"War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory." - Georges Clemenceau

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OPPOSITE-SEX TWINS AND ADOLESCENT SAME-SEX ATTRACTION - "We consider social, genetic, evolutionary, and hormonal transfer hypotheses for same-sex romantic preferences of adolescent (N=5,552) sibling pairs drawn from a nationally representative sample. We show that male but not female opposite-sex twins disproportionately report same-sex attraction; and that the pattern of concordance of same-sex preference among siblings is inconsistent with a simple genetic influence model. Our results provide substantial support for the role of social influences, reject the hormone transfer model, reject a speculative evolutionary theory, and are consistent with a general model that allows for genetic expression of same-sex attraction under specific, highly circumscribed, social conditions... Our findings reject simple genetic influence models. They are entirely consistent with a more general model that identifies the specific social structural contexts in which one would expect to observe genetic influence, for this, and an array of other outcome variables."

Malaysian row over word for 'God' - "A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims. In the Malay language "Allah" is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries. Opponents of the ban say it is unconstitutional and unreasonable."

Spiderwomen serve up Cambodia's creepy caviar - "At around 300 riel (eight US cents) a spider, the eight-legged snack industry provides a tidy income in a country where around one third of people live below a poverty line of $1 per day... The dish's genesis is also a poignant reminder of Cambodia's bloody past, particularly under the Khmer Rouge... For the millions forced at gunpoint into the fields, grubs and insects such as spiders, crickets, wasps and "konteh long" - the giant water beetles found in lakes near the Vietnamese border - were what kept them alive... Conservationists and vegetarians might blanche at the relentless pursuit of so many spiders for the sake of a snack, but locals are confident the arachnid population will hold up. Indeed, the only time a crisis threatened was around the Millennium when an extra-large number of spider-eaters passed through Skuon on their way to celebrate the New Year at Angkor, the stunning 1000-year-old temple complex in the northwest... "It's particularly good for back ache and children with breathing problems," she said, dipping a glass into a jar of murky brown liquid, at the bottom of which sits a rotting mass of hairy black legs and bloated spider bellies. "People could not afford medicine under the Khmer Rouge so they had to use traditional medicines. "They drank it and it made them feel stronger. "With the wine, it's very important they still have their fangs or the medicine loses its power," she said. "
Gah, we got conned. US$2.50 for 3 is more than 10 times as much!; Nice video on the same topic.

A Patience to Listen, Alive and Well - "Classical music invites listeners to focus, to take in, to follow what is almost a narrative that unfolds over a relatively long period of time. Length itself is one of the genre’s defining elements. I do not contend that classical music is weightier than other types of music. Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony is no more profound than “Eleanor Rigby.” But it’s a whole lot longer... if your mind wanders during “La Mer,” by Debussy, and you start focusing on the kinetic playing style of an attractive young violinist in the orchestra, then, as Professor Kramer suggests, just go with it... Beethoven was a master musical architect... [Eroica was made to] seem organic and whole. Most listeners may discern this only subliminally. But they do... For the most part, though, rock and pop songs are relatively short lyrical statements. The classical genre that has most in common with the pop concert is the song recital. It makes no difference that the revered classical song repertory, from Schubert to Mahler, is rich with musically complex, often dark works. Because songs tend to be short, we perceive them as more approachable."
Some of the quotes probably explains part of Opera arias' popularity.

Oral Sex: A Theme in Donne and Some Cavalier Poets - "Three journals have rejected the following essay, invariably on the grounds that its main contention -- that lines 63-78 of Thomas Carew's A Rapture and the entirety of John Donne's Love's Progress are about cunnilingus -- is common knowledge... maintain that the poem advises the lover not to study the foot, but to kiss it, and then the ankle, then the calf and so upwards till he reaches his mistress's vulva. Herschel Baker, in a note to line 64 of A Rapture, glosses the word knots as "clusters," presumably meaning of flowers, leaving it unexplained to what part of the female anatomy this floral metaphor alludes; but I deny that the word is metaphoric, and affirm that it literally means labia minora."

Priests brawl at Jesus' birthplace - "Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests attacked each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning on Thursday."

Bach Webern Ricercar [KM] - "I confess to not only being unfamiliar with Webern's music, but also to not truly considering it music, at least in an absolute sense. While I can respect Webern as a composer forged by his time, I cannot find much in his music that makes me want to listen to it. The arrangement of his string quartet for chamber orchestra... is less grating than the Five Movements for String Quartet, also arranged for string orchestra, which sound resolutely random. Yet one is hard-pressed to find any influence from Bach in this work. Webern's orchestration of Bach's Ricercar, from the Musical Offering, is also interesting, but attempts to drain the music of its vital energy and fit it into the mold of the early 20th century. Others have done worse things to Bach's music; this arrangement is curious, in its use of a wide range of instruments. Webern doesn't seem to want the listener to follow the individual voices of the fugues... The final track on this disc is a reprise of the Bach/Webern Ricercar, which, according to the liner notes, "will be heard differently now, after everything that has come before it". Um, right. It certainly is a bit different: 10 seconds longer than the first track - but other than that I don't get it. I guess it's a modern thing. I'm too old-fashioned to appreciate the subtle implications of having the same work twice on a disc. I apologize for dismissing the Webern works on this disc so curtly, and perhaps offending believers in another type of music."

Dr Wong Wee Nam: Fear Factor Revisited, The S’pore Edition - Politicophobia (The Fear of Politics) - "In the morning after the 1997 General Elections, I received a call from a person who identified himself as a first time young voter. He was a successful young professional with his own business. With a distraught voice, he told me that he and his wife had entered the polling station with the intention of voting for me. However, when they saw the serial number on the ballot paper, they panicked and changed their minds. He asked me to get the government to remove the serial numbers on the ballot papers. I told him the serial numbers were meant to prevent cheating. He was not convinced and stuck to his belief that it could be used to trace voters. I asked him why a government would want to retaliate against the thousands of ordinary voters when they could just take action against me. He was still not convinced. This is really sad and ironic. An intelligent, well-educated person, already trained in the army to face bullets was being driven by fear to think irrationally and to be afraid of serial numbers... 国家兴亡，匹夫有责"