Links - 21st October 2013

Singaporean ship cruises to N. Korea - "GIANT speakers thump out club hits as the deejay bellows: “Everybody get on the dance floor!” The nightspot is a boarded-up swimming pool on a ship sailing in North Korean waters. The groovers are mainly middle-aged men and women wearing pins featuring pictures of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Conspicuously missing was the beat of South Korean popstar Psy’s Gangnam Style. “We’re not allowed to play that one,” explains Danny Tay, the 46-year-old Singaporean who owns the ship."

Answer to China: What things do mainland Chinese people find surprising when they visit Taiwan? - Quora - "most people approaching or offering help in Taiwan are actually honest, not trying to cheat you or scam you. Normally if approached by a stranger in mainland China many peoples' first reaction is to ignore them and walk away, but quickly realize that in Taiwan this is absolutely not necessary."

Decoding the Female Happiness Paradox - "The feminist triumph has deprived women of an essential element of their erotic lives. By raising women’s status and emphasizing “equality,” feminism has performed the psychological equivalent of a clitoridectomy on our society’s women. Rather than objects of lust and passion, they are now competitors, rivals and colleagues — their erotic capital is significantly diminished. The men around them are no longer strong and dominant, but cowed, vacillating and timid. Women’s opportunities to “feel like a woman” have been radically curtailed. Hypergamous needs are left unfulfilled by their “equal” husbands and boyfriends. Is it any wonder that women report less happiness? For all the trouble feminism has caused us men over the decades, it appears that it has been a significant source of misery for women as well. This is why feminism will ultimately fail: in their hearts, women don’t want it."

Porn 'downloaded in Vatican City': 'Female and transsexual porn shared in Catholic Church HQ' - "a 2012 survey by Religious Institute..found that 'one in five clergy reported intentionally visiting a sexually explicit website in the past six months.' But 16 percent of those asked replied that they 'preferred not to answer the question about their personal use of these sites.'"

Back to hostility: the roots of Russia’s anti-gay attitudes - "Russians’ tolerance of gays and lesbians has varied throughout history, although periods of increased authoritarianism have always resulted in a crackdown on homosexual behavior."

Want a top-notch startup sector? Reform the Singapore Armed Forces - "Two key differences that emerge upon a brief review of Israel’s and Singapore’s culture are the following:
• the freedom to question assumptions
• military service culture"

Thank you for joining my homepage - "Thank you for joining my homepage. These photos I made in winter 2003-2004. I took this mongolian bitches and fucked them very well. Ok, enjoy this site." (NSFW)"
This is very bizarre

Success or Just Showing Up?: Uniforms Inspire Attendance, Not Achievement - Real Time Economics - WSJ - "School uniforms may improve attendance, particularly among females, a new study shows. Attendance among middle-school and high-school students improved slightly – between 0.3 and 0.4 of a percentage point — when students were required to wear uniforms... uniforms had some positive impacts, but had little influence on important barometers of student achievement and behavior... School uniforms were more effective in improving attendance in mixed-race or primarily white or Asian high schools and middle schools. The effects tended to be most prominent among low-achieving students and students who were economically disadvantaged... Teacher attrition fell by five percentage points after uniforms were required... "In terms of discipline we also find little evidence of uniform effects""

Le spam nigérian le plus poétique (et drôle)

▶ Tsubomi.avi - YouTube
This is a demanding exercise routine

日本女人VS中国女人：说的有点狠，不过也有几分道理！_中华论坛_中华网论坛--网友影响中国--全国最大社区媒体 - "日本的女人平时是淑女,床上是贱人. 中国的女人很多床上是淑女,床下是贱人."

UF study shows long-term drug abuse starts with alcohol » News » University of Florida - "Alcohol — not marijuana — is the gateway drug that leads adolescents down the path toward more serious substances"

How to Handle an Unhappy Bridesmaid : Brides - ""One of my bridesmaids is constantly complaining about how much she hates the dress, while all the others like it"...
Assuming you still like this carping, uncooperative friend, take her aside and ask what is really bothering her. Is it the dress? Is it the price? Is it her weight? Is it something about being single?"

Jealous B*tches series: The Fat B*tch in Denial | LovelySexyBeauty: adventures in love, enchantment, & beauty - "The Fat B*tch in Denial is one of the most annoying Jealous B*tches a girl may ever have to deal with. Deep down inside these girls KNOW that being overweight is not cool. Instead of spending hours controlling their appetites, picking out healthy and moderate meals, and hitting the gym, they spend most of their time putting together “slimming” outfits (usually in shades of black), carefully photoshopping pictures to put up online, and causing problems for us skinnier ones."
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another

Belief in hell, according to international data, is associated with reduced crime - "undergraduate students were more likely to cheat when they believe in a forgiving God than a punishing God... supernatural punishment had emerged as a very effective cultural innovation to get people to act more ethically with each other. In 2003, he said, Harvard University researchers Robert J. Barro and Rachel M. McCleary had found that gross domestic product was higher in developed countries when people believed in hell more than they did in heaven."

Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers - "compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous. For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were"

Can religion make you fat? - "young churchgoers were 50 percent more likely to turn into obese middle-agers than those who avoided church... "Our best guess," says Matthew Feinstein, the study's lead author, is that "more frequent participation in church is associated with good works and people may be rewarding themselves with large meals." It's also to do with holy matrimony, says Kenneth F. Ferraro of Purdue University, quoted by CNN. "Weight gain is common after marriage and... marriage is highly valued in most religious groups."

Geylang's China sex worker writes open letter to S'pore men - "She said the men she encountered were mostly generous and considerate. And she was so impressed that she even toyed with the thought of staying on in the hope of settling down with a local man. But on the other hand, she also felt Singapore men were too naive. 'No matter how well you treat the streetwalkers, you are just a fool in their eyes. 'When you sympathise with them, you will definitely fork out money to support them. 'But behind your backs, they are laughing at how they've conned you.' She also added: 'Just treat it (the encounter) as a sexual transaction.'"

How To Win That Music Competition? Send A Video - "the volunteers were better able to identify the winners when they couldn't hear the music at all, compared with when they could only hear the music. In fact, it was even worse than that: When the volunteers could see the musicians and hear the music, they became less accurate in picking the winners compared with when they could only see the performers. The music was actually a distraction. Tsay says this not only says something about the volunteers, but it also says something important about the original experts who judged the competitions."

Ikea at last cracks China market, but success has meant adapting to local ways - "On a king-size bed in the middle of the largest showroom, a little boy wakes from a nap next to his (also sleeping) grandmother. When the old woman casually helps the boy urinate into an empty water bottle, dripping liquid liberally on the grey mattress under his feet, most passers-by seem not to mind or even notice"

Threesome Planning - Menage a Trois Planning - Marie Claire - "I occasionally mention the name of a female friend. "Would she be acceptable?" "Absolutely," he says. It turns out that all of my girlfriends and practically all the spouses of his friends would potentially make the cut, including the pregnant ones... "You won't believe what my husband wants for his birthday." I tell her that I've agreed to it in principle but that I haven't yet found the third party. I think she gets that I'm propositioning her, but instead of taking the bait, she becomes the Cassandra of threesomes... Not only is Emma out of the running, she seems to be morphing into that most dreaded of creatures: the friend. She talks of future lunch dates at other Asian restaurants. I'm suddenly sympathetic to those male "friends" of mine who disappeared when I got engaged. Why stick around?... It occurs to me that planning this threesome has become another one of the things I do, like organizing playdates and supervising the renovation of our kitchen. Nevertheless, my new man's-eye view of the world is thrilling. I notice women everywhere — at the photo shop, in line at the supermarket. I even scan my book group — middle-aged expatriates who like to read about the Holocaust — for candidates. I have a belated feminist revelation: Women don't demand raises and promotions, because we're trained to sit pretty and let someone else chase us. In my new role as decider, I don't care what anyone thinks of me. I just go after what I want from them. It's refreshing to have some time off from wondering whether I look fat... Everyone (at least everyone male) wants to have one, but no one's had a good one... How do I convince a woman to take off her clothes? My husband, who spent years of his life addressing this particular challenge, gives me a little pep talk. "With women, you have to listen to all the stuff they say," he explains. "They have all these complex emotional issues, and you have to try to figure out what they are. Just keep asking questions. Be pleasant and reassuring but also slightly mysterious"... I'm not sure what kind of plans she wants to make. We'll each suck one of his toes? I'll read him poetry while she pirouettes?"