"Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down." - Russell Baker

***

I went down to Hong Lim Park (Speakers Corner) for the JBJ Memorial just now.


I was stunned at the huge turnout, and that the organisers had managed to get a lit place with a banner and chairs for people to sit.


When I got closer, I realised it was a Martial Arts Display, and that the people in the audience were all old folks.

The real memorial was behind this.


Not a bad turnout still.


The setup, with tea lights, candles, photographs and a piece of mahjong paper to write condolences/wishes/thoughts on


A closer look


"Sic Semper Tyrannis - gssq"

HWMNBN: i would have written: "You fought for and believed in people unworthy and unable to rise up to your standards."

There was some Indian guy being interviewed in front of a camera, and he was saying that he'd spent 20 (?) years sailing (?) around the world, and that he said he could never compare to JBJ's sacrifices but he would try to carry on the fight. He called for a televised dialogue with the PM, SM and MM even though he wasn't as smart as them, or had as much political experience. Good luck to him in getting that done. Finally, he vowed not to step off Singapore soil again before this task was done.


The photos suck. Too bad. The only real camera I had with me with Superfly's (from Hari Raya Bazaar day) but I don't have a suitable card reader.

From Blood Lust:

Quest completed! You received 25 exp and Sage's Blessings!


GAH

"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant." - Cary Grant

***

An image search referral I got: "she-male d&d" (sans quotes).

Would that be a gender or a class? If the latter...


Class: She-Male

Alignment: Any non-Lawful. Chaotic characters get a 5% XP bonus.
Primary Attributes: Dex (dodging the police), Cha (duh)
Class Skills: Bluff; Disguise; Knowledge: Other gender; Perform
Class Bonus: Aura of Gender Otherness: Cispersons roll a fear check when within 60". Any cispersons failing their fear check will take -5 Wis & -5 Con penalties for 10 turns as they question their cisperson privilege and gender identity.
Class Weapon Restrictions: Stiletto Heel, Leather Thong +3, Unarmed Combat: Catty Bitching
Feats: Breast Revealing; Heel Throwing; Suppress Adam's Apple; Hiding Penile Bulge; Speak in Falsetto; Makeup Shield (+5 AC)
Prestige Classes: Changi Village Bapok; Bugis Duck; Iron Lady; Kathoey; Hijra; Mukhannathun.

Once in a She-Male's career, he can undergo an Operation, which will effect the following attribute changes: -1 Str, -1 Con, +3 Cha. This process is irreversible. The She-Male also gains the feat: False Vagina, which adds +3 DC to spot checks for gender.

(with contributions from nw.t)

Double Standards and "Transphobia"

"The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders." - Foster's Law

***

After more than 24 hours, a comment I posted on a post on Glass Castle still hasn't been approved (as I expected), once again confirming my doubts about the commenting policy. I will thus repost it here.

The original post is titled "On privilege and transphobia" and talks about Changi Village and bapoks (transsexuals/ah guas). It also carries the following "warning": "This post contains possibly disturbing references to transphobia, including derogatory slurs."

In particular, reference is made to an occasion where a guy pretended to be a policeman and felt up a transsexual, and when the transsexual realised what he was doing, he called his other transsexual friends over and they near-lynched the guy.

Reference was also made to a previous exchange about heterophobia, where I said that "I should've been born a black, female, lesbian, post-op transsexual".

Addendum: My ideal Secret Weapon is a lesbian, black, working class, Muslim, post-op transsexual from a Third World post-colonial country. If I get one of these, then I will be untouchable in Liberal circles.

Comments follow (notice how they degenerate and reinscribe the image of self-declared feminists as bra-burners):


Me: Thank you for the link.

I would say that that discussion was not similar, because in the linked discussion, identical acts by so-called cisperson and a transperson were treated differently (a straight wishing a non-straight was straight vs a non-straight wishing a straight was non-straight).

Whereas here, at least in the second example, in the second example, like is being compared with like (the feeling up of: a so-called ciswoman vs a transwoman) and evaluated as being the same.

Furthermore, your analogy is wrong. The transsexuals in Changi Village are there to solicit customers for sexual services. So the correct analogue to feeling up a transwoman would be feeling up a prostitute.


Jolene: If masquerading as a policeman to sexually assault a (cis) sex worker would be considered differently from masquerading as a policeman to sexually assault any other ciswoman, I would regard this as evidence of devaluing the humanity and bodily autonomy of (cis) sex workers by comparison to other ciswomen.

"She was a sex worker" is not a justification for non-consensually touching someone or obtaining fraudulent consent to touching someone, and this comments thread will not entertain discussion suggesting the contrary.

The discusson to which I linked is entirely relevant, because the last line equates the burden of being asked to think for a moment before speaking with the burdens of living with (for instance) societal transphobia and homophobia. In other words, the same dynamic of the blindness of privilege is illustrated.


Me: Where "the blindness of privilege" prevents us from treating like cases alike, it is indeed something we must be aware of.

If countering "the blindness of privilege" requires the supposedly-privileged to be subject to higher standards than the supposedly-marginalised, then this is against what movements for equality (supposedly) stand for.


Jolene: I've just realised that it says nothing at all in the Changi Village anecdote about the woman concerned being a sex worker soliciting for custom. Your initial comment was based wholly on transphobic stereotypes. I had initially assumed there was more information in the entry than I had seen, but I realise now that you simply made it up. Please do not post such bigotry here in the future - it will not be published.


And the comment that wasn't approved:

Me: This comment does not jump to conclusions or contain gratuitous accusations of intolerance and prejudice

This is ridiculous.

You claimed that I was saying that all sex workers could be freely molested, when I was merely pointing out that you were making erroneous comparisons (comparing the molestation under false pretences of a transsexual to the same thing done to a normal woman, rather than that of a prostitute)

It is well-known that transsexuals hang out at Changi Village in order to solicit sex. If you saw someone in the streets wearing a police uniform, it would be reasonable to assume he was a cop (even if he was off-duty). If I go to a gay bar, it is reasonable for gay men there to assume that I am gay and looking for a night of fun, and then try to pick me up. I do not scream "GET YOUR PAWS OFF ME, YOU FILTHY FAGGOT" at a mere brush of my sleeve.

There isn't much detail on the blog post, but from what there is, it seems they were in a group and reasonably close together (such that a cry for help could summon everyone).

Unless you think they were a group of hungry transwomen there for Nasi Lemak, it's a very reasonable assumption that they were soliciting sex.

In fact, I did a straw poll, and a vast majority thought it reasonable to think the transwoman was soliciting for sex (~20 thought so, only 2 averred disagreed and 3 abstained).

You can scream and call us bigots as much as you want, but it doesn't change the fact that reasonable people (i.e. not feminists) conclude beyond reasonable doubt (let alone a balance of probabilities) that a transwoman in Changi Village is soliciting sex.

"A bigot is anyone winning an argument with a liberal"

Feminists in Glass Castles should not throw stones.


The above is good evidence that feminism drives you bonkers.


Someone: the thign abt that blog story is
the bapoks were wrong what.

when normal women kena grope
they are traumatized, yes, and my sympathy is fully with them

i think that indian lad was scum

but, look, it IS fucking hilarious how those bapoks reacted
and the bapoks were wrong to take it out on the indian lad's innocent friend

so those bapoks were fucking laughable anyway

oh and condemnable

did i say condemnable?
no i didn't

well i'll say it now then

is it condemnible or condemnable
i think the former

ah whatever

"The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away." - Ronald Reagan

***

On Art, and what should qualify as Art:


Errant Thoughts: The Oxford Shorter Dictionary defines Art as follows:

"A pursuit or occupation in which skill is directed towards the production of a work of imagination, imitation or design, or towards the gratification of the aesthetic senses; the products of any such pursuit."

In those definitions, the adjective "aesthetic" is used. The same dictionary provides this definition of the word, when it is applied to a thing: "in accordance with the principles of good taste; beautiful".

If we accept those definitions, we can agree that works of art are works of imagination, imitation or design which should gratify our sense of good taste and of the beautiful. The production of these works requires the application of skill.

This definition is broad, for it encompasses classical art (which most often mainly attempted to reproduce, through imitation, the beauty of what we see around us), and modern art (which mainly produces abstract works of imagination)...

Our definition mentions good taste and beauty. These are, of course, subjective concepts, and they may vary across cultures and times. But I believe that there is a universal idea of Beauty that crosses cultural and time boundaries. Without it, how could we explain the reaction of a Westerner stirred by a Tang Dynasty vase, or of a Chinese or Japanese awed by Picasso's Guernica?...

The works of art displayed at the Singapore Biennale, at least those I have seen so far, fail to qualify as art, if we accept the definition of art elaborated here, using as reference the Oxford Shorter Dictionary...

We immediately regognize the pseudo-philosophical babble often used to describe worthless contemporary "art": "something elemental ... opening up existential questions ... an experience that is essentially sublime in nature ... [whatever this may mean]". This language is used by the "sophisticated" people (those who go to the openings of these modern art installations and really get it) to intimidate the uninitiated into believing that they are seeing and "experiencing" something great. You do not understand this babble (do not feel bad, nobody does, even those who speak or write it), but it sounds profound, and, surely, this work of art, to inspire such deep thoughts, must be something you must admire, even though you do not find it beautiful and do not respond in any way to it...

Art, in my opinion, should not carry a political message, or any message. The more art wants to tell us something specific, the less it succeeds as art.

Unless we change the definition of "art" in the dictionaries, the works on display at the Biennale are not art. People still associate art with the pursuit of the beautiful, which can be attained only through rigorous training.

Those works are not art, and the artists who produced them did not, in the doing, display any artistic skill.


Me: The Oxford (Longer) Dictionary: "The expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, drawing, or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."

I would say that classical art is about gratifying the aesthetic sense, whereas modern art is about trying to make a point.

Classical art can and does make a point, and modern art (more rarely) can and is aesthetically, pleasing, but generally this dichotomy holds.

I think we should clearly distinguish the two purposes of art, and perhaps create a new word for the latter, since it's very different in purpose from the former.


Errant Thoughts: I found neither emotional power nor beauty in the works I saw at the Biennale. I just cannot find any emotional power in works that are just seeking to make an abstract and rather abstruse intellectual point, or no point at all that I could fathom. Guernica or Goya's drawings hit you in the gut with the horrors of war. The abstract and abstract expressionist paintings of Willem de Kooning have the power to move you deeply, even if you do not quite "understand" them.

Art, whether it has beauty or emotional power (and beauty does have emotional power) appeals to the senses. The works I saw at the Biennale do not appeal to the senses, they appeal only (and not always) to the intellect.

Therefore, these works are not art in my book, they are just the (often pretentious) materializations of their creators' ideas, without any aesthetic appeal, and therefore no appeal to our senses. They leave us cold...

I agree with your statement that modern art is trying to make a point. But this is precisely for this reason that it ceases to be art. Art should not try to make a point, or, if it does, it should do it with aesthetic and / or emotional power, which takes you much beyond the intellectual point. If someone just wants to make a point, then the point is better made in an essay, with words.

If the artist must make a point with art, he should have the talent to create something that is bigger than the intellectual statement and will evoke an emotional response that requires no explanation.

Any work of art that requires an explanation (especially one that uses abstruse philosophical concepts) to justify or explain its purpose does not deserve to exist.

This was unfortunately the case for the works I saw at the Biennale.


Me: I think aesthetic appeal is a necessary condition for something to be art.

Which is why I largely dislike anything from Impressionism onwards.

"Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before." - Edith Wharton (1862 - 1937)


art appreciator on this work: "Freelance lensman Joel Yuen was elated when he was informed of his big win at this year's UOB Painting Of The Year (POY) Competition. His winning work, a series of archival inkjet print photographs, entitled Anatomical Fantasies of Meat, clinched the top spot in the POY Competition, a first in POY history."

That award-winning work described as grotesque by critics, is an art produced by the notion of manipulating images to make a point - it's not beauty neither it's aesthetic. if it has emotional power, it does helps make one feel sick at the sight of it (I guess that the work was awarded for its ability to disgust or provoke the emotions of the viewer). But my opinion maintains that this art is about making a point. This may be considered art (if art is an expression in any form) but should not merit an award. My definition of good art is the amount of effort and the level of skill being put into making the art to draw viewers' attention to be intrigued and fascinated, appreciated for hours. Good art should has the ability to make the viewer feel connected to it and have his/her senses gratified by it, beyond the ability to just making a point! So I kinda agree that some of the Biennale exhibits are not up to mark.


loksin on the official Biennale blog: The truth is the definition of ‘art’ as we understand it in the dictionary is outdated and passe in today’s context.

Since the days of Duchamp and warhol, art can be understood in two ways:

Art is a way of doing things, art is a way of seeing things.

Arthur Danto could not explain why Warhol’s Brillo boxes were really ‘art’ and came to realise that art really lies in the ’seeing’, the perception. Duchamp and John Cage both more or less agreed that art is really the ‘gap’ between the artwork and the audience. With Conceptual Art that states that art is really in the beauty of the idea itself, we really need to redefine art as ‘a way of seeing things’. Even the Buddha said some 2500 years back that the whle of life lies in the verb ’seeing’.

Back to Duchamp again, he chose the urinal to be called art, which was a way of doing things radically different from the rest. Baas Jan Ader (Dutch performance artist) died while performing ‘In Search of the Miraculous’. (He got lost in the sea in his boat and was drowned and subsequently found dead later)

While there are many people who would still argue that this is not ‘art’ as most people would understand it, i think we need to realise that these ideas have helped shaped what we call ‘contemporary art’ today.

So the key point: ART IS A WAY OF DOING THINGS, ART IS A WAY OF SEEING THINGS


And I'll put up posts about my visit last week... eventually.

"Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up." - Wilson Mizner

***

Hilarious hate mail. It's been too long since I got some! (hurr hurr):


Name: Hani

E-mail: uramofogab@gabdmofo.com

Homepage: www.gabamofo.com

From: Singapore

Message: i seriously think u need to open up ur eyes and step on the real world. u think too much, thats y u have most facts wrong. if u dislike modern music, then dun even waste time on it. oh n ur article abt how girls waste time? im sure ur not even gona get married. ur juz so crappy. :) u gotta have some respect man. including respect for religions in the world.


I especially like the bits about stepping on the real world and thinking too much and so getting my facts wrong.

I :S you
You :S me
We're a happy family
With a great big :(
And a :P from me to you
Won't you say you :S me too?

"I have often depended on the blindness of strangers." - Adrienne E. Gusoff

***

An interesting idea:


Subject: Open Letter to the PM & Cabinet

A letter has been sent to the Straits Times Forum page, addressed to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, drafted by Dana Lam and Braema Mathi, to ask that the government preserve JBJ's public spiritedness and love of the law and is requesting for two items (please see reproduced letter below).

While the first letter by has been sent to the press already, there is an intention to continue collecting signatures and build up momentum. It's likely that there are many more people who want to show their support but may not have known about this initiative.

Therefore, for those of you who are interested, you can either choose to submit this letter individually or as a collective group together with some people you know, with your name(s), I/C number(s) for Singaporeans and signature(s). You may base on the template letter below and address it to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet via:

E-mail address: lee_hsien_loong@pmo.gov.sg

Mail: Orchard Road Istana Singapore 238823

Fax: 63328983(PM) 67324627(SM) 67345244(MM) 68356621(General Office)

Thank you for your time and to Stephanie Chok for informing the Facebook Admins.

NOTE: Please cross out your I/C number(s) if you wish to publicly display your letter in a website, blog or online forum, but the letters privately sent to the PM, Cabinet or the press should maintain the I/C number(s).

--------------------

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER AND HIS CABINET

30 September 2008

Dear Prime Minister & Cabinet Members

By all accounts, we have lost a figure of uncommon strength and conviction in Mr JB Jeyaretnam.

No matter which side of the political fence we stand, it is undeniable that Mr JBJ, as he will be fondly remembered, has fought long and hard for what he believed was good for Singapore and, good for Singaporeans.

Mr JBJ did all he could with all he could. In staying the course, he has undoubtedly performed a public duty as a citizen of Singapore and, amply demonstrated the public spirit, the commitment to country and, the "nation before self" maxim that the government has sought to propagate.

As Singaporeans we are proud that such a man as Mr JBJ walked among us. We appreciate the sacrifices Mr JBJ has made for his beliefs in serving the people of Singapore . We are equally proud that the government, in spite of its political differences, has acknowledged the same resilience and service to nation in Mr JBJ.

Mr JBJ is an icon - an individual who stood up to serve the country and who stood tall for his beliefs and principles. As citizens of Singapore , we hope that Mr JBJ's public spiritedness and love of the law can be preserved in the following manner:

1) a professorial chair in the name of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam be created in the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore and,

2) A scholarship fund in the name of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam for graduate studies in political science and/or constitutional law and/or civil society studies.

We also humbly ask the government to further demonstrate its commitment to public spiritedness and active citizenry by taking the lead to provide the seed fund for the above honours for others to follow.

We look forward to your encouragement as we mourn the loss of one of Singapore's better sons.


Yours in good faith,

Dana Lam Yoke Kiew (SXXXXXXXH)
Braema Mathi (SXXXXXXXG)
Siew Kum Hong (SXXXXXXXE)
Au Wai Pang (SXXXXXXXJ)
Manohar P Sabnani (SXXXXXXXA)
Teri Teo Shiwen (SXXXXXXXI)
Constance Singam (SXXXXXXXE)
Cheng U Wen, Lena (SXXXXXXXD)
Lim Siew Wai, William (SXXXXXXXD)
Benedict Jacob-Thambiah (SXXXXXXXI)
T Sasitharan (SXXXXXXXZ)
Stephanie Chok (SXXXXXXXB)
Heng Hiang Khng (SXXXXXXXE)
Jacqueline Tan (SXXXXXXXC)
Serene Yap (SXXXXXXXG)


Of course, it has as much chance of succeeding as the GRC system being dismantled, but what the hell: people in the Soviet Union used to spoil their votes as a form of protest too.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay

***

Lut's newest game:


Straw Hat Samurai

Description: "It's a Samurai game with lots of slashing and blood." (tells you all you need to know)


Features:


Lots of slashing and blood


Headshots


The ability to move faster than a speeding bullet


Use a bow when you're sick of slashing with the sword


More slashing and blood


Huge battle scenes


A map for your Samurai to move along


Risk-like strategy mode

And finally:


Even more slashing and blood

Also, there're unlimited credits so occasional mistakes cannot seriously penalise you!


Go vote for it at the Golden Joystick Awards (under "The E4 Grand Master Flash Award").

Why?

"If I win, I promise that Darkness 4 will be out next =)"
[Ed: "Darkness" is Lut's series of mini adventure/horror games. Each episode features a girl in the uniform of a Singaporean all-girls school. So far we've had RGS, CHIJ and SCGS. Who knows what the next episode will bring?]

Woo hoo!

(Voting ends 31st October)

"An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before." - Mark Twain

***

HR Developer... - "The Ideal Candidate: non smoking; gentle, caring and elegant presence."
Someone: "that's your requirement for a woman? :P"

Don’t Drink to That - Weird News Story Archive - "A study at Cardiff University in Wales shows that women who enjoy sex are more likely to become pregnant. Study leader Dr. Jacky Boivin said her “findings suggest that the quality of women’s sexual response may facilitate the migration of sperm,” thus enhancing the chances the woman will become pregnant. Meanwhile, another study suggests alcohol consumption reduces female fertility, says Denmark’s National University Hospital. As little as five glasses of wine per week significantly reduces the chance of getting pregnant, researchers say."
Gah

Political watchers remember JB Jeyaretnam as a determined fighter - "The saddest thing I noticed about JBJ was that he was so obsessed only about one particular subject - human rights and rights of parliamentary democracy"
The saddest thing I noticed about Sun Yat Sen was that he was so obsessed only about one particular subject - the three principles of Nationalism, Democracy, and Equalization

Menopausal moms see sex as formula for rejuvenation - "“Fifty is the average age when female menopause sets in,” explains author Arata Samon, who is also a physician. “Her children will be grown up, and she harbors anxieties concerning the value of her existence. This spurs some women of that age to take part-time jobs in the sex industry. In their view, having men pay them money represents a recognition of their femininity, which gives them a sense of satisfaction and relief.” Some of these women are said to spend their earnings from the sex trade at host clubs, affording them further gratification from handsome young hunks. Nikkan Gendai relates that when one fiftyish woman’s husband refused to grant her a divorce, she demanded he take her to a “happening bar.” After a few drinks to get her in the right mood, she disrobed and coupled with a willing gentleman before the eyes of her husband and the other patrons. The experience helped rekindle their flagging marriage."
HAHAHAHAHA

House-hubby wants money, not kids - "SHE earned $2.5 million in eight years while her husband could barely hold down a job. She was so flush with cash that when her company posted her to Hong Kong in 2004, she handed her husband $700,000 for housekeeping allowance. But her husband used the money to buy an apartment in Taiwan for his extra-marital trysts with a Taiwanese woman... 'The truth was more likely that the husband had difficulty holding down a job and found it convenient to rely on the wife's stronger earning capacity to maintain himself and the household.' Among other things, the judge ordered him to pay 30 per cent of his children's living expenses, which amount to $4,500 a month. If he can't pay up, the amount will be deducted from the proceeds of their matrimonial properties."
This is very screwed up, but even on the most charitable interpretation, each child costs a ridiculous $1,500 a month?! No wonder Singaporeans can't afford to have children. And when wives rely on their husbands' stronger earning capacity no one says anything (oh yeah, they blame sexism).

Campaign to Have a State Funeral for JBJ - "He is the reason we no longer have appeal to Privy Councils, the reason why our judiciary is so independent of foreign interference. He is the reason we no longer have an Anson constituency, and indirectly responsible for the wonderful GRC System we have today, which makes it easy for young people to join the PAP and get an easy victory. He showed our glorious leaders that defamation suits were the way to go... Most of all, through all these years, he is the man who showed us that it is pointless to speak up, pointless to resist, if you wanted a normal life, if you did not want to be sued left and right, if you did not want to be bankrupted. He is the man who showed us that there is no use joining opposition political parties, and if you wanted to contribute to Singapore at all, the only recourse was to join the PAP."

Fundamentalists blame Wall Street's woes on gays - "Christian fundamentalists are suggesting gays and lesbians are to blame for Wall Street's woes, a frequently made charge in the wake of national calamities. In a September 25th blog post titled 'The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex', Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America's sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of gay unions."
No wonder Singapore isn't very hard hit - we still have Section 377A.

We'll All Feel Greenwich's Financial Pain In Our State Budget - "As the good times rolled in recent years, the state budget became increasingly dependent on Greenwich. Despite having only about 60,000 people, the town contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006 — more than three times the income taxes paid by the combined populations of Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury. With only 1.8 percent of tax filers, Greenwich provides nearly 13 percent of all state income tax, helping to pay for schools in West Hartford and road repairs in Rockville, not to mention every other cost related to running the state... In Connecticut, the state income tax relies on the stock market for about 25 percent of its revenue. A huge drop in capital gains — and subsequent state income taxes — by a relative handful of Greenwich billionaires and millionaires could have a huge effect on the budget already projected to have a $147 million deficit."

Canada's Thought Police - "If you fantasize about having sex with someone under 18 and write it down, even if only for your own masturbatory pleasure, you could go to jail for 10 years. Welcome to Canada, where the latest victims of the Catharine MacKinnon-inspired censorship laws are artists and lesbians... Under Butler, any representation at all of "degrading" sex can bring police action. The Butler ruling, which has framed the debate over pornography in Canada since it was handed down, was deeply influenced by prominent feminists. It drew explicitly from language of a brief submitted by the women's coalition known as LEAF, the Legal Education and Action Fund. Coauthored by University of Michigan law professor Catharine MacKinnon, a firebrand feminist at the center of US debates over freedom of speech, women's rights, and political correctness... In the name of defending what the MacKinnon-inspired courts call "materials which potentially victimize women", the store was fined C$200 (US$140) for selling a lesbian magazine. What was confined to academic shouting matches in the United States had become "sex crimes" in Canada. And despite the law's manifest harm to many women, MacKinnon did not back down... The Canadian system, in a bizarre twist on notions of justice, is forcing BBS operator Bolton to compensate an imaginary woman he hurt: in return for the release of his hardware and the dropping of criminal charges, he agreed to pay C$2,000 (US$1,400) to the Barbara Schlifer Clinic, a rape-crisis center... Bolton was bullied into conceding a link between his little bulletin board and all the potential rapes in Toronto. "
Once again, feminists shoot themselves in the foot.

A Singapore Hero - WSJ.com - "Singapore lost a man yesterday whose life reflected the best of the city-state. He suffered under the Japanese World War II occupation of the island; earned a place at the British bar; devoted himself to his work, family and faith; and forewent personal wealth to fight for democratic ideals in public office. No, we're not talking about the country's founder and longtime Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, for whom much of the above is true. Yesterday Singapore lost its pre-eminent opposition leader, Joshua B. Jeyaretnam."
See, want to sue them some more.

Games vs Girls: Which is Best? - "In order to get to the bottom of the question literally nobody is asking, we’ve broken it into categories - Availability, Obtainability, Quality, Time, Cost, Reward, Social Benefits and yes, Sexual Gratification. The most asinine shit you’ve read all year? Probably. Hold tight people, we’re about to get politically inappropriate."

Full-time NSman who died was granted 3-day medical leave - "20-year-old Private Joe Foo Wei Rong who died at Lim Chu Kang Camp on Tuesday morning had been given three days of medical leave on Sunday for a hamstring strain."
Chao Keng!!!

Australians urged to eat kangaroo - "Sheep and cows produce a high amount of environmentally unfriendly methane gas through belching and flatulence. But economist Ross Garnaut noted in a report on global warming that kangaroos produce virtually no methane."
Mmm, Kangaroo...

The Truth About Violent Youth and Video Games - "There is no epidemic of youth violence in America. The whole concept is a lie manufactured, distributed and perpetuated by the media. Kids are not killing each other more frequently than they used to. In fact, it turns out the opposite is true. Check out that ugly graph on the right. It doesn't take a genius to conclude that violent crime is at the lowest it has been in a good thirty years. For effect, I've also marked the release of the Playstation console, the first Grand Theft Auto game, the PS2 console, and the infamous GTA 3. Wow, look at those surges in violence! Believe it or not, I got that graph - and all the others in this piece - directly from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics... the Playstation era has, in fact, produced the most non-violent kids ever"

Aspen Public Radio | Broadcast Archive: Classical Music from Aspen - "Host Nikki Boxer invites listeners to join her every weekday for music at midday on Aspen Public Radio. Providing an interesting cross-section of styles, genres and musical periods, Classical Music from Aspen features everything from popular favorites to rarely-heard gems by obscure composers."
2 hours of music per weekday. Wow! In contrast, 92.4's podcasts are never updated and don't even offer music

Too big for La Bohème: svelte singers are the new shape of opera - "Traditionally, it isn't over until the fat lady sings. But it seems it will soon be over for the singing fat lady. The stereotypical large woman in a horned helmet and braids belting out Wagner is preparing for her swansong as opera embraces a new, younger audience. The drive to reach out to these fans is resulting in slimmer, fitter and more glamorous singers on stage."

The Censor in the Mirror - "Luo Ruiqing, who was the first to head the Propaganda Department after the Communists came to power, once admitted: “To let the media serve politics means to tell lies, to deceive the above and delude the below, to defile public opinions, and to create nonsensical news.”... Rigid censorship not only chokes artistic talent but also weakens the Chinese populace, who are forced to be less imaginative and less inventive. The crisis in education has been a hot topic in China for years. Why are so many Chinese students good at taking tests but poor at analytical thinking? Why are many Chinese college graduates less creative and innovative than college graduates in the West? Besides the commercialization of education, the absence of a free, tolerant environment has stunted the intellectual growth of students and teachers. People often ask how many great original thinkers and artists modern China has contributed to the world, and how many original products China has created on its own. Very few, considering that the country has 1.3 billion people. True, China is richer than before, but its wealth relies on duplicating and emulating foreign products. Such wealth is temporary and will dwindle away. Without its own original cultural and material products, a country can never stay rich and strong. In other words, the real wealth a country has is the talent of its people. In the case of China, the way to nurture that talent is to lift the yoke of censorship."

Racism in the English Language

"You're never too old to become younger." - Mae West

***

Racism in the English Language

donnybrook:

"An uproar; a free-for-all. See Synonyms at brawl.

[After Donnybrook fair, held annually in Donnybrook, a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, and noted for its brawls.]"

Also see:
- British Teeth (bad)
- Chinese Fire Drill (a prank etc)
- Chinese Whispers (the Broken Telephone party game)
- Dutch Courage
- Dutch Treat (i.e. none)
- Dutch Uncle (someone who gives unwelcome advice)
- Dutch Wife (sex doll)
- (the) French Disease (Syphilis)
- {If you'll pardon my) French
- French Leave (leaving without saying goodbye)
- French Letter (Condom)
- German Measles (Rubella)
- Greek (as in "XXX is all Greek to me")
- Gyp (from Gypsy - to con)
- Hong Kong Feet
- Indian Summer
- Irish Twins (2 within a year - because the Irish have too many children)
- Mexican Carwash (leaving a car in the rain)
- Mexican Standoff (stalemate)
- Russian Roulette
- Siamese Twins
- Spanish Practices (unauthorised working methods)
- (Young) Turk
- Welsher (someone who avoids payment)

The story of the financial crisis:


"Over the years, ordinary citizens became increasingly invested in the market.
Meanwhile, investment bankers were busy creating financial instruments too convoluted for the human mind to comprehend.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn't a very good idea.
Of course, the geniuses who created this mess are effectively holding our entire economy HOSTAGE."


Fury at $2.5 billion bonus for Lehman's New York Staff

"Up to 10,000 staff at the New York office of the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers will share in a bonus pool set aside for them that is worth $2.5 billion, Barclays Bank, which is buying the business, confirmed.

The revelation sparked fury amongst the workers' former colleagues, Lehman's 5,000 staff based in London, who currently have no idea how long they will go on receiving even their basic salaries, let alone any bonus payments. It also prompted a renewed backlash over the compensation culture in global finance, with critics claiming that many bankers receive pay and rewards that bore no relation to the job they had done...

The row will increase pressure on the government to tackle perceptions that city pay is out of control. Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain would review financial services awards following the credit crisis. "There's been a great deal of irresponsibility," the prime minister said. "There's an element of the bonus system that is unacceptable."...

A spokesman for the TUC said the U.S. payouts were unfair. "It looks like those that will suffer the most from the Lehman Brothers' collapse are those at the bottom of the corporate chain while many of those at the top will be looked after," he said."

"She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." - Dorothy Parker, speaking of Katharine Hepburn

***

Me: haha
you don't like drinking with girls?

Someone: not particularly
i don't dislike nor like

Me: but you like drinking with guys

Someone: yah because they go crazy
and usually not slutty

[usually] the guys want to pick and choose the girls
machiam picking out a piece of meat.
:\

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHA

are they picking chio/cute/hot girls
are are they picking non-annoying girls

Someone: i do not know or understand their picking criteria
its worse than girls lah

Me: do you know/understand girls' picking criteria

Someone: yeah, at least i think i do, from my * years in all-girls schools

depends lah, for my main group of friends its: sluts are out. usually bitches are out though we end up bitching about them
but in general, if they dress/think/talk similarly, they're all invited hahaah

Me: ><

Someone: and guys invited are usually: i) good looking, or ii) bag caddies

Me: >< x2

Someone: yeah
its brutal but its straightforward

ahahaah
which is why i like to create invite lists for girls vs guys

Me: well
the guys' one is probably "cute/chio/hot"

Someone: yeah but within the chio/cute/hot there's like so many other weird variations


Someone else: you have a psycho magnet somewhere is it? did you anger some witch doctor who cursed you to always attract these kinds of people


Someone: i'm sure you'll know, with first hand experience, that it's tough for women to be consistent with their everyday presences-- perpetually, we've got multiple issues and are naturally erratic


Someone else: was flipping my friend's guidebook on budget travel in southeast asia. the opening sentence for the chapter on malaysia totally summed it up for everyone: "malaysia is less exotic than thailand, less developed than singapore, and more expensive than indonesia."

how tactful
might as well just say 'don't bother'

Me: frankly would you recommend singapore as a destination

Someone else: 3-day trip, perhaps.
if wanna explore hdb estates outside central zone, then 5-day

actually the cnn and bbc covers of F1 also never failed to remind readers that the host of g.p. night race is 'this affluent, but authoritarian, city-state'

so much for all the effort
but i think lee jr. still quite happy

let me do it again:

[You:] frankly would you recommend singapore as a destination

yes. because i'm here.

Me: gah
wth


Someone: i want to be selfish and think about singapore as little as possible. it's not worth the time and effort to me, honestly

and it becomes a fixation
takes over you
prevents self-development etc

Me: one reason why I don't blog much politically
or keep that up to date on politics here


Someone else: like, dont get yourself arrested ok

also, i don't care for politics
right now, i'm more concerned about why my program isn't working right


Someone: circumcision is proven to be good for health
reduces risk of contracting STDs, especially AIDS

for men, anyway

female circumcision is completely different
and the worst thing you can do for a woman

Me: pfft

circumcision for men can go wrong
horribly wrong

and that's like saying if your earlobes are dirty, cut them off
stupid


and female circumcision doesn't always involve cutting the clitoris
you can cut the labia a little also. which is analogous to male circumcision
there're women who've been circumcised wgo stil get orgasms

Someone: it depends on the extent, yes
but it has absolutely no benefit for women, while posing health risks

Me: if you circumcise the women in a clean, medical environment, like men are, there're no health risks

and I'm quite sure research would reveal some benefits in some way
but unfortunately it's not safe to carry out such research
and anyway it's hard to get a suitable sample and control group

Someone: soo... if you stitch up their labia in a sterile environment, that's not a health risk?

Me: stitching up the labia is not the same as circumcision
you're referring to the measure to make them tighter for their men?

Someone: no
there are different grades of it, and the procedure also depends on the culture they are in

Me: yep
so blanket calls for banning female circumcision are simplistic

for the record I am against all forms of genital mutilation
male or female
at least against minors

Someone: there really isn't a religious justification for it, though

Me: eh hello
the aztecs had religious justification for sacrificing people to the sun god

Someone: quick qn
what about clit piercings and cock rings? :D

Me: if you're 18, go ahead

do you have a princess albertina? :0

Someone: of course not

Me: aww
I'm told if you do, a vibrator becomes even more heavenly than it is

Someone: *shudders*
yeah i know, but i dont think it is worth it

Me: I saw a video of a woman getting one once
it looked painful

do you know anyone with one :P

Someone: i knew a guy who had a gf with it
he said oral sex was awesome for her after that

Vox populi, vox Dei

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

See if you can spot me, Enming and My No 1 Fan in the Hi-Res Where The Hell is Matt:



MFS (who alerted me to this): so i downloaded it and paused it when it came to singapore and finally spotted you. 720P hides less secrets than does the youtube version


My comment: Naturally, Singapore stands out once again for its turnout.

(Related: Blog post on the filming session, YouTube video)

"Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else." - Ogden Nash

***

China fakes reports from space - "China's state news agency published a despatch from the country's three latest astronauts describing their first night in space before they had even left Earth. The Xinhua agency, which has sometimes been accused of carrying state propaganda, took down the story and blamed it on a "technical error"."
Ah, China. The land of lies.

What Clarence Thomas might have to say about Sarah Palin - "Liberals inclined to blindly support affirmative action would do well to contemplate the lessons of Sarah Palin and Clarence Thomas. Although the former exudes unflagging self-confidence and the latter may always be crippled by self-doubt, both have become nearly frozen in a defensive crouch, casualties of an effort to create an America in which diversity is measured solely in terms of appearance."

Rebellion, Revisited - "'[C]olleges and universities do not need a single additional “conservative”… What they do need, and would much benefit from, is more Marxists, radicals, leftists – all terms conventionally applied to those who fight against exploitation, racism, sexism, and capitalism. We can never have too many of these, just as we can never have too few “conservatives”.'... The problem is that adversarial role-play, like that of Furr and Garelick, has little to do with reason, refutation or how the world actually is. It does, however, have a great deal to do with how those concerned wish to seem. In order to maintain a self-image of heroic radicalism - and in order to justify funding, influence and status - great leaps of imagination, or paranoia, may be required. Hence the goal posts of persecution tend to move and new and rarer forms of exploitation and injustice have to be discovered, many of which are curiously invisible to the untutored eye. Thus, the rebel academic tends towards extremism, intolerance and absurdity, not because the mainstream of society is becoming more racist, prejudiced, patriarchal or oppressive – but precisely because it isn’t."
I like this comment: "Idealogues begin with argument and reason. When that isn't effective enough, they follow with lies and emotion"

Prototype - We’ll Fill This Space, but First a Nap - "Dr. Ellenbogen’s research at Harvard indicates that if an incubation period includes sleep, people are 33 percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas, and yet, as he puts it, these performance enhancements exist “completely beneath the radar screen.” In other words, people are more creative after sleep, but they don’t know it."

Sound Judgment: Does curing deafness really mean cultural genocide? - "Militant "Deaf Pride" activism first gained national visibility in 1988, when six radical students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the country's only liberal arts university for the deaf, successfully blocked the appointment of a hearing university president by organizing student protests. This movement has consciously modeled itself not only on the civil rights activism of the 1960s but even more directly on the gay pride movement. Just as gay activists sought to remove the stigma of "sickness" from homosexuality, deaf activists have been trying to challenge the view of deafness as a deficiency. They draw an explicit analogy between efforts to restore hearing to the deaf (or to prevent deafness altogether) and efforts to "cure" homosexuality... Northeastern University psychologist Harlan Lane, a prominent (hearing) champion of "deaf culture" who asserts that to define deaf people as hearing-impaired is like defining women as "non-men," has received a MacArthur fellowship and rave reviews for his work... Quite a few deaf people see these activists as an arrogant minority trying to impose its will on everyone else. It is worth noting that only about a quarter of the estimated 2 million profoundly deaf people in the United States use sign language... Perhaps the best way to learn something from the Deaf Pride movement is to see it as a reductio ad ab-surdum of modern identity politics."

YouTube - TBGSS - Lesbian Speed Dating - "The Big Gay Scetch Show Lesbian Speed Dating"
Tsk tsk, homophobia!

Our Singapore F1 Race Queen in Comparison - Hurr hurr.

Foreign Affairs: Give War a Chance - "An unpleasant truth often overlooked is that although war is a great evil, it does have a great virtue: it can resolve political conflicts and lead to peace. This can happen when all belligerents become exhausted or when one wins decisively. Either way the key is that the fighting must continue until a resolution is reached. War brings peace only after passing a culminating phase of violence. Hopes of military success must fade for accommodation to become more attractive than further combat... Each time, the opponents used the pause to recruit, train, and equip additional forces for further combat, prolonging the war and widening the scope of its killing and destruction. Imposed armistices, meanwhile—again, unless followed by negotiated peace accords—artificially freeze conflict and perpetuate a state of war indefinitely by shielding the weaker side from the consequences of refusing to make concessions for peace."

Supply and Demand: Wall Street Will Drown Alone - "It has shown that the financial and non-financial sectors experience quite independent changes, especially over the short and medium term... GDP growth has been high following high yields just as often as it has been low. It is equally hard to detect a correlation between stock returns, long term bond returns, or commodity returns and subsequent GDP growth. Quite simply, history has shown that the non-financial sector can do well when the financial sector does poorly, and vice versa... Wall Street’s woes are and will be largely limited to Wall Street. The Bush administration should not use the power of the IRS to force the rest of us to board Wall Street’s sinking ship... But, as long as the government does not get in the way, the marketplace will quickly react to provide the non-financial sector with financial services, even if the main players in that marketplace are no longer named Lehman, Merrill, or Goldman."

Smaller Banks Thrive Out of the Fray of Crisis - "Banks throughout the United States carried on with the business of making loans yesterday even as federal officials warned again that their industry is on the verge of collapse, suggesting that the overheated language on Capitol Hill may not reflect the reality on many Main Streets... Dunkelberg, a professor of economics at Temple University and chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, added that a recent survey of that group's members found that only 2 percent said getting a bank loan was the great challenge facing their businesses. "If you can't get a loan, my advice is to go see your local community bank," Dunkelberg said. Even some of the nation's largest banks, which have pushed hard for a federal bailout, deny that the current situation is forcing them to reduce lending."

"When I meet a man I ask myself, 'Is this the man I want my children to spend their weekends with?'" - Rita Rudner

***

"Why is the harpsichord the perfect instrument for fugue? Cos it is. It's the perfect marriage of instrument and genre.

Might I suggest that the clarity of line we hear in a harpsichord, the extremely rapid decay, avoids any sort of smear. The melodies stand in high relief, the other thing about a harpsichord is you really can't make one melody louder than the other, it's what we call a non-dynamic instrument: much more on that later.

But the beauty of a fugue is you *don't want to make* one version of the subject longer or louder than the others, because that would create a homophonic-sounding texture.

So the harpsichord balances melodies beautifully, it doesn't smear melodies and it's beautifully suited, then, for the polyphonic writing of the Baroque.

--- Robert Greenberg, How to Listen to and Understand Great Music: Fugue

"A motion to adjourn is always in order." - Robert Heinlein

***

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"You know what you get when you play Twisted Sister's 'Burn in Hell' backwards? 'Go to church and pray on Sunday.'" - Jay Leno

***

Take Back Valentine's Day! - "Consider... "The Vagina Monologues," the award-winning play by radical feminist Eve Ensler that features women who literally represent vaginas that speak out in a series of monologues. The play is meant to decry rape and other violence against women. Yet, the original performances of the play and the published book eulogize lesbian "rape" of a 13-year-old girl by a 24-year-old woman who plies her with alcohol. The pedophile section is entitled "The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could"... the little girl gratefully concludes, "I'll never need to rely on a man." Both by statute and by feminist definition, the "seduction" scene is rape. Nevertheless, the Coochi Snorcher declares, "...if it was rape, it was a good rape." Such idealization of child molestation would have created a firestorm of outrage if the offending character had been male. But the molester was female, so "The Vagina Monologues" won an OBIE Award on Broadway and noted actresses clamored to be included in the cast. When the New York Times reported the buzz about Ensler, it called her "the Messiah heralding the second wave of feminism."... Betty Dodson — a leader of '60s liberal feminism whose life's work has aimed at demystifying women's sexuality — expressed well-deserved horror at the play. Describing Ensler as "an evangelical minister," Dodson believes that the play is a blast of hatred at men and heterosexuality. After all, the 24-year-old woman who seduces the drunken 13-year-old is portrayed as "rescuing" her from male violence."
Heterophobia does not exist

Japanese signs at the expense of Tamil irks Singapore's Indians - "Singapore’s use of Japanese on signboards in an apparent bid to lure more Japanese tourists has roused concern among some ethnic Indians who make up almost 10% of the city-state’s citizens, with some feeling snubbed at the exclusion of their native language Tamil... Thamiselvan Karuppaya, a 40-year-old ethnic Indian real estate agent, applied to speak Friday on the issue at Speakers’ Corner, a park in Singapore’s financial and business district that has been designated since 2000 by the government as a venue for citizens to air grievances. But he had to abandon his plan after the police objected on ground the issue touches on racial sensitivities... ‘‘Singapore is a multi-ethnic society and maintaining community harmony is a key imperative that we must not take for granted,’’ it said."
Because maintaining community harmony is important, we should suppress or even falsify any statistics with inconvenient mentions of race, language or religion. Because community harmony in Malaysia is important, their government's racial policies cannot be questioned at all. Because community harmony in South Africa was important, their apartheid government's racial policies could not be questioned at all.

Stem cells turn into breast implants - "Silicone breast implants could be replaced by tissue grown from a person's own stem cells within a decade, suggests new research. Jeremy Mao of the University of Illinois, in Chicago, US, took human stem cells and used these to grow fat tissue using a biologically compatible scaffolding. He then successfully implanted the tissue into mice with an immune deficiency to prevent them from rejecting the implants. The implants had maintained their size and shape after four weeks."

Number four not so deadly for Chinese - "People who speak Cantonese link the number four to bad luck and death. But according to researchers from Hong Kong, they are no more likely to die from a heart attack on dates containing the number four than on any other dates."
How did they get funding for this?!

Designer vagina trend 'worrying' - "A leading urogynaecologist has spoken out against the growing popularity of cosmetic vaginal surgery."
How oppressive.

Germaine Greer - "She has recanted the doctrine of free love and now condemns all men as brutal, lazy sperm factories incapable of offering women emotional or sexual satisfaction. The bold liberationist who once scolded women for not stepping up to the plate and claiming the professional opportunities offered to them now bemoans weekly food shopping at the supermarket as "exhausting" and soul-killing work foisted upon victimized women by male authorities... "The Female Eunuch"'s... occasional passages of stirring rhetoric or (more rarely) perceptive analysis float in a miasma of supposition, dubious research, trendy "revolutionary" posturing, the patent settling of personal grudges, strategic vagueness, U-turns in logic and arguments that are Potemkin Villages built out of sheer, unadulterated bravado. Greer can be flabbergastingly categorical, especially when she's wrong, whether she's attributing homosexuality to "the inability of the person to adapt to his given sex role" or noting that ovaries and wombs almost always "go wrong."... Greer has always spoken directly from the tangles of her personal experience, shamelessly extrapolating from her own condition to the rest of womankind and seemingly unaware of her presumption. ("She's about as introspective as a sweet potato," Barbara Grizzuti Harrison once observed.)"

Human flesh search engines: Chinese vigilantes that hunt victims on the web - "With their vast number of participants and angry nature, these witch hunts for a digital age are a uniquely Chinese phenomenon. Xujun Eberlein, the Chinese-American writer and observer, said: “China’s population makes it easy to mobilize a large number of netizens to participate in such a search, especially considering that there are many smart and reasonably well-educated people in China who are intellectually underemployed." She added: “I think there is some pleasure in the idea of making information available when there has been such significant suppression of both thoughts and facts over the previous five decades.”... It quickly caught on and came to be used as a tool to punish the perpetrators of extra-marital affairs, domestic violence and morality crimes. "Righteousness is one of the five virtues in the Confucian tradition,” Ms Eberlein said. “With the convenience of the internet, and in the case of non-responsive law, the righteous people took matters into their own hands.”"

"I like being someone's mistress, my life right now is great!" - "Another person “visav,” found a blog where the pictures came from and the human flesh search engines soon identified her as a girl in Chengdu, China. But the girl in these pictures is not “Fragrant Chrysanthemum 1986.”... Netizens have cursed her on her blog. The human flesh search engines posted phone numbers belonging to her and her relatives on the internet, so people keep calling her and her family repeatedly. She has hired lawyers and asked the Sichuan Online reporters to help her clear up this problem."
Stupid lynch mobs.

Singapore Emigration - "One survey has placed Singapore’s outflow at 26.11 migrants per 1,000 citizens – the second highest in the world. Only Timor Leste (51.07) fares worse... Other comparable city-populations have similarly been affected, but Singapore seems to have been hit hardest of all. The explanation must involve a higher non-economic priority strong enough to propel Singaporeans away from a stable, comfortable living towards the uncertainties of a new life elsewhere... “Many Singaporeans leave because of the stifling atmosphere of the country and the political and intellectual lock-step enforced by the government,” said one analyst. “It would reverse if the government would begin to democratise, and to allow its people to develop their talents – in Singapore, not abroad.” Importing large numbers of migrants from China and India, most of whom treat it as a study or transit point, is not a solution. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once admitted: “They come in here, they get an English education ? and they're off to America.”"

Diesel's SFW XXX Party Clip Video - "In celebration of Diesel's October 11th 2008 XXX anniversary party they tossed together the most NSFW yet SFW clip we have..."

Future Architecture : Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees - "Vincent Callebaut came up with this ecotectural marvel that could serve as a luxurious future retreat for 50,000 inhabitants seeking refuge from rising waters due to global warming. He believes the world will be desperately seeking shelter from the devastations of climate change, and hopes the auto-sufficient amphibious city will serve as a luxurious solution."
A comment by someone: "filled with the best, brightest and richest of humanity, the city is a Utopian society that is the envy of the world. tragedy strikes and the city suddenly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it manages to survive as a self-contained habitat though it has lost contact with the surface world. societal pressures and authoritarian rule causes society to regress to a dystopian state, and eventually, the city is destroyed by civil war.
the other 99.9999% of the world, having relocated their coastal population centers and sandbagged the new coastlines over the past century, does not give two hoots about it and moves on."