Links - 12th May 2017 (2)

Hours before Trump ordered missile strikes on Syria, Hillary Clinton said the US should attack Assad's airfields
Just like liberals wanted to fire Comey - until Trump did so

How very Cambridge! Latin graffiti daubed on controversial housing development - "Dr David Butterfield , lecturer in Classics at Cambridge University said: "The Latin over in Chesterton is interesting but it is not worth undue head scratching. " It is an automated (and therefore incorrect) translation of 'Local homes for local people'. The Latin graffiti matches what Google Translate turns up for this phrase (even if the Latin literally means 'a place into homes, the people of the place'...)."

India state to give life sentences for cow slaughter

Hamas animation encourages stabbings, shootings, and ramming attacks, shows daggers, butcher’s knives, and guns, honors 3 murderers who killed 6

Black Lives Matter Just Banned White People - "Sad news for white leftists in Philadelphia who want to support the Black Lives Matter movement by attending the group's meetings in person. According to BLM Philly, white people are banned from future gatherings and are not allowed to be official members of the organization because it is considered a “black only space.”"

How an ambulance became a place for safe sex - "It's the sex workers plying their trade on the streets - who cannot afford to use an illegal brothel - that Michael aims to help. Sexelance is free to use, as while prostitution has been legal in Denmark since 1999, it is still against the law for sex workers to rent rooms or hire any help for their business"

March for Science Organizers Don't Want Bill Nye as Leader Because He's a 'White Male'

Italy Could Soon Offer Women Paid 'Menstrual Leave' - "Health experts and local media outlets have praised the proposal, saying it was a step in the right direction and would shed light on the silent plight of women suffering from debilitating cramps that can sometimes affect their ability to work. The Italian version of Marie Claire described it as “a standard-bearer of progress and social sustainability.” But the bill also has critics, including women who fear this sort of measure could backfire and end up stigmatizing them... Menstrual leave is already a legal right for women in other countries, including South Korea and Japan, where it was made law 60 years ago. A number of private companies, including Nike, have also introduced a similar policy."

Are We Heading Towards A Civil War? - "Like their right-wing counterparts, most of these guys don’t exactly reek of competence or experience, and that should be of concern to all of us. Well-trained people are predictable. It’s fear-filled amateurs like the SKS-toting nimrod from Meal Team Six that start squeezing of rounds into crowds when they hear a car backfire... we’ll possibly see a bunch of left wing clowns and a bunch of right wing clowns square off and get into a shouting match, and then someone hiding in the back is going to crank off a round, just as they did on April 19, 1775 on Lexington Green. That’s going to trigger a panic, and then it’s probably going to devolve into a free-for-all, in which police officers trying to keep the peace between the groups will be caught in the crossfire."

Italian State-Run TV Drops Talk Show Over 'Sexist' List About Eastern European Women - "– They are all moms, but after giving birth they regain their figure
– They are always sexy. No tracksuits or pajamas
– They forgive cheating
– They are willing to let their man rule
– They are perfect housewives. They learn how to perform house chores at young age
– They don’t whine or get clingy, and they never hold a grudge."

As a Muslim, I am Shocked by Liberals and Leftists - "My father was brutally tortured -- justified by some of the fundamentalist Islamic laws of the ruling governments in both Iran and Syria. The punishment extended to my mother, my family, and other relatives, who were tormented on a regular basis. What was even more painful was, upon coming to the West, seeing the attitude of many people who label themselves liberals and leftists, towards radical Islam. These liberals seem to view themselves as open-minded, but they have a preconceived way of thinking about Islam: to them, it seems, there is no radical Islam, Islam is only a force for the good, Islam can do no evil. How could they not see the way extremist Muslims exploit some aspects of the religion of Islam to legitimize its acts? How could they not even acknowledge that radical Islam, a force that threatens to destroy the planet, let alone my family, exists? Instead, many liberals would criticize me or attempt to turn a blind eye, as if I were accidentally making some embarrassing mistake... Liberals argue that they are in favor of critical thinking, but they do not like anyone challenging their "comfort zone". They seem, in fact, to be just like the autocratic people from whom I was fleeing, who also did not want their simplistic, binary way of thinking to be threatened by logic or fact. Even if a person is from a Muslim country, and has direct experience with extremist Islam, many liberals will strenuously avoid this information... sympathizing with all kinds of Islamist practices and radical Islam seems to fit a wider narrative of bashing the West and white people for "imperialism, colonialism, and any sense of superiority". Unfortunately that view fails to take into account that there have been no greater imperialists the Muslim armies; they conquered Persia, the great Christian Byzantine Empire in Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East, virtually all of Eastern Europe, most of Spain, and Greece."

Man proposes with an $8 engagement ring; what his girlfriend does 5 days later is unbelievable - "Emily told the wedding coordinator that people put beautiful funerals together in just a few days, so why not a wedding?"

How the Social Justice Movement Fuels Corporate Capitalism - "Issues such as unfair tax structures, government welfare towards banks and corporations, a lack of protection for the common citizen, and gaps in the social safety net are all social justice issues. But somehow, in the following years, these issues have seemingly disappeared from the public conscience. Instead, social justice discourse now revolves around ideas of privilege that focus on race, gender, and sexual orientation—in short, everything but class. Is this a coincidence? Somehow an anomaly?"

Why is big business so interested in left-wing politics? - "Virtue signalling is cheap, and ‘tolerance’ is easy when it costs you precisely nothing; as long as you give lip service to diversity and equality, much of the Left will overlook how you actually behave and will concentrate their rage on small bakeries, whereas in the past they might have focused on wages or the treatment of producers. In fact, instead of being costly to big business as socialism would be, social justice actually profits them, the most prominent example being mass immigration, which big business is universally in favour of, supported by many Conservatives for economic reasons; even though, from a Burkean point of view, mass immigration makes absolutely no sense – short-term prosperity over posterity... ‘Traditional’ families take women out of the workforce to have children, and anything that reduces the availability of workers is going to damage business interests"

Why You Shouldn't Use Sticky Notes - "the glue used in these notes left behind a residue, even when the notes were immediately removed. The adhesive can attract dirt, make pages stick together, or smear text. Many brands of self-adhesive note paper also contains lignin, which causes instability and deterioration of paper. In addition to the damaging qualities of the paper, the adhesive contained on the paper hardens and leaves a film that becomes acidic. This results in eventual discoloration and brittleness of the paper"

Juli Jalaludin - In Islam, when you pose questions that they don't... - "In Islam, when you pose questions that they don't like and/or cannot answer, you automatically become an apostate, says one mufti (religious leader in official government position) in Malaysia."

Sex toy maker ordered to pay £3 MILLION for spying on customers through their smart vibrators

How to travel from one end of Japan to the other by train for less than 25 bucks - "Japan Railways, the largest train operator in Japan, offers something called the Seishun 18 Ticket package, which is a bundle of five tickets that each grant you unlimited use of unreserved seats on JR local and rapid (though not limited express) trains. While seishun is the Japanese word for “youth,” there’s no age restriction for the Seishun 18 ticket. What’s more, even though the Seishun 18 Ticket is sold as a set of five for 11,850 yen (US$107), they don’t have to all be used by the same person. As such, a single Seishun 18 Ticket works out to just 2,370 yen (US$21), and it turns out that’s enough to get you all the way from Tokyo, near the eastern edge of Japan, to Fukuoka Prefecture, located on the southwestern island of Kyushu"

Social interaction, food, scent or toys? A formal assessment of domestic pet and shelter cat (Felis silvestris catus) preferences - "social interaction with humans was the most-preferred stimulus category for the majority of cats, followed by food"

Starbucks CEO To Resign After Vow To Hire 10,000 Refugees Draws Boycotts - "The stock price, which had plunged 10 percent since Schultz's pledge on refugees, has bounced back nearly 5 percent in recent days."

Modern feminism is silent on the real issue of freedom for women - "If today’s feminists ran a hospital emergency department, they would be racing to fix an otherwise healthy middle-aged woman with a common cold over a young girl facing a life-threatening injury. Brave riders of feminism’s third-wave include pop stars such as Taylor Swift, who said recently: “I didn’t see myself as held back until I was a woman.” As Heather Wilhelm responded in The Federalist: “Held back from what?” Building a net worth of $US250 million? Today’s modern feminism is a corruption of what feminism should be. If feminism is not about freedom, what’s the point of it? If it’s not about freedom, it’s just a lobby group for pet grievances and low-rent political point-scoring. Gillard’s misogyny speech was crude politics from a prime minister on the ropes. When she became Australia’s first female prime minister, Gillard said she wasn’t interested in playing the victimhood gender card. Yet as soon as her leadership stocks dipped she did exactly that, making asinine claims of misogyny and sexism against then ­opposition leader Tony Abbott... Feminism has been corrupted by Western self-loathing and ­cultural infirmity. While hostages were being held at gunpoint by a terrorist in the Lindt cafe last December, high-profile Australian women rushed to join a feel-good hashtag campaign — #WISH — women in solidarity with hijabs. Instead of assuming Australians would default to Islamophobia, why didn’t these women show more concern for the hostages inside the cafe or have a more nuanced debate about the fact millions of women are forced to wear a veil as a medieval form of oppression?... Once the notion of human rights became untethered from classical notions of freedom, feminism was destined to do the same"

The Russia You’ll Never See On Postcards Through The Lens Of Photographer Alexander Petrosyan
This series incidentally is where the image used for the "Stop oppressing me" meme (of 2 women confidently walking by a male worker crouched on the ground peering into a manhole) comes from; it also has an alternate expression, I think something to do with patriarchy, but I can't find it

Why Belle Should Have Chosen Gaston

Blue Lives Matter flag deemed 'racist,' ordered to come down - "his daughter in St. Johns County has been flying the flag to honor him and many other family members who are law enforcement. "She called to ask why," Gaddie said. "They told her they had received a complaint that it was considered racist, offensive and anti-Black Lives Matter,” he said."

National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track - "The underrepresentation of women in academic science is typically attributed, both in scientific literature and in the media, to sexist hiring. Here we report five hiring experiments in which faculty evaluated hypothetical female and male applicants, using systematically varied profiles disguising identical scholarship, for assistant professorships in biology, engineering, economics, and psychology. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, men and women faculty members from all four fields preferred female applicants 2:1 over identically qualified males with matching lifestyles (single, married, divorced), with the exception of male economists, who showed no gender preference. Comparing different lifestyles revealed that women preferred divorced mothers to married fathers and that men preferred mothers who took parental leaves to mothers who did not. Our findings, supported by real-world academic hiring data, suggest advantages for women launching academic science careers. "
This is what Male Privilege looks like

The Role of Alcohol and Substance Use in Risky Sexual Behavior Among Older Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Review and Critique of the Current Literature - "HIV incidence is increasing among men who have sex with men (MSM) despite years of prevention education and intervention efforts... older MSM are engaging in risky sexual behavior, with the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual activities increasing with the use of alcohol and other drugs"
It's okay, one can continue to blame discrimination and homophobia for bad MSM sexual health outcomes

Government Will Force UK Universities to Defend Free Speech - "Universities minister Jo Johnson reminded bosses that it is their “legal duty” to ensure free speech for “members, students, employees and visiting speakers”. A specific measure which would shut down no-platforming said that access to premises must never be “denied to any individual or body on any grounds connected with their beliefs or views, policy or objective”. It further added that all universities must have a code laying out how free speech will be observed in meetings, which should be vigorously enforced rather than left to “gather dust”. Heat Street has extensively documented the clampdown on free speech on British campuses. Student societies such as the anti-abortion Stratclyde Life Action were shut down for contravening “safe space” policies, while feminist Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos were banned from debating each other by Manchester University Students’ Union. An Iranian dissident was prevented from speaking by Warwick University Students’ Union because of her opposition to Shariah law, while the union at Queen Mary University of London sparked protests by banning tabloid newspapers. The anti-censorship website spiked compiled a free speech rankings, the most recent edition of which found that 94% of campuses censor free speech in some way, with 64% given a “red” ranking, the lowest possible rating."

Woman would go into debt travelling than buy Sydney home - "Ms Wehbe is not the only young Australian who values travelling over financial security. A new study revealed more than a third of 18 to 21-year-olds would go into debt to travel. The figure is even higher among 22 to 36-year-olds, with 39 per cent saying they would do so, according to the Contiki Youth Evolution Report 2017. Travel remains the top priority for young Aussies, with three out of four 18 to 21-year-olds saying they want to travel more."

FGM in Sweden: School where every single girl in one class underwent procedure exposed - "In the class where all of the girls had FGM performed on them, 28 were subjected to infibulation - the most extreme kind where the clitoris and labia are complete cut away, and the genitals are sewn to leave a small vaginal opening"