Links - 12th May 2020 (2)

CDC: The suicide rate for young people rose 56% this decade - "Gen Z — or the generation of Americans born during 1997 onward  — might be seeing a mental health crisis even worse than that faced by the older millennial generation."
The fruits of helicopter parenting come home to roost

Masturbation boosts your immune system and raises your white blood cell count, helping you fight off infection and illness. - "Masturbation causes a rush of dopamine, which is a chemical that is associated with our ability to feel pleasure. Along with the rush of dopamine that is released during an orgasm, there is also a release of a hormone called oxytocin, which is commonly referred to as the "love hormone."This concoction of chemicals does more than just boost our mood, it also can play a key role in decreasing stress and promoting relaxation. Oxytocin decreases cortisol, which is a stress hormone that is usually present (in high volumes) during times of anxiety, fear, panic, or distress. According to BDSM and fetish researcher Dr. Gloria Brame, an orgasm is the biggest non-drug induced blast of dopamine that we can experience... masturbation can produce the right kind of environment for a strengthened immune system to thrive... According to neurologist and headache specialist Stefan Evers, about one in three patients experience relief from migraine attacks by experiencing sexual activity or orgasm... Orgasms can also promote relaxation and make it easier to fall asleep. Serotonin, oxytocin, and norepinephrine are all hormones that are released during sexual arousal and orgasm, and all three are known for counteracting stress hormones and promoting relaxation, which makes it much easier for you to fall asleep."

The relentless insistence on happiness has become an emotional burden, says a Danish psychologist Svend Brinkmann - "Happiness is simply not the appropriate response to many situations in life, says Brinkmann, whose Danish bestseller Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze is published in English by international publisher Polity this month. Even worse, faking it can leave us emotionally stunted.“I believe our thoughts and emotions should mirror the world. When something bad happens, we should be allowed to have negative thoughts and feelings about it because that’s how we understand the world”... In the workplace, for example, where performance reviews often insist on focusing on positive growth rather than genuine difficulties, demanding displays of happiness is “almost totalitarian.” Brinkmann likens insistence on employee happiness to “thought control.”In the US, mandatory happiness became the subject of an official workplace ruling against T-Mobile in May 2016, where the National Labor Review Board determined that employers cannot force employees to be consistently cheery."

Sex work,pleasure or rebellion. Paper presented at Brunel University 21st April 2012. - "Sex workers present powerful images of rebellion against prescribed behaviours and of pleasure with out responsibility. Sex opens a Pandora’s Box of personal freedoms and possibilities for individual expression and aspirations.The sexual imagination naturally aspires also also to commercial possibilities that will pander to the sexual fantasies of societies fearful of and yet perversely yearning for sex that is not prescribed.Within populist culture however the prostitute has become emblematic of failure or depravation, a victim of this thing that some feminists and other so called progressives equally refer to as the patriarchy, of men, of crime, of class, of poverty.The prostitute has become symbolic of social and individual failure, the perpetual victim.This mythology of the prostitute and prostitution is a far cry from the real and original heritage of the prostitute as a positive image, the prostitute as civilising. In Babylon situated in Mesopotamia, which many understand as the cradle of civilisation there was once an inscription to Ishtar the great creatrix, the great mother Goddess. The inscription read “A prostitute compassionate am I”."

Can straight women use Grindr? - "I’m a cis woman in kind of a classic millennial sex pickle: I’m really repelled by heterosexuality politically and personally, but I’m also really into dick. I’ve been thinking maybe I should look for bi dudes/ bicurious gay dudes, but I am not sure how best to do that. Rich, what would you think of a woman being on Grindr or Scruff?"
"Something you should keep in mind is that pursuing guys who share your interest in dick will hardly weed out jerks. There are a lot of shitty men who identify as gay and bi, and their queerness doesn’t automatically absolve them of misogyny. In fact, the misogyny in some of these dudes is compounded by a perceived lack of use for women. At least straight guys will pretend to be civilized for the sake of getting laid. Ultimately, I feel like you’re going to end up with some big-dicked puppy dog of a straight guy who’s read some theory here and there, anyway? I mean, by all means have fun until you find him, but I’d put money on that being where this is going."
Uhh

The Sexual Revolution and Children: How the Left Took Things Too Far - "the educational work at the Rote Freiheit ("Red Freedom") after-school center was unorthodox. The goal of the center was to shape the students into "socialist personalities," and its educational mission went well beyond supervised play. The center's agenda included "agitprop" on the situation in Vietnam and "street fighting," in which the children were divided into "students" and "cops." The educators' notes indicate that they placed a very strong emphasis on sex education. Almost every day, the students played games that involved taking off their clothes, reading porno magazines together and pantomiming intercourse. According to the records, a "sex exercise" was conducted on Dec. 11 and a "fucking hour" on Jan. 14... The material introduced the broader public to a byproduct of the student movement for the first time: the sexual liberation of children... In the debate on sexual abuse, one of the elements is confusion as to where the line should be drawn in interactions with children. It is a confusion not limited to the Catholic Church. Indeed, it was precisely in so-called progressive circles that an eroticization of childhood and a gradual lowering of taboos began. It was a shift that even allowed for the possibility of sex with children... The left has its own history of abuse, and it is more complicated than it would seem at first glance. When leaders of the student movement of the late 1960s are asked about it, they offer hesitant or evasive answers... "Revolution der Erziehung" ("The Revolution in Education"), a work published by Rowohlt in 1971, which quickly became a bestseller, addresses sexuality as follows: "The de-eroticization of family life, from the prohibition of sexual activity among children to the taboo of incest, serves as preparation for total assimilation -- as preparation for the hostile treatment of sexual pleasure in school and voluntary subjugation to a dehumanizing labor system."... It is tempting to dismiss the "love play" in the commune as an exception, as a radical excess of a revolutionary project, if so many leftist parents hadn't modeled their own lives on the educational experiments on Giesebrechtstrasse... Nowadays, the stimulation of a child's sex organs by an adult is clearly seen as criminal sexual assault. But for the revolutionaries of 1968, it was an educational tool that helped "create a new person," according to the "Handbook of Positive Child Indoctrination," published in 1971"
For those who claim that the left sexualising children is a malicious right wing myth/conspiracy theory

Meme - "When a woman doesn't want to raise a child, it's called "a choice“.
abortion adoption abandon
And the government - and feminism - love it, support it, and can't get enough of it.
When a man doesn't want to raise a child, it's called "a crime".
deadbeat
child support
pay or jail
And the government - and feminism - love it, support it, and can't get enough of it."

PHEVs consume 3 times more fuel if not charged - "hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars are normally heavier than their petrol counterparts due to the extra weight incurred by having an electric motor and battery pack. This is on top of the fact that PHEV owners sometimes neglect to charge their vehicles, thus losing the benefits of electrification... A study conducted by The Miles Consultancy, a fuel management firm, found that vehicles produced by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, and Volkswagen often returned fuel consumption figures that are up to three times higher than advertised. In fact, 187 regularly-charged BMW PHEVs were audited, and the average fuel economy is only 42 mpg (6.7 litres per 100 km) versus the claimed figure of 137 mpg (2.1 litres per 100 km).PHEV researches in Norway also did a study in 2018, which found that the average yearly estimated CO2 emission was about 2.5 times higher in the real world, when compared to the value stated in the type approval test, the Telegraph reported.Plug-in hybrid sales have proven to be popular in recent years, and the numbers will continue to grow. In Europe, for example, analysts predict that sales of PHEVs will increase from 220,000 to 590,000 units this year, partly driven by tax breaks offered to company car owners. In other parts of the world, “greener” cars also benefit from tax breaks as incentives to spur motorist interest.Experts such as Paul Hollick, the managing director of The Miles Consultancy, questioned whether some plug-in hybrid cars ever get to see a charging cable"

Too woke? Nope – Doctor Who is more offensive than ever - "Doctor Who returned last week with another first: Sacha Dhawan’s casting as the first person of colour to play the Doctor’s arch nemesis, the Master. The decision was broadly met with praise, but in darker corners of the internet the argument that the show has become too politically correct rages on... a different group of fans are railing against Doctor Who. Far from being too liberal, many believe this iteration has actually lost the morality that made the character so unique, and become problematic on social issues – engaging with them to an often offensive degree... the Doctor’s companion Graham, played by Bradley Walsh, told the Doctor he wanted to kill Tim Shaw, a genocidal alien who had murdered his wife. The Doctor argued that even if done in self-defence, this would make Graham “the same” as Tim Shaw. It was an especially uncomfortable message at a time when those fighting fascism are often condemned as being as bad as the fascists themselves, for example in Donald Trump’s remarks after Charlottesville, when he equated white nationalists with those speaking out against them."
Nothing will ever be enough for the grievance industry, since the moment they stop complaining is the moment when they lose relevance and power

Doctor Who Season 12 Explained: 1 Million Of The Doctor's Fans Just Abandoned The Show - "Recently ratings for the sci-fi series have plummeted, amidst ongoing complaints about increasingly weak writing and accusations that Doctor Who season 12 is now being used to push a political agenda. Despite good reviews from critics, the twelfth season’s ratings have nosedived from week to week... more than 1/4 of Doctor Who’s viewers have abandoned the show since the current season premiered just a few weeks previously on January 1st. Doctor Who season 12 has been the least watched season of the Doctor Who’s entire run... While Doctor Who season 12 has done alright with critics, it’s being absolutely destroyed by audiences.  Or at least it would be if they were allowed to post negative reviews of it. But some viewers are claiming the review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes is deleting their reviews... If Rotten Tomatoes really is deleting user reviews in an effort to protect the show, it isn’t working. Doctor Who season 12 currently has a 13% positive rating, the lowest user rating any season of Doctor Who has ever had, by a large margin. And as of this writing, it’s continuing to drop lower and lower as more new, negative reviews are being posted. If they are deleting old negative reviews, then they aren’t being replaced by positive ones, just more negatives."

Hand Dryers Spread Bacteria So Dramatically That Scientists Think They're A Public Health Threat - "In lab-based experiments recreating a public washroom, jet-air dryers introduced 27 times more bacteria into the air than good-old-fashioned paper towels, and these microbes circulated for 15 minutes afterward."
Save trees, kill humans. Then again, this fits the professed preferences of many who claim to care about the environment (the kind who keep excitedly gushing about human extinction)

Japanese otaku finds way to get the smell of a high school girl in his car passenger seat - "While the exact smell of the air freshener remains a bit of a mystery, some Twitter users mentioned it had a fruity fragrance similar to a young girl’s perfume... That’s a much better fragrance than many had expected, given that Japan has fried chicken that tastes like girls’ feet and girls’ sweat."