Links - 29th March 2010

"The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'." - Larry Hardiman

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Alexia Sinclair - The Regal Twelve - "Alexia Sinclair’s The Regal Twelve is a series that combines hundreds of photographic elements and illustrations to form complex digitally montaged artworks. The series portrays twelve European monarchs who have ruled supreme and whose lives span over two millennia. Through the study of history and portraiture, a series of contrasting regals formed, whose stories are revealed within each artwork"

InsideCatholic.com - I Am Woman - "Most people respect... that I'm... a stay-at-home mom, I have the feminists -- the people who are supposed to be on my side -- to thank for my occasional stabs of insecurity. Like many of my female peers, college classes in women's studies and multiculturalism indoctrinated me with "culturally correct" beliefs, where the big picture seemed to be lost in a quibble over who suffered more prejudice and who the real victims were... It was the feminists who made me feel like less instead of more. The same women who warned us about never allowing a man to turn us into Barbie were furtively turning us into Ken... Modern feminists... aren't really about being female or male, or even human. They're really about being superhuman... instead of concentrating their time and efforts on something that would really help the plight of women -- say, spreading awareness about injustices such as sexual slavery, bride burning in South Asia, abortion, and female infanticide -- tirelessly defend a view of the perfectible woman. In doing so, feminists don't liberate women; they disappoint them. In its wake, feminism has left a sobering parade of women who are realizing that it's a big, fat lie: You can't have it all"

Iceberg Radio homepage
Very impressive online 'radio' station, which plays CD tracks and has many channels (28 classical alone)

Why Would Anyone Protest Against the Women's Studies Program at Columbia? - "The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed to eliminate the purported gender pay gap, whereas the most recent study by the Department of Labor indicated there was not such a gender pay gap. He stated that in the Obama's Health Care Plan there will be ten Major Offices of Women's Health and zero Offices of Men's Health. He goes on to note that epidemiological health data shows that boys and men are far more in need of special attention as there are higher death rates in men in nine out of the ten of the leading causes of death. There is a greater suicide rate in men and men have a lower longevity... the President had proposed a 22% increase in funding for female victims of domestic violence on top of the large amount already spent in this area. He refers to research that shows that men and women initiate domestic violence at approximately equal rates and men represent at least 40% of the physically harmed victims. In addition, the federal government declines to fund equal protection and support for battered husbands and battered men"

Can you appeal a YouTube ban? | CNET to the Rescue - "Google employees, burdened under what sounds like far too much community input, make quick and seemingly opaque judgments that can't be easily appealed. But all is not lost. It does look like this situation will change"

Firefighters left woman in mine shaft for six hours due to 'health and safety concerns' - "Safety rules banned firefighters from rescuing her... As Alison Hume was brought to the surface by mountain rescuers she died of a heart attack. A senior fire officer at the scene admitted that crews could only listen to her cries for help, after she fell down the 60ft shaft, because regulations said their lifting equipment could not be used on the public. A memo had been circulated in Strathclyde Fire and Rescue stations months previously stating that it was for use by firefighters only"
This reminds me of how, when a National Slave (Full-time), I was told that we couldn't use SAF ambulances to help civilians.
One comment: Unfortunately this will be more common in the future thanks to No Win, No Fee compensation companies.
If the woman had been lifted out on anything other than a purpose made stretcher and hoist the ambulance chasers would have been knocking on her door the next day.
It's very sad that it is better to watch someone die than to help them and then be taken to court.
Another: It has become more important to comply with the rules than to actually attend to health and safety... The individuals here cannot be blamed - their hands were tied by strict instructions, their jobs could have been at risk and their insurance could have been invalidated if they had been injured while trying to help

Man could face prison over six second 'extreme porn' clip - "According to Holland, this was sent to him as a joke - he viewed it just once, but made the mistake of not getting round to deleting it... For Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN), National Convenor Clair Lewis said: "Assuming this involves an image of consenting adults – which we believe it to do – we find the idea of sending someone to prison at all for the mere act of possessing an image to be disgraceful and most likely a breach of Human Rights""

Going down in the downturn - Pinched: Tales from an Economic Downturn - "After innumerable unanswered cover letters, overdue bills and a delay in her unemployment checks, she entered a world of code words and cash wads. It was baptism by -- bodily fluids: She peed on a guy in her own bed for $100... Strip clubs, X-rated Web cam companies and escort managers across the country have reported an increase in job applications in the last several months... slinging burgers at a fast food joint means you've really hit bottom, while sex work at least allows for the illusion of being in charge."

Terrorists 'could use exploding breast implants to blow up jet' - "Plastic surgeons may also have inserted the chemical into the buttocks of would-be suicide bombers."

Have you got erotic capital? - "Erotic capital goes beyond beauty to include sex appeal, charm and social skills, physical fitness and liveliness, sexual competence and skills in self-presentation, such as face-painting, hairstyles, clothing and all the other arts of self-adornment. Most studies capture only one facet of it: photographs measure beauty or sex appeal, psychologists measure confidence and social skills, sex researchers ask about seduction skills and numbers of partners. Yet women have long excelled at such arts: that’s why they tend to be more dressed up than men at parties. They make more effort to develop the “soft skills” of charm, empathy, persuasion, deploying emotional intelligence and “emotional labour.” Indeed, the final element of erotic capital is unique to women: bearing children. In some cultures, fertility is an essential element of women’s erotic power. And even though female fertility is less important in northern Europe (where families are smaller) women’s dominant position in this market has been reinforced in recent decades by a much-lamented phenomenon: the sexualisation of culture."

How do I perform the opposite of Concatenate in Excel? - Yahoo! Answers - "What formula do I use to cut off the last three characters? I cannot use Concatenate because my cells do not contain the same amount of characters...
=MID(A1,1,LEN(A1)-3)
A1 is the original that you are removing the last 3 characters from."

Fake boobs: They're banned by Disney. Posh has ditched hers. And today's young women think they're naff - "The sad irony, of course, is that the vast majority of men don't even like fake breasts or care whether breasts are large, medium or small, as long as they are soft and real. A study published some years ago in Playboy magazine (where else?) revealed that while men might like to ogle or fantasise about women with large breasts, in reality they like women to have a pleasant, well-rounded and manageable C cup. In many surveys, research has shown that the larger the breasts, the more stupid a woman is considered to be, no matter what she has to say for herself. Other women, meanwhile, consider women with large breasts as a threat - so having a surgical enhancement is a lose-lose situation."

High-fructose corn syrup’s big fat secret - "Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same, new research shows... "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese—every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.""

How 'snack-size' makes you bigger - "People who opened smaller bags may have felt they did not need to exercise as much self control, because the portion size was fixed... "You are just more conscious of what you are eating if you have a proper-sized snack. Having a smaller size is a comforting delusion really"

Men 'live longer' if they marry a younger woman - "The study at Germany's Max Planck Institute also found that men marrying older women are more likely to die early. The results suggest that women do not experience the same benefits of marrying a toy boy or a sugar daddy... the figures for men may be the result of natural selection – that only the healthiest, most successful older men are able to attract younger mates. "Another theory is that a younger woman will care for a man better and therefore he will live longer""

Polygamy is the key to a long life - "After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations"

When Gossip Does You Good - "Feeling emotionally close to a friend increases levels of the hormone progesterone, helping to boost well-being and reduce anxiety and stress"

The Case For An Older Woman « OkTrends - "Attitudes become more sex-positive as the population gets older. This older-women-are-more-sexual pattern repeats across almost every proposition... Younger men want to be dominated. Older women are generally interested in doing just that... women in their thirties are 4.0% more likely to be happy than their younger counterparts... If you separate out the absolute best-looking women, almost all of whom are very young, and also remove the people you won't realistically want to date (the worst-looking women), you find that everyone else's attractiveness doesn't change much with age... thirtysomethings are much more likely to be married and therefore much more likely to have stopped optimizing their attractiveness. So the typical 35 year-old woman you see out in the world isn't representative of the single 35 year-olds who are still dating and looking good"

Man inserts zucchini into anus in suicide attempt - "When asked by the medical assistants, the man said he wished to die and that it was an ancient way to take one's own life."

YouTube - Lady Gaga - Telephone (CHATROULETTE VERSION)

Child vampire hunters sparked comic crackdown - "Hundreds of children aged... were, they told the bemused constable, hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys... The blame was quickly laid at the door of American comic books... These comics, so the theory went, were corrupting the imaginations of children and inflaming them with fear of the unknown. A few dissenting academics pointed out there was no mention of a creature matching the description of the Gorbals Vampire in any of these comics. There was, however, a monster with iron teeth in the Bible (Daniel 7.7) and in a poem taught in local schools. But their voices were drowned out in the media and political frenzy that was by now demanding action to be taken to prevent even more young minds from being "polluted" by the "terrifying and corrupt" comic books. The government responded to the clamour by introducing the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955... The story of the Gorbals Vampire had been a gift to the unlikely alliance of teachers, communists and Christians who had their own individual reasons for crusading against the corrupting influence of American comics"