Links - 25th July 2019 (1)

Countries With the Best Quality of Life - "1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Switzerland
6. Finland
7. Australia
8. Netherlands
9. New Zealand
10. Germany
11. Belgium
12. UK
13. Japan
14. Luxembourg
15. Ireland
16. France
17. USA
18. Singapore
19. Portugal
20. China"

Athletics coach’s phone records show he did not ‘keep calling’ former trainee - "Accused of pestering his former sprint trainee with multiple phone calls, veteran track-and-field coach Loh Siang Piow on Tuesday (Dec 11) said his mobile phone records show that her claim could not be further from the truth.The 74-year-old’s call records showed that he had phoned the then-18-year-old trainee once a month at most, in the 10 months between July 7, 2013 and May 6, 2014. There were six months in which he had made no phone calls to her. During that period, the teenager — who is accusing him of molesting her — made up to three calls to Loh in a month, records showed... The trainee had testified that she did not agree that she called Loh — who is better known in the sports fraternity as Loh Chan Pew — voluntarily on Nov 6, 2013."
When #BelieveWomen and the reality of lived experience are dismissed by patriarchal logic

High heels for women in workplace ‘occupationally necessary and appropriate’, says Japanese minister - "A Japanese government minister has provoked controversy for saying it is “socially accepted” and “occupationally necessary” for women to be made to wear high heels at work.Takumi Nemoto, Japan’s health and labour minister, defended the controversial practice which has forced women to wear heels in Japanese offices for many years.His comments came after a recent campaign challenged the practice – with more than 19,000 people in Japan signing a petition to ban the requirement. Supporters have been tweeting the petition alongside the hashtag #KuToo in solidarity with the campaign – echoing the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment. The slogan is a play on the Japanese words for shoes “kutsu” and pain “kutsuu”."

8 ways high heels can be GOOD for you - "According to Jolene a leading physiotherapist, the good news for those of us who can’t or simply don’t want to give up our beloved heels, is that certain types of high shoes are actually better for you than flats.“It goes without saying that spending a lot of time in very high, stiletto heels with pointy toes is going to be bad for your feet and your back, never mind increased chances of falling and hurting your ankle, they also make walking difficult and painful. What is surprising is that as far as your back and feet are concerned certain types of high heels can actually be better for your feet than some types of flat shoes”.Wearing a shoe with a heel can protect your back and feet as they naturally allow some support through the arch of the foot; whereas, flat shoes like Uggs, flip flops and ballet pumps are worse for your feet and posture... The best heel height is 2 inches (about 5cm), that should be just about right"

Should you stop wearing neckties?—wearing a tight necktie reduces cerebral blood flow - "Negative cerebrovascular effects can be expected by compressing jugular veins and carotids by a necktie. It was already demonstrated that a necktie increases intraocular pressure. In many professions, a special dress code including a necktie and a collared shirt is mandatory although little is known about the effect of this “socially desirable strangulation.” In this study, the effect of wearing a necktie concerning cerebral blood flow and jugular venous flow by magnetic resonance imaging... The examination resulted in a statistically significant decrease of CBF after tightening the necktie (p < 0.001) while the venous flow did not show any significant changes." It's only bad if it hurts women

The war against neckties is heating up - "Reduced blood flow to the brain has negative implications for both productivity and creativity... A previous study from the University of Glasgow found that “wearing a tight collar or tie may compromise the venous drainage of the brain and thus impair cerebrovascular reactivity,” possibly increasing the incidence of a stroke in those already at risk. Another study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology found that a tight necktie increases intraocular pressure and “could affect the diagnosis and management of glaucoma.” Two weeks ago that evidence drove R. Rex Parris, 66, the mayor of Lancaster, Calif., to seek a ban on requiring employees to wear the corporate noose... women are discouraged from wearing uncomfortable high heels in court by their firms. “I always look at things from a trial attorney perspective. So I ask myself, ‘Do women have an advantage?’ ”... Foley regularly experiences tension headaches and neck cramps that he associates with wearing a tie. Because he shaves daily, his tight collar can also irritate his skin.“Wearing ties may make me look nicer in meetings, but it does come with consequences — headaches, neck aches and razor burn,” he says... Even professional tailors — who argue that necktie discomfort is a clear sign of a collar that is too tight — admit that it’s difficult to get a perfect fit... the collars of most off-the-rack shirts will shrink after a couple of washes."

What's the point of a tie? - "Doctors should stop wearing "functionless" ties which could pose a hygiene risk, says the British Medical Association - as part of the drive to stop the spread of hospital superbugs... a JobCentre worker in Manchester won the first round of a sex discrimination case that it was unfair for men to have to wear a tie, when women did not have a similar dress code... Tony Blair has promoted this image of a tie-less prime minister, hands in pockets, dressed more like a mate than a boss - sending the message that he's one of us, rather than a member of some closed club. And Tory leader David Cameron has not been shy in shedding his neck apparel for casual appearances.So, given that Bill Gates can run a multi-billion pound business without ever being sighted with his top button done up, do we really need ties any more? What ties offer is a "point of difference", says John Miln, chairman of the Guild of British Tie Makers. They give people a chance to say something about their own personality. Tie sales are slightly down compared to a decade ago"
From 2006

Bjørn Lomborg - Posts - "Where does almost all renewable energy come from?
Not solar
Not wind
Not even hydro
It is wood!
Old-fashioned wood, linked to poverty and indoor air pollution provides 70% of all renewable energy."

The Relationship Between Happiness, Income Inequality, and Economic Growth - "While happiness did track the level of economic development across these 16 advanced nations, the results changed when inequality was added to the equation. Higher levels of inequality led to lower levels of happiness, even in the most economically advanced nations... [In Latin America] in contrast to the findings for the advanced nations, they found that happiness did not increase alongside economic growth... A detailed 2008 study found that more unequal metros actually had slower overall rates of growth, after controlling for education and skill levels. A recent International Monetary Fund study found that lower levels of inequality are strongly and positively associated with faster economic growth, and that a greater redistribution of wealth contributes to economic growth as well. Studies of U.S. metros have also found greater inequality to be associated with less economic growth. My own research on 138 nations finds inequality to be negatively correlated with creative capacity and competitiveness"
For those who claim economic growth doesn't make people happy (and those who claim inequality is not an issue)

The frantic race to save every NSFW Tumblr for posterity - "GeoCities, Vine, Friendster–communities live, thrive, and often die on the net. But the two-week timeframe in which content will disappear from Tumblr is unprecedented, says Jason Scott. He cofounded Archive Team, a volunteer project running software that scarfs copies of endangered websites for posterity.They are now scrambling to preserve an estimated 700,000 Tumblr blogs that are expected to partly or entirely disappear due to a new, broadly defined ban on “adult content”... “Usually we’re given 30 or 60 days or 90 days warning. Fourteen days is insane”... the real problem was always that Verizon couldn’t sell ads next to porn... Prior to the Verizon acquisition, a commonly cited study found that 22 percent of Tumblr users were consuming explicit content (though only 1 percent was producing it)... many of Tumblr users are women, much or most of the explicit content on Tumblr “was made by, for, and about women,” and that Tumblr’s “all porn” reputation stems from the fact that “women were thrilled to finally find porn that fit their interests, and wanted to foster that community as much as possible.” The decision to squash all that, she says, is gendered, and a major loss... Who owns your work? Who will protect it? How do you even make the argument that what you’re making or who you are is important to anyone?... even though D’Onofrio’s post stated that explicit text will be permitted under the new rules... many Tumblr users are already watching their work disappear and having to fight for it in appeal, often saying they’ve received no explanation and can see no clear reasoning behind the platform’s decision. Though text is supposedly safe, Tumblr’s own text-only post about the changes was reportedly flagged by its porn-hunting bots... Where will that community go now? The problem is no one can decide. Twitter looks appealing for visual NSFW content, but it’s not well-suited for text. WordPress might be safe in some ways, but it has limited community and discovery features. Reddit has no reblogs. Instagram has even stricter content filters than Tumblr; the Tumblr user base is too young to remember or trust Newgrounds. Blogging platforms like the LiveJournal-based Dreamwidth or the Kickstarter-funded Pillowfort could be okay, but how do you make everyone move together?"

How Tumblr went from being the most porn-friendly social media site to banning porn - "In 2013, TechCrunch reported that a full 11.4 percent of the top 200,000 Tumblrs were adult-oriented, and adult sites were sending Tumblr a sizable amount of traffic. Porn helped build Tumblr’s empire, and Tumblr gave porn fans a safe playground to explore their interests"

Tumblr Fans Abandon Ship as Tumblr Bans Porn (NYT) - "“Most of the popular content was coming from professional producers,” said Luca Maria Aiello, one of the authors of the study and a former researcher at Yahoo Labs. That content often appeared as GIFs — looping, second-long videos pulled from pornography produced by others — and were shared across the platform on blogs like Lady Cheeky. “This is how porn started on the internet, with these little thumbnail galleries back in the late ’90s,” said Chauntelle Tibbals, the author of “Exposure: A Sociologist Explores Sex, Society, and Adult Entertainment.” What set Tumblr apart, in this internet era, was the range of content available, and as Brett L., a 28-year-old New Yorker who runs one of the most popular adult Tumblr accounts, put it: “Tumblr always was a place for all.”"