"The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down." - Flip Wilson

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TV gang rape documentary angers blacks groups - "The protest in central London has been called by the National Assembly Against Racism, which is accusing the programme of demonising young black men and feeding stereotypes that associate them with sexual violence. But the documentary, to be broadcast tomorrow night as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series, was applauded by some black commentators for highlighting a disturbing phenomenon. They said it was time for a rational debate about an unpalatable subject... The programme-makers, Laurel Productions, identified 14 cases of juvenile gang rape tried by the courts since 1996. Of these, nine were carried out by all-black gangs, it says, and all but one of the rest by mixed groups that included Afro-Caribbean youths. Eighty-six per cent of the 79 youths charged with rape or indecent assault in the 14 cases were black, researchers found."

A Look at White Racism - "The Sharptons and the Jacksons have cuckolded two generations of blacks (Blacks?) into white racism. The accepted party line on race is, anything that goes wrong is whitey's fault. Everyone is racist (if you can't see that its because its silent 'institutional' racism). And the only way to be an authentic black is to join the grievance community and make victimhood the defining characteristic of one's being... The end result is a monologue, not a conversation. Whites are not allowed to mention race unless their views accord with the sensitivities of the reigning, media anointed, 'spokesman.'... Inconvenient facts are not allowed. The rules stipulate that only blacks can be oppressed, because they have no power. This flies in the face of reality. When the black community has the power to destroy businesses, organizations, and politicians by threatening to brand them racist, I'd call that power. I'd also call it a misuse of power... The rules stipulate that blacks are not to be held accountable for their own actions. Whatever they do wrong is either because of the oppression of their great-grandparents, or whitey's fault... Martin Luther King's dream has turned into a nightmare. Instead of being judged by the content of one's character, Americans are now judged, in large part, based on their skin color. (At least, white Americans are.)"

Man Shooting Hole Through Wall Kills Wife - "Officials are trying to decide whether to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install a satellite TV system in the bedroom of their home. Patsy Long, 34, of Deepwater, died after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun on Saturday. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired the shot from the inside of their home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means."

Hazardous disaster aid?: The crowding-out effect of international charity - "An area faded out in literature, so far, is the role of foreign aid that frequently flows in great extents after catastrophes occur. In general, one would expect that foreign aid should be able to overcome some problems by financing part of the preventive measures and making people less dependent on the within-nation distribution of income. On the other hand, based on the conclusions from the Samaritan‘s Dilemma, the anticipation of charity in case of a disaster event might induce individuals to diminish ex-ante protection activities... The results of the estimates suggest that foreign aid in previous disaster years implies future ex-post charity and therefore does crowd-out riskmanagement activities as well as decreases the ability to cope with the immediate effects after a catastrophe."

Disable Snap.com Previews Permanently - "Now there’s an even better way to get rid of Snap.com preview pop-ups: a simple rule added to Firefox’s AdBlock Plus Add-on banishes them for good. We previously covered disabling Snap.com’s annoying pop-ups, but the solution required you to visit the Snap.com website and click on a link that sets a cookie."
Snap is almost as bad an idea as the <blink> tag.

Which Is The Fair Sex? Gender Differences In Altruism - "We study gender differences in altruism by examining a modified dictator game with varying incomes and prices. Our results indicate that the question "which is the fair sex?" has a complicated answer - when altruism is expensive, women are kinder, but when it is cheap, men are more altruistic. That is, we find that the male and female "demand curves for altruism" cross, and that men are more responsive to price changes. Furthermore, men are more likely to be either perfectly selfish or perfectly selfless, whereas women tend to be "equalitarians" who prefer to share evenly."

Are Women Less Selfish Than Men?: Evidence From Dictator Experiments - "Research in social sciences other than economics indicates substantial differences in behaviour between men and women. The general conclusion drawn from this work is that women will be more socially-orientated (selfless), and men more individually-orientated (selfish). This paper reports the results of a double-anonymous dictator experiment designed to permit the emergence of basic gender differences in economic behaviour. Our results are intended to provide a baseline for further research. We find that women, on average, donate twice as much as men to their anonymous partners when any factors that might confound cooperation are eliminated... "Woman seems to differ from man in mental disposition, chiefly in her greater tenderness and less selfishness... Man... delights in competition, and this leads to ambition which passes too easily into selfishness" - Charles Darwin"
Of course, we all know that being kind is the way to get ahead in the ratrace, so this is even more evidence for the discrimination that women endure in the workplace.

OhMiBod - "A pulsing, music-responsive vibrator that feeds right into your iPod (or other music players) provides orgasm after orgasm-in stereo and on repeat. The hard, slim plastic transmits vibrations amazingly, so the throb of a slow song turns into foreplay and the thrum of a fast song will send you over the edge. A 44-inch cord plugs your toy into the iPod, iPod Shuffle, Nano and mini, or standard MP3 and CD players-or use it alone like a regular vibrator."

'Ruthlessness gene' discovered - "Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak — from national dictators down to 'little Hitlers' found in workplaces the world over. Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'."

'Six-way' kidney transplant first - "US doctors have carried out what is believed to be the world's first simultaneous six-way kidney transplant... The procedure was made possible after an altruistic donor - neither a friend nor relative of any of the six patients - was found to match one of them. Five patients had a willing donor whose kidney was incompatible with theirs, but it did match another in the group... The operations were carried out simultaneously to make sure no-one backed out after their loved one had received a kidney."
Gah.

Simpsons ditched by Venezuelan TV - "The Simpsons has been dropped from morning TV in Venezuela after being deemed unsuitable for children - and has been replaced by Baywatch."

Life and death exams in South Korea - "Numerous school-related suicides occur throughout the year, with this past April being especially tragic. A father in Gongju drove to his son's high school and torched his wife, daughter and himself with gasoline because his honor roll son disgraced the family with bad grades. All three died. Statistics are unclear as to how many students end their lives because of education-related stress. Numbers from the National Statistical Office indicate that more than 1,000 students between the ages of 10 and 19 killed themselves from 2000 to 2003. In another report supplied to the education committee of the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education, 462 students (both primary and secondary) committed suicide in the last five years. Two surveys, one by the Korea Teachers and Educational Workers Union, the other by the Korea Youth Counseling Institute, found that 43% to 48% of students have contemplated suicide... 'She said that after she cried she felt empty because she realized that she had dedicated the best years of her young life to the exam and that much of her identity as a person hinged on the exam. Upon completing the exam, the force that had given her life structure and purpose was suddenly gone.'"

Cannabis found sprouting at Matthaei Gardens - "The University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens is known for its collection of diverse and exotic plants... "(The biology students') assignment was to grow various herbs, vegetables, annuals and perennials, but not marijuana," Neumann said. "I've never heard of this happening before and it's definitely unusual, and gutsy.""

John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree - "A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads... "When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk," he said after his arrest. He said he was so furious with their awful singing that he did not notice he had murdered his own brother-in-law. "I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off," he added."

Save the Dollars - Weird News Story Archive - "An investigation by the Chicago Tribune has found that several U.S.-based charities formed to “sponsor” and help feed poor children in third-world countries are “rife with scams.” Organizations such as Save the Children and Childreach, the newspaper says, do not always send donations directly to needy children as they claim. The paper anonymously sponsored several children for two years, then made surprise visits to their villages. In one village they found a 44-year-old teacher who was hired to write the letters local children were supposed to send to their sponsors. In some cases, they found the sponsored children had been dead for years, but the sponsors had no idea, apparently because the letters were still arriving regularly."