Links - 30th May 2017 (2)

Tycoon Mauric Laboz's daughters contesting conditions of $20m inheritance - "Two sisters who cannot access their $20million inheritance until they are either married with children or turn 35, are taking their case to court... if she marries before 35, Marlena will get $500,000, but only if her husband signs a sworn statement that he will not touch the money. She will earn another $750,000 if she graduates 'from an accredited university' and writes '100 words or less describing what she intends to do with the funds'. Trustees overseeing the money and appointed by Laboz must approve the essay. Starting in 2020, each daughter will be guaranteed an annual payout of three times the income listed on their personal federal tax return"

Evil Clown hired for stalking, threats and a pie in the face - "Dominic Deville stalks young victims for a week, sending chilling texts, making prank phone calls and setting traps in letterboxes. He posts notes warning children they are being watched, telling them they will be attacked. But Deville is not an escaped lunatic or some demonic monster. He is a birthday treat, hired by mum and dad, and the ‘attack’ involves being splatted in the face with a cake."

Six Reasons Not To Engage With Scammers, No Matter What Your Facebook Friends Tell You - "Your data typically isn't getting stolen in one fell swoop: your identity profile is being put together piece by piece. Key bits of information about you may be stored, repackaged and sold from one scammer to the next. The fact that you answered the phone and were willing to engage? That's valuable to scammers who might try it again later - or sell your number to the highest bidder."

Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization - "In the original Civilization, it was because of a bug. Each leader in the game had an “aggression” rating, and Gandhi - to best reflect his real-world persona - was given the lowest score possible, a 1, so low that he’d rarely if ever go out of his way to declare war on someone. Only, there was a problem. When a player adopted democracy in Civilization, their aggression would be automatically reduced by 2. Code being code, if Gandhi went democratic his aggression wouldn’t go to -1, it looped back around to the ludicrously high figure of 255, making him as aggressive as a civilization could possibly be."

Ferguson protesters put a $5000 bounty on Darren Wilson; donated by an investor - "The so-called peaceful protesters, whose threats chased officer Darren Wilson into hiding, announced a bounty on his head Sunday."
Black Lives Matter!

University Of Chicago Activists Post List Of Men Who Have Shown 'Troubling Behavior' - "Students at the University of Chicago are circulating a list of men who have shown “troubling behavior towards romantic or sexual partners,” according to the group behind the effort."
Scarlet Letters are so fashionable

Premature celebration: Runner loses race after celebrating too early

The restaurant that banned kids under 7 just did its best weekend's trade in 14 years - "Three weeks ago chef Liam Flynn, owner of Flynn’s restaurant in Far North Queensland, had a run-in with a customer who told him to “f**k off” when he asked she take her crying two-year-old child outside until he calmed down. That evening, he decided to ban children under seven from the restaurant and posted the details on Facebook."

King's College London considers banning national anthem after student officer links it to 'far-Right nationalism' - "Mr Findon told the Telegraph that the issue is distracting from the “real issues” faced by students in the capital... Upon announcing his decision to run for the welfare and community position, Mr Abdullahi revealed that he was campaigning for “a union with liberation at the centre of everything it does”. He also said he wanted to “decolonise the curriculum”."

How a Gift from Schoolchildren Let the Soviets Spy on the U.S. for 7 Years

Malaysia AGC defends decision not to charge Perkasa chief for Bible-burning threat - "Malaysia’s Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) confirmed today (Oct 27) it has closed its books on Mr Ibrahim Ali’s case, saying it cannot prosecute the Perkasa president for threatening to torch bibles as he was only defending the sanctity of Islam and had not meant to incite anyone to religious frenzy."

Thousands rally in Malaysia to back Islamic penal code bill - "Tens of thousands of Malaysians rallied in the capital on Saturday to support the adoption of a strict Islamic penal code, a proposal religious minorities fear could infringe their rights."
How long can they be dismissed as a small, insignificant minority?

Popular fish oil study deeply flawed, new research says - "The 2014 study has found that Inuit do have similar rates of heart disease compared to non-Inuit populations, and that death rates due to stroke are "very high.""

Are Liberals or Conservatives More Anti-Vaccine? - "4 of the 5 most anti-vaccine states are solid blue. (If Illinois is included, 5 of the 6 most anti-vaccine states are solid blue.) Including Illinois, 8 of the 12 most anti-vaccine states voted for Obama... The two most pro-vaccine states are solid red, and 5 of the 8 most pro-vaccine states overwhelmingly voted for Romney."

Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons. - "gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation. This research is apparently the first survey that has reported substantial homosexual molestation of girls"

Is Stereotype Threat Overcooked, Overstated, and Oversold? - "We selected 20 days scattered throughout the year and, what a shock, found that Tampa averaged about 40 degrees warmer than Anchorage. However, through the magic of ANCOVA, we can make that difference “statistically” disappear. We simply identified the temperatures in Tampa and Anchorage the day before, and now conducted an ANCOVA, “controlling for prior temperatures.” Figure 2A shows the huge 40 degree difference in actual temperature. Figure 2B shows how, controlling for prior temperatures, there is no difference in the temperature of Tampa and Anchorage. But of course there still is a difference. Saying “there are no differences, controlling for prior differences” is a silly, completely vacuous thing to say. It is like saying, “There is no difference, after we remove the difference.” For the first 10 years post publication of the original stereotype threat study, it was routinely sold as showing that “remove threat, and eliminate racial achievement differences”... What starts out as a critique of Sackett et al’s point buries the acknowledgement that Sackett et al were right! The critical acknowledgement is worth repeating: “…without this adjustment, they would be shown to perform still worse than Whites.” And yet, the claim “Steele & Aronson found that, remove threat, and Black=White test scores” appears over and over and over (see examples at end of this post)... Flore & Wicherts (2015) performed the only meta-analysis of which I am aware that has subjected stereotype threat findings to a whole family of skeptical tests, such as p-curves, funnel and forest plots, and tests for excess of significant results. The results are not pretty and show that the effects primarily appear in the underpowered, small scale studies, and either disappear or reverse altogether in the highly powered large scale studies. Uli Schimmack has also shown that stereotype threat studies are likely to have considerable difficulty replicating... Treating the right social disease (academic inequality) with a weak or ineffective “medicine” is as likely to be effective as treating pneumonia with aspirin. Overselling stereotype threat does a disservice to those whom the research is supposed to actually help. This is especially poignant when one considers “opportunity costs” – the millions in grant money spent on stereotype threat research that might have gone to other sorts of research left unfunded, and the journal space devoted to stereotype threat that might have gone to more solid research that might have made a greater contribution to basic understandings of human psychology and/or to academic interventions targeting phenomena likely to make larger differences, such as actually improving the quality of the education minority students receive."

Facebook was right to remove an advert featuring plus-sized model Tess Holliday - "Facebook says that it removed the post because the advert didn’t comply with its Health and Fitness Policy, which states: “Ads may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable (ex: you cannot use an image showing a person measuring his/her waist or an image focused solely on a person’s abs).” However, Cherchez la Femme appealed the ban on ‘body shaming’ grounds, leading Facebook ultimately to permit the advert and claim that the post had been mistakenly censored. Facebook was right to remove the advert. Body positivity is one thing, but promoting an unhealthy body size as healthy is different... There would be an uproar if a size zero model went live on air to saying that being underweight was okay. We cannot keep using the term ‘body shaming’ to excuse unhealthy bodies"

Chinese students in the US are using "inclusion" and "diversity" to oppose a Dalai Lama graduation speech - "Comments from Chinese students on Facebook were also couched in rhetoric commonly used to rally for inclusivity on campus. One simply read #ChineseStudentsMatter. Some argued that the invitation goes against “diversity” and “political correctness.” Others contended the university was acting hypocritically by inviting an “oppressive” figure like the Dalai Lama while fostering a climate of anti-racism and anti-sexism... None of professors Quartz contacted in the UCSD Chinese Studies program replied to requests for comments... Data suggests that Asian students have typically remained the least politically active of all student groups on US campuses. According to a survey by the University of California, Los Angeles of first-year students across nearly 200 universities, students who identify as “Asian” remain less likely to participate in protests compared to whites, blacks, and Latinos."
Interestingly Native Americans are even less likely to protest

I,Hypocrite - Posts - "Donald Trump Prefers His Steak Well Done, AKA The Worst Possible Way" - Huffington Post
"If You Judge People For How They Like Their Steak, You Might Be A Trump Supporter" - Huffington Post
"Why a presidential candidate's health isn't a voter's right to know" - CNN
"What we know about Donald Trump's health" - CNN

University Keeps Painting of Sexy Captain America Beheading President Trump, As Well It Should

America's First Queer Gym Removed Mirrors to Boost Inclusivity

Bucknell Uni Celebrates “Mirrorless Monday” To Combat Students’ Low Self-Esteem

Irish girl turned down for South Korea teaching job because of 'alcoholism nature of your kind' - ""I've been to SK three times (and NK once!) and I can confirm they have a similar drinking culture to Ireland. In fact when you get to know Korea you realise they are the Irish of Asia"... the variety of Irish accents can be detrimental to teachers coming from Ireland and said: "There's also definitely a pecking order when it comes to which English speaking country you come from as a teacher. "America/Canada is top and Ireland/South Africa/Scotland are probably tied for the bottom. The huge variety of Irish accents is pretty baffling to not only Koreans but anyone from outside of Ireland. "I've often had American friends comment on how different my accent is compared to their former Irish co-workers.""

How were the pyramids built? British engineer dubbed Indiana James stuns archaeologists with new theory - "Peter James said he believes ancient Egyptians formed the structures by piling up rubble on the inside and attaching bricks later. His shock claim challenges hundreds of years of accepted belief that the pyramids were built with giant blocks carried up huge ramps. The structural engineer reckons that would be impossible as the ramps would have had to have been at least a quarter of a mile long to get the right angle for the bricks to be taken to such great heights... "If that happened, there would still be signs that the ramps had been there, and there aren't any."

Is your gym regime making you bald? Experts in workout warning - "A recent study found over half of British men would rather have a full head of hair than a promotion or supermodel wife. Health experts have linked diet to hair health, as being deficient in certain nutrients can cause hair to thin... there has been a surge in men experiencing accelerated hair loss due to the use of powdered protein and the activity they participate in at the gym. Reportedly, certain ingredients in protein shakes increase testosterone and a chemical called DHT, which has been linked to hair loss... “Interestingly, the activity that men do in the gym can also potentially impact hair loss. While cardio will reduce the levels of DHT in the blood stream, excess weight lifting can increase testosterone levels and therefore accelerate hair loss""

Carleton University comes under heavy criticism after gym scale removed - ""Next it will be the mirrors. #bringbackthescale," wrote one Carleton student on Facebook, while another said online, "Are you for real, Carleton? What a sick joke." Details of the scale controversy were first reported in the university's student-run newspaper, The Charlatan, on Thursday. In more social media reaction, others wondered if the online article was satire. The paper quotes one student as saying, "Scales are very triggering" for people with eating disorders... Aaron Bens, a communication and media studies student at Carleton, wrote to CBC that he is "frustrated" by the university's decision, which he argues is "the next escalation of trigger culture." "We stand up for free speech and defend the books that offend certain people because of their merits. They can simply choose not to read them. This is the same thing. Those who are offended by the scale can simply choose not to use the scale," Bens wrote. "Certain athletes like boxers and rowers rely on those measurements, for them the [scale] is vital.""

Study: In Malaysia, religious controls tighter than in Saudi Arabia, Brunei

Malaysian gymnast gets brickbats for showing ‘aurat’, ‘vagina shape’ despite winning gold - "Malaysian gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi has received a slew of criticisms from Muslims who attacked her for showing her “aurat” and the “shape of her vagina” in a leotard despite winning a gold medal at the SEA Games...
Both Muslim women and men are prohibited in Islam from exposing their aurat, though criticisms are more often targeted against women."