Links - 28th July 2008

"Nothing is said that has not been said before." - Terence

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The hi-tech machine that reveals nine out of ten women could be damaging their breasts by wearing the wrong bra - "Millions of women are damaging their breasts by wearing ill-fitting bras, according to a new study. Scientists say most bras do not give enough support to prevent irreparable and painful stretching of ligaments during exercise. Up to 95 per cent of women are thought to be at risk - mostly because they are ignorant or embarrassed about their true bra size, researchers say. The findings come from treadmill tests carried out on 100 women by Portsmouth University sports scientist Dr Joanna Scurr. She found that breasts typically move up to 21 cm - or eight inches - and jiggle around in every direction while a women is running. However, most bras are designed to limit just vertical movement."
This must be because bra designers are men who are determined to keep women at home.

Hauled to court on race charge, ex-WPC who told rowdy youths: 'Go back where you come from' - "The former policewoman got dressed, went outside and shouted at them: 'Why can't you go back to where you come from and make some noise there? I bet your families and neighbours wouldn't put up with it... She also reported the incident to police, who came and dispersed the eight students. The 51-year-old grandmother was astonished when four months later she was arrested and accused of being a racist. It turned out that two Asians in the group had complained to the police. In April, Miss Calvert-Mindell, who has never been in trouble with the police before, was charged with using racially aggravated threatening words or behaviour under section 5 of the Public Order Act... 'The authorities today are so sensitive to being criticised for being racist that any claims of racism just raises their antennae, instead of using common sense.'"
Racism deserves Zero Tolerance

Boys' school cafe offers geek girls tea and fantasy - "Whereas maid cafes, managed by young women in cartoon-like frilly outfits, have indulged the stunted sexual fantasies of male otaku for a decade, businesses are only now considering the commercial potential of the female market. Edelstein's manager, 27-year-old Emiko Sakamaki, explains that "my concept was to hire young men who could play the part of beautiful boys that privileged families would send to a good boarding school" — a fetish of female otaku, many of whom grow up on "boy's love" comics full of homosexual relationships... Last year one of Japan's woman manga artists, Mimei Sakamoto, savaged the predilection shown by some otaku for prepubescent erotica in the Shukan Bunshun magazine: "In other countries, they'd call what you're fantasising over 'child pornography' and you'd all be arrested.""
Damn Japs.

Delicious Vinyl: Japan's Plastic Food Replicas - "Takizo Iwasaki is credited with creating the first food sample early last century. Initially inspired by the shapes formed by candle wax dripping on a tatami mat, he subsequently molded a wax rice omelet in Gifu Prefecture in 1917. In 1932, he founded the company today known as Iwasaki Co. - the present phony food Godzilla, commanding over fifty percent of the market... Perhaps his most interesting charge was a department store that requested he create synthetic worms for a before-and-after display exhibiting the effectiveness of an insecticide. Tourists can find his miniature pudding bowls and slices of pizza dangling from the end of mobile phone straps (for 800 yen) when visiting souvenir shops at Narita Airport."

Breast Injuries in Female Athletes - "Coopers Ligaments help hold the breasts up. They are thin bands interwoven into the breast and are not very strong. If the breasts are not supported properly with a good sports bra then repetitive bouncing from running can stretch the Coopers ligaments permanently. The main injuries affecting breasts are nipple problems (joggers nipple or friction injury), a direct blow to the breast causing a contusion and repetitive trauma caused by constant movement and bouncing whilst running."
Interestingly enough joggers nipple is more common in men than women. They should wear nipple tape.

YouTube - Uchida conducts Mozart's Piano Concerto #20 - Rondo III - Someone: "i wonder if the orchestra members are trying not to laugh
they look like they're trying not to laugh"

Guards Go Stiff at Local Army Base - "Locals in TaoYuan Province, Taiwan, noticed that the guards around a local Army base always seemed to stand in the same position without moving... The soldiers were actually dummies dressed up as soldiers and armed with fake rifles."
Security breach!

There's No Such Thing as a "Bad Feminist" - "What bothers the fuck out of me, though, is when women accuse other women of being bad feminists. That simply does not exist. Because it doesn't matter what you think about women's issues, just as long as you're thinking about them... The women that I think are some of the smartest, most progressive feminists of our time—Christina Hoff Sommers, Debbie Stoller, Daphne Patai, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Susie Bright, Camille Paglia—are also the women who have been reviled by other feminists as being "anti-feminist," simply for thinking outside the box, simply for questioning established feminist theories... We can't live our lives constantly in fear, because constantly being afraid makes us cowards, weaker, lesser. Instead, we should all be accountable for our own actions, strive for autonomy, and if we are truly to be independent creatures, we need to learn how to deal with our socio-sexual interactions with men, without having to go running to a third party all the time to handle shit for us... Like Hoff Sommers says, "The truth is no enemy to compassion." Just because I believe that there are preventative measures that can be taken to avoid date rape, doesn't mean that I think that women who were date raped "deserved it" or "asked for it." It does not mean that I hate women, and it does not mean that I think that women who are raped are stupid. On the contrary, I like to believe that women are too smart to be undermined in such a way to assume that they can't be in control of their own bodies and own choices."

Denis Dutton on Bad Writing - "While everyone moans (rightly) about the decline in student literacy, not enough attention has been given to deplorable writing among the professoriate... No one denies the need for a specialized vocabulary in biochemistry or physics or in technical areas of the humanities like linguistics. But among literature professors who do what they now call “theory” — mostly inept philosophy applied to literature and culture — jargon has become the emperor’s clothing of choice... The vatic tone and phony technicality can also serve to elevate a trivial subject. Many English departments these days find it hard to fill classes where students are assigned Milton or Melville, and they are transforming themselves into departments of so-called cultural studies... The pretentiousness of the worst academic writing betrays it as a kind of intellectual kitsch, analogous to bad art that declares itself “profound” or “moving” not by displaying its own intrinsic value but by borrowing these values from elsewhere... To ask what this [sentence] means is to miss the point. This sentence beats readers into submission and instructs them that they are in the presence of a great and deep mind. Actual communication has nothing to do with it. "

Dad must pay for other guy's kids - "A MAN who sued his former wife after paying child support for two children fathered by his wife's lover today lost his appeal to the High Court... Three judges held that no action for deceit could lie in representations about paternity made between spouses."

Sahadi: 39 jobs where women earn more than men - "Hours alone don't fully account for the gap in women's and men's earnings. Farrell identifies 25 work-life decisions that men and women make in the course of their careers that have a direct bearing on their earning potential. Farrell found, for instance, that men are more likely to opt for doing that which can lead to a higher paycheck... Women, by contrast, are more likely to seek "careers that are more fulfilling, flexible and safe"... In 39 of the occupations Farrell found, women's median earnings exceeded men's earnings by at least 5 percent and in some cases by as much as 43 percent... There's plenty of [pay discrimination] against men, too. He points to careers that have limited opportunities for men – e.g., dental hygienist or elementary school teacher because people prefer a woman in those roles. That's not that much different from law firm clients who years ago may have preferred to deal with a male lawyer, he notes."