Links - 6th May 2012

"Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories - those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost." - Russell Baker

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Grace vs. Annabel - "Read on to meet Catherine MacKinnon's worst nightmare... I wanted to challenge that whole idea in feminist theory that porn victimizes women. Because what about gay porn? Or lesbian porn, made by women for women? I wanted to challenge these theories and their own stereotypes about women as victims, which I see as being really sexist. There are a lot of assumptions about what women want, what women like. And a lot of these myths are not just promulgated by "patriarchal culture," but by the feminists themselves... The argument is that it's degrading for a woman to exploit herself, that we women should aspire to be something higher instead of living like dogs! But that puts women in the prison of the pedestal... I don't think it's possible to fantasize about anything without objectifying someone... there's always a certain degree of objectification going on, and people should acknowledge that"

Physicist Writes Mathematical Study to Avoid Traffic Ticket

2 Plus 1-SINGAPORE - YouTube - "I don't understand how a band from Poland, sung a song about Singapore and managed to get it quasi-popular in Japan. fyi, Singapore is a country. and no, it's not in China."

TheyFit Condoms - One Dozen - "Introducing TheyFit Condoms, the world's first individual fit condom line. TheyFit condoms feature 55 sizes to ensure that every guy, from 3 inches to 10 inches, can get a condom that fits properly for maximum security, comfort, and pleasure"

Goal to make S'pore free of shark's fins - "They hope to persuade all Chinese restaurants here to remove this dish - considered a traditional Chinese delicacy - by next year... Last year, Singapore imported about 3,500 tonnes of shark's fin, 40 per cent more than the previous year. Explaining that in the past the focus was on education, Mr Lu said now there is little time for these efforts to bear fruit - hence the call for a ban"
I wonder how many of those who oppose censorship support banning shark's fin

Advantages of Plastic Grocery Bags - "There are several important ecological advantages of plastic grocery bags over paper shopping bags. Because they weigh so much less, they contribute far less solid waste to landfills when not recycled. According to the EPA, paper bag production requires 40 percent more energy than the production of paper bags. Paper bag manufacturing also results in 50 percent more water pollution and 70 percent more air pollution than plastic bag manufacturing... One of the more compelling arguments against the use of plastic shopping bags is that marine life commonly mistakes them for food, and that this results in the death of 100,000 marine animals and 1 million sea birds annually. However, this argument is false. The myth originated from a 2002 study on plastic bags commissioned by the Australian government. In the report, the authors misquoted a previous Canadian study from 1987. The animal deaths cited were actually attributable to fishing lines and nets, not plastic bags"

Onus on men to verify prostitute is above 18 - "Nominated MP and law academic Eugene Tan said the law was passed because of concerns about young girls being trafficked into Singapore for prostitution... Mr Rodney Sim, an accountant, had sex twice with the girl. He claimed he did not know she was a minor. So when she complained that she and a friend were being abused by her pimp, he took them to the Chinese embassy to help them and later to the police to lodge a report. And this was what landed him in trouble... the judge ruled that... [he] should have insisted on verifying the girl's age from her passport before engaging her services, instead of relying on the bare representations of the pimp and the minor"
Good deeds don't pay; I remember reading one case where a fake ID was used but the man still got jailed

How to refute the logic of a Thomas Friedman op-ed - "Congratulations to present Thomas Friedman -- for effectively refuting past Tom Friedman"

Dating spreadsheet: Romanian beauty speaks out about banker's dating spreadsheet

Man finds videos of his wife on porn site - "The man — named only as Ramadan — passed out in an internet cafe after what he claimed was his first ever look at pornography... She confessed she had made the films with an old boyfriend during their marriage. She also told him she had never loved him although they had four children together... Ramadan said he had been happily married for 16 years until he logged on to the website"

Singapore girls at Flowerpod forum attack NSmen: You are balless wuss pussy, idiots and mommy boys!
“If you want him to be more of a man, try being more of a woman"; "Men can't claim sexism because sexism against men doesn't exist"

TODAYonline | Commentary | Mind the baby gap - "Governments trying to institute pronatalist policies will face an uphill battle. The right kind of programmes, such as those in France and Sweden, are expensive, and they may clash with vested interests and anger supporters of the traditional family - which is why many developed societies have done nothing or have employed useless half measures. Countries that fail to take low birth rates seriously do so at their own peril"

Nat Ho's $100,000 music video draws flak - "The complaints are that Ho, 27, cannot sing, has dodgy enunciation and that he used too much Auto-Tune (a voice pitch correction software) in the song... "This is like a failed version of (Korean-American singer and former member of K-pop boy band 2PM) Jay Park and (K-pop boy band Big Bang member) Seung Ri's videos... Every single time I watch it, there's always a new bad side of the video"... "I was happy [to get negative feedback] because my video touched them enough to get them to leave a reaction... The worst thing is to spend so much (on the music video) and then people are not even aware of it"... people from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, US and even Siberia liked his music video. Most of those who disliked it are from Singapore... Ho wanted his music producer to use Auto-Tune to make his voice sound as robotic as possible because the concept for the song and music video is that Ho, the actor, has been cloned to create Ho, the singer... He didn't want to debut with a song which would showcase his vocal abilities as he feels Unleashed aptly captures his transition from actor to singer. Ho also denied he was copying the K-pop trend. He said he had wanted to have platinum blonde hair ever since he saw local male model Colin Wee sport it in 2004... marketing executive Sean Chan, 28, was not impressed. He said: "When I first saw the video, I was thinking, 'Is he for real? Unleashed left no impression on me at all - at least not any good ones'"... Several key players in the local music industry also declined to be interviewed about Unleashed, explaining they didn't have anything good to say but also didn't want to discourage local talent or crush their dreams.

Which College Majors Pay Best? - Real Time Economics - WSJ - "Math skills are correlated to higher earnings. “Wages tend to be high for engineers and low for elementary education majors, suggesting that perhaps much of the wage differences between majors are due to differences in mathematical ability and high school course work,” the authors write... students expected to have higher earnings in the major in which they are currently enrolled than in other majors (with the exception of economics, which all students believe would lead to higher earnings). Though students tended to be more accurate in assessing their own majors than others, they were right about one thing. Of the degrees tracked, the highest wages went to those who studied economics"

62-year-old spends RM500,000 to look younger - "A 62-YEAR-OLD Taiwanese woman spent RM500,000 on cosmetic surgery after she was humiliated at an entertainment outlet three years ago. Lin Ling Zhu was determined to do something about her looks after she went to a pub and the worker made fun of her by asking if she was there to look for her grandchild... “More people would like to get to know me now,” said Lin, adding that even taxi drivers flirted with her"

How to Marry a Finnish Girl - "All the secrets about Finland and the Finns are finally revealed in HOW TO MARRY A FINNISH GIRL: Everything You Wanted to Know about Finland that Finns Won’t Tell You. Simply buying this book guarantees that you will:
- Make Out with Your First Finnish Girl in 24 Hours (or less!)
- Move to Finland in a city that doesn’t contain the word “poo”
- Land a Job that Makes Your Finnish In-Laws Proud
- Not Only Speak Finnish Fluently, but Teach it too
- Get on the Front Page of a Major Finnish Tabloid
- Identify a Finn on holiday in the Canary Islands"
"I 100% endorse anything which draws foreign creeps away from Estonian girls."

Spiders snack on birds, snakes - "Cairns resident Ant Hadleigh told ninemsn he was amazed to see a golden orb spider kill and then eat a brown tree snake in a friend's backyard earlier this week"

Muslim who left his shoes outside flat has them taken by council worker because they posed an 'elf 'n safety risk - "A spokesman for Bournemouth Borough Council said the tenancy agreement forbids tenants from storing personal items in communal areas. He added: 'We appreciate that it is customary in the Islamic faith to have a space allocated for footwear in the property before entering the private area. 'In this case it is understood to be the entrance hallway of the flat itself. 'The flat effectively ends at the communal hallway which, for fire evacuation purposes, must be kept completely clear.'"
Defenders of the health and safety regulations like to say that those opposing them represent nefarious corporate interests out to screw normal people. When a minority is involved, they'll have to take a different tack

Asia Sentinel - Singapore Minor in Major Sex Scandal - "While the local age of consent is 16, the age for commercial sexual transactions – prostitution is legal in Singapore -- was raised in 2007 by two additional years. The government acknowledged at the time that there was little need for the new law... The debate is whether she can accurately be described as vulnerable, exploited or in any way a victim... “Who are they trying to protect?” asked defense counsel Subhas Anandan (in a televised quote which was later edited out of the state-controlled media). “As far as I’m concerned this girl doesn’t need any protection. She’s a hardcore prostitute who got so many people into trouble”... “There is no defense unless doubt can be raised about whether or not the sex took place. The burden is on the man to satisfy that she is 18 by asking for a passport or identity papers,” said Chia Boon Teck, a local attorney. While the relevant Penal Code statute for the johns provides for criminal sanctions ranging from a fine to seven years of imprisonment, Chia said “nine months plus or minus is the benchmark we are looking at.” In the 2009 case of Tan Chye Hin v. Public Prosecutor, the Singaporean High Court affirmed a sentence of nine months, noting that “a custodial sentence should be the norm in order to sufficiently deter such behavior and to reflect the seriousness of such offenses.” A fine and no imprisonment would be appropriate when the woman was just under 18 and presented convincing forged identity documents to the customer, the court noted"
They should make it an offence to sell cigarettes to someone under 18 even if you're shown a fake ID
Keywords: underaged