Links - 1st January 2020 (2)

S’poreans fear cockroaches more than death, ghosts & loneliness: Survey - "54 percent of 1,033 respondents fear drowning the most. Fire (48 percent) comes next on the list of 15 phobias that respondents were presented with, followed by reptiles (47 percent) and cockroaches (42 percent)... women as a whole are twice as likely to be very afraid of reptiles (61 percent versus 32 percent).They are also more likely to fear roaches (56 percent versus 28 percent)."

Everything halal: consumer goods makers exploit Indonesian push for products that satisfy Islamic law, selling ‘halal fridges’ and ‘halal cat food’ - "The Sharp representative told her that the materials usually used to produce fridge compartments could contain traces of animal products that are forbidden to Muslims, she recalls.“When it was time to replace my old fridge, I didn’t hesitate to choose this [halal] fridge,” says Miranti, who had been invited to the launch as a member of the Indonesian Halal Chef Association... Indonesia had planned to make halal labelling mandatory for consumer products and services from this month, but the high cost of acquiring certification and the lack of clear guidelines meant millions of local producers were without certification as the deadline came and went.  Under the plan, compulsory labelling would have first applied to food and drink products and services from October 17, before being gradually widened to include drugs, cosmetics and other consumer goods... In recent years the country has seen an increasing number of non-consumable products labelled halal. These include cotton buds, laundry detergent, fabric softener, hijabs (hair and neck scarves) and shoes. This labelling has sparked debate, both online and offline, with many questioning the manufacturers’ motives for putting halal labels on their products... not all products can be granted halal certificates from the MUI. The organisation can send a letter of refusal along with an explanation of why certain products do not need to be halal-certified.  He cites one rejected request from a natural gas company that wanted to get halal certification for its product. The company, he says, argued that the natural gas would be used in the production of halal make-up and therefore required certification. The MUI, however, did not agree.
And you thought halal toilets were bad
Is Indonesia still an example of "moderate Islam"

Ministry launches Indonesia’s first halal-certified corrective glasses

Private versus public electricity distribution utilities: Are outcomes different for end-users? - "Overall, we find no major differences between the efficiency and quality of services which commercial end-users receive from private or public utility companies. This is also reflected by the fact that the top 10 economies in the Getting Electricity indicator of Doing Business have both majority public (e.g. Korea Electric Power Corp and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) and majority private distribution companies (e.g. CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd and UK Power Networks) represented."
So much for the private sector always being better than the public. Or, on the other side, that evil capitalism and profit seeking results in degraded service

Michael Moore Tries To Prove Women Are Better Than Men, Gets Brilliantly Shut Down By A Woman - "There are plenty of badass women but Academy-Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore thinks there aren’t any bad ones. “No women ever invented an atomic bomb, built a smokestack, initiated a Holocaust, melted the polar ice caps or organized a school shooting,” Moore tweeted. Missing logic in his men vs. women claims, writer Jessica Ellis wrote an insightful rebuttal to Moore"

Boy told not to doodle in class decorates restaurant with his drawings - "Joe Whale, nine, kept getting into trouble for doodling during classtime. Rather than shutting down the habit of scribbling in his workbook, Joe’s parents decided to encourage his creativity by sending their son to an after-school art class. His teacher recognised Joe’s talent and posted his work all over Instagram, which led to something pretty wonderful. Number 4, a restaurant in Shrewsbury, contacted Joe’s teacher to ask if the nine-year-old could come to the building and decorate the dining room with his drawings."

Georgia Rappers Rape Female, Set Her on Fire after Losing Freestyle Battle to Her - "Three scumbag reprobate rappers from southern Georgia reportedly committed unspeakably evil crimes against a female just because she beat the three in freestyle rap battle, according to media reports.The three degenerate Columbus, Ga. men (and we use the term loosely) — Ketorie Glover, 23, Joey Betrail Garron, 28, and Robert Carl Johnson, 23 — decided to avenge their humiliation for losing to a female by deciding to kidnap her, gang rape her, sodomize her, shoot her and set the victim on fire and leave her for dead."

London's Gatwick Airport tests faster ways to board - "The trial includes boarding people from the back row to the front, with window seat passengers boarding first, followed by middle and then aisle seats... A Gatwick spokesperson told CNN that in the first week of the trial a flight of 158 passengers boarded in 14 minutes -- two to three minutes faster than normal."

Instagram and Facebook ban 'sexual' use of emojis including the eggplant and peach - "Facebook and Instagram have banned the use of 'sexual emojis' including the eggplant, peach and water drips.The new guidelines state that the taboo emojis cannot be used to depict sexual activity and nude body parts can't be covered up with the playful symbols."

Trump has more female senior advisers than last three administrations - "President Trump has seven women currently serving as senior White House advisers — more than any of his three predecessors.At the same time in their presidencies, Barack Obama had five; George W. Bush three, and Bill Clinton five... Trump’s record may be higher than that of any chief executive in history"

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne Used To Hate Donald Trump. Now, He’s Kind of a Fan. - "Before Donald Trump took office, it was hard to find a tougher critic of him than Patrick Byrne, the libertarian CEO of the online retailer Overstock.com... Byrne has reconsidered his views on President Trump, who he says is dismantling the administrative state and deregulating the economy in powerful ways. Byrne, who wrote his Stanford doctoral dissertation on the limited-government philosophy of Robert Nozick, even says that Trump is right to challenge China on trade and that libertarians need to be willing to confront places where the world is more complicated than our theories allow. He says that while there are still many things that bother him about the president—especially his rhetorical style—it's time to realize Trump is not only a far better president than Hillary Clinton would have been, but has moved things forward on issues such as tax reform, criminal justice reform, and school choice."

Donald Trump's Job Approval Higher Than Obama's At Same Point in Presidency, Poll Shows - "Despite a string of White House controversies, a recent poll shows President Donald Trump's job approval rating is currently higher than former President Barack Obama's was at the same point in his administration.According to Gallup, Trump's job approval rating is at 43 percent—three points higher than Obama's 40 percent at the same time in his presidency. The survey shows Trump only one point behind Bill Clinton and four points behind Ronald Reagan at this point in their first term."

Historians and Journalists Defend Donald Trump After President Is Mocked on Ancient Rome Comments - "President Donald Trump has come under fire for suggesting that the culture and values that bind the U.S. and Italy date back thousands of years to ancient Rome.The remarks were made during a Wednesday press conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the White House. They prompted derision online from social media users who interpreted Trump's comments as suggesting the two nations had been allied for thousands of years, even though both are less than 250 years old. But others came to Trump's defense, suggesting the president was in fact commenting on Roman cultural, political and legal traditions that imbue all modern Western nations and governments, including the U.S.Trump said Wednesday that the "United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome." Many social media users jumped on Trump's comments, citing them as a further example of the president's apparent historical illiteracy. The Western Roman Empire had collapsed by 476, 1,300 years before the foundation of the U.S. Italy too, is a very young country, having only been unified from rival city states by 1871.The most vociferous online critics interpreted Trump's comments as suggesting the U.S. and Italy had been allies since ancient times. But the president did not say this.In fact, Trump's assertion of a shared heritage between American and Italian culture is an accurate one... Multiple historians and journalists came to Trump's defense. Mike Duncan, a best-selling author and podcaster who became famous for his work on ancient Rome, wrote on Twitter, "My scorching hot take is that what he said is basically fine."ABC News correspondent Terry Moran concurred. "Trump was absolutely 100 percent correct that Italy and the USA share a political and cultural history dating back to Ancient Rome," he explained. "The Senate, for instance. Look it up. Also Cicero, Cato, Cincinnatus, etc etc If you are tweaking Trump for this, you're embarrassing yourself."CNN reporter and Trump fact-checker Daniel Dale argued that the president's critics were unfairly misrepresenting his comments. "People are wrongly describing this statement to mock it," he said on Twitter."Trump said the two countries have a shared political-cultural heritage that dates to Ancient Rome, not that there were actual ties between two actual countries as far back as Ancient Rome.""

CAIR Demands Twitter Suspend President Trump for Attacking Ilhan Omar - "The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) sent out a press release last Wednesday demanding that Twitter suspend its most important account: that of President Trump. Because Trump has repeatedly enraged Leftists by going over the heads of the establishment media and talking directly to the American people through his tweets, there are no doubt a large number of tweets that have made Leftists want him gone from Twitter forever. But the one that sent CAIR over the edge committed the sin that is absolutely, finally, unanswerably unpardonable: Trump had the audacity to criticize that sacred cow of all sacred cows, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)... Predictably, Omar claimed victim status in her response to Trump: “The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk. What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation?” CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein doubled down on this preposterous claim that criticizing Omar was tantamount to threatening her life: “It is unconscionable that the president of the United States would so casually promote falsehoods that threaten the life a member of Congress elected by the people of Minnesota. Action must be taken by Twitter against the president and the source of the false information.” CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad chimed in with the equally preposterous charge that criticizing Omar meant that Trump was “anti-Muslim”... Omar, Hussein, and Awad don’t think they put Trump’s life at risk when they constantly characterize him as “anti-Muslim,” “racist,” etc. What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation?"

BBC World Service - The World This Week, Trouble at the top - "[On West Papua] The Internet close down, it's actually just did more harm than good. And it's actually been campaigned by so many people, including the activists and also Papuans itself, because that way, the people in Papua, they cannot get proper access to balanced news so they just get information from mouth to mouth and who knows that it's valid, or is it a hoax?"

BBC World Service - The World This Week, UK makes its move - "[On Qatar’s poor attendance in the World Athletic Championships] ‘In 2015 in Beijing, there were empty seats down in the Bird's Nest Stadium… in 2013, in Moscow, there were lots of empty seats and in fact Sergei Bubka who's the Ukrainian pole vault, former world record holder, he bused in 2000 Ukrainians to try and fill the stadium in Moscow... They've been bringing in workers, migrant workers, lots of East Africans supporting their athletes. The long distance events and members of the army have also been brought in to occupy some of those empty seats’…
‘But it's not just the empty seats. We've also been hearing stories about athletes’ problems, about athletes struggling with the heat too’
‘Again this was expected but what they did to try and mitigate against these problems was to have the long distance events, the road events, the marathons, the race walks, starting at midnight. But the first one was last weekend, the women's marathon had 68 runners. 28 failed to finish. There were people being carried off in wheelchairs, one or two on stretchers as well, all being helped off absolutely exhausted, soaked in sweat, it was suffocating heat, over 30 degrees with high humidity’"