Links - 10th February 2013

"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing." - H. L. Mencken

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Sex-for-grades case: Law professor starts cross-examination of Darinne Ko - "Addressing her in a gentle, fatherly manner, Tey began his line of defence by asking her about the circumstances surrounding her first statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB)"

Law prof Tey cross-examines ex-student Ko - "Ms Ko said she was hauled in by two officers from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), at about 7am or 8am during the examination period. She said she was deprived of sleep, felt scared and anxious, and was interrogated until about 7pm before she was brought to see CPIB's deputy director, Teng Khee Fatt. She said the recording officer had told Mr Teng she had been uncooperative. Mr Teng, she said, told her that the evidence she gave the CPIB was "not making out the elements of the charge against Tey". During their two-and-a-half-hour conversation, she said Mr Teng told her that corruption is a two-sided offence and that indemnity could be granted if the need arose. She also said Mr Teng had wanted her to write that she had given the gifts because she wanted "favour" from Tey but she refused. The two then argued about the terms to be used and finally settled on the words "undue prejudice", which she took as "treating her unfairly". "I was slightly more comfortable with that compromise even though it was still not an accurate depiction of the true state of affairs," said Ms Ko. When asked by Tey what the true state of affairs were, Ms Ko said: "I only bought Prof Tey the gifts because I liked him and we were in a relationship." But Mr Teng didn't buy this answer, she said. Ms Ko said he told her that it was not possible for a girl to buy a guy gifts... the Montblanc pen in question finally appeared in court as evidence. Tey pointed out that in her CPIB statement, Ms Ko said he had lost his fountain pen... Tey told her she had "recalled wrongly" and that his original fountain pen had been found. He admitted his supposedly "lost" pen as evidence. But Ms Ko explained that she only heard from Tey that he had lost a fountain pen and did not know if he indeed had the pen. Tey then quickly said: "The defendant does not seek to blame you. The defendant only wants to tell this honorable court that he had never lost his Sheaffer fountain pen, which can indeed be traced back to some 20 years ago."
"when she was locked up by the CPIB, she was latched from the outside in a room for close to 12 hours, and though she was given food and water, she was not allowed to sleep. She added she had only slept for 3 1/ 2 hours in the last 30 hours. She also said that no statement was recorded until she had a 2 1/ 2 hour conversation with Mr Teng... her earlier statements were different because she felt pressured into believing that she needed indemnity from the court"
"I further said that I could not cooperate with his definition of cooperation, because my statements would not hold up to cross-examination. Then he said that it would be possible for him to ask the prosecution to soley use my statement without calling me to testify, and if I cooperated, I would be able to carry on with my life and begin my career upon graduation."
"Ms Png [from CPIB], she charged, was also willing to record only parts of what she said. "In relation to the gift, Chen Chen had received specific orders to record it within the parameters of my agreement with her boss.""

Questions raised over Cecilia Sue's 11 hours at CPIB - "Mr Tan also said on Jan 12 - the day Ms Sue's fifth statement was taken - Mr Teng had spent four hours speaking to her after her statement was taken. Logs in Mr Teng's work diary said that she checked the statement but did not wish to sign it, said Mr Tan. Mr Tan added: "It seems to me the four hours was (spent) to persuade her to sign the statement... What did you promise her?" Mr Teng said that nothing was promised and that Ms Sue had spoken to him about her marital and work concerns. When asked by the prosecution if he was questioning the integrity of the witness, Mr Tan said: "I have good basis to suggest that the change in position by Cecilia Sue was not done voluntarily by her"

Tey says docs requested from NUS will prove he made false confessions to CPIB - "LAW professor Tey Tsun Hang said yesterday that documents he had requested from the National University of Singapore (NUS) will prove that confessions he made to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) were false... Tey's requests for the three documents, however, were denied by Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye, who did not explain why."

Prof: I had sex on sofa with another student - "The sofa in his office was in a rich shade of red. It was where law professor Tey Tsun Hang allegedly had sex with Miss Darinne Ko Wen Hui, now 23, twice. In statements to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), however, Tey had also alleged that he had sex with another female student on that two-seater sofa. Yesterday, he told the court that the statement was "a false confession" and was made under "harsh treatment"... The name of another former student was also mentioned in court on Friday. But there were no details on the nature of the relationship between Tey and the man, who graduated in 2010"

Cougar Life Billboard In LA Advertises 'Cougars' For 'Mother F*ckers' (VIDEO) - "Elissa Buchter, spokeswoman for Cougar Life and a cougar herself, told The Huffington Post that the billboard is the first of more the company hopes to put up in Hollywood and West Hollywood. The company is targeting the area, Buchter said, because it is the national "cougar capital" -- with more Cougar Life members in the 90069 zip code than anywhere else in the U.S. Regarding the term "mother f*ckers," she commented, "The majority of cougars are single moms. And we thought it'd be a good way to get their attention and make a splash"... "Older women are a lot more confident, more willing to explore, and in touch with their sexuality," she said. A lot of men in their late-20s want an independent woman who is not codependent and does not want drama or money, Buchter said. "Cougars have their own thing going on and can show cubs new experiences. And younger women are often cranky, indecisive, needy, immature and play a lot of games," she said. As for the cougars, Buchter explained, "It's refreshing for women to come across a man who's in his prime and doesn't have baggage.""

Free to Read | About JSTOR - "JSTOR, the not-for-profit digital library of thousands of academic journals and other content, announced today that the archives of more than 1,200 journals are now available for limited reading by the public. This is part of a major expansion of JSTOR’s experimental program Register & Read, in which people can sign up for a JSTOR account and, every two weeks, read up to three articles online for free."

Is Kate Upton Fat? - YouTube - "'There is a skinny blog known as Skinny Gossip and basically it features women who tear other women apart because of their weight issues... The latest victim is actually a model by the name of Kate Upton... She starred in this very racy Carl's Jr commercial. She's like eating the burger as if she's having sex with it'
'Maybe that's why she's having weight issues'...
'She looks like a squishy brick... the lazy, lardy look'...
A lot of times you hear women arguing that there are these unrealistic body expectations because men expect us to look a certain way. No, it's not men. It's women. It's other women tearing women apart, and that's the real problem here'...
'Here's what I can guarantee you. The person who wrote that blog is not a heterosexual male. I don't know who it is, but it ain't a straight guy, cause anybody who looks at those Kate Upton pictures thinks, yum. Okay. They don't look at it and go, oh my god, look at that lazy lardy squishy brick look'"
"A misogynist is a man who hates women as much as women hate each other."; Feminists would blame this on "backlash".

Poly students caught having 'threesome' in school - "They were captured entering the toilet together by a closed circuit camera situated outside the toilet. The three did not deny committing the act, which happened in one of the classroom buildings on a school day."

Work Life Balance in Japan - "I have seen many Singaporean people who like Japan. Of course I love talking to the kind of people who enjoy watching “Japan Hour” every week. But they keep asking me the same question. “Why did you leave Japan? It’s such a beautiful country!” Well, I always give them the same answer.
“Yeah, it’s a beautiful country.
It’s a bit like a “5 star hotel”.
Staying there as a guest is a great experience.
But if you want to serve,
That’s another story.”

Facebook’s messaging fee scheme is part of its plan to revolutionize email. - "An algorithmic spam filter, like those used by most email programs, is one way to keep out unwanted messages. But most people still find their personal inboxes jammed with marketing mail and other unsolicited items that distract from the messages they really care about. When it comes to cutting down on those, Facebook has an advantage over every other company: You’ve already told it who your friends are. That means that it can treat everyone else as a stranger by default—and ensure that they can reach you only if it’s really important. That’s where the pay-per-message scheme comes in."

Homosexuality in Star Wars: The Old Republic is separate but unequal - "BioWare has set up a fiction where homosexuality is only physically possible on one cordoned off place in the galaxy (that players have to pay extra for), and the relationships are shallow compared to the fully fleshed out companion characters. It is literally separate and unequal. While this is probably a matter of resources — it’s expensive to rerecord all the dialogue to account for a change in genders — it comes across as inconsiderate."
Moral of the story: don't include same-sex romances, since people will bitch at you either way

Bullied 14-Year-Old Girl Gets Plastic Surgery to Fix Ears, Nose, Chin - "Teased about her big ears since she was 7 years old, Nadia found school a nightmare. Her classmates tormented her, and she couldn’t bear to look at herself in the mirror. “I felt horrible. I felt like I was like dirt,” she said, in an interview with “Good Morning America.” “They said that I have the biggest ears that they’ve ever seen. They called me ‘Dumbo,’ ‘elephant ears.’” The teasing and bullying escalated, and Nadia, of Cumming, Ga., started to believe the negativity. “I kind of got into this shell and I actually skipped school a lot,” she said. “I made excuses. I would say my stomach hurt, say that I was sick even though I wasn’t.” Nadia would cry a lot on the way home from the bus stop and at night before she went to sleep. It got so bad that Nadia even contemplated suicide... Nadia told her mother everything and begged for surgery to pin her ears back. Lynda Ilse couldn’t afford it, so she turned to the Little Baby Face Foundation, a Manhattan-based organization that provides free surgery for children with facial deformities who have a financial need... Asked if they were concerned that operating on Nadia conveyed the message that other bullied children needed to have plastic surgery, Romo replied: “She wasn’t picked to have her surgery because she was bullied. She was picked for her surgery because of her deformities.” Lynda Ilse added: “It was just something that we chose to do. It’s no different than somebody having teeth that require braces.”
Someone who was very proud of being pro-gay and took a picture of themself at Pink Dot posted this story and said she was stupid and should just endure all the bullying. I posted that stupid gays should just shut up and endure the bullying: it's fashionable to be pro-gay rights, but nasty people who are pro-gay rights will still be nasty - they will just look for targets for their nastiness other than gay people

The Bittersweetest Thing / On Romances in Games - "1) Romances are a side show, not the main game
2) I dislike the idea of every character being sexually available to the player