When you can't live without bananas

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Thursday, May 09, 2024

Links - 9th May 2024 (1)

Meme - Woman: "So what are we now?"
Me: "Probably parents cause I didn't pull out"

American Heart Association Was Paid Off By Procter & Gamble To Say Heart Disease Was Caused By Saturated Fat, Not Seed Oils - ""Do saturated fats cause heart disease? The science was always weak," Teicholz tweets. "Fear of these fats was started by American Heart Assoc. in 1961 based on a flawed study."  She shares an article from a journal called Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity that reviews the history of "the diet-heart hypothesis from the late 1950s up to the current day," including revelations that were never published before in scientific literature. The American Heart Association, the nation's largest nonprofit organization that is considered the leading voice when it comes to heart disease education and awareness, started recommending in 1961 that people avoid saturated fat and replace it with polyunsaturated vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, etc.  "The 1961 AHA advice to limit saturated fat is arguably the single-most influential nutrition policy ever published, as it came to be adopted first by the U.S. government, as official policy for all Americans, in 1980, and then by governments around the world as well as the World Health Organization," the article reads.  However, they were paid off to distribute this information. The AHA accepted $20 million (in today's dollars) in funding from Procter & Gamble, a corporation that conveniently makes and sells Crisco Oil. The AHA recommended that everyone replace butter with "heart healthy" alternatives like vegetable oil or Crisco Oil. "Despite Heart Assoc advice, the original 'core' clinical trials on saturated fats, from the 60s and 70s, could not find an effect of these fats on cardiovascular mortality, total mortality, and for the most part heart attacks or other 'events [sic],'" Teicholz tweets. "Results from these trials, other studies on sat fats were ignored, suppressed. Eg, the famous Framingham study couldn't find any link between sat fats and heart disease. This govt-funded result was never published. Another major study w/ contrary results not published for 17y [sic]." It wasn't until the late 2000s that scientists and journalists started to re-examine saturated fats and restructure the way people talked about butter, meat, and eggs in relation to overall health and wellness. Teicholz points out that the 2020 Dietary Guidelines expert committee "found that 88% of studies in their own review did not support" the idea that heart disease was caused by saturated fat. And yet the committee ignored this data and claimed "the evidence against saturated fat was 'strong.'" Teicholz also reminds us that cutting out saturated fat can actually do the body harm, "because you will cut out foods that contain the key nutrients needed for maintaining health and having healthy children."  "It's sobering to realize that US policy to cut saturated fats was created for middle-aged men fearful of heart disease," she concludes. "Never considered the potential harms to women, children. US policy on sat fats never weighed costs vs. benefits and has never reflected the science." It's no wonder more people than ever are skeptical of public health organizations and mainstream experts who claim to possess the final word on health and nutrition"
Trust the Science! If you don't, you're a far right conspiracy theorist who has fallen to misinformation and need to be re-educated

The day a bus jumped Tower Bridge - "On 30th December 1952, Albert Gunter was happily going about his day job, driving the number 78 bus over Tower Bridge towards Shoreditch. To his utter surprise, the road in front of him seemed to drop away.  Gunter quickly realised that the Bridge was opening, and his bus was on a rising bascule.  Slamming his foot down on the accelerator, Gunter managed to jump the rising bascule. He successfully reached the north side of Tower Bridge, which had not yet begun to open, getting all his 20 passengers across safely.  As a precaution, all those of on board were taken to hospital. Thankfully, there was only one person injured: Gunter broke his leg. Amazingly enough, the bus, which was going at just 12 mph (19.3 km/h), was intact... 'He said that he had been a tank-driver during the war and that a tank would have had no trouble getting onto the other side and decided to see if a double-decker could do the same. So, to his quick thinking, we were all delivered safe to the other side.'...
Back in the 1950s, a watchman was supposed to ring a warning bell and close the gates before Tower Bridge opened.  On that particular day, he somehow forgot to do so."

Thread by @culturaltutor on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "This painting is over 100 years old.  It was made by a Swedish illustrator called John Bauer, one of the most important artists you've never heard of.  His revolutionary art influenced everything from graphic novels to animated films to video games, and here's why... John Bauer had a short but wonderfully creative life that ended in tragedy.  He died in 1918, at the age of just 36, along with his wife and son in a shipwreck on Lake Vättern.  But, in the time he was given, Bauer gave plenty back to the world. Bauer, who spent his schooldays doodling caricatures, studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.  There he set himself the goal of finding a new way to illustrate fairy tales, especially for children — he believed they had become conventionalised and lifeless. See, throughout the 19th century illustration had been a sort of knock-off version of "Real Art".  Illustrators were beholden to the paintings of the Renaissance and the Academies, and they used a watered-down version of these styles to illustrate childrens' stories: Other illustrators were perhaps too reverential of Medieval and Renaissance woodcuts by the likes of Albrecht Dürer.  Again, these are not bad works of art, but Bauer was right — these illustrations feel somewhat lacking in life, lacking in magic. John Bauer changed all that.  His illustrations of traditional Swedish folk tales, along with stories from Germanic mythology, were unlike anything else being made in Europe at the time.  His work was childlike without being childish and fantastical without being twee. Bauer's heavily stylised worlds were, and remain, utterly enchanting.  Somehow he found a way to breathe new life into the fairytale tropes of trolls, fairies, knights, maidens, goblins, and wizards without relying on the familiar forms of other illustrators. In short, John Bauer gave illustration a visual language of its own.  No longer would illustrations be made in reference to the art of the Academies or to the Renaissance.  Bauer wanted to make illustration a distinct form of art, and he succeeded: How did he do it? Notice that Bauer used unusual compositions.  His figures are often squashed into the frame, or positioned at the extreme of one side, leaving swathes of empty space.  An unusual choice, but it gives these images a suitable sense of mystery and strangeness. He also liked to depict scenes in a way that was almost two-dimensional.  This harked back to Medieval art, but Bauer did not merely imitate — he reapplied it in a new way.  These illustrations look rather similar to platformer video games: You can see why John Bauer has been so influential; thousands grew up with his drawings, which were published in the annual anthology of Swedish folkore called "Among Gnomes and Trolls".  The design of parts of Minecraft was inspired by his depictions of forests and caves: He was never happy with his own work, always haunted by self-doubt, and felt that he had never achieved his goal of closing the gap between "real art" and "illustration".  But, to others, he *had* shown that the latter could be just as good as the former, in its own way. Because from those rather drab 19th century illustrations something new had emerged.  Bauer's fairytales are genuinely compelling, even frightening, and darkly magical.  These look familiar to us because this sort of illustration has become common; back then it was revolutionary. Still, you can see Bauer's doubts in his self-portrait:
The full influence of Bauer is hard to quantify.  No doubt he was immensely influential in his homeland, and people like Brian Froud and Neil Gaiman have acknowledged his work.  But Bauer's impact on everything from animation to video games is likely far greater than we realise. He represents a turning point from the decidedly stale world of 19th century illustration to the modern era whereby illustration — including comics, graphic novels, animated films, and most recently video games — have become a fully fledged genre of their own. Bauer was not alone in doing this, of course.  In Britain there was Arthur Rackham, who like Bauer illustrated tales from folklore and the operas of Richard Wagner also. Meanwhile in France there was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.  His speciality was posters rather than illustrations, but even so he was still part of this broader, continental revolution in graphic design that expanded art beyond the world of murals and canvasses: And another important figure was Gustave Doré.  He was perhaps the most prolific illustrator of the 19th century, producing thousands of fabulous images to illustrate everything from the Bible to epic poems like Orlando Furioso or Paradise Lost, along with Don Quixote. Doré was dismissed as a "mere" illustrator by the artistic establishment.  But he, like Bauer, created art that was beloved by the people who read and loved these stories.  And so, in time, their belief in the artistic potential of "mere" illustration changed everything. There was also major influence from Japan.  When Japan's borders were forcibly opened to international trade in the 1850s and 1860s ukiyo-e — Japanese woodblock prints, made in the thousands for the popular market — flooded Europe.  They changed European art forever. But of all these many influences and great artists, it's hard to find one more original than John Bauer.  He breathed new life into illustration and, though we cannot say he singlehandedly created a new form of art, he clearly helped to do so... John Bauer achieved his dream."

Meme - Man at candlelight dinner: "I WORK WITH CHILDREN"
Woman: "THAT'S SO SWEET"
*Man as sweatshop driver with whip and children on sewing machines*

Meme - "Orc 1: "Did you hear that? What was that?"
Orc 2: "Probably something that finally broke off and fell down one of the wells. This place is old."
Unknown voice: "Fool of a Took!"
Orc 2: "You know what? Let's go check it out.""

Meme - ahmadaccino: "i just experienced a recruiter horror story today. he sent only one email that included the time and the meeting outlook made from it was indeed for 5... He created an entire novel in his head about me"
"Ahmad - Why did you no show to your interview with *** today?!?"
"Hello, did the time get changed? I have it on my calendar for eastern in 30 minutes"
"You're an idiot and super unreliable. It's no wonder you did not finish college. You wasted many peoples' valuable time. I won't work with you again and will do my best to make sure other recruiters and companies know the same. I sent you all of this information multiple times (text, email, etc.) and you confirmed it. Shame on you"
"This is an incredibly unprofessional response. If it's true that the time isn't correct, I understand why this may seem unprofessional. But to berate someone with insults is incredibly unprofessional. I will be contacting *** accordingly."
"You never picked up or returned calls, confirmed with myself (and in turn E7) and no showed for an interview, and "played dumb" after you missed the interview. You put me in an uncomfortable situation with my client and their hiring manager and couldn't care less about wasting others time. You need to grow up and remove your narcissistic personality from the professional world. Take responsibility. Your actions impacted many peoples valuable time. Good luck!"
ahmadaccino on X - "he apologized... tech twitter did something really nice to me today. i usually post memes on here but today we hopefully inspired change  to err is human. honestly I dont feel spiteful to him. i hope all recruiters see devs as human and all devs view recruiters as human. I really just wanted to make sure he doesn't repeat these actions to other candidates. if I was out of a job and gotten that response i truly would have been devastated. it would be hard NOT to take it to heart  this platform has a lot of power. lets keep using it to restore humanity to a thankless job industry   thanks everyone, thanks those who dm'd with advice & shoutout @t3dotgg  and @levelsio  for making this go nuclear🫡"

Meme - Noah Smith @Noahpinion: "LOLLLLL I thought this must be fake, but nope. It was real."
Reimu @EconReimu: "Thinking about Marx's attempt to disprove the concept of derivatives."
"There is a very classic writing of Karl Marx, a very short note, entitled "Note on Mathematics," that was really a bible for Marxian economists in Japan at that time. The main theme of that note is to prove that the concept of the derivative is in contradiction. Marx's proof runs as follows: Suppose dy /dx exists and takes an arbitrarily given value a: dy / dx = a. However, dx = 0, dy = 0. Hence, 0/0 = a, i.e. 0 = 0a. Therefore, dy can take any arbitrarily given value; a contradiction Q.E.D."
"This isn't even about calculus. It's about junior high math. Marx is talking about the slope of a straight line. He's saying the slope is undefined at any point on the line because slope is rise over run, and at a single point, rise and run are both zero."

Richard Hanania on X - "In Korea, the fans go crazy if K-Pop stars are feminists, and also go crazy if they date anyone, or even hint at dating. They must be asexual apolitical celibates! The low birth rate is starting to make sense."

Rolf Degen on X - "One of the most provocative findings in behavior genetics thoroughly replicated: Growing up in the same family does not make people more similar to each other."
PsyArXiv Preprints | Familial Transmission of Personality Traits and Life Satisfaction Is Much Higher Than Shown in Typical Single-Method Studies
The power of socialisation!

Thread by @Culture_Crit on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " Whenever they tell you it can't be done in the modern age, show them Dresden.  Everything you see in the bottom image was rebuilt in the last 20 years... The German city of Dresden was a jewelry box of Baroque beauty — once known as the Florence of the Elbe. This is how it looked at the turn of the 20th century: Many don't know the extent of the devastation that happened here. When Churchill turned his bombers on civilian targets in 1945 to demoralize Germany, Dresden was obliterated.  25,000 people died in one night — and possibly far more.  It remained Churchill's biggest regret. He said himself: "the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing."  You've seen this famous image before: Some 80% of buildings in the historic center were damaged or totally destroyed. Everything in this image (the palatial complex called the Zwinger, and the church behind) was decimated.  And this was the Frauenkirche, the luminous church at the heart of Dresden that was once one of Europe's largest domes...  After the war, when the USSR imposed a puppet state over East Germany, the communists ruled that the church must lie in rubble rather than be rebuilt.  Ostensibly, this was to memorialize the war — more likely, it was for the same reason it was destroyed in the first place: to demoralize. The Soviets were effective at weaponizing architecture. They went about clearing away the remains of war-ravaged beauty and erecting brutalist blocks across Europe.  Postwar Dresden became a vastly different city...  Its once-charming squares became exercises in building the model cities of socialism. The Frauenkirche lay in pieces for 50 years — until the Berlin Wall fell and Germans went about healing half-century-old wounds.  In 1993, the people of Dresden decided to piece their church back together, brick by brick. Every stone in the pile was sorted and analyzed. Except for a brand new dome, the church was built with as much original stone as possible, to the exact specifications of the original — as much as could be pieced together from old photographs. Rebuilding took 11 years, and in 2005, the cathedral was reconsecrated; rising like a phoenix from the ashes. It was finished one year ahead of schedule. And here's what happened around it. Elegant historicism that is putting Dresden back on the map of Europe's most awe-inspiring centers.  Much more work is planned, but it's fighting considerable bureaucratic resistance. Dresden's revival isn't important because it's an insightful rebuilding project. It's important because it proves that beauty is what binds cultures together. Here's proof: the gilded orb and cross atop the new dome were crafted by an English goldsmith — one whose father partook in the firebombing of 1945.  Queen Elizabeth contributed directly to its funding. The Frauenkirche was left in rubble perhaps because it reminded people of the terrifying risk of war. You might say sights like that deter future conflict — but rebuilding it is what brought nations together. Acts of mutual rebuilding are what brought peace to war-torn Europe.  Dresden took the traditions of its past and built them (literally) into hope for the future."

When Bringing Your ‘Whole Self’ to Work Is Too Much - WSJ - "Mental-health specialists caution that early-career professionals can face greater risks than people who have proved themselves or achieved a measure of power... Opening up can let others know they aren’t alone. It also can put co-workers in situations that they aren’t trained to handle... Handling sensitive disclosures has become a top challenge for bosses, says Dane Jensen, chief executive of the leadership-development firm Third Factor. His executive clients sometimes go into meetings with underachieving employees expecting straightforward discussions about improving output and wind up in more personal territory. “A performance conversation can turn into a mental-health conversation at the drop of a hat,” he says. “Leaders can say, ‘That makes me uncomfortable.’ Tough. It’s going to happen, and you have to get used to it.”... Sergio Valenzuela, a data analyst in Portland, Ore., says he paid a professional price for taking a five-week mental-health break from work last year. He says he told colleagues about the toll of losing several loved ones, including his mother, in close succession and described fatigue that came from feeling he had to outperform others because he is an immigrant. Mr. Valenzuela says his employer supported his leave of absence. Upon returning, he felt that important decisions affecting his team had been made without his input, which caused him to question his standing in the company. He left for a new opportunity several months ago. He would do it all again—the break was exactly what he needed—but he warns against naively expecting that sharing emotional truths doesn’t happen without trade-offs."

Employee Mental Health Suffers When Managers Try to Be Therapists - Bloomberg - "as these new-age leadership approaches have gained traction, employees have begun to gripe on workplace blogs about managers encouraging workers to bare their souls before budget meetings. One even set up a “condolence corner” during team calls, where staffers were expected to open up about a recent misfortune, like the death of a parent. “Managers are not therapists — it’s a liability,” McCarthy said. “Most organizations would be concerned if they heard their managers were acting in this way because of the potential for unintended consequences.” Melanie Naranjo, vice president of people at Ethena, a training platform, recalls having a boss early in the pandemic who wanted her to talk about things she’d rather keep private.  “Employees want to know managers care about their well-being and their success,” she said. “That does not mean saying, ‘Hey, I struggle with depression. I’d like to open it up and see who else has!’” Leaders who do that are like “psychological vampires,” according to James Pratt, a former human-resources executive who has grappled with bipolar disorder. “They feed off everyone else’s pain, and people can get profoundly hurt by it.”"

How Julia Stewart, A Former Waitress, Is Trying To Help Applebee's Escape 'The Sea Of Sameness' - "Julia Stewart knows chain restaurants inside-out: A waitress at IHOP in her teens, she became president of Applebee’s domestic division, but was denied the opportunity to be CEO that she thought she’d been promised. So she became CEO of IHOP and then proceeded to engineer a takeover of Applebee’s in 2007, taking on $2.3 billion in debt to do so...
Feldman: So you started as a waitress in your teens?
Stewart: Yes, I started as a food server at an IHOP in San Diego. I loved the feedback every day and the family atmosphere. I worked my way through college in food service and have been there ever since. After 18 years in marketing, I went into operations at Taco Bell and worked my way up and became head of all operations and licensing for Taco Bell. Applebee’s made me an offer I couldn’t refuse so I became president of Applebee’s. The promise when I got there was, turn it around and we’ll make you CEO. After about three and a-half years, I walked into the CEO’s office and he said, ‘No.’ I thought he meant, ‘Not now,’ so I took out my pad and my paper to take notes, but he meant, ‘No, not ever.’
Feldman: Why did he say that?
Stewart: Don’t know. I can guess. So I took the job at IHOP. And we bought Applebee’s. And I said goodbye to that man. There wasn’t a need for two CEOs.
Feldman: That must have been satisfying.
Stewart: In the book I am writing, there will be a chapter. But, look, you don’t borrow $2.3 billion for revenge. You do it because you think you can add value."
From 2016

2nd Most Taught Foreign Language in European Secondary Schools - "Why focus on the second most taught language and not the most taught language in general? Well, because it would be a pretty boring map. English is the most taught foreign language in all, but four countries on this map: Flanders (Belgium), Ireland, Luxembourg and the UK. In these four places, French is the most taught foreign language...   There are three languages that are clearly the most taught languages after English: French, German and Spanish. French is mostly the second most taught language in Western and Southern Europe. For German, it’s mostly in Eastern Europe. Both French and German are in the top 3 of most taught languages in secondary school in almost every European country."

Non-Tipping IHOP Diner Gets Back at Server Who Called Him “Broke” - "An IHOP customer who was seemingly offended by a server's comment about him being "broke" after he didn't tip staff for their poor service.  So TikToker (@ilikefineshii) decided to flaunt his money while waltzing back into the establishment to tip the Kitchen staff, pretty much everyone but the server who called him "broke."  "When a server call you broke bc they gave poor service & got no tip," a text overlay in the video reads as the TikToker walks into the IHOP back kitchen with a stack of cash in their hands. They pass off several bills to the folks who prepared their meals, driving home the idea that the reason they didn't initially tip wasn't because they didn't have money, but because they weren't satisfied with the quality of service they received."

Meme - "Babe
Princess
Angel
Precious little nugget
Slumbering little bug
lf you don't answer me the pet names are gonna start getting meaner
Bowl of cereal that's been sitting out for like an hour"

T on X - "Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Cyber Bullying Real Hahahaha Nigga Just Walk Away From The Screen Like Nigga Close Your Eyes Haha"

Meme - "When I was 7 I sent a letter to Beverly Cleary asking if she'd write a book where Ramona met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and she wrote back "Sure, if I live to be 104!" Well guess what"
Beverly HarperCollins @HarperCollins: "Happy 104th birthday to Beverly Cleary! #WeLoveBeverlyCleary #BeverlyCleary"

Meme - "Love is but a moment in time...
Ah Boys To Men Star Maxi Lim's Wedding Anniversary Gift To His Wife Was A $11k Rolex
But a Rolex is forever...
Actor Maxi Lim announces split with influencer Lizy Teo"

Meme - "I like it rough"
"I KNOW I SAW YOUR EX"

Meme - Soyjak: "PaW PaTrOl iS CoPaGaNdA! I dOn't lEt mY KiDs WAtCh iT! AcaB!"
Normal person: "You're a grown adult hating on a show meant for toddlers. Get a life."
These are the same people who mock grown men for caring about raceswapped Disney princesses (e.g. The Little Mermaid) or Star Wars, since they're for kids

The $2bn dirty-money case that rocked Singapore - "How did these men, some of whom had multiple passports from Cambodia, Vanuatu, Cyprus and Dominica, live and bank in Singapore for years without drawing scrutiny? It has sparked a review of policies, with banks tightening rules, especially around clients who hold multiple passports.  Most important, the case has spotlighted the country's struggle with welcoming the super wealthy, without also becoming a destination for ill-gotten gains... Today, the ultra-rich can fly into Singapore's private jet terminal, live it up in luxurious quayside neighbourhoods, and speculate on the world's first diamond trading exchange. Just outside the airport is a maximum-security vault called Le Freeport that provides tax-free storage for fine art, jewels, wine and other valuables. The $100m-facility is often dubbed Asia's Fort Knox.  Singapore's asset managers drew S$435bn from abroad in 2022, almost double the figure in 2017, according to the country's market regulator. More than half of Asia's family offices - firms which manage private wealth - are now in Singapore, according to a report by consulting giant KPMG and family office consultancy Agreus... Authorities say some of the accused in the money laundering case may be linked to family offices that were given tax incentives.  "There is an inherent contradiction for a place like Singapore, which prides itself on clean and good governance but also wants to accommodate the management of massive wealth by offering advantages such as low taxes and banking secrecy," says Chong Ja-Ian, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China... For rich Chinese, Singapore is a top choice because of its reputed governance and stability, as well as its cultural links to China. And more Chinese money has been entering Singapore in recent years.  One of the 10 suspects in this case was wanted in China since 2017 for his alleged role in illegal gambling online. Prosecutors claimed that he settled in Singapore because he "wanted a safe place to hide from the Chinese authorities"."

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