Links - 3rd September 2018 (3)

Delete Facebook? Nah, here’s an even better solution. - "Facebook builds an online personality of yourself that it can use to pitch its platform to advertising. So screw it up altogether. Start by deleting as much personal information from your profile as you can. Your birthday? Make it up. Your mobile? Delete it. Your education? List it as the University of Angola. Most advertisers aren’t looking to pitch their products to 99-year olds who read in Angola. Anytime you feel an urge to hit ‘like’ on a post, hold it back. Anytime you see an ad, report or block it. Instead, react to all the posts you would normally ignore, write meaningless dribble on posts you don’t care about. Do that for a couple of weeks. Build a profile that does not make sense, is totally random in interest and just put Putin GIFs on every comment if you’re a leftie lib. If you’re a conservative, use Obama. And if you’re an independent, just use Zuckerberg."

School District Refuses To Permit Parents To See LGBT Videos Students Were Forced To Watch

Facebook Doesn't Need To Listen Through Your Microphone To Serve You Creepy Ads | Electronic Frontier Foundation - "Instead of listening to your conversations through your phone, Facebook:
tracks you through Like buttons across the web, whether or not you are logged in or even have a Facebook account.
maintains shadow profiles on people who don’t use Facebook.
logs Android users' calls and texts.
absorbs unique phone identifiers through in-app advertising to associate your identity across the different devices you use.
tracks your location and serves ads based on where you are, where you live, and where you work.
tracks your in-store purchases to link the ads you see online with the purchases you make offline.
watches the things you start writing but don’t post to track your self-censorship.
linked purchases to Messenger accounts to allow sellers to send confirmation messages without affirmative user permission.
bought and advertised a VPN to track what users are doing on other apps and crush competition.
manipulated your Newsfeed to see if it can make you sad or happy.
files patents for emerging tracking technology, like tracking your location through the dust on your phone camera, for potential future use."

Quitting Facebook Does Something Quite Strange To You, According To A New Study - "A new study has linked eschewing Facebook use to lower cortisol levels, a hormone that’s associated with (among other things) stress. Considering that elevated cortisol levels in the long term can have adverse health effects, this certainly sounds like a good thing. However, the team – led by the University of Queensland – explain that it’s a little more complicated than that. Although a few days away from Facebook does indeed lower cortisol levels, those taking a leave of abstinence also reported feeling less satisfied in general. In a slightly macabre twist, the authors suggested that returning to Facebook would make the subjects happier again."

NO, YOU CAN’T GET A FUCKING NECK TATTOO, JANE MARIE. - "This week blogger Jane Marie of Jezebel put tattooer Dan Bythewood “ON BLAST” for refusing to ink her neck. The reason Bythewood turned down the tattoo was because Marie is barely inked and so Bythewood was following the traditional tattoo honor code. As the population of tattooed people continues to grow we are happy to add to our community but hope that our new brothers and sisters respect the soul and traditions of tattooing. Chief among our traditions is that quality tattoo artists are the custodians of the craft. What they say goes. Also, how dare she admonish him for refusing the tattoo on any grounds? A tattoo is a collaborative effort between the artist and the wearer, if the artist doesn’t want to take on a piece then he or she needn’t feel pressured. Tattoos are in a sense fashion. Cut-rate tailors will alter any dress to please a client but couture designers have the right to refuse clients whose wishes don’t work with their aesthetic and don’t want their name on the outcome. There is a saying that a tattoo artist is only as good as the latest piece in their portfolio and so if Bythewood had accepted the tattoo, Marie’s piece would be in his record...
'Where she really got it wrong is assuming that I refused her service for sexist reasons, even after I informed her that I refuse neck tattoos on men and women weekly. Her misguided attempt to make this a feminist issue is a disservice to true feminism'... I take this ancient art form seriously. I take my craft seriously. I take the time-honored traditions of tattooing seriously. Traditions and respect that we are losing daily to a new petulant culture screaming “gimme now!” and treating tattooers with the same disrespect they wrongly just waged at the last Starbucks barista who made their latte. I won’t be part of it and I refuse to support it. In the end, just know this “SeeJaneMarie”: Tattooing is my tribe. We will allow you to be a tourist, we will even welcome you to join, but don’t be surprised that in 2015 there are still some things that cannot be bought, just earned.Please apologize to my customers whose tattoos you mocked in your failed attempt to hurt my career in order to bolster yours"

Quite recently in Australia, the death of a young woman walking home at night has been a major subject in news headlines and political discussion. - "Readers will know that Australia has very strict gun laws and Australians are unable to carry guns. What you may not know is that this also extends to a number of non-lethal defensive tools such as tasers and pepper sprays. Following the death of the young woman, a politicians took the opportunity to introduce a motion to remove/relax the bans on non-lethal tools. A reasonable position no? This motion was defeated 46-5 with all 5 votes in favour coming from, wait for it men. And these men were not from parties who advance a pro-women's rights position, insulting they're what is considered 'conservative'... a number of women and pro-women's rights males voted against a motion to give women the right to choose to employ one of those tools for self defence. Imagine if this occurred in the context of the abortion debate, fauxminists would be screeching from the rooftops about the errosion of women's rights and the patriarchy. But in this case guess what we got; silence. Dead silence. That last line was a bit of a lie because we didn't quite get silence, what we did get was the typical garbage about how it shouldn't be a woman's responsibility to not be raped... women's right to choose was struck down by pro-women's rights groups. By now it should be plainly obvious that these supposed feminists or pro-women politicians do not serve women's interests in the slightest. Instead they seek to maintain the victim narrative to keep women on the plantation and ensure their continued careers. This incident is a prime example of why women should en masse walk away from modern feminism and any 'leader' that identifies themselves as a feminist. They don't serve your interests and they never will whilst they're enabled to continue hiding behind the shield of feminism."

Duct-Taped Skin and Nipple Band-Aids: How Schools Enforce Dress Codes - "many say such dress codes are just one more way to police girls’ bodies — particularly those of girls of color, as well as LGBTQ students... “Students of color are often seen as ‘hyper’ sexualized based on racial stereotypes, and LGBT students are often targeted for wearing elements of queer styles that may include piercings, short or dyed hair, and alternative clothing”"
Strangely, even though there's an admission that LGBT students violate the dress code policies more often, this is taken as a form of discrimination against them (this also calls into question why the simplest explanation for certain demographics being found to have more dress code violations isn't looked at - that they commit more of them)
Funny how many, maybe most workplaces have dress codes. And how Americans would be very upset at the suggestion of a school uniform

Misbehaving Children in Ancient Times – Quote Investigator - "There is a great quote by Plato or Socrates about the misbehavior of children in antiquity that I read in the New York Times. The quote shows that the problems between generations are not just a recent occurrence. Instead, the conflicts between parents and offspring are timeless [NY8]:
The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.
I wanted to use this quote, so I needed to know who said it; however, the NYT website contained a surprise. The newspaper had retracted the quote and now there was a note that said “Its origin is unclear, although many researchers agree that Plato is not the source.”"

It's time for the Canadian left to stop saying racism is the reason conservative governments are elected - "Folks on the left were saying it was because of racism. There was one CBC report that did an entire story based on one person calling into a radio show saying that Doug Ford was elected because of "white privilege"... The Ontario PCs actually won the most votes amongst immigrants to Canada and amongst Ontarians who identify themselves as visible minorities. They won a significant lead over the Liberals and NDP... many of them are natural conservatives in their values. They come to this country to pursue opportunity, they want economic freedom, they respect family and tradition and law and order and those conservative values"

‘There isn’t really anything magical about it’: Why more millennials are avoiding sex - The Washington Post - "“As people have gotten much more accepting of all sorts of forms of consensual sex, they’ve also gotten more picky about what constitutes consent,” Coontz said. “We are far less accepting of pressured sex.” But some experts are concerned that the drop-off reflects the difficulty some young people are having in forming deep romantic connections. They cite other reasons for putting off sex, including pressure to succeed, social lives increasingly conducted on-screen, unrealistic expectations of physical perfection encouraged by dating apps and wariness over date rape... Claudia, who did not want her last name used because “I don’t want all my professors reading about how I’m a virgin,” said her parents worry. “They always ask me: ‘Are you against relationships? Why don’t you have a boyfriend?’ My mom — she hooked up all the time in college — she’s like, ‘I would still love you, but are you gay?’ But for me, it’s not anything about chastity or fear of sex. . . . I’m just like, ‘Eh, it’ll happen.’ ” Millennials have been called the most cautious generation — the first to grow up with car seats and bike helmets, the first not allowed to walk to school or go to the playground alone... “On college campuses, you see older people scratching their heads about ‘safe spaces.’ ”... Meanwhile, in efforts to counteract hookup and drinking culture, some campuses have begun instigating “yes means yes” rules stipulating that each step of a sexual encounter requires verbal consent. For some, staying away altogether can feel less treacherous."
i.e. with affirmative consent people don't want to have sex for fear of being accused of being a rapist

In defense of Facebook – [citation needed] - "I hope that people who are concerned about Facebook “manipulating” user experience in support of research realize that Facebook is constantly manipulating its users’ experience. In fact, by definition, every single change Facebook makes to the site alters the user experience, since there simply isn’t any experience to be had on Facebook that isn’t entirely constructed by Facebook... there’s nothing intrinsically evil about the idea that large corporations might be trying to manipulate your experience and behavior. Everybody you interact with–including every one of your friends, family, and colleagues–is constantly trying to manipulate your behavior in various ways. Your mother wants you to eat more broccoli; your friends want you to come get smashed with them at a bar; your boss wants you to stay at work longer and take fewer breaks... by far the most likely outcome of the backlash Facebook is currently experiencing is that, in future, its leadership will be less likely to allow its data scientists to publish their findings in the scientific literature"

In defense of In Defense of Facebook – [citation needed] - "[I]t’s simply not correct to suggest that all human subjects research requires informed consent. At least in the US (where Facebook is based), the rules governing research explicitly provide for a waiver of informed consent."

Muslim woman who refused handshake denied French citizenship - "France's highest administrative court has upheld a decision to deny a French passport to an Algerian Muslim who refused to shake hands with officials during her citizenship ceremony... The woman argued that her "religious beliefs" prevented her from shaking hands with a senior official presiding over the citizenship ceremony in the southeastern Isere region in June 2016, as well as with a local politician. The government said her behaviour showed she was "not assimiliated into the French community" - one of the reasons it can invoke under the civil code to oppose citizenship for the spouse of a French national."

We’re Not Free to Define ‘Elitism’ As We Please - "As a teacher, we were told that “critical thinking” (among others) would be an essential skill for our students’ future. Yet the more I studied critical thinking and experimented with teaching it, the more I realized how much it actually ran against the grain of our education system - both of our student’s need to conform to “one correct answer”, and to MOE’s desire to perpetuate certain national narratives as unquestionably true. Once, a fellow middle manager told me (in all seriousness) that she encouraged all her students to write pro-PAP answers in all their Social Studies exams because she fears that the school would get “blacklisted” if students were found to disagree with state-sanctioned views. The social studies syllabus has since changed (and MOE is experimenting with making examinations increasingly difficult such that only “high level thinkers” may be rewarded) but these mental habits still remain within teachers and education culture. Do you want students to learn critical thinking for the sake of their future employment? Then you must be willing to let students critically question even national narratives, including politically contentious ones like Operation Coldstore. Is that too dangerous for you? Then stop lamenting that students can’t engage in “creative thinking” or “think out of the box”. There are also some long lasting consequences which affect our thinking habits all the way into adulthood. One consequence is the sheer lack of appreciation of complex situations in real life where there can be “no right answer”. Another consequence is our inability to appreciate that people who disagree with us can still be reasonable, and the source of our disagreements has more to do with our subjective perspectives and less due to our intelligence. We default into thinking that either “I’m right and you’re stupid”, or “you’re right and I’m stupid”, and probably the former. Anyone who is familiar with internet chatter will say that this is a global phenomenon (and they would be correct), but Singaporeans remain the most egregious participants in online echo chambers I’ve ever seen, and I argue that it is because we failed to prepare our students to be self-critical and to disagree well."

Minister tries to make point about education using road sweeper comic, not the best idea
Ironically, the people who are critical of 'judging' the road sweeper because of his job would be the first to demand more 'help' for people like road sweepers