Links - 18th December 2010

"How to Raise your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children" - Lewis B. Frumkes

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YouTube - Best Action Scene Of ALL TIME - "The sliding horse at 2:05 is classic along with the jeep that goes flying for no reason. The sound is just too much. The stunts would never be done in Hollywood-it looks like a few people and animals were paralyzed at the very least."

La Senza presents The Cup Size Choir

Ray Kurzweil's Slippery Futurism - "His stunning prophecies have earned him a reputation as a tech visionary, but many of them don't look so good on close inspection"

4 Fruits We’re Dying to Try - 2 of them are mangosteen and rambutan!

Kuriositas: Jabuticaba – The Tree that Fruits on its Trunk - "Otherwise known as the Brazilian Grape Tree, this plant is native to South America, notably Paraguay, Argentina and (obviously from its name) mostly from Brazil. The fruit, a succulent looking purple color can be plucked and eaten straight from the tree... The flowers themselves appear on the tree at most twice a year – naturally.  They look like some strange alien creature that has deposited itself on the trunk and branches"
Actually it looks quite freaky

Preserving Singapore’s past: A losing battle? « - "Renowned architect Johannes Widodo describes the former Cathay Building as a prime example of the triumph of money over heritage. Inaugurated in 1939, The Cathay Building was a groundbreaking edifice, the first skyscraper in Singapore and at that time the tallest building in Southeast Asia. The Cathay was also the first public building in Singapore to be air-conditioned. The front facade of the building was gazetted as a national monument in 2003. The new complex features an avant garde glass façade which incorporates the original art-deco facade of the old Cathay Building. But, says Mr. Widodo,“at night you can’t even recognize that piece of wall because it is swallowed by the glowing lights from the big glass box on top of it.” He goes on to ask: “If a National Heritage can be turned into something like that, how about the other heritages?”"
I never noticed the Art Deco facade

However I am proud of Mesut Özil . . . - "I watched the Euro 2012 qualifying game between Germany Vs Turkey in horror... Mesut Özil one of four son’s of Mustafa Özil, a man originally from the Turkish city of Zonguldak who moved over to Germany in the 70’s... [They] booed Mesut Özil both after he scored and every time he got the ball to his feet. And those people who booed Özil were German Turks and not travelers from Turkey"

In Europe, sharp criticism of US reaction to WikiLeaks - "Renaud Girard, a respected reporter for the center-right Le Figaro, said he was impressed by the generally high quality of the American diplomatic corps. “What is most fascinating is that we see no cynicism in US diplomacy,’’ he said. “They really believe in human rights in Africa and China and Russia and Asia. They really believe in democracy and human rights. People accuse the Americans of double standards all the time. But it’s not true here. If anything, the diplomats are almost naive.’’"

Honey traps: Do spies use sex to extract secrets? - "When the KGB tried to blackmail Indonesian President Achmed Sukarno with videotapes of the president having sex with Russian women disguised as flight attendants, Sukarno wasn't upset. He was pleased. He even asked for more copies of the video to show back in his country"

Mossad's Seductive 'Honey Trap' Is Kosher, Rabbi Finds - "Rabbi Ari Shvat, an expert on Jewish law and modern politics, says Israeli women can sleep with the enemy in the interests of national security. The scholar has found that it is not a breach of Jewish law for a woman to seduce terrorists and other dangerous enemies in order to gain vital intelligence to save lives... Shvat says it is preferable for a woman setting a honey trap to be single. If she is married, he suggests a technical solution: getting a quickie divorce from her husband before each mission and then re-marrying afterward. Otherwise, she is guilty of adultery, no matter how vital the asset... Shvat is not the first rabbi to consider spy seduction. Ancient Jewish sages argued in the Talmud more than 1,000 years ago that it was praiseworthy to have sex with a non-Jew in the pursuit of vital national interests"

Best of Russia --- KGB - "Her English husband was also a Soviet spy. The Russians require espionage activity from both partners in their married spies. She seduced and recruited several British officials for the highly successful "Lucy" spy ring. Sonia was eventually brought down via an affair with another Soviet spy, a practice strongly prohibited in the spy world (sex is only allowed with the enemy)."

The New Sex Scorecard - "Everyone gains from the new imperative to explore sex differences. When we know why depression favors women two to one, or why the symptoms of heart disease literally hit women in the gut, it will change our understanding of how our bodies and our minds work... The more testosterone the children had been exposed to in the womb, the less able they were to make eye contact at 1 year of age. "Who would have thought that a behavior like eye contact, which is so intrinsically social, could be in part shaped by a biological factor?" he asks. What's more, the testosterone level during fetal life also influenced language skills... The female preponderance in depression is virtually universal. And it's specific to unipolar depression. Males and females suffer equally from bipolar, or manic, depression. However, once depression occurs, the clinical course is identical in men and women. The gender difference in susceptibility to depression emerges at 13. Before that age, boys, if anything, are a bit more likely than girls to be depressed. The gender difference seems to wind down four decades later, making depression mostly a disorder of women in the child-bearing years"

digital ninja on Vimeo - "I am a digital strategic googler/ninja"
"What the fuck does that mean"
"If you don't know then you are too traditional to understand"
"Well, what do you do on a typical day?"
"I blog. And I tweet"
"Fuck you..."
"Do you do any actual work?"
"Yes I have a tumbler"
"You are shitting me."
"Sometimes I post pictures of things that inspire me and share links to other blogs"

Accuracy in names: Sixty years of Orwellian spin | The Economist - "IN CASE anyone didn't understand that Fox News routinely hews to the messaging guidelines drawn up by Republican political strategists, we have evidence from a leaked email that Fox News's Washington bureau chief instructed his staff to hew to a messaging guideline drawn up by Republican political strategists, by referring to the health-insurance reform public option as a "government option" or "government plan"... There's nothing wrong with having an agenda, as long as you're willing to own up to it. That's the problem with Fox News: they won't own up to their agenda, and it's ridiculous... the Department of War... became the Department of Defence. This was right about the time "1984" was being published... Anyone who's confident that fighting a war is a good idea should have the guts to call it by its proper name"

Shipping Company Reviews – Best Package Shipping Company - Popular Mechanics - "We mailed a bunch of sensors on an epic journey to find out which shipping company is the most careful with your packages. Here's what we found... the USPS has the gentlest touch, with a per-trip average of 0.5 acceleration spikes over 6 g's. FedEx and UPS logged an average of three and two big drops per trip, respectively (see graph, next page). Given those results, we were a little surprised to find that the USPS flipped over its Express Mail packages an awful lot, averaging 12.5 position changes per trip. Meanwhile, FedEx averaged seven position changes, and UPS had an average of four"

Economics focus: The joyless or the jobless | The Economist - "There is nothing like a drop in GDP to remind everyone how much this much-maligned metric matters... the relationship between income and well-being remains fairly steady, from the poorest countries to the richest [if one uses a logarithmic scale, which measures percentage changes]... Ravi Kanbur of Cornell University points out that happiness is not always a good guide to policy. He retells the story of a Brahmin in colonial India who informed a Benthamite official: “I am ten times as capable of happiness as that untouchable over there”... ask people what they would actually choose, as opposed to what would make them happy, and their answers can sometimes surprise: 17% of those who say they would be happier sleeping for longer and earning less also say they would still choose the higher-paying job"