Links - 1st May 2016

Some Hong Kong women would rather die alone than date Hong Kong men - "In recent years, the fearful message has spread: Hong Kong is running out of men! So ladies, if you don’t want to end up as an old maid and die alone, you must hurry and “get real.” Don’t be picky and only go after men who have a “good package.” Cure your “princess syndrome” and stop being a spoiled brat. Don’t become one of those gold-digging, delusional Kong nui (a derogatory term for Hong Kong women) or a successful career woman. This stigma toward single women has become the central narrative of Hong Kong’s dating culture. The message to women is clear: Lower your expectations, even though you might deserve better... Hong Kong women have long been accused of being materialistic and eyeing money, but there is a reason for it. According to Fan Lai, a professional counselor who deals with relationship problems and family issues, few Hong Kong women are looking to marry a scion of a property tycoon. But, she added, many do aim for a man with a monthly income somewhere between HK$80,000 and HK$100,000 (roughly US$10,300 to US$12,900). That’s because they want a man who is financially independent and won’t turn around asking them for money or take advantage of them. “They are women who have a great education, a successful career, and a pretty face and just don’t want to settle for less,” Lai said... “Kong men are not gentlemen at all,” said Lung. “If you go on a date, you pick up the girl, open the door for her, pick up the bill, and send her home. That’s very basic. And yet I’ve never seen a Kong man who has done it. But Western men do. I’m an international man eater, so I aim at a global market.” Twenty-year-old university student Diana Lam described Kong men at her age as “toxic”... Kong men may also have little to offer in the bedroom. According to a 2014 survey released by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, nearly 60% of the 2,100 women aged between 21 and 40 reported at least one sexual problem that lasted over three months to one year—which could be attributed to a partners’ lack of expertise. Nearly 32% said they had no desire. A similar percentage said they had problems getting aroused. Some 40% said they fail to attain orgasm."
No wonder Hong Kong men go for foreign women

George Osborne's national living wage is a 'con job', says Tim Farron - "George Osborne’s ‘national living wage’ is a “con job” that will leave people at least £8,700 worse off by 2020 than they would have been under the ‘real’ living wage, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has claimed. Mr Farron said that research carried out by his party meant the living wage, as defined by the Government, was “utter fantasy”."

Chinese father hires virtual hitman to 'kill' son in online games - so he will get a job - "in his 25 years experience he had come across players who dedicated up to 14 hours a day gaming. But he said it only has a detrimental affect if it impacts on their work or family life."

Wi-Fi won't travel through your house? It might be the wire in the walls - "Plaster-and-lath walls - specifically when the lath (or base structure) of the wall is chicken wire or similar corrugated wire, to which the plaster is added to create the wall. Such walls are sometimes internal, often external, but always death to Wi-Fi signals because the wire acts as a Faraday cage, killing the signal."

Woman disguised as man 'betrayed victim's trust' - ""I didn't suspect at all. When Zunika was menstruating, she told me it was because she had a stomach tumour. She was also taking a lot of hormone pills but she told me those were to control the growth of her beard," she said... Zunika's two "wives" also found out her real gender. Till then, Zunika, who had a fake Indonesian passport under the identity of a man, had told them that they must not touch or see her private parts - for superstitious reasons - while performing sex acts."

One Way of Being An Independent Woman You Should Avoid With Guys - "I remember going out on a date with a girl who at first appeared soft and kind. When we walked into a bar, I said “Let’s sit there”, to which she responded “No, let’s seat on the other side”. I followed her without assuming based on just one instance that she was that kind who would do the opposite just for the sake of doing the opposite. However, after a few more episodes of that behavior on the same date, I had to ask her whether she was refusing to do what I asked on purpose. She proudly admitted that she was on purpose acting that way, because “no one can order her around” and because I was not her dad. Considering that this kind of attitude is one personal pet peeve of mine, I cut the date short a few minutes later. I have not done my research yet, but I am pretty sure that many other guys will find that kind of “independent woman” attitude a major red flag, and a sure sign of ultra-feminism to stay away from. When your actions are governed by the desire to prove that you are free and independent, rather than by the actual freedom itself, that’s exactly the point where you show very clearly that you are not at all free or independent. A truly free and independent woman does not need to prove anything to anyone, just like a truly confident guy doesn’t have to prove anything to any woman he is dealing with."

Toilet fees flushed: New bill blocks airplane lavatory charge - "A new bill has been introduced in Congress that hopes to prohibit airlines from charging passengers to use the on-flight toilet. Though the facility is taken for granted by many, it is actually not guaranteed by law... Such charges were first considered by European low fares airline Ryanair in 2009 when the idea was floated that passengers be charged £1 ($1.51) to use the toilet on flights of less than one hour duration"

Skinny jeans and other hidden health risks in your wardrobe - BBC Newsbeat - "Skinny jeans have been given a health warning after a 35-year-old woman had to be cut out of a pair because her calves "ballooned in size"... A study of zip injuries over eight years showed that among adult men, zips were the most frequent cause of penis injuries... One small study suggested that men who wear ties too tightly could be at a greater risk of Glaucoma. It's thought this is because they are restricting blood flow to the brain. Tight ties can also restrict movement, causing tension in the muscles of the back according to a study of workers in a South Korean Journal... Aside from the danger of wearing earrings while playing sport (they can catch and cause your earlobes to tear) wearing heavy earrings can cause ear lobes to sag over time... G-string underwear can damage the skin and cause infections. If you wear pants that are too tight or that are badly-stitched the friction can cause genital irritation and lead to infections."

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Mary Magdalene - "In the order of Christian sanctity, a forgiven sinner, especially a spectacular sinner, is a more fascinating figure than somebody who's been good all the time. One of the energies that drives the cult of Mary Magdalene in history is her contrast and her similarity to the Virgin Mary. If you had to choose the two female figures who are closest to Jesus, it's those two, and in Western tradition, the imaginative power of the idea that someboy who had been a sexual sinner could get pretty well as close to Jesus as someone who was virginal: that's a very powerful notion imaginatively...
[On the Gospel of Philip] It's a (sic) early 2nd century text that is coming from an oral tradition. And still very connected wit the Church in Palestine in fact, and is conscious of different ideas and is countering different iedas and one of these different ideas is that Mary Magdalene should be marginalised and in this text, she is the closest person to Jesus and that the other, the male disciplines feel they don't have that special relationship. The kissing... is not necessarily as we would configure it as some sort of sexual or marital kiss in terms of the Gospel of Philip it is about intimacy, a spiritual intimacy with Christ. And... that is also quite historically accurate because we know when Jesus was betrayed he was betrayed with a kiss from his close disciple Judas and no one is suggesting that Judas and Jesus had an intimate relationship. It just indicates that among his close followers, they had a very touchy-feely, kissy kind of relationship. In fact when in the story of the Repentent Sinner, Jesus says to the Pharisee: 'Well, you didn't kiss me when I came into my house, but look at her: she's kissing me'. So he was encouraging people to kiss... I don't think the New Testament attempts to marginalise Mary. When Mary goes to the disciples and tells them that Jesus is written (sic), they don't believe her. And the Evangelist tells us that. He's not, he believes her, but the disciples don't. One doesn't need the sort of Dan Brown world to have an image of genuine, I think, historical image of this woman who had an extraordinary closeness to Jesus"

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Eleanor of Aquitaine - "Like all marriages it was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. So they were closely related to one another... all aristocratic marriages at this time were in theory annulable because it was very difficult to find marriage partners who weren't in some way related to one another... She is really at this stage, she's sort of a walking title deed. She is the jackpot that they're all after. They want these rich lands of Southern France and Henry marries her a matter of weeks of her divorce from Louis"

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Behavioural Ecology - "Every biologist has got a certain sense of shame that they can't do maths and game theory was a way of getting round that... HIV, the AIDS virus... that's foraging for prey. We're the prey. So it has to... alter its behavior insofar as viruses behave, to ensure that it has a chance to move on to the next prey once it's depleted the resources of the first prey. Now, since the epidemic began, when there was for a time confined to homosexuals, there was of course a lot of promiscuity, people weren't aware of this and the virus was extremely lethal. In the last 5-10 years, it's gotten much less lethal, because it - we, because people are aware of the dangers, people are much more careful about their behavior. So the virus can't afford just to take the maximum out of its first victim in the assurance that it's going to get another one. It has to be kinder to its victims. So here we see exactly that analogy of hunting behavior in birds seen in a medical context. So it is actually quite a powerful way of thinking... The idea that everything is driven by simple kinship is wrong. But like everything in biology, unlike in physics, it's not pure, it's not simple"

Suicide Bomber Funeral Ends In Catastrophic Explosion As Explosive Belt Detonates [Graphic Video] - "The catastrophic detonation happened in the midst of a large crowd of his supporters, killing and maiming multiple individuals in the process. The cheers of the crowd quickly changed to chants of “Allahu Akbar” as disoriented people wandered about in the devastation, searching for friends and relatives. The entire video was captured on a low resolution video and contains graphic images resulting from the devastation. According to Live Leak, the suicide bomber was shot by Israeli forces and died from his wounds. His Muslim brothers took his body and prepared it for a funeral procession where hundreds of his supporters gathered to lay his body to rest. Unknown to the supporters, the individuals that prepared his body for the funeral forgot to remove his suicide belt. As the body was carried toward his final resting place, the belt exploded, killing multiple individuals and harming many more."

A slur is a knife - You don’t get to decide how sharp it is but the person at its tip - "somewhere along the way, people were using these terms with an intention to hurt. How a word was said with a knowing sneer or spat out with contempt... There’s a simple rule actually. If someone who is not from your community thinks that a word is a slur, then stop using it, no matter if some other person from that community claims otherwise. Ask yourself why it is necessary for you to use such a tarnished and contentious word when other words with much less baggage are available. A slur is a knife—if you’re the one holding the handle, you don’t get to decide how sharp it is—this is the sole and sovereign right of the person at its tip."
Looks like we can't call homosexual men gay because at some point in history that word was a slur, and that as long as one person from a community says a word is a slur, no one can use it; this is even more powerful than the veto one EU nation can use to block something the other 26 want done - one person in a community of one billion has the power to censor everyone else

The Impact of Divorce Laws on Marriage - "after the adoption of unilateral divorce, marriage rates declined significantly and permanently in adopting states. This decline accounts for half of the initial gap in marriage rates between adopting and non-adopting states. The effect of unilateral divorce law is greatest for marriage rates amongst younger age cohorts, those marrying for the first time, and whites. The duration of marriages that take place under unilateral divorce is also found to be significantly greater than those that occur under mutual consent. Taken together the results suggest unilateral divorce law reduces incentives to marry, but those couples that do marry are better matched than under mutual consent. This is argued to be consistent with a model of search in marriage markets, where individuals learn the true gains of marriage over divorce before and during marriage"
People respond to incentives

The dating gap: why the odds are stacked against female graduates - "there is still a stigma, says Genevieve Zawada, who runs a matchmaking service, particularly for women over 40. She says a potential partner’s education level is “usually the first thing any woman specifies. I think people think that if someone is not educated to the same standards they are, they won’t have anything in common, which is absolute nonsense. People think, ‘I’ve dedicated my life to my career and I’m not going to settle for anything less than I am’. Funnily enough, men hardly ever discuss it.”"

Bhutan PM casts doubts over Gross National Happiness - "The concept is overused and masks problems with corruption and low standards of living... recently some critics have taken to referring to GNH as "Government Needs Help"."

Daisy Ridley Just Nailed A Problem With #NoFilter #NoMakeup - "As a person scampering around in the world, seeing all these beautiful people with #NoMakeup can be quite daunting. In fact, all these “filtered, most carefully chosen and cleverly edited moments of their lives,” can make us all—even beautiful celebs such as Ridley—scared to share the reality with the Internet. Thank her for having the guts to raise her hand and admit that it happens to her."
Be the change you want to see in the world. Post lots of pictures of yourself looking awful

Former surgeon general calls for marijuana legalization - "Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders told CNN Sunday she supports legalizing marijuana... "We have the highest number of people in the world being criminalized, many for non-violent crimes related to marijuana""

You may hate Donald Trump. But do you want Facebook to rig the election against him?

Face Swapping With Ancient Statues Makes Museums Fun Again

Use This Website to Make Obama Say Anything You Want - "Have you ever wondered how those clever YouTubers get Obama to sing and rap entire songs? They usually spend countless hours carefully splicing together individual words taken from footage of the president, but you can now do the same thing in just seconds with a new website called Talk Obama To Me."