Links - 23rd August 2018 (2)

The surprising reason people change their minds - "Kristin Laurin of the University of British Columbia examined people’s attitudes before plastic water bottles were prohibited in San Francisco. The ban wasn’t favoured by everyone, but was introduced nonetheless. Just one day later, her team again tested public attitudes. Already, views had changed: people were less opposed. There hadn’t been time for people to change their behaviour to adjust to the practicalities of the ban. So it seemed their mindset itself had changed. In other words, we rationalise the things we feel stuck with"

Lizzie Wade on Twitter - "It's hard for me to imagine that people *wanted* to be sacrificed, but that's my own biases and cultural conditioning talking. How I see the world, filtered through centuries of colonial oppression and destruction, is irrelevant to understanding how they saw the world... the tzompantli seems weird and violent and gruesome to our Western colonial gaze. But don't for a second think that's the only way to see it, or the "right" way to see it."
What happens when relativism and intersectionality combine
Replies: "Slavery apologists employed similar logic"
"This sounds like myth the upper class rulers told themselves. Such myths are common. Such as image of the Japanese noble kamakazi going off to their death singing merry songs and saluting the Emperor. Some truth. Mostly fiction. Good propaganda. Self-justifying "they're willing""
"We can make the author even angrier: It's hard for me to imagine that women "wanted" to serve their husbands and be subjected to their will, with no freedom of their own but that´s my own biases and cultural conditioning talking."
"Weird because your article gets it right describing how those who were forcibly captured in war were sacrificed, and people from some of those groups allied with Spanish. Obviously they didn't *want* to be sacrificed."
"Interesting that you touch on colonial oppression, yet you refer to an 'Aztec empire'."
"Maybe your own biases and cultural conditioning also has you rationalizing human sacrifices in ancient cultures while demonizing "colonial oppression & destruction" in the same tweet."

For Chinese immigrants to the UK, Brexit is a faint beacon of hope - "A combination of EU membership and gormless British civil servants resulted in Britain overtaking the United States in having one of the most callous and cumbersome immigration systems in the world. Living in China, I felt that its system was convoluted and unfair. Why ban people over 60 from having work visas? Why make it so awkward for children of mixed-nationality parents to get residence permits? And so on. Britain, however, is worse... British policy is to reduce immigration, while on the other hand, Britain is required by law to allow all immigrants from the EU to enter. Who suffers? Non-European citizens. There are far more applications from outside the EU than within it, yet only a minority of these applications are accepted. The UK can now deport anyone who has had their visa rejected even if they are appealing and even if their visit visa is valid. Since around a third of appeals succeed, this effectively means that even when the Home Office rejects an application incorrectly, it can still expel the applicant, who now has the choice of appealing from overseas (at least a year away from his or her family in the UK and thousands of pounds in costs), or giving up... The Shanghai city government representative was told she would be unable to return to the UK if she visited Shanghai for the Lunar New Year. There are hundreds of cases like these every year. UKVI staff achieve “targets” by rejecting applicants. Their careers progress if they turn people down, even if the rejection turns out to have been wrong... A beacon of hope is, surprisingly, Brexit. The UK’s departure from the EU will put non-EU applicants on the same footing as Europeans, and so even if UKVI does not reform, the proportion of non-EU groundless rejections will drop"

Why China doesn’t dominate soccer - The Washington Post - "The most populous nation on Earth is not playing in the 2018 World Cup. Soccer is China’s most popular sport, but its current FIFA world ranking is No. 75... China’s soccer troubles are a case study in the limits of authoritarianism... In many Olympic sports, high performance is a matter of biomechanics and discipline. To be sure, neither are irrelevant to soccer — but they are not decisive, and too much discipline can actually be a handicap... Unlike American football, soccer is a free-flowing game of infinite, largely unpredictable variety with relatively little use for rehearsed “plays.” The Dutch superstar Johan Cruyff once said “you play football with your head, and your legs are there to help you.” Physical fitness and some measure of organization and structure are certainly helpful, but each player must be able to strategize on the fly, individually. This means you can certainly improve a terrible team’s performance by focusing on the basics, as many of the world’s weaker nations have done over the past decades, but true success depends on factors that remain elusive. Instead, World Cup victories tend to be associated with the mercurial skills of the iconic players... the more you plan and the more you dictate, the less likely you are to rise beyond mediocrity. There is a lesson here for the United States as well: American mainstream sports tend to rely heavily on the authoritarian figure of the coach, who draws up plays for obedient players to execute. It is an interesting paradox: in its sports culture, the nation that prides itself on a free-wheeling and nearly unbridled individualism actually encourages unquestioning submission in its popular sports... It is no accident that the nation that has won the World Cup more times than any other and has exported the most talent to the rest of the world is synonymous with the most flamboyant, Carnival-esque expression of o jogo bonito, or the beautiful game: spirited Brazil."

Why Women Don't Code - "there are two visions of diversity and inclusion... Advocates of the equality agenda want to see the most talented and passionate individuals joining us regardless of their life circumstances or unalterable characteristics... Professionals and activists who work in this area tend to see it differently. For them, diversity involves a commitment to righting the wrongs of the past. Political and religious diversity are not on their list because they don’t represent the immutable characteristics previously used to justify discrimination... working with the LGBTQ community is important because of the historical oppression they have experienced even though there is no evidence that LGBTQ individuals are currently discriminated against in the field. Their understanding of inclusion is also quite different. Inclusion is about culture, and in a twist worthy of Orwell, inclusion often demands the exclusion of ideas and opinions... among professionals and activists, ‘equity’ has the specific meaning of working to dismantle existing power structures as a way to redress privilege.I refer to this combination of ideas as the ‘equity agenda.’ While the equality agenda focuses on equality of opportunity, the equity agenda is concerned with outcomes... When I tried to discuss Damore at my school, I found it almost impossible. As a thought experiment, I asked how we could make someone like Damore feel welcome in our community. The pushback was intense. My question was labeled an “inflammatory example” and my comments were described as “hurtful” to women. When I mentioned that perhaps we could invite Damore to speak at UW, a faculty member responded, “If he comes here, we’ll hurt him.”... this issue has acquired a moral dimension, which is why the response is often anger. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, has described this as elevating certain ideas to a sacred status. In this case, suggesting that men and women are different either in interests or abilities is considered blasphemy... fortunately we don’t need to turn to biology or Damore for evidence that men and women are different. The gender diversity movement itself has spent the better part of 30 years cataloguing differences between men and women. Indeed, the entire goal of achieving gender diversity makes no sense unless you believe that men and women work in fundamentally different ways... one should never attribute to oppression that which is adequately explained by free choice. If men and women are different, then we should expect them to make different choices... I worry that lack of progress will make us more likely to switch from positive messages about women succeeding in tech to negative stories about men behaving badly in tech, which I think will do more harm than good. Women will find themselves wondering if they should resent men and men will feel guilty for sins committed by other men. Women are not going to find this message appealing and men will find themselves feeling even more awkward around women than they would be otherwise... It’s time for everyone to be honest, and my honest view is that having 20 percent women in tech is probably the best we are likely to achieve... I have already been told that expressing such ideas is hurtful to women. But it is exactly because I care so much about diversity that I value honesty above politeness. To be effective, we have to commit ourselves to a search for the truth and that search can succeed only if everyone feels comfortable sharing their honest opinions."
Yet, saying that men and women are different in a way that apparently disadvantages women = misogyny

Blood sutra: whatever happened to Buddhism, religion of peace and compassion? - "The seeds of such violence are embedded in Buddhist texts and doctrines themselves. For example, Buddhist religious texts state the Buddha’s teachings are subject to decline and will disappear at a specific point in history. This lends itself to the need to preserve Buddhism for future generations and defend it against attack. There is also the textual idea that a pure version of Buddhism, existing in a particular geographical location, must be defended, and this includes protecting Buddhism against insult and disrespect. This all leads to an urgency to protect and defend Buddhism, and to the possibility of Buddhist violence"

As Facebook ages, teens look elsewhere to connect - "34 per cent of US online youth view Facebook "as a website for old people and parents."

Opinion | The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to an Audience - The New York Times - "The problem with Mill’s argument is that he takes for granted a naïve conception of rationality that he inherited from Enlightenment thinkers like René Descartes... As an advocate of women’s rights and an opponent of slavery, Mill knew that many people then regarded even the discussion of these issues as offensive. He hoped that by making freedom of speech a near absolute right he could guarantee a hearing for opinions that were true but unpopular among most of his contemporaries.However, our situation is very different from that of Mill. We are seeing the worsening of a trend that the 20th century German-American philosopher Herbert Marcuse warned of back in 1965
Great argument. The glorification of Marcuse is a great sign. The author will surely approve when he is censored using the same logic (despite having tenure) when someone on the other side of the political spectrum comes to power.
Unsurprisingly, he is at Yale-NUS
Comment (elsewhere): "Interestingly to smear Peterson, he misrepresents hims (sic) and to smear Murray, he posts a debunked Vox article, so by his own logic he doesn't deserve an audience."

People are ‘ghosting’ at work, and it's driving companies crazy - "In fields ranging from food service to finance, recruiters and hiring managers say a tightening job market and a sustained labor shortage have contributed to a surge in professionals abruptly cutting off contact and turning silent — the type of behavior more often associated with online dating than office life. The practice is prolonging hiring, forcing companies to overhaul their processes and tormenting recruiters, who find themselves under constant pressure... Where once it was companies ignoring job applicants or snubbing candidates after interviews, the world has flipped... The trouble is not limited to minimum-wage work. About a tenth of registered nurses go dark entirely after Central Florida Health's Widgren reaches out to extend an offer at his organization... candidates — scarred from years of applying for jobs, spending hours preparing for interviews, only to get form rejections back — may not be to blame for going cold, said Peter Cappelli, a management professor and director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources. “I think they have learned it from the employers,” he said. “Employers were notorious for never getting back to people, and only letting them know what was going on if it turned out they wanted them to go to the next step.” He added: “The employers have been far worse about this than any of the job seekers.”"

Why is Cinco de Mayo More Popular in America Than in Mexico? - "Contrary to widespread popular belief, May 5th is not actually Mexican Independence Day, and the holiday is primarily celebrated in only one of Mexico's 31 states"
If Mexicans don't really care, should Mexican-Americans fetishise it?

How a S$3,000 bill became S$30,000: The truth behind retailers' instalment plans

Only 5% Of Women In India Choose Their Husbands, 80% Need Permission To Visit A Health Centre - "Does higher literacy lead to greater decision-making power? Not really. A woman's power to make decisions regarding marriage, and visits to a healthcare centre are not correlated with literacy at the state-level, or to the sex ratio (the number of females per 1000 males), suggesting the role of social norms, which might differ by state."
Since feminists claim that women are equally oppressed everywhere, not just in the third world, maybe they should move to the third world

Automatic Clicker - Apps on Google Play
Samsung Game Tuner removed the macro function boo. Luckily automatic clicker does the job even better (no rooting needed either!)

Opioids And Suicides Coincide With Increasing Despair Among Poorer Americans - "The results imply that many of the disturbing trends America is experiencing are rooted in declining mental health, and are unlikely to be truly fixed without tackling this issue. This despair, in turn, appears to have economic origins, whether in falling incomes, reduced economic opportunity, or both."

Scientists Just Found Almost 1,000 New Genes Associated With Intelligence - "the genes that make for smartness also look to confer a protective effect to overall cognitive health, with the analysis finding a negative correlation with Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depressive symptoms, and schizophrenia. The intelligence genes were however correlated with increased instances of autism, and also longevity, suggesting people with these genetic underpinnings of high intelligence are more likely to live longer."
When they find out some genes vary according to demographic group...

Paris museum opens its doors to nudists - "The Palais de Tokyo's... event marked the first time a Paris museum has welcomed nudists and follows last summer's successful establishment of a nude zone in the city's Bois de Vincennes park... There are an estimated 2.6 million naturists in France and Paris has an active Nudists Association. Parisian naturists can bathe in the buff in the Roger Le Gall swimming pool and enjoy nude exercise classes and bowling games."

Laura Ingalls Wilder's name removed from book award over racism concerns - "A division of the American Library Association has voted to remove the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder from a major children’s book award, over concerns about how the author portrayed African Americans and Native Americans... Wilder was born in 1867 and died in 1957. She is best known for her eight Little House on the Prairie novels, about pioneer life in the American west, which were published between 1932 and 1943."
Down the memory hole...

Trump commutes sentence after appeal by Kim Kardashian - "U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the life sentence of a woman for a first-time drug offense whose cause was taken up by celebrity Kim Kardashian West, and he is prepared to use his constitutional clemency powers to give relief to dozens more convicts... Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old from Tennessee, has already served more than 20 years in prison on drug conspiracy and money laundering charges... Sanders said that while “this administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance.”"
Of course, this got criticism

People are complaining about Grab. We find out why - "As a designer myself, I’ll analyze Grab’s app from a product perspective to shed light on the issue"

On the Real Magnitude of Psychological Sex Differences - "(1) In a published dataset on Big Five personality traits, sex differences on individual scales averaged d = .27, a typical ES conventionally regarded as “small.” However, the overall difference was D = .84 (disattenuated D = .98), implying considerable statistical separation between male and female distributions. (2) In a recent meta-analytic summary of sex differences in aggression, the individual ESs averaged d = .34. However, the overall difference was estimated at D = .75 – .80 (disattenuated D = .89–1.01). In many psychological domains, sex differences may be substantially larger than previously acknowledged"