Links - 20th May 2012

F No, "Chemical Free!" - "Naming and shaming the marketers who use this meaningless phrase"

Why men like Ursula Andress and women prefer Audrey Hepburn - "For men, the top choice was the character of Honey Ryder in 1962 Bond film Dr No, as played by Ursula Andress... Second was Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien saga, who was a strong woman, admittedly, but spent some of the time running about in her pants"

Analysts say North Korea's new missiles are fakes - "The weapons displayed April 15 appear to be a mishmash of liquid-fuel and solid-fuel components that could never fly together. Undulating casings on the missiles suggest the metal is too thin to withstand flight. Each missile was slightly different from the others, even though all were supposedly the same make. They do not even fit the launchers they were carried on"

U.S. can't afford to give away air travelers' lost change - "Only in Washington can it actually cost money to give away loose change. Every year people traveling through U.S. airports mistakenly leave behind about $400,000 at security screening sites. Transportation officials now apply the funds to airline security costs... transferring the money to the nonprofit would cost U.S. taxpayers $1 million, a recent government report shows"

JCube! - The New Chic Hangout! - "JCube will be a multi-faceted lifestyle destination offering spectacular design and unrivalled shopping experiences to the young, professionals and residents living and working in Jurong Lake District... The name also connotes the mall’s multi-faceted offerings and the Juxtaposition of enJoyable shopping and sports in Jurong"
We have a Lake District in Singapore? Okay...

Execution in the name of art: German students plan to decapitate defenceless lamb as part of sick project - "Their sick project, titled 'An Experiment Experiment Representing the Current Conditions Surrounding Democracy' involves a public vote as to whether the lamb is decapitated... In the background of the video, which also appears on YouTube is the voice of Berlin University of Art lecturer Leiko Ikemura. She can also be heard laughing on the video as the students build their pink, orange and yellow execution machine while puffing on Arabic-style water pipes. 'The colours were to fend off the despondent mood we sometimes felt while building the machine,' said Rezai... Causing the death of an animal in Germany without reasonable cause is an offence in Germany that is punishable by up to three years in jail"
They can celebrate with a lamb shwarma

Transportation Security Administration defends pat-down of Isabella Brademeyer, 4, in Kansas - "The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect."
I commend the TSA for treating all travelers the same and not discriminating based on race, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, nationality or country of origin

The Huffington Post is crazy about your health - "Practically since its inception in 2005, the Post’s health coverage has been the subject of scrutiny and criticism from physicians and medical experts... Huffington Post readers were being “fed demonstrable medical falsehoods and misinformation.”"

Why Does Religion Always Get a Free Ride? - "We try to persuade people out of ideas all the time. We try to persuade people that their ideas about science, politics, philosophy, art, medicine, and more, are wrong: that they're harmful, ridiculous, repulsive, or simply mistaken. But when it comes to religion, trying to persuade people out of their ideas is somehow seen as horribly rude at best, invasive and bigoted and intolerant at worst. Why? Why should religion be the exception? I've been writing about atheism for about six years now. In those six years, I've asked this question more times and not once have I gotten a satisfying answer. In fact, only once do I recall getting any answer at all"

TSA Confiscates Water Bottle, Misses Bomb

JFK Airport terminal is closed after a woman carrying a dagger slips by TSA agents - "TSA agents had initially flagged her for having a bottle of liquid in her bag. The screeners confiscated the bottle but missed the antique knife"
Too bad they didn't confiscate a pair of nail clippers too

TSA defends confiscation of Massachusetts woman's cupcake - "the cupcake was packed in a jar filled with icing, which is considered a gel under a policy designed to secure travelers from terrorists seeking to evade detection by using explosives made of plastics, liquids or gels."

Study of the Day: Blacks Confront Racists, Asians Prefer Quiet Revenge - "Our findings are consistent with black women's cultural heritage, which celebrates the past accomplishments of other black confronters of discrimination, as well as Asian women's heritage, which advises finding expedient resolutions in the name of peaceful relations"

Colorado Boy, 6, Suspended for Sexual Harassment - "he told a girl "I'm sexy and I know it," a line from a popular song... The Aurora Police Department said it was not involved in the case because laws only cover children ages 10 and older... "Sometimes when you go to a zero-tolerance policy, you end up with a zero-sense policy""

Study reveals 'shocking' kebabs - "Six kebabs were found to include pork when it had not been declared as an ingredient. Two of the six were described as Halal... The worst doners inspectors came across contained 1,990 calories before salad and sauces - over 95% of a woman's recommended daily calories, 346% of a woman's saturated fat intake and 277% of an adult's daily salt intake... In addition, there was little difference in weight between kebabs labelled as "small" and "large"... Research by the UK's Food Standards Agency in 2006 found that 18.5% of doner takeaways posed a "significant" threat to public health, and 0.8% posed an "imminent" threat"

In Manhattan Pizza War, Price of Slice Keeps Dropping - NYTimes.com - "In the amped-up war of commerce and 75-cent pizza on the Avenue of the Americas in Midtown, a perilous moment is approaching. Circumstances suggest that ravenous New Yorkers might soon witness 50-cent pizza, 25-cent pizza or, yes, free pizza... They had added the name, Pizza King, to the sidewalk sign out front, hoping a regal nickname might do some good"

[GPGT] fantasy vs reality - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Uffe Schjødt | The Neuroscience of Prayer - It's a Brain Puzzle - "Importantly and somewhat contrary to the widespread assumption that communicating with God constitutes a unique experience reserved for believers, our findings suggest that praying to God is comparable to ‘normal’ interpersonal interaction, at least in terms of brain function"

Utah Caveman Quits Money - "He traveled to India, and became fascinated by Hindu Sadhus, who wandered without lucre and possessions. He considered joining them, but then he realized that "A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth, to return to the authenticity profound principles of spirituality hidden beneath our own religion of hypocrisy, and be a Sadhu there""

The Myth of Scientific Marketing - ""The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood." That's how Claude Hopkins unfortunately began his 1923 classic, Scientific Advertising, which has had an enormous effect on not just advertising, but the marketing profession as a whole. What Mr. Hopkins describes is neither marketing nor science. Good marketing, like good science, is about the questions you ask not the answers you give nor the knowledge you think you have... High level math tends to be highly subjective. Model fitting and algorithms involve making assumptions which reflect the biases and preferences of the people who create them. As I wrote before, there's a big difference between math and numbers... False gurus are everywhere telling us ridiculous things like that it is now "all about the conversation," or that traditional media is dead and lots of other nonsense. They have no doubt because they ask no questions. They only have answers. Of course, they can find some data that supports their argument. It's not that hard. The world is full of contradictory facts"

Dinner with a Movie: DVD Offers Pleasant Mealtime Conversation With Young Japanese Females - "Now, thanks to the 'background video' DVD series Amateur Meal Time ～Let's Eat Together!～, you can now fulfill that desire by enjoying the atmosphere of a dinner date without the hassle of actually having to meet a real woman!"

Religion 'riskier than porn' for online viruses - "Web wanderers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn... "It is interesting to note that websites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth," Symantec said in the report. "We hypothesise that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free; it's not good for repeat business.""

Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers - "Of course, it remains to be seen whether the correlation between penis size and 2D:4D ratio holds true in non-Korean men or in Korean men who aren't having some type of urological surgery"

Study: Why Some Transgendered People Have Higher Levels of Autistic Traits - "Female-to-male transgendered people -- known as transmen -- have more autistic traits than typical heterosexual men and women, and more than those who wish to switch gender in the opposite direction... giving testosterone to women decreases their ability to empathize, particularly among women whose bodies show evidence that they were exposed to higher levels of testosterone in utero. And previous research has linked high levels of testosterone in the womb to autistic traits"

Vitals - Teen sex? Actually, most girls don't, report says - "The majority of girls in the United States do not have sex before the age of 19, a change from earlier years, a new report shows."