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Thursday, March 18, 2021

Links - 18th March 2021 (2)

Art for the 99 Percent - "If your family is wealthy, you’re more likely to become an artist...
'The proportion of female creatives is relatively high, time constraints can be a hindrance for taking up a creative occupation, racial inequality is present and tends to change only slowly, and education plays a significant role for taking up a creative occupation.'...
If creative activity correlates with the education, economic security, and leisure time that tend to accompany wealth, the problem is not any of these things as such but rather their maldistribution. Seen this way, Borowiecki’s findings might just as easily complement the argument for democratic socialism — which above all else seeks to extend free time, education, and material well-being to the many, where they are currently limited to the privileged few.If having time, a good education, and economic security increases the likelihood that people will take up creative pursuits, that’s all the more reason they should be treated as rights to be enjoyed by everyone. Real freedom, after all, means the ability to spend your time as you see fit — to write, to think, to paint, to sculpt, or to do nothing in particular — and, under capitalism, the rich have a lot more freedom than the rest of us. But it doesn’t have to be that way."
Women have less need to get a stable job
Under capitalism, the rich have a lot more freedom than the rest of us. Under capitalism, no one is free, which solves the "problem"

'Huge breast' outside Facebook HQ - "A medical tattooist who draws nipples on women who have lost them due to mastectomies, says she’s being blocked on social media after her work is being mistaken for pornography.Vicky Martin, from Wokingham in Berkshire, was joined by about 50 supporters, many of whom have lost breasts through cancer treatment.Facebook says the suspension of her account was a mistake."

Her landlord didn’t tell her the home she rented had lead pipes — and he didn’t have to

Is there lead in your tap water? Canada-wide investigation exposes dangerous levels of toxic metal

Cities in Ontario are declaring themselves exempt from lead testing. And they don’t have to tell the province

The Seeds of Ideology: Historical Immigration and Political Preferences in the United States - "We test the relationship between historical immigration to the United States and political ideology today. We hypothesize that European immigrants brought with them their preferences for the welfare state, and that this had a long-lasting effect on the political ideology of US born individuals. Our analysis proceeds in three steps. First, we document that the historical presence of European immigrants is associated with a more liberal political ideology and with stronger preferences for redistribution among US born individuals today. Next, we show that this correlation is not driven by the characteristics of the counties where immigrants settled or other specific, socioeconomic immigrants’ traits. Finally, we conjecture and provide evidence that immigrants brought with them their preferences for the welfare state from their countries of origin. Consistent with the hypothesis that immigration left its footprint on American ideology via cultural transmission from immigrants to natives, we show that our results are stronger when inter-group contact between natives and immigrants, measured with either intermarriage or residential integration, was higher. Our findings also indicate that immigrants influenced American political ideology during one of the largest episodes of redistribution in US history — the New Deal – and that such effects persisted after the initial shock."

Human eggs prefer some men's sperm over others, research shows - "Different women's eggs attract different men's sperm—and not necessarily their partner's."

Vandalism at hundreds of French churches | World | The Times - "A spate of thefts and vandalism in French churches has led to calls for the government to act. Recent incidents have included a fire in Saint-Sulpice church in Paris, human excrement smeared on the wall in Notre-Dame-des-Enfants church in Nîmes, southern France, and vandalism of the organ at Saint-Denis basilica outside Paris, where all but three of France’s kings are buried... 875 of France’s 42,258 churches were vandalised last year. Thefts were reported in a further 129. The interior ministry said that 59 cemeteries were also vandalised... François Huguenin, a historian specialising in Christianity, said that although only about five per cent of French people were practising Catholics, the church remained “the depository of social markers. It is therefore more difficult for [Christians] to express indignation than it is for other communities”. He said that the anti-Christian acts came against the spread of “fundamentalist secularism that is no different from religious fundamentalism”."
Strange how it took over a century for laïcité to lead to all this

Here's Exactly How Inefficient Wireless Charging Is - "wireless charging is drastically less efficient than charging with a cord, so much so that the widespread adoption of this technology could necessitate the construction of dozens of new power plants around the world... wireless chargers lose a lot of energy compared to cables. They get even less efficient when the coils in the phone aren’t aligned properly with the coils in the charging pad, a surprisingly common problem... On top of this, both wireless chargers independently consumed a small amount of power when no phone was charging at all"

Xi's the One - "She's a lonely, overworked waitress in a downbeat Chicago pizza joint, and he's the president of the People's Republic of China on a tour of the United States. Their stressful, boring lives are about to heat up like a pizza oven after a chance encounter outside Manny's Pizza Barn. "Call me Xi Dada," he says. From there, Delanie takes Xi Jinping by the hand and leads him on a whirlwind tour of of Chicago as they struggle to keep their hands off each other."

Almost 1 in 3 pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses, aviation minister says - "More than 30% of civilian pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses and are not qualified to fly, the country's aviation minister revealed Wednesday.Addressing Pakistan's National Assembly, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said 262 pilots in the country "did not take the exam themselves" and had paid someone else to sit it on their behalf."They don't have flying experience"... The results of the investigation were announced Wednesday as part of a preliminary report into a plane crash that killed 97 people in the southern city of Karachi on May 22. The PIA plane crashed after taking off from Lahore, killing all but two of the passengers and crew on board... the pilots were chatting about the coronavirus and repeatedly ignored warnings from air traffic controllers before the plane went down in a residential area near the airport... the pilots were told three times by air traffic controllers that the plane was too high and they should not attempt to land, "but the captain did not pay any heed to these instructions."The pilots proceeded with trying to land -- without lowering the landing gear."

All the main James Bond song titles categorized : JamesBond

Biggest differences between French and American parents - "In the book "Bringing Up Bebe," author Pamela Druckerman wrote  that French parents establish clear expectations of what is expected and what is unacceptable behavior from their kids at an early age. This creates an authoritative parenting style and leaves little question as to who is in charge in the family. In the US, kids generally learn two "magic words," which are "please" and "thank you." According to "Bringing Up Bebe," French children learn four — "s'il vous plaît" (please), "merci" (thank you), "bonjour" (hello), and "au revoir" (goodbye). Although it is polite to say greet people in the US, in France, it is essential... in France, "saying bonjour acknowledges the other person's humanity." So, it's important. The concept of a "children's menu" or "kid's meal" — which tend to be bedrocks in American restaurants — aren't as common in France.  According to the book "French Kids Eat Everything," there is very little distinction between what might appear on a parent or child's plate.Kids are given strong, mature flavors from a young age (think Roquefort cheese and pate), which gives them time to develop a taste for things that their American counterparts would find "icky."... vegetables are usually served at the start of a meal, when kids are hungriest, which ensures that they will have more motivation to eat them... French parents tend to have their kids stick with one haircut  — a classic bob  — but anything goes in the US... French parents utilize something called "The Pause." This is a technique in which parents wait a few minutes before tending to their child if they hear them start to cry, which gives them a chance to "self-soothe." Over time, this can train kids to sleep through the night on their own. American parents often find that their weekends are dominated by their kids' activities, like soccer practice, violin lessons, and tutoring sessions... French parents center their weekends around themselves and simply bring their children along, or, if they're old enough, let them do their own thing. Children in France are given much more freedom and responsibility than kids of their own age in the US. According to The Huffington Post, it's common for kids in France to start walking to school by themselves by age 7 and riding public transportation solo by age 11... French parents generally keep a routine in which kids eat three meals a day, plus one snack in the afternoon... In many ways, guilt seems to be a standard byproduct of American parenting. (Possibly because there is a cottage industry in the states dedicated to proving that everything American parents do is unequivocally wrong.)In France, there is less of an expectation for parents to do everything and be everything... French parents don't use food as a bribe, punishment, or reward. This helps French kids from developing strong emotional associations with certain types of food that may impede them from eating it (or, in some cases, could encourage them them to gorge on it), and may lead to an overall healthier relationship with food... parenting books aren't as common in France as they are in the US. Instead, parents use their instincts and other culturally-approved techniques, which has helped to create a more nationally cohesive parenting style.
American parents are more patient with their kids...
"What French women would tell me over and over is, it's very important that no part of your life — not being a mom, not being a worker, not being a wife — overwhelms the other part.""

No, Vegetable Oil Won't Make Girls Lazy, TV-Watching Diabetics - "When I was learning how to do word problems in elementary school, we were taught to ask ourselves a few questions after arriving at an answer. One of them was, "Does my answer make sense?"...
Red flag #1. Unsaturated fats are healthy...
Red flag #3. The team's methodology was terrible. The researchers examined the behavior of 11-year-old girls. They collected data not on individuals but on entire nations, which is a weak study design... First, the authors did not analyze omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids separately. Instead, they lumped all PUFAs together, despite omega-6 fatty acids being the supposed problem, not all PUFAs. Second, if PUFAs turn kids into lazy, good-for-nothing, couch potatoes, then there should be a correlation between eating PUFAs and obesity. But the authors did not find one, which means the results are internally inconsistent.
Red flag #4. The authors thought Norway was weird, so they removed it from their analysis.
Red flag #5. The authors also examined PUFA consumption in women aged 25 and older. They did not find a link between PUFAs and obesity. And they also did not find a link between PUFA consumption and diabetes, even though the paper's title, a university press release, and sensationalist media coverage suggests that they did.
Red flag #6. As Ross Pomeroy, my friend and former colleague at RealClearScience pointed out to me, the study was partially funded by egg and dairy farmers. The question of who funds research doesn't matter if the science is good. Accurate science is accurate whether it was paid for by government, industry, the Koch Brothers, George Soros, or Vladimir Putin. But the question of funding might matter if the science is bad, as it clearly is in this study"
I'm sure keto people are very excited by this paper

Sungai Petani school canteen gets hotel-style makeover - "One school canteen in Kedah has definitely upped its game by offering students and teachers a dining experience like no other, all for less than RM2 per serving.Photos of the canteen at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Taman Seri Wang in Sungai Petani recently went viral with netizens likening it to a hotel restaurant... now only about two per cent of students and teachers bring their own food to school as many enjoy eating and hanging out at the canteen."

David Attenborough: upper-class warrior - "I think that making essentially the same nature documentary roughly 10,000 times is not an automatic qualification for sainthood... But the sad truth is that, in his twilight years, a new figure has emerged, a new light has been cast on the Attenborough legacy. He recently made a Corbynesque appearance at Glastonbury, tottering out from backstage to deliver a short, sharp lecture on climate change, the sad fate of polar bears, and the naughtiness of plastic. The Glastonbury audience listened carefully, of course. Sir David lavished praise on the audience for not buying any of the plastic that was not available to buy this year, and the audience roared with approval. It was an ecologically conscious version of ‘what a great crowd you are’, including a tactful failure to mention the several hundred tonnes of discarded trash that the Glasto crowd leaves behind each year... In a recent appearance before parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, he compared changing attitudes to plastic to changing attitudes to slavery. He also complained that air travel was ‘extraordinarily cheap’. He called for prices to be hiked, conceding that this would hit the poor hardest. At the same time, he admitted that he himself travels by air ‘frequently’. The best way to ‘restrict’ air travel would be ‘economically’, he argued. So a man who has clocked up more air miles than the average African dictator is deeply concerned that your once-a-year package holiday to Spain is destroying the planet. If Attenborough had his way, a certain class of people (by coincidence, his class) would be allowed to jet around the world enjoying themselves, while others would be restricted from doing so. Attenborough also seems to think that the British people must bear the greatest cost of green policies because our ancestors developed, discovered and invented more rapidly than those in other parts of the world. Britain ‘started the problem’, said Sir David, to parliament. ‘It was the Industrial Revolution that started here, based on burning coal.’ For Attenborough, the Industrial Revolution was a crime for which people who were not alive at the time must be condemned. While Sir David observes lions, whales and penguins with a certain geniality, he doesn’t seem to extend the same warmth to his fellow man, especially the poor and working class. Like much of the liberal elite, he sees us as a species to be studied, guided, ruled, prodded and nannied."

America ranked among worst countries to raise a family: study - "the United States has been named the second-worst wealthy nation in which to raise a family in 2020... To determine the most and least family-friendly countries, the couple rated 35 OECD countries (part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forum) according to safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time.The US clocked in at an abysmal 34th place, just ahead of last-place finisher Mexico, whose murder rate jumped to the highest in nearly two years as drug cartels have run amok during the coronavirus lockdown. Leading the pack of overall fam-safe nations were Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland... Most surprising was America’s global safety rating, which was, according to the research, the second-poorest after Mexico.Despite statistics showing that reported crimes have been on the decline nationwide, the US homicide rate is still eclipsed only by Mexico... The Land of the Free also came in “fourth-worst” for human rights — here defined broadly across several categories including “protection against enslavement, the right to free speech and the right to education.”The Fergussons attributed the United States’ nationwide mood dip to record “income disparities,” 20% of Americans suffering from mental health issues each year and a suicide rate that has “increased by 33% between 1999 to 2017.”"

Ritter Sport wins exclusive right to square chocolate bars - "Swiss chocolate maker Milka cannot make square chocolate bars after Germany's highest court declared the distinctive confectionary configuration is the sole property of Ritter Sport... The ruling comes after a 10-year-long attempt by American confectionary brand Mondelēz – the third-largest confectionary company in the world after Mars and Ferrero – to overturn Ritter Sport's monopoly on quadratic chocolate bars... Ritter Sport's thick, square-shaped bar design dates back to 1932 when Clara Ritter – who founded the company with her husband Alfred in 1912 – proposed the idea to the Ritter family."Let's make a chocolate that fits into any sports jacket pocket without breaking and has the same weight as the normal bar"... In a similar chocolate-related legal battle in 2018, Nestlé lost the rights to a European trademark for the tearable, four-fingered design of its KitKat chocolate bar."

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