"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." - A. J. Liebling

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YouTube - Guiness Good Times - "Another way to enjoy a good beverage"

Diet 'can flavour mother's milk' - "New Scientist magazine reported that banana could be detected for an hour after consumption, while menthol lasted for eight hours."

Vatican blesses Mary the musical - "The music has been penned by Stelvio Cipriani, a 70-year-old composer who has written the scores for movies including Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, Black Orgasm and Sex of the Devil... "Mary is truly the biggest female celebrity in history and a point of contact between all religions.""
All religions?!

I hate feminism. - "Really. You can't do anything right by them. You put a strong woman in a movie; they'll bitch at you for showing that she has a human side when she cries or is shown as being weak in any way at all. Put a strong woman in a movie, and give her no flaws at all; they'll bitch at you for creating an image of women which is impossible for real women to match. So what are you supposed to do? Sheesh!"

Egalitarian Epistemology - "Several PoMo figures, among them Andrew Ross and Sandra Harding, have argued that rationality, coherence and standards of evidence are merely social artefacts coloured by white male patriarchy and other Western vices. Thus, it is argued, one cannot assert the primacy of the scientific method over, say, a belief in voodoo or Scientology. Defined in this way, epistemology becomes a matter of lifestyle choice or political preference. Hence Harding’s unveiling of “feminist empiricism”, a quasi-Marxist alternative to the kind that actually works... This levelling of all knowledge claims is also of enormous benefit to Ross and Harding personally, both of whom make grandiose claims based on precious little evidence"
I like Sandra Harding's description of Newton’s Principia as a 'rape manual' and her claim that 'science is a male rape of female nature'.

Olympic cleanup puts some Beijing residents behind walls - "A veil of green plastic netting has covered Sun's restaurant for months. Song's house and several shops that he rents to migrant workers were surrounded by a brick wall three meters, or 10 feet, high last week, as part of last-minute efforts to beautify the city for the Olympics. The authorities deemed his little block of commerce not beautiful... She believed officials and developers were using Olympic beautification as a pretense to strangle their business and exert pressure to make them leave... The city has bullied her to leave. One night last year a bulldozer slammed into the building. Neighbors are paid to keep watch over her, and notify the police when she has guests. Sun said officials had pressed her doctor into refusing to give her care."
One World One Dream

Mr T Snickers ad pulled for being offensive to gay people - "Mars has pulled a UK TV ad for Snickers featuring Mr T harassing a speed walker for being a "disgrace to the man race" after US complaints that it was offensive to gay people... The Human Rights Campaign criticised Mars for perpetuating "the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable, but humorous"."
Say no to homophobia today! Next up, the colour purple is banned except when used by GLBT groups.

Monday manifesto: is Singapore the canary in the mine? - "There is little doubt that Singapore's business model is under threat... Now it has a number of hungry, growing cities in India and China breathing down its neck as viable financial hubs. Because of Singapore's minuscule size, the openness of its markets and its dependence on exports and the financial services industry to drive growth, a country that appears to have prospered through doctrinaire social manipulation is, in reality, disproportionately at the mercy of monetary and fiscal policy. "I would say that starting from the premise that we are vulnerable is not a bad thing in a whole sphere of policies," Mr Tharman said. "The fact is that we are vulnerable ... psychologically, it is both a liability and an asset.""
Duh, you might as well say the same about starting from the premise that we are invulnerable.

Myth Busted: Girls as Competitive as Boys - "Girls are no less competitive than boys, they simply employ more subtle tactics, a study of pre-schoolers suggests. While boys use head-on aggression to get what they want, girls rely on the pain of social exclusion... Boys tended to ask for the puppet, grab at it, or even chase the child who had it. In contrast, girls punished the puppet-holder by excluding her from their clique, whispering behind her back or even hiding from her. Benenson says that these socially aggressive tactics may explain why girls exhibit greater jealousy over same-sex friendships than boys... Emery Thompson says that these differences also explain why human males tend to cooperate more effectively in groups while many females "work well in pairs and tend to maintain only a few close relationships.""
I'm sure someone will blame this on socialization through TV.
Comments: "Interesting to see "onefreaknword" complaining about sexism when an article says men and women use different methods to get their way. Wonder how many complaints about sexism there were when the model was "nasty competitive boys" vs "nice co-operative girls"?"
"Women are driven to emotionally punish those with whom they do not cooperate. And men are up-front, without subversive agenda. To me, this shows a lack of effective problem-solving ability in women. No, it's not just "different" - it is mean spirited, shrewish, and manipulative."
"In my office, my boss and I are the only men. In working around women, I found that gossip rules. People's reputations are shaped by stories that are told about them behind their back, and gossip and competitiveness -- co-workers trying to outdo each other -- go hand in hand"
"That is why I have more guy friends than girl friends. Much easier to deal with. Women (that I have dealt with) are meaner and sneaky. Guys generally don't put that much effort into it. Either you are friends or you aren't."
"Hello! Any female over the age of ten could have told you that!!!!"

The Leadership survey on Pastors and Internet Pornography - "Four in ten pastors online have visited a pornographic Web site. And more than one-third have done so in the past year. Those statistics from our Leadership survey have drawn startled response. From non-pastors: "So many!" From pastors: "Is that all?""
'Do as I say, not as I do'

Study Reveals Gamer Age, Gender Surprises - "A recent list of facts published by the Entertainment Software Association reveals that 38 percent of gamers are women, despite common stereotypes that say otherwise. Their numbers also point out that female gamers over the age of 18 make up 31 percent of all gamers, a larger percentage than that of male gamers under the age of 17 (20 percent), a group traditionally seen as the majority. Also of note is the fact that the average age of the typical gamer is 33."