Links - 10th May 2011

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." - Will Rogers

***

Harvard Gazette: Male body image - "Taiwanese men show less dissatisfaction with their bodies than Westerners... Chinese culture places less emphasis on muscle as a measure of masculinity. Also, Asian men are less exposed to the unending images of pects, abs, biceps, and triceps common in Western media. Finally, Taiwanese men retain a tighter grip on the traditional roles of household and corporate masters than men in the United States and other Western countries"

Confucius Statue Vanishes Near Tiananmen Square - “Students come home from school and tell their parents, ‘One of my classmates got run over by a car today — now I have one less person to compete against,’ ”

YouTube - Insane Japanese Politician - "I have no interest whatsoever in political reform or any kind of reform... We must abandon this detestable nation"

Why Women Rule The Internet - "Women are the majority of users of social networking sites and spend 30% more time on these sites than men; mobile social network usage is 55% female... females are 65% of renters. Why? Renting requires a little more advanced planning. Chegg’s research shows women are more inclined to plan ahead than men... According to the US Census Bureau, women oversee over 80% of consumer spending... If females had not adopted in the early days, I wonder if Facebook would be what it is today. (Why do you think all the guys showed up?)... according to OpenTable, the majority of bookings are overwhelmingly made by females. Why? Likely because women drive most decisions about where to go and where to eat"
Comments: "I would feel sorry for women, whose only reason to exist, it seems, is to consume products made by mostly men"
"you really need to drop the "girls rule, boys drool" attitude... the very concept of hiring a women over a man for a job simply because of her insight into her sex is as outdated as women's suffrage. Employees should be hired because they are the best person for the job, not because we need a woman on the team"
"Reacting to an article saying "Why Women Rule the Internet" (over men) is misogynistic?"
"Middle management, hr, and legal have substantial numbers of females in the ranks. Finance and sales often have substantial amounts of male employees, & CEO's, CFO's, and COO's usually come up from sales or finance"

The Trouble with Men - "Those who bore sons had shorter life spans than those who gave birth to daughters. This discrepancy has to do with birth weight—male babies are typically larger—as well as testosterone"

Uncomfortably Sexual Company Logos

Women warned of sex stimulant in drink - "I know of a friend who gave the spiked drink to a woman he had just met. Less than 15 minutes later, the woman invited him to have sex without being asked to"
Malaysia Boleh!

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Le sexe pour lutter contre la corruption - "Miss Janvier, déguisée en mariée coquine, brandit son majeur et lance «Je n'épouserai pas un corrompu»"

What to say to Christians who point to random occurences in nature (e.g. the cross shape of laminin) and try to evangelise (image)

Hot French Girl and a Mirror - Video

Chinese Citizens on Tour in Europe - ""Some of his older travellers used to have a habit of hiding cash in the toilet tank or the ventilation ducts. “The worst case I’ve had was a guest who sewed money into the hem of the curtains... At a Malaysian casino hotel in 2005, some three hundred Chinese visitors were issued special meal coupons bearing cartoon pig faces... the offended Chinese tourists staged a sit-in, singing the national anthem... central Paris had no skyscrapers. “In Shanghai, unless you’re standing right next to the Huangpu River, you can’t get any sense of the city, because there are too many tall buildings.” Europeans, he added, “preserve anything old and valuable”... In Chinese surveys, “culture” often leads the list of terms that people associate with Europe. On the negative side, top results include “arrogant” and “poor-quality Chinese food”... “Other than different buildings, the Seine didn’t look all that different from the Huangpu,” she said. “Subway? We have a subway. You name it, we’ve got it”... We had been in Europe for a week and had yet to sit down to a lunch or a dinner that was not Chinese. (Nearly half of all Chinese tourists in one market survey reported eating no more than one “European style” meal on a trip to the West.) But Li warned that Western food would take too long to serve, and he recalled a five-hour dinner in Spain. “If you eat Western food too fast, you’ll get an upset stomach”... “If you don’t take home a Peruzzi souvenir, you can’t prove you have been to Florence”"

The Election Department Replies On the Rejection of Tanjong Pagar Candidates - And Gives Clear Grounds. Please Circulate. - "Mr Ng Teck Siong told me, with supreme conviction that “I don’t pay the election deposit because they never process the nomination form”, confirming the statements made by Mr Lee of the Elections Department. Unfortunately, the explicit wording of the statute, as well as instructions to candidate issued by the elections department do not support his supreme conviction. In fact, a contrary view is held as to the nomination process... It appears that Mr Ng, in addition to being unable to fill in a form, is also incapable of reading clear instructions, much less following them. While he should be given credit for his bravery in coming forward as a candidate, it appears to be the only positive quality we can credit him with"

WP’s Lee Li Lian: Woman’s touch could matter « SINGAPORE VOTES 2011 - "Ms Lee, however, believes that a “woman’s touch” could make a difference and says she has the ability to connect with people from all walks of life"
If it is misogynistic to quote someone saying that a wife should cook and do things for you, is it misandristic to say women are better at connecting with people?

No Hell? Pastor Rob Bell Angers Evangelicals - "A visitor to the exhibit had stuck a note next to the Gandhi quotation: "Reality check: He's in hell." Bell was struck. Really? he recalls thinking. Gandhi's in hell? He is?
We have confirmation of this? Somebody knows this? Without a doubt?
And that somebody decided to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know?"
We know this the same way we know everything religious, and somebody decided to take on this responsibility for the same reason that religious people decide to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know about their religions. I don't see the problem here.

A Feminist Flare Up - ""Independent feminism" embraced the feminist challenge to women's traditional place but also asserted that the major battles for women's rights had been won -- and not only celebrated feminist achievements but questioned exaggerated claims of female oppression and male evil. Among other things, this dissident feminism criticized the tendency to redefine rape (particularly "date rape") so broadly as to include miscommunication due to mixed signals or sex under the influence of alcohol... Marcotte emerged as a leader of the cyber-lynch mob in the Duke University rape hoax. On her blog, anyone questioning the guilt of the three lacrosse players charged with sexually assaulting an exotic dancer at a team party was branded a "rape apologist"... It seems that, in Marcotte's eyes, the real crime of the "independent feminists'" is helping preserve the idea that the presumption of innocence applies even in cases of rape and sexual assault. If so, that is indeed a victory. Depriving men of their civil rights is no victory for women -- both as a matter of principle and because most women have men in their lives whom they would not want to see face a false charge of rape under Marcotte-style standards of justice."

Paul Harris has car towed away after CAT sneaks into it and police smash windows - "The man who towed my car was there and said I could only get my car when I paid £150 at the police station and they had faxed over confirmation of payment. ‘I spoke to a desk sergeant and he told me that if officers damaged property in this manner then the force doesn’t have to pay for it. ‘When I kicked up a bit of a fuss he said I should complain to their legal department.’ Mr Harris finally picked up his car on Tuesday afternoon but has also had to pay £70 excess on his insurance for the windows to be repaired and another £20 for it to be cleaned because of the glass and cat’s mess he found inside, bringing the total bill to £240"

Man sued for $12 million for alleged impotency - ""When he did for the first time, he treated me inhumanly and inappropriately," she told the court. "I discovered later on that he suffered erectile dysfunction. He was exactly the opposite of what he claimed to me before we signed the marriage contract... I suffered mentally, emotionally and lost any hope to become a mother""
This is why PMS is very important

Roll a D6 on Vimeo

YouTube - Owl Transform 2 - "Owl Transform ： When faced smaller enemy, it become bigger; but if the enemy biggest than itself, it become stick..haha,very cutie~"

[GPGT] Ah tiong shop selling dog meat in Singapore - "Comments: "it's 'socially unacceptable'
people who eat vegetables offend me
i should find a majority and outlaw vegetables once and for all"
"i hate eggplants"
"what if ah tiongs offend most sinkies? Will they be outlawed? :0"
"if hypocrisy offends me, how arh?"
"it's not like cows, pigs and cheeken are notch social animals""
This thread is very depressing, because of all the xenophobia, irrational privileging of dogs and idiocy (everybody saying it's illegal but no one giving proof)

the myth of microfinance - "Jonathan Morduch, a long-time advocate of microfinance, confesses that '[s]trikingly, 30 years into the microfinance movement we have little solid evidence that it improves the lives of clients in measurable ways'... without subsidies from governments or international donors, microfinance institutions have to charge, and have been charging, near-usurious rates... the vast bulk of microcredit is not used to fuel entrepreneurship by the poor, the alleged goal of the exercise, but to finance consumption"

Observations from a friend who was at Hougang Stadium on Saturday night (Workers' Party Election Assembly Point)

besides the usual "the crowd was crazy", several interesting things of note:

1. the WP candidate for Joo Chiat SMC gave a speech at the stadium after the narrow loss.
his final two sentences were "I HOPE JOO CHIAT WILL STILL BE AROUND NEXT ELECTIONS". and something about how he will come back stronger and fight harder to win it
CNA aired his speech after some delay, but those two lines were left out

2. the disgusting focus on the loser instead of the winner of aljunied, as you pointed out.
after the victory was announced, faisal (?) gave a short speech, and so did low thia khiang. and then almost immediately LTK announced that according to the rules, we have to clear the stadium within 30mins of the announcement of the final result (aljunied) so he asked us to clear out

we were quite confused/upset at this so we hung around and wanted to find out more (now i'm glad we hung around cos a few more interesting things happened)
well, there is this rule that says the stadium has to be cleared out 30mins after the release of the final GE result. but a few issues:

a) the aljunied result was known HOURS before (we spoke to some WP ppl and they admitted that) but they were not allowed to announce it until the media announces it. and the media decides the order in which they wish to announce the results. so... why did they choose to schedule the announcements this wya? why announce aljunied LAST and leave no time for victory speeches? this is a momentous and historic event and all we had was 10-15 minutes... the party chairperson didn't even get to speak and CNA in the background just kept airing george yeo and zainual abidin giving speeches!

[Addendum: @liangkaixin, a journalist, adds that "saw ur friend's observation. the media doesn't decide on the announcement of the result. returning officer announces and we broadcast"]

b) in fact, the potong pasir result was not yet announced, so technically it wasn't even the final GE result

c) but upon some reflectino, i think WP just wanted to play it safe and not run any small risk even of getting into trouble. which i think is fair. they need to be whiter than white.

3. now when we were hanging out near the barricades.. tv crew approached the small gathering (most of the crowd had dispersed) and it looked like they wnated to interview some people... and... this is what got me so riled up
the entire fucking crowd just... disappeared... as the tv crew approached, those previously rabid WP supporters just suddenly became.. no more

i was so upset. when you had the safety of numbers of anonymity, everybody was so willing to be shouting and screaming but when the camera approaches nobody dared to show their allegiance. i hate it you know, i really do
my personal motto is that the only real time you need to show allegiance is in times of trouble. so i make it a point to wear my liverpool jersey around after we lose.. after we win, i don't need to show support cos everybody else would
but anyway this is different. we had WON. and yet pppl were just.. i dunno, afraid? of being individually identified as WP supporters?
anyway i approached the camera, and they asked me several qns re whether today was signifcant for sg politics. what i think about the grc system and what i hope WP can do for us in parliament. i answered truthfully and, i hope, coherently.

after that, my friend asked where the tv ppl were from and they said they were from NHK

4. on the way back to the cars, i was alerted to the fact that a boy was being surrounded by what seemed to be policemen.. possibly ISD people.. my friends basically walked on... (i fucked them for that later) but i could not stand for it
so i went to the group of them... two of them were directly confronting the boy and some of them were idling around... they had their backs towards me. i walked up and placed my hand (reassuringly, i hope) on the boy's shoulder and said to him
"excuse me, i'm a law student. do you need help"

i figured quickly that they wanted to see the photos he had taken on his iphone. and looked him and the policemen in the eye, and said firmly, "you don't have to show them the photos if you don't wish to. are they arresting you? are they charging you with a seizable offence?" (regardless of what my prof had said in his email, i asked my police inspector friend about this before and he said that, in practice, they can't confiscate your stuff unless they are charging you with a seizable offence)

the guy looked at me and said "it's ok i have nothing to hide, i will let them see." and so he scrolled through his photos and openly let the two policemen take a look and went "if you think these photos are dangerous..."
they were just very innocent photos

i'm not bragging but i honestly felt like my intervention had put off the police people just a wee bit
but anyway in the end they agreed that there were no problems with the photos he took and they let him go

i just hate this.. FEAR thing you know. it's great the guy was not afraid at all and willing to be open about everything.. but still i think he had the right NOT to. simply if he did not wish to

5. then later we went to some place for supper, we sat down and waited 5 minutes and still nobody came to serve us
and now a group of PAP people in their white uniforms and party logos arrived.. and the moment they sat down, someone went to serve them
i could not take it anymore

and so after some deliberation, i stood up and said very loudly "we have been here for 5 minutes and nobody came to serve us, but these PAP ppl just arrived, and you serve them first. may i know why?"
but i said it with a lot of emotion... that's the problem with me. when i get passionate, i become a bit like CSJ. i wish i could always be as moderate as vincent... his style is totally different
and it's a better style than CSJ's emotional and frustrated style
i need to change that. i'm not necessarily angry or out of control but i was just... emotional, you know

one lone guy clapped at my little outburst and then we left and went to another shop

France/Spain 2011 - Day 2, Part 2 - Colmar: Unterlinden Museum

"Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories." - Arthur C. Clarke

***

France/Spain 2011
Day 2 - 18th March - Colmar: Unterlinden Museum (Part 2)

The audioguide was complimentary, so I got to listen to one of the lamest stories I'd ever heard.

In 1720, the leaders of the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin of Colmar church were bored, so they decided to make their altarpiece collapse in front of a crowd on Assumption Day. The altarpiece was damaged and is now incomplete.


Panels of the Altar-Master of the church of St Martin of Colmar. Gaspard Isenmann. 1465: Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the Last Supper/The Scourging with the Crown of Thorns. Both are in Pilate's Palace.
This is naturalistic


Christ on the Mount of Olives, and the Arrest of Christ
Christ is healing the ear a disciple has cut off. On the right you see the wife of the smith who made the nails for the cross, as retold in the apocryphal gospels


The Deposition ofChrist and the Entombment


The Resurrection
The model for Jerusalem was possibly Salzbourg


Altarpiece for the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin, 1465. How the existing panels would've looked.


Legend of St James: Miracle of the Roasted Chickens. Master of the Legend of St James, ~1470

I like this myth. From Bodegas Altona - Rioja Wine,

"The Miracle of the Cock and the Hen

Tradition tells of a German family, on their way to Santiago de Compostela. When they arrived in Santo Domingo, they stayed in a posada, or inn. The innkeeper's daughter was attracted to the family's son, and let him know it. But the young man spurned the girl's advances, and humiliated, the jilted girl hid a silver goblet in the young pilgrim's pouch. As soon as the family took to the road to continue their journey, the daughter accused him of stealing the goblet. The youth was hanged, but miraculously, he did not die.

When the judge was told about this, he wouldn't accept it; he said he would believe the pilgrim was alive and innocent only if the roasted chickens he was about to enjoy for dinner crowed.

The birds sprung to life and the hen crowed. This miracle is commemorated in the chicken coop inside the cathedral, where a live white cock and hen are always kept. Even today, the crowing of the cock and the hen are considered a sign of good luck."

Incidentally there's a recipe for St James Marinated Chicken. Maybe it's so good my palate will come alive?


Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man"). End of 15th c.


Still Life with bottles and books. North Germany or the Low Countries. ~1530
This is the bottle cabinet of a surgeon. On the right is a bottle for toothache. The ball on top of the brown thing is found in some herbivores' stomachs, and is used for healing.


St Anne, the Virgin and the Infant. End 15th c.


Melancholy, Lucas Cranach l'Ancien
This was on loan
Martin Luther was a friend of Cranach's. He was against melancholy. He believed in the good life - eating, drinking and living well (if I understand my notes correctly) - and god (the fortress on the hill is a reference to Luther's most famous hymn)
The notes add that melancholy - in a religious, even Protestant interpretation - was a temptation of the devil, which the faithful must resist.


St John the Evangelist blesses the cup of poison. Wilhelm Stetter, 1519


Pyramus and Thisbe. ~1506.
This story from Ovid is basically Romeo and Juliet, except a bramble bush is involved (Wikipedia says "the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honour the forbidden love")


Altarpiece of St John the Baptist. 1526.


Virgin and Child on Crescent Moon. End 15th c.


The Flight from Egypt. Schongauer, 1470-5


Domestic Altar: The Annunciation. ~1500


St John the Baptist, St Nicholas. ~1500


The largest collection of virgins in France
Incidentally there was what was probably a lower secondary school group in there at the same time.

Riot in Potong Pasir after General Election 2011

Our first riot in decades (8th May 2011)! So exciting.

Send in riot police! Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentation of their women

Source: http://yfrog.com/0sq4pz

Addendum: Comment on this video: "Did I hear wrongly? You actually mean you are excited to see this? I think Mr LKY is right. People are sick and tired of a stable goverment and a stable and peaceful society. Singapore society is too too peaceful untill people want some "unpeaceful" things to happen. Be careful of what you wish for. It may just come truth. It may come to you however, more than you can take it. Till then regret is too late"

(NB: This being Singapore, let me clarify that this is not really a riot and I'm just taking the piss. But then again, given Illegal Assembly laws and the Public Order act, it might as well be)

From Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing

I don't remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don't remember
if I'm here alone
or waiting for someone.

A reason to go to Melbourne next week

I would, but among other things I don't speak Vietnamese...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

"If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe." - Lord Salisbury

***


66%, 2 (82/84 = 97.6%)


60%, 6 (81/87 = 93.1%)

@shaunkoh: "social media. bieber, obama, and black show us what's really possible... I'm damned certain we've got at least a million people using FB+twitter... thousands of previously apathetic young singaporeans are now shaken out of their stupor. we can't go back... if mere talk could lead to the #arabspring, I won't be so dismissive about the power of mindshare."


Another successful Popular Revolution


"i think my house the new lift is never going to finish... they are going to take away all my buses that goes everywhere!"
"I pity you. I am still under PAP! YES"

drmchsr0: "The so-called “political awakening” to die off, like it did in 2006"

Me: "This time, it's different" applies to elections as much as it does to financial crises.

Perhaps I should start a new betting pool on the number of defamation suits that will come in the following weeks...

France/Spain 2011 - Day 2, Part 1 - Colmar, Unterlinden Museum

"People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest." - Hermann Hesse

***

France/Spain 2011
Day 2 - 18th March - Colmar, Unterlinden Museum (Part 1)

Starhub informed me that it would be more expensive to call Singapore from France than to make any other sort of international call. Way to go.


The Ciarus hostel included breakfast (a croissant, a cut length of baguette and fruit/jam), so I dined before setting out for Colmar (a town to the south).


"Ici c'est pas une usine. On fait de la vraie cusine !!!"
("This place is not a factory. We cook real food!!!")

The croissant was flakier than the one I had last night, because there had been no heat light at Paul's. The baguette length was cold but still reasonably crusty.


Unfortunately the fruit looked like it'd seen better days (it looked worse IRL).

The ticket machine at the train station rejected my credit card and I had to go to the counter, so I missed the 7:51am train to Colmar and had to take the 8:19am. On the upside I got to walk around.


"Promotion Etudiants et Militaires"
("Student and soldier promotion")
1€/sandwich is not bad. Maybe soldiers are paid as much as slaves in Singapore - but that seems impossible.
The fine print actually says what you buy at this price is identical to what you'd buy at the normal price.


The ugly Strasbourg gare (station)
It's a glass shell and the real station is underneath


Gare de Strasbourg

I then took the train to Colmar.


"Association Espoir. Boutique de la Solidarité" (Hope Association)
It provides social services


"Institut Positive. Beauté, Bien-être, Onglerie"
("Positive Institute. Beauty, Well-Being, Nails")


Good life - they open Monday-Saturday, 1pm-7pm.
Also they have a cute "no pets allowed" sign which reads: "We regret that we cannot accept your friends"


"Prix Sympa" ("Nice Price")
1€ Coke ad


"Vous prenez ma place. Prenez aussi mon handicap" ("You take my parking spot. Also take my handicap")
Shaming people into leaving handicapped places empty on Avenue de la République


Pâtisserie window


I love how the mannikin heads come in multiple skin tones: black, light black, nude, beige, North African.


Rue des têtes (Road of Heads)


Beignet à la crème (Cream donut)

At the tourist office, I found out that the Castle of Haut-Kœnigsbourg, which I wanted to visit this day, did not have shuttles going to it during the week; I had decided to venture out of Strasbourg this day (Friday) instead of the next (Saturday) because the weather was supposed to be better. This threw a wrench into my plans.

I resolved to ponder this issue later, then went to the Unterlinden Museum, arguably Colmar's star attraction.


The Last Communion of Marie the Egyptian, 12th c.


Lion of St Mark, Eagle of St John. 12th c.


Virgin and Child, early 16th century


This box was unlabelled


Stained Glass with Virgin and Child, St Sebastian and St Philippe (?). Early 16th/second half of 15th c.

I then tested out my new camera's HD video function on the cloisters.


HD


Non-HD (big difference)


Martin Schongauer drawings


More Martin Schongauer drawings


The crucifixion - a Strasbourgian painter. 1410-15.
The good thief and bad thief flank him. On his right is the good one - you can see the souls escaping.
The Dominican monk at the bottom is presumably the one who commissioned this piece. The breath of the lion in the cave breathing on its cubs is like that of God bringing stillborn babies to life.
The painting reflects post-Black Death morosity and is in the International Gothic Style.


The Life of The Christ with the 2 St Johns. ~1420


Altarpiece: Life of the Virgin. ~1420.
Christ is holding the Virgin's soul represented as a small child


Stauffenberg Altarpiece. 1454-60.
The gold represents timelessness


Altarpiece of Tempelhof de Bergheim. Jost Haller. ~1445
This is the desert as imagined by Northern Europeans who had never seen one - it looks like a clearing in Vosges
St George is here because he's the patron of the Knights of St John