"Yes; but before Achilles' anger had come the hubris of Agamemnon, King of Men. It is grief to see a hero go down to the house of Hades. It is bitter to lose a friend to evil, before one loses him to death."

--- The praise singer / Mary Renault

"Proponents of totalitarianism theory seem to fail to realise that to discuss anything more or other than repression and brutality, opposition and the fight for freedom, is not in some way to pretend that those aspects were not important. Of course they were central. But they do not tell the whole story; and in leaving out the rest, such an approach ultimately distorts rather than clarifies the picture."

--- The people's state: East German society from Hitler to Honecker / Mary Fulbrook

How to use Twitter @replies

Screenshots to send people to teach them how to use Twitter @ replies (or @replies) properly:

http://easycaptures.com/7582095602
http://easycaptures.com/7453666924

"Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it." - David Sedaris

***

False Rape Accusations May Be More Common Than Thought

"Is it the new 1-in-4 statistic?

I don't mean the widely-circulated '1-in-4 women will be raped in their lifetime' but a statistic that suggests '1-in-4 accusations of rape are false.'

For a long time, I have been bothered by the elusiveness of figures on the prevalence of false accusations of sexual assault. The crime of 'bearing false witness' is rarely tracked or punished, and the context in which it is usually raised is highly politicized...

This week I stumbled over a passage in a 1996 study published by the U.S. Department of Justice: Convicted by Juries, Exonerated by Science: Case Studies in the Use of DNA Evidence to Establish Innocence After Trial...

The passage that riveted my attention was a quote from Peter Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck, prominent criminal attorneys and co-founders of the Innocence Project that seeks to release those falsely imprisoned.

They stated, "Every year since 1989, in about 25 percent of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI where results could be obtained, the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing. Specifically, FBI officials report that out of roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases since 1989, about 2,000 tests have been inconclusive, about 2,000 tests have excluded the primary suspect, and about 6,000 have "matched" or included the primary suspect."

The authors continued, "these percentages have remained constant for 7 years, and the National Institute of Justice's informal survey of private laboratories reveals a strikingly similar 26 percent exclusion rate."

If the foregoing results can be extrapolated, then the rate of false reports is roughly between 20 (if DNA excludes an accused) to 40 percent (if inconclusive DNA is added). The relatively low estimate of 25 to 26 percent is probably accurate, especially since it is supported by other sources...

Legal scholar Michelle Anderson of Villanova University Law School reported in 2004, "no study has ever been published which sets forth an evidentiary basis for the two percent false rape complaint thesis [that feminists always bandy around, which is the same as the false accusation rate for other crimes]"...

"Forty-one percent of all reports are false."

This claim comes from a study conducted by Eugene J. Kanin of Purdue University...

Although Kanin offers solid research, I would need to see more studies with different populations before accepting the figure of 50 percent as prevalent; to me, the figure seems high.

But even a skeptic like me must credit a DNA exclusion rate of 20 percent that remained constant over several years when conducted by FBI labs. This is especially true when 20 percent more were found to be questionable.

False accusations are not rare. They are common."


Of course, if you include types of sex crimes other than rape, the rate of false accusations is likely to increase.

The CrimProf Blog also has a post on What Percentage of Rape Accusations are False, which leads to:

18% rape cases false: Study - Delhi

"A little less than 20% of sexual-assault cases reported in and around Delhi are false, shows a five-year study. In almost every fifth incident, or, in 18.3 % cases to be precise, rape is used as a weapon to malign and attempt revenge, found a group of psychologists who assist Delhi Police in investigating sexual assault allegations."

and the amazing

When Is It Rape?

"On Jan. 6, the California Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that if a woman rescinds consent during the sex act, the man is guilty of rape if he does not stop immediately.

It also ruled that statements such as "I should go home" constitute an unambiguous "no" on the woman's part. The definition of rape has evolved again.

What are the facts of the case? Seventeen-year-old Laura T. attended an otherwise all-male party at which she did not drink. After allowing two teenaged boys to undress and fondle her in a bedroom -- acts she admitted enjoying -- she had sex with each. Laura did not say the word "no" nor did she resist. Instead, she said, "I have to go home."

Because John Z. continued for approximately four minutes after she first expressed what might have been reluctance, he was convicted of rape...

The sole dissenting voice, Justice Janice Rogers Brown, found that none of Laura's statements were "unequivocal." Her requests to go home could have been interpreted as a need for reassurance or a request for greater speed...

As for the timing issue ... the court relied heavily upon John Z.'s failure to desist immediately. But, as Brown observed, the decision "does not tell us how soon would have been soon enough. Ten seconds? Thirty? A minute? Is persistence the same thing as force?"...

As the former mainstream feminist professor Erin O'Connor notes in her blog, "this ruling neatly dispenses with the idea that rape necessarily involves force, and replaces it with a definition of consent that is as uncertain and shifting as the woman who wields it.""

[Ed:

Erin O'Connor: "One imagines that prudent men will now not only carry condoms in their wallets, but consent forms and stopwatches."]

"Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there." - E. H. Gombrich

***

Me on the comment "I can't read Agagooga. Too much dependence on stereotypes and inane, useless postering.": I can't find out what 'postering' is leh

I assume she means 'posturing'

MFTTW: oh
yah lah
that i know

i mean, i assumed "posturing" too

Me: orh

MFTTW: her livejournal is inane too leh
i just don't have LJ acct so i couldn't comment :P

"your LJ also v inane lehhhhh"
hahah
because i'm infantile of course

Me: eh how you kno it's from that thread
HAHA

I have lots of detractors leh

MFTTW: aiyah
you're not famous until you're unpopular :P

look at xiaxue
everyone says she sucks
but still got so many readers

your arguments are too subtle lah
and no one appreciates the ridiculous analogies
hurr hurr

and alos you like ot poke fun at women, who are the most... sensitive :P

Me: eh
at least half the time the ridiculous analogies are meant to be serious

MFTTW: but which half the time is not immediately obvious

you have to realize that most singaporeans fail GP
and cannot construct an argument to save their lives if it doesn't fall along hte lines of "x is bad because of 1, 2 and 3"


TMM on showing that race exists: I guess the Jews must be doing something very wrong in order for them to be more predisposed to Tay Sachs
:(

Me: I've argued this point before with someone else
who threw some rubbish at me

TMM: its like playing L4D
the zombies just keep coming


Frigid Girl: 愁

Me: 仇


MFTTW: My peers are...bond-free. *depressed*

MFM: Your bond isn't that expensive compared to some of your other peers...

Me: I've never had a bond

MFM: You were sensible.

Me: you wouldn't have taken up the scholarship if you could've done it again?

MFM: I would have applied to LACs [Ed: Liberal Arts Colleges] for fin. aid

Me: my friend went to duke on a duke scholarship
and he thinks you need to be very good to get those
and that financial aid is damn hard

MFM: for the famous Us is difficult

not for LACs
cos s'poreans don't know about those
and are reluctant to apply even if they do cos of lack of 'prestige'

Me: I told him you can apply to less famous places
but he didn't agree *shrug*

MFM: *** has fin aid from US News' 'top' LAC

and *** that retard had full aid from carleton

another friend of mine also had full aid from carleton
he just transferred to dartmouth again with full aid

Me: why do LACs offer so much financial aid?

MFM: it's not that LACs offer a lot more aid it's just that they have a less competitive applicant pool

Me: ah
how good do you think you have to be to get aid from LACs?

MFM: *** has v good results and reasonable CCA record but my other friends who had aid were mediocre students in their respective JCs

the carleton/dartmouth friend was one of the weakest students in *** humanz. yes, it's humanz but there were plenty of students more impressive than him who didn't bother applying

[Singaporeans] seem little impervious - besides *** only one other kid has taken my advice

concrete figures showing the utter lack of awareness - *** looked up the records of RJC applicants in the past and told me only 4 people from RJC had ever applied to amherst (and none of them had got in before this year)


Me on her injured knee: how did you injure it ah
kneeing someone in the groin?

Frigid Girl: no, i sat on my chair and spun around
and it hit my desk
haahahha

Me: ................................


Someone: i'm not closed to divorce/ annulment (can resort to
grounds of non-consummation of marriage)

Me: non-consummation can annul meh
HAHAHAHAH

Someone: yeah
u can get ur marriage annulled within 1st 3 years i think

Me: :0
the feminists will complain
hahahahaha

Someone: i don't really care, i'm not lesbian

but u know, it's wonderful, this annulment business
u can actually tick "single"
instead of "divorced"
u know, for application forms and stuff

hehe
love it

"We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people." - Arthur Schopenhauer

***

Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps - "THE Red Army's orgy of rape in the dying days of Nazi Germany was conducted on a much greater scale than previously suspected... "Having always in the past slightly pooh-poohed the idea that most men are potential rapists, I had to come to the conclusion that if there is a lack of army discipline, most men with a weapon, dehumanised by living through two or three years of war, do become potential rapists"... he was "shaken to the core" to discover that Russian and Polish women and girls liberated from concentration camps were also violated. "That completely undermined the notion that the soldiers were using rape as a form of revenge against the Germans," he said... When the Yugoslav Communist Milovan Djilas protested to Stalin, the dictator exploded: "Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?"... The victims themselves were permanently traumatised: women of the wartime generation still refer to the Red Army war memorial in Berlin as "the Tomb of the Unknown Rapist"."

I Want to Believe - "Most people (scientists included) treat the God question separate from all these other claims. They are right to do so as long as the particular claim in question cannot — even in principle — be examined by science. But what might that include? Most religious claims are testable, such as prayer positively influencing healing. In this case, controlled experiments to date show no difference between prayed-for and not-prayed-for patients. And beyond such controlled research, why does God only seem to heal illnesses that often go away on their own? What would compel me to believe would be something unequivocal, such as if an amputee grew a new limb. Amphibians can do it. Surely an omnipotent deity could do it. Many Iraqi War vets eagerly await divine action. There is one mystery I will concede that science may not be able to answer, and that is the question of what existed before our universe began... If there is one thing that the history of science has taught us, it is that it is arrogant to think we now know enough to know that we cannot know. So for the time being, it comes down to cognitive or emotional preference: an answer with only negative evidence or no answer at all"

Ant mega-colony takes over world - "Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together."

Starcraft lessons from authentic Korean (richmond / seacliff) - "I'm 100% full blooded Korean, meaning I have been gifted with unparallel talent to master any video game, particularly, Starcraft: Brood War... Things I will be teaching in Starcraft: Learn Korean lango, like "chobo" "gosu" "ww" etc, Basic Korean to communicate with Koreans on battle.net... My lessons will result in: Bragging rights, that you're as good as a Korean in Starcraft, You will be called a hacker because you're so good., Korean girls will be intrigued that you're such a good Starcraft player."

Singapore Dissident: Emigrate to America - "As a follow up to my last post, a retort to Goh Chock Tong's lament on the exodus of the talented out of Singapore, as an California lawyer specializing in immigration, these are the avenues for those wanting to move to USA... When you go abroad with your family and children, support and help the Singapore political opposition in any way you can from where you are. Do your part to topple this dictatorial one party state for a new beginning for Singapore. Please remember that by leaving, you are helping to bring down this dictatorship in a big way."

iPhone Apps - Amazing Girlfriend Manager - "With this application you can improve your relationships by applying concepts of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) on your girlfriends. Think about your girlfriend as a client!... Features of this application: Allows you to manage multiple girlfriends at the same time (not recommended for moral reasons)... Benefits that this application can bring to you: Be selective. Through the analysis of ratings and cost of dates and gifts, you can keep only the girls with the best cost-benefit"

From today's Shitty Times:

Confusion over proper attire mars AYG event

"CONFUSION over proper attire overshadowed the Asian Youth Games (AYG) Fiba 33 basketball competition for the second day running when a player donning a hijab (headscarf) was told she could not play.

Kuwait had again to compete in the 3-on-3 event without captain and top player Rabab Abdullah...

Her coach, Mr Yousef, said that women have been allowed to play in the hijab and cited the Gulf Cooperation Council Women's Games and the Arab Women's Basketball Championship as examples."

DUH

Here is a picture of the Archbishop Nicholas Chia:



This might've been cropped from a bigger picture, but if it's a studio shot, he really needs to tell them to ease up on the front lighting, or they might as well give him a halo to complete the effect.

I'm not sure what was more amusing - this picture or the attack of temporal lobe epilepsy.

"If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day." - John A. Wheeler

***

Email FAIL:


Subject: Note to Class of 1999 Batch Reunion - 4 Jul 09 (Sat) at 7:30pm at the Albert Hong Hall

Message: Some of you may have read in the news about the two new H1N1 cases at the RI Boarding House. I would like to assure you that these cases have not affected the preparations for our Batch Reunion and with the school’s support and blessing, we will be going ahead with the reunion as planned this Saturday...

Should you feel unwell on the day of the Batch Reunion, I would urge you to consider giving the event a miss as a precaution to assist us in minimising the spread of any illnesses. In particular, if you have travelled to the list of countries listed in the table below, I would encourage you to consider not attending the event as well...



[Transcription of image:

MOH Website: Countries / Regions with Community Spread and / or known to have Exported Cases (Caa 30 Jun 09)...

Singapore]

"Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

***

"Come, dear, you're not so wicked as you think. The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity. After all, my dear, if you watch people carefully, you'll be surprised to learn how like hate is to love.

Yes: I’m quite in earnest. Think of how some of our married friends worry one another, tax one another, are jealous of one another, can t bear to let one another out of sight for a day, arc more like jailers and slave-owners than lovers. Think of those very same people with their enemies, scrupulous, lofty, self-respecting, determined to be independent of one another, careful of how they speak of one another—pooh! haven’t you often thought that if they only knew it, they were better friends to their enemies than to their own husbands and wives?"

--- The Devil's Disciple / George Bernard Shaw

WTH

New blog picture:


La nuit, je suis en deuil pour mon âme introuvable

My No 1 Fan left on the 25th of June.

Voctir is departing on the 6th of July.

And MFM is taking off on 20th August.

The Exodus has begun!


"God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds.
God be wi' you, princes all; I'll to my charge:
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!"

This has been floating around for years, but at least it's been updated to include all the JCs:


The JC Lightbulb Joke.

Q: How many RJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 4 whole faculties. One to design the new bulb, one to manufacture and test it out, one to write a proposal on it and one to market it.

Q: How many HCJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The whole school. To compete with RJC.

Q: How many VJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: The whole school. One student to screw it in and the rest to cheer and wave flags and banners to give him/her support.

Q: How many NJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They can study without light.

Q: How many AJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: They're too busy trying to be one of the top 5 JCs.

Q: How many ACJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They'll rather use all their money to employ YJC to do it for them.

Q: How many YJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Only one teacher to tell them what a light bulb is in the first place and to demonstrate how to change the light bulb. (So how do you think they're able to change it for ACJC?)

Q: How many CJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: They'll prefer it to be darker. (Hmmmm?*raises eye-brows* )

Q: How many JJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Their physics is so bad that they made their macho male physics teacher cry.

Q: How many TPJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. Would they even bother?

Q: How many SAJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They believe in praying for it.

Q: How many NYJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are still using oil lamps.

Q: How many SRJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Huh, what litebarb?

Q: How many PJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Heck the light bulb lah, the principal would do something about the rightbarbs. Let's do 300 jumping jacks for not wearing the proper school attire.

Q: How many MJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are too busy trying to get promoted.

Q: How many IJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They are Innovians. They'll find ways out of the dark.

Q: How many TJC students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They think they are already very bright.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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

***

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."