Europe CNY 2012 - Day 8 - New Lanark

Europe CNY 2012
Day 8 - 26th January - New Lanark

This day I headed to Glasgow to see New Lanark, a village from the Industrial Revolution.

The hostel asked if I wanted a taxi to the bus station. I declined - the taxi to the bus station would've cost more than the bus (£6,50 single, £9,50 return)


Edinburgh Castle


Bow Row


"Food first then morals"


oink
Great logo


Bow Row from the other end


National Library on King George IV Bridge. Which isn't actually a bridge.
Edinburgh Castle is on the right


National Gallery (according to my notes, but there are 3 National Galleries in Scotland - this might be the Portrait one)


St Giles Cathedral


Memorial to the "Black Watch". Racist!


Bend with Black Watch memorial




Scottish National Gallery


Scott Monument


Model of Edinburgh from Marks & Spencer


UNESCO paving stone for "Old and New Towns of Edinburgh"


On the Scott Monument, for Sir Walter Scott


Scott Monument base


Scott Monument


James Maxwell statue, with the Maxwell Equations
This and the monument behind were in St Andrew's Square. I asked 2 people, but neither knew what was behind.




"fluertations"


Morning scene in David Street (8:41am)

Before 9am there were buses leaving every 15 minutes, which was brilliant. There were 12 of us on the bus, so presumably demand was quite brisk.

I didn't bother looking around Glasgow before New Lanark: the major interesting thing was Victorian architecture, but Edinburgh had this too and I was returning. Also one could see Victorian architecture by walking about. New Lanark's Industrial Revolution village was going to be so much more interesting.

Amusing Ads in Glasgow (I had a lot of time to kill, waiting for the bus to New Lanark):


"Real Men Wear Pink"


"Deep Down You Could Be A Submariner"
"Covert operations" and "elite training" are perks. "Elite training", of course, being code for "dunking you in freezing water while shouting at you". And "covert operations" is code for "stuff that could get you killed"
It's ironic that the Royal Navy recruiting slogan is "Life without limits", given the confines of a ship. I think this is called "British humour".


"Fashion is Making a difference... Fashion targets breast cancer"
It's so easy to make a difference nowadays


"she's waiting to be held...
how long are you going to make her wait?"


"My cattle enjoy the good life, so you can enjoy a better taste... Scotch Beef. Choose quality. Choose the label"


Return fares to New Lanark were 25p more than singles. Ridiculous.
Anyway this was from 28 June 2010 and was outdated - I got charged £7.


Apparently a seatbelt is comfortable


"One Great Name. Four Great Restaurants. One Great Price! China Buffet King"
We say we're bad at entrepreneurship in Singapore, but we're very good with franchising.


Victorian (?) architecture from the bus

There was a place called "Scotland's Theme Park". Err. Amusing review on Yelp (aggregate site rating of 2/5): "Christ, this is rough. I'd rather take my chances with the bare-knuckle fighting gypsies at the travelling fairground than the neds who loiter in here"

The bus dropped me off at Lanark, so I trudged down to New Lanark.


Army surplus store with "too much to list"


Subway admits to using formed and reformed meat. AFAIK you don't have this in Singapore. Ahh, consumer protection laws!


According to the Rough Guide this (St Nicholas' Parish Church in Lanark) has the world's oldest church bell in the world (1130). Does it really count if the bell is recast?
The place was only open for service and you couldn't see the bell from outside so I didn't bother walking down the road.


"Scottish Dumpling" sounds dodgy. It's more like cake.


Burns Night poster: "Celebrate with a Haggis"


"Picol is a beast"
Who is Picol?


Lanark tourist info


St Mungo's


Village Road


Lane


Lanark looks like an English, err Scottish village (don't tell the Scotts I said that!)


"Welcome to New Lanark"


UNESCO sign. Curiously in China the top language on the logo is not Mandarin.


World Heritage Beech Tree. It looked quite sad in January.


New Lanark from above


New Lanark: Panorama


Stitches of New Lanark from above


There was mist on the rapids. When the sun shone it was even nicer.


Cupola on "New Buildings 1798"

I was quite excited about New Lanark. I'd seen a lot of Cathedrals, Castles and Historic Town/City Centres, but this was different.


New Lanark. People still live there.


Payphone guide. Minimum charge 60p. Wut.


Birds above


New Buildings, 1798


"War may always be prevented, by those who adopt the principles of peace, being at all times prepared to resist injustice and oppression; and this preparation may easily be effected by wise arrangements in the education of the young"
Robert Owen quote. The place was full of them (he founded it as a model quasi-commune)

Ironically, as you can tell from his name, he wasn't Scottish (but Welsh). I only knew this because a video in his house lingered on a plaque on some street with that fact - it wasn't mentioned anywhere else. Why ah, why ah?


UNESCO gate

The place was very restored.


Another Owen quote: "There shall be no human slavery servitude or inequality of condition ,except the natural inequality of age and experience which will forever preserve order and harmony in society"
So basically he was for a gerontocracy

Quite stupidly I had not left my bag at Glasgow, but the Visitors' Centre let me leave mine there.


Some personages


"Milestones of European industrial heritage"


Steam Engine


"Fate and The Fortune"


New Lanark from one of the enclosed bridges


Mill One Before Restoration


The Rope Drive System - transferring power

There was a bizarre ride which was like a haunted house.


'Annie McLeod Experience' ride: Part 1


'Annie McLeod Experience' ride: Part 2


'Annie McLeod Experience' ride: Part 3


'Annie McLeod Experience' ride: Part 4
aka "Thank God I was born in the 20th Century"


Another Owen quote: "What ideas individuals may attach to the term "Millennium" I know not; but I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold: and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal".
Ahh, the Optimism of the Enlightenment! This quote was from 1816 and 2 new millennia have arrived, but we are nowhere near this ideal. This is why though I cherish Enlightenment ideals I know they are precisely that.

Photographs of historical New Lanark:




"British Wool makes a better carpet... naturally"


Weaving Loom


Spinning Mule


How education worked in New Lanark - you could spin the wheel for more


Steps for preparing wool


Linen, Calico, Muslin (L to R)


Owen Quote: "The employer regards the employed as mere instruments of gain, while these acquire a gross ferocity of character, which, if legislative measures shall not be judiciously devised to prevent its increase, and ameliorate the condition of this class, will sooner or later plunge the country into a formidable and perhaps inextricable state of danger"
Marxism before Marx


More on how life worked at New Lanark


Loom operation


Loom



Upstairs was what was billed as "Scotland's largest rooftop garden". Err.


"Scotland's largest rooftop garden"


River Clyde from "Scotland's largest rooftop garden"


Stalwart flower


"The ever-changing scenes of nature afford not only the most economical, but also the most innocent pleasures which man can enjoy"
Yes, yet another Robert Owen quote


Raven looking at the River Clyde


Dutch is the most economical language


Pamphlet for mobile opera. I'm quite sure it's taxpayer-supported.

Then I had lunch.


This wasn't expensive. Lentil soup (with ham) for £2,8. Macaroni at £2,5. Blood Orange drink at £2,4. Okay the last was expensive (30% juice minimum notwithstanding).
Considering this was a tourist place it was cheap.


New Lanark Tablet
It was quite nice, though mostly sugar.

I feel safer using my credit card in Europe - they press the machine in front of you (because they think they need your PIN, but still). Then when you sign they usually check the signature and ask for verification if it is different.


New Lanark is "One of Europe's top attractions". Right.

There was an Edinburgh Wool Mill there. Just like everywhere else in Scotland, it seemed.


Walkers Pure Butter Vanilla Shortbread, slashed from £2,79 to £2,09 to £1,39 to £0,75.


Something to get your home/dog/cat sitter.

The gift shop had 80p Coke cans, which was cheap.

I then went to the hotel to look at some photographs.


"A period of 15 minutes is allowed at the end of the morning and evening periods of Permitted Hours, for the consumption of alcohol liquors purchased during such hours"
"If you are lucky enough to look under 25 you will be asked to prove that you are aged 18 or over when you buy alcohol"


The Falls in The Four Seasons. They looked nice but it was 1 hr in either direction, so I wasn't sure it was worth it due to time constraints.


"Wed in 2012 for only £2012"


Weeds in drain


River Clyde




Historic Classroom (1820 reconstruction)

The world's first nursery was here. Paid sick leave, too.


Cotton tunics for boys


Live crocodile


Infographic


Learning aids


Covered steps. Ahh, health and safety regulations!


"Refuge Point"???


On the school

A staff member told me the school was not free. Night school was free, but day school was chargeable. This was one reason a lot of kids stopped school at 10 and not 12.

Around this time I found that one glove had fallen out (my bag was full so it was hard to close) and I couldn't find it (it could even have fallen out during the ride). So I bought a new pair at the Edinburgh Wool Mill sale for £6. At least, they were better than the old pair.


River Clyde


On the Falls of Clyde: "there are steep gradients and steps on all paths"
When I saw this, a motivational slogan came to mind: "You can do anything you set your mind too"
Almost as quickly, another slogan came forth: "Don't gey kiang" (try to be too smart)
Supposedly it was only 20 minutes to the first of the three falls, but I had learnt not to trust this sort of thing.


Pleasant picnicing




House on stilts


Dustbin: "Ecosse" (Scotland in French). Notice it doesn't say "Royaume Uni" (Great Britain)


Scarecrows

I then visited the New Lanark Village Store.




On co-operatives


Store in the 19th century


Cheap food

According to the lady who'd worked there for 22 years, there were 185 people in the village.


Communism!




"The Twelve Fundamental Laws of Human Nature"


"Dieting under stress"


Shop: 1920s section.


On the 1820s/1920s mockups
1820 and 1920 were very different. 2020 will resemble 1920 more than 1920 resembles 1820.


10p/20p candy???
Irn Bru was 80p (in a smaller can) so I had one. The guide from the previous day said it was good for hangovers and more - it was a miraclecure.


Retro candy

Next I went to the Millworker's House (mockup).


On the Millworker's House.


Ahh access!


On the place


Living room


Bedroom


Toilet
There's a spittoon at the bottom left




Washing Clothes


The casual misandry of everyday life:
"Washing Today
The women who struggled with these back-breaking tasks would be astonished at the ease with which the washing is done in modern homes. At the flick of a switch, the clothes are washed, rinsed, spun and even tumble-dried. In fact it's so simple nowadays, that...
EVEN MEN CAN DO IT!"


On Bell Tower

It was snowing when I left the house.




Well, more like ice kachang shavings than real snow. I think this counts as "snow grains".


giffgaff (riding on the Orange network) didn't have 3G in Lanark and even the 2G was dodgy, so I wasn't able to upload pictures). Apparently mobile connectivity is spotty outside big cities for all telcos.


Owen's office



Video playing in Owen's house: "Utopian Socialist or Enlightened Capitalist?"


Here the narrative of the triumphant George Robert Owen was vaguely problematised: he got upset and went to the US (it didn't work out for him there either).

[Addendum: Here is something on why Robert Owen failed

"He felt that Owen was “totally incompetent” to carry out his grand plans. He condemned Owen for enticing people to throw up their lives and come to a failing New Harmony, and he disagreed with Owen’s statements that Americans were not capable of governing themselves and that there was nothing wrong with the system he advocated, only with the commune’s flawed citizens. Ferrall could hardly believe Owen’s statement that New Harmony had “exceeded his most sanguine expectations when he and all others could still see the smoking ruins. In answer to the view held by Owen’s friends that the commune began to fall apart when Owen relinquished his command, Ferrall claims that he never did abdicate and that he was constantly meddling and interfering. Owen could not abide independent views, and he would
refuse to answer difficult questions: those who disagreed with him were dismissed as ignorant of his system. This highhanded, ipse dixit approach did not go over well with New Harmonists. In New Lanark he had had great success among Scottish working people (really, peasantry) who were responsive to authority, while he completely misjudged the independent, individualistic nature of Americans.

Owen was certainly not a totalitarian demon, but he did manifest strong authoritarian impulses, emphasizing loyalty in his education. He was willing to sacrifice the well-being of people for a principle, in order to attain an egalitarian society that was not particularly democratic. But nothing remotely resembling a totalitarian state could ever come about in New Harmony because Americans were too diverse in origin and too individualistic in spirit. They were desperate people, but not sufficiently so to remain immobilized in such a vast, rich country of promise."

--- Maclure of New Harmony: Scientist, Progressive Educator, Radical Philanthropist / Leonard Warren]


Otherwise, the closest they came to problematising this "Utopia" and all the hero worship was a quote from an academic (in the video) about the "myths" of the co-op movement.


Queenwood College, Hampshire


Kitchen Equipment

Amusing Owen quote: "No real advantage has accrued from enabling our fashionable
females to purchase fine lace and muslins at one fourth of the former prices ; but to produce them at this price, many thousands of our population have existed amidst disease and wretchedness, and been carried prematurely to their graves."


"Anchor Point" for the "European Route of Industrial Heritage"


A decade in a pack: "Memories of the 1950s", "Memories of the 1970s"

The 515 bus which would take me back to Glasgow hadn't come by the timing of the last bus. At first I was thinking it had left very much earlier than it was supposed to (worse than Eurolines) but it turns out it was delayed by the weather and arrived and left 20 minutes after the last bus timing.

I saw a house with the LGBT sign (the rainbow flag, I think) by the roadside. Hah.


20% is a "massive discount"

I then walked around Glasgow a bit while waiting for A, my hostess for the night.


Royal Concert Hall


Another Pret-a-manger


How much is that polar bear in the window?


How much is that polar bear in the window?


St George's

Sadly there was a bloody Ferris Wheel in George Square. So much for good views of the Victorian architecture. The square was littered with statues of famous Scots.


George Square


Robert Peel


Queen Victoria


George Square




Robert Burns


Thomas Graham




Cenotaph




Gladstone


Sir Walter Scott


James Watt




Prince Albert


Fake EU license plate for "SCO". Very few cars displayed the proper "GB" license plate: most had plain license plates not indicating a country. Evidently they are not very patriotic where the United Kingdom is concerned.


Cheap burger


A Scottish Breakfast looks suspiciously like an English Breakfast (only the sausage is different). Don't tell the Scots that, though.


Sex sells... smoothies


When I saw this Burger King I thought it was closed (and indeed part of it was, with the chairs upturned on the tables) but it turned out it was still open, so I went in for a while.


Menu
It notes that chicken nuggets are cooked in the same oil as the chicken. Err, ok...


Onion Rings
This was "large" but only came up to just after my second finger. Maybe I should have super-ed it.


This annoyed me for being so picky about the proportions ("1/3 of a crushed mango"). Like it really isn't just made in a factory.
Also it was advertised as Mango-Passion Fruit but really those weren't the main ingredients. So much for truth in advertising...


Help pay for the Icelandic bank bailout


"The Health Lottery... Making Britain feel better"


"Protecting yourself against crime". Disgusting victim-blaming and proof of our ATM-robbery, bicycle-theft and robbery culture. Nothing about chikan, though.


Darwin Day in Scotland!


Wolf rummaging through trash


English girls seem to like to show their thunder thighs. Scottish girls seemed less prone to that, but maybe it was the weather.

Addendum: Later research (mostly involuntary) revealed that they did have nicer thighs.

Why what you do in public is not private

McCRAY v. STATE - October 31, 1990.

"The thrust of appellant's second issue centers around the police videotaping him walking from his home across the street to the MVA located at Mondawmin Mall. Appellant complains that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the videotape of appellant crossing the street to the MVA. Appellant notes that the police conducted their video surveillance without an authorizing court order or search warrant. He argues, therefore, that admission of the videotapes into evidence violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, since a court order or search warrant was not obtained by the police prior to conducting the video surveillance. We disagree with appellant's contentions...

The application of the Fourth Amendment depends on whether the person invoking its protection can claim a reasonable expectation of privacy that has been invaded by governmental action. This query, as aptly noted by Justice Harlan in his concurrence in Katz v. United States,389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516-17, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), embraces two requirements. "The first is that a person have exhibited an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy and, second, that the expectation be one that society is prepared to recognize as `reasonable.'" Katz, 389 U.S. at 361, 88 S.Ct. at 516-17. The underlying rationale of Katz suggests that the Fourth Amendment is applicable to visual images where the individual has justifiably relied on his privacy.

Generally, one walking along a public sidewalk or standing in a public park cannot reasonably expect that his activity will be immune from the public eye or from observation by the police...

Thus, the videotape surveillance of McCray, in public view, walking across the street to the MVA poses no Fourth Amendment problem. Clearly, the videotape of McCray was captured in a public place and in public view. Consequently, McCray had no reasonable expectation of privacy when he walked on public sidewalks, streets and parking lots, since he voluntarily exposed to anyone interested the fact that he was traveling to a particular destination and meeting a particular individual in a public place"


Someone claimed that if I dance nude in public at midnight and someone videotapes me, I have a right to feel victimised if that person uploads the video to YouTube and people make snide remarks

Since this person did not understand the concept of there being no reasonable expectation of privacy in public, which most people intuitively would, I threw the ruling at him

This person also claims that contributing actively to class discussions counts as bribery - that exchange will be up once it is finalised.

Links - 14th January 2013

No peeling of pineapples allowed in Geylang Serai market - "Unless the NEA can justify how a cut and sealed pineapple is more hazardous than a bunch of manhandled grapes in a supermarket, my take is that this crackdown is excessively erring on the side of caution than anything else, based on nothing more than a legacy of contaminated rojak, the kind of rojak that traditionally doesn’t use pineapple too"

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation - "the video is rich with subtle references that, along with the song itself, suggest a subtext with a surprisingly subversive message about class and wealth in contemporary South Korean society... he attended both Boston University and the Berklee College of Music, graduating from the latter. His exposure to American music's penchant for social commentary, and the time spent abroad that may have given him a new perspective on his home country, could inform his apparently somewhat critical take on South Korean society."

Do you know this guy? | Internet Explorer - YouTube
The Browser You Loved To Hate is really good

Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant - "It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant."

Parkinson's sufferer wins six figure payout from GlaxoSmithKline over drug that turned him into a 'gay sex and gambling addict'

The hum that helps to fight crime - "For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity... Comparing the unique pattern of the frequencies on an audio recording with a database that has been logging these changes for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year provides a digital watermark: a date and time stamp on the recording."

Cinemas with a twist - "For an even more underground option, there’s Chinatown’s long-standing Yangtze Cinema/KTV (Level 4, Pearl’s Centre, 100 Eu Tong Sen Rd. $5-$9), which specialises in foreign R21 fare – a polite way of saying the audience is typically made up of men with a taste for Asian softcore porn."

Canadian’s lucky iron fish saves lives in Cambodia - "The people they worked with — “the poorest of the poor” — can’t afford red meat or pricey iron pills, and the women won’t switch to iron cooking pots because they find them heavy and costly. Yet a small chunk of iron could release life-saving iron into the water and food. But what shape would the women be willing to place in their cooking pots?"

Ant and termite colonies unearth gold

Computer age brings sun to village in shadow of the Alps - Europe - International Herald Tribune - The New York Times - "From mid-November to early February, Viganella lives in the dark shadow of a steep mountain that blocks the sun from casting direct rays on the village, a stone's throw from the Swiss border. For centuries, its citizens have celebrated the sun's return Feb. 2 with a solemn religious procession and a lively auction of local delicacies in the main square. But this year the guest of honor never really left: Since December, a 40- square-meter, or 430-square-foot, mirror placed on a mountainside above Viganella has been deflecting the sun's rays into the town square, bringing sunlight, of a sort, in winter."

Great Invention Idea? Birth by Centrifugal Force

How to Beat the Impossible Freecell Game - "The FreeCell FAQ declared game 11982 to be impossible after exhaustive research. They wrote, “11982 has now eluded solution by probably thousands of human solvers, and at least eight independent computer programs I am aware of (most of which are designed to search exhaustively for a solution), and I am confident in calling it impossible.”"

The astonishing fake spider - built as a decoy by another spider: How amazing Amazonian arachnid avoids attack

Economics students 'are most promiscuous' - survey - "undergraduates studying economics had on average had 4.88 sexual partners since starting university. Next most promiscuous were students of social work, community care and counselling (4.7 partners on average), marketing (4.57), leisure, hospitality, tourism and retail (4.56) and agriculture (4.44). Engineers, business students, sports science undergraduates and social scientists also made the top ten. Theologians, perhaps with their minds on more spiritual matters, came one from the bottom of the list of 43 subjects with an average of 2.13 sexual partners each. However, the chastest students were found to be those on environmental science courses, who on average slept with 1.71 partners, only just over a third of the number tallied up by economists. The survey of 4,656 students from more than 100 UK universities shows that traditionally glamorous subjects such as art or media studies do not necessarily confer sexual magnetism. Undergraduates in these subjects were placed in the bottom ten... Six out of ten had slept with two or fewer people since starting their studies, of whom 5% had no sexual partners and 39% had only one. Nearly a third said they were not currently having sex. Just 9% of undergraduates said sex was the most important thing in their life at university. By contrast, 52% rated friends top, 29% said studying was their key priority and 11% considered Facebook their over-riding preoccupation"

Nong Joke/น้องโจ๊ก - "I discovered an entire repertoire of food on Ko Pha-Ngan’s Hat Yao that I’d never encountered previously. This genre of cuisine, characterised by unrecognisable interpretations of local and foreign dishes, dull flavours, a strong vegetarian bias, facsimile menus, mystery ingredients and even more mysterious origins, I called Backpacker Food... Backpacker breakfasts in particular seemed to have the least in common with the local cuisine. The English, with their ‘Full English Breakfast’ seemed to dominate this area, while the Swiss, with their muesli, often little more than oatmeal with a few cornflakes thrown in, have also had a palpable, though unpalatable, impact. And the ubiquitous ‘American Breakfast’ of instant coffee, lighter-than-air white bread, warm hotdogs and oily fried eggs isn’t doing much to promote the image of American food abroad, and certainly isn’t a good way to start the day. Even if you do make an effort to go ‘local’, Thai-style Backpacker Food is often just as bizarre, if not more, than the quasi-Western food... the guesthouse kitchens of Hat Yao put out consistently weak Thai-style salads, limp tasteless stir-fries, barely-there curries, and oddly enough, despite being on an island, very few seafood dishes. Luckily, if the lack of authentic Thai food on Hat Yao was getting to you, you could always order khao phat amerigan, ‘American fried rice’ – rice fried with ketchup, sliced hotdogs and sweet raisins, and topped with a fried egg. Despite the name, the dish is found throughout Thailand and is particularly popular among Thai children and university students. It was, as far as I could tell, the only authentically Thai dish on the restaurant menus of Hat Yao."

That cliché again: “Chinese people are not creative” - "He told me a story about a lecturer in an art faculty on a collage in the US, who said that Chinese students are leaving school around the 3rd weeks of their art studies. Why? On the first two weeks, all intros are taught. You learn about different artists, their work and methods. 3rd week comes, and the students are requested to create something of their own….
Chinese students come to the lecturer and say: “Tell me what to do, I’ll do it!”. The lecturer says: “No, invent something new of your own”. They just can’t…"

Amnesia and the Self That Remains When Memory Is Lost - "Many of us don't realize the connection between memory and self, he explained. Who you are is the sum total of all that you've experienced. Where you went to school, who your friends were, all the things you've done or -- just as importantly -- all the things you've always hoped to do. Whether you prefer chocolate ice cream or vanilla, action movies or comedies, is part of the story, but the ability to know those preferences through accumulated memory is what defines you as a person... 'We meet people, we see them every day, we say hello, but we don't really know them. We say they're our friends, but really, you can't be friends with the hundreds of people you meet, can you? It's enough that we had a shared history together. We were in the same places for a time. We were part of each other's fabric'"

All My Life I've Been Told I Was Special. It Was A Lie. - "Everyone told me I would be a best seller. Everyone said I would be loved by all. Like so many others I feel like I was lied to. In the real world I am still a nobody. It is only in video games, the thing I was told most often to avoid growing up, that I feel like I have lived up to my destiny. Instead of becoming a bestseller I have saved words, rescued princesses, and slayed dragons. In video games I am loved... The ease with which games allow us to repeat ad infinitum these rituals of self-empowerment are part of what makes them so successful... My story isn't even that unique. The reality is, the hardships of life shatter the fantasies we are told in childhood about our future. Greatness is not preordained. Except in video games. In video games greatness is inevitable"

Is pollock offensie to you(polish only)? - Yahoo! Answers - "Pollock is a racial slur, and many people dont like it."

West Coast Vegan: Mice in eyeshadow? - "Like most makeup, the only animal derived ingredients are things like carmine (ground up beetles), lecithen (egg yolks or soy beans), beeswax, tallow (animal fat), and things like collagen and elastin (connective tissues) which are more in skin products like moisturizers... But MICE? WHY!!!???"

Runaway brides in Singapore: Janice’s story (part 1) - "Was there a third party, everyone wanted to know? Yes -- in a way. “You could put it like this – the third party was HDB. I feel like I was forced to decide to get married early because if I waited until I was, say, 30 and ready to settle down, to wait another three to four years to get a BTO flat would leave me no time to start a family. Everyone told me that Ken and I had to hurry up and apply for a flat together and then quickly get married once the flat application was successful,” said Janice, who just started work as an accountant last year... All three marriage counselors Yahoo! Singapore spoke to said that cases of young women and men backing out of marriages at the last minute are on the rise by as much as two times in the past two years – and most cases were because they were not ready but forced to commit in order to secure a home in advance."

The Life of Attenborough

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(bird and moon: Attenborough)