Links - 1st December 2014

Harvard University offers students ‘Anal Sex 101’ class

Raw chocolate, the new hot favourite in the world of gourmet! - "Whatever the claims made for raw chocolate, French nutrition consultant Laurent Chevallier, warned against relying on it as a source of nutrients. "The nutritional benefits of chocolate are only worth anything in very large quantities," he said adding that from a health point of view levels of antioxidants in chocolate were "infinitesimal". "Chocolate does not have nutritional value when you consume it in reasonable quantities and if you eat it in unreasonable quantities you will get fat," he said."

Don't use the word "cishet". - the bicker - "Those oppressed people with their shothand references to others must be stopped!!!! Stop slapping me and other straight cisgender people in the face by calling us straight and cisgender!"
So it's okay to call normal people "cishet" but "tranny" is hate speech. Right.

New Jersey Professor's 'Game of Thrones' Punishment Reversed - "Drancis Schmidt, who teaches art and animation at Bergen County Community College, said he was suspended for 11 days after posting a photo in January of his 7-year-old daughter wearing a T-shirt with a quote from the graphic HBO show that read: "I will take what is mine with fire and blood... Schmidt said that school officials questioned whether the reference was meant as a threat against a dean"

Do Lions and Tigers Like Catnip? - "Do lions and tigers purr? (Answer: Sort of. Your neighborhood tabby purrs while inhaling and exhaling; big cats purr only when they breathe out)... The folks at Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit in Florida, decided to test whether their guests liked catnip as much as a household cat. They filled bags full of the stuff and threw them in with the animals. As you can see from the video, lions and tigers do like catnip."

Jokowi forgives online troll - "President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has forgiven Muhammad Arsyad, a satay vendor who was detained by the police for allegedly defaming him online.
By not suing him, he is perpetuating the lie!!!

Beyonce labeled as 'anti-feminist' and 'terrorist' by scholar bell hooks - "Beyonce has been labeled as "anti-feminist" and a "terrorist" on young girls by scholar bell hooks during a recent New School panel discussion about "liberating the black female body""

Policeman sues his police force for racial discrimination after 'travelllers' comments - "A policeman is suing his bosses after colleagues allegedly offended him by referring to Romany people as 'travellers'... James Arnold, the TVP representative at the tribunal compared the case with a Scottish person being offended by the word 'gingers.'"

Gypsies, Travellers and ‘White racism’ in secondary schools in England - "This article examines the concept of ‘White racism’ in relation to the experiences of Gypsy and Traveller groups in England"
I thought white people can't suffer from racism

Unfair discrimination of Malays in National Service - "I served as a Signaller in 35 SCE, HQ Company, from 2005 to 2006. The fact remains that the Signal Formation is distinct in its exclusion of Malays, as are certain other units, such as 39 SCE, CBRE Defence Group, the Armour Formation, Reconnaissance units and Military Intelligence amongst others. This is anecdotal evidence and also based on personal experience and observation within the institution – as most Singaporean men can attest to. The token Malays are a consolation, an exercise in Public Relations. Only a fool would think otherwise"
I knew a Malay in Armour, but he had declared that he wasn't Muslim. So...

S’pore police & SCDF use real Indian foreign workers for fake riot demonstration
If you're staging a mock riot, the only way not to offend people is to hire Upper-Middle Class/Upper Class Chinese men as rioters. But they're expensive so that wastes taxpayers' money
How?
Maybe we should use robots so no one will get offended. But then there will be robot rights advocates too

IB JASON CHUA APOLOGISED AFTER VICTIM MADE POLICE REPORT ON DEFAMATORY POSTING ON FB - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Hiding Black Interracial Crimes - Walter E. Williams - "If you're like I am, you've heard scores of media reports about the 2006 Duke University rape case, in which three white lacrosse players were falsely accused of raping a black stripper at a wild party at the home of one of the team members. These guys, convicted by the news media and Duke faculty, were later found innocent. It turned out that Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was running for re-election. In seeking the black vote, he concealed DNA evidence that would have exonerated the lacrosse players... According to the 2004 FBI National Crime Victimization Survey, in most instances of interracial crimes, the victim is white and the perpetrator is black. In the case of interracial murder for 2004, where the race of victim and perpetrator is known, more than twice as many whites were murdered by a black than cases of a white murdering a black. The failure of civil rights leaders, people like Jackson and Sharpton, as well as politicians to vocally condemn black-on-white crime -- and the relative silence of the news media in reporting it -- is not simply a matter of double standards. It's dangerous, for it contributes to a pile of racial kindling awaiting a racial arsonist to set it ablaze. I can't think of better recruitment gifts for America's racists, either white or black"

Viral Catcall Video (October 2014): What percent of men that the woman walked by made cat calls? - Quora - "well over 99% of men DID NOT catcall her. Think about that. That means that there a hard core of less than 1% of men are responsible for all of the catcalling. That small percentage is basically even less than the percentage of men that have been incarcerated and released. Do we expect ex-felons to have manners?"
"By Italian standards nobody... They hire a model and they pick an area in New York with working-class guys and after walking 30 miles the most they can come up with are some mild pleasantries? Obviously the experiment failed because the kind of person who might come out with crude cat-calls saw the photographer and saw it as a set-up. The guys who made comments were more like those auditioning for the role of extras in a reality movie."

Annie Wang's answer to Viral Catcall Video (October 2014): Do women generally agree that catcalling in cities is a problem – consistent with what the viral catcall video shows? - Quora - "Aside from being a breathtaking work of elitism, that video was an self-indulgent piece of work by women who should put their brain power and effort into areas of feminism that still need help. Protecting our precious young females from the vicious whistles and hoots of construction workers is not one of them. Living in an urban environment means living with other people. Other people, depending on their culture, background or personality, have different ways to communicating. For the young woman in the video, catcalling is depicted as some kind of verbal assault. For many of the young men in the video, there's nothing behind the catcalling besides conviviality expressed in a way that is perhaps not the norm for upper middle class white people. Catcalling is sometimes just out of sheer boredom. I was catcalled left and right in Rome. Honestly, it was kind of fun... to go through the world as an oversensitive woman is a terrible experience. To foster that mindset is not something I understand. That's what this campaign is encouraging: oversensitivity. I can see why this is a cause white upper middle class women have really relished getting behind. You get to point your finger at largely lower middle class blue collar workers whose behavior make you feel uncomfortable... of course this world needs to be reshaped in a way that accommodates the most vocal, those most capable of launching hashtag campaigns on Twitter. This whole "movement" is rooted in downright classism. Clearly, there is an expectation that other people should conform to what nice white girls want. This is a "movement" that frowns on a plurality of communication, of behavior"
Comment: "Your answer is consistent with what I've heard from many of the women in my life, who come from pretty diverse backgrounds and political perspectives"

Isaac Gaetz's answer to Viral Catcall Video (October 2014): Do women generally agree that catcalling in cities is a problem – consistent with what the viral catcall video shows? - Quora - "Here is one unscientific poll of men and women, that suggests (at the time of writing)
27% of voters believe it is always bad,
7% feel it is always ok,
66% of people feel it is a more nuanced topic and highly dependent on what is specifically said, how it is said, when it is said, etc...
[My wife] pointed out that she has been cat called and has positive and negative opinions of various occurrences of this*. She also pointed out that she has seen it successfully pick up women. In fact, she's even seen versions of the guy following the girl talking to her for several minutes eventually work. After several blocks, the women she observed stop and they chatted each other up. She's not saying any of these worked every time, but they didn't always fail either."

Brian Fey's answer to Why is catcalling more popular in Latin countries/cultures? - Quora - "In traditional Latin culture there appears to be more social permission to talk to someone you don't know, than in, for example, traditional England. Compare English and Spanish culture. Where I live now in rural Mexico, it is common for the men in the small town of 400 people to say things to the women passing by. There is no threat, and everyone knows everyone. I haven't talked with the young women about it, but I am guessing that a small town context, it isn't considered a problem. There is quite a bit of gender separation and I think this type of catcalling is a way to bridge the gap... The next time I experienced "catcalling" was while photographing the Nicaraguan civil war in 1986. Women would make a hiss noise at me on the street apparently to indicate their attraction. I didn't respond because I was young, shy, and oblivious, and my Spanish was terrible"

Alex From Target: The Other Side of Fame - NYTimes.com - "Mr. Fooks said that in addition to death threats, people have leaked the family’s personal information online, including Social Security numbers, bank accounts and phone records. The family, worried for the safety of Alex and his five siblings, has been in contact with the local police. Alex’s parents have met with his school’s principal and security officers, as well as Target managers, to put together security plans in case of an emergency."
The fact that #alexfromtarget gets death threats shows that most of them come from idiots and don't mean anything