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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Male Privilege


"It's just a mistake if women goes into men's bathroom
Men are perverted if they go into women's bathroom"

Links - 26th May 2012

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." - Immanuel Kant

***

Put Away The Bell Curve: Most Of Us Aren't 'Average' - "Human performance, by this account, does not often fit the bell curve or what scientists call a normal distribution. Rather, it is more likely to fit what scientists call a power distribution... a sizable number in the group were superstars. These superstars, moreover, accounted for much of the success of the group as a whole. The vast majority of the others in the group, Aguinis said, were actually performing below the mathematical average"
Most people are mediocre

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Chivalry is dead? Not a single man offered us women a seat, says female commuter
Comments: "I guess the men in the mrt car were all staunch supporters of women's EQUAL RIGHTS. HaHaha"
"When females act like ladies gentlemen will act like gentlemen. Saying please thank you excuse me and be lady like, expect to be treated like a lady. Otherwise your just annoying."
"Chivalry IS dead.... Women killed it."
Of course, AWARE is not going to comment on this


Queen owns a McDonald's - "Among Her Majesty's most recent acquisitions was a retail park in Slough - which encompasses a drive-through McDonalds"

Zimbabwean MPs to be circumcised as part of AIDS campaign - "All 150 male members of the 175-strong group have all committed to being circumcised, while its female members are encouraging their husbands and boyfriends to undergo the procedure."
At the same time, the females should also get circumcised and the men should urge their wives and girlfriends to do the same

That Mitchell and Webb Look - Diana Assassination - YouTube

Bust-Reducing Bras See Strong Sales In Japan, Women May Prefer Slim Figure Over Big Breasts - "According to a survey conducted by Wacoal in September 2011 asking women aged 20-40 what they look for when choosing a bra, 10% answered they want a bra that makes them look slimmer, with some women citing that a big bust makes them look fat."

How To Win A Culture War And Lose A Generation « Thought Catalog - "one of the top reasons 59 percent of young adults with a Christian background have left the church is because they perceive the church to be too exclusive, particularly regarding their LGBT friends. Eight million twenty-somethings have left the church, and this is one reason why"

Hong Kong Glued to ‘Bride Wannabes’ - "Hong Kong’s demographics means a lot of potentially lonely female hearts: women outnumber men 10 to 9, according to 2010 UN statistics. The number of single, unmarried women in Hong Kong has been on the rise: between 1996 and 2009, the number of such women jumped by nearly 50%. “Hong Kong is facing a great sense of crisis among both men and women”... it’s since spread to the mainland, where the number of single, college-educated, financially independent women has been on the rise. In Shanghai for example, the number of unmarried women between ages 20 and 50 has experienced what the nationalist tabloid Global Times calls “ominous growth,” to the point that today, there are over half a million of them. (Unlike Hong Kong, the gender ratio on the mainland is heavily skewed with a glut of men: 108 men per 100 women, according to the UN)... “After watching this show, narcissistic materialistic girls will become even more narcissistic and materialistic, and those who aren’t will be brainwashed to become that way”"

UK police to investigate Muslim scholar's call for martyrdom - "A controversial Islamic scholar told an audience in Manchester this week that it was it was right to fight Israel and that "martyrdom" in Israel was just. Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought and a leading member of the Muslim Association of Britain, was speaking at the Expo-Islamia, which was attended by more than 8,000 people at an arena in central Manchester. The daylong event on Sunday, entitled, "A Call To Humanity," was designed to "present Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims, to call for the promotion of the common good for humanity and clarify the role and responsibility of Muslims living as minorities in the West"... Ahmed Khabir, spokesman for Expo-Islamia, said before the event that individual views held or professed in the past had nothing to do with the event and that speakers would not stray into "extremist subjects." In BBC interview eight months before the 7/7 terrorist attacks on London in 2005, Tamimi made it clear to journalist Tim Sebastian that would be prepared to go to Israel and carry out a suicide attack... Other speakers at the expo included Dr. Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai, India, who has reportedly said it was blasphemous for Muslims to wish Christians a Happy Christmas, as it acknowledges Jesus as a son of God. Also among the speakers was leading Respect Party member Yvonne Ridley, a journalist who was incarcerated by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994 and is now a Moslem convert and political editor of Muslim Channel, the biggest Muslim satellite channel in Europe. In June she caused controversy when she called for Muslims to "boycott the police and refuse to cooperate with them in any way, shape or form"... Organizers said the expo was a multifaith event, with other religious groups invited to attend. However Jewish community leaders were not invited and representatives of other faiths said they had not heard of the event"

Legally Obliging Filial Piety - "One attempt to evade the common requirement of volition in legal relationships – in the case of Singaporean parents and their children – has been to liken this peculiar relationship to the special relationship between the individual and the state... this analogy fails to account for the fact that in any democratic state, citizens can choose their governments through the election process, collectively remove them from power, and even relocate abroad. Children, if unhappy with their parentage, do not have similar powers to ‘choose’ their parents... Parents have a direct, personal and universally recognised fiduciary obligation to care for their children. The state’s obligations to its citizens are far less clear. In essence, the Singaporean state is imposing a debt on a person to provide care against his or her will, following the provision of care by his or her parents, who had a fiduciary duty to do so, anyway... It embodies a particular Singaporean phenomenon, where whenever a person runs out of explanations for a particular policy – whether it is a proposed bill or a canteen rule – they will scratch their heads and simply say: “You don’t get it, it’s Asian values lah”... after a month of hearing this rebuttal, I began to suspect that it was merely a convenient strategy to protect poor policy from criticism, under the mask of cultural sensitivity. When one dares to probe further, it becomes evident that the Act does not serve, and perhaps may even circumvent, its professed aims... A cynical observer will argue that the Singaporean Government is trying to pass the buck of elderly care to those who can be culturally pressured into accepting it. With the cost of healthcare, property and general living in Singapore escalating, it is a convenient political tactic to scapegoat responsibility for providing for the elderly"

Actress Felicia Chin: S’pore men are shallow and arrogant - "she thinks that local men materialistic and shallow... Well-known etiquette consultant Teo Ser Lee felt that Chin's comments were "a sweeping generalisation" [as] she has met many Singaporean men over the course of work who are "down-to-earth, humble, and work hard for every dollar". "I don't know who are the people she (Chin) hangs out with"... "It's unfair to label Singaporean men as that. There are also women who only know how to buy big handbags." Popular radio deejay Lin Pei Fen said the traits described by Chin are not specific to just Singaporean men. "Male species of any kind need to be suitably arrogant in order to fight for survival, lead or attract mates," the 30-year-old reasoned. Besides, she said, arrogance, when portrayed correctly, can be a plus point. "I am attracted by men who can be arrogant when he needs to be." As for Chin's charge that some local men in their 20s are too pre-occupied with "wealth and what they have on the outside", Lin felt that this is necessary trait for "living in Singapore". Another local deejay, Dennis Chew, defended Chin, saying "women are by nature, more mature than men". Chin is one of Chew's godchildren. On reports in Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao which quoted Chin describing local men as being "fond of gossip", Chew, 38, reasoned, "It could be the men she's met. There may be more such men in the entertainment circle, due to the nature of the industry""

Pourquoi les femmes n’atteignent pas le Panthéon des cinéastes - "Cette étude se base sur les 250 films les plus populaires de 2011. Les femmes y représentaient 5% des réalisateurs seulement, et 18% de l’ensemble comprenant réalisateurs, producteurs exécutifs, scénaristes et autres directeurs de la photographie"
Si je ne réussis pas l'examen, c'est la faute du professeur

Pam seeks millionaire and says: I’m ready to lose my virginity at 70 - "Pam explained she does not believe in sex before marriage. And as she has stayed single there was no question of losing her virginity... "My standards are still very high, though. I’m hoping to bag a tall, dark and handsome millionaire""

Child Porn Decision Turns On Downloading Intent - "Child pornography cases should interest us all because they are at the cutting edge of electronic evidence cases. We will see the most salient legal issues tested in those cases first before the principles are applied to other areas of the law. People v. Kent demonstrates the necessity of analyzing the legal issues rather than focusing on the visceral recoil we experience at the offense. It is a good case to look at because the defendant was guilty in part and not guilty in part. The court held that some of the child pornography on his hard drive was possessed knowingly — the images in unallocated space — but the images stored in cache — in temporary Internet storage — were there without his knowledge and therefore not unlawful"

Un patron peut lire ''Mes documents'' - "Un fichier informatique intitulé "Mes documents", dans un ordinateur de bureau, n'est pas un fichier dont l'ouverture par un tiers entrainerait une atteinte à l'intimité de la vie privée"

UI vs UX

Sliding Block Puzzle Solver

Report: Every Potential 2040 President Already Unelectable Due To Facebook | The Onion

Friday, May 25, 2012

Conversations - 25th May 2012

Frigid Girl: women cant take honesty
Or blatant frankness
If women lie to themselves i see no reason why they wld expect smth
else frm others
:P


Someone: *** went ballistic on subhas anandas' comment on hardcore prostitution deserves no protection

eh how do you keep up with feminists
i ended up deleting the post cos i realise the sticking point wasn't the legal unfairness but the 'sexism and female victimising'
and after that no amount of logicking went thru
because 'they have a heart' and we haven't one apparently

Me: I know why she went ballistic. because she saw "hardcore prostitution deserves no protection" and like a pavlovian reflex she pounced
in her mind "hardcore prostitution deserves no protection" = "prostitutes don't deserve legal protection"
however in this case the "protection" is not protection from being exploited, abused etc
it's "protection" on account of her age, of being a minor and thus being judged unable to consent to commercial sex
however her actions indicate she was aware of what she was doing
see, the law on no commercial sex for below 18 is intended to protect girls from being exploited
however in this case she wasn't exploited


MFTTW: he's gay right

his profile pics are all self-taken and in the same pose
this is a common theme amongst gay men i know on fb


Me: I dont mind comments
just not annoying ones

I love it when people compliment my hair =D

Frigid Girl: ya you're past the age where ppl will compliment you without an agenda in mind

Me: sad.

what agenda could they have

Frigid Girl: compliment you to make conversation

Me: like that called agenda ah

Frigid Girl: for the sake of filling up awkward silence

yes
i do it all the time just to fill up awkward silences

Me: ...

Frigid Girl: better than talking abt the weather


Someone: *** was looking at a wedding prep website
dunno if ^^^ proposed...

Me: hurr
women look at wedding stuff all the time, no?

Someone: hahahahahahaahahahah


MFTTW: why can't [Tiong Bahru Bakery] be run by same people as skinny pizza
it's just a corporation what

Me: everything in sg is part of a chain or franchise

MFTTW: why you so idealist

Me: I like diversity and competition in the ecosystem

MFTTW: hur hur

Me: singapore everything chain
then chain moreprofit making
so yakun uses krimer

MFTTW: but indie things are usually cock
I don't drink ya kun

Me: why indie things usually cock

MFTTW: cos they are good for a while then realize business model not sustainable then they start to cut corners
becos it is inevitably set up by some yuppie couple who are on second careers to "pursue their dreams"

Me: and chains cut corners from the start so you dont get taken in?

MFTTW: chains are... you know what you are getting

the prob in sg is that nothing stays good for long
it always goes downhill

anyway if the corporation can bring in someone good
then it's a good thing whst

like maybe gontran cherrier has no business acumen
then we would not have gotten to try his baked goods otherwise

Me: likewise, without eduardo we'd never get to try kum's kosmetiks


Frigid Girl on River Valley High School: if they find out if you're dating
they expel

Me: so date outside?

Frigid Girl: no even if your'e dating a guy from outside the schoo'
the fact that you're dating = expulsion
commie is as commie does

Me: wut.
was that rule applied to anyo you know

Frigid Girlno cos they always made us break up
the trick is
the moment some counsellor found you (inside OR outside the school)
they will report you
the discipline headmistress will confront you
and then call your parents
then the parenst will haev to make a choice
if they agree to the rship, kid will be expelled
if they don't (more often than not), kid has to break up
apparently dunman has similiar rules
if not more strict

Someone on the above: "Basically there were a few ways of getting caught. One of which was to wear the RV uniform and you can await rabid ex-alumni of RVHS students who would complain about the smallest transgressions to get you. I recalled one of them complained how an RVian couple were making out on the MRT train like an "octopus". Or you could choose to date around the school and got caught by the discipline mistress.

Either way, most people just dated without wearing uniforms. Not difficult to evade.."


MFTTW: last week i was at holland v carpark

as i walked down the stairs
i passed a guy carrying his gf on his back up the stairs
she didn't look hurt or ill... but she was wearing very stupid looking
high heels
when he reached the top of the stairs she jupmed off and gave him a
peck on the cheek
:(

Me: why? *** won't do that for you?

MFTTW: -_-
well firstly yes *** definitely wont do that
secondly wtf

Me: hee

MFTTW: i remarked loudly to *** "i guess now you know why girls say sg men
have no balls"
but i don't think either of them heard
sad

Me: and if he didn't do it he'd be accused of not being gentlemanly
you can't win
*men can't win

MFTTW: ha. such a sad lot you men have.

When you wish upon a star...


You're a few million lightyears late. That star is dead, JUST LIKE YOUR DREAMS

Always Blame the Politicians


Calvin: When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain that the government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation.

Hobbes: An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.

Calvin: It's a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.

(C&H)

(Consider that the strip stopped in 1995 so this is at least 17 years old)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Links - 24th May 2012

"In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is." - Gertrude Stein

***

The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record - "Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage... the US box office is not suffering from movie piracy, but that there is a detrimental effect on international box office figures. The researchers attribute this impact to the wide release gaps, which sometimes result in a high quality DVD copy being available on pirate sites while a movie is still showing in theaters"

Study Shows That Venture Capital Funds Are Seriously Overrated - "Larger funds reliably underperform smaller ones; fees eat up disproportionate chunks of performance; investors too easily sign up for second tier managers in order to deploy capital that’s “burning a hole in their pockets” while top tier funds seem to be the only way to justify the risk (as long as they don’t grow too big)."

Economics professor in London: 'They aren't here to learn, they're here to pass' - "I speak to students who are beginning to realise they won't get the grades necessary to even apply. They literally think their lives are over, 21-year-old kids who have been led to believe that either you get into a top paying bank, or it's a cardboard box under London Bridge... I tell students, look at how banks treat you, do you really want to work for an employer that treats you like this?... I have spoken to graduates hired over the summer who got laid off in December. 'Now I know why salaries are so high,' they tell me, 'so that we won't complain when from one day to the next we are made redundant'... I celebrate as a victory every student I manage to talk out of a career in finance. Yet a possibly bigger victory is when they go into the City, but with a different and broader perspective... Has there been a reckoning among academic economists after the crisis? The thing is, they never treated their models the way banks did. As is often the case, the cause of abuse or ill use is the user, not the product itself. Academic economists know that a model is an approximation... the so-called Black-Scholes model is used to calculate today's value of derivatives contracts expiring in the future. That's been incredibly useful. There's one problem. Research shows that were everybody to use the Black-Scholes model, it would cease to work Basically, the quest is for a model that remains unaffected by our knowledge of it. We need lots of talented young economists to delve into this. The trouble is, so much of that talent is sucked up by the banks"

What's So Crazy About an Arranged Marriage? - "Might we Westerners—so intent on finding our soul mates—be able to learn a thing or two from Amina's grandparents? A number of experts think we can—or that, at least, there's plenty of wisdom to take away from cultures where arranged marriage is still common. The number-one attitude adjustment Westerners would do well to make if they'd like to lead more satisfying romantic lives (and who wouldn't?): Taking marriage more seriously as a relationship that's supposed to last until death, rather than till divorce"

Scan spots women faking orgasms - "Researchers found that when a woman is faking, a part of the brain under conscious control lights up, while real orgasms occur subconsciously. The University of Groningen scans also showed important differences between the male and female orgasm. In women, turning off fear and anxiety is key, while men need to know they will be physically stimulated... One thing that they found was putting the couples off the task was literally cold feet. When they gave the couples socks to wear, about 80% of the couples were able to achieve orgasm compared with 50% previously... "When you want to make love to a woman, you must give her the feeling of being protected""

Babies in incubators were once an attraction at Coney Island - "Standards were kept high, and because of the paying customers, Couney never charged any of the parents a penny for the treatment their kids received - even with the cost of care per baby sometimes totaling fifteen dollars a day"

Let's Take These Games And Turn Them Into Dating Sims - "Hey, if there is a dating sim about pigeons, I'm convinced there can be a dating sim about anything"

5 Reasons 'Diablo III' Represents Gaming's Annoying Future - "Nobody is getting the core point: The single-player version of this game should have never been hosted on a remote server to begin with... Sixty-four dollars is as much as some people make in an entire day. For them, handing that over to play a video game is not a minor event. All they want in return is to use the product they just fucking paid for. If any other company in the world sold you a product that didn't work, and then refused to hand over some sort of compensation in return, you wouldn't even need a lawyer. The judge would tell them straight up, "Give them a working product, or give them their money back, or go to fucking jail." But for whatever reason, the video game industry gets away with this now? Every time they have a problem with their servers, I can't play the game I already bought? In an era when people carry their entire music library around with them on their phones, I have less ownership and control of my video games than I had in 1979?"

Why Aren't Cities Littered With Dead Pigeons? - "a hawk was stalking a pigeon INSIDE the clothing store... Dying or dead pigeons are quickly cleaned up by rats and possums... for those that make it, they tend to want to die peaceably in out-of-the-way places like ducts and building ledges, which perhaps unconsciously remind them of their ancestral lairs in the caves and cliffsides of Europe, the Middle East and north Africa... “but a lot of wild animals do choose to go somewhere to die naturally. They don't just plop in a street: They often just crawl under a building or into a tight space, because as they die they are vulnerable and don't necessarily want to get eaten alive in their last moments”"

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Immigrants should be screened for 'anger, hate' before they're allowed entry into S'pore
We should screen citizens for anger and hate too

University Will Pay You $3,500 to Eat Fast Food for Three Months - "Just in case you were concerned about the health consequences of this research on participants, you should know the university plans to register them for a weight loss program, so no harm done…"

World's Subways Converging on Ideal Form - "On the surface, these core-and-branch systems — evident in New York City, Tokyo, London or most any large metropolitan subway — may seem intuitively optimal. But in the absence of top-down central planning, their movement over decades toward a common mathematical space may hint at universal principles of human self-organization."

Singapore's choice: Wealth creation or management? - "Although Singapore is often held up as an example of economic success, it has produced an abundance of wealth managers but not enough wealth creators, said a former top civil servant... Singapore graduates in law, accounting, economics and even medicine often vie for managerial jobs in banks, industry and Government... 'Should Singapore aim to be Jurong Island or Shenton Way?'... He added that there is no national wealth creator in Singapore today... 'I believe that a job in technology has more multiplier effects than one in the service industry,' he said. 'Take banking or wealth management. There's no reason why people should come here to manage their funds. They could do it in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a computer. The barriers of entry are very low'"
You earn a lot more on Shenton Way; you don't have to create wealth as long as you get it

'Verbal abuse' by teacher: Dad files police report - "her teacher said to her: 'I don't want to see your face'"
"police would take stern actions against anyone giving false information, as these irresponsible actions utilise police resources which could be used better in crime fighting.""

The first of the supper clubs… | Dish Piglets - "Having never heard of supper clubs, I was intrigued when I came across Plusixfive. Gozgozgoz, the guy behind Plusixfive (dialling code for Singapore actually…) holds a supper club at his home in Islington serving: “badass Singaporean street food cooked the good ol’ way, presented with minimum fuss and maximum taste”... Funnily enough, there weren’t many Singaporeans/ Malaysians in the crowd and I was quite impressed."
Maybe some Malaysians will picket the place protesting that the food is really Malaysian

Goldman, Other Investors Pile Out of Facebook - "The smart money is flying out of Facebook as the dumb money piles in."

New York Jews and Chinese Food - "New York Jews love Chinese restaurant food so much that they have made it a second cuisine... It’s basic elements are over four thousand years old -- older even than Jews. In short, quality, price, and proximity are some of the reasons why Chinese food became so important to New York Jews... Jewish informants also tended to denigrate their ethnic restaurant food more than the Italian Americans did theirs. Some people we interviewed suggested that Jewish Americans actually may have had more gastronomical reason than Italian Americans to look beyond their own ethnic restaurants... Chinese cooking disguises the tabooed ingredients by cutting, chopping, and mincing them... Chinese food could be adopted by rebellious Jews because the forbidden substances were so disguised that dishes did not reflexively repulse and so undermine their ability to rebel... They loved to eat egg rolls in Chinese restaurants because the pork and seafood tasted delicious, but were so minced that they could pretend these ingredients were not there... Both cultures favored chicken recipes and, as Mimi Sheraton notes, shared a preference for dishes
seasoned with garlic, celery, and onions. The Cantonese restaurants frequently overcooked the vegetables somewhat -- just the way Eastern European Jews liked them... Portnoy suggested that eating in Chinese restaurants enabled his family to deny their lowly status in an anti-Semitic society by participating in the prejudice against an even more lowly group... "I felt about Chinese restaurants the same way I did about the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- they were the two most strange and fascinating places my parents took me to, and I loved them both"... "We also acknowledge the pizzeria across the street..We worked out many of our ideas..and determined name order by coin toss there""

Five new Hawker Masters honoured at the Asian Masters Gala Dinner - "The Singapore Hawker Masters is an annual search for the best hawkers in various categories. Hawker Masters for different categories will be awarded each year. For this year, the categories were: Wontan Noodles, Fried Hokkien Mee, Satay, Bak Kut Teh, Roti Prata and Tau Suan... Bak Kut Teh Category: The judges decided that none of the three finalists are worthy of the Master title."
Is this elitist?

Away to Hanoi



Off to Viet Nam to find a wife/Yaw Shin Leong.

Back Sunday.

(and yes, I haven't finished my 2011 Australia Travelogue, let alone started on my 2012 Europe [1] travelogue!)

Bonus: the original ad from 越南相亲网独家揭密:火爆的越南新娘经济(多图)_越南新娘|越南相亲|越南美女尽在缘美越南新娘网WWW.0084LOVE.COM:

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Hey, at least they still teach them how to use a condom

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous Huxley

***

My attention has been drawn to RI's Sexuality Education syllabus.

Since I am busy, let me just make some observations based on fragments:

"It is premised on the importance of the heterosexual married couple forming a nuclear family as the basic unit of society, and respect for the values and beliefs of the different ethnic and religious communities on sexuality issues"

This is shocking bigotry against extended families, especially since Asian Values emphasise the value of extended families!

Also: goodie - if you're Mormon you can have multiple wives! Too bad for the feminists, though.


"Recognize the consequences of excessive masturbation"

Feed them cornflakes!


"Recognize that there are different ways of inviting sexual intimacy, namely through dressing, speech, actions and choice of dating venues"

Doesn't no mean no?


"Understand that same-gendered sex is against the law in Singapore"

So much for non-enforcement.


"Appreciate sensible dressing and understand how dressing can be interpreted differently by various people"

Slutwalk! Woo hoo!


"Understand there are consequences in any decision one makes regarding sexual intercourse"

Indeed. "No" has consequences too.


"Practise negotiating one’s way out of a negative situation by applying skills learnt from Lesson 2"
(Lesson 2 being: "practise responding to persuation assertively")

I can imagine how the roleplays go...

"Let's not use a condom"
"Sure!"

And among same-sex students too!


Of course the 17-18 year olds have something too:

"Students will learn the importance of having realistic expectations about their appearance and be more confident about their body image"

(this should come a lot earlier than 18)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

What makes someone Singaporean?

"If time flies when you're having fun, it hits the afterburners when you don't think you're having enough." - Jef Mallett

***

In the Straits Times today: What makes someone Singaporean?

Suggested answers off the top of my head:

Parochialism
Taking offense at differing views
A mindless obsession with National Slavery (National Service) for the guys
Princess Mentality for the girls
Thinking racial-religious ignorance equates to harmony
Instinctively preferring foreign cultures

Note: what makes someone Singaporean is not necessarily the same as what distinguishes a Singaporean from other people. This is similar to how a water molecule needs hydrogen, but not all molecules with hydrogen are water molecules.

* - I used to have "abysmal language skills" here, but the only internationally comparable dataset I could find for English was from The Bilingual Education Policy in Singapore: Implications for Second Language Acquisition:

"The thirty-five country IEA Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, which tested 10-year-olds (with four years of schooling) on reading for literary purposes and reading for informational purposes... Overall, Singapore's Primary 4 (P4) students scored significantly higher than the international average and fifteen countries, not significantly different from Scotland, New Zealand and six other nations, and significantly lower than England, the United States and nine other countries. For both literary and informational purposes, Singapore performed significantly better than 15 countries, and did not significantly differ from eleven and twelve countries, respectively, including the US on reading for informational purposes. Singapore, at 43%, was one of only four countries in which less than half of their students 'always' or 'almost always' spoke the language of the test at home"

My prima facie impression still inclines towards my original response (especially since this only tested Reading, and 10 year olds too), but I will wait for better data to become available.


Original IPS list of 30 traits:

Social Markers of Integration

1. Is gainfully employed
2. Belongs to one of Singapore’s main ethnic groups (CMIO)
3. Has completed tertiary education
4. Has lived in Singapore for a period of time
5. Has retired or plans to retire in Singapore
6. Owns residential property in Singapore
7. Works for a government ministry or statutory board
8. Works for a Singapore-based company
9. Works in a field where there is a shortfall of talent in Singapore
10. Invests in or sets up a Singapore-based company
11. Completes National Service himself (for the men)
12. His/Her male child completes National Service
13. Participates in grassroots’ activities (e.g. RC)
14. Participates in the work of local charity organizations or self-help groups
15. Participates in local politics (e.g. join a political party)
16. Marries a local-born Singaporean
17. Has a social circle comprising mostly localborn Singaporeans
18. Has children who are Singapore citizens
19. Enjoys ‘typical’ Singaporean past times
20. Lives in a HDB flat
21. Attended or attends government or government-aided schools (themselves or their children)
22. Able to speak conversational English
23. Able to speak a language of one of Singapore’s main racial group
24. Able to speak Singlish
25. Respects multi-racial and multi-religious practices
26. Supports Singapore products and brands
27. Behaves like a ‘Singaporean’
28. Gives up foreign cultural norms or behaviour
29. Gets on well with workplace colleagues
30. Gets on well with neighbours

Strangely, "Helpful, Friendly, Considerate" was listed as a Singaporean characteristic by 14% of the respondents.

Also, among the top 5 characteristics of being Singaporean Foreign-Born Citizens cited were:

3. Belongs to one of Singapore’s main ethnic groups (57%)
5. Owns residential property in Singapore (55%)

Australia 2011 - Day 11, Part 3 - Litchfield National Park

"It's not a matter of whether or not someone's watching over you. It's just a question of their intentions." - Randy K. Milholland

***

Australia 2011
Day 11 - 8th August - Litchfield National Park
(Part 3)

Next was Tolmer Falls.

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Tolmer Falls


Tolmer Falls


Tolmer Falls Panorama 2

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Forested area on other side

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Falls rainbow

There was a 45 minute walk but by this time I was too nua to do it. Also one could see a lot from the path to the lookout point (and I'd been looking at enough rocks for diminishing marginal utility to hit pretty heavily).

There was a Chinese couple in their 60s or 70s from Dalian. Their daughter looked like she was in her late 20s and her husband was a white guy in his 50s or so, witha head of white hair. In Melbourne, she said she was from China and Melbourne (at first I thought it was some Chinese city). Perhaps because of that, she sensed my English was better than my Mandarin and switched to English. How nice of her. Then her father asked me if Singaporeans going to Malaysia needed a qian1 zheng4. I thought this meant a passport stamp, but it was actually a visa. So I gave the wrong answer. Oops.

We then proceeded to Buley Falls.

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"If carpark is FULL then Buley is CROWDED. Please come back later"

The culture in Australia seemed to be to go headfirst into the lot, so I reversed in a few instances. Belabored literary analyses notwithstanding, I was just doing it for fun so our car would be easily located in the carpark.

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On the Buley Rockhole

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Pond Life

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Cavorting by the water. That woman is the one I referred to earlier, who swam in her bra.

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Pool

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People in pool

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Backs lined up

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"Nature's ۞۞۞۞۞ Spa"
With all the people frolicking in it, I doubt it's still "Good enough to bottle"

We then moved on to Florence Falls.

Coming to Australia with a hat, insect repellent and sunblock is very smart. I brought none of those things. Though moisturiser helped a bit.

I rolled down the car window to cool the car as we drove, and our road map flew out. Oops. However we knew there were lots of environmentally-conscious people behind us to clear up.

I saw a van with an ad for German-speaking tours.

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Florence Falls sign

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Florence Falls

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Rapids, Pool

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This is a great idea. All walks need previews so one can decide if they're worth doing!

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Cavort cavort cavort cavort cavort

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Tree climbing: one of the things you miss out on growing up in Singapore

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Artistic pond shot

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This is not a Water Boatman, so I'll just call it "pond bug"

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You need to time your visits really well to catch many ranger activities

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'Shakin Bacon' van

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Hand-scrawled road sign for Gorky

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No liquor AND no porn
Between this sign and Batchelor which itself had a "no liquor" sign, there was 50m or so of open space. One could sit down there and drink.

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Fish eating themselves

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Hidden tobacco

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I don't know why they're so proud of their Iced Coffee

I then went to a store to buy "Passiona", a passionfruit soft drink. It wasn't very nice, fulfilling my rule of local soft drinks (they're usually not very nice). Incidentally I made sure not to visit the store with the nasty guy as I didn't want to be harassed again.

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Besides not being very nice, there were weird particles floating in it. Perhaps a new form of life? The ingredients list didn't mention bits of fruit so they couldn't have been that. Anyway it was too acidic and acrid, and was slightly bitter, even, assaulting my buccal cavity.
It was better when less gassy, which it became with the car's vibrations as we travelled. I then understood why uncles added salt to their Coke.

Strangely, I was even more sian after my swim. I suppose it, the hike, the previous day's hike and the weather were taking their toll on me.

Unleaded petrol was $1.487/l and plus ulp $1.467/l. I'm not sure why someone would go for normal unleaded petrol.


There were some cars marked "Hertz". Maybe renters got discounts for doing their advertising for them.

Maybe the Top End had a lot of Germans because they like camping.
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