"A diplomat... is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip." - Caskie Stinnett

***

In addition to putting godawful clips in my hair, some people are going to try to get me drunk later today. Gah.

***

Makeup and Perfume

"Why do women wear make up and perfume?

Because they're often under increasing pressure from a society which over- simplifies the process of ascertaining ones worth and attractiveness by reducing someone down to individual physical attributes.

...or is it because they're ugly and they smell bad?"

***

Catching up on 3 months of Tom the Dancing Bug:


Creationists Challenge the Teaching of Water's Freezing Point

"This 32° theory is full of holes! In fact, these "32 Degree-ers" can't disprove that god simply makes it seem exactly like water freezes at 32°! He's tricky that way.

What can be their objection if textbooks say, "Some militant secularists belive that water freezes at 32°. The enlightened know that water freezes whenever god wants it to!""

***

Looks like the IOC PR exercise was quite successful.

Some Russian who added me on ICQ (not a spambot for once - HAH!):

"I saw Singapore on the TV when there was a session about the Olypmic games. You live in a great place.

Simgapore is a tiny country, but the level of life, the people, the architecture - everything is just fantastic."

***

Kevin does an exclusive podcast interview with Elia Diodati (aka The Personage Formerly Known As Acid Flask):

"I ask Elia Diodati to spill the beans on himself, give us a peek into his daily academic life in the United States, and to share fond memories of Singapore (which naturally simmers down to comfort foods such as Char Kway Teow)."

theorycast.01 :: Acid Flask Interview (Podcast)

***

This is hilarious:

A: willy wonka and his golden tickets
my friend of mine just pointed out how racist willy wonka is for placing all the golden tickets in places where kids/people are predominantly caucasion/white/anglo saxon. he(willy wonka) did place the golden tickets around the world.

it's just that my friend and i noticed in the new 'charlie and chocolate factory' trailor there was a whole bunch of asian kids hoarding to get the wonka bars.

B: How is it racist? At the turn of the century there were little non-caucasian people living in the UK and everyone was considered anglo-saxon.

This whole racist idea is crap. Were the Grimm brothers racist for not gaving any asian or african people in their stories? Every country has their fairy tales. I'm sure Chinese people don't consider their authors racist for not including white people in their stories.

C: Please note: racism is not what you seem to think it is. In order for him to have been a racist, he would have had to believe in the inherent superiority of one race over another. Importing some black pygmies from Africa and having them live happily in your factory does not really fit that bill... try again.

A: i would honestly say that willy wonka would have had a lot of say on where the golden tickets were to be placed. and if so, it does look like he did not place it in places we would deem ethnic. so i say that's a form of racial discrimination. what do you think?

C: If we couldn't be condescending, the internet would be reeeeealy boring. I am especially more condescending because of the number of idiots in this thread who are agreeing with this nonsense.

You're suggesting that having five golden tickets for a free factory tour, and having them in places where his candy is distributed somehow fits the definition of racism? If we're really only talking about wonka and not dahl as you claim, then let's be realistic: his character exists in a kind of old-worldish industrial-revolution era where it is unlikely that his candy bars would be shipped to Africa, South America or the Orient.

***

GEK1506 : HEAVENLY MATHEMATICS: CULTURAL ASTRONOMY

Module Description : The goal of this course is to study astronomy in a cultural context. We will look at questions like: How is the date of Chinese New Year determined? Why do the Muslim and Chinese months start on different days? Will the Moon ever look like it does on the Singapore flag? What date of the year is the earliest sunrise in Singapore? How did ancient sailors navigate? After taking this course you will become conscious of the motion of the Sun and the Moon and notice and question things you have earlier taken for granted. You will appreciate mankind's struggle through the ages and throughout the world to understand the mathematics of the heavens."

The lectures are held at night, maybe so students can go star-gazing.

Finally we have a quirky course like this. We're moving with the times!

***

The New Paper's article on Steven Lim's eyebrow plucking activities has him plucking a guy's eyebrow. Damn.

Binmen in shorts? Much too dangerous declares council - "Binmen in Fife struggling to cope with soaring temperatures have been threatened with dismissal if they wear shorts to work. Fife Council told refuse staff this week that they if they did not wear long trousers they could be dismissed for failing to comply with health and safety rules. The council said that, as a responsible employer, it had to guard against staff suffering sunburn, scratches, cuts and insect bites while at work."
Sounds like SAF logic to me.

pure as the driven slush - "I wasn't traumatized by my abortion. I healed up fine, the soreness only lasted a day or two. There were some issues to get through in my relationship, but we dealt with those, and my partner honored my choices. But I did have many nights of crying afterwards, because of that girl next to me and all the girls like her who were made to feel horrible for making the best choices for themselves and for their babies, those to be and not to be. I cried because I was angry as hell that women have to walk through hoards of people shouting misinformation and ugly taunts about choices that are not theirs to make, from people who withdraw any support they would give to pregnant women the minute they have their babies anyway. Saccharine pleas from people who beg women to bear and put up children to, so they say, adopt themselves -- children who, unless they are perfect lily-white infants, rarely get adopted, and certainly not by suburban religious right families who aren't about to walk around with an armload of chicana or mixed-race toddlers. I cried because women's bodies, women's minds, women's choices are not considered rightfully theirs, and because what we have is so tenuous and incomplete, at that. And more so right now than it was ten years ago when I aborted."