"You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play." - Warren Beatty
***
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard
David Moser
University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies
"Chinese is also hard for them, for Chinese people.
If you don't believe this, just ask a Chinese person. Most Chinese people will cheerfully acknowledge that their language is hard, maybe the hardest on earth. (Many are even proud of this, in the same way some New Yorkers are actually proud of living in the most unlivable city in America)...
Chinese does deserve its reputation for heartbreaking difficulty. Those who undertake to study the language for any other reason than the sheer joy of it will always be frustrated by the abysmal ratio of effort to effect. Those who are actually attracted to the language precisely because of its daunting complexity and difficulty will never be disappointed. Whatever the reason they started, every single person who has undertaken to study Chinese sooner or later asks themselves "Why in the world am I doing this?"
1. Because the writing system is ridiculous
... The beauty of the characters is indisputable, but as the Chinese people began to realize the importance of universal literacy, it became clear that these ideograms were sort of like bound feet -- some fetishists may have liked the way they looked, but they weren't too practical for daily use...
Even Chinese kids, whose minds are at their peak absorptive power, have more trouble with Chinese characters than their little counterparts in other countries have with their respective scripts. Just imagine the difficulties experienced by relatively sluggish post-pubescent foreign learners such as myself...
The other day one of my fellow graduate students, someone who has been studying Chinese for ten years or more, said to me "My research is really hampered by the fact that I still just can't read Chinese. It takes me hours to get through two or three pages, and I can't skim to save my life." This would be an astonishing admission for a tenth-year student of, say, French literature, yet it is a comment I hear all the time among my peers (at least in those unguarded moments when one has had a few too many Tsingtao beers and has begun to lament how slowly work on the thesis is coming).
A teacher of mine once told me of a game he and a colleague would sometimes play: The contest involved pulling a book at random from the shelves of the Chinese section of the Asia Library and then seeing who could be the first to figure out what the book was about. Anyone who has spent time working in an East Asia collection can verify that this can indeed be a difficult enough task -- never mind reading the book in question...
2. Because the language doesn't have the common sense to use an alphabet
... Chinese people I know who have studied English for a few years can usually write with a handwriting style that is almost indistinguishable from that of the average American. Very few Americans, on the other hand, ever learn to produce a natural calligraphic hand in Chinese that resembles anything but that of an awkward Chinese third-grader. If there were nothing else hard about Chinese, the task of learning to write characters alone would put it in the rogues' gallery of hard-to-learn languages...
3. Because the writing system just ain't very phonetic
... One could say that Chinese is phonetic in the way that sex is aerobic: technically so, but in practical use not the most salient thing about it...
You're sunk whether your native language is Chinese or not; contrary to popular myth, Chinese people are not born with the ability to memorize arbitrary squiggles. In fact, one of the most gratifying experiences a foreign student of Chinese can have is to see a native speaker come up a complete blank when called upon to write the characters for some relatively common word. You feel an enormous sense of vindication and relief to see a native speaker experience the exact same difficulty you experience every day.
This is such a gratifying experience, in fact, that I have actually kept a list of characters that I have observed Chinese people forget how to write. (A sick, obsessive activity, I know.) I have seen highly literate Chinese people forget how to write certain characters in common words like "tin can", "knee", "screwdriver", "snap" (as in "to snap one's fingers"), "elbow", "ginger", "cushion", "firecracker", and so on. And when I say "forget", I mean that they often cannot even put the first stroke down on the paper. Can you imagine a well-educated native English speaker totally forgetting how to write a word like "knee" or "tin can"? Or even a rarely-seen word like "scabbard" or "ragamuffin"? I was once at a luncheon with three Ph.D. students in the Chinese Department at Peking University, all native Chinese (one from Hong Kong). I happened to have a cold that day, and was trying to write a brief note to a friend canceling an appointment that day. I found that I couldn't remember how to write the character 嚔, as in da penti 打喷嚔 "to sneeze". I asked my three friends how to write the character, and to my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepish embarrassment. Not one of them could correctly produce the character. Now, Peking University is usually considered the "Harvard of China". Can you imagine three Ph.D. students in English at Harvard forgetting how to write the English word "sneeze"?? Yet this state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China. English is simply orders of magnitude easier to write and remember... By contrast, often even the most well-educated Chinese have no recourse but to throw up their hands and ask someone else in the room how to write some particularly elusive character...
4. Because you can't cheat by using cognates...
5. Because even looking up a word in the dictionary is complicated
One of the most unreasonably difficult things about learning Chinese is that merely learning how to look up a word in the dictionary is about the equivalent of an entire semester of secretarial school. When I was in Taiwan, I heard that they sometimes held dictionary look-up contests in the junior high schools. Imagine a language where simply looking a word up in the dictionary is considered a skill like debate or volleyball! Chinese is not exactly what you would call a user-friendly language, but a Chinese dictionary is positively user-hostile...
6. Then there's classical Chinese (wenyanwen)
... Whereas modern Mandarin is merely perversely hard, classical Chinese is deliberately impossible. Here's a secret that sinologists won't tell you: A passage in classical Chinese can be understood only if you already know what the passage says in the first place. This is because classical Chinese really consists of several centuries of esoteric anecdotes and in-jokes written in a kind of terse, miserly code for dissemination among a small, elite group of intellectually-inbred bookworms who already knew the whole literature backwards and forwards, anyway...
7. Because there are too many romanization methods and they all suck
Well, perhaps that's too harsh. But it is true that there are too many of them, and most of them were designed either by committee or by linguists, or -- even worse -- by a committee of linguists... There is a standing joke among sinologists that one of the first signs of senility in a China scholar is the compulsion to come up with a new romanization method.
8. Because tonal languages are weird...
9. Because east is east and west is west, and the twain have only recently met
... I once had a Chinese friend who had read the first translations of Kafka into Chinese, yet didn't know who Santa Claus was...
Incidentally, I'm aware that much of what I've said above applies to Japanese as well, but it seems clear that the burden placed on a learner of Japanese is much lighter because (a) the number of Chinese characters used in Japanese is "only" about 2,000 -- fewer by a factor of two or three compared to the number needed by the average literate Chinese reader; and (b) the Japanese have phonetic syllabaries (the hiragana and katakana characters), which are nearly 100% phonetically reliable and are in many ways easier to master than chaotic English orthography is"
L'origine de Bert
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Improving your country's reputation for fun and profit
"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." - George Bernard Shaw
***
A: it's easy to say that we should tell the youths to be more politically stirred, so to speak. But messages are being sent out by the media and the government to the opposite effect. The recent arrest of Alan Shadrake for writing a book about our capital punishment law is a possible example. though it may not be an in-your-face kind of political warning, we shouldn't downplay the psychological effects of such reactions. If we really think political participation is important, the first step is to send out a clear message that all kinds of opinions, put in a civil manner, are welcome on the table.
B: The recent arrest of Shadrake is a result of the contents of his book, and it targets action of a very specific nature: criminal defamation.
The sad fact is that many people cannot tell truth from fiction, which is why Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code attracted so many followers despite it being a completely fictitious book. The damage to the Church and Christian community was incredible, and despite the efforts of many churches around the world trying to debunk the myths, even a sizeable portion of Christians had their faith shaken badly.
Alan Shandrake's book makes a mockery of the Singapore Judiciary, and damages the reputation of Singapore as a whole. If you think this is not worth sending someone to jail for, here's some food for thought:
One of Singapore's main attraction that distinguishes this tiny dot from many larger countries is it's fair justice system. Foreign companies, MNCs, RnD firms etc choose to set up shop here because they have faith in the judiciary. Why not our neighbours, which have much cheaper land and resources close at hand? Because these companies believe in the Singaporean reputation. That if they set up shop here, they (for lack of a better word) won't get screwed over.
Do you work for (or intend to work for) an international firm? Without this business reputation, do you think the HQ in NYC, London or Beijing would even consider setting up their regional HQ, their research laboratory or their banking facilities right here on this tiny island?
Damaging the reputation of Singapore is not just a political matter. It is also an economic matter, and it threatens the jobs and livelihood of every Singaporean.
A: I appreciate your comments. Firstly I would like to make it clear that I have not read the book written by Shadrake nor have access to insider info regarding his arrest. The point I was making was that we cannot, as a society, expect active political participation without dissent surfacing somewhere or the other. I used Shadrake's arrest as an example to illustrate the possible psychological repercussions on the wider population regarding active dissent. It was not an attempt to question the validity of his arrest, a point which you have so lucidly defended here.
B: Perhaps my focus was skewed towards the reason of the arrest and less towards answering your comment on the effects of the arrest.
As mentioned in my earlier post, Shandrake's arrest targets a very specific type of action, and sends out a negative signal for that particular action: criminal defamation. It is NOT a negative signal against political dissent as a whole. Rather, it is targetted at a very specific type of political dissent which is destructive rather than constructive.
A parallel example would be the caning of the graffiti artist Lloyld Alexander. The signal is NOT that graffiti art is a crime, but rather, the specific nature of how he presented his art: vandalism.
Hope this clarifies my position. :)
C: Have you read the book? Why do you describe Shadrake's political dissent as being "destructive rather than constructive"?
B: I am describing the specific style of his political dissent (criminal defamation) as destructive. You might disagree perhaps, but I certainly believe there are better ways to do things.
Taiwanese politics for example, is a system that has taken destructive politicking to new heights, with rival political magazines posting nude and lewd pictures of politicians for the amusement of the population. They also have some of the coolest fistfights and brawls within their Chambers. ;)
Me: Great idea!
Nigeria can shed its reputation as the world's most corrupt place by suing anyone who claims that it is a corrupt place.
Many companies would then want to invest in Nigeria, which would lead to higher economic growth for Nigeria.
***
A: it's easy to say that we should tell the youths to be more politically stirred, so to speak. But messages are being sent out by the media and the government to the opposite effect. The recent arrest of Alan Shadrake for writing a book about our capital punishment law is a possible example. though it may not be an in-your-face kind of political warning, we shouldn't downplay the psychological effects of such reactions. If we really think political participation is important, the first step is to send out a clear message that all kinds of opinions, put in a civil manner, are welcome on the table.
B: The recent arrest of Shadrake is a result of the contents of his book, and it targets action of a very specific nature: criminal defamation.
The sad fact is that many people cannot tell truth from fiction, which is why Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code attracted so many followers despite it being a completely fictitious book. The damage to the Church and Christian community was incredible, and despite the efforts of many churches around the world trying to debunk the myths, even a sizeable portion of Christians had their faith shaken badly.
Alan Shandrake's book makes a mockery of the Singapore Judiciary, and damages the reputation of Singapore as a whole. If you think this is not worth sending someone to jail for, here's some food for thought:
One of Singapore's main attraction that distinguishes this tiny dot from many larger countries is it's fair justice system. Foreign companies, MNCs, RnD firms etc choose to set up shop here because they have faith in the judiciary. Why not our neighbours, which have much cheaper land and resources close at hand? Because these companies believe in the Singaporean reputation. That if they set up shop here, they (for lack of a better word) won't get screwed over.
Do you work for (or intend to work for) an international firm? Without this business reputation, do you think the HQ in NYC, London or Beijing would even consider setting up their regional HQ, their research laboratory or their banking facilities right here on this tiny island?
Damaging the reputation of Singapore is not just a political matter. It is also an economic matter, and it threatens the jobs and livelihood of every Singaporean.
A: I appreciate your comments. Firstly I would like to make it clear that I have not read the book written by Shadrake nor have access to insider info regarding his arrest. The point I was making was that we cannot, as a society, expect active political participation without dissent surfacing somewhere or the other. I used Shadrake's arrest as an example to illustrate the possible psychological repercussions on the wider population regarding active dissent. It was not an attempt to question the validity of his arrest, a point which you have so lucidly defended here.
B: Perhaps my focus was skewed towards the reason of the arrest and less towards answering your comment on the effects of the arrest.
As mentioned in my earlier post, Shandrake's arrest targets a very specific type of action, and sends out a negative signal for that particular action: criminal defamation. It is NOT a negative signal against political dissent as a whole. Rather, it is targetted at a very specific type of political dissent which is destructive rather than constructive.
A parallel example would be the caning of the graffiti artist Lloyld Alexander. The signal is NOT that graffiti art is a crime, but rather, the specific nature of how he presented his art: vandalism.
Hope this clarifies my position. :)
C: Have you read the book? Why do you describe Shadrake's political dissent as being "destructive rather than constructive"?
B: I am describing the specific style of his political dissent (criminal defamation) as destructive. You might disagree perhaps, but I certainly believe there are better ways to do things.
Taiwanese politics for example, is a system that has taken destructive politicking to new heights, with rival political magazines posting nude and lewd pictures of politicians for the amusement of the population. They also have some of the coolest fistfights and brawls within their Chambers. ;)
Me: Great idea!
Nigeria can shed its reputation as the world's most corrupt place by suing anyone who claims that it is a corrupt place.
Many companies would then want to invest in Nigeria, which would lead to higher economic growth for Nigeria.
Post ID: 4233315290847391756
Anthony Grayling on Atheism
"Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together." - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
***
"[On agnosticism] The question at stake here is one about rationality. The intellectual respectability of the claim that there are Gods, the Gods of Olympus, or the Gods of Hinduism, or one God, the God of Christianity, seems to be to be exactly on par with the intellectual respectability of thinking that there are fairies in your garden. Belief in fairies was very very widespread and very well-attested right up until the late 19th century.
Indeed, people believed that fairies were much more present in their lives than God was, because things that went missing, like your shoelaces or a teaspoon or something, had been nicked by them. So the comparison here is not a jokey one.
And if you think that the reasons you have for thinking that there are fairies are very poor reasons. That it's irrational to think that there are such things, then belief in supernatural agencies in general is irrational... [Agnostics] fall foul of this picture...
[On "God moves in mysterious ways"] It's such an easy one, that one. You know, it really gets you out of all sorts of holes, that. And in fact that leads on to this rather interesting thought. That if you invoke the notion of an omniscient, omnipotent, eternal being. The sort of standard idea of God, absolutely anything whatever follows. So that nothing whatever counts as counter-evidence against the existence of a God.
And we're all familiar with Popper's dictum that if a theory, a claim explains everything, if everything is consistent with the truth of the claim, then it's empty. It doesn't explain anything at all.
[On the claim that Science purports to explain everything, or that it claims that it will be able to eventually] I don't think Science does claim that at all, in fact. Science at its normal best: it is a public, a testable, a challengeable project. Always having to maintain its own respectability by saying what would count as counter-evidence against it.
And when people put forward views in Science, they publish them so that other people can test them, review them, try to replicate results, and I think that is absolutely the model of how an epistemology should proceed. Out there in the open and inviting the very toughest kind of response from other people...
[On the claim that there is no morality without God] In classical antiquity, in the Classical Tradition, there are deep, rich, powerful thoughts about the nature of morality, the foundations of ethics. The nature of the good life, which make no appeal whatever to any divine command. Or any government via this sort of spirit monarch in disguise, who will reward you if you do what he or she requires, and punish you if you don't. All the very best and deepest thinking about ethics has come from non-religious traditions...
People whose morality comes in a box that they've taken off the supermarket shelf of ideas, marked Catholism or Islam or something, as opposed to those who've thought for themselves about these things, and realise that they've got to inspect their reasons for treating others as they do, or for living as they do, for the choices they make. And it seems to me that the latter, always: much much more honourable and admirable than the former...
Remember in the UK, the people who go every week to the mosque, or temple, or synagogue, or church, are somewhere between 7 and 8% of the population. And yet they get a huge amount of airtime in the BBC. They get public tax money for their faith-based schools. They've been arguing for exemptions from various laws. And these things are unacceptable.
And so there is a very very serious debate to be had here about the place of religion in the public domain, given that our culture is a functionally secular one. And secularism is something that the religions themselves should be embracing for their own survival. Because if any one religion were to become dominant in the public square, the inevitable effect would be that the other ones are silenced or marginalised.
So it does all of us good if we see a secularist dispensation persist. Having won it with such difficulty in the last few centuries"
(Philosophy Bites)
***
"[On agnosticism] The question at stake here is one about rationality. The intellectual respectability of the claim that there are Gods, the Gods of Olympus, or the Gods of Hinduism, or one God, the God of Christianity, seems to be to be exactly on par with the intellectual respectability of thinking that there are fairies in your garden. Belief in fairies was very very widespread and very well-attested right up until the late 19th century.
Indeed, people believed that fairies were much more present in their lives than God was, because things that went missing, like your shoelaces or a teaspoon or something, had been nicked by them. So the comparison here is not a jokey one.
And if you think that the reasons you have for thinking that there are fairies are very poor reasons. That it's irrational to think that there are such things, then belief in supernatural agencies in general is irrational... [Agnostics] fall foul of this picture...
[On "God moves in mysterious ways"] It's such an easy one, that one. You know, it really gets you out of all sorts of holes, that. And in fact that leads on to this rather interesting thought. That if you invoke the notion of an omniscient, omnipotent, eternal being. The sort of standard idea of God, absolutely anything whatever follows. So that nothing whatever counts as counter-evidence against the existence of a God.
And we're all familiar with Popper's dictum that if a theory, a claim explains everything, if everything is consistent with the truth of the claim, then it's empty. It doesn't explain anything at all.
[On the claim that Science purports to explain everything, or that it claims that it will be able to eventually] I don't think Science does claim that at all, in fact. Science at its normal best: it is a public, a testable, a challengeable project. Always having to maintain its own respectability by saying what would count as counter-evidence against it.
And when people put forward views in Science, they publish them so that other people can test them, review them, try to replicate results, and I think that is absolutely the model of how an epistemology should proceed. Out there in the open and inviting the very toughest kind of response from other people...
[On the claim that there is no morality without God] In classical antiquity, in the Classical Tradition, there are deep, rich, powerful thoughts about the nature of morality, the foundations of ethics. The nature of the good life, which make no appeal whatever to any divine command. Or any government via this sort of spirit monarch in disguise, who will reward you if you do what he or she requires, and punish you if you don't. All the very best and deepest thinking about ethics has come from non-religious traditions...
People whose morality comes in a box that they've taken off the supermarket shelf of ideas, marked Catholism or Islam or something, as opposed to those who've thought for themselves about these things, and realise that they've got to inspect their reasons for treating others as they do, or for living as they do, for the choices they make. And it seems to me that the latter, always: much much more honourable and admirable than the former...
Remember in the UK, the people who go every week to the mosque, or temple, or synagogue, or church, are somewhere between 7 and 8% of the population. And yet they get a huge amount of airtime in the BBC. They get public tax money for their faith-based schools. They've been arguing for exemptions from various laws. And these things are unacceptable.
And so there is a very very serious debate to be had here about the place of religion in the public domain, given that our culture is a functionally secular one. And secularism is something that the religions themselves should be embracing for their own survival. Because if any one religion were to become dominant in the public square, the inevitable effect would be that the other ones are silenced or marginalised.
So it does all of us good if we see a secularist dispensation persist. Having won it with such difficulty in the last few centuries"
(Philosophy Bites)
Post ID: 8411371547317424512
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Guestbook entry from a junior (by 10 years)
"omg i found this site while trawling the web for PW EoM material and i have to say that you are completely awesome (:
here's hoping you dont ever outgrow the awesome : D"
Yayness!
here's hoping you dont ever outgrow the awesome : D"
Yayness!
Post ID: 6558315439693468543
The perfection of pre-modernity
"College isn't the place to go for ideas." - Helen Keller
***
Indian Chief 'Two Eagles' was asked by a white U.S. government official, 'You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done.'
The Chief nodded in agreement.
The official continued, 'Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?'
The Chief stared at the government official for over a minute and then calmly replied, 'When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water. Women did all the work, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex.'
Then the chief leaned back and smiled, 'Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.'
***
Indian Chief 'Two Eagles' was asked by a white U.S. government official, 'You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done.'
The Chief nodded in agreement.
The official continued, 'Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?'
The Chief stared at the government official for over a minute and then calmly replied, 'When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water. Women did all the work, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex.'
Then the chief leaned back and smiled, 'Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that.'
Post ID: 6614638482022536038
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Defining "literature"
"Only sick music makes money today." - Friedrich Nietzsche
***
"Its presence in the public consciousness must endure for a long period of time -- genre fiction of any sort generally isn't considered to have any "literary merit" unless it's either 20 - 30 or more years old, or a work by an author who has previous works that have been accorded "literary merit".
That endurance, however, need not be because the work itself is a great story. Both _Frankenstein_ and _Dracula_ are accorded literary status, but neither is really a "great read". Both became much more well-known for the plays (and later, movies) that were based on them than for themselves.
(Indeed, there seems to be a faction of the literary community that believes that the harder a work is to get through, the more "literary" it is. Thus, the literary status granted such things as James Joyce's _Finnegan's Wake_)...
For a work to be taken as "literary", it's a great help for it to have a bad or bittersweet ending, *especially* if it's considered to be a "children's book". (Thus the common canard that "if you want to write a children's book and have it win awards, have the dog die at the end)...
The thing that tends to define "literary" fiction is that it is seen as having meaning beyond the story itself -- that through symbolism and allegory, the story becomes more than *just* the story. Sometimes, the allegory is "read in" after the fact -- for example, Tolkein flatly denied that _The Lord of the Rings_ was meant to be an allegory of the World Wars, but many critics have suggested that it is.
Much "literature" is clearly allegorical -- for example, Orwell's _Animal Farm_ and _1984_. Going back to the works I mentioned at the start, both _Frankenstein_ and _Dracula_ have been considered to be allegories. Those works of "literature" that aren't at least arguably allegorical are still seen as being *about* something beyond the story itself. Going back to _The Lord of the Rings_, without taking it as an allegory of the world wars, it's easy to read it as being about the loss of innocence, represented by the halflings (who are child-like in the beginning in many ways beyond the obvious one of their size) and their homeland."
(from The Gamebook List)
***
"Its presence in the public consciousness must endure for a long period of time -- genre fiction of any sort generally isn't considered to have any "literary merit" unless it's either 20 - 30 or more years old, or a work by an author who has previous works that have been accorded "literary merit".
That endurance, however, need not be because the work itself is a great story. Both _Frankenstein_ and _Dracula_ are accorded literary status, but neither is really a "great read". Both became much more well-known for the plays (and later, movies) that were based on them than for themselves.
(Indeed, there seems to be a faction of the literary community that believes that the harder a work is to get through, the more "literary" it is. Thus, the literary status granted such things as James Joyce's _Finnegan's Wake_)...
For a work to be taken as "literary", it's a great help for it to have a bad or bittersweet ending, *especially* if it's considered to be a "children's book". (Thus the common canard that "if you want to write a children's book and have it win awards, have the dog die at the end)...
The thing that tends to define "literary" fiction is that it is seen as having meaning beyond the story itself -- that through symbolism and allegory, the story becomes more than *just* the story. Sometimes, the allegory is "read in" after the fact -- for example, Tolkein flatly denied that _The Lord of the Rings_ was meant to be an allegory of the World Wars, but many critics have suggested that it is.
Much "literature" is clearly allegorical -- for example, Orwell's _Animal Farm_ and _1984_. Going back to the works I mentioned at the start, both _Frankenstein_ and _Dracula_ have been considered to be allegories. Those works of "literature" that aren't at least arguably allegorical are still seen as being *about* something beyond the story itself. Going back to _The Lord of the Rings_, without taking it as an allegory of the world wars, it's easy to read it as being about the loss of innocence, represented by the halflings (who are child-like in the beginning in many ways beyond the obvious one of their size) and their homeland."
(from The Gamebook List)
Post ID: 5310267223534223258
Offended by offence
A: B, C, D, E, I didn’t mean any of my racist or sexist remarks at the meetup. I apologise if you were offended. My brain thinks I shouldn’t say things like that but my insufferable Hainanese genes think otherwise. (I further apologise, and pound fists, if any of you also happen to be Hainanese.)
B: Huh? I'm offended that you think I'm sensitive enough to be offended by you. I demand an apology for your apology now!
B: Huh? I'm offended that you think I'm sensitive enough to be offended by you. I demand an apology for your apology now!
Post ID: 3808320691979845055
Marina Barrage and the Female Anatomy
"No man remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself." - Thomas Mann
***
It has become popular recently to describe the Marina Barrage as a chee bye/cheebye/vagina.
However, if you look more closely, it's more accurate to say that it's a hymen. Or chastity belt.
Someone asked me if that meant the floods we've been having are like menstruation. I said squirting would be a more accurate analogy.
A more learned opinion than mine:
"Marina Bay is one of the 2 ovaries.
Kallang Basin is the other ovary.
The uterus is the unnamed water space between the proposed gardens by the bay and marina bay golf course.
Marina Barrage is in fact the diaphragm (a physical birth control method), preventing water from flowing in/out of the uterus naturally. (some say this is the reason for the recent floods. if you do not remove the diaphragm when you start menstruating, you will get 'flooded' and experience severe cramps.)
And if you pay attention, the marina barrage marks the end of the uterus (i.e. cervix). There is NO vagina. Just 1 hyperactive ovary with a diaphragm capping the cervix to prevent conception."
***
It has become popular recently to describe the Marina Barrage as a chee bye/cheebye/vagina.
However, if you look more closely, it's more accurate to say that it's a hymen. Or chastity belt.
Someone asked me if that meant the floods we've been having are like menstruation. I said squirting would be a more accurate analogy.
A more learned opinion than mine:
"Marina Bay is one of the 2 ovaries.
Kallang Basin is the other ovary.
The uterus is the unnamed water space between the proposed gardens by the bay and marina bay golf course.
Marina Barrage is in fact the diaphragm (a physical birth control method), preventing water from flowing in/out of the uterus naturally. (some say this is the reason for the recent floods. if you do not remove the diaphragm when you start menstruating, you will get 'flooded' and experience severe cramps.)
And if you pay attention, the marina barrage marks the end of the uterus (i.e. cervix). There is NO vagina. Just 1 hyperactive ovary with a diaphragm capping the cervix to prevent conception."
Post ID: 1885526469402443177
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Seemingly the duty of a DPP is to press for the maximum sentence possible - regardless of the merits of a case
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain
***
Jail term voided for NS defaulter who left S'pore as baby
22nd July
Of course, a lot of bitter slaves are saying they'd also pay $5,000 to avoid Slavery - ignoring the fact that the circumstances are very different (in fact, it's ridiculous that he was even convicted in the first place, but then the ilLogic of Slavery is such as it is).
For example, if someone breaks into my home and I shoot him with a gun 5 times and he dies, and I get 1 month's jail for excessive force (assuming that I live in a country where it is legal to possess firearms and legal to defend your home from attack), and someone comes along and says "Oh, I don't mind killing someone if I only get a month in jail".
Naturally, if you killed someone in cold blood you'd get 15-25 years in jail - not 1 month.
***
Jail term voided for NS defaulter who left S'pore as baby
22nd July
THE High Court yesterday set aside the jail term given to a national service defaulter and fined him $5,000 instead.
Seow Wei Sin's dodging of his national service obligation stands out as one of the longest periods of default - 23 years - by a Singaporean to have surfaced in the courts. He was born a Singapore citizen, but in 1963, when he was just a year old, his parents moved to a small town in Terengganu, Malaysia, taking him along.
In Malaysia he stayed, and he did not step foot here from the late 1970s. The issue of his national service obligation arose in 2008, when, at age 47, he applied for a Singapore passport.
He returned to Singapore last year and was arrested for failing to fulfil his national service liability by having remained outside Singapore for 23 years without an exit permit.
In March, he pleaded guilty in a district court to one count under the Enlistment Act and was sentenced to 18months' jail. He could have been jailed up to three years.
Both prosecution and defence appealed.
Yesterday, Justice Chao Hick Tin noted that Mr Seow was taken away at age one and had stayed in Malaysia, save for a few visits as a teen. The appeal judge said he did not think a jail term was warranted, considering past cases. He will issue his written judgment later.
Mr Seow's lawyer, Mr Tan Jee Ming, had argued that since a High Court decision in 1993, fines have been meted out to national service defaulters; only those with aggravating factors such as repeat offences or past criminal records have been jailed.
In 2005, pianist Melvyn Tan was fined $3,000 for defaulting in his 28 years away. Controversy arose and Singaporeans called for tougher penalties for those who evaded national service.
In 2006, the Defence Minister reiterated the tough stand against national service defaulters; the maximum fine was raised to $10,000.
Yesterday, Mr Tan argued that the district judge who jailed his client had erred in placing weight on that statement, which came after his client's failure to enlist between May 1978 and August 2001.
Mr Tan said Mr Seow believed his father had taken care of his national service matters.
He noted that Mr Seow was educated, had worked, married and raised his five children in Malaysia and had not gained from any of the Singapore Government's schemes, privileges and incentives.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Chay Yuen Fatt, pressing for jail time, asked for the term to be brought closer to the maximum three years. He argued that since Mr Seow cannot be called up for national service as he is now over 40, he has effectively evaded it entirely. He noted that the 18 months was still shorter than two years of national service.
Of course, a lot of bitter slaves are saying they'd also pay $5,000 to avoid Slavery - ignoring the fact that the circumstances are very different (in fact, it's ridiculous that he was even convicted in the first place, but then the ilLogic of Slavery is such as it is).
For example, if someone breaks into my home and I shoot him with a gun 5 times and he dies, and I get 1 month's jail for excessive force (assuming that I live in a country where it is legal to possess firearms and legal to defend your home from attack), and someone comes along and says "Oh, I don't mind killing someone if I only get a month in jail".
Naturally, if you killed someone in cold blood you'd get 15-25 years in jail - not 1 month.
Post ID: 6613786963962967619
Mes avis
Je toujours dis qu'un sein taille A dans le main vaut mieux qu'un sein taille C dans le soutien-gorge.
En plus, ceux qui n'emboitent pas dans la main sont perdus.
En plus, ceux qui n'emboitent pas dans la main sont perdus.
Post ID: 551466247942784554
u r wt u wr - 22nd July 2010
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place." - H. L. Mencken
***
u r wt u wr:
- '*head in side profile* Filling good'
- 'Escape from you!'
- 'Many *pictures of diamonds* many ♥♥♥♥'
- 'Unsettled'
- 'I'm addicted to purity' (11 year old girl)
- 'Goddess me'
- 'Who do you want to unbutton?' (not her)
- 'I'm so lonely' (woman in her late 50s)
- 'It's so hard to be a single'
- 'Super nice girl'
- 'I'm magnificent!'
- 'In love with you'
- 'Let's make out' (she was in her late 40s)
- 'Let's try something else' (she was wearing a headband with cat ears)
- 'Fcuk super babe'
- 'I'm soooo good'
- 'I've been soooo good' (interesting contrast between the present and present perfect)
- '*something* for rent but not for sale'
- 'Sexy is always in trick'
- 'Commencer *repeated many times* S *picture of 2 open palms with lines indicating movement*' (maybe she was asking people to start groping her)
- 'Enormous cock *picture of a cock*'
- 'Have some fun? *2 outstretched hands with soot and blood*'
- 'For very kind and obliging *something* customers'
- 'Gorgeous *dictionary definition*'
- 'Boyz club sports'
- '*Something* I want give some good'
- 'Know why my ego is so big? "Dig" *big arrow pointing downwards'
- 'I'll buy dinner if you promise me 'dessert' *picture of big piece of jelly with cream on it, possibly a creampie*'
- 'Boys'
- 'Delicious story ♥'
- 'I ♥ honey boy *something*'
- 'If you had chosen to ignore you had just chosen to regret'
- 'bizarre must awesome want'
- 'Nice girl' (auntie in her 50s with Gold Hair)
- 'Knock you out' (at first I thought the last word was 'Up')
- 'Your place or mine?'
- '*Something* do what you want'
- 'It's delicious. You need this'
- 'Super Jessie sweetly greatly *some words* sexy'
- 'Little Miss Jailbait'
- 'i will be your happy angel'
- 'Do what you want'
- 'I'm a very clever girl'
- 'Play comme des garçons'
- 'Lets hug'
- 'Get to know yourself *picture of man bending down between his legs and sniffing his ass*'
***
u r wt u wr:
- '*head in side profile* Filling good'
- 'Escape from you!'
- 'Many *pictures of diamonds* many ♥♥♥♥'
- 'Unsettled'
- 'I'm addicted to purity' (11 year old girl)
- 'Goddess me'
- 'Who do you want to unbutton?' (not her)
- 'I'm so lonely' (woman in her late 50s)
- 'It's so hard to be a single'
- 'Super nice girl'
- 'I'm magnificent!'
- 'In love with you'
- 'Let's make out' (she was in her late 40s)
- 'Let's try something else' (she was wearing a headband with cat ears)
- 'Fcuk super babe'
- 'I'm soooo good'
- 'I've been soooo good' (interesting contrast between the present and present perfect)
- '*something* for rent but not for sale'
- 'Sexy is always in trick'
- 'Commencer *repeated many times* S *picture of 2 open palms with lines indicating movement*' (maybe she was asking people to start groping her)
- 'Enormous cock *picture of a cock*'
- 'Have some fun? *2 outstretched hands with soot and blood*'
- 'For very kind and obliging *something* customers'
- 'Gorgeous *dictionary definition*'
- 'Boyz club sports'
- '*Something* I want give some good'
- 'Know why my ego is so big? "Dig" *big arrow pointing downwards'
- 'I'll buy dinner if you promise me 'dessert' *picture of big piece of jelly with cream on it, possibly a creampie*'
- 'Boys'
- 'Delicious story ♥'
- 'I ♥ honey boy *something*'
- 'If you had chosen to ignore you had just chosen to regret'
- 'bizarre must awesome want'
- 'Nice girl' (auntie in her 50s with Gold Hair)
- 'Knock you out' (at first I thought the last word was 'Up')
- 'Your place or mine?'
- '*Something* do what you want'
- 'It's delicious. You need this'
- 'Super Jessie sweetly greatly *some words* sexy'
- 'Little Miss Jailbait'
- 'i will be your happy angel'
- 'Do what you want'
- 'I'm a very clever girl'
- 'Play comme des garçons'
- 'Lets hug'
- 'Get to know yourself *picture of man bending down between his legs and sniffing his ass*'
Post ID: 877210893868757718
On the logistical challenges of shower sex
"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it." - Soren Kierkegaard
***
Ed: This post is by special request of @hellovirnnnn and, peripherally, @alexischeong
Me: "Women like having periods. It makes them feel good... It lets them know they're not pregnant"
A: Priceless male perspective. Roflmao.
B:how about "Guys like it when their women have periods. It makes them feel good... It lets them know their women are not pregnant"
Me: But you can't bonk them during their periods hurr hurr
C: You can, but it's bloody everywhere ...
Frigid Girl: do it in the shower lah.
Me: That presents another set of logistical challenges
D: y? just go shower only wad.
Me: Have you ever banged your head on the shower door when being thrusted into?
Have you ever lost your footing on the wet floor?
Has menstrual blood stained your shower curtains?
Has your partner lost his grip on you because of all the water?
Has the heater suddenly gone off, resulting in your being drenched by a torrent of cold water in the heat of passion?
Has the shower curtain come tumbling down on you because you gripped it while overcome by the act?
Have your shower gel containers fallen to the ground and cracked after your flailing arms have knocked them off?
Has your nose hit into the faucet while you were writhing in ecstasy?
Have you contemplated the hair in the drain trap or the mildew on the wall while getting into position?
Have you needed additional lubrication because the blood running down your legs puts you off?
Have you been squirted in the eye and wondered if that was just shampoo?
Have the glass doors of your shower shattered when both of you thumped against them in a climatic finish?
Have you had problems lining up due to height differences?
Have you ever sat red faced in the emergency room trying to explain how you got injuries from the above?
[Ed: As D is a girl, the above is written from a girl's point-of-view]
Someone: wah lau
ur frens ar just like u
super in ur face
even the girls
not shy one
haha
***
Ed: This post is by special request of @hellovirnnnn and, peripherally, @alexischeong
Me: "Women like having periods. It makes them feel good... It lets them know they're not pregnant"
A: Priceless male perspective. Roflmao.
B:how about "Guys like it when their women have periods. It makes them feel good... It lets them know their women are not pregnant"
Me: But you can't bonk them during their periods hurr hurr
C: You can, but it's bloody everywhere ...
Frigid Girl: do it in the shower lah.
Me: That presents another set of logistical challenges
D: y? just go shower only wad.
Me: Have you ever banged your head on the shower door when being thrusted into?
Have you ever lost your footing on the wet floor?
Has menstrual blood stained your shower curtains?
Has your partner lost his grip on you because of all the water?
Has the heater suddenly gone off, resulting in your being drenched by a torrent of cold water in the heat of passion?
Has the shower curtain come tumbling down on you because you gripped it while overcome by the act?
Have your shower gel containers fallen to the ground and cracked after your flailing arms have knocked them off?
Has your nose hit into the faucet while you were writhing in ecstasy?
Have you contemplated the hair in the drain trap or the mildew on the wall while getting into position?
Have you needed additional lubrication because the blood running down your legs puts you off?
Have you been squirted in the eye and wondered if that was just shampoo?
Have the glass doors of your shower shattered when both of you thumped against them in a climatic finish?
Have you had problems lining up due to height differences?
Have you ever sat red faced in the emergency room trying to explain how you got injuries from the above?
[Ed: As D is a girl, the above is written from a girl's point-of-view]
Someone: wah lau
ur frens ar just like u
super in ur face
even the girls
not shy one
haha
Post ID: 4219675052597233995
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Links - 21st July 2010
"One thing you will probably remember well is any time you forgive and forget." - Franklin P. Jones
***
A China Girl's Adventures - "I had read the Newspapers and understand that many Singaporeans are unhappy with foreign workers, and I just thought it would be a good idea for them to see the other side of the coin, to experience how hard we work, how much we go through. Life is not bed-of-roses for us... I am determined to come back to Singapore to work as it is the only place where Mandarin is quite well accepted and I feel at least quite at home and yet I can earn more than what I can at home"
S'poreans of all faiths must continue to show tolerance, understanding SM Goh - "Followers have a social duty to speak out against those who hold offensive views towards other religions or communities. It's only through such swift and categorical rebuttals that people from other religions can be assured that the offensive views are not held by the religion's mainstream members."
What he didn't say: "Report people to the police at the drop of a hat"
Solitary refinement - "Personally, I like silence. I think it is a sign of great intelligence, emotional closeness and quiet reflection. For a woman, silence is a sign that something is deeply wrong in the relationship. "We just don't talk anymore," is one of the complaints I hear most often from my wife's friends in long-term relationships. "She never shuts up," is what her long-suffering husband will probably say. My wife just makes up jobs to fill the gaps in conversation. "You know what we could do?" (By "we" she means "you".)"
Why is it so hard for the Heads or Ministers to say “I’m sorry”? - "I searched for relevant local examples in the article of apologies by CEOs and Heads of GLCs and government bodies but found none. Only the much publicised apology of Mr Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS was mentioned... I believe the discerning public of Singapore would be generous to forgive when a sincere apology is given. Giving standard and evasive responses and “regrets” by the PR person is not only unsatisfactory, but also may add insult to injury"
That's because DBS has viable competition...
How facts backfire - "Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains"
Cats were eating man, 74, found dead with mom - "74-year-old Herbert Walden likely died of a heart attack... [his mother] likely died of dehydration sometime after her son died. The woman relied on her son’s care and their trash-filled home didn’t have running water."
BOULETroulette - "La vie, c'est comme une boîte de chocolats, tu sais jamais sur quel boulet tu vas tomber !"
NOSTALGIEroulette
VUVUZELAroulette - "Life is like a box of chocolates you never know which vuvuzela you're gonna get!"
Why Facebook friends are worth keeping - "In 1973, sociologist Mark Granovetter showed how the loose acquaintances, or "weak ties", in our social network punch far above their weight in their influence over our behaviour and choices (American Journal of Sociology, vol 78, p 1360). Granovetter found that a significant percentage of people get their jobs as a result of information provided by a weak tie. Subsequent studies have revealed that weak ties benefit our health and happiness. Granovetter suggested that this is because these friends-of-friends aren't like you, yet they are likely to be similar enough in social outlook and personal interests to have a positive influence... Facebook's own researchers found a correlation between subjective well-being and site use"
YouTube - safetyvid - "Weird safety video! Weird!"
This is good shit
The Power of Breasts - "It was not until years later that I discovered the true power of breasts. I could garner attention and get things I wanted by the simple fact that I had them... From centuries of old, women have been using their sexuality to get what they want... Many of these women would claim they are empowered through harnessing their sexuality and feminine wiles... In my 30s, I slowly discovered what I like to call my feminine charm and subsequently softened my apparel. Unlike using one’s sexuality, one’s feminine charm encompassed intellect, humour, wit and many of my inner qualities... I use my feminine charm on both men and women of all ages and feel at ease that I am not discriminating... I am sure that my breasts are being noticed, however they serve more as a backdrop. As for using my sexuality, I retain the use of that for nothing other than getting sex. "
I'm surprised AWARE published this, since they've become more feminist since the takeover attempt
It'll get hotter in S'pore - "The average daily temperature in Singapore could rise by between 2.7 deg C and 4.2 deg C from the current average of 26.8 deg C by 2100, Parliament was told on Monday."
Lianhe Wanbao refutes explanation by Singapore Police - "Lianhe Wanbao has refuted publicly the official explanation given by the Singapore police in handcuffing one of its photojournalist Mr Shafie Goh during his course of duty last Saturday... the Singapore police accused Mr Goh of posing a danger to the public and obstructing the police officer in discharging his public duties"
In the US & UK, photographers also get harassed & detained for taking pictures. The difference is there's usually an apology.
Muslim woman sues Somerset Medical Center for religious discrimination - "A Muslim, Mohammedi wears traditional garb, including the hijab, or head scarf. The Basking Ridge woman believes it is her religious duty to maintain modesty before strange men, and an EKG calls for wires to be applied to the chest, shoulders and wrists. Instead of heeding her request, officials let her languish in the emergency room for five hours until 3:10 a.m.... "There is no obligation to require hospitals to have a physician on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week based on their sex, religion or nationality""
Inside insides - "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Foods"
Google vs. World: 79 Places Google is Being Sued or Blocked (Map)
Muslim bus drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board - "While drivers can use their discretion to refuse to carry non-disabled passengers with dogs, they are compelled to accept guide dogs under disability discrimination law. Yesterday both the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Federation of the Blind confirmed the problem was common, and, according to the latter organisation was 'getting worse'."
YouTube - Urinal Hand Washing Epic Fail - Subtitled - Haarlem 105 TV moment BPOP 2010 handen wassen
Genetic Study Solves Which Came First -- The Chicken or the Egg
The Big Lies People Tell In Online Dating « OkTrends - "REALITY: People are two inches shorter in real life... taller people, up to a point, have more sex. But as far as messages go, shorter women actually seem to get more attention... REALITY: People are 20% poorer than they say they are... We did a little investigating as to whether a person's stated income had any real effect on his or her online dating experience. Unsurprisingly, we found that it matters a lot, particularly for men... REALITY: The more attractive the picture, the more likely it is to be out-of-date... REALITY: 80% of self-identified bisexuals are only interested in one gender"
S.A. Wilson's Therapy Blend organic coffee - "One of the comments we've heard is "Hey, this stuff tastes horrible." Well, you're absolutely right, it does taste horrible, but you're not supposed to drink this blend are you? It has been blended and roasted solely for enema use and as far as that goes no other coffee can surpass it. Using our special 3 stage process we have developed a blend of coffee that is unsurpassed, containing higher levels of the prime elements required for an effective coffee enema."
A special report on gambling: The risk instinct | The Economist - "Undoubtedly gambling, like other addictions, depends on a complicated mixture of brain chemistry, environment and socialisation. Howard Shaffer, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, notes that the rate of pathological gambling in America has remained relatively constant for the past 35 years, despite a huge expansion in the opportunities on offer. There was a spike in the late 1990s but levels have dropped since then. Dr Shaffer draws a parallel with a classic virus-infection curve: high at the beginning as those most susceptible fall ill, but gradually tailing off as people adapt."
So much for the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do theory of socialisation
***
A China Girl's Adventures - "I had read the Newspapers and understand that many Singaporeans are unhappy with foreign workers, and I just thought it would be a good idea for them to see the other side of the coin, to experience how hard we work, how much we go through. Life is not bed-of-roses for us... I am determined to come back to Singapore to work as it is the only place where Mandarin is quite well accepted and I feel at least quite at home and yet I can earn more than what I can at home"
S'poreans of all faiths must continue to show tolerance, understanding SM Goh - "Followers have a social duty to speak out against those who hold offensive views towards other religions or communities. It's only through such swift and categorical rebuttals that people from other religions can be assured that the offensive views are not held by the religion's mainstream members."
What he didn't say: "Report people to the police at the drop of a hat"
Solitary refinement - "Personally, I like silence. I think it is a sign of great intelligence, emotional closeness and quiet reflection. For a woman, silence is a sign that something is deeply wrong in the relationship. "We just don't talk anymore," is one of the complaints I hear most often from my wife's friends in long-term relationships. "She never shuts up," is what her long-suffering husband will probably say. My wife just makes up jobs to fill the gaps in conversation. "You know what we could do?" (By "we" she means "you".)"
Why is it so hard for the Heads or Ministers to say “I’m sorry”? - "I searched for relevant local examples in the article of apologies by CEOs and Heads of GLCs and government bodies but found none. Only the much publicised apology of Mr Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS was mentioned... I believe the discerning public of Singapore would be generous to forgive when a sincere apology is given. Giving standard and evasive responses and “regrets” by the PR person is not only unsatisfactory, but also may add insult to injury"
That's because DBS has viable competition...
How facts backfire - "Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains"
Cats were eating man, 74, found dead with mom - "74-year-old Herbert Walden likely died of a heart attack... [his mother] likely died of dehydration sometime after her son died. The woman relied on her son’s care and their trash-filled home didn’t have running water."
BOULETroulette - "La vie, c'est comme une boîte de chocolats, tu sais jamais sur quel boulet tu vas tomber !"
NOSTALGIEroulette
VUVUZELAroulette - "Life is like a box of chocolates you never know which vuvuzela you're gonna get!"
Why Facebook friends are worth keeping - "In 1973, sociologist Mark Granovetter showed how the loose acquaintances, or "weak ties", in our social network punch far above their weight in their influence over our behaviour and choices (American Journal of Sociology, vol 78, p 1360). Granovetter found that a significant percentage of people get their jobs as a result of information provided by a weak tie. Subsequent studies have revealed that weak ties benefit our health and happiness. Granovetter suggested that this is because these friends-of-friends aren't like you, yet they are likely to be similar enough in social outlook and personal interests to have a positive influence... Facebook's own researchers found a correlation between subjective well-being and site use"
YouTube - safetyvid - "Weird safety video! Weird!"
This is good shit
The Power of Breasts - "It was not until years later that I discovered the true power of breasts. I could garner attention and get things I wanted by the simple fact that I had them... From centuries of old, women have been using their sexuality to get what they want... Many of these women would claim they are empowered through harnessing their sexuality and feminine wiles... In my 30s, I slowly discovered what I like to call my feminine charm and subsequently softened my apparel. Unlike using one’s sexuality, one’s feminine charm encompassed intellect, humour, wit and many of my inner qualities... I use my feminine charm on both men and women of all ages and feel at ease that I am not discriminating... I am sure that my breasts are being noticed, however they serve more as a backdrop. As for using my sexuality, I retain the use of that for nothing other than getting sex. "
I'm surprised AWARE published this, since they've become more feminist since the takeover attempt
It'll get hotter in S'pore - "The average daily temperature in Singapore could rise by between 2.7 deg C and 4.2 deg C from the current average of 26.8 deg C by 2100, Parliament was told on Monday."
Lianhe Wanbao refutes explanation by Singapore Police - "Lianhe Wanbao has refuted publicly the official explanation given by the Singapore police in handcuffing one of its photojournalist Mr Shafie Goh during his course of duty last Saturday... the Singapore police accused Mr Goh of posing a danger to the public and obstructing the police officer in discharging his public duties"
In the US & UK, photographers also get harassed & detained for taking pictures. The difference is there's usually an apology.
Muslim woman sues Somerset Medical Center for religious discrimination - "A Muslim, Mohammedi wears traditional garb, including the hijab, or head scarf. The Basking Ridge woman believes it is her religious duty to maintain modesty before strange men, and an EKG calls for wires to be applied to the chest, shoulders and wrists. Instead of heeding her request, officials let her languish in the emergency room for five hours until 3:10 a.m.... "There is no obligation to require hospitals to have a physician on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week based on their sex, religion or nationality""
Inside insides - "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Foods"
Google vs. World: 79 Places Google is Being Sued or Blocked (Map)
Muslim bus drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board - "While drivers can use their discretion to refuse to carry non-disabled passengers with dogs, they are compelled to accept guide dogs under disability discrimination law. Yesterday both the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Federation of the Blind confirmed the problem was common, and, according to the latter organisation was 'getting worse'."
YouTube - Urinal Hand Washing Epic Fail - Subtitled - Haarlem 105 TV moment BPOP 2010 handen wassen
Genetic Study Solves Which Came First -- The Chicken or the Egg
The Big Lies People Tell In Online Dating « OkTrends - "REALITY: People are two inches shorter in real life... taller people, up to a point, have more sex. But as far as messages go, shorter women actually seem to get more attention... REALITY: People are 20% poorer than they say they are... We did a little investigating as to whether a person's stated income had any real effect on his or her online dating experience. Unsurprisingly, we found that it matters a lot, particularly for men... REALITY: The more attractive the picture, the more likely it is to be out-of-date... REALITY: 80% of self-identified bisexuals are only interested in one gender"
S.A. Wilson's Therapy Blend organic coffee - "One of the comments we've heard is "Hey, this stuff tastes horrible." Well, you're absolutely right, it does taste horrible, but you're not supposed to drink this blend are you? It has been blended and roasted solely for enema use and as far as that goes no other coffee can surpass it. Using our special 3 stage process we have developed a blend of coffee that is unsurpassed, containing higher levels of the prime elements required for an effective coffee enema."
A special report on gambling: The risk instinct | The Economist - "Undoubtedly gambling, like other addictions, depends on a complicated mixture of brain chemistry, environment and socialisation. Howard Shaffer, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, notes that the rate of pathological gambling in America has remained relatively constant for the past 35 years, despite a huge expansion in the opportunities on offer. There was a spike in the late 1990s but levels have dropped since then. Dr Shaffer draws a parallel with a classic virus-infection curve: high at the beginning as those most susceptible fall ill, but gradually tailing off as people adapt."
So much for the Monkey-See, Monkey-Do theory of socialisation
Post ID: 5452372872453652050
The darker side of positive thinking
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." - Kurt Vonnegut
***
RSA Animate - Smile or Die:
"Acclaimed journalist, author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich explores the darker side of positive thinking."
Transcript:
"The same ideology of postive thinking [was] being applied to people who were downsized from the corporate world. White-collar, middle-level people, being sent to support groups or networking groups...
The message was: 'It's not bad to be laid off. It's actually a good thing. It's actually an opportunity. It's a growth opportunity. You will come out of it much better. And if you want to come out of it at all, of course, you better work on your attitude, because the key to getting a job in today's corporate world is not knowing things, or having skills or experience, but having a positive attitude.
Somebody who's in an absolute low point in their lives, and certainly losing a job can be that, and just tell them: 'There's nothing wrong. Just put on a smiley face and get on with it. Don't complain, whatever you do.'
So then I began to see a pattern and find it in more and more aspects of American life. This kind of mandatory optimism and cheerfulness.
One area where it is very strongly concentrated now, and has been for some years is the Corporate World. The workplace. Where the idea has been: yes indeed, you'd better be positive, because you're not really there to do X or Y task. You're there to spread good cheer and make the other people around you comfortable, and happy all day.
Now, you might think, 'What's wrong with that?'... 'You change the physical world with your thoughts'...
Now they talk about quantum physics. I love that, you know. Quantum physics, for some reason, has become an excuse to mock all of Science. Say: nothing real, nothing true, and whatever you think, that's how the world is. So if you think positively, you remake the world. Positively, according to this pseudo-scientific explanation.
But anyway. What's wrong with this. Why not delude yourself into thinking: you know, everything's fine, and you can change the world with your thoughts. I have two problems with it.
One, I'll be hardline about this. I think delusion is always a mistake. There's no safe delusion. Although one of the messages of positive psychology in the United States is, yeah, it's good to have some positive delusions about yourself.
The biggest evidence is the financial meltdown of 07. Now, a lot of things went into that... Certainly, one element was the grip of positive thinking in the corporate world, and particularly in the financial sector. People who tried to raise problems in the middle of the last decade would be shut up, or fired. You couldn't be inside Countrywide Mortgage Company - which was the one which almost singlehandedly set off the whole collapse in the US, and say: "I'm worried about our subprime mortgage exposure, or you'd be out.
And I got to interview some Wall Street guys... People who tried, say within Lehman Brothers, to point out that the housing prices could not rise forever, were fired.
It was this wilful ignorance. Nobody could think bad thoughts, and if you didn't, nothing bad would happen.
And I think the other thing I find very very disturbing about it... it's cruel to take people who are having great difficulties in their lives, and tell them it's all in their heads, and they only have to change their attitudes.
My favourite example of this moral callousness is from the author of The Secret...
The book on how you can have anything you want, attract anything to yourself by thinking.
And she was at about the Tsunami of '06, and how could this happen? And she said, and kind of, her phrasing, 'Those people, the victims of it, must have been sending out tsunami-like vibrations into the universe to attract that to themselves. Because nothing happens to us that we don't attract'. And I think that's beyond amorality. I don't even know where to locate that.
I'm not advocating gloom and pessimism and negativity, or depression. Those can also be delusional. You can go around making up a story to yourself that everything you undertake is going to fail, and there's no reason to think that.
I might, my very radical suggestion, is realism. Trying to figure out what is actually happening in the world and seeing what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.
... George W Bush was a cheerleader in College. Not an athlete. A cheerleader. And I think he construed the presidency as a continuation of that role. He is one of those people who closed himself in the bubble of positive feeling.
Condoleeza Rice said, way too late, that she had had doubts about the invasion of Iraq, but she didn't dare express them because the President hated to be around "pessimists". The equation of pessimism with doubt.
So nobody raised any questions about that war within the hearing of the President. Or those who did, like the General who suggested that we were only putting half as many troops on the ground as would be needed to accomplish whatever we were trying to accomplish, he was pushed out of the way. He lost his job.
What could be cleverer as a way of quelling dissent than to tell people who are in some kind of trouble: poverty, unemployment, etc, that it's all their attitude. You know, that that's all that has to change. That they should get with the program. You know, smile, and get no complaining.
It's a brilliant form of social control which, by the way, was practised in the Soviet Union. One of the principles of Soviet Communism was Optimism.
It's a form of social control, by the way, it's quite widespread in totalitarian types of societies, but I think it has worked very well in America...
What we call market fundamentalism. The idea that the market, the invisible hand, will straighten everything out. That you don't have to intervene, you don't have to do policy, you don't have planning, because there's this miraculous force that just irons out everything. Well, maybe a couple of generations get crushed along the way.
It's basically - it completely overlaps with the positive thinking ideology. You don't really have to do anything because there is a benevolent invisible deity - the market - that will clear everything up.
... If you want to really take a mental leap, a kind of belief. Believe that we could change things. It's the powerlessness of positive thinking. It always just thinks, it always just envisions you as a lone individual changing the world. Or not changing the world, redesigning the world to fit your ideas"
Keywords: financial crisis
***
RSA Animate - Smile or Die:
"Acclaimed journalist, author and political activist Barbara Ehrenreich explores the darker side of positive thinking."
Transcript:
"The same ideology of postive thinking [was] being applied to people who were downsized from the corporate world. White-collar, middle-level people, being sent to support groups or networking groups...
The message was: 'It's not bad to be laid off. It's actually a good thing. It's actually an opportunity. It's a growth opportunity. You will come out of it much better. And if you want to come out of it at all, of course, you better work on your attitude, because the key to getting a job in today's corporate world is not knowing things, or having skills or experience, but having a positive attitude.
Somebody who's in an absolute low point in their lives, and certainly losing a job can be that, and just tell them: 'There's nothing wrong. Just put on a smiley face and get on with it. Don't complain, whatever you do.'
So then I began to see a pattern and find it in more and more aspects of American life. This kind of mandatory optimism and cheerfulness.
One area where it is very strongly concentrated now, and has been for some years is the Corporate World. The workplace. Where the idea has been: yes indeed, you'd better be positive, because you're not really there to do X or Y task. You're there to spread good cheer and make the other people around you comfortable, and happy all day.
Now, you might think, 'What's wrong with that?'... 'You change the physical world with your thoughts'...
Now they talk about quantum physics. I love that, you know. Quantum physics, for some reason, has become an excuse to mock all of Science. Say: nothing real, nothing true, and whatever you think, that's how the world is. So if you think positively, you remake the world. Positively, according to this pseudo-scientific explanation.
But anyway. What's wrong with this. Why not delude yourself into thinking: you know, everything's fine, and you can change the world with your thoughts. I have two problems with it.
One, I'll be hardline about this. I think delusion is always a mistake. There's no safe delusion. Although one of the messages of positive psychology in the United States is, yeah, it's good to have some positive delusions about yourself.
The biggest evidence is the financial meltdown of 07. Now, a lot of things went into that... Certainly, one element was the grip of positive thinking in the corporate world, and particularly in the financial sector. People who tried to raise problems in the middle of the last decade would be shut up, or fired. You couldn't be inside Countrywide Mortgage Company - which was the one which almost singlehandedly set off the whole collapse in the US, and say: "I'm worried about our subprime mortgage exposure, or you'd be out.
And I got to interview some Wall Street guys... People who tried, say within Lehman Brothers, to point out that the housing prices could not rise forever, were fired.
It was this wilful ignorance. Nobody could think bad thoughts, and if you didn't, nothing bad would happen.
And I think the other thing I find very very disturbing about it... it's cruel to take people who are having great difficulties in their lives, and tell them it's all in their heads, and they only have to change their attitudes.
My favourite example of this moral callousness is from the author of The Secret...
The book on how you can have anything you want, attract anything to yourself by thinking.
And she was at about the Tsunami of '06, and how could this happen? And she said, and kind of, her phrasing, 'Those people, the victims of it, must have been sending out tsunami-like vibrations into the universe to attract that to themselves. Because nothing happens to us that we don't attract'. And I think that's beyond amorality. I don't even know where to locate that.
I'm not advocating gloom and pessimism and negativity, or depression. Those can also be delusional. You can go around making up a story to yourself that everything you undertake is going to fail, and there's no reason to think that.
I might, my very radical suggestion, is realism. Trying to figure out what is actually happening in the world and seeing what we can do about those parts of it that are threatening or hurtful.
... George W Bush was a cheerleader in College. Not an athlete. A cheerleader. And I think he construed the presidency as a continuation of that role. He is one of those people who closed himself in the bubble of positive feeling.
Condoleeza Rice said, way too late, that she had had doubts about the invasion of Iraq, but she didn't dare express them because the President hated to be around "pessimists". The equation of pessimism with doubt.
So nobody raised any questions about that war within the hearing of the President. Or those who did, like the General who suggested that we were only putting half as many troops on the ground as would be needed to accomplish whatever we were trying to accomplish, he was pushed out of the way. He lost his job.
What could be cleverer as a way of quelling dissent than to tell people who are in some kind of trouble: poverty, unemployment, etc, that it's all their attitude. You know, that that's all that has to change. That they should get with the program. You know, smile, and get no complaining.
It's a brilliant form of social control which, by the way, was practised in the Soviet Union. One of the principles of Soviet Communism was Optimism.
It's a form of social control, by the way, it's quite widespread in totalitarian types of societies, but I think it has worked very well in America...
What we call market fundamentalism. The idea that the market, the invisible hand, will straighten everything out. That you don't have to intervene, you don't have to do policy, you don't have planning, because there's this miraculous force that just irons out everything. Well, maybe a couple of generations get crushed along the way.
It's basically - it completely overlaps with the positive thinking ideology. You don't really have to do anything because there is a benevolent invisible deity - the market - that will clear everything up.
... If you want to really take a mental leap, a kind of belief. Believe that we could change things. It's the powerlessness of positive thinking. It always just thinks, it always just envisions you as a lone individual changing the world. Or not changing the world, redesigning the world to fit your ideas"
Keywords: financial crisis
Post ID: 7753573192784099539
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A summary of anti-immigration sentiment in Singapore
"Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch." - Orson Welles
***
In lieu of reading incoherent forum rants:
I believe there're 2 main reasons why many Singaporeans are upset at our immigration policy (though there's a conflation of the immigration issue and the easy work visas issue).
One is that of quantity - there are too many immigrants, and they're coming too quickly (i.e. it's not immigration per se that's the issue; water is good for health, but too much and too fast leads to water intoxication). Too much immigration, too fast: it's hard to absorb them.
The other is about breakdown - they're mostly PRCs.
Other factors are that:
1) We actively bring in immigrants (as opposed to a more natural, organic flow - foreigners who graduate from local universities are offered Permanent Residence)
2) We spend a lot of money on foreigners (for example, foreigners are given scholarships to local universities en-masse)
3) We treat foreigners better than locals (e.g. there're quite a few cases of foreigners being favoured over locals for jobs, and there're many scholarships for local universities that locals do not qualify for)
4) We accept even unskilled or lowly skilled migrants (as long as they're Chinese)
5) We have essentially no social safety net/welfare, leaving us to the vagaries of the market
6) Singapore already is ridiculously crowded (this is why countries with low population densities tend to be more open to immigration). The inadequate infrastructure (crowded public transport, expensive property) doesn't help.
7) We have no political control over immigration policy - it's easier to hate something you have no control over, nor even the illusion of control over (actually we have no political control over anything, but nevermind)
8) They exacerbate inequality on both ends of the spectrum, and if you're on the lower end you'll be hit hard. I was shocked to find out the wage levels for many unskilled jobs (and you know how expensive it is to live in Singapore).
9) Exacerbation caused by the economic downturn
10) National Slavery
Addendum:
11) Some immigrants are disdainful of Singaporeans, yet the political leadership condemns not them but Singaporeans for being xenophobic.
12) The migrants are unwilling or unable to assimilate
Although we're a nation of immigrants, you'll find that most of these factors did not apply in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
You can see these factors at play in developed countries also (e.g. small towns which are more obviously swamped by immigrants are more anti-immigration, unhappiness with immigrant cooks and hairdressers in Australia), though of course there're other layers, e.g. anger at illegal immigration (anti-immigration sentiment in the US seems to be against the illegal sort only; we don't have this here since there's so much of the legal sort) and major cultural clashes/integration issues (Muslims in Europe)
***
In lieu of reading incoherent forum rants:
I believe there're 2 main reasons why many Singaporeans are upset at our immigration policy (though there's a conflation of the immigration issue and the easy work visas issue).
One is that of quantity - there are too many immigrants, and they're coming too quickly (i.e. it's not immigration per se that's the issue; water is good for health, but too much and too fast leads to water intoxication). Too much immigration, too fast: it's hard to absorb them.
The other is about breakdown - they're mostly PRCs.
Other factors are that:
1) We actively bring in immigrants (as opposed to a more natural, organic flow - foreigners who graduate from local universities are offered Permanent Residence)
2) We spend a lot of money on foreigners (for example, foreigners are given scholarships to local universities en-masse)
3) We treat foreigners better than locals (e.g. there're quite a few cases of foreigners being favoured over locals for jobs, and there're many scholarships for local universities that locals do not qualify for)
4) We accept even unskilled or lowly skilled migrants (as long as they're Chinese)
5) We have essentially no social safety net/welfare, leaving us to the vagaries of the market
6) Singapore already is ridiculously crowded (this is why countries with low population densities tend to be more open to immigration). The inadequate infrastructure (crowded public transport, expensive property) doesn't help.
7) We have no political control over immigration policy - it's easier to hate something you have no control over, nor even the illusion of control over (actually we have no political control over anything, but nevermind)
8) They exacerbate inequality on both ends of the spectrum, and if you're on the lower end you'll be hit hard. I was shocked to find out the wage levels for many unskilled jobs (and you know how expensive it is to live in Singapore).
9) Exacerbation caused by the economic downturn
10) National Slavery
Addendum:
11) Some immigrants are disdainful of Singaporeans, yet the political leadership condemns not them but Singaporeans for being xenophobic.
12) The migrants are unwilling or unable to assimilate
Although we're a nation of immigrants, you'll find that most of these factors did not apply in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
You can see these factors at play in developed countries also (e.g. small towns which are more obviously swamped by immigrants are more anti-immigration, unhappiness with immigrant cooks and hairdressers in Australia), though of course there're other layers, e.g. anger at illegal immigration (anti-immigration sentiment in the US seems to be against the illegal sort only; we don't have this here since there's so much of the legal sort) and major cultural clashes/integration issues (Muslims in Europe)
Post ID: 6830008943812713439
Reality distortion field remains strong with Steve Jobs after antennagate / Mac Sucks - 20th July 2010
"Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors." - Quentin Crisp
***
A priceless video:
"第四代iPhone出包賈伯斯忙滅火" (you don't need to know any language to grok this video)
One comment: ""We expect perfection from Apple." which just goes to show how good their PR is because nobody ever mentions the G4 cube, pippin or newton anymore."
Privacy Change: Apple Knows Where Your Phone Is And Is Telling People - "If you agree to the changes, (which you must do in order to download anything via the iTunes store) you agree to let Apple collect store and share "precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.""
RIM, HTC say Steve Jobs is full of it - "Instead of admitting any real failure, Jobs said the issue was being blown out of proportion and claimed that Apple's newest phone is no worse than other smartphones on the market... Maybe I'm missing something, but I haven't seen any outcry over reception issues with either of these phones. Well, neither have their respective manufacturers, and they're being very vocal with their displeasure about Jobs's statements... It was indeed remarkably bold of Jobs to deflect attention away from his company's very real problem by attacking some of the top-selling competitors' phones, without knowing hardly anything about their design process and dropped call numbers"
Apple has a lot in common with the MIW...
Apple's "evil/genius" plan to punk the Web and gild the iPad - "The company that has made an advertising platform a major part of its iOS strategy is also hawking an ad-blocking technology for its Web browser, where it has no stake in ads... At the same time that Apple is touting HTML 5 as the best way to make "emotional" advertising on both the Web and in the App Store, it's calling Web advertising "annoying" and giving us tools to block it, but only when Apple isn't getting a cut. And something tells me that an iAds blocker is not going to be approved for the App Store any time soon."
***
A priceless video:
"第四代iPhone出包賈伯斯忙滅火" (you don't need to know any language to grok this video)
One comment: ""We expect perfection from Apple." which just goes to show how good their PR is because nobody ever mentions the G4 cube, pippin or newton anymore."
Privacy Change: Apple Knows Where Your Phone Is And Is Telling People - "If you agree to the changes, (which you must do in order to download anything via the iTunes store) you agree to let Apple collect store and share "precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device.""
RIM, HTC say Steve Jobs is full of it - "Instead of admitting any real failure, Jobs said the issue was being blown out of proportion and claimed that Apple's newest phone is no worse than other smartphones on the market... Maybe I'm missing something, but I haven't seen any outcry over reception issues with either of these phones. Well, neither have their respective manufacturers, and they're being very vocal with their displeasure about Jobs's statements... It was indeed remarkably bold of Jobs to deflect attention away from his company's very real problem by attacking some of the top-selling competitors' phones, without knowing hardly anything about their design process and dropped call numbers"
Apple has a lot in common with the MIW...
Apple's "evil/genius" plan to punk the Web and gild the iPad - "The company that has made an advertising platform a major part of its iOS strategy is also hawking an ad-blocking technology for its Web browser, where it has no stake in ads... At the same time that Apple is touting HTML 5 as the best way to make "emotional" advertising on both the Web and in the App Store, it's calling Web advertising "annoying" and giving us tools to block it, but only when Apple isn't getting a cut. And something tells me that an iAds blocker is not going to be approved for the App Store any time soon."
Post ID: 5417958387397580739
Monday, July 19, 2010
On historical heritage
"When I visited the British Museum and the British Library in London last month, I gained a healthy respect for how the British have kept the historical artifacts in pristine condition and made it open to all. (I was surprised how easy it was for me to have a first hand look at the Codex Sinaiticus (the world’s oldest near complete Bible) at the British Library and how every page is available for browsing in their website.) Repatriation to Egypt or Greece or Iraq would mean that it would be the last time the public would get a chance to see them."
Post ID: 5111126750571407636
Celui qu'on couche avec
"Coucher avec un vieux, quelle horreur, mais avec un jeune, quel travail !" - Alice Sapritch
Post ID: 8638938431871104003
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Conversations - 18th July 2010
"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote."
--- Edward Young
***
Someone: i have found several instances of recursive citation
wikipedia cites page X
X cites wikipedia
sometimes W -> X -> Y -> W
Someone else: i never understood the idea behind paid sex.
where's the fun.
its like playing starcraft with cheat codes.
yeah you get your objectives in the end, but the joy is in the adrenaline rush
Someone: its more like
at this age how do you not get picked up
you've got to be very repelling to not get picked up at all
... average girls my age should get picked up
...
ok i see that i am quoted :S
Me: hee
arent you honoured
any girl can get picked up
but it takes a special girl to be quoted by me
TC: wah lau
the 9.99 easy curves looks damn easy
haha i wonder if it works
Me: you try and tell me lah
no sorry
you try and I tell you =D
Someone: thats life what
sit in shit meetings
listen to people
work where also same story
life is like that what
i think thats what growing up is
the day you just say fuck it and just suffer
give up on ideals
spawn and get on with it
MFTTW: sg drivers can all fuck off and die
they all suck
i've taken to driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn
Me: like malaysia
MFTTW: we can start improving driving standards by getting *** drivers off the road
yesterday i drove by an accident on the way to work
*** auntie with p plate ran over a motorbike
she was turning right
and i think the motor bike tried to chiong and someone never give way
i can't decide who should go first
the *** aunties or the motor bikers
Me: hurr hurr
this indonesian girl was saying sg drivers are terrible
cos they have no awareness
MFTTW: er
either no awareness or dun care lor
plus impatient
they should teach all that in driving sch
not stupid shit like what s curve and what not
really
i think our driving test sucks
doesn't train drivers
it trains stuntmen
Me: >< like all exams in singapore it's hard but useless for practical purposes Someone: there is some truth in what phillip yeo said in
reference to bond breakers
apparently bain & co took in like 7 government scholars who broke bond
Me: what does that have to do with
"I don’t want whining Singapore boys. They are not mature even though they have done national service and are over 22 years old when they take up undergraduate studies"
Someone: I just read the entire article. He's just referring to how singaporeans (males in general) 1.complain alot, 2.have no sense of responsibilities, and duty and thats why they find life difficult and thus find an easy way out like bond breaking.
Me: what does that have to do with bain & co
Someone: apparently bain & co has been taking in many MANY many scholars.
Me: foreigners don't complain because they have not been raised to think that the government is supreme
the flip side of having a government that says it's very good is that when it's not good, people blame it
you can't blame the people
because you told them you were great
it's like you cant blame the jews for crucifying jesus
because they were told by their god to kill heretics
Someone: ...
lets not go there, shall we.
Me: as for responsibility, a bond is basically a contract
you earn more when someone breaks their bond than when they serve you
if I get enough money a business plan of mine is to give out scholarships and induce them to break bond
then I will earn a lot
10% interest or so... where to find this sort of investment one
Someone: fine. that may be true but the challenge (or the gauntlet laid down) now is the fact that we lack duty and responsibility.
Me: why is bond breaking a lack of duty and responsibility?
it's a contract, simple as that
and what about the organisation's duty and responsibility to scholars
it treats them like shit often
e.g. a star tried to not give my friend bonus
duty and responsibility run both ways
and a star is burning tax payers money in order to chain the scholars
they dont let them get funding from their host universities while on phd so the sg taxpayer pays more
and the scholars' liquidated damages go up
it's just to deter them from breaking bond
Someone: well, looking at the type of people in the A*star, nothing will deter them from breaking bond.
mercenaries who have no bloody sense of responsibility and duty
Me: what do you mean the type of people in a*
Someone: im not impressed with the characters.
Me: singapore is a mercenary state and a mercenary culture
so mercenary singaporeans are just paying it the highest compliment possible
TC: i love the near future and recent pass
v useful
Me: you mean
you love them because they're easy to conjugate
TC: HAHA
c'est vrai aussi
And think they grow immortal as they quote."
--- Edward Young
***
Someone: i have found several instances of recursive citation
wikipedia cites page X
X cites wikipedia
sometimes W -> X -> Y -> W
Someone else: i never understood the idea behind paid sex.
where's the fun.
its like playing starcraft with cheat codes.
yeah you get your objectives in the end, but the joy is in the adrenaline rush
Someone: its more like
at this age how do you not get picked up
you've got to be very repelling to not get picked up at all
... average girls my age should get picked up
...
ok i see that i am quoted :S
Me: hee
arent you honoured
any girl can get picked up
but it takes a special girl to be quoted by me
TC: wah lau
the 9.99 easy curves looks damn easy
haha i wonder if it works
Me: you try and tell me lah
no sorry
you try and I tell you =D
Someone: thats life what
sit in shit meetings
listen to people
work where also same story
life is like that what
i think thats what growing up is
the day you just say fuck it and just suffer
give up on ideals
spawn and get on with it
MFTTW: sg drivers can all fuck off and die
they all suck
i've taken to driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn
Me: like malaysia
MFTTW: we can start improving driving standards by getting *** drivers off the road
yesterday i drove by an accident on the way to work
*** auntie with p plate ran over a motorbike
she was turning right
and i think the motor bike tried to chiong and someone never give way
i can't decide who should go first
the *** aunties or the motor bikers
Me: hurr hurr
this indonesian girl was saying sg drivers are terrible
cos they have no awareness
MFTTW: er
either no awareness or dun care lor
plus impatient
they should teach all that in driving sch
not stupid shit like what s curve and what not
really
i think our driving test sucks
doesn't train drivers
it trains stuntmen
Me: >< like all exams in singapore it's hard but useless for practical purposes Someone: there is some truth in what phillip yeo said in
reference to bond breakers
apparently bain & co took in like 7 government scholars who broke bond
Me: what does that have to do with
"I don’t want whining Singapore boys. They are not mature even though they have done national service and are over 22 years old when they take up undergraduate studies"
Someone: I just read the entire article. He's just referring to how singaporeans (males in general) 1.complain alot, 2.have no sense of responsibilities, and duty and thats why they find life difficult and thus find an easy way out like bond breaking.
Me: what does that have to do with bain & co
Someone: apparently bain & co has been taking in many MANY many scholars.
Me: foreigners don't complain because they have not been raised to think that the government is supreme
the flip side of having a government that says it's very good is that when it's not good, people blame it
you can't blame the people
because you told them you were great
it's like you cant blame the jews for crucifying jesus
because they were told by their god to kill heretics
Someone: ...
lets not go there, shall we.
Me: as for responsibility, a bond is basically a contract
you earn more when someone breaks their bond than when they serve you
if I get enough money a business plan of mine is to give out scholarships and induce them to break bond
then I will earn a lot
10% interest or so... where to find this sort of investment one
Someone: fine. that may be true but the challenge (or the gauntlet laid down) now is the fact that we lack duty and responsibility.
Me: why is bond breaking a lack of duty and responsibility?
it's a contract, simple as that
and what about the organisation's duty and responsibility to scholars
it treats them like shit often
e.g. a star tried to not give my friend bonus
duty and responsibility run both ways
and a star is burning tax payers money in order to chain the scholars
they dont let them get funding from their host universities while on phd so the sg taxpayer pays more
and the scholars' liquidated damages go up
it's just to deter them from breaking bond
Someone: well, looking at the type of people in the A*star, nothing will deter them from breaking bond.
mercenaries who have no bloody sense of responsibility and duty
Me: what do you mean the type of people in a*
Someone: im not impressed with the characters.
Me: singapore is a mercenary state and a mercenary culture
so mercenary singaporeans are just paying it the highest compliment possible
TC: i love the near future and recent pass
v useful
Me: you mean
you love them because they're easy to conjugate
TC: HAHA
c'est vrai aussi
Post ID: 6052342537737031331
Saturday, July 17, 2010
La petite robe noire
"On ne s'habille pas pour éblouir les autres femmes ou pour les embêter. On s'habille pour se déshabiller. Une robe n'a de sens que si un homme a envie de vous l'enlever, je dis bien l'enlever pas l'arracher en hurlant d'horreur. Un homme ne vous aime pas pour une robe. Seulement, un jour, il vous réclamera aigrement " cette robe bleue tu sais " (aux orties depuis deux ans), qu'il n'avait pas semblé voir. Les hommes se souviennent des robes, mais leur mémoire est sélective. Evitez les barboteuses. Celles-là ils les " voient " d'abord. Et s'en souviennent ensuite."
Post ID: 8700383710837043704
Friday, July 16, 2010
Links - 16th July 2010
"Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines." - R. Buckminster Fuller
***
Yvette's Wedding Dresses Panama City Florida Yvette's Yvette's
This is Geocities x10. And it doesn't seem to be a joke
Animated stereoviews of old Japan
The Creativity Crisis - "The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded. When scholars gave creativity tasks to both engineering majors and music majors, their scores laid down on an identical spectrum... The lore of pop psychology is that creativity occurs on the right side of the brain. But we now know that if you tried to be creative using only the right side of your brain, it’d be like living with ideas perpetually at the tip of your tongue, just beyond reach... When creative children have a supportive teacher... they tend to excel. When they don’t, they tend to underperform and drop out of high school or don’t finish college at high rates. They’re quitting because they’re discouraged and bored, not because they’re dark, depressed, anxious, or neurotic. It’s a myth that creative people have these traits. (Those traits actually shut down creativity)... Rather, creative people, for the most part, exhibit active moods and positive affect. They’re not particularly happy—contentment is a kind of complacency creative people rarely have. But they’re engaged, motivated, and open to the world."
Late-blooming lesbians: women can switch sexualities as they mature - "As many as two-thirds of women who feel lesbian attractions may have changed their sexual orientation over time. The findings appear to pose a challenge to the scientific consensus that a person's sexuality is determined more by their genes than environment... Lisa Diamond, professor of psychology and gender studies at Utah University... tracked nearly 100 women who felt some degree of attraction to the same sex... Over the course of a decade two-thirds of the women changed their sexual orientations"
Everything you always wanted to know about Japanese schoolgirls (but were afraid to ask) - "It is easier for those doing the idolizing to develop an attachment to "a pure, awkward young woman" than to an accomplished performer. Thus even when they are professional, idols strive not to appear too professional, to give the impression that they ended up in the spotlight by accident."
Toyota Is a Symptom of Japan's Decline - "In the early part of the last decade, particularly under the maverick administration of celebrity prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan made fleeting attempts to promote itself as the land of the new new thing: nano-this, bio-that. Nothing stuck. There is still no Japanese Google... [Toyota] suffered from an insularity and parochialism, and a hierarchical structure that discouraged innovation or input from others... Toyota is symptomatic of a nation that has lost its way. According to a 2008 Pew survey, Japanese were more dissatisfied with the direction of their country than almost any other nation, including Pakistan and Russia... A shrinking, bargain-hunting, risk-averse population translates into a deflationary spiral, low wage growth, and decreased tax revenues... Japan will continue to give up, fade away, and blame its limitations on demographics and the changing international balance of power"
Miroslava Mikheeva-Duma: Best dressed mum
WikiAnswers - What is an italian chandelier - "I think it's either a chandelier made in Italy or a really posh chandelier. But I'm not sure! Hope that helps evn tho i don't think it will! lol! x"
Study: Why Older Women Have Higher Sex Drive - "Women in their 30s and early 40s are significantly more sexual than younger women. Women ages 27 through 45 report not only having more sexual fantasies (and more intense sexual fantasies) than women ages 18 through 26 but also having more sex, period. And they are more willing than younger women to have casual sex, even one-night stands. In other words, despite the girls-gone-wild image of promiscuous college women, it is women in their middle years who are America's most sexually industrious. By contrast, men's sexual interest and output... peaks in the teen years and then settles to a steady level (an average of three orgasms per week) for most of their lives... [an earlier study] found that women in their early 30s feel more lustful and report less abstinence than women in other age groups. In both studies, these findings held true for both partnered and single women, meaning that married women in their 30s and early 40s tend to have more sex than married women in their early 20s; ditto for single women. Also, whether the women were mothers didn't matter. Only age had a strong affect on women's reported sexual interest and behavior."
Nine Ways to Crack The Office Dress Code - "The more intellectual or powerful your work environment, the more fashion fripperies are frowned upon. Perfectly dreary but true. Chanel understood this principle and designed for women with work ethic accordingly. “Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night,”‘ she chided, wearing her invisibly elegant little suits everyday. Office chic shares that sense of focus. It is clothing that looks good but doesn’t get in the way of what you have to do and what you have to say. If you need an eccentric expression siphon it into intense little accessories"
Of course, it's much harder for men
One in five adults in love with someone other than partner - "One in four are not entirely happy in their current relationship. And of those who are now completely content with their other half, just over 50 per cent have experienced feelings for someone else. Worryingly, one in six of those who love another will follow it through and become involved in a long-term affair. But better news for the long-suffering partners of those with a wandering eye is that falling for someone else usually only happens once during each relationship. And only six per cent said they were planning to leave their long-term partner for the other man or woman... "The research shows just how many people believe that it's possible to hold feelings for more than one person.""
Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event - "251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth... If the methane bubble—a bubble that could be as big as 20 miles wide—erupts with titanic force from the seabed into the Gulf, every ship, drilling rig and structure within the region of the bubble will immediately sink. All the workers, engineers, Coast Guard personnel and marine biologists participating in the salvage operation will die instantly. Next, the ocean bottom will collapse, instantaneously displacing up to a trillion cubic feet of water or more and creating a towering supersonic tsunami annihilating everything along the coast and well inland. Like a thermonuclear blast, a high pressure atmospheric wave could precede the tidal wave flattening everything in its path before the water arrives."
Sounds more entertaining than 2012
The tuition nation - "Private tuition – together with the trade in test papers – has become a booming industry, probably raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and providing jobs for thousands of people.... a Chinese-language newspaper reported a father spent almost half his monthly salary, or S$960, to pay for his son’s English lessons... In this small city of 700sq km, there are at least 500 tuition centres, each with a database of home tutors for parents to select from... With the weak employment market for graduates, this is useful. It has allowed many retrenched professionals and executives to survive the crisis of unemployment."
Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High - "Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics. At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones. And officials are taking it seriously... The educators have gone so far as to ban iPods at school"
Deluded animal rights protestor lets children's pet rabbit loose - "[The note] read: 'This is animal cruelty. Rabbits should not be left in hutches, they should be out in the wild and socialising.' Now Barney is feared to have been let out into local countryside - where rabbit experts say he would be unlikely to survive more than a few days, at the mercy of foxes and other hazards"
Asian millionaires beat Europe in rich list
Shopping centre management install Asian 'stand-up' toilets following cultural awareness course - "They are regarded as unhygienic and backward in many parts of the world - infamously, a controversial sculpture briefly displayed at EU offices in Brussels last year lampooning member states depicted Bulgaria as a squat toilet. Mike Bone, of the British Toilet Association, warned the washing facilities associated with squat toilets could pose a hygiene hazard. 'We really don't see a need for them,' he said. 'Space for public toilets in places like shopping centres is already at a premium, and if this is meant to cater for Muslims we would point out that the vast majority use normal toilets in their own homes.'"
Why A Good Memory Is Bad For You - "Memory is useful because it allows foragers to find food without the effort of searching. "But excessive memory use prevents the forager from updating its knowledge in rapidly changing environments""
Grief-stricken mum breaks taboo - "Weeping inconsolably, the woman, who appeared to be in her 60s, flung her body against the side of the hearse, her wailing a sorrowful counterpoint to the toneless chants of Buddhist monks in the background."
This is one of the most scummy newspaper articles I've ever read
YouTube - Chalk Funny Commercial - Japan Dairy Council
Revealing Japan's low-tech belly - "Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating... This technological divide goes hand in hand with Japan's much touted "Galapagos" status. Like the plants and creatures on those islands Japan's tech standards and business practices have developed a unique character incompatible with anything beyond its borders"
New book puts death penalty on trial - "1. When foreign governments have clout over our economic interests and are willing to use that clout, their citizens will not face the death penalty;
2. When local citizens come from rich, well-connected families, or when a case threatens to involve others from this stratum of society, a way is found to avoid having them face the death penalty or even severe penalties;
3. When the state is convinced that an accused who is poor and “low-class” is guilty, and provided that exception no. 1 above does not apply, due process is less important than putting him on the fast-track to the noose...
Because so many laws mandate the death penalty, tying the hands of judges, the real decider as to who hangs and who does not is the prosecutor through his ability to pick and choose what charges to level at the accused. It stinks when the quantum of drugs the accused is charged with handling can go up or down depending on the day of the week or phase of the moon"
YTMND - What Women Want
Mel Gibson
Performance and Identity: The Music of Lady Gaga - "I am soliciting essays on a range of subjects that illustrate the influence and impact of Lady Gaga and her music. Essays will come from a range of scholars, including artists, music theoreticians and practitioners, psychologists, sociologists, cultural anthropologists, linguists, literary and theatre scholars, etc."
Marriage isn't a magic fix - "When controlling for differences between the two groups -- namely that cohabitating parents are "typically younger, less well off, less likely to own their own homes, have fewer educational qualifications and are less likely to plan their pregnancies than married people" -- the difference in the likelihood of a split dropped to 2 percent."
Video shows family dancing to "I will survive" at Auschwitz
Star Wars Subway Car « Improv Everywhere - "For our latest mission, we staged a reenactment of the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars on a New York City subway car. The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie"
Honey Pie - "Her lips are full and pink. Her teal green eyes are intense and inviting. Her black eyeliner accentuates her high cheekbones and her strawberry hair complements her light African skin. Her metallic halter dress holds her supple thighs and pushes on her round breast. She is the result of careful attention and workmanship. When you see her up close, you can’t help but stare. At $6000, she’s certainly not a cheap date. For creator, Matt McMullen, she's a work of art. For everyone else, she's a Real Doll."
***
Yvette's Wedding Dresses Panama City Florida Yvette's Yvette's
This is Geocities x10. And it doesn't seem to be a joke
Animated stereoviews of old Japan
The Creativity Crisis - "The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded. When scholars gave creativity tasks to both engineering majors and music majors, their scores laid down on an identical spectrum... The lore of pop psychology is that creativity occurs on the right side of the brain. But we now know that if you tried to be creative using only the right side of your brain, it’d be like living with ideas perpetually at the tip of your tongue, just beyond reach... When creative children have a supportive teacher... they tend to excel. When they don’t, they tend to underperform and drop out of high school or don’t finish college at high rates. They’re quitting because they’re discouraged and bored, not because they’re dark, depressed, anxious, or neurotic. It’s a myth that creative people have these traits. (Those traits actually shut down creativity)... Rather, creative people, for the most part, exhibit active moods and positive affect. They’re not particularly happy—contentment is a kind of complacency creative people rarely have. But they’re engaged, motivated, and open to the world."
Late-blooming lesbians: women can switch sexualities as they mature - "As many as two-thirds of women who feel lesbian attractions may have changed their sexual orientation over time. The findings appear to pose a challenge to the scientific consensus that a person's sexuality is determined more by their genes than environment... Lisa Diamond, professor of psychology and gender studies at Utah University... tracked nearly 100 women who felt some degree of attraction to the same sex... Over the course of a decade two-thirds of the women changed their sexual orientations"
Everything you always wanted to know about Japanese schoolgirls (but were afraid to ask) - "It is easier for those doing the idolizing to develop an attachment to "a pure, awkward young woman" than to an accomplished performer. Thus even when they are professional, idols strive not to appear too professional, to give the impression that they ended up in the spotlight by accident."
Toyota Is a Symptom of Japan's Decline - "In the early part of the last decade, particularly under the maverick administration of celebrity prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan made fleeting attempts to promote itself as the land of the new new thing: nano-this, bio-that. Nothing stuck. There is still no Japanese Google... [Toyota] suffered from an insularity and parochialism, and a hierarchical structure that discouraged innovation or input from others... Toyota is symptomatic of a nation that has lost its way. According to a 2008 Pew survey, Japanese were more dissatisfied with the direction of their country than almost any other nation, including Pakistan and Russia... A shrinking, bargain-hunting, risk-averse population translates into a deflationary spiral, low wage growth, and decreased tax revenues... Japan will continue to give up, fade away, and blame its limitations on demographics and the changing international balance of power"
Miroslava Mikheeva-Duma: Best dressed mum
WikiAnswers - What is an italian chandelier - "I think it's either a chandelier made in Italy or a really posh chandelier. But I'm not sure! Hope that helps evn tho i don't think it will! lol! x"
Study: Why Older Women Have Higher Sex Drive - "Women in their 30s and early 40s are significantly more sexual than younger women. Women ages 27 through 45 report not only having more sexual fantasies (and more intense sexual fantasies) than women ages 18 through 26 but also having more sex, period. And they are more willing than younger women to have casual sex, even one-night stands. In other words, despite the girls-gone-wild image of promiscuous college women, it is women in their middle years who are America's most sexually industrious. By contrast, men's sexual interest and output... peaks in the teen years and then settles to a steady level (an average of three orgasms per week) for most of their lives... [an earlier study] found that women in their early 30s feel more lustful and report less abstinence than women in other age groups. In both studies, these findings held true for both partnered and single women, meaning that married women in their 30s and early 40s tend to have more sex than married women in their early 20s; ditto for single women. Also, whether the women were mothers didn't matter. Only age had a strong affect on women's reported sexual interest and behavior."
Nine Ways to Crack The Office Dress Code - "The more intellectual or powerful your work environment, the more fashion fripperies are frowned upon. Perfectly dreary but true. Chanel understood this principle and designed for women with work ethic accordingly. “Be a caterpillar by day and a butterfly by night,”‘ she chided, wearing her invisibly elegant little suits everyday. Office chic shares that sense of focus. It is clothing that looks good but doesn’t get in the way of what you have to do and what you have to say. If you need an eccentric expression siphon it into intense little accessories"
Of course, it's much harder for men
One in five adults in love with someone other than partner - "One in four are not entirely happy in their current relationship. And of those who are now completely content with their other half, just over 50 per cent have experienced feelings for someone else. Worryingly, one in six of those who love another will follow it through and become involved in a long-term affair. But better news for the long-suffering partners of those with a wandering eye is that falling for someone else usually only happens once during each relationship. And only six per cent said they were planning to leave their long-term partner for the other man or woman... "The research shows just how many people believe that it's possible to hold feelings for more than one person.""
Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a world-killing event - "251 million years ago a mammoth undersea methane bubble caused massive explosions, poisoned the atmosphere and destroyed more than 96 percent of all life on Earth... If the methane bubble—a bubble that could be as big as 20 miles wide—erupts with titanic force from the seabed into the Gulf, every ship, drilling rig and structure within the region of the bubble will immediately sink. All the workers, engineers, Coast Guard personnel and marine biologists participating in the salvage operation will die instantly. Next, the ocean bottom will collapse, instantaneously displacing up to a trillion cubic feet of water or more and creating a towering supersonic tsunami annihilating everything along the coast and well inland. Like a thermonuclear blast, a high pressure atmospheric wave could precede the tidal wave flattening everything in its path before the water arrives."
Sounds more entertaining than 2012
The tuition nation - "Private tuition – together with the trade in test papers – has become a booming industry, probably raking in hundreds of millions of dollars and providing jobs for thousands of people.... a Chinese-language newspaper reported a father spent almost half his monthly salary, or S$960, to pay for his son’s English lessons... In this small city of 700sq km, there are at least 500 tuition centres, each with a database of home tutors for parents to select from... With the weak employment market for graduates, this is useful. It has allowed many retrenched professionals and executives to survive the crisis of unemployment."
Report: Teens Using Digital Drugs to Get High - "Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics. At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called “i-dosing,” which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with “digital drugs” that get you high through your headphones. And officials are taking it seriously... The educators have gone so far as to ban iPods at school"
Deluded animal rights protestor lets children's pet rabbit loose - "[The note] read: 'This is animal cruelty. Rabbits should not be left in hutches, they should be out in the wild and socialising.' Now Barney is feared to have been let out into local countryside - where rabbit experts say he would be unlikely to survive more than a few days, at the mercy of foxes and other hazards"
Asian millionaires beat Europe in rich list
Shopping centre management install Asian 'stand-up' toilets following cultural awareness course - "They are regarded as unhygienic and backward in many parts of the world - infamously, a controversial sculpture briefly displayed at EU offices in Brussels last year lampooning member states depicted Bulgaria as a squat toilet. Mike Bone, of the British Toilet Association, warned the washing facilities associated with squat toilets could pose a hygiene hazard. 'We really don't see a need for them,' he said. 'Space for public toilets in places like shopping centres is already at a premium, and if this is meant to cater for Muslims we would point out that the vast majority use normal toilets in their own homes.'"
Why A Good Memory Is Bad For You - "Memory is useful because it allows foragers to find food without the effort of searching. "But excessive memory use prevents the forager from updating its knowledge in rapidly changing environments""
Grief-stricken mum breaks taboo - "Weeping inconsolably, the woman, who appeared to be in her 60s, flung her body against the side of the hearse, her wailing a sorrowful counterpoint to the toneless chants of Buddhist monks in the background."
This is one of the most scummy newspaper articles I've ever read
YouTube - Chalk Funny Commercial - Japan Dairy Council
Revealing Japan's low-tech belly - "Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating... This technological divide goes hand in hand with Japan's much touted "Galapagos" status. Like the plants and creatures on those islands Japan's tech standards and business practices have developed a unique character incompatible with anything beyond its borders"
New book puts death penalty on trial - "1. When foreign governments have clout over our economic interests and are willing to use that clout, their citizens will not face the death penalty;
2. When local citizens come from rich, well-connected families, or when a case threatens to involve others from this stratum of society, a way is found to avoid having them face the death penalty or even severe penalties;
3. When the state is convinced that an accused who is poor and “low-class” is guilty, and provided that exception no. 1 above does not apply, due process is less important than putting him on the fast-track to the noose...
Because so many laws mandate the death penalty, tying the hands of judges, the real decider as to who hangs and who does not is the prosecutor through his ability to pick and choose what charges to level at the accused. It stinks when the quantum of drugs the accused is charged with handling can go up or down depending on the day of the week or phase of the moon"
YTMND - What Women Want
Mel Gibson
Performance and Identity: The Music of Lady Gaga - "I am soliciting essays on a range of subjects that illustrate the influence and impact of Lady Gaga and her music. Essays will come from a range of scholars, including artists, music theoreticians and practitioners, psychologists, sociologists, cultural anthropologists, linguists, literary and theatre scholars, etc."
Marriage isn't a magic fix - "When controlling for differences between the two groups -- namely that cohabitating parents are "typically younger, less well off, less likely to own their own homes, have fewer educational qualifications and are less likely to plan their pregnancies than married people" -- the difference in the likelihood of a split dropped to 2 percent."
Video shows family dancing to "I will survive" at Auschwitz
Star Wars Subway Car « Improv Everywhere - "For our latest mission, we staged a reenactment of the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars on a New York City subway car. The white walls and sliding doors on the train reminded us of the rebel ship from the movie"
Honey Pie - "Her lips are full and pink. Her teal green eyes are intense and inviting. Her black eyeliner accentuates her high cheekbones and her strawberry hair complements her light African skin. Her metallic halter dress holds her supple thighs and pushes on her round breast. She is the result of careful attention and workmanship. When you see her up close, you can’t help but stare. At $6000, she’s certainly not a cheap date. For creator, Matt McMullen, she's a work of art. For everyone else, she's a Real Doll."
Post ID: 4816311849847692540
Thursday, July 15, 2010
My first breast enhancement spam
"Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long." - Ogden Nash
***
I'm so excited. After years of penis-enlargement spam emails, I've finally gotten my first breast enhancement spam (at least that I remember)! Woo hoo!
Subject: Natural Breast Enhance !!!
Message: Increment of bust size from 30A to 32B
Firmer and more toned breasts from 34B to 34C
Pinkish nipples and fairer breast skin
Menopausal customers experience more vaginal secretion
Lesser hot flushes and relief of menstrual symptoms
Achieve breast fullness
Smoother and tighter breast skin
***
I'm so excited. After years of penis-enlargement spam emails, I've finally gotten my first breast enhancement spam (at least that I remember)! Woo hoo!
Subject: Natural Breast Enhance !!!
Message: Increment of bust size from 30A to 32B
Firmer and more toned breasts from 34B to 34C
Pinkish nipples and fairer breast skin
Menopausal customers experience more vaginal secretion
Lesser hot flushes and relief of menstrual symptoms
Achieve breast fullness
Smoother and tighter breast skin
Post ID: 7972525332261147874
Singapore's Mail Order Bride Agency
"Love Bought Together" (from the SDN newsletter)
(this advertises their contest, "A Love Brought Together")
I have created a label called "sdn" to aggregate all my SDN posts!
Post ID: 8799799517471597818
An unbeatable collection
"He was a passionate collector of relics - he had the marriage ring of the Virgin, a cup used at the Wedding at Cana, a fragment of the Burning Bush and a complete body of one of the Holy Innocents, the children murdered by Herod."
Post ID: 5672041295324280655
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Potemkin Trees in Singapore
"I planted the first tree after I took office in June 1959. Many of the trees I planted in various circuses (roundabouts) did not thrive. So before the next time I was to pass the site, they would plant a new sapling"
(via Duck)
(via Duck)
Post ID: 4635342240443209715
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
For all the Champion Grumblers out there
"Complaint can be a powerful political tool. Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King both used it to drive social change" (Blurb for Complaint: From Minor Moans to Principled Protests)
And, as we all know, Marx was the world's biggest whiner, and he never got anything done.
And, as we all know, Marx was the world's biggest whiner, and he never got anything done.
Post ID: 1939673970758974752
On the Myth of Multiculturalism in Medieval Spain
"A stitch in time would have confused Einstein." - Unknown
***
"From the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, the mixing in medieval Spain of the people of three religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - was one of Spanish society's most distinctive elements... Throughout Christian Spain there were large numbers of Jewish and Muslim people, all three groups living together but keeping their separate traditions in what might be described as an early example of multi-culturalism. This coexistence, extremely rare in European history, is often referred to by the Spanish term 'convivencia'. Here's the distinguished historian of Spain, Sir John Elliott:
"Well, as I see it, the essence of multi-culturalism is the preservation of the distinctive identity of the different religious and ethnic communities in a society. And for much of the period of Islamic rule, the policy of the rulers was to accept that diversity, even if it regarded Christians and Jews as adherents of inferior faiths. The Christian rulers when they took over did much the same, because they had no other option really, and at the same time of course, there was really no intermarriage. Intermarriage was forbidden between these communities So it is a limited multi-culturalism""
--- A History of the World in 100 Objects: Episode 62 - Hebrew astrolabe
Also, as with other commonly-mentioned romanticised historical anecdotes of religious tolerance, religions outside the ones mentioned were not treated as well.
***
"From the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, the mixing in medieval Spain of the people of three religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - was one of Spanish society's most distinctive elements... Throughout Christian Spain there were large numbers of Jewish and Muslim people, all three groups living together but keeping their separate traditions in what might be described as an early example of multi-culturalism. This coexistence, extremely rare in European history, is often referred to by the Spanish term 'convivencia'. Here's the distinguished historian of Spain, Sir John Elliott:
"Well, as I see it, the essence of multi-culturalism is the preservation of the distinctive identity of the different religious and ethnic communities in a society. And for much of the period of Islamic rule, the policy of the rulers was to accept that diversity, even if it regarded Christians and Jews as adherents of inferior faiths. The Christian rulers when they took over did much the same, because they had no other option really, and at the same time of course, there was really no intermarriage. Intermarriage was forbidden between these communities So it is a limited multi-culturalism""
--- A History of the World in 100 Objects: Episode 62 - Hebrew astrolabe
Also, as with other commonly-mentioned romanticised historical anecdotes of religious tolerance, religions outside the ones mentioned were not treated as well.
Post ID: 6659125787374092688
Monday, July 12, 2010
Links - 12th July 2010
"Literature is news that stays news." - Ezra Pound
***
jing quek SUPERHYPERREAL photography
I had a hard time finding this site, which I thought was called zingapore. It's the guy who lines up Filipino maids, grasscutters/grass cutters, construction workers, old folks/old people, the 501st Legion, fan-wielding taichi practitioners and trishaw riders up in striking poses. And more amusingly, poses some Singaporean schoolboy fantasies: SCGS girls throwing sports bras in the air on what looks like the ACJC track, 4 schoolgirls (from 4 premium schools) squirting/spraying a schoolboy with Coke, uncles pouring soya bean milk/tao huay zhwee on a girl in a bikini. Oh, and who runs around Singapore with red balloons and in red underwear/briefs. As you can tell, I will never be able to lose this site again.
Wealthier is not necessarily healthier: UK study - "In some cases the health of a population has worsened even as the country's national income was rising. This was because issues of poverty and inequality were ignored by policymakers more worried about economic growth, a strategy that may ultimately cost lives"
Election Strategy and Ethnic Politics in Singapore - "Logistic regression of the 1968-2006 parliamentary election results by constituency indicates that the PAP government did create Group Representation Constituencies in 1988 so as to eliminate districts that had voted disproportionately for the opposition in 1984. Analysis using Gary King’s method of ecological inference suggests that ethic polarization between Chinese and Malays was moderately high in the 1976 election, peaked in 1988, and was minimal in 2006. Indians, meanwhile, appear to have voted with the Chinese in all three elections... These empirical results thus cast doubt on the extent to which Singapore’s elections have been truly free, fair, and devoid of ethnic tension. The findings also suggest that young, middle-class, highly educated Chinese have replaced working-class Malays as the greatest challenge to continued PAP dominance"
A Web Site the Size of Belgium - "Q1) What do you call an area the size of 25,000 golf courses?
Q2) How big was the largest iceberg ever recorded?
Q3) How much of our planet would be destroyed if we were hit by a 1-kilometre asteroid?
The answer to all of these is: A "Belgium".
Have you ever noticed that when there is a need to describe how large a piece of land is, Belgium is often chosen as the comparative measure? (Especially when the reference is to an area of rain forest that has been destroyed.)"
Nanny, 30, died from sexual arousal while watching pornography - "Children's nanny Nichola Paginton was found dead in bed naked from the waist down last October with pornographic material running on her laptop. A sex toy was discovered next to her."
The Bad Webcomics Wiki - "The cold war on bad webcomics commences.
Every day, you and your family could be subjected to bad webcomic radiation. Find out what to do about it.
Your guide to finding the right webcomic."
xkcd is listed here?!
'Hollywood Accounting' Losing In The Courts - "Hollywood sets up a separate corporation for each movie with the intent that this corporation will take on losses. The studio then charges the "film corporation" a huge fee (which creates a large part of the "expense" that leads to the loss). The end result is that the studio still rakes in the cash, but for accounting purposes the film is a money "loser" -- which matters quite a bit for anyone who is supposed to get a cut of any profits... it's a fun glimpse into yet another way that Hollywood lies with numbers to avoid paying people what they owe (while at the same sanctimoniously insisting in the press and to politicians that they're all about getting content creators paid what they're due)"
Homework Makes The Grade - "The heaviest copiers were male, and although most of the students in the classes were freshmen and had yet to declare a major, subsequent analyses turned up an interesting trend: “Copying homework is a leading indicator of becoming a business major”"
Time to kick the gender gap into touch - "If football were to become more caring and sharing it wouldn’t be any fun to watch and the clubs would all go bust. Furthermore, football managers are already showing rather too much of their female side as it is – at least as far as their hairdos are concerned... Part of the reason why women are relatively gaffe-free may be that most slips are made in unguarded moments. Women are most likely to be off-guard when with their own sex, and powerful women are nearly always surrounded by men. It’s also because women don’t go around noisily asserting the first thing that comes into their heads. This may be a bad characteristic when it comes to landing a top job but, given that gaffes are now the number one way of ending a high-profile career, it is a pretty useful trait for survival"
Top 10 des meilleurs vu depuis les toilettes
Scientists Cite Fastest Case of Human Evolution - "Comparing the genomes of Tibetans and Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, the biologists found that at least 30 genes had undergone evolutionary change in the Tibetans as they adapted to life on the high plateau. Tibetans and Han Chinese split apart as recently as 3,000 years ago, say the biologists... Until now, the most recent such change was the spread of lactose tolerance — the ability to digest milk in adulthood — among northern Europeans about 7,500 years ago"
Why You Don't Need to Love Your Job - On Careers - "Most people who merely like, rather than love, their jobs are leading happy and fulfilled lives. Yes, you can get satisfaction and even pride out of doing a decent job well and competently. You can find enjoyment in facets of your work—your colleagues, your geographical location, your schedule—not strictly central to the job but still very important. And you can feed your inner passions in ways other than on the job... Maybe the insistence that it’s essential to adore your job is more distressing and depressing than working at a job that is just OK... every job is temporary. Moreover, it’s not necessary or even possible to be thrilled with what you’re doing every single minute of every single day"
Down for everyone or just me? - "Is [website] down for everyone or just me?"
Besides being useful this is a smart marketing ploy
Snake bursts after gobbling gator - "An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps. The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded."
People's misguided ideas of "kindness" towards animals = ecological disaster
Need a Flyer for Your Lost Cat? Don’t Ask This Guy. - "This is a supposed email exchange between co-workers, one of whom (David) is a designer. Shannon is a distraught cat owner who makes the mistake of asking David’s pro bono assistance in creating a Lost Cat flyer."
A Guide To Evil Dictator Facial Hair
Supporting my theory that men with facial hair are evil
Starting school day half-hour later shows big gains for tired teens in Rhode Island study - "Giving teens 30 extra minutes to start their school day leads to more alertness in class, better moods, less tardiness, and even healthier breakfasts... Teens tend to be in their deepest sleep around dawn — when they typically need to arise for school. Interrupting that sleep can leave them groggy, especially since they also tend to have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m... Starting times were shifted from 8 to 8:30. All class times were cut 5 to 10 minutes to avoid a longer school day that would interfere with after-school activities. Moss said improvements in student alertness made up for that lost instruction time"
And starting half an hour even earlier... No wonder we need Teach Less, Learn More
Why men are attracted to women with small feet - "Women with smaller feet have prettier faces, at least according to the men who took part in this study. So do women with longer thigh bones and narrower hips, as well as women who are taller overall. And the contest isn't even a close one... Atkinson thinks men find these features attractive because they serve as markers of a healthy childhood"
DNA Evidence Frees Man After 15 Years Of Marriage - "Henry "Hank" Doswell, 42, was released from his marriage Wednesday, after DNA tests conclusively proved his innocence in the July 1991 fathering of Spencer Doswell, the solitary charge that has kept him committed for 15 years... "I always said they'd made a terrible mistake, that I did not deserve to be put away in the prime of my life, but no one believed me. If it hadn't been for this DNA test, I might have died in that monogamous relationship... after wasting almost half my life on baptisms and birthday parties meant for some other man, I'm not about to take my single life for granted anymore""
***
jing quek SUPERHYPERREAL photography
I had a hard time finding this site, which I thought was called zingapore. It's the guy who lines up Filipino maids, grasscutters/grass cutters, construction workers, old folks/old people, the 501st Legion, fan-wielding taichi practitioners and trishaw riders up in striking poses. And more amusingly, poses some Singaporean schoolboy fantasies: SCGS girls throwing sports bras in the air on what looks like the ACJC track, 4 schoolgirls (from 4 premium schools) squirting/spraying a schoolboy with Coke, uncles pouring soya bean milk/tao huay zhwee on a girl in a bikini. Oh, and who runs around Singapore with red balloons and in red underwear/briefs. As you can tell, I will never be able to lose this site again.
Wealthier is not necessarily healthier: UK study - "In some cases the health of a population has worsened even as the country's national income was rising. This was because issues of poverty and inequality were ignored by policymakers more worried about economic growth, a strategy that may ultimately cost lives"
Election Strategy and Ethnic Politics in Singapore - "Logistic regression of the 1968-2006 parliamentary election results by constituency indicates that the PAP government did create Group Representation Constituencies in 1988 so as to eliminate districts that had voted disproportionately for the opposition in 1984. Analysis using Gary King’s method of ecological inference suggests that ethic polarization between Chinese and Malays was moderately high in the 1976 election, peaked in 1988, and was minimal in 2006. Indians, meanwhile, appear to have voted with the Chinese in all three elections... These empirical results thus cast doubt on the extent to which Singapore’s elections have been truly free, fair, and devoid of ethnic tension. The findings also suggest that young, middle-class, highly educated Chinese have replaced working-class Malays as the greatest challenge to continued PAP dominance"
A Web Site the Size of Belgium - "Q1) What do you call an area the size of 25,000 golf courses?
Q2) How big was the largest iceberg ever recorded?
Q3) How much of our planet would be destroyed if we were hit by a 1-kilometre asteroid?
The answer to all of these is: A "Belgium".
Have you ever noticed that when there is a need to describe how large a piece of land is, Belgium is often chosen as the comparative measure? (Especially when the reference is to an area of rain forest that has been destroyed.)"
Nanny, 30, died from sexual arousal while watching pornography - "Children's nanny Nichola Paginton was found dead in bed naked from the waist down last October with pornographic material running on her laptop. A sex toy was discovered next to her."
The Bad Webcomics Wiki - "The cold war on bad webcomics commences.
Every day, you and your family could be subjected to bad webcomic radiation. Find out what to do about it.
Your guide to finding the right webcomic."
xkcd is listed here?!
'Hollywood Accounting' Losing In The Courts - "Hollywood sets up a separate corporation for each movie with the intent that this corporation will take on losses. The studio then charges the "film corporation" a huge fee (which creates a large part of the "expense" that leads to the loss). The end result is that the studio still rakes in the cash, but for accounting purposes the film is a money "loser" -- which matters quite a bit for anyone who is supposed to get a cut of any profits... it's a fun glimpse into yet another way that Hollywood lies with numbers to avoid paying people what they owe (while at the same sanctimoniously insisting in the press and to politicians that they're all about getting content creators paid what they're due)"
Homework Makes The Grade - "The heaviest copiers were male, and although most of the students in the classes were freshmen and had yet to declare a major, subsequent analyses turned up an interesting trend: “Copying homework is a leading indicator of becoming a business major”"
Time to kick the gender gap into touch - "If football were to become more caring and sharing it wouldn’t be any fun to watch and the clubs would all go bust. Furthermore, football managers are already showing rather too much of their female side as it is – at least as far as their hairdos are concerned... Part of the reason why women are relatively gaffe-free may be that most slips are made in unguarded moments. Women are most likely to be off-guard when with their own sex, and powerful women are nearly always surrounded by men. It’s also because women don’t go around noisily asserting the first thing that comes into their heads. This may be a bad characteristic when it comes to landing a top job but, given that gaffes are now the number one way of ending a high-profile career, it is a pretty useful trait for survival"
Top 10 des meilleurs vu depuis les toilettes
Scientists Cite Fastest Case of Human Evolution - "Comparing the genomes of Tibetans and Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, the biologists found that at least 30 genes had undergone evolutionary change in the Tibetans as they adapted to life on the high plateau. Tibetans and Han Chinese split apart as recently as 3,000 years ago, say the biologists... Until now, the most recent such change was the spread of lactose tolerance — the ability to digest milk in adulthood — among northern Europeans about 7,500 years ago"
Why You Don't Need to Love Your Job - On Careers - "Most people who merely like, rather than love, their jobs are leading happy and fulfilled lives. Yes, you can get satisfaction and even pride out of doing a decent job well and competently. You can find enjoyment in facets of your work—your colleagues, your geographical location, your schedule—not strictly central to the job but still very important. And you can feed your inner passions in ways other than on the job... Maybe the insistence that it’s essential to adore your job is more distressing and depressing than working at a job that is just OK... every job is temporary. Moreover, it’s not necessary or even possible to be thrilled with what you’re doing every single minute of every single day"
Down for everyone or just me? - "Is [website] down for everyone or just me?"
Besides being useful this is a smart marketing ploy
Snake bursts after gobbling gator - "An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps. The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded."
People's misguided ideas of "kindness" towards animals = ecological disaster
Need a Flyer for Your Lost Cat? Don’t Ask This Guy. - "This is a supposed email exchange between co-workers, one of whom (David) is a designer. Shannon is a distraught cat owner who makes the mistake of asking David’s pro bono assistance in creating a Lost Cat flyer."
A Guide To Evil Dictator Facial Hair
Supporting my theory that men with facial hair are evil
Starting school day half-hour later shows big gains for tired teens in Rhode Island study - "Giving teens 30 extra minutes to start their school day leads to more alertness in class, better moods, less tardiness, and even healthier breakfasts... Teens tend to be in their deepest sleep around dawn — when they typically need to arise for school. Interrupting that sleep can leave them groggy, especially since they also tend to have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m... Starting times were shifted from 8 to 8:30. All class times were cut 5 to 10 minutes to avoid a longer school day that would interfere with after-school activities. Moss said improvements in student alertness made up for that lost instruction time"
And starting half an hour even earlier... No wonder we need Teach Less, Learn More
Why men are attracted to women with small feet - "Women with smaller feet have prettier faces, at least according to the men who took part in this study. So do women with longer thigh bones and narrower hips, as well as women who are taller overall. And the contest isn't even a close one... Atkinson thinks men find these features attractive because they serve as markers of a healthy childhood"
DNA Evidence Frees Man After 15 Years Of Marriage - "Henry "Hank" Doswell, 42, was released from his marriage Wednesday, after DNA tests conclusively proved his innocence in the July 1991 fathering of Spencer Doswell, the solitary charge that has kept him committed for 15 years... "I always said they'd made a terrible mistake, that I did not deserve to be put away in the prime of my life, but no one believed me. If it hadn't been for this DNA test, I might have died in that monogamous relationship... after wasting almost half my life on baptisms and birthday parties meant for some other man, I'm not about to take my single life for granted anymore""
Post ID: 3190953765108176086
Observations - 12th July 2010
"Any great truth can -- and eventually will -- be expressed as a cliche -- a cliche is a sure and certain way to dilute an idea. For instance, my grandmother used to say, 'The black cat is always the last one off the fence.' I have no idea what she meant, but at one time, it was undoubtedly true." - Solomon Short
***
My last Observations post was in March. No wonder I have so much crap in my draft.
On the obsession with homosexuality: RT punslabyrinth: @gssq hahha.. it's the 'in' thing these days isn't it.. to the point that honestly as a non-homosexual i feel marginalised sometimes!
RT @yaarn "Then there are linguists out there who don't want to see these (minority) languages die because then they'll be out of a job"
When someone says you're "overintellectual", "pseudointellectual", "overanalyse" or "think too much", what they are really saying is "I don't know how to answer your question. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick" or "answering your question makes me uncomfortable. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick".
On summarising himself in discussion threads: "Unfortunately this sort of summary is often necessary as I will often lose track of the line of argument myself and after several posts back and forth, will find myself arguing over something completely unrelated to the original post, or worse, find my earlier position completely reversed in later posts without even realising it."
"What have you learnt from Japanese girls?"
bookshopbear: "That make-up solves many of life's problems for them."
It's ironic that Mandarin, literally the language of Mandarins, has become rebranded as what is literally "normal language" ("普通话").
Patriarchy is a reaction to female mate choice and paternity uncertainty.
I am amused that a lot of people (including most women who have expressed an opinion on the topic) think that female bosses are worse than male ones, but no one thinks males are worse.
Of the people I know or know of who are taking or took breaks from employment, only one is male (and he was studying for his CFA). This is definitely something that must be taken into account when examining the gender wage gap (it almost certainly also has interaction effects with childcare).
Besides possible comparative advantage in doing housework (a suggestion that, bizarrely but predictably, got denounced as "deeply misandrist"), another reason that might explain why women do more housework than men is that they are more fastidious, or have higher standards of hygiene. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find studies on this (note: studies, not rhetoric, or baseless popular magazine articles).
If you're race blind, you will offend racial sensitivities.
If you want a ‘safe’ environment, most likely you just want your views to be ‘safe’ from criticism.
Addendum: keywords - "same from critical", "safe from examination", "sarah silverman"
I wonder if someone has done a study of the "racism" and "fear" of the Other inherent in the US banning Kang Kong, Snakehead and Konnyaku Jelly.
Nature is not Destiny, but if you ignore Nature, you're headed for Disaster.
RT @markleggett I like your Tumblr. Did you really find all these pictures on the internet? You're so talented.
RT @greenteacup: Most of the time, listening to girls talking is like Twitter - Most tweets r pointless n redundant.
(Someone asked what my large number of Twitter followers meant)
If Chatroulette had been coded by a PRC Chinese, would it have become so popular and international, given the closed ecosystem that is the Chinese Internet?
Why Singapore abandoned "Goal 2010": PRCs can't play football.
The Northern Chinese incursion into Chinatown is ironically inauthentic.
Maybe they hire Filipinas in hospitals instead of PRCs because unlike in restaurants, here a miscommunication could literally kill you.
The effects of Slavery: instead of getting riled up over politico-social issues, men hunt down men who've been less screwed
RT @infernoxv: thinks it's appalling how singaporeans with their shite mandarin make fun of the way mainland chinese speak mandarin. example: and then hor 我去他的office的時候那個 clerk很 bitchy的咯,每次給我dirty look, 真是 cannot stand it!
RT @ahaspel: A police state should admit error occasionally and pardon a few prisoners; it persuades the populace that the rest are guilty.
All SDN events which have a surplus of one sex have a surplus of women. In other words, the slots for ladies are all taken and only guys can register. Hurr hurr.
***
My last Observations post was in March. No wonder I have so much crap in my draft.
On the obsession with homosexuality: RT punslabyrinth: @gssq hahha.. it's the 'in' thing these days isn't it.. to the point that honestly as a non-homosexual i feel marginalised sometimes!
RT @yaarn "Then there are linguists out there who don't want to see these (minority) languages die because then they'll be out of a job"
When someone says you're "overintellectual", "pseudointellectual", "overanalyse" or "think too much", what they are really saying is "I don't know how to answer your question. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick" or "answering your question makes me uncomfortable. I shall avoid it and try to distract you with a Jedi mind trick".
On summarising himself in discussion threads: "Unfortunately this sort of summary is often necessary as I will often lose track of the line of argument myself and after several posts back and forth, will find myself arguing over something completely unrelated to the original post, or worse, find my earlier position completely reversed in later posts without even realising it."
"What have you learnt from Japanese girls?"
bookshopbear: "That make-up solves many of life's problems for them."
It's ironic that Mandarin, literally the language of Mandarins, has become rebranded as what is literally "normal language" ("普通话").
Patriarchy is a reaction to female mate choice and paternity uncertainty.
I am amused that a lot of people (including most women who have expressed an opinion on the topic) think that female bosses are worse than male ones, but no one thinks males are worse.
Of the people I know or know of who are taking or took breaks from employment, only one is male (and he was studying for his CFA). This is definitely something that must be taken into account when examining the gender wage gap (it almost certainly also has interaction effects with childcare).
Besides possible comparative advantage in doing housework (a suggestion that, bizarrely but predictably, got denounced as "deeply misandrist"), another reason that might explain why women do more housework than men is that they are more fastidious, or have higher standards of hygiene. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find studies on this (note: studies, not rhetoric, or baseless popular magazine articles).
If you're race blind, you will offend racial sensitivities.
If you want a ‘safe’ environment, most likely you just want your views to be ‘safe’ from criticism.
Addendum: keywords - "same from critical", "safe from examination", "sarah silverman"
I wonder if someone has done a study of the "racism" and "fear" of the Other inherent in the US banning Kang Kong, Snakehead and Konnyaku Jelly.
Nature is not Destiny, but if you ignore Nature, you're headed for Disaster.
RT @markleggett I like your Tumblr. Did you really find all these pictures on the internet? You're so talented.
RT @greenteacup: Most of the time, listening to girls talking is like Twitter - Most tweets r pointless n redundant.
(Someone asked what my large number of Twitter followers meant)
If Chatroulette had been coded by a PRC Chinese, would it have become so popular and international, given the closed ecosystem that is the Chinese Internet?
Why Singapore abandoned "Goal 2010": PRCs can't play football.
The Northern Chinese incursion into Chinatown is ironically inauthentic.
Maybe they hire Filipinas in hospitals instead of PRCs because unlike in restaurants, here a miscommunication could literally kill you.
The effects of Slavery: instead of getting riled up over politico-social issues, men hunt down men who've been less screwed
RT @infernoxv: thinks it's appalling how singaporeans with their shite mandarin make fun of the way mainland chinese speak mandarin. example: and then hor 我去他的office的時候那個 clerk很 bitchy的咯,每次給我dirty look, 真是 cannot stand it!
RT @ahaspel: A police state should admit error occasionally and pardon a few prisoners; it persuades the populace that the rest are guilty.
All SDN events which have a surplus of one sex have a surplus of women. In other words, the slots for ladies are all taken and only guys can register. Hurr hurr.
Post ID: 810414165180835385
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Outrage World
"It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought." - John Kenneth Galbraith
***
How feminist blogs like Jezebel gin up page views by exploiting women's worst tendencies.
"One of my friends posted a link to last week's Jezebel post titled "The Daily Show's Woman Problem" as her Gmail chat status, alongside the words "Every woman must read this." Obediently, I clicked, and read a lengthy post that began with the assertion that The Daily Show is a "boys' club where women's contributions are often ignored and dismissed." When I finished reading, I was outraged! But not, as the majority of Jezebel readers and commenters seemed to be, at The Daily Show.
Jezebel writer Irin Carmon's argument is essentially this: "Former videogame show host" Olivia Munn may soon become the show's first new female correspondent in seven years, but her potential hiring is nothing to celebrate, because, while she's a woman, she's not the right kind of woman.
The rest of the post was given over to quotes from various comediennes and Daily Show executives who'd been fired, or never hired, by the show... Female Daily Show employees whose stories didn't fit into this narrative... were mentioned very briefly...
[This is] a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap into the market force of what I've come to think of as "outrage world"—the regularly occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted blogs like Jezebel... They're ignited by writers who are pushing readers to feel what the writers claim is righteously indignant rage but which is actually just petty jealousy, cleverly marketed as feminism. These firestorms are great for page-view-pimping bloggy business. But they promote the exact opposite of progressive thought and rational discourse, and the comment wars they elicit almost inevitably devolve into didactic one-upsmanship and faux-feminist cliché. The vibe is less sisterhood-is-powerful than middle-school clique in-fight, with anyone who dares to step outside of chalk-drawn lines delimiting what's "empowering" and "anti-feminist" inevitably getting flamed and shamed to bits. Paradoxically, in the midst of all the deeply felt concern about women's sexual and professional freedom to look and be however they want, it's considered de rigueur to criticize anyone, like Munn, who dares to seem to want to sexually attract men.
When Jezebel was founded, it proposed itself as an explicit alternative to traditional women's magazines. As any first-year women's studies major will tell you, these glossies make money by exploiting women's insecurities... Jezebel must also sell ad space... the easiest way for Jezebel writers to be provocative is to stoke readers' insecurities—just in a different way... women's insecurities sell ads. The only difference is the level of doublespeak and manipulation that it takes to produce that result...
On the Web, writers tend to play up the most jealousy- and insecurity-evoking aspects of controversy, and then anonymous commenters—who bear no responsibility for the effects of their statements—take the writers' hints to any possible extreme. It's just how the Internet works."
Comments:
"I think you just described the majority of political (not just feminist) discourse in this country in a nutshell"
"Jezebel is a joke. It trades on cheap outrage and dishonest discussion. Note most of the comments are "acceptable opinion" to blatant cheerleaders, nothing else really makes it through. Its rigged as a right wing talk shows hosts call ins. Whether its video games, films, comic books, the answer is always knee jerk screams of sexism. Its like a parody of some chick whos taken a few too many womens studies courses and is raging"
" If you do a little digging, you'll find they don't have any facts--only talking points. It's like the Fox News of feminism. When you try to engage in a thoughtful debate with some of them and they realize they don't have a leg to stand on, they call you names and a traitor to your race... I know feminists aren't a hive mind. But you'd never know it from some of the commenters here, on Jezebel, and on Feministing. It's hard to argue that, generally speaking, the Jezzies' first reaction when confronted with a view that doesn't jive with their own opposing view is to attack or ignore"
***
How feminist blogs like Jezebel gin up page views by exploiting women's worst tendencies.
"One of my friends posted a link to last week's Jezebel post titled "The Daily Show's Woman Problem" as her Gmail chat status, alongside the words "Every woman must read this." Obediently, I clicked, and read a lengthy post that began with the assertion that The Daily Show is a "boys' club where women's contributions are often ignored and dismissed." When I finished reading, I was outraged! But not, as the majority of Jezebel readers and commenters seemed to be, at The Daily Show.
Jezebel writer Irin Carmon's argument is essentially this: "Former videogame show host" Olivia Munn may soon become the show's first new female correspondent in seven years, but her potential hiring is nothing to celebrate, because, while she's a woman, she's not the right kind of woman.
The rest of the post was given over to quotes from various comediennes and Daily Show executives who'd been fired, or never hired, by the show... Female Daily Show employees whose stories didn't fit into this narrative... were mentioned very briefly...
[This is] a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap into the market force of what I've come to think of as "outrage world"—the regularly occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted blogs like Jezebel... They're ignited by writers who are pushing readers to feel what the writers claim is righteously indignant rage but which is actually just petty jealousy, cleverly marketed as feminism. These firestorms are great for page-view-pimping bloggy business. But they promote the exact opposite of progressive thought and rational discourse, and the comment wars they elicit almost inevitably devolve into didactic one-upsmanship and faux-feminist cliché. The vibe is less sisterhood-is-powerful than middle-school clique in-fight, with anyone who dares to step outside of chalk-drawn lines delimiting what's "empowering" and "anti-feminist" inevitably getting flamed and shamed to bits. Paradoxically, in the midst of all the deeply felt concern about women's sexual and professional freedom to look and be however they want, it's considered de rigueur to criticize anyone, like Munn, who dares to seem to want to sexually attract men.
When Jezebel was founded, it proposed itself as an explicit alternative to traditional women's magazines. As any first-year women's studies major will tell you, these glossies make money by exploiting women's insecurities... Jezebel must also sell ad space... the easiest way for Jezebel writers to be provocative is to stoke readers' insecurities—just in a different way... women's insecurities sell ads. The only difference is the level of doublespeak and manipulation that it takes to produce that result...
On the Web, writers tend to play up the most jealousy- and insecurity-evoking aspects of controversy, and then anonymous commenters—who bear no responsibility for the effects of their statements—take the writers' hints to any possible extreme. It's just how the Internet works."
Comments:
"I think you just described the majority of political (not just feminist) discourse in this country in a nutshell"
"Jezebel is a joke. It trades on cheap outrage and dishonest discussion. Note most of the comments are "acceptable opinion" to blatant cheerleaders, nothing else really makes it through. Its rigged as a right wing talk shows hosts call ins. Whether its video games, films, comic books, the answer is always knee jerk screams of sexism. Its like a parody of some chick whos taken a few too many womens studies courses and is raging"
" If you do a little digging, you'll find they don't have any facts--only talking points. It's like the Fox News of feminism. When you try to engage in a thoughtful debate with some of them and they realize they don't have a leg to stand on, they call you names and a traitor to your race... I know feminists aren't a hive mind. But you'd never know it from some of the commenters here, on Jezebel, and on Feministing. It's hard to argue that, generally speaking, the Jezzies' first reaction when confronted with a view that doesn't jive with their own opposing view is to attack or ignore"
Post ID: 1163819138039563954
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