Links - 9th May 2018 (2)

Two Chinese Languages (at Least) - "why does "Chinese" merit two versions of instructions on one German pencil box? It would be one thing if it were just a matter of "simplified" versus "traditional / complicated" characters used to write the same language (presumably Modern Standard Mandarin). Such, however, is not the case here. Instead, the first version, written in traditional / complicated characters, is translated quite differently from the second version, which appears in simplified characters. Even if you cannot read "Chinese," it is easy to notice that these two versions of ZHONG1WEN2 are starkly dissimilar... I learned my "Chinese" in the linguistic environment of Taiwan, which has maintained a conservative, older fashioned type of written Mandarin, not on the Mainland, where radical changes have occurred in the terminology and modes of expression employed for written Mandarin, including heavy influence from Marxist and Communist writing that was originally composed in German or Russian"

Winner Of ‘Most Beautiful Bum In China’ Can’t Wear Tights In Public - "she is forced to wear baggy clothes in public to avoid groups of people surrounding her, pointing and staring. It’s true, as Gao points out, that typically Asian women are not built with the same curves as Latina or Caucasians. Thus the heightened interest in her shapely behind means Gao must abstain from wearing leggings in public."

Donna Marie's answer to Which qualities in men attracts women the most? - Quora - "Listen to her complain about her exes and then Become like those men. The men women complain about are clearly the men they are attracted to because they are the men that turn them on and pique their romantic interest."

Why is Qaddafi still a colonel? - "Qaddafi insists, in Libya's utopian society, the people rule, so he needs no grandiose title... While the media have kept referring to Qaddafi as a colonel—either out of habit or for want of a better option—Libya stopped doing so years ago. Instead, he's referred to as the humble "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution."... Qaddafi isn't the only midlevel militarist who never upped his rank after violently seizing power. Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Qaddafi's intellectual godfather, became president but never rose above the rank of colonel. And longtime Ghanaian strongman Jerry Rawlings, who ruled for nearly 20 years, never took a higher military title than flight lieutenant"

Last Of Us Cosplay Went To Chernobyl To Get The Apocalypse Just Right

Nation-Building, Nationalism and Wars - "The increase in army size observed in early modern times changed the way states conducted wars. Starting in the late 18th century, states switched from mercenaries to a mass army by conscription. In order for the population to accept to fight and endure war, the government elites began to provide public goods, reduced rent extraction and adopted policies to homogenize the population with nation-building"

Millionaire tells millennials: if you want a house, stop buying avocado toast - "I have seen young people order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at $22 a pop and more. I can afford to eat this for lunch because I am middle aged and have raised my family. But how can young people afford to eat like this? Shouldn’t they be economising by eating at home? How often are they eating out? Twenty-two dollars several times a week could go towards a deposit on a house"

Many of your friends probably don't think you're friends - "only 53 percent of the friendships -- a small, sad, oh honey number of them -- were actually reciprocal."

'Any boy who tells you that he hasn't seen porn is lying. Porn changes what you expect from girls' - ""In one SRE workshop the boys and girls were divided and asked to write questions for the other sex," he continues. "The girls wanted to know why boys 'always wanted them to wear makeup and revealing clothes', but when it came to the boys they wanted to know why the girls 'always wore makeup and revealing clothes'.""

Holy Cow This Mega Man Cosplay

Feminist Intolerance: Traditional Roles Are Shunned and Devalued - "Let’s imagine a person — let’s call this person “Pat” — with the following characteristics. Pat is extremely aggressive and extremely ambitious and doesn’t take crap from anybody. If somebody punches Pat, then Pat punches back twice as hard. Pat wants to get ahead and will face down anybody standing in the way. Career achievement seems to be Pat’s highest goal. Pat’s spouse needs to understand and facilitate Pat’s dreams, and if children are involved, they’re to be timed and spaced precisely so that Pat’s climb to the top is unimpeded. If Pat is a man, then he’s consumed with “toxic masculinity.” If Pat is a woman, however, then Pat is leaning in. Pat is “fierce.” Pat is our hero... Not all women are fierce, and in general they’re not nearly as “fierce” as men. Ferocity isn’t a virtue, it’s a characteristic, and it’s a characteristic that not all (or even most) women share. To the extent that feminists portray this as the new ideal, they merely construct yet another ideological prison for women and young girls. Try as they might, modern feminists can’t turn girls into boys and boys into girls. They can, however, make members of both sexes miserable. That’s one thing the radicals do all too well."

'Potentially predatory' man faces jail if he mentions sex to any woman for the next SEVEN years - "he had touched a woman’s backside, asked women for sex and offered massages. In one instance Hill approached a woman in a lingerie shop and reached out to stroke her neck. The perv also offered to wash a woman's car but when she declined he pestered her for sex. The dirty decorator was previously ordered not to approach lone women, offer lifts to females or give or offer any woman a massage."
Looks like Wales isn't as fanatical about safeguarding women's purity as Singapore

Man spends thousands to meet “goddess” online gf, then beats her upon seeing in person - "The woman admitted that her online pictures were edited to make her look stunning and pretty using the mobile application Mei Tu, and she had used more facial make up in them."

Indoctrination in the Duluth Model for continued harm - "A major component of the stated aim of the seminar was to “assesses the political character and agendas of those groups involved in advocating for a gender-equal approach to domestic violence.” The presenter of the seminar Michael Flood, a purported expert in the field, appears to be locked in the seventies and still cites the discredited Duluth model as the preferred theoretical basis for addressing family violence... Not unexpectedly feminist ideologues posing as academics choose such forums to expound on their male hatred and it would be hard to find a better example than this 2010 article “ ‘Fathers’ Rights’ and the Defense of Paternal Authority in Australia” . The central tenant of this opinion piece long on dogma and short on evidence is that men should be denied their democratic right to express opinions on issues such as false allegations of domestic violence, residency and contact with their children, and bias within the family court because by doing so, they are increasing “violence against women” and turning back the “significant advances of feminism”... In Floods’ words it is quite acceptable that “Women’s movements in Australia have had a distinctively high level of direct involvement in government policy making, with feminist bureaucrats or “femocrats” playing key roles,” but quite unacceptable that “ Fathers’ rights groups have become vocal opponents of feminist perspectives.” His sexist agenda clearly being that women’s voices should not only be heard but acted upon, while mens groups should not even have the right to speak."
Feminism means believing in gender equality means you have a political agenda, apparently

Muslim family tells of challenges navigating Tasmanian public school system - "classroom activities — such as music and dancing — conflicted with the family's religious beliefs and this caused confusion for young Yahya, Ms Khan said. "He kept asking, 'Am I allowed to do this, am I allowed to do that? Can I eat this? Why can't I do that?'" she said. The last term of the year was particularly trying for Ms Khan and her family as her son's class spent time doing activities around the theme of Christmas. "We respect others celebrating [Christmas], but we are not permitted [under Islam to celebrate it]," Ms Khan said. "Ideologically we cannot do this.""
Maybe they should've stayed in Pakistan

Rap and the decline of black America - "Of course, the president does not endorse the killing of policemen. But a White House invitation to a rapper who brags about such things is a macabre gauge of America’s national mood. Another frequent White House guest is rapper Jay-Z, a former drug dealer who, like Kendrick Lamar, chants about street violence. Homicidal impulses are so common prevalent among black Americans that they have been naturalized into mainstream culture. There is endless hand-wringing about the source of the fragility of African-American life in America, but one of the causes surely is the notion that homicidal rage is an acceptable response to social problems. A generation ago, it was still possible for a leading black clergyman, Rev. Calvin Butts of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, to denounce rappers from the pulpit and dump a truckload of rap CD’s in front of the offices of the Sony Corp. in Manhattan. Rev. Butts has been ridiculed in the interim by the likes of Jay-Z and would not attempt this again."

College Students Heckle "Boys Don't Cry" Director, Accuse Her Of Transphobia, Profiteering - "Students at Oregon’s Reed College heckled lesbian filmmaker Kimberly Peirce during a recent screening of her seminal 1999 biopic em>Boys Don’t Cry. Carrying posters that read “Fuck your transphobia” and “You don’t fucking get it” among other things,” the student protestors were angry Peirce had cast cisgender actress Hilary Swank, who won the Oscar for her performance, instead of a trans man. Other were bothered by what they saw as the glorification of rape and violence against trans bodies, and a cis filmmaker “profiting” off the death of a transgender person... On the podium where Peirce was to speak was a placard that read “Fuck this cis white bitch!”"
Moral of the story: don't make movies about trans people

Acupuncture may alleviate babies' excessive crying (infantile colic), study suggests: Needling twice weekly for 2 weeks reduced crying time significantly

LEE KUAN YEW on POLYGAMY - "For the girls my advice is, theirs is a rational choice, is backed by history, that’s the way to bring up a good family, secure and safe, marry upwards, hypergamy but in these circumstances, do not ignore other options."

What do women's pockets and men's wallets have in common? - "As Christian Dior is reported to have said in 1954: “Men have pockets to keep things in, women for decoration.”... ‘Whereas women tend to keep their purse in a handbag, men usually tuck their wallet in a trouser, shirt or jacket pocket and carrying lots of coins in a wallet make it bulky, heavy and uncomfortable to keep in a pocket.’ Thus, Debbie recommends steering clear of coin compartments if buying a wallet as a gift for a man."
Good luck persuading women to wear loose, unflattering clothes just for the pockets

The American Scholar: Artful Lies - "“People who buy pictures on the basis of authentication alone deserve to be cheated.” Julius Meier-Graefe delivered this expert opinion—a high-culture take on “never give a sucker an even break”—on the witness stand in 1932 Berlin. He was one of Germany’s best and most respected art critics—and, it turned out, a bit of a sucker himself, having fallen victim, along with other pillars of the art establishment, to a young German forger named Otto Wacker... The last of his fakes in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.— part of the bequest from American banker and art collector Chester Dale—was removed from the museum’s walls in 1984. Dale is quoted here acknowledging the “controversy” (an optimistic term—by then there was little doubt) surround- ing the painting, a self-portrait. “But as long as I am alive,” he asserted, “it will be genuine.” He died in 1962."

Couples who cohabitate are happier than marrieds - "marriage and cohabitation also reduced contact with family and friends compared to being single, and this effect lasted over time"

Dangerous Drafts? A Time-Series, Cross-National Analysis of Conscription and the Use of Military Force, 1946—2001 - "states with conscript militaries have a significantly higher propensity to use belligerent military force than states with volunteer armies. Countries that practice conscription are also more likely than countries with volunteer forces to launch a specific type of OOTW, military operations against nonstate actors such as rebels or terrorists"

Some Kids Are Never Spanked - Do They Turn Out Better? - "In NurtureShock, we described some extensive cross-ethnic and international research on spanking by Drs. Jennifer Lansford and Ken Dodge. Their data suggested that if a culture views spanking as the normal consequence for bad behavior, kids aren’t damaged by its occasional use... are kids who’ve never been spanked any better off, long term?Gunnoe’s summary is blunt: “I didn’t find that in my data.”... those who’d been spanked just when they were young—ages 2 to 6—were doing a little better as teenagers than those who’d never been spanked. On almost every measure... children of progressive dads were acting out more in school... perhaps the consistency of discipline is more important than the form of discipline. In other words, spanking regularly isn’t the problem; the problem is having no regular form of discipline at all."

Five wild lionesses grow a mane and start acting like males - "In lions, testosterone directly affects the development of manes. Castrated males, for example, lose their ability to produce testosterone and promptly lose their mane, too. In 2011, a captive lioness called Emma at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa developed a mane. Tests revealed high levels of testosterone due to a problem in her ovaries, and once they were removed she reverted to a typical lioness. The idea that testosterone is implicated in the Botswana lionesses is also backed by observations of their reproductive success, says Kathleen Alexander at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg."
Testosterone Rex strikes again

Public Perceptions of Forensic Science - "The CSI effect is a belief held primarily among law enforcement personnel and prosecutors that forensic science television dramas, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, influence American jurors to expect more forensic evidence to convict defendants of crimes... The CSI effect has not been substantiated by empirical research"

Why Primates Kill Their Offspring - "infanticide was an effective tactic to allow mothers to mate. They can’t mate while they’re lactating because lactation suppresses ovulation. But they stop lactating once they’re childless. Killing baby langurs increases a male’s opportunity to reproduce... 51 species of primates do it, as do mice, hippos, and lions... Human mothers will also commit infanticide if they detect a lack of social support, most likely within the first few hours or a day after birth. In 2012, Andrea Ciani and Lilybeth Fontanesi, psychologists at the Laboratory of Forensic Evolutionary Psychology, at the University of Padova, in Italy, published a study titled, “Mothers who kill their offspring: Testing evolutionary hypothesis in a 110-case Italian sample.” Between 1976 and 2010, these 110 mothers killed 123 of their own offspring. Ciani and Fontanesi explain that mothers who killed their newborns had “no psychopathologies” and their acts made evolutionary sense by “saving resources for future offspring born in better conditions.”"