Links - 8th May 2012

"The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness." - Andre Malraux

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Klouchebag | The Standard for Asshattery - "I got annoyed with the fuss around Klout, the horrible social-game that assigns you a score based on how "influential" you are online. This is the result... Klouchebag uses the ARSE rating system. Anger: profanity and rage. Retweets: "please RT"s, no or constant retweeting, and old-style. Social Apps: every useless checkin on foursquare or its horrible brethren. And English Usage: if you use EXCLAMATION MARKS OMG!!! or no capitals at all, this'll be quite high."
For some reason I score very high on "English Misuse"

Feministe: In Defense of “Douchebag” - ""The douche bag is a total moron and doesn’t think before he speaks or acts,” makes the gendered meaning all too apparent — and repugnant"... Personally, I’m happy to see the douchebag demonized. Unlike a lot of other common insults — “bitch,” “cunt,” “retard,” “fag” — “douchebag” actually insults something that deserves to be insulted. Douching is terrible for women; it can lead to infection and irritation... Insulting douches doesn’t insult women — the existence of douches insults women"
Comment: "I would consider “douche” or “douchebag” a problematic insult if it was used in a way that actually linked it with the product or the idea of vaginas being unclean. If people said, “He was disgusting as a old douchebag” or “You smell like a douche,” then yeah, there’s some woman-hating implications there. But since it isn’t used that way, I don’t think it’s sexist."
In other words, for [many] feminists, sexism is fine - as long as it's against men

Norton Japanese Commercial - YouTube

Mindset change needed to help low-wage workers - "Wages at the lowest 10 per cent of the income scale have remained flat over the past decade. For some professions like cleaning, they have fallen. In 2000, the median gross wage for cleaners and labourers was $1,277. By 2010, it fell to $960. For cleaners of industrial buildings like Mr Johari, the median gross wage is even lower, at around $600 in 2010... Singaporean households in the bottom fifth of the income scale needed around $1,700 a month to cover basic costs of living like food and utilities. At the time, they earned an average of only $1,274 per month... At the other end of the scale, the number of individuals who earn at least $10,000 a month here has jumped from 48,400 to nearly 140,000 in a decade. Singapore has the highest proportion - one in six households - of millionaires in the world... Singapore needs to foster a culture which respects quality plumbers, builders and food service staff, as has already happened in so many developed countries... Higher-income Singaporeans benefit from cheap domestic service, cheap service staff and cheap meals, because wages in these sectors are so low... Will middle-class Singapore countenance wage increases that will raise their cost of a restaurant meal, a haircut or a car wash? Perhaps the question should be put the other way round. Perhaps Singaporeans should consider if they can countenance being a society where the well-off live well, on the low cost of service provided by workers who cannot make ends meet... Singapore's approach has been to focus on retraining to raise skills and productivity levels. But decades of this approach have not significantly boosted wages at the lower end... There is a clear need for a major rethink on how best to help low-wage workers"
I think many of the people who denounce income inequality also get upset when the price of char kway teow rises by 50 cents

NOS SANDWICHS | McDonald's France - "Succombez au nouveau mythe: Du poulet croustillant*, du Monterey Jack fondu, deux tranches de tomates, de la salade... Et maintenant du bacon, pour encore plus de croustillant et de gourmandise ! On est toujours plus fan !"

Africans shocked by uncivilized antics of European savages - "“I don’t want to sound racist, and some of my best friend are white, but let’s be honest: violence is hard-wired into their DNA,” said Mwanasa. “I mean, Europeans killed over 20 million other Europeans in the 1930s and 1940s. That’s barbarism on a scale unprecedented in history”... “The brochures promise sea and sun, but they’re still incredibly backward in Spain,” she recalled. “Basically they all live in mud huts called haciendas, and they sleep for two hours in the middle of the day. In Europe they call it a ‘siesta’. In Ghana we call it ‘being fucking lazy’... But, she added, this kind of “depressing inertia” was to be expected in a country with more debt than most of Africa combined”

Do more to help foreigners adjust: DPM Teo
What about telling foreigners to "Do more to adjust"?

The iPhone-carrying JoeyBra - "Dubbed the JoeyBra--as in baby kangaroo, because they have pouches, get it?--it was created by two entrepreneurial business students at the University of Washington who saw great potential for growth in the pocketed bra market. At least, that's the pitch. In reality, a pair of students in search of a way to party without having to detach from their phones or accessorize their best bar-hopping gear came up with one... The college juniors claim the pocketed bra can hold an iPhone along with ID, credit cards and even keys, regardless of bust size"

Airline accident ratings - "Aviation accidents are extremely rare, with the probability of a passenger being killed on a single flight at approximately eight million-to-one. If a passenger boarded a flight at random, once a day, everyday, it would statistically be over 21,000 years before he or she would be killed."
Contrary to popular perception, SIA/Silkair are actually more dangerous on average

When Will this Low-Innovation Internet Era End? - "Only communication has been truly transformed, but is the transformation really as profound as the advent of telegraphs, radio, and TV?... We have no colonies on Mars, we still can't get by without prehistoric fuel, the dishwasher still doesn't get all the dishes clean, and very few of us have personal jetpacks. You call this progress?"

UKBA accused of covering up airport delays - "Heathrow Airport has been ordered by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to stop handing out to passengers leaflets acknowledging the "very long delays" at immigration, which have become a serious government concern in the runup to the Olympics... The airport operator was also told to prevent passengers taking pictures in the arrivals hall"
Security is of utmost importance! If photography had been more tightly regulated, we wouldn't have had the Abu Ghraib, Tiananmen or Nguyễn Văn Lém scandals!

Boss of controversial dating websites a PSC bond-breaker - "He then stayed on in the US to complete an MBA, which he paid for himself by working full-time for US-based logistics software firm, which sponsored his green card... Wey made his first million after he founded SeekingArrangement.com in 2006. The website matches "sugar daddies" to young women."
Moral of the story: break your bond, go on to do better things in life

Not tonight, or any other night, honey - "International Psychology Centre principal consultant psychologist Dr Edward Chan says he has counselled many clients who have experienced a decline in sexual desire after just two to three years of marriage... Although married couples argue about many issues, Chan asserts the underlying discontentment is usually linked to sex. "Only 35 per cent of couples seek therapy with the primary concern of sex. Almost 90 per cent come with different issues, but eventually realise that their problems are linked to sex as well." How often should married couples have sex? "The frequency should be at least once a week; however, there's no such thing as too much sex between partners"... researcher Rosemary Basson suggests that although a woman may be very interested in her partner, she may not initiate sex because for many women, sexual desire doesn't precede sexual arousal. Many women enter into sex feeling neutral and it's the sexual experience that stirs sexual desire. Although relational factors are important to women, researchers Karen Sims and Marta Meana, who study sexual decline in married women, say that stable and caring relationships are necessary, but not sufficient for sexual desire because women want to feel the romance... Research suggests that what too many women don't realise is that men don't need perfection. When a man is in the throes of ecstasy, he is not evaluating her legs, so why is she?"
One takeway: women don't know what they want until they want it

Australian woman sues over 'sex at work' - "A government employee, she was staying overnight at a rural hotel ahead of a meeting and has lodged a case in the Federal Court claiming she should get damages because the incident happened while she was on official business. Her lawyer, Leo Grey, told judge John Nicholas the woman was hurt in "an ordinary incident of life commonly undertaken in a motel room at night"... Comcare lawyer Andrew Berger said people on government business needed to eat, sleep and attend to their personal hygiene but "you don't need to have sex"

Korean Pop Idol Enrages Japanese Internet by Eating Instant Noodles From the Pot - "This, ladies and gentlemen, was enough to raise a furor among Japanese net users, who wasted no words in bashing Ji-yeon for her “disgusting table manners,” while others expressed a renewed appreciation of Japanese manners. One of the current top comments is supported by 15 ‘likes’ for saying that “eating straight from the pot like this is worse than beggars going to receive their food rations”... One insightful YouTube user pointed out that using the lid of the pot as a plate is a common way of eating misonikomi udon noodles in Nagoya, but then again, the lids of the earthen pots in which the dish is prepared are made to be eaten from, and Nagoyans are reputed for having bad manners in the first place"

School bans campus romance to keep students focused - "In a recent notice, Yueqing Yucai School banned youngsters of the opposite sex from talking alone in secluded areas, such as in dark corners or under trees, and from giving each other expensive gifts. Holding hands, hugging and kissing are strictly forbidden, while boys and girls are not even allowed to walk side by side on the playground... It warned that falling in love at an early age disrupts academic study, can cause physiological and psychological harm, and produces no result... Most parents with children at the school are in support of the new rules, according to Li, who added that many had been calling for measures to prevent adolescent romances. "We also asked students for suggestions before devising the rules," she said. "Some said they began their relationship after strolling with a classmate on the playground, so that's why we added it into the rules"... "Many educators believe academic study is the sole aim of education, so such rules are not uncommon. What they (educators) fail to understand is that integrity of character and a healthy psychology are far more important for the education of a child"... Students of the opposite sex were ordered to keep at least 60 centimeters from each other while talking on campus, except during classes and school gatherings, and were allowed to meet only in bright, public places"

These New Boots: Day 326: Questions & (No) Answers (The Aid Bitchslap) - "Some things I have become clear on as a result of Haiti:
1. Good intentions aren't enough.
2. Rose-colored glasses are bullshit.
3. The white savior industrial complex is real, demonstrated daily by feel good aid programs that probably don't work, or feel good causes like Kony 2012 that generate plenty of buzz but don't add up to much when people are actually supposed to do something.
4. You can't help people who don't want to help themselves.
5. True altruism is an incredibly rare thing. (See #3)
6. Little victories must be celebrated if you want to protect yourself from the crippling effects of the larger failure."