Dried Persimmons

Persimmons are one of my favorite fruits because are sweet but not too sweet. Dried Persimmons are awesome. It's nearing the celebration of the Lunar new years in Chinese and Vietnamese culture (I think Korean too, not sure. I know that Japan has abandon it's lunar calender for the solar one.) So that means that there are much dried persimmons to be had, not that you couldn't buy them all year round of course.

Dirty lol

入+肉=肏
To Enter + Flesh/Meat = Fuck
lolz.
As you can see, the first radical (enter) is placed above the second radical (meat). Now lets all prove Freud right and read into this like crazy. lol
Most Chinese characters are formed by two or more radicals. It is often the case that one of these radicals offer a hint to the meaning while the other hints at the sound. This sounds fine, but as with all language Chinese has greatly change with the modern dialects no longer resembling the original pronouncation. For that reason, scholars have used the dialects, as well as Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese (since they significantly borrowed Chinese characters and words despite being linguistically unrelated to Chinese) to construct Classical spoken Chinese which can help to understand language change as well as changes in the sound of a character.

In this case the first radical is rù in modern Mandarin, jap6 in Cantonese, nhập in Vietnamese, ip in Korean, and ju in Japanese. It is likely the case that in past they would have been one sound and diverge. The second radical is ròu in Mandarin, yuk6 in Cantonese, nhục in Vietnamese, yuk in Korean, and niku in Japanese. Here it is reasonable to say that there may have been an avelor stop as as a stop for that syllable (k/g). Of course, I'm not a linguist major but it's fun to speculate and learn. The new word is cào/chaau3, which is a slang in Chinese.

So anyway, that was random.

*All romanized Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean words are in Pinyin, Jyutping, and Revised Romanization respectful. You may also see them in Wade-Giles, Yale, and McCune-Reischauer respectivly. Vietnamese employs their own script while Japanese uses their standard Romaji.

BTW, hot guy below:

Ratanakiri

So, I hear on the Phnom Penh Post that there has been tension between ethnic minorities in Ratanakiri and large timber companies. Considering the trend of ethnic rivalry in SEA, it shouldn't be a surprise. Still, I had hope (perhaps naively) that Cambodia's relation with it's ethnic minorities would be different. Especially since they share a history of genocide with each other. But alas, political and economic power wins out. It's not bad enough that logging in R'kiri has become server over the years. Now they are beginning to push the ethnic minorities there off their tribal land. (This should sound familiar to any American.)

Faith before Morals

If you all don't know, I'm a frequent commenter on Pharyngula, a blog headed by the self-proclaimed godless-liberal-biologist PZ. Now, I don't agree with PZ 100%. To be honest, there are times where I'm a tad bit accommodating. But I'm also not one for malicious slander. No sooner when PZ criticize missionary efforts in Haiti, an apologetic comes in spitting nonsense that this was somehow spewing hate. Professor Dendy of American River College in Sacramento, comes in a claims PZ is hate mongering. Why? Because PZ doesn't believe that giving electronic Bibles to Haitians is productive. So naturally, the commenters point out that he is utterly wrong, in which he claims persecution. He makes a dramatic exit and leaves us a link to his blog, claiming that the commenters a lying.
Well lets analyze the situation here. Dendy came in claiming PZ is spitting hateful venom, which is completely off topic and has no evidence to support. Commenters says WTF. He then claim that the death of the Haitians is God's plan and gives an anecdote about how he survived a life-threatening disease. Then he claims we're hatemongers (for which he only gives Raven, a ex-Christian, as an example). He leaves us with a link to his blog, but the blog doesn't link back to PZ. So he's lying, overacting, and dishonest. Lying because he made a false claim about hatemonger. Overacting because as soon as we criticize him, he claims persecution. Dishonest because he doesn't link back to the thread so that readers can see for themselves the actual occurrence.
People like Dendy scares me. Dendy is a professor, and is in a position of power to influence other. When such dishonest person has that power, they abuse it and distort the truth. I feel sorry for whatever student has him.

Never!

PeeZeed has posted what appears to be an attempt to replace pokemon with more scientifically accurate animals. Bah NEVER! Pikachu lives!

Let's do this!

I'm so happy that I helped set up a school donation effort to help with the aftermath of the recent Haitian earthquake. I want to remind everyone who reads this blog that send help is a good thing. It doesn't matter what your faith is or what your ethnicity is, your fellow humans are in need of help. Please support something. (Choose Doctors without Borders lol)

Oh crap for men with RLS

Via Scienceblog

A study in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that erectile dysfunction
was more common in older men with restless leg syndrome (RLS) than in those
without RLS, and the magnitude of this association increased with a higher
frequency of RLS symptoms.
Results show that erectile dysfunction was 16
percent more likely in men with RLS symptoms that occur five to 14 times per
month (odds ratio of 1.16) and 78 percent more likely in men whose RLS symptoms
occur 15 or more times a month (OR=1.78). The associations were independent of
age, body mass index, use of antidepressants, anxiety and other possible risk
factors for RLS. Fifty-three percent of RLS patients and 40 percent of
participants without RLS reported having erectile dysfunction, which was defined
as a poor or very poor ability to have and maintain an erection sufficient for
intercourse.
The results suggest it is likely that the two disorders share
common mechanisms, said lead author Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, instructor at Harvard
Medical School, associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and
research scientist at the Harvard School of public health in Boston, Mass.

Well I guess my new year resolution is to stop my RLS, less I want to pop blue pills when I'm older.

Chnam Tmey! Chnam 2010/2553!

Happy New Years

It's 2553!