Friday, January 31, 2020

Links - 31st January 2020 (1)

Chinese-made condoms too small, Zimbabwe’s health minister complains - "A Chinese condom manufacturer says it is considering making its products in different sizes after Zimbabwe’s health minister complained that contraceptives made in China and exported to the African nation were too small for its men."
"Stereotypes"

South African court says Chinese condoms "too small" - "A South African court has stopped the government from buying 11 million condoms from China on the grounds that the made-in-China condoms are too small.But the problem is not what you might expect — the condoms in this case are for women... The judge ruled that female condom supply was an urgent matter because it affects the spread of HIV/AIDS. South Africa has more HIV/AIDS infections than any other country in the world."

Ugandan men say condoms too small - "Insisting that one size doesn't fit all, MP Tom Aza said Uganda's Parliamentary Committee for HIV/AIDS said a recent tour of areas worst hit by the virus revealed that some men "have bigger sexual organs and therefore should be considered for bigger condoms.""When it comes to action, when they're having sexual activity, of course with the pressure, it bursts""

Expats say condoms don't fit - "Some expatriates from Europe and Africa complained to Shanghai Daily that they are always embarrassed about "ill-fitting" condoms in the city as almost all of them are designed to a standard Asian size, which may not fit them.Main condom suppliers including Durex, Jissbon and Okamoto confirmed that they supply condoms only with a common size suitable for Chinese men – their target consumer group.Sizes of condoms differ in various countries and Chinese condoms, usually 180mm long and 52mm wide, are slightly smaller in length and girth than those being sold in Western countries... A European who asked not to be named told Shanghai Daily that the problem has existed for many years and that he always has to bring condoms from his homeland.  He said one of his female friends got pregnant and had to get an abortion because her boyfriend couldn't find a "proper size" condom.  "Many foreigners find it embarrassing to talk about the problem, but it's still there unsolved while posing a danger to us of catching venereal diseases or having unwanted babies in unprotected sex""

Paracetamol/ibuprofen combinations for acute pain - "The evidence suggests that paracetamol/ibuprofen combinations available as a single pill can be offered as an alternative to codeine-based analgesics for short-term management of pain in patients able to take NSAIDs and for whom paracetamol alone is not sufficient."

Liquid-Filled Capsules vs. Tablet Pills (Uncoated vs. Coated) - "Liquid-filled capsules tend to be absorbed sooner than tablet pills; therefore, they begin working faster. This is because the body needs nutrients to be suspended in some form of a liquid before it can begin breaking them down and using them. When a capsule is already in liquid form, all the body has to do is break down the coating surrounding the liquid and then it can absorb the contents. Tablet pills will have to be broken down completely first, which can take longer.On average, a liquid filled capsule may be broken down and absorbed into the bloodstream in only a few minutes while it can take 20-30 minutes for a tablet pill to be absorbed. For this reason, liquid-filled capsules are generally considered to be faster-acting and often more powerful than tablet pills. The contents may also be more completely absorbed than those of tablet pills. Liquid-filled capsules may also wear off more quickly, however. Liquid and coated tablet pills are generally easier to swallow than uncoated tablet pills and may not cause as much as an aftertaste or bad taste in the mouth."

Vegan Says That She's 'Poisoned for Life' After Accidentally Being Served Sausage Roll - "[Sharleen] Ndugo says that she's never returning to Greggs, not after being "traumatized for life" by a mixup with her order. Last week, she stopped into a store in Canterbury, England for two vegan rolls, but was mistakenly given the OG sausage versions. She said that she started having heart palpitations almost immediately after taking a bite, and she knew that she'd been served meat by mistake."
Given that she's only been vegan for two years, this is clearly just grandstanding and offence mongering

Nursery serving 100% vegan menu sparks outrage - "A nursery has sparked outrage after becoming one of the first in Britain to introduce an exclusively vegan menu for its pupils.Jigsaw Day Nurseries in Chester will no longer serve meat or dairy products to the 260 children in their care as of January 2020.Instead, the children, who are aged between 0 and 4 years of age, can expect to be served up lentil-based ‘Shepherdless Pie’, potato and pea curry and Hungarian goulash.Angry parents have reacted with fury to the decision, which they claim was made without consulting them."
Hopefully they go out of business

CNN Reliable Sauces with Brian Seltzer - Posts - "Gabrielle Union Fired from America's Got Talent After Voicing Concerns Over Toxic Culture"
"Basically she was a killjoy who was trying to get other ppl fired, but got fired herself. Good. Needs to happen more often."

The heritability of self-control: A meta-analysis - "Genes significantly contribute to differences in self-control: the overall heritability is 60%.
The heritability is the same for boys and girls, and across age"

Grandma Wanda Dench, who invited wrong teen Jamal Hinton to Thanksgiving, shares 4th holiday with him - "An Arizona grandmother and a teenager have carried on a Thanksgiving tradition that began four years ago -- all because of a text that was sent to the wrong person.It all started when now 62-year-old Wanda Dench thought she was texting her own grandson about Thanksgiving dinner plans but accidentally texted now 20-year-old Jamal Hinton instead.The wrong messages went viral on social media, and the pair decided to meet in real life. The pair had so much fun together that Hinton has joined Dench's family for Thanksgiving each year."

Illegal immigrant who raped woman with Down’s can’t be deported as he won’t sign paper - "Harjit Singh, 48, who has been in the UK for 19 years, is unwilling to co-operate with a Home Office bid to arrange emergency travel documents to get him flown out. Officials are unable to resort to tougher measures and will have to turn to the Indian embassy for help, an immigration hearing was told... Singh tried to rape her, but bizarrely fell asleep, and the woman alerted neighbours.He admitted attempted rape and trespass with intent to commit a sexual act and was given a further six months after sexually assaulting two nurses at the Royal Free Hospital, north London, in 2015. But Singh, who requires a Punjabi interpreter, absconded while on licence from prison and was put into detention.His delaying tactics emerged as he applied for bail while the deportation process continues... A Home Office lawyer said Singh failed to attend two appointments to fill out necessary papers. She said: "There is no barrier to the applicant's removal. All appeal rights have been exhausted."But Singh's legal team said he did not know he needed to attend and denied that his removal was imminent. They said he would use the extra time to keep fighting deportation."Amazing - criminals can refuse to sign documentation and nothing can be done about them

The Meme Policeman - "It seems fashionable to paint the Pilgrims and Puritans as greedy invaders, set on seizing land and killing the natives, but this is not accurate. Modern historians specializing in this field give a much more favorable view of the early American settlers than many might think. The following are some interesting findings taken from Columbia University historian Alden Vaughan's scholarly work, New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675:
... -Virtually all land acquired by the Puritans was done by voluntary means. The Indian tribes were often more than willing to trade land, which they had more than they could ever use, for new tools like metal plows and knives. In fact, it was the Indian tribes who typically approached the settlers to sell land. The Puritans were warmly welcomed into the Connecticut Valley, as the local natives wanted protection from their enemy, the Pequot Tribe.
-The Puritans actually believed the Indians to be WHITE. They thought they were one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, and their darker skin was a result of the sun and the harsh elements, not of a different race. While they thought themselves to be culturally superior, they didn't view themselves as racially superior. Most saw their purpose as integrating and converting the Indians to adopt their customs. Not to conquer or slaughter them.
-Puritans invited and encouraged the natives to attend their schools, both grade school and higher learning. The 1650 charter of Harvard declared its mission "the education of the English and Indian youth". Unfortunately, most of the Indians who did integrate into their schools and society were decimated by disease, a reoccurring problem. The primary reason for the decline in Indian population was disease...
-Puritan courts generally decided in favor of the Indians during land disputes. The historical records show a much fairer system than most would think today in settling disputes and crimes.
-Like every society, the Puritans were complex, imperfect and indeed committed atrocities. In particular, the Mystic Fort massacre during the Pequot War, where hundreds of Pequot tribal members, including women and children, were surrounded and killed. However, the lead up to this conflict was nuanced, with both sides bearing responsibility. Additionally, the Mohegan tribe joined the Puritans in fighting the Pequots during the war. The real history of the early settlers is much more complex (and interesting) than the standard Thanksgiving fairy tale or the more contemporary notion that they were greedy, bloodthirsty, genocidal invaders."

Segments of Random Thoughts - Posts - "Data shows that American left-wing white people are the only group who view their own race negatively." (Source: ANES 2018 Pilot Survey - Mean In-Group Bias by Race/Ethnicity)
So much for it being a myth that liberals hate white people
Addendum: Add to this how liberals value the lives of black people more

CNN Reliable Sauces with Brian Seltzer - Posts - "Why are people so afraid to put far-leftists in charge of the World? We just want everyone to be equal.
Well except for white people, men, and straight people. They all have the original sin of privilege and should be constantly demonized and punished for having life so easy. It's only fair."

We’re not as different from the Nazis as we like to think - HistoryExtra - "The American historian Norman Finkelstein, whose parents survived the Nazi camps, has even attacked the ‘Holocaust industry’... The great danger, it seems to me, is for the Holocaust to become ossified, to be cordoned off as the stuff of museums and costume dramas. There is a tendency, exacerbated by our eagerness to cast the Nazis as supremely and uniquely evil, to see it as a uniquely German crime, orchestrated by a gang of fanatical madmen. In fact, many of the people who carried it out were otherwise decent husbands and fathers, people like us.Similarly, much as we congratulate ourselves on our record during the Second World War, Britain has its own history of anti-Semitism"

Britain has 'remorseless obsession' with Nazi Germany, former British Museum director says - "The British schools syllabus has helped create a "remorseless obsession" with Nazi Germany, the former director of the British Museum Neil MacGregor has said, as he condemns the "preposterous" analogy of comparing the EU with Hitler. MacGregor, a leading historian who now works in Germany, said Britain focused far too heavily on the Second World War when it considered Germany, missing out on its art and culture... "It's not a phenomenon that you find anywhere else in Western Europe, and I find it very striking."I think it's something to do with the syllabus in this country, which focuses overwhelmingly on the 20th century and those parts of the 20th century."... Referring to memorials, he added the Cecil Rhodes debate, about the Oxford statue some students are not protesting against, could be settled if Britain took a leaf out of Germany's book to take objects "from a celebration of the person to objects of reflection on the complexity of that person."MacGregor also answered questions about recent protests at the British Museum against BP, which sponsor its exhibitions, warning campaigners had now moved beyond their old "respectful" tactics of being "scrupulously careful" about the safety of visitors and collections."
From 2016. I wonder if he feels the same about the moral panic about Trump or Americans' similar neuroses about Nazis

Operation Coldstore and the perils of academic misinformation - "I launched at the National Library my book Original Sin? Revising The Revisionist Critique Of The 1963 Operation Coldstore In Singapore.The book essentially critiqued the notion by Dr Thum and similar "revisionist" historians that Coldstore was mounted for crass political reasons rather than legitimate security ones."

P J Thum and Ramakrishna: Dangers of a steamrolled narrative - "We are at a point where a dominant political party is relentlessly pushing its narrative of the events that shaped the nation. With a formidable array of resources at its disposal – think tanks, research centres, universities, even libraries and state-of-the-art book publishing capability – the danger is that such a “dettolised” narrative will be accepted by non-sceptical future generations as the absolute truth.Should we allow such a steam-rolling of the nation’s history to take place?What resources do people who disagree with the narrative have to present their case?"

Visiting Auschwitz, Merkel Warns Against Danger to Liberal Democracy - The New York Times - "At a time of rising nationalist and authoritarian movements, Angela Merkel  on Friday made her first visit as Germany’s chancellor to Europe’s most potent symbol of extremism, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, and warned that liberal democracy must be protected against “a very dangerous historical revisionism.”"
This is an amusing contrast between "revisionism" in German history and Singaporean. In some contexts people are happy with the government privileging and sanctifying a historical narrative. But sacred narratives aren't allowed to be questioned. A national religion cannot be an academic discipline.

The German Right Believes It’s Time to Discard the Country’s Historical Guilt - WSJ - "“The negation of our own national interests is something that has become a political maxim in Germany since World War II," said AfD leader Frauke Petry... “German history is reduced to 12 years of Nazi rule. People use this to convince others, especially young people, that they are Nazis and must do good in the world.”... Mr. Höcke said World War II began as a local conflict in which Hitler understandably sought to reclaim territory lost after World War I. “The big problem is that one presents Hitler as absolutely evil,” Mr. Höcke said. “But of course we know that there is no black and no white in history.”... the history of the Holocaust is covered comprehensively in German schools, but German suffering, including the bombing of Dresden and Russian and American mistreatment of German prisoners of war, is given short shrift... Many Germans are proud of facing the darkest era in their past more directly than other countries have, and remain skeptical of the concept of patriotism. In a 2015 poll, only 38% said they were proud to be German. AfD supporters, by contrast, often say they are tired of atoning for crimes they didn’t commit."
Looks like historical nuance and avoiding absolutes is for the "far right"
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