostly False
What's True: Articles of impeachment were introduced against five of the six Republican presidents who have served since President Dwight D. Eisenhower."
Snopes strikes again!

Gingerswappingresponse - Posts - "remembered that time captain marvel tried to arrest a young black boy before he committed a crime he wasn't going to do"
"White women ALWAYS come out on top in the intersectional stack."

Meme - "if you are white you cant speak spanish"
"are u familiar with the entire country of Spain"

B.C. government looking to 'ticket' those who engage in racist behaviour - "Delta North NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon submitted a letter to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth requesting that the province crack down on “racist and hateful behaviour,” by measures that would include financial repercussions."

Per Bylund on Twitter - "What causes #poverty? Nothing. It's the original state, the default and starting point. The real question is, What causes #prosperity?"

Lingtrain - Posts - "How to irritate Europeans with one sentence
Italy: "I like pasta with ketchup.
Czechia & Slovakia: Are you Eastern Europeans?"

‘I want fine dining’: Influencer gives up on M’sian men after too many first dates at hawker stalls - "A Malaysian Instagram influencer, Sara Anna, caused a ruckus online after she filmed herself saying that she will not date Malaysian men anymore after too many disappointing first dates at hawker stalls... Sara added that she prefers going to a fine dining restaurant instead of a hawker stall. “Maybe after we’ve been a couple for a while, it would make sense to bring me to a hawker stall. But for the first 10 dates, I want fine dining.” Her ideal man would be someone who always compliments her and gives her flowers and gifts.She admitted that she is very clingy, which most Malay men can’t stand. The Malay men she dated had also taken advantage of her status as an influencer... Once, she went on a date with a Malay man at a hawker stall but when it was time to pay the bill, he acted clueless. She ended up paying for their meals. “I’m honestly tired of Malay men because I’ve had too many bad first date experiences with them.”"

Sex toy sparks terror alert at concert in the Vienna Konzerthaus - "A suspicious vibrato sparked a bomb scare during a performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra — before a buzzing sex toy was discovered in a concertgoer’s checked bag.The concealed device in the cloakroom began vibrating to the famed orchestra’s rendition of Richard Wagner’s works “Siegfried Idyll” and “The Valkyrie”"

David Hogg said he's been target of 7 assassination attempts - "David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting rampage and fierce gun critic, said that he has been the target of seven assassination attempts in the past year."
Press X to doubt

Liberal Jews are destroying their own religion - "When two of the Jewish community’s most celebrated writers, Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman, write an open letter stating that: “Any Jew, anywhere, who does not act to oppose President Donald Trump and his administration acts in favor of anti-Semitism; any Jew who does not condemn the president, directly and by name, for his racism, white supremacism, intolerance and Jew hatred, condones all of those things,” you don’t have to look far to see why.American Judaism is broken because the Jewish left broke it.A tiresome fixation on “tikkun olam,” which literally means “repair of the world,” has allowed Judaism to fall into disrepair.The phrase “tikkun olam” was quietly lifted out of context from a Jewish prayer before the Second World War to mean social justice. It was popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by radicals like Michael Lerner, who founded the extreme left-wing magazine, Tikkun.Since then, we have been led to believe that the purpose of the Jews in the world is to campaign for higher taxes, sexual permissiveness, reduced military spending, illegal immigration, opposition to fracking, the banishment of religion from the public square and every other liberal cause under the sun — all in the name of God.But the truth is that tikkun olam and its leftist politics have no basis in Judaism. Tikkun olam is not Judaism at all but a distinct religion, whose adherents, it might be said, have culturally appropriated this ancient faith. This religion of tikkun olam commands the allegiance of most non-Orthodox Jews (and some Orthodox ones), who make up the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community. The dogma of this religion is appealingly simple: Judaism is tikkun olam, which is social justice, which is liberalism. The Jews are called upon to do no less — and no more — than cultivate a liberal paradise in America.In this, liberal Jews have often had the hypocritical backing of the celebrity corps — literati, Hollywood executives, academics, politicians and financiers — who say one thing in public while, in several cases, doing unspeakable things in private. But above all, this liberalism — this tikkun olam — teaches that the Jewish People is an outdated and chauvinistic relic, with no need for a nation-state of its own in its ancient homeland. Consequently, Jewish social justice activists help to defame Israel and weaken America’s bond with the Jewish State... natural as it comes to the political exiles to oppose the new administration, these activists are discovering that left-wing social justice marches have no place for Jewish warriors.  And so the Jews have to choose between social justice and being Jewish"