Sunday, February 02, 2020

Links - 2nd February 2020 (2)

Tom Holland’s Drunk Phone Call Saved Spider-Man From MCU Exit

Art Basel Miami: Banana works by artist Maurizio Cattelan selling for $120,000 - "A banana, duct-taped to a wall went on a sale at Art Basel Miami Beach this week -- priced at around $120,000. And, according to the gallery behind the work, two of the three editions have already sold, with the last now going for even more... Entitled "Comedian," the artwork comprises a banana bought in a Miami grocery store and a single piece of duct tape. There are three editions, the gallery said, all of which were offered for sale. Prior to the reported sale, the gallery's founder, Emmanuel Perrotin, told CNN the bananas are "a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor," adding that the artist turns mundane objects into "vehicles of both delight and critique." Potential buyers should note there are no clear instructions about what to do if the bananas start to decompose."

Chris Pratt apologizes for posing with single use plastic bottle - "Actor Chris Pratt on Wednesday apologized for posting a photo on Instagram of him posing at a gym with a single-use plastic water bottle in his hand after “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa called out his fellow Hollywood star."
Uhh...

Singapore Property Glut Needs Foreign Buyers to Return - Bloomberg - "The number of units that developers have launched for sale, but remain unsold, reached almost 4,400 in the third quarter, a 3.5-fold increase from just before the government imposed harsh curbs on purchases. Speculation is frowned upon. Except for Singaporean citizens buying a first property, everyone now pays a stiff duty. Foreign-born permanent residents are levied as much as 15% for a second home. Overseas buyers who aren’t permanent residents are charged 20%. The oversupply of unsold new homes is thus an engineered solution"

moo moo cow on Twitter - "If white people could press a magic button to instantly undo slavery would they press it? Of course If black people could press a magic button to instantly undo slavery (they would still live in Africa tho) would they press it? They would never press that fucking button lol"

Eureka Moments Have A “Dark Side”: They Can Make False Facts Seem True - "When participants successfully solved the anagram — on about 60% of trials — they rated the statements as more true than when they failed to figure it out. This effect held regardless of whether the statement was actually true or false."

Ewoks Are the Most Tactically Advanced Fighting Force in Star Wars | WIRED - "You might rightly ask: If the Empire is so bad at war, why is it the top bantha in the galaxy? That’s easy. The Rebel Alliance is even worse. They have virtually zero ground game, minus some special ops units here and there. Their smattering of freedom fighters with small arms don’t stand a chance against Imperial armor. Hoth alone showed that Rebel forces had no clue how to conduct ground combat, as they failed to place a single obstacle along the enemy’s lone avenue of approach. They didn’t develop an integrated fires plan or coordinate their close air support with the infantry defense. In short, there’s no need to develop tactics if your enemy relies on hope as their main strategy. No wonder, then, that the Imperial garrison on the forest moon of Endor is horribly unprepared to face the Ewoks. As others have pointed out, the Ewoks seem to portray your garden variety insurgent or guerrilla force; George Lucas himself has said that he drew inspiration from the Vietnam War. But the Ewoks are also the only fighters in all of Star Wars to portray multi-domain operations. They force their enemies to respond to a variety of threats simultaneously, throwing them off balance and allowing the Ewoks to seize the initiative"

Dad Punishes Teen Daughter By Taking Over Her Social Media For 2 Weeks, His Posts Receive More Likes Than Hers - "When Tawnya Ford and Larry Sumpter found out that their 15-year-old daughter, Madelynn, had helped sneak boys into a sleepover party, they came up with two forms of punishment. And they let Maddie choose. Either a month without a phone or two weeks without a phone but the parents get complete control of her social media."

Asians have at least 10 ancestral lineages, northern Europeans just one: NTU-hosted genetic study - "A ground-breaking genetic study has found that Asians, who form over 40 per cent of the world’s population, can be traced to at least 10 different ancestral groups or lineages. In contrast, northern Europeans can be grouped into just one. Despite this broad diversity, Asians are hugely under-represented in human genetic studies, accounting for only 6 per cent of the world’s recorded genome sequences previously... “Doctors commonly always ask: ‘Do you have any drug allergies?’” she said. “But you won’t know till you actually use it.” She noted that different groups could be harmed by a particular medication. For instance, she said that people with a North Asian ancestry – such as Japanese, Korean, Mongolian or Chinese – have a higher than usual risk of an adverse response to the drug Warfarin, which is a common anticoagulant drug prescribed to treat cardiovascular diseases."
Since race is a myth, why is this needed?

World must prepare for biological weapons that target ethnic groups based on genetics, says Cambridge University - "Biological weapons could be built which target individuals in a specific ethnic group based on their DNA, a report by the University of Cambridge has warned... “In a particularly bad case, a bio-weapon could be built to target a specific ethnic group based on its genomic profile” The report also warns that AI could become ‘extremely harmful and potentially unstoppable.’ Companies like Google DeepMind have built AI programmes which are already showing signs of human intuition.
Since race is a myth, this is fake news and alarmism

Gender Inclusive Scouts of America's New All-Girl Boy Scout Troop - "News that an all new, all-girl, [Boy] Scout group celebrated its first meeting in Wooster, Ohio, has met with justifiable criticism online. The news comes almost a year after the Boy Scouts organization, under pressure from activists, dropped the gender-specific prefix, allowing girls to join. Popular, meme-heavy, Facebook page, Ron Paul’s Bat noted:
    So you fought to become part of the Boy Scouts, just so you could start you own girl only troop and do things separate from boys? That sounds like girl scouts with extra steps."
"Inclusion" ends up excluding people. Why fight to open up and take over male spaces, only to colonise them?

Unofficial Artist formally known as Diversity and Comics Yaboiposting - Posts - "*Megan Rapinoe: Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year* That awkward moment when you need a hammer to "smash the patriarchy" because your professional woman's team can't even beat high school boys at soccer"

Why Cruise Lines Keep Cutting Their Ships in Half for Stretching - Bloomberg - "A few weeks ago, John Delaney, president of Seattle-based Windstar Cruises, stood on a scaffold at a historic shipyard in Palermo, Italy, and took a blowtorch to the Star Breeze, a 30-year-old, 212-passenger motor yacht.With sparks flying, and shipyard workers and invited guests cheering him on, Delany made the final vertical cut to chop Star Breeze in half. But he was hardly destroying the small ship—he was doing just the opposite.In a process called “stretching,” the Star Breeze is getting pulled apart to make room for a new, 84-foot, 1,250-ton prefab midsection addition. Think of it like unsnapping (or unwelding) two Legos and putting another block in between. But with a boat."

Alcohol tolerance may have saved our ancestors from extinction - "About ten million years ago, our African ape ancestors were eating fallen fruits on the forest floor—many of which would have begun to ferment and become alcoholic.At the time, ape populations were crashing in the face of competition with monkey species which were able to eat unripe fruit—which apes, like humans, struggle to digest.What seems to have saved at least one line of apes, the book says, was a genetic adaptation that allowed them to process alcohol, meaning they could begin eating overripe fruits. Monkeys are unable to tolerate the ethanol in such fruits, and this new source of calories might have brought apes back from the brink... "Even today we see great apes eating fermented fruit and even drinking palm wine produced by humans"... "Alcohol has played an important role in how humans have used feasting to create and maintain their relationships," said Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford.  "Across cultures and in different time periods, it has consistently been a major part of the way humans socialise with each other. "Increasingly, alcohol is viewed as a medical issue, but alcohol abuse is only a small part of a much wider social pattern of alcohol use by humans.""

GrabFood rider drops 30kg in 9 months after switching from PMD to bicycle for deliveries - "He weighed 120kg at that point in time and cycling wasn't a simple joyride. "When I first started, I would only do two orders, and then I would be extremely [tired]... I was not fit at all," he recounted, going on to elaborate how he'd give up despite only earning $10 a day.Now, Imran is much fitter and sees to 25 orders a day, the same amount as when he used to deliver on his e-scooter.In the face of the e-scooter ban, he advised riders to allow themselves at least three months to adjust and get used to riding a bicycle. After all, he himself took around four to five months before things started to look up... making deliveries on bicycles is touted as a job that burns the most amount of fat, with firefighters taking second place"

Cody Cox - Lol - "Michelle Obama Looked Incredible In A Yellow Corseted Schiaparelli Gown At The American Portrait Gala *Awful dress*"
"The Washington Post attacks Melania Trump's 'ridiculous' jacket after approving of her Christmas decorations *Elegant dress*"

Meme - "I Sent Her a Picture, She Said "Nice Ass". Bitch That's My Stomach"

Former vegan YouTuber angers fans after announcing switch to carnivore diet - "A former vegan YouTuber is facing a backlash from fans after announcing that she participated in a 30-day challenge where she only ate animal products... According to the blogger, who followed a strict raw vegan diet for nearly five years, she decided to attempt an animal-product only diet because she wanted to relate to others.   “Coming from a history of being vegan for almost five years, I know what it’s like to lose myself in the identity of a diet culture and to lose true open mindedness”... The YouTuber from Connecticut also explained the benefits she noticed from eating the carnivore diet - considered an elimination diet or a diet that removes any possible food sensitivities - including feeling more “lean and comfortable in my body” and “having way more stable energy and focus throughout the day”."
I guess she proved the point about vegan intolerance
Interestingly she and her many vegan friends who started eating meat are yet more of the countless vegans who report health problems on a vegan diet


sonia on Twitter - "Man accused of exposing himself at public pool"
"I've never seen someone look so young yet so old, so feminine yet so masculine, so pretty yet so ugly. I am truly disturbed"
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