Links - 23rd August 2019 (2)

Tommy Robinson Exposed - Posts - "Donald Trump says Sadiq Khan is a "disaster" because of violent crime rates in London.Here's how London's homicide rate compares to US cities"
Comments: They're run by democrats lol"
"Those cities are most diverse cities in US lol"
"Wow this graph is racist you should be ashamed of your self. Top 5 cities are majority African American and ran by democrats."

Two Nike Employees Start a New Singaporean Supper Club in Portland

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg on the Victorians | History Extra Podcast - History Extra - "‘Do you have any sympathy to the idea that statues that have become culturally redundant, should be, that their time has passed, we should put other people who are more kind of reflective of the present day in their place?’
‘No, I think you should add to the collection of statues. I'm no admirer of Oliver Cromwell. I think that he was a disastrous figure, particularly terrible in Ireland. But I'm not campaigning for removal of his statue outside the House of Parliament. Because he's the one man who sent troops into Parliament to determine division lobbies. It wasn't the right place to put it, but it's there. And it's part of our history. And Napier is part of our history. Moving his statue doesn't take the history away. And what about Gordon, whose statue is not only in London, just behind the Ministry of Defense, but also in Melbourne? I mean, he was a hero across the Empire, should he be taken down across the Empire? Or is it just an interesting historic fact that there he is, and how important he once was, and of course, how forgotten he now is?’...
Gordon [and] Napier. They both believe that all life is sacred, not just an Englishman's life. And that, again, is not something people necessarily realize about the Empire. How many of the Imperial figures, weren’t racist at all. And Sleman, of course, he's stopping Indians being murdered, he's not stopping British administrators being murdered, and he thinks this is crucial, important life work. So there is a nobility in this feeling that you can spread good to the world because you value everybody equally."

How blockchain takes us back to medieval times | FT Alphaville - "real-time clearing could theoretically save $8bn in reserve funds. But what that also means is that all participants would have to pre-fund (or even over-fund in a volatile market) all prospective trades fully before being able to execute them"

Adobe Has New Tools for Detecting Photoshopped Images

Google relies on growing underclass: Temps who outnumber full-timers - "Cruz became one of Google’s many temps and contractors — a shadow workforce that now outnumbers the company’s full-time employees. But she never made the jump to full time. She was swiftly fired after a Google manager, whom she said had harassed her for months, told the temp agency that had hired her that he wanted her gone.High-tech companies have long promoted the idea that they are egalitarian, idyllic workplaces. And Google, perhaps more than any other, has represented that image, with a reputation for enviable salaries and benefits and lavish perks.But the company’s increasing reliance on temps and contractors has some Google employees wondering if management is undermining its carefully crafted culture. As of March, Google worked with roughly 121,000 temps and contractors around the world, compared with 102,000 full-time employees... Though they often work side by side with full-timers, Google temps are usually employed by outside agencies. They make less money, have different benefits plans and have no paid vacation time in the United States... The reliance on temporary help has generated more controversy inside Google than it has at other big tech outfits, but the practice is common in Silicon Valley. Contingent labor accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of the workers at most technology firms, according to estimates by OnContracting, a site that helps people find tech contracting positions.OnContracting estimates that a technology company can save $100,000 a year on average per American job by using a contractor instead of a full-time employee.“It’s creating a caste system inside companies”... Google was the employer in all but name. It decides what jobs they do, dictates where and what hours they work, and often decides if and when to fire them.Google’s contractors are barred from company events like holiday parties and all-hands meetings. They are not permitted to look at internal job postings or attend company job fairs... the company sent security updates only to full-time employees during a shooting at YouTube’s offices last year, leaving contractors “defenseless in the line of fire.” They were also barred from a meeting the next day to discuss the attack."

Teach "Don't Steal", not "Lock your doors" - Posts - "Feminism: "We demand a woman's right to choose!"
Woman: "I choose to be a sta-at-home mother, and to love my husband and our children, and to be supportive to him."
Feminism: *Mushroom cloud*"

India's passion for traditional tea in a clay cup - "That first time I tried it, I thought it was utterly disgusting, and tipped it out of the window, much to the horror of my fellow passengers.Then to my horror, they threw their cups out of the window.Eurgh! Not only had I been given a vile drink, but witnessed a national vile habit, littering on a criminal scale... A day or two in the baking summer sun or the monsoon rains, and these crude cups disintegrated, Indian clay returning to Indian soil. A perfect ecological model."

Kolkata's age old tradition of 'bhar' clay cups of tea - "Tea drinkers here, swear by the superiority of the clay cup. The clay, they say, gives the tea a rich and earthy flavour. It brings a ceremonial ending to each cup of tea as well. When the tea is finished, the bhar are customary thrown and crushed to pieces on the ground."
Maybe water in India is dirty so washing the cups will make them even dirtier

Ethnic differences in testicular structure and spermatogenic potential may predispose testes of Asian men to a heightened sensitivity to steroidal contraceptives. - "Homogenates of fixed testes were evaluated for the number of Sertoli cells and the daily sperm production based on pachytene primary spermatocytes (PDSP) or spermatids with spherical nuclei (DSP). Paired parenchymal weight was less (P < 0.05) in Chinese men than in Hispanic or Caucasian men. The PDSP per gram of parenchyma was lower (P < 0.05) and the DSP per gram tended to be lower in Chinese men than in other groups... It is postulated that smaller testes, coupled with the reduced number and function of Sertoli cells and reduced daily sperm production, contribute to an inherently lower spermatogenic potential in Asian men, which predisposes them to a heightened negative spermatogenic response to steroidal contraceptives." Asian men have smaller testes and less sperm production than white or Hispanic men

Joanne Lipman: Diversity Training Fails American Companies - "For most of its history, diversity training has been pretty much a cudgel, pounding white men into submission with a mix of finger-wagging and guilt-mongering... here’s the thing about diversity training: it doesn’t work.Harvard organizational sociology professor Frank Dobbin and others have since delved into why such programs have failed. Dobbin combed through thousands of data points and found that for white women and black men and women in management positions, it actually made things worse. That’s right: companies that introduced diversity training would actually employ more women and black men today if they had never had diversity training at all. He singled out three situations in which training is doomed to fail: when it’s mandatory; when it so much as mentions the law; or when it is specific to managers, as opposed to being offered to all employees. Unfortunately, he found, about 75% of firms with diversity-training programs fall into at least one of those categories. Perhaps more to the point is the fact that the training infuriates the people it’s intended to educate: white men. “Many interpreted the key learning point as having to walk on eggshells around women and minorities–choosing words carefully so as not to offend. Some surmised that it meant white men were villains, still others assumed that they would lose their jobs to minorities and women, while others concluded that women and minorities were simply too sensitive”... Training done badly can also damage otherwise cordial relationships. Women and minorities often leave training sessions thinking their co-workers must be even more biased than they had previously imagined. In a more troubling development, it turns out that telling people about others’ biases can actually heighten their own. Researchers have found that when people believe everybody else is biased, they feel free to be prejudiced themselves... The evidence is damning. Yet companies continue to invest heavily in diversity training, spending, by one estimate, almost $8 billion a year. It has led to what the Economist dubbed “diversity fatigue.”
Why SJW-ing is a self-fulfilling prophecy

Candidates Who Explain Progressive Policies via Conservative Principles Could Be Uniquely Persuasive - Pacific Standard - ""a presidential candidate who framed his progressive economic platform to be consistent with conservative values like patriotism, family, and respect for tradition—as opposed to more liberal value concerns like equality and social justice—was supported significantly more by conservatives and, unexpectedly, by moderates as well... These new results are consistent with a 2010 study that found people invested in justifying the status quo—that is, conservatives—were more supportive of pro-environmental policies when such policies were framed as a way to help sustain the American way of life"

Ontario firefighter says his human rights were violated because he wasn’t given vegan food during B.C. wildfires - "An Ontario firefighter alleges his human rights were violated when he was not provided sufficient vegan food while battling a massive blaze in British Columbia... The case centres on whether veganism is a form of creed — the definition of which was expanded by the Human Rights Tribunal in 2015 to include non-secular beliefs... About 10,000 homes were evacuated in William’s Lake, and the only store open was a Tim Hortons that police were helping run, he wrote in his complaint. He said the ministry had long known about his dietary constraints, and he had also filled out a standard food information form for the trip. “On some days during my deployment to William’s Lake, I was not provided with any food that was vegan or not otherwise contaminated with animal products, and therefore forced to go hungry,” he wrote. On July 16, he ate salad and side dishes. The next day, he wrote, there were no vegan meals, so he ate plain bagels and coffee from Tim Hortons. The day after that he was given “beans, oatmeal and fruits.”“After working 16-hour days for four days with inadequate nutrition I began to feel physically ill and mentally groggy,” Knauff wrote. “Until that point I had been trying to push through my hunger and exhaustion, sustaining myself on nuts and fruits.”... He asked for personnel to buy tofu during one of their service runs. He got three blocks of tofu, gave it to the camp’s chef, but never saw it again, he wrote.Things came to a head on July 23 when he was looking forward to a big barbecue dinner, where vegan burgers would be served.But, he wrote, the chef handled beef patties before touching the vegan patties with the same gloved hands.Knauff said he swore at the chef, who swore back. His supervisor gave him a warning... He took his plate to his supervisor and asked him if he could see any protein on his plate. The supervisor offered him protein bars.“I was upset and told him ‘no,”‘ and then he told him — with a curse word — to fix the problem... Base camp was difficult for all involved, as was trying to feed 1,000 firefighters with the closest towns with open stores hours away, the ministry says."
Why the Singapore Navy doesn't accept people with dietary restrictions