Saturday, September 05, 2009

Links - 5th September 2009

"The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel." - Horace Walpole

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Large Hadron Collider: 10 other dates when the world failed to end - "Jehovah’s Witnesses have now stopped predicting exact dates for the end of the world after a string of high-profile failures... Carlos Roa, the Argentine goalkeeper who declined to negotiate a new contract at his Spanish club because he was convinced the world would end, returned later in the season"

What I missed about meat - "My wife stopped her vegetarian ways when pregnancy brought cravings for meat... [fish] did leave me feeling satisfied in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. Every cell in my body screaming "protein - that's what you need."... Bacon. Let's talk about bacon. There's no meat more glorious than bacon. You can add it to pasta instead of cheese. You can stick it in a sandwich, er ... instead of cheese. Or even rub it on to attract men (a top tip there ladies)."
One comment: "I became veggie aged 13, and until then I'd always been one of the tallest girls in my class, and suddenly I stopped growing and got stuck at 5'2. I've always wondered if the change in diet affected it, as I come from a family of tall women." Another: "my periods stopped. I at first never thought this had anything to do with my vegetarianism. I went to the doctors and had tests, apparently I was severely anaemic, even though I had gone to great lengths to ensure I had enough vitamin intake etc, and I ate spinach by the bucketload! So as a test I decided I would start eating red meat again. Lo and behold my periods came back after a few months."

Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women - "The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive. Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks... Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man."
The only folly of Man is Women. In the comments: "A beautiful woman's face is like chocolate, cash or cocaine to a young man's brain, according to Harvard University researchers."

Kurt Vonnegut explains drama - "“But because we grew up surrounded by big dramatic story arcs in books and movies, we think are lives are supposed to be filled with huge ups and downs! So people pretend there is drama where there is none.” That's why people invent fights. That's why we're drawn to sports. That's why we act like everything that happens to us is such a big deal. We're trying to make our life into a fairy tale."

25 SFW Rule # 34 Images - "If it exisits, there's porn of it. No exceptions."
I especially like:
Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


Make Firefox Faster by Vacuuming Your Database - "All-things-Firefox weblog Mozilla Links previously detailed how to defragment SQLite databases with a vacuum command, but the whole process was a bit clumsy, and it required a restart. Now they've updated the technique with a simple bit of code you can run inside Firefox's Error Console that requires no restart... Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");"
This great tip via Xephyris shrank my places.sqlite from 133+ MB to about 20 MB.

More women in Cambodia turning to sex trade amid financial crisis – UN report - "The report shows that during the crisis, women have entered the sex trade coming from situations where there have been declining working conditions, such as in the garment sector, where they experienced long working hours and low pay. The most common reason given by the women and girls for entering the sex trade was “difficult family circumstances,” followed by “easily earn a lot of money, in good working conditions.”"
Keywords: survey, UNESCO, prostitutes, sex workers, income, good pay

Being smart really is sexy - "Brainy men really are the sexiest, claim scientists who have discovered a link between intelligence and virility... Psychologists have found that men with the highest IQ also have the healthiest sperm... men reported to indulge in selfless behaviours were found more attractive to women as both potential long-term partners and, to a lesser extent, for “flings”. “Selflessness makes men of otherwise low to moderate attractiveness sexier, but not men who were already considered very attractive,” she said."
Science reporting FAIL

15 pics that make you wish you were at Boryeong Mud Festival - "We've been told that the mud used at the annual Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea is rich in minerals and is even used to manufacture cosmetics! We didn't know that before. But what we do know is that the combination of mud and Korean bikini clad babes is a wonderful sight, as you can see from these photos taken at the Boryeong Mud Festival last year by Stinkie Pinkie. Lucky guy."

Woman has record fingernails snapped off - "A woman whose 85cm fingernails snapped off in a car crash has spoken for the first time about feeling like she lost her identity... Redmond had been growing her nails for 30 years at the time of the crash in February and they had reached a combined length of 8.65m. "Losing my fingernails has been the most dramatic thing that's happened in my life," she said. "The thing that bothered me with losing the fingernails was that it becomes your identity and I felt like I'd lost part of that.""
Unsurprisingly, her nails grow really fast (look at picture 3 - how much she grew in just 7 months
Of course, the record holder will never come from Singapore (especially not the male) - a society that rewards conformity will never excel.
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