Links - 2nd July 2015

Timeline Photos - SMRT Ltd (Feedback) - "Pondan: Pukis"
"Pondan means ladyboy
Puki means pussy
DAMN FUNNY LA. like to be a ladyboy need to know how to make pussy."

'Credits for sex’ scam victims lost S$1.25m from Jan to May - "Earlier this month, a variation of the scam emerged: Victims were asked to hand over their ATM cards and PIN before they could meet the women. They were instructed to leave their ATM cards at public locations, and told that their cards would be returned to them after they met the women."
No one ever underestimated human stupidity

Legalized Medical Marijuana Doesn't Increase Teen Usage, Study Finds

Final Thoughts on Chomsky : Sam Harris - "Here, I would draw a distinction between a conversation and a debate. They’re superficially similar when the parties disagree, but to have one’s mind changed in a debate is to lose the debate and, very likely, to lose face before one’s audience. This is an incredibly counterproductive way to frame any inquiry into what is true... many people seem to think that these insults were a sign of the man’s moral seriousness. Many seem to think that belligerence and an unwillingness to have a civil dialogue is a virtue in any encounter like this, and that simply vilifying one’s opponent as a moral monster, by merely declaring him to be one, is a clever thing to do... This kind of masochism and misreading of both ourselves and of our enemies has become a kind of religious precept on the Left. I don’t think an inability to distinguish George Bush or Bill Clinton from Saddam Hussein or Hitler is philosophically or politically interesting, much less wise. And many people, most even, who are this morally confused consider Chomsky their patriarc—and I suspect that’s not an accident"

The Pop-Up Store Where Women Pay Less Than Men - "Earlier this month, graphic designer Elana Schlenker made headlines for her pop-up store 76<100 where women pay less than men for everything on the shelves. Specifically, they pay 24% less, highlighting the pay gap in Pennsylvania where women make just 76 cents to every man's dollar... They pointed us to a student named Dennis Koire who took his complaint about male discrimination all the way to the California Supreme Court in 1985 and won, with California Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird insisting that “the legality of sex-based price discounts cannot depend on subjective value judgments about which types of sex-based distinctions are important or harmful.”"
Since women live longer than men, how about medical treatment where the women get treated worse than the men?

A Postmodern Analysis of a Primary 5 Social Studies Chapter - "I focus on two binary opposites: (1) the idea of an active government and a passive people; and (2) the PAP and other political parties. Hong and Huang (2008) state that Singapore’s history is narrowly focused on leadership struggles that emphasize the triumph of the morally upright PAP over the communists. Focusing on Singapore’s struggle for government, the text presents the government’s perspective and highlights the actions taken at the bureaucratic level to achieve full internal self-government. It neglects the people’s voices and portrays voting as their only passive means of participation in the journey of self-government. The chapter, however, leaves out the issue of how self-government can affect and benefit its people... Another pair of binary opposites identified in this chapter is the PAP and the other political parties in the 1959 Election. It is interesting to note the outright endorsement of the PAP since it is the only political party mentioned. Other parties such as Singapore People’s Alliance (SPA), United Malays National Organization (UMNO), Liberal Socialist Party (LSP), Workers’ Party (WP) and Labour Front (LF) are simply termed “the other political parties.” The textbook further puts the PAP in a positive light by saying that many voters were impressed by the PAP with their clear plan on what it would do for the people if elected to govern Singapore... Interestingly, there is little mention of the background of the Communists and who they were in Singapore. They are simply presented as a disembodied group of people who were instigators of the strikes carried out by workers and students. The Hock Lee Bus rioters are painted as belonging to a union “controlled by the Communists” who “encouraged” workers to go on “strike to ask for higher pay and shorter working hours” (p. 22). Language is used to evoke aggressive images when describing the rioters’ retaliation at the police force (e.g., “Let us throw stones at them” p. 23). The text serves to deflect attention from the poor working conditions and the low pay and long working hours of the bus drivers. The bus company owner’s mistreatment of his workers and refusal to recognize their legitimate union, as well as the long history of bitterness and bad faith between the bus company and its workers have also been omitted (Thum, 2010). Instead, the text focuses exclusively on the riot and explicitly blames the Communists. There is, however, no information about the students and their agenda in supporting the riot. Once again, the larger context is omitted."

Answer to What do white women think about Asian men? - Quora - "Okay, we've given our PC answers, now let's just cut the bullshit.
Speaking as a white woman who's lived for 3 years in a Southeast Asian country and travelled around Asia, here are some of the unpopular conclusions I've reached and had directly and indirectly affirmed by other white female expats.
a) Asian men are feminine...
...and yet, at the same time:
b) Asian men often treat their womenfolk like dirt... Romantic courtship involves fantasies of being the hero and caretaker to a helpless bimbo of a woman - showering her with gifts and affection in exchange for a girl's greatest asset: her virginity. Sex is mechanical and something to be endured, typically with zero thought to the woman's pleasure"

Huge numbers of Muslims are turning to ISIS because they want SEX

Japan's tourism boom lifts economy, but brings headaches - "The Laox duty free shop in Ginza was crammed with Chinese buying watches, cosmetics, robotic vacuum cleaners and space-age rice cookers. Ultra high-tech, detachable toilet seats with automatic lighting and lid opening and closing, that warm, wash and dry are another big must-have among Chinese, even though the products are made-in-China for export to Japan. "The new status symbol in China is buying things and having experiences," said Rein. "It's not just buying a Louis Vuitton bag but how you bought it and how you did something cool." Since globally, tourism and travel account for about 9.5 percent of GDP compared with just 2.2 percent in Japan, there should be ample room for growth"

China bans Ramadan fasting in mainly Muslim region - "China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in its mainly Muslim Xinjiang region from fasting during Ramadan and ordered restaurants to stay open... The education bureau of Tarbaghatay city, known as Tacheng in Chinese, this month ordered schools to communicate to students that "during Ramadan, ethnic minority students do not fast, do not enter mosques ... and do not attend religious activities"."

Chinese city bans beards and veils on buses - "A city in northwestern China's Xinjiang region has banned people with large beards or Islamic clothing from boarding buses, state media has said. Authorities in Karamay banned people wearing headscarves, veils, niqabs, or clothing with the Islamic star and crescent symbol from taking local buses, the ruling Communist Party-run Karamay Daily said on Monday."

Pay low-income families more to boost economic growth, says IMF - "A report by five IMF economists dismissed “trickle-down” economics, and said that if governments wanted to increase the pace of growth they should concentrate on helping the poorest 20% of citizens. The study – covering advanced, emerging and developing countries – said technological progress, weaker trade unions, globalisation and tax policies that favoured the wealthy had all played their part in making widening inequality “the defining challenge of our time”. The IMF report said the way income is distributed matters for growth. “If the income share of the top 20% increases, then GDP growth actually declines over the medium term, suggesting that the benefits do not trickle down. In contrast, an increase in the income share of the bottom 20% is associated with higher GDP growth,” said the report... The study said there was growing evidence to suggest that rising influence of the rich and stagnant incomes of the poor and middle classes caused financial crises, hurting both short- and long-term growth. “In particular, studies have argued that a prolonged period of higher inequality in advanced economies was associated with the global financial crisis by intensifying leverage, overextension of credit, and a relaxation in mortgage-underwriting standards, and allowing lobbyists to push for financial deregulation,” it said."

Welcome to Cat Recipes dot com

Singapore must ease ‘bandwidth tax’ on the poor - "Recent research on the psychology of poverty suggests that much rethinking of the design of the welfare system in Singapore is required. Perhaps the most important finding in this growing field of research is that poverty imposes a large cognitive tax... Likewise, the poor might be aware that a certain course of action, such as applying for social assistance, would be good for them, but they may not pursue it because they lack the requisite bandwidth. One implication of their research is that the poor are poor not because they suffer from some cognitive or cultural deficit, as popular myths suggest. Rather, these perceived deficits are themselves the results of being poor... Prof Esther Duflo, an MIT economist, has argued that the poor pay a lot more for doing nothing than do other people. This is because the more privileged an individual is, the greater the number of decisions that are made automatically for that person. Take public housing subsidies in Singapore as an example. The subsidies that benefit middle and upper-middle income groups, such as the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Housing Grant for families purchasing Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats and Executive Condominiums, are provided automatically when these families purchase their flats. In contrast, the Additional CPF Housing Grant and the Special CPF Housing Grant aimed at lower-income Singaporeans require applicants to fill up forms, submit documents that prove that they have been employed continuously in the past 12 months and show the income they earned during that period. Their application has to reach HDB within a given deadline. Prof Duflo argues that instead of berating the poor for not taking personal responsibility, we should think of ways of “providing the poor with the luxury that we all have, which is that a lot of decisions are taken for us. If we do nothing, we are on the right track. For most of the poor, if they do nothing, they are on the wrong track”."

Many poor Malays 'do not seek social aid' - "About two-thirds of low-income Malay/Muslim households do not seek help from social services despite hopes that their children can escape the poverty trap, according to a new study commissioned by community self-help group Mendaki... the 18-month study of 25 households revealed a lack of awareness of available schemes and, more worryingly, she said, an undercurrent of fear at stigmatisation... members of the low-income families she studied were held back by a sense of shame... The study also pointed to a need for agencies to revise a social assistance system reliant on the submission of a large volume of forms, which low-income families are often unable to cope with."