Links - 29th October 2015

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, The Devil's Building Site - "Women, Farrah (sp?) says, now outnumber men in their pursuit of graduate degrees. Something that creasted a societal problem. Most Iranian women won't dream of dating men who aren't their intellectual equal."
Equality in the form of equal rights can cause social problems. Sometimes there is a tradeoff between social welfare and rights

London's Big Ben has chimed six seconds fast over the past fortnight

UK teen using Snapchat put on police database after sending naked picture to girl - "Boy, 14, is 'branded a paedophile' by police for texting naked selfie to schoolgirl: Mother's fury as son is put on sex crime database for 100 years... ‘If he was 18 he would have been seen as a victim in the eyes of the law and would have been able to take some action towards the girl who humiliated him’... The schoolboy’s actions will remain on file for a century because police can decide who they prosecute but not what they record, legal experts say. He committed a crime by creating and distributing an indecent image of a child. It does not matter that he was the subject and took the image himself. The girl who circulated the image is not being investigated even though her actions could have fallen under ‘revenge pornography’ laws if she had been an adult. Although police dropped the inquiry, once alerted to the crime they were obliged to record it under rigid procedures brought in following the Soham murders in 2002... The case highlights how thousands of youngsters could be criminalised by exchanging explicit selfies. One study estimated that more than four in ten British girls aged 13 to 17 had sent a pornographic photograph of themselves"

Ex-Straits Times editor reveals gov’t meddling in tell-all book - "Cheong Yip Seng, the former editor-in-chief of the The Straits Times (ST), has bucked this trend with his memoir, OB Markers: My Straits Times Story. ("Out of bounds" markers often refer to the line between which issues are 'sensitive' and which are not.) It is a compelling story that is part personal, part political and part a survival guide to Singapore journalism. Cheong's tales are not new; they have been whispered about at the watercooler and written with great relish in a book called Media Enthralled by political refugee Francis Seow. But this is the first time a Singapore editor has gone to print with an insider's take on how the republic's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew systematically controlled the press with draconian laws and protected it with anti-competition barriers... "I will break your neck," Cheong describes Lee as telling him when the rookie reporter tried to make a case for not imposing an embargo on a speech the Prime Minister had made... One of the bravest episodes was when Peter Lim, Cheong's predecessor, resisted Lee's pressure to print the full O level results of Opposition politician Chiam See Tong during the 1984 election. Lee wanted to show to voters that Chiam did not have the academic credentials to be a capable MP. Lim resisted because he felt it would backfire on the ruling party and the newspaper. The author is a smart survivor, too. He had a ring-side view of how his boss, Peter Lim, tried to run the newsroom with some form of independence and paid the price for it by having to resign. "The board told me my deputy was ready to take over'' -- that was the loaded answer Lim gave when historian Mary Turnbull asked him about his 1987 departure in another book on The Straits Times... The Singapore government's intervention in media is legendary. Cheong describes many episodes -- from appointments of editors to shaping coverage of political and foreign events and even to minor stories like stamp-collecting, carpet-buying and MSG - with the pen of a master story teller."

‘I tied every aspect of my life to my sexual identity – it had to change’ - "I also began to ask myself whether I had at some level defined myself, and the LGBT community, as a separate entity from straight people. This concern came to the fore when a straight woman reacted negatively to my (slightly tipsy) observation that she was “sound for a straight girl.” Her frank response however swiftly put me in my place. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for gay pride and equality, but I don’t get why you need to wear your sexual orientation on your sleeve – or label others by theirs.”... By tying every aspect of my life – music, nights out and fashion sense with the G factor, I was essentially just cementing the divide that can at times already exist between the gay and straight community, not to mention feeding into stereotypes – that gay people have some sort of alternative ‘lifestyle’ for one."
Ahh... identity politics

Are Pakistan’s female medical students to be doctors or wives? - "The government body that regulates the medical profession, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), says more than 70% of medical students are women... government figures suggest most of these bright female undergraduate doctors do not actually go on to practise. Only 23% of registered doctors are female... he accepts that some female students are more keen on catching a husband than on pursuing a career. "It's much easier for girls to get married once they are doctors and many girls don't really intend to work as professional doctors," he says. "I know of hundreds of hundreds of female students who have qualified as a doctor or a dentist but they have never touched a patient"... Privately, many doctors - both male and female - tell me that a medical degree is an extremely hot ticket in the marriage market. To confirm this claim, I visit the Aisha Marriage Bureau run by Kamran Ahmed and his wife. Business is so good they are opening their second branch in Islamabad. Mr Ahmed says his best clients are mothers seeking doctor wives for their sons. "In social gatherings, it's very prestigious to introduce your daughter-in-law or wife as a doctor"... the "doctor wife" is more than a trophy: her absence from hospitals has serious implications on the healthcare system of a poor country like Pakistan. The government spends millions of rupees on subsidies per student - yet there is a serious shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas where women prefer to be examined by female doctors... When news of the "quota" on male-female admissions broke in the local media it quickly drew flak and controversy. But the PMDC insists it is the only solution. "It's not a quota. We want 50% of admissions to be for males and 50% for females"... Human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar strongly disagrees. "The wrong here is that women are being discriminated against here for being too smart." Mr Akbar has filed a petition in court challenging the decision to introduce the "quota". He calls it unconstitutional and says the government should encourage women to stay in the profession instead.
This is something like why there used to be a quota in Singapore
When you have a quota favoring women in a male dominated system, it's equality. When you have a quota favoring men in a female dominated system, it's discrimination. Maybe it's only discrimination when women lose out

Man Buns of Disneyland Instagram Account Features Long-Haired Male Parkgoers

The Sound of a Leader: CEOs With Deep Voices Do Better - "New research shows that a deep voice confers benefits in competition for leadership positions in business. A research team from Duke University and the University of California studied the speeches fof the male CEOs of almots 800 public companies. They found that the CEOs with the deeper voices managed larger companies and thus made more money. A decrease of 25% in voice pitch (22.1 Hz) is associated with an increase of $187.000 in annual salary. Moreover, CEOS with deeper voices also enjoy longer tenures... Deeper voiced male politicans have more electoral success. A research team led by Canadian evolutionary psychologist David Feinberg, shows that we prefer political leaders with low voice pitches... individuals with low voice pitches were thought to be more dominant, masculine, and physically formidable. Just like a muscular body, a low voice pitch is an indication of high levels of testosterone."
Maybe this helps to explains the gender gap in politics and business leadership

Londoner Shows Period Shamers the Finger; Completes Marathon Without Tampon - "
Ahh... feminism
The next time I need to pee or shit, I'll just do it in my pants and anyone who objects is trying to "shame" me

The Glass-Floor Problem - The New York Times - "It is a stubborn mathematical fact that the top fifth of the income distribution can accommodate only 20 percent of the population. If we want more poor kids climbing the ladder of relative mobility, we need more rich kids sliding down the chutes. Even the most liberal parents are unlikely to be comfortable with the idea that their own children should fall down the scale in the name of making room for a smarter kid from a poorer home"

SMS messages show employer in S’pore unhappy new employee has taken 2 days MC because of high fever

Early Academic Training Produces Long-Term Harm - "What might account for such dramatic long-term effects of type of preschool attended? One possibility is that the initial school experience sets the stage for later behavior. Those in classrooms where they learned to plan their own activities, to play with others, and to negotiate differences may have developed lifelong patterns of personal responsibility and pro-social behavior that served them well throughout their childhood and early adulthood. Those in classrooms that emphasized academic performance may have developed lifelong patterns aimed at achievement, and getting ahead, which—especially in the context of poverty—could lead to friction with others and even to crime (as a misguided means of getting ahead)."

List of 4 Roman Catholic Popes who died during sex, 1 actually died while being sodomised

Increased escalator breakdowns allegedly due to “Keep Left” courtesy campaign - "“Overhauls themselves are routine. However, the keep left policy has caused an upsurge in overhauls, including escalators that were just overhauled a few years earlier.” “That’s because LTA has planned the direction of the escalator direction based upon passenger loading. Remember, in the city area, morning peak most are moving up out of the stations to go to work while in the evening, most are moving down. This plan was approved by Ong Teng Cheong himself after careful study, back when the government was still honest and competent”... For subways in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the keep left policy works because the escalator rotates direction to even out the wear and tear and also that the escalators are shorter in length."

Good Taste in Times Square? It’s Illegal - Metropolis - WSJ - "The city, it turns out, has a law against tasteful restraint in Times Square. The area is part of the “Special Midtown District” that has its own distinct zoning code. Part of the mission of these regulations is to preserve and protect the “unique combination of building scale, large illuminated signs and entertainment and entertainment-related uses” that are central to Times Square’s history. The idea was to ensure that Times Square never became another drab steel canyon of conservative office towers... What appears totally haphazard to the untrained tourist’s eye is actually planned down to the last square foot, with copious rules about how much of any surface must be covered in signage.

Does 2-In-1 Shampoo Really Work? Cosmetic Chemists Take On The Beauty Myth - "The biggest con to using 2-in-1 shampoos is product build-up. Wilson explained, "Because you are depositing conditioners onto the hair, a downside is that they tend to build up so then your shampoo is now... I hate to say it because it sounds so dramatic... but your 'hair enemy.' If you use it every day, then your hair starts to look dull and weighed down. You'll need a clarifying shampoo to strip it bare and start all over again. So instead of giving your hair new life, it's doing the opposite." "We now know that shampooing everyday is not good or necessary for most hair types. But for those that feel the need to shampoo their hair more often, brands have been developing specialized 2-in-1 products called co-poos (conditioner-shampoos) aka co-washes," said Robinson. "The difference between these 2-in-1 products versus those from the '80s is that these are closer in nature to true conditioners. Whereas the '80s products were closer to true shampoos. For co-poos, the pro is that they can minimize the damage that daily shampooing can cause. The con is that they might be too heavy for oily hair types"... "To say that a 2-in-1 shampoo replaces your need for two products, unless you have healthy hair and deep condition on a regular basis, that's not the case""

2-in-1 Shampoo: Must-Have Convenience Or Damaging Product To Skip? - "many 2-in-1 shampoos are not called 2-in-1s anymore. Lots of shampoos use this technology in products that are labeled “moisturizing”, “hydrating” and “conditioning.” So, if you are concerned about product buildup, look for shampoos that are called “clarifying” or “volumizing” and check the label to make sure the product does not contain Dimethicone."