Links - 11th March 2017

Watch the Original Pink Ranger Interview the New Power Rangers

Man gets stuck inside a statue of a vagina in Germany

I set up a Tinder account for Edward Snowden, these are my favorite interactions with the matches so far

Every Women's Magazine, In One Cover

Intelligent women enjoy sex more than 'bimbos', research finds - Telegraph - "A study of more than 2,000 female twins showed that those with greater emotional intelligence had larger numbers of orgasms."

Women 'better at picking up on emotions than men' - Telegraph - "women were better than men at processing facial expressions and completing assessments, something that had always been suggested but never conclusively proved"

Rio Olympics 2016: Meet Oksana Chusovitina, the 41-year-old gymnast competing in her seventh games - "The usual lifespan of a gymnast is one or two Olympics. The very luckiest get three. To compete at seven is almost beyond the realms of comprehension. It would be an impressive enough achievement in a more sedate sport such as shooting or archery. But this is gymnastics, a pursuit that places inconceivable stresses on the body and exerts an even greater toll on the mind... unlike young gymnasts, who need to spend hours on end training their muscle memory and aerial awareness, she had been doing it so long she barely needed to train."

Chickens exhibit Machiavellian tendencies, scientists discover - "Scientists have found they are capable of greater logical reasoning than children, have distinct personalities, and even exhibit Machiavellian tendencies."

Facebook 'censors' nude statue of sea god Neptune, the well-known Renaissance symbol of northern Italian city - "The sixteenth century Renaissance statue dominates Piazza del Nettuno, a grand square in the heart of Bologna... In a statement, Facebook told her: “The use of the image was not approved because it violates Facebook’s guide lines on advertising. “It presents an image with content that is explicitly sexual and which shows to an excessive degree the body, concentrating unnecessarily on body parts. “The use of images or video of nude bodies or plunging necklines is not allowed, even if the use is for artistic or educational reasons”... it was accused of censoring photos of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue... In 2015, Facebook published a rule book telling users the type of content they are not allowed to post, including images of genitals and bare buttocks. The company said it restricts nudity because “some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content”. It said images of female nipples were forbidden unless a woman’s breasts were “actively engaged in breastfeeding” or where the image showed “breasts with post-mastectomy scarring”."

Facebook forced to apologise for censoring burn victim's birthday photo - "Mr Lindeblad, a meditation teacher, said he did not understand why his post was removed on Sunday. He only came to suspect it had been deliberately censored when he heard the same thing had hapened to other burn victims. He added in a Facebook post: "At first, I was flabbergasted. Then several burn victims contacted me and explained that photos of burn victims are often classified in the same category as sexist and racist photos on Facebook. Oh dear." Mr Gustavson said he also knew of other people with scars who had their photographs taken down."

French town to get 'Brexit street' to pay 'tribute to the sovereign British people' says Front National mayor

Saudi man who called for end to 'guardianship of women' is jailed - "The man, who was also fined 30,000 riyals (£6,500) by a court in the eastern city of Dammam, was convicted of "inciting to end guardianship of women" in statements he posted on Twitter and in public posters, the Okaz daily said."

Brexit: Middle class liberals were only social group to emphatically back Remain, analysis shows - "Middle class liberals were the only section of society to wholeheartedly support remaining in the EU according to a wide-ranging analysis by social research institute NatCen... Brexit was far more popular among voters who didn’t vote in the 2015 general election than those who did... These findings will come as a blow to those trying to argue that the EU appeals to more people than the supposed metropolitan liberal elite... curiously, one in 50 Ukip supporters actually voted for Remain."

Sex will be just for special occasions in the future as robots will satisfy everyday needs - "Questions that will face regulators involve how much data to allow robots to collect about their human partners and send back to their manufacturers. Others include whether to legislate for purely passive robots, or to allow devices which entice humans to have sex, and whether robots would have to make clear that they are machines rather than humans. Kate Devlin, computing expert at Goldsmiths, University of London, said it was probable future sex robots would be designed to learn their human partner’s sexual preferences to improve performance. “Companion” devices such as the Pepper robot are being increasingly used to provide stimulation to elderly people, particularly in Asian countries such as Japan."

Junk food kills bacteria that protect against obesity, heart disease and cancer, study finds - Telegraph - "“Before I started my father’s fast food diet there were about 3,500 bacterial species in my gut, dominated by a type called firmicutes. “Once on the diet I rapidly lost 1,300 species and my gut was dominated by a group called bacteriodetes. The implication is that the McDonalds diet killed 1,300 of my gut species”... Professor Spector’s findings appear to support existing research which indicates the problem is far more complex than simply eating too much... transferring bacteria from an obese human to a mouse led to the animal gaining weight, while lean mice placed in cages with obese ones also became fat... Excluding fat and sugar are less important to a healthy diet than making sure the food one eats is as diverse and natural as possible, Professor Spector said. His advice chimes with studies suggesting that Belgian Beer, garlic, coffee, leeks and celery are ideal foods for promoting healthy gut flora. Professor Spector said: “Fifteen thousand years ago our ancestors regularly ingested around 150 ingredients in a week. “Most people nowadays consume fewer than 20 separate food types and many, if not most, are artificially refined. “Most processed food products come, depressingly, from just four ingredients: corn, soy, wheat or meat”"

Sassy misandry is good for business – but assault on men is never funny - "Female 'empowerment' is about giving men a good, slapstick pasting. In addition, of course, to buying clothes from Bonmarché... sassy misandry, once justified as a ‘necessary corrective’ to the patriarchy and women’s subjugation, is so common these days it has become a corporate cliché. Which in turn would suggest that it’s no longer quite so necessary – that instead it’s shaded into abuse. And that’s not very empowering. Or ‘bloomin’ awesome’. Whatever that is."

The meals your parents made for you are now too calorific for modern lifestyles - "the obesity crisis is largely driven by modern lifestyles, which have allowed people to become so inter-connected that they barely need to leave their desks or sofas to work, socialise or shop... Trade deals between countries have also caused food prices to tumble, creating virtually unlimited access to unrestricted calories for most people, while on-tap entertainment through television, smartphones and personal computers has replaced many traditional hobbies and activities... The authors found a strong association between globalisation and obesity; a one standard deviation increase in globalisation was associated with a 23.8 per cent increase in obesity within the population and a 4.3 per cent rise in calorie intake."

Behold the ROBOT RECTUM... medics' relief - "Spare a thought for the only Rectal Teaching Assistant in the UK who has lost his livelihood to a cold, metal bastard."

Foxconn replaces '60,000 factory workers with robots'

Canada’s hitchhiking robot is brutally decapitated after two short weeks in the US

Singapore is using robot swans to monitor water quality

Engineering Terror - NYTimes.com - "engineers represented a fifth of all militants from every nation except one, and nearly half of those with advanced degrees... Gambetta and Hertog found engineers only in right-wing groups — the ones that claim to fight for the pious past of Islamic fundamentalists or the white-supremacy America of the Aryan Nations (founder: Richard Butler, engineer) or the minimal pre-modern U.S. government that Stack and Bedell extolled. Among Communists, anarchists and other groups whose shining ideal lies in the future, the researchers found almost no engineers... The engineer mind-set, Gambetta and Hertog suggest, might be a mix of emotional conservatism and intellectual habits that prefers clear answers to ambiguous questions — “the combination of a sharp mind with a loyal acceptance of authority.”"

13 Questions to Ask Before Getting Married - The New York Times - "The following questions, intimate and sometimes awkward, are designed to spark honest discussions and possibly give couples a chance to spill secrets before it’s too late"

From scents to sex: The business of Japan’s high school girls for hire - "The JK entertainment industry (JK being short for Joshi Kousei, or female high school students) sells access to these girls through a bizarre range of services that include consultation sessions, dates, the chance to smell or tickle a school girl – and, increasingly, prostitution. In Tokyo alone, police figures show that there are more than 170 JK businesses, with many concentrated in the Akihabara district, a mecca for fans of electronic goods, anime and maid cafés... “This is one way to reduce the stress I experience at work,” said one such café customer. “I get to talk to teenagers about unusual topics, like make-up products”... one JK reflexology shop offers massages as a cover for other, less innocent, services. “The moment I entered the room and was alone with the girl, she immediately explained the ‘secret options’ while touching between my legs,” he said. Although there were notices in the room saying that sexual acts were prohibited, the girl pleaded with him to pick those options, saying that otherwise she would only receive the same pay as for other part-time jobs... Such businesses exploit loopholes in Japan’s regulations on underage sex, which while stating that the minimum age of prostitution is 18, retain an archaic law that allows girls above 13 to consent to sex. Lawyer Tohru Okumura explained that during Japan’s Meiji era (1868-1912), girls were thought to be mature enough to make decisions on their own, and some were married at the age of 13... Referencing a headline case where men paid to look up the skirts of school girls as they folded paper cranes, Mr Okumura said that JK businesses keep inventing new ways to bypass existing laws. “The Japanese way of thinking is that, if prostitution is forbidden, everything that is not prostitution is allowed,” he said. “They are doing something that verges on but does not qualify as prostitution.”"

Tiramisu has a sexy history in Italian brothels - "Tiramisu was invented inside brothels in the gorgeous northern Italian town of Treviso, renowned for its sexually relaxed mores and pleasure-seeking inhabitants. In Italian, tiramisu literally means “pull me up, lift me up”, or, more literally, “pull it up”... In Treviso, visiting a brothel regularly was like a status symbol. It was part of the local culture, the get-together of VIPs. If a gentleman never showed up to take part in the Tiramisu tasting sessions and sexy evenings, he was a loser and an outcast."

Chinese Lack of Empathy in Development | Dr. Stephen F Myler - "Empathy isthe ability to understand the feelings of others by recognising their emotions, behavioural action and situation. This method of cognitive ability is lacking inChinese thinking styles and causes social impairment and behavioural problems in notrecognising or understanding another person’s perspective when they interact socially.The findings show two possible conclusions, the first, the one-child policy of Chinacausing interference with normal sibling learning experience and secondly, over- population, parenting advice and social learning situations"

Chicago Torture Reveals the side America Doesn’t want to see - "The rise of the Alt-Right and the emergence to the public sphere of characters like Richard Spencer both represent a threat to which we can no longer shut our eyes. Increasingly empowered by narratives of white victimization, they seek converts from disaffected white Americans — disproportionately poor and uneducated — to fill their ranks. These individuals thrive on what some have called the “persecution complex” — the idea that whites constitute an oppressed group of their own, whose misfortunes are ignored by mainstream society. The similarities between this dynamic and that of the disaffected and marginalized Muslims who can fall prey to groups like Islamic state is all too clear... If we don’t want race relations in America to spiral out of control and into a series of perpetual backlashes of racist violence, we have to act decisively. We have to speak honestly and candidly about racial violence in America — and we have to call out double standards when we see them."

This Barbie’s Instagram account is the ultimate mockery of hipster culture - "I created the account to make fun of the people who were using the ‘liveauthentic’ hashtag on Instagram, all their pictures looked alike to me and I couldn’t tell them apart anymore so it just didn’t seem all that authentic"