"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery." - William Churchill
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Coconut Milk and Coconut Oil - is it healthy or unhealthy - "And to further defend my affinity to coconut, despite my love for coconut oil and milk, and despite having delivered two kids already, I am definitely within the normal BMI category, far from being obese, my lipid levels are within normal. And I am sure a lot of Asians are, too."
I don't know why people like to argue with anecdotal examples so much, and ignore the lifestyle factor when making claims.
Skull-cleaning business thrives in Okla. - "No Halloween haunted house has anything on the people who work at Skulls Unlimited International, an Oklahoma City company that bills itself as the world's leading supplier of osteological specimens. "If I don't want to talk to (other people), I tell them I manage a museum exhibit company," said Eric Humphries, who's worked at the company for 14 years and now is its production manager. "If I want to talk to them, I tell them I clean skulls and skeletons for a living.""
DumpMonkey - "Because she's annoying. Because he cheated on you. Because a one night stand is all you wanted. Because you just don't care to breakup in person. No matter what the reason, the DumpMonkey is there for you! No longer do you need to have that awkward breakup talk. If you've had enough of your significant other, send them a DumpMonkey! The DumpMonkey sends a crystal clear message stating that your relationship is over and you no longer want to hear from that person again. Each monkey comes with a certificate of authenticity from Dump U that clearly states that the relationship has ended and that you have moved on with your life. The certificate is individually numbered and has the official break-up time and date, just in case your ex forgets. Your ex will have a lovely monkey keepsake and a certificate to remind them of how much you dislike spending time with them."
Planescape: Torment - “What can change the nature of a man?” - "Ravel Puzzlewell, the witch of the Gray Waste, who grew so wise and so powerful and so mad that she tried to unbind the multiverse itself, the woman who asked the Nameless One the vital question: What can change the nature of a man? So play your first-person shooters, if you must, and run down cops in “Grand Theft Auto 37: More Fodder For Incumbent Politicians”, and let your brains rot away bit by bit. But can you answer Ravel’s riddle? Do you know the answer? Perhaps you should play “Planescape: Torment” and find out."
Silence is a decree all should fear - "This is what we are faced with: people fear speaking out. These taboos cannot all be ascribed to Muslim fundamentalists, but have their roots in the Western world's ideology of political correctness, originally inspired by the need for people to respect each other in a multiracial society where minorities were fighting discrimination. The concept has become entrenched to the point of absurdity, and has even made it impossible for people to tell certain jokes. And I don't just mean jokes about Jews, Muslims and the disabled, but about Scots, Poles, blondes, firemen and street cleaners... what will happen in a culture in which, for fear of committing a gaffe, not even scholars dare to refer to, say, an Arab philosopher? The consequence would be damnatio memoriae, the terrible decree occasionally passed in ancient Rome that all traces of a public figure's memory and legacy were to be erased - the person's name was removed from monuments, significant buildings destroyed, statues altered. A similar silence surrounding Muslim history and culture would harm not only the West's knowledge of Islam, but reciprocal understanding between the two cultures."
''We don't mind what colour the baby is,'' said my father-to-be. The adoption officer beamed. Perhaps, after all, there was a baby available - me - "The Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW) claimed in the 1980s that "transracial placements are a way of perpetuating racist ideology". Their slogan, that "love is not enough", still looms over the argument. They pointed out that white parents did not know how to care for black children's skin or hair, that black children could not walk down the street with their white relatives without having to give an explanation."
Wth.
A Magpie's Nest - Discussing the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack - "How did it come to this? I don't know. I think a combination of a passion for The Lord of the Rings books, an affection for the movies, a love of the soundtracks, and an obsessive personality. I'm three and a half years into my work - compiling the available information regard the Lord of the Rings movie soundtracks."
Plasticine and teddy bears at the new UK base of L Ron Hubbard - "After days of filling out sheets of A4 paper, I had learned that all "the data" can be found in Hubbard's writings and anything I came across with which I didn't agree - like, for example, the claim that "yellow and brown people" are less "progressive" than whites - should be skipped and revisited later. The course explained how the mind, body and spirit are separate, and life is a game. Within the game there is a scale of eight "impulses" that can be conquered by purging the mind of anxious thoughts. This is done through "auditing", a form of confessional counselling which relies on a machine attached by wires to two metal cylinders which, when held in a person's palms, measures their mental state. After each chapter in the coursebook, Dorothy asked me to demonstrate to other students what I had learned using wooden blocks and Plasticine. Once she asked me to explain the "communication cycle" to Sam, a nine-year-old boy who sat alone at the back of the classroom. Instead I showed Sam how to make a monster out of the playdough. Dorothy intervened. Scientology reportedly regards children to be "big Thetans in little bodies" - the immortal aliens called Thetans who, followers are said to believe, are our ancestors and who came to Earth 75m years ago. Dorothy also asked me to practice auditing with a teddy bear, and watched as I asked the bear if it could recall an experience that made it happy."
Blue Screen of Death Top 10 - "The now infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) has been around since Windows 3.1. However, by chance, this screen made an appearance back in Windows 1.0! Have we finally discovered the original origins of this beast! There are many causes for this error: Bad DLL's, incorrect device drivers, bad memory, damaged registry, etc. This error has become less predominant in later years. Receiving such an error now, is much more serious than it used to be in the Windows 3.1/95/98 days. Below are some of the Top 10 Blue Screen of Death images! Some of these might be fake images, unless I was to take them myself how could I be sure obviously. Enjoy!"