serialdeviant.org(y)

The news is over here.

I’m busy hanging with my mum, who’s on leave over the next few days.

Update: thanks to Kristen who pointed out the link didn’t appear. Transposition error in HTML. Sorry.

Another weird one via ScienceBlogs: Man lived to 112 on junk food diet. I can tell ScienceBlogs is going to be one of my favourites.

If you like squid, you’ll love the Random cephalopodia post on ScienceBlogs. I think.

My run today was interrupted by rain*. And I was being all motivated and counting down the laps and everything. I was only three laps short of my day’s goal… at least I got a morning walk in and did some stretching at the gym downstairs.

I’m also all signed up for the Run For Hope (aka Terry Fox Run), where I hope I’ll be able to jog the slightly hilly five kilometres without too many dramas in about a fortnight’s time.

* Not that I have an issue with running in the rain. Unfortunately, my mobile phone does.

I was sorry to hear about the death of Steve Irwin. I was napping quietly on the sofa when Neil sent me a text with the news.

Sad news for his family. The only little comfort is that he died doing what he loved.

I was at Orchard Towers on Saturday (afternoon), and noticed that what was once Top Ten is now Top 5. Either their band has got better, girls have got better, or floor space has got smaller. Hehe.

Mr Bargain Queen is guest-posting on The Bargain Queen on budgeting, a topic close to my heart. I’m not very good at it, but I definitely try to live within my means and avoid debt like the plague. (If Neil and I get hitched, does he become Mr serialdeviant? Hehe.)

Wow, this is scary. Violent non-sexual assaults by women in Scotland grew by 50% in the last four years!

Vince Egan, a forensic psychologist at Glasgow Caledonian University, said a cocktail of run-away female empowerment and binge drinking is primarily responsible for the surge in aggression.

He said: “It’s drink and girl-power. Everyone thinks of the Spice Girls being an empowering thing. Suddenly there is a collective view that girls are here to do everything they like, but unfortunately this also gives them the right to do stuff that is just as idiotic as men do.

“The social conditions that might have inhibited women from behaving anti-socially aren’t with us anymore. When you mix this with the acceptability of binge-drinking, it’s no surprise that there are more female criminals”.

I didn’t realise the Spice Girls advocated violence. Personally, I reckon that a lot of people have a diminished sense of personal responsibility, especially the younger generations, and that is why they think it’s all right to do something extremely anti-social and as long as they have justified it to themselves no one else should have an opinion.

Susan Batchelor, a criminologist at Glasgow University who works with female prisoners, said: “The primary problem is an increase in drug use. Most of these crimes are a direct result of a drug problem. Women may be stealing or working as prostitutes or they may assault someone they are stealing from, but the underlying cause is almost always drugs”.

So let’s legalise (but heavily regulate) drugs. The less underground addicts have to be, the better.

Prostaglandin in semen could stimulate cervical cancer cells. Oh, that’s nice.

The moment I heard about the IMF/World Bank meetings in Singapore, I did say, and Neil will back me up on this, that Singapore will probably try to sell its virtual ban on public assembly as a major selling point to the international MICE industry.

Goh Chok Tong’s a party man through and through, but the stuff he says sounds much less strident and patronising (I’m not going to say compared to whom). The (circumstantial, hearsay) proof? This article on income inequality and how it’s not going to go away:

One of the negative impacts of globalisation is that the “rich will get richer and the poor, poorer,” said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong last night.

Since globalisation produces a net positive (IMHO), I think we should continue to work on making it fairer. No systems are perfect because it us up to human beings to implement them, so it’s a matter of course that we need to continually improve something that affects so many.

Which is why the Government has placed this low-income group as a priority in deciding how best to share the surpluses of the nation with them, yet at the same time ensuring that a welfare mentality is not created in the process, said Mr Goh.

“There is no quick and easy fix. But this is an area which we must all work together to find the answer so as to maintain our prosperity and social cohesion,” he said.

Well, I don’t know if the government has really prioritised the plight of the poor, one would presume they have (despite their high salaries, let’s not drag that hoary old chestnut into the argument) — it’s in their interest to care. And yes, Singapore is not a place where we (usually) expect welfare handouts (which is why the UK visa system amuses me, they are so worried about my ‘receiving public funds’ when such a thing would never even cross my mind, it’s just the way I’ve been raised).

The terms ‘prosperity’ and ‘social cohesion’ make me laugh, though. For a lot of us, we need to attain rather than maintain.

Hahahahahhahahahahaha! There is a website called Jockstrap Central (mildly NSFW, especially the mesh ones on the bottom).

I love thee, Devil’s Muse drop sleeve top. I can’t get away with wearing the Sinister Spinster crop top, but it sure is hot.