Isaac Schrödinger

Just a pier

Another excellent photo from Trey Ratcliff. The sunstars are very nice.

The moronic Saudis

In addition to the Jews, Saudi Arabia has now banned the Gregorian calendar.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said that the decision "means to preserve the Islamic calendar and the Arabic language."

My dad would get a calendar every year from his company in Saudi Arabia. It was simple; one page on which Islamic dates and the Gregorian calendar were put together without any trouble. Those who cared about the Islamic dates were happy; those who followed the A.D. convention were happy; those who cared about both were happy!

This just goes to show the extreme level of intolerance and paranoia in Saudi Arabia. They ban a freakin' calendar because it's threatening their language and culture. I wonder how they'll enforce this rule? What if an average person is caught with the banned calendar? What will be the punishment? A night in jail? Ten lashings? Being forced to listen to harsh Quran recitations?

Just curious.

Respek the ass

Ass rape leads to multiple homicide:

Newspapers in Yemen said the owner of the ass got mad after he saw the donkey attacking his animal, prompting him to chase the donkey and hit it.

The attack infuriated the donkey owner, who called his armed tribe men and asked them to take revenge.

“The problem snowballed into an armed fight between Makabis tribe, which owns the donkey, and Bani Abbas which owns the ass…15 people were either killed or injured in the battle,” the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah said, quoting newspapers in Yemen.

LMAO.

Adding punch

Some fine post processing at photoblog.

Those crazy Chinese

Oddity Central:

It appears in China the saying “study till you drop” is taken quite literally by some, as photos show students receiving amino acid IV drips as they hit the books during late evening studying session for college exam.

You thought you were studying too hard? Well unless you’ve ever needed intravenous medication to keep you from passing out or collapsing due to excessive studying, you have it pretty good compared to these young students at a high school in Xiaogan, central China’s Hubei province.

I can't imagine the disappointment and the overwhelming feeling of shame for those diligent students who don't make the cut.

Playing with food

Man vs. Goose.

Man vs. Goose -- The Lightsaber Edition.

Be ice

Alpha Game:

When your boss yells at you or your girlfriend accuses you of something, don't say anything, don't even allow your face to change expression. Just meet their eyes, breath slowly, and blink deliberately. Then ask them to repeat themselves. Nine times out of ten, they will immediately lower their voice and address you in a calmer, more civilized manner. This is an instinctively submissive response to dominant behavior.

Excellent advice.

One very frustrated cat

The kid is completely oblivious.

Leading to the house

Excellent use of dodging and burning in this photo.

An unattractive scrap of paper

Alpha Game:

the possession of education credentials is increasingly likely to come hand-in-hand with debt, older marriage, and a reduced likelihood of having children. Since men primarily value youth, beauty, and fertility in a mate, and because people seldom advertise the extent to which they are in debt, it shouldn't be too hard to understand why a woman waving around her degree(s) is not merely a turn-off, but a material strike against her.

Just as there are many men who don't understand what attracts women, there are also many women who simply don't understand men.

I finished my university degree at the age of 22. I have no desire for further "higher" education. However, I know multiple women who're still studying till their late 20s and beyond. The whole situation has two odd features; a) the women think they're gaining prestige and becoming more attractive to men and b) the women also think highly of themselves and do not want a male partner who is not as well "educated" as them.

Such women lead miserable lives. If only universitites offered courses on the SMV ...

Look at that bokeh

Some rich and warm colors at the Venice Carnival.

Crazy women

Alpha Game:

I've written before about how women tend to treat those to whom they are close much worse than they treat complete strangers. This, of course, is one reason why female friendships seldom tend to last as long as male friendships do. I've never quite understood myself why women will make the effort to get all dolled up for the office or a girl's night out, only to swap it all for a bare face and the usual sweatpants when they get home in order to ensconce themselves in front of the television more comfortably.

I've also noticed this behaviour. It's thoroughly reprehensible.

A smart frog

All that he (it?) is missing is the glasses.

The cusp of frustration

One cannot derive it.

Budgeting Ignored

Ed Driscoll:

A couple of interesting financial stats popped up today, and we’ll see if we can tie them together in our usual tendentious fashion in just a moment. But first, found via blogger/financial author Christopher Fountain, Henry Blodget of Business Insider.com notes that “Households Earning Less Than $13,000 A Year Spend 9% Of Their Income On Lottery Tickets.” Having worked for a time during school vacations selling them, that stat doesn’t surprise me at all.

On the other end of the spectrum, we find athletes who were once rich. One would think that earning millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, of dollars would provide a person with superb financial security. Unfortunately, their self-control is non-existant; their spending outstrips their earnings.

Really, how difficult is it to spend less than one makes?

Post magic

Lovely use of photoshop. Make sure to hover the cursor over the "show the original" text at the bottom right of the image.

I like pornography

I like it a lot:

Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali, has described skirts that cut off above the knee as “pornographic,” and has said that he will ban women from wearing them.

Of course. One of the major problems with Islamic nations today is the overabundance of miniskirts. Thumbs up for the Indonesian government which has shown tremendous grit in tackling this major issue.

Consequences of sluthood

Susan Walsh:

Fifteen years later, we all know that few found “newer, truer, less sexist and more ecstatic ways of being sexual.” They found ways of being sexual that were risky, superficial, awkward and unsatisfying. The sexual double standard is as prominent as ever, being biologically determined and therefore immutable. If anything, men have become hypersensitive to female promiscuity, warily inquiring about a woman’s number before investing one ounce of emotional energy.

Obviously, men are intimidated by a STRONG, independent woman who has embraced her inner slut sexuality.

Feminists allergic to reality

Vox Popoli:

Now, I don't have any problem with negative portrayals of men per se. Men do commit most of the violent crimes. Men are responsible for starting most of the wars in history. Men do beat up women and rape them. I have no problem with men being portrayed in roles that are consistent with their actual behavior.

Where I have a huge problem with the media is when their portrayals of men are totally antithetical to observable reality. Due to hypergamy, most women marry men who are smarter than they are. So, how can it be possible that in Commercial World, men are inevitably drooling idiots who must be corrected and lectured by their smart, but ever-so-patient wives? And what is the point of this obvious social programming anyhow?

I'm waiting for a sitcom in which all the wives are taller than their husbands. Those who don't like the show will be branded as heightists!

Patriarchy with a vengeance

In Mala Fide:

In Chess there is only one woman in the top 100. Judit Polgar, ranked #32, by far the strongest woman player with a score of 2710, never became woman’s world champion because she chose to only compete in men’s tournaments. The second-rated woman, with a score of 2605 is way below the #100 ranked man with 2652 points.

My blood boils at this terrible injustice. Women have been shackled by the Patriarchy and told that they are not good at chess (and math). No wonder, we don't see many women who are super-awesome chess players. We all know, deep in our bones, that once women are free, they'll be kicking ass at chess.

(But I thought they don't want to put in the extra hours practicing the game in solitude and improving their ranking in the world. Women simply don't find chess that attractive. They're interested in, er, other things. -- Ed.)

Shut up, you sexist jerk!

Difference between sexist and non-sexist desires

A reader at The Thinking Housewife writes in:

If a man desires that his wife cooks him food, irons his clothes, does the dishes, cleans the house, etc., one need not look far for those who decry him as pathetic, sexist, disrespecting of women, in need for a replacement mom, doomed to be forever single, etc.

However, if a woman desires that her husband does the work with the hammer, the wrench, the saw, etc., lifts the heavy stuff, fixes the car, etc., why is there not a similar decrying of her as pathetic, sexist, disrespecting of men, in need for a replacement dad, doomed to be forever single, etc.?

Hogwash! Women can't be sexist.

A mischievous breed

OMG! Siberian huskies!

Hot Veena

You Tube: Veena Malik talks about her father.

The video itself isn't that interesting. The main reason for the link is the comments. A Pakistani woman shows off her body and the Muslims have a meltdown. I wish they could muster 1% of that outrage towards their rotten brothers who want to harm non-Muslims.

I is smart!

Curious babies via Instapundit:

The babies were shown a video of three women who were bilingual speakers of French and English—languages the babies didn't know. Each woman was shown in turn saying sentences in one of the languages. Eventually, the baby got used to this and got bored. Then the language changed. Monolingual babies took no notice, but bilingual babies started looking at the video again. Other studies have shown that monolingual babies make the distinction until they are 6 months old.

Hmm. I wonder if I noticed that slight change between two similar languages when I was growing up. My mom speaks Punjabi but my dad speaks Urdu.

A strange, magical he

A part of me anticipated the last question but still it was darn funny!

Capturing the heavens

Nikon Rumors:

"Astronomer's Paradise“ is the first episode of a three parts Atacama Desert Starry Nights time-lapse series, starting with footage on the ESO* (European South Observatory’s “Cerro Paranal” site). The series will be included as a bonus on the ESO's 50 years anniversary DVD/Blue Ray disc expected to be released this summer. This time-lapse movie was made from DLSR still images from the November 2011 TWAN imaging expedition to Paranal assigned by the European Southern Observatory.

Cool. One doesn't see such amazing scenes living in a city.

Master the sexy

Vox gives advice to a woman regarding her marriage:

And fifth, in the comments you referred to having let yourself get out of shape. The chances are reasonable that your husband finds this embarrassing and that he is embarrassed by your appearance, even though he would probably rather get his teeth pulled without anesthetics than admit it to you or even to himself. (In other words, resist the temptation to ask, if he has any sense at all he will lie to you if he feels that way.) Men not only judge themselves by their wives, they are judged by others that way too. Rise to the level of the potential competition, don't sit in front of the television and tell yourself that because you managed to get someone to put a ring on your finger a while ago, you no longer have to put much effort into your appearance.

I wonder how women would feel if they married a doctor who after the marriage were to quit his work and go on unemployment benefits etc. for eternity. I'm sure women would still love the soul of the man since that's what attracted them to the man to begin with. Status, heaven forbid, had no influence on their decision to marry.

I've heard variations of the following conversation multiple times at work.

Woman 1: OMG, my boyfriend / husband recently told me to go on a diet! The SOB has some nerve.

Woman 2: Get out! How can he be so shallow! We all know that it's inner beauty that matters -- not our figures. He should love you regardless of how many dozens of pounds you gain.

Woman 1: Mmm-hmmpf. [Shoving the way too large lunch down her throat.]

A few minutes later woman 1 is talking about this awesome pancake / pizza / ice cream place she visited during the weekend. Mmm, so good. She's thinking of going there again and again and ...

What's funny is that when the boyfriend / husband gets fed up with the whale and leaves, then they start to lose weight to attract, apparently, another sucker. These women are fully aware of what attracts men and yet they blow up the attraction and are then shocked! surprised! when men are no longer interested in them.

So, women of the world: Be sexy! Especially if you're married. Do it for him and the keep the marriage strong and healthy.

Slices of Venice

Rick Lee has a series of posts. The second photo there is so cool. The haughty, indifferent look of the foreground creature makes the shot.

There be ghosts

A very nice use of slow shutter.

The queen is tough

Many people in England, it seems, have trouble grasping mathematics:

Universities are dropping maths from degree courses because students – and their lecturers – cannot cope with it, a report warns today. Decades of substandard maths education in schools has led to a ‘crisis’ in England’s number skills, threatening the future of the economy, it says. Universities are being forced to dumb down degree courses requiring the use of maths, including sciences, economics, psychology and social sciences.

Mathematics was part of my major in university. It does get freakishly complicated by fourth year but that's not what most other students take for their degrees. We're talking calculus and statistics up to second year which is not that difficult. Plus, there are many students / tutors who can help you if you're stuck on a topic or problem.

This whole dumbing down the curriculum is only going to make the present and future graduates worse off. There will be more of them with less ability in a job market that is not very healthy. Therefore, many won't find jobs and those who do will be working for wages that will be considered most unsatisfactory given the university tuition which they paid by, likely, borrowing thousands of pounds.

Spoiled daughter gets a lesson

The awesome video has over 18 million views.

Link via Hardocp.

Avada kedavra me now

Alpha Game on short hair vs. long hair.

Long hair wins! I don't think I've ever found a woman with short hair attractive. I know it takes some work and effort to make long hair look good otherwise it gets kind of a wild look but its attractiveness should be a consideration for women who're thinking of cutting it.

The best example for the preservation of long hair follows.

Before:

After:

Why Hermione, why!?

No sexy time in Japan

A staggering number of young people in Japan are not interested in sex.

Combine an economic downturn with the increasing excellence of porn and video games, then throw in female economic independence and this is the result. For all that they are decried as soshoku danshi, the position of the "herbivores" is a perfectly reasonable one.

It's likely that the modern Japanese teenage girl is ultra-materialistic. Japan has lost 'two' decades to poor economic growth. Therefore, a majority of guys in her age group are utterly unappealing.

Must not nag

Alpha Game has a post on nagging.

There's no question it poisons a marriage. Just yesterday, I saw a woman nagging her boyfriend in the supermarket. They were likely in their early 20s. The guy was replying in a disgusting, appeasing manner but she just wouldn't stop berating him. I was in their proximity for a mere twenty seconds and I wanted out! 

Why do guys put up with such crap? Aren't these people interested in being partners instead of having a mother-child relationship?

To me, it's one of the things that's non-negotiable in a girlfriend or a wife: read the title of the post.

To infinity ... kinda

The low budget Canadian space program:

The Toronto Star reports that Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad have been friends since middle school. A couple of summers ago, Ho saw a video online that showed some Massachusetts Institute of Technology students sending a balloon into space. The two teenaged boys began working on their project in September, and four months of Saturdays later, they were able to launch their balloon, with Lego man astronaut, into the skies.

Cool.

The Patriarchy strikes again

Times Live:

Q: Roughly 9 out of 10 Wikipedia editors are male. Why does the Wikimedia Foundation consider that a problem?

Sue Gardner: It is a priority for us to raise the number of women who edit. The reason is quality: Wikipedia aspires to contain the sum of all human knowledge, and we are not able to do that if our editor base is a narrow group of people. Women have a very wide range of interests and experiences and backgrounds. But we can assume that if they are not represented roughly to their equivalent of the population, there are gaps in the coverage. To me, it is not an ethical issue, it is not political correctness, but it is to ensure the quality of Wikipedia.

Perhaps, Wikipedia can make the text pink.

The crueler sex

Alpha Game:

It is deeply ironic that men are generally considered the commitment-phobic sex when it is easily observable that the main reason they tend to increasingly avoid making commitments is because they are forced to take them very seriously. Women, on the other hand, superficially appear pro-commitment, but this only holds true so long as there is no substantive and quantifiable aspect to the commitment for which they can be held accountable. It's rather fascinating to see the way in which marriage has been transformed from an institution wherein wives were expected to provide actual "marital duties" to one in which sex is now widely considered to be at the sole and unilateral discretion of the wife while the husband is not permitted any reliable expectation of it, much less right to it.

The first comment there:

Man has an obligation to go to theater, to prepare breakfast in the morning, to help wash the dishes (dishwasher), to say good words, give the occasional massage, listen to a whole day's nonsense when he wants to relax, give a hug, give a caress, challenge intellectually, make money, buy food, carry the grocery, carry the garbage.... add infinitum

A two minute handjob needs to be earned. Even then, she needs to be in the mood.

Funny, at my workplace today, two guys were talking about a cost benefit analysis of a girlfriend versus a prostitute. The prostitute won. It wouldn't be much different with a wife instead of a girlfriend.

Justice shattered

Vlad Tepes:

If one were to extrapolate this reasoning then all of us could become vigilantes of the harshest kind. Of course, we know full well what would happen if our annoyances at day-to-day realities were to motivate us to take action against random strangers being nice to us in a fully-appropriate location.

Fruits of feminism

A cruise ship crashed into rocks on an Italian island:

As she waited for a flight home from Rome, grandmother Sandra Rogers, 62, told the Daily Mail: ‘There was no “women and children first” policy. There were big men, crew members, pushing their way past us to get into the lifeboats. It was disgusting.’

There's a lot more whining in the whole column.

Vox Popoli:

This was not so much predictable as predicted. Women have methodically attacked the concept of male duty and honor through every possible means for the past ninety years, and now they are whining that they don't get special treatment simply because a ship happens to be sinking. Why, exactly, should any man "prioritise women, expectant mothers and children"? On what grounds can they be reasonably expected to do so, those outdated traditional grounds that the schools teach is hateful, sexist, and bigoted?

Gender doesn't exist unless there's an emergency like a life or death situation -- then sacrifices are expected of only one gender.

How convenient.

Iran vs. Satanbook

Haaretz:

ISNA on Saturday broadcast coverage of the response of Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpaygani, a senior cleric, to the question about Facebook and Iranian membership in the social networking service.

"Basically, going to any website which propagates immoralities and could weaken the religious belief is un-Islamic and not allowed, and membership in it is therefore haram (a sin)," the ayatollah replied.

Of course, El Diablo is a nerd.

Not equal

Susan Walsh:

One of my core beliefs about mating is that the sexual double standard reflects the biological differences between the sexes. Generally speaking, men prefer women with less sexual experience than they have and women prefer men with more sexual experience than they have.

When will this OPPRESSION end!?

Seriously, read the whole thing. The comments are interesting as well.

Marriage 2.0 needs an upgrade

Vox Popoli:

It's not true that men have no idea what to look for. They know what they want, they're just not finding it as easily anymore. And it's not being branded "a sexist pig" that turns men off to marriage, it is the guarantee of severe economic liability and the unacceptably high possibility of losing his house, his children, his savings, and reducing his future net income.

A lot of interesting comments there as well.

Coddled monsters

Vox Popoli links to reactions of various adults who received a Christmas gift not to their liking.

In my family the idea of gift-giving did not exist. We didn't even celebrate birthdays till my father caved in from pressure from all my siblings. Even then, on our birthdays, we would get around $50 as a gift. With my extended family it was worse. Most of my cousins don't know their exact birth day. Why? They never celebrate it. What's the point of knowing your own birthday when it's an insignificant date?

So, it's quite something to see pampered, spoiled brats who've grown up in one of the freest and richest societies in history to throw a hissy fit when they don't get their precious iPhone.

Our endowment

A Christmas Rumination by Francis W. Porretto:

A good man -- take my word for it -- has succumbed to the Problem of Pain: the inability to believe that a benevolent Deity would have created a universe that permits so much evil and suffering. I had to grapple with that one myself before I could confidently return to faith. It's a nasty one, for one giant reason: the severe difficulty we limited ones have in contemplating the nature of God and the Divine Plan.

The heart of the thing is the nature of free will under the veil of Time. We are temporal creatures. Alone among the living species, we experience the passage of time, in which we sequence the events of our lives and concoct theories about why this happened instead of that. Because our wills are free, we are capable of taking many paths forward from any point in time and circumstance. The scope of our decision making is limited only by our nature.

Our nature is defined by the laws of the universe that gave rise to us. God decreed those laws and made them self-enforcing. But they don't constrain our wills. We are free to choose what ends we will pursue: pleasure or pain; profit or loss; stasis or dynamism; good or evil. Freedom of the will is God's original gift to Mankind: the one that distinguishes us from all the lower orders...and perhaps from some of the higher ones, as well.

A woman at my workplace went to India with her daughter. One day they decided to visit a temple. The level of poverty and misery there made the daughter tear up. She couldn't handle such a scene. She asked her mother, "How can God allow this?" The mother, to my surprise, didn't have any answer. She largely agreed with the idea that suffering means that a good God doesn't exist which basically means God doesn't exist.

I've not believed that. Even, after viewing the horrors of Islam in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, my belief in a Powerful Architect hasn't diminished. If anything the existence of evil strengthens the basis of His existence for it means that we truly are free -- free to be good or bad, free to be kind or inflict pain.

The mythical patriarchy

Perhaps the most asinine belief of feminists is that men and women are not different. We are simply born with dissimilar sex organs. The inequalities we see among the genders is the result of the oppressive societal structure that refuses to die and continues to keep women down.

In other words, there is rampant discrimination against women. That explains their low numbers at the apex of STEM fields. Just take a look at the Fields Medal which is a prize awarded to those who've made major contributions to mathematics. It's awarded every four years. To date, fifty two people have won the award.

Guess how many women have earned the award. Hint: The number is not positive.

I don't see discrimination here or rather I don't see any proof of discrimination. A large majority of women are not interested in doing research in mathematics. Therefore, in a free society, one won't see women mathematicians on, er, top.

However, feminists and equality fetishists are very uncomfortable with biological differences. It seems that they can't let go of the "women are victims" narrative.

Anyway, check out this video for some "old fashioned" research into the differences between men and women. Password: hjernevask. Link via Heuristics, a commenter at Alpha Game.

Those Crazy Christians!

Messing with lights.

Panther mom

I had to bring a lot of work home today.

I watched this clip before I started working. The guy is very good with his sound effects.

Motherf*!@ing stupid

Man caught smuggling snakes on a plane.

Understanding sexuality

One of the dumbest ideas paraded around is: Men and women are the same. The "differences" we see among them are imposed by the larger society.

Growing up with many sisters and brothers and then living in four countries has shown me otherwise. One of the biggest differences between males and females is in what they deeply desire. Those who're into the equality myth simply don't comprehend the complexity inherent in us.

Byron via Susan Walsh:

There are girls that I know who also get into a dark place from being alone, too, but they are hungry for a stable relationship, not sex, & in fact one night stands & friends with benefits seem to make them more, rather than less unhappy. The irony of that being, of course, that pretty much any woman reading this page right now could walk up to the nearest bar tonight & get the thing that men crave more than anything for nothing, with no work whatsoever. But they don’t, because that isn’t what they want.

Well said.

Chickish?

Adam Carolla - 'Men are Superior'.

Link via Kathy Shaidle.