"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." - Mark Twain

***

Who's afraid of Catherine Lim? The State in Patriarchal Singapore
Kenneth Paul Tan

"Through [the Internal Security Act, Sedition Act, Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act and Societies' Act] and other coercive instruments, the state has effectively castrated political opposition and alternatives in civil society, preventing them from mounting effective political challenges to the state—challenges that established liberal democracies would regard as necessary for democratic accountability, responsibility and responsiveness (Tan, 2001).

A spectacular example of political emasculation happened in 1987—two years after a serious economic recession—when the state accused 22 people of a Marxist conspiracy and detained them under the Internal Security Act...

The politically emasculating state assumes the superior status and controlling position of the patriarch—originating, elaborating and defending the "law of the Father" that has taken the form of an official national discourse that defines the conditions of possibility for what can be legitimately thought, expressed and communicated in Singapore...

The founding Father—who engenders and animates the state—writes himself as the sole protagonist in the national narrative, casts his allies in supporting roles and his enemies as antagonists, and interpellates Singaporean readers/citizens into infantile subjects paranoid about threats of race riots, Marxist conspiracies, hostile neighbouring countries, terrorism, disease, economic crisis, and the ceaseless challenges of striving to be number one in the world. Society, in all its lack, is the "negative mirror" that makes possible the state's heroic self-definitions. In contrast to a "masculine" state that possesses universal vision, the people are presented as selfish, ignorant, deficient, dangerous and "feminine", and thus cannot be trusted with matters of public significance unless tightly supervised by state-approved committees (Woo and Goh, 2007). Society, in this "monosexual imaginary", is the "negative elaboration" of the state which, in fact, actively subdues any rebellious ground energies by providing the people with "playgrounds" that simulate democratic participation. Widely publicised national consultation exercises such as the National Agenda in the late 1980s, Singapore 21 and Remaking Singapore at the turn of the millennium are highly controlled spaces for citizen committees to discuss questions scheduled by the state.

Singapore's official history and model of development record the nation's "paternal genealogy", but erase the "maternal genealogy" that could narrate society's organic, hidden or potential roles in the life of the nation. The Singapore state's refusal to acknowledge a national debt to civil society's "maternity" perpetuates the phantasie of a primal (pre-modern) mass that threatens to madden, kill and devour the modern and prosperous Singapore that rational and disciplined policy-makers have constructed, and that the founding Father literally promised/threatened to watch over even from the afterlife. This phantasie of a dangerous civil society is continually constructed and circulated using the vivid imagery of racial riots, radical movements, Marxist conspiracies, and political instability in modern Singapore's recent past and Third-World Asia's present—the more extreme this vision, the more able is the paternal state to define and justify its powers...

[Goh Chok Tong's inauguration and George Yeo's Banyan Tree] speeches marked a shift in emphasis from emasculation and infantilisation of civil society to its feminisation. In this seemingly new partnership, the state—in a "masculine" and "husbandly" voice of reason and control—began to urge civil society to be more active, but this would be limited to the "feminine" roles of providing care (through voluntary welfare organisations), producing consensus through communication (in national-level consultation exercises), and being delightfully, but not antagonistically, expressive (to enable the industrialisation of culture and the arts in a global city [Tan, 2008a). The jealous state's husbandly voice also forbade civil society to forge partnerships with foreign organisations, insisting that foreign interests should never meddle with domestic politics. In this still patriarchal partnership, civil society actors who exceed the limits of their usefulness to the state or challenge its authority---as a wife might challenge her husband's authority---will still be derogatorily described as hysterical, and treated with condescension, ridicule, reproach or even punishment.

Civil society is defined in terms of what the state is not: its lack, other, and extended phallus that commands obedience. In Singapore, "civic society" is the term used by the state to differentiate it from the more antagonistic caricature of "civil society" envisioned in liberal thought. Civic society---conceived as a depoliticised civil society---is encouraged by the state as a "free space": not free in the sense of maximal liberty, but in terms of the unpaid labour extracted from voluntarism to help the state shoulder the welfare burden in an ageing society facing a widening income gap and higher living costs. Like the mass mediated image of Lim Hwee Hua, civil society is legitimised as civic society when it can demonstrate some of the qualities of the state---controlled, rational and technically proficient---but not to the extent that it presents a competitive threat to state dominance. Otherwise, it will have to endure the state's emasculating violence...

Domestic workers help to restore the castrated egos of basically working-class Singapore men and provide an outlet for many Singapore women to deal with their frustrations in the workplace by physically and psychologically abusing their maids..

Lim began her article by stroking the state's ego - specifying in a markedly feminine voice the phallogocentric qualities that were vital to the state's self-definition... Lim then deliberately held up a negative mirror---constructed out of feminine lack and otherness---to the government's narcissistic male ego, as she described the PAP leaders' "pet aversion [to] noisy, protracted debate that leads nowhere, emotional indulgence, frothy promises, theatrics and polemics in place of pragmatics". In this seductive move, her feminine words came, in a Lacanian sense, to be the government's extended phallus... Lim deliberately allowed herself to play up her role as "admiring wife" to the manly state; and then, in this role, articulated claims that the state would not appreciate but needed to hear, constructing a skilful argument that would make any assertions about hysterical women seem quite ridiculous...

[Khoo Tsai Kee] pointed proudly to the party's consistent ability to win more than 60 per cent of the popular vote -"the only test that counts". He then accused Lim, a prominent socialite, of basing her analysis on the chatter of "people [who] gather in coffeehouses and cocktail parties to relax, joke and have fun, not to pass judgment on serious issues"... [Lim] wrote a seemingly unrelated piece for The Straits Times...

At some deep subconscious level, males fear females most when they receive that nice cup of coffee from those delicate hands. / For a proffered drink, as history has shown, has always been woman's deadliest weapon against man. /… She can put into it some secret potion… that is guaranteed to put her husband or lover under her spell forever. / Or she can administer a strong drug that will make him fall into a deep sleep, so that like Delilah or Lorena Bobbitt, she can denude him of his manhood forever.

Suspicious of Lim's feminine ability to charm and perhaps even to castrate, the government ungraciously refused her cup of coffee...

On the question of critics fearing to speak out in Singapore, Lim pointed to a general impression that the "risks are too great". In an ironic and prescient gesture, she identified as a source of this impression the "discomfiture of seeing a formidable PAP juggernaut ranged against a lone, helpless individual who then excites sympathy as the pitiable underdog". The interview concluded with a self-deprecating Lim wondering to herself if she was "an ingrate to suggest to this very competent Government that, on top of all the good things they are providing for the people, would they behave nicely to the people, please?"...

Lim observed how

Given his fierce commitment to the nation he built up, shaped and protected over three decades (who can forget that touching promise he once made about springing up from his coffin, if necessary, to intervene on Singapore's behalf?)

Lim, in a deliberately naive (even cheeky) gesture, described the horror (and high camp) of Lee's grave promise as "touching"; yet her words did not fail to affirm the leader's great stature. But in refusing "death", this eternal Father—consciously or unconsciously—made it difficult for Goh, his successor, to self-actualize as the nation's leader. This infantilisation has, in fact, been palpable...

The prime minister's press secretary, Chan Heng Wing (4 December 1994), wrote a letter to The Straits Times the following week. His tone, in stark contrast to Lim's, was defensive, mocking, harsh and foreboding. His ad hominem arguments belittled her analysis by suggesting that the novelist could not tell the difference between "real life" and "fiction" and that she demonstrated a "poor understanding of what leaders in government have to do". Remarkably, Chan dismissed "public consultation" as useless for making the entire range of public policies and decisions; but he maintained that the prime minister welcomed "alternative viewpoints" only if they were correct ones: "mistaken views" and "fallacious propositions" would be refuted "sharply" and "robustly" so as not to "take hold and confuse Singaporeans, leading to unfortunate results". Chan assumed that tough prime ministerial action against unacceptable viewpoints would earn him the respect of the people. This position completely misunderstood the significance of consultation as a means of pooling a broad range of resources for a more rounded and multi-perspectived practice of collective decision-making, particularly important as more complex societies enter into uncertain times. Instead, Chan assumed that there were already correct arguments and that the government knew what they were; thus, public consultation was not meant to serve as a process of decision-making, but as a propaganda tool for getting people to buy into what had already been decided by the state. Remarkable also was Chan's assertion that Lim—and in fact "journalists, novelists, short-story writers or theatre groups"- should not "set the political agenda from outside the political arena", but should join a political party and run for election if they had strong political views...

[After 1991's loss of 4 seats to the Opposition] Lim's masculine arguments conveyed in an overtly feminine voice evoked the prime minister's primal instinct to fear and resist the vagina dentata. In fact, 1994 was a particularly repressive year, in which two other academics were reprimanded (one actually fled the country) and two art forms -"performance art" and "forum theatre"- were proscribed. The new administration needed to remasculate itself to replace its "softer" image with a strongman quality that it assumed the people felt more comfortable with...

The prime minister's press secretary then added new levels of hyperbole to this "western decadence vs Asian values" approach, describing Lim's commentaries as "destroy[ing] the respect accorded to the Prime Minister by denigration and contempt…[leading not] to more freedom but confusion, conflict and decline" (quoted in The Straits Times, 29 December 1994). In the same letter, he cited homosexuality, single motherhood, and the "rampant and overbearing hubris" of the media as examples of western practices that "would be disastrous for Singapore" (quoted in The Business Times Singapore, 29 December 1994). In this bizarre sleight of hand, Lim, the writer of English-language love stories, was transformed—through a phallogocentric postcolonial ideology that disparages feminine qualities as degenerate and a threat to national discipline and control—into an uncouth, insolent, insubordinate, immoral, traitorous and dangerous woman who dared to overstep her boundaries in traditional Asian (read patriarchal) society. Unable to deal with Lim's suspicious offer of a cup of coffee, the state resorted to a crude, hyperbolic and even monstrous characterisation of Lim that was much easier to discipline and control. This is a Freudian disavowal of the maternal-feminine that "perpetuates the most atrocious and primitive phantasies—woman as devouring monster threatening madness and death" (Whitford, 1991b, pp. 25-26), just as a vocal Catherine Lim was presented as a westernised monster threatening to devour the values of Asian civilisation...

When critics who are genuinely interested in Singapore's well-being are demolished by an intolerant state or forced to live overseas, should "foul play" be suspected? But the piece also seemed to suggest that the state had missed the point of Lim's two political commentaries entirely, choosing to be obsessed about her "grammar", as it were, instead of her message. The state, perhaps, did not want to have to deal with Lim's inconvenient message, or it chose to focus not on a woman's substance but on her manner and tone...

A few days later, the structural violence referred to in Lim's "foul play" commentary exploded into a remarkably brutal display of phallic physicality and strength through the use of violent metaphors. In parliament, the prime minister described Lim's political commentaries and criticism from other Singaporeans as an "attack" that the government would have to reciprocate: "If you land a blow on our jaw, you must expect a counter-blow on your solar plexus" (quoted in The Straits Times, 24 January 1995)... Soon after, Lee—the castrating Father—expressed his approval of Goh's tough action in an interview with local tabloid The New Paper. Outdoing his successor yet again, the "formidable PAP juggernaut" raged against Lim, employing a battery of metaphoric weapons to reinforce his point:

Everybody now knows that if you take on the PM, he will have to take you on… If he didn't, then more people will throw darts, put a little poison on the tip and throw them at him. And he'll have darts sticking all over him.

[...]

everybody knows if I say that we are going in a certain direction and that we're going to achieve this objective, if you set out to block me, I will take a bulldozer and clear the obstruction.

[...]

The PM has to carry his own big stick, or have someone carry it, because now it's his policy and his responsibility to see his policy through (quoted in Ng, 3 February 1995).

I would isolate the leaders, the troublemakers, get them exposed, cut them down to size, ridicule them, so that everybody understands that it's not such a clever thing to do. Governing does not mean just being pleasant.

[...]

You will not write an article—and that's it. One-to-one on TV. You make your point and I'll refute you… Or if you like, take a sharp knife, metaphorically, and I'll take a sharp knife of similar size; let's meet. Once this is understood, it's amazing how reasonable the argument can become (quoted in Wrage, 22 December 1995).

In a bizarre manoeuvre to humanise the man after conveying his litany of terrifying metaphors, The Straits Times described how

[w]hen he spoke about his roles as father and grandfather, he adopted an avuncular air, and often flashed a warm smile and a kindly eye. / But when he dwelt on Dr Lim's article and issues on governing, he showed the force of his personality, the strength of his intellect and the wealth of his 41-year political experience (Ng, 3 February 1995).

Some years later, in an interview with reporters from The Straits Times who were compiling a book on the man and his ideas, Lee continued to display this violent streak:

Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister… she would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac… Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle-dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society (Han, Fernandez and Tan, 1998, p. 126).

... Writing about Lee's eternal/paternal dominance over the nation's history and contemporary self-understandings, Souchou Yao argues that the Father's refusal to die - in his promise to rise from the grave - will stunt the growth of an already immature citizenry...

These almost hysterical pronouncements - monumentally ironic - put the state in an embarrassingly negative light: the gender stereotypes were reversed!... [there is a potential to] proactively criticis[e] the state in a gently "spousal" way to make a strongly argued point without incurring the state's full-blown violence...

Catherine Lim was able to expose the unconscionable violence of a patriarchal state without being destroyed by it, raise sympathy for the underdog, and mobilise forces of resistance against an authoritarianism through which such high-handed threats of violence were possible. Her potentially castrating actions also set the stage for a state that defined itself in the hyper-masculine terms of rationality and self-control to behave—ironically—in a melodramatic, overly-emotional and even hysterical fashion that would have readily been associated with a debased femininity...

Catherine Lim's affair with the state in 1994 was a "three-steps forward, two-steps-back dance"- but the net movement was still forward."

"The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be." - Walter Bagehot

***

The Winter's Tale was interesting (even if "Exit, pursued by a bear" got changed to "Get creeped up on by a bear and disappear in a flash of lightning"), but even more interesting was observing the Ang Mohs (Caucasians) and comparing them to those at Les Contes d'Hoffman.

Given the nature of the performance/performers, it was no surprise that I only heard American/British accents from them at the former and the French language during the latter (with the proportion of the former dwarfing the latter), but more interesting was that they thronged Circle 3 (i.e. the cheap seats) on both days. Indeed, tonight I saw more blonde and brunette hair in Circle 3 than the Stalls (or at least the part of the Stalls visible from my lofty vantage point).

Yet, during the intermission, whereas the Circle 3 Bar was closed during the Opera (supposedly because of technical issues; in fact I can't remember the last time it was open - probably during King Lear), it was doing brisk business tonight (with some people even bringing their wine in):



I also saw 3 long-haired guys sitting together - perhaps they were a support group (maybe the Québécois are more bohemian than Les Français).

After the play, I found that there was a "Lotus Limousine" stretch limo parked outside:




There was also a huge clusterfuck of taxis, virtuall all of them on call.

Meanwhile I saw about 5 ang mohs at the bus stop tonight, whereas after Hoffman there must've been 30 there.

I thus conclude that French expatriates are much harder hit by the recession than British/American ones.

"Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt... Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, except themselves." - Robert Anton Wilson

***

CNA's account of Blair's lecture:

"In a speech to some 600 people from around Asia, his key message is the importance of interfaith dialogue... To promote interfaith dialogue, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is working to link students from different parts in the world in discussions."

Eisen's (interspersed with my comments):

"Why is the décor so cheap?

Dude, you've aged. Visibly

four minutes into his speech, he finally quotes from the bible. I predicted five. Damn

he finally quotes from Samuel Huntington... "clash of civilizations". I knew he can't resist that, heheheh

tsk tsk, unlike Obama, he does not mention atheists in the roll call of religions. Tsk tsk tsk

I wished he had shared more with us about his work as envoy in the middle east, rather than pad his speech with vague rhetoric

"religion sometimes comes under attack from a very aggressive secularism..." hello, look who's talking
[Me: The moment you criticise religion, you're 'aggressive'; http://gssq.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-i-think-of-whenever-people.html (What I think of whenever people complain about militant/aggressive atheists/secularists)]

"I am for freedom of speech... But only if it doesn't affect interfaith harmony" ah, hence the sedition act
[Me: If you stare at a gang member on the bus,he'll beat you and your friends up. Therefore, I am for jailing those who stare at gangsters]

tan cheng han is beaming as Blair talks about jesus... Confirm he is a Christian too
[Me: Most pple in our socio-demographic group are Xtian, and I always see pple reading Xtian stuff. Move to a more secular society lah :)]

Q and A - "you said 'love thy neighbour', sir, but only for people of the same faith?" GOOD QUESTION
[Me: He and Karen Armstrong would have a great time talking politically-correct feel-good rubbish to each other]
[Eisen: HAHAHA Blair just recommended we read Karen's book]

blair effectively replied that you should ignore scripture or choose selectively from it so as not to kill each other
[Me: i.e. Use religion when it suits your needs and ignore it when it doesn't. Bah, humbug.]

ah, Blair finally does the right thing and attacks those who are devout outside but have no faith inside... Good tactic

Q and A - "how do you involve atheists?" don't force them into group prayer la"

Bottle mishap leads to old man's death

A SINGAPOREAN died of heart failure after his penis became stuck in a soft drink bottle, reported Sin Chew Daily and China Press.

The incident happened when the 77-year-old man used the bottle to masturbate.

China Press reported that the senior citizen got his private part into the bottle and only sought help after his penis could not be dislodged from the bottle despite trying various ways such as applying soap water.

Doctors tried to alleviate the man's suffering by cutting the bottle below the neck but to no avail because by that time, the skin around the penis had started to become inflamed, causing him to be unable to urinate.

His misadventure later led to other medical complications causing his death.

[Addendum: I infer that he was in Malaysia when this happened - when Singaporeans go to Malaysia they become cock, like the country]


MFTTW: i thought he tried to anal sex with it
and then it broke

hello wtf
whose penis is small enough to fit into the neck of a bottle?!?!?!

Me: old men

MFTTW:wtf????
SKINNY enough?

and like.
aiyoh
i'm sure there are other... sufficiently narrow openings.

Me: hurr hurr
women must be too loose for him

MFTTW: even their anuses?

i read in this book that if a woman has had a lot of kids
and she got raped
there won't necessarily be enough bruising
suh that you can say definitively it was a rape

Me: anyway male g-spot notwithstanding men don't masturbate by stuffing stuff up their ass

"It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it." - Thomas Babington Macaulay

***

Someone: hahaha
me just looking for fun

it's fun to just date
no obligations

Me: when you say "looking for fun" people think ONS

Someone: erhm
ok
fine..i shall not say looking for fun


MFTTW: "NUS grads all look v free
the girls esp seem to do nothing but doll themselves up
they're super overdressed for students lor
like more dressed than the working people
I think cos they have nothing else to do in life
the working people don't have that much time to primp"

one of my friends who was complaining about law students who wear 5''
heels when it's totally impractical


Someone: i don't think i wanna weigh anymore

Me: Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power

Someone: i heard guys like ignorant girls, and girls like powerful guys


Me: Not many people understand "Je veux une petite fille publique"

Someone else: I see a little girl in public?!! haha


Someone on the argument that most people don't mind part-time slavery (aka Reservist) after a few cycles: Does that same logic not defeat the very purpose of NS since after a few years of occupation by a foreign power, Singaporeans would like their new governors?

That argument is flawed and unacceptable. It is a crime to the intellect that [it should be used]

There are many facets of NS that are unacceptable and indefensible, but all these years of maturation have led the SAF to develop really tricky persuasion for it. I bet that is what many officers learn in military school. Silly arguments that have been polished intensively.


Me: why do women like cars

Someone else: why do men like sex

Me: do you?

Someone else: orgasms are the best thing in the world. they make u happy. best of all, they're free.

aiya, women dont need men anymore to get their orgasms la


Someone: my friend told me he was gonna get married

estiamte at 80k cost
30k can subsidise

so u n future spouse have to pay out 50k

so get married
or lifetime geylang membership lor

Me: I think lifetime geylang membership cheaper

Someone: ok la

one time 100 dollar
u can fuck for at least 500 weeks

that's slightly less than 10 yrs

Me: 500 times
depends how often you go :P

Someone: wife sometimes won't even give u
n u gotta take more shit

Me: then 1/4 of the time menses

Someone: yea lor
hahaha


HWMNBN: do you agree that all women are whores?
just direct or indirect?

Me: about as much as all men are rapists
just direct or indirect

HWMNBN: hahahahahahahahahaahahah


TMM: the UK is a lot like Malaysia
in terms of architecture and infrastructure

but th key difference is that its not rotting and decaying
and there's little litter
if at all

and the weather is nice too


Someone who has nicer hair than me: haha
good

i am also irritated when girls ask me 'so when are you cutting your hair'
i say 'cannot leave long ah – you jealous that i have nicer hair than you right'

Me: haha
what do they say

girls get very pissed off at guys with long hair. I think jealous

Someone: yeah, or it's some sexist rule that guys must keep short hair
rubbish

they try to laugh it off, but i bet they're cursing me inside hahahaha

Me: they dont like it when people are sexist about them
but they can be sexist themselves

Pig Butchering Guide:


"Parts that are delicious
Parts that are not delicious"

"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true." - Dorothy Parker

***

A good reminder to linguistic purists (i.e. the ignorant):

Merriam-Webster Online: The Word of the Day for March 24, 2009

"negotiate

For the first 250 years of its life, "negotiate" had meanings that hewed pretty close to its Latin root, "negotiari," meaning "to carry on business." Around the middle of the 19th century, though, it developed the meaning "to successfully travel along or over." Although this sense was criticized in the New York Sun in 1906 as a "barbarism creeping into the language," and Fowler's 1926 A Dictionary of Modern English Usage declared that any writer who used it was "literally a barbarian," it has thrived. The Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage claimed in both its 1975 and 1985 editions that it is "considered inappropriate in formal speech and writing," but our evidence does not show that there is anything particularly informal about its use."

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them." - Robertson Davies

***

JB nursing homes - MOH clarifies
(bizarrely, there isn't a permalink to this on the MOH's main page - which means it can't be linked to and it will fall off in a few months)

"Minister Khaw was only sharing an observation about the different cost structures in JB and Singapore, and in fact this option is something that those who want to stretch their budget are already doing... In fact, some readers shared the view that the availability of lower nursing homes in JB gives many Singaporeans more options."

I was pleasantly surprised to read this. It seems that, contrary to official policy, online opinion expressed in fora beyond REACH is being responded to. Simply put, it's part of good Public Relations - there's no point in letting matters blow up if they don't have to (even if the response is slower than it should be, but then a journalist friend shares that PR people are always overworked).

Meanwhile, the content of the release is also interesting.

The uproar about the Powers That Be forcing us to ship our parents to JB always struck me as ridiculous. Offering Singaporeans more affordable retirement options was portrayed by many commentators as heartlessness and endorsing the shipping of our elderly off to foreign gulags.

Presumably the idea was that there was a sort of substitution effect where, instead of maintaining their parents in Singapore, Singaporeans would kick them to JB or Bintan. This effect would become even stronger with government endorsement (actual or perceived).

Yet, just because the elderly are domiciled in Singapore does not mean that they live good lives. They may be holed up in one-room flats and/or have to work to help maintain themselves. A walk around Singapore during lunchtime reveals many suffering what seems to be the fate of many elderly in Singapore - collecting soft drink cans at food centres and picking up corrugated cardboard for sale. Many surely find living in a retirement home in JB or Bintan preferable to that.

Many elderly also finance their own retirement (e.g. those with no surviving children, or those who prefer not to rely on them), and would definitely appreciate more options; the same logic is seen in people who retire to New Zealand, Malaysia or the countryside.

Of course, a better option would be the implementation of some sort of retirement scheme which involves risk-pooling and some measure of cross-subsidisation, but that will happen as soon as the government changes, so we shall limit ourselves to the art of the possible.

Most people do not understand that giving people more options is not the same as "coercing" them or "exploiting" them. Indeed, even if you used a broad definition of exploitation, as Allen Wood points out in his excellent essay on Exploitation (which will be excerpted here some day), "by interfering with exploitative arrangements... [we] risk consigning the vulnerable person to an even worse fate than being exploited".

You see a similar fuss kicked up about the legalisation of paid organ donation. Yet, assuming there is no coercion involved, why people should get so upset is a mystery.

An alternative argument is to conjure up vague notions about the "dignity of life" which, not coincidentally, has also been used in arguments against general stem cell research and in-vitro fertilisation (test tube babies).

In the end, what people who oppose paid organ donation are essentially saying to putative paid organ donors is: "I want to have more say about what you can do with your body than you".

Similarly, what people who oppose there being retirement homes in JB or Bintan are saying is: "I want you to retire in Singapore, whether you like it or not".

Govt announces relaxation to Internet election advertising rules:

"If our democracy is reduced to slick commercials, clever editing, sharp sound bites and political spin, then I think our democracy is being debased. So I would say that when we craft this, we are very much aware that even as we liberalise, that we continue to make sure that the debate is serious, robust and rational." (emphasis mine)

When I read this, I thought: "What, like someone crying on TV?"


On the up-side:

"MPs shared some views expressed by netizens and in other forums.

MP for Pasir Ris—Punggol GRC, Penny Low, who also chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for the Information, Communications and the Arts, said: "The Internet is rife with different opinions questioning the intent of the amendment.

"Is this really a step forward towards liberalisation or is this a step backwards to contain certain political parties? Even worse — is this to introduce a catch—all clause to contain even the film producer, the videographer and free speech."

Zaqy Mohamed, MP for Hong Kah GRC, said: "The proliferation of the new media and the ease of means to get films to be produced and distributed outside of Singapore signals that local regulations are becoming less and less effective.""

"You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light." - Vicomte de Chateaubriand

***

Locks repaired at Gage County jail - "Gustafson said the inmate threw his meal tray against his cell, causing a large mess on the wall adjacent to the cell doors. Pam Vanlaningham, corrections officer on duty, left the area to find something to clean up the mess, but when she returned, the mess had been cleaned up, and not by herself nor anyone else on duty. The inmates would not reveal how the mess was cleaned up. While trying to figure out how it happened, Jim Franzen, a corrections officer on the Saturday night shift, noticed that if the key hole on the outside of the cell door was turned just enough, the door could be popped open and inmates could leave the cell."

Ryanair toilet charge plan: Spend a pound to spend a penny - "LOW-fare airline Ryanair is considering charging passengers to use the toilets on its planes, it was revealed today."

YouTube - What News Anchors Do During Commercial Breaks w/sound - "WGN News anchors Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange have been together for many years. This whole thing started out really small and simple. And then along came the internet, and a video camera, and you tube, and here we are with the funniest dance routine since that scene in Big. It's the original, What News Anchors Do During Commercial Breaks. This one has the nat sound, not cheesy music."

Tourist faux pas - be culturally sensitive while travelling - "I've been told in all seriousness that wearing purple is illegal in Japan - and that women with erect nipples are routinely hauled off by the police in Singapore. Not so. I've been with purple-wearers on Tokyo streets and don't recall locals giving them a second glance. Fashion-conscious Singapore women have told me the worst that would happen to anyone with erect nipples would be to be leered at. Others myths are laws but not enforced - for instance, Singapore's insistence toilets be flushed... Dubai can be particularly misleading because it gives an initial impression of being a liberal anything-goes society."

New anthem strikes a chord in SEAsia - "The European Union has Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and socialists of the world have long risen up to the strains of "The Internationale." Now the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has its own anthem: the not quite so rousing "The ASEAN Way" written by two Thai composers. Given its official premiere at the regional bloc's annual summit in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin at the weekend, the hymn reaches its climax with the lyrics, "We dare to dream, we care to share. Together for ASEAN.""
I know someone who composed a less insipid version, but what do you expect?

Why we do what we do - "There are those who still don't understand the SDP's strategy and approach to politics. Why do Singapore Democrats insist of defying the law and ending up in court instead of doing the ground work necessary to win elections? The answer is simple: Because the PAP has absolutely no intention of allowing the opposition to win power through elections. The ruling party will continue to introduce new laws and amend existing ones to block any meaningful inroads the opposition makes in elections. The introduction of the GRC system, the increase of election deposit, the restriction of the use of the Internet by opposition parties, etc are done to ensure that opposition parties remain crippled."

Day 18: Wantan mee and me - Bohemia Bunny - "The plate of wantan mee I ate for lunch, however, is merely passable. I detected a hint of chilli, whether due to contamination from chilli sauce or because it picked up capsaicin from the green chilli, I’ll never know. But KL wantan mee HAS NO CHILLI, okay. Well maybe the green ones, but definitely not chilli sauce. *fumes*"
Malaysian urban legend debunked!

A U.N. resolution seeks to criminalize opinions that differ with the Islamic faith. - "In the same weeks that this resolution comes up for its annual renewal at the United Nations, its chief sponsor-government (Pakistan) makes an agreement with the local Taliban to close girls' schools in the Swat Valley region (a mere 100 miles or so from the capital in Islamabad) and subject the inhabitants to Sharia law. This capitulation comes in direct response to a campaign of horrific violence and intimidation, including public beheadings. Yet the religion of those who carry out this campaign is not to be mentioned, lest it "associate" the faith with human rights violations or terrorism."

"Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored." - George Sanders, last words

***

"𤾓𢆥𥪝𡎝𠊛嗟
𡦂才𡦂命窖羅恄饒
𣦆戈沒局𣷭橷
仍調𥉩𧡊罵忉疸𢚸
邏之彼嗇私豐
𡗶青慣退𦟐紅打慳"

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry S Truman

[Someone: It's even more amazing what you can accomplish when you do not have to care about who gets the blame.]

***

Someone: One of the reasons why the budget keeps going up - and this is something that applies to the civil service in general (and it's something I'm very sore about, because it's a friggin' waste of taxpayers' money) - is because of this mentality:

1. X Unit in Ministry of Y gets, say, $100 (for ease of explanation) to spend for the financial year.
2. Come Februrary or March, X Unit has only spent $70, and may probably only spend $80 by the end of the financial year.
3. Person in charge of finances balks at realisation, and starts spending money mercilessly, so that X Unit's expenditure becomes $90, $95, $99 - anything, as long as it's very close to $100.
4. The next year, X Unit requests for $110 or is given $110 anyway by their higher-ups, in light of their expenditure for the previous year.

Which is really stupid, because the expenditure has been artificially inflated, so this 'budgeting' shit is a farce. Alternatively,

1. X Unit in Ministry of Y gets, say, $100 (for ease of explanation) to spend for the financial year.
2. Come Februrary or March, X Unit has already spent the $100 because of irreverent and irrelevant spending.
3. X Unit requests for $120 the next year in light of expenditure from previous year.

Supposedly they get audited and stuff. But seriously... you think it works?

It really gets my goat because I have heard so many times the phrase in its various permutations of "Got money, just spend" or "Must spend if not next year they give us less money". W.r.t. to the latter phrase, if you can only spend $70 or $80 a year, then you want so much money for what? I know this is to have some kind of 'buffer' but still... there should be another way around this. Anyway, the burden merely gets transferred to everybody in the long run, because we're paying taxes for this kind of stupidity that has been engendered in the civil service after years and years of 'tradition'.

Me: So what do you expect them to do?

Frankly I can't think of a better solution. Even if you assure departments that they will not have their budgets cut if they don't spend all of it, they will still want larger budgets.

Presumably department spending is audited properly to make sure it is not anyhow spent. Other than that I can't think of anything.

Someone: Roll-over leftover budgets into 'reserves'? I.e. departments with left-over budgets from the previous FY will have the surplus rolled-over to a 'reserve' that department can tap into the next FY? Sort of to allay the fears of departments that there won't be enough money to spend and to prevent overall government expenditure from artificial inflation?


NB: I think this applies to more contexts than the Civil Service; many of the gripes people have about it could be and are voiced about big companies in general.

"Painting: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic." - Ambrose Bierce

***

And now for something totally different.. - "So I looked at the competition on W4M and thought, "What the hell, let's give 'em something different..."
Me:
Neurotic
Socially inept
No career or career goals to speak of
Slightly below average intelligence
No interest at all in art, sports, or anything that would make me remotely interesting
Absolutely no sense of humour
Great cleavage
Low standards
You:
Emotionally unstable
Problems with commitment
Devious
Extensive record of infidelity
Arrogant
Extremely skilled in emotional manipulation
Morally bankrupt"
HWMNBN: the girl's description actually sounds a lot like you
­i hope yo uarne't moon lighting

"An Insult to Every Black Man in America" - "Slave owners beat their slaves, says attorney Randall Vogt. Therefore, it's "justified" for black men to beat their sons. Vogt is defending Isaac Cortez Bynum, who beat his 2-year-old son to death, and says he'll use a "post traumatic slave syndrome" defense "in a general way" in Bynum's Beaverton, Ore., murder trial. "If you are African American and you are living in America, you have been impacted," says Joy DeGruy-Leary, assistant professor at Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, who originated the slave syndrome theory. The boy's autopsy showed he had been abused over a lengthy period and had suffered brain injury, a broken neck, broken ribs, and scores of whip marks all over his body. When shown the boy's autopsy photos, DeGruy-Leary said the injury pattern "falls in the rubric" of "normal" for descendants of slaves."

Scots BA pilot sues after colleagues tell him: 'Scotland's a welfare state paid for by the English middle classes' - "A Scottish pilot is suing British Airways over claims he was racially abused by his English middle-class colleagues. Captain Douglas Maughan alleges he was sent offensive letters and called a 'Jock' who should go back to Scotland."

Is Accessibility Killing PC Gaming? - "PC games tend to be more about choice and cluster in a good number of complex mechanics. Console games meanwhile aren’t actually dumber as many PC gamers allege, but they do tend to offer more linear and action-based gameplay... The renewed focus on creating deep but accessible game experiences is to my mind the real reason that games are changing and that PC games are often being said to be getting consolified – but there’s a real difference between a poor console port and a game which has been designed to make the best of both worlds... PC games aren’t dying and I hope they never do, though I did admittedly say the same thing back when the word went around that the adventure game genre was being put in its coffin."

What The Hell Is Wrong With Japanese Games? - "Scanning over the usual top RPGs of the western world indicates to me that developers and audiences favour a game where at least some form of cinematic realism is forever in the foreground. Western audiences can accept magic-wielding Dungeoneers it seems, but lose faith when NPCs carry swords bigger than a schoolbus. That 'I-swear-I'm-not-compensating-for-anything-honest' look may work for Sephiroth, but not for Minsc. The opposite seems to be more or less true with Japanese games, where it's fine to have players fighting epic sword battles while crashing motorbikes into each other – that's far above just cinematic realism and well into pure cinema"

True Barbecue - The Great American Cooking Tradition - "Moving forward to nail down what true barbecue is, it's time to look at the regional variations. In Texas we have beef, particularly brisket. In the Carolinas we find pork, either whole hogs or pork shoulder. As you start moving towards Kansas City you find ribs, generally pork ribs but beef isn't unheard of. Out in western Kentucky you find Mutton. The thing all these traditions have in common is low cooking temperatures over a long time with the introduction of smoke to flavor and tenderize. They all start out with tough and unruly cuts of meat and end up with tender, pull apart delicacies."

Octopus survives 5 days on the run - "Five days later, he was spotted by a staff member making a dash for the door... Another octopus named Harry - after Harry Houdini - escaped from the same tank. He was found halfway up a staircase."

Woman batters man with bagel; Mom turns kid's Xbox off, gets taco thrown in face
Why is throwing food at people a criminal offence?!

"Learning to dislike children at an early age saves a lot of expense and aggravation later in life." - Robert Byrne

***

HWMNBN: As I have often said, libertarians expect too much of humans, communism expects too little.


Someone: *** was sharing with me how he cut his cock during his army days to get 2 weeks of mc

Me: OMG
I'm not the only one with that idea

I didn't know anyone would do that


Someone else: 2 days ago i mislabeled my folder as 2008 instead of 2009 and had a major freak out after i could not find it
and only realized 1 hr later it was 2008

i wrote 03-10-08 instead of 03-10-09

Me: do it 2009-03-10 lah
easier to find some more
tsk

Someone else: then i'll have like 20 folders starting with 2009

Me: then your eye will move on to the next bit
and see the month

Someone else: heh heh

hiyah my life is not THAT complicated lah
i may date a girl
but she doesn't train me up for such things

Me: if complication in your life is measured by file structure, you have it good

Someone else: bwahahhaha

but i'm a grad student. our lives are dictated by file structures.
your self-worth is only as much as the number of data backups you have


UD #6 on my moobs: -_-
okayyy

hahahas, but man
it looks huge

do you drink soya?

Me: hee hee
I've heard various theories about getting big boobs

bigger than yours isit

the theories range from milk to chicken breast (when young)

[Ed: Later I added that it cannot be Soya, since in Japan they consume soya products everyday]


Someone on sexual harassment: hahaha not that i think that SH is not a problem, but seriously, i think some girls are just too oversensitive

rubbing against you or exposing yourself or making lewd jokes openly is wrong, yes
but checking a girl out, especially if she's wearing a tight t-shirt with sexual innuendo isn't

i was gonna comment something about how some girls like to wear t-shirts with interesting slogans
then when all you're trying to do is read what the slogan is, they think you're staring at their breasts

and is that sexual harassment?

plus i think they're not being all that sincere when they say they are not trying to instigate a crackdown

i think what they want is to drum up publicity so they can have a witchhunt

plus all these girls think they have been harassed before, so that will inadvertently colour their perception of men on public transport from then on

that liane girl herself said it "we really have personal stakes in the issue"


Someone else: The army experience has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I find the idea of staying in the land of my birth unappealing

Now this may not be the humble thing to say
But by most any objective measure I think you and I are highly educated people who should be welcome in any country

And the fact that there the army turns us against the land of our birth should say something about the tremendous cost to it

It's not as though we're an isolated case either

Me: I think the sad thing is that most people aren't rational
so they go "I've already served my 2 years. I might as well stay here"

that's like a rape victim going: "I've already lost my virtue. I might as well marry my rapist"

"A motion to adjourn is always in order." - Robert Heinlein

***

A strange link I got in my [junk] mail:

Reuters-Singapore: Terror attack in Singapore:


"Powerful explosion burst in Singapore this morning.

At least 12 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a bomb blast near market in Singapore. Authorities suggested that explosion was caused by "dirty" bomb. Police said the bomb was detonated from close by using electric cables. "It was awful" said the eyewitness about blast that he heard from his shop. "It made the floor shake. So many people were running"
Until now there has been no claim of responsibility."


Given I hadn't heard about this through CNA's Twitter feed, I was very puzzled.

A cursory glance revealed that the "embedded video" was a link to a suspiciously-titled "save.exe" (doubtless, a malicious program of some sort), but I didn't want to bother installing a virtual OS to investigate.

The methods used to spread malign payloads are getting stranger and stranger.

New blog pic:


"My wife has a weird sense of humor"

"A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know." - H. L. Mencken

***

www.badpaintingsofbarackobama.com

Arts and Letters: Freeing the Elephants - "By now, of course, a controversial literature is possible about anything, and yet to discover that there is a controversial literature about Babar is a little shocking—faut-il brûler Babar? (“Must we burn Babar?”), as one inquisitor puts it, in a famous French locution... Yet those who would burn “Babar” miss the true subject of the books. The de Brunhoffs’ saga is not an unconscious expression of the French colonial imagination; it is a self-conscious comedy about the French colonial imagination and its close relation to the French domestic imagination... One can forget, reading the critics, that the books are, first and last, meant to be funny, and that Babar is an elephant who talks and walks: the story is happening to creatures that children know do not ride elevators, wear suits, or build buildings. Part of the joke is in the way the obvious animalness of the protagonist makes evident the absurdity of the human behavior depicted... the rhinos and the elephants have been at war, but the point isn’t that the rhinos are evil. It is that war between nations is as absurd in reality as war between animals looks on the page. Becoming French, the elephants reveal the absurd and contrived elements of the French national character."
I like what Laurent De Brunhoff says about the "white men are evil" crowd: "se moque de ces détracteurs politiquement corrects qui semblent confondre l’art et la réalité... Les universitaires qui se torturent les méninges à propos des significations de Babar feraient bien de ne pas oublier une chose. quoiqu’ils disent et quoiqu’ils écrivent, les livres de Jean et Laurent De Brunhoff continueront de procurer du plaisir à des millions de gens"

Oils 'make male breasts develop' - "Using lavender and tea tree oil products can cause young boys to develop breast tissue, a study finds."

Cunning Linguist - "In a country that laments the dearth of people willing to speak up, surely the defensive stance is a sign of insecurity? Does the logic for every public policy need to be rammed down people’s throat at every opportunity? What happened to the university as a space for open questioning?... The truth is, the PAP government has never seen universities as sites of enquiry for enquiry’s sake or knowledge for knowledge’s sake... the government sees universities as a place to produce people with the right skills for the market. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. Problem is people designed for the market will always be owned by the market. Meanwhile the spirit of enquiry at local universities is as flaccid as an 80 year old man on a Viagra cold turkey. Again, absolutely nothing wrong. Except that we’re always being scolded by the government for not being creative or innovative. Problem is the minute we say something contrary to PAP mantra, we’re called ‘stupid’. Like I said, we’re destined to be a very mediocre people."

African immigrants pose nude for calendar in Spain - "Lopez said he tried to take elegant pictures to reflect the dignity of migrants. “Without clothes, we are all equal,” said 32-year Mady Fofana from Mali, one of the models."

Steroid doping tests ignore vital ethnic differences in hormone activity - "Current steroid (testosterone) doping tests should be scrapped for international sport, because they ignore vital ethnic differences in hormone activity, suggests research published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine."
Race is a social construct.

SMU students walk barefoot to highlight plight of third world country children - "Students had the chance to experience the lives of children from third world countries, who are often exposed to broken glass and infected syringes."
Do these journalists even read what they write?!

Singapore Ousts Editor of Asia Sentinel Again - "If you think the place is loosening up, think again... On the same day [I was deported], the Burmese Gen. Thein Sein also arrived and was greeted warmly and got an orchid named for him. Perhaps there was a mix-up... [The PAP government has] lost just one case — in 1984, when Senior District Judge Michael Khoo made the mistake of ruling that Lee Kuan Yew’s mortal enemy, the late opposition politician Joshua B. Jeyaretnam, was innocent of making a false declaration about the accounts of his Worker’s Party. Judge Khoo was promptly transferred out of his position as a senior judge and transferred to the attorney general’s chambers. No judge in the intervening 24 years has ever made the mistake of ruling against the Lee family, especially in cases involving the press. The government or members of the Lee family have filed defamation or contempt charges against virtually every major publication in Asia... The attorney general filed suit against Melanie Kirkpatrick, a senior editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal itself, 15,339 kilometers away, in kind of the legal equivalent of Kim Jong Il deciding to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile because the powers that be weren’t paying enough attention to him. In a way, it’s reassuring that the government could reach across 21 years to pick my name out of the mists of history. It probably means they are vigilant enough to continue to pursue Mas Selamat Kastari... He won’t get away, if the police force can take the time away from pursuing the press and the opposition to look him up."
Time for another lawsuit

Lesbian attacks wife with sperm - " According to a number of website reports on Wednesday, Stephanie Lighten, 26, allegedly threw her wife Jennifer Lighten, 33, on a couch in the couple's home. She then threatened to impregnate her with "a turkey baster" filled with semen from Stephanie's brother kept in a sealed container, reported letzgetreal.com."

"The Ranger Prototype Series Covert Infantry Biosuits"
"Right. Because nothing says covert like bright red, yellow and blue spandex"
"That is NOT SPANDEX!"
"Doc K can get a little defensive about his work"
"The material is a self-assembling nanofiber formed with an intercellular sheet memory alloy


OH: "Wow. We're *not* in Angel Grove anymore"

(This post is here because Twitter limits me to 140 characters)

On Audrey Hepburn's singing of Moon River:

How is her singing lacking? Let me count the ways.
Her voice is breathy, and there is a lack of breath control
She cannot sustain notes and her vibrations are off
Her singing veers into speaking
And this was before the Rex Harrison days
Sometimes she even loses control of her pitch

Of course, this comes across as sexy to some, but even there it's not quite right, since breathy sexiness doesn't quite square with her petite frame and cutesy demeanor

"The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting." - Henry James

***

This is worrying if true (i.e. if this is not another Robert Ho conspiracy theory):


[OFFICIAL]PoThePanda Statement On CID/ISD Lim Kopi Session 02/03/09 | PoThePanda's Xanga Site - Weblog

"On the 02/03/2009,I was picked up from my house at about 11am by 4 persons who identified themselves as CID.They claimed they were investigating a post on Molotov Cocktails that I had posted on the forum Stomp.With regards to this particular allegation,I wish to state that I had posted an article on Molotov Cocktails on Stomp sometime late last year.The article was copied and pasted from Wikipedia,and was posted up for information value due to its appearance in the popular game Left 4 Dead.2-3 weeks AFTER I posted the article,the MP Seng Han Thong got burnt.Apparently,someone made a police report that I had instigated the old man to burn the MP,via posting that article...

The next method they used was pure aggression,subjecting me to a barrage of personal insults / defamatory statements in an attempt to wear me down mentally.And then they would suddenly make an incriminating statement,trying to catch me off-guard so I would inadvertently “confess” to having “conspired against the state of Singapore” and / or “participated in terrorism activities.”

In what I feel was an attempt to wear me down mentally,they made a host of personal,defamatory attacks to me.Barbed comments like “You stay in a 3 room flat?It’s like a pig’s sty.” “You remind me of a donkey,of a mule.You are just an animal that needs to be shown who its master is.” “Some people say you can lead a donkey to water,but you can’t make it drink.Today I am here to force you to drink.” “You write rubbish,everything you say online is rubbish.”...

”Mr Tan,if you walk out of here tomorrow,you might get killed.You might meet with a mysterious accident,you might disappear and nobody will know what happened to you!”"


Even if the account of what happened during the interrogation is exaggerated, it still boggles the mind that not only could posting an article on Molotov Cocktails be taken as instigating someone to burn an MP (and move someone to make a police report), but that the police would take it seriously and interrogate the person.

In tandem with some other incidents I know of, it leads me to suspect that the justice system is being abused by people in order to settle personal scores.

Even if this guy only gets a "stern warning" in the end, or even if charges are not pressed, not only is a private citizen being unnecessarily inconvenienced, it's an immense waste of the police's time and other resources. Consider that 60% of police calls are nuisance calls and you get some idea of the scale of the problem.

While on some level it is good that the police respond to complaints from the public, given that Second Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam has urged the public not to treat the Police as "as a free resource which can deal with any complaint just because it is convenient to call them at any time round the clock" and noted that there is a shortage of police staff, it is amazing that random internet postings about Molotov Cocktails and an NMP conducting surveys in public warrant attention from them.

[Addendum: Or, indeed, naked people walking around in Holland Village.]

After all, if I called the police and complained that 5 children were making noise in the playground (both disturbing the peace and transgressing illegal assembly laws), they would (quite rightly) tell me to go and die.

Meanwhile, we hear of cases where the police do nothing when there're fights outside clubs and people get their noses broken. Misaligned priorities, anyone?


More evidence that our police should exercise more discretion before investigating ordinary citizens:

Someone: something funny happened to me

my friend and i were at the petrol kiosk, waiting for the car cleaning
so we were just standing around

the petrol kiosk also had a workshop
and at a corner of the workshop, i saw a sign that said "emergency eye wash"

but the emergency eye wash was blocked by a lot of tires
stacked up
so i took ap ic of it with my handphone

then... the workshop boss or something came up to me and asked what i was doing, and where i was from (it was pretty clear that he was worried i would report him. i think he thought i was from the safety regulartory body)

he said "why you take photo?"
so i said "Why cannot take photo?"

then he said, "you anyhow take photo at my place, i call police then you know"
so i said "call la. i call for you, want?"

i hate idiots who think they can scare ppl by invoking the law or the police when they have absolutely no grounds

he was like "you come my place take photo still still so yaya, i go your house take photo you like?"

Me: hahahahaha
singaporeans are like that

this guy took pics at shen xiong
health and safety violations

then the staff intimidated him and forced him to delete

Someone: i will refuse [if people try to get me to delete photos]
fuck them

really how to force
call
come i call for you

and they can't stop him from leaving either
singapore has no privacy laws

yes, it may be rude to take photos
but it's not illegal

Me: anyway not worth getting beaten up

Someone: actually it may be worth getting beaten up

the compensation
:P

anyway..
no this is the best part

so he was like "which one is your car?"
then he paused and went "nvm, later you leave i can see"

so my friend said
"no no nede to see. i tell you which one is my car. the blue one over there. number plate blah blah"

we were in a rush
or else we'd have waited there for the police with him

that idiot has aboslutely no case

anyway
so we went off
and guess what

at 11pm
they went to ***'s house
(Cos it's his car we were using)

the CID
went to his house
and they went
"i know you were at the petrol kiosk this afternoon at 1pm. were you there to top up petrol or were you there for some other purpose"

this is just damn dunny

"it's a natinoal security issue because we were taking photos of a petrol kiosk"
we may be planning to bomb it

"Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule." - Stephen King

***



Someone asked me what I thought of the auction of the Chinese fountainheads.

In short, I think the furore is ridiculous.

Historical and cultural properties do not belong to any one country, but broadly to humanity in general.

On a micro scale we should respect the property rights of the parties currently possessing the items (even if we are against looting today, though I think freshly dug-up items don't necessarily belong to the country on whose soil they were found - more below), but more broadly governments have no right to lay claim to artefacts.

So China claims that the fountain heads were stolen from China and should be returned, but this is very problematic.

They were stolen from a Qing Chinese palace, but their designer was actually an Italian Jesuit (Giuseppe Castiglione, aka Lang Shining). Here is a picture of the fountain in Yuanmingyuan the sculptures came from:



It would surely be a stretch to claim this is a fountain of Chinese design (in more than one sense of the word).

Is it a Chinese fountain? An Italian fountain? A Chinese-Italian fountain?

If a cure for AIDS was discovered by a PRC scientist working in a lab in a top American University working with other PRC scientists and under a PRC boss, is it an American discovery - or a Chinese discovery?

There are no easy answers here.

On another level the fountain heads were the property of a Manchurian dynasty which did not see itself as properly-Chinese (remember that Queues were imposed - on pain of decapitation - on the Han Chinese, and they were happilly lopped off in 1911). If the fountain heads dated from the early Qing period this is even more so (the Summer Palace was started in 1749, during the reign of Qianlong, and Castiglione died in 1766, so indeed it is).

Then, most Chinese people at the time hated the Manchurians and rejected them as not Chinese (see lopping off of queues; this likely exists to a lesser degree, Communist rhetoric about minorities aside), so the Chinese people of the period itself would not have accepted the fountain heads as belonging to "them" per se (though they might have viewed them as fine works of Chinese artisanry - illegitimately possessed by the scheming Manchus).

So what we have now is a retrospective grab of universal heritage.

In fact, it is more convincing to argue that the Chinese government has no right to "Chinese" heritage because it has shown itself to be manifestly unworthy guardians of it.

The Cultural Revolution, a prime candidate for the greatest orgy of cultural destruction the world has ever seen, was promulgated by the very same Chinese Communist Party that still rules China.

They thus have no right to grandstand about the looting of cultural heritage.

If you loot cultural heritage, at least you preserve it (compare the caryatid in the British Museum with her sisters in Athens - the extensive damage to the latter is both shocking and sad), whereas if you destroy it, it is gone forever.

As an analogue, the Taliban might've blown up the Bamiyan Buddhas, but the current Afghan government is different so their trotting out of the cultural sovereignty argument would have somewhat more respectability.

This is putting aside the fact that this same Communist government is still destroying its country's heritage. How many real hutongs are left? They're also trying to drown out Tibetan culture by shipping in Han migrants.

As an (admittedly imperfect) analogy, it is like trying to murder your infant child, having it taken away by a child protection agency, and then 10 years later demanding that your child be returned to you, claiming that it was illegally kidnapped (while still abusing your kids - even if you don't try to murder them anymore)

While the claim is that heritage is being reclaimed on behalf of the Chinese people, in reality it's a political ploy by a government to lay claim to artefacts, which will be put under its administration for its own benefit.

Those who are so-inclined are free to locate how many Tibetan artefacts are in Chinese museums located outside Tibet (and to look at historical maps of Chinese territory to forestall the inevitable rejoinder justifying modern Chinese imperialism).

Generalising, things become even more problematic when it comes to older cultural heritage: artefacts belonging to past peoples who, though they occupied the same geographical space, share little else in common, be it identity, language, race, religion or more.

Heritage belongs to everybody - and nobody.

"If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm." - Vince Lombardi

***

A friend's bad experience:


Stay away from BNP.

I would have let it go if I’ve stopped receiving ridiculously unreasonable letters from this money-sucking, cunning, repulsive, abhorring deception master of a financial institution. Is this really how they earn their keep, stuffing their faces with foie gras and escargots? (I honestly hope they die from cholesterol and every other health disease possible would plague them.)

So this is my story and I really do hope at the end of the day, you stay away from BNP Paribas in every sense of the word and I hope this financial institution crumble and rot in their paperwork of lies.

I was an exchange student at Sciences Po Paris and I needed a bank account set up. As a student of the school, setting up the account gives me 80 euros in my account. I had my rendez-vous, prepared all my paperwork, and had to wait for the letter for the confirmation of my residence. However, I had some problems with the hostel, which refused to acknowledge me as the legal tenant (in a friend’s name) in spite of the both of us going down so many times with more administrative papers but it never got changed so I never got my letter, I never got my bank card, I never used the account.

In the next month, when I finally got an apartment of my own, I went down to the bank to request that they send me the letter again so that I can finally activate my bank account. Incidentally, since it is under the French law that one has to get an insurance for the apartment, the lady at the bank, Clemence, who has been handling my account all these while, told me that SINCE there was 80 Euros existing in my account, and the housing insurance under BNP is 76, I just had to sign the papers and I would get my insurance. And she told me that I would just have to wait for the letters to be reposted which meant the post had to recall my previously sent letter.

After waiting for well, a month and a half with all the frustration (I was already borrowing money from my friends to pay my landlord. I desperately needed a bank account set-up for my family to transfer money over) I decided to set up with Société Générale instead which was done within 2 weeks.

Being an exchange student, sure I took every chance I had to travel. And imagine my shock when I came back from my winter holidays when I got home with letters from BNP claiming that I owed them 139 Euros and threatening judiciary case if I do not contact my agent soon. Of course I panicked. Being in Europe itself is already expensive enough. I cannot possibly go around paying 139 Euros for a service I didn’t even use.

To cut the story short (I really hate to recount. Makes my blood boil.) So yes, I went down to the agency, got into a huge argument about how is it that they could possibly say there was 80 euros when there weren’t. I couldn’t understand why Clemence had to deceive me. I couldn’t understand why was it that it took them forever to even attempt trying to set my account up (when I was desperate for money and they were completely indifferent to finding another way to set up my account). I couldn’t understand why they could send so many letters about my debt but none for my bank card. I couldn’t understand why they made me sign so many papers regarding services that I never asked for and didn’t know about. I could have paid upfront for my insurance there and then. I still cannot comprehend how 139 could possibly make a difference in their financial roll.

One of the lady was sympathetic to my plight and acknowledged the fault of the bank. She promised me that it would be cleared, which it wasn’t when I returned in about a week’s time. In fact, when I returned the following week, I was forced to pay up in order to close my account. The whole thing wasn’t pleasant at all in the sense that the service lady who ignored us (I was there with my French friend, L.) when I have already made an appointment. Her attitude was quite appalling. We then walked in on our own where the lady with whom I had an appointment with went into a sudden shouting match with L for no rhyme or reason. It was all very bewildering and frustrating. It really felt like there was no one who understood what exactly my plight was. I’m not trying to be narcissistic here but i’m only a student with no income and 139 euros (conversion rates do not stand in my favour) means a lot to me even if it’s the typical lunch tab for a banker. So she was unreasonable too and we decided to walk into the office of the director who well, simply told me to pay up too.

So I paid, told the lady EXPLICITLY in English (since my poor grasp of the French language got me into this mess in the first place) that I want to close my account COMPLETELY and have nothing more to do with the bank. She gave me a stack of papers to sign, as always with any French institution and system, which I did.

So I thought it was over.

But no, after coming back home, I’m still receiving letters about being in DEBIT!??!?!
(It stands currently at - 25 euros.)
AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHY!?!
AND IT JUST KEEPS ACCUMMULATING. WHAT IS WRONG WITH BNP!?!!?
WHY DO THEY KEEP CHARGING ME FOR SOMETHING I’M NOT EVEN USING?

Stay far far away from BNP.

Close all your BNP accounts and never ever ever have anything to do with them. Even if I’m saying this out of spite and dripping with detestation, there are better, more honest banks and financial institutions out there. And BNP is not one of them. I hope they die in this recession.

p.s: please spread the word! i think it's important that people stopped getting cheated by institutions like that.

"Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power." - Eric Hoffer

***

Apple Doesn't Deliver Everything Promised for iTunes 8.1 - PC World - The corresponding headline on Macworld: Apple releases iTunes 8.1 update. Hurr hurr.

"Nation of cowards" on race, Holder says - "Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Wednesday that the United States was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues... "It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified."... "Imagine, if you will, situations where people, regardless of their skin color, could confront racial issues freely and without fear. The potential of this country, that is becoming increasingly more diverse, would be greatly enhanced. My fear, however, that we are taking steps that, rather than advancing us as a nation, are actually dividing us even further.""
Sounds like Singapore

Pitts: Yes, we must still talk about race - "So we talk about race, but we don't. More often, we yell about race. Or talk around race. Or deliver self-righteous monologues on race. All of it tainted by a gaping ignorance... We play games instead. Many African Americans lie in wait to cry "Gotcha!" when some hapless white person inadvertently says some questionable thing, as though innocent ignorance were indistinguishable from actual malice. As when a white analyst on TV's Golf Channel said something dumb about Tiger Woods and the Rev. Al Sharpton demanded her head, telling a reporter, "What she said is racist. Whether she's a racist ... is immaterial."... if you are black, you stop trying to have substantive discussions about race with white people: They refuse to listen. Small wonder, if you are white, you stop speaking freely about race with black people: Every little thing is racism with them. And small wonder, in recent years, the discussion on race has come to be dominated by loud, intolerant voices"

Take That! - Weird News Story Archive - "Britain considered taking drastic action against the Soviet Union in retribution for its sending tanks into Czechoslovakia in 1968: it nearly didn’t send Leonid Brezhnev a Christmas card. Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart wanted to scratch “the Russians and their fellow sinners” from the greetings list, but Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s cooler head prevailed. “It seems petty to change the practice,” he wrote to Stewart. “It creates the maximum annoyance with no gain whatsoever.”"

The Straight Dope: Who was the first person to be hit by a car? Why was it decided that cars ought to be registered? - "Of course, horse-drawn vehicles had been no less dangerous. In Traffic, his recent book on the psychology of driving, Tom Vanderbilt writes that "[i]n 1720, traffic fatalities from 'furiously driven' carts and coaches were named the leading cause of death in London. . . . [I]n the New York of 1867, horses were killing an average of four pedestrians a week." And Maxwell Lay, in his Ways of the World, notes that cars are safer than horses were on an accidents-per-distance-traveled basis."

Foreign Languages and Trade: What are you sinking about? - "Cultural factors and especially common languages are well-known determinants of trade. By contrast, the knowledge of foreign languages was not explored in the literature so far. We combine traditional gravity models with data on fluency in the main languages used in Europe. We show that widespread knowledge of languages is an important determinant for foreign trade, with English playing an especially important role. Furthermore, we document non-linear effects of foreign languages on trade."

Drug warriors against the war - "Last week saw the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. In Washington, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) - a group of former cops and drug-war veterans who have soured on America's war on drugs - gathered to celebrate the anniversary, and to argue for an end to America's current prohibition on marijuana and more serious drugs... World Health Organization researchers found that 42.4 percent of Americans had tried marijuana - the highest ratio of any of 17 countries surveyed. New Zealand, which has tough drug policies, scored a close second place at 41.9 percent. Dutch residents can buy cannabis at coffee shops, yet less than 20 percent of Dutch respondents said they had tried cannabis. Researchers concluded, "Drug use does not appear to be related to drug policy, as countries with more stringent policies (e.g., the United States) did not have lower levels of illegal drug use than countries with more liberal policies (e.g. the Netherlands)." Meanwhile, drug prohibition does work, Van Wickler added, as "a wonderful opportunity for organized crime."

CRCC: Center For Muslim-Jewish Engagement: Resources: Religious Texts - "Anas said, "Some people of 'Ukl or 'Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in 'Al-Harra' and when they asked for water, no water was given to them." Abu Qilaba said, "Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle.""
This is hosted by USC and comes from Sahih al-Bukhari, the most important Sunni Hadith, so I assume it's kosher.

Sex in the Syllabus - "With classwork like this, who needs to play? Undergraduates taking Cyberporn and Society at the State University of New York at Buffalo survey Internet porn sites. At New York University, assignments for Anthropology of the Unconscious include discussing X-rated Japanese comic books. And in Cinema and the Sex Act at the University of California, Berkeley, undergrads are required to view clips from Hollywood NC-17 releases like Showgirls and underground stag reels... in her graduate-level class on obscenity, media-studies professor Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University examines how publications like Hustler can define class stratification in the U.S.--by discussing the work of the 16th century satirist François Rabelais as well as skin magazines... Kipnis screens Saló or 120 Days of Sodom, by the Italian avant-garde filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini... She says students who had previously espoused staunchly liberal views about freedom of expression often find themselves disgusted and horrified by what they see. "University students are often too cool, too hip to understand why other people get perturbed"... At the University of California at Santa Barbara, Constance Penley, a film professor and porn-studies pioneer, says she tells her students that "I don't want to squelch their financial possibilities or creativity, but as a favor to me, could they not make a porn film until after they graduate?""

The 15 Strangest College Courses In America - "10. Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles. While I’m sure most guys would rather gouge out their own eyes than take a course on soap operas, this is probably right up many young women’s alley. This is part of UW’s Women’s Studies program, which I think is kind of unfortunate given the view some people have of that major already. Talk about giving them more ammunition."
I wasn't surprised that the first got first.

God Hates Figs (with biblical references!) - "Jesus rebuked the fig as an evil abomination... Jesus commanded us not to eat of the cursed fig... God promises terrible vengeance upon any fig-loving nation... FIGS DOOM NATIONS"

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds." - Edgar Wilson Nye, quoted in Mark Twain's Autobiography

***

I finally got a Bacon Explosion rolled out (among other things), with the enthusiastic help of the Ass Man:

I couldn't find raw Italian Sausage at the supermarket, so I settled for using minced meat (and spicing it myself: fennel powder, pepper, paprika and some of Disgusting Chris's spice mixes). It was rather dry due to the lack of fat, but oh well.

Do note that this Bacon Explosion was scaled down by half, since we only had 7 people (3 of them girls).


Cornstarch as a binding agent


Forming the lattice (this wasn't scaled down - maybe American bacon is longer?!)


Bacon Lattice


Frying bacon for the stuffing of the Bacon Explosion


Lattice with BBQ Rub


Spiced lattice and the minced meat 'sausage'


Girls slacking (what most of them were doing most of the time, anyway)


Piling on the 'sausage' meat


Lattice with 'sausage' meat


Seasoning and condiment: Cajun seasoning and BBQ sauce


'Sausage' meat with Cajun seasoning


Adding crumbled crispy bacon


And saucing it


Rolling up 'sausage' meat


Rolled-up 'sausage' meat


Completing the bacon lattice (even if in a structurally unsound way)


Everyone wants to picture the Bacon Explosion


Sealing the bacon explosion


Almost ready to chuck in the oven...


... after another sprinkling of BBQ rub...


...and some basting


Ready to bake


Would YOU use such a large knife to peel apples?!


Half-done


Fully done


Bacon Explosion


Slicing it up


Innards

Verdict: Bagus!

Though using real sausage meat, more bacon inside, rolling it properly and adding more BBQ rub/sauce would've helped.

Perhaps next time.

"All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors." - Unknown

***

u r wt u wr:

- 'One boyfriend is not enough' (Contributed)
- 'Shiver my timbers' (Contributed)
- 'I wanna be girls @ you point and say that's her'
- 'Sunkist. Good vibrations'
- '*Picture of snoopy* Hug me'
- 'Explain to me again why I need a boyfriend'
- 'Explain to me again why I need a man'
- 'Please be considerate. Don't lOOk here' (The 'OO' were 2 big orbs, but because she was well-endowed it was obvious they were over her stomach due to bad T-shirt design)
- 'My body is a wonderland'
- 'Listen up boys. I've got something *something*' (She noticed me staring)
- 'They say that money talks, but mine just waves goodbye'
- 'Single' (her boyfriend was cradling her head)
- 'Don't ask me I was hired for my looks'
- 'Want to smurf around? *picture of Smurfette kissing another Smurf*'
- 'Gone waxin'
- 'Showtime beauties *picture of bare midriff*'
- 'I'm really know how to make you happy'
- 'he that dwelleth in the secret place of the past *3.5 more lines* I have a secret admirer'
- 'My name is Barbie' (she was certainly as busty as her)
- 'Men *something* laxatives *something*'
- 'An awkward morning beats a boring night'
- 'I'm a Princess' (she was beside a guy with 'I'm a Prince')
- 'Almost single'
- 'Kiss me once again'
- 'Smile saucily'
- 'No *picture of camera* please'
- 'Trust me, I'm a doctor' (Contributed; "but she is going to be one so i think that is ok")

I notice as a form of officewear (for girls, of course), walking shorts (made of office-pants material which end just below the knee). Another example of the flexibility granted them.

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past." - Robertson Davies

***

Someone on the Christmas Cake Theory and girls: value drops to zero after 25


Someone else:
there are so many negative things associated with being a woman...

whether you do possess those traits or not
people tend to assume you do if you're female

I think this is why women try to pass off as 'one of the guys'

you know, the whole shebang, I'm rather unhappy to say it was begun with pride and prejudice I think
elizabeth bennet

the ideal girl is not really 'girly' and 'ideal' -- kinda cute, quirky and 'original'
and once you market yourself as 'male' it's just fitting *that* stereotype

bridget jones in the millenium!

but that's probably analytical bullshit
and I don't think many girls are *conscious* of it anyway
they probably full-heartedly believe in their uniqueness
which is good! necessary!

...

there seems to be some sort of assumption that being macho means being illiterate

I've come across variants of it

either these uber-annoying 'macho' guys who *perform* illiteracy
or ok but fucked up literate guys who perform masculinity
or are insecure about their 'masculinity' because they're educated

but guy marketing I have to say seems a lot simpler
it's just, I'm confident and successful
and clever (even if they *aren't*)

whereas girls seem to try this whole 'I'm feminine but not quite female and tough but kinda vulnerable...'


Xephyris: digging out CDs to re-rip so i can get rid of my mpc collection
ah the rashness of my youth

Me: you converting to what

Xephyris: to mp3

Me: HAHA
your 1337-ness has decreased

Xephyris: lame at v2 now very transparent also for my music
so ok lah

Me: maybe now your ears less sensitive haha


Someone: u know
i am nursing a pet theory

the only people who care abt this shit are Govt and bloggers themselves
who work each other into a frenzy

noone else really cares abt political blogging. ;)
and the ahem "revolution"

bloggers carry with them this sense of inflated self-importance

Gahmen read the same few blogs and gets scared shitless
and promptly do a lui tuck yew

Me: what revolution
fiddlesticks

only political bloggers are dumb enough to believe there will be a revoluion

Someone: PRECISELY

and only civil servants are dumb enough to read the same few
and then compile to scare their bosses


Someone else: replying "maybe" to an facebook event invitation is the polite way of saying "no"

Me: If a woman says 'maybe' she means yes. If a diplomat says 'maybe' he means no.

Someone: what about a female diplomat?

Me: That's why there're no female diplomats ^^;;


UD #4: ooh the one u had lunch with

is it ur pet?
the one u took pic with in sushi tei?

Me: MY TOY


Someone: it's ok

like you said 十年报臭十年不晚

oops
报仇

Me: ...


Someone on paramedics: i think the scariest thing they see
is ppl giving birth in ambulances

Me: why scary
scary is the head fly off

Someone: gross

eh it's damn fucking gross can
dunno how they can all fantasise abt cheebye after that

Me: that's why a lot of medics are girls?
or maybe they're gay


Someone else: (though the main thing I rmeember about othello is 'monumental alabaster')

ha ha ha
it's a nice phrase


Me on Nietzsche: "To beginners, they will seem to be written by a man who was, in equal parts, severely emotionally scarred and an absolute genius. To a veteran reader they will still seem this way"

Someone: i tried reading a distilled version but got frustrated with his frustration


Someone else on the Hello Kitty "vibrating shoulder massager": i was thinking it'd look cute in my rm

Me: ................
are you sure that's what you'll use it for? :P

Someone else: oh i won't use it la

just put there
as a decoration

cute with my pc
since my theme is pink and white

HAvE to go sex shop then can buy ah
not like taka kinda thing


Someone on peeing on the streets: other gers think im mad..
haaha

but i think.. mark TERRITORIE!
ahahhahahh

got pple cover can alr

actuali i think it's quite.. liberating to b able to pee in the public

i mean..
men can wad..
so gers oso shuld b ok wad..


Someone on FHM: maybe u should buy ur first (?) copy
you know, start being a "real man" :P

Me: hurr hurr
are you a real woman?

Someone: yeah, i buy all sorts of bimbotic magazines that make me
even more insecure about myself
so yeah

Me: hahahahha. so what will men's magazines do? make me more horny?

Someone: haha
amongst others i hear

Poll finds 4 in 10 female undergrads are sexual harassment victims

This somewhat-misleading headline should actually read:

"Poll finds 4 in 10 female undergrads think they have ever been victims of sexual harassment"

The SMU students' definition of sexual harassment is also worryingly broad:

"Sexual harassment refers to acts that lower the dignity of women".

Conceivably, this could include the following acts:

- Being forced by the crowd in the MRT to press up against a woman
- A woman being forced by the crowd in the MRT to press up against a man, and thinking the man is trying to be funny
- Hitting on a woman
- Looking admiringly ("staring", according to some definitions) at someone who is presenting herself in such a way as to attract attention
- Smiling at a girl you think is pretty
- Going up to a girl wearing a T-shirt reading: "Looking for friends with benefits" and responding to it (NB: I've actually seen a girl wearing such a T-shirt)

The gynocentric definition offered here also assumes men cannot be victims of sexual harassment, and raises the intriguing possibility that women can sexually harass themselves (see the last example on my list).

Creditably, the article also quotes Singapore Children's Society youth counsellor Carol Balhetchet: "There are usually many variables involved. Could it because the place was crowded? Could it be intentional or accidental?"

A related screenshot from Miyagi:



[Addendum: sg_ljers post about this]

"L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers, Tel se croit le maître des autres, qui ne laisse pas d'être plus esclave qu'eux.

Comment ce changement s'est-il fait? Je l'ignore. Qu'est-ce qui peut le rendre légitime? Je crois pouvoir résoudre cette question."

One of the most vile vilest things I've seen:


"Kroatian Blumen feat. DeMoooniii - Das Blumenlied"

Another misleading ST article:

S'pore tops in innovation

"SINGAPORE was the most innovative nation in the world, while South Korea placed first among large countries, according to a study released on Monday by a manufacturing group.

The United States was eighth in the overall list of 110 countries and second in the subset of 20 large nations, said the report produced by the Washington-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Boston Consulting Group.

The survey took into account two types of innovation output: new products or knowledge that is easily quantified; and new ways of doing business that result in higher quality and productivity."


What the article DOESN'T tell you (and that the National Association of Manufacturers does) is that:

- the study measures Innovation Leadership, not Innovation
- the study includes both business outcomes and governmental policies (e.g. tax incentives, immigration policies)

Sometimes, what is not said is more important than what is (even if no lies are told).

As the old joke goes, the King, on being told that a group of people were always seen speeding away from the scene of a fire, ordered them executed.

Turns out he exterminated the fire brigade.

"I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way." - Franklin P. Adams

***

RT @mrbrown: "Rushed home last night, earlier than usual, cos the wife sms-ed she was feeling hot. Turns out she was talking about the weather."

RT @eisen: "My friend's MSN nick: "The word 'believe' hides within itself a 'lie'". Nice"

I always thought the RGS SLUTs (Student Leaders Under Training) were apocryphal, but I've been hearing conflicting stories about whether this was an official term or an unofficial one.

I'm quite sure those who diss bipartisanism now were whining loudly when Dubya steamrolled them. The key idea here: 'partisanism is alright if we can do it, but the Republicans must be bipartisan'

The crime of "criminal homicide of an unborn child" is extremely puzzling, given that abortion does not fall under this category.

I went for a Humanism meetup and the contrast with an Atheist meetup was apparent: not just in size but also gender ratio. One person commented that she was attracted by the "safe" environment, which speaks to the bad reputation that atheism has. This is not helped by some atheists claiming that Humanists are hypocrites; as a comment goes: "I am convinced by science that evolution is true just as I am convinced by psychology that Dawkins is his own worst enemy. He acts like a crazed uncle who has got you cornered. You may agree with him completely, but you still want to get as far away from him as soon as possible."

On rootkit paranoia: "How do I know I removed the entire infection? I don't. To be completely sure, I'd have to wipe the computer clean. Even then, I could entertain scenarios about malware hiding in BIOS updates or obscure hardware storage locations." (sounds like DNS poisoning)


That too much human rights caused the current financial crisis is the newest evil of "Western Values" that I've heard, but it's not a surprising view for Singaporeans to hold.

CNA outside Singapore looks very different from inside it; it has mostly Asian news and very little Singapore news. Yet, since it is seen as a propaganda machine by foreign governments it is hard for it to break into markets.


"Your account has been trespassed!" - FAIL phishing email

An email which appeared to come from NTUC Income was marked out by Hotmail as a Phishing Scam. At first I thought this was proof that Singaporean companies had made it in the world, since people wanted to phish their account-holders, but then I realised the e-mail was genuine and Hotmail was flagging it because the link to update your profile went to a dodgy-looking URL: http://61.14.95.46/uiPemail/PEmailInsLog.asp?data=RRPOPPM; FAIL!


More aphorisms: "Women like to screw themselves up."
"Honesty is to a woman what a small dick is to a guy - neither can abide it"

I saw a 7-year-old who'd mastered the art of camwhoring. Gah.

Before meals girls always like to complain they are "very hungry". After them they like to comment that they are "very full".

Someone I know said she was becoming more bimbotic to be popular. This is sad.


Spizza delivers! There're no longer no non-Halal pizza deliveries!

Putting skim milk and low fat yogurt in an ice cream smoothie is like having Diet Coke in your supersized McDonalds meal.


Vehicles on Pulau Ubin have license plates starting with "PU" (presumably, "Pulau Ubin").

Even on Pulau Ubin, you find PRCs working in the restaurants.

When you come back on the boat from Ubin you must go through an X-ray screening. We can blame either Malaysian smugglers or oyster poachers for this.