dsng.net - the daryl sng blog: October 2004

Dog shoots man, updated

They finally charged the heartless guy who tried to shoot a litter of puppies and ended up getting shot by a puppy. And in other dog news, this Rottweiler saved her owner by dialling 911. What I think is amazing is that the dog is trained to "alert her owner to impending seizures before they happen" by sniffing out changes in body chemistry. Didn't know they could do that.

Best of craigslist

One of my favourite things to browse through is the Best of Craigslist. (If you don't know what craigslist is, it's an online classifieds site, to put it succinctly. I wish there were a craigslist Singapore.) Here's some of my favourites: nude economic consulting, the Asian woman as the ultimate hipster accessory, entourage seekers.

Random Celebrity Photos

Newsday has a pic of Renee Zellweger from the premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Always think Zellweger looks better in the Bridget Jones movies - when I watched Chicago I felt like rushing up onto the screen and giving her applesauce to eat or something.

Meanwhile, they have a pic of Elizabeth Hurley promoting Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but given the outfit she's wearing, it seems more like she's also promoting Awareness of Liz Hurley's Breasts Month.

St Bernard

The Order of St Bernard is giving up its St Bernards, because the dogs are "distracting [the monks] from their work of ministering to actual people".

The St Bernard puppy that the NY Times showed is so darned huge but cute:

Bush campaign site blocks overseas traffic

Hey, how are us political junkies from overseas going to follow the election when people are doing things like this? And aren't there Americans abroad who want to find out information?

Coconut and Pumpkin

More of Coconut, cutest dog in the world, with a blue pumpkin. It's coming up to Halloween!

The Sox win it all

The Boston Red Sox, 2004 World Champions. I'm beyond happy.

Recovery

Speaking as someone whose mother has kidney failure, I think it's awesome that Alonzo Mourning is coming back to play basketball after his kidney transplant.

I love my search engine

Men talk to Google not girlfriends.

"Search services have become so central to our lives that in many cases they're being treated like trusted friends. Men in particular seem to be turning to them like a mate in the pub to give advice, provide entertainment and even help out in rating potential girlfriends."

Election

Okay, I admit to being an American political junkie. And I know that Daily Kos and Atrios are going to be hardcore pro-Kerry. But to see that two of the leading neo-con bloggers Andrew Sullivan and Mickey Kaus are endorsing Kerry... ouch. Interesting times we live in, when left/right labels don't split up so evenly.

Another good man goes

RIP John Peel.

Public Displays of Affection

It's quite embarrassing when you're caught canoodling in public. Especially if you're a couple of married members of the US Congress. And one week to go before elections.

Lomography

The Singapore Art Museum (nee St Joseph's Institution) on Bras Basah Road in Singapore, captured by my Lomo.

Stepping back

An MIT graduate railing against technology? Say it ain't so!

Head of the Charles

The annual Head of the Charles Regatta was on in Boston this weekend. Hearing about it brought back memories of all the festivities at the banks of the Charles River. I always wondered if the name of the race was an oblique reference to the beheading of Charles I.

Pyramid scheme

Mummifying your pets. Now that's retro.

Barney the rapper

Barney, singing better than he's ever sung before. West coast purple pimps represent!

Inclusion and exclusion in the country

Oh it's like an animal farm
That's the rural charm
In the country - Blur, "Country House"

John Lanchester has a good piece in the Guardian on false idealisations of the countryside in England. He's a novelist, but he's got the essential idea of urban economics right:

After all, one of the most robust indicators of how satisfactory a place is to live is whether or not people want to go and live there.

Interesting fact: the French countryside is losing people, the English countryside gaining. And I really liked the following observations:

It's just that it seems to me to be a fact of modern countryside life that community, in this hearth-hallowed, warm-glow sense, doesn't exist... when they mourn the loss of a sense of community, they are asking us to mourn something which died a long time ago if, indeed, it ever existed.

The thing about "community" is that it can be an exclusive term, not just an inclusive one. By definition, if some people are inside your community, the rest must be outside.

More Blogger annoyances

Two things about Blogger that annoy me:

It can't get my time zone right for posts at noon-1pm and midnight-1am: the hour for such posts is always "01".
Not really a Blogger issue, but how it works with Google I guess - Google tends to capture the main page instead of the individual posts, so people come searching for things I wrote in the past and not find it. If you've come to this blog that way, do note that whatever I write should be in the archive - just use the Google site search I have in the sidebar. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Friday's child

Via Snog Blog, here's a little site that lets you know your day of birth. I always knew I was loving and giving. Heh.

Early voting

Random US election question: now that lots of states are allowing early voting, what happens when someone votes, and then dies before Election Day? I guess his or her vote must already be counted, but isn't that sort of strange? A vote from a dead person? On the other hand, you could argue that Election Day was always sort of arbitrary.

Coke vs Pepsi, the science

Here's research near and dear to my heart. (I drink an inordinate amount of cola a day, and one of the books I read numerous times as a child was The Other Guy Blinked, aka Pepsico CEO Roger Enrico's story of the Cola wars.) Apparently Coke has such powerful branding that seeing the brand actually affects your nervous system's response:

The experimental design enabled the researchers to discover the specific brain regions activated when the subjects used only taste information versus when they also had brand identification. While the researchers found no influence of brand knowledge for Pepsi, they found a dramatic effect of the Coke label on behavioral preference. The brand knowledge of Coke both influenced their preference and activated brain areas including the "dorsolateral prefrontal cortex" and the hippocampus. Both of these areas are implicated in modifying behavior based on emotion and affect. In particular, wrote the researchers, their findings suggest "that the hippocampus may participate in recalling cultural information that biases preference judgments."

No rest for the wicked

Busy moving house. So it will be a slow weekend over here at dsng.net. Maybe you want to try cooking to hook up? Or take the "which file extension are you?" quiz:

You are .mpg You live life like it was a movie. Constantly in motion, you bring pleasure to many, but are often hidden away.

You are .mpg You live life like it was a movie. Constantly in motion, you bring pleasure to many, but are often hidden away.

Which File Extension are You?

Single-shade M&Ms

You know how rock star's concert riders always have weird demands about M&Ms (only the brown ones, no blue ones etc.)? Or the urban legend that the green M&Ms are an aphrodisiac? Why don't they make packs of M&Ms that are just one colour?

"Please don't send me home - I'll be good!"

More pictures of Coconut, world's cutest dog. Now a feisty 6 lb 8 oz. Not quite a Size 5 yet, though, apparently.

De La Vega

I have very fond memories of De La Vega's graffiti gracing New York City's streets - all these chalk figures and quotes in Union Square and elsewhere. I was reminded of this when I watched the Dave Chappelle Show and suddenly noticed he was wearing a De La Vega T-shirt. In support of De La Vega after his arrest?

Sox in the Series

I normally confine baseball talk to my baseball blog, but it had to be said: the Boston Red Sox are in the World Series. So happy.

The Arad turntable

This was a pic on my blog for a while: the turntable of my dreams. By Ron Arad.

Blogs and advertising

Kottke has an interesting point on the increasing number of ads in blogs. I guess people need to defray the costs of hosting, and I'm inclined to accept that the presence of ads doesn't immediately disrupt the look and feel of a page. (Of course, I may be biased myself - see the tiny little ad space in the sidebar?)

As I commented over at the original kottke article, I think ads do disrupt the aesthetics somewhat, but I don't think they really spoil the underlying self-publishing ethos. After all, there are ads in the alternative press. What's different to me are developments like the rise of the Nick Denton stable of blogs (Gawker, Gizmodo, Wonkette etc.) where blogging is developed specifically as a means of generating profits. I wonder what the effects of that on the blogosphere are?

Cheryl Fox cleared

Well, good to see that Cheryl Fox, Singaporean newscaster and host of a certain gameshow that I once took part in, has been cleared of cocaine use.

Robert Downey Jr., singer

I wrote that I was looking for a recording of Robert Downey Jr singing "You Don't Know Me", and then - thanks to Winamp - I chanced upon this report that he now has a recording contract. Guess even if he "loses focus" you only have to be in the studio for a day, as opposed to the months of committing to filmng.

The living jacket

Wow, this is a weird intersection between science and art: Jacket Grows From Living Tissue. About the two conceptual artists involved:

Calling themselves conceptual artists who create working prototypes, they say their aim is to bring to the forefront the philosophical implications of making living organisms tools for our own purposes.

Well, they certainly achieved their aim with me.

Flabby preludes for a dog

Randomly: one of my favourite titles of a piece of classical music is Erik Satie's "Préludes flasques; pour un chien (Flabby preludes; for a dog), for piano".

Inventions by Mormons

Here's a list of things invented by Mormons. The presence of rifle, shotgun, aqueous explosives, and Doom on that list surprised me. The presence of medical technology (hearing aid, heart bypass machine) didn't.

Black and white and red all over

Saw this ad on ESPN.com. Clearly, USA Today is taking a direct shot at the Gray Lady.

Vegetarian shoes

Spotted this on Zappos, the Girlfriend's new-found online shoe store. Must say, Zappo's looks nifty - I'm not a shoe person, but they seem to know what people look for. But vegetarian shoes?? I found out what they mean - no leather - but still, I see that and I think "... as opposed to all those carnivorous shoes out there".

The skinny on the Olsens

And, finally, away from the heavy stuff. Don't know why I didn't mention this when I first read it, but the Olsen twins had slimming mirrors installed (third item in that link) in their new New York apartment. Is this really appropriate behaviour for a pair that's 50% anorexic? Or perhaps I should refer to them as "half-full".

Abortions and Poverty

Here's a really interesting piece in the Houston Chronicle by a pro-life professor and a journalist on why abortions in the US rose during the Bush administration. I seem to be on an economics bent today...

Got PPT?

Via kottke, who I think of all the so-called "big name" bloggers usually has the most interesting links, I discovered this "PowerPoint to the People" contest. (I hope this isn't part of a naming trend for Microsoft-themed contests. "Word to the Wise" beckons.) Best part:

PFA wants to see your PowerPoint presentation whether it's hardsell, softcore, or medium cool!

Heh heh, they said "softcore". Of course, since I'm the kind of person who keeps Edward Tufte's The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint on my desk, my feelings on PowerPoint might be somewhat tainted...

Tufte - PowerPoint is Evil
Aaron Swartz's PowerPoint outline of Tufte's text.

Nitpicking

Speaking of the Economist, I was well chuffed when I noticed that it used "staunch" for "stanch" in an article on the ongoing NHL (that's National Hockey League) lockout in the US/Canada:

"To staunch their losses, the owners are insisting that the players accept a salary cap" ("On Ice", p. 37 - or follow this link if you have a subscription)

But apparently, the stanch/staunch distinction isn't preserved by British journalists. Phooey!

Corporate takeovers and effects on share prices

This week's Economist has an article (requires subscription to view) on cross-border acquisitions expressing the surprise finding that takeovers by British firms of American firms tend to fail, whereas British takeovers of firms in the EU and other parts of the world tend to succeed:

You might expect the opposite, given that Britain's corporate culture is much like America's, but some way from those of most EU countries. (Link, requires subscription to the Economist. It's on page 69 of the magazine.)

What I don't get, though, is why the researchers involved (Alan Gregory and Steve McCorriston of Xfi, Exeter University's Centre for Finance and Investment, and yes, I think the name "Xfi" is veering dangerously close to linguistic-combover territory) are so surprised. It's probably true that American corporate culture is closer to British than the rest of the world. But surely the results show that the important factor is not the similarity of corporate culture, but whether or not the other parties have inefficiencies that can be improved upon by new management - which might be more likely elsewhere than in the US, home of shareholder-centric firms. But then, since the Economist article is short, perhaps I'm just missing a point here.

Hey, I know I normally talk about pop culture and grammar and urban planning and so on, but sometimes I like to put forth reminders that I was trained as an economist...

Sandra Oh, and non-cute Asian stars

The New York Times has an interview with Sandra Oh in conjuction with the release of Sideways, wherein I learnt her husband is Alexander Payne, director of Election, thereby raising her cool level even higher. I really liked Oh in Under the Tuscan Sun, and the voice that emerged from the interview solidified that liking. She had some sharp words to say about the lack of Korean support for Margaret Cho:

Koreans didn't support her because of their own [expletive] bias, what's the word, something -ist, not racist but just that [expletive] where they only want Asian stars who look like [expletive] Asian kewpie dolls. (Link)

Oh's got her finger on a phenomenon, although like her I can't name it. I'm always disturbed by the fact that every female pop star that comes out of the Hong Kong / Taiwan pop machine has that kewpie look to her. Sure, Hollywood favours the good-looking too, but at least you don't always have to be subjected to that cloying cuteness.

If Margaret Cho's frenetic aggro turns you off from her... well, you're missing one of the funnier standups around (admittedly, All-American Girl was pretty terrible as a sitcom). She's also quite articulate, as seen in this blog entry on the identity conflict between nationality and ethnicity.

Stop using the "z" for "s"

Over dinner on Friday, I was informed that Baker's Inn, a Singaporean cafe chain with incredible desserts, has "rebranded" itself into "Bakerzin" (Lord knows why they needed a name change, although the Girlfriend suggests that perhaps their overseas expansion caused some nomenclatural conflict). I really can't stand it when companies use the "z" as a "cool" way of spelling "s". It may be okay for teenage text messaging, but it really looks undignified in a corporate setting. It's the spelling equivalent of a combover: makes you look like you're an old fart trying to act "with it". To quote Bakerzin themselves:

We too feel that the new name has strong brand recognition, is chic and a la mode (Link)

"A la mode"? I know it literally means "in the fashion", but if you're talking about dessert, it means only one thing: with ice cream on top. And I don't want a brand name with ice cream on top. Just give me the (delicious) cheesecake.