Observations - 10th February 2012

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense." - Carl Sagan

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Got a spam email: "will you come to canton fair?" Was tempted to reply: "star anise, cloves, ginger and sichuan pepper"

Someone in it on NIE: "women or men, this place is an obvious dumping ground"

"Power, sex. Sex, Power. They both come down to one thing, fucking others"


"If the Westboro Baptist Church pickets your funeral, you've probably done something good with your life"

RT @kellyoxford Cain, Perry, Bachmann all claimed God told them to run for President, and all are out of the race. God is hilarious.


"It is there whether you like it or not. You are in the game whether you play or not. You either play or you are a victim" (this was on corporate politics but can apply elsewhere too)

If everything is urgent, nothing is. (failing which, another of my aphorisms: "urgent" means someone is going to die)


[On Victor Mair's Classical Chinese class] "first class he walked in and promptly announced his prediction that half of the 10 people sitting in the room would drop the class by the first two weeks. He underestimated.
"if you think you can do well in this class because you're fluent in mandarin, you're wrong. this is a completely different language. the words don't mean the same, don't sound the same, don't look the same. the grammar doesn't work the same way. you will be learning from complete scratch". i kinda think he took sadistic pleasure in disappointing the students"

Yew Tee sounds horrible in Chinese. 油池 (oil pool)


Is talking about "Crimes of Opportunity" and how to prevent them Victim Blaming?

I was wondering whether it was appropriate to call females blur cocks, and someone pointed out a word already existed: "bimbo", but that it "may be deemed inappropriate by more sensitive members of the opposite gender"

"Unwanted pregnancies are not the root cause of abortion. That is like saying an unwanted baby is the root cause of killing the baby"

RT @BB_See: If a man hits a woman he's a monster. If a woman cuts a man's penis off it must be something the man did. #equality

I doubt anyone - least of all AWARE (I checked the website and couldn't find anything) - makes noise about male MOE teachers not being allowed to bring students overseas alone. Ironically this policy can hurt the students it is presumably meant to "protect" - for activities like mountain climbing it can be very hard to find female teachers to go along (one solution is to get female alumni to fill the role of female chapeone). Ahh male privilege!

Comment on a ST Forum letter: "men typically speak for greater good while human rights to women seems to mean only their own rights" (commenting on the self-ghettoisation of female activists; for example of the 3 Nobel Peace Prize winners in 2011 [all female], 2 used a female perspective (as opposed to a universalist one).


"If we break up he must give me the house..even prostitutes get paid" "you don't give full service"

"If I hit 30 & I'm not married I'm going to give up"
Me on the Joint Singles Scheme: "35 is a good age to give up..the government gives up on you"

[28 year old girl on dating older men] "We hate all the girls 5-6 years younger than us, but the girls 5-6 years older than us hate us"


RT @avalon: @gssq U sound so WISE I thought u r a sagely 30+ man with lotsa wisely charms...

RT: @ItsAYYSIAN: If strippers are now called exotic dancers then drug dealers should be called exotic pharmacist.


RT: @LANDEYves: Les tweets les plus hilarants sont ceux qui critiquent le capitalisme et dénoncent le travail d'enfants en Chine « via Twitter for iPhone ».

RT: @Isaamia: -Papa y a quoi entre les jambes de maman?
-Le paradis
-Et entre les tiennes?
-Les clefs du paradis
-Bah change les, le voisin a les doubles!

It's telling that there're more Google hits for "Du tiers-monde a la prosperite" than "Du tiers-monde à la prosperité"