Links - 11th September 2017 (1)

Why You Hate the Word Moist - "Dr. Thibodeau had three hypotheses on why people aren't into "moist": because of the way the word sounds, its association with gross bodily functions, and by virtue of the fact that everyone else (apparently) hates the word. The results of Dr. Thibodeau's study affirm the latter two hypotheses."

Fukushima cows find new purpose in radiation study - Technology & Science - "So far, the animals' internal organs and reproductive functions have shown no significant abnormality particularly linked to radiation exposure, Okada said, but it's too early to draw conclusions about thyroid cancer and leukemia. Radiation could cause leukemia, but so could mosquitoes, which have infected cattle around the world with bovine leukemia virus"

Asexual lizards do not need sex to keep genetic variation - "these lizards maintain genetic richness by starting the reproductive process with twice the number of chromosomes than sexual lizard species. The researchers found that these species could maintain diversity and form a gamete by pairing their sister chromosomes (the two chromatids from one chromosome), while in sexual species homologous chromosomes from each parent are paired... An interesting aspect to reproduction in these asexual lizards is that mating behavior still occurs even though the populations are all female. One female plays the role of a male and mounts the female that is about to lay eggs. This behaviour is due to hormonal cycles"

Scientists Feed Cows Onions to Make Them Stop Farting So Much Methane - "From the tests, the scientists determined that 25 grams per day was a fine amount of onion extract to feed cows, and that 2 milligrams per kilogram of PTSO was the maximum concentration to avoid making the milk taste like onions"

Why Dragonfly Wings Kill Bacteria

Millions of Muslims March Against the Islamic State? - "On 22 November 2016, the American Herald Tribune web site published an article (which was uncritically aggregated by other sites such as MintPress News under the misleading headline “Media Blackout as Millions of Muslims March Against ISIS in Iraq”). In reality, millions of Muslims did not march against the Islamic State, nor did a “media blackout” result in news agencies’ ignoring such an event."

People who swear more are more honest, new psychology study finds - "Someone who does not filter their language, so swears, is more likely to be saying what they think to be true so are being more honest and genuine from their perspective... Last year, a study suggested it was intelligent people who swear more"

Scientists solve mystery of Scotland's shrinking sheep - "Scientists have now stepped in to solve the conundrum, and fingered the culprit as the new Moriarty of mankind: global warming. The experts say shorter and milder winters mean that lambs do not need to put as much weight on during their first few months of life. Smaller animals that would have perished in harsh winters a few decades ago can now survive to their first birthday. As a result, the average weight of the sheep has dropped by 81g each year."
Also, Bergmann's rule

Shae Williams: History-mad Norwich schoolboy turns bedroom into Admiral Nelson museum - "He is charging £2 for adults, 50p per child and £4 for a family ticket to visit his bedroom and see his collection. His younger brother Kye, six, has been press-ganged as a security guard."

Hide Izumi's answer to What aspect of Japanese culture is hardest for westerners to properly understand? - Quora - "Japan does not like to assign accountability to a single individual. Given the choice, Japanese groups will shy away from designating a single point of accountability. When something goes wrong, everyone takes responsibility - which in reality means no one takes responsibility. The whole troupe that is said to be responsible can all commit Harakiri, but that still does not help in identifying the one guy who was to claim responsibility for what happened."

Antidote for partisanship? In science, curiosity seems to work - "knowledge of science, and curiosity about science, are not the same thing"

Oxford University blasted for 'insulting' decision to allow students to sit exams at home as it implies women are the 'weaker sex' - "From the start of the next academic year, the University’s History Faculty is to change its exam system to replace one of the five final-year exams with a “take-home” paper. The move is designed to boost results for female students at Oxford, who are less likely to get a first-class degree in history than their male peers... "You are saying that the girls can’t take the stress of sitting in the exam room, which does raise one’s anxiety levels. I don’t think girls are inherently weaker than boys and can’t take it. Women are not the weaker sex.” Ms Foreman said the reason why men outperform women in their degrees is because young men are encouraged to be risk takers, while young women particularly at school are encouraged to be conformist. “A first class degree is awarded on basis of whether ideas are fresh and new – risk taking behaviour takes you to that point," she said."
Yet few care that women are more likely to go to university

Gay trio Victor Hugo Prada, Manuel Jose Bermudez and John Alejandro Rodriguez’s modern family recognised in Colombia - "THREE gay men say they have gained legal recognition as the first “polyamorous family” in Colombia, where same-sex marriages were legalised last year."
And the slippery slope was supposed to be a conservative homophobic lie

Durham University handed out books encouraging terrorism - "A university Islamic Society has apologised for handing out booklets written by a preacher saying 'every Muslim should be a terrorist'... The booklet also claims that women should wear hijabs to 'prevent them from being molested'. It also states Western culture has turned women into 'concubines, mistresses, and social butterflies who are mere tools in the hands of pleasure seekers'. It describes a girl wearing a mini-skirt as 'an indirect invitation to the opposite sex for teasing and molestation.'... Naik has previously stated that a man has the 'right' to beat his wife 'gently'. He also says Muslim men have the 'right to sex with their female slaves', and recommends 'death penalty' for homosexuals, who he believes are 'patients suffering from sinful mental problems'. Naik supported Osama Bin Laden, stating 'if he is terrorising America, the biggest terrorist, I am with him. 'Every Muslim should be a terrorist. The thing is that if he is terrorising a terrorist, he is following Islam.'"

SUPER WOKE: New 'Call of Duty' Lets You Play as Black Lady Nazis - "The developer wanted to add diversity, by allowing players to customize the character they play in multiplayer. This means, you can change the race and gender of your soldier avatar. When playing, the game randomly places you on a different team, usually Americans or Nazis, so sometimes, you’re gonna get some pretty ahistorical looking Nazis. This might be why the multiplayer was scrubbed of all Swastikas, on army uniforms and in maps of Berlin."

Trendy Moms Are Asking Their Babies Permission to Pick Them Up (So They Don't Turn Into Rapists) - "Enterprising new parents claim to be expanding the boundaries of consent, even though their infants can’t talk and barely understand the world around them. They claim that picking up babies without checking in with them first is an aspect of “rape culture” – and that raising them without involuntary lifting will make sure their sons don’t become rapists in later life."

Mommy Blogger: It's a Microaggression to Ask My Kid to Sit Still In Class - "One teacher assigned her six-year-old daughter homework from a “gigantic math workbook.” That’s a microaggression, Wyles explains, because the teacher is “assuming the kids go home after school and not to after-care.”... Wyles is also unhappy that elementary school teachers line up students in two separate lines, one for boys and one for girls. “But what about kids who don’t identify with their biological sex?” she worries. “Why can’t we make a place for them in the hallway?”... All of this occurs even though Wyles’ children attend an “incredibly diverse public elementary school” that offers five different languages and accommodates first-generation immigrant children. Even in this “inclusive and fair educational oasis,” Wyles worries, “tiny, yet powerful dings in my kids’ confidence affect their feelings about school.”"

Dolce & Gabbana Is Selling #Boycott T-Shirts Amidst Melania Trump Mini-Controversy - "Now the brand is set to release t-shirts making light of the hashtag. There is even a full-fledged social media campaign around the tee that makes use of protest imagery. Except this time no one is there to ease tensions with a soft drink."

Woman 'made up sex attack claims against 15 men and sent innocent man to jail for 7 years' - "She claimed she was attacked at a pub and outside her home, and gang raped in the street. Beale said she was raped by nine men and sexually assaulted by six. All but one were strangers. Beale’s first allegation was against Mahad Cassim, who had given her a lift home after a night out. He was charged with rape and jailed for seven years. But prosecutor John Price QC said: “That was a wrongful conviction. Mahad Cassim was innocent"... Mr Williams yesterday told how Beale had invited him to have sex with her at a party while her girlfriend was downstairs. He said: “I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t want her to feel rejected but I really didn’t find her attractive.”"
Somehow with sexual crimes motive is not a pertinent element

Antifa Member Attacks and Stabs Police Horse in Neck at Pennsylvania Demonstration - "Lisa Simon, an Antifa “counter-protester” of the March, reportedly attacked the horse with a flag pole that had a nail driven into one end in an effort to get the horse to run, causing chaos in the crowd, according to law enforcement. Simon stabbed the horse in the neck with the weapon, but the horse was able to keep composure and continued to work despite his injury. Simon, realizing she had not made headway in her effort, then attempted to obstruct police from moving the crowd along the block where they were working."

A year ago, Loretta Lynch tried editing ISIS out of the Orlando Pulse attack - "Rather than tell the truth, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Orlando's gay community that the FBI didn't know Mateen's real motivation. And when she told grieving families that "we stand with you," Lynch didn't tell them that the Obama administration didn't trust them with the facts about the terrorist that just killed their loved ones. At Lynch's direction, the FBI edited a partial 28-minute transcript of a 911 call, redacting all references to the Islamic State. As a result, grieving families played a tasteless and tragic fill-in-the-blank to learn about the killer."

Cultural appropriation: Make it illegal worldwide, Indigenous advocates say - "Delegates from 189 countries, including Canada, are in Geneva this week as part of a specialized international committee within the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency."
The damage is not just limited to college campuses

Anarchist conference descends into chaos

Ancient Egyptians more closely related to Europeans than modern Egyptians, scientists claim - "the mummified people were “distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples”."
We wuz kangz!
Of course there's a dissenter objecting because of the fear of the implications of the research

Breastfeeding Benefits: The Real, the Imagined, and the Exaggerated - "Observational studies on breastfeeding merit skepticism, because they all suffer from the same major problem: breastfed infants on average differ from formula-fed infants not just in how they are fed in infancy, but in practically every other possible way–maternal education, maternal IQ, poverty, neighborhood safety, exposure to environmental toxins, race, and type and quality of childcare. In scientific terms, breastfeeding is confounded, out the wazoo... Nearly all the alleged long-term benefits are likely the result of confounding, not breastfeeding. Better-designed studies find only a handful of real benefits: a reduced chance of severe gastrointestinal infections and a lower risk of eczema during infancy, and perhaps a small boost in childhood IQ... the apparent benefits of being breastfed vanished when the researchers compared siblings within families... If we as a society truly want to raise children’s IQs, improve behavior, and reduce obesity, our efforts would be better spent addressing systemic problems–providing living wages, paid maternity and paternity leave, and affordable, high- quality childcare–than urging all women to breastfeed.

Most US women won't dine alone with opposite sex, survey suggests - "Many eyebrows were raised when it emerged US Vice-President Mike Pence would not dine alone with a woman who was not his wife. How old fashioned, the internet cried. Only, now it seems he is not alone. A surprise poll for the New York Times has discovered more than half of women agree with him - as well as 45% of men. And as for a drink? Forget about it. Just 29% of women think that would be appropriate in a one-on-one situation."
I suppose condemning everyone else will let the Democrats win the Presidency again

Apple's new MacBook Pro is the first MacBook Consumer Reports won't recommend - "Consumer Reports is the gold standard for reviewing products and methodologies — if they’re picking up such drastic problems with three different systems, it’s a good sign that Apple has a serious problem it either can’t find or doesn’t want to admit."

Goodbye car, hello Grab and Uber - "A personal finance website just came up with a study that showed that taking Uber or Grab rides every day can actually be cheaper than owning a car in Singapore. ValuePenguin found that the cost of owning a car here and using ride-hailing apps daily works out to about the same - $15,000 to $16,000 per year for the average commuter.

Home Office Research Study 293 A gap or a chasm? Attrition in reported rape cases - "False allegations have been one of the most contested areas within law enforcement responses to rape, with research suggesting rates are no higher than for other crimes sitting alongside perceptions of police officers and the media who take the opposite view. Some of the most frequently cited US studies put the rate as low as two per cent (Katz and Mazur, 1979). There were 216 cases classified as false allegations: as a proportion of all 2,643 cases reported to the police this amounts to 8 per cent"
This is 4 times the rate that feminists like to cite and excludes false reports not proven to be false (e.g. dropouts or acquittals that are due to false reporting), which underreports the problem

FBI — Crime in the United States 1996 - Section II - Crime Index Offenses Reported: "The “unfounded” rate, or percentage of complaints determined through investigation to be false, is higher for forcible rape than for any other Index crime. Eight percent of forcible rape complaints in 1996 were “unfounded,” while the average for all Index crimes was 2 percent."
So much for the feminist myth that the rate of false reporting for rape is the same as for other crimes