Winston Churchill on Democracy, Constitutional Safeguards and the Separation of Powers

"A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience." - John Updike

***

"The spirit of the Parliament Act, and the purpose of that Act, were to secure the intimate, effective and continuous influence of the will of the people upon the conduct and progress of their affairs. That was the purpose—not the will of the governors or the governesses of the people, but the will of the people...

Democracy, I must explain to the Lord President, does not mean, "We have got our majority, never mind how, and we have our lease of office for five years, so what are you going to do about it?" That is not democracy, that is only small party patter, which will not go down with the mass of the people of this country...

The right hon. Gentleman has an obvious, unconcealable, well-known relish for petty dictatorship. He has many good qualities, but he should always be on guard against his propensity and love to "cat and mouse" people from morning until night. Look at all the power he is enjoying today. No Government in time of peace has ever had such arbitrary power over the lives and actions of the British people, and no Government has ever failed more completely to meet their daily practical needs. Yet the right hon. Gentleman and his colleagues are avid for more power. No Government has ever combined so passionate a lust for power with such incurable impotence in its exercise. The whole history of this country shows a British instinct—and, I think I may say, a genius—for the division of power. The American Constitution, with its checks and counterchecks, combined with its frequent appeals to the people, embodied much of the ancient wisdom of this island. Of course, there must be proper executive power to any Government, but our British, our English idea, in a special sense, has always been a system of balanced rights and divided authority, with many other persons and organised bodies having to be considered besides the Government of the day and the officials they employ. This essential British wisdom is expressed in many foreign Constitutions which followed our Parliamentary system, outside the totalitarian zone, but never was it so necessary as in a country which has no written Constitution...

It is not Parliament that should rule; it is the people who should rule through Parliament... We accept in the fullest sense of the word the settled and persistent will of the people. All this idea of a group of super men and super-planners, such as we see before us, "playing the angel," as the French call it, and making the masses of the people do what they think is good for them, without any check or correction, is a violation of democracy. Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time; but there is the broad feeling in our country that the people should rule, continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters...

Both progress and stability are needed to make a happy country. But the right hon. Gentleman complains that the present Second Chamber has, from its composition, an undue bias in favour of stability...

No free country of which I have heard up to the present... which is enjoying democratic institutions has adopted single-Chamber Government. The United States, the Swiss, the Dutch, the Belgians, the French even in their latest constitution have a Second Chamber. Eire has created its own Senate... All feel that between the chance vote of an election on universal sufferage and the permanent alteration of the whole slowly built structure of the State and nation there ought to be some modifying process...

Look around at what is happening every day. The idea of a mandate is only a convention. A band of men who have got hold of the machine and have a Parliamentary majority undoubtedly have the power to propose anything they choose without the slightest regard to whether the people like it or not, or the slightest reference to whether or not it was included in their election literature"

PARLIAMENT BILL (Hansard, 11 November 1947): HC Deb 11 November 1947 vol 444 cc203-321)

NDP Pledge Time

The bells of St Teresa's Church started ringing, which they are not wont to often do.

Perhaps this was to remind people that no Man may serve two Masters.

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

(presumably they do not quote this very often in City Harvest and other Propserity Gospel churches)

Differential outrage

"Advice to writers: Sometimes you just have to stop writing. Even before you begin." - Stanislaw J. Lec

***

The reaction to Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is to label it a "thinly veiled excercises in xenophobia and racism", and to claim that:

By violating objects and ideas that are held sacred by marginalized populations with an eye to upholding your own privileged hegemony you are doing harm. You are doing harm by normalizing and celebrating violence (for the violation of the sacred is a form of violence) against an entire population of people. You are doing harm by courting a negative reaction from this population that will then add to the fire that caricatures Muslims as reactive and unreasonable. You are doing harm by using your position of privilege to publicly deride an already marginalized population.

Since this issue is framed not as being about blasphemy or free speech, but "about privilege, racism and xenophobia", it is no wonder there is a reaction totally blown out of proportion to the imaginary harm caused.

Meanwhile, real examples of real harm (where lives are ruined, or threatened to be ruined) get bland "I'm sorry"-s and "we [should] agree to disagree". Reactions that, if applied to cases where "privilege, racism and xenophobia" are seen to apply (in lieu of the usual frothy tirades), would get a reaction equally (if not more) scathing as the original article cited.

It is indeed appropriate to see this coming from the Barnyard Chorus. Truly, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.


(Going back to the original issue, the irony, as one commenter pointed out?

for an article which disparages the act of perpetuating sterotypes, it is itself also guilty of characterizing Muslims as disenfranchised minorities, and not only that, miniorities who will necessarily react violently in response... criticising the act as a form of western imperialism meant to incite violence from minorities is like saying that women who wear skimpy clothing and are sexually molested are in the wrong for being "incendiary")

Divine Ecstasy

Sex is a religious experience for some. And some religious rituals involve sex:

"I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying."

--- Of Visions. The Graces Our Lord Bestowed on the Saint. The Answers Our Lord Gave Her for Those Who Tried Her: Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, of The Order of Our Lady of Carmel

Obscurantism in Philosophy

philosophy bites: Mary Warnock on Sartre's Existentialism

"[On Sartre being on Speed when writing his later works] It was appalling. It was absolutely ghastly. I mean, I didn't like the style of Being and Nothingness, though I enjoyed the anecdotal part of it. And I enjoyed the sort of huge metaphysical structure that it was all built around.

But it appalled me when I first read it. But it was nothing... the incomprehensible and really shoddy way that the critique was written

But when that book came out, we hadn't yet had the benefit of yet more incomprehensible and deliberately incomprehensible French philosophers like Derrida... who really are unreadable, and meant to be so...

They wanted to be profound. And I think they were unduly influenced by Heidegger, who thought that philosophy had to have a whole special vocabulary and way of going about things, that nobody could possibly understand.

I think really, from Hegel onwards, one branch of philosophy did delight in obscurity. And I think that is a totally mistaken view of what philosophy should be about."

iPhone4 vs HTC Evo

"Fools rush in where fools have been before." - Unknown

***



""Is it an iPhone?"...
"It's similar to an iPhone, but has a bigger screen"
"I don't care"
"The internet speeds are around 3 times faster"
"I don't care"
"It has a higher resolution camera on both the front and the back"
"I don't care"
"And it doesn't require you to be on Wi-Fi to use video chat"
"I don't care"
"Its battery is replaceable, as is the memory card"
"I don't care"
"It is highly customisable. Everything from the widgets to the icons, the fonts and even has video wallpaper"
"I don't care"
"The monthly bill is cheaper"
"I don't care"
"It fucking prints money"
"It can grant up to 3 wishes, even if one of those wishes is for an iPhone"
"I don't care"...

"Not only are you so batshit stupid that you still want this device, you are also so retarded that you think you can just fucking waltz into any store and purchase one on launch day without a pre-order?

I think I need to go chop off my own dick now. Yes. I think I will. I don't need my children growing up in a world populated by dipshits like you""

A suggestion on reducing the wastage of cookhouse food

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not guilty.'" - Theodore Roosevelt

***

"To Whom It May Concern,

1. Recently, I have read about wastages in public funds amounting to $22,000 due to excess meal orders being covered up. I would like to propose a USMS suggestion to deal with this issue.

2. I believe this has been happening at many camps, and not just a few out of many. In fact, this has happened during the time I served my NS, and I wrote a small USMS suggestion regarding what to do with excess food, but it was rejected. I have modified what I have written, and added in new improvements.

3. The system I believe, is this. Every week, the CQMS or RQ or QM, or a specialist arrowed by either of them, compiles a list of people who will be in camp. This list is then submitted to the cookhouse personnel so they can prepare the exact amount of food. From what I recall, there is no opt-out system. This will not be so bad, except there are a numerous amount of canteens in camp, serving food at far cheaper prices. Here, I use the estimate from what I recall in my NSF days - lunch and dinner cost about $5.00 each. If I am not mistaken, canteen food is cheaper.

4. What I propose is this:
a. The allowance for NSFs per month will increase by the amount of current breakfast/lunch/dinner prices. This should pose no financial burden on MINDEF, since that sum is already deducted, albeit invisibly.

b. i) Any NSF (or regular) of rank CPL and above can choose to indent food for the upcoming month, and submit the time period where he will be in camp (to consume food) to the respective personnel. This is subject to unit constraints, or
ii) Any NSF (or regular) who is primarily in Service, and not in Combat, can also choose to indent food for the upcoming month regardless of rank, and submit the time period where he will be in camp (to consume food) to the respective personnel.

with the understanding that the cost of the food consumed at the cookhouse will be deducted from his allowance. If this NSF (or regular) wants to consume food solely from the cookhouse for the entire month, then after deduction from his allowance, his allowance should be what an NSF (or regular) of similar rank gets currently.

5. If an NSF (or regular) prefers to eat at the canteen everyday in this case, let him. He is saving the SAF money, because he is not indenting food which will be wasted.

6. There may be worries that this may spike a trend of all NSFs (or regulars) going to eat at the canteen instead. But then that means canteen food is preferable to cookhouse food, and SFI should either lower the cost (now visible) of its food, or make the food more palatable. This is what I have learnt from Economics studied in JC.

7. There may also be fewer cases of over-indenting occuring. Seeing the true cost reflected in one's allowance will give one pause to think. To give an example, the cost of water in India in different provinces is either free to farmers, or supplied at below its true price. This leads to many farmers overabusing this supply of water, and not using it efficiently. Of course, India also suffers from a water crisis now. Similarly, if an NSF (or regular) does not know the true price of SFI food, and thinks it comes free, you cannot expect them to eat at the cookhouse each day. It is interesting to note that the cost of food is not reflected to servicemen (at least not during my time) - I only found out by asking people. I do not believe many NSFs will be like me and actively try to find out more while serving the nation. Ignorance, after all, is bliss, and it is easier to pretend the cost of food is negligible and continue to waste it, instead of actively doing something.

8. 4b i) will also encourage combat personnel to pass their IPPT (to get CPL promotion), so they can decide whether they want to eat at the cookhouse.

9. Since there will still be excess food, though perhaps not as much, I also suggest giving these foods to the following groups of people: a) Hungry NSFs who want to eat more, b) Construction workers, Maintenance personnel, or Domestic Cleaners working on any projects within the unit or camp. There can be a centralized area with the understanding: If there is any excess food, come to this area at a set time to eat. There can also be a form to sign, similar to those given by the civil service / other private organizations which disclaims all liability like food poisoning, etc from the food. This can help spread goodwill about the SAF as well.

10. Lastly, if this solution seems too complicated, a variant would be to increase the NSF (or regular)'s allowance to include the food cost, but then it will be deducted anyway. While this seems like a waste of time - it is what is happening now, just that it is not explicitly shown in the allowance, knowing the true cost of food may let some servicemen reconsider their actions of not eating. Point 7 comes to play.

11. I hope this suggestion is of help.

Best Regards,

CFC(NS) XXX"


This is a good suggestion (not from me, of course).

Which is why the SAF will never adopt it.

As we all know, the SAF's Core Values are Stupidity, Sadism and Senselessness.

NUS: Flavours of Asia

"MA4257: Financial Mathematics II

Dr. Xia Jianming
matxj@nus.edu.cn"

The Median Isn't the Message: Interpreting Statistics

"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it." - Mae West

***

The Median Isn't the Message
Stephen Jay Gould

"Many people make an unfortunate and invalid separation between heart and mind, or feeling and intellect. In some contemporary traditions, abetted by attitudes stereotypically centered on Southern California, feelings are exalted as more "real" and the only proper basis for action - if it feels good, do it - while intellect gets short shrift as a hang-up of outmoded elitism. Statistics, in this absurd dichotomy, often become the symbol of the enemy. As Hilaire Belloc wrote, "Statistics are the triumph of the quantitative method, and the quantitative method is the victory of sterility and death"...

Trying to keep an intellectual away from literature works about as well as recommending chastity to Homo sapiens, the sexiest primate of all...

I asked Sir Peter Medawar, my personal scientific guru and a Nobelist in immunology, what the best prescription for success against cancer might be. "A sanguine personality," he replied...

Hence the dilemma for humane doctors: since attitude matters so critically, should such a sombre conclusion be advertised, especially since few people have sufficient understanding of statistics to evaluate what the statements really mean?... Knowledge is indeed power, in Bacon's proverb...

We still carry the historical baggage of a Platonic heritage that seeks sharp essences and definite boundaries. (Thus we hope to find an unambiguous "beginning of life" or "definition of death," although nature often comes to us as irreducible continua.) This Platonic heritage, with its emphasis in clear distinctions and separated immutable entities, leads us to view statistical measures of central tendency wrongly, indeed opposite to the appropriate interpretation in our actual world of variation, shadings, and continua. In short, we view means and medians as the hard "realities"...

Variation itself is nature's only irreducible essence. Variation is the hard reality, not a set of imperfect measures for a central tendency"

Creationism and Religion

"The creationist is a sham religious person who, curiously, has no true sense of religion. In the language of religion, it is the facts we observe in the world around us that must be seen to constitute the words of God. Documents, whether the Bible, Qur'an or those writings that held such force for Velikovsky, are only the words of men. To prefer the words of men to those of God is what one can mean by blasphemy. This, we think, is the instinctive point of view of most scientists who, curiously again, have a deeper understanding of the real nature of religion than have the many who delude themselves into a frenzied belief in the words, often the meaningless words, of men. Indeed, the lesser the meaning, the greater the frenzy, in something like inverse proportion."

--- Our Place in the Cosmos / Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe

Footprints

"Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts.

Others come into our lives and make us wanna leave footprints on their face."

(@kingsleyyy)

They needs a good copywriter

"Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat." - Sir Julian Huxley

***

WE NEEDS A GOOD COPYWRITER

"Sparkfury Creative Consultants Pte Ltd is a wart-winning creative agency. We handle humerous regional blue-cheap accounts including Sony Asia Pacific, BiC and UOB. We have been a full member of the 4As (Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Singapore) since 2003. Despite our fast going list of awards and accolades, our gold remains the same. We want to ignite our clients' brains and build a fun-filled working environment. We seek light-minded individuals to be a part of us.

WE NEEDS A GOOD COPYWRITER

Requirements:

• Minimum 3 years experience in capywriting
• Maticulous with versatile writing skills skills
• Responsible with a strong scent of timeline 
• Abler to perform under pleasure in a fast place
• Able to think s tragically and perform as a team
• Persuasive comunicator of well-conceived ideas

If you've zero tolerance for bad copywriting and think you've what it takes to elevate our creative standards, we want to hear from you. Email detailed resume to recruit@sparkfury.com"

Cai Png 101

"You know what's interesting about Washington? It's the kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature." - George W. Bush

***

The Art of Ordering Mixed Vege Rice

"Visit the stall near the end of lunch/dinner time.

Sure, some of the dishes may be sold out, but there will also be plenty of other dishes still available. Since the stall owner can't keep the dishes until the next lunch/dinner time, it is in his interest to give away larger portions so that he won't need to deal with leftovers later.

Get your guy colleague to order for you.

This only applies to girls. Stall owners tend to give a smaller portion to girls compared to guys. However, they charge the same price for both. So it is more value for money for a guy to place the order on behalf of the girl so as to receive a larger portion.

Ask for 'more rice' instead of 'add rice'.

Most stall owners will interpret 'more rice' as a larger scoop of rice which will result in more rice. This is generally free. However, 'add rice' entails adding a second scoop of rice to the first, and this generally cost additional money.

Make sure the stall owner has space to serve.

In many mixed vege stalls, there are usually two or more people serving dishes as the same time. When you are ordering, make sure to order dishes that are near the person serving you so that he won't have to stretch over his co-worker to reach your dish. If he is stretching to reach your dish, he probably won't give you more than usual serving since it is that much of a hassle.

Order the meat first.

This is to create a good impression with the stall owner. By ordering the meat first, your are signaling to the stall owner that you will not be ordering the cheapest items on the menu. This puts the owner in a better mood, so he may give you a larger serving.

Order 1 dish at a time and wait until he finished serving.

Point to your first dish, then wait until the stall owner finish serving it before pointing to the next dish. Do not rush him. Often, the stall owner needs time to gauge the portion of food to serve. If you give him sufficient time, it is likely that he will give you a larger than standard portion. Hurrying him results in less than standard portions.

Pause in between ordering dishes.

Pretend to ponder in between dishes. This gives more time for the stall owner to serve your previous dish which likely will result in a larger portion. When he is finished and noticed that you are still pondering overyour next order, he may feel bored and add a few more slices of your previous dish while waiting for you to make your next choice.

Order the same dish twice.

Use this technique very sparingly. After order a dish, pretend to look distracted and point to the same dish again. The stall owner will likely tell you that he has already served that dish. However, occasionally, he may instinctively go through the motion of serving the dish again and make your portion slightly larger, all for the same price.

Order dishes that are about to run out.

It takes practice to estimate, but it is worth picking dishes that are left with about 1.5 to 2 portions. Chances are, that if there is only about 1.5 to 2 portions of the dish left, the stall owner will think 'what-the-heck' and just give you everything. The good is that you get extra servings, the bad is that sauces right at the bottom of the tray are very salty.

Order vege dishes that contain meat sauces.

Some vege dishes have some meat in it to bring out the additional flavour. But it is sold at the price of vege becos the meat is usually in small amounts and only present in the sauce. Tofu dishes are an example of such. By ordering such dishes, you are getting some serving of meat for the price of vege. Nice.

Do not order meat dishes that contain vegetables.

These dishes count as meat but is usual half served with vegetables. It is very not worthwhile, do not order it. An example is the stir fried venison with leek. Go for fully meat dishes instead.

Ask for curry sauce.

Many a time, when you ask for curry sauce, some other ingredients in the curry sauce will find its way onto your rice, such as small pieces of chicken or potato. Cabbage curry sauce will probably bring you some cabbages and longbeans. And it's free.

Ask for meat sauces.

As mentioned earlier, some sauces are cooked with minced meat. It is near impossible to separate the mince meat from the sauce. So if you ask for meat sauces, you will definitely receive some serving of meat with it. And it's free.

Become a regular customer.

Talk to the stall owner on occasions. With good rapport, the stall owner will recognize you as a regular customer and will naturally give you extra servings the next time you visit."

Links - 4th August 2010

"The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name." - Aldous Huxley

***

Schneier on Security: Pork-Filled Counter-Islamic Bomb Device

The ups and downs of being a freelancer - "No set routine... Creative and intellectual fulfillment... Being able to work wherever you like... Crowd avoidance...
Idleness... Social isolation... The need to sell yourself... No employee benefits... The financial rollercoaster... Taxes"

Why travel solo when you can trip pool? - "Mr Liow and his male friend, for example, waited four hours to take a shower during their Taiwan trip, as they did not realise that the five women travelling with them would take that long to bathe."

Does Language Influence Culture? - "Russian speakers, who make an extra distinction between light and dark blues in their language, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue. The Piraha, a tribe in the Amazon in Brazil, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities. And Shakespeare, it turns out, was wrong about roses: Roses by many other names (as told to blindfolded subjects) do not smell as sweet."

Male road accidents soar in summer due to women's short skirts

Legal actions against international media - The File Cabinet - "A list of cases of the international media being punished by the Singapore government and/or judicial system... The list is still in progress, so do not take it as a comprehensive listing. If you have more cases to contribute, feel free to email me with the details."

Car Thieves Picky About Color - "The least popular colors in North America are yellow/gold at 2% and beige/brown at 5%. These and other bright colors deter car thieves. Not only do these vehicles have a lower resale value, but they are also like a flashing neon sign"

Britain has no need to make an apology to India for Empire... - "Indians require no apology for Empire and seek none, and nor do Britons need to feel especially guilty for it... All that is best about India - its tolerance, freedom and engagement with the world - has flourished due to the structures and ideas it inherited from British rule"

Hot Chicks with Stormtroopers

delanceyplace: the oil curse - "If you're an oil state, it's far more efficient to ask oil buyers for more money than to collect taxes from your population... When a state develops the ability to collect taxes, the bureaucracy and mechanisms it creates are expensive. They perpetuate their existence by diligently collecting as much money as possible and encouraging the growth of a private economy to collect taxes from. A strong private economy, so the thinking goes, creates a strong civil society... Taxes aren't democracy, but they seem to connect taxpayers and government in a way that has democratizing effects... oil, and mineral-exporting countries have a 23 percent likelihood of civil war within five years, compared to less than 1 percent for nondependent countries"

Second Passport and Second Citizenship for any kind of purpose - "EU Passport $9,900, Guyana $18,700, Suriname $17,400, Nicaragua $16,000"
Interestingly, one field is "Military Duty?"

Old Spice Sales Double With YouTube Campaign

8 Websites You Need to Stop Building - The Oatmeal - "Digg and Reddit Clones: 'I've got it! I'll create a social news website by picking a word, dropping a word from it, and then letting users vote on what's popular! It's genius, I tell you!'"

Work experience at the FO? Not if you¿re a middle class white male - "Under the tightly-drawn rules, only women, people from ethnic ­minorities and the ­disabled are ­entitled to apply for a chance to work at one of the great offices of state"
"Jewish Privilege" was why they introduced the Aryan Paragraphs [Addendum: or the Nuremberg Laws, and was a contributor factor to the Holocaust]

YouTube - Un perro muy jugueton - "An old lady getting humped by a horney dog, dont know if thats the funniest or most disgusting thing I have ever seen LOL"

Justin Bieber's Failed Segway Getaway - "Justin Bieber's physical well-being was endangered this week when his Segway failed to outrun a gawping throng of twelve year old girls. I've never been more thankful for the existence of video cameras."

Federal judge says you can break DRM if you're not doing so to infringe copyright - "This is a complete reversal of earlier rulings across the country (and completely opposite to the approach that the US Trade Representative has demanded from America's trading partners)"

The Longest Photographic Exposures in History

The power of speech - "The idea that we can be enlightened or destroyed by living with exotic people has transfixed western societies since before Joseph Conrad's rogue trader Kurtz was corrupted in the Congo. Yet Everett's life could be a more dramatic example of enlightenment and destruction than any fictional encounter with a drastically different culture. Thirty years living with the Pirah? destroyed his evangelical faith in God, wrecked his marriage and estranged him from two of his three children. It also dismantled his intellectual framework... he is continuing his fight with Noam Chomsky in a debate that could transform our understanding of human language... "What should the empirical evidence for religion be? It should produce peaceful, strong, secure people who are right with God and right with the world. I don't see that evidence very often. So then I find myself with the Pirah?. They have all these qualities that I am trying to tell them they could have. They are the ones who are living life the way I'm saying it ought to be lived, they just don't fear heaven and hell"... "One of the saddest things I've seen in Amazonian cultures is people who were self-sufficient and happy that now think of themselves as poor and become dissatisfied with their lives""

Are Too Many Students Going to College? - "All high-school students should receive a cost-benefit analysis of the various options suitable to their situations: four-year college, two-year degree program, short-term career-prep program, apprenticeship program, on-the-job training, self-employment, the military. Students with weak academic records should be informed that, of freshmen at "four year" colleges who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high-school class, two-thirds won't graduate even if given eight and a half years. And that even if such students defy the odds, they will likely graduate with a low GPA and a major in low demand by employers. A college should not admit a student it believes would more wisely attend another institution or pursue a noncollege postsecondary option. Students' lives are at stake, not just enrollment targets."

Aussie horse butcher 'faces death threats'
Now for whale, dog and cat meat

Woman 'wakes up' with foreign accent - " Fewer than 100 people in the world have been officially documented as suffering from the syndrome, which leaves them speaking with an alien accent. In the case of Mrs Fox, it is a mixture of Welsh, Scottish and North London accents"

Terror arrest threat for rail passenger who took photos on train to prove overcrowding
Of course, he got an apology

A liturgical occurrence - "The priest was at the altar with the doors open when suddenly a small boy, not more than four or five years old, broke loose from his parents and ran up towards the altar and… charged right through the doors and started tugging on the priests vestments"

Nasi KangKang - "Nasi KangKang, literally means Squatting Rice. It's some sort of love potion made for men. It was believed that after eating the rice, the man was bound to abide entirely by the woman's wishes. His mind will be reset and zombified. Any of the woman's wishes such as, "buy me a diamond" would be fulfilled immediately"

YouTube - Dai Mahou Touge - Vegetable Suicide
Damn Japs

Je suis mariée et je me masturbe - "Arrêtez de nier la réalité et de dire que la taille n'a aucune importance, c'est pire que de l'hypocrisie de dire cela, Au risque d'être vulgaire : enfoncez vous un cure-dent ou un coton-tige dans le vagin et si vous jouissez prévenez moi ? Car un penis petit et fin fait à peu de choses le même effet...."

Beware the office feeder: They tempt with sweets and treats, but never tuck in themselves - what are they up to? - "They like to see others eating, because it reinforces their own sense of mastery and self-will, and they feel good about avoiding calories when someone else is consuming them in front of their eyes"

Shoppers on a ‘Diet’ Tame the Urge to Buy - "The premise was to go an entire month wearing only six items already found in your closet (not counting shoes, underwear or accessories)... women, on average, own seven pairs of jeans but wear only four regularly"

On genocide, and why George W Bush is not culpable of it

"And remember, no matter where you go, there you are." - Earl Mac Rauch

***

The worst genocides of the 20th Century:

"The crimes committed by right-wing dictators have always been easier to track down than the crimes against humanity committed by communist leaders...

The most frequently asked questions are always about current unpopular USA presidents: Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II... The moment the USA elects a new president, i start receiving emails asking to add him to the list of "genociders". The moment the president leaves office the same people forget about him and jump on the next one. Can we consider President Bush a genocider due to all of the civilians killed in Iraq under his watch? I don't think so, because the vast majority of civilians killed in Iraq were NOT killed by USA troops. It is genocide, but the "genociders" are others, and the situation is still too murky to decide who exactly killed those 100,000 civilians. (If Bush is indirectly guilty of it, then certainly Islam is too). The USA bears some clear responsibilities for the chaos, but ineptitude, miscalculation, ignorance, etc do not qualify as genocide. Otheriwse the United Nations and France would be responsible for the genocide in Rwanda (900,000 people). Putin would be a better candidate for "genocider", since the vast majority of Chechen civilians killed under his watch were killed by Russian troops. However, i have never received a single email nominating Putin...

I often get asked if Hiroshima/Nagasaki qualify as a genocide. I disagree... Winston Churchill and Harry Truman did not start that war: they ended it. It is even debatable if these bombings killed or saved lives... more Japanese died in two weeks of battles with the Soviet Union in Manchuria than in the two nuclear bombings...

I've been asked why i blame the USA only for part of the civilian deaths in Vietnam while i blame the Soviet Union for all of the civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The USA "invasion" of Vietnam is not as clearcut as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan:

1. Even today many in Vietnam think that the aggressor was North Vietnam, not the USA, at least at the beginning"

Women's self-objectification

"A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth." - George Bernard Shaw

***

Whose Slut? - The F-Word

"Despite attempts to sell pornographic images of men to women as a great equalizer, women still prefer their magazines populated with sexy women. This makes sense to me; since the beginning of time, the female body has been associated with sex...

The traditional feminist response to the fact that straight women clearly demand and enjoy images of sexy women has been that we have internalised the patriarchal values which oppress us and lost sight of our own sexuality along the way...

Self-objectification is an integral part of female heterosexuality. Whether it be shopping for underwear or dancing at a club, most of us get a thrill at the thought of being desired by men. Taking it a step further, how many of us have fantasised about being strippers or whores?...

The notion that a sexualised woman is degrading to women derives from the assumption that she is being sexualised by men, for men...

In recent years, women have begun to reclaim their sexualisation. From women making their own porn films to the growing number of feminist strippers who freely admit they get a kick out of displaying their bodies, we are slowly beginning to show that sexualisation can be just as fun and empowering for the ones being watched as for the ones watching. We are even beginning to reclaim sexist insults... Anti-porn advocates'... cries of ‘degrading to women’ are merely adding to the common assumption that any woman who enjoys the male gaze must be either a victim or a slut...

Some feminists believe we can go back and change our history so women will no longer have to bear this association [with being male sex objects]. I believe that any attempt to do so will further alienate the majority of women from the cause and ultimately be met with overwhelming resistence, if not from the powers that be then from our own sexuality."


I was reading this after the outcry about Hugh Hefner saying that 'Women Are Sex Objects'.

While this is a refreshing change from much of feminism (for example, questioning that objectification is always a bad thing), the logic here seems to be that it is okay for women to objectify other women, or for women to objectify themselves, but not for men to do so (or to act on the implications of such objectification).

Besides the problem with restricting objectification of women to other women, if a department store has an attractive and novel display, you surely cannot fault people for ogling at it, telling their friends or even taking pictures of it. What you CAN fault them for is vandalising it or stealing parts of it (touching it falls into a grey category - probably the most you can do is expel someone who keeps touching your exhibit from your store). And to insist that only some people can ogle at it, tell their friends or take pictures of it seems capricious (perhaps even discriminatory).

To look at it another way, if "most [women] get a thrill at the thought of being desired by men", men are doing them a favour by desiring (and objectifying them).

Come to think of it, I've never read a feminist bashing Disney for giving girls unrealistic expectations of men

"Porn movies and Disney are responsible for the most frustrated human beings I know"
"where the hell is my prince charming ?"
"where the hell is my insatiable whore ?"

Why Men should not take pictures of Women in Singapore

"If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate." - Elbert Hubbard

***

After my oppression by the heavy arm of the State last year, I finally got around to going to a police station (with REAL police) to enquire about the legality of taking pictures of people in public. Despite the platitudes of "it depends", I did get some answers.

(Summary of linked post: I took a picture of 6 female teenagers sitting in a playground explicitly marked out as being for preschool children, and was threatened with having the police brought down on me. Despite my photo being as far from possible from an upskirt or a downblouse [while still having females in it], the airport police sided with the girls, and I was forced to delete the pictures in the end.)

The officer I spoke to said that if you took pictures of a woman, there were 2 offences they could charge you under: insulting the modesty of a woman, and intruding into the modesty of a woman. Unfortunately I could not find the latter offence in the Singapore Statutes OnLine.

So the relevant law is my 2nd-favourite section of the Penal Code (my favourite is even better):

"Section 509: Word or gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman

Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both."

Given that the modesty of a woman is an extremely broad term (and the privacy of a woman only, perhaps, slightly less so), you can see how it is very easy to use this law against men (while the law is gender-neutral in wording, in reality we know that it is very unlikely to be used against women, due to Female Privilege).

On the other hand, the officer continued, if you took pictures of a man, only intentional harassment would get you in trouble, and furthermore it would be a civil case, not a police case.

I brought up the example of STOMP, which had lots of pictures of people, and he said it was better to ask the subjects of photographs for permission. I said street photography was about spontaneity, but he didn't respond to that

So, as far as I can tell, essentially you can't take pictures of women in Singapore without being at risk of being harassed by the police but men are fair game (as long as you don't "harass" them, so one-off shots should be fine).

This sort of case would seem to be ridiculous and not worth the time of those who ensure that Singapore has Low Crime. However, from other sources I know that the police tend to take the side of whoever calls them first - of whoever makes the complaint. And they also tend to investigate all cases - even ridiculous-sounding ones. And of course there's the bias against the man whenever a woman accuses him of having done something sexual to her.

So in this case, if girls are upset that you have taken pictures of them and call the police, you may get your camera (or phone) confiscated as 'evidence', and you may not get it back for weeks or months while you are being 'investigated'.

In the end, you will probably get a 'stern warning' instead of the case being dropped. While this is not as bad as being prosecuted in court (a possibility that cannot be totally discounted), this will count against you in future cases of a similar nature, which is great news if another female tries to use the law against you with an allegation of a sexual crime, since "If you commit any offence in future, the same leniency may not be shown towards you", and your camera/phone may not even be returned to you in the end (since a 'stern warning' is taken to mean that you did something wrong, they just chose not to prosecute you - in comparison note the phrasing when they drop the case entirely) and then be ordered destroyed by the Courts.


What might await you if you, as a man, take a picture of women in Singapore in public

I note that even in the unlikely case of the case being dropped, at the very least a few hours of your time will have been wasted, your camera (or phone) might be confiscated as "evidence" and you will be traumatised at being oppressed by the heavy arm of the State.

All in all, this is entirely consistent with what we know about the law and sex crimes committed by men against women in Singapore, and with other police advice that I have heard (that it is better for the man to settle, because the cards are stacked against him). Essentially, the man is screwed.

New blog picture - 2nd August 2010

"I vowed never to shoot another film using a dog."

Conversations - 2nd August 2010

"Criminal: A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation." - Howard Scott

***

Someone: *** related a story about why you can't kayak near the merlion

a bunch of trainers organised a trip to marina bay
they were playing at the merlion sprout
then this security guard comes over and tells them to "go away! go away! merlion only for tourists!"

Me: wonderful
2nd class citizens


Someone else: i HATE how guys turn so much colder when they find out im attached
maybe i should purport to be single just to make use of them
maybe it is a type of feminism too

Me: yeah you've said that before
how do you want to make use of them

Someone else: for whatever lah
carry my bags
give me tips
things that men do just to get pussy

Me: ...
dont you feel that is exploiting them
and that you are equally reprehensible

Someone else: they do that for me anyway, BEFORE they find out im attached
all im doing is taking my time to let them know i am

Me: ...

Someone else: it's like going for free drinks on ladies night lah
lol


Someone: from an old post: "I talked to someone who'd studied in Japan for 9 months, and he said when you first meet Jap girls they talk in a high voice, but later when you know them better and you're at the bar they will talk in their natural voice." this is so true!

actually, it's high and sort of breathless
someone i know does this.. totally irritates me
esp when she suddenly switches to her natural voice


Someone else: studying in an all-girls' school taught me a few things

1) when girls talk among themselves they talk dirtier than guys do
2) some girls are not shy about teaching one another how to use tampons

Me: was it CHIJ
if so it's a biased sample

Someone else: no no no
no i came from ***

i believe such observations can be made in any girls' school lah


Someone: wah i din noe u r into law as well

Me: I'm a man of many talents and interests


Someone else on sending me a file on YouSendIt: i'm gg to encrypt it with a password

Me: ... why're you so paranoid
at the most they will delete it tomorrow

Someone else: sorry i'm in the bizness
heh

Me: this is called paranoia

since you're in the business are you scared of DNS poisoning
I can destroy your modem for you

do you check keyboards for hardware keyloggers
do you know that people can detect your password by the sound of your typing?
or there're keyloggers that can detect onscreen keyboards also
rootkits that you will never detect
so you should never use an unsecured computer

do you use bitlocker on your laptop

Someone else: i noe all of this
duhz

Me: yes
so do you do all those things

Someone else: i'm pretty lax already
u shld see my friend

Me: they have better things to do than trace the IPs of people who upload vaguely naughty videos
and report them to their ISPs for copyright infringement
when the copyright holder is someone chinese company they have never even heard of

Someone else: he runs all his programs in a vm
and resets e image everyday

Me: this reminds me of audiophiles

Someone else: sorry lar
u cant blame us
we've in this line

so we noe

Me: you know all the possible things that can go wrong
you don't know a reasonable way to calibrate what you do

remember to physically destroy hard disks after you use them
otherwise people can read the data
even if you write the bits 255 times
or cut up the platters

Someone else: yes physical destruction is e only way to be absolutely safe

Me: doesn't mean everyone should do that

Someone else: most pple dun

Me: most people shouldn't
it's not worth the bother

so what do you think will happen if you don't encrypt the file with a password

the only reason people normally do that is so the file isn't detected as illegal and deleted
e.g. when you're sharing warez

however in this case it's a one-time send to me
and I won't download it again

Someone else: its a public server
after all

i dun want the admins to probe it

Me: so what if they probe it

Someone else: nah i'm just not comfortable with it

anyway it isnt very troublesome
to just encrypt it with a password

no computer is totally secure
but trying to minimize e potential areas of attack

my browser is encapsulated inside a sandbox
so there's no way web exploits can jump out of e sandbox

Me: using google chrome?

Someone else: firefox

Me: what if no browser has that function
would you set up a VM just to browse?

Someone else: YES

Me: can you cut and paste to/from VMs?
the clipboard should be secured to prevent clipboard exploits right

Someone else: not saying using a VM is 100% safe
but if e attacker is able to jump out of e VM, he's probably so highly skilled
tt its a targeted attack
and dun bother to defend it in tt case then

Me: see
this is where you are using some form of discretion
I bet there're ways to make it even more secure than a VM

Someone else: but it shld keep 99% of e attacks out

Me: do you bother to use other terminals
since you can't be sure if there're keyloggers on them

when you go overseas do you check your email

Someone else: we always change our passwords
when we go overseas
for msn, emails

and then change back
when we get back

and no, we dun use public terminals to check mail

Me: yes you can change your password
but they can hack in before you return home
and your account will be gone

Someone else: NEVER
if i have to check mail

Me: so you always bring your laptop overseas

Someone else: yes

Me: right

so if you have no laptop
or it spoils
will you check your mail

Someone else: u will nv find me logging in a public terminal to check my email
i wun

Me: ok

Someone else: ok lar i noe this sounds a bit extreme to u
trust me
u haven seen e really extreme ones in my office

Me: no
not checking email on public pcs is not that extreme

err
if people cut off their arms it doesn't mean cutting off your hand is ok

Someone else: another way
is to relay forward all ur email
received
to a temporary email account
while overseas
and check from tt account
and delete e mails after viewing

if u for some reason decides to join IT security one day
perhaps u'll understand better why IT security r so paranoid

Me: it's because they are not able to calibrate the cost-benefit matrix

Someone else: not true

*** configures some hot keys
to disable his network adapter
whenever he's not at his pc physically
THAT extreme

Me: so do you think companies are justified in blocking MSN, gchat, gmail, twitter, facebook etc

Someone else: tt's from a biz perspective

its rather to restrain colleagues from wasting time on these
rather than for security

Me: it's also called paranoia
the official justification is to prevent the leaking of business secrets also

Someone else: rubbish lar
do u see me being blocked from ms, etc

Me: that's because they're not being dumb about it

how about the SAF
are they justified in banning CD-Rs for 'security'?

Someone else: e company is just lazy to do a proper audit
if it blocks all e msn etc

RW YES
justfiied

R...no

Me: I said CD-R

Someone else: i think they no longer ban cd-r

Me: they do

Someone else: but yah its SAF
they r well known for being a f**ked up org

Me: so if someone from the SAF talked to you about "security"
and justified all those measures
what would you say

Someone else: we as the solution providers provide recommendations
the clients , whether they want to follow
is their own business

Lim Swee Say's Stormtroopers

"Men live in a fantasy world. I know this because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there." - Scott Adams

***



Among the many, many problems: Zorro does NOT wear a business shirt and business trousers, the stormtroopers are carrying miniature AR-15s, the helmets are inconsistent and ill-fitting and the guy on the left has a Phase I Clone Trooper helmet.

From what little we can see from the ST's photos, the Flash and Batman look more credible (what should be Jack Sparrow is another joke).


What Zorro is SUPPOSED to look like


REAL Stormtroopers


ascelineleong: "This is only the prequel, LKY should really dress up and assume the character of the emperor in star wars and the best part is no makeup is required.

Lee hsien loong should be darth vadar and mah boh tan or wo ng k an s eng might want to be luke skywalker with darth vadar telling them 'wa si nin nao peh'.

The rest of the ministers should all become the other characters like the bounty hunters and stormtroopers perhaps."

To boldly go where no Opposition Party has gone before

"Singapore: The final frontier
These are the travails of the Party, Singapore Democratic
Its 30 year mission
To induce the passage of strange new laws
To seek out new jail terms and fines
To boldly go where no Opposition Party has gone before"

Le COD de "on"

"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." - W. Somerset Maugham

***

Moi: Je sais qu'il n'y a pas de COD pour "on". Malheureusement, certaines phrases deviennent moins élégant.

Par exemple :

"On aime ceux qui nous abîment"

Le sujet "on" est devenu le COD "nous".

On peut dire, aussi :

"Nous aimons ceux qui nous abîment"

C'est plus consistent, mais j'aime bien le mot "on".

Savez-vous comment on peut construire une phrase plus élégante en utilisant le sujet "on" ?

A: Je n'y avais jamais pense. On pour "one" est elegant, mais on pour "nous" est familier. Je ne pense pas que l'on puisse construire une phrase plus "elegante" avec on, a moins d'utiliser le l' comme je viens de le faire. Un autre pronom que vous pouvez utiliser avec on est soi ; on n'aime que soi (même) au lieu de nous...

B: C'est interessant; certains auteurs ont utilisé "vous" avec "on".

Des jets d'eau vous inondaient, quand on se posait sur le sopha.  (Flaubert)

On ne refuse pas le bonheur quand il frappe à votre porte.  (Chamson)

(Cités dans Le Bon Usage.)

Links - 30th July 2010

"In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company time. Networks help alleviate that fear." - John C. Dvorak

***

Bad translation makes fundamentalists of us all - ""Praise be to God" (Alhamdulilah)... can mean "I am fine", "Cool, the electricity is back" or "Ah, you finally managed to pronounce this word", and so many other things... In Lebanon, they even use "May God dress you" when seeing a hot girl wearing a skirt or a top, meaning I guess, "Please God, quickly cover this great body before I jump on it." The same goes with insults: May God destroy your house, May God burn your religion, May God infect you with disease…But think about it. In English, we say "God damn it", "God bless you", "Jesus Christ""
Keywords: arabic, inshallah, non-religious, part of the language, god willing

Archimedes' Principle of Buoyancy - How do Ships Float? (Bible History Online) - "Why is this important in the study of Biblical history? Good question! As the study of physics and various sciences were being developed in ancient Greece it, among other things, opened a door for the Lord to bring new learning and new technology into the world that would eventually help to prepare the world at just the right time for the coming of the Savior and His gospel. We have to keep in mind that men were living in darkness and the darkness was increasing in its intensity and the only hope for mankind was the message that Jesus Christ and His followers would bring"
???

Females and Harry Potter: Not All That Empowering - "This book explores the sexism inherent in the Harry Potter series, books in which a hero and his male friends are the focus and center of activity and the female characters are passive enablers--at best. Using critical discourse analysis and focusing on five themes (rule following/breaking, intelligence, validating/enabling, mothering, and resistance), the author explores the construction of traditional gender roles throughout the books. She concludes with a discussion of the implications for development of school curricula that enable students to critically deconstruct these texts. "
...

Palestinian jailed for rape after claiming to be Jewish - "A conviction for rape by deception on the grounds of racial misrepresentation is believed to be internationally unprecedented... In 2007, a Syrian pilot walked free from a court in Swansea after being accused of tricking a woman into intercourse by saying it could cure her of a sexually transmitted disease. A court in Massachusetts also acquitted a man who allegedly masqueraded as his twin-brother in order to have sex with the man's wife"
"Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated"

Black parents give birth to white baby

Who writes the script? In the end, a purely academic question - "If Mr Cheng had spoken, would the students have simply lapped it all up? Well.they do not seem to necessarily lap up what their textbooks on Singapore history tell them (or is that in fact the problem?)... In the end, the students lost an opportunity to hear a former political detainee speak, which perhaps the academically high achieving JC students among them would have found handy when they appeared before the Public Services Commission for their scholarship interviews. The ‘NLB experience’ would have been a perfect subject to show off their critical thinking skills, ‘thinking out of the box‘, ‘passion’, or whatever the current buzzwords are."

What you don't know about Isaac Newton - "We know now that Newton, the alchemist, hid behind a pseudonym, Jeova sanctus unus, as he slowly and unwittingly poisoned himself with the mercury he continually touched, smelled, and tasted... "Newton was not the first of the age of reason," Keynes said. "He was the last of the magicians"

What is America coming to???? - "I asked her, “Are you serving any meals during our flight?” She looked at me kinda funny and said, “I can’t answer that for security reasons”... Finally a United representative approached me with my bags and said “We are taking you off this flight for security reasons.” “Why” I asked. “You apparently asked the flight attendant if the Police were onboard”"

5 More Mistakes You’re (Still) Making On Twitter - "You Tick The ‘Send Updates To Twitter’ Box On Every Single Social Network, Game And App On The Planet Please… don’t. Only people on Foursquare care about updates from people on Foursquare, and even then it’s a bit one-way. Sending those updates to Twitter verges somewhere between mad and pointless. So you’re at Starbucks. Again. For the third time today. Given that we live 5,000 miles apart, can you remind me why I should care? Or why anybody should? And don’t get me started on things like Mafia Wars. Reality check: if anything on your Twitter profile is auto-posting for you, you’re doing it wrong."

NCBI ROFL: Writing emails as part of sleepwalking after increase in Zolpidem [Ambien].

Stone Age Carving: Ancient Dildo?

Penile Extenders Actually Might Work, Doctors Say - "The penile extender, a traction device for the dedicated — to be used at least six hours a day for at least six months — is not only safe and effective, doctors say, but also can increase erection size and improve erectile function. The results appear in the March issue of the journal BJU International. (For my own sanity, I confirmed that BJU stands for British Journal of Urology, which isn't mentioned at all within the journal.)... "The magnitude of gained length was similar irrespective of baseline size""

Spiritual Women Have More Sex - "For women, however, spirituality was the strongest predictor for the number of sexual partners, the frequency of sex, and the tendency to have sex without a condom. “It is possible female young adults yearn for greater connectedness with other humans,” Burris writes. “Spirituality, at least for women, could be considered a risk factor.”"

snopes.com: A Tale of Two Houses - "Al Gore's Nashville mansion is something of the energy-gobbler the e-mail depicts, while President Bush's Crawford ranch is more the model of responsible resource use the juxtaposition portrays it t be"

Muslims told not to wear 'devilish' Manchester United jersey - "The Johor Religious Council adviser and the Mufti of Perak both state that images of crosses, liquor brands and devils on football shirts are forbidden by Islam and should not be worn by Muslims. Other football shirts deemed unacceptable by the religious leaders include those of Brazil, Portugal, Serbia, Barcelona and Norway because their crests all carry images of a cross. "There is no excuse for wearing such garments because it means, as a Muslim, you are idolising the symbol of another religion," Datuk Nooh Gadot, the Mufti of Johor, said."
Malaysia Boleh!

Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm - "The articles she wrote -- all of which were selected from an algorithmically generated list -- included How to Wear a Sweater Vest" and How to Massage a Dog That Is Emotionally Stressed," even though she would never willingly don a sweater vest and has never owned a dog. "I was completely aware that I was writing crap," she said. "I was like, 'I hope to God people don't read my advice on how to make gin at home because they'll probably poison themselves.' "Never trust anything you read on eHow.com," she said, referring to one of Demand Media's high-traffic websites, on which most of her clips appeared."

Home from Home - "How do we become who we are? How does family background alter one's sense of self?... London based, DJ Bobby Friction travels to Canada to find out what his life might have been like if his family had moved from India to Canada and not the UK. After spending a day with his trucker cousin, he questions his own identity. Is it easier being Asian in Canada or in Europe?"

Photo Gallery: How to Take Camera Phone Pictures

SHADRAKE: I’d do it all again - "Everything I have written is true. There is a wave of change coming in this country. It’s time for Lee Kwan Yew to stop running Singapore like his own private fiefdom"

Kuriositas: The Hidden Posters of Notting Hill Gate - "In around 1959 Notting Hill Tube Station underwent modernisation. The old lifts were abandoned and new escalators were installed. The passageways to the lift were sealed off. Recent work at the station has rediscovered these passageways and when they were opened they revealed a marvellous time capsule"

The Truth About "Islamic Science" - "Whatever was achieved in science during this time period was rarely done by Arab Muslims. "Islamic science" was almost totally dependent upon translations, frequently made by non-Muslims, of the achievements of pre-Islamic cultures, Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, etc. Moreover, a striking number of Muslim thinkers were Persians, who owed more to their pre-Islamic heritage than they did to Islam... Professor Stanley Jaki observes that the improvements brought by Muslim scientists to the Greek scientific corpus were "never substantial"... The Romans were good at certain types of engineering and technology, but like the Chinese they were surprisingly poor at providing a coherent scientific view of the world... the study of the natural sciences and philosophy was shunned in the Islamic colleges of the Middle East and that all such inquiries were undertaken in carefully guarded private settings... "rational sciences were – in medieval Islam – considered to be 'foreign sciences' and at times heretical"... Science was viewed as Islamic science, the study of the Koran, the hadith, Arab history etc... "though astronomy was implicitly acknowledged to be a 'handmaiden of religion,' it was associated with astrology, and the latter's claim to predict the future ran directly counter to the teachings of Islam"... The Chinese had an established tradition of viewing non-Chinese as barbarians: "For this reason, the Chinese were exceedingly cautious and selective in their borrowings from other cultures""
Another article by the author on Science and Islam
keywords: Golden Age

'Darth Vader' robs bank: Armed man demands cash in New York raid

Younger men in Singapore seek foreign brides - ""Some feel that they pak tor (Cantonese for 'date') a few years, then the Singaporean girls will dump them. "They think it's a waste of time. So they pay and they can choose a pretty wife." Beyond the pragmatism displayed, agencies also said there is now less stigma attached to men seeking a foreign bride... In general, agency owners said Singaporean men are looking for simple women with lower expectations who are willing to stay at home and look after the family... Experts say it is not surprising, given that Singapore is, to a large extent, still a patriarchal society where men prefer to marry someone with a lower socio-economic status... "Men with lower educational qualifications, or on the lower rungs of the social ladder, may not have the option of marrying upwards socially"... Women, he said, can be quite demanding. "Every date, must also pay a lot of money""
I love these feminarchal anecdotal stories which ignore data, and which blame the men for everything (at least Tan Ern Ser alluded to a more complex issue)

The Agnostic Cartographer - "How Google’s open-ended maps are embroiling the company in some of the world’s touchiest geopolitical disputes"

We love Sweater Kittens

u r wt u wr - July 29th 2010

"It seemed the world was divided into good and bad people. The good ones slept better... while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more." - Woody Allen

***

u r wt u wr:

- 'Let's play' (Front: 'Hard Rock Cafe Dubai')
- '♂ + ♀ = ☺' (Male sign + female sign = :))
- 'READY YOUR BOOM!! but I can't I love you'
- 'I ♥ gorgeous girl'
- 'You are butter. I am bread' (I thought this should've been reversed, ending with "spread me")
- 'Don't play'
- 'I'm promise to love you. Forgive me to if I ever forget'
- 'Your boyfriend wants me. Hey, are you aware?'
- 'Make me smile'
- 'This is what love looks like'
- '100% single. Last day'
- 'Foxy babes scouts team'
- 'Pink isn't just a colour. It's an attitude' (this was not pink)
- 'Us' (so sad)
- 'Stylish girls. Cute. Love rabbit'
- 'Stop looking at me. I know *something*'
- 'Friends don't let friends talk to ugly boys'
- 'Beach babe'
- 'Please do not make me paranoid thanks'
- 'I want to be freak'
- 'Can you d♥ me a favour?'
- 'I need more'
- 'I got the looks you got the money *picture of leggy blonde*' (She had no looks, but the guy with her looked like he had no money either)
- 'Looking for tender loving care'
- 'I *recycle sign* boys'
- 'Leave me alone' (HAHAHAHAHA)
- '*something* Ok all boys you are useless'
- 'I'm still free. Take a chance on me'
- 'Fashion is not a victimless crime'
- 'I am watching you'
- 'My boyfriend and I just broke up cause he wanted to get me married
and *something* i'm free'
- 'Lots of kisses from Paris'
- 'Handle with care'
- 'Milk every possible party'
- 'See you soon'
- 'It's your move'
- 'Objects under this tee are larger than they appear' (This is one of my favourites)


Guy
- [Contributed] '*Soap speaking* Rub me on your butt!'
- 'Free lotion'
- 'I want to be inside you' (said by a hamburger)
- 'Most romantic blugirl summer edition'
- '*not for sale'
- 'I just want to be loved *picture of blowup doll*'
- 'I ♥ gravy' (???)

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard

"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"

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.

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)

Force Fireball!

(Hope)

the 24 types of Libertarian

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!

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.'