I was flying recently and got the chance to see a few movies. For the record, Emirates censors movies horrifically: mild expletives are redubbed with ridiculously weak replacements, and written references to sex are pixelated. The 50s still exist in the air above us ( Read more... )

Very interesting piece on paid essay writing for academia, which ignited a firestorm of internet argument. My view is that the main pressures come from admitting people who don't belong, and trying to keep them from failing (without actually teaching them); there's plenty of blame to go around ( Read more... )

I used to be really big on Facebook, adding everyone I met. I didn't expect deep friendships (though I made some really good friends that have lasted years), but I caught glimpses into other people's lives - lives that were different to mine ( Read more... )

When I was little, the police were the good guys who caught robbers and thieves. I respected them because they were on "our side". No longer ( Read more... )

With "time-pressured" journalists unsatisfied with just reproducing PR-department-written press kits, now journalists are cribbing from Twitter, Flickr, and internet wtf sites for "stories" and throwing together top 10 lists.

We end up with an ephemeral froth of no substance, plagarised from people who actually did some legwork. It's appalling.

We make fun of weeaboos, Japan-obssessed individuals with blinkered views about the Land of the Rising Sun - and I possess a special hatred for SWPL-weeaboos who combine the pretention of the former with the ignorance of the latter - but it's apparent that in Japan, the Weeaboo opposite is mainstream-prevalent ( Read more... )

I had heard of the overprotective tendencies of the US, but I was astounded when I opened the newspaper to see a scare article headlined "Playgrounds: Safer but Still Dangerous". The article detailed the ways playgrounds were deathtraps for our precious youngsters, provoking the insecurities of anxious parents. I'm sure these parents and the ( Read more... )

One of my pet peeves these days is the culture of fear that we've grown, particularly with regard to children; pictures of children are immediately feared as being sexual, adults dealing with children are immediately suspected of abusive intent, and so on ( Read more... )