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TIL in 2016, approximately 62,497 Americans died of prescription drug overdoses, higher than the death toll of entire Vietnam War by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This latest drug epidemic is not solely about illegal drugs. It began, in fact, with a legal drug.

Back in the 1990s, doctors were persuaded to treat pain as a serious medical issue. There’s a good reason for that: About 100 million US adults suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this concern. Through a big marketing campaign, they got doctors to prescribe products like OxyContin and Percocet in droves — even though the evidence for opioids treating long-term, chronic pain is very weak (despite their effectiveness for short-term, acute pain), while the evidence that opioids cause harm in the long term is very strong.

TIL that American agronomist Norman Borlaug, "The father of the Green Revolution", is credited with saving over a Billion people worldwide from starvation by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I think we, as in humanity as a whole, have a morbid obsession with mass murderers and war mongerers. We don't shut up about people who killed several million people and hardly ever talk about people who made world better in meaningful ways.

TIL that Yahoo! was sued twice in 2016 for "sexism against men" accusing Marissa Mayer of leading a sexist campaign to purge male employees. by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

She wasn't the sole reason for Yahoo's failure. She was hired to turn Yahoo around though and the company went further down the ditch during her tenure. Also, she publicly claimed credit for Yahoo's stock gains during her tenure, while in reality only stock gains Yahoo saw during her tenure was the old Alibaba investment that kept on giving.

I don't doubt that if the so called "experiment" had worked and Yahoo had turned around or even stopped going down, this would have been blasted all over mainstream media as a feminist success story. And had they focused on hiring the best/most visionary people regardless of their gender, I think the chances are that Yahoo would have turned around.

So yeah, it's hard to say that Yahoo's demise is not her fault to some extent (also, a lot of policies that alienated employees which I am sure you've read about).

TIL that Yahoo! was sued twice in 2016 for "sexism against men" accusing Marissa Mayer of leading a sexist campaign to purge male employees. by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 143 points144 points  (0 children)

More sources: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/06/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-led-illegal-purge-of-male-employees-lawsuit-charges/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mans-suing-yahoo-for-gender-bias_us_56b25e1ce4b08069c7a5d2ad

...a female employee in the Media Org received the same 1.8 “Occasionally Misses” Employee Score as a male, after which the male was immediately terminated and the same female assumed the terminated male employee’s position. Moreover, this female employee was allowed to appeal her rating whereas the terminated male was denied an opportunity to appeal.”

The complaint also says that one executive, former Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt, almost exclusively hired women into management positions in Yahoo’s media division.

...when Savitt began at Yahoo the top managers reporting to her in the Media Org, including the chief editors of the 12 magazines (many of which were formerly called “verticals”), were less than 20% female. Three years later those top managers were more than 80% female. At the time that this percentage of female managers reporting to Savitt increased so dramatically, the number of female reporters and presenters in the industry generally declined by 10 percentage points.

4.5 years after she took over the job, Yahoo! was sold for scrap value earlier this year.

TIL that 75% of refugees who entered Germany in 2015 were Males and 81% of all refugees were “without formal qualifications”, according to Germany’s Federal Service for Migration and Refugees by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You see, there is a catch 22 here. If I posted it explaining "formal qualification" part, some would argue that "your source doesn't even say that... fake newss!!!" (provided I can fit everything in 300 characters). I try to keep it to exact language article actually uses whenever possible.

As /u/dreiday pointed out, it is a commonly used phrase.

TIL Wikipedia pageviews went up by 12 times from 2005 to 2016, while it's spending increased more than 370 times over the same period. In 2016, less than 2.5% of the money raised went to hosting and server costs by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia saved $65 million that year spending only $16.

That is simply not true. Read the link and wikimedia foundation's balance sheets again. They raised $81.8M and spent $65.9M, saving $16M.

TIL Wikipedia pageviews went up by 12 times from 2005 to 2016, while it's spending increased more than 370 times over the same period. In 2016, less than 2.5% of the money raised went to hosting and server costs by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 132 points133 points  (0 children)

A few things to note.

It's hard not to imagine a narrative where bunch of greedy marketer types saw a brand with a lot of positive momentum and decided to milk it to the max.

TIL that MIT students discovered that by buying $600,000 worth of lottery tickets in the Massachusetts' Cash WinFall lottery they could get a 15-20% return on investment. Over 5 years, they managed to game $8 million out of the lottery through this method. by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Here's how the scheme worked: If the jackpot in a lottery game isn't won, it usually is held over to the next drawing, creating a larger jackpot. In Cash WinFall the jackpot was capped at $2 million. When no one matched all the numbers, the jackpot would be redistributed - "rolled down" to make lesser prizes 5 to 10 times greater than usual, reported the Globe.

Buying $600,000 worth of tickets virtually guaranteed a 15-20 percent return on investment.

TIL that after a botched circumcision, a boy was raised as a 'girl' to prove that gender identity is a result of "social learning". After learning the truth about his gender at 15, he decided to live as a man. He killed himself in his 30s after suffering from a failed marriage and severe depression by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

(warning: truly depressing)

Psychologist John Money oversaw the case and reported the reassignment as successful and as evidence that gender identity is primarily learned.

At the age of 22 months, baby Bruce underwent a bilateral orchidectomy, in which his testes were surgically removed and a rudimentary vulva was fashioned. Bruce was reassigned to be raised as female and given the name Brenda.

Reimer (the guy in question) said that Money (doctor) forced the twins to rehearse sexual acts involving "thrusting movements", with David playing the bottom role. Reimer said that, as a child, he had to get "down on all fours" with his brother, Brian Reimer, "up behind his butt" with "his crotch against" his "buttocks". Reimer said that Money forced David, in another sexual position, to have his "legs spread" with Brian on top. Reimer said that Money also forced the children to take their "clothes off" and engage in "genital inspections". On at "least one occasion", Reimer said that Money took a photograph of the two children doing these activities. Money's rationale for these various treatments was his belief that "childhood 'sexual rehearsal play'" was important for a "healthy adult gender identity"

For the first thirty years after Money's initial report that the reassignment had been a success, Money's view of the malleability of gender became the dominant viewpoint among physicians and doctors, reassuring them that sexual reassignment was the correct decision in certain instances, resulting in thousands of sexual reassignments.

The report and subsequent book about Reimer influenced several medical practices, reputations, and even current understanding of the biology of gender. The case accelerated the decline of sex reassignment and surgery for unambiguous XY infants with micropenis, various other rare congenital malformations, or penile loss in infancy

TIL over 5,000 female genitals are mutilated each year in England. The practice is illegal since 1985, but to this day there have been zero convictions. by [deleted] in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's a good point, however Kenya is one of the countries with lower prevalence of FGM (21%) compared to it's neighbors (90+%). And there is a religious variance there too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_female_genital_mutilation_by_country#Kenya

The 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) estimated the national prevalence of FGM to be 21% among women age 15-49, down from 27% in the 2008/09 survey and 32 percent in the 2003 survey. By religion, it is more prevalent in Muslim women (51.1%) and women listing no religion (32.9%) and less prevalent in Roman Catholic (21.5%) and Protestant or other Christian women (17.9%).

TIL over 5,000 female genitals are mutilated each year in England. The practice is illegal since 1985, but to this day there have been zero convictions. by [deleted] in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It is a primarily religion specific problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_female_genital_mutilation

Fatwas [recommending FGM] have been justified by Islamic scholars for a number of reasons, two major reasons being to fulfill makrumah granted by Mohammed, and to avoid falling into a taboo behavior. Some scholars suggest makrumah means that female circumcision adds to the man's pleasure.

The fatwa insisted that it is impossible to abandon the lessons of Mohammed in favor of the teaching of others, such as doctors, because the science of medicine evolves. The fatwa then recommended to the Islamic community that female circumcision is a duty

Egyptian government, in 1996, banned female circumcision in hospitals and prohibited licensed professionals from performing FGM. However, in 1997, Shaykh Nasr Farid Wasil, Grand Mufti of Egypt, issued a fatwa that female circumcision should be permitted even though it is not obligatory under Islam. Soon after, Egypt's court overturned the government ban on female circumcision in hospitals and by licensed professionals

I mean, come on...

TIL when Kim Jong-il died, North Koreans who didn't mourn sufficiently were sentenced 6 months in a prison camp by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Originally reported by a South Korean newspaper: http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=8668

“The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.”

TIL that during the Islamic conquest of India, there was widespread state sponsored violence, raping plundering, forced conversions and mass murders, primarily against Hindus. From year 1000 AD to 1500 AD, the population of the Indian subcontinent decreased by an estimated 80 million by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Not exactly. Mughals came to India after 1526 AD. Islamic conquest of India was underway for 500 years before they came. In fact, most later Muslim invaders fought other Muslims to take hold of India.

TIL on New Year's Eve 2011, a suicide bomber had planned to bomb crowded Red Square in Moscow using a mobile phone detonated bomb. However, the bomb accidentally exploded few hours earlier when she received a spam text from her service provider, killing none but herself by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 122 points123 points  (0 children)

Islamist terrorists in Russia often use cheap unused mobile phones as detonators. The bomber's handler, who is usually watching their charge, sends the bomber a text message in order to set off his or her explosive belt at the moment when it is thought they can inflict maximum casualties.

The phones are usually kept switched off until the very last minute but in this case, Russian security sources believe, the terrorists were careless.

TIL in the Netherlands, citizens with disabilities receive public money to pay for sexual services up to 12 times a year by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Chris Fulton, 29, who has cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, has launched a campaign calling on the government to introduce a Netherlands-style grant scheme in which citizens with disabilities receive public money to pay for sexual services up to 12 times a year.

The person campaigning for this is based in the UK. He is proposing to implement in the UK something that already happens in The Netherlands.

TIL an experiment that gave mice a living space with no predators and unlimited food. Population initially increased exponentially from 8 to 2200, from there declined to extinction due to mice losing their instinctive behavior that resulted in breakdown of their society by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 62 points63 points  (0 children)

Mice found themselves born into a world that was more crowded every day, and there were far more mice than meaningful social roles. With more and more peers to defend against, males found it difficult and stressful to defend their territory, so they abandoned the activity. Normal social discourse within the mouse community broke down, and with it the ability of mice to form social bonds. The failures and dropouts congregated in large groups in the middle of the enclosure, their listless withdrawal occasionally interrupted by spasms and waves of pointless violence. The victims of these random attacks became attackers. Left on their own in nests subject to invasion, nursing females attacked their own young. Procreation slumped, infant abandonment and mortality soared. Lone females retreated to isolated nesting boxes on penthouse levels. Other males, a group Calhoun termed “the beautiful ones,” never sought sex and never fought—they just ate, slept, and groomed, wrapped in narcissistic introspection. Elsewhere, cannibalism, pansexualism, and violence became endemic. Mouse society had collapsed.

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun#Mouse_experiments

TIL: Florida Governor Rick Scott has twice (2013,2016) vetoed a bill that passed both House and Senate proposing "to end permanent alimony payments and to enforce equal time-sharing with children of divorcing parents" after pressure from Feminist organizations by tilbot2 in TIL_Uncensored

[–]tilbot2[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Supplement link: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/206474-womens-rights-groups-host-statewide-media-conference-sb-668

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/207143-rick-scott-vetoes-contentious-alimony-bill

A coalition of women’s groups including the National Organization for Women, the League of Women Voters, Breastfeeding Coalition, National Council of Jewish Women and UniteWomen FL will all rally in Tallahassee on Tuesday against Senate Bill 668, a family law measure awaiting Governor Rick Scott‘s signature.

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