Links - 2nd June 2014

Singaporean lodges police report over spicy fried rice - "He believed the cook put too much chilli in the rice. Lau said his mouth continued to feel “uncomfortable” the next day. So he decided to return to Johor Baru to lodge a report at the city’s South area police headquarters “in case there is a need for a check-up later”... Checks by The Star have shown that there were no restaurants or stalls along Jalan Bukit Timbalan and that there was only a bank located along the road. Lau has refused to reveal the name of the shop or describe how it looked like."

Stars boycott Beverly Hills Hotel over Brunei 'sharia' - "Christopher Cowdray, the chief executive of the Dorchester Collection chain, said those protesting have ignored local hotels owned by countries with poor human rights records. "There are other hotel companies in this city that are owned by Saudi Arabia... you know, your shirt probably comes from a country which has human rights issues," Mr Cowdray said, adding a boycott would hurt local employees the most. Badrul Chowdhury, a waiter who has worked at the hotel for 14 years, told Reuters news agency that events in Brunei were far removed from the lives of hotel workers. "We work. We take care of our families," he said."

9 out of 10 Indian customers face poor service: Survey - "Painting a poor picture of customer service in India, nearly 90-95 per cent consumers in utilities, financial services and telecom segments have faced a service problem within the past six months, according to the survey conducted by research firm Ipsos, a release said today. Taking too long to resolve problems (21 per cent) and unknowledgeable staff that cannot help (20 per cent) were two main reasons cited for poor consumer service experience."

Why India outsourcing is Doomed - "Indian IT outsourcing has become a commodity business with no innovation and nothing to offer other than questionable rate savings. This not an attempt to write a scientific paper or predict future. This simply an opinion I have formed based on 15+ years of working with various providers in India and all over the world... People with no technical background or any interest in the field are becoming software engineers because that’s where the money is. You project will be a training ground for all this new engineers. Training you’ll be paying for. Training you will offer only so your provider can move this person after 6-12 month to a different project where they will be billed at a Sr rate and help provide the same training to others...
Ask your potential provider what is their current employee turnover rate. You will likely hear a number somewhere in the 8-10% range, which they will pronounce proudly. Now ask them what is their turnover rate on projects, which would include people moving from project to project within the same company. Watch them cringe and dance around, but never answer that questions. It’s not uncommon to see turnover rates on a given project exceeding 50%. See ‘Resource Quality’ section above to know why...
Employees in India are extremely difficult to motivate. You’ll notice that weeks and months go by with very little progress being made. Indian outsourcing employees seem to have a natural talent for working hard while producing little. Many developers seem content with what would be considered stagnant projects... Indian people will not question their boss. As a customer you are their boss. They will not say “no”. However ‘Yes’, doesn’t mean what we are used to. – “We need this project to be done by the end of the week” -”Yes”. This ‘yes’ doesn’t mean that it will be done. it simply means an acknowledgement that you need it by that time. Making excuses seems to be an art that many Indian outsourcing companies have excelled at. They are so good at it that at times you begin to question yourself...
When you add productivity loss and overhead costs of running offshore in India you may actually be spending more than you were before."
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. If you pay rupees, you get Indians.
Someone: last time my friend was telling me story about indians programmer. i was laughing and say sure anot. will have such pple. now i am nodding and agreed with what she said
she told me last time the indians programmer just have a method but inside the method there isn't code to process the logic. and said that the program is done and it is working fine
lol
i was like. sure anot
they are gd at making execuses and pushing the blame
NATO. no action talk only

For ‘Millennial’ Voters, a Tide of Cynicism Toward Politics - NYTimes.com - "Today, only 39 percent of young voters trust the president to do the right thing, as opposed to 44 percent in 2010. Just 18 percent of voters under 30 trust Congress, compared with 25 percent in February 2010... Young voters seem disappointed with both political parties, although Ms. Anderson, the Republican pollster, said her party appears to be taking the brunt of millennials’ dissatisfaction. Mr. Obama had a 52 percent approval rating in the Harvard poll — slightly better than his approval ratings in polls of older adults nationwide — but down from his approval rating of 58 percent in a Harvard poll of millennials in 2009. “They are disappointed with him, yet many question the motives of Republicans even more,” Ms. Anderson said."
It's amazing how many young voters are racist

Gender Differences in Five Factor Model Personality Traits in an Elderly Cohort: Extension of Robust and Surprising Findings to an Older Generation - "In college and adult samples, women score higher then men on the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits of Neuroticism and Agreeableness. The present study assessed the extent to which these gender differences held in a sample of 486 older adults, ranging in age from 65-98 (M = 75, SD = 6.5), using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory. Mean and Covariance Structure models testing gender differences at the level of latent traits revealed higher levels of Neuroticism (d = .52) and Agreeableness (d = .35) in older women than older men. The consistency of these findings with prior work in younger samples attests to the stability of gender differentiation on Neuroticism and Agreeableness across the lifespan. Gender differences on these traits should be considered in personality research among older, as well as middle age and younger adults."

Why fit women have much BETTER SEX - "female study participants were 169 per cent more aroused (as indicated by blood flow in genital tissue) while watching a short porn flick after 20 minutes of vigorous cycling than when they watched it without riding beforehand... During a single strength workout, a woman's body produces higher levels of growth hormone and testosterone, hormones that play a pivotal role in muscle growth - and sex drive. A 2013 study found that hitting the weight room regularly (three days a week) keeps levels of these hormones higher... Women who exercise frequently and report higher levels of personal fitness are more likely to rate their desirability and sexual performance high above average. But it's not necessarily because of a slim physique. Researchers found that women of all sizes who report greater body appreciation (for their physical abilities, such as progress in the weight room) were more easily aroused, enjoyed sex more and had more orgasms... Women who take short, quick breaths as they reach climax - rather than holding their breath - may reduce carbon dioxide in the blood, possibly intensifying vaginal contractions. Yoga can help women focus on their breathing, while high-intensity interval training increases lung capacity, ensuring much better breathing control during your pleasurable experience."
Is this why so many women like Yoga?!

Should the UK make buying sex illegal? - "Though Sweden's anti-prostitution law is typically celebrated as a means of "ending demand" for commercial sex, it's proven to do no such thing. No meaningful data exists on the size and scope of Sweden's sex trade before their anti-prostitution law was adopted in 1999, and according to Swedish law enforcement, some sectors of the sex trade may even be expanding. In Norway, also heralded as a success story by anti-sex work advocates, sex workers have faced evictions from their homes and working flats under Operation Homeless. This March, when three Nigerian sex workers in Norway were assaulted in their motel by men posing as customers, they sought help from the police – who then had the women deported. Criminal laws against commercial sex – like those in Sweden and Norway, as well as the United States – do not protect sex workers, and in reality, these laws expose them to violence. This is why they are opposed by Human Rights Watch, by the United Nation's Global Commission on HIV and the Law, and World Health Organisation. Amnesty International has proposed a policy supporting the full decriminalisation of sex work as a means of ensuring sex workers' human rights and, earlier this month, their UK membership voted to reject the Swedish-style criminalisation of sex work. But most critically, it's the people most likely to face the consequences of these laws who oppose them: women who currently sell sex."
Tellingly, the pro-criminalization advocate doesn't look at actual results - just rhetoric

‘Game of Thrones’ meets Google in interactive map of Westeros - "A slider lets you set the map for a specific program episode or — for the more literary — a chapter from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels the show is based on. Now select Joffrey Baratheon, Jaime Lannister or any other character, to show exactly where they were at that point – or click through the episodes to track their journey. There’s a host of other features — towns, domains, death sites — to explore, too."

Hong Kong schools get it all wrong on sex and dating - "I was recently informed by sex education materials offered at my kids' school that as parents, my wife and I should praise masturbation and encourage it. The way a booklet puts it, we should "celebrate" - their word, not mine - when boys have their first masturbation experiences. Perhaps my wife and I should have bought champagne for the occasion, on the odd chance that our kid might inform us of the celebratory event."

Children who have a TV in their bedroom ARE fatter - even if they rarely watch it - "U.S. experts blame disrupted sleep, or possibly greater exposure to food advertising aimed at children."