Links - 23rd April 2009

"The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible." - George Burns

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Couples to test 'intimacy' device - "Couples in long distance relationships are being sought to try out a prototype device designed to communicate intimacy from their bedrooms... The device allows couples, who are separated by distance, to draw in light on each other's bodies or beds."

Jackie Chan: Chinese people need to be controlled - ""I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic." Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.""
Addendum: "However, he lost some of his goodwill among the audience when he criticised the quality of Chinese-made goods. "If I need to buy a television, I would definitely buy a Japanese television," he said. "A Chinese television might explode." "

QDB: Quote #414593 - "A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired."

No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something Else - "In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire."

Women: Orgasm In A Spray Undergoes Successfull Trials - "The spray, developed by Australian company Acrux, contains the male sex hormone testosterone. It was initially designed with post-menopausal women in mind, but has also been shown to work for young women with a low libido... The study concluded that there was a significant rise in the number of women who experiencing orgasms during sex at the end of the fourth month for the women on the highest dosages of the spray. The only recorded side effect was a small increase in body hair among some of the participants."

China 'acting like a child' - "THE Dalai Lama on Wednesday accused China of 'acting like a child' in cracking down on Tibetans and other minorities, saying it lacked the moral authority of a genuine superpower... He said the government routinely arrested individuals with different views, but stressed that 'such a big nation of over one billion people (should have) no need for such sort of fear.' 'One or two persons have different views, and immediately they are in trouble with the government. No. You're a big nation. You should have more self-confidence.'"
Sounds familiar.

University of the bleedin' obvious - "Scientists have demonstrated something that many women suspect and most men would admit only to themselves: pictures of scantily-clad females turn women into sexual objects in the minds of men... other groundbreaking studies from the archive: Fake orgasms differ from real ones
The rhythm method of contraception is unreliable
Men are attracted to women who wear red
The more fit you are the longer you will live
Living near a busy road increases the risk of asthma
Hurrying makes people less attentive
Giving up smoking is good for your lungs
Binge drinkers are more likely to fall over"

Islam a political target in Norway - "The leader of the country's main opposition party has warned that it is facing "sneak-Islamisation", while some prominent Muslims say they face growing "persecution"... Earlier this year, the Labour Party's governing coalition suggested it would allow police officers to wear headscarves with their uniform, in the hope that it would attract more Muslim women to the police force. But after widespread criticism of the proposal, the government dropped the idea. On International Women's Day in March, Syrian-born Sara Azmeh Rasmussen protested against headscarves by burning hers in public in the capital, Oslo. Ms Jensen's Progress Party has produced a list of special measures it says Muslims have requested to accommodate their religious sensitivities and traditions. On top of changes to the police uniform, the list mentions prison inmates wanting Halal food, and parents of teenage girls demanding that schools separate their daughters from boys during sports lessons... not all Muslims agree with Mr Mahmood. "Three to four articles critical of religion and the burning of a headscarf is not persecution of Muslims; it is a process of modernising," says Shakil Rehman, another Labour Party member. "Criticism isn't a smear campaign, but necessary progress." "
Apparently, opposing segregation of boys and girls during PE = "Islamophobia"

America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire - "In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters... Pros who work for companies are typically paid $45,000 to $90,000 a year for their blogging. One percent make over $200,000. And they report long hours -- 50 to 60 hours a week."

Oldest profession gets creative in downturn - "In [Germany,] one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, and unusually transparent, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates and gimmicks to boost falling demand... Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as "day passes" are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going... Germany has about 400,000 professional prostitutes... Berlin's "Pussy Club" has attracted media attention with its headline-grabbing "flat rate" -- a 70-euro admission charge for unlimited food, drink and sex between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m... "Our offer might sound like it's too good to be true, but it's real. You can eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want and have as much sex as you want."... Other novel ideas used by brothels and prostitutes include loyalty cards, group sex parties and rebates for golf players. Hamburg's "GeizHaus" is especially proud of its discount 38.50 euro price... "Our philosophy is: we provide an important service and even in a recession there are some things people won't do without."... "A 30-year-old came up to me and said 'I lost my job so will you give me a discount?'.""

Reality check: You're not going to make money from your blog - "This seems like a good time to tell you the advice my writing teacher gave our who class in graduate school: Writing for a living is a very, very hard life. If you can do anything else for a living, you should."

Pinkdot: The First-ever Official Public Gathering for a LGBT Cause in Singapore! - One comment: "Hi, From what I understand, the purpose of Pinkdot is to gather ppl (gay, straight, in between) to support the freedom to love... ie. It is not a primarily "gay event". So to me, the titling of this event as "LGBT Public Gathering" seems to run COUNTER to the main purpose of Pinkdot, which was to get rid of the distinction between LGBT and non-LGBT in the first place, in order for everyone regardless of sexuality to reaffirm open-mindedness"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HWMNBN: that's right, if we had a straight pride parade they would be picketing us as rubbing our cisbias in their face.

Homotography: Art :: Human Furniture by David Blázquez - "We have recently seen photographer Carlotta Manaigo fuse model Jakob Wiechmann with furniture pieces for Dazed & Confused (see here), but Spanish artist David Blázquez takes the concept to a whole other level with his living art exhibition Human Furniture (‘MOBILIARIO HUMANO’). David creates beds, bathtubs, dining tables, book shelves, sofas and more, with naked human bodies."
He seems to only use men whose unmentionables are somehow hidden. I can see how, for his purposes, it's harder to work with women.

Why men are more intelligent than women - "The answer is: They aren’t. The orthodoxy in intelligence research...had been that men and women had the same average intelligence, but men had greater variance in their distribution than women... This conclusion, however, was manufactured out of political expediency. Not wanting to discover, or a priori denying, any sex differences in intelligence, psychometricians simply deleted from the standardized IQ tests any item on which the performance of men and women differed. More recently...an increasing number of studies that cast doubt on this politically correct conclusion. Studies...all conclude that men on average are slightly but significantly more intelligent than women, by about 3-5 IQ points... men are more intelligent than women, not because they are men, but because they are taller... once we control for height, women are slightly but significantly more intelligent than men"
This seems to contradict what is known about gender variance.

Shoveling - "The worst kind of boss is the boss who, as the pieces of your soul fall silently away, makes you feel good about your job shoveling shit."

Police nab Norwegian pair during high-speed sex - "A Norwegian man faces a heavy fine and a driving ban after police caught him having sex with his girlfriend while speeding on the motorway, police said Monday... "It was veering from one side to the other because the woman was sitting on the man's lap while he was driving and doing the act, shall we say""