Quote of the Post: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
***
In the latest chapter of my unending computer troubles, it is my desktop which is giving me problems again, specifically recurrent and frequent BSODs (Blue Screens of Death) which are exceedingly serious on Windows XP systems.
The problem began, or at least began to be noticeable, sometime after I'd gotten my free router from SCV. All of a sudden, a BSOD would come up - deja vu, really, except that this was only supposed to happen on Windows ME and older systems. Other symptoms included the computer freezing once during the memory check at bootup and my not being able to defragment my data partition, as the process would repeatedly lock up at the 12% mark (and be unkillable via Task Manager, necessitating a reboot).
Memtest86 made 9 passes of my memory but revealed no problems, and neither did a check by Spinrite on my hard disk. In a vain attempt to cure the problem, I reluctantly performed a format on the last Saturday in September, barely 3 months after the last format.
However, after reinstalling Windows, my system degraded incredibly fast - within hours it had crashed once (ironically enough, right after Windows had been installed, before I had installed anything apart from my wireless drivers and while I was installing MS critical updates), and within days it was back to its old BSOD frequency.
Indeed new problems appeared - now my external CD burner and external hard disk kept causing BSODs when they were connected and were interfacing with my system (resulting in my burning 3 coasters in a row), and USBUHCI.sys was pinpointed in the BSOD report. Restoring an older version of USBUHCI.sys had no effect, and neither did using my external hard disk in Safe Mode. And Windows and Internet Explorer kept crashing (though this was tolerable as this did not take down my system with it).
Around this time, I theorised that it was probably my wireless card and drivers that were giving me all these problems, so I tried unplugging the card, but I still got the BSODs (when using my external peripherals, at least). I then tried to disable the wireless drivers in case they were screwing up my system even when they were not in use, but my problems persisted. And attempting to uninstal the drivers resulted in a bland and ridiculous message: "Failed to uninstall. The device may be required to boot up the computer", even in Safe Mode. And just to liven up the show, my computer froze again while doing the memory check at startup, and green lines appeared on the screen.
To forcefully remove the drivers, I tried doing manual registry editing, but many of the keys were protected. I tried repairing my Windows XP installation and uninstalling the drivers, switching to my old non-wireless setup, but like some vampire in a Chinese Horror Movie, the drivers refused to leave my system (and maybe blocked the non-wireless drivers from giving me my connection). And now Windows takes forever to load the login screen (ie Windows stays in the 'Windows is starting up' mode for a ridiculously long time)
Now I've to resort to RARing my Power Rangers episodes into 5M portions and using my wireless network to get them into my laptop, then burning them and copying them to my external HDD.
***
Mickey Mouse Clubbed - Disney's cartoon rodent speaks out on the Eldred decision.
Mickey: I'm also Buster Keaton.
Interviewer: Sorry?
Mickey: My first cartoon short, Steamboat Willie, was a direct parody of Keaton's movie Steamboat Bill, Jr. On the very first page of the script, it says, "Orchestra starts playing opening verses of Steamboat Bill." I remember what Eldred's lawyer Lawrence Lessig said when he read that: "Try doing a cartoon take-off of one of Disney, Inc.'s latest films with an opening that copies the music."
So yeah, they created me. But they don't want to let other people build on me when they make their own creations, the way they did when I was born. And now I'm locked up for another stinking 20 years! Do you have any idea what it's like to have to greet kids at Disneyland every single day, always smiling, never slipping off for a cigarette?
[...]
Interviewer: This is a parody, Mickey. It's protected by the Fair Use doctrine.
Mickey: So was Air Pirates Funnies, and they still dragged them into court. And it's only gotten worse since then. It's so easy to create and distribute things digitally these days, so the big entertainment combines are in a panic, sending out cease-and-desist letters left and right. Doesn't matter if it's an open-and-shut case of Fair Use—the cost of a court case is disincentive enough.
[...]
At this point, three Disney bounty hunters entered the bar and seized Mickey. An intense struggle reportedly ensued, but our correspondent missed it, opting instead to crawl out the men's room window.
***
More musings by AcidFlask:
this fixation on metrics in a meritocratic society illustrates a fallacy which i call the engineer's paradox: if some property can't be quantified, than it is irrelevant in describing a system. because the most precise description of a system is when it can reduced to numbers, and we don't have the numbers to describe woolly things like political freedom, emotional health, familial ties, etc., so we just proceed, assuming that it doesn't matter. the logical trap here, of course, is that that a society is simply much more complex than anything else science and engineering have tackled.
The perils of having a civil service full of engineers
consider this, my dear civil servants: what the hell does a background in electrical engineering have to do with the civil service? if you claim that such backgrounds promote the development of skills such as critical thinking, why not just test that outright? why insist that scholars maintain their 'standards of excellence' by consistently scoring high grades, groom them to become useful engineers/scientists (and precious few humanists), then grab them back home and mire them in administrative trivia for the rest of their lives? is this not the clearest example yet of a complete mismatch between what academic scores say and what these people will eventually end up doing? are the best students necessarily the best leaders? and are lousy students necessarily lousy leaders?
***
Me: what happened to [your] soldier btw
Friend: oh we're tight
Me: you're tight? is that a freudian slip?
Friend: hahahah i mean we're tight! hahahah not i.... uhh not that i'm not
Another friend: "i've a new theory. it's that guys past the age of 20 don't really make friends anymore
girls always have friends........ when they have a problem, they go door-to-door with guys, we don't need friends. you can meet someone in a pub, strike up an hour long conversation about soccer, and leave without finding out anything about the other guy beyond his name. it's lovely."
***
Pacific War in M’sia, S’pore remembered (Part 2)
After explaining why he and colleague Kelvin Blackburn still find the Pacific War in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore a relevant theme of research and writing after some 60 years, Oxford-trained historian Karl Hack proceeds to discourse the similarities and differences between Malaysia and Singapore in their experiences, narratives and collective memory.
Malaysiakini: Compared to Malaysians, Singaporeans seem to have done a remarkable job of preserving the collective memory, narratives and discourses of the Pacific War in Peninsular Malaysia and the island itself not only in writings but also in the forms of museums, monuments and memorial structures. Why?
Karl Hack: Malaysia does have a lot of its own. There is Abu Talib’s ‘The Malay Muslims, Islam and the Rising Sun’, 1941-45 (Kuala Lumpur, JMBRAS, 2003), Cheah Boon Kheng’s ‘Red Star over Malaya’ (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1983), and Patricia Lim and Diana Wong’s edited ‘War and Memory in Malaysia and Singapore’ (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2000), just for a start.
This is without mentioning a stream of recent works in Chinese and the two recent works on Chin Peng which malaysiakini has featured. Paul Kratoska also spent many years in Penang, working on war-related issues, before crossing the causeway and publishing ‘The Japanese Occupation of Malaya’ (NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1998). As for monuments, Patricia Lim mentions no less than 14 Chinese-supported monuments in Johor alone, with ceremonies at some into the 1990s. I also understand a great deal of oral history has been done at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. There has also been some commemoration of the Malay Regiment’ s role from the 1950s.
So the real question is, why are monuments to the war in Malaysia and books on the war less prominent in schools and in the media, compared to Singapore?
One answer may be that the war is not as central to Malay, and Malaysian, myths and stories about nation-building and decolonisation, as it is for Singaporeans, or at least for the Singaporean government. For Malays, Semangat 1946 and the fight against British (and communist and PAP) images of a multi-racial ‘Malayan’ and then ‘Malaysian’ Malaysia may be more important. And the Malayan Emergency, which has less resonance in Singapore, is also important as a time of growing Malay confidence - whether as police, as Malay Regiment soldiers or as politicians - to increasingly able to shape events. These stories and the gradual construction of inter-communal understandings and alliances, loom larger than the Pacific war.
By contrast, the Fall of Singapore and occupation lie close to a ‘Singapore Story’ of creating a multi-racial, independent nation. In this story the war comes as a sharper break from a pro-colonial, pre-war mentality - we need to remember Singapore was part of a Colony, the Malay States were not - to one where self-government was seen as desirable, and as a sharper lesson in the need for a community to be self-reliant, and defend itself.
Hence the Singapore government has made use of the war story for national education purposes, in schools and beyond. In the first phase from the 1960s, it helped to reshape the Chinese-initiated project to set up a memorial to the 20,000-30,000 sook ching victims on the island. That is, to those killed - mainly Chinese - in Singapore during the Japanese ‘cleansing’ operation from February to March 1942. The government helped to see that the resulting ‘Civilian War Memorial’, which now stands near Raffles Hotel, was built as four pillars or ‘Four Chopsticks’ - one for each of the four main groups Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian. This fitted with the theme of a nation emerging through common suffering and struggle, and of a common recognition that relying on the British was not enough.
Compare this to Malaysia’s sook ching and Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) monuments. The latter retains their intimate link with events, and emotions, but as a result ‘belong’ to one community. At best they are limited in scope, at worst they may remind people of tensions during and after the war between anti-Japanese forces, and those who served in the police or Japanese militias. In Singapore, the Civilian War Monument takes on a wider significance. The downside, of course, is that people’s understanding of this extraordinary monument - extraordinary because below it, smack in the middle of a modern, global city, are the remains of 20,000 plus victims - was diluted. Its emotional force was dissipated, even as its message was widened. There is no ducking it, the issues here are difficult.
How does one retain the authenticity of monuments, and their umbilical cord to the groups affected and actual events, while still creating an overall commemorative environment which unites more than it divides? Malaysia’s and Singapore’s, and Malaysians’ and Singaporeans’ different approaches both have their strengths and pitfalls. Are either, or both governments and sets of people ready and able to improve on matters?
You know, beyond this, it is very strange for a historian such as myself, who has taught in Singapore since 1995. One half of me empathises with the Singapore narratives, of each community individually and of the struggle to create a multi-racial nation despite tensions (my parents were in Singapore during its 1964 riots). The other, British half of me sees the oddity of The ‘Fall’ being represented over and again, and then again.
Not only is Feb 15 marked as ‘Total Defence Day’ - in contrast to many other countries which mark the end of their wars - but the ‘Fall’ can be seen in a waxwork model diorama at Sentos's ‘Images of Singapore’, in Percival’s underground bunker at ‘The Battlebox’ on Fort Canning Hill, and from next year at the Ford Factory, which will open as an interpretative centre. This British part of me says: what psychological and political needs demand so much concentration on the act of defeat, compared to the daily reality of occupation or local comfort women, or understanding what drove Japanese actions? Or, on the desire to focus on the end of war as a date for commemorating the fallen not just from one set of dates or one conflict, but of all the nation's fallen: present, past, and future.
Anyway, in a second phase, from the 1980s, and more so from the 1990s, Singapore seems to have determined to remind its new, post-1960s ‘aircon generation’ of the struggles and vulnerabilities which the government believed had shaped the early state and nation-building. So the war was emphasised in schools, in television series such as ‘The Price of Peace’ and ‘A War Diary’ and by marking historical sites, almost as a symbol for the island-state’s survival, in the widest sense, depending on people recognising that it could only thrive by constant struggle in every sector. The ‘Fall’ seems to have become a useful symbol for something much bigger. Its projection was also linked to the continuing need for National Service, despite threats seeming less immediate.
Finally, one might argue that Singapore has more war sites simply because there was more war, more military here per square mile of territory, than there was or is in Malaysia’s larger expanses. The battle and the bombing came to the city itself in a way it did not, perhaps, to many Malaysian towns. Singapore was bombed on and off from the night of Dec 7 and 8, 1941 right through to the bitter end, with storm drains taking on a new role as ubiquitous, handy air-raid ‘shelters’.
The sook ching also wiped out a small but not inconsiderable percentage of the island’s adult male Chinese population. People were killed on beaches in Changi, but also by being machine-gunned in the waters off today’s Sentosa, so there are sook ching concentration and massacre sites across the island. And Singapore had vast military installations, the naval base and barracks covering much of Changi, as well as a coastal gun system, headquarters and civilian employees of the military. Even when Singapore had fallen, it still remained more of a military epicentre, with the Changi POW camp, and Indian POWs. Sentosa Island for instance, within sight of Singapore’s Central Business District, is still covered with barracks and old coastal gun sites, and areas around Portsdown Road and much of Changi still bear the imprint of the British military.
In one, final sense, however, both Malaysia and Singapore share additional dilemmas and difficulties about remembering the war.
In both cases the Malayan Communist Party played a dynamic part in organising Chinese resistance to Japan, going back to 1937, and forward to the MPAJA. In Singapore it was the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) which helped recruit Chinese volunteers to fight alongside the British in 1942. It was also the MCP which first tried to commemorate Feb 15, in 1946, until a march their affiliates helped organise was halted by police and gunfire - at least one marcher died - outside today’s Singapore Art Museum. This in itself is an incredible moment to contemplate.
During the first post-war anniversary of Feb 15, the marchers assembled and arrived at what was then St Joseph’s Institution en route to the Padang. And then the police arrived and shots were fired. But of course the post-war struggles of the PAP and of the Alliance against communists have made it difficult to integrate this anti-Japanese story into mainstream accounts. In Singapore, the Chinese, Guomindang nationalist Lim Bo Seng remains an acceptable war hero, but Chin Peng who met him from a submarine off Malaya’s coast, and his colleagues, are not. This is a question that future generations may ponder more, as the Cold War recedes into memory post-1989, and as we recognise how many of those who fought did so not primarily or only as communists, but also as patriots of one sort or another.
In both Malaysia and Singapore, as well, one has to acknowledge that different communities had different experiences, and that the respective peoples and governments may find it difficult to both recognise difference, and yet also create stories usable at a national level. How does one integrate both the anti-Japanese fighters, and the Indian National Army which fought alongside Japanese? How about the stories of those who worked with Japanese, and found them considerate as employers, with others who lost family to the sook ching?
Also, ‘collaborator’ is a loaded word; people work with various regimes to further their own, sometimes personal and sometimes nationalist, ends. But nevertheless the complexities, practical and emotional, of living under a Japanese regime have not been adequately explored, in books or on film. And this is without even mentioning the communal violence which broke out in August to September 1945, when the MPAJA emerged from the jungle, and some Malays took exception to attempts to mete out ‘justice’ on ‘collaborators’ and to wield influence.
Dr Blackburn and I are revisiting these thorny problems and varied memories in a book we are just finishing, on Asian Memories of the war and occupation, and of notions of heroes, villains and victims. Here we not only look at national narratives, but also at the different experiences of each community, and even for different parts of each community.
***
Aspects of the tudung
"Is the woman who wears the tudung forced to do so by her father, mother or husband? Did her ancestors wear it? Does she choose to wear it? And if yes, why does she choose to wear it? Does she believe that this choice is totally independent of, and not influenced by, the setting and circumstances in which she finds herself?
Does she realise that when she defends her right and freedom to wear the tudung she is also invoking a modernist, Western discourse? How does she perceive herself when she is wearing the tudung in public and when she is not wearing it in private?
Has her social status improved because she wears the tudung? Does she feel oppressed? Would she like to take her tudung off ? Is it too hot to wear one? Does she consider herself modern or old-fashioned? For the more cynical, does she have a bomb strapped to her neck under her tudung? "
***
409 scams have become global. Maybe they figured that everyone knows emails from Nigeria asking for money are fake, so they outsourced their operations. At least their English is better and they don't CAPITALISE ALL THEIR WORDS ALA AOL.
"do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you" - Gee, that's rich coming from them.
Dear Sir,
I am Mr Liu Jiankai, the bill and exchange manager of a Bank in Hong Kong and
I am contacting you on a business transfer of a huge sum of
money from a deceased account. Though I know that a transaction of this
magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you
that all will be well at the end of the day. We decided to contact you due
to the urgency of this transaction.
PROPOSITION;
We discovered an abandoned sum of US$10,500,000.00 (Ten million, five hundred
thousand united states dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customers who died along with his entire family. Since the death of Mr.Phillip Brian,
none of his next-of-kin or relations has come forward to lay claims for this
money as the heir. We cannot release the fund from his account unless
someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in
our banking guidelines. Upon this discovery, we now seek your permission to
have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased as all documentations will
be carefully worked out by us for the funds (US$10,500,000.00) to be released
in your favour as the beneficiary's next of kin. It may interest you to know
that we have secured from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of
deceased beneficiaries.
Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual
business endeavour by furnishing me with the following;
1. Beneficiary name and address
2. Telephone and fax number
These requirements will enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate
departments for necessary approvals in your favour before the transfer can
be made. We shall be compensating you with One million, five hundred dollars on final
conclusion of this project, while the balance of Seven million will be for us.Our share we would want to invest in your country with your advice.
If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not take undue advantage of the
trust I have bestowed in you.
I await your response
Regards,
Mr Liu Jiankai.
***
Furious responses to the recent "smashing" of a cocaine trafficking ring in Singapore:
Caleb: I find it nauseating that Marx Oh and co are facing the DEATH PENALTY for trafficking cocaine and pot. I assume the cocaine is not crack cocaine and pot is quite harmless -- certainly not more harmful than tobacco or hard liqueur. How in God's name can we KILL someone simply for possessing large amounts of pot?
Pot isn't even illegal in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK. And the poor 'victims' of this trafficker were not rolling around at home in a state of physical and mental incapacitation. They were ppl who were successful, creative and perfectly functional. (Editor of tatler magazine, award winnig chef, wow that sounds like these guys were totally wasted). NO justification exists for the execution of cannabis traffickers.
Well, for that matter, no justification exists for the execution of drug traffickers of any sort. The law as it stands imposes a MANDATORY death penalty for trafficking certain drugs -- *based on an arbritary mathematical cut-off point*. So 15.99999 grams of heroin and it's 20 years, 16grams and it's death. This sounds like The Merchant of Venice: "and if the scale do turn but in the estimation of an hair, thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate". It is also patently absurd.
Killing ppl is not a drugs policy. Well, it is, if you want a cheap and no-brain policy. No need to spend millions on education, clinical rehab, social work to help sectors of society who are particularly susceptible to dangerous drugs like heroin and crack cocaine. No need, in fact, even to spend on keeping the traffickers housed and fed in prison.
We can save a lot of money by just hanging them. I'm sure the rope only costs, say, $2.
Yes, I'm being flippant, but my point is serious. To systematically execute drug traffickers, even those who traffic recreational, harmless drugs, is NOT just. It is utterly, utterly detestable.
If ANY of you find yourselves in power in future, please please please change this law. Please. I will thank you here in advance. Thank you. Thank you for bringing some dignity to this judicial regime.
(Note: This is not some leftist drivel: the death penalty is opposed by many who are otherwise "conservative", e.g. John Paul II and the Catholic Chuch. And in any case I'm not talking about the death penalty in general here -- though I am opposed to all types of death penalty except in cases where the offender has actually debased humanity and should be purged from our community (the so-called purgative argument, cf Michael Krammer).)
A: I can't bring myself to accept a nation's right to kill, and a jury's
(or in this case, just a judge, one person guided by statute and case law) right to sentence a man to death. Nevertheless it is still a safe insurance to have for particularly henious crimes. Does a serial killer deserve to live? Does a rapist (whose crime is the most henious of all in my opinion)? Do we have the right to decide that? Does the government? Does a government who controls and manipulates power so effectively as the PAP have the right to rule on an issue that questions religion and ethics and human rights as much as it is an issue of public policy?
I for one would like to see the death penalty abolised for all crimes save for murder, and possibly rape. Certainly you cannot kill someone for possession of a drug. It is a ludicrous poilcy that should be abolished. A friend was telling me how a drunk construction worker (who had briefly worked at her house) turned up at her doorstep one day begging for food. She gave him food, and let him have a shower. She was afraid he might try something funny but did not call the police because she saw he had pot on him. She wasn't sure how much, so she darent turn him over. The fact that this man could have been hanged because he had pot on him scared the hell out of her.
Should drug offenders be punished? Yes. Should drugs be kept away from our young? Yes. Are drugs any different from smoking? Yes. They are more addictive, they are more harmful, and they ruin lives much more than puffing a cigerate will ever do.
Should someone be killed because he is in possesion of drugs? No.
The hypocrisy of the government's policies are plain for all to see. This month saw the active promotion of the Yellow Ribbon project. Its goals are to "create awareness of giving second chances to ex-offenders", to "generate acceptance.. by the community" and to work towards "re-integration."
It is a program I whole-heartedly support. The plight of ex-cons in the country is a serious one. But on the flip side, we hang people for possesion of drugs that maybe they only want to consume. Where is their second chance? Where is the second chance we give to people who commit assault, armed robbery, gangsterism - why don't we afford the same opportunity for drug offenders?
Me:
Really, the only rational reason I can think of for this misguided War On Drugs, which has galvanized people to near-religious levels of hysteria and zealotry, is that governments are trying to divert attention from bigger issues and their own failings, just like how Nazi Germany held a decade-long anti-Semitic and anti-Gypsy witch-hunt. Hell, make that everyone. No one likes the Jews. The Jews are to blame for everything! The extinction of the dinosaurs, September 11th, milk curdling, the Second Law of Thermodynamics...
"Maybe the Jews are seen as different, and no one likes different people. No one likes the X-Men, for example." - Yortsin
Anyone read The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion? That's seriously hilarious shit!
But I digress.
Let the numbers speak for themselves:
---------------------------------------------
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 400,000
Alcohol 85,000 / 101,653
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 43,000 / 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,0001
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,600
Marijuana 0*
* - An exhaustive search of the literature finds no credible reports of deaths induced by marijuana. The US Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) records instances of drug mentions in medical examiners' reports, and though marijuana is mentioned, it is usually in combination with alcohol or other drugs. Marijuana alone has not been shown to cause an overdose death.
Source: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), available on the web at http://www.samhsa.gov/; also see Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A. Benson, Jr., "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), available on the web at http://www.nap.edu/html/marimed/; and US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (Docket #86-22), September 6, 1988, p. 57.
(http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.htm)
(Interestingly enough, www.cannabis.com is blocked by Singaporean proxy servers. Doubtless the unwashed masses must be prevented from finding out the TRUTH about this foul drug. After all, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Why, it might even lead you to the truth! Just imagine that. Shock. Horror. Gasp. No more Asian Values!)
---------------------------------------------
Considering that every other US College Student smokes pot, and probably every one of them has tried it at some point in their lives (even if they didn't inhale), these statistics are telling. As is the fact (that Caleb has brought up) that smoking ganja does not turn you into a mindless stoner.
Yessiree - pot is harmless, despite what they tell you in school. Or at least it's more harmless than Tobacco and Alcohol, all of which are Socially Acceptable (TM). The only reason why it's not legal is because there isn't a lobby for it, unlike Alcohol and Tobacco.
The Singapore government justifies its tough policy on drugs (and liberal application of the death penalty) with the claim that "tough" justice is supported by the majority of Singaporeans. Perhaps so, but the majority of Singaporeans also don't believe in Racial Harmony, despite what they'd like you to think, and besides which, if you've never heard anything other than the mindless mantra: "Drugs are bad for you. They kill (and if they don't, the State will do the job for them!). Our tough stance on drugs is good", of course most people are going to believe it. See also: Children of Creation 'Scientists' and members of the Flat Earth Society.
>if you guys really feel so strongly about such matters or any matter,
>you should write in to the straits times
More for pedagogical ends than anything else, I did try submitting 3 letters to the Straits Times Forum 2 years back (when I still read the ST, having nothing better to do in Sungei Gedong Prison). One was a response to an op-ed claiming that Slavery was "a social distillery for ethnic cohesion" wherein I pointed out the article's failure to mention that there were no Malays in the Commandos, Navy or Armour, and that the Police and Civil Defence had a grossly disproportionate number of them. The supreme irony, I pointed out, was that the cartoon accompanying the article "showed an APC, whose tracks spelled 'Ethnic Cohesion', steaming along. I don't think there were any Malays in that APC."
Needless to say, it was not published. A second letter on the (then) recent move to adopt the US's ridiculour copyright laws, questioning how allowing royalties to be collected on works for 70 years after the author's death would encourage people to create more content (Gee. I know that a Conglomerated Corporation will own the rights to my works for 70 years after I'm dead. Let me create more content for the profit of some corporate fatcat even though he will not give anything to my widow, offspring or estate!) was also rejected. As was a third letter protesting mindless and unjustifiable homophobia (but I let this pass because others who'd championed my cause more voaclly had their letters published).
Meanwhile, everyday we see letters thanking taxi drivers. Go figure.
>anyway you won't really grow or learn/understand
>much in the safety of your school friends or those with similar
>views.
I suppose that's why we have you here to challenge us :)
>and you can distribute your writings
>publicly if you feel so offended.
I believe you need a PERMIT for this or you'll be arrested for disrupting the peace, being a public nuisance or (the good old) jeopardising public order, health and/or morality.
>that's just the difference between having another opinionated
>opinion, and really having the moral guts or character to stand up
>for your beliefs, or to find out more about something, and pursue it
>to the end.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the courage and conviction of Chia Thye Poh. I know I don't, or I would currently be languishing in DB right now for being a conscientious objector. (The Associate aka He Who Must Not be Named aka mindgame aka nw.t. has a dispensation from me to hold his tongue, or not having someone to help him do laundry)
***
If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule - "High-school student Jillian Clarke investigated the scientific validity of the "5-second rule" during her apprenticeship in Hans Blaschek's University of Illinois lab this summer. You know the rule: If food falls to the floor and it's in contact with the floor for fewer than 5 seconds, it's safe to pick it up and eat it. According to Clarke, a senior at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, the 5-second rule dates back to the time of Genghis Khan, who first determined how long it was safe for food to remain on a floor when dropped there. Khan had slightly lower standards, however; he specified 12 hours, more or less."
Electric Pickle - "See what happens when you overload your pickle? Why would someone plug a dill pickle into electricity in the first place?"
How do you run a convention on a record of failure? - "Invoke 9/11: *cue George W Bush and friends repeating 'September 11th' ad infinitum*. Know your enemy: *cue Bush and friends repeating 'Saddam Hussein' ad infinitum*. Handle the Bin Laden matter appropriately: *cue deathly silence*. And above all, spread fear: *cue Bush and friends talking about war, danger, torture, weapons, terror and above all, 'terrorists'*. George W. Bush - Keeping America Scared"
L'origine de Bert
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Quote of the Post: "I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake--which I also keep handy." - W. C. Fields
***
Michael Young, the person who coined the neologism 'meritocracy' why meritocracy was never meant as a workable system:
"It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others.
Ability of a conventional kind, which used to be distributed between the classes more or less at random, has become much more highly concentrated by the engine of education.
A social revolution has been accomplished by harnessing schools and universities to the task of sieving people according to education's narrow band of values.
With an amazing battery of certificates and degrees at its disposal, education has put its seal of approval on a minority, and its seal of disapproval on the many who fail to shine from the time they are relegated to the bottom streams at the age of seven or before.
The new class has the means at hand, and largely under its control, by which it reproduces itself.
[...]
If meritocrats believe, as more and more of them are encouraged to, that their advancement comes from their own merits, they can feel they deserve whatever they can get.
They can be insufferably smug, much more so than the people who knew they had achieved advancement not on their own merit but because they were, as somebody's son or daughter, the beneficiaries of nepotism. The newcomers can actually believe they have morality on their side.
So assured have the elite become that there is almost no block on the rewards they arrogate to themselves. The old restraints of the business world have been lifted and, as the book also predicted, all manner of new ways for people to feather their own nests have been invented and exploited.
Salaries and fees have shot up. Generous share option schemes have proliferated. Top bonuses and golden handshakes have multiplied.
As a result, general inequality has been becoming more grievous with every year that passes"
TapiocaPhobe continues, in the 6th part of a series:
"you may ask: why pick on singapore?
because singapore has taken the principle of meritocracy to the extreme of a social more, one that is enshrined as one of the country’s core values.
because examinations have long been the means of judging one’s worth in this ex-british colony.
because the concept meritocracy is supposedly steeped in a thousand-year-old tradition supposedly carried down by the immigrant chinese majority from the imperial service examinations of mainland china.
because clinging to this false ideal explains many dysfunctional aspects of singaporean society without even trying.
because practically all of us have been burnt by the unforgiving system that is the manifestation of the horrible concept at some point in time.
because many of us then turn against our society for some superficial reason but are oblivious to the undercurrents that we are struggling so hard against.
because i care, and if you are reading this, you probably do, too.
because i don’t know what can we do about it, and it worries me greatly."
***
Someone on a picture of Paul Samuelson: "he just looks so cute!"
Meditations on free time: "eccentricity is often the hallmark of geniuses (or perverts for that matter)... alcohol often helps me attain an altered state of consciousness unattainable thru meditation"
***
what3ver:
On Horny guys: Girls should really stop thinking that guys want to bone everything. After all, some of us have standards and frankly, with the majority of guys in NUS, if you're not an Anime babe, you're not all that worth it. Sad really.
"The Student's Choice Award is to recognise lecturers who have taken the time and effort to make their course website an integral part of their teaching. The course website should facilitate your learning.
Your answer to this questionaire would help recognise the lecturer's hard work and effort and give some form of recognition to the lecturer."
Hahahahaha
An argument often proffered as to why Singapore does not care to sign International conventions and treaties on human rights, labour standards and such is that many countries which do sign them have worse records in this arena than we do, so by not signing them, we are avoiding hypocrisy.
Following this logic, since it is impossible to have true meritocracy, we should not proclaim that we practise it, so as to avoid hypocrisy, since most advanced capitalist societies claim to practise meritocracy as well. Ditto for racial harmony.
A possible response is that the difference is that we do try to promote meritocracy. Accepting this for the sake of argument, one wonders why we do not sign the previously mentioned conventions and then try to promote human rights et al, and shows that the oft-proffered argument just avoids the question.
I saw an industrial sized tub of Best Foods SOS Serbaguna Mayo Magic All Purpose Dressing and its main ingredient was not palm oil, but soyabean oil. Yay.
We had a debate on Marx's most famous quote ('Religion is the opiate of the masses'), and my group got shunted into opposition by default. Unfortunately, 4 out of 5 of us personally agree with Marx's observation, and at least 3 of us are non-theists. So I got to exercise some of my rarely-used skills by playing Devil's Advocate and talking a disproportionatly large amount of the time.
I will probably be shot down for being elitist, but I am distinctly unimpressed by many in the premier institution of social engineering. Ah well.
In one of the many videos we viewed again, some of the women in the Chipko movement in Uttar Pradesh were put in jail for 14 days. One said that it was the "happiest time of my life" because she had no work to do - not even dishes to wash.
Quotes:
I was obviously overconfident when I wrote this paper. I used 'obviously' all the time. Probably because I knew no one would grade me on this.
[On obtuse marking] You think: I went to the trouble of writing this wretched thing. You should at least read it.
After your 10th or 12th paper on the Euthyphro, you start to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day... You have another cup of coffee, you walk around the house, you surf the web. You go back.... 'I can't take another 10 or 12 of these'
You may, sort of, have read Asterisk in your childhood (Asterix)
degradation of en'vih'romental resources (environmental)
they'll overflood (overflow)
You can't have your cake and eat it all the time
The essence of the di'lemma that development poses in this context (dilemma)
[On class] A doctor or an engineer is higher than a road sweeper. A lecturer is slightly higher than a road sweeper.
[On George Bush] When I talk to Americans, they wonder where this guy got his Texan accent
The gentleman over there. You look like you know a lot about sociology. [Me: Social inequalities are not the result of individual failings, but of social trends and forces]... Did you take sociology before? *I shake my head* Not bad for a freshman
You can't not allow the less talented to have sex. That's cruel and unusual punishment, isn't it?
[Makes jibe at student who could not hear him when he strode to the back of the LT and spoke without a mic] I'll use the microphone now, for the hard of hearing. *picks up USB cable and speaks into it* *Uproarious laughter from audience* That was deliberate.
The implications [of high inequality]: low social solidarity. That's why they need to make up a new national day song every year.
Obviously there's an individual flailing as well (failing)
It is possible that the citizens of the society have moved up. They don't do the crap jobs anymoe - don't mind my French.
Your parents may have told you that their parents used to go home for a nap in the afternoon. Can't do that anymore. I tried to do that, I tried to take a nap in the office. Don't tell anyone.
Internet file swear'pers (swappers)
Science used to be called 'Natural Philosophy'. Science used to be a part of our department, but then it grew up and left home.
[On science in Erasmus' day] This is why they used to call it philosophy, natural philosophy, because they never got anywhere with it.
I used to teach a different Descartes text. He says he is a pilot in a ship. A lot of people read it as 'pirate'. They imagined there was a pirate inside of him saying 'Arr, arr. I am Descartes'
Some Muslims I talk to: 'I just don't eat pork. I eat everything else'... People still rationalise to themselves that they are believers of a certain religion
[On determining potential output] That's one way to solve problems in economics. If you can't solve something, you call it by a nice name and put it aside for the time being.
If I hear someone pronounce it as 'kee'nees' I will strangle him or her. It drives me up the wall... Why do I get so worked up about it? Keynes was the founder of macro-economics. If you're studying macro-economics you should be able to pronounce his name.
When I was an undergrad like you I used to spend my holidays reading Karl Marx... Marx is very difficult to read. Most people read Karl Marx in jail... no one spends their holidays reading Karl Marx.
[On Singapore's disposable income figures] The Department of Statistics refused to release it.I've been begging for it for years, but they refuse to give it to me. They say it's confidential. A lot of things are confidential in Singapore to bureaucrats. (are made, by)
That's the ad hon reason (hoc)
Politicians usually don't push the economy into recession unless they get tired of office, [and] they want to resign.
Singaporeans treat the stock market as a casino. Why do they treat it as a casino? Because they get investment tips from their hairstylist instead of their investment advisor.
Businessmen are possessed by animal spirits, they're like ghosts. One animal spirit possesses them... another animal spirit possesses them.
How do you a'certain what justified true belief is? (ascertain)
[On the tutor and a student knowing about a powerful supercomputer in Japan] You guys are such dorks.
[On a girl getting upset at a friend's doing an essay on a topic that she'd wanted to do] To girls, nothing is minor
[Swapping tales of conquests with another girl] When I break up I recover very fast and look for a new target. [Someone: What's your longest?] My longest is 1 1/2 years. My shortest is 2 weeks.
You have a lot of idiosyncracies, did anyone ever tell you that? [Me: Now then you know?!] (has, told)
[Girl on assignment topics: It's not in my mail] You got too much porn in your mail
[On me and Enming] You two look like brothers [Someone: Yah, yah!]
[On his university experience] USP appeals to the mind. Hall appeals to the flesh... Physical activities. I don't mean it sexually.
In the village there're the headsmen (headmen)
[During a debate] If not it's very messy, like now. *Tutor's name*, what do you think?
In the past, there are a lot of crass distinctions (were, class)
[On the tudung and the ruling classes' interests being served by forcing it on women] How do they benefit? Do they feel cooler, when they see women wearing the thing?
Whatever is preached on the pale'pit (pulpit)
[Me: What's that smell?] Nail polish remover. [Me: Oh!] There's an almond smell. [Me: Why does nail polish remover have an almond smell?] Don't ask me, it's a girl thing.
omellete set (omelette)
***
Michael Young, the person who coined the neologism 'meritocracy' why meritocracy was never meant as a workable system:
"It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others.
Ability of a conventional kind, which used to be distributed between the classes more or less at random, has become much more highly concentrated by the engine of education.
A social revolution has been accomplished by harnessing schools and universities to the task of sieving people according to education's narrow band of values.
With an amazing battery of certificates and degrees at its disposal, education has put its seal of approval on a minority, and its seal of disapproval on the many who fail to shine from the time they are relegated to the bottom streams at the age of seven or before.
The new class has the means at hand, and largely under its control, by which it reproduces itself.
[...]
If meritocrats believe, as more and more of them are encouraged to, that their advancement comes from their own merits, they can feel they deserve whatever they can get.
They can be insufferably smug, much more so than the people who knew they had achieved advancement not on their own merit but because they were, as somebody's son or daughter, the beneficiaries of nepotism. The newcomers can actually believe they have morality on their side.
So assured have the elite become that there is almost no block on the rewards they arrogate to themselves. The old restraints of the business world have been lifted and, as the book also predicted, all manner of new ways for people to feather their own nests have been invented and exploited.
Salaries and fees have shot up. Generous share option schemes have proliferated. Top bonuses and golden handshakes have multiplied.
As a result, general inequality has been becoming more grievous with every year that passes"
TapiocaPhobe continues, in the 6th part of a series:
"you may ask: why pick on singapore?
because singapore has taken the principle of meritocracy to the extreme of a social more, one that is enshrined as one of the country’s core values.
because examinations have long been the means of judging one’s worth in this ex-british colony.
because the concept meritocracy is supposedly steeped in a thousand-year-old tradition supposedly carried down by the immigrant chinese majority from the imperial service examinations of mainland china.
because clinging to this false ideal explains many dysfunctional aspects of singaporean society without even trying.
because practically all of us have been burnt by the unforgiving system that is the manifestation of the horrible concept at some point in time.
because many of us then turn against our society for some superficial reason but are oblivious to the undercurrents that we are struggling so hard against.
because i care, and if you are reading this, you probably do, too.
because i don’t know what can we do about it, and it worries me greatly."
***
Someone on a picture of Paul Samuelson: "he just looks so cute!"
Meditations on free time: "eccentricity is often the hallmark of geniuses (or perverts for that matter)... alcohol often helps me attain an altered state of consciousness unattainable thru meditation"
***
what3ver:
On Horny guys: Girls should really stop thinking that guys want to bone everything. After all, some of us have standards and frankly, with the majority of guys in NUS, if you're not an Anime babe, you're not all that worth it. Sad really.
"The Student's Choice Award is to recognise lecturers who have taken the time and effort to make their course website an integral part of their teaching. The course website should facilitate your learning.
Your answer to this questionaire would help recognise the lecturer's hard work and effort and give some form of recognition to the lecturer."
Hahahahaha
An argument often proffered as to why Singapore does not care to sign International conventions and treaties on human rights, labour standards and such is that many countries which do sign them have worse records in this arena than we do, so by not signing them, we are avoiding hypocrisy.
Following this logic, since it is impossible to have true meritocracy, we should not proclaim that we practise it, so as to avoid hypocrisy, since most advanced capitalist societies claim to practise meritocracy as well. Ditto for racial harmony.
A possible response is that the difference is that we do try to promote meritocracy. Accepting this for the sake of argument, one wonders why we do not sign the previously mentioned conventions and then try to promote human rights et al, and shows that the oft-proffered argument just avoids the question.
I saw an industrial sized tub of Best Foods SOS Serbaguna Mayo Magic All Purpose Dressing and its main ingredient was not palm oil, but soyabean oil. Yay.
We had a debate on Marx's most famous quote ('Religion is the opiate of the masses'), and my group got shunted into opposition by default. Unfortunately, 4 out of 5 of us personally agree with Marx's observation, and at least 3 of us are non-theists. So I got to exercise some of my rarely-used skills by playing Devil's Advocate and talking a disproportionatly large amount of the time.
I will probably be shot down for being elitist, but I am distinctly unimpressed by many in the premier institution of social engineering. Ah well.
In one of the many videos we viewed again, some of the women in the Chipko movement in Uttar Pradesh were put in jail for 14 days. One said that it was the "happiest time of my life" because she had no work to do - not even dishes to wash.
Quotes:
I was obviously overconfident when I wrote this paper. I used 'obviously' all the time. Probably because I knew no one would grade me on this.
[On obtuse marking] You think: I went to the trouble of writing this wretched thing. You should at least read it.
After your 10th or 12th paper on the Euthyphro, you start to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day... You have another cup of coffee, you walk around the house, you surf the web. You go back.... 'I can't take another 10 or 12 of these'
You may, sort of, have read Asterisk in your childhood (Asterix)
degradation of en'vih'romental resources (environmental)
they'll overflood (overflow)
You can't have your cake and eat it all the time
The essence of the di'lemma that development poses in this context (dilemma)
[On class] A doctor or an engineer is higher than a road sweeper. A lecturer is slightly higher than a road sweeper.
[On George Bush] When I talk to Americans, they wonder where this guy got his Texan accent
The gentleman over there. You look like you know a lot about sociology. [Me: Social inequalities are not the result of individual failings, but of social trends and forces]... Did you take sociology before? *I shake my head* Not bad for a freshman
You can't not allow the less talented to have sex. That's cruel and unusual punishment, isn't it?
[Makes jibe at student who could not hear him when he strode to the back of the LT and spoke without a mic] I'll use the microphone now, for the hard of hearing. *picks up USB cable and speaks into it* *Uproarious laughter from audience* That was deliberate.
The implications [of high inequality]: low social solidarity. That's why they need to make up a new national day song every year.
Obviously there's an individual flailing as well (failing)
It is possible that the citizens of the society have moved up. They don't do the crap jobs anymoe - don't mind my French.
Your parents may have told you that their parents used to go home for a nap in the afternoon. Can't do that anymore. I tried to do that, I tried to take a nap in the office. Don't tell anyone.
Internet file swear'pers (swappers)
Science used to be called 'Natural Philosophy'. Science used to be a part of our department, but then it grew up and left home.
[On science in Erasmus' day] This is why they used to call it philosophy, natural philosophy, because they never got anywhere with it.
I used to teach a different Descartes text. He says he is a pilot in a ship. A lot of people read it as 'pirate'. They imagined there was a pirate inside of him saying 'Arr, arr. I am Descartes'
Some Muslims I talk to: 'I just don't eat pork. I eat everything else'... People still rationalise to themselves that they are believers of a certain religion
[On determining potential output] That's one way to solve problems in economics. If you can't solve something, you call it by a nice name and put it aside for the time being.
If I hear someone pronounce it as 'kee'nees' I will strangle him or her. It drives me up the wall... Why do I get so worked up about it? Keynes was the founder of macro-economics. If you're studying macro-economics you should be able to pronounce his name.
When I was an undergrad like you I used to spend my holidays reading Karl Marx... Marx is very difficult to read. Most people read Karl Marx in jail... no one spends their holidays reading Karl Marx.
[On Singapore's disposable income figures] The Department of Statistics refused to release it.I've been begging for it for years, but they refuse to give it to me. They say it's confidential. A lot of things are confidential in Singapore to bureaucrats. (are made, by)
That's the ad hon reason (hoc)
Politicians usually don't push the economy into recession unless they get tired of office, [and] they want to resign.
Singaporeans treat the stock market as a casino. Why do they treat it as a casino? Because they get investment tips from their hairstylist instead of their investment advisor.
Businessmen are possessed by animal spirits, they're like ghosts. One animal spirit possesses them... another animal spirit possesses them.
How do you a'certain what justified true belief is? (ascertain)
[On the tutor and a student knowing about a powerful supercomputer in Japan] You guys are such dorks.
[On a girl getting upset at a friend's doing an essay on a topic that she'd wanted to do] To girls, nothing is minor
[Swapping tales of conquests with another girl] When I break up I recover very fast and look for a new target. [Someone: What's your longest?] My longest is 1 1/2 years. My shortest is 2 weeks.
You have a lot of idiosyncracies, did anyone ever tell you that? [Me: Now then you know?!] (has, told)
[Girl on assignment topics: It's not in my mail] You got too much porn in your mail
[On me and Enming] You two look like brothers [Someone: Yah, yah!]
[On his university experience] USP appeals to the mind. Hall appeals to the flesh... Physical activities. I don't mean it sexually.
In the village there're the headsmen (headmen)
[During a debate] If not it's very messy, like now. *Tutor's name*, what do you think?
In the past, there are a lot of crass distinctions (were, class)
[On the tudung and the ruling classes' interests being served by forcing it on women] How do they benefit? Do they feel cooler, when they see women wearing the thing?
Whatever is preached on the pale'pit (pulpit)
[Me: What's that smell?] Nail polish remover. [Me: Oh!] There's an almond smell. [Me: Why does nail polish remover have an almond smell?] Don't ask me, it's a girl thing.
omellete set (omelette)
Post ID: 109734231113813524
"... when uniforms, along with the no-makeup/no-dying-of-hair rules have been tossed out of the window.
You see girls limping up the road to school, because of shoes that look much better on a storefront than on an actual pair of human feet, for reasons of comfort. Girls inching forward uncomfortably because of skirts so short you wonder why they don’t just take them off instead. Girls limping up roads and inching forward uncomfortably because of shoes and skirts which don’t make any sense. Boys who think so highly of themselves they want to believe all these girls in uncomfortable shoes and skirts will want to shed them at their command.
It’s a circus in here." (August and Everything After)
At least there are no shrill, anorexic, chinese-speaking ah lians in SMU. I think.
***
SMU conducts golf lessons. Wth?!
Conventional wisdom has it that there is an inverse relationship between equity and efficiency in an economy. Interestingly enough, though, the GINI coefficients of Japan, Denmark, Singapore and Brazil are 0.217, 0.247, 0.481 and 0.607 respectively (the lower the number, the more equality there is in that society).
Why do people like to wipe their faces with blue tracing paper (aka blotting paper) in public? They wouldn't dig their noses in public, I'm sure.
A girl brought a can of Nescafe coffee into the [NUS] lecture and wrote her name on it with liquid paper. Wth.
Chest challenged chicks ring in bigger breasts - "Hideto Tomabechi -- who first made headlines in Japan almost a decade ago after he cured brainwashed members of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult that unleashed deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system -- claims to have developed a tune for ring tones that promises to increase the breast measurements of those who listen to it... 'I listened to the tune for a week expecting all the time that I was being duped... But, incredibly, my 87-centimeter bust grew to 89 centimeters! It was awesome!'"
Happy Tree Friends has released new episodes!: hard At Work (Workin' hard? Take a break!) and Wheelin and Dealin (Lifty and Shifty will steal your heart)
What is Troubled Times? - "Troubled Times is a group of volunteers helping each other prepare for the passage of the 12th Planet in 2003, and the resulting Pole Shift of the Earth."
I guess the 12th Planet got delayed by the Little Green Men
You see girls limping up the road to school, because of shoes that look much better on a storefront than on an actual pair of human feet, for reasons of comfort. Girls inching forward uncomfortably because of skirts so short you wonder why they don’t just take them off instead. Girls limping up roads and inching forward uncomfortably because of shoes and skirts which don’t make any sense. Boys who think so highly of themselves they want to believe all these girls in uncomfortable shoes and skirts will want to shed them at their command.
It’s a circus in here." (August and Everything After)
At least there are no shrill, anorexic, chinese-speaking ah lians in SMU. I think.
***
SMU conducts golf lessons. Wth?!
Conventional wisdom has it that there is an inverse relationship between equity and efficiency in an economy. Interestingly enough, though, the GINI coefficients of Japan, Denmark, Singapore and Brazil are 0.217, 0.247, 0.481 and 0.607 respectively (the lower the number, the more equality there is in that society).
Why do people like to wipe their faces with blue tracing paper (aka blotting paper) in public? They wouldn't dig their noses in public, I'm sure.
A girl brought a can of Nescafe coffee into the [NUS] lecture and wrote her name on it with liquid paper. Wth.
Chest challenged chicks ring in bigger breasts - "Hideto Tomabechi -- who first made headlines in Japan almost a decade ago after he cured brainwashed members of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult that unleashed deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system -- claims to have developed a tune for ring tones that promises to increase the breast measurements of those who listen to it... 'I listened to the tune for a week expecting all the time that I was being duped... But, incredibly, my 87-centimeter bust grew to 89 centimeters! It was awesome!'"
Happy Tree Friends has released new episodes!: hard At Work (Workin' hard? Take a break!) and Wheelin and Dealin (Lifty and Shifty will steal your heart)
What is Troubled Times? - "Troubled Times is a group of volunteers helping each other prepare for the passage of the 12th Planet in 2003, and the resulting Pole Shift of the Earth."
I guess the 12th Planet got delayed by the Little Green Men
Post ID: 7751979473310056630
A goodly proportion of the spam I get nowadays is addressed to a certain "Michelle Robertson". I wonder who she is. She must be an important person.
***
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"islamic phobia" in malaysia
neopets probability of color change from lab ray
singaporean women with very small breasts - Actually there are fewer and fewer of these nowadays. I attribute it either to better padding, better nutrition, chemicals in the environment or bust enhancement companies.
bdsm odyssey 18 land of desire neverwinter
"Petals Around the Rose" cheat answer help - It seems I'm the only one who's posted the answer, but sadly I'm the last result for this search *g*
"hindu pushup" photo - I finally found out what the infamous Hindu pushup is.
***
More Search Referrals:
The Devil in Hermione Granger porn pics sex
saf regulars moonlighting
aesthetic discussion of the poem "ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL"
cute Palestinian guys
Filmed boys circumcision downloads
malaysian postman uniform in the 60s
anime nerdy guy lives apartment block hot chick crush him
uniform scgs modesty
NUS babes blogspot singapore
underage fake nudes emma watson
human copulation video
miracle healing from the orient qigong
"the school with the most indecent uniform in singapore bar one" - Damn. Someone knows my vocabulary.
sggirls lack of taste
traditional malay circumcision pictures
Sweaty ACJC Uniform
east timor+delta cafes
misogyny national service Singapore - Definitely.
polyandry art pictures
free compost malay song
pink power ranger, porn - The question is - which one? Kimberly? Kat? Cassie? Kendrix? Karone? Dana? Jen? Alyssa?
Sentosa auxiliary police force - Now that Chia Thye Poh has been released, I see no need for one.
Nsmen topless
Pictures of naked Nsmen
fiona xie makes my dick rock hard
emma watson fake tits - If those are fake, she should really get her money back
"poem on digestion" - I hope they liked mine.
how to convince catholic girlfriend to move in with me - Convert to Catholicism?
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht rebuttal - I don't think that needs a rebuttal, since it's quite true.
Emma Watson's Neopets Names
merfolk perform in tank
comprehension passages on durian trees - I could write one if sufficiently bored.
dangers of taking a dog's knot into the vagina - I suppose you could give birth to a dog-headed child.
singapore saf army hunk
pictures of emma watson's boobs growing - What, time-lapse photography?!
old pussy vs young cock - sorry I'm not into MILF/incest.
yun nam haircare effective?
health benefits of zaogeng
nus intellectual ah lians - Someone the two are not what I'd put together in the same sentence.
breast enhancement ads in singapore - Are they still running them? I haven't read the papers regularly for the longest time but my infrequent glances show that there are none nowadays. Maybe the competition was wiped out after Rufin Wong's ringing endorsement of PrettiBosom.
scgs masturbate - Are they thinking of the apocryphal test tube story?
low sperm count shark soup
i donno howto masterbate
Cousin "well hung" teach him to masterbate
how to do scansion for "the world is too much with us"
adult powerranger costumes - Can I get a Bulk costume?
vjc hot gals naked - Do these people actually expect to find what they are looking for?
p2p condom ideal setup - Condoms and P2P seem to be worlds apart.
funny things to do to girls - You could tug their ponytails. Or pull the strings on their clothes. Or finger/fist their hoop earrings.
cellphone as church destruction
humiliation hair in pigtails knee socks - I can think of nothing worse.
feng shui class cyberjaya
"orang asli" masturbate
what chij girls say about sji boys
zlad ragnarok - Yes, his appearance is indeed a warning that Ragnarok is upon us.
preteen guy pinups
female, 24, looking for fun tamil guys kl penang area @hotmail @yahoo
singapore "catherine lim" "fan club" - There are no entries for this but mine. I wonder why.
viagra "tv commercial" pushups - It could make doing pushups difficult, I guess.
"naked pictures" women arching "on top of" penis controlling men lying bed - I doubt TGPs describe each picture in such excruciating detail.
nus hostel prostitutes - I thought they get enough action already without asking prostitutes in.
reflective essay about "weird al" yankovic
channel 5 cosmetic surgery anal bleaching
screensaver of 99 names of holy prophet (peace be upon him) - The Free Encyclopedia lists 100. Gasp.
masturbation nus ntu girls
ophthalmologist + harpsichord south africa
emma watson nude pictures dont exist - Indeed they do not.
uncle soon kiat - Everyone's favourite cleaner is back.
brand quality "ramly burger" - Bad! Bad! Bad!
"bach 2000" online - No one in their right mind is going to offer it online.
hate ocf melbourne blog
exciting new nude girls
buxom indian aunties
acjc students hotel room sex
xinjiang naan recipe - They have naan in Xinjiang?!
low priced magna defender costumes - I prefer Bulk still.
changes in emma watson's primary and secondary female characteristics as a teenager
Californian oranges origin - Since Florida's Natural uses Californian oranges, I suppose Californian oranges can come from Florida.
Kantian theory and auditors dilemma
spartan hacksaws
how to make papaya pringles
outlandish gifts feminist new age
Singapore AND NUS AND hostels AND Nude
peeing health problems psychosomatic men
"Mr Ong Chiau Jin"
nokia ringtones codes denigrate no future
College Schoolgirls in plaid Skirts - Colleges have no uniforms.
"the twelve pains of christmas" fanfics - Fanfics of a parody of a christmas song. Wow.
hairstyles of fiona xie
"schrodinger's cat" "animated gif"
"power ranger" pink erotic rape - Well there *is* this song by Bickley called "I wanna fuck the pink power ranger!"
"lindy england" theme song
"banana phone" frank sinatra version
scrotal infusion egroup
2004 email addresses of islamic faithfuls guestbook
"Seventh-day adventist church" "blowjob"
Nanyang polytechnic school of engineering singapore nude photos 2001
Power Rangers- scary quizzes with stories in them for girls
red power ranger wallet
Australia - clothings made from emus, kangaroos and wallabies
prata sandwich chicken
counterstrike hokkien sound packs
"islamic phobia" in malaysia
neopets probability of color change from lab ray
singaporean women with very small breasts - Actually there are fewer and fewer of these nowadays. I attribute it either to better padding, better nutrition, chemicals in the environment or bust enhancement companies.
bdsm odyssey 18 land of desire neverwinter
"Petals Around the Rose" cheat answer help - It seems I'm the only one who's posted the answer, but sadly I'm the last result for this search *g*
"hindu pushup" photo - I finally found out what the infamous Hindu pushup is.
Post ID: 109718032101946836
Friday, October 08, 2004
Someone on Dr Chee Soon Juan:
"dr. chee is a cowardly, immature, attention seeker, he is a vile, malicious, seditious, vindictive person who lies and twists whatever/whoever/wherever/whenever to prevaricate the truth and covers up himself and is self delusional, he deceives himself and anyone who is willing to go along.
he is a national/international shame and an embarrassment to all singaporeans in this whole world, and a ungrateful person. i pity his family especially his wife. i applaud the extreme patience and humility in which our MM/SM and every minister who had to deal with him, in his taunts and other publicity stunts and disruptions.
i have the utmost contempt for such a person who wastes our precious time and money in our busy courts. and drums up international interference with our legal/political process. and feeds of such controversy and gets funding and support for all his trouble making.
he is an irritant, a panderer and a willing pawn to those who also seek to destroy the credibility and good name of our government and leaders. he is destructive towards the peace and progress of our nation. and is certainly backwards in thinking, going back to rioting, creating disturbance and civil unrest. a travesty and a sham, he should be locked up forever, to prevent anymore such persons from arising from our midst. a perverse, unrepentant, morally bankrupt and self seeking person."
The Associate:
Just an observation on the notion of "responsibility" and freedom of speech - it always strikes me as curious how "responsibility" in the exercise of one's airing of opinions is championed by those who have the most vested interest in suppressing said opinions, other than their own, that is.
It's the same as a "socially responsible press" and being "managed democracy" - always a wonderful thing for the managers and the ones in power who insist on defining just what "responsible" and "managed" is.
***
Singapore says reservations to Women's Convention are based on respect for freedom of minorities to observe own laws
"One of the reasons for the reservations cited by the country involved the need to maintain the Asian tradition of men as heads of households. That was an incorrect assumption that came from the patriarchal past, which was not appropriate under the Convention. Also, the country’s reports themselves referred to the growing number of women as heads of households. Several experts referred to the so-called 'Asian values' as a barrier to the advancement of women. It was pointed out that there were more than 50 countries with various religious and cultural traditions in Asia, and for that reason it was difficult to understand what exactly 'Asian values' meant.
Singapore was a transit country for trafficking of women and children, she added. The country’s officials often turned a blind eye to the problem in exchange for bribes. Did the Government have an integrated programme to address those issues?"
So much for our Asian Values...
Yes, if your religion/culture says that you can circumcise your women, beat them when they're disobedient, bind their feet or what not, we'll close one eye on the pretext of tolerance!
I'm not sure about the corruption bit though. Hmm.
***
Ask Jeeves: Does cutting hair make it grow faster?
Carolyn Pettibone, grad student, Genetics, Harvard Medical School
I went and did some research on the subject, and found a few papers that tried to test the idea. They were pretty funny to read. The scientists conducting them had to recruit their friends to do different shaving experiments, mostly on arms, legs, or heads. They would measure the weight of hair shaved after allowing it to grow for several days, and they tried to see if more frequent shaving made the hair grow faster. But in each experiment, the scientists found that the hair didn't grow any faster no matter how often it was shaved.
- So now I can keep my vernier calipers.
Related: The Trichology Knowledge Base - Hair Facts & Fairy Tales
Myth: Pulling out one grey hair will make two grow in its place.
Fact: Not at all. But if hair is starting to turn grey (it's actually white, there is no such thing as a grey hair - the greyness is the effect of white hair interspersed with normal coloured hair) and you pull one grey hair out, it may well be that the neighbouring hair is just about to start growing, therefore two hairs in close proximity will appear at about the same time.
- So much for my sister's empirical verification.
***
Someone on a tutorial debate: "shall we just concede defeat when the tut starts
den we dun need to do anithing"
Haha.
On crashing hostel rooms:
Friend: my whole group stays in sheares, but they are all guys so i bunk with my friend in temasek
Me: eh it's the 21st century. what's wrong with staying with someone of the opposite gender? *g*
Friend: they are horny and i dont like staying with them. personal preference
Me: but they're not horny for you I assume :)
haha so you would stay with non-horny guys? but most guys (and most girls, most guys would argue) are horny
Friend: thats troubling. while the fact that they are not horny for me is a tad insulting but i would rather they be not horny for me than horny. the problem is i suspect most guys dont really care in the end
Me: see? with women, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't
if you appreciate them, they feel objectified and demeaned
if you don't, they feel insulted
bah
***
Antony Flew and The Falsification Debate
Two explorers come upon a clearing in a jungle. There are flowers growing in this clearing, but there are also just as many weeds. One of the explorers, thinking that this is a garden, states that "some gardener must tend this plot." The other explorer, however, believes that "there is no gardener." They decide that they will set up their camp in this clearing, to solve their dispute.
After passing some time in the clearing, the two explorers have yet to see a gardener. The first explorer still adamantly believes that there is a gardener who tends the plot, but for some reason, they are unable to see him. They set upon building an electrified, barbed-wire fence. They also bring in bloodhounds, assuming that even if the gardener could get over the fence, he could not mask his scent.
More time passes with no proof of the existence of a gardener. The dogs have not barked, and the fence has remained inactivate. The first explorer still believes, however, that there is a gardener: "But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves." The other explorer, though, remains skeptical, and questions his partner's assertion: "Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all."
This is Flew's first argument; the first explorer's original assertion has changed in order to circumvent the inconsistencies observed by the second explorer, without actually addressing them.
Flew's next point is that while the debate between the two explorers appeared to be over an assertion, namely that there is a gardener, as the debate progress it changed into something else. He argues that when the first explorer adds these new qualifications - he is invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks - then he is also changing, bit by bit, the original inadequate assertion. Therefore, "a fine brash hypothesis may thus be killed by inches, the death by a thousand qualifications."
***
Downloading music and movies, according to my sister and the ads they like to show in theatres, is stealing.
In the common understanding, theft occurs when you take something from someone, thereby depriving them of its usage. Intellectual theft occurs when you steal someone's work and claim it as your own, without crediting the author of the work. Piracy of intellectual property is neither.
The music and movie industry argues that piracy is 'theft' because it deprives artists and creators of content of their incomes. Ridiculously long terms of copyright aside (How can Walt Disney still be living off the profits of 'Steamboat Willy' when he died in 1966? And who will be benefiting from the royalties from it till 2023?), and ignoring the fact that most artists (at least in the music industry) see but a minute fraction of the revenues from their work, this assumes that all those who consume pirated goods would pay for the equivalent amount of original goods. Which is why we should be leery of the figures given for profits "lost" to piracy - the college student living on a shoe string budget is not going to buy 60 CDs' worth of music if he's unable to download them.
But anyhow, if one subscribes to the logic that consuming pirated goods is theft, as my sister seems to do, then justifying your own consumption of pirated goods with the excuse that the original versions are unavailable is suspect. If taking someone else's car is considered theft, the act cannot be justified by the excuse that said car is unavailable in your locality. Ditto for intellectual property.
***
Ho no! Salt Lake code may ban Claus - "For years now Salt Lake City has been very accommodating of the jolly old elf and his flying team. The city's general aviation ordinance makes it clear that Santa's sleigh has free rein to fly about the city at low altitudes on Christmas Eve despite restrictions on low-flying aircraft other days of the year. Now, however, some airport leaders want to rewrite the city's general aviation rules - a revision that includes eliminating the city's long-standing exemption on low-flying Christmas Eve reindeer. Such a prohibition could spoil Santa's chance of delivering presents to boys and girls in Salt Lake City, others say."
Vibrating sex toy shuts Australian airport - "A vibrating sex toy tossed in a garbage can shut down operations at an Australian airport for about an hour on Monday... They were just about to call in bomb experts when a passenger came forward and identified the package as a vibrating 'adult novelty device.'"
24 hour candy machine - This seems to be an ad for some intellectual property protection system called "Idea Protector" but it seems more like an allegory about intellectual property, whose effect is to give people a bad impression of the product. Incidentally my sister claims I'm "too young" to be looking at such stuff, but I'm quite sure she was doing worse when she was younger than me, so.
This section of a 1999 Thinkquest entry on How solar cells work is suspiciously similar to Howstuffworks.com's article on How Solar Cells Work. Hmm.
"dr. chee is a cowardly, immature, attention seeker, he is a vile, malicious, seditious, vindictive person who lies and twists whatever/whoever/wherever/whenever to prevaricate the truth and covers up himself and is self delusional, he deceives himself and anyone who is willing to go along.
he is a national/international shame and an embarrassment to all singaporeans in this whole world, and a ungrateful person. i pity his family especially his wife. i applaud the extreme patience and humility in which our MM/SM and every minister who had to deal with him, in his taunts and other publicity stunts and disruptions.
i have the utmost contempt for such a person who wastes our precious time and money in our busy courts. and drums up international interference with our legal/political process. and feeds of such controversy and gets funding and support for all his trouble making.
he is an irritant, a panderer and a willing pawn to those who also seek to destroy the credibility and good name of our government and leaders. he is destructive towards the peace and progress of our nation. and is certainly backwards in thinking, going back to rioting, creating disturbance and civil unrest. a travesty and a sham, he should be locked up forever, to prevent anymore such persons from arising from our midst. a perverse, unrepentant, morally bankrupt and self seeking person."
The Associate:
Just an observation on the notion of "responsibility" and freedom of speech - it always strikes me as curious how "responsibility" in the exercise of one's airing of opinions is championed by those who have the most vested interest in suppressing said opinions, other than their own, that is.
It's the same as a "socially responsible press" and being "managed democracy" - always a wonderful thing for the managers and the ones in power who insist on defining just what "responsible" and "managed" is.
***
Singapore says reservations to Women's Convention are based on respect for freedom of minorities to observe own laws
"One of the reasons for the reservations cited by the country involved the need to maintain the Asian tradition of men as heads of households. That was an incorrect assumption that came from the patriarchal past, which was not appropriate under the Convention. Also, the country’s reports themselves referred to the growing number of women as heads of households. Several experts referred to the so-called 'Asian values' as a barrier to the advancement of women. It was pointed out that there were more than 50 countries with various religious and cultural traditions in Asia, and for that reason it was difficult to understand what exactly 'Asian values' meant.
Singapore was a transit country for trafficking of women and children, she added. The country’s officials often turned a blind eye to the problem in exchange for bribes. Did the Government have an integrated programme to address those issues?"
So much for our Asian Values...
Yes, if your religion/culture says that you can circumcise your women, beat them when they're disobedient, bind their feet or what not, we'll close one eye on the pretext of tolerance!
I'm not sure about the corruption bit though. Hmm.
***
Ask Jeeves: Does cutting hair make it grow faster?
Carolyn Pettibone, grad student, Genetics, Harvard Medical School
I went and did some research on the subject, and found a few papers that tried to test the idea. They were pretty funny to read. The scientists conducting them had to recruit their friends to do different shaving experiments, mostly on arms, legs, or heads. They would measure the weight of hair shaved after allowing it to grow for several days, and they tried to see if more frequent shaving made the hair grow faster. But in each experiment, the scientists found that the hair didn't grow any faster no matter how often it was shaved.
- So now I can keep my vernier calipers.
Related: The Trichology Knowledge Base - Hair Facts & Fairy Tales
Myth: Pulling out one grey hair will make two grow in its place.
Fact: Not at all. But if hair is starting to turn grey (it's actually white, there is no such thing as a grey hair - the greyness is the effect of white hair interspersed with normal coloured hair) and you pull one grey hair out, it may well be that the neighbouring hair is just about to start growing, therefore two hairs in close proximity will appear at about the same time.
- So much for my sister's empirical verification.
***
Someone on a tutorial debate: "shall we just concede defeat when the tut starts
den we dun need to do anithing"
Haha.
On crashing hostel rooms:
Friend: my whole group stays in sheares, but they are all guys so i bunk with my friend in temasek
Me: eh it's the 21st century. what's wrong with staying with someone of the opposite gender? *g*
Friend: they are horny and i dont like staying with them. personal preference
Me: but they're not horny for you I assume :)
haha so you would stay with non-horny guys? but most guys (and most girls, most guys would argue) are horny
Friend: thats troubling. while the fact that they are not horny for me is a tad insulting but i would rather they be not horny for me than horny. the problem is i suspect most guys dont really care in the end
Me: see? with women, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't
if you appreciate them, they feel objectified and demeaned
if you don't, they feel insulted
bah
***
Antony Flew and The Falsification Debate
Two explorers come upon a clearing in a jungle. There are flowers growing in this clearing, but there are also just as many weeds. One of the explorers, thinking that this is a garden, states that "some gardener must tend this plot." The other explorer, however, believes that "there is no gardener." They decide that they will set up their camp in this clearing, to solve their dispute.
After passing some time in the clearing, the two explorers have yet to see a gardener. The first explorer still adamantly believes that there is a gardener who tends the plot, but for some reason, they are unable to see him. They set upon building an electrified, barbed-wire fence. They also bring in bloodhounds, assuming that even if the gardener could get over the fence, he could not mask his scent.
More time passes with no proof of the existence of a gardener. The dogs have not barked, and the fence has remained inactivate. The first explorer still believes, however, that there is a gardener: "But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves." The other explorer, though, remains skeptical, and questions his partner's assertion: "Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all."
This is Flew's first argument; the first explorer's original assertion has changed in order to circumvent the inconsistencies observed by the second explorer, without actually addressing them.
Flew's next point is that while the debate between the two explorers appeared to be over an assertion, namely that there is a gardener, as the debate progress it changed into something else. He argues that when the first explorer adds these new qualifications - he is invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks - then he is also changing, bit by bit, the original inadequate assertion. Therefore, "a fine brash hypothesis may thus be killed by inches, the death by a thousand qualifications."
***
Downloading music and movies, according to my sister and the ads they like to show in theatres, is stealing.
In the common understanding, theft occurs when you take something from someone, thereby depriving them of its usage. Intellectual theft occurs when you steal someone's work and claim it as your own, without crediting the author of the work. Piracy of intellectual property is neither.
The music and movie industry argues that piracy is 'theft' because it deprives artists and creators of content of their incomes. Ridiculously long terms of copyright aside (How can Walt Disney still be living off the profits of 'Steamboat Willy' when he died in 1966? And who will be benefiting from the royalties from it till 2023?), and ignoring the fact that most artists (at least in the music industry) see but a minute fraction of the revenues from their work, this assumes that all those who consume pirated goods would pay for the equivalent amount of original goods. Which is why we should be leery of the figures given for profits "lost" to piracy - the college student living on a shoe string budget is not going to buy 60 CDs' worth of music if he's unable to download them.
But anyhow, if one subscribes to the logic that consuming pirated goods is theft, as my sister seems to do, then justifying your own consumption of pirated goods with the excuse that the original versions are unavailable is suspect. If taking someone else's car is considered theft, the act cannot be justified by the excuse that said car is unavailable in your locality. Ditto for intellectual property.
***
Ho no! Salt Lake code may ban Claus - "For years now Salt Lake City has been very accommodating of the jolly old elf and his flying team. The city's general aviation ordinance makes it clear that Santa's sleigh has free rein to fly about the city at low altitudes on Christmas Eve despite restrictions on low-flying aircraft other days of the year. Now, however, some airport leaders want to rewrite the city's general aviation rules - a revision that includes eliminating the city's long-standing exemption on low-flying Christmas Eve reindeer. Such a prohibition could spoil Santa's chance of delivering presents to boys and girls in Salt Lake City, others say."
Vibrating sex toy shuts Australian airport - "A vibrating sex toy tossed in a garbage can shut down operations at an Australian airport for about an hour on Monday... They were just about to call in bomb experts when a passenger came forward and identified the package as a vibrating 'adult novelty device.'"
24 hour candy machine - This seems to be an ad for some intellectual property protection system called "Idea Protector" but it seems more like an allegory about intellectual property, whose effect is to give people a bad impression of the product. Incidentally my sister claims I'm "too young" to be looking at such stuff, but I'm quite sure she was doing worse when she was younger than me, so.
This section of a 1999 Thinkquest entry on How solar cells work is suspiciously similar to Howstuffworks.com's article on How Solar Cells Work. Hmm.
Post ID: 109696577010028295
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Couldn't help myself. I know i shouldn't but:
"absolutely women's health @ (an anonymouse organisation) is holding 2 performances of the CONDOM DIALOGUES for young women about sexual health and safe sex.
Join ***** **** (Survivor Schoolyard & Beauty is your Duty) and comedians (snip) to explore through comedy, song, performance and discussion messages about safe sex, how to tackle introducing a condom if the moment arises, when to say yes and when to say no, keeping safe, health and in control and will give us an opportunity to laugh at some of the more awkward moments of having intimate relationships.
The performance will contain some course language and sexual references, therefore suitable for young women 14 years and over. A panel discussion with relevant health professionals will follow. "
One wonders what kind of "course" language will be used.
***
"absolutely women's health @ (an anonymouse organisation) is holding 2 performances of the CONDOM DIALOGUES for young women about sexual health and safe sex.
Join ***** **** (Survivor Schoolyard & Beauty is your Duty) and comedians (snip) to explore through comedy, song, performance and discussion messages about safe sex, how to tackle introducing a condom if the moment arises, when to say yes and when to say no, keeping safe, health and in control and will give us an opportunity to laugh at some of the more awkward moments of having intimate relationships.
The performance will contain some course language and sexual references, therefore suitable for young women 14 years and over. A panel discussion with relevant health professionals will follow. "
One wonders what kind of "course" language will be used.
***
Post ID: 109702569213473203
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Quote of the Post: "I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known." - Walt Disney
***
Blogger News:
Ask your readers to think of three photos they'd like to see posted to your blog. (Things around your house or whatever.) When you have enough requests, post them!
I don't suppose there's anyone so bored as to send in a request.
***
I find out about the latest Japanese fetishes and perversions:
"Zentai is basically cover the entire of your body including legs, toes, body and head. So you look like a mannequin. When you are zentai, normally you must not talk and need to rely on your body expressions. This is already famous in taiwan, germany, US and japan. Normally exhibitions will see some people in zentai to demostrate products or just a display item in show.
Cosplay is doing costumes so that it make you become a character of anime, game or movie characters. Doing cosplay costumes rely a lot of skills. Singapore has a cosplay club, holding competitions like every year. They attend movie promotion ceremony, etc to be in the news headlines with their home-made costumes.
And lastly, kiragumi. A mix of zentai and cosplay. Where the characters are masked, into full lycra overall costume and wear anime, game or movie characters costume. This is the most trendy thing in Japan now. US already has some fans in it.
There are already some zentai fans in singapore."
***
Aha! I've found out what the "S. W. R. D." in S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike stands for: Solomon West Ridgeway Dias.
"Having deliberately chosen to go out of control, Kumaratunga has elected to attempt to distract the electorate by enacting an elaborate drama on stage. Last week in Polonnaruwa, she danced to the cheers of the party faithful, seeking to ridicule Finance Minister K. N. Choksy by mimicking his facial expressions. It is Choksy after all, who is spearheading the cabinet subcommittee's investigation into her vehicle purchases. Inoffensive as always, Choksy laughed off the attack. By choosing to criticise the personal appearance of the finance minister, Kumaratunga is paving the way for similar attacks on her own appearance which, let's face it, is far from fetching. How would Kumaratunga feel if fun were poked at her dysfunctional eye, her evil squint, her bizarre choice of hair dye, the ever widening tyre of flab around her waist, the rapidly expanding expanse of her ample posterior and her duck-like gait? But mark the precedent: when in the run up to the 2000 general election a woman mimicked Kumaratunga, eye-patch and all, she was assaulted and her house vandalised. The police were never to investigate the crime: so much for Kumaratunga's sense of humour."
***
Interesting analysis of me run through the Script / AOLer Translator (just try deciphering this!):
FIRST THNG TAHT COMES 2 MIND IS OMG U HAF SO MUCH TEIM11!1!1!!!!1! WTF OMG WTF LOL
NO!!111! OMG RILLY I WONDER IF U DONT SLEP OR SOMETHNG1!!1!!!! OMG LOL U HAEV TIEM 2 GET CAUGHT UP WIT SO MANY BLOGS WRIET SUCH INT3RESTNG ENTREIS ON UR THAN SYNDICAET IT 2 LJ!!!1!!!1 LOL AND DA THNG IS TAHT U DONT AV3N WRIET ONE-LIENRS!1!1!11 OMG WTF U SEM 2 HAEV R3SEARCH3D EVERY SNGL3 3NTRY B/C WTF I DONT KNOW HOW U READNG BAES IS SO WIED!1!!! OMG SARCASM WORKS WIT ME AND I QUIET LIEK UR EXCEPT TAHT SOMATIEMS IMM 2 DUMB 2 G3T IT!!!!11 WTF I ADMIER UR WIT 2 AND UR 2NGU3-IN-CHEK WRITNG STYLE11!!! OMG WTF I FIND U INT3R3STNG 2 TOK 2 NOT QUIET DA TYPICAL SNGAPOREAN OR RI GRADUAET (BUT I DONT RILLY WANT 2 STEROTYP3 NO MAT3R HOW HYPOCRITICAL TAHT MAEKS ME SOUND)!!!1!!! WTF HOW3V3R I GET THIS FELNG TAHT U FEL PAOPLA WIT A RELIGION MISGUIEDD AND U LOK DOWN ON OTHARS QUIET A BIT!!11!!!! OMG WTF LOL =| INCLUDNG M31!!! OMG LOL UR INTAR3ST IN PR SLASH IS MUSNG THOUGH!111!! OMG D
***
Last Thursday, I finally had a $18 hair cut. Those shackled by archaic notions of what males should and should not do need not rejoice, for it was just a little trim. A $18 haircut is a very different experience from a $9 abang one, and though I could have had 2 abang haircuts for the price of the one I got, I didn't trust abang with my 5 months of "hard work", fearing he'd ruin it. Besides which, the experience was very interesting. Meanwhile Zhiming doesn't want to waste money cutting his hair. My explanation is that my little trim is something of a scientific experiment, to investigate if hair really grows faster after it's been trimmed.
Some people commented that my hair was very "retro". Whether it's because of the sideburns or my clipped-back fringe, I don't know.
Tym asked if I was going to launch an invective about the double standards of (Singaporean) society in allowing women to dye their hair and keep it any length they want (the caterwauling of some Secondary School Principals about 'inappropriate gender behavior' notwithstanding), while men face disapproval if they dye their hair, and woe betide them if they have long hair and are not in an arty-farty job, or the yuppie service industry. Suffice to say that, as with fashion, there are 2 categories of hair lengths and styles: female and unisex.
[Addendum: Wowbagger responds - "There exist unacceptable levels of shortness for female hair. Crew cuts are definitely out, as my family and strangers in the female toilets let me know with some pandemonium two years ago." But generally, my observation holds (as for fashion). Just the other day I saw this ang moh skinhead girl in NUS. You don't see *that* many males with crew cuts anyway.]
Speaking of which, I haven't done a hair status update in a while:
Fringe: Reaching the bottom of my eyes in some places
Sides: Some strands are now touching my earlobe
Back: I don't really notice much change, but maybe that's because of my short neck
Someone asked me why I am so opposed to the Halal-isation of originally non-Halal food (eg the substitution of beef or turkey bacon for real bacon). I asked him what he thought of curry made without chili, or satay without satay sauce, and he replied that he wouldn't eat it. Besides which, the total abandonment of culinary principles (ie not offering a more authentic alternative) in the pursuit of cheap profits is morally suspect.
He Who Must Not Be Named has asked me to accompany him while he engages in various dull daily chores, like laundry. Just like me, he detests ironing. Personally, I don't mind doing laundry, washing dishes or even, in extremis, drying them. But ironing is horrific. On the rare occasions when I do ironing, after the first few minutes, when I get the worst of the creases out, it seems that the more I iron, the more crumpled my garments get. Besides which, my philosophy is that within the first 5 minutes of your donning a garment, it will get somewhat creased, so there's no point seeking perfection in ironing.
I've never understood what people see in jeans. Granted, they're easy to match and don't need ironing, but they are wretchedly hot, and I don't see why people find them so comfortable. Heck, I don't even own a pair of jeans. Or at least not any that I've worn (or could have fit into) for the past 5 years. Interestingly, many jeans I see have a brown patch sewn onto the butt area with the waist and length measurements. I suspect that one reason we have men's jeans and women's jeans is that the waist measurements printed on the brown patch on female jeans is actually 2 sizes smaller. I must go around with measuring tape one day and attempt to gather empirical evidence to prove my theory. Also, what's with denim made with uneven yarns?
Ban Xiong memorably proclaimed, on many occasions, that the only cure for footrot is ORD. Unfortunately, like so many of his grand pronouncements, this wasn't strictly true. Melvin is still afflicted by footrot and it's spreading, despite his wearing shoes only once a week. Meanwhile I was struck by a spot of it a few weeks back, but with vigorous application of Daktarin, aka Miconazole Cream, it has been eradicated. And even he doesn't trust himself, applying the cream regularly as a preventive measure. Bah.
Hoods, zips (when not strictly necessarily to keep the garment from falling off the wearer) and strings tempt me so. I should hire someone to stand still while I enact my various fantasies involving them.
For some reason, many Malays love to extract portions of their names so they'll sound Western. Examples:
Nur Hasanah (Nana)
Norlinda, Haslinda (Linda)
Norlinda (Nora)
Amirah (Amy)
Rosanah (Ros, Rosie)
Rafidah (Fee)
Shamsuddin (Sam)
Sharifah (Sherry)
Mohammad (Hams - facetious suggestion by a Malay friend)
***
Blogger News:
Ask your readers to think of three photos they'd like to see posted to your blog. (Things around your house or whatever.) When you have enough requests, post them!
I don't suppose there's anyone so bored as to send in a request.
***
I find out about the latest Japanese fetishes and perversions:
"Zentai is basically cover the entire of your body including legs, toes, body and head. So you look like a mannequin. When you are zentai, normally you must not talk and need to rely on your body expressions. This is already famous in taiwan, germany, US and japan. Normally exhibitions will see some people in zentai to demostrate products or just a display item in show.
Cosplay is doing costumes so that it make you become a character of anime, game or movie characters. Doing cosplay costumes rely a lot of skills. Singapore has a cosplay club, holding competitions like every year. They attend movie promotion ceremony, etc to be in the news headlines with their home-made costumes.
And lastly, kiragumi. A mix of zentai and cosplay. Where the characters are masked, into full lycra overall costume and wear anime, game or movie characters costume. This is the most trendy thing in Japan now. US already has some fans in it.
There are already some zentai fans in singapore."
***
Aha! I've found out what the "S. W. R. D." in S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike stands for: Solomon West Ridgeway Dias.
"Having deliberately chosen to go out of control, Kumaratunga has elected to attempt to distract the electorate by enacting an elaborate drama on stage. Last week in Polonnaruwa, she danced to the cheers of the party faithful, seeking to ridicule Finance Minister K. N. Choksy by mimicking his facial expressions. It is Choksy after all, who is spearheading the cabinet subcommittee's investigation into her vehicle purchases. Inoffensive as always, Choksy laughed off the attack. By choosing to criticise the personal appearance of the finance minister, Kumaratunga is paving the way for similar attacks on her own appearance which, let's face it, is far from fetching. How would Kumaratunga feel if fun were poked at her dysfunctional eye, her evil squint, her bizarre choice of hair dye, the ever widening tyre of flab around her waist, the rapidly expanding expanse of her ample posterior and her duck-like gait? But mark the precedent: when in the run up to the 2000 general election a woman mimicked Kumaratunga, eye-patch and all, she was assaulted and her house vandalised. The police were never to investigate the crime: so much for Kumaratunga's sense of humour."
***
Interesting analysis of me run through the Script / AOLer Translator (just try deciphering this!):
FIRST THNG TAHT COMES 2 MIND IS OMG U HAF SO MUCH TEIM11!1!1!!!!1! WTF OMG WTF LOL
NO!!111! OMG RILLY I WONDER IF U DONT SLEP OR SOMETHNG1!!1!!!! OMG LOL U HAEV TIEM 2 GET CAUGHT UP WIT SO MANY BLOGS WRIET SUCH INT3RESTNG ENTREIS ON UR THAN SYNDICAET IT 2 LJ!!!1!!!1 LOL AND DA THNG IS TAHT U DONT AV3N WRIET ONE-LIENRS!1!1!11 OMG WTF U SEM 2 HAEV R3SEARCH3D EVERY SNGL3 3NTRY B/C WTF I DONT KNOW HOW U READNG BAES IS SO WIED!1!!! OMG SARCASM WORKS WIT ME AND I QUIET LIEK UR EXCEPT TAHT SOMATIEMS IMM 2 DUMB 2 G3T IT!!!!11 WTF I ADMIER UR WIT 2 AND UR 2NGU3-IN-CHEK WRITNG STYLE11!!! OMG WTF I FIND U INT3R3STNG 2 TOK 2 NOT QUIET DA TYPICAL SNGAPOREAN OR RI GRADUAET (BUT I DONT RILLY WANT 2 STEROTYP3 NO MAT3R HOW HYPOCRITICAL TAHT MAEKS ME SOUND)!!!1!!! WTF HOW3V3R I GET THIS FELNG TAHT U FEL PAOPLA WIT A RELIGION MISGUIEDD AND U LOK DOWN ON OTHARS QUIET A BIT!!11!!!! OMG WTF LOL =| INCLUDNG M31!!! OMG LOL UR INTAR3ST IN PR SLASH IS MUSNG THOUGH!111!! OMG D
***
Last Thursday, I finally had a $18 hair cut. Those shackled by archaic notions of what males should and should not do need not rejoice, for it was just a little trim. A $18 haircut is a very different experience from a $9 abang one, and though I could have had 2 abang haircuts for the price of the one I got, I didn't trust abang with my 5 months of "hard work", fearing he'd ruin it. Besides which, the experience was very interesting. Meanwhile Zhiming doesn't want to waste money cutting his hair. My explanation is that my little trim is something of a scientific experiment, to investigate if hair really grows faster after it's been trimmed.
Some people commented that my hair was very "retro". Whether it's because of the sideburns or my clipped-back fringe, I don't know.
Tym asked if I was going to launch an invective about the double standards of (Singaporean) society in allowing women to dye their hair and keep it any length they want (the caterwauling of some Secondary School Principals about 'inappropriate gender behavior' notwithstanding), while men face disapproval if they dye their hair, and woe betide them if they have long hair and are not in an arty-farty job, or the yuppie service industry. Suffice to say that, as with fashion, there are 2 categories of hair lengths and styles: female and unisex.
[Addendum: Wowbagger responds - "There exist unacceptable levels of shortness for female hair. Crew cuts are definitely out, as my family and strangers in the female toilets let me know with some pandemonium two years ago." But generally, my observation holds (as for fashion). Just the other day I saw this ang moh skinhead girl in NUS. You don't see *that* many males with crew cuts anyway.]
Speaking of which, I haven't done a hair status update in a while:
Fringe: Reaching the bottom of my eyes in some places
Sides: Some strands are now touching my earlobe
Back: I don't really notice much change, but maybe that's because of my short neck
Someone asked me why I am so opposed to the Halal-isation of originally non-Halal food (eg the substitution of beef or turkey bacon for real bacon). I asked him what he thought of curry made without chili, or satay without satay sauce, and he replied that he wouldn't eat it. Besides which, the total abandonment of culinary principles (ie not offering a more authentic alternative) in the pursuit of cheap profits is morally suspect.
He Who Must Not Be Named has asked me to accompany him while he engages in various dull daily chores, like laundry. Just like me, he detests ironing. Personally, I don't mind doing laundry, washing dishes or even, in extremis, drying them. But ironing is horrific. On the rare occasions when I do ironing, after the first few minutes, when I get the worst of the creases out, it seems that the more I iron, the more crumpled my garments get. Besides which, my philosophy is that within the first 5 minutes of your donning a garment, it will get somewhat creased, so there's no point seeking perfection in ironing.
I've never understood what people see in jeans. Granted, they're easy to match and don't need ironing, but they are wretchedly hot, and I don't see why people find them so comfortable. Heck, I don't even own a pair of jeans. Or at least not any that I've worn (or could have fit into) for the past 5 years. Interestingly, many jeans I see have a brown patch sewn onto the butt area with the waist and length measurements. I suspect that one reason we have men's jeans and women's jeans is that the waist measurements printed on the brown patch on female jeans is actually 2 sizes smaller. I must go around with measuring tape one day and attempt to gather empirical evidence to prove my theory. Also, what's with denim made with uneven yarns?
Ban Xiong memorably proclaimed, on many occasions, that the only cure for footrot is ORD. Unfortunately, like so many of his grand pronouncements, this wasn't strictly true. Melvin is still afflicted by footrot and it's spreading, despite his wearing shoes only once a week. Meanwhile I was struck by a spot of it a few weeks back, but with vigorous application of Daktarin, aka Miconazole Cream, it has been eradicated. And even he doesn't trust himself, applying the cream regularly as a preventive measure. Bah.
Hoods, zips (when not strictly necessarily to keep the garment from falling off the wearer) and strings tempt me so. I should hire someone to stand still while I enact my various fantasies involving them.
For some reason, many Malays love to extract portions of their names so they'll sound Western. Examples:
Nur Hasanah (Nana)
Norlinda, Haslinda (Linda)
Norlinda (Nora)
Amirah (Amy)
Rosanah (Ros, Rosie)
Rafidah (Fee)
Shamsuddin (Sam)
Sharifah (Sherry)
Mohammad (Hams - facetious suggestion by a Malay friend)
Post ID: 109682619233969123
Sunday, October 03, 2004
Quote of the Post: "To hear many religious people talk, one would think God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals." - Don Schrader
***
Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.
Tobacco 340,000 to 450,000
Alcohol ((Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+
Aspirin (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+
Caffeine (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000
"Legal" Drug Overdose (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000
Illegal Drug Overdose (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200
Marijuana 0
(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).
(Source)
The numbers seem accurate enough. The question is: how many deaths from Marijuana would there be if it were as widely consumed as Tobacco, Alcohol, Aspirin and Caffeine?
***
This event just ended, I wonder what they were doing:
Event Title:GIG Weekend
Organizer: Campus Crusade for Christ
Committee: Clubs and societies
Category: Excursions
What if all you thought you knew was a lie?
What if there really was someone beyond the sky?
Let me tell you how he would cry.
Let me tell you why he would die.
GIG WEEKEND-Where it begins. God under investigation
Date/Time: 2nd October 2004(afternoon) - 3rd October 2004(evening)
Venue: Scripture Union Campsite (at the white colonial house)
Contact: Daniel at : crun_5@yahoo.com or at 98513117
Places are limited. RSVP
***
Script/AOLer Translator
This is real powerful. The preceding section of this post is transformed into the following:
EVENT TITLEGIG WEKEND
ORGANIEZR CMPUS CRUSAED FOR CHRIST
COMITE CLUBS AND SOCEITEIS
CAETGORY WUT IF AL U THOUGHT U NU WAS A LEI????! OMG WTF WUT IF THEIR RILLY WAS SOMEON3 BYOND DA SKY?!!?!!
L3T MA TEL U HOW H3 WUD CRY!!!!1!1! OMG
LET MA TEL U Y HE WUD DEI1111!! OMG WTF
GIG WEKAND-WHARE IT BGINS!!!!11! OMG WTF GOD UND3R INVESTIGATION
DAET/TIEM 2ND OC2BR 204(AFTARNON) - 3RD OC2BR 204(3V3NNG)
V3NUE SCRIPTUR3 UNION CMPSIET (AT TEH WHIET COLONIAL HOUS3)
CONTACT DANEIL AT CRUN_5@YAHOCOM11!!!!! OMG LOL OR AT 9851317
PLAECS R LIMIETD1!1111!1 WTF LOL RSVP
***
Democracy fails Singapore battler - "Mr Lee is regarded as the most successful defamation litigant in history. In nine actions since the 1970s he has been awarded damages of more than A$3 million by the courts, and hundreds of thousands more in out-of-court settlements."
The Christian Faith and the New Physics - Interesting article on the history of Physics, though I *still* don't understand the Schrodinger's cat Thought Experiment. But it says almost nothing about its supposed topic!
Survey: Islam and the West - It is interesting to read this survey written in 1994. "Islamic radicals, the people who wish to turn back to the foundations of their faith... will need to ask themselves how the words Muhammad bequeathed 1,400-odd years ago square the wellbeing of today's Muslims in the matters of economic organisation, the rights of women, and the basic question of who rules a country." - the questions it asks are still very relevant, though it's rather disingenuous on the koran and women.
Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages - "This site is dedicated to the Chinese propaganda poster as it has been produced from 1949 till the present day. So-called propaganda art has played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people, and throughout the People's Republic, the propaganda poster has been the favored vehicle through which art conveyed model behavior."
The modern ones are generally less cheesy, except for those sliming Falungong
chipmunks - The true story of Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
Rapture! - "This film talks about the rapture that is happening soon in the year1000, 1941, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,2005!!
***
I had a taste of the World Famous Ramly Burger (Chicken) one day when I was in Clementi. Really, though some people swear by it, it's nothing special, and though I was assured by a friend that the stall we'd bought them from was "average", I cannot imagine a "good" Ramly Burger would be all that much better. I also cannot understand why it was so popular that there were *4* Ramly Burger outlets in the area near Clementi MRT (they're having a pasar malam/carnival/food fest now, but still, 4 is a hell of a lot).
Indeed, the Ramly Burger offers a genuine Malaysian Taste, what with simple and raw, yet strong flavours that hit you in the face with no pretense at subtlety (I'm told that technically Ramly Burgers are banned in Singapore because they don't pass Health and Safety regulations, so maybe we can guess at how their arrive at their special taste).
My chicken patty was a little limp had a very processed taste, as was Abdullah's beef, I would imagine. The thin wrapping of egg folded around the patty lent an interesting texture, but this was unfortunately not followed up upon by the few shreds of white cabbage that lay under the egg wrapping - they were dry and tasteless. To complete the whole taste experience, a dark brown sauce (BBQ or Worcestershire, I couldn't tell) and a white sauce (probably cheap Malaysian mayonnaise made from palm oil, since it tasted very thin and had no body) were drizzled on top of the patty.
A big minus point for Ramly burger, though, is that in the typical Malaysian (Hawker) fashion, gratuitous use is made of oil and deep frying (for the patties). And I'll bet my hat that there's loads of palm oil in there too.
Other people's comments:
"it's juicy, it's meaty and it's definitely better than McDonalds"
"i like how they wrap the egg and put all those sauces inside, it rocks. it's pretty smart and unique if u ask me"
"Nothing special about the patty. But the amt of mayo and tomato liberally piled inside the burger made my tastebuds hurl and my stomach churn"
[Addendum: My sources tell me I got the lousy Ramly Burger, and the good vendors are like nomads. Looks like they have no quality control.]
The morals of money-lending
The oldest references to usury are found in religious manuscripts of India, dating back to 2000-1400 BC where the 'usurer' is associated with any interest lender. In the Hindu Sutra (700-100 BC) as well as in the Buddhist Jatakas (600-400 BC) there are many references to the payment of interest, along with expressions of disdain for the practice.
Vasishtha, a prominent lawmaker of the era, drafted a law that banned the high caste Brahmans and Kshatryas from being usurers or money-lenders. In the second century AD, the term usury becomes relative, meaning that interest above the legal rate could not be charged; that would be a usurious loan. But usury in some form or other has continued to the present day, and although in principle it is condemned, the term 'usury' refers only to exorbitant interest, ie well above socially accepted rates. The practice operates in most parts of the world.
The Singapore Association for the Deaf has put out this ad: "I'm an engineering graduate. I'm a teacher. I'm a sportsman. I'm deaf. But I'm certainly not dumb and mute". I'm sure they are attempting a pun, but methinks it cuts a little bit too close for comfort, and the connection between "dumb and mute" and not being able to be a graduate, teacher or sportsman is tenuous. How would deaf people feel if the Singapore Association for the Dumb put out an ad: "I'm an engineering graduate. I'm a teacher. I'm a sportsman. I'm dumb. But I'm certainly not deaf"?
Nowadays I don't see many Super Buses (two storied, air-conditioned SBS buses) with the counters that tell you how many seats on the upper deck are free. There must be too many people like me scheming to crash them.
"This is unbelievable, Goldar. Once again you have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" - Lord Zedd
***
We watched a video on child labour in India. Apparently 65 million (?) children under the age of 14 in India work, mostly in rural areas. Very sad, yes, but if the children don't work, what are they going to do? The government is not going to provide free education for 65 million children, which will almost certainly have to include some sort of incentive (like a free lunch) to get children to attend school, especially if even 10% of Indian women are like this crazy woman interviewed in the video who expressed a wish to have 2 dozen children.
I saw this girl, undoubtedly a hall resident, wearing flip flops which were of different colours - 1 was yellow and 1 was orange. Doubtless it was a fashion statement. Bah. In other news, I saw a man wearing a gray singlet which seemed exactly like the Army one, except that instead of the word "ARMY" printed in bold lettering across the back, the word "Nike" was printed in a small font at the front and at the back. Oh, and someone (presumably the man) had scrawled the word "army" below "Nike".
Quotes:
Today we'll be doing Tutorial 3... All of you guys [are] sleeping right? Today is Tutorial 2.
[On buffets] We'd eat until the restaurant closed down. It happened: this Tim Sum buffet... The next day they stopped it.
[On a Brazillian all-you-can-eat] If you go there and you don't eat $40 worth, which is what girls do.
Good morning everybody. [{Female} Student in middle, in a bright voice: Good morning! *waves hand*]
[On child labour and child abuse in India] You have to explain these things. Not like 'this is bad' or 'Indian culture is bad'
Bear the burnt of domination and discrimination (brunt)
gender in'ekwairlity (equality)
South Asia is a mo'sar'ik of cultures (mosaic)
I got too many slides as usual, but I did a smart thing for once. I made the important ones blue, so you can sort of fade out and when the screen turns blue, see whether you can train yourselves to wake up again.
What is knowledge?... You might have a Socratic sort of investigation. I could say: 'Students, what is knowledge? And then you could say some things and I could try to make you look like fools in front of your friends and drawing contradictions from the things you say, and we might make some progress that way.
Here's a smartass quote by Ernest Rutherford, but famous physicists are allowed to be snarky sometimes. 'In science there is only physics. Everything else is stamp collecting.' Now I don't know exactly what he meant by that. Maybe he thinks stamp collecting is wonderful and there's some complex irony going on here.
Here's a quote from our Platonic dialogue, the Meno. This is from the end. By this point you were probably nodding off whe nyou read so maybe you don't remember it so well.
Wow, there's a bird in here. Now that's an unusual. Gosh. I feel a little sorry for it. There's not really a lot I can do for it though... I can see whether I can think of an epistemological example to use on the basis of the bird.
[On the lecture's end] That's the end of my show for today.
[Someone on pictures of pioneers in Electro-magnetic Induction: All old men] [Someone else: He's quite handsome] Right. That's another session we're gonna have. Electro-magnetic idols.
[On a student's explanation for the direction of electro-magnetically induced current] You can see it in both ways. In terms of Lenz's Law or [Student: My law]
[On shorting an anmeter by connecting it to the output of a transformer] If any smoke goes off, if anything blows up - this is your experiment.
Is that all? The class seems to be getting smaller and smaller... Friday afternoon: they go to Orchard for shopping. Thank you for coming.
Toilet paper is a favourite consumption good of Singaporeans. When the cars come from JB, when they open the boots at Customs - rolls and rolls of toilet paper.
Actually I dub it very much (doubt)
There are a lot of good jokes about economists on the net... You type 'resources for Economists'... One of the links has a lot of jokes there.
The money supply keeps increasing. THe government prints money every year. But bank robberies are falling. We're very well-run.
[On German hyper-inflation] In one week the value of your money has shrunk by 3 times. That is incredulous (incredible)
[On German hyper-inflation] Already I see people dozing off, so I'm going to help them doze off further by telling them this grandfather story.
Treaty of Ver'siles (Versailles)
In Singapore, we don't have many seasons. I guess it's autumn out there. I go out: it looks like autumn.
Cyclical [Pronounced as: sai'clical] unemployment. For years, people have been trying to convince me that it's pronounced 'cyclical' [Pronounced as: si'clical] unemployment. I'm not convinced. One day I'll go down to the British COuncil to find out how it's pronounced. They have tutors there who teach you how to speak the Queen's English, according to the bus ads.
[On the efficiency wage] Even if you are in the central tower, you don't know what they are doing. They might be playing mahjong in the cockpit. You pay them very high wages to stop them from playing mahjong in the cockpit. If they are caught playing mahjong in the cockpit, you sack them straightaway.
It's even more fun when you read girls' magazines. They tell you how guys think. Then you think: 'I don't think like that.' [Someone: There's another possibility. Maybe you're abnormal.]
***
Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.
Tobacco 340,000 to 450,000
Alcohol ((Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+
Aspirin (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+
Caffeine (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000
"Legal" Drug Overdose (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000
Illegal Drug Overdose (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200
Marijuana 0
(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).
(Source)
The numbers seem accurate enough. The question is: how many deaths from Marijuana would there be if it were as widely consumed as Tobacco, Alcohol, Aspirin and Caffeine?
***
This event just ended, I wonder what they were doing:
Event Title:GIG Weekend
Organizer: Campus Crusade for Christ
Committee: Clubs and societies
Category: Excursions
What if all you thought you knew was a lie?
What if there really was someone beyond the sky?
Let me tell you how he would cry.
Let me tell you why he would die.
GIG WEEKEND-Where it begins. God under investigation
Date/Time: 2nd October 2004(afternoon) - 3rd October 2004(evening)
Venue: Scripture Union Campsite (at the white colonial house)
Contact: Daniel at : crun_5@yahoo.com or at 98513117
Places are limited. RSVP
***
Script/AOLer Translator
This is real powerful. The preceding section of this post is transformed into the following:
EVENT TITLEGIG WEKEND
ORGANIEZR CMPUS CRUSAED FOR CHRIST
COMITE CLUBS AND SOCEITEIS
CAETGORY WUT IF AL U THOUGHT U NU WAS A LEI????! OMG WTF WUT IF THEIR RILLY WAS SOMEON3 BYOND DA SKY?!!?!!
L3T MA TEL U HOW H3 WUD CRY!!!!1!1! OMG
LET MA TEL U Y HE WUD DEI1111!! OMG WTF
GIG WEKAND-WHARE IT BGINS!!!!11! OMG WTF GOD UND3R INVESTIGATION
DAET/TIEM 2ND OC2BR 204(AFTARNON) - 3RD OC2BR 204(3V3NNG)
V3NUE SCRIPTUR3 UNION CMPSIET (AT TEH WHIET COLONIAL HOUS3)
CONTACT DANEIL AT CRUN_5@YAHOCOM11!!!!! OMG LOL OR AT 9851317
PLAECS R LIMIETD1!1111!1 WTF LOL RSVP
***
Democracy fails Singapore battler - "Mr Lee is regarded as the most successful defamation litigant in history. In nine actions since the 1970s he has been awarded damages of more than A$3 million by the courts, and hundreds of thousands more in out-of-court settlements."
The Christian Faith and the New Physics - Interesting article on the history of Physics, though I *still* don't understand the Schrodinger's cat Thought Experiment. But it says almost nothing about its supposed topic!
Survey: Islam and the West - It is interesting to read this survey written in 1994. "Islamic radicals, the people who wish to turn back to the foundations of their faith... will need to ask themselves how the words Muhammad bequeathed 1,400-odd years ago square the wellbeing of today's Muslims in the matters of economic organisation, the rights of women, and the basic question of who rules a country." - the questions it asks are still very relevant, though it's rather disingenuous on the koran and women.
Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages - "This site is dedicated to the Chinese propaganda poster as it has been produced from 1949 till the present day. So-called propaganda art has played a major supporting role in the many campaigns that were designed to mobilize the people, and throughout the People's Republic, the propaganda poster has been the favored vehicle through which art conveyed model behavior."
The modern ones are generally less cheesy, except for those sliming Falungong
chipmunks - The true story of Alvin, Simon and Theodore.
Rapture! - "This film talks about the rapture that is happening soon in the year
***
I had a taste of the World Famous Ramly Burger (Chicken) one day when I was in Clementi. Really, though some people swear by it, it's nothing special, and though I was assured by a friend that the stall we'd bought them from was "average", I cannot imagine a "good" Ramly Burger would be all that much better. I also cannot understand why it was so popular that there were *4* Ramly Burger outlets in the area near Clementi MRT (they're having a pasar malam/carnival/food fest now, but still, 4 is a hell of a lot).
Indeed, the Ramly Burger offers a genuine Malaysian Taste, what with simple and raw, yet strong flavours that hit you in the face with no pretense at subtlety (I'm told that technically Ramly Burgers are banned in Singapore because they don't pass Health and Safety regulations, so maybe we can guess at how their arrive at their special taste).
My chicken patty was a little limp had a very processed taste, as was Abdullah's beef, I would imagine. The thin wrapping of egg folded around the patty lent an interesting texture, but this was unfortunately not followed up upon by the few shreds of white cabbage that lay under the egg wrapping - they were dry and tasteless. To complete the whole taste experience, a dark brown sauce (BBQ or Worcestershire, I couldn't tell) and a white sauce (probably cheap Malaysian mayonnaise made from palm oil, since it tasted very thin and had no body) were drizzled on top of the patty.
A big minus point for Ramly burger, though, is that in the typical Malaysian (Hawker) fashion, gratuitous use is made of oil and deep frying (for the patties). And I'll bet my hat that there's loads of palm oil in there too.
Other people's comments:
"it's juicy, it's meaty and it's definitely better than McDonalds"
"i like how they wrap the egg and put all those sauces inside, it rocks. it's pretty smart and unique if u ask me"
"Nothing special about the patty. But the amt of mayo and tomato liberally piled inside the burger made my tastebuds hurl and my stomach churn"
[Addendum: My sources tell me I got the lousy Ramly Burger, and the good vendors are like nomads. Looks like they have no quality control.]
The morals of money-lending
The oldest references to usury are found in religious manuscripts of India, dating back to 2000-1400 BC where the 'usurer' is associated with any interest lender. In the Hindu Sutra (700-100 BC) as well as in the Buddhist Jatakas (600-400 BC) there are many references to the payment of interest, along with expressions of disdain for the practice.
Vasishtha, a prominent lawmaker of the era, drafted a law that banned the high caste Brahmans and Kshatryas from being usurers or money-lenders. In the second century AD, the term usury becomes relative, meaning that interest above the legal rate could not be charged; that would be a usurious loan. But usury in some form or other has continued to the present day, and although in principle it is condemned, the term 'usury' refers only to exorbitant interest, ie well above socially accepted rates. The practice operates in most parts of the world.
The Singapore Association for the Deaf has put out this ad: "I'm an engineering graduate. I'm a teacher. I'm a sportsman. I'm deaf. But I'm certainly not dumb and mute". I'm sure they are attempting a pun, but methinks it cuts a little bit too close for comfort, and the connection between "dumb and mute" and not being able to be a graduate, teacher or sportsman is tenuous. How would deaf people feel if the Singapore Association for the Dumb put out an ad: "I'm an engineering graduate. I'm a teacher. I'm a sportsman. I'm dumb. But I'm certainly not deaf"?
Nowadays I don't see many Super Buses (two storied, air-conditioned SBS buses) with the counters that tell you how many seats on the upper deck are free. There must be too many people like me scheming to crash them.
"This is unbelievable, Goldar. Once again you have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" - Lord Zedd
***
We watched a video on child labour in India. Apparently 65 million (?) children under the age of 14 in India work, mostly in rural areas. Very sad, yes, but if the children don't work, what are they going to do? The government is not going to provide free education for 65 million children, which will almost certainly have to include some sort of incentive (like a free lunch) to get children to attend school, especially if even 10% of Indian women are like this crazy woman interviewed in the video who expressed a wish to have 2 dozen children.
I saw this girl, undoubtedly a hall resident, wearing flip flops which were of different colours - 1 was yellow and 1 was orange. Doubtless it was a fashion statement. Bah. In other news, I saw a man wearing a gray singlet which seemed exactly like the Army one, except that instead of the word "ARMY" printed in bold lettering across the back, the word "Nike" was printed in a small font at the front and at the back. Oh, and someone (presumably the man) had scrawled the word "army" below "Nike".
Quotes:
Today we'll be doing Tutorial 3... All of you guys [are] sleeping right? Today is Tutorial 2.
[On buffets] We'd eat until the restaurant closed down. It happened: this Tim Sum buffet... The next day they stopped it.
[On a Brazillian all-you-can-eat] If you go there and you don't eat $40 worth, which is what girls do.
Good morning everybody. [{Female} Student in middle, in a bright voice: Good morning! *waves hand*]
[On child labour and child abuse in India] You have to explain these things. Not like 'this is bad' or 'Indian culture is bad'
Bear the burnt of domination and discrimination (brunt)
gender in'ekwairlity (equality)
South Asia is a mo'sar'ik of cultures (mosaic)
I got too many slides as usual, but I did a smart thing for once. I made the important ones blue, so you can sort of fade out and when the screen turns blue, see whether you can train yourselves to wake up again.
What is knowledge?... You might have a Socratic sort of investigation. I could say: 'Students, what is knowledge? And then you could say some things and I could try to make you look like fools in front of your friends and drawing contradictions from the things you say, and we might make some progress that way.
Here's a smartass quote by Ernest Rutherford, but famous physicists are allowed to be snarky sometimes. 'In science there is only physics. Everything else is stamp collecting.' Now I don't know exactly what he meant by that. Maybe he thinks stamp collecting is wonderful and there's some complex irony going on here.
Here's a quote from our Platonic dialogue, the Meno. This is from the end. By this point you were probably nodding off whe nyou read so maybe you don't remember it so well.
Wow, there's a bird in here. Now that's an unusual. Gosh. I feel a little sorry for it. There's not really a lot I can do for it though... I can see whether I can think of an epistemological example to use on the basis of the bird.
[On the lecture's end] That's the end of my show for today.
[Someone on pictures of pioneers in Electro-magnetic Induction: All old men] [Someone else: He's quite handsome] Right. That's another session we're gonna have. Electro-magnetic idols.
[On a student's explanation for the direction of electro-magnetically induced current] You can see it in both ways. In terms of Lenz's Law or [Student: My law]
[On shorting an anmeter by connecting it to the output of a transformer] If any smoke goes off, if anything blows up - this is your experiment.
Is that all? The class seems to be getting smaller and smaller... Friday afternoon: they go to Orchard for shopping. Thank you for coming.
Toilet paper is a favourite consumption good of Singaporeans. When the cars come from JB, when they open the boots at Customs - rolls and rolls of toilet paper.
Actually I dub it very much (doubt)
There are a lot of good jokes about economists on the net... You type 'resources for Economists'... One of the links has a lot of jokes there.
The money supply keeps increasing. THe government prints money every year. But bank robberies are falling. We're very well-run.
[On German hyper-inflation] In one week the value of your money has shrunk by 3 times. That is incredulous (incredible)
[On German hyper-inflation] Already I see people dozing off, so I'm going to help them doze off further by telling them this grandfather story.
Treaty of Ver'siles (Versailles)
In Singapore, we don't have many seasons. I guess it's autumn out there. I go out: it looks like autumn.
Cyclical [Pronounced as: sai'clical] unemployment. For years, people have been trying to convince me that it's pronounced 'cyclical' [Pronounced as: si'clical] unemployment. I'm not convinced. One day I'll go down to the British COuncil to find out how it's pronounced. They have tutors there who teach you how to speak the Queen's English, according to the bus ads.
[On the efficiency wage] Even if you are in the central tower, you don't know what they are doing. They might be playing mahjong in the cockpit. You pay them very high wages to stop them from playing mahjong in the cockpit. If they are caught playing mahjong in the cockpit, you sack them straightaway.
It's even more fun when you read girls' magazines. They tell you how guys think. Then you think: 'I don't think like that.' [Someone: There's another possibility. Maybe you're abnormal.]
Post ID: 109672474842012842
Friday, October 01, 2004
Quote of the Post: "Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four." - Katharine Hepburn
***
Excellent and (darkly) hilarious parable:
The Tale of the Twelve Officers
It was, of course, sad to hear that Ms. K had been slowly raped and murdered by a common thug over the course of one hour and fifty-five minutes; but when I found out that the ordeal had taken place in plain sight of twelve fully-armed off-duty police officers, who ignored her terrified cries for help, and instead just watched until the act was carried to its gruesome end, I found myself facing a personal crisis. You see, the officers had all been very close friends of mine, but now I found my trust in them shaken to its core. Fortunately, I was able to talk with them afterwards, and ask them how they could have stood by and done nothing when they could so easily have saved Ms. K.
"I thought about intervening," said the first officer, "but it occurred to me that it was obviously better for the murderer to be able to exercise his free will than to have it restricted. I deeply regret the choices he made, but that's the price of having a world with free agents. Would you rather everyone in the world were a robot? The attacker's choices certainly weren't in my control, so I can't be held responsible for his actions."
"Well," said the second officer, "my motivation was a little bit different. I was about to pull my gun on the murderer when I thought to myself, 'But wait, wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity for some unarmed bystander to exercise selfless heroism, should he chance to walk by? If I were to intervene all the time like I was just about to, then no one would ever be able to exercise such a virtue. In fact, everyone would probably become very spoiled and self-centered if I were to prevent every act of rape and murder.' So I backed off. It's unfortunate that no one actually showed up to heroically intervene, but that's the price of having a universe where people can display virtue and maturity. Would you rather the world were nothing but love, peace, and roses?"
"I didn't even consider stepping in," said the third officer. "I probably would have if I hadn't had so much experience of life as a whole, since Ms. K's rape and murder admittedly seems pretty horrible when taken in isolation. But when you put it into context with the rest of life, it actually adds to the overall beauty of the big picture. Ms. K.'s screams were like the discordant notes that make fine musical pieces better than they would have been had all the notes been flawless. In fact, I could scarcely keep from waving my hands around, imagining that I myself was conducting the delicious nuances of the orchestra."
"When I first arrived on the scene, I actually drew my gun and pointed it right at the rapist's head," confessed the fourth officer, with a very guilty look on his face. "I'm deeply ashamed I did that. Do you know how close I came to destroying all of the goodness in the world? I mean, we all know there can't be any good without evil. Fortunately, I remembered this just in time, and a wave of such strong nausea came over me when I realized what I had almost done, that it knocked me to my hands and knees. Man, was that a close one."
"Look, there's really no point in my trying to explain the details to you," said the fifth officer, who we had nicknamed 'Brainiac' because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of literally everything and an IQ way off the charts. "There's an excellent reason for why I did not intervene, but it's just way too complicated for you to understand, so I'm not even going to bother trying. I mean, you admit you are nowhere near as knowledgeable as I am, so what right do you have to judge? Just so there's no misunderstanding, though, let me point out that no one could care about Ms. K. more than I did, and that I am, in fact, a very good person. That settles that."
"I would have defended Ms. K," said the sixth officer, who was notoriously careful about staying out of the public eye, "but it simply was not feasible. You see, I want everyone to freely choose to believe in me. But if I were to step in every time someone was about to be raped or murdered, then the evidence would be so clear-cut that everyone would be forced to believe in me. Can you imagine a more diabolical infringement upon their free wills? Obviously, it was better for me to back off and let Ms. K be raped and murdered. Now everyone can freely choose to believe that there is this extraordinary cop out there who loves them like his own children."
"What are you complaining about?" exclaimed the seventh officer when I turned to him, his eyebrows shooting up in exasperated disbelief. "I just saved a woman from getting raped and murdered last week! Do I have to jump in every time I see something like that about to happen? I would say the fact that more women are not raped and murdered in this city is almost miraculous testimony to my goodness."
The eighth officer, too, looked frustrated. "Nothing I do is good enough! Do you know how much worse it could have been? The thug actually had a blowtorch with him when he started out, but I said 'No way, not on my watch,' and knocked it away from him with my nightstick. Sure, I let him keep the switchblade, the pliers, the coat hanger, and the vial of acid, but think how much worse it would have been with a blowtorch! Ms. K should have thanked her lucky stars that someone so loving was there to watch over her."
"I'll let you in on a secret," said the ninth officer."Moments after Ms. K. flatlined, I had her resuscitated, and flown to a tropical resort where she is now experiencing extraordinary bliss, and her ordeal is just a distant memory. I'm sure you would agree that that's more than adequate compensation for her suffering, so the fact that I just stood there watching instead of intervening has no bearing at all on my goodness."
The tenth officer gave us all quite a start when he revealed a surprising secret about Ms. K. "I genetically engineered her from scratch. I made her, therefore she's my property, and I can do whatever I want with her. I could rape and murder her myself if I were so inclined, and it would be no worse than you tearing up a piece of paper you own. So there is no question of my being a bad person for not helping her."
The eleventh officer chimed in, gesturing at the tenth officer "I hired him to create Ms. K for me, because I wanted someone to love and worship me. But when I approached Ms. K about the matter, she actually turned away from me, as though she could find meaning and happiness with someone else! So I decided the loving thing to do would be to break her spirit by arranging to have her raped and murdered by a common thug, so that she might turn to me in her extraordinary suffering, thereby fulfilling the purpose for which she had been created. Well, mission accomplished, I'm happy to say! A few seconds before she died, she was so insane with terror and pain that she actually convinced herself she loved me, since she knew that only I could end her ordeal. I'll never forget the love in her eyes when she looked up at me the last time, begging for mercy, right before the thug bent over and slit her throat. It was so beautiful it still brings me to tears. Now I just have to go to that island so she can claim her prize of servitude."
"Well, this is quite a coincidence," chuckled the twelfth officer. "It looks like the thug got himself double pay, because I actually hired him to carry out the murder, too! Why? Oh, well it was just a test. Ms. K and I had been dating for some time (no offense, I didn't know she was someone else's property), and one beautiful night she finally told me she loved me. So, naturally, I wanted to see whether this was indeed love - that is, whether she would continue to adore me even while drowning in a pool of her own tears and blood, with me standing before her doing nothing."
By now, it had become clear to me that any difficulty I might have had in reconciling the presumed goodness of the officers with their behavior that day was unfounded, and that anyone who sided against them could do so only for love of evil over good. After all, anyone who has experienced their friendship in the way I have knows that they are good. Their goodness is even manifest in my life - I was in a shambles before I met them, but now everyone remarks on what a changed person I am, so much kinder and happier, apparently possessed of an inner calm. And I have met so many others who feel exactly the same way about them - so many who, like me, know in their hearts the truth that others try to rationalize away with their cold reason and sterile logic. I am ashamed that I ever doubted the entitlement of the twelve officers to my loyalty and my love.
As I was getting ready to leave, the first officer spoke up again. "By the way, I also think you should know that when we stood there watching Ms. K. get raped and stabbed over and over, we were suffering along with her, and we experienced exactly the same pain she did, or perhaps even more." And everyone in the room, myself included, nodded his head in agreement.
Postscript
Religious readers, do not take offense. I have made this parable as brazen as I could, but my purpose is not to insult or blaspheme. I have found that religious believers are often conditioned to accept trite solutions to the problem of suffering, and that it is all but impossible to shake that conditioning through dry analysis. The temptation to offer to an entity a moral blank check simply because it sports a nametag with "God" written on it, is overwhelming in our theistic culture. Hence, this attempt to make the point through a medium as far removed from dry analysis as possible. But again, it is all to make a point, not to cause anyone harm. I have not written anything that I would not have wanted directed at me when I myself was a believer.
Unfortunately the parable becomes too transparent for Officers 9-12.
***
Someone can actually ask me in all seriousness (regarding thought control and brainwashing): "what's wrong with not thinking independently?" (supposedly as a rhetorical point, but still.) and "Are not government interests national interests?" Sigh.
***
What to do when shitty programs (like Windows Media Player 10, AceFTP Pro 3.61 and AVG Anti-Virus) worm themselves into your file/folder context menus without giving you an option to turn shell integration off: Disable Shell Extensions with ShellExView from NirSoft (it's free too)!
Advertisement: "anyway wants free fighting fish please email me imneverwrong@rocketmail.com! They are 2 months old red halfmoon!"
***
Some Channel 8 show went down to NUS to check out the posers and shrill, anorexic, chinese-speaking ah lians. Bah.
Someone: "all the girls in NUS look like ah lians. you're right."
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, then we have good reason to believe it is a duck!" - I am unable to find the source of this quote. Can anyone be of assistance?
In an attempt to solve my wireless connection problems in school, I upgraded to the latest Intel PROSet for Wireless and NUS Virtual Private Networking (VPN) client. Unfortunately, now not only can I not connect in some parts of school when others can, my whole system is screwed and I've to keep interrupting my boots with F8 to "go back to last good configuration". So much for upgrading to solve my problem - at least I've my recovery CDs.
This girl walked into lecture after a self-declared mid-lecture break (because there was no official one) with 2 packets of Lay's Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. She happened to look at me when I was looking at what she brought in, and I dare say she gave me a dirty look. Gah.
Inside jokes by earring makers are annoying. Just the other day, I saw a fat ah lian studying what looked like organic chemistry, since I saw single and double bonding between molecules. On her right ear was a key and on her left ear was a lock. I was really tempted to shove the key into the lock. (Hi Ah Ma!)
Zhiming also hasn't cut his hair since April, but it's shorter than mine. Heh. And he also wants to grow it to the same length as I. Finally, I've found someone with the same ambition!
It seems in Science printing costs 4.5cents/page, because Science students' demand for printing is more elastic than that of Arts students. Argh!!! Price discrimination!
I was walking by a female toilet in Engineering and saw a facial tissue dispenser outside. To confirm my suspicions, I went to the corresponding male toilet (in places where there's no space for two toilets, male and female toilets alternate by level) below, and sure enough, there was no dispenser there. They know their market well.
Diamagnetism is wondrous to behold :)
One Chinese-speaking staff member at engineering called me "xiao peng you" (Translation: Little friend). Now, "xiao di" (Translation: Little brother) is still tolerable even though I am anything but little, but for some reason "xiao peng you" puts me in mind of primary school kids going on a merry go round. Gah.
I was at the Engineering canteen and wanted to buy a drink to go. Since I would be consuming it over a period of time, I wanted it to have some ice. At the same time, I wanted to get as much real drink as possible; anyhow the syrup costs but a few cents, and ice is practically free. So I filled the paper cup with my drink to the brim first, drank a bit of the foam and drink, then pressed the button for ice. Unfortunately, the ice was dispensed from above, and I misestimated, so some of the drink splashed on my fingers. Oh well - LPPL. Later, when I went to pay, I got a big shock - buying a drink to go incurred a 10 cent surcharge! 10 cents for a measly paper cup. A 10 cent surcharge for takeaway food is not so bad, since it's a smaller proportion of the price, and the plastic container they give is at least worth something, but a 45 cent drink becoming 55 cents because of a flimsy paper cup is daylight robbery.
I saw this long-haired construction worker on a poster in school. One would think the hair would get tangled in the machines. Then again most of the few long-haired men I see walking around are, if not foreign workers, then of the race that foreign workers typically belong to.
***
Excellent and (darkly) hilarious parable:
The Tale of the Twelve Officers
It was, of course, sad to hear that Ms. K had been slowly raped and murdered by a common thug over the course of one hour and fifty-five minutes; but when I found out that the ordeal had taken place in plain sight of twelve fully-armed off-duty police officers, who ignored her terrified cries for help, and instead just watched until the act was carried to its gruesome end, I found myself facing a personal crisis. You see, the officers had all been very close friends of mine, but now I found my trust in them shaken to its core. Fortunately, I was able to talk with them afterwards, and ask them how they could have stood by and done nothing when they could so easily have saved Ms. K.
"I thought about intervening," said the first officer, "but it occurred to me that it was obviously better for the murderer to be able to exercise his free will than to have it restricted. I deeply regret the choices he made, but that's the price of having a world with free agents. Would you rather everyone in the world were a robot? The attacker's choices certainly weren't in my control, so I can't be held responsible for his actions."
"Well," said the second officer, "my motivation was a little bit different. I was about to pull my gun on the murderer when I thought to myself, 'But wait, wouldn't this be a perfect opportunity for some unarmed bystander to exercise selfless heroism, should he chance to walk by? If I were to intervene all the time like I was just about to, then no one would ever be able to exercise such a virtue. In fact, everyone would probably become very spoiled and self-centered if I were to prevent every act of rape and murder.' So I backed off. It's unfortunate that no one actually showed up to heroically intervene, but that's the price of having a universe where people can display virtue and maturity. Would you rather the world were nothing but love, peace, and roses?"
"I didn't even consider stepping in," said the third officer. "I probably would have if I hadn't had so much experience of life as a whole, since Ms. K's rape and murder admittedly seems pretty horrible when taken in isolation. But when you put it into context with the rest of life, it actually adds to the overall beauty of the big picture. Ms. K.'s screams were like the discordant notes that make fine musical pieces better than they would have been had all the notes been flawless. In fact, I could scarcely keep from waving my hands around, imagining that I myself was conducting the delicious nuances of the orchestra."
"When I first arrived on the scene, I actually drew my gun and pointed it right at the rapist's head," confessed the fourth officer, with a very guilty look on his face. "I'm deeply ashamed I did that. Do you know how close I came to destroying all of the goodness in the world? I mean, we all know there can't be any good without evil. Fortunately, I remembered this just in time, and a wave of such strong nausea came over me when I realized what I had almost done, that it knocked me to my hands and knees. Man, was that a close one."
"Look, there's really no point in my trying to explain the details to you," said the fifth officer, who we had nicknamed 'Brainiac' because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of literally everything and an IQ way off the charts. "There's an excellent reason for why I did not intervene, but it's just way too complicated for you to understand, so I'm not even going to bother trying. I mean, you admit you are nowhere near as knowledgeable as I am, so what right do you have to judge? Just so there's no misunderstanding, though, let me point out that no one could care about Ms. K. more than I did, and that I am, in fact, a very good person. That settles that."
"I would have defended Ms. K," said the sixth officer, who was notoriously careful about staying out of the public eye, "but it simply was not feasible. You see, I want everyone to freely choose to believe in me. But if I were to step in every time someone was about to be raped or murdered, then the evidence would be so clear-cut that everyone would be forced to believe in me. Can you imagine a more diabolical infringement upon their free wills? Obviously, it was better for me to back off and let Ms. K be raped and murdered. Now everyone can freely choose to believe that there is this extraordinary cop out there who loves them like his own children."
"What are you complaining about?" exclaimed the seventh officer when I turned to him, his eyebrows shooting up in exasperated disbelief. "I just saved a woman from getting raped and murdered last week! Do I have to jump in every time I see something like that about to happen? I would say the fact that more women are not raped and murdered in this city is almost miraculous testimony to my goodness."
The eighth officer, too, looked frustrated. "Nothing I do is good enough! Do you know how much worse it could have been? The thug actually had a blowtorch with him when he started out, but I said 'No way, not on my watch,' and knocked it away from him with my nightstick. Sure, I let him keep the switchblade, the pliers, the coat hanger, and the vial of acid, but think how much worse it would have been with a blowtorch! Ms. K should have thanked her lucky stars that someone so loving was there to watch over her."
"I'll let you in on a secret," said the ninth officer."Moments after Ms. K. flatlined, I had her resuscitated, and flown to a tropical resort where she is now experiencing extraordinary bliss, and her ordeal is just a distant memory. I'm sure you would agree that that's more than adequate compensation for her suffering, so the fact that I just stood there watching instead of intervening has no bearing at all on my goodness."
The tenth officer gave us all quite a start when he revealed a surprising secret about Ms. K. "I genetically engineered her from scratch. I made her, therefore she's my property, and I can do whatever I want with her. I could rape and murder her myself if I were so inclined, and it would be no worse than you tearing up a piece of paper you own. So there is no question of my being a bad person for not helping her."
The eleventh officer chimed in, gesturing at the tenth officer "I hired him to create Ms. K for me, because I wanted someone to love and worship me. But when I approached Ms. K about the matter, she actually turned away from me, as though she could find meaning and happiness with someone else! So I decided the loving thing to do would be to break her spirit by arranging to have her raped and murdered by a common thug, so that she might turn to me in her extraordinary suffering, thereby fulfilling the purpose for which she had been created. Well, mission accomplished, I'm happy to say! A few seconds before she died, she was so insane with terror and pain that she actually convinced herself she loved me, since she knew that only I could end her ordeal. I'll never forget the love in her eyes when she looked up at me the last time, begging for mercy, right before the thug bent over and slit her throat. It was so beautiful it still brings me to tears. Now I just have to go to that island so she can claim her prize of servitude."
"Well, this is quite a coincidence," chuckled the twelfth officer. "It looks like the thug got himself double pay, because I actually hired him to carry out the murder, too! Why? Oh, well it was just a test. Ms. K and I had been dating for some time (no offense, I didn't know she was someone else's property), and one beautiful night she finally told me she loved me. So, naturally, I wanted to see whether this was indeed love - that is, whether she would continue to adore me even while drowning in a pool of her own tears and blood, with me standing before her doing nothing."
By now, it had become clear to me that any difficulty I might have had in reconciling the presumed goodness of the officers with their behavior that day was unfounded, and that anyone who sided against them could do so only for love of evil over good. After all, anyone who has experienced their friendship in the way I have knows that they are good. Their goodness is even manifest in my life - I was in a shambles before I met them, but now everyone remarks on what a changed person I am, so much kinder and happier, apparently possessed of an inner calm. And I have met so many others who feel exactly the same way about them - so many who, like me, know in their hearts the truth that others try to rationalize away with their cold reason and sterile logic. I am ashamed that I ever doubted the entitlement of the twelve officers to my loyalty and my love.
As I was getting ready to leave, the first officer spoke up again. "By the way, I also think you should know that when we stood there watching Ms. K. get raped and stabbed over and over, we were suffering along with her, and we experienced exactly the same pain she did, or perhaps even more." And everyone in the room, myself included, nodded his head in agreement.
Postscript
Religious readers, do not take offense. I have made this parable as brazen as I could, but my purpose is not to insult or blaspheme. I have found that religious believers are often conditioned to accept trite solutions to the problem of suffering, and that it is all but impossible to shake that conditioning through dry analysis. The temptation to offer to an entity a moral blank check simply because it sports a nametag with "God" written on it, is overwhelming in our theistic culture. Hence, this attempt to make the point through a medium as far removed from dry analysis as possible. But again, it is all to make a point, not to cause anyone harm. I have not written anything that I would not have wanted directed at me when I myself was a believer.
Unfortunately the parable becomes too transparent for Officers 9-12.
***
Someone can actually ask me in all seriousness (regarding thought control and brainwashing): "what's wrong with not thinking independently?" (supposedly as a rhetorical point, but still.) and "Are not government interests national interests?" Sigh.
***
What to do when shitty programs (like Windows Media Player 10, AceFTP Pro 3.61 and AVG Anti-Virus) worm themselves into your file/folder context menus without giving you an option to turn shell integration off: Disable Shell Extensions with ShellExView from NirSoft (it's free too)!
Advertisement: "anyway wants free fighting fish please email me imneverwrong@rocketmail.com! They are 2 months old red halfmoon!"
***
Some Channel 8 show went down to NUS to check out the posers and shrill, anorexic, chinese-speaking ah lians. Bah.
Someone: "all the girls in NUS look like ah lians. you're right."
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, then we have good reason to believe it is a duck!" - I am unable to find the source of this quote. Can anyone be of assistance?
In an attempt to solve my wireless connection problems in school, I upgraded to the latest Intel PROSet for Wireless and NUS Virtual Private Networking (VPN) client. Unfortunately, now not only can I not connect in some parts of school when others can, my whole system is screwed and I've to keep interrupting my boots with F8 to "go back to last good configuration". So much for upgrading to solve my problem - at least I've my recovery CDs.
This girl walked into lecture after a self-declared mid-lecture break (because there was no official one) with 2 packets of Lay's Sour Cream and Onion potato chips. She happened to look at me when I was looking at what she brought in, and I dare say she gave me a dirty look. Gah.
Inside jokes by earring makers are annoying. Just the other day, I saw a fat ah lian studying what looked like organic chemistry, since I saw single and double bonding between molecules. On her right ear was a key and on her left ear was a lock. I was really tempted to shove the key into the lock. (Hi Ah Ma!)
Zhiming also hasn't cut his hair since April, but it's shorter than mine. Heh. And he also wants to grow it to the same length as I. Finally, I've found someone with the same ambition!
It seems in Science printing costs 4.5cents/page, because Science students' demand for printing is more elastic than that of Arts students. Argh!!! Price discrimination!
I was walking by a female toilet in Engineering and saw a facial tissue dispenser outside. To confirm my suspicions, I went to the corresponding male toilet (in places where there's no space for two toilets, male and female toilets alternate by level) below, and sure enough, there was no dispenser there. They know their market well.
Diamagnetism is wondrous to behold :)
One Chinese-speaking staff member at engineering called me "xiao peng you" (Translation: Little friend). Now, "xiao di" (Translation: Little brother) is still tolerable even though I am anything but little, but for some reason "xiao peng you" puts me in mind of primary school kids going on a merry go round. Gah.
I was at the Engineering canteen and wanted to buy a drink to go. Since I would be consuming it over a period of time, I wanted it to have some ice. At the same time, I wanted to get as much real drink as possible; anyhow the syrup costs but a few cents, and ice is practically free. So I filled the paper cup with my drink to the brim first, drank a bit of the foam and drink, then pressed the button for ice. Unfortunately, the ice was dispensed from above, and I misestimated, so some of the drink splashed on my fingers. Oh well - LPPL. Later, when I went to pay, I got a big shock - buying a drink to go incurred a 10 cent surcharge! 10 cents for a measly paper cup. A 10 cent surcharge for takeaway food is not so bad, since it's a smaller proportion of the price, and the plastic container they give is at least worth something, but a 45 cent drink becoming 55 cents because of a flimsy paper cup is daylight robbery.
I saw this long-haired construction worker on a poster in school. One would think the hair would get tangled in the machines. Then again most of the few long-haired men I see walking around are, if not foreign workers, then of the race that foreign workers typically belong to.
Post ID: 109645779773303538
Quote of the Post: "Flare dance ensemble presents... Rhythmicity!"
Flare: Rhythmicity
October 21 - 23, 2004 @ 7.30pm
Union Theatre, Union House Ground Floor. University of Melbourne.
Tickets: $8 / $12
Bookings:
bookings@flaredance.com
Contact me for details.
Random Playlist Song: "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice"- some Terry pratchett novel, featuring the soppy witch-turned-queen.
Read Alan Cable's "A visit to vanity fair".
Flare: Rhythmicity
October 21 - 23, 2004 @ 7.30pm
Union Theatre, Union House Ground Floor. University of Melbourne.
Tickets: $8 / $12
Bookings:
bookings@flaredance.com
Contact me for details.
Random Playlist Song: "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice"- some Terry pratchett novel, featuring the soppy witch-turned-queen.
Read Alan Cable's "A visit to vanity fair".
http://www.straitstimes.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,275465,00.html?
This is exactly what was feared in a graying population. Politicians buying votes with irresponsible and impractical concessions to the older population. Free health care to everyone over 75 - that's rather sweeping and unpragmatic - and an irresistible offer if you stand to benefit. That as the population ages, they start making selfish demands that suit them - and are detrimental to the greater population. As the fraction of retirees increases, they will demand (and receive) more and more, while the fraction that actually works and earns money will receive less and less. I wonder if there will be an upper age limit for voting, given the rising prevalence of Alzheimer's....
***
Post ID: 109659397610500246
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Quote of the Post: "Architecture is the art of how to waste space." - Philip Johnson
Random Playlist Song: Cambridge Singers - Elizabeth Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
1. The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
2. His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
3. For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
4. I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
5. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
There's a more folk music version available here which has roughly the same tune (sans harmony, since it's only one woman singing to a guitar). I prefer the Cambridge Singers' version though :)
***
Some may recall my posting of the lyrics and recording of the USP song "That's What I Call an Education". The composer, writer and performer has recently contacted me and wishes me to add a disclaimer:
"Hi, thanks for hosting the song. Even greater thanks for reserving your comments on it. I'll reserve my own comments on it too.
For the sake of our friends in the USP admin, however, I should clarify that "That's What I Call an Education" is NOT the official song of the USP. It has not been officially adopted as such. Or rather, it has officially not been adopted. For now it's just a song for the USP. I'd appreciate if you amend the description of the MP3 on your site and blog accordingly."
Ahh. Everyone I'd asked whom I'd assumed to be in the know had told me that it was the official USP song. Oh well.
***
Shawn, who shall be closing his site for the second time at the end of the year on Brown:
"I don’t hate Brown; I hate the entire college experience. Brown’s a great place per se. Brown’s a great place per se. If you’re an unsuspecting high school kid who hasn’t been made cynical by two years of military service and countless sordid experiences including but not restricted to getting robbed and assaulted in a foreign country, then I’d wholeheartedly encourage you to apply here. You’ll get drunk on cheap beer, smoke lots of pot, smile a lot, and overall have a great time.
But if you were me, you’d hate living in a dorm with something like 600 other freshmen. You’d miss the anonymity of city life, and you’d want the freedom to act like an asshole without having to worry that you’re going to run into the person you just pissed off another day on campus. You’d hate Frisbees and make a vow that if anyone hits you accidentally with one, you’re going to grab the motherfucking object and break it in half. You’d hate the fact that butt-ugly Chinese girls are going out with white guys with a pathetic Asian fetish. You’d hate the fact that people pay lip service to racial tolerance because they just form little conglomerates of their own racial groups. You’d see other Singaporeans sitting with a group of 6 other Chinese people, and you’d find it disturbing.
You’d walk around all day with a pissed-off look on your face, because fuck it, you are pissed off all day. You’d realize that while there are lots of people you’re friendly with, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have any friends. You’d boycott frat parties, just because. You’d cease to find the stupid motherfuckers who set off the fire alarm in your dorm at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning funny. You’d take photos of the stupid fucker who got sent to the hospital for drinking too much and had to get his stomach pumped, and everyone would look at you like you’re such an asshole for taking photos. Then you’d shrug and say, “I’m Japanese, we take photos of everything.” You’d figure that Americans have such a myopic and American-centric worldview that they think Singapore and Japan are the same place anyway.
You’d smoke a lot of cigarettes, and I mean, a LOT of cigarettes. What else are you supposed to do while standing on the Main Green between classes and you don’t have anyone to talk to? You’d sulk a lot and say stuff like, the people who say college is the best time of their lives are the ones who got shitty jobs after it.
You’d realize that, on the balance, while you hate Brown, you’d hate any other place even more venomously, and since college is a necessary precursor to a job you’re going to hate for the rest of your life even while you devote 100 hours a week to it and get way too much money, you’d realize that you only really have to spend 3 years in this place, so just grin and bear it and smile at everyone who says hello to you, even though you have no idea what the hell their names are.
Come to Brown, kids. It’s the happiest place in the world, it is."
I hope he will eventually find a place he *is* happy in.
***
My little bird:
Him: did you read the exercepts from the pamphlet i rcvd from them kkk(oops, i mean,ccc) people?
"present arrangement of continents was caused by a rapid breakup of a single land mass" ...hey man has anyone found koalas in antarctica or penguins in africa?
"evolution would argue for things improving whereas i see everything falling to pieces"...hey man evolution provides the most credible explanation for the useless body parts animals have (human beings' wisdom teeth, chickens who can't fly with their wings,..
Me: yeah I'm sure the reason Australia has marsupials is because god, on a whim, decided to endow them with pouches
Him: "...there are no observations in astronomy that disprove the Genesis account"...er, i recall God created the moon as a "light" in Genesis though the light comes from the sun!
Me: do any biology or life science students subscribe to Creation "Science"? it would be ridiculous if they did. like a physicist not believing in the theory of gravity
Him: "...natural selection (a fact, incidentally) does not increase the number of varients, it decreases them..." err, hahaha, well consider a black rabbit and a white rabbit having kids...and what about tigons (offspring of male tigers and female lions), ligers (offspring of male lions and female tigers) and zedonks (offspring of a zebra and donkey parent)?
Me: what do they have to do with natural selection?
http://errancypage.home.mindspring.com/chapter5.html
this is good stuff. about how genesis is rubbish
"Take the mindset of an ancient Hebrew for a moment and forget any contemporary understanding you have of the world. You can glance at the sky above and observe that it's the color of water, and, periodically, water falls from above. With no further evidence to consider, the logical conclusion would be that there's a mass of water in the sky. Again, a solid body would be necessary to contain this oceanic reservoir. Perhaps windows open in the firmament to allow rainfall (Genesis 8:2)"
Him: it doesn't. but the above counterexamples show that variants can actually increase, this is independent of natural selection or creationist "science".
truly i don't know how the !@#%*) people actually believe in the basis of creationist "science".....i briefly and inadvertently overheard a "discussion" among two cccc's (the last "c" for christian) on macroevolution being definitely false...sigh.
there's enough evidence for macroevolution on www.talkorigins.com [Ed: It's actually www.talkorigins.org)
that exposingsatanism website is ridiculously rabid hahahhahaha. seems to be run, funded and maintained by people whom you don't have to take seriously (unless you meet them in a dark alley on a dark night, and they're armed with M16s/Uzis/Kalashnikovs/Glocks and you have only your empty handbag).
oh, and if you really do attend thursday's "science" talk, please don't forget bring a poodle, cocker spaniel and german shepherd, and ask whoever's chairing the "science" talk on whether s/he believes in the existence of dogs - and point out the obvious science that all three of these species are commonly known as dogs because they have a common ancestor.
if s/he stands fast, point to the different species within the same family of cats, cows, penguins, horses, elephants and apes.
if even that fails, point out that in her logic, the group people don't exist either, since people are all either (last time i knew) mongoloid, caucasoid and negroid, and plenty of other "species" in-between...and tell her that when people use the term "cat", "dogs", "humans", "monkeys", "bears" etc, they are unknowingly affirming macroevolution.
i'm no scientist, but if creation "scientists" want to put forward the idea of miraculous creation, they'd better start calling each and every sub-species of every animal by its scientific name ("'PANTHERA tigris'?! BLASPHEMY! A TIGER CANNOT BE A PANTHER!!! and 'TIGER' implies common descent of these tigers! Let's have totally unrelated names for the Bengali tiger and the White Siberian tiger to show God's irreducibly complex universe! )
Addendum: Techno Prince adds:
"Actually, the Siberian tiger isn't white; white tigers are mutant variations of the Bengal Tiger subspecies.
And as for looking at common descent, and comparing the different members of the cat, or dog family, Creationists will point out that these are examples of diversity within created 'kinds'.
And the continents DID result from the breakup of a single supercontinent... although "rapid" is not the term I would use for it."
***
As part of its continuing efforts to piss its users off, M$N "Less Useful Everyday" Hotmail has come up with yet another grand scheme.
It was bad enough when clicking on links in your email made them open in a frame with a totally useless message ("You are visiting a site outside of Hotmail. To return to Hotmail, close this browser window") on top, and waiting too long before clicking on said links produced an error ("Your email message has been idle and this link has become inactive"), necessitating a reload of your mail message. It was worse when the links to various sections of Hotmail (Home, Junk Mail, your various mail folders, Compose etc) were changed from normal links to Javascript links.
Now I open Hotmail and what do I see? Links in your email now have javascript appended to them to make them open in a new window! Oh-so-conveniently, without adding any new functionality at all, Hotmail has just negated the conveniences and advantages of tabbed browsing! Joy.
***
Power Rangers Dino Thunder - Volume 3: White Thunder - "Currently in its twelve season, “Power Rangers” shows no sign of slowing down. With great writing and superb acti-- sorry, I can’t. “Power Rangers Dino Thunder” is so bad, it’s good."
Heh heh
mini alerts us to a new M$N virus: "Talking about periods, there's this MSN virus that changes your nick to I GOT MY PERIOD in big angry CAPS. I initially thought this was merely the result of the stressful times but after a while when the guys started having that as their nicks...". It doesn't look like a very impressive virus.
Freedom of Information Act training video is not released to public - "The Defense Department has produced a training video that instructs its staff on how to handle requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act. But don't request a screening; the video itself is secret."
Police discover dog at wheel - "Subsequent investigation made indicates that the dog was celebrating the Canadian victory in the world hockey game and knocked the truck into gear, causing it to roll down the hill"
Amateur hurricane cures: From giant fans to nuclear warheads - "Suggestions have included coating the surface of the water with olive oil; towing an iceberg down to Florida to cool down the water temperature; or building large fans on the coast to blow away approaching storms... By far the most outlandish proposal, and one of the most recurrent, was the idea to use a nuclear warhead to blow a hurricane out of the water. 'Hurricanes are bad enough without being radioactive... Put that genie back in the bottle. Nuclear weapons are more dangerous than hurricanes.'"
This sounds like me during Upper Secondary Geography class :)
Kalashnikov targets vodka market - "At 82 per cent proof, the drink may prove as powerful as its famous AK-47 assault rifle... 'I’ve always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things.'"
Random Playlist Song: Cambridge Singers - Elizabeth Poston - Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
1. The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
2. His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
3. For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
4. I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
5. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
There's a more folk music version available here which has roughly the same tune (sans harmony, since it's only one woman singing to a guitar). I prefer the Cambridge Singers' version though :)
***
Some may recall my posting of the lyrics and recording of the USP song "That's What I Call an Education". The composer, writer and performer has recently contacted me and wishes me to add a disclaimer:
"Hi, thanks for hosting the song. Even greater thanks for reserving your comments on it. I'll reserve my own comments on it too.
For the sake of our friends in the USP admin, however, I should clarify that "That's What I Call an Education" is NOT the official song of the USP. It has not been officially adopted as such. Or rather, it has officially not been adopted. For now it's just a song for the USP. I'd appreciate if you amend the description of the MP3 on your site and blog accordingly."
Ahh. Everyone I'd asked whom I'd assumed to be in the know had told me that it was the official USP song. Oh well.
***
Shawn, who shall be closing his site for the second time at the end of the year on Brown:
"I don’t hate Brown; I hate the entire college experience. Brown’s a great place per se. Brown’s a great place per se. If you’re an unsuspecting high school kid who hasn’t been made cynical by two years of military service and countless sordid experiences including but not restricted to getting robbed and assaulted in a foreign country, then I’d wholeheartedly encourage you to apply here. You’ll get drunk on cheap beer, smoke lots of pot, smile a lot, and overall have a great time.
But if you were me, you’d hate living in a dorm with something like 600 other freshmen. You’d miss the anonymity of city life, and you’d want the freedom to act like an asshole without having to worry that you’re going to run into the person you just pissed off another day on campus. You’d hate Frisbees and make a vow that if anyone hits you accidentally with one, you’re going to grab the motherfucking object and break it in half. You’d hate the fact that butt-ugly Chinese girls are going out with white guys with a pathetic Asian fetish. You’d hate the fact that people pay lip service to racial tolerance because they just form little conglomerates of their own racial groups. You’d see other Singaporeans sitting with a group of 6 other Chinese people, and you’d find it disturbing.
You’d walk around all day with a pissed-off look on your face, because fuck it, you are pissed off all day. You’d realize that while there are lots of people you’re friendly with, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have any friends. You’d boycott frat parties, just because. You’d cease to find the stupid motherfuckers who set off the fire alarm in your dorm at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning funny. You’d take photos of the stupid fucker who got sent to the hospital for drinking too much and had to get his stomach pumped, and everyone would look at you like you’re such an asshole for taking photos. Then you’d shrug and say, “I’m Japanese, we take photos of everything.” You’d figure that Americans have such a myopic and American-centric worldview that they think Singapore and Japan are the same place anyway.
You’d smoke a lot of cigarettes, and I mean, a LOT of cigarettes. What else are you supposed to do while standing on the Main Green between classes and you don’t have anyone to talk to? You’d sulk a lot and say stuff like, the people who say college is the best time of their lives are the ones who got shitty jobs after it.
You’d realize that, on the balance, while you hate Brown, you’d hate any other place even more venomously, and since college is a necessary precursor to a job you’re going to hate for the rest of your life even while you devote 100 hours a week to it and get way too much money, you’d realize that you only really have to spend 3 years in this place, so just grin and bear it and smile at everyone who says hello to you, even though you have no idea what the hell their names are.
Come to Brown, kids. It’s the happiest place in the world, it is."
I hope he will eventually find a place he *is* happy in.
***
My little bird:
Him: did you read the exercepts from the pamphlet i rcvd from them kkk(oops, i mean,ccc) people?
"present arrangement of continents was caused by a rapid breakup of a single land mass" ...hey man has anyone found koalas in antarctica or penguins in africa?
"evolution would argue for things improving whereas i see everything falling to pieces"...hey man evolution provides the most credible explanation for the useless body parts animals have (human beings' wisdom teeth, chickens who can't fly with their wings,..
Me: yeah I'm sure the reason Australia has marsupials is because god, on a whim, decided to endow them with pouches
Him: "...there are no observations in astronomy that disprove the Genesis account"...er, i recall God created the moon as a "light" in Genesis though the light comes from the sun!
Me: do any biology or life science students subscribe to Creation "Science"? it would be ridiculous if they did. like a physicist not believing in the theory of gravity
Him: "...natural selection (a fact, incidentally) does not increase the number of varients, it decreases them..." err, hahaha, well consider a black rabbit and a white rabbit having kids...and what about tigons (offspring of male tigers and female lions), ligers (offspring of male lions and female tigers) and zedonks (offspring of a zebra and donkey parent)?
Me: what do they have to do with natural selection?
http://errancypage.home.mindspring.com/chapter5.html
this is good stuff. about how genesis is rubbish
"Take the mindset of an ancient Hebrew for a moment and forget any contemporary understanding you have of the world. You can glance at the sky above and observe that it's the color of water, and, periodically, water falls from above. With no further evidence to consider, the logical conclusion would be that there's a mass of water in the sky. Again, a solid body would be necessary to contain this oceanic reservoir. Perhaps windows open in the firmament to allow rainfall (Genesis 8:2)"
Him: it doesn't. but the above counterexamples show that variants can actually increase, this is independent of natural selection or creationist "science".
truly i don't know how the !@#%*) people actually believe in the basis of creationist "science".....i briefly and inadvertently overheard a "discussion" among two cccc's (the last "c" for christian) on macroevolution being definitely false...sigh.
there's enough evidence for macroevolution on www.talkorigins.com [Ed: It's actually www.talkorigins.org)
that exposingsatanism website is ridiculously rabid hahahhahaha. seems to be run, funded and maintained by people whom you don't have to take seriously (unless you meet them in a dark alley on a dark night, and they're armed with M16s/Uzis/Kalashnikovs/Glocks and you have only your empty handbag).
oh, and if you really do attend thursday's "science" talk, please don't forget bring a poodle, cocker spaniel and german shepherd, and ask whoever's chairing the "science" talk on whether s/he believes in the existence of dogs - and point out the obvious science that all three of these species are commonly known as dogs because they have a common ancestor.
if s/he stands fast, point to the different species within the same family of cats, cows, penguins, horses, elephants and apes.
if even that fails, point out that in her logic, the group people don't exist either, since people are all either (last time i knew) mongoloid, caucasoid and negroid, and plenty of other "species" in-between...and tell her that when people use the term "cat", "dogs", "humans", "monkeys", "bears" etc, they are unknowingly affirming macroevolution.
i'm no scientist, but if creation "scientists" want to put forward the idea of miraculous creation, they'd better start calling each and every sub-species of every animal by its scientific name ("'PANTHERA tigris'?! BLASPHEMY! A TIGER CANNOT BE A PANTHER!!! and 'TIGER' implies common descent of these tigers! Let's have totally unrelated names for the Bengali tiger and the White Siberian tiger to show God's irreducibly complex universe! )
Addendum: Techno Prince adds:
"Actually, the Siberian tiger isn't white; white tigers are mutant variations of the Bengal Tiger subspecies.
And as for looking at common descent, and comparing the different members of the cat, or dog family, Creationists will point out that these are examples of diversity within created 'kinds'.
And the continents DID result from the breakup of a single supercontinent... although "rapid" is not the term I would use for it."
***
As part of its continuing efforts to piss its users off, M$N "Less Useful Everyday" Hotmail has come up with yet another grand scheme.
It was bad enough when clicking on links in your email made them open in a frame with a totally useless message ("You are visiting a site outside of Hotmail. To return to Hotmail, close this browser window") on top, and waiting too long before clicking on said links produced an error ("Your email message has been idle and this link has become inactive"), necessitating a reload of your mail message. It was worse when the links to various sections of Hotmail (Home, Junk Mail, your various mail folders, Compose etc) were changed from normal links to Javascript links.
Now I open Hotmail and what do I see? Links in your email now have javascript appended to them to make them open in a new window! Oh-so-conveniently, without adding any new functionality at all, Hotmail has just negated the conveniences and advantages of tabbed browsing! Joy.
***
Power Rangers Dino Thunder - Volume 3: White Thunder - "Currently in its twelve season, “Power Rangers” shows no sign of slowing down. With great writing and superb acti-- sorry, I can’t. “Power Rangers Dino Thunder” is so bad, it’s good."
Heh heh
mini alerts us to a new M$N virus: "Talking about periods, there's this MSN virus that changes your nick to I GOT MY PERIOD in big angry CAPS. I initially thought this was merely the result of the stressful times but after a while when the guys started having that as their nicks...". It doesn't look like a very impressive virus.
Freedom of Information Act training video is not released to public - "The Defense Department has produced a training video that instructs its staff on how to handle requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act. But don't request a screening; the video itself is secret."
Police discover dog at wheel - "Subsequent investigation made indicates that the dog was celebrating the Canadian victory in the world hockey game and knocked the truck into gear, causing it to roll down the hill"
Amateur hurricane cures: From giant fans to nuclear warheads - "Suggestions have included coating the surface of the water with olive oil; towing an iceberg down to Florida to cool down the water temperature; or building large fans on the coast to blow away approaching storms... By far the most outlandish proposal, and one of the most recurrent, was the idea to use a nuclear warhead to blow a hurricane out of the water. 'Hurricanes are bad enough without being radioactive... Put that genie back in the bottle. Nuclear weapons are more dangerous than hurricanes.'"
This sounds like me during Upper Secondary Geography class :)
Kalashnikov targets vodka market - "At 82 per cent proof, the drink may prove as powerful as its famous AK-47 assault rifle... 'I’ve always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things.'"
Post ID: 109637113847417399
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