Links - 31st July 2020 (1)

Bill Gates' Q&A with Chris Anderson: Video unveiled - "the key thing you can do to reduce population growth is actually improve health... what parents are doing is they’re trying to have two kids survive to adulthood to take care of them. And so, the more disease burden there is, the more kids they have to have to have that high probability"

Bill Gates Answers Most Frequently Asked Questions - "Q. What kind of role did fate or luck play in your success?
A. I get a lot of questions about my success, so I'll answer several and then reflect on the importance of mistakes, the flip side of success. Luck played an immense role. Some of it came after I entered the business world, but my lucky streak started much earlier than that. I was fortunate to have family and teachers who encouraged me. Children often thrive when they get that kind of attention. I was incredibly lucky to become boyhood friends with Paul Allen, whose insights proved crucial to the success of the company we founded together. Without Paul, there would have been no Microsoft. Our timing in setting up the first software company aimed at personal computers was essential to our success. The timing wasn't entirely luck, but without great luck it couldn't have happened...
Q. What do you think is more important to your success, raw intelligence or hard work?
A. Hard work, without a doubt... I don't mean to discount intelligence. I value it highly, and it is essential to many kinds of success. But even when intelligence appears to be the reason for a success, hard work probably had a lot to do with it, too...
Q. Do you regret not finishing college?
A. I quit college to start Microsoft, and I don't regret that. But I enjoyed college a lot, and I wish there had been time for me to finish.When you hear success stories about people who quit college, it may be tempting to believe that education doesn't matter for the entrepreneurially minded. But unless a person has an idea that's very time-critical, and is concerned that he or she might never have as good an idea ever again, it's probably better to finish. For one thing, it is unusual for a person to be taken seriously in business when he or she is very young. It is hard for a teenager to raise money and hire good people. More importantly, college is full of lessons. Besides coursework, there is valuable learning outside the classroom during the college years. Certainly having a degree can be critical for getting a desirable job later on, For example, even though Microsoft was founded by a couple of college dropouts, it's pretty unusual for us to hire somebody for a key position who is interrupting his or her educational career."
Of course, those who believe in the myth of meritocracy play down the role of luck. And those who believe in the myth of oppression play it up

Christian Life International Softball Shirt Design - Truth or Fiction? - "A search for “Christian Life International softball” suspiciously turned up nearly nothing but links to the image and its description, and we have so far found no evidence that anyone had made the slightest attempt to verify the claim before repeating it on blogs and across social media. We were also unable to find mention of a Christian Life International softball team on CLI’s official Instagram, Facebook or Twitter pages, and a search of their entire website returned no results for the word “softball” at all. If CLI had a softball team, it was a well-kept secret.In other words, one completely unsubstantiated claim on Imgur about an embarrassing Christian Life International softball shirt formed the basis of every iteration of the rumor on social media and blogs. We found no information indicating anyone had checked the story with anyone affiliated with CLI at all, nor any information indicating the church had a softball team. We contacted Christian Life International via phone and email, but have not yet received a response."
On "clit" with a cross as the t

Having Fun Is a Virtue, Not a Guilty Pleasure - "Imagine you had control of another person’s life, and could dictate their activity every hour of the day. Would you condemn them to spend 80 percent of their waking hours at a desk, repeating mind-numbingly boring tasks and depriving them of close relationships? Hopefully not—sentencing someone to such a miserable life would be immoral. And yet, far too many people subject themselves to just such a schedule, and view any break from this slog—an afternoon spent reading, hours at the cinema, or, heaven forbid, a two-week vacation—as a naughty deviation from duties... widespread workaholism in part reflects the misguided notion that having fun is somehow an indulgence, an act of absconding from proper respectable behavior, rather than embracement of life. Thousands of years ago, it was widely understood that enjoyment was a valuable pursuit. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Democritus, Aristippus, and Epicurus embraced the hedonistic theory that a good life involved pleasure... Indeed, Western society only began to shun pleasures, and to view work as virtuous, thanks to Christian ethics. Whereas the Greek philosopher Aristotle thought that work made you a worse person, Judeo-Christian philosophy holds that work is a means of imitating God’s act of creation, and so views work as divine. Millions of people who’ve abandoned theist practices still hold onto the religious belief that work is inherently virtuous... across the world, including plenty of highly prosperous nations, millions of people take six weeks of vacation a year and still manage to produce functioning newspapers, companies, and political systems. And working more than 55 hours a week is the fastest way to get diminishing returns on productivity. Truth is, unless you’re a doctor at an understaffed hospital, there’s rarely an urgent need to perpetually spend every waking hour at the workplace."

I had sex with my fiance’s dad when I was an escort girl and now I’m panicking - "He looked great for his age and had a great sense of style. I’d never felt attracted to an older man before.I had to sit with him through a boring dinner but afterwards he suggested we go back to his hotel.He offered me a wodge of cash so I agreed. The sex was actually very good. He knew what to do to make me feel good and bothered to take the trouble...
ONE in six UK adults has taken part in a threesome and it is one of readers’ most common fantasies.Can you safely involve a third party in your sex life?Would you prefer two women or two men?If it’s something you have never experienced, do you feel you’ve missed out?My leaflet, Thinking Of A Threesome, will help you decide."

Why do Chinese people seem to eat ‘everything’? - "There’s a joke about Cantonese people that my dad likes to tell. If it has four legs and it’s not a table, the Cantonese will eat it. If it flies and it’s not a plane, the Cantonese will eat it. And if it swims in the ocean and it’s not a submarine, well, Cantonese people will eat it.As a Chinese-Indonesian whose grandfather came from Guangdong Province, the birthplace of Cantonese cuisine, it wasn’t so much a joke as it was a point of pride. He came from a place of culinary diversity, and he wanted his children to have an equally diverse palate... My father told me, “You’re not Chinese because Chinese people eat everything.”...
The country is one of the most biodiverse in the world, containing nearly 10% of all plant species and 14% of all animal species...
In traditional Chinese medicine, there is no differentiation between food and medicine. In fact, there is a saying—药食同源 yaoshitongyuan—food and medicine are one and the same...
The Chinese government supported the domestication of wild animals.
Most Chinese people do not follow a religion and have no dietary restrictions."
Internalised racism!

‘Desperate’ for bubble tea: Some shops that remain open run out of pearls within hours of opening - "Within hours of opening on Wednesday morning (April 22), some bubble tea shops at hawker centres here had run out of pearls — the chewy tapioca balls synonymous with the beverage — as queues went into overdrive.Those who did not get their hands on a cup of bubble tea on Tuesday night were sussing out stalls that are still allowed to offer the drink.On Tuesday, the Government announced that bubble tea shops and other standalone food-and-beverage outlets that sell only drinks, packaged snacks, confectionery or desserts would have to shut until at least May 4. This is part of tougher circuit breaker measures to control the spread of Covid-19.Bubble tea shops at hawker centres, coffee shops and food courts may continue to operate... Urging the authorities to “bring bubble tea back”, she said: “(Potentially) six weeks with no bubble tea is quite sad. I feel that bubble tea provides comfort to everyone, especially during this period.”"

Why small home-based businesses in Singapore should not be shuttered - "small home-based businesses in Singapore that require the owner to leave the residential premises or engage third-party delivery services have to cease operations; collection of ordered goods is also strictly not allowed. A $1,000 penalty will be issued for owners and customers flouting the rules... Some owners have also decried the incongruence of banning them from using third-party delivery services, while said services are allowed to continue running and are being used day-by-day by other businesses either way. A local petition has been set-up on Change.org to petition against the Housing Development Board and this new decree. The page calls for home-based food and beverage businesses in Singapore to continue operations in adherence to food hygiene laws, social-distancing measures when arranging for delivery, and for pick-ups to be permitted the way restaurant takeaways are."
Previously, some people defended the ever-changing measures as not wanting to cause panic and getting people used to them slowly. I wonder what they then pivoted to

FiveStarsAndAMoon - "𝗪𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆? 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲. Don't want so many foreigners? Want things to be cheaper? Want Singapore to slow down and take it easy? Congratulations - it is all coming true, except that you will find out that you're not going to like it. We're not getting inflation, in fact prices are starting to deflate. This means prices of your investment assets, including your properties and stocks will all fall. Don't like foreigners? Well, moving ahead it is clear that fewer of them are coming in. Who knows how long border closures will continue for? This means some businesses are going to relocate back to their home countries. Don't like Singapore to be busy busy busy? Well, look forward to more time at home! Because the MAS has warned that Singapore will enter a recession starting 2020. Job losses will follow. A DBS Economist has forecasted 45,600 retrenchments happening this year. The whole of Singapore is going to find out rather rudely, what "economy" truly means. It is not about the rich and wealthy. It was never about minister's salary. It was never about "looking good"... It is early yet and this is going to be one long economic winter."
The Communists will triumphantly claim that the worldwide recession that comes from shutting the worldwide economy shows that capitalism has failed

Your COVID-19 Internet problems might be COVID-19 Wi-Fi problems - "If your roommate's laptop is sending an email, you can't get the next packet of your Netflix stream until her laptop's done talking—and, similarly, her laptop couldn't begin to send the email until it spotted a break in between your downloading Netflix packets... If one roommate is watching a 4K show on Netflix, that show will eat up—on average—about 25Mbps. In a house with a 100Mbps cable Internet connection, that doesn't seem so bad.But the same situation can start looking a lot more grim inside the house or apartment itself, when looking at the Wi-Fi. If the router and the streaming device are in the same room, and they're connected on 5GHz, that 25Mbps stream is probably only consuming 15 percent of the airtime. But if they're two rooms apart from one another, the same stream is likely consuming 75-90 percent of the airtime.Although 2.4GHz connections can carry farther, they're slower to begin with. They also have even worse congestion problems—that same higher range and penetration means you're more likely to have your own devices competing with your neighbors' for airtime on the same frequency"

Adam Driver gets 'canceled' on social media as many call him 'Islamophobic' for joining the Marines after 9/11 - "Twitter is a truly strange place. We all know this and every time we start to forget, k-pop stans find a way to remind us.Late on April 20, the hashtag #adamdriverisoverparty started trending on Twitter and it appeared that 'Star Wars' star Adam Driver had become the latest victim of the cancel culture. With a sense of dread, we looked into the tag and found, well, absolute stupidity.So here's what went down. In a 2019 interview with The New Yorker, Driver spoke about how he joined the Marines after 9/11 because he felt a deep desire for retribution against an invisible and unknown enemy."It wasn’t against Muslims," he said. "It was: We were attacked. I want to fight for my country against whoever that is."A lot of Americans felt the same way after the tragic attack and so, for most people, Driver's comments had not an iota of controversy in them. But that didn't stop a bunch of Twitter users from misconstruing them to accuse him of being Islamophobic and launching the now trending hashtag."