Category Archives: Fun

Fun

Matchmaking data on races and religions

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The popular online dating site Okcupid.com has made available some very interesting data on how race and religion affect their matchmaking results. There are a couple of caveats when looking at the results. The first one is that, as the site notes, their definition of a good match is based on criteria that are supplied by the users themselves by answering loads of questions on what they like in a mate. This is as opposed to actually waiting until after a couple gets together and asking them how much they like each other. This means that the match percentages will be thrown off if the users either aren’t competent at analyzing what qualities turn them on in a mate or aren’t honest enough to admit them.

The second caveat is that the distribution of their data reflects the demographics of their registered users. Since it is a predominately US-based dating site, most of its users are Americans so it wouldn’t be a good idea to assume that their results apply equally to races and religions all across the world. In fact, it can reasonably be assumed that those who would use website for dating purposes are a self-selected group and generalizing outside of that group using this data would be misleading.

Caveats in mind, let’s have a look at the data. First, as a test, the site offers an analysis of match percentages by zodiac signs. Unsurprisingly, all the results are close to the average, meaning that astrological signs mean nothing at all in determining how compatible two people are. Next, the site offers a chart that differentiates between people by religious denomination. It turns out that the best matches are Jews and agnostics. Jewish men are even better matches for Muslim women than Muslim men are! The worst matches are Muslims of both genders and Hindu men. Atheists get along well with fellow atheists, agnostics, Buddhists and Jews, but less well with Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Hindus.

However, while we can see huge swings in match percentages by religion, when we get to the race chart, it’s surprisingly even. Whites get a very slight boost, meaning that everyone tends to like them while it’s harder for blacks, Middle-Easterners and Indians to get matches, but generally the differences are tiny across the board. The overall lesson seems to be that religion matters a great deal when it comes to determining compatibility but races matter very little. Since religion is something that you choose while race isn’t, that’s just as it should be!

Fun, Religion

Rapture insurance

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To the uninitiated, the word “Rapture” refers to the events that Christians believe will happen when Jesus comes back to Earth for the second and final time. Exactly what happens then is a matter of some debate depending on the specific denomination, but generally the idea is that the “saved” go to heaven while the rest are either sent to hell or doomed to be “left behind” on the mortal plane. If the Christians are to be believed, this momentous event will be accompanied by numerous miracles, processions of angels, heavenly trumpets etc.

To atheists like myself, all of this is hogwash, but this fine group has decided to make an enterprise of selling rapture insurance. Basically, any Christian pet owner who believes that the Rapture is going to happen within the next 10 years pays them a premium of US$110.00 and if the Rapture actually happens within the insurance coverage period and the pet owner actually does go to Heaven as a result while leaving the pet behind, the group will step in to take care of the pet.

From their website:

You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved. But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

We are currently active in 20 states and growing. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet’s natural life.

I have no idea how many if any customers they’ve managed to get so far but it seems like a good business idea. It’s basically asking people to put their money where their mouths are. If you genuinely believe that the Rapture is going to happen, then you should also believe that this service is delivering genuine value. Still, it’s an interesting question whether or not the group selling this is behaving ethically. After all, they are selling insurance for an event which they believe will never happen, so does this count as a scam? To me, since they openly state that they are atheists and do not believe the Rapture will happen, it is not a scam as long as they actually do spend the money that they get on arranging real foster homes for the pets registered under this scheme. It’s a win-win situation for everybody!

Fun, Games

Real life Fallout

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Remember how I gushed about Fallout 3 in this blog? Well, my fanboyishness pales in comparison to these intrepid fans from Russia. Check out this site for more cool photos. I’m not sure what they mean by playing the game for real. I sure hope they aren’t shooting at each other!

Actually to tell the truth, I haven’t been much of a Fallout 3 fanboy lately because so far I haven’t bought a single one of the DLCs for it. The first of the DLCs available didn’t seem that interesting to me, and when I actually tried to buy them, I was put off by the complicated process of buying them for the PC on the Games for Windows website. I keep telling myself that I’ll just buy them when they eventually get collected onto a DVD, but I have so many games to go through at the moment that I’m not sure if I’ll even get to that.

Currently looking forward to our CarcaSean session on Saturday when we’re scheduled to play a game of Battlestar Galactica with Sean and his other invitees. My wife is panicking at the thought of being chosen to be a Cylon!

Fun, Personal Life

I have 42 million Ringgit

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Or so Public Mutual tells me anyway. I received my Quarter Account Statement for the period ending 30th June 2009 on Saturday as you can see from the picture above (edited slightly to remove some personal information). Most of the report looks okay (actually more than okay due to the gains the markets have made in the last quarter). Then my eye wanders down to the Asset Allocation area of the statement and my eyes pop out.

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Yep, it claims that I have a whopping RM42,385,804.10 in fixed income funds with Public Mutual. Naturally, as much as my wife would prefer otherwise, it’s a mistake as I’m worth nowhere near as much. After asking around on LYN, it seems this is a common error in this quarter’s statement. Everyone seems to have an incorrect entry in the Fixed Income portion but the actual amount varies from person to person. It does make me a bit uneasy that my mutual fund company would be making mistakes like this.

Incidentally, my blog hosting company Bluehost.com had some connection problems for the past two days, which explains why this post is late. Very annoying.

Fun

U.S. healthcare chart

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This chart is the funniest thing I’ve seen so far this week. You can view the full version of it here. To be fair, it’s just something the Republicans cooked up to mock the Democrats’ plans to reform healthcare in the U.S., so it’s meant to be frighteningly complex and byzantine. Even so, it’s clear that the health care system is a huge mess that I wouldn’t want to be tangled in. I’m a libertarian, but healthcare is one of those things that I think government should provide, at least at a basic level, and for this at least, I’m glad that we have, if not exactly good, at least fairly decent public hospitals here in Malaysia.

Fun

Microsoft ramps up the browser wars

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So, Microsoft Australia is running a competition to encourage people to switch to Internet Explorer 8 by hiding a AUD$10,000 cash prize on a website somewhere on the Internet that can only be viewed using their browser. After all the anti-trust grief Microsoft has gotten, I wouldn’t have expected the company to try something like this. Personally, the only time I ever use IE any more is when I get a new computer and use it download Firefox. I did give Chrome a try when it first came out, but I found its UI a bit too minimal for me.

I have to admit though that I still notice plenty of friends and family using IE. Usually, when they call on me to fix their computer problems, the first thing I do is install Firefox, make it the default browser and hide access to IE. People get confused about why I do that, and are hesitant to switch to a different browser at first, but they get used to it and it sure helps to keep their computers clean.

Firefox is sadly not quite as good these days as it used to be, and every new version seems to be more bloated and prone to crashing than the last. The day may yet come when I’ll have to ditch it for something else but if Microsoft insists on telling Firefox users to get lost, I don’t think that’s going to convince me to move to IE.

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Fun

Awesome collection of Michael Jackson’s possessions

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Everyone knows that Michael Jackson is crazy by now, but just how far his craziness extends can be seen in this collection of his possessions that was put for auction. Now we know what he spent his vast fortune on. This seriously has to be seen to be believed. It’s clear from all this that Jackson’s affection for fairy tales and all things child-like isn’t an act, but it just makes me feel pity for him. Also, probably a very good example of someone who literally had more money than he knew what to do with, and spent it on satisfying every little whim, no matter how frivolous or expensive.

The auction has now been cancelled, but as one commentator noted, that’s probably a good thing because otherwise all of this stuff will become scattered amongst many collectors, never to be seen in one place again.