Massachusetts Republican beats trans driver’s license bill by forcing votes on all 73 genders - "Lyons told Carr he settled on demanding recognition for 73 different “genders,” as that was the number he reached by tallying the number of custom gender options Facebook offers. Knowing that his liberal colleagues couldn’t rule any of the genders out of order without undermining the logic of transgender ideology, Lyons introduced each as a separate amendment to the bill the evening of July 31, each requiring 10 minutes of debate and three minutes to vote on."
Beer Ramen Is Now A Thing In Canada And We Don't Know How To Feel About It - "the noodles aren’t actually doused in frothy beer. Instead, the “beer” is a refreshing cold broth made from bonito flakes. And the layer of foam on top is simply a combination of egg whites and gelatin"
Welfare dependence from one generation to the next - "Although an extensive literature has documented intergenerational correlations in welfare receipt, there is little evidence on whether this relationship is causal. Do benefit schemes create a culture of dependency within families? This column finds that children of parents in the Netherlands who were pushed out of disability insurance following a reform were less likely to participate in the programme as adults. The fiscal spillovers from these intergenerational links have a sizable effect on the government’s long-term budget."
WATCH: NSW Police tell Lauren Southern she's not allowed to walk down a street with a Mosque on it: 'You're not welcome...' - "A NSW Police Inspector has told Lauren Southern not to approach a Sydney Mosque because her presence would likely cause a “breach of the peace.” When Southern asked the Inspector why her presence would cause a breach of the peace, the officer said “because it’s highly religious down there.” “Would it be me causing a breach of the peace or would it be the people there?” Southern asked."
Female Home Office staff refuse to use £36,000 gender-neutral toilets - "Women have been avoiding new £36,000 gender-neutral lavatories at the Home Office because men are leaving their cubicle doors open while they’re inside... ‘By attempting to be inclusive towards a very small number of trans-identifying people, companies and public authorities have actually made conditions significantly worse for women – as nearly everyone predicted would happen. ‘We hate to have to state the obvious, but men and women – and boys and girls – need separate, single-sex toilets. This is something women fought hard for in the past – and still fight for in parts of the developing world today.’"
German prosecutors probe Yazidi woman's claim about IS man - "German prosecutors said Saturday they are taking seriously a Yazidi refugee’s claim that she ran into her former Islamic State captor twice in Germany, but say they need more information to identify him. The case of 19-year-old Ashwaq Haji Hami made headlines this week after she was quoted telling the Iraqi-Kurdish news portal basnews that she returned to her homeland of Iraq for fear that her alleged tormentor could harm her in Germany. Several reports in foreign media suggested that German authorities were unwilling to act on the woman’s claims."
Starting a business much harder than 'entrepreneurship porn' seems - "many ambitious young Americans today would be better off working for an established company than trying to build their own business. And yet many of these young Americans are hypnotized by stories of entrepreneurs who, against the odds, made it big. Even if they're not prepared — personally or professionally — to launch a business, they forge ahead anyway... passion can mislead you into thinking you're readier to start a company than you are, or make you believe that your idea is more valuable than it is. "
Beethoven: An unlikely hero in China - ""Beethoven's story matched Chinese ideals of perseverance, and "fit into Chinese culture -- [for example] my parents always said, you have to 'chi ku' -- only if you eat bitter, you can be better"... the end of the Cultural Revolution was signaled to the country in 1977 via a live radio broadcast of a Chinese orchestra playing a Beethoven symphony."
Thailand airports open new VIP lanes for Chinese tourists, but not for visitors from HK or Taiwan - "Netizens from Hong Kong and Taiwan have actually applauded the move. “I don’t have to worry about people cutting in line or getting knocked over by suitcases anymore,” one web user celebrated. “I’ve never been more happy about not being able to use a VIP line,” commented another."
Toronto man denied subsidized housing for not being Muslim - ""The vision of this community includes providing housing for households in which at least one person is a member of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. This means if none of the individuals of your household are a member … you will be removed from the waiting list."... Gosgnach said the same provision allows other groups to do the same “including seniors, artists, aboriginal, homeless/hard-to-house, individuals with AIDS and ethnic and religious groups including Christian and individuals of Lithuanian, Macedonian, Greek, Chinese, Hungarian and German origin.”"
Utah teacher Brianne Altice defends relationship with teenage student - "A teacher who was jailed after she admitted sexual contact with three of her students has reportedly defended her relationship with one of the victims, saying she helped to improve his grades... The original complaint alleged that the school’s management was told about Altice’s inappropriate behaviour with her male students, but did not act on the information. The school has denied officials had any knowledge of what was going on."
Muslim couple denied Swiss citizenship over no handshake - "A Muslim couple have been denied Swiss citizenship after they refused to shake hands with people of the opposite sex during their interview, officials say. They confirmed the decision on Friday, further citing the couple's failure to integrate and respect gender equality. The couple, interviewed months ago, also struggled to answer questions by members of the opposite sex... "The constitution and equality between men and women prevails over bigotry," said Pierre-Antoine Hilbrand, who was part of the commission that interviewed the couple. This not the first time refused handshakes have stirred controversy in Switzerland. In 2016, a Swiss school decided to exempt two Muslim boys from shaking both male and female teachers' hands after they refused to shake hands with a female teacher. The news caused uproar and led to the family's citizenship process being suspended. In neighbouring France, an Algerian woman was denied citizenship after refusing to shake the hand of an official during her citizenship ceremony."
Sweden Muslim woman who refused handshake at job interview wins case - "A Swedish Muslim woman has won compensation after her job interview was ended when she refused a handshake. Farah Alhajeh, 24, was applying for a job as an interpreter when she declined to shake the hand of a male interviewer for religious reasons. She placed her hand over her heart in greeting instead... handshakes are traditional in Europe... The interpreting company in Ms Alhajeh's home town of Uppsala had argued that its staff were required to treat men and women equally and could not allow a staff member to refuse a handshake based on gender. But the discrimination ombudsman said she had tried to avoid upsetting anyone by placing her hand over her heart when greeting both men and women. Sweden's labour court found the company was justified in demanding equal treatment for both sexes - but not in demanding that it be in the form of a handshake only."
Looks like Switzerland is more feminist than Sweden (while de jure non-discriminatory her form of greeting was clearly motivated by not wanting to shake hands with men). Maybe the company can sue clients who don't want an interpreter who won't shake hands
Muslim job applicant who refused handshake wins discrimination case in Sweden - "if she is meeting only with women, she might shake hands, she said... In 2016, a Muslim member of the Green Party withdrew his candidacy for a seat in the party's leadership after he was publicly criticised for refusing to shake hands with women, including a television journalist who was going to interview him. "I stand for equality among people," Stefan Lofven, the prime minister, told Parliament in April 2016, according to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. "For me, it's the same as women and men having the same opportunities. It also means that in Sweden, we greet each other. One shakes hands with both men and women.""
Here we can see that her de jure non-discriminatory form of greeting was obviously motivated by discriminatory impulses
Angry Protesters Keep Heat On Brooklyn Nail Salon: 'Black Dollars Matter!' - "Several dozen demonstrators called on Flatbush residents to put their dollars into black-owned businesses and sign a petition to permanently shut down a nail salon where a grandmother and her two granddaughters were seen on video beaten with a broomstick and doused with acetone after a payment dispute... More than 50 protesters, most of them African-American and led by community activist Carol Branch, gathered outside the still-shuttered storefront seeking 3,000 signatures for a petition calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to permanently shut down the business. On August 3rd, Christina Thomas, her grandmother and another relative were attacked by multiple salon workers for refusing to pay $5 for a botched eyebrow waxing... Thomas, 21, was also arrested for punching, slapping and dragging another salon worker across the floor... State Assemblywoman Diana C. Richardson, whose district includes Flatbush, went on Facebook Live on Tuesday morning and classified the altercation as a "hate crime."... A handful of demonstrators caused a brief ruckus when they stopped at another unrelated nail salon calling on those customers to leave and put their money into black-owned businesses."
It seems "anti-blackness" is expecting black people to pay for services consumed and anti-racism is about patronising businesses because of race
Why shouldn’t straight actors play gay characters? - "Who exactly are the media referring to when they refer to the LGBT community? Two stories this week confirm that, usually, they just mean a few hysterical types on Twitter. It has been reported that ‘the community’ is appalled by the casting of two actors in gay roles. The actors haven’t even learned their lines yet, but LGBT people are already supposedly ‘threatened’ and ‘upset’... Without having seen a second of the film, some seem to have decided that Whitehall will be playing an offensive caricature, and that it would be far better for a gay man to play that offensive caricature. Then it was announced that Orange is the New Black star Ruby Rose is going to play Batwoman in a new TV series. Batwoman has been a lesbian in the comics for some time. But while Rose is gay, she’s also ‘genderfluid’, leading some enraged tweeters to insist she’s not ‘gay enough’ to play the role. Others took issue with the fact Rose isn’t Jewish, as Batwoman is. Rose left Twitter this week, in response to the non-stop vitriol she received. The comments have been remarkable. People are honestly arguing that only gay people can play gay roles (that is, if they’re ‘gay enough’). But the whole point of acting is pretending to be, and empathising with, someone you are not. What’s more, demanding that LGBT roles be played by LGBT people will only ghettoise acting, making type-casting for LGBT actors more, not less, likely. After all, if a straight man can’t possibly understand what it is like to be a gay man, doesn’t that cut both ways?... There is a recent trend whereby blockbusters hype up queer characters purely for the headlines and progressive cred. Often, audiences then find out that a character isn’t even as gay as they were led to believe. Lando Calrissian (from the new Solo film) was said to be pansexual, the Yellow Power Ranger in the latest Power Ranger movie was supposed to be a lesbian. But in both cases their sexuality only ever amounted to a couple of nods and winks. Studios are now being bitten by their own identitarian PR strategy. But, in the end, most LGBT people, like most people, have far bigger things to worry about than some Hollywood casting decisions."
Of course, it is good for straight characters to be played by LGBT characters. And that LGBTs are overrrepresented in the industry
There may be some truth to the ‘gay jobs’ stereotype - "There is an unusually high concentration of gay or lesbian workers in certain occupations. For example, both gay men and lesbians and are overrepresented in psychology, law, social work, and university teaching. And there are real occupational patterns behind some popular stereotypes, from the gay flight attendant to the lesbian truck driver."
Of course, this is explained as a response to discrimination
Anne Hathaway's comments on white privilege are dividing opinion - "White people- including me, including you- must take into the marrow of our privileged bones the truth that ALL black people fear for their lives DAILY in America and have done so for GENERATIONS."
"You're wrong. I don't fear for my life every day, and it is disingenuous for you to make such statements on my behalf. However, I DO fear running out of coffee every day. That shit is terrifying. In the future, please speak for yourself only. Thanks."
"This white savior complex has got to stop guys please stop please please make it stop."
"News flash #annehathaway “ALL black” people don’t fear for their lives daily. You don’t speak for me. I don’t have a victim mentality. And stop it with the white guilt. Listen up Hollywood liberals this white v. black rhetoric has gotten old, it’s past the expiration date"
Detroit Rep. Bettie Cook Scott on Asian opponent: 'Don't vote for the ching-chong!'
Friend: "reminds me of how the only racism i ever experienced in my time in England was from a black teenager."
L'origine de Bert
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Links - 25th September 2018 (2)
Fla Democrat keeps calling the cops on reporters guilty of ‘committing acts of journalism’ - "The Miami Herald expects its reporters to ask public officials questions, Managing Editor Rick Hirsch said. “Asking a public official questions in a public place is perfectly appropriate,” he said. Blaskey later tweeted that she would not be backing down from doing her job."
Ruby Rose deletes Twitter account after Batwoman backlash - "Ruby Rose has deleted her Twitter account after receiving a barrage of criticism for being cast as superhero Batwoman. The Orange is the New Black star was unveiled as TV’s new superhero earlier this week, and will make her first appearance as the character, a lesbian also known as Kate Kane, during The CW network’s annual DC ‘Arrowverse’ crossover TV event in December, before fronting her own standalone series. Since the announcement, Rose has faced criticism on social media, with comic book fans slamming the actress for not being Jewish — as the character, Kate Kane is of that religion — and some even claimed the actress wasn’t gay enough to play a lesbian superhero."
This suggests that for many people, "representation" is just a way to lash out
Facebook post of Vietnamese soldiers using sanitary pads to line army boots goes viral - "The practice, while initially suspect, is actually well-documented. In fact, an entrepreneurial Chinese man once set up a business selling sanitary pads to students who were going for their military training. This was to ensure that foot odour could be cured, and to get rid of bacteria, among other plus points. Some stores in China actually giving a guideline for feet size and their corresponding sanitary pads"
Graham Vert's answer to Which US president was the closest to being a dictator? - Quora - "Woodrow Wilson, without a doubt. In fact, I’m not sure anyone else comes close (FDR is a distant runner-up). Wilson, along with many of his progressive cronies, was of the opinion that the Constitution was outdated and flawed. He sought to greatly expand the power of the presidency, primarily to rein in private industry, but also for his own interests. His proposals to “update” the constitution for the 20th century would have made America significantly less democratic, as he considered power a mandate to do with as he pleased. He also possessed a disdain for the separation of powers, which he saw as unproductive and a cause of partisan gridlock— he wanted the president to “impose his will” upon the party and the people... Mussolini and other fascist regimes used Wilson's administration as a partial blueprint for their own rise to power. Wilson also happened to be a believer in eugenics, as well as an appalling racist who helped to restart the KKK and re-segregated the military, going so far as to fire black postal workers. Prohibition, one of the most inept and authoritarian laws in US history, was implemented during his presidency. Scholars tend to rank Wilson highly in the pantheon of US presidents. This is because Wilson’s progressive school of thought has effectively defined academic standards for the presidency ever since the progressive era. Activist presidents who wield immense power are considered to be the movers and shakers of politics; presidents such as Calvin Coolidge who didn’t grow the government are considered sub-par... For those of you tearing your hair out over Donald Trump, Wilson is evidence that we’ve survived worse."
When it comes to euthanasia, not all slippery slope arguments are 'bullshit' - "Critics of assisted dying often argue euthanasia rates will increase with each year following legalisation... There is significant evidence from the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), as well as the US and Canada, to support this claim. Around 3.7% of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2015 were by virtue of euthanasia or assisted suicide, up from 1.3% when the procedure was legalised in 2002. And while Dutch legislation changed several times during that period, the steady rate of increase continued even in years when there was no legislative change. Similar figures are available in Belgium, and alarming initial figures have just been released for Quebec."
Palliative care nurses quit ‘houses of euthanasia’ - "Belgian nurses and social workers who specialise in treating dying patients are quitting their jobs because palliative care units are being turned into “houses of euthanasia”, a senior doctor has alleged... As euthanasia has become a “normal way of dying”, he said, he has encountered some cancer patients afraid to go hospital in case they are either coerced into euthanasia or are deliberately killed without their consent... the government is cynically slashing palliative care budgets year on year at the same time as numbers of people who die by euthanasia in Belgium are rising incrementally. A British contributor, Dr Trevor Stammers of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, predicted in his article that Belgium would soon effectively re-introduce the death penalty by permitting the euthanasia of prisoners so their organs be harvested for transplant surgery. He said about 15 prisoners had already elected to die this way."
A Psychiatrist Visits Belgium: The Epicenter of Psychiatric Euthanasia - "For centuries Belgium has been a deeply Catholic culture. However, in the latter part of the 20th century, the country became extremely secularized. They refer to their culture now as “post-Catholic.” In that sense, there is a pushback (conscious and unconscious) against values for which the Catholic Church traditionally stands. One of those core values is the absolute value of life. “Post-Catholic” Belgians, rather, see the value of upholding life as something to be balanced against other values, which sometimes might supersede it (eg, autonomy, compassion, etc). Indeed, I heard that when a Belgian person asserts negative feelings about euthanasia, they are sometimes assumed to be “Catholic,” and that is used to invalidate their opinion... the leading and most celebrated psychiatrists in Nazi Germany lost their ethical moorings, swept along by a powerful social movement, and participated with dedication and relish in the “T4” program to exterminate the mentally ill."
The anti-religious slant probably explains the humanist fetish for euthanasia
How many botched cases would it take to end euthanasia of the vulnerable? - The Washington Post - "Despite the lack of a clear expression from the patient, a physician concluded her suffering was unbearable and incurable — though there was no terminal physical illness — and prepared a lethal injection. To ensure the patient's compliance, the doctor gave her coffee spiked with a sedative, and, when the woman still recoiled from the needle, asked family members to hold her down. After 15 minutes were spent by the doctor trying to find a vein, the lethal infusion flowed. Neither voluntary, painless nor dignified, this physician-assisted death has become the first ever referred to prosecutors by the Dutch regulatory commission — with, so far, unknown consequences... Between 2012 and 2016 , Miller and Kim reported, there were 33 cases in which Dutch regulators found that doctors had broken at least one rule while ending a person's life, though not so flagrantly as to warrant criminal referral. Pro-euthanasia activist doctors were overrepresented in problematic cases. "In some cases, physicians knowingly pushed the limits of [the] law," Miller and Kim noted. Nevertheless, a 29-year-old woman, "Sarah," whose sole medical complaint is serious, nearly lifelong depression and self-harming behavior, has received permission for euthanasia"
The 29 year old should be Aurelia Brouwers
Just 10 rivers carry 90% of plastic polluting the oceans - "Two of them are in Africa - the Nile and the Niger - while the others are in Asia: the Indus, Ganges, Amur, Mekong, Pearl, Hai he, Yellow and Yangtze."
Clearly the solution is to ban straws in developed countries, since all straws make up 0.03% of the plastics that enter the ocean each year
London mayor wants to ban cars in some areas after attack
Banning cars was supposed to be a joke
V&A · Tipu's Tiger - "The tiger, an almost life-sized wooden semi-automaton, mauls a European soldier lying on his back. Concealed inside the tiger’s body, behind a hinged flap, is an organ which can be operated by turning the handle next to it. This simultaneously makes the man’s arm lift up and down and produces noises intended to imitate his dying moans"
The educated and conservative think fatness is a choice
Prison as a Safety Net for the Elderly in Japan - "Quite a few elderly prisoners repeatedly engaged in shoplifting due to poverty and then became repeat offenders soon after release to return to a place where they could at least secure three meals a day and somewhere to sleep. In this sense, the prison system has become a sort of social “safety net” for such people."
Beyond Birds, Cats Also Kill Reptiles - "Research has shown that domestic cats and their feral counterparts are capable of huge impacts to bird populations—one house cat and its offspring were purportedly all it took to push a bird that lived only on Stephens Island in New Zealand into extinction."
Taiwan cafe chain 85°C vanishes from China's food platforms after Tsai's visit
Trump approval rating with blacks now at 36%, Rasmussen poll says - "Even as cable news networks debate reports of the existence of a recording of President Donald Trump using a racial slur, a new poll from Rasmussen Reports says that the president's approval rating among African-Americans is at 36 percent, nearly double his support at this time last year"
Apparently they didn't get the memo that he's racist
There has been a lot of conversation surrounding Crazy Rich Asians and here are my views as a Malaysian (neighbor to Singapore) living in America. - "It was never made to represent Asian culture in its entirety, and for Asian Americans who feel that it doesn't represent them, it isn't really a story about Asian American culture in the first place. Besides, no one watches a cheesy rom-com with white protagonists and remarks "that isn't a real portrayal of white America!" I find it unfair to hold CRA up to the lens of representing an entire culture. This film is about the lives of the 1% of Singapore and it does a really good job of representing that world in a fun way while making some slight commentary on its issues (e.g. racism and tribalism within the elite Chinese community). Whatever happened to suspension of disbelief in movies? Are some critics skeptical because they have never witnessed that part of Singapore and thus don't believe it exists? Well, I can tell you from experience that it's absolutely real. In terms of representation, I was in awe hearing the characters speak Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Cantonese — exclaiming "alamak" and saying "lah" in a New York City theater. The film does an excellent job of showcasing Singapore's multifaceted culture, from its language to food to fashion. It is fair criticism that it doesn't represent the multiculturalism of Singapore but it is a film about this specific group of people in the country."
Sesame Street Screenshots out of context with wrong captions
Sex pigs halt traffic after laser attack on Pokémon teens - "Tiny Insjön in central Sweden isn't known for pig mask-wearing couples shooting lasers at Pokémon hunters before having sex by a waterwheel. But that could be about to change."
Singaporean couple invents roti-making robot, Rotimatic - "There are plans to upgrade the software so users can make other types of flat breads and add ingredients such as herbs and spices to the dough."
>Implying video games are fun - Posts - "Women in Battlefield 5: 'Accept it', EA says, 'or don't buy the game'. Electronic Arts' Patrick Soderlund says the people lashing out against women in the new Battlefield trailer are uneducated"
"Batlefield V Pre-Orders are reportedly very 'weak', according to analysts"
"EA Chief Design Officer Patrick Soderlund Leaves Company"
Looks like insulting your customers doesn't work after all
Battlefield V Has Gone Full SJW And Gamers Hate It, Spawning #NotMyBattlefield - "In the latest trailer for the game we see a multicultural squad of soldiers assaulting a house and being shot up by the enemy. One of the recurring themes in the trailer is to highlight a woman with a missing arm somehow fighting in the thick of battle. Yes, there’s a disabled woman fighting on the battlefield in World War II… and the verdict is still out on if she’s a lesbian, but given today’s politically distorted promotion of degeneracy and regressive policies, don’t be surprised if she’s a one-armed, disabled, lesbian... The Forbes contributor rightfully called out DICE and Electronic Arts for turning the Battlefield series into a cartoony, completely unrecognizable shooter that seems to be aimed at the Tumblr crowd more than the fans who actually enjoy first-person shooters."
Cowen predicts EA’s ‘Battlefield V' will be a ‘serious disappointment' - "preorders for “Battlefield V” are tracking more than 85 percent behind “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” which is substantially worse than previous instances."
Ruby Rose deletes Twitter account after Batwoman backlash - "Ruby Rose has deleted her Twitter account after receiving a barrage of criticism for being cast as superhero Batwoman. The Orange is the New Black star was unveiled as TV’s new superhero earlier this week, and will make her first appearance as the character, a lesbian also known as Kate Kane, during The CW network’s annual DC ‘Arrowverse’ crossover TV event in December, before fronting her own standalone series. Since the announcement, Rose has faced criticism on social media, with comic book fans slamming the actress for not being Jewish — as the character, Kate Kane is of that religion — and some even claimed the actress wasn’t gay enough to play a lesbian superhero."
This suggests that for many people, "representation" is just a way to lash out
Facebook post of Vietnamese soldiers using sanitary pads to line army boots goes viral - "The practice, while initially suspect, is actually well-documented. In fact, an entrepreneurial Chinese man once set up a business selling sanitary pads to students who were going for their military training. This was to ensure that foot odour could be cured, and to get rid of bacteria, among other plus points. Some stores in China actually giving a guideline for feet size and their corresponding sanitary pads"
Graham Vert's answer to Which US president was the closest to being a dictator? - Quora - "Woodrow Wilson, without a doubt. In fact, I’m not sure anyone else comes close (FDR is a distant runner-up). Wilson, along with many of his progressive cronies, was of the opinion that the Constitution was outdated and flawed. He sought to greatly expand the power of the presidency, primarily to rein in private industry, but also for his own interests. His proposals to “update” the constitution for the 20th century would have made America significantly less democratic, as he considered power a mandate to do with as he pleased. He also possessed a disdain for the separation of powers, which he saw as unproductive and a cause of partisan gridlock— he wanted the president to “impose his will” upon the party and the people... Mussolini and other fascist regimes used Wilson's administration as a partial blueprint for their own rise to power. Wilson also happened to be a believer in eugenics, as well as an appalling racist who helped to restart the KKK and re-segregated the military, going so far as to fire black postal workers. Prohibition, one of the most inept and authoritarian laws in US history, was implemented during his presidency. Scholars tend to rank Wilson highly in the pantheon of US presidents. This is because Wilson’s progressive school of thought has effectively defined academic standards for the presidency ever since the progressive era. Activist presidents who wield immense power are considered to be the movers and shakers of politics; presidents such as Calvin Coolidge who didn’t grow the government are considered sub-par... For those of you tearing your hair out over Donald Trump, Wilson is evidence that we’ve survived worse."
When it comes to euthanasia, not all slippery slope arguments are 'bullshit' - "Critics of assisted dying often argue euthanasia rates will increase with each year following legalisation... There is significant evidence from the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), as well as the US and Canada, to support this claim. Around 3.7% of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2015 were by virtue of euthanasia or assisted suicide, up from 1.3% when the procedure was legalised in 2002. And while Dutch legislation changed several times during that period, the steady rate of increase continued even in years when there was no legislative change. Similar figures are available in Belgium, and alarming initial figures have just been released for Quebec."
Palliative care nurses quit ‘houses of euthanasia’ - "Belgian nurses and social workers who specialise in treating dying patients are quitting their jobs because palliative care units are being turned into “houses of euthanasia”, a senior doctor has alleged... As euthanasia has become a “normal way of dying”, he said, he has encountered some cancer patients afraid to go hospital in case they are either coerced into euthanasia or are deliberately killed without their consent... the government is cynically slashing palliative care budgets year on year at the same time as numbers of people who die by euthanasia in Belgium are rising incrementally. A British contributor, Dr Trevor Stammers of St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, predicted in his article that Belgium would soon effectively re-introduce the death penalty by permitting the euthanasia of prisoners so their organs be harvested for transplant surgery. He said about 15 prisoners had already elected to die this way."
A Psychiatrist Visits Belgium: The Epicenter of Psychiatric Euthanasia - "For centuries Belgium has been a deeply Catholic culture. However, in the latter part of the 20th century, the country became extremely secularized. They refer to their culture now as “post-Catholic.” In that sense, there is a pushback (conscious and unconscious) against values for which the Catholic Church traditionally stands. One of those core values is the absolute value of life. “Post-Catholic” Belgians, rather, see the value of upholding life as something to be balanced against other values, which sometimes might supersede it (eg, autonomy, compassion, etc). Indeed, I heard that when a Belgian person asserts negative feelings about euthanasia, they are sometimes assumed to be “Catholic,” and that is used to invalidate their opinion... the leading and most celebrated psychiatrists in Nazi Germany lost their ethical moorings, swept along by a powerful social movement, and participated with dedication and relish in the “T4” program to exterminate the mentally ill."
The anti-religious slant probably explains the humanist fetish for euthanasia
How many botched cases would it take to end euthanasia of the vulnerable? - The Washington Post - "Despite the lack of a clear expression from the patient, a physician concluded her suffering was unbearable and incurable — though there was no terminal physical illness — and prepared a lethal injection. To ensure the patient's compliance, the doctor gave her coffee spiked with a sedative, and, when the woman still recoiled from the needle, asked family members to hold her down. After 15 minutes were spent by the doctor trying to find a vein, the lethal infusion flowed. Neither voluntary, painless nor dignified, this physician-assisted death has become the first ever referred to prosecutors by the Dutch regulatory commission — with, so far, unknown consequences... Between 2012 and 2016 , Miller and Kim reported, there were 33 cases in which Dutch regulators found that doctors had broken at least one rule while ending a person's life, though not so flagrantly as to warrant criminal referral. Pro-euthanasia activist doctors were overrepresented in problematic cases. "In some cases, physicians knowingly pushed the limits of [the] law," Miller and Kim noted. Nevertheless, a 29-year-old woman, "Sarah," whose sole medical complaint is serious, nearly lifelong depression and self-harming behavior, has received permission for euthanasia"
The 29 year old should be Aurelia Brouwers
Just 10 rivers carry 90% of plastic polluting the oceans - "Two of them are in Africa - the Nile and the Niger - while the others are in Asia: the Indus, Ganges, Amur, Mekong, Pearl, Hai he, Yellow and Yangtze."
Clearly the solution is to ban straws in developed countries, since all straws make up 0.03% of the plastics that enter the ocean each year
London mayor wants to ban cars in some areas after attack
Banning cars was supposed to be a joke
V&A · Tipu's Tiger - "The tiger, an almost life-sized wooden semi-automaton, mauls a European soldier lying on his back. Concealed inside the tiger’s body, behind a hinged flap, is an organ which can be operated by turning the handle next to it. This simultaneously makes the man’s arm lift up and down and produces noises intended to imitate his dying moans"
The educated and conservative think fatness is a choice
Prison as a Safety Net for the Elderly in Japan - "Quite a few elderly prisoners repeatedly engaged in shoplifting due to poverty and then became repeat offenders soon after release to return to a place where they could at least secure three meals a day and somewhere to sleep. In this sense, the prison system has become a sort of social “safety net” for such people."
Beyond Birds, Cats Also Kill Reptiles - "Research has shown that domestic cats and their feral counterparts are capable of huge impacts to bird populations—one house cat and its offspring were purportedly all it took to push a bird that lived only on Stephens Island in New Zealand into extinction."
Taiwan cafe chain 85°C vanishes from China's food platforms after Tsai's visit
Trump approval rating with blacks now at 36%, Rasmussen poll says - "Even as cable news networks debate reports of the existence of a recording of President Donald Trump using a racial slur, a new poll from Rasmussen Reports says that the president's approval rating among African-Americans is at 36 percent, nearly double his support at this time last year"
Apparently they didn't get the memo that he's racist
There has been a lot of conversation surrounding Crazy Rich Asians and here are my views as a Malaysian (neighbor to Singapore) living in America. - "It was never made to represent Asian culture in its entirety, and for Asian Americans who feel that it doesn't represent them, it isn't really a story about Asian American culture in the first place. Besides, no one watches a cheesy rom-com with white protagonists and remarks "that isn't a real portrayal of white America!" I find it unfair to hold CRA up to the lens of representing an entire culture. This film is about the lives of the 1% of Singapore and it does a really good job of representing that world in a fun way while making some slight commentary on its issues (e.g. racism and tribalism within the elite Chinese community). Whatever happened to suspension of disbelief in movies? Are some critics skeptical because they have never witnessed that part of Singapore and thus don't believe it exists? Well, I can tell you from experience that it's absolutely real. In terms of representation, I was in awe hearing the characters speak Malay, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Cantonese — exclaiming "alamak" and saying "lah" in a New York City theater. The film does an excellent job of showcasing Singapore's multifaceted culture, from its language to food to fashion. It is fair criticism that it doesn't represent the multiculturalism of Singapore but it is a film about this specific group of people in the country."
Sesame Street Screenshots out of context with wrong captions
Sex pigs halt traffic after laser attack on Pokémon teens - "Tiny Insjön in central Sweden isn't known for pig mask-wearing couples shooting lasers at Pokémon hunters before having sex by a waterwheel. But that could be about to change."
Singaporean couple invents roti-making robot, Rotimatic - "There are plans to upgrade the software so users can make other types of flat breads and add ingredients such as herbs and spices to the dough."
>Implying video games are fun - Posts - "Women in Battlefield 5: 'Accept it', EA says, 'or don't buy the game'. Electronic Arts' Patrick Soderlund says the people lashing out against women in the new Battlefield trailer are uneducated"
"Batlefield V Pre-Orders are reportedly very 'weak', according to analysts"
"EA Chief Design Officer Patrick Soderlund Leaves Company"
Looks like insulting your customers doesn't work after all
Battlefield V Has Gone Full SJW And Gamers Hate It, Spawning #NotMyBattlefield - "In the latest trailer for the game we see a multicultural squad of soldiers assaulting a house and being shot up by the enemy. One of the recurring themes in the trailer is to highlight a woman with a missing arm somehow fighting in the thick of battle. Yes, there’s a disabled woman fighting on the battlefield in World War II… and the verdict is still out on if she’s a lesbian, but given today’s politically distorted promotion of degeneracy and regressive policies, don’t be surprised if she’s a one-armed, disabled, lesbian... The Forbes contributor rightfully called out DICE and Electronic Arts for turning the Battlefield series into a cartoony, completely unrecognizable shooter that seems to be aimed at the Tumblr crowd more than the fans who actually enjoy first-person shooters."
Cowen predicts EA’s ‘Battlefield V' will be a ‘serious disappointment' - "preorders for “Battlefield V” are tracking more than 85 percent behind “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4,” which is substantially worse than previous instances."
Post ID: 3016254166767608235
A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes - the Slippery Slope and Animal Rights
(This was meant to be posted on 22nd September)
Another example of how the slippery slope is not a fallacy:
"The first defense of animal rights came in the form of a joke on human rights. As a reaction against the new ethics of the Enlightenment, a conservative aristocrat ridiculed rights for men and women by arguing that these would eventually lead to the laughable and absurd idea of giving rights to brutes, and perhaps even plants and things. The idea of human rights should thus be abandoned. After two hundred years it is worth revisiting this old argument to address the question of whether granting moral status to animals, plants, and even landscapes eventually makes hard-won human rights into a joke...
Taylor used his knowledge of emblematic natural history to show that animals deserved the same rights as humans. The argument took the idea of exclusive human rights down the slippery slope of the great chain of being from humans (men and women), to animals (elephants, apes, dragons), arriving at the possible rights of vegetables and minerals. The booklet contains page after page of entertaining quotes from ancient sources about elephants conversing with one another and wild dragons having the right to marry and settle in society. It also includes numerous comparisons of women to brutes. Writing under a pseudonym allowed him to play rather freely with the sources. This creative use of evidence permitted laughter, apparently on the idea of granting animal rights, though the target of his joke was Paine and Wollstonecraft’s defense of human rights. This sarcasm was spelled out in the first page of the book. “After the wonderful productions of Mr. Paine and Mrs. Wollstonecraft, such a theory as the present, seems to be necessary, in order to give perfection to our researches into the rights of things.” Taylor’s rhetorical strategy allowed him to attack the idea of human rights, while at the same time retreat by making it clear that he was only joking.
Today the idea of animal rights or liberation is not a joke anymore, and few will find Taylor amusing. His humor was that of an old-fashioned aristocrat failing to see that the world was changing. This at least has been the opinion of Peter Singer and Tom Regan, both who have argued that Taylor’s joke was anything but funny. Indeed Singer began his famous Animal Liberation (1975) by challenging Taylor’s implicit claim that granting rights to brutes was “manifestly absurd...
From a historical perspective Taylor’s reductio ad absurdum of human rights is not absurd, at least if one is to believe Roderick Nash’s history of The Rights of Nature (1989). Nash argues that the evolution of rights of tyrants, Kings, aristocrats, men, women, and blacks is a process which will continue with rights for animals, species, and perhaps whole landscapes. To many activists of the 1970s this gradual historical evolution of rights was a matter of personal experience emerging from their involvement in the Civil Rights and feminist movements. This modern and progressive view of history as a linear development of moral standings from humans, to animals, birds, fish, insects, plants, and ecological communities has prevailed in much environmental philosophy. As a result, arguments in favor of exclusive human rights have been portrayed, at least in the writings of Nash, as backward looking. Progressive environmental ethicists have consequently been struggling with the problem of trying to draw boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in the fortunate group of beings in the moral community...
The aim of Taylor’s satirical defense of animal rights on biocentric grounds was to undermine the emerging notion of human rights and thus secure his own aristocratic privileges. The aim of current biocentric environmental ethics is also to undermine the anthropocentrism of the Enlightenment, which raises the question of whose human interest this ethic will serve. In the aristocratic world of Taylor, it was up to the King, Prince or Duke to determine the hierarchy of rights in society. In the world imagined by animal rights groups and environmental ethicists, rights will ultimately be determined by expert zoologists and ecologists with intimate knowledge of species and landscapes. Scientists will be the ones settling rights and privileges within the biotic community. In the case of Deep Ecology, for example, the ecologists will in effect be nature’s aristocrats laying out the rules of the game.
Taylor’s old pamphlet also provokes the question of whether or not animal rights, and by extension, rights of the rest of the natural world, may turn human rights into a joke. It is not clear how one is supposed to defend hard-won human rights in a world where moral status is a privilege of every species. If everything is entitled to rights then no one will end up respecting them, since breaking these rights would be inevitable in order to survive. A vindication of the rights of brutes risks vindicating human brutes. A world without boundaries would allow any type of action, since there would be no demarcation between right and wrong. A return to anthropocentrism, on the other hand, does not imply an endorsement of cruelty to animals or environmental destruction. As indicated above, to damage anything beautiful would undermine the human moral sensibility Kant thought was of paramount importance. The defense of human rights implied a moral duty to not harm nature because that would undermine human dignity."
--- A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes / Peder Anker
Another example of how the slippery slope is not a fallacy:
"The first defense of animal rights came in the form of a joke on human rights. As a reaction against the new ethics of the Enlightenment, a conservative aristocrat ridiculed rights for men and women by arguing that these would eventually lead to the laughable and absurd idea of giving rights to brutes, and perhaps even plants and things. The idea of human rights should thus be abandoned. After two hundred years it is worth revisiting this old argument to address the question of whether granting moral status to animals, plants, and even landscapes eventually makes hard-won human rights into a joke...
Taylor used his knowledge of emblematic natural history to show that animals deserved the same rights as humans. The argument took the idea of exclusive human rights down the slippery slope of the great chain of being from humans (men and women), to animals (elephants, apes, dragons), arriving at the possible rights of vegetables and minerals. The booklet contains page after page of entertaining quotes from ancient sources about elephants conversing with one another and wild dragons having the right to marry and settle in society. It also includes numerous comparisons of women to brutes. Writing under a pseudonym allowed him to play rather freely with the sources. This creative use of evidence permitted laughter, apparently on the idea of granting animal rights, though the target of his joke was Paine and Wollstonecraft’s defense of human rights. This sarcasm was spelled out in the first page of the book. “After the wonderful productions of Mr. Paine and Mrs. Wollstonecraft, such a theory as the present, seems to be necessary, in order to give perfection to our researches into the rights of things.” Taylor’s rhetorical strategy allowed him to attack the idea of human rights, while at the same time retreat by making it clear that he was only joking.
Today the idea of animal rights or liberation is not a joke anymore, and few will find Taylor amusing. His humor was that of an old-fashioned aristocrat failing to see that the world was changing. This at least has been the opinion of Peter Singer and Tom Regan, both who have argued that Taylor’s joke was anything but funny. Indeed Singer began his famous Animal Liberation (1975) by challenging Taylor’s implicit claim that granting rights to brutes was “manifestly absurd...
From a historical perspective Taylor’s reductio ad absurdum of human rights is not absurd, at least if one is to believe Roderick Nash’s history of The Rights of Nature (1989). Nash argues that the evolution of rights of tyrants, Kings, aristocrats, men, women, and blacks is a process which will continue with rights for animals, species, and perhaps whole landscapes. To many activists of the 1970s this gradual historical evolution of rights was a matter of personal experience emerging from their involvement in the Civil Rights and feminist movements. This modern and progressive view of history as a linear development of moral standings from humans, to animals, birds, fish, insects, plants, and ecological communities has prevailed in much environmental philosophy. As a result, arguments in favor of exclusive human rights have been portrayed, at least in the writings of Nash, as backward looking. Progressive environmental ethicists have consequently been struggling with the problem of trying to draw boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in the fortunate group of beings in the moral community...
The aim of Taylor’s satirical defense of animal rights on biocentric grounds was to undermine the emerging notion of human rights and thus secure his own aristocratic privileges. The aim of current biocentric environmental ethics is also to undermine the anthropocentrism of the Enlightenment, which raises the question of whose human interest this ethic will serve. In the aristocratic world of Taylor, it was up to the King, Prince or Duke to determine the hierarchy of rights in society. In the world imagined by animal rights groups and environmental ethicists, rights will ultimately be determined by expert zoologists and ecologists with intimate knowledge of species and landscapes. Scientists will be the ones settling rights and privileges within the biotic community. In the case of Deep Ecology, for example, the ecologists will in effect be nature’s aristocrats laying out the rules of the game.
Taylor’s old pamphlet also provokes the question of whether or not animal rights, and by extension, rights of the rest of the natural world, may turn human rights into a joke. It is not clear how one is supposed to defend hard-won human rights in a world where moral status is a privilege of every species. If everything is entitled to rights then no one will end up respecting them, since breaking these rights would be inevitable in order to survive. A vindication of the rights of brutes risks vindicating human brutes. A world without boundaries would allow any type of action, since there would be no demarcation between right and wrong. A return to anthropocentrism, on the other hand, does not imply an endorsement of cruelty to animals or environmental destruction. As indicated above, to damage anything beautiful would undermine the human moral sensibility Kant thought was of paramount importance. The defense of human rights implied a moral duty to not harm nature because that would undermine human dignity."
--- A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes / Peder Anker
Post ID: 5201571546699297963
Links - 25th September 2018 (1)
Getting Voxed: Charles Murray, Ideology, and the Debate on IQ - "It seems likely that when many first encounter the Black-White IQ gap, they think it environmental in origin because Blacks have faced horrific oppression and discrimination. The high Jewish IQ, however, immediately casts doubt on this intuition (as do copious data, which we have and will discuss) because Jewish people have also faced appalling discrimination throughout much of 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries (and well before, of course). If broad social biases and discrimination ineluctably suppressed IQ, then one would expect that Jewish people would score low on IQ tests and other indices of intelligence (such as intellectual achievement), especially in countries with histories of particularly virulent anti-Semitism. However, this is not the case, and even in countries with the ugliest legacies of anti-Semitism (e.g., Russia, Germany), Jewish people have been remarkably successful... Turkheimer et al’s Vox article is a misleading account of Murray’s (and the hereditarian) position and a one-sided review of the evidence. Turkheimer et al mischaracterize and overstate evidence that supports an environmentalist interpretation of the gap, while ignoring copious data that contradict it... The only way to solve the puzzle is to grapple honestly and fairly with all of the evidence, which Turkheimer et al failed to do. Equally disappointingly, they made dubious moral claims, accusing those who advance the hereditarian position of ethically questionable behavior. This is unfortunate for a couple of reasons. First, accusing honest scientists of immorality for pursuing a particular empirical question, for forwarding reasonable hypotheses, and for propounding those hypotheses publicly is unprofessional. Scientists owe allegiance to the evidence and to the truth, not to a particular moral or political perspective. Second, Vox is a widely read, liberal outlet that could have used this piece to challenge the prior assumptions of its readers. Instead, it published an ideologically saturated, liberally slanted piece that served merely to confirm their suspicions (“Murray really is peddling pseudoscience, so it’s okay to protest his campus talks”)."
The cherry picked science in Vox’s Charles Murray article - "As Timothy B. Lee writes, “This debunking of Charles Murray doesn’t appear to include a single quote of Murray’s arguments in his own words.”... it is important to emphasize just how mainstream Murray’s views are in the field of intelligence research. The most controversial sentence in The Bell Curve attributed about half of the black-white IQ gap to genetics, the rest to environment. In 2013, a survey of 228 intelligence researchers found that the typical scientist in this field agrees"
Million-person genetic study finds gene patterns linked to how long people stay in school - "The largest-ever genetic study on human cognition has found more than 1,000 links between people’s genes and how far they get in school. The work, which involved DNA from 1.1 million people and researchers drawn from 40 institutions, led to a scoring system that can roughly predict how educated someone is by examining that person’s DNA"
Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills - WSJ - "At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years. Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum... 50% of employers complain that college graduates they hire aren’t ready for the workplace. Their No. 1 complaint? Poor critical-reasoning skills"
Singapore Like You've Never Seen Before - YouTube - " In order to bring to you a perspective of Singapore which you may hardly ever get to see, we explored the entire country, then explored even more. There were countless days that we injured ourselves, cut ourselves and braved the weather, rain or shine, just to get this piece out."
Weirdest Video You Will EVER See! GUARANTEED! - YouTube
Damn Japs
Apparently from "Funky Forest: The First Contact"
Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children - WSJ - "It wasn’t the violence or the amount of time she was worried about. It was the result. He wasn’t winning. So she hired him a coach. For about $50, Ms. Hicks purchased four hours of online lessons from a player she found through a freelance labor website."
America, Meet America: Getting Past Our Toxic Partisanship - WSJ - "in the 1970s, the U.S. chapter of AFS started an additional program for exchanges within the country. Over the life of the program, more than a thousand teenagers would travel from Kansas to California, from Florida to New York and beyond—crisscrossing the country to live for a summer or a semester with host families, discovering new food and strange customs within their own country... “We had a Brown student who had spent a semester in Amsterdam, and she said it was nowhere near as different from Providence as Tougaloo,” says Elise Morse-Gagné, who teaches English at Tougaloo. “The food is very different. The economy is different. The attitude toward education is different. Religion is colossal.”... “What we have found is that it’s really difficult to hate someone you’ve had deep, meaningful, transformative experiences with—and whose community you’ve really come to value because you’ve felt welcome and appreciated there.”"
Hunting for Soft Skills, Companies Scoop Up English Majors - WSJ - "the pay numbers show employers are seeking hires with communication skills and comfort in multicultural environments... Behind the numbers is a growing desire among employers for hires with strong communication skills"
The dystopia of the child-protection industry - "In Norway, there has been a steep rise since 2008 in the number of children taken into emergency care. The most common reason is not parental violence, but ‘lack of parenting skills’, which can include what a representative of the state child-protection agency refers to as ‘connection problems between parent and child’ and ‘falling behind in school’. Rather than offering advice and support, children have been immediately removed when parents practiced mild forms of physical discipline, which is banned in Norway... The Welsh government has recently announced plans to push through legislation to remove the defence of reasonable chastisement in relation to smacking children, despite the fact that polls suggest a majority of the population is against criminalising smacking. Ministers claim that the change is meant to ‘send a message’ about how children should be raised and that the intention is not to criminalise parents. Similar promises were made in New Zealand, and they turned out to be untrue. There is no reason to believe that the UK will be any different to New Zealand or Norway. There is already a huge problem in the UK with over-intervention into family life. A recent study found that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009/2010 financial year were referred to social services before their 5th birthday. Everyone was up in arms recently at children being separated from parents at the US border. Yet the same thing is happening in other countries, too. Raising children is now seen as a set of skills that officials must impart to us. Don’t want your children taken away? Then don’t raise them in ways we don’t approve of. That is the message of many child-protection agencies today. We are sleepwalking back to the era when huge numbers of children were taken from their parents simply because the parents were poor, unmarried, indigenous or otherwise deemed incapable of producing the ‘right’ sort of citizen. The number of ‘looked after’ children in the UK is at an all-time high and the vast majority of these children are from the poorest sections of society. In Norway, children with immigrant mothers are four times more likely to be forcibly taken from their families. A child-centred society might sound utopian and idyllic, but we are now seeing its dystopian results."
When you're obsessed with "protecting" children...
Twitter Explodes After Ocasio-Cortez Attacks Shapiro In Response To Debate Offer - "Shapiro offered to donate $10,000 to Ocasio-Cortez's campaign if she agreed to a debate or discussion on his "Sunday Special" — or, if she preferred, to use the debate to raise money for charity."
Hopefully this will make some people realise you can't take feminist accusations like catcalling seriously
Addendum: This was about AOC claiming challenging her to a debate was like catcalling
WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Forgets To Introduce Endorsee At His Own Rally - "At the event for Hawaii State Rep. Kaniela Ing, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that her own life was shaped by "runaway income inequality, an unaddressed history of imperialism, and poverty." Previously, Ocasio-Cortez was caught lying about her childhood upbringing after she claimed to have a rough upbringing in the Bronx but was later revealed to have come from Westchester, an affluent suburb."
The Parasite Underground - The New York Times - "the disappearance of parasites — largely eradicated from American life in the early 20th century through improvements in sanitation — might have left our immune systems unbalanced, increasing our vulnerability to all types of inflammatory disorders... Weinstock was already experimenting with “re-parasitizing” people with inflammatory bowel disease, using a helminth called Trichuris suis, the pig whipworm... The prevalence of autoimmune and allergic diseases has increased between two- and threefold in recent decades. Roughly one in five Americans has an allergic disease, ranging from seasonal hay fever to life-threatening food allergies. Roughly one in 13 has an autoimmune disease"
Finally, proof that Christmas songs really do your head in | Arwa Mahdawi - "a quarter of retail staff think an excess of Christmas music in their workplace makes them less festive and one in six said that it negatively affects their emotional wellbeing... a quarter of British shoppers dislike being subjected to Christmas music while out and about"
Silke Schoenfleisch-Backofen: 3ft 8in lawyer sues witness who laughed at her and sang 'Hi Ho' - "She decided to become a lawyer after failing to get into medical school because of the dwarfism that hindered her growth - in immediately set about suing the health ministry for refusing her entry."
Gladiator 2: The strangest sequel never made? - "Musician Nick Cave wrote a time-travel saga in which Maximus is not a gladiator – and an emperor laments his lightning-struck giraffe"
Jeremy Corbyn admits being present at wreath-laying for Munich terrorists but says 'I don't think I was actually involved in it' - "Jeremy Corbyn has admitted attending a ceremony for the terrorists behind the Munich massacre, but denied laying a wreath himself. The Labour leader said he was “present” at a memorial event commemorating those responsible for the 1972 attack, despite his office previously insisting he was only at the event in question honouring Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike. Mr Corbyn was forced to explain himself after pictures showed him holding a wreath next to a memorial plaque for the perpetrators of the Munich attack. The latest row has fuelled the Labour party’s antisemitism crisis, with a senior Labour MP saying “there can never be a ‘fitting memorial’ to terrorists”... Mr Corbyn’s team had previously insisted he had only laid a wreath at another memorial – to pay tribute to the 47 Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a PLO base in Tunisia in 1985. But images published by the Daily Mail show him holding a wreath in 2014 next to the memorial to the Munich bombers... Labour MP Luciana Berger, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, criticised Mr Corbyn’s latest comments. She said: “Being ‘present’ is the same as being involved. When I attend a memorial, my presence alone, whether I lay a wreath or not, demonstrates my association and support.” “There can never be a ‘fitting memorial’ for terrorists. Where is the apology?”... Sajid Javid, the home secretary, suggested Mr Corbyn should quit over the issue. He wrote on Twitter: ”If this was the leader of any other major political party, he or she would be gone by now.”"
The World of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Is as Crazy in Real Life - "For director Jon M. Chu, it was the “different tiers of rich” that interested him most. For the very richest, “it wasn’t about flash,” he says. “It’s about subtlety and class. It’s about how you were raised, and you can’t tell those things by the label.”... “For the superrich, it’s not about what you can buy, it’s about how creative you can be with your money,” Chu says. “Anyone can pay for stuff, but to have that idea and pay for it is another thing.”
Ryan Fournier on Twitter - "The media would rather focus on 30 person neo-Nazi rallies in DC than a Muslim extremist training kids at a New Mexico compound to shoot up schools."
Plus-Size Activist Complains She Was ‘Fetishized’ After Stripping to Bikini in Times Square - "Fashion blogger and plus-size activist Anna O’Brien recalled in a recent Cosmopolitan essay the harrowing experience of being "fetishized" after stripping down to a bikini in Times Square. O'Brien picked New York's famously hectic hub for a photo shoot last month with a German news crew that was doing a story about her. However, she saw the stunt as having a larger purpose: to offer an alternative to the usual "perfected and somewhat vanilla" plus-size modeling on offer... O'Brien had expected to be mocked for her weight, and that did happen. But much worse, she said, was the unexpected sexual praise she received"
"Summary
- overweight, body positive feminist decides to pose in a bikini in Times Square
- hopes to get negative comments about her weight
- doesn't and instead gets sexualised comments
- is offended she wasn't offended in the way she want to be but is still offended she was sexualised."
Trump’s tweet on anniversary of Charlottesville riots was presidential, predictably not good enough for CNN Conservative News Today - "Within hours of President Donald Trump posting a sensible tweet Saturday morning rightly condemning “all types of racism and acts of violence,” a host from CNN slammed him."
The cherry picked science in Vox’s Charles Murray article - "As Timothy B. Lee writes, “This debunking of Charles Murray doesn’t appear to include a single quote of Murray’s arguments in his own words.”... it is important to emphasize just how mainstream Murray’s views are in the field of intelligence research. The most controversial sentence in The Bell Curve attributed about half of the black-white IQ gap to genetics, the rest to environment. In 2013, a survey of 228 intelligence researchers found that the typical scientist in this field agrees"
Million-person genetic study finds gene patterns linked to how long people stay in school - "The largest-ever genetic study on human cognition has found more than 1,000 links between people’s genes and how far they get in school. The work, which involved DNA from 1.1 million people and researchers drawn from 40 institutions, led to a scoring system that can roughly predict how educated someone is by examining that person’s DNA"
Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills - WSJ - "At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years. Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum... 50% of employers complain that college graduates they hire aren’t ready for the workplace. Their No. 1 complaint? Poor critical-reasoning skills"
Singapore Like You've Never Seen Before - YouTube - " In order to bring to you a perspective of Singapore which you may hardly ever get to see, we explored the entire country, then explored even more. There were countless days that we injured ourselves, cut ourselves and braved the weather, rain or shine, just to get this piece out."
Weirdest Video You Will EVER See! GUARANTEED! - YouTube
Damn Japs
Apparently from "Funky Forest: The First Contact"
Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children - WSJ - "It wasn’t the violence or the amount of time she was worried about. It was the result. He wasn’t winning. So she hired him a coach. For about $50, Ms. Hicks purchased four hours of online lessons from a player she found through a freelance labor website."
America, Meet America: Getting Past Our Toxic Partisanship - WSJ - "in the 1970s, the U.S. chapter of AFS started an additional program for exchanges within the country. Over the life of the program, more than a thousand teenagers would travel from Kansas to California, from Florida to New York and beyond—crisscrossing the country to live for a summer or a semester with host families, discovering new food and strange customs within their own country... “We had a Brown student who had spent a semester in Amsterdam, and she said it was nowhere near as different from Providence as Tougaloo,” says Elise Morse-Gagné, who teaches English at Tougaloo. “The food is very different. The economy is different. The attitude toward education is different. Religion is colossal.”... “What we have found is that it’s really difficult to hate someone you’ve had deep, meaningful, transformative experiences with—and whose community you’ve really come to value because you’ve felt welcome and appreciated there.”"
Hunting for Soft Skills, Companies Scoop Up English Majors - WSJ - "the pay numbers show employers are seeking hires with communication skills and comfort in multicultural environments... Behind the numbers is a growing desire among employers for hires with strong communication skills"
The dystopia of the child-protection industry - "In Norway, there has been a steep rise since 2008 in the number of children taken into emergency care. The most common reason is not parental violence, but ‘lack of parenting skills’, which can include what a representative of the state child-protection agency refers to as ‘connection problems between parent and child’ and ‘falling behind in school’. Rather than offering advice and support, children have been immediately removed when parents practiced mild forms of physical discipline, which is banned in Norway... The Welsh government has recently announced plans to push through legislation to remove the defence of reasonable chastisement in relation to smacking children, despite the fact that polls suggest a majority of the population is against criminalising smacking. Ministers claim that the change is meant to ‘send a message’ about how children should be raised and that the intention is not to criminalise parents. Similar promises were made in New Zealand, and they turned out to be untrue. There is no reason to believe that the UK will be any different to New Zealand or Norway. There is already a huge problem in the UK with over-intervention into family life. A recent study found that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009/2010 financial year were referred to social services before their 5th birthday. Everyone was up in arms recently at children being separated from parents at the US border. Yet the same thing is happening in other countries, too. Raising children is now seen as a set of skills that officials must impart to us. Don’t want your children taken away? Then don’t raise them in ways we don’t approve of. That is the message of many child-protection agencies today. We are sleepwalking back to the era when huge numbers of children were taken from their parents simply because the parents were poor, unmarried, indigenous or otherwise deemed incapable of producing the ‘right’ sort of citizen. The number of ‘looked after’ children in the UK is at an all-time high and the vast majority of these children are from the poorest sections of society. In Norway, children with immigrant mothers are four times more likely to be forcibly taken from their families. A child-centred society might sound utopian and idyllic, but we are now seeing its dystopian results."
When you're obsessed with "protecting" children...
Twitter Explodes After Ocasio-Cortez Attacks Shapiro In Response To Debate Offer - "Shapiro offered to donate $10,000 to Ocasio-Cortez's campaign if she agreed to a debate or discussion on his "Sunday Special" — or, if she preferred, to use the debate to raise money for charity."
Hopefully this will make some people realise you can't take feminist accusations like catcalling seriously
Addendum: This was about AOC claiming challenging her to a debate was like catcalling
WATCH: Ocasio-Cortez Forgets To Introduce Endorsee At His Own Rally - "At the event for Hawaii State Rep. Kaniela Ing, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that her own life was shaped by "runaway income inequality, an unaddressed history of imperialism, and poverty." Previously, Ocasio-Cortez was caught lying about her childhood upbringing after she claimed to have a rough upbringing in the Bronx but was later revealed to have come from Westchester, an affluent suburb."
The Parasite Underground - The New York Times - "the disappearance of parasites — largely eradicated from American life in the early 20th century through improvements in sanitation — might have left our immune systems unbalanced, increasing our vulnerability to all types of inflammatory disorders... Weinstock was already experimenting with “re-parasitizing” people with inflammatory bowel disease, using a helminth called Trichuris suis, the pig whipworm... The prevalence of autoimmune and allergic diseases has increased between two- and threefold in recent decades. Roughly one in five Americans has an allergic disease, ranging from seasonal hay fever to life-threatening food allergies. Roughly one in 13 has an autoimmune disease"
Finally, proof that Christmas songs really do your head in | Arwa Mahdawi - "a quarter of retail staff think an excess of Christmas music in their workplace makes them less festive and one in six said that it negatively affects their emotional wellbeing... a quarter of British shoppers dislike being subjected to Christmas music while out and about"
Silke Schoenfleisch-Backofen: 3ft 8in lawyer sues witness who laughed at her and sang 'Hi Ho' - "She decided to become a lawyer after failing to get into medical school because of the dwarfism that hindered her growth - in immediately set about suing the health ministry for refusing her entry."
Gladiator 2: The strangest sequel never made? - "Musician Nick Cave wrote a time-travel saga in which Maximus is not a gladiator – and an emperor laments his lightning-struck giraffe"
Jeremy Corbyn admits being present at wreath-laying for Munich terrorists but says 'I don't think I was actually involved in it' - "Jeremy Corbyn has admitted attending a ceremony for the terrorists behind the Munich massacre, but denied laying a wreath himself. The Labour leader said he was “present” at a memorial event commemorating those responsible for the 1972 attack, despite his office previously insisting he was only at the event in question honouring Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike. Mr Corbyn was forced to explain himself after pictures showed him holding a wreath next to a memorial plaque for the perpetrators of the Munich attack. The latest row has fuelled the Labour party’s antisemitism crisis, with a senior Labour MP saying “there can never be a ‘fitting memorial’ to terrorists”... Mr Corbyn’s team had previously insisted he had only laid a wreath at another memorial – to pay tribute to the 47 Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a PLO base in Tunisia in 1985. But images published by the Daily Mail show him holding a wreath in 2014 next to the memorial to the Munich bombers... Labour MP Luciana Berger, the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, criticised Mr Corbyn’s latest comments. She said: “Being ‘present’ is the same as being involved. When I attend a memorial, my presence alone, whether I lay a wreath or not, demonstrates my association and support.” “There can never be a ‘fitting memorial’ for terrorists. Where is the apology?”... Sajid Javid, the home secretary, suggested Mr Corbyn should quit over the issue. He wrote on Twitter: ”If this was the leader of any other major political party, he or she would be gone by now.”"
The World of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Is as Crazy in Real Life - "For director Jon M. Chu, it was the “different tiers of rich” that interested him most. For the very richest, “it wasn’t about flash,” he says. “It’s about subtlety and class. It’s about how you were raised, and you can’t tell those things by the label.”... “For the superrich, it’s not about what you can buy, it’s about how creative you can be with your money,” Chu says. “Anyone can pay for stuff, but to have that idea and pay for it is another thing.”
Ryan Fournier on Twitter - "The media would rather focus on 30 person neo-Nazi rallies in DC than a Muslim extremist training kids at a New Mexico compound to shoot up schools."
Plus-Size Activist Complains She Was ‘Fetishized’ After Stripping to Bikini in Times Square - "Fashion blogger and plus-size activist Anna O’Brien recalled in a recent Cosmopolitan essay the harrowing experience of being "fetishized" after stripping down to a bikini in Times Square. O'Brien picked New York's famously hectic hub for a photo shoot last month with a German news crew that was doing a story about her. However, she saw the stunt as having a larger purpose: to offer an alternative to the usual "perfected and somewhat vanilla" plus-size modeling on offer... O'Brien had expected to be mocked for her weight, and that did happen. But much worse, she said, was the unexpected sexual praise she received"
"Summary
- overweight, body positive feminist decides to pose in a bikini in Times Square
- hopes to get negative comments about her weight
- doesn't and instead gets sexualised comments
- is offended she wasn't offended in the way she want to be but is still offended she was sexualised."
Trump’s tweet on anniversary of Charlottesville riots was presidential, predictably not good enough for CNN Conservative News Today - "Within hours of President Donald Trump posting a sensible tweet Saturday morning rightly condemning “all types of racism and acts of violence,” a host from CNN slammed him."
Post ID: 7262615876285557849
Monday, September 24, 2018
Past material on slippery slopes in action
The Failure of Liberal Bioethics - NYTimes.com - on IVF and other related technologies
Gay marriage:
The slippery slope of gay marriage has begun - On Utah's anti-polygamy law being struck down due to gay marriage being legal (and more of gay marriage's own slippery slope)
The Volokh Conspiracy - The Slippery Slope to Same-Sex Marriage - On gay marriage and past claims that there would be no slippery slope towards it
Addendum: Gay marriage and the immediate pivot to trans 'rights' are another example of the 'myth' of the slippery slope (Google isn't indexing that page for some reason)
Euthanasia:
Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls
Euthanasia and the Slippery Slope (links)
Post ID: 1275981921729084226
Links - 24th September 2018 (2)
Army Ants Attack Wasp Nest By Building Giant Hanging Bridge With Their Bodies
The Case for Sustainable Meat - "From Pimental’s total, we can calculate that such a cow uses over 12 million litres of water during its lifetime – equivalent to an acre of land under ten feet of water. But cows typically drink only 50 litres of water per day, which leads to a figure of 200 litres per kilo or just 0.2 percent of Pimental’s value. How did the agronomist create such a monumentally inflated figure? Astonishingly, Pimental included all of the rain that fell on the land on which the beef was reared, ignoring the fact that that rain would have fallen whether cattle were there or not... Another anti-meat statistic is some variation on the claim that it takes 20kg of grain to produce a kilo of beef. This notion hangs on the false assumption that all farms raise animals in feedlots. In the UK, however, cows and sheep spend most of their life on grass... virtually all the grain used for animal feed is grain deemed unfit for human consumption, either because it was spoiled or contaminated... As well as providing meat for human consumption, cows, sheep and pigs produce leather, wool, grease, blood and bones in substantial quantities which are used for a huge number of industrial processes, including making fertilisers for organic farming and even – for a brief time at least – the new five-pound notes. Almost nothing goes to waste... Ploughing up grassland actually releases carbon from long-term soil stores, which makes the idea of switching from livestock to arable farming look decidedly un-green. Ploughing also increases soil erosion, runoff, and nutrient depletion – all factors that are ignored in the AMPAG narrative... Taking into account the reality of the whole farm cycle as well as human protein needs, New Zealand researchers recently found that in temperate climates dairy farming is actually the most environmentally sound way to feed a population."
Indiana University student triggers scare after mistaking priest for KKK man - "In addition the belt around his waist was mistaken for a whip, prompting one of the residential officers at the university to issue a warning to other students."
uhhhhhhh (video)
Giraffe deep throat
Jessica Price is Not a Martyr For Workers’ Rights – David Cole - "when you publicly advertise yourself as part of a company and then publicly deride a fairly well-known member of that company’s greater community, then you can probably expect that company to retaliate. You may think, then, that this was all very sudden. That if this was the first offense Price had committed, then there should have been discussion, not punishment. What if I told you it wasn’t?... when all is said and done, I believe Jessica Price is a bad person. You do not celebrate a person’s death, period. But even if we were to walk around that statement and argue that certain people’s deaths are worth celebrating (an opinion I do not hold), then John Bain was not one of those people."
Of course the usual "gaming press" is sympathetic to her and blames toxic fans
Extremist Muslim father at New Mexico compound was training kids to carry out school shootings - "The Muslim extremist father arrested at a New Mexico compound with 11 starving children had been training them to carry out school shootings, new legal documents claim. Siraj Wahhaj, 39, was arrested at the compound in Amalia on Friday with his brother-in-law, wife and two sisters"
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro survives apparent assassination attempt - "Some in Venezuela, however, are questioning the government’s version of events. Firefighters say the incident was caused by a gas tank explosion in a nearby apartment, according to the Associated Press. Some local journalists have backed up the claim, posting photos on Twitter of smoke billowing from the Residancias Don Eduardo apartment building on the street where the apparent attack took place. Rocío San Miguel, a military expert and the head of Control Ciudadano, an investigative website focused on security, said that at least one drone belonged to the military, who lost control of the device inflight. Soldiers then shot it down... “I am alive and victorious,” the socialist president said in a bellicose televised address. “Everything points to the Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian ultra-right, and that the name of Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack.” A spokesperson for the Colombian president, who leaves office on Tuesday, quickly denied the allegations. “The president is focused on the baptism of his granddaughter and not on bringing down foreign governments,” the official said... Some Venezuela experts raised suspicions about what had actually happened on social media. “The official ‘investigation’ of today’s alleged assassination attempt against president Maduro takes the usual course: begin with the conclusions and work backwards,” Phil Gunson, a consultant with the non-profit Crisis Group, tweeted. “In a country where 98% of crime goes unpunished, government sleuths resolve this kind of case in a matter of hours.” Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, has been in economic and political turmoil for several years"
Activated charcoal is an actual detox product, which is why you should avoid it - "Actually using activated charcoal on your teeth, though, could potentially end up damaging your enamel — and, because you’re scouring the protective layer of your teeth right off, the teeth become more susceptible to staining."
Small Dogs Pee Higher to Lie About Their Size, New Study Concludes
Commentary: In the Philippines, the pitfalls of an education aimed at exporting people - "Most people assume that migration occurs when young people are unable to find jobs to fit their training and qualifications. But in the Philippines, a large number of Filipinos actually choose their college majors based on what jobs are supposedly available abroad."
Claire Lehmann on Twitter - "Every time I get a random abusive tweet, I check the bio of the author and lo and behold their pronouns are listed."
Coincidentally, those with funny pronouns always claim to receive abuse and be the victims of persecution
Seth Rogen Apologizes After Being Criticized For Putting A Child Actor In Blackface - "TMZ released images from set showing a stunt-double wearing body padding, a wig and makeup to make his skin tone darker than it naturally was. The boy was a stand-in and stunt-double for child actor Keith L. Williams, who is heavier and has a darker skin tone than the stand-in. Both boys are black, but Keith's skin is darker... The child's father also happens to be a long-time stunt double who was on set. He says he's offended that anyone is making complaints regarding his son and nothing was done outside of what is standard."
I guess the Deadpool 2 diversity death wasn't enough
Belfast airport turns away wheelchair user due to repair kit - "A disabled man was unable to board a flight from Belfast because his wheelchair repair kit was deemed a security risk"
Security as theatre not just doesn't make you safer but has real costs
Lim Biow Chuan made a valid point – awkwardly - "Lim Biow Chuan, made a valid point of how the elderly should keep active and busy. Unfortunately, his argument was couched in an awkward example of his father running a fruit stall... It is commendable that Mr Lim would accept the losses from the fruit stall as long as it could stave off his father’s onset of mental illness. Of course, not everyone can do what Mr Lim did and accept such losses. But that is not the point which actually is this: do everything you can to help your elderly loved ones to stay healthy, whether physically or mentally."
Also: "My mum, about 10 years ago, worked in a coffeeshop as a cleaner. Because she is bored at home. And she asked me, would it embarrass you? I said no, I mean it is a decent job, you want to go and work, I won’t stop you from working. Because if you think it is a decent job, so be it. She is not robbing someone, she is not relying on charity, she wants to work as a coffeeshop cleaner because she gets to do something, she mixes with people, she is happy and I am happy. So now that she is older, she is retired.", i.e. not all old people who are working need the money
Korea’s ‘One a Day Banana’ is Pure Brilliance - "E-mart in Korea is now selling the "One a Day Banana" pack, containing several bananas of different ripeness so that you can eat them over several days"
Leave those kids alone - "teachers across Scotland are all set to have exactly this discussion. Children in Primary One – that’s five year-olds – are to be taught that it is up to them to decide if they are a boy or a girl... If a boy enjoys being a boy and wants to grow up into a man, is that really so bad?"
Sex education class being indoctrination was not a paranoid right wing conspiracy theory after all
A feeling of apartheid in Holland - "The vision of a globalised society, wherein Moroccans, Persians, Eritreans, Scandinavians and Latin-Americans or what-have-you live in the same street, shop at the same stores, and drink at the same bars, presumably in a land of perpetual sunshine is a fantasy so flawed, so objectively failed, that one would have to spend one’s days in an ivory tower, locked away from reality, in order to believe it. The harsh reality in Holland now is that people have their own barbers, their own shopping markets, their own foods, their own places to socialise, their own worlds. They are not comfortable living around one another, and where they are forced to do so by the rental market, they are not comfortable sharing the space. This is not an opinion – this is a fact backed by government research. The latest findings by the Dutch government explicitly state that feelings of mistrust and loss of identity rise in parallel with an increase in societal diversity."
Alex Jones Claims 5.6 Million New Infowars Subscribers Since Big Tech Blacklisting - "Alex Jones claims 5.6 million people have subscribed to his free Infowars newsletter and podcast over the last 48 hours. These 48 hours have been crucial for Jones, as the Big Tech monopolies and left-wing news outlets like CNN and BuzzFeed have joined forces to blacklist/erase Infowars from the public square. Jones and Infowars have had their accounts canceled – have been effectively purged and erased – from YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pinterest. Even the emailing service MailChimp blacklisted Jones, in what has been a highly effective and coordinated media/Big Tech campaign to silence a vocal Trump supporter... As of now, no tech company has explained why they are blacklisting Jones. While Jones has spread his share of wild conspiracy theories, so has CNN’s Brian Stelter, and so has much of the rest of the media regarding Trump’s non-existent collusion with Russia. CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly lies about Trump mocking the handicap of a New York Times reporter and just last week, CNN’s Chris Cuomo spread a wild conspiracy theory about Trump and the number 17."
Cannibal restaurant 'with roasted human heads on the menu' shut down by police - "Police arrested 11 people and closed a restaurant after two human heads wrapped in cellophane were discovered at a hotel restaurant that had been serving human flesh. A tip-off led police to the macabre discovery in Anambra, Nigeria, with 11 people being arrested and AK-47 guns and other weapons being seized."
Desiree Akhavan: ‘The only mainstream queer female stories have been directed by men – it disgusts me’
"Representation" isn't enough. Why even bother?
Where’s the Nearest Starbucks? Sex Differences in Wayfinding - "men rely more on spatial cues like distance and direction when navigating (i.e., they use Euclidean properties). Whereas women are more likely to use landmarks when navigating... It’s not just a couple of studies that demonstrate these sex differences in spatial abilities. Not even just a dozen. We’re talking hundreds... men’s and women’s differences in mental rotation and object location abilities are highly replicable and real... increasing gender egalitarianism was associated with larger sex differences in object location memory... Anthropologists have examined spatial abilities in many other pre-industrial cultures, usually with similar results... In real-world tests of spatial ability, numerous studies have confirmed men’s superior ability at mental rotation (Lawton, 1996). For instance, several studies of parking ability have shown men park more accurately than women... Postma et al. (2012) investigated men’s and women’s spatial memory of their parking place during an incidental visit to a shopping mall. As expected from an evolutionary perspective, women reported more landmarks in their route descriptions than men, whereas men used metric terms more often than women. Men also outperformed women in estimating the exact Euclidean distance to their car. In actually locating their car in the real world, 14% made a substantial detour, most of them women... In one ingenious study, researchers were able to test pre-verbal infants who were only 5 months old using habituation and mirror images. They found male infants, but not female infants, showed the ability to rotate and recognize mirror image objects... Silverman et al. (1999) found among men that mean levels of testosterone are related to mental rotation abilities, but not to other non-navigation related cognitive traits. Other researchers have found similar results (e.g., Kimura & Hampson, 1994). General circulating levels of estrogen, in contrast, appear to improve performance on object memory games, but reduce performance on Euclidean spatial tasks... Experiments in which hormones are manipulated also tend to confirm evolutionary perspectives on sex differences in cognitive abilities. For instance, in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, a single sublingual dose of 0.5 mg of testosterone significantly improved healthy young women’s performances on a mental rotation task... Several studies have found the level of testosterone a girl is exposed to in the womb predicts her subsequent spatial abilities... among bisexual men, Cohen (2002) found the less the men had homoerotic orientations (finding male bodies attractive), the better they did on mental rotation tests"
Testosterone Rex strikes again
Patriarchy must be very powerful since the effects of gender discrimination are visible on 5 month old babies
#MeToo: female spotted hyenas can show us how to smash the patriarchy
???
The Case for Sustainable Meat - "From Pimental’s total, we can calculate that such a cow uses over 12 million litres of water during its lifetime – equivalent to an acre of land under ten feet of water. But cows typically drink only 50 litres of water per day, which leads to a figure of 200 litres per kilo or just 0.2 percent of Pimental’s value. How did the agronomist create such a monumentally inflated figure? Astonishingly, Pimental included all of the rain that fell on the land on which the beef was reared, ignoring the fact that that rain would have fallen whether cattle were there or not... Another anti-meat statistic is some variation on the claim that it takes 20kg of grain to produce a kilo of beef. This notion hangs on the false assumption that all farms raise animals in feedlots. In the UK, however, cows and sheep spend most of their life on grass... virtually all the grain used for animal feed is grain deemed unfit for human consumption, either because it was spoiled or contaminated... As well as providing meat for human consumption, cows, sheep and pigs produce leather, wool, grease, blood and bones in substantial quantities which are used for a huge number of industrial processes, including making fertilisers for organic farming and even – for a brief time at least – the new five-pound notes. Almost nothing goes to waste... Ploughing up grassland actually releases carbon from long-term soil stores, which makes the idea of switching from livestock to arable farming look decidedly un-green. Ploughing also increases soil erosion, runoff, and nutrient depletion – all factors that are ignored in the AMPAG narrative... Taking into account the reality of the whole farm cycle as well as human protein needs, New Zealand researchers recently found that in temperate climates dairy farming is actually the most environmentally sound way to feed a population."
Indiana University student triggers scare after mistaking priest for KKK man - "In addition the belt around his waist was mistaken for a whip, prompting one of the residential officers at the university to issue a warning to other students."
uhhhhhhh (video)
Giraffe deep throat
Jessica Price is Not a Martyr For Workers’ Rights – David Cole - "when you publicly advertise yourself as part of a company and then publicly deride a fairly well-known member of that company’s greater community, then you can probably expect that company to retaliate. You may think, then, that this was all very sudden. That if this was the first offense Price had committed, then there should have been discussion, not punishment. What if I told you it wasn’t?... when all is said and done, I believe Jessica Price is a bad person. You do not celebrate a person’s death, period. But even if we were to walk around that statement and argue that certain people’s deaths are worth celebrating (an opinion I do not hold), then John Bain was not one of those people."
Of course the usual "gaming press" is sympathetic to her and blames toxic fans
Extremist Muslim father at New Mexico compound was training kids to carry out school shootings - "The Muslim extremist father arrested at a New Mexico compound with 11 starving children had been training them to carry out school shootings, new legal documents claim. Siraj Wahhaj, 39, was arrested at the compound in Amalia on Friday with his brother-in-law, wife and two sisters"
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro survives apparent assassination attempt - "Some in Venezuela, however, are questioning the government’s version of events. Firefighters say the incident was caused by a gas tank explosion in a nearby apartment, according to the Associated Press. Some local journalists have backed up the claim, posting photos on Twitter of smoke billowing from the Residancias Don Eduardo apartment building on the street where the apparent attack took place. Rocío San Miguel, a military expert and the head of Control Ciudadano, an investigative website focused on security, said that at least one drone belonged to the military, who lost control of the device inflight. Soldiers then shot it down... “I am alive and victorious,” the socialist president said in a bellicose televised address. “Everything points to the Venezuelan ultra-right in alliance with the Colombian ultra-right, and that the name of Juan Manuel Santos is behind this attack.” A spokesperson for the Colombian president, who leaves office on Tuesday, quickly denied the allegations. “The president is focused on the baptism of his granddaughter and not on bringing down foreign governments,” the official said... Some Venezuela experts raised suspicions about what had actually happened on social media. “The official ‘investigation’ of today’s alleged assassination attempt against president Maduro takes the usual course: begin with the conclusions and work backwards,” Phil Gunson, a consultant with the non-profit Crisis Group, tweeted. “In a country where 98% of crime goes unpunished, government sleuths resolve this kind of case in a matter of hours.” Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, has been in economic and political turmoil for several years"
Activated charcoal is an actual detox product, which is why you should avoid it - "Actually using activated charcoal on your teeth, though, could potentially end up damaging your enamel — and, because you’re scouring the protective layer of your teeth right off, the teeth become more susceptible to staining."
Small Dogs Pee Higher to Lie About Their Size, New Study Concludes
Commentary: In the Philippines, the pitfalls of an education aimed at exporting people - "Most people assume that migration occurs when young people are unable to find jobs to fit their training and qualifications. But in the Philippines, a large number of Filipinos actually choose their college majors based on what jobs are supposedly available abroad."
Claire Lehmann on Twitter - "Every time I get a random abusive tweet, I check the bio of the author and lo and behold their pronouns are listed."
Coincidentally, those with funny pronouns always claim to receive abuse and be the victims of persecution
Seth Rogen Apologizes After Being Criticized For Putting A Child Actor In Blackface - "TMZ released images from set showing a stunt-double wearing body padding, a wig and makeup to make his skin tone darker than it naturally was. The boy was a stand-in and stunt-double for child actor Keith L. Williams, who is heavier and has a darker skin tone than the stand-in. Both boys are black, but Keith's skin is darker... The child's father also happens to be a long-time stunt double who was on set. He says he's offended that anyone is making complaints regarding his son and nothing was done outside of what is standard."
I guess the Deadpool 2 diversity death wasn't enough
Belfast airport turns away wheelchair user due to repair kit - "A disabled man was unable to board a flight from Belfast because his wheelchair repair kit was deemed a security risk"
Security as theatre not just doesn't make you safer but has real costs
Lim Biow Chuan made a valid point – awkwardly - "Lim Biow Chuan, made a valid point of how the elderly should keep active and busy. Unfortunately, his argument was couched in an awkward example of his father running a fruit stall... It is commendable that Mr Lim would accept the losses from the fruit stall as long as it could stave off his father’s onset of mental illness. Of course, not everyone can do what Mr Lim did and accept such losses. But that is not the point which actually is this: do everything you can to help your elderly loved ones to stay healthy, whether physically or mentally."
Also: "My mum, about 10 years ago, worked in a coffeeshop as a cleaner. Because she is bored at home. And she asked me, would it embarrass you? I said no, I mean it is a decent job, you want to go and work, I won’t stop you from working. Because if you think it is a decent job, so be it. She is not robbing someone, she is not relying on charity, she wants to work as a coffeeshop cleaner because she gets to do something, she mixes with people, she is happy and I am happy. So now that she is older, she is retired.", i.e. not all old people who are working need the money
Korea’s ‘One a Day Banana’ is Pure Brilliance - "E-mart in Korea is now selling the "One a Day Banana" pack, containing several bananas of different ripeness so that you can eat them over several days"
Leave those kids alone - "teachers across Scotland are all set to have exactly this discussion. Children in Primary One – that’s five year-olds – are to be taught that it is up to them to decide if they are a boy or a girl... If a boy enjoys being a boy and wants to grow up into a man, is that really so bad?"
Sex education class being indoctrination was not a paranoid right wing conspiracy theory after all
A feeling of apartheid in Holland - "The vision of a globalised society, wherein Moroccans, Persians, Eritreans, Scandinavians and Latin-Americans or what-have-you live in the same street, shop at the same stores, and drink at the same bars, presumably in a land of perpetual sunshine is a fantasy so flawed, so objectively failed, that one would have to spend one’s days in an ivory tower, locked away from reality, in order to believe it. The harsh reality in Holland now is that people have their own barbers, their own shopping markets, their own foods, their own places to socialise, their own worlds. They are not comfortable living around one another, and where they are forced to do so by the rental market, they are not comfortable sharing the space. This is not an opinion – this is a fact backed by government research. The latest findings by the Dutch government explicitly state that feelings of mistrust and loss of identity rise in parallel with an increase in societal diversity."
Alex Jones Claims 5.6 Million New Infowars Subscribers Since Big Tech Blacklisting - "Alex Jones claims 5.6 million people have subscribed to his free Infowars newsletter and podcast over the last 48 hours. These 48 hours have been crucial for Jones, as the Big Tech monopolies and left-wing news outlets like CNN and BuzzFeed have joined forces to blacklist/erase Infowars from the public square. Jones and Infowars have had their accounts canceled – have been effectively purged and erased – from YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, Spotify, Stitcher, and Pinterest. Even the emailing service MailChimp blacklisted Jones, in what has been a highly effective and coordinated media/Big Tech campaign to silence a vocal Trump supporter... As of now, no tech company has explained why they are blacklisting Jones. While Jones has spread his share of wild conspiracy theories, so has CNN’s Brian Stelter, and so has much of the rest of the media regarding Trump’s non-existent collusion with Russia. CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly lies about Trump mocking the handicap of a New York Times reporter and just last week, CNN’s Chris Cuomo spread a wild conspiracy theory about Trump and the number 17."
Cannibal restaurant 'with roasted human heads on the menu' shut down by police - "Police arrested 11 people and closed a restaurant after two human heads wrapped in cellophane were discovered at a hotel restaurant that had been serving human flesh. A tip-off led police to the macabre discovery in Anambra, Nigeria, with 11 people being arrested and AK-47 guns and other weapons being seized."
Desiree Akhavan: ‘The only mainstream queer female stories have been directed by men – it disgusts me’
"Representation" isn't enough. Why even bother?
Where’s the Nearest Starbucks? Sex Differences in Wayfinding - "men rely more on spatial cues like distance and direction when navigating (i.e., they use Euclidean properties). Whereas women are more likely to use landmarks when navigating... It’s not just a couple of studies that demonstrate these sex differences in spatial abilities. Not even just a dozen. We’re talking hundreds... men’s and women’s differences in mental rotation and object location abilities are highly replicable and real... increasing gender egalitarianism was associated with larger sex differences in object location memory... Anthropologists have examined spatial abilities in many other pre-industrial cultures, usually with similar results... In real-world tests of spatial ability, numerous studies have confirmed men’s superior ability at mental rotation (Lawton, 1996). For instance, several studies of parking ability have shown men park more accurately than women... Postma et al. (2012) investigated men’s and women’s spatial memory of their parking place during an incidental visit to a shopping mall. As expected from an evolutionary perspective, women reported more landmarks in their route descriptions than men, whereas men used metric terms more often than women. Men also outperformed women in estimating the exact Euclidean distance to their car. In actually locating their car in the real world, 14% made a substantial detour, most of them women... In one ingenious study, researchers were able to test pre-verbal infants who were only 5 months old using habituation and mirror images. They found male infants, but not female infants, showed the ability to rotate and recognize mirror image objects... Silverman et al. (1999) found among men that mean levels of testosterone are related to mental rotation abilities, but not to other non-navigation related cognitive traits. Other researchers have found similar results (e.g., Kimura & Hampson, 1994). General circulating levels of estrogen, in contrast, appear to improve performance on object memory games, but reduce performance on Euclidean spatial tasks... Experiments in which hormones are manipulated also tend to confirm evolutionary perspectives on sex differences in cognitive abilities. For instance, in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, a single sublingual dose of 0.5 mg of testosterone significantly improved healthy young women’s performances on a mental rotation task... Several studies have found the level of testosterone a girl is exposed to in the womb predicts her subsequent spatial abilities... among bisexual men, Cohen (2002) found the less the men had homoerotic orientations (finding male bodies attractive), the better they did on mental rotation tests"
Testosterone Rex strikes again
Patriarchy must be very powerful since the effects of gender discrimination are visible on 5 month old babies
#MeToo: female spotted hyenas can show us how to smash the patriarchy
???
Post ID: 393973012238836240
On the sliming of PJ Thum
Ervin Tan
"In the spirit of media literacy to defend against fake news, I became curious about what PJ Thum submitted to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods.
Out of 170 papers submitted, PJ was singled out in the Select Committee's report and in the media.
The Select Committee says it gave "no weight" to PJ's views on the basis that he lied about his academic credentials.
As a discerning person trying to avoid being misled by fake news, I went to the source - PJ's paper - so that I could decide for myself whether PJ’s views were nonsense.
If so, I would know not to believe any nonsense in that paper if it arose again in future.
This is PJ's 5-page paper - the one which resulted in a six-hour cross-examination. It can be read within 10 minutes, so if you’re on the train this is an easy read.
https://www.parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/sconlinefalsehoods/written-representation-83.pdf (note: link may download the paper automatically)
Starting with the credentials, PJ seems to have studied a lot.
1. Bachelor of Arts from Harvard (2000)
2. Bachelor of Arts (2004), Oxford
3. Master of Studies in Historical Research (2006), Oxford
4. Doctor of Philosophy in History (2011), Oxford
5. Attended Oxford on:
5(a) Rhodes scholarship (2002-2004) and
5(b) Commonwealth Scholarship (2006-2010)
6. Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute NUS (2012-2014)
7. Research Fellow in History and Coordinator of Project Southeast Asia at the University of Oxford (2014-present)
The Select Committee's report alleges that the last position is inaccurately described, since PJ was a "visiting scholar at the Oxford Centre for Global History" and not a Research Fellow. Notably, PJ merely held an "unpaid position" at Oxford.
Now, we know what some people think of unpaid or low-paid work. So I can understand where this contempt for unpaid positions comes from.
The Select Committee has said nothing about items 1 to 6.
While I would not want to undergo surgery if I found out that my doctor in fact is a vet, I would still give weight to what a historian with PJ’s academic credentials has to say.
Wearing again a media literacy hat, I noted that the Select Committee made much of PJ’s credentials and the way he presented them, and that alone is supposed to discredit PJ’s views.
I therefore wanted to look at PJ’s views. Things PJ said include the following in quote marks (and my thoughts below each quote):
“The term “fake news”, however, has gained common currency across the world in the past year primarily due to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose election was allegedly aided by a Russian campaign to sow disinformation and fear among the American electorate.”
-- Surely this is correct. The Select Committee itself has pointed to disinformation campaigns allegedly conducted by Russia which posed serious threats to the US, Ukraine, etc.
“Fake news” is impossible to define with any reasonable accuracy”
-- I have not found a definition of “Deliberate Online Falsehood” in the Select Committee’s Report, but if anyone sees one do leave a comment.
“Sources [of fake news] are difficult to trace, difficult to prosecute, and domestic legislation will not stop foreign actors outside of Singapore”
-- This is a good point. If the Government is truly concerned about foreign interference, we would see laws that attempt to deal with foreign actors like the Macedonian teens who were paid to write fake news and influence the US elections.
“There is already existing legislation which can address “fake news” / Clause 45 of The Telecommunications Act 1999… Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam cited this law and acknowledged that the current law had remedies to deal with falsehoods, but argued that it was ineffective…”
-- This is interesting. I was not aware of this law.
“There is clear source of “fake news” which has spread falsehoods, with major impact, and hitherto escaped sanction. That is the politicians of Singapore’s People’s Action Party. The major examples of this are the numerous detentions under the Internal Security Act (ISA, and its predecessor, the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance) from 1963 to 1987… Operation Coldstore was conducted for political purposes, and there was no evidence that the detainees of Operation Coldstore were involved in any conspiracy to subvert the government.”
-- I don’t know enough about Operation Coldstore (1963) save that people were detained without trial, but as someone interested in the founding years of Singapore I would like to find out more about this.
“Given the above, the solution to “fake news” should therefore be to: First, educate Singaporeans to be more thoughtful, critical, and skeptical towards information, regardless of source. This includes: The expansion of media literacy programmes… ”
-- This is sensible. Building media literacy is contained in the Select Committee’s first recommendation (out of 22), even though no weight was given to PJ's views.
“Second, constrain the ability of politicians to spread “fake news” and to increase transparency and accountability within the government. This would require:
· The repeal of the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974, which effectively gives the government control over the media and disempowers the media to speak effectively and independently on information. A greater diversification and independence of responsible media is required to effectively combat “fake news”;
· An increase in transparency, for example through the establishment of a Freedom of Information Act which automatically declassifies all government documents after 25 years [5] unless they are specifically retained;
· The establishment of an independent government watchdog (Ombudsman) with the authority to investigate complaints against the government and censure government officials who mislead the public.”
-- These are interesting recommendations, and worthy of consideration and debate. In particular, the history of the NPPA and its effects in terms of who has the power to own and control media in Singapore is interesting and should be made widely known as part of any good faith commitment to media literacy.
Having actually read PJ’s paper, I can’t help but wonder:
1. Of all of PJ's views in his five-page paper, the focus is on the alleged “lie” about being a research fellow instead of a visiting scholar. Why not simply point to the *substance* of his paper and criticise it? The Select Committee did precisely this in respect of another written representation: “The Committee decided not to publish the written representation by Mr Alex Tan, being of the opinion that it was not made in good faith. It contained personal insults, irrelevant comments and sarcastic proposals.” (para. 15, Report of the Select Committee). This tells us in plain words what is wrong with the substance of Mr Alex Tan’s written representation.
2. If the detentions under Operation Coldstore were all justified because the detainees were part of a conspiracy to subvert the government, why not say that plainly? The Select Committee’s Dr. Janil Puthucheary is particularly well-placed to speak about Operation Coldstore since his father Dominic Puthucheary was one of the detainees of Operation Coldstore.
3. To give no weight to PJ’s paper because of his credentials (or lack thereof) suggests that if a different person repeated the content of the paper, we can give weight to the content. This is consistent with thought #1 above. But is PJ’s real offence his forceful questioning of the true nature of Operation Coldstore?
4. What does the Select Committee think of the Russian MFA’s 1-page submission: https://www.parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/sconlinefalsehoods/written-representation-169.pdf.…
5. Does the use of state power to whack a citizen in this ugly way trouble anyone at all? Since PJ submitted his paper to the Select Committee, he has repeatedly been attacked while the substance of his paper has been overlooked. Are these the standards of decency and debate to which a 53-year old democracy holds itself – or should we do better and look to some of the most well-paid politicians in the world to lead by showing what mature, decent and thoughtful public debate looks like? Might it not assist the Government’s case on the legitimacy of Operation Coldstore by releasing papers from 1963 – papers which are 55 years old and which are unlikely to pose any threat to national security in 2018 – so that the public can decide for itself? Do we believe that the efforts to educate a population for the past 53 years have produced a discerning and fair-minded population who could be trusted to look at the relevant documents about Coldstore, and form their own view about whether detainees were involved in a conspiracy to subvert the Government?"
"In the spirit of media literacy to defend against fake news, I became curious about what PJ Thum submitted to the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods.
Out of 170 papers submitted, PJ was singled out in the Select Committee's report and in the media.
The Select Committee says it gave "no weight" to PJ's views on the basis that he lied about his academic credentials.
As a discerning person trying to avoid being misled by fake news, I went to the source - PJ's paper - so that I could decide for myself whether PJ’s views were nonsense.
If so, I would know not to believe any nonsense in that paper if it arose again in future.
This is PJ's 5-page paper - the one which resulted in a six-hour cross-examination. It can be read within 10 minutes, so if you’re on the train this is an easy read.
https://www.parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/sconlinefalsehoods/written-representation-83.pdf (note: link may download the paper automatically)
Starting with the credentials, PJ seems to have studied a lot.
1. Bachelor of Arts from Harvard (2000)
2. Bachelor of Arts (2004), Oxford
3. Master of Studies in Historical Research (2006), Oxford
4. Doctor of Philosophy in History (2011), Oxford
5. Attended Oxford on:
5(a) Rhodes scholarship (2002-2004) and
5(b) Commonwealth Scholarship (2006-2010)
6. Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute NUS (2012-2014)
7. Research Fellow in History and Coordinator of Project Southeast Asia at the University of Oxford (2014-present)
The Select Committee's report alleges that the last position is inaccurately described, since PJ was a "visiting scholar at the Oxford Centre for Global History" and not a Research Fellow. Notably, PJ merely held an "unpaid position" at Oxford.
Now, we know what some people think of unpaid or low-paid work. So I can understand where this contempt for unpaid positions comes from.
The Select Committee has said nothing about items 1 to 6.
While I would not want to undergo surgery if I found out that my doctor in fact is a vet, I would still give weight to what a historian with PJ’s academic credentials has to say.
Wearing again a media literacy hat, I noted that the Select Committee made much of PJ’s credentials and the way he presented them, and that alone is supposed to discredit PJ’s views.
I therefore wanted to look at PJ’s views. Things PJ said include the following in quote marks (and my thoughts below each quote):
“The term “fake news”, however, has gained common currency across the world in the past year primarily due to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose election was allegedly aided by a Russian campaign to sow disinformation and fear among the American electorate.”
-- Surely this is correct. The Select Committee itself has pointed to disinformation campaigns allegedly conducted by Russia which posed serious threats to the US, Ukraine, etc.
“Fake news” is impossible to define with any reasonable accuracy”
-- I have not found a definition of “Deliberate Online Falsehood” in the Select Committee’s Report, but if anyone sees one do leave a comment.
“Sources [of fake news] are difficult to trace, difficult to prosecute, and domestic legislation will not stop foreign actors outside of Singapore”
-- This is a good point. If the Government is truly concerned about foreign interference, we would see laws that attempt to deal with foreign actors like the Macedonian teens who were paid to write fake news and influence the US elections.
“There is already existing legislation which can address “fake news” / Clause 45 of The Telecommunications Act 1999… Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam cited this law and acknowledged that the current law had remedies to deal with falsehoods, but argued that it was ineffective…”
-- This is interesting. I was not aware of this law.
“There is clear source of “fake news” which has spread falsehoods, with major impact, and hitherto escaped sanction. That is the politicians of Singapore’s People’s Action Party. The major examples of this are the numerous detentions under the Internal Security Act (ISA, and its predecessor, the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance) from 1963 to 1987… Operation Coldstore was conducted for political purposes, and there was no evidence that the detainees of Operation Coldstore were involved in any conspiracy to subvert the government.”
-- I don’t know enough about Operation Coldstore (1963) save that people were detained without trial, but as someone interested in the founding years of Singapore I would like to find out more about this.
“Given the above, the solution to “fake news” should therefore be to: First, educate Singaporeans to be more thoughtful, critical, and skeptical towards information, regardless of source. This includes: The expansion of media literacy programmes… ”
-- This is sensible. Building media literacy is contained in the Select Committee’s first recommendation (out of 22), even though no weight was given to PJ's views.
“Second, constrain the ability of politicians to spread “fake news” and to increase transparency and accountability within the government. This would require:
· The repeal of the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act 1974, which effectively gives the government control over the media and disempowers the media to speak effectively and independently on information. A greater diversification and independence of responsible media is required to effectively combat “fake news”;
· An increase in transparency, for example through the establishment of a Freedom of Information Act which automatically declassifies all government documents after 25 years [5] unless they are specifically retained;
· The establishment of an independent government watchdog (Ombudsman) with the authority to investigate complaints against the government and censure government officials who mislead the public.”
-- These are interesting recommendations, and worthy of consideration and debate. In particular, the history of the NPPA and its effects in terms of who has the power to own and control media in Singapore is interesting and should be made widely known as part of any good faith commitment to media literacy.
Having actually read PJ’s paper, I can’t help but wonder:
1. Of all of PJ's views in his five-page paper, the focus is on the alleged “lie” about being a research fellow instead of a visiting scholar. Why not simply point to the *substance* of his paper and criticise it? The Select Committee did precisely this in respect of another written representation: “The Committee decided not to publish the written representation by Mr Alex Tan, being of the opinion that it was not made in good faith. It contained personal insults, irrelevant comments and sarcastic proposals.” (para. 15, Report of the Select Committee). This tells us in plain words what is wrong with the substance of Mr Alex Tan’s written representation.
2. If the detentions under Operation Coldstore were all justified because the detainees were part of a conspiracy to subvert the government, why not say that plainly? The Select Committee’s Dr. Janil Puthucheary is particularly well-placed to speak about Operation Coldstore since his father Dominic Puthucheary was one of the detainees of Operation Coldstore.
3. To give no weight to PJ’s paper because of his credentials (or lack thereof) suggests that if a different person repeated the content of the paper, we can give weight to the content. This is consistent with thought #1 above. But is PJ’s real offence his forceful questioning of the true nature of Operation Coldstore?
4. What does the Select Committee think of the Russian MFA’s 1-page submission: https://www.parliament.gov.sg/docs/default-source/sconlinefalsehoods/written-representation-169.pdf.…
5. Does the use of state power to whack a citizen in this ugly way trouble anyone at all? Since PJ submitted his paper to the Select Committee, he has repeatedly been attacked while the substance of his paper has been overlooked. Are these the standards of decency and debate to which a 53-year old democracy holds itself – or should we do better and look to some of the most well-paid politicians in the world to lead by showing what mature, decent and thoughtful public debate looks like? Might it not assist the Government’s case on the legitimacy of Operation Coldstore by releasing papers from 1963 – papers which are 55 years old and which are unlikely to pose any threat to national security in 2018 – so that the public can decide for itself? Do we believe that the efforts to educate a population for the past 53 years have produced a discerning and fair-minded population who could be trusted to look at the relevant documents about Coldstore, and form their own view about whether detainees were involved in a conspiracy to subvert the Government?"
Post ID: 13729663724485664
Links - 24th September 2018 (1)
Alumnae Of Christine Blasey Ford's High School Circulate Letter Of Support - "“We believe Dr. Blasey Ford and are grateful that she came forward to tell her story,” says a draft letter from alumnae of Holton-Arms, a private girls school in Bethesda, Maryland. “It demands a thorough and independent investigation before the Senate can reasonably vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to a lifetime seat on the nation’s highest court.” The women also say that what Ford is alleging “is all too consistent with stories we heard and lived while attending Holton. Many of us are survivors ourselves.”... "I grew up hearing stories like hers, and believe her completely.”... She said she was 15 when she attended a party where she encountered Kavanaugh, who was 17 at the time. She said Kavanaugh and his friend shut her in a room and turned up the music to hide her protests. Kavanaugh, who was drunk, held her down and tried to remove her clothes. She said that at one point he held his hand on her mouth to stifle her screams. She managed to escape... Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans released a letter from 65 women who said they knew the nominee in high school and vouched for his character, saying he always treated women with ”decency and respect.”... Republicans on the Judiciary Committee put out a statement Sunday reiterating the support Kavanaugh has publicly received and casting Ford’s allegations as part of a political tactic by Democrats."
In other words, "we have no proof of what she is claiming but it sounds good so we support it"
Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Pick, Denies Alleged Sexual Misconduct In High School - "the woman, who did not want to be named, said in a letter that Kavanaugh "attempted to force himself on her" at a party when they were teenagers... All three were minors at the time. The woman declined to be interviewed by the New Yorker... Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a letter on Friday signed by 65 women who said they knew Kavanaugh in high school and defended his character. The letter noted that the signatories included women from "a broad range of political views."... Feinstein called a meeting on Wednesday at which she disclosed the contents of the letter to committee Democrats, but did not show the letter itself... "Throughout his confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh has had 65 meetings with senators—including with Senator Feinstein—sat through over 30 hours of testimony, addressed over 2,000 questions in a public setting and additional questions in a confidential session. Not until the eve of his confirmation has Sen. Feinstein or anyone raised the specter of new 'information' about him"... an extensive background check was already completed by the White House and reviewed by the committee... Kavanaugh has completed six FBI background checks between 1993 and 2018, and that Feinstein, who obtained the letter in July, did not raise the issue during the hearings or attend a closed session on the nomination where the information could have been discussed"
Trump defends his Supreme Court nominee, wants accuser to testify - "A former classmate of Kavanaugh denied attending the party where the assault allegedly occurred. Patrick J. Smyth sent a letter to Grassley and top committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein, denying seeing any "improper conduct" by Kavanaugh, a classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the letter. "I understand that I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as 'PJ' who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post," Smyth said in his letter, CNN reported. "I am issuing this statement today to make it clear to all involved that I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has levelled against Brett Kavanaugh.""
Escape the Echo Chamber - "Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers announced yesterday that she wants a FBI investigation into her claims before she testifies. Ford made an accusation of a non-federal crime committed by a minor 36-years-ago. She couldn’t name the year and she could not name the location. The one witness she said was there claims no knowledge. She also doesn’t have names of the other people in the house. If every word of what she says is true, what is the FBI supposed to do? A fair interpretation of this is that this is a delaying tactic. I suspect the special hearing will be held on Monday and Ford will attend. If she doesn’t, that works to Kavanaugh’s advantage. His supporters can claim she refused to testify under oath"
John Hawkins on Twitter - "Hello, FBI? We need you to investigate a sexual assault allegation? Oh, that's a police matter? Still. When was it? Roughly 36 years ago? The actual date? No idea. The location? Not sure. What do we know? There were either 2 or 4 people in the room. Hello, hello? Did you hang up?"
Accusation Against Kavanaugh Is Exactly Why Men Should Be Leery of #MeToo Movement - "One of the tricks liberals love most is taking something that is as close to universally despised as humanly possible, like racism, police shooting innocent people, or rape, and then declaring that they are bravely against it while their opponents are for it. To provide evidence for their gaslighting, they redefine the terms they’re discussing in the most dubious and polarizing ways imaginable. “Oh, you’re against disrespecting the flag?” Then you must want black men to be shot by the police! “Oh, you’re not in favor of tearing down historical statues because the owners had slaves?” Then you must hate black people! “Oh, you don’t believe EVERY rape accusation made against a man?” Then you must be pro-rape... we have Brett Kavanaugh, an extremely well-qualified judge with an impeccable reputation who has been vetted by the FBI six times. You don’t get any more squeaky clean than Kavanaugh. Then, at the last minute, after his hearing was over and as he was about to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Bernie Sanders donor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Kavanagh had sexually assaulted her... although Kavanaugh’s name does not appear in her therapist’s notes, those notes do say she claimed four men were in the room. Ford now says two men were in the room... she describes 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh acting like a hardened sexual predator. According to Ford, he physically forced her into another room, turned the music up so no one could hear her scream, covered her mouth, pinned her down as she tried to get away, and treated her so roughly she feared he was going to kill her. On the other hand, that’s mixed in with what sounds like playful, drunken horseplay between Kavanaugh and Judge... we have three people categorically denying Ford’s account and she doesn’t seem to know a lot of the basics of her own story. So, it’s an unreliable 36-year-old he said/she said allegation about something that happened between teenagers. Surely, no one could think that an accusation this flimsy should be enough to ruin a man’s life? Right? WRONG."
CONFIRMED: Organizer Vinay Krishnan Who Was Caught Paying Off Kavanaugh Protesters -- Works for Soros-Linked Organization - "several Texas doctors attended the Kavanaugh hearing in Washington DC. After the hearing the doctors told reporter Adam Schindler that they witnessed organized activists with a bag of cash paying the rent-a-mob protesters."
'Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves': US attorney slams accusations that his wife made a controversial hand gesture during Kavanaugh hearing - "US attorney John Bash slammed what he called a “vicious conspiracy theory” that spread on social media after his wife, attorney Zina Bash, was accused of making a hand signal that some people associate with white-supremacy groups. “The attacks today on my wife are repulsive,” Bash said on Twitter. “Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves.” Zina, a former clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, was accused of making the gesture on Tuesday, at the start of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing for his nomination to the US Supreme Court. Accusers claimed that Zina, who is of Jewish and Mexican heritage and is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, is of an ilk who “literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court.”... The hand symbol, commonly known as the “OK” gesture, is believed to be affiliated with members of the alt-right, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the origin of the symbol is also disputed by the Anti-Defamation League, which describes it as a hoax “to fool liberals and get them to spread such false messages.” The gesture was also spotted when a former White House intern allegedly mimicked the symbol in a group photo with President Donald Trump. The former intern, who is of Jewish heritage, denied any association with “racist white power organizations.”"
So much for conspiracy theories being the preserve of the "right"
How Colleges Teach Students to See Bias Where It Doesn’t Exist - "“You have blood on your hands. You’re a murderer,” shouted one of the protesters at Judge Brett Kavanaugh during the Senate hearings of his nomination to the Supreme Court. This apocalyptic rhetoric had been espoused before — at none other than the Yale Law School, immediately after President Donald Trump announced the school’s graduate as his chosen replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy. There, a group of alumni and professors circulated an open letter declaring that selecting Kavanaugh “presents an emergency — for democratic life, for our safety and freedom, for the future of our country.” People “will die” if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the letter announced. By the time of the hearings, Kavanaugh had gone from being a future murderer to an actual one. These protests, intended to shut down the proceedings — and the fantastical social-media charge that one of Kavanaugh’s former clerks displayed a white-power sign during those hearings — showed how academic identity politics is transforming the non-academic world... The key feature of academic diversity ideology is the assertion that to be a member of an ever-growing number of favored victim groups at a college today is to be the target of pervasive bigotry on campus — despite, well, being favored. Taught by a metastasizing campus-diversity bureaucracy to believe that they are subject to an existential threat from circumambient bias, students equate nonconforming ideas with “hate speech,” and “hate speech” with conduct that should be punished, censored and repelled with force if necessary. This victimology fuels the efforts to shut down speech that challenges campus orthodoxies. Dozens of times in the past several years alone, classrooms have been invaded; professors, accosted and even assaulted; and outside speakers, silenced... protesters at Columbia University temporarily occupied a class and accused a professor who is an LGBTQ rights advocate and one of the school’s premier proponents of the idea that campuses are pervaded by rape culture of creating a “dangerous environment for students, including queer students.” That same month, shouting activists prevented University of Oregon President Michael Schill from delivering his State of the University Speech. Schill’s merely pro forma support for free speech was enabling “fascism and white supremacy,” according to the student protesters... In none of these instances were the silencers disciplined. In several of them, the college presidents thanked the anti-speech advocates for their courageous stands. Yale conferred its prize for “provid[ing] exemplary leadership in race and/or ethnic relations” on two of Christakis’s scourges, including the student who shouted, “It’s not a debate.”... The right has its shrill manias— whether the unseemly obsession with Hillary Clinton and her emails, the corrosive Trump-fueled calumny that federal law enforcement agencies have been corrupted by political bias, and the dangerous Trump-induced crusade to turn those agencies into instruments of political revenge. But until now, the notion that silencing non-conforming speech is a legitimate response to disagreement has come overwhelmingly from campuses and other progressive institutions — from Google to the New Yorker. Were Trump to seize the same weapons, arrogating to himself the power to define and punish “hate speech,” the danger of such precedents might become clearer to all."
Study shows Wikipedia Accuracy is 99.5% - "They analyzed articles on drugs, drawing every piece of relevant information, as well as references, revision history and readability. Their conclusion is that the accuracy of drug information on Wikipedia was 99.7%±0.2% when compared to the textbook data. However, even though the articles were very accurate, they weren’t fully complete. Scientists rate the completeness of articles at 83.8±1.5%. However, completeness had a huge variation, ranging between 68.0% and 91.0%. This difference shows that Wikipedia is not always the best resource to draw complete information from, but it always provides over two thirds of the whole story. Furthermore, from the drug information missing in Wikipedia, 62.5% was rated as didactically non-relevant in a qualitative re-evaluation study."
She’s the world’s top empathy researcher. But colleagues say she bullied and intimidated them - "Tania Singer, a celebrated neuroscientist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, is known as one of the world’s foremost experts on empathy... Singer, one of the most high-profile female researchers in the Max Planck Society (MPG), sometimes made harsh comments to women who became pregnant, multiple lab members told Science. “People were terrified. They were really, really afraid of telling her about their pregnancies,” one former colleague says. “For her, having a baby was basically you being irresponsible and letting down the team,” says another, who became a mother while working in Singer’s department."
So much for role models for women in science
Vox’s Ezra Klein Defends “Kill All Men” Twitter Hashtag - "Leftists like Klein are only defensive because one of their own was involved. Even falling back on the idea that every -ism and -phobia takes power plus privilege (which is in no way the official definition, just the one used by social justice warriors), how does #KillAllMen not offend more Leftists? In their heads they seem to think it would just mean white men, which is fine and funny to them. But the hashtag would include black, Hispanic, Muslim, Asian, disabled, transgender, and gay men as well — all protected groups by the Left. Does that alter their lack of outrage?"
Canada’s Politicians are in Denial on Terrorism - "Since 2013, Canada has had a series of low level terrorist attacks which have an Islamist connection. Among these have been the attempted 2013 bombing plot on a Via Rail train, the 2014 vehicle attack which killed a Canadian soldier, the 2014 gun attack on the National War Memorial and the Parliament, a 2016 attempted suicide bombing attack which was thwarted at the last minute with only the bomber dying, a 2016 knife attack on a Canadian Forces recruiting centre, a 2016 knife attack in a Canadian Tire hardware store by a woman claiming to work for ISIS, and a 2017 vehicle and knife stabbing attack. Canadians are increasingly wondering about their own Prime Minister. Prime Minister Trudeau stated openly that ISIS fighters returning to Canada would be an asset as they are a “powerful voice for deradicalization.” The Canadian government has no deradicalizaiton program. Prime Minister Trudeau also spoke in Parliament and stated that anyone who opposed the return of ISIS fighters to Canada was “Islamophobic.”... In December of 2015, newly elected Prime Minister Trudeau sent a video message to the Toronto based “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference. Observers of this conference know that the conference has morphed into a “who is who” in the world of Islamists in Canada and the USA"
In other words, "we have no proof of what she is claiming but it sounds good so we support it"
Kavanaugh, Supreme Court Pick, Denies Alleged Sexual Misconduct In High School - "the woman, who did not want to be named, said in a letter that Kavanaugh "attempted to force himself on her" at a party when they were teenagers... All three were minors at the time. The woman declined to be interviewed by the New Yorker... Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a letter on Friday signed by 65 women who said they knew Kavanaugh in high school and defended his character. The letter noted that the signatories included women from "a broad range of political views."... Feinstein called a meeting on Wednesday at which she disclosed the contents of the letter to committee Democrats, but did not show the letter itself... "Throughout his confirmation process, Judge Kavanaugh has had 65 meetings with senators—including with Senator Feinstein—sat through over 30 hours of testimony, addressed over 2,000 questions in a public setting and additional questions in a confidential session. Not until the eve of his confirmation has Sen. Feinstein or anyone raised the specter of new 'information' about him"... an extensive background check was already completed by the White House and reviewed by the committee... Kavanaugh has completed six FBI background checks between 1993 and 2018, and that Feinstein, who obtained the letter in July, did not raise the issue during the hearings or attend a closed session on the nomination where the information could have been discussed"
Trump defends his Supreme Court nominee, wants accuser to testify - "A former classmate of Kavanaugh denied attending the party where the assault allegedly occurred. Patrick J. Smyth sent a letter to Grassley and top committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein, denying seeing any "improper conduct" by Kavanaugh, a classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the letter. "I understand that I have been identified by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as the person she remembers as 'PJ' who supposedly was present at the party she described in her statements to the Washington Post," Smyth said in his letter, CNN reported. "I am issuing this statement today to make it clear to all involved that I have no knowledge of the party in question; nor do I have any knowledge of the allegations of improper conduct she has levelled against Brett Kavanaugh.""
Escape the Echo Chamber - "Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers announced yesterday that she wants a FBI investigation into her claims before she testifies. Ford made an accusation of a non-federal crime committed by a minor 36-years-ago. She couldn’t name the year and she could not name the location. The one witness she said was there claims no knowledge. She also doesn’t have names of the other people in the house. If every word of what she says is true, what is the FBI supposed to do? A fair interpretation of this is that this is a delaying tactic. I suspect the special hearing will be held on Monday and Ford will attend. If she doesn’t, that works to Kavanaugh’s advantage. His supporters can claim she refused to testify under oath"
John Hawkins on Twitter - "Hello, FBI? We need you to investigate a sexual assault allegation? Oh, that's a police matter? Still. When was it? Roughly 36 years ago? The actual date? No idea. The location? Not sure. What do we know? There were either 2 or 4 people in the room. Hello, hello? Did you hang up?"
Accusation Against Kavanaugh Is Exactly Why Men Should Be Leery of #MeToo Movement - "One of the tricks liberals love most is taking something that is as close to universally despised as humanly possible, like racism, police shooting innocent people, or rape, and then declaring that they are bravely against it while their opponents are for it. To provide evidence for their gaslighting, they redefine the terms they’re discussing in the most dubious and polarizing ways imaginable. “Oh, you’re against disrespecting the flag?” Then you must want black men to be shot by the police! “Oh, you’re not in favor of tearing down historical statues because the owners had slaves?” Then you must hate black people! “Oh, you don’t believe EVERY rape accusation made against a man?” Then you must be pro-rape... we have Brett Kavanaugh, an extremely well-qualified judge with an impeccable reputation who has been vetted by the FBI six times. You don’t get any more squeaky clean than Kavanaugh. Then, at the last minute, after his hearing was over and as he was about to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, Bernie Sanders donor Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Kavanagh had sexually assaulted her... although Kavanaugh’s name does not appear in her therapist’s notes, those notes do say she claimed four men were in the room. Ford now says two men were in the room... she describes 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh acting like a hardened sexual predator. According to Ford, he physically forced her into another room, turned the music up so no one could hear her scream, covered her mouth, pinned her down as she tried to get away, and treated her so roughly she feared he was going to kill her. On the other hand, that’s mixed in with what sounds like playful, drunken horseplay between Kavanaugh and Judge... we have three people categorically denying Ford’s account and she doesn’t seem to know a lot of the basics of her own story. So, it’s an unreliable 36-year-old he said/she said allegation about something that happened between teenagers. Surely, no one could think that an accusation this flimsy should be enough to ruin a man’s life? Right? WRONG."
CONFIRMED: Organizer Vinay Krishnan Who Was Caught Paying Off Kavanaugh Protesters -- Works for Soros-Linked Organization - "several Texas doctors attended the Kavanaugh hearing in Washington DC. After the hearing the doctors told reporter Adam Schindler that they witnessed organized activists with a bag of cash paying the rent-a-mob protesters."
'Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves': US attorney slams accusations that his wife made a controversial hand gesture during Kavanaugh hearing - "US attorney John Bash slammed what he called a “vicious conspiracy theory” that spread on social media after his wife, attorney Zina Bash, was accused of making a hand signal that some people associate with white-supremacy groups. “The attacks today on my wife are repulsive,” Bash said on Twitter. “Everyone tweeting this vicious conspiracy theory should be ashamed of themselves.” Zina, a former clerk for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, was accused of making the gesture on Tuesday, at the start of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing for his nomination to the US Supreme Court. Accusers claimed that Zina, who is of Jewish and Mexican heritage and is a descendant of Holocaust survivors, is of an ilk who “literally want to bring white supremacy to the Supreme Court.”... The hand symbol, commonly known as the “OK” gesture, is believed to be affiliated with members of the alt-right, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the origin of the symbol is also disputed by the Anti-Defamation League, which describes it as a hoax “to fool liberals and get them to spread such false messages.” The gesture was also spotted when a former White House intern allegedly mimicked the symbol in a group photo with President Donald Trump. The former intern, who is of Jewish heritage, denied any association with “racist white power organizations.”"
So much for conspiracy theories being the preserve of the "right"
How Colleges Teach Students to See Bias Where It Doesn’t Exist - "“You have blood on your hands. You’re a murderer,” shouted one of the protesters at Judge Brett Kavanaugh during the Senate hearings of his nomination to the Supreme Court. This apocalyptic rhetoric had been espoused before — at none other than the Yale Law School, immediately after President Donald Trump announced the school’s graduate as his chosen replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy. There, a group of alumni and professors circulated an open letter declaring that selecting Kavanaugh “presents an emergency — for democratic life, for our safety and freedom, for the future of our country.” People “will die” if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the letter announced. By the time of the hearings, Kavanaugh had gone from being a future murderer to an actual one. These protests, intended to shut down the proceedings — and the fantastical social-media charge that one of Kavanaugh’s former clerks displayed a white-power sign during those hearings — showed how academic identity politics is transforming the non-academic world... The key feature of academic diversity ideology is the assertion that to be a member of an ever-growing number of favored victim groups at a college today is to be the target of pervasive bigotry on campus — despite, well, being favored. Taught by a metastasizing campus-diversity bureaucracy to believe that they are subject to an existential threat from circumambient bias, students equate nonconforming ideas with “hate speech,” and “hate speech” with conduct that should be punished, censored and repelled with force if necessary. This victimology fuels the efforts to shut down speech that challenges campus orthodoxies. Dozens of times in the past several years alone, classrooms have been invaded; professors, accosted and even assaulted; and outside speakers, silenced... protesters at Columbia University temporarily occupied a class and accused a professor who is an LGBTQ rights advocate and one of the school’s premier proponents of the idea that campuses are pervaded by rape culture of creating a “dangerous environment for students, including queer students.” That same month, shouting activists prevented University of Oregon President Michael Schill from delivering his State of the University Speech. Schill’s merely pro forma support for free speech was enabling “fascism and white supremacy,” according to the student protesters... In none of these instances were the silencers disciplined. In several of them, the college presidents thanked the anti-speech advocates for their courageous stands. Yale conferred its prize for “provid[ing] exemplary leadership in race and/or ethnic relations” on two of Christakis’s scourges, including the student who shouted, “It’s not a debate.”... The right has its shrill manias— whether the unseemly obsession with Hillary Clinton and her emails, the corrosive Trump-fueled calumny that federal law enforcement agencies have been corrupted by political bias, and the dangerous Trump-induced crusade to turn those agencies into instruments of political revenge. But until now, the notion that silencing non-conforming speech is a legitimate response to disagreement has come overwhelmingly from campuses and other progressive institutions — from Google to the New Yorker. Were Trump to seize the same weapons, arrogating to himself the power to define and punish “hate speech,” the danger of such precedents might become clearer to all."
Study shows Wikipedia Accuracy is 99.5% - "They analyzed articles on drugs, drawing every piece of relevant information, as well as references, revision history and readability. Their conclusion is that the accuracy of drug information on Wikipedia was 99.7%±0.2% when compared to the textbook data. However, even though the articles were very accurate, they weren’t fully complete. Scientists rate the completeness of articles at 83.8±1.5%. However, completeness had a huge variation, ranging between 68.0% and 91.0%. This difference shows that Wikipedia is not always the best resource to draw complete information from, but it always provides over two thirds of the whole story. Furthermore, from the drug information missing in Wikipedia, 62.5% was rated as didactically non-relevant in a qualitative re-evaluation study."
She’s the world’s top empathy researcher. But colleagues say she bullied and intimidated them - "Tania Singer, a celebrated neuroscientist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, is known as one of the world’s foremost experts on empathy... Singer, one of the most high-profile female researchers in the Max Planck Society (MPG), sometimes made harsh comments to women who became pregnant, multiple lab members told Science. “People were terrified. They were really, really afraid of telling her about their pregnancies,” one former colleague says. “For her, having a baby was basically you being irresponsible and letting down the team,” says another, who became a mother while working in Singer’s department."
So much for role models for women in science
Vox’s Ezra Klein Defends “Kill All Men” Twitter Hashtag - "Leftists like Klein are only defensive because one of their own was involved. Even falling back on the idea that every -ism and -phobia takes power plus privilege (which is in no way the official definition, just the one used by social justice warriors), how does #KillAllMen not offend more Leftists? In their heads they seem to think it would just mean white men, which is fine and funny to them. But the hashtag would include black, Hispanic, Muslim, Asian, disabled, transgender, and gay men as well — all protected groups by the Left. Does that alter their lack of outrage?"
Canada’s Politicians are in Denial on Terrorism - "Since 2013, Canada has had a series of low level terrorist attacks which have an Islamist connection. Among these have been the attempted 2013 bombing plot on a Via Rail train, the 2014 vehicle attack which killed a Canadian soldier, the 2014 gun attack on the National War Memorial and the Parliament, a 2016 attempted suicide bombing attack which was thwarted at the last minute with only the bomber dying, a 2016 knife attack on a Canadian Forces recruiting centre, a 2016 knife attack in a Canadian Tire hardware store by a woman claiming to work for ISIS, and a 2017 vehicle and knife stabbing attack. Canadians are increasingly wondering about their own Prime Minister. Prime Minister Trudeau stated openly that ISIS fighters returning to Canada would be an asset as they are a “powerful voice for deradicalization.” The Canadian government has no deradicalizaiton program. Prime Minister Trudeau also spoke in Parliament and stated that anyone who opposed the return of ISIS fighters to Canada was “Islamophobic.”... In December of 2015, newly elected Prime Minister Trudeau sent a video message to the Toronto based “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” conference. Observers of this conference know that the conference has morphed into a “who is who” in the world of Islamists in Canada and the USA"
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