Links - 2nd December 2016

Sex, violence, and hormones - "Why are we so comfortable with assuming that other animals are controlled by their hormones whereas humans are not? The prevailing view is that human behavior is regulated by higher cognitive processes. Reason cools the blood, allowing us to take responsibility for our actions. This is an ancient philosophical formula that was most explicitly developed by French Philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Yet, even Descartes did not believe the rational soul was always in charge and accepted that there are times when humans are ruled by their passions.Evidence that human behavior is partly governed by hormones is mainly restricted to correlations, which are not the same as causes. At least one experiment found that large doses of testosterone increased aggression but only for a small proportion of men. Young men who use anabolic steroids - a synthetic version of testosterone - are also more likely to be involved in violent crime. Taken together, such findings imply that high levels of testosterone can cause aggression in at least some men. Other evidence points in the same direction... When men divorce and begin dating again, their testosterone level rises, just as it does for male robins in the breeding season. What is more, their involvement in violent crime increases. This is at least partly due to an altered lifestyle with more time spent staying out late at night in clubs and bars where single women are encountered. Increased alcohol consumption is a complicating factor as this clouds reason and impairs judgment. As correlations go, the link between testosterone and violent crime is arguably as compelling as the link between testosterone and mating aggression for robins and other animals. Indeed, one can argue that most violent crimes occur because of reproductive competition (e.g., male-male assaults and homicides, domestic violence)."

JK Rowling reveals vile anti-English tweets from Scottish nationalists

The Bigger Your Brain, the Longer Your Yawn - "Gallup proposed what has become known as the thermoregulatory theory of yawning. It holds that opening our jaws and sucking in air cools the brain, something other labs have found support for. Yawning might also kick the brain out of its so-called default mode—a sort of background humming-along state—and into a paying-attention state by increasing the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid, a 2014 paper found."

Mafia criminals' income 'boosted by education' - "The University of Essex study of 712 Italian-American mafia members in the 1960s showed their income had risen by 7.5-8.5% per extra year of education.
Those involved in complex crimes such as charging exorbitant rates for loans or extortion saw three times the boost of those who committed violent crimes."

Essex girls rise to delete term from dictionary - "It is a phrase synonymous with 1990s ladette culture, used to define brash party girls in one part of England. And that is why two Essex women have launched a campaign to remove the 'rude and stereotypical' term "Essex girl" from the Oxford English Dictionary. Juliet Thomas and Natasha Sawkins want their proud peers to post their success under #IAmAnEssexGirl and sign their petition to have the term scrubbed. But, a dictionary spokeswoman said, "nothing is ever taken out of the OED". "It's a historical dictionary," she told the BBC. "Definitions can change, but an entry will never come out." The dictionary defines Essex girl as: "Essex girl n. [after Essex man n.] Brit. derogatory a contemptuous term applied (usu. joc.) to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterized as unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic." The campaigners were further peeved by a Collins definition that added: "devoid of taste"."
Too bad they aren't shitlords like Merriam-Webster. Maybe SJWs didn't read 1984

The Strange History Of How A Gene Was Named "Sonic Hedgehog"

These Scientific Names Were Chosen Purely To Insult Certain People

Science Explains Why Superman’s Glasses Actually Work As A Disguise - "Researchers at the University of York recently conducted a study about the effect that glasses have when it comes to facial recognition, and while the thinking behind the experiment was driven by important world matters like border control security, they seemingly inadvertently showed that Clark Kent's disguise is somewhat plausible"

Columbia U. Students Tear Down Posters Advertising Christina Hoff Sommers Visit - "Posters advertising Sommers' visit were torn down in buildings across campus, according to Toni Airaksinen, a reporter for Campus Reform and student at Columbia-affiliated Barnard College. Airaksinen wrote on Twitter that only one of about 20 posters survived for a full day... if Columbia's leftist-students are so afraid of alternative perspectives, they can't have very much confidence in the persuasiveness of their own beliefs."

Don't know the difference between emoji and emoticons? Let me explain - "Unlike emoticons, emoji are actual pictures, of everything from a set of painted nails (💅) to a slightly whimsical ghost (👻). And where emoticons were invented to portray emotion in environments where nothing but basic text is available, emoji are actually extensions to the character set used by most operating systems today, Unicode... To complicate matters, some emoji are also emoticons"

Is it Possible to be Vegan in India? - "As a person who also loves to cook and serve people, I understand the joy that comes from serving guests. So to me, it is rude and difficult in some senses to turn down their hospitality when I am in their home. Of course I make sure that they serve me veg food (verses non veg food), which is never a problem, and many people are even shocked and curious to meet a western vegetarian. But when it comes to dairy, there is sometimes cream in the dish, or ghee (Indian clarified butter), and it is difficult to explain why I do not eat these ingredients, especially if there is a language barrier involved. In India, milk is sacred and people here really do not understand why I would not eat this sacred food... my saving grace in this country is that in India pure vegetarian food means no eggs, so I figure a little milk or ghee here or there won’t kill me"

‘Feminist’ Trudeau under attack for attending gender-segregated event at Ottawa mosque - "Three female MPs accompanied Trudeau during his brief remarks, though they had to arrive by a side door and stand with their heads covered. They did not address the mosque... recent surveys indicate about two of every three mosques separate men from women, but that is up from a decade ago when only about half did... he made no mention of LGBT rights nor did he make any mention of gender equality."

You can be fined for not calling people ‘ze’ or ‘hir,’ if that’s the pronoun they demand that you use - "people can basically force us — on pain of massive legal liability — to say what they want us to say, whether or not we want to endorse the political message associated with that term, and whether or not we think it’s a lie... We can’t be required to even display a license plate that says “Live Free or Die” on our car, if we object to the message; that’s what the court held in Wooley v. Maynard (1978). But New York is requiring people to actually say words that convey a message of approval of the view that gender is a matter of self-perception rather than anatomy, and that, as to “ze,” were deliberately created to convey that a message. What’s more, according to the City, “refusal to use a transgender employee’s preferred name, pronoun, or title may constitute unlawful gender-based harassment.” The label “harassment” is important here because harassment law requires employers and businesses to prevent harassment by co-workers and patrons and not just by themselves or their own employees... Feel uncomfortable about being forced to use terms that express social status views (“Milord”) or religious views (“Your Holiness”) that you may not endorse? Well, you should feel uncomfortable about people being forced to use “ze,” which expresses a view about gender that they might not endorse. And, more broadly, I think we should all feel uncomfortable about government regulators forcing people to say things that convey and support the government’s ideology about gender."
When Brietbart covered this, people dismissed it. The Washington Post is not so easily ignored

Study says women are worse drivers, get in more car crashes despite driving less than men - "Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed 6.5 million car crashes in the U.S. between 1998 and 2007. Female drivers were found to be involved in 68.1 percent of all crashes, according to The Daily Mail. The results are especially surprising given that men were found to drive 60 percent of the time, while women only 40 percent. In other words, women got in more accidents despite driving less than the opposite sex... female-to-female accidents made up 20.5 percent of all crashes, much higher than expected. Male-to-male crashes were lower than expected, at 31.9 percent, while male-to-female crashes were close to their predictions at 47.6 percent."

Australian students to be taught about 'male privilege' - "A state in Australia has launched an education programme designed to smash gender stereotypes and tackle the root causes of domestic violence. The "respectful relationship" curriculum will be mandatory in all schools in Victoria from next year. Students will explore issues around social inequality, gender-based violence and male privilege. However, a report on a 2015 pilot trial accused it of presenting all men as "bad" and all women as "victims". Pay inequality, anger management, sexual orientation and the dangers of pornography will be among the topics explored by students in the programme, costing A$21.8m (£13.5m; $16.5m)...Jeremy Sammut, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, a libertarian think tank, told The Australian newspaper that it amounted to "taxpayer-funded indoctrination" of children. "The idea behind this programme - that all men are latent abusers by nature of the 'discourse' - is an idea that only cloistered feminist academics could love," Dr Sammut said. "A lot of evidence suggests that like child abuse, domestic violence is a by-product of social dysfunction: welfare, drugs, family breakdown." The royal commission that recommended education as the key measure for preventing future family violence found that 25% of victims of family violence are men. Critics argue that point is often overlooked."
Amusingly, some people think that male privilege is responsible for men being victims of domestic violence

Story of domestic violence against men is hidden, complicated and disputed - "Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said to Brisbane Times last month that she would be approaching Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about launching a domestic violence awareness campaign that includes male victims. Ms Palaszczuk has also changed her language around domestic violence after hearing of the men it has impacted."

Man who drove into pedestrians shouting Allahu Akbar ‘was just singing along to rap music while buying pizza’ parents say

Student officially changes his personal pronoun to ‘His Majesty’ on campus roster - "top administrators at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor announced a new campus-wide policy that allows students to select their own “designated personal pronoun,” informing the campus community they are expected to adhere to those preferences... "I henceforth shall be referred to as: His Majesty, Grant Strobl. I encourage all U-M students to go onto Wolverine Access, and insert the identity of their dreams""

Washington Post: Dog Halloween Costumes 'Sexist' for Perpetuating Gender Norms

[SAGA] The Western Co (TWC) f**k up customer service & chase customer out - www.hardwarezone.com.sg - "TLDR: TWC ownself send typo sms nv apologise. customer say wtf when realised cannot pay nets. the cashier took the f of the wtf personally then want to chase the customer out of the shop
such fk up attitude. they shd be boycotted!"

The Western Co. threatened to SUE food blogger - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

S’porean man who turned himself into a URL points out licence peculiarity of The Western Co. - "In the latest turn of events involving The Western Co. (TWC), food blogger Seth Lui of SethLui.com published an article, “The Western Co: Dishonest or Misunderstood? Don’t Believe Everything The Owner Says”, recounting his experience of how TWC did not pay for its advertorial on his website... more interestingly, Lui pointed out some discrepancies with TWC’s NEA licence at its now-defunct 30 Foch Road premises...The address on the license corroborates with The Western. Co’s previous location, but it was registered as a “Mixed Vegetable Rice Stall” instead of the supposed western stall TWC was operating. According to Lui’s post, the company the licence was issued to — Rendevous Holding Pte. Ltd — is not The Western Co.’s alleged parent company (Appendix K Investments LLP)... Lui also pointed out that TWC had announced it was closing “for good” in September 2016 with TWC “vehemently insisting they weren’t relocating”.He then questioned how TWC had acquired an NEA licence for its new Tyrwhitt Road premises in such a short time"

The Western Co. issues apology statement, appoints social media agency, promptly hides post from its Facebook page - "If you happened to be online on Monday, you might have heard of an establishment called The Western Co., and perhaps also of the way it mishandles customer feedback (using a cocktail of sarcastic replies, deleting comments and banning users, and even posting statuses insulting them). Around 10.20pm Monday, the now-embattled business owners took to their otherwise-silent Facebook page (apart from actively deleting comments and banning users from posting comments)... the number of comments and people that have been deleted and who have been banned from the company’s page has resulted in people finding and befriending one another"

Looks like The Western Co. is latest S’pore eatery on its way to social media destruction - "it looks like they have a history of passive-aggressiveness against their customers on their own Facebook page as well... We’re pretty sure this is a classic example of how not to run a food establishment’s social media presence."