Links - 11th November 2019 (1)

Gender neutral uniform sparks protest at Lewes Priory School - "About 150 parents and pupils have staged a protest outside a secondary school over gender neutral uniforms.Priory School in Lewes, East Sussex, made trousers compulsory for new and existing students for the new term.The school said "concerns" had been raised over the length of girls' skirts and new rules also catered for a handful of transgender pupils.Protesters have said pupils should have a choice to wear skirts, while others believe clothes are being wasted... The Conservative MP for Lewes, Maria Caulfield, also tweeted: "Very disturbed to see the school turning away girls from Priory school because they choose to wear a skirt and calling the police on them."This is not how we should be treating the young women of Lewes."Libby Murray, who is in her final year, said the new rule meant clothes were going to be thrown away, which would contribute to the climate change crisis... In 2017, the school introduced a trouser-only policy for new students. It brought in the blanket ban on skirts for all students on Friday."
Amusingly, someone was insisting that this was the fault of Muslims despite a lack of any evidence for that (and indeed evidence to the contrary)

James Taranto on Twitter - ""Trump loves to tout the black unemployment rate and it actually just fell to a record low"
"Gotta love how @CNN shows its bias even when accusing @realDonaldTrump of being right. It's compulsive."

A conservative blog | pax-britannica: White people CANNOT DIE. Death... - "White people CANNOT DIE. Death is loss of life + prejudice ÷ √oppression × institutionalised power ÷ racism. White people can experience LOSS OF LIFE, but not death."
On racism = power + prejudice

People May Think All Lawyers Are Prostitutes, But This Lawyer Is Literally A Prostitute - "Katie Sears works as a criminal defense attorney in Iowa but in her spare time she flies to Nevada to work in a brothel. While attorneys going into prostitution have made news before, the narrative is usually an unfortunate tale of women who went into sex work because they needed the money. Thankfully, Sears is available to offer the counter-narrative that gets overshadowed by troubling tales of coercion and human trafficking — a lot of sex workers actually just like their jobs... Sears, who took on prostitution three years ago, hopes that opening up about her other job can help change people’s attitudes about it... Sears, who works with her husband at the firm of Clark & Sears, carries her side hustle into her advocacy, taking on prostitution cases pro bono to help sex workers in trouble, suing brothels that allegedly fail to pay their workers, and advocating for decriminalization to help combat sex trafficking practices that flourish while the industry is kept in the shadows."

Katie Hannigan on Twitter - "My friend got a degree in egyptology, but can’t get a job, So he’s paying more money to get a Phd, so he can work teaching other people egyptology. In his case college is literally a pyramid scheme."
Comment: "Is it just me or does it seem like the actual joke here is missed by most people? Guys: Egyptology ---> archeology + Egypt ---> study of pyramids. It's both literally and figuratively a pyramide scheme. You're welcome"

Steam boss Gabe Newell is a viral star in China - "An estimated 30 million of its users are said to be in China, where gamers love Steam for more than just cheap games. Since Steam operates from overseas, Chinese gamers can use the platform to buy games that aren’t officially available in China or are censored in the country. Operating within this legal gray area may soon come to an end, though, as Valve prepares to launch an official version of Steam for China"

Andy Swan on Twitter - "NYT switched the boogeyman from “Russians” to “White Supremacists” and none of the NPCs missed a beat. That’s evidence of really clean code. #STEM"

Now sites can fingerprint you online even when you use multiple browsers - "Researchers have recently developed the first reliable technique for websites to track visitors even when they use two or more different browsers. This shatters a key defense against sites that identify visitors based on the digital fingerprint their browsers leave behind.State-of-the-art fingerprinting techniques are highly effective at identifying users when they use browsers with default or commonly used settings. For instance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's privacy tool, known as Panopticlick, found that only one in about 77,691 browsers had the same characteristics as the one commonly used by this reporter. Such fingerprints are the result of specific settings and customizations found in a specific browser installation, including the list of plugins, the selected time zone, whether a "do not track" option is turned on, and whether an adblocker is being used.Until now, however, the tracking has been limited to a single browser... Cross-browser fingerprinting is only the latest trick developers have come up with to track people who visit their sites. Besides traditional single-browser fingerprinting, other tracking methods include monitoring the way visitors type passwords and other text and embedding inaudible sound in TV commercials or websites. The Tor browser without an attached microphone or speakers is probably the most effective means of protection, although the researchers said running a browser inside a virtual machine may also work."

Mouthwash after exercise may counter blood pressure benefit, study finds - "A new study found using antibacterial mouthwash after working out negated the blood-pessure-lowering effects of exercise... the mouth contains billions of bacteria at any time, and not all of them are harmful. This study was designed to look at the species of bacteria that use nitrate and convert it into nitric oxide, which when swallowed helps maintain a widening of blood vessels that leads to the ongoing effect of exercise on blood pressure."

Amber Heard Worried She Will Be 'Demonized' In Johnny Depp Lawsuit, Wants Details Kept Private - "Amber Heard wants details of her ongoing lawsuit with Johnny Depp to be kept private, and claims the information could cause significant damage to her family and friends."
Strange how when she was the one alleging abuse, she didn't care about this

Andrew Yang told to “go back to China” - "Right wing pastor and radio host Jesse Lee Peterson declared on his show that “there’s this little Asian guy or Chinese guy, whatever he is, he should go back to China, or where ever he came from, Andrew Yang.”"
"Black people can't be racist"

How 'Dungeons & Dragons' Primes Students for Interdisciplinary Learning, Including STEM - "Studies have shown that the highly social and collaborative nature of the popular fantasy role-playing game cultivates a range of social-emotional skills, which can lay the foundation for improved learning. In addition to these crucial soft skills, teachers and professors who have used the game also claim it directly benefits core academic competencies... Although Dungeons & Dragons seems better suited to teach humanities, every shield block and fireball relies on a little bit of science and lots of math.“It may seem odd, but in a fantasy game with magic, players often have to learn about basic physics and chemistry to determine what to do," said Ian Slater who teaches at York University and runs Black Dragon Games. "Not to determine how a magic-user can shoot a lightning bolt from their fingers, but rather to determine, for example, if a suit of plate mail would be magnetized by the strike of a lightning bolt.”... “D&D is full of this sort of basic mathematical stuff, and players soak it up as they play," said Slater. “Indeed, since knowing how these mechanics work has direct implications for the survival of their character, players tend to learn the mathematics pretty quickly.”There are numerous websites, forums and online calculators to assist players with mathematical assistance to further their progress. With no coaxing from parents and teachers, players are motivated to research and access these resources to optimize their play, an inevitable boon to their numeracy skills. Carter observed many of her previously demoralized students become invested in math due to the game... These intriguing case studies point to what a comprehensive learning program might look like if subjects and skills were not taught in isolation from each other, but integrated into a single cohesive system where students are intrinsically motivated to participate"

Bernie Sanders in climate change 'population control' uproar - "Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been criticised after arguing population control should be part of tackling climate change.The Vermont senator told a TV debate that women "in poor countries" should have access to birth control.Conservatives said the remark meant the self-described democratic socialist's climate change policy was for fewer "brown babies".The UN forecasts the Earth's population will rise to 11 billion by 2100.On social media on Thursday, Mr Sanders was likened to a Marvel movie villain.Senator Ted Cruz said the Democratic White House hopeful's remarks evoked Thanos, the Avengers baddie who kills half the world's population with a snap of his fingers... "Imagine being so disgusting that you want to force Americans to pay for abortions to kill brown babies in foreign countries so you don't feel guilty flying private jets & visiting communist nations."CNN host SE Cupp accused Mr Sanders of entertaining the racist ideology of eugenics."

Loch Ness Monster may be a giant eel, say scientists - "Researchers from New Zealand have tried to catalogue all living species in the loch by extracting DNA from water samples.Following analysis, the scientists have ruled out the presence of large animals said to be behind reports of a monster... "So there's no shark DNA in Loch Ness based on our sampling. There is also no catfish DNA in Loch Ness based on our sampling. We can't find any evidence of sturgeon either,"There is a very significant amount of eel DNA. Eels are very plentiful in Loch Ness, with eel DNA found at pretty much every location sampled - there are a lot of them. So - are they giant eels?"Well, our data doesn't reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can't discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can't discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel."... Explanations for the monster offered in the past include it being swimming circus elephants.In his research of Nessie, Glasgow-based palaeontologist Neil Clark found fairs and circuses were a common occurrence in the Inverness area, particularly from the early 1930s.He said elephants may have been allowed to swim in the loch while the travelling carnivals stopped to give the animals a rest.Another theory is that large fallen branches floating in the loch are the cause of monster sightings."

Man who robbed bank to get away from wife sentenced to home confinement - "A Kansas man who robbed a bank last September and told police that he was hoping to get caught so he would get prison time to escape his wife was sentenced Tuesday to six months of home confinement... Ripple handed a note to a bank teller in Kansas City demanding cash and warning he had a gun. Ripple took the money, $2,924, and went to sit in the lobby, where he told a guard he was the “guy he was looking for.”  Officers arrived quickly. An FBI agent wrote in the affidavit that Ripple had earlier been arguing with his wife. He told investigators he wrote the note in front of his wife, telling her he would “rather be in jail than at home.”"

Man, 24, marries cousin, 81, to 'get out of doing military service' - "A 24-year-old man in Ukraine has been accused of marrying his 81-year-old disabled cousin to escape military service.Alexander Kondratyuk allegedly wedded Zinaida Illarionovna, who is 57 years his senior, to take advantage of the rules of exception to Ukraine’s compulsory conscription.Military service in Ukraine is compulsory for physically-able male citizens aged 18 to 26.However, if a man is responsible for looking after a wife who is disabled, he is exempt from service."

Study: Kids Who Spend Time in Nature Become Happier Adults - "it seemed that the more time children spent in nature, the better as far as mental health outcomes were concerned."

Army chiefs plan to end ban on male soldiers wearing make-up while on duty - "ARMY chiefs are considering allowing male soldiers to wear make-up.Only female troops are allowed cosmetics while on duty under Queen’s Regulations... Among advice on equality, diversity and inclusion, they ruled that for men “make-up is not to be worn” — but women are allowed if it is “inconspicuous”... In 2017 military officials banned phrases such as “mankind” and “sportsmanship” amid fears they upset women and trans groups.“Chaps” was to be swapped for “people, folks, friends or you all”. “Gentleman’s agreement” was replaced with “unwritten agreement”."
Different fitness standards are also discrimination