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The Bro Code

Turning down an after-dinner invite to a brothel is always a social minefield. But the city’s Party Secretary, a 50-something man with baby-soft hands, had been gently fondling my thigh underneath the banquet table for the past 45 minutes, making me even more eager than usual to make my excuses an...

Click to view the original at chinafile.com

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Hasnain says:

“In the last few years I have lost count of the times mental illness has been compared to a broken leg. Mental illness is nothing like a broken leg.

In fairness, I have never broken my leg. Maybe having a broken leg does cause you to lash out at friends, undergo a sudden, terrifying shift in politics and personality, or lead to time slipping away like a Dali clock. Maybe a broken leg makes you doubt what you see in the mirror, or makes you high enough to mistake car bonnets for stepping stones (difficult, with a broken leg) and a thousand other things.”

Posted on 2018-07-04T02:09:58+0000

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Hasnain says:

This was an amazing short story about how blind scientific progress for just the sake of progress can cause problems.

Should be mandatory reading for software folks before they commit to a rewrite of a big system.

"The ultimate cause of our failure was a simple one: despite all statements to the contrary, it was not due to lack of bravery on the part of our men, or to any fault of the Fleet's. We were defeated by one thing only - by the inferior science of our enemies. I repeat - by the inferior science of our enemies."

Posted on 2018-07-03T20:50:04+0000

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The inside story of the soccer ball that survived the Challenger explosion

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger stunned the nation when it broke apart 73 seconds into flight. This is the story of the soccer ball that survived -- and the family that sent it into space, twice.

Click to view the original at espn.com

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In Denmark, Harsh New Laws for Immigrant ‘Ghettos’

The Danes, who have struggled to integrate non-Western families, are getting tough: From age 1, immigrant children will receive mandatory instruction in “Danish culture.”

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

Hasnain says:

This was so depressing I couldn’t pick out the most horrible quote to post - there were too many. So I’m going with the first one.

“Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language. Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in preschool up to the age of six.”

Posted on 2018-07-02T16:28:06+0000

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Hasnain says:

“Synergistic finished Hellfire ahead of schedule and submitted their content for approval. For security reasons, Blizzard preferred to send and receive code submissions on CD-ROM over FedEx, stating that email and FTP servers could be compromised. Both Blizzard studios weighed in on submissions. According to Synergistic’s developers, North was easier to please than Entertainment, whose artists took umbrage with what Hellfire’s team perceived as quibbling issues such as an off-color pixel in one corner of the screen that needed to be changed to match the others.”

Posted on 2018-07-02T03:46:52+0000

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