Jiekai went to Amsterdam everyday from Sunday-Tuesday. On the last day, I accompanied him. On arrival, he went off to make full use of his paid-for canal rides like a dutiful Singaporean while I went to locate Begijnhof.


Begijnhof


Begijnhof

The Begijnhof is an old, quiet courtyard in Amsterdam. The proverbial island of calm in the busy city. One of the houses dates from 1420. Other than that there isn't much there.

I then proceeded to the Rijksmuseum, which I was supposed to visit with Jiekai (of course, the cock went ahead on his own on a prior day). It's been under renovation since 2003, but you won't hear of the real reason (an asbestos leak) from the Rijks itself - no, they're always striving to serve their customers better! I bet they didn't even lower their ticket prices despite their only showing selected highlights during the renovation. During the renovation, many of its pieces are dispersed throughout the country. Some are housed in Schiphol, but you can only see them if you fly! Luckily they'll still be there when I fly back.

The Netherlands must be the only country in the world to transition from a republic to a kingdom.


Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne, Fishing for souls, 1614
This depicts the Catholic/Protestant rivalry


Paulus van Vianen - Adoration of the Shepherds
The silverwork is exquisite

I found out why Delft ceramics remind me so much of China - they were made in imitation of it when a civil war disrupted its supply.


Earthenware violin. Wth.


Melchior d'Hondecoeter - The floating feather


Gerard de Lairesse - Allegory of the Sciences
This is another of those paintings that looks like a sculpture. This was one of 4 paintings. Maybe he did the one in the Centraal Museum also.


Falconet - Menacing Love
There was a €14.95 book about this sculpture at the gift shop. I don't see what's so special.


Gerard van Honthorst - The Merry Fiddler


Pieter Claesz - Still life with turkey pie
I like the dead turkey on top of the turkey pie. Don't you?


Interior of the St Bavo Church in Haarlem

Willem Heda painted only still life for 40 years. Wth.


Pieter Lastman - Orestes & Pylades disputing at the altar


Bartholomeus van der Helst - Bickers - Father & Son
What a contrast!


Aert van der Neer - River view by moonlight
Night views are so rare.


Rembrandt - Syndics of the Amsterdam Drapers' Guild


Bakhuysen - Ships in distress in heavy storm

Gerard Don was very evil. He painted a painting with a realistic-looking curtain in it, because paintings were covered with curtains to protect them from the light. Maybe he wanted people to touch the painting and ruin it.


Ver Meer - The Kitchen Maid


Hals/Codde - The Meagre Company


Rembrandt - Nightwatch
I didn't know it was quite so big.


Exterior of the Rijksmuseum

Meeting up with Jiekai as I exited the exhibition, I bought a ticket to a concert that night.


Concertgebouw building


Me on turfed roof
Below me is a carpark and a supermarket (Albert Heijn). Quite unique for such facilities to have a turfed roof.

After that, we went to the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum (appropriately enough, some time before I entered, I was offered Ecstasy by a Turkish-looking guy). It was most informative, if pricey (€5.70 for an exhibition on only one level, in an area the size of a shop). For example they cited the Crancer Report which found that cannabis use had no effect on driving skills (while alcohol use affected it greatly).


"Consumption causes a slight, temporary elevation (increase) in rate of heartbeat while intoxicated. Caution: Thinking about this effect increases the heart rate even more, and this can cause anxiety."

The insanity of the US war on drugs was also repeatedly stressed. Presidents Washingotn and Jefferson were hemp farmers, for exmaple, which would've gotten them the death penalty today (which falls on those who grow >1/4 acre of hemp, even the drug-free variety). I'm surprised Singapore was not mentioned at all, though. A sign at the entrance of the museum appealed for visitors to send in relevant memorabilia or artefacts. Maybe someone can send them a poster of the "Local bands remember Sam" concert.


The Devil's Plant

Some of the information was rather dubious, though. They claimed cannabis could be used to treat AIDs, and the sheer list of alleged references in ancient writings to cannabis was suspect (The Atharva, Exodus 30:23, Isaish 18:4-5, Revelations 22:1-2, Genesis 1:29-31, Shen Nung from the Han Dynasty (3727BC) (sic), the Vedas [they claimed Shiva gave India Cannabis] and lots of Asian texts I'd never heard of). And some of the arguments were stretched to the limit - there were numerous references to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, for example. As Lonely Planet remarks, it is "zealous", and their credibility is not enhanced by such items as a book reading: "Hemp: Lifeline to the future. The unexpected answer for environmental and economic recovery". It didn't help that the book looked like those "use your brain power to change reality" or "What did Nostradamus say?" types from the 80s. As Jiekai remarked: "it's a bit like falling into Chee Soon Juan Syndrome", and I added that the worthwhile part of the message is lost in the garbage.


Consume this and die

There were also some truly strange items, like cannabis perfume (why would anyone want to smell of pot?! Then again, when my housemates do it it smells a LOT less obnoxious than when they smoke tobacco) and an apple used to smoke pot from (this is damn sad - almost as pathetic as sniffing glue).

The pride of their collection must've been the 2 17th century paintings showing people smoking. They had some T-shirts in the gift shop, which I suggested Jiekai buy, but he didn't want to be arrested on stepping into Changi Airport. Too bad.

The museum's general aim was to expose the religious-like insanity of the war on marijuana, but in turn it adopted somewhat of a mystical air in spreading its message. Not the best way to change minds, but then again the sort of people who need the FUD cleared would never visit the place. Essentially, like in anti-drug campaigns, the museum is preaching to the choir.


Worldwide incarceration rates
I knew we lead the world in executions, but didn't know about incarceration. Singapore must be Number 1 in everything, so we still have some way to go.


Hemp Prayer Rug, Ching Dynasty, 1912

Apparently Harry Anslinger 'engineered pot prohibition' when his job enforcing alcohol prohibition ended.


Me in a shoe
I forced Jiekai into a shoe for a Kodak moment, so I was obliged to repay him in kind.


In Dam square there was a woman wearing a black masquerade mask, a black tank top, a fluffy white tutu and red shoes (with white stockings). She was standing among pigeons and someone was snapping pictures. This is a wacky country.

We met a group of 7 NUS exchange students (and 1 other) at Leeds and Nottingham who were travelling. The group looked very big and unwieldy - I wonder how they manage to make travel decisions.

While I waited for my concert, Jiekai kindly stayed back to talk to me for almost an hour. I then went to browse in the bookstore of Amsterdam Centraal, which was very well stocked. I got a "Let's Go - Europe 2006" for €17.50 (it was marked on the cover as being a cheap edition, which was what caught my interest). The place also had Amy Tan novels in Dutch ("Vissen op het droge helpen" and "De dochter van de heelmeester"), and a Japanese porn magazine.

I then went for my concert.


Turfed roof again


Nederlands Kamerorkest presenteert:
Yakov Kreizberg, dirigent
Julia Fischer, viool
Gordan Nikolic, altviool
Nederlands Kamerorkest

Prokofjev - Eerste symfonie in D, op. 25 'Klassieke'
W.A. Mozart - Vioolconcert in A, KV 219
Nyman - Trysting Fields
W.A. Mozart - Sinfonia concertante in Es, KV 364

I was at least somewhat familiar with 3/4 of the pieces, and this really made a difference in appreciation (as well as attention span).


Interior of Concertgebouw Grote Zaal

The hall was decorated with the names of (presumably) famous composers. However, there were many people I'd never heard of - Spohr, Lutto, Rontgen, Pigper, Reger, Verhulst, Nielsgade, Rubinstein and Wanning. The audience was very old - I saw a lot of shiny heads. Their age might've made them cough a lot (more than is usual during concerts), but then again that might've been due to their speaking too little Dutch (or, alternatively, too much).

The conductor made a dramatic entrance, coming in through the doorway and down the stairs seen in the top right hand corner of the picture, as a spotlight seemed to shine on him.

I know I've heard Prokofiev's Classical Symphony performed live at least once before. It's quite a popular piece which you often find on programs. I wonder how Prokofiev would've felt about that.

The sound in the hall was excellent. Maybe it had something to do with my seat in row 13 from the front and at the extreme left part of the centre block (or the qualities of the wood used in the organ), but I could hear the cellos and double basses as well as if they'd been playing from where the first violins were.

Nyman's Trysting Fields (from Drowning by Numbers) was interesting. When I saw it on the program I figured it didn't sound like a nightmare scene and so was safe. Evidently the conductor didn't think very much of it (difficulty-wise, aesthetically or otherwise), for he didn't even show up to conduct the piece, even though there was both a violin and viola soloist. The orchestra gave a good demonstration of the fadeout effect - playing the ending bars of the song more and more softly till the music ceased. Before that concert, I thought such a graceful and seamless fadeout was only possible with the aid of electronic equipment.

The playing of the chamber orchestra was good, and my only complaint was that they lacked grace in cresting their crescendos during the Classical Symphony. The violin soloist kept tugging her dress straps up. That wasn't so bad, but what was really annoying was that she wiped her hands on her dress from time to time and kept leaning way over backwards at the end of her parts.

There was one violin player who was in an oufit that covered herself from neck to wrist to toe. Maybe she got it in Dutch Country.

I was wondering why so many people gave the orchestra and soloists standing ovations after the Nyman piece. Then I realised that it was because it was time for the interval. My theory was confirmed by the fact that no one gave standing ovations for the first and third pieces, and that no one sat down after standing up, but immediately zipped off to smoke, drink, pee or what not.

The viola is not a good instrument for a soloist or to write a concerto for (or worst: a concerto for a violin as well). Most of the time it gets drowned out by the violin soloist or the orchestra (though this might be by design). At least they have it better than the double bassists - I can't think of any solo parts for double bass.


On the tram back from the Concertgebouw I sat next to this guy who was reading a magazine interview. Normally I wouldn't look any further, but I saw that it was an interview with "Schoolse super slut Annabel Chong". Naturally I was curious, especially since she was supposed to have retired. Glancing on, I saw that the magazine was called "Asian Girls" and one question asked what she liked. There was a short list, and I'm quite sure double penetration was in there.


Almost everyone who wears head-warming equipment at this time of the year in Amsterdam is American. And someone who wears the sort with dangly sides and/or the designs you can find in the stores is 99.999999% likely to be American.

I saw 2 places offering 1 hour of as much as you can eat Tim Sum for €7.50. One of them had a takeaway option - 750g for €7.50.

The creamy ice cream shop has variable opening hours on Monday and variable closing hours on one other day. The Europeans really know how to enjoy life.

I was wondering why students studying in Singapore don't travel, when their counterparts in the US and UK are going on Grand Tours of Europe and/or South America. Jiekai suggested that it's for the same reason why they study in Singapore in the first place - they have no money.

I realised why my rent costs so much - rent control. Or lack thereof. This is why there's such a long waiting list for local students.

Jiekai says the Brits suck at making savoury food, but excel at sweet dishes like mince pies and biscuits, so he found my Aldi chocolate chip cookies nothing to write home about.

EU residents (or those who've resided in the EU for 6 months) get to use Inter-rail passes, while the rest of us have to use Eurail passes, which are almost always more expensive. Gah.

In the supermarket in the Muslim quarter of Utrecht, I found Coke and Sprite/7-Up cans with Arabic words on them. This is ridiculous (unless they were cheaper because they were parallel imported on a camel train).

A guy I saw in Aldi was wearing a partially-buttoned jacket, and he had a tabby cat inside, which kept peeking out. I also saw cooking wine in tetrapaks.

On a Saturday afternoon, when the streets in the city centre were really crowded, I saw one of those guys lying stomach-first on and tied to a motorised stretcher crusing through the crowd. These people are really hardcore.

For one reason or another, I keep missing the free Saturday afternoon concerts at the Dom. I either forget, am busy, am not in Utrecht or am coming back from the market with food. So last Saturday I finally made my way down at 3:30pm (the usual concert time, and 1/2 hr before the place's Saturday closing time at this time of year), only to find nothing and no one outside the Cathedral and the main door to the building shut, with no visible and accessible side doors. I asked a local woman and she was also surprised.


My eggs and soft drink cans keep disappearing, so I've brought the latter to my room in a vain hope of cutting my rate of loss. The former I can't do anything about. What was really ridiculous was that my ginger disappeared - no one else uses ginger.

I don't know why people like drinking Orange Juice so much. The normal sort you find in cartons all tastes like airline juice - if you can't drink Florida's Natural or something similar, you might as well drink water. The same goes for milk (and there're strange people who readily drink airline-quality juice, yet who refuse to drink UHT milk and go only for fresh).


Quotes:

[On midterm] For each exam, we stated the time it was handed in... We regressed the scores on the time [each was] handed in. We couldn't find any significant results. (script)

[On capital mobility] Domestic savings is strongly correlated with domestic investment. It's one of the major puzzles of macro-economics. So if you're looking for a topic for your thesis you can try to solve it.

What they usually do, or what I usually do when I read papers is I read the start, I skip the middle and I go to the end.

What do you like better - the calculation stuff or the talking stuff?... [Student: It depends on who's doing the talking] It's better if you do the talking. I don't like to talk.

I saw a woman walking her dog by piloting a small motorised vehicle (I'd describe it as a buggy but that isn't the word - it was basically a chair placed on top of 4 wheels and a motor).

I bought a goat sandwich from a Vietnamese hawker. He said he was housed in a refugee camp in Sembawang for 4 months in 1980, and gave me a discount on my purchase. I was always under the impression that the 1980s was the time when we caned and sent boat people back, so I was wondering why he had such favourable memories of Singapore.

I was very pissed off. I bought a handful of what looked like deep fried prawns at the market, only to find out that they were actually cunningly shaped and coloured pieces of surimi (what's in crabstick).

I came across a budget CD shop, selling CDs for as low as €2 a piece. The selection was limited, but they had Melvyn Tan, Roger Norringotn and Swingle Singers "Around The World" CDs for €5 each. The most expensive CDs were, I think, €7.50 each. There were also 40 CD composer-themed boxsets retailing for €30 - "Handel/Beethoven - The Complete Masterworks".

I wanted to go to a Piotr Anderszewski concert last Wednesday with 2 Mozart works, 1 Bach suite and 1 Szymanowski piece. Unfortunately, even though CJP (youth card) tickets were available for half the usual price (€14 instead of €28 or so), Piotr Anderszewski was sick and someone else was filling him for in. I'm not very big for brand names, so this wasn't a problem. What was a problem was what that person was playing - 2 Rachmaninov pieces and 1 Shostakovich. There were also 2 Schumann pieces, but that wasn't enough to make it worth my money, so I passed on the concert.

The weather is amazing. On 20th March we were still having winter-like temperatures, but when I woke up on 21st March it was as warm as Spring (or as warm as I expect Spring to be) - the temperature jumped at least 10 degrees in one day; within a week, Amsterdam went from -2 degrees to 12.

Jiekai was bored and messing around with the universal convertor which I brought from Singapore, and somehow managed to get it to work - I'd slotted something the wrong way in, which was why something else couldn't be combined with it. So now I can use my laptop and Palm charger at the same time. He (sometimes) deserves more credit than I give him.


For some reason there're a lot of Argentinian restaurants in Amsterdam.

I asked what the apostrophe s in some words means (eg "half 10 's ochtends" [9:30am]). It turns out that "'s" is "des", the equivalent of "Der", "Die" and "Das" in German, but in Dutch this has been mostly done away with, so I don't need to remember what the gender of the table is. Well, actually there's "de" and "het", but there're only 2 choices here, and the language is somewhat more consistent in which nouns get which article.

"Friday" in Dutch is "Vrijdag", which roughly translates as "Free day". This probably explains why so many places either don't open or close early on Friday.

They have funky chairs in some of the computer rooms at my University. Most wheeled-chairs have a lever letting you adjust their height, and some have a lever letting you adjust the angle/tilt of the back of the chair. But these were the first chairs I remembered allowing you to slide the seat forwards and backwards.



Fried spaghetti
This was fried with onions, mushrooms, courgettes, egg, soy sauce, vinegar, ham and the magic ingredient - (Jong Belegen) cheese. Yes, the cheese complements the sourness of the vinegar very nicely, and the onions lend it sweetness.


Quotes:

[Teacher on rejecting a request: How do you say because [of some reason]?] 'I don't speak Dutch'.

Here are some figures for 2004 and 2005 which I stole from the World Development Report.

This link is completely severe'd (severed)

If there's a puzzle, ten economists jump out of the woodwork and start working on it.

International Economics gives us silly examples about bread, and wine, and shoes. So here's another one.

In the 70s you drove a car from Detroit... If you drove anything else people would laugh at you.

Here's my favourite example - the 1980 Ford Pinto... 8 out of 10 cars had to be sent back to the garage within 1 week because there was something wrong with it... A unique quality: if someone hit you in the back, the gas tank would explode, and everyone in the car would die (them)

[On technology transfer] Once McDonalds invested in the Netherlands, other Dutch restaurants improved. Not necessarily for the better.

This is the really ugly building I talked about some weeks ago. Besides its ugliness, it also has a UFO perched on it. Wth. It's the "Prorail Hoofdkantor Hoofdkantoor" building. Babelfish translates the latter word as "head being possible bug", but somehow I doubt it "head office".

I wonder if there's a law against drunken biking here.

Over here, those with Masters degrees but not PhDs get the salutation "Drs". Nice consolation, especially for those not intending to go doctorates.

I tried to buy student tickets for some concerts at Vredenburg, but was told that student tickets would only be sold on the day itself, and after 7pm at that (most concerts are at 8:15pm). !@#$

I don't know why 24 hour time is so popular here.

The lousy pack of washing powder I bought from Kruidvat leaks, so there was powder at the bottom of the plastic bag I use to keep the pack. I tilted the bag to pour the powder into the machine, then a lot of it went onto the floor, into the air and thus into my respiratory system.

I saw a couple taking bridal pictures (on 17/3). The woman must've been damn cold because she was not wearing a jacket or bolero.

Transferring money between my normal and savings account takes 7 days. I think I should just withdraw money from one account using the ATM and go in and deposit the money into the other.

I want to try riding on the back of a bicycle like a Dutch girl (it looks fun), but I'll probably destabilize it and the rider and I will crash into a tree.

I pity those who come here from Third World countries. They must find it even more expensive than I do, like the Indonesian guy I briefly exchanged words with one day.


Some choice phrases from the ESN booklet (which I didn't fully read until recently, and so was unaware that the train discount card could be used for up to 3 people travelling with me. Argh!):

Twee bier, alsjeblief - Two beers, please
Ik trakteer - Drinks are on me.
Ik heb al een vriend/vriendin - I already have a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Mag ik je telefoonnummer? - Can I have your phonenumber (sic)?
Ik bel je nog wel. - I'll call you.
Bij jou of bij mij? - Your place or mine?
Ik ben onwijs zat/dronken - I am really drunk.
Ik heb een kater (literally a male cat) - I have a hangover

"We have a lot of strange expressions too. A lot of them show an overall obsession with the three W's (windmills, wooden shoes and water). Try these phrases on a Dutchie and note their reaction and facial expressions as you do.

een klap van de molen hebben (lit. get hit by the windmill) - To be crazy
Nou breekt mijn klomp! (lit. Now my clog (wooden shoe) breaks) - Good Lord! What next!
Ouwe koeien uit het sloot halen (lit. get old cows from the ditch) - To talk of things past



Baked peppers stuffed with minced chicken, onions, mushrooms and courgette, and seasoned with garlic powder, olive oil and butter
I baked these for a shorter time than I was supposed to, and in a hotter oven (someone wanted to bake fries, ended up eating a sausage to tide himself over and in the end was too full to eat the fries). I was annoyed that I had to stir fry the stuffing before baking - I thought I could just leave it in the oven, but it was late and I was hungry. I put the butter in only after removing the peppers from the oven because I forgot to put it on (it was placed on the stuffing in the peppers, but then I remembered I had to fry the stuffing). It still turned out alright though.

I think I prefer to fry spaghetti rather than make the sauce and pour it on top. Not only does it sear a little more taste into the noodles, it makes the sauce go a longer way.

It's nice leaving stuff out without it getting lao hong-ed. It's nice leaving stuff out without ants (or other pests, bedbugs in one room notwithstanding) getting at it. It's not so nice getting zapped left, right and centre.

(image courtesy of Fred)

Rotterdam is such a modern city - this old man found a more efficient way of propelling his bicycle than pedalling. I'm inspired by him - I think I also know now how to ride a bicycle.

(Ah, the power of new cameras!)

Someone: so you're going to athens to see a bronze mask

Me: thanks ah

Someone: hahaha... i'm not the history guy as you can tell

On Human Valuations and Human Action

"Once we abandon human valuations as the sole reference system for human action, we have to ask whose valuations are to replace them: maybe the polar bear's (sic) for whom humans are food? Humans have no way of entering into communication with other species. All that happens is that some human agent argues on behalf of another species on the pretext that she or he knows what serves that species. When we abandon human valuations and logical discourse about them, the 'interests of Nature' therefore become an excuse for some self-appointed elite to overrule human valuations. The protagonists will claim superior knowledge about what is good for nature conservation and then enforce their decisions against the wishes of the majority of people." (K&S, pp. 89)


Addendum: --- Institutional economics: social order and public policy / Wolfgang Kasper, Manfred E. Streit

Keywords: polar bears

"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war." - Winston Churchill

***

the cool hunter - DICKLESS - "If you're a man and you have a penis, then you have done this before."

Rewriting The Science - "Hansen is arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming. He's the head of NASA's top institute studying the climate. But this imminent (sic) scientist tells correspondent Scott Pelley that the Bush administration is restricting who he can talk to and editing what he can say. Politicians, he says, are rewriting the science."

Capitan Chile - "When the children of Pancho City become addicted to violent and erotic Japanese comics and cartoons, Capitan Chile travelled to the origin of this threat, the evil Otakuland, and soundly thrashed the source of the problem."

Boss sued over 'breast attention' - "A woman who had breast enlargement surgery to transform her B-cup to a DD-cup is taking her boss to court for looking at her breasts too often."

YouTube - This Is Pinky Violence! - ""The Inspiration for "Kill Bill" - GIRL GANGS, BIKER CHICKS & CAT FIGHTS! SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN JAPANESE SCHOOL GIRLS GO WAY PAST WILD!"
NSFW.

Yahoo: if you use our ads, you have to block non-US visitors - "A couple of days ago Yahoo sent me a notice stating they'd revised their Publisher Policy. Item '11.l' stated that I will not "display all or part of the Ad Unit to any user located outside the US". In other words, I can't allow users outside of the United States to view my pages if there is a Yahoo ad on the page!"

The English-to-American Dictionary - "As a Scot who has spent some time in the USA on holiday lately, I have discovered a bewildering array of words which are in common use on our side of the pond and invariably mean nothing at all or something exceedingly rude on the other side. I once noted down about fifteen of them and that afternoon formulated them into this dictionary. Since then the dictionary has thrived (well, lived) on contributions from readers and is steadily growing into a decent reference."

Hume, illustrated - "Here's a short video of a girl in Bradford who kicked a copy of the Koran and was turned into a fish... 'If the story ain't true then where does the video come from and why will people make a fake video! i do know the truth! Lemme' tell you! This happens in uk Birmingham! The girl who turns into a fish when her mom ask her to read quran and she rejects it and kick the quran and throws it away and then she turns into a fish which clearly states that she insulted her own religion and is now suffering from it! Believe it and choose the right path or you'll suffer peeples!'"

My parents came over 2 weekends ago. My mother was wearing 7 layers on top and 3 below, but was still cold. On that weekend, I was swearing that it was not getting warmer; when they landed in Paris on the 12th, it was -3 degrees. If anything, it might even have been getting colder.

They didn't stay long in Utrecht, but then as Jiekai notes, there's about as much to see as in Oxford.


Dom from streets

Graffiti seen in Amsterdam: "No freedom of speech in Police State Holland". Some people have no sense of perspective.

For some reason, there were lots of Americans in Amsterdam over that weekend; I swear every third voice I heard was American (at least till late on Sunday afternoon - maybe it was a weekend trip for most of them). It might've been partly due to Spring Break, but there were also many post-College age Americans around. And of course, where there were Americans there were Americans trying to corrupt souls. Some were chanting slogans and holding placards made of corrugated cardboard (ie Old cartons) - they probably busted the budget flying down. One offered me a "Free IQ Test", which made me suspect at first that she was a Scientologist, until she reminded us that "Jesus loves you" when we declined.


Homomonument. At first I thought this was the "Homo Monument" (monument to mankind), but have since found out that it's a monument to lesbians and gays. The evangelists were running their show near this, so maybe that's why they chose the spot they did.

For dinner on Saturday we went in one big round because my father took a wrong turn. We still ended up at the desired location in the end though - "Golden Chopsticks"restaurant. The food was good, with the exception of the over-salty and lacklustre roast combination, and we had an almost 1kg lobster for €31. And because my father spoke Cantonese to the waiter we got complimentary soup and dessert.



I was musing that the evangelists were trying to be too smart in trying to corrupt souls in the City of Sin, and as I was entering the Red Light District with my parents I was musing that they should try hawking their wares in there. Lo and behold, a large group of them were standing on a bridge in the Red Light District singing "Yes Lord"(or "Oh Lord" - this song is just *two* words long).


Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace). The tram power lines are very irritating since they keep getting in my shots.


St Nicolaas Kerk, 1887

In the Red Light District there was a "Heart of Amsterdam" hotel. Hurr hurr. And in the district too there was a bar sited just above a coffeeshop (where alcohol is forbidden). For the complete Amsterdam experience they just needed a euthanasia parlor.


Me and St Nicolaas Kerk

Besides the real Red Light District there's also a small fake one north of it, located around the Prostitute Information Centre. Over there, there were some prostitutes in windows but they were old, fat and ugly. Those in the real one were young, attractive and nubile. In the fake one most of the retail space consisted of restaurants, bars and non-sex shops (even this shop with lots of sex videos in the windows was a bookshop with a big sex collection rather than just a sex shop), but in the real one most of the retail locations sold sex (in one form or another - live spectacles, hands-on action, literature or accessories). Most tellingly, curtains were drawn in maybe 1 in 5 windows in the Real district, while none were drawn in the Fake one. Maybe the fact that I was walking through there in the mid-afternoon had something to do with it, and the windows are rented by less successful prostitutes in the day, but I doubt restaurants and normal shops can be replaced by sex-windows and sex shops within a few hours. Maybe it's the potemkin Red Light District which foreign dignitaries get brought to when they visit Amsterdam - salacious enough to make them feel they've seen something, yet not outrageous enough to offend their sensibilities. Either that or a retirement village for old prostitutes. My housemate, when he went to Amsterdam with ESN, complained about the women being old enough to be his mother, so I guess his tour brought him to the fake one. This vindicates my theory! Incidentally, almost every voice I heard in the Red Light District was American. Desker Road is nothing compared to this - Sex-polis and Sex-hub are the way to go the next time we need to boost the economy!


Church of Scientology!

I saw a guy peeing in an alley. Not far away there was a free urinal, of the same design that I'd seen in Maastricht, so it's not just for Carnival. As a public service they should finance the placement of more of these around major cities.

On Sunday we had lunch in Sarang Mas, an Indonesian restaurant. It was a bit pricey, but the food was excellent, and it was doubly haram too, stocking babi as well as frogs' legs.


The law is not mocked (Verboden Fietsen te Plaatsen)

We then took a canal cruise which was narrated in many languages. The first language in the sequence was Dutch and the last English, which was surprising - since English is the language most of those taking the cruise would understand, it should have been the first, since that would give the tourists more time to get ready.

There was graffiti under a bridge over a canal. That means someone actually travelled there on a boat just to decorate the place. I admire their tenacity.

During the cruise we passed by a cafe established in 1641 along Prinsengracht. Unfortunately it was on the other side of the boat, and I couldn't stand up and take a shot since the boat's roof was non-retractable.

Apparently the reason there're houseboats in Amsterdam is because there used to be a housing shortage. Meanwhile the reason there're low fences dating from the 60s lining the canals is to prevent cars from driving into the water. This still doesn't stop a car a week from driving in though. Wth.


Westermark - "The most famous tower in Amsterdam"


Pulitzer hotel, built out of an old warehouses, but only the gables remain.

I saw a swan looking into someone's houseboat. The person was serving lunch.

When moving house in Amsterdam, people move their furniture in and out of the windows, since the staircases and passageways are quite narrow. This is why so many of the houses have hooks hanging from beams sticking out of their tops. How convenient.


Canal near Leidsegracht-Herengracht


Patrician's house. The door in the stoop was for the staff.

502 Herengracht, the official residence of the Mayor of Amsterdam, doesn't look very special.

The 7 bridges of Amsterdam are nice, but unfortunately I only had a bad angle, so I didn't bother to snap away. Shots I find online are good, though.


Along the Amstel river (the river after which Amsterdam is named), and the Mint Tower - old defence tower built in the 15th (?) century


Zuiderkerk, 1614. First Protestant Church in Amsterdam.


Stadswaterkantoor - another defence tower. The bottom dates from the 14th century and the top from the 15th. The clock is called 'crazy jack' because it kept crazy time.

On Sunday afternoon, I saw another group of evangelists (probably the same as the one I'd seen on Saturday) walking through the streets carrying placards and singing. Good riddance. Too bad their actions are not prejudicial to public health.

I saw a very cheap clothes shop. They had pullovers and sweaters (including zip-up ones) from €5, and even long sleeved shirts from €7.50. I was contemplating buying one or two extra pieces of clothing to keep warm. A month ago, I'd also contemplated that but I told myself it could only get warmer, so there was no point. A month later, I then told myself it really really couldn't *not* get warmer, so in the end I bought nothing. The "Fuhua New Fashion Resist Static Electricity 80% Cotton 20% Polyester" zip-up sweater looked promising, though (Finally! Fashion designers Sweatshop labourers who understand my needs!).

Late on Sunday afternoon, some kurds were holding a concert and displaying pictures of injured children and adults, with the sign "Stop Kurdish Genocide".


The Crowne Plaza hotel tries to sucker its guests into visiting the restaurant. Note the typische Nederlandse bewoording.
"Amsterdam is also a city with various types of fine restaurants. One of these fine restaurants is located in your own hotel. May we present to you: Restaurant Dorrius... Of course you can go to a grill restaurant to eat steak and yes... you can eat sushi in a Japanese restuarant. But is that why you came to Amsterdam???? Why don't you try something the Dutch normally eat"

I saw a huge queue outside 'Van der linde ijs (sinds 1937)', and lots of people walking down the street were eating ice cream from there. The day wasn't *that* cold, and the long alley meant most of the windchill was blocked, so I decided to try it (the BJ fix I had maybe a month ago made me freeze even more, so my massage theory doesn't hold water). I got a Kinderijsje for €0.40 just to be safe from freezing, and it was really tiny; usually kids' portions are decent, but this was just a tasting portion. It was plain, flavourless, slightly melted (the joys of mass production!) ice cream but it was really good and full of richness: sort of like whipped, sweetened heavy cream in ice cream form. I think the closest I've tasted to it is clotted cream hand scoop ice cream, though this was more like clotted cream soft serve. The only downside (beyond the miserly portion) was the (very light brown) sugar cone (which tasted like sawdust and/or tracing paper - basically the one used for S$0.50 McDonalds ice cream cones) it was given to me in. Why can't they use the real dark brown sugar cones (with body, taste and crunch) like normal people?!

The souvenir shop in the hotel was surprisingly cheap. This was because it was run by an outside shop, with another branch down the street from the hotel.

Oddly enough, I felt more homesick in the week after they left than in the weeks before, arrival-melancholy notwithstanding, and anyway that was more of general discomfort.

Feedback email:

"came across your website, please provided solutions, i'm sick of my friends and colleagues showing off and saying how simple this stupid game is, for once, i want to "beat" them. thanks a million"

Heh.

"While Argentina has unlimited beauty, it also has unlimited corruption."

The author of The Wicked has requested that I take down my walkthrough since his tagboard was being flooded.

However, given that he has come up with levels 32-40, I'm sure that any "weakling" who couldn't solve all the first 31 levels himself would be unable to solve these. After all, not everyone has "a rated IQ of 137". Us lesser mortals cannot compare.

So those of you "idiots" who lack "moral integrity" since you are unable to think so far out of the box that you enter another plane of existence should not count on this "cute little bastard" for any more answers. I guess I can now join the ranks of such scum as Dan Simpson for writing walkthroughs, and join AMIDS (Association of Moral-Integrity-Deficient Scoundrels), where after we beat games with the help of walkthroughs, millions of us worldwide plot our latest orgy of Murder, Larceny and Sodomy in the quest for World Domination.

Shoo! Go do something to redeem your fallen spirits, like joining a Moral Uplifting Society!

Jiekai was responsible for this.

It's raining noodles!: I want to believe:

Alright, Agagooga. I'm not even going to try to argue with you anymore. Not only because it's pointless arguing with someone like you and a waste of my time, but because you keep ignoring logic and bringing up things that have already been answered multiple times.

Funny, that's my experience of arguing with fundies, when according to them 1 + 1 = 3.

"I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them." - Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., Speech during 1952 Presidential Campaign

***

I wonder how much more slowly the airplane and the industry would have developed if the Wright Brothers had managed to protect their patent. But at least the airplane was not covered under intellectual property laws, or we might still be flying in biplanes.

"Samuel Beckett was once asked to explain the significance of the title character in his masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. "If I knew," he replied, "I would have said so in the play."" - I'm so happy I didn't buy a ticket.

***

Email Feedback:

Subject: "good"
Message: "msn is gay and u r to now get fuced"

???

***

Bad Taste Bears - Pearce & Muffy

Escher for Real - "The work of M.C. Escher needs no introduction. We have all learned to appreciate the impossibilities that this master of illusion's artwork presents to the layman's eye. Nevertheless, it may come as a surprise for some, but many of the so-called 'impossible' drawings of M. C. Escher can be realized as actual physical objects. These objects will resemble the Escher's drawing, of the same name, from a certain viewing direction. This work below presents some of these three-dimensional models that were designed and built using geometric modeling and computer graphics tools."

Running commentary - "Welcome to SightJogging, the most ridiculous way to see a city ever invented. Carolina Gasparetto, the appropriately named founder, thought it up a couple of years ago, presumably after one too many grappas or one too many ab crunches, and it launched officially late last year. The theory is simple: you have a city tour while running. Yes, you’re right: she should have called it Running Commentary."

Two years in prison for downloading latest film - "Germans risk two years in prison if they illegally download films and music for private use under a new law agreed yesterday."
This is ridiculous. It's becoming like Prohibition.

Why be gay? - "The suppressed thoughts are often unwelcomed ones. These might be problems of school, of the family, health, fears, trauma and bad memories of the past and many others that are too many to list here. Actually mankind has been facing many unwanted thoughts such as threats to one's life since he was walking on the earth. He faced many life-threatening threats from ferocious animals aound his environment."
Someone pimped this in my comments box. I think Tim Tang is back.

Deism vs the Bible 3: (Magic in the Bible) - "Magic and mythical creatures aren't real but the Bible says otherwise. 1. Giants, 2. Unicornsm 3. Dragons and Leviathan, 4. Cockatrices, 5. Divination, 6. Sorcery and Voodoo"
I like the unequivocable proof of a geocentric solar system.

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DID XIAXUE XIA XUE WENDY CHENG - After a while, you really wonder.

Walkthrough for The Wicked

(My Little Bird has posted a new, updated walkthrough so please stop emailing me/leaving comments asking for answers! Thanks.)

Some readers, visitors to Tomorrow.sg or otherwise, will have heard of this game by "Tay Wei Kiat with a rated IQ of 137", and which apparently used to bill itself as being "similar to famous online puzzle site such as godtower and thisnotporn" and "the newest revolution in the online puzzle site realm".

Basically, it's conceptually similar to such games as Petals Around The Rose and the baffling, incomprehensible action/association games JC kids like to play, like so: One person will point in one direction and say it's 3 o'clock, point in another and say it's 5 o'clock and point in a third direction and ask people to guess what time it is. In reality, the "time" is determined by something else, like how his fingers are crossed.

Being fond of breaking such covenants (the one not to reveal the answers to people but let them figure it out on their own), seeing how many people are crying out for solutions and observing that many of the answers are so far out of the box as to be in another plane of existence, I shall proceed to do up answers for each level (at least each that I've completed, unaided or otherwise).

Needless to say, this walkthrough is choke-full of spoilers, so those who prefer to solve the game on their own are advised to skip the rest of this post (except for the part asking those who have solved Level 31 and beyond to send in the answers).


Level 1: All's White

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/2level.html
Explanation: Select all the text on the page and you'll see the answer.


Level 2: Look inside me.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/stage3.html
Explanation: View source.


Level 3: Look there...

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/4window.html
Explanation: Look at the title of the window.


Level 4: 1, 2, 3, 4, High X?

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/high5.html
Explanation: High 5


Level 5: The answer is obvious.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/obvious.html
Explanation: "Obvious" is literally the answer.


Level 6: Name of the first style

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/grey.html
Explanation: The source references the stylesheet main.css. The first style named in there is "grey"


Level 7: forget the last Losers!

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/grey.htm
Explanation: Drop the last "l" in the filename.


Level 8: Use your first knowledge.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/smartguy.html
Explanation: Solve it the same way you did Level 1.


Level 9: Dotz

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/notfound.html
Explanation: Click on the colon ("dots")


Level 10: Find it.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/found.html
Explanation: The filename is "notfound", so you "find" it.


Level 11: Come again another day

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/yougothint.html
Explanation: Set your system clock one day forward and enter the site from the front page again ("resume").


Level 12: Web + Woods

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/blogs.html
Explanation: Web + logs - you cut logs from the woods.


Level 13: The number!

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/1.html
Explanation: I've no idea. Presumably because people say "The number 1!" This can also be interpreted in that "!" is gotten by pressing the number "1" on the keyboard.


Level 14: From Z to M.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/zxcvbnm.html
Explanation: The letters on the keyboard from Z to M run: "zxcvbnm"


Level 15: The # without #
*image of a cyan-ish square*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/7dc0eb.html
Explanation: The hex code for that colour is "#7dc0eb", so remove the hex.


Level 16: Name it in ABC
*picture of Hualalalala T-shirt*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/hci.html
Explanation: Hwa Chong Institution = HCI


Level 17: All's Almost White
*picture of white box*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/jumpinghappily.html
Explanation: I'm told that if you tweak your display's contrast, you will see "jumping happily"


Level 18: Look inside
*picture of cookes*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/1level9.html
Explanation: Check the cookies directory/file in your browser's temporary files folder. One cookie will be named as being the hint for level 19.


Level 19: Its time to gif.
*picture of wrapped gift box*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/lala.html
Explanation: The picture is named "gift.jpg". Loading "gift.gif" delivers one the answer.


Level 20: Time at 3.30 is not negative.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/tehran.html
Explanation: Tehran has time offset GMT+3:30


Level 21: Who's that?
*picture of skeleton*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/robert.html
Explanation: The picture of the skeleton is named "robert.jpg"


Level 22: The answer.
*3 random pictures*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/42.html
Explanation: The 3 pictures are named "life", "universe" and "everything". The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is 42 (according to Douglas Adams).


Level 23: Go beyond the answer.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/43.html
Explanation: 42 + 1 = 43


Level 24: Hear it.
*picture of waves*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/justanother.html
Explanation: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/images/waves.wav has someone (presumably the author of the site) saying "juss an'udder" (sic)


Level 25: The second
*picture of a hand pointing*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/index2.html
Explanation: The picture is of an index finger, so the second index (index2) is the answer.


Level 26: Good but obsolete
*picture of Sony MD player*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/fly.html
Explanation: The morse code in the top left hand corner reads "F L Y"


Level 27: Search first.
*picture of key*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/puzzle.html
Explanation: You have to search index.html for the first "key"word - "puzzle".


Level 28: The untruth of transports
*picture of transport vehicles*

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/hjftuop.html
Explanation: Typing "hjftuop" in the Webdings font gives one that series of vehicles.


Level 29: Say thy name
A tiny little fish,
slithers into your year.
It can never be made a dish,
but can translate for you to hear.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/babelfish.html
Explanation: The poem is a reference to Douglas Adams's Babelfish.


Level 30: Hidden far in darkness lies the truth only blind can see.

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/potato.html
Explanation: The word "potato" is spelt in Braille (which the blind "read").


Level 31: Wicked College

Solution: http://weikiat.ikueb.com/thewicked/potato/college.html
Explanation: Click on the phrase "Wicked College"


Level 31: Imagine that you are a student. No alternatives. Just believe it. You are a poor miserable student carrying your poor miserable bag over your pathetic back and you are now standing at the school gate. The school bell rang in the distance.

Solution:
- Run Home
- Pet Kitten
- Run Home
- Do It
- Run Home
- Approach Car
- Yes


I hope you have appreciated this walkthrough, brought to you with much generous assistance from She-who-has-a-high-I[g]Q (idiotic [game] quotient). Many thanks to enHanC3X of the Hardwarezone forums also for the solutions to Level 27-30.

Those with the answers to Level 31 and beyond are solicited to leave a comment or contact me by other means, so that I may add to this walkthrough.

Honouring the author's rude request, I will not add solutions to any more levels.

(My Little Bird has posted a new, updated walkthrough so please stop emailing me/leaving comments asking for answers! Thanks.)

I just spent almost S$180 on 2 books for 1 of my modules for next period (including shipping). This is already US$20 cheaper than getting the books on the school bulk purchase here, which is in turn €10 cheaper than what they'd cost in bookstores.

There were some cheaper deals on other online booksellers, especially half.com which had someone offering one of the books at a dirt cheap price, but the parochial bumpkins have not yet discovered globalization and only ship within the US.

Luckily I managed to get the book for another in Singapore before I left, so there's only one textbook left to get.

Someone: that's why comapnies that publish these books can have really nice huge buildings on new york's 6th ave
prentice hall
its like next to the rockerfeller center or something
1011 ave of the americas

Jiekai puts too much oil in his cooking.

Women should consider him if they want to get fat.

"It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right." - Friedrich Nietzsche

***

On Tuesday I also visited the Dick Bruna house, dedicated to a guy who draw a retarded looking bunny called "Miffy". I don't get it.



How my university tries to protect against moral hazard

Examinations here are so slack: there is no fixed seating arrangement, and you can bring in food and drink.

I saw a man in a blue skirt, red stockings and golden shoes. Wah.

I bought a 330ml can of Schweppes Cream Soda for €0.80. Meanwhile a 330ml can of Heineken cost €1. No wonder people here drink so much.

I finally saw a Segway in the flesh (or in the metal). Of all things, it was a moving ad for AMD.

For some reason, my blasted phone keeps loading the T-mobile GPRS site automatically despite my locking the keypad, costing me €0.15 each time (€0.30 in all). I had to manually change the address to an invalid one.

I should go to a DVD store, ask for Eurotrip and see what happens.

Dear Walls, in keeping with its tradition of having a different name in each country, is called "Ola" here. Wikipedia has a full listing. The number of names for "Heartbrand" ice cream is really shocking.

I saw a car with many white splotches on it. There were so many, and they were so well-spaced out along the car's body, that I was inclined to think that it was a piece of modern art rather than bird shit. This is even worse than most Greek cars.

Buskers crooning to guitars are passe. I saw this guy playing a xylophone to the Barber of Seville Overture blaring in the background.

There's something to be said for not giving up without a fight during a war, but sometimes resistance at all costs just doesn't make any sense. In World War II, the Dutch hadn't surrendered to the Germans despite overwhelming odds and obviously having lost. As a demonstration of their power, the Germans then bombed Rotterdam to smithereens, which is why the city is so modern today, and threatened to do the same to Utrecht and Amsterdam. No doubt die-hard nationalists would advocate fighting on until the last Dutch was killed, but then while the German occupation lasted for only 5 years, the loss of the old buildings of Rotterdam (including the house of Erasmus) was for eternity. A defiant gesture of resistance is hardly worth destroying your cultural heritage for.

Seen in the window of a shop: Laughing Vampire Gothic Clothing

For the first time, I've seen a non-sleeveless wedding outfit - over the traditional getup was a long-sleeved bolero.

I was wondering what was so special about the Superkroket that the place at the train station sold, so I bought one. I think so far I'd only had satekrokets, which under the thick crispy shell are about half-filled with filling having the consistency of pus and a very undistinctive taste (they taste better than they sound). Biting into the Superkroket, I found that it had very little air, and tasted very strongly of meat. It even had visible bits of meat in it. Unfortunately, the meat was beef so I was able to stomach only 2/3 of the foul-smelling kroket. The kalfsvlees krokets aren't much better either. I think I'll stick to sate.


Quotes:

[On someone advertising something] Whenever I listen to the radio, I hear the commericals. 'To find out more, visit this website. www.*babbles*'... I have no idea what the website is even though he said it twice.

[On human capital] Raw labour - People showing up without any intellectual baggage.

[On extending a model] You can breathe a sigh of relief... Finally we get to the real stuff.

This is all very interesting, but I assume you guys are only interested in one thing - next week's midterm.

[On imitation vs innovation] This is a model which a lot of countries in Southeast Asia have chosen. Instead of innovating, they've said: Let's just take the technology, and do it cheaper. It's been very successful.

[On (1 + ge)(1 + gl) - 1 ~= ge + gl] Most Economists are lazy, so they just use this.

You can see in the 70s, there was a great slowdown in productivity growth. 'The great productivity growth slowdown' - that's not the original name.

me crow was terrible (micro)

This is the only question I will not spell out. Because... I have to take some rest for the b part of the question (present the answers to in full, part b)

A mountain in the Netherlands? We have one... [Student: How hig his it? One hundred metres?] Dree honderd. [Translation: 300]

[On het/de and noun matching] It's so stupid. How are we supposed to learn? [Teacher: Use your head] It makes no sense. (memory)

[On Dutch] It's a tricky language. [Teacher: It's nice]

[On eyeballing technology] It's a dirty trick Weil uses. He looks at India and goes: Oh, they're 10 years behind the US.

Does this happen only in faraway countries? No. This is one of my favourite slides in the course. Examples of Dutch rent-seeking.

Lobbying the arts committee for a subsidy. Which is what most artists in this country do. They should be out there creating art.

[On underemployment] If you try to talk to your local cable guy and tell him they should not only open their office on Friday from 9-12, but the entrie weekend, he'll look at you like you're crazy. You tell him he's being underemployed and unproductive.

[On blocking technology] And of course the cultural arguments which the French like to throw out... If you end the subsidies the typical French farmer will no longer exist.

Me: I'll go upstairs and slip into something more comfortable.

Jiekai: That sounds very wrong.

Me: I'll also prepare your bed.

Jiekai: That sounds even more wrong.

"I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from." - Eddie Izzard


Search Referrals:

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In THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, what tasty treat did the White Witch give to Edmund to entice him? - I got this twice in a row. Will this be like "What round object did Gollum refer to as "My Precious""?

USP losers

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"George Lim" + Hair

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TARGET AUDIENCE OF KOTEX ULTRA DRI-COMFORT PADS

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Authentic Female Orgasm Videos

Medicinal value of a blowjob - For the giver or recipient?

Outlandish safety slogans - I'm the top result for this! HAHA

pictures of people recovering from breast augmentation


Google site search:
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"At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies." - P. G. Wodehouse

***

Fake 'Porn' Euros Used As Real Money - No wonder it's so hard to get my notes of €100 and above accepted here.

Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control - "Pregnant single women in 19th-century Italy, threatened with the loss of their own and their families' honor, gave their babies to foundling homes, where hundreds of thousands of children died from starvation and disease. In this shocking and engrossing study, Kertzer, a historian and anthropologist at Brown, blames the Catholic Church for its central role in nurturing a system that controlled women's sexuality, exempted men from parental responsibility and consigned infants to death. Midwives were recruited by church and state officials to inform on illicit pregnancies. Many foundling homes devised programs under which unwed mothers, in order to pay for their own infants' care, were forced to serve as wet nurses for other children. Kertzer draws loose parallels between the system of legalized infant abandonment, which spread throughout southern Europe, and contemporary debates on abortion and the role of church and state in defining the social good."

Das Human Kapital by Oded Galor, Omer Moav - "This paper hypothesizes that the demise of the 19th century's European class structure reflects a deliberate transformation of society orchestrated by the capitalists. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it argues that the demise of this class structure was an outcome of a cooperative, rather than divisive process. The research suggests that the transition from this class structure may be viewed as the outcome of an optimal reaction by the capitalists to the increasing importance of human capital in sustaining their profit rates. The paper argues that the process of capital accumulation gradually intensified the importance of skilled labor in the production process and generated an incentive for investment in human capital. Due to the complementarity between physical and human capital in production, the capitalists were among the prime beneficiaries of the accumulation of human capital by the masses. They therefore had the incentive to support public education that would sustain their profit rates and would improve their economic well-being, although it would ultimately undermine their dynasty's position in the social ladder. The research suggests that Karl Marx's highly influential prediction about the inevitable class struggle due to declining profit rates stemmed from an under appreciation of the role that human capital would play in the production process. The basic premise of this research, regarding the positive attitude of capitalists towards education reforms, is supported empirically by a newly constructed data set of the voting patterns on England's education reform proposed in the Balfour Act of 1902."

Public toilets' lighting has wrong effect - "Subdued blue lights in Warwickshire public toilets, which are meant to discourage drug addicts, are actually encouraging couples to have sex."

MK vs. SF

Utrechts Byzantijns Koor - Too bad I missed their concert on Saturday.

Pictures of Pennies - "The following is the basic pattern for building cantilevered structures with Pennies. Although it looks trivial, we can build amazing structures with these pillars. All penny columns are ten high, a "stack". Two side-by-side pennies held in place by a penny above them is called a "triad". Below is a stack with two triads resting on top."

Women Police in Iran - "see how islamic countries train their women police"

School is 'unable to plaster cut' - "A parent has spoken of his anger after his wife had to go to their daughter's school to put a plaster on when staff said they were not allowed to."

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers - "When Tanya Andrews returned from a recent family holiday in Costa Rica, she had no idea she had brought back a gruesome souvenir. A month later she developed an extremely painful lump on her head. At first, she thought she had an abscess, but then it wriggled"

Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees in Lab - "This is hotter than the interior of our Sun, which is about 15 million degrees Kelvin, and also hotter than any previous temperature ever achieved on Earth, they say."

SafeScreen - "SafeScreen blocks offensive images before they are displayed on the computer screen. SafeScreen blurs inappropriate images automatically so that you, your children and your school are protected"
Uhh.

Religious Objection to Monitoring Device - "Scott Smith was convicted of molesting two teenage girls in 2003. For this he received a short jail sentence and five years of probation. He is required, due to his conviction as a sex offender, to wear and electronic monitoring device but has refused on religious grounds. Smith was a member of the Brotherhood of Christ, a group that believes electricity is evil. According to Ron Livingston, leader of the Brotherhood, electricity can cause people to disobey God."

I went to the Centraal Museum (interestingly enough, it's not the Utrecht Central Museum, but the plain Centraal Museum) last Tuesday. The collection was respectable, with lots of Dutch Golden Age paintings, yet it was a little underwhelming after the Met and the British Museum, or even the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.


Sorel - Maria met Kind
The virgin mary looks like a 9 year old girl.


Bloemaert - Jozef en Zijn Broers (Joseph and his brothers)
This illustrates the "height of Utrecht Mannerism". Unfortunately he still put modern clothes on Joseph and friend - I want to see muscled chests!

There were quite a few paintings of still life. Not surprising given the Dutch tradition.


D'hondecoeter - Orpheus and the animals


Tulip vase in 2 parts


Petronella de la Court's Doll House
This is an exquisite replica of a real house on a miniature scale


Weenix - View of an Italian harbour


Bone ice skate from AD 650-800
There was a section with recent archaeological finds from the Dark Ages.


Utrecht Ship (AD 997)
This was found in 1930. I can't remember if I've seen Sutton Hoo, but this is not bad too.


This eagle adorned the facade of the Utrecht Life Insurance Company HQ from 1901


Chimney frieze, Madonna and Child & 2 figures bearing arms


There was an interesting section with photographs made to look like Old Masters. The photographs were commissioned by the fashion label 'The People of the Labyrinths'.

At the top of the level there was an embodiment of the "museum in a museum" concept - there was a video showing what it was like to walk through the vaults of the museum.


There was a part of the museum called the chapel. It was very strange. Inside it was closer than the rest of the museum, and a strong peppermint smell filled the air. A new age music track was playing and a girl was singing a ghostly song to a moving projection of images.


It turned out that it was installation art by Pipilotti Rist - Expecting (2001). Some items were displayd in the chapel, but I couldn't find any information panels or pamphlets. The smell was enough to get me on a trip, and the place in general spooked me out. It was with a great deal of effort that I stopped myself from running out screaming.

After the Centraal museum, I went to the University Museum, the museum of the University of Utrecht. At the bookshop, there was an issue of a journal on games ("tmg 7/2004 -2"). Most of it was in Dutch, but there was also one article about Doom in English.

The woman at the counter gave me a booklet in English introducing the exhibits, since there were no information panels in English, but I was still unable to figure out exactly what was what, since the exhibits didn't seem to be arranged in the same order they were introduced in the booklet. Actually it wouldn't have helped that much even if I was fluent in Dutch - there weren't any labels or captions in Dutch either, save for short expositions about what was in the cabinets.

The ground floor of the museum had mainly biological specimens, including:


Foetuses in jars


More foetuses in jars

There were photos of skeletons of people afflicted with rickets, and others of infants. I couldn't tell which had which deformity, but my guess is that:


This boy probably suffered from hydrocephalus (excessive cranial fluid, resulting in a big head)

I love the Dutch penchant for captions, which was again evident: "Two hundred years ago, a child with a congenital abnormality was still cheerfully called a "monster"." Maybe this has something to do with the Dutch love for getting straight to the point.

Half the ground floor of the museum was under renovation, so I'll be dropping by again after 9th April. Even if I had no Museum Card, I'd still get free entry since I'm a student of the University.

One level up, there were lots of old telephones and computers. Among other things, I finally saw an Atari 2600 in the flesh (pity it was not on though), the Original Pong from 1972 (it was even uglier than I'd imagined) and a strange Apple poster from 1985/1986 promoting an "Incentive campaign Tunesia". At least on this level most things were labelled.


My guess is that this on the table was one of the first mobile phones


"dag & nacht on-line"

On the top (second) level there were some old microscopes, dental instruments, stuffed and preserved animals. The lack of labelling on this and the ground floor really detracted from my appreciation and enjoyment of the exhibits.


Man and an distant, earlier relative

Last Tuesday it was still cold enough for the topmost layer of ponds to freeze (not cold enough to take my weight, unfortunately, as one layer I pressed down on sunk). Hopefully this means it will be cool in winter.

Campus Crusade for Christ pamphlet for Dan Brown readers - 3/3

Addendum: Part 1, Part 2. I have also re-uploaded the images to imageshack since the original versions were lost when their server went down years ago

Page 12 - Silly flowchart, irrelevant evangelism

Cut out flowchart 

How silly; it has many glaring omissions. Here is my own flowchart:

As you will note, it's much more comprehensive than the one above, less colourful though it might be. 

As John Beversluis comments on CS Lewis: “One of Lewis’s most serious weaknesses as an apologist is his fondness for the false dilemma. He habitually confronts his readers with the alleged necessity of choosing between two alternatives when there are in fact other options to be considered. One horn of the dilemma typically sets forth Lewis’s view in all its apparent forcefulness, while the other horn is a ridiculous straw man. Either the universe is the product of a conscious Mind or it is a mere “fluke” (MC. 31). Either morality is a revelation or it is an inexplicable illusion (PP, 22). Either morality is grounded in the supernatural or it is a “mere twist” in the human mind (PP, 20). Either right and wrong are real or they are “mere irrational emotions” (CR, 66). Lewis advances these arguments again and again, and they are all open to the same objection.” 

And then on the right is a strong suggestion to pray a prayer - wth?! This is almost entirely irrelevant to the stated purpose of the pamphlet.

 
Page 13 - Afterword 

The afterword claims that the pamphlet has put Jesus on trial. What it doesn't say is that this trial has been in a kangaroo court, with the assumption (not only the presumption) of innocence and without any cross-examining or counter-arguments by the prosecution at all. As a piece of critical writing, I would give it 1/10, and hope never to get any of the people behind the pamphlet defending me in a court of law (though I would certainly welcome their presence on the other side of the courtroom).

Certainly, as they hoped I have enjoyed browsing the magazine in that I've been able to tear their so-called arguments to shreds with nary an effort. After all the FUD put out by the CCC, I really hope that readers have been able to find some real answers as they sort through the lies and half-truths contained in this pamphlet. 

 
Page 14 - Pamphlet tie-ins and contest 

This page promotes many apologetic publications to the reader, with no mention of any opposing or contrary views. Fie, fie. There is also a contest where those who send in their feedback to beneath_that_smile@yahoo.com.sg stand a chance to win an iPod Shuffle. I am almost tempted to send them my blog posts about this shitty pamphlet, but the iPod Shuffle sucks anyway, so. 

 
Back cover  

Inspired by the pamphlet, here I present my review of "The Da Vinci Code (Companion Guide)" by the Campus Crusade for Christ  

In A Nutshell
The companion guide is not produced by the people behind the Da Vinci Code but instead by the fundamentalist Christian group "Campus Crusade for Christ". It aims not to enlighten you about the truth behind "The Da Vinci Code" but to convert you to their strain of Christianity by presenting you with lies and half-truths without any counterarguments at all, ending with an appeal to emotion - not what you were promised on the cover.  

What's Hot
This pamphlet is excellently marketed, presenting an example of the classic bait and switch strategem. Its distribution also attests to the power of using unpaid volunteers to spread your wares. 

What's Not
Just like "the Da Vinci Code", this probably contains only one true line. 

Our Say
The money used to make this pamphlet should've been used to feed starving children in Africa. Or at the very least they could've made a more convincing case less likely to piss off thinking people with half a brain.

Vital statistics
Gloss and polish: 5/5
Tie-ins with other apologetic literature: 5/5
Historical accuracy: 1/5
Disingenuousness: 1/5
Contribution to the littering problem in NUS: 5/5  

Quiz! 

In this era seeing the resurgence of Christian fundamentalism, are you a fundamentalist Christian or a truth-seeker? How does the notion of 'biblical inerrancy' figure in the last 2 centuries? We dare you to take this test to find out!

1. How old is the earth?
a) Less than 10,000 years old, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary
b) 4.5 billion years old

2. Is the bible inerrant?
a) Yes, even when it contradicts itself it must be because we have cataracts floating in our eyes.
b) No, some parts clearly contradict each other.

3. What do you think of Catholics?
a) They worship Mary! They're the spawn of Satan! The Pope is the Anti-Christ!
b) Just another Christian denomination.

4. Is there a possibility, however slight, that St Paul suffered from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy given that his description of his conversion fits the symptoms of the disease?
a) No! You will burn in hell for this!
b) Yes.

5. Can the massacre of the Midianites in Numbers 31 ever be justified?
a) God can never be questioned, even when he causes more suffering than Satan!
b) This raises troubling questions that we must at least consider.

6. Can women become priests/pastors?
a) Yes
b) I don't know/care
c) No

Wonder what the results will show? Here goes! Are we describing you right? 

Mostly As
You are a Fundamentalist who believes that the bible is inerrant and that when your or your denomination's interpretation conflicts with reality, our perception of reality is flawed. If the bible told you to commit genocide, you would.  

Mostly Bs
Congratulations! You are not a fundamentalist. We can't say anything else about you though, since this is a stupid quiz fundamentally flawed in its format. 

One C
You're Catholic! Every sperm is sacred. 

-End of Part 3 and the whole review- 

Moral of the story: Just because Agagooga is not in Singapore doesn't mean that fundies can spread their trash freely. 

A repackaged version of BibleTrash.zip with truncated and resized scans of the pamphlet and my flowchart is available for downloading: 

YouSendIt link - expires within 7 days/25 downloads
MegaUpload link - expires after a long time of inactivity

Addendum: Neither of these works anymore, obviously.