"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." - George Bernard Shaw

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Foxtrot: "Did you know that Fluffles fabric softener has been used by adulterers and convicted felons?"

Singapore Armed Forces Commando Formation - Wikipedia - I've learnt new words like "新加坡武装部队特攻部队", "Strike (突)", "Reconnaissance (机)" and "第一突机队". Who was so bo liao to do this?!

The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads - "A dog may be man's best friend. But one dog, Lady, decided she needed more friends -- and she found plenty in the knot of toads living at the local pond. A suburban family's secret struggle with an uncommon addiction comes to light in this personal essay by NPR's Laura Mirsch... It turned out the toads were toxic -- and, if licked, the fluids on their skin provided a hallucinogenic effect."

Singapore Science Centre: Resources|School Projects|Ways of Undressing - "The most common method used by both sexes is crossing their arms to take off their T-shirt. More females use the crossed arm method, while more males use the straight method. However, more males than females use the more complicated ways like the arm-head-arm combination."
Gah.

Yahoo! Answers - do girls fart from their vagina? - Gah gah.

Puzzle Alarm Clock Presents Mild Challenge, Wakes You Up - "Bim Bam Banana s Puzzle Alarm Clock will give you a quick intelligence test that is bound to wake you up before it will stop its incessant honking. As soon as you can assemble the four puzzle pieces that are popped up into the air at your predesignated time, the thing will finally shut up."

MindGuard Home Page - "Welcome to the MindGuard website, your source for the award-winning MindGuard family of anti-mind-control software for Amiga and Linux computers. Developed by Lyle Zapato during the psychotronically turbulent early 1990s, MindGuard offered Amiga-using paranoids the world over a new opportunity to think free of evil influences using advanced Active Anti-Psychotronic (AAP) software, theretofore only available to mind-control agents and paranoid millionaires. At the dawn of the Third Millennium, MindGuard was made available for even the stingiest paranoids with the introduction of MindGuard X for the free Linux OS. Now no one has an excuse not to be mind-control free!"

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study - "Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason."

Mozilla stomps IE - "Last night (9/30-10/1) at midnight, Mr. Bill's Browser 4.0 was released. Late last night, between midnight and 1:30, somebody (MS? probably) dumped a huge IE logo on Netscape's front lawn (a metal shell, apparently, deep enough to stand up on its own). They probably expected that we wouldn't notice until morning, and wouldn't be able to get equipment to move it until 11:00 or so, and some press cameras would come by in the meantime; we wouldn't be able to bring legal action, 'cause we wouldn't have any proof, and we'd just look whiny."

SafeCache - "Segments the cache on the basis of the originating document, defending against web privacy attacks that remote sites can use to determine your browser history at other sites. For example, a b.com image appearing on an a.com page would have a separate cache entry from the same image appearing on a b.com page, so a.com cannot use timing techniques to determine if you have visited b.com before. Checks cookie settings (allow, originating site only, deny) to determine your desired privacy level (segmented cache, cache originating site only, or never cache)."
How paranoid can people get?

Maths theory bags lotto jackpot - "Most of us believe winning lotto is down to the luck of the draw. But a syndicate of university professors and tutors in Britain thought it could also be related to the principles of mathematical probability. And their theory was spectacularly vindicated this week when they matched all six numbers and scooped the $13 million lotto jackpot. The syndicate, made up of 17 staff members at Bradford University and College, bagged the big prize by using two boxes, 49 pieces of paper and a large amount of brainpower."

Kill Flies with The Amazing Flygun -"Do you have a problem with flies or mosquitoes ??? Problem solved!!"

TVU networks corporation - "TVU networks brings you programs from around the world that you can't get from your local cable and satellite providers."
Too bad I don't watch TV.

Cold water thrown on warmups - "Stretching before or after hitting the squash court might be a waste of time. It does little to reduce injuries or muscle soreness, say researchers... None of the studies showed any significant benefit. "We can say with a high degree of confidence that stretching does not prevent muscle soreness," says Herbert. "We can't rule out that it reduces injury risk, but the weight of evidence is against it.""

Parent criticizes book 'Fahrenheit 451' - ""The book had a bunch of very bad language in it," Diana Verm said. "It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. ... If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all."
Alton Verm filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" Thursday with the district regarding "Fahrenheit 451," written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum. "It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." "The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class." He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain. He said the book's material goes against their religions beliefs... Alton Verm's request to ban "Fahrenheit 451" came during the 25th annual Banned Books Week."
It is very important to respect religious beliefs, otherwise there will be racial riots. The book should be burned.

Display of Banned Books Removed at Harrisonburg High School - "A display at Harrisonburg High School of books that have, at some point in history, either been banned or challenged was ordered removed last month by Harrisonburg Schools Superintendent Donald Ford. The display, which Ford ordered removed Sept. 27, was part of the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week, the last week of September... High School Principal Irene Reynolds recalled that the titles included "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain; "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury; "The Diary of Ann Frank," and "The Bible.""

Abducted by aliens? Call now for compensation - "Lorek, 41, is pinning his hopes for success on a German law which grants kidnap victims the right to state compensation."

Review: Convicted but Innocent: Wrongful Convictions and Public Policy - "The authors write [p.63]: "when a distinction is drawn between older cases (those occurring between 1900 and 1960) and those since 1961 the wrongful convictions on forcible rape go up, reaching 35.7% of all cases in recent years". (It had been only 12.5% in their initial database). The authors, partly to placate the monstrous regiment of American feminists, stress that each wrongful conviction for rape means that the real rapist is left free for further predation... if the phrase 'beyond a reasonable doubt' is interpreted very strictly, then fewer innocent defendants will be convicted, but more really guilty rapists will be acquitted, (a) if reasonable doubt means that quite a lot of doubt can be set aside, then more really guilty rapists will be convicted but more innocent defendants will also be convicted (a proportion of whom, but by no means all or even most or many, will be subsequently exonerated). The most likely reason for the rising proportion of the wrongly convicted who are alleged rapists, is that both proper and improper feminist pressure on the courts has led to a shift from situation (b) to situation (a). We have now arrived at the crunch: how would Huff and Rattner respond, if the feminists were to turn honest and say that they are willing for a few more innocent men to end up in jail convicted of rape, if more real rapists get convicted, thereby taking the latter off the streets and deterring other chancers from rape, by the thought of their greatly heightened chance of imprisonment."

placing the garner case in context - "The study of wrongful convictions is, in large part, a study about the limitations of the human condition. Eyewitnesses, despite their intense desire to identify the correct perpetrator, make mistakes at an alarming rate... Jennifer Thompson, testified at two separate trials that a man named Ronald Cotton was the person who raped her, and she explained that she studied the details of his face throughout the ordeal so that she would be able to make an accurate identification if she survived the attack. When Cotton's defense lawyers asked her whether a different man named Bobby Poole could have been the rapist, Thompson was emphatic that Cotton was the rapist. Her certainty and obvious integrity were eerily similar to Alice Wise's, and in both instances, eyewitness testimony led to convictions. Yet, DNA evidence later proved that Ronald Cotton was completely innocent, and that Bobby Poole was the man who raped Jennifer Thompson. By that time, Ronald Cotton had spent more than a decade behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Jennifer now travels the country trying to educate people about the risk of eyewitness error. She has said repeatedly that if she were to spend every minute of every day of the rest of her life begging Ronald Cotton for forgiveness, that would not come close to expressing her sorrow about having misidentified him."
Ah, obviously it must be a conspiracy theory. The government doesn't want you to know that Ronald Cotton raped Jennifer Thompson.