A spate of scandals strikes Singapore | East Asia Forum - "four People’s Action Party (PAP) parliamentary seats are now vacant. At a press conference, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong indicated that these are not examples of the PAP’s slipping standards. Instead, he suggested that they are examples of how the PAP deals with allegations against its own MPs. Lee’s press conference was held on the same day that Leon Perera and Nicole Seah, two high-profile members of the Workers’ Party, were caught in a leaked video having an ‘inappropriate exchange’. Lee took the opportunity to state that, while forcing Tan and Cheng to resign could be politically costly and embarrassing, the PAP must uphold party discipline and standards of conduct. The timing of the leaked video raises questions. Someone had secretly filmed the adulterous Workers’ Party couple at a restaurant in 2020, but it was only released on social media three years later, in the same week that Lee decided to go public with Tan’s extra-marital affair. Lee’s conflation of marital infidelity to corruption is a clever sleight of hand. He equated all of the PAP’s scandals — the Ridout Road conflict of interest, Iswaran’s alleged graft and Tan’s marital infidelity — with the Workers’ Party’s one scandal — an episode of marital infidelity that ended years ago. If Lee was already aware of Tan’s affair in 2020, why did he wait until February 2023 to have a ‘hard conversation’ with him?... Lee said publicly that he personally approved the probe of Iswaran, meaning that he had the capacity to refuse approval. Ong was at the centre of a different corruption scandal in 1996 that involved million-dollar sweeteners paid to senior minister Lee Kuan Yew and deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong decided not to refer the matter to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, instead authorising finance minister Richard Hu to chat with the two Lees and report back. Unsurprisingly, Hu found no wrongdoing, in much the same way that Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean found nothing wrong with the Ridout Road saga. Under such circumstances, obstruction is not entirely possible under Singapore law. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau reports directly to the prime minister alone, which puts its independence in doubt. The issue of transparency also arose when Iswaran was reported to be under investigation before it was revealed that he was under arrest."
Meme - Yi Hong Lam: "If future got chance again, I would still vote Perera just for having better taste than Tan. Haha"
On Leon Perera and Nicole Seah vs Tan Chuan Jin and Cheng Li Hui
Meme - "When u want to ord alr but also cannot ord in peace *Lee Hsien Loong's sian face*"
Meme - super.lightweight.industries: "A Love Story"
"she said the cosplay stays on *Man in ninja costume*"
"It stayed on *Man in ninja costume in bed*"
Meme - "(The book is "Linux Application Development")
Contents
9.4 Process Primitives
9.4.1 Having Children
9.4.2 Watching Your Children Die.
9.4.3 Running New Programs
9.4.4 A Bit of History vfork()
9.45 Killing Yourself
9.4.6 Killing Others
9.4.7 Dumping Core"
Meme - "When you fight through all the tech support and have to face the final boss *Indian guy in costume*"
Meme - "Closed for sex. Be Back In 30 mins. Thank You"
Object of Intrigue: 19th-Century Greenlandic Seal Fur G-String - "According to Peter Toft, the National Museum of Denmark’s Greenlandic fur clothing expert, this beaded, furry thong was intended to be displayed not just during intimate moments, but in polite company. Inside the warm homes of the Greenlandic Inuit, a naatsit “was the only thing worn even when having guests or visiting the houses of other families,” says Toft. ”This shocked the Danish missionaries of the 18th and 19th century, who tried to convince the Inuit to wear European linen (longer) underwear indoors. This attempt was not very successful.” As to why the Greenlandic Inuit made their thong undergarments out of seal skin rather than reindeer, fox, bear, or dog, Toft says that in addition to their durability, seal pelts were best because they provided less insulation than caribou fur. “Sweat building up inside your garment is just as dangerous as being underdressed for the cold,” he advises, “as your perspiration will eventually freeze.” Seal skin thongs, therefore, were less likely to result in frozen sweat being trapped between the buttocks."
Meme - Mère: "Ma fille a sauté une classe"
Prêtre: "Moi aussi"
Jeune Musulmane: "bientôt je le ferai aussi"
Meme - Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltys..: "In Halo, a small, wrist-attached grappling hook is able to latch a 1,000kg suit of armor onto a 150kg alien without moving it. This simply wouldn't be possible in real life."
Halo @Halo: "you should've been shoved into more lockers in high school"
Meme - "Pokemon. Gotta catch Jamal"
*slave catchers on horses with pokeballs thrown at runaway slave and dog*
Meme - "Two roads diverged
And I took the one in the woods less travelled by
And that has made all the difference"
"MISSING. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOI?"
Philip Kitcher: The Trouble with Scientism - "The problem with scientism—which is of course not the same thing as science—is owed to a number of sources, and they deserve critical scrutiny. The enthusiasm for natural scientific imperialism rests on five observations. First, there is the sense that the humanities and social sciences are doomed to deliver a seemingly directionless sequence of theories and explanations, with no promise of additive progress. Second, there is the contrasting record of extraordinary success in some areas of natural science. Third, there is the explicit articulation of technique and method in the natural sciences, which fosters the conviction that natural scientists are able to acquire and combine evidence in particularly rigorous ways. Fourth, there is the perception that humanists and social scientists are only able to reason cogently when they confine themselves to conclusions of limited generality: insofar as they aim at significant—general—conclusions, their methods and their evidence are unrigorous. Finally, there is the commonplace perception that the humanities and social sciences have been dominated, for long periods of their histories, by spectacularly false theories, grand doctrines that enjoy enormous popularity until fashion changes, as their glaring shortcomings are disclosed. These familiar observations have the unfortunate effect of transforming differences of degree into differences of kind... The most obvious explanation for the difficulties of the Geisteswissenschaften, the humanities and the study of history and society, is that they deal with highly complex systems... matters are no different in the natural sciences. As we shall see, science often forgoes generality to achieve a precise and accurate answer to an important question... The achievements of molecular engineering or of measurements derived from quantum theory do not hold across all of biology, or chemistry, or even physics. Geophysicists struggle to arrive at precise predictions of the risks of earthquakes in particular localities and regions. The difficulties of intervention and prediction are even more vivid in the case of contemporary climate science... Even if a process is constituted by the movements of a large number of constituent parts, this does not mean that it can be adequately explained by tracing those motions... The idea of a “theory of everything” is an absurd fantasy... The historical linguists who recognize connections among languages or within a language at different times, and the religious scholars who point out the affiliations among different texts, use methods equivalent to those that have been deployed ever since Darwin in the study of the history of life. Indeed, Darwin’s paleontology borrowed the method from early nineteenth-century studies of the history of languages. By the same token, the sense that the humanities are dominated by changes in fashion among spectacularly false theories suggests a contrast where none is to be found... No less a figure than Maxwell even characterized the ether as “the best confirmed entity in natural philosophy” (by which he, like his contemporaries, meant “natural science”)... Although studies such as these make no pretense at generality, their impact can be very large. They can unsettle the categories that are taken for granted in all kinds of decisions, from mundane reflections about how to respond to other people to large matters of social policy. “Collateral damage,” for example, comes to seem an inappropriate way to talk about the victims of the Dresden fire-bombing. Humanistic studies can also challenge the categories used to frame lines of scientific inquiry. History and anthropology are sites at which new concepts are forged"
30 of the Most Bizarre Research Paper Topics of All Time - "30. Ovulation: A Lap Dancer's Secret Weapon
29. Which Can Jump Higher, the Dog Flea or the Cat Flea?
28. On Ethicists and Theft
27. Wet Underwear: Not Comfortable
26. Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches?
25. Booty Calls: the Best of Both Worlds?
24. Mosquitoes Like Cheese
23. Weighing Up Lead and Feathers
22. Cat Food – Yummy?
21. The Unhidden Dangers of Sword Swallowing
20. Beer Bottle vs. Human Skull
19. The Propulsion Parameters of Penguin Poop
18. Lady Gaga and Pop Art
17. Even Chickens Prefer Beautiful People
16. Erase Bad Memories, Keep Good Ones
15. The Rectal Route to Curing Hiccups
14. Can Pigeons Tell a Picasso From a Monet?
13. The Nature of Navel Lint
12. The Effects of Cocaine on Bees
11. Fruit Bat Fellatio
10. The Possibility of Unicorns
9. Does Country Music Make You Suicidal?
8. Do Cabbies Have Bigger Brains?
7. Shrews: To Chew or Not to Chew?
6. Gay Dead Duck Sex
5. Love and Sex With Robots
4. A Better Approach to Penile Zipper Entrapment
3. Flatulence As Self-Defense
2. Harry Potter = Jesus Christ
1. Rectal Foreign Bodies"
How to be happy: academics advise on what brings joy at work - "You can change either the way you think about yourself or how you think about your circumstances
Self-interested desires seldom last and, instead, meaningful pleasures more often arise from helping others
If money buys only a small amount of happiness, think carefully before becoming a dean for the cash...
Investing your all in your work, hoping that it will make you happy, is dangerous"
1 in 8 men under 35 bring condoms to funerals, Trojan says - "about one in four millennials brought protection to their high school reunion, which is not nearly as morbid of a scenario... Sixty-five percent of respondents bring protection on the first date. Most (63 percent), however, say they're most likely to ask a potential sexual partner about protection once in bed... Around half of people surveyed, 52 percent, keep condoms on their bedside table; it's the most popular place for women to keep condoms (57 percent do), while a wallet is the most popular place for men (52 percent). About two-thirds of men under 35 (64 percent) often or always have a condom on hand, while 49 percent of women under 35 do."
Meme - "I am a 36 year old with a PhD in Philosophy. I am $450k in debt and currently working two minimum wage jobs in order to stay alive. I work alongside 18 year olds and whenever they ask about my background I just tell them I've been in prison for a long time, which is less embarrassing than admitting the truth. I am probably the most well- informed Husserl scholar on the North American continent, perhaps in the world. My 1,500 page biography of his life has been rejected several dozen times. No college will take me on since they don't think Husserl is relevant, and that other applicants are therefore pushed to the head of the line. I have had 6 Husserl-related papers published in different journals and philosophical quarterlies, but have earned no money or recognition for having done so. I just moved to Abbeville, Louisiana since there is a job opening at the university in Lafayette and I decided to go all out in order to get it. But I've just found out that my application was rejected and now I'm stuck working at a Wendy's three shifts a week and a Barnes & Noble the rest of the time. I have no wife, no children, and at this point no friends I'm willing to talk to due to the shameful nature of my existence."
Bicyclist Wants To Be Treated Like A Car But Also Be Able To Just Kinda Break The Rules When He Wants To | Babylon Bee - "In a statement delivered to a line of 100 drivers who had been stuck behind him for the past 3 hours, local bicyclist Florian Skuzz said that he wants to be treated just like a car on the road, but also to just kinda be able to break the rules whenever he wants to. "I'm an important bicyclist deserving your respect, and should be granted all the rights and privileges of a car at all times!" said Skuzz to the parade of honking automobiles behind him. "But also, I don't carry insurance for when I cause an accident and would like to disregard traffic lights and signs whenever I want. It is my divine right! NOW STARE AT MY SPANDEXED BUTT FOR THE NEXT 30 MILES AND LIKE IT!" The man then continued riding directly in the middle of the road at 15 miles per hour even though the speed limit was 65. Sources say Skuzz then ran three traffic lights and stopped once to adjust his GoPro for the next video on his YouTube channel in which he posts videos about being an insufferable bicyclist. "I am saving the planet with this bike!" he yelled to the cars behind him. "RESPECT ME!" At publishing time, Skuzz had been seen locking up his bike on a bench not designed for the purpose and entering his favorite Communist vegan bakery"
Meme - "BICYCLISTS: WHY DO PEOPLE HATE US SO?
ALSO BICYCLISTS: *riding on the road beside a bike lane*"
Cyclists will probably claim they don't feel safe and the bike lane needs to be even wider, so they can feel even more special
"Lessons from the Green Lanes: Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S." - "Survey data indicates that 10% of current riders switched from other modes, and 24% shifted from other bicycle routes."
This is the best study I can find to support that bike lanes increase cycling, and even it reports that most people using the bike lanes would have still cycled without them. Plus it relies on a bicycle intercept study with a response rate of only 33%, with self-reports about how they would've made the journey without the bike lane. Another mode of transport doesn't only mean driving either - they could've taken public transport or walked instead of cycling.
Another study just asked respondents about their frequency of cycling (more/less/about the same on street X and cycling almost every day/once a week or more/once a month or more/Less than once a month or never)
Use of and short-term impacts of new cycling infrastructure in inner-Sydney, Australia: a quasi-experimental design - "Existing cycling behaviour and proximity to the bicycle path were associated with the use of the new bicycle path. Increased use of the new bicycle path as reported by the participants in the intervention area and increased cycling recorded by the bike counts may be due to existing cyclists changing routes to use the new path, and more cyclists from outside the study area using the new path, as study participants did not increase their frequency of cycling. Increases in cycling frequency in the intervention neighbourhood may require a longer lead time, additional promotional activities and further maturation of the Sydney bicycle path network."
High-Quality Bike Facilities Increase Ridership and Make Biking Safer | National Association of City Transportation Officials
A bike lane advocate threw this at me, but it has no control group. The NACTO study also doesn't tell you that Motor-vehicle deaths in the US also fell during the time period studied so claiming bike lanes causally reduced bike deaths is irresponsible. Of course, when it's a study they don't like, they know the phrase "correlation isn't causation"
Study Finds Protected Bike Lanes Increase Traffic Safety for Everyone-Including Drivers — Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition - "an extensive 13-year study of multiple cities around the US, conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and the University of New Mexico, found a dramatic reduction of road fatalities for all road users on streets that had protected bike lanes."
A bike lane advocate threw this at me, but it's not causal. They didn't even control for fixed effects
Protected Bike Lanes Increase Safety, Save Money And Protect The Planet, New Report Finds
A bike lane advocate threw this at me, but the FIA study used intercept surveys and did not report response rates. Intercept surveys rely on self-reports of counter-factual behavior rather than looking at actual behavior.
Emmanuel Macron: 'We Need to Develop Political Heroism' - "France is a country of regicidal monarchists. It is a paradox: The French want to elect a king, but they would like to be able to overthrow him whenever they want. The office of president is not a normal office - that is something one should understand when one occupies it. You have to be prepared to be disparaged, insulted and mocked - that is in the French nature. And: As president, you cannot have a desire to be loved... I am a strong believer that modern political life must rediscover a sense for symbolism. We need to develop a kind of political heroism. I don't mean that I want to play the hero. But we need to be amenable once again to creating grand narratives. If you like, post-modernism was the worst thing that could have happened to our democracy. The idea that you have to deconstruct and destroy all grand narratives is not a good one. Since then, trust has evaporated in everything and everyone. I am sometimes surprised that it is the media that are the first ones to exhibit a lack of trust in grand narratives. They believe that destroying something is part of their journalistic purpose because something grand must inevitably contain an element of evil. Critique is necessary, but where does this hate for the so-called grand narrative come from?... Why is a portion of our youth so fascinated by extremes, jihadism for example? Why do modern democracies refuse to allow their citizens to dream? Why can't there be such a thing as democratic heroism? Perhaps exactly that is our task: rediscovering something like that together for the 21st century... the wealth tax doesn't do anything for them. It doesn't exist in Germany or elsewhere in Europe. So, we want to build up Europe and yet retain the wealth tax at the same time? And what is it that leads company founders to leave, which in turn results in the loss of those jobs? We aren't protecting the people who most need it when those who can contribute to the country's success emigrate. Contrary to what some claim, I am not doing this to help the rich. My predecessor taxed wealthy, successful people at a higher rate than ever before. And what happened? They left. And what came of it? Did unemployment drop? No.
DER SPIEGEL: You are aware of the power of symbols. And by eliminating the wealth tax, you took a symbolic step that has riled up the left against you."
Why Do Europeans Hate Ice? Ctd - "I have the insight of growing up with a German mother. All of her family, who still live in Germany, confirm the German take on the ice issue.
1. Cool drinks, not cold, give the drinker a better experience of the actual taste of the drink...
2. They firmly believe that cold, cold drinks are bad for your stomach, and therefore, your digestion"
I was in a group mocking Americans and ironically, in a post where an American quipped that Europeans didn't know the pleasures of drinking iced water, most didn't seem to know that ice wasn't that common in Europe
The Guide to Ordering, Drinking and Talking About Water in French - "Drinks with ice in France are fairly uncommon, even in touristy restaurants. You’ll usually have to ask if you want ice – for example, De l’eau plate, avec des glaçons, s’il vous plait. (“Still water with ice, please.”). It’s possible that the restaurant may not have any, so be prepared. Luckily, the water you order will usually be cold."
Italian Food Rules – No Ice Cubes in Beverages - "Italian Food Rule: No ice cubes in beverages. Ice in Italy is to keep fresh fish fresh. Full stop. The most common reason Florentines (including Francesca) give me for the rule is that icy cold liquids are bad for your digestion. They can even cause the dreaded congestione – an abdominal cramp – that can kill you. (Florentines worry a lot about digestion.) The next frequently cited reason is a fear of the tap water used for making ice. Despite the fact that Italy has very safe tap water – not always the best tasting, but safe to drink in any form – the consumption of bottled water (at room temperature) in Italy is one of the highest in Europe."