Links - 30th January 2020 (2)

Varieties | Moyca - "Moyca supplies a wide range of the best seedless table grape varieties available in the world. Increasing availability of green, red, black, specials and organics.  Our production is located in the area of Murcia in Spain´s most important grape growing region, with new expansion in the areas of Alicante and Badajoz."
It's refreshing to have a list of 46 types of grapes, rather than them just being described as "green", "red" or "black"

Tipping: Here are the best and worst cities and provinces in Canada - "if the size of Canada’s average gratuity is now inching closer to 14 per cent, the data shows considerable variation across provinces and cities.Vancouverites, according to the survey, are the stingiest in the country, with gratuities in the city averaging only 12.8 per cent. That’s fully three percentage points less than the 15.8 per cent that is the going rate in Regina, the No. 1 city in Canada when it comes to tip sizes... local minimum-wage legislation might also affect tipping behaviour, Orr said. After all, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, all of which figure toward the bottom of the provincial ranking, have among the highest provincial pay floors in the country... Square did provide national-level data showing how Canadians tend to tip for different types of services – but the results are somewhat puzzling.Beauty and barber shops, cabs and bars, for example, are where people tend to leave the largest tips, with gratuities averaging 15 per cent or more.At sit-down restaurants, on the other hand, Canadians leave just 13.5 per cent... the survey does suggest that Canadians may be over-tipping when they’re getting their hair done or hitching a ride in a taxi.  The 15-20 per cent tipping range is specific to the restaurant industry"

To tip or not to tip? Cashless consumers face take-out etiquette dilemma - "Digital payment systems now prompt customers for tips on all sorts of transactions, but people shouldn’t necessarily feel guilty for opting to tap “no tip” when ordering food or a beverage to take away.Lisa Orr, a Toronto-based etiquette expert, is unsure that the cultural practice around tipping has changed. Whereas it’s still standard to leave a gratuity after a sit-down meal, manicure or haircut, it’s not as common to leave 15 per cent or more for food or drinks to go.But technology seems to be attempting to change that by allowing any vendor to solicit gratuities no matter how little service is required... In 2018, Canadians tipped an average of 13.4 per cent using Square at food and drink sellers, according to the company’s data. That includes an average 13.7 at coffee and tea shops, 13.1 at food trucks, 12.9 at bakeries and 11.9 at quick service restaurants. The use of digital payment terminals encourages consumers to be more generous than they would be if they were using cash... People likely choose to leave less in tips at a quick-service restaurant than a full-service one with a professional wait staff, von Schellwitz added.  “Ultimately, it is the customer’s choice whether they tip or not,” he said.  It’s not necessary to leave a tip for over-the-counter service, said Orr, whose personal preference is not to do so.  Still she recognizes there are some instances where people may choose to leave a gratuity.  One example is if a patron develops an ongoing relationship with a barista, who may know their complicated order by heart and welcome them by name, she said. Orr would tip an employee who regularly made her matcha latte order.  “It would literally be ready before I was ready to pay,” Orr said. “So, that kind of service is why I left her an additional tip.”"

Tipping 100% is the latest social media craze - "As owners need to pay higher wages, some have started taking a percentage of tips to help offset the increase... when it comes to tipping, she says there are still a lot of unwritten rules that cause problems.  "Culturally, we're a long ways away from [eliminating tipping] in Canada. [But] it is a direction that we should be headed because we should be paying a fair wage""

The Tipping Point of Gratuities: Restaurants on No-Tip Policies - "Anti-tippers rally for standardized living wages across both front and back of house staff, un-incentivized service, and penalty-free pay (when a server loses out on tips because of factors that were out of their control). Pro-tippers, especially in urban areas, see tipping almost as a part of American identity – and, of course, as a way to keep doors open, costs down, and tables filled. That is, after all, the business model they founded on. Both sides have their points, and yet anti-tipping is gaining momentum as a favorable approach. In North America, we tip. It’s the way it’s always been. But as we dissect tipping norms both from a customer and operational perspective, ambiguities emerge and the lack of standardization becomes exceedingly apparent... Etiquette experts have found that for quick service restaurants, foregoing a tip is acceptable since the employee is making minimum wage, but suggest leaving a small tip  if you’ve had a good experience. This ambiguous pay-what-you-feel attitude is based on the actual hourly wage quick service restaurant workers make. In Canada the difference is not gaping – server’s wage hovers around the $10 mark and general minimum wage around $11 – but across the border, tipped employees in the US can be paid as low as $2.13. (The hope is that tips will bring them up to a minimum wage if not higher, though this is not always the case.) Quick service employees in the US make minimum wage – $7.25 per hour – so customers are not required to tip. But for many customers, the tip jar is a confusing and uncomfortable experience that creates questions like, “Do I tip because the cashier was nice? Because they brought my coffee to me? Does the person who made this Buddha bowl get a cut of the two dollars I threw into the jar?”... California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous 2011 ruling that bans restaurants from making servers and bartenders share their tips with back of house employees"

Nearly 85 Percent of Female Soldiers Fail the Army Fitness Test: Leak - "The slides appear to show the results of the Army Combat Fitness Test for 3,206 soldiers, including 357 women. Whereas the men passed the test at a rate of about 70 percent, fully 84 percent of women failed — bringing the overall pass rate down to 64 percent."

IDF Admits Problems with Women in Combat - "After at least 15 years of hyping the idea of women in combat units, the IDF is admitting that women suffer injuries at a much higher rate than men during combat training – despite the fact that training requirements for women in combat are considerably less demanding than for men... a full 46% of the female soldiers suffered injuries during their initial period of training, as opposed to 25% among the men. One third of the women in the study were injured more than once... "The bone density of female combat soldiers is lower than that of men, and that is why they suffer more injuries,” said the officer. “The fat percentage in women is 70% to 100% greater than men's and that is why they are slower than them, and consume more energy during activity. At the same time, their muscle density is 33% less than the men's and their ability to carry weights is lower.” The study found that the injury rate for female soldiers in Karakal is 40%, and in the Artillery Corps it reaches a whopping 70%. Knee pain among female combat soldiers is three times more common than among males, and tears in knee ligaments are also more common in women.  Women drop out of the combat track for medical reasons at rates that are 2 to 5 times those of men's. Despite all this evidence, the IDF is making an effort to combat physiological nature and reduce women's injury rates... The IDF will also change the training exercises and diet to “fit” them to women. Presumably, training for women will be made even less demanding than it is now."
Biology is sexist

Overuse Injuries Among Female Combat Warriors in the Israeli Defense Forces: A Cross-sectional Study - " The average lost training days was 11 d for females as compared with 8 d for males. The overall rates of stress fractures and the rates of femur and femoral neck stress fractures were significantly higher among females as compared with males (11.2% vs. 2.5%, p = 0.0032, and 7.8% vs. 1.6% p = 0.00001, respectively)."

Why some religious Israelis are saying women are weakening the army - "Critics have also alleged that the army has lowered its combat fitness standards to accommodate female soldiers and protect them from injury. They note that mixed gender brigades carry lighter weapons and less ammunition, and they allege that training has been made easier... The mixed-gender brigades have largely taken over guarding the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, allowing more heavily armed units to focus on more urgent security needs... “The IDF is not just about security issues. It is also a social institution, and there was a lot of demand to integrate women”"

Women in the Israeli military just aren't cut out for combat roles - "Many young men and women in Israel want to serve in a variety of posts and functions during their military service, but find that the army isnt keen. Youngsters with impaired vision cannot fulfill the dream of entering flight training, those whose physical profile isnt high enough cannot be infantry combatants, etc. Equality, which everyone in the army has been touting in recent years, doesnt exist as far as theyre concerned. If youre wearing glasses, you probably wont be able to be a pilot. And yet, the requirement that a soldier be physically suitable for a military position disappears as soon as it comes to enlisting women in combat units... In a recent interview, the armys Ground Forces Command chief, Maj. Gen. Kobi Barak, said that in the worst-case scenario female tank crew members will have difficulty loading shells. Why is the army pushing them into a post that isnt physically suitable for them?... Contributing to the state must mean serving in places in which soldiers can do their best, and not insisting on fulfilling tasks which our physical strength doesnt enable us to perform optimally. We must put the good of the Israel Defense Forces and carrying out the mission with minimum casualties first, before our desires and dreams.The IDF was meant for us to serve its needs, not for it to serve our wishes. The IDF isnt a summer camp to make dreams come true, but Israels defense wall. We must not forget that."

Exposé: Female IDF combat soldiers at health risk - "In the process of training the command hierarchy, emphasis should be placed on the physiological differences between men and women in the physical aspects of the training. In addition, the female fighters should be allowed seven hours of net sleep, to ensure the presence of logistical details suitable for female fighters such as clothing, menstrual needs, weapons, and more.The document also states that "lowering weight burdens" should be performed, and specifies, for example, the use of lighter radio equipment, and "four cartridges in the vest instead of six."It was also determined that the maximum weight allowed for females is 33% of body weight compared to 40% for fighting men."

Film Festival Guide - "The Toronto Film Festival started out in 1976 as a 'festival of festivals' - a collection of films from other festivals.Throughout the years, it has grown in size, and is considered by many to be only second to Cannes in terms of influence."

Judge cancels jury award to Dimock families; orders new trial - "A federal judge on Friday struck down a jury’s award of more than $4 million to two Pennsylvania families who claimed their well water was contaminated by gas drilling, saying the award bore little or no relationship to the evidence presented at the 2016 trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson of the Middle District of Pennsylvania ordered a new trial of the case brought by the families in Dimock, led by Scott Ely, who said at the original trial that their water had been contaminated since 2008.  The verdict in March of 2016 was hailed as a major victory by critics of the gas industry, who argued that the rural community of Dimock was a poster child for the hazards of shale gas development... He said the award “bore no discernible relationship” to the evidence, which he said was “at best limited.”  Even if the court were to find that the jury’s verdict of liability should stand, the damages could not withstand “even passing scrutiny”... the plaintiffs’ case “crumbles at the very issue of causation” because the problems existed before the company broke ground on the wells in late September, 2008. And he appeared to support the company’s argument, saying: “The evidence unquestionably showed that the plaintiffs had begun experiencing some problems with their water before the spud date for the Gesford wells.”"
The fact that the poster child for the alleged damage caused by fracking turned out to be misrepresented is telling

World-class sopranos let Atelier’s ‘Don Giovanni’ seduce us effortlessly - "With more than three decades of shows in its portfolio directed by the same person, a long-standing association with the Tafelmusik Orchestra and an ensemble of company-mainstay singers, Toronto’s Opera Atelier is as close as one gets to a sure bet in the world of musical theatre.Its remount of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1787 masterpiece “Don Giovanni” is no exception. Opening night at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Thursday was a treat from beginning to end. There seemed to be a bit less slapstick this time around in what Mozart described as a comedy, but the singing was of uniformly high calibre."

When I grow up... I want to be like mommy! [pic] : pics - "I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole. It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot."
According to some people this featured on Conan O'Brien and the text was added later

Shovel-Selling Pole Dancer - " As the artist’s mother told us, the picture was drawn by her seventeen-year-old daughter, and it was intended to represent a stripper, with the Home Depot commentary and the faux letter to the teacher having been added to it by others after it was posted on MySpace:
'My daughter’s name is Chelsea. We reside in Maine. She was 17 years old when she drew the picture as a joke. (She is now 22 years old; the drawing was made in 2007). She posted it on her MySpace page in 2007. It was then stolen and the teacher and parent comments added.
    Yes, it was meant to be a stripper or exotic dancer, although I am not one nor have I ever been! The teacher and parent comments were added by whoever stole the pic from Chelsea’s MySpace page.'"