Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"The religious superstitions of women perpetuate their bondage more than all other adverse influences." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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Can Hong Kong build bigger, higher, greener? - "Swire has found that even energy-saving innovations have their own flaws. "Movement sensor-triggered lighting in one building was set to stay on for an hour each time it was triggered. That's fine during office hours, but not energy efficient every time a security patrol walked through after work-hours," Chan said."

East Timor's First Female Dictator Hailed As Step Forward For Women - "Amivi Gama's violent rise to power has proved that women are just as capable as men when it comes to brutality and oppression."
Another manifestation of patriarchy!

The Trouble with Trek - "Star Trek has always been a sucker for the deux ex machina. Problems have often been solved, plot issues neatly addressed, by the introduction of some technical double talk or some other sci fi convention that conveniently clears the air. Whether it's Mr. Scott getting more scoot out of over-burdened engines or the time travel tales that litter Trek history, Star Trek has survived, and continues to survive because it's willing to pull easy writing rabbits from hats."

The Fervor of the Vegan - "The logic behind veganism makes perfect sense to me; then again, so does the logic behind giving up all one's possessions for charity and living a life of ascetic minimalism. It's more moral, it's more ethical, and, like most people, it's more than I'm able to do. I think of vegans the same way I think of Peace Corps volunteers: I'll gladly cheer them on as they make the world a better place, but I'm about as likely to give up dairy as I am to live without electricity in Guiana for a year... Fair or unfair, they've gained quite a reputation as the angry vegetarians--the vegevangelists who have harsh words for meat eaters... I resent vegans. I resent that their mere, if rare, existence calls attention to the hypocrisy underlying the vegetarianism so central to my daily life. This made me understand the surprising hostility of some omnivores towards vegetarians"

Porn
Sting Goes To The Dogs
- "Concerned that an ex-boyfriend had used her laptop to search for child pornography, the Indiana woman asked police to search the computer for illegal images, but had her plan backfire when cops discovered two videos of her engaged in illicit acts with a dog"

Guess Her Muff - "Do you think you can guess how a babe keeps her muff based on her how she dresses? Does your co-worker's carpet match the drapes? Is that geeky girl in your class secretly a sex kitten who shaves her twat bald? The answers might surprise you..."

Evolved and Rat/i/onal: Science, the fundie way - "Want a sneak peak of what fundies plan to do to science education? Want to see what's in store for us if we don't speak up against the fundie retards? Let's take a look at a page from a fundie 'science' textbook... Even leaving aside the religious babble, notice how the fundies can't even get the definition of sublimation straight."

Emotional intelligence 'aids sex' - "A study of more than 2,000 female twins showed that those with greater emotional intelligence had larger numbers of orgasms. These women were better able to monitor their own and others' feelings and emotions, which is key... Lead author Andrea Burri said: "Emotional intelligence seems to have a direct impact on women's sexual functioning by influencing her ability to communicate her sexual expectations and desires to her partner." She added that there was a possible connection with a woman's ability to fantasise during sex or her feeling of control over the act"

Famed Nefertiti bust 'a fake': expert - "The bust of Queen Nefertiti housed in a Berlin museum and believed to be 3,400 years old in fact is a copy dating from 1912 that was made to test pigments used by the ancient Egyptians, according to Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin. Stierlin, author of a dozen works on Egypt, the Middle East and ancient Islam, says in a just-released book that the bust currently in Berlin's Altes Museum was made at the order of German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt by an artist named Gerardt Marks."

Jackie Chan - 'Singaporeans have no self-respect'. True. - "Civic consciousness in quintessentially Chinese societies are founded on what I term ‘rule-based intellectual economies’, as opposed to being ‘reason-based’ – as in the UK, India and Taiwan. Top-down dialogues are mostly instructive monologues; governments present themselves as infallible; never accept responsibility for anything except that which may be used for justifying exorbitant salary increases; and, what I term, ‘the perspectival infrastructure’ of the nation is geared toward inhibiting critical thought through, for instance, monoculturalism, and the marginalisation of difference and opinion... in adapting to such governments, one will inevitably have to become apathetic, self-interested, and opportunistic, whilst also being susceptible to superstition, lotteries and gambling... he individual, considering the possibility of questioning the fallibility of a government, will be open to being ‘detained without trial’, bankrupted for slander, or as in the china of old, have his entire clan slaughtered... One cannot ensure political longevity without compromising critical thought and empathy. And where critical thought and empathy is compromised, the only way to maintain civic consciousness is by way of fines and punishments."

Singaporean nearly fined for ‘eat-driving’ - "The man, who was eating keropok (chips) while driving, was stopped at the Johor Baru check-point on Tuesday after visiting Malacca, it reported. The policeman told the visitor that he had to issue him with a summons as it was dangerous to eat and drive at the same time. The Singaporean also claimed that the policeman told him his car brakes did not meet the requirements set by the Malaysian authorities. The policeman then wanted to issue two summonses totalling RM600. He claimed he gave the policeman RM20 to let him go after negotiating the sum from RM50."
Malaysia Boleh!

Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote - When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news. His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked."
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