Links - 15th March 2010

"The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal." - H. L. Mencken

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School cancels prom over fear of lesbians

Cute animals are just as delicious as ugly ones - "It is Canada’s annual seal cull again, and the animal rights protesters are preparing their traditional response. Yet they are strangely silent about the rat genocide in South Georgia, where millions of non-indigenous rodents will be killed over the next five years. If you prick a rat, does it not bleed? The EU has banned the import of seal produce, much to the fury of some Canadians. Why ban seal skins and not fur? How can the home of foie gras and veal crates complain about smoked seal loin? Our relationship with animals and food in this era of plenty is riven with hypocrisy. There are only two intellectually coherent positions on meat — extreme veganism or enthusiastic carnivorism. But the middle position seems to dominate popular thought; a mishmash of sentiment and wishful thinking. It’s the cute-arianism position — I’ll eat meat, but only from animals that don’t make me go aah"
One comment: "If we human beings did not produce our food in a factory like manner, a substantial portion of us would be dead"
Addendum: Withthe Times firewall, here's a mirror in The Australian

Dutch nurses: Care does not include sex - "A union representing Dutch nurses will launch a national campaign Friday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care"

Avoidr - "Avoidr uses Foursquare to check where your not-friends are so you can avoid them."

Get your chatroulette on - A study on chatroulette: "I broke these 90 people into 3 categories: boys, girls, and perverts... There were 71% guys, 15% girls, and 14% - in the middle of the workday, mind you - were perverts... I was nexted by 19 out of 20 people, in an average time of 2.9 seconds. One out of 20 actually talked to me... At first I took it personally, but then after I got comfortable nexting people, I realised I would definitely next me too I really only pause on pretty girls. So for the next phase of my study, I called my friend Genevieve, who is a really pretty girl... 9/10 people talked to Genevieve, for a minimum of 2 minutes or until she nexted them. It was really amazing. Most everyone was nice to her... This really hot Icelandic girl offered to show her boobs... Then to conclude the study, I joined Genevieve. 'Everybody's nexting us now'"

Freud, Fraud and Sexual Health - "Freud supported his conclusions with only six full case studies. Some of the patients were not even his... Freud did not, in fact, produce dramatic cures in these cases... 'Professor Crews argues that Freud devised a self-validating method of inquiry, deluded himself about his patients' illnesses, and failed to cure them. He founded a doctrinaire movement that has excommunicated dissenters while trying to evade empirical scrutiny'"

Sigmund Freud-- January 6, 1999 - "Freud used rules of interpretation that were much too lax and circular. I'll give you an example. He had concepts at his disposal such as resistance and denial and reaction formation, and these concepts enabled him to take a statement by a patient that seemed to contradict his theories and simply to appropriate it as a corroboration of his theories. Well, if you play by these rules, obviously, you can prove anything any time... he misrepresented the outcome of the majority of his cases... when he spoke to the general public about psychoanalysis, he called it successful in the most triumphant terms. And now that we have many more of his letters and private papers to look at, we can see that he never believed that himself. He was simply lying... People who feel resentful of science found that psychoanalysis was a kind of rival science that they could understand, and it stood against all of this arid materialism. Psychoanalysis gave us a kind of secular church in which people who had lost their religious faith could still have a confessional, could still believe in original sin, namely, infantile sexuality, and could feel superior to other people because they had a deeper, darker insight"

dhamma musings: So Can Killing Sometimes Be Justified? - "Q: What will be or would be the kammic consequences of killing a bet bug or some other insect?
A: Why not try metta (loving-kindness) meditation to protect yourself and them at the same time? Metta should be the first approach and killing the absolute last. It is said that no insects ever trouble the Buddha because of his strong metta, which is gentle yet commanding of respect. When I was on a tropical island known for its huge mosquitoes for three months, I did not get bitten once, while most of others did. I did practise metta then.
[For termites and killer wasps which enter your home and threat you and your family] you can send thoughts of loving-kindness to the insects and persuade them to leave. It does work. I have tried it for a few hundred insect ‘invaders’ myself. For termites, I suggest removal of the affected parts of the house or even the insects one by one. Let’s all practise Metta harder. Time for less rationalization for killing and more practice to avoid killing."

Human-Animal Relationship of Owners of Normal and Overweight Cats -- Kienzle and Bergler 136 (7): 1947S -- Journal of Nutrition - "It was not possible to achieve a similar distribution of gender, because the majority of cat owners were females... Thirty percent of owners of overweight cats compared with 12% of owners of normal cats stated that they did not feel very happy prior to acquiring a cat, and the cat was intended to console and encourage them. These results are suggestive of 1) a closer relationship between overweight cats and their owners than between normal cats and their owners, 2) more over-humanization of overweight cats than of normal cats, 3) a potential role of overweight cats as a substitute for human companions... Playing with the cat appears to be an effective counterbalance against overweight... When asked how the owners perceived the body condition of their cats, only a small percentage readily indicated that their cat was overweight. The majority preferred euphemisms like a little bit too big, or did not perceive or admit anything extraordinary about the weight of their cat."

MAS: Financial Database - Exchange Rates
SGD-Foreign currency exchange rates for 23 currencies (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly)

How Real are the Defects in Toyota's Cars? - "Consumer advocates... were all too happy to imply that Toyota didn't care how many people it killed as long as they made a profit... In the original Sudden Acceleration Incident craze that afflicted America in the late eighties, the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration eventually ruled that the problem was "pedal misapplication", aka stepping on the gas when you meant to step on the brake. These incidents were highly correlated with three things: being elderly, being short, and parking (or leaving a parking space)... the age distribution really is extremely skewed. The overwhelming majority are over 55... Here's what else you notice: a slight majority of the incidents involved someone either parking, pulling out of a parking space, in stop and go traffic, at a light or stop sign . . . in other words, probably starting up from a complete stop... Obviously, most people are going to err on the side of believing that the car was at fault, rather than a beloved relative"

Something to be said for Japan's gray zone - "Why does Japan so often smudge the good/evil divide? Typical Japanese sentiment seems to accept the shadier parts of our psyche, reminding me of Jung's many admonishments against suppressing the shadow side... I have to be careful on the train in Japan, glancing down at a stranger's newspaper. I could easily glimpse a nude schoolgirl or other offensive photo, propped open on the lap of an innocent-looking salaryman sitting right in between a dozing grandmother and a pregnant mother. I have learned not to judge this salaryman. In the West, certain things are labeled "wrong"; in Japan, it's not so clear. Perhaps Japan's wide swath of gray proves more honest and practical than a clear-cut avowal of wrong and right"

Excuse me... she's a model? - "I WAS livid when I read about Jack Neo's affair. I don't know him or his wife personally, nor do I have any opinions about his dalliances. But, please, can we not call his mistress, Wendy Chong, a "model"? Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but mine could not behold any in the published photos of this "freelance model"... When it comes to mistresses, Jack's tastes mirror his movies: Heartland. Wendy and her deluded sisterhood of "freelance models" are one of the reasons that the Singapore modelling industry is in the doldrums... The only "model" who should be worried is Ris Low, because someone else is now poised to take over those 15 minutes of fame - or should it be shame?"