Links - 18th August 2011

"The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it." - Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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Man tried to split atoms in kitchen

Yonge-Dundas smackdown - "A fist in the face doesn’t necessarily constitute assault in our increasingly culturally sensitive Toronto... a woman wearing a hijab ran toward me. She was part of a group that included two women wearing full face-covering burkas. She was screaming: “We are Muslim! You do not take pictures of us!” (Odd. I can’t find the “no photos” rule in the Qur’an.) I informed the lady I was in a public square in a democracy. I can actually take pictures of whomever I please. And then: Ka-pow! Her fist collided with my face. Worse, she almost knocked my new camera from my hands. My son and I were then surrounded by a mob of about 20 people... No charges would be laid, he said, because he believed the woman’s story — namely, she was merely trying to knock the camera out of my hands"

Mother wins right to more than half of ex-husband¿s £500,000 crash compensation payout as 'her needs are greater' - "A woman battling her amputee ex-husband for the lion's share of his £500,000 compensation has won the right to more than half his money in a landmark ruling... Mr Mansfield, 41, now faces having to sell his home, a specially adapted bungalow in Chelmsford, Essex - to meet the court's order that he pay £285,000 to 37-year-old Cathryn, so she can buy a new home for herself and their two children"

Career break travel myths - "A vacation is different from traveling. On average, a vacation that includes a flight, hotel stays, and eating out for every meal can cost anywhere from US$1,000 to $2,000 per person per week. Plus when you go on vacation, all of your other monthly expenses don’t go away. You still have to pay for your mortgage or rent, car, electricity, water, magazine subscriptions – this all continues while you are on vacation"

Nearly one million China nationals living in Singapore? - "According to the reply from UnionPay, it is the ‘preferred mode of payment for the nearly 1 million Chinese nationals living and working/studying in Singapore’"
It's now gone from Insing.com

Frustrated Singapore musician moving out of her homeland - "Why? why are we possibly the only country where “local” has so much negative connotations tagged with it. why are we the only country where you’re only considered a GOOD, COMPETENT musician when you can play covers. why are we the only bloody country where the press and media will have to INTENTIONALLY highlight that a local musician plays an “original compostition”"

Skype sex wife - "The Malay Mail exposes a VERY secretive and hidden lifestyle of a woman allegedly forced by her bank telemarketer husband to engage in sexual encounters with at least a dozen strangers in hotels while he watched and recorded the acts on his webcam at home"
Malaysia Boleh!

Toyota's New Steering Wheel Knows If You're Having A Heart Attack

The Most Hilariously Effective Signs Supporting Gay Marriage

down, i say, down with malcolm gladwell! - "Every story in the book falls apart in these ways when you break them down and ignore all of Gladwell's bells and whistles. They simply do not go where he is trying to make them go... The nicest thing that can be said about Malcolm Gladwell is that he doesn't even really believe his own mental garbage. If he is salvageable as a human being, it might be for the simple reason that he's a bad fraud"

Happy people make better, faster decisions: study

Susan Katz Miller: Why Include Interfaith Children in Interfaith Dialogue? - "Despite our lifelong immersion in interfaith reality, interfaith children have rarely been formally included in the "interfaith movement." The dominant, and safe, prescribed model for interfaith discourse follows this formula: two or more people with distinct religious labels meet to shake hands across a boundary, come to a deeper understanding of their own traditions and then retreat to their own closed religious boxes. These interfaith encounters are carefully structured: invite one Jewish organization, one Christian organization, and one Muslim organization to the podium, or share a meal with one Buddhist, one Hindu, one Pagan, one Secular Humanist"

American Politics in a Single Graph

Why fair bosses fall behind - "Although fair managers earn respect, they are seen as less powerful than other managers - less in control of resources, less able to reward and punish - and that may hurt their odds of attaining certain key, contentious leadership roles"
This is another factor that could explain the gender gap in management

Opposites attract? Apparently not, according to study - "‘Individuals on the dating market will assess their own self-worth and select partners whose social desirability approximately equals their own. The most striking prediction is that undesirable individuals will choose undesirable partners’"

Job Change Notifier - "Get an email alert when any of your LinkedIn connections change jobs"

UNDERCOVER camera in a spa malaysia - YouTube

"Six Political Illusions" - "• The Philanthropic Illusion: the idea that government has money of its own.
• The Voluntary Illusion: the impulse to want to believe that government action is not based on force.
• The Illusion of the Frictionless State: the idea that the State can transfer resources with negligible overhead cost.
• The Materialistic Illusion: that money alone buys public-policy results.
• The Watchful Eye Illusion: the idea that the government has greater knowledge and wisdom than the public.
• The Illusion of Government Preeminence: the belief that the government is the only problem-solving institution in society."

LKY and fellow apologists rewriting his record - "'But once you start creating privileged groups without justification for that privilege, you are planting the seeds of social unrest and riots'... Records exist from foreign sources to show that then-PM Lee back in 1972 conveniently omitted any reference to the fact that it was originally his idea that educated Singaporeans should be exempted from the draft"

How Google Disrespected Mexican History - "Anything can happen when Google gets involved in digitizing national treasure troves of archived information"

The Lowdown on Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

11 Things to Know at 25(ish) - "When I was 25, I was in my third job in as many years—all in the same area at a church, but the responsibilities were different each time. I was frustrated at the end of the third year because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do next. I didn’t feel like I’d found my place yet. I met with my boss, who was in his 50s. I told him how anxious I was about finding the one perfect job for me, and quick. He asked me how old I was, and when I told him I was 25, he told me I couldn’t complain to him about finding the right job until I was 32. In his opinion, it takes about 10 years after college to find the right fit, and anyone who finds it earlier than that is just plain lucky. So use every bit of your 10 years: try things, take classes, start over"

S'pore workers 'world's unhappiest' - "HATE your work? Dread going in on Monday? Considering quitting your job? Well, you are not alone. Most of the Singapore workforce is with you, according to one survey. A poll of employee attitudes in 14 countries has ranked Singapore last in workplace happiness. Unsurprisingly, this correlates to loyalty to employers, where Singapore is again ranked at the rear... Only 17 per cent of Singapore's workforce see themselves staying with their current employer forever. The global average is 35 per cent... only 19 per cent of those polled in Singapore look forward to their work each day, compared to the global average of 30 per cent. When it comes to positive and supportive workplaces, only a paltry 12 per cent vouch that they exist in Singapore. Globally, 20 per cent believe so. Mr Bezemer attributes Singapore's poor showing to the lack of transparency and consistency in workplaces here and an absence of stimulating jobs"

Her Hitler! The bizarre plot by British spies to make the Fuhrer a fraulein - "Agents planned to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food to make him less aggressive and more like his docile younger sister Paula, who worked as a secretary... The British were not alone, however, in hatching far-fetched schemes. The Nazis planned to poison sausages, chocolate and Nescafe if they lost the war, leaving them where they would be found by Allied troops."

Summon Auntie – iPhone App | Summon Auntie - "You simply lock your vehicle's location, and wait. If another user spots and alerts our system of a Summon Auntie near your parked vehicle, a notification is sent to you. IMMEDIATELY run or fly to your vehicle, every minute counts because Summon Aunties will say "Sorry hor, I cannot cancel one""

Roaches Love Dancing To Lady Gaga

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com - "OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched. While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks... I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation... My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice. Warren E. Buffett"