A: I agree and support free water movement in all F&B:
Mandate that businesses serve free water
B: Translated: Let's force businesses to act against their judgement/self-interest because I want free water
A: self-interest without consideration of the greater common good may destroy the very environment that keep us healthy if not alive.
B: If something acts against a restaurant owner's individual good - how can it be said to be for the "common/public" good? Unless you're saying that the restaurant owner is not part of the "common/public"?
A: individual benefit must not outweigh or compromise the common good.
B: That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that individual benefit makes up the common good. The common good is nothing except for the collection of individual goods. If you deny one individual good - then it ceases to be for the common good.
Me: So we shouldn't ban smoking in hospitals. Even if 100 patients die it's bad to deny a smoker's rights
B: I’m sure private hospitals ban smoking too. See - I’m for private regulation, not public regulation.
Me: So private hospitals can ban smoking but not public ones?
B: At least where the “right to ban” is concerned. Because public ones are funded by all taxpayers (smoking ones included) - they have to serve them all equally. Private ones don’t have such moral obligations.
My stance applies equally for public schools - that because they take taxpayers monies, they should teach all ideas equally (both for and against the government). Private schools don't have such moral obligations either.
Me: Creationism?
B: If they are a private school, sure. Public schools, they are morally obligated to teach creationism and non-creationism, because there are both creationists and non-creationists funding them.
Me: There're flat earther taxpayers too. Time to expand the curriculum!
Ridiculous as this may seem, there're strong parallels with the stance that "if the government gives an organisation $1, that means the government endorses everything it does"
L'origine de Bert
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
Links - 1st August 2018 (1)
10 Hawkers Tell Us Why Geylang Isn’t What It Used to Be - "Now you’re probably wondering, if charcoal is so great, why doesn’t everyone just use it? Well, they can’t. In hawker centres, the use of charcoal is prohibited as the embers pose a fire hazard. However, in Geylang where shophouses are privately owned and with the permission of landlords, places like Geylang Claypot Rice can continue to cook the old-fashioned way... “There are a few Chinese working quarters located along Geylang,” says Ron. Not only is it convenient for them to get around Singapore for work, but the rent is cheap as well. To cater to this new demographic, a large number of Chinese KTVs and restaurants have sprung up along Geylang in recent years, snapping up previously empty shophouse units. In addition, mala hot pots, Chinese BBQ skewers, and Tsingtao beer can be found around every Lorong. And while this has certainly gone towards increasing Geylang’s foot traffic, most hawkers perceive this change to be for the worst, believing that these businesses change the well-worn exterior of Geylang, and lend a colder, more closed off vibe to the place"
Male incompetence is a subtle form of misogyny - "Few have the patience to watch someone do a job badly over and over again and so often, they’ll just take it upon themselves to do your chores as well as their own. Emotional labour is doubled when you’ve got an incompetent clown on your hands."
Being unable to do things to a standard a woman demands (which might not be objectively justifiable) = misogyny and forcing emotional labour on women
I'm sure they blame female incompetence on the patriarchy too
Iraqi migrant beaten for T-shirt saying 'I'm Muslim, don't panic' - "An asylum seeker who jokingly wore a T-shirt saying 'I'm Muslim, don't panic' was so savagely beaten by his fellow refugees that he had to be rushed to hospital. The 23-year-old Iraqi had thought that his fellow Islamic asylum seekers would see the funny side, but instead they accused him of offending their religion and decided to teach him a painful lesson."
Islamophobia!
Study: Large number of Turks in Germany put Islam above the law - "90 percent of the people of Turkish origin surveyed said they feel comfortable in Germany. Eighty-seven percent said that they feel closely or very closely connected to Germany. That's 2 percent more than the number who said they felt a close connection to Turkey... "East Germans feel they've been treated more unfairly in reunified Germany than Turkish immigrants do"... Half of all the respondents said that Islam is the only true religion. Almost half of those surveyed agreed with the following statement: "It is more important to obey religious laws than state laws." Some 36 percent said that only Islam is in a position to resolve the current problems facing society, and 7 percent said violence is justified if the aim is the expansion of Islam."
88% of a group not born in a country feeling a close connection to it is huge
Turkey's President Erdogan calls on Europe's Muslims to support him - "He announced he will expand Turkey's state news agency's coverage in Europe to hit back at 'propaganda' published about Muslims, and urged European Turks to improve their power by gaining places in parliaments across the Bloc. 'Are you ready to demonstrate to the whole world the strength of European Turks? Are you ready to give the terrorist organisations and their local and foreign henchmen an Ottoman slap?', he said, while rallying against his critics, including the PKK Kurdish guerrillas... Erdogan sees himself as a 'protector of Muslims in former Ottoman dominions,' Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) told the Stockholm Center for Freedom... Thousands of Turks came from Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, and from across the Balkans for the rally. 'Turkey is our mother nation,' said Coskun Celiloglu, a Macedonian student of Turkish descent. 'We came to Sarajevo just for one day to support our saviour Erdogan.'"
At rally in Bosnia, Erdogan flexes his muscles as strongman of the Muslim world - "Erdogan “wants to show domestic constituents he is still the leader of the Islamic world,” said Dimitar Bechev, a political scientist who focuses on Russian and Turkish influence in southeastern Europe. It’s a role that Erdogan has consciously tried to build for himself in recent years. Hamdi Firat Buyuk, a freelance political analyst based in Sarajevo, said the call-and-response use of the takbir (“Allahu akbar!”) at Sunday’s rally only started being commonly heard at Erdogan rallies after the 2016 coup attempt"
LBC on Twitter: "Erdogan has said he is the ‘protector’ of Muslims in Europe. @ShelaghFogarty asks: Is Erdogan drawing battle lines between Christians and Muslims?… https://t.co/VgYEORg8zH"
Germany's Arriba water park to segregate men and women after migrant sex attacks - "It comes days after police arrested two asylum seekers from Afghanistan for a sex attack on two girls on the slides at the Arriba water park in Norderstedt in the Schleswig-Holstein region."
Refugee admits to swastika arson attack - "A Syrian refugee has confessed to setting light to a hotel in Rhineland-Palatinate where he was staying and spraying swastikas on the walls to make it look like a political crime. The 26-year-old claimed that he started the fire in protest against the cramped living conditions in the hotel in Bingen, where a number of refugees and seasonal workers were living, and against what he saw as poor prospects for his future."
Nudist bathers in Germany 'threatened by men who swam onto beach and shouted Allahu Akhbar' - "Bathers at a nudist beach in northwest Germany say they were insulted and threatened by a group of "Mediterranean-looking men," one of whom reportedly shouted "Allahu Akhbar" at them. Staff at the Freibad Xantener Südsee said they were forced to call the police after the men refused to stop abusing naked bathers at the resort, which is near the town of Wesel."
300 world 'super routes' attract 20% of all air travel, Amadeus reveals in new analysis of global trends - "seven out of the top ten world’s busiest air travel routes are in Asia. Jeju-Seoul in South Korea remains the world’s busiest air route""
Revisiting why incompetents think they’re awesome - "Unfortunately, in those places ruled by the smug and complacent, a classic paper has become a weapon. The findings of Dunning and Kruger are being reduced to "Stupid people are so stupid that they don't know they are stupid." Rather bluntly, Dunning himself said, "The presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as it’s been come to be called, is that one should pause to worry about one’s own certainty, not the certainty of others." And that humorously suggests the Dunning-Kruger effect is now a candidate to become a second Godwin's law... narcissists think they are brilliant. Who knew? In addition, the researchers found that extroverts were also more likely to overestimate their abilities, while self-esteem and gender were not correlated. And, importantly, none of these seemed to be correlated to actual performance. But this also throws into confusion my own conclusion (also a conclusion that Dunning and Kruger hinted at): if the skills required to self-evaluate and the skill under evaluation do not overlap, then performance in one should not predict performance in the other"
Malaysian starts crowdfunding to help reduce country's debt - "Nik Shazarina Bakti, a legal officer at Sisters in Islam (SIS), hopes to gather Malaysians and the rest of the world to help contribute towards the cause. On the page, the 27-year-old law graduate reminded Malaysians of the time when the people gave up their jewellery, money and valuables so that Tunku Abdul Rahman and the then government could raise enough funds to go to London and claim Merdeka... The Pakatan Harapan government said the nation's debt stands at a whopping RM1 trillion."
Putrajaya forms public crowdfunding campaign to help Malaysian economy - "Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the crowdfund, dubbed Malaysia’s Hope Fund (Tabung Harapan Malaysia), was formed following concern from fellow Malaysians over the economic mismanagement by the former Barisan Nasional government."
The last Maoists in China find refuge in capitalist Hong Kong - "Hong Kong may be the heartland of capitalism but it is also the improbable last redoubt of the unlikeliest of Chinese dissidents – China’s band of Maoists."
Indian girl, 3, dies after drinking poisoned breast milk after mother unknowingly bitten by snake - "Police said that the Indian mother, 35, who also died, did not realise she had been attacked while sleeping, and had unknowingly breasted the three-year-old girl upon waking"
Guan Eng shocked Treasury can’t access certain accounts - "Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said he was shocked when senior Treasury officers told him they were unable to access certain accounts and reports. “There were also complaints that certain ‘red’ files were only accessible to certain parties. This impeded officials and auditors from carrying out their professional responsibilities with integrity”"
Kendrick Lamar stops white fan after she raps the N-word onstage with him: Watch - "a young woman named Delaney slipped not just once, but twice in what’s probably the worst possible setting: On stage with Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar. Sure, she was singing along to the rapper’s 2012 song “m.A.A.d. City”, which features the word on multiple occasions, but, girl, come on."
So much for being a fan
Question - "what do the icons next to a name mean on facebook comment"
"It's meant to help identify trolls and other disruptive people who join groups just to spam stupid angry things."
"There is a Graphic of a BLACK HAND next to my name in my posts and I have no idea why it's there. Is FB telling people I am a member of some death cult?"
The Ready Player One backlash, explained - "In 2011, Ready Player One was beloved. It was “a guaranteed pleasure.” It was “witty.” It was not only “a simple bit of fun” but also “a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.” What gives? How did the consensus on a single book go from “exuberant and meaningful fun!” to “everything that is wrong with the internet!” over the span of seven years?... Wade’s best friend has a white male avatar but is secretly a black lesbian, a revelation to which Wade reacts by deciding that it does not matter because he doesn’t even see people’s race, gender, or sexuality. It’s a passage that reads remarkably like the “I don’t care if you’re black, white, green, or purple” speech, and that carries the same basic problem: Wade should care that his best friend is a black lesbian because those are important facts about his best friend’s life. But in this world, they’re unimportant, because only things that affect straight white dudes really matter"
In other words, what changed was that the SJWs took over
The ugly trade in Palestinian pain - "much of what happens in the Israel-Palestine conflict is now largely a performance, a piece of bloody theatre, staged for the benefit of outsiders, especially for myopically anti-Israel Western activists and observers... after midday prayers clerics and leaders of Hamas ‘urged thousands of worshippers to join the protests’. And Hamas’s urging was littered with false claims. It told people ‘the fence had already been breached’ and Palestinians were ‘flooding into Israel’. This was a lie. A Washington Post reporter details how Hamas’s leaders told people to keep attacking the border fence because ‘Israeli soldiers [are] fleeing their positions’. In truth, as Hamas knew only too well, the IDF was reinforcing its positions... Turkey killed hundreds of Kurdish people in Syria in recent months, and people in London and Paris and Washington did not take to the streets to complain. But as soon as Israel gets embroiled in conflict, out came the protesters, fuming, burning the Israeli flag."
Why are Females Prone to Mass Hysteria? - "Throughout history, groups of people in cohesive social units have suddenly fallen ill or exhibited strange behaviors, from headaches and fainting spells to twitching, shaking and trance states. But whether it’s an outbreak of spirit possession at a shoe factory in Malaysia, a collapsing marching band at a school gala in England or a twitching epidemic in a Louisiana high school, the pattern is invariably the same. Most, and often all of those affected, are females. In fact, of the 2,000+ cases in my files which date back to 1566, this pattern holds true over ninety-nine percent of the time... girls near puberty are most frequently affected. Sirois observes that outbreaks in Western schools, affect girls at about the same rate as those in other parts of the world, despite the social conditions being fairly uniform for both sexes. Many psychogenic conditions are more common in females, including individual cases of conversion disorder, and globus hystericus, a feeling of a lump in the throat that produces a sensation of choking... females are more likely to talk to each other about their symptoms, which can spread outbreaks... Many anthropologists believe that mass hysteria and spirit possession in Asia and Africa are culturally appropriate ways of indirectly negotiating problems – a form of subconscious collective bargaining."
Gender gap discovered in science exam performance: Test difficulty may be the cause - "females and males do equally well on exams that require mostly memorization. The same holds true for low- and high-socioeconomic status students. However, when tests include cognitively challenging questions that require elevated critical thinking, females and lower socioeconomic students score lower than their male or high-status peers, even though the students have equal academic ability... there is a national movement to create biology tests that are more cognitively challenging, as these types of tests can improve students' conceptual understanding of biology; however, doing so may harm the very students they are trying to help."
This is a pretty naked admission that diversity is about lowering standards
Say Hello To Vaginismus, The Locked Vagina Syndrome - "its walls can contract with the force of a thousand Spartans and prevent the entry of a penis, sex toy and even a tampon, involuntarily"
Former AG criticises Govt for not prosecuting Keppel management in 1995 bribery case - "Former Attorney-General Walter Woon wrote an article, which was published in ST today ('Punishing corporate corruption', 30 Apr), criticising the government for not prosecuting the Keppel management involved in the 1995 bribery case."
Poh Soh Kai: “We must learn from history and not myths, history that is grounded in the events and realities of the time” - "According to the report of the Commissioner of Police, there were 40 odd card holding communists during that period. Even if we assume that they were all active in the unions and social bodies, how great was their influence? That would depend on the policies adopted by the party. If the policies promote the people’s welfare and reflect their democratic aspirations, then they would be supported by the people. This is well illustrated in the Hong Lim by-election of April 1961. A leadership struggle had ensued between Lee Kuan Yew and Ong Eng Guan resulting in the Hong Lim by election. A main point in Ong’s manifesto was the release of all political detainees still detained by Lee Kuan Yew after Lee had won the 1959 elections to be Prime Minister of Singapore. Lee had promised to release all political prisoners during his campaign. Once elected, he reneged on his promises and only released a handful. This was not acceptable to the Singapore electorate. Hence, Ong’s pledge to release these prisoners resonated with an electorate disappointed with Lee Kuan Yew. However, Lee had secured a written letter of support from the Communist Party. This is a fact. Armed with this assurance, Lee Kuan Yew was of the opinion, that he would win the Hong Lim by-election without the assistance of the trade unionists... Where is the great Communist influence? Lee Kuan Yew realised that he had been duped by his own propaganda; that he had grossly over-estimated the strength of the Communists... The Operation was scheduled to be held in December 1962. But it was postponed until February 1963 when the Brunei rebellion gave them the pretext to arrest. Lee Kuan Yew said this opportunity afforded by the Brunei rebellion is “heaven sent.” No security operation can wait for “heaven sent” opportunities."
Male incompetence is a subtle form of misogyny - "Few have the patience to watch someone do a job badly over and over again and so often, they’ll just take it upon themselves to do your chores as well as their own. Emotional labour is doubled when you’ve got an incompetent clown on your hands."
Being unable to do things to a standard a woman demands (which might not be objectively justifiable) = misogyny and forcing emotional labour on women
I'm sure they blame female incompetence on the patriarchy too
Iraqi migrant beaten for T-shirt saying 'I'm Muslim, don't panic' - "An asylum seeker who jokingly wore a T-shirt saying 'I'm Muslim, don't panic' was so savagely beaten by his fellow refugees that he had to be rushed to hospital. The 23-year-old Iraqi had thought that his fellow Islamic asylum seekers would see the funny side, but instead they accused him of offending their religion and decided to teach him a painful lesson."
Islamophobia!
Study: Large number of Turks in Germany put Islam above the law - "90 percent of the people of Turkish origin surveyed said they feel comfortable in Germany. Eighty-seven percent said that they feel closely or very closely connected to Germany. That's 2 percent more than the number who said they felt a close connection to Turkey... "East Germans feel they've been treated more unfairly in reunified Germany than Turkish immigrants do"... Half of all the respondents said that Islam is the only true religion. Almost half of those surveyed agreed with the following statement: "It is more important to obey religious laws than state laws." Some 36 percent said that only Islam is in a position to resolve the current problems facing society, and 7 percent said violence is justified if the aim is the expansion of Islam."
88% of a group not born in a country feeling a close connection to it is huge
Turkey's President Erdogan calls on Europe's Muslims to support him - "He announced he will expand Turkey's state news agency's coverage in Europe to hit back at 'propaganda' published about Muslims, and urged European Turks to improve their power by gaining places in parliaments across the Bloc. 'Are you ready to demonstrate to the whole world the strength of European Turks? Are you ready to give the terrorist organisations and their local and foreign henchmen an Ottoman slap?', he said, while rallying against his critics, including the PKK Kurdish guerrillas... Erdogan sees himself as a 'protector of Muslims in former Ottoman dominions,' Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) told the Stockholm Center for Freedom... Thousands of Turks came from Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, and from across the Balkans for the rally. 'Turkey is our mother nation,' said Coskun Celiloglu, a Macedonian student of Turkish descent. 'We came to Sarajevo just for one day to support our saviour Erdogan.'"
At rally in Bosnia, Erdogan flexes his muscles as strongman of the Muslim world - "Erdogan “wants to show domestic constituents he is still the leader of the Islamic world,” said Dimitar Bechev, a political scientist who focuses on Russian and Turkish influence in southeastern Europe. It’s a role that Erdogan has consciously tried to build for himself in recent years. Hamdi Firat Buyuk, a freelance political analyst based in Sarajevo, said the call-and-response use of the takbir (“Allahu akbar!”) at Sunday’s rally only started being commonly heard at Erdogan rallies after the 2016 coup attempt"
LBC on Twitter: "Erdogan has said he is the ‘protector’ of Muslims in Europe. @ShelaghFogarty asks: Is Erdogan drawing battle lines between Christians and Muslims?… https://t.co/VgYEORg8zH"
Germany's Arriba water park to segregate men and women after migrant sex attacks - "It comes days after police arrested two asylum seekers from Afghanistan for a sex attack on two girls on the slides at the Arriba water park in Norderstedt in the Schleswig-Holstein region."
Refugee admits to swastika arson attack - "A Syrian refugee has confessed to setting light to a hotel in Rhineland-Palatinate where he was staying and spraying swastikas on the walls to make it look like a political crime. The 26-year-old claimed that he started the fire in protest against the cramped living conditions in the hotel in Bingen, where a number of refugees and seasonal workers were living, and against what he saw as poor prospects for his future."
Nudist bathers in Germany 'threatened by men who swam onto beach and shouted Allahu Akhbar' - "Bathers at a nudist beach in northwest Germany say they were insulted and threatened by a group of "Mediterranean-looking men," one of whom reportedly shouted "Allahu Akhbar" at them. Staff at the Freibad Xantener Südsee said they were forced to call the police after the men refused to stop abusing naked bathers at the resort, which is near the town of Wesel."
300 world 'super routes' attract 20% of all air travel, Amadeus reveals in new analysis of global trends - "seven out of the top ten world’s busiest air travel routes are in Asia. Jeju-Seoul in South Korea remains the world’s busiest air route""
Revisiting why incompetents think they’re awesome - "Unfortunately, in those places ruled by the smug and complacent, a classic paper has become a weapon. The findings of Dunning and Kruger are being reduced to "Stupid people are so stupid that they don't know they are stupid." Rather bluntly, Dunning himself said, "The presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as it’s been come to be called, is that one should pause to worry about one’s own certainty, not the certainty of others." And that humorously suggests the Dunning-Kruger effect is now a candidate to become a second Godwin's law... narcissists think they are brilliant. Who knew? In addition, the researchers found that extroverts were also more likely to overestimate their abilities, while self-esteem and gender were not correlated. And, importantly, none of these seemed to be correlated to actual performance. But this also throws into confusion my own conclusion (also a conclusion that Dunning and Kruger hinted at): if the skills required to self-evaluate and the skill under evaluation do not overlap, then performance in one should not predict performance in the other"
Malaysian starts crowdfunding to help reduce country's debt - "Nik Shazarina Bakti, a legal officer at Sisters in Islam (SIS), hopes to gather Malaysians and the rest of the world to help contribute towards the cause. On the page, the 27-year-old law graduate reminded Malaysians of the time when the people gave up their jewellery, money and valuables so that Tunku Abdul Rahman and the then government could raise enough funds to go to London and claim Merdeka... The Pakatan Harapan government said the nation's debt stands at a whopping RM1 trillion."
Putrajaya forms public crowdfunding campaign to help Malaysian economy - "Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the crowdfund, dubbed Malaysia’s Hope Fund (Tabung Harapan Malaysia), was formed following concern from fellow Malaysians over the economic mismanagement by the former Barisan Nasional government."
The last Maoists in China find refuge in capitalist Hong Kong - "Hong Kong may be the heartland of capitalism but it is also the improbable last redoubt of the unlikeliest of Chinese dissidents – China’s band of Maoists."
Indian girl, 3, dies after drinking poisoned breast milk after mother unknowingly bitten by snake - "Police said that the Indian mother, 35, who also died, did not realise she had been attacked while sleeping, and had unknowingly breasted the three-year-old girl upon waking"
Guan Eng shocked Treasury can’t access certain accounts - "Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said he was shocked when senior Treasury officers told him they were unable to access certain accounts and reports. “There were also complaints that certain ‘red’ files were only accessible to certain parties. This impeded officials and auditors from carrying out their professional responsibilities with integrity”"
Kendrick Lamar stops white fan after she raps the N-word onstage with him: Watch - "a young woman named Delaney slipped not just once, but twice in what’s probably the worst possible setting: On stage with Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar. Sure, she was singing along to the rapper’s 2012 song “m.A.A.d. City”, which features the word on multiple occasions, but, girl, come on."
So much for being a fan
Question - "what do the icons next to a name mean on facebook comment"
"It's meant to help identify trolls and other disruptive people who join groups just to spam stupid angry things."
"There is a Graphic of a BLACK HAND next to my name in my posts and I have no idea why it's there. Is FB telling people I am a member of some death cult?"
The Ready Player One backlash, explained - "In 2011, Ready Player One was beloved. It was “a guaranteed pleasure.” It was “witty.” It was not only “a simple bit of fun” but also “a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.” What gives? How did the consensus on a single book go from “exuberant and meaningful fun!” to “everything that is wrong with the internet!” over the span of seven years?... Wade’s best friend has a white male avatar but is secretly a black lesbian, a revelation to which Wade reacts by deciding that it does not matter because he doesn’t even see people’s race, gender, or sexuality. It’s a passage that reads remarkably like the “I don’t care if you’re black, white, green, or purple” speech, and that carries the same basic problem: Wade should care that his best friend is a black lesbian because those are important facts about his best friend’s life. But in this world, they’re unimportant, because only things that affect straight white dudes really matter"
In other words, what changed was that the SJWs took over
The ugly trade in Palestinian pain - "much of what happens in the Israel-Palestine conflict is now largely a performance, a piece of bloody theatre, staged for the benefit of outsiders, especially for myopically anti-Israel Western activists and observers... after midday prayers clerics and leaders of Hamas ‘urged thousands of worshippers to join the protests’. And Hamas’s urging was littered with false claims. It told people ‘the fence had already been breached’ and Palestinians were ‘flooding into Israel’. This was a lie. A Washington Post reporter details how Hamas’s leaders told people to keep attacking the border fence because ‘Israeli soldiers [are] fleeing their positions’. In truth, as Hamas knew only too well, the IDF was reinforcing its positions... Turkey killed hundreds of Kurdish people in Syria in recent months, and people in London and Paris and Washington did not take to the streets to complain. But as soon as Israel gets embroiled in conflict, out came the protesters, fuming, burning the Israeli flag."
Why are Females Prone to Mass Hysteria? - "Throughout history, groups of people in cohesive social units have suddenly fallen ill or exhibited strange behaviors, from headaches and fainting spells to twitching, shaking and trance states. But whether it’s an outbreak of spirit possession at a shoe factory in Malaysia, a collapsing marching band at a school gala in England or a twitching epidemic in a Louisiana high school, the pattern is invariably the same. Most, and often all of those affected, are females. In fact, of the 2,000+ cases in my files which date back to 1566, this pattern holds true over ninety-nine percent of the time... girls near puberty are most frequently affected. Sirois observes that outbreaks in Western schools, affect girls at about the same rate as those in other parts of the world, despite the social conditions being fairly uniform for both sexes. Many psychogenic conditions are more common in females, including individual cases of conversion disorder, and globus hystericus, a feeling of a lump in the throat that produces a sensation of choking... females are more likely to talk to each other about their symptoms, which can spread outbreaks... Many anthropologists believe that mass hysteria and spirit possession in Asia and Africa are culturally appropriate ways of indirectly negotiating problems – a form of subconscious collective bargaining."
Gender gap discovered in science exam performance: Test difficulty may be the cause - "females and males do equally well on exams that require mostly memorization. The same holds true for low- and high-socioeconomic status students. However, when tests include cognitively challenging questions that require elevated critical thinking, females and lower socioeconomic students score lower than their male or high-status peers, even though the students have equal academic ability... there is a national movement to create biology tests that are more cognitively challenging, as these types of tests can improve students' conceptual understanding of biology; however, doing so may harm the very students they are trying to help."
This is a pretty naked admission that diversity is about lowering standards
Say Hello To Vaginismus, The Locked Vagina Syndrome - "its walls can contract with the force of a thousand Spartans and prevent the entry of a penis, sex toy and even a tampon, involuntarily"
Former AG criticises Govt for not prosecuting Keppel management in 1995 bribery case - "Former Attorney-General Walter Woon wrote an article, which was published in ST today ('Punishing corporate corruption', 30 Apr), criticising the government for not prosecuting the Keppel management involved in the 1995 bribery case."
Poh Soh Kai: “We must learn from history and not myths, history that is grounded in the events and realities of the time” - "According to the report of the Commissioner of Police, there were 40 odd card holding communists during that period. Even if we assume that they were all active in the unions and social bodies, how great was their influence? That would depend on the policies adopted by the party. If the policies promote the people’s welfare and reflect their democratic aspirations, then they would be supported by the people. This is well illustrated in the Hong Lim by-election of April 1961. A leadership struggle had ensued between Lee Kuan Yew and Ong Eng Guan resulting in the Hong Lim by election. A main point in Ong’s manifesto was the release of all political detainees still detained by Lee Kuan Yew after Lee had won the 1959 elections to be Prime Minister of Singapore. Lee had promised to release all political prisoners during his campaign. Once elected, he reneged on his promises and only released a handful. This was not acceptable to the Singapore electorate. Hence, Ong’s pledge to release these prisoners resonated with an electorate disappointed with Lee Kuan Yew. However, Lee had secured a written letter of support from the Communist Party. This is a fact. Armed with this assurance, Lee Kuan Yew was of the opinion, that he would win the Hong Lim by-election without the assistance of the trade unionists... Where is the great Communist influence? Lee Kuan Yew realised that he had been duped by his own propaganda; that he had grossly over-estimated the strength of the Communists... The Operation was scheduled to be held in December 1962. But it was postponed until February 1963 when the Brunei rebellion gave them the pretext to arrest. Lee Kuan Yew said this opportunity afforded by the Brunei rebellion is “heaven sent.” No security operation can wait for “heaven sent” opportunities."
Post ID: 5214671740097438253
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Links - 31st July 2018 (2)
Sexual Abuse by Educators Is Scrutinized - "Those figures suggest that "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests,"contended Ms. Shakeshaft, who is a professor of educational administration at Hofstra, in Hempstead, N.Y... 9.6 percent of all students in grades 8-11 reported sexual harassment by teachers, coaches, or other school employees. That included misconduct involving physical contact as well as such behavior as sexual remarks, jokes, or gestures, with 8.7 percent of respondents reporting "noncontact" harassment and 6.7 percent reporting harassment involving physical contact."
67 New England Private Schools Accused of Covering Up Sexual Abuse - "The Globe’s Spotlight Team, which does in-depth investigative reporting, found 200-plus victims at 67 private schools, resulting in more than 90 legal claims since 1991... Perhaps most disturbing is the way school administrators let abusers move from school to school. The Globe uncovered 11 cases where teachers accused of abuse at one private school went on to work at another. Administrators often failed to alert the new school about a teacher’s past abuse, according to the Globe. That allowed some teachers to abuse children at different schools, and in different states, with impunity."
Has Media Ignored Sex Abuse In School? - "during the first half of 2002, the 61 largest newspapers in California ran nearly 2,000 stories about sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, mostly concerning past allegations. During the same period, those newspapers ran four stories about the federal government's discovery of the much larger — and ongoing — abuse scandal in public schools."
Catholic child abuse in proportion | Andrew Brown - "the most pessimistic survey finds that 27% of American women and 16% of men had "a history of childhood sexual abuse"; while the the most optimistic had 12.8% of women and 4.3% of men... The Catholic figures show that between about 4% of priests and deacons serving in the US between 1950 and 2002 had been accused of sexual abuse of someone under 18. In this country, the figure was a 10th of that: 0.4%... half of the girls fostered in social democratic Sweden in the 50s and 60s had been abused; according to Camila Batmanghelidjh 550,000 children are reported to the social services in this country every year"
Public Esteem for Military Still High - "just 37% of Americans surveyed think the clergy make a big contribution to society... public perceptions of the military and teachers are overwhelmingly positive. Fully 78% of adults believe that members of the military contribute a lot to the well-being of society, and 72% say the same about teachers"
How Exercise Can Help You Recall Words - The New York Times
As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul - The New York Times - "At Google, it is not so much that workers do not like birds as it is that they really love cats. There is an employee group called GCat Rescue that traps the cats around the so-called Googleplex. Kittens and friendly adults are put up for adoption. Less-friendly adult cats are neutered and released... The number of cat sightings there last year was 318, according to the City of Mountain View’s official count. And 2017 was the first time in 20 years of record-keeping that no owl fledglings were observed in the park. As recently as 2011, there were 10."
Opinion | Aristotle’s Wrongful Death - The New York Times - "The world now changes at warp speed. Colleges move glacially. By the time they’ve assembled a new cluster of practical concentrations, an even newer cluster may be called for, and a set of job-specific skills picked up today may be obsolete less than a decade down the road. The idea of college as instantaneously responsive to employers’ evolving needs is a bit of a fantasy. Eric Johnson, an education policy analyst in Chapel Hill, N.C., agrees that majors may well be “a poor way of organizing career preparation.” “But that’s because college is a poor way of organizing career preparation,” he told me. “Deep, discipline-focused learning is simply a different goal than being adequately skilled to serve mercurial employers.”... Colleges needn’t abandon majors in order to give students breadth and nimbleness. That’s what general-education requirements are for. So why don’t more colleges expand or toughen those? That would additionally help to create shared experiences and common points of reference in a dangerously fractured society... majoring in anything — is a useful retort to the infinite distractions, short attention spans and staccato communications of the smartphone era. Perhaps now, more than ever, young people need to be shown the rewards of sustained attention and taught how to hold a thought. That’s what a major does. There’s a reason that it’s often called a discipline."
A Real-Life Enchanted Forest - The New York Times - "IN ORDER TO see one of the oldest living trees on earth in one of the oldest evergreen forests in the world, you must first fly two hours from Tokyo to the town of Kagoshima on Kyushu"
Why Hispanic-Americans live longer: The mystery that has puzzled researchers for decades - The Washington Post - "In the United States, Hispanics die at slower rates than non-Hispanic whites. This is true even before accounting for differences in incomes and health-care access, which put Hispanics at a disadvantage... Markides speculated that Hispanic culture may have some protective effect. Tight-knit families and immigrant communities offer crucial support to people battling illnesses. Hispanics, especially recent immigrants, also tend to behave in more healthy ways, smoking and drinking less. This may explain why second- and third-generation Hispanics, who are more plugged into the mainstream culture, see less of a boost to their health."
Hispanic privilege
Nation of shoplifters: the rise of supermarket self-checkout scams - "Few would steal from an individual grocer. But from a multinational conglomerate? What difference does it make? “There’s a mountain of good socio-cognitive criminological research that explains this under the heading of Neutralisation Theory,” says Shadd Maruna, a criminology professor at the University of Manchester. I’d asked him to take me through the psychology of self-checkout theft, to help me get to grips with the “why”. “Individuals can neutralise guilt they might otherwise feel when stealing by telling themselves that there are no victims of the crime, no human being is actually being hurt by this, only some mega-corporation that can surely afford the loss of a few quid. In fact, the corporation has saved so much money by laying off all its cashiers that it is almost morally necessary to steal from them.”"
BioWare's David Crooks Mocks TotalBiscuit's Death After YouTuber Dies Of Cancer - "Mass Effect: Andromeda programmer, David Crooks, decided to quickly hop on the opportunity to mock and deride John “TotalBiscuit” Bain an hour after he died in a losing battle to terminal cancer... Various others within the Social Justice Warrior community are also mocking the YouTuber after the 33-year-old died to cancer... 'These are the same types of people who claim to want to stop online abuse and harassment. But the reality is that they don’t want to stop bullying, they just want to feel morally superior as they bully others. They’re amoral frauds.'... Electronic Arts, DICE, and BioWare have been courting those kind of people above – attempting to cater their games toward so-called “progressives” who have no qualms with bullying those who suffer from terminal cancer."
Hainanese chicken rice may be nature's one perfect dish - "Hainanese chicken rice can be found in most major U.S. cities, and with its simple cooking method, it’s not too difficult to make the dish at home as well. There’s only one problem—most American chickens are bred for size, and as such, taste comparatively bland and flavorless compared to its Southeast Asian counterparts. It’s the superior breed of chicken, plus its method of preparation accentuating those flavors, that makes Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore and Malaysia the apotheosis of chicken dishes—maybe worldwide"
Singaporeans on Tumblr Are Turning Instagram Girls Into Pornstars - "Out of the girls I approach, three aren’t interested in discussing the subject, one ignores me completely, and two say that they’re busy, giving one liners congratulating the men on their imagination. They even add that they aren’t affected so long as it doesn’t ruin their dignity... “I think these girls need to calm the fuck down. The only difference between me memorising your face/body and looking at your picture while touching myself, is a visual reminder that YOU put out there.” As we end our chat, Leon leaves me with something else to think about when he postulates that the girls who’ve had their photos shared to these “porn Tumblrs” may not mind as much as they claim to, adding that they might even be secretly pleased about it. “No girl has ever complained about having more followers what,” he finishes.""
Race in biology and anthropology: A study of college texts and professors - "67% of biologists accept the concept of biological races in the species Homo sapiens, while only 50% of physical anthropologists do so"
Amusingly the authors think they know better than a majority of biologists and a pluralist of physical anthropologists
Of course views will have changed since 1992, given the present hostile climate
Women's college instructs professors not to call students 'women' - "Professors are instructed to say “Mount Holyoke students” instead of “Mount Holyoke women,” as well as avoiding statements like “We’re all women here…” or referring to “the two genders” as part of a Teaching & Learning Initiative... Yet, on the school's website, it says, “Imagine if every day were International Women’s Day. Meet Mount Holyoke,” and also boasts of being founded “by a woman!” in 1837."
Stanford Professor: Dungeons and Dragons Perpetuates Systems of White, Male Privilege - "Standford University Professor Antero Garcia argues in an academic journal article that the popular game Dungeons and Dragons perpetuates systems of privilege... Garcia’s 16-page article focuses on the representation of women in the game. According to Garica’s research, by 2014, more than half of the game’s depicted characters are female."
University Police are Surveilling Student Social Media Accounts for 'Campus Safety' - "A report from Campus Safety Magazine revealed that the University of Virginia spends $18,500 per year on monitoring the social media accounts of their students. The university retained a firm called Social Sentinel, which uses software to monitor social media accounts for schools and corporations."
Farage: Soros and Allies Engaged in 'The Biggest Level of International Political Collusion in History' - "Speaking in a debate on the Paradise Papers in the European Parliament, the UKIP MEP pointed out that the financier had funded the exposé. “I say this at a time when the use of money and the influence it may have had on the Brexit result or the Trump election has reached a level of virtual hysteria,” he said. “Just last week the Electoral Commission in the UK launched an investigation to find out whether the Leave campaign took offshore money or Russian money. “This came about as a result of questions asked in the House of Commons by one Ben Bradshaw, somebody linked to an organisation called Open Society. “I just wonder when we’re talking about offshore money, when we’re talking about political subversion, when we’re talking about collusion, I wonder whether we’re looking in the wrong place. “And I say that because George Soros recently gave Open Society, his organisation, which of course campaigns for free movement of peoples and supports supranational structures like the European Union, he recently gave it 18 billion dollars."
After Anal Rape, Left Wing Activist Felt 'Guilt And Responsibility' His Migrant Attacker Was Deported - "An active member of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party (SV) who described himself as an ardent “feminist and anti-racist” explained the difficulty he experienced accepting that he had been anally raped by a male migrant. He said he didn’t blame the man for the attack, and regretted the fact he had been sent back to Somalia. Describing the process of reconciling his personally held beliefs, young SV activist Karsten Nordal Hauken said the experience left him “feeling nothing”... Mr. Hauken found himself unable to blame his attacker, saying “he is not responsible for his actions”. Rather than the rapist being in charge of his own destiny, he said he was merely “a product of an unjust world. A product of an upbringing marked by war and deprivation”, and said that rather than the attack being sexually motivated, it was all about “exerting power” over him. The attack had not in any way dulled his left-wing politics, either. Mr. Hauken said: “I stand rock solid in my opinion that people like him need our help. I want us to continue to help refugees with such a background… For I am a human being first, and not a Norwegian. No, I’m part of the world, and the world is unfortunately unfair”."
‘It Makes Me Very Sad’ Says Open Borders Activist Brutally Stabbed by Migrant Gang - "Despite the apparently random violent attack by the migrants, the activist was adamant the stabbing shouldn’t be used for political ends."
Princeton protesters occupy president’s office, demand ‘racist’ Woodrow Wilson’s name be removed - The Washington Post - "it’s a movement that has also generated opposition — as at Dartmouth, where some students reported being frightened by protesters screaming and swearing at them about being racists last week, at Yale where a debate about free speech clashed with demands from students angry about the racial climate on campus, at Claremont McKenna College where some students said protests turned hostile, and in a few places such as the University of Missouri and Howard, with racist death threats... The group demanded that the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, a segregationist who some believe supported the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan, be removed from a residential college, from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, and any other buildings — and that his mural be scrubbed from the dining hall.
Once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane
NYT: Justice Scalia Artfully Explained Flip-Flop on Appeals - "First, "issue a forthright admission" of error. After fellow Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accused him of changing his position on whether the court could hear certain kinds of appeals, Scalia admitted that her "stinging observation" was correct. Second, the Times said, "support the confession with a classy quotation from another Supreme Court Justice who once had to explain an about face." Scalia chose Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served on the court from 1941 to 1954 and was known for his extraordinary writing skills and self-deprecating candor. Third, "return fire." Scalia noted that a few months earlier, Ginsburg had shifted her position and used the identical quotation from Jackson."
First woman to join infantry regiment quits after two weeks - "The recruit dropped out of an 18-week course this month after falling behind her male counterparts on endurance marches and failing other physical tests at a training base in Suffolk. It is understood that when the woman resigned, she admitted having underestimated the physical requirements of being an infantry recruit. She also told officers that living in female-only accommodation made her feel ‘like an outsider’ and weakened her resolve. Her resignation is a huge blow to officials who are determined to integrate women into fighting units in the Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force... She is understood to have been one of just three women who applied to join the RAF Regiment and the only one considered fit enough to start the course at RAF Honington alongside 44 men."
Stereotypes!
At Midnight in Golden Mile Tower, Girls and Ghosts Come Out to Play
One Night With A Transgender Sex Worker - "She shares that she used to be an escort, but is now a streetwalker as she’s in the process of ‘rebranding’ herself. When this is done, she’ll go back to escorting, where she provides the ‘girlfriend experience’, and will also be paid more for a higher quality of service... “Some clients want you to get hard, some of them want you to come. Because I still have a dick, I can only come what, at most twice one night? And all this not even considering whether I find the client attractive or not. If it’s a nice good looking Caucasian man, maybe not so bad. But it’s not always the case.”"
67 New England Private Schools Accused of Covering Up Sexual Abuse - "The Globe’s Spotlight Team, which does in-depth investigative reporting, found 200-plus victims at 67 private schools, resulting in more than 90 legal claims since 1991... Perhaps most disturbing is the way school administrators let abusers move from school to school. The Globe uncovered 11 cases where teachers accused of abuse at one private school went on to work at another. Administrators often failed to alert the new school about a teacher’s past abuse, according to the Globe. That allowed some teachers to abuse children at different schools, and in different states, with impunity."
Has Media Ignored Sex Abuse In School? - "during the first half of 2002, the 61 largest newspapers in California ran nearly 2,000 stories about sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, mostly concerning past allegations. During the same period, those newspapers ran four stories about the federal government's discovery of the much larger — and ongoing — abuse scandal in public schools."
Catholic child abuse in proportion | Andrew Brown - "the most pessimistic survey finds that 27% of American women and 16% of men had "a history of childhood sexual abuse"; while the the most optimistic had 12.8% of women and 4.3% of men... The Catholic figures show that between about 4% of priests and deacons serving in the US between 1950 and 2002 had been accused of sexual abuse of someone under 18. In this country, the figure was a 10th of that: 0.4%... half of the girls fostered in social democratic Sweden in the 50s and 60s had been abused; according to Camila Batmanghelidjh 550,000 children are reported to the social services in this country every year"
Public Esteem for Military Still High - "just 37% of Americans surveyed think the clergy make a big contribution to society... public perceptions of the military and teachers are overwhelmingly positive. Fully 78% of adults believe that members of the military contribute a lot to the well-being of society, and 72% say the same about teachers"
How Exercise Can Help You Recall Words - The New York Times
As Google Feeds Cats, Owl Lovers Cry Foul - The New York Times - "At Google, it is not so much that workers do not like birds as it is that they really love cats. There is an employee group called GCat Rescue that traps the cats around the so-called Googleplex. Kittens and friendly adults are put up for adoption. Less-friendly adult cats are neutered and released... The number of cat sightings there last year was 318, according to the City of Mountain View’s official count. And 2017 was the first time in 20 years of record-keeping that no owl fledglings were observed in the park. As recently as 2011, there were 10."
Opinion | Aristotle’s Wrongful Death - The New York Times - "The world now changes at warp speed. Colleges move glacially. By the time they’ve assembled a new cluster of practical concentrations, an even newer cluster may be called for, and a set of job-specific skills picked up today may be obsolete less than a decade down the road. The idea of college as instantaneously responsive to employers’ evolving needs is a bit of a fantasy. Eric Johnson, an education policy analyst in Chapel Hill, N.C., agrees that majors may well be “a poor way of organizing career preparation.” “But that’s because college is a poor way of organizing career preparation,” he told me. “Deep, discipline-focused learning is simply a different goal than being adequately skilled to serve mercurial employers.”... Colleges needn’t abandon majors in order to give students breadth and nimbleness. That’s what general-education requirements are for. So why don’t more colleges expand or toughen those? That would additionally help to create shared experiences and common points of reference in a dangerously fractured society... majoring in anything — is a useful retort to the infinite distractions, short attention spans and staccato communications of the smartphone era. Perhaps now, more than ever, young people need to be shown the rewards of sustained attention and taught how to hold a thought. That’s what a major does. There’s a reason that it’s often called a discipline."
A Real-Life Enchanted Forest - The New York Times - "IN ORDER TO see one of the oldest living trees on earth in one of the oldest evergreen forests in the world, you must first fly two hours from Tokyo to the town of Kagoshima on Kyushu"
Why Hispanic-Americans live longer: The mystery that has puzzled researchers for decades - The Washington Post - "In the United States, Hispanics die at slower rates than non-Hispanic whites. This is true even before accounting for differences in incomes and health-care access, which put Hispanics at a disadvantage... Markides speculated that Hispanic culture may have some protective effect. Tight-knit families and immigrant communities offer crucial support to people battling illnesses. Hispanics, especially recent immigrants, also tend to behave in more healthy ways, smoking and drinking less. This may explain why second- and third-generation Hispanics, who are more plugged into the mainstream culture, see less of a boost to their health."
Hispanic privilege
Nation of shoplifters: the rise of supermarket self-checkout scams - "Few would steal from an individual grocer. But from a multinational conglomerate? What difference does it make? “There’s a mountain of good socio-cognitive criminological research that explains this under the heading of Neutralisation Theory,” says Shadd Maruna, a criminology professor at the University of Manchester. I’d asked him to take me through the psychology of self-checkout theft, to help me get to grips with the “why”. “Individuals can neutralise guilt they might otherwise feel when stealing by telling themselves that there are no victims of the crime, no human being is actually being hurt by this, only some mega-corporation that can surely afford the loss of a few quid. In fact, the corporation has saved so much money by laying off all its cashiers that it is almost morally necessary to steal from them.”"
BioWare's David Crooks Mocks TotalBiscuit's Death After YouTuber Dies Of Cancer - "Mass Effect: Andromeda programmer, David Crooks, decided to quickly hop on the opportunity to mock and deride John “TotalBiscuit” Bain an hour after he died in a losing battle to terminal cancer... Various others within the Social Justice Warrior community are also mocking the YouTuber after the 33-year-old died to cancer... 'These are the same types of people who claim to want to stop online abuse and harassment. But the reality is that they don’t want to stop bullying, they just want to feel morally superior as they bully others. They’re amoral frauds.'... Electronic Arts, DICE, and BioWare have been courting those kind of people above – attempting to cater their games toward so-called “progressives” who have no qualms with bullying those who suffer from terminal cancer."
Hainanese chicken rice may be nature's one perfect dish - "Hainanese chicken rice can be found in most major U.S. cities, and with its simple cooking method, it’s not too difficult to make the dish at home as well. There’s only one problem—most American chickens are bred for size, and as such, taste comparatively bland and flavorless compared to its Southeast Asian counterparts. It’s the superior breed of chicken, plus its method of preparation accentuating those flavors, that makes Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore and Malaysia the apotheosis of chicken dishes—maybe worldwide"
Singaporeans on Tumblr Are Turning Instagram Girls Into Pornstars - "Out of the girls I approach, three aren’t interested in discussing the subject, one ignores me completely, and two say that they’re busy, giving one liners congratulating the men on their imagination. They even add that they aren’t affected so long as it doesn’t ruin their dignity... “I think these girls need to calm the fuck down. The only difference between me memorising your face/body and looking at your picture while touching myself, is a visual reminder that YOU put out there.” As we end our chat, Leon leaves me with something else to think about when he postulates that the girls who’ve had their photos shared to these “porn Tumblrs” may not mind as much as they claim to, adding that they might even be secretly pleased about it. “No girl has ever complained about having more followers what,” he finishes.""
Race in biology and anthropology: A study of college texts and professors - "67% of biologists accept the concept of biological races in the species Homo sapiens, while only 50% of physical anthropologists do so"
Amusingly the authors think they know better than a majority of biologists and a pluralist of physical anthropologists
Of course views will have changed since 1992, given the present hostile climate
Women's college instructs professors not to call students 'women' - "Professors are instructed to say “Mount Holyoke students” instead of “Mount Holyoke women,” as well as avoiding statements like “We’re all women here…” or referring to “the two genders” as part of a Teaching & Learning Initiative... Yet, on the school's website, it says, “Imagine if every day were International Women’s Day. Meet Mount Holyoke,” and also boasts of being founded “by a woman!” in 1837."
Stanford Professor: Dungeons and Dragons Perpetuates Systems of White, Male Privilege - "Standford University Professor Antero Garcia argues in an academic journal article that the popular game Dungeons and Dragons perpetuates systems of privilege... Garcia’s 16-page article focuses on the representation of women in the game. According to Garica’s research, by 2014, more than half of the game’s depicted characters are female."
University Police are Surveilling Student Social Media Accounts for 'Campus Safety' - "A report from Campus Safety Magazine revealed that the University of Virginia spends $18,500 per year on monitoring the social media accounts of their students. The university retained a firm called Social Sentinel, which uses software to monitor social media accounts for schools and corporations."
Farage: Soros and Allies Engaged in 'The Biggest Level of International Political Collusion in History' - "Speaking in a debate on the Paradise Papers in the European Parliament, the UKIP MEP pointed out that the financier had funded the exposé. “I say this at a time when the use of money and the influence it may have had on the Brexit result or the Trump election has reached a level of virtual hysteria,” he said. “Just last week the Electoral Commission in the UK launched an investigation to find out whether the Leave campaign took offshore money or Russian money. “This came about as a result of questions asked in the House of Commons by one Ben Bradshaw, somebody linked to an organisation called Open Society. “I just wonder when we’re talking about offshore money, when we’re talking about political subversion, when we’re talking about collusion, I wonder whether we’re looking in the wrong place. “And I say that because George Soros recently gave Open Society, his organisation, which of course campaigns for free movement of peoples and supports supranational structures like the European Union, he recently gave it 18 billion dollars."
After Anal Rape, Left Wing Activist Felt 'Guilt And Responsibility' His Migrant Attacker Was Deported - "An active member of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party (SV) who described himself as an ardent “feminist and anti-racist” explained the difficulty he experienced accepting that he had been anally raped by a male migrant. He said he didn’t blame the man for the attack, and regretted the fact he had been sent back to Somalia. Describing the process of reconciling his personally held beliefs, young SV activist Karsten Nordal Hauken said the experience left him “feeling nothing”... Mr. Hauken found himself unable to blame his attacker, saying “he is not responsible for his actions”. Rather than the rapist being in charge of his own destiny, he said he was merely “a product of an unjust world. A product of an upbringing marked by war and deprivation”, and said that rather than the attack being sexually motivated, it was all about “exerting power” over him. The attack had not in any way dulled his left-wing politics, either. Mr. Hauken said: “I stand rock solid in my opinion that people like him need our help. I want us to continue to help refugees with such a background… For I am a human being first, and not a Norwegian. No, I’m part of the world, and the world is unfortunately unfair”."
‘It Makes Me Very Sad’ Says Open Borders Activist Brutally Stabbed by Migrant Gang - "Despite the apparently random violent attack by the migrants, the activist was adamant the stabbing shouldn’t be used for political ends."
Princeton protesters occupy president’s office, demand ‘racist’ Woodrow Wilson’s name be removed - The Washington Post - "it’s a movement that has also generated opposition — as at Dartmouth, where some students reported being frightened by protesters screaming and swearing at them about being racists last week, at Yale where a debate about free speech clashed with demands from students angry about the racial climate on campus, at Claremont McKenna College where some students said protests turned hostile, and in a few places such as the University of Missouri and Howard, with racist death threats... The group demanded that the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, a segregationist who some believe supported the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan, be removed from a residential college, from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, and any other buildings — and that his mural be scrubbed from the dining hall.
Once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane
NYT: Justice Scalia Artfully Explained Flip-Flop on Appeals - "First, "issue a forthright admission" of error. After fellow Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accused him of changing his position on whether the court could hear certain kinds of appeals, Scalia admitted that her "stinging observation" was correct. Second, the Times said, "support the confession with a classy quotation from another Supreme Court Justice who once had to explain an about face." Scalia chose Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served on the court from 1941 to 1954 and was known for his extraordinary writing skills and self-deprecating candor. Third, "return fire." Scalia noted that a few months earlier, Ginsburg had shifted her position and used the identical quotation from Jackson."
First woman to join infantry regiment quits after two weeks - "The recruit dropped out of an 18-week course this month after falling behind her male counterparts on endurance marches and failing other physical tests at a training base in Suffolk. It is understood that when the woman resigned, she admitted having underestimated the physical requirements of being an infantry recruit. She also told officers that living in female-only accommodation made her feel ‘like an outsider’ and weakened her resolve. Her resignation is a huge blow to officials who are determined to integrate women into fighting units in the Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force... She is understood to have been one of just three women who applied to join the RAF Regiment and the only one considered fit enough to start the course at RAF Honington alongside 44 men."
Stereotypes!
At Midnight in Golden Mile Tower, Girls and Ghosts Come Out to Play
One Night With A Transgender Sex Worker - "She shares that she used to be an escort, but is now a streetwalker as she’s in the process of ‘rebranding’ herself. When this is done, she’ll go back to escorting, where she provides the ‘girlfriend experience’, and will also be paid more for a higher quality of service... “Some clients want you to get hard, some of them want you to come. Because I still have a dick, I can only come what, at most twice one night? And all this not even considering whether I find the client attractive or not. If it’s a nice good looking Caucasian man, maybe not so bad. But it’s not always the case.”"
Post ID: 5495405482703373759
40 Of The Most Clever Kitchen Hacks
In order to artificially inflate their pageviews, clickbait websites like to split their listicles into multiple pages.
The most egregious example I've seen so far is 40 Of The Most Clever Kitchen Hacks from homehacks.co - each tip is really short. Plus there's forty of them.
For convenience I have consolidated everything into one page here:
1) Prevent Boil Over
Having boiling water spill over your pot can make quite a mess. But there is a way to prevent this from happening. Just place a wooden spoon across the top of your pot.
2) Preserve Your Herbs
Don’t let your herbs dry out or go bad. You can preserve them by placing them in an ice tray with olive oil or water. Freeze them and take out when you’re ready to cook with them.
3) Peel Fruit in the Microwave
Save time by making your fruit easier to peel. Put your fruit in the microwave for 20 seconds. The peel should slide right off this way.
4) Parchment Paper Cupcakes
Need to make cupcakes but don’t have a muffin tin or cupcakes cups? You can still make your muffins. Use parchment paper instead.
5) Keep Plastic Wrap Cold
Plastic wrap is super annoying when it sticks to itself or rips. Keep your plastic wrap in the refrigerator. This will make the wrap stretch evenly and properly.
6) Make Pitting Cherries Easy
Place a cherry on top of an empty beer bottle. Use a chopstick to squeeze the pit out of the cherry. The pit will fall into the bottle.
7) Properly Clean Wooden Cutting Boards
Bacteria can build up if you don’t properly clean your wooden cutting boards. Cut a lemon in half and dip the cut side with coarse salt. Use it to scrub your cutting board clean, then rinse.
8) Prevent Microwave Dryness
Microwaves can cause food to dry out. But there is a way to combat this. Place a cup of water next to your food in the microwave when you cook it.
9) Salt A Cast Iron Pan
Cast iron pans can rust up if you don’t properly care for them. The best way to do that is with salt. Scrub your cast iron pans with salt instead of dish soap.
10) De-Seed Your Vegetables Fast
Scooping out seeds from your vegetables can take a lot of time. It’s just not a fun task. Use an ice cream scooper to perform this task, it makes it a lot easier and faster.
11) Shine Up Stainless Steel
Stainless steel can get dull with a lot of use. You can permanently dull those surfaces if you’re not using the right cleaning products. Mix vinegar and water together and spray the solution on your surfaces and wipe it down.
12) Keep Brown Sugar Soft
Brown sugar can clump up and harden if you don’t store it properly. Once it hardens it’s useless. Place an orange peel or apple slice inside the bag and put the bag in an airtight container to prevent this.
13) The Perfect Basted Egg
Here’s how to make the perfect basted egg. Break your egg in a pan and pour in some water. Put it on the heater and watch your eggs come out perfectly.
14) Easy Peel Eggs
Hard boiled eggs are pretty easy to make, but they are a pain in the butt to peel. Try putting up to a dozen eggs in a steamer basket suspended over boiling water for 15 to 16 minutes. The eggshell will slip right off this way.
15) Makeshift Parchment Brush
Need a pastry brush or don’t have one? No problem! Fold a piece of parchment paper at least four times. Use a scissor to cut some fringe into the paper. Use the fringe side as a brush.
16) DIY Powdered Sugar
Do you have a recipe that calls for powdered sugar? You can make your own. Just pulverize granulated sugar in a spice grinder to make your own.
17) Clean A Hydration Pack
Don’t burn what you’re sautéing. If you find that your food is getting too brown too quickly, toss in an ice cube to cool the pan down. The water quickly evaporates and your food won’t burn.
18) Muffin Tin Meatloaf
Meatloaf can take more than an hour to cook. You can speed it up by placing the meat into individual portions of a muffin tin. Bake your meatloaf at 450 degrees at 15 minutes.
19) Tea For Flavorful Grains
Make your grains tastier with tea. Cook your quinoa, millet, brown rice, or bulgur with teat infused water. Lapsang souchong, Earl Grey, and chai work well for this.
20) Don’t Waste The Rest of The Wine
If you have the rest of bottle of wine that you know you’re not going to drink within a few days, you can still salvage it. Pour the wine out into an ice cube tray. Use the cubes in a cooking recipe, wine spritzer, or pitcher of sangria.
21) Easy Pour Spout
Not all boxes come with easy pour spouts. Prevent yourself from making a mess when pouring out pancake mix by creating your own spout. Just cut off the corner of the box with a serrated knife.
22) Easy Way To Chop Up Squash
Need to prepare a butternut squash to cook. Place your squash in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. This will make it a lot easier to peel, seed, and cube.
23) Slow Down Tomato Rot
If you want your tomatoes to last longer, place them stem down when you store them. The air and moisture won’t be able to enter the stem scar this way. Storing them at room temperature also makes them last longer.
24) Speed Up Fruit Ripening
Don’t want to wait for that peach or banana to ripen on its own? Put your fruit in a paper bag and toss it. The concentrated ethylene gas will help it to ripen faster.
25) Keep Cut Fruit From Browning
Squeeze some lemon juice on your cut fruit to prevent it from browning. You can also mix one part honey with two parts of water. This method will slow down the oxidation process.
26) Remove Eggshell Pieces
Don’t stick your fingers in your eggs to get rid of eggshells. Use another piece of eggshell to get rid of the rouge piece. The eggshell will act as a magnet to scoop the other pieces.
27) Get Rid Of The Fat
Get rid of excess fat from stocks, stews, and sauces by skimming an ice cube along the top of the surface of your liquid with a spoon. This will cause the fat to rise and solidify. Then scoop it out with a spoon or a piece of toast.
28) Easy Peel Potato
There’s a much better way to peel potatoes instead of using a peeler. Start by boiling your potato. Toss your potatoes into an ice bath after you boil them and watch the skin fall right off.
29) (This is removing the pit from a peeled peaches but the text isn't there)
30) Extract The Most Juice Possible
Refrigerate your lemon. Then microwave it for 15 to 20 seconds. Roll your fruit, cut lengthwise then use tongs to get the most juice out of your lemons.
31) De-Kernal Corn On The Cob
Put the pointy end of your corn in the center hole of the pan. This will stead the cob. Then use a knife to slice downward. The pan will collect the kernels.
32) Make Cheese Grating Easy
Make grating semisoft cheeses like mozzarella easy. Just put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. It will be much easier to grate this way.
33) Tear-Free Way To Chop Onions
Chopping onions can turn you into a weepy mess. To avoid this just freeze your onion before chopping. Just make sure you cook the onions right after you freeze and chop them or else they’ll get soggy when they thaw. You can also hold a slice of bread in your mouth to prevent the tear-inducing gases from reaching your eye.
34) DIY Buttermilk Substitute
Do you have a recipe that calls for buttermilk but don’t have any? You can make your own by putting a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into regular milk. It doesn’t have the same thick, and creaminess as buttermilk put it does the trick.
35) Open A Stubborn Jar
Wrap a rubber band around the lip of your jar. It will give you a better grip on your jar. If you need more help, use a dishtowel over the rubberband top.
36) How To Cut Cherry Tomatoes
Here’s the secret to safely cutting cherry tomatoes. Place your cherry tomatoes in between two plates. The bottom plate should be upsidedown. Run a knife in between the two plates.
37) No-Stick Measuring Spoon
Measuring out molasses or honey can make a mess. Spray it with some cooking oil before you measure. The oil will make it slide off so that your measuring spoon is easy to clean.
38) De-crystalize Some Honey
Honey can become crystallized and hard to use after a while. You can reverse the crystallization by place it in a bowl of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. It will be as good as new.
39) Foam Milk With A Frother
Fill a jar with a little milk (no more than halfway). Close your jar and shake it well. Microwave your milk for about 30 seconds. It should come out frothy.
40) Brew Coffee Without Coffee Machine
Boil coffee in a pot of water using the same coffee to water ratio as you’d put in a coffee maker. Remove the coffee from the heat and let the grounds settle for four or five minutes. Ladle the coffee off of the top of the pot into a mug.
The most egregious example I've seen so far is 40 Of The Most Clever Kitchen Hacks from homehacks.co - each tip is really short. Plus there's forty of them.
For convenience I have consolidated everything into one page here:
1) Prevent Boil Over
Having boiling water spill over your pot can make quite a mess. But there is a way to prevent this from happening. Just place a wooden spoon across the top of your pot.
2) Preserve Your Herbs
Don’t let your herbs dry out or go bad. You can preserve them by placing them in an ice tray with olive oil or water. Freeze them and take out when you’re ready to cook with them.
3) Peel Fruit in the Microwave
Save time by making your fruit easier to peel. Put your fruit in the microwave for 20 seconds. The peel should slide right off this way.
4) Parchment Paper Cupcakes
Need to make cupcakes but don’t have a muffin tin or cupcakes cups? You can still make your muffins. Use parchment paper instead.
5) Keep Plastic Wrap Cold
Plastic wrap is super annoying when it sticks to itself or rips. Keep your plastic wrap in the refrigerator. This will make the wrap stretch evenly and properly.
6) Make Pitting Cherries Easy
Place a cherry on top of an empty beer bottle. Use a chopstick to squeeze the pit out of the cherry. The pit will fall into the bottle.
7) Properly Clean Wooden Cutting Boards
Bacteria can build up if you don’t properly clean your wooden cutting boards. Cut a lemon in half and dip the cut side with coarse salt. Use it to scrub your cutting board clean, then rinse.
8) Prevent Microwave Dryness
Microwaves can cause food to dry out. But there is a way to combat this. Place a cup of water next to your food in the microwave when you cook it.
9) Salt A Cast Iron Pan
Cast iron pans can rust up if you don’t properly care for them. The best way to do that is with salt. Scrub your cast iron pans with salt instead of dish soap.
10) De-Seed Your Vegetables Fast
Scooping out seeds from your vegetables can take a lot of time. It’s just not a fun task. Use an ice cream scooper to perform this task, it makes it a lot easier and faster.
11) Shine Up Stainless Steel
Stainless steel can get dull with a lot of use. You can permanently dull those surfaces if you’re not using the right cleaning products. Mix vinegar and water together and spray the solution on your surfaces and wipe it down.
12) Keep Brown Sugar Soft
Brown sugar can clump up and harden if you don’t store it properly. Once it hardens it’s useless. Place an orange peel or apple slice inside the bag and put the bag in an airtight container to prevent this.
13) The Perfect Basted Egg
Here’s how to make the perfect basted egg. Break your egg in a pan and pour in some water. Put it on the heater and watch your eggs come out perfectly.
14) Easy Peel Eggs
Hard boiled eggs are pretty easy to make, but they are a pain in the butt to peel. Try putting up to a dozen eggs in a steamer basket suspended over boiling water for 15 to 16 minutes. The eggshell will slip right off this way.
15) Makeshift Parchment Brush
Need a pastry brush or don’t have one? No problem! Fold a piece of parchment paper at least four times. Use a scissor to cut some fringe into the paper. Use the fringe side as a brush.
16) DIY Powdered Sugar
Do you have a recipe that calls for powdered sugar? You can make your own. Just pulverize granulated sugar in a spice grinder to make your own.
17) Clean A Hydration Pack
Don’t burn what you’re sautéing. If you find that your food is getting too brown too quickly, toss in an ice cube to cool the pan down. The water quickly evaporates and your food won’t burn.
18) Muffin Tin Meatloaf
Meatloaf can take more than an hour to cook. You can speed it up by placing the meat into individual portions of a muffin tin. Bake your meatloaf at 450 degrees at 15 minutes.
19) Tea For Flavorful Grains
Make your grains tastier with tea. Cook your quinoa, millet, brown rice, or bulgur with teat infused water. Lapsang souchong, Earl Grey, and chai work well for this.
20) Don’t Waste The Rest of The Wine
If you have the rest of bottle of wine that you know you’re not going to drink within a few days, you can still salvage it. Pour the wine out into an ice cube tray. Use the cubes in a cooking recipe, wine spritzer, or pitcher of sangria.
21) Easy Pour Spout
Not all boxes come with easy pour spouts. Prevent yourself from making a mess when pouring out pancake mix by creating your own spout. Just cut off the corner of the box with a serrated knife.
22) Easy Way To Chop Up Squash
Need to prepare a butternut squash to cook. Place your squash in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. This will make it a lot easier to peel, seed, and cube.
23) Slow Down Tomato Rot
If you want your tomatoes to last longer, place them stem down when you store them. The air and moisture won’t be able to enter the stem scar this way. Storing them at room temperature also makes them last longer.
24) Speed Up Fruit Ripening
Don’t want to wait for that peach or banana to ripen on its own? Put your fruit in a paper bag and toss it. The concentrated ethylene gas will help it to ripen faster.
25) Keep Cut Fruit From Browning
Squeeze some lemon juice on your cut fruit to prevent it from browning. You can also mix one part honey with two parts of water. This method will slow down the oxidation process.
26) Remove Eggshell Pieces
Don’t stick your fingers in your eggs to get rid of eggshells. Use another piece of eggshell to get rid of the rouge piece. The eggshell will act as a magnet to scoop the other pieces.
27) Get Rid Of The Fat
Get rid of excess fat from stocks, stews, and sauces by skimming an ice cube along the top of the surface of your liquid with a spoon. This will cause the fat to rise and solidify. Then scoop it out with a spoon or a piece of toast.
28) Easy Peel Potato
There’s a much better way to peel potatoes instead of using a peeler. Start by boiling your potato. Toss your potatoes into an ice bath after you boil them and watch the skin fall right off.
29) (This is removing the pit from a peeled peaches but the text isn't there)
30) Extract The Most Juice Possible
Refrigerate your lemon. Then microwave it for 15 to 20 seconds. Roll your fruit, cut lengthwise then use tongs to get the most juice out of your lemons.
31) De-Kernal Corn On The Cob
Put the pointy end of your corn in the center hole of the pan. This will stead the cob. Then use a knife to slice downward. The pan will collect the kernels.
32) Make Cheese Grating Easy
Make grating semisoft cheeses like mozzarella easy. Just put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. It will be much easier to grate this way.
33) Tear-Free Way To Chop Onions
Chopping onions can turn you into a weepy mess. To avoid this just freeze your onion before chopping. Just make sure you cook the onions right after you freeze and chop them or else they’ll get soggy when they thaw. You can also hold a slice of bread in your mouth to prevent the tear-inducing gases from reaching your eye.
34) DIY Buttermilk Substitute
Do you have a recipe that calls for buttermilk but don’t have any? You can make your own by putting a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into regular milk. It doesn’t have the same thick, and creaminess as buttermilk put it does the trick.
35) Open A Stubborn Jar
Wrap a rubber band around the lip of your jar. It will give you a better grip on your jar. If you need more help, use a dishtowel over the rubberband top.
36) How To Cut Cherry Tomatoes
Here’s the secret to safely cutting cherry tomatoes. Place your cherry tomatoes in between two plates. The bottom plate should be upsidedown. Run a knife in between the two plates.
37) No-Stick Measuring Spoon
Measuring out molasses or honey can make a mess. Spray it with some cooking oil before you measure. The oil will make it slide off so that your measuring spoon is easy to clean.
38) De-crystalize Some Honey
Honey can become crystallized and hard to use after a while. You can reverse the crystallization by place it in a bowl of hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. It will be as good as new.
39) Foam Milk With A Frother
Fill a jar with a little milk (no more than halfway). Close your jar and shake it well. Microwave your milk for about 30 seconds. It should come out frothy.
40) Brew Coffee Without Coffee Machine
Boil coffee in a pot of water using the same coffee to water ratio as you’d put in a coffee maker. Remove the coffee from the heat and let the grounds settle for four or five minutes. Ladle the coffee off of the top of the pot into a mug.
Post ID: 423980482447631119
Links - 31st July 2018 (1)
Majority of mass shootings carried out by white men - "According to a Mother Jones database of U.S. mass shootings since 1982, 54 percent of the 97 mass shootings have been carried out by white men. Black men accounted for roughly 16 percent of the total incidents during the same period of time, raising the question of why white men are over-represented in these incidents and why law enforcement and media are reluctant to profile them for these heinous crimes.
According to the Vintage 2016 Population Estimates, 76.9% of the US is white and 61.3% is non-Hispanic white. And 13.3% are black. Given that there're very few women mass shooters, the question of why white men are over-represented in these incidents isn't even uninteresting - it's misleading
Road vigilante leaves turtle colouring exercise for S’pore driver who can’t park within space lines
Study: For those over 90, alcohol better than exercise for longevity - "Researchers discovered that subjects who drank about two glasses of beer or wine a day were 18 percent less likely to experience a premature death, the Independent reports. Meanwhile, participants who exercised 15 to 45 minutes a day, cut the same risk by 11 percent... Other factors were found to boost longevity, including weight. Participants who were slightly overweight — but not obese — cut their odds of an early death by 3 percent... Subjects who kept busy with a daily hobby two hours a day were 21 percent less likely to die early, while those who drank two cups of coffee a day cut that risk by 10 percent"
Why you shouldn't exercise to lose weight, explained with 60+ studies - "1) An evolutionary clue to how our bodies burn calories...
"While the hunter-gatherers were physically active and lean, they actually burned the same amount of calories every day as the average American or European, even after the researchers controlled for body size."...
2) Exercise is excellent for health
3) Exercise alone is almost useless for weight loss
4) Exercise accounts for a small portion of daily calorie burn...
We have very little control over our basal metabolic rate, but it's our biggest energy hog. "It's generally accepted that for most people, the basal metabolic rate accounts for 60 to 80 percent of total energy expenditure," Kravitz said. Digesting food accounts for about 10 percent. That leaves only 10 to 30 percent for physical activity, of which exercise is only a subset...
5) It's hard to create a significant calorie deficit through exercise
6) Exercise can undermine weight loss in other, subtle ways...
people seemed to increase their food intake after exercise — either because they thought they burned off a lot of calories or because they were hungrier...
7) Exercise may cause physiological changes that help us conserve energy...
Despite going from being mostly sedentary to spending a couple of hours exercising almost every day, the participants only lost about 11 pounds on average, ranging from as little as 2 pounds to just over 17 pounds, almost all due to fat loss. The participants also burned 22 percent fewer calories through exercise than the researchers calculated prior to the study starting... either subjects' basal metabolic rates slowed down or subjects were expending less energy outside of their two-hour daily exercise block...
8) Energy expenditure might have an upper limit
9) The government and the food industry are doling out unscientific advice...
"Physical activity is vital to the health and well-being of consumers," Coca-Cola says. The company has been aligning itself with exercise since the 1920s, and was recently exposed by the New York Times for funding obesity researchers who emphasize a lack of physical activity as the cause of the epidemic...
10) So what actually works for weight loss?...
people who have had success losing weight have a few things in common: They weigh themselves at least once a week. They restrict their calorie intake, stay away from high-fat foods, and watch their portion sizes. They also exercise regularly. But note: These folks use physical activity in addition to calorie counting and other behavioral changes. Every reliable expert I've ever spoken to on weight loss says the most important thing a person can do is limit calories in a way they like and can sustain, and focus on eating healthfully. In general, diet with exercise can work better than calorie cutting alone, but with only marginal additional weight loss benefits."
Four motorised scooter riders jailed for beating up pedestrian - "Four motorised scooter riders went to find a man one of them had collided with in a park and beat him up. They might have got away with it had one of them not lost his phone in the fight - for when Tan Wee How later tried calling his own number it was answered by a police officer."
FAIL
Pavlovian conditioning and 'correct thinking' on the South China Sea - "China has argued that it was not the first to reclaim land or deploy military assets in the SCS. This may be true but is irrelevant. The speed and scope of China's reclamation dwarf anything any other claimant has done and the actions of a major power will always convey a different signature than those of small countries. China's argument that the infrastructure it has built is a common good for the benefit of all users of the SCS hardly seems intended to be believed. China continues to engage Asean on a code of conduct (COC) for the SCS but in a barely convincing way. Progress has been glacial and Chinese diplomats often hold discussions on the COC hostage to Asean refraining from taking positions on the SCS that displease China. On occasion, Chinese diplomats even seem to have perversely gone out of their way to accentuate rather than assuage anxieties. Once, after our Prime Minister spoke on the SCS at an Asean Summit, a senior Chinese diplomat told one of my younger colleagues that "silence is golden". If he meant to suggest that we were not entitled to a view on an important issue that affects our interests, he only undermined the credibility of China's claim to "peaceful development".... The general attitude that such attempts illustrate is not confined to the SCS issue but sometimes is on display even in seemingly trivial matters. Some years before I retired, one of my counterparts from an Asean country that was then holding the Asean chair told me that the Chinese ambassador to his country had forced him to shift an Asean leader attending a summit out of a hotel that had already been allocated to that Asean delegation so that then Premier Wen Jiabao could stay there. The ambassador insisted on this although the hotel allocated to Premier Wen was of equal quality. Did Premier Wen know where he was staying?... Chinese diplomats often profess bewilderment that China's generosity towards Asean has not evoked gratitude or assuaged mistrust, and they pretend to ascribe this to malignant external influences. I do not think that Chinese diplomats are more inept or disingenuous than the diplomats of other countries. Their behaviour is, I think, better understood as illustrating the passive-aggressive style and the positing of false dilemmas to force acceptance of China's inherent superiority as the natural normative order of East Asian international relations - or at least South-east Asian international relations because I doubt that Japan will ever accept the Chinese notion of regional order characteristic of Chinese diplomacy... China does not merely want consideration of its interests. China expects deference to its interests to be internalised by Asean members as a mode of thought; as not just a correct calculation of Asean interests vis-a-vis China but "correct thinking: which leads to "correct behaviour"... This differentiates Chinese diplomacy from the diplomacy of other major powers... China does not even acknowledge that many areas contested by Asean claimants are in dispute
China's peaceful rise
So much for American hegemony
What 18-year-olds tell us about Singapore's future - "When Mr Lee visited Australia during my term as High Commissioner, he asked me to organise tea with ex-Singaporean migrants in Perth. He wanted to hear from them why they chose Australia over Singapore. When one of them told him that he gave up a well-paid job in Singapore to migrate there so that he could work half-day and go fishing in the afternoon, Mr Lee nearly fell off his chair. He just could not understand why anybody would make such a lifestyle choice. To Mr Lee, it was irrational. You see, Mr Lee came from the era when the term "work-life balance" had not been invented. To him, life was work and work was life - it was the same thing, no need to balance the two... Why are our best students fearful of taking the less trodden paths? Why do so many choose to be public servants, lawyers and doctors, and go to the same universities in the US and UK? Why do they apply for government scholarships and not launch into business like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?... The majority of those we interview do not score highly on creativity and imagination. Only a few are deemed by the psychologists as being able to think out of the box and to offer unconventional ideas and solutions... Many years ago, I invited the American innovation guru Gary Hamel and then Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to Singapore to brief our senior public servants and politicians. They spent a whole day explaining how innovation requires experimentation and repeated failures. The response from the audience was, at best, lukewarm. One minister told me that it was not feasible in our government culture to get people to accept failure; we were too focused on success."
Someone actually made a video called SMRT CEO Conversion Course
When religion becomes a deal breaker - "“Firqin, it seems like your love will never be unconditional. It will only be on the condition that I convert into Islam"... When it came to my future and marriage, I was certain: my partner had to be Muslim. The culmination of stories I heard over the years did not help. Stories of Muslims and non-Muslims would always end in tragedy. The Malay-Muslim person gets ostracized from their family and their new partner would never be accepted, or there would just be a lot of family members crying. Although I knew that Muslim men are free to marry women from other Abrahamic faiths while Muslim women are not allowed to marry outside their faith, this was not something I questioned, though it did not sit well with me. Marrying a Muslim was normalized to become law. I did not question the law. The Malay dramas were not helpful either. Successful romantic relationships were always based on the idea that both partners were working towards loving God or becoming an orthodox, conservative Muslim. There were no narratives that showed inter-religious marriages built on mutual respect, co-existence, partnership and commitment. If there were stories of inter-racial and inter-religious relationships, someone would end up converting into Islam. Hence, the idea of an inter-religious marriage seemed unfathomable and almost blasphemous to me... My obsession with the minutiae of religion and how I would be judged by my community, family and friends consumed me... I selfishly bullied Max into my religion. I was extremely unfair to him, and blinded to all his good deeds just because he was not Muslim"
iPhone’s weirdest glitch yet: Ask Siri to define “mother” twice, learn a bad word - " "As a noun," the computer-generated voice said as of press time, "it means, short for 'motherfucker.'""
GTA: San Andreas too sexy, literally - "the hilarity of it all is that we've got people complaining about sex in a game that ranks in the top five "pro violence" games on the market. Sex is bad, but cappin' those fools who just keep steppin' is just dandy"
A Letter To My Younger Self | Single Mothers by Choice - "all of that money you’ve pissed away on travel, fun, clothes, hot shoes, dinners out, and wine tastings will be chump change compared to the tens of thousands of dollars you’ll spend on fertility treatments or adopting. Yes, you’ll have to actually pay for sperm (I know—it’s shocking to have to pay for it when you used to get it for free). And then you’ll have to pay for it to be put into your hooha while numerous medical staff gaze at your nether regions intently. Sexy, huh? Yeah, not fun. And I hope you like needles because you’ll be spending many a night trying to find the right position to jab a needle into some spot on one of your cheeks that isn’t inflamed by shot after shot of hormones you’ll need to get and stay pregnant — if you are one of the lucky ones who does conceive."
And people slam the Singaporean government for saying the same thing
Glamourising the 'Childfree Life' Ignores Reality for Most Childless Women - "There has been a steep rise in childless women from 1976, when the U.S. Census first began recording fertility rates. Then, 35 percent of women of fertile age were childless. Today, that number is 49 percent... By the end of our fertile years, about one sixth of women (17%) are childless. Survey data indicates that this group is likely to want to have children in the context of marriage, or at least long-term co-habitation. And when they do finally have children at late-fertile age, they are likely to bear more children than the average mother... 80 percent of unmarried women are childless, and of those, 81 percent plan or hope to have children one day. This is not how the phenomenon is portrayed in the media... Marc Kalan, a board certified reproductive endocrinologist whom I interviewed for Otherhood told me that no patients of his are more compliant than the women who come to him in their late thirties and forties, who have not found a partner, and want to have a baby. Even those with a less than 5 percent chance of conception are undeterred."
So much for "stereotypes"
FACT CHECK: Coca-Cola Dissolves Teeth - "Coca-Cola contains acids (such as citric acid and phosphoric acid) which will eventually dissolve items such as teeth (given enough time), but so do plenty of other substances we commonly ingest (such as orange juice). The concentration of acid in these products is so low that our digestive systems are easily capable of coping with it with no harm to us.
The idea that any substance which can dissolve teeth must therefore damage our teeth if we drink it is nonsensical. We don’t hold drinks in our mouths for days at a time — any liquids we drink simply wash over our teeth very briefly, and our teeth are further protected by their enamel coating and the ameliorating effects of saliva."
State-owned companies "surprisingly successful" - "When comparing Norwegian government-owned companies to other European companies within the same industry, research shows that five out the six companies studied have performed better during the past ten years. According to Norvik, the success is based on the government's role as owner, and that it has chosen to involve few other private owners, but rather use the stock market; that the government differentiates between its role as owner and regulating authority; manages the companies as other owners through the board; follows the rules for good company management; and treats all shareholders as equals"
Time Out City Index 2018: apparently Singapore is boring? - "According to the results of the Time Out City Life Index – a poll of 15,000 people – Singapore takes the 31st spot in a ranking of 32 of the world's most exciting cities, some would even say that makes our city boring compared to the rest. And to add more insult to injury, only 66% of the 235 people surveyed actually enjoy living here, a stark contrast to 89% of people living in Tokyo or 78% of Hong Kongers. There are plenty of reasons for this. Common complaints include a lack of kindness and politeness – 20% of people polled think that this is the biggest issue facing the city – overcrowding (19%), a lack of social integration (10%) and insufficient support for the elderly (9%). Within a 24-hour period, 55% of people living here report feeling stressed, 43% feel lonely and 35% feel sleep-deprived. Yikes. We also work longer hours on average compared to other cities around the world, so that explains things... 58% of people think living in Singapore is a rip-off... Only 17% of respondents think that there's always something to see and do in Singapore's art and culture scene – one of the lowest out of the cities surveyed. Our live music and nightlife scenes don't rank too well either"
Is Yogurt Healthy? - "Inflammation, the body’s immune response to invaders, can be a good thing—it’s how our wounds heal, for example. But a steady, low-level simmer of inflammation in the body is associated with diseases like asthma and arthritis, as well as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease... the yogurt-eating group saw improvements in some markers of inflammation"
According to the Vintage 2016 Population Estimates, 76.9% of the US is white and 61.3% is non-Hispanic white. And 13.3% are black. Given that there're very few women mass shooters, the question of why white men are over-represented in these incidents isn't even uninteresting - it's misleading
Road vigilante leaves turtle colouring exercise for S’pore driver who can’t park within space lines
Study: For those over 90, alcohol better than exercise for longevity - "Researchers discovered that subjects who drank about two glasses of beer or wine a day were 18 percent less likely to experience a premature death, the Independent reports. Meanwhile, participants who exercised 15 to 45 minutes a day, cut the same risk by 11 percent... Other factors were found to boost longevity, including weight. Participants who were slightly overweight — but not obese — cut their odds of an early death by 3 percent... Subjects who kept busy with a daily hobby two hours a day were 21 percent less likely to die early, while those who drank two cups of coffee a day cut that risk by 10 percent"
Why you shouldn't exercise to lose weight, explained with 60+ studies - "1) An evolutionary clue to how our bodies burn calories...
"While the hunter-gatherers were physically active and lean, they actually burned the same amount of calories every day as the average American or European, even after the researchers controlled for body size."...
2) Exercise is excellent for health
3) Exercise alone is almost useless for weight loss
4) Exercise accounts for a small portion of daily calorie burn...
We have very little control over our basal metabolic rate, but it's our biggest energy hog. "It's generally accepted that for most people, the basal metabolic rate accounts for 60 to 80 percent of total energy expenditure," Kravitz said. Digesting food accounts for about 10 percent. That leaves only 10 to 30 percent for physical activity, of which exercise is only a subset...
5) It's hard to create a significant calorie deficit through exercise
6) Exercise can undermine weight loss in other, subtle ways...
people seemed to increase their food intake after exercise — either because they thought they burned off a lot of calories or because they were hungrier...
7) Exercise may cause physiological changes that help us conserve energy...
Despite going from being mostly sedentary to spending a couple of hours exercising almost every day, the participants only lost about 11 pounds on average, ranging from as little as 2 pounds to just over 17 pounds, almost all due to fat loss. The participants also burned 22 percent fewer calories through exercise than the researchers calculated prior to the study starting... either subjects' basal metabolic rates slowed down or subjects were expending less energy outside of their two-hour daily exercise block...
8) Energy expenditure might have an upper limit
9) The government and the food industry are doling out unscientific advice...
"Physical activity is vital to the health and well-being of consumers," Coca-Cola says. The company has been aligning itself with exercise since the 1920s, and was recently exposed by the New York Times for funding obesity researchers who emphasize a lack of physical activity as the cause of the epidemic...
10) So what actually works for weight loss?...
people who have had success losing weight have a few things in common: They weigh themselves at least once a week. They restrict their calorie intake, stay away from high-fat foods, and watch their portion sizes. They also exercise regularly. But note: These folks use physical activity in addition to calorie counting and other behavioral changes. Every reliable expert I've ever spoken to on weight loss says the most important thing a person can do is limit calories in a way they like and can sustain, and focus on eating healthfully. In general, diet with exercise can work better than calorie cutting alone, but with only marginal additional weight loss benefits."
Four motorised scooter riders jailed for beating up pedestrian - "Four motorised scooter riders went to find a man one of them had collided with in a park and beat him up. They might have got away with it had one of them not lost his phone in the fight - for when Tan Wee How later tried calling his own number it was answered by a police officer."
FAIL
Pavlovian conditioning and 'correct thinking' on the South China Sea - "China has argued that it was not the first to reclaim land or deploy military assets in the SCS. This may be true but is irrelevant. The speed and scope of China's reclamation dwarf anything any other claimant has done and the actions of a major power will always convey a different signature than those of small countries. China's argument that the infrastructure it has built is a common good for the benefit of all users of the SCS hardly seems intended to be believed. China continues to engage Asean on a code of conduct (COC) for the SCS but in a barely convincing way. Progress has been glacial and Chinese diplomats often hold discussions on the COC hostage to Asean refraining from taking positions on the SCS that displease China. On occasion, Chinese diplomats even seem to have perversely gone out of their way to accentuate rather than assuage anxieties. Once, after our Prime Minister spoke on the SCS at an Asean Summit, a senior Chinese diplomat told one of my younger colleagues that "silence is golden". If he meant to suggest that we were not entitled to a view on an important issue that affects our interests, he only undermined the credibility of China's claim to "peaceful development".... The general attitude that such attempts illustrate is not confined to the SCS issue but sometimes is on display even in seemingly trivial matters. Some years before I retired, one of my counterparts from an Asean country that was then holding the Asean chair told me that the Chinese ambassador to his country had forced him to shift an Asean leader attending a summit out of a hotel that had already been allocated to that Asean delegation so that then Premier Wen Jiabao could stay there. The ambassador insisted on this although the hotel allocated to Premier Wen was of equal quality. Did Premier Wen know where he was staying?... Chinese diplomats often profess bewilderment that China's generosity towards Asean has not evoked gratitude or assuaged mistrust, and they pretend to ascribe this to malignant external influences. I do not think that Chinese diplomats are more inept or disingenuous than the diplomats of other countries. Their behaviour is, I think, better understood as illustrating the passive-aggressive style and the positing of false dilemmas to force acceptance of China's inherent superiority as the natural normative order of East Asian international relations - or at least South-east Asian international relations because I doubt that Japan will ever accept the Chinese notion of regional order characteristic of Chinese diplomacy... China does not merely want consideration of its interests. China expects deference to its interests to be internalised by Asean members as a mode of thought; as not just a correct calculation of Asean interests vis-a-vis China but "correct thinking: which leads to "correct behaviour"... This differentiates Chinese diplomacy from the diplomacy of other major powers... China does not even acknowledge that many areas contested by Asean claimants are in dispute
China's peaceful rise
So much for American hegemony
What 18-year-olds tell us about Singapore's future - "When Mr Lee visited Australia during my term as High Commissioner, he asked me to organise tea with ex-Singaporean migrants in Perth. He wanted to hear from them why they chose Australia over Singapore. When one of them told him that he gave up a well-paid job in Singapore to migrate there so that he could work half-day and go fishing in the afternoon, Mr Lee nearly fell off his chair. He just could not understand why anybody would make such a lifestyle choice. To Mr Lee, it was irrational. You see, Mr Lee came from the era when the term "work-life balance" had not been invented. To him, life was work and work was life - it was the same thing, no need to balance the two... Why are our best students fearful of taking the less trodden paths? Why do so many choose to be public servants, lawyers and doctors, and go to the same universities in the US and UK? Why do they apply for government scholarships and not launch into business like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?... The majority of those we interview do not score highly on creativity and imagination. Only a few are deemed by the psychologists as being able to think out of the box and to offer unconventional ideas and solutions... Many years ago, I invited the American innovation guru Gary Hamel and then Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to Singapore to brief our senior public servants and politicians. They spent a whole day explaining how innovation requires experimentation and repeated failures. The response from the audience was, at best, lukewarm. One minister told me that it was not feasible in our government culture to get people to accept failure; we were too focused on success."
Someone actually made a video called SMRT CEO Conversion Course
When religion becomes a deal breaker - "“Firqin, it seems like your love will never be unconditional. It will only be on the condition that I convert into Islam"... When it came to my future and marriage, I was certain: my partner had to be Muslim. The culmination of stories I heard over the years did not help. Stories of Muslims and non-Muslims would always end in tragedy. The Malay-Muslim person gets ostracized from their family and their new partner would never be accepted, or there would just be a lot of family members crying. Although I knew that Muslim men are free to marry women from other Abrahamic faiths while Muslim women are not allowed to marry outside their faith, this was not something I questioned, though it did not sit well with me. Marrying a Muslim was normalized to become law. I did not question the law. The Malay dramas were not helpful either. Successful romantic relationships were always based on the idea that both partners were working towards loving God or becoming an orthodox, conservative Muslim. There were no narratives that showed inter-religious marriages built on mutual respect, co-existence, partnership and commitment. If there were stories of inter-racial and inter-religious relationships, someone would end up converting into Islam. Hence, the idea of an inter-religious marriage seemed unfathomable and almost blasphemous to me... My obsession with the minutiae of religion and how I would be judged by my community, family and friends consumed me... I selfishly bullied Max into my religion. I was extremely unfair to him, and blinded to all his good deeds just because he was not Muslim"
iPhone’s weirdest glitch yet: Ask Siri to define “mother” twice, learn a bad word - " "As a noun," the computer-generated voice said as of press time, "it means, short for 'motherfucker.'""
GTA: San Andreas too sexy, literally - "the hilarity of it all is that we've got people complaining about sex in a game that ranks in the top five "pro violence" games on the market. Sex is bad, but cappin' those fools who just keep steppin' is just dandy"
A Letter To My Younger Self | Single Mothers by Choice - "all of that money you’ve pissed away on travel, fun, clothes, hot shoes, dinners out, and wine tastings will be chump change compared to the tens of thousands of dollars you’ll spend on fertility treatments or adopting. Yes, you’ll have to actually pay for sperm (I know—it’s shocking to have to pay for it when you used to get it for free). And then you’ll have to pay for it to be put into your hooha while numerous medical staff gaze at your nether regions intently. Sexy, huh? Yeah, not fun. And I hope you like needles because you’ll be spending many a night trying to find the right position to jab a needle into some spot on one of your cheeks that isn’t inflamed by shot after shot of hormones you’ll need to get and stay pregnant — if you are one of the lucky ones who does conceive."
And people slam the Singaporean government for saying the same thing
Glamourising the 'Childfree Life' Ignores Reality for Most Childless Women - "There has been a steep rise in childless women from 1976, when the U.S. Census first began recording fertility rates. Then, 35 percent of women of fertile age were childless. Today, that number is 49 percent... By the end of our fertile years, about one sixth of women (17%) are childless. Survey data indicates that this group is likely to want to have children in the context of marriage, or at least long-term co-habitation. And when they do finally have children at late-fertile age, they are likely to bear more children than the average mother... 80 percent of unmarried women are childless, and of those, 81 percent plan or hope to have children one day. This is not how the phenomenon is portrayed in the media... Marc Kalan, a board certified reproductive endocrinologist whom I interviewed for Otherhood told me that no patients of his are more compliant than the women who come to him in their late thirties and forties, who have not found a partner, and want to have a baby. Even those with a less than 5 percent chance of conception are undeterred."
So much for "stereotypes"
FACT CHECK: Coca-Cola Dissolves Teeth - "Coca-Cola contains acids (such as citric acid and phosphoric acid) which will eventually dissolve items such as teeth (given enough time), but so do plenty of other substances we commonly ingest (such as orange juice). The concentration of acid in these products is so low that our digestive systems are easily capable of coping with it with no harm to us.
The idea that any substance which can dissolve teeth must therefore damage our teeth if we drink it is nonsensical. We don’t hold drinks in our mouths for days at a time — any liquids we drink simply wash over our teeth very briefly, and our teeth are further protected by their enamel coating and the ameliorating effects of saliva."
State-owned companies "surprisingly successful" - "When comparing Norwegian government-owned companies to other European companies within the same industry, research shows that five out the six companies studied have performed better during the past ten years. According to Norvik, the success is based on the government's role as owner, and that it has chosen to involve few other private owners, but rather use the stock market; that the government differentiates between its role as owner and regulating authority; manages the companies as other owners through the board; follows the rules for good company management; and treats all shareholders as equals"
Time Out City Index 2018: apparently Singapore is boring? - "According to the results of the Time Out City Life Index – a poll of 15,000 people – Singapore takes the 31st spot in a ranking of 32 of the world's most exciting cities, some would even say that makes our city boring compared to the rest. And to add more insult to injury, only 66% of the 235 people surveyed actually enjoy living here, a stark contrast to 89% of people living in Tokyo or 78% of Hong Kongers. There are plenty of reasons for this. Common complaints include a lack of kindness and politeness – 20% of people polled think that this is the biggest issue facing the city – overcrowding (19%), a lack of social integration (10%) and insufficient support for the elderly (9%). Within a 24-hour period, 55% of people living here report feeling stressed, 43% feel lonely and 35% feel sleep-deprived. Yikes. We also work longer hours on average compared to other cities around the world, so that explains things... 58% of people think living in Singapore is a rip-off... Only 17% of respondents think that there's always something to see and do in Singapore's art and culture scene – one of the lowest out of the cities surveyed. Our live music and nightlife scenes don't rank too well either"
Is Yogurt Healthy? - "Inflammation, the body’s immune response to invaders, can be a good thing—it’s how our wounds heal, for example. But a steady, low-level simmer of inflammation in the body is associated with diseases like asthma and arthritis, as well as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and heart disease... the yogurt-eating group saw improvements in some markers of inflammation"
Post ID: 4843094612286187488
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Links - 29th July 2018 (3)
Study Shows That Sengkang, Tampines & Sembawang Are The Most Expensive Places To Makan At in S'pore - "Ang Mo Kio, Queenstown and Bukit Timah are the cheapest neighbourhoods to eat out at. The study focuses on 26 areas out of 55 planned areas set out by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA)... Take note that they’ve only studied the prices of food from coffee shops, food courts and hawker centres. In other words, not the high-SES makan places... Generally, food prices in matured estates cost 7.7% lower than the same food in the non-matured estates. If the area you stay in has more lower-income families, more rental flats and more elderly people, food offered will be cheaper."
Of course, hawkers in older areas having subsidised rents helps
No proof RM2.6b in Najib's account was a donation, says new MACC chief - "Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators were sent in 2015 to Saudi Arabia and met with the prince. But the prince could not provide supporting documents such as bank statements to prove the money was a donation from him. Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing since the 1MDB scandal erupted in 2015, but he replaced the attorney-general and several MACC officers to shut down an initial investigation."
Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behavior - "According to social constructionist theory, men behave in a sexist manner towards women in order to remove them from male-dominated spaces, regardless of social status. In contrast, evolutionary theory suggests that sexist behavior is in response to a threat to a male’s position in a social hierarchy, which could reduce access to potential mates... Lower-skilled male players were more hostile towards a female-voiced experimental teammate, especially when the female-voiced player was performing poorly. This same effect was not seen towards male-voiced experimental teammates... In games with the female-voiced experimental character, only 13% of teammates uttered hostile sexist statements... these results support an evolutionary explanation of female-directed aggression, where low-status males are more easily threatened by a female competitor whereas high-status males are not threatened, instead behaving in a supportive and potentially a mate attraction role."
In other words, if you suck you're more likely to diss women. But only a small minority of male gamers are sexist
This Guy Heated Bath Water With Bitcoin Mining and It Worked Too Well - "Motherboard’s Daniel Oberhaus used mining equipment (albeit graphics cards, not ASICs) to stay warm during a storm once, and a Redditor posting under the handle “gta3uzi” just took it to another level. In a Tuesday post by gta3uzi on the /r/Bitcoin subreddit, they revealed a system for heating hot water using ASICs so you can make money while you chill in a steamy bath... “It was a little too effective if I left it running all day as it produced baths of up to 122F/50C”... his mining operation made a 10 percent profit after electricity costs before he turned it into a water heater. But after the ASICs eliminated his $80 heating bill in addition to generating new cryptocurrency, Lee estimated that his mine’s profit went from 10 percent to 47 percent"
The Only Army Rank Allowed To Have A Beard On Parade - "Meet the Pioneer Sergeant, the holder of the only position within the British Army allowed to have a beard when on parade... The pioneer sergeant also acted as the blacksmith for the unit. As a result, he was allowed a beard to protect his face from the heat of the forge... Soldiers can grow a beard for medical reasons, such as in the case of a temporary skin irritation, or, more commonly for religious reasons... In the Royal Navy, full beards have always been allowed as long as permission is sought and granted, whereas moustaches, which are permitted within the RAF, Army and Royal Marines are forbidden. But anyone wishing to grow a beard in the Navy must have a 'full set,' that is, a full beard covering the whole jawline, joined to a moustache. And commanding officers can order an individual to shave off his facial hair if it becomes clear after around six weeks that he cannot grow a proper full set. Navy members should then keep their beard, once approved, for at least six months"
Smart Condoms That Reveal Very Personal Information From Sex - "The smart condom is called i.Con, and it has been called the “Fitbit” for a man’s penis, says The Toronto Sun. One of the main concerns with sexual intercourse is obtaining an STI. Thankfully, the i.Con can detect STIs and send data about the sexual intercourse session the man has just encountered... Some of the things it tracts are the number of calories burned, the speed of the man’s thrust and the duration of the session... the device also lights up which can provide illumination for both partners’ nether regions.
Drinking baking soda could be an inexpensive, safe way to combat autoimmune disease
Ethnic differences in Singapore's dementia prevalence: the stroke, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and dementia in Singapore study. - "Logistic regression (adjusted for age, sex, education) showed that Malays had twice the risk for AD as Chinese, and Indians had more than twice the risk for AD and VD than Chinese"
Ohlala, An Uber For Escorts, Launches Its ‘Paid Dating’ Service In NYC - "Before creating Ohlala, Poppenreiter had worked on building Peppr, an app that more explicitly sought to connect clients to sex workers providing “erotic entertainment.”
China’s controversial love guru Ayawawa suspended on Weibo over ‘comfort women’ comments - "A controversial love-advice blogger has been banned from China’s largest social network for saying Chinese “comfort women” possessed a “gender advantage” over men that boosted their chances of coming out of the second world war alive... “All sorts of benefits will come your way without stop, if you play your gender advantage well.”... Yang also had infuriated critics by stating that gender inequality did not exist. Instead of being disadvantaged by so-called gender inequality, women needed to leverage the “gender advantage” of their looks and personalities to win love and financial support from me"... Yang, a graduate of Southwest University’s education programme, has won fans online by making narcissistic self-promotional comments, such as: “All women who are prettier than me are not as smart and all those who are smarter than me are not as pretty.”
Emotional Smarts Tied to General IQ - "IQ test results and emotional intelligence, or the ability to perceive, understand and deal with emotion in oneself or in others, were linked. And in brain scans, the same regions of the brain seemed to perform both emotional and cognitive tasks"
So much for EQ
How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained - "Postmodernism presents a threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity itself. That may sound like a bold or even hyperbolic claim, but the reality is that the cluster of ideas and values at the root of postmodernism have broken the bounds of academia and gained great cultural power in western society. The irrational and identitarian “symptoms” of postmodernism are easily recognizable and much criticized, but the ethos underlying them is not well understood. This is partly because postmodernists rarely explain themselves clearly and partly because of the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies of a way of thought which denies a stable reality or reliable knowledge to exist. However, there are consistent ideas at the root of postmodernism and understanding them is essential if we intend to counter them. They underlie the problems we see today in Social Justice Activism, undermine the credibility of the Left and threaten to return us to an irrational and tribal “pre-modern” culture."
Dietary Carbohydrate and Serum Cholesterol Levels in Man | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic - "Serum total cholesterol responses in two groups of institutionalized men fed modifications of a low fat dietary pattern allowing for the simultaneous variation of the type of carbohydrate and fat are reported. The results obtained with low sugar, high sugar and high sugar-lactose diets providing 45 per cent of total calories from carbohydrate and one of each of three test oils (safflower, olive and coconut) added to provide 38 per cent of the calories as fat were compared. Experimental periods were of four weeks’ duration. Serum cholesterol levels were slightly but significantly lower in those on the low sugar than in those on the high sugar diets. Since the size of this difference was about the same for each oil tested, no interaction between carbohydrate and fat was suggested. The partial substitution of lactose for sucrose in the high sugar diet did not further influence serum cholesterol except when coconut oil was the test fat; in this period a substantial elevation was noted. The carbohydrate effects on serum cholesterol are of a much smaller order of magnitude than the fat effects and manipulation of the source of dietary carbohydrate would appear to add little to the dietary regulation of blood cholesterol."
i.e. when you replace sugar with other carbohydrates you don't change cholesterol much, but coconut oil seems worse than olive and safflower
No Marvel TV Characters In Avengers: Infinity War - Explained - "Marvel Studios And Marvel TV Aren't Part Of The Same Disney Subsidiary"
The Rise and Fall of Bioware | Mass Effect at 10 - "Speaking from personal experience, it’s been pretty hard to be a Bioware fan the last few years. From the dizzying heights of being among the pioneers of the RPG genre, creating fully-fleshed worlds with endearing characters and several avenues to roleplay your character, giving birth to games with stories as compelling as any film or book, to a watered down husk of their former selves, to the point where their latest game, Mass Effect Andromeda, was near universally scorned for facial animations that made characters look like Jim Carrey, ham-fisted writing and a variety of other awkwardness made Mass Effect Andromeda a joke across the gaming community... the Mass Effect series as a whole reflects Bioware’s rise and fall as a gaming company."
Millionaire women prefer conservative partners who 'wear the pants' in relationship - "Nearly 77per cent of democrat female millionaires, and 82per cent of female millionaires overall, said they 'would prefer to date a conservative man,' according MillionaireMatch.com. 'I don’t want a liberal man, I want someone who believes in a traditional family,' said one female millionaire. Other reasons for this political preference in a partner: ambition... 'Simply put, conservative men are real men. They are the breadwinners, they wear the pants and they treat you like a lady'"
Liberal Women Are Lustier - "among young adult women, it’s not really political liberalism that correlates with wanting more sex (no matter how much one is having), but rather one’s loss of religious belief...
'In a world increasingly bereft of transcendence, sexual expression is emerging as an intrinsic value. Sex is the new opium of the masses, [social psychologists Roy] Baumeister and [Kathleen] Vohs claim, a temporary heart in a heartless world. Unfortunately, something so immanent as sex will not — and cannot — function in the manner in which religion can, has, and does. (To be sure, some replace it with an appreciation and devotion to nature.) Sex does not explain the world. It is not a master narrative. It has little to offer by way of convincing theodicy But in a world increasingly missing transcendence, longing for sexual expression makes sense. It should not surprised us, however, that those who (unconsciously) demand sex function like religion will come up short. Maybe that is why very liberal women are also twice as likely to report being depressed or currently in psychotherapy than very conservative women.'"
Science says conservatives are hotter than liberals - "Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican"
BuzzFeed Guys Test Their Testosterone Levels. The Results Are Exactly What You'd Expect. - "In an experiment on male attractiveness where BuzzFeed fellas compete to see who's "hottest," four males had their testosterone levels tested. And the results were exactly what you'd expect. The normal T-score for an adult male ranges from 270-1,070 ng/dL, with men aged from 25-34 averaging out at 617 ng/dL. Not one BuzzFeed beta male met the 617 ng/dL average; rather, all the men testing below the level of a typical 85-year-old male (376 ng/dL). Moreover, three of the four men tested below the average range, and the male with the highest testosterone level, Eugene, still had a relatively low T-score with 363 ng/dL."
Study: Physically Weak Men More Likely To Be Socialists - "An academic study from researchers at Brunel University London assessed 171 men, looking at their height, weight, overall physical strength and bicep circumference, along with their views on redistribution of wealth and income inequality. The study, published in the Evolution and Human Behavior journal, found that weaker men were more likely to favor socialist policies than stronger men... Other studies in the past have also suggested stronger men are more right-wing than physically weaker men"
Dull Minds Are Gullible to Fake News
UK Proposes Six Year Prison Sentences for Online Posts Against Religion, Transgender - "The Sentencing Council believes that the use of social media, YouTube, and other “websites” to stir hatred is a growing problem – despite the number of prosecutions remain relatively low... Separate “hate crime” guidelines from the CPS released in January last year reaffirmed that no evidence is needed to report a “hate crime”, and they only need to be “perceived” by the alleged victim or someone else... many UK Police forces consider “unfriendliness” and “dislike” as signs of “hostility” and “hate,” with the CPS admitting there is “no legal definition” of “hostility.”"
EDITORIAL: What words will Justin Trudeau ban next? - "We’re shocked Canada’s progressive Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs more time to look into a Service Canada directive ordering federal employees to adopt gender-neutral language when interacting with the public... Workers have also been asked to stop referring to people as Mr., Mrs. or Ms. and avoid using the terms “father” and “mother” in favour of “parent”... What’s next? Federal legislation outlawing Mother’s Day? Stiff new penalties for retailers that put up Father’s Day displays in stores?"
Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race? Agriculture?! - "Writing with characteristic verve, Diamond’s “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” summarizes an impressive amount of material in just three pages. At the top of the second and third pages, he headlines the main point: “The adoption of agriculture, supposedly the decisive step to a better life, was in fact catastrophic. With agriculture came the curses of social and sexual inequality, disease, and despotism”"
Has queer culture lost its edge? - "Apparently, in the pursuit of rights and respectability, we have somehow shifted as a culture from the celebration of eros to the celebration of victimhood — to comfortably inhabiting a state of being prickly and appalled — and apparently we now have to be and feel like victims in order even to deserve rights. This worries me. Are we going to become so focused on our legal standing and our feelings, so invested in queer culture as a culture of rights, respectability and sensitivity, that we lose our playfulness and the toughness that used to define survival? Do we just not want to be tough anymore? Are we too emotionally exhausted, or just too bourgeois, to appreciate a classic bitchy drag emcee? Her sensibility was always at the cultural fringe — is there no room for it now? Or are we the truly bitchy ones, ever ready with the political upper hand raised to slap down those among us who still want to play around the edges, where things are a little less comfortable and correct?... What were all those drag queens at Stonewall fighting for, anyway? If victimhood is hot, then we have lost."
Of course, hawkers in older areas having subsidised rents helps
No proof RM2.6b in Najib's account was a donation, says new MACC chief - "Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators were sent in 2015 to Saudi Arabia and met with the prince. But the prince could not provide supporting documents such as bank statements to prove the money was a donation from him. Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing since the 1MDB scandal erupted in 2015, but he replaced the attorney-general and several MACC officers to shut down an initial investigation."
Insights into Sexism: Male Status and Performance Moderates Female-Directed Hostile and Amicable Behavior - "According to social constructionist theory, men behave in a sexist manner towards women in order to remove them from male-dominated spaces, regardless of social status. In contrast, evolutionary theory suggests that sexist behavior is in response to a threat to a male’s position in a social hierarchy, which could reduce access to potential mates... Lower-skilled male players were more hostile towards a female-voiced experimental teammate, especially when the female-voiced player was performing poorly. This same effect was not seen towards male-voiced experimental teammates... In games with the female-voiced experimental character, only 13% of teammates uttered hostile sexist statements... these results support an evolutionary explanation of female-directed aggression, where low-status males are more easily threatened by a female competitor whereas high-status males are not threatened, instead behaving in a supportive and potentially a mate attraction role."
In other words, if you suck you're more likely to diss women. But only a small minority of male gamers are sexist
This Guy Heated Bath Water With Bitcoin Mining and It Worked Too Well - "Motherboard’s Daniel Oberhaus used mining equipment (albeit graphics cards, not ASICs) to stay warm during a storm once, and a Redditor posting under the handle “gta3uzi” just took it to another level. In a Tuesday post by gta3uzi on the /r/Bitcoin subreddit, they revealed a system for heating hot water using ASICs so you can make money while you chill in a steamy bath... “It was a little too effective if I left it running all day as it produced baths of up to 122F/50C”... his mining operation made a 10 percent profit after electricity costs before he turned it into a water heater. But after the ASICs eliminated his $80 heating bill in addition to generating new cryptocurrency, Lee estimated that his mine’s profit went from 10 percent to 47 percent"
The Only Army Rank Allowed To Have A Beard On Parade - "Meet the Pioneer Sergeant, the holder of the only position within the British Army allowed to have a beard when on parade... The pioneer sergeant also acted as the blacksmith for the unit. As a result, he was allowed a beard to protect his face from the heat of the forge... Soldiers can grow a beard for medical reasons, such as in the case of a temporary skin irritation, or, more commonly for religious reasons... In the Royal Navy, full beards have always been allowed as long as permission is sought and granted, whereas moustaches, which are permitted within the RAF, Army and Royal Marines are forbidden. But anyone wishing to grow a beard in the Navy must have a 'full set,' that is, a full beard covering the whole jawline, joined to a moustache. And commanding officers can order an individual to shave off his facial hair if it becomes clear after around six weeks that he cannot grow a proper full set. Navy members should then keep their beard, once approved, for at least six months"
Smart Condoms That Reveal Very Personal Information From Sex - "The smart condom is called i.Con, and it has been called the “Fitbit” for a man’s penis, says The Toronto Sun. One of the main concerns with sexual intercourse is obtaining an STI. Thankfully, the i.Con can detect STIs and send data about the sexual intercourse session the man has just encountered... Some of the things it tracts are the number of calories burned, the speed of the man’s thrust and the duration of the session... the device also lights up which can provide illumination for both partners’ nether regions.
Drinking baking soda could be an inexpensive, safe way to combat autoimmune disease
Ethnic differences in Singapore's dementia prevalence: the stroke, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and dementia in Singapore study. - "Logistic regression (adjusted for age, sex, education) showed that Malays had twice the risk for AD as Chinese, and Indians had more than twice the risk for AD and VD than Chinese"
Ohlala, An Uber For Escorts, Launches Its ‘Paid Dating’ Service In NYC - "Before creating Ohlala, Poppenreiter had worked on building Peppr, an app that more explicitly sought to connect clients to sex workers providing “erotic entertainment.”
China’s controversial love guru Ayawawa suspended on Weibo over ‘comfort women’ comments - "A controversial love-advice blogger has been banned from China’s largest social network for saying Chinese “comfort women” possessed a “gender advantage” over men that boosted their chances of coming out of the second world war alive... “All sorts of benefits will come your way without stop, if you play your gender advantage well.”... Yang also had infuriated critics by stating that gender inequality did not exist. Instead of being disadvantaged by so-called gender inequality, women needed to leverage the “gender advantage” of their looks and personalities to win love and financial support from me"... Yang, a graduate of Southwest University’s education programme, has won fans online by making narcissistic self-promotional comments, such as: “All women who are prettier than me are not as smart and all those who are smarter than me are not as pretty.”
Emotional Smarts Tied to General IQ - "IQ test results and emotional intelligence, or the ability to perceive, understand and deal with emotion in oneself or in others, were linked. And in brain scans, the same regions of the brain seemed to perform both emotional and cognitive tasks"
So much for EQ
How French “Intellectuals” Ruined the West: Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained - "Postmodernism presents a threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity itself. That may sound like a bold or even hyperbolic claim, but the reality is that the cluster of ideas and values at the root of postmodernism have broken the bounds of academia and gained great cultural power in western society. The irrational and identitarian “symptoms” of postmodernism are easily recognizable and much criticized, but the ethos underlying them is not well understood. This is partly because postmodernists rarely explain themselves clearly and partly because of the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies of a way of thought which denies a stable reality or reliable knowledge to exist. However, there are consistent ideas at the root of postmodernism and understanding them is essential if we intend to counter them. They underlie the problems we see today in Social Justice Activism, undermine the credibility of the Left and threaten to return us to an irrational and tribal “pre-modern” culture."
Dietary Carbohydrate and Serum Cholesterol Levels in Man | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic - "Serum total cholesterol responses in two groups of institutionalized men fed modifications of a low fat dietary pattern allowing for the simultaneous variation of the type of carbohydrate and fat are reported. The results obtained with low sugar, high sugar and high sugar-lactose diets providing 45 per cent of total calories from carbohydrate and one of each of three test oils (safflower, olive and coconut) added to provide 38 per cent of the calories as fat were compared. Experimental periods were of four weeks’ duration. Serum cholesterol levels were slightly but significantly lower in those on the low sugar than in those on the high sugar diets. Since the size of this difference was about the same for each oil tested, no interaction between carbohydrate and fat was suggested. The partial substitution of lactose for sucrose in the high sugar diet did not further influence serum cholesterol except when coconut oil was the test fat; in this period a substantial elevation was noted. The carbohydrate effects on serum cholesterol are of a much smaller order of magnitude than the fat effects and manipulation of the source of dietary carbohydrate would appear to add little to the dietary regulation of blood cholesterol."
i.e. when you replace sugar with other carbohydrates you don't change cholesterol much, but coconut oil seems worse than olive and safflower
No Marvel TV Characters In Avengers: Infinity War - Explained - "Marvel Studios And Marvel TV Aren't Part Of The Same Disney Subsidiary"
The Rise and Fall of Bioware | Mass Effect at 10 - "Speaking from personal experience, it’s been pretty hard to be a Bioware fan the last few years. From the dizzying heights of being among the pioneers of the RPG genre, creating fully-fleshed worlds with endearing characters and several avenues to roleplay your character, giving birth to games with stories as compelling as any film or book, to a watered down husk of their former selves, to the point where their latest game, Mass Effect Andromeda, was near universally scorned for facial animations that made characters look like Jim Carrey, ham-fisted writing and a variety of other awkwardness made Mass Effect Andromeda a joke across the gaming community... the Mass Effect series as a whole reflects Bioware’s rise and fall as a gaming company."
Millionaire women prefer conservative partners who 'wear the pants' in relationship - "Nearly 77per cent of democrat female millionaires, and 82per cent of female millionaires overall, said they 'would prefer to date a conservative man,' according MillionaireMatch.com. 'I don’t want a liberal man, I want someone who believes in a traditional family,' said one female millionaire. Other reasons for this political preference in a partner: ambition... 'Simply put, conservative men are real men. They are the breadwinners, they wear the pants and they treat you like a lady'"
Liberal Women Are Lustier - "among young adult women, it’s not really political liberalism that correlates with wanting more sex (no matter how much one is having), but rather one’s loss of religious belief...
'In a world increasingly bereft of transcendence, sexual expression is emerging as an intrinsic value. Sex is the new opium of the masses, [social psychologists Roy] Baumeister and [Kathleen] Vohs claim, a temporary heart in a heartless world. Unfortunately, something so immanent as sex will not — and cannot — function in the manner in which religion can, has, and does. (To be sure, some replace it with an appreciation and devotion to nature.) Sex does not explain the world. It is not a master narrative. It has little to offer by way of convincing theodicy But in a world increasingly missing transcendence, longing for sexual expression makes sense. It should not surprised us, however, that those who (unconsciously) demand sex function like religion will come up short. Maybe that is why very liberal women are also twice as likely to report being depressed or currently in psychotherapy than very conservative women.'"
Science says conservatives are hotter than liberals - "Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican"
BuzzFeed Guys Test Their Testosterone Levels. The Results Are Exactly What You'd Expect. - "In an experiment on male attractiveness where BuzzFeed fellas compete to see who's "hottest," four males had their testosterone levels tested. And the results were exactly what you'd expect. The normal T-score for an adult male ranges from 270-1,070 ng/dL, with men aged from 25-34 averaging out at 617 ng/dL. Not one BuzzFeed beta male met the 617 ng/dL average; rather, all the men testing below the level of a typical 85-year-old male (376 ng/dL). Moreover, three of the four men tested below the average range, and the male with the highest testosterone level, Eugene, still had a relatively low T-score with 363 ng/dL."
Study: Physically Weak Men More Likely To Be Socialists - "An academic study from researchers at Brunel University London assessed 171 men, looking at their height, weight, overall physical strength and bicep circumference, along with their views on redistribution of wealth and income inequality. The study, published in the Evolution and Human Behavior journal, found that weaker men were more likely to favor socialist policies than stronger men... Other studies in the past have also suggested stronger men are more right-wing than physically weaker men"
Dull Minds Are Gullible to Fake News
UK Proposes Six Year Prison Sentences for Online Posts Against Religion, Transgender - "The Sentencing Council believes that the use of social media, YouTube, and other “websites” to stir hatred is a growing problem – despite the number of prosecutions remain relatively low... Separate “hate crime” guidelines from the CPS released in January last year reaffirmed that no evidence is needed to report a “hate crime”, and they only need to be “perceived” by the alleged victim or someone else... many UK Police forces consider “unfriendliness” and “dislike” as signs of “hostility” and “hate,” with the CPS admitting there is “no legal definition” of “hostility.”"
EDITORIAL: What words will Justin Trudeau ban next? - "We’re shocked Canada’s progressive Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs more time to look into a Service Canada directive ordering federal employees to adopt gender-neutral language when interacting with the public... Workers have also been asked to stop referring to people as Mr., Mrs. or Ms. and avoid using the terms “father” and “mother” in favour of “parent”... What’s next? Federal legislation outlawing Mother’s Day? Stiff new penalties for retailers that put up Father’s Day displays in stores?"
Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race? Agriculture?! - "Writing with characteristic verve, Diamond’s “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” summarizes an impressive amount of material in just three pages. At the top of the second and third pages, he headlines the main point: “The adoption of agriculture, supposedly the decisive step to a better life, was in fact catastrophic. With agriculture came the curses of social and sexual inequality, disease, and despotism”"
Has queer culture lost its edge? - "Apparently, in the pursuit of rights and respectability, we have somehow shifted as a culture from the celebration of eros to the celebration of victimhood — to comfortably inhabiting a state of being prickly and appalled — and apparently we now have to be and feel like victims in order even to deserve rights. This worries me. Are we going to become so focused on our legal standing and our feelings, so invested in queer culture as a culture of rights, respectability and sensitivity, that we lose our playfulness and the toughness that used to define survival? Do we just not want to be tough anymore? Are we too emotionally exhausted, or just too bourgeois, to appreciate a classic bitchy drag emcee? Her sensibility was always at the cultural fringe — is there no room for it now? Or are we the truly bitchy ones, ever ready with the political upper hand raised to slap down those among us who still want to play around the edges, where things are a little less comfortable and correct?... What were all those drag queens at Stonewall fighting for, anyway? If victimhood is hot, then we have lost."
Post ID: 769360944153309189
Roman Slavery
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Roman Slavery
"We have very little evidence... from the slaves that really tells us what they did and how they undertook that task and what it meant to them. Now, however, we have a lot of funerary evidence where slaves recalled their job title and scholars have always argued this means that labor means something to them. It's important for them to be seen in that role...
They often think about female slaves as breeding stock, essentially as a source of future slaves... there's a rather chilling part of Roman law that concerns, essentially the circumstances under which you can get a refund for a defective product. And there's a long section of what counts as a defect in a slave... if you were to purchase a slave woman and discovered that she was barren, that does count as a defect and you would be allowed to claim a refund if you hadn't been told this in advance. It's clear they treat the slave population as something that is a resource that could reproduce itself...
'Were they bothered that there were slaves?'...
'There is some evidence that people had hesitations of how to treat, but not in the fundamental way of getting rid of slavery... Cato... says if you have a farmstead, when you hold an auction sell any old and sickly slave. Now we see later that another writer Plutarch, a few centuries later, says you wouldn't do this to your dog. So there was clearly a dispute of how you handle your slaves, but there was no fundamental issue with it.'...
This was a contented part of the population. This was comparatively serene... the very, very, very few slave revolts over centuries, only one of real significance, Spartacus, seems to confirm that...
What proportion of slaves could hope to be freed and after how long? Because different answers to that question would give us a radically different sense of what the slave experience actually was. There were several bits of evidence that suggest that the answers might be a large proportion and quite early...
We don't really want to believe that. But I think it is important to recognize them. So one piece of evidence is the extraordinary representation of ex-slaves in tombstones. A second example would be to go back to our census documents in the Province of Egypt, which contain about 100 slaves. It's quite striking in that among the 100 slaves I think there is not a single male slave over the age of 35 or 30. And not a single female over the age of 45. Why? Because there were none left or because they'd been freed? And there's various anecdotal evidence that manumission was quite common. There's a famous and much disputed passage of Cicero where he's trying to mobilize his fellow Senators to rebel against Mark Anthony. Where he says, we, the people of Rome, we have been slaves for six years. Longer than a frugal and hardworking slave might expect to remain a slave before winning his freedom...
'Aristotle said that slaves were, as it was, born and not made... that permeated right through to the Romans'...
'The theory of natural slavery... you get both in the Roman side. You get clear evidence for the Romans recognizing the slave's humanity, and you get clear for the Romans engaging in the absolute dehumanization of the slave, in what we also call the animalisation of the slave... Plutarch interprets Cato's dictum to sell an old and sickly slave as treating that person like a dog. And we find this repeatedly in our sources. We find slaves, for instance, being downgraded by being regarded as lazy, as idle, as sleepy all the time, which goes hand in hand with the citizen being alert and bright... So this is a means of also defining what the citizen is'...
Ed: A Christian friend disputed the next bit so I retranscribed the whole bit
From 36:55:
Melvyn Bragg: 'In the third century, fourth century AD, Romans were told that they had to be Christians... how did the idea of slavery or did it carry on into Christianity at the time and afterwards?'
Myles Lavan: 'So we know the early Christian communities counted many slaves and ex slaves among their members which is probably not specifically an issue about Christianity, but perhaps is typical of *something* Roman society, where the slaves, the freed and the freeborn all rubbed shoulders together and it's clear that the Christian message, like, like much Greco-Roman philosophy contained a message of universalism that might have developed into a critique of slavery and there were certainly some early Christian thinkers who toyed with idea that slavery was not consistent with God's message, but it seems that the Christian community as a whole very quickly accommodated itself to the reality of slavery.
We can see the Christians making concessions to the rights of masters. There's a debate about whether, if a slave wants to be baptized, whether you can baptize him just like that or whether you need the master's permission and there a debate about that, but it seems that the dominant position is that the master's permission is required for the sale of baptized which is a very big concession to the right of a master over his slave.
The other way in which Christianity naturalizes or legitimises slaveries, and the way it appropriates the relations between masters and slaves, is actually the paradigm of the Christian's relationship to God. And so for Christian writers like Paul, the idea of being slave to God or Christ, doulos *something* Greek is a fundamental metaphor for understanding the Christian's relationship to God. And so the New Testament is pervaded by the language of slavery, often obscured in English translations by the choice to translate the Greek word doulos as servant whereas actually it means slave and as soon as Christianity looks to slavery as a paradigm for this most important relationship in a Christian's life, therefore legitimises that master-slave relationship as part of the fundamental nature of the world'
MB: 'And very, very briefly you suggest that this ripples through to the Holy Roman Empire and keep inside the Roman Catholic Church. And other-'
ML: 'So slavery is legitimated both in Roman law which has a huge influence, legacy and also in Christianity. Christianity very early accommodates itself to the rights of masters.'"
"We have very little evidence... from the slaves that really tells us what they did and how they undertook that task and what it meant to them. Now, however, we have a lot of funerary evidence where slaves recalled their job title and scholars have always argued this means that labor means something to them. It's important for them to be seen in that role...
They often think about female slaves as breeding stock, essentially as a source of future slaves... there's a rather chilling part of Roman law that concerns, essentially the circumstances under which you can get a refund for a defective product. And there's a long section of what counts as a defect in a slave... if you were to purchase a slave woman and discovered that she was barren, that does count as a defect and you would be allowed to claim a refund if you hadn't been told this in advance. It's clear they treat the slave population as something that is a resource that could reproduce itself...
'Were they bothered that there were slaves?'...
'There is some evidence that people had hesitations of how to treat, but not in the fundamental way of getting rid of slavery... Cato... says if you have a farmstead, when you hold an auction sell any old and sickly slave. Now we see later that another writer Plutarch, a few centuries later, says you wouldn't do this to your dog. So there was clearly a dispute of how you handle your slaves, but there was no fundamental issue with it.'...
This was a contented part of the population. This was comparatively serene... the very, very, very few slave revolts over centuries, only one of real significance, Spartacus, seems to confirm that...
What proportion of slaves could hope to be freed and after how long? Because different answers to that question would give us a radically different sense of what the slave experience actually was. There were several bits of evidence that suggest that the answers might be a large proportion and quite early...
We don't really want to believe that. But I think it is important to recognize them. So one piece of evidence is the extraordinary representation of ex-slaves in tombstones. A second example would be to go back to our census documents in the Province of Egypt, which contain about 100 slaves. It's quite striking in that among the 100 slaves I think there is not a single male slave over the age of 35 or 30. And not a single female over the age of 45. Why? Because there were none left or because they'd been freed? And there's various anecdotal evidence that manumission was quite common. There's a famous and much disputed passage of Cicero where he's trying to mobilize his fellow Senators to rebel against Mark Anthony. Where he says, we, the people of Rome, we have been slaves for six years. Longer than a frugal and hardworking slave might expect to remain a slave before winning his freedom...
'Aristotle said that slaves were, as it was, born and not made... that permeated right through to the Romans'...
'The theory of natural slavery... you get both in the Roman side. You get clear evidence for the Romans recognizing the slave's humanity, and you get clear for the Romans engaging in the absolute dehumanization of the slave, in what we also call the animalisation of the slave... Plutarch interprets Cato's dictum to sell an old and sickly slave as treating that person like a dog. And we find this repeatedly in our sources. We find slaves, for instance, being downgraded by being regarded as lazy, as idle, as sleepy all the time, which goes hand in hand with the citizen being alert and bright... So this is a means of also defining what the citizen is'...
Ed: A Christian friend disputed the next bit so I retranscribed the whole bit
From 36:55:
Melvyn Bragg: 'In the third century, fourth century AD, Romans were told that they had to be Christians... how did the idea of slavery or did it carry on into Christianity at the time and afterwards?'
Myles Lavan: 'So we know the early Christian communities counted many slaves and ex slaves among their members which is probably not specifically an issue about Christianity, but perhaps is typical of *something* Roman society, where the slaves, the freed and the freeborn all rubbed shoulders together and it's clear that the Christian message, like, like much Greco-Roman philosophy contained a message of universalism that might have developed into a critique of slavery and there were certainly some early Christian thinkers who toyed with idea that slavery was not consistent with God's message, but it seems that the Christian community as a whole very quickly accommodated itself to the reality of slavery.
We can see the Christians making concessions to the rights of masters. There's a debate about whether, if a slave wants to be baptized, whether you can baptize him just like that or whether you need the master's permission and there a debate about that, but it seems that the dominant position is that the master's permission is required for the sale of baptized which is a very big concession to the right of a master over his slave.
The other way in which Christianity naturalizes or legitimises slaveries, and the way it appropriates the relations between masters and slaves, is actually the paradigm of the Christian's relationship to God. And so for Christian writers like Paul, the idea of being slave to God or Christ, doulos *something* Greek is a fundamental metaphor for understanding the Christian's relationship to God. And so the New Testament is pervaded by the language of slavery, often obscured in English translations by the choice to translate the Greek word doulos as servant whereas actually it means slave and as soon as Christianity looks to slavery as a paradigm for this most important relationship in a Christian's life, therefore legitimises that master-slave relationship as part of the fundamental nature of the world'
MB: 'And very, very briefly you suggest that this ripples through to the Holy Roman Empire and keep inside the Roman Catholic Church. And other-'
ML: 'So slavery is legitimated both in Roman law which has a huge influence, legacy and also in Christianity. Christianity very early accommodates itself to the rights of masters.'"
Post ID: 3011576647200804670
Links - 29th July 2018 (2)
Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Racism and Sexism in Science - "when Neil DeGrasse Tyson was on a panel about science education and was asked by an older white male, “so, what’s up with chics in science?” his answer was absolutely brilliant... before we start talking about genetic differences you gotta come up with a system where there’s equal opportunity, then we can have that conversation"
Before we start talking about how genetic differences affect how different ethnicities react to the same drug, certain ethnicities are more prone to diabetes to others or how the symptoms of heart attacks in women are different from men, we gotta come up with a healthcare system and society which treats different ethnicities equally, then we can have that conversation
Fury after Morrisons wouldn't sell couple meat pies before 9am - "Linda and Tony Gilkes were left piping hot with fury after their local Morrisons refused to sell them meat pies before 9am. “I wanted eight large sausage rolls and two steak bakes,” said Linda, 62, from Thorntree. “It was 8.45am and there were no pies at all displayed. “I could see bags and bags of pies, all wrapped up on cages behind the counter. The trolley was ready to be pushed out. “But when I asked for the pies, I was told: ‘We can’t sell the pies until 9am’. I could have had a fruit pie, but not a meat pie.”"
???
Intellectual property rights and innovation: Evidence from the human genome - "Celera’s IP led to reductions in subsequent scientific research and product development on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Taken together, these results suggest that Celera’s short-term IP had persistent negative effects on subsequent innovation relative to a counterfactual of Celera genes having always been in the public domain."
New York art museum refuses to remove 'voyeurisic' painting of girl, after thousands sign petition - "New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has refused to remove a 1938 painting by the artist known as Balthus that depicts a young girl in what some are saying is a sexually suggestive pose. The painting, entitled Therese Dreaming, shows the girl leaning back with her underwear visible. The late Polish-French artist, born Balthasar Klossowski, is known for his erotically-charged images of pubescent girls. An online petition that had garnered thousands of signatures on Monday urged the museum to rethink its decision to display the painting in light of today's climate around sexual assault... The petition's author, Mia Merrill, suggested that the painting be replaced by one created by a female artist of the same period."
Combining censorship with affirmative action!
Playboy Is Naked Again And It Is Awesome - "In 2015, the magazine, faced with competition from the internet where anything goes when it comes to sex, stopped running images of unclothed young ladies. By all accounts, including my own, the results were terrible. Now, Playboy Enterprises is back in the skin game with its March/April 2017 issue... The nude photos feature breasts and buttocks -- that's it. No one's going to confuse this publication with Penthouse or Hustler. Playboy and Co. know if readers want something more explicit, they know exactly where they can find it: on the internet. As a consequence, Cooper's business strategy with his Playboy is that he isn't trying to compete. He's aiming to own a very specific space, one his father created, with a cool mix of politics, sex, and anti-establishment attitude. This issue isn't just about the skin"
Hong Kong's brain drain: Why its young are losing hope and leaving - "“We earn HK$10,000 to HK$20,000 (S$1,710 to S$3,430) a month, and an apartment is HK$5 million upward … If you buy an apartment, you have to pay for it for the rest of your life.” To them, the city is not only dying – it is already dead... Former lawmaker Kenneth Chan, who teaches political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, spoke about what Chinese President Xi Jinping once told Hongkongers: That instead of the city having separation of powers, the government, legislature and judiciary should work together. “This is a direct attack on one of our core values”"
Abbas turns screw on Hamas by cutting Gaza's electricity
But when Israel cuts the electricity...
There's a Suicide Epidemic in Utah — And One Neuroscientist Thinks He Knows Why - "Living in Utah means packed powder in April, canyoneering in the clouds, snow-capped vistas so vivid they look Photoshopped — and the shortest average work week in the country... Renshaw believes that altitude has an impact on our brain chemistry, specifically that it changes the levels of serotonin and dopamine, two key chemicals in the brain that help regulate our feelings of happiness... a group of researchers, including Renshaw, analyzed state suicide rates with respect to gun ownership, population density, poverty, health insurance quality and availability of psychiatric care. Of all the factors, altitude had the strongest link to suicide — even the group of states with the least available psychiatric care had fewer suicides than the highest-altitude states, where psychiatric care was easier to find."
Indian govt employee declares himself reincarnation of Vishnu, skips work to go to '5th dimension' - "A senior engineer at an Indian government agency has been a no-show at work for eight months as he was busy performing his duties as a deity, namely the 10th reincarnation of Vishnu, the man explained in a letter to his employer... The man said his restless work has not been without success, taking credit for India's recent "good rains."... The orders he is being given frequently make little or no sense, such as travelling by train without a ticket or buying cheap electronic devices, but Fefar does not appear to second guess them."
Doctor Who Slipped Girlfriend Abortion Drug Sentenced to Three Years - "A doctor who slipped his girlfriend the abortion pill in her tea has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fetal homicide."
Yet if she'd taken it herself...
China fines Muji for packaging that lists Taiwan as a country - "The Muji packaging violated Chinese advertising law which warns against hurting China's dignity and interest... Its Shanghai unit also pulled a catalogue in January after authorities complained that it had published an "inaccurate" map with wrong borders and missing islands."
Snake sneaks into college dorm room, ends up being caught, cooked, and eaten by students - "Upon seeing the animal, some male students at the Chongqing Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering did not flee their dormitory in terror. Instead, they caught the snake, skinned it, and chopped it up before placing it in a lovely-looking stew along with red dates, ginseng, orange peels, Angelica, and leeks... another snake was purportedly more fortunate after being discovered lurking inside the squat toilet of a 6th floor flat in a Chengdu residential high-rise. The snake had made its way there after escaping from an upstairs neighbor who planned to use it in the making of some medicinal “snake wine” to help heal her ailing lower back."
French Girl Marries Chinese Guy Saying She Does Not Need a Car or Apartment, But Only Love - "young newly wed couple, 26-year-old French woman named Emilie and 24-year-old groom Xie Donglin got married by doing what’s known to be a “naked marriage”. The term “naked marriage” in Chinese basically means getting married before owning your own car or apartment... The two met and Emilie boldly asked for his contact information. Later, she confessed to him that she liked him and they began dating"
Where does the magic in D&D come from? - "when Gygax and Arneson were designing D&D, they needed a system to handle magic. Their inspiration was directly from Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth, which is why the now ubiquitous magic system used on most RPGs is called Vancian Magic... magical spells get more powerful as the wizard advances in level. Whereas a 1st level wizard can’t do much more that cause a candle to flicker, a higher level wizard can bend the entire fabric of reality with a wish spell. In fact, the leveling of a wizard’s power has been given a name and charted on a graph: “Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards.”"
Baby 'accidentally decapitated inside mother's womb' during delivery - "Dr Vaishnavy Laxman, a consultant gynaecologist who was working on an NHS maternity unit, is said to have ignored the woman giving birth’s requests to stop and failed to provide pain relief. The obstetrician at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee is accused of wrongly going ahead with a vaginal labour in spite of several complications that meant a Caesarean delivery would have been safer because the premature infant was in a breech position... Two other doctors consequently carried out a C-section on the woman to remove the infant’s head. It was ‘’reattached’’ to his body so his mother could hold him before she said goodbye"
'Too expensive' to delete millions of police mugshots of innocent people, minister claims - "Millions of police mugshots of innocent people cannot be deleted because it would be too expensive, a government minister has claimed – despite a High Court ruling that the practice is unlawful"
'I missed a lot': Bill Gates regrets not partying and going to football games at Harvard
Inside Plaza Singapura's blogshop cluster - "At Fayth, there is a corkboard where customers can leave feedback and an arrangement of chairs affectionately called the "Boyfriend Corner" for men to rest while their girlfriends shop."
Greg Mankiw's Blog: A Real World Giffen Good - "we find strong evidence that poor households in Hunan exhibit Giffen behavior with respect to rice. That is, lowering the price of rice via the experimental subsidy caused households to reduce their demand for rice, and removing the subsidy had the opposite effect."
Dear Well-Meaning Parents and Educators: Stop Giving Girls Self-Esteem Problems - "Kids love fantasy. They love imaginary play. Here, we've got a whole movie about a girl with a fairy godmother and a pumpkin turning into a carriage and mice turning into coach drivers... but the only thing that parents worry is "unrealistic" is Lily James's waist? Likewise, we've got parents who are "banning Barbie" in favor of Barbie's more "realistic" cousin, Lammily. Lammily has "average proportions," and, for $7, you can even buy "marks" to put on her -- so your doll can have scars, acne, stretch marks, moles and cellulite. So, show of hands! Who knew what stretch marks and cellulite were when you were eight?... kids don't look at her and compare their (pre-pubescent) bodies to Jasmine and Ariel. Kids don't look at Barbie and feel bad about themselves. Unless... (wait for it)... adults tell them to... Not to mention the whole sexist double standard. I don't hear people complaining about how unrealistically strong and handsome Gaston (Beauty and the Beast) and Christoff (Frozen) are... how come you didn't complain about how unrealistically wealthy Bat Man and Iron Man are? (After all, there are a hell of a lot more size 0's than there are multibillionaires in this world.)"
Students of 2016 Are Exposed to Fewer and Less Provocative Ideas Than Students of 2014. - "Cultural differences in how people feel they should respond to traumatic (and "traumatic") events can explain why many Americans receive a PTSD diagnosis after a fender bender, while genocide survivors in Rwanda are able to manage their trauma and recovery without psychological assistance. (Instead, they prefer practical asistance -- help finding jobs, assistance with the visa application process, etc.) ...
The healthiest thing you can feel is autonomy. One of the most unhealthy things you can feel is helplessness... It's well-demonstrated that students and adults alike are heavily influenced by our expecations for them. When professors profess that half of their students are victims of some kind or another, you remove responsibility from them. When you set up safe spaces and trigger warnings, you tell students that you don't think they can handle content without assistance from a higher authority. You don't think they are able to manage their own emotions. You don't think they can or should be exposed to certain viewpoints... Need more proof that objectivity in academia is in danger? Consider the "emerging field" of autoethnography. It's basicaly like a blog where you write about yourself... except it's published in a scholarly journal. And! These "scholars" claim that, because their work is so personal, it should only be subject to certain kinds of criticism"
it's all one thing: The Problem with Privilege Theory - "In the US’s most recent social struggle, the fight for GLBTQ rights, no one argues that serving in the military or getting married are privileges. We argue that they are human rights which every human deserves—and that continues to be the winning argument."
Investigating the Potential for Miscommunication Using Emoji
The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality - "There are only two requirements for an on-demand service economy to work, and neither is an iPhone. First, the market being addressed needs to be big enough to scale—food, laundry, taxi rides. Without that, it’s just a concierge service for the rich rather than a disruptive paradigm shift, as a venture capitalist might say. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there needs to be a large enough labor class willing to work at wages that customers consider affordable and that the middlemen consider worthwhile for their profit margins."
China’s facial-recognition cameras keep catching fugitives at pop star Jacky Cheung's concerts - "A friendly reminder to Chinese fugitives: Just don’t go to Jacky Cheung concerts."
World traveler assures mom he's safe with hilarious 'Mom, I'm Fine' photo series on 9GAG
Brides are so scarce in China, some men are even considering divorced women, state media says - "Some poor rural men are “ready to do anything to find a woman,” it goes on. Even women with “with physical disabilities or mental retardation” are being targeted by matchmakers, a rural lawyer tells the paper."
Marijuana eaten by mice, say Argentina police officers - "Investigators discovered 540kg (1,191lb) of marijuana missing from a police warehouse in Pilar, north-west of Buenos Aires."
What’s free in your country – but not in mine? - "Northern India and Pakistan
Pretty much every grocery shop in this part of the world offers a free and generous side of fresh coriander and green chillies, common local ingredients in curries and chutneys...
in India, people enjoy an unlimited supply of advice... "In other countries, you need to pay for consultations, but in India you can get it free of cost at tea stalls, [during] marriages or family functions, [on] trains, buses by almost anyone," said Kanchan Saxena, who currently lives in the United States. "We love giving advice."
Fast food may have originated in the US, but the free condiments that generously accompany meals haven't always translated to their counterparts overseas...
To accompany Australia's great outdoors, the country offers plenty of free things to enjoy outside."Many public parks and national parks have free barbeque hot plates"... In the Northern Territory, residents can enjoy a unique respite from the heat. "As the waters are croc infested, residents can cool down by using free water slides"...
Tap water might be free in some countries, but true mineral water usually comes at a premium. Not so in Slovakia, where mineral springs are everywhere...
[Norwegian laws] allow residents to have free movement on roads, rivers and lakes; to forage for berries, mushrooms and wildflowers; and to camp overnight – as long as its 150m from the nearest building."
Before we start talking about how genetic differences affect how different ethnicities react to the same drug, certain ethnicities are more prone to diabetes to others or how the symptoms of heart attacks in women are different from men, we gotta come up with a healthcare system and society which treats different ethnicities equally, then we can have that conversation
Fury after Morrisons wouldn't sell couple meat pies before 9am - "Linda and Tony Gilkes were left piping hot with fury after their local Morrisons refused to sell them meat pies before 9am. “I wanted eight large sausage rolls and two steak bakes,” said Linda, 62, from Thorntree. “It was 8.45am and there were no pies at all displayed. “I could see bags and bags of pies, all wrapped up on cages behind the counter. The trolley was ready to be pushed out. “But when I asked for the pies, I was told: ‘We can’t sell the pies until 9am’. I could have had a fruit pie, but not a meat pie.”"
???
Intellectual property rights and innovation: Evidence from the human genome - "Celera’s IP led to reductions in subsequent scientific research and product development on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Taken together, these results suggest that Celera’s short-term IP had persistent negative effects on subsequent innovation relative to a counterfactual of Celera genes having always been in the public domain."
New York art museum refuses to remove 'voyeurisic' painting of girl, after thousands sign petition - "New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has refused to remove a 1938 painting by the artist known as Balthus that depicts a young girl in what some are saying is a sexually suggestive pose. The painting, entitled Therese Dreaming, shows the girl leaning back with her underwear visible. The late Polish-French artist, born Balthasar Klossowski, is known for his erotically-charged images of pubescent girls. An online petition that had garnered thousands of signatures on Monday urged the museum to rethink its decision to display the painting in light of today's climate around sexual assault... The petition's author, Mia Merrill, suggested that the painting be replaced by one created by a female artist of the same period."
Combining censorship with affirmative action!
Playboy Is Naked Again And It Is Awesome - "In 2015, the magazine, faced with competition from the internet where anything goes when it comes to sex, stopped running images of unclothed young ladies. By all accounts, including my own, the results were terrible. Now, Playboy Enterprises is back in the skin game with its March/April 2017 issue... The nude photos feature breasts and buttocks -- that's it. No one's going to confuse this publication with Penthouse or Hustler. Playboy and Co. know if readers want something more explicit, they know exactly where they can find it: on the internet. As a consequence, Cooper's business strategy with his Playboy is that he isn't trying to compete. He's aiming to own a very specific space, one his father created, with a cool mix of politics, sex, and anti-establishment attitude. This issue isn't just about the skin"
Hong Kong's brain drain: Why its young are losing hope and leaving - "“We earn HK$10,000 to HK$20,000 (S$1,710 to S$3,430) a month, and an apartment is HK$5 million upward … If you buy an apartment, you have to pay for it for the rest of your life.” To them, the city is not only dying – it is already dead... Former lawmaker Kenneth Chan, who teaches political science at Hong Kong Baptist University, spoke about what Chinese President Xi Jinping once told Hongkongers: That instead of the city having separation of powers, the government, legislature and judiciary should work together. “This is a direct attack on one of our core values”"
Abbas turns screw on Hamas by cutting Gaza's electricity
But when Israel cuts the electricity...
There's a Suicide Epidemic in Utah — And One Neuroscientist Thinks He Knows Why - "Living in Utah means packed powder in April, canyoneering in the clouds, snow-capped vistas so vivid they look Photoshopped — and the shortest average work week in the country... Renshaw believes that altitude has an impact on our brain chemistry, specifically that it changes the levels of serotonin and dopamine, two key chemicals in the brain that help regulate our feelings of happiness... a group of researchers, including Renshaw, analyzed state suicide rates with respect to gun ownership, population density, poverty, health insurance quality and availability of psychiatric care. Of all the factors, altitude had the strongest link to suicide — even the group of states with the least available psychiatric care had fewer suicides than the highest-altitude states, where psychiatric care was easier to find."
Indian govt employee declares himself reincarnation of Vishnu, skips work to go to '5th dimension' - "A senior engineer at an Indian government agency has been a no-show at work for eight months as he was busy performing his duties as a deity, namely the 10th reincarnation of Vishnu, the man explained in a letter to his employer... The man said his restless work has not been without success, taking credit for India's recent "good rains."... The orders he is being given frequently make little or no sense, such as travelling by train without a ticket or buying cheap electronic devices, but Fefar does not appear to second guess them."
Doctor Who Slipped Girlfriend Abortion Drug Sentenced to Three Years - "A doctor who slipped his girlfriend the abortion pill in her tea has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fetal homicide."
Yet if she'd taken it herself...
China fines Muji for packaging that lists Taiwan as a country - "The Muji packaging violated Chinese advertising law which warns against hurting China's dignity and interest... Its Shanghai unit also pulled a catalogue in January after authorities complained that it had published an "inaccurate" map with wrong borders and missing islands."
Snake sneaks into college dorm room, ends up being caught, cooked, and eaten by students - "Upon seeing the animal, some male students at the Chongqing Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering did not flee their dormitory in terror. Instead, they caught the snake, skinned it, and chopped it up before placing it in a lovely-looking stew along with red dates, ginseng, orange peels, Angelica, and leeks... another snake was purportedly more fortunate after being discovered lurking inside the squat toilet of a 6th floor flat in a Chengdu residential high-rise. The snake had made its way there after escaping from an upstairs neighbor who planned to use it in the making of some medicinal “snake wine” to help heal her ailing lower back."
French Girl Marries Chinese Guy Saying She Does Not Need a Car or Apartment, But Only Love - "young newly wed couple, 26-year-old French woman named Emilie and 24-year-old groom Xie Donglin got married by doing what’s known to be a “naked marriage”. The term “naked marriage” in Chinese basically means getting married before owning your own car or apartment... The two met and Emilie boldly asked for his contact information. Later, she confessed to him that she liked him and they began dating"
Where does the magic in D&D come from? - "when Gygax and Arneson were designing D&D, they needed a system to handle magic. Their inspiration was directly from Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth, which is why the now ubiquitous magic system used on most RPGs is called Vancian Magic... magical spells get more powerful as the wizard advances in level. Whereas a 1st level wizard can’t do much more that cause a candle to flicker, a higher level wizard can bend the entire fabric of reality with a wish spell. In fact, the leveling of a wizard’s power has been given a name and charted on a graph: “Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards.”"
Baby 'accidentally decapitated inside mother's womb' during delivery - "Dr Vaishnavy Laxman, a consultant gynaecologist who was working on an NHS maternity unit, is said to have ignored the woman giving birth’s requests to stop and failed to provide pain relief. The obstetrician at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee is accused of wrongly going ahead with a vaginal labour in spite of several complications that meant a Caesarean delivery would have been safer because the premature infant was in a breech position... Two other doctors consequently carried out a C-section on the woman to remove the infant’s head. It was ‘’reattached’’ to his body so his mother could hold him before she said goodbye"
'Too expensive' to delete millions of police mugshots of innocent people, minister claims - "Millions of police mugshots of innocent people cannot be deleted because it would be too expensive, a government minister has claimed – despite a High Court ruling that the practice is unlawful"
'I missed a lot': Bill Gates regrets not partying and going to football games at Harvard
Inside Plaza Singapura's blogshop cluster - "At Fayth, there is a corkboard where customers can leave feedback and an arrangement of chairs affectionately called the "Boyfriend Corner" for men to rest while their girlfriends shop."
Greg Mankiw's Blog: A Real World Giffen Good - "we find strong evidence that poor households in Hunan exhibit Giffen behavior with respect to rice. That is, lowering the price of rice via the experimental subsidy caused households to reduce their demand for rice, and removing the subsidy had the opposite effect."
Dear Well-Meaning Parents and Educators: Stop Giving Girls Self-Esteem Problems - "Kids love fantasy. They love imaginary play. Here, we've got a whole movie about a girl with a fairy godmother and a pumpkin turning into a carriage and mice turning into coach drivers... but the only thing that parents worry is "unrealistic" is Lily James's waist? Likewise, we've got parents who are "banning Barbie" in favor of Barbie's more "realistic" cousin, Lammily. Lammily has "average proportions," and, for $7, you can even buy "marks" to put on her -- so your doll can have scars, acne, stretch marks, moles and cellulite. So, show of hands! Who knew what stretch marks and cellulite were when you were eight?... kids don't look at her and compare their (pre-pubescent) bodies to Jasmine and Ariel. Kids don't look at Barbie and feel bad about themselves. Unless... (wait for it)... adults tell them to... Not to mention the whole sexist double standard. I don't hear people complaining about how unrealistically strong and handsome Gaston (Beauty and the Beast) and Christoff (Frozen) are... how come you didn't complain about how unrealistically wealthy Bat Man and Iron Man are? (After all, there are a hell of a lot more size 0's than there are multibillionaires in this world.)"
Students of 2016 Are Exposed to Fewer and Less Provocative Ideas Than Students of 2014. - "Cultural differences in how people feel they should respond to traumatic (and "traumatic") events can explain why many Americans receive a PTSD diagnosis after a fender bender, while genocide survivors in Rwanda are able to manage their trauma and recovery without psychological assistance. (Instead, they prefer practical asistance -- help finding jobs, assistance with the visa application process, etc.) ...
The healthiest thing you can feel is autonomy. One of the most unhealthy things you can feel is helplessness... It's well-demonstrated that students and adults alike are heavily influenced by our expecations for them. When professors profess that half of their students are victims of some kind or another, you remove responsibility from them. When you set up safe spaces and trigger warnings, you tell students that you don't think they can handle content without assistance from a higher authority. You don't think they are able to manage their own emotions. You don't think they can or should be exposed to certain viewpoints... Need more proof that objectivity in academia is in danger? Consider the "emerging field" of autoethnography. It's basicaly like a blog where you write about yourself... except it's published in a scholarly journal. And! These "scholars" claim that, because their work is so personal, it should only be subject to certain kinds of criticism"
it's all one thing: The Problem with Privilege Theory - "In the US’s most recent social struggle, the fight for GLBTQ rights, no one argues that serving in the military or getting married are privileges. We argue that they are human rights which every human deserves—and that continues to be the winning argument."
Investigating the Potential for Miscommunication Using Emoji
The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality - "There are only two requirements for an on-demand service economy to work, and neither is an iPhone. First, the market being addressed needs to be big enough to scale—food, laundry, taxi rides. Without that, it’s just a concierge service for the rich rather than a disruptive paradigm shift, as a venture capitalist might say. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there needs to be a large enough labor class willing to work at wages that customers consider affordable and that the middlemen consider worthwhile for their profit margins."
China’s facial-recognition cameras keep catching fugitives at pop star Jacky Cheung's concerts - "A friendly reminder to Chinese fugitives: Just don’t go to Jacky Cheung concerts."
World traveler assures mom he's safe with hilarious 'Mom, I'm Fine' photo series on 9GAG
Brides are so scarce in China, some men are even considering divorced women, state media says - "Some poor rural men are “ready to do anything to find a woman,” it goes on. Even women with “with physical disabilities or mental retardation” are being targeted by matchmakers, a rural lawyer tells the paper."
Marijuana eaten by mice, say Argentina police officers - "Investigators discovered 540kg (1,191lb) of marijuana missing from a police warehouse in Pilar, north-west of Buenos Aires."
What’s free in your country – but not in mine? - "Northern India and Pakistan
Pretty much every grocery shop in this part of the world offers a free and generous side of fresh coriander and green chillies, common local ingredients in curries and chutneys...
in India, people enjoy an unlimited supply of advice... "In other countries, you need to pay for consultations, but in India you can get it free of cost at tea stalls, [during] marriages or family functions, [on] trains, buses by almost anyone," said Kanchan Saxena, who currently lives in the United States. "We love giving advice."
Fast food may have originated in the US, but the free condiments that generously accompany meals haven't always translated to their counterparts overseas...
To accompany Australia's great outdoors, the country offers plenty of free things to enjoy outside."Many public parks and national parks have free barbeque hot plates"... In the Northern Territory, residents can enjoy a unique respite from the heat. "As the waters are croc infested, residents can cool down by using free water slides"...
Tap water might be free in some countries, but true mineral water usually comes at a premium. Not so in Slovakia, where mineral springs are everywhere...
[Norwegian laws] allow residents to have free movement on roads, rivers and lakes; to forage for berries, mushrooms and wildflowers; and to camp overnight – as long as its 150m from the nearest building."
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