Links - 21st July 2016

Going to Belgium? MFA advises Singaporeans to take precautions - "Those travelling to or residing in Belgium are "strongly advised" to take all necessary precautions for their personal safety, said Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Monday (Jul 18). In a travel notice posted on its website, MFA said the precautions include monitoring the local news and heeding the instructions of the local authorities. “Singaporeans should remain vigilant and where possible, avoid crowded places, public gatherings, and areas where there are ongoing police operations,” the notice said. Travellers should also purchase comprehensive travel insurance and be familiar with the terms and coverage, the ministry added."
Don't tell people to protect themselves from terrorists. Tell terrorists to stop attacking people

Double Standards: Leslie Jones' Racist Twitter History - "In an email sent from Twitter to Milo, the site said it had “permanently suspended” his account due to “repeated violation of Twitter rules, specifically our rules prohibiting participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals.” Jones, meanwhile, has repeatedly made derogatory comments about white people... Jones also violated Twitter’s policy against targeted harassment, directly ordering her followers to mob another user. This is the same policy that Twitter says Milo violated, despite the fact that the Breitbart editor never told his followers to attack Jones."
Addendum: "@Lesdoggg: @whitebecky1776 bitch I want to tell you about your self but I'm gonna let everybody else do it I'm gonna retweet your hate!! Get her!!"

PayPal won't refund Twitch troll's $50,000 in donations - "iNexus_Ninja wasn’t a generous viewer, but instead a nasty troll that intended to make these large donations and then cancel them through PayPal after 30 days — leaving the streamers on the hook for any portions spent. In short, he was the worst kind of troll, the type that sought to create real harm through internet mischief. Proving sometimes there is justice in the world, PayPal essentially told iNexus_Ninja — an 18-year-old Australian named Anthony Archer — to go fuck himself and that it wouldn’t be allowing the chargeback."

Why Still So Few Use Condoms - "It is politically incorrect to acknowledge the truth and simplicity of the condom's inadequacy. Criticism of the condom opens one to righteous demonization and condemnation. Condom defenders often stifle honest and helpful discussion about sexuality, unplanned pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections... Sex researcher Dr. Rachel Jones at the Guttmacher Institute recently published a study in the journal Contraception that found that the "withdrawal method of birth control is nearly as effective as condoms in preventing pregnancy." By the study's measures, "pulling out" had a failure rate of four percent, while condoms had a failure rate of two percent"

PrideSource - Study: Only 16 Percent Of Men Who Have Sex With Men Report Using Condoms 'Always' - ""The point estimate in our analysis of condom effectiveness when 'always' used by MSM during anal sex with any HIV-positive male partners is 70 percent, modestly less than the 80 percent estimate for condoms when 'always' used by heterosexual HIV-discordant couples," the study concludes. "Although these point estimates do not differ by tests of statistical significance, it is more appropriate to use the MSM specific point estimate of 70 percent effectiveness for discussions and models involving anal sex among MSM than to continue use of the heterosexual 80 percent effectiveness point estimate for MSM"

CDC: Half of Gay Black Men Will Get HIV - "Half of gay and bisexual black men and a quarter of gay and bisexual Hispanic men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes, the Centers for Disease Control announced in a first-of-its-kind study... For Hispanic people living in the United States, the CDC has already outlined an array of factors behind the alarming rate of new infections: a high prevalence of HIV, poverty and lack of health insurance coverage, “machismo” that can encourage men to engage in risky sexual behavior as a show of strength, and reluctance to access prevention services for fear of revealing one’s immigration status... For black people, CDC resources show, prevention challenges are similar: poverty, stigma, barriers to health care access, and too few people knowing their status. Risk in black communities is especially high, the CDC notes, because “African Americans tend to have sex with partners of the same race/ethnicity mean[ing] that [they] face a greater risk of HIV infection with each new sexual encounter.”"

What's Really Behind the High HIV Rates for Black Gay Men? - "black men who have sex with men (MSM) were no more likely than other gay or bisexual men to have unprotected sex. And despite societal problems, such as the fact that black men face higher rates of unemployment than other races or are less likely to graduate from high school, the analysis points out that black gay men are actually 40 percent more likely to do simple protective things like wear a condom during sex... a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of four studies noted that black MSM had fewer unprotected sexual encounters than white MSM—an average of three for receptive sex and six for insertive over six months for black men, compared with 11 and 12, respectively, for whites."

Rio Olympics 2016: why transgender and intersex issues could dominate the Games - "Ross Tucker interviewed Joanna Harper who describes herself as a "scientist first, an athlete second, and a transgender person third" and as such is the only transgender person in history to be part of the team to advise the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on gender-based issues. Harper fears that "much of the anticipation for the upcoming Rio Olympics will be overshadowed by the spectre of intersex athletes dominating some events in women's athletics, the premier sport of the games. It is also unfortunate that many people will blame the medal-winning intersex athletes whose only crime is to compete with the gifts that nature gave them. The real problem is that sports need some policy governing intersex athletes and currently there is none". She also points out that Semenya will not be the only intersex athlete likely to medal at the Games. Harper suggests that in the 800 metre event alone, we could see an all intersex podium with five of the eight finalists being intersex athletes... "I believe that billions of potential female athletes deserve the right to compete with some semblance of a level playing field, and that requiring all women to compete within a given testosterone range is the best way we currently have to create such a playing field"."

Hyperandrogenism and women vs women vs men in sport: A Q&A with Joanna Harper - "Both of the “extreme” arguments are simple to explain and defend, often passionately. It is much harder to inspire passion over a compromise position that is painstakingly put together by a committee of divergent views. But this compromise position has been embraced by many people who value well-reasoned logic... while it might not be a right, success in sports is one of the greatest advancements in women’s lives. If we value women’s equality, it is imperative that we protect the ability of all women to succeed in sports."
This is a good line on avoiding extremism and valuing compromise

Why Trans Women Care About Caitlyn Jenner's Pronouns - "Jenner’s decision to continue using male pronouns and her assigned name even after she disclosed as trans is, to me, the clearest indication that she hasn’t made an effort to reach out to the wider trans community for feedback, which I consider a prerequisite to claiming to represent and advocate for us"
Comments: ""Jenner has every right to set her priorities as an individual”
... But then you spend the rest of the article complaining that actually she didn’t have a choice, and should have done what the ‘trans community’ wanted. This stuff is getting pretty tiring now. You’re an individual until you’re not an individual. You’re an advocate until you’re not an advocate. Let her do what she wants. She can do certain things that you can’t because she’s a celebrity and you’re not. That’s the same with any celebrity and any normal person."
"Funny how gender is fluid until someone decides to go their own way."
"Basically what I hear is "She can handle her transition how she wants as long as it's inline with my opinion". Find something more productive to do."
"you lost all credibility when you told the story about how you tried to trick a man into dating you"

Japanese 'naked restaurant' to ban overweight diners - "Following the lead of establishments in London and Melbourne, "The Amrita" -- Sanskrit for 'immortality' -- also has strict age restrictions, with only patrons between 18 and 60 allowed in, after they check in their clothes and put on paper underwear provided by the restaurant... Tattooed customers are barred from entry"

BBC World Service - The World This Week, Obama points to how Saudis must change - "You can almost say that if we get dementia, that is a spectacularly good thing... Our great great great great grandparents - if they survived into their 40s without dying of tuberculosis or any other range of infectious diseases, would have been over the moon. And then as we developed things like antibiotics and vaccinations all developed, and suddenly we started to get a grip on infectious diseases and they were no longer the big killers that they used to be... you'll probably survive your first heart attacks... treatments for cancer have really developed... dementia is now that kind of like final barrier that we're crushing against. And at some point in the future, we're starting to see hints of it already, we'll move beyond dementia as well and there'll be something else waiting for us on the horizon"

BBC World Service - The World This Week, France Tries Middle East Peace Plan - "What you had in Yugoslavia would be child's play compared to what we would have in Nigeria... It would be really messy to break up Nigeria because first of all, many of the huge minority groups would not want to be part of a larger group either predominated by the Hausas or the Yorubas or the Ibos. They wouldn't want that. The reason that these grievances keep coming up is because many of these regions feel marginalised. I can't think of any ethnic group in Nigeria that does not feel hard done by the Nigerian state"

3 Outlets: Bust Treatments
6 types of ptosis? I didn't know so many things could be wrong with breasts

Singapore's "arrogance" haunts ties with neighbours - Google Groups - "RECURRING SPATS with other countries are giving Singapore a bad reputation as a nation whose riches have made it arrogant and prone to treat its neighbours as inferior, regional analysts say. Disputes over the years with the Philippines and Thailand were followed recently by Malaysian fury over a remark by Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew that Malaysia's Johor state was "notorious for shootings, muggings and car-jackings". In language unheard in the 30-year-history of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), Malayian demonstrators called Lee "senile" and a "stupid pig"... "There has to be some serious soul-searching in Singapore on the way it handles relations with close friends and neighbours," said Mohamed Jabbar Hassan of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies in Kuala Lumpur. Analysts in Singapore refused to comment on the issue. "I do not want to comment on that. You can ask me about any other issue, but not that issue. I'm sorry," one analyst said. The Singapore governmentn also declined comment... "I believe that if Singapore does not try to lessen its trouble-making with neighbours, it will be in trouble"... Wibisono said race plays a part in Singapore's arrogance. "Singapore is considered Chinese by the other neighbours and I think this is the source of the problem," he said. "They feel a little bit superior, and the others are seen as inferior because they (Singaporeans) are more industrious, productive and creative.""

S’pore most forward-looking country in the world: Report - "A large number of millennials rated Singapore highly (No 1) in heritage, namely cultural accessibility, rich history, good food and cultural attractions."
Err.

The disturbing growth of partisan bias - "partisan bias doesn’t just lead people to preemptively reject ideas emanating from the opposing party. It also causes partisans to justify or overlook bad behavior by their own side. Both Republican and Democratic partisans have turned a blind eye to or even supported much from their own leaders that they would have opposed tooth and nail if the other side had done the same thing. Under Obama, the left-wing antiwar movement has largely evaporated, even as he continues and in some cases even expands Bush’s abuses of executive war powers."
Conservatives/Republicans are not the only hypocrites

SSD reliability in the real world: Google's experience - "SSD UBER rates are higher than disk rates, which means that backing up SSDs is even more important than it is with disks. The SSD is less likely to fail during its normal life, but more likely to lose data"

Prostitution Vigilante Hooked For Pimping - "An Oklahoma man who has gained national exposure for his "video vigilante" campaign to expose street prostitution in his hometown was arrested yesterday for allegedly paying hookers to ensure that they serviced customers in an area where he could easily film the illicit trysts."

Police: A quarter of crime victims don’t want to prosecute offenders - "He has urged people to think before phoning police. He said: “Looking into the crimes reported this year and investigated by team, I have been astounded by the high proportion of crimes where the victim doesn’t support the investigation. “In some of those cases it might be that they have had bad experiences with either the police or the court and I would urge them to try again and work with us to improve out service and to achieve a better outcome next time. “In other cases, people simply have no intention of going to court for the matters and I would ask that when they phone, they leave us some understanding of what they want from us and are really clear from the outset so we can record the crime, as we are required to do, but we don’t invest our resources in fruitless investigations that were never wanted in the first place.”"
Maybe some people just want to give others hell and don't want to be prosecuted for making false complaints

Conversations - 21st July 2016

A: I ask my Punjab friend why he married a Chinese girl

He said in simple terms, Indian girls aren't worth the trouble to tier 1 Indian dudes

B: too much drama?

A: Yep and persecution mentality

Also a lot of them are super banged and are looking for a dude to settle down with before they completely check out in looks

There are a lot of tier 3 and 4 Indian dudes, but those Indian girls don't want them.

Sangy herself dated a Chinese dude

Must be some crazy shit- dating a Indian race baiter- if you piss her off she will just drop the racism hammer on your head and sic local SJWs on you

Anyway tier 1 Indian dudes can easily outgame the average Chinese dude here

C: Tier 1 vs tier 3-4 scrubs mah

A: Gives lie to sangy's assertion being chinky is absolute powah

But we all already knew that


Someone: Marriage is about giving in for some things so you can earn brownie points to get away with other things
For guys at least

Me: Hurr. Then for women?

Someone: Well. It's about not driving your man so nuts that he decides to leave?


A: The more datapoints I collect the more I am forced to conclude that a homophobic possibly repressed homosexual fundamentalist megachurch pastor is more tolerant than many of the Pink Dot acolytes.

Me: Well we know sjws aren't tolerant

B: I think it's important to separate the actual lgbt folk from many of the SJWs pushing for their cause

Me: Most lgbts don't care about this shit. They just want a quiet life
And Singapore gives them that

A: Yep

Singapore has the most vibrant and lucrative LGBT scene in the region

Gay publications constantly point out Singapore as a good place to get action

The activism isn't really about allowing LGBT folk to practice

Anyway in Lawrence Khong's case there is lots of speculation he is closeted- in any case comparisons of him and westboro fail- he regularly employs LGBT folk for his events and prominent members of his church (Sam Willows) support pink dot openly.

I wonder how that works.

Me: Practice? Practise sodomy ah

A: Yah lor

Me: Ahem


Someone: The minds of Trans and cis people are different! Stop being a bigot and demand they be like you!

The brains of gay and straight people are different. It's not a choice stop asking people not to be gay!

The brains of men and women are different? You sexist mysoggykneest!

It's only different when it suits social justice

Me: Everything is 100% determined by socialisation. Except sexual preference which is innate and cannot be changed. If you think it can be changed you're a bigot.

Links - 20th July 2016

2006 The Schlieffen Plan – A Pistol Cocked at England’s Heart? | The History Network - "Plucky little Belgium also helped Britain in another unexpected way. At a time when there was no conscription, propaganda had to be used to encourage enlistment. In an ironic embezzlement of very recent history, some of the propaganda portrayed as German atrocities in Belgium was in fact what had been portrayed in the Belgian Congo under the notorious Leopold II...
A decided advantage rested with the defence. Up to 40 years earlier, almost 85% of all deaths on the battlefield were due to disease, with the remainder directly attributed to being shot. By the First World War, the relative positions had been reversed, with 85% now dying directly because of being shot. This turnaround had little to do with medical improvements but significantly greater with new, much more lethal technology... artillery accounted for almost 2/3 of all deaths...
Democracy [prolonged] the war. In former times, national leaders, being answerable only to their monarchs would have agreed to peace overtures much sooner after a stalemate had been reached. But now they had to pander to their electorates. Directly following on from that, instead of being employed to explore peace opportunities for the most part, diplomacy was subverted to enlisting new allies with extravagant promises or even contradictory promises. Democracy too was in part responsible for the Second World War. It was considered that the unusually harsh terms of the Treaty Versailles would appease and mollify the electorate for their sacrifices, particularly in France"

BBC World Service - The World This Week, The West helps Libya to aim high - "There's a weird sort of Stockholm Syndrome going on, a form of psychological imprisonment that needs no bars or chains. Many slaves apparently love their masters and prefer enslavement to poverty. If they escaped, they would have nothing: only the life of an outcast. Paradise is under your master's foot, is an old Mauritanian saying. One journalist reported seeing a slave and his master walking along the street holding hands. They told him they were best friends"

Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS143 - Scott Aaronson on "The theorem that proves rationalists can't disagree" - "Aumann's theorem is a theorem in interactive epistemology... if you've got two rational agents who are Bayesian, which is that they obey, they both believe, the rules of the probability calculus; and they've got common priors, which means that they assign the same probabilities before seeing anything to each possible state of the world; and we all know that they're honest and rational; and we all know that we know that, and know that we know that we know that, and so forth. These are admittedly big assumptions. Then these agents go off and live separate lives. They have different experiences. One of them reads one book, one of them reads another; one visits one country, and so forth. They have different experiences, which then causes them to update their beliefs differently... of course having had different experiences, having different knowledge, they may have different beliefs about this question. But it says, if they can ever reach a position where their opinions are common knowledge to each other, meaning that they both know each other's opinions and they both know that they know them, and they know that they know that they know them and so on, forever -- then that very fact implies that their opinion has to be equal. It's often summarized by saying that they cannot agree to disagree. Having common knowledge of each other's opinions precludes the opinions being different... if you've got rational Bayesians with common priors and so forth, then they're never going to exchange in speculative trade. They're never going to buy or sell stocks... If we could reach the point where I am arguing for a more liberal position and then five minutes later I switch or I'm now arguing for the more conservative position, and then I switch back and so forth, that is actually a good sign. That's a sign of people updating as rapidly as the math says that they should."

STUDY: 94 Percent of Gay Men More Likely to Bareback With Someone Attractive - "seven in every 10 gay men in London preferred to have sex without condoms. Additionally, four of every five gay men have previously engaged in condomless sex with someone they didn't know. The study, which was first reported by PinkNews, surveyed 160 gay men in London about their sex habits. Researchers found that 94 percent of the men said they were more likely to go bareback with someone attractive."

Latino Students Upset Over McDowell High School Prank Involving Wall - "Students at the Marion, N.C., school built a wall using cardboard boxes, reportedly alluding to the border wall proposed by Donald Trump, which upset the school’s Latino students"

I poured drain cleaner in my eyes to blind myself - "The afflicted woman knew from a young age she wanted to be blind, and would attempt to harm her eyesight by staring at the sun while “blind-simming,” or pretending to be blind."
"When I thought I was fat, they said no, I was anorexic. When I thought I was a girl, they said yup, have some hormones."

Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies - "Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed. Another wants to be blind. Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal. One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary. But doctors saved the leg. He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted... Some of his study participants do draw parallels to the experience many transgender people express of not feeling like they’re in the right body. Baldwin says this disorder is starting to be thought of as a neurological problem with the body’s mapping, rather than a mental illness. “It’s a problem for individuals because it’s distressing. But lots of things are.” He suggests this is just another form of body diversity — like transgenderism — and amputation may help someone achieve similar goals as someone who, say, undergoes cosmetic surgery to look more like who they believe their ideal selves to be... As the public begins to embrace people who identify as transgender, the trans people within the disability movement are also seeking their due... this has been met with great resistance in both the disability activist community and in transgender circles... “They tend to see transabled people as dishonest people, people who try to steal resources from the community, people who would be disrespectful by denying or fetishizing or romanticizing disability reality,” Baril says, adding people in both transgender and disabled circles tend to make judgmental or prejudicial statements about transabled people. “Each try to distance themselves.” Baril — who is himself disabled and transgender — believes the transgender community distances itself because it has worked very hard to de-pathologize what’s known as ‘gender dysphoria,’ and sought its removal from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"
Feminist circles used to have great resistance to the transgendered

Original Cosplay Is The Best Cosplay

Designer behind Kikkoman soy sauce bottle dies at 85 - "His desire to design was ignited after he saw Hiroshima's devastation following the U.S. atomic bombing of the city. When he saw the mangled cars, homes and household objects, he “heard their voices”: They said they wished they had been utilized more, he explained in a pamphlet for his Hiroshima exhibit last year."

Here's What Podiatrists Think About Your Crocs - "“Unfortunately Crocs are not suitable for all-day use,” Dr. Megan Leahy, a Chicago-based podiatrist with the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute, told HuffPost. While she granted that they “offer nice arch support,” she added that the real reason you shouldn’t wear them over long periods of time is that “these shoes do not adequately secure the heel. When the heel is unstable, toes tend to grip which can lead to tendinitis, worsening of toe deformities, nail problems, corns and calluses. The same thing can happen with flip flops or any backless shoes as the heel is not secured.”"

Russia's 'valiant hero' in Ukraine turns his fire on Vladimir Putin - "After nearly two years of sitting quietly, the erstwhile poster boy of the pro-Russia cause last week released a declaration strongly critical of President Vladimir Putin, and predicting upheaval and bloodshed in Russia in the near future... A radical nationalist who believes Russia should seize all the lands where ethnic Russians live, and who describes Ukrainians as “Russians who speak a different dialect”, Strelkov said it was fatal that Putin stopped after annexing Crimea... “The Kremlin is very scared of nationalists, because they use the same imperial rhetoric as Putin does but they can do it much better than him,” said Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and opposition politician. “That’s why there are nationalists in prison, even those who supported Putin. They went to kiss his feet, and he kicked them away.”"

Russian soldier: 'You're better clueless because the truth is horrible' - "The leader of the Donetsk rebels has admitted there are Russian soldiers in the region but says they are not there on orders of the Russian army but "on holiday"."

Armed robbers thwarted trying to hold up McDonald's where 11 special forces officers happened to be eating dinner - "Along with the French counter-terror police unit, le RAID, the GIGN are highly admired by peers in Britain and beyond. One former SAS officer, Col Tim Collins, recently described them as "among the most effective anti-terror forces in Europe, if not the world""

Jennifer Mulford claims she breastfeeds her bodybuilder boyfriend - "A woman from Atlanta has sparked outrage on social media after publicly announcing that she quit her job to breastfeed her 36-year-old bodybuilder boyfriend. Speaking to The Sun, Jennifer Mulford claimed she wanted to start an 'Adult Breastfeeding Relationship' with her partner Brad Leeson after reading about the bond breastfeeding could create between two people... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer, whose own daughter is now 20, has to 'dry' breastfeed Brad every two hours to induce lactation and fool her body into thinking she has had a baby... Jennifer and Brad's decision to publicly share their story has been slammed on social media, with many claiming the story is false, and others accusing Jennifer of 'sexualising' breastfeeding"

Narwhal tusk - Scientists finally solve its real purpose - "theories of how the animals used the body part differed greatly. Some biologists believed the horns are used for ice picks, while others said the horns picked up noises deep under water. Researchers discovered the horn is, in fact, used as a sensory organ"

Babies’ cuteness is key to their survival. What happens when they’re not that cute? - "Unattractive babies may face discrimination"

Waitress assaulted on French Riviera for 'serving alcohol' on first day of holy month of Ramadan - "In October 2014, three men, including the owner of a Halal store - since forcibly closed by police - threatened a baker who sold ham sandwiches, saying he wasn’t a “good Muslim”... Last month, a message purporting to come from the spokesman of Isil called on followers to launch attacks on the United States and Europe during Ramadan, calling it “the month of conquest and jihad”"

Some British people are getting laid a lot—just not in Britain - "Two groups of researchers analyzed surveys of what British people do when they travel abroad and found that sex is high on the list... The group was composed of people from 16-74 years old, who reported having at least one sexual partner in the past five years. Out of this group, 9.2 percent of men and 5.3 percent of women said they found one or more new sexual partners while outside the UK. And out of those groups, according to Tanton and her colleagues, there was a lot of "disassortative sexual mixing," meaning cross-nationality intermingling... People who had sex while overseas were also more sexually adventurous in general; they reported having more partners both at home and abroad, as well as multiple partners and partners of both sexes... This is especially true in the case of backpackers, who were the subject of a second study of sexual activity among people backpacking in Thailand. "Over one-third of backpackers traveling without a longterm partner or spouse had vaginal and/or anal intercourse with a new partner; one-third of these did not use condoms consistently," write medical researchers C.T. Lewis and G. de Wildt in their paper. When it came to safer sex, Brits and Swedes were the most likely to report not using a condom during their escapades. Germans had less unsafe sex than Brits and Swedes but only because they hooked up less often. Canadians were most likely to say they'd used a condom and were also more likely to hook up with a new partner than other groups. (So the best travel sex is with Canadians, everybody.)"

Refugees allowed into Italy after threat to drown babies
People respond to incentives

University of Oregon -- Martin Luther King Quote Almost Removed for Not Being Inclusive Enough - "Student leaders at the University of Oregon considered removing a famous Martin Luther King Jr. quote from a wall on its student center on the grounds that it was just not inclusive enough — because it talked only about racial discrimination and not discrimination based on stuff like gender identity...
Oh, and it gets worse: The entire reason that quote was put there in the first place was to replace another quote that students had found offensive — one that called the university “leader in the quest for the good life for all men” — which is obviously, you know, sexist as hell."

Something that's getting a lot of people's Facebook accounts suspended

Alishba Zarmeen: Stupid Pakistani men telling women to shut up about their anger against Qandeel's murder.

Stupid Pakistani men trying to use their anti-west rhetoric to silence international media in the name of political correctness.

Women of Pakistan and true liberals of the world: Do. Not. Let. Them. Win.


This is a protest against one of the latest Honour Killings in Pakistan that is being mass reported on Facebook, getting people's accounts suspended.

On Why PRCs and Indians have trouble renting places in Singapore

Re: Your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you (from 99.co)

A: If I give a coin to a Malay boy begging on the street instead of the elderly Indian female beggar hobbling on one leg next to him, I am guilty of discriminating against 1) elderly 2) females 3) handicapped 4) Indians.

Please stop casting preference as discrimination. Are madrasas racist? Are all boys-schools misogynist and all-girl schools misandrist?

C: it is a racial preference in one's personal space - a home rental, and it should, and will stay as a personal preference. So what, must chinese marry a non-chinese to show that he is not racist?

Me: This topic has come up before in this forum

Sadly because of some Indian tenants who misbehave, other Indians are affected

A: Now, if a Chinese gold merchant in Singapore refuses to sell gold to Chinese and only sells gold to Indians, is he racist? Based on the comments here, there will be strong support for this Chinese gold merchant who doesn't engage in 'racism' against minority Indians.

Now, if I tell you that the real reason is because Indians are so crazy over gold that they will pay a premium compared to Chinese buyers...

D: My cousin rented her condo to an indian expat family and they wreaked the bathrooms and kitchen so badly that the deposit can't cover the cleaning and repairs. Can I blame her for telling her friends never to rent their apartments to indian expats ? The interesting thing about this is that I heard the same from a local indian guy with similar bad experience. It might appear to be racism from the indian expat's POV, but it could just be him dealing with folks that were once bitten.

They wash the kitchen by spraying water everywhere soaking the cabinets until the wood was soaked and warped. The bathroom tiles had a sticky stain of oil (coconut oil) according to my indian friend. And the cabinets were also all water damaged. She was absolutely horrified.

A: When I urgently need to shit when out in public, why does society discriminate against my gender? I can't use the female toilet even when the shit is about to come out any time. Doesn't society not have the right to discriminate against the gender of the public? Either you decide to let the whole public use public toilets or not let the whole public use public toilets. It's very simple, really.

E: If you had a bad experience with someone from a certain company, would you still trust another person from the same company to provide service for you? You would be extra careful before taking up any agreement with the person from that company.

Me: For those who didn't see the previous thread about it, there're reasons why landlords might not want to rent to Indians

Landlords, how do you deal with curry smells left by tenants? : bayarea

"My parents are attempting to rent out their house and they're adamantly against renting to Indian families because they're afraid Indian cooking will cause the house to smell.

When they purchased their current house it literally took months before the curry smell dissipated despite professional cleaning"

F: Before anyone talks about discrimination, or racism, or xenophobia, go rent out your property first. Experience for yourself how it is like.

Go rent to Indians, or Chinese, or whoever you wish. Then let's talk when you have actual experience.

G: been there done that. I have no issue with it. Cleanliness is covered by the rental deposit.

D: Didn't cover the damage the indian expat family did to my cousin's condo.

Me: What obligation do we have to uphold social justice at very real personal costs?

Kelly La Rue's answer to Is it true only whites are considered racist? - Quora

F: Take a look at car insurance.

If you belong to a group with higher risk factor. eg. you are 21. Drive a subaru impreza. You are male. You pay a much higher insurance premium. If you say this is discrimination, and everyone should pay the same premium, then you are penalizing older, safer drivers.

Individual landlords does the same, but based on their own experiences. If risk is high, landlords prefer to lose money by not renting out their property. OR they ask for higher rental or higher deposits. If your references are good, your risk profile is low, you get more choices at rental properties, you pay less.

Me: Is it ageism to charge younger people more for auto insurance?

My friend had a Ferrari in his family. Auto insurance doesn't even cover under 30s. Is it ageism to refuse to cover younger people for auto insurance?

F: Take a look at http://sg.theasianparent.com/meet-the-asian-parent-team/ and tell me whether the HR department of Roshni's company is racist. Roshni is the Indian wife mentioned in the 99.co article.

they better not be racist themselves, particularly in employment, if they are pointing fingers at others.
23% Chinese employees, most of them junior staff, in a Country where over 70% of the population is Chinese is a lousy record.

E: This coming from the same guy who just sacked a staff for posting something on Facebook which caused an online witch hunt.

I suspect this is all just a marketing stint. No doubt discrimination is real, but to be honest, previously having worked as an agent, it isn't so bad that more than 30 landlords in the area refuses to rent just because of race. Most landlords actually would rather just take the rent. I suspect there is either something to do with the agent he hired, or something to do with the customer personal profile.

Me: In your experience what proportion of landlords won't rent to Indians?

E: My sample size would be too small to give an accurate representation, but from my experience, I've only had 1 in 10 actually refuse to rent to a particular race. Most others would state their personal preference, but would eventually agree to rent to the highest bidder / first offer that matches their desire rates.

There is one exception though. HDB flats.

G (who has substantial real estate experience): It usually applies to hdb and mass market. High end not really.

Me: So it's a class issue as well. Which makes sense.

G: Ok i am going to base my answer on my experience as a real estate agent.

For the high end market. $8-10k up. The race of the tenant usually does not matter. because in a sense they would usually have a helper to clean the house.

Mass market around $5k range. Issues like cleanliness of the house and maintenance are real concerns. i think at least 30% have some preference who they prefer to rent to.

HDB whole unit rental shares around the same rate as the mass market of landlords who will refuse to rent to indians and prc.

A group of students will have a harder time renting, because landlords will still prefer a family. ( because with a family nucleus they feel the house will be better taken care of. how many students actively do household chores. especially away from home )

I believe a landlord still has a right to choose, it's their property. If they dance around naked inside their property before renting it out, it's their prerogative to do so.

For those people talking smack.

Have u ever owned a property and rented it out to someone?

Because only someone who has not had the experience of renting out a property will think its strange to ask for a detail profile of the tenant.

preference for corporate tenants is not uncommon because the landlord can sue the bejesus out of the company if the property is damaged badly.

It is hard to go after someone who leaves the country permanently and won't be coming back.

PRC are known for subletting illegally. I have seen a 90sqm 3 bedroom hdb with more than 20 ppl living inside. I cannot imagine living in such conditions but they rented bed space out for $250 per month

I have prc tenants who call me to say they want to rent a place and then sublet ( hdb )

Certain districts there is plenty of cases of prc working ladies operating from condos n hdb.
( So yes if you are a female prc students looking to rent a place with other female friends. Tough )

Personally I find it hard to believe anyone can live in such an environment 20plus ppl in such a small space.

Can u imagine how much damage your property will sustain?

It's mostly a class issue. Landlords prefer to rent out with peace of mind. Whether if the incident happened to them or someone told them some story. The higher end market doesn't face such an issue.

Rental market is slowing so landlords seem to be less picky nowadays.

But heck talk is cheap.

For those crying foul. they can be a equal opportunity landlord. Come back after afew years then tell us what's your experience.

I believe they have never been landlords themselves and will never be able to relate to the worries of being a landlord.

A: I have some skin in the game, and you are spot on. The subletting issue of PRCs is well known and a nightmare. HDB owners especially are at risk because it is a potential contravention of the HDB lease agreement. Sure, you can have an indemnity clause in the contract, but if you lose your flat because HDB says so (and they have final say because you are merely leasing from them), good luck in pursuing your indemnification from the tenant.

Me: I believe there is also strict liability. Even if you don't know you are housing illegal immigrants you will kenna

G: If they illegally house illegal immigrants in the premises.

Hdb can repossess the property at 90% of market value or purchase price. Which ever is lower.

Depending on which year u bought. That's a potential hundred thousand loss. Not including stamp duties n legal fees u paid and will incur when u buy another flat.

Indian tenants have a reputation for suddenly have more family members move in later, sometimes without informing the landlord.

U rent the place to 5 pax family. Their cousin aunt uncle will move in later on. Sometimes landlord suspect it's not a relative but they are renting out to other ppl under the guise.

Cleanliness and upkeep is also a concern like with PRC tenants. For the lower end market. Often the deposit is not sufficient to cover the damages.

The cooking smell apparently stays within the house for some time. U actually need to repaint and get it cleaned professionally to remove the smell at the end of the lease and u want to rent it out to other ppl.

I think it's fair that landlords have a right to choose who they want to rent it to.

Indian and PRC landlords sometimes also refuse to rent to their fellow countrymen.

Local Chinese refuse to rent to local chinese family because why Singaporean don't have their own flat. Later loanshark problem etc

Me: I heard of locals who won't rent to locals because they think they should either stay with their parents or get married and get their own place

B: Quarterly inspections on an agreed schedule with reasonable notice periods solve upkeep issues.

H: how does one know the behaviour of a stranger?

B: References.

G: Some landlord rather not deal with the issue and spend time and money to solve the problem.

They rather not rent to them.

Room rentals

Indian landlords also offer only Indian tenants

Same applies for malay landlords.
No Chinese cos they eat pork.

Some prefer only male some prefer only female

Some don't want students. Some prefer students. Some prefer professionals.

Sexist ageist religious dietary nationalistic discrimination?

U can come up with magic dust to fix the problems.

Landlord prefer to not waste time effort and money. They prefer to collect rent in peace and take over the apartment in a acceptable condition.

Quarterly inspections is a stupid suggestion.

Landlord don't want to waste time. Tenant don't want to be disturbed.

There is a quiet enjoyment clause which states that u must not intrude on the tenant.

It is not common market practice.

Like I said they know nothing about the realities/practices of the rental market.

It made me LOL that ppl think landlords should think of Social Justice more than their own convenience, profit or peace of mind.

B: Quarterly inspections is about due diligence. If you as a landlord think it's a waste of time to do a regular checkup and avert costly issues then you'rea terrible landlord.

G: I have a cobroke agent relate to me how an Indian expat abandoned the apartment. Stole all the appliances. Even took down the AC unit and left the country.

Tenant also left the water on and flooded the apartment.

Landlord was rightfully hoping mad and swore he will never rent out to Indians again. Damages were apparently more than 100k.

Condo was eventually enbloc.

A: Quarterly inspection! Good luck removing people after they moved in.

G: I may not agree with the landlords, but they as the owner have a right to choose what they perceive is in their own interests.

When the market is bad enough. Landlords will be more willing to open up their options.

This is a contract between 2 willing parties. In a upmarket. Landlords have more power to pick and choose. Now market is slowing. Tenants have more options and more bargaining power.

It is not against the law here in Singapore to have your preference as a landlord.

The policy of non discriminatory ads is silly to me. Since landlord do not want certain type of tenants. Why even let them view and waste their time.

If I tell my landlords they can rent to x and then conduct quarterly inspections.

Other tenants will not rent.

My landlord's tenant: British Indian and his Indian Malaysian wife for my bukit Timah apartment. Even refuse to allow viewing during their occupation of the premises.

So is the landlord supposed to target certain tenants for such a clause.

Isn't that discrimination?

The fix to discrimination is to fix more discriminatory clauses?

B: If you don't do quarterly inspections and don't make that part of the contract then don't be surprised when someone takes advantage of you. It's the failure to minimal sensible precautions that is only your fault.

Why a landlord needs to perform quarterly inspections on their rental properties.

G: It's easy to tell other ppl what to do when u do not have to do it yourself.


Amusing asides:

B: For example, identical candidates for a job technically speaking, but using only race as the deciding factor, is resist.

Me: What should be the deciding factor? The roll of a die?

B: yes, that should be the deciding factor.

A: HR companies need to make it a practice to hire a third party to publicly flip a coin in front of two equally qualified candidates and have a document signed by a notary public witnessing the coin toss to ensure that race wasn't a factor. Man.. Why hasn't this been an established HR practice yet?

B: If there are two candidates for one job where it's not possible to decide based on performance metrics, then yes a coin toss is done.


There're also multiple people on Yahoo Singapore talking about Indians who refuse to rent to Indian Indians, or Chinese who refuse to rent to China Chinese.

Links - 18th July 2016

Indian company finally delivers $5 smartphone

AfD Politician ridicules Green Party LGBTTQQ Proposal by greeting Parliament in 60 different Genders - YouTube

Woman jailed for registering marriage without consent - "When her boyfriend left her after becoming suspicious the son they shared was not biologically his, a woman devised a plan to get her lover back. The 32-year-old finance assistant stole her ex-boyfriend’s national registration identity card (NRIC) and enlisted the help of her friend Matthew Yeo Chia Loong to impersonate him, then she registered their marriage."

Women From Venus, Men Still From Mars on Facebook, Study Finds - The New York Times - "Women used warmer, gentler words in their status updates on Facebook compared to men, who were more likely to swear, express anger and use argumentative language, a study of 10 million postings released on Wednesday found. In a bit of a surprise, the study showed that women used slightly more assertive language, said H. Andrew Schwartz, an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University and one of its authors... The most commonly cited topics by women included words such as “wonderful,” “happy,” “birthday,” “daughter,” “baby,” “excited” and “thankful.” Women were more likely to discuss family and social life, relying on words that described positive emotions, such as “love,” and intensive adverbs, such as “sooo,” “sooooo,” and “ridiculously,” the study said. Men more frequently discussed topics related to money or work, and favored words tied to politics, sports, competition and activities, such as shooting guns or playing video games. Men commonly used words such as “freedom,” “liberty,” “win,” “lose,” “battle” and “enemy.” “The differences were interpreted as reflecting a male tendency toward objects and impersonal topics and a female tendency toward psychological and social processes,” the report said... It also was a data-based way to study social media that could be replicated outside the United States, to see if such gender differences surface in other cultures and societies"

Infants' preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: sex differences and similarities. - "Girls and boys differ in their preferences for toys such as dolls and trucks. These sex differences are present in infants, are seen in non-human primates, and relate, in part, to prenatal androgen exposure. This evidence of inborn influences on sex-typed toy preferences has led to suggestions that object features, such as the color or the shape of toys, may be of intrinsically different interest to males and females. We used a preferential looking task to examine preferences for different toys, colors, and shapes in 120 infants, ages 12, 18, or 24 months. Girls looked at dolls significantly more than boys did and boys looked at cars significantly more than girls did, irrespective of color, particularly when brightness was controlled. These outcomes did not vary with age. There were no significant sex differences in infants' preferences for different colors or shapes. Instead, both girls and boys preferred reddish colors over blue and rounded over angular shapes. These findings augment prior evidence of sex-typed toy preferences in infants, but suggest that color and shape do not determine these sex differences. In fact, the direction of influence could be the opposite. Girls may learn to prefer pink, for instance, because the toys that they enjoy playing with are often colored pink. Regarding within sex differences, as opposed to differences between boys and girls, both boys and girls preferred dolls to cars at age 12-months. The preference of young boys for dolls over cars suggests that older boys' avoidance of dolls may be acquired. Similarly, the sex similarities in infants' preferences for colors and shapes suggest that any subsequent sex differences in these preferences may arise from socialization or cognitive gender development rather than inborn factors."
Boys play with dolls too - they're called action figures

Who said “The Definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”? - "The quote, through great debate, has been attributed to Ben Franklin, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Rita Mae Brown. It has been repeated through variation by coaches, athletes, overweight women, neurotic psych patients, housewives and, most recently, conservative political commentators... Who knows? It could very well be just an ancient Chinese proverb. I would sincerely love any information you come across regarding this. After all, the great Einstein once said, “Knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle.”"

There's A Reason Nigerian Scammers Are So Obvious In Their Emails - "the genius behind such an obvious scam in terms of “false positives,” referring to email recipients who engage with the scammers but don’t ultimately pay. Reaching out to scores of potential victims isn’t much work, thanks to the ease of email, but with each reply from a gullible target, the scammers are required to put forth a little more effort. Therefore, it’s in the scammers’ best interest to minimize the number of false positives who cost them effort but never send them cash. By sending an initial email that’s obvious in its shortcomings, the scammers are isolating the most gullible targets. If you trash their email, that’s fine. They don’t want you, someone from whom there’s virtually no chance of receiving any money. They want people who, faced with a ridiculous email, still don’t recognize its illegitimacy... the best defense against these crooks is to game their system and waste their time. Ideally, he says, this would take the form of a chatbot that engages with scammers, to make them put in the effort toward the false positives they’re trying to avoid."

Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children - "Sex differences in toy preferences in children are marked, with boys expressing stronger and more rigid toy preferences than girls, whose preferences are more flexible. Socialization processes, parents, or peers encouraging play with gender-specific toys are thought to be the primary force shaping sex differences in toy preference. A contrast in view is that toy preferences reflect biologically-determined preferences for specific activities facilitated by specific toys. Sex differences in juvenile activities, such as rough-and-tumble play, peer preferences, and infant interest, share similarities in humans and monkeys. Thus if activity preferences shape toy preferences, male and female monkeys may show toy preferences similar to those seen in boys and girls. We compared the interactions of 34 rhesus monkeys, living within a 135 monkey troop, with human wheeled toys and plush toys. Male monkeys, like boys, showed consistent and strong preferences for wheeled toys, while female monkeys, like girls, showed greater variability in preferences. Thus, the magnitude of preference for wheeled over plush toys differed significantly between males and females. The similarities to human findings demonstrate that such preferences can develop without explicit gendered socialization. We offer the hypothesis that toy preferences reflect hormonally influenced behavioral and cognitive biases which are sculpted by social processes into the sex differences seen in monkeys and humans."

Sex-Typed Toy Play Behavior Correlates with the Degree of Prenatal Androgen Exposure Assessed by CYP21 Genotype in Girls with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia - "Previous studies have shown that girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a syndrome resulting in overproduction of adrenal androgens from early fetal life, are behaviorally masculinized. We studied play with toys in a structured play situation and correlated the results with disease severity, assessed by CYP21 genotyping, and age at diagnosis. Girls with CAH played more with masculine toys than controls when playing alone. In addition, we could demonstrate a dose-response relationship between disease severity (i.e. degree of fetal androgen exposure) and degree of masculinization of behavior. The presence of a parent did not influence the CAH girls to play in a more masculine fashion. Four CAH girls with late diagnosis are also described. Three of the four girls played exclusively with one of the masculine toys, a constructional toy. Our results support the view that prenatal androgen exposure has a direct organizational effect on the human brain to determine certain aspects of sex-typed behavior."

Dolls, toys and formative attitudes towards children and childbearing - "As in most of the working papers in the series, the over-riding conclusion of this piece is that both biological and social processes play a crucial role in shaping children‘s interactions with toys which, in turn, has been found to significantly impact upon an individual‘s gendered scheme and progression"

Can genes make us liberal or conservative? - "Working with 1771 university students of Han Chinese origin in Singapore, researchers compared answers to surveys—including one tailored to hot-button issues in the city-state—with the presence of a permutation of the DRD4 gene. DRD4 is one of several genes that determines the way dopamine—a crucial neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger—is released in the brain. What they found was a robust link between the presence (or not) of the variant and a split between liberals inclined to decry inequality, on the one hand, and die-hard conservative wary of change, on the other. "The association between political attitude and DRD4 was highly significant for females," and less so for men, said the study, led by Richard Ebstein of the National University of Singapore. Women, it was also shown, tended to be more conservative in general. The results are bolstered by earlier research based on people of European descent that found similar patterns around the same gene, according to the study."

Study Predicts Political Beliefs With 83 Percent Accuracy - "If you want to know people’s politics, tradition said to study their parents. In fact, the party affiliation of someone’s parents can predict the child’s political leanings about around 70 percent of the time. But new research, published yesterday in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests what mom and dad think isn’t the endgame when it comes to shaping a person’s political identity. Ideological differences between partisans may reflect distinct neural processes, and they can predict who’s right and who’s left of center with 82.9 percent accuracy, outperforming the “your parents pick your party” model"

Patriarchy, Male Competition, and Excess Male Mortality - "Studies of patriarchy typically focus on women’s subordination to men and thedetrimental consequences for females. In this study, however, the authors predict thatgreater social empowerment of women will be associated with smaller mortalitydifferences between women and men, which may seem counterintuitive from a non-evolutionary perspective. In other words, they predict that higher levels of societalpatriarchy will be associated with greater levels of excess male mortality. They proposethat the degree of patriarchy reflects both the extent of male control of females asreproductive assets, as well as the degree of male competition for positions of highstatus and power that have historically conferred disproportionate reproductive benefits.The intensity of this male competition directly predicts the extent to which malemortality rates exceed female mortality rates. The authors examined national levelsociodemographic and mortality data from the WHO Mortality Database, UnitedNations, CIA World Factbook, and the Encyclopedia of World Cultures. They foundthat across nations, women’s social and economic empowerment had a strong inverserelationship with the disparity between male and female mortality from both external(direct behavioral) and (behaviorally mediated) internal causes, even when accountingfor general economic inequality and the prevalence of polygyny. This study demon-strates the usefulness of an evolutionary framework for explaining contemporary socialphenomena and important public health issues"

How to Be Tim Ferriss - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "FERRISS: I do not give money, and I’ll tell you why. I at one point paid a homeless gentleman in San Francisco to give me a tour of the entire sort of homeless underground in San Francisco... he walked me through the Tenderloin, through all these different areas, and he pointed out where to get clothing, where to get housing, where to get blankets, where to get food, where to get all these resources, and he said, anyone who is asking for money is doing so to buy drugs or alcohol."

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Monday's business with Rob Young - "Look, we can try and construct every negative thing that's happening as being down to Donald Trump or Brexit. That seems to be what lots of people are doing. But let's be realistic about this"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'America is gone' if Trump loses US election - "'Your prediction therefore is that Donald Trump will win'
'I think so. I'm not as confident about the presidency. And why is that? It's not because of women voters. It's a question of whether the Democratic Party has already changed the county enough. Oh and by the way, do not imagine Democrats are for mass immigration of the Third World because of great humanitarian concerns. Post-1970 immigrants vote 8-2 for the Democrats. They've changed the electorate. California where we're sitting now used to give us Republican Presidents. Reagan, Nixon. No Republicans get elected to statewide anymore. Well, they've been - Teddy Kennedy's immigration act. They're trying to do it to the whole country"

How to Win Games and Beat People - Freakonomics Freakonomics - "WHIPPLE: I spoke to a structural engineer who spent a lot of the time talking about how he likes to beat architects at Jenga because his fundamental hypothesis was they can do all their fancy drawings but he can play Jenga... the most interesting person was a woman who invented it I spoke to. And she said that when she plays Jenga with people, she is often accused of cheating, because she likes to put her elbow against the tower when she is pulling out the blocks to stabilize it, and people say you can’t do this. And she says, “Well, look, I invented the game. There are only three rules!” You can only use one hand; you can only take out one block at a time; and if that block touches the floor then it’s over."

Observations - 18th July 2016

I prefer being served by Malay or Indian service staff than Chinese, because they'll speak English. Does that make me racist?

I don't think Hong Kongers are upset about how expensive it is to drive there because their public transport is so good. Carphobes shouldn't put the cart before the horse. Public transport must be improved before we continue to squeeze car owners.


I believe in equality. I make fun of everyone.

“An Activist tries to get a ramp added to a building for easier wheelchair access. A Social Justice Warrior tries to get the stairs removed because they might offend people who can’t use them.”

The most equal societies are hunter gatherer societies. Perhaps we should destroy civilisation.

"In 100 years time will people still be blaming colonialism for Africa's problems?"
"Some people still bang on and on about the crusades as justification for social problems and a reason for hating and killing people 'in retaliation' for those crimes.
That happened literally a millennium ago..."

"ISIS identifies as Islamic.
"No they're not Islamic," say the left.
Boy identifies as girl.
"Absolutely," say the left."

SJWs' hypersensitivity to "rape" (i.e. sex) but not violence curiously mirrors the American sensibility of being allergic to sex but not violence

If Islamist terrorists attacked Singapore, some would blame this on Chinese racism

"When your chances of being sued rises sigificantly when you hire a female or person of color. Assuming both candidates are equally qualified, as a business decision, is it not smart to hire the white guy?"
(in other words, this might be one reason accounting for lower "minority" representation)

"If not for the male gaze there would be very little art"

"Micro aggressions never get micro reactions"

Ironically, people who are easily offended have the least qualms offending others.

"It's hard to believe that advocating prevention equates to victim blaming. Then again, advocating condoms to some people equates to promoting promiscuous"

Not sure why it's so bad to deny others' experiences. If you said you saw Muslims celebrating in the streets after 911 and I questioned that would I be denying your experience?


"You've got to grow calluses on your heart, or you will bleed to death"

"when the world is bad people turn to art for escapism...
when the world is easy people turn to art to make it seem like a struggle."


Why don't those who want polystyrene banned ask for disposable diapers to be banned too?

"my office is opposite cat welfare society hq
wonder if it's indicative of anything but a lot of their main staff/volunteers are bbw"

The BBC keeps going on about so-called Islamic State. They should also talk about so-called Great Britain and the so-called United Kingdom.

If someone promotes stuff he has a financial interest in is he trying to increase business... or putting his money where his mouth is?

Amused that 20th Century Fox needed to tell us that they didn't accept money to endorse tobacco products in X-Men Apocalypse.

"once you go brown, you can't sit down"

Why do many slimming centres only accept female customers? Do male physiologies really differ so much? Or are women more gullible? (Someone: There are "slimming centres" that target men, they're called gyms.)

Links - 13th July 2016

Yale students want to remake the English Major requirements, but there's no escaping white male poets in the canon. - "Their demands: abolish the major English poets cycle and revise the remaining requirements “to deliberately include literatures relating to gender, race, sexuality, ableism, and ethnicity.” “It is your responsibility as educators to listen to student voices,” the letter concludes. “We have spoken. We are speaking. Pay attention”... Here’s the thing, though. If you want to become well-versed in English literature, you’re going to have to hold your nose and read a lot of white male poets... I want to gently push back, too, against the idea that the major English poets have nothing to say to students who aren’t straight, male, and white. For all the ways in which their particular identities shaped their work, these writers tried to represent the entire human condition, not just their clan. A great artist possesses both empathy and imagination: Many of Shakespeare’s female characters are as complexly nuanced as any in circulation today, Othello takes on racial prejudice directly, and Twelfth Night contains enough gender-bending identity shenanigans to fuel multiple drag shows and occupy legions of queer scholars. The “stay in your lane” mentality that seems to undergird so much progressive discourse—only polyamorous green people really “get” the “polyamorous green experience,” and therefore only polyamorous greens should read and write about polyamorous greens, say—ignores our common humanity"
There is a great parallel to affirmative action here

All scientific papers to be free by 2020 under EU proposals

Why we should close women's prisons and treat their crimes more fairly - "The sentencing system should be reformed radically to deal more fairly with female offending. The starting position is that no female offender should be imprisoned. In relation to most forms of crime, they should be dealt with by way of intermediate sanctions including the greater use of electronic monitoring. In the rare instances that women commit heinous crimes, community protection and the need to impose proportionate penalties requires a prison term but this should be the exception, not the increasing norm. The exception is so rare that the utopia of closing prisons would readily become a reality."
Feminist logic: If <50% of CEOs are women, women are being discriminated against. If women are 8% of prisoners, women are being discriminated against.

The Veiled Virgin - "There are similar marble busts depicting veiled women in Canada, the United States, Ireland and England. None, however, are as meticulously crafted as the Newfoundland Veiled Virgin by Strazza: the facial features and the braids in the hair are clearly visible through the stone veil."

Police Use Pizza, Granola Bar To Lure Robbery Suspect From Lake

BBC Warns Football Fans Dressing as Crusaders 'Offensive' to Muslims

Rose McGowan Calls Out ‘X-Men’ Billboard That Shows Mystique Being Strangled - "As 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: Apocalypse stormed theaters over the long weekend, critics took aim at billboards featuring Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse choking Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique. Among them was Rose McGowan, who elaborated on a May 25 Facebook post to THR: "There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film. There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid. The geniuses behind this, and I use that term lightly, need to to take a long hard look at the mirror and see how they are contributing to society. Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero? The outcry would be enormous. So let’s right this wrong. 20th Century Fox, since you can’t manage to put any women directors on your slate for the next two years, how about you at least replace your ad?""
Clearly, the solution is to stop women from featuring as key characters in action movies

UC San Diego Votes to Ban Plastic Water Bottles - "When bottled water isn’t an option in vending machines, they just grab other bottled drinks, which meant the “water bottle ban” was actually followed by an increase in the number of plastic bottles on campus of 6%. As for UC San Diego, they say that instead of offering only drinking fountains as an alternative as UVermont did, they’ll make sure the campus stores stock “boxed water,” an “environmentally friendly” alternative to bottled water. But according to the Bottled Water council (also a real thing), only 0.92% of all plastic used in the US is contained in water bottles, and most of it is recyclable. The real danger to the environment comes in the shipping and production phases — phases that aren’t eliminated when you switch to boxed water. And we’ve been to a few summer music festivals where they serve only boxed water, and it creates a huge heap of trash because people don’t realize, like they do with cans and bottles, that boxed water is recyclable"

Six Reasons Why Barack Obama is a Great President, via Anthony Bourdain - "The reaction among regular people in Hanoi to the fact that the US President chose to eat Bun Cha was beyond all imagining. The effect was unbelievable. People were actually crying the next day, describing to me their shock and their pride, the reactions of their neighbors, to this completely unexpected choice of meal—and the venue.
He was among the very few guests on my show who ever asked the camera crew if they got to eat too. And he made a point of taking a picture with all of them when we were done."

Grandmother, 60, fined RM500 for offering sex to policeman
I guess she should've stuck to money

English T-Shirts In Asia (20+ Pics)

What It Means to Be Trans Species - ""I was never a normal child, per se, Eric explains. "I used to insist I was a dog to my parents when I was younger." This went on until he was around ten, and he realized his friends didn't feel the same way about their bodies as he did. "I was having a casual conversation with a friend about feeling body parts that weren't there," he tells me. "I had no idea that most people didn't feel them. I looked into what could cause things like that and eventually stumbled across the term: otherkin"... The debate between transgenderism and otherkin is one area Miranda would like to see evolve. "It seems that many people of the transgender community think that otherkin is a mock version of transgenderism and are very hateful of it," she says. "This is not the case for us of course, as many of us are in the LGBT+ community"... Riviera says the biggest misconception about the trans species community is that they aren't oppressed. But bullying and harassment are all too common. "The constant barrage of hate mail from the internet, all the time, gets very wearying""
I sexually identify as an attack helicopter

UK will shelter Singapore trans woman who faces compulsory army service as a man back home - "her visa was up in 2012, and she appealed to the British courts to allow her to stay, saying she found it distressing to think about having to return to serve her reservist obligations... She had told the courts of her recurring nightmares about her time in the military, and would find it intolerable to be treated as a man upon her return to Singapore. One of the judges was quoted saying: "I find that the requirement of the appellant to essentially hide her gender and live as a man, even for two weeks a year, would be wholly unreasonable.""
I knew of a transsexual serviceman when I was a slave. This person's complaints are almost certainly groundless

Transgender women 'attacked in the street' by north African teenagers in Germany - "Moroccans and Algerians have almost no chance of being granted asylum in Germany, but there has been a dramatic increase in applicants from the two countries, with thousands arriving in the last six months."

'Call me Caitlyn, or else': the rise of authoritarian transgender politics - "There is a palpable religiosity to the wild hailing of Bruce/Caitlyn as a modern-day saint, a Virgin Mary with testicles. Within four hours, more than a million people were following Bruce/Caitlyn’s new Twitter account, hanging on her words like the expectant horde waiting for Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. Her every utterance, all banal celeb-speak, was retweeted tens of thousands of times. Celebs and commentators greeted her as a kind of messiah... Just as those who denied the divinity of Christ were once expected to recant their heresy, so those who deny the gender of Caitlyn Jenner are hounded by bots into apologising for their moral error. The American gay-rights group GLAAD is scouring the mainstream media for any use of the word ‘he’ in relation to Caitlyn, like a modern incarnation of the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, which monitored the public sphere for any less-than-gushing commentary on God... The insistence that we not only refer to Bruce/Caitlyn as ‘she’ but also project this backwards – recognising, in the words of the Guardian, that she has ‘always been a woman’ – is borderline Orwellian. It’s a rewriting of history, a memory-holing of old inconvenient facts. Strikingly, the Guardian writer says people like Bruce/Caitlyn have ‘always been women… even when they were “fathering” children’. Notice it’s the ‘fathering’ bit that is in scare quotes, suggesting it wasn’t real, while the description of Bruce as a woman is treated as an incontestable truth. War is peace, freedom is slavery, man is woman. This trans Orwellianism is increasingly finding expression in the law itself. In Ireland last year, a trans woman won the right to have her sex changed to female on her actual birth certificate"

Chris Evans’ Top Gear loses a third of its audience - "Chris Evans’ Top Gear suffered a big drop in its viewing figures for its second episode, drawing what is thought to be its lowest audience for at least a decade... Last night’s overnight audience is lower than the 3.1 million average for the very first Top Gear series featuring Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond broadcast in 2002... Top Gear is BBC2’s biggest show but, more importantly than that, it is the biggest earner for the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, watched in more than 80 countries within 72 hours of its broadcast in the UK. The BBC moved to defend the show after reports that 370 viewers had complained about its new incarnation - perhaps predictable after the departure of its long-running presenting team - but also that it received the lowest audience appreciation scores of any BBC2 show last week."
Luckily the BBC isn't profit driven, or they would be really regretting firing Jeremy Clarkson

Chris Evans 'swore at Top Gear audience' who didn't laugh at his jokes - "Chris Evans reportedly swore at audience members when filming the revamped Top Gear, telling them off for their clothing choices, not being loud enough and not laughing at his jokes."

Jeremy Clarkson: TV obsessed with hiring 'black Muslim lesbians' - "In response to questions about the lack of female presenters on BBC's Top Gear, Clarkson said: "The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blond-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian. "Chalk and cheese, they reckon, works. But here we have Top Gear setting new records after six years using cheese and cheese. It confuses them"... Clarkson went on to defend women drivers and ask why there are not more of them in Formula One. He said: "Unlike furious thin-lipped feminists, I tend not to draw distinctions between men and women, apart from in bed where you really do need to spot the differences. "At work, girls are just people. It's the same story at parties and it's especially the same on the road. The worst driver in the world is Top Gear's studio director ... He cannot park without kerbing the wheels and he cannot get into his own drive without crashing into his house. And he has a scrotum.""
The claim that viewership or other audience figures suffer because people want to see people like them onscreen is questionable. Good content is the most important

TV can boost self-esteem of white boys, study says - "Parents of white girls and African-American children, however, might want to limit the amount of time their kids spend in front of the tube. The self-esteem of white girls, black girls and black boys decreases with TV consumption, says the study, published in Communication Research."

Chinese minister vents anger when Canadian reporter asks about human rights - "Senior Chinese officials are accustomed to not having to face tough questions from the press at home, given the state’s chokehold on the media,” she said. “But instead of being better equipped to answer ordinary questions like these when travelling abroad, officials like foreign minister Wang seem to think they can impose those same constraints on journalists abroad – and on that subject they are sorely mistaken.” Richardson said Wang was also wrong to claim only Chinese people were equipped to discuss the country’s human rights situation. “If that’s true, why is his government imprisoning rather than engaging people like [jailed Nobel laureate] Liu Xiaobo and so many others from China who have similar questions?” Wang’s verbal attack on the journalist and Canada’s failure to speak out against it sparked online criticism"

Are Game Show Audiences Trustworthy? - "When the show was introduced in Russia, contestants quickly learned to be wary of asking the audience for help because Russian audiences frequently mislead them, intentionally giving the wrong answer. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the players or the questions they ask for help on. In France, audiences seem to fall in the middle. They don’t regularly attempt to trick players, as Russian (and according to my googling, Ukrainian) audiences do. But unlike U.S. audiences, they don’t seem willing to help under any circumstances, either. They appear to intentionally give the wrong answer if the contestant asks for help on a question the audience perceives as too easy. If they think the player ought to know the answer they give the wrong response, apparently thinking the contestant deserves to lose if they’re so stupid. In the video you can hear audience laughter when Henri decides to go with the results of the audience poll. Ori and Rom Brafman suggest this relates to notions of fairness, which have been shown to vary widely by culture. They say that in the U.S., we think it’s fair for people to win large sums of money even if they seem dumb, while in France, there is more concern about whether the individual deserves to win"

Pinker on why it doesn't matter that parenting has little effect on children

"“I hope to God this isn’t true,” one mother said to the Chicago Tribune. “The thought that all this love that I’m pouring into him counts for nothing is too terrible to contemplate.” As with other discoveries about human nature, people hope to God it isn’t true. But the truth doesn’t care about our hopes, and sometimes it can force us to revisit those hopes in a liberating way.

Yes, it is disappointing that there is no algorithm for growing a happy and successful child. But would we really want to specify the traits of our children in advance, and never be delighted by the unpredictable gifts and quirks that every child brings into the world? People are appalled by human cloning and its dubious promise that parents can design their children by genetic engineering. But how different is that from the fantasy that parents can design their children by how they bring them up? Realistic parents would be less anxious parents. They could enjoy their time with their children rather than constantly trying to stimulate them, socialize them, and improve their characters. They could read stories to their children for the pleasure of it, not because it’s good for their neurons.

Many critics accuse Harris of trying to absolve parents of responsibility for their children’s lives: if the kids turn out badly, parents can say it’s not their fault. But, by the same token she is assigning adults responsibility for their own lives: if your life is not going well, stop moaning that it’s all your parents’ fault. She is rescuing mothers from fatuous theories that blame them for every misfortune that befalls their children, and from the censorious know-it-all who, make them feel like ogres if they slip out of the house to work or skip a reading of Goodnight Moon. And the theory assigns us all a collective responsibility for the health of the neighbourhoods and culture in which peer groups are embedded.

Finally: “So you’re saying it doesn’t matter how I treat my children?” What a question! Yes, of course it matters. Harris reminds her readers of the reasons.

First, parents wield enormous power over their children, and their actions can make a big difference to their happiness. Childrearing is above all an ethical responsibility. It is not OK for parents to beat, humiliate, deprive, or neglect their children, because those are awful things for a big strong person to do to a small helpless one. As Harris writes, “We may not hold their tomorrows in our hands but we surely hold their todays, and we have the power to make their todays very miserable.”

Second, a parent and a child have a human relationship. No one ever asks, “So you’re saying it doesn’t matter how I treat my husband or wife?” even though no one but a newlywed believes that one can change the personality of one’s spouse. Husbands and wives are nice to each other (or should be) not to pound the other’s personality into a desired shape but to build a deep and satisfying relationship. Imagine being told that one cannot revamp the personality of a husband or wife and replying “The thought that all this love I’m pouring into him (or her) counts for nothing is too terrible to contemplate” So it is with parents and children: one person’s behaviour toward another has consequences for the quality of the relationship between them. Over the course of a lifetime the balance of power shifts, and children, complete with memories of how they were treated, have a growing say in their dealings with their parents. As Harris puts it, “If you don’t think the moral imperative is a good enough reason to be nice to your kid, try this one: Be nice to your kid when he’s young so that he will be nice to you when you’re old.” There are well-functioning adults who still shake with rage when recounting the cruel times their parents inflicted on them as children. There are others who moisten up in private moments when recalling a kindness or sacrifice made for their happiness, perhaps one that the mother or father has long forgotten. If for no other reason, parents should treat their children well to allow them to grow up with such memories.

I have found that when people hear these explanations they lower their eyes and say, somewhat embarrassedly, “Yes. I knew that.” The fact that people can forget these simple truths when intellectualizing about children shows how far modern doctrines have taken us. They make it easy to think of children as lumps of putty to be shaped instead of partners in a human relationship. Even the theory that children adapt to their peer group becomes less surprising when we think of them as human beings like ourselves. “Peer group” is a patronizing term we use in connection with children for what we call “friends and colleagues and associates” when we talk about ourselves. We groan when children obsess over wearing the right kind of cargo pants, but we would be just as mortified if a very large person forced us to wear pink overalls to a corporate board meeting or a polyester disco suit to an academic conference. “Being socialized by a peer group” is another way of saying “living successfully within a society” which for a social organism means “living”. It is children, above all, who are alleged to be blank slates, and that can make us forget they are people."

--- The Blank Slate / Steven Pinker

Conspiracy Theorists in Heaven

Two conspiracy theorists die and go to Heaven.

When they get there God says they can ask any question they want and God will answer because God knows all.

So they say, "are GMOs dangerous?"

God says "no".

Then one turns to the other and says, "wow, the conspiracy goes up even further than we realized!"

(via comment)

Links - 12th July 2016

Audio Quality Quiz Results: You Did Slightly Better Than Guessing Randomly - "Last week, we published a quiz testing listeners on their ability to discern between lossless audio and compressed mp3s. We picked six songs from different eras and genres: an early digital recording of a Mozart piano concerto, an a cappella version of a pop song, the billionth song ever sold on iTunes, the most-streamed song of 2014 and two songs from musicians who happen to own digital music services. We cut a short clip from each song and then offered that clip three ways: as a 128 kbps MP3 file, a 320 kbps MP3 file and a higher-quality lossless WAV file. Then we asked you to guess which one was the lossless file... most listeners have trouble discerning between lossless audio and a high-quality mp3"

Outrage after gorilla Harambe killed when child falls into exhibit at Cincinnati Zoo - "The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo in order to save a child who fell in its enclosure has sparked nationwide outrage. Animal activists have created online petitions and Facebook pages after a special zoo response team shot and killed the 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe. The four-year-old boy spent a terrifying 10 to 15 minutes alone on Saturday with the adult male gorilla. Harambe grabbed and dragged the little boy after the boy fell into the gorilla exhibit, officials said. Many are angry the endangered gorilla was put down. Others want the boy's mother to face child endangerment charges, CBS News' Jamie Yuccas reported. Facebook pages like "Justice for Harambe" are quickly spreading. The Facebook page currently has more than 11,000 likes."
Looks like gorillas are more important than children. "Animal rights" is just misanthropy in disguise; if you value charismatic megafauna above other animals (I'm betting the vast majority of the protestors aren't vegan), you're still speciest - which is even less consistent/defensible than human-centred speciesm

#JusticeForHarambe Is An Absurd Hashtag - "Anyone with children knows that they disappear. It’s not unheard of. It’s totally disconcerting that the child was able to get into the gorilla enclosure, but with witnesses confirming that it happened in the blink of an eye it’s incredible that so many Perfect Parents™ are calling for the mother’s head, but of course they are. This is the internet. Land of armchair perfectionists and parents who’ve never made a mistake... A child should potentially be removed from his home and placed in foster care because his mom’s eyes strayed for a moment at the zoo? Excuse my language, but fuck every single person who signed this petition. You would petition to remove a child from his home because some sad news from a zoo made you an armchair animal activist? Go back to playing Candy Crush. You’re not needed here. In addition to the utter insanity that is a petition for a CPS investigation, everyone on the internet is all of a sudden an expert in animal behavior"

The freakout over Harambe the gorilla shows the dangers of internet mob justice - "It would be one thing if the reaction to Harambe's death were the only instance of mob justice potentially damaging people's lives. But we have seen this before: In previous cases, internet mobs have reacted angrily to certain stories or movements by harassing people, threatening their lives, and even ruining their livelihoods. The most recent example was the death of Cecil the lion... While some form of punishment may have been acceptable for Palmer, that is not for a mob to decide. In our civilized society, this is supposed to be left to the formal criminal justice system. The fundamental problem with mob justice is that it's prone to randomness... Mob justice also tends to overlook issues that are, frankly, more important. Harambe's death is sad, but it's not even close to the most tragic thing that happened in the past week. Just over the weekend, four people died and at least 53 others were wounded from gun violence in Chicago. Yet the internet mob does not, currently, seem to be in a fit of rage over those tragedies — even as there's evidence that many of these killings go unsolved."

Was Killing Harambe the Gorilla Really the Only Option? | The Scientific Parent - "Tranquilizing the animal was not an option. Just like anesthesia isn’t one size fits all for humans, it’s the same for wild animals. It would have taken time to get the right drugs at the right dose in the shot, then it would have taken time to take effect (if the dose was right), time the zoo didn’t have. Complicating matters, a large animal when tranquilized doesn’t fall to the ground dopey like they do in cartoons. Instead, the fight or flight instinct kicks in, and they can become violent... While the public saw a gorilla playing curiously with a child, myself and other zoologists saw that the child was in incredible danger the moment he fell into the moat. The gorilla ignored the zookeepers, and tranquilizing him wasn’t an option. The zoo had no choice but to kill Harambe. I’m not trying to blame the gorilla for being shot, he was only following his natural instincts. When I worked in wildlife tourism in South Africa it would shock tourists how brutal, vicious and violent nature is. The baby giraffe that adorably hobbles to its legs and runs within minutes of birth has to do this or it is dead, eaten by a predator. It is that simple. The antelope that runs the slowest doesn’t make it. The cheetah that doesn’t catch an antelope starves. A new lion taking over a pride will kill all cubs to protect his own bloodline. Around the world people die because they’ve lost their natural fear and respect of wildlife"

Black Outrage Over Gorilla Shot To Protect 'White Privilege' - "'Killing an endangered gorilla at a zoo for a white boy’s safety is white privilege. If the boy was black they would’ve found a tranquilizer'... There’s just one flaw in this GorillaLivesMatter thesis. Can you guess what it is?"

Study finds possible new jet-lag treatment: Exposure to flashing light - "Short flashes of light at night are more effective than using continuous light as therapy to prevent disruptions in people’s circadian rhythms"

10 Things I Learned About the World from Ayn Rand's Insane "Atlas Shrugged' - "The mark of a great businessman is that he sneers at the idea of public safety."

China dissatisfied with G7 statement on S China Sea - "China on Friday said it was strongly dissatisfied with a statement by G7 members, in which they expressed concern over the South China Sea"
If China controls the whole world, it's not interference in other countries' internal affairs

Amber Heard is pictured smiling hours after Depp's 'iPhone attack': Actress claims 'cocaine and booze binges turned Johnny into an abusive monster who left her fearing for her life' - but why was this image deleted before court appearance?

Johnny Depp's Exes Reportedly Slam Amber Heard's 'Outrageous' Domestic Violence Allegations

Have You Ever Beat Up A Boyfriend? Cause, Uh, We Have - "According to a study of relationships that engage in nonreciprocal violence, a whopping 70% are perpetrated by women. So basically that means that girls are beating up their BFs and husbands and the dudes aren't fighting back. With Amy Winehouse busting open a can of whupass on her husband last week, we decided to conduct an informal survey of the Jezebels to see who's gotten violent with their men. After reviewing the answers, let's just say that it'd be wise to never ever fuck with us"
Equality means women beating men up and glorifying it
Comments: "I particularly enjoyed the girl who casually admitted to drunkenly beating up her boyfriend, and her only concern was how she could stop feeling bad about it."
"Honestly I don’t know why I read Jezebel articles... I can usually give an accurate summary based on the Headline and “Jezebel”... but sometimes I am surprised. It’s like the lottery where instead of losing money, it’s man-hate and instead of winning money, it’s some level of logic."

New Demos study reveals scale of social media misogyny - "The study, which specifically monitored the use of the words ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ by UK Twitter users over a three-week period, found 6,500 unique users were targeted by 10,000 explicitly aggressive and misogynistic tweets... The study builds on Demos’ previous research in 2014, which found that ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ dominate misogynistic language on Twitter, and that both male and female users are responsible for the abuse. In this 2016 research, 50 per cent of the propagators were found to be women.
If half of "misogynists" are women, what does that say about blaming men for "patriarchy" (which is, despite the PR line, what happens in reality)?
Addendum: Also reported as: Study: 50% of 'Misogynistic' Tweets Posted by Women - "The news will come as a shock to feminist campaigners who have long claimed that men are the main perpetrators of internet trolling. It also follows a 2014 study from cosmetics firm Dove which found out of over five million negative tweets relating to beauty and body image, 80% were sent by women"

British-Palestinian schoolgirl expelled from public speaking competition - "Leanne Mohamad, a 15-year-old student at Wanstead High School in London, won a regional final of the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge with her speech ‘Birds not Bombs’, in which she describes the historical and contemporary reality for Palestinians under Israeli settler colonialism. The Jack Petchey-sponsored competition is run by Speakers Trust, and bills itself as the world’s biggest youth speaking event... The decision to expel Mohamad, made by a Speakers Trust and Jack Petchey Foundation judging panel, was based on her breaching two rules: that “the speech must have a positive and uplifting message”, and that “a speaker should never inflame or offend the audience or insult others.”"
If you go to the Great British Bakeoff and you make the most awesome fish and chips in the world, you won't win

'They're Natural Born Killers': Wild Animals in Captivity Inherently Dangerous - "Treadwell felt he had befriended a group of wild grizzly bears. He lived among them, he could approach them and touch them and video shows Treadwell petting and talking to a bear cub that follows him around. "You are doing very well, you're a cute bear," he said. "They don't want to hurt me. They just need help." Until the day when they killed him and his girlfriend, and then devoured them both."

The Next James Bond Movie Should Go Back in Time - "Anyone can fire a gun or bug a phone, but not everyone can walk up to Auric Goldfinger on the golf course like they “belong there.” And if you’re thinking that all this makes James Bond sound like white male privilege, weaponized? That’s because he kind of is – and should that mean the audience gets to vicariously enjoy his unfettered travel to exotic destinations, welcome access to beautiful, sexually-adventurous women, flashy cars, fancy parties, and blank check for collateral mayhem? Well, now you know why they keep making these movies."

The opium farmers with the police on their side - "Growing opium is a very serious crime in Afghanistan. You can be punished with death, yet here is a policeman welcoming a BBC reporter to a poppy field at the height of the harvest."

Uncomfortably Muscular Women That Freak Me Out

Johns Hopkins Students Say First Semester Grades Give Them Depression, Should Be Abolished - ""Students from low-income backgrounds, first generation students, students struggling with mental health, students with disabilities, international students, and sexual assault survivors—as well as students whose experiences exist at intersections of marginalized race, gender, and sexuality—are disproportionately affected by the policy change"... Taicz is right that she's paying an obscene amount of money to attend Johns Hopkins. Tuition there is $50,000 a year, and that's not even including room and board. But if students like Taicz are really just looking for a network of comprehensive mental support, there are certainly cheaper counselling services out there."

This Claremont Safe Space for Women of Color Is Actually Pretty Hateful and Racist - "Are non-inclusive safe spaces—ones designed for members of a specific minority—bastions of toleration? Not at the Claremont Colleges... The Claremont Independent, a conservative student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges, recently obtained screenshots from a virtual safe space: 5C Women of Color, a Facebook group for black female students at the colleges... this so-called safe space is just really racist. One woman, an Asian student, referred to Asian men as "nerdy ones who can just hide in their tech caves" and "they get all angry when it comes to how Asian men are asexualized/emasculated." Another female student, who works for the Asian American Resource Center and sits on the mental health committee, commented, "F*ck your masculinity whiny Asian cis bros this is why I only hang out with femmes.""
This is okay but not the reverse, because men are evil

We Asked a Law Professor Whether the Government Could Really Ban Rough Sex - ""Plaintiff has no constitutionally protected and judicially enforceable fundamental liberty interest under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to engage in BDSM sexual activity."The ruling has inspired outrage within the BDSM community, but for others, the case left a lot of unanswered questions: Didn't the Supreme Court rule in 2003 that sodomy laws are invalid? Do the same protections not apply to BDSM? Should people be worried about a clampdown on kink?... Consent of the victim is generally not a defense to assault or battery—except in cases involving "ordinary physical contact" or blows incidental to sports, such as football, or boxing, or wrestling. Once something becomes sufficiently severely harmful, then yes, assault and battery laws are in part aimed at preventing injury to people. Even where consent might be present. And a classic example is a fistfight"
So much for the freedom to love and the right to privacy (under which abortion was legalised)