Links - 3rd April 2020 (2)

Rationally Speaking | Official Podcast of New York City Skeptics - Current Episodes - RS 244 - Stephanie Lepp and Buster Benson on "Seeing other perspectives, with compassion" - "Julia Galef:    School was closed, yeah.  So you got into an argument that was literally over, “Is it legal to leave our son home alone?” Your wife was saying it's not legal, and you were saying it is.What you realized, you say in the book, is that for your wife the disagreement was never about, is it legal? It was about, is Buster... Willing to pick up the slack. In this case by staying home and taking care of our son. And just in general -- is he the kind of partner who's willing to pick up the slack?And you chided yourself, at least implicitly, in describing this instance -- like, "I should have realized that discussing the literal fact of, 'Is it legal or not?' was not really the important thing."... it does seem not great to me if someone is arguing something that's literally false, and they don't care that it's literally false. Your wife was wrong about the legal fact of the matter, right? It seems not great for someone to be saying, "It's illegal," when what they really mean is, "I wish you would pick up more of the slack.""
The joys of arguing with women

BBC World Service - 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter, Whale and wind turbine - "History books tell us the vast number of humpbacks that were hunted commercially for their oil, meat and baleen. During this time, more than 90% of the global population were killed, and in 1998, they were listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. But thanks to a moratorium on commercial whaling a few years earlier in 1982, amongst other reasons, by the International Whaling Commission, their numbers have steadily increased. They were reclassified in 2008 as being of least concern, although certain populations still retain an endangered status."
Great, Japan can hunt humpback whales too since extinction is fake news

BBC World Service - 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter, 30 Animals LIVE - "‘I've always been fascinated with brown bears, because they have this ability to hibernate for six month and do this without any harm to their organ functions. It's almost like a Swish Army Knife of solutions to medical problems that bears carry around. For example, when bears hibernate, they exclusively burn fat. And when we are on a diet, if we try to lose weight, we will of course lose fat but we always also lose muscle. And bears do not lose muscle while hibernating. So it's a very smart way for the bears to use their fat deposits in a constructive way. And their obesity is a healthy kind. When we look at plasma, taking from winter bears and then added to human muscle cell tissue, we can see that human muscle cell tissue grows with winter plasma but not with summer plasma. So it means that there's something in the plasma and we still haven't located what the pathways are, but we are looking very hard. There's something there that stimulate muscle growth. And this is a, of high relevance for humans because muscle wasting. If you’re an elderly person, or if you simply don't exercise or even if you're an astronaut, muscle wasting is what you want to avoid. If you want to send some human to Mars, it takes 6 to 8 months and there's no gravity. So this is really hard for muscle tissue in the astronaut. Potentially injecting a substance that could preserve their muscle tissue would be highly valuable because they need to come back hopefully and be able to function as a human being again'"

MAKE WOMEN WOMEN AGAIN - Posts - "When girls say "all guys ever want is sex from me and hate it." Tell them You have no hobbies, no talents, no wisdom, no legitimate interests beyond your personal vanity, original thoughts on politics, society, philosophy, anything else. All you talk is random celebrity dudes crushes exes, other shit that revolves around men getting a man while sharing the most generic memes imaginable. fuck else is there to want from vapid shell of person? Your only redeeming quality is you lay still dick. Why are you surprised?"

Is This Swim Stroke the Fastest Yet? - "In the last few decades, stroke mechanic experts have discovered that swimming under the surface is faster than swimming on the surface...  All swimming at the surface shares the same speed restriction. “You’re always limited by your hull speed,” says Ryan Atkison, a sport biomechanist at the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario. It’s a nautical principle that also applies to swimmers. The theory goes that a swimmer on the surface cannot go faster than the bow wave that he or she creates. The bow wave increases with swim speed until, in theory, it stretches along the whole length of the swimmer’s body. Atkison says that the maximum speed is one body-length per second, which is about 1.9 to 2.6 meters per second for a swimmer about 2 meters (6 feet, 5 inches) tall.  “You can’t go any faster than that unless you climb up over top of that wave,” says Atkison. “Some animals can, like dolphins can porpoise and jump over top of that bow wave, but humans can’t physically climb out of that trough,” he says. “The only real way to get faster is to be better under water, where we don’t really have those upper limits on speed.”  Coaches began to take advantage of this fact in the 1980s, when Harvard University coach Joe Bernal realized that some of his swimmers were faster if they stayed underwater and dolphin kicked. This is essentially identical to the fish kick, except that the swimmer is flat on his stomach, rather than turned on his side"

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is actually a GIRL… and here’s how we know - "there's no way that Rudolph can be a fella because male reindeer shed their antlers before mid-December... Other than females, castrated males are the only reindeer who keep their antlers into late December."

Ice baths & fish scales: New Year's in Poland - "you could also save a few scales from the carp that’s traditionally eaten at Christmas Eve. The Christmas carp tradition is also practiced in several neighbouring countries, such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and true custom says you should keep the carp alive, swimming in your bathtub, until it’s time to kill it for the family dinner. (Many modern Poles now choose to buy ready-to-eat carp, which makes bathing in the days leading up to Christmas far easier.) Everyone keeps a few of the fish’s scales in their wallets over the next 12 months to encourage good fortune"

Lisa Britton on Twitter - "Nearly 80% of divorces are initiated by women. I personally know 3 women who initiated divorce because they felt held down & that the ‘independent woman’ lifestyle seemed intriguing to them after having a family for a decade or two. All have expressed regret now. They’re alone.
This reason is a consequence of feminism.
Feminism is influencing girls & young women that being single is power & they shouldn’t start a family because a career is everything, but it also convinces married women that they’ve been wronged, leading to the destruction of families."

UMass Amherst Removed a Professor for Showing a Downfall Hitler Parody Video - "Catherine West Lowry is a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For the past 13 years, she has taught introductory accounting—a "dry and difficult subject matter," in her words.To make the class more exciting, Lowry has for years let students make funny videos for extra credit. Some of these have been shown in class. A parody video from 2009 was particularly popular and has resurfaced in subsequent years.Last semester, when Lowry showed this specific video, many students laughed at it. But at least a few were offended and complained to the administration, which subsequently relieved Lowry of her teaching duties... Dean Anne Massey removed Lowry from her teaching position and attended the class's next session to inform students. Many took the news poorly, shouting "bring back [Lowry]." They eventually walked out in protest... UMass Amherst is a public university, and punishing a professor for an attempt at humor raises some troubling First Amendment issues. The administration should correct course and reinstate Lowry. No one should be encouraging accounting professors to make their classes even more boring."
This is why we can't have nice things

Bank Closes Woman's Accounts After She Criticizes It on Twitter - "Julie Goislard's issues with the Société Générale branch at Clichy Centre could have been quickly resolved, but after 36 phone calls to the bank over several weeks went unanswered, she chose to escalate the situation on her own... Not everybody supports her in her struggle against Société Générale. One French Twitter user posted a compilation of tweets from her account where she complains to numerous accounts, saying she "continually harasses businesses" and is "not a client you want to have.""

Coincidence that fake news law applied to politicians, Singapore minister says - "Singapore's communications minister said on Monday it was a coincidence that the first few cases brought under a new fake news law were against political figures and parties.The law came into effect in October amid concern among rights groups and opposition politicians it could be used to silence criticism of the government ahead of a general election expected within months. The government has denied such suggestions saying the law, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), only tackles falsehoods and that legitimate criticism and free speech would not be affected."

Awkward Vintage Japanese Movie Monsters - "The kaiju eiga (literally “monster movie” in Japanese) was born in 1954 with Ishiro Honda’s landmark masterpiece Godzilla. Its immense international success spawned a chain of sequels, numerous imitators, more than a few rip-offs, and a slew of strange, bizarre cinematic creatures arising to threaten the existence of humankind."

Students Against Sleep - SAS - "Trainer: "Before we get started with your first session, what's your #1 fitness goal?"
Her: "I really just want to be able to ride dick for 30 minutes straight""

Motorcycle Chariot Racing was a real sport in the 1920s

Plucky rescue chicken learns to walk again with special wheelchair

Lettuce Has Made Over 1,000 People Sick This Decade - "at least some percentage of this is totally avoidable if you actually just cook the damn veggies, which kills off bacteria and other pathogens. You can grill it, stir-fry it, or put it in soup, for example (I recommend stir-fried — here’s a recipe). But raw food has been all the rage, and salad by nature isn’t cooked, so the only way to avoid getting sick from lettuce may be to break up with salad in the 2020s."

Trying Impossible Foods' fake pork as a practicing Muslim was super weird - "Alan Cook, a rabbi in Champaign, Illinois, says he also isn't particularly drawn to try Impossible Pork because pork's not a meat he misses. He points to a common attitude among many Jews that "if one is choosing to live a kosher (or halal) lifestyle, God doesn't want us to see it as burdensome. It's not about finding these workarounds and substitutes, and we should be happy with the bounty of foods that we do have available to us... an argument could be made that consuming plant-based products is one way to meet religious requirements if it has less of an environmental impact than meat production."
Certainly Malaysia is not going to grant it Halal certification

How Finland's fake four-day week became a 'fact' in Europe's media - "“Finland’s new prime minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin, has announced plans to introduce a four-day week” says the Guardian, underneath the statement that Marin has “promised” a short working week.“Finland’s new prime minister calls for four-day working week” says the Independent... Not only are these proposals not included in the Finnish government’s policy programme, multiple government sources told News Now Finland on Monday evening that it’s not even on the horizon... At one point during the discussion Sanna Marin floated the idea that Finland’s productivity could benefit from either a four-day working week, or a six-hour working day (she never suggested both).  Marin also tweeted about it at the time, noting plainly that it was an SDP party goal to reduce working hours – but to be clear, again, this was never official government policy"
Of course, the Guardian and other mainstream media reporting this doesn't make them untrustworthy - only "right wing" outlets like Fox and the Daily Mail

Gelsenkirchen knifeman killed by German police 'mentally ill' - "He struck a police car with a stick and attempted to assault two officers standing by the vehicle, police said.He was also wielding a knife and was shot four times after refusing to heed a shouted warning, police said.Police are examining electronic data seized in their search of the man's flat and checking reports that he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) during the attack. Police say the man was known for previous acts of violence... the man was on a list of people monitored for links to militant groups."
Strange. Liberals tell us it's only considered mental illness when white men do it

Toronto recruitment centre stabber cleared by appeal court to attend college on his own - "Ontario’s top court has upheld a decision allowing a man found not criminally responsible in a knife attack at a Toronto military recruitment centre to eventually take college classes on his own... Ali attacked several uniformed military personnel with a large knife in March 2016 and wounded at least two people before he was overpowered and subdued.  He was charged with attempted murder, assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon, as well as carrying a weapon, all for the benefit of a terrorist group.  Last year, an Ontario judge found that while Ali carried out the attack based on his extremist beliefs, the formation of those beliefs was precipitated by mental illness... As a result, Ali was cleared on the terror element of the charges and found not criminally responsible on the lesser included offences."
If you're mentally ill to the point that you attack and injure people, should you be out in society, much less in college?