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Monday, August 30, 2010
Links - 30th August 2010
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Post ID: 1076896354853539580
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Gang rape, aggravated outrage of modesty or more than meets the eye?
"For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news." - Gloria Borger
***
(all pictures from Sexually Oblivious Rhino, HT @GenkiGenki)
A post by Robin Rheaume on the AWARE blog decried a recent case where 5 boys sexually assaulted a girl ("factually rape"), and instead of being convicted of rape the boys were slapped with the lesser conviction of "aggravated outrage of modesty".
Muhammad Shafie Ahmad Abdullah, Mohd Sadruddin Azman, Lim Boon Tai, Rishi Mohan and Mohamed Firdaus Roslan will now get 3.5-5 years and 5-8 strokes of the cane each (rape gets you up to 20 years).
The parents being out, they had gotten the girl's number from a friend and called her over. She had come, even though she had not known any of them. They drank lots of alcohol (she had 5 cups) and she then had consensual sex with one of the 5. Later, all 5 decided to have sex with her.
The speculated reason (according to The New Paper) was that the victim was partly to blame for what happened to her - what is commonly called "victim-blaming".
Now, what is commonly labelled "victim-blaming" (where rape is concerned) is really a conflation of several issues, mainly:
i) if the victim should (or could) have done something to avoid being raped
ii) if the victim incited the rape (i.e. whose fault it was)
iii) how to prevent future rapes
iv) what causes rape (e.g. if it is about sex or power)
Strictly speaking, only ii) [and i), depending on how you frame it] should be treated as "victim-blaming", but too often i), iii) and iv) are dragged in (which is bad if you want to protect other women from rape). For example, it is incontrovertible to say that you should watch your alcohol intake if you don't want funny things to happen to you, but overzealous feminists sometimes pounce on that as victim-blaming.
In this case, happily, there was no conflation by the AWARE writer, though [s]he was responsible for the infelicity of expression that is: "It seems the victim was guilty of drunk driving a vulva".
The example of drunk driving Rheaume refers to was brought up by a lawyer The New Paper spoke to: drunk drivers are deemed responsible for their actions. I do agree that this is not an entirely relevant analogy; drunk drivers are responsible for what they do not just for the sake of deterrence (i.e. so people won't get drunk and drive and then knock people down) but because they are hurting other people. Whereas in this case, if you get drunk and then get raped, you are the one getting hurt. So it doesn't seem quite true that drunk drivers are held responsible for their actions (despite alcohol making them effectively a person with diminished volition and thus responsibility) because they knew what might happen when they started drinking.
I do disagree with Rheaume's analogy that we do not hold the victim responsible when a man gets drunk, wanders into a blind ally and then gets beaten up and robbed. This is because people do not typically consent to getting beaten up and robbed, but people do typically consent to having sex every day. Not always in a straightforward manner and yes, lubricated by alcohol too, no less.
Intrigued by this case, I read up more about it (or at least what was reported in the popular press), and the more I read the more suspicious it became.
1) Consent
For one, take the issue of consent. Consent is an extremely fuzzy variable to evaluate (and kept deliberately so). If nothing else, many women still subscribe to the view that "If she says yes, then she's no lady", so men can't entirely be blamed for not taking "no" to mean "no"; when the lines between "yes", "maybe" and "no" is so fine, it is no surprise that there will always be confusion about which side of the lines one is on.
Indeed, this case itself illustrates the nebulous and shifting nature of consent:
So we can see that "no" became "yes" (probably stopping in the "maybe" stage in-between). If you have sex with a boy you have just met the same night (after some de rigueur protest), while his 4 friends are outside, it is not unreasonable for the 4 friends to think that you will not be averse to consenting to having sex with them as well (even if you might similarly [pretend to] protest at the start). Especially if you know that she had voluntarily come over, drunk alcohol and had sex with one of you despite having a boyfriend (this case gets more and more interesting, doesn't it?)
Someone: she probably has a history lor
thats why her number is passed ard like tht.
Furthermore, when she was being assaulted later, she:
While absence of objection does not necessarily indicate consent (Human Organ Transplant Act, Medishield and CDAC/Mendaki/SINDA contributions aside), if I wanted someone to stop doing something terrible to me, I would surely voice out my objections at at least one point.
2) Misleading behavior
Yet, this is not the only relevant or suspicious aspect of this case. Consider:
If you act as if you have Weapons of Mass Destruction, you cannot blame others for thinking that you have them.
If you act as if you're trying to make a nuclear bomb, you likewise cannot blame others for thinking that you have them (especially if you have abundant oil reserves).
And if someone asks you if you have a gun in your pocket or are just happy to see her, you cannot blame her for executing a swift jujitsu chop if you make a sudden movement with your 'gun'.
Similarly, plausible deniability aside, a reasonable person would have to admit that she gave the impression of being, at the very least, not closed to the idea of hanky-panky that night.
3) Lack of injury
Other suspicious bits include the testimony of a gynaecologist:
Furthermore, the convicteds' testimony was that they stopped "after they realised that the girl was bleeding", which is something that you would not typically expect of rapists - if they know that they're raping someone, why would the sight of blood stop them? Also, according to the prevalent feminarchal theory of rape, since rape is about power and not sex, the sight of blood would presumably egg the guys on rather than stop them. Also, contrary to Rheaume's assertions, the girl was "not physically restrained".
4) Reduction of charges
One might ask why the prosecutor reduced the charges from rape to aggravated outrage of modesty. Again here, there is much to question:
The blog extracts and her testimony would be very interesting, and perhaps the lack of a victim impact statement means there wasn't much impact (add to this the fact that the one who called the police was her boyfriend, which makes us suspect that he was upset that his girlfriend cheated on him).
A Twitter contact's altogether harsher take:
"Though I think the 5 bastards did not deserve to have their charges reduced, the girl IS TO be blamed as well.
Most likely she KNEW what MAY happen, but went ahead with it anyway, for the thrill of it. And then, she can't accept what she did.
"cheebye itchy" is a very apt description. She subjected herself to be caught in that situation in the first place..
I've always supported Aware and their takes in many instances. But Aware's take on this gang rape issue is beyond my comprehension.
As a person who was once caught in a similar situation, I do not think I am being unsympathetic towards the girl.
She could have LEFT/RAN/TURNED BACK at the doorstep. But she went in! No one forced her at that point of time!
Then lagi best, SHE DRANK. Shots after shots. She CONSENTED to having sex with the 1st guy. Eh WTF is wrong with her?!
Then after that, go back, call boyfriend, cry father cry mother. Unless she has an IQ of <40, she should have saw it coming. Retard. If someone comes to me & goes "you've never been raped, you don't know how it feels! you unsympathetic bitch!" I'm gonna break his/her face. What makes you think I don't know? I know it better than you do! It takes time to get over for sure, but CONSENTING to having sex with the 1st guy = leading the rest on! They are all MEN for God's sake! What did she expect? Play masak masak? She wanted it lah pls! Then after that act ke lian. Must be scared kena ditch by the boyfriend or kicked out of the house by her parents. Sorry excuse of a woman. I think the girl wanted to try out being part of an orgy, but regretted it & then screamed murder, said she was gang raped." Postscript: Another strike against the "power not sex" theory of rape:
***
(all pictures from Sexually Oblivious Rhino, HT @GenkiGenki)
A post by Robin Rheaume on the AWARE blog decried a recent case where 5 boys sexually assaulted a girl ("factually rape"), and instead of being convicted of rape the boys were slapped with the lesser conviction of "aggravated outrage of modesty".
Muhammad Shafie Ahmad Abdullah, Mohd Sadruddin Azman, Lim Boon Tai, Rishi Mohan and Mohamed Firdaus Roslan will now get 3.5-5 years and 5-8 strokes of the cane each (rape gets you up to 20 years).
The parents being out, they had gotten the girl's number from a friend and called her over. She had come, even though she had not known any of them. They drank lots of alcohol (she had 5 cups) and she then had consensual sex with one of the 5. Later, all 5 decided to have sex with her.
The speculated reason (according to The New Paper) was that the victim was partly to blame for what happened to her - what is commonly called "victim-blaming".
Now, what is commonly labelled "victim-blaming" (where rape is concerned) is really a conflation of several issues, mainly:
i) if the victim should (or could) have done something to avoid being raped
ii) if the victim incited the rape (i.e. whose fault it was)
iii) how to prevent future rapes
iv) what causes rape (e.g. if it is about sex or power)
Strictly speaking, only ii) [and i), depending on how you frame it] should be treated as "victim-blaming", but too often i), iii) and iv) are dragged in (which is bad if you want to protect other women from rape). For example, it is incontrovertible to say that you should watch your alcohol intake if you don't want funny things to happen to you, but overzealous feminists sometimes pounce on that as victim-blaming.
In this case, happily, there was no conflation by the AWARE writer, though [s]he was responsible for the infelicity of expression that is: "It seems the victim was guilty of drunk driving a vulva".
The example of drunk driving Rheaume refers to was brought up by a lawyer The New Paper spoke to: drunk drivers are deemed responsible for their actions. I do agree that this is not an entirely relevant analogy; drunk drivers are responsible for what they do not just for the sake of deterrence (i.e. so people won't get drunk and drive and then knock people down) but because they are hurting other people. Whereas in this case, if you get drunk and then get raped, you are the one getting hurt. So it doesn't seem quite true that drunk drivers are held responsible for their actions (despite alcohol making them effectively a person with diminished volition and thus responsibility) because they knew what might happen when they started drinking.
I do disagree with Rheaume's analogy that we do not hold the victim responsible when a man gets drunk, wanders into a blind ally and then gets beaten up and robbed. This is because people do not typically consent to getting beaten up and robbed, but people do typically consent to having sex every day. Not always in a straightforward manner and yes, lubricated by alcohol too, no less.
Intrigued by this case, I read up more about it (or at least what was reported in the popular press), and the more I read the more suspicious it became.
1) Consent
For one, take the issue of consent. Consent is an extremely fuzzy variable to evaluate (and kept deliberately so). If nothing else, many women still subscribe to the view that "If she says yes, then she's no lady", so men can't entirely be blamed for not taking "no" to mean "no"; when the lines between "yes", "maybe" and "no" is so fine, it is no surprise that there will always be confusion about which side of the lines one is on.
Indeed, this case itself illustrates the nebulous and shifting nature of consent:
In the room, Lim asked the victim to kiss him, and pushed her onto a mattress on the floor.
Lim lay on top of her and persisted in his sexual advances despite the victim's attempts to push him away.
"The victim was feeling tired and her head was very heavy whilst resisting him," said DPPOh.
In the end, she gave in and allowed Lim to have sex with her.
So we can see that "no" became "yes" (probably stopping in the "maybe" stage in-between). If you have sex with a boy you have just met the same night (after some de rigueur protest), while his 4 friends are outside, it is not unreasonable for the 4 friends to think that you will not be averse to consenting to having sex with them as well (even if you might similarly [pretend to] protest at the start). Especially if you know that she had voluntarily come over, drunk alcohol and had sex with one of you despite having a boyfriend (this case gets more and more interesting, doesn't it?)
Someone: she probably has a history lor
thats why her number is passed ard like tht.
Furthermore, when she was being assaulted later, she:
"lay still" throughout... the girl never resisted, but only lay down "with her eyes closed and never said anything""
While absence of objection does not necessarily indicate consent (Human Organ Transplant Act, Medishield and CDAC/Mendaki/SINDA contributions aside), if I wanted someone to stop doing something terrible to me, I would surely voice out my objections at at least one point.
2) Misleading behavior
Yet, this is not the only relevant or suspicious aspect of this case. Consider:
The victim drank alcohol voluntarily, gave a massage to one of the boys who attacked her and entered the bedroom voluntarily... "she had gone to the flat even though it was close to midnight and she had no idea who she was meeting"...
"The behaviour of the victim was also unusual. She acted in certain ways. It is not fair to ignore what she has done.
Her conduct, her actions did create a certain impression on the minds of the accused persons. We cannot ignore this"
If you act as if you have Weapons of Mass Destruction, you cannot blame others for thinking that you have them.
If you act as if you're trying to make a nuclear bomb, you likewise cannot blame others for thinking that you have them (especially if you have abundant oil reserves).
And if someone asks you if you have a gun in your pocket or are just happy to see her, you cannot blame her for executing a swift jujitsu chop if you make a sudden movement with your 'gun'.
Similarly, plausible deniability aside, a reasonable person would have to admit that she gave the impression of being, at the very least, not closed to the idea of hanky-panky that night.
3) Lack of injury
Other suspicious bits include the testimony of a gynaecologist:
When asked by lawyer Mr Adrian Wee if her medical observations were consistent with a victim of sexual assault, [Gynaecologist Nurhidayati Mohamed Suphan] replied: “There were no obvious clinical signs”.
She also said that it was possible that therewas no bleeding at all...
Furthermore, the convicteds' testimony was that they stopped "after they realised that the girl was bleeding", which is something that you would not typically expect of rapists - if they know that they're raping someone, why would the sight of blood stop them? Also, according to the prevalent feminarchal theory of rape, since rape is about power and not sex, the sight of blood would presumably egg the guys on rather than stop them. Also, contrary to Rheaume's assertions, the girl was "not physically restrained".
4) Reduction of charges
One might ask why the prosecutor reduced the charges from rape to aggravated outrage of modesty. Again here, there is much to question:
It is unclear what emerged during her testimony behind closed doors, but the charges were reduced after defence representations to the Attorney-General's Chambers.
It was mentioned in open court on Thursday that the defence produced the girl's blog during the trial. It also emerged that the prosecution had no plans to tender a 'victim impact' statement, typically submitted to show the effects of the crime on the victim.
The blog extracts and her testimony would be very interesting, and perhaps the lack of a victim impact statement means there wasn't much impact (add to this the fact that the one who called the police was her boyfriend, which makes us suspect that he was upset that his girlfriend cheated on him).
A Twitter contact's altogether harsher take:
"Though I think the 5 bastards did not deserve to have their charges reduced, the girl IS TO be blamed as well.
Most likely she KNEW what MAY happen, but went ahead with it anyway, for the thrill of it. And then, she can't accept what she did.
"cheebye itchy" is a very apt description. She subjected herself to be caught in that situation in the first place..
I've always supported Aware and their takes in many instances. But Aware's take on this gang rape issue is beyond my comprehension.
As a person who was once caught in a similar situation, I do not think I am being unsympathetic towards the girl.
She could have LEFT/RAN/TURNED BACK at the doorstep. But she went in! No one forced her at that point of time!
Then lagi best, SHE DRANK. Shots after shots. She CONSENTED to having sex with the 1st guy. Eh WTF is wrong with her?!
Then after that, go back, call boyfriend, cry father cry mother. Unless she has an IQ of <40, she should have saw it coming. Retard. If someone comes to me & goes "you've never been raped, you don't know how it feels! you unsympathetic bitch!" I'm gonna break his/her face. What makes you think I don't know? I know it better than you do! It takes time to get over for sure, but CONSENTING to having sex with the 1st guy = leading the rest on! They are all MEN for God's sake! What did she expect? Play masak masak? She wanted it lah pls! Then after that act ke lian. Must be scared kena ditch by the boyfriend or kicked out of the house by her parents. Sorry excuse of a woman. I think the girl wanted to try out being part of an orgy, but regretted it & then screamed murder, said she was gang raped." Postscript: Another strike against the "power not sex" theory of rape:
The rest of the guys just wanted to "enjoy" themselves.
They had earlier made plans to sleep with any girl who turned up at their friend's flat...
He said he thought the girl was enjoying herself at some points...
Lim later told his friends what had happened [that he had had sex with her].
"We were all jealous and also wanted to (have sex with) her," Shafie added.
"We asked (Lim) to plan so that we could all (have sex with her) and he agreed."
Post ID: 1509128519671118033
The Evolution of Soul Calibur
Ivy's Boob Evolution: "For some reason, her clothes keep getting smaller. Let me try to describe how her puppies have evolved:
Soul Calibur: Oranges
Soul Calibur II: Melons
Soul Calibur III: Torpedos
Soul Calibur IV: Small moons
For Soul Calibur V she should just show up naked with a utility wheel cart under each tit."
Post ID: 3679610402637675069
Le marché est toujours calme
- Monsieur Ibrahim, est-ce que vous trouvez que je suis beau ?
- Tu es très beau, Momo.
- Non, c'est pas ce qe je veux dire. Est-ce que vous croyez que je serai assez beau pour plaire aux filles... sans payer ?
- Dans quelques années, ce seront elles qui paieront pour toi !
- Pourtant... pour le moment... le marché est calme...
- Évidemment, Momo, tu as vu comme tu t'y prends ? Tu les fixes en ayant l'air de dire : << Vous avez vu comme je suis beau. >> Alors, forcément, elles rigolent. Il faut que tu les regardes en ayant l'air de dire : << Je n'ai jamais vu plus belle que vous. >> Pour un homme normal, je veux dire un homme comme toi et moi - pas Alain Delon ou Marlon Brando, non -, ta beauté, c'est celle que tu trouves à la femme.
--- Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran / Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
- Tu es très beau, Momo.
- Non, c'est pas ce qe je veux dire. Est-ce que vous croyez que je serai assez beau pour plaire aux filles... sans payer ?
- Dans quelques années, ce seront elles qui paieront pour toi !
- Pourtant... pour le moment... le marché est calme...
- Évidemment, Momo, tu as vu comme tu t'y prends ? Tu les fixes en ayant l'air de dire : << Vous avez vu comme je suis beau. >> Alors, forcément, elles rigolent. Il faut que tu les regardes en ayant l'air de dire : << Je n'ai jamais vu plus belle que vous. >> Pour un homme normal, je veux dire un homme comme toi et moi - pas Alain Delon ou Marlon Brando, non -, ta beauté, c'est celle que tu trouves à la femme.
--- Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran / Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Post ID: 2836418731943676786
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Anthony Kenny on Derrida's old age and Descartes's [male] chauvinism
"Every crowd has a silver lining." - Phineas Taylor Barnum
***
Anthony Kenny on his New History of Philosophy
"I divided the Historical part in the final volume into Continental and Analytic...
The [last] Continental one was Derrida, whom I knew and admired when he was a young philosopher. We used to meet together occasionally to discuss our joint ideas.
But, I have to say I thought in his old age he turned rather into rather a comedian than the philosopher. I found it difficult, in my book, to treat him with the reverence that I treated other philosophers so I ended in making some rather rude jokes about him...
I think the prize [for the best prose] has to go to Plato. Plato's early dialogues (at any rate) are written in very beautiful Greek, but their enormous achievement is that there was then no philosophical vocabulary. There were no technical terms in philosophy. He had to get across any philosophical point he wanted to put across in the plainest of language.
The philosopher that is, I think for modern people, easiest to read is probably
Descartes, because he wrote elegant, short pieces. Whereas Descartes said he wanted to write so smoothly that even women could read them.
I think he was punished for this male chauvinist remark when the one person who quite clearly defeated him in argument was Charles I's niece Princess Elizabeth, who pointed out the complete incoherence of Descartes's views on the relation between Mind and Body
And Descartes, I think, knew he was defeated because he was reduced to telling her not to bother her pretty head about the topic because it was dangerous for women to spend too much time on metaphysics. It would damage their health"
***
Anthony Kenny on his New History of Philosophy
"I divided the Historical part in the final volume into Continental and Analytic...
The [last] Continental one was Derrida, whom I knew and admired when he was a young philosopher. We used to meet together occasionally to discuss our joint ideas.
But, I have to say I thought in his old age he turned rather into rather a comedian than the philosopher. I found it difficult, in my book, to treat him with the reverence that I treated other philosophers so I ended in making some rather rude jokes about him...
I think the prize [for the best prose] has to go to Plato. Plato's early dialogues (at any rate) are written in very beautiful Greek, but their enormous achievement is that there was then no philosophical vocabulary. There were no technical terms in philosophy. He had to get across any philosophical point he wanted to put across in the plainest of language.
The philosopher that is, I think for modern people, easiest to read is probably
Descartes, because he wrote elegant, short pieces. Whereas Descartes said he wanted to write so smoothly that even women could read them.
I think he was punished for this male chauvinist remark when the one person who quite clearly defeated him in argument was Charles I's niece Princess Elizabeth, who pointed out the complete incoherence of Descartes's views on the relation between Mind and Body
And Descartes, I think, knew he was defeated because he was reduced to telling her not to bother her pretty head about the topic because it was dangerous for women to spend too much time on metaphysics. It would damage their health"
Post ID: 7403267879580727633
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Chinese characters are dead! Long live Chinese characters!
"The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun." - P. G. Wodehouse
***
Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan
"Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising tens of thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.
***
Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan
"Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising tens of thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.
Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as "embarrassed" have slipped from her mind.
"I can remember the shape, but I can't remember the strokes that you need to write it," she says. "It's a bit of a problem."
Surveys indicate the phenomenon, dubbed "character amnesia", is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.
Young Japanese people also report the problem, which is caused by the constant use of computers and mobile phones with alphabet-based input systems.
There is even a Chinese word for it: "tibiwangzi", or "take pen, forget character".
A poll commissioned by the China Youth Daily in April found that 83 percent of the 2,072 respondents admitted having problems writing characters.
As a result, Li says that she has become almost dependent on her phone...
Character amnesia happens because most Chinese people use electronic input systems based on pinyin, which translates Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet...
In Japan, where three writing systems are combined into one, mobiles and computers use the simpler hiragana and katakana scripts for inputting -- meaning users may forget the kanji, a third strand of Japanese writing similar to Chinese characters...
Character amnesia matters because memorisation is so crucial to character-based written languages, says Siok Wai Ting, assistant professor of linguistics at Hong Kong University. Forgetting how to write could eventually affect reading ability.
"There is no way we can learn the writing systematically because the writing itself is not systematic -- we have to memorise, we have to rote learn," she says.
"Through writing, we memorise the characters. Reading and writing are more closely connected in Chinese."
Chinese reading even uses a different part of the brain from reading the Roman alphabet, Siok's research has found -- a part closer to the motor area, which is used for handwriting.
Chinese characters are so complex that the country's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong told the US journalist Edgar Snow in 1936: "Sooner or later, we believe, we will have to abandon characters altogether if we are to create a new social culture in which the masses fully participate."
Instead, Mao eventually chose to simplify many characters into forms now the standard in mainland China.
Victor Mair, professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, said character amnesia is part of a "natural process of evolution"...
Some argue that the perceived decline in character knowledge is, in fact, nothing to worry about.
A survey by the southern Chinese news portal Dayang Net, found that 80 percent of respondents had forgotten how to write some characters -- but 43 percent said they used handwritten characters only for signatures and forms.
"The idea that China is a country full of people who write beautiful, fluid literature in characters without a second thought is a romantic fantasy," wrote the blogger and translator C. Custer on his Chinageeks blog."
Post ID: 2705044389957058943
Dalai Lama says there is no gender bias in Buddhism (but...)
Dalai Lama says there is no gender bias in Buddhism
"Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul district on Friday, there is no gender bias in Buddhism and nothing prevents a woman from becoming his successor.
"So the purpose of the incarnation is to serve people about dharma (faith). If the circumstances are such, female form is more useful, then why not," said Dalai Lama.
He also added that that the female Dalai Lama should be attractive.
"And I also mentioned in case Dalai Lama's incarnation one female comes then must be very attractive female. So the very reason, you see more influence to others, an ugly female then may not much effective," added Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama is on a four-day-long visit to the region, to give discourses on Buddhism."
(emphasis mine)
"Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul district on Friday, there is no gender bias in Buddhism and nothing prevents a woman from becoming his successor.
"So the purpose of the incarnation is to serve people about dharma (faith). If the circumstances are such, female form is more useful, then why not," said Dalai Lama.
He also added that that the female Dalai Lama should be attractive.
"And I also mentioned in case Dalai Lama's incarnation one female comes then must be very attractive female. So the very reason, you see more influence to others, an ugly female then may not much effective," added Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama is on a four-day-long visit to the region, to give discourses on Buddhism."
(emphasis mine)
Post ID: 5725668517815029851
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The most iniquitous motivational yarn I've yet read
"A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members." - David Coblitz
***
Title: If U're in a relationship, married or none, read this. U'll know why at the end.
Story: MARRIAGE
When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.
She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?
I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.
When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.
I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside
the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.
I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.
At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.
That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.
My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....
The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!
If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.
If you do, you just might save a marriage.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
A CHRIST-CENTERED MARRIAGE IS A MARRIAGE THAT IS SURE TO LAST A LIFETIME.
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6.
By Stephanie Halmilton
Obviously, this story is ridiculous:
1) Only an idiot would not know that his wife was suffering from cancer
2) Only an idiot would suffer from cancer silently
However, on further examination, this story is not just ridiculous but repellent and repugnant. The most disturbing part of this 'uplifting tale' is the following:
3) Only an utterly cruel person would not tell her family that she was suffering from cancer, and break everyone's hearts by dying on them in one month. The fact that she knew she had only a month to live meant that she had had adequate medical advice, so this would be no excuse.
Furthermore, only a base sadist would emotionally manipulate her husband into falling back into love with her (we know what intimacy does for humans - it stimulates oxytocin, which promotes bonding) when she knew she was going to die - when the humane thing would be to keep him disconnected so he would not suffer as much when she finally went (since she inexplicably decided to go without telling anyone). She obviously felt the intimacy returning in their relationship, yet chose to keep up the deception to aggravate the pain that he would finally feel. We can see that she put her selfish pride above the welfare of her husband - who she claimed to love.
The fact that cancer does not kill you within a month means that she knew she was dying for some time, so she doubtless had been planning to get her revenge on her husband and the woman he was cheating on her with, by making him fall back in love with him and leaving the other woman - and then dying on both of them. Truly, it takes a cunning mind to formulate such a plot, and similarly only a sadist of the highest degree would sacrifice her life in this way just to spite others (and traumatise her son for eternity since he would never get a chance to say goodbye to her and might one day even cotton on to her byzantine plot).
There is also the fact that people *do* fall out of love. Just because someone wants to leave his wife of 10 years does not mean that he is a scummy philanderer (especially since only adroit emotional manipulation by his wife got him to change his mind). The story is obviously framed to make us despise the husband and Jane, but the fact is that marriages *do* break down, the spark *is* lost and people *do* fall out of love with their original partners - and back into love with others.
Also, we cannot forget:
4) The religious preaching at the end is totally irrelevant to the story (I've seen this story posted elsewhere, sans the cancer at the end - apparently it was tacked on by some zealous fool, unaware of how he was making an already atrocious story even worse)
So, contrary to the professed moral of the story, we can see that it actually chronicles the dastardly plan of a twisted, spiteful woman determined to get her revenge on her husband - even in death, and to hell if it scarred her son for life. I am glad to say that this story is probably not real, for I would not want to go to the funeral of such a sick and wicked woman.
Banal stories which have no relevance to real life are not only empty, but on closer inspection are far from what they appear to be. Self-indulgent emotional masturbation in a vacuum might feel good, but in the end you're only fucking yourself. And sometimes even sodomising yourself with a 12-inch dildo.
Unrealistic and ridiculous motivational stories are really mocking what they purport to celebrate.
Addendum: Here is an earlier version where the wife doesn't die (the story cuts off at his buying the bouquet)
Katie Mullaly on The Buzz Media hates this story too, tagging it as "Humor & Fun":
One commenter: "a few of my best friends found it and think this is the greatest thing ever. I was starting to think that I was the only one who saw this story in a negative light after how they have been worshipping this story and that maybe there was something off with me. Thanks for letting me know that not all women fall for this stuff"
Addendum 2: Snopes on the evolution of this crap
***
Title: If U're in a relationship, married or none, read this. U'll know why at the end.
Story: MARRIAGE
When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.
Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.
She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?
I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn't talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn't love her anymore. I just pitied her!
With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.
She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.
The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn't have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.
When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.
In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn't want anything from me, but needed a month's notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month's time and she didn't want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.
This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.
She requested that every day for the month's duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.
I told Jane about my wife's divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.
My wife and I hadn't had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don't tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside
the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.
On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn't looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.
On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.
On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn't tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.
She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.
Suddenly it hit me... she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.
Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it's time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.
But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn't noticed that our life lacked intimacy.
I drove to office.... jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind...I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.
She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won't divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn't value the details of our lives, not because we didn't love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.
Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.
At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I'll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.
That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.
My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.-- At least, in the eyes of our son--- I'm a loving husband....
The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse's friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!
If you don't share this, nothing will happen to you.
If you do, you just might save a marriage.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
A CHRIST-CENTERED MARRIAGE IS A MARRIAGE THAT IS SURE TO LAST A LIFETIME.
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6.
By Stephanie Halmilton
Obviously, this story is ridiculous:
1) Only an idiot would not know that his wife was suffering from cancer
2) Only an idiot would suffer from cancer silently
However, on further examination, this story is not just ridiculous but repellent and repugnant. The most disturbing part of this 'uplifting tale' is the following:
3) Only an utterly cruel person would not tell her family that she was suffering from cancer, and break everyone's hearts by dying on them in one month. The fact that she knew she had only a month to live meant that she had had adequate medical advice, so this would be no excuse.
Furthermore, only a base sadist would emotionally manipulate her husband into falling back into love with her (we know what intimacy does for humans - it stimulates oxytocin, which promotes bonding) when she knew she was going to die - when the humane thing would be to keep him disconnected so he would not suffer as much when she finally went (since she inexplicably decided to go without telling anyone). She obviously felt the intimacy returning in their relationship, yet chose to keep up the deception to aggravate the pain that he would finally feel. We can see that she put her selfish pride above the welfare of her husband - who she claimed to love.
The fact that cancer does not kill you within a month means that she knew she was dying for some time, so she doubtless had been planning to get her revenge on her husband and the woman he was cheating on her with, by making him fall back in love with him and leaving the other woman - and then dying on both of them. Truly, it takes a cunning mind to formulate such a plot, and similarly only a sadist of the highest degree would sacrifice her life in this way just to spite others (and traumatise her son for eternity since he would never get a chance to say goodbye to her and might one day even cotton on to her byzantine plot).
There is also the fact that people *do* fall out of love. Just because someone wants to leave his wife of 10 years does not mean that he is a scummy philanderer (especially since only adroit emotional manipulation by his wife got him to change his mind). The story is obviously framed to make us despise the husband and Jane, but the fact is that marriages *do* break down, the spark *is* lost and people *do* fall out of love with their original partners - and back into love with others.
Also, we cannot forget:
4) The religious preaching at the end is totally irrelevant to the story (I've seen this story posted elsewhere, sans the cancer at the end - apparently it was tacked on by some zealous fool, unaware of how he was making an already atrocious story even worse)
So, contrary to the professed moral of the story, we can see that it actually chronicles the dastardly plan of a twisted, spiteful woman determined to get her revenge on her husband - even in death, and to hell if it scarred her son for life. I am glad to say that this story is probably not real, for I would not want to go to the funeral of such a sick and wicked woman.
Banal stories which have no relevance to real life are not only empty, but on closer inspection are far from what they appear to be. Self-indulgent emotional masturbation in a vacuum might feel good, but in the end you're only fucking yourself. And sometimes even sodomising yourself with a 12-inch dildo.
Unrealistic and ridiculous motivational stories are really mocking what they purport to celebrate.
Addendum: Here is an earlier version where the wife doesn't die (the story cuts off at his buying the bouquet)
Katie Mullaly on The Buzz Media hates this story too, tagging it as "Humor & Fun":
Wait, the son is clapping his hands and shouting,”Daddy is holding mommy in his arms?” How old is this kid? I thought he had exams in a month? What kind of exams? I’m thinking he’s studying for his LSATs or some shit, and he’s like FIVE…or retarded.
One commenter: "a few of my best friends found it and think this is the greatest thing ever. I was starting to think that I was the only one who saw this story in a negative light after how they have been worshipping this story and that maybe there was something off with me. Thanks for letting me know that not all women fall for this stuff"
Addendum 2: Snopes on the evolution of this crap
Post ID: 3666152045281719554
Links - 25th August 2010
"The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed." - C. S. Lewis
***
Competition for a mate shortens men's lives - study - "The more imbalanced the ratio of men to women, the more pronounced the effect was"
'I wrote 2U B4'! British Library shows up textspeak as soooo 19th century - "It turns out they were doing it in the 19th century – only then they called it emblematic poetry, and it was considered terribly clever... There will also be the first book ever printed in English, which, reassuringly perhaps, has inconsistent spelling"
Wanted - Baby Sitters With Foreign Language Skills - "Bilingual children tend to have smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual counterparts... “Bilingualism carries a cost, and the cost is rapid access to words”... At the same time, bilingual children do better at complex tasks like isolating information presented in confusing ways... One arena in which being bilingual does not seem to help is the highly competitive kindergarten admission process."
West Midlands police force bans the thin blue panty line - "Thongs or boxers creeping over waistbands and colourful bras peeping through white shirts outlawed under new uniform policy"
YouTube - Living With Steel Wool Hands (How I Lost My Nipple) - "Nothing compares to the day that I woke up with steel wool hands. It has its drawbacks, but with the help of case-mate products and industrial strength nipple tassels, I am able to live a normal life.
If you struggle with steel woolen extremities, check out case-mate to protect your iPhone."
True Colors - "White marble has been the norm ever since the Renaissance, when classical antiquities first began to emerge from the earth... Knowing no better, artists in the 16th century took the bare stone at face value. Michelangelo and others emulated what they believed to be the ancient aesthetic, leaving the stone of most of their statues its natural color. Thus they helped pave the way for neo-Classicism, the lily-white style that to this day remains our paradigm for Greek art... Armed with high-intensity lamps, ultraviolet light, cameras, plaster casts and jars of costly powdered minerals, he has spent the past quarter century trying to revive the peacock glory that was Greece. He has dramatized his scholarly findings by creating full-scale plaster or marble copies hand-painted in the same mineral and organic pigments used by the ancients: green from malachite, blue from azurite, yellow and ocher from arsenic compounds, red from cinnabar, black from burned bone and vine"
What's After The Credits? - "What's After The Credits is simply a site that you can utilize to quickly find out if a movie, television show, video game, etc. has any special scenes during the credits or post credits (aka Stinger / Movie Stinger)"
Best. Decade. Ever. - "The first 10 years of the 21st century were humanity's finest -- even for the world's bottom billion."
Nobody ever got funding by saying that things were going well
On Facebook, wife learns of husband's 2nd wedding
The queen feminist thinking twice about employing young women - "If Sarah became pregnant, I would be legally obliged to keep paying her for a full year after she’d given birth – which the business could ill afford. Now, on top of this, the government has announced that parents of children up to the age of 16 (as opposed to only up to six) will have the right to ask employers for flexible working arrangements... My pigs certainly aren’t going to thrive on flexi-feeding schemes. And neither is my business... At least one thing seems clear to me now: the femi-nist mantra of the 1980s – that a woman “can have it all” – has turned out to be a lie"
The Wickedest Man in Oxford - "One of the last of the many legendary contests won by the British philosopher A. J. Ayer was his encounter with Mike Tyson in 1987... [He] was entertaining a group of models at a New York party when a girl ran in screaming that her friend was being assaulted in a bedroom. The parties involved turned out to be Tyson and Naomi Campbell. ''Do you know who . . . I am?'' Tyson asked in disbelief when Ayer urged him to desist: ''I'm the heavyweight champion of the world.'' ''And I am the former Wykeham professor of logic,'' Ayer answered politely. ''We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men.''"
Company tries to get gun classed as medical device
More Evidence That Intelligence Is Largely Inherited: Researchers Find That Genes Determine Brain's Processing Speed
Third of women earn more than their men - "Working women resent female colleagues who have children because they think they get better treatment... childless working women - are bitter about co-workers leaving work early for childcare reasons or having their hours cut on their return to work after maternity leave. Nine out of ten women said those without children 'resented the flexi-hours and time off mothers can have'. Seven in ten said other women were their harshest critics in the workplace and a third of female directors thought mothers less productive. A third of working women without offspring think working mothers use their children as an excuse to get off work."
Report: Men Unfaithful to Women Who Earn More
Naturally, men being unfaithful to women who earn more was explained as "Men might engage in "hypermasculine activities" — displaying their sexual virility or sexual competence — as a form of compensatory behavior", while women being unfaithful to men who earn more was positioned as "economically dependent women may encounter fewer opportunities to cheat, and they may make a calculated decision that cheating just isn't worth it"
If Women Were More Like Men: Why Females Earn Less - "Women who become men (known as FTMs) do significantly better than men who become women (MTFs)... The less-convincing appearance of MTFs probably explains part of the reason they earn so much less after they transition"
Artificial Ape Man: How Technology Created Humans
Kuo Chuan Primary School students FORCED to pay $5 deposit to ensure they watch YOG games
I love how "no outside food and beverage" (sic) is positioned as a way "to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience"
Boeing 727 Convertido en Hotel
New research: Children's vegetable intake linked to Popeye cartoons
Museum Of Bad Art Gives A Home To Forlorn Paintings
Top 11 Ways to Get Fired at Apple - "3. Start a Twitter account without approval from the Communication Geniuses Department.
1. Suggest a mouse design that functions properly."
Finally, an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon and eggs
Brainless slime mould makes decisions like humans - "To us, a thing’s value depends on the things around it. Economists often refer to this as “irrational”. But if that’s the case, we’re not alone in our folly. Other animals, from birds to bees, make choices in the same way"
How black people use Twitter. - "Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network... black people [have] the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter... "It's the same issue I have with certain black comedy shows," says Elon James White, a comedian who runs the site This Week in Blackness. "They put out these ideas of blackness that—if it were someone of another race saying them—you'd go, 'Whoa, that's racist!' I remember when #ifsantawasblack hit, I lost my shit. I was freaking out. It was literally a game of, What's the most racist thing we can say? And it was black people saying it!""
How Many People is Enough in Singapore? - "Profits in Singapore are increasingly being earned by foreign, not local capital, and in many cases subsidized by tax breaks and other incentives not enjoyed by local business. Hence Singapore becomes ever more reliant on inflow of that capital for continued growth as well as on importing foreign labor to supplement a now almost static indigenous labor force. Recent public disquiet over immigration may be prejudiced and seem irrational to a leadership that thinks it always knows best what is good for Singaporeans. But the nation badly needs a real debate about demographics and growth priorities."
Reporters Sans Frontières - Open letter to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: ‘‘A bad precedent for the Internet's future'' - "Revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan is highly dangerous. It would not be hard for the Taliban and other armed groups to use these documents to draw up a list of people for targeting in deadly revenge attacks... The precedent you have set leaves all those people throughout the world who risk their freedom and sometimes their lives for the sake of online information even more exposed to reprisals. Such imprudence endangers your own sources and, beyond that, the future of the Internet as an information medium. A total of 116 netizens are currently in prison in a dozen countries because of the comments they posted online"
Boomerang for Gmail: Send email later or receive it when you want
Teen sex doesn't cause bad grades - "Teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those don't have sex... Last year, nearly half of high school students reported having sexual intercourse, and 14 percent have had four or more partners"
Opinions vs. Data - "I immediately figured out how to use it, but my gut reaction was «most people are not going to get how this works.» It seems I was wrong. This is one of the reasons why I don’t put too much trust into opinion-based usability reviews: There’s a lot of guesswork involved, and guessing how humans behave is an endeavor fraught with peril. Expert reviews can be helpful, but they are no substitute for actual testing."
Obama's Islamic America - "President Obama says Islam has always been part of America, which raises the question, does the president know something about American history that we don't?... Islam had no influence on the origins and development of the United States. It contributed nothing to early American political culture, art, literature, music or any other aspect of the early nation"
Why don’t Anglo women like Asian men?
Amidst the meaningless motherhood statements, I like this comment: "Asian men, well, you tend to be shorter and skinnier. You have figures most women torture and starve themselves to achieve, except you lack boobies. You challenge our femininity, basically."
Why photographer was handcuffed - "POLICE handcuffed a photographer taking flood pictures along Bukit Timah Road last month because public safety was involved... The photographer had stopped his car illegally along the road at about 7.40am to take the photographs, causing an obstruction to other motorists... 'There was clear danger not only to the photographer but to other motorists as well,' said Mr Shamugam. When the photographer ignored a second advice from police against taking pictures on the flooded centre divider, he was handcuffed."
Someone parks illegally and you handcuff them for public safety. Nice try, do you think anyone other than Singaporeans will buy that?
Former RCP president backs review of drugs laws - ""Everyone who has looked at this in a serious and sustained way concludes that the present policy of prohibition is not a success"... He argued that many of the problems health staff encountered were the consequences not of heroin itself, but of prohibition... decriminalising personal use could free up police resources, reduce crime and improve public health"
***
Competition for a mate shortens men's lives - study - "The more imbalanced the ratio of men to women, the more pronounced the effect was"
'I wrote 2U B4'! British Library shows up textspeak as soooo 19th century - "It turns out they were doing it in the 19th century – only then they called it emblematic poetry, and it was considered terribly clever... There will also be the first book ever printed in English, which, reassuringly perhaps, has inconsistent spelling"
Wanted - Baby Sitters With Foreign Language Skills - "Bilingual children tend to have smaller vocabularies in English than their monolingual counterparts... “Bilingualism carries a cost, and the cost is rapid access to words”... At the same time, bilingual children do better at complex tasks like isolating information presented in confusing ways... One arena in which being bilingual does not seem to help is the highly competitive kindergarten admission process."
West Midlands police force bans the thin blue panty line - "Thongs or boxers creeping over waistbands and colourful bras peeping through white shirts outlawed under new uniform policy"
YouTube - Living With Steel Wool Hands (How I Lost My Nipple) - "Nothing compares to the day that I woke up with steel wool hands. It has its drawbacks, but with the help of case-mate products and industrial strength nipple tassels, I am able to live a normal life.
If you struggle with steel woolen extremities, check out case-mate to protect your iPhone."
True Colors - "White marble has been the norm ever since the Renaissance, when classical antiquities first began to emerge from the earth... Knowing no better, artists in the 16th century took the bare stone at face value. Michelangelo and others emulated what they believed to be the ancient aesthetic, leaving the stone of most of their statues its natural color. Thus they helped pave the way for neo-Classicism, the lily-white style that to this day remains our paradigm for Greek art... Armed with high-intensity lamps, ultraviolet light, cameras, plaster casts and jars of costly powdered minerals, he has spent the past quarter century trying to revive the peacock glory that was Greece. He has dramatized his scholarly findings by creating full-scale plaster or marble copies hand-painted in the same mineral and organic pigments used by the ancients: green from malachite, blue from azurite, yellow and ocher from arsenic compounds, red from cinnabar, black from burned bone and vine"
What's After The Credits? - "What's After The Credits is simply a site that you can utilize to quickly find out if a movie, television show, video game, etc. has any special scenes during the credits or post credits (aka Stinger / Movie Stinger)"
Best. Decade. Ever. - "The first 10 years of the 21st century were humanity's finest -- even for the world's bottom billion."
Nobody ever got funding by saying that things were going well
On Facebook, wife learns of husband's 2nd wedding
The queen feminist thinking twice about employing young women - "If Sarah became pregnant, I would be legally obliged to keep paying her for a full year after she’d given birth – which the business could ill afford. Now, on top of this, the government has announced that parents of children up to the age of 16 (as opposed to only up to six) will have the right to ask employers for flexible working arrangements... My pigs certainly aren’t going to thrive on flexi-feeding schemes. And neither is my business... At least one thing seems clear to me now: the femi-nist mantra of the 1980s – that a woman “can have it all” – has turned out to be a lie"
The Wickedest Man in Oxford - "One of the last of the many legendary contests won by the British philosopher A. J. Ayer was his encounter with Mike Tyson in 1987... [He] was entertaining a group of models at a New York party when a girl ran in screaming that her friend was being assaulted in a bedroom. The parties involved turned out to be Tyson and Naomi Campbell. ''Do you know who . . . I am?'' Tyson asked in disbelief when Ayer urged him to desist: ''I'm the heavyweight champion of the world.'' ''And I am the former Wykeham professor of logic,'' Ayer answered politely. ''We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men.''"
Company tries to get gun classed as medical device
More Evidence That Intelligence Is Largely Inherited: Researchers Find That Genes Determine Brain's Processing Speed
Third of women earn more than their men - "Working women resent female colleagues who have children because they think they get better treatment... childless working women - are bitter about co-workers leaving work early for childcare reasons or having their hours cut on their return to work after maternity leave. Nine out of ten women said those without children 'resented the flexi-hours and time off mothers can have'. Seven in ten said other women were their harshest critics in the workplace and a third of female directors thought mothers less productive. A third of working women without offspring think working mothers use their children as an excuse to get off work."
Report: Men Unfaithful to Women Who Earn More
Naturally, men being unfaithful to women who earn more was explained as "Men might engage in "hypermasculine activities" — displaying their sexual virility or sexual competence — as a form of compensatory behavior", while women being unfaithful to men who earn more was positioned as "economically dependent women may encounter fewer opportunities to cheat, and they may make a calculated decision that cheating just isn't worth it"
If Women Were More Like Men: Why Females Earn Less - "Women who become men (known as FTMs) do significantly better than men who become women (MTFs)... The less-convincing appearance of MTFs probably explains part of the reason they earn so much less after they transition"
Artificial Ape Man: How Technology Created Humans
Kuo Chuan Primary School students FORCED to pay $5 deposit to ensure they watch YOG games
I love how "no outside food and beverage" (sic) is positioned as a way "to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience"
Boeing 727 Convertido en Hotel
New research: Children's vegetable intake linked to Popeye cartoons
Museum Of Bad Art Gives A Home To Forlorn Paintings
Top 11 Ways to Get Fired at Apple - "3. Start a Twitter account without approval from the Communication Geniuses Department.
1. Suggest a mouse design that functions properly."
Finally, an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon and eggs
Brainless slime mould makes decisions like humans - "To us, a thing’s value depends on the things around it. Economists often refer to this as “irrational”. But if that’s the case, we’re not alone in our folly. Other animals, from birds to bees, make choices in the same way"
How black people use Twitter. - "Black people—specifically, young black people—do seem to use Twitter differently from everyone else on the service. They form tighter clusters on the network... black people [have] the means to dominate the conversation on Twitter... "It's the same issue I have with certain black comedy shows," says Elon James White, a comedian who runs the site This Week in Blackness. "They put out these ideas of blackness that—if it were someone of another race saying them—you'd go, 'Whoa, that's racist!' I remember when #ifsantawasblack hit, I lost my shit. I was freaking out. It was literally a game of, What's the most racist thing we can say? And it was black people saying it!""
How Many People is Enough in Singapore? - "Profits in Singapore are increasingly being earned by foreign, not local capital, and in many cases subsidized by tax breaks and other incentives not enjoyed by local business. Hence Singapore becomes ever more reliant on inflow of that capital for continued growth as well as on importing foreign labor to supplement a now almost static indigenous labor force. Recent public disquiet over immigration may be prejudiced and seem irrational to a leadership that thinks it always knows best what is good for Singaporeans. But the nation badly needs a real debate about demographics and growth priorities."
Reporters Sans Frontières - Open letter to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: ‘‘A bad precedent for the Internet's future'' - "Revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with the coalition in Afghanistan is highly dangerous. It would not be hard for the Taliban and other armed groups to use these documents to draw up a list of people for targeting in deadly revenge attacks... The precedent you have set leaves all those people throughout the world who risk their freedom and sometimes their lives for the sake of online information even more exposed to reprisals. Such imprudence endangers your own sources and, beyond that, the future of the Internet as an information medium. A total of 116 netizens are currently in prison in a dozen countries because of the comments they posted online"
Boomerang for Gmail: Send email later or receive it when you want
Teen sex doesn't cause bad grades - "Teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those don't have sex... Last year, nearly half of high school students reported having sexual intercourse, and 14 percent have had four or more partners"
Opinions vs. Data - "I immediately figured out how to use it, but my gut reaction was «most people are not going to get how this works.» It seems I was wrong. This is one of the reasons why I don’t put too much trust into opinion-based usability reviews: There’s a lot of guesswork involved, and guessing how humans behave is an endeavor fraught with peril. Expert reviews can be helpful, but they are no substitute for actual testing."
Obama's Islamic America - "President Obama says Islam has always been part of America, which raises the question, does the president know something about American history that we don't?... Islam had no influence on the origins and development of the United States. It contributed nothing to early American political culture, art, literature, music or any other aspect of the early nation"
Why don’t Anglo women like Asian men?
Amidst the meaningless motherhood statements, I like this comment: "Asian men, well, you tend to be shorter and skinnier. You have figures most women torture and starve themselves to achieve, except you lack boobies. You challenge our femininity, basically."
Why photographer was handcuffed - "POLICE handcuffed a photographer taking flood pictures along Bukit Timah Road last month because public safety was involved... The photographer had stopped his car illegally along the road at about 7.40am to take the photographs, causing an obstruction to other motorists... 'There was clear danger not only to the photographer but to other motorists as well,' said Mr Shamugam. When the photographer ignored a second advice from police against taking pictures on the flooded centre divider, he was handcuffed."
Someone parks illegally and you handcuff them for public safety. Nice try, do you think anyone other than Singaporeans will buy that?
Former RCP president backs review of drugs laws - ""Everyone who has looked at this in a serious and sustained way concludes that the present policy of prohibition is not a success"... He argued that many of the problems health staff encountered were the consequences not of heroin itself, but of prohibition... decriminalising personal use could free up police resources, reduce crime and improve public health"
Post ID: 5971067466654625408
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
I will not be your father
"Si seulement tu connaissais le pouvoir du côté obscur"
Post ID: 664012543995292094
The gender pendulum has swung too far
"In strictness we are all mad when we give way to passion, to prejudice, to vice, to vanity; but if all the passionate, prejudiced and vain people were to be locked up as lunatics, who is to keep the key to the asylum?" - The Times, 1853, on the verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity"
***
The gender pendulum has swung too far
"True or false
1. The majority of medical research and outreach has been done on men.
... most gender-specific health care research has been done on women. When I searched PubMed, which indexes 3,000 medical journals over the past 60 years, there have been 43 articles on "women's health" for every one on "men's health"...
Also, the overwhelming majority of gender-specific health outreach has been to women. Although sudden heart attack kills more men and kills them younger, most of the heart-disease public relations campaigns have been aimed at women. And although almost as many men die of prostate cancer, we see a sea of pink ribbons for breast cancer in our supermarkets and advertising campaigns but rarely the ribbon of prostate cancer. (Do you even know what color that is?) There are seven federal agencies for women's health, none for men.
2. The vast majority of severe domestic violence is initiated by men.
False. The media mainly reports the misleading police reports, which grossly underestimate the amount of female-initiated domestic violence because men are far less likely to report abuse. One reason: men are embarrassed to say their wife abused them. In contrast, women are considered heroes for reporting their abusing men... A California State University metaanaylsis of 200 studies with an aggregate sample size exceeding 200,000 "demonstrates that women are as or more physically aggressive than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners." Yet much female-initiated abuse is ignored by the police and shelters overwhelmingly serve only women.
3. Girls do far better than boys in school.
True. Male school achievement used to exceed female. Today, however, by high school graduation, girls are reading 1.5 grade levels higher than boys, a far greater gap than the tiny edge boys have in math. Boys are eight times as likely to be put on a chemical leash such as Ritalin, nine times as likely to be disciplined, twice as likely to drop out...
In graduate school, despite the fact that a far higher percentage of men work full-time after they get their degrees, fully half of students in medical school, law school, and MBA programs are women., as are almost 80 percent of veterinary school students. Yet inexplicably, there are far more scholarships set aside for women than for men...
The response to boys' falling far behind girls is too often for boys to be told to sit still for ever more seatwork, as recess and other physical activities, which used to allow boys to drain energy, are cut. Otherwise, it's a trip to the principal, a suspension, and/or placement in special education and/or that Ritalin leash.
4. According to the Dept. of Defense, 99% of U.S. soldier deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been men.
True: You might ask, "How could that be? The media and government constantly say, 'Our men and women fighting in Iraq.' Media interviews with soldiers are roughly 50/50." Fact is, only men are allowed to serve in direct combat and only men must register for the draft.
5. Men comprise 80 percent of completed suicides.
True, yet there are many programs aimed to prevent women from committing suicide, almost none for men.
6. Women earn less for the same work than men.
False: For the same work, women earn, on average, the same
... today, unmarried women who have never had a child earn 113% of what men earn. That suggests that for the same nature, quantity, and quality of work, women likely earn more than men...
Here is further evidence that when women do earn less, it's not because bosses undervalue them: Working women who have no boss (they own their own business), earn only 49% of what the average male business owner earns. Why? A Rochester Institute of Technology study found that money was the primary motivator for only 29 percent of women versus 76 percent of men. Women put a premium on shorter work weeks, proximity to home, fulfillment, autonomy, and safety...
7. While women's employment rates remain steady, one in five men ages 25-54 are now unemployed, the highest percentage since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data in 1948
... How did you do on the quiz? If you didn't do well, why?... society's mind molders--the colleges and the media--employ many hard-line feminists and men afraid of being called sexist. So, for example, rather than dig beneath the misleading statistics trumpeted by women's advocacy groups such as the infamous "women earn 80 cents on the dollar," they report those statistics unquestioningly. And movies, TV, and commercials disproportionately portray men as boors, sleazebags, and/or morons. For example, the box-office-record-breaking movie Avatar disproportionately displays the women as strong and ethical, the guys as troglodytes. The major exception is a jarhead who is shown the path to wisdom by a woman. In the leading kids' movie, Princess and the Frog, it's the same: Tiana's (the heroine) dad is killed off immediately so she can be raised by a wise woman. Consulted to by her and Granny Bayou, Tiana beats all the bad guys who are, yes, all guys.
If a Martian read the above information, he'd reasonably infer that to be treated this poorly, men must be the inferior sex...
We perceive men who earn more money as having privilege but we are blind to dads who sacrifice their own dreams because earning more, even if the job is disdainful (e.g., traveling widget salesman) better helps their children live their dreams. When we view men's higher earnings only as discrimination against women, our anger blinds us to his mid-life crisis when he realizes he will never be the writer or artist he once hoped to be. And more important, it blinds us to how his love for his wife and children made him make the enormous sacrifice of giving up his dreams. In turn, our blindness deepens his crisis of meaning and often, his depression or anger...
25 years ago, when I began as a college and career counselor, both sexes were equally confident about their futures. Today, most of the girls and women I see are optimistic while far more males are dispirited or angry"
***
The gender pendulum has swung too far
"True or false
1. The majority of medical research and outreach has been done on men.
... most gender-specific health care research has been done on women. When I searched PubMed, which indexes 3,000 medical journals over the past 60 years, there have been 43 articles on "women's health" for every one on "men's health"...
Also, the overwhelming majority of gender-specific health outreach has been to women. Although sudden heart attack kills more men and kills them younger, most of the heart-disease public relations campaigns have been aimed at women. And although almost as many men die of prostate cancer, we see a sea of pink ribbons for breast cancer in our supermarkets and advertising campaigns but rarely the ribbon of prostate cancer. (Do you even know what color that is?) There are seven federal agencies for women's health, none for men.
2. The vast majority of severe domestic violence is initiated by men.
False. The media mainly reports the misleading police reports, which grossly underestimate the amount of female-initiated domestic violence because men are far less likely to report abuse. One reason: men are embarrassed to say their wife abused them. In contrast, women are considered heroes for reporting their abusing men... A California State University metaanaylsis of 200 studies with an aggregate sample size exceeding 200,000 "demonstrates that women are as or more physically aggressive than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners." Yet much female-initiated abuse is ignored by the police and shelters overwhelmingly serve only women.
3. Girls do far better than boys in school.
True. Male school achievement used to exceed female. Today, however, by high school graduation, girls are reading 1.5 grade levels higher than boys, a far greater gap than the tiny edge boys have in math. Boys are eight times as likely to be put on a chemical leash such as Ritalin, nine times as likely to be disciplined, twice as likely to drop out...
In graduate school, despite the fact that a far higher percentage of men work full-time after they get their degrees, fully half of students in medical school, law school, and MBA programs are women., as are almost 80 percent of veterinary school students. Yet inexplicably, there are far more scholarships set aside for women than for men...
The response to boys' falling far behind girls is too often for boys to be told to sit still for ever more seatwork, as recess and other physical activities, which used to allow boys to drain energy, are cut. Otherwise, it's a trip to the principal, a suspension, and/or placement in special education and/or that Ritalin leash.
4. According to the Dept. of Defense, 99% of U.S. soldier deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been men.
True: You might ask, "How could that be? The media and government constantly say, 'Our men and women fighting in Iraq.' Media interviews with soldiers are roughly 50/50." Fact is, only men are allowed to serve in direct combat and only men must register for the draft.
5. Men comprise 80 percent of completed suicides.
True, yet there are many programs aimed to prevent women from committing suicide, almost none for men.
6. Women earn less for the same work than men.
False: For the same work, women earn, on average, the same
... today, unmarried women who have never had a child earn 113% of what men earn. That suggests that for the same nature, quantity, and quality of work, women likely earn more than men...
Here is further evidence that when women do earn less, it's not because bosses undervalue them: Working women who have no boss (they own their own business), earn only 49% of what the average male business owner earns. Why? A Rochester Institute of Technology study found that money was the primary motivator for only 29 percent of women versus 76 percent of men. Women put a premium on shorter work weeks, proximity to home, fulfillment, autonomy, and safety...
7. While women's employment rates remain steady, one in five men ages 25-54 are now unemployed, the highest percentage since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data in 1948
... How did you do on the quiz? If you didn't do well, why?... society's mind molders--the colleges and the media--employ many hard-line feminists and men afraid of being called sexist. So, for example, rather than dig beneath the misleading statistics trumpeted by women's advocacy groups such as the infamous "women earn 80 cents on the dollar," they report those statistics unquestioningly. And movies, TV, and commercials disproportionately portray men as boors, sleazebags, and/or morons. For example, the box-office-record-breaking movie Avatar disproportionately displays the women as strong and ethical, the guys as troglodytes. The major exception is a jarhead who is shown the path to wisdom by a woman. In the leading kids' movie, Princess and the Frog, it's the same: Tiana's (the heroine) dad is killed off immediately so she can be raised by a wise woman. Consulted to by her and Granny Bayou, Tiana beats all the bad guys who are, yes, all guys.
If a Martian read the above information, he'd reasonably infer that to be treated this poorly, men must be the inferior sex...
We perceive men who earn more money as having privilege but we are blind to dads who sacrifice their own dreams because earning more, even if the job is disdainful (e.g., traveling widget salesman) better helps their children live their dreams. When we view men's higher earnings only as discrimination against women, our anger blinds us to his mid-life crisis when he realizes he will never be the writer or artist he once hoped to be. And more important, it blinds us to how his love for his wife and children made him make the enormous sacrifice of giving up his dreams. In turn, our blindness deepens his crisis of meaning and often, his depression or anger...
25 years ago, when I began as a college and career counselor, both sexes were equally confident about their futures. Today, most of the girls and women I see are optimistic while far more males are dispirited or angry"
Post ID: 5919210607052133851
Monday, August 23, 2010
Crazy Jeremy makes it to Twitpic
"#NUSOddities - A PRC student wearing his VERY DIRTY LAB COAT stained with a multitude of dyes. GPGT."
This is, of course, inaccurate.
1) He's not a PRC
2) He's not an NUS student [anymore] (this bit was implied)
3) His lab coat is not dirty - it's stained on purpose (who could possibly get this sort of stain accidentally?!)
Post ID: 3480351136559581618
Great pickup lines
"I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who'd be mad at me for saying that." - Mitch Hedberg
***
Nice try, creep.
"What began as an innocent foray into the world of online dating quickly turned into a degenerate parade of quirky, amusing, odd and nauseating characters vying for female attention."
My favourite (and evidently theirs too) attempt currently on the first page:
Subject: Hell bitch. I'll be your much older friend.
Message:We can hang out.
I wear a motherfucking chicken suit. And I use it to play pranks on my local KFC. I go around their store saying "I'm a chicken on steroids!" They call the cops. I run for it down the streets. The cops are forced to chase a man in a chicken suit. I get tasered and start crying. People put it up on youtube. I become a celebrity.
I think what we have together could at least be friendship, but at the very most be true love with lots of mini-golf and butt-sex.
And that would be awesome. Cause I'm really good at mini-golf.
Motherfucker.
And an incisive observation (on "Are you a FUCKER, or a TALKER"):
"I want to believe that the success rate of messages such as this is in the low decimal points of a tiny fraction of a marginal percentage… but if that were truly the case, they wouldn't keep on coming.
Perhaps we ought to be examining this social scenario from a diametric angle: Who is responding to these messages in a manner that suggests such obnoxiousness is erotic, or even acceptable?
I'd like to meet her and tell her that this website is all her fault."
(in other words, it takes two hands to clap)
***
Nice try, creep.
"What began as an innocent foray into the world of online dating quickly turned into a degenerate parade of quirky, amusing, odd and nauseating characters vying for female attention."
My favourite (and evidently theirs too) attempt currently on the first page:
Subject: Hell bitch. I'll be your much older friend.
Message:We can hang out.
I wear a motherfucking chicken suit. And I use it to play pranks on my local KFC. I go around their store saying "I'm a chicken on steroids!" They call the cops. I run for it down the streets. The cops are forced to chase a man in a chicken suit. I get tasered and start crying. People put it up on youtube. I become a celebrity.
I think what we have together could at least be friendship, but at the very most be true love with lots of mini-golf and butt-sex.
And that would be awesome. Cause I'm really good at mini-golf.
Motherfucker.
And an incisive observation (on "Are you a FUCKER, or a TALKER"):
"I want to believe that the success rate of messages such as this is in the low decimal points of a tiny fraction of a marginal percentage… but if that were truly the case, they wouldn't keep on coming.
Perhaps we ought to be examining this social scenario from a diametric angle: Who is responding to these messages in a manner that suggests such obnoxiousness is erotic, or even acceptable?
I'd like to meet her and tell her that this website is all her fault."
(in other words, it takes two hands to clap)
Post ID: 6807252446593354396
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Raffles Stands with Jairus
Dear Raffles Alumnus,
As you might already have heard or read from the papers, Jairus Ang Jun Heng from the Class of 2009 and former boys' captain of the school's Canoeing team was attacked by a gang of robbers while on his way home from Kallang MRT station on 29th May at around midnight. Jairus sustained many injuries and had to undergo many operations.
Six weeks on, most of his wounds have healed and he has been discharged. However, his four fingers were amputated. Despite the physical and emotional pain, Jairus remains a fighter- staying positive and refusing to give up on his dreams.
The school has launched a Fund, open to contributions from the school community, to help his family with the medical bills and cost of future therapy and treatment. Cash and cheque contributions are welcome. Please address cheques to “Raffles Institution” with “Funds for Jairus” on the back, and mail it in to the school. For cash donations, please walk in to drop off your donation at the Student Affairs Centre at Blk D of Raffles Institution (Yr 5-6 campus) anytime between 8 am to 5.30 pm.
Over and above financial support, the Fund is a token of the school's undivided support for a fellow Rafflesian during these difficult times. Let us stand with Jairus and his family, so they may know that they are not alone in the long journey to recovery that lies ahead.
Thank you very much for your kind attention and generous support. For more information, please contact Canoeing Teacher Mentor, Mr Koh Say Yong at sayyong.koh@ri.edu.sg or Girls' Canoeing Captain 2008-09, Ms Quek Xin Er at quek_xin_er@yahoo.com.
Regards,
Raffles Alumni Portal Administrator
Raffles Institution
One Raffles Institution Lane
Singapore 575954
On my suggestion, they hve also set up a Paypal account:
"Good news! our school recently set up a PayPal payment facility. Our registered email address with PayPal is peggy.lee@ri.edu.sg. So if you have a Paypal account, you can make a donation to "Fund for Jairus""
As you might already have heard or read from the papers, Jairus Ang Jun Heng from the Class of 2009 and former boys' captain of the school's Canoeing team was attacked by a gang of robbers while on his way home from Kallang MRT station on 29th May at around midnight. Jairus sustained many injuries and had to undergo many operations.
Six weeks on, most of his wounds have healed and he has been discharged. However, his four fingers were amputated. Despite the physical and emotional pain, Jairus remains a fighter- staying positive and refusing to give up on his dreams.
The school has launched a Fund, open to contributions from the school community, to help his family with the medical bills and cost of future therapy and treatment. Cash and cheque contributions are welcome. Please address cheques to “Raffles Institution” with “Funds for Jairus” on the back, and mail it in to the school. For cash donations, please walk in to drop off your donation at the Student Affairs Centre at Blk D of Raffles Institution (Yr 5-6 campus) anytime between 8 am to 5.30 pm.
Over and above financial support, the Fund is a token of the school's undivided support for a fellow Rafflesian during these difficult times. Let us stand with Jairus and his family, so they may know that they are not alone in the long journey to recovery that lies ahead.
Thank you very much for your kind attention and generous support. For more information, please contact Canoeing Teacher Mentor, Mr Koh Say Yong at sayyong.koh@ri.edu.sg or Girls' Canoeing Captain 2008-09, Ms Quek Xin Er at quek_xin_er@yahoo.com.
Regards,
Raffles Alumni Portal Administrator
Raffles Institution
One Raffles Institution Lane
Singapore 575954
On my suggestion, they hve also set up a Paypal account:
"Good news! our school recently set up a PayPal payment facility. Our registered email address with PayPal is peggy.lee@ri.edu.sg. So if you have a Paypal account, you can make a donation to "Fund for Jairus""
Post ID: 794876131306049878
"Live Our Dreams, Burn Our Flag"
"It's a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear." - Dick Cavett
***
"CRIME ALERT: BURNING OF STATE FLAGS
Police have received reports on state flags hung outside residential units or other premises being burnt.
We seek your assistance to alert Police on persons who loiter suspiciously in your neighbourhood... Your vigilance will contribute greatly to the safety and security of the neighbourhood"
.
"Where they burn flags, they will ultimately also burn ballot papers."
Flag Burning Made Safe and Easy - BurntFlag.com:
"If you've come to burn a flag, you've come to the right place. Flag-burning without repercussion is our specialty. So, if you come from a country where freedom of speech isn't policy, or flag-burning isn't considered freedom of speech, burn away. If you come from a country where flag burning is a protected freedom, burn your flags here to avoid those nasty arson and public disturbance laws!
After all, at the end of the day, it's just a bunch of pixels, right?
Top Five Burning Flags
1. Al Qaeda
2. United States
3. Nazi
4. Sweden
5. Algeria"
***
"CRIME ALERT: BURNING OF STATE FLAGS
Police have received reports on state flags hung outside residential units or other premises being burnt.
We seek your assistance to alert Police on persons who loiter suspiciously in your neighbourhood... Your vigilance will contribute greatly to the safety and security of the neighbourhood"
."Where they burn flags, they will ultimately also burn ballot papers."
Flag Burning Made Safe and Easy - BurntFlag.com:
"If you've come to burn a flag, you've come to the right place. Flag-burning without repercussion is our specialty. So, if you come from a country where freedom of speech isn't policy, or flag-burning isn't considered freedom of speech, burn away. If you come from a country where flag burning is a protected freedom, burn your flags here to avoid those nasty arson and public disturbance laws!
After all, at the end of the day, it's just a bunch of pixels, right?
Top Five Burning Flags
1. Al Qaeda
2. United States
3. Nazi
4. Sweden
5. Algeria"
Post ID: 6837796926578861695
Friday, August 20, 2010
Dostoyevsky on the persecution complex
"Come, can a man who attempts to find enjoyment in the very feeling of his own degradation possibly have a spark of respect for himself? I am not saying this now from any mawkish kind of remorse. And, indeed, I could never endure saying, "Forgive me, Papa, I won't do it again," not because I am incapable of saying that--on the contrary, perhaps just because I have been too capable of it, and in what a way, too. As though of design I used to get into trouble in cases when I was not to blame in any way. That was the nastiest part of it. At the same time I was genuinely touched and penitent, I used to shed tears and, of course, deceived myself, though I was not acting in the least and there was a sick feeling in my heart at the time.... For that one could not blame even the laws of nature, though the laws of nature have continually all my life offended me more than anything. It is loathsome to remember it all, but it was loathsome even then. Of course, a minute or so later I would realise wrathfully that it was all a lie, a revolting lie, an affected lie, that is, all this penitence, this emotion, these vows of reform. You will ask why did I worry myself with such antics: answer, because it was very dull to sit with one's hands folded, and so one began cutting capers. That is really it. Observe yourselves more carefully, gentlemen, then you will understand that it is so. I invented adventures for myself and made up a life, so as at least to live in some way. How many times it has happened to me--well, for instance, to take offence simply on purpose, for nothing; and one knows oneself, of course, that one is offended at nothing; that one is putting it on, but yet one brings oneself at last to the point of being really offended. All my life I have had an impulse to play such pranks, so that in the end I could not control it in myself. Another time, twice, in fact, I tried hard to be in love. I suffered, too, gentlemen, I assure you. In the depth of my heart there was no faith in my suffering, only a faint stir of mockery, but yet I did suffer, and in the real, orthodox way; I was jealous, beside myself ... and it was all from ennui, gentlemen, all from ennui... a man revenges himself because he sees justice in it. Therefore he has found a primary cause, that is, justice. And so he is at rest on all sides, and consequently he carries out his revenge calmly and successfully, being persuaded that he is doing a just and honest thing. But I see no justice in it, I find no sort of virtue in it either, and consequently if I attempt to revenge myself, it is only out of spite... You look into it, the object flies off into air, your reasons evaporate, the criminal is not to be found, the wrong becomes not a wrong but a phantom, something like the toothache, for which no one is to blame, and consequently there is only the same outlet left again--that is, to beat the wall as hard as you can. So you give it up with a wave of the hand because you have not found a fundamental cause. And try letting yourself be carried away by your feelings, blindly, without reflection, without a primary cause, repelling consciousness at least for a time; hate or love, if only not to sit with your hands folded. The day after tomorrow, at the latest, you will begin despising yourself for having knowingly deceived yourself."
--- Notes from the Underground
--- Notes from the Underground
Post ID: 330875300464400975
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Links - 19th August 2010
"Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president." - Johnny Carson
***
Opinion: Victor Davis Hanson: America has moved beyond race, and the president should, too - "Race seems to be the subtext of almost every contemporary issue, from the soaring deficit and government spending to recent presidential appointments and the enforcement of existing immigration law. In times of growing deficits, white people are stereotyped as being angry over supposedly paying higher taxes to subsidize minorities, while minorities are stereotyped as being mostly on the receiving end of entitlements...Obama appealed to voters along exclusionary race and gender lines — not traditional political allegiances — when he called upon "the young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008""
Gay and lesbian television portrayals criticised - "Young people rarely see positive portrayals of lesbian and gay people on television, according to Stonewall... It said gay people were mainly portrayed as promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun."
Among the many problems with this: it does not consider the portrayal of non-gay people (television does not portray real life accurately), it assumes everyone not portrayed as gay is portrayed as heterosexual, it insists on statistical equality (if it doesn't matter what sexual orientation you are, why kick up a fuss?), and it subscribes to the monkey-see, monkey-do theory of human behavior
The Web Means the End of Forgetting - "In Brandeis’s day — and until recently, in ours — you had to be a celebrity to be gossiped about in public: today all of us are learning to expect the scrutiny that used to be reserved for the famous and the infamous"
Questions From Your Girlfriend That Aren't Really Questions - "Question: “Do you love me?”
What it really means: “Lavish me with compliments or I’m leaving you.” OR “I am a clingy psychopath, please dump me”"
Reason must always come before identity, says Sen - "'In a political context, the prioritising of identity over reason has the effect of rejecting ideas of cross-cultural dialogue'... it is hard to believe that we do not have a choice in determining our identity. Sen gave the example of Gandhi who positively chose his identity as an advocate of independence over his identity as a barrister."
I usually see "identity politics" in a different context, but this applies to that also
Secrets of the Dalai Lama - "Who told a press conference in 1997 that men to men sex and woman to woman sex is sexual misconduct?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?...
Who said that having sex during the day is sexual misconduct?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?
Of course, every single answer is: The Dalai Lama."
YouTube - Street Fighter: Legacy - Short Fan Film
Creating God in Our Own Image « - "As participants’ own views changed, so did their estimates of God’s view... Overall these results suggest that God is a blank slate onto which we project whatever we choose to. We join religious communities that argue for our viewpoint and we interpret religious readings to support our personal positions."
All Joy and No Fun - "A wide variety of academic research shows that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases are less so. This finding is surprisingly consistent, showing up across a range of disciplines... what children really do, he suspects, is offer moments of transcendence, not an overall improvement in well-being... "They’re a huge source of joy, but they turn every other source of joy to shit"... "In our studies, it’s the men, by a long shot, who have more work-life conflict than women"... Healthy relationships definitely make people happier. But children adversely affect relationships"
A Boy's Life - ""We can’t tell a pre-gay from a pre-transsexual at 8,” says Green, who recently retired from running the adult gender-identity clinic in England. “Are you helping or hurting a kid by allowing them to live as the other gender? If everyone is caught up in facilitating the thing, then there may be a hell of a lot of pressure to remain that way, regardless of how strongly the kid still feels gender-dysphoric""
Failure to Launch? - "This started me thinking about my single friends who were still living with their parents and wonder how they do it without it stunting their maturity in some way or other... I once visited a 40-something single friend who lived with her parents. Her Mum kept nagging her to get married but, at the same time, told her she had to be home by 10pm while her Dad vetoed her clothes if they were too revealing. So my friend goes around in long-sleeved shirts and ankle-skimming skirts and without makeup all the time... At my university hostel, many hooked up - boosted by the huge concentration of singles in one place and the lack of parental supervision"
Addendum: keywords - "tabitha wang", "today online", "todayonline", "hong kong", "budget tai tai", "budget taitai", "convenience", "my pajamas", "husband"
Bangladesh hospital bans burqa to prevent theft - ""We decided to enforce our uniform regulations after discovering instances of stealing by veiled staff," he said, adding some burqa-wearing staff had also been secretly sending unqualified "proxy workers" to cover shifts for them... [They] could carry diseases into the hospital"
Islamophobia!
Explain This Image - WTF Pics, Images That Make No Sense - "Have you ever seen a picture that simply makes no sense? We have collected pictures from around the web that left us scratching our heads and saying "wtf". See if you can explain these photos and read other peoples explanations"
YouTube - Jamie Oliver - Nugget experiment epic failure - "Jamie Oliver attempts and fails miserably in trying to convince a group of American kids that consuming processed chicken nuggets are bad."
"It pains me to give you them, but there you go"
House of Hell Movie | Steve Jackson & Super Team Films Present House of Hell | Fighting Fantasy
The Bluray and Website versions will let you choose what happens in the movie!
Why is Fanta so much more popular abroad than in the United States?
Book Review: Ernest Gellner - WSJ.com - "He did, however, make a strong case that the whole theory of "orientalism"—Said's idea that Western interpretations and depictions of the East were designed not to understand the East but to control it—was based on erroneous assumptions about the political power of literature. The viceroys of India, he pointed out brutally, were not known for eagerly scanning the pages of late-19th-century literary magazines... Gellner's response to feminist critics was characteristically blunt but perhaps less satisfactory. When backed into a corner about the absence of women from one of his seminal works, he answered that, while he liked women, he had to insist that they had nothing to do with historical development... Noam Chomsky, who had accused him of ignoring Western crimes, Gellner charged that his critic had "obscured" the fact that "the survival of freedom and accountable, limited government is an enormously important value even when some of its defenders are occasionally tarnished""
"Clearly you've never been..." - "Occasional and illustrated accounts in the elongated and dubiously edited style of the day pertaining to films and television that claim to represent the island-nation of Singapura with rare excursions over the causeway to Johor"
Mastering the Unmasterable - A French Puzzle - "With some effort and application, foreigners can learn to tie a scarf like a French woman or to chew wine like a French man. But they cannot hope to master the intricacies of the tu and vous forms of address, because the French can't either... For members of the 1968 generation, hearing themselves addressed with a respectful vous comes as a damping sign of age, rather like the first time a woman is offered a seat on a bus (a humiliation unlikely to occur in Paris public transport). While Catholics usually address God as tu, Aubry writes, they always use vous to the Virgin"
Sharpie Reinvents Pen with Liquid Pencil - "The Sharpie Liquid Pencil contains an “ink” made from liquid graphite and lays it down just like a pen. Once written, you have three days to think on the validity and weight of your words. During this period you can erase it just like pencil-marks. After the three days is up, the pencil lines will turn to ink and remain inscribed forever."
A Mathematician’s Lament - "Algebra is not about daily life, it’s about numbers and symmetry— and this is a valid pursuit in and of itself...Suppose I am given the sum and difference of two numbers. How can I figure out what the numbers are themselves? Here is a simple and elegant question, and it requires no effort to be made appealing. The ancient Babylonians enjoyed working on such problems, and so do our students... We don’t need to bend over backwards to give mathematics relevance. It has relevance in the same way that any art does: that of being a meaningful human experience... Technique in mathematics, as in any art, should be learned in context... Give your students a good problem, let them struggle and get frustrated. See what they come up with. Wait until they are dying for an idea, then give them some technique"
If this guy had his way, 1/1,000 maths students would have a Road to Damascus moment - and the other 999 would hate maths even more
HIROSHIMA: THIS IS YOUR LIFE - "On May 11, 1955, before an audience of millions of viewers, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing was shocked to receive a handshake from the co-pilot who flew the mission to destroy his city"
Are the poor more charitable than the rich? - "The poor are more more inclined to charity than the rich."
Teaching philosophy with Spider-Man - ""This is what philosophy has tried to do from the very beginning," he says. "Philosophy starts with Socrates in the streets of Athens taking his message to the people and speaking in their language - agricultural analogies and common mythology." Through the centuries, though, philosophers retreated into academia, creating a convoluted vocabulary that can appear inaccessible to the average first-year university student... Mr Robichaud has little patience for critics who say that this work cheapens the traditional study of philosophy. "The sort of philosophy I do - analytical philosophy - uses thought experiments all the time," he says. "If the examples we are drawing from are fictional examples from popular culture, as long as that's in the service of good philosophy, who cares? Who cares if the example is from Middlemarch or Watchmen?""
Jailed for religious insult - "IN THE first case of its kind, air-con repairman Andrew Kiong Kheng Kiat, 44, was jailed two weeks on Friday for wounding the religious feeling of a couple... [he put] a card on the windscreen of her car. Written on it, were questions that cast aspersions on Prophet Muhammad."
In some circles, using the wrong hadith counts as casting aspersions on Prophet Muhammad.
Google Flops & Failures - The Failed Google Graveyard
Giving way for 2 weeks – Thoughts about YOG - "For the past month, I’ve been attached to a secondary school. And it was then I begin to realise what YOG is doing to our youths. Many of them, I wish you could be there to see it for yourself."
The Red Army Orchestra - Birth of an Internet Meme - chinaSMACK - "The same footage of the Red Army Orchestra was synced to Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It”. While the syncing of “Waving Flag” was done well this “Beat It” version was far superior, showing an understanding of musical syncopation, call and response, instrument textures and layering, and even a smoking electric erhu solo by a Chinese Red Army version of Eddie Van Halen"
The Allure of a Female Hitchhiker’s Breast Size (To Male Drivers). - "Statistically speaking, only men's behaviors were affected by the hitchhiker's breast size (p < .03). The frequency of stopping in the cup C condition was marginally greater than that of cup B (p = 0.09) and significantly greater than that of cup A (p < .01). The difference between cups A and B was not significant."
***
Opinion: Victor Davis Hanson: America has moved beyond race, and the president should, too - "Race seems to be the subtext of almost every contemporary issue, from the soaring deficit and government spending to recent presidential appointments and the enforcement of existing immigration law. In times of growing deficits, white people are stereotyped as being angry over supposedly paying higher taxes to subsidize minorities, while minorities are stereotyped as being mostly on the receiving end of entitlements...Obama appealed to voters along exclusionary race and gender lines — not traditional political allegiances — when he called upon "the young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008""
Gay and lesbian television portrayals criticised - "Young people rarely see positive portrayals of lesbian and gay people on television, according to Stonewall... It said gay people were mainly portrayed as promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun."
Among the many problems with this: it does not consider the portrayal of non-gay people (television does not portray real life accurately), it assumes everyone not portrayed as gay is portrayed as heterosexual, it insists on statistical equality (if it doesn't matter what sexual orientation you are, why kick up a fuss?), and it subscribes to the monkey-see, monkey-do theory of human behavior
The Web Means the End of Forgetting - "In Brandeis’s day — and until recently, in ours — you had to be a celebrity to be gossiped about in public: today all of us are learning to expect the scrutiny that used to be reserved for the famous and the infamous"
Questions From Your Girlfriend That Aren't Really Questions - "Question: “Do you love me?”
What it really means: “Lavish me with compliments or I’m leaving you.” OR “I am a clingy psychopath, please dump me”"
Reason must always come before identity, says Sen - "'In a political context, the prioritising of identity over reason has the effect of rejecting ideas of cross-cultural dialogue'... it is hard to believe that we do not have a choice in determining our identity. Sen gave the example of Gandhi who positively chose his identity as an advocate of independence over his identity as a barrister."
I usually see "identity politics" in a different context, but this applies to that also
Secrets of the Dalai Lama - "Who told a press conference in 1997 that men to men sex and woman to woman sex is sexual misconduct?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?...
Who said that having sex during the day is sexual misconduct?
The Pope, or the Dalai Lama?
Of course, every single answer is: The Dalai Lama."
YouTube - Street Fighter: Legacy - Short Fan Film
Creating God in Our Own Image « - "As participants’ own views changed, so did their estimates of God’s view... Overall these results suggest that God is a blank slate onto which we project whatever we choose to. We join religious communities that argue for our viewpoint and we interpret religious readings to support our personal positions."
All Joy and No Fun - "A wide variety of academic research shows that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases are less so. This finding is surprisingly consistent, showing up across a range of disciplines... what children really do, he suspects, is offer moments of transcendence, not an overall improvement in well-being... "They’re a huge source of joy, but they turn every other source of joy to shit"... "In our studies, it’s the men, by a long shot, who have more work-life conflict than women"... Healthy relationships definitely make people happier. But children adversely affect relationships"
A Boy's Life - ""We can’t tell a pre-gay from a pre-transsexual at 8,” says Green, who recently retired from running the adult gender-identity clinic in England. “Are you helping or hurting a kid by allowing them to live as the other gender? If everyone is caught up in facilitating the thing, then there may be a hell of a lot of pressure to remain that way, regardless of how strongly the kid still feels gender-dysphoric""
Failure to Launch? - "This started me thinking about my single friends who were still living with their parents and wonder how they do it without it stunting their maturity in some way or other... I once visited a 40-something single friend who lived with her parents. Her Mum kept nagging her to get married but, at the same time, told her she had to be home by 10pm while her Dad vetoed her clothes if they were too revealing. So my friend goes around in long-sleeved shirts and ankle-skimming skirts and without makeup all the time... At my university hostel, many hooked up - boosted by the huge concentration of singles in one place and the lack of parental supervision"
Addendum: keywords - "tabitha wang", "today online", "todayonline", "hong kong", "budget tai tai", "budget taitai", "convenience", "my pajamas", "husband"
Bangladesh hospital bans burqa to prevent theft - ""We decided to enforce our uniform regulations after discovering instances of stealing by veiled staff," he said, adding some burqa-wearing staff had also been secretly sending unqualified "proxy workers" to cover shifts for them... [They] could carry diseases into the hospital"
Islamophobia!
Explain This Image - WTF Pics, Images That Make No Sense - "Have you ever seen a picture that simply makes no sense? We have collected pictures from around the web that left us scratching our heads and saying "wtf". See if you can explain these photos and read other peoples explanations"
YouTube - Jamie Oliver - Nugget experiment epic failure - "Jamie Oliver attempts and fails miserably in trying to convince a group of American kids that consuming processed chicken nuggets are bad."
"It pains me to give you them, but there you go"
House of Hell Movie | Steve Jackson & Super Team Films Present House of Hell | Fighting Fantasy
The Bluray and Website versions will let you choose what happens in the movie!
Why is Fanta so much more popular abroad than in the United States?
Book Review: Ernest Gellner - WSJ.com - "He did, however, make a strong case that the whole theory of "orientalism"—Said's idea that Western interpretations and depictions of the East were designed not to understand the East but to control it—was based on erroneous assumptions about the political power of literature. The viceroys of India, he pointed out brutally, were not known for eagerly scanning the pages of late-19th-century literary magazines... Gellner's response to feminist critics was characteristically blunt but perhaps less satisfactory. When backed into a corner about the absence of women from one of his seminal works, he answered that, while he liked women, he had to insist that they had nothing to do with historical development... Noam Chomsky, who had accused him of ignoring Western crimes, Gellner charged that his critic had "obscured" the fact that "the survival of freedom and accountable, limited government is an enormously important value even when some of its defenders are occasionally tarnished""
"Clearly you've never been..." - "Occasional and illustrated accounts in the elongated and dubiously edited style of the day pertaining to films and television that claim to represent the island-nation of Singapura with rare excursions over the causeway to Johor"
Mastering the Unmasterable - A French Puzzle - "With some effort and application, foreigners can learn to tie a scarf like a French woman or to chew wine like a French man. But they cannot hope to master the intricacies of the tu and vous forms of address, because the French can't either... For members of the 1968 generation, hearing themselves addressed with a respectful vous comes as a damping sign of age, rather like the first time a woman is offered a seat on a bus (a humiliation unlikely to occur in Paris public transport). While Catholics usually address God as tu, Aubry writes, they always use vous to the Virgin"
Sharpie Reinvents Pen with Liquid Pencil - "The Sharpie Liquid Pencil contains an “ink” made from liquid graphite and lays it down just like a pen. Once written, you have three days to think on the validity and weight of your words. During this period you can erase it just like pencil-marks. After the three days is up, the pencil lines will turn to ink and remain inscribed forever."
A Mathematician’s Lament - "Algebra is not about daily life, it’s about numbers and symmetry— and this is a valid pursuit in and of itself...Suppose I am given the sum and difference of two numbers. How can I figure out what the numbers are themselves? Here is a simple and elegant question, and it requires no effort to be made appealing. The ancient Babylonians enjoyed working on such problems, and so do our students... We don’t need to bend over backwards to give mathematics relevance. It has relevance in the same way that any art does: that of being a meaningful human experience... Technique in mathematics, as in any art, should be learned in context... Give your students a good problem, let them struggle and get frustrated. See what they come up with. Wait until they are dying for an idea, then give them some technique"
If this guy had his way, 1/1,000 maths students would have a Road to Damascus moment - and the other 999 would hate maths even more
HIROSHIMA: THIS IS YOUR LIFE - "On May 11, 1955, before an audience of millions of viewers, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing was shocked to receive a handshake from the co-pilot who flew the mission to destroy his city"
Are the poor more charitable than the rich? - "The poor are more more inclined to charity than the rich."
Teaching philosophy with Spider-Man - ""This is what philosophy has tried to do from the very beginning," he says. "Philosophy starts with Socrates in the streets of Athens taking his message to the people and speaking in their language - agricultural analogies and common mythology." Through the centuries, though, philosophers retreated into academia, creating a convoluted vocabulary that can appear inaccessible to the average first-year university student... Mr Robichaud has little patience for critics who say that this work cheapens the traditional study of philosophy. "The sort of philosophy I do - analytical philosophy - uses thought experiments all the time," he says. "If the examples we are drawing from are fictional examples from popular culture, as long as that's in the service of good philosophy, who cares? Who cares if the example is from Middlemarch or Watchmen?""
Jailed for religious insult - "IN THE first case of its kind, air-con repairman Andrew Kiong Kheng Kiat, 44, was jailed two weeks on Friday for wounding the religious feeling of a couple... [he put] a card on the windscreen of her car. Written on it, were questions that cast aspersions on Prophet Muhammad."
In some circles, using the wrong hadith counts as casting aspersions on Prophet Muhammad.
Google Flops & Failures - The Failed Google Graveyard
Giving way for 2 weeks – Thoughts about YOG - "For the past month, I’ve been attached to a secondary school. And it was then I begin to realise what YOG is doing to our youths. Many of them, I wish you could be there to see it for yourself."
The Red Army Orchestra - Birth of an Internet Meme - chinaSMACK - "The same footage of the Red Army Orchestra was synced to Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It”. While the syncing of “Waving Flag” was done well this “Beat It” version was far superior, showing an understanding of musical syncopation, call and response, instrument textures and layering, and even a smoking electric erhu solo by a Chinese Red Army version of Eddie Van Halen"
The Allure of a Female Hitchhiker’s Breast Size (To Male Drivers). - "Statistically speaking, only men's behaviors were affected by the hitchhiker's breast size (p < .03). The frequency of stopping in the cup C condition was marginally greater than that of cup B (p = 0.09) and significantly greater than that of cup A (p < .01). The difference between cups A and B was not significant."
Post ID: 8523996386265093628
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Talk on Bond Breaking (28th August)
"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." - George Bernard Shaw
***
Through email:
Hello,
I am Ailian and I am a bondbreaker. I worked at MAS for a year. Since then, my career has brought me to places such as investment banking at Goldman Sachs and an extremely cool social investing gig.
I have received quite a few requests over the years from scholars who want advice on bondbreaking. As you can imagine, bondbreaking is a topic I am very passionate about. When I first considered breaking my bond, I remember being very frustrated, angry, sad, cheated by the system, confused, and scared. I also remember really wishing there were people - former bondbreakers - I could talk to about this major life-changing decision I was trying to make. So having been there, I've responded to just about every request for advice from wannabe bondbreakers. It means a lot to me to pay it forward. This is my idea of public service. (Try explaining that to the PSC.)
It has recently occurred to me that I can do more than just advise people one-off. Also, there must be many more wannabe bondbreakers out there that I can help. So I am trying out a new project. I'm going to give a 90-minute session on bondbreaking. I will also run it as a mini fundraising event.
What this talk is about:
I will share my bondbreaking story and my career progression since then. I will talk about your options if you are unhappy with being bonded. I will share some advice on how to search and apply for jobs.
I will share my perspective on careers. You will get plenty of time to ask your questions, so please come armed with questions.
(Note: this talk is NOT about how you can fund your bondbreaking. This talk is also NOT about persuading you to break your bond. I have never regretted my decision, but to break or not is entirely your decision.)
Date: Aug 28 (Sat), 4.00pm - 5.30pm
Location: TBD (probably somewhere in the northeast of SG)
Cost: $20 / person
All proceeds go to Charity: Water (minus fees for booking a location).
This talk will happen if I get sufficient response. I will do it if at least 5 people sign up and will cap it at 10 people. Feel free to fwd to friends who might be interested.
To RSVP, email me at straightlinedep@gmail.com by Aug 20 (Fri) with your name, email, scholarship board and graduation year. All info will be kept entirely confidential. :)
Best,
Ailian
***
Through email:
Hello,
I am Ailian and I am a bondbreaker. I worked at MAS for a year. Since then, my career has brought me to places such as investment banking at Goldman Sachs and an extremely cool social investing gig.
I have received quite a few requests over the years from scholars who want advice on bondbreaking. As you can imagine, bondbreaking is a topic I am very passionate about. When I first considered breaking my bond, I remember being very frustrated, angry, sad, cheated by the system, confused, and scared. I also remember really wishing there were people - former bondbreakers - I could talk to about this major life-changing decision I was trying to make. So having been there, I've responded to just about every request for advice from wannabe bondbreakers. It means a lot to me to pay it forward. This is my idea of public service. (Try explaining that to the PSC.)
It has recently occurred to me that I can do more than just advise people one-off. Also, there must be many more wannabe bondbreakers out there that I can help. So I am trying out a new project. I'm going to give a 90-minute session on bondbreaking. I will also run it as a mini fundraising event.
What this talk is about:
I will share my bondbreaking story and my career progression since then. I will talk about your options if you are unhappy with being bonded. I will share some advice on how to search and apply for jobs.
I will share my perspective on careers. You will get plenty of time to ask your questions, so please come armed with questions.
(Note: this talk is NOT about how you can fund your bondbreaking. This talk is also NOT about persuading you to break your bond. I have never regretted my decision, but to break or not is entirely your decision.)
Date: Aug 28 (Sat), 4.00pm - 5.30pm
Location: TBD (probably somewhere in the northeast of SG)
Cost: $20 / person
All proceeds go to Charity: Water (minus fees for booking a location).
This talk will happen if I get sufficient response. I will do it if at least 5 people sign up and will cap it at 10 people. Feel free to fwd to friends who might be interested.
To RSVP, email me at straightlinedep@gmail.com by Aug 20 (Fri) with your name, email, scholarship board and graduation year. All info will be kept entirely confidential. :)
Best,
Ailian
Post ID: 6287336462205672196
Monday, August 16, 2010
Opposing unwise juxtaposition of sites of tragedy and symbols of their causes, and bigotry
"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." - George Bernard Shaw
***
I wonder how many of the people supporting the 9/11 mosque (some of whom condemn those who are against it as bigots) were upset (or would have been upset) at another similar instance not too long ago.
The year was 2003, and the place was Germany.
Berlin was constructing a Holocaust Memorial (the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe"), and Degussa was a company producing Protectosil - an anti-graffiti coating for the memorial. The nub of the issue was that a subsidiary of Degussa - Degesch - had produced a deadly chemical, Zyklon-B, in the 1940s: a chemical which had been used in the gas chambers (to kill people).
Most Jewish organisations were against Degussa's involvement in the Holocaust memorial. One Jewish critic even called the memorial a "pig sty". Presumably they were (are) bigots - except that in this case, there is no (perceived) powerless minority involved, so that accusation cannot be made.
Of course, people would say that this case was different, since there was direct involvement by Degussa, whereas the ones behind the 9/11 mosque are not the 9/11 hijackers. However, one has to consider several issues.
For one, the Degussa scandal broke almost 60 years after the end of World War II (and the end of the Holocaust), whereas it's only been 9 years since 9/11. It is certain that in 51 years time, this would not be so much of an issue (and that 51 years ago, there would've been even more controversy about Degussa if it'd similarly been involved in such a memorial).
We also have to consider that although companies are legal persons, this is just a convenient legal fiction (or perhaps conceit) to enable the path of commerce to flow more smoothly. Furthermore, there have been mergers and restructurings over the years. This is not to mention that Degesch was a subsidiary of Degussa, which further reduces the link between Degesch and the modern Degussa, part of the modern Evonik Industries. There is thus no direct connection between the two, just as there is no direct connection between the 9/11 hijackers (and other jihadists) and the putative mosque.
People are also wont to pose this as a freedom of religion issue - but even opponents of the mosque acknowledge that those who want to build it have a right to do so; they are just opposed to it.
Freedom of religion, a cherished American value, does not mean that other people have no right to protest what you are doing. Which naturally is another cherished American value - freedom of speech.
Of course, one could argue that protest is a form of opposition and thus restriction (there are seriously people who argue this - albeit only when [perceived] powerless minorities are being 'oppressed'), but this would lead us to the absurd conclusion that only those who speak first have the right to air their minds - and those who come late to the party must shut up (at least if they're not a member of a [perceived] powerless minority).
Which incidentally recalls a famous Singaporean logical fallacy - that expressing an opinion is a violation of other people's rights - among which primarily (presumably) the freedom of conscience/thought:
"Obviously there are some people who still think differently. That is their mindset and I have no business trying to change theirs as long as they don't change mine."
(Making the case for the Death penalty)
Addendum:
Also, see this letter:
"SIR – Lexington (August 7th) was correct about the planned building of a mosque near to the Ground Zero site from a legal standpoint: any attempt to stop its construction would be defeated in the courts, but his conclusions are wrong. The issue is not one of law or even morality, but of raw emotion. It is similar to an incident in the 1990s when the Catholic church in Poland wished to build a Carmelite convent near the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Jewish community objected to it because they felt that building a convent near where so many of their friends and relations had died was an act of incredible insensitivity. The matter was brought to Pope John Paul II who withdrew the plans as he did not want its presence to be a source of pain for the Jewish people. How decent of him. How sensitive to the feelings of others.
Those who wish to erect the Cordoba House mosque could learn from the pope’s decision and tell the people of New York that, after reflection, they realise that building a community centre will not foster understanding but is likely to have the opposite effect, and they do not wish it to be the cause of any further anguish to those who lost loved ones at that place on that terrible day.
Derek E. Barrett
Long Beach, New York"
***
I wonder how many of the people supporting the 9/11 mosque (some of whom condemn those who are against it as bigots) were upset (or would have been upset) at another similar instance not too long ago.
The year was 2003, and the place was Germany.
Berlin was constructing a Holocaust Memorial (the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe"), and Degussa was a company producing Protectosil - an anti-graffiti coating for the memorial. The nub of the issue was that a subsidiary of Degussa - Degesch - had produced a deadly chemical, Zyklon-B, in the 1940s: a chemical which had been used in the gas chambers (to kill people).
Most Jewish organisations were against Degussa's involvement in the Holocaust memorial. One Jewish critic even called the memorial a "pig sty". Presumably they were (are) bigots - except that in this case, there is no (perceived) powerless minority involved, so that accusation cannot be made.
Of course, people would say that this case was different, since there was direct involvement by Degussa, whereas the ones behind the 9/11 mosque are not the 9/11 hijackers. However, one has to consider several issues.
For one, the Degussa scandal broke almost 60 years after the end of World War II (and the end of the Holocaust), whereas it's only been 9 years since 9/11. It is certain that in 51 years time, this would not be so much of an issue (and that 51 years ago, there would've been even more controversy about Degussa if it'd similarly been involved in such a memorial).
We also have to consider that although companies are legal persons, this is just a convenient legal fiction (or perhaps conceit) to enable the path of commerce to flow more smoothly. Furthermore, there have been mergers and restructurings over the years. This is not to mention that Degesch was a subsidiary of Degussa, which further reduces the link between Degesch and the modern Degussa, part of the modern Evonik Industries. There is thus no direct connection between the two, just as there is no direct connection between the 9/11 hijackers (and other jihadists) and the putative mosque.
People are also wont to pose this as a freedom of religion issue - but even opponents of the mosque acknowledge that those who want to build it have a right to do so; they are just opposed to it.
Freedom of religion, a cherished American value, does not mean that other people have no right to protest what you are doing. Which naturally is another cherished American value - freedom of speech.
Of course, one could argue that protest is a form of opposition and thus restriction (there are seriously people who argue this - albeit only when [perceived] powerless minorities are being 'oppressed'), but this would lead us to the absurd conclusion that only those who speak first have the right to air their minds - and those who come late to the party must shut up (at least if they're not a member of a [perceived] powerless minority).
Which incidentally recalls a famous Singaporean logical fallacy - that expressing an opinion is a violation of other people's rights - among which primarily (presumably) the freedom of conscience/thought:
"Obviously there are some people who still think differently. That is their mindset and I have no business trying to change theirs as long as they don't change mine."
(Making the case for the Death penalty)
Addendum:
Also, see this letter:
"SIR – Lexington (August 7th) was correct about the planned building of a mosque near to the Ground Zero site from a legal standpoint: any attempt to stop its construction would be defeated in the courts, but his conclusions are wrong. The issue is not one of law or even morality, but of raw emotion. It is similar to an incident in the 1990s when the Catholic church in Poland wished to build a Carmelite convent near the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Jewish community objected to it because they felt that building a convent near where so many of their friends and relations had died was an act of incredible insensitivity. The matter was brought to Pope John Paul II who withdrew the plans as he did not want its presence to be a source of pain for the Jewish people. How decent of him. How sensitive to the feelings of others.
Those who wish to erect the Cordoba House mosque could learn from the pope’s decision and tell the people of New York that, after reflection, they realise that building a community centre will not foster understanding but is likely to have the opposite effect, and they do not wish it to be the cause of any further anguish to those who lost loved ones at that place on that terrible day.
Derek E. Barrett
Long Beach, New York"
Post ID: 3453746774323035182
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Free shows are expensive
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss
Except if you go on this way, you will soon find that soon no one will be left to mind
***
Le Figaro: Paris: elle montre ses seins et vole 300€
(Translation follows)
"Un homme s'est fait voler 300 euros à un distributeur automatique de billets à Paris le 7 août par deux jeunes femmes dont l'une lui a montré ses seins et touché le sexe, a-t-on appris hier auprès de la préfecture de police.
Ce jour-là, vers 19h, un homme pénètre dans le sas d'une banque du VIe arrondissement de Paris pour retirer de l'argent au distributeur. Alors qu'il a introduit sa carte dans l'appareil, deux jeunes femmes rentrent à leur tour dans le local, l'importunent, lui réclament de l'argent et exhibent un journal pour détourner son attention.
Cette stratégie ayant échoué, l'une d'elles découvre sa poitrine et met sa main sur le sexe de l'homme pendant que sa comparse profite de cet effet de surprise pour retirer 300 euros...
Alors que la victime a déposé plainte, les voleuses -qui pourraient être originaires des pays de l'Est, selon la préfecture- n'ont pour l'instant pu être identifiées."
Translation:
Paris: she exposed her breasts and stole 300€
"A man was robbed of 300 euros at an ATM in Paris on the 7th of August by 2 young women, one of whom showed him her breasts and touched his genitals, we learnt at police headquarters.
That day, around 1900, a man entered the alcove of a bank in the 6th arrondissement of Paris for withdrawing money from an ATM. As he inserted his card into the machine, it was the turn [?] of 2 young women, who took the opportunity to ask for money and showed [him] a newspaper to distract him.
This plan having failed, one of the two women uncovered her breasts and put her hand on the genitals of the man while her accomplice took advantage of this surprise to withdraw 300 euros.
While the victim has made a police report, the thieves - who might have come from countries to the east, according to the police - have not yet been identified."
The Telegraph quotes a police spokesman as saying that “We would advise anyone withdrawing cash from a machine to focus on what they are doing and not allow themselves to be distracted, however attractive the view”, but I haven't found a source for that yet.
"L'imprudence seule de l'Homme est les femmes"
("The only folly of Man is women")
Except if you go on this way, you will soon find that soon no one will be left to mind
***
Le Figaro: Paris: elle montre ses seins et vole 300€
(Translation follows)
"Un homme s'est fait voler 300 euros à un distributeur automatique de billets à Paris le 7 août par deux jeunes femmes dont l'une lui a montré ses seins et touché le sexe, a-t-on appris hier auprès de la préfecture de police.
Ce jour-là, vers 19h, un homme pénètre dans le sas d'une banque du VIe arrondissement de Paris pour retirer de l'argent au distributeur. Alors qu'il a introduit sa carte dans l'appareil, deux jeunes femmes rentrent à leur tour dans le local, l'importunent, lui réclament de l'argent et exhibent un journal pour détourner son attention.
Cette stratégie ayant échoué, l'une d'elles découvre sa poitrine et met sa main sur le sexe de l'homme pendant que sa comparse profite de cet effet de surprise pour retirer 300 euros...
Alors que la victime a déposé plainte, les voleuses -qui pourraient être originaires des pays de l'Est, selon la préfecture- n'ont pour l'instant pu être identifiées."
Translation:
Paris: she exposed her breasts and stole 300€
"A man was robbed of 300 euros at an ATM in Paris on the 7th of August by 2 young women, one of whom showed him her breasts and touched his genitals, we learnt at police headquarters.
That day, around 1900, a man entered the alcove of a bank in the 6th arrondissement of Paris for withdrawing money from an ATM. As he inserted his card into the machine, it was the turn [?] of 2 young women, who took the opportunity to ask for money and showed [him] a newspaper to distract him.
This plan having failed, one of the two women uncovered her breasts and put her hand on the genitals of the man while her accomplice took advantage of this surprise to withdraw 300 euros.
While the victim has made a police report, the thieves - who might have come from countries to the east, according to the police - have not yet been identified."
The Telegraph quotes a police spokesman as saying that “We would advise anyone withdrawing cash from a machine to focus on what they are doing and not allow themselves to be distracted, however attractive the view”, but I haven't found a source for that yet.
"L'imprudence seule de l'Homme est les femmes"
("The only folly of Man is women")
Post ID: 1356732720857615805
Le charme versus la beauté
"Tu trouves que j’ai du charme ? C’est ce qu’on dit à quelqu’un quand on le trouve pas beau !"
"Mais le charme, c’est mieux que la beauté. On peut résister à la beauté, mais pas au charme."
"Mais le charme, c’est mieux que la beauté. On peut résister à la beauté, mais pas au charme."
Post ID: 2890582988155296629
Why more girls seem to be attached than guys
"India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator." - Winston Churchill
***
One observation that I have is that there seem to be more attached girls than attached guys around.
Intuitively, this would seem not to make sense, just like the fact that men report more sexual partners on average than women (to which the answer is that both are lying). Surely for every attached girl there is an attached guy, so there should be a rough balance (the men can't all be cheating).
However, the seeming contradiction made more sense when I reflected that this observation was borne out of personal observation, which is naturally centred around (even if not limited to) my age band.
For more clarity, I decided to look up some statistics. The first I dug out was the Population Age Pyramid:
As of 2009, in the age group 0-19 there're more girls than guys, but in the one from 20-29 there're more guys than girls.
There wasn't enough granularity to be too sure, and I could only get so far putting a ruler to my screen, so I dug further.
I had an amusing romp around the MCYS website. For example, did you know that we measure our commitment against "Sex Stereotyping" under 1995's Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action under the "No. of cases prosecuted under the Undesirable Publications Act"? This is the act that forbids obscene material in Singapore. The only possible reference to "Sex Stereotyping" is a section on any publication that "represents, directly or indirectly, that members of any particular community or group are inherently inferior to other members of the public or of any other community or group".
Another interesting tidbit is that Singapore's sex ratio (of men to women) has been falling since Independence:
This is despite the sex ratio at birth having been between 106.4 and 109.4 between 1982 and 1993, and currently being 107.77 and 1.08 from 2003-9.
Possibly - just possibly - this has something to do with Slavery.
In any case, for a more detailed breakdown by age group and gender, I turned to the results of the 2000 census (adding a column for sex ratio for clarity).
Very naively projecting the figures by 10 years (i.e. we assume that the sex ratio for the 0-4 age group in 2000 will be the sex ratio for the 10-14 age group in 2010), we can see that until you hit the age band of 30-34, there're more men than women in each age band. Which would explain my observation.
(I shall try to repeat this simple exercise once the 2010 census's results are out to confirm this finding)
Reinforcing this effect is how men go for younger women (and women go for older men). So what is probably the case is that as you go up the age strata, there're more attached girls than guys - until you hit the age stratum of the mid-30s. After the girls expire there're many more attached guys than girls in each individual stratum.
Of course, there're connections here with marriage broken down by age and gender, but I will (may) deal with that in a blog post in the future (near, far or otherwise). Suffice it to say that preliminary analysis of Marriage statistics has shown that the Christmas Cake Theory ("Stale after the 25th") does not apply in Singapore.
***
One observation that I have is that there seem to be more attached girls than attached guys around.
Intuitively, this would seem not to make sense, just like the fact that men report more sexual partners on average than women (to which the answer is that both are lying). Surely for every attached girl there is an attached guy, so there should be a rough balance (the men can't all be cheating).
However, the seeming contradiction made more sense when I reflected that this observation was borne out of personal observation, which is naturally centred around (even if not limited to) my age band.
For more clarity, I decided to look up some statistics. The first I dug out was the Population Age Pyramid:
As of 2009, in the age group 0-19 there're more girls than guys, but in the one from 20-29 there're more guys than girls.
There wasn't enough granularity to be too sure, and I could only get so far putting a ruler to my screen, so I dug further.
I had an amusing romp around the MCYS website. For example, did you know that we measure our commitment against "Sex Stereotyping" under 1995's Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action under the "No. of cases prosecuted under the Undesirable Publications Act"? This is the act that forbids obscene material in Singapore. The only possible reference to "Sex Stereotyping" is a section on any publication that "represents, directly or indirectly, that members of any particular community or group are inherently inferior to other members of the public or of any other community or group".
Another interesting tidbit is that Singapore's sex ratio (of men to women) has been falling since Independence:
This is despite the sex ratio at birth having been between 106.4 and 109.4 between 1982 and 1993, and currently being 107.77 and 1.08 from 2003-9.
Possibly - just possibly - this has something to do with Slavery.
In any case, for a more detailed breakdown by age group and gender, I turned to the results of the 2000 census (adding a column for sex ratio for clarity).
Very naively projecting the figures by 10 years (i.e. we assume that the sex ratio for the 0-4 age group in 2000 will be the sex ratio for the 10-14 age group in 2010), we can see that until you hit the age band of 30-34, there're more men than women in each age band. Which would explain my observation.
(I shall try to repeat this simple exercise once the 2010 census's results are out to confirm this finding)
Reinforcing this effect is how men go for younger women (and women go for older men). So what is probably the case is that as you go up the age strata, there're more attached girls than guys - until you hit the age stratum of the mid-30s. After the girls expire there're many more attached guys than girls in each individual stratum.
Of course, there're connections here with marriage broken down by age and gender, but I will (may) deal with that in a blog post in the future (near, far or otherwise). Suffice it to say that preliminary analysis of Marriage statistics has shown that the Christmas Cake Theory ("Stale after the 25th") does not apply in Singapore.
Post ID: 9141418971562980835
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