"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward." - Kurt Vonnegut

***

An exchange with Breadfly on Anorexia:


Breadfly: I have been through counseling experience myself, where I endeavored very much to make it as 'easy' for the counselor as possible and got Prozac in return. There's actually a lot I want to say about this issue but I believe the essence of it is that counselors are trained to approach us who seek counseling as clients with pathologies. Our symptoms are medicalized, and our experiences and behaviours are seen as a manifestation of an internal incongruence, a disorder that only ourselves (with their, and our parents', help can correct). Counselors are not trained to approach us emphatically; they are trained to be objective and observant. They are not trained to view us and the bodies/minds we embody as in any way socially constructed and regulated - instead, we are seen as objects or at best abjects who have internalized negative experiences and beliefs into the fabric of what was once a 'stable mind/body relationship'. We have upset ourselves, essentially.

I disagree complete with such an essentialization and I often disagreed, rather lucidly, with the 'expert' sitting across from me at the table who firmly believed he knew what was wrong with me. He was right in a sense, because I was a 'picture perfect' anorexic matching ever single physical and psychological symptom (even, morbidly, the degree of 'body image dissonance' I possessed). It had been empirically proven that certain forms of psychological treatment would work. Doctors play safe, their jobs are on the line, when it comes to the crunch, they must pick training over intuition. They must recommend another doctor/drug/treatment. They simply do not dare to deal with it.

I have come out of counseling with a somewhat sympathetic view towards counselors, but also an urgent anxiety about every single individual contemplating counseling or currently undergoing such treatment. 'Anorexia' and 'bipolar' are very crude attempts to approximate and label the manifested effects of negotiations some of us undertake every day within the context of society. Some of us have difficulty imagining and realizing the proper space our bodies should occupy and strive incessantly and pleasurably towards an unattainable ideal. Some of us struggle to make sense of, and find peace within, the hierarchies that dictate who we should we, what we should want and where we should go. None of these are in any way pathological; they are natural processes that are accentuated in some a little stronger than in others.

There are some industries however, who play up these pathologies for their own purposes. Big pharma is one, psychoanalytical treatment and clinical research is another. The beauty industry also feeds of the fears of ordinary humans who are made to believe that their insecurities are particular to themselves and hence require particular solutions to remedy them. They are not shown the ways in which such anxieties develop in society, they are not aware of the prevalence of such anxieties and, indeed, the ways in which their anxieties are manipulated by external forces like industry and the media. They are made to think they are all alone with their issues, that everyone else is perfect and normal and that it is utterly ridiculous to think otherwise.

I am not a former anorexic any more than you are a stuggling bipolar. We're simply [Breadfly] and [Karoshi], people whom, perhaps due to our childhood experiences discovering what we trust and fear, or else negotiating our identities within the subtle violence of familial and peer interaction, or else observing the world around us and the expectations it has of its residents, have come to discover, develop and reinforce certain modes of thinking and patterns of behaviour that are simply there to help us cope with the day-to-day realities we live with. As those realities change, so do we. It's a process of adaptation, or at least I prefer to see it that way, as an evolutionary strategy rather than a deviance, a dis-ease, rather than disease.

Me: Perhaps counsellors are not trained to be emphatic because that would be the role of friends. Their role is to help, not just to listen.

If anorexia and bipolar disorder are not in any way pathological, then why are you seeking professional help in the first place? Just because industries exist to help those with such problems does not mean that the problems are socially constructed by those industries.

If anorexia and bipolar disorder are "an evolutionary strategy rather than a deviance" then they are plainly bad and maladaptive evolutionary strategies, since they reduce the fitness of individuals.

The beauty industry is different because - except in extreme circumstances - those who patronise it are not pathological (or not seen as such, in any way.

If psychiatry is mostly a sham then we should shut down most aspects of the profession.

But we don't.

Breadfly: Certainly, I went for counseling for help thinking it was the only 'solution' at the time, the consequence of what I do now recognize as self-recognition of a 'condition' that is in no way stable or void of social construction. The entire structure of a counseling session, and the counseling industry in generally, posits certain assumptions about an individual's psychology; namely, a mind/body dualism (in the case of anorexia, the mind is believed to be disordered/malignant and responsible for generating negative and inaccurate perceptions of an 'objective' body) and the presence of a psychological equilibrium to strive towards (in the case of anorexia, an alignment between the my mind and the 'natural self-interest of my body' - namely, sustainable health). Such a conception effectively puts the 'fault' of anorexia (and other psychological disorders) on the individual, necessitating individualistic remedies which I begun to find exceedingly unhelpful and consequently quit.

This isn't a fault of the industry and neither do I wish to accuse the entire discipline of psychology as narrow-minded at all, as these are indeed theories that, to some extent, have been empirically tested (notwithstanding the criticism on empiricism) and after all serve as one way of the viewing the world that can neither be proven or negated in the absence of absolute certainty about things. However, what I argue is that beginning with such assumptions and approaches is not necessarily helpful to helping an individual understand the causal and contributing factors that have resulted in his/her current state of mind and being, whether or not diagnosed as pathological or not. The fact that the entire counseling process is highly uplifting for some and highly depressing for others, shows that it may in fact be a self-selecting tool: there are some for whom a treatment within the frame of pathology-resolution is aligned with their own belief systems and therefore facilitates resolution

Yet for others, such a conception is completely unaligned with their beliefs and/or intuition regarding their present condition, and they are thus confused and oppressed by the counseling system. A wider appreciation of the various reasons why one may develop symptoms resembling a psychologically-defined 'pathology' provides a greater range of acceptable options to individuals: failing 'counseling', they may take to meditation, peer-facilitated therapy (say, in the case of Alcoholics Anonymous which is not strictly counseling and in that of a few female support groups I'm attending in London who comprise of no 'trained' individual whatsoever) or even reading social and psychological theory. I would qualify though that it is certainly true that I have only begun to contemplate on counseling and the psychological condition AFTER undergoing a personal experience of counseling and hence, for those who feel a 'condition is out of control', counseling may indeed be a useful first step.

On the second point, regarding viewing conditions such as anorexia and bipolar as evolutionary, I take 'evolutionary' in a very particular sense of the term, namely as a process of adaptation one develops in the course of one's life rather than as an inbuilt blueprint that is someone activated in response to a particularly 'nasty' life condition or whatever. In addition, I argue that seeing anorexia and bipolar as maladaptive to evolution itself assumes that the goal of the body is to be healthy and reproductively effective, and the goal of the mind is to enable to body to achieve this function. This assumption of a stable and purposeful body ignores the ways in which we actively shape our bodies as well as our conceptions of them. I'm sure homosexuals (and people possessing alternative sexualities), as well as chaste religious traditions would not see themselves as maladaptive despite the fact that their bodies clearly do not conform to standard expectations of biological reproduction

Let me give an example from anorexia since it is the most familiar case study to me. The foundation of 'anorexia' has itself been called into question by the discipline of psychology itself with the tacit acknowledgment among practitioners that there are multiple causes and contributing factors towards an individual's self-starving and self-denial behaviour. In different times in history, and in different circumstances, self-starving itself has had different names and connotations: for religious reasons it is fasting; in the aftermath of a tragedy, it is mourning; in 'anorexia', it is a malignant psychological condition that prevents an individual from seeing that self-starvation is detrimental to the body. Well indeed, an anorexic patient may very well want to cause detriment to the body as he/she firmly believes such an approach is beneficial to them - often after rational consideration!

(For simplicity, I use assume a female in my examples, but these can be equally applied to males.)

For a girl chastised as being 'fat' by her classmates and told by her parents that she 'takes up too much space', the visuality and excess of her body is reinforced frequently. She begins to view her body as a barrier to social/peer acceptance and parental approval. The consequent attempt to reduce the size of her body is to her a perfectly legitimate reason to self-starve and indeed, by making her more socially acceptable (in her opinion), perfectly in line with the notion of adaptation.

For a girl who was raped or beaten up by a girl gang for 'lookin', the potential of her body's appearance to capture the unwanted attention of others and result in hurt is made violently apparent. She begins to view her body as dangerous, something to be feared and hidden as often as possible and may take to self-starving to literally shrink that body, or else make it as unattractive as possible.

To conclude, an individual's resort to anorexia can be seen in many ways to be an adaptive and explicitly bodily response to situations in an individual's experience that have led them to reach certain beliefs about their bodies, the 'problems' of these bodies and the perceived 'solution' to these problems, namely self-starvation. In many ways, these resembles a dialectical process in operation on a more personal scale. Hence, an effective solution for some anorexics may NOT be to view their anorexia as a mere symptom, and to find a more appropriate and less destructive 'solution' to their perceived 'underlying problems' of self esteem and trauma, but indeed to better understand how such a dialectical process was set up in the first place (some counselors DO succeed at helping 'anorexics' see this, in fact, and some non-counselors too, like moms).

Neither I am saying that a social-adaptive process alone is at work of course; there are also biological studies of how certain mechanisms kick in at various stages of starvation to sustain the malnourished body. One of these is the diminishing of the appetite which, consequently, for those hoping to starve to death, reinforces the condition and can be truly fatal. Such mechanisms are possibly grounded in evolutionary mechanisms as well - in response to incidences of famine and seasonal hunger still faced by countless human populations worldwide.

Me: Certainly reality is not stable. Yet, in order to deal with reality we need to categorise things. Indeed, cognition /is/ classification, so to approach everything as free-form leaves us unable to do anything.

Certainly, flexibility is needed, but it helps to approach things with a framework so you do not need to reinvent the wheel. Indeed this is probably helpful for most patients, as by definition theories (if correct) apply to the majority of individuals.

I do not think the study of anorexia ignores the role of social construction, but in counselling/psychology they are trying to help an individual rather than overhauling an entire society (which cannot work anyway - look at what happened to Communism).

While 'normality'/sustainable health is not a state of equilibrium surely anorexia is even less of an equilibrium (or at least of a healthy one) than the state of health.

And while anorexia has its effects on the body, it is mind-centred - damage to the body is a side-effect/consequence of the individual's inaccurate perception of body image and her actions resulting from this misperception.

It is unsurprising that the perspective of a counsellor is unaligned with that of the patient - the counsellor, being positioned on the outside and having more experience (and presumably knowledge) is able to take a more objective view of the situation, which must complement the patient's subjective view. If the counsellor is oppressive in his approach, that is a fault of the counsellor, rather than the profession. Yes, counselling is not for everyone, which is why a good counsellor should bear these alternatives in mind (while not automatically resorting to them - as there is a duty of care to the patient).

If you do not assume that "the goal of the body is to be healthy" (we can leave aside reproduction for simplicity) and that "the goal of the mind is to enable to body to achieve this function", then just what is it?! While there are certainly individuals who would wish ill-health upon themselves, we cannot allow them (or concern for them) to hijack the emphasis of the system upon restoring to health the bulk of patients who want to be healthy.

If anorexics, after rational consideration, feel that starving their bodies is good, more power to them. I am given to understand, though, that the vast majority of them have concerns arising from body image and delusions about body form (as your example shows; there is a difference between wanting to lose weight and starving yourself).

In a similar vein, I would not prevent someone from killing himself - as long as it was the result of careful and prolonged consideration (rather than being a rash gesture, perhaps based on incomplete or inaccurate information).

It is all very well to theorise about social construction, but when the result is that real people have to suffer (or even die) unnecessarily, that is assuredly unjust.

Breadfly: I have always begun on the premise of preventing an unnecessary death, especially in the case of mental illnesses which can be fatal. I agree that categorizing helps with both diagnosis and general treatment and (as stated previously), these methods have been empirically tested and are definitely preferable to trying to randomly guess what a person needs. What I question is the danger in not questioning such categorizing on a professional level; I have personally experienced being almost totally convinced about being in a possession of a 'medicalized identity' (being an anorexic) during the counseling process. This was delibitating, depressing, and did not help me one bit in coming to terms with either my condition, or help me find a reasonable way out. I have now come to understand that I, in no way, had any misperceptions about my body image at all: I have been learning about the boundaries of my body from the language used by others to describe it.

These include ‘being obese’, ‘taking up space’, ‘having a fat disease’, ‘always bumping into me’, etc. voiced at various points throughout my formative years and henceforth shaped the way I thought about my body prior to anorexia; namely, as clumsy, ungainy but, mainly, way too big. How would one come to understand where one ends and the Others begin? A mirror? Language, as above-mentioned, is one; observation and tactile experience (e.g. people avoiding you, staring at you, hugging you) is another. Looking in the mirror you do not see a reflection of someone as he/she objectively ‘is’ (height, weight, etc.) but a someone who understand his/her body in relation to other people and other spaces. Or at least, the latter seems more important since that is the body you have to ‘live with’, regardless of what you actually think (or purportedly ‘know’) your body to objectively be.

There can be no general goal of the body because the body has different functions for different people. For a model, it may be more important that the body be aesthetic than it be healthy - this keeps the food on her table, ironically and she would be very reluctant to give up her body. For a prospective wife in Mauritiana, getting a fat body from force-feeding is a prerequisite for marriage and, although abhorrent, may be deemed by the girl herself as possibly the wisest option in the long run. For avid piercers, tattooers and transsexuals, "harming the body" may be an important part of identity formation. These are not trivial bodily perceptions and manipulations; they are what makes the bodies of thee different people and, whether one agrees with what they do or not (that depends on one's own definition of the 'right body', after all). So as not to allow this to descend into, well then, a body can be food for dogs, items for sadistic experimentation, etc.,

It is of course imperative to look at agency as well. Are models, Mauritianian wives, transsexuals, piercers, etc. are complete control of their actions? If they are, under what circumstances they still retain the right to define their own bodies? More importantly, who has the right to come in and tell them, NO that's immoral. Don't do that. Do we then ban high fashion, piercing and sex change, or 'reform' Mauritianian society to fit our norms? I completely agree with you that we are in no such position at all.

Health, and especially mental health, is a more difficult issue because it is a concept that has great currency in moral society. However, who is defining what is healthy? Why is it that the proportion of anorexics and overweight people has gone up almost in tandem within the last decade despite the proliferation of medical treatment that is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable? Why is that the proportion of people diagnosed with medical health problems rises in tandem with the availability of psychiatric drugs? Are our 'solutions' faulty? Is our diagnosis of the 'problem' with ourselves faulty? Are people opposed to their own health most of the time (which seems ludicrous, but just take note of how many 'unhealthy' things one does in a day anyway: eating 'junk' food, watching too much TV, drinking too much, smoking, etc.)?

I feel we need to regain trust in ourselves and work at understanding why we come to the decisions we do. Here, there are many experts WHO do help such as good counselors and dieticians (as you've mentioned), but there are also many experts who don't from the very same industries. Relegating the responsibility for curing ourselves to experts, blaming them when we/they fail, diagnosing our problems and seeking solutions from every 'other' expert (such as magazine DIY columns, the news, etc.)...everyone but ourselves (since obviously, we believe our failure to be absolute - well we've screwed up, obviously we can't help ourselves!) is, I believe, ultimately ineffective in achieving the very aim of medicine - to help people feel better. Health magazine make you feel like a lazy fat fuck the way women's magazines make you feel frumpy and envious. Are these healthy feelings? These people don't know shit.

"Free advice is worth the price." - Robert Half

***

MPs dissent on the Public Order act:
(not that that will stop the Government Whip from making them behave)

"NO CLEAR-CUT DEFINITION

'The definition of 'cause-related events' is not always clear or easy.

For example, a condom company decides to hold a large-scale outdoor activity to raise funds for patients suffering from debilitating sexually transmitted diseases. Would this require a permit?

On the surface, it is a social activity, a charitable event for a good cause - raising funds to help patients with their medical needs. Ostensibly, it is also a commercial activity to increase brand awareness and sales. On the other hand, it can be viewed as a cause-related activity, promoting a certain kind of lifestyle which may go against society's more conservative values.'

Mr Baey Yam Keng (Tanjong Pagar GRC)

[Ed: How about advertising by the Casin... Integrated Resorts?]

OPENING UP

'I see this Bill as continuing the process of opening up that begun a few years ago.

Since as a country we want a more open and free society, and are moving towards more openness, we should not allow any legislation to hinder our growth and development towards active citizenry and civil rights participation.'

Ms Ellen Lee (Sembawang GRC), applauding the new Public Order law

HIS WORRY: MORE 999 CALLS

'My concern is that the new 'move-on' powers given to police officers will generate an even higher number of 999 calls - for example, people will think it appropriate to call the police to have noisy groups 'move on' from the vicinity of their homes.

'Move-on' directions should be used sparingly and not for non-urgent cases involving, for example, neighbourhood noise.'

Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC)

[Ed: Given how people are uptight enough to call the police, and the police are free enough to prosecute, simple cases of public nudity {whereas in more developed countries, simple warnings are given - at least the first time}, I have no doubt this will happen. No wonder the Home Team is stepping up recruitment!]

BACK-HANDED COMPLIMENT

'The amendment, she suggested, was made in respect of cause-based activities to placate international public opinion. The first point I take away from that is that it is a back-handed compliment and it is an acknowledgement that in fact this amounts to a relaxation on the current position, which is why she thinks that we are doing it to get some kudos from international public opinion.

But the second point I make to her is, would the Singapore Government introduce legislation to placate international public opinion? She really thinks that? We are not in such a weak position, nor is such conduct usually associated with this government.'

Mr K. Shanmugam, in response to a point made by NCMP Sylvia Lim"

[Ed: This is the best bit, which is why no amount of letter-writing, publicity, shaming or international campaigns is going to lead to Change (and why Chee Soon Juan's strategy is ultimately empty and useless)

Maybe we should get the International community to initiate sanctions on the export of golf clubs, French cooking classes and white shirts to Singapore. We can divert the white shirts to Thailand so they can start a new revolt].

"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why." - James Thurber

***

What Terrorists Really Want / Max Abrahms (Continued):

"Since the emergence of modern terrorism in 1968, 64 percent of worldwide terrorist attacks have been carried out by unknown perpetrators. Anonymous terrorism has been rising, with three out of four attacks going unclaimed since September 11, 2O01. Anonymous terrorism is particularly prevalent in Iraq, where the U.S. military has struggled to determine whether the violence was perpetrated by Shiite or Sunni groups with vastly different political plaforms...

The tendency for terrorist organizations to refrain from issuing policy demands increased in the late 1990s, leading Hoffman to conclude that the coercive logic of terrorism is “seriously flawed.”...

Particularly in the early stages of their existence, terrorist organizations purporting to light for a common cause frequently attack each other more than their mutually declared enemy.

The Tamil Tigers, for example, did not target the Sinhalese government in the mid-1980s. Instead, it engaged in a “systematic annihilation” of other Tamil organizations “espousing the same cause” of national liberation...

In recent years, the same phenomenon has been endemic in terrorist hot spots. In Chechnya, local terrorist orgamzations have been terrorizing each other despite their joint political platform to establish Chechen independence. And in southern Iraq, Shiite militias with a shared ideological stance have been mainly blowing each other up, to the obvious benefit of the Sunnis...

The strategic model assumes that because terrorists are motivated by relatively stable policy aims, the violence will cease when the organization’s stated grievances have been lifted. A puzzle for the model then is that terrorist organizations resist disbanding when their political rationales have become moot. Pape’s research demonstrates that contemporary guerrilla campaigns have coerced major policy concessions from target countries; yet none of the organizations that also use terrorism have disbanded. Hezbollah, for example, remains an operational terrorist group, despite the fact that its guerrilla attacks on the Israel Defense Forces achieved the stated goal of liberating southern Lebanon in May 2000. When their political rationale is losing relevance, terrorist organizations commonly invent one. Klaus Wasmund’s case study of the RAF shows, for example, that the German terrorists were “aggravated” when the Vietnam War ended because they suddenly faced a “dilemma of finding a suitable revolutionary subject.” Instead of abandoning the armed struggle, the RAF turned overnight into a militant advocate of the Palestinian cause. Similarly, the 9/11 commission explains that upon discovering in April 1988 that the Soviets were planning to withdraw from Afghanistan, the mujahideen made the collective decision to remain intact while they hunted for a new political cause. In this way, terrorist organizations contrive a new political raison d’être, belying the assumption that terrorists are motivated by relatively stable policy preferences reflected in their organizations’ political platforms...

[Ed: I think the same can be said of almost all pressure groups or lobbies.]

Empirical evidence is accumulating in terrorism studies arid political psychology that individuals participate in terrorist organizations not to achieve their political platforms, but to develop strong affective ties with fellow terrorists.

First, psychologist Jeff Victoroff has concluded in a précis of the terrorism literature that “the claim that no individual factors identify those at risk for becoming terrorists is based on completely inadequate research.” Terrorist organizations appeal disproportionately to certain psychological types of people, namely. the socially alienated. Melvin Seeman defines alienation broadly as the feeling of loneliness, rejection, or exclusion from valued relationships, groups, or societies. Demographic data show that the vast majority of terrorist organizations are composed of unmarried young men or widowed women who were not gainfully employed prior to joining them...

Second, members from a wide variety of terrorist groups—including ETA, the IRA, the Italian Communist Party, the RAE the Red Brigades, Turkish terrorist organizations, and the Weather Underground—say that they joined these armed struggles not because of their personal attachment to their political or ideological agendas, but to maintain or develop social relations with other terrorist members. These are not the statements of a small number of terrorists; in the Turkish sample, for instance, the 1,100 terrorists interviewed were ten times more likely to say that they joined the terrorist organization “because their friends were members” than because of the “ideology” of the group...

These findings are also consistent with a fascinating July 2007 study of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Researchers from West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center found in their sample of 516 detainees that knowing an al-Qaida member was a significantly better predictor than believing in the jihad for turning to terrorism—even when a militant definition of jihad was used and other variables were held constant."

(To be continued)

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon." - Napoleon Bonaparte

***

Apple Privately Admits White MacBook's Notorious Crack Problem - "And lo, the winged horse of the Apocalypse bounded through the sky: Apple is acknowledging the white MacBook's legendary hairline cracks along the bottom enclosure, and will actually fix it, regardless of your warranty. An internal bulletin reportedly circulated last month to service providers points out four specific areas of the case that are especially to hairline cracking: the front, under the palmrests and trackpad, around the I/O ports, near back rear corners, and around the rear vents."

Self-control? It's child's play. Some classic games help limit anti-social behavior - "Kids everywhere have played Simon Says for generations without theslightest inkling that such games may be preparing them for success in theclassroom and the work world. Psychology researchers say the game is one of many that draw on the crucialcapacity to restrain impulses and exert self-control."

The Skeptical OB: Mommy, do you remember all four times you had sex? - "Our son, an angelic boy of eight at the time had a big smile on his face. “I understand now,” he said happily. “I just have one question.” Pointing to his little sister, he asked: “Can she and I practice this at home, so we’ll know what to do when we get married?”... “I just want to know,” she declared, “how after the man takes off his penis and puts it in the woman to make a baby, how does he stick it back on his body?”"

Lost Of Hope - "I was on YouTube trying to search for songs and i was pretty bored at that moment and i started searching “Nanyang Primary” School song... I showed Sheng the video and she’s now blaming me for showing her the video. It brings back the memory making us feel like crying cause that’s where we started knowing each other, every memories of every single one of us. Doubt i'll forget about NYPS(:"
I also feel like crying when I think about NYPS and also doubt I'll forget about it, but for different reasons

Ryu's Ultimate Combo

Ovulation moment caught on camera for the first time - "Gynecologist Dr Jacques Donnez spotted a human egg emerging from the ovary a 45-year-old Belgian woman and filmed the whole process. It is the first time a human ovulation has been recorded in detail and Dr Jacques Donnez saw it in progress during a routine hysterectomy operation."

Top 10 Reasons Your Company Should Not Tweet - "every Tweet has to be approved by legal. Twitter is a social network where conversation is fast and interconnected. If you have to wait a day, or even a few hours for your 140 character Tweet to gain legal approval, Twitter will be the wrong platform for you."

New Santa clauses introduced - "Santa Claus must have a minder to watch over him when he meets children, under the latest guidelines issued by Rotary clubs. Father Christmas must be accompanied when meeting children, even if parents are present... The guidelines also say Father Christmas should no longer have a grotto and he should only shake hands with children, avoiding other physical contact."

I Want You to Apologize - "When the University of Michigan Health System experimented with full disclosure, existing claims and lawsuits dropped from 262 in 2001 to 83 in 2007. Apologies work. Real, heartfelt empathy between one person and another diffuses anger and builds relationships. Defensiveness and resistance to admit mistakes creates anger."

Maybe Kim Jong-Il Can Help - "RosBalt news agency is reporting that Aleksei Lebedev, a bank clerk, financial analyst, and former neighborhood council member from St. Petersburg, has asked a local communist party to help him secure "political and economic" refugee status from North Korea."

Where Bears Roam Free: Gays now facing a backlash of its own doing? (on the AWARE coup) - "Has the gay community pushed their agenda a little to hard and little too fast? For now, it appears that some women (maybe some men behind the scene too) have taken over an institution to counter the gay movement. Only time will tell what this development will lead us to."
This is why I was not in favour of campaigning to repeal 377A

Lee Kuan Yew talks about Singapore’s regional reality - "Lee Kuan Yew has urged Singaporeans not to delude themselves that they are a part of the First World in South-east Asia."
Funny how the Great Leader says not to delude ourselves that we're First World, given his memoirs are titled "From Third World to First"

Markets are ruled by human foibles, not by science - "TO understand how we got ourselves into our latest economic mess, complicated explanations about derivatives, regulatory failure and so on are beside the point. The best answer is both ancient and simple: hubris. In modern mathematical economics, many people in the rich world decided that we had finally devised a set of scientific tools that could really predict human behaviour. These tools were supposed to be as reliable as those used in engineering. Having ushered scientific socialism into its grave at the Cold War's end, we quickly found ourselves embracing another Science of Man... Economists do not typically conduct experiments with real money. When they do, as when the Nobel laureate Myron Scholes ran the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM), the dangers often outweigh the benefits... models are most useful when they are little known or not universally believed... Markets might once have been fairly efficient, before we had the theory of efficient markets."

Why are fashion models so thin? Answer: The gay domination of the fashion business. - "Explaining the typical looks of high-fashion models is easy. The top ranks of the fashion business are dominated by homosexual men... The multiple masculinized features of the female models gay fashion designers use to display their designs are obviously related to the homosexuality of these fashion designers. Additionally, a disproportionate number of gay men, especially those that are fashion designers, find the physique of adolescent boys aesthetically appealing, and of all masculinized women out there, only the young and skinny ones approach the looks of adolescent boys... Feminists...have offered curious hypotheses as to the skinniness of high-fashion models, hypotheses that those familiar with feminism would obviously expect to be based upon the alleged malevolence of patriarchy, heteropatriarchy to be more precise. Indeed, Rhodes Scholar Naomi Wolf has argued that...some men decided that the best way to put women in their rightful place is to occupy their thoughts with self-appearance and starve them. However, this notion is easily refuted... several commentators back then would have noted the more masculine physical appearance, on average, of feminists, something that is common observation"

1984 vs religion - "Another idea thats played throughout 1984 is the idea that you must not simply obey Big Brother, but you must love him... Christianity demands (at least most brands of it), under the threat of torture forever, that you must believe in Christ. Its not a matter of just living a good life, doing as little harm and as much good as you can, or even obeying much of the 10 commandments. You have to embrace Jesus, you must believe and love him for he loves you. He sacrificed everything for you, so if you don't love him and accept him as your savior, you are dirt and will be going straight to the hot place. This seems to fall very much in line with Big Brothers demand that you love him and praise him in all things... Room 101 seems to be a great concept for hell. Take the thing that is the worst thing that you can possibly think of, and thats what awaits you in room 101... Even the idea of thoughtcrime exists in both. Many interpret the idea of thou shalt not commit adultery as even lusting another women would qualify which is a thought, not an action... Another idea thats common in both... is the idea of eliminating sex as anything of pleasure, as that does not glorify God/the party... Hell even Goldstein can be interpreted as everything secular"

What Terrorists Really Want

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." - H. G. Wells

***

What Terrorists Really Want / Max Abrahms:

"The strategic model—the dominant paradigm in terrorism studies—posits that terrorists are rational actors who attack civilians for political ends. According to this view, terrorists are political utility maximizers; people use terrorism when the expected political gains minus the expected costs outweigh the net expected benefits of alternative forms of protest. The strategic model has widespread currency in the policy community; extant counter-terrorism strategies are designed to defeat terrorism by reducing its political utility. The most common strategies are to mitigate terrorism by decreasing its political benefits via a strict no concessions policy; decreasing its prospective political benefits via appeasement; or decreasing its political benefits relative to nonviolence via democracy promotion...

Despite its policy relevance, the strategic model has not been tested... Does the terrorist’s decisionmaking process conform to the strategic model? The answer appears to be no...

The argument is not that terrorists are crazy or irrational; as Louise Richardson notes, psychiatric profiles of terrorists are “virtually unanimous” that their “primary shared, characteristic is their normalcy.” Rather, I contend that the strategic model misspecifies terrorists’ incentive structure; the preponderance of empirical and theoretical evidence reveals that terrorists are rational people who use terrorism primarily to develop strong affective ties with fellow terrorists...

Seven empirical puzzles vitiate the strategic model’s premise that terrorists are rational people who are motivated mainly to achieve their organization’s stated political goals. The seven puzzles contradicting the strategic model are (1) terrorist organizations do not achieve their stated political goals by a (tacking civilians; (2) terrorist organizations never use terrorism as a last resort and seldom seize opportunities to become productive nonviolent political parties; (3) terrorist organizations reflexively reject compromise proposals offering significant policy concessions by the target government; (4) terrorist organizations have protean political platforms; (5) terrorist organizations generally carry out anonymous attacks, precluding target countries from making policy concessions; (6) terrorist organizations with identical political platforms routinely attack each other more than their mutually professed enemy; and (7) terrorist organizations resist disbanding when they consistently fail to achieve their political platforms or when their stated political grievances have been resolved and hence are moot...

Crenshaw remarked at the time that terrorist organizations do not obtain “the long-term ideological objectives they claim to seek, and therefore one must conclude that terrorism is objectively a failure.” Thomas Schelling reached the same conclusion in the 1990s, noting that terrorist attacks “never appear to accomplish anything politically significant.” In a study assessing terrorism’s coercive effectiveness, I found that in a sample of twenty-eight well-known terrorist campaigns, the terrorist organizations accomplished their stated poiicy goals zero percent of the time by attacking civilians...

Polls show, for example, that after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attacked the British public, the British people became significantly less likely to favor withdrawing from Northern Ireland. Similar trends in public opinion have been registered after groups attacked civilians in Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, the Philippines, and Russia. Although the international community frequently appeals for target countries to appease terrorists, terrorist attacks on civilians have historically empowered hard-liners who oppose, as a matter of principle, accommodating thc perpetrators...

Terrorist groups never lack political alternatives. Large-n studies show, first, that only the most oppressive totalitarian states have been immune from terrorism, and second, that the number of terrorist organizations operating in a country is positively associated with its freedom of expression, assembly, and association—conditions conducive to effecting peaceful political change. The “paradox of terrorism” is that terrorist groups tend to target societies with the greatest number of political alternatives, not the fewest...

Terrorist organizations are characterized by “an intransigent refusal to compromise.” It is far more common for them to derail negotiations by ramping up their attacks. In fact, no peace process has transformed a major terrorist organization into a completely nonviolent political party...

Terrorism is an extremism of means, not ends. Many terrorist organizations profess surprisingly moderate political positions. Russian terrorist groups of the mid-nineteenth century were known as “liberals with a bomb” because they sought a constitution with elementary civil freedoms. The expressed goal of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is to achieve a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—a policy preference held by most of the international community. Robert Pape points out that even in his sample of contemporary suicide terrorist organizations, “the terrorists’ political aims, if not their methods, are often more mainstream than observers realize; they generally reflect quite common, straightforward nationalist self-determination claims of their community. . . goals that are typically much like those of other nationalists within their comrnunity.’ Yet terrorist organizations rarely commit to negotiations, even when these would satisfy a significant portion of their stated political grievances. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, for example, responded with an unprecedented wave of terror to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s January 2001 offer of the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank.

The marked fluidity of al-Qaida’s political rationale is reflected in the fatwas Osama bin Laden issued throughout the 1990s, which contain a litany of disparate grievances against Muslims. Only in his fourth call to arms on October 7, 2001, did he emphasize the Israeli occupation, which is known in policy circles as his “belated concern.” Al-Qaida members have frequently criticized the inconsistency of their organization’s jihadi message...

Some of the most important terrorist organizations in modern history have pursued policy goals that are not only unstable but also contradictory The Basque separatist group ETA, for example, is criticized for failing to produce “a consistent ideology,” as its political goals have wavered from fighting to overturn the Franco dictatorship in Spain to targeting the emergent democratic government—a progression similar to that of the Shining Path, Peru’s most notorious terrorist organization. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party— Turkey’s most dangerous contemporary terrorist group (known by the Kurdish acronym PKK)—has likewise vacillated between advocating jihad, a Marxist revolution, and a Kurdish homeland governed without Islamist or Marxist principles. The Abu Nidal Organization staged countless attacks against Syria in the 1980s and then “almost overnight switched allegiance” by becoming a Syrian proxy. According to Leonard Weinberg, the most feared mternahonal terrorist group of the 1980s was willing to carry out a terrorist attack “on behalf of any cause,” even conflicting ones. Similarly, Laqueur points out that many well-known groups that began on the extreme right— such as the Argentine Montoneros, Colombian M-19, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—ended up on the left as far as their phraseology was concerned. Hoffman has likewise noted that in the 1980s, right-wing terrorist groups in West Germany temporarily adopted left-wing rhetoric and began attacking targets that are the traditional choice of left-wing groups. Predictably, the police initially suspected that dozens of their attacks were the work of communist groups."

(To be continued)

"It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead." - Dame Rose Macaulay

***

Amusing REACH discussion topic:

Are Government Campaigns Necessarily Boring?

"When we hear the words 'Government campaign', certain thoughts immediately come to mind. Dull, another propaganda, no creativity.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) recently won a Gold award for its family commercial at the local MediaCorp Viewers' Choice Awards. It broke away from the conventional “government campaign” style by creating a deep impression on viewers with its strong emotive storyline of a single father and his strong-willed teenage daughter.

The MCYS has recently rolled out a new television commercial (TVC) which is part of a $1.25 million campaign to encourage Singaporeans to get married. The advertisement, set at a funeral, depicts an interracial marriage where a wife pays tribute to her dead husband by sharing fond memories of his less than endearing habits. It aims to celebrate the beauty of imperfections that make a relationship perfect.

The TVC has been received warmly since its debut last Sunday, with many saying that they were touched by the powerful storyline."


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Someone up there is getting cheeky! Tsk tsk.

In any case, it's not just government campaigns.

The quality of advertising in Singapore in general is often low. Many seem to think viewers can't appreciate intelligent, subtle and/or amusing advertisements.

Perhaps one day we will have Superbowl-quality ads (or government campaigns, if you like).

(Incidentally, I haven't seen the first ad referenced yet. Is it on YouTube?)

"Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." - Don Marquis

***

"Who are they, these people we call ‘characters’? Let’s be frank: from a medical point of view, they are all neurotics, psychotics, paranoiacs, melancholics, schizophrenics: in short, sick people. As literature, sure, they are enthralling; but in reality, they would be in urgent need of medical attention. Characters in plays are sick people: this generalisarion we can make without fear of error. And it is for this single reason that we go to the theatre. I have seen Hamlet dozens of times, I love the play and its eponymous protagonist, but I am not sure if I would want to invite him round to dinner every Saturday, along with other friends, to spend the evening chatting about being or not being.

Take the following scenario. Who would want to go out to go and see a piece of theatre like this? A young man and a young woman, both good-looking and in good health, in love with each other, watch their children getting ready for school, where they are by far the best pupils. They accompany them to the school gate. Then they cross a flower-filled garden under the admiring and sympathetic gaze of their friendly neighbours, when, all of a sudden — here comes the postman! Hold onto your hats... he is the bearer of glad tidings — both mothers-in-law are in perfect health, and they are on a cruise around the Greek islands, and the weather is good...

Who would happily sit through such a play? No one! Not even Doris Day would perform in such a play. The only audience in such a theatre would be flies. The thing that prompts us to go to the theatre is conflict, combat; we want to see mad people and fanatics, thieves and murderers. And, I accept, a smattering of good souls, iust enough to set off the evil in all its glory. We hunger for the strange, the abnormal.

And so our actor — of sound mind — must play a sick character."

--- The rainbow of desire: the Boal method of theatre and therapy / Augusto Boal, Adrian Jackson


I think this explains why people who study or write literature all have issues.

How to get A+ in SMU:



"Week 2: Keep participating. Doesn't matter if your comments make sense or not. Just As long as you can hog airtime
Week 3: Pay people for past assignment answers. And projects from last semester.
Week 4: Spread nasty rumours. So peer evaluation ↓
Week 6: Suck up to prof
Week 7: Give fake tips
Week 8: Disappear [so others do your part]
Week 10: Sabo other group's presentation
Week 11: Steal notes from the muggers
Week 14: Pretend you're stupid
Week 15: Steal calculators before exams. Then dump them"

"A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece." - Ludwig Erhard

***

An email forward I got:


"July 22nd 2009 another Tsumani...

Prevention is always better than cure ..Please be more cautious as the warnings has been given.
Attached a photo for u.



I just received this message from a colleague. I don’t know the source of the message; I also don’t know the credibility of the content, but just beware.

Below is the content on the message:

“Hello there. I just wanted 2 let you know that please stay away from the beaches all around in the month of July. There is a prediction that there will be another tsunami hitting on July 22nd. It is also when there will be sun eclipse. Predicted that it is going 2 be really bad and countries like Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak), Singapore, Maldives, Australia, Mauritius, Si Lanka, India, Indonesia, Philippines are going 2 be badly hit. Please try and stay away from the beaches in July. Better 2 be safe than sorry. Please pass the word around. Please also pray for all beings.”"


I Reply All-ed and said if there was really a Tsunami on that day, I would buy all of them lunch (even the people I didn't know).

I was surprised to find out that there really will be a solar eclipse on that day. And not too surprised to discover that the official-looking picture illustrating the email is modified from NASA's eclipse path diagram.

I was just surprised a mystical spin wasn't explicitly put on this (with the path of the eclipse opening the door to the Astral Plane and causing negative energy to radiate forth) but then, even in our gullible age, talking about all the planets being in alignment will lose you credibility among many (while, contrawise, mentioning other superstitions will gain you more).

More digging reveals the source of this misinformation. Ironically, it's a blog post mocking the pseudo-scientific thinking responsible for the above (irony, thou art dead!).

Disappointingly, all 238 of the people who resposted this online (or at least the first 10 who popped up on the first page of Google search results) either credulously believed it, took the "better safe than sorry" approach and urged caution or asked readers to make up their minds themselves. And the Malaysians are even better, holding "a Silent prayer... to calm down the sea's anger".

Now, while it's good for people to make up their own minds, there's no harm in calling out bullshit or nonsense when you see it. Respecting people's rights to hold beliefs is not the same as respecting all beliefs - the latter proposition opens the door to more balderdash than you can shake a finger at.

It's so easy to trick people. No wonder people keep crafting new chain mails to mislead and misinform.

Maybe I should write one about how white rice has been found to be carcinogenic, and in so doing foment the collapse of the Thai economy as naive Southeast Asians stop eating Thai rice.

I can even reuse this picture and claim it's what Thai rice looks like before they polish it:



Then Thaksin can fly back, depose the Prime Minister and install me as the new King of Thailand so I can use lèse majesté laws to screw anyone I don't like.

Meanwhile Vietnam will pay me handsomely for promoting their rice exports.

"Democracy is a process by which the people are free to choose the man who will get the blame." - Laurence J. Peter

***

Someone: about the verrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy doubtful christian who wants to get the hardcore christian girl

feel like slapping him

Me: haha
the only folly of man is woman

Someone: i was once sucked in the same way and two years of life were spent in darkness

a bigger folly of man is a very devout christian woman


Me: someone was saying why travelling with women is bad:

1) indecisive
2) complain a lot
3) cannot take physical exertion

Someone else: 3) bad at directions

yeah

Me: 4) shop a lot (I'll add this myself)
directions are ok if you let someone else navigate

Someone else: btw, i like travelling with guys cos
1) they're not indecisive
2) they dun shop alot
3) they are good at navigating
4) they generally "take care" of me
5) they're less calculative and fussy


Me: why should you marry a smarter woman?

Someone: less conflict there
if you're the giving-way type

Me: gah
like that might as well marry a dumber women

less conflict also :P

Someone: i rather have a woman who's smarter rather than dumber honestly
more intellectually stimulating

no point having a dumb woman around
might as well get a blow up doll

Me: then look at it from the female POV
why have a dumb guy

Someone: a warm penis is better than a cold plastic one

Me: ........................

logic that privileges women never gets turned around


Someone else: tt dae *** was just toking to mi how some pple are turned on by shit n all
n she thinks tt maeb cos those are abjects

urine and faeces are the abject
neither object nor subject
because its what once used to be me, but its sth i expel to define myself
inner/outer dichotomy breaks down

i think sicko americans luv such sicko stuffs
like hafing sex w horses n rats etc

Me: haha
why you think it's an american thing

rats?!
can fit ah

Someone else: i think last time got some wat.. hamster or sth
died

duno urban legend or sth

i think it's an.. american thing!

Me: oh! the gerbils!

Someone else: cos in aisan culture.. duno abt japan la.. usu we haf suppressed women.. n if need sex men can just luk for women can settle alr..

but i think those places.. where women got more sae.. maeb.. harder to find victims.. so. uhh. turn to animals

Me: the japanese can be quite sick also lor


Someone: Like God, dogs only see the good in humankind.

Me: eh
shouldn't that be the reverse
see only the bad

that's why you have eternal damnation for sin

Someone: Mmmm?

God doesn't see the bad, if you accept his amnesty deal.

He still loves you whether you accept the deal or not, but a crime still must be punished, otherwise that's not justice.

anyway i came up with this because i was thinking of abused animals
especially dogs

why do they stick with their masters
even though sometimes these masters mistreat them
abuse them
starve them and force them to do horrible things.

Me: it's not justice if you write the draconian ['code']

err
there're mad dogs also

Someone: It is justice, we are born sinful.

Me: so you're being punished for something that isn't your fault

Someone: Of course there are mad dogs, how the heck do you tell if they're mad :)

Are you human?

Me: how do you tell if gods are mad?

Someone: You have to be a God yourself to know if they are.

However, if He was mad, we shouldn't even be able to scratch out a marginal existence in this world

Me: you can apply the same logic to the Fuhrer
(though at least you know the Fuhrer is real)

then again Big Brother wasn't
and Big Brother was omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient

Someone: we would be clad in nothing but our skin and be sucking each other's dicks while attempting to crawl away with vestigal limbs from predators that like to torture their prey and devour it alive.

Me: that sounds like the human condition

Someone: Now that, would be a world of madness.
Sounds like , but isn't.

If you look at it less cynically, have you suffered a stroke yet?

Me: *** has

Someone: have you?

Me: no

Someone: mmmm
then i guess that's something to be thankful for

friend of mine had a pretty serious one :(
hospital ridden now

Me: in that case the abused dog which is tied up and left in the sun should be thankful that its master did not also amputate its limbs, cut out its tongue and put out its eyes

Someone: Ah yes, but if you are referring to the human condition in the metaphor, the dog's abuse is self-afllicted, and it is not tied up, but refuses to accept its master's food and shelter.

and most importantly love.

Me: well
the best description I've seen is:

"It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority punishment or reward.
In a nutshell, God had to kill Himself to appease Himself so that He would not have to roast us, His beloved creations, in HELL forever.
He loves us more than we can ever comprehend, but if we don't return His affections, He will make us regret it for eternity.
Now that is AMAZING GRACE!"

Someone: The description left out the part where the primordial representatives of the human race openly defied God and spat in His face literally by disobeying Him and choosing some fucking fruit over the Garden of Eden and unhindered....ability to talk to Him, everyday....anytime.

That's like describing the justice system without admitting to the crime.

Me: that's like describing justice in Ancient China
condemning all the relatives for one person's fault
and exterminating the whole clan

Someone: That makes sense, doesn't it?
A thief, will always breed thieves.

Me: luckily our modern conceptions of justice have evolved beyond that

Someone: Genetic predisposition does seem to be the reason the ancient chinese based their justice on.
Luckily, or unfortunately.

Me: err

Someone: Should a rapist or pedophile's children be allowed to live, because they are gentically predisposed to rape and or molest little children?

Me: that's
1) if you assume they are genetically predisposed to rape or molest little children
2) if you take the view of genetic determinism

however, even if we cloned Hitler (i.e. 100% DNA the same), there's no guarantee the clone would do the same things

modern justice systems allow for the possibility of parole (most of the time) - even for a criminal who has committed crimes
to say nothing of those predisposed to commit crimes

Someone: -sigh- the american justice system is fucked up
how many more victims occur
[because] they parole these evil people =(

Me: hello
even singapore has parole
even china has parole

Someone: oh dear.

Me: since you're of the "once a criminal, always a criminal" school you might wish to advocate the death penalty for all crimes
since criminals cannot be reformed

Someone: not all.

certain crimes.
drug related people, murderers, pedophiles, rapists.

zulzul:

"I love Singapore. Harmless streakers fined. Minister who let MAS SELAMAT escaped still in office. Was he ever reprimanded ?"

Not to mention the other harmless streakers case.

HWMNBN on why we use "Basis points" rather than "percentage points":


Two main reasons

a) To avoid relative vs absolute confusion.

Let's say a given interest rate is 20%. If we say it's increased by 2%, you can interpret it as: either 20% -> 22% (absolute), or 20% -> 20.4% (relative)

Saying 200bps makes it very clear it's an absolute increase in the rate from 20% -> 22%

b) Granularity.

Most times interest rates increase by tiny increments. eg 4.5% -> 4.52%, etc. However these granular increases can have large effects on exposure (because we're usually

talking about million or billion dollar impacts here). It's mentally easier to visualise 10-15bps as having a large effect vs 0.1%

Same reason why we have cents, rather than denominating everything in dollars (eg 0.5 dollars, 0.65 dollars) - it's just more convenient

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung." - Voltaire

***

Random posts from gamebooks mailing lists:


"i just bought a book in Ebay, thinking it was an unknow "branching-plot-novel ", here what it say in the back cover :

"lost at the train station station ? to buy a ticket, turn to page 40. To find a hotel, go to 55. hot day, blue sky ? to hit the beach, turn to page 141. To meet the local, open page 93. Take this phrasebook and choose your own adventure ! "

well, so nothing to do with a choose your own adventure, it is a phrasebook, to help you translate croatian in english...

the book name are "craotian" phrasebooks, lonely planet editor, written by Gordana & Ivan Ivetac .

just wanted to warn you, to avoid the same mistake i've done ^^"


"Regarding genres, it must be noticed that fantasy doesn't necessarily need elves and trolls to be fantasy. Modern fantasy is deeply rooted in medieval Europe, a complex setting that did exist in the real world and whose appeal on today's Western people is obvious - after all, it's our past. And it is a past that not only offers many elements of wonder and much food for thought, but can also be represented fairly easily by just anyone who has studied it in his or her schoolyears. On the other hand, the future depicted in sci-fi is only too often a lazy speculation that inexorably tends to project current social problems in a stainless-steel, uber-technological world that is way too square and clean to be fascinating and too advanced to possibly pose all the problems we see depicted in sci-fi books and movies. Combat in a futuristic setting is also incredibly boring - you hit the target and zap!, battle's over. It's not physical nor spectacular, and it's no wonder that lightsaber duels are among the most exciting sequences in Star Wars. What made the original Star Wars great is exactly its fantasy elements: decadent towns and civilizations, space rogues, an evil empire, supernatural powers and myths, weapons that are more advanced than anything we have today but still are considered ancient at the time of the story. These elements are all mutuated from the classic medieval background of fantasy, and they're interesting because they existed in the past in some other form, and also because they can pose problems and help people solve those problems. Let's face it, a future where all disease is curable, where people needn't walk, cook nor work, where everything is clean and pure and everyone speak the same language just isn't interesting. And most sci-fi gamebooks fail to be interesting because they offer the usual generic "save the world" mission in a setting that features futuristic looks, but it's just our good ol' everyday Earth deep inside."

"The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him." - Henry Stimson

***

4Chan: The Rude, Raunchy Underbelly of the Internet - "The most powerful people on the Internet don't work for Microsoft, Google or the government. Rather, they're a bunch of antisocial, foul-mouthed, clever nerds who congregate at a largely unknown Web site called 4chan.org."

The pleasures and sorrows of work | The Economist - "Even the most soulless of offices has its vital part to play. The “start of work means an end to freedom, but also to doubt, intensity and wayward desires... How satisfying it is to be held in check by the assumptions of colleagues, instead of being forced to contemplate, in the loneliness of the early hours, all that one might have been, and now never will be.” This last observation seems so heartfelt, so poignantly rendered, that one can only advise Mr de Botton himself to cease his solitary endeavours and take the plunge into the pleasures of office life."

Human psychology and the economy | An economic bestiary | The Economist - "Messrs Akerlof and Shiller list eight questions which, they say, cannot be well explained without an appeal to animal spirits—but can be tackled with them. These range from why markets for housing and shares swing wildly (a combination of confidence, stories and bad faith) to why, contrary to standard theory, there appears to be a long-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment (mainly, a mix of money illusion and fairness)... How much do animal spirits help? Most of the time, the unrealistic assumption of rationality serves economists fairly well. They should, however, be more prepared to depart from it, especially in times like these—even if that makes behaviour more difficult to describe in elegant equations."

The ballot and the bottom billion | Democracy in difficult places | The Economist - "He shows unambiguously what observers of elections in poor countries have long suspected: that on their own, unless they are held in the context of a functioning democracy, elections can retard rather than advance a country’s progress. “If democracy means little more than elections, it is damaging to the reform process,” he writes... elections begin to pay dividends to society only when they occur in a system of checks and balances, with a functioning rule of law"

Will’s Maid Café Visit - "After a bit of a wait we had another maid (I think she was different) bring us our order. She didn’t just give it to us though, no way. First she knelt down on her knees and held up to us a container for us to pick our favourite colour straw out of. If choose pink as I am the epitome of masculinity while Shigeki opted for green. She then stirred my ice coffee (on her knees in front of me) and put the straw in our drinks. I thought we would get our items now, but no, there is more. She placed the tray in front of her and said “もえ、もえ、胸、きゅう！” (moe, moe, mune kyuu!) in a cute little voice accompanied by some hand actions. And we had to do the same thing if we were to receive our order. My dignity was annulled, but it was fun."

Chimpanzees exchange meat for sex - "Male chimps that are willing to share the proceeds of their hunting expeditions mate twice as often as their more selfish counterparts. This is a long-term exchange, so males continue to share their catch with females when they are not fertile, copulating with them when they are."
What will the feminists say?!

The world according to Kishore Mahbubani - "Ostensibly a book about the rise of Asia – there is quite a bit favourable to India – it is a long litany of complaints against America and a eulogy to China. While America is criticized on various issues from the Iraq war to the torture of prisoners, there is just one reference to Taiwan and none to Tibet; I checked the index... when he talks about the domination of the Western media, he should have asked himself who made it so. The fact is Asians read Western publications such as Time, Newsweek and the Economist and Asian newspapers use Western news agencies like Reuters and Bloomberg because Asian media coverage is either inadequate or not sufficiently informative... Mahbubani sees what he calls “the irresistible shift of global power to the East” as a reversion to the old order of things. Asia was far richer than the West until the early 19th century... But what did Asia do with those riches? Where were the Asian Gutenbergs, Leonardo da Vincis, Shakespeares, Galileos? Why did democracy develop in the West while despotism seemed to be the rule in the East? Maybe those questions are for others to answer. Mahbubani's focus is on power and prosperity."

Corri Fetman Files Sexual Harassment Lawsuit - "Corri Fetman, the Chicago divorce attorney who worked on the principle that it is better to divorce now so you can marry your trophy husband/wife, and who appeared in a nude Playboy spread, has alleged that she was sexually harassed by a former executive at the magazine. She said that Thomas Hagopian of the digital branch of Playboy Enterprises sent her sexually explicit emails and phone calls, touched her and then revoked her column when she refused to play into his advances... Fetman filed her lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court and sought more than $4.5 million in damages for a number of charges, including, “gender violence” and emotional stress"
The fact that she's abusing the term "gender violence" (legally, the term is actually defined much more loosely than how Progressives use it) is telling.

Roseville couple, state settle suit over marriage license wording - "Attorney Steven Wood on Wednesday called it a clear victory for the Coddings and common sense... "The state's previous rejection of the marriage license caused the Coddings considerable anguish, as well as financial harm," said Wood. "That has now been remedied."... The couple claimed the state of California did not have the right to replace the terms "bride" and "groom" with "Party A" and "Party B" on state marriage documents."
Anguish and financial harm?! Then again some people might call the terms "Bride" and "Groom" homophobic."The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him." - Henry Stimson

"Corinth. Cogito ergo sum"

Wth.

Random tidbit:

"Auspicium melioris aevi" does NOT translate as "Hope for a better age" but "Omen of a better age"

"I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing." - Johnny Carson

***

Aiding is Abetting

"Dambisa Moyo's prescription for economic sustainability in Africa—which includes cutting off all aid within five years—might seem insane if the statistics weren't so grim: despite one trillion dollars in western aid over the past sixty years, the economic lot of the average African has only gotten worse...

Systematic western aid, Moyo argues in Dead Aid, has essentially turned Africa into one giant welfare state. The unending stream of money has created a situation where governments aren't accountable to their citizens: since they don't depend on tax revenue, leaders don't think they owe their people anything—and the people don't expect anything from their leaders...

Furthermore, aid stamps out entrepreneurship... We have centuries of evidence that [capitalism] generates wealth and delivers jobs, and yet here we are after one bad year and we're ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater...

I think the whole aid model is couched in pity [rather than] logic and evidence... [the] whole rationale for giving more aid to Africa is not couched in logic or evidence; it's based largely on emotion and pity...

In Madagascar, some aid money had been cut and the government was not investing in the domestic citizenry or even paying the army. So the army staged a coup...

A friend of mine had a great quote: "Africa is to the development industry what Mars is to NASA."... The Chinese have created jobs; they've built roads. The West has failed to do that in sixty years in Africa...

Aside from the corrupt leaders, aid supports over five hundred thousand people (mainly in the West) working in the aid industry and virtually none of it reaches the people for whom it was intended."


This is another tragic tale of what happens when you think with your heart instead of your head.


Comment elsewhere:

"[No Western politicians or Economists] draw an outright battle line between logic and pity. Oh, there are plenty of demagogues who claim the evidence is on their side, but they won't be so outright condemning  of emotion... Moyo says she's gotten a better reception in Africa than in the West.  Maybe you need to see your whole continent wrecked by emotion and pity before "logic and evidence" start to sound appealing."

"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels." - Bob Thaves

***

Kyoto protest beaten back by inflamed petrol traders - "Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in the City near Tower Bridge on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force... Protesters conceded that mounting the operation after lunch may not have been the best plan. “The violence was instant,” Jon Beresford, 39, an electrical engineer from Nottingham, said. “They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.”... “They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the pavement.”"

AXED GALS TAKE POLE POSITIONS - "The economy's gone bust, and so have they. Scores of professional New York women stripped of their six-figure jobs are now working as "gentlemen's club entertainers" at upscale Manhattan jiggle joints. Former Wall Streeters, fashion executives and real-estate agents are pole dancing and stripping for as much as $1,500 a night -- but also because they like the flexible hours... "These places give men hope," Langdan said. "Even in the worst of times, for us it's the breast of times.""

Chinese Word List - CantoDict - "CantoDict v1.3.16 is a collaborative Chinese Dictionary project started in November 2003. Entries are added and mistakes corrected by a team of kind volunteers from around the world."

Bouncers face charges in beating of patron at Muskego bar - "The bouncers held his arms, kicked Hummer in the side and struck him in the face. The bouncers then picked up Hummer, already bloody and bruised, pushed him toward the door and then outside and to the ground. As he fell, Hummer's head struck a jagged stone pillar... The bartender told police he asked the bouncers to remove the men from the bar because Hummer refused to put a coaster under his beer, the report says."

The Straight Dope: Can playing the bongos make you piss blood? - "Music is a brutal business, James: String and keyboard players can suffer from focal dystonia. Saxophone and clarinet players develop disorders of the temporomandibular joint. At least one guitarist, Terry Balsamo of the metal act Evanescence, apparently gave himself a stroke by head-banging onstage. And hand drummers risk rhabdomyolysis, the disorder you refer to. Typically it's not blood they're seeing in their urine, though — it's muscle."

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink - "• Newspaper to be available only on messaging service
• Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters
Currently, 17.8% of all Twitter traffic in the United Kingdom consists of status updates from Stephen Fry, whose reliably jolly tone, whether trapped in a lift or eating a scrumptious tart, has won him thousands of fans. A further 11% is made up of his 363,000 followers replying "@stephenfry LOL!", "@stephenfry EXACTLY the same thing happened to me", and "@stephenfry Meanwhile, I am making myself an omelette! Delicious!""

Paid to do it, but fails to make his friend’s wife pregnant after 72 Attempts - "When Traute failed to get pregnant after six months, however, Soupolos was not understanding and insisted that Maus have a medical examination, which he did. The doctor’s announcement that Maus was also sterile shocked everyone except his wife, who was forced to confess that Maus was not the real father of their two children."

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center - "Languages are categorized from I (easiest) to IV (hardest), based on the difficulty native speakers of American English may have in learning a foreign language... Category I: English, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), and Spanish
Category II: German, Romanian (DLPT III)
Category III: Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Persian-Farsi, Polish, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
Category IV: Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean"

"This is a joke, isn't it?" My Ex-Nazi Father's Reaction to Fox News - ""You mean this is an actual news show? Not satire?" My father obviously thought I was pulling his leg.
"No, it's not satire. Why are you asking?" I said.
"Because all you have to do is change a few adjectives, and it's Nazi talk.""

Akihabara Cafe: Miko-san Cafe - "In Akihabara, the Miko-san also have a new duty. To perform popular JPop songs, while serving you fruit juice and rice balls. The Miko-san Cafe has opened on Chuo Street, near Dragon Ice Cream for those of you actually in Japan. Their traditional Shrine attire has received a makeover… well really it was just raised like 2 feet turning it into almost a mini-skirt."
Damn Japs.

Five hurt as mop-wielding woman runs amok - "One report claimed she was laughing uncontrollably as she struck an elderly woman several times during her 30-minute spree."
This was posted on April Fool's but it seems genuine enough.

The Women's Movement - "Cooking a meal could only be "dogwork," and to claim any pleasure from it was evidence of craven acquiescence in one's own forced labor. Small children could only be odious mechanisms for the spilling and digesting of food, for robbing women of their "freedom." It was a long way from Simone de Beauvoir's grave and awesome recognition of woman's role as "the Other" to the notion that the first step in changing that role was Alix Kates Shulman's marriage contract ("wife strips beds, husband remakes them") reproduced in Ms; but it was toward just such trivialization that the women's movement seemed to be heading... This ubiquitous construct was everyone's victim but her own. She was persecuted even by her gynecologist, who made her beg in vain for contraceptives. She particularly needed contraceptives because she was raped on every date, raped by her husband, and raped finally on the abortionist's table... Increasingly it seemed that the aversion was to adult sexual life itself: how much cleaner to stay forever children... I suspect, that the women's movement is no longer a cause but a symptom."

Virgin Atlantic cabin crew ad 'is sexist and offensive to women', claim viewers - "Today the advertising watchdog dismissed complaints that the TV ad is sexist and offensive to women. The ASA has decided that there were no grounds for a formal investigation and said that it 'considered that the ad was unlikely to be seen as sexist or derogatory towards women or to cause serious or widespread offence.' The advert plays upon stereo types of advertising in the 1980s when Virgin Atlantic was first launched."

"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Anonymous

***

A case not so different from what you find in some religious texts (as the people quoted here agree):

Death Opens Doors on Group

"Answering to a leader called Queen Antoinette, they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say "Amen" at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed in Philadelphia, where it remained for a year before detectives found it last spring...

Ramkissoon, 22, has agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge on one condition: The charges against her must be dropped if her son, Javon Thompson, is resurrected.

Psychiatrists who evaluated Ramkissoon at the request of a judge concluded that she was not criminally insane. Her attorney, Steven Silverman, said the doctors found that her beliefs were indistinguishable from religious beliefs, in part because they were shared by those around her.

"She wasn't delusional, because she was following a religion," Silverman said, describing the findings of the doctors' psychiatric evaluation...

Although an inability to think critically can be a sign of brainwashing, experts said, the line between that and some religious beliefs can be difficult to discern.

"At times there can be an overlap between extreme religious conviction and delusion," said Robert Jay Lifton, a cult expert and psychiatrist who lectures at Harvard Medical School. "It's a difficult area for psychiatry and the legal system."...

According to charging documents, in December 2006, Javon stopped saying "Amen" at mealtimes. Queen Antoinette told members the boy had developed a demonic spirit and needed to be cleansed through fasting and by being denied water, law enforcement officials said...

The group came to believe there had been no resurrection because someone among them was not a true believer, according to an attorney for one of the other defendants, Marcus Cobbs. With that person no longer part of the group, they headed north out of Baltimore with the suitcase, believing Javon could be raised at a future date, according to Cobbs's attorney, Maureen Rowland."


If you talk to God, you're religious.
If God talks to you, you're psychotic

"Now, in reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are." - Henry Fielding

***

From the hilarious (for so many reasons, but now-deleted) CNA forum thread: GOVT SHOULD BAN "THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST"


Huatuatua: I have never started a thread here, but I feel anger and compelled to write about this. Let me explain.

My daughter and her Junior College schoolmates (male and females) attended the play "The importance of being earnest" by Glenn Goei and Ivan Heng (the two well known effeminate threatre actors.) At first I was uncertain to let her go, but since she and her schoolmates wanted to get some ideas for her drama plays, I decided to let her, especially after I saw it featured on Prime Time Morning Show on Channel News Asia.
What she told me after the play shocked me.

The play has male actors playing the roles of females but dressing in Men's suits. There were enough compromising scenes among the male actors to suggest that this is a play meant for the gays! But this is not more disgusting part.

What she saw, was youngsters, males youngsters, dressing up effeminately, and in droves, attending the shows. They were holding hands (yes males holding hands) openly and even embacing each in whatever spots. Her male schoolmates even saw some kissing scenes in the male toilets!!

This is rtaher disgusting. I felt that this is a play that is solely targeted for gay gathering and should not be allowed for public viewing. It should be a close door event, with school children banned from the show..

Since our dear PM has endorsed the gay movement in singapore, these people are getting bolder and bolder. Please be careful with your children attending such shows!!

Alot of parents really don't know what their children are doing outside in the public!! You got to stop your children from being gay as early as possible. Not all children are born gay, many are influenced by their gay peers. Many are influenced by what they saw outside. If they think that males holding hands with males, or males embacing males are okay, they will think it is a okay trend and do likewise. Evenutally they will become gay.

No wonder 35 percent of the males do not want to get married!!!

desert moon: Morals are sure degrading fast in Singapore, thats for sure. Even the PM was dragged down.

samseng: Screw all the chow ah Kuas. If brave, show your face, name, ic, address publicly, Why must always hide behind closed doors?

Joshing: Don't need to hide. I hope you will have a lesbian daughter or a gay son. You can screw them yourself at home and hide behind the closed doors.

schroeder: There were no “compromising scenes” – in fact, there was nothing more “compromising” than a peck on the cheek!

As for the event being “disgusting”, I don’t recall observing any young couples in the audience being publicly affectionate. I also used the male toilet during the intermission and after the play, and I’m sure I didn’t see any kissing there.

Mei Mui Bee: Huatuatua made ths post only to annoy people.
Thats why you can find it 11 times here:

What she saw, was youngsters, males youngsters, dressing up effeminately, and in droves, attending the shows.
Guess you have never watched the Rocky Horror Picture show.

They were holding hands (yes males holding hands) openly and even embacing each in whatever spots.
Go to little India and you can see that every Saturday and Sunday. No they are no gays, they are Banglas doing that.
Besides girls also ofetn hold hands or hug....girls can and guys can not?

dressing up effeminately, and in droves, attending the shows.
It cant be that so many are suddenly gay. That would defy any statistics.

Huatuatua: I annoy people? Only the gays will think that way!!! If you are so confident about your views, why asked the Admin to remove the remarks and comments made by non-gays??!!

I got the right to inform normal parents, what is happening in such plays! That they should be careful that their normal children would not be recruited into this "special community". I got the same right as you gay people. Period.

Mei Mui Bee: Well, if you dont call it annoying to make 11 times the same post.
Thats reckless...

You can start worrying about gay or not when your kids are mid 20ies and then they still display strange behaviour.
Some theatre piece make no one gay.

little_gecko: Btw, watching a gay play does not make one gay. If that is possible, gays can watch a normal play and become normal people too, rite? Kaoz, that's not how things work...

I did not feel uncomfortable, It is my daughter and her schoolmates who felt uncomfortable. The play would have been good if they get the females to play as females. What is so difficult?

Even back in the olden days, whether the Japanese Kabuki or Shakespearean plays, no females were allowed and males played the roles of females. So what good old fashion values are you promoting?? Shocked

This is my favourite comment:
trucky: 1) Unlike you've suggested, The Importance of Being Earnest is NOT a 'gay' play. In fact it is an approved 'O' level literature text that has been studied by millions of people over the years. And for this production, the actors are NOT playing female roles. The roles have been MODIFIED for an all-male cast. Therefore there are references to homosexuality but the play does not promote homosexuality. (Fallacy of division: Part of it containing 'gay' content does not make the whole of it a 'gay' play)

2) I went to watch Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (a Wild Rice musical) last December. They stage annual musicals targeted for children and the family (hence fairy tales as storylines). The musical contains ZERO content suggesting homosexuality. But among audiences I saw grown men wearing pink shirts, holding hands and acting effeminately. Does this mean we have to ban children from watching theatre with such audiences? Or do we have to ban supposed-gays from enjoying theatre so that our 'normal' children can enjoy plays? Or even better, ban men from wearing pink and force every male in our society to be burly and muscular to suggest they are 'normal' men?

...

4) Clearly you are against the play simply because you fear that the younger generation (whose sexual identities are supposedly not fully-formed) will be influenced by its 'gay' agenda(s). However I'm quite sure that no 'normal' student will turn 'gay' because of a play. Students are more easily influenced by real people (ie. friends and family) than fictional characters. I watched tons of children's TV shows growing up. But I do not have pink slime for lunch just because the Teletubbies do. Neither do I talk to goldfish or dye my hair red because Elmo has such characteristics.
[Ed: Emphasis mine. This can also be used to counter feminist (or other Progressive) nonsense. See also Bratz Dolls May Give Young Girls Unrealistic Expectations Of Head Size]

... We won't be influenced or compelled to become a homosexual because of a play. If students were really that easily influenced, there would be no teen-smokers nor teen pregnancies!

(For the record, I am a girl, and I am straight. So no 'gay' accusations!)

samseng: joshing chow ah kua, you are losing the plot already. All the ah Kuas are the same. Lose only, use threats, curse people. You see that in Bangkok, you heard that in Orchard Tower. Why don't you do like one of those Shakespearean heros, go take a knife and plunge it into your heart? That would be very stylo.

Joshing: Losing? You mean there's a prize for winning?

If you win, do you get $10million SGD from me or the ah kua association?

rainbow 999: Too many beliefs is not the point
Just like COE, ERP, Road tax, Fuel tax, Insurance
Just fancy names which serve only One purpose
We are being imposed by some exceptional indivualds

No need to understand why or know why
Sun always up from the east
Just need to know these are exceptional perverts
which are the toxic asset of economic growth

i passed my PSLE english: Please stop discussing this type of sensitive topic here, we're a multi-racial and multi-religious society here. There're people of all faiths here including Muslims. Homosexuals is disallowed in Islam.

STOP talking nonsense in this forum regarding Ah Quas. Period.


MFTTW on the above: WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

you should start a new tag for your blogposts
"Singaporeans are full of shit"