Links - 2nd October 2019 (1)

Chemicals turning fish ‘gay’ new threat to water safety in Malaysia - "These pollutants, called endocrine disruptors (EDCs), are turning fish in Malaysian rivers “gay” and even “transsexual” by changing their hormones which, in turn, affect their sex, said hydro-chemistry expert Prof Ahmad Zaharin Aris.According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there is growing evidence that humans and animals have “exhibited adverse health consequences from exposure to environmental chemicals that interact with the endocrine system”."
I thought Alex Jones's Infowars was fake news?

Obamacare’s Unpopularity Suggests Medicare For All May Be A Hard Sell - "most Americans do not think “Medicare for All” is a good idea if it means replacing all private health insurance with the government version... Let’s take the Affordable Care Act as an example... once the law passed in 2010, it was generally rated unfavorably... even if most elements of a policy poll well, public opinion may come to be driven by the policy’s least-popular items. That’s especially true if the opposition launches an extended campaign against it."

City hopes ‘Baby Shark’ song will drive homeless away - "Officials in West Palm Beach are hoping a continuous loop of children’s songs played throughout the night will keep homeless people from sleeping on the patio of a city-owned rental banquet facility. "

Singapore minister spreading disinformation about drug policy - "Shanmugam claims the social costs of decriminalization have been underplayed. For example, he asserts that drug mortality rates in Portugal increased 150% between 2001 and 2008, after drugs were decriminalized. It was impossible to find a source for this claim. In reality drug-related deaths in Portugal have actually drastically decreased from 80 per million in 2001 to 4 per million in 2017. This remains much lower than the most recent European average of 22 deaths per million. Another welcome outcome of decriminalization in Portugal has been a dramatic fall in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infections from 1,016 to 18 during that same period.Shanmugam also warns that decriminalization of cannabis has been responsible for an uptick in criminal activity, citing the US state of Colorado as an example. But evidence shows just the opposite to be true. For example, one federally sponsored study found that there was no relationship between cannabis regulation and crime. Another study published this year came to the same conclusion, “except for in California, where the medical-marijuana law reduced both violent and property crime by 20%.”Worried that the legalization of drugs is used for private gains, Shanmugam has also claimed that “for every $1 gained in tax revenue from cannabis legalization, about $4.50 will be spent mitigating these downstream effects.” Quite to the contrary, a large body of research now overwhelmingly shows that drug-law reform, including decriminalizing and adopting a health-centered approach to drugs, is significantly more cost-effective than prohibitionist approaches. Singapore is one of a tiny number of countries classified by Harm Reduction International as “high application” states in the use of capital punishment for drugs. All executions carried out in the country in 2018 were for non-violent drug offenses. Recently, Shanmugan claimed that Singapore imposes the death penalty for drugs because evidence has shown that it is an effective deterrent; “not for any other reason.” Although officials have repeatedly affirmed that Singapore has one of the lowest rates of drug use in the world, the government has consistently failed to provide transparent data.Contrary to this, there is no evidence that the death penalty has any unique deterrent effect on either the supply of drugs, or the use of drugs. In fact, the opposite is true... In 2017, Shanmugam said: “I would ask the death-penalty abolitionists to go and study the places where laws have been relaxed, places where drugs have been legalized, find out what has happened and look at the number of deaths that have taken place in society, and then come back and let’s talk.”Minister Shanmugam, the studies have been done and the evidence is in: Punitive drug laws don’t reduce drug use or drug trade, and there no evidence that the death penalty has a deterrent effect."
Time to use the fake news law?

Colorado State: 'Avoid' using 'Americans,' 'America' - "CSU lists both “American” and “America” as non-inclusive words "to avoid," due to the fact that America encompasses more than just the U.S. By referring to the U.S. as America, the guide claims that one “erases other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country.” The school suggests using “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.” as substitutes.The university additionally lists many gendered words and phrases to avoid. These include “male,” “female,” “ladies and gentlemen,” and “Mr./Mrs./Ms.”... “Straight” is another word to avoid, according to CSU. The guide explained that “when used to describe heterosexuals, the term straight implies that anyone LGBT is ‘crooked’ or not normal,” and says to use the word “heterosexual” instead. “Normal person” was also listed as a phrase to avoid because it “implies that ‘other’ people… are not whole or regular people.” The guide offered no substitute word because it claimed that it is never appropriate to use the phrase to describe someone. According to the list, the phrase “handicap parking” should also not be used because it can “minimize personhood” and offend disabled people. The guide recommends “accessible parking” as an alternative. “War,” “cake walk,” “eenie meenie miney moe,” “Eskimo,” “freshman,” “hip hip hooray!”, “hold down the fort,” “starving,” and “policeman” were among other words and phrases deemed non-inclusive by CSU... CSU warned against using gendered emojis to make social media interactions more inclusive."

No, Apple, we don’t need 72 different emojis to represent gay, straight & lesbian couples in 5 races - "If I wanted an emoji to look exactly like me, I’d just send a photograph. But then, unlike Apple and Google, I understand that they are a symbolic shorthand, not a racist tool of oppression that ignores my identity... Who cares that there are already over 3,000 registered emojis, despite the fact that only a dozen account for half the usage, while the rest clutter up your phone making the needed ones harder to find... you do the math timetables for all the possible permutations. Ken Broni, who calls himself “the world’s first emoji translator and researcher” has done them. He told Yahoo that to be truly “inclusive,” companies must introduce 80,000 emojis. The average active vocabulary of an American is 20,000 words... Now, there are more of them than Egyptian hieroglyphics and Japanese kanji, and through abandoning their abstractive philosophy they’ve unintentionally grown more discriminatory... somewhat aptly, this case also serves as a symbolic representation of the liberal West’s endless desire to fetishize and pander to minorities and separate identities, instead of improving conditions for the majority, or indeed, for us all."

Film Crit Hulk on Twitter - "We often think of foods having a specific relationship to each of those qualities. Candy is sweet! Potato chips are salty! etc. But when you look at what makes something taste *really good* it's usually food that knows how to combine and balance those tastes with others.
Chocolate chip cooks need salt to amplify the sweetness! Really fatty foods need acid to cut through the richness! Bitter foods like coffee and chocolate get a little bit of sugar in them and WHOA, transformed! Etc."
So much for the Singapore anti-diabetes ad which claims sugar has no place in the art of coffee

Gabriel Weinberg's answer to Why should I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google? - Quora - "#1 — Google tracks you. We don’t.
#2 — Block Google trackers lurking everywhere.
#3 — Get unbiased results, outside the Filter Bubble.
#4 — We listen.
#5 — We don’t try to trap you in our “ecosystem.”
#6 — We have !bangs.
To further this point, we have a built-in feature called bangs that enables you to search other sites directly, completely skipping DuckDuckGo if you like
#7 — We strive for a world where you have control over your personal information.
#8 — Our search results aren’t loaded up with ads.
#9 — Search without fear.
When people know they are being watched, they change their behavior. It's a well-documented behavior called the chilling effect, and it happens on Google. For example, an MIT study showed that people started doing fewer health searches on Google after the Snowden revelations, fearing that their personal ailments might get out.
#10 — Google is simply too big, and too powerful."

My husband dumped me for Ilhan Omar, DC mom says in divorce filing - "Dr. Beth Mynett says her cheating spouse, Tim Mynett, told her in April that he was having an affair with the Somali-born US representative — and that he even made a “shocking declaration of love” for the Minnesota congresswoman before he ditched his wife"

Silicon Valley’s Chinese-style social credit system - "The New York State Department of Financial Services announced earlier this year that life insurance companies can base premiums on what they find in your social media posts... A company called PatronScan sells three products—kiosk, desktop, and handheld systems—designed to help bar and restaurant owners manage customers... PatronScan helps spot fake IDs—and troublemakers. When customers arrive at a PatronScan-using bar, their ID is scanned. The company maintains a list of objectionable customers designed to protect venues from people previously removed for “fighting, sexual assault, drugs, theft, and other bad behavior,” according to its website. A “public” list is shared among all PatronScan customers. So someone who’s banned by one bar in the U.S. is potentially banned by all the bars in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada that use the PatronScan system for up to a year... Airbnb—a major provider of travel accommodation and tourist activities—bragged in March that it now has more than 6 million listings in its system. That’s why a ban from Airbnb can limit travel options.Airbnb can disable your account for life for any reason it chooses, and it reserves the right to not tell you the reason... You can be banned from communications apps, too. For example, you can be banned on WhatsApp if too many other users block you... The most disturbing attribute of a social credit system is not that it’s invasive, but that it’s extralegal. Crimes are punished outside the legal system, which means no presumption of innocence, no legal representation, no judge, no jury, and often no appeal. In other words, it’s an alternative legal system where the accused have fewer rights."

Tampines eatery staff fired after printing racially offensive message on customer’s receipt - "'3bun jee indira parekk nakkeling gomblok... The message reads, “Three buns only for this stupid Indian pariah”"
At Abang Gemuk

Monalisa on Twitter - "Who says the minority can't be racist? Do you know the things I've heard my Malay classmates have said in their language towards the Indians while in Malay class? They are just as bad. What will Sangeetha say about her fellow Indians getting shit on like this?"
"Internalised Chinese supremacy"

Enid Blyton has been cancelled - "The Royal Mint has decided against honouring children’s author Enid Blyton with a commemorative coin, marking the 50th anniversary of her death... the Mint feared there would be a backlash to a Blyton commemorative coin. And since the story broke, the usual, perma-outraged suspects have backed the Mint’s decision. It seems that ‘cancel culture’ is now so ingrained that institutions like the Royal Mint are cancelling long-dead authors – and caving in to online outrage mobs preemptively... this tendency to dispense with literary or historical figures who do not measure up to today’s moral standards is not healthy. Plus almost anyone born in 1897 would probably fail this test. Celebrating Enid Blyton does not mean endorsing everything she might have thought or said. It’s bizarre that anyone even has to point this out"

UK's 'most independent town' finally beaten - and will get Caffe Nero - "The bohemian market town of Totnes in Devon has long prided itself on being virtually 'chain free' - famously seeing off plans for a Costa. But despite strong opposition it has now been forced to accept a Coffee #1 - a subsidiary of Cafe Nero.In 2012 it blocked Costa Coffee after thousands of people rallied in a huge backlash against the firm which didn't open there despite being granted planning permission.It has continued to bat off corporate giants ever since but is now believed to be the final town centre in the UK to succumb to a coffee chain.And locals now fear it could open the floodgates for the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds to follow."

CALIFORNIA: 'Why Don't We Murder More White People' Film Aired By Arts Center - "People who promote diversity or anti-racism tend to correspondingly harbor resentment towards one certain demographic. They will make claims that it is impossible to be racist against this group... In San Francisco, a progressive paradise, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) aired a film called “Why Don’t We Murder More White People”... The Film’s creator, Jonathan Garcia, appears to be employed by The Kapor Center as a “Culture & Inclusion Fellow.”

So long 'Die Hard' Christmas: Cinemas losing access to Fox films - "Canadian cinemas say they are losing the rights to screen fan favourites like Die Hard and Home Alone after the 20th Century Fox back-catalogue was swallowed up by The Walt Disney Co.Theatre operators across the country, from entertainment giant Cineplex Inc. to smaller indie cinemas, said Wednesday they can no longer book popular films from the Fox archives.Independent filmhouses have been worried about losing access to the archives ever since Disney took over Fox's entertainment assets... "Disney has had a long-standing practice of not allowing any of its archival catalogue to be screened theatrically."... "It's certainly never a good thing when one company owns too many things""