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Saturday, December 16, 2023

Links - 16th December 2023 (2)

Meme - *Male Toilet*: "Closed for private event. Our apologies."

Meme - Richard Hanania @RichardHanania: "The aliens know to always be exactly where people will get the lowest quality footage, no matter how much camera technology improves."
Steven Pinker: "Another reason why UFOs are almost certainly not advanced aliens from outer space..."

Motorcyclist dies after accident along ECP where passenger jumped out of minibus - "A motorcyclist has died after a crash on Wednesday (Nov 8) along the East Coast Parkway (ECP), where a passenger jumped out of a minibus."
Man charged after jumping out of minibus along expressway, sparking accident that led to motorcyclist's death

HBO boss apologises for using fake Twitter accounts to troll TV critics - "The HBO CEO and chairman, Casey Bloys, has apologised for tasking employees with creating fake Twitter accounts to attack TV critics.  Bloys was responding to a bombshell Rolling Stone report that referenced alleged text messages between himself and Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO’s senior vice-president of drama programming. In six conversations, the pair discussed a “secret army” that could respond to TV critics who gave HBO shows a negative review."

S$19.60 for this economy rice: Pick your own ingredients cai png at Alexandra Retail Centre - "If you've ever queued up for economy rice at the canteen and thought to yourself, "They should have a version of this where I can help myself", well, you're so in luck.  Yes, yes, it is already like this in Malaysia, but here in Singapore?  Hundred Grains, a new self-service Chinese fast food place, has sprung up on the second floor of Alexandra Retail Centre, which puts a spin on the classic cai png (economy rice) concept... Hundred Grains offers a selection of 40 to 60 dishes showcasing flavors from Sichuan, Hunan, and Guangdong, China.  Dishes include spicy ginger chicken feet, sweet skin duck, mouth-watering chicken, as well as boneless fish with two peppers, among other dishes with unique flavours... the eatery has opted for a fixed pricing model, regardless of meat or vegetables that you pile on your plate.  The price is currently S$3.98 per 100g of food, with a minimum weight of 150g per transaction.  Rice and porridge, as well as drinks, are free flow."

Mum, 49, slams Lidl for 'barring' her from buying 100 cucumbers for juice business as supermarkets ration fruit and veg - "Lisa Fearns buys around 100 cucumbers at Lidl every week to create detox juices for her business - and has done so for the past three years.  But last weekend, the 49-year-old mum was stopped at the checkout, with the manager rushing over to "bar" her from emptying the shelves of cucumbers.  She joked that she would have to become "a cucumber dealer" to deal with limits in place."

"I’m a 90s kid" no you’re a 30 year old man : WeDoALittlePosting

Meme - ""Guys who can cook"
Expectation *buff guy*
Reality *Dad bod guy*"

Meme - "*Marvel tattoo*
M - Hulk
A - Superman
R - Batman
V - Wolverine
EL - Iron Man"

Meme - "[Italian guy gets pulled over for speeding]
Italian guy: I so sorry officer you a caughta me red handed, what is the punishment for such crime?
cop: it's a fine
Italian guy: bellissimo, molte bene, you are so a kind"
Comments:
sky.lolov: "As an italian, i don't find it funny and no italians don't actually speak in that weird accent"
arthurdotexe: "As an Italian, we do speak like this, keep making jokes about it"

Honestbee founder’s biggest lie in a web of deceit - "Sng’s resume was out of this world, suggesting he had ingratiated himself with the business and political elite. After graduating from Harvard University in 2008, he supposedly made investments in the who’s who of the tech world: Razer, Xiaomi, Airbnb, Uber, and Facebook among others.  Sng claimed that he had seats on various boards and advisory panels at organizations linked to the Singapore government, including the Prime Minister’s Office...   How did Sng amass these credentials so quickly? He was good at charming potential partners and tapping into their motivations to get what he wants, multiple associates tell Tech in Asia.  While his early life remained fodder for gossip, Sng’s achievements centered around a preposterous claim: that he was the great-grandson of Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen."

Research: Being Nice in a Negotiation Can Backfire

Can you die from old age? - "There is no such thing as "dying of old age", and you won't see this term written on a death certificate.  Rather, it is a colloquial way in which we refer to the death of an older person where the cause is not obvious or well-understood...  medical issues may include heart problems, low or high blood pressure, or neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's... "The reason that many older people quietly die in their sleep is because their swallowing systems don't work, they inhale food, fluid, saliva into their lungs, they catch pneumonia and they die," he says.  And these diseases also affect mobility, making older people more likely to fall, injure themselves, and end up in hospital — where they are at risk of infections they can no longer fight off... doctors are less likely to carry out invasive testing that might uncover a specific cause in older people, compared with young, healthy patients.  "In many cases, the death certificate will only say what is the most likely cause of death without necessarily having a specific or post-mortem proven cause of death," Dr Rosenfeld says.  "Every death certificate, even when they don't know what it was, they would usually say heart attack, cardiac arrest. If it's an old person in a nursing home they probably usually say pneumonia.""

Soon you’ll be able to safely microwave Cup Noodles - "Nissin announced that it was updating the design of its iconic Cup Noodles in early 2024. Instead of polystyrene, it’ll be made out of paper. Nissin also notes that thanks to the new packaging, its Cup Noodles will now be microwaveable. As in, you were never supposed to be microwaving Cup Noodles.  Cue chaos... UChicago Medicine’s Burn and Wound Center published a study that discovered a third of childhood burns were caused by instant noodles. More specifically, the study’s authors said in a press release that the burns often occurred due to “inadvertent spills when removing containers from the microwave, along with spills while eating due to the narrow bases of instant noodle cups.”... the new microwavable Cup Noodles also won’t make you wait for three minutes. The new design will “no longer require boiling water,” meaning you can shave 45 seconds off the heating time."

No sweat is bad news for lovers, says co-author of RSC book - ""Pheromones are what we call here in Germany Sexuallockstoffe, which work on men and on women alike.   "Those pheromones are included in the sweat. This is why some girls like to wear the T-shirts of their boy-friend and vice versa. There have been studies about that both in Germany and in England.   "Napoleon Bonaparte once wrote to his wife Joséphine, while he was campaigning: 'Please don't wash, will arrive in three days'. This confidential note was transferred by a messenger, and in this specific case, even historians do agree that Napoleon didn't mean that Joséphine shouldn't do the laundry. He meant something else."

Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing in Latin America worked - "Despite the initial outcry, Netflix’s new pricing scheme appears to be working. The company has reported that subscribers are once again signing up across Latin America. New data from piracy intelligence firm EtherCity, shared with Rest of World, also shows that restricting password sharing seems to have stifled account resales. The practice, in which account access is sold online at a reduced price, is a popular way of pirating Netflix in Latin America."

Is Singapore really a Blue Zone? Experts weigh in on how healthy Singaporeans are - "Okinawa, Sardinia and Singapore. What do these places have in common? Besides all being islands, Okinawa is in Japan, Sardinia in Italy and Singapore in Southeast Asia.  In a recent Netflix series titled Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, they were among six places named healthy “Blue Zones”. Popularised by New York Times bestselling author Dan Buettner, a Blue Zone is a region with a high concentration of centenarians or 100-year-olds.   These are places where people live longer and enjoy better health well into old age. In his book The Blue Zones, Buettner named five original Blue Zones – besides Okinawa and Sardinia, there is Ikaria in Greece, Loma Linda in California and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.  Each of these pockets of longevity has developed a way of life where people eat plant-based diets, are active daily, have a sense of purpose and are engaged in close-knit communities.  Singapore was named a sixth Blue Zone 2.0 this year in the four-part documentary on Netflix, yet it does not fit the mould of these five...   “Good healthy habits are not inherent in our traditional culture and lifestyle. Singapore is nothing like Okinawa or Sardinia,” he said.   “On the contrary, we eat food that is rich in sugar, salt and santan (coconut milk in Malay), very often deep fried; we are not endowed with vast expanse of nature that encourages outdoor activities; the pace of life is fast and stressful.   “Many families keep to themselves and do not even talk to their immediate neighbours.”... Buettner said that life expectancy in Singapore jumped over 20 years within a lifetime, while the other five Blue Zones evolved slowly over centuries. It’s an outcome the rest of the world envies, he said.  For example, with a car ownership rate of 11 per cent, this means that 89 per cent of people here have to walk to get to a store, to see their friends and run their errands. This adds up to "more physical activity than you think", he said.  "I don’t think Singaporeans realise how much they move naturally. The people I interviewed took this non-exercise physical activity for granted when in fact, in many cases, it added up to over 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.”  Compared with many other countries, Singapore does well on measures of health. The Global Burden of Disease 2019 study ranked Singapore first globally for both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, ahead of Japan.   If you live in Singapore, you can expect to live, on average, to about 84 years of age. More importantly, the number of years you live in good health is also likely to be the highest in the world, at an average of 74 years.  Singapore has created this outcome through infrastructure and programmes that nudge our people towards healthier behaviours, said Mr Ong.   “Just like Singapore is a nation created by conviction and will, Singapore as a Blue Zone is constructed through policy,” he said.  Experts here agree. Dr Laureen Wang attributes Singapore residents’ stellar life expectancy to a number of factors including stable and good governance, economic security, accessible health care and public health policies – such as childhood immunisation programmes and how COVID-19 was handled.   The cardiologist and head of Alexandra Hospital’s Well Programme also cited social factors – a high literacy rate and social support, in part due to our Asian culture and also family and friends being close by for many in a small country...   Prof Maier also pointed out that one overlooked factor is insufficient sleep – which can add to the risk of developing diabetes, dementia and affects one’s mental health.  Singapore is among the cities that get the least hours of sleep in the world"

20 Video Game Franchises EA Has Ruined

Meme - "ONCE, THERE WAS AN UGLY DUCKLING. ALL THE OTHER DUCKLINGS LAUGHED AT HIM. LATER, IT TURNED OUT THE DUCKLING WAS A LOST MEMBER OF THE MASTER RACE KNOWN AS "SWANS."
'A FOUNDLING! LIVING AMIDST THESE SCUM'
THE OTHER DUCKS BOWED BEFORE THEIR NATURAL OVERLORD.
'FORGIVE US!'
'WE WERE FOOLS!'
THIS IS GOOD. THIS IS AS IT SHOULD BE.
'GOD GRAMPA, THESE OLD STORIES ARE REALLY OFFENSIVE' - Young Swan
'GOD, I HATE YOUR GENERATION ' - Old Swan"

France’s far-Left criticised for defending leader who hit his wife - "The Left-wing of French politics faced accusations of double standards on Monday after members of its camp leapt to the defence of a top MP who admitted to slapping his wife.  French prosecutors in Lille, northern France, launched an investigation into Adrien Quatennens, the de facto head of the radical-Left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, after information was leaked to the press revealing that his wife, Céline, had reported her estranged husband to the police for violence. The revelations are embarrassing for LFI and partners from its Left-wing NUPES parliamentary alliance, which has styled itself as the most militant political force in calling out violence against women.  Mr Quattenens himself called on the government in 2019 to pay more heed to complaints filed in police stations by women reporting violence"

Meme - Hydra: "You can't beat me! IF you cut ofF one oF my head, two more grow back in its place!"
Hero: "Hmm..."
"EXOTIC FOOD Roasted Hydra's Heads. Enough for everyone!"

Meme - "I just started our online banking and never realized how much money you give to charity. I married such a sweet and generous man!
*Charity. Gentleman's CLub. FULL NUDE!*"

Meme - "NOBODY KNOWS WHAT INTERNAL MECHANISM PRODUCES AIRPLANES, BUT IF WE LESION THIS REGION THAT CONTAINS HYDROCARBONS, IT CAUSES AIRPLANES TO STOP. THEREFORE THAT AREA IS CALLED THE "AIRPLANE MODULATION STRUCTURE" *UFO blasts area on Earth*"
On brain science

Robin Monotti on X - "Mussolini was paid £100 a week from MI5 from 1917 to keep up the WW1 pro-war campaigning: "Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in politics in 1917 with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5. For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper.  He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home. Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time. Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict.  Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today." As well as keeping the presses rolling at Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he edited,  Mussolini also told Hoare he would send Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan,  a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units. After the armistice, Mussolini began his rise to power, assisted by electoral fraud and blackshirt violence, establishing a fascist dictorship by the mid-1920s. His colonial ambitions in Africa brought him into contact with his old paymaster again in 1935.  Now the British foreign secretary, Hoare signed the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy control over Abyssinia. The unpopularity of the Hoare-Laval pact in Britain forced Hoare to resign. Mussolini, meanwhile, built on his new colonial clout to ally with Hitler, entering the second world war in 1940, this time to fight against the allies.""
Clearly, this proves that the UK created Mussolini and was behind fascism and World War II!

Meme - France: "But l'm Celtic like you"
Wales, Scotland, Ireland: "Go hang with the G*rmanics"
France: "But I'm Germanic like you"
Netherlands, Germany, Denmark: "Go hang with the Lat*ns"
France: "But I'm Latin like you"
Spain, Portugal, Italy: "Ew, fuck off."

Meme - Red Chilean: ""sex work is work" So is child labor. The fact that it's work isn't the problem. Just because something is work doesn't mean it's inherently good for either the worker or society."

Meme - "MEXICO. EGYPT. INDONESIA *Pyramids*
'What does this mean?'
'That. my friend. is exactly the question you have to ask'
'It means that this is one of the best ways to pile up rocks and not have them fall down for a long time.'"

Teachers at New Taipei Kid Castle affiliate accused of giving students 'Rainbow Potion' - "A preschool in New Taipei that was a franchise of the Kid Castle Educational Institute had its license revoked and was fined NT$150,000 after allegations by parents that teachers had given sedatives to children called "Rainbow Potion."  Thus far, 17 parents have filed police reports against the school for allegedly giving their children sleeping pills. Toxicology tests revealed that eight out of 28 students tested positive for barbiturates and benzodiazepines, with even the son of the principal testing positive... Angela Wang (王薇君), chairwoman of the Taiwan Children's Rights Association was cited by the news agency as saying that some parents asked for help after their children developed withdrawal symptoms such as hair pulling and hitting walls... barbiturates normally leave the body after three days, but doctors detected trace amounts on June 6, weeks after the investigation began. This possibly indicated the children had been given large doses over a long period of time.  She was concerned this could affect the children's neurodevelopment. She also questioned whether more teachers were involved, including those who had previously worked for the school."

Funny birthday card for her. - 'If a potato can become vodka you can be anything you want to be.'

UberFacts on X - "Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by a man from Greece He was inspired to put a South American ingredient on an Italian dish after eating Chinese food… it then went on to become the most popular kind of pizza in Australia"

Ant Simulator canceled after crowdfunding money spent on liquor and strippers

Solomon Asch Conformity Line Experiment Study - "Solomon Asch experimented with investigating the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform...   Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgment task.  If the participant gave an incorrect answer, it would be clear that this was due to group pressure...   Over the 12 critical trials, about 75% of participants conformed at least once, and 25% of participants never conformed.  In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.   Why did the participants conform so readily?  When they were interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought “peculiar.  A few of them said that they did believe the group’s answers were correct.  Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence)."

Meme - "me using different emails to keep getting free trials of disney plus
*Scarlet Centurion, Victor Timely, Rama Tut, He Who Remains, Immortus, Kang the Conqueror*"

Meme - "Me using different emails to keep getting free trials: *Jango Fett, Commander Cody, Boba Fett, Nax*"

What Flights Used to Cost in the 'Golden Age' of Air Travel - "the average flight from L.A. to Boston in 1941 was worth $4,539.24 per person in today’s money, and it would have taken 15 hours and 15 minutes with 12 stops along the way. By comparison, a nonstop flight in 2015 would cost $480.89 and take only six hours. Thanks to intensifying low-cost competition, we can find airfares as cheap as $283 today... Part of the reason flying was so exclusive and relatively luxurious in the '40s, '50s, and '60s was that it was very expensive. Until the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, airlines were considered a public utility and airfares were set by the federal government, which ensured airlines always made more than enough money. Even after deregulation, a basic domestic round-trip airfare in 1979 averaged $615.82 in today's money. That average fare dropped to $344.22 by 2016."
Things to remember when you gush about how wonderful air travel used to be and how awful it is nowadays

Korean Feces Wine is a Real Thing and We’ve Got Two Bottles of it, Contains Cat Bones as Well - "Ttongsul, or “feces wine”, is a Korean drink made by pouring soju, a distilled grain alcohol,  into a pit filled with chicken, dog, or human feces, and leaving the mixture in the pit for three to four months until it ferments. It is then extracted from the pit and drank straight, with the belief that it can cure illness and help in the aid of bone fractures... our correspondents examined the bottles to find a brown and surprisingly clear liquid that looked similar to brandy. No bits of excrement floating around, and no visible traces of cat bone either (thank god).  Even more surprising was that the Ttongsul smelled nothing like feces. In fact, it didn’t smell of anything at all. We imagine the fermentation process has been perfected over the centuries so the wine is odorless and therefore easier to drink. After all, even if it is tradition, poo is still poo."
SoraNews24 Taste Test: Korean Feces Wine - "After running the story on our Japanese site, we received a fair bit of criticism from our Korean readers, who insisted that Ttongsul no longer existed in the country and this is just something Japan contrived to smear “mud” on Korea’s good name...   We poured Chie a glass on Tongusl, which she brought to her lips and sipped gently like a fine wine. She comments, “You can tell it has a high alcohol content. I also sense traces of Chinese medicinal herbs. It doesn’t smell like feces, but there is a feint acidity to it. I would never have guessed there was feces in it unless you had told me.”  Our other staff passed around the glass for a taste test and the consensus was in line with Chie’s: traditional Chinese medicinal wine with a strong alcohol proof and a slightly bitter aftertaste."

Air Steward Reveals 10 Differences Dating Korean Versus Singaporean Girls - "he told me about the latest Korean girl he was dating and proudly confessed that he became an air steward to ‘outsource’ girls from unchartered territories beyond our land...
2. The sex
Based on my experience, Singaporean girls are better in bed.  The Korean girls I dated are quite self-conscious and less adventurous. They tend to be shy, so they’ll insist you turn off the lights. When changing clothes, they’ll also hide and give that stop-staring-at-me face.
3. Different meal plans
You know how Chinese people ask 吃饭了吗 (have you eaten rice), where ‘rice’ is mostly a figure of speech? Well, Koreans literally eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s ingrained in them...
4. Conflicting working hours
I’m not saying all Korean girls work in nightlife, but the ones I meet usually do. That’s how most guys meet Korean girls in Singapore...
5. The way they break up
If Korean girls make up their minds about breaking up, they’ll just tell you “oppa, sorry we can’t work out, please take care okay.” And that’s the end of it.  I feel that Singaporean girls are more forgiving. In our tiny island, it’s harder to pull away when you’re constantly reminded of the person through mutual friends.
6. The way they carry themselves
As compared to Singaporeans, the majority of Korean girls I meet behave like they are prized possessions. They’re often pretty and go under the knives to look perfect, so they know they can get guys. I think that’s what makes them appealing; they are not afraid to flaunt their confidence...
8. The way they chase men
When a Korean girl likes you, she’ll usually chase after you, but only for one to two months max. I find Singaporean girls more patient. However, once you get the girl, Koreans are quick to say they love you.
9. What they think of Singaporean men
Korean girls repeatedly tell me they prefer Singaporean men because Korean men are more rowdy and playful. According to them, Singaporean men have bigger assets ‘down there’. I didn’t believe it until I read the global size chart that trended online here."

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