Saturday, May 22, 2021

Links - 22nd May 2021

David Olusoga On 'A House Through Time': HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "Bristol is an extremely politically fractious city. It's got a long history of riots right up to 2011. When there was a riot over the opening of a, of a Tesco’s in the city"

Henry Avery: The Legendary 17th-Century Pirate | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "There are kind of three models for making and sharing wealth, that are at the center of the story. We've got this new model of the publicly traded corporation in the East India Company, you've got this very old model of an autocrat in Aurangzeb, in the grand Mughal dynasty. But then, on the pirate ship, there is this very interesting economic system that had developed in the early days of piracy that Avery's gang exemplified as well which is, they, they were effectively a little kind of profit sharing collective. So every pirate ship had articles of agreements that were signed by the pirates. They, they, it was a functioning democracy. You could vote out the captain if you wanted to. It's actually a kind of divided governance system before the American system was developed, because the quartermaster was also a leader but had a different set of powers and he could be voted out as well. And then they had elaborate economic agreements that were probably the most egalitarian economic structure on the face of the earth at this point of time. So when they, if they were lucky enough to come into treasure, they established in advance the ratios that the treasure would be distributed and many pirate ships, it was two to one, like the captain would get two pieces of gold for every one that an ordinary crew member would get. You know, you think about the modern American corporation that the high low wage ratio was like 500 to one right. So these were very egalitarian systems. And in part because of that, the pirates developed a kind of mythology around them as kind of Working Class Heroes, and in part because they had these economically progressive systems, but also because at this moment in time there was, there were very few other avenues to ascend from poverty to relative wealth right?"

Rutger Bregman’s Optimistic History Of The World | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "'The so called Dark Ages, you know, that we always talk about the Greek Dark Ages, for example, or the you know, the Middle Ages are sometimes called the Dark Ages, are for many people actually great. You know, a Dark Age was great, because then you were not being oppressed by some powerful monarch anymore, right. And there was more freedom. And people lived healthier lives as well, because they're, we're not being cramped together as slaves in cities anymore'...
‘Is your argument then that is power but also farming is that right? That causes these kind of downturns in people's fortunes?’
‘Yeah, it really starts with people settling down. So for example, if you look at the archaeology of war, there's hardly any archaeological evidence for warfare before, the moment that we settled down which around 10, 12,000 years ago. There have been 3000 skulls, skeletons have been found that are old enough sort of to, sort of to account for how do you say this, from the state of nature as Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau called it and no evidence of violence or almost none. If you look at cave paintings, for example, and you would expect that if there really was some kind of war of all against all going on, that someone, some artists from the stone age would say, you know what, today I'm going to make a nice painting of this war of all against all. But it has, hasn't been found, right? Even though we've got hundreds of cave paintings of people or hunting deers or bisons or whatever. But then after people settle down, once they became sedentary, you suddenly do find these cave paintings, which is very suggestive, I think. So that was one thing that is wrong. Agriculture makes things even worse, right? Because if you look at people's health, for example, well, the nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle is, is not too bad actually. You get a bit of exercise, you have a varied diet, a bit of fruit, vegetables, a bit of meat, but then you settle down and and you eat the same thing all day. Grain, ,grain grain, and you have to work very hard for it as well. Right? No pain, no grain… And then if you look at infectious diseases, right, I mean, Corona itself, right? COVID-19 that is a very modern civilized disease that we get, because we live too close to our animals, right?'...
‘And given that humans aren't these kind of brutes and these savages who have been saved by civilization, where did that idea come from? And why is it so powerful?’
‘Well, I think it's in the interest of those in power, right?’"
Strange how he ignores the evidence of hunter-gatherer (or chimpanzee - and even bonobo) warfare and violence

Rethinking The Renaissance | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "Christian bankers technically, are not meant to lend money at interest. It's a sin very much like the current Islamic prohibition on lending money at interest. That still applies today. Christians have got rid of it now. But obviously a lot of bankers, in effect did this. And so in order to kind of repent for their sins, they would donate large sums of money to their local churches to pay for artworks in churches, these also incidentally have the ability to have, you know, the side effect of making their family chapels look very wealthy and glamorous, which wasn't a bad thing. And but there is this kind of relationship between art commissioning, particularly of religious works, and repenting for your sin in the way that you've done commerce.'
‘So you think that the the reputation that renascence actually has for being essentially the pinnacle of fine art is, is relatively fair?’
‘Well, it's, I mean, there were some fabulous developments in art that take place gradually over this period. I mean, you know, the difference in the kind of, you know, emotional and human content of 16th century Renaissance art, that kind of level of realism in some of the portraits, is quite dramatically different from what has gone before’"

“Husband Posting Abusive Comments Against Wife On Social Media Is Domestic Violence”: Gujarat Court
Comment elsewhere: "Of course her doing the same gets a “yass Queen” and a “stunning and brave” plaque and cash award from every business on the planet."

Left-wing psychopaths celebrate the death of President Trump’s brother
"Keep in mind that right now, at this very moment, the people in Canada and the United States who are laughing about the death of Trump's brother are the same people who admonished us not to celebrate when Osama bin Laden was killed."
It is bad to kill terrorists. It is good to celebrate the death of white men you don't like (or white men related to them)

Gad Saad on Twitter - "IN ONE GENERATION:The Iraqi Christian population has gone from 1.3 million to under 120,000.Syria’s Christian population has gone from 1.5 million to under 500,000.⠀This IS genocide.@forthemartyrs is working to bring attention to this crisis."
"No, no, no. This can’t be true because where the Noble Faith flourishes, peace flourishes. The Christians disappeared because they left of their volition. They are [redacted]-phobic. Same with the Jews in the Middle East outside of Falasteen."

Where do all those weird stock photos come from? - "To anyone considering a career in stock photography, Dennis stresses that no matter where your skills lie or what you’re most comfortable shooting, it will take a lot more than just a few images of skylines or of retired couples on the beach to be successful. “In today’s ultra visual world, an image maker has to understand the current visual language, the emerging trends, and the way that images are being used.”"

PAGE 1-100 - Posts - "Stop looking at my ass"
*No ass*

From Southern Tradition to Mechanical Marvel: How Fried Chicken Lost its Bones - "American bone-in fried chicken is as old as the Thirteen Colonies, in large part thanks to Scottish immigrants, keen on frying chicken, who settled in the southern colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Southern tradition was perpetuated by African slaves, who "were allowed to own chickens"... slaves "managed [chickens] and sold the eggs back to the slaveholder and other whites in their neighborhoods." When the hens grew too old to lay eggs, slaves would fry the birds in lard.For 200 years, this traditional fried chicken went largely unchanged. Sure, it was subject to all kinds of regional variations, batters, dredges, and spices, but the fundamental recipe was always the same: hack up a chicken, coat it in starch, and fry it in fat. It always had bones... "20 years ago, most chicken was sold whole;" Eric Schlosser wrote in Fast Food Nation in 2001, "today about 90 percent of the chicken sold in the United States has been cut into pieces, cutlets, or nuggets."... [1992] marked the first time Americans consumed more chicken than beef. The numbers would never revert. I asked Mr. Gagliardi why he thinks there is such demand for boneless meat. "Because, let's face it," he started, "Americans are lazy eaters. They don't like to eat fish with bones. They don't like to eat anything with bones.""

2015 SAT test results confirm pattern that’s persisted for 40+ years — high school boys are better at math than girls - "Continuing an uninterrupted trend that dates back to at least 1972, high school boys outperformed girls on the 2015 SAT math test with an average score of 527 points compared to the average score of 496 for females, see chart above. The statistically significant 31-point male advantage this year on the SAT math test is the same as the 31-point difference last year, and just slightly below the 33.9 point difference over the last two decades favoring boys... The statistically significant difference in math test scores in favor of boys is consistent across all ethnic groups... high school girls had superior overall academic high school records compared to boys... High school girls were over-represented in advanced AP/Honors math classes (54%) compared to boys (46%), and also in advanced AP/Honors science classes by 56% to 44%... For those high school students taking four years of high school mathematics, girls were over-represented (55%) compared to boys (45%), and more of the students studying natural sciences for four years were female students (54%) than male (46%)... Despite the persistent, statistically significant differences in math performance by gender on the math SAT test that have continued for generations, we hear statements like this: “There just aren’t gender differences anymore in math performance,” according to University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Janet Hyde... compared to boys, high school girls get better grades on average, and are far more likely to graduate in the top 10% of their high school classes, and are much more likely than boys to attend and graduate from college and go on to graduate schools. By all objective measures, girls have essentially all of the necessary ingredients that should result in greater representation in STEM fields like engineering and computer science except perhaps for one: a huge, statistically significant and persistent 30-point gender gap on the SAT math test in favor of boys that has persisted for more than 40 years. If there are some inherent gender differences for mathematical ability, as the huge and persistent gender differences for the math SAT test suggests, closing the STEM gender degree and job gaps may be a futile attempt in socially engineering an unnatural and unachievable outcome."
The power of "patriarchy"
Of course in feminist theory, "patriarchy" shows no dose-response effect, which is why lower sexism doesn't reduce the alleged "ill effects" of "patriarchy". Alternatively I've seen feminists seriously claim that Sweden isn't less sexist than third world countries, which is why they have even fewer women in STEM

Optical illusion will make you question this quaint scene - "The illustration, titled 'Blue Plate Special,' was created by artist Jeff Lee Johnson as part of a book for the upcoming game 'The Investigators of Arkham Horror.' The game was inspired by the works of famous horror author H.P. Lovecraft, so it comes as no surprise that the illustration has equally creepy undertones."

Renson Seow - Singapore YouTuber Dee Kosh Accused Of Sexual Harassment
"I remember this guy's glee when participating in previous metoos and cancels.Now suddenly listen to the other side, due process and evidence becomes so important. Wonder what changed."

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