Links - 17th September 2018 (1)

The Bangkok Street Food Vendor Who Just Won a Michelin Star Wants to Give It Back - "Since getting the star, there has been uptick of tourists snapping photos, and even some tax department bureaucrats descend upon her restaurant. So many people have arrived that lines are stretching more than two hours long and they’ve had to develop a reservation system to apportion the hotly demanded tables. It has not necessarily led to a ton more money for her, though. Like the Michelin-starred Singapore street food vendor, she didn’t want to raise prices to capitalize on her newfound fame, because she didn’t want to price out her most loyal customers who were with her before she earned a star. And the new ones aren’t there exactly for the reason she wants. “Many people come just to see and take pictures and not necessarily to eat,” she says of the hordes of food Instagrammers. It’s quite a different reason to want to give back the star compared to Jérôme Brochot, who recently told Michelin that his small mining town could no longer afford the style of restaurant Michelin reserves its stars for in Europe. Brochot wants to get rid of a star so people will come, and Fai wants to abdicate hers so people will go away"

Ukrainian women seek Chinese husbands through dating club - "'Compared to Ukrainian men, Chinese men are better husbands,' said Mei Aisi, who referred to Ukraine as 'a land of beauties'. 'Ukrainian men often have male chauvinism. They drink a lot and some might beat their wives. This happened to my wife's sister. 'In comparison, Chinese men know how to care for their families.'... 'We really like Chinese men. They are really generous and considerate,' said two female members, twins Alia and Nika, during an interview with Arrow Factory. 'They are adorable. Totally different from Ukrainian guys,' they added. On Ulove's account on Weibo, China's most popular social media app, female members hold signboards with Chinese characters to advertise themselves to eligible bachelors. Some of the romantic messages read 'would you like to have a cute Eurasian baby' and 'I'm learning Chinese hard so that I can treat your ears with sweet words'. Kharkiv-born Karalina, 21, who found a Chinese boyfriend through the cub told MailOnline that compared to Ukrainian men, Chinese men are more caring. She said: 'In their culture, family comes first. Their temperament is gentle and they are willing to spend more time with their girlfriend.'... Mr Li, who is from Shaanxi Province, China, said European women are more out-going and innocent - compared to Chinese women... Ulove Club currently has around 75 male members, who are mainly middle-class businessmen from major Chinese cities, and more than 300 female members, who are all Ukrainian. Because women in Ukraine tend to marry early - usually before 23 years old - the club's female members are young"

Ukrainian woman dons panda costume to propose to Chinese boyfriend

The worst thing about Trump’s outbursts on Brexit and Nato? That he’s right | The Spectator - "The EU has spent much of the past few weeks complaining bitterly about Trump’s shameless declaration of a trade war, the first shots of which have been fired through tariffs on steel and aluminium. Yet at the same time it has overlooked the trade war which it has been waging against the outside world for decades on agricultural products... Trump is, above all else, a disruptor. He says the things which other US presidents have failed to say — and in doing so opens avenues of possibility which others have failed to open. Look how quickly his threats against Kim Jong-un turned into constructive engagement. It remains to be seen just what this will lead to, but it’s hard to doubt that Trump has made progress possible. It’s also right for Trump to raise the stakes on the issue of how much Nato members are contributing to the alliance. It is a blunt fact that 24 out of 29 Nato members are ratting on the agreement that they should spend at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence. Those countries are attempting to shelter beneath the US military umbrella while refusing to stick to the rules they agreed... It was undiplomatic, but not wrong, for Trump to have described Britain as a country ‘in turmoil’ this week. How else could you describe the government’s failure even to agree a negotiating position on Brexit, let alone persuade the EU to accept it?... Mrs May has ceded power to Europe at almost every turn. Her memoirs, if they are ever written, could be called ‘The Art of a Bad Deal’... He was elected not in spite of his abrasive nature but because of it. US voters wanted someone to stir up the complacency of their political establishment — in domestic and foreign affairs — and that is exactly what they got"

EXCLUSIVE COMMENTS: 'Fed Up' UKIP Peer Hits Back After Radical Mosque Question Jeered in Lords Debate - "“[Former Prime Minister David] Cameron said he was going to monitor the madrassas, but he flunked it,” he added, referring to comments from Cameron in 2015 when he said children were “having their heads filled with poison and their hearts filled with hate” in some Islamic schools. Under plans published, and subsequently dropped, that year, the government would register and have access to inspect all settings providing intensive education — including madrassas. Lord Pearson, a former leader of the UK Independence Party, faced cries of “shame, shame!” and “nonsense!” when he described radical Islam as, currently, the world’s “most violent ideology” in Britain’s upper chamber. Polls have shown most Brits see Islam as incompatible with their way of life and, speaking exclusively to Breitbart London moments after the exchange this Wednesday, Lord Pearson expressed concern that if those in government continue to mock and dismiss widespread concerns about radical Islam, street protests could “turn violent.”... Police have linked several recent terror attacks in the UK to allegedly radical preaching in mosques."

Time to Challenge No-Fault Divorce | Thomas F. Farr - "the laws were intended to achieve consensual divorce for those in “unhappy” marriages who agreed that they wanted to move on. But some 80 percent of divorce filings are initiated by one spouse, not both, and the majority of divorces today occur in marriages not characterized by serious conflict. The most common reasons cited for divorce are problems that affect most marriages, such as “growing apart” and “not being able to talk together.” And, as anyone who has observed a unilateral divorce proceeding knows, the process is anything but consensual. Abandoned spouses are simply left in the lurch. If one spouse decides to move on, there is very little the other can do to stop it. In America, the only contract that is utterly unenforceable in law is marriage."

New York Times' Trump-Putin cartoon criticized as 'homophobic' - "An animated political video featured in The New York Times’ opinion section has sparked outrage among a number of leaders and advocates in the LGBTQ community... "The video is not meant to be homophobic," the spokesperson continued. "The filmmaker’s vision was one of teenage infatuation portrayed through a dream-like fantasy sequence. He would have used the same format to satirize Trump’s infatuation with another politician, regardless of sexuality or gender. Exaggerated kissing is a signature feature of his animated shorts, including 'How to Kiss.'""
The Resistance falters. Too bad My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love is still around

CAPRISA: South Africa's HIV Epidemic Is Driven by Blessers - "In a country where two-thirds of people under age 25 are unemployed, some poor South African women and teens date older, wealthier men, who provide them with everything from food to hairpieces to school uniforms. In exchange, the men demand discreet, often condom-free sex. At the same time, many of these young women maintain more egalitarian relationships with boys their own age. Some of the sugar daddies, as these men are also sometimes called, infect the girls with HIV. When those teen girls reach adulthood, they find husbands and pass their HIV onto them. Those husbands, in turn, become the next crop of sugar daddies, infecting the next generation of teen girls and perpetuating the cycle.... maintaining a healthy, Lactobacillus-dominant vaginal microbiome protects against HIV... Women with high levels of Prevotella in their vaginas are more likely to be obese, and black and Hispanic women, regardless of nationality, are more likely to experience bacterial vaginosis. European women are more likely to have Lactobacillus-dominant vaginas than African women are. (Could this be why there’s so much more HIV in Africa than in Europe? Researchers don’t know.)... A desirable vagina, many women here believe, is tight and dry. It’s common for women to coax their nether regions into this state by stuffing them with various powders, ashes, and even chewing tobacco. One study published in 2011 found that women who used “powders, creams, herbs, tablets, sticks, stones, leaves, and traditional products” to dry out or tighten their vaginas were 31 percent more likely to contract HIV. CAPRISA is now conducting a study to see if the increased risk is due to inflammation, vaginal-bacteria disturbances, or both."

No One Trusts BuzzFeed :-( - "According to a new poll of political polarization and media habits of regular folk by the Pew Research Center, BuzzFeed is the least trusted news source in media, behind the Rush Limbaugh Show. The pol also had some harsh truths for the New Yorker, a newsweekly magazine based in New York. Only three percent of respondents reported getting their news from the New Yorker, and the magazine ranked in trustworthiness behind the Colbert Report, which is not a real news source."
Everyone trusts the Wall Street Journal, no one trusts Buzzfeed

What Happens When You Quit Showering? - "The odor of bodies is the product of bacteria that live on our skin and feed off of the oily secretions from the sweat and sebaceous glands at the base of our hair follicles. Applying detergents (soaps) to our skin and hair every day disrupts a sort of balance between skin oils and the bacteria that live on our skin. When you shower aggressively, you obliterate the ecosystems. They repopulate quickly, but the species are out of balance and tend to favor the kinds of microbes that produce odor. But after a while, the idea goes, your ecosystem reaches a steady state, and you stop smelling bad"

Profs win grant to study 'microaggressions' in library

In a Volatile Climate on Campus, Professors Teach on Tenterhooks - The New York Times - "“Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life,” a guide to spreading kindness, is an odd choice for a political science syllabus. But Shannon Mariotti sees the need. Her seminar about race and class alienation invites contention; course readings swing between Tea Party and far-left perspectives... Higher education is increasingly partisan, and professors must manage these disconnected ideologies, which are sometimes between themselves and their students."

My Health Record systems collapse under more opt-outs than expected - "Australians attempting to opt out of the government's new centralised health records system online have been met with an unreliable website. Those phoning in have faced horrendous wait times, sometimes more than two hours, often to find that call centre systems were down as well, and staff unable to help. The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), which runs the My Health Record system, is reportedly telling callers that they weren't expecting the volume of opt-outs"

My Health Record hacking and data access: Kerryn Phelps - “These provisions break the bond between clinician and patient. The idea that police and security agencies, and the ATO and other agencies could trawl these databases at will is abhorrent. To its great shame, the Parliament passed these provisions.”

Twitter Bans Legendary Troll Godfrey Elfwick for Ridiculing Leftists - "It is a truth universally acknowledged by anyone who has spent more than a moment glancing at social media that SJWs can’t do jokes. Or banter. Or memes. Given that social media is mostly about jokes, banter, and memes, this means that SJWs spend their every moment on the internet in a state of near-impotent pique. They cannot strike back with wit or charm or facts or evidence or amusing images of Pepe the frog, for these are all things they singularly lack. So every time they are forced to resort to the only weapon in their armory: censorship... “When the next generation ask: what did YOU do when Trump came to power? I’ll proudly say: ‘I called him a Nazi while dressed like a vagina'”"

Our Skies Are More Watched Than Ever, So Why Are Reported UFO Sightings on the Decline? - "This is a curious trend, given that almost every other aspect of our world is better documented than ever before. More people are carrying cameras on them and more people have access to the internet and can therefore share their strange observations. Meteoric fireballs, for instance, are extensively documented these days, captured on dashboard, security, and phone cameras. So why not UFOS?"
"Because camera technology got way better and more accessible, which makes it harder for people to lie, or miss identify unknown objects in the sky."