Links - 9th September 2014

Soul mates are doomed - "Why wouldn’t anyone want to be with someone who was made for them in heaven? Well, because taking that view of a relationship could ultimately contribute to the couple’s demise, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Researchers observed that while there are myriad ways people talk about love, two common ways of framing relationships — the “other half/soul mate” approach and the “our love is a journey, look how far we’ve come” approach — both contribute hugely to the way people view conflict in their relationships, but in nearly opposite ways. For people with a we’re-on-a-journey view of their partners, everyday relationship struggles are just surmountable hurdles along the way. But for “soul mates,” conflicts are more difficult to deal with — after all, if two people are truly “made for each other,” why would they face any conflict in the first place? “Our findings corroborate prior research showing that people who implicitly think of relationships as perfect unity between soul mates have worse relationships than people who implicitly think of relationships as a journey of growing and working things out”"

Coca Cola's Dasani Bottled Water has Lethal Drug: Facts - "It is a fact that potassium chloride is used as a lethal drug, in some cardiac surgery procedures that cannot be carried out on the beating heart. In such cases, the surgical team will bypass the heart with a heart-lung machine and inject potassium chloride into the heart muscle to stop the heartbeat. However, the amount of potassium chloride used is the key here. As mentioned in an article on OpEdNews.com that raises these concerns, for potassium chloride to be toxic, a person has to consume more than 2500 mg/kg (of his weight) of KCl, which is an extremely large amount. The amount of KCl, which is less than 5 mg in each Dasani bottled water, is negligible according to FDA standards. Responding to these concerns, a representative from Coca-Cola stated that potassium chloride is added to their Dasani bottled water "because consumers prefer it.""

Students outraged as Yale fraternity suspended for 'no means yes' chants establishes chapter at Edinburgh - "The Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) has developed a reputation this academic year for having a zero-tolerance attitude towards misogyny, and 'lad culture'. In September 2013, it became the first students' union in the country to ban the controversial anthem 'Blurred Lines', while in December, it passed a motion declaring that 'EUSA is a feminist'... Natan Misak, a second year Economics student at the University of Edinburgh, originally from Brooklyn, New York, said: "One of the reasons I left the US for university was to escape the 'bro culture' of frats. I wanted to get away from the 'us' versus 'them' mentality that they breed.""
Presumably feminists don't have an 'us' versus 'them' mentality. Maybe because 'misogynists' aren't real people

The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'The End of Poverty': Brother, Can You Spare $195 Billion? - "Sachs's missionary zeal is infectious, but the flaws in ''The End of Poverty'' should sound important notes of caution. There is, for one thing, the matter of Sachs's ego. Anyone who can write that ''as a young faculty member, I lectured widely to high acclaim, published broadly and was on a rapid academic climb to tenure, which I received in 1983 when I was 28'' clearly lacks the gift of understatement. This faith in his own abilities is what allowed him, as a relative newcomer to development economics, to declare that he had found the answer to extreme global poverty where others who had devoted their lives to it have failed. However, longtime experts in the field who read this book may feel a strong sense of déjà vu. They should. Much of Sachs's argument can be summed up in this passage from Walt W. Rostow's book ''The Stages of Economic Growth,'' written in 1960: ''The creation of the preconditions for takeoff was largely a matter of building social overhead capital -- railways, ports and roads -- and of finding an economic setting in which a shift from agriculture and trade to manufacture was profitable.'' Sachs neglects to mention the extent to which the Rostow model dominated discussions of development in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. But in that era, waste and corruption fattened up United Nations agencies and recipient governments while doing very little for the poor. As the development expert William Easterly has observed, Sachs's sales pitch has been made in the past, and the results were meager. Elsewhere, Sachs oversells or contradicts his own arguments. On the question of AIDS prevention, for example, he triumphantly cites a recent article to argue against the hypothesis that Africans engage in more sexual activity outside of marriage than is the case in other cultures. Sachs's assertion, while politically correct, is off the mark. The very article he cites goes on to say that because of ''the much higher number of cumulative sexual acts'' outside of wedlock in countries like Uganda, the likelihood of H.I.V. transmission is much greater in Africa. Furthermore, these sexual practices make quick-fix solutions -- like promoting condom use -- much less effective. Similarly, Sachs dismisses critics who argue that culture is an important factor in explaining poverty even as he concedes that religious and cultural traditions have prevented women from educating themselves, which in turn has slowed development. He acknowledges that governments should not invest in business capital: ''When governments run businesses, they tend to do so for political rather than economic reasons.'' But he fails to consider just how much this dictum applies to everything governments run. His unspoken assumption is that governments as corrupt as Nigeria's or Kenya's would allocate health or education investments in a nonpolitical manner."

Article #27, Copyright, Enjoy Arts & Scientific Development : Youth For Human Rights Video - "Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."
If copyright is a human right, can we prosecute pirates for violating human rights?

Topic: Meatspin source video. — Tinychan - "The magic happens at 6:14 :D"

'Twice as Many' British Muslims Fighting for ISIS as UK Armed Forces - "There are now more than twice as many British Muslims fighting for Islamic State than there are serving in the British armed forces, according to a British Member of Parliament (MP). Khalid Mahmood, the MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, estimates that at least 1,500 young British Muslims have been recruited by extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria in the last three years."

Answer to Wealth: Is getting rich worth it? - Quora - "being rich is better than not being rich, but it's not nearly as good as you imagine it is... The next thing you need to understand about money is this: all of the things you picture buying, they are only worthwhile to you because you cannot afford them (or have to work really hard to acquire them). Maybe you have your eye on a new Audi -- once you can easily afford it, it just doesn't mean as much to you anymore. Everything is relative, and you are more or less powerless to that. Yes, the first month you drive the Audi, or eat in a fancy restaurant, you really enjoy it. But then you sort of get used to it. And then you are looking towards the next thing, the next level up. And the problem is that you have reset your expectations, and everything below that level doesn't get you quite as excited anymore... Most people hold the illusion that if only they had more money, their life would be better and they would be happier. Then they get rich, and that doesn't happen, and it can throw them into a serious life crisis. "

▶ The Bob & Tom Show Camel Toe Song (Original version) - YouTube

An Arab View... - "As soon as the sirens went off, many Palestinians took to the streets and rooftops, especially in Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, to cheer Hamas. Sometimes they responded to the Hamas rockets by launching fireworks into the air as a sign of joy, and chanting, "We are all Hamas!" and, "O Jews, the army of Mohammed is coming after you!" Scenes of jubilation over the rocket attacks on Israel were also reported in several Palestinian cities in the West Bank, including Ramallah, the center of Palestinian "pragmatism and moderation." Later, upon learning that Hamas's rockets had failed to kill Israelis in the two cities, the Palestinians voiced disappointment... The celebrations reflect the strong hostility that many Palestinians continue to feel toward Israel despite 20 years of a peace process, and billions of dollars of Western aid. This hostility is the direct result of years of anti-Israel and anti-Western incitement in the Arab and Islamic world. The hostility is directed not only toward Israel, but also its friends -- above all, the United States. Similar outbursts of joy had erupted in many parts of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem immediately after Palestinians heard of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. And this was not the first time that Palestinians had expressed joy over the targeting of Israeli cities. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, Palestinians and some Arab citizens of Israel took to rooftops to cheer Hizbullah's rocket attacks on northern cities in Israel. During the second intifada, many Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, used to take to the streets to sing and dance and hand out candies after hearing about another suicide bombing inside Israel. And when Saddam Hussein fired rockets at Israel in the early 1990's, Palestinians also took to the streets and rooftops, chanting, "O beloved Saddam, strike strike at Tel Aviv!"... In today's world of the Palestinians, anyone who talks about peace with Israel is a traitor and a collaborator; but anyone who calls for the destruction of Israel and fires rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is a hero."

220 minors caught on cybersoliciting - "The National Police Agency reported Thursday that police gave correctional guidance nationwide to a total of 220 minors younger than 18 who tried to provide sex for money or sell their used underwear online from January to June this year... Since more and more minors are attempting to find men willing to pay for sex through the Internet, the NPA reasoned that sexual crimes against minors could not be prevented using their conventional approach of giving guidance to minors found soliciting in busy commercial areas."

Facebook Removes Developer of Elven Blood from the Platform - Inside Facebook - "There are no confirmed reasons as to why the applications have been taken down. However, other application developers have previously complained about Facebook Platform terms of service breaches, like cross-promotion of applications through notifications. Prior to the application’s removal “Elven Blood” had around 240,000 monthly active users according to AppData"
And... now it's on iOS, with a shitty way to invite friends (and the same requirements to have friends to progress)

Iraq Crisis: Kurds Push to Take Mosul Dam as U.S. Gains Controversial Guerrilla Ally - WSJ - "Syrian commanders say the security and quality of life is improving as their guerrilla forces expand rapidly, propelled by thousands of young volunteers. Recruitment is boosted by the deployment of women soldiers on the front line, often in all-female units. "The jihadists don't like fighting women, because if they're killed by a female, they think they won't go to heaven," said one female fighter."

Scientists explain their processes with a little too much honesty [17 pictures] | 22 Words - "We did not make the corrections suggested by reviewer 1 because we think reviewer 1 is a f***ing idiot #overlyhonestmethods"

Religion and intergroup conflict: findings from the Global Group Relations Project. - "When religion was infused in group life, groups were especially prejudiced against those groups that held incompatible values, and they were likely to discriminate against such groups. Moreover, whereas disadvantaged groups with low levels of religious infusion typically avoided directing aggression against their resource-rich and powerful counterparts, disadvantaged groups with high levels of religious infusion directed significant aggression against them-despite the significant tangible costs to the disadvantaged groups potentially posed by enacting such aggression. This research suggests mechanisms through which religion may increase intergroup conflict and introduces an innovative method for performing nuanced, cross-societal research. "
This is a good counter to those who claim that ostensibly religious conflicts have nothing to do with religion, and that religion doesn't make people do bad things

The science behind Isis savagery - "Revenge, which is a strong value in Arab culture, may play a part in perpetuating the savagery. Of course vengeful retaliation for savagery begets more savagery in a never-ending cycle. But more, while revenge is a powerful motivator, it is also a deceiver, because the evidence is that taking revenge on someone, far from quelling the distress and anger which drives it, actually perpetuates and magnifies it"