"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?" - Dustin Hoffman

***

The Straight Dope: How dangerous are Tasers? - "Medical journals speak of "sudden in-custody death syndrome," which is enough to spike anybody's BS meter... The risk of death due primarily to Taser was between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 100,000... Almost any sublethal method of persuasion carries risks. Pepper spray can cause potentially fatal reactions, police dogs can do serious damage, plastic and bean-bag bullets can kill. Nightsticks and choke holds I don't need to tell you about. Tasering the guy presents a non-negligible chance you could kill him. But what do you do instead?"

The Straight Dope: Why do men's suits have buttons on the sleeves? - "The soldiers made do as best they could with their coat sleeves... Frederick pondered long and hard on what to do. Finally, the solution... dawned: sew buttons on the top sides of the sleeves, and soldiers would scratch their faces open every time they tried to use their coats for a handkerchief... Now the buttons stay there for the same reason men still wear ties: it's always been done that way, they look vaguely natty, and most men are so baffled by matters sartorial that it never dawns on them to agitate for a change."

Russian man survives five storey fall - twice - "I have no idea why I jumped the first time but when I came back up and I heard my wife screaming angrily at me I thought it was best if I left the room again - out of the window"

Joseph Prince Resources Online Store - God's Protection Plan Against Deadly Viruses (CD Sermon) - Personally, I prefer handling poisonous snakes.

Age identification required to purchase spoons. - "A shopper was left baffled after she went to Asda to stock up on picnic equipment and was asked for proof of age to buy a set of teaspoons. The shop assistant reportedly informed the customer that someone had once been murdered with a teaspoon, and therefore age identification was now required... "It's most likely a mix-up with the bar codes.""

Man set house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter

Pay Attention - Weird News Story Archive - "San Diego (Calif.) State University instructor Brian Cornforth got a tip that students in his class were cheating. Apparently, someone was providing students copies of a test from a previous class, so Cornforth mixed up the questions. He was “horrified” to find that 25 of 75 students marked their responses according to the order on the previous test, even though many of the resulting answers were “clearly nonsense.” All 25 have been flunked, but they’re not necessarily chagrined at being caught. “What about the teacher’s responsibility?” one complained, adding Cornforth was “negligent and stupid” to reuse tests. The course? Business ethics."

28 people overcome by fumes in San Jose, building evacuated - "28 AT&T employees in all reportd feeling ill, seven were taken to area hospitals including Kaiser in San Jose. And, it was all because a refrigerator in the office needed a good cleaning. When it got one, the combination of rotting food and cleaning supplies proved to be terribly wrong... The stench was so strong all 325 employees at the AT&T office in downtown San Jose were forced to evacuate... Amazingly enough, one person who did not get sick in all of this was the one woman who volunteered to clean out the refrigerator. Firefighters told ABC 7 that the woman suffers from serious allergies and has had nasal surgery so she did not smell a thing."

Anti-smoking activism: Puff by puff, inch by inch - "Campaigners shamelessly ramped up the evidence that the vice harmed others, and attacked anyone who said otherwise... “No one is seriously talking about a complete ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants,” said the director of ASH (UK) in 1998, adding that the suggestion was a “scaremongering story by a tobacco front group.” In June 2005 Britain’s public-health minister described talk of such a ban as “false speculation”. Parliament voted it into law just eight months later... “Today it’s smoking. Will high-fat foods be next?” asked a tobacco firm in an advertisement in the 1990s. No doubt the ad seemed ridiculously alarmist at the time."

Two ways Chinese Scrabble could work:
Chinese Squabble Home - Radicals
Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit go Chinese on the Mac - Pinyin

Raise Awareness of Raising Awareness of Raising Awareness! - "According to the Lancet, lack of awareness has contributed to 2.5 billion deaths. But the figure might actually BE HIGHER. "Because most people aren't aware of the link, they can't actually report it and then of course, they end up dead,"... The underlying philosophical thought behind raising awareness about raising awareness is that more people will be aware if you raise awareness about raising awareness. And that awareness, as any aware layman will agree, is key... If you make "raising awareness" sound cool, you'll probably gain impressionable fans among attractive slender teens! BONUS TIP: bring pot... I think it is incumbent on white children of privilege to go to neighborhoods of color to raise awareness about raising awareness. It may not actually help, but raising awareness about raising awareness looks damn good on the Dartmouth application... Note: Based upon cultural prejudices and a need to dispel institutional biases, the ideal RARA instructor is black, tightly built, gay and willing to give it all he's got."

Marriages between Singapore Citizens and Non-Singapore Citizens, 1998-2008 - "More than three quarters (76%) of the SC/non-SC marriages over the past decade were between SC grooms and non-SC brides... Compared to SC grooms marrying non-SC brides, SC brides who married non-SC grooms tend to be younger... This group of SC brides tends to be highly educated (para 3.8) and could have spent more time pursuing higher qualifications and building careers, including venturing overseas... Among SC/SC marriages, the majority tends to marry within the same age group... a higher proportion of older SCs grooms married younger non-SC brides compared to SC/SC marriages... while most non-SC brides had secondary education, most non-SC grooms had university education... In 2008, non-SC grooms who married SC brides came predominantly from Asia (69%)... On the other hand, most non-SC brides of SC grooms came from Asia (97%)"
No surprise: women marry up, men marry down. Too bad we don't have data on marriages of Singapore Citizens overseas - it'd reveal where many (perhaps even most) of the girls who marry non-Singaporeans are going.

Confessions of a Bailout CEO Wife - "I know people are angry—angry at those they view as responsible for the subprime crisis and the subsequent economic meltdown. I don’t blame them. I’m angry too. But my fury extends to any number of culprits: to Alan Greenspan, who encouraged the loose-money policies that undermined the pricing of risk; to Barney Frank, who cudgeled Fannie Mae into supporting loans to unfit homebuyers; to the rating agencies that were ethically compromised; to the subprime-mortgage brokers who chased fees and ignored any accountability; to the investors who didn’t do their homework and absurdly leveraged up their balance sheets. I’m an equal-opportunity blamer. And yes, I blame those who were in charge of the big banks—including my husband—for not seeing the default tsunami coming. But almost no one did. Everyone knows this, yet financial CEOs have replaced the Mob as the most despised group in the country. The good news is that Americans have short attention spans. Before long, some other group will come along to absorb all the frustration and anger."
One comment: "The sad part is that we need the 'rich' to spend to keep everyone (or some of us) employed."

700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing - "Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do. Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them... Many teachers say they are being punished because they ran afoul of a vindictive boss or because they blew the whistle when somebody fudged test scores... Some sell real estate, earn graduate degrees or teach each other yoga and tai chi."