Balderdash

天外有天，一山还比一山高

2012-05-27T22:23:00.001+08:00

China has been dethroned for the title of Country of Crooks, Conmen and Swindlers.

That honour now belongs to Vietnam.

More details when I start my Vietnam travelogue (which will be after the Australia 2011 finishes).

(perhaps when I visit India, that will then take pride of place)

Classes in Real Life

2012-05-27T11:12:00.000+08:00

Male Privilege

2012-05-26T15:10:00.000+08:00

"It's just a mistake if women goes into men's bathroom
Men are perverted if they go into women's bathroom"

Links - 26th May 2012

2012-05-26T10:06:00.000+08:00

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." - Immanuel Kant

***

Put Away The Bell Curve: Most Of Us Aren't 'Average' - "Human performance, by this account, does not often fit the bell curve or what scientists call a normal distribution. Rather, it is more likely to fit what scientists call a power distribution... a sizable number in the group were superstars. These superstars, moreover, accounted for much of the success of the group as a whole. The vast majority of the others in the group, Aguinis said, were actually performing below the mathematical average"
Most people are mediocre

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Chivalry is dead? Not a single man offered us women a seat, says female commuter
Comments: "I guess the men in the mrt car were all staunch supporters of women's EQUAL RIGHTS. HaHaha"
"When females act like ladies gentlemen will act like gentlemen. Saying please thank you excuse me and be lady like, expect to be treated like a lady. Otherwise your just annoying."
"Chivalry IS dead.... Women killed it."
Of course, AWARE is not going to comment on this

Queen owns a McDonald's - "Among Her Majesty's most recent acquisitions was a retail park in Slough - which encompasses a drive-through McDonalds"

Zimbabwean MPs to be circumcised as part of AIDS campaign - "All 150 male members of the 175-strong group have all committed to being circumcised, while its female members are encouraging their husbands and boyfriends to undergo the procedure."
At the same time, the females should also get circumcised and the men should urge their wives and girlfriends to do the same

That Mitchell and Webb Look - Diana Assassination - YouTube

Bust-Reducing Bras See Strong Sales In Japan, Women May Prefer Slim Figure Over Big Breasts - "According to a survey conducted by Wacoal in September 2011 asking women aged 20-40 what they look for when choosing a bra, 10% answered they want a bra that makes them look slimmer, with some women citing that a big bust makes them look fat."

How To Win A Culture War And Lose A Generation « Thought Catalog - "one of the top reasons 59 percent of young adults with a Christian background have left the church is because they perceive the church to be too exclusive, particularly regarding their LGBT friends. Eight million twenty-somethings have left the church, and this is one reason why"

Hong Kong Glued to ‘Bride Wannabes’ - "Hong Kong’s demographics means a lot of potentially lonely female hearts: women outnumber men 10 to 9, according to 2010 UN statistics. The number of single, unmarried women in Hong Kong has been on the rise: between 1996 and 2009, the number of such women jumped by nearly 50%. “Hong Kong is facing a great sense of crisis among both men and women”... it’s since spread to the mainland, where the number of single, college-educated, financially independent women has been on the rise. In Shanghai for example, the number of unmarried women between ages 20 and 50 has experienced what the nationalist tabloid Global Times calls “ominous growth,” to the point that today, there are over half a million of them. (Unlike Hong Kong, the gender ratio on the mainland is heavily skewed with a glut of men: 108 men per 100 women, according to the UN)... “After watching this show, narcissistic materialistic girls will become even more narcissistic and materialistic, and those who aren’t will be brainwashed to become that way”"

UK police to investigate Muslim scholar's call for martyrdom - "A controversial Islamic scholar told an audience in Manchester this week that it was it was right to fight Israel and that "martyrdom" in Israel was just. Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought and a leading member of the Muslim Association of Britain, was speaking at the Expo-Islamia, which was attended by more than 8,000 people at an arena in central Manchester. The daylong event on Sunday, entitled, "A Call To Humanity," was designed to "present Islam to Muslims and non-Muslims, to call for the promotion of the common good for humanity and clarify the role and responsibility of Muslims living as minorities in the West"... Ahmed Khabir, spokesman for Expo-Islamia, said before the event that individual views held or professed in the past had nothing to do with the event and that speakers would not stray into "extremist subjects." In BBC interview eight months before the 7/7 terrorist attacks on London in 2005, Tamimi made it clear to journalist Tim Sebastian that would be prepared to go to Israel and carry out a suicide attack... Other speakers at the expo included Dr. Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai, India, who has reportedly said it was blasphemous for Muslims to wish Christians a Happy Christmas, as it acknowledges Jesus as a son of God. Also among the speakers was leading Respect Party member Yvonne Ridley, a journalist who was incarcerated by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1994 and is now a Moslem convert and political editor of Muslim Channel, the biggest Muslim satellite channel in Europe. In June she caused controversy when she called for Muslims to "boycott the police and refuse to cooperate with them in any way, shape or form"... Organizers said the expo was a multifaith event, with other religious groups invited to attend. However Jewish community leaders were not invited and representatives of other faiths said they had not heard of the event"

Legally Obliging Filial Piety - "One attempt to evade the common requirement of volition in legal relationships – in the case of Singaporean parents and their children – has been to liken this peculiar relationship to the special relationship between the individual and the state... this analogy fails to account for the fact that in any democratic state, citizens can choose their governments through the election process, collectively remove them from power, and even relocate abroad. Children, if unhappy with their parentage, do not have similar powers to ‘choose’ their parents... Parents have a direct, personal and universally recognised fiduciary obligation to care for their children. The state’s obligations to its citizens are far less clear. In essence, the Singaporean state is imposing a debt on a person to provide care against his or her will, following the provision of care by his or her parents, who had a fiduciary duty to do so, anyway... It embodies a particular Singaporean phenomenon, where whenever a person runs out of explanations for a particular policy – whether it is a proposed bill or a canteen rule – they will scratch their heads and simply say: “You don’t get it, it’s Asian values lah”... after a month of hearing this rebuttal, I began to suspect that it was merely a convenient strategy to protect poor policy from criticism, under the mask of cultural sensitivity. When one dares to probe further, it becomes evident that the Act does not serve, and perhaps may even circumvent, its professed aims... A cynical observer will argue that the Singaporean Government is trying to pass the buck of elderly care to those who can be culturally pressured into accepting it. With the cost of healthcare, property and general living in Singapore escalating, it is a convenient political tactic to scapegoat responsibility for providing for the elderly"

Actress Felicia Chin: S’pore men are shallow and arrogant - "she thinks that local men materialistic and shallow... Well-known etiquette consultant Teo Ser Lee felt that Chin's comments were "a sweeping generalisation" [as] she has met many Singaporean men over the course of work who are "down-to-earth, humble, and work hard for every dollar". "I don't know who are the people she (Chin) hangs out with"... "It's unfair to label Singaporean men as that. There are also women who only know how to buy big handbags." Popular radio deejay Lin Pei Fen said the traits described by Chin are not specific to just Singaporean men. "Male species of any kind need to be suitably arrogant in order to fight for survival, lead or attract mates," the 30-year-old reasoned. Besides, she said, arrogance, when portrayed correctly, can be a plus point. "I am attracted by men who can be arrogant when he needs to be." As for Chin's charge that some local men in their 20s are too pre-occupied with "wealth and what they have on the outside", Lin felt that this is necessary trait for "living in Singapore". Another local deejay, Dennis Chew, defended Chin, saying "women are by nature, more mature than men". Chin is one of Chew's godchildren. On reports in Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao which quoted Chin describing local men as being "fond of gossip", Chew, 38, reasoned, "It could be the men she's met. There may be more such men in the entertainment circle, due to the nature of the industry""

Pourquoi les femmes n’atteignent pas le Panthéon des cinéastes - "Cette étude se base sur les 250 films les plus populaires de 2011. Les femmes y représentaient 5% des réalisateurs seulement, et 18% de l’ensemble comprenant réalisateurs, producteurs exécutifs, scénaristes et autres directeurs de la photographie"
Si je ne réussis pas l'examen, c'est la faute du professeur

Pam seeks millionaire and says: I’m ready to lose my virginity at 70 - "Pam explained she does not believe in sex before marriage. And as she has stayed single there was no question of losing her virginity... "My standards are still very high, though. I’m hoping to bag a tall, dark and handsome millionaire""

Child Porn Decision Turns On Downloading Intent - "Child pornography cases should interest us all because they are at the cutting edge of electronic evidence cases. We will see the most salient legal issues tested in those cases first before the principles are applied to other areas of the law. People v. Kent demonstrates the necessity of analyzing the legal issues rather than focusing on the visceral recoil we experience at the offense. It is a good case to look at because the defendant was guilty in part and not guilty in part. The court held that some of the child pornography on his hard drive was possessed knowingly — the images in unallocated space — but the images stored in cache — in temporary Internet storage — were there without his knowledge and therefore not unlawful"

Un patron peut lire ''Mes documents'' - "Un fichier informatique intitulé "Mes documents", dans un ordinateur de bureau, n'est pas un fichier dont l'ouverture par un tiers entrainerait une atteinte à l'intimité de la vie privée"

UI vs UX

Sliding Block Puzzle Solver

Report: Every Potential 2040 President Already Unelectable Due To Facebook | The Onion

Conversations - 25th May 2012

2012-05-25T18:17:00.000+08:00

Frigid Girl: women cant take honesty
Or blatant frankness
If women lie to themselves i see no reason why they wld expect smth
else frm others
:P

Someone: *** went ballistic on subhas anandas' comment on hardcore prostitution deserves no protection

eh how do you keep up with feminists
i ended up deleting the post cos i realise the sticking point wasn't the legal unfairness but the 'sexism and female victimising'
and after that no amount of logicking went thru
because 'they have a heart' and we haven't one apparently

Me: I know why she went ballistic. because she saw "hardcore prostitution deserves no protection" and like a pavlovian reflex she pounced
in her mind "hardcore prostitution deserves no protection" = "prostitutes don't deserve legal protection"
however in this case the "protection" is not protection from being exploited, abused etc
it's "protection" on account of her age, of being a minor and thus being judged unable to consent to commercial sex
however her actions indicate she was aware of what she was doing
see, the law on no commercial sex for below 18 is intended to protect girls from being exploited
however in this case she wasn't exploited

MFTTW: he's gay right

his profile pics are all self-taken and in the same pose
this is a common theme amongst gay men i know on fb

Me: I dont mind comments
just not annoying ones

I love it when people compliment my hair =D

Frigid Girl: ya you're past the age where ppl will compliment you without an agenda in mind

Me: sad.

what agenda could they have

Frigid Girl: compliment you to make conversation

Me: like that called agenda ah

Frigid Girl: for the sake of filling up awkward silence

yes
i do it all the time just to fill up awkward silences

Me: ...

Frigid Girl: better than talking abt the weather

Someone: *** was looking at a wedding prep website
dunno if ^^^ proposed...

Me: hurr
women look at wedding stuff all the time, no?

Someone: hahahahahahaahahahah

MFTTW: why can't [Tiong Bahru Bakery] be run by same people as skinny pizza
it's just a corporation what

Me: everything in sg is part of a chain or franchise

MFTTW: why you so idealist

Me: I like diversity and competition in the ecosystem

MFTTW: hur hur

Me: singapore everything chain
then chain moreprofit making
so yakun uses krimer

MFTTW: but indie things are usually cock
I don't drink ya kun

Me: why indie things usually cock

MFTTW: cos they are good for a while then realize business model not sustainable then they start to cut corners
becos it is inevitably set up by some yuppie couple who are on second careers to "pursue their dreams"

Me: and chains cut corners from the start so you dont get taken in?

MFTTW: chains are... you know what you are getting

the prob in sg is that nothing stays good for long
it always goes downhill

anyway if the corporation can bring in someone good
then it's a good thing whst

like maybe gontran cherrier has no business acumen
then we would not have gotten to try his baked goods otherwise

Me: likewise, without eduardo we'd never get to try kum's kosmetiks

Frigid Girl on River Valley High School: if they find out if you're dating
they expel

Me: so date outside?

Frigid Girl: no even if your'e dating a guy from outside the schoo'
the fact that you're dating = expulsion
commie is as commie does

Me: wut.
was that rule applied to anyo you know

Frigid Girlno cos they always made us break up
the trick is
the moment some counsellor found you (inside OR outside the school)
they will report you
the discipline headmistress will confront you
and then call your parents
then the parenst will haev to make a choice
if they agree to the rship, kid will be expelled
if they don't (more often than not), kid has to break up
apparently dunman has similiar rules
if not more strict

Someone on the above: "Basically there were a few ways of getting caught. One of which was to wear the RV uniform and you can await rabid ex-alumni of RVHS students who would complain about the smallest transgressions to get you. I recalled one of them complained how an RVian couple were making out on the MRT train like an "octopus". Or you could choose to date around the school and got caught by the discipline mistress.

Either way, most people just dated without wearing uniforms. Not difficult to evade.."

MFTTW: last week i was at holland v carpark

as i walked down the stairs
i passed a guy carrying his gf on his back up the stairs
she didn't look hurt or ill... but she was wearing very stupid looking
high heels
when he reached the top of the stairs she jupmed off and gave him a
peck on the cheek
:(

Me: why? *** won't do that for you?

MFTTW: -_-
well firstly yes *** definitely wont do that
secondly wtf

Me: hee

MFTTW: i remarked loudly to *** "i guess now you know why girls say sg men
have no balls"
but i don't think either of them heard
sad

Me: and if he didn't do it he'd be accused of not being gentlemanly
you can't win
*men can't win

MFTTW: ha. such a sad lot you men have.

When you wish upon a star...

2012-05-25T14:07:00.000+08:00

You're a few million lightyears late. That star is dead, JUST LIKE YOUR DREAMS

Always Blame the Politicians

2012-05-25T11:41:00.000+08:00

Calvin: When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain that the government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation.

Hobbes: An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.

Calvin: It's a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.

(C&H)

(Consider that the strip stopped in 1995 so this is at least 17 years old)

Links - 24th May 2012

2012-05-24T14:42:00.000+08:00

"In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is." - Gertrude Stein

***

The Avengers: Why Pirates Failed To Prevent A Box Office Record - "Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage... the US box office is not suffering from movie piracy, but that there is a detrimental effect on international box office figures. The researchers attribute this impact to the wide release gaps, which sometimes result in a high quality DVD copy being available on pirate sites while a movie is still showing in theaters"

Study Shows That Venture Capital Funds Are Seriously Overrated - "Larger funds reliably underperform smaller ones; fees eat up disproportionate chunks of performance; investors too easily sign up for second tier managers in order to deploy capital that’s “burning a hole in their pockets” while top tier funds seem to be the only way to justify the risk (as long as they don’t grow too big)."

Economics professor in London: 'They aren't here to learn, they're here to pass' - "I speak to students who are beginning to realise they won't get the grades necessary to even apply. They literally think their lives are over, 21-year-old kids who have been led to believe that either you get into a top paying bank, or it's a cardboard box under London Bridge... I tell students, look at how banks treat you, do you really want to work for an employer that treats you like this?... I have spoken to graduates hired over the summer who got laid off in December. 'Now I know why salaries are so high,' they tell me, 'so that we won't complain when from one day to the next we are made redundant'... I celebrate as a victory every student I manage to talk out of a career in finance. Yet a possibly bigger victory is when they go into the City, but with a different and broader perspective... Has there been a reckoning among academic economists after the crisis? The thing is, they never treated their models the way banks did. As is often the case, the cause of abuse or ill use is the user, not the product itself. Academic economists know that a model is an approximation... the so-called Black-Scholes model is used to calculate today's value of derivatives contracts expiring in the future. That's been incredibly useful. There's one problem. Research shows that were everybody to use the Black-Scholes model, it would cease to work Basically, the quest is for a model that remains unaffected by our knowledge of it. We need lots of talented young economists to delve into this. The trouble is, so much of that talent is sucked up by the banks"

What's So Crazy About an Arranged Marriage? - "Might we Westerners—so intent on finding our soul mates—be able to learn a thing or two from Amina's grandparents? A number of experts think we can—or that, at least, there's plenty of wisdom to take away from cultures where arranged marriage is still common. The number-one attitude adjustment Westerners would do well to make if they'd like to lead more satisfying romantic lives (and who wouldn't?): Taking marriage more seriously as a relationship that's supposed to last until death, rather than till divorce"

Scan spots women faking orgasms - "Researchers found that when a woman is faking, a part of the brain under conscious control lights up, while real orgasms occur subconsciously. The University of Groningen scans also showed important differences between the male and female orgasm. In women, turning off fear and anxiety is key, while men need to know they will be physically stimulated... One thing that they found was putting the couples off the task was literally cold feet. When they gave the couples socks to wear, about 80% of the couples were able to achieve orgasm compared with 50% previously... "When you want to make love to a woman, you must give her the feeling of being protected""

Babies in incubators were once an attraction at Coney Island - "Standards were kept high, and because of the paying customers, Couney never charged any of the parents a penny for the treatment their kids received - even with the cost of care per baby sometimes totaling fifteen dollars a day"

Let's Take These Games And Turn Them Into Dating Sims - "Hey, if there is a dating sim about pigeons, I'm convinced there can be a dating sim about anything"

5 Reasons 'Diablo III' Represents Gaming's Annoying Future - "Nobody is getting the core point: The single-player version of this game should have never been hosted on a remote server to begin with... Sixty-four dollars is as much as some people make in an entire day. For them, handing that over to play a video game is not a minor event. All they want in return is to use the product they just fucking paid for. If any other company in the world sold you a product that didn't work, and then refused to hand over some sort of compensation in return, you wouldn't even need a lawyer. The judge would tell them straight up, "Give them a working product, or give them their money back, or go to fucking jail." But for whatever reason, the video game industry gets away with this now? Every time they have a problem with their servers, I can't play the game I already bought? In an era when people carry their entire music library around with them on their phones, I have less ownership and control of my video games than I had in 1979?"

Why Aren't Cities Littered With Dead Pigeons? - "a hawk was stalking a pigeon INSIDE the clothing store... Dying or dead pigeons are quickly cleaned up by rats and possums... for those that make it, they tend to want to die peaceably in out-of-the-way places like ducts and building ledges, which perhaps unconsciously remind them of their ancestral lairs in the caves and cliffsides of Europe, the Middle East and north Africa... “but a lot of wild animals do choose to go somewhere to die naturally. They don't just plop in a street: They often just crawl under a building or into a tight space, because as they die they are vulnerable and don't necessarily want to get eaten alive in their last moments”"

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Immigrants should be screened for 'anger, hate' before they're allowed entry into S'pore
We should screen citizens for anger and hate too

University Will Pay You $3,500 to Eat Fast Food for Three Months - "Just in case you were concerned about the health consequences of this research on participants, you should know the university plans to register them for a weight loss program, so no harm done…"

World's Subways Converging on Ideal Form - "On the surface, these core-and-branch systems — evident in New York City, Tokyo, London or most any large metropolitan subway — may seem intuitively optimal. But in the absence of top-down central planning, their movement over decades toward a common mathematical space may hint at universal principles of human self-organization."

Singapore's choice: Wealth creation or management? - "Although Singapore is often held up as an example of economic success, it has produced an abundance of wealth managers but not enough wealth creators, said a former top civil servant... Singapore graduates in law, accounting, economics and even medicine often vie for managerial jobs in banks, industry and Government... 'Should Singapore aim to be Jurong Island or Shenton Way?'... He added that there is no national wealth creator in Singapore today... 'I believe that a job in technology has more multiplier effects than one in the service industry,' he said. 'Take banking or wealth management. There's no reason why people should come here to manage their funds. They could do it in the middle of the Indian Ocean with a computer. The barriers of entry are very low'"
You earn a lot more on Shenton Way; you don't have to create wealth as long as you get it

'Verbal abuse' by teacher: Dad files police report - "her teacher said to her: 'I don't want to see your face'"
"police would take stern actions against anyone giving false information, as these irresponsible actions utilise police resources which could be used better in crime fighting.""

The first of the supper clubs… | Dish Piglets - "Having never heard of supper clubs, I was intrigued when I came across Plusixfive. Gozgozgoz, the guy behind Plusixfive (dialling code for Singapore actually…) holds a supper club at his home in Islington serving: “badass Singaporean street food cooked the good ol’ way, presented with minimum fuss and maximum taste”... Funnily enough, there weren’t many Singaporeans/ Malaysians in the crowd and I was quite impressed."
Maybe some Malaysians will picket the place protesting that the food is really Malaysian

Goldman, Other Investors Pile Out of Facebook - "The smart money is flying out of Facebook as the dumb money piles in."

New York Jews and Chinese Food - "New York Jews love Chinese restaurant food so much that they have made it a second cuisine... It’s basic elements are over four thousand years old -- older even than Jews. In short, quality, price, and proximity are some of the reasons why Chinese food became so important to New York Jews... Jewish informants also tended to denigrate their ethnic restaurant food more than the Italian Americans did theirs. Some people we interviewed suggested that Jewish Americans actually may have had more gastronomical reason than Italian Americans to look beyond their own ethnic restaurants... Chinese cooking disguises the tabooed ingredients by cutting, chopping, and mincing them... Chinese food could be adopted by rebellious Jews because the forbidden substances were so disguised that dishes did not reflexively repulse and so undermine their ability to rebel... They loved to eat egg rolls in Chinese restaurants because the pork and seafood tasted delicious, but were so minced that they could pretend these ingredients were not there... Both cultures favored chicken recipes and, as Mimi Sheraton notes, shared a preference for dishes
seasoned with garlic, celery, and onions. The Cantonese restaurants frequently overcooked the vegetables somewhat -- just the way Eastern European Jews liked them... Portnoy suggested that eating in Chinese restaurants enabled his family to deny their lowly status in an anti-Semitic society by participating in the prejudice against an even more lowly group... "I felt about Chinese restaurants the same way I did about the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- they were the two most strange and fascinating places my parents took me to, and I loved them both"... "We also acknowledge the pizzeria across the street..We worked out many of our ideas..and determined name order by coin toss there""

Five new Hawker Masters honoured at the Asian Masters Gala Dinner - "The Singapore Hawker Masters is an annual search for the best hawkers in various categories. Hawker Masters for different categories will be awarded each year. For this year, the categories were: Wontan Noodles, Fried Hokkien Mee, Satay, Bak Kut Teh, Roti Prata and Tau Suan... Bak Kut Teh Category: The judges decided that none of the three finalists are worthy of the Master title."
Is this elitist?

Away to Hanoi

2012-05-24T09:39:00.000+08:00

Off to Viet Nam to find a wife/Yaw Shin Leong.

Back Sunday.

(and yes, I haven't finished my 2011 Australia Travelogue, let alone started on my 2012 Europe [1] travelogue!)

Bonus: the original ad from 越南相亲网独家揭密：火爆的越南新娘经济（多图）_越南新娘|越南相亲|越南美女尽在缘美越南新娘网WWW.0084LOVE.COM:

Hey, at least they still teach them how to use a condom

2012-05-23T19:49:00.002+08:00

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous Huxley

***

My attention has been drawn to RI's Sexuality Education syllabus.

Since I am busy, let me just make some observations based on fragments:

"It is premised on the importance of the heterosexual married couple forming a nuclear family as the basic unit of society, and respect for the values and beliefs of the different ethnic and religious communities on sexuality issues"

This is shocking bigotry against extended families, especially since Asian Values emphasise the value of extended families!

Also: goodie - if you're Mormon you can have multiple wives! Too bad for the feminists, though.

"Recognize the consequences of excessive masturbation"

Feed them cornflakes!

"Recognize that there are different ways of inviting sexual intimacy, namely through dressing, speech, actions and choice of dating venues"

Doesn't no mean no?

"Understand that same-gendered sex is against the law in Singapore"

So much for non-enforcement.

"Appreciate sensible dressing and understand how dressing can be interpreted differently by various people"

Slutwalk! Woo hoo!

"Understand there are consequences in any decision one makes regarding sexual intercourse"

Indeed. "No" has consequences too.

"Practise negotiating one’s way out of a negative situation by applying skills learnt from Lesson 2"
(Lesson 2 being: "practise responding to persuation assertively")

I can imagine how the roleplays go...

"Let's not use a condom"
"Sure!"

And among same-sex students too!

Of course the 17-18 year olds have something too:

"Students will learn the importance of having realistic expectations about their appearance and be more confident about their body image"

(this should come a lot earlier than 18)

What makes someone Singaporean?

2012-05-22T23:32:00.001+08:00

"If time flies when you're having fun, it hits the afterburners when you don't think you're having enough." - Jef Mallett

***

In the Straits Times today: What makes someone Singaporean?

Suggested answers off the top of my head:

Parochialism
Taking offense at differing views
A mindless obsession with National Slavery (National Service) for the guys
Princess Mentality for the girls
Thinking racial-religious ignorance equates to harmony
Instinctively preferring foreign cultures

Note: what makes someone Singaporean is not necessarily the same as what distinguishes a Singaporean from other people. This is similar to how a water molecule needs hydrogen, but not all molecules with hydrogen are water molecules.

* - I used to have "abysmal language skills" here, but the only internationally comparable dataset I could find for English was from The Bilingual Education Policy in Singapore: Implications for Second Language Acquisition:

"The thirty-five country IEA Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001, which tested 10-year-olds (with four years of schooling) on reading for literary purposes and reading for informational purposes... Overall, Singapore's Primary 4 (P4) students scored significantly higher than the international average and fifteen countries, not significantly different from Scotland, New Zealand and six other nations, and significantly lower than England, the United States and nine other countries. For both literary and informational purposes, Singapore performed significantly better than 15 countries, and did not significantly differ from eleven and twelve countries, respectively, including the US on reading for informational purposes. Singapore, at 43%, was one of only four countries in which less than half of their students 'always' or 'almost always' spoke the language of the test at home"

My prima facie impression still inclines towards my original response (especially since this only tested Reading, and 10 year olds too), but I will wait for better data to become available.

Original IPS list of 30 traits:

Social Markers of Integration

1. Is gainfully employed
2. Belongs to one of Singapore’s main ethnic groups (CMIO)
3. Has completed tertiary education
4. Has lived in Singapore for a period of time
5. Has retired or plans to retire in Singapore
6. Owns residential property in Singapore
7. Works for a government ministry or statutory board
8. Works for a Singapore-based company
9. Works in a field where there is a shortfall of talent in Singapore
10. Invests in or sets up a Singapore-based company
11. Completes National Service himself (for the men)
12. His/Her male child completes National Service
13. Participates in grassroots’ activities (e.g. RC)
14. Participates in the work of local charity organizations or self-help groups
15. Participates in local politics (e.g. join a political party)
16. Marries a local-born Singaporean
17. Has a social circle comprising mostly localborn Singaporeans
18. Has children who are Singapore citizens
19. Enjoys ‘typical’ Singaporean past times
20. Lives in a HDB flat
21. Attended or attends government or government-aided schools (themselves or their children)
22. Able to speak conversational English
23. Able to speak a language of one of Singapore’s main racial group
24. Able to speak Singlish
25. Respects multi-racial and multi-religious practices
26. Supports Singapore products and brands
27. Behaves like a ‘Singaporean’
28. Gives up foreign cultural norms or behaviour
29. Gets on well with workplace colleagues
30. Gets on well with neighbours

Strangely, "Helpful, Friendly, Considerate" was listed as a Singaporean characteristic by 14% of the respondents.

Also, among the top 5 characteristics of being Singaporean Foreign-Born Citizens cited were:

3. Belongs to one of Singapore’s main ethnic groups (57%)
5. Owns residential property in Singapore (55%)

Australia 2011 - Day 11, Part 3 - Litchfield National Park

2012-05-22T19:52:00.000+08:00

"It's not a matter of whether or not someone's watching over you. It's just a question of their intentions." - Randy K. Milholland

***

Australia 2011
Day 11 - 8th August - Litchfield National Park (Part 3)

Next was Tolmer Falls.

Tolmer Falls

Tolmer Falls

Tolmer Falls Panorama 2

Forested area on other side

Falls rainbow

There was a 45 minute walk but by this time I was too nua to do it. Also one could see a lot from the path to the lookout point (and I'd been looking at enough rocks for diminishing marginal utility to hit pretty heavily).

There was a Chinese couple in their 60s or 70s from Dalian. Their daughter looked like she was in her late 20s and her husband was a white guy in his 50s or so, witha head of white hair. In Melbourne, she said she was from China and Melbourne (at first I thought it was some Chinese city). Perhaps because of that, she sensed my English was better than my Mandarin and switched to English. How nice of her. Then her father asked me if Singaporeans going to Malaysia needed a qian1 zheng4. I thought this meant a passport stamp, but it was actually a visa. So I gave the wrong answer. Oops.

We then proceeded to Buley Falls.

"If carpark is FULL then Buley is CROWDED. Please come back later"

The culture in Australia seemed to be to go headfirst into the lot, so I reversed in a few instances. Belabored literary analyses notwithstanding, I was just doing it ~~for fun~~ so our car would be easily located in the carpark.

On the Buley Rockhole

Pond Life

Cavorting by the water. That woman is the one I referred to earlier, who swam in her bra.

Pool

People in pool

Backs lined up

"Nature's ۞۞۞۞۞ Spa"
With all the people frolicking in it, I doubt it's still "Good enough to bottle"

We then moved on to Florence Falls.

Coming to Australia with a hat, insect repellent and sunblock is very smart. I brought none of those things. Though moisturiser helped a bit.

I rolled down the car window to cool the car as we drove, and our road map flew out. Oops. However we knew there were lots of environmentally-conscious people behind us to clear up.

I saw a van with an ad for German-speaking tours.

Florence Falls sign

Florence Falls

Rapids, Pool

This is a great idea. All walks need previews so one can decide if they're worth doing!

Cavort cavort cavort cavort cavort

Tree climbing: one of the things you miss out on growing up in Singapore

Artistic pond shot

This is not a Water Boatman, so I'll just call it "pond bug"

You need to time your visits really well to catch many ranger activities

'Shakin Bacon' van

Hand-scrawled road sign for Gorky

No liquor AND no porn
Between this sign and Batchelor which itself had a "no liquor" sign, there was 50m or so of open space. One could sit down there and drink.

Fish eating themselves

Hidden tobacco

I don't know why they're so proud of their Iced Coffee

I then went to a store to buy "Passiona", a passionfruit soft drink. It wasn't very nice, fulfilling my rule of local soft drinks (they're usually not very nice). Incidentally I made sure not to visit the store with the nasty guy as I didn't want to be harassed again.

Besides not being very nice, there were weird particles floating in it. Perhaps a new form of life? The ingredients list didn't mention bits of fruit so they couldn't have been that. Anyway it was too acidic and acrid, and was slightly bitter, even, assaulting my buccal cavity.
It was better when less gassy, which it became with the car's vibrations as we travelled. I then understood why uncles added salt to their Coke.

Strangely, I was even more sian after my swim. I suppose it, the hike, the previous day's hike and the weather were taking their toll on me.

Unleaded petrol was $1.487/l and plus ulp $1.467/l. I'm not sure why someone would go for normal unleaded petrol.

There were some cars marked "Hertz". Maybe renters got discounts for doing their advertising for them.

Maybe the Top End had a lot of Germans because they like camping.

Links - 22nd May 2012

2012-05-22T13:52:00.000+08:00

"'So you think *I'm* the murderer? What do I have to do to convince you that I'm not, be the next victim?'
'Well, that would be a start.'"
--- Peter Stone, Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in "Charade", 1963

***

The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future - "It slipped into parody late last year with the hypothetical app, Jotly, which allowed you to "rate everything" from the ice cubes in your drink to the fire hydrant you saw on the street. The fake promo video perfectly nailed everything about the herd mentality among startups. Its creator told me to watch for "the color blue, rounded corners, SoLoMo [SocialLocalMobile], ratings, points, free iPads, ridiculous name (complete with random adverbing via 'ly'), overpromising, private beta, giant buttons, 'friction-less' sign up, no clear purpose, and of course a promo video." And then, the hilarious parody ate itself and my tears of laughter turned to sadness when the people behind the joke actually released Jotly as a real, live app... I return to Jeff Hammerbacher's awesome line about developers these days: "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.""

What Airport Security Costs You - ""It's not clear to me that the $40 billion we've spent on screening passengers since September 11 is the wisest use of security resources," says Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at think tank the Reason Foundation, and a member of the Government Accountability Office's National Aviation Studies Advisory Panel... Because driving is so much more dangerous than flying, the thousands of more people who took to the roads rather than the skies after September 11 led to more car accidents. Blalock estimated that from September of 2001 to October of 2003, the enhanced airport security led to 2,300 road fatalities that otherwise would not have occurred"

Why the U.S. Supports Israel | FPIF - "- Israel has successfully prevented victories by radical nationalist movements in Lebanon and Jordan, as well as in Palestine.
- Israel has kept Syria, for many years an ally of the Soviet Union, in check.
- Israel's air force is predominant throughout the region.
- Israel's frequent wars have provided battlefield testing for American arms, often against Soviet weapons.
- It has served as a conduit for U.S. arms to regimes and movements too unpopular in the United States for openly granting direct military assistance, such as apartheid South Africa, the Islamic Republic in Iran, the military junta in Guatemala, and the Nicaraguan Contras. Israeli military advisers have assisted the Contras, the Salvadoran junta, and foreign occupation forces in Namibia and Western Sahara.
- Israel's intelligence service has assisted the U.S. in intelligence gathering and covert operations.
- Israel has missiles capable of reaching as far as the former Soviet Union, it possesses a nuclear arsenal of hundreds of weapons, and it has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial complex with research and development for new jet fighters and anti-missile defense systems."

How uncontrolled immigration can destroy a nation: A comparative case study of the Korean kingdoms of Balhae (渤海) and Silla (新羅) << THE TEMASEK TIMES
I'm still trying to figure out what the argument of this article is

Can Polygamy Be Ethical? - "A researcher argues that traditional forms of polygamy — defined as a marriage with more than two partners— are inherently unequal and therefore morally objectionable"
Similarly, it is unethical to have more than one child

The Tyre Prophecy Again - "Biblical inerrantists have resorted to all sorts of verbal gymnastics to try to explain how that Ezekiel's prophecy could have been fulfilled if the site of ancient Tyre is still occupied by a city. They say such things as it never regained its former splendor, but the prophecy didn't predict this: it said that the city would never be rebuilt. Some inerrantists even say that present-day Tyre is not built on the same site, but a look at modern maps of Lebanon will show (as does the aerial photo mentioned above) that Sur [the modern name] is located on the very site of the former island. It just isn't so that each of the items in this prophecy "came to pass exactly as Ezekiel said." He predicted that the city would be destroyed and never built again, but a city is there now on the same spot that Ezekiel said would be a bare rock forever."

GM wheat scientists at Rothamsted make plea to protesters - "The protest group Take the Flour Back has vowed to "decontaminate" the site unless the research is halted. The scientists say the GM plants could benefit the environment as they will reduce pesticide use. "We appeal to you as environmentalists," they write in an open letter. "Our GM wheat could, for future generations, substantially reduce the use of agricultural chemicals." But the campaigners say the GM trial presents "a clear risk to British farming"... the Rothamsted letter pledges their results "will not be patented and will not be owned by any private company. "If our wheat proves to be beneficial we want it to be available to farmers around the world at minimum cost," they write. They are inviting campaigners in for a discussion. "You have described genetically modified crops as 'not properly tested'," they write. "Yet when tests are carried out you are planning to destroy them before any useful information can be obtained. "We do not see how preventing the acquisition of knowledge is a defensible position in an age of reason.""
When you understand why campaigners do what they do, you understand why they eschew dialogue

Coffee seduction scam blows holes... in wallets - "15 suspects were detained by Shanghai police in connection with an alleged coffee bar charging exorbitant prices for their coffee (and other items) to customers after luring them in with young women"

That’s Not Trash, That’s Dinner - NYTimes.com - "Pre-industrial cooks, for whom thrift was a necessity as well as a virtue, once knew many ways to put the entire garden to work. Fried green tomatoes and pickled watermelon rind are examples of dishes that preserved a bumper crop before rot set in"

Singapore Other Services Ads Classified Ads - SgAdsOnline
Somehow, 95% of these in the "other services" category are for sex

Sexy Dressing Revisited:does Target Dress Play A Part In Sexual Harassment Cases? - ""U.S. psychiatrists in large numbers believe that revealing attire is one of the causative or precipitating factors in sex crimes against young females"... The same general findings hold true for dress and sexual harassment... studies of rapists suggest that victim attire is not a significant factor. Instead, rapists
look for signs of passiveness and submissiveness, which, studies suggest, are more likely to coincide with more body-concealing clothing... men, using only nonverbal appearance cues, could accurately assess which women were passive and submissive versus those who were dominant and assertive. Clothing was one of the key cues: “Those females high in passivity and
submissiveness (i.e., those at greatest risk for victimization) wore noticeably more body-concealing clothing (i.e., high necklines, long pants and sleeves, multiple layers).” This suggests that men equate body-concealing clothing with passive and submissive qualities, which are qualities that rapists look for in victims. Thus, those who wore provocative clothes would not be viewed as passive or submissive, and would be less likely to be victims of assault. Along these lines, research suggests that rape victims are “significantly lower” in “dominance, assertiveness, and social presence.”"
This does not seem to gel with some feminist claims about violence, pornography, objectification and slut-shaming, but as the article admits (in a somewhat different context, "No one theory explains the current happenings with women’s dress—instead, the discussion leads to tension within feminist theory")

Insane and magical photos a father created of his daughters

Women's Rape Fantasies: How Common? What Do They Mean? - "From 1973 through 2008, nine surveys of women's rape fantasies have been published. They show that about four in 10 women admit having them (31 to 57 percent) with a median frequency of about once a month. Actual prevalence of rape fantasies is probably higher because women may not feel comfortable admitting them... she [resists] initially, but then eventually melts into submission, desire, and ultimately fulfillment... In porn for women as depicted in romance novels, the fantasy is to be desired so much that the man loses all control, though he never actually hurts the woman, and in the end, marries her"

Girl Talk: When (Rape) Fantasy Becomes Reality - "To him, this was the fantasy I’d been talking about. To me, it was not... If this had happened to any one of my friends, indeed any woman I know, I’d have been the first to rail against any sort of “blame the victim” stance. But knowing what I know about my own reticence to set concrete limits, not out of laziness but out of sheer spite for what I’d always thought was a lame, overwrought, touchy-feely set of principles, I can’t assuage myself fully from blame"

Why Men Should Fear the Rape Fantasy - "Many experts believe that women use the fantasies to alleviate guilt. "The common theme is that these women somehow feel bad about being sexual," says addiction specialist and radio host Dr. Drew Pinsky. "These fantasies give them license to say, 'I couldn't help myself—I was being raped' as an excuse"... Like with most psychological phenomena, there's no direct explanation for why some women are turned on by the notion of force while others are aroused by the idea of making love in a field of daisies—only speculation"
I proposed the former as a reason for the popularity of pole dancing and salsa

What's Behind Rape Fantasies? - ""How weird is this? We fight for the right to say yes, then once we have it we find it's hottest if we pretend to say no"... "Rape fantasies are an extension of a woman's tendency to fantasize about being a submissive person in a sexual encounter""

"The Myth of Chinese Meritocracy" - "In many ways, Bo personified the Chinese concept of “meritocracy” – well-educated, intelligent, sophisticated, and charming (mainly to Western executives). But, after his fall, a very different picture emerged. Aside from his alleged involvement in assorted crimes, Bo was said to be a ruthless apparatchik, endowed with an outsize ego but no real talent. His record as a local administrator was mediocre... Unfortunately, Bo’s case is not the exception in China, but the rule. Contrary to the prevailing perception in the West (especially among business leaders), the current Chinese government is riddled with clever apparatchiks like Bo who have acquired their positions through cheating, corruption, patronage, and manipulation... few Chinese citizens believe that they are governed by the best and the brightest. But astonishingly, the myth of a Chinese meritocracy remains very much alive among Westerners who have encountered impressively credentialed officials like Bo"

Observations - 22nd May 2012

2012-05-22T09:03:00.000+08:00

"A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic." - George Bernard Shaw

***

Someone: "當你對一個女人說你愛她的時候，她就是你的責任了。"
Me: "如果她不爱你，惨了"

To remember: OKT : Orh Kui Tao (Tortoise Head)

If your surname is Foo you shouldn't call yourself Sam

"男人不长女人不爽" - This is a new one

Annoyed by people who claim that Singapore Fried Noodles doesn't exist in Singapore.

We've had Fanta Orange in Singapore for a while, but when is Lemon coming? But I think F&N Orange [Crush] got canned...

"nasi padang aunties have awesome mathematics leh. you can order the same thing on different days and pay different amts."
NB: People from different demographic groups pay differently, too

Amused that so many SG girls like ramen. Making up for Yong Tau Fu and fish soup?

RT @nommmsta Def not ladyironchef. Word of mouth is best RT @IS_magazine: Besides I-S, who or what do you turn to for reliable restaurant reviews? Pls RT

Amused at typical Singaporean female wedding shots as profile photos. Is it not customary for Singaporean women to change their profile photos to a wedding shot, typically of them looking demurely downwards with an enigmatic smile on their faces?

"Watched 30 seconds of the 9pm Ch 8 drama and already saw more state propaganda on it than a WWII film
Joanne Peh: OMGOMGOMG SO HAPPY WE FINALLY GOT A FLAT, WE ARE GOING TO BE MARRIED
Pierre Png: DAD AND MOM, DUN WORRY, YOU'RE GOING TO COME LIVE WITH US UNDER ONE ROOF LIKE A HAPPY FAMILY
Joanne Peh: CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE SO LUCKY WE BALLOTED A GOOD FLAT"

Amused that there used to be Tampenis Roads in Singapore.

Amused that the Asia Paranormal Investigators is involved in Bukit Brown preservation.

In Singapore religions are protected from everything. Except the state.

A vice-chairman is not the same as a vice chairman (punctuation is important!)

A Compelling Preposition must really turn grammar nazis on

Wondering how many British English snobs pick on the "American" pronunciation of "mass" (basically "mahs" is a variant UK pronunciation but "mehs" is an acceptible UK pronunciation too. Also mass (as in kg) cannot be pronounced "mahs")

"If you really need my attention, please send me a mobile text and I may get back to you. Have a nice day"
Someone: best one i've seen reads "i am sick. i am not in the office."

Is it so hard to check your email before calling me for an update about something I've already finished?

Malaysia tourism slogan: "revisit the glory of a different time". So now the country's shit.

""looking for a real man" or "gentleman". This simply means she wants you to pay for everything and take care of her"

RT @jennyteo: Problem with paying ministers millions of dollars: they'll never understand how "average" Singaporeans struggle to deal with inflation.

RT: @BB_See: In Singapore, you have to be 16 to have sex, be 18 to get paid for it, and 21 to watch someone else do it. Tell me that makes sense.

RT @VeryRudeTweets: I don't understand why Christians are against gay marriage. Jesus had two dads, he turned out alright.

RT @VeryRudeTweets Twilight - the story of a young woman's choice to practice either bestiality or necrophilia.

"The main idea of "Inception": if you run a VM inside a VM inside a VM inside a VM, everything will be very slow"

New Blog Picture - 21st May 2012

2012-05-21T23:51:00.000+08:00

Ooo eee, ooo ahh ahh, ting tang walla walla bing bang!

Australia 2011 - Day 11, Part 2 - Litchfield National Park: Wangi Falls

2012-05-21T21:07:00.001+08:00

Australia 2011
Day 11 - 8th August - Litchfield National Park: Wangi Falls (Part 2)

Next was Tabletop Swamp.

Map of Litchfield. The places accessible by dotted lines were 4WD-only. Another place that sounded interesting we had to miss out on was the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine.

A true swamp

Tabletop Swamp

More of the swamp

I didn't notice the birds that were supposed to be there - it was just a swamp.

Next was Wangi Falls.

Area Map

"Disabled Shared BBQ (sic)"
How considerate

Nice crocs vs nasty ones

The pond at Wangi Falls was very civilized:

Infrastructure

Wangi Falls. It sure beats Kota Tinggi

Not quite Ursula Andress

On the walk and viewing platforms

We set off on the Wangi Loop Walk.

On bats

On fishes

Spider on the Water

Plunge pool

As a good economist, I believed that if there were saltwater crocodiles in the pool, they'd have had attacked someone already.

Wangi Falls

On the Monsoon Forest

Path

On Golden Orb spiders (this is why I walked behind MR on the trail)

Noisy rainforest

Flower show

Pigeon tucker

We climbed up the platform to view the Canopy

View of forest below from above the falls

"The upper section of Wangi Falls can be dangerous. It is also an important Aboriginal cultural site. You may not enter this area without a permit"
No prizes for guessing which reason is more important

River feeding Wangi Falls

Rock pools

Link Walk sign

Mini waterfall

Bricked stream

At the end of the walk, we found a food stand that the guy at Mt Bundy had told us to avoid.

Chicken is cheaper than the vegetarian option hmm

This read like "LitchfieldAffairs.com.au". Also the open top was a recipe for sunburn

I found shoes with swimwear amusing

After the trek, I took a swim in the Wangi Falls pond. There was a woman swimming in a bra and women swimming with sunglasses.

I tried out the waterfall jacuzzi and it was very shiok. However I couldn't go directly under the main flow of the waterfall as its fullforce was too strong.

We next proceeded to Litchfield Cafe for:

"Our World Famous Homemade Mango Cheesecake"

There was a German girl at the counter who was, of course, on a working holiday. She said it was mostly French and Germans on them (though I saw a lot more Germans than French on this leg). I speculated that the tourist industry would collapse without them.

"If you do not have a book to exchange do not take any. English only. No romances"
People can't follow instructions

Sadly the cafe was out of crocodile, so I settled for kangaroo again.

"Wimmers Double Sarsaparilla"
This was alright on the first sip, but I soon found that it had a flat middle- and aftertaste. It was also a bit flat and lacked complexity, and tasted a bit medicinal. Perhaps a single would've been better. The reason they lasted 100 years: there was no Sarsi as competition (I acknowledge A&W Root Beer is an inappropriate comparison as it's not in the same category)

Lunch. This was the small chips serving and everything cost $25.50. The 'salad' being iceberg lettuce in the burger. And the kangaroo was bland like my previous kangaroo.

The place was really expensive - even more so than Kings Canyon (the kiosk) if you wanted chips, in fact. It'd been recommended by the guy at Mt Bundy instead of the food stand earlier - maybe he got commission.

"World Famous" Mango Cheesecake. I bet no one not from the Litchfield area knew about it. That said it was quite good, almost as bursting in flavour as Orchard Hotel's Mango cake, though not as light (but it was cheesecake). There was also a $1 surcharge for takeaway ($7.50 in all - not as overpriced as the other things, methinks).

Victim blaming!

Ghost bats sign

"Rocks created in water"

"Homes amongst the rock"

There were some birds flying into the car. How come wallabies were smarter?

I can resist anything except...

2012-05-21T17:35:00.000+08:00

"We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful."

Australia 2011 - Day 11, Part 1 - Litchfield National Park: Magnetic Termites

2012-05-21T00:45:00.007+08:00

Australia 2011
Day 11 - 8th August - Litchfield National Park: Magnetic Termites (Part 1)

Before heading out for Litchfield National Park, we explored Mt Bundy Station, where we'd slept.

This should be a peahen

Hopping Kangaroos

Birds

Buffalo & horses

Parts of the station

Horses and their replacement

One thing I've been pondering: is it proper to pluralise "ice cream"?

Turkeys?

I'd bought some "Anzac Biscuits" from Coles. They were nice, but very generic - just chewy oat biscuits.

"In the tropics lights left on attract insects, insects attract frogs, frogs attract snakes"

Unfortunately we did not have the chance to indulge in their activities

"Free coffee for driver"

Highway project signs read "nation building project". Hurr.

The road to Batchelor was supposed to have "Pell WWII airstrip" with a farmstay of the same name, but I couldn't find the turnoff.

"Batchelor: Australian Tidy Towns 2000 National Winner"

Notice how they cheated to declare Batchelor a "historic town"

Fuel at Batchelor was $1.62.09/l.

I walked into the Batchelor General Store and as usual amused myself.

Head lice control. I guess you need this in the Outback.

A separate hardware section - you'd imagine it was for alcohol.

"Flavoured Dry Cat Food. Seafood Platter"

The cauliflower in the store had brown spots, but I didn't take a picture because one staff member was very unfriendly. I was strolling around and he asked me to ask him if I needed help, or to ask for prices. A few minutes later he asked what I was doing. I said I was looking around. Then, as I was noting on my paper how unfriendly he was, he came by and accused me of being snoopy and writing down prices. I said I wasn't doing that and was writing that he was asking me so many questions, and he asked me if I was buying something. Happily, after he stormed off I found the guy at the counter to be more friendly. I was assured that the first man was usually like that - worse, sometimes.

Ironically Coke was $4.10 for 600ml at the General Store - but $2 for a 375ml can at the food outlet next door.

The way to Litchfield read: "Road subject to flooding. Next 50km". Gee.

When we finally hit Litchfield there was a sign: "Beware of Road Trains". In a national park???

Our first stop in Litchfield was the [Magnetic] Termite Mounds.

Cathedral Termite Mound sign

Mound. This didn't seem to be magnetic.

I overheard a guide for a group and learnt some interesting things. The first international airport in the area was made from crushed termite mounds.

An even better tidbit was that the aborigines used to bury their dead in termite mounds (if there wasn't one they found a hollow tree). The termites would seal the hole you made in the mound for the body. However, raw flesh would decompose and kill the termites, so you could only put bones.

As you went closer to the coast, the aborigines were less likely to believe in the afterlife.

The aborigines would put their hands down holes to look for iguanas. If they felt a rough tail it was good. If it was smooth it would be a King Brown - the second most deadly snake in the world, so they'd let go.

After death ceremonies, everything involved in the ceremony had to be burnt, like didgeridoos. If you walked into a gendered ceremony of the opposite gender, you became part of the ceremony, were used it it and were burnt at its end.

Tourists and mound. This didn't seem to be magnetic either.

Tourists and another mound

Termites

On Insect Architecture

Life on the lowlands

On water

This was problematic: does it make sense to call white Australians, in 1948, "Europeans"? Incidentally, Litchfield National Park is named after a European - they haven't (yet?) renamed it to an Aboriginal name.

Magnetic Termite Mounds

Termite mounds

2/3 of the mound is underground, and 1/3 above

The magnetic termites go for the grass and don't touch the trees.

I call this buide "Buffalo Bill". I eavesdropped on his tales earlier, then he was talking about shooting feral animals and using the termite mounds for sighting. He said you should never shoot a buffalo in the skull as it's 4.5" thick. You should shoot it in the spine or shoulder. People scavenge the meat but after 2 hours when you can pull the skin off easily the carcass should be condemned.

On Floodplain termites

No shirt, no shoes, no service?

Outside of KFC, the Northern Territory seems to be Coke Country.

We were unable to visit some places due to not having a 4WD. The Lost City looks very interesting.

Links - 20th May 2012

2012-05-20T12:45:00.000+08:00

F No, "Chemical Free!" - "Naming and shaming the marketers who use this meaningless phrase"

Why men like Ursula Andress and women prefer Audrey Hepburn - "For men, the top choice was the character of Honey Ryder in 1962 Bond film Dr No, as played by Ursula Andress... Second was Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the Alien saga, who was a strong woman, admittedly, but spent some of the time running about in her pants"

Analysts say North Korea's new missiles are fakes - "The weapons displayed April 15 appear to be a mishmash of liquid-fuel and solid-fuel components that could never fly together. Undulating casings on the missiles suggest the metal is too thin to withstand flight. Each missile was slightly different from the others, even though all were supposedly the same make. They do not even fit the launchers they were carried on"

U.S. can't afford to give away air travelers' lost change - "Only in Washington can it actually cost money to give away loose change. Every year people traveling through U.S. airports mistakenly leave behind about $400,000 at security screening sites. Transportation officials now apply the funds to airline security costs... transferring the money to the nonprofit would cost U.S. taxpayers $1 million, a recent government report shows"

JCube! - The New Chic Hangout! - "JCube will be a multi-faceted lifestyle destination offering spectacular design and unrivalled shopping experiences to the young, professionals and residents living and working in Jurong Lake District... The name also connotes the mall’s multi-faceted offerings and the Juxtaposition of enJoyable shopping and sports in Jurong"
We have a Lake District in Singapore? Okay...

Execution in the name of art: German students plan to decapitate defenceless lamb as part of sick project - "Their sick project, titled 'An Experiment Experiment Representing the Current Conditions Surrounding Democracy' involves a public vote as to whether the lamb is decapitated... In the background of the video, which also appears on YouTube is the voice of Berlin University of Art lecturer Leiko Ikemura. She can also be heard laughing on the video as the students build their pink, orange and yellow execution machine while puffing on Arabic-style water pipes. 'The colours were to fend off the despondent mood we sometimes felt while building the machine,' said Rezai... Causing the death of an animal in Germany without reasonable cause is an offence in Germany that is punishable by up to three years in jail"
They can celebrate with a lamb shwarma

Transportation Security Administration defends pat-down of Isabella Brademeyer, 4, in Kansas - "The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect."
I commend the TSA for treating all travelers the same and not discriminating based on race, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, nationality or country of origin

The Huffington Post is crazy about your health - "Practically since its inception in 2005, the Post’s health coverage has been the subject of scrutiny and criticism from physicians and medical experts... Huffington Post readers were being “fed demonstrable medical falsehoods and misinformation.”"

Why Does Religion Always Get a Free Ride? - "We try to persuade people out of ideas all the time. We try to persuade people that their ideas about science, politics, philosophy, art, medicine, and more, are wrong: that they're harmful, ridiculous, repulsive, or simply mistaken. But when it comes to religion, trying to persuade people out of their ideas is somehow seen as horribly rude at best, invasive and bigoted and intolerant at worst. Why? Why should religion be the exception? I've been writing about atheism for about six years now. In those six years, I've asked this question more times and not once have I gotten a satisfying answer. In fact, only once do I recall getting any answer at all"

TSA Confiscates Water Bottle, Misses Bomb

JFK Airport terminal is closed after a woman carrying a dagger slips by TSA agents - "TSA agents had initially flagged her for having a bottle of liquid in her bag. The screeners confiscated the bottle but missed the antique knife"
Too bad they didn't confiscate a pair of nail clippers too

TSA defends confiscation of Massachusetts woman's cupcake - "the cupcake was packed in a jar filled with icing, which is considered a gel under a policy designed to secure travelers from terrorists seeking to evade detection by using explosives made of plastics, liquids or gels."

Study of the Day: Blacks Confront Racists, Asians Prefer Quiet Revenge - "Our findings are consistent with black women's cultural heritage, which celebrates the past accomplishments of other black confronters of discrimination, as well as Asian women's heritage, which advises finding expedient resolutions in the name of peaceful relations"

Colorado Boy, 6, Suspended for Sexual Harassment - "he told a girl "I'm sexy and I know it," a line from a popular song... The Aurora Police Department said it was not involved in the case because laws only cover children ages 10 and older... "Sometimes when you go to a zero-tolerance policy, you end up with a zero-sense policy""

Study reveals 'shocking' kebabs - "Six kebabs were found to include pork when it had not been declared as an ingredient. Two of the six were described as Halal... The worst doners inspectors came across contained 1,990 calories before salad and sauces - over 95% of a woman's recommended daily calories, 346% of a woman's saturated fat intake and 277% of an adult's daily salt intake... In addition, there was little difference in weight between kebabs labelled as "small" and "large"... Research by the UK's Food Standards Agency in 2006 found that 18.5% of doner takeaways posed a "significant" threat to public health, and 0.8% posed an "imminent" threat"

In Manhattan Pizza War, Price of Slice Keeps Dropping - NYTimes.com - "In the amped-up war of commerce and 75-cent pizza on the Avenue of the Americas in Midtown, a perilous moment is approaching. Circumstances suggest that ravenous New Yorkers might soon witness 50-cent pizza, 25-cent pizza or, yes, free pizza... They had added the name, Pizza King, to the sidewalk sign out front, hoping a regal nickname might do some good"

[GPGT] fantasy vs reality - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Uffe Schjødt | The Neuroscience of Prayer - It's a Brain Puzzle - "Importantly and somewhat contrary to the widespread assumption that communicating with God constitutes a unique experience reserved for believers, our findings suggest that praying to God is comparable to ‘normal’ interpersonal interaction, at least in terms of brain function"

Utah Caveman Quits Money - "He traveled to India, and became fascinated by Hindu Sadhus, who wandered without lucre and possessions. He considered joining them, but then he realized that "A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth, to return to the authenticity profound principles of spirituality hidden beneath our own religion of hypocrisy, and be a Sadhu there""

The Myth of Scientific Marketing - ""The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood." That's how Claude Hopkins unfortunately began his 1923 classic, Scientific Advertising, which has had an enormous effect on not just advertising, but the marketing profession as a whole. What Mr. Hopkins describes is neither marketing nor science. Good marketing, like good science, is about the questions you ask not the answers you give nor the knowledge you think you have... High level math tends to be highly subjective. Model fitting and algorithms involve making assumptions which reflect the biases and preferences of the people who create them. As I wrote before, there's a big difference between math and numbers... False gurus are everywhere telling us ridiculous things like that it is now "all about the conversation," or that traditional media is dead and lots of other nonsense. They have no doubt because they ask no questions. They only have answers. Of course, they can find some data that supports their argument. It's not that hard. The world is full of contradictory facts"

Dinner with a Movie: DVD Offers Pleasant Mealtime Conversation With Young Japanese Females - "Now, thanks to the 'background video' DVD series Amateur Meal Time ～Let's Eat Together!～, you can now fulfill that desire by enjoying the atmosphere of a dinner date without the hassle of actually having to meet a real woman!"

Religion 'riskier than porn' for online viruses - "Web wanderers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn... "It is interesting to note that websites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth," Symantec said in the report. "We hypothesise that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free; it's not good for repeat business.""

Penis Size: It May Be Written in the Length of His Fingers - "Of course, it remains to be seen whether the correlation between penis size and 2D:4D ratio holds true in non-Korean men or in Korean men who aren't having some type of urological surgery"

Study: Why Some Transgendered People Have Higher Levels of Autistic Traits - "Female-to-male transgendered people -- known as transmen -- have more autistic traits than typical heterosexual men and women, and more than those who wish to switch gender in the opposite direction... giving testosterone to women decreases their ability to empathize, particularly among women whose bodies show evidence that they were exposed to higher levels of testosterone in utero. And previous research has linked high levels of testosterone in the womb to autistic traits"

Vitals - Teen sex? Actually, most girls don't, report says - "The majority of girls in the United States do not have sex before the age of 19, a change from earlier years, a new report shows."

Hoodies I would (almost) wear in Singapore

2012-05-20T11:02:00.000+08:00

Too bad the guy got sued

Apparently whether you can copyright costumes is a legally open question.

Also fun:

"Angel Grove H.S."

"Angel Grove Youth Center - Gym & Juice Bar"

Australia 2011 - Day 10: Pictures from MR

2012-05-20T00:44:00.000+08:00

Bats

Boarding the boat

Katherine River

Gorge Walls

Lookout we hiked to the previous day

First cataract

Hirsute Boat Captain

Clinging to life

Butterfly Gorge

Second Cataract

Bats again

Dragonfly

End of the half-trek

Gorge view from end of Butterfly Gorge

German speakers' swim

Butterfly

Rocky path

Me taking a break

Red Rooster

Dreary Drive

Australia 2011 - Day 10, Part 2 - Nitmiluk National Park: Butterfly Gorge

2012-05-19T00:08:00.001+08:00

Australia 2011
Day 10 - 7th August - Nitmiluk National Park: Butterfly Gorge (Part 2)

Getting off the cruise, we paused a while before the next part of the day.

I can't tell the difference between the male and female bags.

There's no word for 'disabled' in the local aboriginal tongue. Surely this reflects equity and an ideal pre-European past (rather than the disabled being left to the spiders)

Chocolate Chip bars vs Forest Fruits flavour bars. Hurr.

The Olympic torch was here

We then set off on a hike.

"Heavy vehicles will be using the Baruwei Loop Track from the 11th July"

Metalled road. Which naturally was painful to walk on

Windolf Walk sign. "River water is not treated". Well done.

Given the time we had, we were on the Butterfly Gorge walk.

Sign for Butterfly Gorge. I was suspicious that the gorge was 'butterfly inhabited' rather than butterfly inhabited.

Another painful path

Descent into Butterfly Gorge

I suspected that what looked like a metaled path was actually a river in the wet season

Gorge wall

The main difficulty with the "hard" walk was not its length but the heat and steepness. The small and medium-sized rocks were also hard to walk on especially while trying to avoid a sprained ankle.

Stagnant water in forest

MR commented that he saw more dragonflies than butterflies in Butterfly Gorge. One of my pictures with rocks has a butterfly in it, but it's telling that I can't spot which one it is now. Me, I was looking at the rocks at the level of my foot to avoid spraining my ankle.

Painful-looking plant

Gorge walls

At last, we came within sight of the river:

Of course, there was still the return journey - we were only half-done.

River view

The river was very inviting

A German-speaking family was swimming inside. An older woman from the group said there was a turtle and that one had to blamber over rocks. I tried, but didn't see it.

Panorama from side of Katherine River Gorge

Adventure climb to look for the turtle

Katherine River

It was tempting to swim in the river, but I didn't have a towel. While swimming was tempting, what would've been even better would've been a boat ride back.

More evidence of my death-defying feats

After resting and partaking of some refreshments, we made the return journey.

Finally, good butterfly shots

Spider

Non-light sensitive spider

Rotting log

Rotting log

We reached the car at 3, which had more or less been our target, and set off.

Summary of the trails, again with the disclaimer that "river water is not treated". Apparently we hadn't been through "rough terrain"; I didn't want to attempt the "difficult" trails. It wasn't actually worth doing the Butterfly Gorge, since we'd seen it during the cruise.

"Welcome to Katherine. enjoy your stay, please respect our ways"
Court-enforced sobriety

We stopped in Red Rooster for a late lunch.

Celebrating Australia Day 1998

"Big Deal". A quarter chicken (with stuffing!), chips, crispy strips (reshaped meat and flour, with a fishball texture), regular mashed potatoes and gravy. They had roasted vegetables on the menu: potato, carrot, pumpkin (choose 6). They also sold the gravy on its own - at the same price. Uhh.

Sign for a chiropractor. Err.

What sounded like 80s music by the road. Was it to stop kids loitering?

We then strolled in a supermarket.

"Juicing carrots". Is carrot juice that popular?!
Do they have carrot cake carrots?

Victim of a shark attack

"Milk additives". Uhh.

Somehow drinking this Frantelle Natural Spring water saves lives.

"Mexican foods" vs "Asian food"
Evidently Asian food is conceptualised as a homogenised whole, in a blatant display of Racist Orientalism, while Mexican foods are put in separate cognitive categories. Or maybe Australians just have bad English.

"mens deodorant"

"hair colour"

No candy at the checkout.

I then walked into a store selling stationery and reading materials.

Directly under the "Adult" sign, 60% of the magazines had to do with tattoos and 40% with motorcyles (the label to the left reads "motorcycles"). Of the bona fide adult magazines, a lot were from the UK (I couldn't tell for Extreme Razzle but research reveals that it is). This was an intriguing example of Neo-Colonialism.

One of the adult magazines said "men only", which marginalised women into porn. Most of the magazines were sealed - but not People and Picture, which presumably were kosher for everyone ("Unrestricted M"); as second class pornography anyone 15 and above could read them (the 'good' stuff was reserved for those 18 and above).

Of the magazines for those 18 and above, half were British (from the price, website and flag on the cover) and the other half were Australian (excepting 1-2 I couldn't identify). Playboy's Lingerie was for those aged 18 (presumably they take off their lingerie at some point).

Just as we had almost finished backed out of the parking lot, another fella's car backed out also. I horned at him, but still his car tapped ours lightly. Luckily there were no marks. He and his friends were unapologetic, saying "are we just gonna stand around" in a confrontational tone as if we had been in the wrong. Later while we were pulled over at a sidewalk checking directions they drove past us and horned. Stupid white trash.

While driving to our next destination, I noted that there was a lot more Kangaroo roadkill here than in our Alice Springs leg. This was while there were more cars but fewer potholes. I tried to reconcile this better maintenance with roadkill not being removed as quickly. Maybe the kangaroos here were just more frisky. FWIW I seemed to notice more wallabies/small kangaroos running in front of our car here than in the Alice Springs leg, but we were also driving more at night.

We passed a sign for a Gold Rush attraction: there was a Chinese man with a pole with 2 buckets on his shoulders (like a Samsui Woman). Later there was a silhouette of the same man (sans words) to refer to this attraction.

At one point there were 2 road trains travelling together, and each was 4 vehicle lengths (making for 8 vehicle lengths in all). It was impossible to overtake, so I tried to squeeze in-between them and got honked. Maybe that was almost as dangerous.

There was a guy on a bicycle on the Stuart Highway in the middle of nowhere (between Katherine and the Adelaide River), who didn't buckle his chin strap. Well done.

We sa a sign for "Daly River Scenic Route" and decided to try it. We got conned. It was 67km vs 51km on the normal route, and slower going too, due to rougher terrain; it felt a lot longer than 67km as we went up and down hills (with sudden depressions at the bottom), so it felt like a roller coaster. Maybe if we'd seen the mango farm they'd boasted of this would've been okay, but it was bitumen road all the way. At least we got to see a dodgy-looking sign for the "*something* gold cosmo/Chinese project area" along the scenic route.

At 6:45pm there was one guy who was driving a very dark limo - with his lights off. Gah.

At the end of the Scenic Route, I saw another one of those "free cup of coffee for driver" signs at the Adelaide River BP gas station, and made an enquiry. The guy offered me sachets so I could get my caffeine fix. Coincidentally the station also sold porn mags

Another brand of Orange Juice which failed to perform. Australian OJ is not just sour but also bitter - the epitome of Vile Juice.

I thought these were condoms. It's actually Wrigley's Gum.

Not proudly made in Oz. At least they don't call it Crabstick here.

"RoadKill" beef jerky

Rosella Cordial: "I will not make your kids high even though I'm red"

Sign advertising the "Scenic Route"

We finally hit Mt Bundy station, our rest stop for the night near Litchfield National Park.

Dog on tractor

Advertisement for shop in Darwin: apparently Hot Swimwear is not for men.

The Top End of the Northern Territory was very White, even in its tourist crowd.

Cruise Control is good. You get a constant speed and smooth driving (rather than the inconsistent acceleration and deceleration of normal driving).

Links - 11th May 2012

2012-05-11T00:52:00.002+08:00

Kony 2012 Cover the Night fails to move from the internet to the streets - "The Kony 2012 Cover the Night campaign woke up to awkward questions on Saturday after activists failed to blanket cities with posters of the wanted Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony. The movement's phenomenal success in mobilising young people online, following last month's launch of a 29-minute documentary which went viral, flopped in trying to turn that into real world actions... "What happened to all the fuss about Kony?" said one typical tweet. "Kony is so last month," said another." AWARENESS!

Kony 2012: Invisible Children prepares Cover the Night stunt amid criticism - ""This Invisible Children campaign hurts. It's offensive," says Victor Ochen, founder and director of the African Youth Initiative Network (Ayinet) that works to rehabilitate victims of violence perpetrated by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "The people who have suffered at the hands of Kony don't want to promote him or make him famous. They want to rebuild their lives"... "We get the feeling that Invisible Children care more about their videos than about victims"... "This is a day when communities are trying to heal broken hearts, but Invisible Children want to plaster Kony's face everywhere," he continued. "People in the affected areas find it very difficult when an organisation encourages people to wear T-shirts bearing Kony's face. How do you think Americans would have reacted if people in another country wore Osama Bin Laden T-shirts? All of this just confirms to us that they do not care about the victims and ignore their suffering"... "They also don't seem to recognise that the more Kony feels threatened, the more he's dangerous. This campaign will only worsen their violent acts"... The implication is that the abduction rate has increased since the video was released... "Victims have appealed for Invisible Children to cancel Cover the Night, but they refused... last week at Gulu [where one person died during unrest following a screening of Kony 2012 and its sequel]. We do not want to endanger anyone""

Monogamy 'safer' than polygamy - ""Our goal was to understand why monogamous marriage has become standard in most developed nations in recent centuries, when most recorded cultures have practiced polygaymy. The emergence of monogamous marriage is also puzzling for some as the very people who most benefit from polygymy - wealthy, powerful men - were best positioned to reject it"... the study represents the most comprehensive study of polygamy and the institution of marriage. It found significantly higher levels of rape, kidnapping, murder, assault, robbery and fraud in polygymous cultures found in Asia and Africa. Prof Henrichs said that these crimes are caused primarily by pools of unmarried men, which result when other men take multiple wives... A more egalitarian distribution of women results in less male competition and social problems, he says, and by shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, institutionalised monogamy increases long-term planning, economic productivity, savings and child investments. "

Legalize polygamy: study - "Sayd Mumtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, said last year that he opposes same-sex marriage, but said if it is legalized in Canada, polygamists would be within their rights to challenge for their choice of family life to be legalized... Chief author of the report Martha Bailey told The Canadian Press that criminalizing polygamy serves no good purpose. "Why criminalize the behaviour?" she said. "We don't criminalize adultery""

Facebook photo ends up on porn, dating sites - "another friend told her that the photo had also popped up on a dating site called sgGirls.com... Ms Rahim, 32, has filed two police reports - one about the porn site and the other about the dating site"

The future of hawker food in singapore on Twitpic

Chicken Soup: The Miracle Prescription for Winter Illness - "The first modern landmark study on chicken soup was published in the medical journal Chest in 1978 and stated simply that the steam in chicken soup was more effective in clearing up congestion than plain cold or hot water... Rennard discovered that chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory by keeping a check on inflammatory white blood cells, called neutrophils. Neutrophils migrate to the bronchial tubes, causing inflammation. These guys hang out, wreaking havoc on one's system, forcing their victim to cough and hack their way into utter misery"

A look at the kind of thinking that determines how religious we are - "Analytical thinking can be harmful to religious faith... People who are highly intuitive tend to be more religious. Intuitive thinking helps people recognize the difference between the body and the mind, imagine life after death and discern purposes in the universe... Most people don't recognize there is a key difference between the "irrational" and the "non-rational," Kierkegaard taught. The "irrational" describes that which is illogical and unreason-able. The "non-rational," on the other hand, refers to intuition; the sphere of the imagination, emotions and the arts... [we have] low levels of religious belief in Scandinavian countries with generous social-welfare programs... people who are adept at "reading the minds of others" are more inclined to be religious. People who can psychologically intuit what another per-son might be feeling, Gervais theorizes, seem to be inclined to do the same in regard to what they consider a personal transcendent reality"

Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?

Stop the Google Drive Terms of Service Bogeyman hunt - "If you didn't have the context from above, that sounds pretty scary, right?... The first bunch of verbs ("host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works") all cover the process of making your content useful. If Google can't host or store your content, it disappears, which is of no help to you. If Google can't reproduce your content, it would be impossible to have the syncing across devices that makes Google Drive, Music, or Photos useful. Modifying and derivative works covers anything from auto-correct in a document to translations or fixing the color of a photograph. Then, the last few pieces ("communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute") covers being able to share your content, but only if the requirements are met from the Privacy Policy above. This means that Google can post your photos, videos or docs to Google+, but only if you say so (or for some odd reason a judge says so.) The same goes for e-mail, or even sharing a link. Knowing all of that, what exactly is the problem? The problem is that people want to find fault without due cause"
Do people READ the actual TOS before spreading FUD?

Thinking can undermine religious faith, study finds - "Scientists have revealed one of the reasons why some folks are less religious than others: They think more analytically, rather than going with their gut. And thinking analytically can cause religious belief to wane — for skeptics and true believers alike."

Revealed: How Twitter’s secret offer for Instagram made Facebook pay $1B - "Zuckerberg, we’re told, lives in perpetual anxiety, preoccupied by the fear of Facebook losing its place, terrified that youngsters will get their social networking fix from other services. That fear served as the catalyst behind his decision to buy Instagram and keep it out of the hands of a cross-town competitor. This type of paranoia is relatively normal at Silicon Valley’s largest technology companies. “These huge West Coast companies, peopled mostly by kids who cannot believe their good luck, commonly turn paranoid and think everyone is out to get them,” veteran columnist and broadcaster John Dvorak told VentureBeat. “Microsoft was the worst but not the first. Apple acts this way with Android, and Google has been paranoid for a few years.”"

Woman kills man by squeezing his testicles over parking dispute

STOMP - Singapore Seen - Nude photoshoot on St John's Island may land model and photographer in trouble - "Mr Vijay added that it is possible that the photographer has committed an offence under the Penal Code. Section 292 of the Penal Code states that whoever "distributes, transmits by electronic means, publicly exhibits or in any manner puts into circulation... any obscene book, pamphlet, paper, drawing, painting, representation or figure, or any other obscene object" shall be punished with up to three months' jail and/or a fine. The lawyer said: "In Singapore, nudity is considered obscene because we are a conservative society." Another lawyer, Steven Lam, thinks nude photography is illegal under the Undesirable Publications Act."
Elizabeth Choy had a nude photoshoot. Too bad she's dead so we can't prosecute under the Undesirable Publications Act

Police investigates man for making false report - "Acting Commander of Bedok Police Division, Superintendent of Police Jarrod Pereira commended his officers' promptness and skilful interview in investigating the credibility of the report. He also warned that police would take stern actions against anyone giving false information, as these irresponsible actions utilise police resources which could be used better in crime fighting."
The definition of crime fighting in Singapore seems suspect

Diary of a Grumpy Spinster: Everybody loves Walker (not!) - "Before Frodo got drunker than drunk, he initiated a conversation about the underage sex scandal which had implicated 48 SG men so far. Frodo again boasted that these men are stupid to pay for sex when it is so easy to get one from SG girls. Frodo has never paid for sex because he could easily get it for free. He boasted that he slept with 100 women every year and was so easy to charm SG women with his looks and height"

Stress driving S’poreans to have sex with underage girls - "[Sin Chew] daily quoted psychologist Dr Yang Jia Le as saying it was not difficult for men younger than 30 to befriend and pick up underage girls at nightclubs but this is not the case with older men. “Therefore, they (the older men) need another solution to fulfil their needs.""

Waiter, There’s a Bug in my Frappuccino - "Vegans are feeling threatened(?) by the revelation that Starbucks Soy Frappuccinos contain insect juice. Specifically, cochineal insect extract used as a reddish food coloring... The alternative to using cochineal is mostly Red 40, which is made from coal tar... Cochineal has been used by humans for hundreds of years, and provides an important source of cash for a lot of rural Central and South American people. There is some evidence the culture and sale of cochineal leads to more independence and higher female literacy in Mexico. It's entirely consistent with Starbucks' policy to sustainably source their products to use a natural product like cochineal. There is a change.org petition condemming Starbucks for using insect dyes; I'm tempted to start one to praise them for it!... The reality is that anytime you eat processed food–including coffee and chocolate–you ARE eating insects. They may not be on the label, but parts of them are in there... I applaud Starbucks for choosing a sustainable, low-impact food-coloring source!"
"Sustainability" really means "hippie stuff I like"

Frappe

2012-05-10T13:29:00.003+08:00

Une faute de frappe ? JE TE FRAPPE, SALOPE !!!

甲辰生日 (蓦山溪)

2012-05-09T14:09:00.001+08:00

小窗開宴，草草杯盤具。歡喜走兒童，慶生朝、一年一度。
風光好處，恰是小春時，香泛泛，酒醺醺，一曲歌金縷。
吾今已醉，解作醒時語。千里念重親，望家山、雲天盡處。
深深發願，只願早休官，居顏巷，戲萊衣，歲歲長歡聚。