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Wednesday, June 07, 2023

Links - 7th June 2023 (2)

Meme - "Things I want to ride in Harry Potter *Flying Ford Anglia, hippogriff, broom, Emma Watson in bikini with big breasts*"

Meme - Siew Kum Hong: "Got this notification from SCB and I had to snort in disgust. SCB itself (at least, its anti fraud team - yes the irony) makes outbound calls from unknown numbers seeking to verify transactions while asking customers for personal and account info to authenticate identities. Frankly I've also experienced this w other SG banks, but SCB is the only one (at least that I ve encountered) that threatens to suspend your card if you don't verify and authenticate, thereby creating a strong incentive to do so. In short, SCB itself trains its customers to be more susceptible to the scams that it warns its customers against."
"Important Scam Alert. There have been calls impersonating SC officers claiming that unauthorised transactions on users' bank account credit card were detected. Never disclose your personal particulars, online or card details & OTP to anyone. If you have any questions, call our hotline."

Meme - "Don't punish your child by taking their online games away, log onto their games and get them banned
Modern problems require modern solutions"

Meme - "The Impact of 9/11 on Anime Girl Eyes
1981 - 70mm eye radius
1992 - massive iris
1999 - eyes larger than her glasses. also big highlights
September 11, 2001
2002 - 65% reduction to overall size
2007 - actually peak but her eyes are small
2016 - soulless"

Meme - Harry: "Wanna fuck?"
Hermione: "Why do you have to say it like that? It's supposed to be a magical moment"
Harry: "Clitorio Stimulosa"
Herminone: *stunned*

Beyond Resilience: Fostering Anti-Fragile Children - "After working with children for almost three decades, I can strong assert that humans, especially children, are anti-fragile. They do best when exposed to challenges, disappointments and even the occasional fight or insult. Please let me be clear, children must be protected from true bullies or real dangers (they should not play with chainsaws). But we do not help them by protecting them from any social awkwardness or conflict.   I remember having fights with my best friends that often involved yelling, insulting and even some occasional pushing. When I told my mother, she responded quite wisely, “I am sorry to hear that. I am sure you are frustrated and sad. But I know you can work this out. Let me know how you deal with it.” In some cases, I realized I needed to apologize. Other times, I learned I deserved an apology and waited for it. More often than not, we would decide it was better to have someone to play with than harbor a lingering argument, so we would come to some reasonable accommodation.  The skills I learned in these low-stakes conflicts have served me well as an adult. But if we deny children these challenges, we do not allow their anti-fragility to emerge. In fact, they might not even be resilient. Our efforts to protect them can result in them becoming actually fragile. Recent research (well summarized by Dr. Jean Twenge) shows that children are substantially more anxious, depressed and prone to self-harm than 10 years ago. She speculates that social media is the major contributor. While I completely agree that social media can be harmful to children (especially girls), it is not the only cause. Certain parenting styles seem to be a major contributor as well. At our summer camps, we have noticed increases in fragility over the past decade, even in children who do not yet have a mobile phone or use any social media...   As parents, we need to find ways to give our children opportunities to build their strength. Resisting the lure of over-parenting takes courage. It requires a willingness to have less-informed parents question you. It requires having faith in the anti-fragility of your child. And it requires the strength to see your child struggle and resist rescuing him or her.  But I can tell you that it is worth it. At camp, the children of these types of parents rarely struggle. They make the transition to college gracefully and confidently."
Nowadays everything is "trauma", so good luck. Of course, the obsession with "protecting" kids just makes them hyper-sensitive to perceived harm, so it's a vicious circle

By mollycoddling our children, we're fuelling mental illness in teenagers - "We recently co-wrote a book, with Greg Lukianoff, titled The Coddling of the American Mind, about the culture that erupted on American university campuses around 2014, and has spread to some campuses in the UK and Canada. In the book we describe how they began using the language of safety and danger to describe ideas and speakers, and to demand policies based on the premise that some students are fragile (or “vulnerable”). Terms such as “safe space”, “trigger warning” and “microaggression” entered the language. These, we believe, are requests made by a generation that was deprived of the necessary quantity of social immunisations. Students now react with a kind of emotional allergic response (often referred to as being “triggered”) to things that previous generations would have either brushed off or argued against.  It’s not the kids’ fault. In the UK, as in the US, parents became much more fearful in the 1980s and 1990s as cable TV and later the internet exposed everyone, more and more, to those rare occurrences of brutal crimes and freak accidents that, as we report in our book, now occur less and less. Outdoor play and independent mobility went down; screen time and adult-supervised activities went up. Yet free play in which kids work out their own rules of engagement, take small risks, and learn to master small dangers (such as having a snowball fight) turns out to be crucial for the development of adult social and even physical competence. Depriving them of free play stunts their social-emotional growth. Norwegian play researchers Ellen Sandseter and Leif Kennair wrote about the “anti-phobic effects of thrilling experiences.” They noted that children spontaneously seek to add risk to their play, which then extends their coping abilities, which then empowers them to take on even greater challenges. They warned: “We may observe an increased neuroticism or psychopathology in society if children are hindered from partaking in age adequate risky play.” They wrote those words in 2011. Over the following few years, their prediction came true.  Mental health statistics in the US and UK tell the same awful story: kids born after 1994 – now known as “iGen” or “Gen-Z” – are suffering from much higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than did the previous generation (millennials), born between 1982 and 1994... Even more tragically, we also see this trend in the rate of teenage suicide... there are good reasons to suspect that by depriving our innately antifragile kids of the wide range of experiences they need to become strong, we are systematically stunting their growth. We should let go – and let them grow."

Most characteristic words for dying in 2015 obituaries, by state - "“Passed away” was used in 32.5 percent of all obituaries and topped the national list. In every single state, it was either “passed away” or “died” (20.6 percent nationwide at №2) that was used most often. The relative prevalence of each of these terms paints a much more diverse picture."

Meme - "Dora The Explorer
ntv7, Astro Ch 107/unifi TV Ch 107, 10pm
Follow the adventures of Dora, possibly the most famous Spanish explorer since Christopher Columbus, as she wanders about the jungles with her friend, a red boot-wearing monkey named... wait for it.. Boots, This seven-year-old girl, who never ages throughout the show's 14 year run, teaches kids Spanish, counting and other valuable lessons, breaking the fourth wall more liberally than Deadpool, while hurting less people than either Deadpool or Columbus, She also spends a lot of time trying to get Swiper, a bipedal, anthropomorphic masked thieving fox, to get off Tinder, telling him "Swiper no swiping" at least three times every episode"
Rare Malaysian win

B.C. man shocked to discover health file described him as a 'redneck hick' - "Robert Munro, 37, hurt his back in December while on the job, delivering furniture. He filed a WorkSafeBC claim and ended up in physiotherapy.  But while reviewing his WorkSafeBC file, he came across comments referring to him as a "redneck hick to death" and an "uneducated massive redneck p—y," and claimed he was "playing the system."  "The [physiotherapist] was really nice right up front," Munro told Daybreak Kamloops guest host Doug Herbert."

Meme - "Found in a physics text book
Additional Problems
You are kidnapped by political-science majors (who are upset because you told them political science is not a real science). Although blindfolded, you can tell the speed of their car (by the whine of the engine), the time of travel (by men-)"
"Physics majors throw a lot of shade considering they're still not sure where 95% of the universe is hidden"
"My brother's (a graduated theoretical physicist) only response to this was "WELL NEITHER DOES ANYONE ELSE!""

Meme - "Florida man lights bush on fire, claims he spoke to God."
"My kid just said alot of Bible stories could double as florida man headlines. We have been laying here thinking of the best. It's hilarious. So far the best was "florida man threatened to cut baby in half to stop two women from bickering.""
"Florida man finds out wife is pregnant. She claims the father is God."
"It really works. "Florida man summons bears to maul children who laughed at him for being bald.""

Tolkien F***ed Up First - YouTube - "you know how to leverage spoiler culture to your advantage. you understand that creating a convoluted and lore heavy narrative no one understands guarantees lots of coverage in the cottage industry of online explainers which provides more free promotion for your show"
Terrible video, but one good line

Obscene graffiti of ancient Romans - "In 2013, during conservation work on the wall of the corridor at the Colosseum, scientists noticed a previously overlooked drawing of a phallus erection – dated to the third century CE. It turns out that ancient supporters inscribed such phalluses on the walls to ensure the success of their favorites, i.e. gladiators. What else did the Romans place on the walls?  Scientists have found similar dirty drawings and notes on the walls of in Pompeii and Herculaneum. They mention erotic matters as well as everyday life. Here are some of them:
Floronius, privileged soldier of the 7th legion, was here. The women did not know of his presence. Only six women came to know, too few for such a stallion.
Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!...
Theophilus, don’t perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog
Apollinaris, the doctor of the emperor Titus, defecated well here
Restituta, take off your tunic, please, and show us your hairy privates...
Secundus likes to screw boys
Phileros is a eunuch!...
Gaius Sabinus says a fond hello to Statius. Traveler, you eat bread in Pompeii but you go to Nuceria to drink. At Nuceria, the drinking is better
Anyone who wants to defecate in this place is advised to move along. If you act contrary to this warning, you will have to pay a penalty. Children must pay [number missing] silver coins. Slaves will be beaten on their behinds...
You can ride your maid whenever you want. It’s your right...
If anyone sits here, let him read this first of all: if anyone wants a screw, he should look for Attice; she costs 4 sestertii...
If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend...
We have wet the bed, host. I confess we have done wrong. If you want to know why, there was no chamber pot...
Vote for Isidorus for aedile, he licks cunts the best"

XXX Family Values - "Lawyers, a publicist and image consultants are on call for Sunny, but the foundation for her team is still in the Lane apartment, where Sunny lives with her parents.  Sunny Lane is her stage name, and her parents also go by the same last name. For the last year and a half, life in the apartment has revolved around the business of selling Sunny, whom they market as "The Girl Next Door Turned Hard Core."... Married for 29 years, he and Shelby say that their own secret to staying monogamous was watching porn movies. For them, Sunny's co-stars are her "dates," and they say they'd rather her have sex on a porn set than with a "civilian" who might eventually break her heart. "She does her thing, safely, in a good environment, and I don't worry about that. When she comes back home, I just ask her how her date was," Mike said.  Mike and Shelby are proud of Sunny's success. Mike said that when he first saw Sunny on the Playboy channel, his reaction was, "Well, dreams do come true, I guess."  "To me, it's all entertainment. I see it all as entertainment," said Shelby.  Mike and Shelby say they fast-forward through the sex scenes in their daughter's movies, despite having made a cameo appearance in one of her early films... At the adult video convention in Las Vegas in January, Sunny was there to market herself, and her parents were right there beside her. But Shelby and Mike seem to have taken their support to a whole new level. While at the conference, they looked into getting life-size, anatomically correct sex dolls molded of their daughter... He sees himself as the porn equivalent of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson's father, Joe... Today, there are more girls clamoring to enter the business than 10 years ago. Like any business, more product means less profit, so girls are often asked to do more degrading acts for fewer dollars than they used to.  "Would I want to be a young woman getting into the adult [business] right now? Perfectly honestly, no," said porn legend Taylor Wane.  When she got into the business in 1989, Wane said it was more about women exploring their sexuality. Nowadays, she said, it's about pushing the envelope to extremes."
From 2007

Meme - Fesshole @fesshole: "My ex broke up with me about a month before the finale of his favorite Netflix show hit. He'd organized a viewing party ready for midnight when it dropped. I let him stayed signed in on my account until 11:59PM that day, when I changed the password & forced logout on all devices."

Meme - *Monsters Inc monsters enter bedroom*
Furries: "OH LOOK, A THIRD"
*Scream Canister: Max*

Jack Health - Posts | Facebook - "Struggling to get rid of extra weight? Losing weight isn't always about willpower - it's often about biology. Our clinically proven weight loss plan combines medication & coaching to kickstart and maintain weight loss at a biological level."
The negative reaction from many commenters is telling. For some who say they are against obesity because it is unhealthy, they really just want others to mock and look down on, and condemn as morally deficient

The ‘Ninja Diet’ Prioritized Fortitude, Stealth, and Eliminating Body Odor - "Though the specifics sometimes differ, ninja experts usually agree on a few common facts: Secretive guerrilla fighters are said to have lived in Japan’s mountainous Mie Prefecture between about 1487 and 1603. During a century of considerable military strife, they are believed to have been for-hire killers who used highly specialized, secretive techniques. Yet even these details, writes scholar and military historian Stephen Turnbull, who has published extensively on ninja culture and history, are hard to prove. Still, he doesn’t believe they are a total fabrication. “All invented traditions have a basis in fact,” he writes, “no matter how tenuously the links may be made between the developed tradition and recorded history.” A few decades after ninjas are said to have lived, historians and storytellers began writing extensively about them—who they were, what they did, and how they ate. Various accounts describe how they avoided smelly foods (to better sneak up on enemies), restricted their diet to remain agile, or even used food to send secret messages. A vivid picture emerges of ninjas and their diets—though how much of it is based on the real medieval fighters is near-impossible to say, if they existed at all. (Turnbull, for his part, believes that even the earliest conceptions of ninjas are an amalgamation of “genuine belief in a unique local expertise that was bolstered by folk memories and old soldiers’ tales,” as well as an active desire to believe in an appealing military fantasy.) Modern depictions of ninjas usually portray them as mythic, pyjama-clad figures, scurrying around in the shadows. Yet the earliest accounts, which are most likely to approximate the truth, suggest they were essentially farmers—a half-agricultural worker, half-samurai, who ate like his rural peers. “Many ninja [are said to have had] their origins in the lower social classes,” Turnbull wrote, in an earlier book. “Their secretive and underhand methods were the exact opposite of the ideals of noble samurai.” Accounts describe them hiding in wait for days, infiltrating enemy territory, or serving as spies or assassins."

Keeli 🦔 on Twitter - "alicent hightower as sad cats - a 🧵"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Merkel’s Balancing Act - "‘Angela Merkel's government is facing a disillusioned public. Where last year six out of 10 people believed its pandemic strategy was good, the figure’s now half that. Her party, the Christian Democrats are facing criticism from all sides over the slow and inconsistent vaccine rollout, described as paper bureaucracy straight out of the 1950s. Now, there are 16,000 new cases each day and rising. Mrs. Merkel is due to step down later this year’"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Jordan’s palace intrigues - "'A trial in Rwanda, of Paul Rusesabagina, the former manager of Kigali’s Mille Collines, a man once sympathetically portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda, now accused of terrorism. Visually, there's something slightly surreal about these proceedings. Thanks to the Rwandan habit of clothing detainees in baby pink shorts and shirts, it’s strangely jarring to see Rusesabagina and his fellow detainees, middle aged men accused of some of the most serious crimes on any statute book, in outfits better suited to five year olds. Rwanda is a supremely image conscious African state, and the authorities must have thought proceedings would be a credit to its legal system. They arranged for the trial to be streamed on social media with a helpful voiceover in English for those who don't speak Kinyarwanda. But in the process, and probably inadvertently, they've given us all a fascinating glimpse into how President Paul Kagame’s global intelligence system operates. His network really does span the world. I spent much of the last five years investigating how Rwandan intelligence doggedly tracks Rwandan opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists abroad, not just to nearby African states, but to Belgium, France, the UK, the US, Canada, and even Australia. Many have been intimidated into silence, attacked or even killed'"

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent Podcast, Suspicion and mistrust in the Donbas - "'At the recent Commonwealth meeting I asked President Kagame who took over as chair what his leadership would look like given the allegations about his government's record the jailing of opposition politicians and journalists inside Rwanda. It clearly touched a raw  nerve. For the next half hour he questioned who decides on global values, accused the West of committing far worse crimes in its history and of causing the genocide in his country. No one is in jail today who shouldn't be, he insisted. The room of possibly a hundred was dead quiet as he delivered the fierce rebuttal in the calmest of tones. No one can define values for us he went on, we have values here in Rwanda, and in Africa. Beneath his message I sensed a frustration long held by many Africans on the global stage that they are criticized for not measuring up to international ideals although the ideals themselves are often vague or constantly redefined. As an African myself I can understand the determination to change the narrative, to reset attitudes and to showcase Africa as a place where solutions can be found'"
Ethnocentrism means the Universal Declaration of Human Rights needs to be repealed

Religion, Infidelity, and Divorce: Reexamining the Effect of Religious Behavior on Divorce Among Long-Married Couples - "Previous scholarship linking marital infidelity and divorce has tended to have 2 limitations: focusing on young marriages and overlooking the influence of religiosity. Using data from the panel study of Marital Instability over the Life Course (N = 763), we address both of these limitations. Using structural equation modeling and proportional hazards modeling, we examine the effect of religiosity on marital infidelity and subsequent divorce among couples married for at least 12 years. Our analyses reveal that religiosity reduces the likelihood of marital infidelity among these couples. However the effect of religiosity on the likelihood of a subsequent divorce is more complicated: Religiosity appears to indirectly reduce the likelihood of a subsequent divorce by increasing levels of marital happiness. Surprisingly, no influence is found of marital infidelity on marital stability or divorce. Implications for scholars concerned with marital stability are discussed."
This coheres with the Pew data too

Religious service attendance, divorce, and remarriage among U.S. nurses in mid and late life - "Prior research has suggested religious participation can promote marital satisfaction and stability. However, current literature has mainly focused on early life divorce, and used cross-sectional data, leaving open the question of the directionality of effects. We evaluated the prospective associations between service attendance and marital stability in mid and late life considering either 1) divorce or separation; or 2) remarriage, as separate outcomes. Data were drawn from the Nurses’ Health Study, a large prospective cohort study that consisted of US female nurses in their 50s at study enrollment, with repeated measures of service attendance and marital status over 14 years of follow-up from 1996–2010. During follow up, among 66,444 initially married nurses who were mainly Christians, frequent service attendance was associated with 50% lower risk of divorce (95% CI: 32%, 63%), and 52% lower risk of either divorce or separation (95%CI: 37%, 63%). Among initially divorced or separated women, frequent service attendance was not associated with subsequent likelihood of remarriage; however, among widowed women, women who attended services frequently had 49% increased likelihood of remarriage (95% CI: 13%, 97%) compared to those women who did not. The study provides evidence that in this cohort of US nurses, frequent service attendance is associated with lower risk of becoming divorced in mid- and late- life, and increased likelihood of remarriage among widowed nurses, but not among divorced or separated nurses."

'Who goes ang moh country eat 'cai fan'?' Singaporean schooled for paying $20 for economy rice in Australia - "Singaporean Gilbert Zhuo was visiting Australia when he stumbled upon a stall selling economy rice that costs A$20.50 (S$18.40)... Some also suggested that the portion might be bigger, which makes it worth the splurge.  However, in another TikTok video subsequently uploaded by Zhuo, the portion does not seem to be significantly larger.  He also revealed that he had purchased the meal with two pieces of meat and a serving of vegetables.In another video, Zhuo also posted about the price of water in Australia, which roughly "costs about A$4" a bottle, while a cup of sugarcane juice costs up to A$8.50 on average... Zhuo said that the economy rice in Australia is "more Westernised" and that there was more fried food."

Hack or hassle? Singapore couple saves money with home-cooked local food on Switzerland vacation, netizens say it's not worth it - "While it's relatively common to hear of Singaporeans packing instant noodles for their overseas trips, the couple behind TikTok travel account Wethecurioustravelers went the extra mile to cook their meals from scratch during their Switzerland trip... The Singapore-based couple whipped up local favourites such as bak kut teh, curry and laksa while on vacation"

Singapore traveller shares hack to 'cheat the system' and score cheaper air tickets - "The real trick, as she goes on to demonstrate, is to use the Skyscanner website that is hosted in the destination country. So rather than booking from skyscanner.com.sg if you're travelling to Bali from Singapore, one should head to skyscanner.co.id instead.  And instead of paying $219 as indicated on the website for a flight, the same flight is going for approximately Rp1,923,201, or about $180, netting her savings of about $40. Winnia.je also made sure to put in a disclaimer that the video was #notsponsored.  So, does her hack actually work when we tried it out ourselves?  Well, yes and no. What we found was that ticket prices were more or less the same, or cheaper by a negligible few dollars.   In some cases, for example when attempting to book a flight to Bangkok on Oct 31, flights on skyscanner.co.th was actually more expensive (3,133 baht or $118), than on the Singapore-hosted site ($89)... Others shared that the hack only works if the destination country has a weaker currency or is economically less robust than Singapore. And while being able to score cheaper tickets through Skyscanner is supported by other travel bloggers, they advised travellers to book directly with the airline when savings are marginal ($30 or less, by Thrifty Traveler's definition), because tickets booked through Skyscanner may not carry the same cancellation policies. They may also not provide the level of customer service required to attend to any requests that you may have.   Other commenters also shared their own cheap flight booking tips, one of which includes using a browser's incognito mode when buying tickets so that the individual's location and online data is kept private."

Hidden drinks menu, free cakes on SIA flight? Ex-stewardess shares tips on how you can get the most out of your flights - "Still feeling peckish after your meal? Feel free to ask for second servings! But note that you will be given additional servings only after all passengers have been fed and there are extras in stock...   Free cakes are greatly appreciated on a flight, but did you know that SIA serves cakes to those travelling on their birthday, honeymoon or anniversary? Simply make that request before your flight and you can have your cake and eat it too"

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