Links - 25th December 2019 (1)

Why a former CIA spy stops at every yellow light - "CIA spies learn to master skills regular people do not, and they stick with you.They learn to be so immersed in their cover that they can pass a polygraph test, to spot the perfect meeting site that is just isolated enough to avoid the eyes and ears of the enemy but also can be explained if discovered, and to handle tails — surveillants that could jeopardize an entire operation... she felt more comfortable with her back to the wall in restaurants and that she tends to take note of entrances and exits wherever she goes... "When you do countersurveillance training, one of the things that you are taught is not to piss off your surveillant and make them think you are trying to lose them," Fox said."So, if the light turns [yellow], you stop so that they don't get the sense you shot through it with an attempt to lose them"... Handling a tail is not like what most people have read or watched in spy thrillers."The way these operations are portrayed on TV and in movies, where someone jumps on a train and loses the surveillant, or they jump between rooftops with their weapon drawn, nothing could be further from the truth and the reality of deployment"... "That would draw a huge amount of attention to the officer, even if they got away that one time. Their cover is then blown," Fox told Insider. "A lot of the training involves being very non-alerting, pretty much just very boring so that we aren't drawing attention to ourselves.""

Inmate with HIV squirted toothpaste tube filled with urine and excrement into prison guard's mouth - "An inmate with HIV squirted a disgusting mix of urine and faeces over prison guards.Miles Atkinson left the officers fearing they had contracted the virus by claiming the mixture he fired from a toothpaste tube also contained semen... he walked free from court with a suspended sentence... they had to undergo blood tests and receive Hepatitis B injections... "Urine and faeces do not transmit the HIV virus. This attack, while understandably shocking, did not expose anyone to HIV risk."

George Lucas is a Genius & ‘REVENGE OF THE SITH’ May Be the Greatest Work of Art in Our Lifetimes… - "Lucas and the prequel trilogy have become so widely misrepresented as ‘bad’ that most people don’t know how to deal with someone like Paglia sincerely proclaiming “Nothing in the last 30 years has been produced – in any of the arts – that is as significant or as emotionally compelling as Revenge of the Sith…”.. a Rotten Tomatoes poll last October found that Revenge of the Sith (and not Empire Strikes Back) scored as the best-regarded of the movies according to aggregation of archived reviews... To really understand those films [the prequels], you have to go back to some of the historical epics of the fifties and sixties, particularly films like Ben-Hur, Cleopatra or Spartacus. If you watch any of those films (and all three are timeless, truly marvelous cinematic works) and then watch the three Star Wars prequels, it will suddenly make much more sense. The acting style, the dialogue style, the themes, the epic scope and settings, the vast mythologizing, the way the films are scored, even the intricate costume design – all of it.There’s nothing surprising about that. After all, it’s easy to overlook the fact now from our current vantage-point, but the original Star Wars trilogy movies weren’t contemporary in style either – they were stylistically based on things like Kurosawa, Flash Gordon and the Saturday matinee serials of the 1930s and 40s. The original trilogy films made no stylistic sense in terms of contemporary cinema or sensibilities in the late 70s or early 80s – they were, in style, a homage to a long-gone era.So too were the prequels – just a different homage to a different era... someone trying to build a Tower of Babel is inevitably going to experience more hitches than someone building a new Starbucks on the high street."

Iconoclasm: Famous Igboukwu Roped Pot Broken in Lagos Museum - "The 13-century-old archeological masterpiece, which was unearthed 50 years ago in Igboukwu, Anambra state of Nigeria by Professor Thurstan Shaw, is broken and thus withdrawn from public exhibit at the National Museum in Lagos. The roped pot, which was produced through an indigenously derived lost-wax casting technique belongs to a collection of ancient Igbo archeological treasures that have been described by world-class connoisseurs as the most technically sophisticated bronze craft ever made by man"
I've seen this and it was indeed amazing

More Japanese are marrying friends and acquaintances because they don’t want to bother with dating - "A handful of celebrity marriages have apparently helped spark the new trend of “kousai zero nichikon” (roughly translated, “marrying without dating”). Famously, actress Maki Horikita married co-star Koji Yamamoto in 2015 after just a month and change of dating, sparking some Twitter users to share stories of their own shotgun marriages... the rate of arranged marriage divorces is actually dwarfed by the divorce rate of traditional modern marriages, implying, possibly, that love can blossom from even the most unorthodox of couplings."

Japanese women categorise male friends by levels of intimacy, from hugging to bathing - "Hafure (“Hug Friend”)
This term is used for people you can hug, which may sound a little odd to the rest of the world, but here in Japan, it’s not customary to hug family and friends, so a hug can be quite an intimate act.
Kisufure (“Kiss Friend”)
This term is for people you can kiss, which is another level-up on the scale of intimacy in a world where friends and family generally don’t even peck one another on the cheek.
Sofure (”Soine Friend”)
This refers to people you can “soine”, or sleep next to (without engaging in sexual activity). According to pundits, this act is something you can enjoy on special occasions like birthdays, as it gives people a similar level of intimacy as a post-coital lie-down, but without the feelings of guilt that may come after doing the deed, potentially ruining the friendship for good.
Kamofure (“Camouflage Friend”)
This describes those you can pretend to date, under the guise of friendship as a camouflage. The merits for this type of relationship include the fact that you can go out on dates that aren’t officially discussed as being dates, and even hold hands, hug, or kiss, without having to deal with the pressure of officially dating. However, this can lead to confusion for a lot of men.
Sanfure (“Sandbag Friend”)
“Sandbag” is the Japanese word for punching bag, and as such, this term is reserved for people you can use as a punching bag — mentally, not physically. This is great for women who want someone to listen as they unload all their stresses on them, but many say this is the worst category for men to be in, as they do all the giving and get nothing in return.
There are a number of other “friends” that don’t appear on the televised list above, including “Birifure” (“Rehabilitation Friend“), who helps you rehabilitate after a breakup, and “Sefure” (“Sex Friend“), a friend with all-the-way benefits... Ofure stands for “Ofuro Friend”, meaning a friend you take baths with. And that’s not necessarily referring to mixed-gender public bathing, but private bathing, like the type you take at home... one in five women surveyed have a male friend that they take baths with."

Japanese man receives Airdrop message from tailgating driver - "The ability to Airdrop strangers in our vicinity has become a controversial topic recently, with media reports on “AirDrop Chikan” (literally “Airdrop Perverts”) causing fear amongst iPhone users, especially on public transport.While perverts use Airdrop to send obscene photos to people within a nine-metre (29.5-foot) radius, this wasn’t the intended purpose of the file-sharing service... the note from the driver behind simply says: “Unchi ikasete kure” (“Poop. Let me pass.”)Needless to say, @km03728012 was relieved that the tailgating driver simply needed to defecate, which explained his erratic behaviour."

Woman Yelling at a Cat | Know Your Meme - "Woman Yelling at a Cat refers to a meme format featuring a screen cap of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast members Taylor Armstrong and Kyle Richards followed by a picture of a confused-looking cat sitting behind a dinner plate. The format gained significant popularity across the web in mid-June 2019 and the cat was later identified as Smudge the Cat."

RHOBH: Taylor vs. Camille - S2 Taylor's Meltdown - YouTube
Comments: "The cat is on instagram @smudge_cat the cat is not from the show"
"The other image (cat) comes from a Tumblr account know as "All Things Beautiful," which mostly shares photographs of a white cat exasperated at the prospect of having to eat vegetables."

High Court overturns conviction of doctor fined S$50,000 for giving out patient’s details - "A doctor who was fined S$50,000 for giving out a patient’s detail had his conviction overturned by the High Court... SMC had filed the appeal after receiving new information in the case of Dr Soo Shuenn Chiang, who was fined in March by an independent disciplinary tribunal. The psychiatrist had been fined for failing to verify the identity of a caller claiming to be the husband of one of his patients and for giving a memo containing confidential medical information about that patient to her brother... In 2015, Dr Soo, the director of Neuroscience Clinic at the National University Hospital (NUH), passed a memo containing the patient’s medical information to his clinic staff to give to the patient's family. The brother, who had posed as the patient’s husband during a call to the hospital, later collected that memo and used it to obtain a personal protection order against the patient.The patient later filed a complaint with SMC... SMC found new evidence that raised doubt about the circumstances surrounding the incident.The patient's brother had put his version of what happened on Facebook, saying that he had not impersonated the husband, who in fact had contacted Dr Soo.SMC then approached both the patient’s brother and husband to record new statements.It found that the brother’s and the husband’s account was different from that set out in the Agreed Statement of Facts, based on which Dr Soo had pleaded guilty.With this new information, SMC applied to the High Court to overturn the conviction. The court later decided to disregard the new information because they were not satisfied that the brother and husband's accounts were reliable.However, having examined the record of proceedings, they questioned whether Dr Soo was even guilty of breaching the patient's confidentiality in the first place.Upon considering the issues, the court decided that Dr Soo had taken reasonable, appropriate steps and had good reason in disclosing the patient’s confidential information.“As a preliminary point, a doctor may disclose a patient’s confidential medical information without her consent when he reasonably regards it as necessary to protect the patient from potentially serious self-harm; disclosure is in the patient’s best interests; and the patient’s consent cannot reasonably be obtained"... "In such circumstances, the disclosure should be made to those closest to the patient, such as her next of kin"... The court also decided that Dr Soo could not possibly be held responsible for how the husband might choose to use or misuse the memo, if the memo had in fact been delivered to the husband as Dr Soo had instructed."That part of the charge which alleged that Dr Soo had failed to take appropriate steps to ensure that the complainant’s confidential medical information in the memorandum was not accessible to unauthorised persons was unacceptably broad," it said."Any administrative failings of the clinic staff in handing the memorandum to the brother contrary to Dr Soo’s instructions would fall outside the scope of Dr Soo’s duty to maintain the complainant’s medical confidentiality""

Italy's Only Malaysian Food Truck Draws an Unlikely Crowd: Italians - "Italy’s international food scene leaves much to be desired. Justin Yip pulls no punches: “It’s the worst place in the world for non-Italian food.” Two years ago, he opened the first and likely only Malaysian food truck in the country. In many ways, Yip’s truck, Sate & Sake, is the antithesis of Italy’s food culture. Selling traditional satays and currys to the robust student population of Turin, Malaysian-born Yip stands for fast-casual foreign fare in the home of three-ingredient masterpieces and the Slow Food movement. He’d hoped to build a business by feeding Asian exchange students. Instead, it’s the Italians themselves who are the backbone of his clientele—over 90 percent, by Yip’s estimate... The culture isn’t exactly begging for alternative eating formats. In 1986, hundreds gathered at the Spanish Steps in Rome to protest the opening of Italy’s first McDonald’s franchise by handing out free bowls of penne. The protests birthed the Slow Food Movement, whose ranks now number in the millions, spanning more than 160 countries. It’s headquartered in Bra, Italy – an hour from Yip’s truck.Italians don’t have the world’s most adventurous palates, either. “My friends say it’s too spicy,” says Andrea Fogli, an Italian engineering student who travels alone to eat Yip’s food. “I think it’s because they’re wary to try something new.” Another Sate & Sake regular, Malaysian-born transportation student Hasan Rosman, runs into the same issue cooking for Italian friends. “They’re very arrogant about foreign food. They’re used to simple ingredients, so when they try something more colorful and vivid, they worry they’ll have stomach problems.”... Given this lack of appetite for foreign fare, Turin, like many Italian cities, offers little in the way of non-Italian cuisine. The handful of Chinese buffets and sushi restaurants it does offer, says Rosman, “lack a certain level of emotion.” If the generalizations are just that, municipal legislation is illuminating. In 2009, the Tuscan city of Lucca stopped issuing permits to non-Italian eateries, as one city council member said, “to preserve our cultural and historical identity.” The same happened in Forte dei Marmi in 2011, and again in Florence in 2016. Culinary patriotism hit a fever pitch when the Minister of Agriculture appeared in a news conference to back these measures that banned foreign cuisine. Asked if he’d ever eaten kebab, he replied, “No. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I refuse to even eat a pineapple.”... unrealistic food-truck regulations made simply parking his truck a challenge all its own. By law, the truck must be relocated every hour, even though it takes him 15 minutes to set up and another 15 to pack up. He’s also barred from operating within 200 meters of a school or 100 meters of a church. “But this is Italy,” he says, “there’s a church on every corner.” Yip quickly learned that if he parked under a pedestrian bridge between two buildings, the authorities would leave him be. The son of a nurse and a surgeon, he’s not sneaky by nature. To run his business, however, “I’m totally flouting the law,” he says, “but I guess that’s a very Italian attitude itself.”... he cut the spiciness and sweetness from Malaysian standards (“Sweet and savory don’t mix here”)"

Italian town bans any new kebab shops or other 'ethnic food' - ""This measure has nothing to do with xenophobia – it is about protecting and valuing our culture," said Umberto Buratti, the centre-Left mayor of the town. "We would also say no to American hamburger chains."... More than 40 per cent have never eaten foreign offerings such as sushi, curries and kebabs, according to a survey released this week by Coldiretti, the national agricultural association."Notwithstanding the rapid spread of restaurants offering ethnic food, only seven per cent of Italians eat on a regular basis in a foreign takeaway and only five per cent in a foreign restaurant," the report said."