Australia 2011 - Day 2, Part 1 - Melbourne: Royal Exhibition Building

"I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them." - George Bush

***

Australia 2011
Day 2 - 30th July - Melbourne: Royal Exhibition Building (Part 1)

An elderly couple just in front of me ksised just after touchdown. Were they happy to be home? To have landed safely?

PRCs and Indians surged past me along the aisle, not letting me onto it. In the end I had to stick my stick out to extricate myself from my row.

I was last in Melbourne in 2004, and the airport now seemed to be a lot more welcoming of foreigners.


A certain type of foreigner, that is.


They were available in Simplified Characters too.
There were also arrival cards in Japanese, Korean, Malay, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Indonesian, Italian and Arabic - presumably reflecting the makeup of visitors.


Even the renovation publicity was bilingual. Notice the lack of a third language here and later.


In less obvious ways, they were acommodating to PRCs.


Bilingual signs


Maximising your duty free allowance with 200ml bottles
1L of Bailey's was A$35. Which was more expensive than Singapore's duty free.


200ml alcohol bottles in a rubbish dump

Australia was very vigilant in keeping the undesirable out. My visitor's card was checked 4 times (and collected separately), and there were dogs sniffing our bags individually, which I don't think happened in 2004.

MR signed up for a Grayline Penguin Parade tour, which was disocunted from $145 to $99 at the airport information kiosk. I'd been on the same tour in 2003, and it seemed to have improved from then (at least from the description).

I also paid A$30 for a local SIM card. This was the first time I'd gotten a local SIM on holiday. I really should've done this in the past, but I'd overestimated the bother and anyhow this was the only time I really needed data, as we weren't getting GPSes for the Northern Territory. I'd also not known, in March, that Whatsapp worked on a different SIM. Gah.


'yes' Optus has been a bad boy

There was a café selling Singaporean, Malaysian and Northern and Southern Indian food. It was 100% Halal. Meh.

I saw an ad for "Awesome Thai Massage" at awesomethai.com.au. Uhh.

Sign on tram: "If you fare evade you shouldn't be here. More checks, more fines, more often". Hurr hurr. Incidentally I fare evade-d for one trip - because the guy at the hotel had told me the trams had no change for $20, but smaller notes should be fine: but when I got on I found out the machines only accepted coins (and who carries around $7 [day pass] in coins???). I figured that being fresh off the boat plane any inspectors might understand, as a glance at my wallet would show that I couldn't have paid.

There was a tea place called "chatime", which was a nice play on words (cha time / chat time).

One banner for a Gentleman's Club proclaimed that entry was free. Good luck getting anything if you don't pay.

I met PP for lunch and we went to an Italian place, Papa Gino's.


A place that offers Primo/Secondo portions of pasta!


The chicken pizza has ham. Hee hee.


Aussie Pizza and Super Special

Foursquare tips said that this was the best pizza in the Lygon Street area (Little Italy). Based on this and my memory of the pizza I had in 2003, also in Little Italy, in a joint which was supposed to be good, I hereby conclude that pizza in Australia sucks. This is especially sad considering the history of Italian immigration to Melbourne; one can get much better pizza in Singapore. The crust was alright, but the blending of ingredients was not very good. The sauce was not notable and the pizza was quite overcooked and thus dry.

The medium pizza was quite small, so we ordered an entrée size pasta. Which was not small.


Gnocchi with bolognese with bacon and diced garlic (Saltati)
This was actually not bad. Better than the pizza, certainly, with but one glaring fault:


Sand grain PP found in her share


An alley I liked. Goldspink Place


Bobby Mullet


Marxist poster on a post which read "Do Not Post"

I then headed for the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens - a World Heritage site I'd missed in my previous visits to Melbourne.


No cycling - unless you're a family with a kid under 12
Discrimination! Ageism! Familialnormativity! Bigotry!


Entrance to the gardens. The ugly building in the middleground is the Melbourne Museum.


Royal Exhibition Building




World Heritage Plaque

There was an exhibition going on at the museum which I'd seen banners for at the airport: Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. Besides being a Blockbuster Exhibition, it broke my personal records for most expensive museum exhibition ever. This prize had previously been held by the Uffizi Gallery in 2006, with an entry price of €9,50, a reservation fee of €3 and an online reservation fee of €5,70 (making €18,20 in all). The Tutankhamun exhibition cost A$35 during peak hours and A$29.50 during off-peak hours (office hours).

I asked if this exhibition was going to Singapore, as this had happened to me for the Lord of the Rings (I'd seen it in London and it'd come to Singapore at a very much lower price - though undoubtedly also information panels with very many more grammatical errors). I was told that officially this was going to be the last stop of the exhibition. There were rumours that it might go to Singapore but nothing was yet confirmed. I figured that it would go to the so-called ArtScience Museum and would be very expensive anyway if it did go to Singapore, so I shelled out for a ticket.

Normally there would be tours of the Royal Exhibition Building (which was closed otherwise) but there was an open house of historic buildings this weekend, so it was open till 4pm. So I strolled in.


"The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens... form Australia's only built World Heritage listed site"
I wonder what Sydneysiders would have to say about this claim. Really, Canberra is 103 years old - it's time to stop this petty nonsense!


Interior: transept




Dome


Dome edge


Panorama of building


Pillars






"Carpe Diem"


Main Body
The latter is an example of a proper ISO 100 image, in contrast to the Fuji FinePix F300EXR's output


Off-centre main body






Plaque on the Dome


"One Flag, One Hope, One Destiny"
This sure beats "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Lee"


Melbourne is very "charming"; it's a nice place to live and wander in, but I like to see *interesting sights* when I travel. Perhaps the "charming" place I like the most is Cinque Terre, but that is really a different level of charm (and contrawise a place not many would like to live in, money from fleecing tourists notwithstanding).

A very irritating thing about Melbourne trams (at least for the lines I took) was that the stop numbers were not announced or displayed on the tram, so if one was not familiar with the route one would have to look out of the window and count stops. This was very stupid, especially as the stop number couldn't always be seen when the tram was at the stop (only when it was pulling out). What made it even more stupid was that sometimes stop numbers jumped in steps of 2. For example Stop 28 would be followed by Stop 30, and sometimes Stop 1 by Stop 2. This was not even a suburbs/outskirts thing.

I saw more Asian than non-Asian (effectively, Western) food places in Melbourne. PP claims that this is because Western food is boring. I am more inclined to attribute this to immigration and students.

Usually on vacation I am practical and wear sports shoes, but this time I tried brown casual shoes. Which was a bad idea, considering that I was hiking. My jeans also still had light brown areas (the reason for which will be explained in a future post).

It seems ANZ has trademarked their shade of blue.

There's Formule 1 in Australia!

There was Krispy Kreme in Melbourne, but I'd shipped some in June and a shipment was coming. Also there were no freshly made donuts available (possibly one can find them in suburbs).

Links - September 13th 2011

"You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic." - Doris Egan

***

Think Again: War - "The last decade has seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years... Far from being an age of killer anarchy, the 20 years since the Cold War ended have been an era of rapid progress toward peace... If the world feels like a more violent place than it actually is, that's because there's more information about wars -- not more wars themselves... we see today's atrocities -- though mild by historical standards -- as "signs of how low our behavior can sink, not of how high our standards have risen"... Last year more Americans died from falling out of bed than in all U.S. wars combined... reports on conflict from the World Bank and the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, tell us that 90 percent of today's war deaths are civilian while just 10 percent are military -- the reverse of a century ago. Grim indeed -- but, fortunately, untrue... Recent technological changes are making war less brutal, not more so... For all the recent concern about a newly assertive Chinese navy in disputed international waters, China's military hasn't fired a single shot in battle in 25 years... democracy can heighten conflict by amplifying ethnic and nationalist forces"
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex"

Here's How To Reveal a Secret Facebook List of People You've Been Stalking

Ableist Language - "I first came across the campaign in the context of a call to avois the phrase ‘blind review’, on the ground that “ it associates blindness with lack of knowledge and implies that blind people cannot be knowers”... there are potential costs to sensitizing ourselves to ableist language in the manner suggested. Some metaphors are so dead that I doubt that they do any harm. ‘Sinister’, for instance, does not seem to me to be remotely harmful to left-handed people. But the problem with sensitization is that it spreads: it makes metaphors live, and increases the cognitive load... The problem is once you are sensitized to possible associations and suggestions, it is difficult to stop... There is a cost to the raising of sensitivities. Linguistic self-censorship is time and resource consuming. It may make dead metaphors live once more, and thus lead to some of the very harms it aims to avoid"

The Gay Case Against Gay Marriage and Gay Bigotry - "For honestly and somewhat courageously answering his question Miss California was roundly condemned as a ‘bigot’ by hosts of gay and liberal bloggers... Candidate Obama expressed the exact same view during the Presidential Election... Instead of being scorned as a bigot and a dumb bitch, Obama was handed the Mr America crown by liberals and probably most gay voters. But I suppose that being President of the United States is a rather less important title than Miss America. Branding Christians and traditionalists ‘bigots’ for being Christians and traditionalists... is a highly unattractive exercise in liberal self-righteousness that makes Miss America look quite sophisticated... it isn’t bigoted to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s just being conventional. And after all, marriage itself is convention and tradition tied up in a big red bow and covered in confetti and sprinkled with Holy Water. Which is exactly why lesbians and gays should have nothing to do with it... gay marriage zealots... [have] made even more of a fetish of the word ‘marriage’ than the religious right they rail against"

Many clients welcome telemarketing calls, replies bank association - "Feedback from our member banks reveal that many customers have found such calls beneficial as they serve to inform customers of the new products and services being offered by their banks... Customers who have requested not to be called by their banks or their telemarketing agents will be put on the do-not-call list"
Actually the telemarketing that pisses me off the most is from banks I am not a customer of

Maybe It’s Time For Plan C - NYTimes.com - "The lures are obvious: freedom, fulfillment. The highs can be high. But career switchers have found that going solo comes with its own pitfalls: a steep learning curve, no security, physical exhaustion and emotional meltdowns. The dream job is a “job” as much as it is a “dream.” “The decision to become an entrepreneur should not be made lightly”"

Promenons-nous dans les bois - "Pourquoi notre chère rubrique Cul-de-sex peut-elle bien s’intéresser à des hommes qui aiment se déguiser en animaux ? Parce que ces créatures, mi-homme mi-bête s’adonnent parfois, à la nuit tombée, aux plaisirs de la chair. Et sans quitter leur vêtement duveteux. On les appelle les furverts"

Why did Japan surrender? - "Some argue that more died in the resulting firestorm than at Hiroshima. People were boiled in the canals. The photos of charred Tokyo and charred Hiroshima are indistinguishable... To Japan’s leaders, Hiroshima was yet another population center leveled, albeit in a novel way. If they didn’t surrender after Tokyo, they weren’t going to after Hiroshima... After a long war and in the space of a few days, the Japanese leadership was hit with two extraordinary events - Hiroshima and the Soviet invasion - and sorting out cause and effect, based on incomplete documentation, may prove impossible... Yet Bernstein, Hasegawa, and many historians agree on one startling point. The public view that the atomic bomb was the decisive event that ended World War II is not supported by the facts"

Unlikely Wit on Sacred Pages at the Louvre - NYTimes.com - "The elderly shepherd standing with his wife recoils in frightened astonishment as an archangel dives down towards them with outstretched arms. A furry ram is at a loss what to do while the shepherd’s dog, tail curled up, gingerly feels its way toward the couple, precariously treading on the horizontal rod of a stylized motif. Life must have been fun in the Italian monastery where they painted this page and sang the music."

Is it Time for Masculinism? - "In the sexual arena, even wise teachers of sexuality such as David Deida, author of umpteen books on the subject, insists that in striving for equality of the sexes, women have become more like men, men more like women, and in that sameness we have lost the fundamental male-female energetic polarity that makes for desire, lust, and hot sex. How to bridge this gulf, in which men are men, women are women, and raw, primal desire is real and allowed, yet not cross over into the world of inequality, rigid roles, objectification, and pre-feminist values?"

Revenge of the Introvert - "When learning, introverts do best in quiet conditions and extraverts do better with more noise... "When we prime people to value happiness more, they become more unhappy and depressed""

Your Personality Could Make You Gain Weight: STUDY - "The meaner you are, the likelier you are to gain weight as you age"
"[It] found greater weight gain among impulsive people; those who enjoy taking risks; and those who are antagonistic - especially those who are cynical, competitive and aggressive"

The lies I told as a psychic - "Anita had only positive things to say about everyone's future. Trust me, no one wanted to hear otherwise... My friend Russ, a talented actor, worked for another psychic hotline. He thoroughly enjoyed perpetrating a fraud. He told me that he started each call by saying that he just drank a vial of lamb's blood to give him fortune-telling superpowers... A few of my calls lasted an entire hour and consisted of me reassuring the person on the other end of the line that everything would be OK. Those folks really didn't give a damn about psychics or readings. They just wanted to talk to a friendly voice... burger flippers, toilet scrubbers and those who facilitate elephant mating had cleaner jobs (and probably took more pride in their work) than I did"

29 life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight - "2. Deferring your happiness to the future is a terrible idea
9. More money will NEVER solve your problems"

What French girls know - "French girls grow up with this legacy of women who were utterly feminine and totally kick-ass; a legacy of bare breasts, revolutions, royal courts, sex, death, blood, guts and great hair. Meanwhile, my generation of American girls grew up with Betty Crocker, Girl Scouts and training bras -- and Julia Child was as French as it got. How unfair is that?"

Secret Singapore - "Internationally renowned as a foodie's paradise, Singapore's 2,000 or so eating establishments are now expanding underground with a number of secret supper clubs"

Daniel Schneidermann voit du sexisme partout - "Schneidermann relève de nombreuses expressions sexistes, qui n'auraient pas, selon lui, été utilisées pour évoquer un homme. Ah bon ? Faisons le test sur les articles du Figaro.fr avec l'aide du plus méticuleux des archivistes, Google... La déconstruction féministe des textes est une noble activité qui a connu ses heures de gloire sur les campus américains dans les années 80-90, mais mieux vaut ne pas la pratiquer au doigt mouillé"

chinese christian converts - "Anxious to save souls and to keep account books, missionaries often were satisfied with converts who were the dregs of society - freeloaders referred to contemptuously by Chinese as 'Rice Christians' [since they received free rice if they converted] - and uncharitably demanded preferential treatment for them in lawsuits and disputes over land"

Geylang Checker: Are Singaporean Ladies not better than Prostitutes?
Comments: "You may serve homecooked meals everyday but you can't cook better than a chef."
"Have you ever wanted to or tried to change a man? This is common among women.But think about it, how would it feel if your husband or boyfriend tried to change you?It hurts men when they know women want to change them"
"my partner cheated on me with other guys... or else it would be... no gucci bag den no sex tonight... WTF!... most of my frens actually marry thai or even china woman... all becoz they know what a man needs.. and in return we give them wat they need..."

How working long hours affects the wage gap - "One of the biggest contributing factors to the wage gap is the phenomenon of “overworking” – which means working 50 hours a week or more. The study, using data collected by the US Census Bureau, found the relative hourly wage of overworkers compared with that of full-time workers had increased substantially over the past three decades, but because a greater percentage of male workers were overworking, this change benefited men much more than women. Today, women earn an estimated 81 per cent of what men are paid... “Because our labour force values those who work long hours, women are at a disadvantage.” This is true especially in managerial-level jobs. In the so-called greedy occupations – doctors, lawyers and upper-level managers, for instance – workers are evaluated based on their face time at the office, according to Cha, who specialises in gender and labour markets. It is no coincidence that these jobs tend to come with the fattest pay cheques, too"
Cue feminist bait and switch

A song Humsup Guy sent me

"The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it." - Bill Nye

***

The Willing Conscript
Tom Paxton

Oh Sergeant I'm a draftee and I've just arrived in camp.
I've come to wear the uniform and join the martial tramp.
And I want to do my duty, but one thing I do implore
You must give me lessons, sergeant, for I've never killed before.

To do my job obediently is my only desire.
To learn my weapon thoroughly and how to aim and fire.
To learn to kill the enemy and then to slaughter more,
I'll need instruction, sergeant, for I've never killed before.

Now there are several lessons that I haven't mastered yet.
I haven't got the hang of how to use the bayonet.
If he doesn't die at once am I to stick him with it more?
Oh, I hope you will be patient, for I've never killed before.

Oh, there are rumors in the camp about our enemy.
They say that when you see him he looks just like you and me.
But you deny it, Sergeant, and you are a man of war,
So you must give me lessons, for I've never killed before.

The hand grenade is something that I just don't understand.
You've got to throw it quickly or you're apt to lose your hand.
Does it blow a man to pieces with it's wicked, muffled roar?
Oh, I've got so much to learn because I've never killed before.

Oh, I want to thank you, Sergeant, for the help you've been to me.
For you've taught me how to slaughter and to hate the enemy.
And I know that I'll be ready when they march me off to war,
And I know that it won't matter that I've never killed before.
And I know that it won't matter that I've never killed before.

farfelu

"Ce que je vois c'est un Pacman"

Not all "Unsung Heroes" are created equal

Out of prison and into the kitchen: More eateries hiring ex-convicts

"Of all the eateries helping to rehabilitate former offenders, Western restaurant chain Eighteen Chefs is perhaps the best-known.

Its owner Benny Se Teo is a former inmate himself, and former convicts make up 30 per cent of his staff, spread over three restaurants.

The 51-year-old said he employs former offenders because he knows from experience that they often have low self-confidence when they are released from prison...

'Most jobs offered to them are positions such as dishwashers or car washers. These jobs give them even lower self-esteem and hinder their rehabilitation. I give them a job where they can at least hold their head up higher,' he said.

He added that he usually sees an increase in their confidence after a while."

Time for dishwashers and car washers to comprain (or send in angry letters)...

Observations - 12th September 2011

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr

***

Formspring question: Is science compatible with religion?
Me: Their compatibility is like deep-fried ice cream - you need elaborate manoeuvres, it doesn't last very long on its own and the taste is questionable.

Wondering if taking pics of ugly people and telling them it's for a blog featuring pretty people would work

If you complain government sites are stuck at IE6, don't complain when they spend taxpayer money upgrading them.

"i wish i put in more effort as a student :(... i took grades too seriously and missed out on a lot of learning in the process"

"Why is that the law cant care less when a man is beaten up silly ("Non-seizable offence"?) but unleashes it's full wrath when a man pinches the buttock of a woman?"

It seems everyone who takes time off to travel the world spends most of their time in developing countries - because otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford it

“Lenin wrote: ‘We will support Henderson as a rope supports a man who is hanged.’ It is curious how Communists used outrageous phrases publicly and were indignant when these phrases were turned against them.” (English History 1914-1945) --- A.J.P. Taylor

When someone answers "How are you?" with "Not bad", "Not bad" means bad .

Apparently using the word "lame" (as in "that's so lame") now constitutes ableism. That's dumb.


If you fly AirAsia, you must now pay a S$5 fee if you check in at the airport counter. AirAsia is becoming like Ryanair.

I am told that Malaysians are like Singaporeans in looking to government for the solution, i.e. "the government should..."


"NE has had strange effects on students. most of them will say that it is propaganda and resist it, yet they seem to have internalized the lessons in social studies--in short, adopting national values does not lead to being nationalistic. the other day some students were saying that welfare is a bad idea, because of the way the UK's system is failing and that we shouldn't help the poor because they're lazy (the UK example was from the SS syllabus). but when i asked them if they knew about countries where welfare is more viable or how it could be implemented more discriminately they hadn't thought about it."


"Today, my friend and I gave our numbers to some guys at a bar. Twenty minutes after we had left, we got a call. We excitedly answered the phone, only to hear the guy ask, "So are you the fat one or the ugly one?" FML"

RT @edchng: "don't let your writing be so obfuscating and claim your impenetrability is your point"

"I was happy to doubt everything. Until the death of my friend forced me to acknowledge the reality of life"

RT @Fake_PMLee Let me remind the Tans, that no matter what you say, the Lees are in charge. #SGPresident

RT @chewlink: I'm not sure what it says about our politics that it now becomes necessary to overtly say "Singaporeans first"



RT @PrettyAndieRock: Les filles intelligentes ouvrent leurs esprits, les filles faciles ouvrent leurs jambes et les filles naïves ouvrent leurs coeurs.

RT @lactualaloupe: Hommes : ne soyez jamais faibles, émus, fainéants, effrayé ou découragé. c’est pas viril.

RT @Isaamia: Avoir un orgasme, c'est comme laver ma voiture, je peux le faire moi même, mais c'est tellement plus agréable qd un homme le fait pour moi..

Bemoaning the degeneracy of the modern generation

"Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together." - George Santayana

***

I saw the following in the Facebook status of someone my age:

"When I was a kid, I didn't have a laptop, MBP, iPod, iPhone, Blackberry​, PS3 xBox, PSP, or iPad. I played outside with friends, bruised my knees, made up stories and played hide and seek. I ate what my mom made. I would think twice before I said "NO" to my parents. If I misbehaved​ i got caned. Not… just me, my friends too. Simple. Life wasn't hard, it was good and I survived. MOST kids these days are spoiled. Re-post this if you appreciate​ the way you were raised. I think we were happier kids. ♥"

Needless to say, this is very problematic.

Undoubtedly, each generation bemoans the degeneracy of the current (or rather, newer) generation.

Here is Weird Al on the subject, with his song "When I Was Your Age"



"Well, nobody ever drove me to school when it was ninety degrees below
We had to walk butt naked through forty miles of snow
Worked in the coal mine twenty two hours a day for just half a cent
Had to sell my internal organs just to pay the rent"

Links - 11th September 2011

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." - Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977

***

China performer says S'pore men are short, arrogant workaholics - "She has no qualms about telling you she came to Singapore with a single-minded purpose: To snare a Singapore man... why is she, like all her China-born friends, after The Singapore Male? Because she believes they offer a better life. But there could be another reason. A recent new ruling by the China's Supreme Court makes it difficult for wives to claim a share of assets paid for by their husbands. Lawyers and observers here say this new law has made smarter Chinese women more motivated to look for mates here. If their marriages end in a divorce in Singapore, these Chinese women would be protected by the Women's Charter. They would be eligible to claim a share of their matrimonial assets even if they had made no direct monetary contributions to them... "My friend said that Singapore men are good in taking care of their families. They never allow their women to pay for any thing. (But) after I came here and dated a few of them, I find them arrogant and chauvinistic. They are short and they are not as good-looking as the Chinese men back home. But I think they make good husbands and yes, I want to marry one." Miss Zhang shares the HDB flat with two other Chinese singers. She said that her flatmates, too, are hoping to find a husband here... "Many of my friends are trying to get a job here. They, too, are hoping to marry here"... she has noticed a surge in divorce cases here, where the third-named parties are Chinese women. Now, with the new court ruling, Ms Wong expects to see more Chinese women marrying and divorcing here... Citing the divorce cases he has handled involving Singapore men and China women, Mr Lam said: "Singapore men tend to think with their hearts, not their minds"... The New Paper on Sunday asked five Singaporean women from different walks of lives about their views on competition from Chinese women pursuing marriage with Singapore men. All five conceded defeat."
Apparently it's better for men to get married in China than Singapore. And it's not their hearts they're thinking with... Amusingly some of the local women interviewed acknowledged you can't just blame the men or Chinese women

PRC woman forces marriage on sec 3 boy - "Three to four months later, the woman initiated sex with the boy. After the two became intimate, she began to pressure him to marry her... This case was cited by a counsellor as an example of another tactic used by Chinese national women to snag Singaporean husbands... These women, sometimes girls as young as 17, may get pregnant with a Singaporean boyfriend and insist on marriage. According to the counsellor, some of these women marry to acquire Singaporean citizenship, then using this as a stepping board to go to US or Australia"
For some reason she couldn't be charged with underaged sex?!

Be open, not defensive, in tackling health-care issues - "I was disappointed to read the Ministry of Health's reply to a query in the article. Instead of acknowledging the serious gap in the health-care funding or promising to address the problem, the ministry spokesman offered a standard response that means-tested subsidies for hospice home medical and nursing services are available to patients who require financial assistance. The reply gave me the impression that the ministry is a faceless organisation without a heart. Many patients, like my late father, cannot obtain access to subsidised medical care in restructured hospitals because the system is rigid"
Economics 101, not 401, again. But then people are meant to serve economic growth, and not vice versa...

Female Orgasm Remains an Evolutionary Mystery - "A survey of orgasmic function in thousands of twins found none of the statistical patterns expected if female orgasm is just a coincidental byproduct of natural selection on its male counterpart, as has been suggested."

Prominent Singapore Landmarks that should have been Conserved

SlutWalk Singapore x Kuala Lumpur
Can you be charged under Section 509 of the Penal Code (Insulting the modesty of a woman) for heckling SlutWalk Singapore?

What Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? - "It is a part of the bitter undercurrent of Asian-American life that so many Asian graduates of elite universities find that meritocracy as they have understood it comes to an abrupt end after graduation... Hokoyama argued that it was not sufficient to rail at these unjust perceptions. In the end, Asian people themselves would have to assume responsibility for unmaking them. This was both a practical matter, he argued, and, in its own way, fair... One of the first exercises she encountered involved the group instructor asking for a list of some qualities that they identify with Asians. The students responded: upholding family honor, filial piety, self-­restraint. Then the instructor solicited a list of the qualities the members identify with leadership, and invited the students to notice how little overlap there is between the two lists... How do you undo eighteen years of a Chinese upbringing? This is the implicit question that J. T. Tran has posed to a roomful of Yale undergraduates at a master’s tea at Silliman College. His answer is typically Asian: practice. Tran is a pickup artist who goes by the handle Asian Playboy... You don’t, by the way, have to be a Silicon Valley hotshot to break through the Bamboo Ceiling. You can also be a chef like Eddie Huang... “I don’t believe anybody agrees with what I say or supports what I do because they truly want to love Asian people. They like my fucking pork buns, and I don’t get it twisted”... A child of Asian immigrants born into the suburbs of New Jersey and educated at Rutgers cannot be a law unto himself. The only way to approximate this is to refuse employment, because you will not be bossed around by people beneath you, and shave your expenses to the bone, because you cannot afford more, and move into a decaying Victorian mansion in Jersey City, so that your sense of eccentric distinction can be preserved in the midst of poverty, and cut yourself free of every form of bourgeois discipline, because these are precisely the habits that will keep you chained to the mediocre fate you consider worse than death.... Chua’s Chinese education had gotten her through an elite schooling, but it left her unprepared for the real world"
In a less emotionally charged context, this points to reasons discrimination appears to exist in other areas

Chances of a Malay president dimmer - "Singapore has had only one Malay president - the late Yusof Ishak, our first head of state. There is also a paucity of Malay Cabinet ministers... On the other hand, Indian Singaporeans, whose population is about two-thirds that of Malay Singaporeans, have four Cabinet ministers"
Does this mean that Singapore is racist against Malays but not Indians?

The meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo

Starbucks CEO takes political crusade to public - "Last month, Schultz made headlines when he called on business leaders to pledge to withhold campaign contributions to the president and members of Congress until they reached a "fair, bipartisan deal" on the national debt, revenues and spending"

White Goblin Games :: Spiel - "Singapore the Game: In 1861 Sir Raffles is ordered by the East Indian Company to build an outpost on the island of Singapore. Rich merchants are ordered to develop the area in exchange for free land. The small outpost thus develops into a metropolis. The legal trade flourishes, but the opium trade increases as well. In this game the players assume the role of merchants who intend to develop the land and conduct trade in goods such as stone, textile and tea. And when the opportunity arises to participate in illegal, profitable activities, they will certainly take it. However, the risk of being caught increases as more illegal activities take place."
Maybe this is like Pirates of the Caribbean Singapore

The mismeasure of morals: Antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas - "We question the close identification of utilitarian responses with optimal moral judgment by demonstrating that the endorsement of utilitarian solutions to a set of commonly-used moral dilemmas correlates with a set of psychological traits that can be characterized as emotionally callous and manipulative—traits that most would perceive as not only psychologically unhealthy, but also morally undesirable"

Pope Gives Anti-Gay Speech; Angry God Blows His Hat Off, Stage Down

Study links religious fasting to headaches - "A painkilling, anti-inflammatory drug may help prevent headaches in Muslims fasting from dawn to dusk for Ramadan, according to a study from Israel – where a "Yom Kippur headache" is also known... "The religious edict to fast really is not a command to suffer""

Another Beer: Corporate Power, Deregulation, and Why German Brew Is (On Average) Better Than American - "I posted on what I think of as the beer paradox: that the industry is dominated by two swill-producing giants, and yet excellent craft beer proliferates"

Vietnamese gang's shoplifting spree foiled - "To beat shoplifting alarm systems, a gang of four Vietnamese lined handbags with aluminium foil"
How many people are doing this now?

Researchers Detect ‘Disappearing’ Words That Are Falling Out of Usage

Oxford Vault Contains Millions of Rejected Dictionary Words

America's serious crime rate is plunging, but why? - "There are even those who believe the election of Barack Obama has inspired young black men to steer away from a life of crime, although that only works for the past two years and falls flat when trying to explain the past two decades. Some theories have had to be binned outright. A favourite of some sociologists was that economic hard times result in increased robbery and associated violence on the grounds that crime is a rational act prompted by particular circumstances. Yet, through the past three years of financial depression in the US, crime rates have not only continued to fall but the drop has accelerated in many cities... "You can make the case that mass incarceration hastened the end of the crime wave. You would have a much more difficult time making the case that a continuation of that mass incarceration is necessary""

“Probability neglect”: why policy-makers are constitutionally incapable of formulating evidence-based anti-terrorism policy - "Counterterrorism policy fails to address real terrorist threats because politicians and bureaucrats perceive more risk from being punished by voters if they preside over an attack than they do in attacks arising from actual, probable sources"

La femme moderne selon les magazines féminins - "Nymphomane, superficielle, ultra-consommatrice, la femme vantée par la presse féminine fait peur à voir"

Double standards, the power of supposed powerlessness and the powerlessness of supposed power

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure." - Mark Twain

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A (non-Chinese): The lack of PRC's in KL is literally a breath of fresh air. These days I find this to be the most compelling reason to escape Ah Tiong Bahru aka Singapore.

B: ?!! that sounds... racist

D: B - Racist? That is a very strong word to use. He has more Chinese friends then you. He said, PRC, not Chinese in particular. It is a country he mention. Think before you posted before you get lambasted.

E: Not really... Are you not from Singapore, B? I don't think Mr. A means to be racist. Singapore is just inundated with PRCs for a political reason :) but I don't think he is against the Chinese as a race

F: am with you there A. KL is a-ok despite the occasional racial 'bumps'.. cant hv everything going hunky dory all the time btw.. as a malaysian i am proud the country hosts lots of foreign workers coming here to earn a living. if we can make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate, so be it.

A: After being treated like a sub-human by various PRC's by virtue of the fact that I'm not Chinese, I think I've had enough of their rudeness and arrogance and ridiculous sense of self-entitlement (oh but your government wants us to be here, if not your country cannot survive).

It's easy enough to caricature this as 'xenophobia' or 'racism', but I do think the PRC's are a species of their own--it makes me wonder about the supposed Asian concept of 'face' and why it doesn't seem to be a guiding principle at all for such a gauche, shameless, salivating-at-the-smell-of-money people.

B: Why haven't you moved here yet? :) I've been in KL for two years now (I do like KL women so). But the magic fades and I'm starting to see KL has the same shit I was trying to run away from, just in a different bucket. So I love and hate both cities in their own special ways...

I can't really reconcile my reality with your effusive praise for the city. It's a nice change, but I'm starting to think the extent of how horrible it can be beneath the muhibbah surface exceeds even that of my beloved country's — which is something I never thought I'd say.

G: F : Malaysia has "occasional racial bumps"?? Which deluded work do u live in? Oh yes the privileged one...

H: i know things are complicated, but some of these comments are straight up racist, and its worse when that's seen as counterculture/progressive

A: H: I know many decent Chinese people, who, contrary to common stereotypes, are polite, generous, humble, hygienic and kind. None of these adjectives apply to any PRC I've encountered.

B: Just because in referring to PRCs, he only refers to a certain sect of the Chinese ethnic descent, does not make it any less racist.... It is the same if someone told me he likes singaporean Indians, but not Indian Indians. And if you want to split hairs even further, maybe someone doesn't like people from Tamil nadu, but those from andhra pradesh are fine. However one sees it, he is still referring to an ethnocultural subdivision and stating his dislike for them. To me, that sounds like prima facie prejudice that amounts to racism.

A: B: And the answer is? I know my answer is to spend as little time in Singapore as I possibly can--to avoid needless and inevitably frustrating encounters with PRC's; I don't know if this counts as 'xenophobia' to you.

I: this sounds exactly like my mother's defense when i call her out on racism - she grew up in malaysia and had bad experiences with 'all the malays' she met there, so she claims she is entitled to her prejudice. she may have met 99 odious people who happened to be malay, but her words are still arrant nonsense

J: B, IMHO, A is not being racist, he is simply stating a fact. Rather than accusing him of being a racist, have u ever pondered on Singapore's liberal immigration policies on PRCs and the so-called FTs ?? In a short while, we have seen take it's toll not only on our country's infrastructure but the social fabric...U accuse A of racism but choose to ignore the INTOLERANCE of foreigners towards citizens in their OWN COUNTRY..

K: to begin with the introduction of PRC to maintain a chinese majority in Singapore, is a racist policy.

C: I work with a number of PRC immigrants and they have been gracious, friendly and polite. Maybe you've not had the best luck in your interactions with Chinese immigrants in Singapore, but I think you should know better than to paint everyone with the same brushstroke.

B: Funny how many of us will complain about others making Singapore not "our country anymore", and expect immigrants to "be more like us or speak English", but would cringe when the same thing is said to us in London or Melbourne. The immigration policy is messed up. But painting an entire group of people with one brush stroke is uncalled for and ignorant.

Me: The moral of the story seems to be that it's okay to bash some groups but not others

B: If only 64% of the UK/Australia's populations were made up of citizens, I would support people in the UK/Australia saying the first. As it is less than 1/4 of their resident population was born overseas (i.e. much less than 1/4 are non-citizens)

A: B : Lucky for you that you've met the exceptions. I don't have any PRC 'friends' and I pray I never will.