Divers Links part two

Fact check: Are Labor's policies socialist? (ABC, 20 September 2017). This overview of the meaning of "socialism" helped plug some of the countless holes in my knowledge of politics and history.

The four ways distrust of science has infected political agendas (ABC, 31 July 2017). Another good overview, this time of the intersection of scepticism of science and political leanings.

Which Hair Color Induces the Strongest Physical Attraction? (Psychology Today, 1 September 2017). Gingerism!

How Australia's discrimination laws and public health campaigns perpetuate fat stigma (ABC, 11 July 2017). Fat-shaming is meant to improve peoples' health, but it has the opposite effect.

Australia wants to avoid a Korean war at all costs – and with good reason (GA, 29 April 2017) "A conflict could involve North’s neighbours – South Korea, China and Japan – which along with the US are Australia’s top four trade partners." | Why would North Korea's little tyrant lob a missile on Darwin? (SMH, 6 July 2017) A partly tongue-in-cheek, partly serious look at Darwin as a potential target - its use as a US military base vs its importance as a Chinese-owned port.

Octopus And Squid Evolution Is Officially Weirder Than We Could Have Ever Imagined (Science Alert, 2017). The dang things routinely tweak their RNA - not their genes, but how they're expressed in the brain.

Ancient Samurai Scroll Describes Blinding Powders, Moonless Battles (Live Science, 27 June 2017)

Class is the new black: The dangers of an obsession with the 'Aboriginal middle class' (ABC, 28 June 2017)

What Is Sharia Law? (Snopes, 19 September 2017). "As with so many aspects of Islam, some non-Muslims criticize "Sharia law" without really knowing the first thing about it."

He Was a Crook (The Atlantic, July 1994). Hunter S. Thompson destroys a freshly deceased Richard Nixon. Gods I wish he was still with us (Thompson, not Nixon).

Two longer pieces:

Yearning for the end of the world (The Guardian, 25 August 2017). "'If it was conclusive that cellphones were killing honeybees, would you stop using them?' Most said no. 'I think the scientists will figure it out,' said one student, 'but really, who cares if there are honeybees? This world is coming to an end anyway. We’ll all be raptured.'... When you’re tied to other people, you’re tied to needs and frailties and messy long-term puzzles, like the fate of honeybees. But the Rapture is about unfastening, being 'citizens of heaven' and breaking with all that’s difficult and risky about life among humans. Is there a more attractive notion than to be spirited away and freed of responsibility? The fate of the Earth may be unknowable, or catastrophic – you don’t have to care." This analysis disturbed me because of my own partial withdrawal from the world due to ill health and social anxiety. OTOH as a Wiccan my religion connects me deeply to this living world of trees and people and honeybees.

How America Lost Its Mind (The Atlantic, September 2017). Adapted from Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire—A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen. I read this right through at the library, which is pretty unusual for me. It traces the history of irrational belief in the US from the sixties and the Left to the eighties and the Right and through to today. I take some of it with a grain of salt, but it also pinged me personally, because of the complexities of profoundly valuing reason while holding non-rational beliefs.

Refugee Update

Sri Lankan Tamil refugee found dead on Manus Island (GA, 2 October 2017) He had been formally found to be a refugee. He had been seriously mentally ill for months, and had survived a recent suicide attempt. The Refugee Action Coalition reports that adequate psychiatric care is not available on the island and two other detainees are in a similarly dangerous condition.

ETA: The refugee was due to face court over a sexual assault charge the day he was found dead. The failure to prevent his death means that there is now no chance his alleged victim seeing justice done.

Thank gods, some of the men from Manus have survived and are now starting their new lives in the US - hopefully just the very first of many more, despite Immigration Minister Dutton's bizarre attack on them."He has presided over torture," The Saturday Paper writes, "and he does not care." I assume Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was trying to undo the damage he caused by explaining that the men were genuine refugees who had been additionally vetted by the United States.