Observations - 17th May 2018

"What 'multiculturalism' boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture - and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture." Thomas Sowell

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On the study which supposedly showed that homophobes are gay: "we learned in science class that watching a loved one run over by a car can cause an erection due to the extreme excitement and anxiety. This is clearly not a form of sexual excitement-with maybe a few warped exceptions."

Since courts in the developed world subscribe to the view that sexual assault is about power, not sex (that the accused is not sexually aroused by the alleged victim is not considered a defence), if a gay man is accused by a woman of sexual assault his sexuality would presumably not be a defence.

"Girls like the men in GQ, unfortunately the men in GQ also like the men in GQ...."


"*** once told me to shove it when i called gay people homosexual
its derogatory she said
i should be claling them gays and lesbians
and when i told her this is the most neutral term to call them, scientfically speaking she said fuck your science"


"percuma = free in Malay, useless in Indonesian"

"I've found a new way to explain what lppl is. Lppl = touche" (LPPL is typically said by other people though)

Bjorn means bear. Maybe Scandinavian male names are more funky than Anglo ones

How many people can read the Arabic signs at hawker stalls in Singapore? What if someone puts up one that says "warning: not halal"?


Military personnel are probably less respected in countries with mass conscription. Familiarity breeds contempt.

How does SAF mobilisation work if you live in Johor?


In Nazi concentration camps, escape put other prisoners at risk as they would be punished for the escapees' "crimes".

Other prisoners would also have to work harder to take up the slack created by the escapees' escape.

Prisoners (not just prisoners of war but also undesirables) were also told that their efforts were necessary for the country's war effort and survival.

The parallels with National Slavery are uncanny.


Amused that you can use VBE to make an Excel sheet not just Hidden but VeryHidden

After eating Indian food for almost every meal for 9 days, I started to smell like curry. So now I have personal evidence for the "why Indians smell different" theory

If you're slow to reply to others, should you expect others to be quick to reply to you?

"Someone should write a book about things Malcolm Gladwell has gotten wrong."

"I have witnessed quite a few work incidents where colleagues slice chilli padi then go take a piss. Didn't end well for them."

The best things about an activity tracker are being able to monitor your sleep and being notified when someone calls you

Why do Americans use ounces but not drachms or grains but instead grams? Can't we at least get consistency?

The "low importance" email flag is so rarely used that when I see an "unimportant" email I actually pay more attention to it