I turned on the TV tonight and caught the last half of the Daily Show. Jon Stewart was interviewing Lara Logan, and my jaw just hit the floor.
There she was, a beautiful blonde girl (she looked no more than 30), with a raspy voice, and a seductive accent. But what amazed me, much more than how gorgeous she is, is what she does for a living. She's the chief foreign correspondent for CBS news. She has been covering the Iraq and Afghanistan wars since when they started, and in fact she just came back from Iraq.
She talked about how her hotel in Baghdad was bombed from underneath her. She talked about how she begged and cajoled to be able to do a piece on the Navy SEALS, only to be told that no one cared afterwards. She talked about how so few people knows what it feels to see a dead American soldier. She talked about how we have all become numb.
This girl is amazing. Sexy, smart, courageous, and passionate are only a few of the words that come to mind. There are too few girls like that in this world.
Yesterday I found a song while listening to an internet radio station, and it has become my favorite of the moment. The song is A Girl Like That by Lucas Prata featuring Jeannie Ortega. I love it because it's upbeat, great to dance to, and the lyrics are awesome. And yes... I want a girl like that too.
I found the only copy on youtube, so you can sample it for yourself. I've already purchased my copy from iTunes.
Also, I didn't find the complete lyrics to this song anywhere online. So I decided to post it myself.
(I wanna a girl...) [4x]
One look i’m hooked, like out of a dream.
And her lips burning
She looks tight, so right, if you know what I mean.
Heads are turning.
My jaw just drops when she’s walking away.
And my head is spinning.
She’s out there somewhere, but I don’t know her name.
Think I’m going insane.
[Chorus]
Cuz I wanna a girl like that. (I wanna a girl)
A Heart like a maniac.
And I wanna a girl like that. (I wanna a girl)
A girl that’ll have my back.
I wanna a love that’ll still be strong,
After loving her all night long.
Cuz I wanna a girl... I wanna a girl... like that.
(I gotcha back... gotcha back... baby)
She hangs out, no doubt, like one of the boys.
And there’s no mistaking.
But when we’re alone she likes to make some noise.
And the walls are shaking.
My heart can’t stop, it’s running away from me.
She’s wild, so hot, but she’s only a dream, that I gotta see.
[Repeat Chorus]
The type of girl that just can’t get enough.
Gasping for air and she’s calling your bluff.
She does her nails but she like to play rough.
So hard to get that you’ll falling in love.
She blows your mind, and she’s class tho you’re acting crazy.
Another kind not too wild but she’s still a lady.
The kinda girl like the one in your dreams. (oh yeah, that’s the one)
I’m that girl baby.
[Repeat Chorus]
There are a few lines toward the end that I'm a bit hazy on. Maybe someone can correct me...
Recently I've been thinking a lot about prostitution. No, I'm not about to change careers (thanks for asking). But recent events in the news with Eliot Spitzer together with my recent trip to Las Vegas, where hookers run amok, and my upcoming trip to Costa Rica, where prostitution is legal, has given me some time to think about this complex issue.
First, street prostitution is just bad. Steven Levitt and Sudhir Venkatesh did the now famous study of street walkers of Chicago. The Economist has a pretty good summary of the findings. These hookers only get paid $27 an hour, endure horrible working conditions, and forgo their health all for only $20k per year. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see not only is this type of prostitution morally reprehensible, but also puts an enormous cost on society.
But the problems become murkier when we start thinking about high-ended escorts like the one employed by Spitzer. Is prostitution bad, if the prostitute is voluntarily employed, healthy, well paid, and well regulated (as it is in many countries)? Slate has a decent article discussing some of the issues, but never actually explains why prostitution is illegal. I for one, don't buy into the moral argument. If done correctly, prostitution hurts no one, and can be a win-win.
I actually find it somewhat easy to defend Eliot Spitzer. The only people he hurt is perhaps his wife and his children, but even then it's assuming that his wife didn't actually know about it (or even condoned it). The media's coverage probably hurt more people than what Spitzer did. The charge of hypocrisy can be seen in a different light. As attorney general, it was his job to prosecute the law and the law in New York makes prostitution illegal (regardless if he agreed with it or not). So when he busted prostitution ring, he was performing his duties to the best of his ability. But what he did on his own time, is subject only to his moral judgment. Unfortunately, as a public figure, he didn't have the luxury of privacy the rest of us enjoys. No one is perfect and it's sad to see the career of a good man being cut short by as silly as paying for sex.
My personal belief is that prostitution should be legalized and regulated. This, however, is not to say that I will want to use this service. I don't oppose prostitution on moral grounds (as I am not religious), nor do I oppose it in terms of economics or biology. What makes me pause is a much more personal reason. I simply won't do it because I hold myself to a higher standard. This is not meant to be snobbish or accuse prostitutes of being less valuable than myself. It is just that at the end of the day, I want to be able to say that all the women that I had sex with, at one point in time, actually liked me. It makes me more valuable and gives more respect to the women that I do have sex with (past and future) because I treated them as I would want them to treat me. Unfortunately, at the current rate, soon it would be more economical for me to obtain sex through escort services than to build and maintain meaningful relationships. But as long as I still value the non-sexual components of male-female relationships, I can still keep the balance tipped away from prostitution. For my sake, let's hope it stays that way.
This has to be one of the funniest videos of the year. I love nerd humor...
The lyrics, for those who might be a bit confused:
There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Doctor Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.
Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing and extending.
Well, it's amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.
(chorus)
PCR, when you need to detect mutation.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.
Well, I paid very little attention to the Iowa Caucus because I was busy doing other things. But it did seem that Senator Barack Obama achieved a resounding victory.
Part of the credit I would give to Obama Girl. I was pretty ambivalent about Obama, until I saw the Obama Girl video. Something about a girl prancing around New York City in a tight t-shirt is just, well... persuasive. If you don't believe me, see it for yourself.
I especially love the insinuating lyrics:
You’re into border security
Let’s break this border between you and me
Universal healthcare reform
It makes me warm
You tell the truth unlike the right
You can love but you can fight
You can Barack me tonight
I’ve got a crush on Obama
But seriously, I'm looking looking towards a Obama vs McCain election. That should be really interesting.
Tonight, my roommate and I chanced upon a documentary on the life of Jenna Jameson, the most famous porn star of all time, on the E! Channel. What amazed us, beyond how amazingly sexy she looks still, is her passion. Granted, her passion is for porn, but it's passion nonetheless. Too many people today, especially young women, possesses neither passion nor ambition. Jenna is the exact opposite of that, and I think her passion and intelligence is what made her so successful (much more so than her breast implants).
After watching the show, I went into my library and dug out a paper written by two social psychologists titled Pornography's Impact on Sexual Satisfaction [pdf]. In this paper the authors performed an experiment and determined that pornography decreases sexual satisfaction and happiness related to sex and relationships.
The study involved 160 volunteers randomly divided into several groups. One set of groups were made to watch pornographic films while the other set watched non-pornographic movies. The researchers were very careful to obscure the purpose of the study from the volunteers, at least until the study was completed. After six weeks of movie screenings, the participants filled out a questionnaire on the seventh week.
The result from the survey was very compelling. The porn group reported, on a scale of 1 to 10, much less satisfaction with their sexual partners (3.88 vs 5.47, p < 0.0001), much less satisfaction with their partner's level of sexual curiosity (3.63 vs 5.82, p < 0.0001), and much less importance on faithfulness in a relationship (4.05 vs 6.00, p < 0.0001), than the non-porn group. Additionally, there is no difference between men and women; both are affected the same way by porn. Furthermore, there were no correlation between watching porn and other aspects of happiness that is not sexual related, such as career or financial security.
However, I have a problem with this study. I just finished reading the book Blink: The Art of Thinking without Thinking and one of the things I learned is that our subconscious mind and our conscious mind don't always understand each other. For instance, a group of speed daters were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their ideal mate immediately before, one week after and six months after the dates. The results are quite surprising. After they met someone during the dates, their answers totally changed a week later. Yet after six months, their answers went back to what they were before the date. I wonder if the same thing could be at work here. Immediately after watching porn, our expectations are distorted, as expected. But could it be that the effects are just temporary and given time, the responses to the survey, say six months after watching porn, would be more or less like that of the control group? I think the jury is still out on that one.
In any case, Jenna Jameson, however successful in her career, there is still this profound loneliness about her. I feel kinda sorry that a cool, smart, and beautiful girl like her will probably never find relationships and family life that the rest of us will. Maybe a more interesting study is to look at the psychological impact of pornography on the lives of porn stars...
Not long ago, I went and read the AFI's list of the 100 most memorable movie quotes. There are some pretty good ones. For example, when someone is being annoying you can say:
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
Or my 9th favorite pickup line:
Here's looking at you, kid.
Or when your girlfriend accuse you of lying:
You can't handle the truth!
Anyways, you get the idea. But I found this video yesterday that I thought to be absolutely hilarious. See how many movies you can identify...
A few days ago I came across a really cool video in the Google Tech Talks series given by Matthieu Ricard, titled Change Your Mind, Change Your Brain. Matthieu is French, and recieved his PhD in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute. But he abandoned science and became a Tibetan Buddhist monk. That was 30 years ago.
In this lecture Matthieu started by talking about how to achieve genuine happiness, regardless of external conditions. Then he went into the research that he's currently participating. Scientists have been trying to determine whether meditation can physically alter the brain. The results have been astonishing.
Apparently long term meditation significantly alters the brain. Tests have shown that normal people, when given tasks that require concentration, their concentration will wane as time increases. However for long term meditators like Matthieu, their concentration doesn't decrease over time. In addition, scans show that the area of the brain that is responsible for positive emotions is much more activated in the monks than in the control group.
The only problem is that these monks have been meditating in Nepal for 30 years... something the rest of us couldn't really emulate. However more studies have shown that even short term meditation, 30 minutes a day for 3 months under expert guidance, have significantly improved happiness and productivity in people.
This has inspired me, so I'm going to start meditating for 30 minutes a day. I won't become a monk, but I still want the benefits.
Undoubtly we've all been devastated by the tragedy that took place on this Monday at Virginia Tech. We've all seen the news reports on TV and on the internet and particularly vivid were the stories of survivors. But there is something that is worth a few words, and that is regarding the perpetrator of this senseless act, Mr. Cho Seung-Hui.
Much has been made about him being asian in the media, even to the point of stirring up fear of backlash against asians. However, in my opinion, Cho being asian had very little to do with his indiscriminant killings. His victims included whites, blacks and asians, males and females, freshman to seniors to grad students to full professors. No... his act was that of a man who has reached the end of his sanity. He snapped. People died.
From news reports, Cho was described as a loner. In fact, nobody seems to know anything about him. Even people who lived with him couldn't recall much about him. This seems quite similar to the profiles of the Columbine killers. There's definitely a pattern here. Maybe our society has to shoulder some of the blame. We cast aside some people who don't quite "fit in" anywhere. We make no attempts to reach out to them because it's too much work for us. Some people may be shy by nature, or uncomfortable with themselves. And with enough isolation, little human contact, and some external stress, unimaginable horrors become reality.
This should be a wakeup call to all of us. No amount of gun control is going to prevent a similar incident (besides, gun control legislation will never get passed anyways). What we need to do is to identify these at risk individuals, these loners, these invisible people, and give them something positive to live for. As humans beings we all need support systems to help us cope with our daily ups and downs. Without constant love from family and friends we cease to become human. If someone had just tried to reach out to Cho, maybe getting to know him, getting him to open up, this could all be prevented. All the warning signs were there. He wanted help and no one stepped up to help. So now we just have to live with the consequences.
It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't have to be this way. Next time, maybe we should make a conscious effort to help these "loners" instead of just ignoring them and walking away. Because some day you might find yourself unable to walk away...
