Links - 4th November 2015

Keeping Your Appearance Natural Is More Attractive, New Study Finds, Plus 5 Other Things Science Says Is Sexy - "When combined with a beautiful body, a sexy walk was actually less appealing than expected. The underlying principle is the age-old idea of "don't try too hard to be sexy" — a pretty woman who purposely tries to adopt a sexier walk may unwittingly make herself seem less attractive in the process... A 2014 study examined the attractiveness of different kinds of creativity, and found that both men and women were most attracted to "ornamental/aesthetic creativity" — so if you're a musician, poet, or photographer, chances are that people will find you sexy because of your openness to new experiences... If a high-heel-wearing woman drops something in the street, she's 50 percent more likely to have a man help her retrieve it than her flats-wearing counterpart"

Would Chinese-style education work on British kids? - "For the BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, an experiment was carried out at the Bohunt School in Liphook. Fifty children in year nine had to live under a completely different regime - one run by Chinese teachers. For four weeks, they wore a special uniform and started the school day at 07:00. Once a week there was a pledge to the flag. Lessons were focused on note-taking and repetition. Group exercise was undertaken. The pupils had to clean their own classrooms. There were two meal breaks in a 12-hour day... Joe was carrying a heavy bag on his other side, but he didn't request us to help. Joe's mother did not offer to help him carry the bag, nor did Joe ask for help. Even when Joe's brother tried to help him carry his bag, Joe refused. I wonder if this is the result of the British education, that trains the children to become independent. This makes me think a lot."

Love changes: Divorce and annulment reforms under Pope Francis - "A study published in the Chicago Tribune in 2012 concluded that about 6 percent of those who got divorced married each other again. Thousands of people decide to remarry the spouses they divorced, months, years and even decades later. Michele Davis, the founder of the Divorce Busting Center in Colorado, says the number of remarriages to an ex is about 10 percent... Robert Anderson, a London police officer, theologian and writer during the late 1800’s:
“In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce. The trick is to find and continue to find grounds for marriage.”"

Little boy lost finds his mother using Google Earth

BBC Blogs - Arena Gazette - Notes from the not so former Iron Curtain or Echoes of Eric Hobsbawm - "Eric Hobsbawm told me: "In Europe, the money flows from east to west the people flow from east to west"."

Sorry, Apple. Turns Out Designers Don't Use iPads - "64 percent of designers don’t brainstorm with software. They do it with pen and paper."

Google Mistakenly Tags Black People as ‘Gorillas,’ Showing Limits of Algorithms - Digits - WSJ

Middle school boy arrested for assault after kissing girl on a dare
In Singapore this could be the use of criminal force with the intent to outrage modesty

Christians Walk On Water, Muslim Kids Sink: Charlie Hebdo Mocks Death Of Aylan Kurdi
Comments: "personally speaking, I think the image is funny. It's very neatly skewering a centre-left European vision of itself proudly marching with candlelit vigils (The strapline) and #Ayan placards, while remaining predominantly blind to the American (McDonalds) neocolonial roots of the conflict that put that kid in the water (IMHO more than you could say ISIS did, or people smugglers did, or zealous EU border patrols did). There's a war in Syria. Yanks are bombing ISIS. Russians are arming & supplying Assad. It's all so close to our doorstep that dead kids wash up on the beach. That is the point being made here, and it's a point worth making.
#jesuistoujourscharile"
"Getting angry at charlie hebdo is like getting angry at the onion or south park. It is Satire. It makes no sense that the author states he doesnt understand the cartoons, but immediately assumes the worst? Why?... why would you comment on something you don't understand?"
"What does it say about Australian culture if New matilda cannot decipher what is meant here!!!! I am worried."
"There was a famous literary work by the satirist Jonathan Swift, which suggested that poverty could be solved if the children of the poor were slaughtered and eaten as food. The satire prompted incredible outrage in its day but was also then, and still is, recognized as satire of the highest order, signifying exactly the opposite of what it superficially seems to say."

Parotta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "A parotta, porotta or barotta is a layered flat bread of Sri Lanka and Kerala and some parts of Southern India, notably in Tamil Nadu made from maida flour. The origin lies in the greater Punjab region comprising parts of modern-day North India and Pakistan ( see Paratha). Parottas are usually available as street food and in restaurants across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka. At some places it is also served at weddings, religious festivals and feasts. It is prepared by kneading maida, egg (in some recipes), oil or ghee and water. The dough is beaten into thin layers and later forming a round spiralled into a ball using these thin layers. The ball is rolled flat and roasted"
Parotta sounds a lot like Prata

Sarcastic Much? Intelligence, Wit, And Creativity All Linked To Sarcasm, Study Suggests - "those who gave and received sarcastic comments were three times more creative than the control group because the sarcasm forced their brains to think abstractly, boosting creativity... researchers found that noise can be an untapped source of creativity, providing a distraction for the brain to focus on a particular task. In addition, alcohol is believed to make you more creative because it makes you less focused and frees the brain from the thoughts that occupy it — a more relaxed brain is one that is better able to think creatively. In this study, it seems the sarcastic comments primed participants to think abstractly, which in turn stimulated their creativity."

A Magic Number? - "Imagine how useful it would be if someone calculated the minimum population needed to preserve each threatened organism on Earth, especially in this age of accelerated extinctions. A group of Australian researchers say they have nailed the best figure achievable with the available data: 5,000 adults. That’s right, that many, for mammals, amphibians, insects, plants and the rest. Their goal wasn’t a target for temporary survival. Instead they set the bar much higher, aiming for a census that would allow a species to pursue a standard evolutionary lifespan, which can vary from one to 10 million years. That sort of longevity requires abundance sufficient for a species to thrive despite significant obstacles, including random variation in sex ratios or birth and death rates, natural catastrophes and habitat decline. It also requires enough genetic variation to allow adequate amounts of beneficial mutations to emerge and spread within a populace."

Man sues neighbour he had paid to impregnate his wife and failed after 72 different ‘attempts’ - "A 29 year old German man Demetrius Soupolos is suing his neighbour 34 year old Frank Maus for breach of contract after the latter failed to impregnate his wife in 72 different attempts to do so. Soupolos had hired Maus to impregnate his former beauty queen wife Traute as he was sterile and Traute wanted a baby badly. He thought Maus would be a good choice as he resembled him and is a father of two... When Traute did not get pregnant after six months, Soupolos insisted Maus go for a medical examination which revealed he was sterile as well. Mau’s wife was then forced to confess Maus was not the real father of her two kids. In his defence, Maus said he did not ‘guarantee’ conception, but only that he would give a ‘honest’ shot at it."

Mormon church confirms its members are allowed to drink coke and pepsi.. but tea is still banned

Are We Electing Estate Managers or MPs? - "Are we having elections to vote in estate managers? If the duty of your MP is to run your estate, is their a need for MPs in the first place? Why do we have a Ministry of Environment, National Development and stat boards like Parks and Trees and URA? Why were Town Councils introduced? Do you elect a Govt to 'push the buck?' TCs were not introduced for wholesome wonderful idea to make life in your estates better. That would be the secondary effect - TCs were basically introduced to give the PAP another layer of protection just like the GRCs scheme (where it's supposed to be about electing minorities). GRCs - let's not beat about the bush - is primarily to give unknown or weak PAP candidates a back door entry in to Parliament. Former PM Goh Chok Tong admitted to this... you can bet your bottom dollar, that police reports would have been lodged and either the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) or CPIB would be called in. There is a concerted effort by PAP fanboys and apologists on social media to paint the whole affair as something sinister. Some have even suggested that WP members and their MPs are lining their own pockets despite no evidence to proof that... The TCs are just a smokescreen to get voters to focus on the smaller issues and forget the wider national issues"

New study links good looks and high IQ

Why India Is A Hotbed Of Antibiotic Resistance And Sweden Is Not - "A new report by the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy shows that antibiotic overuse and resistant bacteria are alarming global problems, even in developing nations like India, Kenya and Vietnam... Some countries, like Denmark and Sweden, stand out with quite low rates of antibiotic use and resistance — hovering near zero. These countries educate their citizens about the dangers of antibiotic overuse. So it has become unheard of for a Swede or a Dane to go into a doctor's office and demand treatment with an antibiotic. "It's a question of social norms," says Laxminarayan."
"I have long pointed out that many Asian countries are guilty of abusing Antibiotics, to which I was immediately called a racist. Even though I was talking about China and Thailand, but I guess South Asian patients are sensitive."

Cosmetic Ads' Science Claims Lack Foundation - "“Clinically Proven.” “Breakthrough Technology.” “Ten Years of Genetic Research.” These are phrases you might expect to find in the pages of Scientific American. But these descriptions also show up in commercials and print ads for cosmetics... Researchers looked at nearly 300 ads in magazines such as Vogue. They analyzed claims in the ads and ranked them on a scale ranging from acceptable to outright lie. And they found that just 18 percent of the boasts that the researchers looked at were true. 23 percent were outright lies. And 42 percent were too vague to even classify"

Terse Titles Cited - "papers with terser titles top the citation count. Even when the researchers took into account the journal in which the publication appeared—some have stricter restrictions on title length than do others—the findings held true."