Links - 25th November 2016

50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists To Point Blame At Fat - "an industry group called the Sugar Research Foundation wanted to "refute" concerns about sugar's possible role in heart disease. The SRF then sponsored research by Harvard scientists that did just that. The result was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967, with no disclosure of the sugar industry funding... for the past five decades, the sugar industry has been attempting to influence the scientific debate over the relative risks of sugar and fat... "the authors applied a different standard" to different studies — looking very critically at research that implicated sugar, and ignoring problems with studies that found dangers in fat."

We need to call American breakfast what it often is: dessert - "companies like Yoplait and Chobani have built yogurt empires in America by saturating their products with sugar. Yoplait recently lowered the sugar in its classic 6-ounce strawberry yogurt from 26 grams to 18 grams (4.5 teaspoons), but that's still more than the 15 grams you’ll get in a standard brownie. And if you believe granola is any healthier, think again."

The secret to the immortality of McDonald’s food - "preservatives alone may not be responsible for the fungus-resisting powers of a Happy Meal. Marion Nestle, chairwoman of New York University’s food studies program, told us over e-mail that McDonald’s would have to use “really a lot of” sodium propionate to prevent bacterial or mold growth. McDonald’s French fries, for example, which have repeatedly proven their hardiness to spoilage, contain citric acid as a preservative. But a bigger factor might be the fat content of the fries. About 50 percent of the total 250 calories contained in a small order of fries come from fat. “Anything that is high in fat will be low in moisture,” says Barry Swanson, a professor at the Washington State University department of food science. And low moisture means less room for mold to grow. They’re crisper and thinner than regular fries, which means that they’re exposed to greater heat per surface area, killing pathogens and reducing water content. McDonald’s fries are also coated in a nice, thick layer of salt, something we’ve been using as a natural preservative for the last 2,500 years... A regular McDonald’s sesame-seed bun contains calcium propionate and sodium propionate — both preservatives. But the list of ingredients — down to the preservatives — is actually no different from what you’d find on the packaging of your average loaf of supermarket white bread... Ultimately, says O’Keefe, the McDonald’s haters have gotten their science wrong... A Happy Meal manages to stay unspoiled because it is fatty, salty and practically empty of nutrients — which, really, are all good reasons to avoid it anyway."

Don’t exempt non-Muslims from hudud, Muslim scholars suggest - "Non-Muslims should not be exempted from severe hudud punishments if the controversial Islamic penal law is implemented in Malaysia, religious scholars suggested in a forum discussing the issue today. According to the panellists, exempting non-Muslims from punishments prescribed for Muslims would create an unjust system, which would disturb the peace, ultimately defeating the original purpose of hudud itself... Mushaddad claimed that if criminals were given a choice, even a Muslim criminal would profess to be a non-Muslim to escape hudud punishments. In 1993, the PAS state government passed the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment (II), allowing it to impose the strict Islamic penal code in the state. But the laws have not been implemented. The hudud punishments in Kelantan’s enactment are exclusive to Muslims, and the state’s deputy mentri besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah defended the disparity of punishments between Muslims and non-Muslims. “That is fair … because a Muslim has chosen his faith. When he chose Islam, he chose the entirety of Islamic teaching, including its laws,” said Mohd Amar. Although some Muslims in Malaysia chose to convert in, most of the adherents were born into the religion."

Hudud should apply to all Malaysians, Jakim paper suggests - "“It is wrong to think that non-Muslims cannot be [subjected] to Shariah-based laws. How can citizens of a country that exalts Islam as religion of the state assume that it is their human rights to not be placed under the influence of Shariah laws?” said the proposal. “This kind of thinking is the same as those who reject the nobility of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the laws,” it added, referring to two of the five Rukunegara, the Malaysian National Principles. The report also cited a Federal Court ruling in 2006 declaring moral policing laws as valid to be enforced in Malaysia... other hudud and qisas crimes such as theft, highway robbery, murder and causing physical harm were not included as the crimes are already covered under the Penal Code. Heavier punishments for the latter crimes cannot yet be implemented as Malaysia is currently under local and international scrutiny for its human rights record, it said."

Israel, Singapore more Islamic than Malaysia, study suggests - "Malaysia is behind Israel and Singapore in a ranking measuring the “Islamicity” of countries in which no Muslim country managed to break into the top 25 of the ladder. But the Southeast Asian nation is also the best-ranked among Muslim countries in the world, coming in at 33rd; the next highest-placed was Kuwait (42nd) while Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam — was 91st. No Arab nation breached the top 50... Dubbed the “Overall Islamicity Index” and conducted by Hossein Askari, a professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University, the survey applied the ideals of Islam in the areas of a society’s economic achievements, governance, human and political rights, and international relations."

Revealed: Labour MPs go to police over death threats after refusal to back Jeremy Corbyn
No true leftist puts sugar in his porridge

Panda Accused Of Faking Pregnancy To Get Better Food

Terminal cancer patient dies aged 91 after she refused chemotherapy and traveled the world - "'Miss Norma' had her first taste of lobster - and a particular highlight was a hot-air balloon ride and taking part in a St Patrick's Day Parade."

German court rules parents cannot stop girl, 15, from having relationship with uncle, 47 - "as the teenager is over 14 – the age of sexual consent in Germany – the court has ruled that her own wishes have to be taken into account, it has been reported... They reportedly added that while the relationship may be unacceptable socially, it was not covered by criminal law."

Catholic care home sued for refusing euthanasia
Maybe we need to revise the Hippocratic Oath

Tokyo restaurant refuses service to all-male groups of customers

Hardcore gamer refuses to let game save die, leaves his Super NES on for almost two decades - "Though it may be hard to believe now, with all our wonderful memory options for everything from computers to phones to handheld devices, back in the day, some game cartridges featured SRAM (Static RAM) coupled with lithium-ion batteries. As long as your battery stayed charged, the SRAM would hold your save data. Unfortunately, as soon as your battery ran out, your data would disappear as well. Of course, not all games used SRAM, but Umihara Kawase did, which means that if the battery in the cartridge were to die, @UMIHARAKawase would lose his replay data."

German member of 'Refugees Welcome' raped by Afghan tenant

Iraqi refugee who raped a boy in Germany has conviction overturned - "An Iraqi refugee who raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool has had his conviction overturned because a court didn't prove he realised the boy was saying no. The rapist, identified as Amir A, 20, violently sexually assaulted the boy in the changing room of Theresienbad pool in Austria claiming it was a 'sexual emergency' because he had not had sex for four months. But an appeal court in the country accepted the defence lawyer's claim that the lower court had not done enough to prove he knew the schoolboy was saying no and overturned the conviction... He seized his moment at the pool and dragged the boy into the changing rooms and locked the door before raping him. The boy, known as Goran, required immediate medical treatment and has been suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder ever since."
Would this defence work for non-refugees?

Internet access as important as food, water to refugees, UN says - "Data plans are so expensive that refugees spend about a third of their incomes to get online, according to a UN Refugee Agency study published Wednesday. In Tanzania, some refugees are willing to sell up to 10 days worth of food rations to buy a month of data for their phones, the study found... internet access substituted for health care in some instances, serving as a digital instruction book for treating some illnesses"

Gay refugees say they have been 'bullied' in Dutch camps

Migrant Crisis: Where Have the Gulf States Been? - "Consider the financial means at the disposal of five energy-rich Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Their combined GDP is about $2 trillion a year, and their combined population is under 55 million people. That translates into a per capita annual income in the poorest member of this group, Bahrain, of more than $21,000 and a per capita gross national income in the richest, Qatar, of $90,000. It is not hard to imagine what 5 percent of their combined annual GDPs—so around $100 billion—might have done to avert the worst of the crisis... arguably, expectations ought to have been low to begin with. For a Syrian, Iraqi, Lebanese, or citizen of any other average Arab country, it is next to impossible to get even a temporary visa from some of these rich Arab countries, the same or worse for a work permit. Still, many people are prepared to criticize Western countries for not readily offering safe haven to Middle Eastern refugees... Government policies aside, it is also interesting to look at popular reactions to the unfolding drama. While many NGOs and large numbers of Westerners have urged their governments to act to help or accept the refugees, public responses have been more muted among rich Arab states. There have been no reported demonstrations to pressure those governments to accept refugees or find other, fundamental solutions. Part of the explanation might lie in the fear such countries have had regarding migration by “other” Arabs to their lands. They have sought jealously to safeguard their wealth from possible dilution. They have also appeared concerned about possible political instability if Arabs from other countries arrive and swamp their relatively small populations... Even recognizing all these concerns, though, it remains puzzling why five countries with a combined national income of $2 trillion have not offered credible assistance to solve the current refugee crisis. After all, they have all more or less been involved—directly or indirectly—in the Syrian civil war by virtue of having either encouraged or armed various groups."
Maybe Muslim solidarity is only for bashing Israel

Danish imam urges govt to accept child marriages among refugees - "A high-profile imam has urged the Danish government to accept child brides, as the practice is part of the culture of many refugees arriving in the country. It follows an announcement by Denmark that such couples will be separated under Danish law."

Gay, atheist student from Malaysia has refugee claim accepted - "An openly gay and atheist University of Winnipeg student who feared for his life if he was sent back to his home country, Malaysia, will be allowed to stay in Canada, as his claim for refugee status has been accepted."

Labour MP Rachael Mask tells Government 'take refugees until Britain BREAKS' - "Backbencher Rachael Maskell said Britons should just lie down and accept longer waits for hospital treatment and larger classes in schools in order to accommodate more Syrians and other migrants fleeing conflict overseas. She attacked David Cameron's plan to accept 20,000 more Syrians from refugee camps over the next five years as inadequate. Her outburst, which came at a rally to support refugees held in her York Central constituency on Saturday, was branded "dangerously out of touch". She told the gathering: "We need to shout so much more and say 20,000 is not enough, 30,000 is not enough. "We will keep going until we hit our saturation point because what does it matter if we have to wait another week for a hospital visit?... In a bizarre contradiction, he took to Twitter to write today: "No one should wait for healthcare.""

Transgender women 'attacked in the street' by north African teenagers in Germany - Telegraph - ""Before that they tried to hit on us. For them, that’s OK. But when they realised we were transgender, they felt their honour was hurt. That’s why they snapped"... Details of the incident emerged as police in the nearby city of Düsseldorf staged a major raid on a neighbourhood known as “Little Maghreb” for its large north African population on Saturday evening. Some 300 officers were involved in the raid on the area close to the main station, which police said targeted north African criminal gangs involved in “bag-snatching, luggage theft, street robberies and drug offences”"

Sex manual for immigrants sparks backlash in Germany - "Some commentators have praised Zanzu for its frank approach to sexuality, which they view as necessary to help refugees from conservative religious cultures integrate into Germany’s far more liberal society. Others have criticised it as being patronising towards migrants. Heinz-Jürgen Voss, a sex scientist at the University of Merseburg, told the Washington Post it was “racist” to assume that Syrians and Iraqis, for instance, were less schooled than Germans when it came to sex... Blogger Anabel Schunke argued that the site would do little to address the problematic attitudes towards women and sex found among many male migrants: “These men know exactly what is and isn’t allowed, and they just do not care because they have anyway never interested the laws and culture of this country,” she wrote. “It's also terribly naive to think one could sweep away the socialisation and cultural conditioning experienced since early childhood with some nice little pictures and an integration course.”"

Saudi Arabia offers Germany 200 mosques – one for every 100 refugees who arrived last weekend - "Saudi Arabia would build one mosque for every 100 refugees who entered Germany in extraordinary numbers last weekend. It would be unfair to suggest that the Gulf Arab states have done nothing to help the estimated four million Syrians who have fled their country since the start of the conflict in 2011. Just this week, the al Hayat newspaper reported that 500,000 Syrians had found homes in Saudi Arabia since the civil war began – as workers, not refugees. There have also been significant contributions from rich individuals towards the upkeep of refugee camps round the Syrian border, estimated by the BBC to total around $900 million (£600 million)"
Yay Wahhabi