Links - 26th August 2019 (2)

Effects of sexualized video games on online sexual harassment.
Oddly, the study's official abstract doesn't mention that it was women who were doing more harassing in *both* the pre- and post-treatment conditions - of both men and women, or that men were sexually harassed more than women. Doubtless, the study will then be used to bash men for being creeps
The authors posit that the moral panic about men sexually harassing women could have led to these results - women don't see what they do as sexual harassment, and men aren't seen as objects of sexual harassment. Which shows the obvious harms of bashing men

Medieval Weapons That Maimed and Killed - "The humble caltrop, a spiked metal device, was scattered on the ground to puncture enemy feet. The sharp objects were important enough that Philip the Good of Burgundy included caltrops in his niece’s dowry.Unlike many medieval weapons, it is still used today, scattered across roads by drug gangs to puncture police tires."

Maria Folau, ANZ Bank: Netball New Zealand statement | Israel Folau, GoFundMe - "Netball New Zealand is standing beside Maria Folau as controversy surrounds her support of husband Israel, and her religious views... One of Netball New Zealand’s major sponsors, ANZ, has raised concerns about Folau’s support for her husband.The Adelaide Thunderbirds star, like her husband is deeply religious, and reposted Israel’s Instagram post, where he asked for people to donate up to $3 million to help him fund his legal battle against Rugby Australia."
It is leftist wrongthink to support your husband's attempts to raise funds for court - even if that's not endorsing any of the views that got him un-personed. Apparently due process is bigotry

Israel Folau’s GoFundMe page shut down - "Israel Folau’s GoFundMe page has been pulled down with refunds to be issued to all donors.The fund-raising account, which had raised over $700,000, was taken down due to the breaching of GoFundMe's terms of services, with the company declaring they “do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion”... Folau had his $4 million RA contract terminated in May after a post he made on Instagram citing the Bible was deemed homophobic"
It is only okay to exclude certain groups

Israel Folau supporters call for boycott of rugby and Qantas after sacking over anti-gay social media post - "“Israel Folau is from a devoutly religious Polynesian family. He has not sought to impose his views on anybody. He has merely repeated, as one correspondent wrote at the weekend, ‘what his religion has held for thousands of years. “Whether you choose to believe it is up to you. And if you don’t, then probably you don’t believe in hell either. I suspect that had Folau been a Muslim stating exactly the same religious beliefs that, in the unlikely event he was dismissed, it would have led to calls of Islamophobia’.”"

Israel Folau and the right to freedom of expression | Coffee House - "The list of ‘sins’ outlined in the Instagram post goes far beyond homosexuality. Despite this, most articles led with headlines about an ‘anti-gay’ or ‘homophobic’ post, which led me (and I assume many others) to believe that homosexuality was the only issue mentioned. Where are all the outraged ‘fornicators’ and atheists?... is it genuinely ‘hateful’ to express views on what is sinful behaviour? The contents of the bible may well be offensive to anyone who doesn’t believe in it, but are we comfortable with the ‘hate’ label being used if we disagree or are offended by its contents?... can we genuinely say that we are perfectly happy with people holding controversial views, but just not expressing them? What if Folau was asked about it at a press conference? What if Folau was giving a sermon in church on the subject? This is a difficult, if not impossible, line to draw. Just ask former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron – he felt it would be far easier to deny having views on homosexuality than trying to defend holding them. One of the more controversial aspects of this whole situation is the involvement of Rugby Australia’s main sponsor Qantas airlines, and its CEO Alan Joyce. Joyce is gay, and was one of the most prominent advocates of same-sex marriage during Australia’s 2017 referendum... Now the irony here is that Qantas’ CEO seems to be a great defender of people (and businesses) using their platform to speak out on social issues, but clearly not if he disagrees with them...
Is it ‘hateful’ to support a person that has made a ‘hateful’ comment?
A very hostile reception awaited any rugby players who expressed solidarity with Folau, particularly if they ‘liked’ the Instagram post in question. Billy Vunipola, the star number 8 of the English National Rugby Team, posted his own thoughts on Instagram after receiving multiple calls from people telling him to ‘unlike’ the post, clarifying that he didn’t ‘hate’ anyone but rather saw Folau’s post as an encouragement to live ‘closer to how God intended’... It’s also clear that sponsors should not be given an unchecked right to censor or shape the views of players. A recent example of a sensible compromise on this was when New Zealand rugby star Sonny Bill Williams, who is a Muslim, was exempted from wearing the logos of banks, alcohol brands or gambling companies on his club’s kit... it’s not a stretch to imagine an athlete saying that he wasn’t going to fly – not because he was scared, but because he thought that carbon emissions were destroying the planet. How comfortable would we be for that player to be sacked because his views conflicted with the interests of an airline sponsor?"

Israel Folau found guilty: Anthony Mundine claims ‘it’s about racism’ - "Controversial Aussie boxer Anthony Mundine has waded into the Israel Folau saga claiming the dumped Aussie fullback was a victim of racism in his war with Rugby Australia... “People are missing the point here, it’s not about the Bible or the Biblical quote that Izzy put up, it’s a black man expressing it,” Mundine, a devout Muslim, told Channel 7 on Wednesday afternoon.“If it was about the biblical quote then why don’t they push to ban that... “We take oaths of office in every court of the land. The Prime Minister is sworn in with his hand on the Bible — the same bible which Israel Folau has quoted and he’s now had his dignity, his integrity, his employment, his vocation and his income stolen from him.“I coached Australian rugby, I was proud of it, I was proud of the boys and I was proud of everything we stood for. Today, I’m ashamed of the people who’ve inherited our proud legacy."

If Sonny Bill Williams was treated like Israel Folau – Whale Oil Beef Hooked - "just like the American news story of the Christian bakers who didn’t want to bake a cake for a gay wedding the media is not interested in shining the same spotlight on Muslims.Many Muslim bakeries did not want to bake cakes for gay weddings either but only new media commentator Steven Crowder was prepared to make that point. Once he made his point and provided the video evidence the Muslim bakeries (unlike the Christian bakery) were not targeted by the mainstream media or with lawsuits by gay couples and they did not have their businesses destroyed."

Imam Tawhidi - "People are emailing me requesting that I speak about the #IsraelFolau matter. I haven’t said anything because I am utterly disgusted by the level of hypocrisy Australia is witnessing. Islamists wish death upon Gays and then dine with PM Turnbull, but quoting the Bible is hate speech? The same Bible our government and all of its Judicial departments use to take oath? We have to accept the fact that religious texts reject and accept many things, but from an ethical perspective we need to find a common ground to accept one another regardless. For the sake of the stability of this country. I have opinions many don’t like, but you won’t see me going crazy on Burka street, Melbourne. Unfortunately a lot of greed was involved in this case as well."
2016: Malcolm Turnbull regrets inviting homophobic sheikh to Iftar dinner | LGBT rights | The Guardian

Man who won $30M lottery while in middle of divorce ordered to share winnings - "The Michigan appeals court says a marriage isn’t over until it’s over. It means Mary Beth Zelasko can keep $15 million awarded by an arbitrator, although she and Rich Zelasko had been separated for two years when he bought the Mega Millions ticket in 2013"

So, Gutenberg Didn't Actually Invent the Printing Press - "Gutenberg himself is a, but not the, source of printing. Rather, key innovations in what would become revolutionary printing technology began in east Asia, with work done by Chinese nobles, Korean Buddhists, and the descendants of Genghis Khan—and, in a truth Davis acknowledges briefly, their work began several centuries before Johannes Gutenberg was even born."

Teacher's remains found buried under Chinese school after 16 years - "Deng Shiping had refused to approve a new sports facility because he felt it had been poorly constructed.A man reportedly involved in building the site has now confessed to killing and burying Mr Deng in January 2003, police say."

Males with a uterus and fallopian tubes, a rare disorder of sexual development. - "A man (46,XY) is described with an intraabdominal uterus and fallopian tubes. His testes, each of which contained a gonadoblastoma, occupied the intraabdominal adnexal position, leaving the scrotum empty. His external genitalia were unambiguously male. A vagina opened into the urethra. His presenting complaint was inguinal hernia. This developmental defect has been described previously, but genetic aspects and its relation to other conditions, "mixed" gonadal dysgenesis in particular, remains obscure pending the recognition and reporting of more cases studied in the light of recent cytogenetic advances."

New FDA Warning Cautions Against Grain-Free Dog Food - "Grain-free dog food used to be a relative rarity, reserved for pets with certain dietary issues. But in the past decade, millions of dog owners have shied away from conventional foods that include ingredients such as rice or oats, out of concern that grains might be bad for dogs’ health. Now grain-free options constitute almost half of the dog-food market in the United States. Over the same period, gluten-free and low-carbohydrate diets also exploded in popularity for humans. Leaving grains out of your dog’s diet, however, might be a far greater health risk than keeping them in. According to a warning from the Food and Drug Administration released last week, grain-free food might be giving dogs a life-threatening heart problem called dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM... Contrary to the broad cultural embrace of grain-free diets in recent years, science has offered little evidence to support their adoption among America’s canine companions. “It’s extremely, extremely rare for dogs to have a grain sensitivity,” says Lisa Lippman, the lead veterinarian for the in-home veterinary service Fuzzy Pet Health, in New York City. “This misinformation is a battle we face almost every day in the clinic, and it’s something that’s definitely been a source of frustration for us since before [the FDA warning] even came out.”... “People will anthropomorphize or project onto their pets whatever they think they need to eat themselves”"
Is it animal abuse to put a dog on a keto diet?

What Happened When Marissa Mayer Tried to Be Steve Jobs - The New York Times - "Dynamic and wildly profitable Internet companies like Facebook and Google may get most of the attention, but Silicon Valley is littered with firms that just get by doing roughly the same thing year after year — has-beens like Ask.com, a search engine that no longer innovates but happily takes in $400 million in annual revenue, turning a profit in the process. Mayer, who is 39, was hired to keep Yahoo from suffering this sort of fate... Generally speaking, there are only a few ways to make money on the Internet. There are e-commerce companies and marketplaces — think Amazon, eBay and Uber — that profit from transactions occurring on their platforms. Hardware companies, like Apple or Fitbit, profit from gadgets. For everyone else, though, it more or less comes down to advertising... At its peak, Yahoo’s market capitalization reached $128 billion. It was $20 billion larger than Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s holding company. But this growth obscured a looming problem. While Yahoo was busy enlarging its portfolio, a new generation of start-ups was focusing on perfecting one single product... Mayer’s refusal to delegate became a sticking point, too. She insisted on personally approving every hire. One executive complained to a friend that Mayer spent as much time deliberating Yahoo’s parking policies as she did strategizing over the sale of its Alibaba stock. Mayer also had a habit of operating on her own time... Mayer’s largest management problem, however, related to the start-up culture she had tried to instill. Early on, she banned working from home. This policy affected only 164 employees, but it was initiated months after she constructed an elaborate nursery in her office suite so that her son, Macallister, and his nanny could accompany her to work each day. Mayer also favored a system of quarterly performance reviews, or Q.P.R.s, that required every Yahoo employee, on every team, be ranked from 1 to 5. The system was meant to encourage hard work and weed out underperformers, but it soon produced the exact opposite. Because only so many 4s and 5s could be allotted, talented people no longer wanted to work together; strategic goals were sacrificed, as employees did not want to change projects and leave themselves open to a lower score... Aswath Damodaran, a professor at N.Y.U.'s Stern School of Business, has long argued about the danger of companies that try to return to the growth stage of their life cycle. These technology companies, he said, are run by people afflicted with something he calls the Steve Jobs syndrome. “We have created an incentive structure where C.E.O.s want to be stars,” Damodaran explained. “To be a star, you’ve got to be the next Steve Jobs — somebody who has actually grown a company to be a massive, large-market cap company.” But, he went on, “it’s extremely dangerous at companies when you focus on the exception rather than the rule.” He pointed out that “for every Apple, there are a hundred companies that tried to do what Apple did and fell flat on their faces.”... All breakthrough companies, after all, will eventually plateau and then decline. U.S. Steel was the first billion-dollar company in 1901, but it was worth about the same in 1991. Kodak, which once employed nearly 80,000 people, now has a market value below $1 billion. Packard and Hudson ruled the roads for more than 40 years before disappearing. These companies matured and receded over the course of generations, in some cases even a century. Yahoo went through the process in 20 years. In the technology industry, things move fast. “Sometimes,” Damodaran told me, “companies have to act their age.” For Yahoo, embracing its maturity means settling for a business that earns close to $1 billion in profit every year. It has outlasted other formerly iconic Internet portals, from AltaVista to Excite, and even dwarfs more recent web sensations like Myspace and Ask.com. For a company that started out as “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web,” that’s not a bad way to grow old."