"A poem is no place for an idea." - Edgar Watson Howe

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The real reasons to hate the Pope - "In the past year, I have sat in two Catholic churches thousands of miles apart and listened while a Catholic priest told illiterate people with no alternative sources of information that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it. In Bukavu, a crater-city in Congo, and in the slums ringing Caracas, Venezuela, people believed it. They told me they “would not go to Heaven” if they used condoms, and that condoms contain tiny invisible holes through which the virus passes – the advice their priest had doled out."

U.S. slips in competitive ranking - "The United States fell to sixth place in the World Economic Forum's 2006 global competitiveness rankings, ceding the top place to Switzerland, as macroeconomic concerns eroded prospects for the world's largest economy."
Curiously, wage costs don't appear in the article, despite the constant beating of the "cut wages" drum here in Singapore. Shows you how insignificant wage costs are in the competitiveness rankings. Makes you wonder, don't it?

Bromont golf club - Description: "A Canadian RC airplane enthusiast combined a model airplane, virtual reality goggles and a wireless camera. It works like this: A fairly standard model airplane is controlled normally with a wireless remote control. A pan-and-tilt camera is mounted at the airplane's center of gravity, also controlled wirelessly. Video from the camera is viewable through virtual reality goggles, which have a gyroscope attached to sense the movement of the goggles and control the camera accordingly. When the wearer moves his head, the camera also moves."
Also: A dream come true

The Straight Dope: Do other languages have obscenities like those of English? - Mecagum les cinc llagues de Crist... Catalan. Even more bloodcurdling is Mecagum Deu, en la creu, en el fuster que la feu i en el fill de puta que va plantar el pi"
English just can't compare.

The Straight Dope: Guns don't kill people, frying pans kill people: Is the frying pan the #1 domestic weapon? - "Research suggests women are the aggressors much more often than is commonly believed. In fact, a study published this year in the Journal of Family Psychology indicates that women are more likely than men to commit domestic violence. Of 1,600 straight couples surveyed, 18 percent reported that in the previous year the woman had engaged in one of 11 "violent behaviors" toward the man, versus 14 percent the other way around. What's more, over 7 percent of the couples reported "severe" female-on-male violence, compared to less than 4 percent reporting severe male-on-female violence. The most common female-on-male acts were "threw something" and "pushed, grabbed, or shoved," both at about 12 percent."

Sistic: Event Details - Bulgarian International Recital - I'm very pissed off. The programmes are usually not displayed. I always want to know what's to be performed, since I don't want to listen to Shostakovich et al. I emailed them and the response was along the lines of "they didn't tell us, go ask them if you want to know". Gah. And it's not like the works to be performed have not already been decided months in advance.

The Geek-a-Cycle - "The evidence in favor of exercise is overwhelming. It is absolutely necessary for good health. Now, exercising is easy and convenient, too. Get your daily exercise while doing your daily work. The Geek-a-Cycle - Fitness for the Computer User. The Geek-a-CycleTM: a computer work/exercise station (Computer and model not included)"

Sinful Acts - "Sin is the problem. Salvation is the cure. The preacher is the doctor. And he is no different from a voodoo witchdoctor removing an evil spirit. The christian witchdoctor calls it exorcism. The evil spirits are God's demons and His devil. God allows it all. That is how much God loves us."

Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth > Borrowing, getting started (new version) - "If Reverend Bruce Manning Metzger claims Christianity didn't borrow from Paganism because Christianity is different from Paganism, then you shouldn't believe Reverend Metzger's analysis until you see it applies to other ancient religions. Judaism comes to mind. How does the apologists' difference-proves-no-borrowing rule work with Judaism? Well, the Christian three-headed God is different from Judaism's one-headed God. Christian salvation is different from Jewish salvation. Christian baptism is different from Jewish baptism. The Christian Eucharist is different from Judaism's Eucharist—does Judaism even have baptism and a Eucharist? Apply the apologists scholars' difference-proves-no-borrowing rule to Judaism, and you learn that Christianity is free of the taint of Jewish origins. Which is maybe why you never hear any believing scholar apply the believing scholars' difference-proves-no-borrowing rule to Judaism. Doesn't give the answer they want. When someone gives you a "reason" that only works in the one place it has to work for their theory to be true, and that on other situations gives a completely different answer, you should not believe their analysis."
There also seems to be a new page about how Judaism itself borrowed from pagan religions (which rends the defence that the borrowing was from Judaism and not the pagans).

Why is Singapore in the “Wrong” Time Zone? - "The time zones in Singapore and Malaysia are good examples of how the lines between time zones tend to creep westward over the years. In other words, a place that's near the eastern edge of a time zone is likely to move its clocks ahead one hour, thereby moving to the western edge of the adjacent time zone."

WikiCharts — Top 100 — 10/2006 - "This tool shows the articles from the English Wikipedia that are viewed most."
Fewer are about sex than I thought.

Philips files for patent to force ad viewing - "Philips Electronics has done it again. Flush with heady optimism after successful products such as the digital compact cassette (DCC) and the super audio CD (SACD), the redoubtable European giant has developed a way to keep television free for the masses for the foreseeable future—a patent application for a device which prevents a user from changing the channel during commercials... The fundamental downside to merely forcing commercials to run unimpeded is that the viewer retains freedom of movement which would allow him or her to leave the room, cover the TV with a blanket, or eat or use a product in direct competition with an advertisement. For the propaganda to be most effective, the device needs to work in concert with the couch to prevent any unauthorized activity or movement while a commercial is running. Ideally, all phones in the vicinity would also be put on hold, and it would become impossible to deactivate the TV, even if unplugged."
With this and DVDs where they force you to watch ads, they still wonder why consumers flock to pirated products.

Everyone Loves the Cat - A pussy that consents to be on a leash can't be that evil.

Study: Mice Do Not Like Cheese - "A study made by the Manchester Metropolitan University has found that mice really don't like cheese, debunking the myth that was popularized in the cartoon show "Tom and Jerry.""

Language Evolution in the Digital Age - "Dictionaries are more used than ever and are nowhere near a downfall. It’s just that they’re now often digital as well as print. There are also few new authorities, there are mostly merely transformations of old authorities. (Even Wiktionary includes many thousands of definitions from an out-of-copyright edition of an early unabridged dictionary.)"

Parking is no joke as Italy's women sue over beer ad - "In a scene set a century ago, a young woman struggles to park her horse and carriage, while two beer-drinking, male, bystanders look on, laughing. The action cuts to the present and shows the same woman having trouble parking her car, eventually leaving it jutting into the road. Again she is watched by two smug men swigging from bottles of Peroni beer, as a voice-over remarks: "Fortunately some things don't change". For Italy's women, however, the joke has fallen flat. A group of female lawyers is making legal history by suing the beer company for being sexist and discriminatory."
I remember this ad, it was quite funny.