Links - 17th April 2020 (2)

US ambassador's moustache gets up South Korea's nose - "Tensions may be running high on the Korean peninsula, but Harry Harris’s facial hair is vying with denuclearisation as the defining theme of his tenure as US ambassador to South Korea.Harris, a former navy admiral who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and an American navy officer, has been accused of insulting his hosts by growing a moustache that reminds many South Koreans of the days of Japanese colonial rule... “My moustache, for some reason, has become a point of some fascination here,” he said, according to reports. “I have been criticised in the media here, especially in social media, because of my ethnic background, because I am a Japanese-American.” Harris said he had been largely clean-shaven during his 40-year naval career but had decided to grow a moustache to mark the start of his diplomatic career.“I wanted to make a break between my life as a military officer and my new life as a diplomat,” he said last month, according to the Korea Times. “I tried to get taller, but I couldn’t grow any taller, and so I tried to get younger, but I couldn’t get younger. But I could grow a moustache, so I did that”... Harris pointed out that no one had made similar criticisms of moustachioed Korean independence leaders, adding that while he understood the historical background to present-day tensions between Japan and South Korea, he was not going to play down his ethnicity in response to racist comments on social media.“I am who I am,” he said. “All I can say is that every decision I make is based on the fact that I’m the American ambassador to Korea, not the Japanese American ambassador to Korea.”And the moustache, it seems, is here to stay. Asked if he intended to shave it off, Harris replied: “You would have to convince me that somehow the moustache is viewed in a way that hurts our relationship”."

Excess Tongue Fat Could Be Leading to Sleep Apnea, Scientists Find

Send memes to cure depression - Posts - "Honda power of dream
#hdi"

Piers Morgan says black people calling him a 'white gammon' is racist - "‘Let me tell you what’s so offensive about this Piers, especially with you,’ Shola answered. ‘You are a man, privileged to have power and influence and you are using your platform so irresponsibly to spout out this personal vendetta with nasty and vile comments knowing full well that your words are containing bigotry, misogyny, sexism and racism. ‘You don’t take responsibility for how you have contributed to the so-called royal crisis. So when you ask me where is racism, it is not my job teach you about racism.’"
So conveniently she can make wild unsubstantiated accusations of racism while being racist herself and claim the moral high ground because she refuses to justify her claims

Ugandan imam is suspended after finding out his wife of two weeks was actually a man - "A Ugandan imam has been suspended after discovering his new wife was actually a man.Sheikh Mohammed Mutumba, 27, found out the truth when his bride was caught stealing a TV from a neighbour and was searched by police.The thief later admitted pretending to be a woman so he could marry the imam and steal his money... Shocked Mutumba has been suspended from his duties as a cleric at the Kyampisi Masjid Noor mosque while an investigation is carried out... He claimed he hadn't been intimate with his 'wife' since the wedding two weeks before because she told him she was menstruating... Her true identity was exposed when she was arrested for the theft of a television set and clothes from his next door neighbors.A female police officer carried out a body search on the suspect, thinking she was a woman, and found out she was actually a man... Friends and colleagues said they were also fooled by the imposter, who usually wore a hijab.Amisi Kibunga, who also works at the mosque, said: 'He had a sweet soft voice and walked like a woman.'... The mosque's head imam, Sheikh Isa Busuulwa, said the suspension was necessary to 'preserve the integrity of their faith.'"
Apparently it's his fault he got tricked?

Pro TaeKwonDo Competition in South Korea Now Uses TEKKEN Style Life Bars to Keep Score - "Each fighter starts out with 100 points of health, which depletes immediately after the corresponding "point" is scored. This makes it easier than ever for casual spectators in the audience to follow the pace of the fight and see who's in the lead."

Police recall guidance listing 'Muslim beliefs' as signs of extremism - "Counter terror police are recalling official guidance which suggested that ‘Muslims who believe they are oppressed’ could be a sign of extremism."
Yet, we are told that Western foreign policy (which makes Muslims feel oppressed) is what causes terrorism

Sexy robot influencers are taking over Instagram — and coming for your jobs - "On Instagram, there’s a woman so gorgeous that admiring fans wonder how she could possibly be human.“You don’t even look real. You [look] like a painting,” one user commented after the South African model, who goes by Shudu, posted a dreamy photo of herself wearing a gauzy pink dress, gold African neck rings and a powder-pink turban. “Omg!!! Im in love.”... these otherworldly beauties are landing lucrative partnerships with the biggest names in fashion, such as Balmain, Calvin Klein and Dior. Social-media-savvy celebrities are embracing them as well; Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid and Zendaya have all appeared in photos and videos with their digital counterparts. Even top modeling agencies, including IMG and Lipps, have signed on to manage the most popular bots... unlike humans, bots present brands with a unique level of control: “They won’t do anything the brand doesn’t want them to do.”... Wilson wasn’t intentionally trying to “deceive anyone,” he says, but a “ ’Black Mirror’ moment” with a T-shirt company prompted him to finally come clean.Eager to collaborate with Shudu, the T-shirt company sent the model a yellow sample to wear in an Instagram post for cash. Wilson, determined to prove his skills, then created a digital version for Shudu to wear and posted the pic. When the company believed the shirt — and photo — were real, Wilson was shocked... Wilson unmasked himself in a Harper’s Bazaar piece in 2018, but the confession was met with outrage, mainly by critics who viewed him as a white man profiting off the image of a black woman... Just like living influencers, the virtual ones showcase their “lives” through posts about travel, heartbreak, activism and, in Lil Miquela’s case, sexual assault... Wilson believes the bots have even more potential to do good, by reducing air travel and ground transportation for photo shoots and by eliminating the need for sample clothing, all of which could have a positive environmental impact."

The medications that change who we are - "Over the years, Golomb has collected reports from patients across the United States – tales of broken marriages, destroyed careers, and a surprising number of men who have come unnervingly close to murdering their wives. In almost every case, the symptoms began when they started taking statins, then promptly returned to normal when they stopped; one man repeated this cycle five times before he realised what was going on... We’re all familiar with the mind-bending properties of psychedelic drugs – but it turns out ordinary medications can be just as potent. From paracetamol (known as acetaminophen in the US) to antihistamines, statins, asthma medications and antidepressants, there’s emerging evidence that they can make us impulsive, angry, or restless, diminish our empathy for strangers, and even manipulate fundamental aspects of our personalities, such as how neurotic we are... The world is in the midst of a crisis of over-medication, with the US alone buying up 49,000 tonnes of paracetamol every year – equivalent to about 298 paracetamol tablets per person – and the average American consuming $1,200 worth of prescription medications over the same period... in the UK, one in 10 people over the age of 65 already takes eight medications every week... Golomb first suspected a connection between statins and personality changes nearly two decades ago, after a series of mysterious discoveries, such as that people with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths... if you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. There was even a potential mechanism: lowering the animals’ cholesterol seemed to affect their levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical thought to be involved in regulating mood and social behaviour in animals. Even fruit flies start fighting if you mess up their serotonin levels, but it also has some unpleasant effects in people – studies have linked it to violence, impulsivity, suicide and murder... Several studies have supported a potential link between irritability and statins, including a randomised controlled trial – the gold-standard of scientific research – that Golomb led, involving more than 1,000 people. It found that the drug increased aggression in post-menopausal women though, oddly, not in men. In 2018, a study uncovered the same effect in fish. Giving statins to Nile tilapia made them more confrontational and – crucially – altered the levels of serotonin in their brains. This suggests that the mechanism that links cholesterol and violence may have been around for millions of years... But Golomb’s most unsettling discovery isn’t so much the impact that ordinary drugs can have on who we are – it’s the lack of interest in uncovering it... Mischkowski’s own research has uncovered a sinister side-effect of paracetamol. For a long time, scientists have known that the drug blunts physical pain by reducing activity in certain brain areas, such as the insular cortex, which plays an important role in our emotions. These areas are involved in our experience of social pain, too – and intriguingly, paracetamol can make us feel better after a rejection."

Make it Last - "When I started losing weight I noticed people started talking to me or being nicer to me and that my husband started being more affectionate towards me.I would lay in bed and think “fuck man, people didn’t like me before because I was fat” and I would feel bad. The kind of bad that you feel in your bones, it makes your body ache. I didn’t like to think my worth was directly tied to my weight.What I’ve come to realize is that it’s me. I’m nicer, im more approachable,I’m in better moods, I smile. People want to talk to me because I want to talk to people. My husband is more affectionate with me because I’m more affectionate with him.They weren’t measuring my worth by my weight. I was :/"

In 2013, a soap opera was filmed in IKEA without the store knowing about it

quityourbullshit | Image | "Whore VS Hulk" : TranscribersOfReddit - "How come when the hulk smashes everything he's "incredible" but when i do "im a whore". Wow."
"The Hulk smashes bad guys and saves the world....you smash guys named Chaz, Chad, and Cooper and spread diseases"

Meme - "LGBT: IM GAY
Everyone Else: K
LGBT: IM REALLY FUCKING GAY
Everyone Else: K
LGBT: TEACH YOUR KIDS ABOUT IT OR YOU'RE a BIGOT
Everyone Else: Ok That's a Little Too Fa-
LGBT: FUCK YOU FASCIST
Everyone Else: Ok This Movement Has Gone Too Far
LGBT: Omg I'm So Oppressed"

Labour leadership: Jess Phillips vows to stop acting 'statesmanlike' - "At the hustings on Saturday, she said she and her colleagues needed to become “salespeople for socialism”."
I guess this is an admission that socialism won't work

15 Years Later, Here's Why A Gamer Was Duct-Taped To A Ceiling - "Few photos from the forum ages of online gaming live in greater infamy than one of what appears to be a human duct taped to the ceiling of a dimly lit basement, his arms reaching out to lightly graze the keys of a Dell mechanical keyboard."

Plus-Sized Women Admit They Aren't Attracted To Overweight Men - "These women open up about dealing with the stigma of being plus-sized and refusing to settle and date overweight men"
"Stigma". Strange how men who do something similar are shamed

Kris Johnson on Twitter - "“Serverless” means you have servers, but can’t configure/customize them. “No-code” means there is code, but you can’t change it. “NoSQL” means you have to learn a new query language and implement your own transaction mechanisms. Removing complexity is not always a win."

Keep Your Eyes On The Stars — whoneedsfeminism - "I need feminism because never having experienced street harassment shouldn’t make me feel unattractive."
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