So promoting obesity to kids is a thing now

"'This is a children's book'

I asked her, "Why do you want to lose weight?"

"So I'll look prettier," she answered.

That's crazy. She wouldn't be prettier. She'd be thinner, that's all. And less cuddly, and less soft."


So a recognisably obese woman is told that she won't look prettier if she loses weight.

And also that she'd be less cuddly and soft if she were thinner.

In other words, it is better to be obese than non-obese.


Of course, some people claim that (childhood) eating disorders are a bigger problem than (childhood) obesity, and that discouraging obesity will cause an increase in eating disorders. This is a very problematic claim, because:

1) Obesity prevention actually *reduces* eating disorders

Does Obesity Prevention Cause Eating Disorders?

"There are data to suggest that our recent societal focus on obesity prevention has not led to a discernable increase in eating disordered behavior. Overall trends measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicate that there has been no significant change over time from 1995 to 2005 in the percentage of high school students who took laxatives, diet pills, powders, and liquids or vomited to lose weight or prevent weight gain. Although the prevalence rates are concerning (i.e., 4.5%-6% for vomiting and laxative use, 6.3%-9.2% for diet supplements), there is no evidence that increased media and professional discussions about childhood obesity have been associated with a concomitant increase in pathological findings.

Further data comes from the evaluation of Arkansas’ statewide multicomponent effort to reduce childhood obesity, which included BMI reports. Three-year follow-up data indicate that BMI has leveled off, and there has been no increase in youth reports of taking diet pills, exercising excessively, starting diets, or weight-based teasing. This suggests that large-scale policies can be implemented responsibly and successfully prevent a BMI increase without unintended consequences.

A handful of controlled trials have also addressed this issue. Schwartz and colleagues evaluated a school intervention implementing nutrition guidelines for snack sales in middle schools. Students were assessed for eating behaviors, desire to lose weight, and dieting behavior before and after intervention. Student nutrition at school improved in only the intervention schools, but body dissatisfaction in both conditions increased over time. Because the intervention and comparison schools did not differ, it is unlikely that the changes in food policy played a causal role in this increase...

Very strong evidence that eating disorder and obesity prevention can be done together comes from Austin and colleagues, who have demonstrated that broad-based obesity prevention programs can actually be helpful in efforts to decrease eating pathology. The Planet Health study was designed to promote nutrition and physical activity and decrease television viewing in 10 middle schools. The 5-2-1 Go! study aimed to promote nutrition and physical activity and decrease overweight in 13 middle schools.8 Both studies assessed disordered weight-control behaviors, such as dieting to lose weight, self-induced vomiting, laxative use, and taking diet pills. In both programs, girls in the intervention schools were less likely to engage in these behaviors at follow-up than were girls in the control schools...

Body dissatisfaction rates are high; one study found that 40% of 9- to 11-year-old girls are worried they are fat or will become fat. Although disturbing, the truth is that many of them may be right."


2) The health burden of obesity dwarfs that of eating disorders

For example, in Australia,

Eating Disorders in Australia

"Eating disorders are the 12th leading cause of mental health hospitalisation costs within Australia. The expense of treatment of an episode of Anorexia Nervosa has been reported to come second only to the cost of cardiac artery bypass surgery in the private hospital sector in Australia.

Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa are the 8th and 10th leading causes, respectively, of burden of disease and injury in females aged 15 to 24 in Australia. This is measured by disability-adjusted life years."

Burden of overweight and obesity (AIHW)

"High body mass was estimated to be responsible for 7.5% of the attributable burden of disease and was third in line behind tobacco and high blood pressure"

(High body mass was the third highest factor responsible for disability adjusted life years, and tobacco and high blood pressure had only slightly higher weights)

 

Addendum: Another example of glorifying obesity, which some people claim does not exist

Tea and Sexual Consent

This woman just explained consent with the most perfect metaphor : The Loop

"If you’re still struggling, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you’re making them a cup of tea.

You say, “Hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they go, “OMG, f*ck yes, I would f*cking LOVE a cup of tea! Thank you!” Then you know they want a cup of tea.

If you say, “Hey, would you like a cup of tea?” and they um and ahh and say, “I’m not really sure…” then you can make them a cup of tea or not, but be aware that they might not drink it, and if they don’t drink it then — this is the important bit — don’t make them drink it. You can’t blame them for you going to the effort of making the tea on the off chance they wanted it; you just have to deal with them not drinking it. Just because you made it doesn’t mean you are entitled to watch them drink it.

If they say, “No, thank you,” then don’t make them tea. At all. Don’t make them tea, don’t make them drink tea, don’t get annoyed at them for not wanting tea. They just don’t want tea, okay?

They might say, “Yes, please, that’s kind of you,” and then when the tea arrives they actually don’t want the tea at all. Sure, that’s kind of annoying as you’ve gone to the effort of making the tea, but they remain under no obligation to drink the tea. They did want tea, now they don’t. Sometimes people change their mind in the time it takes to boil that kettle, brew the tea and add the milk. And it’s okay for people to change their mind, and you are still not entitled to watch them drink it even though you went to the trouble of making it."


Yet, if you ask someone if he wants a cup of tea and he says no and you don't insist (or at least ask again), that is considered rude in some cultures (and it is also considered rude to accept tea the first time):

"When living or travelling in India, or when visiting an Indian persons home you're always treated as an honoured guest. When you're offered a cup of tea it's polite to say 'No, please don't go to any trouble.' Even if you want a cup of tea you still say no. The person offering the cup of tea will insist and you still say no. You both know the host will bring you a cup of tea anyway. To say 'no' is to be polite in Indian culture. You actually know they will bring you a cup of tea regardless. To tell them you do not want them to go to any trouble is considered good manners"

- Julie & Kishore / Carol Jackson


Meanwhile, it can also be rude to decline tea that is offered (there is probably some relationship between these cultures):

"Deemed a symbol of good will in North Africa, mint tea plays a prominent role in welcoming houseguests, conducting business dealings, bargaining for carpets, woodcrafts, or souvenirs and relaxing with friends at a cafe. Also thought to aid in digestion, it is served at the beginning or end of every meal. Etiquette requires that each person consume three glasses before departing a home, shop, or cafe. To decline a glass is deemed rude. Whether due to its lack of expense, comforting taste, ritualized yet simple preparation, or mildly addictive properties, mint tea has captivated this region. One cannot walk through a busy square without seeing rich, steaming tea being sipped at sidewalk cafes or in storefronts."

- Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia / Melitta Weiss Adamson, Francine Segan

"In the Afghan culture, when you enter someone’s house, you're offered chai tea, and you shouldn’t decline it. Unfortunately for me, I detest tea, and the mugs they use aren’t washed well as I can see lip marks from the previous person who drank from the cup (a real nightmare for someone with OCD). The first time I visited Rambo Three’s hut, he asked me if I wanted some tea, and I politely refused. He looked more disappointed than a Chicago Cubs fan in October, and so I asked, “Am I being rude because I did not accept your tea?” He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Yes.” Since then, I’ve not declined their tea or their dirty mugs, learning there’s no such thing as a "polite refusal” in Afghanistan."

- I am Danger; I am Prisoner / Danger Geist


Also if someone said "OMG, f*ck yes, I would f*cking LOVE a cup of tea! Thank you!", I'd consider that pretty rude.

Just imagine it in the local context:

"Want some Teh-C?"
"Chee bye. KNN. Fuck lah. Of course."


The metaphor of cultural imperialism can be extended into the realm of sexual relations, where the feminist culture of sexual consent is not the only one that is out there (or indeed, the only valid one).


Addendum: What happens if someone asks you to make him drink tea when he's passed out? Should you respect his wishes?

Links - 9th March 2015

Quokkas Are The Selfie Masters We All Want A Picture With

Did Grey Seals Mutilate Two Harbour Porpoises? - "there’s something oddly poetic about the otherwise grisly story. Whales and dolphins evolved from deer-like hoofed animals while seals, as I said, are carnivores that have taken to the sea. A seal eating a porpoise is a modern marine episode in a longstanding conflict between a group of (mostly) predators and a group of (mostly) prey."

Exclusive: Corrupt Apple Store Employees Come Forward Across America - "Computers were traded for plastic surgery, iPhones were smashed like party favors, and employees outright stole from the back room for their own pleasure. It was a den of misuse and abuse, all under the gleaming white aegis of Apple Retail. The perfection is a myth... One former employee who had opened retail stores across North America and Asia claimed "The corruption within Apple goes straight to the top. That is why I left, I couldnt tolerate it anymore. Under Mr. Cook, Apple is fracturing from the inside out." But there's probably a less theatrical explanation here. Apple Stores mint their own gold. They sell some of the most desirable expensive products in the history of desirable expensive products, without the pressure of commission. The stuff sells itself—and websites like ours sure help—and that's why Apple has the most profitable retail operation per square foot in the entire country. The stores make more money than Tiffany, which literally sells giant diamonds."

Diagnosing the Home Alone burglars' injuries: A professional weighs in

Singapore the ‘least positive’ country in the world: survey - "According to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday – the same poll that ranked countries with the most and least emotions – residents of Singapore are the least likely to feel positive alongside war torn countries such as Iraq and Armenia."

Male Strippers Stop an Armed Robbery With Their Bare Hands and Chests

Who Had Richer Parents, Doctors Or Artists? - "doctors, chief executives and police officers are doing much better than their parents in terms of income; designers, secretaries and waiters are doing worse"

Good guy with a gun myth: Guns increase the risk of homicide, accidents, suicide. - "for every 1 percent increase in gun ownership, there was a 1.1 percent increase in the firearm homicide rate and a 0.7 percent increase in the total homicide rate... the firearm ownership rate had no statistically significant impact on nonfirearm homicides, meaning there was no detectable substitution effect. That is, in the absence of guns, would-be criminals are not switching to knives or some other weapons to carry out homicide. These results are supported by a host of previous studies that illustrate that guns increase the rate of homicides. The evidence against firearm ownership becomes even stronger when suicides and accidents are included in the analysis—guns make both much more likely and more fatal... One might accept that firearms are dangerous and that they substantially elevate the risk of homicide, suicide, and fatal accidents, but still believe that policies regulating gun ownership are ineffective—criminals, after all, won’t follow them. However, another recent study from May of 2013 analyzed the impact of state firearm laws on firearm-related fatalities. It found that the most gun-restrictive states have significantly fewer firearm fatalities than the states with the least restrictive laws... Suppose a criminal has just broken into your house brandishing a firearm. You need to protect yourself and your family. Wouldn’t anyone feel safer owning a gun? This is the kind of narrative propagated by gun advocates in defense of firearm ownership. It preys on our fear. Yet, the annual per capita risk of death during a home invasion is 0.0000002, which, for all intents and purposes, is zero... Gun ownership doubled the risk of homicide and tripled the risk of suicide. This research is bolstered by a national survey that found that a gun in the home was far more likely to be used to threaten a family member or intimate partner than to be used in self-defense... despite the NRA’s mantra that there are millions of defensive gun uses every year, empirical data reveals that DGUs are actually extremely rare. Criminal uses of firearms far outnumber legal defensive uses. The evidence shows that there may be fewer than even 3,000 DGUs annually. In comparison, there are 30,000 gun deaths annually, and many more injuries and shattered lives. The costs of gun ownership unequivocally outweigh the benefits... FBI data reveal that about twice as many homicides result from arguments than from felonies, and gang violence is only a small contributor... the National Crime Victimization Survey found that people who used any weapon other than a gun for defense were less likely to be harmed than those who used a firearm"

When You Flip Through an IKEA Catalog, 75% of the 'Photography' You See is CGI

Flip-flopping politicians and judges: Survey of motivated reasoning and merits bias. - "we asked people whether President Bush acted rightly by using a loophole to make appointments in defiance of Senate opposition. Most Republicans said he did the right thing while most Democrats said he acted wrongly. We then put Obama’s name in for Bush with a different group of respondents and asked the same question. This time the vast majority of Republicans opposed the appointments while most Democrats said he did the right thing."

Iran's foreign minister summoned to parliament over walk with Kerry - "Speaking to reporters in Tehran last week, Zarif sought to justify the private walk with Kerry: "We had a serious earnest session and perhaps there was a need to pause a few minutes and resume in another form. These are quite normal in the world of diplomacy, especially since our hotel had no yard or garden and surrounding alleys were packed with curious journalists.""

Vandalism case: Teen guilty of theft, trespass - "Deputy Public Prosecutor Tang Shangjun told the court that Graaskov never took part in the spray-painting and backed out not because he realised his folly but because he knew he would miss the last bus home."
What sort of criminal needs to take the last bus home?!

Your behavior key to building a better society - "A tale goes like this: An old man lies on his back at a crossroads, waiting for someone whom he can blackmail. A young man walks up to him and says he is too poor for extortion. The old chap waves his hand, telling the young guy to leave him alone. Another man approaches the old man and says he is even poorer than the first and doesn't have enough money to even support himself. The old man gets up immediately and lets the young guy lie down in his place, saying, "your need to blackmail an upstart driving by in a fancy limousine is even greater than mine"... It seems the rationale is to use rampant abuse of power by officials to justify the misdeeds of ordinary people. In other words, people have no need to perform their duties as good citizens unless they have a government that is run by clean and honest officials."

Men who like spicier food are 'alpha males' with higher levels of testosterone, French report claims - Telegraph - "Scientists at the highly-respected University of Grenoble have published a report suggesting that regular consumption of chili peppers may raise levels of the hormone, which is believed to make men more adventurous, enterprising and sexually active... Unlike their British counterparts, relatively few have acquired a taste for hot curries. Many see chili as an assault on their taste buds that hinders enjoyment of the subtler, more delicate flavours of classic French cuisine."

Curry: why the British are moving on from Chicken Tikka Masala - Telegraph - "Curry made and adapted in Britain is now so good that it’s even becoming a major export. Ali relates an experience in Prague recently where he saw a Czech chef cooking curry with a Patak sauce, a brand founded in Britain. “Curry is served in five star hotels around the world,” he says, “and they’re not using recipes from India, they’re from [Britain].”"

Romantic red: red enhances men's attraction to women. - "In many nonhuman primates, the color red enhances males' attraction to females. In 5 experiments, the authors demonstrate a parallel effect in humans: Red, relative to other achromatic and chromatic colors, leads men to view women as more attractive and more sexually desirable. Men seem unaware of this red effect, and red does not influence women's perceptions of the attractiveness of other women, nor men's perceptions of women's overall likeability, kindness, or intelligence. The findings have clear practical implications for men and women in the mating game and, perhaps, for fashion consultants, product designers, and marketers. Furthermore, the findings document the value of extending research on signal coloration to humans and of considering color as something of a common language, both within and across species."

Has West's liberal left failed people of color? - "where one really feels that the left has lost track big time is in delineating racist speech and anti-Muslim prejudice from genuine criticism of ideologies like Islamism or fundamentalist Islam. This leads to inevitable silencing of voices of dissent, from Muslim community or otherwise. They sometimes end up stooping to such new lows that they even engage in implicit victim blaming, which is antithetical to the core values of progressive liberalism. And these very people ironically end up overlooking the diverse voices amongst people of color and just conveniently homogenize them instead. Makes one wonder if the whole thing smacks of a kind of elitist arrogance. The hypocrisy of some factions of left is so evident when they accuse the lack of attention to the horrendous atrocities committed Boko Haram by the western media. While western media is guilty of resorting to orientalist narratives and problematic portrayal of the ‘third world’, had the media publicized the atrocities committed by Boko Haram enough, would they have been spared of accusations of peddling Islamophobia?"

Vox got no threats for posting Charlie Hebdo cartoons, dozens for covering Islamophobia
If you take online threats seriously, you haven't been online long enough

Couple following their hearts in epic journey of love - "There are many ways to express love, but Ding Yizhou chose one that few would adopt: following a heart-shaped itinerary around China with his girlfriend, who uses a wheelchair."

Celebrating International Women's Day

ang geck geck priscilla (@anggeckgeck) • Instagram photos and videos:


"I believe being submissive to a man in front of his peers helps to build his confidence and pride , however, when a man veers in the wrong direction, a woman should know when to stand her ground and guide him back onto the right path. A strong woman helps a man make firm decisions if he can't make up his mind about things or can no longer decide, however, she shouldn't be too overpowering in a relationship. She needs to trust him and his capabilities and allow him to build his empire. She will always be the one who will give abundant love and respect to her man. As the saying goes, "There is a woman behind every successful man" and she is that woman.

#happyinternationwoman'sday #myownquote"

Links - 6th March 2015 (fixed)

(accidentally posted a near-dup post)


Why Do Women Cry More Than Men? - "“There are several studies over the years that have shown that men have larger tear ducts in their eyes, so that it is less likely for the tears to well up to the point of spilling over the eyelid onto the cheek,” said Dr. Geoffrey Goodfellow, an associate professor at the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago. There’s also this paper from the 1960s, in which a physician from the University of Michigan reports how he used male and female skulls to measure the length and depth of tear ducts, finding that women’s were shorter and shallower. Hormones also may provide an explanation, too, including testosterone, which, Vingerhoets believes, inhibits crying. Male prostate cancer patients, for example, tend to become more emotional when treated with medications that lower their testosterone levels. But this isn’t just about testosterone: Back in the 1980s, biochemist William H. Frey and his team analyzed the chemical makeup of emotional tears and compared them to tears caused by irritants. They found, among other things, that emotional tears tend to contain prolactin, a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that is associated with emotion. Vingerhoets passed on a 2012 paper from a team of Nigerian scientists that he said may help connect this to the gender difference in crying."

Italian man who forced daughters to diet and ski for being 'too fat' guilty of abuse - "An Italian father who forced his teenage daughters to ski competitively and eat a macrobiotic diet because he was concerned they were too fat has been found guilty of abuse and sentenced to nine months in prison... He said he encouraged them to ski and to eat a macrobiotic diet, avoiding processed and otherwise refined foods, out of a normal level of parental concern. But the mother of the teenagers and the prosecutor in the case painted a different picture, of constant pressure and taunting by the father of his daughters."

The Problem With Rational Wiki - Less Wrong - "While factually it is as about as accurate as Wikipedia, it is very selective about the facts that it is interested in. For example what would you expect from a site calling itself "Rational Wiki" to have on its page about charity. Do you expect information on how much good charity actually does? What kinds of charities do not do what they say on the label? How to avoid getting misled? The ethics of charity? The psychology, sociology or economics of charity? I'm sorry to disappoint you but the article consists of some haphazardly arranged facts and stats on how much members of some religions give or are supposed to give to charity, a dig against Christianity and a non-sequitur unfavourable comparison of the US to Sweden. Contrast this with what you can find on the topic on sites like LessWrong or 80, 000 Hours. Basically the material presented is what a slightly left of centre atheist needs to win an internet debate. As is much of the rest of the site. Indeed some entries have a clear ideological bias that is quite startling to behold on a "rational wiki" and it has been noted by some"
Comment: "Another example both of blatant bias and why I stopped reading liberal blogs even when I felt entirely on their side. Such a complete refusal to offer respect to your opponents is epistemically rude and super annoying for me to read.

What dark secret is in the S'pore basement? - "You could say more Singaporeans are walking away from their Omelas, and the city changes as a result"
So the best way to change the system is to migrate

Nutella not a girl’s name, French court rules - "A French court has barred a couple from naming their daughter Nutella after the popular hazelnut chocolate spread... The court ruled that such a name was against the girl’s interests as it would cause “mockery or disobliging remarks”... The days are long gone when a French child would be named according to the saint’s day on which it was born. In 1993 the law was changed to enable parents to freely choose their baby’s name – unless it is deemed contrary to the child’s interests... a separate case in the region concerned a child who had been given the name Fraise (Strawberry)... In 2013, a boy named Jihad caught the notice of school authorities when the three-year-old was seen wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “I am a bomb” on the front, and his name and date of birth, 11 September, on the back. His mother was acquitted of supporting terrorism by a court in Avignon."

Adrianna Tan - Instagram Photos - "They even sell SIM cards at arrivals now! (6 months ago, a SIM card cost $250; 3 years ago they cost $2000)... The sims are [now] 1500 kyats. (1.5 dollars)"

Nicholas Cho - Mobile Uploads - "This is why I fear for the future of Singapore.
For the record our pay $6-$7 per hour
Pooled incentives up to $400
Uniform allowance up to $100
Oh wait. Maybe the pay isn't high enough for your superstar salesman son ( no experience btw)
And the best part!
Location: Cineleisure!!
And that is why I fear for Singapore's future"

Singaporeans have misplaced sense of entitlement, says SICC head Victor Mills - "One issue that has become a challenge for many businesses is excessive job-hopping. This has come about only because of our economic success and a very tight labour market. I have seen one extreme example in the SICC. We had employed an assistant finance manager who had a lovely personality with all the right experience and skills. We thought we hit gold. But she turned up for work for just one day and then disappeared. When we tracked her down a few days later - she was not answering her phone - she said: "It just wasn't for me." But my response was: "How could you possibly know after just one day? You are not giving yourself or the organisation a chance.""

Vagina canoe artist defends herself over ‘obscenity’ charges - "“I don’t believe my vagina is anything obscene,” Igarashi said in a July press conference after her release, the Japan Times reported. “I was determined I would never yield to police power.” Writing on her website Igarashi describes her project: “Why did I start making this kind of art pieces? That was because I had not seen pussy of others and worried too much about mine. I did not know what a pussy should look like.""

Profs on Paris Attacks: Je Suis NOT Charlie! - Campus Watch - "University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole accused the Bush/Cheney administration and the Iraq War of "radicalizing" terrorist brothers, Sharif and Said Kouashi:.. Hofstra University Islamic studies professor Hussein Rashid, claiming that Muslims in Europe "feel like they are besieged" and view satirizing Islam "as bullying," concluded that, "it is not so much about religious anger, as it is about vengeance." Ingrid Mattson, who chairs Islamic studies at Huron University College in Ontario, tweeted that, "The attack on #CharlieHebdo is not about Islam vs the West. Many Muslims have had their heads taken off by fanatics who detested their views," as if the Paris terrorists were motivated by Muslim-on-Muslim violence. Meanwhile, Khaled Fahmy, a historian at the American University of Cairo who has taught Islamic studies at New York University, argued that religion was "just a veneer" for resentment against "colonial powers" and Western "Orientalist" condescension. "It is the nonviolence that needs to be explained, not the violence," he asserted. Taking the willful blindness even further, M. Steven Fish, a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley stated, "Is Islam violent? I would say absolutely not. There is very little empirical evidence that Islam is violent"... One might expect acts of unadulterated evil like the massacres in Paris to be met with unqualified condemnation from the American professoriate. But obfuscation, moral relativism, apologetics, and anti-Western bigotry are the strong suits of today's Middle East studies establishment. Islamists seeking to forbid criticism of radical Islam and undermine Western law and culture can count on their allies in academe."

Thousands chant for Hizbullah in Charlie Hebdo protest in southeast Turkey - "Around 100,000 people have protested the French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Diyarbakır, a Kurdish-majority city in Turkey's southeast, cheering for Turkish Hizbullah... "As long as you are the enemies of Allah, we will be your enemies," the Free Cause Party (Hüda Par) chair Molla Osman Teyfur said in his speech, vowing to "cut the tongue that talked against the Prophet.""

Photos: K-pop gal's sexy dance causes nosebleed
The Japs are actually right about nosebleeds!

The Conversation isn’t getting very far - "Firstly, it reinforced what I have called the petitionary state, that is one in which the government’s monopoly of power goes unquestioned, but like so much noblesse oblige, now and then, it generously lends a listening ear to the king’s subjects. But, and secondly, the problem with that is that people then get into the mode of asking for favours and seeing what is eventually sprinkled upon them as gifts; they don’t have to work for them or pay the price for them, whether it be smaller classroom sizes or more frequent trains."

How Carson Block Can Take On Singapore - "how do Temasek, GIC, and the government itself work with this seemingly odd cash flow? To Balding, the answer lies with something called the Central Provident Fund (CPF)... Balding conjectures, however, that CPF funds are being used to finance investments in GIC and Temasek. If the two investment vehicles return well over 2-4.5%, as the government claims, that's fine. If they earn less, the government has to put up the money to ensure that citizens get their returns. That means digging into government funds. Balding believes that this, at least in part, explains Singapore's massive debt."

Can women tell if a man will cheat on them just by looking at him? - "They also found a high correlation between attractiveness and perceptions of trustworthiness, with more attractive people judged more likely to be trustworthy. 'There might be some sort of attractiveness halo effect going on there,' Professor Simmons said. 'What was also really interesting is there was no correlation between peoples' rating of sexual faithfulness and trustworthiness. 'So they're obviously very different tasks and people are looking for different things.'"

Porn Predicts Same-Sex Marriage Support, Says Regnerus - "He suggests a correlation among young adult men (but not women) between regular porn consumption and support for same-sex marriage."

Social Scientists Defend Mark Regnerus' Controversial Study on Same-Sex Parenting - "Media outlets have not properly critiqued the "small, nonrepresentative samples" used by previous studies that showed equal or more positive outcomes for children of same-sex parents vs. heterosexual parents... Another new study (published this month in the Journal of Marriage and Family) – also based on a large, nationally representative, and random survey – comes to conclusions that parallel those of Regnerus's study."

How Common Are Stable Same-Sex Couples? - "The October issue of Journal of Marriage and Family published an analysis by Charles Lau of a British probability sample, “The Stability of Same-Sex Cohabitation, Different-Sex Cohabitation, and Marriage.” Lau found that cohabiting same-sex couples in Great Britain are twice as likely to break up as cohabiting opposite sex couples — and married couples (all opposite-sex in Great Britain) are at least five times more stable than same-sex couples... He also reports no increase in stability of same-sex unions between the 1958 birth cohort and the 1970 birth cohort."

Affirmative action (and feminism) kill

Safety Last? - Chicago Tribune
December 01, 1995|By Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness.

LIVONIA, Mich. — In a Nov. 14 article on female pilots training to fly combat aircraft (Main news), Michael Kilian suggested that questions about double standards in combat aviation training are primarily political and without foundation.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kilian had not yet received a copy of my organization's "Special Report: Double Standards in Naval Aviation," which documents an extraordinary and unusual pattern in the training of two female pilots. One such pilot, Lt. Kara Hultgreen, was killed last year while attempting to land an F-14 on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Detailed training records obtained by the Center for Military Readiness, a public policy educational organization specializing in military personnel issues, suggest Lt. Hultgreen may have been the victim of a flawed policy.

Lt. Hultgreen was an impressive and courageous woman, but the instructors gave her low scores and four signal-of-difficulty or unsatisfactory performance "downs"--one or two of which are frequently sufficient to end an aviation career. Two of Lt. Hultgreen's downs highlighted mistakes similar to errors made during her fatal approach to the carrier.

Navy instructors also awarded an astonishing seven downs to another female pilot, one of which was not recorded so that she could graduate as a "fully qualified" aviator.

After a series of meetings at the Pentagon, high-ranking Navy officials conceded, with much reluctance and only a few minor points of disagreement, that the material obtained from sources known to the Center was largely accurate. We then released the comprehensive Special Report.

Even proponents of women in combat should agree that safety should not be compromised and young lives put at greater risk because of "flexible" standards that treat men and women differently.


AIM Report - September B, 1997

"Men with equal or better records had waited a year or more for carrier training. The discrimination had a cost. The IG wrote: "The decision to move females ahead of males in the training pipeline, necessary to get them to the targeted carrier/air wing before deployment, contributed to the perception that women would receive preferential treatment to satisfy political objectives, a message that hurt morale and teamwork."

Lohrenz, Lt. Kara S. Hultgreen and two other women were among the 10 pilots assigned to Fighter Squadron VF-124. The training was supposed to be "gender neutral," but according to three flight instructors interviewed by the IG, reality was another matter. By their accounts, Cmdr. Tom Sobiek, the commanding officer, convened instructors who had expressed concerns about the women's flying. Sobiek allegedly said that "the women are going to graduate regardless of how they performed." One officer summarized Sobiek as saying, "you guys don't understand, this is bigger than all of us, these women are going to graduate no matter what."

Sobiek denied making any such statement. "That is a flat **** lie," he said. "And whoever told you that, if they were under oath, should be taken to task." The IG concluded "it is more likely than not" that Sobiek said something to indicate that the women "are going to make it to the fleet."

The IG said the Navy wanted to use the women carrier pilots as symbols to counter Tailhook and that overly zealous press agents helped create a climate that led to Lohrenz's failure. They used women fliers to prove that sexual integration of the military was working. One commander told investigators that the Navy was in a race with the Air Force to get the first female fighter pilot. The IG suggested that publicists wanted fliers to earn their wings regardless of their performance: "The failure of any single female aviator would have implications (at least in the media) far greater than the concerned individual. Failure would be portrayed as a failure of the female gender"...

Lt. Patrick J. Burns, "Jerry" to his shipmates, came into the Navy as an enlisted man and rose to officer rank as a carrier pilot. He was still in his early 30s in 1994, when he became one of the instructors for the pioneer women fliers. Persons who know Burns say that he says little about integration of women into the combat military; but he is a zealot on safety. He and other instructors raised questions about Hultgreen and Lohrenz early in their cycle. Respectful of protocol, he worked through the chain of command, to the squadron's operations officer, training officer, executive officer, and finally to the CO, Sobiek, who allegedly pronounced that the women were going to graduate regardless of their records.

Burns was worried. As he would later tell the IG, "the majority of the officers felt that safety was being compromised...[they] almost universally felt that...Hultgreen was a marginal pilot at best, [who] required very close scrutiny if she was to graduate to the fleet, and that Lt. Lohrenz was a substandard pilot [who] should not graduate..." The Navy chose to push the women through to graduation anyway. As Burns testified, "I...specifically told individuals that I expected a catastrophic mishap to take place concerning one of these individuals sometime during their fleet tour." In three months, Hultgreen was dead, victim of her own error and the Navy's lowered standards for women pilots...

At this point, Burns made a calculated decision that put his career at risk. He passed copies of training records to Elaine Donnelly, who runs a watchdog group, the Center for Military Readiness. A former army officer, Donnelly served on the Defense Department task force which studied whether women should be put into combat situations, something she opposed. Her center monitors the sexual integration of the military. Burns realized he was violating the Federal Privacy Act, but he had been ignored by superiors. He explained, "If I was walking down the street and I saw somebody's house on fire and I knew there were people inside and I knew I could get them out, I wouldn't be concerned about dragging them out in their underwear because of their privacy concerns"...

Concurrently, someone leaked the technical report on Hultgreen's accident, putting the lie to the claim that mechanical failure caused her death."

Double Standards: Some Races/Religions are More Equal than Others

From time to time, one comes across cases of individuals in Singapore investigated, charged and/or convicted for upsetting racial-religious harmony.

Usually, we hear of such cases when a "minority" is insulted.

Yet, let us not pretend that "minorities" are saints.


Let us take a case of a certain Muhammad Hechter, who was quick to anger due to a comment on SMRT Ltd (Feedback)'s page:



Muhammad Hechter: For FengquaN Koh to mentioned "It's so painful to see so many idiots believing what the Islam said in a book?!" is very uncalled for n dat is deemed as causing religious and racist unrest. N dat warrant a police report to be made against him!!! I have screenshot his comments and will make a police report soon...Dude just standby ok...n for ur fren by d name of Dzulhisham Along, pls open ur eyes and ur mind. How can u actually b his fren wen he condemned ur religion n mine by calling us Muslims idiots for believing in d Quran!!!

FengquaN Koh: Come i clap for you! What an idiot, you can't even understand what i wrote. You can even tell the term, "idiot" is referring to a individual or religion.

Let me give you a like.

Muhammad Hechter: I fully understood wat u typed nt wrote. The word "idiot" refers to n individual who believes in Islam. Its as simple as dat. I m nt as stupid as u r dude...so by putting dat word down means ur calling us Muslims "idiots" bcos our faith n belief is in Islam. Hence u r causing racial n religious unrest. Lu standby suah dok...

COME LET ME DBL CLAP FOR U N GIVE U A LIKE ALSO.


Looking at what FengquaN Koh had posted, we see that it is quite innocuous:



"It's so painful to see so many idiots believing what the islam said in a book?!

There is something called "google". These days pigs are raise with proper nutritional ingredients.

Seriously, do yourselves a favor by doing a bit of research before commenting like an ignorant fool."


This post was in response to the usual tiresome claims about pork being bad for you because of parasites/tapeworms:



Keith Tan: "Hokkien say smart enuff dun act smart. So now is drink enuff dun eat pork. Anyway, smart ppl dun eat pork, u shld read how it affects ur health. If torah, bible n quran say so, dun eat it if u can. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysticercosis"

In other words, A claims that you shouldn't eat pork because the Quran (among other religious texts) says so.

B responds that you shouldn't blindly believe what religious texts and that you should educate yourself, and that if you don't (and blindly believe what religious texts say), you're an idiot.

In light of this, FengquaN Koh's response would seem reasonable - if someone insisted that the Moon emitted light because of what was written in a religious text, one would be justified in chiding him for being an idiot (since it is demonstrably false that the moon emits light).


Now, what is especially interesting here is to contrast this (Hechter's police report) to his response to me:



Me: Technically if you're from the Hanafi school of Islam you can drink

Muhammad Hechter: N technically u r stupid n ignorant cos ur Chinese???!!!???

Me: Don't hate me if you're ignorant of some of the subtleties of your religion

Early hanafi scholars said non grape or date alcohol was ok

Alcohol: Its kinds, usage and Rulings | General Fiqh | Fiqh

Also I'm sure your Chinese Muslim brothers would not appreciate your racist remark

Muhammad Hechter: Hahaha hahaha too much swine in u aldy dats y...can't blame u for d lack of respect...well again dats Chinese...


So, this chap twice insulted me for being Chinese (besides not just being ignorant but reveling in his ignorance, and being irrational to boot [I'm still not sure what the link between eating pork and lacking respect is]).

At the same time he made a police report about someone for telling him to look at scientific evidence.

This is rich indeed.

One wonders why one never hears of Malays and/or Muslims insulting other races and/or religions.

I am tempted to see what happens if I, in turn, make a police report about this chap insulting my racial feelings, but I'm not sure if it's worth wasting taxpayers' money just to test the system for institutional racism/religious bias.



Addendum:

Hit Tip to PPBI for additional examples of minority racism:

I'm A Brown Person And I Live In A Racist Country - xoJane ("I walked into an elevator just last week and had two guys talking about me in Malay")

GPGT * Racist Saga month January 2015 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

GPGT - Waliew. This guy racist comment is too much la - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Muslim seeks refund for shoes lined with pig skin - Page 4 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Muslim seeks refund for shoes lined with pig skin - Page 5 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

[SERIOUS] Malay hawkers are the biggest racists. - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Malay musician sow discord to disaffect Malay/Muslims

Malay said that Chinese funeral is 'fucking noisy'. Acceptable?

Malay man did a Amy Chong racist comments


Keywords:

Malays, Racist

IT specialist got 15-year-old to have sex with 18-year-old in hotel room

What the...

IT specialist got 15-year-old to have sex with 18-year-old in hotel room

In the first case of its kind, a former IT specialist has been taken to court for causing a minor to have sex with another person while he took photographs of them.

In the dock on Thursday was the 41-year-old Singapore permanent resident, who pleaded guilty to doing so at Conrad Centennial Hotel sometime in late October or early November 2012. Two other charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced.

There is a gag order on the accused, the victim and the witness.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy told the court that the accused, a photography enthusiast, had done nude and erotic photography using models he obtained from a website.

Sometime in late October 2012, the minor, a Chinese national then in Secondary 4, came to know the accused, who advertised on the Craiglist classifieds, stating: "Hoping to fulfill my girlfriend's fantasies; seeking an extra man".

Curious, the youth responded, claiming he was 18. The man, who did not verify his age, arranged for the minor as well as the part-time model to meet him at the hotel in Temasek Boulevard.

While they were in the room, the part-time model told the minor she was a second-year polytechnic student, but had just dropped out of school. The minor claimed he was a first-year polytechnic student.

After talking for a while, the man, who had told the youth he was a businessman, set up his camera equipment and told the teen to pose with the model as he snapped photographs.

He then asked the model to undress the youth, who felt uncomfortable and awkward. The accused had reassured him that the photographs were meant only for his personal use.

The man then told the 18-year-old to take off her clothes. He got the duo to perform various sexual acts while he photographed them. He also joined them on the bed at one stage.

About 20 to 30 minutes later, he handed a condom packet to the minor and asked him to have sex with the model. The youth did so as she was engaged in a sexual activity with the man.

Before they left, he paid the model $250.

The offence came to light on Jan 8 last year, when someone saw the photographs online.

The maximum punishment for the offence is 10 years' jail and a fine.


Update:

Ex-IT specialist in threesome jailed 6 months for causing minor to have sex

"A former information technology specialist who caused a minor to have sex with an 18-year-old part-time model in the first case of its kind was sentenced to six months' jail on Wednesday...

At some point, the accused put the camera on "auto'' mode, took off his clothes and joined the minor and the model on the bed and engaged in sexual activity with her.

The accused, a Singapore permanent resident, is from India and has been working for an IT company for 13 years before he quit.

Two other charges including procuring the minor to perform an obscene act on the model were taken into consideration during his sentencing.

The minor came to know the accused, a photography enthusiast, in late October 2012 when the latter advertised online for an "extra man'' to "fulfil my girlfriend's fantasies''. Curious, the minor wanted to find out more and clicked a link confirming he was 18 years or older...

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy said the accused neither ascertained nor verified the minor's age. It was him who recruited and led the minor into sexual activity at a tender age, directed and told him what to do, making him perform all sorts of lewd acts, culminating in a sexual threesome.

She argued that there was a strong element of moral corruption of the sexually inexperienced minor by the accused.

The offences came to light early last year when the minor's guardian's son saw the photographs of the minor involved in the threesome on the Internet. The minor lodged a report the next day, on Jan 9...

Judge Yeo also said he was particularly perturbed by the fact that there was a strong element of moral corruption on the minor, who was a virgin at the time.

It is understood that the model will not be charged."


So apparently sex corrupts you morally.

Also as I predicted the girl wasn't charged.

Links - 26th February 2015

Man with Emirates Tattoo Enjoys $25,000 of Free Upgrades - "Glaswegian-born McGinlay is an English teacher in Thailand, but is treated like a celebrity when he boards an Emirates plane. The frequent flyer is regularly upgraded too the more luxury business and first class, and when crew find out about his tattoo, they often ask to pose for photos with McGinlay. Staff have also told him that his photo sits proudly on the wall of famous celebrities – alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Jackson – in the company’s Dubai headquarters... McGinlay said that his friends back in the UK are less than impressed with his luxury antics, admitting that on a photo posted on social media of his first-class boarding pass and a glass of Moet, a friend commented: “I hope you choke.”"

Built on Sand: Singapore and the New State of Risk

Canada Lets Makayla Sault Die of Leukemia Over Religious Sensitivity - "On Monday, Makayla Sault, an 11-year-old from Ontario and member of the Mississauga tribe of the New Credit First Nation, died from acute lymphoblastic leukemia after suffering a stroke the previous day. This would normally not be big news in Canada or the U.S.—except for the fact that Makayla's death was probably preventable and thus unnecessary. Makayla died not only from leukemia, but from faith—the faith of her parents, who are pastors. They not only inculcated her with Christianity, but, on religious grounds, removed her from chemotherapy to put her in a dubious institute of “alternative medicine” in Florida... Her doctors say that if she had stayed on chemotherapy and standard treatment, she would have had a 75 percent chance of survival.Makayla went off chemotherapy because the Canadian government and its child protective services refused to override the parents’ and child’s wishes to discontinue treatment; after supposedly having a vision of Jesus while in the hospital, Makayla had become convinced that chemotherapy was killing her. "
Is this so different from euthanising children?

Why Night Owls Are More Intelligent Than Morning Larks

The Gay Guide to Wedded Bliss - "heterosexual wives are more likely than husbands to initiate divorce. Social scientists have struggled to explain the discrepancy, variously attributing it to the sexual revolution; to women’s financial independence; to men’s failure to keep modern wives happy. Intriguingly, in Norway and Sweden, where registered partnerships for same-sex couples have been in place for about two decades (full-fledged marriage was introduced several years ago), research has found that lesbians are twice as likely as gay men to split up. If women become dissatisfied even when married to other women, maybe the problem with marriage isn’t men. Maybe women are too particular. Maybe even women don’t know what women want. These are the kinds of things that we will be able to tease out... gay and lesbian couples were fairer in their dealings with one another than straight couples, both in intent and in practice. The lesbians in the study were almost painfully egalitarian—in some cases putting money in jars and splitting everything down to the penny... lesbian couples seemed to take the practice to extremes: “It was almost like ‘my kitty, your litter'”... in all couples, the person with the higher income had more authority and decision-making power. This was least true for lesbians; truer for heterosexuals; and most true for gay men. Somehow, putting two men together seemed to intensify the sense that “money talks”... Even as they are more egalitarian in their parenting styles, same-sex parents resemble their heterosexual counterparts in one somewhat old-fashioned way: a surprising number establish a division of labor whereby one spouse becomes the primary earner and the other stays home... for married heterosexual parents, happiness tends to be U-shaped: high at the beginning of marriage, then dipping to a low, then high again. What happens in that low middle is child-rearing... women may have a “stronger general sensitivity to the quality of relationships.” Meaning maybe women are just picky, and when you have two women, you have double the pickiness. So perhaps the real threat to marriage is: women... in the decade since same-sex partnerships became legal, heterosexual marriage rates had increased 10.7 percent in Denmark, 12.7 percent in Norway, and 28.8 percent in Sweden. Divorce rates had dropped in all three countries... When, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Pepper Schwartz asked couples about their sex lives, she arrived at perhaps her most explosive finding: non-monogamy was rampant among gay men, a whopping 82 percent of whom reported having had sex outside their relationship. Slightly more than one-third of gay-male couples felt that monogamy was important; the other two-thirds said that monogamy was unimportant or that they were neutral on the topic. In a funny way, Schwartz says, her findings suggested that same-sex unions (like straight ones) aren’t necessarily about sex. Some gay men made a point of telling her they loved their partners but weren’t physically attracted to them. Others said they wanted to be monogamous but were unsupported in that wish, by their partner, gay culture, or both."

vivre l'écureuil - "1. What does “trigender” mean?
Trigender is a non-binary gender choice that liberates me from having to decide one just one gender. It means that I am simultaneously male, female, and neither.
4. Why squirrelkin?
I’ve already answered this one so I’m just going to copy and paste it from the other post.
- I’m a squirrelkin because I believe I was intended to be a squirrel, but for some reason, there was a mishap and I ended up assuming the form of a human.
- How do I know I was intended to be a squirrel? There are lots of reasons. One, I only like eating nuts. I eat nuts throughout the day and I also plant them sometimes. When I laugh, people tell me that it sounds like a squirrel. I often find myself resisting the urge to scale trees whenever I go to the park because I know the general population doesn’t understand otherkin. But I love climbing trees. I’m also a very fast runner.
- Astrally, every time I astral project, I take the form of a squirrel. This was the tipping point for me. That’s when I knew I was truly meant to be a squirrel.
5. What are headmates?
Headmates are separate individuals that inhabit the same body as I do.
7. Is this a satire account?
No. I might be a little sarcastic sometimes but I assure you, I’m as real as they come.
8. What caused you to have PTSD?
When I was younger, I went on a field trip to a farm. There was a chicken coop and at my young age, I was very fascinated by chickens. If I weren’t a squirrelkin, I’d probably be a chickenkin. Just to put into perspective how much I love chickens. So anyway, we were at the farm, and this guy just came up and picked up the chicken. He seemed to touch the chicken in inappropriate ways. And an egg fell out. And then the chicken died a little while later. As I mentioned before, this may have been a dream, but it was still very real for me. And now I cry when people are cruel to animals and it really puts me on edge too."

Healthy eating can turn into an obsession - "every time she received compliments for her discipline to eat healthily, her heart sank. “There were so many things I restricted myself from to adhere to my ritual. I ate only plain food — no sauce, oil or salt. I looked healthy but I was really miserable,” she recalled. For the last two years, Ms Lim, now 20, struggled with what doctors and registered dietitians here describe as an unhealthy desire to eat only pure or “clean” food, which may lead to poor physical, social and emotional health. Some experts refer to the condition as orthorexia nervosa, a little-researched disorder... She has seen a handful of cases where her patients are obsessed with healthy eating, such as taking only organic juices or raw vegetables... For Ms Lim, “healthy eating” at one point meant restricting herself to 30 grams of carbohydrates — just slightly more than one slice of bread — each day, and scrutinising online menus to ensure restaurants serve “healthy” dishes worth her calories before agreeing to attend social outings... “Planning my daily meals and workouts began to take over my mind in a way that made me very miserable. I refused dinner gatherings that would disrupt my regime,” Ms Lim said... While acknowledging that the screening criteria for orthorexia is ambiguous, health experts raised some red flags: Cutting out major food sources such as red meat, gluten, dairy and sugar; spending excessive amounts of time, say three or more hours a day, preparing specific types of food; scrutinising food labels and menus; and being fixated with calorie-counting, such as feeling guilty when they consume five to 10 calories more than their daily quota. SGH’s Dr Lee said: “People with orthorexia are often resistant to advice because they believe they know what a healthy diet is, and that their diet is healthy.” Dr Wang said it is important for those with eating disorders to be around a “healthy community”. “By that, I mean family and friends who take a balanced and holistic approach towards food and life.”"
More simply, you might describe people who cut out entire food sources as cranks

Ship Your Enemies Glitter revenge website sells at auction only days after launch - "Mathew Carpenter auctioned off Ship Your Enemies Glitter for a tidy sum of $85,000 this week after launching the site last week and becoming swamped with orders... Bidding hit $70,000 within hours of the site, which referred to glitter as "the herpes of the craft world," being put up for sale, according to the Guardian. It stalled and then shot up another $15,000 to the final asking price. Carpenter claims he earned $20,000 in the short time his site was accepting orders, according to the auction listing. More than 2.5 million people visited the website in its first four days."

Butts Versus Boobs: Which Do Guys Really Prefer? - "Pornhub Insights (behind one of the web’s most highly trafficked porn site’s YouPorn) calculated data on this point based on searches of butts and breasts in countries around the world, and ultimately concluded it has to do with how close to the equator someone lives. Butts came out the winner in places like South America, Latin America, and Africa. The one exception to this is Canada—our neighbors to the North apparently really appreciate a shapely butt. In the European Union, however, it was breasts that came out on top in countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. What’s the verdict in America? While it varies by state, butts came out the winner overall. No real surprise there, considering our recent obsession with all things booty. Researches at the University of Buenos Aires in 2013 asked heterosexual men the same question—breasts versus butts—in a study and found that 59 percent of men preferred butts, while 38.5 percent preferred breasts. What is particularly interesting about their findings is that rarely did men attest that both traits equally contributed to a woman’s attractiveness, with only 2 percent responding that that was true for them. So it seems men really do fall into one of these buckets after all. But what does it actually mean to be a butt guy or a boob guy? A 1968 U.S. study (yeah, we’re going way back) asked 95 male college students which silhouette of a woman they found to be the most attractive. Men who preferred “large” breasts were found to have “a tendency to date frequently, to have masculine interests, and to read sports magazines…large-breast preference was related to a need for heterosexual contact and for exhibitionism (saying witty things and being the center of attention).” On the other side of the spectrum, men who preferred large butts were “characterized by a need for order (neatness, organization, orderliness)…Those who preferred the largest buttocks figure tend to be business majors…and tend not to be psychologically minded. In social situations, they are dependent and given to self-abasement (guilty, self-blaming). Their value orientation tends not to be stoic in nature.”"

The most disturbing Ris Low video ever

Power/Rangers

POWER/RANGERS from Joseph Kahn on Vimeo.

Deboot of the Power Rangers. My take on the FAN FILM. Not a pilot, not a series, not for profit, strictly for exhibition. This is a bootleg experiment not affiliated or endorsed by Saban Entertainment or Lionsgate nor is it selling any product. I claim no rights to any of the characters (don't send me any money, not kickstarted, this film is free). This is the NSFW version. An alternate safe version is on youtube.

Interview by Drew McWeeny at Hitfix: http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/world-exclusive-what-are-katee-sackhoff-and-james-van-der-beek-doing-in-joseph-kahns-powerrangers

Making Of: (to be posted soon)

CAST:

Katee Sackhoff - Kimberly/Pink
James Van Der Beek - Rocky
Russ Bain - Tommy/Green
Will Yun Lee - General Klank
Gichi Gamba - Zack/Black

CREW

Director: Joseph Kahn
Writers: Joseph Kahn, James Van Der Beek, Dutch Southern
Producers: Adi Shankar, Jil Hardin
Executive Producers: Justin Smith, David Kang, Raymond Watt, Michael S. Kim
Co-producers: Renn Brown, Kathy Palmer
Cinematographer: Christopher Probst
Production Designer: Brett Hess
Costume Designer: Edda Gudmunsdottir
Stunt/Fight Coordinator: Don Theerathada/87 Eleven
Sound Designer: Fletcher Alliston
Music by: Brain and Melissa
Visual Effects: Ingenuity Engine
Visual Effects Supervisors: David Lebensfeld, Grant Miller, Chris Watts


Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PowerRangersBootleg

Links - 21st February 2015

Court refuses trial by combat - Telegraph - "A court has rejected a 60-year-old man's attempt to invoke the ancient right to trial by combat, rather than pay a £25 fine for a minor motoring offence. Leon Humphreys remained adamant yesterday that his right to fight a champion nominated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) was still valid under European human rights legislation. He said it would have been a "reasonable" way to settle the matter. Magistrates sitting at Bury St Edmunds on Friday had disagreed and instead of accepting his offer to take on a clerk from Swansea with "samurai swords, Ghurka knives or heavy hammers", fined him £200 with £100 costs."

Noah's Ark would have floated...even with 70,000 animals - Telegraph - "Previous research has suggested that there were approximately 35,000 species of animals which would have needed to be saved by Noah, enabling the students to conclude that the dimensions given in the Bible would have allowed Noah to build an ark that would float with all of the animals on board"

Sex is the secret to looking younger, claims researcher - Telegraph - "He said sex has a number of health benefits which can make men and women look between five and seven years younger which includes; it causes the release of endorphins, the ‘feel good’ chemical which acts as a natural painkiller and reduces anxiety aiding sleep; exercise boosts circulation which is good for the heart; and it also causes the human growth hormone to be released which makes the skin look more elastic... “Sexual satisfaction is a major contributor to quality of life, ranking at least as high as spiritual or religious commitment and other morale factors, so more positive attitudes towards mature sex should be vigorously promoted"

Oscar Pistorius case highlights how little we really know about the sports stars we idolise - Telegraph - "The most terrifying allegations about Lance Armstrong are not simply his use of performance-enhancing drugs to make him the best, but the campaign of bullying and intimidation he used to preserve his super-clean, supercool image. Those stories are hard to square with his previous public image as a cancer survivor intent on doing good; no wonder his foundation no longer bears his name. I am not for a minute suggesting that having an affair is the same as cheating at sport or that either is equivalent to a murder charge. But in their different ways each revelation shows how little we know about these men — and it usually is men — whom we endow not only with superhuman sporting ability but extraordinary personal qualities. We do the same with actors and film stars. Yet these figures in the public eye are ultimately unknowable. They show us only what they want us to see... The nature of sporting success requires a high degree of narcissism and arrogance, an inflated sense of your own worth, and a single-minded pursuit of your goals. Indeed, it requires many of the qualities that actually work against goodness, kindness and being nice and loyal to the people closest to you"

Women and gay men are 'worst drivers' - Telegraph - "Research has revealed that both perform poorly in tasks involving navigation and spatial awareness when compared to heterosexual men... the findings mean driving in a strange environment would be more difficult for gay men and women than for straight male motorists. Both tend to rely on local landmarks to get around, and are also slower to take in spatial information... The results back earlier studies supporting the stereotype that women are poor navigators. Although women are more successful in tests requiring them to remember the position of objects, men consistently do better in tasks requiring navigation and uncovering hidden objects"

Vultures, sharks, and sex with the enemy: the bizarre accusations against Israel – Telegraph Blogs - "Much mirth and merriment is being generated by the Sudanese reports that an Israeli vulture has been carrying out espionage over Darfur. In reality, of course, the bird was fitted with a GPS tracker by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The same thing happened in Saudi Arabia last year, when a "griffon" was "arrested" for its role in a "Zionist plot". This is just the latest in a long and bizarre list of examples of paranoia among Israel's enemies. My personal favourite, which I have mentioned here once before, occurred in December 2010. A series of shark attacks in Egyptian waters, which led to one death and four injuries, caused the regional governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha to blame it on Israel. “The Mossad throwing the deadly shark in the sea to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question,” he said. In response, the Israeli foreign ministry made a statement that "the man must have seen Jaws one time too many"... The Rabbi explained that according to Jewish law, women are passive partners during sex, and so seduction for intelligence purposes is permitted when lives are at stake. However, there are certain restrictions: although female Mossad agents do not need specific Rabbinical authority to seduce an enemy target, they must not commit such acts in public, and should not do so if they are known to be Israeli. According to Rabbi Shvat, seduction assignments should “be given to a woman who in any event is promiscuous”, and if she was married, the husband should divorce her beforehand, and they remarry her afterwards."

Muslim juror removed from jury after refusing to take off veil - Telegraph - "A Muslim juror has been excused from sitting on a case because her veil concealed her facial expressions"

Sex surrogates: saviours or sinners? - Telegraph - "Long shrouded in misunderstanding, sex surrogacy is now in the spotlight thanks to a new film, The Sessions, telling the story of O’Brien, played by John Hawkes, and Cohen Greene, played by a largely nude Helen Hunt. Released in Britain early next year, after receiving standing ovations and much Oscar talk in the United States, the film uses a surprising amount of humour to confront two taboos: the sexual needs of the disabled and the controversial role sometimes played by surrogates in order to fulfil them. Although often dismissed as prostitutes – or sex workers, to use the industry’s preferred term – surrogates claim they are actually far closer to therapists, whose work is vital to help people recover from sexual trauma and tackle dysfunction. But critics dismiss the work as morally dubious, degrading and of negligible therapeutic benefit... Previous success rates for sexual dysfunction had been very low. In contrast, Masters and Johnson’s two-week, “hands-on” programme was proved to be 80 per cent effective over five years, and 75 per cent effective when surrogates were used. But even in the free-love era, surrogacy was viewed with suspicion. In 1970 the couple regretfully ended the practice when they were sued by a man who claimed his wife was working as a surrogate. The result, Masters said later, was a complete reversal of previous success rates with single, impotent men, with 75 per cent of therapy now failing"

US should 'keep control of net' says Clinton - "Net freedom could suffer after the US steps back from its role as ultimate overseer of the global network, former US President Bill Clinton has said. Many of the governments keen to help oversee the net just wanted to use it to silence dissent, he said."

Why IEEE Fellow Radia Perlman hates technology - "But the world would be a better place if more engineers, like me, hated technology. The stuff I design, if I'm successful, nobody will ever notice. Things will just work, and be self-managing. Though, I've learned that some people like to configure things, so I usually design in knobs for them to play with, and perhaps improve things, but any setting of the knobs will still work correctly. When engineers [who] just love this stuff design something, we wind up with a system that asks an innocent person attempting to install email, "Do you want POP or IMAP?" One common comment engineers make is that we need "more user training". That's just wrong. Instead of expecting humans to adapt to an interface slapped together by engineers, engineers should strive to create a system that is designed for humans in their natural form"

The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study - "a vegetarian diet is related to a lower BMI and less frequent alcohol consumption. Moreover, our results showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health (higher incidences of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), a higher need for health care, and poorer quality of life"
Addendum: Study: Vegetarians Less Healthy, Lower Quality Of Life Than Meat-Eaters - "Vegetarians were twice as likely to have allergies, a 50 percent increase in heart attacks and a 50 percent increase in incidences of cancer... Subjects who consumed lower amounts of animal fat were also linked to poor health care practices, such as avoidance of vaccinations and a lack of preventive care."

BBC News - Stranger danger in the 18th Century - ""Friendship was regarded as quite dangerous," says Prof Matthew Grenby, an expert on children's literature from Newcastle University. "Friends are the sort of people that are going to lead you off the straight and narrow and are going to be detrimental to your secular prospects and also your spiritual prospects."

Children’s films have more death than adult ones - "Picking a children’s animated movie to keep the kids quiet on a rainy Sunday afternoon could involve exposing them to 2.5 times the number of deaths found in films aimed at adults, according to new research... Deaths were more likely to occur early on in children’s films: in Pixar’s Finding Nemo, the titular clownfish’s mother is eaten by a barracuda just four minutes and three seconds in, researchers noted, while in Disney’s Tarzan the feral child’s parents are killed by a leopard after four minutes and eight seconds. Parents were five times more likely to die in children’s animated fare than in adult-orientated movies."

Couple singing Peppa Pig tune to toddler 'forced off bus after complaints they were being racist' because it goes against Muslim pork ban

Sleep-Away Camp for Postmodern Cowboys - NYTimes.com - "Team America were at Kasotc for the fifth-annual Warrior Competition in which 32 teams from 17 countries and the Palestinian territories would compete against one another on mock missions. Organizers have referred to it as “the Olympics of counterterrorism”"

Yelp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "A Harvard Business School study published in 2011 found that each "star" in a Yelp rating affected the business owner's sales by 5–9 percent. A 2012 study by two Berkeley economists found that an increase from 3.5 to 4 stars on Yelp resulted in a 19 percent increase in the chances of the restaurant being booked during peak hours. A 2014 survey of 300 small business owners done by Yodle found that 78 percent were concerned about negative reviews. Also, 43 percent of respondents said they felt online reviews were unfair, because there is no verification that the review is written by a legitimate customer."

Into The Words

Forbidden Broadway: Greatest Hits - Volume I



STEPHEN
Once upon a time!
(Lights up on a bearded man at the side of the stage. He is Stephen
Sondheim. The MUSIC begins.)

STEPHEN
There was a great songwriter called Stephen Sondheim. He had many, many hit shows, among which
were Sunday In The Park With George...
(A "Dot" character enters, holding an umbrella.)

DOT
I WISH...
(Turns right in profile and freezes)

STEPHEN
Sweeney Todd!
(SWEENEY ENTERS scaring DOT by raising his bloody razor so that
she counters to the right of him.)

SWEENEY
I WISH…

STEPHEN
And the fairy tale musical Into The Woods.
(A LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD ENTERS, carrying a basket.)

RIDING HOOD
I WISH...
(She is left of DOT and smiles at audience, then freezes.)

STEPHEN
All the characters in all the shows were very happy to be in a prestigious Sondheim musical, except for a
few things…

RIDING HOOD
I WISH.
I WISH THIS SHOW WAS MORE MELODIC!
I WISH.
(Sticks her tongue out at SONDHEIM, and freezes again.)

SWEENEY
I WISH.
I WISH THIS SHOW WAS LESS PRETENTIOUS.
I WISH.
(SWEENEY raises his razor high, and freezes.)

DOT
(Faces forward)
I WISH.
I WISH THE LYRICS WEREN'T SO WORDY.
I WISH.

STEPHEN
(As he crosses to center in front of his characters:)
You see, with Sondheim shows people sometimes miss the point. They're supposed to listen and go...Into
the words.
(Each character joins SONDHEIM on his or her line.)

RIDING HOOD
INTO THE WORDS

SWEENEY
INTO THE WORDS

DOT
INTO THE WORDS

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
THE METAPHORS, THE SYNONYMS, THE PERFECT SCAN

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
THE DETAIL AND THE TRICKY LITTLE PHRASES

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

SWEENEY
THE WHAT, THE WHERE, THE WHEN, THE WHY
THE PLOT BEGAN

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

DOT
THE WORK, THE CRAFT

RIDING HOOD
THAT GARNERS ALL THE PRAISES
(They skip in a counter-clockwise circle.)

ALL
INTO THE WORDS!
INTO THE WORDS!

DOT
THE MUSIC WAITS

ALL
INTO THE WORDS!
INTO THE WORDS!

STEPHEN
THE LYRIC STATES THAT

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
YOUR CONTENT ALWAYS COMES BEFORE YOUR FORM AND STYLE

ALL
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
INTERNAL RHYMES THAT EVEN BAFFLED MERMAN

ALL
INTO THE WORDS
A QUICK EXCHANGE
SO VERY STRANGE, YOU'LL CRY AND SMILE

STEPHEN
AND NEVER REPEAT A VERSE OR BRIDGE
THIS ISN'T JERRY HERMAN
(They link arms and skip upstage, then downstage.)

ALL
INTO THE WORDS
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
THEY ALWAYS TEACH
ALL
INTO THE WORDS
INTO THE WORDS

STEPHEN
TO HEAR ME PREACH
THE THOUGHTS ARE CLEAR
IF UNDERSTOOD
I HAVE NO PEER
'CAUSE I'M SO GOOD

THE SCORE IS THE STAR
THE STARS ARE JUST WOOD
I SORT OF HATE TO ASK IT
BUT WHAT'S A RHYME FOR BASKET?

ALL
INTO THE WORDS
THAT TRIP YOUR LIP, AND FRY YOUR BRAIN
AND SPRAIN YOUR TONGUE
INTO THE WORDS
A CAVE SO DARK
YOU'D BETTER BRING A TORCH IN

INTO THE WORDS
THAT FLY AND TRY TO MAKE YOU
CHOKE THE JOKE YOU'VE SUNG
INTO THE WORDS
MORE LETTERS THAN
THEY SELL ON WHEEL OF FORTUNE
(RIDING HOOD goes offstage right and brings on a large board with
the words to the song on it; she hands it to SONDHEIM.)

STEPHEN
(Spoken)
Now, some people say that my songs aren't catchy. But that's not true. And to prove it, I'll conduct a
Sondheim singalong. Now everybody sing and just follow the bouncing razor.
(SWEENEY suddenly raises his peculiar teaching instrument.)

STEPHEN (CONT'D)
Ready? 1-2-12-8.

ALL
(With the audience, they repeat the two verses, slowly and surely,
SWEENEY'S razor bouncing along the top of the board.)
INTO THE WORDS
THAT TRIP YOUR LIP, AND FRY YOUR BRAIN
AND SPRAIN YOUR TONGUE
INTO THE WORDS
A CAVE SO DARK
YOU'D BETTER BRING A TORCH IN

INTO THE WORDS
THAT FLY AND TRY TO MAKE YOU
CHOKE THE JOKE YOU'VE SUNG
INTO THE WORDS
MORE LETTERS THAN
THEY SELL ON WHEEL OF FORTUNE

STEPHEN
(Speaks:)
Very good. You all graduate! So now let's do it up to tempo.
(And then, done very quickly)
1-2-12-8!

ALL
(They sing double time, while the audience tries to keep up, repeating the
two verses.)
INTO THE WORDS
THAT TRIP YOUR LIP, AND FRY YOUR BRAIN
AND SPRAIN YOUR TONGUE
INTO THE WORDS
A CAVE SO DARK
YOU'D BETTER BRING A TORCH IN

INTO THE WORDS
THAT FLY AND TRY TO MAKE YOU
CHOKE THE JOKE YOU'VE SUNG
INTO THE WORDS
MORE LETTERS THAN
THEY SELL ON WHEEL OF FORTUNE

ALL (WITHOUT AUDIENCE)
WE'RE…
(They all take a deep breath)
INTO THE SYLLABLES
INTO THE ANTONYMS
INTO THE METAPHORS
INTO THE SYNONYMS

DOT AND RIDING HOOD
INTO THE SYLLABLES
INTO THE ANTONYMS
INTO THE METAPHORS
INTO THE SYNONYMS
INTO THE SYLLABLES
INTO THE ANTONYMS
INTO THE METAPHORS
AND

STEPHEN
CAREFUL!
YOUR DICTION
CAREFUL!
YOUR DICTION
CAREFUL!
YOU

SWEENEY
ARE YOU SURE
YOU UNDERSTAND?
ARE YOU THAT
YOU VERSTEH?
ARE YOU SURE
THAT YOU CAPEESH?
AWAY WE GO
INTO

ALL
THE WORDS!

Links - 20th February 2015

Eating Alone in China - "For millennia, the most basic of Chinese meals have involved “three main dishes plus a soup,” a spread that only makes sense for a table of three people or more. It’s no wonder that a perennial staple of stir-frys—a merry medley of beef, chicken, pork and vegetables—is named “happy family”... “I’m watching this alone,” a commenter wrote wryly beneath the video of the summer waffle. “It relaxes me and loosens my heart.” To be alone isn’t always to be lonely. Sometimes, a strawberry waffle is all the companionship you need."

We should stop putting women in jail. For anything. - "The argument is actually quite straightforward: There are far fewer women in prison than men to start with — women make up just 7 percent of the prison population. This means that these women are disproportionately affected by a system designed for men. But could women’s prisons actually be eliminated in the United States, where the rate of women’s incarceration has risen by 646 percent in the past 30 years?"
Comments: "So basically, we should have 2 separate standards for genders when it comes to moral responsibility and punishment. So I guess sexism is a good thing when it helps women...."
"Do you suppose women might end up in prison less because people like the author keep on insisting they don't deserve to be punished? Because they are seen as duped accomplices instead of willing instigators? You do know women excel at "violence by proxy" right, while men prefer to fight their own battles? All of this is true. None of it is sexist, at least, according to feminists."
"On a similar note, statistics show there's far fewer white people in prison than colored people - so should we conclude that it would be a good idea to stop putting white people in jail, for anything?"
"Look few women go to prison. Fewer Whites going to prison was called racism. Is the fact that fewer women go sexism?"
Keywords: feminists want to stop sending women to jail, feminists want to stop sending women to prison, feminists don't want women to go to jail, feminists don't want women to go to prison

China: Groom calls wedding off after the Bride arrived at the wedding looking 50 years older - "Apparently, 26-year-old Qing Kao deliberately attended her wedding looking like that, to prank her boyfriend. She wanted to see the groom’s reaction, and wanted to know if he would still love her when she is 70 years old. Guo Chien, the groom, did not find the prank funny at all, and started the heated shouting in public while shocked passersby looked on."
Comments: "before people screaming hate regarding gender equality and how China needs feminism, the guy (even though it seems he was yelling) was trying to tell her to calm down and not embarrass herself and have this discussion inside or another time, without all the people watching. HOWEVER she was screaming abuse at him (calling him a prick etc), then told him to "fuck off" which was the reason he threw his glasses on the ground and stormed off."
"Future prank: groom shows up in rags asking if she's still love him if he's poor."

etymology - Where does the phrase of "boredom punctuated by moments of terror" come from?

Victoria's Secret 'Perfect Body' Campaign Changes Slogan After Backlash
Comment: "Oh please. You do not view VS's product as "realism". It is all about fantasy and has always been as such. For women to get upset about a VS advertising campaign is about like men getting upset about an A&F one. And if you're finding yourself victimized by it... well, that's your choice. Sorry to seem brusque, but when has advertising *ever* been about reality?"
"Maybe they can add a couple of dudes in there too. Who's to say guys don't look sexy in lingerie?"
"It might be nice to see some models who are disabled, perhaps using wheelchairs or crutches, for example. People with disabilities are the biggest minority yet they are often not represented in media. Don't the ad agencies think people with disabilities buy underwear too?"
"You know if that happened people would cry foul and say the media was fetishizing disability."

Does Playing Hard to Get Make You Fall in Love?

Intelligence makes people think like economists: Evidence from the General Social Survey - "

Education is by far the strongest predictor of whether a non-economist will share the economic beliefs of the average economist. (Caplan, 2001) Is the effect of education as large as it seems? Or is education largely a proxy for cognitive ability? Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), we show that the estimated effect of education sharply falls after controlling for intelligence. In fact, education is driven down to second place, and intelligence replaces it at the top of the list of variables that make people "think like economists." Thus, to a fair degree education is proxy for intelligence, though there are some areas—international economics in particular—where education still dominates. An important implication is that the political externalities of education may not be as large as they initially appear."

A Plan to Reboot Dating - "In her Atlantic article "Boys on the Side" (September 2012), Hanna Rosin argues that the social progress of women depends on the hook-up culture. Women in their 20s and 30s are, for the first time, more successful than their male peers. These alpha females not only outnumber men on college campuses, they have also overtaken men as the majority of the work force. This would not have been possible without sexual liberation, which has let women delay marriage and child-rearing to pursue their educational and career ambitions without worrying about the emotional burdens of a relationship. Women are better off in part because of the hook-up culture, the argument goes. But are they really?... ccording to a 2010 report by the American Council on Education, 57 percent of all undergraduates are female. Robert Epstein, a professor of psychology at Harvard and an expert in relationships, said in an interview with me that the more women there are on campus, the more prevalent the hook-up culture is: "You have a situation in which relationships are bound to fail and men keep switching off from one woman to the next," he told me. What motivation do men have to ask women out on a date when sex is so widely and easily available? The feminist sociologist Lisa Wade, based at Occidental College, who did a qualitative study of 44 of her freshman students (33 of them women), found that most of them were "overwhelmingly disappointed with the sex they were having in hook ups. This was true of both men and women, but was felt more intensely by women." College women today, as Wade points out, feel "disempowered instead of empowered by sexual encounters. They didn't feel like equals on the sexual playground, more like jungle gyms." According to a 2010 study by Carolyn Bradshaw of James Madison University, only 2 percent of women strongly prefer the hook-up culture to a dating culture. Miriam Grossman, author of the 2006 book Unprotected, reports that women long for emotional involvement with their partner twice as often as men following a hook up; 91 percent of women experience regret; 80 percent of women wish the hook-up hadn't happened; and 34 percent of women hope the hook-up develops into a relationship. NYU sociologist Paula England, whom Rosin cites, says that 66 percent of women and 58 percent of men want their hook up to develop into "something more." When it doesn't, problems arise. A 2010 psychology study out of Florida State University found that students who have casual sex experience more physical and mental health problems, defined as eating disorders, alcohol use, stress, depression, suicidal feelings, than those who are in committed long-term relationships. Put bluntly, the ethos of the culture is: "Hook up now; get therapy later," as one of my fellow students, writing in the campus newspaper her sophomore year, declared... "Women need to take some responsibility—they're allowing themselves to be used. It can lead to sexual assault." Hooking up, in fact, shares the defining feature of a sexual assault: using another person for your own sexual gratification, without any regard as to what that person wants or how he or she feels"

Grumpy cat makes owner £64 million - "Grumpy’s earnings have dwarfed those of many of Hollywood’s biggest names such as Gwyneth Paltrow who, according to Forbes magazine, earned just over £12 million last year. The cat is also outstripping the world’s top footballers including Christiano Ronaldo, whose total remuneration this year is estimated at £27.1 million. Grumpy’s permanent scowl is a result of her having been born with dwarfism and an underbite."

North Korea accuses US of developing Ebola virus - "The article, "Ebola virus much feared as biological weapon", claims that the US has done so for the purposes of generating profits from an Ebola vaccine as well as to weaken other countries for its own political gain"

How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet - "So, what’s gone wrong with atheism? The problem isn’t atheism itself, of course, which is just non-belief, a nothing, a lack of something. Rather it is the transformation of this nothing into an identity, into the basis of one’s outlook on life, which gives rise to today’s monumentally annoying atheism. The problem with today’s campaigning atheists is that they have turned their absence of belief in God into the be-all and end-all of their personality. Which is bizarre. Atheism merely signals what you don’t believe in, not what you do believe in. It’s a negative. And therefore, basing your entire worldview on it is bound to generate immense amounts of negativity. Where earlier generations of the Godless viewed their atheism as a pretty minor part of their personality, or at most as the starting point of their broader identity as socialists or humanists or whatever, today’s ostentatiously Godless folk constantly declare “I am an atheist!” as if that tells you everything you need to know about a person, when it doesn’t"

Sharia law or gay marriage critics would be branded ‘extremists’ under Tory plans, atheists and Christians warn - "The National Secular Society and the Christian institute – two organisations with often diametrically opposing interests – said they shared fears that the broad scope of extremism could represent a major threat to free speech... Simon Calvert, Deputy Director of the Christian Institute, said traditionalist evangelicals who criticise gay marriage or even argue that all religions are not the same could find themselves accused of extremism. “Anyone who expresses an opinion that isn’t regarded as totally compliant with the Equality Act could find themselves ranked alongside Anjem Choudary, Islamic state or Boko Haram,” he said. He added: “How many times a day do intellectually lazy political activists accuse their opponents of ‘spreading hatred’? “The left does it, the right does it, liberals do it, conservatives do it, it is routine"

'God' seen in photograph of clouds over Norfolk - but it could be Sean Connery or Karl Marx

Commonwealth Games Scottie dogs 'disrespectful to Muslims' - Telegraph - "Malaysian politicians and religious leaders have attacked the use of Scottie dogs during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, claiming it was disrespectful to Muslims"

Shorter men live longer, scientists find - Telegraph