Links - 29th March 2009

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way." - Bertrand Russell

***

World prepares for big switch-off - "Millions of people worldwide are being urged to switch off lights for an hour, in what is described as the biggest climate change protest ever attempted... Critics describe the event as a symbolic and meaningless gesture."
I think it has negative value, really: crowding out. Like Sunday Morning Christians.

City spends $3,000 to shut off lights for Earth Hour - "Some of the darkened city buildings were false, not just flawed, symbols. That’s because city staffers drew the blinds on a number of windows to mask the security lighting that had to remain on... Even volunteers have to eat, drive around and otherwise make use of energy derived from fossil fuels to put on Earth Hour. If you could total up all the energy it took to put on Earth Hour, it probably exceeded the savings in power, if this area’s experience is any guide. Meaning Earth Hour hurt the Earth, not helped it."

yax-1003 Why arrested persons shouldn't have lawyers - "Singaporeans are not good at making the distinction between guilt and fair sentencing either... We seem not to care whether the sentence is excessive... If lawyers are allowed to be present, police work will be shackled, and the public will not enjoy the benefits of law and order. Oh no! That will not do. Throwing a few criminals (of course we are sure they guilty as charged, right?) into the dungeon is a small price to pay for continuing to sleep peacefully at night, courtesy of the big chief... Sometimes, the saddest thing about Singapore is not that we have an authoritarian government, but that the people think it's the best thing that's ever happened to them."

The Army's Remote-Controlled Beetle - "A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week"

Police Priorities - "*** was pushed to the ground and pummeled by a commuter who failed to obtain a seat. But the woman police officer at the station said a report would not help to catch the assailant. Madam Tan’s husband received a telephone threat, promising to inflict bodily harm on him and his family. In this instance, a report was made at Bedok North station, but the police seemed to let the matter rest at that. Rag-and-bone man Ng Kim Ngweng... air[ed] his grouses, but ended up in court to face a battery of hostile witnesses"
Ed: Name has been redacted on request

A response to MM Lee’s private secretary on dialects - "The Chinese dialects which he refers to are rightfully languages. Spoken Chinese is distinguished by a high level of internal diversity. There are between six and twelve main regional groups of Chinese... These Chinese languages are mostly mutually unintelligible tongues. They are roughly parallel to English, Dutch, Swedish, and so on among the Germanic group of the Indo-European language family... The Beijing form of Mandarin was only chosen to be the standard form of spoken Chinese through a ballot in China in 1913, during which the Cantonese language lost only by three votes... The deliberate classification of the southern Chinese languages as dialects is a socio-political attempt to degrade them as second-class. The attempt to eradicate them is narrow-minded and short-sighted."

U.N. body adopts resolution on religious defamation - "A United Nations forum on Thursday passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religion" as a human rights violation, despite wide concerns that it could be used to justify curbs on free speech in Muslim countries. The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the non-binding text, proposed by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic states"
Of course, the most deserving targets of this resolution... are the large number of Muslims who demonise Jews.

officially longest lived celebrity romance.

Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries - "A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama... the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved."

U2 song crashes Acer Aspire One netbook hard drives - "“We’re not entirely sure how serious to take this, but apparently Acer’s hugely popular 8.9-inch Aspire One netbook will trash the hard drive if you play music through it too loudly according to some users on HardwareCult. One of the tracks it has taken a particular dislike to is U2’s Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, which several users have been able to replicate the problem with."

The 25 Most Disturbing Sex Toys - "Sometimes you get to the point where the standard human dong just doesn't do it for you, no matter how unrealistic the proportions. For those people, the caring deviants in the fake dong industry put their skills to work in making a dildo modeled after the junk of an orca whale... Mr. Jack With Mustache: this was designed for people who wanted a blowjob from an incognito Guy Smiley using Burt's eyebrows as a mustache without the rest of his Muppet head getting in the way."

Manhunt winner to strip for hens parties and other events.
Someone: My word how the mighty have fallen, lol