"A misogynist is a man who hates women as much as women hate each other." — H.L. Mencken

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How mild swine flu became a 'pandemic'; Officials spread their irrational fear of a super-virus - "The mildest pandemics of the 20th century killed at least a million people worldwide, according to the WHO's data, while old-fashioned seasonal flu strikes every nation yearly and kills an estimated 250,000 to 500,000. As of last week, when the swine-flu pandemic was declared, the H1N1 virus had killed a total of 144 people. In Mexico, where the outbreak began and has been most severe, the cases peaked quickly, in just four weeks. A pandemic declaration will be costly at a time when we can least afford it, and it could prompt severe restrictions on human activities (think China). Perhaps most important, the declaration could render the term "flu pandemic" essentially meaningless, risking lethal public complacency if a bona fide one hits... The WHO definition of "influenza pandemic" once required "several simultaneous epidemics worldwide, with enormous numbers of deaths and illness." But in 2005, the organization promulgated a definition that virtually ignores the number of cases and completely ignores deaths... Under this definition, "community-wide outbreaks" of swine flu in two South American countries and somewhere in China could qualify as a pandemic - no deaths required. And a purely human flu that killed 20 million people would not qualify."

Tweeting Too Hard - "Where self-important tweets get the recognition they deserve."

University of Chicago T-shirts - "Mike Moebs, MBA’75, prefers the wordless T-shirt that shows Milton Friedman and George Stigler walking down a Hyde Park street. The shirt “always, always gets someone to come up to me and start a conversation,” he says. Sadly, his interlocutors “are almost always older, distinguished men. Seldom do young, good-looking, intelligent, rich women approach me, which just reinforces that economics is the dismal science.”"

Exhausted, guilt-ridden, torn between career and children. No, not YOU, girls. Having it all is even harder for us men - "Today, while men spend, on average, an hour longer with their children per day than our fathers did, we also work longer hours... I have many male friends who leave the office in the evening in order to spend time with their children, only to face raised eyebrows and snide 'half day?' type comments from bosses and colleagues... The trouble is that men are still judged by their career status, not by whether they attend their daughter's ballet performance... that makes us no different from the women who have been valiantly trying to keep the plates spinning for considerably longer. At long last we have equality - whether it's the parity we'd all hoped for is another question."

Lifeskills & Lifestyle @ PA - Modern Living: Beginner's Latin
People's Association offers Latin classes! I never thought the day would come. And no, it's not Latin dance.

Women 'happiest at 28' - "Researchers discovered women feel most confident and happy with their love life and body shape shortly before they reach 30. It is also the period in their life when they enjoy the best sex – but the happiness is relatively shortlived. Because by the time they have turned 30 they start worrying about growing old and developing grey hair and wrinkles... According to the results, women are happiest in their career at 29 and most content with their relationships one year later at 30, despite having the best sex at 28... 56 per cent of women worry about losing their looks as they get older. But drinking from the fountain of youth doesn't come cheap as the average woman will spend £600 every year, or more than £49 a month, on beauty products in a bid to stay looking young. The research also found women spend over five days a year on their beauty routine – an average of 22 minutes every day. Psychologist Corinne Sweet added: "Having a good hair day is essential to success both at work and in love, as many women still feel their hair is their crowning glory"

The Straight Dope: Do bras prevent saggy breasts? - "Bra manufacturers don't necessarily believe their products prevent sagging. In a 2000 article in the Independent we find John Dixey, chief executive of Playtex, agreeing with surgery professor Robert Mansell on this point. Mansell: Sagging is "a function of the weight, often of heavy breasts, and these women are wearing bras and it doesn't prevent it." Dixey: "We have no medical evidence that wearing a bra could prevent sagging, because the breast itself is not muscle so keeping it toned up is an impossibility."... In contrast to pretty much everything else you hear on this subject, we do have some scientific evidence that sports bras are a good idea... the subjects reported much less breast pain when clad in a sports bra"

Hot dog stand's 'Felony Franks' name riles some - "It has been the dream of Jim Andrews to open a chain of hot dog stands where he gives jobs to ex-felons... "Felony Franks? The home of the misdemeanor wiener? Food so good it's criminal? You are actually in a sense elevating the life of crime here in our city and we cannot tolerate that.""

Many firms 'forced to allow Web 2.0 surfing' - "OFFICE staff locked out of using social networking and file-sharing sites while at work are resorting to other tactics to get their daily Web fix. According to Web security firm Websense's survey of 400 regional companies, published last month, 86 per cent said they were under pressure from staff members, from bosses downwards, to allow increased access to Web 2.0 services... An employee could, with one mis-click, accidentally upload confidential customer information... And then there are the legions of disgruntled staff and cyber-criminals who ride on such services to steal confidential information. Last January, seven former Citibank private banking staff were charged with stealing confidential information about the bank's top customers before joining a rival bank... A Samsung spokesman said the technology giant has a 'blanket ban' on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr for 'security reasons'. 'Many of our staff handle confidential information, and because of this, it is not advisable to allow access to such sites since you can never be sure how safe they are,' he said."
The excuses are ridiculous. You might as well block everything and only have a whitelist, since you can never be sure how safe unknown sites are. And I'm sure as hell the Citibank staff didn't upload the confidential onto Facebook.

I have made a police report with regards to the obscene posts made by PhuckChiu - "Someone by the username of "PhuckChiu" has been posting obscene/pornographic images in the "hardwarezone" forum. The obscene image is that of a girl shitting."
My comment: No wonder our police are overworked. Congratulations on giving them even more useless work to do and compromising National Security.

Misogynist Gets Laid | The Onion - "His belief that women are barely human drives a certain type of gal wild. 'This is proof positive that I'm doin' something right, you know, and it's getting results.' The woman in question reportedly had little self esteem to begin with"

Determinants of Technology Adoption: Private Value and Peer Effects in Menstrual Cup Take-Up - "We estimate the role of benefits and peer effects in technology adoption using data from randomized distribution of menstrual cups in Nepal. Using individual randomization, we estimate causal effects of peer exposure on adoption; using differences in potential returns we estimate effects of benefits. We find both peers and value influence adoption. Using the fact that we observe both trial and usage of the product, we examine the mechanisms driving peer effects. We find that peers matters because individuals learn how to use the technology from their friends, but that they do not affect individual desire to use the cup."