BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Mali's Magical Onions:
"Kama Saramay (?) has one God.
Jiguba (sp?) says the village's conversion from animism to Islam 5 years ago has been good for the women and bad news for the genie in the cave.
The Genie?
Yes, he says. Unfortunately, the genie took up residence several generations ago in the only cave with a year-round water supply. The genie used to insist that anyone going in should undress first.
What? A peeping tom genie?
The cave is a good 20 minutes walk away, along the edge of a ravine. Everything is beige up here apart from a few tiny green shoots on the tips of wild grape trees. We follow a line of women and children carrying a colourful range of jerry cans and buckets
Jiguba explains the problem.
Our wives spend hours filtering the water, but our children still have blood in their urine. It spills hearts here (?). We do have a pump in the village, he confesses, but it's broken, we can't afford to have it fixed. So people use the cave. All the more so because we don't have to worry about the genie any longer
Samba, aged 11, offers to take me in.
A few more paces and the cave's entrance is visible. Samba brazenly dives in to the darkness.
Samba, I ask, are you afraid of the genie?
Oh no, she says, my family prays to God. Come on!
Samba's jerry can is a third the size that she is. She dunks it in the murky water then drags it out and tops it up with a plastic cup.
The rock we're crouching on is slippery - you could fall in and the weight of the filled jerry can seems far greater than little Samba should be carrying. Jiguba believes that the dress code for the cave - undressed - probably developed out of an understanding generations ago that women shouldn't wash clothes in the village's drinking water.
Now that the genie's gone, there's far too much traffic to the cave.
So you see, says Jiguba, we need a proper well, with a rope and a pulley that we can fix ourselves. If we had a solar pump, we could irrigate our fields and grow shallots all year round.
French experts have penned theses about the delicious Dogon shallot, but Jiguba isn't giving much away. It could be in the planting, it could be in the soil, it could be in the rock beneath the soil, he remains vague.
Jiguba clearly suspects I am an undercover shallot spy.
Has he followed the torturous peace negotiations for Mali?
No, he says. I have 30 cows and 30 goats, I have to fetch water for them every day. I don't have time to sit around drinking tea and listening to the news.
So will peace, if it comes, make any difference to Jiguba?
Look, he says, he points to the horzion one way, then the other way. That's my Mali, the rest is politics. Everything's fine in Mali but my village does need a well"
L'origine de Bert
Monday, July 27, 2015
Links - 27th July 2015
Mata.Mata: History of The Singapore Police | Remember Singapore - "The year 1969 was a significant year for Singapore and its police force. It was the 150th anniversary of the founding of modern Singapore. The Singapore Police Force, already 6000-strong by then, received a brand new design in their uniforms. A stark contrast as compared to the former colonial ones, the new dacron blue uniforms, completed with long-sleeved shirts, trousers and peak caps, would play an important role in helping the policemen maintain a professional look. The material used for the new uniforms was also well suited in a tropical climate."
In Singapore, policemen wore shorts until 1969
War on the edge of nowhere - "An untold story is how the Falklanders treated the invading army: like vermin. Though utterly at the Argentines' mercy, the people of the Falklands refused to co-operate in any way: They would give no directions; make no conversation. Children were sternly told not to accept candy or gifts. Despite the invaders' initial efforts to be friendly, they were seen as Martians and frozen out... There were two Canadian protagonists, too: Bill Curtis and his wife Barbara from Mission, B.C. Convinced there was going to be a nuclear war, they moved to the safest, most remote spot on the planet: the Falklands. It seemed like a great idea, but six months after they arrived, so did the invading Argentine army."
Long-Life Secrets From An (Almost) 115 Year Old Woman - "she loves bacon. Every morning she eats four strips of it, followed by scrambled eggs and grits... She also seems to be a minimalist when it comes to interfering with her health. The only medication she takes is a multivitamin and a pill for her blood pressure. Blind from glaucoma since she was 100, Jones refused cataract surgery, and her nieces say Jones has never had a colonoscopy or a mammogram. Lavilla Watson, 82, another one of her nieces, said a doctor recommended a pacemaker, but she refused. She sees a primary care physician every three to four months... The world’s oldest person, 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, says the answer to a long life is eating sushi, while the oldest American, 115-year-old Jeralean Talley of Michigan, says it’s pigs’ feet. Some studies argue that long life has to do with being a conscientious, giving and most importantly, happy person. Other research says that strong personal connections play a big role, which may in part explain Jones’s long life... Becoming a supercentenarian likely has to do with genes, says Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center, the largest study of centenarians and their families worldwide. “You have to have some relatively rare combinations of a whole bunch of genes, probably hundreds, that will help people age more slowly or protect people from age-related diseases [dementia, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer],” he says. “The super-centenarians, they not only delay disability toward the very end of their lives but also diseases. In fact, they’re often functionally independent and disease-free, except for some things you can’t get away with like cataracts and osteoarthritis.”"
Are Women More Emotional Than Men? - "From an evolutionary perspective, it is likely there are some sex differences in emotion. Indeed, the odds of men and women having evolved the exact same emotional psychology are basically zero. It would be nothing short of a Darwinian miracle for men and women to have evolved precisely identical emotional designs... Probably the most compelling evidence for sex differences in emotion exists in the domain of negative emotions... Most studies show women tend to score higher on the personality trait most closely associated with negative emotionality—neuroticism... The sex gap in depression is wider in high gender equity societies than in low gender equity societies. Hopcroft speculates that this is due in part to differential effects of children on feelings of depression for women in high and low equity countries. For women in high gender equity countries, children promote feelings of depression, whereas for unemployed women in low gender equity countries the reverse is true. There is little difference in the effect of children on feelings of depression for men in high and low gender equity countries. This can explain the paradoxical finding that while gender equity boosts mental health on average, it creates a wider sex gap in depression... in countries with greater gender equity (e.g., Finland, Sweden), women attribute substantially more importance to benevolence and universalism values than men do. In more patriarchal cultures, sex differences in benevolence and universalism and much smaller. The authors of the values study speculate that increased independence and equality of women in the labor force may encourage women to express their “inherent” values rather than to accommodate their values to those of their husbands. Maybe. What is clear is that if sex differences are assumed to result from gender role socialization, it is extremely odd for the largest sex differences to be found in Scandinavian cultures and the smallest in more patriarchal cultures. Yet, we also find this with studies of tested cognitive ability and even physical traits... Del Guidice et al. (2012) examined sex differences in personality using Cattell’s 16 factor model of personality traits, finding an overall multivariate D of 2.71 for the personality domain. This is huge difference, with less than 10% overlap in men’s and women’s personalities"
Women are indeed more emotional than men: it's not just, as some would have it, that they are socialised into displaying their emotions more
Women Want Short-Term Mates, Too? - "It seems just about every year a new group of researchers asserts they have “debunked” some basic tenet of evolutionary psychology. A recurring claim is evolutionary explanations of human sex differences must be wrong if researchers are able to show women are at all interested in short-term mating, particularly when they seem just as interested as men are (Schacht & Mulder, 2015). In truth, finding women are acutely interested in short-term mating is entirely unsurprising to evolutionary psychologists. In fact, they have been predicting and confirming women’s short-term mating tendencies for decades... That women possess highly evolved short-term mating strategies has been a foundational feature of evolutionary psychology since the early 1990s (Buss & Schmitt, 1993*; Kenrick et al., 1990), and several programs of research, many supported by literally dozens of studies, strongly support this assertion. Historically, evolutionary psychologists were among the first psychologists to treat women’s short-term mating as an adaptive reproductive strategy (most other psychologists did, and still do, treat short-term mating as entirely dysfunctional or pathological, a failure to "bond" with your one true love; I call it the Disney-fication of women’s sexuality by majority of sex researchers who follow the Standard Social Science Model)... when pursuing a short-term mating strategy, women tend to desire high quality over high quantity (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008). In contrast, men tend to be less insistent on high quality when short-term mating... it is not that women are never willing to have sex with strangers. He's got to be pretty good-looking, though... Men have higher general sex drive than women across almost all measures and all studied cultures, with a culture’s size of sex differences in sex drive being unrelated to sociopolitical gender equity... sex differences in casual sex desires typically vary from medium to large across cultures, the differences almost never completely disappear."
India has a public masturbation problem—and no real solutions
When in India, do what the Indians do
Why many rape victims don’t fight or yell - "One such response is tonic immobility. In freezing, brain and body are primed for action. But in tonic immobility, the body is literally paralyzed by fear – unable to move, speak, or cry out. The body goes rigid. Hands may go numb."
10 ways you might be breaking the law with your computer - "In January 2007, a substitute teacher in Norwich, CT, was convicted of four felony pornography charges, although she claimed the offending pictures were the result of pop-ups and that she did not knowingly access the Web sites in question. The conviction was set aside after forensics and security experts examined her hard drive and found the school's antivirus software was out of date and the computer had no anti-spyware, firewall, or pop-up blocking technology. The teacher ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge... In another 2007 case, a 16-year-old was charged with possession of child pornography and got 18 months probation and over a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees, even though he passed polygraph tests in which he denied knowledge of the images and an examination of the hard drive found more than 200 infected files and no firewall."
Michigan man arrested for using cafe’s free WiFi from his car - "This is not the first time someone has been arrested for piggybacking on a WiFi connection. In 2005, a Florida man was arrested and hit with a third-degree felony for surfing an open WiFi network from his SUV. Similarly, an Illinois man was arrested in 2006 for, again, using an unsecured WiFi network from his car. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was given one year's court supervision and a $250 fine. A Washington man was also arrested in 2006 for parking outside of a coffee shop and using the open WiFi connection without purchasing anything. And just earlier this year, an Alaska man was arrested for using the WiFi network from the public library after hours to play games from—you guessed it—his car in the parking lot"
New Zealand is making trolling illegal - BBC Newsbeat - "- Incite or encourage another individual to commit suicide.
- Denigrate an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
Digital communication should not:"
So now you can't campaign for euthanasia or make fun of cults in New Zealand?
YourClassical from American Public Media - "For many years, Corigliano’s father was the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Corigliano Junior recalls: “He did everything he could to discourage me. He knew firsthand that the composer was the lowest man in the musical hierarchy. ‘Performers don’t want to bother with your work, and audiences don’t want to hear it. So what are doing it for?’ he would say.”"
In Singapore, policemen wore shorts until 1969
War on the edge of nowhere - "An untold story is how the Falklanders treated the invading army: like vermin. Though utterly at the Argentines' mercy, the people of the Falklands refused to co-operate in any way: They would give no directions; make no conversation. Children were sternly told not to accept candy or gifts. Despite the invaders' initial efforts to be friendly, they were seen as Martians and frozen out... There were two Canadian protagonists, too: Bill Curtis and his wife Barbara from Mission, B.C. Convinced there was going to be a nuclear war, they moved to the safest, most remote spot on the planet: the Falklands. It seemed like a great idea, but six months after they arrived, so did the invading Argentine army."
Long-Life Secrets From An (Almost) 115 Year Old Woman - "she loves bacon. Every morning she eats four strips of it, followed by scrambled eggs and grits... She also seems to be a minimalist when it comes to interfering with her health. The only medication she takes is a multivitamin and a pill for her blood pressure. Blind from glaucoma since she was 100, Jones refused cataract surgery, and her nieces say Jones has never had a colonoscopy or a mammogram. Lavilla Watson, 82, another one of her nieces, said a doctor recommended a pacemaker, but she refused. She sees a primary care physician every three to four months... The world’s oldest person, 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, says the answer to a long life is eating sushi, while the oldest American, 115-year-old Jeralean Talley of Michigan, says it’s pigs’ feet. Some studies argue that long life has to do with being a conscientious, giving and most importantly, happy person. Other research says that strong personal connections play a big role, which may in part explain Jones’s long life... Becoming a supercentenarian likely has to do with genes, says Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and the director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston Medical Center, the largest study of centenarians and their families worldwide. “You have to have some relatively rare combinations of a whole bunch of genes, probably hundreds, that will help people age more slowly or protect people from age-related diseases [dementia, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer],” he says. “The super-centenarians, they not only delay disability toward the very end of their lives but also diseases. In fact, they’re often functionally independent and disease-free, except for some things you can’t get away with like cataracts and osteoarthritis.”"
Are Women More Emotional Than Men? - "From an evolutionary perspective, it is likely there are some sex differences in emotion. Indeed, the odds of men and women having evolved the exact same emotional psychology are basically zero. It would be nothing short of a Darwinian miracle for men and women to have evolved precisely identical emotional designs... Probably the most compelling evidence for sex differences in emotion exists in the domain of negative emotions... Most studies show women tend to score higher on the personality trait most closely associated with negative emotionality—neuroticism... The sex gap in depression is wider in high gender equity societies than in low gender equity societies. Hopcroft speculates that this is due in part to differential effects of children on feelings of depression for women in high and low equity countries. For women in high gender equity countries, children promote feelings of depression, whereas for unemployed women in low gender equity countries the reverse is true. There is little difference in the effect of children on feelings of depression for men in high and low gender equity countries. This can explain the paradoxical finding that while gender equity boosts mental health on average, it creates a wider sex gap in depression... in countries with greater gender equity (e.g., Finland, Sweden), women attribute substantially more importance to benevolence and universalism values than men do. In more patriarchal cultures, sex differences in benevolence and universalism and much smaller. The authors of the values study speculate that increased independence and equality of women in the labor force may encourage women to express their “inherent” values rather than to accommodate their values to those of their husbands. Maybe. What is clear is that if sex differences are assumed to result from gender role socialization, it is extremely odd for the largest sex differences to be found in Scandinavian cultures and the smallest in more patriarchal cultures. Yet, we also find this with studies of tested cognitive ability and even physical traits... Del Guidice et al. (2012) examined sex differences in personality using Cattell’s 16 factor model of personality traits, finding an overall multivariate D of 2.71 for the personality domain. This is huge difference, with less than 10% overlap in men’s and women’s personalities"
Women are indeed more emotional than men: it's not just, as some would have it, that they are socialised into displaying their emotions more
Women Want Short-Term Mates, Too? - "It seems just about every year a new group of researchers asserts they have “debunked” some basic tenet of evolutionary psychology. A recurring claim is evolutionary explanations of human sex differences must be wrong if researchers are able to show women are at all interested in short-term mating, particularly when they seem just as interested as men are (Schacht & Mulder, 2015). In truth, finding women are acutely interested in short-term mating is entirely unsurprising to evolutionary psychologists. In fact, they have been predicting and confirming women’s short-term mating tendencies for decades... That women possess highly evolved short-term mating strategies has been a foundational feature of evolutionary psychology since the early 1990s (Buss & Schmitt, 1993*; Kenrick et al., 1990), and several programs of research, many supported by literally dozens of studies, strongly support this assertion. Historically, evolutionary psychologists were among the first psychologists to treat women’s short-term mating as an adaptive reproductive strategy (most other psychologists did, and still do, treat short-term mating as entirely dysfunctional or pathological, a failure to "bond" with your one true love; I call it the Disney-fication of women’s sexuality by majority of sex researchers who follow the Standard Social Science Model)... when pursuing a short-term mating strategy, women tend to desire high quality over high quantity (Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008). In contrast, men tend to be less insistent on high quality when short-term mating... it is not that women are never willing to have sex with strangers. He's got to be pretty good-looking, though... Men have higher general sex drive than women across almost all measures and all studied cultures, with a culture’s size of sex differences in sex drive being unrelated to sociopolitical gender equity... sex differences in casual sex desires typically vary from medium to large across cultures, the differences almost never completely disappear."
India has a public masturbation problem—and no real solutions
When in India, do what the Indians do
Why many rape victims don’t fight or yell - "One such response is tonic immobility. In freezing, brain and body are primed for action. But in tonic immobility, the body is literally paralyzed by fear – unable to move, speak, or cry out. The body goes rigid. Hands may go numb."
10 ways you might be breaking the law with your computer - "In January 2007, a substitute teacher in Norwich, CT, was convicted of four felony pornography charges, although she claimed the offending pictures were the result of pop-ups and that she did not knowingly access the Web sites in question. The conviction was set aside after forensics and security experts examined her hard drive and found the school's antivirus software was out of date and the computer had no anti-spyware, firewall, or pop-up blocking technology. The teacher ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge... In another 2007 case, a 16-year-old was charged with possession of child pornography and got 18 months probation and over a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees, even though he passed polygraph tests in which he denied knowledge of the images and an examination of the hard drive found more than 200 infected files and no firewall."
Michigan man arrested for using cafe’s free WiFi from his car - "This is not the first time someone has been arrested for piggybacking on a WiFi connection. In 2005, a Florida man was arrested and hit with a third-degree felony for surfing an open WiFi network from his SUV. Similarly, an Illinois man was arrested in 2006 for, again, using an unsecured WiFi network from his car. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was given one year's court supervision and a $250 fine. A Washington man was also arrested in 2006 for parking outside of a coffee shop and using the open WiFi connection without purchasing anything. And just earlier this year, an Alaska man was arrested for using the WiFi network from the public library after hours to play games from—you guessed it—his car in the parking lot"
New Zealand is making trolling illegal - BBC Newsbeat - "- Incite or encourage another individual to commit suicide.
- Denigrate an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
Digital communication should not:"
So now you can't campaign for euthanasia or make fun of cults in New Zealand?
YourClassical from American Public Media - "For many years, Corigliano’s father was the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Corigliano Junior recalls: “He did everything he could to discourage me. He knew firsthand that the composer was the lowest man in the musical hierarchy. ‘Performers don’t want to bother with your work, and audiences don’t want to hear it. So what are doing it for?’ he would say.”"
Post ID: 184675226693892728
Tim Hunt & UCL
'Sexist' Scientist Tim Hunt: The Real Story
"It turns out that, just as Hunt has claimed, the 72-year-old scientist’s comments during a luncheon at a science journalism conference in Korea in June were an awkward self-deprecating joke—greeted with laughter (not the reported "stony silence") by a mostly female audience.
The "Tim Hunt, misogynist scientist” narrative has been falling apart piece by piece over the past month; last week, it was finished off by a snippet of audio recorded by a female attendee and made public by The Times. Attention should now tturn to the real scandal: irresponsible journalism magnified by social media frenzy...
[The] narrative took a major hit on June 24 when The Times obtained information that a European Commission report on the conference, based on the notes of a European Union official who attended the luncheon, gave a very different account of what happened...
A follow-up article revealed that the EU official also said Hunt’s remarks were well-received, contradicting his accusers’ claims of an uncomfortable silence (or even a "deathly silence," as St. Louis told BBC Radio 4), and that one of the luncheon’s organizers, a woman from the Korean National Research Council of Science and Technology, told him "she was impressed that Sir Tim could improvise such a warm and funny speech."
In the days that followed, this account was corroborated by several people who attended the luncheon. One of them, Russian science journalist Natalia Demina, had challenged the accusations against Hunt from the very start on Twitter. Another, Malaysian science journalist Shiow Chin Tan, provided a new detail: she told The Times that after his facetious comments about segregating the sexes, Hunt added that "men would be worse off for it." While St. Louis has continued to insist that Hunt did not say "now seriously" or praise women in science, Blum has acknowledged that the purported transcript had "some of the right elements" and was a "polished version" of Hunt’s "somewhat fumbling actual talk."...
British newspaper columnist and politician Louise Mensch, one of Hunt’s staunchest advocates, makes a strong case that his comments were misleadingly edited to obscure the fact that he was not referring to women scientists in general but to his own personal experience with romance in the lab and the resulting "emotional entanglements." (He met his wife in the laboratory while she was married to another man.) It's plausible that he said something similar to Blum the day after the luncheon; Kathryn O’Hara, the photographer who took their photo during that conversation, confirmed to me that she recalls Hunt saying he was trying to be honest about his own experiences.
Regardless, the new revelations turned the tide. By mid-July, Paul Nurse, the head of Britain’s chief scientific body, the Royal Society, defended Hunt on BBC radio and in a letter to The Telegraph and blamed the fiasco on "a Twitter and media storm." The Guardian ran a semi-apology for its tendentious coverage. A scathing Times editorial blasted the "betrayal" of Hunt...
But it still wasn’t quite over. On July 18, The Times published a new bombshell: a 12-second recording of the final moments of Hunt’s remarks that Demina had discovered among her materials from the conference and turned over to the newspaper with Mensch’s help. In the audio, Hunt says, "Congratulations, everybody, because I hope—I hope—I really hope that there won’t be anything holding you back, especially not monsters like me." There is a hearty laugh from the audience, followed by the start of applause before the recording breaks off.
The recording clearly dovetails with the EU official’s notes provided to the European Commission. One can also see how, in St. Louis’s retelling, Hunt’s final line would turn into "he doesn’t want to stand in the way of women." But in her version, the comment sounds insufferably patronizing, a pat on the head that compounds the earlier insult; in the audio, Hunt sounds warm, gracious, genuinely supportive and self-deprecating, not mocking toward women. In other words, this is a resounding vindication for Hunt—one that, unfortunately, may not undo the damage...
Hunt said that the worst blow was being forced to resign from the science committee of the European Research Council, to which he had devoted years of effort. More recently, Hunt’s invitation to speak at a conference of the Italian Society of Anatomy and Histology in Ferrara was withdrawn as a precautionary measure, apparently due to threats of disruption from activists.
This is particularly shameful given that Hunt is not only a great scientist but, by many accounts, a genuine friend to women in science...
In her latest blogpost on the Hunt scandal, Mensch catalogues numerous misleading, contradictory, and self-contradictory statements by Hunt’s accusers, suggesting that they have been knowingly dishonest...
No one bothered to ask how plausible it was that a scientist who had worked with women and was married to a prominent female scientist actually believed women should be relegated to their own all-girl labs—and would stand up and say that to a roomful of female scientists and journalists. The "sexist scientist" narrative was too good. As Guardian commentator Ann Perkins wrote with open glee, "The mask has not so much slipped as crashed to the floor. … Here at last is someone who has come out with it. Women at work are a nuisance." Jarringly, Perkins called this "a moment to savor"—not, as some thought, because of Hunt’s humiliation, but because he had supposedly laid bare the pervasive hidden misogyny women face.
In a more recent Forbes column, science writer David Kroll wrote about a European Research Council grant recipient, Debra Laefer of University College Dublin, who presented her pioneering research on architectural restoration techniques at a session Hunt chaired at the Seoul conference. Kroll expressed regret that the Hunt scandal overshadowed Laefer’s remarkable work. A shame, indeed. That’s what happens when the feminist mainstream is less interested in celebrating real female achievement than in railing against imaginary male chauvinism."
In offence culture, (deliberately twisted) words are more important than actions.
Author drops UCL from £1m will over Sir Tim Hunt's treatment - Telegraph - "Jeremy Hornsby, 79, an author and journalist, has now cut his alma mater out of his £1 million legacy. Mr Hornsby had planned to leave each of the two establishments that educated him – Winchester College and UCL – a tenth of his estate as a sign of his gratitude. He will now write UCL out of his will leaving it about £100,000 worse off. Mr Hornsby wrote to Prof Michael Arthur, UCL’s provost, warning him of his intention to cut off UCL. His threat became a reality after the provost failed to even acknowledge his letter. In his letter, Mr Hornsby explained that his exasperation with UCL over its seemingly soft stance on Islamist extremists, including the allegation that the so-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had become radicalised there during his studies, had been compounded by the Tim Hunt debacle"
New freedom of expression row at university that forced out scientist over sexist remarks - Telegraph - "further allegations have emerged after UCL shut down an exhibition highlighting the problems of sexual harassment and sexual violence suffered by its female students. The two incidents have led to fears that UCL is more concerned about protecting its own reputation than allowing freedom of expression... Sir Andre Geim, of the University of Manchester, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 2010, said: The saddest part is probably the reaction by the UCL top brass who forced Tim to resign. So much for the freedom of expression by the very people who should be guardians of academic freedom.”"
Reversing the bandwagon that ran over Tim Hunt | Letters | Science | The Guardian - "All sense of fairness is forgotten in order to get on the bandwagon of a story – and the Guardian is not without blame. To make things more balanced, please would you publish not just the names of the organisations Tim has been asked to leave but the names of the self-righteous individuals who demanded that he leave?"
"It was not so long ago that the western world went to the wall to defend Charlie Hebdo’s “right to offend”, but it appears that neither our principles nor our resilience extend to tolerating the unfortunate remarks by Prof Tim Hunt, who must lose his position for a thoughtless aside. Our hypocrisy knows no bounds."
"“misogyny” means “hatred of women”, as might be exemplified by serial murderers, rapists or other disturbed male individuals. I suggest that you update the Guardian style guide as necessary. I doubt very much that Sir Tim Hunt, distinguished Nobel laureate and research scientist, who is married long-term to a professor of immunology whom he fell for while she was working in his lab, “hates” women at all – quite the converse."
"Upset female scientists, lose your job; talk about damaging poor people’s brains, raise a polite laugh. Class prejudice does not appear to attract the same moral outrage as sexism, even where the consequences are far more severe."
"as a woman I would like to know what came before and after these three sentences in his lecture"
"those comments were initially made at an obscure conference, and thus could hardly have had much of a negative effect on the general perception of women in science if they had not been picked up and broadcasted so widely... highly publicised witch-hunts like this one significantly compound the problem, because they make it inevitable that when a male scientist interacts with a female colleague, he cannot help but have in mind that any poorly judged comment might one day be used against him. A male scientist may well think twice about taking a female PhD student if he knows that a single complaint from her could ruin his entire career, and can we really blame him? Thus the furore over Prof Hunt’s comments can only make women feel more unwelcome in science and further decrease our employment prospects – precisely the opposite effect to what its originators presumably intended... there is something deeply wrong about the way science is regarded and reported on in our society when people know more and care more about a single offhand comment than a career of excellence and a Nobel prize"
"It turns out that, just as Hunt has claimed, the 72-year-old scientist’s comments during a luncheon at a science journalism conference in Korea in June were an awkward self-deprecating joke—greeted with laughter (not the reported "stony silence") by a mostly female audience.
The "Tim Hunt, misogynist scientist” narrative has been falling apart piece by piece over the past month; last week, it was finished off by a snippet of audio recorded by a female attendee and made public by The Times. Attention should now tturn to the real scandal: irresponsible journalism magnified by social media frenzy...
[The] narrative took a major hit on June 24 when The Times obtained information that a European Commission report on the conference, based on the notes of a European Union official who attended the luncheon, gave a very different account of what happened...
A follow-up article revealed that the EU official also said Hunt’s remarks were well-received, contradicting his accusers’ claims of an uncomfortable silence (or even a "deathly silence," as St. Louis told BBC Radio 4), and that one of the luncheon’s organizers, a woman from the Korean National Research Council of Science and Technology, told him "she was impressed that Sir Tim could improvise such a warm and funny speech."
In the days that followed, this account was corroborated by several people who attended the luncheon. One of them, Russian science journalist Natalia Demina, had challenged the accusations against Hunt from the very start on Twitter. Another, Malaysian science journalist Shiow Chin Tan, provided a new detail: she told The Times that after his facetious comments about segregating the sexes, Hunt added that "men would be worse off for it." While St. Louis has continued to insist that Hunt did not say "now seriously" or praise women in science, Blum has acknowledged that the purported transcript had "some of the right elements" and was a "polished version" of Hunt’s "somewhat fumbling actual talk."...
British newspaper columnist and politician Louise Mensch, one of Hunt’s staunchest advocates, makes a strong case that his comments were misleadingly edited to obscure the fact that he was not referring to women scientists in general but to his own personal experience with romance in the lab and the resulting "emotional entanglements." (He met his wife in the laboratory while she was married to another man.) It's plausible that he said something similar to Blum the day after the luncheon; Kathryn O’Hara, the photographer who took their photo during that conversation, confirmed to me that she recalls Hunt saying he was trying to be honest about his own experiences.
Regardless, the new revelations turned the tide. By mid-July, Paul Nurse, the head of Britain’s chief scientific body, the Royal Society, defended Hunt on BBC radio and in a letter to The Telegraph and blamed the fiasco on "a Twitter and media storm." The Guardian ran a semi-apology for its tendentious coverage. A scathing Times editorial blasted the "betrayal" of Hunt...
But it still wasn’t quite over. On July 18, The Times published a new bombshell: a 12-second recording of the final moments of Hunt’s remarks that Demina had discovered among her materials from the conference and turned over to the newspaper with Mensch’s help. In the audio, Hunt says, "Congratulations, everybody, because I hope—I hope—I really hope that there won’t be anything holding you back, especially not monsters like me." There is a hearty laugh from the audience, followed by the start of applause before the recording breaks off.
The recording clearly dovetails with the EU official’s notes provided to the European Commission. One can also see how, in St. Louis’s retelling, Hunt’s final line would turn into "he doesn’t want to stand in the way of women." But in her version, the comment sounds insufferably patronizing, a pat on the head that compounds the earlier insult; in the audio, Hunt sounds warm, gracious, genuinely supportive and self-deprecating, not mocking toward women. In other words, this is a resounding vindication for Hunt—one that, unfortunately, may not undo the damage...
Hunt said that the worst blow was being forced to resign from the science committee of the European Research Council, to which he had devoted years of effort. More recently, Hunt’s invitation to speak at a conference of the Italian Society of Anatomy and Histology in Ferrara was withdrawn as a precautionary measure, apparently due to threats of disruption from activists.
This is particularly shameful given that Hunt is not only a great scientist but, by many accounts, a genuine friend to women in science...
In her latest blogpost on the Hunt scandal, Mensch catalogues numerous misleading, contradictory, and self-contradictory statements by Hunt’s accusers, suggesting that they have been knowingly dishonest...
No one bothered to ask how plausible it was that a scientist who had worked with women and was married to a prominent female scientist actually believed women should be relegated to their own all-girl labs—and would stand up and say that to a roomful of female scientists and journalists. The "sexist scientist" narrative was too good. As Guardian commentator Ann Perkins wrote with open glee, "The mask has not so much slipped as crashed to the floor. … Here at last is someone who has come out with it. Women at work are a nuisance." Jarringly, Perkins called this "a moment to savor"—not, as some thought, because of Hunt’s humiliation, but because he had supposedly laid bare the pervasive hidden misogyny women face.
In a more recent Forbes column, science writer David Kroll wrote about a European Research Council grant recipient, Debra Laefer of University College Dublin, who presented her pioneering research on architectural restoration techniques at a session Hunt chaired at the Seoul conference. Kroll expressed regret that the Hunt scandal overshadowed Laefer’s remarkable work. A shame, indeed. That’s what happens when the feminist mainstream is less interested in celebrating real female achievement than in railing against imaginary male chauvinism."
In offence culture, (deliberately twisted) words are more important than actions.
Author drops UCL from £1m will over Sir Tim Hunt's treatment - Telegraph - "Jeremy Hornsby, 79, an author and journalist, has now cut his alma mater out of his £1 million legacy. Mr Hornsby had planned to leave each of the two establishments that educated him – Winchester College and UCL – a tenth of his estate as a sign of his gratitude. He will now write UCL out of his will leaving it about £100,000 worse off. Mr Hornsby wrote to Prof Michael Arthur, UCL’s provost, warning him of his intention to cut off UCL. His threat became a reality after the provost failed to even acknowledge his letter. In his letter, Mr Hornsby explained that his exasperation with UCL over its seemingly soft stance on Islamist extremists, including the allegation that the so-called “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had become radicalised there during his studies, had been compounded by the Tim Hunt debacle"
New freedom of expression row at university that forced out scientist over sexist remarks - Telegraph - "further allegations have emerged after UCL shut down an exhibition highlighting the problems of sexual harassment and sexual violence suffered by its female students. The two incidents have led to fears that UCL is more concerned about protecting its own reputation than allowing freedom of expression... Sir Andre Geim, of the University of Manchester, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 2010, said: The saddest part is probably the reaction by the UCL top brass who forced Tim to resign. So much for the freedom of expression by the very people who should be guardians of academic freedom.”"
Reversing the bandwagon that ran over Tim Hunt | Letters | Science | The Guardian - "All sense of fairness is forgotten in order to get on the bandwagon of a story – and the Guardian is not without blame. To make things more balanced, please would you publish not just the names of the organisations Tim has been asked to leave but the names of the self-righteous individuals who demanded that he leave?"
"It was not so long ago that the western world went to the wall to defend Charlie Hebdo’s “right to offend”, but it appears that neither our principles nor our resilience extend to tolerating the unfortunate remarks by Prof Tim Hunt, who must lose his position for a thoughtless aside. Our hypocrisy knows no bounds."
"“misogyny” means “hatred of women”, as might be exemplified by serial murderers, rapists or other disturbed male individuals. I suggest that you update the Guardian style guide as necessary. I doubt very much that Sir Tim Hunt, distinguished Nobel laureate and research scientist, who is married long-term to a professor of immunology whom he fell for while she was working in his lab, “hates” women at all – quite the converse."
"Upset female scientists, lose your job; talk about damaging poor people’s brains, raise a polite laugh. Class prejudice does not appear to attract the same moral outrage as sexism, even where the consequences are far more severe."
"as a woman I would like to know what came before and after these three sentences in his lecture"
"those comments were initially made at an obscure conference, and thus could hardly have had much of a negative effect on the general perception of women in science if they had not been picked up and broadcasted so widely... highly publicised witch-hunts like this one significantly compound the problem, because they make it inevitable that when a male scientist interacts with a female colleague, he cannot help but have in mind that any poorly judged comment might one day be used against him. A male scientist may well think twice about taking a female PhD student if he knows that a single complaint from her could ruin his entire career, and can we really blame him? Thus the furore over Prof Hunt’s comments can only make women feel more unwelcome in science and further decrease our employment prospects – precisely the opposite effect to what its originators presumably intended... there is something deeply wrong about the way science is regarded and reported on in our society when people know more and care more about a single offhand comment than a career of excellence and a Nobel prize"
Post ID: 7867665450370379287
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Diego Rivera and Women
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Frida Kahlo
Patience Schell, Chair in Hispanic Studies at the University of Abderdeen on Diego Rivera:
"He was a massive man.
He was big, he had a big belly, and he had bulging eyes and even he admitted that he looked a bit like a toad.
Now he might not seem like someone who would be appealing to women but in fact he was. By the time he and Frida got married he had already had many affairs. He was a total womanizer throughout his life and he had a habit of leaving the women who bore him children.
He'd done that three times by the time he and Frida got married.
He'd spent a decade in Europe, mostly Paris, as part of the art scene, making friends with and then falling out with Picasso"
Patience Schell, Chair in Hispanic Studies at the University of Abderdeen on Diego Rivera:
"He was a massive man.
He was big, he had a big belly, and he had bulging eyes and even he admitted that he looked a bit like a toad.
Now he might not seem like someone who would be appealing to women but in fact he was. By the time he and Frida got married he had already had many affairs. He was a total womanizer throughout his life and he had a habit of leaving the women who bore him children.
He'd done that three times by the time he and Frida got married.
He'd spent a decade in Europe, mostly Paris, as part of the art scene, making friends with and then falling out with Picasso"
Post ID: 2563079368413033135
Friday, July 24, 2015
Headscarfs in the Arab World
BBC World Service - The World This Week, Iran's Nuclear Deal Boosts its Spending Power:
Ranja Sabri (sp?) of BBC Arabic:
"I was recently sitting in the Avenue Habibo Theba (sp?), the main street in Tunis, watching people fight back anxiety after the attacks on tourists on a beach that would surely paralyze tourism, their main source of foreign currency.
After a few moments, I realised that rather than wondering about the future, I was actually staring at Tunisian women, dressed in clothes that were more revealing than what women wear where I come from in Cairo. But it wasn't only the clothes that caught my eye. It was the bright colours and the confidence with which they carried themselves.
I'm not a conservative by any means, so catching myself in this act confused me. Until I discovered that I'm no longer used to seeing women who are prettily dressed. If you had been living in Cairo for the past 40 years, you'd have been a witness to the changing women's taste in clothing.
They cover themselves in swathes of fabric in line with the rising sense of religiosity. The intention is to appear less sexually attractive. The area of what is permissible for females in Cairo in terms of clothes or actions has been shrinking over the years.
Images of university students in the last century in Egypt show no veiled women or women wearing headscarfs until the late 80s.
Moving into the 90s, younger women covering their hair in colleges were a minority. And they would have been bought (sic) up either in the Gulf countries or in the countryside.
To get a sense of how things are today I'm the only female in my entire family who does not cover her hair. Women without headscarves are a minority, not just in my family, but in the entire country.
Harassment and looks of contempt from men and women on the streets make life for unveiled females difficult. Some of my friends have told me they have begun wearing the headscarf as a relief.
I don't have to worry about my bare head in the areas I dwell in in the capital Cairo, but had I been living in poor or rural areas, I wouldn't have had the courage to stay bareheaded.
In Egypt many women saw the freedoms offered by the Arab Spring as a chance to put aside their veils and headscarves, but some wouldn't dream of doing so.
Shireen Wahabba (sp?), a university professor, sees the veil as a integral part of who she is.
"It makes me very sad to see a friend of mine take off her veil. It is as if she had made a deal with Allah, then went back on it", she tells me. She says she would love her daughter to take up the veil, but will wait until she decides for herself, noting that not many of her peers are.
The Arab Spring bought (sic) with it wider discussion on whether society had the right to dictate what women should wear. For instance, recently a young woman published a post on Facebook asking young women what they would like to do if religious issues were put aside.
More than a thousand responded. It might have been a small sample but it told a sad story. Most wanted to wear dresses and feel the wind in their hair. A few wanted to let go of the colours favoured by religious conservatives: black, blue , brown and beige, and wear red or yellow for a change.
The post attracted criticism from people who accused the young woman of destabilising social norms and creating havoc.
Eventually, she felt forced to remove it.
Such tensions were sensed recently in Morocco where two young women were sent to court accused of violating the public dress code when they chose to wear skirts which were shorter than usual. The women were eventually acquitted after a series of protests in which women in headscarfs participated because they believed a woman should have the right to choose how she dresses.
The Arab Spring was an attempt by people across the Middle East to overthrow oppressive dictatorships, but it also revealed some of the differences and contradictions at the heart of our societies, including over what women should wear.
Some of us will continue to fight to be pretty, even if the Old Guard doesn't like it"
Ranja Sabri (sp?) of BBC Arabic:
"I was recently sitting in the Avenue Habibo Theba (sp?), the main street in Tunis, watching people fight back anxiety after the attacks on tourists on a beach that would surely paralyze tourism, their main source of foreign currency.
After a few moments, I realised that rather than wondering about the future, I was actually staring at Tunisian women, dressed in clothes that were more revealing than what women wear where I come from in Cairo. But it wasn't only the clothes that caught my eye. It was the bright colours and the confidence with which they carried themselves.
I'm not a conservative by any means, so catching myself in this act confused me. Until I discovered that I'm no longer used to seeing women who are prettily dressed. If you had been living in Cairo for the past 40 years, you'd have been a witness to the changing women's taste in clothing.
They cover themselves in swathes of fabric in line with the rising sense of religiosity. The intention is to appear less sexually attractive. The area of what is permissible for females in Cairo in terms of clothes or actions has been shrinking over the years.
Images of university students in the last century in Egypt show no veiled women or women wearing headscarfs until the late 80s.
Moving into the 90s, younger women covering their hair in colleges were a minority. And they would have been bought (sic) up either in the Gulf countries or in the countryside.
To get a sense of how things are today I'm the only female in my entire family who does not cover her hair. Women without headscarves are a minority, not just in my family, but in the entire country.
Harassment and looks of contempt from men and women on the streets make life for unveiled females difficult. Some of my friends have told me they have begun wearing the headscarf as a relief.
I don't have to worry about my bare head in the areas I dwell in in the capital Cairo, but had I been living in poor or rural areas, I wouldn't have had the courage to stay bareheaded.
In Egypt many women saw the freedoms offered by the Arab Spring as a chance to put aside their veils and headscarves, but some wouldn't dream of doing so.
Shireen Wahabba (sp?), a university professor, sees the veil as a integral part of who she is.
"It makes me very sad to see a friend of mine take off her veil. It is as if she had made a deal with Allah, then went back on it", she tells me. She says she would love her daughter to take up the veil, but will wait until she decides for herself, noting that not many of her peers are.
The Arab Spring bought (sic) with it wider discussion on whether society had the right to dictate what women should wear. For instance, recently a young woman published a post on Facebook asking young women what they would like to do if religious issues were put aside.
More than a thousand responded. It might have been a small sample but it told a sad story. Most wanted to wear dresses and feel the wind in their hair. A few wanted to let go of the colours favoured by religious conservatives: black, blue , brown and beige, and wear red or yellow for a change.
The post attracted criticism from people who accused the young woman of destabilising social norms and creating havoc.
Eventually, she felt forced to remove it.
Such tensions were sensed recently in Morocco where two young women were sent to court accused of violating the public dress code when they chose to wear skirts which were shorter than usual. The women were eventually acquitted after a series of protests in which women in headscarfs participated because they believed a woman should have the right to choose how she dresses.
The Arab Spring was an attempt by people across the Middle East to overthrow oppressive dictatorships, but it also revealed some of the differences and contradictions at the heart of our societies, including over what women should wear.
Some of us will continue to fight to be pretty, even if the Old Guard doesn't like it"
Post ID: 4433539933290207370
Spitefulness in Togo
BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Shaping a New World Order:
"Agram (sp?) sees his current poverty as a punishment.
Sometimes he spots the boys - now grown men - whom he trafficked.
One sometimes brings him gifts of clothes or food, a Togolese way of saying, "You did me harm, now see how successful I am despite you"
This, too, Agram considers a punishment."
"Agram (sp?) sees his current poverty as a punishment.
Sometimes he spots the boys - now grown men - whom he trafficked.
One sometimes brings him gifts of clothes or food, a Togolese way of saying, "You did me harm, now see how successful I am despite you"
This, too, Agram considers a punishment."
Post ID: 2990372677748397645
The Evolution of English
BBC Radio 4 - Today, 20/07/2015, 'It’s definitely not laziness!':
On "the distinctive Scottish rolling "R" being lost as younger Scots no longer pronounce the letter as forcefully":
Host: Is there anything we could or should do about it?
Eleanor Lawson, sociolinguist at Queen Margaret University: I don't think there's anything we should do about it.
Language changes all the time.
In Anglo-English, R began to disappear from about 1700 and originally it was a working class London feature and it was heavily stigmatized.
And today most Anglo-English speakers don't produce R at the end of words and it's completely acceptable.
On "the distinctive Scottish rolling "R" being lost as younger Scots no longer pronounce the letter as forcefully":
Host: Is there anything we could or should do about it?
Eleanor Lawson, sociolinguist at Queen Margaret University: I don't think there's anything we should do about it.
Language changes all the time.
In Anglo-English, R began to disappear from about 1700 and originally it was a working class London feature and it was heavily stigmatized.
And today most Anglo-English speakers don't produce R at the end of words and it's completely acceptable.
Post ID: 5902270504011263778
Thursday, July 23, 2015
What Gives You Voting Rights
History According to Bob, Articles of Confederation Era:
On the Aftermath of the American Revolution and the Articles of Confederation:
"There's going to be a requirement that in order to vote, you have to either pay taxes or you have to own property... [there's] a belief that you need to have something at risk in order to be of value"
On the Aftermath of the American Revolution and the Articles of Confederation:
"There's going to be a requirement that in order to vote, you have to either pay taxes or you have to own property... [there's] a belief that you need to have something at risk in order to be of value"
Post ID: 8118893543210124164
Links - 23rd July 2015
Capons: Are Chickens Without Their Testes a Forgotten Delicacy or Disturbing Luxury? - "hormonal changes caused by caponization allow more fat to build up both below the skin and within muscle, capons come with the promise of a substantial amount of buttery, tender meat. So why are they gone? It comes down to fact that the method to make a capon a capon is still the same as it was when Beuoys wrote – a process that may be an unfairly forgotten piece of agriculture, or simply a means to a somewhat disturbing luxury good... farming capons depends upon a highly-trained, well-paid specialists — not the sort of assembly-line labor and mechanization on which the modern poultry industry runs. When Keough graduated from high school in the 1960’s, he could charge $75 an hour for his services, he says. “If I did it now, I might get rich,” he adds, wistfully. “But I spent it all. Girls…”... The flavor was unusually rich and complex, distinct from any chicken or turkey I’d had before, and the texture both moist and firm. After years of bland chickens and dried-out holiday turkeys, a taste of capon made me wish George Beuoy’s vision of the Capon of Tomorrow had come to pass."
White lady gets naked with african natives - YouTube
Comments: "I respect the hell out of white people. I do not care what anyone says. White people are very spiritual and very curious about everything. We blacks would probably be too embarrassed to take off our clothes in front of the cameras, but white people are willing to try to fit in to learn things."
"I find white tit censorship a bit racialist, ain't it?"
Include having kids in defining success in life - "I Love Children (ILC) could not agree more with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's views on Singapore's key challenges in the next 50 years at the Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia lecture, organised by the Singapore Management University ("PM paints stark reality of challenges in 3 critical areas"; last Wednesday)."
Naturally this pissed some people off. No matter how you define success, someone will be excluded. And if everyone is successful, what does success even mean?
Online boast of not paying S&CC, police refers case to MND - "On 30 March, a resident who apparently lives in Aljunied GRC posted online that he owes the town council of his estate “4+ months” worth of service and conservancy charges. Mr KY Seetoh [posted] on a pro-People’s Action Party (PAP) Facebook page... It is against the law to refuse to pay one’s bills, including service and conservancy charges... He had also apparently posted some rather vulgar and obscene comments about activist Han Hui Hui in the past."
Moscow Takes Ukraine, Beijing Takes Mongolia? - "But now that Putin has opened up Pandora’s Box, what if China decided to annex territory it had long lost? Mongolia is one such large area of territory, ruled by the Manchurians during the Qing Dynasty. Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongols established the Temporary Government of Khalkha in November 1911, and in December, Mongolia declared independence from the Qing Dynasty, ending 220 years of Manchurian rule. Eventually Mongolia came under Soviet influence, becoming a Soviet satellite newly proclaimed as the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924. When the Soviet Union threatened to further seize parts of Inner Mongolia from China in 1945, China chose to set aside its claims and back a referendum on Outer Mongolia’s independence. The referendum, which took place in October 1945, resulted in 100 percent of the electorate voting for independence."
Why doesn't China unilaterally declare Mongolia part of China and invade?
China claims territories of 23 countries, but only has borders with 14 - "The total area of China’s claims on other countries exceeds the size of modern China itself, but Beijing refuses to budge on its claims. Many are based on unsubstantiated (outside China) and unprecedented “historical precedents” dating back centuries."
The woman who has failed her driving test 771 times - "The office estimates she has spent more than 4 million won £1,600 in exam fees."
Working hours: Get a life | The Economist - "it seems that more productive—and, consequently, better-paid—workers put in less time at the office. The graph below shows the relationship between productivity (GDP per hour worked) and annual working hours. The Greeks are some of the most hardworking in the OECD, putting in over 2,000 hours a year on average. Germans, on the other hand, are comparative slackers, working about 1,400 hours each year. But German productivity is about 70% higher."
In Singapore, "Productivity" doesn't mean productivity, but total output
Choose your cutlery carefully: what you eat with changes how food tastes - "id you know, for example, that foods taste blander in noisy environments? Or that we perceive sweet popcorn as saltier if we eat it from a colored bowl? Or that the weight of the dish food is served in can alter how tasty and expensive we think it is?"
Warning: this article could radically alter the way you eat - "If we are given heavy cutlery, we will enjoy food more (for example, yoghurt will be perceived as creamier), think it is of higher quality and be willing to part with more cash for it. Even sounds in restaurants can up the takings: classical music makes diners come over all discerning and choose the most expensive menu options, while loud music increases soft drink sales... red plates are the path to reduced food intake. They think it’s something to do with there being less contrast between the food and plate. Blue lighting has also been shown to discourage overeating. You could argue that these tactics are akin to covering your food in unpalatable amounts of salt. Who wants a plate full of unappetising food? We eat 35% more when with one other person, 75% more with three others and twice as much when there are seven or more diners. Variety also encourages overeating. A bowl of mixed M&Ms will go down quicker than a bowl of just one colour... Spence easily tricked wine experts into reviewing a white wine with red food colouring as a red wine. Adding insult to injury, the 54-strong panel had already reviewed the wine in its original white form, using white-wine terms such as honey, lemon, lychee and straw (whereas the red version evoked chicory, coal, prune, chocolate and tobacco)."
On the psychological impact of food colour - "Expertise has been shown to modulate the psychological impact of food colouring on flavour perception. Some of the most impressive studies have come from the world of wine... Parr et al. conducted a follow-up in New Zealand in which they tested both experts (including professional wine taster and wine makers) and ‘social’ drinkers. The descriptions of the aroma of a Chardonnay wine given by the experts when it had been artificially coloured red were more accurate when the wine was served in an opaque glass than when served in a clear glass. Interestingly, this colour-induced biasing of flavour judgments occurred despite the fact that the experts had been explicitly instructed to rate each of the wines that they had been given to taste while ignoring any colour cues. Such results therefore suggest that the crossmodal effect of vision is not under cognitive control. Ironically, the social drinkers in Parr et al.’s study turned out to be so bad at reliably identifying the aromas present in the wine that it was difficult to discern any pattern in the data when an inappropriate wine colour was added. "
Melody on the menu: how a sprinkle of Mozart might give your meal zing - "“We have found that people can experience 15% more pleasure if music matches the wine,” he said. “It is an exciting area: how soundscapes come together with taste to make the whole experience more enjoyable … It’s a kind of digital seasoning”... Spence is confident of his findings and cites a study in which Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No 1 in D Major turned out to be a very good match for Château Margaux 2004. Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D Major, meanwhile, was found to be the ideal adornment for Pouilly-Fumé –with drinkers enjoying their wine more when “paired” music was played more than in periods of silence... “We tested the four best wine experts in the Alicante region and fooled them all by colouring white wine red,” says Spence. “As experts, they are more likely to be fooled because the colour gives them expectations – of what they know about that colour. Likewise, chefs are more likely to be fooled than ordinary people by changing the sound of food because they use sound to judge freshness more than ordinary people do.”"
Why we’re so scared of GMOs, according to someone who has studied them since the start - "When Chipotle announced earlier this year that it would no longer serve food made with genetically modified organisms due to safety concerns, customers rejoiced. But there was one big problem: Just as more Americans grow wary of GMOs, the scientific community is moving in the opposite direction. There is now near unanimity among scientists that GMOs are safe to eat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association have all said that GMOs are fine for consumption... it’s not necessarily that people have a strong, innate aversion to GMOs, per se, so much as that they have a negative reaction to something that seems like an additive or unusual... We actually tested this with a label on apples that said “this label is ripened using ethylene,” which is a very commonly used and safe process. But people were as averse to those apples as they were to GMOs, simply because they didn’t know what ethylene was... I have seen salt labeled as non-GMO, when salt, by definition, cannot be genetically modified, since it’s a mineral and doesn’t contain DNA... people might also just realize that most of the cheese they eat is made with enzymes that are genetically engineered. Diabetics, after all, use insulin that is made from a genetically engineered bacteria or yeast... people are less likely to believe in GMO crops if they’re made by big companies"
Goodbye Sweden | THE SWEDEN REPORT - "Today, it’s as if the inmates are running the asylum. The politicians are participating in a chicken race of “goodness” where everybody tries to one-up each other in caring for the citizens of OTHER countries while Swedish retirees, school children, handicapped and other vulnerable categories of people are thorougly ignored. Violence is exploding. Jihadist Trojan horses are flowTing through the porous border along with the tens of thousands ID-less refugees. "
Freakonomics » What You Don’t Know About Online Dating: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast - "I wanted to see if there was a lower limit to how awful a person could be before men would stop messaging her on an online dating site... one thing I wanted to make clear is that she’s not just a bad person, she wants to ruin your life. So under the section “what I am really good at” the only thing she lists is “convincing people I’m pregnant”... AaronCarterFan did very well. In the first 24 hours she got 150 messages... AaronCarterFan’s one redeeming quality is that she is very good looking. I asked my friend Rae Johnston, who is an Australian-based model and actress, if I could raid her Facebook photos and she very kindly said yes. And so Aaron Carter fan is stunningly good-looking... Women are in general a little bit more attracted to lawyers, doctors, men in the military and firefighters, which I’d always heard was a stereotype, but apparently it turns out to be at least a little bit true... looks matter a lot, but it turns out that weight doesn’t matter that much independent of looks. So an overweight person who is otherwise medium attractive will do almost as well as a medium attractive person who is not overweight... The Internet has turned matching upside down. It used to be that you would find compatibility first and then learn more about someone else’s attributes. And now you see all the attributes and then you learn about compatibility later. For an economist it’s very seductive to believe that more information makes these things work better"
White lady gets naked with african natives - YouTube
Comments: "I respect the hell out of white people. I do not care what anyone says. White people are very spiritual and very curious about everything. We blacks would probably be too embarrassed to take off our clothes in front of the cameras, but white people are willing to try to fit in to learn things."
"I find white tit censorship a bit racialist, ain't it?"
Include having kids in defining success in life - "I Love Children (ILC) could not agree more with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's views on Singapore's key challenges in the next 50 years at the Ho Rih Hwa Leadership in Asia lecture, organised by the Singapore Management University ("PM paints stark reality of challenges in 3 critical areas"; last Wednesday)."
Naturally this pissed some people off. No matter how you define success, someone will be excluded. And if everyone is successful, what does success even mean?
Online boast of not paying S&CC, police refers case to MND - "On 30 March, a resident who apparently lives in Aljunied GRC posted online that he owes the town council of his estate “4+ months” worth of service and conservancy charges. Mr KY Seetoh [posted] on a pro-People’s Action Party (PAP) Facebook page... It is against the law to refuse to pay one’s bills, including service and conservancy charges... He had also apparently posted some rather vulgar and obscene comments about activist Han Hui Hui in the past."
Moscow Takes Ukraine, Beijing Takes Mongolia? - "But now that Putin has opened up Pandora’s Box, what if China decided to annex territory it had long lost? Mongolia is one such large area of territory, ruled by the Manchurians during the Qing Dynasty. Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongols established the Temporary Government of Khalkha in November 1911, and in December, Mongolia declared independence from the Qing Dynasty, ending 220 years of Manchurian rule. Eventually Mongolia came under Soviet influence, becoming a Soviet satellite newly proclaimed as the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1924. When the Soviet Union threatened to further seize parts of Inner Mongolia from China in 1945, China chose to set aside its claims and back a referendum on Outer Mongolia’s independence. The referendum, which took place in October 1945, resulted in 100 percent of the electorate voting for independence."
Why doesn't China unilaterally declare Mongolia part of China and invade?
China claims territories of 23 countries, but only has borders with 14 - "The total area of China’s claims on other countries exceeds the size of modern China itself, but Beijing refuses to budge on its claims. Many are based on unsubstantiated (outside China) and unprecedented “historical precedents” dating back centuries."
The woman who has failed her driving test 771 times - "The office estimates she has spent more than 4 million won £1,600 in exam fees."
Working hours: Get a life | The Economist - "it seems that more productive—and, consequently, better-paid—workers put in less time at the office. The graph below shows the relationship between productivity (GDP per hour worked) and annual working hours. The Greeks are some of the most hardworking in the OECD, putting in over 2,000 hours a year on average. Germans, on the other hand, are comparative slackers, working about 1,400 hours each year. But German productivity is about 70% higher."
In Singapore, "Productivity" doesn't mean productivity, but total output
Choose your cutlery carefully: what you eat with changes how food tastes - "id you know, for example, that foods taste blander in noisy environments? Or that we perceive sweet popcorn as saltier if we eat it from a colored bowl? Or that the weight of the dish food is served in can alter how tasty and expensive we think it is?"
Warning: this article could radically alter the way you eat - "If we are given heavy cutlery, we will enjoy food more (for example, yoghurt will be perceived as creamier), think it is of higher quality and be willing to part with more cash for it. Even sounds in restaurants can up the takings: classical music makes diners come over all discerning and choose the most expensive menu options, while loud music increases soft drink sales... red plates are the path to reduced food intake. They think it’s something to do with there being less contrast between the food and plate. Blue lighting has also been shown to discourage overeating. You could argue that these tactics are akin to covering your food in unpalatable amounts of salt. Who wants a plate full of unappetising food? We eat 35% more when with one other person, 75% more with three others and twice as much when there are seven or more diners. Variety also encourages overeating. A bowl of mixed M&Ms will go down quicker than a bowl of just one colour... Spence easily tricked wine experts into reviewing a white wine with red food colouring as a red wine. Adding insult to injury, the 54-strong panel had already reviewed the wine in its original white form, using white-wine terms such as honey, lemon, lychee and straw (whereas the red version evoked chicory, coal, prune, chocolate and tobacco)."
On the psychological impact of food colour - "Expertise has been shown to modulate the psychological impact of food colouring on flavour perception. Some of the most impressive studies have come from the world of wine... Parr et al. conducted a follow-up in New Zealand in which they tested both experts (including professional wine taster and wine makers) and ‘social’ drinkers. The descriptions of the aroma of a Chardonnay wine given by the experts when it had been artificially coloured red were more accurate when the wine was served in an opaque glass than when served in a clear glass. Interestingly, this colour-induced biasing of flavour judgments occurred despite the fact that the experts had been explicitly instructed to rate each of the wines that they had been given to taste while ignoring any colour cues. Such results therefore suggest that the crossmodal effect of vision is not under cognitive control. Ironically, the social drinkers in Parr et al.’s study turned out to be so bad at reliably identifying the aromas present in the wine that it was difficult to discern any pattern in the data when an inappropriate wine colour was added. "
Melody on the menu: how a sprinkle of Mozart might give your meal zing - "“We have found that people can experience 15% more pleasure if music matches the wine,” he said. “It is an exciting area: how soundscapes come together with taste to make the whole experience more enjoyable … It’s a kind of digital seasoning”... Spence is confident of his findings and cites a study in which Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No 1 in D Major turned out to be a very good match for Château Margaux 2004. Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D Major, meanwhile, was found to be the ideal adornment for Pouilly-Fumé –with drinkers enjoying their wine more when “paired” music was played more than in periods of silence... “We tested the four best wine experts in the Alicante region and fooled them all by colouring white wine red,” says Spence. “As experts, they are more likely to be fooled because the colour gives them expectations – of what they know about that colour. Likewise, chefs are more likely to be fooled than ordinary people by changing the sound of food because they use sound to judge freshness more than ordinary people do.”"
Why we’re so scared of GMOs, according to someone who has studied them since the start - "When Chipotle announced earlier this year that it would no longer serve food made with genetically modified organisms due to safety concerns, customers rejoiced. But there was one big problem: Just as more Americans grow wary of GMOs, the scientific community is moving in the opposite direction. There is now near unanimity among scientists that GMOs are safe to eat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association have all said that GMOs are fine for consumption... it’s not necessarily that people have a strong, innate aversion to GMOs, per se, so much as that they have a negative reaction to something that seems like an additive or unusual... We actually tested this with a label on apples that said “this label is ripened using ethylene,” which is a very commonly used and safe process. But people were as averse to those apples as they were to GMOs, simply because they didn’t know what ethylene was... I have seen salt labeled as non-GMO, when salt, by definition, cannot be genetically modified, since it’s a mineral and doesn’t contain DNA... people might also just realize that most of the cheese they eat is made with enzymes that are genetically engineered. Diabetics, after all, use insulin that is made from a genetically engineered bacteria or yeast... people are less likely to believe in GMO crops if they’re made by big companies"
Goodbye Sweden | THE SWEDEN REPORT - "Today, it’s as if the inmates are running the asylum. The politicians are participating in a chicken race of “goodness” where everybody tries to one-up each other in caring for the citizens of OTHER countries while Swedish retirees, school children, handicapped and other vulnerable categories of people are thorougly ignored. Violence is exploding. Jihadist Trojan horses are flowTing through the porous border along with the tens of thousands ID-less refugees. "
Freakonomics » What You Don’t Know About Online Dating: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast - "I wanted to see if there was a lower limit to how awful a person could be before men would stop messaging her on an online dating site... one thing I wanted to make clear is that she’s not just a bad person, she wants to ruin your life. So under the section “what I am really good at” the only thing she lists is “convincing people I’m pregnant”... AaronCarterFan did very well. In the first 24 hours she got 150 messages... AaronCarterFan’s one redeeming quality is that she is very good looking. I asked my friend Rae Johnston, who is an Australian-based model and actress, if I could raid her Facebook photos and she very kindly said yes. And so Aaron Carter fan is stunningly good-looking... Women are in general a little bit more attracted to lawyers, doctors, men in the military and firefighters, which I’d always heard was a stereotype, but apparently it turns out to be at least a little bit true... looks matter a lot, but it turns out that weight doesn’t matter that much independent of looks. So an overweight person who is otherwise medium attractive will do almost as well as a medium attractive person who is not overweight... The Internet has turned matching upside down. It used to be that you would find compatibility first and then learn more about someone else’s attributes. And now you see all the attributes and then you learn about compatibility later. For an economist it’s very seductive to believe that more information makes these things work better"
Post ID: 5790240181936193407
Marie Curie and Women in Science
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Curies:
Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge: She's an appalling role model for women who want to go into Science, because she - the way she's been set up, she absolutely confirms that, that wrong notion that you can't be a normal woman and a good scientist and she, she is, she confirms the stereotype: if you're a woman you have to be really eccentric and strange, and I dislike that
One of the men: Very few Great Scientists are Normal People...
Well, my reading of the history actually I have to say, Patricia, is very different. I think Mary is amazing in that she was a normal person. You know, she had a family, she was a loving mother. To be fair, she did other things, and she was a Great Scientist.
So only the Right kinds of women can be celebrated.
Patricia Fara, Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge: She's an appalling role model for women who want to go into Science, because she - the way she's been set up, she absolutely confirms that, that wrong notion that you can't be a normal woman and a good scientist and she, she is, she confirms the stereotype: if you're a woman you have to be really eccentric and strange, and I dislike that
One of the men: Very few Great Scientists are Normal People...
Well, my reading of the history actually I have to say, Patricia, is very different. I think Mary is amazing in that she was a normal person. You know, she had a family, she was a loving mother. To be fair, she did other things, and she was a Great Scientist.
So only the Right kinds of women can be celebrated.
Post ID: 4265060191686008556
Monday, July 20, 2015
Everything's awesome to an American
BBC Today: Do US audiences struggle with British accents? (17/3/2015), on James Corden hosting The Late Late Show:
Lewis Schaffer (American comedian who has been based in the UK for 15 years):
"John Oliver and Craig Ferguson, they were, they seemed really happy to be there.
And they just acted like this is, like they've lucked out and won the lottery. And they had no expectations. And I think that's what Americans like: they like to be liked.
They're not like British people who, they, you know, you gotta be totally enthusiastic when you're in America.
Oh my god, I'm on TV. This is awesome.
Everything's awesome to an American.
Oh my god, we're in Iraq, oh how fantastic.
We've won, we've won in Iraq, didn't we win? We've won!
It's a learning lesson...
I think the reason he was chosen, because Craig Ferguson was English, and James Corden is English, in the minds of Americans.
Because it's all England to America.
So they thought, well, we had an English guy do well, let's get another one.
Host: Yeah, they could've gotten a Norwegian, couldn't they? They're still English
Lewis Schaffer: Hey, they're all islands off the coast of America"
Lewis Schaffer (American comedian who has been based in the UK for 15 years):
"John Oliver and Craig Ferguson, they were, they seemed really happy to be there.
And they just acted like this is, like they've lucked out and won the lottery. And they had no expectations. And I think that's what Americans like: they like to be liked.
They're not like British people who, they, you know, you gotta be totally enthusiastic when you're in America.
Oh my god, I'm on TV. This is awesome.
Everything's awesome to an American.
Oh my god, we're in Iraq, oh how fantastic.
We've won, we've won in Iraq, didn't we win? We've won!
It's a learning lesson...
I think the reason he was chosen, because Craig Ferguson was English, and James Corden is English, in the minds of Americans.
Because it's all England to America.
So they thought, well, we had an English guy do well, let's get another one.
Host: Yeah, they could've gotten a Norwegian, couldn't they? They're still English
Lewis Schaffer: Hey, they're all islands off the coast of America"
Post ID: 1884784355757974633
Links - 20th July 2015
Reclaim Australia, No Room for Racism rally in Melbourne - "Right-wing group Reclaim Australia had only just begun its rally at 11am when counter-demonstrators from anti-racism groups and anarchists attempted to breach police lines on Spring Street. A small number of hooded and masked anti-racism protesters broke through and nearly reached screaming members of Reclaim, which included a man with Nazi tattoos taunting them with calls of "lefty scum"... As 1pm approached scuffles broke out as UFP supporters attempted to break through anti-racism blockades. A loud hailer was broken in the process and anti-racism protesters brought several people seeking to join the racism rally to the ground. A woman wearing an Australian flag held her head as she retreated after an altercation with anti-racism protester Debra Holland. The woman attempted to break through the blockade when Ms Holland placed a sign in her path. Other anti-racism protesters then turned on the woman... Mr Ox said a number of tactics were successfully used to stop the Reclaim Australia and United Patriots' Front rallies. The group then did a "victory march" down to Exhibition Street and then back to Bourke Street."
"Anti racism" means that you attack and censor people who disagree with you
SWTOR July 21 Maintenance for Patch 3.3 - Dulfy
Comment: "My predictions, patch goes live, 10 minutes later someone has found a way to jump from their new stronghold in some unpredictable way, into an operation that hasn't even been conceived and bring back loot from the future that vendors for 1 million credits each. Anarchy ensues. 1000 forum posts where we all yell at each other."
Christie Blatchford: Ruling in Twitter harassment trial could have enormous fallout for free speech - "Elliott is charged with criminally harassing two Toronto female political activists, Steph Guthrie and Heather Reilly, in 2012... These are astonishing repercussions given that it’s not alleged he ever threatened either woman (or any other, according to the testimony of the Toronto Police officer, Detective Jeff Bangild, who was in charge) or that he ever sexually harassed them. Indeed, Elliott’s chief sin appears to have been that he dared to disagree with the two young feminists and political activists... contrary to what Guthrie and Reilly testified to at trial, they weren’t afraid of his client — as suggested by both their spirited demeanour in the witness box and their deliberate online campaign to call Elliott out as a troll. Rather, Murphy said, they hated Elliott and were determined to silence him — not just by “blocking” his Tweets to them, but by demanding he cease even referring to them even in making comment about heated political issues... The criminal harassment charge is rooted in the alleged victim’s perception of the offending conduct. The statute says if that conduct caused the alleged victims “reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety”, that’s good enough. Yet Guthrie and Reilly didn’t behave as though they were remotely frightened or intimidated: They convened a meeting of friends to discuss how Elliott should be publicly shamed; they bombarded their followers with furious tweets and retweets about him (including a grotesque suggestion from someone pretending she was a 13-year-old that he was a pedophile); they could and did dish it out. “They were not vulnerable,” Murphy said once. “They are very accomplished, politically savvy women. If they can’t handle being mentioned in the tail end of a political discussion (on Twitter), then they’re in the wrong business”... “If anybody was being criminally harassed in this case,” Murphy told the judge, “it was my client, it was Mr. Elliott.”"
"Man Faces 6 Months in Jail For Disagreeing With Feminists on Twitter"
Once again, those who disagree with feminists are "trolls"
Epic Star Wars Pre Wedding Shoot Done With Action Figures
If your photography shoot is mostly photoshop, is it still a photography shoot?
Inside the Islamic State by Malise Ruthven - "As Jürgen Todenhöfer, who spent ten days in ISIS-controlled areas in both Iraq and Syria, stated categorically in January: “We have to understand that ISIS is a country now”... According to Baghdadi’s online biography, supplied by the IS media agency al-Hayat, he is from a religious family that includes several imams (prayer leaders) and Koranic scholars. He is said to have attended the Islamic University of Baghdad where he received his BA, MA, and Ph.D., with his doctorate focusing on Islamic jurisprudence as well as including studies of Islamic culture and history... While skeptics may doubt the sincerity of the ex-Baathists, assuming they are seeking a return to the power they enjoyed before the US invasion, it seems more likely that their support for ISIS has been motivated by religious conviction. With their former hegemony lost, and the previously despised “infidel” Shias in the ascendant in Iraq, these erstwhile secularists are returning to their faith... Contrary to some media reports, girls are not deprived of education. Indeed ISIS in its online magazines makes a feature of its all-female schools and universities. While gender segregation is rigorously enforced, women are not forbidden by law to drive, as in Saudi Arabia... Far from being an undisciplined orgy of sadism, ISIS terror is a systematically applied policy that follows the ideas put forward in jihadist literature, notably in an online tract, The Management of Savagery, by the al-Qaeda ideologue Abu Bakr Naji. This treatise, posted in 2004 and widely cited by jihadists, is both a rationale for violence and a blueprint for the Caliphate. It draws heavily on the writings of Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), the medieval theologian who inspired the Arabian Wahhabi movement and is highly regarded by Islamists for holding rulers to account in the practice of true religion... The online theatricals serve to legitimize murder as a type of qisas—“retaliation in kind”—which is one of the well-known punishments in Islamic law... Also among such spoils of war are the antiquities taken to buyers from ancient archaeological sites, such as Palmyra. In general, sites are destroyed only after everything of value that can be transported has been removed... In June 2006 Zarqawi was tracked down and killed by a fighter jet after posting Rambo-style pictures of himself on the Internet, enabling US surveillance to pinpoint his location... jihadists who failed to master complex systems of cybersecurity were rapidly eliminated, leaving the field to their more sophisticated and technically proficient brethren... In an online poll conducted in July 2014, a formidable 92 percent of Saudi citizens agreed that ISIS “conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law.”"
If Islamic State is not Islamic (as per David Cameron) can we say the Conservative party isn't Conservative?
National Archives reveal Hong Kong-to-NI 'spoof' - ""Sadly, it's impossible to make jokes like this any more, the Diplomatic Service has lost its sense of humour. "I think that's a shame because it's through humour that you build relationships, with other departments, with other diplomats at home and abroad." "
What is it like to have diarrhea in the cockpit as a fighter pilot? - Quora
Apple conspired to fix e-book prices, US court rules
Infographic: Average heights of Chinese men and women by province - "people dwelling in China's northern regions tend to be taller, while those in the southern areas are more likely to be shorter."
'Hong Kong is not China': Artist's illustrations go viral - "The unidentified designer of the illustrations revealed that the purpose of the collection was to “Mourn the fact that Hong Kong has been 'colonized' by mainland China" and to "tell the world about the differences between Hong Kongers and Chinese people"...
"Chinese love to be enslaved and manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party.
Hongkongers fuck the Hong Kong Government and Chinese Communist Party""
Why ‘Don’t Worry About Money, Just Travel’ Is the Worst Advice of All Time - "This idea that you must travel, as some sort of moral imperative, without worrying about something as trivial as “money.” The girl in question posts superficially inspiring quotes on her lush photos, about dropping everything and running away, or quitting that job you hate to start a new life somewhere new, or soaking up the beauty of the world while you are young and untethered enough to do so. It’s aspirational porn, which serves the dual purpose of tantalizing the viewer with a life they cannot have, while making them feel like some sort of failure for not being able to have it. It’s a way for the upper classes to pat themselves on the back for being able to do something that, quite literally, anyone with money can buy. Traveling for the sake of travel is not an achievement, nor is it guaranteed to make anyone a more cultured, nuanced person... nothing about your ability or inability to travel means anything about you as a person. Some people are simply saddled with more responsibilities and commitments, and less disposable income, whether from birth or not. And someone needing to stay at a job they may not love because they have a family to take care of, or college to pay for, or basic financial independence to achieve, does not mean that they don’t have the same desire to learn and grow as someone who travels. They simply do not have the same options, and are learning and growing in their own way, in the context of the life they have. They are learning what it means to work hard, to delay gratification, and to better yourself in slow, small ways. This may not be a backpacking trip around Eastern Europe, but it would be hard to argue that it builds any less character."
6 types of girls you see on Tinder in Singapore - "4) The frigid. large eyes, fair skin, with a smile so sweet she melts your cold heart.
She also loves jesus. and quotes from the bible. Typical profile description: “Swipe left if you’re looking for hookups.” (erm, Tinder is a hookup app? hello?)"
The incredible sexual problems Indians are facing every day - "My girlfriend and i have been dating for one year. We enjoy sex. But recently she has been talking a lot about her ex. This has given rise to strange problem. Every time i try to get intimate with her, i hear her ex’s voice coming from her navel and asking me to get lost. I have done some research and concluded that her navel is a portal to her ex. I love her very much and i want to marry her. But this is worrying me.
Tell your friend to tell her navel friend to get lost. You need to visit a psychiatrist. Please let me know your research technique. I too shall try talking to my navel...
My friend feels that her breasts are getting larger because of masturbation. Is this possible?
No. Does she think the clitoris is an air pump?"
Bug chasing: Men deliberately trying to catch HIV for sexual thrill in astonishing craze - "Experts have warned about a new craze in which men are secretly seeking and spreading HIV. The reckless practice, known as bug chasing, started in the US as a bizarre means of getting a sexual high from risk-taking. Now, according to one man who willingly caught the virus, hundreds of men in the UK are introducing themselves on online forums, Facebook groups and Twitter. Many then meet up and try to transmit the potentially life-threatening virus, which attacks the immune system weakening the body’s ability to fight disease. Some bug-chasers actually claim the virus gives them a better quality of life because of the medication they subsequently have to take. Nick, 30, an admin worker from the Midlands, said: “I feel fit as a fiddle. I feel full of energy and healthier as a result of being on my medication. “I get my liver function tests every three months, my cholesterol tested regularly and I get loads of general health checks so if there are any underlying conditions I know straight away. Even better, I get it all on the NHS”... An investigation by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003 claimed a quarter of all new HIV transmissions in the US could be attributed to bug chasing."
A loaf of bread will be more ‘crumpled’ because grains will have less protein - "It's not just the polar ice caps that are predicted to shrink as a result of global warming. Australian scientists have claimed long-term climate change will also cause loaves of bread to become smaller due to a reduction in the amount of protein in grains."
Polar Bears Now Eat Dolphins, Thanks to Global Warming
"Anti racism" means that you attack and censor people who disagree with you
SWTOR July 21 Maintenance for Patch 3.3 - Dulfy
Comment: "My predictions, patch goes live, 10 minutes later someone has found a way to jump from their new stronghold in some unpredictable way, into an operation that hasn't even been conceived and bring back loot from the future that vendors for 1 million credits each. Anarchy ensues. 1000 forum posts where we all yell at each other."
Christie Blatchford: Ruling in Twitter harassment trial could have enormous fallout for free speech - "Elliott is charged with criminally harassing two Toronto female political activists, Steph Guthrie and Heather Reilly, in 2012... These are astonishing repercussions given that it’s not alleged he ever threatened either woman (or any other, according to the testimony of the Toronto Police officer, Detective Jeff Bangild, who was in charge) or that he ever sexually harassed them. Indeed, Elliott’s chief sin appears to have been that he dared to disagree with the two young feminists and political activists... contrary to what Guthrie and Reilly testified to at trial, they weren’t afraid of his client — as suggested by both their spirited demeanour in the witness box and their deliberate online campaign to call Elliott out as a troll. Rather, Murphy said, they hated Elliott and were determined to silence him — not just by “blocking” his Tweets to them, but by demanding he cease even referring to them even in making comment about heated political issues... The criminal harassment charge is rooted in the alleged victim’s perception of the offending conduct. The statute says if that conduct caused the alleged victims “reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety”, that’s good enough. Yet Guthrie and Reilly didn’t behave as though they were remotely frightened or intimidated: They convened a meeting of friends to discuss how Elliott should be publicly shamed; they bombarded their followers with furious tweets and retweets about him (including a grotesque suggestion from someone pretending she was a 13-year-old that he was a pedophile); they could and did dish it out. “They were not vulnerable,” Murphy said once. “They are very accomplished, politically savvy women. If they can’t handle being mentioned in the tail end of a political discussion (on Twitter), then they’re in the wrong business”... “If anybody was being criminally harassed in this case,” Murphy told the judge, “it was my client, it was Mr. Elliott.”"
"Man Faces 6 Months in Jail For Disagreeing With Feminists on Twitter"
Once again, those who disagree with feminists are "trolls"
Epic Star Wars Pre Wedding Shoot Done With Action Figures
If your photography shoot is mostly photoshop, is it still a photography shoot?
Inside the Islamic State by Malise Ruthven - "As Jürgen Todenhöfer, who spent ten days in ISIS-controlled areas in both Iraq and Syria, stated categorically in January: “We have to understand that ISIS is a country now”... According to Baghdadi’s online biography, supplied by the IS media agency al-Hayat, he is from a religious family that includes several imams (prayer leaders) and Koranic scholars. He is said to have attended the Islamic University of Baghdad where he received his BA, MA, and Ph.D., with his doctorate focusing on Islamic jurisprudence as well as including studies of Islamic culture and history... While skeptics may doubt the sincerity of the ex-Baathists, assuming they are seeking a return to the power they enjoyed before the US invasion, it seems more likely that their support for ISIS has been motivated by religious conviction. With their former hegemony lost, and the previously despised “infidel” Shias in the ascendant in Iraq, these erstwhile secularists are returning to their faith... Contrary to some media reports, girls are not deprived of education. Indeed ISIS in its online magazines makes a feature of its all-female schools and universities. While gender segregation is rigorously enforced, women are not forbidden by law to drive, as in Saudi Arabia... Far from being an undisciplined orgy of sadism, ISIS terror is a systematically applied policy that follows the ideas put forward in jihadist literature, notably in an online tract, The Management of Savagery, by the al-Qaeda ideologue Abu Bakr Naji. This treatise, posted in 2004 and widely cited by jihadists, is both a rationale for violence and a blueprint for the Caliphate. It draws heavily on the writings of Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), the medieval theologian who inspired the Arabian Wahhabi movement and is highly regarded by Islamists for holding rulers to account in the practice of true religion... The online theatricals serve to legitimize murder as a type of qisas—“retaliation in kind”—which is one of the well-known punishments in Islamic law... Also among such spoils of war are the antiquities taken to buyers from ancient archaeological sites, such as Palmyra. In general, sites are destroyed only after everything of value that can be transported has been removed... In June 2006 Zarqawi was tracked down and killed by a fighter jet after posting Rambo-style pictures of himself on the Internet, enabling US surveillance to pinpoint his location... jihadists who failed to master complex systems of cybersecurity were rapidly eliminated, leaving the field to their more sophisticated and technically proficient brethren... In an online poll conducted in July 2014, a formidable 92 percent of Saudi citizens agreed that ISIS “conforms to the values of Islam and Islamic law.”"
If Islamic State is not Islamic (as per David Cameron) can we say the Conservative party isn't Conservative?
National Archives reveal Hong Kong-to-NI 'spoof' - ""Sadly, it's impossible to make jokes like this any more, the Diplomatic Service has lost its sense of humour. "I think that's a shame because it's through humour that you build relationships, with other departments, with other diplomats at home and abroad." "
What is it like to have diarrhea in the cockpit as a fighter pilot? - Quora
Apple conspired to fix e-book prices, US court rules
Infographic: Average heights of Chinese men and women by province - "people dwelling in China's northern regions tend to be taller, while those in the southern areas are more likely to be shorter."
'Hong Kong is not China': Artist's illustrations go viral - "The unidentified designer of the illustrations revealed that the purpose of the collection was to “Mourn the fact that Hong Kong has been 'colonized' by mainland China" and to "tell the world about the differences between Hong Kongers and Chinese people"...
"Chinese love to be enslaved and manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party.
Hongkongers fuck the Hong Kong Government and Chinese Communist Party""
Why ‘Don’t Worry About Money, Just Travel’ Is the Worst Advice of All Time - "This idea that you must travel, as some sort of moral imperative, without worrying about something as trivial as “money.” The girl in question posts superficially inspiring quotes on her lush photos, about dropping everything and running away, or quitting that job you hate to start a new life somewhere new, or soaking up the beauty of the world while you are young and untethered enough to do so. It’s aspirational porn, which serves the dual purpose of tantalizing the viewer with a life they cannot have, while making them feel like some sort of failure for not being able to have it. It’s a way for the upper classes to pat themselves on the back for being able to do something that, quite literally, anyone with money can buy. Traveling for the sake of travel is not an achievement, nor is it guaranteed to make anyone a more cultured, nuanced person... nothing about your ability or inability to travel means anything about you as a person. Some people are simply saddled with more responsibilities and commitments, and less disposable income, whether from birth or not. And someone needing to stay at a job they may not love because they have a family to take care of, or college to pay for, or basic financial independence to achieve, does not mean that they don’t have the same desire to learn and grow as someone who travels. They simply do not have the same options, and are learning and growing in their own way, in the context of the life they have. They are learning what it means to work hard, to delay gratification, and to better yourself in slow, small ways. This may not be a backpacking trip around Eastern Europe, but it would be hard to argue that it builds any less character."
6 types of girls you see on Tinder in Singapore - "4) The frigid. large eyes, fair skin, with a smile so sweet she melts your cold heart.
She also loves jesus. and quotes from the bible. Typical profile description: “Swipe left if you’re looking for hookups.” (erm, Tinder is a hookup app? hello?)"
The incredible sexual problems Indians are facing every day - "My girlfriend and i have been dating for one year. We enjoy sex. But recently she has been talking a lot about her ex. This has given rise to strange problem. Every time i try to get intimate with her, i hear her ex’s voice coming from her navel and asking me to get lost. I have done some research and concluded that her navel is a portal to her ex. I love her very much and i want to marry her. But this is worrying me.
Tell your friend to tell her navel friend to get lost. You need to visit a psychiatrist. Please let me know your research technique. I too shall try talking to my navel...
My friend feels that her breasts are getting larger because of masturbation. Is this possible?
No. Does she think the clitoris is an air pump?"
Bug chasing: Men deliberately trying to catch HIV for sexual thrill in astonishing craze - "Experts have warned about a new craze in which men are secretly seeking and spreading HIV. The reckless practice, known as bug chasing, started in the US as a bizarre means of getting a sexual high from risk-taking. Now, according to one man who willingly caught the virus, hundreds of men in the UK are introducing themselves on online forums, Facebook groups and Twitter. Many then meet up and try to transmit the potentially life-threatening virus, which attacks the immune system weakening the body’s ability to fight disease. Some bug-chasers actually claim the virus gives them a better quality of life because of the medication they subsequently have to take. Nick, 30, an admin worker from the Midlands, said: “I feel fit as a fiddle. I feel full of energy and healthier as a result of being on my medication. “I get my liver function tests every three months, my cholesterol tested regularly and I get loads of general health checks so if there are any underlying conditions I know straight away. Even better, I get it all on the NHS”... An investigation by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003 claimed a quarter of all new HIV transmissions in the US could be attributed to bug chasing."
A loaf of bread will be more ‘crumpled’ because grains will have less protein - "It's not just the polar ice caps that are predicted to shrink as a result of global warming. Australian scientists have claimed long-term climate change will also cause loaves of bread to become smaller due to a reduction in the amount of protein in grains."
Polar Bears Now Eat Dolphins, Thanks to Global Warming
Post ID: 9222135355038648243
The Longest Game of Chess (Ever?)
Useless Information Podcast Episode #84 - The Honest Man with an Evil Eye
"Few if any games of chess took as long as the one between Hugh P Harrison and his aunt Annie Patton, who lived 20 miles or 32 kilometres apart from each other in England.
That game was played by sending their moves back and forth through the mail for 20 years.
It ended in 1940 when Mrs Patton died. The game was left unfinished, so... let's just call it a draw"
"Few if any games of chess took as long as the one between Hugh P Harrison and his aunt Annie Patton, who lived 20 miles or 32 kilometres apart from each other in England.
That game was played by sending their moves back and forth through the mail for 20 years.
It ended in 1940 when Mrs Patton died. The game was left unfinished, so... let's just call it a draw"
Post ID: 5461598594859874280
Spherical Cows
A dairy farmer asks a physicist friend to solve a problem the farmer is having at his dairy farm.
The physicist investigates the dairy farm and then goes away.
He returns a week later, and the farmer asks the physicist if he has come up with a solution to the problem.
The physicist says, “Yes, I have an excellent solution, but it applies only to a spherical cow in a vacuum.”
The physicist investigates the dairy farm and then goes away.
He returns a week later, and the farmer asks the physicist if he has come up with a solution to the problem.
The physicist says, “Yes, I have an excellent solution, but it applies only to a spherical cow in a vacuum.”
Post ID: 6054815119335923965
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Explaining the Rule of the West
Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS138 - Ian Morris on, "Why the West rules -- for now":
"Since about 200 years ago, a pretty small group of nations around the shores of the North Atlantic started dominating the whole planet, in a way that nothing like that had ever really happened before...
"Oh, no, no. We live in a place where the climate is just perfect." This was a popular argument again in the 19th century.
There's a guy, a professor of geography at Yale University, who came to the conclusion in the 1890s that climate had made the West dominate the world. And he said the place with the perfect climate in the entire planet was England...
"Yes, of course culture plays a part in what happens." We're all just aware of this in our everyday lives if you travel at all, you're aware of the power of culture. The question, I think should always be, "Well, why do we get the cultural changes that we do get? Is culture this like totally independent force that acts on people, or is it something else driving the culture?" I think with the case of Chinese conservatism, you can see really clearly it's an example of a bigger pattern where larger forces drive conservatism in societies.
Something I think we see over and over again in history, is that when one society, one region has been doing really well, and then things go wrong, people often turn inward and start looking backward. In a sense, they become fundamentalist. They look back into their past and say, "Oh boy! What was it we were doing so well, back then, that we're now not doing? And how can we go back and recapture the excellence of the past and bring it forward into our modern world?"
I think China, like every part of the world, has had phases of being like this. One very big phase begins in China in the 13th and 14th centuries. They suffer a lot of defeats at the hands of these steppe nomads, the Mongols in particular, and Kublai Khan takes over the whole of China, and the Mongols rule China for awhile. Black Death ravages China. Just all kinds of stuff is going wrong.
People start saying, "What can we do?" The intellectual elite start saying, "What can we do to recapture the greatness of Confucianists, the way it used to be?" And they become very aggressively conservative, and very opposed to new ideas, at a very unfortunate time for this to happen. This is just the moment when the world is beginning to open up. This is a disaster for China in a lot of ways.
But it's not something that just pops out of nowhere. It's a reaction to a set of problems, these invasions from overseas that are ultimately driven by geographical forces. I think there are, like I said, lots of examples of this.
In some ways I would say that Islamist Fundamentalism is another great example of this"
"Since about 200 years ago, a pretty small group of nations around the shores of the North Atlantic started dominating the whole planet, in a way that nothing like that had ever really happened before...
"Oh, no, no. We live in a place where the climate is just perfect." This was a popular argument again in the 19th century.
There's a guy, a professor of geography at Yale University, who came to the conclusion in the 1890s that climate had made the West dominate the world. And he said the place with the perfect climate in the entire planet was England...
"Yes, of course culture plays a part in what happens." We're all just aware of this in our everyday lives if you travel at all, you're aware of the power of culture. The question, I think should always be, "Well, why do we get the cultural changes that we do get? Is culture this like totally independent force that acts on people, or is it something else driving the culture?" I think with the case of Chinese conservatism, you can see really clearly it's an example of a bigger pattern where larger forces drive conservatism in societies.
Something I think we see over and over again in history, is that when one society, one region has been doing really well, and then things go wrong, people often turn inward and start looking backward. In a sense, they become fundamentalist. They look back into their past and say, "Oh boy! What was it we were doing so well, back then, that we're now not doing? And how can we go back and recapture the excellence of the past and bring it forward into our modern world?"
I think China, like every part of the world, has had phases of being like this. One very big phase begins in China in the 13th and 14th centuries. They suffer a lot of defeats at the hands of these steppe nomads, the Mongols in particular, and Kublai Khan takes over the whole of China, and the Mongols rule China for awhile. Black Death ravages China. Just all kinds of stuff is going wrong.
People start saying, "What can we do?" The intellectual elite start saying, "What can we do to recapture the greatness of Confucianists, the way it used to be?" And they become very aggressively conservative, and very opposed to new ideas, at a very unfortunate time for this to happen. This is just the moment when the world is beginning to open up. This is a disaster for China in a lot of ways.
But it's not something that just pops out of nowhere. It's a reaction to a set of problems, these invasions from overseas that are ultimately driven by geographical forces. I think there are, like I said, lots of examples of this.
In some ways I would say that Islamist Fundamentalism is another great example of this"
Post ID: 8630146937009386747
Friday, July 17, 2015
Links - 17th July 2015
The Current Age of Consent of 16 Doesn't Protect Young People, It Criminalises Them - "Half of all UK teenagers have their first sexual experience by the age of 14, according to the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. This experience includes intercourse, oral sex, mutual masturbation and sexual touching. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, all these sexually active young teens are criminals and sex offenders. They are lumped together with rapists and paedophiles... The existing consent at 16 law was introduced over 100 years ago in a puritanical Victorian era. Since then, society has moved on to more informed and enlightened attitudes about sex. Most importantly, the average age of puberty and sexual arousal has fallen dramatically to around ten to 11. In the light of new evidence, the issue should be revisited and re-examined. Whether we like it or not, under-age young people are having sex with each other."
Singapore Chinese Muslim stunned by Halal dietary question in job application
Comments: "The department I worked received public fund to buy a fridge and a microwave for the staff lounge. Immediately, a very domineering Muslim staff labelled them as halal when there was about only 5% of the staff was Muslims. This meant that if we had pork or lad in our lunch boxes or ham sandwiches, they could not be put into the fridge and the microwave. Then one staff used her own money to buy another fridge and microwave. That Muslim woman said she did not like the idea of having two sets because non-Muslims might carelessly place non-halal food in the halal fridge and microwave. The halal fridge was then moved to another location. Later, a new Muslim staff came and once she was appointed to take care of the welfare of the staff, she immediately labelled the fridge which was bought by a non-Muslim staff with her own money "Halal". In the past, we had Lunar New Year yusheng low-hey together as the food and utensils were prepared by a Muslim. Later, that domineering Muslim woman wanted two separate dishes when we did the Low-Hey side by side. The other Muslim staff, under the pressure of this woman complied. Two Muslim lady staff who did not wear the tudung were ostracised."
"Muslim food catering service company would not even interview a non muslim person. Would that make them racist?"
"I have friends who work in supermarkets refusing to serve customers who buy pork because they are muslims and can't touch pork...even pork inside plastic bag..."
"I remember getting told off for excusing myself from a meeting that went into overtime for 5-10 minutes to do my obligatory noon prayer. Plus a few dirty looks as well."
Obama's reply to a trans woman proves LGBT advocacy stops at gay marriage | Meredith Talusan | Comment is free | The Guardian - "when Gutiérrez shouted, “President Obama, I am a trans woman. I’m tired of the abuse. I’m tired of the violence,” she was advocating for an issue that cuts to the heart of what it means for a person to be treated with basic human dignity, regardless of immigration status. President Obama’s response was bracing as it was heartless, especially being the child of one non-American himself. “Listen, you’re in my house,” he said. And later: “I am just fine with a few hecklers, but not when I’m up in the house. You know what I mean? You know, my attitude is if you’re eating the hors d’oeuvres – you know what I’m saying?”"
If a straight white man had been the one heckling Obama, a Guardian columnist would be accusing the heckler of racism
Comments: "When giving a speech and you don't want to be interrupted that is the same as crushing all minority rights and ignoring their oppression. I love reading the Guardian, you guys wonder why you got murdered at the election."
"I'm glad that the other members of the LGBTQ community in the room supported the common decency most of us learn in kindergarten."
"She was shut down like troll she is; not just by the President but by the entire room."
"What did you expect Obama to do? You really expect him to say, "Oh, look, someone is shouting at me, interrupting this event - quick, hold the press, let's all listen carefully to everything she says and I'll immediately produce an executive order to meet the demands of illegal immigrant transgender activists from Mexico"? Should he pause to hear every heckler from every interest group that comes his way? If he did that, he'd never leave the room."
Pakistan heatwave: Death toll crosses 800 people in Sindh - "Matters have been made worse by the widespread abstention from water during daylight hours during the fasting month of Ramadan."
Singapore ranks 6th most expensive city for beer in the world, 2nd in Asia - "Within Asia, the only other city more costly than Singapore in terms of beer purchasing power is Hong Kong, which ranks 74th on the list. The Swiss city of Geneva takes the top spot as the most expensive city for a beer while the Polish city of Krakow lands on the other end of the spectrum, being the cheapest place to grab a cold one. Eastern European cities generally dominate the affordable end with cities such as Kiev, Bratislava and Belgrade holding the No. 2, 3 and 8 spots respectively on the index. For those looking to get cheaper beer closer to Singapore, both Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok rank within the top 10 cheapest places to buy."
Ecstasy 'no more dangerous than horse riding' - Telegraph
Elasticity of demand: Can bungee jumping be addictive? - "In one of our studies, we used semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences and understandings of two small groups of participants engaging in either dangerous sports (i.e., bungee jumpers) or recreational drug use (i.e., Ecstasy users)."
Video: Lost New Zealand woman survives on breast milk - Telegraph - "A New Zealand woman has spoken of how she survived lost in rugged wilderness by drinking her own breast milk and burying herself in dirt. Susan O'Brien was taking part in a gruelling 12.5 mile run in forest south of Wellington on Sunday when she took a wrong turn and became disorientated."
Church allows nude worship because 'Jesus was crucified naked' - "Pastor Allen Parker, the leader of White Tail Chapel in the town of Southampton, said he came to the decision to allow naked worship after concluding the clothing requirements of other churches were overly 'pretentious', and decided his own flock should be free to forgo such materialism if they desire... Robert and Katie Church were one couple to have a naked wedding at the White Tail Chapel, with Mr Church saying attendees were far more interested in 'hearing the word of God and speaking the word of God' than analysing the naked bodies on display. Mrs Church wasn't a nudist before the couple met, but says she has since come to love the experience of going to church in the nude and now considers her fellow worshipers 'family'"
Mom of 8-Year-Old Gay Pride Marcher Responds to Critics - "There was plenty to marvel at during the New York City Pride March on Sunday, but one precocious 8-year-old boy stood out from the crowd: Desmond Napoles, of Brooklyn, who joyously strutted and vogued his way down Fifth Avenue in a rainbow tutu and gold sequined cap. And when critics reared their heads on social media Monday, suggesting his participation was inappropriate, mom Wendylou Napoles shut them down with grace and pride"
How many of those condemning 8 year old Muslim girls wearing burkhas would celebrate this?
The world's tallest cow dies after a lifetime of Photoshop accusations - "Blosom, the world's tallest cow, was measured to be a full 6-foot-2 inches tall (190 cm) from hoof to withers when this photo was taken in early 2015."
How Affirmative Consent Laws Criminalize Everyone - "Affirmative consent laws trivialize sexual assault by turning nearly everyone who has ever dated into a sexual offender. For example, if a student throws her arms around her boyfriend and kisses him without his permission, even if she has done this dozens of times before, she has violated affirmative consent policies. She can, at some later date, be hauled before a campus judiciary on charges of sexual assault. Victims of sexual assault should fear this new regime, because it will inevitably confuse rightful cases of abuse with capricious accusations. Journalist Cathy Young writes, “One would think that [our] legislators would have some second thoughts about endorsing a bill that essentially redefines some 95 percent of human sexual encounters as rape (including married sex, since the bill specifically states that a prior relationship creates no presumption of consent)”... Law school professors have been at the forefront of criticizing the way affirmative consent rules violate basic principles of due process and fair procedure... “As things escalate, is he supposed to ask before each of the twenty, thirty, sixty steps? Nobody talks like that, not even lawyers.” George Mason’s David Bernstein writes “There is one type of sexual relationship that . . . involves primarily explicit consent–the relationship between a prostitute and her (or his) clients, with exact sexual services to be provided determined by explicit agreement in advance”... Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox, admits that under affirmative consent “too much counts as sexual assault” and that innocent students will be branded as rapists. Yet he supports it anyway because “men need to feel a cold spike of fear.”"
Photographs of the Islamic Tuareg tribe where women embrace sexual freedoms - "Before a woman marries, she is free to take as many lovers as she wants. 'They turn a blind eye,' explained Butler. 'The young girls have the same great freedoms as the boys'... The preference for the women's line goes as far as man leaving his possessions to his sister's son as it 'is considered a stronger link to your family than to your own son'. In other words, it can be guaranteed that your sister's child belongs to your sister, rather than a man's son, who cannot be absolutely guaranteed to share his genes. But there is one tradition which is certainly far more unusual: it is highly rude for a man to eat in front of a woman who he cannot have sexual relations with, or any of his elders. In front of his mother-in-law it is especially shameful... 'They think they are superior to other races,' Butler said. 'They are very proud. They certainly consider themselves superior to us. 'Perhaps they consider other cultures a bit stupid and, dare I say it, primitive.'"
If Islamic State isn't Islamic, how about a matrilineal tribe which allows unlimited pre-marital sex and doesn't follow Islamic divorce law?
Also, is it racist to condemn their racism?
How to Measure What Muslims Really Believe - "some ‘moderate’ voices are actually far on the left of the spectrum of Muslim opinion... about 195 million Muslims worldwide support suicide bombing and other acts of violence against civilians... the global percentage is just 12 percent. The Anjem Choudarys of the world get the media attention—perhaps for lack of Muslim leadership, perhaps out of Western media bias—but nine out of ten Muslims disagree with him. For now"
More than 42 MILLION Muslims 'support Islamic State' - "More than 8.5million people view ISIS positively, and around 42million view them somewhat positively, according to the data."
Singapore Chinese Muslim stunned by Halal dietary question in job application
Comments: "The department I worked received public fund to buy a fridge and a microwave for the staff lounge. Immediately, a very domineering Muslim staff labelled them as halal when there was about only 5% of the staff was Muslims. This meant that if we had pork or lad in our lunch boxes or ham sandwiches, they could not be put into the fridge and the microwave. Then one staff used her own money to buy another fridge and microwave. That Muslim woman said she did not like the idea of having two sets because non-Muslims might carelessly place non-halal food in the halal fridge and microwave. The halal fridge was then moved to another location. Later, a new Muslim staff came and once she was appointed to take care of the welfare of the staff, she immediately labelled the fridge which was bought by a non-Muslim staff with her own money "Halal". In the past, we had Lunar New Year yusheng low-hey together as the food and utensils were prepared by a Muslim. Later, that domineering Muslim woman wanted two separate dishes when we did the Low-Hey side by side. The other Muslim staff, under the pressure of this woman complied. Two Muslim lady staff who did not wear the tudung were ostracised."
"Muslim food catering service company would not even interview a non muslim person. Would that make them racist?"
"I have friends who work in supermarkets refusing to serve customers who buy pork because they are muslims and can't touch pork...even pork inside plastic bag..."
"I remember getting told off for excusing myself from a meeting that went into overtime for 5-10 minutes to do my obligatory noon prayer. Plus a few dirty looks as well."
Obama's reply to a trans woman proves LGBT advocacy stops at gay marriage | Meredith Talusan | Comment is free | The Guardian - "when Gutiérrez shouted, “President Obama, I am a trans woman. I’m tired of the abuse. I’m tired of the violence,” she was advocating for an issue that cuts to the heart of what it means for a person to be treated with basic human dignity, regardless of immigration status. President Obama’s response was bracing as it was heartless, especially being the child of one non-American himself. “Listen, you’re in my house,” he said. And later: “I am just fine with a few hecklers, but not when I’m up in the house. You know what I mean? You know, my attitude is if you’re eating the hors d’oeuvres – you know what I’m saying?”"
If a straight white man had been the one heckling Obama, a Guardian columnist would be accusing the heckler of racism
Comments: "When giving a speech and you don't want to be interrupted that is the same as crushing all minority rights and ignoring their oppression. I love reading the Guardian, you guys wonder why you got murdered at the election."
"I'm glad that the other members of the LGBTQ community in the room supported the common decency most of us learn in kindergarten."
"She was shut down like troll she is; not just by the President but by the entire room."
"What did you expect Obama to do? You really expect him to say, "Oh, look, someone is shouting at me, interrupting this event - quick, hold the press, let's all listen carefully to everything she says and I'll immediately produce an executive order to meet the demands of illegal immigrant transgender activists from Mexico"? Should he pause to hear every heckler from every interest group that comes his way? If he did that, he'd never leave the room."
Pakistan heatwave: Death toll crosses 800 people in Sindh - "Matters have been made worse by the widespread abstention from water during daylight hours during the fasting month of Ramadan."
Singapore ranks 6th most expensive city for beer in the world, 2nd in Asia - "Within Asia, the only other city more costly than Singapore in terms of beer purchasing power is Hong Kong, which ranks 74th on the list. The Swiss city of Geneva takes the top spot as the most expensive city for a beer while the Polish city of Krakow lands on the other end of the spectrum, being the cheapest place to grab a cold one. Eastern European cities generally dominate the affordable end with cities such as Kiev, Bratislava and Belgrade holding the No. 2, 3 and 8 spots respectively on the index. For those looking to get cheaper beer closer to Singapore, both Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok rank within the top 10 cheapest places to buy."
Ecstasy 'no more dangerous than horse riding' - Telegraph
Elasticity of demand: Can bungee jumping be addictive? - "In one of our studies, we used semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences and understandings of two small groups of participants engaging in either dangerous sports (i.e., bungee jumpers) or recreational drug use (i.e., Ecstasy users)."
Video: Lost New Zealand woman survives on breast milk - Telegraph - "A New Zealand woman has spoken of how she survived lost in rugged wilderness by drinking her own breast milk and burying herself in dirt. Susan O'Brien was taking part in a gruelling 12.5 mile run in forest south of Wellington on Sunday when she took a wrong turn and became disorientated."
Church allows nude worship because 'Jesus was crucified naked' - "Pastor Allen Parker, the leader of White Tail Chapel in the town of Southampton, said he came to the decision to allow naked worship after concluding the clothing requirements of other churches were overly 'pretentious', and decided his own flock should be free to forgo such materialism if they desire... Robert and Katie Church were one couple to have a naked wedding at the White Tail Chapel, with Mr Church saying attendees were far more interested in 'hearing the word of God and speaking the word of God' than analysing the naked bodies on display. Mrs Church wasn't a nudist before the couple met, but says she has since come to love the experience of going to church in the nude and now considers her fellow worshipers 'family'"
Mom of 8-Year-Old Gay Pride Marcher Responds to Critics - "There was plenty to marvel at during the New York City Pride March on Sunday, but one precocious 8-year-old boy stood out from the crowd: Desmond Napoles, of Brooklyn, who joyously strutted and vogued his way down Fifth Avenue in a rainbow tutu and gold sequined cap. And when critics reared their heads on social media Monday, suggesting his participation was inappropriate, mom Wendylou Napoles shut them down with grace and pride"
How many of those condemning 8 year old Muslim girls wearing burkhas would celebrate this?
The world's tallest cow dies after a lifetime of Photoshop accusations - "Blosom, the world's tallest cow, was measured to be a full 6-foot-2 inches tall (190 cm) from hoof to withers when this photo was taken in early 2015."
How Affirmative Consent Laws Criminalize Everyone - "Affirmative consent laws trivialize sexual assault by turning nearly everyone who has ever dated into a sexual offender. For example, if a student throws her arms around her boyfriend and kisses him without his permission, even if she has done this dozens of times before, she has violated affirmative consent policies. She can, at some later date, be hauled before a campus judiciary on charges of sexual assault. Victims of sexual assault should fear this new regime, because it will inevitably confuse rightful cases of abuse with capricious accusations. Journalist Cathy Young writes, “One would think that [our] legislators would have some second thoughts about endorsing a bill that essentially redefines some 95 percent of human sexual encounters as rape (including married sex, since the bill specifically states that a prior relationship creates no presumption of consent)”... Law school professors have been at the forefront of criticizing the way affirmative consent rules violate basic principles of due process and fair procedure... “As things escalate, is he supposed to ask before each of the twenty, thirty, sixty steps? Nobody talks like that, not even lawyers.” George Mason’s David Bernstein writes “There is one type of sexual relationship that . . . involves primarily explicit consent–the relationship between a prostitute and her (or his) clients, with exact sexual services to be provided determined by explicit agreement in advance”... Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox, admits that under affirmative consent “too much counts as sexual assault” and that innocent students will be branded as rapists. Yet he supports it anyway because “men need to feel a cold spike of fear.”"
Photographs of the Islamic Tuareg tribe where women embrace sexual freedoms - "Before a woman marries, she is free to take as many lovers as she wants. 'They turn a blind eye,' explained Butler. 'The young girls have the same great freedoms as the boys'... The preference for the women's line goes as far as man leaving his possessions to his sister's son as it 'is considered a stronger link to your family than to your own son'. In other words, it can be guaranteed that your sister's child belongs to your sister, rather than a man's son, who cannot be absolutely guaranteed to share his genes. But there is one tradition which is certainly far more unusual: it is highly rude for a man to eat in front of a woman who he cannot have sexual relations with, or any of his elders. In front of his mother-in-law it is especially shameful... 'They think they are superior to other races,' Butler said. 'They are very proud. They certainly consider themselves superior to us. 'Perhaps they consider other cultures a bit stupid and, dare I say it, primitive.'"
If Islamic State isn't Islamic, how about a matrilineal tribe which allows unlimited pre-marital sex and doesn't follow Islamic divorce law?
Also, is it racist to condemn their racism?
How to Measure What Muslims Really Believe - "some ‘moderate’ voices are actually far on the left of the spectrum of Muslim opinion... about 195 million Muslims worldwide support suicide bombing and other acts of violence against civilians... the global percentage is just 12 percent. The Anjem Choudarys of the world get the media attention—perhaps for lack of Muslim leadership, perhaps out of Western media bias—but nine out of ten Muslims disagree with him. For now"
More than 42 MILLION Muslims 'support Islamic State' - "More than 8.5million people view ISIS positively, and around 42million view them somewhat positively, according to the data."
Post ID: 6125937465295790925
On convincing others, trolling etc
“I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one’s opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do that, therefore, that I have taken up my pen, but merely so as to annoy them, and to bestow strength and courage on those on our own side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
"Je demande une grâce que je crains qu’on ne m’accorde pas : c’est de ne pas juger, par la lecture d’un moment, d’un travail de vingt années ; d’approuver ou de condamner le livre entier, et non pas quelques phrases. Si l’on veut chercher le dessein de l’auteur, on ne le peut bien découvrir que dans le dessein de l’ouvrage...
Je me croirais le plus heureux des mortels, si je pouvais faire que les hommes pussent se guérir de leurs préjugés. J’appelle ici préjugés, non pas ce qui fait qu’on ignore de certaines choses, mais ce qui fait qu’on s’ignore soi-même."
--- Préface, De l’esprit des lois (1748) / Montesquieu
"I ask for a favour that I fear will not be given me: to not judge, from a momentary reading, a work of twenty years; to approve of or condemn the whole book, and not just a few sentences. If one wants took find the intention of the author, one cannot do better than to look at the plan of this work...
I would believe myself the happiest of mortals if I could get men to rid themselves of their prejudices. I call "prejudices", not that which causes us to not know certain things, but that which causes one to not know himself"
--- Preface, The Spirits of the Laws (1748) / Montesquieu
"Je demande une grâce que je crains qu’on ne m’accorde pas : c’est de ne pas juger, par la lecture d’un moment, d’un travail de vingt années ; d’approuver ou de condamner le livre entier, et non pas quelques phrases. Si l’on veut chercher le dessein de l’auteur, on ne le peut bien découvrir que dans le dessein de l’ouvrage...
Je me croirais le plus heureux des mortels, si je pouvais faire que les hommes pussent se guérir de leurs préjugés. J’appelle ici préjugés, non pas ce qui fait qu’on ignore de certaines choses, mais ce qui fait qu’on s’ignore soi-même."
--- Préface, De l’esprit des lois (1748) / Montesquieu
"I ask for a favour that I fear will not be given me: to not judge, from a momentary reading, a work of twenty years; to approve of or condemn the whole book, and not just a few sentences. If one wants took find the intention of the author, one cannot do better than to look at the plan of this work...
I would believe myself the happiest of mortals if I could get men to rid themselves of their prejudices. I call "prejudices", not that which causes us to not know certain things, but that which causes one to not know himself"
--- Preface, The Spirits of the Laws (1748) / Montesquieu
Post ID: 1899435044652327414
Protecting the Elderly from Sexual Exploitationn
B: Older men have no business around kids even if it's the age of consent. Just because a 16 year old agrees to have sex with you doesn't mean you should.
Me: So the age of consent is meaningless?
What about older women and 16 year olds?
A: All adults should refrain from preying on kids. If they cannot vote, even if they're legal, why the heck do you want to manipulate children for sex for. Men and women.
Me: All adults should also refrain from preying on the elderly. If they need help to walk, you shouldn't be having sex with them!
A: Are you going around having sex with the elderly? I dunno if they're adult and around the same age (21 and 70? 60 and 70?) I don't think we should tell elderly people they cannot have sex.
Me: The Elderly are vulnerable and we should protect them from exploitation
Defense Attorney: What is your age?
Little Old Woman: I am 86 years old
Defense Attorney: Will you tell us, in your own words, what happened to you?
Little Old Woman: There I was, sitting there in my swing on my front porch on a warm Spring evening, when a young man comes creeping up on the porch and sat down beside me.
Defense Attorney: Did you know him?
Little Old Woman: No, but he sure was friendly.
Defense Attorney: What happened after he sat down?
Little Old Woman: He started to rub my thigh.
Defense Attorney: Did you stop him?
Little Old Woman: No, I didn't stop him.
Defense Attorney: Why not?
Little Old Woman: It felt good. Nobody had done that since my Abner passed away some 30 years ago.
Defense Attorney: What happened next?
Little Old Woman: He began to rub my breasts.
Defense Attorney: Did you stop him then?
Little Old Woman: No, I didn't stop him.
Defense Attorney: Why not?
Little Old Woman: Because his rubbing made me feel all alive and excited. I haven't felt that good in years!!
Defense Attorney: What happened next?
Little Old Woman: Well, I was feeling so spicy that I just laid down and said to him, "Take me... young man... Take me!"
Defense Attorney: Did he take you?
Little Old Woman: Hell no! He just yelled "April Fool" and that's when I shot the little bastard.
B: Elderly vulnerable? Try trying to exploit an old lady for sex and see whether the walking stick comes flying or not
A: ... Old lady =adult with XX years of experience right? Imagine if the old lady had dementia or Alzheimer's. How funny is the story? What's so wrong about saying that we adults should refrain from acts that may cause harm to those weaker, less experienced or more vulnerable than us?
Me: Why do con men and magic stone salesmen target the elderly?
B: Aiyo we talking sex not greed or fear
I don't think the elderly will so easily be conned into sex than say being cheated monetarily
Me: Heartbreak alley for lonely old men: STAR
"This was my personal encounter with a victim of a social ill frequently reported that arose from the influx of Chinese women who came with just one thing in mind – using sex to make their fortune from married or elderly men."
Post ID: 5577533648839470221
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Singapore and the Culture of Fear
"A lecturer in psychology at the National University of Singapore, [Chee Soon Juan] was sacked for improperly using research funds. The charge was filed by Chee’s departmental chair, who was also a PAP member of Parliament. Chee had used research funds to pay for courier services to deliver his wife's doctoral dissertation to an American university. The sum involved was $226. Chee and the university disagreed as to whether this use of funds was improper. At a later date, the head of Chee‘s former department brought charges of defamation against Chee. The Social Democratic Party and other Singaporeans perceived the action as a warning to professionals to avoid the opposition (Fong 1993). Reporters from the Straits Times talked with a small number of university academics, most of whom sympathized with Chee. All spoke on condition of anonymity because, as the reporter noted, according to “their terms of employment, they cannot comment on university policy“ (Insight 1993:14).
A Singapore judge found Chee guilty of defaming three university people, including Chee‘s former boss; damages and court costs to be paid by Chee amounted to about U.S. $156,000. At the time of the decision, Chee was broke and without a regular job (Straits Times Weekly Edition, 23 April 1994).
The same year as Chee's sacking, at a seminar concerning how to get young people politically involved, the discussion was dominated by expressions of fear for the fate that awaits critical Singaporeans. A Government spokesperson said such fear was unjustified. However one participant pointed out that even professors who were critical of the Government were harshly treated, and another noted that student unions at universities were forbidden to make political statements (Straits Times Weekly Edition, 10 July 1993).
Several newspaper personnel were tried in 1993 for violating the Official Secrets Act. At the time, “[a]lthough a number of reporters and editors expressed anger over the prosecutions, none would allow their name to be used, saying they feared retaliation from the Government" (Shenon 1993:Y12)."
--- The Struggle Over Singapore's Soul: Western Modernization and Asian Culture / Joseph B. Tamney (1996)
A Singapore judge found Chee guilty of defaming three university people, including Chee‘s former boss; damages and court costs to be paid by Chee amounted to about U.S. $156,000. At the time of the decision, Chee was broke and without a regular job (Straits Times Weekly Edition, 23 April 1994).
The same year as Chee's sacking, at a seminar concerning how to get young people politically involved, the discussion was dominated by expressions of fear for the fate that awaits critical Singaporeans. A Government spokesperson said such fear was unjustified. However one participant pointed out that even professors who were critical of the Government were harshly treated, and another noted that student unions at universities were forbidden to make political statements (Straits Times Weekly Edition, 10 July 1993).
Several newspaper personnel were tried in 1993 for violating the Official Secrets Act. At the time, “[a]lthough a number of reporters and editors expressed anger over the prosecutions, none would allow their name to be used, saying they feared retaliation from the Government" (Shenon 1993:Y12)."
--- The Struggle Over Singapore's Soul: Western Modernization and Asian Culture / Joseph B. Tamney (1996)
Post ID: 8294532484776884368
Nazi Women
"A male-dominated and male-oriented movement, nazism almost completely ignored women and women's issues during the early 1920s. The relatively few women who associated themselves with the Nazi cause in this phase of its development did so on their own initiative without encouragement, guidance, or control from the party. Although generally older than their male counterparts, Nazi women tended to share many similar characteristics with them. Of middle— and lower—middle—class origin, Nazi women were also predominantly Protestant, extremely nationalistic, anti-Marxist, and cultural traditionalists; some were also religious and anti-Semitic. Fearful of the rising tide of the socialist masses and distressed by the decline of the German middle classes after World War I, these women resented the modern economic and political trends of the Weimar Republic, which they held responsible for the social displacement of their class and the threats to their country. Moreover, these women were disillusioned with the female emancipation and legal equality provided by Wemiar. To some traditionalists, the rise of the “modern woman" degraded and endangered the natural role of women as mothers and wives. For other, the promises of emancipation and equality turned to disappointment and disillusionment. Instead of improving their economic condition, such changes really meant low—paying work or poverty, while stripping away traditional protections as well as the respect and status afforded by traditional roles for women in society. Reacting against the supposed causes of their plight as women and Germans, Nazi women sought a movement that would save their country and class through reestablishing a strong state and return the protection and stability for women that had been provided by stable families and traditional society."
--- A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945 / Joseph W. Bendersky
--- A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945 / Joseph W. Bendersky
Post ID: 562584868039344885
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