Tuesday, July 22, 2008

"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them." - Lily Tomlin

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Tampines residents mark Racial Harmony Month - "Some 490 residents of all ages and races got together on Saturday to form the word "UNITY"... The residents also ensured that their feat got into the Singapore Book of Records for the most number of people in a formation. For that, they had to stay in formation for at least half an hour, which they easily managed."
Singapura Boleh!

A High Price for Healthy Food - "Healthy eating really does cost more. That’s what University of Washington researchers found when they compared the prices of 370 foods sold at supermarkets in the Seattle area. Calorie for calorie, junk foods not only cost less than fruits and vegetables, but junk food prices also are less likely to rise as a result of inflation. The findings, reported in the current issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, may help explain why the highest rates of obesity are seen among people in lower-income groups."

Dirty Trees - Clearly, this is a sign from God! (Like the Monkey Tree)

Barack Obama magazine flap shows an irony deficiency - "We've already scratched thrift, candor and brevity off the list of virtues in this presidential cycle, so why not eliminate humor too? That seems to be the fondest wish of a few commentators and legions of Internet blatherers, who spent much of Monday vilifying New Yorker magazine for this week's cover, which depicts Barack and Michelle Obama as a couple of gun-toting, flag-burning, America-hating terrorists... Chuck failed "to see the humor in that rag they call a magazine." Not content to merely boycott the magazine, he pledged "to never even visit New York, let alone live there."... And speaking of judgment, how is it that Obamites, who are justifiably furious over threats to civil liberties under the current administration, suddenly want to play censor when the 1st Amendment puts their man even remotely on the hot seat?"

I Don't Have Time For Noncontroversial Art Exhibits | The Onion - "Bottom line: If people aren't protesting, becoming nauseated by, or threatening lawsuits against an artist's work, you can look around for me, but I'm not going to be there. Using light and shadow to mythologize the pastoral and create a setting where human beings and the natural world can coexist peacefully? Best of luck to you. If you need me, I'll be watching a heroin addict use his own HIV-positive blood to paint Hiroshima victims on the side of a school bus. You know, with all the other real art buffs. The only thing these so called "masters" have in common is that they didn't have the balls to shake things up. Why would I waste my time solemnly staring at a meticulously painted portrait of an aristocratic woman when I can see someone drink glow-stick fluid and vomit onto a canvas covered with pictures of Nelson Mandela?... there's nothing like watching the Thai police arrest a gallery owner for displaying unflattering pictures of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. I thought the pictures were actually quite tame, myself, but the outrage and subsequent brutal beating of the artist was more delicious than many of the works I've seen in my own country for the past few months."

Complaints: How To Really Have Sex Like A Porn Star - "Somewhere along the line, "porn star" seems to have become shorthand for "sexy, liberated, confident woman." We're mostly behind this usage, but sometimes it leads to articles that are just, well, weird... Let's face it: the kind of sex that porn stars have (on camera, at least), is nothing like the kind of sex that you and I want to be having. Out of necessity, porn sex focuses far more on looking good than on feeling good — a surefire recipe for bedroom disaster."

Gallery - A real Realdoll (NSFW)

YouTube - Equal Pay Day
YouTube - Equal Pay Day - I'm surprised this misandry isn't more popular.

Japan Dominates Masturbate-a-Thon: Gadgets Help Break 8 Hour 30 Minute Record (NSFW) - "Think you have what it takes to become a masturbating champion? Can you endure longer than 8 hours and 40 minutes? Because that is what it will take to beat the new record set by both Norihiro Taneichi and Masanobu Sato of Tokyo at this year's Masturbate-a-Thon in San Francisco. The two finalists went "head-to-head" in a competition that finally ended when an exhausted Taneichi gave up, allowing Sato to claim the prestigious title. What was their secret? They were both using the Tenga New Adult Concept line of onanism cups."
Damn Japs. And if Tenga is so good shouldn't it make them last shorter?

Women who travel for sex: Sun, sea and gigolos - "Beautiful, muscled black boys are available to the female clientele, mostly affluent single women in their forties, who despair of finding mates through more conventional means. "More than sex, they are seeking a tenderness that the world is refusing them," the film's director, Laurence Cantet, explains... "Women enjoy casual sex and prostitution, too, but with far more hypocrisy. They help themselves to men in the developing world, kidding themselves that it's a 'holiday romance' that has nothing to do with the money they spend. Go to any Jamaican beach and you'll find handsome 'rent-a-dreads', who get by servicing Western women - lots from Britain. I've seen similar things in Goa."... The women are called milk bottles by the men - partly because of their ultra-white skin, partly because they are seen as vessels waiting to be filled... They interviewed 240 women holidaying in Negril, and two similar resorts in the Dominican Republic. Almost a third said they had engaged in sexual relationships with local men. Though 60 per cent admitted to certain "economic elements" to their liaisons, they did not perceive their sexual encounters as a prostitute-client transaction. Instead they insisted they were helping the men, and the local economy, by giving them money and gifts. When asked to describe "boyfriends", most emphasised how for them black Jamaican men possessed bodies of great sexual value... Yet the women who sleep with the beach boys insist they are helping race relations. They flatter themselves they have gone native. "In my play there's a scene where a white woman is taking about how she loves R&B and reggae and what she calls hip and hop," says Gupta."
Women lie to themselves.

Ten characteristics of conspiracy theorists - a look into the mond of conspiraloons, nutjobs and tin foil hatters - "10. It's always a conspiracy. And it is, isn't it? No sooner has the body been discovered, the bomb gone off, than the same people are producing the same old stuff, demanding that there are questions which need to be answered, at the same unbearable length. Because the most important thing about these people is that they are people entirely lacking in discrimination. They cannot tell a good theory from a bad one, they cannot tell good evidence from bad evidence and they cannot tell a good source from a bad one. And for that reason, they always come up with the same answer when they ask the same question."
Also, summed up conspiracy theory guide from Wikipedia:
4. Personifies complex social phenomena as powerful individual conspirators
5. Allots superhuman talents or resources to conspirators
8. Exhibits well-established logical and methodological fallacies
12. Rebuttals provided by experts are ignored or accommodated through elaborate new twists in the narrative
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