Meme - Elliott Mason: "An amazing cross stitch pattern utilizing glow in the dark floss:
West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue."
FriendzoneSG: Building Communities & Friendships
Uhh
Meme - Fish to other fish on worm on hook in water: "Be careful. It could be an online scam."
It would've been funnier as "on line scam"
Meme - stonebluerue: "A guy came over one night and we started cuddling and watching lord of the rings which was a mistake on his part because that is and always has been my obsession my passion my beloved so he got me to start giving him a blow job but I made him move so I could still watch the movie while giving him a blowjob and I kept stopping blowing him so I could explain lord of the rings lore and background and where things came from and the whole bit about tom bombadil and just on and on and man did not cum till after the council of elrond because thats when the extended edition pauses and you have to swap the discs so I quickly finished him off and then put in the next cd and continued to explain while he was reeling from having been edged for an hour while listening to lord of the rings talk"
China zoo denies allegations that star attraction is a man in a sun bear costume - " In a video that has gone viral, a black bear at a zoo in China can be seen standing on its two hind legs on the precipice of a rock feature, and interacting with tourists by waving its paws. However, there is apparently more than meets the eye at the sun bear exhibit at Hangzhou Zoo, which is reportedly a popular tourist attraction... The zoo on Saturday denied the charge, adding that the temperature on the day the video was taken was 40 deg C, and a person wearing a suit would not be able to tolerate the heat... They pointed to the bear’s human-like movements while standing and waving, and also what appeared to be pants-like folds around its rear when standing... One Weibo user commented on a video of the attraction that the bear “looks like it’s wearing a leather jacket”... In 2019, Yancheng Wild Animal World in Changzhou, a city in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, sparked controversy after asking its workers to dress as gorillas... The zoo defended itself, and said that the “human gorillas” were a special programme designed to entertain tourists on April Fool’s Day. It added that it had not expected the arrangement to cause misunderstanding from visitors. And in 2013, CNN reported that a zoo in Luohe, Henan, tried to pass off a large hairy dog as a lion... Other animals in the park were similarly mislabelled, Beijing Youth Daily reported, with another dog in the wolf cage, and a white fox on display in the leopard enclosure. The park told CNN that the animals had been substituted for various unspecified reasons, and would be returned to their rightful places."
The Villages loofah colors' meaning explored as Florida trend sends the internet into a frenzy - "The new color-coded loofah system being utilized by senior swingers in a village in Florida is creating a buzz on social media. The city has been in the spotlight after multiple TikTok videos featuring different colored loofahs tied to their cars indicated their s*xual preferences. The location of most of the TikTok videos surfacing on social media is The Villages, which has been in the news previously as a getaway for wild retirees."
Couple wed in McDonald’s: 'My parents thought it was a joke at first, but they warmed up to the idea' - "What started off as a joke became a dream come true for McDonald’s fans Elson Tong and Yong Yong Qing when they tied the knot at the fast-food chain’s West Coast Park outlet on July 19. With 55 of their family members and friends present, they exchanged vows in the restaurant’s pavilion, with the iconic golden arches in the background... They paid the fast-food chain about $700 in total for the food and venue... Their guests arrived dressed in hues of red and yellow, in line with the theme of the venue... “The manager even came down on her day off to make sure everything was in order.” The couple said they are glad their guests enjoyed the no-frills event. “We felt it was the perfect ceremony for us – with the people we love and at a place where we feel at home. “In the words of the McDonald’s slogan, we’re lovin’ it.”"
8 durians for over $300: Jurong resident says she was tricked by salesman at her door - "Ma Yulian, 84, said she was approached by a salesman who appeared to be in his 20s, lugging along a trolley of durians on Friday (July 28) evening. "I wanted to buy durians for my son, so I told the man that I wanted to buy eight durians. "He told me that there was only one Musang King left, but the other durians he had were also good," Ma explained to Shin Min. Without asking about the durians' prices, Ma paid the man RM400 (S$120) after he told her he came from Malaysia and could accept ringgit. "After I gave him the money, he told me that RM400 wasn't enough, so I took out another $90 from my wallet to give to him," she said. However, the salesman told her that the amount still wasn't enough and asked for even more money. So, Ma took another $100 from her savings and borrowed $30 from her husband, who also didn't ask what she was buying... Speaking with Shin Min, Durian Garden's owner Cai Chengcai advised customers to purchase durians from local stalls instead, because these shops would be regulated and price gouging would be unlikely... A Musang King durian costs about $40, while a Thai durian costs $15"
She accepted the prices, so
I've been scammed to pay crazy prices for durian in Geylang, so
Meme - "He asked the Tattoo Artist for: "Steve Irwin holding a big Croc" *shoe*"
Meme - "Thinking you saved money eating a $1.50 hotdog after spending $537 at Costco"
Brian Doyle on Twitter - "WOLF: I can't do this
FEMALE WOLF: Just focus on me, babe.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: The male penetrates the female
WOLF: He's so creepy"
𝓶♡ on Twitter - "[first date]
Him: I’m a cat person. You?
Me: [trying to impress]
*makes eye contact
*pushes everything off table
*bends over
*shows him my butthole"
8 months' jail for man who used hidden camera to film 76 women having sex with him - "After meeting various women on dating applications, Johan Wijaya filmed them having sex with him without their consent or knowledge. During investigations, police found recordings of 76 women victims who had been filmed over a five-year period on Johan's devices. Not all resulted in charges against the Indonesian. On Tuesday (June 27), Johan, 32, a permanent resident, was sentenced to eight months' jail after pleading guilty to five counts of voyeurism... Before engaging in sexual activities with the women he met either at his home or a budget hotel, Johan would turn on a video camera that was hidden within a powerbank charger. While the woman was showering or using the toilet, he would position the powerbank to face the bed."
6 Ways To Use Dental Floss (Besides Flossing): Life Kit - " If you find yourself in an "I've gotta push ... NOW!" scenario, whether on a plane to Norway or on a sailboat to the Caribbean, just pull out the travel dental floss and cut the umbilical cord... Other surgical ways to use it: to suture a wound... On the road with swollen hands? Dental floss can get off those rings stuck on puffy fingers... Dental floss makes an excellent knife substitute while you're traveling... You probably haven't thought of all the ways dental floss can be used to tie things. Try tying the bottom of your pants legs during a hike to avoid mosquitoes and ticks, or use floss to replace a broken shoelace. You can also thread floss through the hinge of a pair of broken eyeglasses. If you find yourself in the middle of the woods without matches, waxed floss can be used as a fire starter. And if you need to catch a fish to cook over that fire, floss can be used to bind a knife to make a spear or as fishing line and a snare... For a broken toilet chain, replace it with dental floss (yes, it is strong enough). Have a drippy faucet that is keeping you up at night? "Tie a piece of dental floss around the end of the faucet, and let the water dribble down the dental floss so it won't drip, drip, drip anymore""
A Johns Hopkins Study Reveals the Scientific Secret to Double How Fast You Learn - "When you're trying to gain expertise, how much you practice is definitely important. But even more important is the way you practice... "What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row." Why? The most likely cause is reconsolidation, a process where existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge. Here's a simple example: trying to get better at shooting free throws in basketball. The conditions are fixed. The rim is always 10 feet above the floor. The free throw line is always 15 feet from the basket. In theory, shooting from the same spot, over and over again, will help you ingrain the right motions into your muscle memory so your accuracy and consistency will improve. And, of course, that does happen — but a better, faster way to improve is to slightly adjust the conditions in subsequent practice sessions. Maybe one time you'll stand a few inches closer. Another time you might stand a few inches to one side. Another time you might use a slightly heavier, or lighter, ball. In short, each time you practice, you make the conditions a little different. That primes the reconsolidation pump — and helps you learn much more quickly. But you can't adjust the conditions more than slightly. Do something too different and you'll simply create new memories — not reconsolidated ones... you'll also need to space out your practice sessions appropriately."
Meme - "Il me dit toujours qu'il ne ronfle pas !! il va avoir une surprise ..." *des casques sur les oreilles et un microphone*
Meme - "When you wonder why world hunger hasn't been solved despite years of charity and billions in aid payments PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS. FEEDING CREATES A DEPENDENT POPULATION THAT IS A POTENTIAL HEALTH HAZARD AND MAKES A COSTLY MESS"
The permanent decline of Canadian living standards - "the OECD projected that between now and 2060, Canada would see per capita GDP growth of just 0.7 per cent annually, making it the single worst performing economy of all 38 OECD members. Canada’s rate of per-capita GDP growth has actually been stuck in a rut since the 1980s, as noted in an April write-up for Policy Options by the economists Robert Gagné and Jonathan Deslauriers... the average Canadian in 1981 enjoyed a standard of living that was $3,000 higher than the rest of the Western developed world. “Forty years later, Canada was $5,000 below that same average,” they wrote. Gagné and Deslauriers place the blame on a complacent private sector. Much of the Canadian economy is composed of protected oligopolies such as airlines, grocery giants or telecom firms who don’t need to stay all that competitive to stay in business. “They invest little, spend less on research and development than those in other rich countries, and have a low propensity to innovate,” they wrote. “As a result, they are not competitive enough to compete in foreign markets. Growth suffers and the country’s economy stalls.” But if Canada’s dwindling standard of living is suddenly becoming more noticeable, it’s partly because it’s been supercharged by the country’s recent turn towards unprecedentedly high levels of immigration... The “GDP per capita” measure is almost never mentioned by the Trudeau government, who prefer to point to Canada’s rate of aggregate GDP growth... But the good news evaporates as soon as population growth is factored in. Once the numbers are spread across an extra one million Canadians, it emerges that – from the perspective of the average Canadian — the economy has actually been shrinking for much of the last 12 months. This is what the real estate analysis site Better Dwelling has referred to as a “per capita recession” — a phenomenon that has described the Canadian economy since at least the middle of 2022."
Meme - Lee Hsien Yang: "Ministers Shan and Vivian are demanding that I lie in a public apology. They insist that I make this statement: "I recognise that the Post meant and was understood to mean that Mr K Shanmugam/Dr Vivian Balakrishnan acted corruptly and for personal gain by having the Singapore Land Authority give him preferential treatment by felling trees without approval and illegally and having it pay for renovations to 31 Ridout Road." This is what I said: "Two ministers have leased state- owned mansions from the agency that one of them controls, felling trees and getting state-sponsored renovations." Anyone who can read can see that Ministers Shan and Vivian are demanding a false apology, for statements that are just not there. No Singaporean should have to lie to avoid lawsuits."
Sometimes we want vicious friends: Friend preferences are target-specific - "Friends bolster health and happiness, with friend preferences directing us toward friends who can facilitate this. Intuition and research alike suggest people prefer friends to be kind and trustworthy and disfavor viciousness and indifference (and befriend the similar, familiar, nearby). Taking a target-specific approach, we predict and find people possess preferences not only for how friends should behave toward us, but—because our friends interact with others, and these interactions can affect us—people also possess nuanced, distinct preferences for how friends should behave toward others: (a) When targets of friends’ behavior are unspecified (reflecting previous work), preferences track how people want friends to behave toward us. In line with that work, (b) people want friends to be kinder and more trustworthy than not. But (c) people also want friends to be more prosocial toward us than toward others and (d) sometimes want friends to be more vicious than prosocial—toward our rivals."
People like friends who are nasty to their enemies
Truck company must reinstate driver fired for drunk driving - "A Quebec trucking company has been ordered to reinstate a driver who was fired after she drank at least nine beers before she lost control of her truck on a Pennsylvania highway. The driver’s actions amounted to serious misconduct, but her drinking was the result of a disability — alcoholism — and trucking company Groupe Robert should have made a reasonable accommodation for her, labour arbitrator Huguette April said... “The night of the accident, she needed to drink,” April said. “She admitted that even though she knew she shouldn’t, the need was stronger, like something that she couldn’t control.” Groupe Robert fired the driver after she was involved in a single-vehicle crash shortly before midnight on June 30, 2022. The facts of the case say the driver stopped twice to buy six packs of beer as she drove from a Montreal suburb to Pennsylvania. The woman admitted she drank at least nine beers during the trip, but she said she didn’t remember whether she drank the final three on the road. After the crash, which damaged the truck but caused no injuries, she was arrested with a blood-alcohol level that was 0.18 — more than twice the legal limit. The driver told her employer about her drinking problem about a week after the crash, one day after she sought medical help to stop drinking. She was officially fired Aug. 31, after she had completed an in-patient addiction treatment program. April said there is no evidence Groupe Robert asked or verified whether their troubled employee suffered from alcoholism. The driver told the arbitrator the company could have installed an alcohol testing device in her truck after the crash, or found other work for her. Groupe Robert, meanwhile, told April that the collective agreement between the company and the union representing drivers is clear: The penalty for drinking and driving is immediate termination of employment... Marc-Andre Gauthier, a spokesman for Teamsters Canada, the union that represents the driver and that challenged her dismissal, said it has an obligation to defend its members in work-related matters, regardless of the circumstances. Road safety is a priority for the union, Gauthier said"
When unions admit that they fight for workers regardless of whether they are in the right
Forcing maths on the population is straight out of China's playbook - "If only someone sensible who is bad at maths but successful at life could have sat down with Rishi Sunak before he announced a policy to make all schoolchildren take maths till 18. This is a pointless and unpleasant idea. Unpleasant because for those who struggle with maths, it is a deeply humiliating, fruitless process being made to do it to a level beyond the basic. And they will never remember it as anything other than hell - in short, it’d put them off for life... the benefits of maths and numeracy are hardly kept secret. Any pupil knows that if they want to become affluent, they’ll probably need maths – all banking, management consultancy, IT and insurance jobs, plus any other remunerative line of work arguably bar law, requires a decent level. But it’s up to them whether they want to pursue such a path. It’s not Rishi’s job to decide it for them. Britain is meant to be a society where individualism can flourish, and that surely ought to include education. In the Soviet Union or China, enforced maths for all might have been de rigeur, but here in Blighty, those who like or want to pursue digits should have every encouragement, and those who don’t should be allowed to devote themselves to things they like. That way, one day, if they feel it’d be good to know more maths, they may actually feel like learning some."
???
Why require kids to learn maths - or anything at all, really?
Lending your car: How does insurance work? - "Even though your friend doesn’t have an insurance policy in their own name, a record of the accident will be entered in your friend’s file in a database of claims information, such as the AutoPlus system in Ontario... Essentially, the claim will follow both the driver and the vehicle owner... If you allow someone to drive your vehicle, you must first ensure they hold a valid driver’s licence. That way, the person will be covered by your car insurance as if it were you driving. The same limits, deductibles and conditions apply. You will therefore also be responsible for any accidents (claims).
If you allow someone else to drive who does not live with you, there is no need to notify us unless they will be driving frequently over a longer period. It is your responsibility, however, to ensure that they have a valid driver’s licence before allowing them to drive."
State of Driving | New Hampshire Car Insurance | Drive NH - "The state's "live free or die" motto is reflected in its auto laws. Unlike almost all other states, New Hampshire does not require auto insurance for all drivers. However, the state does require drivers to cover costs of bodily injury and property damage for an accident they cause. Of course, the best way to cover those costs is to carry insurance."
Virginia Car Insurance Coverage - "Unlike most states, Virginia law does not require drivers to purchase auto insurance coverage. However, drivers without car insurance must pay an uninsured motorist vehicle fee upon renewal of their vehicle registration with the state each year. Uninsured drivers in Virginia are personally responsible for medical bills or property damage expenses incurred after a car accident."
Married man drives 400 miles to meet Facebook woman... only to discover it's a hoax set up by rival football fans - "A married Manchester United supporter drove 400 miles for what he thought was going to be an affair with a woman he had chatted to on the internet - only to discover it was a hoax set up by two Liverpool fans he had met on holiday. Stuart Slann, 39, from Sheffield, made the trip to a remote farm in Scotland to meet a women he had been flirting with online for weeks. But when he arrived at the house 'Emma' was nowhere to be seen. Three hours later the pranksters called him and confessed it was all a trick. They taped the conversation and put it onto video-sharing website YouTube and Facebook accompanied by an embarrassing photo. Mr Slann's wife, Louise, 32, then discovered that he had intended to have an affair and ended their marriage... 'On the night she asked me to Scotland I was on the road for about nine hours. And then when I got to this remote farm she sent me a text to say she was still in work. 'That's what made it worse, not only had I driven for nine hours, but I had to wait for about another three and a half hours for her to finish work. Then when I got the call to say it was all a hoax I just felt awful. 'If they had asked to drive to Manchester, Leeds or even Liverpool it wouldn't have been so bad and maybe I'd have seen the funny side. But to drag me all the way to Aberdeen was just cruel.'"
Mind-Playing Melodies: Paralyzed Quartet Masters Music with Their Thoughts - "In order to play complex pieces on stringed instruments, musicians need amazing dexterity to maneuver the different notes. Thanks to a special interface system, however, this group of musicians can play instruments with only their minds. The Paramusical Ensemble is a group of four artists with intensely damaged motor control skills. The quartet wears rubber caps made up of Brain-Computer Music Interfacing systems with electrodes that can detect the user’s brain waves. A computer screen is set up in front of the musicians that displays different samples of music – with the help of the caps, all the players have to do is look at the tune that they would like to play. Patients suffering from ALS – or Lou Gehrig’s disease – can now embrace their talent despite their disabilities. The quartet performed a piece called Activating Memory at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disabilty in London. The melody was captured by Tim Grabham and Professor Eduardo Reck Miranda as part of their nine-minute documentary about the project."
Costlier roti canai, Ramly burgers: Locals in JB tighten their belts as eateries hike prices - "Some locals have mooted the possibility that eateries in Johor Bahru have increased prices due to the return of visitors from Singapore since the borders reopened in April. Mr Muhd Nur Hidayat claimed that it was possible many of these eateries lost revenue during prolonged border closures due to COVID-19, and are now looking to “earn back” by increasing prices."
Richard Dawkins: Trans Rights, Islam, and Christianity | Full Interview - YouTube - "some scientific journals, actually lots of scientific journals, notably Nature Science, Scientific American, where editorial policy has swung in a very political direction to the point where scientists have to conform to a kind of political orthodoxy which almost amounts to a religion. And this, I think, goes against the spirit, the open spirit of science, which. I always treasure throughout my scientific career. And I do feel that this is a very bad retrograde tendency...
One of the big counterpoints to [Pinker's claim that things are objectively getting better] has been while that may be true, our standards and expectations for particularly Western democracies and rich nations should have actually been raised so dramatically. That it's not necessarily the big win. Someone like Pinker points out to say, okay, there's fewer people living on the equivalent of a dollar a day now that we're actually failing to solve solvable problems, hunger, for example, or whatever the case may be...
I think [Christianity] is relatively benign when, I stress the word relatively. I mean, when you think of the competition, when you think of Islam, I'm sometimes inclined to agree with Ayaan Hirsi Ali that in certain parts of the world, at least, we need Christianity as a as a sort of buttress against against something worse, in our bellox [sp?] line. Always keep a hold of nurse [sp?] for fear of finding something worse. I mean, Christianity is bad enough, but it's not the worst religion around.
Too bad he fell for the FUD on "book banning" and is still claiming wrong pronoun use in Canada won't lead to jail (the CBC says it can). And the covid vaccine trials were never designed to measure the effect on transmission, and even with the original covid strain the effect on transmission fell with time so you can't just blame variants and the facts changing
The people claiming the slippery slope doesn't exist are saying it's a good thing
Dawkins is even more clear here that the decline of Christianity is not necessarily a good thing
Cutting IRS funding is a gift to America’s wealthiest tax evaders - "the budgetary toll of persistent underfunding is unmistakable. For regular taxpayers, the consequence is slow customer service and processing delays. Some politicians have irresponsibly suggested that every new IRS employee will be a gun-toting enforcement agent. Actually, the IRS desperately needs employees to process refunds and answer tax filers’ phone calls. Out of the 282 million phone calls the IRS received in 2021, only 11% or 32 million were actually answered. Nearly half the new IRS money is going to taxpayer services and modernization, which will make the agency more responsive and efficient for taxpayers."
A lot of Americans hate taxes on principle and cheer tax evasion, so
'I regret all my tattoos': TikTokers are warning Gen Z-ers to think twice before getting inked - "Millennials, reportedly the most tattooed generation in Western society, are taking to TikTok to share their tattoo regrets with members of Gen Z, lest they too grow up to rue their ink. Though 13% of baby boomers and 32% of Gen X-ers sport tattoos, according to a 2022 YPulse study, millennials currently carry the title of the most tattooed generation, with over 50% having at least one tattoo (according to the same study, 7 in 10 say they have more than one)... Gen Z is quickly on its way to taking the title of most tattooed generation away from millennials. According to Tattooing 101, as of 2021, 23% of those born between 1997 and 2012 had a tattoo, with 19% having more than one. “Considering the fact that Generation Z is comprised of young people and many of them aren’t 18 yet, we’re expecting this percentage to skyrocket in the next few years”... “The minimum age for tattoos should be 25 i said what i said 👁️👄👁️,” she writes in her caption. In her video, she explains that while many people tried to warn her not to get tattoos, she didn’t listen. “There really is something to be said about brain development and decision making,” she says. “When I tell you that something just switched in my little head about one month before my 25th birthday. Like, I woke up one day, and I was like, ‘What have I done?’ I am cringing the eff out about the majority of my tattoos.” Another TikToker, @saraovershares, also aired her personal tattoo regrets. “Imagine, if you will, that you put a shirt on once when you were in your 20s, and now you have to wear that for the rest of your life,” she says in her video. “That is what it feels like to get heavily tattooed before you turn into a fully developed adult human.”... 35% of Americans get their first tattoo between the ages of 15 and 19 — meaning they’re making this decision with the help of their amygdala."
Too bad they will be told "ok, boomer"