Links - 6th November 2011

Pourquoi (pas) le porno ? - Enquêtes - SecondSexe - "Cette société transgenre ou post-genre trouverait son expression la plus symbolique dans le seul organe qu’hommes et femmes, hétéros, homos et lesbiennes, nous possédons en commun : le « trou du cul »... À force de critiquer, même dans la joie, la pornographie « hétérocentriste », « hétéronormée », et tous les adjectifs parfois outranciers ou employés à torts et à travers des gender studies, l’outil déconstructionniste peut devenir un prétexte à la haine du porno, une façon de cacher ses tendances abolitionnistes, sans paraître pour autant « coincé », « réactionnaire » ou tout simplement « prude ». Si la vision féministe de la pornographie est de ne pas faire de porno du tout, que devient l’enseignement d’Annie Sprinkle, qui affirmait : « La réponse à la mauvaise pornographie, ce n’est pas "pas de porno du tout" c’est de faire du meilleur porno. » ? Nul besoin pour cela de s’enfermer dans de nouvelles catégories, de nouvelles étiquettes"

Some people actually have a fear of beautiful women!

OH, PUT IT AWAY! - "When I see gay men soaping their erections in full view of small children, or having penetrative sex on a traffic island in broad daylight, it makes me cringe. Not because they’re expressing their sexuality, but because they’re doing it in a way which is anti-social and, frankly, an embarrassment to us all. Gay rights don’t include the right to have sex whenever and wherever we please. We are more than just our cocks and arses"

Kindness Oozes Out of People With a Sweet Tooth - "People who like tucking into chocolates and other confectionery delights, tend to be kinder, says a new study. They are also more likely to do favours for others and help out in the community"

Wisconsin Judge Rules No Right to Own a Cow or Drink Its Milk - "In a decision denying basic property rights and even exceeding the FDA’s contempt for the rights of private contract and food freedom of choice, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Patrick J. Fiedler has issued an order holding that owners of cows do not have a fundamental right to consume milk from their own cow"

Canada has best reputation in the world: study
Virtually all the top 20 are in Europe

The world of adolescence: The best days of their lives? | The Economist - "Moral boundaries are less clear than they were; many young adults have been taught not just to tolerate other people’s views and behaviour but to see them all as equally valid... Murder, rape, bank robbery are seen as wrong. But what about cheating on exams, cheating on lovers, even driving drunk? They talk about whether they might be caught, how their friends would react, how they themselves might feel. Where it is a question of others’ questionable behaviour, a standard answer is that it is up to each individual to decide for himself. Very few seem to think that right and wrong are rooted in anything outside personal experience"
The perils of relativism

8 Weird, Non-Food Uses for Your Freezer

South African court says Chinese condoms "too small" - "A South African court has stopped the government from buying 11 million condoms from China on the grounds that the made-in-China condoms are too small... The Chinese female condoms... are 20 percent smaller than the approved product"
This is still congruous with what you think of when you read the headline. Together with condoms being too big for Indian men, it gives us more reason to doubt the studies claiming that penile size does not vary as you go down a laundry list of conceivably relevant variables

Windows 8 Has A Friendlier Blue Screen Of Death

Chinese man has an eel enter his penis, then bladder after spa treatment

Dates with boyfriend and mummy - "She has been on most of daughter Jenevieve Woon's outings with boys ever since the teenager started dating last December. She has gone on countless cycling trips upcountry with Jenevieve, 17, and her Singaporean boyfriend who works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ms Chua also joins the young couple for dinners, movies and shopping trips"
Somehow I don't think he's that young...

Morphin' Legacy: What's Your Legacy? - 3 of our Sexiest Rangers - "Jessica Rey (Wild Force, White) Tracy Lynn Cruz (Turbo/Space Yellow) & Cerina Vincent (Yellow, Lost Galaxy)"

Stroke of Genius: Abilities Borne of Brain Damage - "From the engineer on disability who became a sought-after digital artist after a stroke to a woman whose dementia spurred remarkable creative output, these 10 artists were all transformed by neurological trauma or disorders"
Somehow I doubt there are artists who become talented engineers after strokes

Edison Chen caught with 16-year-old girl - "Some of their leaked chats suggest that Chen had a sexual fetish involving uniforms. In one chat, published as a screen grab, he asked to take pictures of Tse, promising to delete them later and exhorting her to keep them secret, Apple Daily reported. He told her he wanted to take photos of her in sexy costumes: "I get u the outfits... Sum cute... Sum sexy... Sum costume... Secret... can u keep??" "It will b fun... some us together... some u alone." In a span of 10 minutes, he allegedly sent her 17 texts urging her to pose for pictures, reported Apple Daily. In another leaked excerpt urging her to pose in her school uniform, he wrote: "Rmb tmr to bring ur real school uni... N swimsuit... N cutecute clothing." When she agreed to his request, he wrote: "Cant waitty.""
"for someone who grew up in Canada, his english is damn epic fail."

Sex appeal isn't on the CVs of today's Miss World contestants - "These days, the swimwear round – coyly renamed “Beach Beauty” – takes place before the main live show and counts for less in the marks. It is also optional... there has also been an increasing number of professionals, including pilots, lawyers, teachers and a cranio-facial surgeon. Among this year’s crop, half are studying for a degree, a quarter have already graduated and more than half speak three languages. Patriotism is a strong motivation for the women, many of whom grew up watching the show with their families... [Miss Dominican Republic] likes the fact that contestants are referred to only by the country they represent... The women were surprised by some of the hostility at the Cambridge Union, but they appear to have given as good as they got. “Being a woman is one of the hardest things in the world,” says the articulate Miss Botswana. “The moment you step out of the house, you’re judged. You’re judged on your nails, your hair. So it’s not so bad to stand up on a stage. We don’t just strut around”... It’s like Eurovision meets Strictly Come Dancing, without the raunchy bits. No wonder no one can be bothered to watch it in Britain... [Miss Indonesia] sees Miss World as good preparation for a career in international diplomacy, allowing her to learn languages and make new friends"

PayPal: Android may become more secure than iOS - "The iOS, for instance, is not as secure as it is perceived to be, according to Nahari, who noted that as Apple does not announce its security issues. Some users may perceive this to mean that the OS is safe, he added. He pointed to the host of security problems with the iOS, noting that Apple has been patching and updating the software"

Model Castrated Journalist With Corkscrew To Banish Gay Demons
The perils of magical thinking - which is not limited to this case

Herman Cain plays the race card, unfortunately - "Herman Cain thinks his race is a factor in the publicizing of sex harassment complaints, though he has no evidence of a racially motivated conspiracy against him"
The moral of the story seems to be that only liberals can play the race card without evidence

Same-Sex Marriage and Blacks - NYTimes.com - "This isn’t a topic that advocates for gay rights or their many black supporters relish discussing, because it focuses on a wedge where they wish there was a tighter bond. But polls indicate that support for same-sex marriage lags among black Americans... Wade Henderson, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, noted the existence of phrases like “gay is the new black” and said that attempts to equate the persecution of gay and black Americans can be “deeply offensive”"

The Practical Quant: What every aspiring Investment Banker should know about Wall Street - "Banks have figured out how to appeal to students' desire to maintain a measure of their elite status... [in] the technology sector where most companies don't care much about where a person went to college (if they went at all), no wonder finance and investment banking grab most of the graduates of elite Universities. Better yet, compare our elite schools with France where graduates of many of the top schools vie for public sector jobs!... employees at large Wall Street banks view their employment as a "financial relationship". They embrace the risk/reward trade-off between high compensation and (for most employees) the absence of job security... What's striking about the speed with which investment banks shutter entire groups and offices is that it exemplifies a common criticism leveled against the financial industry -- the focus on short-term conditions and lack of strategic vision. Time and again investment banks close down groups only to find themselves having to scramble to hire bankers back when economic conditions change. Which begs the question, why should companies take strategic advice from investment banks, when these very banks don't really have any strategy/vision for how to manage themselves!... one wonders why there isn't more accountability on the part of bankers. At the very least firms should be scored, but ideally individual bankers should be as well... in many cases, working with ones hands is actually more engaging than rote/routine "white collar" occupations. There are many investment bankers who feel trapped, and would prefer to do something else with their lives... "the money is that good""