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Sites, Links and More

PC EZ-Bake Oven
"Now the computer savvy among us can relive the fun of having your very own personal mini-oven with the PC Ez-Bake oven! It fits in a 5 1/4" drive bay and plugs right into your power supply with the included Molex connector. Also included is "PC Ez-Cook", the open-source oven controller software with hundreds of easy and creative recipes for your PC Ez-Bake oven, and even a fuzzy-logic cooking control system to precisely measure the doneness of your cake, cookie, or cheese souffle. The PC Ez-Bake oven can even be used to cook your Pop Tarts, Bagel Bites, or any tiny or flat food. YUM!"

Tales of Malaysian NS: Very strange. Now when I go into the cybercafe, we have to write down our names, IC numbers, and college letter (A, B, C, or D) in a book. Sometimes I worry that the secretariat will find out about my blog, track me down, and get me into some sort of punishment. An extra 3 months in the special camp for NS delinquents? Nonstop kawat from morning? A ban from the cybercafe?
How about 7 extras? They have cybercafes in camp? Wah.

Albino Blacksheep / Flash / Stairway To Heaven: Reverse Lyrics - In reverse, Led Zeppelin's song comes out as: "Oh here's to my sweet Satan. The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan. He'll give you give you 666, there was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan."
Interesting. But then again, tickle me Elmo's laugh, when reversed, also comes out as a vulgarity.

The Passion Of The Bunny - It may not have been as gruesome as Mel Gibson's movie, but many parents and children got upset when a church trying to teach about Jesus' crucifixion performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs.

How Mills and Boon turned to manga comics - "Mills and Boon romances are strong sellers the world over. But in Japan, the publisher has appropriated the manga comic format in order to attract a generation for whom a novel just won't do. Mills and Boon is synonymous with fluffy love stories populated by dashing heroes and swooning heroines. Japanese manga comics, on the other hand, conjure up very different images - of violence, simpering schoolgirls and explicit sexual content... If sex alone were necessary to produce successful manga, then Mills and Boon would already be in a strong position to succeed. The heroines of the publisher's Blaze line do not lie back and think of England. What they do, however, is enjoy a lot of sex.

The cover of The Sheikh's Reward, by Lucy Gordon... - the heroine presents quite a different prospect. Her enormous eyes, dwarfing a mouth and nose of doll-like proportions, are like two shiny acid-green pools. The effect, to Western eyes, is a little more scary than seductive... when it comes to manga, the romantic tastes of Japanese women cannot be satisfied by Mills and Boon alone. Offerings from other publishers include explicit sex scenes and love stories between men. These are not produced for gay men, but are aimed specifically at women."

The world's flags given letter grades
"Pakistan
A, 88 / 100
Best use of the star and crescent. Unfortunately, it depicts something astronomically impossible, namely the eclipse of the moon by a star. But perhaps it's not a star but a nuclear satellite-weapon aimed at India?

Libya
B, 70 / 100
Did you even try?

Brunei
D, 40 / 100
Appears to involve a moustache sprouting from a flagpole.

Mozambique
D-, 37 / 100
Automatic weapons on a flag are especially bad. Appears to have been designed by a committee all of whom had stupid ideas for pictures of extra things to put on the flag.

Northern Mariana Islands
F, 2 / 100
Appears to have been constructed from clip art. Truly awful."

"Visitation of the Bishop of Calcutta to Malacca, October 1835. ‘A large Chinese joss-house was inspected. It was full of images standing in small niches; lights were burning before them; the house was filled with incense; whilst huge diabolical figures sat on the floor and by the door. The Bishop was horrified: “We are in one of the devil’s houses,” he whispered, whilst hurrying out, “and there he sits!”" - Sent by my sister.
So the Bishop was bigoted. Point?

On Justice: "We find in the rules laid down by the greatest English judges, who have been the brightest of mankind, [that] we are to look upon it as more beneficial that many guilty persons should escape unpunished than one innocent person should suffer. The reason is because it is of more importance to [the] community that innocence should be protected than it is that guilt should be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in the world that all of them cannot be punished, and many times they happen in such a manner that it is not of much consequence to the public whether they are punished or not. But when innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, 'It is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.' And if such a sentiment as this should take place in
the mind of the subject there would be an end to all security whatsoever." ---John Adams

Intellectual midwifery
"As Thomas Babington (1800-1859) wrote in his Southey’s Colloquies, “Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.”"

A Passion Against Man
"To possess an inquisitive mind, a mind eager to explore the world and gain knowledge, is to commit the first sin. Remember the story of Eve? To painstakingly study nature and unlock her laws, thereby paving the way for man's mastery of his world, is to court imprisonment and torture. Ask Galileo or a scientist studying human cloning. To concern oneself with producing the wealth and material goods life requires, is to invite condemnations of "greed" and "materialism." Read Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." To cherish the pleasures that the earth and one's own body afford, including one's sexual capacity, is to be denounced as "selfish" and even depraved. Consult the Puritans or the 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae. To take pride in one's curiosity, in one's growing knowledge of the world, in one's successful actions in it, in the resulting joy and pleasure these bring—this is branded by all as the height of sin. On this anti-man approach, to remain alive is to sin. To fully purge oneself, one must die. Only such an account of man can begin to explain the charge of collective guilt for the death of Christ, whose undeserved suffering at man's vicious hands is, somehow, supposed to help alleviate our innately "sinful" nature. If the anti-Semitic view of the Jewish race as inherently corrupt is irrational and evil, how much more irrational and evil is this view of the human race?"