Links - 29th May 2017 (1)

Princeton protesters occupy president’s office, demand ‘racist’ Woodrow Wilson’s name be removed - The Washington Post - "it’s a movement that has also generated opposition — as at Dartmouth, where some students reported being frightened by protesters screaming and swearing at them about being racists last week, at Yale where a debate about free speech clashed with demands from students angry about the racial climate on campus, at Claremont McKenna College where some students said protests turned hostile, and in a few places such as the University of Missouri and Howard, with racist death threats... At Princeton, the protest came on the same day university officials announced that the leaders of the residential colleges would change their traditional names, effective immediately, from “master” to “head of the college.” Protesters at Yale have demanded a similar change, concerned that the term “master” has ugly connotations associated with slavery... “Though we are aware that the term ‘master’ has a long history of use in universities (indeed since medieval times), it seems to me by now to be anachronistic and unfortunate for the positions we hold,” Sandra Bermann, head of Whitman College, said in a statement. “We are glad to take on the designation as ‘head of the college’ that describes our role more aptly”... Princeton’s Black Justice League pushed harder. The group demanded that the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, a segregationist who some believe supported the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan, be removed from a residential college, from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, and any other buildings — and that his mural be scrubbed from the dining hall. It demanded “cultural competency training” for all faculty and staff, including discussion of “the true role of freedom of speech and freedom of intellectual thought in a way that does not reinforce anti-Blackness and xenophobia.” The organizers demanded that classes on “marginalized peoples” be added to the university’s required courses"
Given that slavery itself is anachronistic, one wonders if the capitulation was necessary, and what will be next
Sadly they capitulated in part and renamed some stuff

Press me! The buttons that lie to you - "Some would call this a “placebo button”– a button which, objectively speaking, provides no control over a system, but which to the user at least is psychologically fulfilling to push. It turns out that there are plentiful examples of buttons which do nothing and indeed other technologies which are purposefully designed to deceive us. But here’s the really surprising thing. Many increasingly argue that we actually benefit from the illusion that we are in control of something – even when, from the observer’s point of view, we’re not... Skype phone calls today sometimes contain “fake static noise” because when users experience a completely noise free line, they are prone to thinking that the call has in fact dropped"

Indigenous fruits are going the way of the dodo - "Another common fruit not often seen in cities is the binjai, also known as white mango by some people. It has a brown skin and is usually sour. My wife uses it in sambal belacan or in tempoyak. The Hokkiens call it “bull’s testicles” from the appearance of the fruits, paired two to a stalk. Like the keranji and belinjau, the local buah salak (or snakeskin fruit) is also becoming as rare as our traditional kampung houses."

The (Not So) Newfound Alliance Between Feminism, Marxism, And Radical Islam - "What these feminists and Marxists haven’t done is think about the long game their behavior causes. This is typical because many of these acolytes of Marxism have only one concern: “taking down ‘the man.” They really do not care what the hell comes after, and this has terrible repercussions for the rest of society."

When Does 'Eating Clean' Become an Eating Disorder? - "One of the reasons Dr. Kratina believes orthorexia is rising in popularity is because of our fixation on health. "There is nothing wrong with eating local or being a vegetarian or vegan," she says. "I think a lot of those diets are inherently valuable. The problem is that we have moralized eating, weight, food, and exercise. Food has become presented—more and more—as the answer"... " I didn't look like an anorexic until I finally stopped getting my period. I was not not eating. I was just eating so healthfully and so restrictively that I was very sick.""

Does Islam fuel terrorism? - "when Osama bin Laden made a formal declaration of war against "the Jews and the Crusaders" in 1998, he cited this Quranic verse at the beginning of his declaration. Assertions, therefore, that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam are as nonsensical as claims that the Crusades had nothing to do with Christian beliefs about the sanctity of Jerusalem or that the exponential growth of Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands are not rooted in the beliefs of certain fundamentalist Jewish groups about the God-given rights of Jews to live in their God-given homeland.
Indeed, there is an explicitly religious civil war driven by terrorist groups such as ISIS, al Qaeda and Hezbollah unfolding in the Middle East in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen that pits ultrafundamentalist Sunnis against ultrafundamentalist Shias. This war could well replicate the religious Thirty Years' War that tore apart 17th century Europe in both viciousness and length. Already hundreds of thousands have died in these conflicts... Salafism is an ultrafundmentalist branch of Islam that is particularly prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Salafism is intolerant of what its adherents consider to be Islamic deviancy such as Shia Islam, as well as of other religions such as Judaism or Christianity, and it offers scant roles for women outside the home. Salafism is not, however, a gateway to violence for the tens of millions of its peaceful adherents around the world. That said, while very few Salafists are terrorists, jihadist terrorists are almost invariably Salafists. A similar point could also be made about Christian fundamentalists in the United States: Very few kill abortion clinic doctors, but anyone who kills an abortion clinic doctor in the States is almost invariably a Christian fundamentalist."

Did the media ignore the Beirut bombings? Or did readers? - "The New York Times covered it. The Washington Post, in addition to running an Associated Press story on it, sent reporter Hugh Naylor to cover the blasts and then write a lengthy piece on their aftermath. The Economist had a thoughtful piece reflecting on the attack's significance. CNN, which rightly or wrongly has a reputation for least-common-denominator news judgment, aired one segment after another on the Beirut bombings. Even the Daily Mail, a British tabloid most known for its gossipy royals coverage, was on the story. And on and on... I was thus a bit surprised, over the past week, to see an outpouring of reader outrage. So what's driving people to scold media outlets for not covering an event they have in fact covered extensively?"

Women's hairstyle and men's behavior: A field experiment - "Little research has examined the effect of women's hairstyles on people's behavior. In a field study, male and female passersby, walking alone in the street, were observed while walking behind a female-confederate who dropped a glove and apparently was unaware of her loss. The confederate had long dark hair arranged in three different hairstyles: one with her hair falling naturally on her shoulders and her back, one with her hair tied in a ponytail, and one with her hair twisted in a bun. Results reported that the hairstyle had no effect on female passersby's helping behavior. However, it was found that the hairstyle influenced male passersby with men helping the confederate more readily when her hair fell naturally on her neck, shoulders and upper back."

Why Hackers Must Eject the SJWs - "It is clear that djangoconcardiff and the author of the Covenant (self-described transgender feminist Coraline Ada Ehmke) want to replace the “cult of meritocracy” with something else. And equally clear that what they want to replace it with is racial and sexual identity politics. Rosario tagged his Twitter report “Social Justice in action!” He knows who these people are: SJWs, “Social Justice Warriors”. And, unless you have been living under a rock, so do you. These are the people – the political and doctrinal tendency, united if in no other way by an elaborate shared jargon and a seething hatred of djangoconcardiff’s “white straight male”, who recently hounded Nobel laureate Tim Hunt out of his job with a fraudulent accusation of sexist remarks. I’m not going to analyze SJW ideology here except to point out, again, why the hacker culture must consider anyone who holds it an enemy. This is because we must be a cult of meritocracy. We must constantly demand merit – performance, intelligence, dedication, and technical excellence – of ourselves and each other. Now that the Internet – the hacker culture’s creation! – is everywhere, and civilization is increasingly software-dependent, we have a duty, the duty I wrote about in Holding Up The Sky. The invisible gears have to turn. The shared software infrastructure of civilization has to work, or economies will seize up and people will die. And for large sections of that infrastructure, it’s on us – us! – to keep it working. Because nobody else is going to step up."

School wants Muslim students separated from non-Muslims | Free Malaysia Today
Malaysia Boleh!

Chinese the most dishonest, Japanese and British the least, study finds | South China Morning Post - "Participants from China were found to be the least honest, with 70 per cent estimated to have lied about which side coins landed on, compared to 3.4 per cent of British participants, who emerged as the most honest in this test... Respondents in Japan were found to give the most honest answers to the quiz, followed by Britain, while those in Turkey were the least truthful, followed by China... Based on the results, the study’s lead author, Dr David Hugh-Jones, a senior lecturer in the university’s school of economics, noted that people’s honesty was related to the rate of economic growth of their countries, with those from poor countries less honest than those from rich ones. However, this relationship was stronger for economic growth that took place before 1950."
Another "stereotype" upheld

Aspartame – Truth vs Fiction – Science-Based Medicine - "If you believe everything you read on the internet, then is seems that a chemical found in thousands of products is causing an epidemic of severe neurological and systemic diseases, like multiple sclerosis and lupus. The FDA, the companies that make the product, and the “medical industrial complex” all know about the dangers of this chemical but are hiding the truth from the public in order to protect corporate profits and avoid the pesky paper work that would accompany the truth being revealed. The only glimmer of hope is a dedicated band of bloggers and anonymous e-mail chain letter authors who aren’t afraid to speak the truth. Armed with the latest anecdotal evidence, unverified speculation, and scientifically implausible claims, they have been tirelessly ranting about the evils of this chemical for years. Undeterred by the countless published studies manufactured by the food cartel that show this chemical is safe, they continue to protect the public by spreading baseless fear and hysteria... What evidence does she have for such a conspiracy? The argument from final consequences logical fallacy – big industry wouldn’t want it. It’s also not very plausible. Products get pulled from the market all the time when new evidence suggests they are not safe. Also, the final safety net for the consumer is legal liability. Class action law suits have bankrupted companies, even when the underlying claims were false. Imagine if they were true. Look how much the tobacco industry has had to fork over."

Church 'Bewildered' By Cinema Ban On Prayer Ad - "The clip was cleared by both the Cinema Advertising Authority and the British Board of Film Classification - but the UK's three largest cinema chains have refused to screen it, the Church said. The Church said Odeon, Cineworld and Vue - which control 80% of cinema screens around the country - have refused to show the ad because they believe it "carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences"."
Yet people think that religious discrimination = Islamophobia and that the Church/Christians have too much power in the UK, or that the ruling upholding the ability for firms to prohibit the wearing of religious symbols is aimed at Muslims

MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain - "The "mad and bad" theory to explain why people turn to terrorism does not stand up, with no more evidence of mental illness or pathological personality traits found among British terrorists than is found in the general population. British-based terrorists are as ethnically diverse as the UK Muslim population, with individuals from Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Caucasian backgrounds. MI5 says assumptions cannot be made about suspects based on skin colour, ethnic heritage or nationality... Far from being lone individuals with no ties, the majority of those over 30 have steady relationships, and most have children. MI5 says this challenges the idea that terrorists are young men driven by sexual frustration and lured to "martyrdom" by the promise of beautiful virgins waiting for them in paradise"

FYI, ISIS Once Freaked Out About Women Buying Cucumbers - "“They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female,” Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni tribal leader, told the news agency. “Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men.” Reuters and other analysts have suggested the cucumber rule was rooted in the extremists’ view that the nourishing vegetable is too sexually suggestive for women to safely handle."

College Students Claim Objective 'Truth' Is A Racist 'Myth' - "After outgoing Pomona College President David Oxtoby sent a school-wide email rebuking the actions of violent protesters attempting to shut down conservative journalist Heather Mac Donald's speech, three self-identified "Black students" triggered by the pro-First Amendment stance penned a letter to Oxtoby, condemning his words, and, yes, openly labeling "truth" a racist "myth.""

Dark Demands Of Claremont’s “Black Intellectuals” - "Note the hashtag, #BlackIntellectualsMatter. She repeated this ad hominem again. Black intellectuals. While calling everyone who disagrees racist or sexist, whatever other -ists and -isms are in vogue that hour, has long been a substitute for the brutal difficulty of thought, the effectiveness had long since worn thin. Once you’re labeled racist or misogynist, it loses its sting. As weapons go, name-calling isn’t very effective except to the person doing the calling, who believes they’ve scored a huge victory. Of course, this goes to one of the root problems, that they fail to grasp that their words are only meaningful to people who believe as they do. To others, it’s no different than screaming “your mother wears army boots.”"

What do international students think of American schools? - "U.S. schools, when compared to those of other countries, do not fully embrace inculcating knowledge as the high school’s primary institutional mission"