Links - 4th July 2020 (1)

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'The day before I was thinking, what am I going to play?' - "‘Brain surgery. A woman, a violinist is going under the surgeon's knife. But how does the surgeon know that he is not going to do something that could affect the person he's operating on? The woman carries on playing her violin throughout the whole surgery’...
[To the surgeon] ‘You had the kind of minor inconvenience that you were being hit by the bow at various times. And you also had another challenge, that you were worried that she might play something you didn't recognize.’...
‘It was a good opportunity for me to get Dagmar to play all my favorite songs... if we are monitoring Dagmar’s ability to correctly play the notes and the music and the violin, then we need to know that she's doing it correctly, and therefore at least one of the people in the theater, so either myself, my assistant, my anaesthetist, would have had to know the songs that she's playing.’"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Wednesday's business with Rob Young - "‘Is the Cayman Islands cleaning up its act?’
‘Relatively speaking. I mean but you need to recognize this is essentially, the Cayman Islands are three islands in the middle of nowhere. They have for 50 years found a way of making a living by selling secrecy to foreigners. That's how they make a living. So essentially, the existence of Cayman as a major financial center is just a function of the fact there are a lot of people who wish to dodge taxes and wish to dodge scrutiny. I mean, there is no other reason to be there. It's a very nice place, but it's also a long way from anywhere and before financial services came along its major industry was turtling.’
‘It's fascinating what is going on in the United State with individual states it seems competing to introduce new tax planning laws as they are called. So is the US becoming a more secretive place for companies and businesses?’
‘This is a really important finding of the index. The US has gone up to number two ahead of Switzerland now. And this is as you say, as a result of places like South Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, Alaska, all of whom are competing very hard to attract the kind of money that used to be in Switzerland. Switzerland has fallen in the index, that money needs somewhere to go. Needs in inverted commas and the Americans are competing hard to attract it and doing very well. And so there is an irony or big irony, which is that the US really led the charge 10 years ago against financial secrecy in places like Switzerland, and were successful. Switzerland has been cracked open in a way it never has before. And but as a response now, Americans are accepting that money and America is a much harder prospect to crack open. There is no big bully geopolitically on the block that can tell the Americans to clean up their act’"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Today guest edits: George the Poet - "‘The wonder the number one thing we know from studying the effect of video games on people's real world thinking and behavior is that gamers are more confident in their ability to pick up new skills and are less likely to give up when they're trying to learn something new.’…
‘The game I co created zombies run is a game that you play by going for a run or for a walk in the real world. And we do stories in the zombie apocalypse in your headphones, to encourage you to go further and faster and make the whole business of getting a run in or some exercise in just a bit less boring’...
‘George the Poet describes as moral panic... And this is a shame associated with [computer] games, which isn't so much as when you mention novels. You know, there isn't so much shame is associated with reading.’
‘Yes, well, there certainly used to be shame associated with reading. If you think of Northanger Abbey, that is a novel about a young woman who perhaps has been over sensationalized by these very exciting novels. I agree. I agree with you, the Gothic novels. Yes. I agree with George the Poet that there is a moral panic and that people are saying, oh, dear, what about this art form, this new thing, but I think the thing to know is that people have always said this about new art forms, so novels in their time, at the time that cinema was invented, people were very panicked about what are people doing, going into this strange dark room all together, there's a sort of a, too much intimacy involved in being in this dark cinema place. And who knows what things might go. I mean, the classic one people quote is even under under Plato, we're worried about the effect of learning to read’"

The Job That Will Let You Do Whatever You Want in a Swedish Train Station, Forever - Atlas Obscura - "Each morning, the chosen employee will punch a clock in Korsvägen train station, currently under construction in Gothenburg, Sweden, which will turn on a bank of bright fluorescent lights. Other than that, “the position holds no duties or responsibilities besides the fact that the work should be carried out at Korsvägen. Whatever the employee chooses to do constitutes the work,” reads the job description. The employee can also choose how publicly visible or anonymous they would like to be while on the clock. Eternal Employment is the brainchild of Swedish artistic duo Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby, who often spin real-world economics into giddy, strange new forms. For this project they are investing a prize from from Public Art Agency Sweden in conjunction with the Swedish Transport Administration—about $650,000. This forms the Eternal Employment foundation, which will grow the initial sum and form a board to select and pay the forever employee. Anyone in the world can apply, and “the foundation will be an equal opportunity employer,” Goldin and Senneby say over email. And when the employee retires or chooses to leave, the board will select another. Korsvägen is one of three new underground stations being constructed to alleviate traffic pressure and create jobs in Gothenburg. Already Sweden’s second-largest city, its population is to projected to grow by at least 150,000 by 2035. Goldin and Senneby hope that the job will make the station more than a stopover between one place and another. Eternal Employment is also a response to the way Gothenburg is changing. The home of Volvo, it was once a major industrial and shipping center. In recent decades, it has developed into an arts and entertainment hub, boasting museums, concert venues, and a super-sized shrimp sandwich supposedly inspired by American portion sizes. As Gothenburg’s working class finds itself marginalized, Goldin and Senneby see a job that gives total control to the worker as an act of economic imagination."

Commentary: It's not okay to say 'OK boomer' - "The phrase “OK boomer” has become a catch-all put-down that Generation Zers and young millennials have been using to dismiss retrograde arguments made by baby boomers, the generation who are currently 55 to 73 years old... Comments that relate to a worker’s age are a problem because older workers often face negative employment decisions, like a layoff or being passed over for promotion... When I was an employment lawyer, I heard tons of hilarious stories of things people said in the workplace. But that’s the point: The story ended with a lawyer on the other end of the phone."
Ageism is good when it serves a liberal agenda

Indonesia's wealth gap spurs Muslims to join 'economic jihad' - Nikkei Asian Review - "Some 212 Marts were reportedly closed after they failed to attract customers. Some consumers spoke openly about boycotting the chain over its connection to the protests against Ahok, which they saw as a worrying sign of rising intolerance... The shift comes as conservative groups carrying Middle Eastern strands of Islam wield greater social and political influence. Their ideas are challenging the norms established by local Muslim groups with less-rigid teachings. Indonesians call the trend hijrah, derived from another Arabic word that describes Muslims who leave behind secular and hedonistic lifestyles to adhere to religious tenets.In a recent survey, 80% of Indonesian Muslim respondents said they consider religion "strongly important" in their daily lives, while 19% think it is "important." This is a stark contrast from just 10 years ago"
Is there a clear distinction between piety and extremism?

Hisashi Ouchi, the Victim of Fatal Radiation Kept Alive for 83 Days - "After being treated for a week, Ouchi managed to say, “I can’t take it anymore… I am not a guinea pig”. However, the doctors kept treating him and taking measures to keep him alive, which only ensured a very slow and very painful death."

Why fellow Canadians are joining the thousands of immigrants moving to the Maritimes | The Star - "last year saw a “record high” number of international newcomers head to the Maritimes but it also solidified a pattern that hasn’t happened in decades: people from other parts of Canada are moving to the East Coast... Fenech’s tenure position and marriage to his wife Jill Stewart, “a potato farmer’s daughter,” has anchored him to P.E.I. and made him see himself “as an Islander.” Still, he said he’s never had to give up the things he loved in a big city: The Island has great theatre, a wonderful local music scene, independent cinema and, yes, even employment opportunities... Maritime cities like Halifax, Charlottetown and Moncton are “booming” as larger centres like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have become too expensive for younger people... Those cities have also hit a “sweet spot,” he said, in that all are small enough that it doesn’t take long to commute or access nature and the ocean but are also big enough to have an international airport as well as entertainment and culture amenities... “I’ve been briefly to Toronto and I found how hectic it was and that everyone is rushing. But here while out walking or just jogging I can stop and talk with someone and everyone is happy to learn about you, to learn about your culture, and I feel like that is absolutely great.”

Why Have You Summoned Me GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY - *Cat shows up when can is opened*

Sparkling Wine Starts Coming Out Of Kitchen Taps In Italian Village - "a winery had cocked up and ended up pumping a load of wine into the local water system. That meant that, for a brief time residents were getting a lovely pink liquid spewing forth from their kitchen taps instead of water."

Lucas Lynch - "LGBT+ filmmakers boycott Israeli film festival in solidarity with queer Palestinians"
"The Palestinian Authority just banned all LGBT activities in the West Bank"
"Fabulous "Anti-Zionism" comes at you fast."

Illusion grid shirt by Japanese designer takes unusual approach to solving flat-chested problems - "While the shirt looks perfectly normal from the front, if you look closely enough, the grid is actually an optical illusion."

Kimberly Klacik on Twitter - "I hate when people say President Trump doesn’t act “presidential”. What does that even mean in a country where a man can be a woman, a woman can be a man, drag queens are entertainment for children, kids can transition, Shaun King can be black & Lizzo’s obesity is sexy? 🤷🏽‍♀️"

WealthX Billionaire Census: Majority of world's billionaires self-made - "There are 2,604 billionaires in the world, and 55.8% of them are self-made... Another 30.9% of billionaires made at least some of their wealth themselves, according to the report, while 13.3% inherited their wealth entirely. he data showed a “continuation of the long-term trend in the gradual increase in the proportion of self-made billionaires”... This was “despite a broad weakening of asset markets and more subdued global growth prospects,” which the report says “highlights the growing importance of entrepreneurship in creating and preserving substantial wealth.”... almost all of the current richest billionaires are self-made, from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world with a current net worth of more than $155 billion, according to Forbes, to Google co-founders Larry Page (more than $53 billion) and Sergey Brin (more than $52 billion), the 10th and 11th richest respectively... However, overall, the number of billionaires in the world and their collective wealth declined in 2018 compared to the year prior... Of course, even “self-made” billionaires did not succeed alone... Warren Buffett, who founded Berkshire Hathaway and is the fourth richest person in the world with a more than $85 billion net worth, has also spoken about the role luck has played in his success.“My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. [Both] my children and I won what I call ‘the ovarian lottery,’” Buffett told Christiane Amanpour in 2010. “I was born in the right country at the right time.”"
Presumably the people who mock the role of luck in success aren't as successful as Buffett, so since they're also the people who say that success makes your words credible we must ignore them

Not so pure after all: Most holy water 'is contaminated with faecal matter' and could be harmful to health - "Many people believe that holy water has healing properties but new research suggests it may actually do more harm than good.Scientists have discovered that 86 per cent of water samples from holy sources contain faecal matter.Austrian researchers also found that church fonts contain high levels of bacteria and that none of the holy springs they studied could be considered safe for drinking from... in every millilitre of holy water there were up to 62 million bacteria. They also found that the busier the church, the more bacteria it tended to have in its font... He recommends that the responsible authorities and priests put up warning signs by the holy springs.Dr Kirschner said that the springs got their healing reputation in the Middle Ages and that things have changed since then.He explained: ‘In those days, the quality of the water in towns and cities was generally so poor that people were constantly developing diarrhoea or other diseases as a result.‘If they then came across a protected spring in the forest that was not as polluted and drank from it for several days, their symptoms would disappear.‘So although in those days they were drinking healthier water, given the excellent quality of our drinking water today, the situation is now completely reversed.’Based on the study’s findings, Dr Kirschner recommends that salt could be added to holy water in fonts to reduce the chance of bacteria thriving, he also suggests that holy water in churches should be changed regularly."

Woman hit, killed by multiple cars on Pa. highway; none stopped, dragging her remains for miles

Marathon du Médoc - "This French marathon has regular stops for wine, cheese, and oysters"