The importance of the Oxford Comma

Links - 2nd October 2011

"Barnum was wrong - it's more like every 30 seconds." - Unknown

***

Meet The Old Lady Behind The Sounds In Porno Flicks!

Islamic Sharia Law Court Opens in Belgium - "The Sharia court is the initiative of a radical Muslim group called Sharia4Belgium. Leaders of the group say the purpose of the court is to create a parallel Islamic legal system in Belgium in order to challenge the state's authority as enforcer of the civil law protections guaranteed by the Belgian constitution... Legal experts say the Islamic court will also undercut the state's ability to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of so-called honor crimes... Sharia4Belgium says the court in Antwerp will eventually expand its remit and handle criminal cases as well... Choudary said he would help launch Sharia4Belgium to prevent Muslim immigrants from integrating into Belgian society"
They can always label opponents islamophobic

ATHENA HAPPY - YouTube

Jumping Off a Building With Bubble Wrap | Wired Science

'Vegetarian' dating site pulled off the menu - "Veggiedates.co.uk admitted that its database of users was shared by several dating sites, and acknowledged that the majority of its members were non-vegetarian and non-vegan"

Bossy women have less sex - "'The more decisions a women reported making on her own, as compared to joint decision making, the less likely she was to have sex and the longer it was since she last had sexual intercourse.' Study co-author Carie Muntifering says: 'Understanding how women's position in the household influences their sexual activity may be an essential piece in protecting the sexual rights of women and helping them to achieve a sexual life that is safe and pleasurable'"
When women are bullied, they must be protected. When women are bossy, we must still prioritise their welfare. Very good.

Bored Singaporeans the world's heaviest Facebook users

Have you upgraded your Windows Chinese IME to the new Microsoft Pinyin (MSPY) 2010? - "Good news to all MS Windows XP/Vista/7 users who need to type Chinese characters using IME!... MSPY 2010 loads up much faster than the previous MSPY 2007, and also has faster respond to keyboard typing. By using MSPY 2010, we can type Chinese faster as it is more accurate in getting the correct words we want, and it supports short-cut input style as well as intelligent word predictions."

Better Facebook! FREE Browser Extension - "Better Facebook is a free browser extension that improves the Facebook site by adding lots of great enhancements and functionality"
"Does Better Facebook work with Internet Explorer? No. IE is a bad browser. Do not use it. It is most vulnerable to viruses and spyware, and it lags behind most other browsers in capabilities. Seriously. Switch to Google Chrome at least!"

FULL FLUSH BUT NOT FLUSTERED - "Zack is a 24-year-old university student who shares with us his sexual encounters with other men: over a hundred of them and counting- with the rate of at least one more person added to the number every two weeks. Among Zack’s cured STDs include syphilis, Chlamydia and Gonorrhoea- that he contracted three times. Beyond that, Zack lives with the incurable genital herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV) and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS.) Though one might think that he would wise up after his initial experiences with STDs and take precaution, Zack was quick to retort, “I had my reasons”... Zack was going through a period of his life when he was chronically depressed and needed an outlet- an outlet he found in unprotected sex... With HPV, getting diagnosed was really “awkward for me, since a number of the DSC Clinic doctors are homosexual themselves”"
Would people bash this site for perpetuating the stereotype that gay men are promiscuous?

Letters: On America and the Middle East, Jean Monnet, Yahoo!, high-speed rail, paper, drug shortages, Thailand, rhetoric, oxymorons | The Economist - "Your article on the United States Postal Service suggested that sending electronic Christmas cards over the internet is more “green” (“Neither snow nor rain”, August 20th). I take issue with that. When you take into account the entire life cycle of a piece of paper versus what it takes to send an e-card, it becomes clear that there is no environmental benefit to going paperless. Consider the energy and resource-intensive process required to produce a computer: extensive mining and refining operations of dozens of minerals and metals, many of which are not recyclable and will inevitably end up in a landfill once the device is rendered obsolete by the next generation of computer, tablet or smartphone. Add to that the carbon-generated electricity needed to power computers. Contrast that with paper, which is one of the most recycled products; last year 63% of all paper purchased in the United States was recovered for recycling"

DNC, Obama sued for record of racism and violating black civil rights - "A black researcher and best-selling author has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee and President Barack Obama, alleging the party has engaged in a systematic policy of racism over the years... The 46-page brief systematically lists examples illustrating 210 years of racist statements and actions by the Democratic Party... The brief also cites Obama’s August bus tour, noting that the President “intentionally and specifically chose to ignore and exclude cities and towns that had high black unemployment.” Rep. Maxine Waters, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, agreed with Perryman’s statement saying, “He’s not in any black community.”"

John Esposito’s Deceptions on ‘Islamophobia’ - "I am a Muslim. I believe that accepting our (Muslims’) share in creating “Islamophobia” in the West will help eliminate it. Dr. John Esposito’s recent article in the Huffington Post, “Islamophobia: A threat to American Values?” puts the entire blame on Western “media commentators, hard-line Christian Zionists and politicians.” He even neglects to mention the huge contribution Muslim societies have had on the issue. Esposito ignores that in our global village the West is regularly flooded by violence coming from Muslim societies; violence which is perpetrated in the name of Islam while citing Quranic verses and the Prophet’s examples. The list is long... He also blames the West for resisting the Ground Zero Mosque. I wish he knew how many Muslims around the world are opposed to the proposed Islamic center, not because we don’t want mosques, but because before its construction, the notion of the center created “fitna” (division) and violently divided the whole nation... only last month a new mosque, Baitul Gaffar, was constructed in New York without a shadow of resistance, or how many euros European governments are pouring into the construct of new mosques. By the way, women were barred from attending the opening ceremony of Baitul Gaffar (House of Creator) in New York. Throughout his article, Esposito, a respected scholar, uses mini-exceptions as general examples. Despite overwhelming support for Muslims among politicians, he cites a few bad apples... I wish Esposito mentioned the hate-tsunami against Jews and the West that roars in the media and throughout the pulpits of the Muslim world, constantly in Himalayan magnitude... Yes, “We all [governments, policymakers, the media, educational institutions, religious and corporate leaders] have a critical role to play in countering the voices of hate, the exclusionary theologies and ideologies.” Esposito should give the same advice to the leaders of Muslims world"

Brazil calls to ban 'sexist' Gisele Bundchen ad for Hope lingerie - "The ministry managed to ban a beer ad in 2010 featuring US model Paris Hilton in suggestive poses"
Is there a difference between banning a beer ad with a girl in a suggestive pose and banning girls from striking suggestive poses in public?

Hollywood films: From rom-com to romp-com | The Economist - "At least these films share a strong concept—contemporary, credible, risqué. That’s not something that could be said for many recent romantic comedies. For the past decade, most Hollywood rom-coms have been devoid of both comedy and romance... Of course these films are not really about love, or even about romance. Rather, they are showcases for perfect bodies in fabulous clothes and designer apartments—the real stars of every other scene... For a modern rom-com to be even halfway decent, it has to have some vague resemblance to reality—just one what-if away from our own lives. Watching “When Harry Met Sally”, we know that two platonic friends could fall in love. Watching “Chasing Amy”, we accept that a repressed man could be discomfited by his girlfriend’s bisexuality. Watching “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, we sympathise because, in the pre-Facebook age, a man could be smitten by a stranger at a wedding and then have no contact with her until another wedding weeks later. But no one, before or after watching “Life As We Know It”, has ever asked, “What if your best friends were killed and you were granted joint custody of their baby along with an attractive, single person you hated—oh, and you had to share an immaculately furnished mansion with them?” Rarely has a title been less appropriate"

Overwhelming Victory for the Motion "Men Are Finished" at Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates - "As a result of a changing economy and shifting cultural values, men, who were once seen as the dominant sex, are now in a deep slide to number two status"

Feminists Disrupt a Forum About Battered Husbands 1 - YouTube - "Men's activists hold a public forum to discuss the possibility of giving male victims of domestic violence some of the social services that are currently only available to female victims. Feminists, who strongly oppose any recognition of male victims of abuse, disrupt the forum and try to shut it down. They oppose free and open discussion of gender issues"
"Woman hater!" "She has a right to hit him!"

Trick or Treat: Is There Poison in Your Pixy Stix? - "Has anyone ever really handed out poisoned Halloween candy? To random children? Not that we know of"

Kiwi candy ... Eskimo lolly ... or racial slur? - "By her own calculation, Canadian tourist Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons is one unpopular woman in New Zealand right now –just because of what she insists she is not: an Eskimo. The Inuit woman is garnering headlines – and animosity – for suggesting a favourite New Zealand candy, the Eskimo Lolly, is racist and improper... "Is it right that people go around eating shapes of people of another culture?" The Eskimo Lolly, described as "cherished" and a "treasure" to New Zealanders, is a multi-coloured marshmallow candy in the shape of a person wearing a thick hooded jacket in front of an igloo... "I eat jelly babies. It doesn't mean that I like to bite small children. It's just confectionary," wrote one reader. "If you don't like it, how about you don't buy it!"... Veevee Parsons' uncle, David Veevee, who lives in Iqaluit, said he's been surprised at the uproar created over his niece's statements about the use of the word Eskimo... "It doesn't bother me if people down there in the south use the word Eskimo... It's just a candy, after all""

Socialisation in China in 1931

"Stories of Animals That Talk Disliked in Hunan

""Alice in Wonderland" will in future be a banned book as far as school children in the Province of Hunan are concerned.

General Ho Chien, the Governor of the Province, has issued an official order prohibiting schools from using text-books in which conversations between animals are recorded.

"Bears, lions, and other beasts," he points out. "cannot use a human language, and to attribute to them such power is an insult to the human race. Any children reading such text-books must inevitably regard animals and human beings on the same level, and this would be disastrous.""

(The Straits Times, 22 May 1931, Page 6)


Apparently the monkey see monkey do theory of human behavior was popular even back then.

Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true

After a long time without an SDN post, here comes one:

Say it with love, make time

"In this first of a three-part series, we explore marriage and family life expert Dr Gary Chapman’s bestseller The Five Love Languages: The Secret To Love That Lasts...

Danny* in his 30s, was not so vocal with expressing his love, while his date Lynn* in her 20s, wondered why Danny did not profess his love for her...

* - Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those being quoted"


I found this very funny because, as Dragnet puts it, "names have been changed to protect the innocent".

Or, alternatively, names are changed when people are embarrassed. Which possibly might be the case with a SDN publication...

Australia 2011 - Day 2, Part 3 - Melbourne: Egyptian Exhibition

"He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities." - Robertson Davies

***

Australia 2011
Day 2 - 30th July - Melbourne: Egyptian Exhibition (Part 3)

We then walked around to meet someone.


Pink flowers


Pink flowers closeup


Various perspectives on Bank Street


"Results based beauty."
At first this seemed very stupid (is there hallucination based beauty?), but then again beauty is all delusion anyway, so results don't necessarily matter

We went to a gelato shop. Gelatissimo, in fact, which was just as expensive in Australia as in Singapore.


Flavours of Gelato


"Death by Chocolate. 16 Tempting Chocolate Gelato Flavours"
Considering one flavour is Snickers, it's not as tempting as it might sound


For some reason they have "hot gelato"?! Also notice how cunningly the menu is arranged: the price is given for 2 flavours, then 3, then 1


Queue for place. With guy in top hat and red coat

My meal timings were thrown out of whack so I got something at 7-11, where:


The hot stuff isn't tasty and the tasty stuff isn't hot

I then got a lift (yay) to the museum for the Tutankhamen Exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.

There was a display of an old computer, CSIRAC (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Automatic Computer).




At first read it sounds impressive, but one notices the caveats: this is "the only intact first generation stored-program computer still in existence"


More on CSIRAC

While waiting for my slot (entry was timed at half hourly intervals, though one could go in until 5 minutes before the next timeslot, or something like that) I bumped into 2 friends, who I didn't know had hooked up (I assume).

Photography inside was prohibited, but there was a replica of the Mummy of Tutankhamun outside:


Information on mummy and replica


View from Mummy Replica's feet


View of head


3D view of tomb burial chamber


On the burial chamber

There was an audioguide for the exhibition, but it was A$8.50 on top of the already-princely exhibition fee of A$35 so I demurred.

This was the largest exhibiton to go to Australia.

There was an "elaborately decorated chest" from the 18th century, from the reign of Amenhotep III - probably a gift from Amenhotep III to Yuya and Tjuya, and found in their tomb. Its colour was as fresh as if it had been made only 20 years ago. Seems photography was allowed when the exhibition was in San Francisco and New York, so:


I'm guessing shipping to Australia was too expensive for photography rights, and they needed to earn more money from the gift shop; tickets were US$27.50 in San Francisco


Statue of Khaemwaset and his wife Manana from the reign of Amenhotep III, found at Zagazig. It was very intricate, especially the hair. Pity about the vandalised face of Khaemwaset though.

There were huge light blue ankhs. They were as high as from the tip of my third finger to my wrist.

There was a funerary figurine of resl from the reign of Amenhotep III. The hair frizz was like that of modern women of African descent. The eyes were interesting also.


Shabti of Ptahmose in multiple colours. It had blue hands and a blue face, hair striped yellow and dark blue, dark blue eyeliner and hieroglyphs on a cream body.

Irritatingly, once one had moved from one of the 7 divisions of the exhibition to another, one could not backtrack.


Serpent goddess - a winged serpent with a human head. Meret-Seger or more likely Meret-Hekau
This was a first for me - I never knew you could have outstretched wings without them breaking. Also the other Egyptian gods I knew/could remember either had fully human bodies or had animal heads and human bodies instead of the reverse.


Shabti boxes. Tomb of Tjuya and Yuya. I liked the bright colours and the concentric colored rectangles.
(full size)

From the same tomb they had 4 solid vessels on a stand, probably imitating the real vessels (for entrails), with painted animals on top - a frog, a cow (with a gazelle on the front of the mid-section) and a bull.

There was a "Djed" (stability) hieroglyph represented in the form of a many columned amulet from Amenhotep II's tomb. It was slightly longer than from the tip of my third finger to my elbow. There was also a model of a staff in the shape of a "was" (domination)


Head of a bovine goddess/cow from the myth of 'the Celestial Cow'. This myth was a new one to me:

This exhibition was especially interesting because of the colours. Most Egyptian material I'd seen either had little or no colour or the paint had faded in intensity. This was not the case here. Also this exhibition had a lot of wood, which even in Egypt does not last that long.

The exhibition claimed Tutankhamun's Death Mask was too fragile to move. While this was a valiant effort, I doubt it convinced many people. How old did they think we were? Everyone knows the real reason it won't leave Egypt is because the Egyptians will never let it out. If even cracked wood statues can travel, a golden Death Mask is more than travelworthy.


From the tomb itself: mirror case in the shape of an Ankh.
I loved the colour inlay.


Inscribed game board with 20 squares
One side was a board for Senet and the other was for Tjau. How innovative.

Ironically there were no mummies in the exhibtion.


Cosmetic Jar: "This jar once contained a mixture of plant and animal fats. A recumbent lion, identified as Tutankhamun, appears on top, while traditional enemies of Nubia and Western Asia are trapped below. This imagery represents the theme of order over chaos."
There're images of Bes on both side pillars.


Even Tut's Crook and Flail were on display - he must be lonely back in Cairo with so many of his things travelling. This exhibition has been travelling since 2004 (this means that they were safe from the unrest earlier this year). My theory was that they were raising funds and indeed I was right - as of April 2010 the exhibition had earned about $100 million, half of which went to Egypt and funded among other things a museum at Giza; New York in 2010 was supposed to be its "last stop", so it might indeed get extended again and perhaps move to Singapore after Melbourne (I'm sure they need to raise money to restore the artefacts damaged during the unrest).

They had a silver trumpet with a wooden core to keep its shape. The core was painted, though. Another not at the exhibition was made of copper (bronze according to other sources) and these 2 are the only trumpets to survive from Ancient Egypt. The other was stolen during the unrest (though later returned). Luckily this one was safe as it was on tour.


There was a lot of gold, like a gold fan depicting an ostrich hunt. Unfortunately the ostriches looked like ducks with long legs.


Carved folding stool painted to look like animal skin. This "carved folding stool" couldn't fold. Go figure.
The spots resembled leprosy.


Inlaid diadem with vulture and uraeus cobra (representing the 2 goddesses wadjet and nekhbet)
This was one of the less formal crowns of Egypt

The gift shop had personalisable 18k gold/sterling silver cartouche jewelry - whch was made in Egypt. Presumably this was to give it an aura of authenticity.


I was in a magnet phase for many months so I got one of the Cosmetic Jar (the nicest of the magnets available).

Strangely the open gift shop (near the exhibition) had stuff from other museums: the British Museum, the Louvre, the V&A, Versailles and the Smithsonian. I asked if they had stuff of their own, and I was pointed to jewelry and told that in the real gift shop open during office hours one could find more of their own merchandise.

Outside the museum, I realised that I had dropped my mini tripod again - I'd dropped it once in KL but MR had pointed that out to me. I think it'd dropped because I'd put it in the wrong way around, with the big side on top rather than at the bottom of the pouch; this mini tripod was slimmer than my other, so it dropped more easily. The security guard at the door did not allow me back in: when I approached the door he asked me what I was doing and when I explained myself he said "no you're not [going in to look for your mini tripod], we're closed", and was not even apologetic or did not even ask me to return the next day.

So I took it to be fate that I lose my mini tripod (I would be out of Melbourne the whole of the next day and fly off the day after). It would've been easy and lazy to blame this on racism, but a more parsimonious explanation would be that he was not a nice person - to Asians or otherwise.


Royal Exhibition building at night


"Chai" restaurant: "Eat like Malaysian"
Grammar like Malaysian, at that.


A plague on your grocery!


I was told that Manhattan Terrace was a house of ill repute. It was just down from PP's apartment.

Returning to the hotel I discovered that there was Milo in the common dining area (with 2 types of fresh milk in the fridge). Naturally, this was Australian Milo and not that ersatz Malaysian rubbish.


Australian milo! Lacking the magic ingredient (palm oil). Though the suggestion of using cold milk sucked as it couldn't dissolve the Milo powder.
After drinking Australian Milo I can't go back to Malaysian Shit, as its heaviness is apparent. Why do Singaporeans like it so? It must be a coarse palate. Or being used to it, such that when the palm oil is lacking one actually misses it.

I met an Australian woman who lived somewhere along the Great Ocean Road. Amusingly she asked me if I wanted to live in Australia (I should've referred her to the book "Australia's most deadly and dangerous beasts" which I saw in the tour bust the next day), but somehow we ended up talking about Christianity -_-

Timon and Pumbaa

A motto for life

"Time is precious
Waste it wisely"

Observations - 30th September 2011

"Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of." - Douglas Adams

***

Perhaps the prevalence of curses insulting mothers but not those for fathers is due to paternity uncertainty!

I and Lynn Chan would like a video montage of our lives to be played at our... funeral

If BC/AD are offensive so is CE/BCE. Muslims, Jews, Japanese, Thais and Taiwanese have their own calendars

A 5 year old girl was in the toilet with her father. Enjoy it while it lasts, kid. You'll be queuing with the ladies soon!


If it's immoral to break your scholarship bond, why not your handphone contract?

One should vote holistically. If I had to agree with everything a party/candidate said I'd spoil my vote.

I told some civil servants my friend was going in to "change the system". We all had the same reaction.


I was wondering how hard it was to get dangerous mentally ill people locked up. All I need is "a psychiatrist and Form 1 of the First Schedule of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Bill 2008", but I'm guessing the psychiatrist will be expensive.

Amused that Woodgrove Secondary has dark blue sailor suit uniforms - but only for their lower secondary girls

It's very appropriate that New Creation Church is beside a Casino (in MBS)

The anger, hate and overreaction you get from Singaporean netizens seems to have a parallel in that of PRC netizens, and both probably stem from a common cause: emasculation and a sense of helplessness which results in people obsessing over trivialities and lashing out at anyone for anything. Once again, Singaporeans are more like PRCs than they'd like to think.

overheard on the trains in the past: 你再坏蛋我叫警察来抓你！('If you continue to be naughty, I'll call the police to get you!')
now: 你再坏蛋等下人家把你拍照放上网!" ('If you continue to be naughty, someone will take your picture and put it on the Internet!')


"I love when one bullshit belief criticises another bullshit belief of being full of shit"

RT @edchng "in dating, just as in poker or the stock markets, the key to success is to be completely unemotional"

RT @joeljoshuagoh If you need the fucking ISD to protect the integrity of your religion, then the doubts casted on your faith must really be quite valid.
RT: @rompping: If your god can be threatened by one dude with a twitter account he needs to check whether he's really a god or not.

[Someone on Qantas] "The "Australian spirit" seems to be synonymous with laziness, unreasonableness and bad manners :P"

"history shows that when a group of humans truly believe they alone are "right", then what they end up doing is very wrong."

RT @lucian We need to pay top dollar to retain talented hawkers provide us great value for money food.


"i once went for a "free slimming treatment for appreciation for participation in a survey" thingy, n end up signing a 4k slimming pkg! Through hard sell and gangster style. i was nt allowed to leave n i was surrounded by 4 in a small room n sitting while they were all standing around me intimidatingly. i went to CASE bt oni gt bek 2.5k. the rest they pay bek in kind..slimming cookies supposedly worth 1.5k! i agreed cos i gt tired of it all. the company is Slimfit.

like 10 years back.. i think that time no fb yet.. or i was still a tech idiot then.. Very scary these places..i have a mani/pedi pkg with jean yip..they make me sign a new pkg even wen d existing one is oni 3/4 of the way used.. quite hard to be all assertive and firm when u r sitting there alone surrounded by them or lying vulnerably naked on the bed! haha!
if you go to one, do not bring any credit cards n make sure ur atm card inside got only $100! say you are a poor student from china! haha!"