This is what partying in your 30s is like. #otk #otknetwork #otk&co - YouTube - *Vacuum sucking up mess on floor*
Meme - Muslim man with rifle: "Come on, take off your burqa and fulfill your marital duties."
Grim Reaper: "I think there is a misunderstanding here"
Meme - "King Abdullah II is direct descendants of prophet Muhammad and this is his family. Whatever happened to wearing hijab and burqa? *uncovered women*"
Meme - Boy: "Mum why do you wear the hijab?"
Woman: "Because it's my choice sweetie!"
Boy: "What happens if you don't want to wear it anymore?"
Woman: "First, your daddy will kick me in the gut. My family will disown me and friends will talk shit about me. After I die Allah will burn me in hell"
Katharine Birbalsingh says she was forced to stop Muslim prayers after racial harassment of teachers - "Ms Birbalsingh said the school’s governing body decided to stop prayer rituals when some pupils started them “against a backdrop of events including violence, intimidation and appalling racial harassment of our teachers”... a High Court heard that the school had taken action on prayers because of concerns about a “culture shift” over “segregation between religious groups and intimidation within the group of Muslim pupils”... The school’s actions were based on teachers’ conversations with pupils over certain incidents, such as hearing about a Muslim girl who had dropped out of the school choir because she was told it was “haram”, or forbidden, he added. “A number of children had been told that they were “bad Muslims” for not praying and had begun to pray,” Mr Coppel said in his written arguments. He told the court that the school is “exceptionally successful” academically, “highly oversubscribed”, “aggressively” promotes integration, is run with “military precision” and uses an “ultra-strict enforcement of prescribed behavioural rules”. Ms Birbalsingh said the decision to ban prayer rituals “restored calm and order to the school”. She said: “We have always been clear to parents and pupils that when they apply to Michaela that because of our restrictive building combined with our strict ethos that does not allow children to wander around the school unsupervised, we cannot have a prayer room.” She added: “We believe it is wrong to separate children according to religion or race, and that it is our duty to protect all of our children and provide them with an environment which is free from bullying, intimidation or harassment. “Multiculturalism can only succeed when we understand that every group must make sacrifices for the sake of the whole.” Michaela school was ranked top in the country last year for “Progress 8”, a measure of how much a secondary school has helped pupils improve since primary school. Ms Birbalsingh said that to achieve its results, the school “must be a place where children buy into something they all share and that is bigger than themselves: our country”. About 30 pupils began praying in the school’s “wet” and “dirty” yard in March last year, using blazers to kneel as they were not permitted to bring in prayer mats, the hearing at the High Court was told. The court heard the school was targeted on social media with “threats of violence”, abuse, “false” allegations of Islamophobia, and a “bomb hoax”, but that the situation had since “calmed”."
Clearly, the problem is the school discriminating against Muslims. Muslim students religiously bullying other Muslims and enforcing religious segregation is no problem at all, because that's religious freedom, and condemning that is Islamophobia
The Michaela Community School ‘prayer ban’: facing the awkward realities of a multicultural society - "Having opened in 2014, the school achieves consistently high grades and defies expectations and statistical averages attached to children the from lower income and deprived backgrounds that the school typically takes. Around 80 per cent of its sixth form students go on to the country’s best universities, and it has been lauded with praise by Ofsted and the government. Accordingly, its pupils have achieved better progress in their learning than any other school in the country. Noted for its unorthodox methods by contemporary standards – which in fact follow a more traditional approach – Michaela prioritises discipline, silence and authority. Birbalsingh has been dubbed “Britain’s strictest headmistress” because her students walk mutely in single file around the school and students’ eyes have to be fixated on the teacher during lesson time. Random socialising is strongly discouraged – there is no group work; groups who gather at break-time are capped at a maximum of four people. It’s quite something. And its results are hard to disagree with... The Church has consistently supported (and built upon) the liberal arts approach historically. That Michaela’s students are mandated to read Shakespeare and learn poetry by heart is one heartening aspect of the school’s methods... Students all eat vegetarian meals at lunch – to avoid conflict. And Jehovah’s Witness children are forced to read literary materials with the class which contain magic: something they’re typically not permitted to do... “the school observed a child starting to wear a headscarf who had not previously done so... The school decided to ban “prayer rituals” and what followed by way of protest against that decision included a bomb threat, a brick thrown through a teacher’s window, and a number of personally aimed threats which left some teachers “fearing for their lives”."
Clearly, the school must be forced to change even though students choose to go there. And when the results go down, this will be the school's fault for discrimination and stigma
Michaela School made being Muslim seem toxic, former pupil says - "Sarah said she too received insensitive comments from staff when she chose to start wearing a hijab during her time at the school. "I do remember a teacher asking me if I was forced to wear it and it just shocked me so much," she said. She explained it made her feel staff believe that "Muslim kids wearing a hijab or practising their faith cannot come out of pure will; they're doing it because they're oppressed or pressured"."
Obviously, there're no countries in the world where Muslim women are forced to wear the hijab, and in other countries, no Muslim women are forced to do so either
Father says killed daughter in hijab case - "A teenager who was said to have clashed with her father about whether she should wear a traditional Muslim head scarf died of injuries late on Monday, and her father told police he had killed her. Aqsa Parvez, 16, was found without a pulse in her home in Mississauga earlier on Monday. She was resuscitated by paramedics, treated at two hospitals, and later succumbed to her injuries, police said on Tuesday. Her father, 57-year-old Muhammad Parvez, has been charged with murder... The victim's brother, Waqas Parvez, 26, was arrested and charged with obstructing police... Others were quoted as saying the girl wore traditional Muslim dress when leaving the house in the morning, but would change into other clothes in school washrooms."
From 2007. Damn Islamophobia! Clearly the father was lying, because we know no Muslim women, especially not in developed countries, are forced to wear the hijab
Meme - "Dating Companies HATE Him. See how this young man with NO game met 72 virgins-Using one simple life hack *teen suicide bomber*"
Accurate machine learning prediction of sexual orientation based on brain morphology and intrinsic functional connectivity - " We found an average accuracy of 62% (±6.72) for predicting sexual orientation based on GMV and an average predictive accuracy of 92% (±9.89) using RSFC. Regions in the precentral gyrus, precuneus and the prefrontal cortex were significantly informative for distinguishing heterosexual from homosexual participants in both the GMV and RSFC settings."
MRI prediction of sexual orientation
Canadian MPs the world's second-best paid politicians after raise - "On the same day Canadians will see an increase in the federal carbon tax, MPs will also see a little extra on their pay stubs. And with that April Fool’s Day pay increase, Canadian parliamentarians will become the second-best paid elected officials in the world after Americans... Eighty per cent of Canadians oppose the automatic April 1 MP pay increase... Under legislation, parliamentarians’ raises are based on average wage increases granted by large public sector companies. Salaries for MPs are overseen by the House’s Board of Internal Economy — a shadowy committee chaired by the Speaker and consisting of privy council members and senior opposition party members... The United States pays elected members of Congress an average of US$174,000 annually ($236,433). That’s now followed by Canada’s new MP salary of $203,100, followed by Israeli Knesset members ($200,700), Australian MPs ($200,175), and Singapore’s parliamentarians ($192,500)."
A single act of courage is needed to fix Canada's tax system, but this government won't do it - "You know there’s a problem when seasoned tax specialists consistently struggle with new legislation. Combine this with the fact that anyone can call themselves a “tax specialist” (when they’re not and so the public is left to fend for themselves), and the consequences of being wrong are not good... Legislation that treats otherwise honest Canadians in a fashion that is extremely punitive does not encourage them to comply and can actually do the opposite. For example, the new legislation on short-term rentals (which will deny otherwise legitimate expense deductions against rental income in areas that prohibit such activity) is a great example. This kind of legislation is so obviously designed to be a short-term political “win” for the government and make them look good to their voter base, but it ignores good public policy. This is dangerous for Canada. Those who followed the Underused Housing Tax and bare trust-reporting debacles will know that legislation was introduced that ignored the concerns and feedback of many in the tax community, only to then have the government backtrack on some of the sharper edges of both pieces of legislation. In both cases, the backtracking occurred very late in the process and after a massive amount of effort was wasted by taxpayers and their advisers... This country’s personal tax rates are much too high , extremely punitive and discourage many from taking much-needed entrepreneurial risks. High rates discourage the best and the brightest from coming to Canada and have caused a flurry of successful Canadians to leave the country . These high rates are a real drag on our country’s serious productivity challenges and they need to change... The tax system massively redistributes wealth by introducing credits and cash rebates (such as the Canada Child Benefit, GST credits, carbon tax rebates, pharmacare, dental care, etc.) that all require the filing of a tax return in order to be eligible for them. Such credits, while lauded by some, are simple Robin Hood wealth redistribution schemes that ultimately redistribute tax revenues generated from the so-called rich to lower-income residents. Without automatic tax filing , many lower-income people who would likely be eligible for such credits do not receive such amounts since many are intimidated by the tax system... It won’t happen under this current federal government, disappointingly, but the single act of courage required to fix our tax system is tax reform and review "
Shi Pei Pu, The Chinese Opera Singer Turned Spy - "In 1964, Bernard Boursicot, an employee of the French embassy in Beijing, met a beautiful opera singer named Shi Pei Pu at a Christmas party. The two immediately hit it off, and soon embarked on a secret 18-year-long love affair. But under Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese people were forbidden to mix with foreigners, and eventually, Boursicot agreed to trade embassy secrets to the Chinese government in order to continue seeing Shi. In 1983, the French government arrested the pair for espionage. It was only then that the truth finally emerged: Shi was not a woman, as Shi had told Boursicot for the duration of the affair. During their trial, Shi identified himself as a man. For nearly 20 years, he explained, he had convinced Boursicot that he was a woman by hiding his genitals and insisting on having sex only in the dark. He even secretly adopted a child to present as their biological son... Shi learned French while growing up in the city of Kunming, which has a strong French influence. He attended Yunnan University, majoring in literature. By the age of 17, he had gained local recognition as an opera singer, often playing female roles. Bernard Boursicot was born in France in 1944. Throughout his youth, he attended boarding schools, where he had same-sex relationships with several fellow students. But by the time he arrived in Beijing at the age of 20, he was seeking a relationship with a woman, believing his relations with men were just a “schoolboy’s game.”... At first, Boursicot and Shi’s relationship was strictly platonic, as Boursicot was still determined to find a female partner. Then, Shi told him a tale called “The Story of the Butterfly” about a schoolgirl in ancient China named Zhu who dresses as a boy so she can attend school... Shi explained that his paternal grandmother had given his mother a decree: If she did not give the family a son, Shi’s father would have to take a second wife. When Shi was born, they realized the baby was a girl. Not wanting to lose her place in the household, Shi’s mother and the midwife made a pact to raise the baby as a boy and keep the real identity secret from Shi’s grandmother. Shi had been living as a man ever since. Realizing that Shi was a woman, Boursicot suddenly saw her in a whole new light — and realized they could now pursue a romantic and sexual relationship. At first, their romance was strained and cold. Whenever they had sex, it was always hurried, under cover of darkness. Meanwhile, Shi continued to dress and live as a man publicly. It was only ever with Boursicot that she lived as a woman... Boursicot would not meet his son for years. During that time, at great risk to his own safety, he continued to visit Shi under the guise that she was teaching him about the Cultural Revolution. One day, Shi told Boursicot that a Beijing city government representative would be taking over as Boursicot’s teacher. A man named Kang soon showed up at Shi’s house while Boursicot was visiting. Sensing that Kang was a police officer, Boursicot offered the Chinese government something in exchange for continuing his relationship with Shi. “How can I help the people?” Boursicot asked Kang. “If, for example, we had news at the embassy…” Thus began Boursicot’s work as a spy for the Chinese government... Shi later claimed to not have any knowledge of Boursicot’s espionage... In prison, medical examinations showed Shi had intact male genitalia. Shi demonstrated to doctors how he was able to hide his genitals during sex to convince Boursicot he was a woman. Later, Shi testified in court that he was a man... Distraught over the lies he had been told for nearly 20 years, Boursicot attempted suicide in his prison cell while awaiting trial. Thankfully, he survived. But he never quite forgave Shi Pei Pu. Both Shi Pei Pu and Bernard Boursicot were convicted of espionage and sentenced to six years in prison. But less than one year later, Shi received a presidential pardon. Reportedly, the French government did not want to endanger relations with China over a “very silly” case. Boursicot received a pardon a few months later."
Germans Save More, Yet Retire Poorer: A Financial Enigma - "German savers have little choice when it comes to the actual investment of capital. For example, pension funds are not allowed to invest more than 35 percent of their capital in stocks. Ebert says that “the nominal guarantee of contributions prescribed by politics systematically destroys the return.”... These are not the only stumbling blocks in the German company pension. The situation with taxes is similarly unfavorable"
The best Lord of the Rings Easter eggs are quotes hidden in dialogue - "Tom Bombadil, who appears early in the novel version of The Fellowship of the Ring and baffles lore experts, and one of the distinctive ents of The Two Towers, the (relatively) sprightly Quickbeam, are two characters who wound up cut from the movies. But Boyens, et al. honored them by slipping their dialogue into the mouth Treebeard - another guardian of nature. In addition to singing Quickbeam’s song (“O rowan mine!”), Treebeard also speaks aloud some narration from Tom Bombadil’s chapter, with his line about the “destroyers and usurpers!” who go about biting, breaking, and burning the pristine wilderness. Tricks like that highlight just how much restructuring of the story Jackson had to do as a director to keep the story in the shape of a film trilogy rather than a novel trilogy... In some cases, Boyens, Jackson, and Walsh chose quiet moments where Tolkien’s prose could breathe, and better evoke the books’ bittersweet tone. Frodo’s lament to Gandalf about wishing he were not the one to live to see such times has become a memetic touchstone, especially during this past year of constant doom and gloom. Jackson plucked it out of an exposition-heavy chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring and found a quiet moment for it, as Gandalf and Frodo rest in Moria, a lull before a major swell of action. It’s not unlike another lull during the movies’ climactic siege of Minas Tirith, when Gandalf and Pippin take a breather and Gandalf soothes his fears about death. He actually sneaks in a line of narration from the very end of The Return of the King, describing the last thing Frodo sees aboard the ship as it bears him to the shores of Valinor: “white shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.” Jackson and his co-writers also made a valiant effort to preserve the many songs and poems that pepper Tolkien’s work but that would have absolutely torpedoed the pacing of the movies. On his way into the Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf sings the song that is so often reprised throughout the series, “The Road goes ever on and on…,” for instance. Particularly dramatic, too, is a poem of Rohan that begins “Where now are the horse and the rider?”, originally recited by Aragorn in The Two Towers as he, Legolas and Gimli arrive in the land of the horse lords. In the movies, Theoden delivers a portion of it in solemn voiceover over a montage of characters gearing up for the siege of Helm’s Deep. It’s a change that shows a deep understanding of the text, tying Theoden’s character to his culture, and in a way perfectly in line with its fatalistic theme... The extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring includes one short scene that sets up a major callback to the novels for Aragorn’s character. In an early scene in Rivendell, he visits his mother’s grave. Readers would know that Aragorn’s mother lived a hard life, hiding from a dark lord bent on killing her son. And so, when Elrond visits Aragorn at the end of The Return of the King to deliver the sword Anduril (a scene that does not happen in the books in the same way or at the same time), it means even more than some viewers may know when he says “I give hope to Men” and Aragorn answers, “I keep none for myself.” Those two lines are a paraphrasing of the poem Aragorn’s mother spoke to him the last time he saw her alive. Put in context with the extended edition scene by the grave, Elrond’s visit isn’t just handing off a plot device: He’s admonishing Aragorn to remember his duty. It’s a triumph of the film adaptations that scenes like this sometimes feel like improvements on the original work."
Police detain firebrand Umno Youth chief who led boycott calls on 'Allah' socks controversy - "Police have detained Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh, who has been leading boycott calls against local convenience store chain KK Mart, over the sale of several socks with “Allah” wording printed on them... Three weeks ago, at the start of the socks issue, Dr Akmal had also posted a photo on Instagram of him bearing a Japanese sword. His caption said he would not change his stance for anything and he “preferred to die standing than living on his knees”."
Agong angry about ‘Allah’ socks issue - "The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim has expressed his displeasure at the controversy surrounding the sale of socks bearing the word “Allah” at convenience stores. In a Facebook post, the king called for stern action to be taken against those responsible... Police have received 36 reports about the socks and are investigating the matter for causing disharmony and misusing network facilities. Earlier today, the vendor firm that supplied the socks to KK Mart said it was considering legal action for negligence against its supplier in China. Xin Jian Chang Sdn Bhd, a local company based in Johor, said its supplier had admitted that the socks were included “by mistake”."
Harvard and its peers should be embarrassed about how few students they educate - The Washington Post - "Ivy League colleges grew by 14 percent over the last 30 years, lagging far behind the 44 percent rise in the number of high school graduates. Many well-known public universities have expanded the number of students they serve without sacrificing quality. For example, the University of Michigan’s enrollment has increased by 35 percent since 1990, but that has not caused it to lose its place among the top 25 schools in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of national universities"
When you don't understand the value of signalling
CoderPad and CodinGame State of Tech Hiring 2024 - "36% of developers say they’re not interested in taking on managerial responsibilities."
A Harvard career adviser explains how managers can bridge the Gen-Z generation gap at work - "When I survey students on what they want from their careers, they overwhelmingly tell me they want financial stability and work/life balance. Only about 2% of any student audience I survey wants to climb the corporate ladder."
This seems to contradict what he claims about Gen Z not being different
Millennials and Gen Z Like to Splurge on Groceries Over Anything Else - "Gen Z, meanwhile, says the money they choose to spend on high-quality snacks and beverages makes for expensive grocery bills. One 23-year-old Gen Zer told Business Insider by text that he spends about $130 for a week and a half on groceries. "Fancy sodas and drinks" and "random snacks at Trader Joe's" account for the bulk of the bill. He also said he spent about $35 on protein bars. The success of the canned water brand Liquid Death also shows how young people are willing to spend on flashy food and beverages. The brand recently shot up to a valuation of $1.4 billion thanks to a recent round of funding, according to Forbes. Peter Pham, an investor in Liquid Death, previously told Business Insider that part of the brand's success comes from its appeal to younger generations."
Meme - "The vet suggested a shirt instead of a cone for my cat. Fun Fact: Most Cats wear baby sizes 0-3 months."
Meme - Girl: "I didn't say "Let's play doctor." I said, "Let's play Civil War doctor." *ready to saw off boy's leg*"
Why lesbians flock to Lesbos - "Joanna Savva, a local travel agent, estimates that 3,000-4,000 gay women now visit Eresos every summer, up from under 1,000 a couple of decades ago. The village has only 1,500 full-time residents, but three lesbian bars. Hundreds of tourists attend a women’s festival every September, where activities range from political discussions to beach parties... Although locals on Lesbos are now friendly towards lesbian visitors, this was not always the case. Homophobia used to be widespread. Ten years ago, three islanders even tried to reclaim the word “lesbian”: they unsuccessfully demanded that Greek courts ban its use to describe gay women. But attitudes have since softened considerably, as lesbian tourists have filled hotels, bars and restaurants in Eresos. As Ms Savva puts it, “People here have learnt the value of the pink dollar.”... Lesbos is not the only Greek island to attract gay tourists. Nearby Mykonos has developed a reputation as a frenetic party hotspot for gay men. But with acceptance of homosexuality growing across the rich world, some wonder if places like these will appeal to future generations of gay travellers. Lillian Jensen, the Norwegian owner of a lesbian bar in Eresos, says many younger lesbians “want to go to more mainstream places”. But for now, she remains optimistic about Eresos’s prospects. “There’s nowhere else in Europe quite like it,” she says."
From 2018
