Links, Tuesday 1st July

"In the wake of decades of financial scandal—much of it linked to creative accounting, or to no accounting all—the Dutch tradition of accounting art suggests it might be us, not the Dutch, who have misjudged accounting’s importance in the world. Accounting in the modern sense was still a new idea in the 1500s, one with a weight that carried beyond the business world. A proper accounting invoked the idea of debts paid, the obligation of nightly personal reckonings, and even calling to account the wealthy and powerful through audits." Boston Globe

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Techno-utopianism goes to work on food. A very interesting movement.

"Soylent-producing algae would make food a little like that: there would be no more wars over farmland, much less resource competition. To help a village full of malnourished people, “you could just drop in a shipping container” full of Soylent-producing algae. “It would take in the sun’s energy and water and air, and produce food.” Mankind’s oldest problem would be solved. Then, he added, all we’d have to do is fix the world’s housing problem, “and people could be free.”" New Yorker

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"To me, there’s nothing creepier than a man who is bothered about how you modify your body, or how much make-up you wear. Of course, no one should be pressured to make changes to their physical appearance. So if a guy wants to personally challenge a system in which women feel that pressure, the most effective thing he can do is to stop talking about the way her face looks. Go and write to the cosmetics giants if you must. But stop telling me that my smoky eyes are holding back the sisterhood." Telegraph

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Ah, a nice level-headed, factual discussion of the current situation with respect to Gauteng e-tolling. EWN

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Yikes. 

"In 2010, doctors performed 62.8 million of these routine pelvic examinations on women across America. In total, gynecological screenings cost the U.S. $2.6 billion every year. And yet, a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that there is no established medical justification for the annual procedure. After scouring nearly 70 years of pelvic exam studies, conducted from 1946 to 2014, the researchers found no evidence that they lead to any reduction in “morbidity or mortality of any condition” among women." Slate

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"Since the detention facility was set up, Israeli immigration police have imprisoned more than 2,500 African asylum seekers under the country's so-called "Infiltrators Law", which allows Israel to detain, without charge or trial, migrants who have entered the country without legal documentation.

The Israeli Ministry of Interior does not process individual asylum requests; according to human rights groups, the country has recognised less than 200 asylum seekers as refugees since its creation in 1948." Al Jazeera

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"Airplanes have to keep the cabin artificially pressurized -- to keep your brain from swelling and leaking out of your ears. The problem is that, according to modern research, the cabin's pressurization combined with the plane's white noise can numb your taste buds, suppressing your ability to taste salt and sugar in non-fatal doses.

Obviously, airlines tend to use the cheapest ingredients possible in their in-flight meals, but even a steak with a 10-minute-old kill date would still taste like ass when your senses are literally and figuratively so high, they can hardly feel their face. Cabin air is another problem. It's usually recycled every two to three minutes with the humidity kept below 20 percent, drying not only the food but also your nose, which further impacts your sense of taste... But as luck would have it, airplanes don't affect your ability to taste bitterness or umami. It would explain why people usually go for bloody Marys or tonic water inside planes: Oftentimes it's the only thing their bodies recognize as having a taste." Cracked