Links - 1st June 2020 (2)

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Fantasy, fiction and food - "‘There's a thing that we talk about in science fiction and fantasy about providing the familiar and the strange. Sweets are a familiar coveted thing to every child. And so taking that familiar activity and then adding in this touch of the strange. That the liver and spinach and tripe Jelly Bean, the frog that can move and jump. That gives this idea that it's like, well, this is school but it really is Magic School.’
‘Giving us something we're familiar with - chocolate - and giving it a twist means we can all relate to and understand this wizard world. The sweets act as a bridge from our reality to Harry Potter's, and it's this that helps us suspend our disbelief’...
‘My dad would say that you are what you eat. And you learn a lot about people from their table manner. And in the culture where I come from the African culture, food becomes important as a unifying factor, somebody visits you, the first thing you do is offer them food or drink. And in a culture also where there are some taboo subjects like sex and very publicly show of affection, you find food becomes what I would call a subtle way of showing intimacy. So if two people are going out and they eat, and the way in, the manner of the eating will tell you that they become intimate without actually showing kissing, you know, culturally, that's become part of how we tell stories.’"

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Why is wheat making people sick? - "‘If you don't have a problem with gluten or wheat, you probably shouldn't be avoiding it.’
‘If you have to go gluten free because of medical necessity, you don't have an alternative. So you got to do that. But while you do that, of course, you pay some price. You know, the major things that you deprive your body from are fibres, that is a big issue. I believe that some of the major problems that we face with the westernization lifestyle is because we eat less fiber we're supposed to, and fibres are extremely important for healthy microbiome. And then minerals and vitamins and so on and so forth. So, definitely you pay a price’...
'If you start to use and indulge on, you know, gluten free counterparts of bread, pasta, cookies and so on and so forth. You know, not only you break the bank because they are definitely more expensive, but sometimes it to make them palatable, they are enrich in fat and sugar, and so hypercaloric, they are not the healthiest choice that you can make in terms of food.'"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Wednesday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "[On rail renationalisation in the UK] The operator of last resort has basically told the government I don't think we can wave a magic wand, things will get better. The problems remain exactly the same. We can't make the new trains come more quickly. We can't run the services we're being asked to run unless you do some work on the tracks. And we can't negotiate with the staff any better than the team's negotiating now. And in fact, I've just had a message literally pop up while we've been talking, somebody’s threatening to jump under a train in the middle of Manchester. And all the trains have stopped and network rail have said, trespass and suicide are the biggest single cause of delay to Northern services. There's not a lot that Northern can do about that either"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Tuesday's business with Dharshini David - "Demand for alternative milks may be on the rise, but sales of cow's milk has been declining for years. Milk consumption in the US has plummeted 40% since 1970, and American farmers have been bearing the brunt of the decline. In the last decade 20,000 US dairy farms have closed"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Baffled in Brittany - "Raman [sp?] was kicked so hard his spleen ruptured. An investigation into his death is now underway. But the beating itself does not surprise those who are familiar with Russian prisons. The prison service officially reported 2700 deaths in custody last year. The assumption is that many were from natural causes. But accusations of beatings and torture are commonplace. A notorious video emerged in 2018 of guards laying into an inmate in the prison in Jaroslava while he was pinned face down to a table. A year later, several inmates in the prison in Karelia near the Finnish border talked of beatings and abuse, which resulted at least one death. And the prison's previous director was jailed last year for torturing inmates. This and many other stories often only become public months or years later, once the witnesses have been released. If there's a really big scandal, some prison officers may end up in court. Authorities say lessons have been learned, but similar incidents keep happening. The incident in Jaroslava was unusual because there was footage from cameras which are supposed to be worn by guards on duty. Most of the times though something happens to the cameras, they just stop working"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Jacob Zuma's Sick Note - "‘It was not the most convincing sick note. Better than a schoolboy’s attempt to copy his mother's handwriting, but not that much better. For a start, it was on entirely the wrong form. The date had been crossed out, it didn't bother to mention any illness or diagnosis. And there was no way of telling if the doctor who'd signed it was actually a real doctor. In other words, there was something shoddy, something deliberately contemptuous about it. Welcome back to The Jacob Zuma show. A shoddy, contemptuous South African soap opera that will, it's becoming soul bruisingly clear, never, ever end... The judge like so many judges before her rejected Mr. Zuma’s latest work of courtroom theatre with thinly disguised contempt. And this time she went a little further. If Mr. Zuma didn't show up for his next appearance, his actual trial in May, he would be arrested. Within hours Mr. Zuma, presumably from his sick bed, was tweeting a photograph of himself brandishing some sort of rifle, not the subtlest message to South Africa's judiciary’"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Putin Forever - "Erin did reveal that she doesn't feel comfortable telling people she voted for Trump. Because people call you names and say you're racist. And that's one of the starkest things about America at the moment. The depth of political division makes calm, civilized discourse, difficult, if not impossible. Elle, a teaching assistant who comes to the diner every week for the same order: eggs, bacon and hash browns, explain the new rules of conversation in this polarized climate. You keep your opinions to yourself. That way you don't have an argument with anyone. It's not that I’ve become apolitical she says, I just need a break from it all. All the shouting is emotionally exhausting. And then she adds despairingly, it's become what defines us as a nation, and we are so much more than that. Tony's menu offers something called the Trump Tower. The sandwich predates the presidency, and Leslie tells me customers joke about how its ingredients - a combination of lunchmeat, cheese and coleslaw - also include Russian dressing"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, From Our Home Correspondent 16/02/2020 - "His other suggested cause of our burgeoning rat population did take me by surprise. It's about diet. Ours and their’s. In particular, the rise of the humble tomato. In 2017 more tomatoes were produced globally than any other fruit. The seeds of a tomato are among the most nutritious things you can eat. Rats love them. And because our digestive system doesn't process them properly there's plenty in human sewage to keep them fed. I think since Murray’s visit, I have been buying fewer tomatoes. I love a salad. But I don't much fancy sharing it with a rat."

Mitt Romney drinks chocolate milk during the impeachment trial - "Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, was caught drinking chocolate milk out of a bottle on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon — a breach of the Senate impeachment trial rules.Under those rules, senators are only allowed to drink milk and water, and the beverages must be consumed out of a glass.A Senate aide informed Romney that he was in violation of the rules and the senator left the chamber with the bottle, returning with the chocolate milk in a glass... Romney has been known to enjoy chocolate milk. His wife, Ann Romney, revealed that the drink is his "guilty pleasure" in a 2012 interview, and the then-presidential candidate was photographed sipping chocolate milk on his campaign bus. Normal Senate rules prohibit food and drink on the floor, but the body has imposed additional rules for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial, including barring iPhones and prohibiting talking or standing. Water is served to lawmakers by pages, who give them the option of still or sparkling. Milk is allowed via a precedent that dates back to 1966. Riddick's Senate Procedure states: "Senate rules do not prohibit a Senator from sipping milk during his speech." Though food is not allowed on the Senate floor, an exception has long been granted to the so-called "candy desk."At least four other senators — Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton, North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, and Texas Republican Ted Cruz — have been spotted drinking milk in the Senate chamber during the impeachment trial"

Utah woman pleads guilty to lewdness for being topless in her own home - "A Utah woman who faced charges for being topless in her own home in front of her stepchildren has taken a plea bargain.The stakes were just too high for Tilli Buchanan to take the criminal case to trial... Richards called the ending of the case “ludicrous,” noting that his client pleaded guilty to essentially being topless in front of her husband... West Valley City prosecutors say the situation wasn’t quite that innocent. They accuse Buchanan of stripping down in front of her stepchildren after making a statement about how if her husband could take off his shirt, then a woman should be able to as well.They further allege that Buchanan, while “under the influence of alcohol,” had told her husband that she would only put her shirt back on if he showed her his penis.The police became involved in the situation after the Division of Child and Family Services began an investigation involving the children that was unrelated to Buchanan. Though it was not the focus of the initial investigation, prosecutors say in court papers, the children’s mother reported the incident to authorities."

Moscow police seize homemade 'Batmobile' - "The "Batmobile" owner faces fines for numerous violations before being allowed to get his car back.Police said on Tuesday that the vehicle was assembled illegally at a private workshop, is not registered as a vehicle and does not adhere to road safety standards, as well as being supersized for a standard car at six metres long.The car was built in the United States, then customised in Russia at an auto tuning workshop called Fast Boom Pro, whose logo is visible in a police video, Russian auto sites reported. The workshop turned it into the spitting image of the vehicle featured in the 2016 film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice".The replica car was reportedly put on sale in Russia in October last year for 55 million rubles (US$842,100).It was described as armoured and equipped with a night-vision camera, a thermal imaging camera, a laser-aiming device and a model gun that imitates the sound of shooting."

Zara/Vikky RW Storm (Vee/Vem/Veyr) ️🤠🥀 on Twitter - "When you think of it, units of measurement are pernicious and harmful bullshit which never should've been invented and any proper communist movement should seek to abolish them.
Like, the act of measurement itself is an inherent problem. It is the transformation of the subjective into the objective, and that's a path with horrible results we should avoid.
Lengths of time, temperature, distance, volume, etc, all of these are subjective experiences, not objective things which can be reduced to objective measures."

checkyourfact.com/2019/02/15/fact-check-wealth-billionaires-government-8-months/ - "“If we confiscated 100% of the wealth of every billionaire in America, we’d have enough money to run the federal government for less than 8 months……Our problem isn’t how much billionaires have… It’s how much politicians spend,” the Feb. 3 meme read.
Verdict: False
The claim was based on figures produced by Forbes in 2016, when U.S. billionaires were estimated to have a combined net worth of $2.4 trillion. It cost $2.6 trillion to run the government for eight months in fiscal year 2016.The estimated number and collective net worth of billionaires has increased since 2016, and their combined wealth could now run the government for nine or so months. Although Turning Point isn’t far off the mark, the figure is no longer “less than” eight months."
"Fact checkers"

China Isn't Sending Giant Duck Army to Fight Pakistan's Locusts - "“There are not enough ducks, and they cannot eat enough desert locusts to have a significant impact,” Cressman said.And not to further ruin your dreams of an epic battle royale in the desert, but ducks don’t even normally chow down on these bugs. Ducks are aquatic, and they typically eat wetland bugs they scoop up with their beaks from the water, Michael Eichholz, an associate professor of zoology at Southern Illinois University who specializes in waterfowl ecology, told Earther. This not only keeps ducks fed; it keeps them hydrated.And that’s why they generally hang out in ponds, lakes, and rivers, not in the freaking desert where the locust swarms have been congregating. When I asked Eichholz if ducks could hypothetically feast on locusts if they were dropped in the middle of a swarm, he laughed at first"