Malaysian Brothel / Holiday Gifts / Great PR Fanfic / Links 11th December 2004

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." - Blaise Pascal

Addendum: "Jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand on le fait par conscience"

Random Playlist Song: Trevor Pinnock - The English Concert and Choir: Handel - Messiah - He Was Despised (Contralto, Air)


Random Trivia bit: It is the function of a coroner to conduct inquiries into all deaths which are not natural or expected. However, originally the job of coroner was to perform the following functions: Safeguarding the monarch's property, Tax collector, Trying felony cases.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the appointment of coroner was in 1194 by King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) of England. The name was derived from the Latin 'corona' meaning crown. Coroners were responsible for raising revenue from taxes on the dead and their property. Suicides were of special interest because it was against the law to commit suicide, as it was considered self-murder. The law required that any property of the suicide victim had to be forfeited to the king. Families would attempt to hide suicides from the authorities so it was the job of the coroner to ferret them out and claim their property for the king. (Basic Forensic Science 2)

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Malaysian police bust brothel in pigsty

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (AFP) - Malaysian police have busted a brothel in an abandoned pigsty after housewives complained that their husbands spent a surprising amount of time there, police said Thursday.

The pigsty, with 20 cubicles, had been furnished with tables, fans, a bar serving alcohol, neon lights and a sound system, Selangor state Criminal Investigations Department chief Abu Bakar Mustafa told AFP.

"We were tipped off about the place after several housewives complained that their husbands were spending too much time at this 'pigsty'," Abu Bakar said.

Police had placed the pigsty under surveillance before moving in on Wednesday, arresting three prostitutes from China, a Malaysian pimp and 30 clients, he said. Other prostitutes managed to escape.

Police released the clients, mainly local businessmen and fishermen, after recording their statements, Abu Bakar said.


Someone: I'm trying to imagine just WHAT kind of excuse these people gave their wives for "spending too much time at the 'pigsty'"

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Holiday Gifts Don't Have to be Expensive

"Christmas is tight this year. I've learned to make bedroom slippers out of the plentiful pads we have here.

These slippers are soft and hygienic. They have non-slip grip strips on the soles, and the built-in deodorant feature keeps feet smelling fresh. No more bending over to mop up spills! And they're disposable and biodegradable, too.

Plus you can decorate them in festive seasonal ways:

Let me know what size you want -- Regular, Light Day, or Maxi:


Happiest of holidays!

Your friend,

Martha Stewart
Inmate 55170-054"

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Ashes to Ashes

I don't read all that much PR fanfic, but this story's quite good.

From my casual survey of extant PR fanfic, I find that most of it comes from the first 6 seasons, when they didn't change the cast each season, and especially the first 4 seasons, which had the most inter-season continuity. Changing the cast each season might keep actors' salaries down and the show fresh, and allow yearly teamups, but it also inhibits character development (how much can you accomplish in 38-40 episodes of 20 minutes each?) and prevents the actors from gaining lasting fan appeal, which is why you see the earlier rangers having larger fanbases (though the Yellow Dino Thunder ranger seems to be an exception).

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People of my generation seem to lose their handphones, or get their handphones stolen/damaged rather often.

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How can intelligent people use alternative medicine? - "Richard Dawkins, one of Britain's most eminent scientists, explains why, by definition, alternative medicine doesn't work. If a particular alternative treatment can be shown before a panel of qualified doctors to work, then it isn't called "alternative" any more. It's just medicine. "'Alternative' is another word for 'ineffective'", he says."

Can the Sciences Help Us to Make Wise Ethical Judgments?

Study finds benefits in GM crops - "Not only did the project find no evidence of seed depletion, it also pointed to potential benefits for farmers of growing the GM crops."

Female Students With Mobile Phones Face Campus Ban, Fines - "Female college students carrying mobile phones with cameras on campus in any college in the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] could face a SR500 fine and 3-year suspension under recent regulations issued by the Ministry of Education."

SPAM Returns the Favor, Official Monty Python Flavor of SPAM to be Introduced - "Broadway-bound MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT, a new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," is being honored by Hormel Foods with the introduction of a limited edition flavor, SPAM™ golden honey grail in a "SPAMALOT collector's edition" can."

Gizmodo : Toyoto i-foot and i-unit - "Technically they aren't robots, but mechanized mobility suits."
Damn japs...

More weird Jap shit: A handbook of how to flirt and play with mannikins, from the 1960s or so

Spurned girlfriend focuses her rage on the wrong guy - "She overtook the vehicle and rammed it three times, pushing it partially off the road... but when they came to a stop, she saw that it wasn't her boyfriend or his car. "

Michael Paulus :: Skeletal Systems - "Animation was the format of choice for children's television in the 1960s, a decade in which children's programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities. I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass."