Links - 13th August 2019 (1)

When you lose weight, your fat cells don't just let go of fat - "Like that grandparent, your fat cells are always trying to store stuff. Fats? Of course. Vitamins? Heck yeah. Hormones? You bet. Random pollutants and toxins? Sure. Adipose tissue will soak all that up like an oily little sponge and keep it safe until you need it again. That’s the whole point of body fat—to store energy for you. When you lose weight, your fat cells start shrinking, releasing lipids and other fats into your bloodstream. These get broken down, and eventually the smaller molecules exit via your urine or breath. But adipose cells release all the other molecules they've hoarded, too. That includes key hormones like estrogen, along with fat-soluble vitamins and any organic pollutants that found their way into your bloodstream as you gained weight."

Cuban infant mortality and longevity: health care or repression? - "The common assessment is that Cuba’s achievements in lowering infant mortality and increasing longevity are among the praiseworthy outcomes of the regime—a viewpoint reinforced by studies published in US medical journals (Campion and Morrissey 1993; Cooper and Kennelly, 2006) We argue that some of the praise is unjustified. Although Cuban health statistics appear strong, they overstate the achievements because of data manipulation. Moreover, their strength is not derived from the successful delivery of health care but rather from the particular repressive nature of the regime which comes at the expense of other populations... Physicians are given health outcome targets to meet or face penalties. This provides incentives to manipulate data. Take Cuba’s much praised infant mortality rate for example. In most countries, the ratio of the numbers of neonatal deaths and late fetal deaths stay within a certain range of each other as they have many common causes and determinants. One study found that that while the ratio of late fetal deaths to early neonatal deaths in countries with available data stood between 1.04 and 3.03 (Gonzalez, 2015)—a ratio which is representative of Latin American countries as well (Gonzalez and Gilleskie, 2017).2 Cuba, with a ratio of 6, was a clear outlier. This skewed ratio is evidence that physicians likely reclassified early neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths, thus deflating the infant mortality statistics and propping up life expectancy. Cuban doctors were re-categorizing neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths in order for doctors to meet government targets for infant mortality... physicians who worried that a mother’s behavior might lead to missing the centrally established targets will prescribe the forceful internment in a state clinic (casa de maternidad) so that they may regulate her behavior. Physicians often perform abortions without clear consent of the mother, raising serious issues of medical ethics, when ultrasound reveals fetal abnormalities because ‘otherwise it might raise the infant mortality rate’... Cuba has one of the highest abortion rates in the world... government restrictions of automobile ownership improves Cuban life expectancy by reducing accidents but also by forcing the population to increase their reliance on more physically demanding forms of transportation (e.g. cycling and walking)"

Election fraud allowed to take place in Muslim communities because of 'political correctness', report warns - "Election fraud has been allowed to take place in Muslim communities because of “political correctness”, a major report finds as it calls for unprecedented reforms to the British voting system.In a report commissioned by the Government, Sir Eric Pickles, the former Conservative Cabinet minister, today warns that the authorities are in a “state of denial” and are “turning a blind eye” to election fraud.He said that there is evidence of voter fraud “especially in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background” but that the cases have been ignored because of “over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion”.Sir Eric warns that “challenging issues” over community cohesion should never be an “excuse” for failing to “uphold the rule of law and protect British liberties”. Sir Eric’s report makes a series of recommendations to Theresa May, the Prime Minister, and calls for people to require identification when they are voting and for police cordons around polling stations to prevent intimidation.He also calls for officials at polling stations to be banned from speaking any language other than English and says that it should be made a criminal offense to attempt to influence someone to vote for a candidate because of their religion."

Meme - "Of Course This Is a Pipe. Nobody Really Thinks That Artistic Portrayals of Certain Objects Are Literally the Objects Themselves. Referring to Symbols as What They Are Understood to Represent Is Merely a Universally Employed Lingustic Convenience. Saying This Is a Portrayal of a Pipe Would Be Too Tiring. So Yes This Is a Pipe Because the Word Pipe Is Understood by Everyone to Refer to Portrayals of Pipes as Well as Actual Pipes. This Is How Language Works Stop Being Pedantic You Post-Modernist Bore"

Nico on Twitter - "Please don't police the bodies of pregnant people. To protect children against alcohol harm, take on the industry. Call for a ban on alcohol advertising. Campaign for a health tax on alcohol manufacture and distribution. Demand public parks and libraries next to bars.
Pregnant people are whole human beings, not baby incubators. Patriarchy demands that they be pure gestational vessels despite toxic environments and structural oppression, while absolving fathers of responsibility. If you want healthy babies, work for healthy societies.
If it bothers you to see a pregnant person drinking alcohol, does it bother you equally when your bros who are fathers are out drinking with you instead of being with their kids?"
"Drinking alcohol while pregnant is now a way to.... *squints* ...own the patriarchy. Yep. There’s your hot take for today, y’all."

Study of marathon runners reveals a ‘hard limit’ on human endurance - "Athletes who can run the equivalent of 117 marathons in just months might seem unstoppable. The biggest obstacle, it turns out, is their own bodies. A new study quantifies for the first time an unsurpassable “ceiling” for endurance activities such as long-distance running and biking—and it also finds that pregnancy’s metabolic toll resembles that of an ultramarathon"

SCANDAL: Bizarre royal sex toy exposed in TV documentary - "Known for his raunchy lifestyle, Bertie – also known as Dirty Bertie and Edward the Caresser – was the proud owner of this device, which allegedly allowed him to service up to two women at once, despite the restrictions of an increasingly rotund frame as he reached his older age... ‘What really perturbed me about the chair is that there was room on it for two ladies, one on the top and one underneath—but exactly how he got to the one underneath we never managed to actually work out between the whole crew."

Throwback Thursday: When the King of England had a love chair to 'pleasure two partners at once' - "Bertie seems to have had a particular taste for married women and often selected his mistresses from the wives of his intimate circle of friends, who considered it their duty to King and c*** to turn a blind eye...
Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, Pauline (1780-1825), took on so many well-endowed lovers that her doctors diagnosed her with an exhausted vagina."

41 Scandalous Facts About Edward VII, The Playboy King - "One of Edward’s favorite indulgences was to frequent the Parisian Brothel La Chabanais. He had his own room fitted with a copper bathtub decorated with half-swan-half-women, among other things. He quite enjoyed filling it with champagne and bathing in it with prostitutes. As one does."

Newspaper Article - We will maintain racial balance among S’poreans: PM Lee, TODAY, 9 February 2013, Page 4 - "The racial balance in Singapore will not change in spite of the immigration plans as set out in the White Paper on Population, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday."
Since the Chinese have the least children, this is a tacit admission that ethnic Chinese are targeted in immigration

The Encyclopedia of Mistresses/an Under-The-Covers Look at the Other Women of History's Most Influential Men: Dawn B. Sova - "This text is a record of the famous women throughout history who have been branded mistresses, many of whom used their sexual talents in the bedroom to wield heady power in the boardroom, the throne room, the battlefield and even the pulpit."

Prof. Jordan Peterson responds to CBC cultural appropriation fallout - "Journalists are already self-censoring in the toxic fallout from the CBC’s cultural appropriation controversy, University of Toronto Prof. Dr. Jordan Peterson says.Peterson, whose fight against mandatory use of genderless pronouns drew international attention, said the impact of political correctness on free speech and broader society is profound.“This is why I’ve been warning about the emergence of such ideas at the university,” Peterson told The Toronto Sun.“Anybody who thinks these ideas are going to stay in the university, believe me, they’re engaging in wishful thinking.”A number of prominent journalists have been criticized for their recent participation in a debate about cultural appropriation, whether writers using the creations of other cultures are exploring or exploiting them...
What are the implications for journalists?
“The first lesson is they’re going to be hung out to dry by their superiors … And the second is that the radical mob learned that with a relatively moderate level of effort, they can humiliate and take down even journalists that have impeccable reputations and large followings. So if the journalistic community wanted to teach their enemies the lesson they most want to be taught, they taught them that this week.”
In some cases, the journalist apologized. Why wasn’t that enough?
“You never apologize to a mob. You’re not dealing with individuals who you can reestablish a relationship with. You’re dealing with a soulless idea that has people in its possession. And it’s a shifting entity, it doesn’t even involve the same people necessarily across time although there’s often a core, and all the idea is going to do with your apology is note that you believe that the game is fair, the game that they foisted on you is fair and that you’re guilty of breaking the rules.”"

Alexandra Petri on Twitter - "what if as a nation we just did one BIG Kickstarter once a year to help everyone pay medical bills instead of 327 million individual ones"

Vietnamese Model Sparks Outrage, May Be Fined for ‘Offensive’ Dress at Cannes Film Festival - "A Vietnamese model who showed up at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in a look that left little to the imagination has received widespread condemnation in her home country.Ngoc Trinh, 29, attended the French film festival on May 19 for the premiere of “A Hidden Life,” a movie following an Austrian farmer who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II... The revealing dress has caused “public outrage” across Vietnam, according to the country’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism... Thien reportedly ordered officials to investigate the model for possible violations in Vietnam’s strict public decency laws... Many reportedly slammed Trinh’s taste as a disgrace to the country. Across message boards, users described her dress as “sexually explicit,” “weird” and “gross”"

Legal immigrant prof’s criticisms of illegal immigration result in calls for his ouster - "A legal Chinese immigrant professor from Georgia Gwinnett College is facing harsh criticism calls for his termination following “controversial” remarks he made about illegal immigration. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Fang Zhou of the college’s history department used phrases such as “ghetto thugs” and “libtards” on social media, and said he has a sign in his office which reads “Deportation of illegal immigrants.”Zhou said he “speaks truth to power” in his class and teaches about “the financial drain of illegal immigration on the economy and the high crime rates of illegal immigrants.” Upon completion of his course, Zhou said his students are “overwhelmingly against” illegal immigration... Zhou’s RateMyProfessors.com page is overwhelmingly positive, and the three negative reviews don’t mention illegal immigration nor classroom indoctrination"

Georgia professor’s immigration comments cause stir on social media - "“If you are going to to reward illegal immigrants, there will be more illegal immigrants,” he said.Zhou said he has plenty of students who disagree with his viewpoints, some have sent him hate mail. Critics, he said, must come with information to defend their position.“To make a convincing argument, please present evidence,” Zhou said"