Links - 7th September 2017 (1)

Duterte, focused on war on drug users, ignored rise of ISIS in Philippines - "A president who has focused on a deadly anti-drug campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Filipinos seems to have been caught unprepared for a militant threat that has been festering in the south for years... For the first time, it puts the Philippines on the map with failed states such as Libya and Afghanistan as places where ISIS allies have sought to seize territory for a caliphate, giving the group another regional flash point in its effort to spread its influence globally."

Islamophobia as bad and unacceptable as terrorism, says PM Lee
Apparently having an opinion is as bad as killing people
Is Islamophobia part and parcel of life in a big city?

CP Launches 10 New Sausages and Cold Cuts - "These bite-sized Japanese Classic Pork Sausages ($3.60) are a perfect choice for finger food when you're feeling peckish. The meat is chunky and seasoned with ginger and white pepper, making it different from your usual sausage"
These are excellent. The shoyu ones aren't as good

noneblr.com - "a wrapper for tumblr that strips away themes and leaves only the content. toggling between tumblr and noneblr is as easy as swapping the two words in any tumblr url. consider: http://thegreendiamond.tumblr.com/ vs http://thegreendiamond.noneblr.com/"

Why bananas as we know them might go extinct (again) - "Fifty years ago, we were eating better bananas. They tasted better, they lasted longer, they were more resilient and didn't require artificial ripening. They were -- simply put -- a better fruit, because they belonged to a different species, or cultivar in banana parlance.
It was called Gros Michel and it remained the world's export banana until 1965. That year, it was declared commercially extinct due to the Panama disease, a fungal disease that started out from Central America and quickly spread to most of the world's commercial banana plantations, leaving no other choice but to burn them down. The banana industry was in deep crisis, and had to look for alternatives. It settled with the Cavendish cultivar, which was deemed an inferior product but carried the distinction of being immune to the disease. It was quickly adopted by banana growers worldwide. Today, the Cavendish is a universal foodstuff, much like a Big Mac: supermarket bananas are pretty much identical anywhere you buy them. That's because they have nearly no genetic diversity -- the plants are all clones of one another... The disease now has a different name, "Tropical Race 4," and it started out in Malaysia around 1990, but it's otherwise very similar to the one that wiped out the Gros Michel: "It's caused by a really common type of fungus called Fusarium, which was probably already in the soil there. A single clamp of contaminated dirt is enough to spread it like wildfire, and it can be transported by wind, cars, water, creating an infection wherever it goes," explained Koeppel."

Spider-Man might be leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Spider-Man: Homecoming's sequel - "Just because that sequel might be the end of Spider-Man in the MCU doesn’t mean it’s the end of Tom Holland as the web-slinger. Sony is already hard at work developing movies centered around Spider-Man characters like Venom, Black Cat, and Silver Sable in order to launch its own separate Marvel universe. I’ve been wondering how they were going to make Spider-Man spin-offs without having access to Spider-Man himself, but now we have the answer. Sony appears to know that the deal they have with Disney and Marvel is set to expire, and they’re wisely planning ahead to keep the Spider-Man train running full steam ahead the second that deal runs its course."

Comey testimony shows Lynch's intrusion 'probably changed history': professor - "Comey said during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that Loretta Lynch, the attorney general during the FBI's investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server, had asked him to refer to the inquiry as a "matter" instead of an "investigation." Comey recalled the request giving him "a queasy feeling." It also echoed language the Clinton campaign itself was using. "That was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude I have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly," Comey said. After hearing Comey's Thursday remarks, Jed Shugerman, a law professor at Fordham University, said he could no longer "stand by my earlier criticism that the GOP was asking about Clinton email to distract from the Trump questions."

Radius Around a Point on a Map - "You can use this tool to find the radius around a point on the map. First type in the radius required in kilometers or miles and then click on the map at the center of where you wish the circle to appear."

How it Feels To Be An 'Ang Moh' Minority In Singapore - "Weekend nights in the Quays or on Club Street can feel like an alternate universe where the United States, Europe, and Australia joined forces and met in Singapore... expats in Singapore seem to have created a sheltered culture of their own, which is comforting for homesickness, albeit questionable. You’ll even find “expat neighbourhoods” in Singapore."

Gang 'killed victims to extract their fat' - "A Peruvian gang that allegedly killed people and drained fat from their corpses for use in cosmetics may have been inspired by a grisly Andean legend. Hilarió Cudeña Simon, the alleged ringleader, linked the crimes to tales of demonic assassins, known as Pishtacos, who purportedly waylaid victims in pre-Columbian times, police said."... Two of the suspects were arrested at a bus station in the capital, Lima, carrying bottles of liquid fat which they claimed were worth up to £36,000 a gallon... Police said they received a tip four months ago about a trade in human fat, which exported the amber liquid to Europe as anti-wrinkle cream."

Is she overly sensitive -- or perhaps I am... - Bilahari Kausikan - "Is she overly sensitive -- or perhaps I am overly thick-skinned? In any case, this does not seem to amount to very much. I went to a primary school where I had to physically fight almost every day for six years because I was neither Chinese, Indian or Malay and I don't think it did me any harm -- if anything it did me some good because it taught me to fight dirty -- nor did it make me disillusioned with Singapore. Race is a reality; deal with it."
Bilahari Kausika needs to check his Chinese Privilege!
Comments: "if anyone does not want comments on their feelings they should not write about their feelings on FB."
"When people don't like you, they think in terms of "that Indian, or that Cina bukit", in the same way as your detractor would call you " see bak" (4 eyes), or "that katek fella" or "that c.b. face" and so on.....it's what's prominent on you."
"I thought it worth reproducing with some comments to expose a certain attitude which I think is unhealthy -- a certain softness at the core as if your identity is so fragile that the slightest thing bruises it. So even if exaggerated perhaps still deeply felt and that is the point: an attitude not to be at all encouraged. Grow up woman and if you feel strongly fight don't whine."

The real King John and the BBC in World War Two | Podcast | History Extra - "History doesn't give you black and white answers. What history is is a conversation. And that's what the good essay is from an undergraduate. Indeed it's what the good article is from an academic or the good book. It's a discussion of a range of possibilities. So I can't give you an answer as to what John's childhood was like and what he was like as a child but we can say things which are illuminating...
He had friendships, but those friendships can one ever really be a friend with a king? Because they always can take away what they've given. And they can always react violently towards you...
The original purpose of money is not to act as a medium of exchange for ordinary people but is to raise taxation. And the purpose of raising taxation is to pay the army so."

BBC Radio 4 - Our Man in the Middle East, Part 22: Oil and Water - "The rush hour starts about eleven in the morning. Not commuting. They're looking for qat. People rush around with bundles of Yemen's favourite leaf under their arms. In war or peace, in Yemen the hunt for qat must go on...
The British are said to spend their afternoons drinking tea. In fact at the long and elegant promenade tea salon in the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane in London, most of the customers were from the Middle East...
There were Jihadists forced out of Saudi Arabia into Yemen. They set up an aggressive and ambitious new group - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That was as well as Yemen's own poisonous politics - the former President said ruling the country was like dancing on the heads of snakes"

BBC Radio 4 - Our Man in the Middle East, Part 23: The New Sultan - "Ataturk was a ruthless modernizer who believed Turkey's future was in secular Europe, not the religious Middle East. He abolished the title of caliph, ruler of the Islamic world, which Turkish sultans had claimed for four hundred years. And he dropped the Arabic alphabet for the Roman one. Islamic law he told his people might have worked for tribes in the desert but it didn't work in the twentieth century. Sometimes he said all religions should be at the bottom of the sea. Ataturk passed the hat law to encourage men to wear western clothing. It banned turbans and the fez, a hat made without a brim so men could wear it and still touch their forehead to the floor to pray. Ataturk didn't ban head scarves for women but they couldn't be worn in state institutions including schools and universities. His message was that religion at home was fine but it had no place in the state. The army considered it a national duty to safeguard his secular legacy - until a rival to Ataturk emerged to take them on"

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Hokusai - "In Japan interestingly enough it's not the great wave that is the best known print. The best known print in Japan is something called Red Fuji because most of the impressions of the print are in red"

China tears up promises to UK and shows the world who is in charge - "His message to Britain was blunt, too, bordering on disdainful. China would not brook outside “interference” in the former colony. Forget about those guarantees of a free, open society painstakingly negotiated before the 1997 handover... China’s foreign ministry formally renounced the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration, the basis on which Britain agreed to relinquish control of the colony. The two sides had agreed the treaty would remain in force for 50 years... China’s hardening stance is deeply threatening to Hong Kong and bilateral relations. It suggests China’s official word cannot be trusted, whether the issue is Hong Kong’s (and Taiwan’s) continued freedoms, illegal regional military expansion, or investment in Britain’s nuclear industry, retailers and real estate."
What does China's abrogation of One Country, Two Systems imply about China's Peaceful Rise?

EPA says toilet paper should now go down the toilet - "According to EPA statistics, every person produces about approximately 32 to 35 grams of feces per toilet session. Every piece of toilet paper weighs approximately 0.3 to 0.5 grams. If two to five pieces of toilet paper are used per session, the weight of the toilet paper would be about 3.4 to 14.3 percent of the weight of the feces produced — a negligible additional burden that's unlikely to clog the drain... plumbers said that toilets installed over the past 20 years have plastic pipes measuring 3.5 to 4 inches wide — enough space to allow toilet paper to glide right through. But toilets installed over 30 years ago are fitted with iron pipes that rust with age and become increasingly resistant to the passage of waste and toilet paper... In the future, vending machines outside public toilets will be stocked only with dissolvable tissue paper"

When are people going to stop binning and start flushing their toilet paper? - "80 to 90 percent of Taiwanese throw their used toilet paper into waste bins... bins filled with used toilet paper tarnish Taiwan's image as a clean city. Besides being an eyesore or creating an unpleasant toilet experience, there are also concerns that smelly bins are a breeding ground for bacteria and bugs... In 2011, the EPA released a report that found the top five brands of toilet paper on the market in Taiwan did not dissolve easily and could cause problems for homes that are not connected to the main sewerage system. Recent statistics from the Ministry of Interior also found that slightly more than half of Taiwanese households are not linked to the main sewerage network

To Flush or Not to Flush: Change in Taiwan’s Bathroom Etiquette - "Chiu says that while flushing versus binning is just a small change in habit, making the switch will signal a transformation for Taiwan. “When foreign tourists come to Taiwan, they generally think wow, Taiwan is an advanced country,” he says. “But when they see the waste disposed of in bins, this is not a situation that an advanced country should have.” “Every person needs to go to the bathroom every day. If we can make the bathroom environment better, this is really an improvement to the quality of life.”"

The Accidental Invention: The Origin Of Piggy Banks - "The origin of piggy banks dates back nearly 600 years, in a time before real banks even existed. Before the creation of modern-style banking institutions, people commonly stored their money at home — not under the mattress (or hay rack), but in common kitchen jars. During The Middle Ages, metal was expensive and seldom used for household wares. Instead, dishes and pots were made of an economical orange-colored clay called pygg. Whenever folks could save an extra coin or two, they dropped it into one of their clay jars — a pygg pot... the first true piggy banks — terracotta banks in the shape of a pig with a slot in the top for depositing coins — were made in Java as far back as the 14th century... To this day in some European countries, notably in the Netherlands and German speaking countries, it is customary to give piggy banks as gifts because pigs are associated with luck and good fortune."

Cover up to ‘respect’ Muslims, Mufti tells non-Muslims in dress code rows - "Non-Muslims should dress more “appropriately” in public places out of “respect” for Muslims who will sin upon seeing people, including non-Muslims, who do not cover their “aurat”, Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria said amid the controversy surrounding conservative dress codes enforced at government departments. “Even when we wear properly but we see other people who show their ‘aurat’, it is haram”... Harussani said Malaysians should be more open to the idea of non-Muslims dressing “appropriately” as Malaysia is seen as an “Islamic role model country”."

Mother opened nappy to find three-month-old son had been circumcised - "The boy was said to have been operated on while on a visit to his paternal grandparents, who are Muslim... Campaigners say it is believed to be the first time a police force has treated "non-theraputic" circumcision as GBH. The 26-year-old mother says the child, now aged four, has suffered repeated physical problems, including inflammation and water infections, in the years since the operation as a direct result. "It's even illegal to dock dogs' tails. I've come home crying my eyes out thinking a dog has got more rights than my child," she said. "There's something seriously not right with it all. You can protect a dog, you can protect a girl, but not a boy.""

Liberal mosque in Berlin, Germany brings founder Seyran Ates death threats, condemnation from Turkey, Egypt - "The opening of a new mosque this month in Berlin further strained already-tense relations between Germany and Turkey, and has caused outrage in various corners of the Muslim world -- even prompting religious authorities in Egypt to issue a decree condemning the mosque as un-Islamic. But despite recieving hundreds of death threats, the mosque's founder, Seyran Ateş, says she'll continue to fight for her cause... Ateş wanted to create a place where Sunni and Shiite, Alawite and Sufi Muslims, men and women -- and members of the LGBTQ community -- could pray side by side"
Presumably setting up a liberal mosque is Islamophobia and defames Islam

Radio Clueless Thinks It Just Discovered Annie Lennox - "Eight Brit Awards, four Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Oscar and decades spent topping music charts somehow escaped a Los Angeles radio station that sent a letter inviting the legendary Annie Lennox to send in her latest MP3 single for its consideration."

Schumpeterian Profits in the American Economy: Theory and Measurement - "The present study examines the importance of Schumpeterian profits in the United States economy. Schumpeterian profits are defined as those profits that arise when firms are able to appropriate the returns from innovative activity. We first show the underlying equations for Schumpeterian profits. We then estimate the value of these profits for the non-farm business economy. We conclude that only a minuscule fraction of the social returns from technological advances over the 1948-2001 period was captured by producers, indicating that most of the benefits of technological change are passed on to consumers rather than captured by producers."