Links - 20th January 2011

"Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long." - Leonard Bernstein

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Botched police raid shocks Quebec man - "MacQuat said police confused the smell of marijuana with the scent of a skunk that lives beneath the front of his home. "A senior officer came in and said there is a skunk""

YouTube - Japan sends 'Sushi Police' to fight bad sushi - "Is it really in a position to criticise how people from other countries make sushi?"

Moving Beyond “Feminism” - "I was born Asian, so I technically belong to a so-called “minority group” with less privileges. I could either spend my energy feeling angry about it and take only 7 steps from -3 to +4, or use the same energy to climb up 10 steps to +7. Which would serve myself and our society better in the end? Because of the slew of medical and technological choices available, some women in their 40s who are experiencing infertility become obsessed about getting pregnant. If they could eventually get pregnant, it’s not so bad, but some end up failing even after trying for years and spending a fortune. Imagine what else they could have achieved with the same money and time if they were able to accept their infertility like everyone did in the old days. Are we really empowered by these choices or are we victimized by them? It’s hard to say" Very rambly, but this part is good

Subculture inspires young male cross-dressing trend - ""As you see from my (cross-dressing) age, I look young when I disguise myself as a woman," the doctor, who only wanted to be identified as Ogawa, said in a recent telephone interview. "I feel good being told I look young." He takes care of his skin because he wants to keep being praised, and says he looks more youthful during his cross-dressing ("josou") life... Japan has a long history of cross-dressing males. "Nihonshoki," or "Chronicle of Japan," written in the eighth century, describes Yamato Takerunomikoto disguised as a woman, Mizuha said. Until the Edo Period, people dressed their sons in girls' clothes to pray for good health because girls were thought to be more resistant to disease"

YouTube - Simpsons -- The XXX Parody - "In this live-action sex satire, Homer borrows Flanders video camera and tries to convince Marge to let him glaze her tight pink donut. Mmmmmmm...pink donut. But instead, everybody else in Springfield seems to be getting their shorts eaten, until Marge finally decides to let her blue hair down, and show you and Homer how wet and wild it can get underneath that green dress. Witness sexed-up spoofs of your favorite Springfield characters; Marge, Homer, Cookie Kwan, Moe, McBain, Barney, Flanders, and more!" The voices are spot-on. And this will be an actual Hustler release, like This Ain't Avatar XXX [in 3D, of course], Star Trek, Sex and the City (?!), I Dream of Jeannie, Friends, Twilight, Golden Girls (!), the Da Vinci Load ("Operatives of the Priory of Semen discover that Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa using his own sperm. These keepers of the truth fuck in the name of art and kill anyone who gets in their way") and more. The line is pretty clever, they even have "Not Another Porn Movie" Comment: "my god, if i watch this i'll be the most part of the time laughing than being horny, i think.. xD" Interestingly there're only just a few more "Like" than "Dislike" ratings

Travel | Going solo - "The usual rules apply: Always stay in public places, be back by a sensible time, and most importantly, trust your instincts. Do you feel safe and comfortable? If you don't in the slightest, it's time to exit the situation" Maybe Singaporeans don't like solo travel because they have dulled instincts

Woman dies after being crushed by falling woman - "Madam Lau, who was diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer a few years ago, survived the disease but did not survive being crushed... Both families met for the first time at the mortuary yesterday"

Teacher caught in lesbian scandal sues to get her job back - "The school safety agent... testified that he'd seen Brito "naked on the floor with her legs kneeled, like in a birthing position, and I saw the blonde between her legs"... In actuality, what's been described as a steamy sapphic soiree was Mauro helping an ailing Brito get some sugar and candy because the diabetic was having a blood sugar crash, her filing says... "There is no possible medical, nonsexual assistance that a partially naked person could possibly be rendering to another naked person in the position described," Crangle's report read" Predictably, there're accusations of homophobia; one taught French and one Spanish - gotta love these Europeans!

New Zodiac Sign Dates Causing Identity Crisis on Twitter - """When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces"... Even more shocking: Kunkle and his colleagues say there should be a 13th sign, Ophiuchus. That's the constellation the sun is in from Nov. 29 to Dec. 17. Apparently, the Babylonians skipped Ophiuchus because they wanted there to be only 12 signs" No worries, just steal tactics from apologists

Man returns from dead during death ritual - "A 42-year-old cancer patient Mr. Tsai returned from the dead during a Buddhist death ritual, shocking everyone present" It's a miracle! Time to convert to Buddhism

10 Best Ad Campaigns "Life's too short for the wrong job" (Pic)

MILITARY PSYCHIATRY - "Suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder characterised by an obsession with cleanliness, negative ruminative thoughts and magical thinking... Being obsessed with cleanliness, he managed to keep the work place spick and span... The psychiatric disorders in the military can be categorised as follows: •Stress-related Disorders (40%) •Personality Disorders (10%) •Neurotic Disorders (20%) •Psychotic Disorders (15%) •Mental Handicap (5%) •Sexual Disorders (5%) •Other psychiatric disorders (5%) Their clinical features are not very different from that seen in a non-military setting... Those with pre-existing psychotic disorders (e.g. Schizophrenia, Delusional Disorders and Manic Depressive Psychosis) are usually not enlisted for national service... Sometimes, soldiers who have no pre-existing psychotic illness may develop it whilst in service... Soldiers who declare themselves to be homosexuals or have homosexual inclinations are referred to the SAF psychiatrist to determine their appropriate medical and vocational grading. Those who are effeminate are usually downgraded to a service vocation whilst those who are non-effeminate can remain in the combat vocation... Pure malingering (such as forging of medical reports, feigning paralysis of limbs, feigning mental illness) is relatively rare these days. However, opportunistic malingering may be fairly common. These are soldiers who “capitalise” on their existing physical ailments... Sometimes, an understanding of their underlying personalities and stressors is necessary before we can get a clearer picture of why they are “exaggerating” symptoms to get out of training or tough work." I thought that you need to be effeminate to be downgraded as a homosexual was classified. And it's blatantly obvious why people "exaggerate" their symptons

Young S'poreans keen to hear MM Lee's views - "Mr Cheo Ming Shen, 27, described Mr Lee as the equivalent of Nelson Mandela to Singaporean"
"Mandela: one-third of his life in prison, forgave those who wronged him. LKY: put enemies in prison for one-third their lives"

Words Shakespeare Invented - "The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. Below is a list of a few of the words Shakespeare coined, hyperlinked to the play and scene from which it comes"

Rogue Facebook apps can now access your home address and mobile phone number
After stopping their nonsense, Facebook is starting it again. Now we know why Facebook asked us to update our phone numbers for 'security' reasons

Have women evolved to protect themselves from rapists? - ""No sensible person would argue that a scientist researching the causes of cancer is thereby justifying or promoting cancer. Yet some people argue that investigating rape from an evolutionary perspective justifies or legitimizes rape"... When threatened by sexual assault, ovulating women display a measurable increase in physical strength... Ovulating women overestimate strange males' probability of being rapists... Ovulating women play it safe by avoiding situations that place them at increased risk of being raped... Women become more racist when they're ovulating"
Luckily he's gay, so you can't criticise him without being homophobic

Semen allergy suspected in rare post-orgasm illness - "Men were given skin injections containing their own semen, at first in an extremely dilute form, and then in gradually less diluted forms"

Man Waiting Until Parents Die Before Doing A Single Thing That Makes Him Happy | The Onion - ""I try not to worry my folks too much, seeing how they're getting older and all," said Terlaine, who has opted for the past 18 years not to grow a beard for fear of his mother's response. "I just don't want to make any waves, you know?" Added Terlaine, "I figure that's the easiest thing for everybody involved"... he feels lucky his mother and father care enough about him to remain involved in his life... Terlaine has also reportedly allowed his parents' opinions to ruin the majority of his serious relationships, including the one with Janet Furst, the girl he always thought of as "the one"... At press time, Terlaine's parents decided to cancel a planned two-week trip to Europe this summer, as they didn't want to be gone for so long in case their son needed them"

Jiang Xueqin: The Test Chinese Schools Still Fail - "Chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for standardized tests. For that reason, they fail to prepare them for higher education and the knowledge economy... To write well in English, students need to understand concepts such as thesis and argument, structure and support, coherence and flow, tone and audience, diction and syntax—concepts that are barely introduced in Chinese schools"
Either Chinese students can't write well in Chinese or to write well in Chinese, you don't need to understand basic writing concepts, but just need to memorise your 默写 (regurgitation)

snopes.com: Disneyland Long Hair Prohibition - "at one point women wearing halter tops were also prohibited from entering the park... Faced with manpower shortages at their American theme parks, in early 2000 Disney modified their policy to allow male cast members to sport neatly-trimmed moustaches"