Links - 14th April 2013

Wealth is key for marriage, study claims - "when men become in short supply, for instance in the wake of the First World War, women are happy to put up with poorer partners of lesser social sway. And when men are commonplace, women are in the driving seat and become correspondingly more choosy, driving a hard bargain for the richest and most powerful men, with the marriage prospects of a male pauper being "drastically reduced". The findings back a prediction made more than a decade ago that also said men will become more faithful to their wives and take more interest in their children when women are in short supply."

Girls Lead in Science Exam, but Not in the United States - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com - "girls generally outperform boys in science — but not in the United States. What explains the gap?"
What explains the more important gap - why girls generally outperform boys? What explains the gap in explaining gaps?
Comments: "Do you noticed that the countries with the highest male advanteges (Denmark, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, ...) are the ones which are the most feminist countries? In contrast the countries with the highest female advantages (Jordan, Albania, Qatar, Kyrgyz Republic, ...) are usually at the bottom of the gender equality index. I think these gender differences are more complex then "cultural forces keeping girls away from scientific careers""
"A science exam given to 15-year-olds? Little "real" math or quantitative reasoning. As a 15-year-old at Stuyvesant, I was great in chemistry and biology. But it was really just studying and
memorization."

Are Filipinos Malays? - "If asked about their race, most Filipinos would identify as being Malay... Filipinos wishing to migrate in Singapore have to deny this fundamental identification because the Singapore government rejects the classification of Filipinos as Malay... Officially, Singapore recognizes immigrants from the neighboring Philippines as part of the racial category referred to as “Other.” But why refuse the Malay background of Filipinos in the first place? Perhaps it has something to do with the special privileges accorded to the Malay minority in Singapore.. Philippine hero Dr. Jose Rizal is often called the “pride of the Malay race.” Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, for instance, has recognized Rizal as the “greatest Malayan,” calling Rizal an “Asian Renaissance Man.” And what to make of the racial status of residents of Sabah? This territory is officially part of Malaysia but is also claimed by the Sultanate of Sulu, a local kingdom in southern Philippines. The people of Sabah belong to the Malaysian Federation. What would happen if the state became part of the Philippines? "

>> Thanks to Catholicism ♥ - "Tempura (天ぷら) The beloved Japanese dish comes from the ancient Catholic observance of the Ember Days. Occurring as they did four times a year, the Ember Days corresponded to the four natural seasons and fell on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of a specified week. Since the time of the early Church, it was mandatory to fast and abstain from meat on those days. In the 16th century, when Spanish and Portuguese missionaries settled in Nagasaki, Japan, they sought ways of making tasty meatless meals for the Ember Days and started to deep-fry shrimp... “tempura” and “ember” both come from the Latin term, Quatour Tempora, “the four seasons”"

MacGyver Challenge Winner: Build a Better Mouse Trap with LEGO

The
Importance of Men Seeing Women as Human Beings
Comments: "44% of 18 year old men in South Africa have been victims of sexual violence. So male victims are not some minor footnote to the problem, that can be briefly mentioned then waved away. A higher portion of men in South Africa are rape victims than women in the US."
(someone replied by saying "At least one in three women is victimized by male violence" - I think the person can't count; 1/3 is lower than 44%)
"Most of male violence is directed at other males. The fact females are sometimes made victims does not point to a hatred or disregard for women in general at least in our country. The dialogue we've heard from feminist relies on bunch sexist stereotypes rather than a honest critique of individual motives. If this were black people instead of men I think the amount of unrepentant bigotry men are up against would be made clear."
"You can't use a few horrific crimes to profile the nature of violence between men and women. This is what we call sensationalism and it serves to distort reality... Do I need to bring up the women who have cut off men's penises? No of course not."

REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS BY WOMEN ON THEIR SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY - "This bibliography examines 286 scholarly investigations: 221 empirical studies and 65 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 371,600" This evidence that men are at least at as much risk from female violence than women are from male violence is a great example of "derailing" or maybe even "trolling". Continue with the White Ribbon Campaign and painting women as perpetual victims!

Why I Dumped My iPhone—And Why I'm Not Going Back - "On the long flight home, my iPhone on airplane mode, I began reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. It was one of several dozen classics that I’d downloaded for free in a fit of literary quixotism, then ignored. I was almost embarrassed by the degree to which Walden felt directed toward me. I was particularly stung by his withering take on news junkies: “Hardly a man takes a half-hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, ‘What's the news?’ as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels ... Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe,” he wrote in 1854. And when I came across his famous verdict—“Men have become tools of their tools”—I felt like an enormous tool... my daily life has improved. Commutes are no longer opportunities to catch up on email or Twitter, so I’m reading books again. It feels a little like getting a new contact lens prescription: Things that were blurred together feel sharper and more distinctly colored. And of course, I’m no longer engaged in half-conversations with the people in front of me and half-conversations with the Internet... One of the hardest things to get used to was being unable to instantly share my awesome and horrible experiences with my friends online. Now, I write down my impressions in a notebook, and by the time I get back to a computer, they rarely feel like must-tweets. I’m forced to slog through the tedium of waiting, to wrestle with dull passages and slow scenes, to grapple with confusing and sometimes scary situations on my own. I’m able to savor an idea and allow it to gestate... Do I really want the Internet to be something I feel naked without? "

Taiwanese girls launched the "No Pants Day" which attracted men crowds (Photos) - " "the United States New York City no pants day subway, originally only wanted to promote interesting spoof, evolved into the liberation of bound, simple living, energy saving and carbon reduction, wants to promote to Taiwan"
The contrast with the Improv Everywhere one is striking

The 13 Most Meaningless Platitudes Of Social Media Week 2013 - "Social Media Week is a conference in which people with a lot of Twitter followers brag about how many Twitter followers they have to a room full of people with fewer Twitter followers... As you might imagine, much of what is said at at Social Media Week is totally incomprehensible. Below, we've collected some of our favorite platitudes and aphorisms that not only actual people spoke out loud, but that other people then tweeted out to the world. #Enjoy, and #remember to #retweet and #repin and #regoogleplus if you #enjoyed this #article."

Former Onion Staffers Denounce CEO's Apology For Quvenzhané Wallis Tweet - "Former Onion staffers Monday reacted with dismay to the satirical newspaper's apology for calling a 9-year-old a "cunt," saying the apology marked a loss of editorial freedom. "It shows they don't have faith in the writers, or in their public. It looks worse that they took [the tweet] down"... [It] marked "the first time The Onion has ever retracted anything and run a real apology"... Another former Onion News Network writer warned the CEO would use this tweet to compromise the organization's editorial freedom... The Onion has moved most of its operations to Chicago and has suffered layoffs and cuts this year. In 2012, the majority of its editorial staff — with many citing a loss of creative freedom — left the publication and started new projects in New York City."
The only thing they should apologise for is making a bad joke

AFieldNegro.com - "There’s a lot of FRICTION between Black men and Black women. We can lie to ourselves and pretend that the problem is not there, or we can do something to try and address this problem. What I’m trying to do is create a dialogue, so that we can take a look at this problem. These are some PICTURES of BLACK MEN that date, and marry outside of their race... I’ve often heard Black men complain about Black women hot temper, and their attitude. A few weeks ago I was talking to some brothers, and they said man I love sisters, but it seems like they are never satisfied. With that being said when we look at these pictures, then we have to ask this question--------is it possible that some sisters, are driving brothers away?"

'Ban Abortion to Improve Birthrate' Says Japanese Politician - "This recent column published in the Asahi Shimbun by Liberal Democratic Party politician Noda Seiko suggests that abortion should be prohibited in an attempt to address the falling birthrate"
Noda Seiko is female, contrary to the liberal myth that only men are against abortion (actually both genders are pretty evenly divided). This is why liberals want not just on women in government - but women who espouse "pro-women" views (i.e. not Sarah Palin, even though she has the right parts). In other words, anti-democratic legislative stacking

Chinese Student’s Bicycle Seat Breaks and… Gyah! - "the bicycle’s seat got bent over exposing a cold, merciless steel rod which penetrated the boy’s buttocks. The seat was unable to be removed."

Communauté française à Singapour - "La Cité du Lion avec 9940 citoyens français recensés par le Ministères des Affaires Etrangères abrite la seconde plus grande communauté française d’Asie, loin derrière la Chine et ses 30,000 français mais juste devant la Thaïlande et l’Inde. Les Français sont toujours plus nombreux à Singapour."

Bypassing Google’s Two-Factor Authentication
Time to move to 3FA! And then 4FA, 5FA, 6FA... Till everyone just goes to the bank instead

Printer ink cartridges: why you're paying more but getting a lot less - ""The strategy has been to nudge the consumer towards a high frequency
of purchases," says David Connett, editor of The Recycler, a trade magazine covering the remanufacturing industry. "The big printer manufacturers have reduced the amount of ink in a cartridge, encrypted the chip technology, and used aggressive marketing tactics to discourage refills." Chris Brooks, technical director of industry group the UK Cartridge Remanufacturers Association, is more forthright: "The big printer companies do all they can to squeeze ever-increasing amounts of cash out of the poor consumer in exchange for less ink"... The shrinking amount of ink in cartridges has enabled manufacturers to offer a remarkable new product – called "XL" (extra large) but almost exactly the same size as the standard cartridge"