Observations - 12th July 2010

"Any great truth can -- and eventually will -- be expressed as a cliche -- a cliche is a sure and certain way to dilute an idea. For instance, my grandmother used to say, 'The black cat is always the last one off the fence.' I have no idea what she meant, but at one time, it was undoubtedly true." - Solomon Short

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My last Observations post was in March. No wonder I have so much crap in my draft.


On the obsession with homosexuality: RT punslabyrinth: @gssq hahha.. it's the 'in' thing these days isn't it.. to the point that honestly as a non-homosexual i feel marginalised sometimes!

RT @yaarn "Then there are linguists out there who don't want to see these (minority) languages die because then they'll be out of a job"

When someone says you're "overintellectual", "pseudointellectual", "overanalyse" or "think too much", what they are really saying is "I don't know how to answer your question. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick" or "answering your question makes me uncomfortable. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick".

On summarising himself in discussion threads: "Unfortunately this sort of summary is often necessary as I will often lose track of the line of argument myself and after several posts back and forth, will find myself arguing over something completely unrelated to the original post, or worse, find my earlier position completely reversed in later posts without even realising it."

"What have you learnt from Japanese girls?"
bookshopbear: "That make-up solves many of life's problems for them."

It's ironic that Mandarin, literally the language of Mandarins, has become rebranded as what is literally "normal language" ("普通话").


Patriarchy is a reaction to female mate choice and paternity uncertainty.

I am amused that a lot of people (including most women who have expressed an opinion on the topic) think that female bosses are worse than male ones, but no one thinks males are worse.

Of the people I know or know of who are taking or took breaks from employment, only one is male (and he was studying for his CFA). This is definitely something that must be taken into account when examining the gender wage gap (it almost certainly also has interaction effects with childcare).

Besides possible comparative advantage in doing housework (a suggestion that, bizarrely but predictably, got denounced as "deeply misandrist"), another reason that might explain why women do more housework than men is that they are more fastidious, or have higher standards of hygiene. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find studies on this (note: studies, not rhetoric, or baseless popular magazine articles).


If you're race blind, you will offend racial sensitivities.

If you want a ‘safe’ environment, most likely you just want your views to be ‘safe’ from criticism.
Addendum: keywords - "same from critical", "safe from examination", "sarah silverman"

I wonder if someone has done a study of the "racism" and "fear" of the Other inherent in the US banning Kang Kong, Snakehead and Konnyaku Jelly.

Nature is not Destiny, but if you ignore Nature, you're headed for Disaster.


RT @markleggett I like your Tumblr. Did you really find all these pictures on the internet? You're so talented.

RT @greenteacup: Most of the time, listening to girls talking is like Twitter - Most tweets r pointless n redundant.
(Someone asked what my large number of Twitter followers meant)

If Chatroulette had been coded by a PRC Chinese, would it have become so popular and international, given the closed ecosystem that is the Chinese Internet?


Why Singapore abandoned "Goal 2010": PRCs can't play football.

The Northern Chinese incursion into Chinatown is ironically inauthentic.

Maybe they hire Filipinas in hospitals instead of PRCs because unlike in restaurants, here a miscommunication could literally kill you.

The effects of Slavery: instead of getting riled up over politico-social issues, men hunt down men who've been less screwed

RT @infernoxv: thinks it's appalling how singaporeans with their shite mandarin make fun of the way mainland chinese speak mandarin. example: and then hor 我去他的office的時候那個 clerk很 bitchy的咯,每次給我dirty look, 真是 cannot stand it!

RT @ahaspel: A police state should admit error occasionally and pardon a few prisoners; it persuades the populace that the rest are guilty.

All SDN events which have a surplus of one sex have a surplus of women. In other words, the slots for ladies are all taken and only guys can register. Hurr hurr.