Links - 3rd August 2012

"I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it" - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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Women Dominate The Global Market Place; Here Are 5 Keys To Reaching Them - "Women control 65 percent of global spending and more than 80 percent of U.S. spending... They make the final decision for buying 91 percent of home purchases, 65 percent of the new cars, 80 percent of health care choices, and 66 percent of computers"
I'm sure you can spin this as "Structural Violence"

For the Love of Bacon

Twitter / ad0lfh1pster: How the world see's the UK ... - "How the world see's the UK"

U and non-U English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "U and non-U English usage, with "U" standing for "upper class", and "non-U" representing the aspiring middle classes, was part of the terminology of popular discourse of social dialects (sociolects) in Britain and New England in the 1950s. The debate did not concern itself with the speech of the working classes, who in many instances used the same words as the upper classes. For this reason, the different vocabularies often can appear quite counter-intuitive: the middle classes prefer "fancy" or fashionable words, even neologisms and often euphemisms, in attempts to make themselves sound more refined, while the upper classes in many cases stick to the same plain and traditional words that the working classes also use, as, conscious of their status, they have no need to make themselves sound more refined"

South Pacific tribe preparing for return of ’god’ Prince Philip

9GAG - Preparing the perfect stew.

Marylou's Coffee being investigated by police for only hiring attractive female workers - "They claim that the workers the chain hires are based on the applicant pool, most of whom tend to be younger women... Attractive employees are often seen wearing pinkT-shirts and black shorts singing and dancing in television commercials... State Sen. Robert L.Hedlund said the probe is ridiculous. 'Why, because they haven’t hired old overweight men who want to wear a pinkT-shirt and serve coffee?' he said. 'The federal government has better things to do withmy tax dollars than to harass a legitimate business'"

trust in condom - YouTube - "Maisha iko sawa na Trust"

Tokyo ramen restaurant lets customers decide price

In Singapore, Vitriol Against Newcomers From Mainland China - NYTimes.com - "“Mainlanders may look like us, but they aren’t like us,” said Mr. Tan, who is of mixed Malay-Chinese descent and does not speak Mandarin. “Singaporeans look down on mainlanders as country bumpkins, and they look down on us because we can’t speak proper Chinese”... Wang Quancheng, the chairman of the Hua Yuan Association, the largest organization representing mainlanders, said the government was not doing enough to help integrate new arrivals, but he also blamed Singaporeans for their intolerance and said many were simply jealous that so many Chinese immigrate here with money in their pockets. “Of course, the new arrivals are rich or else the government would have to feed them,” he said. “Some locals are very lazy and live off the government”... [An ex-PRC] finds locals somewhat aloof, more likely to work late and less likely to spend the night commiserating over stiff drinks. Unlike Singaporeans, people from China, he said, would never split a dinner tab"
Living off the governmen? Sounds like a Singapore I wouldn't mind living in

'Brinicle' ice finger of death filmed in Antarctic

Their emotional bond turns sexual - "SHE was his firstborn and he had always been close to her. When she grew older, the teenager even accompanied her father to drinking sessions with his friends at coffee shops. Their relationship soon took an intimate turn when father and daughter began hugging and kissing in 2006, when the girl was only 18. Over time, they progressed to touching and fondling each other's private parts when they were alone in the family flat. Two years later, father and daughter ended up having sex in the master bedroom. The 47-year old plumber was yesterday jailed three years for committing incest. It is believed to be the first court case of consensual sex between father and daughter here... Mr Tan pointed out that no violence was used in the incestuous act. In sentencing him to three years' jail, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim noted that although the daughter was "not very young", she was still below 21 at that time... A consultant psychiatrist in private practice, Dr Brian Yeo, told The New Paper that whatever the reasons, the father should take the bulk of the responsibility as he is more mature... the fact that the girl was 18 when she started getting intimate with her father shows that she was also aware and culpable, said Dr Yeo. "However, the father must still take the bulk of the responsibility. Being the father, if he commands his daughter to follow him, she may feel a sense of obligation, maybe even some fear that if she doesn't, she could break up the family," he added"
I'd forgotten to follow up on this case. The girl only got a year's probation despite there being consent, and she wasn't even "depressed". Of course AWARE is silent on this despite the insult to female agency (and equality) implied (and the questions raised about what the age of consent really means). The NUS law professor scandal will probably end up the same way, even though she was the one who proposed it

Slide Show | Do You Know These Regional Pizza Styles? | Serious Eats
30 types of pizzas (loosely defined); Mmm Roman Pizza al Taglio

Shit Asian Girls Say - YouTube

The Real Reason Gay Men Don't Get Fat - "Many gay men spend their adolescence as outcasts or misfits, and when they finally get to a place where they can join the gay culture at large, they react to their years of social solitude by conforming with the sort of fervor usually reserved for packs of teenage girls. That means looking the part, which, of course, means joining the gym and becoming a regular"

Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry? - "A perfect storm of factors come together to engender the rudeness and aggression seen in the comments' sections of Web pages... because comment-section discourses don't happen in real time, commenters can write lengthy monologues, which tend to entrench them in their extreme viewpoint. "When you're having a conversation in person, who actually gets to deliver a monologue except people in the movies? Even if you get angry, people are talking back and forth and so eventually you have to calm down and listen so you can have a conversation"... Chiming in on comment threads may even give one a feeling of accomplishment, albeit a false one. "There is so much going on in our lives that it is hard to find time to get out and physically help a cause, which makes 'armchair activism' an enticing [proposition]"... "Even someone who is making a legitimate point but with an angry tone is hurting the nature of the argument, because they are promoting people to respond in kind"... we should make a point of including a few people in our social circles who think differently from us. "You'll develop a healthy respect for people whose opinions differ from your own""

Experts: Some fracking critics use bad science - WSJ.com - " In the debate over natural gas drilling, the companies are often the ones accused of twisting the facts. But scientists say opponents sometimes mislead the public, too."

Nearly Two Dozen Injured at Tony Robbins Seminar - NYTimes.com - "Ms. Kaderi was one of nearly two dozen who were injured on Thursday, the first night of Mr. Robbins’s “Unleash the Power Within” seminar, which included a fire walk as a signature experience. She said she did not seek medical attention, but many of those hurt reported second- or third-degree burns... Inside a cavernous room at the convention center on Sunday, several thousand people listened to Joseph McClendon III, Mr. Robbins’s top coach, tell the crowd that pharmaceutical companies “do not have your best interests at heart. The reality is 80 percent of prescription drugs do nothing to change the disease itself.” In the hallways, participants were invited to further their self-improvement with CDs and DVDs, including “Total Commitment Package” for $647 and “Love & Passion: The Ultimate Relationship Program” for $249"

SK-II MEN: Measure of a Man with Godfrey Gao | Fash-Eccentric! - "It’s true. The ladies are naturally attracted to men with good skin complexion. Today, your man doesn’t need to steal your skincare. Why? SK-II introduces a new skincare range for men which includes the SK-II MEN Facial Treatment Essence"
Looking at this blog post, the sort of women you attract... the guy's a lot cuter than them

Le spam nigérian le plus poétique (et drôle) - "un membre de l’équipe de Rue89 a été submergé d’émotion : « C’est un des plus beaux que j’aie jamais lu. » Il est tellement poétique, imaginatif et tragi-comique que nous ne résistons pas au plaisir de le publier (en le conservant dans son jus : syntaxe, orthographe et ponctuation originales)"

BREAKING: City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee arrested by Commercial Affairs Department - Page 248 - www.hardwarezone.com.sg - "This banner, placed outside the court, was removed by security guards earlier this morning. (Photo credit: Tan Qiuyi)"
"Condolences. Eternal Death. Deepest Sympathy. Repent! Woe to you Anti-Christ Leaders Pastors Pharisees Hypocrites! (mirror)"

Viewpoint: The spectre of plagiarism haunting Europe - "more than a third of a new book for law students on how to write papers properly was plagiarised, including liberal smatterings from Wikipedia. Fittingly, even the chapter on plagiarism was plagiarised. And just to show how contagious the disease is, the authors also cite zu Guttenberg's dissertation - albeit incorrectly"

There Is a 10% Chance You're Dreaming Right Now