Links - 21st May 2020 (2)

Foreign criminals avoiding deportation because of human rights laws have TRIPLED since 2016 - "Cases have nearly tripled since political pressure over abuse of human rights helped force successful claims down to a record low.It comes amid concern about legal challenges to block deportations after dozens of Jamaican criminals had to be removed from a Home Office charter flight earlier this week... Tory MP Tim Loughton, a former member of the Commons’ home affairs select committee, said: ‘Most law-abiding people will be appalled by the arbitrary rush to claim the human rights defence by serious criminals.‘The human rights of victims who have been raped, murdered and violently assaulted are so easily disregarded by many of those offenders and even by the criminal justice system.’He added: ‘We need to have a level playing field. Human rights are sometimes a justified legal mitigation but only in really deserving cases and it needs to be matched against the human rights of victims.‘Human rights have too often become a one-way street for the perpetrator rather than recognising the victim is entitled to exactly the same protections.’"

Michael Pollan On Caffeine Addiction's Upside — And Ugly History - "Caffeine is the enemy of good sleep. ... It's a problem in ways we don't perceive, because caffeine undermines the quality — not necessarily the quantity, but the quality — of our sleep... this is very important to our health to have sufficient amounts of deep sleep. As we get older, we have less of it naturally. And coffee or tea cuts into that, even if you stop drinking it, say, at noon, because caffeine has a very long half-life and quarter-life. So, for example, the caffeine you ingest at noon — a quarter of it is still circulating in your bloodstream at midnight. It's still around. And this is the subtle and, perhaps, insidious effect it's having on you... One of the things you learn when you take a caffeine fast, as I did, is that the experience of caffeine is very different to a caffeine virgin or a restored caffeine virgin, as I was, than it is to someone who's addicted. Those people [who are addicted] are getting a little bit of lift, but mostly what they're getting is the relief from these symptoms that are about to come down on them. And that feels pretty good. You're back to baseline. But when you're off for a few months, man, it's something else. It's a very powerful drug experience. And I was not prepared for it at all."

About the Weird Codes that Appear When You Dictate Something on Facebook from Your iPhone - "In the past few weeks some people who have upgraded to iOS 13.1.2 have noticed that when they post something to Facebook which was dictated on their iPhone, these weird little codes or artifacts show up at the beginning or end, or even in the middle, of their comment or Facebook post...
1. The box with the OBJ in it only shows up on Facebook in posts or comments that have been dictated from an iPhone, and
2. Only when that iPhone is running iOS version 13.1.2, and
3. The box is visible to readers of the post or comment if those readers are using a browser, or are on an Android device, and
4. The box with the OBJ in it is not visible to iPhone users using the Facebook app, so that user may have no idea that others are seeing that weird code in the user’s Facebook posts and comments"

Malaysia’s Looming Food and Water Catastrophe - "Malaysia is heading towards a crisis in food toxicity, with, for instance, occupational poisoning and disease among farmworkers averaging more than 2,500 cases per year, according to research by the Journal of Plant Pathology. What that means is that the food Malaysians eat on a daily basis is under threat from a contaminated water system, poor soils, poor agricultural practices and much more."

Egypt ‘Building 1.2 Mile Wall on Border With Gaza’ - "The construction of the border, which armed forces reportedly did not announce, forms part of a plan to boost border security, prevent extremists and terrorists from entering the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip, and shut down the remaining Palestinian cross-border tunnels... News of the new wall comes after the Egyptian military announced on Feb. 3 that they had found “south of the Rafah security camps’ yard a nearly 3-kilometer-long [underground] tunnel coming from the Gaza Strip to the heart of the [Egyptian border city of] Rafah.” Egyptian security sources reportedly said that the tunnel is an underground conduit for the infiltration of terrorists from the Gaza Strip, planting roadside bombs on the Egyptian side, pushing supporters of the ISIS terrorist group to Sinai, and for transferring weapons and explosives. “Ammunition and explosives were seized in the tunnel”"
It's only bad when Israel does it

S’pore’s first commando batch trained to infiltrate other local army divisions - "Clarence and his men crossed the swamp, and then managed to slip unnoticed past the brigade headquarter’s security.Then came time for the assault on the building itself. Upon storming the office, instead of simply yelling out “we’ve got you”, Clarence and his men threw mud bombs all over the place, using mud they had picked up in the swamp.On the walls, on the desks, on the paperwork, and at the people themselves. Naturally, the brigade commander was not very happy. But the commandos had done their job. And then there was the commanding officer of 3 SIB who was so proud of the below-ground headquarters that he had ordered dug out using excavators at the beginning of another exercise.The temptation to undermine his efforts was too great for Clarence’s chaps. During that exercise, the “enemy” officers and NCOs operating in that subterranean bunker were seen running out onto open ground to escape the smoke from the smoke-grenades thrown inside by the raiding commandos."

Science: The surprising reason why lazy people are smarter than average - "people who are less physically active tend to be brainier than physically active people... Many obsessively critical thinkers (a.k.a. people with a high “need for cognition”) are concerned with reducing wasteful actions, and instead prefer to use efficient processes. So perhaps hiring a lazy person isn’t the worst idea after all. They’re likely to be strategic thinkers who can come up with smart shortcuts, ways to eliminate problems, save time and contribute new, innovative ideas to the company."

This Veteran Was Sent to Prison for Digging Ponds on His Property - "Robertson, whose business supplied water trucks to Montana firefighters, dug a series of small ponds close to his home in 2013 and 2014. The site was a wooded area near a channel, a foot wide and a foot deep, with two to three garden hoses’ worth of flow... The U.S. government prosecuted Robertson for digging in proximity to “navigable waters” without a permit, a violation of the Clean Water Act administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers... The Navy veteran argued that he didn’t violate the Clean Water Act becausedigging the ponds did not discharge any soil to navigable waters, since the trickle in the channel didn’t constitute navigable waters.The largest navigable body of water anywhere near the Robertson home is more than 40 miles away, Francois said.Because Robertson lived in a wooded area that is “increasingly fire prone,” he was “concerned about the safety and vulnerability of his property,” Francois said. He built the ponds “with a view toward being well-prepared should a fire strike.”... Another case Francois cited concerns a proposed road in Marquette County, Michigan. The project, known as CR-595, would shorten the travel time between a nickel mine and a refinery 22 miles away.The only route now available to the mine, called Eagle Mine, is three times as long, Francois said. The nickel mine, currently the only one in the U.S., is expected to bring about $4 billion in economic activity to the county, according to Pacific Legal Foundation.The Marquette County Road Commission’s CR-595 proposal called for  a direct road from the mine to a refinery.“The new route would bypass the city of Marquette altogether, eliminate nearly 30 miles of travel per trip, a million and a half miles annually, as well as save 500,000 gallons of fuel per year,” Francois said.Since the proposed route goes through wetlands, however, the road commission sought a wetlands permit under the Clean Water Act. The state approved the permit, but the EPA rejected it.“The final version [of the commission’s planned route] proposed to protect 63 acres of wetlands for every acre the road project would disturb,” Francois said. “But the EPA continued to object to CR 595 because in their view the commission still had not provided adequate plans to minimize impacts, and that its 63-1 mitigation ratio was not a comprehensive mitigation plan that would sufficiently compensate for unavoidable impacts.”... In 2015, the Obama administration implemented its Clean Water Rule, widely known as the Waters of the United States rule or WOTUS rule, which expanded the regulatory reach of the EPA and the Corps over bodies of water throughout the country.The Trump administration has taken steps to withdraw the Obama administration’s rule and replace it with a new one that limits the regulatory reach of federal agencies."
Of course, to liberals all environmental regulation is good (see: all the wailing and gnashing of teeth whenever Trump talks about reviewing it)

Cows Get Moooody During Puberty, Too - "“[T]here appeared to be a change in personality,” von Keyserlingk says. “This means that dairy cattle show consistent personality as calves and adults, but with a period of inconsistency around puberty.” The forces driving these personality fluctuations are likely the same bodily changes that make human teenagers a handful for their parents. “Major physiological changes occur during sexual maturation, which may explain the inconsistency in individual behaviours and personality traits from the juvenile period to the adult period in our study,” the researchers note. “Steroid hormones around puberty give rise to reproduction-related behaviours typically involving increased risk-taking, exploratory and agonistic behaviours.”"

A man robbed a bank on a first date and forced his date to be his getaway driver - "Christopher Castillo, the unnamed woman's would-be Robin Hood, plead guilty this week to armed robbery and three counts of assault and battery on a police officer — all committed on their first date on December 5, 2016"

You Should Be Eating More Canned Fish - "For nearly two centuries, canned seafood has been viewed as a delicacy in Southern Europe. Rather than processing low-quality fish parts (i.e., some of the canned tuna you’d find in a U.S. grocery store), artisan producers use their highest-quality yields, carefully clean the product, cook them to perfection, and preserve them at peak freshness. In these regions, conservas are often seen as a gourmet preparation that is of even higher quality than fresh seafood. It’s similar to cured meats like jamón ibérico; because of the preservation process, the end product is very different and much more valuable than fresh Iberian pork. Canned seafood is oceanic charcuterie"

Italian towns in Molise will pay you $27,000 to move in - "When Italian villages began selling houses for $1, it seemed too good to be true. But the latest offer from Italy is enough to make even that deal look like a ripoff.The region of Molise, a wild, beautiful but overlooked area that lies east of Rome, has announced it will pay people more than $27,000 to settle in one of 106 underpopulated villages in an effort to prevent their communities from dying.Anyone who takes up the offer will receive 700 euros a month (about $770) for up to three years to help them settle in an area known for its green pastures, olive groves and snowy mountaintops. There's a catch -- they'll also have to commit to starting a small business, in order to contribute to the local economy."

How to Improve a Can of Tuna? Set It on Fire - Heated - "Burning tuna is fairly simple, and quite honestly, life-changing. This quick and easy process takes the preserved fish from a one-note, dry, chalky mouthful to a deep, smoky, juicy party in your mouth."

An Ode to Being Old - "among the fastest growing tech companies, the average founder was 45-years-old at the time of founding. The researchers also found that a 50-year-old is twice as likely to have a massive success—defined as a company that performs in the top 0.1 percent—than a 30-year-old. “These findings strongly reject common hypotheses that emphasize youth as a key trait of successful entrepreneurs”... From a physiological sense, research shows that athletes tend to peak in their early to mid twenties. Yet many recent champions are much older... with age comes wisdom... Maybe the best way to conceptualize age and athletic performance is to imagine two curves: one for physiological fitness, which peaks relatively young and then slowly declines; and another for wisdom, which starts off low and gradually rises over time. When these two curves intersect, you’re primed for your best performance... It’s quite common for runners and triathletes to go up in distance as they age. This makes sense. A marathon requires a lot more wisdom than a 5K and an Ironman requires a lot more wisdom than a sprint triathlon. A 2013 study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that the median age for a first-time ultra runner is 37 and the median age of all ultramarathon finishers is 43—seven years older than the median age of all marathon finishers in the same year."