"Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong." - Dr. Thomas Fuller

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Top 10 features that Apple stole from Windows

Study Says Even Full-figured Models Damage Self-esteem - "According to a new study conducted by a team of researchers from the U.S., Germany, and the Netherlands and published in the Journal of Consumer Research, magazine photos of models, be they magically emaciated or plus-size, make overweight women feel worse about their bodies and, conversely, "underweight" women feel better about themselves. So unfair, right? A serious blow to the growing interest in "plus-size" or "full-figure" spreads, the study suggests that redefining standards of shape across the editorial and commercial side of print fashion won't be some sort of panacea for the already fragmented self-esteem of women who fall outside of our modern understanding of beauty... it's not the particular image someone looks at that's damaging, but rather the presentation of beauty, in any form, that troubles many readers... Crystal Renn and all the size 12 sweethearts in the world aren't going to make you feel any better if you don't already maintain a healthy distance between the fun and fantasy of fashion imagery and the real, live girl you see in the mirror"
Maybe they should hire ugly models next.

Who Killed Classical Music? - "The music business imposes a stringent vow of silence that is designed to protect a myth of the immaculate artist. That myth is now under siege from the information society. It is no longer a secret, for instance, that some tenors spend more time singing in sports arenas than on the opera stage; that `unprofessional behaviour' was the reason given by the Metropolitan Opera for dismissing a top soprano; that half the orchestras in Britain are facing bankruptcy; that Russian soloists who resisted communism cheered on the brutal invasion of Chechnya; that a well-known conductor ran off with his stepmother; that almost everything in music is up for sale to the highest bidder. Greed and fear have become the leading motives of an art in crisis. There are few secrets left in music, and little shame. While a handful of high performers grow rich and distant, unpushy artists go hungry and concerts halls are increasingly half empty. Even the big names fail to sell out, amid a widening yawn of ennui... the few genuine stars were induced to flog their precious gifts to the point of exhaustion. The genial Russian violinist Nathan Milstein once told me he would never play more than thirty dates a year"

The real-life Harry Potter reveals why sharing the wizard's name has made his life a misery - "Mr Potter has endured taunts from the public, police, phone companies and even a football referee - all because he shares a name with arguably the world's best known wizard. Mr Potter, who was born in 1989, had eight peaceful years of being a schoolboy with a fairly ordinary name before JK Rowling released a book entitled Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, and everything changed... Mr Potter even had to show his girlfriend his passport so she would believe him when they first met and a bus company refused to issue him with a pass because they didn't believe he was telling them the truth when he tried to sign up... Apart from the joke, Mr Potter has a far more humdrum life than his fictional counterpart from Hogwarts School of Wizardry. He works in the more mundane surroundings of Lloyds TSB... The young man, does however, share one key feature with his namesake, a scar on his forehead. Film Harry gained his in a battle with arch enemy evil Lord Voldemort. Mr Potter ran into a lamppost aged 15... 'I play a lot of football as well in a local league, and the match reports are always full of puns - 'Harry Potter cast a spell on the opposition and that kind of thing.'"

Giz Explains: Why Stuff Crashes (And Why It Happens Less Often Now) - BSoD - Gizmodo

HPB's anti-smoking campaign targets young women - "JoAnn Taylor, deputy director of Substance Abuse Department, HPB, said: "It's really appealing to women's essential needs. It's about looking good for their partner, for their friends or even for themselves. So it really appeals to women's idea of beauty.""
Notice who comes last in the list? Hehe. There doesn't seem to be any smoking campaign targeted at men. Maybe they figure that they're a lost cause. Or are too shy to warn against erectile dysfunction in public.

Singapore Police Arrest Falun Gong Practitioners While Meditating, Displaying Posters - "In Singapore, the practitioners have done their daily exercises at Esplanade Park, a popular tourist site near the Singapore River, for years. On the wall, they use Sticky Tack to put up posters illustrating the persecution in China. The police officers claimed that the posters damaged the wall. The practitioners explained that the Sticky Tack does not leave marks and offered to sweep the ground and clean the area every morning. Practitioners said the police handcuffed the four without warning or clear explanation. The police took all seven to the police station."

BBC NEWS | Europe | Rich Germans demand higher taxes - "The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery... The petition has 44 signatories so far"
Gotta love these Europeans

Trafficking is no myth – I endured it - "I was trafficked into a hellish world of forced prostitution that Nick Davies's report claims does not exist"
This is a classic case of FUD, which besides totally misunderstanding the article it purports to critique, even falsely attributes a quote to its author. Comment is free - because a lot of it is crap.

Diversity and equality are not the same thing - ""Even the very people who abhor his crude and frightening racism most find it hard to rebut his central thesis – that the white working class in Britain has had a raw deal over the last 30 years... The important thing to remember is that the black working class, the female working class, the gay working class, the disabled working class and the elderly working class, have had a similarly difficult time, under Labour and under the Conservatives... the real reason why the BNP is able to make capital out of racist assertions is because immigrants are the only group that has been overtly utilised as a tool to promote economic inequality... Many commentators have pointed out that under the strictures of "political correctness" the only group that can any longer be unabashedly despised is the white working class"