Links - 24th July 2017 (2)

The older the doctor, the higher the patient mortality rate, study finds - "doctors’ skills may deteriorate over time or simply become outdated. Older doctors may be more likely to rely on anecdotal rather than evidence-based practices. The flip-side is that younger doctors are freshly trained in the most effective practices... Older doctors who see a lot of patients may be forced to keep up with the most up-to-date methods. Conversely, they may get more patients because they keep up."

These two S’pore cheerleaders will always take cooler couple photos than you

The prom dress: An anthropological history of America's sexual coming-of-age costume - "It’s now a rite of passage in the social life of kids in the US, and over the decades it has been a space where teens navigate—and push back against—societal conventions about gender, sexuality, tradition, and values... for girls, the dress is much more an opportunity for them to display how they see themselves, and want others to see them. For many, that often includes a distinct whiff of sexuality... “The prom is a place where young women are able to try out different ways of being sexy in a limited liability contest.”... “I also overheard many girls proudly exchanging stories of their fathers’ utter discomfort in seeing their daughters in such sexy dresses, testimonies that the girls had succeeded in transforming themselves.”"

Kaiser Kuo's answer to How common is VPN usage in China to circumvent censorship? - Quora - "We estimate that no more than 3% of Internet users in countries that engage in substantial filtering use circumvention tools. The actual number is likely considerably less... The simple fact is that most of the Internet services that most Chinese people want to use are (surprise, surprise!) in Chinese, and the overwhelming majority of Internet services in Chinese are hosted in mainland China"

Perfection | Tell Me Something I Don't Know - "For hundreds of years, people have thought that kneading bread was required to get the strands of gluten proteins that are in wheat to align so that it will trap bubbles and you could have it rise and you could have nice fluffy bread. And the reality is that the proteins align pretty much by themselves in the presence of water...
A lot of the shoreline of New York city especially Manhattan and the older parts of the city are actually built out past the original island. And a lot of the times they use foundations made of wood. Of course wood is a natural biological material and it's subject to all kinds of decay, one of which is that it's the food source of tiny marine organisms called marine borers commonly that get into the wood and eat at it until it basically disintegrates. So this wasn't really a problem for a lot of the twentieth century because we have been piping out all this sewage and industrial waste into the water and a lot of the marine life had died out. The Clean Water Act came along... within the next decade or two a lot of these structures are going to be collapsing or going to need to be closed before they collapse to to keep the public safe"

When Payment Undermines the Pitch - "Incentivized advocates for a cause are perceived as less sincere than nonincentivized advocates and are ultimately less effective in persuading other people to donate. Further, the negative effects of incentives hold only when the incentives imply a selfish motive; advocates who are offered a matching incentive (i.e., who are told that the donations they successfully solicit will be matched), which is not incompatible with altruism, perform just as well as those who are not incentivized. Thus, incentives may affect prosocial outcomes in ways not previously investigated: by crowding out individuals’ sincerity of expression and thus their ability to gain support for a cause."

Long hair - what does the Bible saids? - "To sum it up we can see that God have nothing against men having long hair. So if you want to look real Metal, do as the Nazirites, grow your hair out and grow it long!"
This is from Metal for Jesus, Your Christian Metal Source

The bombing at a Manchester Ariana Grande show was an attack on girls and women.
Comments: "This article is gross. The bodies are still cooling and you're already trying to exploit them.. for what?"
"So does this mean that the Bataclan attack was specifically on hipster ironic-sleaze-rock fans? Get over yourself and pet causes."
"As a woman i find this article extremely insulting. I didn't see anyone labeling the bombing at the Germany vs France football match a direct attack on men and boys."
"Next time, they could blow up an audience composed of mostly males, then at least it won't be such a tragedy."

In pictures: ISIS takes control of its first city in the Philippines - "Overnight, heavy clashes erupted in the predominately Sunni city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after security forces and ISIS sleeper cells battled it out for hours on end... the Philippine Army withdrew from most of the city on Tuesday morning, thereby making it the first city in southeast Asia to come under Islamic State control... ISIS members have captured the main prison in Marawi and released over a hundred prisoners, many of whom are caliphate sympathisers and may join its ranks. Dozens of military vehicles and weapons were also captured during the battle"
It's all the Philippines's fault. They shouldn't have taken part in the Crusades or invaded Iraq

Only a fraction of terror suspects can be watched 24/7 - "MI5 can monitor fewer than 50 terrorist suspects around the clock, it can be disclosed, ahead of a report into the Lee Rigby murder that will highlight the limitations in watching terrorists in Britain... “If you assume that at any given point there are 500 or 600 potentially violent extremists in the country and that it takes 20, 25 people to keep somebody under surveillance 24/7, inevitably given that resources are limited you can only watch maybe 50, 60 people at any given time 24/7. “All the others, you have to opt for lesser forms of surveillance, so constantly you have to decide who is really dangerous, who is less dangerous and who is perhaps not even dangerous at all. And inevitably mistakes are being made.”"
Just because you're known to the authorities doesn't mean you can be prevented from unleashing terror

How Surveillance Turns Ordinary People Into Terrorism Suspects - "Several months after his home was searched, his telephone rang. It was a Chico police officer who told Gill to shut down his Facebook page. Gill refused, responding that there was only one reason he thought the police wanted his account deleted: its references to Islam. The phone call ended ominously with the officer warning Gill that he was on a "watchlist." The officer may have been referring to yet another burgeoning secret database that the federal government calls its "consolidated terrorism watchlist." Inclusion in this database—and on government blacklists that are generated from it—can bring more severe repercussions than unwarranted law enforcement attention. It can devastate lives."

Six out of 10 migrants to Europe come for 'economic reasons' and are not refugees, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans says - "More than half of all migrants to Europe are motivated by “economic reasons” and are not fleeing war or persecution, the vice-president of the European Commission has said. Dutch politician Frans Timmermans said the majority of migrants to Europe are from North African countries such as Morocco or Tunisia, where there is no conflict. “More than half of the people now coming to Europe come from countries where you can assume they have no reason whatsoever to ask for refugee status... more than half, 60 per cent,” he told Dutch broadcaster NOS."

Social Psychological Origins of Conspiracy Theories: The Case of the Jewish Conspiracy Theory in Malaysia - "Two studies examined correlates of belief in a Jewish conspiracy theory among Malays in Malaysia, a culture in which state-directed conspiracism as a means of dealing with perceived external and internal threats is widespread... belief in the Jewish conspiracy theory was associated with anti-Israeli attitudes, modern racism directed at the Chinese, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation. General conspiracist ideation did not emerge as a significant predictor once other variables had been accounted for. These results suggest that there may be specific cultural and social psychological forces that drive belief in the Jewish conspiracy theory within the Malaysian context. Specifically, belief in the Jewish conspiracy theory among Malaysian Malays appears to serve ideological needs and as a mask for anti-Chinese sentiment, which may in turn reaffirm their perceived ability to shape socio-political processes."

Jury Sides With Coca-Cola in False-Advertising Suit by Pom - WSJ - "Coke dropped its Minute Maid pomegranate-blueberry juice in 2014 amid weak sales but argued the drink’s labeling complied with Food and Drug Administration requirements despite containing less than 1% pomegranate juice... the disputed product was mostly apple and grape juice"

World's largest Muslim youth organisation calls for re-examination of Islamic text - "“A wide discrepancy now exists between the structure of Islamic orthodoxy and the context of Muslims’ actual reality," said Luthfi Thomafi, a member of GP Ansor's board. "(This is) due to immense changes that have occurred since the teachings of orthodox Islam, which became largely ossified towards the end of the medieval era.” "
Hopefully they don't get called apostates and murdered

Only 4% of British Muslims believe Al Qaeda planned 9/11 - "43% support the introduction of some forms of Sharia law.
44% believe schools should be able to insist on “a hijab or niqab” as part of the uniform.
15% believe art or music should not be taught in school (artistic representations of humans are regarded as idolatry in some forms of Islamic belief).
10% would not ban tutoring that “promotes extreme views or is deemed incompatible with fundamental British values”...
The poll mirrors an older survey taken by Gallup in 2009, which also found that many British Muslims hold extreme views. That older poll, a survey of 500 Muslims, discovered that zero percent — literally none of those surveyed — believed homosexuality was morally acceptable. A later survey, taken this year by ICM, found 52% of 1,000 Muslims surveyed believe homosexuality should be illegal... "it was noticeable how a gathering of otherwise ‘normal’, well-adjusted individuals could hold fairly outlandish views""
31% thought the American Government was responsible and 7% Jews. And these are British Muslims - not those in Muslim countries
Some would dismiss this because it's Policy Exchange, but Gallup and ICM have similarly alarming results

I knew Muslims who celebrated 9/11 – 15 years on, they know how naive they were - "Many of those Muslims who celebrated on 9/11 have learned that we can’t fixate on Muslim civilian casualties at the hands of non-Muslims and look the other way when people of our faith, and in the name of our religion, kill innocents. They have also learned that we can’t flirt with anti-Semitism (indulging in conspiracy theories such as ‘Israel knew about 9/11’) and then complain about the effects of Islamophobia. We can’t always be the victims of society – even if, all too often, we still are... In 2001, many of our communities in the West still relied on Muslim-majority countries to provide imported Imams. These scholars came from countries that lacked a fully developed civil society, and had no way of rationalising complex global events except by either gloating or blaming Israel... Sheikh Adel Kalbani, the former Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (the closest thing to a Sunni Muslim Pope) acknowledged recently that Isis takes inspiration, albeit pervertedly, from much of the Islamic teachings in the Arab world. Kalbani’s message is vital because the silent majority can no longer afford to be silent; if you can march against Salman Rushdie or Israeli collateral damage in Gaza, then you can march against extremism too. Because when we say Isis has “nothing to do with Islam” we must qualify this: they have nothing to do with our Islam, the Islam practiced by the vast majority of Muslims today... The Prophet Muhammad instructed his followers that there would be constant “Mujaddids” – renewers or reformers – for his religion"

Cosmo Praises 'Muslim' For Helping Manchester Concert-Goers. Then Something Hilarious Happens. - "Turns out, the kind "Muslim" man is actually a Sikh, as is stated on the tweet Cosmo asked to use within their story. That's right, Cosmo thinks Sikhs are Muslims."

Scientists have worked out why flamingos stand on one leg - "Professor Young-Hui Chang from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Lena H Ting of Emory University conducted a series of experiments using the bodies of dead flamingos - and found it was easier to stand them up on one leg rather than two."

Alternative Reality: 55 Percent of Democrats Think Russia Could Have Manipulated Vote Totals to Help Trump Win - "Well, so much for Democrats being the more enlightened American political sect. It looks like the media’s overuse of the phrase “Russia hacked the 2016 election” has taken a real toll on our left-leaning friends. A recent YouGov survey asked whether it’s true of false that “Russia tampered with vote tallies in order to get Donald Trump election President.” Turns out, 32 percent of Dems say it’s “probably true” and 23 percent say it’s “definitely true.” Republicans overwhelmingly reject this latest conspiracy theory. Only 12 percent say it’s “probably true” and a mere four percent say it’s “definitely true” that Russia changed the presidential election results by tinkering with vote totals. Independents concur, with 42 percent saying it’s “probably not true” and 26 percent saying it’s “definitely not true.”"

People's Daily just rewrote China's Korean War history last night : China - "In direct response to NK's accusation that "NK has been shielding China from the US for the past 70 years therefore China should be grateful to NK, and that China should stop testing NK's patience", People's Daily said "Had Kim's granddad not tried to force an unification, there wouldn't have been a Korean War, China wouldn't have suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties, China wouldn't have had suffered 20 years of confrontational relations with the US, China would've unified Taiwan (Truman's administration publicly said they've given up on Taiwan before the Korean war), China bore most of the cost of NK's hubris." Why is this significant? People's Daily effectively said Kim's granddad started the Korean War. This is in direct contrast to all official versions of Chinese Korean War history, that SK and the US were the aggressors and China got involved defending a friend."

Macron’s victory — cause for hope or despair? - "The anachronism of the left-right ideological divide in France mirrors political developments in the United States and United Kingdom. Mr Donald Trump’s presidential campaign avoided stereotypical Republican discourses in favour of problem-oriented perspectives. In the UK, the Labour Party’s popularity declined sharply due to its incapacity to address the British electorate’s economic concerns and perceived threats to values and identity. These trends highlight that exclusive left- and right-wing discourses are rejected by constituencies because they fail to concomitantly address class and identity matters in societies"

S’pore groom gatecrashes as Chinese emperor, complete with eunuchs & concubines

Baby given gluten-free diet dies weighing just 9lbs in Belgium - "The parents determined their own diagnosis that their child was gluten intolerant and had a lactose allergy"

Daryl Bem proved ESP is real. Which means science is broken. - "Wu and the other women tested hundreds of their fellow undergrads. Most of the subjects did as they were told, got their money, and departed happily. A few students—all of them white guys, Wu remembers—would hang around to ask about the research and to probe for flaws in its design. Wu still didn’t believe in ESP, but she found herself defending the experiments to these mansplaining guinea pigs. The methodology was sound, she told them—as sound as that of any other psychology experiment... If he could get his mainstream colleagues to run the studies for themselves, and if they could find the same results, he’d be vindicated once and for all. To help get this project underway, Bem had granted researchers full access to his data and provided a detailed how-to guide for redoing his experiments—a level of transparency that was pretty much unheard of at the time... Bem’s colleagues in psychology had, for their part, been engaged in methodological debates for decades, with many pointing out that sample sizes were far too small, that treatments of statistics could be quite misleading, and that researchers often conjured their hypotheses after collecting all their data. And every once in a while, someone would bemoan the lack of replications in the research literature. (Notice how these concerns mirror those the parapsychological community alighted upon in the early 1980s.)... It’s plain to see that Bem achieved his major goal: to promote replications of the research into ESP. (“Everything rests on replication,” he told me.) As far as he and other parapsychologists are concerned, these replications have so far been equivocal. “I think the jury is still out,” says Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at University of California–Santa Barbara who was one of the original peer reviewers for Bem’s paper. Schooler, who is very open to the evidence for ESP, admits it’s possible that Bem’s results are nothing more than artifacts of flawed experimental design. But then he says that precognition could be real. In fact, “there’s no reason why you can’t entertain both of these possibilities at once.” "
What does it say when only white guys are skeptical and they get dismissed as mansplainers?