Book List Refreshed 29/12/2016

I have removed:

The Secret History of the Blitz by Joshua Levine
This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
@War by Shane Harris
Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
Hard Choices by Donald Low and Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh

I have added:

Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle
Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
The Age of Stagnation by Satyajit Das
Killing the Host by Michael Hudson
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
Green Illusions by Ozzie Zehner
The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter
Immoderate Greatness by William Ophuls
Narconomics by Tom Wainwright
Rigged by Dean Baker

Book List Refreshed 13 September 2015

I have removed:

Made to Break by Giles Slade
Animal Spirits with Chinese Characteristics by Mark A. DeWeaver
Hitlerland by Andrew Nagorski
Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson
Quiet by Susan Cain
Private Equity at Work by Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt
Dirt by David Montgomery
In Praise of Hard Industries by Eamonn Fingleton

I have added:

Hard Choices by Donald Low and Sudhir Vadaketh
@War by Shane Harris
How We Learn by Benedict Carey
Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz
Hooked by Nir Eyal
The Secret History of the Blitz by Joshua Levine
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein
Taking the Risk Out of Democracy by Alex Carey

Book List Refreshed 8 Dec 2014

I have removed:

Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb
The End of the Suburbs by Leigh Gallagher
Reinventing Collapes by Dmitry Orlov
Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester R. Brown
Tiger Head, Snake Tails by Jonathan Fenby
The First Muslim by Lesley Hazleton

I have added:

Dirt by David Montgomery
Made to Break by Giles Slade
In Praise of Hard Industries by Eamonn Fingleton
Animal Spirits with Chinese Characteristics by Mark A. DeWeaver
Hitlerland by Andrew Nagorski
Private Equity at Work by Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt

On Fundies Calling for Removing Non "Pro-Family" Children's Books from the Library

An oldie but goodie:

Appendix to DPM Tharman's Description of CPF

To be read with the Straits Times article:

CPF is:

1. SUSTAINABLE - for the government that is, because a defined contribution scheme is by definition self-funded and hence the government bears no risk for you not being able to afford your retirement. Whether or not CPF is sustainable for *you* is a different story altogether. 


2. FLEXIBLE - to the extent that you can spend your *own* money only on the things that the government allows you to spend on, subject of course to the alphabet soup of gotcha limits, e.g. MSS, VL and WL, MMS, which incidentally, are moving goalposts.


3. SECURE - to the extent that debt issued by a sovereign government in its own currency can always be repaid in full in nominal terms. Don't ask Tharman about security relative to purchasing power or the continued strength of the Singdollar. He'll think you're being rude.


4. FAIR - in that the rates of interest paid are appropriate given the zero rate interest environment brought on by the Federal Reserve's ZIRP policy. No mention of how the ZIRP environment has been in effect for only a handful of years, while the CPF interest rate has remained unchanged for decades.
   
   Don't ask Tharman about how fair the interest rate is relative to the inflation rate, or how the concept of "illiquidity premium" applies in the case of CPF. He'll think you're an ungrateful git for not realizing how generous the government is compared to the interest accruing on your bank account.

7for7

flaneurose has seen much less frequent updates starting about 2 years back. This stems partly from blogging fatigue, partly from me giving up on reading the Straits Times, and also in large part due to me working on other personal projects.

Which brings me to today's post. While flaneurose doesn't enjoy a large readership, it's far more established than my other web property, which is why I am promoting my other website here on flaneurose.

I started 7for7, a speed dating project for gay men last year in November. And I can tell you, it's been hard going getting enough participants for events. I'm starting to recall the early days of flaneurose almost 5 years ago when days would go by without anyone reading any of my posts.

While the primary motivation behind 7for7 was to hold events and meet new people, I also wanted to collect and analyze data on speed dating, and perhaps publish some interesting observations on dating dynamics within the gay community. But analytics simply isn't possible without a lot of data, and to collect that data, I need to hold events. And I need participants to hold events.

So, that's why I've decided to publicize the little fact here on my blog that flaneurose and 7for7 are in fact by the same person. Call it a blog cross-over, kind of like TV shows by the same producer.

If you're a reader of my blog, and you know someone for whom 7for7 might just be the ticket to a new relationship, do them and me a favor and tell them about it. I've already been successful at matching up at least one couple from my first event, and I look forward to doing the same for many more singles.

FCBC's Lawrence Khong Comes Out (as the brains behind the petition)

There's a report stating that Pastor Lawrence Khong from Faith Community Baptist Church is behind the petition against the Health Promotion Board's FAQs on sexuality.

The story was carried, appropriately enough given his mug shot (see the first comment by one Chitpol Siddhirvan on the story), in the Gay Star News.

Khong didn't come out as "Aaron", but hey, he could still come out some day. All we need is a Mike Jones to Ted Haggard personality to come forward and FCBC will be holding a whole new kind of press conference.

Jokes aside, I surfed over to FCBC's Facebook page just to have a look see, and a thought occurred to me.

FCBC is violating Facebook's terms of use.

The specific section that is relevant is Section 3:

3. Safety

We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help to keep Facebook safe, which includes the following commitments by you:

...

6. You will not bully, intimidate or harass any user.

7. You will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

...

10. You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.

I think starting and publicizing a petition that seeks to intimidate a secular government agency from providing objective information on sexuality that helps to save the lives of at-risk LGBT people is malicious and discriminatory.

That's against Facebook's terms of use. So I reported it to Facebook:

If you feel the same way, do the same. Someone who is enjoying a skiing vacation in the USA should completely understand why hate speech isn't condoned on a website started by people in that country.