Saturday, May 08, 2010

Buddhists inciting religious hatred against Hindus

"To worship Fire, the common drudge of all,
Senseless and blind and deaf to every call,
And then one's self to live a life of sin,
How could one dream that this a heaven could win?
These Brahmans all a livelihood require,
And so they tell us Brahma worships fire;
Why should the creator who all things planned
Worship himself the creature of his hand?
Doctrines and rules of their own, absurd and vain,
Our sires imagined wealth and power to gain;
Brahmans he made for study, for command
He made the Khattiyas; Vessas plough the land;
Sudras he servants mode to obey the rest;
Thus from the first went forth his high behest.

We see those rules enforced before our eyes,
None but the Brahmans offer sacrifice,
None but the Khattiya exercises sway,
The Vessas plough, the Suddas must obey.
These greedy liars propagate deceit,
And fools believe the fictions they repeat;
He who has eyes can see the sickening sight;
Why does not Brahma set his creatures right?
If his wide power no limits can restrain,
Why is his hand so rarely spread to bless?
Why are his creatures all condemned to pain?
Why does he not to all give happiness?

Why do fraud, lies, and ignorance prevail?
Why triumphs falsehood, truth and justice fail?
I count your Brahma one of the unjust among,
Who made a world in which to shelter wrong."

--- Bhuridatta Jataka

Friday, May 07, 2010

Very odd meh?

Today: The Odd Requests

"Some clients only want young, pretty females as receptionists or administrative assistants."
- Mr Lim, a recruitment consultant

"An engineering SME wanted a personal assistant in her 20s, preferably between 1.73m to 1.75m and 40 to 46 kg. He also told me 'Don't ever give me an obese candidate'."
- Jack, a recruitment executive

"One client told me he doesn't want newly-wed female candidates as they will get pregnant soon."
- A consultant.

La langue de Molière

Je suis amusé:

"On peut dire au départ qu'elle désigne simplement le français. Est-ce aussi simple ? Non. On en profite, en général, pour donner une idée du bon français, du français classique : le français des écrivains, le français de prestige, puisqu'on sait que Molière est le connu des écrivains de théâtre du XVIIe siècle. C'est même souvent un peu méprisant pour la langue d'aujourd'hui, en tout cas pour le français courant, comme si c'était une langue un peu débraillée, par rapport à la belle langue de Molière. Ce qui est le plus étrange est bien sûr que Molière, s'il était parmi nous ne comprendrait pas un seul mot du français parlé aujourd'hui. Et si nous étions transportés au XVIIe siècle, on ne comprendrait rien du français de l'époque : l'accent est trop différent et la langue a beaucoup changé. Pour l'écrit, c'est un petit peu différent, on comprendrait un petit peu mieux.

Et c'est exactement la même chose pour l'anglais, avec l'expression la langue de Shakespeare. Elle représente une sorte de belle image de la langue anglaise qu'on oppose à l'anglais mondial, à l'anglais de base qui sert à une communication minimale."

(RFI)

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Practical economics

On a wedding angpao:

"u r price leader,everyone take reference from u.i seriously don't know if there's a more optimal nash equilibrium if we collude tho.what's the gg rate for that hotel do u know?"

Conversations - 6th May 2010

"The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary." - Dave Kellett

***

PPBI: i realize the good thing about having female doc
cos of the acne on my back i cant really wear backless clothes

when i told my usual GP that
he said never mind don't wear, and cited some forum letter

a parent wrote in to complain about young people's skimpy dressing
nowadays

but my female doc at uni clinic was like
OF COURSE IT'S IMPORTANT
YOU'RE A GIRL IT'S IMPORTANT

:D so happy


MFM: ah, I see you got hit with the 'why you complain [about something Singaporean] so much' stick

Me: [the one who hit me with it]'s a civil servant haha

MFM: had it with non-civil servants as well

Me: singapore inculcates learned helplessness

MFM: that's fine if they keep it to themselves, but then they get all judgmental on people who aren't helpless

Me: the crabs in bucket syndrome?

MFM: hmm, first I've seen that phrase. maybe.


Someone i love your friend [Frigid Girl]
so brutal

Me: hahahahaha
if she were a guy she'd get hit harder [by Someone else]
it's called female privilege

she was rushing for something and this ah lian refused to budge
she squeezed past and the ah lian cursed her
so she struck the ah lian, who fell to the ground
if a guy had done that, he'd be in jail

Someone well
[Someone else] doesn't consider himself a sexist
so i doubt there'd be differential treatment if she were a guy ;)
if he practises what he preaches, that is

your friend rocks

Me: he doesn't consider himself one but I'm quite sure there'd
be differential treatment
it'd be ascribed to "power relations" or some nonsense like that

Someone he's idealistic
maybe a bit too idealistic
and he has ideals that favour the groups that he's part of
but i guess you can say that of most people

Me: see. most people are open about it
but when you espouse the ideology of fairness, it behooves you to be fair
rather than come up with some cock and bull story which ultimately boils down to

white people are evil
men are evil
straight people are evil

Someone that's a trait i've noticed among many Literature students

Me: that's because modern literature is not about exploring the meaning of texts, but subverting them to push a radical progressive agenda

Someone it's just more romantic and makes for better writing when you're rebelling poetically against a larger enemy

Me: "Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?"

from there it is an easy confusion to always take the side of the less powered

oh I know why I didn't quote the egg article [on my blog]
cos it's rubbish

Someone LOL
that's what a lot of people say about Haruki Murakami
he's the kind of writer you either love or hate

Me: hah

oh yeah
I am reminded. this journo wrote a study of john roberts
the chief justice

one of his criticisms was that in every case where the powerful have been pitted against the powerless, he has found for the powerful
as if that were necessarily a bad thing
but you should criticise a judge on the grounds that he makes bad law
not that he doesn't side with the powerless


Frigid Girl: i like telling stories to girls, so cute
they all scream at the correct places
for dramatic effect
hahaha


Someone: hmmm
do u ve some articles on subtle flirting etc etc
and not some outright asking the guy for his number etc type?

Me: o_0

Someone: lol
u quote an insane number of articles on such subjects!
ah okok..nvm

Me: I dont quote articles on subtle flirting

Someone: orh ok


MFTTW: are you having a hissy fit over OJ
please tell me you aren't

it's OJ LAHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh
at least it's made from ORANGES
and not oleng-es and palm oil.

...

shit ok now you just made me spend 10 minutes of my life analysing citrus production statistics argh.


Someone: do you think that generally women are less logical than men

Me: yes

Someone: actually i agree with that too
or at least findings in neuroscience tend to support that

Me: ooh show me show me

Someone: it was a hand-out given by my *** professor last semester
so i don't really remember the source

and she's female

Me: what class was this

Someone: Gender, Race and Science

Me: oh that
hahahaha

Someone: nope, she just gave hand-outs mostly

i just remember the article says something like males exercise the left side of their brains (in charge of logical thinking and rational reasoning) more whereas females are better at switching between both sides

males predominantly carry out tasks using the left hemisphere apparently
accounting for why they're better at logic

Me: hurr hurr
that doesn't sound very convincing, evento me ;)

Someone: well you shouldn't say "even" to you,
since you hold *evidence* presented to you to very high standards in the first place

Me: hee hee
the feminists would say that etc etc

anyway it's incontrovertible that we are easier on views we are sympathetic to than those who oppose

even I am human
hurr hurr

Someone: yup

you're less human than a lot of other humans i know though
take it as a compliment and not as an insult


Someone else: i know already
how to make the gahmen happy

fuck the girls in the office. kill 2 birds with 1 stone. u stay back, do work and u contribute to population growth.


Someone: I think the same cues that lead people to think he's gay are the same ones that lead people to think you're gay, so prob not v reliable


PPBI: time to take my drug cocktail!
so exciting

Me: you're deprived

PPBI: have you ever gotten FIVE medicines before

Me: no
what's wrong with you ah

PPBI: being female

Me: thanks

Fox Pass of the Day

"Nobody has the monopoly on truth and certainly not the PAP leaders who are wont to make terrible faux pauses from time to time."

(Source: Temasek Review, where "Our Correspondent" has morphed into "Your Correspondent")

This is particularly FAIL

Uproar over Marina Bay Sands conference woes
Straits Times, 6th May 2010

"Said one [industry lawyer], who declined to be named: 'This is a big disgrace for Singapore. Why rush to open when it is obviously not ready?'...

The lawyers were not the only ones who failed to have a good time at MBS. On Tuesday, diners at Chinese restaurant Imperial Treasure were stuck when two lifts, their only exit, were out of order.

They were told the only alternative was to pay the entry levy of $100 for each person to walk through the casino next door - an idea they rejected. Unable to wait any longer after 30 minutes, the 15 diners decided to march out through the casino anyway, without paying.

Corporate communications officer Tan Yong Meng, 47, who was entertaining two guests from Brazil, said it was an embarrassment. He said: 'We wanted to take our guests (there) to show off Singapore, and it ended really badly.'"

Thamus would approve

"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." - Thomas Jefferson

***

A special report on television: An interactive future | The Economist

"NOT so long ago television was scary. It was held to turn children into imbeciles, make men violent and corrupt political discourse. Books tried to alert people to the menace in their living rooms: the best of them was Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, published in 1985. Musicians vilified TV in songs like “She Watch Channel Zero” and “Television, the Drug of the Nation”.

These days newspapers are filled with tales of Facebook stalkers, Craigslist killers, cyber-bullying, sexting and screen addiction. E-mail, blogs and YouTube, not television, are held responsible for the degradation of politics (though American liberals make an exception for the Fox News Channel). As the internet grabs attention, television has become more pitied than feared. A Google search on the phrase “threat from television” turns up some 500 results, many of them historical. “Threat to television” generates eight times as many."


From a review of Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business:

"In giving credence only to those studies which bolster his argument and dismissing all others, Postman proves nothing other than that television does have some effect on viewers, which he considers negative... Postman provides little in the way of real-world evidence that television has damaged America’s body politic... Anyone choosing to utilize one of the virtues Postman attributes to books might well pause to consider the place of television in social movements of the late twentieth century"


"[Max] Nordau... considered the vast increase in numbers of degenerates in his day to have arisen from the tempo of 19th century living... The telegraph, a surfeit of newspapers, mass literacy... left much of humanity fatigued and exhausted. For Nordau, life was too frenzied to be appreciated, and the overstimulation of the senses was producing mass degeneracy"

--- The unfit: a history of a bad idea / Elof Axel Carlson


"Edward Bulwer-Lytton... argues that diffusing knowledge inevitably dilutes it. Noting “the profusion of amusing, familiar, and superficial writings” in the early thirties, Bulwer-Lytton adds: "People complain of it, as if it were a proof of degeneracy in the knowledge of authors—it is a proof of the increased number of readers” (294). While the growth of the reading public is a sure sign of “the progress to perfection” (223), that growth nevertheless causes a decline in the general profundity and literary greatness of the culture of any nation in which it occurs. “Thus, if we look abroad, in France, where the reading public is less numerous than in England, a more elevated and refining tone is more fashionable in literature; and in America, where it is infinitely larger, the tone of literature is infinitely more superficial” (294). The nation fortunate enough to achieve mass literacy on its route to social perfection will simultaneously witness the decline and perhaps extinction of cultural excellence and creativity. In his chapter surveying the state of education in England, Bulwer-Lytton admonishes: "As you diffuse the stream, guard well the fountains” (165)."

--- The reading lesson: the threat of mass literacy in nineteenth-century British fiction / Patrick Brantlinger


Addendum: Keywords - phaedrus

On Election Deposits

It was once argued to me that having an Election Deposit in Singapore was justified, as they had the same practice in the United Kingdom.

Reading a story on the Looney Party alerted me to the fact that in the UK, the election deposit is a paltry £500 - which you only lose with <5% of the vote.

In comparison, in Singapore the deposit is S$13,500, forfeited if you get <12.5% of the vote.

I'm so glad we take our politics seriously here.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

At first, I thought this story came from Malaysia

Eating pork is good for your sex life, Argentine president claims
(via MFTTW)

"Pork consumption improves sexual activity," Mrs Kirchner informed a gathering of business people at a meeting at the presidential palace.

"This is not a small detail," she said at the gathering to announce a reduction in the price of pork.

"Besides, some nicely grilled pork is much more gratifying than taking Viagra."

Mrs Kirchner said she and her husband, Nestor Kirchner, the former president, had enjoyed a pork roast over the weekend at their retreat in Argentina's southern Patagonia region. The president assured her audience the meal had yielded "impressive" results.

"We were in high spirits the whole weekend," she said.

"I'm a pork fanatic," she added, "and I'm not saying this just to impress you, or for self-promotion."

The head of the association of pork producers, Juan Uccelli, on Thursday backed Mrs Kirchner's claims.

He claimed that people in Denmark and Japan, where pork consumption is high, "have much more harmonious sexual lives than us Argentines have."

Argentines, by contrast, are the world's most voracious eaters of beef, with an annual per capita consumption of about 70 kilos (150 lbs).

Mrs Kirchner has been the target of fierce criticism lately for seeking to remove the head of the Central Bank, Martin Redrado.


I'm still trying to figure out how the last sentence fits into the rest of the article

Links - 5th May 2010

"I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy." - Frank Zappa

***

Music industry spokesman loves child porn - "A music-industry speaker at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Stockholm waxed enthusiastic about child porn, because it serves as the perfect excuse for network censorship, and once you've got a child-porn filter, you can censor anything"

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline - "To help illustrate Facebook's shift away from privacy, we have highlighted some excerpts from Facebook's privacy policies over the years. Watch closely as your privacy disappears, one small change at a time!... Facebook originally earned its core base of users by offering them simple and powerful controls over their personal information. As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it's slowly but surely helped itself — and its advertising and business partners — to more and more of its users' information, while limiting the users' options to control their own information."

Belgian bid to ban 'racist' Tintin in the Congo - "Now UK editions are generally found alongside more adult books and are sold with a band of paper around the outside, warning the content is offensive"

YouTube - George Carlin - Saving the Planet - "I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths... Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked... The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles; hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors; worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet... the planet... the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!"

Singapore Homelessness - "In order to be eligible for the government’s Public Rental Scheme, applicants also must not have sold two units bought directly from the government. Joshua Chiang who helps homeless and displaced Singaporeans says it is very easy to be rendered ineligible. “For a couple married for 15 years and with kids, your first flat is the one you bought when you were married. Then when you upgrade (to a bigger flat), that’s your second flat. Let’s say you’re divorced, then you sell your second flat. That’s it. There’s your two bites of the cherry”... Some weeks ago, Al- Jazeera, intending to cover this story, called and emailed the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to get a response on this stance. Their request was denied"

BANGLADESH hospital bans the burqa to prevent stealing « Bare Naked Islam's Weblog - "Bangladesh’s largest state-run hospital has banned staff from wearing full-face burqas after an increase in thefts of mobile phones and wallets from wards... some burqa-wearing staff had also been secretly sending unqualified “proxy workers” to cover shifts for them... “Doctors have also said burqa-clad women who travel to work on crowded public buses then do not change into regulation uniform could carry diseases into the hospital”"
Islamophobia!

Colorado Man Calls Biblical Ark Find Claim a “Hoax” - "For decades, there have been claims the ark has been found in the Middle East... Since the late 1980s, Cornuke, a former crime-scene investigator, has made his own expeditions to Mount Ararat and Iran’s Mount Suleiman in search of the ark. Upon examining photographs by Wing-cheung’s team, he notes cobwebs in one of the pictures, which would not exist at 14,000 feet. And, the floor in one of the pictures shows concrete between stones, which Cornuke says wouldn’t have been found in Noah’s time. He also claims to have a network of informants in Turkey who say people have been carrying old wood up the mountain for two years to assemble it into something resembling a wrecked ark"

Suntanned women to be arrested under Islamic dress code

The incomparable economist - "I’ve compiled a list of some of Samuelson’s big ideas... here are eight – eight! – seminal insights, each of which gave rise to a vast and continuing research literature:
1. Revealed preference
2. Welfare economics
3. Gains from trade
4. Public goods
5. Factor-proportions trade theory
6. Exchange rates and the balance of payments
7. Overlapping generations
8. Random-walk finance"

Rape of woman in skinny jeans 'not possible' - "''I'm suggesting it's difficult for skinny jeans to be taken off by someone else unless the wearer's assisting, collaborating, consenting,'' Mr Hogan said. ''I would disagree,'' she replied"

Journal of Economic Psychology : Are people more risk-taking in the presence of the opposite sex? - "Both males and females viewing opposite sex photos displayed a significant increase in risk tolerance, whereas the control subjects exhibited no significant change. Surprisingly, the attractiveness of the photo had no effect"
One factor contributing to the latest financial crisis. But you won't hear anyone advocating a return to the single-sex banks of the past, but just calling (contrary to this important evidence) for more "diversity"

Son fined for beating mum - "Bu had admitted to slapping his mother, Madam Lim Swee Kim, 60, once, punching and squeezing her on the left arm, and using a waist belt to hit her once on her right shin"
I'm very sure nothing would have happened if a parent had done the same to a child.

The mystery of the mega-selling floppy disk - "Sony has said it will stop making floppy disks, after nearly three decades. Yet millions of them are still being bought every year"

The Lost Languages, Found in New York - "The chances of overhearing a conversation in Vlashki, a variant of Istro-Romanian, are greater in Queens than in the remote mountain villages in Croatia that immigrants now living in New York left years ago... These are not just some of the languages that make New York the most linguistically diverse city in the world. They are part of a remarkable trove of endangered tongues that have taken root in New York — languages born in every corner of the globe and now more commonly heard in various corners of New York than anywhere else"

Baby boy survives for two days after botched late-term abortion - "The mother, pregnant for the first time, had opted for an abortion after pre-natal scans suggested her baby was disabled. But the infant survived the termination, carried out on Saturday in the Rossano Calabria hospital, and was left by doctors to die. He was discovered alive the following day - some 20 hours after the operation - by Father Antonio Martello, the hospital chaplain who had gone to pray beside his body... Italian police are investigating the case for 'homicide', as the law in Italy imposes an obligation on doctors to try to preserve the life of a child if he or she survives an abortion... Most abortions at 22 weeks involve the induction of the birth, normally resulting in the death of a foetus... The legal upper limit for abortion in the UK is 24 weeks"
Get your rosaries off our ovaries!

Why it's difficult to call a professor by his first name - "“It’s difficult for students to call somebody who’s old and grey by their first name”... Bowes calls men “Mr.,” but says the women present “a real quagmire.” There are just too many options... Sarah Thornley, 23, says none really work for her. “Miss” makes her feel young and immature. She hates “ma’am” and “Ms.” makes her feel like a spinster. “Just call me Sarah, that’s all,” she says.

Traveller couple terrorised vulnerable families out of £2m pretending they were dangerous IRA members

Why Job Hoppers Make the Best Employees - "1. Job hoppers have more
intellectually rewarding careers.
2. Job hoppers have more stable careers.
3. Job hoppers are higher performers.
4. Job hoppers are more loyal.
5. Job hoppers are more emotionally mature."

Man in Sichuan dies after friends insert eel up his arse as a joke - "Though dead, the eel had apparently already wrought havoc on his innards, biting its way through his intestines prior to dying. Internal bleeding and infection rapidly set in... he had apparently been drinking with friends, and had passed out. His friends had decided it would be amusing to insert a live eel into his anus whilst he was comatose"
Actually he didn't die, but still; From the Chinese article: "黄鳝进入肛门后,犹如“孙悟空”钻进“铁扇公主”肚中"

Best sandwich? 'Fat Darrell' - "What do you call a sandwich made of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks and french fries? Around here, it's called a Fat Darrell — and you also can call it a winning combo. The "Fat Darrell" has been crowned the best sandwich in the country by Maxim magazine"

Dearly departed – on Disneyland rides! - "Disneyland visitors have routinely scattered cremated human remains throughout the haunted house ride since the late 1990s"

STEPHEN HAWKING: How to build a time machine

Chocolate lovers 'are more depressive', say experts - "Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again... they cannot rule out that chocolate may be a cause rather than the cure for being depressed"

Scott Gairdner: Travis' Wish - "'Dad? Am I gonna die of cancer?'
'I'm not gonna let you. I love you too much'...
The Make A Wish Foundation presents: The Boy Who Everyone Loved And Who Never Died"

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

"Al molino ed alia sposa, sempre manca qualche cosa"

On naming and gender

"'Since both Asia and Africa received their names from women, I do not see why anyone should rightly prevent this [new part] from being called [America]'...

This sounds a lot like Ringmann, who is known to have spent time mulling over the reasons that concepts and places so often had the names of women. 'Why are all the virtues, the intellectual qualities, and the sciences always symbolized as if they belonged to the feminine sex?' he would write in a 1511 essay on the Muses. 'Where does this custom spring from - a usage common not only to the pagan writers but also to the scholars of the church? It originated from the belief that knowledge is destined to be fertile of good works... Even the three parts of the old world received the name of women"

--- The Fourth Part of the World / Toby Lester


Of course, the feminist explanation is that lands are feminine because they are for men to conquer.

Pensées - XXIII. Grandeur de l'homme.

"JE puis bien concevoir un homme sans mains, sans pieds ; et je le concevrais même sans teste; si l'expérience ne m'apprenait que c'est par là qu'il pense. C'est donc la pensée qui fait l'être de l'homme, et sans quoi on ne le peut concevoir.

Qu'est-ce qui sent du plaisir en nous ? Est-ce la main ? Est-ce le bras ? Est-ce la chair ? Est-ce le sang ? On verra qu'il faut que ce soit quelque chose d'immatériel...

Qui se trouve malheureux de n'avoir qu'une bouche ? Et qui ne se trouve malheureux de n'avoir qu'un oeil ? On ne s'est peut être jamais avisé de s'affliger de n'avoir pas trois yeux ; mais on est inconsolable de n'en avoir qu'un...

L'homme n'est qu'un roseau le plus faible de la nature ; mais c'est un roseau pensant. Il ne faut pas que l'univers entier s'arme pour l'écraser. Une vapeur, une goutte d'eau suffit pour le tuer. Mais quand l'univers l'écraserait, l'homme serait encore plus noble que ce qui le tue ; parce qu'il sait qu'il meurt ; et l'avantage que l'univers a sur lui, l'univers n'en sait rien.

Ainsi toute notre dignité consiste dans la pensée...

Il est dangereux de trop faire voir à l'homme combien il est égal aux bêtes, sans lui montrer sa grandeur. Il est encore dangereux de lui faire voir sa grandeur sans sa bassesse. Il est encore plus dangereux de lui laisser ignorer l'un et l'autre. Mais il est très avantageux de lui représenter l'un et l'autre."

More evidence that feminism drives you bonkers

"Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it." - Tallulah Bankhead

***

This is quite far out:


Prostitution: Gender-based Income Redistribution With Honor And Dignity

"SEX WORKER: I want to make the case that certain women, especially intelligent women have a duty to themselves to become prostitutes...

QQ: Why should an intelligent women want to become a prostitute?

SEX WORKER: Men have always held power over women... Men are physically more capable than women in every respect except one: WE CAN MAKE LOVE ALL DAY LONG AND MEN CANNOT. So if throughout history men have used their ‘natural’ physical advantage for their own ends, which includes the systematic exploitation of women, women should be encouraged to use their one physical advantage to their own end. As a political act, as an economic consideration, as an act of liberation, I want to encourage some of us women to become prostitutes, and to be proud of the fact because being able to make love all day long is a natural, god-given-power that provides us with the means to correct the economic injustices men have subjected us to throughout our history.

QQ: How does becoming a prostitute, one of the most frowned upon professions in the world, liberate women?

SEX WORKER: Let me explain or rather let the numbers explain... The numbers speak for themselves. After 42 weeks of being penetrated, I will have earned almost 3 million dollars, which tells a very interesting story of the relationship that exists between a woman’s strength and a man’s weakness. Men use their physical superiority for their own ends, to make a economically better life for themselves; women should be encouraged to use their physical, which in this case is sexual, strength for their betterment. Call it another form of taxation or gender-based income redistribution...

QQ: Why do you say men are weak, when what I think you mean is that men are more easily aroused than women?

SEX WORKER: I say you are weak because you can’t say no to your desire. Men risk years in prison for following their sexual predilections, they risk contracting all sorts of sexual diseases because they can’t say no, they risk their marriages and relationships because they can’t say no. The fact of the matter is that you give us billions of dollars per year because you are weak, because you cannot say no...

We prostitutes are your invention. We exist because you are weak...

More than being slaves to your desire, you are slaves to your envy. You envy us because we are sexually superior, and to get back at us for our one power over you, you turn us into objects of ill-repute...

QQ: You don’t seriously think men envy women because they can’t lie on their backs all day long?

SEX WORKER: Let me tell you something about just how much men envy and hate women. I would say about between 5 and 10 percent of my clients request The Golden Shower, where they ask me to pee on them. Have you ever thought about why a human being would want to be peed on?

QQ: They’re obviously sick.

SEX WORKER: What’s disturbing is that they ‘are not’ sick, but they are so resentful of a woman’s sexual superiority that it becomes intolerable to the point where they will do almost anything, especially if they have the ‘extra’ money, to humiliate a woman, to make her compromise her sexual superiority. We all know what going to the bathroom is all about. It’s something we have to do and we would rather do it alone, in private. If a woman is at her strongest when she is sexually desirable, she is at her weakest, sexually least attractive, when she is going to the bathroom. So what does it tell you about the mindset of the man who so badly wants to humiliate a woman, bring her down into his sewer, that he actually pays to be peed on for the satisfaction of humiliating her, to expose her in her least sexually attractive state. So in answer to your question, yes, many men hate women for their natural sexual superiority.

QQ: Why do you go along with such a practice?

SEX WORKER: It’s great to be paid for taking a pee, something I have to do anyway. But don’t get me wrong. I know who I’m dealing with: someone who hates women, who at any time could become violent...

QQ: What are you going to do with all this money?

SEX WORKER: I’m part of a political organization which consists of 20, mostly university educated prostitutes. We already have several million dollars put away; our target is 8 million which we’ll hit by the middle or 3rd quarter of next year. Part of that money will be used to open up a school to teach women why they should take pride in becoming prostitutes"


I think there's something very wrong in her description of the psychology of Golden Showers.

Monday, May 03, 2010

"The Accidental Conductor"



"The Accidental Conductor is about the story of a self-made musician. The Young Artist Award recipient of 2006 started out his music career without any formal training until he reached 30 years of age. Although he majored in Physics, his passion for music drove him to take chances with each little opportunity that came his way. He was, perhaps, the only conductor whose choirs have twice won the highest national accolade of Best Choir of the Year without him having a single piano lesson in his life.

This book tells of how he grew up in a conservative average family, took a unique path to his tertiary education, and eventually became a full-fledged musician in the choral world — although it was a slight deviation from his childhood dream of becoming an opera singer."

The Accidental Conductor by Toh Ban Sheng can be bought from Armour Publishing (S$16) or Popular (S$15.41)

SDN brings back Philosophy Night

Despite their last Philosophy Night was a failure, SDN is trying again!



Philosophy Night with Ten Thousand Angels

"How about a philosophy discussion night with Ten Thousand Angels ? This session is set in a Roman Catholic palace that makes our inspiration runs to the greatest height!...

Event Venue: Plaza Singapore, A place with Ten Thousand Angels."

Now I'm wondering what Roman Catholic palaces there are in Plaza Singapura.

Appropriately enough, the Heart Rating is only One Heart. Philosophy doesn't set the loins on fire!

Sunday, May 02, 2010

What makes Singaporean men sexy to Singaporean women?

Malaysia's The Star on the following RazorTV clip:

RAZORTV - Asian men less sexy? (Science of Sex Appeal Pt 6)

"The Chinese daily also highlighted an article criticising Singaporean women for being snobbish and not wanting to date men who earned less than they did no matter how good looking they were.

The article claimed that in a survey, it was found that Singa­porean women found a man earning S$8,000 (RM19,200) sexy, even if he was ugly in real life.

The survey, which was carried out by Razor TV, said the sexiness of a man had no direct correlation with his physical appearance but to his salary.

The online television service’s product unit had taken photographs of three men and showed them to women on the streets, asking them to give their opinions before and after revealing their wages.

The results showed that a handsome man who was scored highly by the women had his marks “deducted” after it was revealed that he earned less than his “competitors”.

In their interviews, the women said the type of car driven by the men also affected their sexiness.

However, they denied being snobbish, adding that men’s income reflected their personality."


Hurr hurr.

Though what's more interesting than women being drawn to rich men is the lame excuses they come up with for their preferences.

What I told the person who sent me this: "Aren't you glad you're with a Malaysian girl? =D"

On a side note, some of the stuff on Razor TV is actually quite good (awful diction of some of the 'multimedia journalists' aside).

Ask me anything, absolutely anything

Whether I reply is a separate matter:



(I heard about formspring through Valerie and nadnut)


My favourite answer so far:

Q: how far have you and ur bf gone

taivlys (sylviasupergirl): we've gone to edlyn's place which is in boon lay, after getting off the train still must take bus. counted or not?

The Perfect Lay-Off Letter

Dear Employees,

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way.

To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead.

This has really been bothering me since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go.

So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change. I gave it to them.

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

Best Wishes,
Your Boss

The Character of Man

"The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn." - David Russell

***

"His working himself up out of the oyster bed to his present position was probably matter of surprise and regret to the Creator. . . . For his history, in all climes, all ages and all circumstances, furnishes oceans and continents of proof that of all the creatures that were made he is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one--the solitary one--that possesses malice.

That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices--the most hateful. That one thing puts him below the rats, the grubs, the trichinae. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. But if the cat knows she is inflicting pain when she plays with the frightened mouse, then we must make an exception here; we must grant that in one detail man is the moral peer of the cat. All creatures kill--there seems to be no exception; but of the whole list, man is the only one that kills for fun; he is the only one that kills in malice, the only one that kills for revenge. Also--in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind.

Shall he be extolled for his noble qualities, for his gentleness, his sweetness, his amiability, his lovingness, his courage, his devotion, his patience, his fortitude, his prudence, the various charms and graces of his spirit? The other animals share all these with him, yet are free from the blacknesses and rottennesses of his character.

. . . There are certain sweet-smelling sugar-coated lies current in the world which all politic men have apparently tacitly conspired together to support and perpetuate. One of these is, that there is such a thing in the world as independence: independence of thought, independence of opinion, independence of action. Another is, that the world loves to see independence--admires it, applauds it. Another is, that there is such a thing in the world as toleration--in religion, in politics, and such matters; and with it trains that already mentioned auxiliary lie that toleration is admired and applauded. Out of these trunk-lies spring many branch ones: to wit, the lie that not all men are slaves: the lie that men are glad when other men succeed; glad when they prosper; glad to see them reach lofty heights; sorry to see them fall again. And yet other branch lies: to wit, that there is heroism in man; that he is not mainly made up of malice and treachery; that he is sometimes not a coward; that there is something about him that ought to be perpetuated--in heaven, or hell, or somewhere...

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. We have two opinions: one private, which we are afraid to express; and another one--the one we use--which we force ourselves to wear to please Mrs. Grundy, until habit makes us comfortable in it, and the custom of defending it presently makes us love it, adore it, and forget how pitifully we came by it. Look at it in politics. Look at the candidates whom we loathe, one year, and are afraid to vote against, the next; whom we cover with unimaginable filth, one year, and fall down on the public platform and worship, the next--and keep on doing it until the habitual shutting of our eyes to last year's evidences brings us presently to a sincere and stupid belief in this year's...

The preacher who casts a vote for conscience' sake runs the risk of starving. And is rightly served, for he has been teaching a falsity--that men respect and honor independence of thought and action.

--- The Character of Man / Mark Twain