"In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are." - Nicholas Chamfort

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Japan's white-collar workers turn to homemade lunches in face of recession - "And in a sign of the shifting power relationships in Japanese households, many of the men now seem happy to wake up early and cross the kitchen threshold to create their own bento ensemble, typically grilled fish, rice, pickles and an omelette, all lovingly arranged in a compartmentalised box. Despite his popular image as a formidable corporate warrior during office hours, the average salaryman is far more docile when it comes to household finances. About 40% of salarymen hand over their monthly pay to their wives, who dish out pocket money for essentials such as lunch, manga comics, canned coffee, cigarettes and after-hours bonding sessions over beer and saké."
What happened to Japanese patriarchy?

YouTube - I Enjoy Being A Girl Flower Drum Song Movie - "When I hear the compliment'ry whistle
That greets my bikini by the sea,
I turn and I glower and I bristle,
But I happy to know the whistle's meant for me!"
Someone: how feminism has changed

Bananas-for-sex cult leader on the run - "Papua New Guinea police are hunting the leader of a sex cult that promised villagers a bumper banana harvest if they engaged in public sex."
Million dollar question: how is the banana harvest?!

The Amateur’s Guide to Chinese Name Translation - "For a quick sample of the glory and folly of Chinese names and their direct translations, I need to look no further than the colleagues at my office. A team of engineers with names like Leftside Mountain, Plumtree Universe Creator, or Frightened-Look Changes to Flying (sorry, that last one came out looking like the English subtitles on Chinese bootleg DVDs)... come up with things like Beautiful Bright Avenger, Translucent Ginger, Permanent City Wall, or Tiger Cub Field (almost like Tiger Woods!). So, you see folks, despite the fact that all my friends back in California think Chinese get names for their kids by dropping a bunch of pots and pans down the stairs and listening to the first acoustic combination, its actually even more fun than that!"

Taming the Digital Distractions That Make Your PC a Time Waster - "I wish I could say that using these digital nannies has revolutionized the way I work. They didn’t, really. Though blocking time-sucking Web sites did keep me from goofing off on my computer, I found that my brain quickly compensated by wasting time in other ways: As I’m writing this paragraph, for example, I’m also eating a peach. But not just eating it without thinking — I’ve been using a paring knife to try to cut perfectly cubical pieces to pop into my mouth. Perhaps this kind of unconscious fidgeting — whether online or off — is inevitable. The mind is a restless place, and creative pursuits like writing seem unsustainable in long bursts; perhaps the mind just needs frequent breaks."

Atheists 'have more success at online dating' - "Self-effacing men are also more likely to get a reply to their approaches, while nothing puts potential dates off more than textspeak like "ur" and "luv". The advice is based on analysis of more than 500,000 "first contacts" sent by users of OkCupid, the leading US dating website... mentioning "god" in a first approach actually discouraged people from replying. The analysis suggests online daters should avoid making personal compliments too early - "sexy" and "beautiful" sent response rates plummeting - and instead express an interest in their target's hobbies. People who used the words "good taste" or "you mention" in their messages pushed their response rates close to 50 per cent."

Obama rejects racism fuelling protests - "Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs moved to calm temperatures after ex-president Jimmy Carter claimed that racism was driving anti-Obama demonstrations and rhetoric on the president's health care reform plans and spending policy. "The president does not believe that the criticism comes based on the colour of his skin," Gibbs said. "We understand that people have disagreements with some of the decisions that we've made and some of the extraordinary actions that had to be undertaken by this administration," amid the economic crisis."
He's internalised the dominant paradigm!

Men are producing 'super-sperm' to fast and powerful to impregnate women, as evolution leads to infertility rise - "Evolutionary biologist Oren Hasson believes they race past the defences thrown up by a woman's body so effectively that more than one sperm penetrates the egg. This process, known as polyspermy, ruins the egg - and the chances of fertilisation. In Britain, around one in six couples has trouble conceiving naturally and almost 35,000 women a year resort to IVF."

Vaginal orgasm is associated with less use of immature psychological defense mechanisms - "Vaginal orgasm (triggered solely by penile-vaginal intercourse) was associated with less use of DSQ-40 immature defenses. Vaginal orgasm was associated with less somatization, dissociation, displacement, autistic fantasy, devaluation, and isolation of affect. Orgasm from clitoral stimulation or combined clitoral-intercourse stimulation was not associated with less use of immature defenses, and was associated with more use of some immature defenses. In one regression analysis, more masturbation and less vaginal orgasm consistency made independent contributions to the statistical prediction of immature defenses. In another regression analysis, any use of extrinsic clitoral stimulation for intercourse orgasm, and lack of any vaginal orgasm, made independent contributions to the statistical prediction of immature defenses. Vaginally anorgasmic women had immature defenses scores comparable to those of established (depression, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder) outpatient psychiatric groups. Results were not confounded by social desirability responding or relationship quality"
One line summary: Psycho women are not more fun in bed

A woman's history of vaginal orgasm is discernible from her walk - "Research has demonstrated the association between vaginal orgasm and better mental health. Some theories of psychotherapy assert a link between muscle blocks and disturbances of both character and sexual function... The discerning observer may infer women's experience of vaginal orgasm from a gait that comprises fluidity, energy, sensuality, freedom, and absence of both flaccid and locked muscles"

Church altar smites devout Catholic - "A devout Catholic who popped into church to thank God for a his rescue from a lift was crushed to death by a 860lb stone altar... Gunther Link, 45, was "a very religious man and had been scared when he was trapped in the lift and had prayed for release". He continued: "A short while later he was pulled out of the elevator and he went straight to the church to thank God.""

Kissing quest makes Taiwan woman a web sensation - "A Taiwanese woman's ambition to kiss 100 men in Paris has become an overnight web sensation after she provided details of the quest on her much-visited blog... "Three of my four friends who were aware of the plan warned me that I might wind up getting slapped rather than kissed.""
Everybody loves an Asian Girl. And she'd only get slapped if she were a guy.

Burials in Tibet. NOT FOR SENSITIVE SOULS! (61 photos) (NSFW)