Links - 4th April 2020 (2)

Zimbabwe Today - Posts - "Happy 100th birthday Ian Smith.
My message to you is ______________"
The top comments are all positive

Wrong body cremated after funeral home mix-up - "A grieving family were at their home's void deck to receive their patriarch's body for the wake, only to be told by staff of Harmony Funeral Care that his body had already been cremated.To add to their distress, his send-off was done according to Christian traditions and funeral rites, when the man was a Taoist."

Couples With Daughters More Likely to Divorce - "Not only did researchers find that couples with sons are more likely to stick together, unmarried pregnant couples were more likely to have shotgun weddings if the baby was going to be a boy and divorced mothers of boys are more likely to remarry and stay remarried... Focusing on what "keeps a father around" may be a mistake, however, said Anita Kelly, professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, because it fails to acknowledge that in the United States an "overwhelming majority of divorces are initiated by women" -- 73 percent"

'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession - "Commercial beekeepers who send their hives to the almond farms are seeing their bees die in record numbers, and nothing they do seems to stop the decline."
So much for veganism being 'cruelty free' - even if you ignore cruelty to humans

How Facebook Is Killing Comedy - "Facebook gets so much traffic that they started convincing publishers to post things on Facebook. For a long time, that was fine. People posted things on Facebook, then you would click those links and go to their websites. But then, gradually, Facebook started exerting more and more control of what was being seen, to the point that they, not our website, essentially became the main publishers of everyone’s content. Today, there’s no reason to go to a comedy website that has a video if that video is just right on Facebook. And that would be fine if Facebook compensated those companies for the ad revenue that was generated from those videos, but because Facebook does not pay publishers, there quickly became no money in making high-quality content for the internet... linking out would be great. It would at least get people back to normal websites. Remember when your fingers just remembered different URLs, and you would go to The New York Times, and The Onion, and Funny or Die? Now it’s less so. You type in Facebook or Twitter or Reddit and then you just sit there and passively take in this feed of what’s selected for you. The other alternative would be to just pay, like cable had to do... The other solution, which seems crazy, is for there to be a meta organizing campaign, where media companies band together and refuse to post on Facebook, essentially going on strike and withholding their labor until they are compensated... There was a study recently that if you just give your cat a bowl of food every day, they get fat and depressed, because they don’t use their hunting instincts. So now some pet owners hide food around their house, and their pets are happier because they’re doing something. It’s the same thing with content. It’s better for us to try and find it, and get it from different sources and enter different worlds – to go on the tiniest journey to find something instead of having the trough open up and have the feed come pouring down into your face."
Or, just don't post on Facebook

What’s the link between developers playing golf with each other and their bids for government land auctions? An NUS study has the answer - "By studying the public records of all golf players in Singapore and the bids which developers put in for government land auctions, among other data sets, a group of university researchers believe that they have found “evidence of insider trading in the land market”... the top managers of Singapore’s real estate developers played golf with each other more frequently after the announcement of a Government Land Sales programme, and their winning bids for the tenders were 14.4 per cent lower than the winning bids put in by those who did not play golf. The researchers estimated that the shortfall in government revenue from the lower land prices was about S$147 million on average for every year between November 2010 and May 2014... women who played golf were more likely to climb the corporate ladder... "information sharing is not prohibited by law"... two bidders would be more likely to bid for the same land parcel after a golf game, but it did not increase the chances of either one winning the bid.The researchers have two explanations: Either the cartel was ineffective or there was none at all and that both developers were competing head-on."

No More Fake Teeth: Stem Cell Dental Implants Grow New Teeth In 2 Months - "by the age of 75, around 26 percent of adults have lost nearly all of their permanent teeth... At his Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Dr. Jeremy Mao and his team are now able to induce the body’s stem cells to develop a tooth based on a three-dimensional scaffold made of natural materials. The results? A better-fit, natural tooth that grows in as little as nine weeks.According to Dr. Mao, the approach (which eliminates the need to grow teeth in a Petri dish) is a more cost-effective one “for patients who cannot afford or who aren’t good candidates for dental implants.” As reported by Columbia University Medical Center, this approach to regrow teeth ‘factor in the faster recovery time and the comparatively natural process of regrowth (as opposed to implantation), and you have a massively appealing dental treatment.’  A new tooth developed using stem cells can also adapt and move with the mouth, preventing discomfort and more severe issues later on. It’s also healthier and more comfortable. This gives the approach distinct advantages over implants and dentures"

(JJ) Jackson Mucunguzi🇺🇬🇺🇬 on Twitter - "If forcing your wife into sex is rape, then forcing your husband to give u money is armed robbery."

Man requests 'trial by combat' sword fight with ex-wife to settle legal dispute - "A Kansas man has requested that a judge allow him and his ex-wife to engage in a sword fight to resolve their ongoing legal dispute — but only after he is able to secure some Japanese samurai swords.David Ostrom made the request in a court filing earlier this month arguing that his former wife, Bridgette Ostrom of Iowa, and her attorney had “destroyed (him) legally”.Mr Ostrom argued that the judge could let the parties “resolve our disputes on the field of battle, legally,”He added that trial by combat “has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States.”... Mr Hudson, in his response, argued that because a duel could result in death “such ramifications likely outweigh those of property tax and custody issues”. Mr Hudson, in his response, argued that because a duel could result in death “such ramifications likely outweigh those of property tax and custody issues”."

Brain parasite may strip away rodents’ fear of predators—not just of cats - "Toxoplasma gondii exerts a strange sort of mind control on rodents: Once infected with the brain parasite, they seem to lose their fear of cats and become more likely to get eaten. When they are, the microbe can make its way into the feline intestine to reproduce. But a new study argues that T. gondii’s effects on rodents aren’t cat specific; instead, the parasite simply makes mice more eager to explore and less fearful of any species that might gobble them up... Up to one-third of humans are thought to harbor a T. gondii infection, known as toxoplasmosis, and some research has linked it to schizophrenia and other mental illness. Soldati-Favre speculates that, because the parasite seems to produce fewer and smaller cysts in healthy humans than in mice, it may drive less inflammation and very minor behavioral change in people. The authors propose future studies to test whether infected humans show signs of inflammation, which is thought to contribute to certain neurodegenerative diseases. If researchers ever decide they do want to combat the effect of T. gondii infection in the human brain, the new results suggest reducing inflammation might help, Sullivan says. His team recently found that dosing T. gondii-infected mice with an anti-inflammatory drug could reverse some of their behavioral changes.  The new results suggest the parasite has found a “sweet spot,” he says: invading the brain enough to provoke an immune response that drives the animal toward predators, but not enough to kill its host right away"

PRESIDENT CRASHER: Vince Vaughn facing heat for talking to Trump - "Vaughn was seen chatting and laughing in a private box with the president, as Melania sat between them. The pair shook hands and Trump appeared to point to the star’s lanyard, according to a 31-second clip uploaded to Twitter.The exchange was filmed by Timothy Burke, a former Deadspin employee who captioned it with, “I’m very sorry to have to share this with you. All of it, every part of it.” People throughout the Twittersphere were quick to call for the “cancelling” of the comedic actor. This is not the first time a celebrity faced backlash for interacting with a Republican politician. A video of Ellen DeGeneres was scrutinized online as well after a video emerged of her sitting next to former President George W. Bush at a football game... And who could forget Jimmy Fallon facing massive backlash and a big hit to his ratings after he “humanized” Trump by running his hand through his hair the first time The Apprentice star was running for president."
Love Trumps Hate. Apparently.

Japanese model spends S$12 million in 3 months, divorces husband when told to spend less - "Kato Sari is a 29-year-old Japanese fashion model who is known for her luxurious lifestyle and love of high-end brands... After they got married, Kato’s ex-husband apparently asked her to stop her lavish spending as his company was facing financial difficulties, Line Today reports.However, angered at the prospect of not being able to continue her spending habits, Kato said she had “no more interest” in her husband after he had no money left.She even likened her husband to a fraud, stating that he had cheated her into sign the marriage papers... Kato admitted that she had married her husband for money... After the host asked her what else there was to her marriage other than money, Kato then joked that the host shouldn’t ask such questions with obvious answers... Sari had also stated in an Instagram post that unlike money, the value of love falls and disappears, which is why she trusts money over love. Since the divorce, Kato has been posting numerous Instagram photos with other men whom she refers to as “gentlemen”... “Everyone has different values. It’s okay for you to think that the man you married was trash. But you should realise that you yourself is even more trash.”"

jeremy bishop on Twitter - "When people say they like thicc girls they mean they like slight curves, not chronic type 2 diabetes"

Trump’s Vast Deregulatory Landscape Goes Unnoticed by the Experts - "the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA)—where, until recently, I served as chief economist—dedicated a great deal of manpower preparing a comprehensive and rigorous assessment of deregulation since 2017. That report, released in June, concluded that the past three years of deregulation is comparable to, and probably exceeds, any deregulatory episode in modern U.S. history. That includes the historic deregulations of airlines, trucking, railroads, and energy that were initiated during the Carter administration... Take the 2016 prohibition of “junk” health insurance plans (i.e., plans that families like and purchase, in large part because the plans are cheaper than the plans endorsed by bureaucrats) that the Trump administration reversed in 2018. Whereas the typical regulation receives zero comments, this one received thousands. At the same time, the regulators assessed no cost for the rule because the rule was (with a bit of circularity) designated to be “economically insignificant.” Such designation is not supposed to be used unless there is no material adverse effect on a sector of the economy. It is absurd to deny any material adverse effect from a prohibition of a product that two million people would be purchasing (as estimated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office). The CEA estimated that the annual cost of this regulation was $13 billion, which is 130 times the monetary threshold for “economic significance.”... A similar phenomenon is revealed in the chart below, reproduced from another CEA report on prescription drug prices. It shows something historically unusual happening to prescription drug prices, as measured by the Consumer Price Index calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of the change has to do with deregulation of the entry of generic drugs. The Food and Drug Administration had such a burdensome approval process for generic manufacturers that in some instances only one company was making a generic. A handful of lucky, or well connected, companies were able to sell a drug they did not invent at a price about as high as that charged when the inventor held the monopoly. President Trump’s FDA changed that... the CEA report estimates that over the next five to 10 years, the deregulatory efforts of the Trump administration will increase annual real incomes in the United States by $3,100 per household."

Donald Trump’s Track Record Is Better Than Most of his Predecessors - "When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he made several promises, as politicians always do. But, unlike so many politicians, he has fulfilled most of those promises, especially the more important ones...  Wages have been increasing far faster at the bottom of the economic ladder than at the top.While wages climbed 3.6 percent in the year that followed November 2018, well above inflation, they were up 4.5 percent for the bottom 25 percent of wage earners. By contrast, wages rose by only 2.5 percent for those in the top 25 percent. Black and Hispanic unemployment are at the lowest rates on record. That is doubtless not unconnected with the fact that Trump’s approval rating with blacks and Hispanics has been rising during his presidency, a fact that should make the Democratic Party very afraid. The Dow-Jones Industrial Average is up 52.9 percent in the three years and two months since Trump’s election. That has, to be sure, greatly increased the inequality in the net worth of the billionaires vis-à-vis the vast majority of Americans. But that has also greatly increased the net worth of the tens of millions who hold 401(k) and IRA accounts. A booming stock market promises more secure retirements for the tens of millions who are vested in pension funds and have annuity accounts. I suspect these tens of millions care a lot more about their own net worth than the net worth of the billionaires over whom Democratic presidential candidates obsess. Thanks to fracking, which has revolutionized both world energy markets and the geopolitics of energy, national CO2 emissions declined another 2 percent in 2019 as coal use declined by yet another 10 percent. Many of the top tier Democratic candidates have pledged to ban fracking. They evidently prefer to lower carbon emissions by inhibiting the American economy."