Links - 24th September 2014

A hand changes everything

Will the Sultan of Brunei Stone his Gay Son to Death?

Brunei prince attempts to stop 'erotic statues’ from being shown in court - "Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the 55-year-old younger brother of the Sultan, is seeking to persuade a judge in Manhattan that pictures of the four statues should not be shown to a jury that will consider his lawsuit against former legal advisers. He has also said the jury should not be told that he had several wives and mistresses, because “polygamy is offensive to many Americans”. The statues were once kept on the prince’s 28-acre estate on Long Island, New York. Mark Cymrot, a lawyer for one of the defendants in the lawsuit, said: “They make me blush. They’re very explicit”... In 2007 the Privy Council – the final court of appeal for Brunei, a former British protectorate – ruled in support of a 2000 judgment ordering the prince to give his assets to his brother and live on a “monthly allowance” of $300,000 (£185,000). The assets included billions of pounds, hundreds of international properties including New York’s Palace Hotel, thousands of cars, artworks by Picasso and Renoir and a 180-foot yacht called Tits"

Have accusations of rape victim blaming gone too far? - "So where do you go when one group of people are blaming you for your attack and analysing your behaviour to conclude whether or not it fits neatly into a victim narrative, and another is telling you you’re a bad feminist who has not responded properly to an extremely violent and traumatic incident? I’m not sure I know, but I do know that a reluctance to speak openly about attitudes towards violence against women for fear of being “called out” hardly fosters honest debate. When Rape Crisis Oxford called Judge Mowat’s comments “outrageous”, did they reflect how many of the victims who come to them may have expressed similar views, similar regrets? Attitudes which have been long nurtured and fostered and which need handling sensitively and logically, rather than being angrily dismissed out of hand? Such views are so prevalent that they should be considered with insight and analysis, not dismissal.... As well as condemning victim-blaming where I see it, I’ll also continue to have mixed feelings about my own attack, because I am human and I think not in rainbow colours nor in black and white, but in shades of grey. I sometimes wish feminism would do the same."

Ebola: A Racist Imperialist Disease - Challenge Newspaper - The Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party - "From a historical perspective, capitalism and its centuries-long imperialist devastation of Africa have created conditions that make Ebola and other epidemics severe and very difficult to contain. After the enslavement of millions of Africans for profit in the Americas, beginning in the 16th century, 93 percent of Africa was divided into colonies by the main European imperialists: Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, and Portugal. In the 20th century, U.S. imperialism intensified this conquest. In addition to the destruction wrought by slavery, the imperialists have exploited labor, plundered natural resources, and propped up a long string of corrupt African rulers who have lined their own pockets while preserving the capitalist status quo (see Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa). President Barack Obama’s recent summit with 40 African leaders was just the latest example of efforts of rapacious U.S. corporations to exploit African workers by cutting deals with capitalist African leaders."
I knew someone would blame racism and colonialism for Ebola!

90% of Indians are 'idiots', Markandey Katju says - "He said that a communal riot could be incited in Delhi for as meagre an amount as Rs 2000. He said that all somebody has to do is make a mischievous gesture of disrespect to a place of worship and people start fighting each other."

America's Worst Charities: Kids Wish Network - "Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it squanders almost every penny. The money gets diverted to enrich the charity’s operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. Sick children wind up with less than3 cents of every dollar raised. That has been the formula for 16 years, ever since Kids Wish mimicked the respected Make-A-Wish Foundation and launched its relentless drive for money. In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate fundraisers. That makes it the worst charity in the nation, according to a Times/CIR review of charities that have steered the most money to professional solicitation companies over time."

Court grants man divorce over wife's demand for excessive sex - "The husband had approached the family court in January, saying that his wife was "adamant, aggressive, stubborn and autocratic" and would pick up quarrels for no reason. The man, in his petition told the court that she was showing an "excessive and insatiable desire for sex" and harassed him since their marriage in April 2012. He also alleged that she administered him medicines and also forced him to consume liquor. The husband alleged that she used to force him into having unnatural sex and whenever he tried to resist it, she would abuse him following which he had to succumb to her pressure and persistent demands... Though doctors advised him to stay away from any physical relationship for a while, the wife kept up with her sexual demands, even as his health deteriorated for lack of rest, the petition submitted. Further he said that in October 2013 he was operated for appendicitis and after discharge his wife insisted that they stay with her sister and even there, she forced him into having intercourse. According to him, his wife even refused to visit a psychiatrist and threatened him against revealing anything to anybody."
If the victim had been a woman...

Incense smoke 'like passive smoking' - "Inhaling smoke from burning incense daily for 20 years or more increases a person's risk of dying from heart disease by 12 per cent, according to the research, although it could not pinpoint exactly how much intake would be harmful."

Syrian hard-line rebels mistakenly behead fellow jihad fighter - "Fighters from an al-Qaida-linked Syrian rebel group beheaded an allied commander whom they mistook for a pro-government fighter... Furious Ahrar al-Sham partisans posted a video calling ISIL fighters "idiots" and noted that rebel fighter Marrouche had longish hair and a full bushy beard typical of conservative Sunni Muslims. "The Shiites do not do this," they sarcastically noted"

IKEA develops wireless 'bookbook' with eternal battery life - "Spiffy Swedish home furniture maker IKEA took a page from Apple with its 2015 product catalog—which boasts "eternal" battery life, an "expandable" interface, and intuitive lagless "touch and grab" browsing."

Stephanie Vardavas's answer to What are some of your funniest moments learning another language? - Quora - "My friend Anita went on a summer tour with the Yale Glee Club, flirting her way across France with men she had just met. She knew that the French word for "kiss" was "baiser," and she knew how to conjugate basic French verbs, so she thought nothing of saying "Baise-moi" to every cute French guy. She couldn't understand why they were so sexually aggressive... she'd been saying "fuck me" to a lot of guys she had known for less than a day"

Andy Warwick's answer to What are some of your funniest moments learning another language? - Quora - "this friend went to the convenience store around the corner from his apartment to purchase a cigarette lighter. He doesn't smoke so he was unfamiliar with the correct word in Chinese (打火机 dăhuŏjī). He walked up to the counter and said confidently to the middle-aged woman behind it, "我要打飞机" (wŏ yào dă fēijī). This does not mean 'I want a cigarette lighter'. No. What it does mean in fact is 'I want to masturbate'

Stephen Hou's answer to What are some of your funniest moments learning another language? - Quora - "In Cantonese, "guests" or "customers" is "haak3 jan4" (「客人」), and "black people" is "haak1 jan4" (「黑人」), which differ in tone only! So imagine the looks of horror and embarrassment I got when I thought I was complaining to my Cantonese friends that the restaurant we were in had too many customers..."

André Müller's answer to What are some of your funniest moments learning another language? - Quora - "I was writing something in Thai on my computer and the same friend was looking over my shoulder. I tried to type the nickname of her roommate, Hmuey: หมวย [mǔːaj] ("little sister"), but mistyped หมอย [mɔ̌ːj] ("pubic hair") instead. That's how I was laughed at again, blushed and learned another filthy word. ;)
And so on... when I pronounce my favorite Thai dish in the wrong tone, it means "penis" instead of "omelette". And then in a dictionary I happened to stumble upon the word ช่องคลอด [ʨɔ̂ŋ.kʰlɔ̂ːt], which I didn't know and which sounded amuzingly similar to the French name "Jean-Claude". Only later on I found out it means "vagina" (lit. 'birth hole')."

Death of Savita Halappanavar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "The Arulkumaran report was published on 13 June 2013. It identified three "Key Causal Factors" for the death: inadequate assessment and monitoring; failure to offer all management options to a patient; and non adherence to clinical guidelines related to the prompt and effective management of sepsis... The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published a report into the incident on 9 October 2013. It found "a failure in the provision of the most basic elements of patient care to Savita Halappanavar", noting 13 "missed opportunities to intervene""
So despite the sexy headlines, two enquiries found that the legal status of abortion in Ireland was not the main reason why Savita Halappanavar died: instead it was incompetence.

Kelly La Rue's answer to Racism: Is it true only whites are considered racist? - Quora - "Minorities tend to use racism as an excuse for their failures when the big problem is their not being good employees or tenants. I worked as a contractor in a border town in Texas. I hired people. Every black I hired failed to work out. They would just stand around and simply not work. This was not my fault or preference. Then I'm accused of racism as if somehow I'm the problem. I hired many Mexicans and almost without exception they could not work without direct supervision because if left alone they would take shortcuts in their work, steal materials, goof off, fail to follow instructions, etc. Their work ethic is a dysfunctional one. Call me racist, make it my problem. When I hire someone I have every hope and expectation they will work out. I do not hire them and then set them up to fail. I fired a lot of people and it was always because they were not contributing to the health of the business, my business. I finally was forced as a matter of self-preservation to discriminate... Every black customer I worked for failed to pay me, without exception. After a while I had to refuse to work for blacks. I discriminated, would anyone in their right mind do any different? Is this racism?"
Keywords: African American, only white, bad worker