Indian men too "small" for condoms

India might me a rising superpower, but there is apparently at least on category in which Westerners have nothing to fear. A BBC News article reports on a study made on more than 1000 Indian males, and males only. The results : the average Indian shares the Japanese South Park Character Syndrome.

But hey, as says "Sunil Mehra, the former editor of the Indian version of the men's magazine Maxim : It's not size, it's what you do with it that matters." Classic! 

Because the primary topic of the article is the relative oversize of condoms for Indians [!], notice the inevitable AIDS remark, essential for bringing the news piece back to a more serious tone. 

The issue is serious because about one in every five times a condom is used in India it either falls off or tears, an extremely high failure rate.

And the country already has the highest number of HIV infections of any nation.

So, if I get it right, Africa, Brazil and India all have the highest number of HIV infections. Interesting.

But let's not allow the dreaded BBC to spoil our fun here and get back on topic : Indians' tiny-wienies. Unfortunately for them, another Pulitzer contender from the BBC tells us that

The majority of men who have penis enlargements end up dissatisfied with the results, a study says. [...] The study said rather than having surgery the men should be referred for psychological counselling.

Other experts agreed it should be a last resort.

Damn, I guess there is only one option left for the poor Indians : shut their borders to competition.

The point of all this? The BBC rocks. For real. 

Martin Masse à Télé-Québec

Pour ou contre Wal-Mart? Martin Masse à Il va y avoir du sport

À ne pas manquer sur les ondes de Télé-Québec vendredi le 8 décembre 19 h 30 (ou en rediffusions, les dimanche 10 décembre 18 h 30, et lundi 11 décembre 14 h 30) à l'émission Il va y avoir du sport de Marie-France Bazzo, un débat intitulé «Pour ou contre Wal-Mart?» Pour l'occasion, les panélistes invités sont, dans le coin droit: Pierre Duhamel, journalise blogueur de L'actualité et Martin Masse, directeur de la recherche et des publications de l'Institut économique de Montréal; et dans le coin gauche: Dario Iezzoni, directeur général de Commerce équitable Oxfam-Québec et Pierre Thibeault, rédacteur en chef du journal ICI-Montréal. Selon la rumeur, M. Masse se serait fait de nouvelles amies lors du débat…

Faites un petit effort et retrouvez sur quel poste se trouve Télé-Québec. Parions que leurs cotes d'écoute battront de nouveaux records, puisque le Québécois Libre compte un tantinet plus de lecteurs que la télé nationale québécoise compte d'auditeurs réguliers...

David Suzuki, libertarian?

Conserving nature is like money in the bank

Ask folks what they value about nature and most would probably be quick to mention aesthetic and spiritual properties like beauty, serenity and peace. We hold these values dear to our hearts because they resonate with strong emotional ties. But there are other, even more pragmatic, reasons to value nature - reasons even a hard-headed economist can't deny.

As I discussed in my last column, we've lost touch with the fact that everything we have depends on nature. Without the rest of nature propping us up, we could not survive - a fact so obvious that it seems silly to point it out. The problem is, we don't behave as though this were obvious. We behave as though the economy is completely separate from the world in which we live. Industrialized society is geared entirely towards output - how many Playstations, SUVs and cans of Pepsi we can create, sell and consume. What aren't factored into the equation are the natural services needed to support this output. Why? Because nature's services are considered free.

And in a standard economic sense, they are free. Nature is the source of clean air, water and fertile soil with no strings attached. However, with six billion of us now shuffling up to nature's buffet, the "all you can eat" sign will have to come down soon or those at the back of the line - the next generation - will be left with nothing but Jell-O salad.


Exactly, David. Exactly. You're right on the money on this one : natural resources are not efficiently managed because they are free, i.e. they are collectively owned. Privatizing as much of the resources of the planet as possible is the only way to avoid environmental catastrophe.

Or is this really what you meant? Well, probably not, but I don't care! I'm using you to further the market-anarchist agenda anyway.You'll be proud someday, you'll see...

9/11 conspiracy theories : Bullshit! bullshit.

Because I  normally have much respect for Penn and Teller : Bullshit! , it pains me to watch them make fools of themselves on a topic as sensitive as 9/11. The team acclaimed for their witty ability to expose the flaws in "common knowledge" had to join the mainstream current and fall right into the trap of logical inconsistency. Because a few nuts are making absurd claims about what happened on 9/11, we must accept the official theory without further inquiry? Is that what scepticism is all about? 

David McGowan has so ineptly described the nature of this trap :

As several researchers have lamented, these [wacky] theories can only serve to damage the credibility of the 9-11 skeptics' case. To be perfectly blunt, I can't think of too many things that would be more counterproductive than trying to convince people that they didn't see what the entire world is pretty sure it saw (i.e., planes crashing into tall buildings). The effect is the same as if, in the years following the Kennedy assassination, while skeptics were presenting the case for Kennedy having been shot from the front rather than from behind, a group of researchers suddenly began arguing that he wasn't actually shot at all!

This 'emerging' evidence seems to be specifically designed to discredit, through the time-tested method of guilt by association, the evidence indicating that the Pentagon was damaged by something other then American Flight 77. Since the Pentagon evidence can't be discredited directly, it must be tainted indirectly, and the best way to do that is to introduce into the skeptics' literature dubious claims about the attacks on the towers.


Shame on you Penn and Teller for using your reputation of truth seekers to discredit every conspiracy theory, past, present or future, that actually make some sense. 

I guess you're real patriots after all...

IRS desperate to crack down on virtual economies

News.com had an article yesterday entitled IRS taxation of online game virtual assets inevitable.
 
From the article :

Most governments are only beginning to become aware of the substantial economic activity in online games, but the games' rapid growth and the substantial value of the many virtual assets changing hands in them is almost certain to bring them into the popular consciousness.

"Given growth rates of 10 to 15 percent a month, the question is when, not if, Congress and IRS start paying attention to these issues," said Dan Miller, a senior economist with the Congress' Joint Economic Committee, who is also a fan of virtual worlds. "So it is incumbent on us to set the terms and the debate so we have a shaped tax policy toward virtual worlds and virtual economies in a favorable way."


For those of you who may not have read the marvelous A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, and there might be quite a few, I strongly encourage to do so. This anonymously published novel, which has the elaboration of a free, virtual market as its central plot might be the single work of fiction that best represents the ideals of free-market anarchism.

Put in perspective with the virtual economies newspiece, it seems clear that the tax authorities are growing desperate to crack down on alternative, voluntary economies. The best thing we can do for liberty is to increase our levels of productivity and wealth. We should actively welcome virtual economies as they do just that, by providing voluntary alternatives to coercion-based, corporatist economies.

World AIDS Day

Friday was World AIDS Day , a day "dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection." In honour of this terrible affliction, I thought I'd introduce you folks to some good readings on the topic of the HIV/AIDS scam.

You read well, HIV/AIDS is a scam, and here's why :

Out Of Control : AIDS and the corruption of medical science The moving story of Joyce Ann Hafford, a single mother who died of AIDS treatment. The article is also a good summary of the HIV/AIDS controversy.

Duesberg on AIDS Peter Duesberg, professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, is the leading dissident voice of the scientific community on the topic of HIV/AIDS.

Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives Raises questions about the accuracy of HIV tests, the safety and effectiveness of AIDS drug treatments, and the validity of most common assumptions about HIV and AIDS. Their mission is to help people diagnosed with HIV inform themselves on the nature of the virus and the alternatives to resigned medication.

CDC Recommends Routine, Voluntary HIV Screening In Health Care Settings A frightening mainstream article which provides good clues on the motivation behind the HIV/AIDS propaganda.

State Science is Bad for Your Health A few selected health-related scams, including HIV/AIDS, perpetuated by our beloved governments.

Metal Earthquake at Cafe Dekcuf

Jason Decay
Geddy Lee

I went to see the Metal Earthquake last night in Ottawa's Cafe Dekcuf. Great gig guys.

The main attraction was a band named Cauldron from Toronto. Although the guys were a little too gay-looking for my tastes, they put up a good show. Their writing is original and they sound great on stage. They remind me of the early Megadeth albums, which is in all respects a very good thing.

One interesting fact : I genuinely questioned myself for a good part of the show as to whether the lead singer/bass player, Jason Decay, formerly from Goat Horn, was the son of Geddy Lee from Rush. Well, who knows? 

But the highlight of the night was undoubtedly the bold performance by local band Toxicator. 

Accompanied by a handful of their very loud and energetic fans, the band managed to wake the otherwise absurdly quiet crowd up. The level of energy displayed on stage was phenomenal, despite the fact that the vocalist had to sit in a wheelchair for the whole act because of a broken leg. The band's music is pure metal. Solid riffs, powerful, fast drums, over the top guitar solos, and of course aggressive, high-pitched vocals make up for a sound which is as close to perfection as it can get. The best thing is, these guys are like 15 years old. And this is on average; one of the two guitarists must be about 12. Great things await these boys, if their moms let them at least. 

Did I just say that? Anyway...

So if you're in the Ottawa area, check out Toxicator's myspace page for upcoming shows. One of their songs, New Born Metal is also available on there. This tune is not necessarily representative of the band's overall sound, but still makes for a very good listen.

Kudos to you guys. The world need more bands like yours.