Links - 24th June 2017 (1)

Increased Body Mass Index Associated with Increased Risky Sexual Behaviors - "BMI was positively associated with number of sexual partners (P = .001) and history of attempted anal intercourse (P = .002). An inverse association was observed with age at first anal intercourse (P = .040). In this sample of adolescent women, increased BMI was associated with riskier sexual practices at a younger age"
Maybe this explains chubby chasers

One of the world’s wealthiest countries is also one of its biggest online pirates - "it’s generally true that users in lower income countries go to piracy sites more often. But there’s one glaring exception: Singapore."

Charity Accused of 'Body Shaming' for Highlighting Link Between Obesity and Cancer - "Cancer Research UK was accused of being “violent” towards fat people with its ad campaign aimed at encouraging people to be healthier... One activist complained to the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, demanding that he take the message down."

'Woke' Student Leader Sends Out Campus-Wide Farewell Letter Declaring 'All White People Are Racist' - "She describes herself as "a token for white supremacists," a claim she does not expand on... American universities only have themselves to blame for the widespread backlash they are experiencing from their "woke" students, who have been taught by those universities to view the world as permanent victims of an unjust system perpetuating and perpetuated by "conditioned" racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic bigots. It was inevitable that campus social justice warriors would eventually come to see the universities as just another part of that institutionalized injustice that must be torn down"

Few tech start-ups in Singapore have their own inventions: Study - "Few of the tech start-ups here have their own inventions, and they are mostly propped up by funding — including from the Government — because they are rarely profitable, the researchers found. They added that many tech start-ups here are of “lower risk, lower growth” calibre, and there are not enough deep-tech start-ups that, despite being riskier ventures, could reap greater rewards."

Hi, I’m REALLY mad right now at this stupid... - Eternal Spring Dream - "A certain artist (based in the Philippines might I add) recently made a J.CO (Indonesian donut restaurant chain) gijinka recently, and people accused them of whitewashing their gijinka because the character’s skin was too bright. I, as an Indonesian, am seriously offended. Not by the gijinka, but by the masses of people who are being offended ON MY BEHALF FOR THE WRONG REASONS. The most insulting thing about this whole situation is that this website fucking auto-assumes that all brightly colored characters have been whitewashed and that this is always a bad thing and racist because of how things are in the West... Racism in Indonesia is not always about about a white skinned race oppressing a darker skinned race. If anything, it’s more to do with Xenophobia and Religion.
Following up on that, here’s the shocker:
The DISCRIMINATED MINORITY in Indonesia has a lighter skin color than the PRIVILEGED MAJORITY...
THE ARTIST YOU’RE MAD AT IS A PoC FROM THE SAME REGION AS INDONESIA THEMSELVES, (the Philippines) AN ARTIST WHO HAD NO INTENTION OF WHITEWASHING. WHO JUST SAW REALLY NICE COLORS THAT WORKED AND THOUGHT IT WAS COOL. WHO KNOWS FULL WELL THE STRUGGLE SOUTHEAST ASIA HAS HAD AGAINST EUROPE IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD.
IT’S AS IF YOU’RE TRYING TO LECTURE A VICTIM ON WHY THEY SHOULD FEEL VICTIMIZED INSTEAD OF UNDERSTANDING OUR STORY.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, TUMBLR."

Police: Brown County church organist admitted to November vandalism - "A Brown County church vandalized with Donald Trump graffiti shortly after the 2016 election wasn't targeted by pro-Trump political activists, but a member of their own congregation... Stang was the man who originally claimed to have found the graffiti, and works as the organist at St. David's Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom... when confronted with the evidence, the 26-year-old gay man confessed. Investigators say Stang admitted to painting the "Heil Trump" and "Fag Church" graffiti himself because he wanted to "mobilize a movement after being disappointed in and fearful of the outcome of the national election." He insisted his actions were not motivated by anti-Christian or anti-gay sentiments."... "He explained that one of the reasons he had done it was because of fear. He was concerned about the results of the election," Adams said. In a three-page, handwritten statement, Stang, according to court records, wanted to "mobilize a movement." "I suppose I wanted to give local people a reason to fight for good, even if it was a false flag," he wrote. "To be clear my actions were not motivated by hate for the church or its congregation. I of course realize now, this was NOT the way to go about inspiring activism.""
How come right wingers don't do false flags? Some say 4chan trolling like piss for equality is the right wing equivalent, but the fact that liberals fall for it and sincerely believe in the silly ideas is telling enough. Furthermore, there's a difference between faking hate crimes and being satirical (especially if others actually buy in to the idiocy, which exposes the vacuity of the general mindset)

The Movie Date That Solidified J.R.R. Tolkien's Dislike of Walt Disney - "In a number of letters dated after his Snow White date with Lewis, Tolkien refers to Disney’s works as “vulgar.” Tolkien also believed that fairy tales had become hopelessly infantilized, noting in his 1947 essay On Fairy-Stories that “the association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history.” Years later, in a 1964 letter to a Miss J.L. Curry at Stanford University, likely spurred on by the controversy surrounding Disney’s treatment of Mary Poppins, Tolkien further laid bare his true feelings on Disney’s work. He described Disney’s talent as “hopelessly corrupted,” writing, “Though in most of the ‘pictures’ proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them is to me disgusting. Some have given me nausea…” He goes on to call Disney a “cheat,” noting that while he too had a profit motive behind his work, he wouldn’t stoop to working with Disney."

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Political Distractions - "When I was a little kid every Saturday afternoon Ethiopian television had a program showing highlights of the English League... Once there were protests so the government broadcast whole football matches on normal television to distract people...
[On Kyrgystan] The flag binds people together. It stops ethnic conflict"

The place where children can be very unlucky with their names - "His name is Mulangani. It's a Nguni word meaning "punish me". Or "he who must be punished", if you want to get formal. Who, I asked my driver Mavuto, would give their child such a horrible name? "Maybe his grandfather, maybe the chief," he shrugged, explaining that across Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe, it is common for parents, especially in rural areas, to invite community elders to choose the name of a newborn. "Sometimes the chief wants to punish the family," says Mavuto. "Or he may think this new child is too much for the family to bear." Watching the boy's Sisyphean progress towards his distant home, that name suddenly seems disturbingly apt, but he's not the only one cursed with a dismal name. In later days, I meet Chilumba - "my brother's grave", Balaudye - "I will be eaten", Soca - "bad luck" and Chakufwa - "it is dead"."

CHINA VEIL BAN: Beijing outlaws Islamic veil and beards in Muslim province - "The new restrictions in the far western region of Xinjiang include a range of measures including outlawing religious marriage ceremonies and "using the name of Halal to meddle in the secular life of others”... A number of bans on select "extremist behaviours" had previously been introduced in some places in Xinjiang, including stopping people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses in at least one city... While Uighurs have traditionally practiced a more relaxed form of Islam, the popularity of veils for women in particular has grown in recent years in what experts say is an expression of opposition to Chinese controls."
Maybe the popularity of veils for women in Malaysia has grown in recent years in an expression of opposition to UMNO controls

Index of ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/SINGAPORE/HomePlug/
Aztech Homeplug FTP server (for downloading firmware, software, manuals etc)

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Tumbling Down - "[On a foreign company acting like a government in the Dominican Republic] Given the choice of being run by the Dominican Government or the Grenada Company, he tells me he'd pick the Americans anyday. I was the first child to be born in Manzanillo's hospital... We love the Americans. Electricity was free, water was free, rent was free. And then in 1965 the company left. Ramon describes how labourers from outside the town agitated for workers' rights and independence from the foreigners. Strikes left more than a million racines - bushels of bananas - to rot in warehouses. Everyone expected the company to come back, but it never did...
[On Ireland] A friend's family sold prams on one side of the bar and ran an undertaking business on the other. 'From the cradle to the grave' was the shop's proud slogan... [It] had the highest pub to people ratio in the country: 72 licensed premises in and around the town for a population of only 2,000. Or one bar for every 28 people
The perfect is the enemy of the good. "Imperialism" isn't always bad and native rule isn't always good

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, In Search of Happiness - "[On the UAE] When their friend was approached by men from the ministry about business and footfall in the marble-floored shopping mall... he explained things weren't so good. Takings down in his shop, rent's high. Afterwards the businessman received a fine for not projecting the right image. Basically for not being quite happy enough...
As soon as a girl is born Uzbek families begin collecting jewelry, money and precious fabrics. All of it is carefully squirreled away into a glittery wedding trunk to be used as a dowry or for future heirlooms."

Kerry Parnell: New fashion trend of going commando on red carpet is offensive - "In truth, I despair of my fellow females. Why is this not seen as offensive? It offends me. And it’s hypocritical: Imagine if men started playing rock-the-cock in their tuxedos at awards shows. They’d be arrested for indecent exposure... The lack of taste is one thing, but without getting too gynaecological (look away gentlemen), it’s just not very hygienic. I wouldn’t want to plonk myself down on a pleather banquette after some knickerless wonder had sat there all evening"

Bombay Sapphire gin recalled across Canada for containing too much alcohol - "The Liquor Control Board Of Ontario was the first to issue a recall after its internal quality assurance team discovered that some bottles of Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin had not been properly diluted, resulting in an alcohol content of 77 per cent, not 40 per cent as listed on the bottle."

A Sandwich Shop Posted a Sign That Said ‘Liam Neeson Eats Here For Free,’ and Guess Who Showed Up?

Map shows world's most racist countries (and the answers may surprise you) - "the study of 80 countries over three decades found Western countries were most accepting of other cultures with Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia more tolerant than anywhere else... The country with the highest proportion of 'intolerant' people who wanted neighbours similar to them was Jordan, where 51.4 per cent of the population would refuse to live next to someone of a different race. Next was India with 43.5 per cent. Racist views are strikingly rare in the U.S., according to the survey, which claims that only 3.8 per cent of residents are reluctant to have a neighbour of another race... fewer than one in 20 people in most South American countries admitted harbouring prejudice against other races."

B.C. school’s decision to not celebrate Mother’s, Father’s day in class sparks debate - “In an effort to celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and also to nurture our students who are part of non-traditional families, we have decided to encourage those celebrations to take place at home. Due to this, the children will not be making gifts at school to make on Mother’s and Father’s day. We feel each family knows the best way to celebrate with their own family.”
This is like being upset when someone else is eating a donut because you're on a diet. Or thinking gay marriage will affect heterosexual marriage

The Sandwich Alignment Chart (cue John Hodgman's exploding head!)

Hillary Clinton lost because Obama voters went to Donald Trump - "Many Democrats have a shorthand explanation for Clinton’s defeat: Her base didn’t turn out, Donald Trump’s did and the difference was too much to overcome. But new information shows that Clinton had a much bigger problem with voters who had supported President Barack Obama in 2012 but backed Trump four years later. Those Obama-Trump voters, in fact, effectively accounted for more than two-thirds of the reason Clinton lost, according to Matt Canter, a senior vice president of the Democratic political firm Global Strategy Group. In his group’s analysis, about 70 percent of Clinton’s failure to reach Obama’s vote total in 2012 was because she lost these voters... His firm’s conclusion is shared broadly by other Democrats who have examined the data, including senior members of Clinton’s campaign and officials at the Democratic data and analytics firm Catalist. (The New York Times, doing its own analysis, reached a similar conclusion.)... Belief that turnout was the main reason Clinton lost, however, remains a prominent theory among Democrats... some Democrats think winning over voters is already a lost cause. “There’s still a real concern that persuasion is harder and costs more than mobilization, so let’s just triple down on getting out the people who already agree with us,” she said. “And I think there’s a lot of worry that we don’t actually know how to persuade anymore, and so maybe we should just go talk to the people we agree with.”"
The liberal echo chamber and demonisation of people they disagree with has electoral implications