"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like." - Abraham Lincoln, in a book review
***
Frolicking gymnasts bare antics a real eyesore - "The team frolicked and tumbled in the hall, oblivious to the parents and children around them. I grimaced as they swung vigorously on the pommel horse, and risked slipping out of their loose trunks. Even worse, as they gripped the rings and the parallel bars, it did not take much gravity to expose their pubic area to the children. It was an eyesore to onlookers as the young men trampled on their modesty in public."
Another amazing George Lim FAIL!
Allergic to "grilled cheese" - "Q: I am a 30 Year old male. I have been dating a wonderful woman for 2.5 years. I would describe everything about her as perfect except for one thing. She absolutely refuses to [make me a grilled cheese sandwich]. Now I want to ask her to marry me, but the thought of going the rest of my life without receiving [grilled cheese sandwiches] is definitely a worry. I fear I may resent her eventually, or possibly feel the need to seek [grilled cheese sandwiches] out somewhere else when enough time has passed. It has already been 2.5+ years since I last experienced a [grilled cheese sandwich]. It is starting to consume my thoughts. I don't know if this one thing is enough to be a deal-breaker. Everything else is perfect. I don't know what to do!
A: You’ve probably heard this before, but disagreements about sex and money are usually what end relationships. If you’re resenting her now, fast forward 10 years. It will get worse... If your girlfriend can’t come up with a grilled-cheese compromise, yes, to quote the wise Liz Lemon, this may be a deal breaker, ladies. Is the rest of her perfect enough to balance the sexual incompatibility?"
And the plural of MacBook Pro is ... - "I think insisting that it should be attorneys general rather than attorney generals (or mothers-in-law rather than mother-in-laws, and other such examples) is a little silly in the first place, and I wouldn't insist on MacBooks Pro over MacBook Pros... Think of the compound noun blackboard, meaning the thing that you write on with chalk. Many blackboards are indeed black in color, but not necessarily; many are green, for instance, but we still have no problem calling them blackboards... When confronted with the fact that Walkmen sounds odd to (most) English speakers, and that Walkmans fails on the supposed analogy with the irregular pair man ~ men, Sony apparently decreed that the plural of their insanely popular product should be Walkman® personal stereos"
I find the idea of an English Grammar Nazi charming, considering that iterate and reiterate mean the same thing.
On the Unwillingness of Economists to Recant, Even in the Face of Evidence - "The AER has a backlog of two to three years between when papers are submitted and when they appear in print. Some of the papers currently in the pipeline, submitted before the crisis broke, predicted that the U.S. or global economy would remain prosperous and stable for many years to come. The professor wrote to all of these authors, asking them if they would like to withdraw their articles or at least modify them. All refused."
Decoding God's Changing Moods - "The Bible isn't the only Scripture with such vacillations between belligerence and tolerance. Muslims... are counseled in one part of the Koran to "kill the polytheists wherever you find them."... A zero-sum, isolationist worldview had moved Israel from polytheism to belligerent monotheism, but now, as Israel's environment grew less threatening, belligerence was turning out not to be an intrinsic part of monotheism... Muhammad's ecumenical mission seems to have failed... Once you're convinced that non-zero-sum collaboration isn't in the cards, the bonhomie dries up. In his new, zero-sum mode, Muhammad changed the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, he expelled three tribes of Jews from Medina — and killed the adult males in the third tribe... once the conquering was done, Muslim leaders found that trying to compel uniform belief in a multinational empire was a lose-lose game. Doctrines granting freedom of worship to Christians and Jews emerged promptly. And later, such freedom would also be granted to Buddhists and polytheists."
Love in 2-D: Men Who Love Body Pillows - "Nisan is part of a thriving subculture of men and women in Japan who indulge in real relationships with imaginary characters. These 2-D lovers, as they are called, are a subset of otaku culture... The less extreme might have a hidden collection of figurines based on anime characters that they go on "dates" with during off hours. A more serious 2-D lover, like Nisan, actually believes that a lumpy pillow with a drawing of a prepubescent anime character on it is his girlfriend... the rise of 2-D love can be attributed in part to the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life. According to a government survey, more than a quarter of men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan do not have friends of the opposite sex... In an ideal moe relationship, a man frees himself from the expectations of an ordinary human relationship and expresses his passion for a chosen character, without fear of being judged or rejected"
Why I ditched Buddhism. - "Buddhism is not much more rational than the Catholicism I lapsed from in my youth; Buddhism's moral and metaphysical worldview cannot easily be reconciled with science—or, more generally, with modern humanistic values... To someone who sees himself and others as unreal, human suffering and death may appear laughably trivial. This may explain why some Buddhist masters have behaved more like nihilists than saints... What's worse, Buddhism holds that enlightenment makes you morally infallible—like the pope, but more so... But what troubles me most about Buddhism is its implication that detachment from ordinary life is the surest route to salvation. Buddha's first step toward enlightenment was his abandonment of his wife and child... All religions, including Buddhism, stem from our narcissistic wish to believe that the universe was created for our benefit, as a stage for our spiritual quests. In contrast, science tells us that we are incidental, accidental... science, unlike religion, seeks truth regardless of how it makes us feel. Buddhism raises radical questions about our inner and outer reality, but it is finally not radical enough to accommodate science's disturbing perspective. The remaining question is whether any form of spirituality can"
Note that religion does not have to make us feel good - guilt is one example.
Man paid for sex with teen - "AN ACCOUNTANT who twice paid to have sex with an underage prostitute from China was jailed for two weeks and fined $16,000... District Judge Jeffrey Sim ruled that Sim, an elder at the Lighthouse Evangelism church, did not deliberately exploit a minor. 'He was misled by both the pimp and the minor into believing that the minor was 18 or above 18 years old,'... Sim, he said, also tried to help the prostitute after she told him that she was being forced to work as a commercial sex worker against her will. In fact, his attempts to help her landed him in hot water. He took her to the Chinese Embassy and then to a police post to lodge a report, and this led to charges against him."
Morals of the story: don't bother helping other people, always check ID
Next to this, following someone into a hotel room voluntarily and freaking out when he makes a move on you (David Chee Dah Wei) is nothing
More women-only gyms - "Dr Ng Koon Hock, 48, a psychiatrist at Thomson Medical Centre, said: 'Most women don't like the staring eyes of men so, in these women-only gyms, they can exercise in comfort and accomplish their goals faster.'... 'The main advantage of women- only gyms is that there are no distractions,' she said. 'You can concentrate on working out without worrying about how your hair looks or if you have a visible panty line.'"
This is funny, considering that the main critics of women are other women.