Links - 18th August 2019 (2)

Rockets from Batam, statistics and MHA - "One incident that the Singapore government seems to be obsessed with is the alleged rocket plot aimed at Marina Bay Sands in August 2016. I have read repeated reports on this alleged incident in the mainstream media even though the district court in Jakarta had ruled in 2017 that such a plot did not exist... Despite the verdict of the Jakarta court, why does the government continue to mislead the public that there was a rocket plot against Singapore in 2016?... Paragraph 14 is not only baseless, it disrespects the verdict of the Jakarta court. It is telling Indonesia that we will disregard the verdict and will continue to use the alleged incident to instill fear of a terrorist attack in the minds of Singaporeans... Singapore prides itself as having an independent judiciary. Anyone who remotely criticises the judiciary is hauled before the courts under the dreadful Administration of Justice (Protection) Act. Shouldn’t we respect the judiciary of Indonesia by accepting its verdict even if this alleged incident of a rocket plot can no longer be used to instill fear in Singaporeans?"

Anti Social Justice Warriors - Posts - "Fancy Co-Living Spaces Are the Trendy New Way White People Ruin Everything"
"Damn white people and their ***shuffles deck*** ROOMMATES!!!! I seriously wish Vice would just come right out and admit what they really think: the very existence of white people is racist."

Hands-free bubble tea: Viral Japanese trend involves using your chest as a drink holder - "Ever got tired of using your hands to hold your bubble tea?Well, a new trend in Japan provides just the solution, that is if you happen to be blessed in that department... One in particular shared that the great thing about having a big bust was that she could use her laptop and drink iced latte at the same time."

Genetic analysis shows lasting effects of caste system on health of modern Indians - "The earliest Indian residents are believed to have migrated from Africa about 75,000 years ago. Other groups of people also arrived on the subcontinent, from Central Asia and East Asia, and intermarried a great deal.Then, around the year 500 something dramatic happened. The caste system began to show its effects... the caste system began to be enforced much later during the Gupta empire, which ruled northern India between 320 and 550. The empire, also known as Vedic Brahminism, was noted for flourishing economics, art and literature, as well as for its enforcement of ancient moral laws and conduct that all Hindus must follow. These laws included allowing marriage only within each tier of each person’s caste... intermarrying was quite common among all parts of Indian society until 500 AD, when genetic signs of intermixing rather suddenly stopped... Not every group cooperated with the Gupta Empire rules, however. Another study published earlier this year, found that intermarrying was (and is) quite common in some northeastern Indian societies, especially around the Himalayas... endogamous practices have had some effects on health and disease. These aren’t entirely due to castes — many populations in the country were isolated long before the caste system was enacted. But a number of population and region specific diseases exist, including Madras motor neuron disease, Handigodu disease, and pseudocholinesterase deficiency among Vysyas. In addition, a number of Indian ethnic groups have selected for MSTN and DOK5 genes, which affect lipid metabolism and could have an effect on the incidence of type 2 diabetes."
So much for the Indian revisionists who claim caste wasn't a thing till the British

The Puzzle Of Indian IQ: A Country Of Gypsies And Jews - "The question of Indian IQ is a big puzzle. Far trickier than China’s IQ which I think I’ve basically figured out (101-102 today; 106-108 genetic ceiling). The PISA-adjusted IQ of India – as extrapolated from the states of Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, which are relatively rich and are reputed to have good school systems by Indian standards – is a miserly 75.4... the differences between Indians, and East Asians and Europeans, are huge. India is in fact at the upper level of sub-Saharan African IQ which typically ranges from 65 to 80. There are lots of factors holding India back: Malnutrition (which is on average perhaps worse than in sub-Saharan Africa), vegetarian diets, poor education system, a moderately high rate of consanguineous marriage. But all that said the sheer size of the gap makes me skeptical that all of it is down to environmental factors alone... whereas “China focuses on giving the masses a solid basic education that prepares them for manufacturing jobs” India on the other hand “focuses more on giving outstanding university educations to the meritocratic elite.”"

Myanmar doctor's licence revoked due to bikini Facebook posts - "A Myanmar model and doctor said she would appeal against a medical council decision to revoke her licence for posting photos of herself on Facebook in revealing outfits and bikinis.The Myanmar Medical Council suspended the medical licence of Nang Mwe San in a letter to her dated Jun 3, saying she dressed inappropriately.On her Facebook page, the 28-year-old often posts photos of herself wearing tight dresses, lingerie, swimwear and even traditional Burmese clothing in sexy poses.Mwe San has been a general physician for four years, but stopped practicing two years ago to pursue a modelling career"
Given that Christopher Lee Kwan Chen got suspended for posting stuff online irrelevant to being a doctor too, it would be cultural imperialism and ethnocentrism to criticise the Burmese for having their own standards of proper conduct

Tunnbrödsrulle: The Ultimate Swedish Style Summer Hot Dog - "Anthony Bourdain once said that one particular Swedish street food was, “…the most disgusting thing ever…and I love it.”Tunnbrödsrulle is served at many fast food establishments and snack bars in Sweden, just like any other hot dog you could pick up at your local gas station here in the States. But for those who’ve tried tunnbrödsrulle, they know it’s unlike any other hot dog.Tunnbrödsrulle is comprised of mashed potatoes, sausage or hot dogs, lettuce, shrimp salad, mayonnaise dressing, onions, ketchup and mustard and is served wrapped up in a tortilla or flatbread"

Lucas Lynch - Don't worry. He has a PhD. - Reza Aslan: "Your dad raped your mom."
"Don't worry. He has a PhD."

Differences in exam performance between pupils attending selective and non-selective schools mirror the genetic differences between them - "On average, students attending selective schools outperform their non-selective counterparts in national exams. These differences are often attributed to value added by the school, as well as factors schools use to select pupils, including ability, achievement and, in cases where schools charge tuition fees or are located in affluent areas, socioeconomic status. However, the possible role of DNA differences between students of different schools types has not yet been considered. We used a UK-representative sample of 4814 genotyped students to investigate exam performance at age 16 and genetic differences between students in three school types: state-funded, non-selective schools (‘non-selective’), state-funded, selective schools (‘grammar’) and private schools, which are selective (‘private’). We created a genome-wide polygenic score (GPS) derived from a genome-wide association study of years of education (EduYears). We found substantial mean genetic differences between students of different school types: students in non-selective schools had lower EduYears GPS compared to those in grammar (d = 0.41) and private schools (d = 0.37). Three times as many students in the top EduYears GPS decile went to a selective school compared to the bottom decile. These results were mirrored in the exam differences between school types. However, once we controlled for factors involved in pupil selection, there were no significant genetic differences between school types, and the variance in exam scores at age 16 explained by school type dropped from 7% to <1%. These results show that genetic and exam differences between school types are primarily due to the heritable characteristics involved in pupil admission."
So much for the 'myth' of meritocracy

Antisemitic Violence in Europe, 2005-2015: Exposure and Perpetrators in France, UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Russia - "Available data on perpetrators suggest that individuals of Muslim background stand out among perpetrators of antisemitic violence in Western Europe,but not in Russia, where right-wing extremist offenders dominate. Attitude surveys corroborate this picture in so far as antisemitic attitudes are far more widespread among Muslims than among the general population in Western Europe."

Dutch Prof Warns No Western Society Has Managed to Fully Integrate Muslims - "Based on his 20-year-long studies on integration and assimilation, Ruud Koopmans, a professor of sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin, has arrived at the conclusion that Muslims are more difficult to integrate than other immigrant groups.Professor Ruud Koopmans suggested than no Western country has managed to successfully integrate Muslims. In an interview with the Danish newspaper Berlingske, he stressed that despite individual pattern breakers, the overall picture and the general trend are discouraging... Muslims consider themselves separate from other non-Muslim groups, and refrain from broader interaction with those outside their religion. For instance, almost 60 percent of the Muslims surveyed rejected the idea of maintaining friendships with homosexuals, and 45 percent said the same thing about Jews. According to Koopmans, the fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran, which is prevalent among Muslims, prevents them from being integrated into Western countries. According to Koopmans' studies, up to 50 percent of Muslims in Europe hold fundamentalist beliefs. By contrast, the proportion of fundamentalists among Christians is much lower, at less than 4 percent. In his new book, "The Decrepit House of Islam", Koopmans paints a rather gloomy picture of the Muslim world; one marked by growing fundamentalism and sectarian conflicts. He concluded that when it comes to democracy, human rights, and political and economic development, the 47 Muslim-majority countries are worse off... attributing this to conservative views on the role of women, low investment into children's education and fundamentalist propaganda... [They] basically claims that the Quran and the Sunna must be taken literally, and that the way the Prophet lived in the 7th century must be the yardstick for how Muslims should live in the 21st century," Koopmans concluded. "Such a brand of Islam is, firstly, a threat to world peace. Secondly, it prevents integration.""

Fundamentalism and out-group hostility: Muslim immigrants and Christian natives in Western Europe - "Almost 60 per cent agree that Muslims should return to the roots of Islam, 75 per cent think there is only one interpretation of the Koran possible to which every Muslim should stick and 65 per cent saythat religious rules are more important to them than the laws of the country in which they live. Consistent fundamentalist beliefs,with agreement to all three statements, are found among 44 per cent of the interviewed Muslim... Against the idea that fundamentalism is a reaction to exclusion by the host society, we find the lowest levels of fundamentalism in Germany, where Muslims enjoy fewer religious rights than in any of the other five countries... Because the demographic and socio-economic profiles of Muslim immigrants and native Christians differ strongly, and since it is known from the literature that marginalized, lower-class individuals are more strongly attracted to fundamentalist movements, it would of course be possible that these differences are due to class rather than religion. However, the results of regression analyses controlling for education, labour market status, age, gender, and marital status reveal that while some of these variables explain variation in fundamentalism within both religious groups, they do not at all explain or even diminish the difference between Muslims and Christians. A cause for concern is that while among Christians religious fundamentalism is much less widespread among younger people, fundamentalist attitudes areas widespread among young as among older Muslims... While about one in five natives can be considered as Islamophobic, the level of phobia against the West among Muslims – for which oddly enough there is no word; one might callit “Occidentophobia” – is much higher still, with 54 per cent believing that the West is out to destroy Islam. These findings concord with the fact that, as a 2006 study of the Pew research institute showed, about half of the Muslims living in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom believe in the conspiracy theory that the attacks of 9/11 were not carried out by Muslims, but were orchestrated by the West and/or Jews... These findings clearly contradict the often-heard claim that Islamic religious fundamentalismis a marginal phenomenon in Western Europe or that it does not differ from the extent offundamentalism among the Christian majority. Both claims are blatantly false"