Links - 25th July 2020 (2)

Who gets tattoos? Demographic and behavioral correlates of ever being tattooed in a representative sample of men and women. - "A total of 14.5% of respondents had ever been tattooed, and 2.4% of respondents had been tattooed in the year before the interview. Men were more likely than women to report a tattoo, but the highest rates of tattooing were found among women in their 20s (29.4%). Men and women ages 20-39 were most likely to have been tattooed, as were men with lower levels of education, tradesmen, and women with live-out partners. Tattooing was also associated with risk-taking behaviours, including smoking, greater numbers of lifetime sexual partners, cannabis use (women only) and ever having depression (men only).
Tattooing has increased in popularity during the past decade. Yet tattoos still appear to be a marker for risk-taking behavior in adults."

Kazakh bodybuilder, actor calls off wedding to sex doll due to Covid-19 pandemic (VIDEO) - "A Kazakh bodybuilder and actor who was set to tie the knot with his life-like sex doll this month had to postpone his plans due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.Yuri Tolochko took to Instagram to inform his fans that he has decided to postpone his wedding to his silicon companion, Margo, due to self-isolation.He also assured that he plans to make the event bigger and better once the health crisis is over... When the pair is officially united, Yuri hopes to purchase a family home to live with his doll.It was reported that he is currently searching for properties in the Kazakh cities of Almaty or Nur-Sultan."

Coronavirus: German zoo may have to feed animals to each other - "the lockdown was costing a typical German zoo about €500,000 weekly in lost turnover... Some zookeepers have also warned that the crisis has an emotional cost for certain animals, because they miss the attention they would usually get from the public.Ms Hachmeister at Berlin Zoo said "the apes especially love to watch people".She said seals and parrots were also fascinated by their visitors, and "for them now it's really pretty boring".Last week Moscow Zoo also said its two giant pandas were "missing something now"."They've started to much more actively approach every single person who walks past their enclosure," it said."

Canadian town drops 'land of rape and honey' slogan - "The western Canadian town of Tisdale is no longer the “land of rape and honey,” it announced as it dropped a slogan that had been a constant source of complaints. The slogan referred to rapeseed, also known as canola, a major product of Tisdale and the surrounding region along with honey.But over the years many who misinterpreted the meaning have complained, said Sean Wallace, the town’s economic development director."

PALESTINE UNITED | Morning Star - "wreaths were laid at the graves of those who died on that day and on the graves of others killed by Mossad agents in Paris in 1991"
Amusingly, someone who was trying to defend Corbyn claimed that his participation in the wreath laying ceremony for Black September was 'clutching at straws' and like claiming he supported the IRA because he "passed by one of their murals in Belfast once". I quoted Corbyn in his own words and this got dismissed as "the worst tankie rag going" since it was Morning Star. So I observed that since Jeremy Corbyn wrote that article for them, he was scum, and got a laugh in return

Fmr. Sheriff Mark Curran (R-IL) on Twitter - Nancy Pelosi: "To say “People will die, so be it” instead of a science & testing-based path to reopening the economy is deeply frivolous & wrong. Every life is precious. Each death is heartbreaking — for a family & for a community. This is something we are all in together."
"Okay. Now do abortion."

The rightwing groups behind wave of protests against Covid-19 restrictions
If Nazis support habeas corpus, it means we need to suspend it
I like how Koch money is "dark money" but if you question what Soros does you're anti-Semitic and/or a conspiracy theorist

From Your Mouth to Your Screen, Transcribing Takes the Next Step - The New York Times - "data compression had made it possible to capture the speech conversation of a person’s entire life in just two terabytes of information — compact enough to fit on storage devices that cost less than $50... Speech transcription potentially pushes traditional privacy concerns into new arenas both at home and work, he said.It will almost certainly pose new privacy questions for corporations. Mr. Liang said that companies were interested in capturing all of the conversations of employees, including what goes on around the water cooler... “Humans and machines will work together for the foreseeable future”... In the medical field, automated transcription is being used to change the way doctors take notes. In recent years, electronic health record systems became part of a routine office visit, and doctors were criticized for looking at their screens and typing rather than maintaining eye contact with patients. Now, several health start-ups are offering transcription services that capture text and potentially video in the examining room and use a remote human transcriber, or scribe, to edit the automated text and produce a “structured” set of notes from the patient visit... Speech scientists emphasize that while the automated transcription systems are significantly improved, they are still far from perfect. While 95 percent accuracy may be obtained by automated transcription, it is possible only under the best circumstances. An accent, a poorly positioned microphone or background noise can cause accuracy to fall.The hope for the future is the emergence of another speech technology known as natural language processing, which tries to capture the meaning of words and sentences that will increase computer accuracy to human levels. But for now, natural language processing still remains one of the most challenging frontiers in the field of artificial intelligence."

A post by Sad Cina Memes for Malaysian Teens on April 17 - "How to enjoy Singapore food: *put in trash*"
Malaysians being insecure again as usual

Emil Gustoff - "These are great. Wiki How articles with new captions. 🤣"

Why are US houses made of wood? - "US builders keep building houses with wood because it is the most inexpensive material, and they also lack the manpower and knowledge to take up this kind of work. Also, the labor costs are extremely high for using brick and concrete which will increase the prices of these already expensive US houses. Also the concept of tearing down a house every few decades and re-building them comes very naturally to people in US
Is this a price we are willing to pay to protect ourselves from a natural calamity?"

Understanding the Elevated Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence in Interracial Relationships - Douglas A. Brownridge, Tamara Taillieu, Ko Ling Chan, Caroline Piotrowski, - "Results showed that individuals in interracial relationships faced elevated odds of IPV victimization relative to monoracial relationships in the 5-year reporting period prior to the study (odds ratio [OR] = 2.37; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.40, 4.02]; p < .001). This was similar to what Brownridge found in the 2009 GSS data, indicating that the elevated risk of IPV in interracial relationships had remained stable in Canada over a 10-year reporting period. Risk factors from three levels of an ecological model were explored, and logistic multiple regression analyses showed that characteristics of the partner (young age, drug use, and jealous behavior) fully accounted for the significantly elevated odds of IPV victimization in interracial unions. Although the leading speculation for this relationship implicates stressors that are unique to these relationships, the current study suggested that this phenomenon is mostly due to characteristics of individuals with whom those in interracial relationships are more likely to be coupled." What if there is endogeneity?

The Forgotten Uses of 8 Everyday Objects - "1. The Tiny “Extra” Pocket on Your Jeans
2. The Hole in Your Pot Handle
3. The Loop on the Back of Your Dress Shirts
4. The Glove Compartment
5. The Holes in Your Box of Aluminum Foil
6. The Drawer Under Your Oven
7. The Additional Holes on Your Converse Sneakers
8. The Loop on the Side of Your Carpenter Jeans"

Americans willing to pay to fight climate change (but only a little) - "Seventy-one percent want the federal government to do something about global warming... If the cost of fighting climate change is only an additional $1 a month, 57 percent of Americans said they would support that. But as that fee goes up, support for it plummets. At $10 a month, 39 percent were in favor and 61 percent opposed. At $20 a month, the public is more than 2-to-1 against it. And only 1-in-5 would support $50 a month."
Talk is cheap

The Truth About Hydration: Should You Drink Eight Glasses of Water a Day? - "“Nowadays this is not considered sensible,” says Stuart Galloway, an associate professor in physiology, exercise and nutrition at the University of Stirling. “As humans, we have this homeostatic system, so when we need water, we feel thirsty.” Drinking when you are thirsty, he says, maintains your body’s water level within about 1-2% of its ideal state. “For most people, this is absolutely fine. Even for athletes, a loss of around 1% is considered to have negligible impact upon performance. So, although thirst may not kick in until you have lost some body water, this is not necessarily a bad thing.” As we get older, our sense of thirst can get fuzzier and that is when dehydration can become a threat. It is a similar story for children, too. So perhaps the advice to drink water before you feel thirsty was originally aimed at parents and the elderly but now healthy adults are putting away gallons of water in a quest to be their best selves.  There is a dearth of facts when it comes to hydration. Pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in researching the benefits of a free resource and dehydration isn’t a pressing public health issue requiring government funding. This leaves a profitable grey area for the drinks industry to exploit.Water is, it would have us believe, a purifying fast-track to glowing skin, bright eyes and bags of energy. Galloway says detoxing with water is “a load of rubbish. Your kidneys do a very good job of sorting out what you need to retain and what you need to get rid of.”... drinking too much water can kill. Water intoxication occurs when the amount of electrolytes in the body becomes imbalanced by excessive water intake, disrupting brain function. Dehydration is said to be the most common cause of headaches and in 2015, Burls wrote a critical appraisal of the evidence. She concluded: “Chronic mild dehydration may trigger headaches. Increased water intake could help. A small trial shows modest benefit; however, a larger, methodologically sound, randomised controlled trial is needed to confirm efficacy.”... Galloway tested the hydrating potential of a range of drinks and found a litre of beer was no less hydrating than a litre of water. Similarly, a litre of instant coffee, containing 212mg of caffeine, was as hydrating as water. Milk was even more hydrating, and effective as a hydration solution for people with diarrhoea"

How to Persuade People to Change Their Behavior - "if telling people to do doesn’t work, what does? Rather than trying to persuade people, getting them to persuade themselves is often more effective.  Here are three ways to do that.
1. Highlight a gap...
Health officials in Thailand used this approach in anti-smoking campaign.  Rather than telling smokers their habit was bad, they had little kids come up to smokers on the street and ask them for a light.  Not surprisingly, the smokers told the kids no. Many even lectured the little boys and girls about the dangers of smoking. But before turning to walk away, the kids handed the smokers a note that said, “You worry about me … But why not about yourself?” At the bottom was a toll-free number smokers could call to get help.  Calls to that line jumped more than 60% during the campaign.
2. Pose questions...
“Do you think junk food is good for you?” If someone’s answer is no, they’re now in a tough spot. By encouraging them to articulate their opinion, they’ve had to put a stake in the ground — to admit that those things aren’t good for them. And once they’ve done that, it becomes harder to keep justify the bad behaviors...
3. Ask for less."