The World This Week
– that Kofi Annan, in his farewell address, urged the U.S. not to abandon its democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. Media reports, based on a released text of his remarks, said that he was criticizing the U.S. (Annan is no angel himself.)
– that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Iran’s call for Israel’s destruction and its dismissal of the Nazi Holocaust were ‘unacceptable’, and he expressed concern at the regional and global implications of Teheran’s nuclear program. In the strongest comments at a news conference after being sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations, the former South Korean foreign minister urged all countries to reject calls for the elimination of any state or people. (Perhaps, an example need to be made of those who do so, as a warning and deterrence to those considering it in the future.)
– that dictator Augusto Pinochet, who polarizes public opinion in his native Chile in death as he did in life, will be cremated following a military funeral. Scores of relatives, friends and the top brass of the Chilean military are expected to pack a chapel in the capital Santiago to bid farewell to a man whose repressive 1973-1990 rule made him infamous around the world. (Better to leave no corpse behind. God knows who might just dig it out and give it 300 lashes.)
– that Margaret Thatcher is ‘greatly saddened’ by the death of Augusto Pinochet, said a spokesman. Chile’s former military lea-duh, who has died in hospital, backed the UK during the Falklands conflict. Baroness Thatcher also pressed for his release after his arrest in London in 1998 over alleged human rights abuses. (If he hasn’t backed the British re-occupation of the Malvinas, Thatcher probably wouldn’t give a damn.)
– that the father of Princess Diana’s companion called ‘outrageous’ a forthcoming report that said the couple’s deaths were the result of a tragic car accident rather than a murder plot. Mohamed al Fayed, the father of Diana’s lover Dodi al Fayed and owner of the famed Harrod’s department store in London, also questioned whether the investigator who headed the inquiry, Sir John Stevens, was blackmailed into ruling out foul play. (And Elvis is alive.)
– that German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned ‘in the strongest terms’ denial of the Holocaust by revisionist historians at a conference in Iran. “We reject in the strongest terms conferences held in Iran on the supposed non-existence of the Holocaust,” Merkel told reporters, flanked by visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (The world should gas these revisionists and deny it ever happened. People like Ahmadinejad and his likes should just shut up when even the Germans admitted to what was done during their Nazi era.)
– that French soldiers raped Rwandan women who had sought refuge in their bases during the country’s 1994 genocide, witnesses told a commission. An ethnic Tutsi woman said she had been raped by French troops after fleeing Hutu militia gangs. “The French used to come to our refugee tents and take girls to give us beer,” she said. “When we became drunk, they would forcefully start to have sexual intercourse with us, many French soldiers.” (Not unexpected of a former colonial master known for pillaging many parts of the world. The Vietnamese did well in kicking their sorry asses in Dien Bien Phu, 1954.)
– that Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has backed a move to extend the mandate of Robert Mugabe by two years. The annual party conference approved a plan to postpone the next presidential election – when Mr Mugabe has said he will retire – from 2008 to 2010. (And by them he would be Emperor Palpatine… oops… I mean Emperor Mugabe.)
– that a new survey shows Arab attitudes toward American people, products and culture grew increasingly negative last year, a finding that underscores the need for a change in U.S. Mideast policy, a leading expert on the region said. James Zogby, the head of the Arab American Institute, said the annual survey of opinion in five Arab countries found that U.S. policy toward Iraq and the Palestinian conflict were the main issues driving deteriorating Arab opinion. (So much for winning hearts and minds…)
– that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the international community to take ‘much more drastic measures’ regarding Iran’s nuclear activities, while Israel would keep all options open towards Tehran, including military force. Olmert made the comments in an interview in German weekly Der Spiegel, in which he was asked about a ‘hesistant’ international response to Iranian President Mahmud Mahbouk Ahmadinejad. (Ahmadinejad’s time will come, just like Saddam Hussein’s.)
– that Israel’s high court upheld the military’s right to assassinate members of groups the state defines as terrorist organizations, but cautioned that such operations should always be weighed first against the potential harm to civilian bystanders and the human rights of the target. The unanimous decision departs little from guidelines the military says it already follows in carrying out ‘targeted killings’, the terminology used by the gover-min and by the court in its ruling. But it does say commanders should allow an independent investigation to follow each assassination and recommends that the military compensate ‘innocent civilians’ harmed in the operation. (Even when such ‘innocent civilians’ rushed in to defend the criminal?)
– that Jimmy Carter says some Israeli restrictions imposed on ‘Palestinians’ in the West Bank are worse than apartheid-era South Africa. In an interview broadcast on Israel Radio, Mr Carter focused on roads built exclusively for Jewish settlements. In South Africa, blacks were not prevented from ‘using or even crossing’ roads, as in the West Bank, he said. (In South Africa, I don’t recall hearing about blacks detonating bombs in the middle of a disco full of whites either.)
– that Syria has retracted its demand for an Israeli surrender of the Golan Heights as a condition for peace talks, but Israeli lea-duhs from the left and right are wary of relying on words. The issue has re-surfaced since the U.S. Baker-Hamilton report recommended Israel relinquish the strategically important Golan Heights in return for several actions by Syria, including encouraging Hamas to recognize Israel and adhering to the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that calls for disarming Hizbullah terrorists. (And what safeguards are there for Israel’s Galilee region? There should be no relinquishing of the Golan Heights until a plan for demilitarizing and enforcement of demilitarization is in place!)
– that ‘Palestinian’ president Mahmud Abbas said he ‘regretted’ an attack on prime minister Ismail Haniya’s convoy in Gaza in which one person was killed, the WAFA news agency reported. Abbas ‘regrets the shootings at the convoy of prime minister Ismail Haniya upon his arrival at the Rafah border crossing’. Hamas accused Abbas’s own presidential guard of firing on the convoy in a bid to assassinate the terrorist premier, a charge categorically denied by the presidential guard. (Abu Mazen’s probably just regretting that his presidential guard’s marksman skills are sub-par.)
– that Iran’s supreme lea-duh Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that U.S.-led forces had to leave Iraq if security was to be restored in the violence-riven country. (And the wolf tells the little sheep… get rid of your shepherd, and put your head inside my mouth.)
– that Iran pressed on with its conference where several Western ‘scholars’ cast doubt on whether the mass slaughter of six million Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II took place. (Get a proper education!)
– that Mahmoud Mah-bouk Ahmadinejad has told a conference in Tehran questioning the Holocaust that Israel’s days are numbered. “Just as the USSR disappeared, soon the Zionist regime will disappear,” he said to the applause of the participants. (Will it be a surprise it maybe the Iranian theocratic regime that disappears first?)
– that Saddam Hussein and two top aides convicted with him will be executed immediately after an appeals court confirms their sentences and may be buried in secret, an official said. A senior Iraqi gover-min official said he fully expected the judicial panel studying the ousted dictator’s appeal to confirm death sentences on Saddam, his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti and a former judge, Awad Al-Bandar. (Saddam deserve nothing more than an ignominious death )
– that President Hamid Karzai has hit out at Pakistan over continuing violence in Afghanistan, accusing it of trying to turn his countrymen into ‘slaves’. Karzai’s comments are among his most strongly-worded yet in the spat between the neighbours over border attacks. (Well, look deeper and you will see more than just a Pakistani attempt in ‘enslaving’ the Afghan people, but more of an Al-Qaeda attempt to ‘enslave’ all Muslims in a new Arab Caliphate with the Arabs – the Al-Qaeda kind – at the top as its ruling class.)
– that killing a teacher is no problem as long as they have received a warning and a solid beating, but taking a beardless boy into your private quarters or spending money without your commander’s permission is likely to cause big trouble. These are just three of the 30 rules the Taleban ruling council have insisted their fighters follow in Afghanistan. (What about killing teachers preaching murder in the name or religion?)
– that Pakistan’s Supreme Court has blocked a fresh attempt to enact a Taleban-style law to enforce Islamic morality in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The court instructed the provincial governor not to sign the bill, which is opposed by President Pervez Musharraf. NWFP, which is governed by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taleban, passed the legislation last month. (The provincial governor probably will still sign for the safety of his own life.)
– that disgraced South Korean cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk has made a quiet comeback and is focusing on research into animal organ transplants at a new laboratory. Hwang and his team last week moved from a makeshift laboratory to new facilities at Yongin, 50 kilometers south of Seoul, his lawyer Lee Geon-Haeng said. (Wow, this fraudster hasn’t end up cleaning dishes yet? Any fraudster in the league of Haeckel should be driven out of the academic community and into bankruptcy.)
– that the Korean gover-min is trying to stop teenagers ringing up massive mobile phone bills with new rules that let parents control just how long the handsets are used. From January, children will need parental permission to go above a pre-set limit, which can be up to 30,000 won (£16.50) a month. (Bravo! Bravo! Maybe should just lower it to £10 instead.)
– that North Korea said it would only consider scrapping its nuclear weapons when all international sanctions against it are lifted, as disarmament talks resumed after a 13-month break. Declaring itself ‘satisfied’ with becoming a nuclear power following its first-ever atomic test on Oct 9, North Korea offered no signs of compromise at the six-nation talks, according to officials who were at the forum. (They should kick North Korea’s sorry ass right now before it develop the means of delivering their nukes.)
– that Japan finally created a full-fledged defence ministry for the first time since World War II, when the U.S. stripped the defeated country of its right to a military. The upper house voted, with support from both the ruling coalition and main opposition, to create the defence agency. The lower house had earlier passed the bill, meaning it becomes law, a parliamentary official said. Post-war Japan has had a ‘Defence Agency’ with lower standing than full-fledged ministries as the 1947 constitution declared the country to be pacifist. (Hard to trust Japan with Yasukuni still around.)
– that Japan’s parliament required schools to teach patriotism, a taboo since World War II, overriding strong criticism including a no-confidence motion against Shinzo Schizo Abe. The upper house of parliament approved the bill on party lines. It had already passed the lower house. Abe, a conservative who wants Japan to shed some of the taboos linked to its war defeat, has made the school reform one of his signature legislative issues since taking office in September. The education bill calls on teachers to teach students about ‘respecting tradition and culture and loving the nation and homeland’. (As long as that doesn’t include subjugating other countries under Japanese rule.)
– that Schizo Abe says he will work unpaid for the 90 days, after it emerged that officials had paid people to ask questions at public meetings. The gover-min inquiry also found that at some of the meetings – held over the past five years – officials had pretended to be ordinary people. Abe, a cabinet minister at the time, was responsible for such meetings. He said that as a way of assuming responsibility, he would return his salary for the next three months. (Why does he need to do that? Just make sure you have a ‘responsible’ media like Singapore’s which will only ask ‘sensible and responsible’ questions and nothing else.)
– that just five days before elections to choose the 800 members of the Election Committee that will choose Hong Kong’s next lea-duh, the proposal – seen as unpopular but necessary – was dropped abruptly. Analysts were quick to reconnect the dots. They pointed out that the GST idea was mooted by chief executive Donald Tsang, who is widely expected to seek re-election. (Well, that’s why Hong Kong beats us as a financial centre and on service standards. Because Hong Kongers even beat their gover-min into submission.)
– that Taiwan’s ruling party’s surprise triumph in a tight mayoral race shows it has limited any damage from the high-profile corruption scandal implicating Chen Shui-bian, analysts say. The result also sent a message to the opposition KMT lea-duh Ma Ying-jeou – currently the most likely KMT candidate to run for the 2008 presidential polls – that he has a lot of work to do. (Ma simply isn’t vicious and despicable enough.)
– that the DPP successfully played the so-called ‘Taiwanization card’ in the run-up to the vote. The party told supporters, ‘vote for DPP candidates or Taiwan would be sold out by the KMT’. And the supporters bought the story because they were convinced that maintaining Taiwan’s sovereignty is of supreme value over the opposition’s graft allegations. (Some people are either easily fooled, or they just never get their priorities right.)
– that the lea-duh of Taiwan’s People First Party and former presidential candidate, James Soong, has announced he is to retire after a stinging mayoral election defeat. Soong, 64, was once the island’s popular Taiwan provincial governor, conceded defeat after votes for the Taipei mayoral election were counted. “Although the counting process has not finished, I am already aware of the decision of Taipei citizens and fully accept the result… and from now on, I will quit my political career for ever,” Soong said. (Well, he should invite Lee Teng-Hui for games of chess whenever he can.)
– that Wu Shu-Chen, 54, passed out during the first session of her embezzlement and forgery trail, and she was taken immediately to a hospital. Television pictures showed her being carried out of the court by an unidentified woman and loaded into an ambulance waiting outside the courthouse in downtown Taipei. As she was placed in the ambulance, her eyes were closed and she did not appear to be moving. A doctor at the hospital where she was being treated said Wu was suffering from an irregularly low temperature and slow heartbeat but there was no danger to her life. (Wow. The ultimate in the ‘I am so sick I can’t attend court’ act. This beats even Soeharto and Pinochet.)
– that Malaysia’s information minister has ruled out live broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings, saying the public was not mature enough to accept MPs’ behaviour and racially charged debate. Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin refused opposition requests for the broadcasts on Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), saying the decision was made in the interests of safeguarding harmony in the multi-racial country. “The time has not come for RTM to telecast the parliamentary proceedings live because our society has not attained a mental maturity where it is insensitive to racial issues,” he said Monday according to the Bernama news agency. (Non-Bumi Malaysians should have get it by now, nothing goes on in Malaysia that isn’t racially charged. Just take the name of the nation for starters: MALAYsia. Geddit?)
– that Malaysia and Singapore must collaborate in order to face the economic giants of China and India. The call was made by the deputy prime mini$ter$ of Singapore and Malaysia during a regional conference organised by the London Business School. Bilateral ties between Singapore and Malaysia may suffer the occasional hiccups, said Malaysia’s DPM Najib Razak, but when it comes to economics, the logic is clear as day – both countries must stop competing against each other to stay ahead of the pack. (In short, ‘Singapore and Malaysia must hang together, or they will hang individually alone.’ In the days of Mama-thir, this would be heresy. No wonder he’s so mad with Abdullah.)
– that Abdullah said Thailand should be patient in dealing with the bloody insurgency in the kingdom’s Muslim-majority south, according to a newspaper report. He praised the efforts by new Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to forge peace in the south but said it would take time for people to accept change. (Maybe Malaysia can do better to help by just keeping its mouth shut and cooperating with Thailand in fighting the insurgency.)
– that Internet surfers from Malaysia’s extremist Islamic state in Kelantan has topped the list of surfers who visited pornographic websites in the country. The Star cited research from Google Trends as saying that Internet surfers in the city of Kota Baru in northeastern Kelantan and the town of Kuantan in neighbouring Pahang had the highest number of porn surfers. It said the most popular searched words are Malay-language words – ‘bogel’ (nudity), ‘gambar bogel’ (nude pictures), ‘seks Melayu’ (sex involving Malays) and ‘cerita seks’ (sex stories). (This is the best ‘tight slap’ God can give to the blasted clerics who think that wrapping up their women like dumplings would put an end to immorality. Perhaps they should even trace the IP and see if someone from the PAS itself has been learning how to ‘choke the bishop’.)
– that Kelantan is considering allowing discos for non-Muslims only. Kelantan has long banned discos, along with rock concerts and gambling. It has also restricted alcohol sales. (Guess what? Money is the likely driving factor being this sudden change of mind.)
– that Malaysia will impose higher toll rates from January for highways into the capital, a minister said, despite strong public outcry and concerns it will fuel inflation. Mr S Veerasingam, Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumers Minister, told AFP that the tolls would be raised by 10% to 50%, and added that the Cabinet had approved the hike. (More money!! More money!! We need more money!!!)
– that Malaysian plantation firms which openly burn their crops, or engage in illegal logging in Indonesia must be dealt with severely, according to Malaysia’s DPM Najib Razak. (The world should just not buy any products from Malaysian plantations until they get themselves certified by the FSC or something of equal standing.)
Singapore This Week
– that Lao Goh says that whether Singapore’s GST will be increased immediately by 2% next year, will depend on the economic environment then. He also hints that the increase may be staggered over time, if the situation allows it. If this happens, it will be similar to the last time when the GST was raised from 3% to 5%. The increase then was staggered over two years. (So if the economic nose dived after that, will the GST then be reduced? Dream f*cking on!!)
– that earning too much to qualify for schemes designed to help the poor, but often stretched to the limit, the middle-class has received an assurance from Tharman Shanmugaratnam Thumby Squeeze-you-dry-ratnam. Thumby will be the one to announce an ‘offset package’ to cushion struggling Singaporeans from the impact of the upcoming hike in the GST. (No one is ‘hard-up’ for the ‘offset package’ because they would rather there is no GST hike.)
– that once the GST hike kicks in, there will be no increase in gover-min fees – including conservancy charges and car park fees – for one year, said Thumby. Specific details of the offset package will be given during the Budget announcement in February next year. (Note: They made no mention of mini$terial pay.)
– that seven people – including former NMPs Eunice Olsen, Geh Min and Tan Sze Wee – have publicly indicated their interest in being NMPs. They also include a businessman, a volunteer with the Crime Library – which looks for missing people – and two nature conservationists. Another former NMP, NUS lecturer Ong Soh Khim, is also seeking a second term. Dr Ong could not be reached for comment. (Must have been damned good extra income.)
– that Siew Kum Hong has joined the list of people who want to become NMP. (I liked Siew, but the NMP scheme is a cock scheme that ought to be abolished to cut cost. And if these NMP aspirants have really good ideas, they can always use the cheaper alternative – the feedback channels already available.)
– that the gover-min has spelt out the fees to be frozen for one year after the GST hike, in fulfilment of its pledge to offset the burden of higher GST. Fees not set by the gover-min are excluded from the list, as any changes are determined by market or other forces. It’s excluded list includes polyclinic and hospital fees; foreign maid levy; vehicle and road taxes; and HDB flat prices. (All those things really will make money one how to freeze?)
– that even before its official launch, almost all the units at Singapore’s new kid on the waterfront – Marina Bay Residences – have been sold out. Seasoned property owners, entrepreneurs and foreigners sent their real estate agents to broker a deal, with an early morning queue of about 200 people forming around One Raffles Quay at 7.30am. (It’s no wonder why the gover-min think we are all rich enough to afford 7% of GST! Thanks to these f*ckers.)
– that Singapore is cheaper than many major cities around the world to live in, making it an attractive destination for expatriates. And the bad: As the Singapore dollar continues to strengthen, it could mean the Republic losing its competitiveness to Hong Kong, a country just a three-hour plane ride away and one that has witnessed its lowest living costs since 1990. (An attractive destination for expatriates, not Singaporeans.)
– that school fees for PRs and foreign students will go up next year but these changes will be gradual and will only be fully implemented in 2008. All PRs and foreign students will be affected by the fee increase, said Tharman Shanmugaratnam Thumby. But the changes will not be too drastic and will be made in stages – as foreign students might then decide to become PRs, and the PRs, citizens. (Wow! They finally gave the citizens some notice and not treat the, as mindless serfs without any rights.)
– that it has been announced that PRs would see a 10% reduction in hospital subsidies over two years. It remains to be seen what the education figures will be, but overall, they are not expected to be too drastic – enough to psychologically reinforce the rights and privileges of citizenship, but not enough to deter foreigners from coming. (Why are there subsidies for them in the first place?!)
– that the move to revise healthcare subsidies for non-citizens will level the playing field between them and Singaporeans, says Lim Boon Bway Heng. From October 2007, while PRs will still enjoy subsidised hospital services, it will be at 5% less than Singapore citizens. And from October 2008, there’ll be another 5% reduction. (Sad for those PRs who has been here for the better part of their lives and having gave Singapore many fine sons.)
– that for other foreigners, which include foreign workers, there will be no more healthcare subsidy for them from October 2007. (Should make it no subsidies for the chow ang-moh expat making the big bucks here as well.)
– that Khaw Boon Wan said that going by 2005’s hospital admission numbers, fees for foreign workers were subsidised to the tune of nearly $30 million while those for PRs were subsidised by about $6 million. (Cut!! Cut!! Cut!! Cut it all!!)
– that from 2007, PRs in gover-min aided schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes will have to pay about 20% more for school fees. They currently pay the same fees as citizens at the secondary and pre-university levels. Foreign students, whose fees are already higher than those for citizens and PRs, will have their fees increased by about 30%. But the new fees for foreign students will take effect in 2009 so as to give them time to decide if they wish to apply to become permanent residents. (So how much is that going to save for us so that more can go back to the citizens?)
– that in an attempt to shed its red-light district image, Joo Chiat Road will be lit up in a different fashion this Christmas. Fairy lights will line a 2km stretch along East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Road as part of the area’s Peranakan-themed Christmas celebrations. Lasting from Dec 18 to 25, the light-up along Joo Chiat Road will be the first after concerted efforts to clear out the area’s karaoke pubs, massage parlours and streetwalkers. (Someone once told me that it is impossible for anything in Singapore to develop on its own from the ground up and subsequently gain a life of its own. Everything here is planted top down and if they don’t end up half dead, they just never take off.)
– that citing the bullish economic conditions that have seen Singapore register record job creation numbers, union chief Lim Boon Bway Heng and his deputy Lim Swee Say Shee Shee urged the gover-min and employers to support their push for the CPF rate to be moved closer to 36% – with workers contributing 20% and employers upping their rate from the current 13%. (Thanks, but no thanks. Employers will take that 3% more CPF contribution and considered it a pay raise. No use not getting more take home pay because all that money stuck in my CPF can’t be used even when you are in a desperate situation that is of the ‘jump onto MRT track’ proportions.)
– that the SAF is boosting its arsenal with 66 German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks to replace some of the French-made tanks that have been in service for four decades. Another 30 will also be acquired as spare tanks, said the MINDEF. The Leopard 2A4 – though three times heavier than the current SM1 tank – is faster, more mobile and has greater firepower. (This must be deliberate. Malaysia bought the Polish PT-91, which the Poles replaced, with Leopard 2A4s.)
– that the suggestion to honour Singapore’s pioneers is now going a step further. Lao Goh, who first broached the idea, has suggested that several roads named after minor colonial officials could be changed to honour Singapore’s pioneers instead. But he cautioned that road names should not be changed just for the sake of doing so, as it is a sensitive matter. Lao Goh had also suggested naming new buildings after Singapore’s pioneers and builders. (Why? He’s afraid that when he’s gone, there will be nothing to remember him by other than his million dollar pay? It would be easier to just rename the expressways, for e.g. PIE to KYE – Kuan Yew Expressway; or AYE to HLE – Hsien Loong Expressway, plus all those crap dunno-what-vale in Sengkang should be renamed too.)
– that there’s a whole new meaning to the Chinese phrase 比上不足，比下有余 – [Meaning: lacking when compared with the better, well off when compared to the worse off] in the context of our TaliPAP mini$ter$. (薪金比上不足，成绩比下有余。[Meaning: Pay ‘lacking’ when compared to the better. Performance acceptable when compared to some other countries.])
Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions
– that a rare freshwater dolphin unique to the Yangtze River is almost certainly extinct, conservationists said. A major expedition launched to search for the animal failed to find a single survivor. The dolphin, the baiji, traditionally thought by the Chinese to be a river god, used to live along China’s longest river, but development along its banks, overfishing and shipping have proved lethal. The shy and nearly blind animal is one of the world’s oldest dolphin species, dating back about 20 million years. (There are certain corrupted people who are more deserving of extinction than these dolphins.)
– that Russia has agreed to shut down Allofmp3.com and other music sites based in that country that the U.S. gover-min says are offering downloads illegally. The nation has struck the agreement with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as it seeks entry to the World Trade Organization. The U.S. has suggested that it would hold up Russia’s acceptance in the WTO unless lea-duhs there took action against digital piracy. (Another fine example of American Imperialism.)
– that something one half of the population has long suspected, and the other has always vocally denied is true: women talk more than men. In fact, women talk almost three times as much, uttering a staggering 20,000 words a day on average compared to men’s 7000. (Ear plugs from the NS e-mart are not very expensive.)
– that the sex hormone testosterone, responsible for moulding the male brain in the womb, shrinks the areas responsible for communication, emotion and memory, she claims. The result is that men chat less than females and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent. Testosterone also reduces the size of the section of the brain involved in hearing, allowing men to become ‘deaf’ to the most logical of arguments put forward by women. Their brain power, however, is definitely superior when it comes to sex. (We men let our ‘brother’ do the talking. Kekekeke…)
– that user would never mind the operating system he uses. The computer is simply a tool for completing the user’s tasks, so the only valid factor to be taken in consideration while choosing the operating system is the default set of approaches. That’s to say your system must provide you with the instruments most compliant with your mindset and your way of acting. (Which is why I said Linux is doomed to fail.)
– that actress Kate Winslet has spoken out against the proliferation of ‘size zero’ female stars and models. Winslet finds the glamorization of ultra-thin models and actresses disturbing and says she keeps magazines featuring such women away from her 6-year-old daughter. “It’s only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it, and it frightens the life out of me,” Winslet said of her daughter, Mia. (The people that promotes ‘Stick Insect Worship’ should be dealt with ‘Die Endloesung’. HEIL!!)
– that Oscar-winning actor George Clooney has made an impassioned speech to the UN Security Council over continuing violence in the Darfur region of Sudan. He told council members genocide was taking place ‘on your watch’, and how they responded would be their legacy. (Got oil in Darfur?)
The reason this pic got here is
because the kitten is cute.
– that Paris Hilton has come to the defense of the ‘partying ethics’ of her new best friend, Britney Smears, whose all-night clubbing has led to criticism that she is neglecting her two young sons. Spears, 25, has hit the town – sometimes leaving her underwear at home – since filing for divorce from Kevin Federline, a few weeks after giving birth to the couple’s second son. In an entry on her page on the popular social networking Web site MySpace on Tuesday, hotel heiress Hilton called the attacks on Spears cruel and shameful. (There’s nothing so cruel and shameful in speaking the truth against the trio of decadence – Lohan, Smears and Hilton.)
– that it was later claimed that Paris Hilton fell victim to a hoaxer who wrote a widely publicized Web posting in her name defending the ‘partying ethics’ of her new friend, singer Britney Spears, Hilton’s spokesman said. But spokesman Elliot Mintz said whoever wrote the entry this week on Hilton’s page on the popular social networking site MySpace.com ‘crafted a very nice piece and the sentiments that were expressed were extremely articulate’. (Found the hoaxer yet? Or is she just trying to distance herself from the fact that money can’t buy class and she’s nothing but just another dumb blonde brainless bimbo… with lots of money?)
– that media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s publishing arm has sacked Judith Regan, the executive who masterminded OJ Simpson’s hypothetical murder confession, ‘If I Did It’. “Judith Regan’s employment with HarperCollins has been terminated effective immediately,” the firm’s chief executive, Jane Friedman, said in a statement. (And Jane Friedman and Rupert Murdoch both have not a clue what was going on before this exploded in their faces?)
– that circumcision reduces by about half the risk of contracting the AIDS virus, according to two new studies released and that could have significant implications in the fight against the deadly disease. The trials conducted in Kenya and Uganda showed that men who had their foreskin removed were much less likely to contract HIV through heterosexual intercourse than their counterparts who had not undergone the procedure. The studies that began in September 2005 were to last through mid-2007 but were stopped this week because of the significance of the findings. (All right, line up. Dr. Grievous will be doing circumcision at half off.)
– that after ‘Kristallnacht’ in Nov 9, 1938, when every country closed their doors to Jewish immigrants, 25,000 Jews fled from Nazi occupied Europe to Japanese occupied Shanghai, a Chinese city where no visa is needed. (Blessed be Shanghai and the Chinese people!)
– that Pope Benedict has been urged to declare a day of fasting and penitence over child sex crimes by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church. The call by the Pope’s personal preacher came in a pre-Christmas sermon to the pontiff and Vatican officials. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the papal household, is the only person allowed to preach to the Pope. (Time to put an end to this child abusing garbage by allowing the perpetrators to face the punishment of secular law.)
