Links - 17th October 2013

Youth more likely to be bullied at schools with anti-bullying programs - "Boys were more likely than girls to be victims of physical bullying, but girls were more likely to be victims of emotional bullying. A lack of involvement and support from parents and teachers was likely to increase the risk of bullying victimization. These findings are all consistent with prior studies. Notably, researchers found that race or ethnicity was not a factor in whether students were bullied."
A comment on Fark points out, "here's the HSBC form that they've based the study on... If you'd been taught that name calling and social media attacks are also bullying you'd be more likely to mark the box than if you only thought that someone beating you up counted."
Another comment: "As a person who worked in Primary schools for a short period of time there were a few similarities I noticed about children who were bullied... the child who was constantly bullied and in 90% of the times would fit into one of these two categories
1. Has a special need and those were often aspergers or austism. In this situation I believe that the parents as well as giving them intense early lessons should also give them social lessons. This is because children with these difficulties can lack the human understanding of emotions and from that can seem very rude.
2. The baby. The child who can't laugh at themselves, who has to tell the teacher when anyone's doing anything wrong. The one who cries over everything. Teach your child not to tell all the time.
My rule is if someone is being physically hurt you tell other wise you mind your own business. So if Tommy is drawing dicks on the table keep your mouth shut. We also insult each other so she learns to laugh"

What to do with HIV-positive Jennifer Murphy and the Russian roulette she plays with her sex partners? | Toronto Star - "What Murphy did not do was tell any of the three sexual partners that she was HIV-positive and no condom was used. In Canada, that’s a crime. Only last year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling unanimously absolving HIV carriers of the legal obligation to inform sex partners about their status — as long as they have a low load of the virus and use a condom. A week ago, Murphy was found guilty by Justice Gregory Mulligan on one count of aggravated sexual assault — the van intercourse incident — because, though the virus was almost undetectable and she was on anti-viral medication, the man was nevertheless exposed to a significant risk with no condom used. Murphy was acquitted on the two other charges of aggravated sexual assault. In one case the “victim” — himself a convicted sexual offender, which he didn’t disclose — was deemed not credible; in the other, there was no risk, Mulligan concluded, because the man “only’’ performed oral sex on Murphy. The woman has a long history of not telling. Murphy gain national notoriety in 2005 when she was convicted of having unprotected sex with two soldiers from CFB Borden without disclosing her HIV status to them. Such was the alarm triggered by Murphy’s arrest that soldiers from the base area were urged to seek medical attention if they suspected they’d had sexual relations with her... Murphy was defiant: “I’m a liberated woman and there isn’t anything that’s going to shut me up,” she said, vowing to be an activist for the HIV community and safe sex practices. “I’ve been slandered, degraded and discriminated against”... Murphy’s lawyer, Angela McLeod was livid over the development, which she’d only learned about just before court began, calling the manoeuvre “an abhorrent misuse of the justice system . . . it’s outrageous.” McLeod didn’t object to the victim making an impact statement “other than I hope he apologizes to his wife, for putting her health at risk and betraying his marital vows.” A man, a van, and slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am sex. Apparently, he’s the villain. Murphy, vixen, is just the vessel."
Naturally, feminists and activists are upset about the "witch hunt"

9 Crappy Messages About Love & Friendship We Learned By Watching Rom-Coms - "Some other stuff happens, but the basic crux of the movie is that if your friend is kind of self-absorbed it's totally okay if you lie to her and sleep with her fiance. Especially if you and the dude went to law school together and you could have dated him, but you were just too much of a shy pussy to make a move. "

What is the feminists obsession with the vagina? - Yahoo! Answers - " Why must they try to have television shows about the vagina, hold mirrors to their vaginas so that they can inspect them in women's groups, talk about them all the time.? Are men this obsessed with their penises? Do they reserve air time on radios and television networks to discuss the various incidents and mysteries of their penises? Do they stand in front of mirrors in groups and gaze at their penises?
Top Answer: "Men are just as obsessed, only they spend their time playing with their penises instead of talking about them. I suggest we women do the same thing and spend our time playing with our vaginas instead of discussing them! Are you with me?""

16 Of The Best Vagina-Related Yahoo! Answers Questions - "Thank God for Yahoo! Answers. Where else would the befuddled, the curious, the totally clueless find out about life, love and sex?"

22 Sexy Lingerie Models Who Are Missing Their Vaginas - "we found an epidemic that seems to be plaguing lingerie models. Their vaginas have gone missing! (The nipples were just the beginning.) But where did they go? Let’s “Law & Order” this shit. Dun … dun … dun. We have some theories"

Twin Study Says Breastfeeding, Moisturizing and Hormones Stall Aging Breasts - "Soltanian collected data from consenting women between the ages of 25 and 74 at the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsberg, Ohio... Soltanian acknowledged there is "no objective measurement" for what makes a breast "beautiful." But researchers looked for skin tone, droopiness, shape and areola size... The study seemed to refute myths about the negative effects of nursing a baby, findings that even surprised Soltanian. Even though the size and shape of the areola had suffered, the skin quality was better in women who breast fed"

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History Explores Evolution of Organ - " Breast milk contains substances similar to marijuana and is sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil, she wrote. Another interesting factoid: Hour-glass figure Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, a cancer-survivor responsible for inventing the first breast prosthesis in the 1970s"

Woman Dislocates Her Jaw Biting Into a Giant America Burger, Still Claims Burger Was Amazing!

I went to Oxford. So why am I so angry about it? - "when I read about Alastair Herron, who was rejected out of hand by Merton College, Oxford – yet achieved seven A*s this week and has had scholarship offers from Stanford and Harvard – and when I read the Guardian's story, following a freedom of information request, which showed that applicants from private schools are 9% more likely to win a place at Oxford than state school candidates with the same grades, I quietly despair."
Amused by people who claim that grades are meaningless - unless they are used to support allegations of bias.
Featured comment: "A 9% higher probability of privately educated students with the same grades being accepted is not necessarily evidence of bias. Oxford doesn't decide whether to admit candidates or not solely on their grades, so the flaw in that test could be the way that you are measuring their suitability as candidates.. Someone wrote about the confidence that private schools give their pupils. I hate the idea of private schools, but I would have loved to have gone to any school where I didn't have to hide my enthusiasm for any subject until the age of 16 for fear of getting the shit kicked out of me."

Open door: Does the Guardian employ too many Oxbridge graduates? | Comment is free | The Guardian - ""I think Oxbridge is a bit of a red herring – and that the private schools issue is much more relevant. Yes, Oxbridge is an elite – but, in theory, it should be an elite selected by ability. To object to Oxbridge graduates having places in government/media/academia should, in theory, be like objecting to the fastest runners getting all the places in the Olympic team: absurd. The private schools issue is different: private schools form an elite selected not by ability, but by parents' ability to pay." The fiercest view was expressed by those who went from state schools to Oxford or Cambridge: "I was encouraged to apply because I was bright, and I got a place because I worked bloody hard, twice as hard as anyone else at my school … In truth, Oxford was the most meritocratic place I have ever experienced because if you got good results nobody cared one jot where you were from … I am not remotely apologetic about my degree, I know I earned it." Alan Rusbridger, the editor-in-chief and a Cambridge graduate, said: "I think we have moved a mile from where we were. We have tried really hard to get diversity into the debate – Comment is free has inverted the model where a group of Oxbridge graduates write down to people. We have just gone to Cairo to recruit 35 Egyptian bloggers to give us voices on the ground. "We are far more diverse than ever before, and even if there is a strong Oxbridge presence, they have done more to tear down the walls than anyone else.""

Seatbelts on planes are pointless, says Ryanair boss - "Michael O’Leary claims legislation forcing passengers to wear seatbelts is useless, unnecessary and insisted upon only by authorities he deems “plonkers”... “If there ever was a crash on an aircraft, God forbid, a seatbelt won’t save you”... "You don't need a seatbelt on the London Underground. You don't need a seatbelt on trains which are travelling at 120mph and if they crash you're all dead..."... "The problem with aviation is that for 50 years it's been populated by people who think it's this wondrous sexual experience; that it's like James Bond and wonderful and we'll all be flying first class when really it's just a b----- bus with wings"... When questioned over the fairness of charging travellers to print a boarding pass, he said: ““We think [they] should pay 60 euros for being so stupid.”"

Rowan Williams tells 'persecuted' western Christians to grow up - ""When you've had any contact with real persecuted minorities you learn to use the word very chastely," he said. "Persecution is not being made to feel mildly uncomfortable. 'For goodness sake, grow up,' I want to say." True persecution was "systematic brutality and often murderous hostility that means that every morning you wonder if you and your children are going to live through the day". He cited the experience of a woman he met in India "who had seen her husband butchered by a mob"... He said the word "spiritual" in today's society was frequently misused in two ways: either to mean "unworldly and useless, which is probably the sense in which it has been used about me", or "meaning 'I'm serious about my inner life, I want to cultivate my sensibility'"... Neuberger said she found some uses of the word self-indulgent and offensive"
Presumably this also applies to religious, racial and sexual minorities who are made to feel uncomfortable?

We cherish the southern European lifestyle, yet scorn southern Europeans - "in August, we leave our frantic modus vivendi behind, to enjoy theirs. "Oh, look at those little old men playing chess on the pavement – so sweet!" "Campari-soda per favore!" "Tasha, you MUST try the époisses, it's divine!" "I so love the way they whizz about on scooters without helmets and no one wears seat belts – it's such fun!" Then September comes, back to balancing the books, the shareholders' interests, the "aggressively managed portfolio", the FTSE and Dow Jones. That's enough Caravaggio and mortadella for one year, time for a new austerity package – those lazy bloody Latins…"