Links - 6th September 2019 (1)

Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS 229 - John Nerst on "Erisology, the study of disagreement" - "'Twitter is probably the worst of everything… forums have a set context. In a forum there are regular people. That forum might have a theme, and there’s certain etiquette in this forum, or we have a better understanding of what the context is, in a forum.The thing with Twitter is that there's almost no separation into different contexts. You can just see something, at any time something can pop in to your field of vision'...
'Andrew Pickering, and Evelyn Fox Keller, and Sharon Traweek... They typically described things like particle physics as an “ideology”... It's very annoying to read somebody who does that when they don't even recognize that this is a very particular perspective. My professor, he picked out people who wrote from a perspective called “methodological relativism,” which means that when we describe historically why a particular idea became dominant in a scientific field – like, why do people believe in relativity, or why did they believe in the germ theory of disease, or whatever -- we're not supposed to make any sort of reference to the fact that it was correct. It was supposed to be described as purely a social process, who convinced who. [Which] sort of thing is convincing, and for what reason, and all that.'
'could you have gotten it much more easily from someone who thinks the way you do, who just says, "Hey, here's the value of science, and reason, and truth, and objectivity, here are exceptions to the rule." And you could have gotten all that same insight without all the frustrating detours into post-modernism?'
'Oh absolutely.'"

No halal please: meet China’s pig vigilantes - "Xi and her fellow vigilantes have been watching with growing unease what they see as the creeping Islamisation of Chinese society, marked by the setting up of halal cafeterias in universities, the provision of halal-only food on planes and the use of code words to prevent the utterance of “pig” or “pork” on national television or social media... For Xi’s group, these developments represent a blatant effort to appease China’s Muslim population in areas where they believe the state should make no compromises that blur the boundary between religious and secular life. In this Year of the Pig, the battles seemed more urgent than ever for the vigilantes... Linxia, in northwest China’s Gansu province, has launched a campaign that seeks to restrict the use of the halal logo not only on non-food products but also on services such as “halal bathing” and “halal haircuts”... Instead of “pork”, they have begun using a common code word used by Muslim community: darou, which translates to “big meat”... Halal food itself has been a cause of tension in the past. Xi’s account features a post from an internet user who complained in 2017 that customers in the dining car of a high-speed train from Xian to Chengdu, in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, could only get halal food.Another informed her that Sichuan Air was doing the same. “In the future, when people are forced to eat halal food on planes, they should protest,” said one comment on the post. “If more people protest, will airlines dare leaving it alone?”"

China’s beef with Korea: the link between halal food and THAAD - "the popular New York business, The Halal Guys, which opened its first branch in Korea last December, was not halal, said Paik Mina, who studied food science and technology in university and now works on the KMF’s halal committee.“In the USA, it’s halal, but the white sauce has different ingredients when made here.”Paik said there were only 13 halal-certified restaurants in the country, seven of which were within one block of Seoul Central Mosque. There was also one in Busan and Incheon airport’s Nimat. All 13 are listed on KMF’s website.... the rest of Korea’s so-called halal restaurants are self-certified, and not technically halal. “Self-certification is illegal,” Paik said, adding that now the government had a certification system it might soon begin asking restaurants to remove “halal” signs unless they have been certified by KMF.In lieu of enforcing halal certification, the government has created a set of categories to clarify the extent to which restaurants meet halal standards. The highest category, “halal certified”, belongs to restaurants that have been certified by KMF, followed by “self-certified” restaurants, “Muslim-friendly” restaurants, where alcohol is also served, and “pork free” restaurants... “Getting halal food used to be shady, you felt like you were buying illegal drugs – some guy gives you meat in a black plastic bag from his little refrigerator.”... “We campaigned against halal slaughterhouses because halal slaughtering is illegal under the Korean animal protection law”"
The joys of regulation

The effects of fabric for sleepwear and bedding on sleep at ambient temperatures of 17°C and 22°C - "sleepwear played a contributory role to sleep outcomes and participants slept better at 17°C than at 22°C."
Wearing wool to sleep is better than cotton. Bedding has no effect. Heat is bad

Fungal Hallucinogens Send Cicadas on Sex Binges After Their Genitals Fall Off - "scientists have discovered new details on a fungus that compels its cicada hosts to mate long after their genitals have gone and their bodies have turned into what one researcher colourfully describes as 'flying salt shakers of death'.The fungus is called Massospora cicadina, and its effects read like an abstinence campaign for cicadas. But it also appears that it affects the sex-crazed cicadas by sending them on one heck of a drug trip."

Tibetan nun becomes fetish queen after Indian massage 'reawakened her sexuality' - "For ten years Damcho Dyson’s only habit was her plain religious robe – but now she has swapped it for something more stretchy.Damcho lived a simple life of chastity and was once an attendant to the Dalai Lama.But she says a massage while on a trip to India reawakened her sexuality – and turned her into Britain’s naughtiest nun.And now, after quitting her Tibetan Buddhist monastery in France, she spends her weekends cavorting in latex at fetish clubs."

Daily Show Host Trevor Noah to Speak at Islamist Convention - "Noah’s acceptance of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is especially out-of-place considering his status as a top progressive voice. ISNA’s Islamist orientation puts it at odds with progressive values, such as the organization’s expelling of a pro-LGBT group named Muslims for Progressive Values.The U.S. Justice Department lists ISNA as an “entity” of the Muslim Brotherhood... Muzammil Siddiqi, who was president of ISNA from 1996 to 2000 and is the chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America (an official affiliate of ISNA), endorsed the execution of homosexuals by Sharia-based governments in 2001. Siddiqi, unsurprisingly, has a long history of working for and with extremist organizations... When the foreign-backed groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood like ISNA and CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) were established in North America and their influence ascended, many Muslims fought against them.In most cases, the Islamists’ network was too powerful and Muslim opponents were marginalized, with some seeing their mosques taken over."

Islam Helped Me Find My Path as a Queer Sex Educator - "As I came to feel less gross about myself, I also realized the sex negativity I felt wasn't from Islam; it was from American society... During my second year of college, 9/11 happened, and it was a turning point for me. I decided to be very out about being Muslim, which coincided with me getting more involved in sex education at my school. I realized that the affirmation I was getting sexually from fully living out my queer identity wasn't that helpful because there were so many underlying feelings and experiences of racism, xenophobia, and just feeling other... Today, my partner is Muslim, and I continue to be very much affirmed by Islam in what I'm doing; in finding myself in places where I learn to forgive myself. God, I know, will forgive me—not even because I did something wrong, but for all the times I did the thing I didn't want to do, or for the reasons I pursued the people I did, or stayed in relationships. I forgive myself for that; that is how Islam helps me. So much of my self-care and self-love comes in forms of tasbih, dhikr, and grounding myself in prayer. That is really part of my sexual affirmation."
She needs to move to a Muslim country so she can be affirmed by Islam and live out her queer identity

London Zoo delights visitors with a cheeky pride banner in the penguins' enclosure - "London Zoo has installed a banner celebrating its same-sex penguin couples.The sign declaring 'some penguins are gay, get over it' was erected in the Penguin Beach enclosure this week to mark Pride... Visitors will be able to learn about gender and mating in the animal kingdom at a Pride-themed talk.Zookeepers will reveal just how common same-sex pairings are – from penguins and pandas to goats and giraffes."
Some penguins are also prostitutes

Why Are Penguins' Sex Lives So Scandalous? - "He began referring to these unattached males as “hooligans,” and described their activities—mating with injured females, with dead penguins, with each other, and occasionally with the snow itself—with breathless fury. “I saw another act of astonishing depravity today,” he wrote on December 6th, 1911, after witnessing a group sex act. “There seems to be no crime too low for these penguins.”"

10 Terrifying Facts You Can't Unlearn About Penguin Sex - "On occasion, a female emperor penguin who experiences a miscarriage will, while “high” on pregnancy hormones, scour the community for abandoned penguins to adopt. If there are no abandoned penguins to adopt, she'll just kidnap one. These kidnappings usually don't last longer than a week and, unfortunately, the kidnapped chick almost always dies as a direct result of the incident.
Penguin gangs, as it turns out, are no better than human gangs. Adélie penguins that travel in tight-knit flocks participate in theft, murder, and gang rape. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Some adélie penguins even sexually assault young penguin chicks in order to establish reputation, fear, and dominion.
Chicks are often abused by their parents or other adult penguins. These baby penguins can be kidnapped, trampled, and even sexually assaulted.
Yep - humboldt penguins cheat. Female penguins sometimes just walk out on their mates. Males do it, too, but much less frequently than females
If you thought human divorce rates were bad, we've got nothing on penguins. All penguin species sometimes "divorce" - or leave their mate for another penguin - but emperor penguins do it the most frequently. Nearly 81 percent of emperor penguins leave their mates at least once.
While it's commonly assumed that penguins mate for life, there’s one thing nobody’s telling you: they don't always have just one partner. Sometimes, when emperor penguins gather en masse to mate, they don't always have time to wait around if they can't find their former partner. They'll mate with any viable partner that's around. For some, the biological need to reproduce is stronger than the bond of love."

Close to 6 in 10 young graduates remain unemployed: MOM - "In 2018, only 41.6% of degree holders between the ages of 20 and 29 were employed, according to Ministry of Manpower data. This translates into roughly 58% of young university graduates who were unemployed.In comparison, only 2.7% of all degree holders across the age groups were unemployed... the startling statistic for young graduate unemployment may be due to the pursuit of higher education or alternative careers such as entrepreneurship.But experts agree that there is a large proportion of young and educated individuals who are just not able to secure a job – whether permanent or temporary."