Links - 28th December 2019 (2)

The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear - "The great white shark—a fast, powerful, 16-foot-long torpedo that’s armed to the teeth with teeth—has little to fear except fear itself. But also: killer whales... Combining both brains and brawn, orcas have been known to kill sharks in surprisingly complicated ways. Some will drive their prey to the surface and then karate chop them with overhead tail swipes. Others seem to have worked out that they can hold sharks upside-down to induce a paralytic state called tonic immobility. Orcas can kill the fastest species (makos) and the largest (whale sharks)."

Latinx author speaks on race. Georgia Southern students burn her book - "some students questioned why the author had been critical of white people.“I noticed that you made a lot of generalizations about the majority of white people being privileged”... Capó Crucet later tweeted that some people had made "aggressive & ignorant comments" during the question-and-answer session. One white student, she said in a statement, "questioned whether I had the authority to address issues of race and white privilege on campus.""
In a university, you are not allowed to question the gospel of anti-racism - it means you are ignorant

Talk of ‘anti-white sentiment’ distracts from the fight against institutional racism - "We’d been asked to participate in an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) consultation into racial harassment on campuses, which is now the subject of a new report. I remember feeling exhausted, either owing to finishing an essay late the night before, or at the prospect that I and other people of colour would be once again detailing and reliving the racial trauma we face... imagine my surprise when one of the facilitators casually mentioned “anti-white prejudice”. We had just spent an hour collectively explaining our experiences of institutional racism and, looking across the room, I saw confused faces. We probed and challenged: isn’t this a report focused on racial harassment?... 9% of white British students have felt they were victims of racial harassment evidenced by the presence of “anti-English”, “anti-Welsh” or “anti-Scottish” sentiment... By conflating xenophobia, anti-English sentiment and prejudice with the racism faced by students and academics of colour, the EHRC has done a disservice to the work currently being done on race equity in the UK... [racism is] the cause of the BAME attainment gap, where BAME students are 13% less likely to receive a 2:1 or a first in comparison to our white counterparts – even though we start at the same entry point... It is exhausting that we still cannot have a frank discussion about experiences of structural racism without positioning white people as equal victims of racial discrimination – and it shows the limitations of the language our legislative bodies are using... Many people are still reluctant to truly understand what racism is, confining themselves to dictionary definitions... all language used in race equity needs to be interrogated for its failings, flaws and uses"
Yet another frank admission that "anti-racism" is about hating white people. Notably, he isn't consistent in terminology - the usual "academic" line is that "racism" is power + prejudice, but now the author is slipping into claiming that white people can't experience prejudice or harassment either
Also it's typical that just talking is "trauma"
Ironically, conflating things like coming from a single family (which affects life outcomes) with racism is a good thing
I'm sure the author will insist anyone criticising feminism refer to the textbook definition to "prove" that feminism is about equality. Or maybe he will import the logic of anti-racism there to say men can't suffer from gender discrimination
Naturally it ends with a 1984esque language policing

Woman 'deserved' violent rape for 'slavery,' suspect allegedly said - "“She was a white girl. She deserved it because us minorities have been through slavery,” Temar Bishop, 23, allegedly said to someone who witnessed the bloodied 20-year-old woman after the assaults, according to a criminal complaint. “This is what they used to do to us. This is what they did to us during slavery. They used to beat us and whip us.”"
When you keep stirring anti-white hatred

'An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming - "Oranians claim the town is a cultural project, not a racial one. Only Afrikaners are allowed to live and work there to preserve Afrikaner culture... The town exists at the mercy of the South African constitution. In the early 2000s, a planned remapping of boundaries that would have brought Orania under the control of a democratically elected municipality appeared to spell the end, but the town successfully appealed to the high court using the constitutional rights of the country’s minority cultural groups... The town’s doctor, Philip Nothnagel, describes South African cities as “warzones”. He lived in the country’s administrative capital, Pretoria, before he moved to Orania. The 10 months since have been the best of his life... Boshoff fears white Afrikaners face a real threat of “being wiped out”, either through violence or what he calls “amalgamation”"
One could look at this as a safe space for a minority (indeed a sign to European journalists uses this term)

We went to a Japanese restaurant in Italy, ate green sushi, learned a lesson about taking it easy - "When he was craving a taste of home in Sicily, he decided to check out a Japanese restaurant, though right from the start something felt a bit off... he decided to order one of the mysterious green sushi. Exploring unknown territory is a journalist’s duty, after all! …and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually pretty tasty! It turns out the green component of the roe is actually wasabi, whose flavor shot right up through his mouth to his nose. Despite that positive experience though, Yuichiro still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in a “Ristorante Cinese” instead of a “Ristorante Giapponese”.
 The “yakitori” (grilled chicken skewer) was fried and looked like Chinese cuisine… …the tempura came with a sweet and sour sauce, not its typical soy sauce and dashi… …and even the cookie Yuichiro was given as he left the restaurant felt very Chinese.
But what Yuichiro found most odd was that everything on the menu was all-you-can-eat. And, unlike restaurants in Japan that have a time limit for all-you-can-eat establishments, this restaurant had no time limit. “You can just eat whatever you like until you’re full”, the waitress told Yuichiro, leaving him dumbfounded.“But won’t that mean that this restaurant will always be filled with greedy, impolite people?” he wondered to himself.That’s when it hit him. Yuichiro looked around, and what he saw surprised him: groups of people spending a long time in the restaurant simply enjoying each other’s company, and not to stuff their bellies full of food. There didn’t seem to be anyone greedily piling food onto their plates with the malicious intention of stretching their cash.In fact, the only impolite person in the restaurant turned out to be Yuichiro himself, judging the place too harshly... Sometimes, not fretting over details like how your chicken is cooked or the sauce of your tempura makes for a better time. It was only when Yuchiro learned that, relaxed, and enjoyed his food for what it was, not judging it for what it wasn’t, that he finally felt at ease."

Our Japanese language reporter visits a U.K. sushi chain, is blown away by its original “sushi” - "What he ended up getting was far from anything he’d ever tasted in Japan; in fact, the originality of Yo! Sushi’s menu really blew him away. Even from the outside, Seiji doubted that they truly sold sushi. Though the name of the restaurant contained the word “sushi”, to Seiji, based on the menu posted in the window outside, it didn’t look like they sold any sushi he knew of...  although these dishes were nothing like what one might expect at sushi restaurant in Japan, the flavors of each of Yo! Sushi’s rolls were actually pretty good, aside from the fact that the rice was a little bit gooey. In fact, with a little bit of the ol’ soy sauce, they were quite delicious. It might be better if you think of Yo! Sushi’s offerings not quite as Japanese sushi but as more of a Western experimental cuisine, so as not to feel disappointment by certain aspects, like the distinct lack of seaweed... Though to be honest, we’re not really sure why Seiji was so surprised, because Japan has its fair share of weird sushi rolls, too, like the one topped with pizza, the sushi burritos, and deep-fried sushi"

Mushrooms can provide as much vitamin D as supplements - but only if you put them in the sun before you eat them - "Mushrooms exposed to the sun can provide as much vitamin D as a health supplement, a study has found.Researchers recommend people take the fungi out of their wrapping and leave them outside for half an hour before eating... 'Many experts believe that cooking will not damage the vitamin levels, and it is perfectly stable with heat. If anything, it make it far easier to absorb the nutrient.'"

Christopher Johnson Charged After Missing Florida Teen's Mom Her In Porn Video - "A missing Florida teen has been found almost a year after she disappeared after her distraught mom found sexually explicit photos and video of her on PornHub.The teen’s mother spotted the videos in September and told investigators—who later uncovered nearly 60 pornographic videos of the missing 15-year-old on Periscope, Pornhub, Modelhub, Snapchat and other websites"

Politically Incorrect D.Va II: Gamers Never Die - Posts - "Madam President @queer_anthology: "Friendly reminder that if you're not Mexican you shouldn't be doing Sugar Skulls (katrinas) for Halloween. Just be a skeleton. Remember dia de los muertos has cultural and religious significance.""
"How about you know your role and shut your mouth. As a Mexican/English person posts like this really annoy me, Mexican people love seeing their culture outside Latin America and it's a positive thing that culture gets appreciated by others, don't get offended on our behalf loser."

LOVE SAUSAGE󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 on Twitter - "Friendly reminder that if you're not Celtic you shouldn't be doing Halloween. Just stay at home. Remember Samhaìn has cultural and religious significance."
Replies: "If you aren’t Germanic you shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, it’s appropriation of a holy Germanic holiday season. Remember YULE has  cultural and religious significance"
"Friendly reminder that if you're not germanic you shouldn't celebrate easter. Remember Ôstarmânoth has cultural and religious significance."

🦇Ansgar Odinson🦇 on Twitter - "How to be the art police, a story in 4 parts.
Assert that no woman would ever
Block anyone who is inconvenient
Erase women who dont fit your narrative
Credit to @unvarnishedvoid"
"Amanda Logan @luthien_seregon: "Women aren't drawing this kind of art in the geek community. Lesbians definitely are not. This isn't some Trumpian 'both sides do ittttt'. Enjoying big boob IRL or even in art again isn't the critique"
"unvarnished @unvarnishedvoid: "hi im a female and i drew this. so kindly f*ck off :D""
"You're blocked. You can't follow or see @luthien@seregon's Tweets"
"Amanda Logan @luthien_seregon: "Nope. Thought they were a man and blocked them. Why do u care tho? I block and mute freely & make no secret of it. Do they want to chat?"
This is like the guy who claimed no pro-lifer had ever answered his thought experiment about abortion honesty - because he blocked everyone who had

Ill boy, 2, dies after ‘cruel dad blows £115,000 crowdfunding donations on brothels, luxury holidays and drugs’ - "Father Mateus Henrique Leroy Alves, 37, was arrested in July on suspicion of spending £114,060 (600,000 R$) of the money raised online to help treat his two-year-old son Joao Miguel’s type 1 spinal muscular atrophy."

Marvel Comments on Sales and 'Forced Diversity' at NYCC Panel - "At New York Comic Con, Women of Marvel podcast hosts Sana Amanat and Judy Stephens held a panel alongside assistant editor Kathleen Wisneski, writer Margaret Stohl, writer Leah Williams, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg and artist Jen Bartel. The purpose of this panel was to discuss what it's like working in comics from a female perspective and what fans can expect from Marvel in the future.During the panel's Q&A session, a young female fan brought up the topic of dipping sales, asking the panelists if they believed decreased sales were due to "forced diversity" and "hiring people without experience.""

'Black-ish' Creator: I Don't Want To See 'Forced Diversity' In Hollywood - "For “black-ish” creator, Kenya Barris, the conversation regarding the actor's comment begin with diversity hires... he has noticed an overall counterproductive process to diversify Hollywood.“I don’t necessarily want to see forced diversity, because I’ve been a beneficiary and a victim of that in some aspects,” Barris said. “If you put something in place where a person is put into a situation and they’re put into that situation under the guise that this is the ‘diversity hire,' that person -- 95% of the time -- will not be given the respect in order to make the career to open the doors for other people behind them.""