Random Deepak Chopra Quote Generator - Wisdom of Chopra - "It has been said by some that the thoughts and tweets of Deepak Chopra are indistinguishable from a set of profound sounding words put together in a random order, particularly the tweets tagged with "#cosmisconciousness". This site aims to test that claim! Each "quote" is generated from a list of words that can be found in Deepak Chopra's Twitter stream randomly stuck together in a sentence."
Hong Kong Air Hostesses Study Wing Chun; to Calm Down Angry Passengers? - " Wing Chun is a school of Chinese martial art that focuses on self defense through balance and relaxation techniques, and has become synonymous with Chinese culture over the years. Many netizens believe that Wing Chun performances will be given to angry passengers who are suffering from delays, and it is interesting to note that only the female flight attendants are being trained in the martial art. Hong Kong Airlines have played down the speculation however, and have stated that the study of Wing Chun for its air hostesses has been going on for three years in attempts to strengthen their willpower and bodies, and generally provide better service for their customers."
Just if you are wondering why China is not in the World Cup.
Honest Trailers - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - YouTube - "Megan Fox..combines the looks of a professional porn star with the acting of an amateur porn star"
7 signs God is going to destroy JEM mall in Jurong East by end of 2014 | New Nation
8 of the biggest myths about sex - "“One [study] found that people living with a sexual partner masturbated more,” the authors write, noting that “about 85% of such men and 45% of such women had masturbated in the last year” — compared to a separate study which found that “about 60% of men and 40% of women” overall, including those married and single, had done the same in that time period... “Overall, the circumcised men actually report that their penises are more sensitive [after circumcision], and that they have an easier time reaching orgasm,” the authors wrote. Further, in a collective review of 10 studies using almost 20,000 men as subjects, scientists “did not see any differences between circumcised and uncircumcised men in terms of sexual desire, pain during sex, premature ejaculation, problems with erections, or problems with orgasms.”
Pope Francis: Mafiosi are excommunicated from the church'
3女子过关讲话 被罚搭船回狮城 - "峇淡过关卡，不准讲话！狮城一家十口游峇淡，其中3女在通关时讲话，不获准入境，“被罚”搭船回返新加坡后，再搭船回来，令她们不满。"
What to Do About ‘Impactful’? - "Now, let’s be clear: There is no particularly good reason for my displeasure with this word. There are plenty of similar adjectives in the language, formed by a noun + -ful to mean “full of or having a lot of [the noun]”: for example, playful, joyful, eventful. The adjective impactful is relatively new to the language, but that’s not a good reason for my distaste either—there are lots of other new words that I like (e.g., the wonderfully playful recombobulate). The meaning of impactful is a bit vague (for example, is the impact good or bad?), but the same critique could be made of well-accepted adjectives like influential. The word may sound business jargony to some, but the data no longer fully support this connotation, as I’ll get to... In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin didn’t like colonize. Dean Alford despaired over reliable in the 19th century. And in 2013, Anne Curzan thoughtimpactful was not very pretty. These opinions about new words will all look quaint in retrospect."
Never book another flight on Tiger Air! - "I’ve heard of a bad flying experience, delayed flights, and poor customer service standards. But never in my life have I ever encountered an airline with a service standard so poor, it spoilt my entire night, or rather, my entire honeymoon plans."
PODI (Raffles City): Singapore Food Review | Food Blog Singapore - "Argentina Sirloin Steak. Oh man, this steak was such a disaster all I can find to praise is how nice the grilled vine tomatoes and chimichurri sauce were. Let’s just say cutting into the tough meat with a non-steak knife was like one of Hercules’ 12 labours, and I imagine my dentist is going to get a call soon... King Prawn in herb butter. 2 words: Mushy. Prawns. My guess is the prawns were either defrosted too hastily or the prawns were just not fresh. The deteriorated meat just ruins whatever effort was put into the herb butter. A real pity and very novice mistake."
A bad review for a closed door food tasting. Respect.
White Bread May Actually Build Strong Bodies One Way - "The guts of white bread eaters appear to contain more Lactobacillus, a type of bacteria that wards off digestive disorders"
Why drive manual? - Automatic transmission improves driving behaviour in older drivers - "The present study found that the older participants’ driving behaviour improved when driving a car with automatic transmission. As a result of the automatic transmission they displayed safer speed adjustments in urban areas, safer lane positioning, greater manoeuvring skills and better attention to the speed regulations. Furthermore, their left turns improved by driving a car with automatic transmission."
83% of road traffic accidents are caused by drivers of cars with manual transmission - "Statistics of BTA non-life insurance company shows that cars with automatic transmission are much more secure than cars with manual transmission... “drivers of cars with automatic gearboxes are more careful because they can pay greater attention to traffic, road, environment and observe more carefully other vehicles near them”, - says Andrius Žiukelis, the Head of Expert Examination Division of the Claims Settlement Department of BTA non-life insurance company. According to the specialist, accidents caused by different vehicle groups essentially don’t differ, however, it can be noticed that drivers of cars with manual gearboxes quite frequently meet with accidents when the engine of their car suddenly goes of when the car starts moving giving rise to a damage situation. In such case drivers sometimes drive into a crossroad and stop unexpectedly for all traffic participants, or stop in a traffic flow going in a certain direction and such a sudden stopping is not expected by the driver of a car moving behind. As noted by A. Žiukelis, drivers of cars with automatic transmissions often confuse the brake and gas pedals and pressing the accelerator by mistake crash into the gates, wall, another car, or vice versa – press the brake pedal unexpectedly for the car driver moving behind. Sometimes drivers confuse gear stick positions – they want to drive backward and switch on the gear stick position which should be used for driving forward and finally end up in a traffic accident or collision, or vice versa – drive backward when actually they need to move forward."
Google's Self-Driving Car Crashes - "One of Google's self-driving cars got into an accident earlier this week. But Google is claiming the auto-pilot-equipped Prius was actually flipped into manual mode when the accident happened, making this a case of user error."
Steam Community :: Guide :: Beginner's Janitorial Guide - "Viscera Cleanup Detail is an amusing look at real life consequences applied to a fictional fighting game"
Young Japanese women becoming less interested in sex, survey says - "For the past few years, Japan has been in a fuss about “soshoku danshi,” literally translated as “herbivore boys”... To make matters worse, a survey conducted by The Japanese Association for Sex Education (JASE) reveals that the number of young Japanese women who have had sex has decreased dramatically over the past 6 years. Perhaps the ladies of Japan have finally given up on trying to get their male counterparts into bed and joined convent themselves... While the percentage of sexually active female university and high school students had followed an upward trend since the survey began in 1974, it peaked in 2005 at about 60% for university students and 30% for high school students and then dropped to 47% for university students and 24% for high school students in 2011. Kazuo Katase, a professor at Tohoku University and member of the JASE research committee, believes these results show that many young Japanese females are succumbing to the “herbivore” lifestyle as well. The survey suggests that the herbivore boys continue to increase in number as well: the percentage of sexually active male university students dropped from 60% in 2005 to 54% in 2011 and the number of male high school students dropped from 27% to 15%. And it doesn’t stop there:according to the same survey, the percentage of students who have ever kissed dropped from 72% to 66% for university boys, 72% to 73% for university girls, 48% to 37% for high school boys and 52% to 44% for high school girls."
Japan Population Decline: Third Of Nation's Youth Have 'No Interest' In Sex (VIDEO) - "36% of males aged 16 to 19 said that they had "no interest" in or even "despised" sex. That's almost a 19% increase since the survey was last conducted in 2008. If that's not bad enough, The Wall Street Journal reports that a whopping 59% of female respondents aged 16 to 19 said they were uninterested in or averse to sex, a near 12% increase since 2008."
Single in Japan: Survey Finds Record Number Are Going Solo - ""Not dating," "single" and "no real need to get married" were the surprising majority of responses in a government-sponsored 2011 survey of men and women ages 18 to 34. A record-high 61.4% of unmarried men had no girlfriend, up 9.2 points since the previous survey in 2005. Unmarried women with no boyfriend hit a record 49.5%, up nearly 5 points. Among the 40% who said there was no need to get married, 45% of the men said they have no particular interest in "dating the opposite sex.""
L'origine de Bert
Thursday, July 17, 2014
How to Sink a Ship
“An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.” – Goi Nasu
Post ID: 8262586223361191351
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Links - 16th July 2014
I'm not worried about online privacy (and nor should you be) - "I even worry about stuff that’s never going to meaningfully affect me. Like the Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Could the most revered woman in the Guardian-reading world survive the day-to-day tumult of politics with her reputation still intact? I’ve never been been to Burma and know no Burmese people, but I dutifully set aside 5-10 minutes a day to scan the web for Burmese stories and then fret about how she might handle future sectarian strife. I hope it never gets so bad that she has to stop wearing those pretty flowers in her hair... it’s a godsend to come across a major issue, event or news story that I don’t care about. I luxuriate in my indifference and I slather myself in ambivalence like a wildebeest who has found a particularly choice and muddy wallow. I experienced this in 2009 when the Telegraph broke the expenses scandal... Compared to the billions lost on carousel VAT fraud, dodgy IT contracts to companies with ex-ministers on boards, shoddy military procurement and iffy planning decisions, it’s a drop in the ocean... I cannot bring myself to fret about MPs raiding the stationary cupboard. But I did rather enjoy thinking “meh” whenever the years’ biggest story came up... If you don’t like what Google does, for instance, pay someone to host your email. It costs around £20 a year - and if you balk at paying this, well, you have a pretty good idea of what your privacy is worth to you... So perhaps the reason I can’t get into a lather about Snowden is that I know everything’s a trade off and I don’t expect something for nothing"
Metrosexual goes mainstream as men outspend women on footwear - "Richard Cope, the market research specialist's principle trends analyst, added the shock figures confirmed that metrosexuality was now "in the mainstream"... Previous studies have documented women's desire for shoes of every shape, size, design and colour. A report earlier this Spring claimed half of women have more than 20 pairs, with 14 per cent owning more than 50. Mintel admitted women are still more likely than men to buy three or more pairs of shoes a year, led by females in the north-west of England. But it claimed younger women were beginning to cut back while the price of pumps and flats were coming down as high street chains such as Primark grow their share of the market"
'Spornosexuality': an evolutionary step backwards for men - "True, Oscar Wilde said that beauty was higher than genius because it requires no explanation. But the TOWIE fans should pick up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which they would discover that Wilde’s commitment to aesthetics is not without moral limits or even censoriousness. The writer once summed up the book’s message thus: “All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment.” Dorian Gray – forever youthful, presumably forever buff – is so absorbed with his outward appearance that his inner-conscience withers. His soul dies long before his body does: he is a spiritless husk. And isn’t this a rather apt metaphor for what spornosexuality encourages? When people seek physical perfection for its own sake, then character – which is truly the most beautiful thing of all – corrodes. "
Convicted Heavy Metal ‘Christian’ Singer Admits Being Atheist, Duped Fans to Sell Music - "Lambesis, in admitting his atheism, outlined that he turned away from Christianity as he majored in religious studies while attending college through a long distance program. “In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” he said... “We toured with more ‘Christian bands’ who actually aren’t Christians than bands that are,” Lambesis stated. “In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands”... “A lot of Christian parents said, ‘Yes, you can buy this As I Lay Dying CD, because they’re a Christian band.’ They don’t even think to actually check the lyrics,” Lambesis stated. “So when you change your views, you kind of owe it to the fans to be honest.”"
Research and Musings: An Open Letter to the Christian Entertainment Industry - "most of the Sci-Fi I got to read was the sort you find in Christian book stores. Stephen Lawhead was the high water mark for living Christian Science Fiction and fantasy writers. The Christian market was so desperate for decent science fiction that the Dune series, as anti-Messianic and anti-religion as you can get, was sometimes sold at Christian book stores and Becka Book sales as an "Allegory". Many of the Christian schools and Churches I attended banned things like The Lord of the Rings and even Narnia. LOTR I could understand, as one of the heroes is a wizard, but banning Naria and allowing Dune convinced me that whoever was making these decisions never actually READ any of the books... The Bible games were not exciting or engaging, but insipid and boring. Yes, you got to play David, son of Jessee, but you didn't play a game where King David is going to war or fighting the rebellion lead by his own son. No, you played a 12 year old David running around collecting lost lambs and putting them in a pen. The game ENDED just before the battle with Goliath, where it really should have been starting... Bibleman is an attempt to graft in-your-face, Christian concepts onto a Christian parent's stereotype of a video game. The models for these games are not the ones that actually sell, but the cartoon image middle aged, highly offended, Evangelicals have of video games. They're an attempt to make a preachy game based on a stereotype and the result is sad, campy and pathetic."
Bill O'Reilly David Letterman Transcript - Letterman O'Reilly Transcript - "O’Reilly: “We believe that the United States, particularly the military, are doing a noble thing, a noble thing. The soldiers and Marines are noble. They're not terrorists. And when people call them that, like Cindy Sheehan called the insurgents 'freedom fighters,’ we don't like that. It is a vitally important time in American history. And we should all take it very seriously. Be very careful with what we say.”...
Letterman: “See, I’m very concerned about people like yourself who don’t have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ”...
O’Reilly [on invading Iraq]: “If you want to question that, and then revamp an intelligence agency that’s obviously flawed, the CIA, okay. But remember, MI-6 in Britain said the same thing. Putin’s people in Russia said the same thing, and so did Mubarak’s intelligence agency in Egypt”...
O’Reilly: “No way a terrorist who blows up women and children is going to be called a ‘freedom fighter’ on my program”
Letterman: “I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap...
O’Reilly: “Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine.”
Letterman: “Well, ah, I, okay. But I think you’re-”
O’Reilly: “Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get.”
Letterman: “Yeah, but I think there’s something, this fair and balanced. I'm not sure that it's, I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint.”
O’Reilly: “Well, you’re going to have to give me an example if you're going to make those claims.”
Letterman: “Well I don’t watch your show so that would be impossible.”
O’Reilly: “Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don't watch the program?”
Letterman: “Because of things that I’ve read, things that I know.”"
Presumably Letterman approved of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie - made without reading his book
Why are liberals so rude to the right? - "Too many people who lean left would rather crack nasty jokes than actually be liberal and listen to other views... Far too many people who are perfectly polite and courteous, otherwise, think nothing of insulting you for not sharing their political opinions... Bush, of course, is dumb – as are all Republicans, and we're epitomized by Dan Quayle, whose spelling of "potatoe" has entered historical canon. (Never mind Obama's telling us there are 57 states, or having a meltdown without a teleprompter)... Liberals have no shame. A dinner guest in our home stood up at the table, clinked his wine glass and said, "It shows how stupid the American people are, they voted for Bush twice." He turned to me, smirking, and said, "I know you voted for him." A biochemist who had been too busy learning liberal doctrine instead of the basic manners of being a guest... Wouldn't it be better for America if liberals really were liberal, and listened to other points of view?... Now is the time for liberals to emulate Ted Kennedy and, instead of automatically ridiculing conservatives for digging into questions about Benghazi, the IRS and the seizure of press records, help us find the truth – no matter what that might turn out to be."
"Conservatives think liberals have bad ideas and liberals think conservative are bad people"
Apoorv Purwar's answer to Men: What are some of the ways men feel discriminated against, that women are oblivious to? - Quora - "some of the housing websites even explicitly mention: 'Pets and Bachelors : Not Allowed'.
Academic Men Explain Things to Me - A teenager's experience - "My teenaged daughter (15) and her friend went to see the Men in Black 3 movie at the cinema... He told her the MIB was garbage and that she should see a real movie, and then proceeded to tell her that Promethius was a REAL movie, not a nonsense movie and she would have been better off seeing it instead. She told him that his taste in movies was obviously different to hers, not more valid, not superior, just different and that she was entitled to enjoy whatever movie she wanted without him mansplaining her about it"
A man telling a woman that Men In Black 3 sucks = 'mansplaining'
Comments: "Having different opinions is okay if you are a woman but mansplaining if you are a man?"
"proof that these people are just fucking contrarians. You could probably kill one by telling them not to go out in a hurricane or a tornado:
"Fuck you, you dirty disgusting penis haver I do what I want I’m a strong proud woman who doooo aaaaaghhh fuckkkk nooooooooooo""
"An “opinion” is just a white cishet patriarchal construct made to LITERALLY RAPE minorities in their oppressed little butts you rapist. CHECK YOUR SUBJECTIVITY PRIVILEGE."
» Feminism and age of consent laws in modern culture - "feminism views children as overly emotional and easily swayed. The irony is that men used to use this exact excuse to deny women their right to vote… To deny someone their rights based on a generalization (age, sex, race, religion, sexual-orientation, etc.) is prejudice. A more accurate solution to gauge sexual maturity, that isn’t prejudice, would be individual testing or parental consent. Individual testing would not conflict with the constitution’s 14th amendment like ageism does in America. The reason why feminists and women voters don’t pursue this easy constitutional solution reveals their true motive behind age of consent laws which is simply ageist bigotry."
Don't be confrontational on LGBT issues: MUIS - "The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) has cautioned against adopting a "confrontational approach", or vilifying those who are involved in LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lifestyles, or events such as Pink Dot... Separately, the Singapore Islamic Scholars & Religious Teachers Association (Pergas) posted a statement on its Facebook page in reference to Pink Dot, saying Muslims "should not attend any event which promotes and supports transgression. "Still, Pergas says it strongly urges the community not to ostracise any LGBT individuals, but to instead, demonstrate love and concern by reaching out to them."
Strangely, the homophiles do not extend the same courtesy to them
Metrosexual goes mainstream as men outspend women on footwear - "Richard Cope, the market research specialist's principle trends analyst, added the shock figures confirmed that metrosexuality was now "in the mainstream"... Previous studies have documented women's desire for shoes of every shape, size, design and colour. A report earlier this Spring claimed half of women have more than 20 pairs, with 14 per cent owning more than 50. Mintel admitted women are still more likely than men to buy three or more pairs of shoes a year, led by females in the north-west of England. But it claimed younger women were beginning to cut back while the price of pumps and flats were coming down as high street chains such as Primark grow their share of the market"
'Spornosexuality': an evolutionary step backwards for men - "True, Oscar Wilde said that beauty was higher than genius because it requires no explanation. But the TOWIE fans should pick up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which they would discover that Wilde’s commitment to aesthetics is not without moral limits or even censoriousness. The writer once summed up the book’s message thus: “All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment.” Dorian Gray – forever youthful, presumably forever buff – is so absorbed with his outward appearance that his inner-conscience withers. His soul dies long before his body does: he is a spiritless husk. And isn’t this a rather apt metaphor for what spornosexuality encourages? When people seek physical perfection for its own sake, then character – which is truly the most beautiful thing of all – corrodes. "
Convicted Heavy Metal ‘Christian’ Singer Admits Being Atheist, Duped Fans to Sell Music - "Lambesis, in admitting his atheism, outlined that he turned away from Christianity as he majored in religious studies while attending college through a long distance program. “In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” he said... “We toured with more ‘Christian bands’ who actually aren’t Christians than bands that are,” Lambesis stated. “In 12 years of touring with As I Lay Dying, I would say maybe one in 10 Christian bands we toured with were actually Christian bands”... “A lot of Christian parents said, ‘Yes, you can buy this As I Lay Dying CD, because they’re a Christian band.’ They don’t even think to actually check the lyrics,” Lambesis stated. “So when you change your views, you kind of owe it to the fans to be honest.”"
Research and Musings: An Open Letter to the Christian Entertainment Industry - "most of the Sci-Fi I got to read was the sort you find in Christian book stores. Stephen Lawhead was the high water mark for living Christian Science Fiction and fantasy writers. The Christian market was so desperate for decent science fiction that the Dune series, as anti-Messianic and anti-religion as you can get, was sometimes sold at Christian book stores and Becka Book sales as an "Allegory". Many of the Christian schools and Churches I attended banned things like The Lord of the Rings and even Narnia. LOTR I could understand, as one of the heroes is a wizard, but banning Naria and allowing Dune convinced me that whoever was making these decisions never actually READ any of the books... The Bible games were not exciting or engaging, but insipid and boring. Yes, you got to play David, son of Jessee, but you didn't play a game where King David is going to war or fighting the rebellion lead by his own son. No, you played a 12 year old David running around collecting lost lambs and putting them in a pen. The game ENDED just before the battle with Goliath, where it really should have been starting... Bibleman is an attempt to graft in-your-face, Christian concepts onto a Christian parent's stereotype of a video game. The models for these games are not the ones that actually sell, but the cartoon image middle aged, highly offended, Evangelicals have of video games. They're an attempt to make a preachy game based on a stereotype and the result is sad, campy and pathetic."
Bill O'Reilly David Letterman Transcript - Letterman O'Reilly Transcript - "O’Reilly: “We believe that the United States, particularly the military, are doing a noble thing, a noble thing. The soldiers and Marines are noble. They're not terrorists. And when people call them that, like Cindy Sheehan called the insurgents 'freedom fighters,’ we don't like that. It is a vitally important time in American history. And we should all take it very seriously. Be very careful with what we say.”...
Letterman: “See, I’m very concerned about people like yourself who don’t have nothing but endless sympathy for a woman like Cindy Sheehan. Honest to Christ”...
O’Reilly [on invading Iraq]: “If you want to question that, and then revamp an intelligence agency that’s obviously flawed, the CIA, okay. But remember, MI-6 in Britain said the same thing. Putin’s people in Russia said the same thing, and so did Mubarak’s intelligence agency in Egypt”...
O’Reilly: “No way a terrorist who blows up women and children is going to be called a ‘freedom fighter’ on my program”
Letterman: “I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap...
O’Reilly: “Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine.”
Letterman: “Well, ah, I, okay. But I think you’re-”
O’Reilly: “Our analysis is based on the best evidence we can get.”
Letterman: “Yeah, but I think there’s something, this fair and balanced. I'm not sure that it's, I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint.”
O’Reilly: “Well, you’re going to have to give me an example if you're going to make those claims.”
Letterman: “Well I don’t watch your show so that would be impossible.”
O’Reilly: “Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don't watch the program?”
Letterman: “Because of things that I’ve read, things that I know.”"
Presumably Letterman approved of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie - made without reading his book
Why are liberals so rude to the right? - "Too many people who lean left would rather crack nasty jokes than actually be liberal and listen to other views... Far too many people who are perfectly polite and courteous, otherwise, think nothing of insulting you for not sharing their political opinions... Bush, of course, is dumb – as are all Republicans, and we're epitomized by Dan Quayle, whose spelling of "potatoe" has entered historical canon. (Never mind Obama's telling us there are 57 states, or having a meltdown without a teleprompter)... Liberals have no shame. A dinner guest in our home stood up at the table, clinked his wine glass and said, "It shows how stupid the American people are, they voted for Bush twice." He turned to me, smirking, and said, "I know you voted for him." A biochemist who had been too busy learning liberal doctrine instead of the basic manners of being a guest... Wouldn't it be better for America if liberals really were liberal, and listened to other points of view?... Now is the time for liberals to emulate Ted Kennedy and, instead of automatically ridiculing conservatives for digging into questions about Benghazi, the IRS and the seizure of press records, help us find the truth – no matter what that might turn out to be."
"Conservatives think liberals have bad ideas and liberals think conservative are bad people"
Apoorv Purwar's answer to Men: What are some of the ways men feel discriminated against, that women are oblivious to? - Quora - "some of the housing websites even explicitly mention: 'Pets and Bachelors : Not Allowed'.
Academic Men Explain Things to Me - A teenager's experience - "My teenaged daughter (15) and her friend went to see the Men in Black 3 movie at the cinema... He told her the MIB was garbage and that she should see a real movie, and then proceeded to tell her that Promethius was a REAL movie, not a nonsense movie and she would have been better off seeing it instead. She told him that his taste in movies was obviously different to hers, not more valid, not superior, just different and that she was entitled to enjoy whatever movie she wanted without him mansplaining her about it"
A man telling a woman that Men In Black 3 sucks = 'mansplaining'
Comments: "Having different opinions is okay if you are a woman but mansplaining if you are a man?"
"proof that these people are just fucking contrarians. You could probably kill one by telling them not to go out in a hurricane or a tornado:
"Fuck you, you dirty disgusting penis haver I do what I want I’m a strong proud woman who doooo aaaaaghhh fuckkkk nooooooooooo""
"An “opinion” is just a white cishet patriarchal construct made to LITERALLY RAPE minorities in their oppressed little butts you rapist. CHECK YOUR SUBJECTIVITY PRIVILEGE."
» Feminism and age of consent laws in modern culture - "feminism views children as overly emotional and easily swayed. The irony is that men used to use this exact excuse to deny women their right to vote… To deny someone their rights based on a generalization (age, sex, race, religion, sexual-orientation, etc.) is prejudice. A more accurate solution to gauge sexual maturity, that isn’t prejudice, would be individual testing or parental consent. Individual testing would not conflict with the constitution’s 14th amendment like ageism does in America. The reason why feminists and women voters don’t pursue this easy constitutional solution reveals their true motive behind age of consent laws which is simply ageist bigotry."
Don't be confrontational on LGBT issues: MUIS - "The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) has cautioned against adopting a "confrontational approach", or vilifying those who are involved in LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lifestyles, or events such as Pink Dot... Separately, the Singapore Islamic Scholars & Religious Teachers Association (Pergas) posted a statement on its Facebook page in reference to Pink Dot, saying Muslims "should not attend any event which promotes and supports transgression. "Still, Pergas says it strongly urges the community not to ostracise any LGBT individuals, but to instead, demonstrate love and concern by reaching out to them."
Strangely, the homophiles do not extend the same courtesy to them
Post ID: 909493168376488374
Exclusive Dating Events
New $ 17 High Tea
"Here's our upcoming events:
Post ID: 1331492146851152031
"Here's our upcoming events:
50K 80K
Ladies with annual income above 50,000
Men with annual income above 80,000
Unwind after a week at this elegant contemporary lounge and chat the afternoon away in the latest hotspot in town. In addition, you get to network with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes who shares the same income bracket like you.
Venue: To be disclosed to selected participants (restaurant near MRT in town)
Date/Time: 26 July 2014 (Sat) 2.30pm – 5.30pm.
Price: S$ 88. Price includes facilitation, delectable snacks and coffee/tea.
To register, email your name, gender, IC, photo (half body), company namecard (image) and handphone to register@cliquewise.sg with event title "50K+80K". Tel: 9795 0568. (All events are subjected to our T&Cs and refund policy). Only shortlisted applicants shall attend this exclusive event....
High Tea for Christians
(Catholic / Protestants)
Unwind after a week at this elegant contemporary lounge and chat the afternoon away in the latest hotspot in town. In addition, you get to network with eligible bachelors and bachelorettes who shares the same income bracket like you.
Venue: To be disclosed to selected participants (restaurant near MRT in town)
Date/Time: 17 Aug 2014 (Sun) 2.30pm – 5.30pm.
Price: S$ 58. Price includes facilitation, delectable snacks and coffee/tea.
To register, email your name, gender, IC, photo (half body), company namecard (image) and handphone to register@cliquewise.sg with event title "Christian High Tea". Tel: 9795 0568. (All events are subjected to our T&Cs and refund policy). Only shortlisted applicants shall attend this exclusive event."
One wonders why Christians want people within their income bracket, and why Orthodox and other Christians are excluded.
Also how do you verify incomes? Shouldn't pay slips be required?
Post ID: 1331492146851152031
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Links - 13th July 2014
California Has Realized that Sex Offender Registries Don't Work - "all California sex offenders, no matter their offense, have to stay registered for life, including public urinators, underage sexters, and women who flash their tits at concerts. The last of these leads to "hilarious" articles like this one featuring lists of babealicious babes who are sex offenders! I wouldn't mind one of them molesting me! It's funny because sex offender registries are a waste of public funds, and do nothing except punish sex offenders for life with unnecessary inconvenience and bureaucracy! LOL... When they were in a public registry there was "a slight increase in how much they recidivated," although "a slight deterrent effect for first-time offenders. But as the registry size grows, it seems like that recidivism effects swamps the first-time registrant effect. And so, we get kind of an overall increase in sex crimes." Are you getting this? Sex crimes increased. One possible reason she cites is opportunity cost. Good citizens who don't commit sex crimes have a lot to lose. Registered sex offenders on the other hand, "are somewhat more isolated from society, and that may make it so if they are thinking about committing a crime, the costs that we may think of—the cost that we may lose our job, that we may lose the ties to our families—those costs don’t exist for them anymore"... That the board that oversees the registry itself is now calling for a change is an indication that they may have finally noticed the problem. The steps they're proposing would bring California's sex offender registry down to the relative sanity of most other states, i.e. from draconian to just useless... But legislators won't listen to reason. They literally said they won't. One particular California state assemblyman named Jim Nielsen, from Yolo County, said, "I'm willing to work in a responsible way on legislation that builds in the highest level of protections for the public. This proposal concerns me enormously. I think the risks are too great to try to intellectualize this stuff.""
Prisoners of Sex - NYTimes.com - "instead of media restraint we’ve had a splendid little culture war over the significance of the Santa Barbara killer’s distinctive stew of lust, misogyny and rage. Twitter movements have been created, think pieces written, and all kinds of cultural phenomena — from Judd Apatow movies to “pickup artists” and Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” — have been invoked, analyzed and blamed... as sex looms ever larger as an aspirational good, we also live in a society where more people are single and likely to remain so than in any previous era. And since single people have, on average, a lot less sex than the partnered and wedded, a growing number of Americans are statistically guaranteed to feel that they’re not living up to the culture’s standard of fulfillment, happiness and worth... feminism, too, is often a prisoner of Hefnerism, in the sense that it tends to prescribe more and more “sex positivity,” insisting that the only problem with contemporary sexual culture is that it’s imperfectly egalitarian, insufficiently celebratory of female agency and desire. This means that the feminist prescription doesn’t supply what men slipping down into the darkness of misogyny most immediately need: not lectures on how they need to respect women as sexual beings, but reasons, despite their lack of sexual experience, to first respect themselves as men... A culture that too tightly binds sex and self-respect is likely, in the long run, to end up with less and less of both."
Drunk People Passed Out in Japan Get Turned Into PSA Billboards While They Sleep
10 Celebrity Tombstones Worth a Laugh
Want a better sex live? Post-coital cuddles are key, researchers say (especially if you have kids)
The Battle of Bagan: Burma’s struggle for UNESCO World Heritage Sites - "In addition to construction, the military have built on top of old structures, or reconstructed them completely. Scholars, in particular Don Stadtner, have disputed the military’s interferences, deeming them to have damaged Bagan’s archeological integrity. Stadtner opposes Bagan’s classification for UNESCO World Heritage Site status saying:"
Mankind initiative video shows public reaction to woman abusing a man in female on male domestic violence advert - "Members of the public laugh or pay no attention as the woman assaults and belittles her partner... The video was released a week after we saw CCTV footage of Solange Knowles attacking brother-in-law Jay Z in the lift after the Met Ball, an incident that reignited the issue of how we perceive female on male violence."
The invisible domestic violence – against men - "If the empirical research is correct in suggesting that between a quarter and half of all domestic violence victims are men, a question follows: why has women's domestic violence towards men been unreported for so long, and what has changed in the last five years to make it more visible? One reason may be the feminist movement. Feminism took up the cause of domestic abuse of women in the 1970s, with the world's first women's refuge being opened by Erin Pizzey in 1971. Feminism understood domestic violence as the natural extension of men's patriarchal attitudes towards women, leading men to feel they had the right to control their partners, using violence if necessary. Feminists campaigned successfully to bring the issue into the public arena, thereby securing resources to establish services to help victims. This activism and advocacy led to governmental and public acceptance that "domestic violence" was synonymous with violence against women. Paradoxically, feminist concerns for female victims may also have led to the recent increase in arrests of female perpetrators. The disparity between prevalence study statistics and criminal conviction data of male domestic violence perpetration led US feminists to successfully campaign for mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence call-outs. Mandatory arrest policies coincided with a three-fold increase in the number of women arrested... As men appear to be more ready, willing and able to use violence outside the home, the logical extension is that men are more violent than women per se. This argument has frequently been cited by researchers such as Professors Russell and Emerson Dobash as evidence against the veracity of figures showing large numbers of male victims of domestic violence, while ignoring the fact that men's aggression in public places is almost always directed towards other men"
Half of Belgium's euthanasia nurses admit to killing without consent
Another slippery slope which slipped (as with the euthanasia of children)
Amusingly, according to one critic, getting relatives' input (not even consent) is considered consent for euthanasia
Peter Lloyd: 'Why I'm suing my gym over their sexist women-only hours' - "they ban all men and boys for 442 hours every year - simply because they are male. Adding insult to injury, they still charge them the same full-price membership fee as women, but refuse to offer the equivalent option of male-only sessions... 'A report by the Women Sport and Fitness Foundation showed that a significant proportion of women (26 per cent) “hate the way they look when they exercise”.' they replied in an email. 'This takes on an even greater significance when you consider that women feel even more self-conscious when taking part in sport and physical activity when men are present. If you are wondering who or what [we are] it's a charity that specialises in increasing women’s physical activity levels.' Translated into plain English, this means that a group of agenda-driven feminists say a minority of women 'feel' bad about their bodies. And because heterosexual men are naturally attracted to women, their very existence makes it worse, so they should be banned. No, seriously. That's like trying to clean a dirty face by rubbing a mirror. It also assumes that all men in the gym are straight, when many of them are gay and have no interest in the female aesthetic. In fact, if they really wanted to, these men could be voyeuristic in the showers. So what next - gay and straight hours? And what about lesbians - can they attend women-only sessions, or would it make their straight sisters uncomfortable? Gimme a break."
Naturally, Jezebel calls him a "jackass"
Outrage grows as Google axes some Chrome extensions - "Complaints are numerous, and judging by the 42 pages of angst in Google's own product forums, voluminous. They can be summarized as general outrage at being told what to install on their computer, and specific frustration with not being able to use an extension that was part of a program they paid for... "Microsoft used to make mistakes like this," he said, "but learned a long time ago not to.""
Answer to Faith Healing: What do atheists think after seeing people being healed in churches like in the following videos? Can they claim this is not spiritual? - Quora - "I used to be a Charismatic minister. I have seen, literally, thousands of healings. I have personally seen Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Reinhardt Bonke and TB Joshua and many more doing healings. THEY NEVER LAST. As a minister, one of our greatest frustrations was that people would head off to these miracle services, chuck away their glasses, their insulin, their wheelchairs, and lo and behold a few (hours, days, weeks) later, they would be right back on the insulin, the glasses, the wheelchairs... I have seen (non-religious) doctors pitching up at services in awe that their terminal cancer patient has suddenly tested free of cancer, even testifying to that fact. That same doctor usually signed the death certificate. And we (the clergy) buried them and had to deal with the shocked family"
American Employees Prefer Their Bosses Male - "intolerance among women is entirely mutual, and women are just as difficult for women to employ as they are for women to report to. Female subordinates are often less respectful of, and deferential to, their female bosses than they are to their male bosses. They question more, push back, and expect a certain level of familiarity or camaraderie that they don’t expect from the men. This speaks to the long tradition of women being notoriously hypercritical of one another, an assertion proven by science: a study published in the journal Psychological Science concluded that women form a negative view of other women in their lives—including friends, co-workers, and, yes, bosses—far more quickly and freely than men do of other men. Research confirms that female employees hold their female managers to different standards than they do their male managers"
Workers 'prefer male bosses' - "Two thirds of employees agree they would rather work for a man than a woman. Female bosses were accused of being moody and incapable of leaving their personal lives at home. A third of those polled claimed women in charge are 'loose cannons' - ready to stab colleagues in the back at any time, and who constantly feel threatened by other people in positions of authority. By contrast, both male and female workers believe male bosses were less likely to get involved in office politics, were easier to reason with and rarely suffered from mood swings. Men are also said to be more straight-talking than women and rarely talk about others behind their backs, it emerged."
Prisoners of Sex - NYTimes.com - "instead of media restraint we’ve had a splendid little culture war over the significance of the Santa Barbara killer’s distinctive stew of lust, misogyny and rage. Twitter movements have been created, think pieces written, and all kinds of cultural phenomena — from Judd Apatow movies to “pickup artists” and Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” — have been invoked, analyzed and blamed... as sex looms ever larger as an aspirational good, we also live in a society where more people are single and likely to remain so than in any previous era. And since single people have, on average, a lot less sex than the partnered and wedded, a growing number of Americans are statistically guaranteed to feel that they’re not living up to the culture’s standard of fulfillment, happiness and worth... feminism, too, is often a prisoner of Hefnerism, in the sense that it tends to prescribe more and more “sex positivity,” insisting that the only problem with contemporary sexual culture is that it’s imperfectly egalitarian, insufficiently celebratory of female agency and desire. This means that the feminist prescription doesn’t supply what men slipping down into the darkness of misogyny most immediately need: not lectures on how they need to respect women as sexual beings, but reasons, despite their lack of sexual experience, to first respect themselves as men... A culture that too tightly binds sex and self-respect is likely, in the long run, to end up with less and less of both."
Drunk People Passed Out in Japan Get Turned Into PSA Billboards While They Sleep
10 Celebrity Tombstones Worth a Laugh
Want a better sex live? Post-coital cuddles are key, researchers say (especially if you have kids)
The Battle of Bagan: Burma’s struggle for UNESCO World Heritage Sites - "In addition to construction, the military have built on top of old structures, or reconstructed them completely. Scholars, in particular Don Stadtner, have disputed the military’s interferences, deeming them to have damaged Bagan’s archeological integrity. Stadtner opposes Bagan’s classification for UNESCO World Heritage Site status saying:"
Mankind initiative video shows public reaction to woman abusing a man in female on male domestic violence advert - "Members of the public laugh or pay no attention as the woman assaults and belittles her partner... The video was released a week after we saw CCTV footage of Solange Knowles attacking brother-in-law Jay Z in the lift after the Met Ball, an incident that reignited the issue of how we perceive female on male violence."
The invisible domestic violence – against men - "If the empirical research is correct in suggesting that between a quarter and half of all domestic violence victims are men, a question follows: why has women's domestic violence towards men been unreported for so long, and what has changed in the last five years to make it more visible? One reason may be the feminist movement. Feminism took up the cause of domestic abuse of women in the 1970s, with the world's first women's refuge being opened by Erin Pizzey in 1971. Feminism understood domestic violence as the natural extension of men's patriarchal attitudes towards women, leading men to feel they had the right to control their partners, using violence if necessary. Feminists campaigned successfully to bring the issue into the public arena, thereby securing resources to establish services to help victims. This activism and advocacy led to governmental and public acceptance that "domestic violence" was synonymous with violence against women. Paradoxically, feminist concerns for female victims may also have led to the recent increase in arrests of female perpetrators. The disparity between prevalence study statistics and criminal conviction data of male domestic violence perpetration led US feminists to successfully campaign for mandatory arrest policies for domestic violence call-outs. Mandatory arrest policies coincided with a three-fold increase in the number of women arrested... As men appear to be more ready, willing and able to use violence outside the home, the logical extension is that men are more violent than women per se. This argument has frequently been cited by researchers such as Professors Russell and Emerson Dobash as evidence against the veracity of figures showing large numbers of male victims of domestic violence, while ignoring the fact that men's aggression in public places is almost always directed towards other men"
Half of Belgium's euthanasia nurses admit to killing without consent
Another slippery slope which slipped (as with the euthanasia of children)
Amusingly, according to one critic, getting relatives' input (not even consent) is considered consent for euthanasia
Peter Lloyd: 'Why I'm suing my gym over their sexist women-only hours' - "they ban all men and boys for 442 hours every year - simply because they are male. Adding insult to injury, they still charge them the same full-price membership fee as women, but refuse to offer the equivalent option of male-only sessions... 'A report by the Women Sport and Fitness Foundation showed that a significant proportion of women (26 per cent) “hate the way they look when they exercise”.' they replied in an email. 'This takes on an even greater significance when you consider that women feel even more self-conscious when taking part in sport and physical activity when men are present. If you are wondering who or what [we are] it's a charity that specialises in increasing women’s physical activity levels.' Translated into plain English, this means that a group of agenda-driven feminists say a minority of women 'feel' bad about their bodies. And because heterosexual men are naturally attracted to women, their very existence makes it worse, so they should be banned. No, seriously. That's like trying to clean a dirty face by rubbing a mirror. It also assumes that all men in the gym are straight, when many of them are gay and have no interest in the female aesthetic. In fact, if they really wanted to, these men could be voyeuristic in the showers. So what next - gay and straight hours? And what about lesbians - can they attend women-only sessions, or would it make their straight sisters uncomfortable? Gimme a break."
Naturally, Jezebel calls him a "jackass"
Outrage grows as Google axes some Chrome extensions - "Complaints are numerous, and judging by the 42 pages of angst in Google's own product forums, voluminous. They can be summarized as general outrage at being told what to install on their computer, and specific frustration with not being able to use an extension that was part of a program they paid for... "Microsoft used to make mistakes like this," he said, "but learned a long time ago not to.""
Answer to Faith Healing: What do atheists think after seeing people being healed in churches like in the following videos? Can they claim this is not spiritual? - Quora - "I used to be a Charismatic minister. I have seen, literally, thousands of healings. I have personally seen Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Reinhardt Bonke and TB Joshua and many more doing healings. THEY NEVER LAST. As a minister, one of our greatest frustrations was that people would head off to these miracle services, chuck away their glasses, their insulin, their wheelchairs, and lo and behold a few (hours, days, weeks) later, they would be right back on the insulin, the glasses, the wheelchairs... I have seen (non-religious) doctors pitching up at services in awe that their terminal cancer patient has suddenly tested free of cancer, even testifying to that fact. That same doctor usually signed the death certificate. And we (the clergy) buried them and had to deal with the shocked family"
American Employees Prefer Their Bosses Male - "intolerance among women is entirely mutual, and women are just as difficult for women to employ as they are for women to report to. Female subordinates are often less respectful of, and deferential to, their female bosses than they are to their male bosses. They question more, push back, and expect a certain level of familiarity or camaraderie that they don’t expect from the men. This speaks to the long tradition of women being notoriously hypercritical of one another, an assertion proven by science: a study published in the journal Psychological Science concluded that women form a negative view of other women in their lives—including friends, co-workers, and, yes, bosses—far more quickly and freely than men do of other men. Research confirms that female employees hold their female managers to different standards than they do their male managers"
Workers 'prefer male bosses' - "Two thirds of employees agree they would rather work for a man than a woman. Female bosses were accused of being moody and incapable of leaving their personal lives at home. A third of those polled claimed women in charge are 'loose cannons' - ready to stab colleagues in the back at any time, and who constantly feel threatened by other people in positions of authority. By contrast, both male and female workers believe male bosses were less likely to get involved in office politics, were easier to reason with and rarely suffered from mood swings. Men are also said to be more straight-talking than women and rarely talk about others behind their backs, it emerged."
Post ID: 5339331843548130284
Saturday, July 12, 2014
'Free' 'My' Library?
If I ever start a public library, it shall stock this book:
The 120 Days of Sodom
Marquis de Sade
As Wikipedia puts it:
The whole furore with the National Library Board's (NLB's) removal of the pro-LGBT books has homophiles distracted by red herrings:
- It being painted as an issue of censorship
- The question of representing and endorsing public norms
- Books for children are not books for adults
This leads to the problem being misspecified.
'Censorship'
In the first place this is not a censorship issue.
Some compare this to internet censorship, but that affects everyone in Singapore and must be actively circumvented (which is possibly technically illegal); NLB removing the book doesn't stop you from getting the book elsewhere in Singapore (books that are banned in Singapore are another matter) - it is slightly less easy to obtain, but still easy.
Suppose a public library stocked pornography. If it removed this from its collection, could the government of this country be accused of 'censoring' pornography, if pornography were still legally available in the country?
Surely not.
Accusing NLB of censorship is like accusing gay activists of censorship since some shops don't stock Orson Scott Card's works.
Public norms
A library collection is actively curated and has a stamp of respectability, and is expected to follow public norms - unlike the Internet, where what you find is up to your wandering - there is no curation and arguably less serendipity.
Where do public norms come from?
Of course, that is a valid question, but there is no neutral, objective position here. Even if it were possible to distil "public norms" into a coherent whole, they would still have to be weighed against other factors like public education and neutrality (e.g. in a town where everyone is Creationist, if I were a librarian I would still include proper Science books to represent the scientific consensus and provide a different viewpoint).
Given that the library is the one responsible for what they have in their collection and is facing the collective consequences, it is reasonable to have them as the judge (insofar as 'public norms' are represented by their collection).
To think about it the other way: if homophobes submit a homophobic book to the library and the library rejects it, the library is again being the judge of social values (as well as opening itself up to charges of censorship by the homophobes).
On the other hand, if the library accepts the homophobic book, then they are responsible for it and get flamed by homophiles.
They are not in an enviable position.
Children vs Adults
Yet another confusion in this saga is the fact that the books were in the NLB's children's section.
Parents are understandably worried about what their children are reading (as is everyone else - moral panic about the nasty things kids are reading/consuming are hardly uncommon). This is especially so when they are worried about their children being converted to homosexuality.
Meanwhile, concern about what children are taking in from media (in the broad sense of the term, not just covering the mass media) is hardly limited to conservatives - liberals fret about media violence. Ditto for sex - while liberals might be happy with many manifestations of sex, they do not want children viewing them.
So we can see that wanting to restrict what children read is not inherently objectionable (and certainly, it is not 'censorship').
Meanwhile, it is reasonable to assume that many of those who object to the pro-LGBT books would be okay with having them in the adults' section (note that there's lots of gay fiction and gay themed books there - there're 188 works under the subject of "Gay men" alone, including "Angels in America : a gay fantasia on national themes" by Tony Kushner, which is highly unlikely to be homophobic).
What is appropriate in a public library collection targeted at those of a young age, then, depends to a large extent on one's values.
Ultimately, then, it all boils down to a culture clash. Once again, between the homophobes and homophiles
The 120 Days of Sodom
Marquis de Sade
As Wikipedia puts it:
It tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate sexual gratification in orgies. To do this, they seal themselves away for four months in an inaccessible castle in Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, France, with a harem of 46 victims, mostly young male and female teenagers, and engage four female brothel keepers to tell the stories of their lives and adventures. The women's narratives form an inspiration for the sexual abuse and torture of the victims, which gradually mounts in intensity and ends in their slaughter.
The whole furore with the National Library Board's (NLB's) removal of the pro-LGBT books has homophiles distracted by red herrings:
- It being painted as an issue of censorship
- The question of representing and endorsing public norms
- Books for children are not books for adults
This leads to the problem being misspecified.
'Censorship'
In the first place this is not a censorship issue.
Some compare this to internet censorship, but that affects everyone in Singapore and must be actively circumvented (which is possibly technically illegal); NLB removing the book doesn't stop you from getting the book elsewhere in Singapore (books that are banned in Singapore are another matter) - it is slightly less easy to obtain, but still easy.
Suppose a public library stocked pornography. If it removed this from its collection, could the government of this country be accused of 'censoring' pornography, if pornography were still legally available in the country?
Surely not.
Accusing NLB of censorship is like accusing gay activists of censorship since some shops don't stock Orson Scott Card's works.
Public norms
A library collection is actively curated and has a stamp of respectability, and is expected to follow public norms - unlike the Internet, where what you find is up to your wandering - there is no curation and arguably less serendipity.
Where do public norms come from?
Of course, that is a valid question, but there is no neutral, objective position here. Even if it were possible to distil "public norms" into a coherent whole, they would still have to be weighed against other factors like public education and neutrality (e.g. in a town where everyone is Creationist, if I were a librarian I would still include proper Science books to represent the scientific consensus and provide a different viewpoint).
Given that the library is the one responsible for what they have in their collection and is facing the collective consequences, it is reasonable to have them as the judge (insofar as 'public norms' are represented by their collection).
To think about it the other way: if homophobes submit a homophobic book to the library and the library rejects it, the library is again being the judge of social values (as well as opening itself up to charges of censorship by the homophobes).
On the other hand, if the library accepts the homophobic book, then they are responsible for it and get flamed by homophiles.
They are not in an enviable position.
Children vs Adults
Yet another confusion in this saga is the fact that the books were in the NLB's children's section.
Parents are understandably worried about what their children are reading (as is everyone else - moral panic about the nasty things kids are reading/consuming are hardly uncommon). This is especially so when they are worried about their children being converted to homosexuality.
Meanwhile, concern about what children are taking in from media (in the broad sense of the term, not just covering the mass media) is hardly limited to conservatives - liberals fret about media violence. Ditto for sex - while liberals might be happy with many manifestations of sex, they do not want children viewing them.
So we can see that wanting to restrict what children read is not inherently objectionable (and certainly, it is not 'censorship').
Meanwhile, it is reasonable to assume that many of those who object to the pro-LGBT books would be okay with having them in the adults' section (note that there's lots of gay fiction and gay themed books there - there're 188 works under the subject of "Gay men" alone, including "Angels in America : a gay fantasia on national themes" by Tony Kushner, which is highly unlikely to be homophobic).
What is appropriate in a public library collection targeted at those of a young age, then, depends to a large extent on one's values.
Ultimately, then, it all boils down to a culture clash. Once again, between the homophobes and homophiles
The Crunch
All this is basically a fight over underlying values - not about the place of a library (or even about 'censorship').
It also reveals that the gay agenda is about more than just equality and non-discrimination - it's also about claiming the public space in full.
In a broad sense of equality this might be true but narrower forms of equality are not necessarily more oppressive. If nothing else the public space (and public attention) are not unlimited so you can't give everyone an equal share.
For example the swinging community doesn't see itself represented in mainstream media (e.g. children's books - "Uncle Bob and Auntie Jane are coming over tonight. If you hear weird noises from our room go back to sleep") but I don't think they are discriminated against.
So, expect to see even more culture clashes in coming years as both the homophiles and homophobes feel threatened and that the other side is trying to be oppressive. As we have learnt from the US, culture wars are nasty and long drawn.
Post ID: 9114492873238237503
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Links - 10th July 2014
Russian Sex Coaches Tout Orgasms as Means To Prevent Divorce - "The seminar, titled "A Brilliant Male Orgasm," ran for 2 1/2 hours. It involved a great deal of hands-on practice with large rubber penises. The audience consisted of a motley crew of women: from young fashionable women in their 20s to older women who said their husbands had given them gift certificates. Some students continued blushing the whole time... No topic was too taboo to be discussed, and the women attending seemed relieved to hear the instructor speak so openly about male genitalia... Rather than repulsing the participants, the instructor's frank and at times lewd comments only seemed to put them more at ease, which created an atmosphere of female bonding. But the instructor, who declined to be named, also made some questionable claims: if you do this, your partner will fall in love with you; if you do this, your husband will be loyal and will not cheat. Continuing along this line of logic, she said such prostate massages could be instrumental to a man's faithfulness. "He may immediately offer to live with you or get married," she said to a room full of women, some of whose eyes shone a little brighter at that remark. "Think about it, he may have the chance to cheat, and he'll be sitting there in a hotel with this girl and then he'll just realize: wait a minute, why would I do this? I'll get one night with this girl but then lose my wife [who gives prostate massages]"... "Many of our clients note that their relationships get a sort of 'second wind,' some manage to avoid an impending divorce, some of the girls who have been with their partner for a long time finally get a marriage proposal, and some say their family life is improved," said Lyubimova, a young blonde emanating confidence... Sex coaching for men is equally profitable... May comes off as the Tyler Durden of sex coaching, a younger man spouting off macho platitudes to a room full of men eagerly nodding, in awe because they believe May is privy to some secret of the universe they have been woefully ignorant of until this point. "Open up any book about sex, find the author's photograph, take a look at him, at his age, and ask yourself: 'When is the last time this fat face had sex, how many partners has he had and what can he possibly know about the subject?" May was cited as saying by one Russia journalist who attended his seminar. "The quality of your life in bed is a reflection of your life as a whole," is among the aphorisms May favors. Why does May think he is an authority on the matter? Because, apart from being a trained psychologist, sexologist and sex coach, May says he has had more then 200 sexual partners, each of whom taught him something uniquely useful. The aim of May's seminars is to make people "unforgettable in the bedroom," he says on his website, by teaching them to read their partners better... Male sex coaching differs from female coaching in various ways, but one stark difference, according to Mukhamedov, was the seriousness in the room. "There was almost no laughter, all the men are diligently taking notes in their notepads," Mukhamedov wrote."
From teledildonics to interactive porn: the future of sex in a digital age - ""I was inundated with winks, and messages, people trying to chat with me live online, all sorts. Some will send you detailed pictures of their penis, basically. What the hell? You've got a penis. Congratulations." In due course, Jane found ways of negotiating the sexual barrage, and went on to meet 20 or more men; about three-quarters of those have turned into some sort of romantic or physical relationship. "They've all been mini-relationships. I've never had a one-night stand." Online dating is not an unusual story, but Jane has been married for seven years. The site she uses is Ashley Madison... Deeply unhappy in her marriage to a husband who "shows no interest in me sexually", she says Ashley Madison turned her life round. "I don't take antidepressants any more. And I can sleep properly. Mentally and physically, it has changed things. I'm getting on better with my husband"... when you talk to the people who are using these sites, it becomes clear that this is something more complicated than no-strings nookie. "Almost an element of the relationship is that you're counselling each other," Jane says. "It is like a really random marriage guidance session, and then the next minute you're having sex. Most of the men I've met have just been incredibly lonely. One guy, I think we've slept together maybe twice in six months. But we meet frequently for meals, drinks, snogging in the car. He really misses being hugged, being kissed – those basics"... For most people, having a partner use pornography in private probably wouldn't constitute infidelity. But where would you draw the line on interactive pornography? Is phone sex with a prerecorded chatline pornography, but phone sex with another person infidelity? If a virtual sex game – such as Thrixxx's 3D Sex Villa, where your avatar is going to have sex with a bot – isn't a problem, is the same true of something like Red Light Center, in which your avatar is having sex with an avatar controlled by another human being? Then there's cybersex with someone who can bring you to orgasm by remote control: does that count as cheating?... A person who has a five inch penis can operate a 10 inch teledildonic device and see what that does to a person as they operate it. So that augmentation issue is very important: it offers the opportunity to improve, to augment the type of sex that people are having." He adds: "I've yet to meet a person that can vibrate at 120hz"... I ask Levy, a married man, what his wife would think if someone invented a sex robot and – out of academic interest – he wanted to sleep with it. "I don't think she would have a problem from the infidelity point of view," he says. "I do think she would think I was off my trolley."
Spain tries to calculate sex workers' contribution to GDP - "According to Eurostat, illegal activities such as prostitution and drug trafficking, together with accounting changes covering rather less gritty subjects such as pensions – could add about 1% to the GDP of Poland and Romania, 1%-2% to Spain and Italy, 3%-4% to the UK and as much as 5% to the GDP of Finland and Sweden."
CCP clings on after Tiananmen - "The problem facing the CCP now is that most of the factors that enabled it to survive since Tiananmen either have already disappeared or are headed in that direction. Indeed, for all practical purposes, pro-market reforms are dead. A kleptocracy of government officials, their families, and well-connected businessmen has colonised the Chinese state and is intent on blocking any reforms that might threaten their privileged status. Moreover, the CCP can no longer count on rising prosperity to sustain public support. Rampant corruption and rising inequality, together with obvious environmental decay, are causing ordinary Chinese – especially the middle class, which once had high hopes for reform — to become increasingly disillusioned. At the same time, given rapid population ageing, China’s demographic dividend has all but dissipated. And, given that China is already the world’s largest exporter, with more than 11% of the global market share, there is little room left for export growth in the coming years. That leaves only repression and nationalism in the CCP’s post-Tiananmen toolkit."
Robot dinosaur Raptor from Korea runs faster than Usain Bolt
Andy Lee Chaisiri's answer to Stereotypes: What are the racial tropes you are tired of seeing on TV? What would you like to see? - Quora - "There's no more wholesome White families, today every White person on TV is a self-entitled manbaby"
Brazil's sex trade: How the country's one million prostitutes are preparing for the World Cup - ""But look, why feel bad? We're not here because we like it, but it's a profession and we're not going to be grumpy and be treating people badly. If we're there working, we'll be smiling. In any profession you need to be like that. And the sex is pleasurable, honestly. So if people look down on us we don't care. And when people ask, we tell them we're prostitutes, although often they don't really believe us. In fact the worst part of it is probably that we have to pay 130 reais [£35] per day for a room each. The owner makes the most money, so many girls rent an apartment so they make more, but for us that's too dangerous. So we prefer to pay"... Prostitution was legalised in 2000. At the time it was suggested there were as many as one million sex workers, and while that may have been an overestimate, prostitution is undeniably widespread. At one point, the government's own employment website offered tips for those wishing to attempt prostitution, going step by step through preparation, seduction and delivery of service. It was later toned down after much pressure from conservatives and the religious right... Each year there's even a Miss Prostitute pageant that she hopes lessens the snobbery. "There is still much prejudice, though, especially from housewives, because their husbands come to us," she laughs. And the English classes were her idea as well after she took note of the increased sex tourism during the Copa Libertadores (South America's Champions League). "The language gets you ahead. We are learning the basics. They say there'll be 200,000 tourists in Belo Horizonte so it makes a lot of sense.""
Cat People Are Smarter Than Dog People, New Study Shows - "People who said they were dog lovers in the study tended to be more lively — meaning they were more energetic and outgoing — and also tended to follow rules closely. Cat lovers, on the other hand, were more introverted, more open-minded and more sensitive than dog lovers. Cat people also tended to be non-conformists, preferring to be expedient rather than follow the rules."
Five injured as gun goes off at kindergarten’s police safety talk
Here's Why Leaving Work On Time May Be Bad for You | Dharmesh Shah - "What must it be like to work for companies like those? What must it feel like to so badly want to get away from a job that hordes of employees are compelled to make sure they get out the door within seconds of their official quitting time? I've had that kind of job when I was younger, so I know how terrible it feels. And that's why you should never leave work on time."
The Rise of the $8 Ice Cube - "his cubes have seen great success. They've been featured in drinks at Playboy parties, the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, and “uber-lux” car shows, and are now part of Sysco's restaurant distribution chain. The company maintains that the true power of their cubes lies in “tastelessness.” Stephen Colbert agrees. “When you spend 75 dollars for a bag of hand-carved ice,” the host told a studio audience, “that is totally tasteless...it’s conspicuous consumption: an hour later you’re literally pissing your money away.”"
Chinese Girl Bludgeoned to Death in Shandong McDonald’s
Thailand’s secret story: the battle for a $37b royal estate - "the main reason Thailand’s crisis is so poorly understood is that a crucial part of the story is routinely left out. The 86-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is frail and ailing, and an unacknowledged war over the royal succession is being waged by competing factions of the elite. At stake is control of the vast royal fortune, estimated at more than $37 billion. Whichever side wins the struggle to play kingmaker will potentially be able to dominate Thailand politically and economically for years to come. This is why the conflict is so bitter and vicious."
From teledildonics to interactive porn: the future of sex in a digital age - ""I was inundated with winks, and messages, people trying to chat with me live online, all sorts. Some will send you detailed pictures of their penis, basically. What the hell? You've got a penis. Congratulations." In due course, Jane found ways of negotiating the sexual barrage, and went on to meet 20 or more men; about three-quarters of those have turned into some sort of romantic or physical relationship. "They've all been mini-relationships. I've never had a one-night stand." Online dating is not an unusual story, but Jane has been married for seven years. The site she uses is Ashley Madison... Deeply unhappy in her marriage to a husband who "shows no interest in me sexually", she says Ashley Madison turned her life round. "I don't take antidepressants any more. And I can sleep properly. Mentally and physically, it has changed things. I'm getting on better with my husband"... when you talk to the people who are using these sites, it becomes clear that this is something more complicated than no-strings nookie. "Almost an element of the relationship is that you're counselling each other," Jane says. "It is like a really random marriage guidance session, and then the next minute you're having sex. Most of the men I've met have just been incredibly lonely. One guy, I think we've slept together maybe twice in six months. But we meet frequently for meals, drinks, snogging in the car. He really misses being hugged, being kissed – those basics"... For most people, having a partner use pornography in private probably wouldn't constitute infidelity. But where would you draw the line on interactive pornography? Is phone sex with a prerecorded chatline pornography, but phone sex with another person infidelity? If a virtual sex game – such as Thrixxx's 3D Sex Villa, where your avatar is going to have sex with a bot – isn't a problem, is the same true of something like Red Light Center, in which your avatar is having sex with an avatar controlled by another human being? Then there's cybersex with someone who can bring you to orgasm by remote control: does that count as cheating?... A person who has a five inch penis can operate a 10 inch teledildonic device and see what that does to a person as they operate it. So that augmentation issue is very important: it offers the opportunity to improve, to augment the type of sex that people are having." He adds: "I've yet to meet a person that can vibrate at 120hz"... I ask Levy, a married man, what his wife would think if someone invented a sex robot and – out of academic interest – he wanted to sleep with it. "I don't think she would have a problem from the infidelity point of view," he says. "I do think she would think I was off my trolley."
Spain tries to calculate sex workers' contribution to GDP - "According to Eurostat, illegal activities such as prostitution and drug trafficking, together with accounting changes covering rather less gritty subjects such as pensions – could add about 1% to the GDP of Poland and Romania, 1%-2% to Spain and Italy, 3%-4% to the UK and as much as 5% to the GDP of Finland and Sweden."
CCP clings on after Tiananmen - "The problem facing the CCP now is that most of the factors that enabled it to survive since Tiananmen either have already disappeared or are headed in that direction. Indeed, for all practical purposes, pro-market reforms are dead. A kleptocracy of government officials, their families, and well-connected businessmen has colonised the Chinese state and is intent on blocking any reforms that might threaten their privileged status. Moreover, the CCP can no longer count on rising prosperity to sustain public support. Rampant corruption and rising inequality, together with obvious environmental decay, are causing ordinary Chinese – especially the middle class, which once had high hopes for reform — to become increasingly disillusioned. At the same time, given rapid population ageing, China’s demographic dividend has all but dissipated. And, given that China is already the world’s largest exporter, with more than 11% of the global market share, there is little room left for export growth in the coming years. That leaves only repression and nationalism in the CCP’s post-Tiananmen toolkit."
Robot dinosaur Raptor from Korea runs faster than Usain Bolt
Andy Lee Chaisiri's answer to Stereotypes: What are the racial tropes you are tired of seeing on TV? What would you like to see? - Quora - "There's no more wholesome White families, today every White person on TV is a self-entitled manbaby"
Brazil's sex trade: How the country's one million prostitutes are preparing for the World Cup - ""But look, why feel bad? We're not here because we like it, but it's a profession and we're not going to be grumpy and be treating people badly. If we're there working, we'll be smiling. In any profession you need to be like that. And the sex is pleasurable, honestly. So if people look down on us we don't care. And when people ask, we tell them we're prostitutes, although often they don't really believe us. In fact the worst part of it is probably that we have to pay 130 reais [£35] per day for a room each. The owner makes the most money, so many girls rent an apartment so they make more, but for us that's too dangerous. So we prefer to pay"... Prostitution was legalised in 2000. At the time it was suggested there were as many as one million sex workers, and while that may have been an overestimate, prostitution is undeniably widespread. At one point, the government's own employment website offered tips for those wishing to attempt prostitution, going step by step through preparation, seduction and delivery of service. It was later toned down after much pressure from conservatives and the religious right... Each year there's even a Miss Prostitute pageant that she hopes lessens the snobbery. "There is still much prejudice, though, especially from housewives, because their husbands come to us," she laughs. And the English classes were her idea as well after she took note of the increased sex tourism during the Copa Libertadores (South America's Champions League). "The language gets you ahead. We are learning the basics. They say there'll be 200,000 tourists in Belo Horizonte so it makes a lot of sense.""
Cat People Are Smarter Than Dog People, New Study Shows - "People who said they were dog lovers in the study tended to be more lively — meaning they were more energetic and outgoing — and also tended to follow rules closely. Cat lovers, on the other hand, were more introverted, more open-minded and more sensitive than dog lovers. Cat people also tended to be non-conformists, preferring to be expedient rather than follow the rules."
Five injured as gun goes off at kindergarten’s police safety talk
Here's Why Leaving Work On Time May Be Bad for You | Dharmesh Shah - "What must it be like to work for companies like those? What must it feel like to so badly want to get away from a job that hordes of employees are compelled to make sure they get out the door within seconds of their official quitting time? I've had that kind of job when I was younger, so I know how terrible it feels. And that's why you should never leave work on time."
The Rise of the $8 Ice Cube - "his cubes have seen great success. They've been featured in drinks at Playboy parties, the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, and “uber-lux” car shows, and are now part of Sysco's restaurant distribution chain. The company maintains that the true power of their cubes lies in “tastelessness.” Stephen Colbert agrees. “When you spend 75 dollars for a bag of hand-carved ice,” the host told a studio audience, “that is totally tasteless...it’s conspicuous consumption: an hour later you’re literally pissing your money away.”"
Chinese Girl Bludgeoned to Death in Shandong McDonald’s
Thailand’s secret story: the battle for a $37b royal estate - "the main reason Thailand’s crisis is so poorly understood is that a crucial part of the story is routinely left out. The 86-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is frail and ailing, and an unacknowledged war over the royal succession is being waged by competing factions of the elite. At stake is control of the vast royal fortune, estimated at more than $37 billion. Whichever side wins the struggle to play kingmaker will potentially be able to dominate Thailand politically and economically for years to come. This is why the conflict is so bitter and vicious."
Post ID: 2063522455440809662
Rise of the intolerant liberals
Rise of the intolerant liberals » The Spectator
"The highlight of the year I spent as a postgraduate at Harvard was a speech given by Tom Wolfe to the graduating class of 1988. His theme was the decline of Christianity in America and the extraordinary freedom that had given rise to...
Wolfe predicted that puritanism would reassert itself in the form of a resurgence of Christianity, but he was only half right. Twenty-five years later, many aspects of puritan morality have indeed made a comeback, but they are disguised as secular liberalism.
For instance, the attitude of the British Humanist Society towards the teaching of creationism in faith schools is reminiscent of the attitude of Christians to the teaching of the theory of evolution at the beginning of the last century. There are also traces of old-fashioned, Bible-thumping puritanism in the environmentalist movement, the hounding of anyone suspected of sexual harassment, the campaign to ban Page 3 and the attack on tabloid licentiousness spearheaded by Hacked Off. It’s almost as if the progressive left, having won the culture war, has unconsciously taken on many of the least attractive aspects of its Christian opponents.
The left has always had a puritan streak, but what is fairly new is the extent to which it has abandoned libertarianism, leaving the right to take up the cudgels on behalf of free speech and other individual rights. This was brought home to me during the row over Julie Burchill’s article about transsexuals earlier this year. After it was taken down by the Observer, I republished it on my Telegraph blog and immediately had to contend with the wrath of trans activists, nearly all of whom are on the left.
Their objection to Burchill’s piece was that, by rehashing various crude stereotypes about transsexuals (‘screaming mimis’, ‘bed-wetters in bad wigs’, etc), she was making it more likely that members of their community would be assaulted. In other words, they were positing a causal link between the appearance of something in the media and violent behaviour — exactly the same argument that the Christian film critic Michael Medved made in his 1992 book Hollywood vs America. They weren’t claiming there was any evidence of such a link. Rather, the mere possibility that Burchill’s article could result in an assault was reason enough to ban it...
What surprised me about the attitude of the trans activists — not to mention gays and lesbians, many of whom are equally censorious about ‘offensive’ articles — is that they don’t see a link between freedom of expression and sexual freedom. Apparently it’s perfectly acceptable to deviate from various sexual norms, however upsetting some people find their behaviour, but completely verboten to dissent from the majority view of the metropolitan elite. Such double standards are weirdly similar to those of American Christian fundamentalists who would lay down their lives to defend the first amendment but oppose gay marriage. Like the trans activists, they want to choose certain freedoms from the smorgasbord of liberal democracy and discard the rest.
Tom Wolfe’s reason for believing Christianity would experience a great revival in the West is that he didn’t think human beings could cope with the level of freedom they enjoyed in the late 1980s. He was right about that, but wrong about where it would be curtailed. We continue to enjoy an unprecedented level of bodily freedom; it’s freedom of the mind that’s no longer tolerated."
"The highlight of the year I spent as a postgraduate at Harvard was a speech given by Tom Wolfe to the graduating class of 1988. His theme was the decline of Christianity in America and the extraordinary freedom that had given rise to...
Wolfe predicted that puritanism would reassert itself in the form of a resurgence of Christianity, but he was only half right. Twenty-five years later, many aspects of puritan morality have indeed made a comeback, but they are disguised as secular liberalism.
For instance, the attitude of the British Humanist Society towards the teaching of creationism in faith schools is reminiscent of the attitude of Christians to the teaching of the theory of evolution at the beginning of the last century. There are also traces of old-fashioned, Bible-thumping puritanism in the environmentalist movement, the hounding of anyone suspected of sexual harassment, the campaign to ban Page 3 and the attack on tabloid licentiousness spearheaded by Hacked Off. It’s almost as if the progressive left, having won the culture war, has unconsciously taken on many of the least attractive aspects of its Christian opponents.
The left has always had a puritan streak, but what is fairly new is the extent to which it has abandoned libertarianism, leaving the right to take up the cudgels on behalf of free speech and other individual rights. This was brought home to me during the row over Julie Burchill’s article about transsexuals earlier this year. After it was taken down by the Observer, I republished it on my Telegraph blog and immediately had to contend with the wrath of trans activists, nearly all of whom are on the left.
Their objection to Burchill’s piece was that, by rehashing various crude stereotypes about transsexuals (‘screaming mimis’, ‘bed-wetters in bad wigs’, etc), she was making it more likely that members of their community would be assaulted. In other words, they were positing a causal link between the appearance of something in the media and violent behaviour — exactly the same argument that the Christian film critic Michael Medved made in his 1992 book Hollywood vs America. They weren’t claiming there was any evidence of such a link. Rather, the mere possibility that Burchill’s article could result in an assault was reason enough to ban it...
What surprised me about the attitude of the trans activists — not to mention gays and lesbians, many of whom are equally censorious about ‘offensive’ articles — is that they don’t see a link between freedom of expression and sexual freedom. Apparently it’s perfectly acceptable to deviate from various sexual norms, however upsetting some people find their behaviour, but completely verboten to dissent from the majority view of the metropolitan elite. Such double standards are weirdly similar to those of American Christian fundamentalists who would lay down their lives to defend the first amendment but oppose gay marriage. Like the trans activists, they want to choose certain freedoms from the smorgasbord of liberal democracy and discard the rest.
Tom Wolfe’s reason for believing Christianity would experience a great revival in the West is that he didn’t think human beings could cope with the level of freedom they enjoyed in the late 1980s. He was right about that, but wrong about where it would be curtailed. We continue to enjoy an unprecedented level of bodily freedom; it’s freedom of the mind that’s no longer tolerated."
Post ID: 7352070257382674057
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
Links - 9th July 2014
'Gorilla breast fetish' women sue - "Two women sacked from their jobs caring for a gorilla in the US have sued their ex-employer for allegedly ordering them to show the animal their breasts. Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller claim they were told to show their nipples to the gorilla, Koko, as a way of bonding."
What Causes the Smell of New & Old Books?
Head teachers raise 'serious concerns' over Islamic school take-over - "Schools across Britain are likely to have been targeted in an alleged Islamist plot to take over classrooms, head teachers have warned. The National Association of Head Teachers said it had found “concerted efforts” to infiltrate at least six schools in Birmingham... attempts had been made to “alter their character in line with the Islamic faith”, including sidelining parts of the curriculum and attempting to influence the appointment of Muslim staff... girls at Park View school were made to sit at the back of the class, GCSE syllabuses were “restricted to comply with a conservative Islamic teaching” and an extremist preacher was invited to speak to children. Last week it emerged that Tahir Alam, the alleged ringleader of the plot and chairman of governors at Park View, wrote a detailed blueprint for the “Islamisation” of state schools in 2007."
Conflict is Normal | ParentFurther - "Conflict is a part of everyday life. As adults, we maneuver ourselves away from conflict throughout our days, and sometimes we know that it just happens. It goes without saying, so it is to be expected that some conflict is also normal in our children’s lives. All adults need to recognize that some of what we call “bullying” may actually be developmentally appropriate conflict and is a normal part of growing up"
Coping with the bullies 'is part of growing up', says child expert - "Youngsters must learn to cope with teasing and name-calling so they are able to handle awkward situations as adults, former Government adviser Tim Gill says. He believes the extent of bullying is being exaggerated by over-protective parents and teachers, who apply the label to childhood squabbles which were previously assumed to be part of growing up. The claims, in a book published today, are certain to fuel concerns over the escalation of the bullying 'industry'. Police officers warned this year that a target-chasing culture is forcing them to make 'easy' arrests for offences such as bullying. In one example, a child in Kent was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at a classmate... Ofsted inspections are giving children the impression that bullying is widespread in adult life - and that presentation is more important than substance, according to an academic. Professor Cedric Cullingford, of Huddersfield University, said: 'Teachers are seen to become highly stressed and fearful of the inspectors and from this many pupils perceive inspections as a form of bullying. 'The message portrayed, and taken on by many of the youngsters, is that it's not what you do that counts, but the way you present yourself. Children are learning about spin from an early age.'"
Edward Said Accused of Stoning in South Lebanon - "What began as a family tour of southern Lebanon erupted into controversy when newspapers and websites throughout the Middle East reported that Edward Said, University Professor of English and comparative literature and renowned Palestinian academic, threw stones in the direction of Israeli soldiers earlier this month. On July 3, a photographer from Agence France-Presse, a French news agency, captured Said on film just before he reportedly hurled a rock over the Lebanon-Israeli wire fence border towards an Israeli watchtower while he was visiting the Lebanese border. Said is a prolific writer, whose texts on various Israel-Palestine issues, including his most influential book, Orientalism, have made him one of the West's most respected Arab intellectuals... According to the New York Daily News, Said, who had not visited the location since 1982, when Israel began a full-scale invasion on Lebanon, joined the crowd, saying, "this Zionist phenomenon, which stole the land and displaced the people, is continuing," referring to Israel's declaration of independence over 50 years ago... Said joined in and threw the stone as a symbolic act, the statement said... some sources argue that Said's actions, in addition to the daily stonings, go far beyond symbolic purposes and do, in fact, warrant examination. Israel has complained that the ritual stonings violate the U.N. resolutions that ended the occupation, evidenced by the permanent injuries of several soldiers since the troops withdrawl. Israel-based television journalist Dennis Zinn, who witnessed the stonings, counters Said's claim that members of the crowd threw the rocks for sentimental reasons. According to Zinn, "the Lebanese line up and wait to throw their rocks until soldiers and civilians are exposed." Although Said claimed that he did not aim the rock at Israeli soldiers, nor did he see soldiers in the vicinity, an eyewitness account in the Lebanese newspaper, As-Safir, claimed otherwise. According to the eyewitness, Said had positioned himself less than 30 feet from soldiers in a two-story, blue and white watchtower, from which flew five Israeli flags, before throwing the rock over the border fence. The rock that Said threw hit the barbed-wire fence in front of the watchtower, hitting no one... "He often speaks in terms of reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis," Weiner said. "How could this possibly benefit reconciliation?... Said's claim that he wasn't throwing at anyone reminds me of Clinton's assertion that while smoking marijuana, he didn't inhale," Weiner said... "It does not reflect well on the dignity of the University to have one of its most distinguished faculty members aggravating border disputes between two foreign nations by throwing rocks with a mob""
Working for peace = throwing stones
Opera community up in arms over 'sizeist' comments - "Singers and teachers know that being underweight is far more damaging to a singer’s wellbeing and performance than being overweight… I know from my own journey that I began to sing with far more physical authority when I got beyond a certain physical weight. Below that I just wasn’t a strong enough vehicle to launch sound from freely into large theatres and concert halls"
Synthesized 'solar' jet fuel: Renewable kerosene from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
The Larger Your Penis, The More Likely Your Wife Will Cheat Says New Study - ""Every one inch longer penis increased the likelihood of women being involved in extra-marital partnership by almost one-and-half times," the researchers wrote. "Women associated large penises with pain and discomfort during sex which precludes the enjoyment and sexual satisfaction that women are supposed to feel." In fact, one woman interviewed for the study told the researchers the following: "Some penis may be large yet my vagina is small, when he tries to insert it inside, it hurts so much that I will have to look for another man who has a smaller one [penis] and can do it in a way I can enjoy." According to the study, 6.2 percent of the 545 females had affairs during the six-month study. Other factors that increased the likelihood of women straying outside the marriage included domestic violence, being denied sex or denied preferred sexual position, being under age of 25 and a lack of sexual satisfaction. "
Why are women more opposed to abortion? - "A 2013 YouGov poll on behalf of the University of Lancaster found 26% of men supporting a reduction or ban, versus 43% of women. Interestingly, 53% of women in that survey believed that life begins at conception, against 35% of men – not exactly "every sperm is sacred", but not too far off. The difference even holds up when you poll Catholics... if it were left to women to vote on the issue, with men out of the picture, there’s a good chance that the result would be in favour of restricting abortion. On the flip side, if only men voted, they’d almost certainly vote in favour of women’s reproductive rights... Husband-and-wife economists George Akerlof and Janet Yellen touched on the problem in a famous (and controversial) 1996 paper on the impacts of new "reproductive technology" in the late 20th century. In it, they suggested that the availability of abortion changed men's attitudes to unplanned parenthood, as neatly expressed by an unnamed "internet contributor": "Since the decision to have the child is solely up to the mother, I don't see how both parents have responsibility to that child." Where prior to the 1960s men would have felt culturally bound to "do the right thing" by sexual partners who became pregnant, medicine now provided them with a convenient get-out clause. It is therefore not that surprising that they'd resist any changes that would threaten that. As for women, there’s the heavy weight of centuries of cultural baggage and social expectation"
I think the reason is that women want children more than men do. And they feel the mystical link to what is inside of them.
Being "pro-women" doesn't mean listening to women; somehow only women are victimised by "centuries of cultural baggage and social expectation"
PERSONALITY TRAITS OF WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER: BEFORE AND AFTER DIAGNOSIS - "A statistically significant decrease in scores on three scales (Rationality, Emotional Expresion-out, and Emotional-Control) was reported by the patient group"
The stereotype of people who have survived serious illness is they come out nicer and milder. But some become angry, combative and bad tempered
Models Dive 25 Meters To An Underwater Shipwreck In Bali For A Literally Breathtaking Photoshoot
Human-on-dolphin sex is not really that weird - "Truth is, these hands-on techniques have a far more common, everyday application: the breeding of animals. How else do you think semen samples are collected?... I asked Wallen why it’s considered acceptable to manually stimulate animals in order to collect semen for breeding purposes when the same behavior is often forbidden in a research context. “It is strange, isn’t it, that masturbation for commerce is seen as normal and appropriate, but masturbation where its end point is sexual arousal is not,” said Wallen. Sex has an uncanny way of revealing the inconsistencies in our thinking. “I have always suspected that it reflects the odd feelings we have about sexual pleasure,” says Wallen. “It is not pleasure in general, but specifically sexual pleasure.” It’s an important distinction: We think nothing of scratching under a cat’s chin while it purrs, of course, but look askance at a human stimulating a cat in heat. (Although — surprise! — there are videos of people doing that on YouTube too.) As Lovatt learned this week, sex is one arena where nuance is forbidden."
What Causes the Smell of New & Old Books?
Head teachers raise 'serious concerns' over Islamic school take-over - "Schools across Britain are likely to have been targeted in an alleged Islamist plot to take over classrooms, head teachers have warned. The National Association of Head Teachers said it had found “concerted efforts” to infiltrate at least six schools in Birmingham... attempts had been made to “alter their character in line with the Islamic faith”, including sidelining parts of the curriculum and attempting to influence the appointment of Muslim staff... girls at Park View school were made to sit at the back of the class, GCSE syllabuses were “restricted to comply with a conservative Islamic teaching” and an extremist preacher was invited to speak to children. Last week it emerged that Tahir Alam, the alleged ringleader of the plot and chairman of governors at Park View, wrote a detailed blueprint for the “Islamisation” of state schools in 2007."
Conflict is Normal | ParentFurther - "Conflict is a part of everyday life. As adults, we maneuver ourselves away from conflict throughout our days, and sometimes we know that it just happens. It goes without saying, so it is to be expected that some conflict is also normal in our children’s lives. All adults need to recognize that some of what we call “bullying” may actually be developmentally appropriate conflict and is a normal part of growing up"
Coping with the bullies 'is part of growing up', says child expert - "Youngsters must learn to cope with teasing and name-calling so they are able to handle awkward situations as adults, former Government adviser Tim Gill says. He believes the extent of bullying is being exaggerated by over-protective parents and teachers, who apply the label to childhood squabbles which were previously assumed to be part of growing up. The claims, in a book published today, are certain to fuel concerns over the escalation of the bullying 'industry'. Police officers warned this year that a target-chasing culture is forcing them to make 'easy' arrests for offences such as bullying. In one example, a child in Kent was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at a classmate... Ofsted inspections are giving children the impression that bullying is widespread in adult life - and that presentation is more important than substance, according to an academic. Professor Cedric Cullingford, of Huddersfield University, said: 'Teachers are seen to become highly stressed and fearful of the inspectors and from this many pupils perceive inspections as a form of bullying. 'The message portrayed, and taken on by many of the youngsters, is that it's not what you do that counts, but the way you present yourself. Children are learning about spin from an early age.'"
Edward Said Accused of Stoning in South Lebanon - "What began as a family tour of southern Lebanon erupted into controversy when newspapers and websites throughout the Middle East reported that Edward Said, University Professor of English and comparative literature and renowned Palestinian academic, threw stones in the direction of Israeli soldiers earlier this month. On July 3, a photographer from Agence France-Presse, a French news agency, captured Said on film just before he reportedly hurled a rock over the Lebanon-Israeli wire fence border towards an Israeli watchtower while he was visiting the Lebanese border. Said is a prolific writer, whose texts on various Israel-Palestine issues, including his most influential book, Orientalism, have made him one of the West's most respected Arab intellectuals... According to the New York Daily News, Said, who had not visited the location since 1982, when Israel began a full-scale invasion on Lebanon, joined the crowd, saying, "this Zionist phenomenon, which stole the land and displaced the people, is continuing," referring to Israel's declaration of independence over 50 years ago... Said joined in and threw the stone as a symbolic act, the statement said... some sources argue that Said's actions, in addition to the daily stonings, go far beyond symbolic purposes and do, in fact, warrant examination. Israel has complained that the ritual stonings violate the U.N. resolutions that ended the occupation, evidenced by the permanent injuries of several soldiers since the troops withdrawl. Israel-based television journalist Dennis Zinn, who witnessed the stonings, counters Said's claim that members of the crowd threw the rocks for sentimental reasons. According to Zinn, "the Lebanese line up and wait to throw their rocks until soldiers and civilians are exposed." Although Said claimed that he did not aim the rock at Israeli soldiers, nor did he see soldiers in the vicinity, an eyewitness account in the Lebanese newspaper, As-Safir, claimed otherwise. According to the eyewitness, Said had positioned himself less than 30 feet from soldiers in a two-story, blue and white watchtower, from which flew five Israeli flags, before throwing the rock over the border fence. The rock that Said threw hit the barbed-wire fence in front of the watchtower, hitting no one... "He often speaks in terms of reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis," Weiner said. "How could this possibly benefit reconciliation?... Said's claim that he wasn't throwing at anyone reminds me of Clinton's assertion that while smoking marijuana, he didn't inhale," Weiner said... "It does not reflect well on the dignity of the University to have one of its most distinguished faculty members aggravating border disputes between two foreign nations by throwing rocks with a mob""
Working for peace = throwing stones
Opera community up in arms over 'sizeist' comments - "Singers and teachers know that being underweight is far more damaging to a singer’s wellbeing and performance than being overweight… I know from my own journey that I began to sing with far more physical authority when I got beyond a certain physical weight. Below that I just wasn’t a strong enough vehicle to launch sound from freely into large theatres and concert halls"
Synthesized 'solar' jet fuel: Renewable kerosene from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide
The Larger Your Penis, The More Likely Your Wife Will Cheat Says New Study - ""Every one inch longer penis increased the likelihood of women being involved in extra-marital partnership by almost one-and-half times," the researchers wrote. "Women associated large penises with pain and discomfort during sex which precludes the enjoyment and sexual satisfaction that women are supposed to feel." In fact, one woman interviewed for the study told the researchers the following: "Some penis may be large yet my vagina is small, when he tries to insert it inside, it hurts so much that I will have to look for another man who has a smaller one [penis] and can do it in a way I can enjoy." According to the study, 6.2 percent of the 545 females had affairs during the six-month study. Other factors that increased the likelihood of women straying outside the marriage included domestic violence, being denied sex or denied preferred sexual position, being under age of 25 and a lack of sexual satisfaction. "
Why are women more opposed to abortion? - "A 2013 YouGov poll on behalf of the University of Lancaster found 26% of men supporting a reduction or ban, versus 43% of women. Interestingly, 53% of women in that survey believed that life begins at conception, against 35% of men – not exactly "every sperm is sacred", but not too far off. The difference even holds up when you poll Catholics... if it were left to women to vote on the issue, with men out of the picture, there’s a good chance that the result would be in favour of restricting abortion. On the flip side, if only men voted, they’d almost certainly vote in favour of women’s reproductive rights... Husband-and-wife economists George Akerlof and Janet Yellen touched on the problem in a famous (and controversial) 1996 paper on the impacts of new "reproductive technology" in the late 20th century. In it, they suggested that the availability of abortion changed men's attitudes to unplanned parenthood, as neatly expressed by an unnamed "internet contributor": "Since the decision to have the child is solely up to the mother, I don't see how both parents have responsibility to that child." Where prior to the 1960s men would have felt culturally bound to "do the right thing" by sexual partners who became pregnant, medicine now provided them with a convenient get-out clause. It is therefore not that surprising that they'd resist any changes that would threaten that. As for women, there’s the heavy weight of centuries of cultural baggage and social expectation"
I think the reason is that women want children more than men do. And they feel the mystical link to what is inside of them.
Being "pro-women" doesn't mean listening to women; somehow only women are victimised by "centuries of cultural baggage and social expectation"
PERSONALITY TRAITS OF WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER: BEFORE AND AFTER DIAGNOSIS - "A statistically significant decrease in scores on three scales (Rationality, Emotional Expresion-out, and Emotional-Control) was reported by the patient group"
The stereotype of people who have survived serious illness is they come out nicer and milder. But some become angry, combative and bad tempered
Models Dive 25 Meters To An Underwater Shipwreck In Bali For A Literally Breathtaking Photoshoot
Human-on-dolphin sex is not really that weird - "Truth is, these hands-on techniques have a far more common, everyday application: the breeding of animals. How else do you think semen samples are collected?... I asked Wallen why it’s considered acceptable to manually stimulate animals in order to collect semen for breeding purposes when the same behavior is often forbidden in a research context. “It is strange, isn’t it, that masturbation for commerce is seen as normal and appropriate, but masturbation where its end point is sexual arousal is not,” said Wallen. Sex has an uncanny way of revealing the inconsistencies in our thinking. “I have always suspected that it reflects the odd feelings we have about sexual pleasure,” says Wallen. “It is not pleasure in general, but specifically sexual pleasure.” It’s an important distinction: We think nothing of scratching under a cat’s chin while it purrs, of course, but look askance at a human stimulating a cat in heat. (Although — surprise! — there are videos of people doing that on YouTube too.) As Lovatt learned this week, sex is one arena where nuance is forbidden."
Post ID: 4387752051648726415
13 Words That The Author of "25 Common Words That You’ve Got Wrong" Got Wrong
Most “you’re using English wrongly” articles have a lot of errors, and yet people love to share them.
The latest example, shared by 3 people on my Facebook:
25 Common Words That You’ve Got Wrong
This one was particularly egregious, since I spotted several glaring mistakes.
So I've consulted the OED, "The definitive record of the English language" to correct the writer (whether you believe dictionaries are prescriptive or descriptive with regard to usage, either way he's still wrong):
OED:
"Putting an end to further continuance, development, or action; final, decisive."
"Forming a final stage, point, or limit; beyond which there is no advance or progress."
"Beyond which no advance can be made by investigation or analysis; forming a limit or final stage in respect of nature or quality; fundamental or elemental."
Granted none of these senses explicitly means "The one, the only. The best", but they come a lot closer to it than "The last item of a list".
This is to say nothing of how ignorant saying that there is "no other context" is of any common English word (or indeed, probably any common word in any language) - the OED lists 6 general adjectival senses of the word. None of which, incidentally, is "the last item of a list".
OED:
"To examine in detail; to scrutinize, inspect, survey, oversee; to consider, to take heed of. Now also (influenced by sense 4c): to look over briefly or superficially; to browse."
"To read through or over; (generally) to read. In later use also: to browse, skim."
Notably, there is also a note here (which I have never seen before in the OED):
"Modern dictionaries and usage guides, perh. influenced by the word's earlier history in English, have sometimes claimed that the only ‘correct’ usage is in reference to reading closely or thoroughly (cf. senses 4a, 4b). However, peruse has been a broad synonym for read since the 16th cent., encompassing both careful and cursory reading; Johnson defined and used it as such. The implication of leisureliness, cursoriness, or haste is therefore not a recent development, although it is usually found in less formal contexts and is less frequent in earlier use (see quot. 1589 for an early example). The specific sense of browsing or skimming emerged relatively recently, generally in ironic or humorous inversion of the formal sense of thoroughness. Cf. scan v. for a similar development and range of senses."
OED:
"orig. U.S. Of a person: affected with nausea; having an unsettled stomach; (fig.) disgusted, affected with distaste or loathing."
"lit. Of a thing: causing nausea. In later use: esp. offensive or unpleasant to taste or smell."
So here the writer is taking the literary meaning as the only correct meaning.
OED:
"Causing terror, terrifying; terrible, frightful; stirring, awe-inspiring; sublime. Now rare."
"As an enthusiastic term of commendation: amazing, impressive; excellent, exceedingly good, splendid."
Here, we can see that the author subscribes to the etymological fallacy and takes a view of language as eternal and unchanging (maybe he thinks 'nervous' should mean 'strong and vigorous'), even as senses fall out of use.
Especially notable is that the sense he calls "wrong" has its first example sentence from 1871. And his "right" sense has its last example sentence from 1914.
OED (n):
"That which results from the action or properties of something or someone; results in general; the quality of producing a result, efficacy."
"As a count noun. Something accomplished, caused, or produced; a result, consequence. As a count noun. Something accomplished, caused, or produced; a result, consequence. "
OED (v):
"To bring about (an event, a result); to accomplish (an intention, a desire)." (there are examples of this usage from 1581 to 2000)
This is especially bizarre, because the common usage of the noun effect is not "an event that causes a change" but rather "the outcome of a change".
OED:
"Without interest or concern; not interested, unconcerned. (Often regarded as a loose use.)"
"Not influenced by interest; impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced; now always, Unbiased by personal interest; free from self-seeking. (Of persons, or their dispositions, actions, etc.)"
The "wrong" sense is attested from as far back as 1631, up till 1970.
One wonders just how this person thinks words come about and what he considers the Gold Standard for the English language (maybe "my own prejudices").
To paraphrase Dan Brown,
"The English language did not arrive by fax from heaven. The English language is the product of usage, my dear. Not of self-righteous authors. The English language did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the language"
OED:
"transf. Continuous, constant. Used colloquially as a vague expression of disapproval: bad, intense, severe, objectionable; also something chronic adv. phr., severely, badly." (examples start from 1861)
Sure, when you talk about an illness you shouldn't use "chronic" to mean severe. But for everything else, it's fair game.
OED (1894, not fully updated):
"To kill, destroy, or remove one in every ten of."
"rhetorically or loosely. To destroy or remove a large proportion of; to subject to severe loss, slaughter, or mortality."
Oxford Dictionary:
"Kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of"
"Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something)"
"historical Kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group"
This item annoyed me the most and was what prompted me to write this blog post.
Approximately no one uses "decimate" to mean "to destroy 10% of" anymore.
Since the writer subscribes to the etymological fallacy, I shall propose a 26th Common Word That You've Gotten Wrong:
26. Hysterical
What you think it means: Characterized by convulsive emotion or excitement
What it really means: Describing a woman whose womb is dysfunctional and so goes crazy
Oxford Dictionary:
"Happening by chance rather than intention"
"Happening by a lucky chance; fortunate"
It is one thing to say a word can mean something different. It is another to say that it MUST mean something different.
OED:
"Usu. with of. Originally in pejorative sense: an excessive supply, an overabundance; an undesirably large quantity. Subsequently, and more usually, in neutral or favourable sense: a very large amount, quantity, or variety."
Examples come from 1835 to 2003.
Here we see that "more than is needed" is not even the primary meaning now.
OED:
"To be allowed to, to be given permission to"
Interestingly, one of the examples here is from Lord Tennyson's play The Falcon: "Can I speak with the Count?"
OED:
"No longer used or practised; outmoded, out of date."
The examples make this more clear:
"Two female servants, whose prim and obsolete appearance were perfectly consistent with the venerable aspect of the place of their habitation."
"On the Pacific station..we have one obsolete ironclad, the Swiftsure."
"Nothing is more hazardous in military policy than rigid adherence to obsolete ideas."
So we can see that "Old, out of date" still works as a definition for "obsolete".
Ironically, the author ends the article with the lines:
"The English language is a finicky one but it’s also ever changing. Words are updated and definitions change. New words are added every year and some are retired."
It looks like he should take his own advice and keep up with changing definitions (as well as some old ones that never went away).
The latest example, shared by 3 people on my Facebook:
25 Common Words That You’ve Got Wrong
This one was particularly egregious, since I spotted several glaring mistakes.
So I've consulted the OED, "The definitive record of the English language" to correct the writer (whether you believe dictionaries are prescriptive or descriptive with regard to usage, either way he's still wrong):
3. Ultimate
What you think it means: The one, the only. The best.
What it really means: The last item of a list...
That is actually the proper use of ultimate. There is no other context or added context. It simply means the last one.
OED:
"Putting an end to further continuance, development, or action; final, decisive."
"Forming a final stage, point, or limit; beyond which there is no advance or progress."
"Beyond which no advance can be made by investigation or analysis; forming a limit or final stage in respect of nature or quality; fundamental or elemental."
Granted none of these senses explicitly means "The one, the only. The best", but they come a lot closer to it than "The last item of a list".
This is to say nothing of how ignorant saying that there is "no other context" is of any common English word (or indeed, probably any common word in any language) - the OED lists 6 general adjectival senses of the word. None of which, incidentally, is "the last item of a list".
5. Peruse
What you think it means: To skim or browse.
What it really means: To observe in depth.
OED:
"To examine in detail; to scrutinize, inspect, survey, oversee; to consider, to take heed of. Now also (influenced by sense 4c): to look over briefly or superficially; to browse."
"To read through or over; (generally) to read. In later use also: to browse, skim."
Notably, there is also a note here (which I have never seen before in the OED):
"Modern dictionaries and usage guides, perh. influenced by the word's earlier history in English, have sometimes claimed that the only ‘correct’ usage is in reference to reading closely or thoroughly (cf. senses 4a, 4b). However, peruse has been a broad synonym for read since the 16th cent., encompassing both careful and cursory reading; Johnson defined and used it as such. The implication of leisureliness, cursoriness, or haste is therefore not a recent development, although it is usually found in less formal contexts and is less frequent in earlier use (see quot. 1589 for an early example). The specific sense of browsing or skimming emerged relatively recently, generally in ironic or humorous inversion of the formal sense of thoroughness. Cf. scan v. for a similar development and range of senses."
8. Nauseous
What you think it means: To feel ill.
What it really means: To cause feelings of illness.
This is another understandable mishap that a lot of people make. If you actually feel sick then you are nauseated. The object that made you feel ill is nauseous.
OED:
"orig. U.S. Of a person: affected with nausea; having an unsettled stomach; (fig.) disgusted, affected with distaste or loathing."
"lit. Of a thing: causing nausea. In later use: esp. offensive or unpleasant to taste or smell."
So here the writer is taking the literary meaning as the only correct meaning.
11. Terrific
What you think it means: Fantastic, good.
What it really means: Horrific, to inspire fear.
This is another one that we expect will be changed in the dictionary eventually because barely anyone uses the real meaning anymore.
OED:
"Causing terror, terrifying; terrible, frightful; stirring, awe-inspiring; sublime. Now rare."
"As an enthusiastic term of commendation: amazing, impressive; excellent, exceedingly good, splendid."
Here, we can see that the author subscribes to the etymological fallacy and takes a view of language as eternal and unchanging (maybe he thinks 'nervous' should mean 'strong and vigorous'), even as senses fall out of use.
Especially notable is that the sense he calls "wrong" has its first example sentence from 1871. And his "right" sense has its last example sentence from 1914.
12. Effect
What you may think it means: To cause something to change.
What it really means: An event that causes a change.
OED (n):
"That which results from the action or properties of something or someone; results in general; the quality of producing a result, efficacy."
"As a count noun. Something accomplished, caused, or produced; a result, consequence. As a count noun. Something accomplished, caused, or produced; a result, consequence. "
OED (v):
"To bring about (an event, a result); to accomplish (an intention, a desire)." (there are examples of this usage from 1581 to 2000)
This is especially bizarre, because the common usage of the noun effect is not "an event that causes a change" but rather "the outcome of a change".
13. Disinterested
What you think it means: Bored.
What it really means: Neutral.
OED:
"Without interest or concern; not interested, unconcerned. (Often regarded as a loose use.)"
"Not influenced by interest; impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced; now always, Unbiased by personal interest; free from self-seeking. (Of persons, or their dispositions, actions, etc.)"
The "wrong" sense is attested from as far back as 1631, up till 1970.
14. Irregardless
What you think it means: Without regard.
What it really means: Nothing.
... Irregardless has been used so often that it actually is in the dictionary now and that’s kind of sad. Even though it is technically there, there are a large number of people who don’t consider it a word.
One wonders just how this person thinks words come about and what he considers the Gold Standard for the English language (maybe "my own prejudices").
To paraphrase Dan Brown,
"The English language did not arrive by fax from heaven. The English language is the product of usage, my dear. Not of self-righteous authors. The English language did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the language"
15. Chronic
What you think it means: Severe.
What it really means: Over the course of a long time.
OED:
"transf. Continuous, constant. Used colloquially as a vague expression of disapproval: bad, intense, severe, objectionable; also something chronic adv. phr., severely, badly." (examples start from 1861)
Sure, when you talk about an illness you shouldn't use "chronic" to mean severe. But for everything else, it's fair game.
17. Decimate
What you think it means: To destroy or annihilate
What it really means: To destroy ten percent.
This one is really goofy and one day this won’t be true. For the time being, decimate actually means removing only ten percent of something. If you know a little bit about words it’s not difficult to figure out. The prefix “dec” means ten. However, the traditional definition of this word is antiquated and it’ll probably be changed eventually. Until then, it’s technically correct to use a word like exterminate or annihilate instead.
OED (1894, not fully updated):
"To kill, destroy, or remove one in every ten of."
"rhetorically or loosely. To destroy or remove a large proportion of; to subject to severe loss, slaughter, or mortality."
Oxford Dictionary:
"Kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of"
"Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something)"
"historical Kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group"
This item annoyed me the most and was what prompted me to write this blog post.
Approximately no one uses "decimate" to mean "to destroy 10% of" anymore.
Since the writer subscribes to the etymological fallacy, I shall propose a 26th Common Word That You've Gotten Wrong:
26. Hysterical
What you think it means: Characterized by convulsive emotion or excitement
What it really means: Describing a woman whose womb is dysfunctional and so goes crazy
19. Fortuitous
What you think it means: Lucky.
What it really means: By chance.
Oxford Dictionary:
"Happening by chance rather than intention"
"Happening by a lucky chance; fortunate"
It is one thing to say a word can mean something different. It is another to say that it MUST mean something different.
20. Plethora
What you think it means: A lot of something.
What it really means: More than is needed.
OED:
"Usu. with of. Originally in pejorative sense: an excessive supply, an overabundance; an undesirably large quantity. Subsequently, and more usually, in neutral or favourable sense: a very large amount, quantity, or variety."
Examples come from 1835 to 2003.
Here we see that "more than is needed" is not even the primary meaning now.
23. Can
What you think it means: What is permissible.
What it really means: What is possible.
OED:
"To be allowed to, to be given permission to"
Interestingly, one of the examples here is from Lord Tennyson's play The Falcon: "Can I speak with the Count?"
25. Obsolete
What you think it means: Old, out of date.
What it really means: Not produced, used, or needed.
OED:
"No longer used or practised; outmoded, out of date."
The examples make this more clear:
"Two female servants, whose prim and obsolete appearance were perfectly consistent with the venerable aspect of the place of their habitation."
"On the Pacific station..we have one obsolete ironclad, the Swiftsure."
"Nothing is more hazardous in military policy than rigid adherence to obsolete ideas."
So we can see that "Old, out of date" still works as a definition for "obsolete".
Ironically, the author ends the article with the lines:
"The English language is a finicky one but it’s also ever changing. Words are updated and definitions change. New words are added every year and some are retired."
It looks like he should take his own advice and keep up with changing definitions (as well as some old ones that never went away).
Post ID: 7156855406691159124
Friday, July 04, 2014
Links - 4th July 2014
Part of Paris bridge collapses under weight of 'love locks' left by tourists - "The practice is believed to have started in Russia but has spread all over the world. It is especially common in Paris, the city of lovers."
5 Shockingly Insane 'Game of Thrones' Fanfiction Sex Scenes | Cracked.com - "The reader makes a sudden realization as well, namely that they were just tricked into reading a story of underage incest by dire wolf mind control proxy. And then Maisie Williams, like the character she plays, adds the author of this story to the list of names she has to kill."
The 'Nordic model' of prostitution law is a myth - "We recently gave a talk titled “The Nordic model of prostitution policy does not exist”. The aim was to provoke reflection and a discussion, but also to tell the truth about prostitution policies in the Nordic countries... Contrary to many common feminist appraisals, these laws do not in fact send a clear message as to what and who is the problem with prostitution; on the contrary, they are often implemented in ways that produce negative outcomes for people in prostitution... the Nordic countries' approaches must be judged with caution – and none more so than the most popular example, the case of Sweden... The claim that the number of people involved in prostitution has declined, for one, is largely based on the work of organisations that report on specific groups they work with, not the state of prostitution more generally: social workers, for example, count and get an impression based on their contact with women in street prostitution in the largest cities. There is no reason to believe that other forms of prostitution, hidden from view, are not still going on. The oft-cited 2010 Skarhed report acknowledges this – but still concludes that the law is a success based on the number of women in contact with social workers and police. Men involved in prostitution, women in indoor venues, and those selling sex outside the larger cities are therefore excluded from the scope of the report. This excessive focus on street prostitution handicaps many accounts of the law’s implementation, which tend to simply repeat Swedish authorities’ claims that the Sex Purchase Act has influenced the size of the prostitution markets... the Swedish Sex Purchase Act is often said to be an effective tool against human trafficking. The evidence for this claim is weak; Swedish authorities have backed it up with something said in a call intercepted by the police. The official data that does exist is vague; some authors have also pointed out that the act may have raised prices for sex, making trafficking for sexual purposes potentially more lucrative than ever... Even though surveys among the general public indicate great support for the law, the same material also shows a rather strong support for a criminalisation of sex sellers. This contradicts the idea that the law promotes an ideal of gender equality: instead, the criminalisation of sex buyers seems to influence people to consider the possibility of criminalising sex sellers as well. This rather confounds the idea that the “Nordic model” successfully shifts the stigma of prostitution from sex sellers to clients...
In Sweden this is embodied by the Aliens Act, which forbids foreign women from selling sex in Sweden and is used by the police to apprehend non-Swedish or migrant persons suspected of selling sex. This reveals the limits of the rhetoric of female victimisation, with clients framed as perpetrators: if the seller is foreign, she is to blame, and can be punished with deportation."
Cristiano Ronaldo’s injuries ahead of World Cup claimed as work of witch doctor in Ghana - "Believe it or not, the Australian team has had its own experience with voodoo, with the Socceroos thought to have broken its own curse in 2006 after 37 years. Former captain Johnny Warren blamed the Socceroo’s long losing streak on a hex placed on the team in 1969. He said the Australian team was cursed for not paying $1000 to a witch doctor in Mozambique who helped them win a elimination round for the World Cup in 1969. The Australians had asked the witch doctor to place a curse on opponents Rhodesia ahead of a crucial game which they ended up winning. However, when the witch doctor wasn’t paid for his services he vowed to reverse the curse and put it on the Aussies. “From that moment when he put the curse on every thing went wrong for the team”... The Socceroos finally re-entered the competition after Safran travelled to Mozambique and hired a witch doctor to lift the curse, which involved being splattered in chicken’s blood. After a long drought the Socceroos were finally able to qualify for the World Cup in 2006."
Philippine, Vietnamese troops drink beer, play volleyball on disputed isle - "Vietnamese and Philippine troops got together on a disputed island in the South China Sea on Sunday to play soccer and volleyball - as well as drink beer - in a display of unity that will not go unnoticed in Beijing... Coincidentally, the Philippines occupied Southwest Cay until early 1975, when troops from then South Vietnam seized it after Philippine forces sailed a couple of miles to Northeast Cay, which was under Manila's control, for a party."
‘Possessed’ maid allegedly eats kitten alive, runs amok the next day
Does Fertility Behavior Spread among Friends? - "a friend’s childbearing increases an individual’s risk of becoming a parent. We find a short-term, curvilinear effect: an individual’s risk of childbearing starts increasing after a friend’s childbearing, reaches its peak approximately two years later, and then decreases."
Cash to the poor: Pennies from heaven | The Economist - "[Unconditional Cash Transfers] work better than almost anyone would have expected. They dent the stereotype of poor people as inherently feckless and ignorant. But CCTs are usually better still, especially when dealing with the root causes of poverty and, rather than just alleviating it, helping families escape it altogether."
On the march - "White nationalists have called a rally in south Brisbane today. They huddle on one side of a street that runs along a park. Behind the park poke the cranes and skyscrapers of the city skyline. Getting wind of the rally weeks ago, a counter-protest has gathered on the other side of the street, to show support for multiculturalism. Two olive-skinned Greek men stand proud as a mob of angry white faces turn red, screaming and hectoring them. Before we go any further, there's something you need to know. The olive-skinned Greeks are part of the white nationalist crew. The mob of angry whites are the anti-racists. White nationalism is confusing in 2014. "Fascist Scum! Off our streets!" bellow the 200-odd anti-fascists at the 20 or so nationalists, a police line dividing the two... "NAZI SCUM OFF OUR STREETS!" roar the rest. A shuddering Cole pulls at his leather jacket lapel. "I've got my grandfather's British Legion badge on from when he fought in World War II," he says, trembling. "He was with the Black Watch and I'm a Nazi? I go to dawn service, I wear my grandfather's medals and I'm a Nazi?" Mr Sarcastic and Red Beard have moved onto another nationalist, in black hoody and sunglasses. "C...-sucking faggot!" shouts Red Beard. In the far-right rally in my head it would have been a fascist, not an anti-fascist, shouting this... Half an hour later, like everywhere else in the world, the white nationalists and anti-fascists have all started fidgeting with their smartphones. Everyone in the street looks out of energy... Everyone left is in a jolly mood. My smartphone vibrates in my pocket. It's a Facebook message from a stranger, one of the anti-racist protesters. "Saw you before. I wanted to ask what did you think of the protest? I found it a little weird. Kinda like we were the Nazis." "Why did you feel like you were the Nazis?" "Because we were a bigger mob harassing a smaller mob. What message are we sending them? That intimidation is okay, that's fine, you just have to have the bigger numbers? The other odd thing was marching people under the hammer and sickle flag. Is this 1945? Where people under the Soviet Union flag are chasing Nazis through the streets? It was like cosplay"... "A couple of activists experienced minor cuts. However, their spirit was undeterred. The responsibility for the violence today does not rest with any worker tricked into action by the CFMEU leader-group. It rests with this small core of union officials and organisers." CFMEU head office tell me they have not heard from police about the punch-up in the pub. They say they condemn fascism, but do not condone violence... That's the cherry on the pavlova. Australia: where even the immigrants hate immigrants. And where even the anti-racists bash wogs"
$1m gone in one year: Widow of killed Changi Airport worker is now broke - ""I was told not to touch my children's money as it was meant for their future," she said, adding that the financial adviser also suggested she could use the remaining money to set up a small business in Malaysia. But the money proved too much for Madam Pusparani to manage on her own... she decided to invest the remaining $100,000 in her brother's transport business in Kuala Lumpur, thinking it would give her a stable income. "But I was told the money was only enough to buy one lorry and we needed three lorries. So, I withdrew half of my children's money, which was about $400,000, to buy two more lorries"... the widow was told that the company was losing money. She said she fell out with her brother eventually and did not recover any of her investment... "My expenses came up to RM5,000 to RM6,000. Where do I find the money?" That last $400,000 she withdrew lasted her five months."
Keywords: Pusparani Mohan, Chandra Mogan
Addendum: Lorries are really expensive in Malaysia
These 40 Alien-Like Creatures Actually Live On Earth. I Can't Believe #3 Is Real!
Tiananmen, Forgotten - NYTimes.com - "Perhaps nowhere is this indifference toward politics and civil rights more pronounced than in the insouciance of young people about the Communist Party’s attempts to expunge historical truths from public memory. The majority of my generation still believes, for instance, that the war against Japanese invasion in the 1930s and ’40s was fought primarily by Communist soldiers, while the Nationalist army “passively resisted the Japanese and actively combated the Communists,” as told in my high school history textbook... Well-educated and worldly, they nonetheless see censorship more as a nuisance of daily life, something to be begrudgingly endured, rather than an infringement on their freedom of speech...
If the previous generations learned the cost of political transgression through persecutions and crackdowns, today’s youth, especially those from elite backgrounds, instinctively understand the futility of challenging the system. After all, most of the time, power interferes with our personal lives only in the form of nettlesome restrictions. These inconveniences — from censorship to the vehicle license lottery, a system that distributes a limited number of license plates to a huge number of new drivers who apply each month — feel not unlike the dogmatic words of Marxist philosophy in our school textbooks, which we mock in private but dutifully memorize and copy onto exams. Rebelling against these hurdles seems both naïve and unproductive — an understanding that the system has inculcated into us early on — as it would likely achieve little. Circumvention and compromise help us move forward, in a society where the price of falling behind is surely greater than the minor harms in our daily lives caused by state power. Over time, such an approach is rationalized, and even defended by the very group of young elites who in previous generations have been the most passionate advocates for change. Last October, Xia Yeliang, an economics professor at Peking University, was dismissed from his job after making bold demands for political change. The school insisted that Mr. Xia was fired for poor teaching skills. When the news broke, scores of university students rushed to defend the school’s claim on social media from what one called “Western media’s typical tactic to smear the image of China.”"
5 Shockingly Insane 'Game of Thrones' Fanfiction Sex Scenes | Cracked.com - "The reader makes a sudden realization as well, namely that they were just tricked into reading a story of underage incest by dire wolf mind control proxy. And then Maisie Williams, like the character she plays, adds the author of this story to the list of names she has to kill."
The 'Nordic model' of prostitution law is a myth - "We recently gave a talk titled “The Nordic model of prostitution policy does not exist”. The aim was to provoke reflection and a discussion, but also to tell the truth about prostitution policies in the Nordic countries... Contrary to many common feminist appraisals, these laws do not in fact send a clear message as to what and who is the problem with prostitution; on the contrary, they are often implemented in ways that produce negative outcomes for people in prostitution... the Nordic countries' approaches must be judged with caution – and none more so than the most popular example, the case of Sweden... The claim that the number of people involved in prostitution has declined, for one, is largely based on the work of organisations that report on specific groups they work with, not the state of prostitution more generally: social workers, for example, count and get an impression based on their contact with women in street prostitution in the largest cities. There is no reason to believe that other forms of prostitution, hidden from view, are not still going on. The oft-cited 2010 Skarhed report acknowledges this – but still concludes that the law is a success based on the number of women in contact with social workers and police. Men involved in prostitution, women in indoor venues, and those selling sex outside the larger cities are therefore excluded from the scope of the report. This excessive focus on street prostitution handicaps many accounts of the law’s implementation, which tend to simply repeat Swedish authorities’ claims that the Sex Purchase Act has influenced the size of the prostitution markets... the Swedish Sex Purchase Act is often said to be an effective tool against human trafficking. The evidence for this claim is weak; Swedish authorities have backed it up with something said in a call intercepted by the police. The official data that does exist is vague; some authors have also pointed out that the act may have raised prices for sex, making trafficking for sexual purposes potentially more lucrative than ever... Even though surveys among the general public indicate great support for the law, the same material also shows a rather strong support for a criminalisation of sex sellers. This contradicts the idea that the law promotes an ideal of gender equality: instead, the criminalisation of sex buyers seems to influence people to consider the possibility of criminalising sex sellers as well. This rather confounds the idea that the “Nordic model” successfully shifts the stigma of prostitution from sex sellers to clients...
In Sweden this is embodied by the Aliens Act, which forbids foreign women from selling sex in Sweden and is used by the police to apprehend non-Swedish or migrant persons suspected of selling sex. This reveals the limits of the rhetoric of female victimisation, with clients framed as perpetrators: if the seller is foreign, she is to blame, and can be punished with deportation."
Cristiano Ronaldo’s injuries ahead of World Cup claimed as work of witch doctor in Ghana - "Believe it or not, the Australian team has had its own experience with voodoo, with the Socceroos thought to have broken its own curse in 2006 after 37 years. Former captain Johnny Warren blamed the Socceroo’s long losing streak on a hex placed on the team in 1969. He said the Australian team was cursed for not paying $1000 to a witch doctor in Mozambique who helped them win a elimination round for the World Cup in 1969. The Australians had asked the witch doctor to place a curse on opponents Rhodesia ahead of a crucial game which they ended up winning. However, when the witch doctor wasn’t paid for his services he vowed to reverse the curse and put it on the Aussies. “From that moment when he put the curse on every thing went wrong for the team”... The Socceroos finally re-entered the competition after Safran travelled to Mozambique and hired a witch doctor to lift the curse, which involved being splattered in chicken’s blood. After a long drought the Socceroos were finally able to qualify for the World Cup in 2006."
Philippine, Vietnamese troops drink beer, play volleyball on disputed isle - "Vietnamese and Philippine troops got together on a disputed island in the South China Sea on Sunday to play soccer and volleyball - as well as drink beer - in a display of unity that will not go unnoticed in Beijing... Coincidentally, the Philippines occupied Southwest Cay until early 1975, when troops from then South Vietnam seized it after Philippine forces sailed a couple of miles to Northeast Cay, which was under Manila's control, for a party."
‘Possessed’ maid allegedly eats kitten alive, runs amok the next day
Does Fertility Behavior Spread among Friends? - "a friend’s childbearing increases an individual’s risk of becoming a parent. We find a short-term, curvilinear effect: an individual’s risk of childbearing starts increasing after a friend’s childbearing, reaches its peak approximately two years later, and then decreases."
Cash to the poor: Pennies from heaven | The Economist - "[Unconditional Cash Transfers] work better than almost anyone would have expected. They dent the stereotype of poor people as inherently feckless and ignorant. But CCTs are usually better still, especially when dealing with the root causes of poverty and, rather than just alleviating it, helping families escape it altogether."
On the march - "White nationalists have called a rally in south Brisbane today. They huddle on one side of a street that runs along a park. Behind the park poke the cranes and skyscrapers of the city skyline. Getting wind of the rally weeks ago, a counter-protest has gathered on the other side of the street, to show support for multiculturalism. Two olive-skinned Greek men stand proud as a mob of angry white faces turn red, screaming and hectoring them. Before we go any further, there's something you need to know. The olive-skinned Greeks are part of the white nationalist crew. The mob of angry whites are the anti-racists. White nationalism is confusing in 2014. "Fascist Scum! Off our streets!" bellow the 200-odd anti-fascists at the 20 or so nationalists, a police line dividing the two... "NAZI SCUM OFF OUR STREETS!" roar the rest. A shuddering Cole pulls at his leather jacket lapel. "I've got my grandfather's British Legion badge on from when he fought in World War II," he says, trembling. "He was with the Black Watch and I'm a Nazi? I go to dawn service, I wear my grandfather's medals and I'm a Nazi?" Mr Sarcastic and Red Beard have moved onto another nationalist, in black hoody and sunglasses. "C...-sucking faggot!" shouts Red Beard. In the far-right rally in my head it would have been a fascist, not an anti-fascist, shouting this... Half an hour later, like everywhere else in the world, the white nationalists and anti-fascists have all started fidgeting with their smartphones. Everyone in the street looks out of energy... Everyone left is in a jolly mood. My smartphone vibrates in my pocket. It's a Facebook message from a stranger, one of the anti-racist protesters. "Saw you before. I wanted to ask what did you think of the protest? I found it a little weird. Kinda like we were the Nazis." "Why did you feel like you were the Nazis?" "Because we were a bigger mob harassing a smaller mob. What message are we sending them? That intimidation is okay, that's fine, you just have to have the bigger numbers? The other odd thing was marching people under the hammer and sickle flag. Is this 1945? Where people under the Soviet Union flag are chasing Nazis through the streets? It was like cosplay"... "A couple of activists experienced minor cuts. However, their spirit was undeterred. The responsibility for the violence today does not rest with any worker tricked into action by the CFMEU leader-group. It rests with this small core of union officials and organisers." CFMEU head office tell me they have not heard from police about the punch-up in the pub. They say they condemn fascism, but do not condone violence... That's the cherry on the pavlova. Australia: where even the immigrants hate immigrants. And where even the anti-racists bash wogs"
$1m gone in one year: Widow of killed Changi Airport worker is now broke - ""I was told not to touch my children's money as it was meant for their future," she said, adding that the financial adviser also suggested she could use the remaining money to set up a small business in Malaysia. But the money proved too much for Madam Pusparani to manage on her own... she decided to invest the remaining $100,000 in her brother's transport business in Kuala Lumpur, thinking it would give her a stable income. "But I was told the money was only enough to buy one lorry and we needed three lorries. So, I withdrew half of my children's money, which was about $400,000, to buy two more lorries"... the widow was told that the company was losing money. She said she fell out with her brother eventually and did not recover any of her investment... "My expenses came up to RM5,000 to RM6,000. Where do I find the money?" That last $400,000 she withdrew lasted her five months."
Keywords: Pusparani Mohan, Chandra Mogan
Addendum: Lorries are really expensive in Malaysia
These 40 Alien-Like Creatures Actually Live On Earth. I Can't Believe #3 Is Real!
Tiananmen, Forgotten - NYTimes.com - "Perhaps nowhere is this indifference toward politics and civil rights more pronounced than in the insouciance of young people about the Communist Party’s attempts to expunge historical truths from public memory. The majority of my generation still believes, for instance, that the war against Japanese invasion in the 1930s and ’40s was fought primarily by Communist soldiers, while the Nationalist army “passively resisted the Japanese and actively combated the Communists,” as told in my high school history textbook... Well-educated and worldly, they nonetheless see censorship more as a nuisance of daily life, something to be begrudgingly endured, rather than an infringement on their freedom of speech...
If the previous generations learned the cost of political transgression through persecutions and crackdowns, today’s youth, especially those from elite backgrounds, instinctively understand the futility of challenging the system. After all, most of the time, power interferes with our personal lives only in the form of nettlesome restrictions. These inconveniences — from censorship to the vehicle license lottery, a system that distributes a limited number of license plates to a huge number of new drivers who apply each month — feel not unlike the dogmatic words of Marxist philosophy in our school textbooks, which we mock in private but dutifully memorize and copy onto exams. Rebelling against these hurdles seems both naïve and unproductive — an understanding that the system has inculcated into us early on — as it would likely achieve little. Circumvention and compromise help us move forward, in a society where the price of falling behind is surely greater than the minor harms in our daily lives caused by state power. Over time, such an approach is rationalized, and even defended by the very group of young elites who in previous generations have been the most passionate advocates for change. Last October, Xia Yeliang, an economics professor at Peking University, was dismissed from his job after making bold demands for political change. The school insisted that Mr. Xia was fired for poor teaching skills. When the news broke, scores of university students rushed to defend the school’s claim on social media from what one called “Western media’s typical tactic to smear the image of China.”"
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