"I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true." - Carl Sagan
***
PETA’s Pet Killing Program Set a New Record in 2009 | PetaKillsAnimals.com - "During all of 2009, PETA found adoptive homes for just eight pets. Just eight animals -- out of the 2,366 it took in. PETA just broke its own record... PETA has a $33 million annual budget. But instead of investing in the lives of the thousands of flesh and blood creatures in its care, the group spends millions on media campaigns telling Americans that eating meat, drinking milk, fishing, hunting, wearing leather shoes, and benefiting from medical research performed on lab rats are all “unethical”... The Virginia Beach SPCA, just down the road from PETA’s Norfolk headquarters, manages to adopt out the vast majority of the animals in its care. And it does it on a shoestring budget"
9 Reasons Men are Jealous of Women - "More Life Choices: "Women in my company regularly opt to go part-time or quit when they go back to school, marry or become mothers," says Bradley, an accountant. "Yes, they may not get ahead as quickly as their male colleagues, but they can lead fuller lives and nearly everyone understands. For a guy, it’s up or out. In most companies, even in the P.C. times, if a man decides not to advance he’s considered lazy, a non-go-getter""
Why are so many girls lesbian or bisexual? - "Psychologist John Buss estimates that for most of human history, perhaps 2% of women have been lesbian or bisexual (see note 1, below). Not any more. Recent surveys of teenage girls and young women find that roughly 15% of young females today self-identify as lesbian or bisexual, compared with about 5% of young males who identify as gay or bisexual... Female sexuality is different from male sexuality. If a straight boy kissed another boy, perhaps to amuse some girls who might be watching, he would be unlikely to undergo a change in sexual orientation as a result. But, as Professor Roy Baumeister at Florida State University and others have shown, sexual attraction in many women seems to be more malleable"
Incidentally, the author calls guys losers. Naturally, that's fine, as long as you don't say anything ba about women.
Would You Interrupt Sex to Tweet? - "7% said they'd even check a message during an intimate moment. Eleven percent of those under the age of 25 would interrupt sex for a message"
Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School? - "A Harvard economist named Roland Fryer Jr. did something education researchers almost never do: he ran a randomized experiment in hundreds of classrooms in multiple cities. He used mostly private money to pay 18,000 kids a total of $6.3 million and brought in a team of researchers to help him analyze the effects. He got death threats, but he carried on... "Kids should learn for the love of learning," he says. "But they're not. So what shall we do?"... Maybe one day we will all approach our jobs that way. But until then, most adults work primarily for money, and in a curious way, we seem to be holding kids to a higher standard than we hold ourselves... "If you pay a kid to read books, their grades go up higher than if you actually pay a kid for grades"... Kids may respond better to rewards for specific actions because there is less risk of failure. They can control their attendance; they cannot necessarily control their test scores"
Ahh, entrenched interests!
Women "lie, cheat and steal" - "HALF of all women would lie to their husbands or partners to keep their relationship going if they became pregnant by another man... 42% would lie about contraception in order to get pregnant, in spite of the wishes of their partner... The favourite fib told by women was "Of course you don't look fat" with "These shoes were only '10" in second place. One bizarre finding was that a third of women (33%) said they would stay with their husband if they found out he was a "secret transvestite", but only half that number (17%) would put up with him if he refused to wash... "To tell a man a baby is his when it's not or to deliberately get pregnant when your partner doesn't want a baby is playing Russian roulette with other people's lives." Eight out of ten women (83%) admit to telling "big, life-changing lies", with 13% saying they do so frequently... An alarming 31% of all women say they would not tell a future partner if they had a sexual disease. This rises for 65% for single women. Nearly half (46%) fake orgasms and more than half (55%) claim they are tired, have a headache, or feel ill to "get out of lovemaking"... Most women (68%) do not trust their partner"
Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited - "A team of psychologists directly measured genital arousal patterns in response to images of men and women. The psychologists found that men who identified themselves as bisexual were in fact exclusively aroused by either one sex or the other, usually by other men... Bisexuality appears easier to demonstrate in the female sex... most women who said they were bisexual showed arousal to men and to women... Dr. Diamond recruited a group of 90 women at gay pride parades, academic conferences on gender issues and other venues. About half of the women called themselves lesbians, a third identified as bisexual and the rest claimed no sexual orientation. In follow-up interviews over the last 10 years, Dr. Diamond has found that most of these women have had relationships both with men and women"
SuicideGirls, The most expensive meal you will ever eat is... - "The most expensive meal you will ever eat is pussy."
Princess Syndrome Causes, Symptoms, And Treatment - "Use them for sex or ignore them. You may think you’re being mean by using them for sex, but they’re using you to make themselves feel wanted and to cure their insecurities. Females with princess syndrome are whores, they love to be degraded, that’s why these type of girls never go for the nice guys, they want some asshole guido douchebag. Nice guys are the ones that pamper them, so at the end of they day all they want to do is get fucked and call you their daddy."
Lucky Man Marries Thai Twins! - "Mr Wichai, just yesterday, 23 March, got married in pompous ceremony to both twins simultaneously. On being interviewed by the Thai Rath reporters, Mr Wichai declared wholeheartedly, that he didn’t see much problem in having to perform tiresome marital duties with two wives... Both families celebrated the marriage with joy and were said to be delighted for the threesome... 'I would walk past their house each morning and try to decide for myself which one I fancied more, but it was darned impossible – I adored BOTH of them'... The fortunate Mr Wichai, instead of getting a slap in the face, was overjoyed when both girls admitted to having sworn all along, that they wished to marry the same man!... 'For the first three nights of the week, I will sleep with Ms Thipawan and the next three will be spent with Ms Sirintara. As for every Saturday, the three of us will sleep together'"
L'origine de Bert
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Les citations - le 15 avril 2010
"Language is the source of misunderstandings." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
***
She's going to do things with - Je suis choqué
[On a picture of a guy in a car speeding towards a tree] He's stealing the car. [Teacher: After economics you should study psychology]
[Me: Je suis malade] Because of women, right?
[On handphone use] ***, are you planning my assassination? Very suspicious.
[Student: The writing part, will it be the same as before?] How much are you willing to pay?... As you know, I am the only teacher at Alliance that you can bribe [Student 2: Whatever it takes] [Student 3: Do you accept cards?] [Student 4: I will cancel the assassination]
[On a test] Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept victimes potentielles. Parfait.
The last letter you will ever write to your friends and family. We are so considerate at Alliance, as you can see.
[On a proposed bribe] $5 I hardly pay my char kway teow (can hardly pay for)
[On the test] For the rest, I recommend you to revise - everything (that you) [Student: Especially what?] Especially everything
[On the test] You will suffer. And I will enjoy as much as you suffer (your suffering)
[On his narration of a passage from the CD] Is it better? Is it worse? The same? [Student: Worse] I'm sorry for my bad French accent
[On speaking in whole sentences] I prefer when you waste more saliva and say the whole sentence.
En général, les singapouriens préferent habiter dans des maisons ou dans des appartements ? ... Et les français ? [Student: Chateau] Non
[Student: On l'achète ou pas ?] Be careful. Because what you said was 'We kill it or not?' or 'We kill him or her or not?'
Protestation ? [Student: Can we do it after the break?] You're being very French
[Teacher: R-a-n-g-e-r] Can you spell that in English? [Student 2: Ranger]
[Me: Je suis malade encore] Pourquoi tu es malade? [Me: Je ne sais pas] Les femmes. Les femmes.
I'm sure you're lying. We have a new device at Alliance. Le polygraphe.
Metz est infâme. C'est horrible... Il fait froid... Paysages... The best you can do in Metz is to leave the city as soon as possible
[Teacher: Tu préfère habiter en ville ou à la campagne ?]... [Me: À la campagne... Parce que - le CAP... Common Agricultural Policy... The farmers get a lot of money] Are you having a fever?
[Student on a video zooming in on scenery: Can like that ah?] It's not me. It's the TV. We are not that advanced at Alliance.
[Student on identifying a weird object on the TV screen: Chateau]... [Me: Lamppost?] Why not a Merlion?
[Concernant 2 vieux hommes] Qui est le plus sexy?
[Professeur: Quel casquette ?] Une casquette rose. Je ne suis pas gai.
[On describing a video but not talking about pants] According to you those guys wear no pants [Me: We can't see the pants] [Student: Peut-être] New fashion
Tu est chaud ? [Male student: Non] Pas encore
[Me: Il est un homme blanc] Ah. A white man. You mean 'ang moh' right?... Occidental... Caucasian... It reminds us of prehistory
[Teacher: Elle regarde la fenêtre.] [Me: Elle regarde la fenêtre de la porte] Wah lao
[On Pétanque] This is our mahjong
[[On the French] They have a song for everything, except white suits... Paper on the floor [has a song too]
[Me on an Alliance event: There's free wine and cheese. Who pays for this?] Us.
They are not on top of the car. You are not in Mexico here.
What did you say ***? I heard 'shit' [Student: 'Yay'] [Student 2: He said it in Chinese] I can see that my Chinese is going to improve
[Moi, concernant les questions à poser aux Parisiens: Détestez-vous les Anglais ?] C'est une très bonne idée
[Me practising asking each other questions: Quel est votre âge ?] Of course you can invent. I prefer old people. For you to practise your numbers.
[Teacher: Poser une question.] [Student: Bonjour] Bonjour. [Student: Ça va ?] Ça va. [Student: C'est fini]
Où habitez-vous à Paris? [Student: Un chateau]... Vous habitez à Notre Dame ? 'Je suis riche'
[On an 'ordeal'] The first 10 minutes I thought she was speaking Italian
[On an 'ordeal'] I didn't know what was sujet until the break. I thought it was a country... Who is 'sujet'?
Je suis polonais. Polonaise.
[Student: Je ne chômage pas] Je ne chômage pas ? Je ne chômage pas ? Je ne chômage pas ? [Student: Je ne suis chômage] Do you want more homework?
[On Britanny] This is the exception. It is the only region without cheese
[Teacher on a hexagon on the board: Ça, que c'est ?] La France. Exactement.
[Concernant Bretagne] [Si] vous adorez la pluie... [n'est pas de soleil,] c'est la destination parfaite
Paris, c'est pas exactement la France... Orchard, c'est pas exactement Singapour
[Professeur: Quel est le taux de chômage en France, en ce moment?] Cent pourcent
[On silence in class] Do you understand me? I don't hear anything.
[Moi: Une femme qui a 29 ans, c'est une 'fille'?] Oui. 30 ans - *secouant la tête*
[Doing a Jeopardy style exercise] 'Malo, Malo Declas' [Me: Je m'appelle Bond, James Bond]
[Professeur: Guyone est très important pour France, et Europe.] Fromage ? [Professeur: Totalement différent.]
[On ceux] In order to explain that, I will need a few handphones please. [Student: *keeps his*]
[On 120 Days of Sodom, The Movie] It's banned here? It's on TV in Poland. Much later. After the news. After the kids' stuff.
Une question un peu inquisitive - *Girl's name*, combien de paires de chausseures as-tu ? [Me: Haven't you asked us that before? Yes, but she was not here
Gabriel? [Me: Ça m'est t'égal] You don't care. Sorry to the question.
Les tatouages. You just don't understand because it is an English word pronounced by the French.
[Me: Le style nu ?]... ***. Il est le style nu ?... [Student: Peut-être pour toi] (lui)
Le style singapourien. Le short. Le t-shirt. Les sandales... I'm not criticising. I'm describing.
Je porte un jean... Un jean jean (bleu)
Vous allez décrire un collègue... Not me, otherwise I'm going to blush.
[On the exercise] Let's write about him. 'Il n'est pas sympa'
[Student: La personne est très gentil. Et son français est très bien.] It's me? You're not supposed to describe the teacher
[On her tudung] ***, je pense que ses cheveux sont rouges, non ? [Student: Peut-être] Les cheveux verts à lundi.
[Student: La personne porte un t-shirt orange...] Guantanamo colours style.
[On why there is no Mandarin onomatopoeia for a cock's crow] They don't have time to make the sound before they are eaten
'Available'. It's not a French word. ***, tu es available ce soir?... 'Busy'. New French word. [Me: C'est anglicisme]
[On il a arrivé] Utilisez avoir, c'est inacceptable. You saw that 8 months ago [Me: That's why we forgot] Une bonne justification
Une action ou une situation ? [Student: Situation] Donc. Donc. Donc. Donc. Donc. [Student: L'imparfait] Merci.
[On the last lesson] I think we should start today with a test [Student: Let's have a party instead] It will be an unforgettable experience. I want you to be marked forever
How did you know it [aller] was an exception [in the conditional]? [Teacher: Because he studied] [Student in question: I guessed]
[Student: Je venirai] Ce, c'est espagnol. N'est pas français
*** [Student: Yes?] You're allowed to say 'oui'
Quelle est ta profession idéale ? [Me: Je voudrais séduire des femmes et prendre ses d'argents] (argents)
Quel est ton rêve ? [Student: Je n'ai pas de rêve] I'm going to cry... [Student 2: Je voudrais rencontrer Lady Gaga]
Quelles sont ses préoccupations ? [Student 1: Tigres indes] [Student 2: Crocodiles en afrique] (indiens)
[On someone's pronunciation] 'Je n'ai pas d'argent'. I heard 'I do not have a joint of marijuana'
[Me: Femme de ménage ?]... [Teacher: Cleaning lady] You pervert [Me: What?!]
[Moi: Je voyagerais à Côte d'Ivoire] Pour parler français ? [Moi: Pour trouver les diamants]... [Pour donner à] les femmes ? [Moi: Je n'ai pas de femme dans ma vie] [Tu peux les chercher] en Côte d'Ivoire [Moi: Les femmes en Côte d'Ivoire ont les diamants encore] [Pas toutes les femmes] (en, ont déjà les diamants)
[Me: Killer litter] For cats?
C'est mon appartement. C'est ma chein [Student: *kicks*] Non !
[Student on a drawing of her house plan: Vous habitez seule ?] J'habite avec ma sœur. [Me: Mais il y a 3 lits] I have 2 sisters.
80% des personnes habitent à HDB. Où habitent 20% des personnes autres ? [Student 1: Dans la rue] [Student 2: Officialement, il n'y a pas des personnes sans habite]
À Singapour, il y a plus de sacs de Louis Vuitton qu'il y a 10 ans
Utilisez trois phrases... 'C'est une ville aussi agréable que Vladivostok' [Me: What city don't you like?] [Student: KL lah]
Get a French girlfriend lah. Then you can practise everyday. Sweet nothings.
Life would not be fun without exceptions.
Les stéréotypes de la France ? [Moi: Les français boivent du vin tous les jours ?] Ce n'est pas stéréotype. C'est vrai.
Pour devenir électri'chien [Professeur: électricien]
[Pour donner les conseils] 'Pour trouver un travail, ce n'était pas facile. Je n'avais pas de diplôme' [Moi: J'ai marié un acteur célèbre] (je me suis mariée)
Passé composé ou l'imparfait?... 'That's how everything started' [Student: Oh] English! Yay!
[On a job interview] Vous parlez français aussi ? [Student: Un peu] You have to lie
[On interviewing as a secretary] Que'est-ce qui vous aimez?... [Me: J'aime faire du café]
[Concernant le travail] J'aime bien commencer très tôt et finir très tôt [Moi: J'aime bien commencer très tard et finir très tôt]
[On Medishield] You can't take it out until you die
I [will] drill you until you ingest and digest the mechanism (memorise)
Je suis pas du tout de féministe... Are there many feminists in Singapore? The Charter is pretty strong... In France the kids go half-half. In France it was like this [like Singapore] 15 years ago. Now the guys are speaking up for their rights.
***
She's going to do things with - Je suis choqué
[On a picture of a guy in a car speeding towards a tree] He's stealing the car. [Teacher: After economics you should study psychology]
[Me: Je suis malade] Because of women, right?
[On handphone use] ***, are you planning my assassination? Very suspicious.
[Student: The writing part, will it be the same as before?] How much are you willing to pay?... As you know, I am the only teacher at Alliance that you can bribe [Student 2: Whatever it takes] [Student 3: Do you accept cards?] [Student 4: I will cancel the assassination]
[On a test] Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept victimes potentielles. Parfait.
The last letter you will ever write to your friends and family. We are so considerate at Alliance, as you can see.
[On a proposed bribe] $5 I hardly pay my char kway teow (can hardly pay for)
[On the test] For the rest, I recommend you to revise - everything (that you) [Student: Especially what?] Especially everything
[On the test] You will suffer. And I will enjoy as much as you suffer (your suffering)
[On his narration of a passage from the CD] Is it better? Is it worse? The same? [Student: Worse] I'm sorry for my bad French accent
[On speaking in whole sentences] I prefer when you waste more saliva and say the whole sentence.
En général, les singapouriens préferent habiter dans des maisons ou dans des appartements ? ... Et les français ? [Student: Chateau] Non
[Student: On l'achète ou pas ?] Be careful. Because what you said was 'We kill it or not?' or 'We kill him or her or not?'
Protestation ? [Student: Can we do it after the break?] You're being very French
[Teacher: R-a-n-g-e-r] Can you spell that in English? [Student 2: Ranger]
[Me: Je suis malade encore] Pourquoi tu es malade? [Me: Je ne sais pas] Les femmes. Les femmes.
I'm sure you're lying. We have a new device at Alliance. Le polygraphe.
Metz est infâme. C'est horrible... Il fait froid... Paysages... The best you can do in Metz is to leave the city as soon as possible
[Teacher: Tu préfère habiter en ville ou à la campagne ?]... [Me: À la campagne... Parce que - le CAP... Common Agricultural Policy... The farmers get a lot of money] Are you having a fever?
[Student on a video zooming in on scenery: Can like that ah?] It's not me. It's the TV. We are not that advanced at Alliance.
[Student on identifying a weird object on the TV screen: Chateau]... [Me: Lamppost?] Why not a Merlion?
[Concernant 2 vieux hommes] Qui est le plus sexy?
[Professeur: Quel casquette ?] Une casquette rose. Je ne suis pas gai.
[On describing a video but not talking about pants] According to you those guys wear no pants [Me: We can't see the pants] [Student: Peut-être] New fashion
Tu est chaud ? [Male student: Non] Pas encore
[Me: Il est un homme blanc] Ah. A white man. You mean 'ang moh' right?... Occidental... Caucasian... It reminds us of prehistory
[Teacher: Elle regarde la fenêtre.] [Me: Elle regarde la fenêtre de la porte] Wah lao
[On Pétanque] This is our mahjong
[[On the French] They have a song for everything, except white suits... Paper on the floor [has a song too]
[Me on an Alliance event: There's free wine and cheese. Who pays for this?] Us.
They are not on top of the car. You are not in Mexico here.
What did you say ***? I heard 'shit' [Student: 'Yay'] [Student 2: He said it in Chinese] I can see that my Chinese is going to improve
[Moi, concernant les questions à poser aux Parisiens: Détestez-vous les Anglais ?] C'est une très bonne idée
[Me practising asking each other questions: Quel est votre âge ?] Of course you can invent. I prefer old people. For you to practise your numbers.
[Teacher: Poser une question.] [Student: Bonjour] Bonjour. [Student: Ça va ?] Ça va. [Student: C'est fini]
Où habitez-vous à Paris? [Student: Un chateau]... Vous habitez à Notre Dame ? 'Je suis riche'
[On an 'ordeal'] The first 10 minutes I thought she was speaking Italian
[On an 'ordeal'] I didn't know what was sujet until the break. I thought it was a country... Who is 'sujet'?
Je suis polonais. Polonaise.
[Student: Je ne chômage pas] Je ne chômage pas ? Je ne chômage pas ? Je ne chômage pas ? [Student: Je ne suis chômage] Do you want more homework?
[On Britanny] This is the exception. It is the only region without cheese
[Teacher on a hexagon on the board: Ça, que c'est ?] La France. Exactement.
[Concernant Bretagne] [Si] vous adorez la pluie... [n'est pas de soleil,] c'est la destination parfaite
Paris, c'est pas exactement la France... Orchard, c'est pas exactement Singapour
[Professeur: Quel est le taux de chômage en France, en ce moment?] Cent pourcent
[On silence in class] Do you understand me? I don't hear anything.
[Moi: Une femme qui a 29 ans, c'est une 'fille'?] Oui. 30 ans - *secouant la tête*
[Doing a Jeopardy style exercise] 'Malo, Malo Declas' [Me: Je m'appelle Bond, James Bond]
[Professeur: Guyone est très important pour France, et Europe.] Fromage ? [Professeur: Totalement différent.]
[On ceux] In order to explain that, I will need a few handphones please. [Student: *keeps his*]
[On 120 Days of Sodom, The Movie] It's banned here? It's on TV in Poland. Much later. After the news. After the kids' stuff.
Une question un peu inquisitive - *Girl's name*, combien de paires de chausseures as-tu ? [Me: Haven't you asked us that before? Yes, but she was not here
Gabriel? [Me: Ça m'est t'égal] You don't care. Sorry to the question.
Les tatouages. You just don't understand because it is an English word pronounced by the French.
[Me: Le style nu ?]... ***. Il est le style nu ?... [Student: Peut-être pour toi] (lui)
Le style singapourien. Le short. Le t-shirt. Les sandales... I'm not criticising. I'm describing.
Je porte un jean... Un jean jean (bleu)
Vous allez décrire un collègue... Not me, otherwise I'm going to blush.
[On the exercise] Let's write about him. 'Il n'est pas sympa'
[Student: La personne est très gentil. Et son français est très bien.] It's me? You're not supposed to describe the teacher
[On her tudung] ***, je pense que ses cheveux sont rouges, non ? [Student: Peut-être] Les cheveux verts à lundi.
[Student: La personne porte un t-shirt orange...] Guantanamo colours style.
[On why there is no Mandarin onomatopoeia for a cock's crow] They don't have time to make the sound before they are eaten
'Available'. It's not a French word. ***, tu es available ce soir?... 'Busy'. New French word. [Me: C'est anglicisme]
[On il a arrivé] Utilisez avoir, c'est inacceptable. You saw that 8 months ago [Me: That's why we forgot] Une bonne justification
Une action ou une situation ? [Student: Situation] Donc. Donc. Donc. Donc. Donc. [Student: L'imparfait] Merci.
[On the last lesson] I think we should start today with a test [Student: Let's have a party instead] It will be an unforgettable experience. I want you to be marked forever
How did you know it [aller] was an exception [in the conditional]? [Teacher: Because he studied] [Student in question: I guessed]
[Student: Je venirai] Ce, c'est espagnol. N'est pas français
*** [Student: Yes?] You're allowed to say 'oui'
Quelle est ta profession idéale ? [Me: Je voudrais séduire des femmes et prendre ses d'argents] (argents)
Quel est ton rêve ? [Student: Je n'ai pas de rêve] I'm going to cry... [Student 2: Je voudrais rencontrer Lady Gaga]
Quelles sont ses préoccupations ? [Student 1: Tigres indes] [Student 2: Crocodiles en afrique] (indiens)
[On someone's pronunciation] 'Je n'ai pas d'argent'. I heard 'I do not have a joint of marijuana'
[Me: Femme de ménage ?]... [Teacher: Cleaning lady] You pervert [Me: What?!]
[Moi: Je voyagerais à Côte d'Ivoire] Pour parler français ? [Moi: Pour trouver les diamants]... [Pour donner à] les femmes ? [Moi: Je n'ai pas de femme dans ma vie] [Tu peux les chercher] en Côte d'Ivoire [Moi: Les femmes en Côte d'Ivoire ont les diamants encore] [Pas toutes les femmes] (en, ont déjà les diamants)
[Me: Killer litter] For cats?
C'est mon appartement. C'est ma chein [Student: *kicks*] Non !
[Student on a drawing of her house plan: Vous habitez seule ?] J'habite avec ma sœur. [Me: Mais il y a 3 lits] I have 2 sisters.
80% des personnes habitent à HDB. Où habitent 20% des personnes autres ? [Student 1: Dans la rue] [Student 2: Officialement, il n'y a pas des personnes sans habite]
À Singapour, il y a plus de sacs de Louis Vuitton qu'il y a 10 ans
Utilisez trois phrases... 'C'est une ville aussi agréable que Vladivostok' [Me: What city don't you like?] [Student: KL lah]
Get a French girlfriend lah. Then you can practise everyday. Sweet nothings.
Life would not be fun without exceptions.
Les stéréotypes de la France ? [Moi: Les français boivent du vin tous les jours ?] Ce n'est pas stéréotype. C'est vrai.
Pour devenir électri'chien [Professeur: électricien]
[Pour donner les conseils] 'Pour trouver un travail, ce n'était pas facile. Je n'avais pas de diplôme' [Moi: J'ai marié un acteur célèbre] (je me suis mariée)
Passé composé ou l'imparfait?... 'That's how everything started' [Student: Oh] English! Yay!
[On a job interview] Vous parlez français aussi ? [Student: Un peu] You have to lie
[On interviewing as a secretary] Que'est-ce qui vous aimez?... [Me: J'aime faire du café]
[Concernant le travail] J'aime bien commencer très tôt et finir très tôt [Moi: J'aime bien commencer très tard et finir très tôt]
[On Medishield] You can't take it out until you die
I [will] drill you until you ingest and digest the mechanism (memorise)
Je suis pas du tout de féministe... Are there many feminists in Singapore? The Charter is pretty strong... In France the kids go half-half. In France it was like this [like Singapore] 15 years ago. Now the guys are speaking up for their rights.
Post ID: 6263802647847213166
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A ST Forum letter on Singaporean women from 2004
"Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." - Friedrich von Schiller
***
Time to play the 'little woman'
Girls here are smarter, driven but do they better good partners than neighbouring girls?
A FEW weeks back, I was intrigued when two male friends started lambasting the Singapore female and exalting the China girl.
It was not because of the concept of cross-matching across countries. That has been going on for centuries now, and I, being half-Peranakan, should be the last to raise an eyebrow about outsourcing for mates. Rather, it was the mindset of the men that was interesting.
'China girls are so pretty and have lower expectations,' said one. Added the other:
'Singapore girls are too demanding, they have a long list of expectations.'
Each glanced at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to put up an impassioned defence of the hard-to-please Singapore woman.
I half-smiled, waiting for the 'prawn-peeling' issue to surface. This was the mode of conversation I would have expected from 50-year-old single or slighted men, but coming from the mouths of 22-year-old boys with bright futures was a stunning revelation of the mindset of the young Singaporean male.
Either they have no originality or Singapore girls are really too much to handle.
The news of the past two weeks confirmed the latter for me: Young 20-something men going to Bintan for cheap sex; 30-something men going to Vietnam for quick marriages. What is going on here?
I have been to Vietnam, and I love the place. The girls, true to form, are slim, tall and soft-spoken. Every word is punctuated with a smile, even when you are driving a hard bargain with them.
Their speech is melodious, and they work hard without complaining, carrying loads of cloth and vegetables in the market stalls and food places. Simple, gentle and hardworking, it's hard not to fall in love with them.
So too are Malaysian girls. Having friends who are dating these girls, I have observed that they are generally of the 'saccharine' variety. Neither loud nor argumentative, they pander to the boys' needs.
Not as doormats, but as cheerful assistants, who see it as their obligation to help their men without expecting anything in return. Not that they are stupid - oh, no, the Malaysian girls I know are smart and hardworking, with careers of their own.
But when it comes to matters of the heart, they play the docile, giggly girlfriend with as much aplomb as their Viet counterparts.
Again, it's easy to see where their attraction lies.
I cannot comment on the Chinese girls or the girls from Bintan, but I can contrast the Malaysian and Vietnamese girls I know with Singapore girls. We are, generally, extremely driven by ideals and emotions.
In an argument, the Singapore girl is twice as likely as her Malaysian or Vietnamese counterpart to stride away in a huff or throw water on the male's face or hold a public screaming or crying fit.
Not for this girl are soft, barely audible replies. The Singapore girl debates and argues impassionedly. She wants to win at all costs and treats her love conquests like those fought in the office arena.
She may be pretty, yes, smart, yes, but, oh, so demanding.
The Singapore girl, in short, is a challenge to love. Although she may, at the end of the day, be a supportive and faithful spouse, the barbs hiding her soft interior are daunting to the suitor.
She is materialistic, and loves being so. Shopping is a major hobby, and looking good is absolutely essential. The man is but another accessory, a helper, chauffeur, bag carrier.
Her girlfriends egg her on, smiling at one friend as her boyfriend picks her up after class each day and cheering the girl who unceremoniously dumps her cheating boyfriend in the middle of the road.
Girl power, we think unanimously. We are not going to be one of those docile wives who nod their heads and cook for you at the slightest command. We are not going to have wool pulled over our eyes by your romantic nonsense. No way. We are women of the new age, liberal, free and... single?
Somehow the whole idea of women's liberation in Singapore seems to have come at the expense of our love lives. We have assimilated Western role models of strong women without taking into account the men that are alongside us.
I have no answers, short of comforting Singapore women with the fact that pets make quite good companions.
However, for the sake of government procreation policies, I think it's imperative that a compromise be struck between the Singapore woman and man, before the Singapore born and bred woman becomes a relic of the past.
I remember an interview years ago in which a prominent local host, very much an image of the career-driven Singapore woman, said that with her then boyfriend, she played the role of the 'little woman'. Perhaps therein lies the secret weapon that Singapore women need to cultivate: a softer un-barbed personality for matters of the heart.
Wong Mei Xuan (Miss)
Straits Times
Oct 23, 2004
***
Time to play the 'little woman'
Girls here are smarter, driven but do they better good partners than neighbouring girls?
A FEW weeks back, I was intrigued when two male friends started lambasting the Singapore female and exalting the China girl.
It was not because of the concept of cross-matching across countries. That has been going on for centuries now, and I, being half-Peranakan, should be the last to raise an eyebrow about outsourcing for mates. Rather, it was the mindset of the men that was interesting.
'China girls are so pretty and have lower expectations,' said one. Added the other:
'Singapore girls are too demanding, they have a long list of expectations.'
Each glanced at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to put up an impassioned defence of the hard-to-please Singapore woman.
I half-smiled, waiting for the 'prawn-peeling' issue to surface. This was the mode of conversation I would have expected from 50-year-old single or slighted men, but coming from the mouths of 22-year-old boys with bright futures was a stunning revelation of the mindset of the young Singaporean male.
Either they have no originality or Singapore girls are really too much to handle.
The news of the past two weeks confirmed the latter for me: Young 20-something men going to Bintan for cheap sex; 30-something men going to Vietnam for quick marriages. What is going on here?
I have been to Vietnam, and I love the place. The girls, true to form, are slim, tall and soft-spoken. Every word is punctuated with a smile, even when you are driving a hard bargain with them.
Their speech is melodious, and they work hard without complaining, carrying loads of cloth and vegetables in the market stalls and food places. Simple, gentle and hardworking, it's hard not to fall in love with them.
So too are Malaysian girls. Having friends who are dating these girls, I have observed that they are generally of the 'saccharine' variety. Neither loud nor argumentative, they pander to the boys' needs.
Not as doormats, but as cheerful assistants, who see it as their obligation to help their men without expecting anything in return. Not that they are stupid - oh, no, the Malaysian girls I know are smart and hardworking, with careers of their own.
But when it comes to matters of the heart, they play the docile, giggly girlfriend with as much aplomb as their Viet counterparts.
Again, it's easy to see where their attraction lies.
I cannot comment on the Chinese girls or the girls from Bintan, but I can contrast the Malaysian and Vietnamese girls I know with Singapore girls. We are, generally, extremely driven by ideals and emotions.
In an argument, the Singapore girl is twice as likely as her Malaysian or Vietnamese counterpart to stride away in a huff or throw water on the male's face or hold a public screaming or crying fit.
Not for this girl are soft, barely audible replies. The Singapore girl debates and argues impassionedly. She wants to win at all costs and treats her love conquests like those fought in the office arena.
She may be pretty, yes, smart, yes, but, oh, so demanding.
The Singapore girl, in short, is a challenge to love. Although she may, at the end of the day, be a supportive and faithful spouse, the barbs hiding her soft interior are daunting to the suitor.
She is materialistic, and loves being so. Shopping is a major hobby, and looking good is absolutely essential. The man is but another accessory, a helper, chauffeur, bag carrier.
Her girlfriends egg her on, smiling at one friend as her boyfriend picks her up after class each day and cheering the girl who unceremoniously dumps her cheating boyfriend in the middle of the road.
Girl power, we think unanimously. We are not going to be one of those docile wives who nod their heads and cook for you at the slightest command. We are not going to have wool pulled over our eyes by your romantic nonsense. No way. We are women of the new age, liberal, free and... single?
Somehow the whole idea of women's liberation in Singapore seems to have come at the expense of our love lives. We have assimilated Western role models of strong women without taking into account the men that are alongside us.
I have no answers, short of comforting Singapore women with the fact that pets make quite good companions.
However, for the sake of government procreation policies, I think it's imperative that a compromise be struck between the Singapore woman and man, before the Singapore born and bred woman becomes a relic of the past.
I remember an interview years ago in which a prominent local host, very much an image of the career-driven Singapore woman, said that with her then boyfriend, she played the role of the 'little woman'. Perhaps therein lies the secret weapon that Singapore women need to cultivate: a softer un-barbed personality for matters of the heart.
Wong Mei Xuan (Miss)
Straits Times
Oct 23, 2004
Post ID: 4085230562676242081
A 419 scam among 419 scams
"Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face." - Dave Barry
***
From: FBI (fbi@live.com)
Subject: THE IMF HAS APPROVED YOUR ATM CARD FOR DELIVERY (FBI)
Message: Attention
I am Mr. Robert S.Mueller, The FBI Director; After proper investigations, we discovered that your impending payment that have been withheld by imposters, claiming to be Professor Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria), Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr. Frank Nweke, None existing officials of the Oceanic Bank of Nigeria and Zenith Bank, UK winning Lottery, Senator David Mark,Andy Lear of Hsbc bank, Coca-Cola winning lottery and among a list of others is now under our custody with the help of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Local Police Force.
Investigations revealed that you have spent a lot on your personal earned money just to conclude the successful transfer of your funds to your nominated bank account by obtaining transfer documents as requested by the imposters, costing you a lot of money but all to no avail.
The FBI had to send some financial crime investigators from our head quarters in Washington DC to Africa in other to carry out proper investigation, after receiving series of other reports similar to yours as you are not the only person awaiting the legal transfer of funds from Africa.
The FBI has giving authority to the International Monetary Funds (IMF) to assist the Federal Ministry of Finance and all the organization involved; such as the Central Bank, Zenith Bank, and Legit lottery organizations to immediately commence with the compensation of all the beneficiaries awaiting the successful transfer of their funds.
With the help of some of the best Internet investigators attached to the FBI, we traced your information from the Internet as one of the beneficiaries awaiting the successful transfer of funds to your nominated account.
I am pleased to inform you that a meeting was held as regards the best way to carry out with the compensation exercise for transparency and most especially to avoid reoccurrence of the delay in transferring your funds and the high cost of procuring transfer documents and came to a final conclusion as all head of organizations involved was duly represented.
It was approved to be issued to you as a valid international ATM card cashable at any ATM machine designation in the world. The ATM account has already being credited with two million, five hundred thousand United States dollars. ($2.5,000, 000.00USD) , with a daily Limit of withdrawal of Ten thousand United States Dollars. ($10.000, 00USD).The ATM card has already being packaged and approved to be delivered to your door step via express courier delivery service.
Contact Mr. Derrick Wilson {Our FBI ATM Rep.} at the ATM PAYMENT CENTER and reconfirm your delivery information as stated below and your security code with five digit (12090) number has to be submitted alongside with your delivery information for security reasons.
DELIVERY INFROMATION:
FULL NAME AND AGE:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
CELL PHONE NUMBER:
CURRENT OCCUPATION:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
NAME: Derrick Wilson
EMAIL : derrick.wilson2@gala.net
HAVE IT IN MIND THAT THE DELIVERY FEE OF YOUR PACKAGE DELIVERY TO YOUR DESTINATION HAVE BEEN SETTLED BETWEEN WE AND THE COURIER COMPANY IN CHARGE OF YOUR ATM CARD DELIVERY.SO YOU ARE MANDATED TO PAY FOR THE SECURITY KEEPING FEE ONLY FOR YOUR ATM CARD TO BE DELIVERED TO YOU.
A RELIABLE AND A TRUSTED COURIER COMPANY HAVE BEEN CONTRACTED TO DELIVER YOUR PACKAGE TO YOUR DESTINATION,AS SOON AS YOU CONTACT MR Derrick Wilson HE WILL UPDATE YOU WITH THE COURIER COMPANY EMAIL CONTACT ADDRESS IN OTHER TO AVOID ANY UNDUE DELAY OF YOUR ATM CARD.
NOTE: Under normal circumstances you are suppose to come and collect your ATM CARD in person and sign some documents as proof of the collection of your ATM CARD but the IMF and the Finance Ministry insisted that you pay for the SECURITY KEEPING FEE ONLY of your ATM CARD via western union money transfer, which will cost you only $250.00 USD to cut down travel expenses in other for the western union payment receipt and the receipt of payment of $250.00 USD to the nominated courier company that will carry out with the delivery to your door step to be documented in your file as proof your collection. We hope that is very clear. A receipt to this effect will be sent to you and a copy kept in your file for future documentation.
We also advise that you stop further communications with these imposters and forward any correspondence / proposal you receive from them to Mr. Derrick Wilson in other for the FBI to bring justice to does still at large.
GOD BLESS US.
REGARDS.
Mr. Robert S.Mueller III
FBI DIRECTOR.. THE IMF HAS APPROVED YOUR ATM CARD FOR DELIVERY (FBI)
This hilarious scam is trying to scam people who have already fallen prey to one 419 scam.
Besides the over-the-top story, they mention all the major scams (they're just missing some Banana Republic's General who needs to get rid of his ill-gotten riches) and bring in the IMF (as if they have time for scammers).
Oh, and making the FBI an issuer of credit cards.
You know what they say:
"Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me."
(Yes, this is unashamed victim blaming. So sue me.)
***
From: FBI (fbi@live.com)
Subject: THE IMF HAS APPROVED YOUR ATM CARD FOR DELIVERY (FBI)
Message: Attention
I am Mr. Robert S.Mueller, The FBI Director; After proper investigations, we discovered that your impending payment that have been withheld by imposters, claiming to be Professor Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria), Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr. Frank Nweke, None existing officials of the Oceanic Bank of Nigeria and Zenith Bank, UK winning Lottery, Senator David Mark,Andy Lear of Hsbc bank, Coca-Cola winning lottery and among a list of others is now under our custody with the help of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Local Police Force.
Investigations revealed that you have spent a lot on your personal earned money just to conclude the successful transfer of your funds to your nominated bank account by obtaining transfer documents as requested by the imposters, costing you a lot of money but all to no avail.
The FBI had to send some financial crime investigators from our head quarters in Washington DC to Africa in other to carry out proper investigation, after receiving series of other reports similar to yours as you are not the only person awaiting the legal transfer of funds from Africa.
The FBI has giving authority to the International Monetary Funds (IMF) to assist the Federal Ministry of Finance and all the organization involved; such as the Central Bank, Zenith Bank, and Legit lottery organizations to immediately commence with the compensation of all the beneficiaries awaiting the successful transfer of their funds.
With the help of some of the best Internet investigators attached to the FBI, we traced your information from the Internet as one of the beneficiaries awaiting the successful transfer of funds to your nominated account.
I am pleased to inform you that a meeting was held as regards the best way to carry out with the compensation exercise for transparency and most especially to avoid reoccurrence of the delay in transferring your funds and the high cost of procuring transfer documents and came to a final conclusion as all head of organizations involved was duly represented.
It was approved to be issued to you as a valid international ATM card cashable at any ATM machine designation in the world. The ATM account has already being credited with two million, five hundred thousand United States dollars. ($2.5,000, 000.00USD) , with a daily Limit of withdrawal of Ten thousand United States Dollars. ($10.000, 00USD).The ATM card has already being packaged and approved to be delivered to your door step via express courier delivery service.
Contact Mr. Derrick Wilson {Our FBI ATM Rep.} at the ATM PAYMENT CENTER and reconfirm your delivery information as stated below and your security code with five digit (12090) number has to be submitted alongside with your delivery information for security reasons.
DELIVERY INFROMATION:
FULL NAME AND AGE:
DELIVERY ADDRESS:
CELL PHONE NUMBER:
CURRENT OCCUPATION:
CONTACT INFORMATION:
NAME: Derrick Wilson
EMAIL : derrick.wilson2@gala.net
HAVE IT IN MIND THAT THE DELIVERY FEE OF YOUR PACKAGE DELIVERY TO YOUR DESTINATION HAVE BEEN SETTLED BETWEEN WE AND THE COURIER COMPANY IN CHARGE OF YOUR ATM CARD DELIVERY.SO YOU ARE MANDATED TO PAY FOR THE SECURITY KEEPING FEE ONLY FOR YOUR ATM CARD TO BE DELIVERED TO YOU.
A RELIABLE AND A TRUSTED COURIER COMPANY HAVE BEEN CONTRACTED TO DELIVER YOUR PACKAGE TO YOUR DESTINATION,AS SOON AS YOU CONTACT MR Derrick Wilson HE WILL UPDATE YOU WITH THE COURIER COMPANY EMAIL CONTACT ADDRESS IN OTHER TO AVOID ANY UNDUE DELAY OF YOUR ATM CARD.
NOTE: Under normal circumstances you are suppose to come and collect your ATM CARD in person and sign some documents as proof of the collection of your ATM CARD but the IMF and the Finance Ministry insisted that you pay for the SECURITY KEEPING FEE ONLY of your ATM CARD via western union money transfer, which will cost you only $250.00 USD to cut down travel expenses in other for the western union payment receipt and the receipt of payment of $250.00 USD to the nominated courier company that will carry out with the delivery to your door step to be documented in your file as proof your collection. We hope that is very clear. A receipt to this effect will be sent to you and a copy kept in your file for future documentation.
We also advise that you stop further communications with these imposters and forward any correspondence / proposal you receive from them to Mr. Derrick Wilson in other for the FBI to bring justice to does still at large.
GOD BLESS US.
REGARDS.
Mr. Robert S.Mueller III
FBI DIRECTOR.. THE IMF HAS APPROVED YOUR ATM CARD FOR DELIVERY (FBI)
This hilarious scam is trying to scam people who have already fallen prey to one 419 scam.
Besides the over-the-top story, they mention all the major scams (they're just missing some Banana Republic's General who needs to get rid of his ill-gotten riches) and bring in the IMF (as if they have time for scammers).
Oh, and making the FBI an issuer of credit cards.
You know what they say:
"Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me."
(Yes, this is unashamed victim blaming. So sue me.)
Post ID: 6629989243507205894
Monday, April 12, 2010
On upskirts in Singapore
"For four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum." - J. W. Schopf
***
From today's ST:
'More upskirt voyeurs' on the prowl
Camera phones make it easier to commit offences; more cases cropping up: Lawyers
AS CAMERA and video functions on mobile phones become more commonplace, so too have the cases of those caught for shooting upskirt videos and pictures.
These images are generally shot with cameras pointed directly up women's skirts. Those caught taking such images may face up to a year's jail and a fine for insulting the modesty of women.
Lawyers and psychiatrists who spoke to The Straits Times said the number is likely to have more than doubled from the 50 cases in 2006.
According to police figures, there were 28 cases of people committing upskirt offences out of the 161 cases that involved insulting the modesty of women in 2004. The proportion went up to 50 out of 172 cases in 2006.
In 2008 and last year, there were about 350 cases that involved insulting the modesty of women. However, the police said they no longer provide a breakdown of the figures for upskirt offences among the cases. No reason was given.
Still, lawyers said more of these gadget-savvy peeping Toms are prowling about and getting caught.
Lawyer Rajan Supramaniam, who handles such cases, said: 'From about four cases a month in the courts in 2006, now it's common to have about eight to nine such offences in the same period.'
Another lawyer, Mr Christopher Bridges, said he would not be surprised if the number exceeds 100 cases this year.
'At the district courts, lawyers talk among themselves and upskirt offences seem to be popping up regularly on a weekly basis in these conversations,' he said.
As for the increase in such cases, lawyer Leonard Loo said the availability of small, easily concealed camera phones is one key reason.
'I think it's much easier and less suspicious to steal a peek with a camera phone than to try to catch a woman in a state of undress in a toilet,' he said.
Other lawyers said it could also be due to more awareness about such behaviour.
'There has been a lot of publicity on such crimes, so women are on the alert when a stranger comes too close,' said lawyer Winnifred Gomez.
Psychiatrist Nelson Lee, who did not see any such voyeurs before 2006, said he is now consulted by about 10 such patients a year.
Like him, psychiatrist Brian Yeo and psychologist Daniel Koh said there was no difference between the peeping Toms of the past and the present-day digital voyeurs.
'The only difference is that technology has opened up more opportunities for a whole group of voyeurs. Putting cameras on mobile phones allows for easy filming and playback to relive the moment over and over again,' said Mr Koh.
However, repeated viewing may well lead them down a slippery slope to danger.
'Like all addictions, tolerance develops over time and images obtained online may no longer provide the same level of excitement. Then the person needs something stronger to get the same gratification and he proceeds to go out and get his own images,' Dr Lee said.
My favourite line here is:
"The police said they no longer provide a breakdown of the figures for upskirt offences among the cases. No reason was given"
Of course, this article elides the issue of downblouses.
***
From today's ST:
'More upskirt voyeurs' on the prowl
Camera phones make it easier to commit offences; more cases cropping up: Lawyers
AS CAMERA and video functions on mobile phones become more commonplace, so too have the cases of those caught for shooting upskirt videos and pictures.
These images are generally shot with cameras pointed directly up women's skirts. Those caught taking such images may face up to a year's jail and a fine for insulting the modesty of women.
Lawyers and psychiatrists who spoke to The Straits Times said the number is likely to have more than doubled from the 50 cases in 2006.
According to police figures, there were 28 cases of people committing upskirt offences out of the 161 cases that involved insulting the modesty of women in 2004. The proportion went up to 50 out of 172 cases in 2006.
In 2008 and last year, there were about 350 cases that involved insulting the modesty of women. However, the police said they no longer provide a breakdown of the figures for upskirt offences among the cases. No reason was given.
Still, lawyers said more of these gadget-savvy peeping Toms are prowling about and getting caught.
Lawyer Rajan Supramaniam, who handles such cases, said: 'From about four cases a month in the courts in 2006, now it's common to have about eight to nine such offences in the same period.'
Another lawyer, Mr Christopher Bridges, said he would not be surprised if the number exceeds 100 cases this year.
'At the district courts, lawyers talk among themselves and upskirt offences seem to be popping up regularly on a weekly basis in these conversations,' he said.
As for the increase in such cases, lawyer Leonard Loo said the availability of small, easily concealed camera phones is one key reason.
'I think it's much easier and less suspicious to steal a peek with a camera phone than to try to catch a woman in a state of undress in a toilet,' he said.
Other lawyers said it could also be due to more awareness about such behaviour.
'There has been a lot of publicity on such crimes, so women are on the alert when a stranger comes too close,' said lawyer Winnifred Gomez.
Psychiatrist Nelson Lee, who did not see any such voyeurs before 2006, said he is now consulted by about 10 such patients a year.
Like him, psychiatrist Brian Yeo and psychologist Daniel Koh said there was no difference between the peeping Toms of the past and the present-day digital voyeurs.
'The only difference is that technology has opened up more opportunities for a whole group of voyeurs. Putting cameras on mobile phones allows for easy filming and playback to relive the moment over and over again,' said Mr Koh.
However, repeated viewing may well lead them down a slippery slope to danger.
'Like all addictions, tolerance develops over time and images obtained online may no longer provide the same level of excitement. Then the person needs something stronger to get the same gratification and he proceeds to go out and get his own images,' Dr Lee said.
My favourite line here is:
"The police said they no longer provide a breakdown of the figures for upskirt offences among the cases. No reason was given"
Of course, this article elides the issue of downblouses.
Post ID: 3016511880022655209
Links - 12th April 2010
"Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion." - Ambrose Bierce
***
Drawing Board: Ideal Life
History Of Cartoon Violence (Graph)
Man Attempts To Assassinate Obama, 'But Not Because He's Black Or Anything' | The Onion - "'Croft was quiet and mostly kept to himself, except when encountering a black person, when he would become exceedingly chatty, going so far as to invite complete strangers to hang out'... 'Obama must be killed, he's got a dark soul... Nah, that's not what I meant'... 'He had ruled out explosives for fear it might conjure up memories of the racially-motivated Birmingham church bombings, and he discounted using a gun because-' 'Martin Luther King' 'Exactly. Ultimately to allay all suspicions of racism, Croft decided to shoot the President with a crossbow with a list of important Black historical figures taped to the arrow. But the FBI apprehended Croft while he was parked outside the White House in a car blasting Sly and the Family Stone'"
Paul Popenoe, eugenics, and marriage counseling - "A National Marriage Boycott is on: its members pledge not to get married, no matter how many people ask them, until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed... Dick is about to leave his wife, Andrea, for another woman. He is bored with Andrea... Andrea is urged to make herself more interesting. She learns how to make better conversation, goes on a strict diet, and loses eight pounds. The affair is averted"
Fourscared and Fourscammed - "Ten minutes after checking in on Foursquare at the Loteria Grill one chilly night in February, Gim received a phone call from someone at the restaurant’s front desk. When she picked up the phone, the caller asked her what she was doing there and told her he’d be waiting for her at her apartment. Gim didn’t go home that night... Paige Craig was FourStalked at Gold’s Gym in Venice, where he checks in frequently... An employee at the front desk called him and told him Ron was on the phone for him. When Craig got on the line, Ron said he was gym manager, and that Craig’s credit card had been declined. Craig relayed that he had just returned from a skiing trip, where he had been using the same card the entire time. Ron said he tried to process the card again and then said, “Sorry, it’s still not working. Let me confirm the credit card number with you. Craig asked the employee at front desk if Ron worked for him. The employee responded with nothing but a confused stare"
Comment elsewhere: "I had someone look up historical data on my checkins and put themselves in places so they would ‘run into me’... In trade for being at risk of stalkers, you get $1 off your beer. The tradeoff just doesn’t seem worth it."
Pleasing your man – and Jesus – with breast implants? - "“Augmenting the body that God gave you is actually a sign of ultimate love and devotion, as long as you hand that body directly over to your husband.” “The ‘unnatural’ aspect of Breast Implants for Jesus doesn’t concern me—it’s the completely bizarre attempt to justify plastic surgery through scripture that sets my bullshit meter off.” Really? It shouldn’t. Using the Bible to justify ridiculous behavior is as old as the document itself... slavery was sanctioned by God since the Bible contained stories about people being cursed with black skin"
Thrill of the chaste: The truth about Gandhi's sex life - "Gandhi called for his 18-year-old grandniece Manu to join him – and sleep with him. "We both may be killed by the Muslims," he told her, "and must put our purity to the ultimate test, so that we know that we are offering the purest of sacrifices, and we should now both start sleeping naked"... He had an almost magical belief in the power of semen: "One who conserves his vital fluid acquires unfailing power," he said... Tragically for him, he was already being sidelined by the politicians at the time of independence. The preservation of his vital fluid did not keep India intact, and it was the power-brokers of the Congress Party who negotiated the terms of India's freedom"
Do men really make the best chefs? - ""Of course there is sexism in the culinary industry," she said. "Most restaurateurs are more likely to hire a young man because they can run around the kitchen faster with heavy pans and create more business. Men have greater muscle power, yet women are calmer in the kitchen." But celebrity chef John Burton Race says: "It is a fact that men are the best cooks, professional or not. Industrial kitchens may have heavy equipment, but men are the best cooks because they are more passionate and take cooking more seriously"... Stacie Stewart impressed many top chefs as part of her MasterChef experience. She is now back in the North-east working as a PA and running an online bakery, and has some traditional views on the subject. "It's a high-pressure environment. Hard work and long hours, late into the night. If you want to have kids and start a family, I don't see how you can do that and be a chef... I'd love to get my own restaurant, get a book published, get on the TV circuit. But I don't want a Michelin star, it doesn't interest me. [I'd rather] teach people how to be really good home cooks. I'm very traditional and, dare I say it, I believe a woman's place is in the home""
It's sexism to discriminate against the less able, and women are engaging in self-inflicted violence!
Facebook 'friend request' lands UK man in jail - "A man who joined Facebook to look at his friend's wedding pics, was sent to jail after the site automatically sent a "friend request" message to his estranged wife."
Why Men's Friendships Are Different - "Researchers say women's friendships are face to face: They talk, cry together, share secrets. Men's friendships are side by side: We play golf. We go to football games... men generally resist high-maintenance relationships, whether with spouses, girlfriends or male pals. When picking friends, "men don't want someone who is too needy," he says. A third of the men in his study said they learned positive things from female friendships, but 25% had a negative impression of women as friends, citing issues such as "cattiness" and "too much drama." And women are more likely than men to hold grudges toward friends"
Brit mum almost kills her lover during sex -- with her 40LL boobs
Bad guys really do get the most girls - "The self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism... those who scored higher on the dark triad personality traits tended to have more partners and more desire for short-term relationships... the correlation only held in males... James Bond epitomises this set of traits, Jonason says. "He's clearly disagreeable, very extroverted and likes trying new things - killing people, new women... This observation seems to hold across cultures... "They still have to explain why it hasn't spread to everyone," says Matthew Keller of the University of Colorado in Boulder. "There must be some cost of the traits." One possibility, both Keller and Jonason suggest, is that the strategy is most successful when dark triad personalities are rare. Otherwise, others would become more wary and guarded"
Outer-space sex carries complications - "Sex in space would likely be "hotter and wetter" than on Earth, Bonta said, because in zero-G there is no natural convection to carry away body heat. Also, scientists have found that people tend to perspire more in microgravity. The moisture associated with sexual congress could pool as floating droplets... "Sex in zero-G is going to have to be more or less choreographed. Otherwise it's just going to be a wild flail""
The ‘‘Booty Call’’: A Compromise Between Men’s and Women’s Ideal Mating Strategies - "Traditionally, research on romantic and sexual relationships has focused on 1-night stands and monogamous pairs. However, as the result of men and women pursuing their ideal relationship types, various compromise relationships may emerge. One such compromise is explored here: the ‘‘booty call.’’ The results of an act-nomination and frequency study of college students provided an initial definition and exploration of this type of relationship. Booty calls tend to utilize various communication mediums to facilitate sexual contact among friends who, for men, may represent low-investment, attractive sexual partners and, for women, may represent attractive test-mates. The relationship is discussed as a compromise between men’s and women’s ideal mating strategies that allows men greater sexual access and women an ongoing opportunity to evaluate potential long-term mates."
***
Drawing Board: Ideal Life
History Of Cartoon Violence (Graph)
Man Attempts To Assassinate Obama, 'But Not Because He's Black Or Anything' | The Onion - "'Croft was quiet and mostly kept to himself, except when encountering a black person, when he would become exceedingly chatty, going so far as to invite complete strangers to hang out'... 'Obama must be killed, he's got a dark soul... Nah, that's not what I meant'... 'He had ruled out explosives for fear it might conjure up memories of the racially-motivated Birmingham church bombings, and he discounted using a gun because-' 'Martin Luther King' 'Exactly. Ultimately to allay all suspicions of racism, Croft decided to shoot the President with a crossbow with a list of important Black historical figures taped to the arrow. But the FBI apprehended Croft while he was parked outside the White House in a car blasting Sly and the Family Stone'"
Paul Popenoe, eugenics, and marriage counseling - "A National Marriage Boycott is on: its members pledge not to get married, no matter how many people ask them, until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed... Dick is about to leave his wife, Andrea, for another woman. He is bored with Andrea... Andrea is urged to make herself more interesting. She learns how to make better conversation, goes on a strict diet, and loses eight pounds. The affair is averted"
Fourscared and Fourscammed - "Ten minutes after checking in on Foursquare at the Loteria Grill one chilly night in February, Gim received a phone call from someone at the restaurant’s front desk. When she picked up the phone, the caller asked her what she was doing there and told her he’d be waiting for her at her apartment. Gim didn’t go home that night... Paige Craig was FourStalked at Gold’s Gym in Venice, where he checks in frequently... An employee at the front desk called him and told him Ron was on the phone for him. When Craig got on the line, Ron said he was gym manager, and that Craig’s credit card had been declined. Craig relayed that he had just returned from a skiing trip, where he had been using the same card the entire time. Ron said he tried to process the card again and then said, “Sorry, it’s still not working. Let me confirm the credit card number with you. Craig asked the employee at front desk if Ron worked for him. The employee responded with nothing but a confused stare"
Comment elsewhere: "I had someone look up historical data on my checkins and put themselves in places so they would ‘run into me’... In trade for being at risk of stalkers, you get $1 off your beer. The tradeoff just doesn’t seem worth it."
Pleasing your man – and Jesus – with breast implants? - "“Augmenting the body that God gave you is actually a sign of ultimate love and devotion, as long as you hand that body directly over to your husband.” “The ‘unnatural’ aspect of Breast Implants for Jesus doesn’t concern me—it’s the completely bizarre attempt to justify plastic surgery through scripture that sets my bullshit meter off.” Really? It shouldn’t. Using the Bible to justify ridiculous behavior is as old as the document itself... slavery was sanctioned by God since the Bible contained stories about people being cursed with black skin"
Thrill of the chaste: The truth about Gandhi's sex life - "Gandhi called for his 18-year-old grandniece Manu to join him – and sleep with him. "We both may be killed by the Muslims," he told her, "and must put our purity to the ultimate test, so that we know that we are offering the purest of sacrifices, and we should now both start sleeping naked"... He had an almost magical belief in the power of semen: "One who conserves his vital fluid acquires unfailing power," he said... Tragically for him, he was already being sidelined by the politicians at the time of independence. The preservation of his vital fluid did not keep India intact, and it was the power-brokers of the Congress Party who negotiated the terms of India's freedom"
Do men really make the best chefs? - ""Of course there is sexism in the culinary industry," she said. "Most restaurateurs are more likely to hire a young man because they can run around the kitchen faster with heavy pans and create more business. Men have greater muscle power, yet women are calmer in the kitchen." But celebrity chef John Burton Race says: "It is a fact that men are the best cooks, professional or not. Industrial kitchens may have heavy equipment, but men are the best cooks because they are more passionate and take cooking more seriously"... Stacie Stewart impressed many top chefs as part of her MasterChef experience. She is now back in the North-east working as a PA and running an online bakery, and has some traditional views on the subject. "It's a high-pressure environment. Hard work and long hours, late into the night. If you want to have kids and start a family, I don't see how you can do that and be a chef... I'd love to get my own restaurant, get a book published, get on the TV circuit. But I don't want a Michelin star, it doesn't interest me. [I'd rather] teach people how to be really good home cooks. I'm very traditional and, dare I say it, I believe a woman's place is in the home""
It's sexism to discriminate against the less able, and women are engaging in self-inflicted violence!
Facebook 'friend request' lands UK man in jail - "A man who joined Facebook to look at his friend's wedding pics, was sent to jail after the site automatically sent a "friend request" message to his estranged wife."
Why Men's Friendships Are Different - "Researchers say women's friendships are face to face: They talk, cry together, share secrets. Men's friendships are side by side: We play golf. We go to football games... men generally resist high-maintenance relationships, whether with spouses, girlfriends or male pals. When picking friends, "men don't want someone who is too needy," he says. A third of the men in his study said they learned positive things from female friendships, but 25% had a negative impression of women as friends, citing issues such as "cattiness" and "too much drama." And women are more likely than men to hold grudges toward friends"
Brit mum almost kills her lover during sex -- with her 40LL boobs
Bad guys really do get the most girls - "The self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism... those who scored higher on the dark triad personality traits tended to have more partners and more desire for short-term relationships... the correlation only held in males... James Bond epitomises this set of traits, Jonason says. "He's clearly disagreeable, very extroverted and likes trying new things - killing people, new women... This observation seems to hold across cultures... "They still have to explain why it hasn't spread to everyone," says Matthew Keller of the University of Colorado in Boulder. "There must be some cost of the traits." One possibility, both Keller and Jonason suggest, is that the strategy is most successful when dark triad personalities are rare. Otherwise, others would become more wary and guarded"
Outer-space sex carries complications - "Sex in space would likely be "hotter and wetter" than on Earth, Bonta said, because in zero-G there is no natural convection to carry away body heat. Also, scientists have found that people tend to perspire more in microgravity. The moisture associated with sexual congress could pool as floating droplets... "Sex in zero-G is going to have to be more or less choreographed. Otherwise it's just going to be a wild flail""
The ‘‘Booty Call’’: A Compromise Between Men’s and Women’s Ideal Mating Strategies - "Traditionally, research on romantic and sexual relationships has focused on 1-night stands and monogamous pairs. However, as the result of men and women pursuing their ideal relationship types, various compromise relationships may emerge. One such compromise is explored here: the ‘‘booty call.’’ The results of an act-nomination and frequency study of college students provided an initial definition and exploration of this type of relationship. Booty calls tend to utilize various communication mediums to facilitate sexual contact among friends who, for men, may represent low-investment, attractive sexual partners and, for women, may represent attractive test-mates. The relationship is discussed as a compromise between men’s and women’s ideal mating strategies that allows men greater sexual access and women an ongoing opportunity to evaluate potential long-term mates."
Post ID: 2053059341332508674
"Stability" in China
"A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything." - Samuel Johnson (attr)
***
China News: Yu Jianrong (于建嵘): Maintaining a Baseline of Social Stability (Part 7)
"[China has] "rigid stability"...
True social stability is about long-term social stability; it’s about the long-term stability of the nation’s laws. However, our [stability] is not like this. All of our stability is centered around a single goal: maintaining a monopoly on political power. In other words, the ultimate goal of all the Communist Party’s goals is how it can hold a monopoly on political power. This is what is called “Adhering to the Leadership of the Party”...
Things that would ordinarily be considered regular social activities can all be seen as “elements of instability.” For example, demonstrations, labor strikes, transportation strikes—these activities are all being seen as “unstable.” Now, even petitioning higher levels of government has been turned into an “element of instability”... Actually, petitioning higher levels of government is your constitutional right; it is a right provided for by the Regulation on Complaint Letters and Visits... an assault on any power is [considered a source of] instability...
To control society [and achieve] “rigid stability” does not primarily rely on the judiciary and primarily relies on the following: state violence, ideology, and controls on societal organizations... However, “rigid stability” brings with it an enormous danger. Currently, [funds spent on maintaining] stability have become one the nation’s extremely significant expenditures; [maintaining stability] has become an enormous burden. For so-called stability, local officials are all running up to Beijing to catch people, running up to Beijing to set up offices. This type of stability has thrown the entire nation into disarray... Does everybody all feel like this kind of stability can last? Let me tell you that it cannot. This kind of stability will certainly bring about massive social catastrophe...
People often say that Western institutions are not suited to us in China. No matter, don’t you also say that Taiwan is a part of China? Since Taiwan is also China, why was that group of people able to answer “impossible” [to the questions of whether the government could demolish their house without their approval, whether a judge would not accept their case, and whether a legislator would refuse to make an investigation]? We should not [just] look at China Central Television saying today that the Taiwanese are fighting, or saying tomorrow that Taiwan is cursing Ma Yingjiu. It doesn’t matter. Taiwan’s society, on the ground level, is extremely harmonious and stable"
The other parts (from 1 to 9) are also interesing:
"Why do Chinese people take to the streets? Ordinary Chinese people will say, “You promised to give me ten Yuan, why are you now only giving me five Yuan? You’re not honoring your word. Your law says that rural people should be having elections and that land takings should only occur if the villagers approve. So why aren’t there elections? Why are you selling our land without gaining our approval? You local governments are not doing things according to the nation’s laws.” In summary the issue is about the [government] not honoring its word. So what do Westerners say when they take to the streets? They say, “Why are you only giving us ten Yuan? According to human rights, according to natural rights, you should be giving us one hundred Yuan. Your rules [providing ten Yuan] are wrong."
***
China News: Yu Jianrong (于建嵘): Maintaining a Baseline of Social Stability (Part 7)
"[China has] "rigid stability"...
True social stability is about long-term social stability; it’s about the long-term stability of the nation’s laws. However, our [stability] is not like this. All of our stability is centered around a single goal: maintaining a monopoly on political power. In other words, the ultimate goal of all the Communist Party’s goals is how it can hold a monopoly on political power. This is what is called “Adhering to the Leadership of the Party”...
Things that would ordinarily be considered regular social activities can all be seen as “elements of instability.” For example, demonstrations, labor strikes, transportation strikes—these activities are all being seen as “unstable.” Now, even petitioning higher levels of government has been turned into an “element of instability”... Actually, petitioning higher levels of government is your constitutional right; it is a right provided for by the Regulation on Complaint Letters and Visits... an assault on any power is [considered a source of] instability...
To control society [and achieve] “rigid stability” does not primarily rely on the judiciary and primarily relies on the following: state violence, ideology, and controls on societal organizations... However, “rigid stability” brings with it an enormous danger. Currently, [funds spent on maintaining] stability have become one the nation’s extremely significant expenditures; [maintaining stability] has become an enormous burden. For so-called stability, local officials are all running up to Beijing to catch people, running up to Beijing to set up offices. This type of stability has thrown the entire nation into disarray... Does everybody all feel like this kind of stability can last? Let me tell you that it cannot. This kind of stability will certainly bring about massive social catastrophe...
People often say that Western institutions are not suited to us in China. No matter, don’t you also say that Taiwan is a part of China? Since Taiwan is also China, why was that group of people able to answer “impossible” [to the questions of whether the government could demolish their house without their approval, whether a judge would not accept their case, and whether a legislator would refuse to make an investigation]? We should not [just] look at China Central Television saying today that the Taiwanese are fighting, or saying tomorrow that Taiwan is cursing Ma Yingjiu. It doesn’t matter. Taiwan’s society, on the ground level, is extremely harmonious and stable"
The other parts (from 1 to 9) are also interesing:
"Why do Chinese people take to the streets? Ordinary Chinese people will say, “You promised to give me ten Yuan, why are you now only giving me five Yuan? You’re not honoring your word. Your law says that rural people should be having elections and that land takings should only occur if the villagers approve. So why aren’t there elections? Why are you selling our land without gaining our approval? You local governments are not doing things according to the nation’s laws.” In summary the issue is about the [government] not honoring its word. So what do Westerners say when they take to the streets? They say, “Why are you only giving us ten Yuan? According to human rights, according to natural rights, you should be giving us one hundred Yuan. Your rules [providing ten Yuan] are wrong."
Post ID: 1239112660141866384
On the alleged virgin/slut dichotomy
"The truth is always a compound of two half- truths, and you never reach it, because there is always something more to say." - Tom Stoppard
***
"The SDS [Sexual Double Standard] has been a popular topic for researchers over the last two decades (e.g., Gentry 1998; Jacoby & Williams 1985; Marks & Fraley 2005; Sprecher 1989), but evidence for its existence has been elusive. For instance, Gentry (1998) employed a person-perception task and found that raters judged men and women who had an above average amount of sexual activity similarly. In another person-perception study, Marks and Fraley (2005) found that even in the absence of valenced sexual information regarding sexual behaviors (e.g., insinuating that having many partners is a negative characteristic), individuals tended to equally derogate men and women who had similar sexual histories."
--- Common vs. Uncommon Sexual Acts: Evidence for the Sexual Double Standard / Peter K. Jonason & Michael J. Mark
Addendum: Translation - contrary to feminists' claims, there does not seem to be a sexual double standard - i.e. sluts vs studs (or studs vs sluts)
***
"The SDS [Sexual Double Standard] has been a popular topic for researchers over the last two decades (e.g., Gentry 1998; Jacoby & Williams 1985; Marks & Fraley 2005; Sprecher 1989), but evidence for its existence has been elusive. For instance, Gentry (1998) employed a person-perception task and found that raters judged men and women who had an above average amount of sexual activity similarly. In another person-perception study, Marks and Fraley (2005) found that even in the absence of valenced sexual information regarding sexual behaviors (e.g., insinuating that having many partners is a negative characteristic), individuals tended to equally derogate men and women who had similar sexual histories."
--- Common vs. Uncommon Sexual Acts: Evidence for the Sexual Double Standard / Peter K. Jonason & Michael J. Mark
Addendum: Translation - contrary to feminists' claims, there does not seem to be a sexual double standard - i.e. sluts vs studs (or studs vs sluts)
Post ID: 7275276753335127937
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Justice is blind
Dilbert: Is that Legal?
Pointy-haired Boss: It's better than legal. We're using the Law to keep Justice away!!
Dilbert: I feel sick.
Pointy-haired Boss: That's how you know it's working.
Post ID: 1377970652979627846
I love pandas
"Pandas are the least racist animal. They're white, black AND asian"
Post ID: 4466308314167307758
Macau - Day 2, Part 3
"Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore." - Ogden Nash
***
Macau
Day 2 - 27th February - Coloane (Part 3)
After lunch I took a bus to the island of Coloane, the further island from Macau; Taipa (the nearer island) sounded more urban and less interesting.
The bus dropped me off at the very sleepy Coloane Village
Coloane was cooler than the city, but I wasn't up to hiking (mostly because I'd injured my foot in January and hadn't completely recovered yet).
My attention was drawn by this queue outside Lord Stow's Garden Café. Lord Stow, of course, is famous for having popularised egg tarts and having the finest examples of that culinary form Macau.
Lord Stow's Menu. Oddly, the only Portuguese/Macanese desserts were Egg Tarts and Serradura (milk, cream and biscuit crumbs), and the only Macanese food was Capella (Macanese-style Pork Loaf). The Macanese don't seem to love their cuisine all that much.
As the cafe was full, I got for takeaway:
2 egg tarts. I was still quite full so I didn't get anything else.
These were better (flakier and richer) than the ones I had for breakfast.
Incidentally the KFC ones in Singapore are not bad where the crust is concerned, but the filling is lousy as it has the consistency of badly-made kaya (i.e. lumpy).
"Flying Eagle Training Center. Macau's Only Army Training Camp" - I suspect this is run by the People's Liberation Army to indoctrinate Macanese kids.
Largo do Presidente Antonio Ramalho Eanes. An ex-Portuguese President who supposedly was stationed in Macau.
I love "Sam Seng Temple"
"Lord Stow's Bakery. Estd. Macau 1989".
They claim to be the "Creator of the Egg Tart now famous throughout Asia", but it's more accurate to say (as the website admits) that the late Englishman modified the traditional recipe and popularised it.
Purple Dog. It wasn't as cute as:
Samurai Dog (Kyoto)
A pier in the dump that is Coloane Beach
The Dump that is Coloane Beach. The shouts you hear come from old people playign cards. You can see Zhuhai (China) in the distance.
Largo do Balzar
Largo Eduardo Marques. The monument commemorates the 1910 victory over the last pirates in Coloane. At the end you see St Francis Xavier Church, which used to house St Francis Xavier's humerus (now in a seminary on the mainland) and the Japanese and Vietnamese martyrs' remains that are now in the crypt of the Ruins of St Paul's (Timeout 2006 incorrectly claims that they are still there).
Interior of the very modest St Francis Xavier Church (1928). Notice what is probably a dove, representing the Holy Spirit (the shape that looks like a KKK member) above the portrait of Christ.
Although the church was very simple and could not compare to European ones, I greatly enjoyed my visit - because of the air-conditioning.
There were also some interesting pieces inside St Francis Xavier Church.
Madonna and Child represented as Chinese gods
Something from Vietnam and Korea, and I love that hat!
At first I thought these were about Christianity in Japan, but it doesn't look like the Japanese style. Perhaps it's Korean.
The Shroud of Turin makes an appearance
Exiting the church, I wandered the alleys. It was no Cinque Terre, but the humidity aside, it was a semi-pleasant walk.
Travessa da Igreja
European street lamp, Chinese house
I never associated the [Sub-]Tropics with ivy, but there you are.
Next was the Kum Iam Temple (Guan Yin), dating from the mid-1800s.
Kum Iam Temple Altar
Doorway
Weapons rack
Entrance to Kum Iam Temple
I wondered if this was a joke - outside the Guan Yin Temple was (among others) a mini-Altar with Guan Yu
Rua do Caetano. More juxtaposition.
***
Macau
Day 2 - 27th February - Coloane (Part 3)
After lunch I took a bus to the island of Coloane, the further island from Macau; Taipa (the nearer island) sounded more urban and less interesting.
The bus dropped me off at the very sleepy Coloane Village
Coloane was cooler than the city, but I wasn't up to hiking (mostly because I'd injured my foot in January and hadn't completely recovered yet).
My attention was drawn by this queue outside Lord Stow's Garden Café. Lord Stow, of course, is famous for having popularised egg tarts and having the finest examples of that culinary form Macau.
Lord Stow's Menu. Oddly, the only Portuguese/Macanese desserts were Egg Tarts and Serradura (milk, cream and biscuit crumbs), and the only Macanese food was Capella (Macanese-style Pork Loaf). The Macanese don't seem to love their cuisine all that much.
As the cafe was full, I got for takeaway:
2 egg tarts. I was still quite full so I didn't get anything else.
These were better (flakier and richer) than the ones I had for breakfast.
Incidentally the KFC ones in Singapore are not bad where the crust is concerned, but the filling is lousy as it has the consistency of badly-made kaya (i.e. lumpy).
"Flying Eagle Training Center. Macau's Only Army Training Camp" - I suspect this is run by the People's Liberation Army to indoctrinate Macanese kids.
Largo do Presidente Antonio Ramalho Eanes. An ex-Portuguese President who supposedly was stationed in Macau.
I love "Sam Seng Temple"
"Lord Stow's Bakery. Estd. Macau 1989".
They claim to be the "Creator of the Egg Tart now famous throughout Asia", but it's more accurate to say (as the website admits) that the late Englishman modified the traditional recipe and popularised it.
Purple Dog. It wasn't as cute as:
Samurai Dog (Kyoto)
A pier in the dump that is Coloane Beach
The Dump that is Coloane Beach. The shouts you hear come from old people playign cards. You can see Zhuhai (China) in the distance.
Largo do Balzar
Largo Eduardo Marques. The monument commemorates the 1910 victory over the last pirates in Coloane. At the end you see St Francis Xavier Church, which used to house St Francis Xavier's humerus (now in a seminary on the mainland) and the Japanese and Vietnamese martyrs' remains that are now in the crypt of the Ruins of St Paul's (Timeout 2006 incorrectly claims that they are still there).
Interior of the very modest St Francis Xavier Church (1928). Notice what is probably a dove, representing the Holy Spirit (the shape that looks like a KKK member) above the portrait of Christ.
Although the church was very simple and could not compare to European ones, I greatly enjoyed my visit - because of the air-conditioning.
There were also some interesting pieces inside St Francis Xavier Church.
Madonna and Child represented as Chinese gods
Something from Vietnam and Korea, and I love that hat!
At first I thought these were about Christianity in Japan, but it doesn't look like the Japanese style. Perhaps it's Korean.
The Shroud of Turin makes an appearance
Exiting the church, I wandered the alleys. It was no Cinque Terre, but the humidity aside, it was a semi-pleasant walk.
Travessa da Igreja
European street lamp, Chinese house
I never associated the [Sub-]Tropics with ivy, but there you are.
Next was the Kum Iam Temple (Guan Yin), dating from the mid-1800s.
Kum Iam Temple Altar
Doorway
Weapons rack
Entrance to Kum Iam Temple
I wondered if this was a joke - outside the Guan Yin Temple was (among others) a mini-Altar with Guan Yu
Rua do Caetano. More juxtaposition.
Post ID: 5200184226134462211
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Links - 10th April 2010
"The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver." - Jay Leno
***
PAP mass-recruiting Taiwanese PMETs by offering higher than market pay to lure them to work in Singapore - "One Taiwanese reader wrote to us expressing his disbelief that upon applying to work in Canada, he was offered a Singapore PR immediately by the migration agency under the Landed PR scheme which gives Singapore PRs to foreigners who have never stepped foot on Singapore... I rather stay put in Taiwan than to relocate to Singapore. At least it is a democracy here and we enjoy basic political freedoms. Who will be so stupid to bring up their children in a one-party dictatorship like Communist China?... Remember: if the PAP can so blatantly hire you to work in Singapore to make life miserable for native Singaporeans, it will be your turn one day too"
Conversation with Jiang Mei, a PRC freelance prostitute given Singapore PR by the PAP - "Jiang Mei: "Standard - 打飞机 ("beat aeroplane") - $50, 吹笛("blow flute") - $70, 全身服务 (whole body service) - $100″
Nick: "Hmmm....a bit ex, let me consider."
Jiang Mei: "Ahh...don't be like this, since you are here already, 来爽一爽, I will make you happy, you are my first customer of the day."
Nick: "Inclusive of massage?"
Jiang Mei: "Massage is $30 goes to the boss, I earn only through the special service. Try my whole body package, everything included, guarantee you will be extremely satisfied!" ... "Then try my blowing skills, 来啦! time is running out, "happy times" are precious, don't waste it, you are not short of money anyway right."
In typical TR fashion this is extremely misleading, because she got PR BEFORE she became a prostitute. The dialogue is hilarious though.
The Last Star Wars - "The Phantom Menace wasn't as bad you think. Buried inside its 133 minutes is a great movie dying to be born... This moment is so nimbly directed that for a moment you might suspect that it's Steven Spielberg behind the camera... Attack of the Clones had no such saving graces. A crude contraption, it reduced Star Wars to an extended action sequence... The biggest payoff comes at the film's end... After the candy-colored futuristic design of the prequels, coming aboard the solid, dark bridge of this star destroyer is comforting, like being wrapped up in a warm, old blanket; the even, menacing respiration of Darth Vader in the background might as well be our favorite childhood lullaby"
Duncan Blasts "Useless" Air Marshal Service - "More air marshals have been arrested than the number of people arrested by air marshals... we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest... 'Al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system. For a multitude of politicians, interest groups and professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, grant, and contract proposals'"
Lori Gottlieb: Miss Make-do seeks Mr Good Enough - "Gottlieb recounts dozens of times she dissed a man because he wasn't intellectual enough, or "cool enough", or wore a bow tie, or liked sports ("A turn-off") or had a nerdy name like Sheldon. "People get pickier and pickier about trivial things, and lose sight of the really important things that people who are long married will tell you have kept them together"... a 1986 Newsweek -article, The Marriage Crunch [,] infamously -reported that a 40-year-old single woman was "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than get married... "younger people tend to be more appealing - they're more optimistic"... Chapter three of her book is titled How Feminism Fucked Up My Love Life... this version of feminism has hurt women by inflating their egos and giving them a false sense of what they deserve. "Part of it comes from the media and the movies. Everything we see is always women telling each other how -fabulous they are and that they deserve the best. It happens in real life, too"
Whodunnit? Twins deny DNA theft link - "Identical twins have hindered police investigations a number of times since the advent of DNA testing. In Malaysia last year, a man suspected of drug-smuggling and sentenced to death was released when the court could not prove whether it was he or his twin brother might have committed the crime"
Ramen Walker - About Ramen and Ramen Places in Singapore
Comparing Obama's address and facts - "President Obama, who once considered government spending freezes a hatchet job, told Americans on Wednesday it's now part of his solution to the exploding deficit. He didn't explain what had changed. His State of the Union speech skipped over a variety of complex realities in laying out a "common sense" call to action""
Change we can believe in.
Prostitutes sign confuses motorists - "A road sign warning of prostitutes is confusing motorists in an Italian town... Motorists and pedestrians have complained that the sign is 'confusing', saying they don't know if it means to watch out for crossing hookers or if it means prostitutes operate in the area"
This is the source of my current blog picture
Fact or Fiction?: A Cockroach Can Live without Its Head - "It is not just the body that can survive decapitation; the lonely head can thrive, too, waving its antennae back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam, Kunkel says. If given nutrients and refrigerated, a roach head can last even longer"
Toby, Dave & Ian Explain XKCD
Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers - "Those with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem. A similar link between educational attainment and alcohol consumption is seen among men, but the correlation is less strong."
Societe Generale probing 'anomalies' - "Societe Generale, famed for its former rogue trader Jerome Kerviel who racked up £4.4billion of losses, is investigating 'anomalies' found in a client account in Singapore"
This doesn't seem to have been reported in the Singaporean media
Catching a ruthless mangda — the pimp who promised the world - "Aged only 31, he lures poor Thai women to Singapore with the promise of wealth by selling their bodies. He is the head pimp, or mangda in Thai, of the infamous jungle prostitutes of Woodlands, an outer suburb of the city-state where a large number of imported foreign labourers work mostly in factories. For more than five years, he has "filled a need", as he puts it, by providing poorly paid Indian, Bengali, Thai, Malaysian and Chinese men with sex that they can afford... He never tells them that the price they pay for his services is servicing the first 160 customers for free, before they earn even one Singapore dollar for themselves. And few know they will be servicing multiple customers every night on a filthy mattress in the open air with only a thin blue tarpaulin wrapped around four posts for privacy"
***
PAP mass-recruiting Taiwanese PMETs by offering higher than market pay to lure them to work in Singapore - "One Taiwanese reader wrote to us expressing his disbelief that upon applying to work in Canada, he was offered a Singapore PR immediately by the migration agency under the Landed PR scheme which gives Singapore PRs to foreigners who have never stepped foot on Singapore... I rather stay put in Taiwan than to relocate to Singapore. At least it is a democracy here and we enjoy basic political freedoms. Who will be so stupid to bring up their children in a one-party dictatorship like Communist China?... Remember: if the PAP can so blatantly hire you to work in Singapore to make life miserable for native Singaporeans, it will be your turn one day too"
Conversation with Jiang Mei, a PRC freelance prostitute given Singapore PR by the PAP - "Jiang Mei: "Standard - 打飞机 ("beat aeroplane") - $50, 吹笛("blow flute") - $70, 全身服务 (whole body service) - $100″
Nick: "Hmmm....a bit ex, let me consider."
Jiang Mei: "Ahh...don't be like this, since you are here already, 来爽一爽, I will make you happy, you are my first customer of the day."
Nick: "Inclusive of massage?"
Jiang Mei: "Massage is $30 goes to the boss, I earn only through the special service. Try my whole body package, everything included, guarantee you will be extremely satisfied!" ... "Then try my blowing skills, 来啦! time is running out, "happy times" are precious, don't waste it, you are not short of money anyway right."
In typical TR fashion this is extremely misleading, because she got PR BEFORE she became a prostitute. The dialogue is hilarious though.
The Last Star Wars - "The Phantom Menace wasn't as bad you think. Buried inside its 133 minutes is a great movie dying to be born... This moment is so nimbly directed that for a moment you might suspect that it's Steven Spielberg behind the camera... Attack of the Clones had no such saving graces. A crude contraption, it reduced Star Wars to an extended action sequence... The biggest payoff comes at the film's end... After the candy-colored futuristic design of the prequels, coming aboard the solid, dark bridge of this star destroyer is comforting, like being wrapped up in a warm, old blanket; the even, menacing respiration of Darth Vader in the background might as well be our favorite childhood lullaby"
Duncan Blasts "Useless" Air Marshal Service - "More air marshals have been arrested than the number of people arrested by air marshals... we are spending approximately $200 million per arrest... 'Al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system. For a multitude of politicians, interest groups and professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, grant, and contract proposals'"
Lori Gottlieb: Miss Make-do seeks Mr Good Enough - "Gottlieb recounts dozens of times she dissed a man because he wasn't intellectual enough, or "cool enough", or wore a bow tie, or liked sports ("A turn-off") or had a nerdy name like Sheldon. "People get pickier and pickier about trivial things, and lose sight of the really important things that people who are long married will tell you have kept them together"... a 1986 Newsweek -article, The Marriage Crunch [,] infamously -reported that a 40-year-old single woman was "more likely to be killed by a terrorist" than get married... "younger people tend to be more appealing - they're more optimistic"... Chapter three of her book is titled How Feminism Fucked Up My Love Life... this version of feminism has hurt women by inflating their egos and giving them a false sense of what they deserve. "Part of it comes from the media and the movies. Everything we see is always women telling each other how -fabulous they are and that they deserve the best. It happens in real life, too"
Whodunnit? Twins deny DNA theft link - "Identical twins have hindered police investigations a number of times since the advent of DNA testing. In Malaysia last year, a man suspected of drug-smuggling and sentenced to death was released when the court could not prove whether it was he or his twin brother might have committed the crime"
Ramen Walker - About Ramen and Ramen Places in Singapore
Comparing Obama's address and facts - "President Obama, who once considered government spending freezes a hatchet job, told Americans on Wednesday it's now part of his solution to the exploding deficit. He didn't explain what had changed. His State of the Union speech skipped over a variety of complex realities in laying out a "common sense" call to action""
Change we can believe in.
Prostitutes sign confuses motorists - "A road sign warning of prostitutes is confusing motorists in an Italian town... Motorists and pedestrians have complained that the sign is 'confusing', saying they don't know if it means to watch out for crossing hookers or if it means prostitutes operate in the area"
This is the source of my current blog picture
Fact or Fiction?: A Cockroach Can Live without Its Head - "It is not just the body that can survive decapitation; the lonely head can thrive, too, waving its antennae back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam, Kunkel says. If given nutrients and refrigerated, a roach head can last even longer"
Toby, Dave & Ian Explain XKCD
Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers - "Those with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem. A similar link between educational attainment and alcohol consumption is seen among men, but the correlation is less strong."
Societe Generale probing 'anomalies' - "Societe Generale, famed for its former rogue trader Jerome Kerviel who racked up £4.4billion of losses, is investigating 'anomalies' found in a client account in Singapore"
This doesn't seem to have been reported in the Singaporean media
Catching a ruthless mangda — the pimp who promised the world - "Aged only 31, he lures poor Thai women to Singapore with the promise of wealth by selling their bodies. He is the head pimp, or mangda in Thai, of the infamous jungle prostitutes of Woodlands, an outer suburb of the city-state where a large number of imported foreign labourers work mostly in factories. For more than five years, he has "filled a need", as he puts it, by providing poorly paid Indian, Bengali, Thai, Malaysian and Chinese men with sex that they can afford... He never tells them that the price they pay for his services is servicing the first 160 customers for free, before they earn even one Singapore dollar for themselves. And few know they will be servicing multiple customers every night on a filthy mattress in the open air with only a thin blue tarpaulin wrapped around four posts for privacy"
Post ID: 1453388058760965674
Une française décrit une singapourienne
"Les cœurs des femmes sont comme ces petits meubles à secret, pleins de tiroirs emboîtés les uns dans les autres ; on se donne du mal, on se casse les ongles, et on trouve au fond quelque fleur desséchée, des brins de poussière – ou le vide." - Gustave Flaubert
***
Femmexpat - Ma copine singapourienne
"Chez ma copine singapourienne, tout est petit, la taille, le nez, les pieds, les seins... Des tous petits seins rikiki.... elle aimerait bien en avoir des beaux gros (comme moi...) alors elle porte des soutifs rembourés qui lui font la poitrine de Lara Croft... virtuelle !
Le dimanche midi ma copine singapourienne adore aller déjeuner dans son Club privé, avec les relations de son mari, qu’ils invitent à grands frais ! Un Brunch, très chic....
Alors là, débauche de diamants, aux oreilles, aux doigts, sur la montre, au cou, sur le téléphone portable. Elle doit montrer que son mari est riche, qu’il n’est pas un « Kiasu », le looser singapourien. Comme son mari, ma copine singapourienne rêve des cinq « C » : Condominium, Credit card, Club, Car, Cash.
Ma copine singapourienne va au temple régulièrement, dans sa BMW coupé, pour demander les faveurs de tel ou tel Dieu. A chaque problème, il existe le Dieu ad hoc...
Sur son pare-brise, ma copine singapourienne a plein de stickers, de son Club, de son Condo, de son Parking privé...
Au plus elle a de stickers, au plus elle est contente !
Ses idées sur la France
Ma copine singapourienne ne comprend pas pourquoi je ne fais pas mon ménage en Chanel ou en Vuitton, vu que je suis française, elle ne comprend pas que je puisse manger des escargots mais adore les pattes de poulet. Pour ma copine singapourienne, la France c’est dépenser beaucoup de singapore dollars....Ma copine singapourienne adore le shopping... Elle ne critique pas le gouvernement et voue une vraie dévotion à Lee Kwan Yeu qui a fait de son pays, l’un des plus riches d’Asie....
Certes, il y a beaucoup d’interdictions, no smoking, no littering, no spitting, no chewing gum , no feeding birds, no trepassing... Mais elle s’en fout car il n’est pas interdit de gagner de l’argent beaucoup d’argent pour s’acheter des sacs Vuitton, des escarpins Chanel, des carrés Hermés... Je ne la contrarie jamais, elle est mignonne ma copine singapourienne.... Elle fait marcher l’économie de Mon pays"
***
Femmexpat - Ma copine singapourienne
"Chez ma copine singapourienne, tout est petit, la taille, le nez, les pieds, les seins... Des tous petits seins rikiki.... elle aimerait bien en avoir des beaux gros (comme moi...) alors elle porte des soutifs rembourés qui lui font la poitrine de Lara Croft... virtuelle !
Le dimanche midi ma copine singapourienne adore aller déjeuner dans son Club privé, avec les relations de son mari, qu’ils invitent à grands frais ! Un Brunch, très chic....
Alors là, débauche de diamants, aux oreilles, aux doigts, sur la montre, au cou, sur le téléphone portable. Elle doit montrer que son mari est riche, qu’il n’est pas un « Kiasu », le looser singapourien. Comme son mari, ma copine singapourienne rêve des cinq « C » : Condominium, Credit card, Club, Car, Cash.
Ma copine singapourienne va au temple régulièrement, dans sa BMW coupé, pour demander les faveurs de tel ou tel Dieu. A chaque problème, il existe le Dieu ad hoc...
Sur son pare-brise, ma copine singapourienne a plein de stickers, de son Club, de son Condo, de son Parking privé...
Au plus elle a de stickers, au plus elle est contente !
Ses idées sur la France
Ma copine singapourienne ne comprend pas pourquoi je ne fais pas mon ménage en Chanel ou en Vuitton, vu que je suis française, elle ne comprend pas que je puisse manger des escargots mais adore les pattes de poulet. Pour ma copine singapourienne, la France c’est dépenser beaucoup de singapore dollars....Ma copine singapourienne adore le shopping... Elle ne critique pas le gouvernement et voue une vraie dévotion à Lee Kwan Yeu qui a fait de son pays, l’un des plus riches d’Asie....
Certes, il y a beaucoup d’interdictions, no smoking, no littering, no spitting, no chewing gum , no feeding birds, no trepassing... Mais elle s’en fout car il n’est pas interdit de gagner de l’argent beaucoup d’argent pour s’acheter des sacs Vuitton, des escarpins Chanel, des carrés Hermés... Je ne la contrarie jamais, elle est mignonne ma copine singapourienne.... Elle fait marcher l’économie de Mon pays"
Post ID: 4621225221393102009
Friday, April 09, 2010
Lawyer jokes I haven't yet heard
"What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people?" - Jeph Jacques
***
There was a loser who couldn't get a date. He went to a bar and asked this one guy how to get a date. The guy said, "It's simple. I just say, I'm a lawyer."
So the guy went up to a pretty woman and asked her out.
After she said no, he told her that it was probably a good thing because he had a case early in the morning.
She said, "Oh!!!! Your a lawyer?"
He said, "Why yes I am!"
So they went to his place and when they were in bed, screwing, he started to laugh to himself.
When she asked what was so funny, he answered, "Well, I've only been a lawyer for 15 minutes, and I'm already screwing someone!"
***
A guy walks into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing "Love" stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing.
The man says "I'm sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, 'Guess who?'"
"But why?" asks the man.
"I'm a divorce lawyer."
***
A man woke up in a hospital bed and called for his doctor.
He asked "Give it to me straight. How long have I got?" The physician replied that he doubted that his patient would survive the night. The man then said "Call for my lawyer."
When the lawyer arrived, the man asked for his physician to stand on one side of the bed, while the lawyer stood on the other. The man then laid back and closed his eyes.
When he remained silent for several minutes, the physician asked what he had in mind.
The man replied "Jesus died with a thief on either side, and I thought I'd check out the same way."
***
A New York Lawyer died and arrived at the pearly gates.
Saint Peter asks him "What have you done to merit entrance into Heaven?" The Lawyer thought a moment, then said, "A week ago, I gave a quarter to a homeless person on the street."
Saint Peter asked Gabriel to check this out in the record, and after a moment Gabriel affirmed that this was true.
Saint Peter said, "Well , that's fine, but it's not really quite enough to get you into Heaven." The Lawyer said, "Wait Wait! There's more! Three years ago I also gave a homeless person a quarter."
Saint Peter nodded to Gabriel, who after a moment nodded back, affirming this, too, had been verified.
Saint Peter then whispered to Gabriel, "Well, what do you suggest we do with this fellow?" Gabriel gave the Lawyer a sidelong glance, then said to Saint Peter, "Let's give him back his 50 cents and tell him to go to Hell."
(all via Tan Peng Chin LLC)
***
There was a loser who couldn't get a date. He went to a bar and asked this one guy how to get a date. The guy said, "It's simple. I just say, I'm a lawyer."
So the guy went up to a pretty woman and asked her out.
After she said no, he told her that it was probably a good thing because he had a case early in the morning.
She said, "Oh!!!! Your a lawyer?"
He said, "Why yes I am!"
So they went to his place and when they were in bed, screwing, he started to laugh to himself.
When she asked what was so funny, he answered, "Well, I've only been a lawyer for 15 minutes, and I'm already screwing someone!"
***
A guy walks into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing "Love" stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing.
The man says "I'm sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, 'Guess who?'"
"But why?" asks the man.
"I'm a divorce lawyer."
***
A man woke up in a hospital bed and called for his doctor.
He asked "Give it to me straight. How long have I got?" The physician replied that he doubted that his patient would survive the night. The man then said "Call for my lawyer."
When the lawyer arrived, the man asked for his physician to stand on one side of the bed, while the lawyer stood on the other. The man then laid back and closed his eyes.
When he remained silent for several minutes, the physician asked what he had in mind.
The man replied "Jesus died with a thief on either side, and I thought I'd check out the same way."
***
A New York Lawyer died and arrived at the pearly gates.
Saint Peter asks him "What have you done to merit entrance into Heaven?" The Lawyer thought a moment, then said, "A week ago, I gave a quarter to a homeless person on the street."
Saint Peter asked Gabriel to check this out in the record, and after a moment Gabriel affirmed that this was true.
Saint Peter said, "Well , that's fine, but it's not really quite enough to get you into Heaven." The Lawyer said, "Wait Wait! There's more! Three years ago I also gave a homeless person a quarter."
Saint Peter nodded to Gabriel, who after a moment nodded back, affirming this, too, had been verified.
Saint Peter then whispered to Gabriel, "Well, what do you suggest we do with this fellow?" Gabriel gave the Lawyer a sidelong glance, then said to Saint Peter, "Let's give him back his 50 cents and tell him to go to Hell."
(all via Tan Peng Chin LLC)
Post ID: 1729978019952081104
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Probably the best ST Forum letter I've ever read
"I never guess. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
***
***
I AM as Rafflesian/Raffles Girls' School (RGS)/'elite' as they come. My father was a Raffles Institution boy; I went through Raffles Girls' Primary School (RGPS), RGS, then Raffles Junior College, then on to the National University of Singapore, boarding at Raffles Hall. My sisters went through much the same route. My little girls are in RGPS.
I recognise the syndrome Ms Sandra Leong talks about ('Scoring high in grades but not in values', last Saturday). I live it, breathe it. Most of my friends are like me, graduates. Most of us live in landed property, condominiums or minimally, executive condos or five-room flats. None of us talks about making ends meet, or how we must turn down medical treatment for our aged parents because we cannot find the money.
But I will add to her essay: that those traits, that aura is not unique to RGS girls. It resonates within a social group, and its aspirants, the well educated or well endowed. I hang out with so many, I have stories by the barrel.
- My doctor friend, non-RGS and one would even say anti-RGS, was shocked when she found out how many As I got in my A levels, since I opted to do an arts degree. In her words, 'I thought all arts people were dumb, that is why they go to arts'. Her own family boasts only doctors and lawyers - she said they would never contemplate any other profession - and by implication, all other professions are below those two.
- A church-mate who lived in a landed property in District 10 - definitely not an RGS girl, and I venture to guess, not even a graduate - once, in all sincerity and innocence, prayed for all those who had to take public transport and live in HDB flats, for God to give them strength to bear these trials.
- Another friend, also non-RGS and a non-graduate, shudders when she recounts the few months she lived in an HDB flat. And that was a five-room flat. Imagine the culture shock if she had lived in a three-room flat.
I continue to meet people who never visit hawker centres, who wonder why the poor people do not work harder to help themselves, who fret if their children do not get into the Gifted Education Programme (reserved for the top 1 per cent of nine-year-olds).
The pattern repeats itself in the next generation. When my 11-year-old had to go on a 'race' around Singapore, using only public transport, the teacher asked for a show of hands on how many had never taken public transport (bus and MRT) before. In a class of 30, five raised their hands. I think if the teacher had asked for those who had taken public transport fewer than 10 times in their young lives, the number would have more than doubled or tripled.
Many of us live in ivory towers. I know I did. I used to think Singapore was pretty much 'it' all - a fantastic meritocracy that allowed an 'HDB child' from a non-graduate family to make it. I boasted about our efficiency - 'you can emerge from your plane and be out in 10 minutes' - and so on.
It was not that I thought little of the rest of the world or other people; it was that I was so ensconced in my cocoon, I just thought little of anything outside my own zone. 'Snow? Yes, nice.' 'Starvation in Ethiopia? Donate $50.' The wonders of the world we lived in, the sufferings and joys of those who shared this earth were just academic knowledge to me, voraciously devoured for my essays or to hold intelligent conversations at dinner parties.
Then I lived in China for seven years. I looked on in amazement as the skinny tree trunk in front of my yard blossomed and bore pomegranates when spring thawed the ground. And marvelled at the lands that spread east, west, north and south of me as we drove and drove and drove, and never ended. I became friends and fans of colleagues and other Chinese nationals, whom so many Singapore friends had warned me to be wary of.
I realised it was not the world and other people who were limited in their intellect, in their determination, in their resourcefulness; it was me and my world views which were limited. I also know full well that if I had stayed in Singapore, in my cushy job, comfortable in my Bukit Timah home, I would have remained the same - self-sufficient. I had always believed that if I put my mind to it, I could achieve anything. For example, I used to look at sick people and root: 'Fight with all your willpower, and you will recover.' And when they did not, I'd think they had failed themselves. I, like Ms Leong, believed 'mental dexterity equated strength of character and virtue'.
But those years in China taught me terrible lessons on loneliness. I learnt that money (an expatriate pay package) and brains (suitcases of books) did not make me happier than my maid who cycled home to her family every night in minus 20 deg C on icy roads to a dinner of rice and vegetables. The past few years, I have known devastating loss and grief so deep I woke up in the morning and wondered how the sun could still shine and people could go on with their lives.
And so perhaps I have learnt the humility I lacked. Humility about how small I am in the whole schema of things. About how helpless I truly stand, with my intellect in my hands, with my million-dollar roof over my head. To remember, in the darkest valleys of my journey, it was not Ayn Rand or other Booker list authors who lifted me, but the phone calls, the kindness of strangers, that made each day a little less bleak.
And perhaps finally, to really see other people, and understand - not deflect, nor reflect their anger and viewpoints, but see their shyness, pain, struggles, joys. Just because I was 'fortunate enough' to have trawled the bottom levels. And perhaps that is the antidote to the oft unwitting elitism so many of us carry with us.
Sim Soek Tien (Ms)
This is definitely better than the article it is responding to.
"I continue to meet people who never visit hawker centres, who wonder why the poor people do not work harder to help themselves" - Maybe she knows some scholars/Ministers
Comment in the thread: "Charles ****ens could well had been thinking of Singapore when he wrote "A Tale of 2 Cities" ......"
[NB: If you noticed the EPIC FAIL, ST Online calls Charles Dickens "Charles ****ens"]
Addendum:
""**** Cheney" would've been a bit difficult to explain hehe"
"There was another filter on a forum that called her Emily Thingyinson."
Post ID: 5062249556368452529
À tort ou à raison
<< On ne sait jamais qui a raison ou qui a tort. C'est difficile de juger. Moi, j'ai longtemps donné raison à tout le monde. Jusqu'au jour où je me suis aperçu que la plupart des gens à qui je donnais raison avaient tort ! Donc j'avais raison ! Par conséquent, j'avais tort ! Tort de donner raison à des gens qui avaient le tort de croire qu'ils avaient raison. C'est-à-dire que moi qui n'avais pas tort, je n'avais aucune raison de ne pas donner tort à des gens qui prétendaient avoir raison, alors qu'ils avaient tort. J'ai raison, non ? Puisqu'ils avaient tort ! Et sans raison, encore ! Là, j'insiste, parce que... moi aussi, il arrive que j'aie tort. Mais quand j'ai tort, j'ai mes raisons, que je ne donne pas. Ce serait reconnaître mes torts ! ! ! J'ai raison, non ? Remarquez... il m'arrive aussi de donner raison à des gens qui ont raison aussi. Mais, là encore, c'est un tort. C'est comme si je donnais tort à des gens qui ont tort. Il n'y a pas de raison ! En résumé, je crois qu'on a toujours tort d'essayer d'avoir raison devant des gens qui ont toutes les bonnes raisons de croire qu'ils n'ont pas tort ! >>
--- Sens dessus dessous. (sketches) / Raymond Devos
GAH
--- Sens dessus dessous. (sketches) / Raymond Devos
GAH
Post ID: 6729927025816070617
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
No mode of epistemology is supreme / The value of modesty
"The best way to compile inaccurate information that no one wants is to make it up." - Scott Adams
***
A good counterpoint to those who value [Personal] Experience above all else (and might even go to the point of pooh-pooh-ing modes of epistemology other than Experience):
Marc Pachter: The art of the interview
"One of the great American biographers... Dumas Malone.
He did a five-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, spent virtually his whole life with Thomas Jefferson, and by the way, at one point I asked him,
"Would you like to have met him?"
And he said, "Well, of course, but actually, I know him better than anyone who ever met him, because I got to read all of his letters."
So, he was very satisfied with the kind of relationship they had over 50 years."
And on the value of modesty:
"You want energy, you want the life force, but you really want them also to think that they have a story worth sharing.
The worst interviews that you can ever have are with people who are modest.
Never ever get up on a stage with somebody who's modest, because all of these people have been assembled to listen to them, and they sit there and they say,
"Aw, shucks, it was an accident."
There's nothing that ever happens that justifies people taking good hours of the day to be with them.
The worst interview I ever did: William L. Shirer. The journalist who did "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." This guy had met Hitler and Gandhi within six months, and every time I'd ask him about it, he'd say,
"Oh, I just happened to be there. Didn't matter."
Whatever. Awful.
I never would ever agree to interview a modest person. They have to think that they did something and that they want to share it with you."
***
A good counterpoint to those who value [Personal] Experience above all else (and might even go to the point of pooh-pooh-ing modes of epistemology other than Experience):
Marc Pachter: The art of the interview
"One of the great American biographers... Dumas Malone.
He did a five-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, spent virtually his whole life with Thomas Jefferson, and by the way, at one point I asked him,
"Would you like to have met him?"
And he said, "Well, of course, but actually, I know him better than anyone who ever met him, because I got to read all of his letters."
So, he was very satisfied with the kind of relationship they had over 50 years."
And on the value of modesty:
"You want energy, you want the life force, but you really want them also to think that they have a story worth sharing.
The worst interviews that you can ever have are with people who are modest.
Never ever get up on a stage with somebody who's modest, because all of these people have been assembled to listen to them, and they sit there and they say,
"Aw, shucks, it was an accident."
There's nothing that ever happens that justifies people taking good hours of the day to be with them.
The worst interview I ever did: William L. Shirer. The journalist who did "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." This guy had met Hitler and Gandhi within six months, and every time I'd ask him about it, he'd say,
"Oh, I just happened to be there. Didn't matter."
Whatever. Awful.
I never would ever agree to interview a modest person. They have to think that they did something and that they want to share it with you."
Post ID: 1874451306207718230
Echo sucks - here's how to leave comments easily before I switch to Disqus
"The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps." - Benjamin Disraeli
***
Frigid Girl: your [comments box] is damn irritating and takes ten years to load
i ain't gonna comment anymore
Ever since JS-Kit forcibly migrated us ex-Haloscan users to Echo, I've not been happy with the new commenting system, because of various issues. Chief among them:
i) Speed (or rather lack thereof - if you click on the "Comments" link you will get a popup box that takes forever to load)
ii) Forcing us to pay US$9.95 a year to "upgrade", or lose our accounts
iii) The e-mail address of commenters is not captured so we can reply to them
iv) JS-Kit has a horrible attitude towards their customers
(You can read complaints by other bloggers)
I intend to move to Disqus (an alternative comments system) soon, but in the meantime you leave comments quickly by going to the post pages and using the forms at the bottom (for example, the post page for this page is)
There're 2 ways to go to access a post page:
1) Click on the post title (the orange line at the start of this post)
ii) Click on the timestamp (the blue text after "Posted by Agagooga", for example the timestamp of this post reads "12:03 AM")
[iii) If you're using an RSS reader, there is probably a function to visit the URL of the post you're reading]
***
Frigid Girl: your [comments box] is damn irritating and takes ten years to load
i ain't gonna comment anymore
Ever since JS-Kit forcibly migrated us ex-Haloscan users to Echo, I've not been happy with the new commenting system, because of various issues. Chief among them:
i) Speed (or rather lack thereof - if you click on the "Comments" link you will get a popup box that takes forever to load)
ii) Forcing us to pay US$9.95 a year to "upgrade", or lose our accounts
iii) The e-mail address of commenters is not captured so we can reply to them
iv) JS-Kit has a horrible attitude towards their customers
(You can read complaints by other bloggers)
I intend to move to Disqus (an alternative comments system) soon, but in the meantime you leave comments quickly by going to the post pages and using the forms at the bottom (for example, the post page for this page is)
There're 2 ways to go to access a post page:
1) Click on the post title (the orange line at the start of this post)
ii) Click on the timestamp (the blue text after "Posted by Agagooga", for example the timestamp of this post reads "12:03 AM")
[iii) If you're using an RSS reader, there is probably a function to visit the URL of the post you're reading]
Post ID: 4101912903800386051
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
On comparative grocery shopping options in Singapore
A: Ntuc retails lurpak butter for $5.95, versus cold storage at $5.70! Fairprice my ass.
Me: Yes Indomee is cheaper at Cold Storage Gourmet than Fairprice
A: from what i can observe, ntuc sells things cheaper because they are lower quality (like vegetables that are not as fresh etc). i always try to shop at cold storage / jasons / isetan.
B: I only buy stuff I can't get from Cold Storage at NTUC.
Their vegetables are from China, their apples are shriveled and full of bruises. Even my downstairs 24-hour MCP supermarket sells better things (and cheaper) than NTUC.
C: Usually the grades of fresh produce are A grade from Cold storage, B for NTUC/Giant/Shop n save whilst C for SS. Try buying on thursday for NTUC.. the stuff comes in then.
Me: Yes Indomee is cheaper at Cold Storage Gourmet than Fairprice
A: from what i can observe, ntuc sells things cheaper because they are lower quality (like vegetables that are not as fresh etc). i always try to shop at cold storage / jasons / isetan.
B: I only buy stuff I can't get from Cold Storage at NTUC.
Their vegetables are from China, their apples are shriveled and full of bruises. Even my downstairs 24-hour MCP supermarket sells better things (and cheaper) than NTUC.
C: Usually the grades of fresh produce are A grade from Cold storage, B for NTUC/Giant/Shop n save whilst C for SS. Try buying on thursday for NTUC.. the stuff comes in then.
Post ID: 1176510359658901698
On the fatuous romantic idea obsession with absolutes
"It takes too much energy to be against something unless it's really important." - Madeleine L'Engle
***
The Absolutists
"An absolutist might miss that a person can be rational in some areas of thought and irrational in other areas. An absolutist divides people into those who are evil and those who are not, failing to recognize the ease with which otherwise good people can fall into evil deeds. An absolutist might sound like a Zoroastrian and reduce an issue to what he calls a war between good and evil or between light and darkness.
In 2007 an absolutist might see William Jefferson Clinton as totally without morals or political merit because of his womanizing more than a decade ago. An absolutist looks at some narrow part of a person and condemns the whole person...
A few people in this political season are absolutist about political choice. They cannot have everything in an available candidate so they claim there is no significant difference between this candidate and others. In 2003, before the war in Iraq, a few were arguing that if you do not attack everybody doing bad things you should attack no one -- not one of the better arguments against going to war...
In other words, someone is an absolutist when he or she confuses a part with the whole. Put another way, they oversimplify. Analyzing the origins of a war, someone might reduce it all to oil when a variety of issues are involved...
In conversations, absolutists are rigid and tight in their responses to people who point out contradictions in the point of view... These are people with whom one does not have a dialogue. One merely lets them explain.
***
The Absolutists
"An absolutist might miss that a person can be rational in some areas of thought and irrational in other areas. An absolutist divides people into those who are evil and those who are not, failing to recognize the ease with which otherwise good people can fall into evil deeds. An absolutist might sound like a Zoroastrian and reduce an issue to what he calls a war between good and evil or between light and darkness.
In 2007 an absolutist might see William Jefferson Clinton as totally without morals or political merit because of his womanizing more than a decade ago. An absolutist looks at some narrow part of a person and condemns the whole person...
A few people in this political season are absolutist about political choice. They cannot have everything in an available candidate so they claim there is no significant difference between this candidate and others. In 2003, before the war in Iraq, a few were arguing that if you do not attack everybody doing bad things you should attack no one -- not one of the better arguments against going to war...
In other words, someone is an absolutist when he or she confuses a part with the whole. Put another way, they oversimplify. Analyzing the origins of a war, someone might reduce it all to oil when a variety of issues are involved...
In conversations, absolutists are rigid and tight in their responses to people who point out contradictions in the point of view... These are people with whom one does not have a dialogue. One merely lets them explain.
Post ID: 3363521922758755436
Presenting the latest, hottest indie movie
"Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines." - David Letterman
***
"WINNER - Pretentious Festival
WINNER - Indie Circlejerk
WINNER - Stupid Shit No One Cares About...
'Breathtaking soundtrack by overrated artists' - Other City Newspaper
'What is this shit?' - Codger Eggbert
indie as fuck
BECAUSE YOU AREN'T TIRED OF SLIGHTLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES YET"
***
"WINNER - Pretentious Festival
WINNER - Indie Circlejerk
WINNER - Stupid Shit No One Cares About...
'Breathtaking soundtrack by overrated artists' - Other City Newspaper
'What is this shit?' - Codger Eggbert
indie as fuck
BECAUSE YOU AREN'T TIRED OF SLIGHTLY DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES YET"
Post ID: 7015725139888480025
Monday, April 05, 2010
On moral deficiency
"Calixto Bieito's Don Giovanni lives in a perpetual stupor brought on by drink, sex and drugs, oblivious of any ethical barrier that could prevent him from sacrificing his own safety, and that of others, to this frenzy of the senses. These two themes -the protagonist's amorality and the self-destruction towards which his conduct drives him- are pivotal to Mozart's Don Giovanni. By shifting the action from 18th century Seville to present-day Barcelona and turning the aristocratic Don Giovanni into a man on the fringes of society, Bieito seeks to conjure up images that will cause an impact on his audience by revealing the full stark horror of his lifestyle, without the mitigating or distancing effect of 18th century costumes and gallantries.
Bieito's Don Giovanni is a man whose physical magnetism enables him to enlist the complicity of his gang of cronies; a man who breaks the rules, not in order to conquer his chosen sexual victims, but out of the sheer pleasure of destructive transgression; a man who burns out his life almost without realizing it, whose awareness is numbed by a state of stupor he cannot control, who seeks new sensations in order to escape, not to assert himself.."
(Gran Teatre de Liceu - Barcelona [down] via www.simonkeenlyside.info [down])
Bieito's Don Giovanni is a man whose physical magnetism enables him to enlist the complicity of his gang of cronies; a man who breaks the rules, not in order to conquer his chosen sexual victims, but out of the sheer pleasure of destructive transgression; a man who burns out his life almost without realizing it, whose awareness is numbed by a state of stupor he cannot control, who seeks new sensations in order to escape, not to assert himself.."
(Gran Teatre de Liceu - Barcelona [down] via www.simonkeenlyside.info [down])
Post ID: 6675279197725219741
New blog picture - 5th April
New blog picture:
One of the many dangers of Italy
One of the many dangers of Italy
Post ID: 5197870904583881822
Links - 5th April 2010
"Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish." - Steven Wright
***
The Male Brain: More Complex Than You Think - "What happens when a guy is becoming a father?
The hormone testosterone is going down and the hormone prolactin is going up in the male brain, because he is smelling the pheromones of his pregnant wife. Prolactin is the hormone in females that makes breast milk. We don't know what it's doing in males yet. We assume it has something to do with making the daddy brain circuits. By the time the baby is born, he's able to hear infant cries much better. So something about his auditory-perceptual system has actually changed. His sex drive has gone down along with his testosterone. Therefore his brain is being primed to be a caretaker. If he doesn't get some alone time [after birth] with the baby, however, the daddy brain won't develop fully."
Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 year-old - "Joan Higgins, a pet shop owner, was caught selling the fish to the teenager in a 'sting' operation by council officials. She was then prosecuted in an eight month court process estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £20,000. Under new animal welfare laws, passed in 2006, it is it illegal to sell goldfish to under 16s. Offenders can be punished with up to 12 months in prison"
Summary of The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions, by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz - "After establishing that pill diffusion among young and unmarried women was at least partially caused by legal changes, K&G show the relationship between pill use and age at first marriage and career investment by analyzing cohorts of women born 1921-1960. Alternative explanations, such as anti-discrimination laws, liberalization of abortion policy, and feminist influence on culture are also considered."
Cleavage can harm your career, study shows - "Elisabeth Squires, author of Boobs: A Guide to Your Girls says woman have stopped power dressing in favour of tight low-cut tops and short skirts. But it could be putting off colleagues and hampering changes of promotion... 'Women understand the power of breasts in general, but they don't understand the power of their own'... A study commissioned by Squires found that displaying too much flesh in the office can be distracting and damage a woman's career. Men who took part in the study where shown photographs of women in a generic workplace in various outfits and with different bra sizes. When asked which of the women looked the most professional and personable, most men picked out women who were discreetly dressed and women with medium-sized breasts"
The Hidden Meaning of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" - "When I first heard Telephone on the radio, I thought the song was about Lady Gaga receiving phone calls from an annoying dude while she’s out in a club... the “telephone” is a metaphor for Gaga’s brain and the fact that she is not answering that phone (her brain) means that she has “dissociated” from reality. Dissociation is the ultimate goal of Monarch mind control. It is induced by traumatizing events, such as electroshock therapy or torture, to force the victim to dissociate from reality. This enables the handlers to create in the victim an alter personality that can be programmed to perform various tasks, such as carrying out an assassination... Gaga and Beyoncé engage into a highly dissociative conversation. It basically sounds like dialogue between two mind-controlled slaves. The phrase “Trust is like a mirror. You can fix it if it’s broke but you can still see the crack in the motherfucker’s reflection” can refer to a cheating boyfriend and can also refer to the permanent damage caused by the fragmenting of one’s personality in mind control"
Wild literary readings have a lot in common with conspiracy theories
The origins of selflessness: Fair play | The Economist - "People living in communities that lack market integration display relatively little concern with fairness or with punishing unfairness in transactions. Notions of fairness increase steadily as societies achieve greater market integration... As societies have become more complex, those that have developed systems of sanitation, transport, energy and so on have been more successful than those which have not. It may be that the notion of fair play is an intangible equivalent of these systems... Participation in [a world] religion led to offers in the dictator game that were up to 10 percentage points higher than those of non-participants. World religions such as Christianity, with their moral codes, their omniscient, judgmental gods and their beliefs in heaven and hell, might indeed be expected to enforce notions of fairness on their participants, so this observation makes sense. From an economic point of view, therefore, such judgmental religions are actually a progressive force. That might explain why many societies that have embraced them have been so successful, and thus why such beliefs become world religions in the first place"
The battle of the sexes: Face off | The Economist - "In a man, the craggy physical characteristics associated with masculinity often indicate a strong immune system and thus a likelihood of his producing healthier offspring than his softer-featured confrères will. But such men are also more promiscuous and do not care as much about long-term relationships, leaving women to raise their kids alone... In environments where disease is rampant and the child-mortality rate is high, women prefer masculine men. In places like America and Britain, where knowing how to analyse health-care plans is more important than fighting off infection, effeminate men are just as competitive... polygamy is more common in societies that have more disease. In those societies, a modern Hercules can have his way because women prefer to share him rather than have a wimp to themselves"
Some Yahoo email accounts hacked in China, Taiwan - ""A lot of people I used to contact in Lanzhou, Xi'an and elsewhere have not been reachable by phone for the past few weeks"... "China is going back rather than going forward in terms of information and control. That reflects the lack of confidence in the (current) Chinese leaders... China's Internet has become a controlled Internet, an internal Internet rather than linked internationally. It defeats the whole purpose""
Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief - "“Cunning, clever, conniving, and creative,” as one prosecutor would call him, Blanchard eluded the police for years. But eventually he made a mistake. And that mistake would take two officers from the modest police force of Winnipeg, Canada, on a wild ride of high tech capers across Africa, Canada, and Europe. Says Mitch McCormick, one of those Winnipeg investigators, “We had never seen anything like it”"
Former TV actor Mark Chow fined S$6,000 for molesting woman - channelnewsasia.com - "Chow molested the 27-year-old former pub operations manager while she was asleep in her office in the wee hours of the morning. The 30-year-old had touched various parts of her body, including her buttocks and left thigh... Chow's defence was that he was merely trying to wake her up."
Moral of the story: guys should only wake girls up with ten foot poles. And/or find a better excuse.
The Stats Behind Prostitution (link removed ) - "$1 - the median price for many prostitutes in South Africa... 1 out of 2 of them have HIV 1 in 10 men in the world have purchased a prostitute. The rate in China is 1 in 4. And 1 in 5 Korean men pay for sex more than 4 times a month... In America, 80,000 citizens are arrested a year for soliciting sex, costing tax payers $200 million a year... 2 out of 5 men paid for services they never receive 1 out of 5 were robbed by the prostitute The Top 3 Reasons men paid for Sex: 1) Satisfy an immediate urge for sex 2) Experience a specific physical, racial or sexual fetish 3) Unsatisfied in their current relationship"
State of the Art - David Pogue’s Review of the iPad - "The haters tend to be techies; the fans tend to be regular people. Therefore, no single write-up can serve both readerships adequately. There’s but one solution: Write separate reviews for these two audiences"
High Court Judge overturns John Ng's decision (update 1) - "High Court Judge Choo Han Teck has overturned District Judge John Ng's decision to acquit five activists for conducting a procession in 2007. Mr Choo ordered that the matter return to DJ Ng for conviction and sentencing... A simple act of conducting a walk that, even according to the court, posed no public disorder or nuisance is not allowed in Singapore. Yet Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong insists that Singapore is a democracy based on the rule of law"
Who is surprised by this?
How bureaucrats decided not to save the bluefin tuna - ""This is just to test the system," the chairman said. "Here's a simple question to make sure the buttons are working properly: Is Doha the capital of Qatar? To record Yes, please press button number two." Thirty seconds later, once the 150 delegates had reached forward to prod the relevant button and the votes were recorded, two nations, Croatia and Cameroon, had voted No and - perhaps from force of habit long-established in security councils and global gatherings - China abstained. The Cameroon and Croatian delegations could not or maybe did not want to explain why they appeared to have learnt little about the city in which they had spent the past week. The Chinese delegation remained inscrutable and said nothing. Perhaps they thought it might be giving too much away if they stated unequivocally that Doha was the capital of Qatar. What this identified, I think, is a level of cynicism and mistrust that is new to the convention... Maybe it is naive to be surprised that that CITES' lofty ideals have become sullied and tarnished by geo-politics, but it is impossible to apply anything other than a very cynical interpretation to the bluefin tuna vote"
Louis Vuitton's Ponytails - "Marc Jacobs and New York beauty editors are on the same page, apparently... To complement Jacobs's ladylike, vintage-inspired collection, Redken creative consultant Guido gave the models high, bouncy ponytails with perfect 50s curls at the ends"
Bardo Bizarre Foods Dinner #2 - "Flatbread pizza with meal worms, crickets, roasted red pepper, feta cheese and red onion. One of the diners said “You could put feta on anything and roast it and it would taste good.” The big globule in the photo is roasted garlic. I tried the mealworms and they were tasteless. I tried the crickets and they were crunchy (obviously) and tasted good, just like grasshoppers and locusts. Once you put them on the pizza and added garlic and feta, you couldn’t taste them"
Doctors baffled by huge moobs - "A CHINESE farmer has the world's biggest set of MAN BOOBS, say doctors. Busty Guo Feng, 53, is desperately seeking a solution to his massive moobs as they get in the way of his manual work. And fascinated locals queue up at his dairy farm to point and laugh — forcing him to wear a heavy coat at all times, even in hot weather."
Online sex shop a hit with Muslims - "All ingredients are halal, or "permissible under Islam", said Mr Aouragh, and conspicuously absent is any type of pornography... Muslim clerics like Dutch Imam Abdul Jabbar see no harm in Mr Aouragh's site. "As long as he doesn't sell sex toys or those sorts of things there is no problem," he said, adding: the Prophet Mohammad gave lots of advice about sex in marriage and "there need not be any shame""
OpenRPG: Online Virtual Tabletop - "OpenRPG is an Internet application that allows people to play Role Playing Games in real-time over the Internet. OpenRPG is free, open source, software, distributed under GNU/GPL license"
The Public Editor - Censored in Singapore - "The notion that it could be defamatory to call a political family a dynasty seems ludicrous in the United States, where The Times has routinely applied the label to the Kennedys, the Bushes and the Clintons. But Singapore is a different story... Safire told The American Journalism Review in 1995 that the world’s free press should unite and pull out of Singapore in the face of any new libel action. I think that is what should happen too, but it never has... I think Google set an example for everyone who believes in the free flow of information"
***
The Male Brain: More Complex Than You Think - "What happens when a guy is becoming a father?
The hormone testosterone is going down and the hormone prolactin is going up in the male brain, because he is smelling the pheromones of his pregnant wife. Prolactin is the hormone in females that makes breast milk. We don't know what it's doing in males yet. We assume it has something to do with making the daddy brain circuits. By the time the baby is born, he's able to hear infant cries much better. So something about his auditory-perceptual system has actually changed. His sex drive has gone down along with his testosterone. Therefore his brain is being primed to be a caretaker. If he doesn't get some alone time [after birth] with the baby, however, the daddy brain won't develop fully."
Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 year-old - "Joan Higgins, a pet shop owner, was caught selling the fish to the teenager in a 'sting' operation by council officials. She was then prosecuted in an eight month court process estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £20,000. Under new animal welfare laws, passed in 2006, it is it illegal to sell goldfish to under 16s. Offenders can be punished with up to 12 months in prison"
Summary of The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions, by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz - "After establishing that pill diffusion among young and unmarried women was at least partially caused by legal changes, K&G show the relationship between pill use and age at first marriage and career investment by analyzing cohorts of women born 1921-1960. Alternative explanations, such as anti-discrimination laws, liberalization of abortion policy, and feminist influence on culture are also considered."
Cleavage can harm your career, study shows - "Elisabeth Squires, author of Boobs: A Guide to Your Girls says woman have stopped power dressing in favour of tight low-cut tops and short skirts. But it could be putting off colleagues and hampering changes of promotion... 'Women understand the power of breasts in general, but they don't understand the power of their own'... A study commissioned by Squires found that displaying too much flesh in the office can be distracting and damage a woman's career. Men who took part in the study where shown photographs of women in a generic workplace in various outfits and with different bra sizes. When asked which of the women looked the most professional and personable, most men picked out women who were discreetly dressed and women with medium-sized breasts"
The Hidden Meaning of Lady Gaga's "Telephone" - "When I first heard Telephone on the radio, I thought the song was about Lady Gaga receiving phone calls from an annoying dude while she’s out in a club... the “telephone” is a metaphor for Gaga’s brain and the fact that she is not answering that phone (her brain) means that she has “dissociated” from reality. Dissociation is the ultimate goal of Monarch mind control. It is induced by traumatizing events, such as electroshock therapy or torture, to force the victim to dissociate from reality. This enables the handlers to create in the victim an alter personality that can be programmed to perform various tasks, such as carrying out an assassination... Gaga and Beyoncé engage into a highly dissociative conversation. It basically sounds like dialogue between two mind-controlled slaves. The phrase “Trust is like a mirror. You can fix it if it’s broke but you can still see the crack in the motherfucker’s reflection” can refer to a cheating boyfriend and can also refer to the permanent damage caused by the fragmenting of one’s personality in mind control"
Wild literary readings have a lot in common with conspiracy theories
The origins of selflessness: Fair play | The Economist - "People living in communities that lack market integration display relatively little concern with fairness or with punishing unfairness in transactions. Notions of fairness increase steadily as societies achieve greater market integration... As societies have become more complex, those that have developed systems of sanitation, transport, energy and so on have been more successful than those which have not. It may be that the notion of fair play is an intangible equivalent of these systems... Participation in [a world] religion led to offers in the dictator game that were up to 10 percentage points higher than those of non-participants. World religions such as Christianity, with their moral codes, their omniscient, judgmental gods and their beliefs in heaven and hell, might indeed be expected to enforce notions of fairness on their participants, so this observation makes sense. From an economic point of view, therefore, such judgmental religions are actually a progressive force. That might explain why many societies that have embraced them have been so successful, and thus why such beliefs become world religions in the first place"
The battle of the sexes: Face off | The Economist - "In a man, the craggy physical characteristics associated with masculinity often indicate a strong immune system and thus a likelihood of his producing healthier offspring than his softer-featured confrères will. But such men are also more promiscuous and do not care as much about long-term relationships, leaving women to raise their kids alone... In environments where disease is rampant and the child-mortality rate is high, women prefer masculine men. In places like America and Britain, where knowing how to analyse health-care plans is more important than fighting off infection, effeminate men are just as competitive... polygamy is more common in societies that have more disease. In those societies, a modern Hercules can have his way because women prefer to share him rather than have a wimp to themselves"
Some Yahoo email accounts hacked in China, Taiwan - ""A lot of people I used to contact in Lanzhou, Xi'an and elsewhere have not been reachable by phone for the past few weeks"... "China is going back rather than going forward in terms of information and control. That reflects the lack of confidence in the (current) Chinese leaders... China's Internet has become a controlled Internet, an internal Internet rather than linked internationally. It defeats the whole purpose""
Art of the Steal: On the Trail of World’s Most Ingenious Thief - "“Cunning, clever, conniving, and creative,” as one prosecutor would call him, Blanchard eluded the police for years. But eventually he made a mistake. And that mistake would take two officers from the modest police force of Winnipeg, Canada, on a wild ride of high tech capers across Africa, Canada, and Europe. Says Mitch McCormick, one of those Winnipeg investigators, “We had never seen anything like it”"
Former TV actor Mark Chow fined S$6,000 for molesting woman - channelnewsasia.com - "Chow molested the 27-year-old former pub operations manager while she was asleep in her office in the wee hours of the morning. The 30-year-old had touched various parts of her body, including her buttocks and left thigh... Chow's defence was that he was merely trying to wake her up."
Moral of the story: guys should only wake girls up with ten foot poles. And/or find a better excuse.
The Stats Behind Prostitution (link removed ) - "$1 - the median price for many prostitutes in South Africa... 1 out of 2 of them have HIV 1 in 10 men in the world have purchased a prostitute. The rate in China is 1 in 4. And 1 in 5 Korean men pay for sex more than 4 times a month... In America, 80,000 citizens are arrested a year for soliciting sex, costing tax payers $200 million a year... 2 out of 5 men paid for services they never receive 1 out of 5 were robbed by the prostitute The Top 3 Reasons men paid for Sex: 1) Satisfy an immediate urge for sex 2) Experience a specific physical, racial or sexual fetish 3) Unsatisfied in their current relationship"
State of the Art - David Pogue’s Review of the iPad - "The haters tend to be techies; the fans tend to be regular people. Therefore, no single write-up can serve both readerships adequately. There’s but one solution: Write separate reviews for these two audiences"
High Court Judge overturns John Ng's decision (update 1) - "High Court Judge Choo Han Teck has overturned District Judge John Ng's decision to acquit five activists for conducting a procession in 2007. Mr Choo ordered that the matter return to DJ Ng for conviction and sentencing... A simple act of conducting a walk that, even according to the court, posed no public disorder or nuisance is not allowed in Singapore. Yet Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong insists that Singapore is a democracy based on the rule of law"
Who is surprised by this?
How bureaucrats decided not to save the bluefin tuna - ""This is just to test the system," the chairman said. "Here's a simple question to make sure the buttons are working properly: Is Doha the capital of Qatar? To record Yes, please press button number two." Thirty seconds later, once the 150 delegates had reached forward to prod the relevant button and the votes were recorded, two nations, Croatia and Cameroon, had voted No and - perhaps from force of habit long-established in security councils and global gatherings - China abstained. The Cameroon and Croatian delegations could not or maybe did not want to explain why they appeared to have learnt little about the city in which they had spent the past week. The Chinese delegation remained inscrutable and said nothing. Perhaps they thought it might be giving too much away if they stated unequivocally that Doha was the capital of Qatar. What this identified, I think, is a level of cynicism and mistrust that is new to the convention... Maybe it is naive to be surprised that that CITES' lofty ideals have become sullied and tarnished by geo-politics, but it is impossible to apply anything other than a very cynical interpretation to the bluefin tuna vote"
Louis Vuitton's Ponytails - "Marc Jacobs and New York beauty editors are on the same page, apparently... To complement Jacobs's ladylike, vintage-inspired collection, Redken creative consultant Guido gave the models high, bouncy ponytails with perfect 50s curls at the ends"
Bardo Bizarre Foods Dinner #2 - "Flatbread pizza with meal worms, crickets, roasted red pepper, feta cheese and red onion. One of the diners said “You could put feta on anything and roast it and it would taste good.” The big globule in the photo is roasted garlic. I tried the mealworms and they were tasteless. I tried the crickets and they were crunchy (obviously) and tasted good, just like grasshoppers and locusts. Once you put them on the pizza and added garlic and feta, you couldn’t taste them"
Doctors baffled by huge moobs - "A CHINESE farmer has the world's biggest set of MAN BOOBS, say doctors. Busty Guo Feng, 53, is desperately seeking a solution to his massive moobs as they get in the way of his manual work. And fascinated locals queue up at his dairy farm to point and laugh — forcing him to wear a heavy coat at all times, even in hot weather."
Online sex shop a hit with Muslims - "All ingredients are halal, or "permissible under Islam", said Mr Aouragh, and conspicuously absent is any type of pornography... Muslim clerics like Dutch Imam Abdul Jabbar see no harm in Mr Aouragh's site. "As long as he doesn't sell sex toys or those sorts of things there is no problem," he said, adding: the Prophet Mohammad gave lots of advice about sex in marriage and "there need not be any shame""
OpenRPG: Online Virtual Tabletop - "OpenRPG is an Internet application that allows people to play Role Playing Games in real-time over the Internet. OpenRPG is free, open source, software, distributed under GNU/GPL license"
The Public Editor - Censored in Singapore - "The notion that it could be defamatory to call a political family a dynasty seems ludicrous in the United States, where The Times has routinely applied the label to the Kennedys, the Bushes and the Clintons. But Singapore is a different story... Safire told The American Journalism Review in 1995 that the world’s free press should unite and pull out of Singapore in the face of any new libel action. I think that is what should happen too, but it never has... I think Google set an example for everyone who believes in the free flow of information"
Post ID: 2733686770374057594
The Race Card
"Race Card
Enchantment
When the Race Card comes into play, all arguments are destroyed
New arguments cannot be created until the Race Card leaves play"
(from: I may be conservative… but I’m still Black « The Truth in Black and Right, run by "theblackcommenter")
Post ID: 3714126881612630890
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