L'origine de Bert
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Links - 25th July 2018 (2)
Upset Over Sexual versus Emotional Infidelity Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Adults - "We examined upset over sexual versus emotional jealousy among 63,894 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual participants. Participants imagined which would upset them more: their partners having sex with someone else (but not falling in love with them) or their partners falling in love with someone else (but not having sex with them). Consistent with this evolutionary perspective, heterosexual men were more likely than heterosexual women to be upset by sexual infidelity (54 vs. 35 %) and less likely than heterosexual women to be upset by emotional infidelity (46 vs. 65 %). This gender difference emerged across age groups, income levels, history of being cheated on, history of being unfaithful, relationship type, and length. The gender difference, however, was limited to heterosexual participants. Bisexual men and women did not differ significantly from each other in upset over sexual infidelity (30 vs. 27 %), regardless of whether they were currently dating a man (35 vs. 29 %) or woman (28 vs. 20 %). Gay men and lesbian women also did not differ (32 vs. 34 %). The findings present strong evidence that a gender difference exists in a broad sample of U.S. adults, but only among heterosexuals."
Man, 46, given 8 years’ jail and 12 strokes for sexually assaulting teenage boy - "Samsugani began talking to the victim, and usually teased him about his weight, calling him “gundu” (Tamil for fat). On one occasion, the Indian national also invited the victim to his house for a massage that would supposedly help him lose weight, which the victim rejected."
I always thought gundu meant stupid
Trans Woman Finds Love With Man Who Initially Rejected Her - "A transgender woman knew she was born in the wrong body from a very young age. Erin Anderson, 22, approached her now-boyfriend Jared Norris, 28, after messaging him on Facebook according to Caters News Agency. Initially, according to Erin, Jared rejected her when she was living as a man named Aaron. However, just two short years later, the two would become matched in a story-like fairytale ending"
Uhh
Fontana delle Tette – Treviso, Italy - "Every autumn, when a new Podestà (mayor) was elected, the fountain flowed with celebratory free wine. Red wine streamed from one of the woman’s breasts while white wine poured from the other"
Surabaya attacks: 11 killed in Indonesia church bombings - "More than 90% of Indonesians are Muslim, but there are also significant populations of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists. The attack is the deadliest since 2005, when three suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali killed 20 people."
It's all their fault for invading Iraq and discriminating against Muslims
Situation Involving Fresno State Professor Gets Significantly Worse - "Professor Randa Jarrar ignited controversy with a series of offensive tweets celebrating the death of Bush and the pain that the family is experiencing as a result of her death. Jarrar even bragged about how much money she made as a tenured professor, saying, "I will never be fired." Jarrar has since locked her account after racist and anti-Semitic tweets were discovered. "I can't wait for the old white guard of literary writers and 'critics' to die. Their time is f**king up, too"... Perhaps the most problematic tweet from Jararr the administration must now address is one from last night in which she posted a phone number she claimed belonged to her but is actually the number to Arizona State's 24-Hour emergency crisis line. An official who works on the crisis hotline told The Daily Wire they have been receiving an extremely high number of calls due to her tweet. Jararr's tweet containing the number to the crisis hotline was so outrageous that far-left activist and physician Eugene Gu called her out over it."
Southern Poverty Law Center Deletes List of 'Anti-Muslim' Extremists - "The Southern Poverty Law Center has removed the “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” from their website after attorneys for Maajid Nawaz, a practicing Muslim and prominent Islamic reformer, threatened legal action over his inclusion on the list. The report, which had been active on the SPLC’s website since it was published in December 2016, was intended to serve as a resource for journalists to identify promoters of hateful propaganda; but it included a number of liberal reformers such as Nawaz, a former Islamic extremist who has since dedicated his life to combating the hateful ideology... Nawaz — informed by his experience as a former member of a global terror organization and a political prisoner in Egypt — routinely criticizes the fundamentalist interpretation of Islam that gives rise to terrorism. As a result of that work, the SPLC and a coalition of partner organizations that helped create the list accused him of “savaging Islam.”"
If the SPLC says an Islamic reformer is an anti-Muslim extremist, does it mean that Islam is inherently violent?
Hackers once stole casino database through lobby fish tank thermometer - ""I saw a bank that had been hacked through its CCTV cameras, because these devices are bought purely on cost."... "It's probably one area where there'll likely need to be regulation for minimum security standards, because the market isn't going to correct itself""
Erdogan rejects ‘moderate Islam’ as a Western tool to weaken Muslims - "The idea of ‘moderate Islam’ was invented by the West and is being used to weaken the ancient religion, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan has said in reference to Saudi Arabia’s reforms, while also lashing out at the EU’s “discrimination” of Muslims"
Transgender woman files human rights complaint against Windsor spa - "the spa did not offer Brazilian wax services on male body parts... A local transgender woman claims she was denied services based on her gender identity and gender expression and is seeking $50,000 for “immense harm to my dignity.”... the female employee working that day was a practising Muslim who refrains from physical contact with males outside of her family. He further explained the only staff member he had who did male waxing was off on a sick leave and there was no one else."
Feminist Group Demands Spotify's New 'Hate Content' Policy Be Applied to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eminem - "When Spotify introduced its new "hate content and hateful conduct" policy—which promises to suppress songs for violent or hateful lyrics or offstage behavior—I predicted that the streaming service would soon be caught between users wanting easy access to popular music and activists demanding that artists be scrubbed from the platform. Sure enough, the feminist group Ultraviolet has now sent a letter to Spotify thanking it for the initial steps of removing R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from official playlists— and asking that the company go further. "These two men are not the only abusers on your platform," writes Ultraviolet's Shaunna Thomas. "We implore you to take a deeper look at the artists you promote." She goes on to call for the company to exile Eminem, Nelly, Don Henley of the Eagles, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Chris Brown, rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, Ted Nugent, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers... at least two out of four Beatles—John Lennon and Ringo Starr—were domestic abusers. Needless to say, just because this kind of behavior is common in the music scene doesn't make it OK. But it does raise the question of what a music streaming service can really be expected to do about it. Indeed, blacklisting these bands may make many of Spotify's features functionally useless. What classic rock playlist would exclude the Beatles?... Acting as the moral arbiter, as its new policy requires, will only erode the value of its service while leaving individual listeners less able to make moral judgements for themselves."
Why appeasing feminists and SJWs is a losing proposition
Spotify will officially roll back its hateful conduct policy - "The backlash among artists, labels, and management was swift. Reports surfaced that many, including Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar, accused the company of racial bias in their implementation of the policy"
BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, Port Cities; Middle Class Alcohol Use - "Ian Salsbury, not entirely unpredictably, detected a possible benefit arising from the underfunding of the Arts:
Dear Laurie, if a reduction in the largesse extorted from the hapless taxpayer means that the Arts Establishment will have to put on plays we want to watch, concerts we want to hear and exhibitions we want to visit rather than to continue to gratify self-indulgent whims then surely it is a consummation devoutly to be wished"
Opinion | In Search of a Good Emperor - The New York Times - "One of the hard truths of human affairs is that diversity and democracy do not go easily together. In the Middle East today as in Europe’s not-so-distant past, the transition from authoritarianism to popular sovereignty seems to run through ethnic or religious purges. Worldwide, many of the models of successful democratic government are effectively ethno-states, built on past cleansings or partitions or splendid isolation. And in the West in recent years, both mass immigration and cultural fragmentation have brought authoritarian temptations back to life. This pattern runs deep in our species’s history. A new paper from the economists Oded Galor and Marc Klemp finds a strong correlation between diversity and autocracy in pre-colonial societies, with a legacy that extends to today’s institutions as well. The authors suggest that authoritarianism emerges from both bottom-up and top-down pressures: A diverse society seeks strong central institutions for the sake of cohesion and productivity, and internal division, stratification and mistrust increase “the scope for domination” by powerful elites.... In one common pattern, authoritarian rule evolves as a way for a majority or plurality group to hold power against the claims of diverse minorities, and to impose a kind of uniformity on weaker ethnic or religious groups. The Erdogan regime in Turkey and the Saudi monarchy’s Sunni authoritarianism offer obvious examples; so does the Han-Chinese chauvinism of the Chinese Politburo, the Orthodox-Christian Russian nationalism of Putin, and many more. In another pattern, an authoritarian leader — sometimes from a minority group himself — casts himself as a protector of diversity, promising to shield minorities who would be threatened should a majoritarian populism take power. This is the pattern of the Assad family’s rule in Syria, which has drawn support from its own Alawite sect as well as Syrian Christians and others fearful of what Sunni rule might mean for them. The Egyptian military regime, likewise, promises to protect urbanites and Coptic Christians from the Islamist order that democracy might usher in."
Grab’s acquisition of Uber Southeast Asia drives into problems - "Aside from a small number of employees (estimated at around 50 people), Uber’s Southeast Asian workforce is not permitted to move internally to a different Uber region. Some said they were told they are forbidden from even applying for other jobs within the company. The restrictions all but force Uber’s employees to move over to Grab — whether they want to or not. The strong-arming doesn’t end there. Terms for exiting staff also push would-be former Uber staffers into Grab’s orbit, according to details supplied to TechCrunch... Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has yet to make direct contact with the Southeast Asian staff. Several who spoke to TechCrunch were disappointed that they were not part of an internal all-hands video call with Khosrowshahi — which only included Uber’s “surviving” staff in Southeast Asia. “His arrival was billed as a positive change in culture for Uber, yet he hasn’t bothered to visit the office or even get in touch. Travis Kalanick did both when Uber China was sold to Didi,” one departing Southeast Asia-based Uber employee told TechCrunch... In Thailand and Singapore, the drivers had already crossed over to Grab, but they complained about the experience. Chiefly that the app is inferior, that they are making less money and that they felt like they had no choice... “One of the nice things about competition, is that it keeps these companies in check when it comes to fighting for drivers and treating them well. There’s a reason why many drivers opted for Uber in the first place... customers themselves are having to get used to Grab instead of Uber. Many have been vocal with issues that range from subjective claims, such as a perceived inferior experience on Grab, and also more quantifiable concerns that include higher pricing and longer waits for a ride.”
So much for #deleteuber
Uyghur Muslims: Victims of the Worlds Largest Ethnic Cleansing : China - "this definitely isn't a religion issue. hui Muslims are considered model minorities in china and are extremely well integrated WHILST fully practicing Islam. hell I even saw that post the other day that the local government is building a mosque over an old cemetery in Suzhou. isn't that crazy? not really because the hui look almost identical to the Han. without the white prayer hat you wouldn't even tell the difference."
"Xinjiang was only ever a part of China during the two big foreign dynasties the Yuan and Qing. prior to that the area that was Xinjiang was shared between the Mongols and Tibetans. hence the Uyghurs original religion was Lama Buddhism. most Uyghurs know this and are in fact extremely lax in their practice of Islam. modern China just follows the map of the old Qing dynasty which was primarily a multi-ethnic state, ruled by a minority race. as there was no Han supremacy the Uyghur subjects at that time at least had a measure of autonomy."
"even the manchurians when they first set up the qing dynasty were completely different to the han and disdained their culture. yet towards the end of the qing dynasty they found themselves to be near indistinguishable to them."
"Worth noting that, even though the Manchu were entirely assimilated by the end of the Qing, they still were largely seen as foreign."
American, European, and Belgian Pralines // What's the Difference? - "The cook of Marshal du Pleases-Praslin created the praline consisting of caramelized sugar and almonds at the Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte...
The Belgian Praline is basically a soft-centered chocolate...
The American praline resembles a chewy cookie"
Israel's Arab soldiers who fight for the Jewish state - "Ten times as many Israeli Arabs - Muslims and Christians - are joining the IDF compared to three years ago... Mahmud and the other new recruits take the oath of allegiance to Israel. His parents and fiancee are there to see him swear on the Koran as he is given his own gun... In contrast to many of his friends Mahmud gets a good salary as a soldier. Unlike Jewish recruits he can apply for a grant of land to set up his own home."
Apparently they didn't get the memo that Israel oppresses Arabs
WATCH: Palestinian Urges IDF to Shoot His Son on Camera; Soldier and Boy High-Five Instead - "A video emerged on Friday showing a Palestinian man urging Israeli soldiers to kill his toddler son so he could capture the shooting on camera. The father is seen shoving the young boy toward an armed soldier, who responds by giving the child a high-five. The father continued egging the boy on, instructing him to throw rocks at the soldiers. Eventually, the child walked to the side and threw rocks away from the troops. Leibel A. Mangel, who first posted the video on his Facebook page, said the child was identified as 3-year-old Muhammad Suroor. This is not the first time that footage emerged of Palestinian parents pressing their children to confront soldiers so the troops’ response can be photographed and filmed. In 2012, a young Palestinian girl — Ahed Tamimi of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank — was filmed as she yelled at and shoved armed troops, seemingly in an attempt to provoke a reaction. Another young boy was forcefully pushed against an armed soldier during the same demonstration in the hopes of getting a response... Palestinian children are often encouraged to honor those who carry out attacks against Israel, and to participate in such attacks themselves. Such incitement has long been tied to acts of terrorism by Israeli authorities and experts. During the past school year, some Palestinian children wore military fatigues and held toy guns while performing in plays that depict the abduction and killing of Israelis. Over the summer, more than 50,000 Palestinian kids in the Gaza Strip attended three-week-long military training camps, which aim “to raise a generation of Palestinians who love the resistance and the liberation of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” according to the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas. More than 10,000 Palestinian teenagers graduated from such camps in 2015. Palestinian children have also been seen brandishing weapons while participating in rallies alongside adults; footage from an October rally in Rafah, Gaza, showed a number of youths — including toddlers — holding blades as a sprawling crowd called for terrorist attacks against Jews... Multiple surveys of Palestinian public opinion have found widespread support for terror attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as negative perceptions of Jews. A poll conducted by a Ramallah-based firm over the first three months of 2016 found that more than 60 percent of Palestinians approve of “armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel.”"
Post ID: 3418720771735793054
Ai Weiwei's Human Flow and the Global Refugee Crisis
I recently watched Ai Weiwei's Human Flow, about the global refugee crisis.
While the cinematography wasn't bad, it disappointingly (but not surprisingly) failed to take a critical look at the global refugee crisis.
Near the start of the film, it quoted the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention on a refugee being "someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" (or words to that effect - they edited the quote a little)
However, it then uncritically applied the term (by extension) to many disparate groups, and it seems the film's definition of refugee is any migrant from a third world country who doesn't respect borders; the documentary unironically informs us that every day, more than 3,400 people flee their homes due to poverty, famine and war, not realising how there is little to no overlap with the 1951 Convention. And of course the film was sympathetic to and unquestioning of them (in other words, it more or less calls for open borders - at least for poor people from the Third World).
The film took an expansive look at voluntary human flows across the world; while a lot of time was spent on the European migrant crisis (largely in the form of Syrians, Africans and unknown others in Greece trying to make their way to richer Western European countries), we were also taken to Rohingya camps, Palestinians in Jordanian camps, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the US-Mexico border [presumably crime is a valid reason to seek asylum] and more, without asking what the commonalities and differences among these groups were - indeed, whether all of them were really refugees. Unfortunately the film also jumped around, returning to some locations more than once - all without the context of a strong narrative (there was no narrator and while there was some text onscreen from time to time, it was used to add additional information rather than disciplining the film's flow).
Most notably, so-called "climate change refugees" were mentioned, but the irony of their reason for leaving their countries being clearly spelt out and contradicting the UN Refugee Convention was not even hinted at.
Another notable example was Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank: considering that these two territories are part of the de jure state of Palestine, the only refugee angle I can think of is that Ai is suggesting that they are refugees from land that is now part of Israel (and given that 21% of the Israel population is Israeli Arab, that suggests that the fear of being persecuted wasn't well-founded). And as far as I could tell, all of the Palestine scenes were set in Gaza, giving the misleading impression that those in the West Bank have an equally hard time (though, to Ai's credit, the movie did mention that both Egypt and Israel were blockading the Gaza Strip).
More broadly, none of the interviewees mentioned any downsides of mass migrant/refugee flows, much less was critical of them. The whitewashing was especially remarkable, given that some part of the film was set in Calais and migrant crime in Calais is very well-reported.
Naturally, there was no mention of well-founded principles of international law in the forms of the "safe third country" and "country of first asylum" principles; while documentaries on the big/small screen inevitably take a more visual approach to presenting their subject material, one would imagine that at least some critical engagement should be made with the subject matter - otherwise the documentary becomes either poverty/suffering porn, a propaganda piece or both. This was especially puzzling given at least one excellent opportunity to ask these questions: they interviewed a black guy in Paris in a makeshift migrant camp under a bridge who said it was very hard crossing 3 or more countries, and one could die. He also said that he thought that Europe was the land of freedom, democracy, respect and human rights (it was unclear if he was complaining about not getting enough/any benefits since he didn't complain that he was going to be deported); given that France presumably wasn't the first European country he was in, it is strange why he wasn't asked why he didn't claim asylum in the first one rather than shopping around.
One interviewee remarked that the Post-World War II system of dealing with refugees was not suited to today's situation, but he didn't say what should be done about it - possibly his solution is that we need open borders, and that the quoted number of more than 5,000 drowning in the Mediterranean in 2016 will not increase if you welcome even more people.
The vaguest of hints that free migration might not be all good was a Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris saying he dreamed of people living in peace and harmony. He did acknowledge that there were evil people around, but his solution was to send them into space. Then again, maybe the evil people he had in mind were Border Control officials like ICE, which liberals want to abolish.
Although there wasn't a strong narrative, it was obvious from the uncritical view the film had of alleged refugees that it was for open borders. We were told that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 there were 11 border walls, but there're 70 today (while the reasons one might want to put them up were left unexplained - presumably it is obvious that border walls are prima facie a bad thing). Towards the end, it interviewed a Mexican activist who said immigration was a human right, and improving your lives and those of your children were also human rights. Tellingly, she didn't make any reference to refugees. Hopefully the bait and switch did not go unnoticed by all who watched the film.
Trailer:
While the cinematography wasn't bad, it disappointingly (but not surprisingly) failed to take a critical look at the global refugee crisis.
Near the start of the film, it quoted the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention on a refugee being "someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" (or words to that effect - they edited the quote a little)
However, it then uncritically applied the term (by extension) to many disparate groups, and it seems the film's definition of refugee is any migrant from a third world country who doesn't respect borders; the documentary unironically informs us that every day, more than 3,400 people flee their homes due to poverty, famine and war, not realising how there is little to no overlap with the 1951 Convention. And of course the film was sympathetic to and unquestioning of them (in other words, it more or less calls for open borders - at least for poor people from the Third World).
The film took an expansive look at voluntary human flows across the world; while a lot of time was spent on the European migrant crisis (largely in the form of Syrians, Africans and unknown others in Greece trying to make their way to richer Western European countries), we were also taken to Rohingya camps, Palestinians in Jordanian camps, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the US-Mexico border [presumably crime is a valid reason to seek asylum] and more, without asking what the commonalities and differences among these groups were - indeed, whether all of them were really refugees. Unfortunately the film also jumped around, returning to some locations more than once - all without the context of a strong narrative (there was no narrator and while there was some text onscreen from time to time, it was used to add additional information rather than disciplining the film's flow).
Most notably, so-called "climate change refugees" were mentioned, but the irony of their reason for leaving their countries being clearly spelt out and contradicting the UN Refugee Convention was not even hinted at.
Another notable example was Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank: considering that these two territories are part of the de jure state of Palestine, the only refugee angle I can think of is that Ai is suggesting that they are refugees from land that is now part of Israel (and given that 21% of the Israel population is Israeli Arab, that suggests that the fear of being persecuted wasn't well-founded). And as far as I could tell, all of the Palestine scenes were set in Gaza, giving the misleading impression that those in the West Bank have an equally hard time (though, to Ai's credit, the movie did mention that both Egypt and Israel were blockading the Gaza Strip).
More broadly, none of the interviewees mentioned any downsides of mass migrant/refugee flows, much less was critical of them. The whitewashing was especially remarkable, given that some part of the film was set in Calais and migrant crime in Calais is very well-reported.
Naturally, there was no mention of well-founded principles of international law in the forms of the "safe third country" and "country of first asylum" principles; while documentaries on the big/small screen inevitably take a more visual approach to presenting their subject material, one would imagine that at least some critical engagement should be made with the subject matter - otherwise the documentary becomes either poverty/suffering porn, a propaganda piece or both. This was especially puzzling given at least one excellent opportunity to ask these questions: they interviewed a black guy in Paris in a makeshift migrant camp under a bridge who said it was very hard crossing 3 or more countries, and one could die. He also said that he thought that Europe was the land of freedom, democracy, respect and human rights (it was unclear if he was complaining about not getting enough/any benefits since he didn't complain that he was going to be deported); given that France presumably wasn't the first European country he was in, it is strange why he wasn't asked why he didn't claim asylum in the first one rather than shopping around.
One interviewee remarked that the Post-World War II system of dealing with refugees was not suited to today's situation, but he didn't say what should be done about it - possibly his solution is that we need open borders, and that the quoted number of more than 5,000 drowning in the Mediterranean in 2016 will not increase if you welcome even more people.
The vaguest of hints that free migration might not be all good was a Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris saying he dreamed of people living in peace and harmony. He did acknowledge that there were evil people around, but his solution was to send them into space. Then again, maybe the evil people he had in mind were Border Control officials like ICE, which liberals want to abolish.
Although there wasn't a strong narrative, it was obvious from the uncritical view the film had of alleged refugees that it was for open borders. We were told that when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 there were 11 border walls, but there're 70 today (while the reasons one might want to put them up were left unexplained - presumably it is obvious that border walls are prima facie a bad thing). Towards the end, it interviewed a Mexican activist who said immigration was a human right, and improving your lives and those of your children were also human rights. Tellingly, she didn't make any reference to refugees. Hopefully the bait and switch did not go unnoticed by all who watched the film.
Trailer:
Post ID: 3385269257612696182
Links - 25th July 2018 (1)
Teens should have summer jobs, the less glamorous the better - "“The lessons are huge,” said Richard Weissbourd, a lecturer and researcher at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. “You see how hard people work, how rude and unthinking people can be to them.” “It’s a real lesson in how to treat people,” he added. Weissbourd, who wrote a report on how to change the college-admissions process to stem the insanity it breeds, said that many parents think that high-profile internships broaden horizons. Not so: “For many well-off kids, we are narrowing their options,” he countered. “Those are the only jobs that are elevated as having meaning.”"
The Secret Way To Win Monopoly (And Infuriate Your Friends) Every Time – Urbo - "“Most people think the objective of Ticket to Ride is to build the longest series of train lines around the map,” Hales explains. “However, this isn’t how you actually win. You win by having the most points.” Rest assured that Hales knows how to get the most points. “My strategy (which I’ll admit is wildly enraging to my family and friends) is to take as few train line cards as possible,” he says. “Instead of trying to complete long train lines, you focus on blocking choke points around the map"... A full, intact Monopoly set has 32 houses and 12 hotels, no more, no less. If all 32 houses are built, no one can build houses, unless they’re sold or converted to hotels. It’s simple supply and demand."
"My girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend are too close" - "she started to have anxiety attacks and the only person who knew how to console her was her ex-boyfriend. She would call him to come over and he would stay the night and take care of her. But then her anxiety attacks started to become frequent, so I told her ex-boyfriend that it was okay for him to sleep over, and vice versa. But now, it's become something like a secret between them because she doesn't tell me anymore. They share a bed and she doesn't see a problem with it."
MH370 mystery: Experts tell '60 Minutes' that Captain Zaharie Shaw committed suicide and mass murder - The Washington Post - "the “60 Minutes” team — which included aviation specialists, the former Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief in charge of investigating MH370's crash, and an oceanographer — put forth what they believe is the most likely theory."
Addendum: In light of this, TRIBUTE: Who exactly is Malaysia Airlines Captain Zaharie Shah of MH370? (which seems to have been taken down in 2015) is, as I noted, "very naively and parochially Malaysian"
Opinion | Liberals, You’re Not as Smart as You Think - The New York Times - "a backlash against liberals — a backlash that most liberals don’t seem to realize they’re causing — is going to get President Trump re-elected. People often vote against things instead of voting for them... At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, the comedian Michelle Wolf landed some punch lines that were funny and some that weren’t. But people reacted less to her talent and more to the liberal politics that she personified. For every viewer who loved her Trump bashing, there seemed to be at least one other put off by the one-sidedness of her routine. Then, when Kanye West publicly rethought his ideological commitments, prominent liberals criticized him for speaking on the topic at all. Maxine Waters, a Democratic congresswoman from California, remarked that “sometimes Kanye West talks out of turn” and should “maybe not have so much to say.” Liberals dominate the entertainment industry, many of the most influential news sources and America’s universities. This means that people with progressive leanings are everywhere in the public eye... These platforms come with a lot of power to express values, confer credibility and celebrity and start national conversations that others really can’t ignore. But this makes liberals feel more powerful than they are. Or, more accurately, this kind of power is double-edged. Liberals often don’t realize how provocative or inflammatory they can be. In exercising their power, they regularly not only persuade and attract but also annoy and repel. In fact, liberals may be more effective at causing resentment than in getting people to come their way... the “army of comedy” that Michael Moore thought would bring Mr. Trump down will instead be what builds him up in the minds of millions of voters... Racist is pretty much the most damning label that can be slapped on anyone in America today, which means it should be applied firmly and carefully. Yet some people have cavalierly leveled the charge against huge numbers of Americans — specifically, the more than 60 million people who voted for Mr. Trump... Some liberals have gotten far out ahead of their fellow Americans but are nonetheless quick to criticize those who haven’t caught up with them... It’s one thing to police your own language and a very different one to police other people’s. The former can set an example. The latter is domineering.This judgmental tendency became stronger during the administration of President Barack Obama... Feeling increasingly emboldened, liberals were more convinced than ever that conservatives were their intellectual and even moral inferiors... Self-righteousness is rarely attractive, and even more rarely rewarded... it would be a leap to say that anyone who supported Hillary Clinton was racist because she once made veiled references to “superpredators.”"
Alexa and Siri Can Hear This Hidden Command. You Can’t. - The New York Times - "they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online — simply with music playing over the radio... researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated ultrasound attacks from 25 feet away. While the commands couldn’t penetrate walls, they could control smart devices through open windows from outside a building. This year, another group of Chinese and American researchers from China’s Academy of Sciences and other institutions, demonstrated they could control voice-activated devices with commands embedded in songs that can be broadcast over the radio or played on services like YouTube."
Huda Kattan: Blogger’s vagina whitening post slammed
Female empowerment means you're not allowed to let people know how to do something they want to their body. Except presumably if they want to be fat, then that's fabulous
AirAsia shares tumble after Tony Fernandes apologises for backing Najib - "AirAsia shares fell as much as 10 per cent... Fernandes said the video and campaign-themed livery was an effort to appease Najib's government after he came under"intense" pressure in the lead-up to elections for adding extra flights on polling day and refusing to fire a subsidiary's chairman who had expressed support for Mahathir. AirAsia had announced extra flights and reduced fares to help voters return home to cast ballots... "Within 24 hours, we were summoned by the (regulator) Malaysian Aviation Commission and told to cancel all those flights. That put us again under tremendous pressure," Fernandes said, adding that his airline had added 120 flights."
This is why most CEOs are as bland as possible
Dirty secret of black-on-Asian violence is out - "San Francisco's hidden truth is out. That's what community organizer Carol Mo calls the realization that Asian residents are being targeted for robberies, burglaries and intimidation by young black men... the response has been disappointing, particularly from the San Francisco Police Department. It seems intent on downplaying the role of race and its impact in the community... Mo participated in a 2008 survey by the Police Department in which about 300 strong-arm robberies were analyzed. "In 85 percent of the physical assault crimes, the victims were Asian and the perpetrators were African American," she said... Edward Chang, who lectures on civil unrest and race relations at UC Riverside, has studied the contentious history of Korean-African American relations in Los Angeles when Korean store owners moved into black neighborhoods. "There was this sense of being invaded by someone else," Chang said. "There was a sense of needing to protect and defend their turf."
Since Asians are now considered white, it's open season
Is white flight a response to a sense of being invaded by someone else?
Elliot Rodger's Asian Self-Hatred - "The complexities related to Elliot Rodger’s mental health are vast and speculative, but from his writings it’s clear it hinges on three prongs: race, class, and gender. Mainstream media has expounded on the class and male entitlement aspect of Rodger’s life but very little is mentioned on the racial component. If anything, it seems race is the last subject they want to address
Of course everyone only focuses on the women though he killed more Asian men than women
Dress code for lawyers: A UK guide reveals a sexist double standard
Of course Quartz ignores the fact that men but not women get docked for colourful socks, men get 2 marks deducted for their shirt's top button being undone but women are allowed to undo at least one button (and they may only be docked one point if they undo too many), that men get 2 demerit points for non-black shoes but women may wear navy too (and they may only get 1 demerit point even if they wear another colour). Maybe everything that might even conceivably disadvantage women is considered sexism
How to Lease a $50,000 BMW for Less Than a Subway Pass - "“There’s an issue of EVs being able to stand on their own in the marketplace without a credit,” said Jeff Schuster, an analyst at LMC Automotive. “To get the mass market into them, it’s got to be more cost competitive, and it’s not at this stage.”
Lack of market demand despite a small but vocal group of enthusiasts killed the electric car
This Is What Really Happens When Someone Wins A Game Show - "every penny won on a TV game show is seen as income in the eyes of the IRS, and that means that big cash windfalls are subject to big tax bills. Or, in the case of Aurora De Lucia, jettisoning the shiny new car she had won on The Price is Right. Her car was not handed over right away... she had also won a pair of HD camcorders. But, after reading online reviews of the items “and basically couldn’t find a positive one,” she decided to try to sell them. That proved more difficult than one might expect. De Lucia posted on social media, Craigslist, and eBay. “No one wanted them—no one in the world wanted these cameras. I had a couple friends who said they wouldn’t even take them for free.” Finally she was able to donate them to a worthy cause through a friend."
Humans don’t get enough sleep. Just ask other primates. - "most species get somewhere between nine and 15 hours of shut-eye daily, while humans average just seven. An analysis of several lifestyle and biological factors, however, predicts people should get 9.55 hours"
Snooze patterns vary across cultures, opening eyes to evolution of sleep - "“Contrary to conventional wisdom, people in societies without electricity do not sleep more than those in industrial societies like ours”... Hadza and Malagasy individuals often supplemented nighttime sleep with one or two daytime naps. Shut-eye breaks averaged 47.5 minutes for the Hadza and about 55 minutes for villagers. Critically, Samson says, foragers and villagers displayed more consistent daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness than are characteristic of Westerners... At night, they slept in two phases, awakening for around an hour shortly after midnight. Historical accounts describe a similar sleep pattern among Western Europeans between 500 and 200 years ago — two sleep segments, divided by a period of activity or reflection... hunter-gatherers and villagers got plenty of direct sunlight, unlike many Westerners"
What is “White” Crime? – David Shuey - "Liberals can seemingly get away with making specious points, with the mainstream media in full support screaming headlines such as “WHITE MEN HAVE COMMITTED MORE MASS SHOOTINGS THAN ANY OTHER GROUP”... few push back with a fact-based argument that “blacks commit more crime” across the board, including in mass shootings (16% of total), at a higher rate than their share of the population. Why? Fear of being called racist, I assume. It’s also the truth. So, sure, non-Hispanic whites technically commit more mass shootings than anyone else in the United States (64% of total, according to Mother Jones-data interpreted by CNN … or possibly 54% according to Mother Jones-data interpreted by Newsweek). But whites are also 5 times larger than the black population. And when it comes to all homicides and shootings, blacks actually DO surpass whites by rate (8 times more) AND sum total. But Newsweek and others have learned not to focus on those inconvenient facts in recent years as the Black Lives Matter narrative has taken solid root deep in the media landscape... 5 times more crime is directed at whites by blacks than vice versa... Yet the narrative is pushed by critical race theory professors who say “some white people will have to die” to carry out justice against “anti-black” forces. There’s many sides to this complex point, and Snopes tends to side with the professor’s arguments, arguing his words are taken out of context. Perhaps. The professor obfuscates the point that “historically” one could say lynchings are a good reason to defend oneself. Yet it’s a contemporary reality that there practically are no lynchings. Additionally, 43% of cop killers are black, but 25% of the victims of lethal force by police are black, thus making the professor’s argument a logical and irrelevant fallacy. Today, social and mainstream media erupts from a drunken white man perpetrating a hate crime murder in Kansas against another man from India, while far less attention was paid to a hate crime mass killing in Fresno in 2017 where a black man killed 3 white people (representing almost half of of the average annual hate crime killings). He was motivated by paranoid fears of the white majority threat against blacks, saying from jail to CNN, “All I knew was white supremacy has to die and the people who benefit from white supremacy … are white men.” They say he’s being checked for his mental health, but his sentiments are widespread and often heard on college campuses and social media... a black Harvard economist and MacArthur Fellowship winner showed the world that white people were more likely to be shot and killed by police than black people. Many people didn’t listen... For every 1 black person killed by police, there are another 31 blacks killed by a black person... Thus, when acclaimed writer and “public intellectual” Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about “violence against black bodies” as coming from “oppressors,” I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about."
Black lies matter
SCDF ragging rituals: From being dunked in pump wells to blanket parties - "Ragging rituals ranging from getting pushed into a pump well to being locked in a cage or being ambushed while asleep are part of a "deeply ingrained culture" at the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), despite stringent rules against the practice... On Monday (May 14), the SCDF announced that an NSF had died after being found unconscious at the bottom of a 12m-deep fire station pump well which was filled with water... The activities may also include inserting a battery into a person's anus, moving his entire locker onto the roof or locking them up in a cage... A former medic, 25, said ORD personnel would have to get an intravenous drip done by junior medics, or get soaked in water as part of their ragging ritual... Despite stringent rules against the practice, ragging remains a "deeply ingrained culture" to initiate newbies and mark milestones such as ORD or a regular's retirement, said one ex-firefighter in his late 20s. "Ragging was, and I’d like to believe still is, meant to be a good-natured way of fostering a sense of brotherhood, cohesion and team bonding amongst the firefighters""
I knew Muslims who celebrated 9/11 – 15 years on, they know how naive they were - "“The chickens are coming home to roost.” I'm ashamed to admit that many Muslims I know certainly felt that way – albeit inexcusably – as they watched the events of 9/11 unfold. And 15 years later, many observers – just as unfathomably – feel that Muslims’ own chickens have now come home to roost, in the form of Islamphobia, hate crime and bans on the burkini, teaching my community a few harsh lessons... we can’t flirt with anti-Semitism (indulging in conspiracy theories such as ‘Israel knew about 9/11’) and then complain about the effects of Islamophobia. We can’t always be the victims of society – even if, all too often, we still are... Sheikh Adel Kalbani, the former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (the closest thing to a Sunni Muslim Pope) acknowledged recently that Isis takes inspiration, albeit pervertedly, from much of the Islamic teachings in the Arab world. Kalbani’s message is vital because the silent majority can no longer afford to be silent; if you can march against Salman Rushdie or Israeli collateral damage in Gaza, then you can march against extremism too... The Prophet Muhammad instructed his followers that there would be constant “Mujaddids” – renewers or reformers – for his religion"
Are Instagram Influencers Peddling Dubious Investments?
Why I Cancelled My ILP (Investment-Linked Policy) - "Divide $24,534 by $75,600 and that works out to be 32.4%. These are fixed expenses - no matter whether my policy makes money or not, the insurance company still gets paid. 32% is a LOT of money. That's like me telling someone, "hey give me your money to invest for you. Whether or not you make or lose money, you still have to pay me 1/3 of the total capital though!"... Now let's examine what happens if my policy makes a more plausible 4% p.a. instead. Since my money is growing, I should be benefiting, right? WRONG. This gets even more shocking: I get back LESS of my total capital even if my money grows at 4% p.a. To be exact, I'll stand to lose $10,447"
The Secret Way To Win Monopoly (And Infuriate Your Friends) Every Time – Urbo - "“Most people think the objective of Ticket to Ride is to build the longest series of train lines around the map,” Hales explains. “However, this isn’t how you actually win. You win by having the most points.” Rest assured that Hales knows how to get the most points. “My strategy (which I’ll admit is wildly enraging to my family and friends) is to take as few train line cards as possible,” he says. “Instead of trying to complete long train lines, you focus on blocking choke points around the map"... A full, intact Monopoly set has 32 houses and 12 hotels, no more, no less. If all 32 houses are built, no one can build houses, unless they’re sold or converted to hotels. It’s simple supply and demand."
"My girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend are too close" - "she started to have anxiety attacks and the only person who knew how to console her was her ex-boyfriend. She would call him to come over and he would stay the night and take care of her. But then her anxiety attacks started to become frequent, so I told her ex-boyfriend that it was okay for him to sleep over, and vice versa. But now, it's become something like a secret between them because she doesn't tell me anymore. They share a bed and she doesn't see a problem with it."
MH370 mystery: Experts tell '60 Minutes' that Captain Zaharie Shaw committed suicide and mass murder - The Washington Post - "the “60 Minutes” team — which included aviation specialists, the former Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief in charge of investigating MH370's crash, and an oceanographer — put forth what they believe is the most likely theory."
Addendum: In light of this, TRIBUTE: Who exactly is Malaysia Airlines Captain Zaharie Shah of MH370? (which seems to have been taken down in 2015) is, as I noted, "very naively and parochially Malaysian"
Opinion | Liberals, You’re Not as Smart as You Think - The New York Times - "a backlash against liberals — a backlash that most liberals don’t seem to realize they’re causing — is going to get President Trump re-elected. People often vote against things instead of voting for them... At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, the comedian Michelle Wolf landed some punch lines that were funny and some that weren’t. But people reacted less to her talent and more to the liberal politics that she personified. For every viewer who loved her Trump bashing, there seemed to be at least one other put off by the one-sidedness of her routine. Then, when Kanye West publicly rethought his ideological commitments, prominent liberals criticized him for speaking on the topic at all. Maxine Waters, a Democratic congresswoman from California, remarked that “sometimes Kanye West talks out of turn” and should “maybe not have so much to say.” Liberals dominate the entertainment industry, many of the most influential news sources and America’s universities. This means that people with progressive leanings are everywhere in the public eye... These platforms come with a lot of power to express values, confer credibility and celebrity and start national conversations that others really can’t ignore. But this makes liberals feel more powerful than they are. Or, more accurately, this kind of power is double-edged. Liberals often don’t realize how provocative or inflammatory they can be. In exercising their power, they regularly not only persuade and attract but also annoy and repel. In fact, liberals may be more effective at causing resentment than in getting people to come their way... the “army of comedy” that Michael Moore thought would bring Mr. Trump down will instead be what builds him up in the minds of millions of voters... Racist is pretty much the most damning label that can be slapped on anyone in America today, which means it should be applied firmly and carefully. Yet some people have cavalierly leveled the charge against huge numbers of Americans — specifically, the more than 60 million people who voted for Mr. Trump... Some liberals have gotten far out ahead of their fellow Americans but are nonetheless quick to criticize those who haven’t caught up with them... It’s one thing to police your own language and a very different one to police other people’s. The former can set an example. The latter is domineering.This judgmental tendency became stronger during the administration of President Barack Obama... Feeling increasingly emboldened, liberals were more convinced than ever that conservatives were their intellectual and even moral inferiors... Self-righteousness is rarely attractive, and even more rarely rewarded... it would be a leap to say that anyone who supported Hillary Clinton was racist because she once made veiled references to “superpredators.”"
Alexa and Siri Can Hear This Hidden Command. You Can’t. - The New York Times - "they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online — simply with music playing over the radio... researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated ultrasound attacks from 25 feet away. While the commands couldn’t penetrate walls, they could control smart devices through open windows from outside a building. This year, another group of Chinese and American researchers from China’s Academy of Sciences and other institutions, demonstrated they could control voice-activated devices with commands embedded in songs that can be broadcast over the radio or played on services like YouTube."
Huda Kattan: Blogger’s vagina whitening post slammed
Female empowerment means you're not allowed to let people know how to do something they want to their body. Except presumably if they want to be fat, then that's fabulous
AirAsia shares tumble after Tony Fernandes apologises for backing Najib - "AirAsia shares fell as much as 10 per cent... Fernandes said the video and campaign-themed livery was an effort to appease Najib's government after he came under"intense" pressure in the lead-up to elections for adding extra flights on polling day and refusing to fire a subsidiary's chairman who had expressed support for Mahathir. AirAsia had announced extra flights and reduced fares to help voters return home to cast ballots... "Within 24 hours, we were summoned by the (regulator) Malaysian Aviation Commission and told to cancel all those flights. That put us again under tremendous pressure," Fernandes said, adding that his airline had added 120 flights."
This is why most CEOs are as bland as possible
Dirty secret of black-on-Asian violence is out - "San Francisco's hidden truth is out. That's what community organizer Carol Mo calls the realization that Asian residents are being targeted for robberies, burglaries and intimidation by young black men... the response has been disappointing, particularly from the San Francisco Police Department. It seems intent on downplaying the role of race and its impact in the community... Mo participated in a 2008 survey by the Police Department in which about 300 strong-arm robberies were analyzed. "In 85 percent of the physical assault crimes, the victims were Asian and the perpetrators were African American," she said... Edward Chang, who lectures on civil unrest and race relations at UC Riverside, has studied the contentious history of Korean-African American relations in Los Angeles when Korean store owners moved into black neighborhoods. "There was this sense of being invaded by someone else," Chang said. "There was a sense of needing to protect and defend their turf."
Since Asians are now considered white, it's open season
Is white flight a response to a sense of being invaded by someone else?
Elliot Rodger's Asian Self-Hatred - "The complexities related to Elliot Rodger’s mental health are vast and speculative, but from his writings it’s clear it hinges on three prongs: race, class, and gender. Mainstream media has expounded on the class and male entitlement aspect of Rodger’s life but very little is mentioned on the racial component. If anything, it seems race is the last subject they want to address
Of course everyone only focuses on the women though he killed more Asian men than women
Dress code for lawyers: A UK guide reveals a sexist double standard
Of course Quartz ignores the fact that men but not women get docked for colourful socks, men get 2 marks deducted for their shirt's top button being undone but women are allowed to undo at least one button (and they may only be docked one point if they undo too many), that men get 2 demerit points for non-black shoes but women may wear navy too (and they may only get 1 demerit point even if they wear another colour). Maybe everything that might even conceivably disadvantage women is considered sexism
How to Lease a $50,000 BMW for Less Than a Subway Pass - "“There’s an issue of EVs being able to stand on their own in the marketplace without a credit,” said Jeff Schuster, an analyst at LMC Automotive. “To get the mass market into them, it’s got to be more cost competitive, and it’s not at this stage.”
Lack of market demand despite a small but vocal group of enthusiasts killed the electric car
This Is What Really Happens When Someone Wins A Game Show - "every penny won on a TV game show is seen as income in the eyes of the IRS, and that means that big cash windfalls are subject to big tax bills. Or, in the case of Aurora De Lucia, jettisoning the shiny new car she had won on The Price is Right. Her car was not handed over right away... she had also won a pair of HD camcorders. But, after reading online reviews of the items “and basically couldn’t find a positive one,” she decided to try to sell them. That proved more difficult than one might expect. De Lucia posted on social media, Craigslist, and eBay. “No one wanted them—no one in the world wanted these cameras. I had a couple friends who said they wouldn’t even take them for free.” Finally she was able to donate them to a worthy cause through a friend."
Humans don’t get enough sleep. Just ask other primates. - "most species get somewhere between nine and 15 hours of shut-eye daily, while humans average just seven. An analysis of several lifestyle and biological factors, however, predicts people should get 9.55 hours"
Snooze patterns vary across cultures, opening eyes to evolution of sleep - "“Contrary to conventional wisdom, people in societies without electricity do not sleep more than those in industrial societies like ours”... Hadza and Malagasy individuals often supplemented nighttime sleep with one or two daytime naps. Shut-eye breaks averaged 47.5 minutes for the Hadza and about 55 minutes for villagers. Critically, Samson says, foragers and villagers displayed more consistent daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness than are characteristic of Westerners... At night, they slept in two phases, awakening for around an hour shortly after midnight. Historical accounts describe a similar sleep pattern among Western Europeans between 500 and 200 years ago — two sleep segments, divided by a period of activity or reflection... hunter-gatherers and villagers got plenty of direct sunlight, unlike many Westerners"
What is “White” Crime? – David Shuey - "Liberals can seemingly get away with making specious points, with the mainstream media in full support screaming headlines such as “WHITE MEN HAVE COMMITTED MORE MASS SHOOTINGS THAN ANY OTHER GROUP”... few push back with a fact-based argument that “blacks commit more crime” across the board, including in mass shootings (16% of total), at a higher rate than their share of the population. Why? Fear of being called racist, I assume. It’s also the truth. So, sure, non-Hispanic whites technically commit more mass shootings than anyone else in the United States (64% of total, according to Mother Jones-data interpreted by CNN … or possibly 54% according to Mother Jones-data interpreted by Newsweek). But whites are also 5 times larger than the black population. And when it comes to all homicides and shootings, blacks actually DO surpass whites by rate (8 times more) AND sum total. But Newsweek and others have learned not to focus on those inconvenient facts in recent years as the Black Lives Matter narrative has taken solid root deep in the media landscape... 5 times more crime is directed at whites by blacks than vice versa... Yet the narrative is pushed by critical race theory professors who say “some white people will have to die” to carry out justice against “anti-black” forces. There’s many sides to this complex point, and Snopes tends to side with the professor’s arguments, arguing his words are taken out of context. Perhaps. The professor obfuscates the point that “historically” one could say lynchings are a good reason to defend oneself. Yet it’s a contemporary reality that there practically are no lynchings. Additionally, 43% of cop killers are black, but 25% of the victims of lethal force by police are black, thus making the professor’s argument a logical and irrelevant fallacy. Today, social and mainstream media erupts from a drunken white man perpetrating a hate crime murder in Kansas against another man from India, while far less attention was paid to a hate crime mass killing in Fresno in 2017 where a black man killed 3 white people (representing almost half of of the average annual hate crime killings). He was motivated by paranoid fears of the white majority threat against blacks, saying from jail to CNN, “All I knew was white supremacy has to die and the people who benefit from white supremacy … are white men.” They say he’s being checked for his mental health, but his sentiments are widespread and often heard on college campuses and social media... a black Harvard economist and MacArthur Fellowship winner showed the world that white people were more likely to be shot and killed by police than black people. Many people didn’t listen... For every 1 black person killed by police, there are another 31 blacks killed by a black person... Thus, when acclaimed writer and “public intellectual” Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about “violence against black bodies” as coming from “oppressors,” I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about."
Black lies matter
SCDF ragging rituals: From being dunked in pump wells to blanket parties - "Ragging rituals ranging from getting pushed into a pump well to being locked in a cage or being ambushed while asleep are part of a "deeply ingrained culture" at the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), despite stringent rules against the practice... On Monday (May 14), the SCDF announced that an NSF had died after being found unconscious at the bottom of a 12m-deep fire station pump well which was filled with water... The activities may also include inserting a battery into a person's anus, moving his entire locker onto the roof or locking them up in a cage... A former medic, 25, said ORD personnel would have to get an intravenous drip done by junior medics, or get soaked in water as part of their ragging ritual... Despite stringent rules against the practice, ragging remains a "deeply ingrained culture" to initiate newbies and mark milestones such as ORD or a regular's retirement, said one ex-firefighter in his late 20s. "Ragging was, and I’d like to believe still is, meant to be a good-natured way of fostering a sense of brotherhood, cohesion and team bonding amongst the firefighters""
I knew Muslims who celebrated 9/11 – 15 years on, they know how naive they were - "“The chickens are coming home to roost.” I'm ashamed to admit that many Muslims I know certainly felt that way – albeit inexcusably – as they watched the events of 9/11 unfold. And 15 years later, many observers – just as unfathomably – feel that Muslims’ own chickens have now come home to roost, in the form of Islamphobia, hate crime and bans on the burkini, teaching my community a few harsh lessons... we can’t flirt with anti-Semitism (indulging in conspiracy theories such as ‘Israel knew about 9/11’) and then complain about the effects of Islamophobia. We can’t always be the victims of society – even if, all too often, we still are... Sheikh Adel Kalbani, the former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (the closest thing to a Sunni Muslim Pope) acknowledged recently that Isis takes inspiration, albeit pervertedly, from much of the Islamic teachings in the Arab world. Kalbani’s message is vital because the silent majority can no longer afford to be silent; if you can march against Salman Rushdie or Israeli collateral damage in Gaza, then you can march against extremism too... The Prophet Muhammad instructed his followers that there would be constant “Mujaddids” – renewers or reformers – for his religion"
Are Instagram Influencers Peddling Dubious Investments?
Why I Cancelled My ILP (Investment-Linked Policy) - "Divide $24,534 by $75,600 and that works out to be 32.4%. These are fixed expenses - no matter whether my policy makes money or not, the insurance company still gets paid. 32% is a LOT of money. That's like me telling someone, "hey give me your money to invest for you. Whether or not you make or lose money, you still have to pay me 1/3 of the total capital though!"... Now let's examine what happens if my policy makes a more plausible 4% p.a. instead. Since my money is growing, I should be benefiting, right? WRONG. This gets even more shocking: I get back LESS of my total capital even if my money grows at 4% p.a. To be exact, I'll stand to lose $10,447"
Post ID: 2850810689569600976
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Links - 24th July 2018 (2) (including Meghan and Harry)
S’pore envoy confuses racial dominance with supremacism - "I refer to the lengthy 3,000-word opinion piece by Singapore’s ambassador-at-large Bilahari Kausikan entitled “Malaysia is undergoing a systemic change that has profound consequences for Singapore”... Perhaps Bilahari can understand the distinction better in the context of Singapore, where the Chinese indisputably dominates the political, economic and social space. However, that does not translate into a Chinese-supremacist city state... Instead of seeing the uproar against 1MDB as a courageous fight against corruption, Bilahari chose to frame the 1MDB scandal as a political fight by juxtaposing Najib Razak and (former PM) Dr Mahathir Mohamed... Bilahari wanted to persuade Singaporeans that despite the disgraceful multi-billion ringgit corruption scandal Najib is entangled with and his less than legitimate election to office with funds sourced from dubious unknown sources, it is better the devil you can cut deals with... Bilahari’s views demonstrate how Singapore as a country, despite its enormous wealth and developed nation status, completely lacks a moral compass. It is less important for him to support “what is right and just”, as opposed to “what is in it for me” in Singapore’s relations with its neighbours, regardless of how evil or corrupt a regime is... Bilahari’s unapologetically selfish and arrogant views only cement the perception of Singapore as the contemptible Shylock of Southeast Asia"
Opinion | The Fall of the German Empire - The New York Times - "it is a grave mistake for liberalism’s champions to portray the tensions between the center and the periphery in Europe as just a choice for liberal values or against them. Because framing the choice that way, to people who recognize all too well that it can also be a choice for or against their own sovereignty, is a good way to hasten the fall not only of Germany’s third empire but of liberalism itself."
Opinion | College May Not Be Worth It Anymore - The New York Times - "We appear to be approaching a time when, even for middle-class students, the economic benefit of a college degree will begin to dim. Since 2000, the growth in the wage gap between high school and college graduates has slowed to a halt; 25 percent of college graduates now earn no more than does the average high school graduate. Part of the reason is oversupply. Technology increased the demand for educated workers, but that demand has been consistently outpaced by the number of people — urged on by everyone from teachers to presidents — prepared to meet it. No other nation punishes the “uneducated” as harshly as the United States. Nearly 30 percent of Americans without a high school diploma live in poverty, compared to 5 percent with a college degree, and we infer that this comes from a lack of education. But in 28 other wealthy developed countries, a lack of a high school diploma increases the probability of poverty by less than 5 percent... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 20 percent of American jobs actually require a bachelor’s degree. By 2026, the bureau estimates that this proportion will rise, but only to 25 percent. Why do employers demand a degree for jobs that don’t require them? Because they can... What all this suggests is that the college-degree premium may really be a no-college-degree penalty."
People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else, researchers say - The Washington Post - "average population density in the 20 percent most miserable communities was more than eight times greater than in the happiest 20 percent of communities... the happiest communities had shorter commute times and less expensive housing, and that a smaller share of the population was foreign-born. They also found that people in the happiest communities are less transient than in the least happy communities, that they are more likely to attend church and that they are significantly more likely to feel a “sense of belonging” in their communities... Perhaps even more surprising are the factors that don't appear to play a major role in community-level differences in happiness: average income levels and rates of unemployment and education. People may move to cities for good-paying jobs, but the Canadian study strongly suggests it's not making them any happier."
Whole Foods Market controversy: Yellow Fever restaurant owner says name isn't racist - The Washington Post - "Kelly Kim and her husband wanted the name of their new pan-Asian restaurant to stand out, eschewing bland or stereotypical phrases, like bamboo, dragon and lotus... “Once, I had a friend who was grabbing our food for lunch and her white friend wasn’t sure if he was allowed to eat here”... Negative comments and messages she has received this week have been from non-Asian Americans, she said. Asian American and white customers alike have come to support her, she said, and business has been good at her new location, with no protests or backlash so far. Long Beach is a food desert, she said, and the store has been a welcome addition. That makes a controversy all the more frustrating, she said. “We’re just a small business. Now all of a sudden people are bashing on us,” she said."
When identity politics hurts the people it's supposed to protect
Here’s how much the average single American spends on their dating life - The Washington Post - "The average unmarried American spent $1,596 on their dating life in 2016, according to a Match survey of 5,500 singles around the country. Of course, in some cities the average is higher. For example, in Washington, it was $1,788; in New York, $2,069. This average includes bar tabs and dating site memberships, but also includes haircuts, manicures and new date outfits; entrance fees to dating events and money spent on matchmakers. When that $1,600 average is divided by gender, men spent more ($1,855 on average) than women ($1,423)... Seventy-eight percent of women said they split the check on a date because they didn’t want to feel obligated to go out again or to get physical. But 47 percent of women said they offer to pay to be polite or to assert their independence"
Monkey loses selfie copyright case. Maybe monkey should sue PETA, appeals court suggests. - The Washington Post - "That outcome was no surprise. What was unusual was that the appeals court chose to rule on the case at all and the criticism it leveled at PETA in the course of doing so, questioning just what sort of “friend” the organization was to Naruto... What really bothered the appeals court judges, they said in a lengthy footnote, was how PETA sought to abandon the case after reaching a settlement that did not directly benefit Naruto and instead served PETA’s “institutional interests,” as Judge Carlos T. Bea said, writing for court. PETA “failed” as a friend to Naruto, the court said. At one point the court even pondered whether Naruto might have sued PETA for its representation if he were a human."
‘How dare you work on whites’: Professors under fire for research on white mortality - The Washington Post - "Case and Deaton pointed out that mortality rates among middle-aged white Americans have been rising, while mortality rates for other Americans and citizens of Western Europe have continued to plummet... Opioid abuse and alcoholism and a spike in suicides have been the most visible causes, but Case and Deaton say these “deaths of despair” are symptoms of a much larger problem — one that's rooted in the economy, and how forces like technological change have battered less-educated whites in recent decades. But the economy has been brutal lately for all Americans without a college degree, and this new report kicked off another round of controversy over how the American mainstream often ignores black experiences. Critics have complained that Case and Deaton’s focus on white mortality risks drawing attention away from equally pressing problems, like the persistently higher rates of black mortality...
Deaton: Anne presented the first paper once and was told, in no uncertain terms: How dare you work on whites.
Case: I was really beaten up.
Deaton: And these were really senior people.
Case: Very senior people...
We might be able to isolate why this is happening, and that’s probably going to be relevant for all of us. The other part is that if some groups are more resilient in some ways, what can we learn from that? The press often gets it wrong and will say “blacks and Hispanics have higher mortality than whites” — which is not true. Hispanics have lower mortality. What makes Hispanics resilient and can we use what we learn from that group to help all groups?...
There’s this narrative, that is entrenched in some of the professions, that there’s this mysterious thing called “socioeconomic status” that is immutably correlated with health. And it isn’t...
When you talk to CEOs, to the business community, they say, “We have lots of vacancies, but the educational system is not training people up to do those jobs.” To which the counter answer is: “Okay but you just told me five minutes ago that the speed of technological change in your industry is so rapid it’s terrifying even you.” So do you want to train up people for something that’s not going to be there two years from now?...
Rising health care costs are responsible, at least in part, for the stagnant wages for people without a college degrees. If they’ve got an employer and they’ve got health care, their wages are getting pushed down by the employer paying for that health care. People don’t even realize this. They think it’s for free."
Whataboutism is a good thing when directed at "privileged" people. And now it goes beyond even talking about something, to finding it out in the first place - inconvenient facts need to be suppressed
So much for anti-racism being good for white people
Mahathir speaks out against arrest of man who allegedly insulted him - "I do not agree with the actions taken on those who have criticised me. I have informed the police about this. This law will be reviewed when parliament convenes later... Days after being sworn in as Malaysia's seventh prime minister, Dr Mahathir had pledged to review some laws enacted by the Najib Razak administration, including the "fake news law" which was hurriedly passed before the elections"
Old HDB flats: Assets losing their value? - ""I don’t know what the government is thinking about for the lease management of HDB estates, since there is no open discussion about the issue. In theory, the estates revert to HDB when their lease expires. But will there be any lease renewal policy or re-housing policy? The uncertainty needs to be resolved to protect the interest of HDB homebuyers"... Experts say there is no point in speculating. Instead, they suggest that the authorities be more transparent, in engaging people more in discussions on the fates of their ageing homes."
Fatal car crashes increase 12% on annual marijuana celebration '420 Day' - "Fatal car crashes increase by as much as 12 per cent on the afternoon of 20 April, more commonly known as “420”, researchers have found... Despite this, other studies assessing the risks of marijuana relative to other legal and illegal substances have shown it is around 114 times safer than alcohol."
Weed is 114 times less deadly than alcohol, study finds - "marijuana is far and away the safest drug. It's at the bottom of the list by some distance, and is also the only drug that poses a low mortality risk to users... The research is backed up by police in Colorado, the first US state to legalise the drug, who said recently that a year on everything is fine and police work has gone on mostly unchanged. "
Germaine Greer says women enjoy watching sexual violence on TV - "Germaine Greer has claimed female abuse victims of the #MeToo movement are "cashing in" and defended depictions of sexualised violence on TV. The feminist author, 79, wrote in Radio Times that crime dramas currently receiving a backlash for gratuitous portrayals of violence against women are only trying to meet the desires of their audience. "Female victimisation sells," she wrote. "What should disturb us is that it sells to women." She continued: "Who is watching and reading the proliferating imagery of female victimhood? Women, that's who... Greer went so far as to suggest that large numbers of female viewers fantasised about sexual assault"
You either die a feminist...
Feminist author Germaine Greer on Meghan Markle: 'I think she'll bolt - she's bolted before' - "Markle was married to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson for two years, before splitting in 2013. Greer said she has given up too much of her identity, including her citizenship, her career and moving 3,000 miles away from her home, for the couple's marriage to last forever. "I think she’ll bolt. She bolted before"... "I hope in a way that she’ll bolt, but maybe she’ll take Harry with her."... When asked why she thinks Markle would give up her entire life as she knows it, she wryly responded: "Why would a girl born in poverty marry a man worth 53 million quid? I can't think of a single reason.""
Opinion | The Fall of the German Empire - The New York Times - "it is a grave mistake for liberalism’s champions to portray the tensions between the center and the periphery in Europe as just a choice for liberal values or against them. Because framing the choice that way, to people who recognize all too well that it can also be a choice for or against their own sovereignty, is a good way to hasten the fall not only of Germany’s third empire but of liberalism itself."
Opinion | College May Not Be Worth It Anymore - The New York Times - "We appear to be approaching a time when, even for middle-class students, the economic benefit of a college degree will begin to dim. Since 2000, the growth in the wage gap between high school and college graduates has slowed to a halt; 25 percent of college graduates now earn no more than does the average high school graduate. Part of the reason is oversupply. Technology increased the demand for educated workers, but that demand has been consistently outpaced by the number of people — urged on by everyone from teachers to presidents — prepared to meet it. No other nation punishes the “uneducated” as harshly as the United States. Nearly 30 percent of Americans without a high school diploma live in poverty, compared to 5 percent with a college degree, and we infer that this comes from a lack of education. But in 28 other wealthy developed countries, a lack of a high school diploma increases the probability of poverty by less than 5 percent... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 20 percent of American jobs actually require a bachelor’s degree. By 2026, the bureau estimates that this proportion will rise, but only to 25 percent. Why do employers demand a degree for jobs that don’t require them? Because they can... What all this suggests is that the college-degree premium may really be a no-college-degree penalty."
People who live in small towns and rural areas are happier than everyone else, researchers say - The Washington Post - "average population density in the 20 percent most miserable communities was more than eight times greater than in the happiest 20 percent of communities... the happiest communities had shorter commute times and less expensive housing, and that a smaller share of the population was foreign-born. They also found that people in the happiest communities are less transient than in the least happy communities, that they are more likely to attend church and that they are significantly more likely to feel a “sense of belonging” in their communities... Perhaps even more surprising are the factors that don't appear to play a major role in community-level differences in happiness: average income levels and rates of unemployment and education. People may move to cities for good-paying jobs, but the Canadian study strongly suggests it's not making them any happier."
Whole Foods Market controversy: Yellow Fever restaurant owner says name isn't racist - The Washington Post - "Kelly Kim and her husband wanted the name of their new pan-Asian restaurant to stand out, eschewing bland or stereotypical phrases, like bamboo, dragon and lotus... “Once, I had a friend who was grabbing our food for lunch and her white friend wasn’t sure if he was allowed to eat here”... Negative comments and messages she has received this week have been from non-Asian Americans, she said. Asian American and white customers alike have come to support her, she said, and business has been good at her new location, with no protests or backlash so far. Long Beach is a food desert, she said, and the store has been a welcome addition. That makes a controversy all the more frustrating, she said. “We’re just a small business. Now all of a sudden people are bashing on us,” she said."
When identity politics hurts the people it's supposed to protect
Here’s how much the average single American spends on their dating life - The Washington Post - "The average unmarried American spent $1,596 on their dating life in 2016, according to a Match survey of 5,500 singles around the country. Of course, in some cities the average is higher. For example, in Washington, it was $1,788; in New York, $2,069. This average includes bar tabs and dating site memberships, but also includes haircuts, manicures and new date outfits; entrance fees to dating events and money spent on matchmakers. When that $1,600 average is divided by gender, men spent more ($1,855 on average) than women ($1,423)... Seventy-eight percent of women said they split the check on a date because they didn’t want to feel obligated to go out again or to get physical. But 47 percent of women said they offer to pay to be polite or to assert their independence"
Monkey loses selfie copyright case. Maybe monkey should sue PETA, appeals court suggests. - The Washington Post - "That outcome was no surprise. What was unusual was that the appeals court chose to rule on the case at all and the criticism it leveled at PETA in the course of doing so, questioning just what sort of “friend” the organization was to Naruto... What really bothered the appeals court judges, they said in a lengthy footnote, was how PETA sought to abandon the case after reaching a settlement that did not directly benefit Naruto and instead served PETA’s “institutional interests,” as Judge Carlos T. Bea said, writing for court. PETA “failed” as a friend to Naruto, the court said. At one point the court even pondered whether Naruto might have sued PETA for its representation if he were a human."
‘How dare you work on whites’: Professors under fire for research on white mortality - The Washington Post - "Case and Deaton pointed out that mortality rates among middle-aged white Americans have been rising, while mortality rates for other Americans and citizens of Western Europe have continued to plummet... Opioid abuse and alcoholism and a spike in suicides have been the most visible causes, but Case and Deaton say these “deaths of despair” are symptoms of a much larger problem — one that's rooted in the economy, and how forces like technological change have battered less-educated whites in recent decades. But the economy has been brutal lately for all Americans without a college degree, and this new report kicked off another round of controversy over how the American mainstream often ignores black experiences. Critics have complained that Case and Deaton’s focus on white mortality risks drawing attention away from equally pressing problems, like the persistently higher rates of black mortality...
Deaton: Anne presented the first paper once and was told, in no uncertain terms: How dare you work on whites.
Case: I was really beaten up.
Deaton: And these were really senior people.
Case: Very senior people...
We might be able to isolate why this is happening, and that’s probably going to be relevant for all of us. The other part is that if some groups are more resilient in some ways, what can we learn from that? The press often gets it wrong and will say “blacks and Hispanics have higher mortality than whites” — which is not true. Hispanics have lower mortality. What makes Hispanics resilient and can we use what we learn from that group to help all groups?...
There’s this narrative, that is entrenched in some of the professions, that there’s this mysterious thing called “socioeconomic status” that is immutably correlated with health. And it isn’t...
When you talk to CEOs, to the business community, they say, “We have lots of vacancies, but the educational system is not training people up to do those jobs.” To which the counter answer is: “Okay but you just told me five minutes ago that the speed of technological change in your industry is so rapid it’s terrifying even you.” So do you want to train up people for something that’s not going to be there two years from now?...
Rising health care costs are responsible, at least in part, for the stagnant wages for people without a college degrees. If they’ve got an employer and they’ve got health care, their wages are getting pushed down by the employer paying for that health care. People don’t even realize this. They think it’s for free."
Whataboutism is a good thing when directed at "privileged" people. And now it goes beyond even talking about something, to finding it out in the first place - inconvenient facts need to be suppressed
So much for anti-racism being good for white people
Mahathir speaks out against arrest of man who allegedly insulted him - "I do not agree with the actions taken on those who have criticised me. I have informed the police about this. This law will be reviewed when parliament convenes later... Days after being sworn in as Malaysia's seventh prime minister, Dr Mahathir had pledged to review some laws enacted by the Najib Razak administration, including the "fake news law" which was hurriedly passed before the elections"
Old HDB flats: Assets losing their value? - ""I don’t know what the government is thinking about for the lease management of HDB estates, since there is no open discussion about the issue. In theory, the estates revert to HDB when their lease expires. But will there be any lease renewal policy or re-housing policy? The uncertainty needs to be resolved to protect the interest of HDB homebuyers"... Experts say there is no point in speculating. Instead, they suggest that the authorities be more transparent, in engaging people more in discussions on the fates of their ageing homes."
Fatal car crashes increase 12% on annual marijuana celebration '420 Day' - "Fatal car crashes increase by as much as 12 per cent on the afternoon of 20 April, more commonly known as “420”, researchers have found... Despite this, other studies assessing the risks of marijuana relative to other legal and illegal substances have shown it is around 114 times safer than alcohol."
Weed is 114 times less deadly than alcohol, study finds - "marijuana is far and away the safest drug. It's at the bottom of the list by some distance, and is also the only drug that poses a low mortality risk to users... The research is backed up by police in Colorado, the first US state to legalise the drug, who said recently that a year on everything is fine and police work has gone on mostly unchanged. "
Germaine Greer says women enjoy watching sexual violence on TV - "Germaine Greer has claimed female abuse victims of the #MeToo movement are "cashing in" and defended depictions of sexualised violence on TV. The feminist author, 79, wrote in Radio Times that crime dramas currently receiving a backlash for gratuitous portrayals of violence against women are only trying to meet the desires of their audience. "Female victimisation sells," she wrote. "What should disturb us is that it sells to women." She continued: "Who is watching and reading the proliferating imagery of female victimhood? Women, that's who... Greer went so far as to suggest that large numbers of female viewers fantasised about sexual assault"
You either die a feminist...
Feminist author Germaine Greer on Meghan Markle: 'I think she'll bolt - she's bolted before' - "Markle was married to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson for two years, before splitting in 2013. Greer said she has given up too much of her identity, including her citizenship, her career and moving 3,000 miles away from her home, for the couple's marriage to last forever. "I think she’ll bolt. She bolted before"... "I hope in a way that she’ll bolt, but maybe she’ll take Harry with her."... When asked why she thinks Markle would give up her entire life as she knows it, she wryly responded: "Why would a girl born in poverty marry a man worth 53 million quid? I can't think of a single reason.""
Meghan Markle will get a fancy new title when she marries Prince Harry — but it's so weird that she'll never use it - "It is highly likely that Markle will become a duchess, like Kate Middleton did. But there’s another title she will gain from the marriage that she will almost certainly never use for anything. In keeping with royal tradition, after she marries Markle can technically be called Princess Henry of Wales. She gets that title from the days when royal spouses took their husband’s name (Prince Harry’s name is not actually Harry, but Henry)."
Moved from 18th July 2018 (2) links post for consolidation of Meghan & Harry material
A R Devine: Sorry, Meghan, you’re just not brown enough for the Guardian - "The only place where Miss Chambers is being excluded from ‘this imaginary mixed-race community’ on the basis of her skin colour is in her own mind, but what would you expect from the author of an article about another woman's engagement who narcissistically includes 'what about me?' in the title? Miss Chambers is the one focusing on Miss Markle's skin tones, not the media; Miss Chambers is the one assuming that Miss Markle is deemed more attractive and more 'privileged' because of her lighter skin tone and straightened hair. She is the one judging people to be worthy or less worthy due to their colour. What then is she projecting other than her own self-obsession? Were she as devoted to the Guardian’s diversity values, then shouldn't she be celebrating the fact that there are a variety of mixed-race people of all shades and hairstyle choices?"
Moved from 7th May 2018 (2) links post for consolidation of Meghan & Harry material
Luxury homes gifted by Chinese tycoon sit empty as greedy villagers row over ownership - "A Chinese tycoon who paid for hundreds of luxury homes to be built for the residents of his hometown has been left dumbfounded by their greed and ingratitude... although the homes have been ready to move into since the end of last year, they remain unoccupied because of squabbling between villagers over who should get one, or even two... "As soon as I went back to the village, everyone started making all kinds of demands," he said. "So I don't go back any more.""
Study: Women Now Leaving STEM Fields to Pursue ‘Social Justice’ Degrees - "the study tracked 34 freshmen engineering majors over the course of four years to explore what makes students, especially women, abandon engineering in lieu of other fields. Of the 21 female students interviewed, fully one-third left engineering by their junior year. Rulifson and his co-author Angela Bielefeldt identified one factor common to all female students who left: the desire to “help society/other people,” or “social responsibility.”... Rulifson and Bielefeldt stated that they weren’t exactly surprised by the results. They pointed to a 2014 Purdue University study, which discovered that the vast majority of young girls want to grow up to be “successful and caring,” but they don’t see that as an option for engineering professionals."
Misguided Study Shows Why Push for Women in STEM Could Be Backfiring - "scare stories -- false narratives about how women are currently treated in STEM -- can really drive them away. In short, the chosen PR push backfires... She's actually shown that the preconceived atmosphere of bias behind the push for women in STEM can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Other researchers in the field have made similar arguments. Most recently, Georgetown University professor Adriana Kugler published research finding that traditional strategies to recruit women into STEM may actually drive women away from STEM. “Society keeps telling us that STEM fields are masculine fields, that we need to increase the participation of women in STEM fields, but that kind of sends a signal that it’s not a field for women, and it kind of works against keeping women in these fields,” Kugler says... Bobby Mixon, the senior public affairs officer at the NSF, confirmed last year that efforts to diversify STEM cost American taxpayers at least $8 million. In a separate funding round, the NSF also granted college professors more than $3 million to research how to fight “microaggressions” and “bias” in STEM."
Self-fulfilling prophecies being perpetuated by those who seek to end perceived injustice so badly that they propagate a false narrative is deliciously ironic
When Work Disappears: Manufacturing Decline and the Falling Marriage-Market Value of Young Men - "We exploit the gender-specific components of large-scale labor demand shocks stemming from rising international manufacturing competition to test how shifts in the relative economic stature of young men versus young women affected marriage, fertility and children’s living circumstances during 1990-2014. On average, trade shocks differentially reduce employment and earnings, raise the prevalence of idleness, and elevate premature mortality among young males. Consistent with Becker’s model of household specialization, shocks to male relative stature reduce marriage and fertility. Consistent with sociological accounts, these shocks raise the share of mothers who are unwed and share of children living in below-poverty, single-headed households"
Feminists, eager to deny the role of economic factors in marriage, will claim that this is because men without jobs/who earn less become more assholic
Why French chefs want us to eat this bird – head, bones, beak and all - "Hunters catch the birds using traps set in fields during their migratory season (when they fly to Africa). They are then kept in covered cages, encouraging them to gorge on grain in order to double their size. It is said that Roman Emperors stabbed out ortolans’ eyes in order to make the birds think it was night, making them eat even more. They are then thrown alive into a vat of Armagnac, a trick that manages to both drown and marinade the animal at the same time. Killing two birds with one glug, as it were... Those who have tasted ortolan rave about the hazelnut and gamey flavours. Jeremy Clarkson ate one during his Meet the Neighbours series in 2002, in which he travelled around Europe. “It’s really good. It is fantastic, fantastic”"
Sounds more humane than factory chickens
Post ID: 192879269212515278
On Patrick Tan's vs Ben Davis's Deferments
"To be fair, it is not just the PAP elites who get such disruptions. When I was an 18yo in OCS, my Company mate was a 28yo NSF who came back to serve after being disrupted for post-grad studies. He came back with a Ph.D in engineering; we all called him Dr ***. He charged up hills in FBO like the rest of us, and during social night he brought his wife when most of us brought girlfriends...
[ex-S1 here]. What I'm saying is that it's not true that only PAP elites get disrupted to do Ph.D; I have a farmer who also got disrupted to study up to Ph.D."
Post ID: 2806996385451491931
Links - 24th July 2018 (1)
Radicalised asylum seekers have murdered or injured more than 1,000 in terror attacks since 2014 - "In the past four years, 32 Islamist plots have involved those who had sought sanctuary – or 16 per cent. Three of the potential atrocities were in the UK, including Parson Green tube bomber Ahmed Hassan. An analysis by academics found 44 refugees had either carried out atrocities or been thwarted before they could bring bloodshed to the streets. The findings echo warnings by law enforcement chiefs that some so-called Islamic State fanatics who are bent on murder posed as refugees fleeing war and persecution. It was claimed they exploited the migrant crisis by pretending to be asylum seekers to sneak into Europe and cause carnage... In 2016, Rob Wainwright, then director of Europol, the EU crime-fighting agency, revealed that increasing numbers of jihadists were using fake documents to sneak into Europe and some were posing as refugees. "
Can I move back to India permanently after gaining PR and Citizenship in Canada and Australia after 3 years of stay there? - Quora - "An Overseas Citizen of India is a lifetime visa status. It is the closest thing to dual citizenship that India offers...
What are the benefits of being an OCI?
Lifelong multiple entry visa to India
You never have to report to the FRRO regardless of the length of your stay
You can eventually become a citizen of India if you remain an OCI for 5 years and live in India for at least 1 year(short breaks are now allowed)
You can use special counters during immigration
You don’t need a student visa to study in India
You don’t need an employment visa to get a job
You can open a special bank account in India, just like an NRI
You can make investments in India
You can buy non-farm property and exercise property ownership rights
Your can use your OCI card to apply for a driver’s license, open a bank account, or get a PAN card
You get the same economic, financial, and education benefits as NRIs (e.g. reserved admission quotas), and you can adopt children like an NRI
You pay the Indian resident fee when visiting a national parks, monuments, museums or wildlife sanctuary (of course it is ultimately up to the discretion of the man issuing tickets)"
Grammar schools: What are they and why are they controversial? - "Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the "11-plus". There are only about 163 grammar schools in England, out of some 3,000 state secondaries, and a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland. Under the grammar school system, pupils who pass the exam can go to the local grammar, while those who do not go to the local "secondary modern school". More common across the UK is the "comprehensive" system, in which pupils of all abilities and aptitudes are taught together... the modern grammar school concept dates back to the Education Act 1944. This made secondary education after the age of 14 free. At the same time secondary education was reorganised into two basic types:
grammar schools, which focused on academic studies, with the assumption that many of their pupils would go on to higher education
secondary modern schools, which were intended for children who would be going into trades...
During the 1950s and 1960s, it was said, mainly by Labour politicians and egalitarian educationalists, that the selective education system reinforced class division and middle-class privilege. In 1965, the government ordered local education authorities to start phasing out grammar schools and secondary moderns, and replace them with a comprehensive system."
For some reason, the equal misery principle or the housing as proxy for school choice principle are more popular than school selection
Grammar schools are a fantastic idea – they will finally kill off our archaic private school system - "The local comprehensive has the temerity to turn itself into a grammar school! With academic excellence, and small class sizes, and even a jolly difficult entrance exam, just like the one that St Wotsit has. Plus, because it benefited from the Building Schools for the Future programme, it has a new theatre. And fantastic labs. And a running track. At once, any wrinkles of doubt are erased from your mind. You can send your child to the local state school, because it has got rid of the dreaded word “comprehensive” and has introduced selection. Plus, your friends are doing the same thing"
Is it OK for politicians to send their children to private schools? - "The Camerons are reportedly considering sending their son to a fee-paying school, while the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, has said that although her son was “happy at a village primary”, she did not know what the family would do next “because it very much depends on him”. She defended the right of politicians to go private. “People’s families haven’t asked to be elected or to be in the public eye. And as a parent you must do what is right for your children.” But is it a private matter?
As a parent, you must do what is right for your children. As a politician, you must prevent other parents from doing what is right for theirs
MP and wife split over school - "Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn confirmed yesterday that he and his wife have separated after a disagreement over whether their son should be educated at one of the country's best grammar schools or at the local inner city comprehensive. His wife, Claudia Bracchita, admitted that conflicting views on their eldest son's schooling were a key element in the collapse of their 12-year marriage."
From 1999
Two more anti-grammar shadow cabinet members send their children to private school - "Ninety-nine per cent of grammar schools are rated good or outstanding. In spite of this, Labour’s approach to grammars is: close these schools down. It’s rank hypocrisy. It’s classic Labour: do as I say, not as I do"
Why I sent my child to a private school - "Five years ago, if someone had told me I'd have a child at private school, I'd have laughed. I'd have said I resented parents buying privilege through private education... I've been asked how I can reconcile writing about education for the Guardian with having a child at a private school... deep down I don't think I ever really had a problem with private education. It just didn't seem socially acceptable to say so... By sending your child to private school, you are using the means you have – money – to get the right education for your child. But the state sector is full of parents buying advantage. They kid themselves that what they are doing is somehow morally superior. The truth is that every person who moves house to get into a catchment area is playing the system. So are those who pay private tutors, or consultants to help with school appeals (both booming businesses). Parents who suddenly discover a faith in God to get their children into a certain school are lying and cheating. There will be people reading this – including some loyal Education Guardian readers – who have done some or all of these things. The fact is that for every parent who plays the system to get their child into a top school, a child from a less advantaged background is likely to lose out. At least I am not limiting anyone else's choice. Many friends have confessed that if they had enough money – or weren't happy with what their local state school had to offer – they would consider private education. Curiously, most still profess to oppose fee-paying schools. And I'm inclined to agree to with the historian Niall Ferguson, who argued in the recent BBC Reith lectures that the UK would benefit from more private education institutions as greater competition would incentivise the state sector to up its game. After all, he says, "Nobody is going to pay between £10,000 and £30,000 a year for an education that is just a wee bit better than the free option... latest figures from the property website primelocation.com show that the prices of homes near good schools can be inflated by up to £92,000"
This Viral Video Of Ducks Waiting For A Green Light To Cross The Street Is Totally Fake - "Have you seen this video of ducks in Germany waiting for a green light before they cross the street? It's gone viral, getting tens of thousands of views on Twitter and over 2.5 million views on Facebook. But the video is totally fake. The ducks are computer generated."
WA counsellor says he was forced to resign for domestic violence view - "A COUNSELLOR says he was forced to resign from Relationships Australia WA for endorsing a newspaper article which asserted domestic violence towards men is downplayed. Rob Tiller, who has lodged an unfair dismissal claim, insists he was told to resign or be sacked after bosses at Relationships Australia (RAWA) found out about emails he’d sent more than one year earlier to a professional network of male counsellors from several organisations. Mr Tiller, 43, said he didn’t criticise his employer in any of his emails, but the article written by social commentator Bettina Arndt in The Weekend Australian challenged the “feminist-framed” policy on domestic violence, which is supported by a range of organisations including RAWA. In the emails, sent from his work account, he’d agreed with the premise of Arndt’s argument that men were often victims of domestic violence, as well as women. He had also shared Arndt’s article on his private Facebook page... “I wasn’t allowed to have a final conversation with any of my clients. Some of these people I have been working with for five or six years ... there was no therapeutic closure. I was the only male counsellor in their Perth office. I have been the only one there for years.”... RAWA also pointed out that its domestic violence policy was consistent with policies of both the Federal and State governments. On its website RAWA says its family and domestic violence policy “is historically framed by a feminist analysis of gendered power relations”. Mr Tiller said when he and colleagues raised the issue of aggression by female partners at RAWA they were shut-down. “That’s a taboo conversation,” he said. “The orthodoxy is that women are victims and men are perpetrators.”... “They are sticking to this orthodoxy that is based on the Duluth Model that came out in the 1980s and that model isn't based on any current international research and that’s what Bettina was challenging in her article. “I was circulating it, saying, ‘Hey guys, finally somebody is telling the truth about what I'm seeing in my couples sessions on a weekly basis’. Then a couple of years later I get sacked because of it.”"
So much for feminism being for men too
Australia seems to be the most SJW country - definitely in the Anglo world
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Violence To Votes - "It turned out that many of the [Chinese] so called recycling companies were simply digging holes in the ground and burying the trash...
Clamber up four flights of stairs and you find yourself in the bustle of a busy international ferry, complete with a duty free shop with a rapidly building queue. Exactly 13 minutes after setting sale, the ship is declared clear of Danish waters and under the lower tax German regime. Bargain hunters storm the alcohol section, grabbing 3 litre boxes of German Riesling and armsful of Danish lager 2 dozen cans at a time. A separate line forms at the purser's desk, the only place where genuinely duty free cigarettes are on sale, only one pack of 20 per passenger mind because they are for onboard consumption only. On the open deck above some smokers are doing their best to finish the contents before the end of the voyage... [The ship] looks as though the front ends of two ships have been"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Changing Course - "Many seasoned China watchers were in shock. The term limits had been introduced after Chairman Mao's death to ensure there was never again a repeat of the disaster of his indefinite hold on power... There was genuine alarm over the possibility that a technocratic form of authoritarianism in which orderly, regular transitions of power had become the norm who's being replaced with something people thought was firmly in the past - rule by the whim of just one man for life...
There's an exceedingly funny bit in one of comedian Trevor Noah's recent stand up routines where he talks about how white South Africans often consciously modify their accents when they fill up with petrol, speaking to the invariably black petrol pump attendant in a very basic and arguably patronizing type of African pidgin English. And yet, Noah argues, in so doing, they're ironically understood, far better by the pump attendants that if they'd spoke in their normal clipped Afrikaans accent."
Is it racist to try to be understood?
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Incompetence and Conspiracy - "Bolivia today has become a country that by law has to be inclusive... but in November, Bolivia's highest courts struck down term limits blocking Evo from running for a fourth term. It decided that the restrictions violated his human rights. He could now carry on as president for as long as he likes. Some of his supporters, even his ministers, suggest he should stay in power until 2050. If the people demand it... Some Bolivians now express regret that Evo seems to want to stay in power at all costs, ignoring his previous promises to return to a humble farmer's life. He could have been a Mandela-like figure, one academic tells me"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, The USA's Invisible Army - "Apitherapy is just one of many treatments on offer here. We're shown MRI scanners and the room where laser eye surgery takes place at this clinic for the 18,000 workers of the MTZ tractor works. The state owned factory also both sports centers, a palace of culture, dormitories, apartment blocks, holiday resorts for employees and their families, even its own brand of bottled water. MTZ was set up by Stalin to help feed the USSR at the end of World War II, and it can feel as if little has changed since. Why in 2018 does a tractor factory need a head of ideology? The woman with that job title is too busy for an interview. What does she actually do, I ask her assistant. Well, you know, organizing independence day, the factory's anniversary in May - loads of stuff. Celebrations at MTZ involve some bizarre manoeuvres by the farming machinery. Tractors flashing neon lights, doing the tango. Or showing off disco routines as the audience clap along."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Dramatic Developments - "I've met plenty of Brazilians who've talked fondly about Brazil's military dictatorship. There is never as much corruption as there is now, one man told me the other day. I suggested that the problem with dictatorships is it's hard to know the truth. Freedom of expression is limited, human rights are ignored. That didn't bother him much. Uppermost in Brazilians' minds are the issues of safety and a healthy economy, neither of which Brazil can say it has currently got under control"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, 40 Years Of War - "There is an Arab proverb that runs: if God wants to make a poor man happy, he makes him lose his donkey and then find it again. Assad, like a vengeful God, has destroyed the country and driven out half its population, pronouncing it much cleaner than before. Now, he's preparing to give the donkey back, lame and mutilated to those left behind, hoping they'll be so grateful they won't dare complain"
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Carl Friedrich Gauss - "At one point he sort of came home from the university saying I've got everything that I need from there, I need to just go and live in a flat on my own. So he didn't go back to his family, this is an example of him you know he wanted to dedicate everything to maths, so he went and lived in a flat on his own and just sat there and thought about maths... when he was a young child he used a turnip to make a candle so he could study maths at night... when his second wife was dying from tuberculosis when allegedly the maid came down and he was studying his mathematics and said you know your wife is dying, you need to come and his response was - can't she wait?...
Gaussian Curvature... I talked about the mapmaking thing and that you can't turn a round sphere onto a flat plane. Another example is even more practical, and it's why corrugated iron works the way it does... the wiggles that they put on the iron, it started out as a flat piece of iron. Gauss's theorem says that that, therefore, it always remains flat in the sense of Gaussian curvature. So once you've got wiggles going one way, if it were to start sagging or bending over, then little bits of it would look like little bits of spheres and Gauss's Theorem says it never can look like little bits of spheres because it started out flat"
Violence, Terror Unceasing During Ramadan - "“These extremists see their terror as an act of jihad,” said Seyyed Javad Taghavirod, a Tehran-based extremism analyst. “So the occurrence of some holy occasions, including the month of Ramadan, makes them feel more blessed to conduct their operations.” Attacks during Ramadan are particularly effective because they cause psychological damage on people who are marking the occasion by going out with family and friends, and who are likely more off guard than usual, analysts say... “After a day of fasting, security forces might be distracted or absent”... while the Taliban did not directly call for an increase in terror attacks during Ramadan, it also said it would not ease up, rejecting as “ignorance of religion” U.N.-led calls for halting hostilities for the month. “Our fight is jihad and an obligatory worship. And every obligatory act of worship has 70 times more reward in Ramadan”"
MIT professor Eric Lander apologizes for praising controversial Nobel winner James Watson
This wouldn't be a problem if he was left wing like Margaret Sanger or Marx
Looks like we've moved on from the Communist practice of erasing disgraced figures from photographs
Can I move back to India permanently after gaining PR and Citizenship in Canada and Australia after 3 years of stay there? - Quora - "An Overseas Citizen of India is a lifetime visa status. It is the closest thing to dual citizenship that India offers...
What are the benefits of being an OCI?
Lifelong multiple entry visa to India
You never have to report to the FRRO regardless of the length of your stay
You can eventually become a citizen of India if you remain an OCI for 5 years and live in India for at least 1 year(short breaks are now allowed)
You can use special counters during immigration
You don’t need a student visa to study in India
You don’t need an employment visa to get a job
You can open a special bank account in India, just like an NRI
You can make investments in India
You can buy non-farm property and exercise property ownership rights
Your can use your OCI card to apply for a driver’s license, open a bank account, or get a PAN card
You get the same economic, financial, and education benefits as NRIs (e.g. reserved admission quotas), and you can adopt children like an NRI
You pay the Indian resident fee when visiting a national parks, monuments, museums or wildlife sanctuary (of course it is ultimately up to the discretion of the man issuing tickets)"
Grammar schools: What are they and why are they controversial? - "Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the "11-plus". There are only about 163 grammar schools in England, out of some 3,000 state secondaries, and a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland. Under the grammar school system, pupils who pass the exam can go to the local grammar, while those who do not go to the local "secondary modern school". More common across the UK is the "comprehensive" system, in which pupils of all abilities and aptitudes are taught together... the modern grammar school concept dates back to the Education Act 1944. This made secondary education after the age of 14 free. At the same time secondary education was reorganised into two basic types:
grammar schools, which focused on academic studies, with the assumption that many of their pupils would go on to higher education
secondary modern schools, which were intended for children who would be going into trades...
During the 1950s and 1960s, it was said, mainly by Labour politicians and egalitarian educationalists, that the selective education system reinforced class division and middle-class privilege. In 1965, the government ordered local education authorities to start phasing out grammar schools and secondary moderns, and replace them with a comprehensive system."
For some reason, the equal misery principle or the housing as proxy for school choice principle are more popular than school selection
Grammar schools are a fantastic idea – they will finally kill off our archaic private school system - "The local comprehensive has the temerity to turn itself into a grammar school! With academic excellence, and small class sizes, and even a jolly difficult entrance exam, just like the one that St Wotsit has. Plus, because it benefited from the Building Schools for the Future programme, it has a new theatre. And fantastic labs. And a running track. At once, any wrinkles of doubt are erased from your mind. You can send your child to the local state school, because it has got rid of the dreaded word “comprehensive” and has introduced selection. Plus, your friends are doing the same thing"
Is it OK for politicians to send their children to private schools? - "The Camerons are reportedly considering sending their son to a fee-paying school, while the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, has said that although her son was “happy at a village primary”, she did not know what the family would do next “because it very much depends on him”. She defended the right of politicians to go private. “People’s families haven’t asked to be elected or to be in the public eye. And as a parent you must do what is right for your children.” But is it a private matter?
As a parent, you must do what is right for your children. As a politician, you must prevent other parents from doing what is right for theirs
MP and wife split over school - "Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn confirmed yesterday that he and his wife have separated after a disagreement over whether their son should be educated at one of the country's best grammar schools or at the local inner city comprehensive. His wife, Claudia Bracchita, admitted that conflicting views on their eldest son's schooling were a key element in the collapse of their 12-year marriage."
From 1999
Two more anti-grammar shadow cabinet members send their children to private school - "Ninety-nine per cent of grammar schools are rated good or outstanding. In spite of this, Labour’s approach to grammars is: close these schools down. It’s rank hypocrisy. It’s classic Labour: do as I say, not as I do"
Why I sent my child to a private school - "Five years ago, if someone had told me I'd have a child at private school, I'd have laughed. I'd have said I resented parents buying privilege through private education... I've been asked how I can reconcile writing about education for the Guardian with having a child at a private school... deep down I don't think I ever really had a problem with private education. It just didn't seem socially acceptable to say so... By sending your child to private school, you are using the means you have – money – to get the right education for your child. But the state sector is full of parents buying advantage. They kid themselves that what they are doing is somehow morally superior. The truth is that every person who moves house to get into a catchment area is playing the system. So are those who pay private tutors, or consultants to help with school appeals (both booming businesses). Parents who suddenly discover a faith in God to get their children into a certain school are lying and cheating. There will be people reading this – including some loyal Education Guardian readers – who have done some or all of these things. The fact is that for every parent who plays the system to get their child into a top school, a child from a less advantaged background is likely to lose out. At least I am not limiting anyone else's choice. Many friends have confessed that if they had enough money – or weren't happy with what their local state school had to offer – they would consider private education. Curiously, most still profess to oppose fee-paying schools. And I'm inclined to agree to with the historian Niall Ferguson, who argued in the recent BBC Reith lectures that the UK would benefit from more private education institutions as greater competition would incentivise the state sector to up its game. After all, he says, "Nobody is going to pay between £10,000 and £30,000 a year for an education that is just a wee bit better than the free option... latest figures from the property website primelocation.com show that the prices of homes near good schools can be inflated by up to £92,000"
This Viral Video Of Ducks Waiting For A Green Light To Cross The Street Is Totally Fake - "Have you seen this video of ducks in Germany waiting for a green light before they cross the street? It's gone viral, getting tens of thousands of views on Twitter and over 2.5 million views on Facebook. But the video is totally fake. The ducks are computer generated."
WA counsellor says he was forced to resign for domestic violence view - "A COUNSELLOR says he was forced to resign from Relationships Australia WA for endorsing a newspaper article which asserted domestic violence towards men is downplayed. Rob Tiller, who has lodged an unfair dismissal claim, insists he was told to resign or be sacked after bosses at Relationships Australia (RAWA) found out about emails he’d sent more than one year earlier to a professional network of male counsellors from several organisations. Mr Tiller, 43, said he didn’t criticise his employer in any of his emails, but the article written by social commentator Bettina Arndt in The Weekend Australian challenged the “feminist-framed” policy on domestic violence, which is supported by a range of organisations including RAWA. In the emails, sent from his work account, he’d agreed with the premise of Arndt’s argument that men were often victims of domestic violence, as well as women. He had also shared Arndt’s article on his private Facebook page... “I wasn’t allowed to have a final conversation with any of my clients. Some of these people I have been working with for five or six years ... there was no therapeutic closure. I was the only male counsellor in their Perth office. I have been the only one there for years.”... RAWA also pointed out that its domestic violence policy was consistent with policies of both the Federal and State governments. On its website RAWA says its family and domestic violence policy “is historically framed by a feminist analysis of gendered power relations”. Mr Tiller said when he and colleagues raised the issue of aggression by female partners at RAWA they were shut-down. “That’s a taboo conversation,” he said. “The orthodoxy is that women are victims and men are perpetrators.”... “They are sticking to this orthodoxy that is based on the Duluth Model that came out in the 1980s and that model isn't based on any current international research and that’s what Bettina was challenging in her article. “I was circulating it, saying, ‘Hey guys, finally somebody is telling the truth about what I'm seeing in my couples sessions on a weekly basis’. Then a couple of years later I get sacked because of it.”"
So much for feminism being for men too
Australia seems to be the most SJW country - definitely in the Anglo world
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Violence To Votes - "It turned out that many of the [Chinese] so called recycling companies were simply digging holes in the ground and burying the trash...
Clamber up four flights of stairs and you find yourself in the bustle of a busy international ferry, complete with a duty free shop with a rapidly building queue. Exactly 13 minutes after setting sale, the ship is declared clear of Danish waters and under the lower tax German regime. Bargain hunters storm the alcohol section, grabbing 3 litre boxes of German Riesling and armsful of Danish lager 2 dozen cans at a time. A separate line forms at the purser's desk, the only place where genuinely duty free cigarettes are on sale, only one pack of 20 per passenger mind because they are for onboard consumption only. On the open deck above some smokers are doing their best to finish the contents before the end of the voyage... [The ship] looks as though the front ends of two ships have been"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Changing Course - "Many seasoned China watchers were in shock. The term limits had been introduced after Chairman Mao's death to ensure there was never again a repeat of the disaster of his indefinite hold on power... There was genuine alarm over the possibility that a technocratic form of authoritarianism in which orderly, regular transitions of power had become the norm who's being replaced with something people thought was firmly in the past - rule by the whim of just one man for life...
There's an exceedingly funny bit in one of comedian Trevor Noah's recent stand up routines where he talks about how white South Africans often consciously modify their accents when they fill up with petrol, speaking to the invariably black petrol pump attendant in a very basic and arguably patronizing type of African pidgin English. And yet, Noah argues, in so doing, they're ironically understood, far better by the pump attendants that if they'd spoke in their normal clipped Afrikaans accent."
Is it racist to try to be understood?
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Incompetence and Conspiracy - "Bolivia today has become a country that by law has to be inclusive... but in November, Bolivia's highest courts struck down term limits blocking Evo from running for a fourth term. It decided that the restrictions violated his human rights. He could now carry on as president for as long as he likes. Some of his supporters, even his ministers, suggest he should stay in power until 2050. If the people demand it... Some Bolivians now express regret that Evo seems to want to stay in power at all costs, ignoring his previous promises to return to a humble farmer's life. He could have been a Mandela-like figure, one academic tells me"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, The USA's Invisible Army - "Apitherapy is just one of many treatments on offer here. We're shown MRI scanners and the room where laser eye surgery takes place at this clinic for the 18,000 workers of the MTZ tractor works. The state owned factory also both sports centers, a palace of culture, dormitories, apartment blocks, holiday resorts for employees and their families, even its own brand of bottled water. MTZ was set up by Stalin to help feed the USSR at the end of World War II, and it can feel as if little has changed since. Why in 2018 does a tractor factory need a head of ideology? The woman with that job title is too busy for an interview. What does she actually do, I ask her assistant. Well, you know, organizing independence day, the factory's anniversary in May - loads of stuff. Celebrations at MTZ involve some bizarre manoeuvres by the farming machinery. Tractors flashing neon lights, doing the tango. Or showing off disco routines as the audience clap along."
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Dramatic Developments - "I've met plenty of Brazilians who've talked fondly about Brazil's military dictatorship. There is never as much corruption as there is now, one man told me the other day. I suggested that the problem with dictatorships is it's hard to know the truth. Freedom of expression is limited, human rights are ignored. That didn't bother him much. Uppermost in Brazilians' minds are the issues of safety and a healthy economy, neither of which Brazil can say it has currently got under control"
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, 40 Years Of War - "There is an Arab proverb that runs: if God wants to make a poor man happy, he makes him lose his donkey and then find it again. Assad, like a vengeful God, has destroyed the country and driven out half its population, pronouncing it much cleaner than before. Now, he's preparing to give the donkey back, lame and mutilated to those left behind, hoping they'll be so grateful they won't dare complain"
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Carl Friedrich Gauss - "At one point he sort of came home from the university saying I've got everything that I need from there, I need to just go and live in a flat on my own. So he didn't go back to his family, this is an example of him you know he wanted to dedicate everything to maths, so he went and lived in a flat on his own and just sat there and thought about maths... when he was a young child he used a turnip to make a candle so he could study maths at night... when his second wife was dying from tuberculosis when allegedly the maid came down and he was studying his mathematics and said you know your wife is dying, you need to come and his response was - can't she wait?...
Gaussian Curvature... I talked about the mapmaking thing and that you can't turn a round sphere onto a flat plane. Another example is even more practical, and it's why corrugated iron works the way it does... the wiggles that they put on the iron, it started out as a flat piece of iron. Gauss's theorem says that that, therefore, it always remains flat in the sense of Gaussian curvature. So once you've got wiggles going one way, if it were to start sagging or bending over, then little bits of it would look like little bits of spheres and Gauss's Theorem says it never can look like little bits of spheres because it started out flat"
Violence, Terror Unceasing During Ramadan - "“These extremists see their terror as an act of jihad,” said Seyyed Javad Taghavirod, a Tehran-based extremism analyst. “So the occurrence of some holy occasions, including the month of Ramadan, makes them feel more blessed to conduct their operations.” Attacks during Ramadan are particularly effective because they cause psychological damage on people who are marking the occasion by going out with family and friends, and who are likely more off guard than usual, analysts say... “After a day of fasting, security forces might be distracted or absent”... while the Taliban did not directly call for an increase in terror attacks during Ramadan, it also said it would not ease up, rejecting as “ignorance of religion” U.N.-led calls for halting hostilities for the month. “Our fight is jihad and an obligatory worship. And every obligatory act of worship has 70 times more reward in Ramadan”"
MIT professor Eric Lander apologizes for praising controversial Nobel winner James Watson
This wouldn't be a problem if he was left wing like Margaret Sanger or Marx
Looks like we've moved on from the Communist practice of erasing disgraced figures from photographs
Post ID: 8904208692059906589
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Links - 22nd July 2018
Study Philosophy to Improve Thinking—A Case of False Advertising? - "The central problem for philosophers’ aspirations to teach thinking is that it is supposed to be about transferring what is learned in a philosophy class to a wide variety of very different real-life situations and in highly diverse jobs and careers. Empirical research has not found much support for this kind of transfer (so-called “general transfer”). In a well-known book about transfer of learning we read: “Again, beyond a minimal level, the literature clearly shows that we’ve failed to achieve significant transfer of learning, historically or currently, on any level of education.” In a highly influential article on transfer the author concludes: “Transfer has been studied since the turn of the [twentieth] century. Still, there is very little empirical evidence showing meaningful transfer to occur and much less evidence for showing it under experimental control”... With many leading philosophy departments and philosophy associations repeatedly assuring us that those who study philosophy will become much better thinkers, many students may conclude that even a huge investment of money and time in this kind of self-improvement would eventually pay off. If no goods are delivered these people will be harmed in a way that could have easily been anticipated."
Smearing Free Thought In Silicon Valley - "Like much of the media coverage on this issue, the article misrepresents what Damore said in his memo, claiming that he argued that women “were biologically less capable of engineering.”... the article makes it out as if only men have supported Damore’s conclusion... The article claims that “studies and surveys show there is no denying the travails women face” in technology, although not a single example of a study providing such conclusive proof is given. In fact, many of the studies commonly cited to back up this claim suffer from major methodological flaws that call into serious question their accuracy... professors who study the differences between male and female brains could be considered to be engaging in harassment by simply discussing their area of expertise... As a college student, I came to question the narrative that women are systematically disadvantaged in science as a result of reading some of the research used to support its claims and seeing how weak it was. I also observed how many of my colleagues, both male and female, would stifle dissent on this issue by casting anyone who disagreed with the accepted dogma as being a misogynist... I have seen a female executive disparage “men who don’t support women” as being “sub-human.” Her use of the word “sub-human” echoes the ways in which Jews and other minorities have been dehumanized in the past, in order to justify violence against them. When diversity efforts have been contorted to the point that their supporters actually start to sound like Nazis, it is clear that something is severely wrong... I fear that the greatest casualty may be the public’s confidence in The New York Times itself and the media in general"
UK Gov't To Allow Citizens To Head To Nearest Newsstand To Buy Porn... Licenses - "The UK government's continuing efforts to save the country's children from the evils of internet porn are increasingly ridiculous. Filtering efforts applied by ISPs have managed to seal off access to plenty of non-porn sites while still remaining insanely easy to circumvent. The government -- with a straight face -- suggested there was nothing not normal about internet customers turning over personal information to ISPs in exchange for the permission to view porn. It's as if building a database of the nation's porn aficionados was the government's original intent"
UK Porn Filter Architect Arrested On Child Porn Charges
Patrick Rock, ex-David Cameron aide, walks free for making indecent child pictures as judge says punishment is his 'very public humiliation' - "While none of the girls were naked, prosecutors claimed they were in "sexualised" poses in skimpy clothing, including swimwear and bras."
Are child beauty pageants in the US like strip shows?
CIA: Collect It All by Mike Masnick — Kickstarter - "CIA: Collect It All is a competitive card game based on the CIA game Collection Deck. Players take on the role of agents who are collecting intelligence and tackling security threats over multiple rounds... Collection Deck was designed by CIA Analyst David Clopper and it is used to teach new recruits about intelligence collection techniques. It was originally classified as Top Secret. The CIA recently declassified the game and Douglas Palmer and Mitchell Kotler secured its public release through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request via Muckrock."
Wikileaks Makes Bombshell Announcement About Stephen Colbert - "A newly discovered email exposes Stephen Colbert and John Podesta working together to push the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as far back as 2013. Stephen Colbert’s role as the conservative newsman on the Comedy Central hit show, The Colbert Report, was a prime source of news for many millennials. It was also a chief avenue of propaganda for the Clintons years before Hillary ran for president. Wikileaks revealed on Tuesday that Colbert and his team at Comedy Central were making episodes at the request or order of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) back in April of 2013."
Growing Up in a Progressive Utopia - "I grew up in one of the most progressive societies in the history of humanity. The gap between the rich and poor was tiny compared to the current gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ we find across much of the West. Access to education was universal and students were paid to study and offered free accommodation. Healthcare was available to all and free at the point of use. Racial tensions were non-existent, with hundreds of different ethnic groups living side by side in harmony under the mantra of ‘Friendship of the Peoples.’ Women’s equality was at the very heart of Government policy. According to the prevailing ideology “all forms of inequality were to be erased through the abolition of class structures and the shaping of an egalitarian society based on the fair distribution of resources among the people.” You are probably wondering whether the idyllic nation from which I hail is Sweden or Iceland. It was the Soviet Union... With this background, I am—perhaps understandably—hypersensitive to the emerging far Left in Western politics. I can’t help noticing similarities in the rhetoric about “eradicating inequality,” “smashing the class system,” and a new age of “radical egalitarianism.” And when I do, I shudder. I shudder because such people no longer appreciate what they have in the West: one of the most prosperous, free, fair, equal, tolerant, peaceful, and open societies not just in the world today but in the entire history of our species"
The Behavioral Ecology of Male Violence - "we see high rates of lethal violence in sectors outside the reach of, or poorly covered by, the influence of states, such as among gangs and organized crime. When it comes to high-demand products prohibited by the state, such as illegal drugs, it is violent organizations that effectively control these markets, as the state fails to offer a resolution when conflicts occur. In Codes of the Underworld, social scientist Diego Gambetta writes, “Mafia-like groups offer a solution of sorts to the trust problem by playing the role of a government for the underworld and supplying protection to people involved in illegal markets or deals.” U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions unwittingly touched on this in an op-ed he wrote last year for the Washington Post, where he noted that, “Drug trafficking is an inherently violent business. If you want to collect a drug debt, you can’t, and don’t, file a lawsuit in court. You collect it by the barrel of a gun.”... legalizing many illegal drugs and having the state protect property rights for these products might reduce the lethal violence associated with the drug trade... among the Gebusi of New Guinea, most homicides occur in the context of sorcery allegations [which] are often precipitated by lack of reciprocity in marriage exchanges. He writes, “In this sense sorcery homicide is ultimately about male control of marriageable women.” Even where socialization and ideological factors play a role in lethal violence, they may be a proxy for underlying fitness interests."
Floating island is planned with government, cryptocurrency and houses - "It's an unapologetically libertarian concept: Governments under the Floating Island scheme would exist only as service providers, according to Mezza Garcia, and the "floating communities" could self-govern. "If you don't want to live under a particular government," she said, "people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island.""
Volkswagen’s bestselling product is … a type of sausage!?!? - "Listed as item number 199 398 500 A, the Volkswagen currywurst is celebrating its 45th birthday. Last year alone, the automaker made 6.8 million sausages – more than the number of VW vehicles sold worldwide... In addition to the pork sausage, VW has been making a vegetarian version since 2010, and has its own ketchup formulation"
B&M Brown Bread in a Can - "In New England, one of the most popular varieties of brown bread is made by B&M in Portland, Maine, and it’s sold in a can. Canned bread might sound strange to the non-native Yankee to imagine buying bread in a can at the supermarket alongside the baked beans (which B&M also makes with pride), but if you’ve ever steamed a loaf yourself at home, you know it can take awhile, making brown bread in a can a handy alternative."
Go Ahead, Skip that Networking Event - "I reviewed dozens of studies on networking for my latest book, and the overall implications are that these events don’t live up to their billing. Most of us, when put into a situation where the only goal is to meet new people, default to staying inside of our comfort zones. That means talking to people we know… or at the very least people who are similar to us. That means most networking events are doomed from the start, by their very design... In terms of both new conversations and diverse connections, the most successful networker at the event turned out to be the bartender... we are more likely to develop new relationships with a diverse set of individuals by focusing more on activities to participate in rather than relationships themselves... The problem with networking events is that there’s no bigger purpose other than just having conversations with people, and without that bigger purpose — without that high-stakes activity — there’s little incentive to move beyond conversations that make us comfortable"
Is there any evidence linking creativity and mood disorders? - "the connection between mood disorders and creativity influences the very way we view the creative work of others: university students who were told the story of Van Gogh cutting off his ear before they examined his painting Sunflowers (1888) took a more favourable view of it than those who weren’t told the story. Similarly, students priced a piece of artwork higher when a fictitious artist’s biography briefly mentioned that he was ‘often described as very eccentric’."
‘Five-second rule’ for food dropped on the floor approved by germ scientists
People's Park Complex, People's Park Centre, Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower attempting collective sales - "RIDING on the wave of en bloc fever, four post-independence landmarks in Singapore, known for their gritty appearances, might disappear from the Republic's landscape. The fate of People's Park Complex and People's Park Centre in Chinatown, as well as Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower at Beach Road, hangs in the balance. These structures are mostly half-way into their 99-year leases.People's Park Complex, Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower are widely recognised by experts as architecturally and historically significant. The trio were inspired by the Brutalist-architectural movement. The style usually features monumental structures made of off-form concrete without being plastered over, for an appearance of "strength and solidity". They also represent a chapter in the island's post-independence architectural history. The three were completed as part of the Government's first Land Sales Programme beginning in 1967 where land parcels were offered for sale with a leasehold of 99 years... [People's Park Complex] is home to a podium of shops and offices, as well as a 25-storey residential block. Occupying one hectare, it was once the largest shopping complex in Singapore. It also featured the country's first atrium shopping centre for residents and other users in the community to socialise, eat and shop... many of these structures do not have enough time to evolve to a "heritage age" before they are torn down... circumstances have created a "perfect storm" for historical modernist buildings completed in the 1960s and 1970s. "A combination of factors - an ageing property with a dropping value combined with maintenance issues and an increased appetite from developers, are driving many owners to seriously consider collective sales.""
Singapore’s got a taste for Hong Kong cooking – and it’s coming back for more - "Kam’s Roast opened its doors here, although it was without its signature item – roast goose – after the restaurant could not source geese from Hungary or United States, the only two countries allowed to import the birds into Singapore... Food blogger Daniel Ang said most Hong Kong food in Singapore was at about 70 per cent of the standard back in Hong Kong, which is largely due to logistical challenges. “The businesses face difficulties in getting the same supply of ingredients and kitchen help who are able to churn out food consistently”"
How To Make Black Burgers - "The buns get their dark color from bamboo charcoal (takesumi), so, well, get some bamboo charcoal and grind that into a fine powder. In Japan, takesumi is used in cooking, and it might be difficult to procure in the West"
A Bangladeshi student screamed Allahu Akbar as she stabbed a man - "A father has told how there was 'blood everywhere' when an ISIS-inspired woman wearing a burqa and staying at his house screamed 'Allahu Akbar' as she allegedly stabbed him in the neck. Momena Shoma, a Bangladeshi student, allegedly attacked the man as he was sleeping in front of his five-year-old daughter, who watched in horror"
University of Toronto Professor Rinaldo Walcott Says Free Speech Is 'White Supremacy' - "Walcott argued that free speech and academic freedom are rooted in white supremacy... Even though Walcott believes that universities are hotbeds of white supremacy, he is invited to speak at publicly-funded universities at conferences centered on leftist sociological concepts like “white privilege.”... Walcott called embattled Wilfrid Laurier teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd a “crying white girl” after Shepherd was accused by school officials of breaking the law over her decision to display a Jordan Peterson debate clip in the classroom."
Activists Tell White Professor that She Can't Teach Native Canadian History - "The course, which is specifically about controversial Canadian boarding schools that were attended by indigenous children, was assigned to white professor Martha Walls who has an expertise in the course’s subject matter."
There are interesting parallels with Eastern Europeans with bad English being favoured by PRCs to teach English in China over ABCs
What is High End Resilient Flooring? - "High end resilient flooring is a new type of flooring recently introduced into the flooring Singapore market; it is an improved version of flooring to laminate, wooden flooring. It is also known as "water laminate flooring" by some interior designers and contractors in Singapore. It basically provides the solution to two of the most common problems in which laminate flooring and wooden flooring are facing namely, water and termites attack."
Smearing Free Thought In Silicon Valley - "Like much of the media coverage on this issue, the article misrepresents what Damore said in his memo, claiming that he argued that women “were biologically less capable of engineering.”... the article makes it out as if only men have supported Damore’s conclusion... The article claims that “studies and surveys show there is no denying the travails women face” in technology, although not a single example of a study providing such conclusive proof is given. In fact, many of the studies commonly cited to back up this claim suffer from major methodological flaws that call into serious question their accuracy... professors who study the differences between male and female brains could be considered to be engaging in harassment by simply discussing their area of expertise... As a college student, I came to question the narrative that women are systematically disadvantaged in science as a result of reading some of the research used to support its claims and seeing how weak it was. I also observed how many of my colleagues, both male and female, would stifle dissent on this issue by casting anyone who disagreed with the accepted dogma as being a misogynist... I have seen a female executive disparage “men who don’t support women” as being “sub-human.” Her use of the word “sub-human” echoes the ways in which Jews and other minorities have been dehumanized in the past, in order to justify violence against them. When diversity efforts have been contorted to the point that their supporters actually start to sound like Nazis, it is clear that something is severely wrong... I fear that the greatest casualty may be the public’s confidence in The New York Times itself and the media in general"
UK Gov't To Allow Citizens To Head To Nearest Newsstand To Buy Porn... Licenses - "The UK government's continuing efforts to save the country's children from the evils of internet porn are increasingly ridiculous. Filtering efforts applied by ISPs have managed to seal off access to plenty of non-porn sites while still remaining insanely easy to circumvent. The government -- with a straight face -- suggested there was nothing not normal about internet customers turning over personal information to ISPs in exchange for the permission to view porn. It's as if building a database of the nation's porn aficionados was the government's original intent"
UK Porn Filter Architect Arrested On Child Porn Charges
Patrick Rock, ex-David Cameron aide, walks free for making indecent child pictures as judge says punishment is his 'very public humiliation' - "While none of the girls were naked, prosecutors claimed they were in "sexualised" poses in skimpy clothing, including swimwear and bras."
Are child beauty pageants in the US like strip shows?
CIA: Collect It All by Mike Masnick — Kickstarter - "CIA: Collect It All is a competitive card game based on the CIA game Collection Deck. Players take on the role of agents who are collecting intelligence and tackling security threats over multiple rounds... Collection Deck was designed by CIA Analyst David Clopper and it is used to teach new recruits about intelligence collection techniques. It was originally classified as Top Secret. The CIA recently declassified the game and Douglas Palmer and Mitchell Kotler secured its public release through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request via Muckrock."
Wikileaks Makes Bombshell Announcement About Stephen Colbert - "A newly discovered email exposes Stephen Colbert and John Podesta working together to push the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as far back as 2013. Stephen Colbert’s role as the conservative newsman on the Comedy Central hit show, The Colbert Report, was a prime source of news for many millennials. It was also a chief avenue of propaganda for the Clintons years before Hillary ran for president. Wikileaks revealed on Tuesday that Colbert and his team at Comedy Central were making episodes at the request or order of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) back in April of 2013."
Growing Up in a Progressive Utopia - "I grew up in one of the most progressive societies in the history of humanity. The gap between the rich and poor was tiny compared to the current gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ we find across much of the West. Access to education was universal and students were paid to study and offered free accommodation. Healthcare was available to all and free at the point of use. Racial tensions were non-existent, with hundreds of different ethnic groups living side by side in harmony under the mantra of ‘Friendship of the Peoples.’ Women’s equality was at the very heart of Government policy. According to the prevailing ideology “all forms of inequality were to be erased through the abolition of class structures and the shaping of an egalitarian society based on the fair distribution of resources among the people.” You are probably wondering whether the idyllic nation from which I hail is Sweden or Iceland. It was the Soviet Union... With this background, I am—perhaps understandably—hypersensitive to the emerging far Left in Western politics. I can’t help noticing similarities in the rhetoric about “eradicating inequality,” “smashing the class system,” and a new age of “radical egalitarianism.” And when I do, I shudder. I shudder because such people no longer appreciate what they have in the West: one of the most prosperous, free, fair, equal, tolerant, peaceful, and open societies not just in the world today but in the entire history of our species"
The Behavioral Ecology of Male Violence - "we see high rates of lethal violence in sectors outside the reach of, or poorly covered by, the influence of states, such as among gangs and organized crime. When it comes to high-demand products prohibited by the state, such as illegal drugs, it is violent organizations that effectively control these markets, as the state fails to offer a resolution when conflicts occur. In Codes of the Underworld, social scientist Diego Gambetta writes, “Mafia-like groups offer a solution of sorts to the trust problem by playing the role of a government for the underworld and supplying protection to people involved in illegal markets or deals.” U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions unwittingly touched on this in an op-ed he wrote last year for the Washington Post, where he noted that, “Drug trafficking is an inherently violent business. If you want to collect a drug debt, you can’t, and don’t, file a lawsuit in court. You collect it by the barrel of a gun.”... legalizing many illegal drugs and having the state protect property rights for these products might reduce the lethal violence associated with the drug trade... among the Gebusi of New Guinea, most homicides occur in the context of sorcery allegations [which] are often precipitated by lack of reciprocity in marriage exchanges. He writes, “In this sense sorcery homicide is ultimately about male control of marriageable women.” Even where socialization and ideological factors play a role in lethal violence, they may be a proxy for underlying fitness interests."
Floating island is planned with government, cryptocurrency and houses - "It's an unapologetically libertarian concept: Governments under the Floating Island scheme would exist only as service providers, according to Mezza Garcia, and the "floating communities" could self-govern. "If you don't want to live under a particular government," she said, "people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island.""
Volkswagen’s bestselling product is … a type of sausage!?!? - "Listed as item number 199 398 500 A, the Volkswagen currywurst is celebrating its 45th birthday. Last year alone, the automaker made 6.8 million sausages – more than the number of VW vehicles sold worldwide... In addition to the pork sausage, VW has been making a vegetarian version since 2010, and has its own ketchup formulation"
B&M Brown Bread in a Can - "In New England, one of the most popular varieties of brown bread is made by B&M in Portland, Maine, and it’s sold in a can. Canned bread might sound strange to the non-native Yankee to imagine buying bread in a can at the supermarket alongside the baked beans (which B&M also makes with pride), but if you’ve ever steamed a loaf yourself at home, you know it can take awhile, making brown bread in a can a handy alternative."
Go Ahead, Skip that Networking Event - "I reviewed dozens of studies on networking for my latest book, and the overall implications are that these events don’t live up to their billing. Most of us, when put into a situation where the only goal is to meet new people, default to staying inside of our comfort zones. That means talking to people we know… or at the very least people who are similar to us. That means most networking events are doomed from the start, by their very design... In terms of both new conversations and diverse connections, the most successful networker at the event turned out to be the bartender... we are more likely to develop new relationships with a diverse set of individuals by focusing more on activities to participate in rather than relationships themselves... The problem with networking events is that there’s no bigger purpose other than just having conversations with people, and without that bigger purpose — without that high-stakes activity — there’s little incentive to move beyond conversations that make us comfortable"
Is there any evidence linking creativity and mood disorders? - "the connection between mood disorders and creativity influences the very way we view the creative work of others: university students who were told the story of Van Gogh cutting off his ear before they examined his painting Sunflowers (1888) took a more favourable view of it than those who weren’t told the story. Similarly, students priced a piece of artwork higher when a fictitious artist’s biography briefly mentioned that he was ‘often described as very eccentric’."
‘Five-second rule’ for food dropped on the floor approved by germ scientists
People's Park Complex, People's Park Centre, Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower attempting collective sales - "RIDING on the wave of en bloc fever, four post-independence landmarks in Singapore, known for their gritty appearances, might disappear from the Republic's landscape. The fate of People's Park Complex and People's Park Centre in Chinatown, as well as Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower at Beach Road, hangs in the balance. These structures are mostly half-way into their 99-year leases.People's Park Complex, Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower are widely recognised by experts as architecturally and historically significant. The trio were inspired by the Brutalist-architectural movement. The style usually features monumental structures made of off-form concrete without being plastered over, for an appearance of "strength and solidity". They also represent a chapter in the island's post-independence architectural history. The three were completed as part of the Government's first Land Sales Programme beginning in 1967 where land parcels were offered for sale with a leasehold of 99 years... [People's Park Complex] is home to a podium of shops and offices, as well as a 25-storey residential block. Occupying one hectare, it was once the largest shopping complex in Singapore. It also featured the country's first atrium shopping centre for residents and other users in the community to socialise, eat and shop... many of these structures do not have enough time to evolve to a "heritage age" before they are torn down... circumstances have created a "perfect storm" for historical modernist buildings completed in the 1960s and 1970s. "A combination of factors - an ageing property with a dropping value combined with maintenance issues and an increased appetite from developers, are driving many owners to seriously consider collective sales.""
Singapore’s got a taste for Hong Kong cooking – and it’s coming back for more - "Kam’s Roast opened its doors here, although it was without its signature item – roast goose – after the restaurant could not source geese from Hungary or United States, the only two countries allowed to import the birds into Singapore... Food blogger Daniel Ang said most Hong Kong food in Singapore was at about 70 per cent of the standard back in Hong Kong, which is largely due to logistical challenges. “The businesses face difficulties in getting the same supply of ingredients and kitchen help who are able to churn out food consistently”"
How To Make Black Burgers - "The buns get their dark color from bamboo charcoal (takesumi), so, well, get some bamboo charcoal and grind that into a fine powder. In Japan, takesumi is used in cooking, and it might be difficult to procure in the West"
A Bangladeshi student screamed Allahu Akbar as she stabbed a man - "A father has told how there was 'blood everywhere' when an ISIS-inspired woman wearing a burqa and staying at his house screamed 'Allahu Akbar' as she allegedly stabbed him in the neck. Momena Shoma, a Bangladeshi student, allegedly attacked the man as he was sleeping in front of his five-year-old daughter, who watched in horror"
University of Toronto Professor Rinaldo Walcott Says Free Speech Is 'White Supremacy' - "Walcott argued that free speech and academic freedom are rooted in white supremacy... Even though Walcott believes that universities are hotbeds of white supremacy, he is invited to speak at publicly-funded universities at conferences centered on leftist sociological concepts like “white privilege.”... Walcott called embattled Wilfrid Laurier teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd a “crying white girl” after Shepherd was accused by school officials of breaking the law over her decision to display a Jordan Peterson debate clip in the classroom."
Activists Tell White Professor that She Can't Teach Native Canadian History - "The course, which is specifically about controversial Canadian boarding schools that were attended by indigenous children, was assigned to white professor Martha Walls who has an expertise in the course’s subject matter."
There are interesting parallels with Eastern Europeans with bad English being favoured by PRCs to teach English in China over ABCs
What is High End Resilient Flooring? - "High end resilient flooring is a new type of flooring recently introduced into the flooring Singapore market; it is an improved version of flooring to laminate, wooden flooring. It is also known as "water laminate flooring" by some interior designers and contractors in Singapore. It basically provides the solution to two of the most common problems in which laminate flooring and wooden flooring are facing namely, water and termites attack."
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