Little slip of a food fighter gains 7kg in one sitting

Unbelievable. Unfortunately, she must be the the bulimia queen of Japan, heck, the world!

Hey Scooterboy! Here's a real life chick Big Eater for you! :D




From Wired: "Natsuko Sone is a petite 21-year-old who stands 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs just 95 pounds. But she can eat 183 pieces of sushi in half an hour and down 20 pounds of food in one sitting.

Sone is the newest celebrity sensation among Japan's long line of champion competitive eaters -- or "food fighters," as the entertainment industry calls them -- and a rising star on YouTube."

Courtesy of BoingBoing.

Rationalist Society of Australia – Irrational Payment Mechanisms

This week, I attempted to join the Rationalist Society of Australia. I had purchased their magazine from Borders and liked the content. So, I thought it would be good to support them and looked into applying for membership. They have a membership application form which can be downloaded from their website. Fine, although an online submission form would be a lot more convenient. The first sign of bad news was the note specifically requesting that the form be snail-mailed to them as opposed to emailed or faxed.

I printed the membership form, saw a note regarding payment via money order or cheque. Bad. I don't have a cheque book (I would have to queue at the bank to buy a bank cheque, not worth the money and more importantly, not worth my time. I actually can't even remember the last time I had to write a cheque… somewhere in the vicinity of 8 years or so ago). I am young enough that various means of payment have been established, such that I have never touched a money order (some archaic system involving a piece of paper for which one needs to queue in the infamously long and tedious lines at the Post Office - and that's if you can get there during your lunch break since they close at 5pm). So, I emailed the society requesting an alternative payment method. No response from the Society. Called them to ask the same question. Spoke to a 'mature' sounding lady whom I shall refer to as Ancient.

Ancient advised no cards accepted and rather snappishly started to carry on about their reasons. I cut her off. Asked about bank transfers. She said that would be possible provided that she can identify that I am the payer??? "WTF?", I did not say. I decided to be patient with Ancient and explained that I can easily specify e.g. "X name for purposes of membership in Rationalist Society of Australia." She said ok. I then asked for their banking details. Ancient then mystifyingly said, "I don't give out that information." "WTF??", I again did not say. I have no idea how she thought I was going to transfer the funds to her.

Ancient then proceeded to lecture me to the effect of "what's so difficult about going to the Post Office once every quarter to get a money order?" (as an aside, a lecture delivered in a snotty clipped British accent raises the hackles that much higher). I didn't bother explaining to Ancient the issues in relation to scarcity of time and my unwillingness to waste it standing in long queues during my lunch break (when I get one). I just said, I've never touched money orders, which hearken back to yesteryear and that there really was no excuse in this day and age of internet banking, then hung up.

I am happily a Bright but believe I should support a local outfit. So, I persevered and found the Atheist Foundation of Australia which appears to be a more professional organisation. I downloaded their application form from their website, entered my details in Word, paid with a credit card online via Paymate, then emailed the completed application form to them and Bob’s yer uncle. All over red rover in 10 minutes. Get with the times, Ancient.

Help locate missing engineer

On Sunday, January 28th, 2007, Jim Gray, a renowned computer scientist was reported missing at sea. As of Thursday, Feb. 1st, the US Coast Guard has called off the search, having found no trace of the boat or any of its emergency equipment.
Follow the story here.

Through the generous efforts of his friends, family, various communities and agencies, detailed NASA aircraft imagery has been made available for his last known whereabouts.

You will be presented with an image. The task is to indicate any satellite images which contain any foreign objects in the water that may resemble Jim's sailboat or parts of a boat. Jim's sailboat will show up as a regular object with sharp edges, white or nearly white, the same size as the boats in the sample images below. The size of the boat in the sample images is the size of the object you are looking for, even though the images you are scanning are much larger.

If in doubt, be conservative and mark the image.

Help search through this site

Article on the search.

Remembering Douglas Adams

On 11 May 2001, I was browsing news headlines online during an ordinary lunch break at my desk, on an ordinary day, when I saw the headline, "Douglas Adams dies at age 49". I stopped breathing.The day clouded over. It's not him. It's some other Douglas Adams. But no, it was the one and only author of my all-time favourite book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. My heart sank and I tearily scoured online coverage of his death.

A few days later, Richard Dawkins wrote this moving lament for Adams.

Years later, my heart still sinks when I think about our world without Douglas Adams. It is heartening to see that this great man is so fondly remembered by his fans and friends. Dawkins dedicates the God Delusion to the memory of Adams and often writes about him in the book. I just want to share one section with whoever may be reading this post.

"Douglas Adams's moving and funny account of his own conversion to radical atheism - he insisted on the 'radical' in case anybody should mistake him for an agnostic - is testimony to the power of Darwinism as a consciousness-raiser. I hope I shall be forgiven the self-indulgence that will become apparent in the following quotation. My excuse is that Douglas's conversion by my earlier books - which did not set out to convert anyone - inspired me to dedicate to his memory this book - which does! In an interview, reprinted posthumously in The Salmon of Doubt, he was asked by a journalist how he became an atheist. He began his reply by explaining how he became an agnostic, and then proceeded:

And I thought and thought and thought. But I just didn't have enough to go on, so I didn't really come to any resolution. I was extremely doubtful about the idea of god, but I just didn't know enough about anything to have a good working model of any other explanation for, well, life, the universe, and everything to put in its place. But I kept at it, and I kept reading and I kept thinking. Sometime around my early thirties I stumbled upon evolutionary biology, particulary in the form of Richard Dawkins's book The Selfish Gene and then The Blind Watchmaker, and suddenly (on, I think the second reading of The Selfish Gene) it all fell into place. It was a concept of such stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly, silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day

The concept of stunning simplicity that he was talking about was, of course, nothing to do with me. It was Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection - the ultimate scientific consciousness-raiser. Douglas, I miss you. You are my cleverest, funniest, most open-minded, wittiest, tallest, and possibly only convert. I hope this book might have made you laugh - though not as much as you made me."

==================================

"People will then often say “But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?” This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would chose not to worship him anyway." DNA

Migration of my blog from Bubbler

Slowly moving content from my Bubbler blog.

The God Delusion and Brights

I am currently reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and am thoroughly engrossed.

It is a relief of sorts to see ideas in my mind that had been clear as mud being articulated by a brilliant mind in a clear and captivating style. I find myself exclaiming, 'EXACTLY!" every second sentence or so :D

The book is also surprisingly funny. I've laughed out loud in several places.

I've learned of many nifty things from this book, one of which is the Brights. I am now a registered Bright.

Another nifty thing for Americans and Canadians who send their kids to summer cap is Camp Quest. Entry in Wikipedia.

And for a good laff, there is this site: Hundreds of proofs of God's existence

Excerpted by Dawkins:

36. ARGUMENT FROM INCOMPLETE DEVASTATION

(1) A plane crashed killing 143 passengers and crew.
(2) But one child survived with only third-degree burns.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

37. ARGUMENT FROM POSSIBLE WORLDS

(1) If things had been different, then things would be different.
(2) That would be bad.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

38. ARGUMENT FROM SHEER WILL

(1) I DO believe in God! I DO believe in God! I do I do I do I DO believe in God!
(2) Therefore, God exists.

39. ARGUMENT FROM NONBELIEF

(1) The majority of the world's population are nonbelievers in Christianity.
(2) This is just what Satan intended.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

40. ARGUMENT FROM POST-DEATH EXPERIENCE

(1) Person X died an Atheist.
(2) He now realizes his mistake.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

41. ARGUMENT FROM EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL

(1) God loves you.
(2) How could you be so heartless to not believe in him?
(3) Therefore, God exists.

I was not familiar with the difference between a theist, deist, and pantheist before. Here's an excerpt from the book:

Page 18: "Let's remind ourselves of the terminology. A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who, in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation. In many theistic belief systems, the deity is intimately involved in human affairs. He answers prayers; forgives or punishes sins; intervenes in the world by performing miracles; frets about good and bad deeds, and knows when we do them (or even think of doing them). A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter, and certainly has no specific interest in human affairs. Pantheists don't believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings. Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts and does not intervene with capricious miracles. Deists differ from pantheists in that the deist God is some kind of cosmic intelligence, rather than the pantheist's metaphoric or poetic synonym for the laws of the universe. Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered-down theism."

I highly recommend this book for both religious and non-religious folk.

Panda Sneeze

Nifty Mac Widget: Free SMS all around the world

Works a treat between Scooterboy in Shanghai and me in Melb.

Sahweet!

Callwave

Great Wired article on Joost

"Zennström and Friis have day jobs as Skype's CEO and executive vice president of innovation, respectively. But in the cute way that Internet billionaires can do whatever the hell they want, they're teeing up the mother of all side projects."

:D

Why Joost is Good for TV

Felipe Fernandez Armesto jailed for jaywalking in Atlanta, U.S.

Idiot cops.

"Police say a British historian was handcuffed, thrown to the ground and jailed because he refused to obey a uniformed officer's order to use a crosswalk and wouldn't show identification.

The historian says he had no idea the upset young man was a police officer.

``Where I'm from, you don't associate young gentlemen in bomber jackets with the police. But he was extremely upset I had questioned his bona fides,'' said the historian, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts and expert on colonial history."

Article in the Sydney Morning Herald

Article in the Guardian

New China, New Crisis

An interesting article on China which points out certain worrisome issues. But there is always hope:

"Over stir-fried curried chicken and crispy fried flying sea bass, the Chinese guests repeated politely and persuasively that China was making up new economic and political rules. Afterwards, I chanced to have a few words alone with one of the local rising government stars as we walked out of the complex. He kept his eyes on the ground. 'Don't allow yourself to be dissuaded, despite what you have heard. You are right that China is not different. I want my children to see a China with human rights and democratic institutions. And I am not alone.' He jumped into a taxi and was gone."

New China, New Crisis

I wonder if the article will be blocked in China. While living in China, i found that the BBC was always blocked and the Guardian often shared the same fate.

Morons of the world

Brief accounts of ridiculous lawsuits from the Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch.

"ARSONISTS SUE FOR INSURANCE BENEFITS AFTER BEING DENIED COVERAGE FOR DAMAGES THEY CAUSED TO NEIGHBORING BUILDING

Two Alpena, Michigan men set an arson fire in their store with the hope of collecting insurance money. They admitted that they intended to simply have a small, smokey fire that would damage their inventory, which apparently wasn't selling very well, so they could collect on their insurance policy. However, when the fire spilled over into the adjoining store, the men sued the insurance company. They argued that they set the fire in their own store, but that the fire next door was accidental and therefore they should receive coverage for the damage to the other building. A panel of the state Court of Appeals amazingly reversed the trial court's decision to dismiss this ridiculous case, but the Michigan Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, eventually reversed the Court of Appeals and ruled that the fire "cannot be characterized as an accident.

INMATE BLAMES STATE FOR HIS FLATULENCE, THEN SUES

According to a Michigan Assistant Attorney General testifying before the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee, frivolous prisoner lawsuits are overburdening state and federal courts. In Case No. 9650302, a prisoner sued the state blaming the food in prison for his flatulence problem. The Attorney General's Office estimates the annual cost of defending the state against frivolous prisoner lawsuits to be several million dollars, all paid for by the state taxpayer."

More here.

See also M-Law's collection of hand-holding labels for idiot consumers.

Courtesy of BoingBoing.

The Loot

This morning, a buddy and I decided to investigate a book sale that had been advertised on TV. We figured, pop in, have a look-see for around 10 minutes among what would certainly be Mills&Boon type fare then get some brekkie.

We popped in. 2 hours later, arms sore from lugging half our weight in books, we staggered out of the warehouse with bags upon bags of loot.

Anyone in the vicinity of Collingwood, on the corner of Johnston and Hoddle Streets, should drop in to check out the sale at Dirt Cheap Books. All books are AUD4.99 (a handful, including I have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes by Jaclyn Moriarty, are only AUD1.99).

I found some gems including Jared Diamond's Collapse, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, Himalaya by Michael Palin and lots more (loot pictured).

There are rows upon rows of books on two levels of a massive warehouse and you could lose yourself for hours, as we did!

I highly recommend this adventure.

UPDATE: In response to Christina's comment - Hi there, apologies for not responding within the comment section. I'm currently living in Shanghai and have very limited access to my blog - can do certain things but not others. In answer to your query, yes, they are open all the time and have a number of branches (though I can't recall where the others are located off the top of my head). If you head over, join the mailing list - very handy to know when new stock has arrived and when they hold specials (yep... even cheaper than the already super cheap prices on a normal day). Have fun and happy reading! 8)

Sunset 4 Jan 2007

Happy New Year!

Have a great 2007!

Nice one for the holidays: The Pursuit of Happiness

"Take your dad to the Super Bowl. Buy a home near the office. Get married. Go out to dinner with the family. Take a memorable vacation, and be sure to buy souvenirs."

The Pursuit of Happiness: Six experts tell what they've done to achieve it

Barack Obama on Charlie Rose

The Charlie Rose interview with the future president of the US (with any luck)

Obama's inspiring speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I found this wonderful gem today, which will be a perfect present for my sisters to celebrate 20 years in Australia since the family migrated from South East Asia.


The Arrival is a hauntingly beautiful book by Shaun Tan and is filled with stunning drawings.


"The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope."


The Arrival on Amazon.

So many things to do, so little time.

For the last 6 months or so of wedding planning shenanigans, I've been hopeless with keeping up to date with the news and I have barely read any books. Now that the Big Day is over (although the boy and I have yet to write our Thank You cards - yikes), I'm just starting to ease my way back into things.

However, I find myself wishing I had more time to do everything I want to do. So many newspapers, magazines and books to read, so little time.

I've got my stack of books ready to go. Currently reading Snow Crash and The Fingerprints of the Gods, both have my imagination running wild. Can't wait to dive into Heart of Fire , The God Delusion, The Naked Scientist, Who Invented What When, The Diamond Age, The Prize, All the Shah's Men, and A Little History of the World (an excellent book which I never got to finish on my first pass for various reasons).

I'm thinking I need to get rid of the idiot box with which I have waaaay too good a relationship.

Sniff your way to a diagnosis!

Nifty!

"Australian scientists are promising a new era in the detection of brain disorders like Alzheimer's, with diagnosis through smell tests.

The University of Melbourne team has discovered a link between an inability to identify odours and at least five diseases..."

Scientists use smell tests to detect brain disorders