Harder, please. It’s 90 cents per face slap. Patrons pay to be smacked by Japanese izakaya’s female staff - "An izakaya in Japan, which was said to be on the verge of shuttering, gained fame and apparently revived its business – after it started offering patrons the service of being slapped on their faces before meals. At Shachihoko-ya izakaya in Nagoya, there was initially one female staff member who carried out the striking, and each customer received a slap without being charged, according to Chinese-language YouTube channel Save Your Money In Japan... Patrons had to pay 100 yen (S$0.90) per slap. There was also a 500 yen surcharge if patrons requested a specific staff member to slap them, reported Chinese-language media publication Liberty Times Net on Dec 3. No male staff were employed to smack customers, according to reports. Both men and women, Japanese nationals and foreigners, went to the izakaya to be hit. The face-slapping service reportedly revived the izakaya’s business. “The harder the female staff slapped them, the more excited the patrons became,” said the YouTube video narration on the Save Your Money In Japan channel, which also posts lifestyle content. “Not only were the patrons not angry, but they appeared to feel more relaxed after getting hit. They would even thank the staff member who smacked them.” The video added that it was surprising that female patrons also wanted to be slapped... The izakaya has discontinued its face-smacking service. It was unclear when the izakaya had started and subsequently discontinued this service. A Nov 29 post on its X account said: “Shachihoko-ya currently does not offer slaps. We appreciate the attention it has received today, but we cannot accommodate visits with the intention of receiving slaps."
‘Inappropriate’ pop-up maid cafe event on SMU campus cancelled - "The Singapore Management University (SMU) has called a now-cancelled “maid cafe” event inappropriate, and said it did not give approval for it to take place at a cafe on campus. The Japanese-themed cafe Daijoubu, located on the SMU campus, said it would be “withdrawing the upcoming Tsundere Cafe” event in a Facebook post on Thursday. The event was supposed to take place on Aug 26, in collaboration with event concept group SubaToki Cafe. Tsundere cafes are a concept popularised in Japan, where waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, and customers willingly get berated and punished by them... Located within SMU’s School of Computing and Information Systems, Daijoubu held a similar Tsundere Cafe event in March, also in collaboration with SubaToki Cafe. A video of the event put up on Facebook by SubaToki Cafe shows customers doing push-ups, being smacked on the face and stepped on by waitresses. The “punishments” were requested by the customers and are not part of the cafe’s routine services, said SubaToki Cafe."
People Magazine’s Premature Cover Toasts Betty White’s 100th Birthday - The New York Times - "For months, editors at People magazine had been zeroing in on Betty White for an end-of-year cover article. Her 100th birthday was coming up on Jan. 17... Next to a glossy photograph of Ms. White, her eyes twinkling, the People trumpets sounded: “Betty White Turns 100!” Ms. White died on Friday morning. She was 99... Some fans blamed the magazine for jinxing Ms. White. (In addition to its weekly issue, People also marked her impending centennial with a commemorative issue entirely devoted to her seven-decade career.) Others were pleased that Ms. White, known for her devilish sense of humor and impeccable comedic timing, had seemed to have pulled off one last laugh."
Meme - "As a Trillion dollar company, you’d think that Apple could figure out a way to make better cords"
"How do u think they made their Trillion Dollars"
Opinion | Liberal Hypocrisy Is Fueling Inequality - The New York Times - "It’s easy to blame the other side. And for many Democrats, it’s obvious that Republicans are thwarting progress toward a more equal society. But what happens when Republicans aren’t standing in the way? In many states — including California, New York and Illinois — Democrats control all the levers of power. They run the government. They write the laws. And as we explore in the video above, they often aren’t living up to their values. In key respects, many blue states are actually doing worse than red states. It is in the blue states where affordable housing is often hardest to find, there are some of the most acute disparities in education funding and economic inequality is increasing most quickly. Instead of asking, “What’s the matter with Kansas?” Democrats need to spend more time pondering, “What’s the matter with California?”
From 2021. In an amazing sleight of hand, they just blame conservatives anyway
The ACLU wants to cancel Elf on a Shelf because it perpetuates the normalization of the surveillance state and I don't think they understand how childhood works. - "For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, The Elf on the Shelf has been enjoyed by generation of children, as in one. It was created by a mother-daughter team who thought it would be a really fun idea to make a lot of money. The book, together with the elf, made its debut all the way back in 2005. Keep in mind that these were primitive, simple times. There were no smart phones, just flip phones necessitating people to use a form of communication known as a "conversation." These conversations were accomplished using mouth noises not unlike our cavemen ancestors."
Why Japan's Rail Workers Can't Stop Pointing at Things - "While these might strike visitors as silly, the movements and shouts are a Japanese-innovated industrial safety method known as pointing-and-calling; a system that reduces workplace errors by up to 85 percent. Known in Japanese as shisa kanko, pointing-and-calling works on the principle of associating one’s tasks with physical movements and vocalizations to prevent errors by “raising the consciousness levels of workers”—according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan. Rather than rely on a worker’s eyes or habit alone, each step in a given task is reinforced physically and audibly to ensure the step is both complete and accurate. In the rail context, when train drivers wish to perform a required speed check, they do not simply glance at a display. Rather, the speedometer will be physically pointed at, with a call of “speed check, 80”—confirming the action taking place, and audibly confirming the correct speed. For station staff who ensure the platform-side tracks are free of debris or fallen passengers, a visual scan alone is not sufficient. Instead, the attendant will point down the track and sweep their arm along the length of the platform—eyes following the hand—before declaring all clear. The process repeats as the train departs, ensuring no bags—or passengers—are caught hanging from the train’s closed doors. It is such an integral part of Japanese transportation that direction boards at the Kyoto Rail Museum even feature characters in the classic point-and-call stance... For such a simple but effective method of improving workers’ error rate, the system continues to find itself largely confined to Japan. Indeed, it is one of the many quirks of the Japanese workplace that fall flat with Western workers. In the case of pointing-and-calling, Japanese commentators have theorized that Western employees feel “silly” performing the requisite gestures and calls. A notable exception is New York City’s MTA subway system, whose conductors have used a modified point-only system since 1996 after then Chief Transportation Officer Nathaniel Ford was fascinated by the point-and-call system during a business trip to Japan. In the MTA’s case, conductors point to a fixed black-and-white “zebra board” to confirm a stopped train is correctly located along the platform. According to MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan, conductors were quick to adapt to the new system, and within two years of implementation, incidents of incorrectly berthed subways fell 57 percent. Japanese workers are also not immune to feeling self-conscious when it comes to pointing-and-calling, although with training it soon becomes an accepted part of the job"
Meme - Sexy Losers: "FINGER LICKIN' GOO
The next time you shake someone's hand, think about Mike.
HEY, MARK... MIND TURNING ON THE FAUCET FOR ME?
HUH? WHY CAN'T YOU Do IT BY YOURSELF?
WELL, LAST NIGHT I WAS IN YOUR CLOSEST SPYING ON YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND I NOTICED SHE HAD A FINGER IN YOUR ASS WHILE SHE WAS GIVING YOU HEAD.
WELL, SO FAR I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS, BUT PLEASE GO ON.
WELL, I SAID TO MYSELF, "THAT LOOKS LIKE AN IDEA IF I EVER SAW ONE!" SO I DECIDED TO GIVE THE FINGER -ASS THING AGO. AND YOU KNOW, YOU'RE REALLY ON TO SOMETHING THERE.
BUT NOW I GOT ONE HAND FULL OF SEMEN AND ANOTHER ONE WITH FECES AND I'M AFRAID TO TOUCH THE SINK.
WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST LIE AND SAY YOU HAD PAINT OR SOMETHING?"
Meme - "WHY IS MODERN MEDIA OFTEN TERRIBLE?
Reliance on hype, nepotism, forced diversity, accelerated development, political pandering, demonizing fans, infighting *too many cooks spoiling the broth*"
Meme - Jack Sparrow: "Préservatif."
Hector Barbossa: "Pilule !"
Pirate: "Sodomie !"
UK gives India £2.3bn in aid despite pledge to stop handouts - "Britain has sent £2.3 billion in aid to India since 2016, despite ministers having given the impression that the country would receive no more money, a report reveals. The Government’s aid watchdog, the Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI), said many people “would be surprised” to see money continuing to go to India at this level. They said the huge amounts still going to India were poorly targeted, with not enough going towards priorities such as poverty reduction and human rights. In one example of waste, millions were given to an Indian bank to loan to the poorest – but instead, the bank spent the money on business loans and providing the wealthy with credit cards. ICAI gave the UK’s India aid programme a score of amber-red, the second-worst available. Dr Tamsyn Barton, ICAI’s chief commissioner, said: “India was the 11th largest recipient of UK aid in 2021, receiving more aid than countries like Bangladesh and Kenya, so it is all the more important that every penny is well spent or invested. “However, we found that the portfolio wasn’t coherent and that the development rationale for it wasn’t clear. “And while we appreciate that democracy and human rights in India is a sensitive area for the UK, we were surprised to find out that the UK had largely ceased supporting work at the local level.” In 2012, the British Government pledged to end bilateral aid to India by 2016 as part of a move away from funding middle-income countries. India has its own space programme and Pranab Mukherjee, the country’s former president, prompted anger in 2012 when he described British aid money as “peanuts”."
This doesn't stop Indian grievance mongers continuing to complain
Connoisseur of Chaos | George Soros - "When the dust was cleared and the debris swept away, he stood revealed as Hillary Clinton’s most generous billionaire donor. Yet his name rarely surfaced during the presidential campaign—and that’s generally the way he likes it. Dark Money, Jane Mayer’s book about covert political funding, refers to the Koch brothers more than 300 times in its excoriation of the “radical right” but mentions progressive icon George Soros just six times; three are footnotes. One of the planet’s richest men, his past marred with crimes and misdemeanors, the 86-year-old billionaire skates on. More than a decade ago, he moved his financial headquarters to Curaçao, a tax-free haven in the Caribbean designed for monied hypocrites who talk one game and play another. The place is not bulletproof; on occasion, Soros has been accused—and even convicted—of insider trading. A French court found him guilty of that crime and levied a fine of $2.3 million. In the parlance of the billionaires’ club, that was small change. Investigative journalists, a dwindling cadre, show little interest in him. They prefer to scrutinize safer, softer targets. If they took even a cursory look, though, they would see that Soros’s global reach and influence far outstrip those of the Koch brothers or other liberal bogeymen—and that underlying it all is a vision both dystopian and opportunistic. “The main obstacle to a stable and just world order,” Soros has declared, “is the United States.” Ergo, that constitutional republic must be weakened and its allies degraded. The Sorosian world order—one of open borders and global governance, antithetical to the ideals and experience of the West—could then assume command... most of those who did escape the Holocaust were tormented by pangs of remorse and survivor’s guilt. Not Soros... Backing organizations dedicated to social agitation and change-for-change’s-sake, Soros has caused tsunamis of upheaval, in the United States and around the world. A few cases in point: last August, DC Leaks, a group of adroit hackers, got into the Soros files and released them. Perhaps the most notorious of the disclosures concerned Soros’s Open Society Foundations, named in honor of Sir Karl Popper. Underneath its lofty rhetoric, the organization was clearly devoted to the eradication of national sovereignty. A key Open Society paper, hacked in its entirety, described the Syrian refugee crisis as an opportunity to “shape conversations about rethinking migrations governance.” Translation: use agitprop to flood Europe and the U.S. with evacuees (among them some probable terrorists); make the old borders and institutions irrelevant; and, in the process, create a world liberated from the restraints of constitutionalism, American exceptionalism, free-market capitalism, and other obsolete isms. One of Soros’s long-standing targets is the State of Israel... Soros operatives, determined to shape media coverage of events in Ukraine, were instructed to “select journalists from the five target countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Greece) and offer them long stay reporting trips in Ukraine. Rather than specify what they should write about they should make suggestions for articles; we retain a veto on stories we think are counterproductive. Suggestion that we liaise directly with journalists to determine interest.” In the United States, Soros bankrolls a broad range of political and cultural causes. One is to destabilize the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. In 2015, he dedicated $650,000 for the purpose of shaping Pope Francis’s U.S. visit, using left-leaning Catholic groups to promote gay marriage, abortion, and physician-assisted suicide... Another Soros favorite is Black Lives Matter, the radical protest group dedicated to the proposition that police are inherently racist. Working the streets with incendiary rhetoric, at odds with the truth about black-on-black crime, BLM has helped foster “depolicing,” as Heather Mac Donald describes it, in high-crime urban areas. In 2015, after days of rioting in Baltimore in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, an Open Society Foundations memo excitedly commented that “recent events offer a unique opportunity to accelerate the dismantling of structural inequality generated and maintained by local law enforcement and to engage residents who have historically been disenfranchised in Baltimore City in shaping and monitoring reform.” Three straight acquittals of police officers involved in the matter left the prosecution’s case in shreds but made no difference to the Open Society Foundations. It has donated at least $650,000 to Black Lives Matter and pledged more assistance to antipolice factions across the country. These activities prompted the father of one of the Dallas police officers killed during a Black Lives Matter protest to sue Soros (along with other individuals and groups) for inspiring a “war on police.” Soros’s open-borders obsessions can be seen in the $2 million he gave to opponents of Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration... Soros also spent millions backing liberal-minded district attorneys—they all opposed jail time for nonviolent drug offenders—in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, and Texas. Some of these candidates won; most lost... one tocsin is likely to cause discomfort even to this most insensitive of plutocrats: Popper’s reference to the figure “whose magical powers raise him high above ordinary men.” Popper warned about this type long before George Soros perverted Sir Karl’s teachings and crowned himself a philosopher king."
Criticising Soros is anti-Semitic, of course, even though he's trying to endanger Jews.
You can only criticise money in politics when it's on the right
A Red/Blue Risk Divide - "We often think of blue states as being more open and tolerant of individual freedoms; they were the first to allow gay marriage, for example, and are more liberal on transgender issues. But openness to social change is only one aspect of risk. When it comes to other issues, blue states often stress protecting the community over individuals’ right to take risks and bear the consequences. In red states, with laxer gun laws, owning a gun is seen as a way of managing personal risk—gun proponents claim that they need guns to defend themselves. Blue states stress the risk that guns pose to others—the risk, say, that you’ll be shot by someone with mental illness, or have your own gun used against you. It’s unclear if differences in risk-tolerance profiles are cultural, or if some people are innately more risk-averse. Risk-takers and risk-avoiders exist in all parts of the country, but the culture you grow up in does shape how you deal with risk and what you’re willing to do to reduce it. Some ethnic groups in India, for example, appear more open to risk based on the environment in which they are raised. One study in the U.S. looked at brain activity of a small sample (only 82 people) of Republicans and Democrats and concluded that Republicans are more prone to seek safety and security. Another study argued that conservatives may be less open to change but are more comfortable with economic and financial risk. Data on political donations between 1990 and 2008 suggest that people who work in higher-risk professions tend to lean right. That risk can be financial—for instance, corporate lawyers are more likely to give to Democrats, while finance-industry employees, with more variable incomes, were more likely to lean Republican. Or the risk could be physical—Americans who work in mining, oil and gas, trucking, and construction are more likely to donate to Republicans than are government workers, who overwhelmingly donate to Democrats. American states’ evolution on risk-taking can be seen in the foundations of welfare benefits... Economic historian Price Fishback points out that each new crisis in the industrial era increased awareness of new downside risk and ratcheted up the reach and scope of the welfare state. The world was always risky; famines and disease outbreaks regularly killed many people. But market economies offered more wealth and scope to diversify and insure. Differences in wealth, culture, and urbanization meant that the welfare state developed unevenly across America... Exceptions exist, but generally blue states have higher taxes and more regulations... States in the Midwest and South tend to be the least restrictive. California requires a license for roughly twice as many occupations as Ohio, and its licenses tend to be more expensive and demanding to obtain than those of other states. California is one of the few states that require a license for tree trimming, for example, and Californian trimmers must have four years of experience to operate their businesses. In many ways, the world is safer than it has ever been. And even the states in America with the least generous welfare programs offer more support than Americans have enjoyed historically."
Remembering When Horse Diving Was an Actual Thing - "All the lights went out, except for the spotlight trained on the top of the platform. There, Powderface stood, seemingly unperturbed by the crowd below or the bathing suit-clad woman on his back, his coat glowing white against the darkness. For a moment, the horse paused and shifted his weight from hoof to hoof. Forty feet below was a pool of water, just 12 feet deep. The audience was rapt, the only sound coming from the waves crashing against the sides of Steel Pier, Atlantic City’s boardwalk that extends 1,000 feet off the New Jersey coast. “I did not have the sense that he was afraid at all,” remembers Cynthia Branigan, author of The Last Diving Horse in America, who was among the spectators that day in August 1964. The future author and animal rights activist was 11 years old at the time. “It seemed to me that he was just taking it in, enjoying his moment in the spotlight.”"
The Muslims Who Don't Fast During Ramadan - "Unlike many Muslims, the Baye Fall do not fast during Ramadan. In fact, they do not participate in many Muslim practices, such as praying five times each day or abstaining from alcohol. Many Senegalese view them as stereotypical hippies: likely to hang around a beach, exude chillness, maybe even share hashish or something similar. But this image co-exists with a unique and central tenet of Baye Fall spiritual life: Instead of fasting or praying five times a day, they enact their faith through hard work and service to others."
62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck amid inflation - "62% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new LendingClub report. The figure is unchanged from last year. “Living paycheck to paycheck remains the main financial lifestyle among U.S. consumers,” the report said... Some 74% of Americans say they are stressed about finances, according to a separate CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in August. Inflation, rising interest rates and a lack of savings contribute to those feelings. That CNBC survey found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58% in March. Many households have tapped their cash reserves over the past few months, LendingClub and other reports show. Nearly half, or 49%, of adults have less savings or no savings compared to a year ago, according to a Bankrate survey."
There may be some truth to the 'gay jobs' stereotype - "There is an unusually high concentration of gay or lesbian workers in certain occupations. For example, both gay men and lesbians and are overrepresented in psychology, law, social work, and university teaching. And there are real occupational patterns behind some popular stereotypes, from the gay flight attendant to the lesbian truck driver... To understand the occupational segregation of gay and lesbian workers, we examined two hypotheses. The first one was about task independence—the ability to perform one’s tasks without substantially depending on coworkers. Task independence at work makes it easier to conceal one’s sexual orientation and reduces the negative repercussions of “coming out.” So we predicted that gay men and lesbians would be more likely to work in occupations with higher task independence (e.g., massage therapists and fire safety inspectors) than in ones with lower task independence (e.g., construction workers and fire fighters). Our second prediction was about occupations that require a high level of social perceptiveness — that is, the accurate anticipation and reading of others’ reactions. Since gay men and lesbians tend to experience the threat of discrimination from a young age, knowing how to read social cues might be an important acquired skill for these individuals. Thus we expected that gay men and lesbians would be more likely to be in jobs that require high levels of social perceptiveness (e.g., psychologists and teachers) rather than in ones where such a skill is less needed (e.g., laboratory scientists and actuarial analysts). Overall, our prediction is that gay and lesbian workers will tend to concentrate in occupations that provide a high degree of task independence or require a high level of social perceptiveness, or both... Our findings suggest that gay and lesbian workers might be drawn to a different set of occupations than heterosexual workers and perhaps bring with them a distinct set of skills to these occupations. Gay and lesbian workers probably developed some of these skills as a result of social adaptation to discrimination. As societies become more tolerant of same-sex relationships, however, the need to conceal one’s sexual orientation in everyday social interactions might fade over time. As a result, gay men and lesbians may lose their skill for social perceptiveness, which may make them less distinct in the labor market"
Discrimination is the unified field theory of social science
Meme - MeisterVaxl: "Does your doors dont have locks?"
FWA90A80P: "Does youre english haveth good?"
MeisterVaxl: "You speak english because its the only language you know. I speak english because its the only language you know. We re not the same"
Police officer sexually assaulted as she was arresting attempted rape suspect - "A police officer has been sexually assaulted as she tried to arrest a man on suspicion of attempted rape. She was one of two officers who came under attack in Sheffield city centre in the early hours of Friday morning. South Yorkshire Police said they had responded to a report of an attempted rape on Scotland Street. The suspect is said to have struck both officers with a wooden “for sale” sign, before sexually assaulting one of them as she tried to arrest him. One of the officers was left with severe bruising, while both involved in the attack are said to be recovering at home."
Why America Still Doesn't Have High-Speed Trains - "To appease fiscal conservatives opposed to transportation budget increases, Johnson said that the Department of Commerce would work “in cooperation with private industry” to develop train designs at “no cost to the Government.” While this approach limited spending, it did not adequately account for the fact that fast trains needed dedicated tracks, welded rails, and new electrical power systems to tap their full potential. Without these improvements, America’s bullet trains would languish on the northeast corridor, an antiquated rail line already congested with freight and commuter traffic... One problem was that the train needed to be bulked up to meet federal crashworthiness standards. Since Acela shared tracks with lumbering freights, it had to be able to sustain high-force collisions that could not happen on systems dedicated exclusively to passenger trains elsewhere in the world... The 21st-century global boom in passenger rail projects has shown how fast trains can boost perception of the countries that run them. State-of-the-art systems in China, Japan, France, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea have given their builders an air of stylish modernity. The U.S.’s frustrated pursuit of a bullet train, by contrast, reveals the perils of infrastructural compromises that make one set of tracks accommodate freight customers, commuters, and inter-city riders, and one train deliver profits while also serving the public good"
Clearly, what works in a country of 1.4 billion will never work in a country of 332 million
Does everything feel broken? Canada's messy federalism is a big part of the problem - "Canada is an unusually decentralized country. Canada’s federal government has controlled roughly 30 to 40 percent of government expenditures (net of transfers) for the last three decades. By contrast, the U.S. federal government controls around two-thirds of government spending"
ZUBY: on X - "People who are solipsistic assume that everybody else is. They can't understand generalities or abstractions because they either take it personally, or assume you are just talking about yourself. Every statement is personalised. Low empathy. If you say, "This thing is a problem" they will deny that it is a problem because it's not personally a problem for them, or assume that it is a personal problem for you."
A lot of people get very upset whenever you talk about trends or tendencies, because they take it as personal attacks. This also ties into the NAXALT fallacy
Meme - "This is the reality of life on Earth. *tank in warzone*
This is an anomaly, and it can end at any time. *peaceful houses*"
Meme - Layton Greene: "what you crave in a relationship is what you lacked in your childhood, im figuring this shit out"
"Definitely didn't lack Anal in my childhood but okay"