"Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them." - Alexandre Dumas

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Kent Rogowski - Bears - Teddy bears inside out.

cjho 08: Things I miss about Singapore - "2. SG Girls X_X
3. Weather. I miss wearing t-shirt, shorts and slippers everywhere!
4. Knowing for sure which side the cars are coming from.
5. Speaking Singlish.
6. Sweating. (Low humidity here. After exercise, it just feels like I have not perspired at all, and that is so weird.)"
Tim: gah
these are the reasons why i *don't* want to go back
Me: SG Girls wth
idiot
sweating is good?!?!

Searching for a definition of Britishness: Fine, but 'no motto, please' - "It was a lofty idea: Formulate a British "statement of values" defining what it means to be British, much like the Declaration of Independence sets out the ideals that help explain what it means to be American... Nor did it help when The Times of London cynically sponsored a British motto-writing contest for its readers. The readers' suggestions included "Dipso, Fatso, Bingo, Asbo, Tesco" (Asbo stands for "anti-social behavior order," a law-enforcement tool, while Tesco is a ubiquitous supermarket chain); "One Mighty Empire, Slightly Used"; "We Apologize for the Inconvenience"; and - the choice favored by 20.9 percent of the readers - "No Motto, Please, We're British."... The Earl of Mar and Kellie then suggested that the British could use the Scottish motto "Nemo me Impune Lacessit," which he translated as "do not sit on a thistle" (actually, it means "no one attacks me with impunity")... There is also talk of a "British Day," similar to Independence Day; a "museum of Britishness"; and a revisiting of the national anthem, "God Save the Queen," one of whose later verses advocates annihilating the "rebellious Scots," which is not very nice to the Scottish."

Creationists launch 'science' journal - "On 9 January, Answers in Genesis, a Christian ministry run by evangelical Ken Ham, launched Answers Research Journal (ARJ ), a free, online publication devoted to research on “recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework”. Papers will be peer reviewed by those who “support the positions taken by the journal”, according to editor-in-chief Andrew Snelling, a geologist based in Brisbane, Australia."

Female genital cutting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "One of the four Islamic schools of religious law, the Shafi'i school, rules that clitoridectomy is mandatory. Other sects are adament about the practice. In 1994, Egyptian Mufti Sheikh Jad Al-Hâqq 'Ali Jad Al-Hâqq issued a fatwa stating, "Circumcision is mandatory for men and for women. If the people of any village decide to abandon it, the village imam must fight against them as if they had abandoned the call to prayer." The Al-Azhar University in Cairo has issued several fatwas endorsing FGC, in 1949, 1951 and 1981... In the United States, as recently as 1938, FGC was advocated by Reverend Oscar Lowry as a method of preventing masturbation: "While incest and illicit commerce of the sexes is abominable, there is another even more so—if that be possible—that is, the heinous sin of self-pollution or masturbation... In some cases where there may be impingement of the clitoris, a slight operation may be necessary to relieve the tension and irritation...""

Steve Jobs Announces iSex (Video)

Portal - This modern masterpiece shakes the FPS genre to the very core - "The gun is typically regarded as a phallic symbol of masculine agency, through which power is won and maintained. In any first-person shooter, a power dynamic is reinforced between subject (the player's subjective sense of self) and object (the rest of the game world.) The player is forced to accept militarism and conquest by violence, historically masculine behaviors, as the only course of action. To play a first-person shooter is to enter into a context in which only the male perspective exists, regardless of the gender of the character or player... She acquires a Portal Gun for use in these tests; interestingly, the gun's masculine symbolism is subverted by the fact that it shoots portals rather than bullets. Portals are oval-shaped openings that are visually and spatially connected; go in one and you'll come out the other. The Portal Gun creates connections rather than destroying life. It is through innovative placement of these connections, or portals, that goals are achieved or enemies overcome. A psychoanalytic reading would likely conclude that the portal is an image of the female sex organs: oval and receptive, and also a metaphorical birth canal through which the protagonist is constantly being born into new trials."

2 Girls, 1 Cup, 1 Grandma, 1 Reaction - "Getting old people involved would be the one way you could make cup chicks even worse."

VIOLIN DUEL A DRAW FOR ANTIQUE STRADIVARIUS, NEW INSTRUMENT - ""Some like blondes; some like brunettes. Some like them slim; some like them hefty," Dr. Joseph Nagyvary contended. Hefty in this case was the 300-year-old Leonardo da Vinci Stradivarius violin, valued as high as $5 million, pitted against a slimly played violin that Nagyvary crafted in just six weeks and completed in August 2003. In all scores from the audience – whether among those who considered themselves trained musicians or those who are average concert goers – the new Nagyvary violin ranked slightly higher than the ancient Stradivarius... For those four selections, trained musicians in the audience gave the Stradivarius an average of 8.03 in tone quality and 8.0 for power while the Nagyvary violin got and average of 8.1 for tone quality and 8.33 for power. Other audience participants' votes put the Stradivarius at an average of 7.83 for quality and 7.8 for power while the Nagyvary got 8.03 for quality and 8.23 for power."

Body is found in L.A. tow yard a day after car accident - "The body of an elderly woman was discovered Sunday in the front passenger side of a crumpled car in a San Fernando Valley towing company's yard -- a day after paramedics had removed her son from the same vehicle after a crash, authorities said. The woman, whose identity was not released, had apparently been left in the car at the accident scene in Tarzana even as her son was taken to a hospital, police said... The slightly built woman had been concealed beneath an air bag that had deployed during the accident"

Full Service - Weird News Story Archive - "A new British mall is building in an innovation to attract women shoppers: a day care center — for their husbands. “Some grown-up men are very similar to small children, and most couples have anecdotes of their own to prove it,” said a spokesman for the Bluewater Retail Centre, being constructed in Kent. He added that the idea for the big-baby-sitting area came from “extensive research showing that 50 percent of couples’ shopping trips end in argument.” The creche features video games, televisions showing sports ...and beer."

The Titans In Their Twilight - "Lee, though retired, remains personally more powerful than his peers, continuing to call the shots in his role as "mentor minister." In part, this is because he seems more modern than the other patriarchs; unlike them, he refused to build a cult of personality or patronage. His success, however, was achieved in part by constraining opposition parties and the media. "The idea that Singapore is run by a meritocracy is institutionalized to such a degree that if you argue for checks and balances, you're questioning the integrity of the people at the helm," says Rodan. Some analysts think infighting in the ruling party is a real risk after the elder Lee exits the scene. His son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, "will not have the same hold" over the opaque party structure his father built, says Johns Hopkins's Welsh."

The Straight Dope: Why does the U.S. surgeon general wear a uniform? - "Uniforms had fallen into disuse until C. Everett Koop was appointed surgeon general by Ronald Reagan. Koop conceived of his post as a bully pulpit and thought the uniform (the SG is the equivalent of a three-star admiral and has a similar uniform) would get people to take him more seriously. Instead, at least at the outset, it got them to take him for an airline steward, and Koop good-naturedly hoisted a few bags into the overhead bins for fellow passengers."

Beer had seat belt, injured driver didn't - "Investigators were trying Monday to determine if a suspected drunken driver involved in a single-vehicle crash Sunday night failed to buckle his own seat belt even as the 12-pack of beer on the passenger seat was safely secured."

N.Y. man faces stalking charge - "A 20-year-old man from upstate New York was jailed in Spokane over the weekend for allegedly stalking a 15-year-old girl he claims to have met through an interactive video game... Stetar, whose MySpace page is peppered with Bible verses, said in his last entry, on Dec. 26, that he was depressed. The self-described 6-foot-2 inch, 130-pound "materials handler" for a pallet company wrote that he might want to become a teacher at a Christian school and would like to meet his future wife."

Dean Hrbacek Photoshops Body for Election Photo - "The picture, presented as a true image of the candidate, is actually a computerized composite of Hrbacek’s face and someone else’s figure, in suit and tie, from neck to knee caps. The give-away is a flawed fit of head and collar."