"The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance." - Laurence J. Peter

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Malaysians Are Rude, ‘Ruder’ and ‘Rudest’ - "Malaysia is ranked third least courteous country in the world, according to Reader’s Digest... Malaysians are rude. I wonder why it took people so long to realize that but the truth is now out. Of course we can’t beat Mumbai, the rudest country in the world. I know - I worked for a year with people from that region when I was an exec in Telekom Malaysia. Those guys deserve the undisputed number one spot... generally Indians tend to exaggerate when giving directions :) - everything is “just 5 minutes away” according to them."
Malaysia Boleh! It's a bit weird that New Yorkers are supposedly almost twice as polite as Bangkokers, though.

The Comfort of False Dilemmas - "I was coming home from the airport on the night of 26th and my taxi driver asked me about the flight cancellations to Bangkok. “Quite bad”, I said. Immediately, with the PAD as case-study, he launched into a lecture on why political freedom is as detestable as paedophilia. He ended, as all good academics do, with a rhetorical question, “I really don’t know what these people want”. I could almost hear LKY crying with pride somewhere in his oxygen chamber. “What most people want I suppose; to have a say in who governs over them”, I replied. The taxi driver looked at me from the rear-view mirror as though I had just said “Little boys can be sexy too”. The rest of the ride was in silence."

PICTURES: When ANIME Fansubs’ Translations goes WRONG!

Why are men less religious? It may be form of risk-taking, impulsivity just as criminal behavior is - "[It] seems to be a universal trend in religious rates around the world. Stark said lower rates of male religiousness is a form of risk-taking behavior just as criminality is, and men are far more likely to commit crimes than women... "The gender differences hold up everywhere, even in religions that are very male centered, such as Orthodox Judaism," said Stark... "It is true of all ages. It was there in ancient Greece, it was there in the Roman Empire when the early Christians were mostly women and it was there in medieval Europe."... They dismiss popular explanations such as that women are raised to be nurturing and submissive and this socialization makes religious acceptance and commitment more likely... "People studying crime also have looked at socialization and they can't find a reason that explains the gender difference except a physiological one.""

中国人为何无礼 - "学者们绞尽脑汁，一说是人口太多造成的，但看看日本，真的是礼仪的典范，一说是文革造成的，看来这一条是原因。"

Singapore's star rises as Switzerland stumbles - "The sun-drenched Asian city-state, with the highest density of millionaires in the world, is seeing wealth management prosper as the U.S. and Europe grapple with the worst slump in a generation... With close ties to powerful Asia, Singapore is in a stronger position to resist pressure from the U.S. than rival Switzerland or Alpine retreat Liechtenstein, which recently partially surrendered bank secrecy."

Wigging out - ""Nobody even notices when I’m wearing one,” confides Faye-Marie Britten (pictured above), the dancer and former squeeze of Agent Provocateur’s Joe Corré. The secret beauty arsenal Britten is referring to is not a 24-hour girdle or bazooka chest-booster — it’s a wig. She is properly obsessed with them and admits to owning “about 20. My friends borrow them all the time”... Reactions vary from total shock to mild amusement and envious approval. I learn that most people prefer me blonde, but men fancy me more as a brunette (at least, I hope that’s why I’m getting all the looks). And, if all else fails, at least these things make very effective ear muffs."

Heart Attack Grill Diet Center - "Taste Worth Dying For!... Anyone over 350Lbs eats for FREE..."

The Straight Dope: Which is smarter, cats or dogs? - "Judging the relative intelligence of cats and dogs is like deciding which is better looking — there's just not much basis for comparison. Psychologists have a tough enough time coming up with a culture-blind IQ test for humans, who all belong to the same species; designing a species-blind test for dogs and cats is just about impossible... My advice is, call it a draw and go argue about something else."

The Straight Dope: When does human life begin (revisited)? - "You have a very conservative approach, and a misogynistic one at that. I appreciate your attempt at explaining brain waves. But what your article lacked was a woman's right to her body, and you had an even more disturbing view on rape. Apparently, you need to take a woman's course or ethics course.... While I'm sure you're a splendid human being in person, in your letter you come across as a self-centered ninny, and you make the kinds of arguments that drive the religious right to new heights of zeal... Does a woman have a right to control her own body? As a general proposition, sure. The question is whether that right trumps all other rights, including those of her unborn child. You think it does. You need to understand how foolishly radical that view is. It goes far beyond the argument made by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.... The logic of the absolutist position is that at any time prior to birth — presumably even five minutes before — the life of the unborn child may be ended without a pang. The notion seems primitive, like something out of the Old Testament. No wonder abortion opponents go nuts... The idea that a fetus becomes a person at some point between conception and birth was the prevailing view for 2,000 years. It's a reasonable basis for consensus"

YouTube - Cell Phone Karma - "Hilarious video about how what-goes-around-comes-around XD"

Sex-change Rambo arsonist jailed - "A SEX-change woman who threatened to kill a taxi driver with a hunting knife days after torching her flat dressed like Rambo has been jailed. Joanne Spencer, who had to be taken down with a Taser gun by police, was locked up yesterday after admitting arson, making threats to kill and possessing an offensive weapon."

Boy, 16, banned from using Hoover or hot water under health and safety rules - "Karl Walker was told by a cleaning firm that he is not old enough to use hot water, washing up liquid and furniture polish or to empty bins... At 16, Karl is old enough to join the Army and fire a gun, play the lottery, have sex legally and get married, but the firm said he required special permission to use cleaning equipment, including vacuum cleaners."

Detroit Churches Pray for ‘God’s Bailout’ - "Pentecostal Bishop Charles H. Ellis III, who shared the sanctuary’s wide altar with three gleaming sport utility vehicles, closed his sermon by leading the choir and congregants in a boisterous rendition of the gospel singer Myrna Summers’s “We’re Gonna Make It” as hundreds of worshipers who work in the automotive industry — union assemblers, executives, car salesmen — gathered six deep around the altar to have their foreheads anointed with consecrated oil... Outside the Corpus Christi Catholic Church, a sign beckoned passers-by inside to hear about “God’s bailout plan.”"

The Straight Dope: How do female astronauts menstruate in space? - "Several plane crashes in the 1930s had involved menstruating female pilots, and experts — male experts, of course — suggested that putting a woman with "menstrual disturbances" in the cockpit was an invitation to disaster... Internal medicine specialist and space buff William Rowe notes that women are more likely to develop decompression sickness during their periods... In a 2004 article in the Journal of Men's Health and Gender, he argues that for long-term space exploration an all-female crew might be the best bet... (1) Menstruation rids the body of iron... (2) Women produce a lot more estrogen than men, and they also have lower epinephrine levels"

Man accused of hitting girlfriend with sandwich while she's driving - "The type of sandwich hurled was not specified in the report."

Snack to the Future: The Col-Pop, an All-in-One Chicken Nugget and Soda Cup: The Colpop - "Proving yet again that South Korea is light years ahead of everyone else in fast-food technology is The Col-Pop. The nation that brought the world the spiral-cut potato on a stick and hot-dog-stuffed pizza ushers in a new era of snack portability with this mashup of drink cup and food container that holds popcorn chicken up top and a cold drink in the bottom."

National intelligence and suicide rate: an ecological study of 85 countries - "According to de Catanzaro’s (1981) evolutionary theory of human suicide, a threshold intelligence is necessary for suicidality. Intelligence and suicide mortality should thus be positively related. This prediction was tested and confirmed in an ecological study of 85 countries. National IQ was significantly positively related to the national male and female suicide rate. The relation was not attenuated when countries’ per capita Gross Domestic Product and the type of national IQ estimation were controlled. The relation was still positive, though not statistically reliable, when three further indicators (rates of the divorced, aged, and unemployed), salient for suicide rates and available for a subset of 36 countries, were additionally partialed out. Further evidence for a positive relation of intelligence and suicide mortality is provided by the observation of excess suicide prevalence in the Terman Genetic Study of Genius sample, relative to the general population."

Many lie over books 'to impress' - "Nearly half of all men and one-third of women have lied about what they have read to try to impress friends or potential partners, a survey suggests."