The power is in the post, not in the deity
One popular argument used by non-theologians when they engage in theodicy (reconciling an omnibenevolent and omnipotent god with a world full of suffering) is that nobody can question their god, since he can do anything he wants and is answerable to no one. Genocide, babies with Down's Syndrome or Tsunamis - failure to stop any of these does not impugn on the moral character of their god. This god could castrate his devotees (or rape them, for the female ones), tear them limb from limb, tie their intestines to a tree and throw them off a cliff (but alas, not to their doom, for they would come back to life in a Sisyphean manner), and they would be praising him as they plunged. He could send the whole human race to burn in hell for all eternity and his worshippers would still be chanting his praises while roasting in sulphur and brimstone.
The problem with this deceptively convincing argument is that it ignores the question of the definition of "good". An omnipotent and omnibenevolent god can do anything, and he will be acclaimed as being good. If an entity cannot be wrong - is incapable of being wrong - we would label it "amoral" - neither moral or immoral, incapable of being either right or, more relevantly in this case, wrong. A rock, for example, is amoral since it has no will (let alone free will) and thus cannot be held accountable for its actions. To acclaim as good an entity which is incapable of being judged immoral is to make a mockery of the concept of morality (if not to make it an unintelligible concept), and indeed that of divine will, since this god will be incapable by definition of doing something wrong; if somebody cheats and obtains answers to a test and then gets full marks, he would not have achieved anything by any objective measure.
Subscribing to a notion of morality being dependent on a god's ever changing whims (as opposed to an objective moral code that even this god can and has to be held to) in fact condemns us to the ultimate form of moral relativism - what is good can change at any one time depending on what the omnibenevolent god does. Some might counter that some gods have moral codes that do not change with time, but that would render null and void the earlier fudge about whatever gods do being automatically branded as good. Furthermore, a look at the Bible and Christian history puts paid to this argument, at least for the Christian god, for it is clear that moral standards have changed dramaticaly with time. What's worse - the Biblical god does not even abide by his own moral standards.
We might then ask why the Christian devil Satan is so reviled. It is because he does evil things, we are told. Yet, even if the Christian god did evil things, by definition he would be acclaimed as good. Presumably, even if a reasonable man judged that Satan did good things like prolonging lives, reducing suffering, ending pestilence and preventing famines, and the Christian god engaged in evil activities like infanticide, genocide, introducing the Ebola virus to the world, we would have to pronounce the former evil and the latter good. The concepts of "good" and "evil" would cease to have any real meaning. The two entities could even be switched (the former god would now be Satan, and the former Satan be god) and the old god would now be denounced and the old Satan be lauded. What would be worshipped, then, would be the Christian god's post, rather than any of his intrinsic attributes, at least according to the "god can do anything he wants" argument. In that case, anyone could be put in the Christian god's post, even any Tom, Dick or Harry on the street, and he would be lauded as being good. For that matter, a monkey, a computer or even a rock could do the same job, and would accrue the same privileges.
How do we really know that the Christian god is good? We just have to take his word for it (or rather, the word of his spokesmen).
A Christian once told me to judge any religion by its fruits. I suppose the same will have to be said of the Christian god, even if rotten, maggot-ridden fruit is wolved down with relish by his worshippers.
***
Someone: look, you might as well take a look at biblical representation of satan. he didn't start off being the Ultimate Bad Guy
look at his evolution from genesis to job
Me: well this is the fundie representation of him
and I think only fundies use the "god can do no wrong" argument
some liberals even accept that the bible is not 100% true!!!
When you can't live without bananas
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
"Man is conceived of blood made rotten by the heat of lust; and in the end worms, like mourners, stand about his corpse. In life he produced lice and tapeworms; in death he will produce worms and flies. In life he produced dung and vomit; in death he produces rottenness and stench. In life he fattened one man; in death he fattens a multitude of worms." - Pope Innocent III, De miseria condicionis humane (On the Misery of the Human Condition)
Interestingly enough, the text is available online, but unfortunately it's in Italian.
***
An interesting tidbit from my sister:
Allah tolong Yam-Tuan
Panjangkan umornya,
Tolong Yam-tuan
Suroh dia menang,
Mulia dan senang,
Prentah dia panjang,
Tolong Yam-tuan
[Addendum:
A translation courtesy of SyLv:
GOD helps yam-tuan
lengthen his age
help yam-tuan
make him win
glorious and happy
may he rule long, < not sure bout this though
help yam-tuan]
Interestingly enough, the text is available online, but unfortunately it's in Italian.
***
An interesting tidbit from my sister:
Allah tolong Yam-Tuan
Panjangkan umornya,
Tolong Yam-tuan
Suroh dia menang,
Mulia dan senang,
Prentah dia panjang,
Tolong Yam-tuan
[Addendum:
A translation courtesy of SyLv:
GOD helps yam-tuan
lengthen his age
help yam-tuan
make him win
glorious and happy
may he rule long, < not sure bout this though
help yam-tuan]
Post ID: 113395471212796188
"Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others." - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
***
Unfortunately, since this textbook (Williamson - Macroeconomics, 2nd ed.) will not be used next semester and will likely not be used in any future semesters, it looks like I'm stuck with it. Maybe I should put it on eBay. Or, *gasp*, read the rest of it. Ah well, might as well get my money's worth and transcribe all the amusing snipes I didn't have time to put up during the semester:
A weak defence of the optimising assumption: "If we were to abandon optimization behavior, there would be many possible alternatives, and it would be extremely difficult to get our models to make any predictions at all. While there is typically only one way to behave optimally, there are many ways in which individuals can be stupid." - p. 104
"If you were a macroeconomist working for a political party, how a particular tax policy affected the wealth of different consumers in different ways might be the key to your party's success, and you would want to pay close attention to this." - p. 274
"President Bush clearly did not put much stock in the Ricardian equivalence theorem, as he appeared convinced that the withholding reduction would increase private consumption expenditures." - p. 285
Meanwhile Varian is not to be bested: "Now we have two decisions to consider. The workers have to decide how much education to acquire and the firms have to decide how much to pay workers with different amounts of education. Let us make the extreme assumption that the education doesn't affect worker productivity at all. Of course this isn't true in real life - especially for economics courses - but it helps to keep the model simple." - p. 676
"The so-called Christian state is the Christian negation of the state, but by no means the political realization of Christianity. The state which still professes Christianity in the form of religion, does not yet profess it in the form appropriate to the state, for it still has a religious attitude towards religion -- that is to say, it is not the true implementation of the human basis of religion, because it still relies on the unreal, imaginary form of this human core. The so-called Christian state is the imperfect state, and the Christian religion is regarded by it as the supplementation and sanctification of its imperfection. For the Christian state, therefore, religion necessarily becomes a means; hence, it is a hypocritical state. It makes a great difference whether the complete state, because of the defect inherent in the general nature of the state, counts religion among its presuppositions, or whether the incomplete state, because of the defect inherent in its particular existence as a defective state, declares that religion is its basis. In the latter case, religion becomes imperfect politics. In the former case, the imperfection even of consummate politics becomes evident in religion. The so-called Christian state needs the Christian religion in order to complete itself as a state. The democratic state, the real state, does not need religion for its political completion. On the contrary, it can disregard religion because in it the human basis of religion is realized in a secular manner. The so-called Christian state, on the other hand, has a political attitude to religion and a religious attitude to politics. By degrading the forms of the state to mere semblance, it equally degrades religion to mere semblance...
The separation of the "spirit of the Gospel" from the "letter of the Gospel" is an irreligious act. A state which makes the Gospel speak in the language of politics -- that is, in another language than that of the Holy Ghost -- commits sacrilege, if not in human eyes, then in the eyes of its own religion. The state which acknowledges Christianity as its supreme criterion, and the Bible as its Charter, must be confronted with the words of Holy Scripture, for every word of Scripture is holy. This state, as well as the human rubbish on which it is based, is caught in a painful contradiction that is insoluble from the standpoint of religious consciousness when it is referred to those sayings of the Gospel with which it "not only does not comply, but cannot possibly comply, if it does not want to dissolve itself completely as a state"." - Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question
***
Unfortunately, since this textbook (Williamson - Macroeconomics, 2nd ed.) will not be used next semester and will likely not be used in any future semesters, it looks like I'm stuck with it. Maybe I should put it on eBay. Or, *gasp*, read the rest of it. Ah well, might as well get my money's worth and transcribe all the amusing snipes I didn't have time to put up during the semester:
A weak defence of the optimising assumption: "If we were to abandon optimization behavior, there would be many possible alternatives, and it would be extremely difficult to get our models to make any predictions at all. While there is typically only one way to behave optimally, there are many ways in which individuals can be stupid." - p. 104
"If you were a macroeconomist working for a political party, how a particular tax policy affected the wealth of different consumers in different ways might be the key to your party's success, and you would want to pay close attention to this." - p. 274
"President Bush clearly did not put much stock in the Ricardian equivalence theorem, as he appeared convinced that the withholding reduction would increase private consumption expenditures." - p. 285
Meanwhile Varian is not to be bested: "Now we have two decisions to consider. The workers have to decide how much education to acquire and the firms have to decide how much to pay workers with different amounts of education. Let us make the extreme assumption that the education doesn't affect worker productivity at all. Of course this isn't true in real life - especially for economics courses - but it helps to keep the model simple." - p. 676
"The so-called Christian state is the Christian negation of the state, but by no means the political realization of Christianity. The state which still professes Christianity in the form of religion, does not yet profess it in the form appropriate to the state, for it still has a religious attitude towards religion -- that is to say, it is not the true implementation of the human basis of religion, because it still relies on the unreal, imaginary form of this human core. The so-called Christian state is the imperfect state, and the Christian religion is regarded by it as the supplementation and sanctification of its imperfection. For the Christian state, therefore, religion necessarily becomes a means; hence, it is a hypocritical state. It makes a great difference whether the complete state, because of the defect inherent in the general nature of the state, counts religion among its presuppositions, or whether the incomplete state, because of the defect inherent in its particular existence as a defective state, declares that religion is its basis. In the latter case, religion becomes imperfect politics. In the former case, the imperfection even of consummate politics becomes evident in religion. The so-called Christian state needs the Christian religion in order to complete itself as a state. The democratic state, the real state, does not need religion for its political completion. On the contrary, it can disregard religion because in it the human basis of religion is realized in a secular manner. The so-called Christian state, on the other hand, has a political attitude to religion and a religious attitude to politics. By degrading the forms of the state to mere semblance, it equally degrades religion to mere semblance...
The separation of the "spirit of the Gospel" from the "letter of the Gospel" is an irreligious act. A state which makes the Gospel speak in the language of politics -- that is, in another language than that of the Holy Ghost -- commits sacrilege, if not in human eyes, then in the eyes of its own religion. The state which acknowledges Christianity as its supreme criterion, and the Bible as its Charter, must be confronted with the words of Holy Scripture, for every word of Scripture is holy. This state, as well as the human rubbish on which it is based, is caught in a painful contradiction that is insoluble from the standpoint of religious consciousness when it is referred to those sayings of the Gospel with which it "not only does not comply, but cannot possibly comply, if it does not want to dissolve itself completely as a state"." - Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question
Post ID: 113394035792154368
Asia Times Online - Singapore: A tale of two cities
"There is a growing gap," said Sinapan Samydoray, chairman of Think Centre, a Singapore-based organization that deals with social issues. "The bottom 20% of the population earns less than 10 years ago in real terms. Almost 87% of the people are staying in government houses. Sixty percent of the people do not pay tax because they earn too little.
Singapore's social divide increased during the economic crisis that hit East Asia in 1997. While the average income of Singaporeans fell by 2.7% in that period, that of the poorest families fell by a staggering 49%, according to a paper by Professor Mukhopadhaya Pundarik of Singapore's National University. However, it seems the problem is inherent in the country's past and present political economy (the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)."
No doubt more filthy lies spread by the Imperialist Foreign Media, just like the malicious and totally unfounded rumours about SARS that counter-revolutionary provocateurss in the employ of shadowy, unnamed foreign powers spread about China (at least before the Noble Communist Party decided that it was a problem and had to be tackled head-on).
***
Microsoft Online Crash Analysis - windiag - "The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes."
This sounds like more fun than memtest86. Finally!
"There is a growing gap," said Sinapan Samydoray, chairman of Think Centre, a Singapore-based organization that deals with social issues. "The bottom 20% of the population earns less than 10 years ago in real terms. Almost 87% of the people are staying in government houses. Sixty percent of the people do not pay tax because they earn too little.
Singapore's social divide increased during the economic crisis that hit East Asia in 1997. While the average income of Singaporeans fell by 2.7% in that period, that of the poorest families fell by a staggering 49%, according to a paper by Professor Mukhopadhaya Pundarik of Singapore's National University. However, it seems the problem is inherent in the country's past and present political economy (the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)."
No doubt more filthy lies spread by the Imperialist Foreign Media, just like the malicious and totally unfounded rumours about SARS that counter-revolutionary provocateurss in the employ of shadowy, unnamed foreign powers spread about China (at least before the Noble Communist Party decided that it was a problem and had to be tackled head-on).
***
Microsoft Online Crash Analysis - windiag - "The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes."
This sounds like more fun than memtest86. Finally!
Post ID: 113392986917167466
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Someone: "girls ah, they only want to do breast stroke, cos it's relaxing. doens't even get your heart rate up"
Someone else: it's freaking difficult to put on the rubbery [swim] cab (sic)
worse than condom
Me: you put on for people ah
kinky right
***
One thing you learn as you go along is that no matter what you do or how you behave, there will always be somebody who will oppose it or be against you.
Hell, in JC there was this girl who was probably the epitome of niceness and sweetness. Yet, some people disliked her *precisely* because she was nice and sweet.
The only sure way to accommodate everybody and avoid criticism is to follow the path of least resistance and lapse into apathy and inaction (or to keep "a low profile", as some would term it), but then nothing would ever get done.
Actually, scrap that. If nothing was done, people would still be slamming you for doing nothing, so there's really no way to get out of this Catch-22.
(This is written about the Idledays Fund controversy, but can be profitably applied to any situation.)
***
I transferred my Yahoo Groups memberships back to my old account with the help of this nifty "Find My Groups" option:
"If some of the groups you belong to are not showing up, we can help you locate them. Search for these groups using the following email addresses:
***@hotmail.com
***@yahoo.com
Before you click "Continue", review your email addresses. You may need to add a different email address, or verify an existing one. "
What it does is look for subscriptions to Yahoo Groups not matched to the current Yahoo ID, but registered to the verified email accounts listed under the current Yahoo ID. For example, if foo@bar.com is subscribed to the "xxx" Yahoo Group under the Yahoo ID "foo", but you want it under the Yahoo ID "bar", you can login with your "bar" Yahoo ID and use this tool, provided that foo@bar.com is also verified under the "bar" Yahoo ID.
So migrating Yahoo Groups between IDs is a relatively painless task, excepting the character recognition, which I swear daily becomes harder and harder - if spammers' OCR technology is so advanced that the images they serve up have to be garbled so, I'm sure it can recognise even my handwriting.
Someone else: it's freaking difficult to put on the rubbery [swim] cab (sic)
worse than condom
Me: you put on for people ah
kinky right
***
One thing you learn as you go along is that no matter what you do or how you behave, there will always be somebody who will oppose it or be against you.
Hell, in JC there was this girl who was probably the epitome of niceness and sweetness. Yet, some people disliked her *precisely* because she was nice and sweet.
The only sure way to accommodate everybody and avoid criticism is to follow the path of least resistance and lapse into apathy and inaction (or to keep "a low profile", as some would term it), but then nothing would ever get done.
Actually, scrap that. If nothing was done, people would still be slamming you for doing nothing, so there's really no way to get out of this Catch-22.
(This is written about the Idledays Fund controversy, but can be profitably applied to any situation.)
***
I transferred my Yahoo Groups memberships back to my old account with the help of this nifty "Find My Groups" option:
"If some of the groups you belong to are not showing up, we can help you locate them. Search for these groups using the following email addresses:
***@hotmail.com
***@yahoo.com
Before you click "Continue", review your email addresses. You may need to add a different email address, or verify an existing one. "
What it does is look for subscriptions to Yahoo Groups not matched to the current Yahoo ID, but registered to the verified email accounts listed under the current Yahoo ID. For example, if foo@bar.com is subscribed to the "xxx" Yahoo Group under the Yahoo ID "foo", but you want it under the Yahoo ID "bar", you can login with your "bar" Yahoo ID and use this tool, provided that foo@bar.com is also verified under the "bar" Yahoo ID.
So migrating Yahoo Groups between IDs is a relatively painless task, excepting the character recognition, which I swear daily becomes harder and harder - if spammers' OCR technology is so advanced that the images they serve up have to be garbled so, I'm sure it can recognise even my handwriting.
Post ID: 113386885572316933
Monday, December 05, 2005
"Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them." - Leo Tolstoy
***
I was in Balestier today and I happened upon the infamous 'Fragrance Hotel'. Near the branch where this picture was taken, there was a sign reading "ROSE" pointing into the hotel.
Meanwhile, the whole area was filled with cheap hotels - there was another branch of Fragrance Hotel down the street, and there was a Hotel 81 on either side of the road.
***
September 2002 archives are restored.
Excerpts:
"We medics are tasked with the horrible area cleaning task of washing the toilets. What makes our unenviable task worse is people's disgusting toilet habits - mainly, not flushing. These people are at least 18, if not 19, 20, 21 or beyond, and in the army to boot, and they still don't know that you should flush a toilet after you use it. Or maybe they just don't like us."
"We had another change of command parade, this time for my brigade. Parade Commanders for Armour Parades travel in style - on Jeeps!"
"I think next week I'll book in on Sunday morning. No one cares, not that anyone is around to anyhow. Anyway the punishment meted out to one person for missing Weekend RT was 1 confinement, so I assume the worst they can do to me is give me 1/2 a confinement!"
"I'm very happy that I have not been forced to glimpse any naked male members in camp so far! Of course, I notice that the number of "sightings" is roughly proportional to the number of Malays in my bunk."
"Probably not by accident, I've been tasked by the Senior Medic to take care of the "Weight Management for Obese Regulars Scheme". Gah."
"Mysteriously, the ET (Entrenching Tool) stick I borrowed from Wen Fa for 4NTM disappeared from my fieldpack, and the groundsheet he lent me became a poncho. Perplexing and disturbing this mystery is, and I'll have to bear the losses and replace his items! :("
"His latest stunt failed miserably when I strode into the MO's room and saw him typing in a SMS to send via the Internet to "90483827" and which started, "Hi, I'm your secret admirer". Unaware of my sudden entrance, he continued typing for a while while those around him started laughing hysterically, and I finally exited the room with sounds of amusement."
***
Under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, if copyright owners are and have been vigilant, works made in 1923 or after will not be in the public domain till 2019. I'm positive that in 2018 or thereabouts, another Copyright Term Extension Act will be passed in the US Congress. In fact, I recall some site where you could make bets about this sort of thing, but by 2018 I'd have forgotten about the bet, so.
"Honour Intellectual Property Laws' Original Spirit - Be HIPLOS; Insane copyright terms kill creativity"
(This putative advertising campaign seems to have more going for it than my "Honour Artists' Original Intentions - Be HAOI; Censorship kills creativity" proposal)
***
Quotations on criminal justice from the Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe:
"Take away the "immoral" criminal, and we'd be robbed of one of the lies we need in order to live: namely the belief that there is someone who is even more immoral than we are. We all need someone to despise and look down on as not having full value. This is another of our strong points of likeness with that same criminal: in prison there always develops a hierarchical type of society, where the safecracker and the gunman rank highest and the sexual offender lowest.
The prison is a true copy of our own society.
—"Crime as a way of life" (1967)
"A judicial system's first task will always be to secure and protect itself: the judicial system must necessarily regard itself as justice and the rule of law incarnate, and it thus becomes entirely logical that defense of the judicial system must have the very highest priority followed by protection of the state and its officials and civil servants. The inevitable consequence will be that the judicial system and its administration will comprise the very skeleton of society, its innermost, immutable, reactionary mineral core. The circle is complete: the prosecuting authority can only be reported to the prosecuting authority, whereupon the prosecuting authority "rejects" the accusations and declares the prosecuting authority free of any guilt.
It cannot be otherwise.
-"The righteous and the innocent" (1967)
***
I was in Balestier today and I happened upon the infamous 'Fragrance Hotel'. Near the branch where this picture was taken, there was a sign reading "ROSE" pointing into the hotel.
Meanwhile, the whole area was filled with cheap hotels - there was another branch of Fragrance Hotel down the street, and there was a Hotel 81 on either side of the road.
***
September 2002 archives are restored.
Excerpts:
"We medics are tasked with the horrible area cleaning task of washing the toilets. What makes our unenviable task worse is people's disgusting toilet habits - mainly, not flushing. These people are at least 18, if not 19, 20, 21 or beyond, and in the army to boot, and they still don't know that you should flush a toilet after you use it. Or maybe they just don't like us."
"We had another change of command parade, this time for my brigade. Parade Commanders for Armour Parades travel in style - on Jeeps!"
"I think next week I'll book in on Sunday morning. No one cares, not that anyone is around to anyhow. Anyway the punishment meted out to one person for missing Weekend RT was 1 confinement, so I assume the worst they can do to me is give me 1/2 a confinement!"
"I'm very happy that I have not been forced to glimpse any naked male members in camp so far! Of course, I notice that the number of "sightings" is roughly proportional to the number of Malays in my bunk."
"Probably not by accident, I've been tasked by the Senior Medic to take care of the "Weight Management for Obese Regulars Scheme". Gah."
"Mysteriously, the ET (Entrenching Tool) stick I borrowed from Wen Fa for 4NTM disappeared from my fieldpack, and the groundsheet he lent me became a poncho. Perplexing and disturbing this mystery is, and I'll have to bear the losses and replace his items! :("
"His latest stunt failed miserably when I strode into the MO's room and saw him typing in a SMS to send via the Internet to "90483827" and which started, "Hi, I'm your secret admirer". Unaware of my sudden entrance, he continued typing for a while while those around him started laughing hysterically, and I finally exited the room with sounds of amusement."
***
Under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, if copyright owners are and have been vigilant, works made in 1923 or after will not be in the public domain till 2019. I'm positive that in 2018 or thereabouts, another Copyright Term Extension Act will be passed in the US Congress. In fact, I recall some site where you could make bets about this sort of thing, but by 2018 I'd have forgotten about the bet, so.
"Honour Intellectual Property Laws' Original Spirit - Be HIPLOS; Insane copyright terms kill creativity"
(This putative advertising campaign seems to have more going for it than my "Honour Artists' Original Intentions - Be HAOI; Censorship kills creativity" proposal)
***
Quotations on criminal justice from the Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe:
"Take away the "immoral" criminal, and we'd be robbed of one of the lies we need in order to live: namely the belief that there is someone who is even more immoral than we are. We all need someone to despise and look down on as not having full value. This is another of our strong points of likeness with that same criminal: in prison there always develops a hierarchical type of society, where the safecracker and the gunman rank highest and the sexual offender lowest.
The prison is a true copy of our own society.
—"Crime as a way of life" (1967)
"A judicial system's first task will always be to secure and protect itself: the judicial system must necessarily regard itself as justice and the rule of law incarnate, and it thus becomes entirely logical that defense of the judicial system must have the very highest priority followed by protection of the state and its officials and civil servants. The inevitable consequence will be that the judicial system and its administration will comprise the very skeleton of society, its innermost, immutable, reactionary mineral core. The circle is complete: the prosecuting authority can only be reported to the prosecuting authority, whereupon the prosecuting authority "rejects" the accusations and declares the prosecuting authority free of any guilt.
It cannot be otherwise.
-"The righteous and the innocent" (1967)
Post ID: 113378380017384327
"A cult is a religion with no political power." - Tom Wolfe
***
c-jump: computer programming board game - "Great and unique learning game for kids! It teaches the child basic commands of a programming language, such as "if", "else", "switch", and introduces variable "x" concept."
"Hello" in many languages - "Greetings in more than 800 languages"
Memes: Myths, Misunderstandings and Misgivings - "As Sturgeon's Law reminds us, 95% of everything is crap. The hard part--especially during these early days of proto-memetics--is to identify the 5% that is actually good. Sturgeon's Law also suggests, of course, that 95% of the criticism of memes and memetics is also crap, so we needn't waste our time rebutting every silly, anxiety-driven objection."
The Wrathful Dispersion controversy: A Canadian perspective - "Wrathful Dispersion is couched in more cautiously neutral language; rather than tying linguistic diversity to a specific biblical event, it merely argues that the differences among modern languages are too perverse to have arisen spontaneously, and must therefore be the work of some wrathful (and powerful) disperser who deliberately set out to accomplish a confusion of tongues. When asked in court to speculate about the possible identity of the disperser, Michael Moringa, a prominent proponent of WD, demurred, saying that the theory makes no claims about the answer to that question, and that it certainly does not insist that the Disperser is the God of Genesis. Moringa has, however, elsewhere avowed a deep personal belief in the Christian God as the power responsible, as have other WD theorists."
The Transcendental Argument for the Nonexistence of God - "Logic presupposes that its principles are necessarily true. However, according to the brand of Christianity assumed by TAG, God created everything, including logic; or at least everything, including logic, is dependent on God. But if something is created by or is dependent on God, it is not necessary--it is contingent on God. And if principles of logic are contingent on God, they are not logically necessary. Moreover, if principles of logic are contingent on God, God could change them. Thus, God could make the law of noncontradiction false; in other words, God could arrange matters so that a proposition and its negation were true at the same time. But this is absurd. How could God arrange matters so that New Zealand is south of China and that New Zealand is not south of it? So, one must conclude that logic is not dependent on God, and, insofar as the Christian world view assumes that logic so dependent, it is false."
He deserves brownie points for the name of the argument alone.
Gym user upset at cover-up call - "A sports enthusiast was told not to wear vests at a council gym because the sight of "big hairy armpits" would upset other users."
YATTA! - 'Damn Japs' is the only thing that can possibly describe this. And how does GREENL spell YATTA?!
Rainbow Warrior - "A concert scheduled for Singapore in the early ’80s, for example, had to be cancelled when Kitaro refused to bend to the strict rules applied to those seeking to enter the country. “The tickets were sold out,” he recalls. “But when I went through immigration, they were like, Kitaro, please come over here, you have a problem. You cannot enter with long hair. They said, ‘If you would like to enter Singapore you will have to cut your hair.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to cut my hair, so I would like to cancel the concert.’”"
!@#$%^&*()
Romance of the Jedi - "In a losing battle, to save a dying world, 2 warriors will find victory, in each other's arms. Obi-Wan: 'This time, we will do it together.'"
Anti-PETA Shirts - Anti-PETA T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, Anti PETA Shirts - I particularly like:
I'm not sure why 1856, though.
***
c-jump: computer programming board game - "Great and unique learning game for kids! It teaches the child basic commands of a programming language, such as "if", "else", "switch", and introduces variable "x" concept."
"Hello" in many languages - "Greetings in more than 800 languages"
Memes: Myths, Misunderstandings and Misgivings - "As Sturgeon's Law reminds us, 95% of everything is crap. The hard part--especially during these early days of proto-memetics--is to identify the 5% that is actually good. Sturgeon's Law also suggests, of course, that 95% of the criticism of memes and memetics is also crap, so we needn't waste our time rebutting every silly, anxiety-driven objection."
The Wrathful Dispersion controversy: A Canadian perspective - "Wrathful Dispersion is couched in more cautiously neutral language; rather than tying linguistic diversity to a specific biblical event, it merely argues that the differences among modern languages are too perverse to have arisen spontaneously, and must therefore be the work of some wrathful (and powerful) disperser who deliberately set out to accomplish a confusion of tongues. When asked in court to speculate about the possible identity of the disperser, Michael Moringa, a prominent proponent of WD, demurred, saying that the theory makes no claims about the answer to that question, and that it certainly does not insist that the Disperser is the God of Genesis. Moringa has, however, elsewhere avowed a deep personal belief in the Christian God as the power responsible, as have other WD theorists."
The Transcendental Argument for the Nonexistence of God - "Logic presupposes that its principles are necessarily true. However, according to the brand of Christianity assumed by TAG, God created everything, including logic; or at least everything, including logic, is dependent on God. But if something is created by or is dependent on God, it is not necessary--it is contingent on God. And if principles of logic are contingent on God, they are not logically necessary. Moreover, if principles of logic are contingent on God, God could change them. Thus, God could make the law of noncontradiction false; in other words, God could arrange matters so that a proposition and its negation were true at the same time. But this is absurd. How could God arrange matters so that New Zealand is south of China and that New Zealand is not south of it? So, one must conclude that logic is not dependent on God, and, insofar as the Christian world view assumes that logic so dependent, it is false."
He deserves brownie points for the name of the argument alone.
Gym user upset at cover-up call - "A sports enthusiast was told not to wear vests at a council gym because the sight of "big hairy armpits" would upset other users."
YATTA! - 'Damn Japs' is the only thing that can possibly describe this. And how does GREENL spell YATTA?!
Rainbow Warrior - "A concert scheduled for Singapore in the early ’80s, for example, had to be cancelled when Kitaro refused to bend to the strict rules applied to those seeking to enter the country. “The tickets were sold out,” he recalls. “But when I went through immigration, they were like, Kitaro, please come over here, you have a problem. You cannot enter with long hair. They said, ‘If you would like to enter Singapore you will have to cut your hair.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to cut my hair, so I would like to cancel the concert.’”"
!@#$%^&*()
Romance of the Jedi - "In a losing battle, to save a dying world, 2 warriors will find victory, in each other's arms. Obi-Wan: 'This time, we will do it together.'"
Anti-PETA Shirts - Anti-PETA T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, Anti PETA Shirts - I particularly like:
I'm not sure why 1856, though.
Post ID: 113378940772748368
Sicientific Project: Gender portrayal on children's television – deep-rooted change or stagnation?
"In the case of the Smurfs there is even more to learn about gender portrayal. For the basic principle of the Smurf is that his typical feature or role is reflected in his name: Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Stupid Smurf, Clumsy Smurf, Papa Smurf (the leader) and then Smurfette and Sassette. The particular characteristic of the last two is to be feminine, the former as an erotically attractive woman, and the latter as a smart girl with red hair. Here masculinity and femininity are no longer contrasted, since femininity is only another feature to be found in a few appropriate stereotypes...
Although girl figures may appear pleasant and new at first sight, certain aspects remain the same. For whether it is Sailor Moon, Ocean Girl or Marie, all sympathetic girl figures on television are absolutely beautiful, markedly slim and have mostly long blond hair. Body proportions that do not correspond to the ideal weight (or a few pounds less) or facial features which deviate from the uniform ideal of beauty are not to be seen – unless as a problem and a subject of the plot. Many female figures in animated films also follow the "baby schema", and the rounded head is characterised by a little nose and big wide-set eyes. (Cf Mühlen-Achs, 1995, 31)... As is usual in Mangas, Sailor Moon is extremely sexualised and by far exceeds Barbie in the unattainable proportions of her body."
As is usual in this sort of study, this has a tendency to overinterpret. A short discussion on whether the media should reflect reality as it is, reality as it should be or reality as viewers want it to be would have been welcome; just as females and males have different standards of physical achievement, it is unrealistic to expect there to be an equal number of female and male protagonists.
***
Jesus, Meet Evolution
"If we insist on approaching the tale of Adam and Eve as literal truth, we come out of the story with little more than frustration that our ancestors could be so stupid as to condemn all humanity by trusting a talking snake. But if we let go of this literalist fixation and dig to the moral and spiritual heart of the story, we confront a fundamental tenet of Christianity: that the Garden of Eden drama is played out every day, by our neighbors and ourselves; that we are not just condemned by the temptation and sin of our predecessors but by humanity's perpetual weakness in choosing evil over good; that we have all made choices to eat forbidden fruit for which we desperately want and need redemption.
Opponents of evolution fear that modern science advances a "materialist" worldview in which every aspect of existence is approached only on a crude, physical plane. But the literalist approach to scripture is precisely this--only when Christians move beyond it do we encounter the most meaningful realms of spiritual understanding and revelation. Thus, while intelligent design advocates desperately try to make science validate a clumsy interventionist God, C.S. Lewis envisions in The Screwtape Letters a Deity for whom the linear progress of evolution means nothing, because It operates beyond the bounds of space and time, intimately involved in "the whole, self-consistent creative act.""
Erm. Right. This sounds more like Transcendentalism.
"In the case of the Smurfs there is even more to learn about gender portrayal. For the basic principle of the Smurf is that his typical feature or role is reflected in his name: Grouchy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Stupid Smurf, Clumsy Smurf, Papa Smurf (the leader) and then Smurfette and Sassette. The particular characteristic of the last two is to be feminine, the former as an erotically attractive woman, and the latter as a smart girl with red hair. Here masculinity and femininity are no longer contrasted, since femininity is only another feature to be found in a few appropriate stereotypes...
Although girl figures may appear pleasant and new at first sight, certain aspects remain the same. For whether it is Sailor Moon, Ocean Girl or Marie, all sympathetic girl figures on television are absolutely beautiful, markedly slim and have mostly long blond hair. Body proportions that do not correspond to the ideal weight (or a few pounds less) or facial features which deviate from the uniform ideal of beauty are not to be seen – unless as a problem and a subject of the plot. Many female figures in animated films also follow the "baby schema", and the rounded head is characterised by a little nose and big wide-set eyes. (Cf Mühlen-Achs, 1995, 31)... As is usual in Mangas, Sailor Moon is extremely sexualised and by far exceeds Barbie in the unattainable proportions of her body."
As is usual in this sort of study, this has a tendency to overinterpret. A short discussion on whether the media should reflect reality as it is, reality as it should be or reality as viewers want it to be would have been welcome; just as females and males have different standards of physical achievement, it is unrealistic to expect there to be an equal number of female and male protagonists.
***
Jesus, Meet Evolution
"If we insist on approaching the tale of Adam and Eve as literal truth, we come out of the story with little more than frustration that our ancestors could be so stupid as to condemn all humanity by trusting a talking snake. But if we let go of this literalist fixation and dig to the moral and spiritual heart of the story, we confront a fundamental tenet of Christianity: that the Garden of Eden drama is played out every day, by our neighbors and ourselves; that we are not just condemned by the temptation and sin of our predecessors but by humanity's perpetual weakness in choosing evil over good; that we have all made choices to eat forbidden fruit for which we desperately want and need redemption.
Opponents of evolution fear that modern science advances a "materialist" worldview in which every aspect of existence is approached only on a crude, physical plane. But the literalist approach to scripture is precisely this--only when Christians move beyond it do we encounter the most meaningful realms of spiritual understanding and revelation. Thus, while intelligent design advocates desperately try to make science validate a clumsy interventionist God, C.S. Lewis envisions in The Screwtape Letters a Deity for whom the linear progress of evolution means nothing, because It operates beyond the bounds of space and time, intimately involved in "the whole, self-consistent creative act.""
Erm. Right. This sounds more like Transcendentalism.
Post ID: 113378376264672366
Sunday, December 04, 2005
"Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it." - Gordon R. Dickson
***
There's an anti-government documentary* on Singapore on the Discovery Channel now. I'm not watching it, but when I walked past the TV there was critical coverage of the Anson by-election and what happened to JBJ (Privy Council appeal and all that jazz, and how he's reduced to hawking his books in the streets now).
"Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister...She would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac...Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society."
* - Well, not exclusively political. Earlier there was a segment on the founding of Singapore. It looks like the same one where Raffles was caught holding a bottle of Ice Mountain Mineral Water.
***
My Yahoo account is mysteriously restored. I only discovered this by chance when bored and wanting to see what would happen if I tried to log in to my old account.
I'm quite happy they restored it after a probable database error (albeit one lasting many days), but the least they could've done was to acknowledge my complaint email and notify me when it was restored.
Ah, the joys of being a non-paying customer.
***
Acronyms
"MAC Maybe A Computer
MAC Masquerading As a Computer
MAC Moronic Asinine Crap
MAC My Allowance Consumed
MAC Money Always Counts
MAC Mother's Artificial Charms
MAC Mickey's Alternative Computer
MAC Mindlessness Applauded & Celebrated
MAC Much Advertised Crap
MAC Masochist's Automatic Calculator
MAC Merely A Chimera
MAC Makes All Cynical"
***
BuyBack Asia Temporary Positions
"1. Counter Staff (for NUS Buyback Programme located on NUS campus)
- Female aged 18 to 28
- Pleasant looking and service oriented
2. Logistics Staff (for NUS Buyback Programme located on NUS campus)
- Male aged 18 to 35
- Reasonably Fit"
Sexual discrimination! Tut tut.
I wonder if I'll manage to sell my used textbooks on my own before flying off next semester. 5% (or even 10%) commission on the sale price is alright, but BuyBack Asia is charging 15%, which is quite unreasonable, I think.
***
I finally got my White Elephant T-shirt on Saturday, 2 1/2 weeks after I paid for it.
***
Youths reveal racy Bible calendar - "The 12 re-enacted passages feature a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson's hair and a nude Eve offering an apple. The Nuremberg-based group said they wanted to represent the Bible in a way that would entice young people."
Vicar tells children Santa is dead - "Youngsters at a Christmas carol service were devastated when the Reverend Lee Rayfield told them Santa Claus was dead. Even parents at the service in Maidenhead, Berkshire, were shocked to hear Mr Rayfield say it was scientifically impossible for Father Christmas to deliver so many presents so quickly."
Rich, coming from a vicar. Everyone knows that you need faith in Santa Claus!
Putfile Says Goodbye To Singapore - "Whilst Putfile is not a human rights campaigning organization, we believe that if a country must have the death penalty, there is no need for it be barbaric... For this reason, we are at this time terminating all service to users from Singapore. We shall be happy to restore service following any positive move from the government of Singapore towards abolition of hanging as an execution method."
This must be the most ridiculous response to the hanging. At least calling for a boycott would move the economically minded government. But a cessation of service from a free online video hosting provider? The same logic is behind 'some Americans are Crusaders, therefore we are justified in beheading all Americans'.
***
There's an anti-government documentary* on Singapore on the Discovery Channel now. I'm not watching it, but when I walked past the TV there was critical coverage of the Anson by-election and what happened to JBJ (Privy Council appeal and all that jazz, and how he's reduced to hawking his books in the streets now).
"Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister...She would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac...Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society."
* - Well, not exclusively political. Earlier there was a segment on the founding of Singapore. It looks like the same one where Raffles was caught holding a bottle of Ice Mountain Mineral Water.
***
My Yahoo account is mysteriously restored. I only discovered this by chance when bored and wanting to see what would happen if I tried to log in to my old account.
I'm quite happy they restored it after a probable database error (albeit one lasting many days), but the least they could've done was to acknowledge my complaint email and notify me when it was restored.
Ah, the joys of being a non-paying customer.
***
Acronyms
"MAC Maybe A Computer
MAC Masquerading As a Computer
MAC Moronic Asinine Crap
MAC My Allowance Consumed
MAC Money Always Counts
MAC Mother's Artificial Charms
MAC Mickey's Alternative Computer
MAC Mindlessness Applauded & Celebrated
MAC Much Advertised Crap
MAC Masochist's Automatic Calculator
MAC Merely A Chimera
MAC Makes All Cynical"
***
BuyBack Asia Temporary Positions
"1. Counter Staff (for NUS Buyback Programme located on NUS campus)
- Female aged 18 to 28
- Pleasant looking and service oriented
2. Logistics Staff (for NUS Buyback Programme located on NUS campus)
- Male aged 18 to 35
- Reasonably Fit"
Sexual discrimination! Tut tut.
I wonder if I'll manage to sell my used textbooks on my own before flying off next semester. 5% (or even 10%) commission on the sale price is alright, but BuyBack Asia is charging 15%, which is quite unreasonable, I think.
***
I finally got my White Elephant T-shirt on Saturday, 2 1/2 weeks after I paid for it.
***
Youths reveal racy Bible calendar - "The 12 re-enacted passages feature a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson's hair and a nude Eve offering an apple. The Nuremberg-based group said they wanted to represent the Bible in a way that would entice young people."
Vicar tells children Santa is dead - "Youngsters at a Christmas carol service were devastated when the Reverend Lee Rayfield told them Santa Claus was dead. Even parents at the service in Maidenhead, Berkshire, were shocked to hear Mr Rayfield say it was scientifically impossible for Father Christmas to deliver so many presents so quickly."
Rich, coming from a vicar. Everyone knows that you need faith in Santa Claus!
Putfile Says Goodbye To Singapore - "Whilst Putfile is not a human rights campaigning organization, we believe that if a country must have the death penalty, there is no need for it be barbaric... For this reason, we are at this time terminating all service to users from Singapore. We shall be happy to restore service following any positive move from the government of Singapore towards abolition of hanging as an execution method."
This must be the most ridiculous response to the hanging. At least calling for a boycott would move the economically minded government. But a cessation of service from a free online video hosting provider? The same logic is behind 'some Americans are Crusaders, therefore we are justified in beheading all Americans'.
Post ID: 112835984609152800
"it took me 24 years to find out that Nazism was abbreviated NS"
***
Someone: but tying it back will exert great pressure on your hair and kill the hair there... leading to degraded quality.
Me: so secondary school girls who tie their head end up balding early?!
depends how tight you tie right
Someone: yeah
but the thing is if you tie it up every day too tightly at the same spot, the hair will just get all dead at that spot
that's why you have to let it down whenever you can
Me: err.
sounds like rubbish
Someone: no..... this is what happened to me
Me: wth
so is it still dead?
Someone: no of cours not. it grew out and cut off.
Me: err.
as in which parts die
hair drops easier
but the roots are still alive
or what
Someone: along the hair shaft
you damage the shaft not the roots
Me: cheh
***
Someone: "all apes, in fact primates, have saggy breasts
so how did humans evolve to have nice round firm juicy pert breasts?
it mightbe that tits are mimicking the butt. apes n blah love butts.
and in fact, humans have the biggest butts in primatedome
coz we are long distance champoins, and butt muscles are essential in conserving energy.
so maybe theres the correlation
as in its biophysics is alot better in conserving energy
coz the gluts take back some energy in a pace's bounce"
Someone (2): "oh come on. JC students were shagging well before my time and will continue to shag well into the future.
at least not that many people got pregnant and not realize it for 7 months until collapsing in PE class and discovering said fetus.
(this is a true-life incident tha thappened to a 15 year old in a sec sch that my O level lit teacher used to teach at)
when quizzed on daily routine with boyfriend: "i go to his house. we do math. have sex. eat lunch. go to school"
*facepalm*
poor kids had no concept of birth control etc etc."
Someone (2): "i get along better w/ guys tha girls...most girls bug me.
mainly because they do all of the things on your liist
OMG the hover-piss! i'm trying to play detective to find out who is the culprit in the dept.... i think it's the new ***."
Someone else: I always wondered why mediocre expats could live such high lives in Spore
Well it is because the starting pay in the UK for a grad is about 25000 pounds a year without bonuses which is about 6000 sing dollars per month
so some white guy who has been working a couple of years and who then is relocated to spore but who retains the same salary is paid big big bucks in comparison
***
Someone: but tying it back will exert great pressure on your hair and kill the hair there... leading to degraded quality.
Me: so secondary school girls who tie their head end up balding early?!
depends how tight you tie right
Someone: yeah
but the thing is if you tie it up every day too tightly at the same spot, the hair will just get all dead at that spot
that's why you have to let it down whenever you can
Me: err.
sounds like rubbish
Someone: no..... this is what happened to me
Me: wth
so is it still dead?
Someone: no of cours not. it grew out and cut off.
Me: err.
as in which parts die
hair drops easier
but the roots are still alive
or what
Someone: along the hair shaft
you damage the shaft not the roots
Me: cheh
***
Someone: "all apes, in fact primates, have saggy breasts
so how did humans evolve to have nice round firm juicy pert breasts?
it mightbe that tits are mimicking the butt. apes n blah love butts.
and in fact, humans have the biggest butts in primatedome
coz we are long distance champoins, and butt muscles are essential in conserving energy.
so maybe theres the correlation
as in its biophysics is alot better in conserving energy
coz the gluts take back some energy in a pace's bounce"
Someone (2): "oh come on. JC students were shagging well before my time and will continue to shag well into the future.
at least not that many people got pregnant and not realize it for 7 months until collapsing in PE class and discovering said fetus.
(this is a true-life incident tha thappened to a 15 year old in a sec sch that my O level lit teacher used to teach at)
when quizzed on daily routine with boyfriend: "i go to his house. we do math. have sex. eat lunch. go to school"
*facepalm*
poor kids had no concept of birth control etc etc."
Someone (2): "i get along better w/ guys tha girls...most girls bug me.
mainly because they do all of the things on your liist
OMG the hover-piss! i'm trying to play detective to find out who is the culprit in the dept.... i think it's the new ***."
Someone else: I always wondered why mediocre expats could live such high lives in Spore
Well it is because the starting pay in the UK for a grad is about 25000 pounds a year without bonuses which is about 6000 sing dollars per month
so some white guy who has been working a couple of years and who then is relocated to spore but who retains the same salary is paid big big bucks in comparison
Post ID: 113366723133302580
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Some time ago, this poster popped up in my estate cautioning people: "Do not be victims of scams". 4 examples of said scams are then given, complete with graphic illustration: Fortune Telling, Computer Chips, Magic Stone (sic) and Lottery Tickets.
Now, Magic Stones have long been villified, and every now and then you see a story in the Shitty Times about how someone got conned into buying them. I'd always suspected they featured in regional culture (and thus it was insensitive, perhaps even seditious, to label them scams in our harmonious multi-racial society), but it took the addition of fortune telling to incite me to draw on my not inconsiderable resources to find out the depth of the sedition.
In Thailand, Magic Stones are used by Buddhist Abbots to help cure AIDS patients (Perceptions of HIV/AIDS and caring for people with terminal AIDS in southern Thailand). Meanwhile in Phuket, the annual Vegetarian Festival involves the throwing of magic stones. Even the Kabaa is basically a magic stone, in a manner of speaking. In Singapore, money was raised earlier this year in a donation drive for a temple to house what is believed to be the tooth of Gautama Siddhartha; is a magic stone really so different from a sacred tooth whose provenance is disputed? And this is to say nothing of how magic stones feature in many variants of New Age religion (eg healing crystals).
The singling out of fortune telling is even more egregious, since fortune telling is so mainstream among the Chinese that I won't even bother writing about its numerous instances and forms.
At this point, or at some time before, many a reader would doubtless have gone: "But Agagooga, of *course* everyone (except gullible old grannies, who we have to protect) knows that magic stones are scams! Res ipsa loquitur! Anyone who buys what is billed as the 'Pill of Eternal Life' is a moron! Those who buy indulgences from unlicensed sellers at $0.01 for a year out of Purgatory should know better! Someone selling the 6000 year old skull of the first human being is obviously a fraud, since everyone knows the earth is billions of years old! Anyone vouching for a life-prolonging and health-improving pill containing mercury is lying, since we all know that mercury consumption kills! Hawkers who offer tooth fragments from the Merlion must be con artists since everyone knows the Merlion is a creation of the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board!" But then, who is to say what is a genuine religious object and what is a scam? One man's scam is another man's faith.
For the state to have to intervene to be the arbiter for what is which blurs the State-Church divide, and risks making it partisan. It is really impossible to judge what is a legitimate religious endeavor and what is simply a scam, for all religions started out either as cults or as heresies, and most were persecuted (both by religious and secular authorities) during their inception. To persecute emerging forms of religion is simply to entrench existing forms of religion at the former's expense; all forms of religion and mysticism involve claims that cannot be convincingly and empirically proven with finality.
Some suggested to me that the defining characteristic of a con artist (as opposed to a religious figure) is that once the con artist gets the money, he disappears, whereas a religious figure lingers around and so has accountability of sorts. So presumably the lesson for aspiring con artists is to either form a religious system around their scam that is at least semi-coherent (a la L Ron Hubbard: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion." [attr]) and carry out a long term con job or to masquerade as a member of an existing religion and con people of their money within that particular religious framework. Not a very comforting corrolary of those people's suggestions, I must say.
In the final analysis, perhaps the best piece of advice to all faced with mystical propositions, be they magic stones with healing powers or more mainstream forms of miraculous religious healing; the sale of lucky 4D numbers or a blessing upon one's Yong Tau Hoo; promises of eternal life or an alleged prediction of one's future; promising people a greater chance of winning in lucky draws or a bomo charging for his services; improved job prospects or the guarantee of being the last one standing at next year's Subaru Car Challenge, is simply this: Caveat emptor.
[Addendum:
Someone: "i wun be surprised if some of the supposedly-healed ppl are kelong one
esp those last stage cancer
that's a typical scam u noe..for magic stones
cheat tries to sell to auntie A
aunties B n C are part of scam..stand beside n saying how the stone worked for them"]
Post ID: 113362278646828683
My mother went to wash Blue Bear despite my express instructions not to do so, and now he has a bald streak along his tummy (I compared his current condition to a photo of him after my sister washed him last year, so no, I'm not imagining things).
December 8th, 2004
December 3rd, 2005 (The wound is much more evident in the flesh)
Inthe face of his gradual disintegration, my mother's lame excuse is that he needs to be washed once a year, otherwise I'll fall sick (notwithstanding the times when he wasn't washed for more than a year, and nothing happened to me). The natural rejoinder on my part, of course, is that if your wife is sick, you don't dump her.
Looks like I'm going to have to hide him before leaving the house next time.
December 8th, 2004
December 3rd, 2005 (The wound is much more evident in the flesh)
In
Looks like I'm going to have to hide him before leaving the house next time.
Post ID: 113361350551816935
A pseudo-purity test: I got 64% (as of 6th November) - the highest of anyone I know (or indeed, know of). Damn.
Start off with 100% and minus off 1% for each thing that has happened to you.
Smoked.
Drank alcohol.
Cried when someone died.
Been drunk.
Had sex.
Been to a concert.
Given a handjob/gotten a handjob.
Given a blowjob/gotten a blowjob.
Been verbally sexually harassed.
Verbally sexually harassed somebody.
Felt someone up and/or been felt up.
Laughed so hard something came out of your nose.
Cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend before.
Been cheated on by a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Been to prom.
Cried at school.
Gotten lost in a WalMart or a department store.
Went streaking.
Given a lap dance.
Had someone of the opposite sex in your room.
Had someone of the opposite sex sleep over.
Slept over at someone of the opposite sex's house.
Kissed a stranger.
Hugged a stranger.
Went scuba diving.
Driven a car.
Gotten an xray.
Hit by a car.
Had a party.
Done drugs.
Played strip poker.
Got paid to strip for someone.
Ran away from home.
Broken a bone.
Eaten sushi.
Bought porn.
Watched porn.
Made porn.
Had a crush on someone of the same sex.
Been in love.
Frenched kissed.
Laughed so hard you cried.
Cried yourself to sleep.
Laughed yourself to sleep.
Stabbed yourself.
Shot a gun.
Trash talked someone and then acted like their best friend the next day.
Watched TV for 9 consecutive hours.
Been online for 9 consecutive hours.
Watched an animal die.
Watched a person die.
Had sex and/or messed around somewhere with at least 1 person present.
Pranked somebody.
Put somebody in the hospital.
Snuck into someone's room and/or your own room after being out.
Kissed somebody of the same sex.
Dressed punk.
Dressed goth.
Dressed preppy.
Been to a motocross race.
Avoided somebody.
Been stalked.
Stalked someone.
Met a celebrity.
Played an instrument.
Ridden a horse.
Cut yourself.
Bungee jumped.
Ding dong ditched somebody.
Been to a wild party.
Got caught stealing something.
Kicked a guy in the balls.
Stolen a boyfriend/girlfriend from a friend.
Went out with your friend's crush.
Got arrested.
Been pregnant.
Babysat.
Been to another country.
Started your house on fire.
Had an encounter with a ghost.
Donated your hair to cancer patients.
Been asked out by someone that you never though you'd to be asked out by.
Cried over a member of the opposite sex.
Had a boyfriend/girlfriend for over 3 months.
Sat on your ass all day.
Ate a whole carton of ice cream all by yourself.
Had a job.
Gotten cut from a sports team.
Been called a whore.
Danced like a whore.
Been mistaken for a celebrity.
Been in a car accident.
Been told you have beautiful eyes.
Been told you have beautiful hair.
Raped somebody.
Danced in the rain.
Been rejected.
Walked out of a restaurant without paying.
Punched someone/slapped someone in the face
Start off with 100% and minus off 1% for each thing that has happened to you.
Smoked.
Drank alcohol.
Cried when someone died.
Been drunk.
Had sex.
Been to a concert.
Given a handjob/gotten a handjob.
Given a blowjob/gotten a blowjob.
Been verbally sexually harassed.
Verbally sexually harassed somebody.
Felt someone up and/or been felt up.
Laughed so hard something came out of your nose.
Cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend before.
Been cheated on by a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Been to prom.
Cried at school.
Gotten lost in a WalMart or a department store.
Went streaking.
Given a lap dance.
Had someone of the opposite sex in your room.
Had someone of the opposite sex sleep over.
Slept over at someone of the opposite sex's house.
Kissed a stranger.
Hugged a stranger.
Went scuba diving.
Driven a car.
Gotten an xray.
Hit by a car.
Had a party.
Done drugs.
Played strip poker.
Got paid to strip for someone.
Ran away from home.
Broken a bone.
Eaten sushi.
Bought porn.
Watched porn.
Made porn.
Had a crush on someone of the same sex.
Been in love.
Frenched kissed.
Laughed so hard you cried.
Cried yourself to sleep.
Laughed yourself to sleep.
Stabbed yourself.
Shot a gun.
Trash talked someone and then acted like their best friend the next day.
Watched TV for 9 consecutive hours.
Been online for 9 consecutive hours.
Watched an animal die.
Watched a person die.
Had sex and/or messed around somewhere with at least 1 person present.
Pranked somebody.
Put somebody in the hospital.
Snuck into someone's room and/or your own room after being out.
Kissed somebody of the same sex.
Dressed punk.
Dressed goth.
Dressed preppy.
Been to a motocross race.
Avoided somebody.
Been stalked.
Stalked someone.
Met a celebrity.
Played an instrument.
Ridden a horse.
Cut yourself.
Bungee jumped.
Ding dong ditched somebody.
Been to a wild party.
Got caught stealing something.
Kicked a guy in the balls.
Stolen a boyfriend/girlfriend from a friend.
Went out with your friend's crush.
Got arrested.
Been pregnant.
Babysat.
Been to another country.
Started your house on fire.
Had an encounter with a ghost.
Donated your hair to cancer patients.
Been asked out by someone that you never though you'd to be asked out by.
Cried over a member of the opposite sex.
Had a boyfriend/girlfriend for over 3 months.
Sat on your ass all day.
Ate a whole carton of ice cream all by yourself.
Had a job.
Gotten cut from a sports team.
Been called a whore.
Danced like a whore.
Been mistaken for a celebrity.
Been in a car accident.
Been told you have beautiful eyes.
Been told you have beautiful hair.
Raped somebody.
Danced in the rain.
Been rejected.
Walked out of a restaurant without paying.
Punched someone/slapped someone in the face
Post ID: 113359696813405862
I am usually loth to do concert reviews if I lack a more hardcore person and experienced ear to discuss the concert with, but I'm bored and so will talk briefly about the ones I went to on Thursday and Friday. Both were a last minute thing - I only knew I was going for them less than 40 hours before they started, which made gathering a mighty host difficult.
***
Artyfakt Cantate Series No. 3 - Christmas Music from Germany and France
by Colibri Chamber Singers, Common Voices, Temasek Polytechnic Choir, Artyfakt Consort and 5 soloists whose names I am lazy to type out
Works performed:
JL Bach - Uns ist ein kind geboren
JS Bach - Nun komm, der heiden heiland
Camille Saint-Saens - Oratorio del Noel
Although I was seated at the right side of the stage, and slightly behind the string ensemble, having come in just on time due to underestimating traffic, the acoustics of the church were good enough for me to hear the performance well, though sadly I couldn't hear the MCs' commentary.
The choir had a great deal of creativity - within the constraints of the dress code, they managed to squeeze in possibly the greatest number of variations on a black dress code in one place that I've ever seen.
There were fewer PRCs among the soloists than I expected. Even though I haven't been to all that many performances by local groups with soloists, for some reason I expected 1/2 of them to be PRC (only 1/3 were).
The blend of the choir and string ensemble was quite good, but I heard something I haven't for a while - the strains of Sopranos when trying to hit high notes just out of their reach. Otherwise, there were the usual minor mistakes from the performers here and there, but nothing noteworthy. The German and Latin enunciation sounded crisp, especially considering that Singaporeans in general tend to be bad at such (maybe it's only the student choirs).
I was impressed with the alto soloist. Perhaps this is because it's hard to deliver a distinctive and memorable alto, but the soloist managed to pull it off (during the one aria [IIRC] she had). [Addendum: I thought I heard funny noises from the other female soloists at one or two points, but wasn't sure. A mysterious source's anonymous source confirms my suspicions, though.] Meanwhile, the baritone's singing was a touch too thick, but for some reason most examples of such performances feature thick singing (there probably is a better word, but I forgot), perhaps because it carries well.
I am usually leery of organ accompaniment, as it tends to muffle the finer parts of the other sections' performance. This effect was not in evidence, though whether this was due to the nature of the orchestration, the skill of the organist or the quality of the organ, I do not know.
Unfortunately, the duet and trio during the Saint-Saens oratorio were accompanied by piano. It seems the accompaniment was originally scored for harp. Ah well.
Even if the performance had been very bad, you couldn't beat the price, especially considering that there was a string ensemble and organ thrown in and that a cantata and an oratorio (albeit short ones) were performed in their entireties. I am not familiar with the pieces performed, so I cannot comment further.
***
RenaISsancE *2* 2005
by the Raffles Institution String Ensemble (and friends)
Works performed:
Mendelssohn - Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 21
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64
Rodrigo - Concerto De Aranjuez
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 in D major "Classical" Op 25
I only scribbled some notes the day after the concert, so they are necessarily brief.
The 2 soloists were great, managing to make their instruments sing without playing too ostentatiously (even the 16 year old playing for the Mendelssohn), but they were let down by the orchestra. There seemed to be something wrong with the brass, as it sounded squeaky, and the violins weren't together (and sounded squeaky too). It's a secondary school student ensemble, and there looked to be Secondary 1s performing, so I don't ask for much, but at one part I was even cringing.
The orchestra improved towards the end, however - maybe they finally warmed up.
***
Artyfakt Cantate Series No. 3 - Christmas Music from Germany and France
by Colibri Chamber Singers, Common Voices, Temasek Polytechnic Choir, Artyfakt Consort and 5 soloists whose names I am lazy to type out
Works performed:
JL Bach - Uns ist ein kind geboren
JS Bach - Nun komm, der heiden heiland
Camille Saint-Saens - Oratorio del Noel
Although I was seated at the right side of the stage, and slightly behind the string ensemble, having come in just on time due to underestimating traffic, the acoustics of the church were good enough for me to hear the performance well, though sadly I couldn't hear the MCs' commentary.
The choir had a great deal of creativity - within the constraints of the dress code, they managed to squeeze in possibly the greatest number of variations on a black dress code in one place that I've ever seen.
There were fewer PRCs among the soloists than I expected. Even though I haven't been to all that many performances by local groups with soloists, for some reason I expected 1/2 of them to be PRC (only 1/3 were).
The blend of the choir and string ensemble was quite good, but I heard something I haven't for a while - the strains of Sopranos when trying to hit high notes just out of their reach. Otherwise, there were the usual minor mistakes from the performers here and there, but nothing noteworthy. The German and Latin enunciation sounded crisp, especially considering that Singaporeans in general tend to be bad at such (maybe it's only the student choirs).
I was impressed with the alto soloist. Perhaps this is because it's hard to deliver a distinctive and memorable alto, but the soloist managed to pull it off (during the one aria [IIRC] she had). [Addendum: I thought I heard funny noises from the other female soloists at one or two points, but wasn't sure. A mysterious source's anonymous source confirms my suspicions, though.] Meanwhile, the baritone's singing was a touch too thick, but for some reason most examples of such performances feature thick singing (there probably is a better word, but I forgot), perhaps because it carries well.
I am usually leery of organ accompaniment, as it tends to muffle the finer parts of the other sections' performance. This effect was not in evidence, though whether this was due to the nature of the orchestration, the skill of the organist or the quality of the organ, I do not know.
Unfortunately, the duet and trio during the Saint-Saens oratorio were accompanied by piano. It seems the accompaniment was originally scored for harp. Ah well.
Even if the performance had been very bad, you couldn't beat the price, especially considering that there was a string ensemble and organ thrown in and that a cantata and an oratorio (albeit short ones) were performed in their entireties. I am not familiar with the pieces performed, so I cannot comment further.
***
RenaISsancE *2* 2005
by the Raffles Institution String Ensemble (and friends)
Works performed:
Mendelssohn - Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream Op 21
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64
Rodrigo - Concerto De Aranjuez
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 in D major "Classical" Op 25
I only scribbled some notes the day after the concert, so they are necessarily brief.
The 2 soloists were great, managing to make their instruments sing without playing too ostentatiously (even the 16 year old playing for the Mendelssohn), but they were let down by the orchestra. There seemed to be something wrong with the brass, as it sounded squeaky, and the violins weren't together (and sounded squeaky too). It's a secondary school student ensemble, and there looked to be Secondary 1s performing, so I don't ask for much, but at one part I was even cringing.
The orchestra improved towards the end, however - maybe they finally warmed up.
Post ID: 113354171991270415
Friday, December 02, 2005
Final Theory Test Ten Year Series / NUS exam results
Ed: Keywords - Basic Theory Test
Switching on the light inside your car during night driving will
b. enable other motorists to see clearly the inside of your vehicle
c. enable other road users to know that you are driving
Alcohol and drugs
b. refreshes the mind and improve driving skills
If you have landed your vehicle in the canal with deep water, you should
a. wind up all windows and call for help
When performing paralle parking,
a. the vehicle should be parallel to the parking lot
b. the vehicle front position should be slanting out slightly
c. the vehicle rear portion should be slanting out slightly
If the brake pedal suddenly becomes ineffective, you should
b. open the door and jump out
Driving a vehicle with a reverse light on is
c. a waste of battery
Which is the best way for straightening the steering wheels while reversing?
a. From slanting position to straight position
b. From slanting position to slanting position
c. From straight position to straight position
When you want to turn right and a taxi is occupying the space in front, what should you do?
a. Horn at him to say that he is wrong
["i think the default response for any altercations involving taxi drivers should be to horn at them."]
When turning into a left narrow lane, you should keep to your
b. not at all
Van and lorries are often caught in accidents because
a. they do not always follow the road speed and traffic rules
[Ed: Oddly, this is in the official handbook.]
Motor cyclists are more likely to cause accidents because
b. of reckless driving
[Ed: Meanwhile this answer is wrong. Discrimination!]
Which of the following drivers are not allowed on the expressways?
c. Vintage car drivers
While driving on the road, which situation is likely to cause accidents?
b. Accidents caused by others
If your view is blocked while reversing, you should
b. speed up to prevent others from coming in front
If you are drowsy while driving, you should
b. drive faster to go home to sleep
If you have consumed excess alcohol, you should
a. drive faster to get home to rest
When opening the car door to get in, you should
c. open the door wide to prtect your body
If you are dazzled by oncoming vehicles with high beams of light, you should
c. switch on your high beam
When you are following closely the front vehicle, the headlights should
b. Switched to high beam
After pass through the fllod and the brakes become ineffective, the remedy is to
b. dry brake lining with dryer
c. dry brake lining with cloth
The slack of the fan belt is
a. 10mm - 15mm
b. 10cm - 15cm
c. 10m - 15m
["this is for driving leh, not test to be car mechanic"]
When there is an emergency vehicle following you,
c. go faster in order not to obstruct traffic
You should sound the horn
a. When you think you have the right of way
b. When a car moved into your lane without signalling
Damn, this TYS is worth every cent.
The horn should be used:
a. to express your frustration
b. to greet other road users
[Ed: This wasn't in the TYS, but I got a question with options to this effect today on my test.]
***
NUS Exam results this semester are released before Christmas.
People will still complain, however, that it spoils their Christmas, notwithstanding the fact that they likely cannot be released earlier (marking constraints and having to shape the bell curve) or later (people will complain it spoils their New Year, and releasing results from 2nd January onwards would leave no time for appeals before the new semester).
Of course, if people don't want to spoil their Christmas or New Year, they can always check their results on January 2nd - they aren't going to run away. Hell, a hard copy of results is mailed to us 2 weeks from the date on online release, giving everyone plenty of time to enjoy their Christmas and New Year.
But then humans are irrational, so.
Switching on the light inside your car during night driving will
b. enable other motorists to see clearly the inside of your vehicle
c. enable other road users to know that you are driving
Alcohol and drugs
b. refreshes the mind and improve driving skills
If you have landed your vehicle in the canal with deep water, you should
a. wind up all windows and call for help
When performing paralle parking,
a. the vehicle should be parallel to the parking lot
b. the vehicle front position should be slanting out slightly
c. the vehicle rear portion should be slanting out slightly
If the brake pedal suddenly becomes ineffective, you should
b. open the door and jump out
Driving a vehicle with a reverse light on is
c. a waste of battery
Which is the best way for straightening the steering wheels while reversing?
a. From slanting position to straight position
b. From slanting position to slanting position
c. From straight position to straight position
When you want to turn right and a taxi is occupying the space in front, what should you do?
a. Horn at him to say that he is wrong
["i think the default response for any altercations involving taxi drivers should be to horn at them."]
When turning into a left narrow lane, you should keep to your
b. not at all
Van and lorries are often caught in accidents because
a. they do not always follow the road speed and traffic rules
[Ed: Oddly, this is in the official handbook.]
Motor cyclists are more likely to cause accidents because
b. of reckless driving
[Ed: Meanwhile this answer is wrong. Discrimination!]
Which of the following drivers are not allowed on the expressways?
c. Vintage car drivers
While driving on the road, which situation is likely to cause accidents?
b. Accidents caused by others
If your view is blocked while reversing, you should
b. speed up to prevent others from coming in front
If you are drowsy while driving, you should
b. drive faster to go home to sleep
If you have consumed excess alcohol, you should
a. drive faster to get home to rest
When opening the car door to get in, you should
c. open the door wide to prtect your body
If you are dazzled by oncoming vehicles with high beams of light, you should
c. switch on your high beam
When you are following closely the front vehicle, the headlights should
b. Switched to high beam
After pass through the fllod and the brakes become ineffective, the remedy is to
b. dry brake lining with dryer
c. dry brake lining with cloth
The slack of the fan belt is
a. 10mm - 15mm
b. 10cm - 15cm
c. 10m - 15m
["this is for driving leh, not test to be car mechanic"]
When there is an emergency vehicle following you,
c. go faster in order not to obstruct traffic
You should sound the horn
a. When you think you have the right of way
b. When a car moved into your lane without signalling
Damn, this TYS is worth every cent.
The horn should be used:
a. to express your frustration
b. to greet other road users
[Ed: This wasn't in the TYS, but I got a question with options to this effect today on my test.]
***
NUS Exam results this semester are released before Christmas.
People will still complain, however, that it spoils their Christmas, notwithstanding the fact that they likely cannot be released earlier (marking constraints and having to shape the bell curve) or later (people will complain it spoils their New Year, and releasing results from 2nd January onwards would leave no time for appeals before the new semester).
Of course, if people don't want to spoil their Christmas or New Year, they can always check their results on January 2nd - they aren't going to run away. Hell, a hard copy of results is mailed to us 2 weeks from the date on online release, giving everyone plenty of time to enjoy their Christmas and New Year.
But then humans are irrational, so.
Post ID: 113350295080921053
National Education Lesson: Japanese language policy in Asia until 1945
Linguistic imperialism: Japanese language policy in Asia until 1945
"The goal of the cultural/educational policy in Japan-ruled areas was to linguistically, culturally and morally Japanize/imperialize or brainwash the local people by means of school education. The wartime implementation of the policy was extremely harsh: while the Japanese militaristic government launched the propaganda of liberating Europe/US-colonized Asia and establishing a Daitoa Kyoeiken [Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Hemisphere] in its place, with Japan as the leader of the Hemisphere. It actually implied mobilization of resources, both manual and natural, from the occupied areas as it did so. The Japanese education in Japan-ruled areas as well as in Japan was directed to serve this scheme. But the scheme collapsed with the defeat of Japan in 1945.
What characterized the Japanese cultural and educational program in the colonized/occupied areas was the inculcation/indoctrination of Japanese spirit of ethnocentric ideology. It was intended to inspire the new subjects to believe in Japan being a god's country. In addition, the diffusion of Japanese was incorporated, which resulted very often in stamping out the local languages, traditional culture and values. The ultimate goal was to produce loyal subjects of the Japanese Emperor by compelling assimilation of all the dominated people into the existing Japanese order. With this policy of forced assimilation, the Japanese language, which was intended to become a lingua franca within the hemisphere, played a key role in integrating Asian peoples under the Hakko Ichiu [the eight corners of the world under one roof] framework. The educational programs under the Japanese authorities particularly compelled the acquisition of Japanese...
The educational principles of the military administration in Malay/Singapore under Japanese claimed that:
There daily seem to be new lessons we can learn, in National Education classes, from the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.
Today's lesson (with reference to the quoted extracts above):
One always has to be critical of what one learns in school, and not accept it blindly as gospel truth, since it may be taught for reasons other than strictly pedagogical ones.
"The goal of the cultural/educational policy in Japan-ruled areas was to linguistically, culturally and morally Japanize/imperialize or brainwash the local people by means of school education. The wartime implementation of the policy was extremely harsh: while the Japanese militaristic government launched the propaganda of liberating Europe/US-colonized Asia and establishing a Daitoa Kyoeiken [Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Hemisphere] in its place, with Japan as the leader of the Hemisphere. It actually implied mobilization of resources, both manual and natural, from the occupied areas as it did so. The Japanese education in Japan-ruled areas as well as in Japan was directed to serve this scheme. But the scheme collapsed with the defeat of Japan in 1945.
What characterized the Japanese cultural and educational program in the colonized/occupied areas was the inculcation/indoctrination of Japanese spirit of ethnocentric ideology. It was intended to inspire the new subjects to believe in Japan being a god's country. In addition, the diffusion of Japanese was incorporated, which resulted very often in stamping out the local languages, traditional culture and values. The ultimate goal was to produce loyal subjects of the Japanese Emperor by compelling assimilation of all the dominated people into the existing Japanese order. With this policy of forced assimilation, the Japanese language, which was intended to become a lingua franca within the hemisphere, played a key role in integrating Asian peoples under the Hakko Ichiu [the eight corners of the world under one roof] framework. The educational programs under the Japanese authorities particularly compelled the acquisition of Japanese...
The educational principles of the military administration in Malay/Singapore under Japanese claimed that:
- Cultural and educational administration of the occupied areas lies in demonstrating to the Southern peoples the Japanese imperial spirit of Hakko ichiu and unify the national cultures into Japanese culture,
- education should contribute to master useful industries and skills in order to promote local industries,
- Japanese should be diffused to promote common communication in the Kyoeiken Hemisphere,
- respect to labor and promotion of industrious mind should be enhanced. (Fundamental Principles on Education: 1.1942)
There daily seem to be new lessons we can learn, in National Education classes, from the Japanese Occupation of Singapore.
Today's lesson (with reference to the quoted extracts above):
One always has to be critical of what one learns in school, and not accept it blindly as gospel truth, since it may be taught for reasons other than strictly pedagogical ones.
Post ID: 113350161557634893
Thursday, December 01, 2005
"A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized." - Fred Allen
Random Playlist Song: Schubert - Impromptus D.935 - No. 3 In B-Flat - Thema (Andante) mit Variationen (Brendel)
***
"Hey Mr X,
I love your 'how girls waste time' page. I'm so pissed off at this girl, and somehow i landed at your blog, and i saw this link to 'how girls waste time'. I clicked it only because your entries appeared sufficiently non-trashy at first glance (composed in decent english, not filled with colourful gaudy hearts and stars etc). So cool. So many reasons that apply directly to this idiot of a girl am interested in."
***
Web Mail extension and Hotmail component
A: I´ve updated Webmail and Hotmail extensions to the latest available and i´m still getting "negative vibes" with Thunderbird 1.5 latest branch builds...
B: What do you mean by negative vibes? No one understands what your problem is. Negative vibes means like you have a feeling that something bad is going to happen or you get the feeling that someone doesn't like you.
A: It´s a Thunderbird error that says:
"sending of password did not succeed. mail server localhost responded: negative vibes"
***
Yucheng's Yahoo account also got deleted a few years back. It seems Yahoo has a proven track record of random, unexplained and unjustified deletion.
Free riding/Tragedy of the common toilet - The modern Tragedy of the Commons
Postmodernism - "While postmodernism seems very much like modernism in these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism, for example, tends to present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history (think of The Wasteland, for instance, or of Woolf's To the Lighthouse), but presents that fragmentation as something tragic, something to be lamented and mourned as a loss. Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of modern life; art will do what other human institutions fail to do. Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates that. The world is meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense."
iPod Flea - Sure to be a hit among Mac whores everywhere.
Finally, an English version of the Kikkoman advertisement!
How guys waste their time / Weird things guys do - How Girls Waste Time has inspired a version for males!
AdBlock Plus Home - Ironically, the homepage of this Firefox extension to remove ads from webpages has Google Ads.
Recovering Christians: Sin and Forgiveness - "If a god can be forgiven for such heinous atrocities, what's a little Original Sin?"
Random Playlist Song: Schubert - Impromptus D.935 - No. 3 In B-Flat - Thema (Andante) mit Variationen (Brendel)
***
"Hey Mr X,
I love your 'how girls waste time' page. I'm so pissed off at this girl, and somehow i landed at your blog, and i saw this link to 'how girls waste time'. I clicked it only because your entries appeared sufficiently non-trashy at first glance (composed in decent english, not filled with colourful gaudy hearts and stars etc). So cool. So many reasons that apply directly to this idiot of a girl am interested in."
***
Web Mail extension and Hotmail component
A: I´ve updated Webmail and Hotmail extensions to the latest available and i´m still getting "negative vibes" with Thunderbird 1.5 latest branch builds...
B: What do you mean by negative vibes? No one understands what your problem is. Negative vibes means like you have a feeling that something bad is going to happen or you get the feeling that someone doesn't like you.
A: It´s a Thunderbird error that says:
"sending of password did not succeed. mail server localhost responded: negative vibes"
***
Yucheng's Yahoo account also got deleted a few years back. It seems Yahoo has a proven track record of random, unexplained and unjustified deletion.
Free riding/Tragedy of the common toilet - The modern Tragedy of the Commons
Postmodernism - "While postmodernism seems very much like modernism in these ways, it differs from modernism in its attitude toward a lot of these trends. Modernism, for example, tends to present a fragmented view of human subjectivity and history (think of The Wasteland, for instance, or of Woolf's To the Lighthouse), but presents that fragmentation as something tragic, something to be lamented and mourned as a loss. Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art can provide the unity, coherence, and meaning which has been lost in most of modern life; art will do what other human institutions fail to do. Postmodernism, in contrast, doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates that. The world is meaningless? Let's not pretend that art can make meaning then, let's just play with nonsense."
iPod Flea - Sure to be a hit among Mac whores everywhere.
Finally, an English version of the Kikkoman advertisement!
How guys waste their time / Weird things guys do - How Girls Waste Time has inspired a version for males!
AdBlock Plus Home - Ironically, the homepage of this Firefox extension to remove ads from webpages has Google Ads.
Recovering Christians: Sin and Forgiveness - "If a god can be forgiven for such heinous atrocities, what's a little Original Sin?"
Post ID: 113338740983829316
Someone asks, in the comments of Bohemia Bunny's Sexy V-girls Update:
"No offence, but is that really a girl? or a guy with a wig?"
Boo hoo.
"No offence, but is that really a girl? or a guy with a wig?"
Boo hoo.
Post ID: 113338189475988449
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